gaming

We've heard about songs getting released on iLike, Imeem, MySpace, and a whole lot else. But Rock Band?

That's on the way, according to Microsoft's press conference at the E3 Expo. The New York Times reported that that it could be on the way as rumors swirled that Rock Band 2, the second iteration of the music video game from MTV, would include a track called "Shacklers' Revenge" from legendary hard-rock group Guns N' Roses.

Now it's been confirmed. The long-delayed new Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, is on the way too, and … Read more

Java-based massive multiplayer online game RuneScape on Monday is increasing its detail level for all users. It's the second major graphical overhaul the service has undergone since launching in 2001 and is noticeably better than previous iterations.

Part of that change is the further utilization of the player hardware, which has made considerable improvements over the years due to GPU-intensive operating systems like Windows Vista and OS X Leopard. Runescape HD doesn't need a $400 graphics card, though it'll play on any machine with a 64MB 3D Graphics card or an equivalent thereof. Players also need a … Read more

Even though the iPhone has been dominating developer headlines recently, it looks as if there's still some air in the social-network gaming space.

The Social Gaming Network, a start-up that develops games for social platforms such as Facebook and OpenSocial, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' personal investment firm, Bezos Expeditions.

This comes just months after the company closed a $15 million Series A round from Greylock Partners, the Founders Fund, and others.

Founded by the creators of Web 1.0 page creator Freewebs (which now calls itself Webs.com), the Social … Read more

We're still enjoying Guitar Hero at my office but I would be willing to move the Wii to a more spacious location in order to accomodate this awesome new Ion Audio drumset for Rock Band.

Drum Rocker for Rock Band

Contrary to popular belief, San Francisco is not a great music town, at least not if you are a drummer and want to practice in your house. Unlike the east coast (and presumably elsewhere) where basements are plentiful, the bay area is lacking in-home practice areas.

Generally speaking electronic drums are not that satisfying, but bring … Read more

Microsoft on Sunday cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model game console with a 20GB hard drive from $349 to $299.

The company also introduced a new Xbox 360 model with a 60GB hard drive. It will go on sale in stores in the U.S. and Canada for $349 in early August.

Microsoft's announcements, which were widely expected, come on the eve of the start of this week's E3 video game industry trade show in Los Angeles.

Rumors of the Xbox price cut swirled on popular gaming blogs Joystiq and Kotaku last week. The … Read more

We've been playing Super Monkey Ball for a few minutes--OK, hours--now, and it's every bit as fun as promised. If you're not familiar with this title, which has been made uber-popular on other gaming platforms, the gameplay is thus: you are one of four monkey characters who happens to reside in a clear sphere. Your goal is to roll around a series of precariously strung platforms into the goal portal. On the iPhone, control is accelerometer-based--simply tilting the device back and forth controls your momentum.

Our initial observations:

By average people we mean, mean people. As we have learned that mean and average are indubitably the same thing. However, we also learned on today's show that men are from Redmond and women are from Cupertino. That and a lot of news that actually isn't about the iPhone. Though we covered that to. Listen now: Download today's podcast

iPhone 2.0 software available for download http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9987221-93.html http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/10/iphone-2-0-firmware-5a347-available-early/

Apple launches new iTunes with App Store http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9987100-93.html

It’s … Read more

Yahoo Games announced on Thursday that it will expand into ad-supported online games by the end of the year, a move not without its controversy.

Yahoo Games expects to offer more than 400 ad-supported downloadable games via assistance from casual-game advertising network and technology players Double Fusion and NeoEdge Networks.

Under the partnership, Double Fusion and NeoEdge will sell and integrate video ads before, during, and after a game, which is downloaded from Yahoo Games. NeoEdge also is providing technology that will enable Yahoo to insert ads into its game library without requiring the game source code.

Yahoo, however, still … Read more

A new online baseball game may finally help put to rest an age-old debate: how would Babe Ruth do at the plate facing Nolan Ryan's fastball?

That is the kind of scenario that may be possible soon with Baseball Boss, a free browser-based game released Thursday that combines fantasy sports with virtual baseball card collecting. The game allows fantasy managers to build teams with Major League Baseball players from 1907 and 2007 (more years will be added later) that can play other user-created teams or even historical teams such as the 1907 Brooklyn Superbas. Instead of focusing on stat … Read more