Monster Hunter Communal Gaming Space Opens

The game latest game in the franchise, Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite, is number 25 in the sales charts this week, and the organisers of the event hope it will kick-start the game’s popularity in the UK. The Monster Hunter series is huge in Japan, outselling all other titles by hundreds of thousands of copies. It has a similar premise to Pokemon, with players completing quests to achieve glory, and fashioning armour and weapons from the remains of slain monsters. Gamers play co-operatively on their PSPs, lending the title a social element, and Japanese fans often play together on their morning commute. The event’s organisers are hoping that by opening up a communal gaming space in central London, they’ll foster a similar trend. The Monster Hunter Gathering Hall, which is taking place at the former site of the Lazarides gallery on Charing Cross Road, runs until September 1, and organisers expect hundreds of fans to gather at the gallery each day to play the game. Admission is free to PSP owners who have a copy of the Monster Hunter game. Capcom, the game’s publisher, said: “What makes Monster Hunter unique in that it is best played cooperatively. Players have to be physically close to play together, meaning that there’s a real social element to the game. Players in Japan congregate everywhere, from parks to cafés to amusement arcades to on public transport. It’s not unusual to see large huddles of kids in parks, all sitting together playing the game.”

( www.telegraph.co.uk )

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Too Much Gaming Gives You PlayStationitis

Over enthusiastic gamers are at risk of contracting Palmare PlayStation Hidradenitis, it seems, after a 12-year-old Swiss girl had the distinction of becoming the first person diagnosed with the affliction. The girl had developed a serious hand infection caused, her doctor said, by excessive gaming. Professor Vincent Piguet from the University Hospital of Geneva, Swiss named the condition Palmare PlayStation Hidradenitis, Swiss news agency ATS reported. Piguet said the girl's hands were covered in lumps. "They were huge red nodes which were very spectacular," he told reporters. Continuous stressed pressing of buttons and waggling of knobs, plus all the sweat and grime were blamed for the condition. Doctors banned the girl from her Playstation for ten days and her condition cleared up. A report appears in the British Journal of Dermatology.
( www.theinquirer.net )

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CES 2009: Video Games 'More Popular' Than Film And Music, Says Studio Boss

Mike Griffith, head of Activision studios, told delegates at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that consumers’ interest in video games was increasing all the time. “Movies, recorded music and television – these are all stagnating or contracting entertainment sectors,” he said. “Video games are poised to eclipse all other forms of entertainment in the year ahead.” Mr Griffith said that casual, fun games with a social element were one of the main reasons for this surge in interest. He said that interactive titles, such as Guitar Hero, which is published by Activision, epitomised this trend. “We all have an inner rock star waiting to be unleashed,” said Mr Griffith. “This is the 'Guitar Hero' secret: It’s both a whole new way to play a game, and a whole new way to experience music. The convergence of the action game with the passion of music is changing video games – and bringing games like 'Guitar Hero' to the forefront of entertainment.”

He added that sales of video games in the four years between 2003 to 2007 increased 40 per cent in the US, while over that same period, sales of cinema tickets had fallen six per cent, as did the number of hours of TV watched by the average American, while sales of recorded music dipped 12 per cent. "Games are no longer pre-set trips through linear mazes," he said. "They are becoming a legitimate story-telling medium that rivals feature films. "The moviegoer is passive whereas the gamer is active and part of the game itself." ( www.telegraph.co.uk )

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Tetris Eases Your Stress Says Report

A report from the BBC has suggested that playing puzzle games like Tetris is good for your mental health. A study discovered that the simple puzzle building block game aided people suffering from traumatic stress like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). "We wanted to find a way to dampen down flashbacks - the raw sensory images of trauma that are over-represented in the memories of those with PTSD," Dr Emily Holmes told the BBC. ( www.techradar.com )

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Microsoft Unconvinced By 3D Games

UK games developer Blitz Games has admitted that it has an uphill struggle convincing platform holders such as Sony and Microsoft of the value of 'true' 3D gaming. Blitz were showing an Xbox 360 game demo running on 3D-enabled screens to selected developers, platform holders and games publishing execs at the recent 3D Entertainment Summit in Hollywood. In a recent interview with Develop magazine, Andrew Oliver, CTO of Blitz Games, admitted: "Those [platform holders] that have heard about it have been curious but not convinced.

( www.techradar.com )

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Has The Xbox Killed The Desktop Gaming PC?

The all-knowing man on the internet who loudly proclaims that it's game over for the PC doesn't, it transpires, know much at all. Not only is there this sad tendency to declare the PC the Latin of games platforms, but there's also a constant hunt for a smoking gun. Is it Microsoft abandoning it in favour of its own Xbox? Is it piracy? Is it complexity and cost? The key mistake is the confusion of 'change' with 'death'. It seems outlandish to accuse an industry that was worth $10.7billion in 2007 (according to a recent study by the vague-of-purpose PC Gaming Alliance) of being in anything less than rude health. Another report, from research firm John Peddie, suggests that the hardware market is in even better shape than the software market: "From Q3 2005 till Q3 2008, 196 million gaming PCs shipped, and 10 million of them were in the Mainstream Enthusiast class—and if we include mainstream desktop and high-end notebook, we could add another 187 million units—now that really is a lot." ( www.techradar.com )

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World of Warcraft To Blame For College Dropouts Says FCC

Do you want to know why your teenager is dropping out of college? According to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it apparently has nothing to do with the cruddy state of the job market, discouraging prospects for graduates and exorbitant university fees. Instead, World of WarCraft is to blame. Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft has something of a rep for being addictive, with nerdy fans spending hours in rain, hail and snow just to buy a copy of the Lich King that they could very well have just ordered online. Even South Park managed to fill two whole episodes with the subject, when Guitar Hero only achieved one. But according to FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, the game is not just a fun distraction, but represents a dire threat to the education of an entire generation, and only she can undertake a quest singlehandedly to stop it. ( www.theinquirer.net )

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Resident Evil: Degeneration Coming To Mobile

Pocket Gamer : "We've been watching the N-Gage development of Resident Evil: Degeneration very closely, including its exciting teaser trailers, and it's crossed our minds once or twice as to whether this game might also appear on the mobile platform. Our predictions were apparently correct, as Capcom just got in touch to tell us a mobile version of Resident Evil: Degeneration is indeed in the works." "Capcom Mobile is honoured to be bringing the next exciting chapter of the Resident Evil series to mobile phones everywhere," said Midori Yuasa, Capcom's president. "Mobile is the only place where fans can play Resident Evil: Degeneration and experience this thrilling story from a unique adrenaline-fuelled perspective."
( www.pocketgamer.co.uk )

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Namco: Bringing Tekken To 360 Was A Matter Of Reaching Europe And The US

Namco Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada has told Kikizo that doing a 360 version of Tekken 6 was a matter of common sense: there are simply too many green consoles in the world market to ignore. Snip:

Kikizo: You remember close to the beginning of the series, a time when Tekken was very closely associated with PlayStation. Obviously it’s not just PlayStation now, so what would you say the sort of die-hard PlayStation fans who maybe feel ‘betrayed’?

Harada: Yes, we have developed it PlayStation 1, 2 and now 3, so it is true that we have really grown with the PlayStation brand - we have a lot of fond memories, and we worked very closely with Mr Kutaragi as well, so we had a really good relationship. We love the platform. But rather than some fans feeling disappointed, there are a lot of Xbox users out there at the moment, and a great deal of fans who only have an Xbox and really want to play Tekken, which is the number one in the fighting genre. And we just had so many fans that said “we really want to get our hands on it, but can’t.” So we wanted to answer those fans. And it’s also the timing at this point - at the moment we have two high spec consoles on the market at the same time; the Xbox has a huge installed base in Europe and America. So it was more about trying to answer the fans’ requests and having as many as possible be able to get the game - that was the objective there.

There’s loads more through there, Tekken fans. ( www.videogaming247.com )

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Full Game Downloads Coming To Xbox 360

Full videogame downloads may soon become a reality for Xbox 360 users, according to Fable creator Peter Molyneux. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Molyneux hinted at full game downloads, saying: "I think it would be a great thing for this studio to work on. I can't say anything else on it – I would be killed to death."

( www.techradar.com )

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EA And 2K Add PhysX

NVidia has something to celebrate at last. Top game makers Electronic Arts and 2K Games have announced they will use Nvidia's PhysX technology. PhysX will appear in EA's Mirror's Edge, in which a courier has to outrun armed troops under the command of an oppressive government. Quite why a Postman Pat style game needs PhysX is not clear, particularly when his cat is black and white anyway. The game has come out on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles and will be released in January for PCs. Those who have seen the PhysX version say it shows improved image processing, in which shattering windows spray glass shards, banners flutter, fabric tears and bullets hit walls more realistically. We guess the post van looks better too. An Nvidia GeForce spokesman said that everything was fully destructible, and he was not just talking about chips for a change. ( www.theinquirer.net )

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PS3 Leads Consoles In User-Generated Content

Sony PS3 owners can certainly boast about their console being better than Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 in one area – that old Web 2.0 favourite, user-generated content (UGC). Sony's Michael Denny recently heralded the success of online titles on the PS3 such as LittleBigPlanet, Buzz and SingStar. Sony claims that LittleBigPlanet users have created nearly 180,000 levels to date, playing them over 22.4 million times online, while Buzz quiz fans have created over 100,000 quizzes for the game, played over seven million times. "I think if you look at Worldwide Studios heritage in Europe, we always - whether it's internally or externally - work on innovative new products," Denny told gamesindustry.biz. ( www.techradar.com )

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Korea Aims For World Video Games Domination

The Korean government clearly hopes gaming is about to become a significant source of national income, as it has just announced a cash injection of 350 billion Won (£162 million) for the industry there. Korean culture minister Yu In-chon announced this week that the money will be used to fund 60 new gaming projects that he hopes will raise the domestic games profile above those of neighbours Japan and the US. ( www.techradar.com )

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Uncharted 2 Details Revealed

The game will follow adventurer Nathan Drake as he re-traces the footsteps of 13th-century voyager Marco Polo. It will add free-climbing and stealth mode elements to the gameplay. A teaser trailer for the game, developed by Naughty Dog, shows a weary, battered Drake walking across a snowy wilderness to grab a jewelled dagger from the ice. Among Thieves is also reported to feature all-new locations and characters, and a strong narrative thread and story arc. The first game in the franchise was a surprise hit when it was released shortly before Christmas last year. More than two million copies of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune were sold worldwide according to VG Chartz, and the game's protagonist, Nathan Drake, was hailed as the new Lara Croft. ( www.telegraph.co.uk )

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How to Fix GTA IV Crashes And Freezings On PC?

One of the most anticipated PC games of the year, Grand Theft Auto IV did not have a great start: except from the fact that those who opted for digital distribution had no pre-loading options, it appears that those who managed to install the game are constantly suffering from GTA IV crashes, freezings and other performance related issues. Is there a way to fix these problems? For the moment, Rockstar remain silent – it’s probably still early and they have to analyze the tons of reports regarding poor performance and lock-ups. However, one thing is clear: there are many people having problems and we only have one possible suggestion right now for trying to fix the game: try defragging your hard disk drive after installing GTA IV. It might be a long shot, but it’s worth trying, since a heavily defragged game (and with a 15GB install, Rockstar’s title can do that) can lead to crashes, freezings and other problems.
( www.unigamesity.com )

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Gran Turismo 5 Dated For Christmas...09

A Spanish Sony exec has gone on record to state that Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5 – arguably the PlayStation 3's most-wanted game – will be releasing at Christmas In 2009. Sony's chief executive in southern Europe, James Armstrong, told Spanish newspaper Il Finaciero: "For next year, the chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment for southern Europe said that they are developing a new game thriller, in which the player may be designing their own history, and the new version of Gran Turismo, which will arrive at Christmas." Will Freeman, over on Trade Mag MCV, thinks that, if true, the news suggests "a summer 2009 release in Japan, with the US and Europe seeing the game hit retail in the weeks leading up to the festive season in the same year." ( www.techradar.com )

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Xbox 360 Jasper Mobo Out In Wild

Code-named 'Jasper', it comes with a 65nm GPU, which Microsoft hopes will further alleviate some of the infamous Xbox 360 RROD problems. Xbox-scene's forum members have once again come up with the scoop and low-down. Multiple Arcade Xbox 360 SKUs have been spotted with the new motherboard. The new power supply is now rated at 150W (25W less than those used with previous Falcon boards) and the plug format has changed so you can't accidentally poke this PSU into an older Xbox 360. It's reported the system is quieter than original 360s, but the DVD-drive is the same, meaning you'll have to install your games to a separate HDD if you want to get the most out of your quieter console. ( www.atomicmpc.com.au )

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An Offer You Can't Refuse!

We got a pretty little package in the virtual mail today. No, it wasn't a fish wrapped in a bullet proof fish (though, hey, we don't mind the odd sleep with a fish), but rather eight new screens from The Godfather 2. EA Redwood is developing the sequel, and it's already looking like a mighty improvement on the first, which was a bit of sleeper hit in some quarters, and reviled as the work of the devil in others. The new game follows - very roughly - the plot and action of the second Godfather film, and even features some actors whor... we mean, reprising their roles from both films and the first game. ( www.atomicmpc.com.au )

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Barack Obama Adviser Is Warcraft Gamer

The man charged with providing the President-Elect with information about the US media regulator spends his spare time fighting monsters and completing quests on the fictional planet of Azeroth. Kevin Werbach, an academic, is a member of two guilds in the world's most popular online game, playing under the name Supernovan Jenkins. He has invested so many hours in the game that his "Tauren Shaman" character has reached Level 70, one of the higher ranks. Mr Werbach, an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is to co-author a review of the work of the Federal Communications Commission, to help Mr Obama plan his media policies when he assumes the presidency in January. Bloggers and gamers have already begun speculating about what impact Mr Werbach's Warcraft background might have on his professional outlook, with some suggesting that his appointment indicates that the new administration may be more open to virtual worlds. In a blog post written in 2006 Mr Werbach praised massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) like Warcraft for fostering a sense of community. ( www.telegraph.co.uk )

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Nintendo Wii Sales Slowing Down

Sales of the Nintendo Wii have slowed considerably in Japan in the last month – although the popular family console has moved past the 7 million mark in its birthplace. The Wii has been a roaring success for Nintendo but Enterbrain statistics point to a 24 per cent drop in sales as it enters its second year. That is based on figures that show that 5 million consoles had sold by January of this year or around 386,000 average monthly units, but only 2 million since (or 292k a month). ( www.techradar.com )

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