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April 29, 2004
Insert Sofia Coppola Joke Here
We all know the age-old story about how some games are uniquely American, while others are very, very Japanese (probably anything with tentacles). Surprisingly, Japanese gamers are not as drawn to overtly violent games, and they seem to dislike first-person POV games as well.
So, don’t expect Halo 2, Doom III or Half-Life 2 to break any sales record in Japan, says a relatively well-researched report fro MSNBC (you know, that cable news channel you never watch). Also interesting is the theory that non-linear games, like Grand Theft Auto,
Don’t do well in Japan, because gamers in that heavily structured society prefer titles with a strong narrative and direction.
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4780423/
Posted by gamegal at 03:39 PM
Love Letter to Xbox
The New York Times has written an unabashed love letter to the Xbox today. In the popular weekly Circuits section, a cover feature describes how developers are flocking to the more-powerful Microsoft console, giving it more of those ever-important exclusive titles.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/technology/circuits/29xbox.html
Posted by gamegal at 03:37 PM
Rocking Out with Nintendo Tunes
The New York Times managed to include at least four game-related stories in their Circuits section today – making it actually readable for a change. (Usually, the level of discourse is along the lines of “Why do they call it a floppy disk, when it’s actually quite hard?”)
They profile a California band, called The Advantage, who play nothing but rock versions of old Nintendo music. It’s been done before – but no one’s ever tried to make a whole musical career out of it.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/technology/circuits/29band.html
Posted by gamegal at 03:36 PM
April 27, 2004
Olsen Twins in Video Game Lawsuit
Mary-Kate and Ashley, those fabulously wealthy icons for the underage set, are suing Acclaim, the publisher of their video game series.
The girls say that Acclaim owes them $178,000 in past-due royalties. Additionally, they’re accusing the game publisher of running the brand into the ground by releasing really lame Olsen Twins games (can’t say we disagree with them on that one…)
Check out the latest on our favorite NYU freshmen at the link below.
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040426/us_nm/media_acclaim_dc_2
Posted by gamegal at 12:42 PM
The Circle of Life
Sony is reporting a whopping 23% drop in annual net profit, taking some of the rosy glow off the video game industry. But before you start fretting – remember, this is just part of the natural cycle of the gaming industry, which we’ve seen several times over.
The PS2 is nearing a saturation point in the marketplace, while everyone’s attention is turning towards the next generation of consoles, still in development. So, look for more news on the portable PSP handheld, and lots of PS3 rumors in the coming months.
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040427/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_sony_2
Posted by gamegal at 12:42 PM
D&D Turns 30
Not that we can really get too excited about this, but Dungeons & Dragons, the pioneering pencil-and-paper role-playing game best known for keeping the freakiest of the geekiest out of the gene pool, is celebrating its 30th birthday.
Just thought you should know.
Link: http://roleplaygames.about.com/cs/roleplayinginnew/a/30thann.htm
Posted by gamegal at 12:41 PM
April 26, 2004
KOTOR Sequel Details!
Like pretty much every other gamer on the planet, we loved the Star Wars RPG Knight of the Old Republic. Naturally a sequel is now in the works.
The current rumor mill says that KOTOR 2 will take place a few years after the first game (as in, still several thousand years before Luke, Lea and Jar-Jar), and you’ll play a new character, but there will be lots of connections to the first game in terms of characters, ships and locations.
Link: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=550
Posted by gamegal at 05:52 PM
Sony Sneaks a Peek at E3 Titles
The fine folks at Sony were putting together their E3 pages, when the URL leaked out and everyone and their cousin started linking to them, and trying to hack into the various directories for more unannounced info.
So, of course, Sony took the pages right down, leading to a huge discussion on Slashdot, EvilAvatar and other game sites. You can actually see a bit of the fuss on Google’s cache of the page (link below). Some of the game’s we’re excited about include Bloodrayne 2 and Final Fantasy XII.
Link: http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:n97SVPUgGnoJ:e3.playstation.com/+&hl=en
Posted by gamegal at 05:50 PM
April 23, 2004
Lara Disses E3 Crowds
Ok, maybe she’s not technically “dissing” the thousands of industry types who’ll be at the giant E3 trade show in Mat, but Lara Croft isn’t exactly making them feel loved, either.
Our favorite archeologist is going to be a no-show in Los Angeles, according to Eidos, her corporate masters. New developer Crystal Dynamics is said to be working on a new game, the seventh in the series, for a 2005 release.
Not that we’ll really miss the slightly skanky models they always dress up in Lara Croft outfits to wander the show floor.
Link: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=55315
Posted by gamegal at 01:44 PM
The Game of Love
We couldn’t possibly pass up tell you about this story – even though every other game site seems to be hawking it as well.
Apparently they were holding a Bachelorette-style game between innings at a San Francisco Giants game. There were three guys, one girl, and the lucky guy chosen by the bachelorette was offered a choice of an all-expenses paid date with Jordan, the reportedly “buxom and brunette,” and fluent in Portuguese, or a PlayStation 2.
You’ve got three guesses as to what he picked, and the first two don’t count.
Link: http://ps2.ign.com/articles/508/508371p1.html?fromint=1
Posted by gamegal at 01:43 PM
April 21, 2004
Ninja Gaiden Makes Nice for Foreign Release
Want hot ninja action, but without all the bloodshed and decapitation? Apparently so do European game regulators. The people who give age ratings to games in most of Europe, a body known as PEGI, have asked Tecmo to remove some of the blood and gore from Ninja Gaiden to in order to qualify for a “16” rating.
Link: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=3328
Posted by gamegal at 02:05 PM
Another Day, Another Bug
It seems like there’s some kind of major online security alert every other day. But this one just might live up to the hype. Techie types are in a panic over a recently discovered weakness in the basic TCP protocol that is the foundation for basic traffic over the internet.
Major denial of service attacks are theoretically possible, and everyone’s scrambling to patch their systems. Just thought you should know. Carry on...
Link: http://www.uniras.gov.uk/vuls/2004/236929/index.htm
Posted by gamegal at 02:00 PM
New Look, Same Old Darth…
Need an excuse to pick up the upcoming Star Wars original trilogy DVD set? We admit, the lack of commentary tracks and the “special edition” versions kind of put us off the whole affair. But now Lucas and co. are sweetening the pot with a sneak-peek at the Episode III look of Anakin “Darth Vader” Skywalker.
Since the flick isn’t due until 2005, fans will jump all over this one – and besides, you know you’re going to buy the DVD set anyway…
Link: http://starwars.com/episode-iv/news/2004/04/news20040420.html
Posted by gamegal at 01:58 PM
April 20, 2004
Chocolate vs. Passwords: Fight!
Now here’s a survey we can finally sink our teeth into. Our friends over at the BBC report that commuters in London were willing to trade their computer passwords for bribes. A startling 70% would give up the goods for a chocolate bar – a sentiment we can readily identify with.
Ours? Maybe it’s BOSCO…
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3639679.stm
Posted by gamegal at 11:26 AM
E3’s 10th Anniversary
Would you believe that E3, the Electronic Entertainment Exposition, is gearing up to celebrate its 10th year in business? For those not in the know, that’s the gaming industry’s annual trade show in Los Angeles. It’s basically mile after mile of giant booths set up by game companies to show off their wares.
This year’s edition is being held May 11-14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and GameGal will once again be in attendance (with our usual array of GameGal branded goodies). If you want to see what the show is like, check out our photos from last year below.
Link: http://www.gamegal.com/e32003
Posted by gamegal at 11:25 AM
April 16, 2004
Return of the Hall of Shame?
Uh oh…is GameGal gonna have to dig out the old Hall of Shame at this year’s E3? We hear that Sammy Studios and developer Point of View are working on a game based on the FX series The Shield (you know, the one with the Commish).
That seems like a good idea to us, but the rumor mill says the associated E3 booth os going to play up the T&A angle. "The E3 booth is a sex show,” is what the site Eurogamer.net quotes the developer as saying.
We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now – but The Gal is always looking for new candidates for the Hall…
Link: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=55237
Posted by gamegal at 05:36 PM
April 15, 2004
Explicit Spam Need Labels
The spam we get in our inbox every day is bad enough. What’s worse is the constant barrage of messages offering us nubile teens doing all sorts of things with hairy slug-like men, farm animals or each other. Now, the Federal Trade Commission has issued a new rule for commercial e-mail messages.
Starting May 19, under the proposed rule, such messages would have to carry an explicit warning in the subject line, or the sender would face violations of the CAN-SPAM act, signed into law in December of 2003.
Link: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/04/adultlabel.htm
Posted by gamegal at 01:19 PM
GameGal Newswire Official Launch
After more than a month of soft-launch testing, GameGal is happy to announce the official debut of the GameGal Newswire. This new service offers headlines and short news items coving video game and technology issues of interest to women in an easy-to-use XML format.
“The GameGal Newswire is great way for website operators to add unique, dynamic content of interest to tech-savvy women readers,” says GameGal Editor Libe Goad. “It also gives us a chance to cover a broader range of topics then we could through GameGal’s normal reviews and feature stories.”
Read more about it in the official Press Release below. Then again, if you’re reading this, you probably already know about the GameGal Newswire…
Link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/4/prweb118627.php
Posted by gamegal at 01:19 PM
GameGal Gaming Lab Goes Plasma
We here at GameGal World Headquarters, located in lovely downtown Manhattan, have an exciting new upgrade to our in-house gaming lab to tell you about.
On Monday, April 12, 2004, the GameGal 42” plasma screen went online. It took a few more days to get it wall-mounted, but even sitting in its table stand on the floor, an initial test game of Ninja Gaiden left everyone stunned.
Read more, and see photos, at the link below.
Link: http://gamegal.com/plasma-feature/index.htm
Posted by gamegal at 01:18 PM
April 14, 2004
N-Gage Updates
Nokia is ready to unveil the latest version of their N-Gage mobile phone/game platform – or as we refer to it, the Talking Taco. But really, we’re just jumping on the bandwagon. The original N-Gage was one of the worst-reviewed products of all time.
The new N-Gage QD is 20-percent smaller then its predecessor. It also has a multimedia slot for game cartridges (the original required you to remove the battery to swap games).
Look for it in June, retailing for $199.
Link: http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-5191019.html?tag=nefd.top
Posted by gamegal at 04:23 PM
April 13, 2004
Smut-Free DVD Player
Ever wish your favorite movies were available on DVD in their truncated broadcast TV or in-flight movie versions? Now Wal-Mart is offering a DVD player that will automatically skip over swearing, violence and sex in movies you watch!
The RCA Clear Play retails for $79, and uses pre-written filters to create family friendly versions of movies. The unit comes with a database of filtered movies built in, and new filters can be downloaded from a website for a fee. Of course, if the DVD you're watching isn't on their list, you'll get the full monty, if you know what we mean...
Link: http://www.walmart.com/
Posted by gamegal at 11:26 AM
April 12, 2004
Mystery Add-on for Gamecube
The secretive game scientists over at Nintendo are promising to show off a new peripheral for the Gamecube system at E3. What is it? They’re not telling, but it apparently has something in common with the PlayStation EyeToy. Does that mean it’s a webcam add-on? Or just that it’s some new type of interactive controller – we’ve got no idea.
All the news about it is in Japanese, so we Babel-fished it and got something about “radio communication function.” It seems like a transmitter you can stick in a GBA to act as a kind of wireless controller. But, we could be completely wrong.
Link: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20040409-00000041-kyt-l26
Posted by gamegal at 01:23 PM
Tribes for Free!
Vivendi Universal is celebrating the upcoming release of Tribes: Vengeance by giving away free versions of the previous games in the series, Starsiege: Tribes and the ever-popular Tribes 2.
The Tribes series was one of the first online-only FPS games, and captured a loyal, rabid following (although we never really got into it). But if you want to see what all the excitement was about – you can’t get a much better deal than free.
Link: http://www.vugames.com/news_story.do?storyId=1038
Posted by gamegal at 01:22 PM
XP Update Seems Like a Good Idea
Microsoft has a beta version of its second “Service Pack” for Windows XP available for download. What’s a Service Pack, you ask? It’s a big collection of bug fixes and improvements, too large to be called just a regular update.
While this is still a beta, not the final release version, we’ve read that it’s stable and offers many fixes that you might appreciate, including a pop-up blocker for Internet Explorer and easier-to-use security features.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/sp2preview.mspx
Posted by gamegal at 01:21 PM
April 07, 2004
John Woo Options Metroid Film
Legendary Hong Kong director John Woo has optioned the film rights to the classic Metroid game series. Right now, he’s signed on to produce, with an option to direct, the story of our favorite female bounty hunter, Samas Aran.
Look for the film to be a big-budget affair, released worldwide in 2006. Woo has also started a game development company, called Tiger Hill, and they will work on at least three tie-in games for the Metroid film, with Woo contributing to the scripts and cut scene direction.
Link: http://hollywoodreporter.com/
Posted by gamegal at 12:29 PM
Surgeons Aided by Gameplaying Habits
A new study shows that surgeons who are gamers have better hand-eye coordination and other skills, than those who don’t play video games on a regular basis.
The study was conducted by researchers with the Beth Israel Medical Center and the National Institute on Media and the Family at Iowa State University. Among the findings, doctors who played at least three hours a week made 37 percent fewer mistakes and worked 27 percent faster during laparoscopic surgery, which involves using a tiny camera and joysticks to manipulate remote-controlled surgical tools.
Link: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/ap20040406_2079.html
Posted by gamegal at 12:28 PM
April 06, 2004
University Conference Debates Games
An interesting conference was held recently at Stanford University in California. Hosted by the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, the “2010 Game Odyssey--Visions of Electronic Gaming” panel featured some strongly worded views that we think sum up the current state of the industry very nicely.
Gamespot quotes Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, as saying that game companies “still don’t understand how the demographic has shifted,” towards the mainstream, and that the public and the media “tend to pigeonhole us as toys.”
Link: http://www.futureofentertainment.com/
Posted by gamegal at 01:18 PM
Rebirth of the Classics
Enjoy classic games of the Atari 2600 variety? Sometimes we like to put down the latest bump-mapped big-budget blockbuster and play some classic low-res titles ourselves.
That’s why we were pleased as punch to hear that the late Classic Gamer magazine has been resurrected as a free magazine-style PDF publication. The mag features classic game reviews and coverage of the small-but-dedicated retro gaming market.
Link: http://www.classicgamer.com/
Posted by gamegal at 01:16 PM
Just Say No to Gmail
The 800-lb gorilla of search engines, Google, is finally getting into the free e-mail biz (are people still doing that?). Gmail is their answer to popular services like hotmail and Yahoo mail. But, there’s a controversy brewing already – Google is taking heat for a plan to send users ads based on a digital scan of the content of their e-mail messages.
For example, send someone an e-mail about cars – and you get a car ad. Send an e-mail about your peanut butter fetish…well, you get the idea.
Google says the content of users' email would remain private because the process would be fully automated. "No humans read your emails to target the ads," according to Google.
Link: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html#ads
Posted by gamegal at 01:11 PM
April 01, 2004
Tight Election for Sims President
Despite never gaining the mainstream userbase that everyone expected, the Sims Online keeps getting a lot of ink and has settled into a modest but loyal membership base of about 50,000 subscribers.
The biggest server, Alphaville, is in the midst of a presidential election, with the 21-year-old incumbent, Arthur Baynes, running against 14-year-old Ashley Richardson of Jupiter Florida. Hot issues include fighting the “griefers” who plague the game the creation of an official Alphaville bank.
Ashley, who is in the eighth grade, won a primary election in March, and polling for the general election starts April 10th at www.avgov.com.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/technology/circuits/01sims.html
Posted by gamegal at 12:37 PM