Tuesday, May 09, 2006

IGN: E3 2006: F.E.A.R. Extraction Point Hands On

IGN: E3 2006: F.E.A.R. Extraction Point Hands On


May 9, 2006 - The exposition hasn't even really started yet and already we've seen some amazing games. The gang at Vivendi invited us over to their place today to play through a few of their upcoming titles. Dan's busy writing up a preview of a new strategy game called World in Conflict, so I'll take this time to tell you all about the new F.E.A.R. expansion.

The expansion, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, starts thirty seconds after the end of the original game. We won't spoil it by telling you exactly what happened but those of you who finished the original will understand the cataclysmic circumstances that you'll witness at the beginning of the expansion. A few cutscenes setup the new conflict and you're off and running.....


E3: Halo 3 Teaser & COD 3 Announced

IGN: E3 2006: Halo 3 Trailer Impressions

May 9, 2006 - Microsoft saved the big shot for last and just announced Halo 3 exclusively for the Xbox 360 and showed a teaser trailer at the Microsoft Press Conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

According to Bungie.net Halo 3 will be the third and final game in the Halo Trilogy.


Even thought I don't have either Xbox, I still think it is a very good console FPS. I'm still waiting in the cold for the rease of Halo II for the PC :(.




IGN: Pre-E3 2006: Call of Duty 3 Official

May 5, 2006 - With E3 headed our way just after the weekend, we knew we had to leave our readers with something promising while they wait for the big show. With that in mind, we've been granted permission from Activision to announce that Call of Duty 3 is headed to next-generation consoles this fall (that's 2006, folks). Here's the official line provided to us by Activision for the announcement:

"Through the eyes of four Allied soldiers, Call of Duty 3 brings players closer to the fury of combat as they fight through the Normandy Breakout, the harrowing offensive that liberated Paris and changed the fate of the world. Developed by Treyarch, Call of Duty 3 is the follow up to the #1 next-generation game and is scheduled for a 2006 release."

This seems to fit with the reports of a COD 3 comming out with a WWII theme, thought I wonder if the game after this will actually be a Modern Shooter, as was mentioned in a past article...

CPU Chip Power Breakthrough Reported

A typical chip would use an array of timing loops, in a grid akin to a piece of graph paper. The loops automatically synchronize their timing pulses. That feature helps address a problem called "skew" -- the slightly different arrival times of timing pulses throughout a typical chip -- that tends to limit clock precision.

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Nintendo DS Opera Browser Screenshots

Can't WAIT!!!


DS Browser DS Browser DS Browser DS Browser DS Browser DS Browser DS Browser DS Browser

You know what, I CANT WAIT EITHER. Finally they are releasing a browser for the DS, so it can partially compete with the features of the PSP browser; now all we need is an release date...

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There's an Orchestra in your Wii, Really!

As shown by Shigeru Miyamoto when he first appeared at Nintendo's E3 press conference, ther will be a game on the Wii that allows you to conduct music with the controller. Here are some screens:


Now this is NEAT, especially because I play the Viola, I could now conduct my game console, and play, er practice conducting to it.....




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IGN: E3 2006: Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars Exclusive Interview

May 9, 2006 - One of the most popular franchises in RTS gaming is Command & Conquer. Westwood helped bring the genre into existence with Dune II and then turned and cemented its popularity with C&C right after. The franchise is an interesting mix by itself having three different universes inside the brand. We figured it was only a matter of time before EA resurrected the series (how could you not when it's been so popular?) so it was really a matter of which universe would get the next treatment.

Our money was actually on Red Alert again, but the developers decided to go back to the franchise roots and bring back some good old Tiberium fun. We'll have a chance to check in on the game a bit more on Wednesday when we see EA, but Executive Producer Mike Verdu was nice enough to tide us over with a bit of info before the show even started.

Below you'll find plenty of new info about the story, AI, single player campaign, vehicles, engine improvements and more. So check the interview along with the first three screens of the game and look for more info tomorrow!


This article mentions a whole lot of deatails about the next Command and Conquer game, including the reture of the side bar interface that is synomonus with CnC, and the return of the mamoth tank, and other vehicals, and it mentions that CnC 3 will be getting a campaign system that has a similar "world map" as BFME:2 has, more details can be found at the full article on IGN.



Community Update from EAUK About Squad Hopping

EAUK_Protagonist, over on the EA UK Forums have posted information on why "squad hopping" was disabled in the 1.3 patch.

[PATCH 1.3 UPDATE]
We at DICE and EA are aware of the concern surrounding the coming change to squad selection. We would like to take a moment to ease the feelings of tension related to this change. Our goal is to refocus game play on team work, squad coordination and to also remove the spawning exploit used by some.

In BF2 we introduced tools that would allow players to support one another as they battle for control points. To further enhance this aspect of game play squads were introduced to give players even more tools to coordinate their efforts and support each other. Allowing squad mates to spawn on the squad leader was intended to provide an easy way for squads to stay together during chaotic battles.

Unfortunately squad leaders have been used by some to launch team wide attacks on remote parts of maps with little thought to actual team unity beyond these maneuvers. We believe this change will refocus the game play on team work and add more value to the roles of Squad Lead and Commander


I wasn't that nuts about the squad hopping lockout, because it is sometimes necessary to have the squad leader changed, in order for the squad to spawn on a certain position. But with this advantage, there is a disadvantage, by having this available, then teamwork is degraded, because squad leaders are switched during this process, breaking the chain of command. By enacting this, the chain of command will be more teamwork on servers. This change will be for the better good of the Battlefield 2 community, but it will take time for people to adapt to this, and it will return to stability as it was before.

There is a discussion about this topic on the Total BF2 Website.

$500 version of PS3 missing a lot more than 40GB, like 1080p.

The PlayStation 3 will come in two configurations, one will have a 20GB hard drive and the other will have a 60GB hard drive. However, losing 40GB isn't the only downgrade with the 20GB version. The 20GB version, priced at $499, will not have Memory Stick, SD, or Compact Flash inputs, Wi-Fi capabilities, or any HDMI output.

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Plasma Pong v1.2 Released!

It's pong with plasma! It uses fluid dynamics to create a very amazing game. This is the newest version which was just released, and includes a blast meter, complete menu interface, revamped sandbox mode (3 new modes), ~25% performance increase, and a ton more. Check it out if you haven't played it, this new version is amazing.

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SecureDVD -- Live DVD with 10 Linux Distros -- Torrent now available!

The 10 best security Linux distributions from a previous digg post are now on one multiboot Live DVD. The new thing is that the torrent is now available for download. Linux diggers rejoice!

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Giving desktop Linux a try

This interesting article relates the experiences of a recent desktop Linux convert, and what to think about when you decide to take the plunge yourself.

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World of Warcraft to the Big Screen

Warner Bros.-based Legendary Pictures has picked up film rights to adapt the popular fantasy video game franchise World of Warcraft and will develop the project with game publisher Blizzard Entertainment, which is owned by Vivendi.

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Tutorial: Make Your Own RFID Enabled Deadbolt

A tutorial describing how to make yourself an RFID enabled deadbolt door lock.

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Nintendo Wii (Revolution) to sell for $250?

Perhaps lost among other announcements and Sony's keynote is a rumor about the Nintendo Wii. Based on the latest issue of Electronics Gaming Monthly (EGM) w/ Zelda on the cover, the Nintendo Wii will launch of $250. This is yet unconfirmed but very interesting.




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KDE to Become Better Supported on the Ubuntu Platform

"At LinuxTag on Saturday, a meeting of Kubuntu and KDE contributors was held in order to improve the collaboration of both projects. The aim was to to talk about the common future of both projects. Jonathan Riddell and Mark Shuttleworth from Canonical attended the meeting."

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FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms (radar time-lapse)

Radar view of FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms that are moving towards Memphis Int'l airport.

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Explosive sting of jellyfish captured on film

The explosion of stingers released when a jellyfish brushes against its victim has been captured for the first time on film --and the footage shows what may be the fastest cellular process in nature. What's more the little darts hit with the force of bullets. The most rapid camera available was needed - it takes 1.4 million frames per second

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Big Bang Theory Obsolete? A New Theory Emerges...

A joint UK-US team has put forward an alternative theory of cosmic evolution.

It proposes that the Universe undergoes cycles of "Big Bangs" and "Big Crunches", meaning our Universe is merely a "child of the previous one".

It challenges the conventional view of the cosmos, which observations show to be 12-14 billion years old.

The new ideas, reported in the journal Science, may explain why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, the researchers say.

"At present the conventional view is that all of space, time, matter and energy began at a single point, which then expanded and cooled, leaving the Universe as it is today," said Professor Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University, New Jersey.



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Scientists Have Identified Basic Principles of Communication

How do we succeed in putting our ideas into words, so that another person can understand them? This complex undertaking involves translating an idea into a one-dimensional sequence, a string of words to be read or spoken one after the other.

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Watch Nintendo E3 Media Briefing Live, at 9:30 AM! - Official Site!

Watch the Nintendo E3 Media Briefing Live, starting at 9:30 AM!

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PlayStation 3 Controller Loses Vibration

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 3 controller has lost its vibration functionality because it interfered with its sensors.

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Sony PS3 $499US version will NOT have HDMI port

Link is to a PDF document hosted on Sony's site. The third page lists the differences between the two versions. The cheaper version does NOT have Memory Stick, HDMI, or wireless.

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Monday, May 08, 2006

$24,000 VooDoo PC!

Everything you could imagine, and then some!, just too bad not many people can afford it.

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Apple to Power First High-res Video Feed of Earth

Australian company AstroVision will team up with computer company Apple to create the world's first real time, hi-res video feed of the earth.

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Sony E3 Press Conference Today 4:00PM PT [Steam it LIVE]

Stream the conference live and be among the first to see the new controller and more!

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BF2 Fan Made Video Gives US Officials a Scare

"... video was apaprently spotted by US officials, who understood it to be propaganda used by Islamic militants. Perhaps the content wasn't the only reason it was identified as such, however. As it turns out, the video was made by a Battlefield 2 fan named SonicJihad..."


Source

Seems that someone made a video that looked too much like a Islamic militant video...

New Apple iPod Patent Offers Glimpse into The Future Navigation System

New patent gives light into a new navigation system that Apple is working on for future iPods.

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HD-DVD Over USB On The 360

The doubters can now be silenced. HD-DVD on the XBox 360 will be connected via a USB cable(s).

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PhysX & You

Lost in arguing press releases and rhetoric spewed forth about Ageia's new PhysX PPU cards? [H] cuts to the chase and tells you what you really need to know about PhysX and your money.

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Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Flight 7 is OUT

The Ubuntu team is proud to present the Flight 7 release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support). With Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Flight 7 comes many bug fixes, general fixes all around, new version of some key applications and much more.

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Netgear delivers 85 Mbps over power lines

NetGear has upped PLT speeds to 85 Mbps with the XE104 wall-plugged 4-port Ethernet switch. HomePlug 1.0 is good up to 14 Mbps while next-generation HomePlugAV will go up to 200 Mbps to support HDTV, video-on-demand. Includes a picture of it plugged in.

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1st images from E3 06

first images of E3's show floor and outdoors

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Solving ESRB's "modder problem:" stop taking responsibility for 3rd parties

In the wake of another game rerating, Ars argues for a solution that I think works well: disclaim any responsibility for third-party participation, either online or through modding. Really, what other option is there that has any hope of working?

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Nintendo Wii: Entire Exclusive Story Online - A Game For All Ages

Just recently the entire offical story from the new Time Life magazine was posted regarding the new Wii console. -

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Sunday, May 07, 2006

Dogs trained to sniff out fake DVDs

Two black Labradors have become the world's first dogs to be trained to search for counterfeit DVDs. The dogs, Lucky and Flo, have been trained to detect discs to help combat DVD piracy, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said.

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Dolphins "know each other's names"

DOLPHINS may be closer to humans than previously realised, with new research showing they communicate by whistling out their own "names".

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How To: Improve Your MPG By Up to 37 Percent

Edmunds.com tested a lot of lore on how to change your driving habits in order to save money on gas. Some of the results:

- 65 mph instead of 75 mph saves 12 percent
- smooth driving instead of aggressive driving saves 37 percent
- turning your car off instead of idling when you stop at a light or the drive-thru saves 19 percent

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Man Kept Alive By Machine After Heart Removed

Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital called a surgery in which a man had his entire heart removed while he awaits a transplant groundbreaking and rare. Louis Quarterman, 61 and a former transplant patient, is now living without a heart.

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EBgames has started Pre-Orders for Nintendo DS Lite $129.99

Cancel your eBay auctions for the Japanese units as you will be able to get it here for $129.99, however the wait may be long. Get your pre-order in early!!

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Time Magazine plays with the Wii.

Nintendo gave TIME the first look at its new controller -- but before I pick it up, Miyamoto suggests that I remove my jacket. That turns out to be a good idea.

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Using VMware Player to test linux distributions

VMware (http://www.vmware.com) is a company specialized in virtualization technology, providing software to run an operating system (guest) inside another (host). A few months ago VMware released VMware Player, a free virtual machine player which you can use to run prebuilt virtual OSs.

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Gadgets, now and then

A funny article about gadgets from the 70's & 80's compared to gadgets of today. Amazing that you can fit 25 000 5 1/4 diskettes on one 8GB compact flash...! And the phone then...11.5 pounds...! Hehe

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The billion-dollar space pen

The article is about the true history of the fisher space pen. The article disposes the old myth that NASA spent one billion on the space pen, while the Russians just took a pencil to space.

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Thursday, May 04, 2006

How to achieve native NTFS write support under Linux

This site details ways to achieve native NTFS write support on your Linux box using the ntfsmount tool and the ntfs-fuse user-space filesystem driver. These tools have yielded very promising success rates in writing to NTFS volumes with 0% corruption. Packages are available for most distros including Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat and Arch.

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Oblivion rating change- the fallout begins......

Told ya (see my previous post). Everyone starts piling on now.

Here's today's press release from Leland Yee's office, without further comment from me (for now):

-------------

Yee Calls on Video Game Maker, Ratings Board to Stop Deceiving Parents

Another Take Two Interactive Game Found to Have Graphic Hidden Content

SACRAMENTO -- Assembly Speaker pro Tem Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/Daly City), child psychologist and legislator who authored California’s law to prohibit the sale of extremely violent video games to minors, today blasted the video game ratings board and publishers of the best-selling video game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, for once again deceiving the public about a game's content.....

Read More

I ran into this blog post on another blog which has quoted a press release from Leland Yee's office, who is mentioned in the article as "Assembly Speaker pro Tem Leland Yee" who is very much would like to put, from reading the release, as many regulations on video games as possible, again this is what I get from the article. From reading this, also, it appears that the fallout from this is just starting, and video gamers must unite and, basically email, mail there senators, governors, etc, etc, and try to convince them, and help them understand a less weighted and less bias version of this issue, to rectify it, and also mabe thoughts on how to fix this.

Personally I think the ERSB needs to be reevaluated on how its reviews its games, because it is not really reviewing the games; in a sense they are just reading the lines that are said in the games, and seeing footage. I personally think that game developers should, and I'm not that crazy about this, give them early builds like what PC Gamer, and other gaming magazines get, so they can as the development goes on, build up an opinion from them to get a better understanding to come to a better conclusion of a rating, rather than the half-baked way they did. Bethesda did not really do anything wrong, the only way for the nudity to appear, was to modify the code in the game to remove the "cover mesh", to have the nudity appear. Though they did allow it to happen, there has to be user intervention for this to happen. By reviewing it this way, they should understand what is in the game better than just seeing footage from it, and game ratings should be more resonable, and hopefully these issues will start to fade away.

Aston Martin reveals James Bond's DBS for "CASINO ROYALE"

Aston Martin has unveiled the new DBS which will be driven by James Bond, the legendary British secret agent, in the next 007 film, "CASINO ROYALE", to be produced by Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli for EON Productions.

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Bethesda responds to Oblivion re-rating

Earlier today, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board announced that it had re-rated The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PC and Xbox 360 as M for Mature.

Bethesda has now responded to the situation...

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F.E.A.R. For Xbox 360 Confirmed: First Screen

Vivendi Games to bring the brilliant PC FPS to the Xbox 360 in autumn 2006. F.E.A.R. hit the PC late in 2005 and received acclaim for its incredible combat and lifelike AI. Now Xbox 360 owners can see what made the game so impressive, as Day 1 Studios and Monolith are brining the game to the Microsoft console.



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Firefox Users Won't Be Buying On Windows Live Shopping

Microsoft Corp. has released in beta this week its Windows Live Shopping site, but Firefox users will have to switch to Internet Explorer if they want to look for bargains.

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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

RIAA Gets $750-$30K in Fines Per Song: Is this Unconstitutional?

Many have questioned why the RIAA gets to request $750 to $30,000 per song fines against those they've charged with offering up unauthorized songs on file sharing networks.

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Move to push Wi-Fi into Linux kernel

Devicescape Software, a company with a history of developing Wi-Fi software for embedded devices, has released its Linux wireless LAN driver software to open-source developers. The move may ultimately see native Wi-Fi capabilities integrated into the Linux kernel for the first time.

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Bush's Own Study Finds Clear Evidence of Global Warm-- Err.. Climate Change

The new federal study found that "there is no longer a discrepancy in the rate of global average temperature increase for the surface compared with higher levels in the atmosphere," in the words of a news release issued by the Commerce Department and approved by the White House.

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The Wire Tap Tax You'll Have to Pay Has Arrived!

Broadband providers and Internet phone companies will have to pick up the tab for the cost of building in mandatory wiretap access for police surveillance. Guess who's going to foot the bill in the end.

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Dell charges $49 to remove their OWN spyware

Dell charges $49 to remove their OWN spyware

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Dvorak: Eight signs that Microsoft is dead in the water

There is virtually nothing exciting that is coming out of Microsoft. Sure, they will keep making money, but all of its attempts to enter other markets have failed. Vista and the new Office keep getting delayed and scaled back. Now the company is focusing all its energy on trying to attack Google.

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Send Msgs To XBox Live Players Through Xbox.com Now

Xbox.com is back and now you can send msgs to people on your Xbox Live friends list directly from the Xbox.com website!

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Surprise! The War On Movie Piracy Isn't Working - RIAA & MPAA

Software companies and their shill groups have been spreading around reports on the "cost" of piracy, which are made bogus by their assumption that every pirated copy of software equates to a lost sale, which simply isn't the case. Now, the MPAA has joined the fun

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Breaking: Oblivion Rating Changed to M

ESRB uses the pimp hand and smacks Oblivion with an M rating. Games being pulled from shelves, and GameDaily just received word from the IEMA... another Hot Coffee?


Well, I think the artical answers that question...this could possibly cause a very negative shockwave throughout, and now instead of people targeting the developers, mods could be effected. Unfourtuatley I do not think parents should be completely worried, because if its just a MOD that changes it, then they just have to control what mods are loaded. In my mind it is still a T rated game, though if it was raised because of the asssasonations, murder, and vice versa, I would understand if it was a M rated game, but this is ridcuelous. From the response of this, it directly shows that the ERSB doesnt care about violence (though I bet they do, but in this instance it is not shown), but go nuts if nudity is enabled by a THIRD PARTY MOD. I'm sorry , but the ERSB has broken a line of stupidity: the ERSB rates games, and if a mod modifies the content of the game to have nudity, blood, gore, etc, etc, etc, etc, then they should just tack on a similar type of wording that they use with games that are online telling that the experience of gameplay can be changed with the addion of mods, and this situation would not happen and the raiting would be just a T rating, not M.

Here are a few good comments that I've found on the Digg about this article:

ESRB quote from the article: "Since players create [mods], it is impossible for ESRB or any rating service to consider them in assigning a rating."

Funny how that's EXACTLY WHAT THEY JUST DID.


And in other news, The Sims rating was upgraded to M due to a "mod" that removes the blur over characters when they use the facilities or the shower....

Honestly, it is stuff like this that undermines the entire ratings system for games... You can't rate a game based on how users might be able to modify it... If so, pretty much any game would have to get a rating of M or AO.

"'Parents across the country depend on ESRB ratings every day to make sensible choices about the games they bring home for their families,' said ESRB president Patricia Vance"

That's why Oblivion, with many times over multiple murder and assassination scenes, was perfectly OK, but with the vague chance of OMG OMG OMG female... wait for it... breasts... OMG *if* the game is hacked OMG OMG is now something the ESRB must notify parents of so they can make (cough) "sensible" choices...

Patricia Vance, and everything her ESRB organization stands for, is moronic. On a good day.

But you know what? My America deserves this. My country is so sick and lost with regard to sexuality that only the Muslims really manage to make us look progressive.

....i mean I'm a Jehovah's witness, but nothing like this bothers me at all.. a bit of virtual boobies does no harm... and i loved the dark brotherhood bit of oblivion, (the bit near the end under the light house was kinda sick with guts n flesh n flies everywhere) the bit where you get locked in the house with them 7 or so people and have to kill them all off individually without the others knowing.. that was awesomely fun lol.. iv also put in over a thousand hours on GTA 3, VC, SA and LCS... and I'm a firm believer in god and read the bible so... were not all like that at all... just the priests who touch little boys and America's higher ups in the government, thems the nutheads

Thank god this was caught in time before any impressionable teenagers were able to see *gasp* boobies.

I'm pretty sure virtually any teen can see pictures of REAL boobs anytime they want, nowadays. In my day, we had to bury stolen Playboys by the stump in the field.

*sigh* Anyway, when is this kinda overreaction gonna stop?
nudity != pr0n

What gets me most is that they're quite happy to rate games with lots of killing and maiming for younger audiences, but as soon as you include a sideboob and the outline of a cock it's rated adults only

"When did sex become a bad thing? I'd rather my children watched two people making love than killing each other" (or something to that effect)
Bill Hicks

What is different is that in the Hot Coffee mod there was an *entire mini game included* including button sequences for position changes and such. In the case of Oblivion there is a texture that represents boobies..... in other words the same texture as the men except some dark pixels in one place for shading and a cluster of dark pixels in another for a nipple. That texture is used for nothing in the game except to provide shape to what lays over it, just like they do when real people are fully clothed. No where in the actual game is the texture ever used alone. The change for gore is asinine and the change for the booby mod is asinine, plain and simple.

Think of it this way: REAL PEOPLE have boobies under their clothes, just like the characters in the game. The game only provides a way to see it if you modify it, JUST LIKE REAL PEOPLE. The ESRB is essentially saying that in a game it isn't ok for characters *IN A FREAKING GAME* to have non visible boobs under their clothes... I mean *come one*! This whole thing just drives me nuts.

I still don't get why seeing the human body is wrong...

Why do they hide the content? Because the devs, naughty monkeys that they are, put junk in the game late on the 49th straight day of midnight coding, purely for their own personal amusement, and they disable it just before mastering because it's easier than removing it entirely. In this case, having a "nude" skin texture can actually help the artists in developing clothed textures, getting the shading done right, folds and such.

Remember, kids, you can shank that dark elf whore until she bleeds on the pavement, but just don't ogle her titties.


Comments are sort of crude, though the point is clear: this is ludicrice and we wont stand for this crap that is going on in the ERSB, and that changes need to be done to it to make game rating more appropriate and rational to fit a ratings system that appropratley lets parents know whats in games, and make truly just decisions when buying games for their children/kids/teenagers (you get the point).

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State wants MySpace to raise minimum age to 18

Massachusetts Tuesday called on popular teen social networking Web site MySpace.com to strengthen protection of children against sexual predators, including raising the minimum age for users to 18 from 14.

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E3 Bans Game Over "Adult Content"

First booth babes now this! Naughty America: The Game an MMO will not be allowed to participate in the gaming industry's largest tradeshow, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), due to what was described as "adult content".

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Stable Linux Kernel 2.6.16.13 Released

Linux Kernel 2.6.16.13 has been released. This release contains a single fix which might be important to some of you for an infinite loop in "NETFILTER: SCTP conntrack".

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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Oops....

Free Image Hosting at ImageShack.us
I wonder how that got in that position, air drop gone, bad?

Internet Explorer Security Problems Multiply

The list of serious unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser keeps getting longer and longer.

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The inside story on how IBM out-foxed Intel with the Xbox 360

Since the day after Microsoft terminated the Ultimate TV box, in February 2002, Baker has been working on the Xbox 360 silicon architecture team at Microsoft's campus in Mountain View, Calif. He is one of the 3DO survivors who now gets a shot at revenge against the Japanese companies that vanquished his old firm

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Marketers Emulate MySpace to Entice Teens

The huge growth of MySpace.com has spurred top marketers to try to create their own versions of the teen-oriented social network site that has more than 66 million registered users.

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Microsoft may delay Windows Vista again -- Gartner

Microsoft may delay Windows Vista again -- Gartner

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp.'s long- awaited release of the upgrade to its flagship Windows operating system will likely be delayed again by at least three months, research group Gartner Inc. said on Tuesday.

The research note, released to clients on Monday, said the new Windows Vista operating system is too complex to be able to meet Microsoft's targeted November release for volume licence customers and January launch for retail consumers.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company disagreed with the Gartner report and it was still on track to meet its launch dates.


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Lego to teach children open source 101

Lego will release the source code for its forthcoming Mindstorms NXT toys, giving children a way to grasp the concept op open source in a way that they can relate to: by playing.

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New Nintendo WII Features Slip

Recently in an interview with IGN, EA Canada's senior vide president, John Schappert, slipped some details on features built-in for Wii that weren't previously confirmed. One such feature was the rumor that accelerometers were built into the nunchuck unit of the controller setup.

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DARPA Urban Grand Challenge is official

"DARPA will award prizes for the top three autonomous ground vehicles that compete in a final event where they must safely complete a 60-mile urban area course in fewer than six hours. First prize is $2 million, second prize is $500,000 and third prize is $250,000.
Additional information can be found on the main page, as well as the discussion board about DARPA Urban Grand Challenge.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

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New York Times: Microsoft and Google Set to Wage Arms Race

Gates, described Google in an interview late last year as a worthy adversary, a company to test MS's mettle."This is hypercompetition, make no mistake,".The rivalry between the companies is growing more combative, and with good reason: the outcome is likely to shape the future of competition in computing and the way people use information

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Belkin announces 300 Mbps wireless router

Belkin today announced its draft 802.11n product line. According to the company, the N1 Wireless line will use Atheros XSPAN MIMO technology with "physical data rates" of up to 300 Mbps in "40 MHz Channel Mode" and up to 150 Mbps in "20 MHz Channel Mode."

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Hornets From Hell - Video

Honey Bees surround a Scout Hornet and raise its temperature by vibrating their bodies...which slowly roasts the hornet alive. Amazing photography.

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Us vs. Wii... Why the name is irrelevant

Great article from 1up about how the Wii's name, no matter how ridiculous, will not matter in the long run. Changed perspectives ahead.

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Abandonia - Home of Abandoned DOS Games

A throw back to the games of yesteyear. Here you can find and play some of the best games from the world of DOS. Enjoy.

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DirectX 10 and the Future of Gaming

The crew at [H]ardOCP sits down with ATi, and talks about what DirectX 10 will mean for games.
Bottom line: save your money for a DirectX 10 GPU and Windows Vista!

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Half-Life 2: Episode 1 to begin preload via Steam today

Episode One may be pre-purchased at retail outlets now and via Steam beginning May 1, 2006. If you pre-purchase your copy via Steam, you'll save 10% off the $19.95 price.

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Monday, May 01, 2006

Comments about blog.

After getting some postive feedback about the blog, I noticed that there was no way for peole to comment about my blog, and give suggestions, I now have an email address availible for any feedback and suggestions at compuguynews@gmail.com.

Battlefield 2: Armored Fury Screens

We've got six new screenshots from this booster pack for Battlefield 2. Armored Fury allows for the first time mechanized battles on U.S. soil in the Battlefield universe. Not 56K safe.




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This news article is also connected to the EA announcement about Armored Fury which can be here. The offical site I would of linked to, but because of issues with pulling up the site, TotalBf2 is a faster mirror to use and has the same article and images.


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Why isn't Vista built on .NET? You may not believe the answer.

Vista and .NET. Type safety anyone?
Gary McGraw is CTO of Cigital Inc and author of : Software Security: Building Security In www.awprofessional.com/title/0321356705

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Game Developer World Map

gamedevmap is a cool, living map and catalog of game development organizations. it shows where game companies are located around the globe. Click on the little red dots to pull up a list of companies and their webpages.

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TotalBF2 Previews US Intervention Mod

Okay, let me explain something about USI right off the bat: you're either going to love it, or you're going to hate it with every fiber of your soul. And I've got a feeling even the people that hate it are going to play it with a masochistic, and just downright frightening, intensity.

As soon as I spawned, it was mayhem. I figured the other people on my team who had previous contact with the mod knew something that I didn't so I joined in on the mad rush for vehicles and cover. Now, this wasn't your standard “I'm gonna get the jet first” kind of struggle. And I quickly figured out why after my first time in the air. The balance in this mod is... complicated. But more on that later.


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Now from reading this review, I'm now even more interested in playing this mod, the textures, and the selection of airpower, new sounds, and new maps, remind me slightly of Desert Combat, when I was still playing BF1942. This review is worth reading, especially if your interested in the realistic Gulf War setting. The review is at this link. The US Intervention Mod can also be found at this link. There is also a fourm discussion about this article on TotalBf2.

RIAA I mean Epson trying to kill off third-party ink cartridges retailers

They know their ink cartridges are over priced so instead of putting the price where it should be they try and kill off the competition. Reminds me of the RIAA and music!

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John Carmack's secret weapon: MegaTexture

You probably heard about Quake Wars' MegaTexture technology by now. Is it just typical game industry marketing hype, or is Carmack once again set to revolutionize 3D engine design? Read this interview and find out!

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PS3 Real Time Footage- Brother in Arms

Links staight to HD trailer.

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Is Nintendo going Mature with the Wii?

The linked article talks about 3 upcoming games for the Wii, all very different then the normal Nintendo game. Lets home that Nintendo finally kicks the "Kiddy" stigma that they've had up to now. I hope the Wii is as revolutionary as it's codename leads us to believe.

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Legends the game -- Amazing, free multiplayer Tribes-like FPS

Legends is a freely available, online multiplayer first/third person shooter which features ski-style movement and jetpack propulsion across vast terrains as you fight other online players for their flag, or their death. Featuring great OpenGL graphics and textures, objects and particles look very life-like. Legends runs under Windows and Linux.

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Chinese Man Buys eBay Fighter Jet

Imagine actually having enough money to buy a $25k fighter jet, from ebay no less and he's not even going to take it for a fly! Paypal must have made a killing through this guy.

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Now your Xbox 360 can blog

Simply enter you Live gamertag and 360voice.com will automatically, based upon what you did that day, create a blog entry for your 360.
The blog is updated once a day and even offers RSS feeds to your own, and others 360's blogs.

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Techie attempting to oust MPAA-, RIAA-friendly senator

Story on Wired about Pete Ashdown running for US Senate against Orrin Hatch.

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OpenBSD 3.9 released

OpenBSD 3.9 has been released today. The upcoming version of OpenBSD has better buffer-overflow protection, and can ease the burden of systems monitoring through a new sensor interface framework.

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CyberPower Custom Built PC Proves Substandard

All is not roses at [H] Consumer as they evaluate what turns out to be a bad investment when it comes to your money. "This is not a good computer with a terrible flaw -- this is a below average computer across the board." Might want to steer clear of these guys for a while in hopes that they get their business model together.

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Linux WiFi Leaps Forward

Linux's wireless capabilities are poised to take a big step forward, with the release of an 'advanced' 802.11 driver stack to the open source community under the GPL.

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Howto watch ABC TV Streams outside the USA

Describes a way to view ABC tv streams from outside the USA. All you need is a proxy that is hosted in the USA and does not spill your IP. The article helps you find those proxies.

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Sunday, April 30, 2006

A Mini Gauss Gun

A little video of a small guass gun and how it works. Easy enough to make one yourself

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Gas Too Pricey? Make Your Own

By filling 15 percent of your car's gas tank with ethanol, you can bring down the price-per-gallon from $3 to about $2.40... Of course, if you don't add the ingredient that makes ethanol unfit for human consumption, you would find yourself with something else: 190 proof moonshine.

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Scientists make water run uphill

Physicists have made water run uphill quite literally under its own steam. The droplets propel themselves over metal sheets scored with a carefully designed array of grooves.

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Apple interesting in porting Solaris' ZFS

According to the zfs-discuss mailing list, Apple is interesting in porting Solaris' new (and rather advanced) filesystem, ZFS, to Mac OS X. ZFS features include a pooled storage model, protection from data corruption, fast backup/restore/snapshots/clones, built in compression, and is highly scalable.

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computer drive bay mod

Sabianq used the 5.25 inch drive bay to house 4 hard drives expanding the capacity of a computer to 1200 gigabytes.




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Saturday, April 29, 2006

Real people react to Wii

Joystiq recently called people up asking for their blind opinion about the Nintendo Wii, without knowing what the product was beforehand. Not one of the respondants guessed that it was a gaming product

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Official HL2 headcrab plushies for sale

The Valve store has 1/4 scale headcrab plushies with posable hooking legs for $24.95.

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