Rahul Shirke

Unreal Tournament 3 beta demo coming in 2 weeks, are you ready?

If there is one possible thing UT fans love more than UT itself, it has to be a UT demo. UT2004’s demo, once released, became one of the most downloaded demos of all time. Even after the full release, a thick percentage of gaming servers were demo-based and the demo’s famed ONS-Torlan map became one of the most popular maps of all time, beating the original’s DM-Deck16.

Well, it’s all going to start again, because Epic’s Mark Rein has just announced that UT3’s “beta” demo will be striking the internet with a vengeance in two weeks’ time. The demo will include a Singleplayer instant action, and of course, multiplayer. Rein says that it should most likely be available this very week itself, but two weeks is just a safe number. Three is even safer – I wonder why he didn’t pick it?

One reason it’s being called the “beta” version could be because it’s the “in” thing right now, like the Gmail “beta” and the 4 dozen different Web 2.0 sites you use that are in “beta”. But Rein makes it clear that the reason of the beta demo is to test UT3 on every hardware configuration possible. What does this mean? Forget your specifications and download the demo when it comes out, run it and tell Epic how it slapped you and laughed at your low-ass PC.

Epic also announced UT3’s system requirements some weeks ago. See if your system is hip enough:

Minimum System Requirements
Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
512 Mbytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended System Requirements
2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
1 GBytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Also, FreakyGaming reports that the “minimum specs” given are “minimum specs for high in game detail” as compared to the bare minimum specs required to run the game (and possibly play reasonably at ultra-low graphics). Regardless, it’s best that you download the beta demo and see for yourself!

Lucas: Indy 4 will be as good as Indy 1 (“Phantom Menace” fears heightened)

VH1 managed to get close to George Lucas, who decided to spill some beans about his upcoming movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Now, expectations for this movie are big, not only because Indiana Jones is returning after a long hiatus, but because fans saw what happens to a successful franchise when it is “continued” some 20 years later. Yeah, Jar Jar Binks happens.

Like before, Indy will be chasing an important historical/legendary artifact – which, if you haven’t guessed already, will be the Crystal Skull this time around. Lucas promises that crystal skulls are mighty powerful, more so than the puny Sankara Stones or the Holy Grail (pfft, who wants immortality?). “I think this is actually better, it’s up there with the Ark of the Covenant.” says Lucas. We sure hope so.

The crystal skulls are an actually existing phenomena, however. Unlike the Ark of the Covenant, though – the Crystal skulls have been ascribed all sorts of powers (including the overthrow of Microsoft), but which one will make it to the film?

“There’s several different kinds of skulls, several different kinds of theories, several myths that are surrounding them,” Lucas said, clearly delighted by his secret knowledge. “So, you just have to put all the pieces together, look it up and figure out which one it is. Or just wait until the movie comes out, which is so much easier.”

Now, getting from the movie’s content, will go to the movie itself. It’s shaping up for a release on May 22nd next year and damn, is that a classic Lucasfilms date! The movie is tonally most similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and will be just as good, if Lucas is to be trusted. Let’s hope he is. And for God’s sake, let’s hope Jar Jar Binks isn’t in it.

[Via Firstshowing.net]

BBFC Rejects Revised Version of Manhunt 2, Rockstar arms itself with clubs

Months ago, we brought you news of Manhunt 2’s infamous banning in England and other British territories, as well as the remarks made by the BBFC which included ‘killing’ and ‘glorifying’ in the same sentence. Well, that led to Take Two apologizing and whipping Rockstar to revise the game and make it less gorier so that our British brethren will be happy. Rockstar grudgingly agreed, and presented before BBFC their revised edition.

Apparently, the BBFC isn’t all too happy. They have rejected the revised version of the controversial Manhunt 2, which makes us wonder as to what is going to happen to the game. David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said:

“We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version. The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient. There has been a reduction in the visual detail in some of the ‘execution kills’, but in others they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature.

Looks like Rockstar didn’t do their homework right. They have also made it clear that they aren’t kissing any more asses.

“We [BBFC] did make suggestions for further changes to the game, but the distributor has chosen not to make them, and as a result we have rejected the game on both platforms. The decision on whether or not an appeal goes ahead lies with the distributor [Take Two].”

This furthers one of this year’s gaming sagas. Will Take Two further appeal against the harsh British decision? Will Rockstar attack Britain? Is the BBFC messing with Take Two? We can only guess until the next chapter is played. We stand by for Take Two and Rockstar’s responses.

World of Warcraft ad for Toyota’s FOUR WHEELS OF FURY!!

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You know you have created an ad full of win when its set in World of Warcraft and has some of the most memorable lines you’ll hear in any advertisement.

“I’m gonna equip myself with a little FOUR WHEELS OF FURY!!”

“Did you see me lay down the law? I’m teh lawgiva!”

I can’t get those two lines out of my head!

Gears of War movie following Halo movie into nothingness?

Not long ago, we learnt that CliffyB was ecstatic about the upcoming Gears of War movie, supposedly under production at New Line Cinema. Well, he was talking rather furiously about it, but looks like even a gaming god can’t help a movie when budget strikes back. The much-talked about Halo movie was probably the first “AAA” video game movie to fall into the bottomless pit of doom. Is Gears of War hurtling towards the same?

Len Wiseman was initially supposed to direct the Gears of War movie, but IESB.net reports some startling news. Wiseman has decided to get his butt out of the Escape from New York remake he was to direct, and is still attached to the Gears of War movie. But things aren’t as smooth as they seem. Even with a director attached, New Line is concerned about the “ballooning” budget of the film, that Cliffy had boasted about earlier.

“Len Wiseman is still on the project currently, but it doesn’t look good, due to the budget concerns the studio has, New Line will most likely not be moving forward on this film.”

Hot damn, the certainty in those words is a point worth noted. Will Gears of War followed the much-compared-to Halo movie and slip into Development Hell? We can only hope it doesn’t (or can we?).

Bungie officially splits from Microsoft, Halo still owned by Redmond

Well, what do you know? Turns out one rumour ended up being real. Bungie has split from big daddy Microsoft and is on its way to become an independent ~~republic~~ company. Of course, Microsoft won’t let one of its slaves off that easy.

It still maintains an equity interest in Bungie and “at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned “Halo” intellectual property as well as other future properties developed by Bungie”, whatever the hell that means.

Harold Ryan, speaking from Bungie’s fortress said that their relationship with Microsoft went pretty well and that they will concentrate their next titles on Microsoft® platforms. To cut a long story short, Bungie’s next games will be for the Xbox 360 (and whatever other consoles Microsoft spits out). This means that Bungie is still hugging Microsoft and will probably not let go for quite a while.

Shane Kim, corporate VP at Microsoft Game Studios, said that Microsoft appreciates the work their little slave has done for them and that they will further the Halo franchise with more collaborations, one notable name being Peter Jackson. Of course, no movie specifics were announced. As you can guess, Microsoft talked more about the franchise Bungie created for them rather than Bungie itself.

We hope Bungie evolves to make more kickass games, and we sure as hell hope they move on to something new and original and stop making more armoured-guy-kills-aliens games, please. Thanks.