Gamertell

We’ll return tomorrow with all the groovy videogame news we can muster.

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- Gamertell

Joystiq is reporting on a very tasty holiday deal over at Sony’s website, where buying a new HDTV nets you a free PS3. Of course, there are caveats - you need to make the purchase with a Sony visa credit card, and the offer ends on New Year’s eve.

However, if you possess a Sony card and if you’ve been looking to step into the HD world (two big “ifs"), then you can’t go wrong here. There was no mention of which PS3 model comes free (though, its likely that it’s the stripped-down $399 version), and the offer is good on a selection of Bravia and SXRD HDTV’s, so you aren’t allowed to pick any model that tickles your fancy.

In any event, this is the late Christmas present of the century, if you have your cards lined up just right. It’s too bad the offer ends so soon, I would imagine quite a few gamers would like to take advantage of it, but can’t due to the Sony card aspect.

Read [Joystiq]

It seems like just about every media outlet is doing their requisite year-end “best of” list this week, and Eurogamer is no exception. However, this particular list has a few surprises, like #10 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, a game that had more than a few flaws, but gets high marks for it’s unique and well implemented features, as Eurogamer writer Jim Rossignol wrote: “mixing scripted action with ecosystem AI to create genuinely interesting world”.

Other titles that made the top ten include #9 Team Fortress 2; followed by unsurprising choices Mass Effect, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass had a very nice showing at #5, semi-shocking Crackdown took the #4 spot, Bioshock (many an outlet’s #1 title of the year) took 3rd place, Super Mario Galaxy was the runner-up, and Game of the year went to Portal.

As lists go (and you’ll be forgiven for being sick of them by now) this one is top-notch. Free-form discussion among several writers follows each title, lending to the sense that this was actually crafted with a great deal of thought and an eye for quality. Kudos to you, Eurogamer.

Read [Eurogamer] Via [Kotaku]

The Wii shortage continues, but still the gamers don’t seem to be frustrated enough to boycott the console. They are currently buying every single Wii that they can get a hold of, and this Wii-lust probably contributed heavily in online retailer Amazon’s holiday windfall. Amazon has recognized the 2007 holiday season as the most profitable in its history. It acknowledged the Wii’s role in making this holiday season its best in terms of sales.

Amazon noted that it sold 17 Wiis per second when they were in stock. The significance of this figure is best realized when one calculates the number of Wiis sold in a single day using this rate (presuming that they were available). The number comes out to be roughly 1.4 million Wii sold everyday (it is obviously hypothetical). This also drives home the point that Nintendo might have lost out due to their shortage over the holidays by missing out on an even greater sales opportunity. As for game titles, the best-selling titles at Amazon, during the holiday season, were Super Mario Galaxy and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Read [Next-Gen]

Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jen-Hsun Huang, Christopher Malchowsky and Curtis Priem, with the aim of breathing life into the visually-restricted games of that day with their graphic cards. It was not smooth sailing for the company from the word go, as it had to contend with the failure of several of its products and its competitors, who were ahead. It eventually triumphed upon both and now the victory has been recognized by Forbes, which has declared Nvidia the company of the year.

The GPU manufactured has made substantial gains in 2007, as the year saw the company’s market share rise to 62% from the 57%. According to estimations, Nvidia might finish the current fiscal year with $4 billion in earnings and $900 million in profits. The company is also aware of the fact that its competitors ATI and Intel are not going to relent and doesn’t plan to rest on its laurels. It is even mulling expanding its business, which could see it take its technology outside the realm of video games.

Read [Forbes] via [Next-Gen]

The Tribes series of games were only moderately successful, but acquired a cult status with quite a few players still playing games in the online sci-fi shooter game series. Leaked alpha-level game videos hint at the return of Tribes-esque gameplay. The videos were serendipitously discovered by Shacknews.com, as they were available through unprotected website links on GarageGames’ InstantAction.com, a browser-based video game service launching in 2008.

Probably the links to these alpha-level game videos, only meant for internal use, remained unnoticed as InstantAction.com is still under development. An anonymous source, claimed to be close to GarageGames, told Shacknews.com that the videos depicted early work on the title and were meant for internal use.

The new game bearing a stark resemblance with Tribes shouldn’t surprise anyone, for GarageGames was founded by many Dynamix (Tribes’ developer) veterans after the developer was disbanded by its owner Sierra. The new InstantAction online games platform is going to rival Flash-based games, and will allow complete 3D game content to be rendered inside the browser unlike Flash.

Read [Shacknews]

Apparently fewer children are visiting zoos ,as they are more involved in other activities like video games.  But kids might soon be heading back to the zoo with zoos resorting to games based on animal life to woo them. WolfQuest is one such game, aimed at children in the 10-15 age group, in which one gets to live a wolf’s life.

WolfQuest has been developed by the Minnesota Zoo and educational software developer Eduweb using a $508,253 National Science Foundation Grant and valuable support from other partners that include National Zoo in Washington, the Phoenix Zoo, Yellowstone and the International Wolf Center in Ely. One gets to play as a wolf in the Yellowstone National Park. The player gets to experience the various aspects of the life of this fierce animal from hunting to mating. The game has both a single player mode and an online multiplayer mode, with the promise of each mission offering a couple of hours of gameplay.

The first mission, “Amethyst Mountain” became available on December 20, 2007 and is free to download. It has drawn a huge response, which even crippled the servers within 24 hrs of the mission’s release.The minimum requirements for the game are Windows XP Service Pack 2, or Mac OS X 10.3.9, Direct X 9.0c, 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or G4 proccesor, and 250 MB hard drive space.Although the game is compatible with Vista, it might encounter problems.on a PC running Vista.

Read [KSTP] Site [WolfQuest]

An increasing number of legislators seem to be gunning after video games - especially when they are short on political agendas - and Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach is among them. However, Erpenbach has no issues with the sale of violent games to children or the alleged perverting effect of such games on them. All he wants is to levy a nominal, harmless tax on video games to fund a new juvenile justice program.

Erpenbach has authored the new Wisconsin tax bill that proposes to levy a 1% surcharge on the sale of each games and game consoles. The funds will then be used to transfer 17 year old kids, who have been charged with non-violent crimes, to the juvenile system.

Erpenbach estimates the cost to be huge, and it might indeed be huge with state records pointing at 30,000 17-year-old kids being arrested every year and, more importantly, 98% of them are charged with petty offenses.

Jon Erpenbach does have his reasons for singling-out video games for this new tax-for-a-noble-cause bill. Apparently, he feels that since juvenile justice and video games both concern children, the video games industry has an ethical burden of some sort to be the source of funds for the new reforms - the new benchmark of absurdity. This ethical-tax burden should be shouldered by other industries also. Why just the game industry? Kids even watch a lot of movies so why not impose a tax on movies as well.

Read [WISC-TV]

According to 1Up and comingsoon.net, Smallville actress Kristin Kreuk has been cast as fan favorite character Chun-Li in the upcoming film Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li. The movie is slated to begin production in Thailand in March 2008, and is supposedly about Chun-Li and her “journey for justice”. It will be directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (Exit Wounds, Doom, Romeo Must Die) and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Kreuk reportedly holds a purple belt in karate, which could come in handy if she’s going to play the fiesty fighter. In any event, this adaptation has to be better than the 1994 abomination Street Fighter, which was awful despite the double-whammy of Jean-Claude Van-Damme and Raul Julia.

Read [1Up]

Casinos want to target the younger lot with a new breed of slot machines that are way more interactive than the pull-the-boring-lever-and-let-it-roll slot machines currently in use. These machines will draw a lot of inspiration from video games and will test the skill of the gamer. It is a huge evolutionary leap as slot machines have remained immune to drastic changes for the past 100 years.

Now the slot machines will offer a new kind of playing experience, where players will reap the reward of their skills along with good fortune. Even the controls will get just a touch complicated. Also players on two different slot machines will be able to challenge each other ala multiplayer gaming. Video game maker Atari is busy developing the new ilk of slot games for these advanced slot machines.

George Maloof, owner of the Las Vegas Palms Resort Hotel and Casino, told Casino Gambling Web that gambling was not on top of younger players’ to-do list. According to him, they were more interested in partying and clubbing.

Maybe these younger players might be able to better identify with these skill-based slot machines.

Read [Casino Gambling Web]