GameStop Halts All Xbox 1 Trade-Ins February 9?

With an U.S. install base of over 25 million, it’s perhaps no surprise that the original Xbox still logs more playtime, on average, than the Sony PlayStation 3. But if a rumor making the rounds today is true, that won’t save Microsoft’s black box from extinction.

Citing an internal GameStop memo and several anonymous GameStop managers, Destructoid claims that effective February 9th, 2009, the company will stop accepting original Xbox games, systems and accessories for trade-in.

While there’s no word on how long they will continue to allocate Xbox shelf space — considering the software backwards compatibility of the Xbox 360, there seems to at least be good reason to hold onto the games — without an ongoing stream of trade-ins, one would imagine sales will soon taper off as well.

GameStop was unavailable for comment by time of publication.

Without official confirmation, we’re labeling this one rumor for now; but with two different pictures and a host of anonymous sources backing it up, we fully expect that this rumor will become truth on or about this Thursday, January 8th, when GameStop is supposed to provide investors with a holiday sales update.

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The X-Files: "Fight the Future" and "I Want to Believe" - Blu-ray

AndyO review:

Fight the Future: * * *

I Want to Believe: * * * 1/2

The X-Files is one of my favorite TV shows. It’s true that when it went off the air in 2001, it had already lost much of what had made it unique. But until around season 7 or so, it had some of the best writing on television.

“Fight the Future” was released in 1998, between seasons 5 and 6, and the story fit neatly into the conspiracy mythology of the show. I remember when I saw the movie in the theater, I thought it would have been a good ending to show. After all, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) finally uncovers the conspiracy he’s been chasing for five seasons. It seemed like there was nowhere else to go with the series (which, sadly, ended up being the case). In time, Duchovny would leave the show entirely, only to come back to hook up with Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) on the last show. The X-Files had descended into soap opera territory.

So, I was a little worried when, in the new X-Files movie, “I Want to Believe,” Mulder and Scully are still together as a couple, just as they were in that final episode. But somehow the passage of time has made their relationship more plausible. They’ve remained a couple because Mulder isn’t investigating X-Files anymore. He’s just a normal guy, who stays at home while Scully is out working as a surgeon in a children’s hospital. But then the FBI comes knocking at his door…  

Someone has abducted an FBI agent, and a psychic priest named Father Joe (Billy Connolly), who happens to be a pedophile, is helping the authorities. One FBI agent (Amanda Peet) wants to bring Mulder back to help assess whether the psychic priest is for real. He reluctantly comes back.

Once Mulder is back working with the FBI, he’s quickly pulled into the dark world of killers and their victims — a place he’s pretty comfortable. He wants to believe that Father Joe is telling the truth, that he is a small light shining in this darkness. At one point, Scully says, “I don’t want the darkness back in my house,” which means she doesn’t think she can be with Mulder if he’s going to be out in the crazy, evil world they both walked away from.

And the world that Mulder has walked back into is indeed crazy and evil. Without giving away too much, let’s just say this story turns Frankenstein upside down (or inside out). And unlike many movies today, “I Want to Believe” takes its time weaving together many threads that seem disconnected.

In the end, what kept me thinking of this film days after I’d seen it were the characters. Watching Dana Scully wrestle with the decision to put a child patient through a painful, experimental procedure. Watching Mulder’s gift for pursuing evil come back after lying dormant for so long. Watching Father Joe’s anguish when he finds out why he’s seeing visions.

This is great filmmaking. I can only hope they bring back these characters again in another X-Files movie or new TV show.

My new water cooled rig!

Well it took a bit of time to pluck up the courage to dive into water cooling (no pun intended) but im happy with the results! I intend to ad my gpu into the loop sometime in the new year but here some picys I think ive done alright, what do you guys think?

 

 

The whole system is 1/2" but im using 7/16 pvc tubing filled with feser F1 "non conductive" cooling fluid a Swiftech Apogee GTZ cpu block and a swiftech Laing D5 MCP655 pump all toped of with a swiftech mcr 220-Res radiator/res.

Full specs below!

Happy new year everyone!

Halo Wars Update and Happy Holidays

Halo Wars Update: The team made great progress and we were able to have a normal holiday with no extra hours. There has been a concentrated effort to isolate and fix bugs that could block the game’s release. Getting the game clean for publication is the main focus right now. A release date of March 3 for Halo War was announced in early December. We believe at this point that date is solid. It should also give you a few months to finish all the games you get for Christmas and be ready for something really new. Keep an eye on our Halo Wars community site for announcements in both January and February about the game.

Official XBOX Magazine Coverage of Halo Wars: These guys spent some time at our studio a while ago and their preview is in their January 2009 issue. I don’t believe the article itself is available online but some of the highpoints have been published here. You have to scroll down a bit in the forum.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=187715&page=1601

ES Halo Wars Tournament: As I mentioned last time, everyone in the company who wished to participate was divided into teams of two, one Spartan (skilled player) and one Grunt (not so skilled) on each team. Then a single elimination tournament was played. Players who took part were given tickets for each game played and each game won. These tickets in turn could be placed in prize bags for a drawing. The more tickets you put in the better the chance of having your ticket drawn from the bag. Prizes were mostly $100 and $50 gift cards from places like Best Buy and GameStop, but there was also a Halo Lazer Tag for 4 and a game console not made by our parent company.

In the tournament itself, the final four teams each included three of our balance team guys: Donnie Thompson, Nick Currie, and Zeke Marks, plus Kevin Holme, one of our designers who started out on our balance team years ago. This was not a complete surprise because they have spent most of the past several months playing the game every day and they were expert RTS players to begin with. Congrats to the team of Zeke and Clare Braddy who defeated Kevin and Stephen Rippy for the championship.

Graeme Devine Hits the Road for Halo Wars (Again): Graeme has already set a record for frequent flyer miles earned promoting an ES game (and maybe a Microsoft game). He was at it again recently, traveling to Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York to meet with mainstream press (from Playboy, to Entertainment Weekly, to MTV). While he thought most of the people who met with him had little experience with console games he was greatly encouraged that they grasped Halo Wars quickly and easily won the first few scenarios of the single player campaign. Here are some quotes he jotted down, which we hope will be representative of responses from non-hard core gamers.

“Ramming is freaking hilarious!”
“It’s kind of like bowling.” (On ramming)
“This is the least frustrating RTS experience I’ve had. I feel like I’m actually in control.”
“I’m tempted to sit here and keep playing all day.”
“The controls are fantastic, the cinematics are awesome, and the Covenant are really fun.”
“Definitely captures the Halo universe in full.”

The MTV piece resulting from Graeme’s trip is online here.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/12/15/new-halo-wars-facts/

Your Parents Need to Play RTS: Paul Jaquays sent around this link to a study that suggests playing strategy games improves the cognitive skills of older people. As Paul put it, your parents (and grandparents) need to play RTS games.

http://www.physorg.com/news148193174.html

Ensemble Studios Holiday Card: Our art team has put together a card for the holidays that features representative graphics from all of our games. Here is a look at the card. The sentiment inside reads:“Thank you for supporting our studio and games over the past 11 years. Farewell.”



Ensemble Studios Retrospective: Troy Goodfellow has written a retrospective on our studio as our final days draw near. He interviewed several long-time employees, including me, and we believe it is a nice overview of our history and accomplishments. You can read about the early days of the studio, how we came to start making RTS games, some of the decisions we made early on that became part of what makes the Age games unique, some of the issues we dealt with making games, etc.
You can check it out the three part article on Crispy Gamer here.

http://www.crispygamer.com/features/2008-12-16/age-of-ensemble-part-1-a-titan-passes.aspx

http://www.crispygamer.com/features/2008-12-17/age-of-ensemble-part-2-perfecting-the-formula.aspx

http://www.crispygamer.com/features/2008-12-18/age-of-ensemble-part-3-the-closing-chapters.aspx

Happy Holidays,

Bruce Shelley

Mount & Blade, my game of the year!

For the last couple of days i have been completely hooked to Mount & Blade.
I did start playing a bit of The Chronicles of Spellborn, but Mount & Blade quickly took my attention away and is right now all i play.

Admitted the title doesn’t sound great, the graphics and character models look like 10 years ago but the gameplay is awesome.
Some of the “big” game makers should really take a look at this game.

This game is kind of a mix with RPG, action and strategy, but the thing they did very well was the horse/mounted combat, this is just awesome to play and it feels close to perfect (admitted it might not work perfect in an PvP environment but it works for PvE).
And then to think this game is (from what i have read) mostly made by a husband and wife team!!

This is definatly one of the most fun games i have played this year and really makes me wonder why the “big” gamemakers can’t come up with great stuff like that.
For me a game usually stands or falls with the graphics/character models unless the gameplay makes up for all and with Mount & Blade it definatly does, looking at the hours i clocked so far on playing this game (68 hours and counting) it’s my number one game for this year, even beating Fallout 3 for me.

So if you haven’t, definatly check out this game, there’s a full functioning demo out there that let’s you play the (full) game up to level 7 without restrictions.
I have to admit when i first read about this game and saw the screenshots i was not really interrested but after seeing IGN give the game an 8 in a review i decided to check it out and am i glad i did

So looking at the amount of hours i played this game and the fun i am having i would probably say this is my game of the year!

Hmm, wonder what this game would be like with an engine like unreal or Gamebryo and a few tweaks here and there…..

Microsoft Admits Tampering with Resident Evil 5 Demos, Hackers Follow Suit

Amusing? That all depends on who’s holding the controller. This week, Microsoft has confirmed that they have the ability to retroactively and remotely affect data on your Xbox 360 — specifically, the corruption of items like the Japan-only Resident Evil 5 demo  downloaded by US and European users earlier this month. WorthPlaying received the following statement:

Earlier this week a demo of ‘Biohazard 5′, known in the US as ‘Resident Evil 5′, was released on Xbox LIVE in Japan. While the content was only intended for download in that country, a number of gamers outside of Japan were able to access this demo for a period of time. By putting measures in place to ensure it could only be downloaded in Japan the demo version was effectively reset, meaning that it is only supported by LIVE in the correct region. We look forward to being able to offer our gamers a chance to experience a US demo of this eagerly anticipated title soon.

All our concerns about the corrupting influence of such power have just become valid.

But then again, we wonder if Microsoft and Capcom might not have had an good reason for trying to disable this particular demo. If a post at Resident Evil fansite REHorror is accurate, hardcore English-speaking fans have now hacked that very demo for major spoilers about the full game’s levels, characters, bosses and weapons — and through them, elements of the game’s plot.

Related posts

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• Ubisoft Dates, Details Armored Core for Answer

This is funny, and slightly enlightening…

Spore Coming to Steam?

It’s no secret that EA has been upset with the number of people who illegally downloaded Spore. Still, they’re determined to make the game into Will Wright’s next Mega Franchise, and they’re so set on doing so that they may release Spore on Valve’s Steam. While there’s been no official announcement (or response to emails) yet, a newly discovered EULA for Spore on Steam’s website gives quite a bit of credence to the rumor.

EA releasing their published games on Steam isn’t new; Crysis and Crysis Warhead are both available on it. But Spore would mark the first time one of EA’s in-house games was released on a download service other than EA’s own EA Store client. Unfortunately, if other SecuROM releases on Steam are any indication, that aspect of it won’t be removed from Spore even if it is losing the disc.

Will EA releasing the game on Steam cause some of you anti-Spore folks to give the game a shot, or is it too little, too late?

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Rumor: Factor 5 Cuts Staff in Half, May Sue Artist Sam Baker

Last week, the Internet was abuzz with news about Factor 5’s possible serious financial issues, sparked when animator Sam Baker posted a blog entry lamenting the cancelation of some projects, and the lack of staff pay.

He was quick to issue a new posting claiming that the original had been a misunderstanding, but was it? If an inside source talking to Edge Online is right, not at all.

According to Edge’s “well-placed source,” last Friday Factor 5 cut 37 jobs, which is just about half of its current work force. “The last time staff got paid was October 15th,” the source stated.

When asked whether or not the Brash closure was the cause of financial woes (as Baker alluded), Edge’s source claimed that it wasn’t. “It wasn’t really the Brash deal going south that was the big problem, but it didn’t help much either.”

Perhaps the most troubling news, though, is Factor 5’s rumored reaction to Baker’s blog post which started all the speculation eight days ago, which resulted in his resignation from the developer. “He’s young, and was totally devastated by his new found fame. He didn’t think anything of it, innocently posting his heartfelt concerns,” said the source. “The kicker is, Factor 5 is thinking of suing [Baker] for good measure.”

I’ve attempted to get in touch with some people I know at Factor 5 to try and get some more info on the reported news, but as of now I’ve yet to hear back from anyone.

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BlizzCon 08: Diablo III Class Design Panel [BlizzCon 08: Diablo III Class Design Panel]

One of the first panels I attended was the Diablo III Class Design talk
featuring Jay Wilson and other members of the D3 team. We had just
witnessed the unveiling of the brand spankin’ new Wizard class so this
panel promised to give us a sneak peak behind the newest defender of
Sanctuary as well as other behind the scenes information. They talked
about the skill system and how animations and graphics feed back into
making a class shine.

The D3 designers want to give players that glass cannon that so many of them love. Sure it can blow things to pieces but get in their face and they aren’t exactly the sturdiest of heroes. The Wizard is for that player who looks at the character selection screen and says, “I want to blow stuff up.” For those Diablo 2 fans out there, this is an iteration on the fan favorite Sorceress class but with a different focus. Rather than summoning the elemental powers of Fire, Ice, and Lightning, a Wizard uses what Blizzard is calling “High Magic.” This involves channeling the raw forces of the universe. The designers described the powers warping the laws of physics, weather control, and even time control to lay waste to foes. They even went into detail of the history of the Wizard. “She didn’t study for her Conjuration class… but she aced it,” one developer joked. “Her teachers said, ‘Don’t study that, it’s forbidden.’ So she said, ‘That’s what I want to learn.’ We’ll have to see if that gets her into trouble down the line.” Take a look at how she looks in the preview video and you can see how this plays into character design.

They showed off a few skills for the Wizard. Magic Missile, a fantasy classic and very useful for shooting into the darkness, is the first spell a Wizard uses. In raw numbers terms, it’s not much different than a Fireball or Ice Bolt but the designers explained that even a simple choice like this has design implications down the road. Players expect a Fireball spell to upgrade into burning damage or an explosion, an Ice Bolt slowing foes or freezing them. A Magic Missile, however, fires more and more bolts as it increases in power or starts homing in on targets. By starting from here, more skills start to come into view as the design evolves.

The other Wizard skills detailed were:
Electrocute - Part of the weather control power set, it’s like a beefed up Chain Lightning spell that bounces electricity from target to target.
Slow Time - This is the bubble that the Wizard uses in the preview video. Time control isn’t something you see often in RPG games, especially multiplayer. They originally wanted the slow to be gamewide but the implications for multiplayer seemed pretty un-fun. As it stands, it’s a great defensive power that really makes the Wizard feel powerful.
Disintegrate - Another pen and paper RPG classic, this powerful spell rarely makes it into computer RPGs. It began it’s life as a Barbarian skill called great swing. The idea was for the player to hold down the mouse button and build up a big attack. For the barbarian though, it ended up not being very fun. Monsters would shoot the player from range, well meaning friends would kill the foe before he got too close, etc. On the Wizard, however, holding down the button and sweeping firey death across the battlefield is pretty fun. As the spell hits a single target, it “heats up” doing more and more damage.

The next bit of the panel was about the skill system. They went through a ton of iterations. I chose one of the craziest above to show you that they really considered everything. They have a saying at Blizzard though, “Different but worse isn’t better, better is better.” This brought them back to something a little closer to those who’ve played Diablo II. Check it out:

On the left of each tier, you can see active skills. These are just like the kind of abilities you spend points on in Diablo II. To the right, you can see passive skills that allow you to beef up your abilities without adding too many actions to your bar. They want to keep that Diablo feel of fast clicking action rather than something like World of Warcraft where you need at least a dozen skills. Now what are those little circles under the active skills you ask? Why, those are Rune slots of course!

For those who can remember way back to the original Diablo, skills dropped from books. They liked the way this mirrored the random drop feel of items but it was too random. Runes are a middle ground between D1 and D2. The runes aren’t class specific and can be put in any skill. The trick is that each skill changes differently depending on what rune you put into it. A lethality rune makes Electrocute cause foes it kills to explode and damage everything around it. Also as pointed out many times, explosions are cool; cheers showed that they were right when they said, “we have our finger on the pulse of the Diablo community.” Multi-strike causes the Witch Doctor’s Flame Skull to skip across the ground before exploding and the Wizard’s teleport spell to create duplicates of the caster to confuse foes.

After covering classes, the technical effects designer talked a bit about player skills and monster deaths. Each class has their own feel: Barbarians display great physical power, Witch Doctor’s use various voodoo items and swarms to damage foes, and the Wizard was described in two words: Light Show. All of these help add a visceral feel to playing Diablo. Of course one of the best parts of Diablo is watching hordes of monsters die before you. They added basic physics to monsters so they would fall as they were cut down but didn’t stop there. Critcial deaths can occur with crushing swings, exploding with blood. Different damage types leave monsters in pieces or glowing with purple energy. Disintegrate leaves nothing behind and swarm leave only bones. All of this plays into the fun of Diablo: battling the minions of the Lord of Terror and mowing down his hordes.

All in all, Diablo III is looking like a great edition to the Diablo series. It still looks a ways off at this point but what I’ve seen so far makes me quite excited.

Are you excited about Diablo III? What class are you going to play? Let us know what you think!

in reply to BlizzCon 08: Diablo III Class Design Panel

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