July 4, 2007 – StuffWeLike

AllofMP3.com taken down, springs back up

AllofMP3.com, a popular haven for buggers who prefer to download instead of buy music has been taken down by the Russian Government. The move came as a result of plenty of international pressure, and more importantly, it was a condition laid before Russia for WTO membership. Is this a sad day for pirates worldwide? It isn’t. Keep reading to know why.

Even though AllofMP3 has diappeared, an almost identical site has popped up under the name MP3Sparks.com. This new site claims to be completely legal and paying royalties to the Russian royalty collection agencies, like its predecessor AllofMP3. Plus, if you had an account with AllofMP3, you can seemingly use it with MP3Sparks as well. Talk about coincidence.

So this means that even though AllofMP3.com has been destroyed and the WTO’s condition met, the site hasn’t really disappeared. This poses the questions: Is the WTO going to force Russia to shut down MP3Sparks for the much-coveted entry? Is MP3Sparks really legal under Russia’s new AllofMP3-busting laws? Tune into the next episode to find out.

[Via ars technica]

CryENGINE 2 Licenced by Indie Developer

Mobster

The guys from Paleo Entertainment, based in San Diego have announced that their new, shiny FPS, Merchants of Brooklyn will be using the CryENGINE 2. Never heard of it? Remember the upcoming game with awesome tropical graphics that made you cream your pants, called Crysis? Yep, it uses CryENGINE 2.

The game in question, Merchants of Brooklyn, is set in 3100 A.D. where you see the main character, Matteo Savio make his way from a young boy to “Dr. Savio, PHD – Director of Genetics on Planet Paleo”, through an adventure featuring “MOB life, Scientific Education and Galactic adventures.” Definitely original stuff there. Especially considering that most of the characters are going to be Neanderthals. In a mob. How cool is that?

To quote Troy Latimer, president of Paleo (heh, alliteration):

Before licensing the CryENGINE 2 for our new project we looked carefully at all our options, and concluded no other engine could produce the kind of AAA quality game we were aiming to develop, nor were any other toolsets as advanced or user friendly as the ones delivered with the CryENGINE 2.

Sounds as good a reason as any. A second worthy reason being that this makes the upstart developer very famous indeed.

Paleo Entertainment was born out of a modding group that created Paleolithic Revolution, a Half-Life 2 mod based on Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon domination of caves and stacked rocks. Personally, I like the originality of these buggers.

Right now, we know nothing more than what I have presented already, though there is a bunch of concept art (more like doodles) out there.

[Via Gamasutra, Kotaku]

Harold and Kumar go to Gitmo

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle was a seriously underrated “get-high-and-be-stupid” comedy. Neil Patrick Harris stole their car, so they rode a wild cheetah! Amazing!

If, like me, you can’t wait and you’re hurting to know the entire plot of Harold and Kumar 2, I think I’ve got you covered. Here you go, hit the jump for one grande-sized SPOILER with extra onions, courtesy of Ain’t It Cool News patron Dr_Moe.

[Via If It’s Movies]

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