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Is women’s hockey too two-sided?

Posted by Adrien Griffin Categories: Editorial, Olympics,

Team Canada With the Olympics in full swing, the world has now got a taste of what the countries in the women’s ice hockey tournament are all about. Nothing too unexpected has happened so far. For the US team it’s business as usual, while the Canadian women have laid a beating on their competition so far. In their first game last Saturday, Canada broke their own Olympic record for goals by crushing Slovakia 18-0. It was a game that prompted many questions among the hockey world.

Click to continue reading Is women’s hockey too two-sided?

Microsoft Guidelines for Marketplace Mobile

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Microsoft, Portable Audio / Video,

Microsoft Marketplace logo Pay attention if you are trying to develop an app for Marketplace for Mobile. Microsoft has issued guidelines for what it will accept. Included on the list are applications that change Microsoft’s default browser, search or media player on a cell phone. Others include using ads for carriers, those with VoIP calls on an operator’s network and apps that promote mobile voice plans. You can read the entire list of 12 no-nos at Information Week.

Barely Legal: Worst NBC Title Ever?

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Comedy, NBC, Editorial, News,

Hilary Duff I thought Kate Winslet’s double-win at the Golden Globes last night was a stunner, but this one takes the cake.

NBC, the network that chose to eliminate its entire 10:00 time slot next year for Jay Leno, is currently developing a project with the most laughable name around: Barely Legal.

Do we really have to explain why the show’s title would probably overshadow its content? (At least the kind of content an NBC series would have?) Did anyone on the creative team realize what would happen if fans tried Googling the program by that name? Am I the only one weirded out that the comedy stars Hilary Duff, someone who’s barely 21?

And while I understand where the title comes from (the concept is based on the true story of a California lawyer who passed the bar at age 18), that doesn’t make it feel less icky for me. Fortunately, since the show is still in development, it’s possible the network could change the title at a later date. But then again, maybe NBC is banking on the extra web traffic?

iPhone to get official 3rd party developer support in February

Posted by Sparky Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio / Video, Software,

Apple announced today that starting in February they will be offering an SDK to allow developers to create applications for the iPhone and the iPod touch. The announcement comments that Apple is being conscious of the need to protect the iPhone from viruses as well as to keep the platform stable, however opening up the multi-touch platform to developers will result in a new wave of revolutionary mobile applications. Although many in the hacking community have grumbled about the recent lockouts with the 1.1.1 version of the iPhone/iPod touch software this should appease them, as well as provide richly documented API’s to allow for easier development that will hopefully utilize the full potential of the platform. Why do we need to wait until February?

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task.

It would have been nice to have the SDK available from launch, but better late than never. Expect to see a flood of highly polished and engaging applications appearing on an iPhone near you sometime early next year.

Mercenaries 2 Delayed Until 2008

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Electronic Arts, PC, PlayStation 3, Release Dates, Xbox 360,

EA‘s upcoming open-world game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is being pushed back until 2008, further relaxing the pressure on a still crowded holiday season for games. Speaking to developer Pandemic Studios President Josh Resnick, IGN coaxed out a few more details:

We’re adding nothing at this point. Our only goal is to make gamers proud that they own a copy of Mercenaries 2 by making the highest quality next-gen open-world experience the world has ever seen. If that sounds ambitious, then you should see how many cans of caffeine our programming guys have choked down during the past two years of development.

Resnick also complimented Rockstar and said that he wasn’t concerned about competing with Grand Theft Auto IV because, as he puts it, “We know gamers are bloodhounds when it comes to sniffing out a quality gameplay experience, and we’re hoping that scent leads them directly to Mercenaries 2.” He said they were using the extra time to focus on fixing bugs, tuning the physics and working on the mission structures.

The delay was initial rumored because retail outlets adjusted their release dates from late ‘07 to 2008, forcing Pandemic and EA to confirm the delay. Commenting on the leak, Resnick said, “Those dang sneaky retailers! You just can’t seem to keep a lid on something once they hear about it.”

Silent Hill V Video and Developer Interviews

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: PlayStation 3, Survival Horror, Trailers, Xbox 360,

Check out the video featuring footage and interviews with developers of the upcoming spook-fest sequel, Silent Hill V. Development of the game has been handed off to The Collective, but they seem to be determined to return the game to territory more akin to Silent Hill 2 than the mixed reception of IV. They’ve got a pretty solid looking engine running that features a lot of the familiar effects now rendered in real-time plus they’ve worked to enhance the combat which was always kind of a series weak point.

Unfortunately the interview doesn’t dive too deeply into how well The Collective can manage to retain the creeping psychological unease Silent Hill is famous for (versus rival series Resident Evil‘s shock and gore approach).

Silent Hill V is due sometime in 2008 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Click to continue reading Silent Hill V Video and Developer Interviews

Kaz Hirai Hits the Interview Circuit

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: PlayStation 3, Sony,

Sony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai has been speaking out about the PlayStation 3 including the reported development troubles some studios have had and Sony‘s commitment to the Japanese market.

Regarding the difficulty in development Hirai said he’s seen this before when the PS2 drew similar criticisms early in its lifecycle and that it doesn’t concern him. He said to The Official PlayStation Magazine that, in fact, he welcomes the news:

If they came back and told me, ‘PS3? We can do this in a heartbeat,’ that would be worrying because what it is telling me is that we’re not pushing the envelope from a technology standpoint.

In another interview with a Japanese website he said that developers working on cross-platform games ought to take advantage of the PS3’s extra capability to give PlayStation owners extra value. For example, “[W]ith the PS3, you’ve got the Sixaxis controller, or you could utilize the extra capacity provided by Blu-ray to add more levels, put on interviews with the developers or have your videos able to play in 1080p.” He said he understood why developers were choosing to work cross-platform considering the cost of making modern games.

Later in the same interview he tried to reassure Japanese gamers that they weren’t being overlooked:

Just because the foreign market is bigger than the domestic one, we don’t intend to take strategy of just making what would have been considered previously as ‘Western games’ and saying ‘We’ve got no choice but to do this’ to our Japanese users. If we did that, there’d be no point in having the Japan Studio.

Valve’s Gabe Newell Speaks About the Orange Box and Wii

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: First Person Shooters, PlayStation 3, Release Dates, Wii, Xbox 360,

The Orange Box: Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2

Game Informer has an interview up with Valve‘s Gabe Newell where he discusses the upcoming Orange Box which will include Half-Life 2 plus Episodes 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. From the interview:

Episode Two was really helped by Episode One, believe it or not. I think that we’ll continue to get the hang of it. It’s a pretty big deal to throw a bunch of wrenches into your development process and say, “We’re going to try to do this differently now.” We’ve learned a lot. If we’re right, the fans we’ll let us know, and if we’re wrong, they’ll let us know. (laughs) I think they’re going to be pretty happy. I think they’re going to be really, really happy with the Orange Box in what we’ve been able to pull off, and a lot of it is based on their feedback from what we did with Episode One.

Newell also briefly weighs in on the Wii, casually dismissing the lesser hardware specs compared with the other next gen consoles saying, “I think it’s more interesting than just graphics chip – CPU combination. It’s the machine I have at home.”

Click to continue reading Valve’s Gabe Newell Speaks About the Orange Box and Wii

Dyack Still Firm on 2008 Release For Too Human

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Microsoft, Release Dates, Xbox 360,

Too Human “It is always darkest before the dawn.”

Those were Denis Dyack‘s melodramatic words in a forum post as a reply to someone expressing frustration and disappointment over the outspoken Silicon Knights founder’s latest project, Too Human. After a disappointing show at the 2006 E3, Too Human fell from view and was conspicuously absent from this year’s E3 aside from a logo displayed during Microsoft’s press conference.

Then, shortly after E3, Silicon Knights filed suit against Epic over their Unreal 3 Engine, licensed by SK, claiming among other things that Epic had withheld valuable resources in favor of working on their own projects like Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War. Epic countersued claiming that Silicon Knights was misrepresenting the original contract and lots of public trash-talking and childishness ensued.

Click to continue reading Dyack Still Firm on 2008 Release For Too Human

EA Canada Vets To Develop Wii, DS Titles

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories:

Wii GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that former EA Canada employees have banded together to form a new development studio, Jet Black Studios that will focus on developing titles for Nintendo’s Wii and DS consoles. The new team states that they will be working on original and licensed titles; hopefully this focus will allow development of game software particularly suited to the capabilities of Nintendo’s unique offerings. While the members of the development team at Jet Black have decent pedigrees, coming from FIFA, Need for Speed and James Bond franchises, their partner Flashman Studios seems to be mainly responsible for the release of second tier licensed properties.

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