General Gaming News

Most people take their World of Warcraft seriously, and as well all know, RPGs do require a healthy amount of imagination in order for it to work. Lately, computer-based RPGs have taken out a whole lot of that work from the players themselves since the machines are powerful enough to convey the message that the game developers wanted to - but that doesn’t detract from the fact that many people do sometimes wish that the characters the play in the virtual world could be fleshed out for real, in say, the form of an action figure. Ed Fries, former vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, has partnered with gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment to come up with FigurePrints - a premium service that allows World of Warcraft players to create 3D statues of the individual characters they play in the game.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), one of the pioneers in professional video gaming competitions, have just dropped an announcement that Gamerbase will be hosting the $300,000 CPL World Tour Grand Finals in UK come February 27 and 28, 2008. This professional video game tournament will boast the largest prize offering for ever (in the UK at least) and it is co-sponsored by video game publisher Sierra Entertainment and in association with CPL United Kingdom. In addition, there will be a 2007 CPL World Tour London qualifying stop that boasts a $40,000 prize pool in addition to a state-of-the-art 80 PC LAN gaming center located within the Trocadero at Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London.

Read the rest of this entry »

Has the tide turned? Is this the start of the end of the almighty Nintendo Wii’s reign in Japan? Some folks (especially fanboys in Sony’s camp) will probably read too much into this, while Nintendo supporters will probably dismiss this as a blimp - an anomaly in the sales charts for just a week, so to speak. Statistics don’t lie though - and for the first time last month, the Sony PS3 actually outpaced the Wii in Japan. This is partly due to the introduction of the way cheaper 40GB PS3 console (which incidentally, was the SKU that outsold the Wii).

Read the rest of this entry »

Latino gamers finally have the chance to strut their stuff in a major gaming tournament from next year onwards. The Latino Gamerz Match, produced in partnership with Major Gaming Championships and Dallas-based, Hispanic advertising agency iNSPIRE!, is proud to be the first major console gaming tournament that directly targets Latino gamers. So far, the plan is to run the Latino Gamerz across five Hispanic-focused markets across the U.S. (including Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Miami and New York) from early next year onwards. In addition to various console gaming competitions, the tournament will see participation from the mobile gaming community as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Perfect World Network, announced that it has already kicked off a large love-themed event called the “Love Me, Marry Me”, aiming to perform a large group wedding of thousands of game players. While this event is began on October 31st, it will be continually held until the end of this year as long as you engage yourself in the light-hearted online game known as “Legend of Martial Arts”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Great, looks like Wii owners will be getting the short end of the stick for this one. Apparently, Activision’s version of Guitar Hero III for the Wii has been castrated in quite a number of ways that it makes me wonder whether they are just in it for the money without bothering about us consumers’ feelings and needs. Not only does the Wii version lack an offline co-op quickplay mode, those with sharp ears have noticed one major drawback in this game - Activision has forgotten to include a few extra channels of sound.

Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like the furore surrounding Rockstar Games’ Manhunt 2 has not died down just yet, instead it seems to be building up. This title was rated Mature (M) and can be purchased by minors, but it contains accessible content that is meant for an Adults Only (AO) rating, making it the center of an upcoming storm. Guess the English have more sense as they have outright banned the title, while us Yanks continue to argue and bicker over semantics as well as clear cut cases. Guess parents and kids will be the loser here as Rockstar Games continue their quest in search of the almighty (but fast depreciating) dollar.

Read the rest of this entry »

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has just condemned the highly controversial video game, ManHunt 2, for its content. According to NAMI, this title is based on its irresponsible, stereotyped portrayal of people with mental illnesses, asking that it be recalled or modified, or that retailers decline to sell the game. NAMI executive director Mike Fitzpatrick has even gone further by issuing the following statement, “NAMI asks Rockstar Games to recall or further modify the videogame Manhunt2 due to its irresponsible, stereotyped portrayal of mental illness. We also ask retailers to be responsible in responding to public health concerns.”

Read the rest of this entry »

When the idea of a card-based console game was first mooted, many people were left wondering how exactly will Eye of Judgement play when it is finally released. Will it require an extremely steep learning curve? What about the cards involved - will it end up like yet another Magic: The Gathering, where those with the most money will logically be able to build the best decks in town due to accumulation of rare cards? One thing’s for sure though - Eye of Judgement has some pretty sweet graphics, but the fact that trading cards used in the game need not be original as the PlayStation Eye cannot make out the difference between an original and a proxy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Piracy is still a very big issue for game developers, especially in Third World countries where the purchasing power is extremely low compared to developed nations, hence the need for everything pirated. Word on the street has it that Nintendo and Hong Kong authorities managed to break up a major piracy operation for both Wii and Nintendo DS platforms earlier this week, but I find this move pretty pointless especially when it is so easy to download ROMs from the Internet and copying them over to other third party solutions like the R3 or M3 card on the DS. Take note – Game Addicts in no way condones piracy and pleads you to work for the games you love – that way, developers will see their efforts being rewarded and they will then work harder on future titles for your enjoyment.

Read the rest of this entry »