Tag: gaming
Guitar Hero Greatest Hits & On Tour: Modern Hits out now
Break open your piggy and get an advance on your pocket money because the next two editions of the Guitar Hero family have been born. Guitar Hero Greatest Hits and Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits are available to buy from today from all good retailers both on and off line.
Yes, Activision is delicately rinsing music geeks the world over of their hard earned cash. Greatest Hits is the compilation for the consoles of the best tracks of the first three titles whereas Modern Hits is a 28-track music bundle for the Nintendo DS including Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, Tenacious D, The Strokes and Weezer.
You can pick the former up for around £37 and the latter for £25. Oh, and the finalised track list for the Greatest Hits is as follows:
Guitar Hero Greatest Hits Track List
“Back in the Saddle” – Aerosmith
“Bark at the Moon” Ozzy Osbourne
“Barracuda” – Heart
“Beast and the Harlot” – Avenged Sevenfold
“Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas
“Caught in a Mosh” – Anthrax
“Cherry Pie” – Warrant
“Cowboys from Hell” (Live in Moscow 1991) – Pantera
“Cult of Personality” – Living Colour
“Electric Eye” – Judas Priest
“Free Bird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Freya” – The Sword
“Godzilla” – Blue Öyster Cult
“Heart-Shaped Box” – Nirvana
“Hey You” – The Exies
“Hit Me with Your Best Shot” – Pat Benatar
“Love Rock ‘n Roll” – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
“I Wanna Rock” – Twisted Sister
“Killer Queen” – Queen
“Killing in the Name” – Rage Against the Machine
“Laid to Rest” – Lamb of God
“Lay Down” – Priestess
“Message in a Bottle” – The Police
“Miss Murder” – AFI
“Monkey Wrench” – Foo Fighters
“More Than a Feeling” – Boston
“Mother” – Danzig
“No One Knows” – Queens of the Stone Age
“Nothin’ but a Good Time” – Poison
“Play With Me” – Extreme
“Psychobilly Freakout” – Reverend Horton Heat
“Raining Blood” – Slayer
“Rock and Roll All Nite” – Kiss
“Round and Round” – Ratt
“Shout at the Devil” – Mötley Crüe
“Smoke on the Water” – Deep Purple
“Stella” – Incubus
“Stop!” – Jane’s Addiction
“Take It Off” – The Donnas
“Take Me Out” – Franz Ferdinand
“Them Bones” – Alice in Chains
“Through the Fire and Flames” – DragonForce
“Thunder Kiss ’65” – White Zombie
“Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper” – Heart Stone Temple Pilots
“The Trooper” – Iron Maiden
“Unsung” (Live in Chicago) – Helme
“Woman” – Wolfmother
“YYZ” – Rush
PEGI takes control of game classifications
With all of the hullabaloo (yeah I said hullabaloo, big whoop, wanna fight about it?) that surrounded yesterday’s Digital Britain report, you may have missed the announcement that PEGI is going to be the sole gaming classification body in the UK, leaving the BBFC out in the cold.
The BBFC have, in the past, accused PEGI of being “just a couple of blokes” and have pulled a bit of a strop over the announcement. “The BBFC has always supported PEGI and wished it well,” they said. “But it continues to believe that it satisfies these requirements better than PEGI.”
What this means for consumers is that games will now display the PEGI logos that indicate a game’s specific content – such as that of a spider for fear, a fist for violence and a hypodermic needle for diabetic friendly titles. Not really – the needle represents a drugs theme, silly.
The symbols will accompanied by an age-classification of 3,7,12,16 and 18, which are legally enforceable – if you ain’t old enough you ain’t getting in, simple.
The PEGI system is Europe-wide and is self regulated by the publishers themselves.
(via The Telegraph)
Alienware versus Predator: top spec gaming desktop PCs go head-to-head
It’s time to put two maxed-out gaming PCs to the test — the best Alienware versus the best Acer.
Here’s a raw specs comparison for a top-of-the-range Alienware ALX X-58 and Predator Crusader II. Which one will cut it as the ultimate gaming PC?
Alienware ALX X-58 | Predator Conquerer II | |
Processor: | Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7 Extreme 3.86GHz 8MB Cache | Intel Core i7-965 3.2GHz 8MB Cache |
Graphics: | Dual 1792MB NIVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 with Optional Ageia PhysX Physics Processing Unit | 2* Nvidia® GeForce® 2* GTX 285 + Nvidia® nForce® 780i SLI (3 way SLI) 2* 896MB VRAM |
Audio: | 7.1-channel audio + Sound Blaster X-Fi High Definition Surround Sound Audio | High Definition (7.1) channel audio support + Dolby Home Theatre audio enhancement + Creative EAX 4.0 support |
Memory: | 12GB Triple Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz | 12GB DDR2 1066MHz SDRAM |
Storage: | 2x256GB SSD + 1.0 TB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM | 2* 1TB SATA Hard Disk Drives & 1* 150GB WD Raptor® Drives |
Optical drives: | 4x Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner | BD Burner + SuperMulti burner |
Other connections: | 8xUSB 2.0, 2xFireWire, 1xESATA, 2xheadphones, 2xmicrophone, 1xEthernet | 9xUSB 2.0, 1xFireWire, S/PDIF, 2xEthernet, 18-in-1 memory card reader, 1xline out, 1xmicrophone |
Cooling: | AlienIce™ 3.0 high-performance cooling | Liquid Cooling on the CPU |
Other: | Customisable lighting, acoustic dampening, Killer Xeno Pro networking card, Alienware TactX Headset | |
Guide price: | £5,353.25 | £3,999.99 |
Activision announces DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 & Band Hero
It’s long been mooted and now it’s official. Activision is releasing a dance music version of their music games called DJ Hero. It’s coming out this autumn and just in time for the Christmas rush.
The turntable controlled title will be accompanied by the fifth version of Guitar Hero and a family friendly incarnation of the rock classic simply called Band Hero. GH5 sounds pretty much identical to World Tour except with a new track list. You’ll be able to change difficulty levels, band members and swap in and out of songs on the fly but that doesn’t seem like ground breaking stuff. Still, looking forward to it nonetheless.
Band Hero will feature poppier top 40 hits and is generally designed not to scare off mums, dads and a few girlfriends too, whereas is DJ Hero is for hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. Looking forward to the track lists. Got my fingers crossed for some gangster rap.
(via Slashgear)
Homosexuality "does not exist in Star Wars", claims Bioware
A bit of a kerfuffle has erupted in the community surrounding the forthcoming Star Wars MMO: The Old Republic, after a representative from developer Bioware denied that homosexuality exists in the Star Wars universe.
Community manager Sean Dahlberg closed a thread discussing terminology like “gay,” lesbian,” and “homosexual” in the Star Wars universe with the words: “As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars. Thread closed.”
It’s incensed the LGBT community that surround the game, who’ve pointed out that not only is that irrelevant to the discussion that was taking place, but that Juhanni, a woman in Knights of the Old Republic (a game also developed by Bioware), had a female lover.
The discussion has reopened in a thread here, which has spanned out to 56 pages, though at the time of writing it seems to have devolved into a flamewar. Homosexuality can be a difficult subject to approach in a videogame, but shutting down all discussion of the topic is deeply offensive, and shouldn’t occur.
(via MMOHub)
Wii Saber Blasters for Nintendo Star Wars action
There must be someone out there who’s so Wii-nuts that they buy all of these Nintendo controller accessories. So, for you sir/madam, here’s another one to chuck in your cupboard after a few months. Meet the Wii Saber Blaster from CTA Digital. The same people who brought us the WiSkab et al the other day.
They’re out from 29th May and they come as a pair just in time for Star Wars the Clone Wars: Light saber Duels and Star Wars the Force Unleashed. Each blade has a proper mirroring system in the hilt so that the IR signals from the WiiMotes can travel without a problem such that you don’t have to remove them each time you need to navigate the menus.
Three AA batteries in each will ensure that the sabers light up and then you can swish away to your heart’s content taking your TV screen, lightbulbs and each priceless piece of china with you. Contents insurance not included.
Lost and Naked: A tale of hacking in World of Warcraft
What would you do if you woke up half-way across the world with no clothes on, and just a mining pick in your possession? That was the virtual reality that faced Luke Maskell when he logged into his World of Warcraft character, Häwk, one morning. His character had been hacked into and everything of value had been removed and sold.
“They must have stolen around ten to fifteen thousand gold worth of goods and cash,” says Luke, “they probably would have earned around £50-£80”. That might not sound like much, but for his character it represents months and months of play in the massively-multiplayer online world where one of the most controversial topics is that of gold farmers and selling equipment for real cash.
Selling gold and virtual items in World of Warcraft is very strictly against the rules set by developer Blizzard. The terms of use for the game state, quite firmly, that “you may not sell in-game items or currency for “real” money, or exchange those items or currency for value outside of the Game”.
But is it a crime? Well, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told us that it was a very tricky one – it would need a test case to be determined, and it would depend on many factors. Complicating the matter is the fact that the virtual thief might not be resident in the UK, and Blizzard’s servers might be sitting in yet another country again. I put this to the Police spokesperson who sucked his teeth and told me that a court-case spanning three countries would be “absolute madness”.
“I certainly see it as a crime,” states Luke, defiantly, “the online assets are in the end, property of Blizzard, and someone is selling this property for real-world money without permission, they should be treated as any other criminal.”
It’s not completely clear how the attacker managed to gain access to Luke’s characters: “Virus scanners and anti malware software found a few stray cookies from websites I was unsure about, but nothing major like a trojan or virus. I don’t think I’ll ever find out how my details were stolen.”
Blizzard, for their part, offer plenty of advice on how to keep accounts secure. On their compromised accounts page they recommend you change passwords regularly and warn against installing dodgy-looking game modifications or using power-levelling services.
They also sell a device called an ‘authenticator’, which hooks up with your account and generates a second password that operates alongside your main one. This password changes every five minutes, so it’s impossible to log in if the authenticator isn’t in your possession.
Luckily, this story has a happy ending for Luke: “Blizzard were great with the issue. I went through both the in-game ticketing system and their online support site to get my items and account back under my control, and they responded quickly and professionally.”
“They advised me on steps to take to prevent any further hacks, fully restored all my items and gold, and even gave everything that was taken from the guild bank back, all within 3 days of the hack occuring. I was very impressed.”
His guild – a group of players that he plays with on a regular basis – were also very supportive, too: “From my guild, I got a general response of sympathy and people wishing me luck in getting all my items and money back from the game moderators. I had a lot of people in the guild offering me some cash to get me back on my feet and replace my items”
If you’re a player of World of Warcraft, or any other online game, put yourself in Luke’s shoes for a minute. Think about how long it took you to acquire the items that you’re using in-game, and how long it would take to replace them. Then go change your account password and buy an authenticator – in the long run, you’ll be very pleased you did.
PSP 2 RUMOUR: Dates and details on the "PSP Go!"
Ignore the picture but word has it from a bloke who knows a bloke at Sony that the PSP2 will not have a number or code but instead a subtitle, such as the PSP monkey or PSP Armageddon or such. The best guess out there at the mo is that it’ll be the PSP Go! in line with their PSP services already released, but I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in that.
What does make sense are some of the details which suggest that the handheld will be unveiled at E3 in June, it’ll be out in the last quarter of 2009 and it will indeed have the much drawn slide-out screen. Whether it’s of the 800×480 pixel touch variety is another matter.
There’ll be just the one analogue joystick and one d-pad, no UMD disc drive but it will come in two iterations of 8GB and 16GB built-in flash memory. There’ll be 100 classic titles available for download at launch, including Gran Turismo, and, fingers crossed, it should be something special to fight off the DSi at one end and the iPhone 3G at the other.
Good luck Sony. Don’t think I’ve ever said that before?
(via 1UP)
World of Warcraft Pod is everything the WoW addict needs to live
We’ve heard many World of Warcraft addiction stories over the years. Mainly it’s people collapsing due to not eating or sleeping, so if you have a problem, or a partner with a problem, then why not get them this?
The WoW Pod has been developed by artists Cati Vaucelle, Steve Shada, and Marisa Jahn. They describe it as an “immersive architectural solution for the advanced World of Warcraft player that provides and anticipates all of life’s needs”.
Basically, it’s a little hut with a mildly Orc-y design, that contains a kitchen, toilet/chair combo and computer to play World of Warcraft on. It’s a little more sophisticated than that, though – the kitchen interacts with the game, for starters. Just pick a meal from an in-game menu, and when it’s cooked it’ll automatically mark you as AFK while you chow down on some Crunchy Spider Surprise.
(via WoW Insider)
Championship Manager heading to the iPhone
Girlfriends, prepare for a long lonely summer. Championship Manager is coming to the iPhone. The life-destroying football management sim game will appear on Apple’s handset very shortly, as it’s reportedly currently going through the approvals process.
It’s not the only football management game on the handset, there’s also one called “Manage Your Football Club”, but the arrival of the best-selling franchise on the device will certainly excite fans who get cravings on the bus or in doctor’s waiting rooms.
There’s still not too much detail about what effects porting the game onto such a small device will have, but a “2D match engine” has been promised, as well as real team and player names.
(via Pocket Gamer)