Software news, comment and analysis: September 2008

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Fable 2 to ship without online co-op

Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Games Studios have announced that the heavily anticipated Fable 2 will ship without any online co-operative play as was planned. The co-op play will be added in to the Xbox 360 exclusive in a later patch.

Studio head Peter Molyneux previously reviewed his own game and drew ire from gamers for giving Fable 2 a score of 9 out of 10, but anticipation has remained strong for the sequel to one of the best casual RPGs on the original Xbox.

New DS to have camera, MP3 player?

Every once in a while this rumour that Nintendo is working on a new version of the monstrously successful DS handheld platform gets renewed and, though we may be cynics, our reaction is always the same.

Well, d'uh. Nintendo has always controlled the handheld market ever since the early days of the Gameboy and is still now dominating it with the everyman appeal of the DS, so it stands to reason that eventually they'd make a new version of it once sales start to decline.

Valve to begin hosting Source mods on Steam

In a recent update on Steam, Valve Software has announced that it is to begin hosting Source engine mods on Steam starting next week, allowing users to download the mods directly through Steam.

The update will also allow the mods to be automatically updated through Steam, with Valve also offering stat-tracking for any mods that are added to Steam.

Valve will be adding more and more mods to Steam as time goes on, but for now Valve is to launch the mod support with only five mods starting next week. The first five mods to be included are the medieval

Monday, September 29, 2008

Blu-ray 8 percent of home video market

Despite Blu-ray's victory over rival high-definition optical disc format HD-DVD, the technology still has a long way to go before it wins our hearts and minds according to current figures.

BetaNews recently revealed figures from analysis organisation Niesen VideoScan showing the high-definition Blu-ray set to end the month on a tiny 8 percent share of the US home video market – a market still dominated by the lower resolution DVD optical medium.

Blu-ray 8 percent of home video market

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Left4Dead system specs released

If you're curious to know if your PC can handle Valve's new zombie shooter then you need wonder no more thanks to these system specifications which were today announced by Valve's Doug Lombardi over at Half-Life2.net.

Left4Dead is one of Valve's most eagerly awaited projects as the game is set to be geared totally towards co-operative gaming. The title casts up to four players as humans who must fight hordes of AI controlled zombies across a series of campaigns. The game has received particular praise for the new AI Director system too, which adapts the placement and ferocity of enemies according to players style and abilities.

Left4Dead system specs released

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Jack Thompson has been disbarred

They say that for each and every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction and we're betting that this particular piece of news is the positive reaction to last week's evil when Uwe Boll announced he was making a computer game.

Jack Thompson, thorn in the side of violent video game makers everywhere, has been disbarred by the Florida Bar and forced to pay $43,675.35 in legal fees to the court.

The judgement is the result of a hearing in which Thompson was accused of abusing the legal system and 27 counts of misconduct in his attempts to punish developers of violent video games. Thompson has attributed everything from crime rates to the Virginia Tech shootings in his complaints.

Adobe introduces GPU accelerated Creative Suite 4

Adobe, the world's largest third party software developer, released its Creative Suite 4 product family and described it as its biggest software release to date.

The release includes six suites, along with 13 standalone products, 14 integrated technologies and seven services according to a statement released by the company.

These include Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, After Effects CS4, Premiere Pro CS4 and more.

Adobe introduces GPU accelerated Creative Suite 4

Nvidia settles GPU antitrust class action case

Nvidia yesterday filed an 8-K report with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US that states it has settled a class action lawsuit, which alleged that "Nvidia and ATI had conspired to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize prices of graphics processing chips and cards."

The plaintiffs in the case also contend that ATI and Nvidia "unlawfully colluded to coordinate new product introductions." They also seeked triple damages and any costs associated to the case.

Adobe introduces GPU accelerated Creative Suite 4

Nvidia settles GPU antitrust class action case

Adobe introduces GPU accelerated Creative Suite 4

Nvidia settles GPU antitrust class action case

China Mobile requests slower iPhone

Despite complaints about the perceived lack of speed encountered by iPhone 3G users – with some even going so far as to sue – there are, believe it or not, users who would like their iPhone even slower: China Mobile.

According to CNet, China Mobile is set to request the creation of a modified iPhone which has the WiFi and 3G radio systems disabled so as to prevent users leaving its network. The plan would also, one assume, quite successfully prevent anyone wanting one of the nobbled 'phones in the first place.

Total War coming to consoles?

Creative Assembly, the developer behind the Total War series, has said it is keen to create a console version of the strategy series in an interview with Eurogamer.

Though the long-lived Total War series, which includes both Rome: Total War and Medieval: Total War, has traditionally been on PCs, the team has previous tried making spin-offs for consoles, such as Spartan: Total Warrior. The developer also has some console experience from the likes of

Adobe introduces GPU accelerated Creative Suite 4

China Mobile requests slower iPhone

Nvidia settles GPU antitrust class action case

Adobe introduces GPU accelerated Creative Suite 4

China Mobile requests slower iPhone

Nvidia settles GPU antitrust class action case

China Mobile requests slower iPhone

MessageLabs names UK spam capital

Anti-spam outfit MessageLabs has compiled a – somewhat useless and yet nevertheless compelling – list of the top ten most spammed locations in the UK.

First spotted by ITWire, the survey – based upon the interesting metric of number of spams received per individual business user – shows our beloved capital city of London hitting just 28th on the charts, beaten by some places so out-of-the-way as to make you question the sample size of MessageLabs' survey.

MessageLabs names UK spam capital

China Mobile requests slower iPhone

Total War coming to consoles?

EA to face class action lawsuit over Spore DRM

EA is to face a class action lawsuit apparently, after plaintiffs have emerged who allege that the SecuROM copy protection used in Spore breaches consumer law.

The copy protection system used in Spore is one of many games lately using the SecuROM DRM system, with others including EA's Mass Effect and Take Two's BioShock on the PC. EA has also confirmed that it will be using the system in Red Alert 3

Call of Duty: World at War system specs

The Call of Duty series is now close to getting it's fifth instalment in the form of Call of Duty: World at War, which will shift the action away from the modern front of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and put players back in World War II - this time in the Japanese campaign.

The good news is that Activision has now released both details of the Collector's Edition SKU of the game, as well as some of the hardware requirements for the PC version of the game.

Call of Duty: World at War system specs

Valve, EA will not support PS3 Team Fortress 2

Valve and Electronic Arts have announced that they have no plans to offer downloadable content of any sort for the PlayStation 3 version of Team Fortress 2, with Valve openly admitting that they have no plans to support the platform.

The issue steams from the fact that Valve has no PlayStation 3 developers at all, nor any plans to recruit any, which meant that the PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box had to be ported to the platform by an internal EA studio.

EA responds to Spore banning threats

After forum moderators on EA's Spore forums said that Spore accounts would be banned if people discussed DRM, EA has released an official statement, saying that the original statement was out of line.

"SecuROM has been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads. If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fan site forum," said a community moderator on the official

Widescreen LCDs to cater for 90% of market by 2011

At the current rate of growth, NEC says that it expects more than 90 percent of all desktop LCD displays it ships to be widescreen by the end of 2010.

Birgit Sommerer, European product marketing manager for NEC’s LCD display division, also said that approximately 50 percent of NEC’s display shipments today are already wide-format LCDs.

Despite this industry shift, Sommerer said that NEC still plans to offer solutions for those that require standard 4:3 displays. She didn’t elaborate on what or how many 4:3 displays we can expect to see in NEC’s range in the 2010/2011 timeframe, but I think it’s fair to say that choices will be more limited than they are today – it’s all going to depend on demand.

Widescreen LCDs to cater for 90% of market by 2011

RIAA Royalty agreement threatens Internet Radio

Internet radio has had a tough time recently, with artists and song writers continuing to demand more and per song licensing fees, a practise that has already seen popular music service Pandora close its doors to UK users.

Today things have gotten even more serious for the world of music streaming services, with a new agreement between the RIAA, representing music publisher and songwriter associations, and the Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents industry leaders such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft which could push internet radio stations and interactive streaming platforms over the edge.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Nokia planning Indoor Positioning

If, like me, you've been cursed since birth with the worst sense of direction since Columbus decided he'd found India then you'll be pleased to hear that Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia is taking GPS somewhere it's never been before: indoors.

According to a post on the Nokia Conversations blog quoted by The Register, Nokia is currently in the early development stages for an indoor analogue to the Global Positioning System used in many of its phones to provide mapping and navigation facilities.

Valve, EA will not support PS3 Team Fortress 2

GTA IV PC exclusively on Games for Windows

Microsoft has confirmed that the PC version of free-roaming violence-em-up Grand Theft Auto IV will be exclusively available under the Games for Windows brand, meaning that the multiplayer experience will be tied to the Games for Windows online system.

Which wouldn't be so bad of course, but the Games for Windows Live system has drawn flak in the past for being difficult to use and often unreliable - Gears of War PC

Chrome spinoff released by SRWare

With Google's Chrome browser being released under an open source licence, you knew it wouldn't be long before we saw the first project fork. Say hello to Iron.

According to DownloadSquad, Iron is a privacy-enhanced version of Google's surprise entry into the browser market. Based on the same source code as the main trunk, the German-developed Iron removes some of Google's oversight from your browsing history by removing the unique tag used to identify each user, remove the functionality that reports usage back to Google, stops server error messages from being forwarded through Google, and removes both the crash reporting and automatic updating functionality.

GTA IV PC exclusively on Games for Windows

µTorrent Mac alpha leaked

If you're a Mac fan wanting to get his fill of perfectly-legitimate-honest BitTorrent goodness, there's some good news: you're getting the popular µTorrent application. The even better news is you can try it right now – sort of.

According to The Cult of Mac, the teeny-tiny BitTorrent engine is currently being coded for Mac OS X, and a private alpha copy has – not without irony – been leaked onto notorious BitTorrent-based file sharing site The Pirate Bay.

µTorrent Mac alpha leaked

EA responds to Spore banning threats

µTorrent Mac alpha leaked

GTA IV PC exclusively on Games for Windows

NPD reveals best-selling console games of 2008

The NPD figures are in and the top five best selling console games of 2008 (so far) have been revealed thanks to a new feature at Gamasutra which has based the announcement on figures from the games sales tracking group, NPD.

The results are an interesting mix of predictable, with Grand Theft Auto IV making an obvious appearance on the PS3 and Xbox 360 list, and surprising.

One thing which does seem interesting though is the growing trend in Wii game sales for games which have a controller attachment to sell very well - as evidenced by four of the top five game in the Wii category. Check out the lists below.

NPD reveals best-selling console games of 2008

Widescreen LCDs to cater for 90% of market by 2011

µTorrent Mac alpha leaked

GTA IV PC exclusively on Games for Windows

Chrome spinoff released by SRWare

id: Rage too complex for modding

If you were looking forward to tinkering with id Software's new Tech5 engine when Rage is released then we may have some bad news for you. id Software has revealed that the upcoming multi-platform shooter, Rage, might be a bit too complex for users to modify.

The problem it seems arises from the megatexture technology used in the game, a technique which involves using heavily compressed surface textures to ensure that no part of the terrain is repeated at the texture level. It's a fancy new technology developed by id, but the process requires textures of up to 128000x128000 pixels in size.

id: Rage too complex for modding

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mirror's Edge PC delayed

Electronic Arts has announced several little bits of news for the upcoming free-running feast Mirror's Edge, but the news isn't all good unfortunately and it seems that the PC version of the game has been delayed indefinitely.

While launch dates have been announced for the console versions of the game, it seems that the superior PC version has been pushed back until "later in the winter".

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game however will launch on the 14th of November, with pre-orders starting on the 26th of September - or next Friday to all those without a calendar to hand.

T-Mobile announces G1 "GPhone"

T-Mobile has just pulled the covers off the G1, the world's first mobile device powered by Google's Android operating system.

The device, which is manufactured by HTC, combines full touch screen functionality and a QWERTY keyboard with a mobile Internet experience that includes Google Maps Street View, Gmail, Calendar, YouTube, Google Talk and others. It measures 116 x 54 x 16mm and weighs about 160 grams.

The G1 also uses a WebKit browser, which was referred to as 'Chrome Lite' during the press conference. The functionality of the browser will be fairly similar to the iPhone browser – it renders web pages as it would on a PC, but you're able to zoom in on parts of web pages that you want to read.

Xbox Live survey puts Obama ahead in polls

A survey of opinions on Microsoft's Xbox Live service has shown that console gamers prefer Barack Obama for president in the current US elections, putting the candidate for the Democratic Party more than ten percent ahead of rival John McCain and the Republican party.

An equal 13 percent portion of the vote however sits either either with other, smaller parties, or on the fence between the two.

Microsoft ran the US survey over the past few weeks, surveying almost 100,000 Xbox Live users in America - a figure far larger than that used in any of the official polls for news services.

Ensemble boss speaks out about studio closure

The closure of the Microsoft-owned Ensemble Studios came as quite a shock to many given that the developer is currently working on the sure-fire hit Halo Wars, an RTS adaptation of Bungie's opus. Though the studio is being kept open long enough to finish the game, it seems that the news was still quite a blow for many of the staff at Ensemble.

Studio boss Bruce Shelley has finally broken the vow of silence over Ensemble employees however, outlining exactly why he thinks Ensemble was closed and what his plans are next. Apparently, although Microsoft is repositioning many Ensemble developers to other studios within Microsoft, Bruce won't be one of them.

Asus ships software crack, internal docs

Asus has found itself at the centre of a scandal for shipping rather more with its PCs than was perhaps intended.

According to PC Pro, amongst others, the company has managed to ship some rather embarrassing content on the recovery DVDs for certain models of laptop: a WinRAR keygen, serial codes for other commercial packages most definitely not included with the laptop, confidential documents from Microsoft – including a hush-hush guide on how to deactivate Windows Vista ready for shipping to an end user - designed for system builders use only, and internal documents from Asus itself. The latter collection includes, incredibly, source code to several Asus software packages.

Ensemble boss speaks out about studio closure

Apple recalls iPhone power adaptors

Apple has issued a recall programme for the mains to USB power adaptors supplied with its iPhone range and available as an additional accessory on various iPod devices.

According to BetaNews, the ultra-compact chargers have a flaw which can result in the metal prongs breaking off and remaining lodged in power sockets – possibly leaving a lovely means to get a mains-voltage shock if you're not careful.

So far, the recall only affects two-pronged 'flat' units sold in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and numerous South American countries using the same power system. European 'round prong' units and the UK three-pin units are not affected by the recall, being – it would seem – built of sterner stuff.

Home to launch by end of the year?

Sony's Home project, which will provide a fully 3D and interactive community hub for the PlayStation 3, as well as showcase for the PlayStation 3 trophy system, has enjoyed a turbulent history with multiple delays - but the end may finally be near.

Reports from PS3 Fanboy indicate that the game could be out by the end of the year.

A forum post on the Home Beta message board from the community manager has said that the current network and freezing issues being experienced by those in the Home Beta program should be fixed soon and that the system would then be ready to go online - which is planned to coincide with the 2.50 firmware update.

SanDisk, record labels introduce new music format

SanDisk has introduced a new physical music format dubbed slotMusic in conjunction with the four major record labels—EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner.

slotMusic is essentially an entire album shipped on a 1GB microSD card, enabling consumers to purchase and listen to music on their microSD-equipped phones or MP3 players without needing a PC or Internet connection.

The albums will use the MP3 format and will be encoded at up to 320kbps, said a company statement.

AMD intros one click magic trick utility

AMD last night unveiled its Fusion for Gaming utility during a live webcast. Brent Barry, AMD's gaming strategist, said that it's is designed to make gaming on AMD-based systems a better experience with the click of a button.

In fact, he went so far as to say that it "fixes the problems" with PC gaming by shutting down "anything that might cause your PC to become unstable or insecure." That's a pretty big claim to make.

AMD intros one click magic trick utility

Xbox Live survey puts Obama ahead in polls

MediaDefender e-mails show porn profits

The anti-P2P company MediaDefender, most famous for using some questionable data-gathering techniques, has an interesting source on income on the side: porn.

According to leaked e-mails received by the pro file sharing site TorrentFreak, the champion of beleaguered music labels and cinematographers used its P2P spoofing technologies not just to disrupt the trade of illegitimate copies of music, movies, and games – but to advertise pornography to file sharers.

Windows 7 removes e-mail, photo tools

If you despair of the amount of cruft that comes bundled with Windows these days, and would much rather choose your own e-mail and photo editing packages, rejoice: the news is that Windows 7 will be bereft of such extras.

According to an article over on CNet, Microsoft is planning to drop the Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Mail, and Windows Movie Maker extras – last seen in Vista – from its default OS install. Instead, users who want the packages will have to make do with the cloud-based Windows Live versions instead, and even that will only be made available as an optional – free, gladly – download.

MediaDefender e-mails show porn profits

Home to launch by end of the year?

CD Projekt: Publishers are scared to go DRM-free

CD Projekt, the publisher behind The Witcher, reckons that many other large publishers are too scared to stop using DRM and that the only real way to stop piracy is to offer greater value retail products.

It's obviously the route that CD Projekt prefers as the company has just re-released it's game The Witcher with a new enhanced addition. The new release includes extra missions, a game editor, two CD soundtracks, a short story based on the game and a full strategy guide for the title. The company has also recently launched GOG, a web portal which is to be used for distributing classic PC games such as

Intel ships first dual-core Atom processor

Intel has announced that it is now shipping the dual-core 45nm Atom processor that was quietly introduced at the Intel Developer Forum in August.

The chip giant says that the Atom 330 processor is specifically designed for nettops, which means we’re unlikely to see one shoehorned into a netbook.

Indeed, Intel sells the chip as part of an integrated package, which includes an Intel 945GC chipset for desktop use. With that said though, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one manufacturer has already thought about making a new, slightly bulkier netbook based on the Atom 330.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

GTA: Chinatown Wars detailed

GTA: Chinatown Wars, the new Grand Theft Auto game for the Nintendo DS, has finally been properly unveiled according to Nintendo Power Magazine where the first screenshots and snippets have leaked out about Rockstar's latest ultra-violent sandboxer.

According to the developers, Chinatown Wars will use a cel-shaded art style similar to the promotional artwork for Grand Theft Auto IV, as well as a 3D isometric viewpoint half-way between the view used in the original and latest

Pandora handheld readies for pre-order

The Pandora handheld, an open-source handheld console geared towards homebrew software, will go on preorder soon it has been revealed and the company has set the pre-order date at the 30th of September.

The Pandora is an open-source, fully capable system in a clamshell just a bit bigger than a Nintendo DS. It sports a wide range of connectivity options - everything from WiFi to USB - as well as having a decent 800x480 LCD touchscreen on top.

Valve says no to Google buy-out rumour

By now everybody on the planet has probably seen the rumour that was originally spread by The Inquirer that internet giant Google was set to buy out Half-Life developer Valve, but both companies have now refuted the claim and said it is purely a piece of fiction.

The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian originally set the rumour-mill going, claiming that 'well placed sources' had confirmed with him that Google was ready to buy-out Valve 'at any second'. Predictably, the internets were set aflame with panic and flamewars, with The Inquirer standing by the story as the comments flooded in.

iTunes & QuickTime security alert

Yesterday saw the disclosure – and subsequent exploitation, predictably – of a major security flaw in the latest versions of Apple's QuickTime and iTunes packages.

According to CNet, the flaw – entered into NIST's National Vulnerability Database with ID CVE-2008-4116 – affects QuickTime 7.5.5 and iTunes 8.0.

The flaw centres around a heap-based buffer overflow which can be exploited via a long-type attribute in a QuickTime tag, either via a maliciously crafted MP4 or MOV video file or embedded within a webpage if the QuickTime browser plugin is installed. As with most buffer overflow vulnerabilities, the flaw can result in mild annoyance – a crash when the program attempts to access memory which is out of bounds – or remote code execution, which is far more serious.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

First 'hackintosh' modchip surfaces

If you thought those shady modchips were just for the console crowd, think again: a hardware device for simplifying the installation of Apple's MacOS X operating system on a generic x86 PC has been surfacing around the web.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog noticed that several Apple fan sites around the web have started posting pictures of the internal USB dongle dubbed the EFi-X, including members of the InsanelyMac forum and the Incomplete News Project.

Asus ships software crack, internal docs

"PS3 still needs a defining game"

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux reckons that although sales are picking up for the PlayStation 3, the platform still lacks a game which will define it as a console, unlike other platforms.

Discussing how other platforms are defined, Molyneux pointed to Wii Sports and Wii Fit have defined the Wii and even put forwards his own Fable II as a defining title for the Xbox 360.

"It is always one or two games which define a platform - it's the same for the Wii, and the PlayStation 2,

Uwe Boll announces new videogame

Uwe Boll, scourge of videogame franchises everywhere and maker of awful videogame-based movies such as House of The Dead, has decided to start making a videogame himself, dubbed 1968 Tunnel Rats.

Not much is known about the game for the moment other than that which can be seen in the trailer below, but it appears to be a first-person shooter set in the Vietnam war, with plenty of tunnel based and jungle combat.

Piracy softmod comes to the Wii

If you were one of the misguided games publishers who thought that games piracy was only a problem for the PC market then you might want to take a look at this and see the first example of a homebrew program that lets the Nintendo Wii play pirated games without a hardware modification.

And considering the sheer number of Nintendo Wiis that have been sold and how easy the homebrew is to enable - the details of which we aren't going to go into here, but our understanding is that it's based around the same

BusinessWeek plays host to malware

If you've been browsing the BusinessWeek website recently, you might want to check your system for nasty bugs: it's infected with malware.

At least, that's what Sophos spokesman Graham Cluley is saying. As reported by CNet, Cluley claims to have evidence that a section of BusinessWeek's site – aimed at providing information on what companies poach employees from what MBA programmes – has been attacked by a malicious cracker. Rather than the more usual – and juvenile – defacement common of such attacks, the perpetrator has left behind malicious code which attempts to coerce visiting browsers into downloading and installing a malware package from a Russian website.

Spore DRM allows only one account

There's been a lot of grief vented about the DRM system used to protect Spore, which is known as SecuROM and it's been interesting to see that the piracy figures and torrenting numbers have been driven through the roof for the game, with many users torrenting the game purely to avoid getting involved with the DRM software.

It does appear however that there are certain nuances to the DRM software which haven't been made entirely public; some of them good, some of them bad.

ToughBooks get Gobi

If you're wanting a laptop that can get online just about anywhere, think about a ToughBook.

Panasonic's range of ruggedised laptops – beloved of anyone careless with their toys and a large enough wallet – is due to get a new communications chip from Qualcomm dubbed Gobi and described by the company as a "global mobile Internet chip."

As revealed by BetaNews, Panasonic's plan is to integrated the chip – which provides support for EV-DO revision A, UMTS, and HSDPA high-speed mobile broadband technologies in a single device – into its next ToughBook hardware refresh.

Team17 to remake Alien Breed

Team17 is stepping away from the Worms franchise for a little bit and will be remaking the original Alien Breed game and all we can say is thank you! Don't get us wrong, we love Worms, but the series has become a little bit repetitive and formulaic over the last few years.

Team17 gave the announcement last night that it would be remaking Alien Breed, which was a top-down sci-fi shooter made for the single greatest computer system ever, the Amiga.

Best Buy to buy Napster

Napster, vanguard of the music sharing revolution – and the first to attempt to commercialise its success by going legal – is to be purchased outright by US retail chain Best Buy according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing, uncovered by BetaNews, states that Napster will receive $121 million (£68 million) including an up-front payment of $54 million (£30.5 million) as part of the planned merger.

Brett Ratner wants to make Guitar Hero Movie

It's a general rule of thumb that games and films do not mix, though some could arguably go better together than others. The Doom movie? Not too bad. Silent Hill? Pretty OK. Pirates of The Carribean? As close to a Monkey Island movie as we'll ever get, probably.

A Guitar Hero movie though? Frankly, we just don't see that working.

That hasn't stopped Brett Ratner, director of X3: The Last Stand

Microsoft fires Xbox 360 whistleblower

Microsoft has reportedly fired Robert Delaware, the games tester who spoke publicly about Xbox 360 failure rates to Dean Takahashi last week. Though Delaware was not the only tester to discuss the matter with Takahashi, he was the only one named and spoke without the permission of Microsoft.

Takahashi published Delaware's comments in a Venturebeat article that continued to discuss the RROD issue and overheating problems that the Xbox 360 falls victim to. Delaware's comments however were clearly in breach of the confidentiality agreement he was subject to as a VMC tester and his contract has now been terminated.

Guitar Hero: World Tour setlist revealed

The full setlist for the new Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero: World Tour, has been leaked and all we can say is; good. Maybe now we can avoid getting bored with the incremental updates and tweaks.

Admittedly, there's no real surprises on the 86-track song lists for the game, but there are plenty of good songs and the game will cover everything from Coldplay to Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.

The bad news? Bon Jovi

Ubisoft to launch dog coaching game

Ubisoft has announced that it will be launching a new dog coaching game on the PC and DS based around the work of Cesar Milan, a prominent lecturer in the US and host of The Dog Whisperer TV show. Apparently.

My Dog Coach: Understand Your Dog with Cesar Millan will launch on the PC and Nintendo DS later this quarter and will prominently feature Cesar Millan, as well as theories taught in his books and seminars.

Lenovo ditches desktop Linux

If you're hoping that your next laptop will be running Linux, don't look towards Lenovo.

The laptop manufacturer, best known for producing the ex-IBM range of ThinkPad laptops beloved of executives the world over, has apparently ceased offering pre-installed Linux just one year after introducing Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop as an option.

First spotted by Desktop Linux, the news means that if you're looking for a Linux based ThinkPad you'll be left with no choice except to pay for a Microsoft Windows licence – money which will be straight down the drain should you format the system and install an alternative operating system.

Halo Studio working on next-gen game

Microsoft has begun recruiting for programmers to help the Halo Studio work on a new next-gen game according to a job posting for a new program manager.

According to the advert, Microsoft Game Studios is looking for people to help build a new next-gen engine to "power future experiences for the next generation of gaming platforms."

"Microsoft's new Halo Studio team is looking for a technical and highly talented program manager to work with an engineering team to help define the next generation of gaming software technology. As part of a next generation team, you'll be instrumental in helping to lead the development of the engine that will power future experiences for the next generation of gaming platforms,

HMV: Games to trump music sales

HMV has been devoting increasing amounts of shop space to selling games lately as it believes that game sales will soon trump music sales, according to comments given to The Sun recently.

HMV Executive Simon Fox said that games sales already made up about 20 percent of all sales from the HMV chain, with a steady rise of 4.1 percent over the last three months. This trend has driven the company to devote more and more store space to the sales of games, while less and less space is being used to sell music.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Apple updates iPod range, releases iTunes 8

Steve Jobs last night uncovered details on Apple's new iPod lineup for this winter, which includes a completely overhauled iPod nano, an updated iPod touch and an adjustment to the iPod classic line.

Jobs also announced iTunes 8, which was actually probably the most exciting thing in the whole keynote... and there's only so much excitement one can generate from a piece of software like iTunes.

The new nano is thin like the 1G and 2G versions—Jobs claims it's the thinnest iPod ever at 6.2mm—and has a curved aluminium design. It's also lighter than previous generation iPod nanos at just 36 grams and comes with up to 16GB of storage.

Valve: Left4Dead demo coming to PC and 360

Valve's Gabe Newell has confirmed that a single and multiplayer demo for co-op zombie shooter Left4Dead is on the way for both the Xbox 360 and PC.

The bad news though is that Gabe has absolutely no idea when the demo will be available.

"I don't know what the date is for release [of the demo] though. I think it's going to contain the first part of one of the campaigns. I think it'll probably be Hospital but I'm not sure,

HP laptop gets 24 hour battery

It seems only the other day that I was on the Dell homepage and drooling over the promised nineteen hours of battery life available from the new Inspiron units, but time marches on: HP is upping the ante with a laptop capable of a full twenty-four hour runtime.

According to information obtained by BetaNews, HP is due to launch the laptop – an EliteBook 6930p – with a high-capacity battery option capable of running the unit for a full day and night.

Asus Maximus II Formula Winners Announced

We've had a fantastic response to the competition we've been running the past few weeks in association with Asus to give away some great prizes.

The prizes were an Asus Maximus II Formula motherboard, Asus Radeon HD 4850 and a Asus GeForce 9600 GT Republic of Gamers graphics card.

We received over 500 entries for this popular competition! Sadly there could only be three winners though, and they are:Pamela Darbyshire

Nvidia faces class action suit for GPU failures

A disgruntled Nvidia shareholder has filed a class action lawsuit against the company in the Northern District of California.

The suit, filed by Lisa Miller, alleges that Nvidia knew about the mass GPU failures as early as last summer but kept things under wraps until July this year when it announced the bad news for both customers and shareholders alike.

"At least as early as November 2007, Nvidia and the other Defendants have known about these unprecedented failure rates, as well as their "root causes." Indeed, Michael Hara, the Company's Vice President for Investor Relations and Communications, conceded during a September 4, 2008, "Citigroup Technology Conference" that Nvidia began troubleshooting these problems with major computer manufacturers beginning in August of 2007,

Amazon opens MP3 store to indies

If you're a struggling muso looking to hit the big time, you may just have got some help from an unexpected quarter – Amazon.

According to a report on BetaNews yesterday, the popular on-line book seller is making its DRM-free digital music download service available to any musician that would like to publish their creations.

Part of the Amazon-owned CreateSpace self-publishing service, the ability to offer a digital download via the popular Amazon MP3 Download site is available to anyone capable of providing their music in 320Kb/s MP3 format, uncompressed 16-bit AIFF, or failing that via the snail-mailing of a master CD. The songs will be made available for purchase on Amazon.com almost immediately, for which the company will make a fixed charge per copy plus a percentage. Royalties earned will be paid out monthly, providing the $20 minimum is met.

Crysis PC fully specced

EA has now released the full specs for the Crysis Warhead branded PC, which will apparently ship with Windows XP Professional edition.

EA has teamed with Nvidia and UltraPC to offer this single-spec machine which is guaranteed to run the upcoming Crysis Warhead on high settings without ever dropping below 30 frames per second. The big caveats are though that EA has still not confirmed what resolution the machine will run at, though we do know that it'll be running

Crysis Warhead $699 PC unveiled

The big problem with Crysis in the eyes of publisher Electronic Arts is that a lot of people weren't confident their PCs could handle the game. Thankfully, EA has come up with a solution thanks to a partnership with Nvidia, Crytek and UltraPC and will be shipping a Crysis: Warhead branded machine later this year.

The machine, which is priced at $699 in the US, is ready for pre-order now and will ship on the same day as the game - September 16 according to BigDownload.

Opera Software joins Symbian

Nokia's soon-to-be open source Symbian platform received a boost yesterday with the news that Opera Software is to join the Symbian Foundation.

As reported by CNet, Opera Software – best known for its popular PC web-browser and spinoff Java-based mobile browser – has opted to join forces with Nokia and the other Symbian Foundation members to help build its browser technologies into the mobile operating system.

Opera's chief executive, Jon von Tetzchner, spoke of his company's debt to Symbian yesterday: "

EA to stick with SecuROM for Red Alert 3

EA has announced an intention to continue using the controversial SecurROM copy protection software with the upcoming Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, despite the massively negative reaction the DRM software has met with in previous products.

Companies such as Take-Two and Electronic Arts have received backlash from users after including the draconian copy protection system SecuROM. The system has been used in games such as

PGP, IBM launch Bletchley fundraiser

Bletchley Park, the home of code breaking during the Second World War, is hoping to secure its future as an important historical site – with a little help from IBM and PGP.

The unassuming set of buildings in Milton Keynes was home to some of the brightest minds in the world – and was key in the Allied victory in World War 2. It was at Bletchley Park where some of the most important work was done on codebreaking and computing, and without advances such as the Turing Bombe it's fair to say modern computing would look very different.

RealNetworks launches DVD ripper

A new DVD ripping application has been released from an unexpected quarter – RealNetworks.

According to a report on Wired.com, the company – best known for its video streaming software – revealed a DVD ripping package at the DEMOfall Conference in San Deigo yesterday. The interesting part? The software is, the company claims, complete legal.

As you would imagine, a 'legal' DVD ripping package comes with a whole host of hidden extras to ensure its legitimacy – in this case, it's in the form of a DRM wrapper. Unlike free packages, the videos created by the software – called RealDVD – will only run in a special player application bundled with the ripper. So, no streaming to your Xbox or PS3 in the living room then.

X-COM comes to Steam

I've talked briefly about this before in a column, but for every gamer in the world there is always going to be one game which speaks to them better than any other; something which helped define who they are.

I had The Secret of Monkey Island, while Tim had Asteroids. For resident tech-guru Richard though it was X-COM: Terror From The Deep - which has just been re-released on Valve's Steam service.

Will Wright prefers high sales to high scores

Will Wright's Spore came out late last week and players were finally given a chance to sample the full game, which has taken more than eight years to develop and suffered from being classified as vapourware again and again.

And what did most people think of Spore? While initial opinions seem good, there does seem to be a growing opinion among hardcore gamers that the game is perhaps a tiny bit shallow and casual for their tastes. That's certainly part of the conclusion we came to in our nine-page

EA forced to close down free petrol stunt

EA has been forced to abandon the latest marketing promotion for the multiplatform title Mercenaries 2: World in Flames after it caused traffic chaos in north London late last week.

The publisher had bought £20,000 worth of fuel to giveaway to drivers near Finsbury Park, London as part of the marketing campaign for the explosive sandbox shooter Mercenaries 2. However, with drivers detouring to take advantage of the offer the roads soon fell into gridlock and the local community and MP soon raised concerns, prompting Electronic Arts to close down the offer.

BBC to launch music store

If you're looking for legitimate copies of live sessions and bootlegs, you might have an interesting new source – the BBC.

CNet revealed yesterday that the international arm of the BBC is set to launch an iTunes-style music download service, with both streaming and download options. The source of the music is the Beeb's not inconsiderable archive of music performed for its radio and TV programmes by almost every band you care to think of.

Mythbusters finish Nvision in style

Nvidia ended the first Nvision visual computing festival with a bang, in a quite literal sense, after inviting Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters fame on stage to bring an end to official proceedings.

The two were tasked with using their scientific and engineering skill to demonstrate the difference between a CPU and a GPU... in a visual sense.

Now, the conclusion was obvious almost as soon as the two started talking about CPUs and GPUs moments after arriving on stage and I have to say I had one of those eye-rolling moments. Jamie was then handed a remote control and wheeled out a robot that then proceeded to fire paintballs at a screen, drawing a smiley face in blue paint on a white background.

Pandora handheld console dated and priced

The Pandora handheld console has finally been dated and priced by the manufacturer and the good news is that the homebrew-focused console, which claims to be the most powerful handheld ever, should be out in time for Christmas in the UK.

For those not in the know, the Pandora is a handheld console in the same vein as the GP2X from Gamepark, though much beefier. The handheld will likely see few if any commercial games getting released from established developers and publishers and is instead focused on the homebrew and bedroom coders market - something which has been steadily growing over the last few years.

Will Wright discusses the future of mobile games

Will Wright is big news right now, what with Spore being released tomorrow and all, but now the developer is setting his sights elsewhere - namely on mobile and handheld games, which he thinks will be an increasingly powerful section of the market.

Apparently ol' Will is a big fan of handheld gaming and can regularly be found scraping away at the touch screen of his DS - most likely playing the DS version of Spore, but he thinks that mobile games may have to change a little in the future.

Google launches Chrome browser

If you thought that the one thing the world needed was another web browser, then I've got some good news for you: search giant Google has officially launched its own entry into the Internet Explorer-dominated market, dubbed Chrome.

In keeping with almost every advanced feature Google brings out these days – from blog searching to e-mail – the browser is in open beta, but it's already getting plenty of attention. Built on an open-source platform – the source is already available from Google Code – Chrome ticks a lot of boxes for your average web browser. Built around Apple's Webkit, the software has all the usual features including an in-built high-performance Javascript engine, tabbed browsing, and the increasingly popular private browsing mode dubbed "

Viewers prefer file-sharing

It's no surprise that people will download things from dodgy BitTorrent trackers if they can't get it free elsewhere – but it's perhaps a little shocking that they'll do so even if they can.

That's the interesting revelation that Wired's Betsy Schiffman has come up with: people will pirate even if there's a legal, free alternative.

Citing figures from pro-filesharing site TorrentFreak, Schiffman states that almost a million people downloaded illegitimate copies of the first episode of the new Prison Break series in the twenty-four hours after it aired on the US Fox TV network. This, in itself, isn't surprising – although the sheer number, representing a figure of around one-sixth as many as actually tuned in to watch the broadcast. What you

MSI watercools its GTX 280 with HydroGen

This is one for you watercoolers - MSI has launched its latest GeForce GTX 280 with a funky HydroGen waterblock. The "N200 series" features a 700MHz core clock that MSI claims is one of the highest core clocks out there at a 17 percent improvement over stock.

The HydroGen block also sports a 10°C drop compared to the stock cooler but appears not to include the memory with its water coverage. Instead it relies on just a simple copper plate to conduct the heat to the water channels over the large core - much like the Danger Den block used on BFG Tech's GeForce GTX 280 H2OC.

Microsoft to buy ciao.com

Microsoft has entered into a deal to buy Greenfield Online, better known as the big corporate behind the ciao.com price comparison site that always clutters up your search results when looking for an item, for $486 million.

The move is seen by many as an attempt to bolster the Live Search platform since Yahoo snubbed Microsoft's overtures earlier this year – with this deal represented a snip compared to the $47.5 billion the company was prepared to pay for Yahoo.

Discussion: Nehalem memory details

Instead of just a quick news piece this has turned into a bit more of an in depth discussion about what we expect to happen with Nehalem/Bloomfield and the memory market when it arrives very soon. We've known for a little while that Nehalem's memory will only run at 800MHz or 1,066MHz opposed to the usual 1,600MHz+ that we have now, but the usual motherboard manufacturers are working on a "1,333MHz OC" option which most of them already have running fine (so we hear).

Mirror's Edge system requirements detailed

Mirror's Edge has got to be one of the more interesting shooters currently in development. Sure, there are more anticipated titles like Valve's Left4Dead co-op zombie hunt, but a FPS platformer with little to no guns? Now that's interesting.

Still, one of the supposed problems with this super-interesting game has been the worry that PC gamers will need a super machine to process all those wide-open spaces at the stable framerates they deserve. Well, you can now lay such fears to rest; EA has unveiled the system requirements for the game and they are sure to make the game as accessible as possible.

Sony issues Vaio recall

If you're the lucky owner of a Sony Vaio laptop, you might have a hot system on your hands – literally.

BetaNews reported yesterday that Sony has issued a recall notice for several of its Viao TZ series laptops. According to Sony, a "wiring problem" may cause the affected units to overheat – although, thankfully, there's no reports of laptop immolation as yet.

The models affected by the recall were sold worldwide between July 2007 and August 2008 and include the VGN-TZ100, VGN-TZ200, VGN-TZ300, and the VGN-TZ2000 series of notebooks. Owners of affected models are encouraged to contact Sony for "

Mythbusters RFID episode banned

Fresh from their success at Nvision, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman – better known as the Mythbusters – have found themselves in the middle of a global conspiracy conducted by major credit-card corporations. At least, if Adam's comments at a recent conference are true.

According to CNet, Savage was asked by an audience member at an un-named conference why the team – which host a show aimed at testing common myths in an often explosive manner – had never tested the well-publicised vulnerabilities of RFID chips, including the well-known (and well-cracked) MiFare Classic.

Grand Theft Auto Wii?

With Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars set for release on the Nintendo DS before February next year, one of the major questions on the minds of many GTA fans is whether or not GTA will see a release on the Wii.

Rockstar, which has in the past showed no reluctance to release more mature titles on Nintendo's family console (such as Bully and Manhunt 2), gently hinted that it may be on the cards too in a recent comment to Kotaku.

Microsoft to launch App Store

Microsoft is once more taking its lead from Apple and hoping to prove that whatever the Cupertino-based company can do, Microsoft can do – if not better, then “also," with the planned launch of an apps store for Windows Mobile devices.

The source for the rumour comes via a job posting – now 'expired' – on Computerjob.com and picked up by Long Zheng of I Started Something before hitting the mainstream with a CNet article. The job in question was looking for a senior product manager for an as-yet unannounced division called

MS and Sony: Exclusives aren't important

There was a time, back with the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2 and Gamecube, when platform exclusives were the most important thing about a console. It was a time when you invested your cash solely on the basis of which games you liked the look of - were you such a Resident Evil fanboy that you'd go for a Gamecube over an Xbox, or did Metal Gear Solid rock your boat more towards the PlayStation 2?

Nowadays though, exclusives aren't such a big deal - or at least, that's what Sony and Microsoft reckon based on the current sales trends.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

More on X58 SLI support

Earlier this morning, Nvidia announced that it was opening its SLI ecosystem up to support Intel’s X58 ‘Tylesberg’ chipset. This is pretty big news and Rich did a good job of disseminating the information earlier in my absence – I crashed out in a heap before I managed to write anything down after what’s been a long and tiring week.

The first thing to note is that Nvidia expects the certification process to be complete on at least a few boards by the time X58 launches. The company’s representatives said the driver work is already done, it’s just a matter of running submitted boards through the certification process at Nvidia’s Santa Clara Certification Lab.

MS and Sony: Exclusives aren't important

AMD cuts desktop processor prices

AMD has announced its latest round of desktop processor price cuts which will help to make quad-core even more accessible to mainstream customers.

The company is seemingly unable to compete with Intel at the high end, but with its flagship Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition processor now listed at $186 per chip in 1,000 unit quantities on the official price list.

Here's a full breakdown of the price cuts:

AMD cuts desktop processor prices

bit-tech August PotM winner announced!

Congratulations to forum member Greg Kouvatsis, who achieved first place in August's Photo of the Month competition, themed "Culture" and "Points of View".

We also want to congratulate OleJ, who claims second place with his entry "Life", while third place went to Smilodon with his entry "Agriculture".

Yet again, we have hooked up with OCZ Technology to give some awesome prizes away to the winners.

Ron Gilbert unveils DeathSpank teasers

We (OK, I) are big fans of Ron 'All Those Great Lucasarts Adventure Games' Gilbert, so it's no surprise that we've been getting just a little bit excited about the developers new game, DeathSpank - even in spite of the fact that nobody really knows what it is.

Being developed at Hothead Games, DeathSpank is set to debut in 2009 and has many of the same team behind it as worked on Penny Arcade Adventures

Reiser gets fifteen to life

Hans Reiser, the open-source programmer who created the ReiserFS journalling file system and went on to murder his wife – has been given a fifteen-to-life sentence according to Ars Technica.

The programmer was arrested and charged with the offence following the mysterious disappearance of his estranged wife, Nina Reiser, in 2006 due to evidence of suspicious behaviour on his part – behaviour Reiser claimed was due to his geeky personality and incipient paranoia, rather than the result of someone trying to hide a body. Sadly for Reiser – although not for justice – the jury didn't believe his story, and found him guilty.

Kojima: "Stop asking about MGS4 for Xbox 360"

Hideo Kojima is getting a little be grumpy as lately, asking that people please stop asking him about whether or not Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be coming to the Xbox 360.

"I've been doing a lot of interviews and stage shows, and half the questions are like 'Will MGS4 be coming out on 360 or other formats?', and in the near future I hope they'll ask me about Metal Gear, about us, about our future projects, and will stop caring about the hardware,

Latest WGA deletes wallpaper

If you're wondering why your desktop background keeps disappearing, it's because Microsoft believes you're a filthy pirate. Arrr.

The latest version of the Windows Genuine Advantage tool – built by Microsoft to programmatically determine whether a version of Windows is legal or not – has introduced some new, in-your-face functionality for remonstrating with users of less-than-legitimate operating systems. First and foremost amongst these, according to BetaNews, is code to reset your desktop wallpaper to a plain colour every sixty minutes. You can change it back again, but until you shell out on a real copy of Windows you'll be doing so on the hour, every hour.

Gearbox is not developing Halo 4

During Nvision, we learned that Corrinne Yu is no longer working at Gearbox and has instead moved to Microsoft to work as Principle Engine Programmer for the next Halo game.

Yu was former Studio Wide Director of Technology at Gearbox and is incredibly well respected within the industry as a member of both the Microsoft Graphics and Intel Larrabee advisory boards – she's also been referred to by many as "the next John Carmack."