Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Time	Event
4:31p	Sexin’ up your PC, from Doom to World of Warcraft Back in the hay days when a great PC game could be bough from Todd, the young office intern, grimly copied onto a floppy disk and sold outside the toilet for five bucks, you did not exactly need a computer borrowed from NASA to play the thing. You just had to pop it in, aim for the office high score and pray the boss did not happen to walk by and see you playing Tetris or Space Invader or in the later years, Doom. Some say that games were more enjoyable then without the storyline to bog you down and the millions of other players with whom you had to interact. But, whoever says that is just plain crazy. By Dean Sherwin Now in the new year of 2009, we will be expecting this year’s upcoming release of PC hardware sometime around April of March after they sell last years stock during the post-Christmas sales. Millions will be running out to by components or even full PCs to take advantage of the updated systems so that they can squeeze just a little bit more graphical quality from WoW. These people may seem a little crazy but they are actually quite on the ball in gaming terms. Whilst you do not necessarily need a top notch PC to enjoy video games, it is worth making sure you have a little bit more power than what recommended on the back of the box. This makes the game more playable when it comes to a point where you have hundreds of players all gathered in a town during online play or you’re engaged in a heated fire fight, pop up for just a second to take that perfect shot and everything freezes on your PC while the other guy fills you with lead. My point is that perhaps buying a few sticks of RAM or a new video card when your PC is around the two-year mark will give it a second burst of life. Believe me, when you pop in a stick or two of RAM you notice the difference in the old girl straight away, whether it is playing games or not.    (Comment on this)
4:32p	Video games expected to evolve in 2009 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Don't hit that pause button just yet. Despite the tanking economy and an increasing number of video game-industry layoffs, many believe 2009 will be a year of evolution for games. The combination of innovative new titles, long-awaited franchise follow-ups and desire for escapism could spawn a gaming renaissance. "While game makers providing traditional retail product will continue to concentrate on high-profile sequels and licensed properties in an effort to mitigate risk, many of the field's most exciting developments will actually be happening outside of your local GameStop," said DigitalTrends.com publisher Scott Steinberg. By focusing on surefire $60 sequels that are appearing on next-generation consoles for the first time — like "Resident Evil 5," "Street Fighter IV" and "God of War III" — gaming publishers are expected to avoid economic pitfalls while independent developers are poised to provide cheaper, quicker and quirkier alternatives, such as $20-or-less downloadable games like "Flower" for the PlayStation 3 or "Darwinia Plus" for the Xbox 360. "Why pay $60 for a game you don't have time to play anyway when dozens of bite-sized, instantly intuitive and schedule friendly alternatives are available for $5 to $15 right from your couch?" muses Steinberg. Steinberg also anticipates even more developers will extend their games' out-of-the-box life with downloadable content. Rockstar Games is set to release "The Lost and Damned" exclusively on Xbox Live on Feb. 17. The "Grand Theft Auto IV" expansion will add new content and hours of gameplay to last year's top-selling action game. Several grander gaming innovations were teased at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sony showcased 3-D editions of such games as "MotorStorm: Pacific Rift" and "Wipeout HD" while Microsoft introduced "Kodu," a downloadable Windows PC and Xbox 360 program that allows amateurs — from children to adults — to create their own games. "Video games are poised to eclipse all other forms of entertainment in the decade ahead," Activision president and CEO Mike Griffith proclaimed during his CES keynote speech. He cited market statistics which stated that between 2003 and 2007, the cumulative number of movie ticket sales and hours of television watched fell by 6 percent, music sales slumped 12 percent and DVD purchases remained flat. Over the same four-year period, Griffith said the gaming business grew by 40 percent. With long-awaited exclusive PC sequels like "Diablo III," "The Sims 3" and "StarCraft II" also expected in 2009, this could be the year when gamers pay attention to something other than "World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold )" on their computers. According to Nielsen Media Research, gamers spent 24 fewer hours a week playing PC games in 2008 than they did the previous year. Rob Talbert, gaming manager and host of Arcade on ManiaTV.com, longs for PC gaming to prosper in 2009. "I think I speak for a good portion of the gaming community when I say that it's very possible that 2009 will be the year that PC gaming makes a comeback in a big way," said Talbert. "I can't remember the last time I have seen this much excitement over PC titles, and I hope these games can live up to the hype and the gaming community's expectations." Wedbush Morgan video game analyst Michael Pachter describes his outlook for the gaming industry in 2009 with one word: discovery. He believes the increasing number of diverse console owners, especially those with Nintendo Wiis, will demand new software — and publishers will figure out how to directly market their wares to such folks in exciting new ways. "They must discover how to reach those audiences," said Pachter. "It's not like they won't want new games."   (Comment on this)
4:33p	Playing this game could seriously damage your health A REPUBLICAN congressman from California is pressing for legislation which would force game producers to label packaging with tobacco-style health warnings. Joe Baca thinks that games rated as suitable for kids aged 13 or over should carry additional warnings about the implications of playing addictive games for hours on end in a darkened basement. In a statement, Baca said that, "Research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous products". Here are some of the labels we'd like to see: Extended use of World of Warcraft may lead to sexual dysfunction and reduced sperm count. Warning. Unsupervised use of Spore may lead to severe Darwinism. Second hand gaming kills. Please buy new games... you cheapskate. Guns don't kill people... Grand Theft Auto does.   (Comment on this)
4:35p	US Tax watchdog recommends taxing virtual economies Gold farmers beware. Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate for the US Internal Revenue Service has published her annual report - this year she recommends that the US Government looks into taxing the virtual economies of games like Second Life and World of Warcraft (Sell wow gold ). “Economic activities associated with virtual worlds may present an emerging area of noncompliance, in part, because the IRS has not issued guidance about whether and how taxpayers should report such activities,” says the report, before going on to point out that the IRS already taxes such things as competition winnings. Actually implementing the proposals could be enormously difficult, the report acknowledges, but it urges the government to at least define the issues and do something, even if that something is just officially exempting virtual income from the tax system. (Comment on this)
4:36p	Guitar Hero III rakes in $1 billion Last January, Activision, then an independent publisher, had announced that the Guitar Hero series had generated $1 billion in sales. The publisher had purchased it in 2006 for nearly $100 million. This month, the remaining half of Activision Blizzard reported to have sold $1 billion units of a single game in the rhythm-game franchise, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Although its World of Warcraft generated more than $1 billion in revenue (owed to 11.5-million plus monthly subscriptions), Guitar Hero III is the first to make it to the nine-digit figure in worldwide retail sales and that too alone. It was helped to the milestone by the game's various configurations, which included a la carte software and pricier guitar-peripheral bundles. The $1 billion milestone news first surfaced at last week's Consumer Electronics Show, when Activision publishing president, Mike Griffiths mentioned the figure. According to Edge, a UK-based magazine, Griffiths added that to date, 21 million songs had been download through Guitar Hero games, 9 million less than the rival Rock Band series. The executive also reportedly said that more than 141,000 songs had been composed and uploaded via Guitar Hero World Tour, the new multi-instrument installment in the series. (Comment on this)

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