Gamertell

November 2006 marked the release of arguably the best shooter to be released on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. That of course being, Epic Game’s, Gears of War. After a total of six new multiplayer maps, one new game mode, 250 Xbox achievement points and a large expansion for the PC, Epic has announced it does not have any plans to create any more original downloadable content for Gears of War through Xbox Live.

Developer of Gears of War, Epic, told IGN that it is moving on to other projects.

Some might ask, or at least hope, that that new project might be a direct sequel to 2006’s game of the year. While Gears of War 2 hasn’t officially been announced, it is a good bet that a sequel is in the works, in one form or another. This move by Epic might just be the first hints that they are ready to return to Sera and allow players to finish the war with the Locust Horde.

Despite this news and that it has been more then half a year since the last downloadable update to Gears of War, Gears has remained one of the most popular Xbox Live titles.

Read [IGN]

• New details about the Jasper-chipped, Red Ring of Death-free Xbox 360s
• Amazon offers RPG bargain buys in honor of Cyber Monday 2008
• Behold the future of zombie killing - the Firearm Mounted Anti Zombie Device

Epic Games, in their bid to take over the gaming world, has licensed yet another soon to be highly anticipated game which will likely utilize Unreal Engine 3.

Red Mile Entertainment, who up until now has only had a handful of seldom played and badly reviewed titles including Jackass the Game, has acquired the rights to Frank Miller’s Sin City. The game will be based on the popular early-to-mid-90’s film noir-style comic book, which told the tale of numerous characters as they lived, died and battled in the fictional city of Basin City (which makes Gotham look like club-med). Sin City was later adapted to film that became one of the surprise hits of 2005.

No details have been released about the style of game play or which of its numerous staring characters and villains will be featured in the title. You can certainly count on the game following in both the comics’ and film’s highly stylized visual footsteps.

What we do know is that California-based Red Mile has acquired the Unreal Engine 3, developed by Epic Games, making it one of several dozen developers that have switched over to the gaming world’s most powerful development tool.

Read [WRAL] Site [Red Mile Entertainment]

• Blockbuster to offer streaming set-top box
• Some Columbia Pictures movies return to NXE streams
• New MacBooks and MacBook Pros require HDCP for some iTunes videos

After five movies, two television shows, an animated cartoon, a Japanese Anime movie and numerous novels and comics, the Highlander franchise is finally coming to next-gen consoles in 2008.

Eidos Interactive has announced it is brining the highly acclaimed Highlander franchise to the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. This will mark the first Highlander game released in more than a decade.

If you were expecting to wield the swords of either Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert in the original Highlander movies) or Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul in the 1990s Highlander TV series), then you might be unhappy. Or perhaps pleased, depending on your views of the two actors. The game will feature a new lead character named Owen MacLeod who isn’t directly related to the MacLeod clan but is, instead…

MORE »

Just when the light at the end of the tunnel seemed to be getting brighter for us Star Trek fans, bad news comes out from the game’s San Francisco-based developer.

P2 Entertainment, formerly Perpetual Entertainment, has announced it will no longer be working on the highly anticipated Star Trek Online MMO. While few specifics have been offered as to why P2 Entertainment has been pulled from the project, the license and game’s content (which does not include the code) have all been transferred over to a yet-to-be-named Bay Area development studio.

This doesn’t mean that the game is canceled, at least not at this time, but this set back may push the release…

MORE »

Just when gamers were gearing up for what could be the next bigger then life MMO, Microsoft, Marvel and Cryptic Studio’s Marvel Universe Online, news has come out that the future title that was to be an exclusive title for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, may be dead, or very near to dead.

While neither Marvel or the title’s developers and publisher has stated why Marvel Universe Online might be headed for the great beyond, all that is known at this time is, that production has hit serious, potentially stalling, development troubles.

While the Marvel Universe Online hasn’t been publicly canceled just yet, the future of the MMO that was to bring the entire Marvel Universe to life, where players would have created their own characters, interacted with many of Marvel’s greatest heroes and even…

MORE »

The game industry hasn’t been too kind to the Terminator franchise over the years. With a number of lackluster titles on the arcade and home consoles, The Halcyon Co, which owns the licenses to the Terminator series, is forming their own subsidiary diversion devoted to bringing the Terminator to next-gen consoles, PC and mobile.

This news comes after it has been confirmed that Batman: Begins and 3:10 Yuma star, Christian Bale has been cast as the new lead actor for the role of John Connor who was previously portrayed by Edward Furlong in T2 and Nick Stahl in T3.

The first game is targeted to be released along side T4, which is set to begin filming sometime in 2008. As of yet, Arnold Swarzenegger, who made his name starring in the first three Terminator films, is not attached to either the game or the fourth film.

Read

• YouTube goes widescreen
• Who’s On Crack in tech: 11.21.08 edition
• A hot keyboard always needs a partner…

After one of the biggest mergers in gaming history, the new partnership between Activision and Blizzard quickly confirmed that Call of Duty 5 is already in the works. While this news isn’t a shocker to most fans, as Call of Duty 4 is reminding gamer’s world wide that there are more conflicts to be won then just World War II, expectations for the fifth installment of Call of Duty will no doubt be one of the loftiest of the already outstanding series. No word yet has surfaced as to whether or not Call of Duty 5 will continue the storyline and characters that was featured in the last game, or even if the title will still be set in the modern world.

The partnership between the two gaming powerhouses has also confirmed that, Guitar Hero 4 and unnamed Racing title are also in the works. Unfortunately for millions of fans, it is confirmed that World of Warcraft will remain a PC only game, and not likely in the near future to come to next-gen consoles.

Read [IGN]

• YouTube goes widescreen
• Who’s On Crack in tech: 11.21.08 edition
• A hot keyboard always needs a partner…

Sunday, December 9, 2007, Spike TV aired its fifth annual video game awards. In an effort to make gaming as popular as the motion picture industries own awards shows, Spike TV doesn’t pull any punches in making it very clear to the general public how big the growth and impact video games have become over the last decade.

With host Samuel L. Jackson, Spike TV’s video game awards handed out this season’s first batch awards to the industry’s biggest hitters. Like any awards list, there are many games that arguably shouldn’t be counted as the year’s best, but regardless, I think most will agree with the list of nominations and the winners. Game of the Year:

Bioshock (Winner) Mass Effect The Orange Box Halo 3

Best Shooter:

Call of Duty 4 (Winner) The Orange Box Bioshock Halo 3

Best Action Game:

Super Mario Galaxy (Winner) Assassin’s Creed God of War II Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Rhythm Game:

Rock Band (Winner) Jam Session Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Best RPG:

Mass Effect (Winner) Eternal Sonata Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

Best Driving Game:

Dirt (Winner) Need for Speed Pro Street Project Gotham Racer 4 Forza Motorsport 2

Best Military Game:

Call of Duty 4 (Winner) Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Vegas World in Conflict Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter 2

Studio of the Year:

Harmonix (Winner) Valve 2K Boston/2K Australia Bungie Studio

Best Graphics:

Crysis (Winner) Call of Duty 4 Mass Effect Bio Shock

Breakthrough Technology:

Portal (Winner) Halo 3 save films Rock Band Crysis

Best PS3 Game:

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Winner) Warhawk Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Heavenly Sword

Best Wii Game: Super Mario Galaxy (Winner) The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess Metroid Prime 3 Super Paper Mario

Xbox 360 Game:

Bioshock (Winner) Mass Effect Halo 3 The Orange Box

Best PC Game:

The Orange Box (Winner) Crysis World in Conflict Bioshock

Best Individual Sports Game:

Skate (Winner) Virtua Tennis Tony Hawk Proven Ground Tiger Wood PGA Tour 08

Best Team Sport:

Madden NFL 08 (Winner) Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 NBA 2K8 NHL 08

Best Handheld Game:

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Winner) Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Best Game Based on a Movie or TV show:

The Simpson Game (Winner) Stranglehold Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

Best Soundtrack:

Rock Band (Winner) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground Bioshock

Best Original Score:

Bioshock (Winner) God of War II Mass Effect Halo 3

Best Multiplayer Game:

Halo 3 (Winner) The Orange Box Call of Duty 4 Rock Band

Well there you have it gamers. Whether you agree with these winners or nominations, it has been one hell of a year for the game industry. For my own vote, Mass Effect is the game of the year. Let your own voice be heard gamers, post your own votes on what you feel should have been nominated or won.

Site [VGA 2007] Read [GameBump]

• Trade all your gadgets for an iPhone?  These folks did.
• $200 Eee PC by next year?
• Blu ‘revolution’ continues

It has always been challenging for parents to control the outside influences that might be warping the minds of their children. The game industry is no exception as media, parents and even the United States Senate have blacklisted a number of game titles over the years.

None of this has however stopped most children from getting their hands on the latest shooter or GTA style game as there are a number of outside sources for kids to test drive adult oriented games.

To better educate parents, the US non-partisan research and information group, National Institute on Media and the Family, has released its 12th Annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, focusing on efforts to educate parents and retailers about M rated games, and why kids shouldn’t be playing them.

The top ten games that made their “Naughty” list this year are:

1. Assassin’s Creed
2. Call of Duty 4
3. Conan
4. The Darkness
5. Jericho
6. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
7. Manhunt 2
8. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
9. Stranglehold
10. Time Shift

It should be noted, that some of the games on this list haven’t exactly flown off of store shelves nor received strong reviews, save for a few.

What made the group’s “Nice” list though are:

1. FIFA Soccer 08
2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
3. Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour
4. Madden NFL 08
5. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
6. Need for Speed Pro Street
7. The Sims 2: Castaway
8. Super Mario Bros 3
9. Super Mario Galaxy
10. Viva Piñata

I guess it is a good thing that, apart from a few exceptions, this list doesn’t have much of an impact on the majority of us gamers. Otherwise, the industry might have floundered years ago.

Read [The Blog Guardian] Also Read [Media Wise]

• Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames
• Know someone who doesn’t fit the mold? Here are some great gift ideas.
• Tips for gaming with the family on Thanksgiving

The annual Girls of Gaming issue started out as an unusual experiment by Playboy four years ago but has turned into one of the 54-year-old company’s most anticipated yearly issues, one that toyed with the fantasies of millions of lovesick gamers.

In the December 2007 issue of Playboy, featuring Kim Kardashian on the cover, they will again be paying tribute to some of the hottest women of gaming. Included in this year’s issues are, Keaira from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Church & Black from Jericho, Morenn from The Witcher, Yoko Retomoto from Kane & Lynch, A’Kanna from Conan and Sarah Morrison from Tabula Rasa.

These vixens join the ranks of Rayne, from the Bloodrayne series, Carla Valenti from Atari’s Indigo Prophecy and Darkwatch(s) bad girls, Cassidy and Tala, who appeared in previous issues.

Read [Playboy] Also Read [Kotaku] Site [Playboy Magazine]

• Veterans Day salute: surprising gadgets from wars
• Photography Guide Part II:  Now where do you go with all those photos?
• Blu ‘revolution’ continues