This Week in Gaming - Feb. 1 - Feb. 6 Posted on: 02/05/2009 - By: Richard
While game software sales saw an overall increase of eleven percent during 2008, some publishers are having a rough time of things. THQ responsible for bringing us such games as Saints Row 2, and the 50 cent franchise posted a loss of nearly $192 million for its third quarter. This lead to a rumor earlier this week stating that they were planning on shutting down for good. THQ however is not shutting down, although its wireless devision is. Instead they have decided to cut an additional 600 of its work force and cancel several game titles in in development for the coming year. One of these titles is not WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 slated to release this fall which the company has already laid down the audio track for including 1300 lines of dialogue for good 'ol JR alone.
EA seems to be having its own troubles. The Sims 3, Dragon Age Origins and The Godfather 2 have all been pushed back into FY 2010 after reporting a GAAP net loss of $641 million. Not all is bad news though. In addition to recently acquiring the rights to the Bourne franchise they have also announced Mass Effect 2 coming to multiple platforms, Dead Space headed for the Wii, and a follow up to Battlefield: Bad Company all for FY 2010. This makes six big titles coming from one publisher over the next year. We have a lot to look forward to.
In an effort to reduce manufacturing cost Sony is replacing the Playstation 3's current 65 nanometer Cell chip with a smaller 45nm chip. The new, cheaper to produce consoles will roll off the assembly line this summer. SCE European Boss David Reeves has stated that although the console will be cheaper to produce consumers should not expect a price cut on the PS3 any time soon.
New Releases:
This week we have a video from Mega 64 paying homage to a recent death in the gaming industry.
This Week in Gaming - Jan. 25 - Jan. 31 Posted on: 01/29/2009 - By: Josh
Who says that gaming on the PC is dead? Sure, it is not nearly at the peak it once was in earlier this decade with the rise of consoles. But PC gaming is alive and well. Kotaku posted some stats about Casual and Online gaming. What does that mean? It is those games that you see on Yahoo, Gametap, and even in our arcade here on LANGaming.Net. Tons of people gaming on these flash games of old arcade classics or PC greats like GRID and Tomb Raider on Gametap. Well this week we saw the launch of Quake Live (Beta). It is hard to believe how far the internet has come. I had a chance to try out Quake Live, it is Quake 3 Plus...in a browser! How long before we see Steam or GFW maybe start this? Steam I believe would have a greater chance to take advantage of this new but really old demand of PC Gaming. Quake Live was just the start folks! Great thing is...the internet works across all platforms. Most of these online games do also and everyone still has a PC and still games on it more than they do on consoles. Can't take consoles to work, most can't.
Before I end this...wanted to give my main man "THE NATURE BOY" RIC FLAIR a shout. For those that don't know, Ric retired from professional wrestling in 2008. He may soon have a new gig in acting. We will all have a chance to see as he was announced to play a character in the C&C Red Alert 3 Stand-alone expansion. WOOOOOOoooo.
Finally, Congrats to Sam and Jadie on our staff! They are getting hitched in June. Happy couple FINALLY taking the plunge.
New Releases:
Slim pickin's this week so click the image below for a free game that will be launching.
This Week in Gaming Jan. 18 - Jan. 24 Posted on: 01/23/2009 - By: Chris
All throughout the news we are hearing of the big tech and gaming companies cutting away jobs. Not good news for anyone, especially for us gamers. 1,400 jobs are being cut from Microsoft, many of them being from the Entertainment and Device group, jobs at Intel are no longer secure, and Sony has announced a 1.1 billion dollar loss in their operating cost. Bad news indeed for everyone of course, but what can be done about it? What can we do as gamers to help out the economy and a few development teams along the way? Keep spending money! I know times are tough, they are for everyone. I am not saying that you should go blow your whole paycheck on a big stack of new games. Don't be dumb about it. Even if you have to cut back a bit, still try to spend that money. Get your cash out into the economy, however spend it wisely. Show developers what you think of their product with your wallet, and hopefully they will get the message. In these hard times, choosing what to spend your money on, and choosing wisely, can make a big difference in how things are being done. Things will get better. Giants will fall, and bad things will happen, but when it is all done, hopefully some will have learned a valuable lesson. Please remember though, that LANGaming is not a site about the economy, and while we are giving out our crappy adivice, we are not responsible for your money or decisions.
This Week in Gaming Jan.12 - Jan.17 Posted on: 01/15/2009 - By: James
What a way to start off the year. Kill your dog! Seriously a lady instantly killed her dog while trying to bowl in Wii Sports. She hit the poor thing in the temple and he dropped. Luckily for the pooch the neighbor performed CPR are got the dog breathing, at the vet they found out the dog's brain had swelled and had went into cardiac arrest. Check out the news story here.
While the Wii is killing dogs the Xbox 360 is playing “To Catch a Predator” to quite a bit of success. Ryan Donker a 24 year old from Portsmouth, Virginia on multiple occasions asked for naked photos of a 13 year old Arkansas boy on Xbox Live. After getting several of the conversations recorded police were knocking on Donker's door. Ryan Donker told police that the requests for nude photos were only a joke. I hope the laughter keeps him happy in the Arkansas prison he is now being held at.
This Week in Gaming Jan. 5 - Jan.11 Posted on: 01/09/2009 - By: Chris
Whew! The holidays are finally over, and with them the flurry of games coming in. So with a new year of gaming ahead of us, the question really is what can we expect in 2009. Will this be an awesome year of gaming, where developers and publishers learn from the mistakes they have made last year? Could we see a repeat of all the failures and problems that gamers complained about in '08? There is no way to know, but I can assure you, thanks are going to be interesting. Lets take a look at what we know:
-With the end of such gaming magazines as Games for Windows and EGM, we know that in hard times, even the big ones can fall. Its a shame that a gaming magazine almost as old as I am can suddenly end, and no longer be in print. For you loyal fans and readers of those magazines, I want to say I am sorry, looks like you are stuck with Game Informer.
-MMO Developers need to get their head out of their ass. Failures such as Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa, Hellgate London, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and the beating Warhammer Online has taken, it proves that some devs don't know what they are doing. Each MMO listed was highly anticipated when it came out, save perhaps Pirates, and they are now all taking up trash can space as their servers are being shut down. World of Warcraft will always be the MMO that everyone loves to hate, but with the success of the latest expansion pack, developers could learn a lot by checking out the competition.
-Anything can be sold on EBay. I've seen an F-16 fighter plane on EBay, a person's virginity, and as of late, an entire company. Seems that Hardcore Gamer, another gaming magazine, decided to sell themselves off on EBay. With a starting bid of 42k, I doubt anyone but the totally serious are going to be interested in this one.
This Week in Gaming Dec.14 - Dec.20 Posted on: 12/19/2008 - By: James
This is supposed to be a happy time, so we are skipping all the layoff news circulating and instead will focus on fun with a trio of nifty videos.
First up is a good full game of Protoss vs. Terran in the alpha build of StarCraft 2. This video does not only show off good skill and new additions to the game, but also has a very solid commentary. Everyone should take note as this is how televising gaming should be handled. My hats off to the commentators and here is that link.
Second we have some serious skill being portrayed in Left 4 Dead, the game everyone is playing. This footage shows the power of the hunter in versus mode. Seriously I had no idea that you could jump like that, and the precision is almost inhuman. Check out these amazing shows of skill here.
Third and final is an unusual way to take a fighting game. A couple of gamers in Singapore have choreographed some rather amazing dance sequences as Voldo in Soul Calibur 4. This is quite impressive, especially into the later part when they are timing strikes perfectly in order to clash and not hit one another. This unique spectacle can be witnessed right here.
This Week in Gaming Dec. 7 - Dec. 13 Posted on: 12/12/2008 - By: James
Seasons Greetings LANners. The holiday rush of games has finally tappered off and we can finally pick through the rubble and try to play all that has passed us by. Something that has not passed us by is notice of a new update to Team Fortress 2. While the next class achievement pack (Which is Scout) is still a little off we can look forward to Engineers running around much more frantically since teleporters and despencers can now be upgraded to level 3 like the sentry guns. The higher levels give the teleporters shorter cooldown times and despencers produce more healing and additional metal. Spies can now pick up ammo to replenish their cloak. It certainly is the season of giving...
Blizzard on the other hand has no reason to be giving, and wont be as the new character modification feature will run you $15. Where else though can you get a sex change for such a small fee. I would love to see numbers on how many people feel the need to pay MORE for something that already eats this much money every month.
This Week in Gaming Nov. 30 - Dec. 6 Posted on: 12/04/2008 - By: James
Hope everyone had a happy turkey day. Mainly I hope it meant good gaming time. Did everyone survive Black Friday with the help of Josh? By the way click here to understand the side image...ewwww.
So the only major shake in the business of gaming this week came today as Square Enix announced a takeover bid of Edios, publisher of games like Tomb Raider. Warner Bros. owns 20% of Edios so it would be easy for them to swoop in, but for a major Japanese publisher to leap at such a western focused business is interesting.
What are the 6 most retarded gaming consoles ever? Cracked magazine has made some suggestions. Check them out for a fun bit of history.
This Week in Gaming Nov 16-22 Posted on: 11/20/2008 - By: Chris
What a crazy time it has been! Seems that for the past couple of months, there has been a new game release every few days. Too many games and certainly not enough time in the day to play them all. Now with most of the big releases out of the way, we turn to the infamous "Black Friday", a time of great joy for some, and dread for others. The time to spend all of that hard earned money on what is really important in life...which of course is all of your tech toys. TVs, consoles, accessories, all of it will be dropping in price, prime for the picking.
Are any of the gamers reading this excited about Black Friday? Is anyone wanting to pick up something that they have been drooling over? Let us know in our forums, and be sure to check out our Black Friday section while you are there. There is a lot of great information there, all in one nice and easy place.
This Week in Gaming Nov.9 - Nov. 15 Posted on: 11/13/2008 - By: James
Hello, Is there anyone reading this...probably not considering it is the first day that Lich King is live, but for those not in the throws of a WOW fit thanks for joining us. If you are not playing WoW are you surviving under the holiday season avalanche? I know that we have mentioned it more than once, but even the forums are discussing it.
While it is great to have good games, some are simply going to fall by the wayside in the frenzy.Something that you will not worry about missing is the expansion to Sins of a Solar Empire, since StarDock decided to push the release to next year to make time for beta testing. I would like everyone to also check out this cute future release. Also you have about one more week to check out the Left 4 Dead demo on Steam. Be sure to check it out.
This Week in Gaming Nov. 2 - Nov. 8 Posted on: 11/06/2008 - By: James
It seems that our country has spoken, and has declared that a "time for change" is at hand. What is our new president-elects stand on our favorite hobby? Check out this great little article at 1up.com. Seems that we have done well as gamers, but of course much bigger fish like the war and economy are still left to fry.
That economic trouble fish has swam generously in our favorite pasttime this week as 3 different publishers have announced layoffs. EA hit with the largest number at 600 layoffs, this may come into play with the move of merging EA Casual and EA Sims. Over at THQ numerous studios have been shutdown, including Paradigm (developers of Stuntman: Ignition), Mass Media, Locomotive Games, and Sandblast Games. Other THQ studios are experiencing major layoffs. Even smaller, newwer studios like Brash Entertainment have reported 20 layoffs citing the economy, however this is in the wake of Co-founder Thomas Tull and Chief Creative Officer Larry Shapiro leaving the upstart company.
Let us not worry about these woes for now though, and let us get back to the pool of games we are all going to end up drowning in...
This Week in Gaming: Oct. 26 - Nov. 1 Posted on: 10/30/2008 - By: James
Hopefully all the eerie games that have made their way out have everyone in the Halloween mood. As soon as it passes though be ready to go from chills to thrills of all of the seasons Triple A titles.
Before we leave the time of scary stories entirely a new fear was introduced from EA today. Apparently getting banned in the official EA forums will get you banned from games. They are tying your EA master account to your forum account. Seems that this is a very easy way to drive people out of a community. Avoid those forums if you do not wish to risk your games.
Happy Birthday goes out to the Sega Genesis (or Sega Master System) as it was known when it released in Japan 20 years ago this week. This was really the one time that Sega was firing on all cylinders in the console world. The Sega Genesis was a powerful force in both Europe and the US. I am not sure, but this could be because Genesis does what Nintendon’t.
Here is a little scientific evidence that gamers are not losers (article). Nice to see that more people are realizing that gaming is just another avenue for entertainment and not some weird hobby like knitting. Games encourage exploration and problem solving, which easily are rolled back into someone’s career. And as the study says most are much more socially active. The numbers are like this:
55% of all gamers are married,
48% have children
57% of those who are parents regularly play video games with their children
Big Releases This Week:
Fallout 3
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
Little Big Planet
Honestly there were over 90 games released this week, so I apologize if something crucial was missed.
This Week in Gaming Oct 20-26 Posted on: 10/23/2008 - By: Chris
Looks like the time has come for all of the games that we have been waiting for to finally come out. That holiday season that James talked about is rapidly approaching, and its certainly a good time for us gamers.
With the huge influx of games coming at us, its really hard to know where to begin. Since we are talking about games coming out, we can take a minute to talk about those that arent. While working on the music for Little Big Planet, Toumani Diabaté decided to put a song in the game with two verses from the Koran. Big Deal? Sony seems to think so, and as a result, they have delayed the release of the game to pull all shipments back. Is this really the direction that game developers want to go when it comes to making a product designed to entertain? Should developers be scared to include any type of religious reference in their game, for fear of pissing off a group of people? Even if it is harmless, and in some cases even advocating a religion?
This Week in Gaming Oct.13 - Oct. 19 Posted on: 10/16/2008 - By: James
Hope you have a moment to read this considering we are fully entrenched in what is going to be a turbulent holiday season. Each year more and more games are coming out at one time, and it seems that more and more games will fall by the wayside. Seriously, we only have so much time to devote. What games do you all think will be this year’s casualties?
Have you heard of LOVE? Not the mushy girl stuff, but the MMO made by one man. Love is not playable, but the first trailer has been released. This MMO contains a procedurally generated landscape that can be edited by players. It has an interesting look, now if the guy could just get some help to finish it this decade. Check it out here.
Stardock released a revised Gamer’s Bill of Rights this week. Which is worded as follows:
Gamers shall have the right to return games that are incompatible or do not function at a reasonable level of performance for a full refund within a reasonable amount of time.
Gamers shall have the right that games they purchase shall function as designed without defects that would materially affect the player experience.
Gamers shall have the right that games will receive updates that address minor defects as well as improves gameplay based on player feedback within reason.
Gamers shall have the right to have their games not require a third-party download manager installed in order for the game to function.
Gamers shall have the right to have their games perform adequately if their hardware meets the posted recommended requirements.
Gamers shall have the right not to have any of their games install hidden drivers.
Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest version of the games they purchase.
Gamers whose computers meet the posted minimum requirements shall have the right to use their games without being materially inconvenienced due to copy protection or digital rights management.
Gamers shall have the right to play single player games without having to have an Internet connection.
Gamers shall have the right to sell or transfer the ownership of a physical copy of a game they own to another person.
Stardock has great way of seeing not only the customer, but also seeing what the PC gaming market is in general. Thanks to the ideas of Brad Wardell they are certainly building a road to success. Check out their full customer report here.
Big Releases This Week
Saint’s Row 2
Dead Space
Blitz: The League 2
Rock Revolution
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
Comic of the Week:
PvP (actually this was just the start of a week of great fart jokes)
This Week in Gaming: Oct 6-Oct 12 Posted on: 10/09/2008 - By: Chris
This week in gaming has been quite lackluster. Seems that all of the publishers want to wait until the holiday season starts before they start pushing out their games. Warhammer Online is still standing strong, breaking 750,000 players very quickly. The everlasting fight agains the gold farmers, as well as the quick hotfixes appear to be keeping most players happy. Will Mythic be able to keep it up? Only time will tell.
Yesterday, John Schappert, the corporate VP of XBOX Live announced that the new XBOX experience will be shipping out on November 19th. What this means to all you 360 fiends is that there will be a new dashboard update with huge changes, and a brand new user interface.
For those of you hiding in the forums playing the arcade, we have added a few more games. There is nothing better in this world then trying to launch a poor hedgehog into space, so get in the arcade, and enjoy some games.
Big Releases This Week:
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (XBOX 360, PS3, PC)
While game software sales saw an overall increase of eleven percent during 2008, some publishers are having a rough time of things. THQ responsible for bringing us such games as Saints Row 2, and the 50 cent franchise posted a loss of nearly $192 million for its third quarter. This lead to a rumor earlier this week stating that they were planning on shutting down for good. THQ however is not shutting down, although its wireless devision is. Instead they have decided to cut an additional 600 of its work force and cancel several game titles in in development for the coming year. One of these titles is not WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 slated to release this fall which the company has already laid down the audio track for including 1300 lines of dialogue for good 'ol JR alone.
Who says that gaming on the PC is dead? Sure, it is not nearly at the peak it once was in earlier this decade with the rise of consoles. But PC gaming is alive and well. 
What a way to start off the year. Kill your dog! Seriously a lady instantly killed her dog while trying to bowl in Wii Sports. She hit the poor thing in the temple and he dropped. Luckily for the pooch the neighbor performed CPR are got the dog breathing, at the vet they found out the dog's brain had swelled and had went into cardiac arrest. Check out the news story 
This is supposed to be a happy time, so we are skipping all the layoff news circulating and instead will focus on fun with a trio of nifty videos.
Seasons Greetings LANners. The holiday rush of games has finally tappered off and we can finally pick through the rubble and try to play all that has passed us by. Something that has not passed us by is notice of a new update to Team Fortress 2. While the next class achievement pack (Which is Scout) is still a little off we can look forward to Engineers running around much more frantically since teleporters and despencers can now be upgraded to level 3 like the sentry guns. The higher levels give the teleporters shorter cooldown times and despencers produce more healing and additional metal. Spies can now pick up ammo to replenish their cloak. It certainly is the season of giving...
Hope everyone had a happy turkey day. Mainly I hope it meant good gaming time. Did everyone survive Black Friday with the help of Josh? By the way 
What a crazy time it has been! Seems that for the past couple of months, there has been a new game release every few days. Too many games and certainly not enough time in the day to play them all. Now with most of the big releases out of the way, we turn to the infamous "Black Friday", a time of great joy for some, and dread for others. The time to spend all of that hard earned money on what is really important in life...which of course is all of your tech toys. TVs, consoles, accessories, all of it will be dropping in price, prime for the picking.
Hello, Is there anyone reading this...probably not considering it is the first day that Lich King is live, but for those not in the throws of a WOW fit thanks for joining us. If you are not playing WoW are you surviving under the holiday season avalanche? I know that we have mentioned it more than once, but even the forums are discussing it.
It seems that our country has spoken, and has declared that a "time for change" is at hand. What is our new president-elects stand on our favorite hobby? Check out this 
Hopefully all the eerie games that have made their way out have everyone in the Halloween mood. As soon as it passes though be ready to go from chills to thrills of all of the seasons Triple A titles. 
Hope you have a moment to read this considering we are fully entrenched in what is going to be a turbulent holiday season. Each year more and more games are coming out at one time, and it seems that more and more games will fall by the wayside. Seriously, we only have so much time to devote. What games do you all think will be this year’s casualties?
