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Harmonix Dudes Enter Time 100

Joystiq reports that “those Harmonix guys” Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy have made it to this year’s Time 100, the list of the hundred most influential people. Both Rigopulos and Egozy are creators of Rock Band, the ultra popular band simulator that has taken the nation by storm. In fact, the write up at Time notes that Rock Band is “one of the ways kids will find music in the future” and “may just turn out to be up there with the rise of FM radio, CDs or MTV.”

While the above statements just might be a bit farfetched, both the Harmonix dudes deserve the Time nomination, which otherwise includes titans like presidents, presidential hopefuls and other such ‘important’ people. Quite surprisingly, this list was topped by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, the designer of Mario and Zelda, among other franchises.

Top Fanboy Nightmares

This article on Videogamer.com takes a look at what would cause major nightmares in fanboys. As humorous as it is, the article does raise some hair-raising thoughts, some of which include Samus Aran as being a man in drag and Sony beginning to charge for online play. But this is the best:

9. Nintendo releases a real-world Mario FPS

In a drastic move away from fantastical Mario video games, Nintendo releases a Mario FPS. The game is set in the modern day with Mario now a young detective whose father is killed by notorious crime lord Bowser. In a tale of revenge Mario has to fight his way deep into the criminal underworld until he comes face to face with his father’s murderer and can deliver payback, Italian style. It’s an adults only title because of its strong language, sexual content and extreme violence. Mario fans would never be the same again.

What would give you nightmares?

Botched PC Game Launches

We’ve all had our fair share of pain and trouble installing a PC game, but what happens after that? Some games turn out to be atrocious, while others heavenly, though that is not the point of the article. 1UP takes a look at the five top-most botched PC game launches in history, listing the usual suspects. The most recent one has to be Hellgate London, the highly anticipated action-RPG that fell flat on its face upon release. Here’s a sample:

When Hellgate opened on Halloween, 2007, s*** hit the fan. Never mind the ongoing demonic invasion and dimensional gash in no-longer-jolly-old England; players paid up to fight it off. But persistent crash bugs were a bad start. And while lost progress in an action-RPG is always painful, double and triple billings chafe in any context. Many subscribers to Hellgate: London’s optional membership program, who exchanged $9.99 a month or a flat lifetime fee of $149 for priority server access, easier in-game transportation, and other perks, reported massive problems and mistaken charges.

Other criminals in the list include the botched launch of Half-Life 2 (Steam servers failed, stranding thousands of gamers with just a copy of the game and not being able to play it) and Ultima IX, among others.

Mila Kunis Joins Max Payne

In more Max Payne movie news, Variety reports that Mila Kunis has been set to star opposite Mark Wahlberg in the upcoming live action film adaptation of the crime noir game.

Best known for her role in “That ’70s Show” as well as voicing Meg Griffin in “Family Guy”, Kunis will play an assassin who teams up with Wahlberg to avenge her sister’s death.

The film’s script has been written by Beau Thorne and is being directed by John Moore. It currently doesn’t have any release date attached to it.

What Is “Next Gen”?

Ask any game developer what sort of feature that the title in question includes, chances are the first thing they mention is the “next gen” graphics, or physics, etc; Of course, it has not taken long for people to start to ask whether features can be next gen or not. After all, all three platforms have been out for over a year. Speaking of which, what about the Wii? Is it truly a “new gen” console? What is “next gen”? What is “new gen”? These questions and more will be answered after the jump.

Read more

Lego Halo April’s Fool Joke

Here’s something we didn’t expect: Bungie is working on a Halo Lego game — imagine Lego Star Wars with the Halo universe. That’s what EGM’s April issue had to say, but before we could get our hopes up (or down), the news has been dismissed as an April’s Fool joke. Some sites jumped on the wagon rather quickly, which we can understand, Lego Halo, hell yeah. But no, really, it’s a an April’s Fool joke. The first one of 2008.

Australia May Get “M” Rating in Games

Australia, up until now, has been a bad place for gaming. The ratings board down under has a maximum game rating of MA15+, meaning that games which are deemed unsuitable for a 15-year old are refused classification, effectively banning it from being released there. Many games have fallen victim to this ratings system, including GTA 3 and Manhunt.

However, that may soon change, as Game Politics reports that government officials in the country are considering the addition of an 18+ rating, allowing the sale of more mature titles. It will be discussed at their next meeting on March 28, meaning that if this goes through, gamers in the land of kangaroos and koalas will be able to enjoy violence, nudity and blood. Well, you know… the good stuff!

Valve Considering Videos, Music on Steam

Valve’s popular Steam service, which offers hundreds of games today, might be expanding soon, with the addition of downloadable vidoes and music. In an interview at GDC, Valve’s Doug Lombardi said that they’re looking into videos, TV shows, music etc. to offer via their Steam service. He didn’t go into detail, only saying that they’re “looking into it”. What else might they be looking into?

Gamers Feel Relieved When Killed

Don’t you feel relieved when you kill the other dude during multiplayer matches? Apparently, you don’t. An experiment was carried out where a group of students played James Bond 007: Nightfire while having their facial expressions and psychological activity monitored; results suggest that players would feel “anxiety, anger or both” when fragging an enemy and would feel “positive emotion” when he himself was killed.

The latter is attributed to temporary “relief from engagement” brought about by death, but the whole thing seems contradictory to what players actually feel like. Another discovery from the experiment was that players who tested higher for psychoticism experienced less anxiety from killing enemies.

So, the next time you frag someone in a multiplayer match, act all shocked and surprised.

EA Offers $2 Billion For Take-Two, Gets Rejected

We’re just into the year 2008, and EA is already looking to acquire a major competitor. EA has revealed that it offered to buy Take-Two a week ago, but the management rejected the offer. EA has now taken the offer public, hoping that Take-Two shareholders will have a different opinion. The offer is at $26 per share, 62% above what the share is trading for. The total amount is $2 billion, but before EA could start celebrating having BioShock and Grand Theft Auto under their wings, the board at Take-Two has rejected the deal. However, some suggest that EA won’t stop here, and might do what Microsoft is currently doing by trying to acquire Yahoo (i.e. keep pushing).

Epic Responds To MS Buyout Rumors

Rumors are flying all over the web on a daily basis, most are too pointless to even receive a comment from those supposedly involved. Yesterday, a rumor from GamePro suggested that Microsoft was interested in acquiring Epic for $1 billion. Epic’s ever present VP Mark Rein jokingly commented on the rumor, saying,

“I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they’re going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion,” he said. “Because we don’t want anyone thinking that we’re cheap. :)”

Obviously, Epic would like to stay independent, as any other studio. And with blockbusters like Gears of War and UT3, plus their lucrative software business (Unreal Engines), there’s no need to sell off. However, everything has its price, as we’ve been reminded so many times.

Sega Sammy Cutting 400 Jobs

Japan’s Sega Sammy, the part SEGA owned holdings company, is looking to cut 400 jobs, citing bad yearly results. The company lost almost $150 million in 2007, after having profits of $460 million in 2006, a huge difference, by any means. As a result, as usual, someone’s losing their job, or some 400 people. Furthermore, they’re looking to close 110 unprofitable arcade halls around Japan. SEGA and Sammy holdings, makers of Arcade games, merged in 2004.

EA Admits Ruining Talented Developers

Here’s something you didn’t expect to happen: EA admits to buying up talented developers and ruining them afterwards. EA’s CEO John Riccitello spoke to GameLife, to whom he said that EA has made mistakes in the past, mistakes when acquiring Westwood Studios (Command & Conquer), and a whole bunch of other game developers.

“The command and conquer model, doesn’t work. If you think you’re going to buy a developer and put your name on the label… you’re making a profound mistake”

“Creative teams can be thought of as flowers in a hothouse — you move the temperature up or down a few degrees and the flowers will die,”

Let’s see what happens with EA’s $860 million acquisition of BioWare Pandemic.

Activision Q4 Sales At $1.48 Billion

Activision has announced its Q4 2007 sales — the big money maker quarter for many game publishers — where sales were up 80%, reaching a massive $1.48 billion, profits reached $272 million. It’s mostly fueled by Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero 3, which have seen enormous success, both titles selling millions of copies. Activision expects the Q4 earnings to carry into Q1 2008, with $350 million in additional sales.

Child Psychologists Shun Anti-Video Game Arguments

For all the people out there who seem to be out to get video games, it’s nice to know that there are some people who can still reason. For example, take a look at child psychologists Frank Gaskill and Dave Verhaagen. The two pointed out in a level headed article why so many of the so called “professional” studies on how video games make kids become violent are out to lunch. First, they compare video games t comics, which were the favorite thing to hate in the senate during the mid 1950s. they also point out that violence and video games are not being properly linked using this inventive metaphor:

We could say that during the season when ice cream sales increase, shark attacks also increase. But we could not say the more ice cream you sell, the more you cause shark attacks

Though hardly in depth, the article does do a good job of explaining the erroneous nature of past studies. Good job guys.

EA Tiburon Lead Resigns

1UP carries word that David Ortiz, the lead producer on the Madden series for the PS3/X360 platforms, has left EA Tiburon, the studio which makes all these football games. They state that Ortiz has left for personal reasons, but also mention that there were rumors that he grew frustrated with the inner workings of the studio.

They continue, stating that EA Tiburon producer Phil Frazier will take over Ortiz’s role and head up development on the current-gen versions of the game. He is apparently a major player in making the series successful during the last generation.

Madden NFL 09 is due out later this year. Hope it’s as good as its being billed to be.

Dance to Pay Your Library Dues

We’ve all heard of libraries stocking video games or even using them to attract patrons, but have you ever heard of a library where you can dance your dues off? Someday you can tell your grandchildren that you did.

The Wadleigh Memorial Library recently set up a DDR dance contest for its patrons who had dues to the library. They invited their patrons to make good on unpaid fines by getting a certain grade or above in the game - for example, Stearns, who owed $14 in fines, had to receive a “C” in the game to clear her balance. The program attracted quite a few teens and preteen girls who took turns in the game to compete against the librarian. Many did so for fun.

Teen Killed Over PSP

Kotaku reports of yet another sad case of gaming-related death. According to Miami-Dade police, two teenagers have been charged with the death of James Felton-Maitland (pictured), who was hit by a truck while running away from the aforementioned teens who were trying to mug him out of his PSP.

The two perpetrators - Jamila Brown and Keith Lebrone Goa - spotted Felton-Maitland as he walked on the street with a PSP in his hand. They proceeded to knock him down and tried to take his PSP, though he managed to escape and ran across the street before being hit by a truck.

The case was initially filed as an accident, though investigation into the case by a private detective revealed the perpetrators. They are now charged of second-degree felony murder and strong-arm robbery.

Nintendo Shares Hit 7 Month Low

Despite having two consoles with monumental success, Nintendo is still vulnerable to the market as everyone else. Investors are fearing a recession in the US, which will affect Nintendo just as any other entertainment and consumer electronics company. The Nintendo stock hit a seven month low on the Nikkei yesterday.

Most of the Asian market, especially the Japanese, has been hit hard the first month of 2008, and Nintendo is no exception. The Nintendo stock doubled in value in 2007, but that could all return back to normal in the upcoming months, as sales in the US will drop as the consumers and investors are cautious during these times.

Most Meaningful Video Game Quotes

“And yet another top-ten list graces the Internet,” you might say to yourself, reading this post, but this one, like many others, is quite an interesting read. Destructoid has compiled a list of most meaningful video game quotes of all time, listing the ones that have marked their places in history. Here’s a bit:

8. “You were almost a Jill sandwich!”

Gamers are no strangers to horrible, horrible dialogue; whether we’re getting haphazardly-translated Engrish from our friends in the Orient or simply suffering from lazy writers, awful dialogue and videogames tragically tend to go hand in hand. I find it hard to pick just one example of horrendous writing to stand for literal decades’ worth, but, if only because I’m loathe to give “All Your Base” any position on any top ten list, Barry Burton’s famous line from the original Resident Evil will do.

I wholeheartedly agree with the author: there are some seriously bad lines of dialog written for games. But then again, “would you kindly” would leave quite a good impression on anyone.

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