Have you bought the latest installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise yet? If not, you’re probably in the minority – according to the game’s record-smashing sales, everyone and his mother went out to buy the game in its first week. The game made $310 million in its initial twenty-four hours, easily trumping the previous entertainment sales record set by Master Chief himself (a measly $170 million). It went on to gross $500 million that first week.
It seems the end of an era is at hand – last month 1up.com announced that Games for Windows will be switching to an online-only format. The April/May edition marks the final print issue.
Whatever happened to Internet relay chat? Well, if you use a modern instant messaging client like AIM, you probably already have an answer. But before all that, people who wanted to communicate online had one option: IRC.
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Oh video game movies, how we hate you. It seems for every one decent movie based on a video game we get ten direct-to-DVD bargain bin stinkers. Sure, some of them are good for a few laughs (with Bob Hoskins as Mario, how could you not?), but it’s a rare occasion indeed when one even manages to turn a profit, let alone end up any good.
Radar Group, a venture capital-funded start-up, hopes to change all that. Co-founded last year by CEO Jim Perkins, the company seeks to manage original content intended for your favorite consoles and theaters alike.
Video game guns have come a long way since the days of Doom’s double-barreled shotgun or even Goldeneye’s iconic Walther PPK. With greater processing power available to spend on physics engines, designers are now able to take factors like recoil and bullet drop into account when crafting their guns. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re plugging every real-world factor into their ballistic models. A recent article featured in Popular Mechanics explains why.
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As gamers, we often take for granted the fact that we can make out a particular team’s flag or the difference between two shaded blocks in our favorite puzzler. But what about those that can’t? Color vision deficiency – commonly known as color blindness – can make these distinctions almost impossible, and it’s a problem that affects more gamers than you may think.
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The Wii’s internet channel line-up just got a little better with the launch of the BBC’s iPlayer. Don’t get too excited yet; for the time being it’s only available to Wii owners in the UK. Launched last Wednesday, the service is offered for a small one-time fee to all current BBC license holders (across the pond, people have to pay for the privilege of watching T.V. — then again, there are no commercials). There’s no word yet on plans to bring the channel stateside.
Second Life isn’t the only game on the virtual block anymore; Seattle-based startup FlowPlay has just launched its first virtual world Beta. Dubbed ourWorld, the subscription-based sphere is tailored to the elusive, one that is extremely popular with advertisers.
