PS3 Orange Box pops top Dec. 11
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
December 4, 2007 2:18 pm PT

Valve's five-in-one shooter compilation containing Half-Life 2, its two expansions, Team Fortress 2, and Portal confirmed for Sony's console next week. When Valve Software first revealed that the PlayStation 3 version of Half-Life 2 megacompilation The Orange Box would lag behind its PC and Xbox 360 counterparts, director of marketing Doug Lombardi anticipated the delay to be a mere "couple of weeks."

Two months after the other versions' October 10 launch, Electronic Arts today has officially confirmed The Orange Box on the PS3 will arrive on December 11 in North America and Europe. The publisher also noted that French and German versions would follow in early 2008.

The Orange Box--which includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal--will meet stiff competition when it goes on sale next week. Despite Midway telling investors not to expect the game until next year, Epic Games defied naysayers last week with word that the PS3 edition of Unreal Tournament III would arrive December 10. Also getting a day's jump on The Orange Box next week will be Midway's internally developed BlackSite: Area 51. The Orange Box on the PS3 will retail for $59.99 and is rated M for Mature.

Gamespot

Congressmen call for ESRB transparency
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
December 4, 2007 4:57 pm PT

California Democrat and Virginia Republican asking ratings board to make publisher submission videos publicly viewable online. Last month, four US senators, including current presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (D-NY), petitioned the Entertainment Software Rating Board with an array of proposals and concerns about the way it doles out ratings to games.

After an edited version of Take-Two Interactive's Manhunt 2 was rated M for Mature in the US but remained banned in the UK, the senators suggested it was time to revise or enhance the ESRB system. They also wanted more transparency in the rating process, and a re-evaluation of rating games for the Wii, suggesting that the system's motion-sensitive controls may increase any effect violent games have on children. Now a pair of congressmen are opening their own dialogue with the ESRB, albeit one with a narrower scope and a more specific request.

In a draft version of a letter directed to the ESRB and obtained by GameSpot, Congressmen Joe Baca (D-CA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) are asking the rating board to make publishers' video submissions for games publicly viewable online. Publishers are already required to submit videos with the most objectionable content of their games as part of the ESRB rating process.

The congressmen's letter acknowledges that the video clips can sometimes be lengthy, and in such cases they suggest that the ESRB post segments of the clips raters feel were most relevant to the game's final rating. Given the number of games the ESRB reviews on a regular basis, the letter says that such clips would only be necessary for titles rated T for Teen or higher.

Gamespot
complete article

Microsoft plans digital content future, dreams of unified services
By Jeremy Reimer
November 19, 2007 - 10:10PM CT

While Microsoft's original Xbox console sold only 20 million units to Sony's 120 million behemoth PlayStation 2, one area that it definitely outshone its rival was in online gaming.

Microsoft's Xbox Live service was widely praised for bringing together matchmaking, multiplayer game play, voice chat, and downloadable content, all in an easy-to-use and well-managed package. With the Xbox 360, Microsoft has added features such as downloadable video.

On the fifth anniversary of the Xbox Live service, Microsoft is now boasting that more than 8 million gamers are "actively engaged" on the network and is promising that there are many new features to come.

While the company isn't giving up any details, Microsoft executive J Allard told the New York Times that the goal is to make Xbox Live the "king of all media," hinting that stronger integration with both mobile phones and Microsoft's Zune music player is yet to come.

Ars Technica
complete article

UT3 already works on 360
by Rob Purchese
November 16, 07 15:04

Mark Rein has said Unreal Tournament 3 already works on Xbox 360, and it did as far back as last spring. What he meant to say yesterday was that his team will "start working on it again" after Christmas, not begin from scratch, silly.

"What I probably should have said was 'start working on it again'. We had the game up and running on all three platforms up until last spring," Rein clarified to games blog Joystiq. "We stopped working on the 360 version so we could concentrate our efforts on shipping the various PC and PS3 versions." The PC version is out on 23rd November and we are all very excited, but there is increased concern over whether the PS3 offering will be out this year - it was announced as a console exclusive until the end of 2007 back at E3.

Rein and Epic Games offer only that it "will be done when it is done", and are working as hard as they can to make it so - even if they are taking Christmas off how dare they etc. Once back and a few belt-sizes bigger they will get back to work on the 360 version, which will hopefully prove a cinch, given that Epic already made something or other for it that did quite well. "Once we get [the PC and PS3 versions] out of the way, and take some time to enjoy the holidays with our friends and families, we'll start working on the 360 version again," Rein continued, hinting that PS3 owners will get it in their stockings after all.

"There's still a decent bit of work to do. For example we have simple LAN play but no Xbox Live implementation yet and we need to work with Microsoft to figure out how to accommodate mods on their platform." We had a good old chat with Mark Rein recently and popped out words up yesterday for you all to read. Shove your head into our Unreal Tournament 3 interview to see what Epic has planned for a mod-hungry crowd.

Eurogamer

Twenty Million DS Systems in Japan
by Anoop Gantayat
November 16, 2007

Nintendo crosses a major milestone. If you've been adding up all the weekly sales figures, you were probably already aware of this, but sales tracker Media Create announced today that the DS has crossed the twenty million mark in Japanese sales.

The feat comes less than three years after the system's 12/2/2004 release. Sales have been particular brisk since the release of the DS Lite, as prior to the redesign's release in February 2006, the platform had just reached the six million mark.

While the system still hasn't reached the PlayStation 2 in overall sells, it most certainly will if Nintendo meets its forecast of twenty-three million by March of 2008.

According to Media Create, the DS and DS Lite have captured 50.26% of the Japanese hardware market since their release. Software for the platform has accounted for 40% of the entire software market at 83.95 million units. Of that figure, 9.94% was achieved by the two Brain Age games, which have combined for 8.35 million units.

IGN

Sierra (officially) Ghostbust-ing
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
November 16, 2007 4:08 pm ET

Aykroyd, Ramis-penned successor to classic franchise to feature Murray, Hudson, Potts, and Atherton; Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC due in fall 2008. Earlier this week, Game Informer teased its upcoming December issue with news that a new Ghostbusters is in the works.

Today, Vivendi subsidiary Sierra Entertainment officially announced Ghostbusters will arrive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC in fall 2008. Stay strong, Marshmallow Man. As previously noted, Ghostbusters will be a continuation of the original Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel. As with the films, Ghostbusters the game will be written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis and take place in New York City circa early 1990.

Paranormal activity is once again afoot, and the supernatural scientists hook up their latest recruit--that is, the player--with a proton pack to defeat the threat. Ghostbusters will feature appearances from the original parapsychologists Aykroyd, Ramis, and Bill Murray, as well as the fourth addition to the team, Ernie Hudson. Also reprising their film presence in the game will be Annie Potts, Brian Doyle Murray, and William Atherton.

BloodRayne studio Terminal Reality will handle development duties for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, while Mushroom Men creators Red Fly Studios will create the PS2, Wii, and DS versions of the game. Ghostbusters has not yet been rated or priced.

Gamespot

World of Warcraft spykit gets encrypted
By Austin Modine
November 15, 2007 - 22:49 GMT

Tuesday's patch to World of Warcraft introduced new content and tweaks to the land of Azeroth, but with it came an important change to The Warden, Blizzard's ill-famed tool against cheaters.

According to Warden-watching modders, the latest version is now encrypted, adding a major barrier for tinfoil hats who track what information the application sends home to Blizzard. The Warden's function as an anti-hacking sentry was already cause for concern for some privacy advocates.

From the moment players log into the game, The Warden checks open window names, process names, memory modifications, DDL names and other pieces of data in the background. The goal is to determine if the user has a specific hack or program loaded and sends back a "yes" or "no" answer to Blizzard.

At any given time, there is one version of The Warden active in a set of WoW servers. But Blizzard fights would-be countermeasures against The Warden by switching between hundreds of different copies of The Warden with the same functionality, but containing slight modifications in the code.

The Register
complete article

New antivirus software for Playstation 3
Nov 15, 6:08 AM EST
By Jordan Robertson

Video game consoles, which are increasingly being used to surf the Internet, aren't generally equipped with antivirus protection like PCs. Security vendor Trend Micro Inc. thinks they should be, though. It has launched software for Sony's Playstation 3 that promises to block malicious Web pages and those dealing in sex, drugs and violence.

The company bills the software as the first of its kind for a home gaming system. It was released earlier this month as part of a PS3 upgrade and will be free until April. Some industry experts wonder whether consumers will leap for the technology the way they snap up security products for the more vulnerable PC and whether protection for video game consoles is really necessary.

"I think the jury's still out," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey. "Over the coming years, as the console becomes more common in terms of Web browsing, that's when you can really try to gauge what type of opportunity it is for the antivirus vendors." Tokyo-based Trend Micro's software applies the company's technologies for identifying Web sites that host malicious code and those that serve as launch pads for scams to steal passwords, financial data and other personal information.

The company says video game players are increasingly vulnerable to Web attacks as they use their consoles for more than just gaming. It vows the new software will make PS3 users feel safer browsing the Internet. In addition to blocking malicious Web sites, parents can use the software to block their children's access to sites that depict illegal activities or sexually oriented material.

2theadvocate.com/Associated Press
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Article submitted by jaelanicu

Ghostbusters to slime consoles, PC
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
November 14, 2007 7:53 pm ET

Supernatural cult classic confirmed by December cover of Game Informer as coming to Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PC; Aykroyd, Ramis-penned script to be sequel to first two films.

In January, a developer working for Slovenian outfit Zootfly uploaded to popular video-sharing site YouTube what appeared to be footage of a new game based on the 1984 cult classic Ghostbusters. In an interview with GameSpot, Zootfly chief Bostjan Troha said that the footage was from a prototype build for the game running on an Xbox 360, but copyright issues were preventing the project from moving forward.

It appeared Zootfly had succeeded in its legal wranglings in February, when Dr. Raymond Stantz himself, under the guise of prolific comedian Dan Aykroyd, revealed to the Edmonton Sun that former copyright holders Sony had sold the rights to the game to Universal Studios, and that he would be doing mo-cap work for the game "next year." Despite Aykroyd's statements, Universal Studios owner Vivendi refused to confirm the game's existence.

Gamespot
complete article

DivX support coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 support in the works
By Jeremy Reimer
November 13, 2007 08:45AM CT

DivX has announced that the Sony PlayStation 3 will soon support the DivX video codec. We suspected as much when the PS3 2.0 firmware was released, as it includes the ability to detect both DivX and Xvid files. According to the DivX team, full support will arrive with a future software update.

DivX CEO Kevin Hell said in a statement, "We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3. Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format." On the Microsoft side of things, there's still questions. The ability to play DivX and XviD videos has been a long-requested feature for Xbox 360 owners, but for many years it seemed as if this feature would never arrive.

However, following rumors of XviD-Microsoft deals, DivX CEO Kevin Hell recently hinted at a possible future for his company's codec on the 360. During the SMid Cap conference call with investment firm JP Morgan, Hell was asked if the recent deal that will see DivX codecs shipped with new versions of Microsoft's standalone Media Center Extenders means that such support will also be arriving on the Xbox 360.

"Yes!" was his immediate reply, although he quickly qualified that confirmation with a disclaimer that the deal was still in the negotiation process and had not yet been finalized. It would appear that both consoles have finally figured out what us users have known all along: DivX is crucial for any video streaming around the house, because the codec is widely used both by individuals and, well, by P2P users.

Ars Technica
complete article

Article Submitted by jaelanicu

Bungie details a trio of new Halo 3 maps
by Blake Snow
11/08/2007 | 2:55:12 PM PST

Halo 3 developer inconspicuously tells of three downloadable maps. In a weekly updated posted last Friday, Bungie's Luke Smith gave the skinny on three upcoming Halo 3 maps: Jodrell Bank, Purple Reign and Vandelay.

Jodrell Bank is an optimized Team Slayer course that Bungie says will allow for a greater number of players "without overcrowding things." Purple Reign is described as a "gently sloping bowl" with "wider lines of sight for players staring down one half of the map and an intricate and strategic mix of floor/column/ramp gameplay on the other side," good for sneaky jumps.

Lastly, Vandelay (not affiliated with Vandelay Industries) "is structurally the simplest map we've ever made," says Bungie, "yet the tools that we're providing with the help of the Forge give the map tons of potential." All three maps are expected to be released as the first Halo 3 map pack. Dates and prices have yet to be revealed.

GamePro

Woman says 'yes' to Halo 3 marriage proposal
by Blake Snow
November 9, 2007 8:53:43 AM PST

One Xbox Live member asks another for hand in marriage during a two-on-two team deathmatch. According to Xbox.com, Xbox Live member Moviesign, a graphic designer, asked his girlfriend of two years, Furtive Penguin, to marry him while playing Halo 3 on November 3, 2007.

Instead of dinner and champaign, the man asked with an arsenal of weapons strategically placed and later revealed to the woman in a custom Forge map. "Marry me?" read the proposal.

She said yes. "We're waiting to see what the release date is for the next Halo game," the newly engaged copyeditor said when asked about a firm wedding date. "We don't want any conflicts."


GamePro

Analyst: Call of Duty 4 will outsell Halo 3
by Blake Snow
11/09/2007 | 2:41:55 PM PST

Despite Microsoft's unprecedented advertising push, industry analyst Todd Greenwald expects Call of Duty 4 to sell more copies than Halo 3. "Call of Duty 4, which was released two days ago by Activision, appears to be in extremely high demand and is sold out across the board," Greenwald told the Escapist. "We've checked with a wide range of retailers (Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Target) and only pre-orders are being satisfied - stores are otherwise sold out of the title.

"The game has an average score of 9.5/10 on Metacritic.com, which is almost unprecedented, and puts it on par with Halo 3. It certainly is the highest-rated game Activision has ever created.

"Keep in mind, CoD4 is launching on four times as many platforms (Xbox 360, PlayStation3, PC, DS) as Halo 3 (360 only). Halo 3 has so far sold about 4 million units. A year ago, Call of Duty 3 sold about 3 million units, and we anticipate this year's version could do four million or more."

Call of Duty 4 is the first non-WWII game in the series and is rated M for mature. GamePro gave the game a 5 out of 5 calling it the shooter of the year.

GamePro

Sony CEO says Blu-ray in 'stalemate' with HD DVD
by Blake Snow
11/09/2007 12:57:47 PM PST

Sony boss Howard Stringer downplayed the HD wars saying that the most prestigious format will win in the end. The CEO added that the PS3 is "coming back up," despite its fumble out of the gate.
"It's a difficult fight," Stringer said on Thursday when speaking of rival HD competitors, Microsoft and Toshiba. "We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides."

Before Paramount exclusively signed on with HD DVD in Aug., only Universal Studios backed the format. With both Sony and Disney backing Blu-ray, the format war is now equally split between the big five movie studios as Warner Bros. will continue to release select movies in both formats.

Regarding the PS3, Stringer remained upbeat saying the console is now the best-selling system in Europe given its recent price drop to $399. "We are coming back up again," he said.

Gamepro