After careful consideration of all the facts and analyzing all the data which we have gathered from the Wish Beta 2.0 test so far, we have decided to cancel the Wish project.

Our Beta test will end this evening at 6pm EST, and at this time our Beta forums will close as well.

We enjoyed working together with our fans very much, and we are very sorry about this development. We wish you the best of luck in the future, and hope that you continue to enjoy online gaming, even with Mutable Realms and Wish not being available anymore.

Wish received positive previews during E3 2004, with 68,000 people wishing to participate in the beta test.

Infiltration Moves To Source 11:52 am - Andrew Burnes - games: action (5 comments)
The Unreal Tournament 2004 mod Infiltration is to move over to the Source engine, effective immediately:

We would like to thank the Unreal community for their continued support since development began in late 1998. During that time, there have been nearly 20 releases of Infiltration for Unreal and Unreal Tournament, all of which would not have been possible if it were not for the influence and support from many people. We cannot emphasize enough how much we appreciate everything that has been done for us, and needless to say, we will not forget it as we move from the Unreal franchise to Half Life 2.

The Future Of Natural Selection 10:49 am - Andrew Burnes - games: action (2 comments)
The Unknown Worlds Entertainment homepage has an update on the future of Natural Selection, a highly popular Half-Life mod:

So the next project is likely going to be NS on the Source engine. We don't know for sure if we're doing this, as we haven't had time to evaluate how much work it will be, but everyone on the team is excited to do it, so I think it will happen.

The OTHER project, is Natural Selection 2. The game design has been started (hoo-boy, fun stuff), but this will be a full-fledged $50 (or so) retail game, not a mod. It will use a next-generation engine (like Source, Unreal Engine 3, etc.) and will take years and millions of dollars to create. This is what I'm now spending the majority of my time on.

Halo Weekly Update 10:45 am - Andrew Burnes - consoles: xbox (5 comments)
The first Halo Weekly Update in a while looks at the rampant cheating happening in Halo 2, which has sold 11 billionty copies:

We've seen all kinds of cheats and griefers. From simple team killing, abusive language, racism - people playing loud music or screaming continually through their headsets - to sophisticated, planned network exploitation. No matter what we do in the immediate and long term future, people will still find ways to be asses. The cheating will in all likelihood decrease with the lifespan of the product, as cheaters become bored, or move onto their next "project." In the interim though, we see it as an irritating and serious problem that we are addressing.

Right now, we have a team of people working on technical fixes. Those are being investigated and tested - some will work, some will be out of our control (ISPs, hardware exploits and other elements may be out of our reach) but we are endeavoring right now to identify good ways to prevent cheating and adjust systems to penalize those who do cheat.

Star Wars: Empire at War Images 04:25 am - Andrew Burnes - games: real-time strategy (6 comments)
Following up from an earlier story regarding the newly announced Star Wars real-time strategy game, Empire at War, PlanetCNC has high-quality scans of a PC Zone UK article that for the first time shows the space and land battles that will feature in this quarter 3 release.

See them over at PlanetCNC.

The Week Ahead... 01:09 am - Andrew Burnes - games: general news (3 comments)
Your one-stop guide to all that is being released this week.

PC:

• Civil War: Battle of Bull Run 1861
• Dogz 5 & Catz 5 Compilation
• SeaWorld Adventure Parks Tycoon 3D
• Spider-Man and Friends

Playstation 2:

• Mercenaries
• Suikoden IV
• The Getaway: Black Monday
• Virtua Quest

Xbox:

• Mercenaries
• Tork: Prehistoric Punk

GameCube:

• Resident Evil 4

Nintendo DS:

• No releases

GameBoy Advance:

• Banjo Pilot
• Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap

DVD:

• A New Kind of Love
• Carrie (1952)
• Cleopatra
• Confessions of an American Girl
• Everyday People
• Evil Remains
• Gas
• Ghost in the Shell (Special Edition)
• Gilligan's Island: The Complete Second Season
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Season 5
• Ivanhoe
• King (Special Edition)
• King Solomon's Mines
• Leon the Professional (Deluxe Edition)
• Lil' Pimp
• MI-5: Volume 2 (a.k.a. Spooks)
• Monk: Season Two
• Oscar and Lucinda
• Paparazzi
• Random Harvest
• Shining Through
• Silver City
• The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan
• The Fifth Element (Ultimate Edition)
• The Great White Hope
• The Land Before Time XI: The Invasion of the Tinysauruses
• The Letter
• The Matchmaker
• The Village (Full Screen)
• The Village (Widescreen)
• The Young Visiters
• Touch of Pink
• Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites - Vol. 1: Mickey
• Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites - Vol. 2: Donald Duck
• Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites - Vol. 3: Goofy
• Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites - Vol. 4: Chip N' Dale
• Wide Awake (Special Edition)
• Without a Paddle (Full Screen Collector's Edition)
• Without a Paddle (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
• Zolar: The Extreme Sports Movie

Movies - Now Showing:

• Solitude
• White Noise

Movies - Opening Friday January 14th:

• Appleseed
• Coach Carter
• Elektra
• Racing Stripes
• The Chorus

Mercenaries and Resident Evil 4 stand out for the consoles, but you should avoid The Getaway: Black Monday. Love for a few DVDs including MI-5: Volume 2 (a.k.a. Spooks). Appleseed, Coach Carter, and Elektra get my movie-going attention.

What will you be spending your money on in the week ahead?

New Official Battlefield 2 Movie 01:03 am - Andrew Burnes - games: action (4 comments)
Digital Illusions slyly slipped out a great new in-game movie of Battlefield 2 that shows great advances in the game's graphics and audio since earlier previews. The high-resolution .wmv is a hefty 268MB, with download links available from the following sites:

• FileRush (BitTorrent)
• Total Battlefield 2

Phantom In The Flesh 12:57 am - Andrew Burnes - games: vaporware (0 comments)
Amazingly the Phantom 'console' showed up at CES, although deception was still afoot as noted by Legit Reviews. GameSpot also has coverage (thanks HLF), while PC Magazine spoke to Kevin Bachus who revealed yet more pricing changes, but no actual release date:

When it finally goes on sale, the Phantom should cost about $200 if you don't sign a service contract, instead subscribing from month to month with no obligation. The cost with a contract is still up in the air, though. Previously the company said the system would be free with a 2-year contract, but their research now shows that people don't necessarily want that. Bachus said that their research showed people would rather have a smaller monthly fee and pay a little for the console (perhaps $100 or less).

Will I one day have to remove the Phantom from the vaporware category?

Gizmondo First-Party Titles; Halo To Be Ported? 12:51 am - Andrew Burnes - consoles: general news (0 comments)
The latest first-party titles for Tiger Telematics' handheld have been announced, with GamesIndustryBiz speculating -via the rumour mill- that Halo may soon be ported to the platform:

Industry rumours circulating since before Christmas and enjoying a resurgence at CES suggest that Bungie's massively successful Halo may be on its way to Tiger Telematics' Gizmondo console, joining a number of other Microsoft Game Studios titles already announced for the system.

Rumours regarding Halo on Gizmondo first surfaced before Christmas, when audience members at corporate presentations of the device said that salespeople had mentioned that the science fiction blockbuster was on its way to the handheld - a rumour which Gizmondo PR representatives declined to comment on at the time, saying only that the firm was in ongoing negotiations with a number of publishers to bring titles to the device, but that the company "would love" to have Halo on the platform.

WoW Final Euro Beta Begins; NA GM Abuse Claims 12:45 am - Andrew Burnes - mmog: role-playing (0 comments)
After a short delay caused by violent storms, the final European World of Warcraft beta has begun:

Following the rapid sell-out of the European pre-order campaign and the successful start of the localised Closed Beta Test, we are happy to announce that the first phase of the European Final Beta Test of World of Warcraft starts now, in English, French and German. The first phase of the Final Beta Test will allow access to a select group of players: those who attained a beta key through the official Blizzard pre-order campaign, and current Closed Beta testers.

The first phase of the Final Beta Test will also allow the testing of the World of Warcraft localized server infrastructure under heavy loads. As soon as system stability allows, the second phase of the testing process will begin and more players will be added into the Final Beta Test. We will make every effort to accommodate all requests for beta accounts but there is always the possibility that we will be unable to meet demand, and we therefore strongly encourage motivated players to register an account as quickly as possible once the second phase of the Final Beta Test begins.

Meanwhile in North America, WoW forums are buzzing with claims that a Game Master abused his powers. Info on that can be found here and here. Thanks EA.

In Other News... 12:36 am - Andrew Burnes - in-house: in other news... (15 comments)
If you mod your Xbox you apparently automatically become a scum-sucking evil pirate who never pays for anything in your entire life. Wrong. So say we all.

Whether the people who claim such things are just attempting to detract attention from their own activities remains to be seen, although I doubt anyone who uses the net to view sites such as this hasn't watched a clip from a sports game, MTV, or downloaded a MP3 from non-official sources.

Are you more inclined to buy something like an album if you download it first? If you hadn't had downloaded something, would you even previously consider buying it?

Here's a description of Parkour from Urban Freeflow, the original European Parkour site:

Parkour is very basically the art of movement where participants (otherwise known as 'Free-runners') use objects within their urban surroundings, to create new and interesting ways of moving. It encompasses running, jumping, vaulting and climbing to overcome these obstacles, where the ultimate aim is to do so in the most fluid and flowing way possible. For people unfamiliar to Parkour, the easiest picture to paint is to say that what we do is the closest you can get to the Matrix, Spiderman and Hong Kong martial arts movies in the sense of movement, but without the need for special FX or wires.

Get past that mental picture and what you have in front of you is a deep discipline where, as a beginner you'll find yourself practising plenty of singular moves (similar to how skaters practise) but as you become more proficient, you'll find yourself automatically linking things together with the eventual goal coming in the form of one fluid run without any hesitation. Parkour has always been there from the very beginning....You just need to open your eyes and then go out to explore.

I've uploaded a series of screen grabs from the show that include images of the game. Find them here.

Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich Previews 01:25 am - Andrew Burnes - games: role-playing (1 comment)
GameSpot and GameSpy both have a preview of Irrational's comic book superhero role-playing game that'll probably sell as badly as the the first FF title knowing the injustices of this industry. Here's a clip from GameSpy:

The next thing I noticed is that Irrational hasn't lost its touch with either storyline or dialogue. Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich's storyline is insane, and I mean that in the best way possible. It seems that a new enemy is menacing the peaceful citizens of Patriot City. In the '60s, Entropy, a woman with the ability to travel in and out of reality, she's poking holes in the fabric of the cosmos. In addition to that, back in the early '40s, the Nazis have managed to harness the power of Energy-X and have used it to win World War II. Now the Freedom Force has to travel back in time and dish out a heapin' helpin' of good ol'-fashioned superhero whoop ass. How those two storylines will fit together I have no idea, but I can't wait to find out.

Man of much love (and voice acting talent), Ken Levine, got in touch to say that Freedom Force sold over 400,000 copies, which ain't half bad. Sorry Kevin!

Guild Wars Q&A; 01:21 am - Andrew Burnes - mmog: role-playing (0 comments)
The latest round of beta testing began yesterday, so here's a timely interview with Arena.net's Jeff Strain:

Those that are in the Beta will have some interesting things to look over. The quest system is pretty complex for a couple of reasons and also very cool. "As you go through the cooperative missions in the large explorable areas, you'll meet people and gain quests like you do in any role playing game," explains Strain. "What's different is that we use quests in a different way than a normal MMO does. These are not Fed-Ex 'go fetch me this' or 'deliver this package' or 'bring me three snake ears' or something like that." No, in fact they have much bigger picture in mind. Including quests that actual alter the world in ways that are significant to the player.

The environment will change with the player's actions and deeds. "This is actually something that the instancing model that we've got allows us to do. It's one of the real strengths of it. When we put you in a map, we can completely tailor the content of the map just for you so that every time you go there you see it in a specific state that reflects actions that you've taken in the past."

Destroy All Humans Preview 01:15 am - Andrew Burnes - consoles: ps2 (0 comments)
Now this is the shit - wiping out humanity in 50's B-Movie style. Destroy All Humans is the name, Pandemic Studios the developer:

One thing that's undeniable is the game's humor. I absolutely love the tone of this game. It's funny and intelligent all at once. In a way, it loosely reminds me of the Animaniacs cartoon. There are obvious jokes in the game that young gamers and people that enjoy lowbrow humor will enjoy. There are also heady jokes and humor rooted in the Atomic '50s. Older gamers will appreciate these jokes, while younger gamers will have to ask their parents or older siblings what the hell is going on.

Ubisoft Has A Soul 01:09 am - Andrew Burnes - consoles: xbox (4 comments)
Those evil money-grabbing Ubisoft folks who made you pay for Splinter Cell bonus maps have no released them for nowt via the in-game auto updater. Hurrah and stuff.

More on that thrilling news over at Games Are Fun.

Mario Develops Udder Rash After Further Milking 01:01 am - Andrew Burnes - consoles: gamecube (2 comments)
So earlier in the week Nintendo and EA announced Mario & co. would appear in NBA Street v3 alongside real basketball players... Yesterday, Nintendo and Konami announced that Mario will appear in Dance Dance friggin' Revolution for cripes sake.

You can see Mario in action over at IGN while I smack my head furiously on the keyboard.

In Other News... 12:47 am - Andrew Burnes - in-house: in other news... (23 comments)
With my Xbox already serving as a multimedia center just like Bill wants the Xbox Next to, the games will have to be pretty cracking for me to cough up $300-$400. While my Xbox is strictly illegal thanks to its after-market modifications, it'll probably work better than any of Bill's future digital rights management rubbish, especially as their Xbox Media Extender is a $40 clone of Xbox Media Center, a free program.

Have you modded your Xbox? If not, why not?