Video Games – Page 330

Finally, Halo 3 leaked to the Internets

Now, normally the guys who play games before their release dates are labelled “weirdos” and most people respectfully wait for the full version of the game to come out. It appears that with Halo 3, the situation is quite the opposite – play Halo 3 after September 25th and be ready to be labelled “weirdo”!

As would be expected of any big-budget production, Halo 3 has been leaked to the massive world of BitTorrent in a 6.14 GB torrent. You may now stop writing death threats against those who got Halo 3 before the release date and go do something equally illegal now.

Oh, and don’t forget to seed, you greedy bastard.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

Dog swallows Wiimote, Sony not involved (as of now)

The Becknell family from Loveland, CO was leading a normal day when suddenly their 3 year old Labrador Retriever started vomiting blood. A visit to the friendly vet showed that there was a freaking remote inside the dog’s belly. But the Becknells made the mistake of thinking it was just another ordinary remote. Turns out that there was also a Wiimote. That might also explain the many bugs the family faced when they turned on their regular copy of Wii Sports, and how the dog was able to mentally win every tennis match.

The dog had chewed the old family remote “into little pieces and that wasn’t the mass in the X-ray.” Eventually, the Wiimote surfaced. As you can expect, the parents got angry, the vet got money, the dog breathed a sigh of relief (and despairs at having lost his cheat) and the kid got blamed. The poor kid has lost two weeks’ worth allowance to pay for a new remote.

When contacted, the dog denied any connection with Sony. Sony representatives threw rocks at us when we tried to contact them. I think there’s no corporate politics involved here.

[Via Fun Tech Talk]

Microsoft’s not banning anyone for playing Halo 3 early after all

With a video game launch as large as Halo 3, you have to have scandal, controversy and broken street dates. We’ve seen Halo 3’s release date broken across the world, and rumour goes that aliens stole a copy as well. Another rumour said that Microsoft will ban people’s accounts if they play before the release date.

Pro-G said earlier that a Microsoft rep told them that Microsoft will ban accounts if they find such a thing happening. Pro-G said later that another Microsoft rep (who probably lost a deathmatch some time ago) told them that Microsoft will only ban Microsoft employees’ accounts. Whew.

And now Pro-G tells us that Microsoft has made an official statement on the matter, after considerable deliberation and beer-drinking.

We can confirm that Microsoft is not taking any action (such as banning Xbox Live accounts) against gamers who are playing Halo 3 before the official street date. Any rumours or speculation to the contrary are false.

So what is the lesson to be learnt here? Do not trust rumours, Microsoft representatives and release dates.

Sony quitting the console race?

Right since the humongous price of the PS3, we have seen Sony face insult after insult and make several more blunders while at it. To put it simply, Sony as a console maker has its reputation sliding down faster than a drunk hobo on a snowboard on a frozen river of Mountain Dew. 😕

Sony’s stock has dropped and news indicate that their spending on the next-generation chip (which will power the potential Playstation 4). Also, they are planning on “selling manufacturing lines that make the Cell processor” to Toshiba! Does this mean that Sony is no longer interested in the heated consoles market? Does this mean that the Playstation brand has come to an end? Is Sony planning something radically new (like Wii)?

We can only make wild guesses at this point, but there is no denying that Sony’s PS3 went rather badly compared to the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.

[Via HDGamesNews.com]

Force Unleashed for Wii in 2008!

We brought you news last week that the famed lightsaber-swinging Star Wars Wii game will not be the next installation of Lego Star Wars. This left us wondering as to what LucasArts has up its sleeves. Well, it turns out that one of my predictions went right – LucasArts is porting Force Unleashed to the Wii, and the package will be released in Spring 2008!

I can immediately see the game get massive sales for the Wii, because you WILL get to control the lightsaber with your Wiimote and use force powers with the nunchuck. How friggin’ cool is that? Plus, the game will include a Wii-exclusive duel mode, which allows you and your equally geeky buddy to fight with lightsabers ‘fer rel’! This is certainly something Star Wars fans have anticipated for a long, long time.

“Wii is a great platform for The Force Unleashed, because the console’s motion-oriented controllers really bring the game to life,” said Jim Ward, the president of LucasArts. “We’ve worked hard to make the Wii version of the game unique in order to truly let you unleash the Force.”

Holy hell yeah!

Intel buys Havok – randomest acquisition of the week

Gamers will know Havok, the Irish company for their stellar physics engine, while movie buffs might know it for providing special effects from movies like The Matrix, Poseidon and so on. Well, word is that Intel has bought Havok. Why, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe they just thought it’s a nice company to buy.

But Havok’s CEO says “The acquisition will help Havok grow into new market segments,” which sounds good! Havok will continue to keep business on as usual, though. In layman’s terms, Havok’s the same – except that it might just get a little, and then a little bigger.

Havok was founded in 1998 and has created the famous Havok Physics Engine, which has been seen in dozens of games since, examples including BioShock, Half-Life 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Age of Empires III and many, many more.

[Via PC World]