News

Bioshock now available/Collectors Edition Unboxing

Posted by: Chuck at 8/21/2007 11:52 AM - Comments (0)
I just picked up my copy of the Bioshock: Collectors Edition which means that everyone should now be able to pick up the game in stores.  Here are some pictures of the Big Daddy figure I purchased.  What's really cool is how heavy the thing is. 









2K Games Announces BioShock Now Available

Welcome to Rapture in this "genetically enhanced" shooter

New York, NY – August 21, 2007 – 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today that BioShock is now available in North America for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows®, and will be available in Europe beginning August 24. Developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia, BioShock is a "genetically enhanced" first-person shooter that lets players do things never before possible in the genre.

Gamers enter the game as a castaway in Rapture, an underwater utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified "splicers" and deadly security systems, players have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. No encounter ever plays out the same and no two gamers will play BioShock the same way.

"With the release of BioShock, we are redefining the shooter experience by providing players with the freedom to decide how to proceed and which actions to take," said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. "The teams at 2K Boston and 2K Australia have captured the essence of this underwater world and brought it to vivid life in the art design and open-ended storyline. Welcome to Rapture."

In the decaying art deco underwater city of Rapture, players can turn everything they encounter into a weapon, biologically modify their body with plasmids, hack devices and security systems, upgrade weapons, craft new ammo variants, and experiment with different battle techniques.

"The development team has been working on BioShock for years to push the limits in every way possible, so we are excited for gamers to finally experience BioShock as we've always imagined it," said Ken Levine, President and Creative Director of 2K Boston. "We delivered on our promise of bringing gamers a unique and enriching first-person shooter experience that not only challenges their capacity to adapt and survive, but tests their values and commitment to the inhabitants of Rapture."

BioShock's features include:

  • Biologically modify your body with plasmids which are genetic augmentations that empower you with dozens of fantastic abilities including: send Electrobolts storming from your fingertips, unleash a swarm of hornets hatched from the veins of your arms, or strategically turn enemies against one another with irritants.
  • Take control of your world by hacking devices and systems: reprogram enemy security bots into personal bodyguards, modify vending machines to change prices, and transform machine gun security turrets into powerless pieces of metal.
  • Upgrade your weapons at Power-to-the-People stations located through Rapture: craft variants of ammo and plasmids by picking up materials in the city to modify them at U-Invent kiosks.
  • Turn everything into a weapon: the environment, your body, fire and water, and even your worst enemies. BioShock's free form combat options allow gameplay scenarios to be approached with a variety of weapons, active and passive plasmids, environmental objects utilization, exploitation of political alliances, or a combination of techniques. Find your style but know when to adapt.
  • Explore an incredible and unique art deco world hidden deep under the ocean, vividly illustrated with realistic water effects and truly next generation graphics.
  • Make meaningful and mature decisions that culminate in the ultimate question: Do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture to save yourself...or risk it all to become their savior?
BioShock is rated "M" for Mature and is now available for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows®. For more information, visit the BioShock website at www.BioShockGame.com, and the community site at www.TheCultofRapture.com.  

About Take-Two Interactive Software

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games for the PC, PlayStation® game console, PlayStation®2 and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox® and Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment systems from Microsoft, Wii™, Nintendo GameCube™, Nintendo DS™ and Game Boy® Advance. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games, 2K and 2K Sports, and Global Star Software; and distributes software, hardware and accessories in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. Take-Two's common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.

Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos and the Xbox Live logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The statements contained herein which are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to them. The Company has no obligation to update such forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary significantly from these forward-looking statements based on a variety of factors. These risks and uncertainties include the matters relating to the Special Committee's investigation of the Company's stock option grants and the restatement of our consolidated financial statements. The investigation and conclusions of the Special Committee may result in claims and proceedings relating to such matters, including previously disclosed shareholder and derivative litigation and actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission and/or other governmental agencies and negative tax or other implications for the Company resulting from any accounting adjustments or other factors. Other important factors are described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2006, and in the Company's Form 10-Q for the second quarter ended April 30, 2007 in the section entitled "Risk Factors."

Geek Dad Takes a Shot at Super Swing Golf Season 2

by: Eva - - Comments (0)
Wired Blog Network's Geek Dad has a review up for Super Swing Golf Season 2 for the Wii as part of his Parents' Guide series. He gives a detailed break down of what, where, why, how, when, who for the title and compares it to two other golf games: We Love Golf and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09.

Geek Dad describes how the game handles using the Wiimote to simulate swinging a club. The only thing I would add is that as with bowling it's imperative to use the strap, unless you really wanted to buy a new television anyway. Geek Dad also gives gamers a heads up that playing 18 holes can take an hour or more playing solo and potentially much longer with a bunch of friends. Apparently it could be time well spent as you'll actually learn a little about the sport.
While Super Swing Golf doesn't quite have the level of detail of We Love Golf, and lacks the serious weighty proceedings of Tiger Woods, it still manages to provide the majority of information the player needs to make their shot selection.
Ultimately experts looking for a hardcore golfing experience are better off sticking with Tiger Woods. For kids and amateurs, it's a solid pick. If you've been looking for a golf videogame, check out Geek Dad's review of Super Swing Golf Season 2 before making your final decision.

NCsoft's "Positron" Talks Mission Architect Toolset for City of Heroes

by: Eva - - Comments (0)
City of Heroes Lead Designer Matt "Positron" Miller has issued a letter to the community on the Issue 13: "Architect" update. He starts out by addressing the biggest new addition to CoH, the Mission Architect. This toolset will allow players to take their ideas for heroic adventures and create them from the ground up. There has been much concern (read shouting) over how to balance the system's rewards. It's not meant to spawn a bunch of scenarios that pander to "easy leveling" or "badging" or "farming". The NCsoft team is working on it and feels they've come up with a system that isn't "abusable." Positron is realistic enough to understand that virtually any system is abusable, but promises the team will keep tweaking it until they get it right.

The other big news is the "Booster Packs" coming out in an month or so. Due to popular demand, players will be able to buy the 30 day temporary jetpack from the CoH card game to use in the CoH MMO for $4.99. The Super Booster I: Cyborg Pack will also be available for CoH. The pack boasts an awesome set of costume pieces, emotes, auras and a power and will go for $9.99. For Positrons full letter visit the City of Heroes Community Site. You'll also find more specs on the update in a separate feature list for Issue 13: "Architect."

The Further Adventures of Vault Dweller, Master of Puppets Continues on Fallout Website

by: Eva - - Comments (1)
Heads up all you Fallout and Penny Arcade fans. Your favorite web-comic artists have taken time out from prepping for PAX to upload a sixth strip to their Penny Arcade Comic on Bethesda's official Fallout website. The strip tells the tale of one lonely vault dweller and a crate of puppets.

The site is age gated due to the game's rating but well worth the small hassle for the wealth of Fallout 3 information within. Make sure to check out any strips you missed in the Vault.

Spore being pre-loaded.. one step closer to release

by: John - - Comments (0)
Spore is launching next week but you can have it ready to go today by pre-loading the game. Those that pre-order can set their computer to start downloading some of it so you can get into the game right as it starts on launch day. It's been a long time coming and it's good to see the game finally get its release. [READ MORE]

Classic Gaming Trivia for 8/28/08

by: John - - Comments (2)
Yesterday's offering was Escape from the Mindmaster on the Atari 2600. What was unique about this game was it came on a tape and you had to use a special cartridge called a Supercharger to play it. There were some awesome games made for the Supercharger and Mindmaster was one of the best. It had a 3D feel way back then and the mini puzzles scattered throughout the maze were a nice addition.

So what do we have for today? Well, as you can see below, it's an RPG that looked very similiar to a classic Origin game. This game had a really unique end fight and a pretty cool ceremony in the middle of the game.

Disney releases soundtrack information for Pure

by: John - - Comments (1)
Pure's a new four-wheel action racing game coming from Disney and it's been getting some good buzz. Here we have the name of the songs and artists on the soundtrack for the game.  Some artists include The Answer, Fred Baker, DJ Hyper, and Noise Control. Check out the press release to see the rest of the folks that you'll be hearing while racing around. [READ MORE]

AMD Cinema 2.0 explained

by: John - - Comments (1)
One of the big initiatives recently for AMD has been Cinema 2.0. If you don't know what that means, the video below does a good job explaining it and what gamers and developers will see in the future. From the video, you can see some impressive demonstrations using their latest AMD Radeon 4870 card generating some really slick effects. I als like the 3D hologram like display. Now, demos are great and all but we'll have to see if this does make it to the consumers anytime soon.

abit looks like it's exiting the motherboard business

by: John - - Comments (0)
Hexus is reporting that long time motherboard maker, abit, will be exiting the motherboard business. The news makes me a little sad as I've owned a great deal of motherboards from them and I still have a few machines running abit mobos. It seems unless you're one of the big ones, it's hard to survive the tight margins. Thanks for all the great support and products abit. You'll be missed in this sector.

Gaming Gibs for 8/28/2008

by: Chuck - - Comments (1)
Here are a few things I missed while tracking down the parts for my own :
  • Gamers are now doping for World Cyber Games...it's time to start testing for Red Bull and Cheetos
  • Lowest rated player in Madden 09 to play this week, it's still pre-season though
  • Video games cut into exercise time, once again people get paid for this kind of analysis
  • MTV talks to people  at Silicon Knights not named Denis Dyack
  • Old people tend to believe the "video games made me do it" argument more than others, also like prune juice more
  • Novint posts pictures of the "sweat shop" they are using to put together pistol grips
  • Full Throttle remembered, loved
  • Gearbox may do the next Halo game, try to care

EU: Rome gets an exspansion pack and I get a break

by: Nathan - - Comments (1)
I was seriously sick of trying to spell Europa Universalis by memory but with the new expansion comes a new name. Paradox Interactive has announced EU: Rome- Vae Victis which is scheduled for release in Q4 of 2008 on GamersGate digital download service. What does this expansion bring to the table? Good question! EU: Rome- Vae Victis will bring the game characters to life by giving them a will of their own (I smell a revolt coming on), new political game play that lets you manipulate the Roman senate, revised AI, new interface, new missions and all for the low price of $9.99. You can read more about the game HERE at the games website. [READ MORE]

New features introduced to Magi-Nation

by: Nathan - - Comments (0)
Cookie Jar, every time I hear the name it makes me hungry. Developer Cookie Jar has announced new features for their online game based on the animated television series of the same name Magi-Nation. The new features include a true multiplayer world with In-Game Chat, Expanded PvP leader boards, new areas to explore, and new items. This may seem like a shopping list for an mmorpg but Magi-Nation is actually more like a certain monster collecting game with mmo qualities. This update shows that even those small free to play "kiddie games" get a lot of attention from the public, the developers, and the publishers. You go Cookie Jar! Now I need to go buy some cookies, excuse me.
MAGI-NATION WEBSITE [READ MORE]

News Roundup: Samba de Castle Crashers

by: Randy - - Comments (0)
DEMOS
  • Strange Attractors 2 Demo (experimental top-down action puzzler)
  • Advanced Tactics: World War II v1.20 Patch
VIDEOS
SCREENSHOTS
ARTICLES
Thanks to Defunct Games, Xbox America, Champions-Online.com, AtomicGamer, ActionTrip, Digit-Life, and TheTechLounge for today's News Roundup.

EA shows more of the Wii controls in Skate It!

by: Chuck - - Comments (0)
Here's a new video from EA showing off how you'll be pulling off tricks in Skate It!

Stardock releases second phase of Impulse digital distribution system

by: Chuck - - Comments (0)
Stardock has released the second phase of it's Impulse digital distribution center which includes the ImpulseReactor which adds match making, multiplayer rankings, and a host of of cloud computing components to the service.  Political Machine 2008 (which Tyler liked) will be the first game to incporporate these features into a game with other games (including Demigod) being based on these services.

As part of this release you'll also be able to purchase and download select 2K Games titles including Sid Meier's Pirates and Civilization III.  Stardock is going directly head to head with Valve's Steam service right now and it will be interesting to see how it shakes out. [READ MORE]

New FIFA 09 screenshots released

by: Chuck - - Comments (0)
I'm a recent convert to the world of soccer as I've been re-introduced to the sport over the last few months.  While I still prefer hockey and football the sport has grown enough on me that I'm actually thinking about checking out FIFA Soccer 09 when it comes out later this year.  The game certainly looks good but I do wonder if there's a dive and play hurt button in the control scheme or not.
[READ MORE]

Legendary can't promise that you'll remember the titans

by: Randy - - Comments (0)
This behind the scenes look at Legendary's rather humdrum titan class creatures is -- while a decently put together video -- still just a look at Legendary's rather humdrum titan class creatures.  Sorry for the redundancy.  I thought maybe saying it twice would make these creature designs feel more exciting.  The fact that there's apparently more than one of these lazily-designed enemies doesn't really up the ante.  The big huge tentacoo creature is cool, only by virtue of the fact that it's hard to go wrong with those in the end.  Still, it can't be a good thing when you're stifling a yawn while looking at big huge city-wrecking anomalies.

Magi-Nation expands borders, expands PvP

by: Randy - - Comments (0)
Since having gone live in April, the Magi-Nation: Battle for the Moonlands free-to-play web-based MMO has just released its first major content update, effectively doubling the game's area with seven new landscapes, and adding new in-game chat functionality.  Further, they've expanded PvP by incorporating leader boards, and they've added more than 30 new items to the in-game shops.  Magi-Nation operates on micro-transactions, perfect for the allowance-fed billfolds of 8 to 14-year-olds, the game's target audience. [READ MORE]

Star Wars Galaxies trading card game launched today

by: Randy - - Comments (0)
Star Wars Galaxies is going 2-D and will now move to a trading card game format featuring starter decks and 15-card booster packs.  That statement is actually only half true.  SWG did indeed release a new electronic trading card game today, "Champions of the Force."  And you can play it in and out of game.  You can even try it out using SWG's 14-day trial, though current subscribers will be given -- free of charge with their regular subscription:
  • One starter deck of their choice:  Jedi, Rebel, Imperial, or Sith
  • A Cybernetic Experience Chip, which gives a 20% experience point icrease that can be used up to 50 times in SWG when redeemed
  • The complete third expansion, SWG: Rage of the Wookiees
The random nature of trading card games can be rather off-putting.  Especially when you open up a fresh pack only to find that these are not the droids you are looking for. [READ MORE]

Natasha Bedingfield, the face of Boogie Superstar

by: Randy - - Comments (0)
Natasha Bedingfield is now the spokesperson for EA's Boogie Superstar for the Wii, the game that will purportedly "have girls cheering for more."  I'd criticize that embarrassingly drab line, but if I personally knew how to market more effectively to teens, then I would've pulled more dates in high school.  But I digress.  The 40-song tracklist is revealed in part, to include hits from Fall Out Boy (I wonder if the Fallout 3 soundtrack will feature them too -- just kidding), Maroon 5, the Jonas Brothers, Kanye West, and three tracks from Miss Bedingfield:  "Angel," "Love Like This," and "Pocketful of Sunshine."
[READ MORE]

First Impressions: Castle Crashers

by: Chuck - - Comments (2)
John and I spent about 90 minutes playing through Castle Crashers tonight and so far the game is really living up to expectations.  The biggest thing I noticed is that the game is closer to Golden Axe than TMNT (an error on my part), and there are even a few sequences that are directly lifted from the classic Sega game. 

The game is a straight beat 'em up with a small RPG layer grafted on top of it.  You gain XP as you play and as you level up you can put points towards your strength, magic, health, and agility.  This gives you a lot of options in how you want to play the game.  Personally I loaded up on strength and magic which while making me a stronger fighter, annoyed John to no end as he had to constantly revive me (this is done via a sliding scale ala the reload game in Gears of War).  You can also pick up different weapons and pets as you play the game which alters your play strategy as well.

So far I'm having a lot of fun with the game and the online play is fairly solid.  We did hit a little bit of lag and had the game crash on us once but after that it was smooth sailing.  The art style and animation are top notch and there are a lot of cute moments in the game.  The humor is a little churlish at times (the game confirms that bears do poop in the woods) but there's a lot of fun to be had in the game.  Like Alien Hominid before it the game is pure old school game mechanics with a few new touches tossed in for flavor.  There's a lot of depth to the game as well as you can play as any of the four knights or any of the unlockable characters in the game.  Each one has different abilities which adds a lot to the replayability of the game.  Plus it's a done of fun to just to beat the crap out of each other in the arenas and after defeating bosses.

I don't have a problem recommending the game to people who are looking for a fun party game.  The fact that you can mix local players with online players is a nice touch.  I do wish they had added drop in/drop out support to the game but it's not that hard to exit the game and start a new one with everyone in it (it autosaves your progress so you just have to restart the level you are playing).  So far it feels like Castle Crashers is living up to the hype.

Letters from the front line of World War One

by: Randy - - Comments (0)
- France, October 1914 -

Dear Mum,

Finally!  After two months of training and waiting we have arrived close to the front line in France.  I think the Boss intends to move this battalion on tomorrow or the next day to join up with the rest of the Regiment who are now all stationed along the frong and in the trenches.  You can hear the noise of what must be thousands of men all waiting for the off from miles away.

I must say, I'm not half tired.  The prospect of camping in this muddy field before the final march on a half empty belly is enough to make you faint.  It's been bitterly cold too; water supplies are freezing up and the smell of damp is heavy in the air.  Dinner, if you can call it that, has been bully beef and biscuits every night so we're all getting used to it now.  I can almost taste the sweet smell of home baking, it's what keeps me going.

I was sad to leave you all behind but they say the war will be over by Christmas so I shouldn't have to put up with it for long.  The conditions aren't great but it's the company that makes up for it.  We keep each other's spirits up with plenty of loud singing, poking fun at the gerries and smoking cigarettes, if we can find any.

I suspect the real action will start quite soon.  Most of the chaps are quite excited about it really.  I just want to prove myself to King and country.  Don't worry about me.  It's good fun and with God's blessing I will see you all very soon.

With love to you all,
Tommy [READ MORE]