Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

That Combustible map pack didn’t seem to ignite much passion into Gears of War 2, as the shoe-in for Best Shooter Involving a Chain Saw-infused Rifle Award remains numero quartro on the Xbox Live activity chart for last week. The game was also 4th place the week prior, and 3rd place for two consecutive weeks before that. Far from being a bad position, but it’s certainly not dominating the service like its predecessor.

Staying strong at top is Halo 3, followed by the Call of Duty: World at War and CoD4, respectively. The promotional Dash of Destruction managed to take 6th place, and somehow bumped Fallout 3 from 8th to oblivion. Full list after the break.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Continue reading Gears 2 stagnant on Xbox Live activity chart despite DLC

Gears 2 stagnant on Xbox Live activity chart despite DLC originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Features

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq (”LGJ”), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

GamePolitics recent posted a report that some employers may be ‘discriminating’ against World of Warcraft players. In fact, there have been longstanding reports of gamers, generally, not being the most favored employee in some workplaces. Of course, as soon as anyone reads the word ‘discrimination’ they immediately think ‘lawsuit.’ Whether that’s an unfortunate byproduct of the direction of the American legal system or something else entirely is a discussion for another day. Today, rather, I want to take a look at the question of whether gamer discrimination could give rise to an employment discrimination lawsuit.

Continue reading LGJ: Wrath of the Discrimination King

LGJ: Wrath of the Discrimination King originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Personally, we wouldn’t want to be within 15 feet of a Centro being mercilessly overclocked to a mind-numbing 936MHz, but we reckon that’s where our fearless readers come into play. We’re told that this sucker reached prompt criticality and melted into the Earth’s crust shortly after this screen shot was taken, and you know what? We can’t say we blame it.

[Thanks, Jason]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

The gigahertz Centro, also known as ‘the Palm-powered grenade’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Deals, iPhone, iPod touch

Stick with us here: first, there was the free Aurora Feint: The Beginning, which has recieved some pretty rave reviews as one of the first iPhone games. Then there was Aurora Feint II: The Arena, which added multiplayer and some much-awaited MMO features. And now the folks behind it all have announced two more Aurora Feint games: there’s Aurora Feint II: The Beginning, which features the gameplay of the first game with new graphics and the extra MMO features included, and Aurora Feint II: The Tower Puzzles, which contains more of the gameplay seen in the “Tower” location in the full game. Got all that?

The Arena and The Beginning are not compatible — The Arena offers multiplayer, while The Beginning is all singleplayer. And the second version (II) of The Beginning is still singleplayer, but offers the MMO features introduced in The Arena along with the singleplayer gameplay. And The Tower Puzzles is more puzzles based on the “Tower” mode, and according to the iTunes description, does not include the MMO features. Whew. Complicated, no?

The good news is that it’s all cheap — for now, anyway. The very first game is still free. The Beginning (version II) and The Tower Puzzles are both 99 cents right now as an introductory price, to go up to $2.99 and $1.99 respectively in January. And The Arena is $7.99 — pricey, but it’s the only place you can dive into multiplayer (and it’s also not compatible with both versions of The Beginning). All are available in the App Store right now, and even if you don’t want any of them, feel free to scan your eyeballs over the pretty pictures below.

TUAWAurora Feint announces two new iPhone games originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hardware

The whole topic of “Is PC gaming dead?” has been talked about so many times that’s its not worth mentioning anymore (except to say, “No, it’s not”). However is the era of the high end $5,000 gaming PC rig dead? Rahul Sood, the founder of the gaming PC maker Voodoo PC (now owned by HP) has posted up a new editorial on his personal blog site that says, “Yes.”

Citing the current economic crisis as part of the cataylst for this move, Sood states, “ There was a time when selling high-end hardware was easy, because we believed in it. Now we’re retooling and retasking our configurations so they make sense; let’s face it, high-end hardware has delivered diminishing returns in terms of value. This is why you don’t see ridiculous offerings like Quad SLI and 2-kilowatt power supplies coming from our company.”

Sood feels that PC game developers know they can’t rely on the high-end hardware audience to buy their titles anymore. He states, “The glory days of wicked-stupid hardware requirements are pretty much gone. Game developers are in the business of making money, and thus want to distribute their games to the widest possible audience.”

Is the high-end (and expensive) gaming PC dead? originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tom Corelis chats with last.fm’s Richard Jones

Filed under: Fan stuff, Gears of War 2

There’s this little known internet meme the kids referred to as “Rickrolling.” You may have heard of it in the past. All right, it’s about as old as the internet is but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it, right?! Well, the guys at Pixel Flix Studios have taken their love of Rick Astley and married it with their love of Gears of War 2 for a little mash-up they call “GearsRoll’d.” Around the office we’re calling it Gears of Roll’D. We don’t want to ruin the surprise but all we can say is … poor Baird and “it never ends.”

Video: You’ve got your Rick Astley in my Gears originally appeared on Xbox 360 Fanboy on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone

Looking for late gifts for iPhone owners? Here are some iPhone apps that are great for last-minute stocking stuffers or to show off your iPhone to your relatives during the holidays:

Charades ($1.99 US) — While you’re gathered around friends and family with nothing to do after the presents have been opened, use this app to generate some of the over 1000 charades games provided. The app offers a difficulty setting and Wikipedia links to each charade (in case you get stuck trying to act it out).

Continue reading Stocking Stuffer iPhone Apps

TUAWStocking Stuffer iPhone Apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Nintendo Wii

A video distribution service is coming to Nintendo Wii, according to Nikkei business daily (via Reuters). Working with ad agency Dentsu, Inc., the service will offer original content in the form of cartoons and “other entertainment programs” and is seen as a “new revenue stream” for the company (read: our large vault of money needs a diving board made from diamonds). Not much else is known at the moment. The service will first launch in Japan early 2009 and overseas later in the year.

Video service coming to Wii, says Nikkei originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wow, talk about spreading that holiday cheer. Psion Teklogix has apparently hired a legal team to write up cease & desist letters that are being sent out to select netbook enthusiast websites. One particular letter is pictured above, and we can only assume the URL is hidden for the safety of those involved. jkOnTheRun dug a little deeper into the matter and found that the outfit did indeed produce a Netbook and Netbook Pro back in the day, and while the surprisingly netbook-like devices (imagine that, right?) have since been discontinued, it is still making compatible accessories. Something tells us Psion waited a touch too late to pick this fight, but just in case Engadget is next in line for one of these letters, we’ll be utilizing the term smallcheap(er)book for the foreseeable future. Hope that’s okay.

Filed under: Laptops

Psion Teklogix sending out cease & desist letters to netbook-centric websites originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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