Apple iPhone v Palm Pre compare them here

Apple and Palm kicked a lot of dirt at each other last week - acting Apple CEO Tim Cook flatly told analysts that "We will not stand for people ripping off our IP" when asked specifically about competition like the Palm Pre, and Palm responded with a similarly-explicit "We have the tools necessary to defend ourselves." At issue, of course, is that the Pre employs a multitouch screen and gestures almost exactly like those made famous on the iPhone - and if you'll recall, Steve Jobs introduced multitouch on the iPhone with a slide reading "Patented!"

To top it all off, the past few days have seen a number of media outlets proclaim that Apple's been awarded a "multitouch patent" without so much as a shred of analysis, instead hyping up a supposed future conflict.

That's just not how we play it, so we enlisted Mathew Gavronski, a patent attorney in the Chicago office of Michael Best & Friedrich, to help us clear up some of the confusion and misinformation that's out there - read on for more on engadget.

The Ultimate rosewood guitar Hero Guitar from Logitech

Like the standard strummers bundled with Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Logitech's Premiere Edition lets you play wirelessly, up to ten metres away from your PlayStation 2 or PlayStation 3.

The difference being that it boasts actual, proper guitar features – rosewood fingerboard, metal frets and humbucker pickups. So though there’s still no risk you’ll be mistaken for Jimi Hendrix, you’ll at least look the part as you clunk your way through Purple Haze.

Batman - Arkham Asylum's Madhouse tour

Nathan Whitman, an associate producer at Warner Bros.' videogame division, is proud of the way Batman's cape is coming along in the game Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's a third-person game, so you spend the entirety of it staring at the cape, and Warner's is taking particular care to get it right.

"We've got a guy working full-time on cape physics," Whitman says. That means that Batman's signature mantle won't act like most videogame capes, floating through walls and enemies as if it were a holographic projection. It'll animate and collide realistically with everything.

View full post here on WIRED...

Apple's next iPhone will rule the world of gaming

The next upgrade to Apple's iPhone will have a strong focus on gaming, analysts and developers agree.
That's because the gaming market is an increasingly juicy segment of the mobile multimedia space — and it's one that Apple's phenomenally successful iPhone is well-positioned to dominate.

"The iPhone and iPod Touch are becoming a major new handheld gaming platform, and if you look at the App Store and look at what's doing well, that's reflecting," said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, developer of the popular Tap Tap Revenge iPhone game. "I would look forward to improvements in the device as a gaming platform both for the phone and iPod Touch."

Full post on WIRED here...

Gears of War on PC game stopped working? certificate expired? game killed? find out why...

Users on the Gears of War official forums are reporting that the digital certificates for the game have expired, as of 28th January 2009. 

This means that the game will not launch at a system date post-28th Jan. 

Obviously, this is awful news for those people who enjoy playing the game on the PC, since unless they keep their system date before the 28th, they cannot play the game.

This is what all the fuss about DRM (Digital Rights Management) is about; people who bought this game are essentially not allowed to play it. Ironically, the people who pirated the game, who the DRM is supposedly trying to stop, won’t be affected by this. The more that stuff like this happens due to DRM, the more the games are going to be pirated- only the customers are being punished. 

Anyway- bad show on Epic’s part; this needs to be fixed.

Necrovision zombie vampire horror packed video game details

Zombies? Check. Vampires? Check. Ninja Vampires? Check. Giant robotic scorpions built by mad German scientists? 1C Company is pleased to reveal more details about NecroVisioN's horror-fuelled plot, which puts a whole new spin on the World War One genre.

NecroVisioN is a fast-paced shooter exclusively released for the PC in February 2009 under the 1C Company label. Developed by Polish developer, The Farm 51, it mixes historical accuracy with a twisted plot that sees players venturing into the very jaws of Hell itself to stop a zombie army and an evil demon overlord.

Set in 1917, the Great War has been raging for two long years and a new recruit, Simon Bukner, is a US Army soldier who is the latest to face the harsh realities of war. His first mission sees him getting lost deep behind enemy lines alongside his battalion of Allied troops after trying to break through the German positions and into Allied territory. The Germans attack hard and the Allies get pushed deeper into the enemy trenches until they're ambushed and gassed.

Bukner manages to escape into an underground safe-house but everything has changed. The dead are rising from their muddy graves and attacking any living creature they can find. Now Bukner must try and escape through the scores of German soldiers, while fighting off flesh-hungry zombies. As Bukner shoots his way through the trenches he uncovers a truly horrifying plot to create an army of the undead.

In a bizarre twist, Bukner discovers that the zombie force is actually being created for the benefit of humanity. A shadowy group of vampires has enlisted the help of a necromancer to make them their own personal army of the walking dead. This unlikely alliance is a final effort for the vampires who are struggling to stop terrible demons from opening up a portal to Hell and wiping out every living thing on Earth. Now, armed with powerful vampire weapons and a magical artifact called the Shadowhand, Bukner must venture into the bowels of hell and stop the demons once and for all.

NecroVisioN will be released on PC by Aspyr Media in North America in Q2 of 2009

Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 on PlayStation 3 MUST be installed to play... 5 gig...

Word has it that up coming PlayStation 3 exclusive Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 requires, like a lot of PlayStation 3 games do these days, a mandatory install. Sign of the times!

Apparently, the install will be 5120 MB (5GB ). So those living in Japan who plan on buying the game next month, make sure you’ve got the extra space or be very, very sad. Just like these children.

Lux Delux iPhone game makes $140,000 in a month plus PC game sales rise

Vancouver-based developer Sillysoft Games has made $140,000 (that’s Canadian dollars) in a month from its Lux DLX iPhone game, according to this article in local paper Business In Vancouver.

That’s based on 25,000 sales of the game in the App Store at $7.99 a pop, with Sillysoft taking the regulation 70 per cent share of the revenues.

“I’m tempted to not make anymore desktop games and just do iPhone games,” founder Dustin Sacks tells the paper.

He also claims that the success of the iPhone version has boosted sales of the PC edition, and that the free Lux Touch iPhone game has been downloaded more than a million times.

The same article talks to fellow Vancouver developer IUGO, which doesn’t cough up any figures, but does say that it’s now only developing iPhone games, rather than the J2ME work-for-hire projects it used to take on.

UFC 2009 Undisputed v Fight Night Round 4: Weigh-In

Is 2009 the year of the fighting game? Street Fighter IV is coming out next month; King of Fighters XII will be out sometime after that; and there are two huge releases for sports fans this summer, UFC Undisputed and Fight Night Round 4.

While information is light on FNR4, there is definitely enough to begin speculating. When it comes UFC Undisputed, THQ is clearly pushing the game hard; it seems like there is a weekly press release. The contrasting approaches THQ and EA are taking when it comes to showing off their wares perhaps has something to do with being a known commodity, and simply being unknown.

Either way, as fans debate which sport is better, these games might help or hurt their arguments. Therefore, it is time to start analyzing two games that will be battling for fighting game supremacy in the not-so-distant future.

Rosters

UFC Undisputed has over 16 confirmed fighters, but THQ is promising that over 80 grapplers will be in the final game. All the big (active) names are on the list, including the freak of nature, Brock Lesnar, and his next opponent, Frank Mir. You can also expect to see Rashad Evans, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson and Antonio Nogueira. Joining these guys is the freshly announced Georges St. Pierre, who will face B.J. Penn -- also in the game -- at UFC 94 in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

FNR4 will have over 40 fighters, but only Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Winky Wright, Sugar Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson are confirmed thus far. This is Tyson’s first Fight Night appearance, and it seems the early ad campaign centers around a dream fight between Tyson and Ali. Get back on the topic of rosters, past games in the series have included Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, Manny Pacquiao and Roy Jones Jr., and legends like Joe Frazier, Roberto Duran, Evander Holyfield and Jake LaMotta. FNR4 producer Jeff Atienza promises the deepest roster of fighters of any FN game so far, but the official list will not be released until late February at the earliest.




One on One

UFC Undisputed will feature plenty of fighting styles, including judo, Muay Thai, wrestling, kickboxing, boxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Also, according to an interview Dana White had at UFC 92, each move will have a counter to it. Holding this all together will be a brand new control scheme that will supposedly be easy to use yet will still give players complete control of their fighters. Simply put, the fighting system has been built from the ground up, which should quell any concerns fans have about potentially playing Smackdown vs. Raw starring UFC.

FNR4 features a new physics system that focuses more on how cleanly your punches land, which should lead to a more realistic inside game. The blocking system will be different as well since you will no longer be able to consistently parry a right hook from Mike Tyson; a meter will tell you how strong your ability is to block. So if you are getting pounded, simply putting your hands up will not help you. The only video released for this game so far was the teaser trailer that premiered at the Spike TV Video Game Awards in December. That should change as the release nears, but we will have to live off of Tyson vs. Ali for at least another few weeks.

Things To Look Out for
While I have not played either of these games, this is not the first game for either developer. For one, UFC Undisputed is being developed by Yukes, which is the same company behind the Smackdown series. This is the same Smackdown series that has been mailing it in for the past few years. UFC fans should hope that the development of this game is the reason why there has been such drop-off in quality in the Smackdown series.

The Fight Night series usually misses out on adding a few big-name boxers to the roster. For example, Round 3 did not have Floyd Mayweather, Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad or Joe Calzaghe. A few stars have risen (Manny Pacquiao), while others have fallen (Roy Jones Jr.), so who knows what Round 4 will hold. Hopefully EA can include some newcomers like Andre Berto and Yuriorkis Gamboa, which would keep boxing fans happy.

Both games will feature a career mode and the ability to create a fighter, but I will hold off judgment until there is a clearer picture from both developers.

As more information leaks out for both of these games, you will be able to easily add stuff to this article. But even at this point, both games look promising. To some, MMA (specifically UFC) has taken over boxing as the number one hand-to-hand sport in the world, while others will say that nothing will ever top the sweet science. We probably will not see a knock out this summer, so we will have to take it to the judges. May the best game win.

Source: Operations Sports

Persona 3 v Persona 4 video games compared

Recent Persona games have become cult hits thanks largely to their gameplay framework - traditional Japanese RPG  leveling mechanics reframed around personal improvement, social relationships and the concept of the self. 

And though it’s about the lead character’s ultimately linear story  arc, this framework subtly becomes about  the player’s self, too.

Persona 3 and Persona 4 largely share the same main core gameplay concepts.

Players begin as a nameless, fac­eless protagonist, and  conduct that character through the events of a story as it unfolds across the calendar school year.

Read the full post here...