Uh-oh. A lot of gamers are going to be unhappy about this. It seems Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC will be outfitted with DRM, specifically SecuROM, which recently made news just a bit ago when it was discovered it was included in the Spore title.
While companies have a right to protect their property from piracy, oftentimes these DRM measures cut into a buyer’s activities, restricting what they can and can’t do with a piece of software they bought.
This version of SecuROM won’t be quite as harsh as those initially included with Spore, which limited your installations to three times. Instead, in Grand Theft Auto IV, you will need to register your copy when installing it and the disc itself will need to be in the drive in order for you to play it. You can install it any number of times you’d like besides that. And though DRM is annoying, this is at least not as annoying.
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Written by Brenda Stokes on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
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If you’re big on the new Wii Music game, then you no doubt use your Wiimote relentlessly in an effort to play that great symphony. But now you can feel more like a real musician with the ezGear WiiMusic Pack, which is available now.
The WiiMusic Pack offers up several plastic accessories for your Wiimote including a saxophone, drumsticks and a violin. Actually, one of those drumsticks doubles as conductor’s baton. Pretty cool, huh?
Sure the Wii Music game is capable of 60 different music instruments, now you at least have three that look and feel closer to the real thing. Here’s a thought, maybe we should all just learn how to play actual instruments? Eh, that times time and commitment. Fake music for everyone! The ezGear WiiMusic Pack will cost you $30.
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Written by Brenda Stokes on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
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In case you’re interested in massively-multiplayer online games, then you’ll definitely want to know that EA Games announced Dungeon Keeper Online today. The game will act as a continuation of the strategy game of the same name, though this time in the MMO format.
The game will be developed by NetDragon Websoft, a Chinese studio. This studio will gain access to all of the Dungeon Keeper content to develop the new game. Then, EA will be compensated once (or if) the title makes money.
However, that’s pretty much all we know at this point. It will definitely be a 3D MMORPG, and China, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong will be the only places this game will be available. This is rather unfortunate for the Western fans of the Dungeon Keeper franchise. No release date is yet known.
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Written by Brenda Stokes on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
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It’s a good week for saving money while playing games. If Tetris and Breakout aren’t your bag, you might want to try something even simpler, like Bankquest or Jinsei Ginko.
It seems that piggy banks that double as tiny gaming machines are quite the happening trend in Japan these days. These simpler banks offer a variety of money-saving experience for the gamer who doesn’t need much razzle-dazzle. The Jinsei Ginko, shown above, is like a Tamagotchi or other virtual pet: you “feed” your tiny stickman your cold, hard cash. The more he “eats,” the more he succeeds. When your little guy gets enough money, he’s rewarded with a sweet crib and a loving sticklady. If only real life were so simple.
If the idea of a virtual pet makes you want to bury your money in the backyard instead, you could try Bankquest, a simple RPG, or Ikemen Bank, a heart-shaped bank with a dating sim.
Of course, in order to actually use these banks, you’ll probably need to convert all your money to yen. At least that will make you less likely to spend it… unless you happen to be in Japan.
[Wired via Kotaku]
Written by alisha k. on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Why choose the great outdoors over a carefully-rendered urban landscape? So long as you stay away from the people in that pesky uncanny valley, the variable world of video games may just be prettier (and easier to control) than the real world.
This cotton/poly hoodie is a steal at $22.99 from jamjamtees’ Etsy storefront, and the graphic is screen-printed on navy for a very basic look. Anyone who’s ever seen those all-brown next-gen titles knows gamers don’t like color anyway. No wonder they avoid going outside.
jamjamtees has a great selection of other custom items as well, from Pac-Man t-shirts to earrings made from 10-sided dice. Get ‘em now before they’re spawn-camped into oblivion.
[Via Etsy]
Written by alisha k. on November 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Remember when it cost just a quarter to play your favorite arcade games? What would you say if I told you that you could play two Atari arcade classics for just one red cent a game.
While these pint-size versions of Breakout and Tetris aren’t totally faithful to their arcade counterparts, they only charge a single shiny copper penny to play.
Each mini-machine is actually a piggy bank, which encourage you to deposit coins in exchange for games. Every coin you drop triggers the start of a new game, which is a whole lot more fun than putting your pocket change in the back of a porcine ceramic bank. Check out the video below to see some gameplay action:
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
These rarities are tough to come by outside of Japan, but the guys over at Strapya World have started to take pre-orders (¥3850 / $39.90 USD) and are willing to ship them worldwide.
Written by technabob on November 29th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Casemodders have implanted the brains of the Atari 2600 into all sorts of strange host bodies over the years, but this is the first time I’ve seen this particular permutation.
Modder Chris Koopa (with a name like that, I’m shocked he hasn’t done any Nintendo mods) melded the shell of old SEGA Game Gear portable with the guts of an Atari 2600 to create this Frankenstein’s Monster of a gaming system, dubbed the Atari Gear 2600. The handheld has a 2.5″ backlit LCD display, and can run for an impressive 7-8 hours on a set of AA batteries.
By using the lightweight innards of an Atari Flashback 2, Chris was able to cram in a system loaded with 40 built-in Atari 2600 games. And thanks to a clever 2600 cart slot mod, the system can play original cartridges from the 2600 too.
Pitfall portable, here I come!
[via Ben Heck Forums]
Written by technabob on November 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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How many times have you plunked down your hard earned cash on a new game for your mobile phone, only to find out the game sucked? Now you can try out full (time-limited) versions of many mobile games right in your web browser before you decide to buy.
The guys over at mplayit offer you the chance to play a number of Java-based games from the convenience of your computer’s web browser. The site currently offers over 60 fully playable titles including games from EA Mobile, NAMCO, SEGA, Gameloft, Digital Chocolate and other popular mobile game makers. An phone key emulation wrapper lets you use your mouse or key controls to play the games just like they’d work on your phone. To keep up on the latest games, they also offer an RSS feed of the latest game demos as they’re released.
While most games have a time limit of 3 to 5 minutes, it’s definitely enough for you to get a taste for each title, and to make a better informed decision before you load up your cell phone with a bunch of crap. And maybe you’ll discover some gems that you never would have given a second look to.
Written by technabob on November 24th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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