United Gamer Online (UGO)

May 7 11:20 A.M.
Grab your spurs and ten-gallon hat, because gaming is going West. And it's about time! After conquering every frontier from deep space to Hell itself, game makers have finally turned their attention to the original wild frontier.

Just in case you aren't familiar with these here parts, we've gone ahead and mapped out the game industry's expanding Western landscape. From the sweet-tempered to the downright ornery, there's something for everyone in gaming's new Wild West, and hopefully something here just for you. So get along, little doggie.

Red Dead Redemption: Quick Reload
All the essential information, all in one spot.

By Charles Onyett
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Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption is a big game. If you've been following along with our coverage, you'll notice the initial preview and parts one and two of our interview with Dan Houser have been anything but brief. Maybe you didn't want to wade through that sea of text to get at the meat of what Redemption is, why it's interesting, and why you should keep an eye on it as its expected release date of sometime this fall approaches.

In this article, we'll deliver a more digestible outline of what the game is and how it works.
What is Red Dead Redemption?

It's Rockstar's next attempt at making an open world game, this time with a Western setting. If you've played the 2004 title Red Dead Revolver, you should know Redemption has very little to do with it. It's a different period of time, a different main character, and set in a gigantic game world. In it, you're free to roam around, take on missions in towns, explore the landscape, hunt wildlife, play mini-games, shoot at whoever you want, and progress through the story.

Who Am I?

You're John Marston, a former bandit who hung up his hat and started a family. The past doesn't stay buried for long, however, as characters from his nefarious background jump out of the shadows and force Marston back into the fray. Rockstar is staying pretty quiet as far as story specifics go, which is just fine. Marston is more of a loner, so don't expect a cast of several main characters like in Revolver. From time to time Marston may join up with others for a mission, but he's generally on his own.

How Do I Kill Things?

With revolvers, rifles, shotguns, and even a Gatling gun mounted on a train. Helping you out will be a Deadeye mode, which returns from the original game. Triggering it temporarily drops the onscreen action into slow-motion, helping you to line up a shot. Later on you get a better version of this as it relates to your revolver, which lets you specify locations where you want all your bullets to go before snapping back to real-time. There'll also be a cover system.

How Do I Get Around?

Horses, trains, and stagecoaches are all around the game world for you to hop into. You can buy horses in town or use your lasso to break ones in the wild, and while riding you can still shoot at anyone who gets in your way. On trains and stagecoaches you can either stay on in real time or, if you just want to get somewhere quickly, can just take a nap. When you wake up, you'll be at your destination.

What Else is There to Do?

Well, you get the normal stuff like taking on missions or free roaming exploration and combat along with a number of side activities. The game features quite a few mini-games like five finger filet (a timing game where you slam a knife into a table without nicking your fingers) and cards along with many others Rockstar isn't talking about. You'll also be able to hunt and skin wildlife for profit, as well as take part in a number of side-quests that pop up around the game world. For instance, if you find a broken wagon on the side of the road and a lady next to it calling for help, you can choose to help out or steer clear.

What's to Stop Me From Killing Everything?

There is a system in Redemption that prevents you from going on uncontested shooting sprees, so don't think you'll be able to just wipe out the entire game world. Even if you do manage to kill everyone in a large population center, people return after a few days, so you can't permanently wipe out the whole map. Officers of the law will also give chase, along with other characters, though the specifics of this notoriety system aren't yet finalized so we can't say exactly how it's all going to work.

Why is This Game Worth My Attention?

It's a Rockstar game. It looks pretty. It's a giant, interactive world that seems to offer a lot of interesting activities for players to dig into. It'll have a multiplayer component. From the trailer it seems like it'll have some high quality voice acting and in-game music. Most Western-themed games just aren't very good, and it seems like this could really deliver an impressively comprehensive experience.

When's it Coming Out?

This fall on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Ok, Sounds Cool. I Want to Read More.

Red Dead Redemption First Look

Interview with Dan Houser, Part 1

Interview with Dan Houser, Part 2

©2009-05-12, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

3:00 am EDT May 12, 2009

04/30/2010
There's no denying it - despite a worldwide consumer recession and spiking unemployment, virtual worlds are still growing with impressive speed.

A report by the Virtual Goods Summit shows that purchases of virtual clothing, weapons, and accessories will top $1 billion for the first time, and will nearly double to $1.6 billion by 2010.

There's only one thing missing: competition..

The Virtual Market is Booming
While it was expected that virtual worlds would draw in hundreds of billions this year, it appears increasingly likely that virtual worlds will top $1 billion with months to spare.

If this is the case, one company is doing the heavy lifting: Second Life alone boasts nearly $500 million in virtual sales.

What is so interesting about the Virtual Goods Summit report? For starters, it shows that consumption patterns are changing. More virtual world users are purchasing items with real money than in previous years, meaning this all-important revenue stream is moving away from the hands of a few "power users."

In other words, virtual worlds are expanding their membership not only to curious new players, but new players willing to spend money. As Facebook browser-game creator Zynga's rapidly-expanding pay-to-play figures show, more paying customers lowers the risk of a flight of virtual capital.

Unfortunately, the virtual economy will be especially susceptible to shocks and sudden declines so long as one world controls nearly 50% of all revenue. However, with Blue Mars set to tap major developers as a revenue stream, Second Life may find its position as the Metaverse commercial center challenged by an upstart.

Despite initial suspicions, this challenge will be good for the Metaverse. Concentration of capital, as we've seen in the United States, leads to economic boom-and-bust cycles. If a suitable challenger to Second Life develops over the next year, it will be a net gain for the Metaverse.

A world where Second Life only controls 30% of U.S. virtual world revenues may mean a reduced position for Linden Lab, but it also means a more stable virtual environment. A dose of competition might spur Linden Lab to fix the myriad bugs, broken features, and user-unfriendly elements of its otherwise solid virtual world.

The Metaverse has plenty of money. What it needs is a good dose of competition.

May 5 11:20 A.M.
Having occurred only 16 times since the modern baseball era began in 1900, pitching a perfect game is among the rarest feats in sports. It's the Holy Grail for pitchers, earning them a one-way ticket to sports immortality and a permanent spot in the history books.

But for 24-year-old Wade McGilberry, there was a more, uh, practical motivation: $1 million, which is exactly how much the Alabama man just won for throwing a perfect game in MLB 2K10 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

"It was actually my wife who convinced me to go for it," he said in a statement. "I never thought I'd actually win a million dollars playing a video game, it's all still sinking in for me."

The prize is the culmination of 2K Sports' Perfect Game competition, which ran from March 2 to May 1. Gamers were required to play the game's MLB Today mode and select the "MLB 2K10 contest," which automatically defaults to the correct gameplay settings to ensure an even playing field. While McGilberry might not have been the only player to throw a perfect game, he was the first, earning the unprecedented million-dollar prize by tossing perfection on the very first day of competition.

McGilberry was presented with an oversized check at his home.

"The game itself was fantastic -- I'm glad I bought it either way -- but I have to say, this is a nice return on my investment," he said.

Considering the game retails for $49.99, that's a return of about $999,950.01. Nice indeed.

by Joseph Brannigan Lynch April 30, 2010


Disney's popular website Pixie Hollow just welcomed a new fairy to its mystical ranks -- and surprise! It's a boy.

Pixie Hollow is an online world where kids can create their own Tinker Bell-styled fairy personas, interact with each other, and play enchanted "talent games." Up until now, kids could only don a pair of virtual wings and flit around Pixie Hollow as female fairies -- but all that's all changed now that Disney has introduced its first fairy-dude to the formerly all-girl world: A boy by the name of Slate.

Slate is a variation on Disney's famous pixie-girl character, Tinker Bell, who was first introduced in J.M. Barrie's famous novel, "Peter and Wendy" (the inspiration for the animation powerhouse's 1953 movie "Peter Pan"). Tinker Bell, of course, has since spun off into countless dolls, TV features, and even her own section of Disneyland (also named "Pixie Hollow"). She also got a starring headliner role in 2008's direct-to-video feature, "Tinker Bell."

Disney isn't exactly ready to call Slate a "fairy boy," though. "Sparrow Man" is the preferred term, but one look at Slate and it's clear that he's less Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast" and more Peter Pan: Slim, big-eyed, and androgynous. Though svelte, next to the absurdly slim waists on the girl pixies, Slate's normal build is comparatively Schwarzenegger-esque.

While news that children now have the "male or female" option when creating a new fairy avatar might fill some adults with a sense of unease, according to Salon.com (which refers to the new character as "Tinker Bill"), it's nothing new to the kids. Mary Elizabeth Williams writes: "The open secret around the Hollow has long been that if you make your fairy tall with short hair and give her an ambiguous name like Jamie, she can pretty quickly establish a reputation as a he."

The addition of Slate to the fairy-world will allow girls who have been bending the gender rules a chance to play as guy fairies. It also gives boys who have been quietly flying about Pixie Hollow for the last few years an opportunity to acknowledge that males play this game, too.

A quick scan of comments on the site reveal there are plenty of people in the Pixie Hollow who have been waiting for this to happen. After Slate was introduced through a post on the Never News Blog, user response was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. "I think it is great for Pixie Holow [sic] to add Sparrow Men," wrote gamer Alina Moonshine. "Now my grandson can fly a boy fairy instead of a girl. It will make him feel special."

Another (clearly younger) commenter asked "If the girl close [sic] can be for boys too," to which Slate himself -- or, more likely, a Disney employee acting on Slate's behalf -- responded with sprite-like speed. "A lot of Fairy designers follow the same trends," Slate explained. "That means that even if the clothes are in different shops and tailored to fit different Fairies, they can sometimes be alike!"

April 22, 2010



Evidence surfaced this week that makes it seem very likely that Zynga will soon expand its hit FarmVille game to the iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms, while also adding support for SMS gameplay. Zynga has purchased the domains FarmVilleAndroid.com, FarmVilleiPad.com, FarmVilleiPhone.com, and FarmVilleSMS.com according to information found by Internet sleuthing site Superannuation.

While Zynga is not named explicitly in the domain registrar info listed on Superannuation, the site did confirm that whoever purchased the new domains also purchased Farmville.com, FarmVille's official Web site. While it's easy to guess at the role SMS will play in FarmVille thanks to Mafia Wars, it's less clear what the other versions of FarmVille might be like. What seems most likely is something similar to the Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker apps for iPhone, which serve as a mobile interfaces for the game.

FarmVille on iPad and Android would mark Zynga's debut on both platforms. Zynga has previously published numerous titles for iPhone in addition to the ones listed above, including Vampires: Bloodlust and Word Scramble. Last summer Zynga CEO Mark Pincus criticized the iPhone's ability to monetize social games as "below expectations," but this was before the addition of in-app transactions to the platform as part of OS 3.0.

This post by Alicia Ashby originally appeared on Virtual Goods News.

by Ben Silverman
May 1 8:20 A.M.
Call of Duty

The Call of Duty beckons once more.

Activision has officially pulled the tarp off the next installment in their blockbuster Call of Duty franchise, although it's still shrouded in a fair bit of mystery.

The new game is called Call of Duty: Black Ops and will take place "behind enemy lines." It's being developed by Treyarch, who created the 2008 Call of Duty hit, Call of Duty: World at War, and is due out November 9 of this year.

"We have focused our entire studio on this game, with dedicated multiplayer, single-player and co-op teams creating the most intense, gripping and riveting experience possible for our fans on all fronts,” said Mark Lamia, Studio Head for Treyarch, in a release.

While many have speculated that the next game in the series would take place in Vietnam, the game's debut trailer doesn't specifically disclose the whens and wheres. It does, however, disclose all kinds of awesome explosions:
Upon closer inspection, we can hazard a couple guesses. Several shots show jungle environments filled with modest huts, older vehicles, and even a rickety rope bridge, while soldiers seem to be favoring old-school gear and headbands. Vietnam -- or perhaps the broader Cold War -- doesn’t sound so far-fetched, although that creepy doctor bit sure looked modern to us. Flashbacks, maybe?

The trailer caps off a rollercoaster week for publisher Activision, which includes both a major lawsuit and a major acquisition.

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writer – Fri Apr 30, 6:35 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Apple Inc. is shutting down its newly bought Lala online music service amid speculation it is creating a way for iTunes customers to listen to songs stored on distant computers.

The move comes just weeks before an annual conference for developers in San Francisco on June 7 at which the secretive company tends to announce big news. Last year, it used the conference to unveil the latest version of its popular iPhone, the 3GS.

With Apple continuing to build a $1 billion data center in Maiden, N.C., that rivals the largest such facilities in the world, some executives in the online music industry believe that Apple is poised to announce an Internet-powered version of iTunes that would do away with the need to download songs.

Such a move would pit Apple, the largest online music retailer, against smaller companies that offer ways to deliver music to mobile devices using "cloud computing," a remote-storage system that potentially challenges iTunes and its reliance on downloads and personal storage space.

"Whatever they bought Lala for, it is likely to be integrated into iTunes," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at technology consulting firm Altimeter Group. "It's no surprise they're shutting this down."

But one factor against a big announcement soon is that Apple has not approached music executives about its plans since a few months ago, and new licenses that would be required have not been set up, according to two people at different major recording companies with knowledge of the discussions. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are meant to be confidential.

Customers of iTunes currently pay up to $1.29 per song. Because it takes several minutes to download songs to a phone over cell networks, most users download songs to their computers before transferring them to their phones with a physical cord.

A cloud system would let users access the songs right away.

And because storage space wouldn't be an issue, a user could listen to a wider variety of music on the go.

Several months before Apple bought Lala in December, Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen demonstrated for The Associated Press a working, but unapproved iPhone application that streamed songs instantly to the phone after a user spent 10 cents per song to house them in a digital locker on a distant server. The 10 cents are credited back to buyers who went on to buy a higher-quality, permanent download.

Nguyen called the technology "the end of the MP3," the dominant format for song downloads. After Apple bought Lala, that iPhone application was never launched.

Since then, several companies have launched similar streaming music functions that do away with downloads and need only be connected to the Internet via the cell phone network.

On Monday, Rhapsody unveiled an update to its iPhone application to allow users to play such music even when they lack cell phone coverage. For a $10 monthly fee, users could save any song from a catalog of 9.5 million to their device.

Although users can only play the songs for as long as they keep paying, the system still challenges the iTunes model by making it easier to get songs to the phone, without the need for cords and synching with a regular computer.

The ability to quickly save songs on a phone for offline playback was "a huge milestone," Rhapsody International Inc. President Jon Irwin said Friday. "So in a way, the battle's already begun."

Apple declined to comment Friday on its plans.

Visitors to Lala's home page have been told since late Thursday that the service isn't accepting new users and will shut down at the end of May. Songs that were bought from Lala for download are still playable, and people who bought 10-cent songs that can only be played online will get 10 cents credited to their iTunes accounts or a check in the mail, the site said. Other credits and gift cards are also transferable for a limited time.

Apple has been hiring staff for its North Carolina data center, and in early April advertised on its website for a chief operating engineer.

Only about a dozen data centers in the world are larger than the 500,000-square-foot facility Apple has under construction, said Rich Miller, editor of Data Center Knowledge, a website that tracks such centers.

Other companies that have built structures of the same size are "major cloud computing players" such as Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc., he said. Apple currently has one data center in Newark, Calif. That facility covers about 150,000 square feet and is believed to power its MobileMe service of pushing e-mail and calendar events to devices.

"It certainly looks like their ambition is to house a lot of data," Miller said. That would then let Apple deliver greater amounts of content over the Internet than the company's current offerings.

___

AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz in Seattle contributed to this report.