Source: www.gamespot.com

Blizzard Entertainment is just over two weeks away from releasing the second expansion pack to its genre-dominating massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King. And despite increased competition this year from the likes of Funcom’s Age of Conan and EA Mythic’s Warhammer Online, Blizzard has managed to continue to stave off WOW fatigue to usher in that expansion’s arrival.

Today, the Irvine-based developer said that its worldwide subscriber base had exceeded 11 million. Adding a little color to that number, WOW’s citizenship would rank just higher than the total population of Greece, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Fact Book.

As revealed in Blizzard parent company Vivendi SA’s recent financial reports, World of Warcraft has been on the cusp of hitting 11 million subscribers since July. Today’s milestone comes just over 10 months since Blizzard touted WOW’s 10 millionth subscriber in January.

As Blizzard uses a variety of payment plans in different countries, the publisher defines “subscriber” thusly: “World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last 30 days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.”

World of Warcraft subscribers hail from a number of countries and regions, including North America, Europe, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Argentina, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Most recently, WOW was launched in Russia and Latin America.

Fallout 3 begins with your character’s literal birth and ends with…well, that’s up to you. It might never end, should you opt to hit the (metaphorical) pause button on the role-playing game’s main quest.

What happens in between, from your formative years in the shelter of Vault 101 and well beyond your eventual escape into the irradiated, postapocalyptic Wild West outside, evolves via a nice mix of guided narrative and player choice. Help a townsperson kick his drug habit and you’ll earn good karma; feast on the corpses of your enemies in broad daylight, on the other hand, and people might think you’re a little weird. How you deal with the challenges of the Capital Wasteland affects what nonplayer characters will fight by your side, where your early quest-hub town is, and also some details about the game’s final chapter.

But it’s not just wanderlust and the search for your on-the-run scientist dad that compels you forward in Fallout. Like any RPG, character advancement is both a means and an end. While the leveling system in developer Bethesda’s previous game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, was built on an arcane combination of attributes, skills, skill perks, specializations, and multiple class templates, Fallout 3’s mechanics are far simpler and far improved. You allot your attribute points at the beginning of the game, and when you gain a level, you earn a certain amount of points to spend on skills (Speech, Lockpick, Energy Weapons, etc.) and one perk of your choice. Perks range from practical stuff such as Life Giver (+30 hit points) to oddly whimsical abilities. Mysterious Stranger, for example, occasionally summons a trenchcoated, .44 Magnum-armed dude who kills your target and disappears, spaghetti Western guitar riff resonating in his wake. Spend skill points and pick perks accordingly and it’s easy to create anything from a plasma-rifle-slinging do-gooder to a computer-whiz cannibal.

Whatever path you take, peace and love have no place in the Fallout universe; a whole lot of mutants are gonna die. The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.) — pause time, target specific body parts — is fun and works well despite the severed limbs and decapitations served up in horror-porn slow-mo (and that’s without the aptly named Bloody Mess perk). And of course, assuming you don’t sink all of your skill points into Science and Barter, you’ll see real improvement in weapon accuracy and effectiveness as you level up.

You can only carry out so many actions at once in V.A.T.S., though, so some real-time combat in between V.A.T.S. attacks is inevitable. Here, Fallout 3 feels very much like Oblivion; it’s less precise and polished than a dedicated first-person shooter such as Call of Duty 4. Distractingly bad character animations — I’m talking man-on-the-moon jumps and running that looks suspiciously like ice skating — and occasional camera problems, especially when you have an A.I. companion, make third-person view an option for Fallout series-nostalgia fetishists only (of which exist plenty).

Fallout’s heavy emphasis on wholesale slaughter combined with a relatively small variety of enemies makes for combat that can get a wee bit predictable at times. The ubiquitous Super Mutants and Feral Ghouls both suffer from the same brand of chemo brain and love to charge into melee range. Until I picked up a plasma rifle and became a one-shot headshot machine, I’d start most indoor battles with some long-range plinking and then duck down a corridor, kicking in V.A.T.S. again for a point-blank shotgun blast or three at whatever bumbled around the corner. But then it does depend on who’s holding the controller, too — I watched other players around our office adopt a more Rambo-esque attitude, and while they lived and died from health pack to health pack, at least their finishing moves were more varied than my signature shotgun-to-the-face.

But it’s best not to get too hung up on the intricacies of gunslinging. It’s the world of Fallout that sticks in your mind when you turn off the game. The Atomic Age educational film iconography and paranoia-humor (see also: BioShock). Your first step into the big world, that seminal Oblivion moment when your irises adjust to the glare and you look out to the horizon and understand that you can go there, or there, or over there. And especially the quests, which sometimes push against the “that’s just too f***ed up; I’m not doing that” boundary and can shock and surprise you with unexpected or uncomfortable outcomes.

Fallout 3’s world can be a lonely world, too — and not just when you crest a hill and look out over a shattered, hardscrabble vista of sun-baked rock and burned-out cars. Sometimes you feel it when you’re the one pushing the boundaries and get an unwanted glimpse behind the curtain, like when I headshotted an NPC not just to watch him die but also to see what his bodyguard would do. The bodyguard continued standing there as though nothing happened. I had to shoot him, too.

If you seek to break the world, you’ll occasionally find a way — which is understandable, given the limits of time and tech — but it does pull you out of the otherwise broad and engrossing experience. Faults be damned, though; this is the kind of hugely ambitious game that doesn’t come around very often, and when it does, you’d be a fool not to play it and enjoy the hell out of it and look forward to the day (next-next-gen?) when the fidelity of open-world RPGs takes another big step closer to the uncanny valley’s far side.

Source: www.cnet.com

Wii Fit has already sold more than 8.7 million units worldwide and has maintained a shockingly high sales run rate of about 225,000 units per week for the last few months.

At the same time, Take-Two Interactive Software’s Grand Theft Auto IV has dropped off the best seller lists with about 10.6 million copies sold, which means that Nintendo’s Wii Fit should surpass it in sales.

What’s driving this? Women. Nintendo realized that there was an untapped audience of “women and moms” (their words, not mine) that would allow it to expand the brand. This is counter to the traditionally male-dominated world of video games.

Wagner James Au nails the irony of Wii Fit versus GTA:

A blockbuster franchise for nearly a decade, Grand Theft Auto’s fantasy world of antisocial behavior has helped solidify a stereotype of gamers as 18-34 males, but the market has expanded far beyond that sector. Wii Fit’s success is the most prominent, emblematic example of that shift. And an ironic one at that: Every edition of GTA has aroused complaints over its portrayal of women. Yet this year, it’s women consumers who will help steal Grand Theft Auto IV’s thunder.

A number of casual game makers I have spoken with told me that their audience is primarily women. Maybe Nintendo has cracked the code for an emerging market.

Link to GigaOm: Wii Fit on track to outsell GTA IV this year

Sony’s Little Big Planet is one of the most high-profile releases of this holiday season. Developer Media Molecule has seen its game go from indie darling to AAA system-seller in the past year, thanks to the many appearances that the game has made at trade shows and events.

However, fans of the game are going to have to wait slightly longer to get it. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that it is recalling the game from retailers after it learned that the soundtrack featured some Arabic-language lines from the Qur’an backed with music. A SCEE representative also confirmed to GameSpot that this recall would be global, and could not confirm when the game would now actually hit shelves with the offending music removed.

The confirmation follows rumours that that Singing Safari level of the game features a song with two expressions found in Islam’s central holy text, the Qur’an. Cached pages on the official PlayStation forum claim that the two phrases are (literally translated from the original Arabic): “Every soul shall have the taste of death” and “All that is on earth will perish.”

Although Sony’s press release does not confirm that the above lines are in the game, they do claim that “one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an.” Independent translation done for GameSpot confirmed that the lines linked from the original post are indeed from the Qur’an.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s press release continues, “We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused.” It ends by saying that the company will confirm the new launch date shortly.

Microsoft’s third-party strategy in staying competitive in the console race has been clear: Identify the highest-profile games and find some way for them to be better on the Xbox 360. For MTV Games and Harmonix’s hit rhythm game Rock Band 2, the publisher was able to finagle a “first on 360″ deal, whereby the game would see a timed exclusivity window making it available for purchase only on Microsoft’s console.

That period is now rapidly drawing to a close. Confirming retailers’ expectations, MTV Games said today that Rock Band 2 will be available for the PlayStation 3 beginning October 19, with the Wii and PlayStation 2 releases following in December.

Beginning Sunday, gamers can pick up the Xbox 360 and PS3 stand-alone software for $59.99. The game will also be available on both consoles as part of a $189.99 special-edition bundle that includes the newly designed drum set, guitar, and mic. MTV Games will also be offering an $89.99 stand-alone drum kit and $69.99 solo guitar package for the PS3 and PlayStation 2.

MTV Games also revealed more details on the Wii version of Rock Band 2. Along with the PS2 edition, the Wii game will retail for $49.99, with a special-edition bundle and stand-alone instruments following the same pricing outlined above. The game will include the same 84 tracks included in other versions of the game, and Wii owners will also qualify for MTV’s previously promised bonus song downloads, for which registration is currently available.

Source www.gamespot.com

Source: A poster on the NeoGAF forums reported seeing an Entertainment Software Rating Board listing for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

What we heard: Standing at a synergistic crossroads of fan service and fighting acumen, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was one of Capcom’s last 2D arcade brawlers. Boasting a beefy roster of more than 50 fighters, the game might not have been the most balanced of Capcom’s offerings, but it was certainly the flashiest.

But flashy as it might have been, it wasn’t online. It was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and original Xbox, but none of those versions allowed for online multiplayer matches. So when NeoGAF poster Shard noticed the ESRB listing for the game had expanded to include the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the message board population rejoiced (if the quantity of animated .gif response posts is any indicator of enthusiasm).

The initial posting lacked any evidence of the listing, which is nowhere to be found on the ESRB Web site at the time of this writing. However, Shard has long been a news-sifting member of the community, and his account was backed by another poster with an apparent screen grab of the ratings site from when the listing was still active. Further into the thread, more posters added to the pile of evidence with screenshots apparently showing listings of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on menus for PartnerNet, a sort of Bizarro Xbox Live Marketplace where game journalists under non-disclosure agreements can pull down previewable builds of upcoming Live Arcade games.

Interestingly, when GameSpot checked the ESRB database to verify the post, no such listing was found; not for Xbox 360 and PS3, not even for the PS2 and Xbox. The lack of rating for a previously released game well within the ESRB archive’s time frame suggests that the game had been listed, and rather than being amended to have the Xbox 360 and PS3 mentions removed, it was taken down entirely.

Looks like Bungie has offered us another trailer…sort of, at least it reveals a big aspect of the game, no Master Chief! You will be a normal recon soldier by the looks of it. Check the trailer out below.

It looks like blitz is still at it, soon to be releasing their first game for the 360 and PS3. It seems to be as full of bone crushing helmet smashing action as the last one, with a new system that allows you to target areas of an opponents body to cause serious injury. Honestly I haven’t enjoyed blitz much since the Nintendo 64 version but ill be giving this one a shot. Here is some of the new features and a video trailer from their official website: blitzleague.com

PRECISION-AIM TACKLES
For the first time ever in the Blitz franchise, take control of the new hit-targeting control system to inflict serious pain on explicit areas of your opponent’s body.

REALISTIC INJURIES AND THE RETURN OF LATE HITS
Featuring all-new vicious tackles and gruesome injuries, including the return of late hits and new three-man tackles that pack the power to shatter helmets, crack bones, tear crucial ligaments, and send teeth flying.

ENHANCED CLASH MODE AND TOUCHDOWN CELEBRATIONS
An enhanced Clash Mode is triggered with a single button, allowing players to slow the competition and unleash special offensive and defensive maneuvers. After collecting pay dirt, trigger the player-controlled touchdown celebration and let the fans know who deserves the green.

CAMPAIGN MODE
As the only video game with a story mode exploring the darker side of pro sports, Blitz: The League II puts the player in complete control as he ventures through brutal on-the-field competition and entertaining off-the-field drama in his quest to reach the League Championship. Peter Egan (”Playmakers”) returns to pen the most entertaining Blitz storyline yet.

ONLINE COMPETITION AND DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
Available modes include an all-new Campaign Mode, Quick-Play Versus, and fully featured Online Modes.

“There is no question digital will overtake physical. It happened in music, and it will happen to our industry.”

These are strong words from Microsoft VP of strategic marketing David Gosen, who gave the keynote address at Microsoft’s U.K. Gamefest in August. But is it just another case of bigwig posturing, or is Gosen simply acknowledging the inevitable?

Only an ostrich hasn’t noticed the astonishing growth in the digital-distribution market. All three consoles offer digital-distribution service, with Microsoft and Sony both introducing major upgrades to their systems this summer. MMO juggernaut Blizzard added digitally downloadable titles to their online store. Even Amazon.com apparently wants in — a job posting on Gamasutra seeks employees for its newly formed “Software and Video Games Digital Technology Team.”

Even old-timer Valve, whose Steam service transformed digital distribution for the PC, still sees record growth. Just this May, company president Gabe Newell said that within months, Valve would be making more money from its “alternative channels” (like Steam) than from traditional retail sales.

It’s enough to give a retailer the heebie-jeebies.

“We’re certainly staying close to it,” says Mark Fisher, VP of membership and strategic initiatives for the Entertainment Merchants Association, an industry trade group for retailers. “Retailers are working hard to find a way to involve themselves somehow. They want a share of this inevitable commerce.”

The PC is dead. Long live the PC

Nowhere does this commerce seem more inevitable than on the PC — a strange thought, considering that most brick-and-mortar retailers these days offer an anemic selection of PC titles. Between 2006 and 2007 alone, retailers saw PC software sales plummet by $60 million.

But that figure is misleading, says Chris Early, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Gaming Technology Division.

“Retail sales volume has flattened,” he says. “But when you look at the overall revenue, transactions, and player involvement on the PC side, that’s just growing, especially online.”

The $60 million drop, he says, doesn’t account for digital-distribution sales. In fact, a recent report by trade association PC Gaming Alliance revealed that PC game sales topped $10.7 billion in 2007. Of that revenue, digital downloads accounted for almost $2 billion.

Confronted with numbers like that, it’s no wonder Microsoft recently overhauled its Games for Windows Live service. The new-and-improved GFW Live no longer requires subscription fees, and it offers a freshly upgraded interface that works better with mice and keyboards? How does an interface “communicate” with devices?

What’s more, Microsoft recently announced that a counterpart to Marketplace, the Xbox’s digital-distribution channel, is on the way for PCs. It’s a major turnaround in philosophy for a publisher who once pooh-poohed the idea of digital distribution for the power PC gamer.

According to a recent interview with [Valve VP of Marketing] Doug Lombardi, Microsoft execs actually turned down Valve when the developer approached them with the idea for Steam. “Everyone was like, ‘Blah, blah, blah…. That’s a million miles in the future,” Lombardi told GamesIndustry.biz. (Valve would later develop Steam itself.)

Early refuses to comment on whether retailer pressure played a part in that decision, but he does say that until a year and a half before GFW Live launched in May 2007, “there just had not been a big focus on bringing Live or a similar service to the PC.”

Source: 1up

Electronic Arts says that it understands how an illegally downloaded copy is not, in any way, a copy that was lost as a sale to the company. Mariam Sughayer, who is working for the corporate communications department of EA, says that “Stepping aside from the whole issue of DRM, people need to recognize that every BitTorrent download doesn’t represent a successful copy of a game, let alone a lost sale”. Understanding this, the company is getting ready to shift its approach so that it rewards the customer rather than punishing everyone for the sins of pirates.

At launch, spore ad a three installation limit and also a limit of only one account per game copy owned. If you wanted more installs, you had to call Electronic Arts and if you wished more accounts, you had to buy more copies of the game.

Gamers launched a backlash, which included Amazon one star reviews and anti-DRM creatures on Sporepedia. On the one hand, EA resorted to the usual hard line, going so far as threatening to ban people talking about DRM on their forums, but on the other hand, the company understood that most of the complaints were pretty much founded, so they recently announced that the installation limit would be raised while an iTunes like “activation” mechanics would be added.

Expect Electronic Arts to emphasize the social and downloadable aspect of the game in order to fight piracy. Pirated copies cannot access the Sporepedia and cannot get creatures from other people in their games. So, if EA manages to select content and emphasize this aspect of the game, it will encourage more people to get the game in order to access this aspect of Spore.

Full story at: Softpedia

The latest version of EA’s Command & Conquer series “Tiberium” has just been well, canned. At the end of July EA announced that it would be delaying the release until April 09. The game was originally going to be released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation .

However, it was just announced that the game would not hit retail at all. There was no truly specific reason given, just that “it did not meet quality standards.”

Mariam Sughayer, spokesperson for EA said:

“The game was not on track to meet the high quality standards set by the team and by the EA Games Label. A lower-quality game is not in the best interest of the consumers and would not succeed in this market.”

As a result of the cancellation, many EA employees have been let go. More sad news in this sad economy. EA is doing it’s best to place workers on other projects.

Thanks to gamespot for the tip.