As you can see we have the DS Lite, PS3 and NES builds below.

Buildings in the Shape of Gaming Consoles originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Uncharted 3 looks like it is going to be one of the biggest selling games of 2011. Here is some never seen before gameplay. Enjoy!

Breaking: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – Never Seen Before Gameplay originally appeared on: WireNinja
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The official stats have been released for the most pirated video games of 2010. It seems as though Call of Duty: Black Ops, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Dante’s Inferno were the winners.

Official: Most Video Game Downloads on Bittorrent of 2010 originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Mario is still the most popular gaming character in Japan for 2010.

The full list can be found here. It’s in Japanese, but Google translates it adequately enough.

Second place was Japanese anime legend Miku, while third place went to Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes’ Date Masamune.

Mario is Still the Most Popular Gaming Character in Japan originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Gamers will receive points for doing things they already do, including 10 points just for renewing a one-month membership, 400 points   for buying or renewing a family plan and 100 points for activating   Netflix among other available loyalty program options.

Official Xbox Live Loyalty Program is Available for US and UK Customers originally appeared on: WireNinja
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This is an awesome replica! Im a huge Portal fan and I just had to post this. This amazing Portal gun was crafted by Harrison Krix of Volpin Props.

Amazing Harrison Krix Portal Gun originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Gran Turismo 5 is actually here! It’s probably the biggest driving game release of the past few years.

Here is the official trailer (would liked to have seen this trailer out earlier).

Gran Turismo 5 Launch Trailer originally appeared on: WireNinja
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“Gran Turismo 5 is an ambitious project, with challenges and complexities which have made it our version of the Apollo Space Programme!” said Polphony Digital president, Kazunori Yamauchi, explaining the game’s long gestation period. “Satisfying the loyal Gran Turismo followers is at the heart of all of our efforts, which is why it was such a difficult decision to delay the release of the game, and one which we did not take lightly.”

“I can only apologise to everyone for making you wait so long, and I hope that when you try out the wealth of driving experiences available in Gran Turismo 5, you will not be disappointed.”

Gran Turismo 5 has over 1,000 cars and 71 tracks, and introduces damage models for the first time.

Gran Turismo Release Date: November 24 originally appeared on: WireNinja
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According to MCV some of the UKs largest high street retailers, such as Gamestation and Game, are planning to stop selling Steamworks titles like Civilization 5 and Call of Duty unless publishers remove Valve’s software.

Valve currently holds around 80-85 percent of the PC game downloads market and many retailers now believe that having Steam support in games may well lure users away from returning to the store. This is especially true when they can easily sit at home and buy a title online.

Is it time these major high street retailers tried to start their own online download store to compete with Steam, instead of just trying to ban their software from being added to the games?

If the high street stores decide to ban games with Steam addons, Im sure gamers (who are tech savy!) will just simply stop buying in the high street all together.

High Street Game Retailers Trying to Ban Steam Supported Games originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Treyarch has claimed that as of 1:00am PST, over 1 million users logged into Xbox Live to play Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The information came from a tweet made by Treyarch’s community manager, Josh Olin:

Am I getting solid intel? Is there really almost 1,000,000 players on Xbox LIVE right now??

It wasnt mentioned if this stat was for the PC or PS3 or both, but one million sounds like an incredibly low amount for a game with such hype.

Treyarch Claim One Million Users Logged in to Call of Duty Black Ops within 24 Hours of Release: Seems Like a Low Number! originally appeared on: WireNinja
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EA 2D are planning on releasing a new game specifically for Facebook. The new game will be launched in February. EA 2D say of the game that their aim is to “change the perception of social network games and attract new players to the Facebook platform by raising the quality bar,” which is something I think a lot of gamers would welcome!

The game will take place in the Free Marches, north of Dragon Age’s setting and the home of Dragon Age 2, which will release shortly after the Facebook game hits our internets.

EA 2D Launching Dragon Age on Facebook: Wants to Improve The Quality of Facebook Games originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Atari are sending their new MMORPG Champions Online free. Yes, the Champions Online MMORPG will be completely free to play and then users will be able to purchases premium content from the in-game store. In game purchasing has been very popular for casual gaming and its slowly making its way across to other gaming areas.

Transitioning a subscription-based MMORPG into a free-to-play “hybrid”, has lead to recent success for Dungeons And Dragons Online and The Lord Of The Rings Online developer Turbine.

Champions Online MMORPG Moves from Subscription to Free to Play Model originally appeared on: WireNinja
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It seems as though Microsoft are going to launch another crappy online video game download store. The product is called the Games For Windows Marketplace and it will be offering on-demand PC games. The Games for Windows Marketplace is set to launch on November 15 and Microsoft is saying it will offer a “robust lineup of games” (about 100 titles at its debut, see a limited list below).

Publishers include: Microsoft Game Studios, 2K Games, Capcom, Rockstar and Warner Brothers. Plus you will need a Xbox Live gamertag, Zune tag or Windows Live ID to be able to purchase.

I simply dont understand why they have decided to launch a very basic online game download store. There are hundreds of companies already in this space and I can see Microsoft offering anything innovative here. They should be more focused on something to go head on with Steam!

Read the original article on Crenk.

Microsoft Launching an Online Video Game Store originally appeared on: WireNinja
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The new multiplayer map pack is called ‘Noble Map Pack’, and it includes three new maps: Tempest, Anchor 9, and Breakpoint. The pack will cost a very reasonable 800 Microsoft Points (just under $10). 250 Gamerscore points will be up for grabs.

Anchor 9 (2 – 8 players): “Within the confines of this low orbit dry-dock, UNSC craft undergo rapid repair and rearmament in support of the enduring war effort. But for the small squads of infantry who now fight over the mirrored interior hallways and open central hangar bay, this platform no longer provides any safe harbor whatsoever – whether the close quarters combat is occurring inside or out of its artificial gravitational field.”

Tempest (8 – 16 players): “Tempest bends both sea and sky to an unnatural purpose, but the ground itself has quickly become another all too familiar battlefield. Though the two opposing symmetrical bases may never reveal their ancient purpose, both now offer makeshift shelter and access to strategic routes perfectly suited for small and large scale skirmishes alike”.

Breakpoint (8 – 16 players): “Atop this icy precipice, the Invasion continues. These modular archaeological labs were never intended to withstand such a large scale onslaught of Covenant military power, but the information being extracted here may prove vital to humanity’s survival. In response to the imminent Covenant threat, UNSC ground and air assets have been deployed to bolster entrenched Spartan countermeasures. This site must yield salvation, or it will become a grave.”

Halo: Reach Multiplayer Map Pack Available to Buy on Xbox Live Marketplace on November 30 originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Here at WireNinja we thought that Starcraft 2 was growing so fast that we had to create a custom channel for the game. On the Starcraft 2 channel we are planning on posting the best games from around the world, news, commentary, stategy guides and more.

So head on over to http://wireninja.com/starcraft2 and subscribe!

WireNinja Launches Starcraft 2 Channel originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Indeed, a large portion of the internet seems to be riled and miffed at the propsect that ‘anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID’ in short, their real-life first and last name.

A blue post informed the forums that;

“The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID — that is, their real-life first and last name — with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. The classic Battle.net forums, including those for Diablo II and Warcraft III, will be moving to a new legacy forum section with the release of the StarCraft II community site and at that time will also transition to using Real ID for posting.

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players — however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well. ”

Why are people angry with this, there are lots of reasons but one of the members of the Wow forum summed it up nicely.

“1. UNIQUE NAMES: Some people (including my husband for one) have very unique names. The linking of a person’s real name if you have a common name is less troublesome because that person would be hard to track with a name alone, but if you have a name that is very uncommon linking it to a public forum is very invasive to that person. It could lead to that person being harrassed or annoyed (I will not overreact and use the word stalked) while trying to interact with their hobby.

People play this game for relaxation on their off time. But, for example, if you had a unique name and applied for a job and the potential employer googled your name and found posts on a gaming forum they may not hire you because they have ill conceved notions about gamers. In this exaple the employer may be working off an unfair stereotype but it still would hinder that person getting a job. And FYI without a job that person wouldn’t be able to have the money to play WoW. Just a thought Blizzard.

2. COMMON NAMES: For those on the other side of the fence having a fairly common name can also lead to harrassment in a different way. You could be mistaken for someone else entirely and that can lead to confusion not only on the forums themselves but also outside of them.

The last thing I need is someone tracking me down via a google search of my fairly common name, getting my WoW info because I asked a question on a forum about a game I paly for fun, and contacting my character in game, or on the forums to yell at me about alamony payments when I dont have a ex-husband.

3. GENDER: As a female this one bothers me a lot. Not only do I not want to be petitioned by random people for cyberlovin while I am playing a game, but more importantly I do not want to be a target offline. Most males my not understand the fear women have in today’s world about this but it is a real and genuine threat that does, sadly, happen. Women are stalked, hurt, even killed every day and we are taught from a young age to be careful and cautious when dealing with the unknown (aka strangers and the internet). It is a terrible reality about our society and I wish it wasn’t so but fact is it happens.

I have been occasionaly harrassed while in game for cyberlovin (can not use the real words they use due to being banned on the forums if I do) and I have reported it when it does and Blizzard has never done a thing about it (repeat violations in some cases and their toons are still in the game with no reprocussions). I can’t imagine what would happen if more of these perverts knew I was an actual girl. I shudder the think about it.

4. MINORS: Similar to the gender issue. There are minors that play this game and giving out their information to the general public is a bad idea. Even people who are ‘adults’ aka 18, 19, 20 can still be very impressionable and giving out their real names to the world wide web can only lead to trouble.

5. IDENTITY THIEFT: I know you can’t steal a persons ID with ONLY their name but hainvg someone’s full name is a great place to start.

6. WoW CRAZIES: Most people who paly this game are what would be classified as ‘casuals’. But some people take this game way to seriously. I have been shocked and even fealful of a few of the players I have come across and giving them the ability to track me down and potentally harm me because I beat them in a duel frightens me.

7. INTERNET CRAZIES: Even worse these are the stalkers and child molesters that pray on people on the internet. I dont want then to have access to my full name!

8. SPAMMERS: Giving the internet as a whole your information can lead to spamming and flooding of your e-mail.facebook, exc even more then it is already. Gold sellers are going to have a hayday with this one.

If your name was Jerry Sienfled and you had a wow forum post I bet you ever single variation of your name at most popular e-mail hosters is going to be flooded with fake Blizzard emails. JerrySiefeld@hotmail, @gmail, @yahoo, exc. and now the gold sellers and hackers will have a way to customize those fake mails to your real name! Dear Jerry, We at Blizzard are please to announce you are in the beta! Please visit our fakelink to get your account hacked.

9. SAFETY OF BLIZZARD: Just like giving out a real name to fellow players is a bad idea, giving out the names of all your forum moderators is just as bad or worse! Your poilcy now is to have your phone representatives only use their first names for thier own safety (remember I recorded the conversation) and now you are going to change that! You could have an employee tracked down this way and come to serious harm. Not safe or smart.

So what can you do instead of using a person’s full name? How aobut only being allowed to post on one toon? You have to pick a toon and that is that. Or using a set handle? Set up Real ID with this and I would use it in game as well.

And for all the people who say the forums are optional I will remind you that I pay the same subscripion fee that you do and so limiting what I can do with it doesn’t seem like the most fair solution. I feel I should be able to use the forums to get information and to share ideas. I agree the trolls are a pain but there has to be a better more secure way then this.

-Quira”

There has been almost immediate opposition to this idea and I have to wonder whether or not Bl’activision will take notice or not. Time will tell.

The World of Warcraft Community forced to use their Real names when posting in Forums originally appeared on: WireNinja
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It is common knowledge that at top of MMOPRG mountain is the mighty World of Warcraft, a hard beast to topple indeed and although there has been many contenders to its crown but in truth very few have come close.

Still, in some opinions WOW has become complacent and it’s time for a new champion. Very few franchises can jump straight into contender-ship but if anyone could Warhammer 40k could.

Take a look at the trailer.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online Trailer originally appeared on: WireNinja
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You’ve got to love the Valve way of doing things. Find some developers with a unique idea, hire them then implement their ideas into your games. Genius and terribly honest as well. Portal 2 is looking fantastic, which doesn’t come as a surprise… take a look for yourself.

Portal 2 Triple Trailer : E3 2010 originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Rockstar Games have released new updated for Red Dead Redemption. The new updates fix some nagging issues which focus around support for a new playlist by popular demand: Hardcore Free Roam, supporting only expert aim. The new playlist will be released once this title update has time to propagate on both consoles.  Rockstar says it will update users once this is live.

You can get the full list of fixes here.

Red Dead Redemption Receives Updates originally appeared on: WireNinja
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On June 11, 2010 LedgeWizard Games, released their first game, Towers, for the Xbox (Live) Indie Games Platform. A unique and imaginative take on the Tower defence game that sets out to build a deep and rewarding experience without losing any of its vibrant personality.

Based in South Cornwall, England, LedgeWizard Games are a small family based team headed up by Adam Steppens who built Towers in his spare time. I was lucky enough to get an interview with Mr. LedgeWizard himself, Adam Steppens.

What differentiates Towers from other Tower Defence games?

I’ve played a number of good TDs in the past so there are obviously strong influences from some games. I’m hoping that a few of the tower designs are fairly original and that they complement each other well. Each of the towers has a few different versions that can be upgraded to individually, so, for instance, a cannon tower could be given a speed upgrade, or damage upgrade or even eventually both. Different towers have other upgrades available, though the total number for each tower has been kept fairly low so that each tower has strengths and weaknesses which have to be worked into the strategy.

There are also multiple endings based on how well you do. All are achievable and seeing one ending doesn’t lock you out from seeing any of the others. I think it’s very important for people to be able to see all of the content without being locked out for making a decision that they might regret later. That’s something for RPGs I think.

The golden rule that I eventually settled on was to keep it simple. It’s a pretty casual game that anyone can pick up and play. The variety is in the different strategies the player can come up with. Originally, different coloured wizards were going to be able to build different towers, or make it so that different objects in the world would be used for different sets of towers. It all got a little bit complicated and potentially quite restrictive. It also played havoc with the difficulty. I might something like that in a sequel. So the game basically only ever has three options. Build, upgrade and sell.

The game has a fairly sedate pace, especially in the earlier levels. The idea being that the player has a moment to think about which towers to choose and where to place them, rather than the whole game being a reaction test. However, there are times when you’ve got everything under control and just want things to move a little faster, so I added a fast forward control.

How did you get into making a game for the 360?

A friend of mine showed me a site he had been learning from, [xnadevelopment]. He’d followed a tutorial and had gotten a blue wizard to jump around whilst shooting fireballs. I was instantly intrigued and even more so when he pointed out that the software needed to get going was completely free. Needless to say, I was interested and after trying out the tutorials myself, I set about making a game myself. This would become Towers. Originally I designed it as a side on game, like old style platformers. The first step was to create a series of platforms, on which I stood a blue wizard (which I had coincidentally drawn years before, for a game I’d never made). Being fairly new to this, I was quite impressed by my little wizard standing on his ledge. Other’s not so much, but he was the starting point and when I came to sign up for the XNA Creators Club, I couldn’t use my original choices, so I went with LedgeWizard.

From that point I continued learning as I went along, not quite sure what I’d be able to do. Thankfully the XNA forums and numerous code samples are available, so with a bit of time and effort you can achieve a lot. I can’t say I never got stuck, but I persevered and I’m pleased with the way it’s turned out.

What was your favourite part of the process?

Seeing people’s reactions to the game. At one point, I had one tester playing and five other people criticising his tower placements, each asking to have the controller passed to them next, so that they could show them how it’s done. When people get out of their seats and start pointing to where they think towers should be placed it’s very cool, especially when it’s meant to be a single player experience.

Overall, the feedback I’ve received has been incredibly gratifying. As a result of the feedback, we’re even planning an update, to add multiple difficulty levels and are planning on smoothing out the difficulty curve a little. One particular level, Everwinter Trail, has been commented on a few times and is definately possible, but generally harder than the other levels around it. We’ve got some tips on our website at www.ledgewizardgames.com if people are struggling and will possibly offer walkthroughs in the future if people are interested.

What was your least favourite part?

I’m generally happy with everything that went into the game. I cut a number of items early on when it was apparent that they either bogged the game down, or made it overcomplicated. Despite this, the things that did go in took a lot longer than I’d originally expected. I think I told my wife that the game would be done in a few evenings and odd weekends over a month and it dragged out a lot more than that. To be fair, I was learning as I went along, so was essentially encountering new problems at every step. But I worked through each and every one and firmly believe the next one will be quicker. At least, that’s what I’ve told my wife.

There’s almost as much work in getting the game playing right and running smoothly as there is just getting it to work in the first place. I owe a seriously huge thank you to my testers who volunteered their free time playing and replaying the levels as I made minute changes to the levels or the controls or some other incredibly small point.

So, what are you working on next?

Loads of things! Whilst working on Towers, I kept getting ideas that either were too complex to go in and might work for a sequel or for an entirely different TD. I want to work a lot more with game generated music for instance, as it’s an area I really haven’t explored much. Also, I’ve had at least a dozen unrelated ideas. Some being clones and some being quite original. I’ll have to let you know when I’ve picked one!

I tend to create a very rough prototype (like a ghost, wearing a hat whilst wandering through a forest and being shot at by cannons) and throw it out to a few close friends, who will quite honestly tell me that it’s either a rubbish idea, or maybe that it’s got some potential . Getting people to look past placeholder graphics is tricky, plus I’m really not very good with drawing graphics yet, so they have to fill in the blanks with their imaginations.

Lastly, Some of the levels can get a bit tough, Do you have any recommended strategies?

This unintended one arose in early play testing. An interesting use of the lightning tower. Designed to have huge range and really high damage to a single target or anything standing really close. Ideal for boss monsters, since it will always output its maximum damage rather than over-killing. It also targets the monster with the most hit points remaining so that it’s not generally wasted on smaller monsters.

Most people put these towers near the centre of the screen, exposing them to as much of the monster’s paths as possible, but one tester put one right at the end of the path, covering very little ground. It turned out that the tower acted really well as a filter. The tester has put gun towers down to finish off weakened monsters that had gotten past everything else. However, gun towers get locked onto targets, shooting them for as long as they possibly can. Therefore if they start tracking something with a lot of health, weaker monsters that could easily be killed quickly will creep past. The lightning tower solved this by severely weakening or frequently killing off just the tougher monsters as opposed to the ones that the guns could quickly destroy.

Could I please just add a huge thank you to everyone who helped suggest ideas and improvements whilst testing the game. Without you guys the whole experience would’ve been a lot less satisfying and a lot less fun.

You can find and download the game from the XBox LIVE Marketplace. I highly recommend that you give it a go. Or you could visit LedgeWizard games yourself. Here.

LedgeWizard Games – Indie Developer Interview : Towers originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Valve has launched Team Fortress 2 for Mac via Steam. Team Fortress 2 is an extremely popular team-based, multiplayer first person shooter and Valve is releasing the game with the aim of boosting its subscriptions on Apple Mac’s.

Valve was offering Team Fortress 2 for free, however that offer has now ended and its now available for half price at $9.99 on Steam.

Valve offered Team Fortress 2 for Mac users for Free, but that offer has now ended, however the game is still half price at $9.99. You can also get Team Fortress 2 as part of the Orange Box for $29.99. The Orange Box includes a number of popular Valve titles including Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

Valve Offering Incentives for Mac Users: Including Team Fortress 2 at Half Price originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Mortal Kombat – E3 Launch Trailer originally appeared on: WireNinja
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This is an interesting effort to steal some attention away from EA’s basketball announcement, 2K games has announced that its upcoming NBA 2k11 will feature basketball legend Michael Jordan on the cover.

Jason Argent, VP of marketing for 2K Games, confirmed something that had only been a rumor until today:

We’ve made a lot of progress over the past 10 years, but we know we have the best NBA video game ever made here. So we thought to ourselves how can we embody that and there was only one person on that list who we wanted to have and that was Michael Jordan. Actually getting this done is the most ridiculous win of all-time.

The game is due out on October 5th and has been confirmed for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. We will give you more information as it becomes available.

Michael Jordan is on NBA 2K11’s Cover, Really? originally appeared on: WireNinja
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Lego, the building blocks of the gods. What can’t you do with Lego? Micro Surgery? Well not yet anyway, in time my friends, in time. Anyway there’s no point sulking over what Lego can’t do (yet) when there is so much it can do. For instance;

Catsy, some guy on the internet, has recreated the Prothean Space Station with nothing but standard LEGO bricks… and some fancy lighting. I’m Impressed. Here are some more Pictures.

…and a few more.

Here is one without the backdrop & Lighting.

In case you don’t know what it is supposed to look like.

Mass Effect’s Citadel – The Lego Version originally appeared on: WireNinja
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All-New Real-Time Physics Engine in NHL 11 originally appeared on: WireNinja
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