Games

I was joking with an editor of mine this afternoon that CNET News.com should put a little permanent widget on our front page that says something along the lines of, "Has Electronic Arts announced a timeline extension of its offer to buy Take-Two Interactive today? Yes or no." And then it would have a little check-box for each choice.

Now, in all fairness, most days, the "No" box would be checked. But let's be honest here: On an awful lot of days, we'd have to toggle it to "Yes."

Today would … Read more

If ever there was a rock star video game developer, it has to be Tomonobu Itagaki, leader of the Tecmo Team Ninja studio that just released Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360.

Easily recognized by his rail-thin frame, dark sunglasses, long hair, and devil-may-care leather jacket, Itagaki is the very image of someone who goes his own way and who keeps his own, very non-corporate counsel.

But it seems to have caught everyone by surprise that, as reported by Gamasutra, Itagaki has resigned from Tecmo and is now suing the publisher for $1.42 million in a financial dispute … Read more

If you're aiming to be green these days, I'm afraid I have to counsel you to turn the power off on your next-generation video game console.

According to Reuters, an Australian research firm has concluded that machines like Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 lead the field when it comes to consumer electronics that consume the most power.

And no, not using them is not enough. As the Australian researchers at Choice found, the machines continue to gobble up power, even when they're in stand-by mode.

The PS3 topped Choice's list, followed by … Read more

Studies have shown that many gamers actually like to see ads when they're playing their favorite first-person shooter or side-scroller. Hard as that may be to believe, the studies reveal that gamers find the ads make their experience more realistic.

Every time I think of that I have to heave a big sigh of resignation, since I find it depressing that realism based on ads is seen by some as a good thing.

But if you're one of the people whose opinion is reflected in those studies, you may be excited about a partnership announced Wednesday in which … Read more

There are few things that video game publishers--or any consumer products companies, for that matter--like more than reaching big, notable milestones.

So it was with considerable pride that Activision's wholly owned Infinity Ward studio told me Tuesday that its war game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, has just sold its 10 millionth copy.

Infinity Ward studio head Vince Zampella didn't know exactly how many units the game had sold on each platform it is available on--the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC--but did say that COD 4 had been most successful on the Xbox.

These days, monster … Read more

If some researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Singapore-based Gambit Game Lab have anything to say about it, gamers with serious vision problems won't have to take a backseat to their 20/20 friends anymore.

On Tuesday, the lab unveiled AudiOdyssey, a game for the Nintendo Wii that is based solely around sound and tasks players with mimicking a DJ trying to create a catchy beat that people can dance to.

The idea is that players--those with or without vision problems--can use the Wii's motion-sensitive controllers to get a rhythm going and then build more complex … Read more

Sony on Tuesday said it will unveil on June 5 what it's calling Qore, a "highly interactive, monthly original program that covers the world inside PlayStation."

The idea is that Qore will offer anyone interested in the PlayStation universe a sort of peek behind the curtain at what's going on with the platform, with developers of PlayStation titles, and with the games themselves.

Unfortunately, Qore will not be broadcast to everyone. It will be available only through the official PlayStation Store, a shopping portal accessible via PlayStation 3s. Viewers who want to watch Qore will pay … Read more

With Electronic Arts' much-anticipated evolution game, Spore, not scheduled to hit store shelves until September 7, it seems that it is stoking fans' interest by releasing bite-size teasers every week or two.

Last month, EA released the first video of the game's cell stage, in which players evolve their creatures from primordial murk.

And on June 17, it will release the game's creature creator, allowing anyone to make Spore creatures for free that they can use later on when the game is out.

Now, it has put out the first video and detailed screen shots of the tribal … Read more

Over on Boing Boing this evening, I read about WTF?!, a terrific-sounding sidescroller role-playing video game that is a spot-on parody of World of Warcraft.

In his post about the new game, Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow linked to games guru Greg Costikyan's own entry on WTF?!, which drew the parallels to the massively successful WoW and an image like the one above: "It's a World of Warcraft screenshot, right? Well, no--it's a screenshot from WTF?!, a Flash-based sidescroller parodying WoW. And it's note-perfect, too--every interface element and the backgrounds and characters look like they'… Read more