Gas Powered Games want you. Yes, that means all of you! They want you to get in the Supreme Commander beta as soon as you can, and play for as long as you can today, so they can see how well their multiplayer servers are holding when stressed to the limit. So if you don't have the beta version by now, you are free to get it from FilePlanet, and don't forget to grab a CD key while you're at it. You're gonna need it.

Voodoo Extreme brings the following message from the devs:

"Part of a good beta test experience is generating network traffic to place ever-increasing loads on the servers that operate the system's chat, matchmaking and ranking functions, and evaluate the performance. Based on the performance, our engineers can make any necessary adjustments to ensure a smooth-running system.

Generating that traffic is where you come in...

All beta players are encouraged to log into the system on Thursday, Dec. 7, and enjoy as many games of Supreme Commander as you can. Stay on for as long as you can, play as many games as you can. There's no minimum or maximum requirements - just as much time and traffic that you can contribute. Every little bit counts!

To date, our peak has been about 1,800 simultaneous players online. Help us drive up our numbers tomorrow so we can provide the best experience over the long haul!"

I don't think I need to remind you what Supreme Commander is, and what totally annihilating strategy game Chris Taylor has previously worked on, in his good old days at Cavedog. If all goes well with the beta, his new RTS should be out in the first quarter of 2007.

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Xbox 360 Gamers Sue Microsoft Over Buggy Live Update

A topic started a month ago on the Xbox forums has since accumulated 66 pages of angry complaints, apparently caused by the recent Xbox Live Fall update, released on October 31. Apart from introducing some 85 new features and enhancements (including HD 1080p video mode support over VGA and component cables, and Xbox 360 Wireless Headset support), the Fall update also seems to cause a *lot* of Xbox 360 consoles to crash and freeze every few minutes, and get that infamous "red ring" of lights on the console's front panel.

Simply calling Microsoft's help-desk doesn't fix the problem, but only aggravates it: so far refusing to admit that the Fall update is killing some of their consoles, Microsoft actually expects gamers to pay for the repairs, even though they did nothing wrong. Well, except for applying the buggy update.

So widespread is the problem, that a lot of gamers have already filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and their State Department of Consumer Affairs. And at least one of them (going by the forum name of RedRum6622) filed a "class action" lawsuit against Microsoft with a US lawyer firm:

"I was just contacted by the lawfirms about it. We put together the case and I signed the papers to be the Plaintiff suing Microsoft on behalf of the class(YOU GUYS), and BAMM they did the rest. They were already aware of these forums as well as others complaints."

The complaint accuses Microsoft of breach of contract, violation of Consumer Protection Act (RCW 19.86) and negligence, and calls for a jury trial. This should be fun!

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Gaming Around The World: Australia Legalizes, Germay Bans

It's a crazy gaming world we live in! Over in Europe, ze germans are still bent on banning violent games from their country once and for all, while Australia - one of the most inhospitable countries, gaming wise - is but one step away from legalizing mod chips. Talk about irony... Well, let's not dwell any further on figures of speech, and let's dig right in.

The issue of mod chips, such as those used to play unauthorized games on the PlayStation 2, goes back many years. Such engineering tricks are currently illegal in the U.S. and UK, for instance. But Australia will soon join Spain and Italy, among others, as one of the many countries in which mod chips are perfectly legal, but apparently only as long as people use them to bypass anti-piracy technology *and* regional locking in games consoles and DVD players. However, if said mod chips are only used to bypass anti-piracy technology, they are still illegal. Does that make sense to you? Luckily, Australian IT has more on this story:

"Amendments to Australia's copyright laws expected to be passed this week will make it legal for consumers to use modified chips (mod-chips) that circumvent anti-piracy technology built into game consoles if they also overcome measures that restrict the use of DVDs and games titles purchased legally in other regions.

(...) changes to the law incorporated in the Copyright Amendment Bill 2006 and presented to the Senate in October only outlaw chips in cases where they have the sole purpose of overcoming anti-piracy technology."

That is one messed up judicial system! But still, not as messed up as Germany's. Check out what this report from Gamasutra has to say:

"In the aftermath of a recent school shooting in Germany, the regional governments of Bavaria and Lower Saxony have proposed new legislation that could punish those who make, distribute, or even play video games featuring "cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters" with a fine and up to a year in prison. The newly drafted bill is scheduled to go before the upper house of parliament next year."

No wonder Crytek is getting ready to leave the country, to develop their not-so-violent shooter Crysis in a more sane social environment. If this law is passed, they - and many others like them - would practically be denied the right to make ultra-violent games. And of course, you know how relative violence can be in the gullible eyes of the public, so it won't matter if the game in question is not-so-violent or ultra-violent (not that it *should* matter, once it gets a "Mature" rating). Especially after all the school shootings they had over there lately.

Oh well, at least they're still wide open to sex in games, unlike a certain other "free" nation we know...

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Tekken: Dark Resurrection HD Coming To PlayStation 3?

Whereas up until recently we only knew about a single Tekken game headed for the PS3 (that would be Tekken 6, naturally), there is now hope for another one of Capcom's fighting games playable on the PlayStation 3. And we're not talking about the Tekken 2 game released yesterday for the PSP (via the PlayStation Store). Although... come to think of it, we could also count that as soon-to-be-playable on the PS3. True, it's a PSone game. But early next year, Sony plans to update the PlayStation 3 firmware in order to emulate PS1 games as well, not just PS2 games as it currently does.

But getting back to the point, what interests us most right now is Capcom's recent portable game in the series, Tekken: Dark Resurrection. Citing a report from the Japanese magazine Famitsu, GameKult says that Namco Bandai is planning to release a "Full HD" port of Dark Resurrection, exclusively through the PlayStation Store. It will supposedly introduce several changes, such as more playable characters - including the demonic boss Jinpachi Mishima, while keeping the usual Arcade, Ghost Battle and Gallery game modes.

No price or release date have been announced for this supposed downloadable version for the PS3, but GameKult expects to have more detailed information in the days to come. Which means that so do we.

In the meantime, if you happen to have both a PS3 and a PSP, you can download the old Tekken 2 from the PS Store, for $5.99, and transfer it to your PSP via USB. Oh, and did we mention that Sony also plans to put up around 7,000 PSone titles on the PlayStation Store?

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It's been known since quite a while that EA's SSX franchise would be coming to the Wii, but little did we care for snowboarding in the middle of summer. So today Electronic Arts officially revelead the game, called SSX Blur, in development by EA Montreal (under the EA Sports BIG brand), and set for release across North America and Europe in March 2007. Not much is being said about it for now, but by the looks of it it's pretty good looking (for a Wii game) and a great hibernal alternative to the likes of Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam.

I say "by the looks of it", because a trailer for SSX Blur has already been up on YouTube for a few days, showing less than a minute of in-game snowboarding, jumping and mid-air spinning. Pretty cool. And not just literally. Here's what EA has to say about it:

"We wanted to take the soul of the franchise - the air, the speed, the tricks, the fun - and Wii-ify it," said Alex Hyder, producer on the product. "You're going to see that reflected in the On-the-Ground & In-the-Air controls, the characters, the user interface, and every other aspect of this game."

SSX Blur is everything you expect from the franchise, delivered in a totally unexpected way. Revolutionary controls take full advantage of the Wii's potential by putting you in total command of your skier or rider, on-the-ground & in-the-air, by translating every motion you make into the skills that create mountain legends.

Considering I'm not much of a sports fan, especially when EA Sports is involved, I have to admit this game is pretty tempting. But I'll wait for more details on the extent of its content, before getting my hopes up.

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Australian "lyfestyle technology guide" SmartHouse recently had a chance to speak with Paul Holman, Vice President of Technology at SCE Europe, who echoed Sony's previous response to analysts claiming there may not be any PlayStation 4 console and that Sony was shifting from hardware to software. "To say that there will be no PS4 because of a management change is a bit far fetched", Holman was cited as saying. And according to SmartHouse, he also claimed that such a console would not be released before 2010 (I'm guessing more like 2012).

It's going to be a long wait, for sure, and by that time Sony might finally lose their #1 spot in the console war. But they're going to do everything they can to stay on top of their competition from Nintendo and Microsoft. In particular, they plan to introduce a series of firmware upgrades that will give the PlayStation 3 more media centre capability, while allowing for the introduction of third party applications and hardware - "such as interactive controllers" similar to the Nintendo Wii, Holman said.

Their latest console also has a lot more in store than what it's currently showing, in terms of processing power. He also added that the PS3 Cell processor has "a heap more processing headroom than they initially anticipated and that this was resulting in the development of new gaming capabilities". Such "new gaming capabilites" may not be put into practice by Spring 2007, but Sony hopes to have at least 20 new games available for the console's European launch.

"The PS3 has an awful lot of processing power and we will harness this power with firmware upgrades and new features. He also admitted that the PS3 will become as much a media centre for the home as it is a gaming machine and the introduction of new capabilities such as the ability to download third party operating systems to the PS3 will see several new capabilities added to the system. We have already seen one European Linux application running on the PS3 and over the next few months we know of several others that plan to launch a product for the PS3."

He also said that in the future the PS3 could come with a keyboard and mouse that will allow for easier access to the internet as well as the use of new media centre and third party applications."

So despite Nintendo Wii's successful launch and Microsoft expanding the Xbox 360 with new features and a HD-DVD drive, Sony's PlayStation 3 may be in for a major comeback. If we're still alive by the time that happens...

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Growing Ritual Exodus, Former Member Reveals New Game

The future of Ritual Entertainment has been pretty bleak as of late, after three key members (and reportedly several level designers too) have recently left the company. The exodus began with the departure of CEO Steve Nix at the end of November, who left Ritual for a Director of Business Development position at id Software, replacing Marty Stratton - who now is an executive producer over at id. Next came (went, actually) QA Manager Michael Russell, who on Monday confirmed on his blog that he is no longer with Ritual Entertainment either, while also hinting at things to come:

"More information later this week. I'd say more now, but I made an agreement with someone inside Ritual that I respect greatly, and I honor my agreements."

And just yesterday, FiringSquad learned about a third high-profile departure: vice-president and co-founder Tom Mustaine.

"The company's vice-president Tom Mustaine has confirmed to us that he has left Ritual, calling his departure "amicable". Mustaine, who was also one of Ritual's co-founders way back in 1996, told us via an email message, "Currently, I'm taking a vacation, then working on some cool new stuff to be announced". He would not confirm on what might currently be happening inside the Dallas based developer; we hope to get some official info from Ritual on the developer's future very soon."

You might remember that Shawn Ketcherside, the lead designer of SiN Episodes: Emergence, had already left the company a few months ago. And if rumours are true and several level designers are also fleeing from the studio, the ten-year old Texan developer might not even make it to its eleventh birthday. Let alone release SiN Episode 2!

On a separate note, another former Ritual member, Steven Peeler (who used to be a Technical Director at Ritual before leaving in 2004) infomed us that he is working on a new game called Depths of Peril, a single-player action
RPG with strong strategy elements. Developed by Soldak Entertainment, the game is scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2007, but curiously Steven could not offer us any kind of media (or a website at least) for the time being. Hopefully that will change "in a month or so".

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World of Warcraft Patch v2.0.1 Download // UPDATE #3

Before the storm of the Burning Crusade unleashes next month, Blizzard applies one final major updated to World of Warcraft, bringing it to version 2.0.1. Despite being over 480 MB in size, this is only an incremental patch from the previous version 1.12.0 or 1.12.1, not to mention it has an unusually complicated installation procedure, as detailed in the included Readme.txt file (and in our patch notes). Only the US/AU version is available for the time being, but we'll update this news once we get a hold of the European version for the v2.0.1 patch (a.k.a. "Before the Storm").

For now, you can download the incremental WoW patch v2.0.1 (US) locally, and we still have the full v1.12.0 patch (US and EU), in case you need to get that before upgrading to v2.0.1. As always, the World of Warcraft website has the full patch notes, along with the following highlights:

"The biggest storms are often preceded by a sudden calm, as if the whole world stands still for a moment while the winds gather all their strength. This patch includes many important changes and improvements leading up to the release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, including the new PvP Honor and Arena systems. Prove your worth on the Battlegrounds and earn new, powerful PvP Honor rewards, or take the ultimate test of your team PvP skills in the new Arena System. Also, you can already learn the new class talents that will help you brave the many challenges awaiting you in Outland and beyond.

There are many new, groundbreaking features to be found in this patch, but always remember: this is nothing but the calm... before the storm."

There is a new Looking For Group tool designed to assist players in finding groups for instanced dungeons and quests, a new PvP Honor system (all ranks have been reset), a new PvP Arena system (no actual ranking until The Burning Crusade), new talents and much more.

Last, but not least, you should take note that all UI addons will stop working once this patch is applied, and it might take a while before all your precious interface modifications will be updated by their respective authors. If they'll still bother, that is. As Blizzard puts it:

"WoW 2.0 represents a major change in the UI code, and as such ALL AddOns will need to be updated before they will work, if for no other reason than the Lua 5.0 to Lua 5.1 changes. Some AddOns will be more seriously affected, and a few will have to be redesigned."

WoW Insider has some advice on how to overcome this "addon apocalypse". Good luck!

UPDATE: Here you are, the European WoW patch v2.0.1, also incrementing the previous version 1.12.0 or 1.12.1. And "slightly" larger than the US version, at over 670 MB! [06.12.2006, 18:50]

UPDATE #2: To quote my brother, "Blizz f*cked up the patch". At least in Europe, the servers are currently all messed up (no NPCs in Kalimdor?!), and mostly down. GG!

UPDATE #3: The crysis seems to be over, all's good now.

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I don't normally make a big fuss out of a single YouTube trailer, but there's this one video that I'm sure you will enjoy, and not just because it was filmed at a Playboy Mansion party (don't hold your breath, there's nothing of that sort in this clip). It's an interview with David Jaffe, the creator of God of War (accompanied by a Sony Marketing watchdog by the name of Jeff Reese), which kicks off with the most straightforward question possible: "God of War 3, what can you tell us?". David's response?

"I started design... 4 days ago (ed. - that would be November 10, since the interview was filmed on November 14, though only posted on YouTube over the weekend). It doesn't mean we're in development! It just means I got my notebook open, I got a bunch of books in front of me, and I'm starting to think what could it be, if we actually make it. But right now, all the focus in Santa Monica is on God of War II."

Speaking of parties, ever seen a drunk marketing guy do his "thing"? Well, you will now: at one point in the interview, Jeff Reese (the Sony guy) spews one of those hyperbolical, incoherent PR blabbers about the future of the franchise: "God of War is going to actually move on to multiple platforms, and eventually culminate in this classic "batterama" on the PlayStation 3". In effect, all he manages is to get a bad-mouthed bashing from David Jaffe, who, as any sane human being, doesn't understand a thing from it. He does however hope to make it happen, on the PS3 indeed, but mentions that the project had not been given the green light by Sony, at that time.

"God of War 3 is something I would love to see happen, (...) Me and the director of God of War II [Cory Barlog] have started making some notes about where it could go, and if God of War II is successful and people want more, we're dying to make a new one, we're dying to make one on PS3, but no one's come down from kind of Sony exec level and said "here's your money, here's your team, go make it". But I hope so, I would love to do that."

David also talks a bit about having some ideas for the PS3 SIXAXIS controller. "We have a lot of ideas of how we could do a lot of neat things with the controller for God of War in every aspect of the game design", he says, but once again, doesn't go into any kind of details.

So now we're back to waiting and seeing how God of War II will do in early 2007. If any of the previous trailers were any kind of indication, I'd say there's nothing to worry about, the trilogy will be completed.

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Playlogic have been delaying their games like crazy over the past year or so. But luckily, Eidos stepped up and will help them publish a couple of PC titles, namely Ancient Wars: Sparta and Infernal (formerly known as Diabolique: License to Sin). Both games are carrying a Q1 2007 launch frame for the time being, and they will be distributed by Eidos throughout the world, except from a few countries. According to the two companies' agreement, these exceptions will be Russia and Japan for Infernal, and Russia, Italy, Spain and Latin America for Ancient Wars: Sparta.

Ancient Wars: Sparta is developed by Russian developer World Forge and provides players a true Real-Time Strategy experience. Ancient Wars: Sparta takes place in the ancient Mediterranean between 500 and 450 BC and is based on realistic historical settings. In command of either the Spartans, Egyptians or Persians you fight for supremacy in the region.

Infernal, developed by Polish studio Metropolis, is a third-person shooter for the PC (although at some point it was also set for the Xbox 360). The game tells the story of Ryan Lennox, a fallen angel, who has been recruited by hell to restore the balance between Good and Evil. Infernal makes use of 'Ageia PhysX software', enhancing the realistic effects of the game, and also supports the 'Ageia PhysX card' for even more stunning visuals.

"It's great to be working with Playlogic and to have these two exciting titles added to our 2007 PC line-up," said Scott Dodkins, European Managing Director, Eidos. "We know both titles are highly anticipated and we look forward to bringing them to market."

The official website of Infernal is now online at www.infernalgame.com, which can't be said for the official website of Ancient Wars: Sparta - www.ancientwarssparta.com - currently offline. Further information about these games can also be found on www.playlogicgames.com.

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