Akin to the dreaded ‘Blue Screen of Death’?

No, it isn’t. Well, according to Microsoft it’s all rather simple. Before I go any further, let me give you the full details. There have been a series of misleading stories in the UK’s mainstream press that suggest the Xbox 360 Elite has been experiencing ‘red ring’ problems (no, it’s not curry related).

Gamers have apparently seen hardware failures following three flashing red lights being displayed on the console. Fortunately, any hardware failures are coverd by a 3 year warranty.

Microsoft responded by saying that they have “conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures,” and that after “identifying a number of factors which can cause the general hardware failures, Microsoft has made improvements to the console.”

It has been suggested that the red ring represents an overheating issue. Not so, say Microsoft - “The three flashing red lights error message does not signal a single issue and can be caused by a combination of factors. For competitive reasons, we do not provide specifics about hardware components.

There you have. Are you any the wiser? I’m not! I suppose the answer is simple - it’s broken, I have a warranty, give me a new Xbox!

Popularity: 44% [?]

Bad news for gamers.

A new Trojan is spreading fast in World of Warcraft. The malware, which originated in Asia, is slowly spreading through the gaming world with the main activity being in China and Taiwan.

The malware attempts to steal log-in details from YouXiChaYuan and Perfect World, two online games popular in China and some other Asian countries.

The Trojan, ‘W32/OnlineGames!tr’, appears to be limited to specific language versions of Windows or the World of Warcraft client - for now. Hackers tend to rewrite malware code to target new sectors and attempt to bypass security mechanisms so expect to see this Trojan heading you way. As yet, the method of infection is unknown.

“With the online gaming market thriving with consumers, malicious activity will very likely continue for some time in this emerging sector as it forms a viable target,” said Derek Manky of Fortinet.

Unhappy times ahead; make sure you’re protected with the latest anti-malware updates and signatures.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Huge development costs hurt Sony.

Poor Sony. I mean, what’s wrong with wanting to dominate the gaming world? That’s effectively what Sony tried to do by pouring huge sums of money into the PS3. It looks like their plans may have backfired…just a little. Figures just released show losses of £1.09 billion (I bet Bill is chuckling to himself right now).

Typically, consumer electronics companies sell at a loss when a new product is released. They then rely on subsequent high-volume sales to make up for the initial losses. The problem for Sony lies with the huge R&D costs associated with the PS3 development.

In all, it looks like there’s no way the PS3 will ever be as profitable as version 1 and 2.

But there is hope. Every PS3 sold effectively seeds homes with Blu-ray players. This means Sony can then sell Blu-ray DVD movie titles at much higher margins. Cunning plan or just lucky?

Popularity: 44% [?]

Hand to disk combat with Sony and Nintendo.

According to Trusted Reviews, the 60Gb Xbox will be unveiled on July 15th at E3 followed by an August launch.

As yet, this information is just a rumour but the announcement is logical. The disk requirements for many Xbox games is constantly growing and the standard 20Gb capacity may soon be insufficient for storage hungry games and gamers alike.

You also have to consider the competition. Sony and Nintendo are working hard to advance the capabilities of their consoles. The PS3 now has features similar to Xbox Live - but Sony give you this for free. The Nintendo is fasting becoming THE games console with its unique control device and levels of face to face interaction.

Will bigger hard disks = bigger market share. We’ll see.

I’m off to do some circuit training on my Wii Fit!

Popularity: 100% [?]

The masters of the PC role playing game are back. Developed by Bioware (of Baldurs Gate fame) and published by EA and Microsoft studios, Mass Effect is an epic, visually spectacular Sci-Fi game set in the late 22nd Century. The player takes on the role of Commander Shepard and soon takes command of the starship Normandy.

Classic Sci-Fi

Mass Effect is a classic Space Opera with themes involving exploration, combat, intrigue and over the top heroic figures. The game play takes place mostly on the Normandy and on a giant space station that acts as a kind of central seat of government. The player gets to visit many other planets and moons along the way.

There’s a plot!

The game’s plot is huge and is as complex and interwoven as Bioware’s previous offerings with a great storyline and memorable characters. The player can assume either a male of female role and professional voice acting is provided for both. In addition, there are several other notable characters all voiced by actors familiar to fans of both TV and gaming.

Game Play

The game features free flowing and real time combat but the action can be paused at any time. As with most computer RPGs, the player will be able to enter into dialog with many characters from and the player’s responses, choices and general approach will have an affect on how the story runs later on.

System requirements

The game runs on a modified Unreal 3 engine so to fully appreciate the stunning visuals, a decent modern gaming PC is needed. Settings can be tweaked to allow gameplay on a fairly wide range of specs so don’t go and upgrade the PC yet!

Popularity: 71% [?]

Even though the Aliens movie is over twenty years old, it still looks brilliant and the idea of playing one of those Pulse Rifle toting marines in a first person shooter is as irresistible as ever.

Team or solo play

As is the trend with some of the latest releases, the game will feature a full co-op multi player mode where players can all take part in the campaign. Players will control a squad of four marines who are part of a unit sent to investigate the loss of the USS Sulaco (from the Aliens movie). Gameplay will revolve around tactical squad based combat with an intelligent AI able to flank and encircle the players.

Your gun’s bigger than mine

The squad will consist of four distinct types of marine each with special weapons and skills. The weapons we all love from the film are there - the Pulse Rifle, the flamer and the awesome Smart Gun and players will be able to switch between these characters as the game progresses.

Personally, I always wanted to be Sergeant Apone but he doesn’t seem to be here. Nevertheless, this is going to be great as we all yell our favourite Aliens quotes at each other over the Team Speak channel in an attempt to out do each other!

We’re looking forward to this one and will post more later.

The game runs on the Unreal Engine, will be publsihed by Sega and is due sometime in 2008.

Popularity: 71% [?]

More grandstanding from the follicly challenged super villain!

With the “back to basics” approach of C&C 3 and its classic (bordering on outdated) look and feel, it was always going to be interesting to see what could be done to add to this madcap RTS classic.

Sadly they couldn’t get the sexy chicks from Battlesar Galactica back for this one (Boomer and Six) so they got some random other guy from the show to do cut scenes instead. Its kinda fun that in this day of fully rendered cut scene animation, we get good old full motion video with mainstream actors desperately trying to act against blue screen cgi sets. Having said that, some big names have appeared in the C&C series including Michael Bien and James Earl Jones so it shouldn’t be too bad.

What do you get?

Well it’s more of the same really. The baldy one in full on camp “Dr Evil” mode and the usual turn / mission based mayhem. There are a few new and interesting sub-factions here with a sprinkling of new vehicles and some of the battles are huge with tank rushes and infantry zerging to keep the action going. We also see some uber units for each side and the new equipment provides extra variety and balancing.

All in all it’s not bad but we didn’t see anything revolutionary here. Perhaps that’s a good thing in some ways as C&C is popular for “being what it is”.

This will likely be the last expansion for C&C for the time being as we have Red Alert 3 to look forward to with is interesting alternate future time-line.

Verdict

Definitely for C&C fans, less so for the casual player

Popularity: 75% [?]

What can we say about the Fallout series? Adult themed, full of satire and subtle humour teamed with excessive violence, sexual innuendo and booze. Oh, and radiation. These classics are now quite elderly but are still wonderful to play and never fail to raise a chuckle at the fun poked at American paranoia and prejudice. Sadly, the series died with the original developer and the franchise rights seemed to get kicked around a bit. Then Bethesda stepped into the breach announced Fallout 3 to run on their Oblivion engine and we all sat up and took notice.

Oblivion Engine

Personally, we couldn’t stand Oblivion and found it tedious and dull (flames incoming) but its visuals were awesome and put a most satisfying strain on our graphics cards. It’s quite difficult to see how Fallout would translate from an isometric top-down tactical game to a free flowing first person experience but the results are looking promising. Teaser trailers and full motion videos have been released and hint at great things to come. The visuals seem just right and it is instantly recognisable as Fallout.

Don’t Ruin It!

There have been accusations of Bethesda “dumbing down” the game but they deny it and would do it at their peril. Fallout fans are a hardcore and vocal lot and it wouldn’t take much to burn the game in its own radioactive waste.

Verdict

It’s due out “sometime” in 2008 so we will keep an eye out for it and report more when it is available.

Popularity: 70% [?]

Here’s a PC game that we’ve been looking forward to for ages. Left 4 Dead is a multi player co-op first person shooter that sets you and three friends in a fight for survival against the zombie hordes!

The Setting

There are four (hence the 4 in the name - get it?) human survivors in a nasty zombie infested town that have to band together and fight for survival with precious little ammo and a lot of terrifying moments. There are several zombie types from basic cannon fodder to terrifyingly agile hunters and the players must work together to survive.

Fun Factor

It’s made by Valve. It’s going to be great.

The idea of making a game out of those fun zombie attack movies from the 80’s is brilliant and being able to play with your mates at your side is even better. If you don’t happen to have 3 friends, then the computer AI will pretend to be a friend and play along with you.

Graphics are looking good and up to Valve’s usual standard and the world allows players to use almost anything as a weapon. This is likely to create some moments of desperate hilarity as you try to beat the monster to death with some mundane item from your inventory instead of your “Turbo Nutter Bastard Shooter ™”.

Verdict

Buy it as soon as you can!

Popularity: 68% [?]

Well here it (almost) is, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (or MMORPG to you and me) based in the world and myth of Conan the Barbarian.

Is it original?

Hmm. A fantasy online game featuring men of legend fighting creatures of legend. Haven’t seen any of those before (Everquest, Everquest 2, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings online, Dungeons and Dragons online). Ok, so fantasy roleplay isn’t new so what can this game offer that hasn’t been done before?

Well for one thing, an actual plot and story line to follow in a setting that prepares you for the rigors of life among other players (we call it grouping) while moving you along to level 20. Of course at this stage, we don’t know how significant level 20 is but based on other games one might call this a “milestone” level where the character really starts to take shape.

New innovations

A very interesting development is the idea of player owned CITIES. Where previous games have sometimes had player owned houses and the odd guildhall, this concept is massive and lends itself further to realm versus realm player versus player (PVP) combat. Many MMORPG players value PVP higher than player versus environment (PVE) and to them the pinnacle of online gaming is defeating other human opponents rather than the computer AI so this could offer them a great deal.

We feel that it is just as important to reward the PVE player as the PVP player and we hope that Conan Online (as it is bound to be known) will do this. Our experience of other online games shows us that the PVE player is often given a raw deal compared to the PVP-er so time will tell.

Mounted combat

It appears that Age of Conan will be taking the concept of player mounts further too. In games such as Everquest and World of Warcraft, it is most frustrating when playing a heroic knight who charges into combat only to have to get off his horse to fight. Rather silly really. Age of Conan will allow players to charge mounted into fights and battle from horseback very effectively. This is quite novel and will make knights and cavalry actually feel like knights and cavalry (we hope).

Verdict

Promising future addition to the crowded MMORPG (just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?) market.

Popularity: 73% [?]