Xbox 360: Sales of 360 Plunge 60% as Problems Mount

Microsoft said it shipped 700,000 Xbox 360 units in its latest fiscal quarter, compared to 1.8 million in the same quarter in 2006 -a fall of 60%. Looks like the lack of action in fixing the 360's issues may have a bigger backlash than just footing a hefty repair bill...

More after the jump

Microsoft's growing troubles with the Xbox 360 video game console appear to be catching up to the company. Sales of the gaming machine plunged 60% in the fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft disclosed Thursday.

In its earnings statement for the quarter, Microsoft said it shipped 700,000 Xbox 360 units during the period, compared to 1.8 million in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2006 -- a fall off of 61%.

Microsoft's Xbox operations are housed within the company's Entertainment and Devices Division. The group saw fourth quarter revenue drop 10% year-over-year to $1.16 billion on an operating loss of $1.20 billion. The group lost $423 million the previous year.

Microsoft blamed the 183% increase in the EDD operating loss on a $1.06 billion charge against earnings that the company incurred to cover the cost of extending the warranty period for the Xbox 360 to three years. The move came following Microsoft's recent admission that the gaming system was suffering from an "unacceptable" number of general hardware failures. Microsoft has also been hit with two class action lawsuits in the past two weeks claiming that a design flaw in the Xbox 360 causes the system to irreparably scratch game discs. Microsoft has denied the claim.


Source

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Helicopter Game

Just you try this -without fucking up the first two times. Go on.

Play Helicopter

Instructions:
Hold down mouse to move upwards, and release mouse to move downwards.

Objective:
Fly though the cave for as long as possible until you hit one of the walls.

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TECH: New iPhone at $249-299?

Speculation is continuing about whether Apple will introduce a cheaper version of the iPhone, with a recent report suggesting that orders are coming in for iPhone-specific components. More after the jump.

The gist of it is:

The report claims that the new iPhone from Apple will begin shipping in September with prices ranging from US$249-299. The paper added that Apple recently visited Wintek to deliver instructions on manufacturing and the company has begun test production in small volumes.

JP Morgan has also contributed to the speculation, issuing a report earlier this month discussing the possibility of a low-end Nano version of the iPhone in the near term, with the financial firm basing its forecast on channel checks and a public patent filing.

However, a different team within JP Morgan followed up with a report of its own that stated it thinks it unlikely Apple will release a low-end Nano version of the iPhone in the near term. The report concluded that although a lower-end iPhone is inevitable, a near-term launch would be unusual and highly risky. JP Morgan now officially believes that the next iPhone iteration will be a 3G phone.

Apple has not officially announced any plans for a new or next generation iPhone. Apple's iPhone became available in a 4GB model for US$499 and an 8GB model for US$599 on June 29 in the US market. It will be available in Europe later this year and in Asia in 2008, according to the company.

Source

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PS3: Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo 5 is the latest addition to Polyphony Digital's long-running and highly popular Gran Turismo racing simulation series. If you're into tweaking, customizing, and generally being anal about your virtual car -this is the game for you. That is, unless you've already got Forza Motorsport 2 on your 360. Expect; more than 700 cars, both F1 and Ferraris (for the first time), online play and finally, realistic car damage. Did I mention 1080p at 60 fps? More after the jump.




Release date is expected to be Spring 2008

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PC: Why PCs are Better than Consoles

1. I can frag my best friend in the face, and then alt-tab to an Excel spreadsheet to record my headshot-to-kill ratio. Afterwards, I’ll e-mail him a bar graph detailing how much I own.

2. Dual monitor setups create situations where it’s hard to decide whether to look at my game on the left, or the video of a midget humping a dog on my right.

3. The decreased weight of my wallet directly leads a self-esteem boost when I step on a scale.

4. Hacking is more widespread, making the games more challenging. After you beat the single player on the hardest difficulty, come to multiplayer, where the script kiddy on top of the scoreboard can see through walls. The most intuitive AI you’ll ever face.

5. Windows Vista. Because, you know, Microsoft said so.

Source

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PC: Crysis

If you haven't heard of Crysis, then you, my friend, have been surrounded by lichen for far too long. Coming from Crytek, the devs who made the seminal smash-hit-jungle-shooter Far Cry, this has been one of the most talked-about PC games for the past 12 months. And about time too, with Microsoft, Nvidia and AMD being accused of rushing DX10 hardware (and software) prematurely to market and way before any DX10 title had appeared, all three companies are looking for a worthy PC title to justify the upgrades in software and hardware required by the promise of DX10 gaming.

Details, trailers, screenshots, and more -after the jump below

Set in 2019, you play as Jake Dunn, a United States Delta Force operator. Dunn and his team are sent in to investigate a mysterious meteorite that has crashed into the Spratly Islands, located in the South China Sea. The United States is not the only government aware of the crash, however, as North Korea is also investigating the crash site. The reason the meteorite is being treated as mysterious is due to the fact that it has barely damaged the area surrounding its impact.



Watch in High-Definition

WARNING! Spoiler Alert!

As the story unfolds, players are faced with three very different environments (or "acts"):

* Act 1: The meteor hits the island, causing the North Koreans to take up military presence and investigate the meteor crash. As a Delta Force soldier, you HALO jump onto the island to see what you can find out for the US Government. During this phase of the game, you'll play in a tropical environment complete with beaches, jungles and tropical villages.[2]




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* Act 2: The meteor opens up and flash freezes a large part of the island. There is no clear alien threat, however, so both parties continue to fight each other. The player's main objective is now to investigate what's happening on the interior of this frozen sphere. Shortly after, both the North Korean and US governments come to the realization that this meteor is actually an alien craft, and therefore decide to join forces to fight what could become an alien invasion. This phase consists of battling through the frozen jungle as well as on your own aircraft carriers, which are located off the coast. The aliens, not yet revealed in the story, use machines to battle against the North Korean and US militaries, which are slowly closing in on the source of the freezing – an alien ship lodged in the earth's surface. The constantly expanding freezing sphere throws the global weather system off balance and causes natural disasters which include high winds, tornadoes, and earthquakes.



Watch in High-Definition

* Act 3: As you enter the alien craft, you find yourself not only weightless, but fighting against the aliens in this gravity-resistant environment. The recoil of weapons combined with the Zero-G environment propels players back while leaving shell casings from weapons floating beside you. The Zero-G portion of the game will only last about 1 hour, however. Crytek has stated the aliens themselves will not be revealed until this part of the game, giving them a certain degree of suspense.

Up to 32 players will be able to play in a single match in Crysis's multiplayer, which will consist of 3 different modes:

* Tactical Deathmatch
* Tactical Team Deathmatch
* Power Struggle

(source)

When this hits, this is going to be massive. And if you haven't already, start thinking about upgrading your entire PC in preparation for it.

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New Contributor

Just want to welcome Sykop4th, our newest contributor. Hailing from somewhere in Galicia, going by one of the scariest nicknames I know of, with a better PC than I could hope for, and who could probably kick my ass at any FPS -just so happens to be a girl. (Ed. Thats Woman to you, sonny). Welcome onboard!

P.S And about those GRAW2 lessons I asked for, when are you getting your copy, cos I already have mine. And I suck at it.

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PC: A Few Fun and Free Games That I Enjoy

Are you looking for a game to play but don’t have the money for it? Are you tired of the current games you have? Do mini-games bore you? Then read my selection of free PC games that I play and love.

NetStorm: Islands at War

NetStorm was originally developed by the now defunct Titanic Entertainment and published by Activision. It was released around the same time as Microsoft’s Age of Empires and was poorly marketed by Activision, leading to poor sales of the game. Not only that, but there was a flaw in the demo that was released in 1997 that allowed users to convert to the full game. Titanic Entertainment seemingly dropped out of existence and Activision slowly abandoned the game.

Fans of the game found an unsupported in-built editor that can be used to create custom campaigns and fan-made content. After Activision fully abandoned the game in 2002, fans created unofficial servers to keep online multiplayer functioning. Fans also created badly needed unofficial patches to fix the multitudes of bugs and errors in the game. These fans then formed an unofficial non-profit organization dedicated to keeping NetStorm alive known as “Ticonderoga Entertainment”.

NetStorm is a simple yet VERY innovative game for its time. It is a real-time strategy game but with very few moving units. The game takes place on a floating realm known as Nimbus where the three ‘Furies’ of Wind, Water and Thunder fight an everlasting war.

Each player starts out with a priest that represents an element, be it Thunder, Water or Wind. All three elements have access to a 4th ‘neutral’ element known as Sun.

Resources are in the form of ‘Storm Crystals’ gathered from ‘Storm Geysers’. You construct transport units (which are the only moving units in the game) that are used to gather Storm Crystals. Transport units are also used to capture the enemy priest.

You can build an infinite amount of bridges to connect to other floating islands and floating geysers, you can also build on the edges of bridges, allowing for the advancement of your military on the enemy islands.

The objective of the game is to capture and sacrifice the enemy priest(s). Doing so will give you access to more powerful units and the sacrificed priest’s knowledge, which is basically the use of units of his element in future battles. If your priest dies then you lose.

Offensive and defensive units are static and built on the edges of bridges or on your controlled island(s). They have a set range, be it circular or a direct line. Once you reduce the enemy priest’s health to zero, he will be immobilized, allowing a transport unit to pick him up and sacrifice him on an altar.

The online community is very strong with plenty of people online and many official tournaments and ladders along with clans. NetStorm features some addicting gameplay and a very innovative and unique way of playing. An expansion being created by the fans is under development.

You can download it free here: http://www.netstormhq.com/


America’s Army: Special Forces

The U.S Army developed this online tactical first-person shooter for free (at least for us overseas freeloaders, seeing that the game was made using the American public’s taxes =) ). It is by far one of my most favorite games, where I have recorded a whopping 1000 hours on.

America’s Army is probably one of the most realistic FPSes in terms of gameplay where teamwork is required to win. America’s Army is constantly updated and patched with their newest release being 2.8.1 and the inclusion of a mission editor, allowing for user created maps.

In America’s Army, you have to go through a very realistic and accurate presentation of army training, where you attend a shooting range, obstacle coarse, parachute training, advanced marksmanship training and more. Once you have completed your training, you may gain qualification for certain maps, roles and weapons.

Maps are played online and usually reflect real-life scenarios and locations. You can play in urban areas, open fields, desert plains, village ruins, forests and more. Maps are fought between two teams, both of which are US Army but one appears to be a group of Russian terrorists to the other. There are also “co-op” maps where you and your friends battle hordes of AI enemy soldiers and complete objectives.

America’s Army is not for those who prefer run-n-gun type FPS gameplay and can become slightly tedious for those too impatient to be cautious ingame.

You can download this fun piece of army propaganda at: http://www.americasarmy.com/


Nexuiz

Nexuiz is a free run-n-gun FPS developed and published by Alien Trap. It is relatively new but boasts a large and active community. Nexuiz is based on the modified DarkPlaces Quake engine, which allows most Quake modifications to work with Nexuiz.

Nexuiz has a large variety of weapons and maps along with many mods that take ideas from Id Software’s Doom and Quake series and Epic’s Unreal Tournament series.

Nexuiz is a very PC friendly game on which GeForce 2 cards and old Pentiums could work on, whilst at the same time offering many eye-candy features found in newer games, such as high-dynamic rendering, bloom and coronas, shaders and more.

Nexuiz is a highly addictive game and worthy of being on your hard-drive.

You can download it at: http://www.nexuiz.com/

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PC: Supreme Commander Review

I fondly remember playing a real-time strategy game known as Total Annihilation back in the late 1990s. It was highly innovative and was one of the first 3D RTS games created and what fun times it brought. Sadly, there was no sequel (not counting the expansions). Some of my other favorite RTSes of the time like Command & Conquer, Warcraft and Dark Reign got theirs (still no Starcraft 2…). But Chris Taylor is back and he promises us a ‘spiritual successor’ to Total Annihilation known as Supreme Commander. Is it worthy of such an honorable title? Read on and find out.

Supreme Commander takes place in the future where humanity is fighting an ‘Infinite War’ spanning many millennia. You can play as any of the three factions: your modern-day revamped military, the United Earth Federation, the technologically advanced jihadist fanatics known as the Aeon Illuminate and your freedom fighting cyborgs known as the Cybran Nation. Although don’t expect much variety between factions such as Starcraft’s Protoss, Zerg and Terran factions.

The difference between each side is mostly cosmetic but there are some key differences. The Aeons have a superior navy and rely on attack power; the Cybrans can build quickly and cheaply and can use stealth technology, allowing for quick and undetected rushes. The UEF is a mix of the two. But the main difference between each side is their ‘experimental units’. These units vary from submersible aircraft carriers, hulking killer robots, behemoth gunships and more. Unfortunately, these units are very expensive and time consuming to build. But once they are built, it will take an entire army to bring these bad-boys down.

Supreme Commander is definitely a thinking-man’s game. You must always be aware of both your economy and what’s going on. Early on you must decide whether to focus on rushing, defending or slowly building up a powerful army. Your enemy could easily annihilate you early on with a squadron of bombers or dozens of cheap and quick units.

The main focus of the game is on your Armored Command Unit (ACU), a humongous construction unit and the first thing you will start out with. This unit appears early on in a dramatic explosion and must be kept alive. Losing your ACU may end the game or may destroy your entire base. When an ACU is destroyed, it blows up like a thermonuclear bomb, spelling doom for your enemies or yourself. Luckily, they can repair themselves and they can upgrade to utilize special abilities, such as the ability to cast a shield on themselves, stealth, better building speeds, more building schematics, and more. Unfortunately, this takes a LOT of Energy.

The economy is very difficult to manage. There are two main resources: Mass and Energy. Mass is gathered from salvaging the surrounding environment, building Energy to Mass converters or building upon the actual resource. Energy is gathered from building power generators near your base. It is fairly easy to run out of either resource, especially Energy, for you need to quickly build up your base, defenses and army to survive early rushes. Once you run out of a particular resource, it is very hard to recover as everything is slowed down and it will make you vulnerable to attack. This is why it is imperative to decide on what you should focus on early in the game.

Supreme Commander introduces a great and innovative interface. You can zoom all the way out and into a strategic map of the battlefield where you can still command your units and when you put your cursor over a point of interest, you can zoom down on it. I no longer found my self side-scrolling and I would hate to play any RTS game that doesn’t include this feature.

You can queue up just about any order by holding down the shift key. So after your selected unit finishes his first order, he would go right away to the second. This makes it much easier to manage your army, especially an army that can be as much as 500 units.

You can also change where your main ‘action bar’ should be positioned (left, down or right of your screen) and a first for RTS games: the ability to use two monitors. You can delegate one monitor to portray a map of the battlefield or you can position it as a secondary camera on a place of interest, such as your base or a hot-spot, whilst you use the other monitor for everything else.

Of course, such a feature will require a good video card that can play the game without a hitch (and not just the min). If you want to play it even better, you should have two video cards installed. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t look kindly on 4 or even 2 year old computers. A fast processor is a must, preferably a Core 2 Duo.

The game is very lengthy and a scrimmage will usually last a good three hours. This game is very exhilarating with explosions everywhere… a pyrotechnics dream. But be prepared to invest on a computer upgrade if you wish to enjoy SupCom.

Gameplay: 9/10 – It plays like an improved version of Total Annihilation. If you aren’t a fan of thinking-man RTSes and you prefer brawns over brains, then this isn’t the game for you.

Graphics: 9/10 – Picture nuclear explosions on the horizon, silhouetting your 5-story tall robots as they mass-murder the hapless infantry below. But beware you poor unfortunate souls with old computers… don’t expect to be able to run the game properly, if at all.

Music: 9/10 – I love the music but that’s just personal taste. ^^

Sound: 7/10 – Nothing special.

Replay Value: 8/10 – Very fun, single-player scrimmages, multiplayer (although not many online), a very long campaign playable from all three factions and addictive gameplay.

Overall: 42/50 = 8/10

Supreme Commander is a worthy successor to Total Annihilation and will be one of my top 10 games of 2007 for sure. Of course, if you prefer the RTS where you just build up a base, get as many units as possible and charge your enemy… then this isn’t a game for you.

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PC: The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Review

Oh Middle-Earth… the fatherland of many fantasy stories. It’s fraught with danger and peril, turmoil and horror but also amazing sights, mind-blowing stories and epic battles.


J.R.R Tolkien’s masterpiece of literature, the Lord of the Rings, has inspired many writers and stimulated our imaginations for years. A large franchise has been born with many film and audio adaptations, encyclopedias and fan-made stories. There have also been many computer and video games released based on the franchise, yet there no MMORPGs were made, which was odd for Middle-Earth is such great setting for an MMORPG.

Turbine, the creators of the MMORPG Dungeon & Dragons Online: Stormreach, decided to step up and develop a Lord of the Rings online game. They have been working diligently for the past few years, now let's see what they've come up with.

I was very excited for I recently grew bored of the world of Azeroth and I needed a new retreat from the real world and what a greater place than Middle-Earth to do so. After I downloaded and installed all 3.5 GBs of the game, I had to create my first character.

I had the choice between four races: the Humans, the Elves, the Dwarves and the Hobbits. But where are the Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and the rest? I was slightly unnerved, mostly because if there are no opposing races… then how is PvP possible (with the exception of friendly dueling)?

I decided to go with the humans. Now I have to choose my class. Apparently, humans have access to all classes. You can become a hunter (ranged dps class), a burglar (LOTRO equivalent of a Rogue (stealth class)), a champion (a dps class), a Lore-Master (the only magic class in the game), a guardian (tanking class), a minstrel (a healing class, similar to Everquest’s bard classes) and the captain (a buffing class). Unfortunately, the classes lacked the wide variety found in WoW and Everquest.

After that I had to choose my appearance. It wasn’t like Everquest II’s wide customization options but it was good enough to have a unique looking character. One thing that caught my attention was the list of prefixes and suffixes that you could use in your name and the different choices for your character’s place of origin.

You can choose to be from Rohan, Gondor, Bree-land and more (different for the other races). Your place of origin *should* affect your appearance and your name. When picking my name, I noticed a long list of suffixes and prefixes that are common in Middle-Earth. Some names aren’t allowed because its ‘gibberish’. Kessandra of Rohan is considered gibberish but Kessandra of Bree-land isn’t (because Bree-land uses common English names but Rohan uses “Sindarin” names). My first impressions were that LOTRO seemed to be very role-playing heavy.

After I created my human captain, I entered these fabled lands of Middle-Earth and boy was I impressed. The visuals are some of the most beautiful that I have seen from any MMORPG.

I found myself in a prison cell facing a hooded figure known as “Amdir”. We were going to save two captured hobbits from several bandits who ran the camp. The first thing I noticed was that there were no other players… which was odd for a starting zone. After rescuing the hobbits I realized I wasn’t playing online. Instead, I was in one of several single-player story-driven instances.

This is ideal for a Lord of the Rings online game and would do any fan of the franchise proud to be able to experience epic stories without that sour MMORPG grinding taste. After finishing the instance, I entered the town of Archet.

The quests are pretty similar to that of World of Warcraft, although there aren't any serious drop-rates which dictate the percentage of item drops per kill, which can take you anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes in order to get what you need. This is great for the one thing I greatly disliked about WoW was the fact that I had to kill dozens of the same kind of animal in order to get a certain item (don’t ALL boars have livers?).

The interface is also pretty similar to WoW. After going through it a little, I discovered that you can “adopt” children and establish a family tree. You can also create your own sur/last-name and give yourself a title (“Kessandra the Wary” for example).

Titles are gained through accomplishments. Many of these accomplishments may be achieved by killing multitudes of a certain animal (“Spider-Foe” for killing spiders and “Wolf-Slayer” for slaying wolves) or exploring different areas. Other accomplishments may be achieved by not dying for a certain amount of levels or reaching a new level in your profession. This is all extremely awesome, especially for the type of gamer who likes to role-play.

And my fears about the lack of PvP were put to rest when I discovered something called “Monster vs. Player”. Basically you go to a “scrying pool” and you can take the body of any monster or evil race and attack other real players without any consequence to your real character.

One of my favorite features of LOTRO was the ability to play music. You can buy an instrument that your class can play and by typing /music you will be able to play that instrument. You push any number key from 1 – 7 and each key will play a different tune. Some people can play some very mesmerizing tunes or band together and make a very well coordinated orchestra performance.

This isn’t exactly a WoW “killer” but it most certainly is the perfect WoW alternative, be it if you are a fan of LotR or not.


Gameplay: 9/10 – The gameplay is similar to World of Warcraft’s but with some positive differences such as story-driven instances, well written quests and the lack of major repetitive grinding.

Music: 9/10 – I love the music. It fits just about every location and setting, every event and some songs are just downright beautiful. But like all music, it can get slightly repetitive after a while.

Sound: 7/10 – The sound is ok, nothing terribly special.

Graphics: 9/10 – Just about the sweetest looking MMORPG out so far. Great vistas, great sunsets… The way a Lord of the Rings game should be.

Replay-Value: 6/10 – There are no alternative sides or unique classes that may warrant restarting the game and continuing your subscription… that is unless Turbine alters this in the future.

Overall: 40/50 = 8/10

If you are a fan of the MMORPG genre but you are getting tired of your current game and don’t know what to get, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is probably the best alternative.

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An FPS Girl in an MMORPG World

Over at the excellent gaming website, Firingsquad.com, I participated in a contest where you write a gaming related article. The winner would win Intel's Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme processor and about $1000 USD and a small contract with Firingsquad.com. I participated and wrote several articles, here is one of them that got me some renown and critical acclaim within the website. Remember, this is not exactly my opinion and viewpoint of the game, but rather a fictional and satirical take on 'World of Warcraft'.

I was never a big MMORPG gamer. I was the type of person who preferred to fight with honor, bravery and selflessness in games such as “America’s Army”. I never once thought about playing those horrid and pointless blasphemous atrocities known as MMORPGs.

I have heard tales of marriages breaking, lives destroyed, careers lost, financial bankruptcy and an out of control addiction. Some of these are pure exaggerations but others are real.

Why do I hate MMORPGs? It broke me and my boyfriend up. I played many trials of such horrific creations in the past and grew hopelessly bored with the amount of unrealistic tasks I must complete (whereas my ex loved it). I also grew bored of having to kill hundreds of animals for ‘experience’ or items that seemingly fall off their corpses. (I mean honestly, how does an ultra-powerful Death Star-like Elven sword fall off a boar?)

Unfortunately, me and my clan broke up and we went our separate ways. I grew tired of the same old maps, the same old strategies, the same old weapons and the same old idiotic twelve year old who calls you a hacker for killing him. The FPS genre turned stale…

One afternoon, at my local store, I picked up a copy of a computer journalism magazine known as “PC Gamer”. It contained two demos in one disc, one of which is an RTS called “Company of Heroes” and the other, a 14-day trial of World of Warcraft.

Unfortunately, my computer couldn’t handle the shouts and battle-cries of valorous soldiers of the past giving away their lives for their respective nations. So I decided to give this fantasy RTS turned MMORPG a try.

I created my account, downloaded and installed the game and I was off. I had many races to choose from, but whom shall I be? How about an extremely small, puny creature that you may find in other people’s lawns opposite the plastic pink flamingo? No.

How about an oversized cow? No. An overgrown human-grape hybrid with impossibly long ears? No. But alas, I have found it. The race we are all most familiar with: the human.

Now I must choose my social status. Do I become a valiant crusader fighting for justice? Do I become a malevolent sorcerer of the shadow? Nope. How about a deceitful cloaking rogue, someone who wouldn't think twice before sticking a knife behind your back? Nah, I’ll just go with a medieval version of the modern day infantryman: the Warrior, the backbone of every army.

Now I enter the magical and fantastical world of Azeroth, where lead CAN be turned into gold. I see a heavily armored figure in front of me, someone known as Willem. I wondered what was with the horridly annoying floating exclamation mark on his head, so I asked him. But before he answered my question, he gave me a task. I promptly ignored it, like he ignored my question.

So I ventured within the cathedral and saw more people with exclamation marks on their heads. What kind of crazy fad is going on here? I gave up and decided to do their pointless and menial tasks. I killed one wolf and another popped up to replace it. So I killed that one, but their was no end to the amount of wolves that spawn. So I returned to tell the guy with the exclamation mark that there was no hope and he was completely screwed. Strangely enough, his exclamation mark turned into a question mark. I asked him about it and he gave me some copper and some armor.

Then a column of light burst from the ground and encompassed my warrior. I thought she was a goner to this strange volcanic eruption of bright light but it was all over as soon as it began. Somehow, I leveled. My health increased, my attributes increased and all was swell.

Now I have another task to complete: I must go and kill these candle-worshipping rat mining laborers known as “Kobolds”. Now I can understand killing wolves, most of which are somewhat mindless, violent creatures that would gnaw you limbs off. But why do I have to kill these ugly rodent creatures who are just trying to make a living?

What do the humans of Azeroth have against immigrant rodent laborers? Heck, these poor Kobolds are living in poverty camps whilst the humans are enjoying their nice, luxurious cathedral.

I took off from the land of Northshire. My warrior isn’t a mass murderer. I entered a town known as Goldshire and saw people with silver exclamation marks on their heads. Now these must be the people who are rich enough to afford such glamorous holographic exclamation marks. Strangely, no one is offering me any type of work.

So I take off in hopes of finding someone who will want my services. I wander around, killed a few wolves and bears here and there but I am still unemployed. I am tempted to head back to Northshire but I must stand by my morals. After further wandering, I see a bunch of those ugly poor immigrant rodent laborers working in a mine and asked them if they needed any help. I guess the system works by you talking to someone with a yellow exclamation mark on their heads. But these Kobolds had none.

But I ventured in the mine regardless because these are my friends... or so I thought. One of them came after me and lunged his pickaxe on my hapless warrior. I run further into the mine but alas, I succumbed to the dark void encompassing my vision. It is the end, I have died...

Now I am a ghost, with an even larger ghost in front of me. This larger ghost resembles an angel. So I ask him/her if I am in heaven but he/she ignores me and tells me that they can send me back for a price. Dang monopolistic greedy angels…

What the heck is wrong with this game? Back-stabbing immigrant ‘friends’, Hitler-like guards in cathedrals, holographic exclamation marks? No thanks, I’ll stick to my hardcore FPS games.

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E3: Wii Fit(ness)

Wii Fit (or Wii Fitness in Europe) is an upcoming fitness simulator coming for the Wii and developed in-house by Nintendo. At Nintendo's E3 media briefing, it was demonstrated by the man himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, to a packed crowd. Wii Fit uses a unique accessory called the Wii Balance Board that measures a person's body mass index and their center of gravity. Activities included yoga poses, press-ups and roughly 40 other different exercises.



More after the jump


Wii Fit was first revealed as Wii Health Pack, by Shigeru Miyamoto, during a conference in mid-September of 2006. Then described as a "way to help get families exercising together", the game idea had first been included in Miyamoto's original design document for the whole Wii Series, the entirety of which was scribbled down on a single sheet of paper.



As with other games designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, such as Nintendogs and Pikmin, the design of Wii Fit was influenced by the activities in Miyamoto's day to day life. Miyamoto states that he and his family had become more health-conscious, going to the gym and tracking their weight. He found that it had become "fun over time to talk about these things", and as weighing yourself "didn't make much of a game", they decided to build games around the idea to mesh with the concept.



The Wii Balance Board



It should also be noted that Miyamoto made clear the Balance Board could be used by developers in creating games other than fitness, and mentioned skateboarding and snowboarding games specifically.



Currently, only a few of the activities available for exercise in Wii Fit are known. These include:

* Yoga exercises
* Press ups
* Step aerobics, including a game in which the player must step on and off the Wii Balance Board in rhythm to the background music
* Hitting on-coming soccer balls with your head
* A ball-rolling mini-game
* Hula hooping
* Ski jumping, whereby the player squats as low as possible, whilst maintaining their balance, and then quickly stands as fast as possible in order to gain a good jump. (source)



Awesome.

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Hey Everyone!

Hey everyone, my name is Micaela Garrido and I come from Spain (I recently became a US citizen), as some of you may know, I am a huge PC fangirl so expect everything PC related from me. =)

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