In what we may call “the smartest move they have made in the recent years”, Ubisoft decided to cancel the production of its video game based on Heroes, NBC Universal's television series featuring several retards with super-powers, running mindlessly and lacking any acting capabilities.



According to the big-time publisher, the rights for the game, which was announced last summer for PC and next gen consoles, are now safely back in the hands of NBC, hopefully never to return to our poor and innocent gaming universe. Ubisoft's ex-big plans regarding this also included Tim Kring, the TV series' creator, and Jesse Alexander, co-executive producer. Sadly for poor ol' Jess, he recently got fired from the show, because he probably sucks big time.

Source.

Since Blizzard said a bing no-no to the idea of creating (or porting) a MMO to consoles, Turbine took up the flag and announced, recently, its intentions to explore this yet... unexplored market, to establish a stronghold in this virgin land, where the hands of human beings have yet to set foot on. Turbine has a fair and decent history regarding MMOs, with its Lord of the Rings Online still living and breathing (and, in my humble opinion, the second best MMO out there), so chances are that they will not screw things up.

More details about this are said to come early next year, but do remember that Turbine has the license to create Tolkien-based MMOs until 2012, with the possibility of extending this deadline until 2017. If this was not enough (and we all know nothing is ever enough, except maybe the beating we took when we were kids), Turbine is working on a technology that allows players to create self evolving worlds, as in self-made content. Interesting concept for a MMO, we are eager to see how well it is implemented without completely ruining the game balance.

Source.

MMO players can be divided into two categories: the ones who play World of Warcraft and the ones who WILL play World of Warcraft sooner or later. A sad fact it may be, but it seems that the only way to actually quit playing Blizzard's massive milk cow is to quit playing MMOs alltogether. Just like I did.


During a recent earnings report, Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime has shown us a few very uninteresting numbers, also mentioning that, unlike some enthusiasts may have predicted, large numbers of players that have “quit” WoW recently, in the light of would-be competitors like Age of Conan and Worhammer Online, are slowly, but steadily, renewing their WoW subscriptions. Because the other games just plain ol' suck.

So, according to him, 68% of those dumb enough to think Age of Conan will be a big hit are coming back to WoW with their tail between their legs, while 48% of those who listed Warhammer Online as reason for cancellation... are doing the same. See any pattern here? Because there is only one pattern. There is no way in Hell a MMO game can challenge WoW at this moment, and win.

Source.

There are only two options here: Either you are a Mortal Kombat insane individual, who still knows all the fatalities, animalities, brutalities and whateverities from Mortal Kombat 3, either you are one of those guys who dream about Cat Woman every night (and, strangely, wake up in the morning with this sticky fluid all over the place). There is no gray here. Just this, or that.



Fans of both universes will be happy to know that Midway's Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe has gone Gold today, as the game is all wrapped up and sent to manufacturers to do the job they are being payed for. Meaning, put the game in a box. Or various kinds of boxes. For once, here is a game that will actually be released as stated, on November 16 in the US of A, and November 21 in Europe.

Time to teach those gay superheroes a lesson. Thanks, Teh Shack.

If you happen to be playing MMOs, then you also live in fear of the constant General spam, Whisper spam, Mail spam and various other kinds of spam regarding in-game money selling. I am (but, hopefully, used to be) a World of Warcraft player myself, and if I were to count all those messages I've got involving “PLX BUY OUR GOLDZ!” or “WWW.GAYSITE.COM SELLZ BEST!”, I would probably be losing (another) 4 years of my life.

And we also know that most gold farmers are “Chinese”. So we gank them. A lot. Well, the Chinese government has actually found a way to gang them in real life also, by collecting a 20% tax on all revenues from the redistribution of online, virtual currency. And why not? The market so far is growing, has still great potential, it it suffers from no taxes (until now) and it is a pain in the large asses of decent players who try to play a game without suffering insane, buffed, AH prices.

The Wall Street Journal has more on this.

So, the much anticipated, awaited and already hacked Nintendo Dsi has been released in Japan this Saturday. Nintendo, being a wary company (even in the Motherland) has only thrown on the market a number of 200.000 units, just to see how it goes.

Well, it went extremely well, it seems, all the handhelds have been sold in a heartbeat. Just like a pantsu sale in Akihabara would go, actually. According to various websites that reviewed the product, both the image editing software and the browsing are a bit meh (which, eventually, will be fixed through updates, we hope), but both these features have great potential when it comes to future video games. How, we shall wait and see.


To fully make us wet in the pants, Nintendo also announced that it will launch a set of downloadable WarioWare games to fully demonstrate the console's capabilities in the near future. Sadly, both the American and European customers will have to wait for a regional release, since, you know, Japan is the only thing that matters.

I will be eagerly awaiting my pink Nintendo Dsi next summer, so I can chase little girls with it in the bus station. Thanks, Slashdot

Either I’m spending too much time in-house, getting out of reach with people and understanding them less and less as they evolve (and I don’t), either some people have certain issues that need to be solved. Right away.

GenCon has a lot of cash, and, in the memory of Gary Gygax, the almighty ruler, creator, god and pretty much everything that involves Dungeons & Dragons, they wanted to donate some of it to Christian Children's Fund (which, it seems, it was his favorite charity dump pool). You know, that sort of non-profit organization that tends to children welfare.

All nice and dandy, a great gesture that shows respect to our little ones and for their future, only that… CCF refused the said donations in a blink of an eye. Reason? Because GenCon’s money (well, at least some of it) comes from gaming sales, especially D&D related sales.

This would, according to them, make CCF look like

“an endorser or supporter of a gaming convention, which CCF was not...we cannot lend our name to an event for which we have no involvement. This decision should in no way be interpreted as CCF holding an opinion on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeons and Dragons."

Now please excuse me for saying this, but… what the fuck has saving children anything to do with Dungeons & Dragons? Hell, if Hitler would come offering me one million dollars that he made from selling Jewish-made soap, I would take it. And then spend it well. And please notice that my needs are nowhere compared to the needs of the 3rd world children. I don’t really know, to laugh, or to cry. Ah, well, I’d better wait for Hitler, maybe he will show up with my money.

Scoop tiem!

Some good news for those of you who like to wear Cloud earrings, play with Tifa dolls or gather various other art pieces inspired from the masterpieces of Square Enix – the company finally decided to open its online store on fresh, unmolested, European soil.



Well, good news for Europeans, at least, Europeans who got tired to order their precious stuff online via weird and obscure third-party websites. While the store is not yet complete (let’s call it… a Beta stage), it certainly is in progress, and it has a lot of goodies for display. I am really curious what countries exactly will be eligible for shipping when it’s all done, because I would sure want to get my hands on one of them Aeris inflatable love dolls.

The games listed include LOTS of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and so on, and so forth.

If I would be in the pants of the US military (not “in the pants” as in “in the pants of a Japanese high school girl”), and if I was to make a top ten of the most desired equipment to use on the field, this, somehow, would have made the list.

No less than 1.6 million USD were the bait for this project, a project in which some scientists from UCSD (I have absolutely no idea what that abbreviation stands for, I admit) must create a Gordon Freeman HEV suit. Yes, you’ve heard me right. A suit that comes complete with a system that monitors any life activity, acting accordingly when things go bad, and giving you a pat on the back when things go right.

...well, it's not actually going to be named like that, but you can spot the similarities here and there.

You get a shot in the leg, the suit will administer you with the proper medicine. Basically, all the basic First Aid functions of a field medic (except putting you out of your misery when things go bad, but what are friends for). Combine this with everything else that the military has in mind, Hell, we’ll get a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. biosuit next, a Crysis whatever –it’s-called suit later, and only after that a complete loli outfit for those who really need it.

A Gizmodo scoop.

The ladies at Capcom are calmly wrapping up their files with this new release schedule, published on MCV, pointing out to some of their most anticipated franchises and their new “dates of birth”. Surprisingly, but not equally that certainly, it seems that Resident Evil 5 has somehow, through mischievous and dark rituals, found a way to the PC platform along side its console little sisters, and will be released in the same day, March, 13, 2009. I personally doubt this, or at least, I hope that they will give the eventual PC release more time for… polish. Remember the disaster called Resident Evil 4 on the PC? I bet you do.

In other news, and from the same press thing, the “next winter” release for Street Fighter 4 (PS3, X360) has magically become 27 February. Oh boy, I can’t wait for this one, really. The full release list is as follows:

Neopets Puzzle Adventure – Wii, DS, PC – January 23rd
Bionic Commando – PS3, 360, PC – February 13th
MotoGP Wii – Wii – February 20th
Street Fighter IV – PS3, 360, PC – February 20th
Dead Rising - Wii – February 27th
Resident Evil 5 – PS3, 360, PC – March 13th

I would like to note that Capcom previously denied rumors about a PC version of Street Fighter 4, although this list… lists it.