Ten Years of Diablo and Battle.net 02:20 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action / Roleplaying (11 comments)
Time sure flies when you're having fun. Blizzard reflects back on Ten Years of Diablo and Battle.net:

During the last week of 1996, Blizzard released Diablo, a groundbreaking action role-playing game (RPG) set in the dark fantasy-themed world of Sanctuary. As a lone hero attempting to save the town of Tristram from the Lord of Terror, the player (in the role of a warrior, rogue, or sorcerer) must venture underneath the town in search of Diablo's lair. However, the journey proves to be a dark and dangerous one, as Diablo and his minions are bent on far more than the destruction of just one town...

Diablo went on to become a #1 bestselling and award-winning game, while gaining a legion of players and critical acclaim. It has even been credited with pioneering a new subgenre of RPGs, and to this day it is used as a benchmark for games within that subgenre.

Age of Conan Update 02:10 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: MMOG (0 comments)
FunCom updated the official Age of Conan website with some new lore. This week, they examine Derketo, one of the deities of Stygia.

Top 10 Downloads on Xbox Live! Video 02:06 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (6 comments)
Okay, not 100% game related, but Major Nelson posted the top-10 lists for the Video Marketplace:

Top 10 movie downloads:
1. Mission Impossible III - SD only
2. Nacho Libre - SD only
3. V for Vendetta - HD Available
4. Poseidon - HD Available
5. Swordfish - HD Available
6. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - SD only
7. ATL - HD Available
8. The Lake House - SD only
9. Clockwork Orange, A - SD only
10. Clash of the Titans - SD only

Top 10 TV episodes:
1. South Park - SD only
2. Enterprise - HD Available
3. UFC - HD Available
4. Chappelle's Show: Uncensored - SD only
5. Jericho - HD Available
6. The State - SD only
7. Avatar: The Last Airbender - SD only
8. Robot Chicken - SD only
9. Drawn Together - SD only
10. The Venture Bros. - SD only

Halo 3 Weekly Update 02:01 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (0 comments)
The Bungie weekly update brings news that there is no update! Well, not a big one at least:

We can comment, however, on our plans to roll-out a small pre-beta program to ramp up our scale just prior to the true public beta next Spring. Bungie will be tapping active members of our worldwide community to help us transition from the ongoing internal alpha multiplayer testing. Our hopes are to call into service experienced and active players of Halo 2 on Xbox Live, along with people who spread Bungie love (in safe, hygienic ways) and foster our community. Unfortunately we won't be able to include everyone in this but we are hoping for quite a few (think thousands) spots. Once all the specifics are finalized we'll provide more details on Bungie.net.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. March 16th, 2007 01:52 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (7 comments)
Well color me interested, it looks like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. finally got a release date:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. provides a dynamic gameplay of fast and tough combat, where you oppose smart & dangerous enemies, a large set of diverse weaponry, possibility to control machinery, detailed and interactive game world, story-driven single player with original team gameplay, and multiplayer with numerous modes. A THQ release schedule reveals that STALKER, 5 years after its announcement, will launch March 16, 2007.

IBM Presents 6.0 Ghz Processors 01:47 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (6 comments)
Probably not for the enthusiast market, but IBM is going to be showing 6.0 Ghz CPUs in February that are based off its Cell Broadband Engine processor. Thanks Firing Squad.

The first-generation Cell Broadband Engine chip, co-developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba, has just appeared in Sony's PlayStation 3 game console and can run at 4GHz. The second-generation chip will run at 6GHz, according to the ISSCC program. In addition, the new chip will have a dual power supply that increases memory performance--a major bottleneck in computer designs today.

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 01:41 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)

Boards

• ABIT FATAL1TY AN9 32X nForce 590 SLI Motherboard - PC Stats
• ECS KA3 MVP Extreme ATI Crossfire Xpress 3200 Motherboard - Future Looks

  Cooling
  

• Scythe Andy Samurai Master CPU Cooler - Pro-Clockers

  Memory
  

• Mushkin XP2-8500 DDR2 - Bjorn3D

  Power Supply
  

• TurboJet TG1100-U96 - LAN Addict

  Video
  

• Asus EN7950GT - Neoseeker

Game Reviews 01:34 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express - Strategy Informer - 5/10

  Wii
  

• Far Cry Vengeance - GameDaily - 3/10

In Other News... 01:27 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (20 comments)
I'm officially burned out on the holidays. These slow news days are killing me inside.

Today's TGIF question:

What game are you going to play next?

Bumped!

Poll: Most wanted game in 2007? 11:00 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (45 comments)
With the 2006 GoTY polls finally closed, it's time to look forward to 2007. On your right, are 20 games coming out next year that you may like (at least I hope so). Which one is your most wanted?

Vote on your right!

Command & Conquer 3 Interview 09:33 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Real-Time Strategy (10 comments)
The chaps at Computer & Video Games are keeping busy over the holidays serving up an interview with EA's Mike Verdu about Command & Conquer 3:

Generals was the series' first branch in to 3D and everything that came with that. What kind of lessons did you learn from the last game?

Well I think that one lesson learned was that we changed maybe too much in Generals with a builder-based system and a command bar along the bottom, as well as making the leap into 3D. It's a wonderful game - still one of my favourites - but if we're going to go back to the tiberium universe we really do need to bring back the sidebar which has amazing power and flexibility associated with it because you can control your production queue from anywhere on the battlefield.

And we've certainly learned a lot of things from the last six or seven years of RTS games that we've also put into the build system and the sidebar control system that I think really brings the best of both worlds - so contextual units, structural control and a way to manage what you're building anywhere on the map.

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 09:30 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)

Boards

• A fistful of nForce 590 SLI motherboards compared - Tech Report
• ASUS Striker Extreme NVIDIA 680i SLI Motherboard - Virtual-Hideout
• Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3 945PL Express Motherboard - PC Stats

  Cases
  

• Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case - Think Computers.org

  Cooling
  

• Noctua NC-U6 - Overclockers Online
• VIZO XENA w/One Touch Backup Notebook Cooler - Virtual-Hideout

  Pads
  

• Ratpadz XT Mouse Pad - The Tech Zone

  Power Supply
  

• High Power 620W PSU - Bjorn3D
• OCZ GameXStream 850 Watt Power Supply - Tweaknews

  Video
  

• XFX GF 8800GTX 575M 768MB DDR3 Dual DVI TV SLI - Motherboards.org

Game Reviews 09:20 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• Empire at War: Forces of Corruption - Strategy Informer - 8/10
• Star Trek: Legacy - Game-Revolution - C

  Wii
  

• Red Steel - Strategy Informer - 5.8/10
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Strategy Informer - 7.8/10

In Other News... 09:15 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (19 comments)
So like, I watched six hours of Robot Chicken in a row. That was the highlight of my holidays. Brilliant stuff.

Today's question:

In Wired's Vaporware 06 awards Scott Miller jokingly said, "Thanks to the overwhelming success of Prey (our latest IP, and another game that took 10 years to release), we have been afforded another five relaxing years on the making of DNF." When do you think Duke Nukem Forever will be released?