Wow. I mean, I knew Portal and Half-Life 2 were running off of the same engine, but I didn't think it would take only a week before somebody smashed them together. Take a look at Half-Life 2, as played with the portal gun. This sounds like the best first-person shooter ever, except for the fact that it's probably incredibly easy to play and you could probably break the game in seconds using this hack. Talk about a QA nightmare.

Still, though: incredibly cool. And even better, the hackers provide you all the info you need to do it yourself.

Half-Life 2 Portal [Primotech]

Rock Band is only a month away, and the list of Achievements for the Xbox 360 version has been released, or leaked, or something.

The original site that listed the 1000 points of challenges and rewards has been Dugg into oblivion, but Destructoid copied the list over.

You'll get a good amount of points for going through all the Solo tour modes, but there's a whopping 100-point achievement waiting for you and your friends if your band makes it all the way to the Hall Of Fame final challenge in Band World Tour mode.

The spoileriffic list of achievements (which doesn't include the requisite zero-point booby prize secret achievements that you know have got to be in there) is below.

Continue reading "Listed: The Rock Band Achievements" »

Lost in the news this week about the PlayStation 3's sales surge in the UK is one potentially troubling fact: nearly 90% of those sales were for the discontinued 60GB hardware, not the new 40GB model.

On the same day that Sony launched the feature-cut 40GB version at ₤299, they lowered the price of the current 60GB configurations to ₤349. With a larger hard drive, some backwards compatibility, two free games, and an extra controller, just fifty quid more sounded like a bargain.

Certainly a 178% boost in sales is nothing to sneeze at whatever way you slice it. But this data leaves a big question as to whether or not the 40GB model, with no free games, can continue these sales once the 60GB models are depleted once and for all.

PS3 has 178% UK sales surge [GameSpot UK]

E For All starts tomorrow morning, and Konami has (finally!) revealed the full list of titles that will be playable at their booth. Of course, the Metal Gear Solid 4 demo tops the list, but I'm sure that the rest of the games will also find an audience.

• Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Dewy's Adventure (Wii)
• Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 (Xbox 360)
• DanceDanceRevolution Hottest Party (Wii)
• Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus PSP (PSP)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008 (DS)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX The Beginning of Destiny (PS2)
• Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
• Silent Hill Origins (PSP)
• Contra 4 (DS)

Getting linked all over the Internet today is a story that points to an SEC filing by game publisher THQ, that says the publisher has licensed "intellectual property" from Nintendo.

Indeed they are. But the rabbit hole goes deeper! Other publishers that have licensed "intellectual property" from Nintendo include: every single publisher that has ever made a game that appeared on a Nintendo platform. But for some reason, this bog-standard agreement is being hyped up as "THQ enters confidential alliance with Nintendo and is going to make games featuring Nintendo characters! OMG!"

Nope. They're just renewing the same standard contract that lets them use Nintendo's confidential information about its hardware and business in the making of their own games.

UPDATE: Just to name one example, here's a filing from Activision with nearly identical wording.

Shingo Kosuge, co-producer of the recently released PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics, wants a version of the strategy RPG for next-gen consoles.

I would like to see “Final Fantasy Tactics” on a next-gen console. With “The War of The Lions,” we wanted to preserve the game in its original form, but if I had the opportunity someday, I would love to be able to redevelop the game using state-of-the-art technology, in the vein of the movies that we've added [to the PSP game].

Something else for you guys to dream about alongside that never-going-to-happen Final Fantasy VII remake.

Final Fantasy Tactics [Riottt]

Final Fantasy music is hitting the road once more. Series composer Nobuo Uematsu is teaming again with conductor/producer Arnie Roth to present a new worldwide Final Fantasy symphony tour, called Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy.

The concert series will kick off this December with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, then make its US debut in Chicago on March 1, 2008.

Tickets for the Chicago show, from $150-35, are on sale now. The $150 tickets include a copy of the CD, a tour program book, and admittance to a meet-and-greet with Uematsu after the performance.

An eponymous studio CD of pieces from the show will be available at the performances. A picture of the very nice CD packaging, and track lists from both the performance and CD are below.

Continue reading "Worldwide Final Fantasy Concert Tour Announced" »

A demo of Hellgate: London's single-player game will be available on GameDaily starting tomorrow. You'll be able to play two of the game's six character classes: the Blademaster and the Marksman.

As you might guess from the names, the Blademaster is all about swordplay and melee combat while the Marksman favors long-ranged attacks. You'll be able to play through a small bit of the story as well as a few side quests.

The full version of Hellgate: London for the PC will be available on Halloween.

This Friday, between 3 and 7pm PT, you'll have the chance to play 360 Team Fortress 2 with members of Valve. Just make note of one of the twelve gamertags below, invite them to a match and cross your fingers. Not that they'll accept your invite, that your game won't be hopelessly hamstrung by crippling lag.

It would've been wise for Valve to reschedule the match until after the patch had been released, but schedules are schedules, I suppose.

The list of not terribly imaginative Valve gamertags follows. Good luck!

Continue reading "Play Team Fortress 2 With Valve" »

It's true: Capcom has announced Street Fighter IV, and debuted a new teaser trailer for the long-overdue sequel to the former king of the arcade games. While the trailer, above, might seem to contain absolutely no information about what the actual game will be like, this is only because you do not have my keen powers of observation. Indeed, if you look closely, we can draw the conclusions that the game will contain:

• Ryu
• Also, Ken
• Fireballs
• And it is apparently set in the world of Okami.

Tremble.

You've read Chris' thoughts on The Orange Box, now you can hear Yahtzee's. Do they agree? Do they disagree? Will they take each other on in an Orange Box reviewer cage match? We can but hope, people.

Go, Manchester United!

A 2 CD set of the Halo 3 soundtrack will be released to retailers on November 20th, but you can download a digital copy if you'd prefer. The soundtrack contains about two hours of both original versions and rearrangements of music from the game. No dance mixes though. Sorry.

Halo 3 tunes will also be featured in the Video Games Live concert in LA this week. Swing on by if you're in the neighborhood for the E for All Expo.

This post in the PlayStation forums claims that Sony Customer Service told the owner of a bricked PS3 that plugging his console into a surge protector had voided his warranty, and that he'd have to pay $150 to have the unit repaired.

This sounded pretty unlikely to us, so we contacted Sony and were told that, no, plugging your PS3 into a surge protector does not void your warranty. Duh. Ok, they didn't actually say "Duh," but it was clearly implied.

Sony will be contacting the customer with the bricked PS3 to resolve the matter and sort out any misunderstandings.

Using a surge protector will void my warranty??? [PlayStation Forums]

Ken Levine is hoping to extend your visit to BioShock's Rapture by introducing some downloadable content in the months to come. Just don't expect any more storyline.

Speaking to 1up, Levine explained that his vision for BioShock DLC doesn't include new levels or expanded plot so much as it centers on improving the existing experience:

Diablo II, to me, was a great model for an expansion, because it enhanced the original game, but also extended the game, too. I think that certainly BioShock's combat experience is great, but it could be broader. I'm a little more confused as far as how to expand the narrative experience.

Apparently, a number of plasmids  got cut during the game's development, so perhaps the DLC would simply add to the roster of tonics, plasmids, or ammo types. Any reason to revisit Rapture is a good one, as far as I'm concerned.

Ken Levine on BioShock DLC [1up]

At a press event in London, Capcom announced that it has just begun development on Street Fighter 4. And that's pretty much all they said about it. No platforms were announced, and the release is more than a year away. No gameplay was shown, either, just a concept trailer of Ken and Ryu fighting.

Capcom also announced Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD for the Xbox Live Arcade, scheduled for a 2008 release. Apparently, the team is hard at work trying to rid the online play of any lag issues. Turbo will feature a spectator mode, stat tracking, and both original and remixed versions of music from SF2.

Street Fighter 4 Announced! [Games Radar]

Rockstar is hoping for sixteen-player multiplayer matches in GTA IV, according Gaming Excellence's report from a PlayStation Holiday Preview event held recently in Toronto.

We've known that GTA IV was going to have multiplayer for quite some time, but not much else, except that it wasn't going to be an MMO, but Gaming Excellence was told to expect more than "just the usual deathmatch mode." 

Rockstar is currently testing the game's various plots, and is pondering having the entire world completely unlocked from the beginning.

Coverage of the PlayStation Holiday Preview Event  [Gaming Excellence]

According to a report from the NPD Group, the dominant gaming platform for kids is the PC, at least until they turn 17 or so. They start playing when they're about six years old, moving on to cell phone gaming round about age ten; "the gaming lifecycle culminates with  Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, and the three next generation console systems (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii)."

Most kids--91%--who play games online are playing them for free. The older a child is, and the more time he or she spends gaming, the more likely he or she is to pay for games.

All of which falls in line with common sense. Parents don't want to buy an expensive gaming system for the six year old, but will let them play something for free on the family computer. As kids get more independent and responsible--and more importantly have their own spending money--they have more freedom to invest in their gaming hobby.

NPD: PCs Kids' Choice for Gaming [Next Gen]

David Jaffe wishes he could be as liked as Shigeru Miyamoto and CliffyB, but realizes that his need to be honest and truthful gets in the way. "I'd rather be honest than give you a bunch of PR bulls--t because that stuff makes me physically ill," he told Level Up's N'Gai Croal.

During the interview, Jaffe also goes into detail about his motivations for leaving Sony and creating  studio Eat, Sleep, Play with Scott Campbell. It was less about creative control and more about being appropriately compensated for his games' success, he explained. Not that he's complaining about the paychecks he received from Sony, but the disconnect between how much God of War made for Sony and how much Jaffe was paid didn't sit well with him "in a soulful way."

As for Eat, Sleep, Play's new logo, Jaffe explains that soda represents "fizzy, refreshing fun. That's what we hope people will think of every time they spot this logo." I think it's a winner, but I also used to collect bottle caps when I was a kid, so perhaps I'm a bit biased.

The David Jaffe Interview, Part I and The Eat, Sleep, Play Logo [Level Up]

According to a study conducted by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), 360 games with a high number of Achievements tend to receive better reviews and generate more sales than those with fewer Achievements.

EEDAR reviewed 4,615 Achievements in 124 retail and 63 downloadable games to learn that games whose Achievements are "Secret" generate less revenue than those who lay them out for players. Games with Achievements tied to what researchers referred to as "Viral Marketing aspects (User Generated Content, Community or Customization Accomplishments)" can generate up to 50% more than other games, according to the study.

Games with Achievements for online play generate 50% more money than those that don't. Given that Xbox Live is a huge part of the 360's appeal, it would seem to make sense that online-enabled games would sell better than those that have no online component, regardless of what Achievements were involved.

Accomplishments Unlocked [EEDAR, via CVG]