Napalm Riot

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Officials from movie studio Universal Pictures have revealed that the company is forming its own video game division, following the announcement of film tie-in Wanted at E3 last week.

The high profile merger of Vivendi Interactive with Activision saw the Vivendi SA (formerly Vivendi Universal) group effectively exit the video games market - although Vivendi Interactive was never focused on movie tie-ins, as the new division aims to be.

Instead, the new business appears to be following in t . . . Read more

"Microsoft's not content. Despite ostensibly having one of the best user interfaces of all the major consoles, Microsoft is reinventing the Xbox 360's look. The underlying Xbox Live foundation will remain the same, but Microsoft wants to make life even better for users by making existing features easier to find and use, decluttering the marketplace, and vastly improving the social experience of Live." -Gamespot

Source:http://www.gamespot.com/features/6194093/index.html?tag=topslot;title;2

Quite a number of articles and movies have surfaced in the last few hours featuring Halo Wars. It seems that everyone wants to get some hands on time with the game. Easily one of the most comprehensive movies that I've seen is a 12 minute movie available from GameVideos.com and features designers Dave Pottinger and Justin Rouse as they show off the E3 build and talk about the game. It's really worth watching!

There are quite a few other articles written by members of the press who've had some . . . Read more

In scenes that would have been somewhat unimaginable just a few years ago, when the UK was still one of Nintendo’s weakest major markets around the world, all but one of the games in the top ten this week are for a Nintendo format – five of those published by Nintendo themselves.

Still at number one thanks to renewed stock levels, Wii Fit has seen sales slip since the previous week. The multiformat Lego Indiana Jones has returned to the number one spot in the combined format charts, follo . . . Read more

Officials from British developer Rebellion have announced that the company has acquired Empire Interactive’s internal development studio Razorworks.

Empire Interactive parent company Silverstar Holdings recently announced that the studio would be sold or dispositioned as part of “organizational changes” at the firm. However, no potential buyers were named at the time.

Razorworks’ previous titles include Xbox Live Arcade releases Double Dragon and Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, as well . . . Read more

Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios has announced that it has shut down its servers for MMORPG Mythos, which was undergoing private beta testing. The company did not disclose any details on when this "hiatus" might end.

Mythos' closing comes only two weeks after reports that Flagship had cut a significant portion of its development team. The studio had also reportedly laid off its staff at online services subsidiary and Mythos publisher Ping0.

A Korean news report translated . . . Read more

Konami has been forced to apologize for ongoing problems with Metal Gear Online, following the recent introduction of the Gene Expansion pack last week.

A statement on the company’s website admits that the introduction of the expansion was “marred by major system related problems” and reveals that there are “no permanent solutions we can announce at this present moment”.

The problems appear to be due to unexpectedly high traffic levels, with Konami being forced to close the MGO S . . . Read more

SCO sued Novell for having falsely claimed to own the legal rights to Unix, shortly after suing IBM in 2003.

U.S. District Court Judge Dall Kimball rules that SCO owes Novell $2.55 million, because of a 1995 purchase agreement made by SCO's predecessor, The Santa Cruz Operation (bought by Caldera International and became The SCO Group). At the time of the deal, the Santa Cruz Operation didn't have the money to pay Novell for all of its Unix business. Novell allowed the deal, with the limitati . . . Read more

Ubisoft, the long maligned games company, has had another low blow today after it was discovered that the NoCD patch they released for the PC version of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 to fix the horribly broken DRM system was actually a stolen version of an illegal NoCD crack by the group Reloaded. A glance with a hex editor reveals their calling card in the code. What's more hilarious is that their release of such a patch compromises their own hard line stance on piracy.

[url=http://forums.ubi.com/eve . . . Read more

What has the writer's strike brought us but better, crazier entertainment? This new, mastermind supervillain love story musical is on a computer screen near you! (staring Neil Patrick Harris)

The three episode show is viewable at http://www.drhorrible.com/, but you can only watch it until midnight, on Saturday, July 20th. After that, you'll have to buy the DVD!

Be sure to read the Dr. Horrible manifesto to find out the details.

You c . . . Read more

After the grave disappointment of Nintendo's press conference at E3 and announcement of their "core game" (whether that was supposed to be Animal Crossing or GTA is still debated), Nintendo fans may have hope yet!

According to a Nintendo representative, specifically one that works between Nintendo and Gamestop (more specifically MY gamestop), Nintendo dropped a very subtle hint as to what's to come, which apperently no one caught. The news:

-New Zelda game for the Wii sometime in 2009
-Al . . . Read more

Robocalypse was announced for the DS at E3 by Tecmo. With "wise-cracking" crobots that battle with madcap weaponry and leave a nice-sized path of destruction in their wake. The game was written by Jay Lender and Micah Wright, and with Lender being the former writer and director of Spongebob Squarepants, it promises to be entertaining.

There's also a multi-player mode in which up to four players can compete head-to-head or play co-operatively in wireless matches.

The premise of the game i . . . Read more

On Monday, Gaia Online announced it has managed to raise $11 million after a Series C funding round conducted by Institutional Venture Partners. Now GO has about $32 million and is currently one of the most popular virtual communities with about five million visitors every month.

With the raising of these funds, various additions will be made to the website, one of which will be a Flash-based MMO, which will come out this summer. The company seeks to continually improve its online environmen . . . Read more

Judge Dava Tunis' full report to the Florida Supreme Court in Jack Thompson's Florida Bar Trial, in which she recommends permanent disbarment for the attorney, also recommends he pay disciplinary costs of $43,675.35. Judge Tunis, Referee in the case, noted in her 169-page report that she considered some 5,900 pages of evidence, "hundreds, maybe more" documents submitted over the past eighteen months of litigation.


Source: http://kotaku.com/5023506…e-thompson-report-judge-r . . . Read more

At the bungie website, there is a teaser on the website that they will announce a new game based on the halo universe but no Master Chief in it.
The game had a codename on the walmart list calling it Halo Blue. Unfortunately, they decided not announce the game at this point. Right now there is a letter on the teaser saying how sorry they are for not sharing the announcement.

all the trailers from E3 are now up on gametrailers.com ive been watching all the things they have for fable 2 ( October ) cant wait for that... havent gotten into the other trailers yet from E3 but if there as good as this game its goin to be awesome.

This morning Microsoft kicked off their E3 press conference with some big announcements pertaining to the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.

In addition to a fall update that completely changes the old 360 dashboard into a brand new and easier to use interface, they well be rolling out Avatars, Mii-esque characters that users are able to customize to fit their own personal style. Users will now be able to install games from disc onto the 360 hard drive, although the game disc will still be required to p . . . Read more

Ahead of its E3 media briefing scheduled for July 15th, Nintendo has announced MotionPlus, a new accessory for its standard Wii-mote that it says will "more quickly and accurately" track motions in 3D space.

The accessory clips on to the end of the Wii-mote and "combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion."

Nintendo says the addon . . . Read more

After a bit of a tease a couple of weeks ago, Meteor Games, founded by the creators of the kids Flash game portal Neopets, has announced details of their first-ever MMO. Twin Skies will be a blend of a traditional, 3D MMO with innovative out-of-game elements. For instance, certain web-based mini-games can earn you a monster in-game, who will roam about, fight, and even send you pictures of the hapless newbies it kills. That … is so deliciously evil. Other mini-games could change the weather in . . . Read more

Heads-up displays? Pre-rendered cut scenes? Those are so 2004. Now, the gamer will see more realistic indications of their character's status and interactive cut scenes will be used as well. Not to mention, a dog! Who doesn't love having a dog with them in a game?

Napalm Riot's report comes from a report from Joystiq, who got their report from OXM, who were the ones who got a chance to play a content-complete version of Fable 2. From what they learned during game play, there are no standard . . . Read more

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