Laser Sharks

A pirated copy of Grand Theft Auto IV was leaked to the internet by a group called iCON earlier this week. Initially, just the iCON leaked just the PAL version but now the NTSC version is available as well. The previous entry to the Grand Theft Auto series, San Andreas, was also leaked early on the internet. However, the early leak certainly did not harm game sales - San Andreas has sold over 21.5 million copies.

iCON also issued a strong warning against playing the game on Xbox Live before its official release, as that would basically put a large bullseye for Microsoft on any console modders. iCON is also encouraging people who download the pirated copy to purchase the full game once it is released saying that “R* deserves it.”

It would be surprising if the Swedes that run thepiratebay.org were to suddenly start apologizing or feeling shame for running one of the largest torrent sites on the internet. However, they it is a bit surprising to see that they have changed their main page logo to say “Liberty City” to correspond with the recent leak of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The Pirate Bay frequently changes their main page image, but it is unexpected to see such a timely logo change. Traffic is still light on the torrents, most like due to a requirement to mod an Xbox 360 to be able to play it. Remember kids, stealing is bad!

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EA has been pursuing publisher Take Two Interactive since mid-February when the video game giant offer a $2 billion buyout. Take Two refused the initial offer but EA continued pursuing the company stating in a letter that “if you are unwilling to proceed on that basis, however, we may pursue other means, including the public disclosure of this letter, to bring our offer and the compelling value it represents to the attentions of Take-Two’s shareholders.” If the takeover is successful, EA will have control of hit franchises such as 2K Sports, Midnight Club, Bioshock, The Elder Scrolls, and most notably, Grand Theft Auto.

EA has a reputation within the gaming community for being unwilling to take risk, pushing out annual games just with minimal improvements, and using microtransactions to charge for things that other publishers give out for free. Take Two, although having a reputation outside of the gaming industry is less than good, its reputation inside the gaming community is stellar.

TheGamingReviews.com wrote an article about the worst things that EA could do to the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Here is the summary of the article below.

EA Trax Replaces Radio Stations

The radio stations have been crucial in creating the setting and mood throughout the Grand Theft Auto series.  In fact, the Vice City soundtrack is probably the best collection of 80s music ever created. However, EA may think it is better to institute their own brand of licensed music with the dreaded EA Trax that everyone tries to turn off when loading up an NHL or Madden game. Speaking of other EA properties, no doubt the company would see that just like real life radio, the air waves permeating Liberty City would also be a great way to keep you informed of whatever other EA products are being released.

Capitalizing on Downloadable Content

Changing clothes and adding accessories is a staple of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. EA, with their history of abusing microtransactions, would see the potential of putting all of these virtual items to good use.  Imagine having to pay real dollars for a nice new jacket, sunglasses, shotgun or even in the worst case, cars themselves. Like it or not, GTA is a prime candidate for downloadable transactions that go far beyond a little episodic content. Despite their folding at the outcry over purchasing guns in Battlefield: Bad Company, no amount of torrential wailing from gamers could stop them from being tempted to pick such low hanging fruit.

Annual Releases

Big franchises such as Rainbow Six and Guitar Hero have move to a yearly release to suck the maximum amount of money from gamers’ pockets. EA is certainly not a stranger to this trend with their yearly lineup of sports franchises.  EA may push for an annual GTA game which, as evident from other annual releases, would suffer from a lack of improvements from game to game and difficulty in creating new settings. Who else is looking forward the GTA: Topeka?

Driving Rockstar Away

In order to keep up with an increased number of games (see Annual Releases), publishers have started using alternate developers for games such as Call of Duty 3 and Guitar Hero 3. These games never seem to match the magic of the games from the original developers. There are lots of GTA clones that are released every year, but none of them live up to the game created by Rockstar. Take Two was smart enough to leave Rockstar alone and let them create their art. EA does not have such a good track record of handling developers that they purchase.

Giving In to the Man

The Grand Theft Auto franchise is a very controversial one. Mass media, mothers, and Jack Thompson all hate the series. GTA has made a lot of money for Take Two, but Take Two has also spent a lot of money defending GTA in legal battles. Would a company like EA, which may not have a particularly sparkling clean image in the gaming community but certainly does outside of it, be willing to take responsibility for such scandalous software? Would they try to release a “T” rated version with toned-down violence, humor, and edginess? While some PR problems within the gaming community are one thing, getting criticized from the government and society at large probably isn’t something EA wants, given that they’re an even easier target than Take 2.

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Mortal Kombat 8 is actually going to be a spin-off game called “Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. Apparently, Midway is hoping to cash in on some of the Marvel vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. SNK popularity. Although it seems like MK vs DC was announced about a decade too late, it is actually shipping this Fall for Xbox 360 and PS3. There is another plot twist in the newest iteration of Mortal Kombat - it has been confirmed to have a “Teen” rating. This is most likely a concession to DC Comics. Midway is still including lots of blood and bone-crunching moves, but the over the top fatalities that angered mobs of overly-concerned parents in the 1990s are gone.

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According to videogamer.com , Comedian Ricky Gervais is going to make a cameo appearance in Rockstar’s upcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV.  Liberty City will feature a comedy club in addition to bowling alleys and bars in its latest iteration of the ultra-popular, ultra-controversial open world game.

Gervais told men’s magazine ShortList in an interview that he would appear in GTAIV as one of the stand-up acts in the comedy club. His avatar will perform approximately 3 minutes of new material in addition to excerpts from his hit tour Fame. Gervais also confirmed that he would appear in the game outside of the comedy club, but refused to elaborate.

Quotes from Ricky Gervais in ShortList:

“It’s a first - which always interests me. It was shot in New York, my favourite place in the world, and I got to wear a tight lycra suit as part of the digital process. No, hold on, that wasn’t so good.”

“Unfortunately they captured the whole horror, except I look slightly tougher. It is seriously a big deal, though. Games have outsold Hollywood for the past few years so it’s nice to be a small part of that.”

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Assassin’s Creed Lead Engineer Mathieu Mazerolle was asked the big question; how do the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions stack-up against each other?

Our goal is to ship the two versions of [Assassin’s Creed] to be within 5% or less of difference between each other. That doesn’t mean the PS3 is 5% “better” or “worse”, it’s really just an approximation and a statement that while the two versions are very similar, there will be (as there always is) small, hopefully inperceptible, differences between the two versions within a very small threshold.

He also added:

Both machines are very complex and have very distinct strengths and weaknesses, so it’s almost impossible to quantify these sorts of comparisons - we just want to make the game as good as it can be on both platforms, and owners of both consoles will get the same experience from playing [Assassin’s Creed].

At X07 when asked about the benefit of Blu-Ray versus standard DVD Mathieu told us that even if UbiSoft wanted to add a new piece of content to the Xbox 360 version of Assassin’s Creed the DVD version is already at capacity.

He clarified:

As far as adding extra content, it’s not really an issue: we have all the content we need for the game fitting on a DVD as it is, and the game wouldn’t necessarily be better by just by adding “stuff” on the disk: the biggest limitation for us isn’t disk space, it’s squeezing every last drop of performance out of the processors on both consoles to make the game as cool as possible on the screen!

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EGM has received tons of hate mail since they awarded Halo 3 with the “Best A.I. of E3″ honor and stuck Killzone 2 with ”Worst A.I. of E3.”  There have been the typical cries of bias and fanboyism.  EGM Editor Dan Hsu has fan the fires of this debate on his blog with an FAQ style response.

Microsoft game vs. a Sony game. How convenient.
OK, that wasn’t really a question, but it’s a legit comment. We didn’t pick Halo 3 and Killzone 2 specifically to go against each other or to cause extra controversy. We voted as a staff (including the entire 1UP Network, which includes 1UP.com and GameVideos.com), and we honestly and independently came up with Halo 3 at the top of the list for best A.I. and Killzone 2 at the “top” for worst. We didn’t even think of it as Microsoft vs. Sony thing until we realized that both games won their respective categories.

But is it fair to pick Halo 3 because you guys actually got a chance to play it? Versus Killzone 2, which was only on demo, played by the developers.
Good question, but no…our previous hands-on experience with Halo 3 (for our last cover story) did not factor into the voting. Very few of us actually played single-player Halo 3 when we did our cover story, and when I voted, I kept that game time out of mind for these awards. I based my best/worst A.I. votes purely on what was shown to me at E3…and Halo 3 and Killzone 2 were both on equal grounds there. Both were not playable by us, only played for us by their respective developers, and based on those E3 demos and those demos alone, we voted the way we did. I saw excellent A.I. from Halo 3 specifically from the E3 demo, and I saw an extreme example of bad A.I. from Killzone 2 (see below)…also at E3. That’s why I voted for those two games for those respective categories.

But there’s gotta be some other, lesser-profile games with worse A.I. than Killzone 2.
Based on what we’ve seen and what we voted on, totally fairly, Killzone 2 nabbed the award. Part of the problem is, the Killzone 2 showed some very noticeable flaws. It wasn’t like the enemies were just standing around. Like we mentioned in the write-up, the bad guys were actually jumping out of cover to get *in* the line of fire. It’s like they wanted to get shot. That alone, unfortunately, made Killzone 2 look worse (A.I.-wise) than it probably is.

So you guys hate Killzone 2, huh?
Shut up, you stupid FAQ man. The write-up in EGM greatly compliments Killzone 2 as a whole. We’re just making fun of one specific thing: that whole “jumping out of cover” business.

OK, then you must hate Sony.
Heh, check out how many good awards the company picked up in the same feature. Oh by the way–this should be obvious, but in case you didn’t know, moneyhats are mutually exclusive. You can’t accept one from Microsoft *AND* Sony at the same time. It’s in the contracts.

Oh by the way again–this should be obvious, but in case you didn’t know, I was joking just now.

Isn’t it unfair to compare a game that’s still months away from release (Killzone 2) to a game that’s almost finished (Halo 3)?
Oh, for sure, but that’s part of the problem for any E3 judging…all games are at different points in their development. But we still have E3 awards in EGM. We still have our annual E3 opinionated guide in EGM. The industry even has its own E3 awards. Are all of them fair? No…not if you look at how far along each individual title is in its development. But then again, yes…the companies are putting these products out for the media to see, and as we’ve done many times in the past, we’ll judge them (knowing full well they’re incomplete games). So in the context of these being E3 games and E3 demos, we’re treating them all equally and as fairly as possible.

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On the Halo series page at Wikipedia, an edit originated from Sony Computer Entertainment casts aspersions on Microsoft’s Halo 3. In the Halo 3 section of the Halo page, Sony added “(Halo 3) wont look any better than Halo 2.” (See the first and second story images attached below.) Since then, the Halo page has been corrected and locked from further vandalism.

The WikiScanner discovery is reported on Wired’s ‘Threat Level’. The report and IP address have been checked by Wired senior editor Kevin Poulsen, (i.e., see the third attached image for Poulsen’s comments; “Sony insults Halo 3″ is the second report after the Walmart report.)

Finally, the forth and last image was taken from a ‘Whois’ search at the RIPE.net database for “217.18.23.2″, the IP address recorded by Wikipedia as having edited the Halo page. The query shows that 217.18.23.2 is registered to SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) Liverpool Studios in Great Britain. The result also shows the studio’s physical address, phone number, and email address.

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Sorry about being away for so long.  Business trips and laziness have combined to make for some really bad posting.  I want to send out a special apology to Rob.  I know your day was not complete without the latest updates from Lasersharks.

There is an updated confirmed track list for Guitar Hero III.  Check it out here.

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Sony can now add the Cell Processor to the growing list of PS3 features which have generated a lawsuit. Sony has already had patent suits over the construction of Blu-ray discs and the PS3’s digital security system. 

This time Newport Beach, CA based Parallel Processing Corporation has brought a suit over the patent for “synchronized parallel processing with shared memory.”  The orignal patent was assigned to International Parallel Machines on October 8, 1981.  Parallel Processing Corporation is calling itself an “exclusive licensee.” 

The suit claims that Sony products including the PS3 are infinging on the patent, but does not specify which of the patents’s claims are being infringed upon.  The suit continues to say that Sony’s actions “are causing irreparable harm and monetary damage.”  I can only assume that the suit is referring to Parallel Processing Corporation, but it seems that Sony is the bigger victim of these actions.

Parallel Processing Corporation is seeking damages and attorney fees with interest, as well as the destuction of all Sony products that infringe on the patent.

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The results are in for retail sales of console games for the month of June.  I have to say, it’s an interesting lineup.  According to market research firm NPD Group Canada, Nintendo held 10 out of the top 12 games sold for the month.

Here’s a list of the top 12 games for June, with publisher and platform:

1. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo Wii)

2. Wii Play (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo Wii)

3. Pokémon Diamond (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo DS)

4. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360)

5. Pokémon Pear (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo DS)

6. Guitar Hero 2 (Red Octane/Activision, Xbox 360)

7. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Capcom, Nintendo Wii)

8. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo Wii)

9. Super Paper Mario (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo Wii)

10. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo DS)

11. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo Wii)

12. Pokémon Battle Revolution (Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo Wii)

It looks as if Pokémon and Mario are as popular as ever while the big-name franchises for both Xbox 360 and PS3 are conspicuously absent.  Actually, the PS3 is completely absent, but I don’t think that will hold true for too many more months.

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 Gaming Mirror posted a list of why PSN will be better than Xbox Live.  He makes some interesting points, but I thought I would go ahead and refute some of these here, as they are typical arguments and my repsonse could apply to most any list of PSN superiority. 

Click here to read the original article.

Below is the gamingmirror.com list.  My responses are in bold italics.

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Top 10 Reasons PSN will be Xbox LIVE’s Equal or SuperiorThe title signifies the single biggest problem with the list.  It says “will be.”  Whenever someone touts the superiority of the PlayStation Network over Xbox Live, it is always in future tense.  The reason is that currently the PSN is nowhere near the quality of Xbox Live.   The arguement is all based off  of Sony’s promises and hype.1. Playstation HOME. Home offers a rich avatar graphical interface for player interaction, activities, and trophies. Oh and can’t forget the posh apartments.

The apartment is neat.  The only thing I don’t like is that currently you have to be online for people to see it.  Not just online, but online and in your apartment waiting on people.  This could easily be fixed, but in its currently planned state it is something that will be used less often than a Mii Parade. 

2. Downloadable retro Playstation content (i.e. PS1 games).

This is a good feature.  The Xbox hasn’t been around as long and does not have a library of games that could easily be downloaded.  They do currently have a better line up of downloadable games on Xbox Live Arcade than what are on PSN.  A problem with many of the old 3D games is that they look like a really bad wersion of what we have today.  2D games are easy to play and have a definative retro feel to them.  Old 3D games tend to just feel crappy.

3. FREE, FREE, FREE! The PSN is completely free unlike Xbox LIVE.

The PSN is free.  XBL costs $50 bucks a year.  The advantage goes to the PSN.  You currently have a seamless XBL experience while every PSN experience is different.  I will predict that if PSN ever becomes something that rivals XBL and Sony manages to keep it free, XBL will likely go free as well.  Until then, I will gladly pay my $50.

3. Introduced downloadable multitasking/background downloading.

I am not sure what you mean by this.  XBL has supported background downloading since launch day for the Xbox 360, and it came out about a year before PS3 or the PSN.

4. Integrated web browser with the PSN store set up similarly for a layout that most internet gamers are familiar with. PSN thereby branches out from its own system to the world wide web (gosh, that’s so 1995).

To me it seems that your biggest point with this argument is that the PS3 supports a web browser.  I have plenty of web browsers.  I have a web browser on my desktop.  I have a web browser on my Wii.  I have a web browser on my PS3.  I have a web browser on my PSP.  I have a web browser on my Dreamcast.  I have a web browser on my PDA phone.  I have a web browser on all three of my laptops.  I have plenty of web browsers.  If someone has a connection to the internet they most likely have at least one of these devices.  I have never used any of the browsers besides my computers or phone for anything other than just seeing how it works.  I have never used any game console browser more than just a few times each.  My point is, it is more gimmicky than anything.

5. Future integration of Video On Demand, Music on Demand, Singstar.

“Future integration.”  XBL currently offers Video on Demand and is in fact the largest digital distributor of Hi-Def movies and the second largest digital video distribution network overall.  Music on demand would be nice, but I would rather have it on my computer where I can easily play it on my iPod or my Xbox 360.

6. Easier and cheaper access to the network for Wi-fiers. All PS3s come standard with wireless capability, whereas it costs $99 for a 360 (yes I shelled out the cash for my xbox)

Yeah $99 for a wi-fi adaptor is ridiculous.  No arguement here.

7. Folding@Home. Using the power of the PS3 and the PSN users can contribute to the understanding and possible cure of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and MS. Come on, PSN should win hands down for this humanitarian effort.

Kinda cool.  It is good to help a cause.  I have heard more about this than any other single feature of PSN.  However, if I were a heartless jerk I would point out that this does nothing for me as a gamer.

8. Frequent firmware updates. Some might gawk at frequency and like only the large chunky and infrequent updates from MSoft. But the slow yet steady addition of new bits and bobs is fun.

Frequent firmware updates.  The reason for so many updates is that the service is still trying to find its footing.  XBL does have more frequent fixes on a per game level that only affect software.  Frequent firmware updates mean one thing - increased chances of bricking the console.  I know it is bad compare realiability of the PS3 to the dismal failure rate of the Xbox 360, but firmware updates are the most common cause of failure for any electronics device that was working properly before.

9. PSN has already accomplished much of what LIVE has done/has in 9 months. LIVE has existed for nearly 5 years (circa 2002).

I would say taking consoles from a virtually nonexistent online experience to a point where it is one of the most important parts of a console is a much bigger accomplishment.  The Xbox wasn’t designed around online connectivity, it was added later.  To be fair, PlayStations have been online a lot longer than 9 months.  The Xbox Live did as much, if not more, in the first nine months of the Xbox 360 as PSN  has done.  It set the bar for what PSN hopes to be.

ADDED:The original Xbox wasn’t built around xbox live.  It obviously had an ethernet port that was made with Live in mind, but it wasn’t made around the benefits that an online console can bring.  Nothing ever dramatically changed about the Xbox except that it started offering online gameplay and a few per-game updates.  Xbox 360 was built with upgradability in mind and since its launch has dramatically changed how it works.  It has added more blades, more customizable themes, added a movie download service, added a download queue, added video support from windows XP, added a function that shows which game is in the tray, it now downloads even when the system is “off.”  These sorts of things were never done on the original Xbox because it wasn’t designed to have massive updates.

10. Free. Oh wait I already said that… oh well, it’s a biggy.

See number 3.

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Joystiq is reporting that the upcoming issue of GamePro magazine will feature a 3-page article about Harmonix’s new name Rock Band.  Among other things discussed in the upcoming GamePro article is the promise of “weekly downloadable content” as made by Alex Rigopulos, Harmonix’s CEO.  Rigopulos has already named bands such as Metallica and The Who as bands participating the once-a week downloadable content.  The big news in the GamePro article is that 90s grunge rock band

Nirvana’s classic Nervermind album will be available for download after Rock Band releases.

The upcoming GamePro article also gives some insight on the venues to be used in Rock Band.  Instead of the fictional venues used in Guitar Hero, Rock band will feature 41 real-life venues from cities that include Amsterdam, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Paris, Seattle, San Francisco, Sydney and Tokyo.

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