X-Fire hits 10 million users

Posted by: Chuck at 5/14/2008 12:25 PM - Comments (0)

More On: Xfire

The folks at Xfire announced today that they've hit the 10 million registered user mark. The service which allows gamers to hook up and play games together was launched in 2004 and has become a defacto install for a lot of gamers. John and I have used the service in the past as it's very easy to use and the in-game chat feature is nice for helping to kill time between rounds of Counter Strike.

This has to be a little bittersweet for Microsoft as their Live for PC service was supposed to do a lot of the same things and while it's only been out for a few years it hasn't exactly lit the world on fire. One almost wonders what could have been in Microsoft and not MTV had bought the service out a few years ago.

XFIRE ONLINE GAME COMMUNITY CONTINUES UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH SURPASSING TEN MILLION REGISTERED USER MARK

Free Service for PC and Console Game Players,
Xfire Offers a Quick and Easy Solution To Find and Play with Friends Online

MENLO PARK, Calif. - May 14, 2008 - Xfire, the fastest growing online gaming community in the world, announced today it recently crossed ten million registered users and supports over 1,200 of the most popular PC games worldwide. Xfire's slogan - "Gaming Simplified" - has resonated well with gamers since 2004, when it first offered a quick and easy way for users to find and play games with their friends online. Today, Xfire has evolved to successfully meet the needs of millions of gamers in the ever-changing landscape of online games.

"Our ten million users make up an incredibly active and dedicated community logged over 16,000 years on Xfire in the month of April alone," said Adam Boyden, General Manager, Xfire, Inc. "In addition, Xfire is helping gamers play online with their friends and offers a plethora of innovative features that keep them coming back for more."

Xfire is a free product that provides valuable services to gamers that enrich their online game playing experiences, and is only a 4 MB download. Xfire has added a number of features to its initial product including hi-resolution video and screenshot capture, voice chat, file transfers, screenshot uploads and more. In addition, Xfire has greatly enhanced its web offerings. The recently re-launched website provides users an instant "Activity Report" of their top friends, Clans & Guilds management tools and a seamless integration of stats, videos and screenshots between the gaming application and their Profile pages.

Xfire's dedicated community is comprised of the highly sought after demographic of 18-34 year old males, making Xfire appealing to advertisers and partners. Xfire is also the largest host of live online gaming events and competitions on the Internet and partners with a variety of advertisers and Free 2 Play gaming publishers to bring its users new, relevant and exciting gaming content.

For more information about Xfire, log on to http://www.xfire.com

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E3 2008: Dark Void (Interview and Hands On)

by: Chuck - posted: 7/20/2008 1:50 PM - Comments (0)

One of the games that I wanted to check out going into E3 was Airtight's Dark Void. The early trailers had shown some stomach churning vertical combat and given that Airtight is composed of a lot of people who worked on the Crimson Skies games there was a lot of potential in the game. After talking to Jose Perez III (audio below) I think Dark Void is another game to keep on your radar.

You play Will, your typical everyman who's sucked into the Void while traveling through the Bermuda Triangle. Now you have to find a way to escape and defeat the Watchers, an alien race trying to destroy mankind. The best way to think about the vertical combat is to take the cover based gameplay from Gears of War and turn it 90 degrees upward. Throw in a little acrophobia and now you're talking Dark Void's core gameplay mechanic (which makes sense given that the game is using the Unreal Engine 3). You'll only be climbing up rock surfaces for part of the game as eventually you'll build a fully functional jet pack and that's where the Crimson Skies influences really start to show. With the fully upgraded jetpack you can zoom around levels without any worries or restrictions and the game opens up to accomplish that.

I only got to play the game for about five minutes but zooming around the with the jetpack was a lot of fun as you got to try and take out a series of flying saucers. The real key is that you need to board one of the flying saucers and then use it to take out the others in the area. Once you get close to one of them you press the B button and then that kicks off a small mini-game where you circle around the edge of the saucer trying to work your way in. Thankfully it's not a quicktime event but once you have control you can then zoom around and take down the rest of the aircraft with ease. Controls are very tight and responsive. I will admit that flying in the jetpack is a bit like flying in WarHawk as you have the option of hovering as well as flying forward.

From what I saw the game looks like it's coming along well. I do worry that the vertical combat part of the game is going to take some getting used to as you do have to climb your way along a linear path but I don't think a lot of people will mind it. I guess we'll find out when the game ships. Here's our interview with Jose Perez III that explains more about the backstory of the game and more about the vertical combat gameplay.

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E3 2008: Motorstorm:Pacific Rift (Interview and Hands On)

by: Chuck - posted: 7/20/2008 12:52 PM - Comments (0)

The original Motorstorm was one of the better looking titles for the PS3 and did a fairly good job of showing off the strengths and weaknesses of the PS3. You had amazing visuals, interesting SIXAXIS controls, and some really brutal load times. The follow up game looks to build on those strengths and fix a lot of the issues with the first game. In our chat with Paul Hollywood, the creative director on the project and he confirmed that the game will not require a hard drive install to increase speend.

The game is placed on a new imaginary jungle island which provides for some new challenges. You'll now have to deal with foliage and water which can slow down smaller vehicles. Water is important in other ways as it can instantly cool down your engine from boosting which adds a new tactical element to the game.

I did have the chance to go through one quick race in the game against Mr. Hollywood using the game's new split screen mode. The game builds on the amazing visuals of the first as the graphics are just jaw droppingly gorgeous. While Pure comes close I still think Motorstorm: Pacific Rift has a slight edge on them graphics wise. Gameplay is still fast paced and the game retails the multiple paths through a course setup from the first game.

Load times for vehicle selection are now almost non-existant as you now pull up a 2D card with the information about the vehicle rather than the 3D model of the car. This may change by the time the game ships but for me it works. Level load times have also been decreased dramatically and this isn't final code. The racing itself will be familiar to fans of the first game (why ruin what works well). I was able to narrowly defeat Paul but I have a sneaking feeling he let me win. Hopefully I'll be able to get a re-match this fall when the game is released.

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E3 2008: Pure (Hands On)

by: Chuck - posted: 7/20/2008 12:51 PM - Comments (0)

Despite a packed schedule I ended up with about fifteen minutes of free time to spend in the Concourse Hall. After seeing all the videos and screenshots of Disney's Pure I thought I might pop over and see if the game played as well as it looks. While the game look a lot like Sony's Motorstorm games they play concepts are vastly different. Motorstorm is a pure racing game with various vehicle types while Pure is a trick based ATV game.

Pure looks as good in person as it looks in all the trailers we've shown as the racing environments are lush and highly detailed. The heard of the game is the jump trick/system. Before you hit a jump you pull back on the left thumbstick and then push up as you go over which gives you big air. While you are in the air you can pull off tricks with the facebuttons. You start off with just having A button tricks available but as you pull off tricks on the track you earn boost which unlocks the other facebutton tricks. While you're pulling off a trick you can tap the right bumper to put a twist on the move that you are currently pulling off. These moves tend to be a bit more exotic and require more air as they take more time to pull off but that's the risk/reward of using them.

What's impressive about the game is how accessible it is. It took me a few tries to get the controls down but once I did I was knocking out jump and tricks without a problem. The harder tricks are really difficult to pull off but they do result in some spectacular wipe outs when you miss them. I'm interested to see how the full game and the multiplayer works out but the brief taste of Pure I got was pretty solid.

E3 2008: NHL 2K9 impressions

by: Chuck - posted: 7/20/2008 11:32 AM - Comments (2)

The folks at 2K Sports are aware that t