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Miami police arrests Modern Warfare 2 pirate

It seems that Activision can’t get enough PR for the release of Modern Warfare 2, as the game is now in the spotlight after 18 year old Christian Del Amo was arrested by Miami Police for trying to sell pirated versions of the game.

This comes after Activision had hired an online investigation firm to look into suspicious posts on Craigslist advertising Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles for sale. With the age of high-speed internet, where anyone can download the pirated version, why would you even try and sell the pirated version on a burned disc? That kind of “business” seems so 1999.

Game Boy inducted into toy Hall of Fame

It’s always an honor when a great athlete gets inducted in a Hall of Fame — earlier this year for instance, Micheal Jordan was inducted into the NBA hall of fame, and now, more importantly to us gamers, Nintendo’s original Game Boy has been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame, specifically, the Strong National Museum of Play’s Toy Hall of Fame.

The original 8-bit Game Boy was released in 1989, and its subsequent variations, have sold over 120 million units world wide since then, with the best game being Tetris, selling a whopping 33 million copies.

Congratulations, Nintendo!

Unreal 3 Development Kit launches

Epic Games has launched a free edition of their massively popular Unreal Engine 3, called Unreal Development Kit. The kit includes access to the Unreal Engine 3, the Unreal Editor, which comes with a whole suite of development tools, and the ability to distribute games on their own, for free, with no additional software required.

Obviously, it’s only intended for games that are free, similarly to mods, since the “real” Unreal Engine 3 costs upwards of $900,000 for a commercial license.

You can find the Unreal Development Kit at www.udk.com, and where you can already download games build with the new kit.

First Tekken move promo spotted in magazine

Movie site comingsoon.net posted a magazine ad of the upcoming Tekken movie at the American Film Market Expo (where a ton of movies are bough and sold). The ad features the tag line “Survival is no game”. The movie, directed by Dwight Little, is set in the future and features sci-fi elements, while staying true to the Tekken characters and franchise. We’ll see how it turns out.

Warren Spector tried to buy Deus Ex rights

Noted game designer Warren Spector, who created Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War, revealed in an interview with Variety that he tried to buy the rights to the game from the publisher, but was unsuccessful. Specter said,

“There were and still are ‘Deus Ex’ stories I would like to tell. That story is not done for me. For the sci-fi game, I sort of filed the serial numbers off. ‘Deus Ex’ was very much a game of the millennium.”

Yep, a lot of people would argue that Deus Ex was the game of the millennium, especially if you’re into cyberpunk. Spector is also the creator of the Wing Commander and the Thief series and is currently working on Epic Mickey for Disney.

A chance to meet Uwe Boll

Uwe Boll, the infamous German filmmaker with smash hits, sorry, flops such as Alone in The Dark and Bloodrayne, will be available for photographs and signing in Van Nuys, California for two hours on Nov. 7, at the Spudic Movie Empire, where his film “Postal” will have a few screenings.

God of War 3 Ultimate Edition revealed

Excited about God of War 3? The newly announced Ultimate Edition of the game might excite you even more, if you’re willing to shed out $100 for it. The Ultimate Edition, pictured above, will include the game, a book, access to tons of DLC, a feature length retrospective on the series, a soundtrack of the entire trilogy, and a heavy metal soundtrack inspired by the game, all included in a stylish box.

If you pre-order the box, you’ll not only get to download a demo of the game, but you’ll also get a free copy of District 9 on Blu-ray. Now that’s a pre-order deal!

Activision comments on leaked Modern Warfare 2 footage

If you’ve been following Modern Warfare 2 as close as possible you will know that a video of the first level leaked onto the internet yesterday. If you’re not a fan of spoilers, DO NOT READ ON.

The video showcased a group of terrorists proceeding through a airport gunning down a ridiculous amount of civilians in the process while one of the terrorists is controlled by the player. At the end of the video, the player controlled terrorist is shown getting betrayed by the rest of the group and is left on the ground to die.

Well, Activision has today commented on the video saying that the player has an option to skip this scene and is warned that it is potentially disturbing. They also have said that the level is in the game to show the player how urgently they need to stop this terrorist organization and that the game is intended for those 18 or older so they aren’t really in the wrong putting it in there.

Of course, this level is going to have a whole slew of negative media attention.

via thatvideogameblog

A Tetris chair

There’s no denying that Tetris is close to the heart for many people, the brick-puzzle game has inspired artists for decades, including Mexican industrial designer Gabriel Canas, who designed the Tetris chair you see above. It’s not available for purchase anywhere, as it’s still a concept, with the only specimen planted at Canas’ own home.

PS2 celebrates 9th birthday

This day, nine years ago, Sony launched what would become the best selling console of all time, the PlayStation 2. On the 9th anniversary of the launch, Sony revealed the staggering sales numbers: 140 million units sold worldwide, beating out the DS and GameBoy, with 120 million and 108 million units sold, respectively.

What’s even more amazing, is that some 10,000 (yes, ten thousand) games have been released for the PS2, developed by over 450 different developers, and there have been sold over half a billion PS2 games in the US alone. Wow.

Analyst: Netflix coming to Wii within a year

Game analyst Micheal Pachter predicts the Netflix movie streaming service to hit Nintendo’s Wii console withing a year, after being announced on the PS3 a year after hitting the Xbox 360.

However, he notes that Netflix might not be an integrated part of the Wii and PS3, because of the exclusive deal with Microsoft, meaning that a Netflix software DVD/Blu-ray drive will have to be present in the systems in order to stream movies.

Netflix requires disc in PS3 in order to play

The recent announcement of Netflix for the PS3 was well received among console owners, however, news has come out that might put a slight damper on the party — at least for a while.

Netflix revealed that the “Netflix blu-ray” disc that will ship free to PS3 owners, will have to be in the console during streaming of movies. Not just when you install the software, but every time you stream movies via the service. Netflix noted that the disc will only have to be used until they offer a downloadable service similar to the Xbox 360, which should come later this year.

Netflix Stream Instantly coming to PS3

The Xbox 360 has had it for just about a year now but it seems that Sony and Netflix have finally inked a deal to bring Stream Instantly to the PS3, too.

Netflix says they will launch the service next month and will be free for subscribers to download and begin streaming some of their 17,000+ movies and TV shows instantly. This is good news for the company as well as us as it brings the service to millions of new potential customers.

We’ll keep you posted as the service’s launch date grows closer.

via yahoo

Bruce Willis cast in Kane & Lynch

It’s official, Bruce Willis has been cast as Kane in the upcoming Kane & Lynch movie adaptation. Producer Adrian Askarieh confirmed the news, saying,

“After Bruce Willis read [the script], he called it one of the best action scripts he’s ever read, and Bruce is an expert in terms of action scripts because he’s read everything over the last 20 years”

The movie won’t follow the game, but will keep the same plot point. However, seeing that most (read: all) movies based on games have pretty much sucked over the years, we’ll wait and see if Kane & Lynch turns out to something decent, even with Willis in the starring role.

USPS worker steals over 2000 GameFly games

This will certainly add to the ongoing battle between GameFly and the United States Postal Service: a USPS worker has been caught and admitted in court that he stole over 2200 GameFly discs from his workplace.

The man was busted after surveillance showed test mailing of fake discs disappear during his shift, and found 170 discs in his SUV. It was later discovered that he was apparently trading the discs at the local GameStop.