December 2010 Archives

Company president Chris Chuter expects the popularity of smartphones will enable his company and other development houses to win contracts to devise inexpensive games with product tie-ins.

"We can make these smaller games, of pretty good quality, and wrap it around a product," Chuter said, observing that a game could be a better marketing tool than a billboard.

"As a business model, we are telling customers that you can make a high-quality product that isn't just a branding thing," Chuter added.

Tron: Evolution is the "prequel" to Tron: Legacy, Disney's big sequel to the eighties movie that stunned crowds with its stylized idea of a world within your computer.

Evolution preps fans for the film by explaining a little of what happened since the eighties in the Tronverse making it something of a spoiler for what it reveals, but not so much that it lessens your enjoyment of the film. I still got a kick out of it and as a fan, the extra lore was great stuff.

Konami announced today that two downloadable add-ons for "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" are scheduled to be released early next year.

In "Castlevania Lords of Shadow: Reverie," players will return to the Castle as Gabriel to help Laura, the former servant to the vampire Carmilla, in destroying the unruly evil that was previously kept in check by the recently slain Queen. 

Once completed, fans of the series can download the second DLC entitled "Resurrection," which continues the story directly after the end of the original game and gives some insight into the dramatic epilogue seen by players upon completion and Gabriel's ultimate destiny. 

Tech Out contributor Reggie Carolipio gave Lords of Shadow a favorable review in October. The game is available for PS3 and XBox 360, but it would be hard to find an NES fan who did not enjoy the really, really hard original from 1987.

News today on the legal battle between Activision and Electronic Arts over the former lead creators of the highly-lucrative "Call of Duty" series. 

The nasty lawsuits between Call of Duty publisher Activision and the ousted lead creators of that hit series got nastier today with accusations that the president of rival EA was instrumental in trying to "hijack" the Call of Duty developers.

And there's more mud being slung. Activision also says the makers of Modern Warfare gleefully sabotaged the sister studio behind this year's Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Activision spelled this out in a legal filing today through which they intend to add Medal of Honor and Battlefield publisher EA -- their Coke-vs-Pepsi rival -- to their lawsuit against Jason West and Vince Zampella, the founders of original CoD studio Infinity Ward. West and Zampella were fired by Activision in March for alleged acts of insubordination, just months after the studio the men founded finished and released the huge hit Modern Warfare 2.

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(After this story was originally filed, Kotaku heard back from both West and Zampella's attorney and a spokesperson for EA. Both shot down the claims, the attorney calling them "a pathetic mash-up of false and reckless assertions." EA called them "deliberate misdirection" but declined to specifically address the actions the company is accused of having taken.)

Readers,

Molycorp expects to place its Mountain Pass mine, the only mine for rare earth minerals in the United States and the company's site for the mining of neodymium, back into full operation by the end of 2012, following an eight-year hiatus.

"The automotive industry worldwide is the biggest user of rare earth permanent magnets," said Jack Lifton, a strategic metals consultant with Technology Metals Research in Carpentersville, Ill. "This is very important to that industry that the manufacturing of these magnets continue ... (and) the supply of such magnets goes uninterrupted."

The growing clamor over fuel efficient and electric cars has brought a concern that the manufacturing of the vehicles, which use rare earth metals, could bring on a global supply shortage of resources. Nearly all of the world's rare earth metals, about 97 percent, are mined in China.

The Federal Communications Commission today approved controversial "Net Neutrality" rules that supporters claim will keep Internet access open for consumer, whereas critics claim the regulations are either a gift to broadband providers or a means for dramatic government regulation of the Web.

The F.C.C. indicated that the rules would not be published in full until later in the week. In short, the rules will forbid fixed-line broadband providers like Comcast and Qwest from blocking access to sites and applications. The rules would allow wireless companies like Verizon and AT&T more latitude in putting limits on access to services and applications.

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But a wide swath of public interest groups have lambasted his proposal as "fake net neutrality" and said that it was rife with loopholes. On Tuesday, one such group, the Media Access Project, said, "There is a reason that so many giant phone and cable companies are happy, and we are not. These rules are riddled with loopholes. They foreshadow years of uncertainty and regulatory confusion, which those carriers will use to their advantage."

There's more dissension. Others, often Republicans, say the FCC went beyond its proper authority in even making rules. Whereas Net Neutrality advocates, as this writer understands the issue, want the government to stop Internet providers from blocking or stopping access to content, opponents of the new rule describe the FCC's action as a government takeover of Internet freedom. 

Republicans at the FCC and on Capitol Hill blasted the FCC's new rules, saying that they could stifle new investments in broadband networks and are unnecessary since there have been few complaints about Internet providers blocking or slowing web traffic.

The FCC's action "is not motivated by a tangible competitive harm or market failure," said Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, a Republican, who said she couldn't support the rule because the agency was intervening to regulate the Internet "because it wants to, not because it needs to."

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The rules passed Tuesday are also likely to be legally challenged, and it isn't clear if they will be upheld. Congress has never given the FCC explicit authority to regulate Internet lines, so the agency is using older rules to justify its authority.

Net Neutrality is an issue involving the Internet and is often discussed on the Internet, which means the public debate on the topic is always discussed with the utmost civility. Experts on both sides of the debate always do their best to ensure that readers lacking technical backgrounds in telecommunications technology and the law are able to understand the difficult issue.

Rare's GoldenEye was a sharp reply to PCs of how exciting the FPS genre could be on a console - especially the N64 - in 1997. It also stands out as what is probably the only movie-based game to actually expand on its own material while being good at what it set out to do.

With those two things in mind, it's easy to see how GoldenEye became such a influential legend, one that fans would even go so far as to bring the experience back to where the FPS began on PCs with mods recreating its famous levels with Half Life 2's engine, Source.

Those same fans had also clamored for Nintendo to release the classic game on the Wii's Virtual Console as a downloadable game only for the idea to die a slow and license litigated death.

And then developer, Eurocom, stunned everyone when they announced their own GoldenEye game built from the ground up as a re-imagined reboot. But far from being sacrilege, Eurocom's remake is both an unmistakable homage and a fantastic FPS in its own right.

By Michael Sorba

I'm a Bond fan. I love his films. Not all of the movies were great, but at least on the whole, they're better off than his often polarized career in gaming has been.

Blood Stone is the latest to punch and shoot it's way onto shelves. But the question I have is why it's begging me to buy a smartphone.

The monstrously popular time-sucker known as Angry Birds has been given the holiday treatment as Angry Birds Seasons.

The twist here is that, instead of being able to advance through all the levels as you complete them, you're treated to a new level each day.

In case you've been hiding under a rock, Angry Birds, developed by Finland-based Rovio, is a mobile game where the goal is to destroy green pigs by using a slingshot to fling birds (of varying destructive capabilities) at the pigs' homes.

Yes, I'm aware of how insane that sounds.

The best-selling app has grown into a pop culture phenomenon, spawning plush toys and even being spoofed on Israeli TV (Parents note: Video contains four-letter words).

In addition to the 25 "Seasons Greedings" Christmas-themed levels, Angry Birds Seasons also includes 45 previously-released Halloween-themed levels and two bonus levels.

Rovio has added small visual touches (falling snow, for instance) and seems to have ramped up the difficulty level. It took me several tries to get past even the initial Christmas level.

Angry Birds Seasons is available for iOS, Android and webOS. Just don't blame me when the kids don't get fed and the laundry goes undone.

Blame the green pigs.

Gamers who like RPGs, sprawling environments and dragons can check out Bethesda Softworks new teaster trailer for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.