Singing can be a very fun-filled activity particularly if you know the lyrics.  Well this isn’t the real lyrics but it at least sounds correct. 

Sing with me now!

It seems that U.K.’s rather tight grasp on local video game companies is starting to backfire.  Companies once stationed in Britain are now starting to move to Canada bringing with them billions of dollars of potential revenue.

“The Canadians have driven a tank over the French Citroen and have now parked on our lawn,” Paul Jackson, head of the industry organization representing British games studios said to the Financial Times.  “It is becoming very challenging to keep core development studios here.”

U.K. is not letting this go unabated.  The U.K. Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport has now initiated an investigation of Canada’s trade practices via the European Commission.

According to the commission, “the U.K. government is concerned that state aid offered to computer games companies by a number of federal institutions in Canada may not be compatible with World Trade Organization principles.”

Working against them is Canada’s very forgiving tax system.   Companies there can write off a whopping 45% of labor costs at Manitoba, while Quebec and Ontario give up to 37.5% and 30% respectively.  A bit hard to beat when you consider Britain does not give tax credit for labor expenses.  Instead, investors can get a 30% refund totaling to a maximum of $60,000 for new media ventures.

[Source:  The Vancouver Sun]

Whether we like to admit it or not, ripping off is an integral part of the video game industry — well that and innovation. From that natural pairing of contradictory ideas comes the most coveted concept of all: originality.

So if John Carmack and John Romero didn’t rip-off Super Mario Brothers to make Commander Keen, then childhood videogame memories wouldn’t be as vivid now would it? Heck, Pokemon spawned a lot of catch-monster-train-and-duke-it-out-with-other-wanna-be-trainers games such as Digimon and to some extent, even Monster Rancher.

And they still garnered success.

So what’s the point in all of this?

I was cruising Gametrailers today and found THIS:

Hmmm… Okay sure. Obviously, the game looks like World of Warcraft up close and a whole lot like Diablo from afar. Although honestly, if you were going to rip off a game formula, why not steal from a company whose games have become industry landmarks (it’s BLIZZARD by the way in case you didn’t know). Regardless, I was intrigued enough to look into the game some more. It turns out that Mythos is a free MMORPG that is still under closed beta.

Hmmm this game looks promising. Let’s just hope that Mythos doesn’t go down the toilet like most Diablo wannabes..

(This is not a news article)

Because Tingal mentioned toys…I’ll give her toys.

Lol! This is my desk at work. These toys inspire me when I feel tired. It’s my hobby actually. Can you name some of them? My favorite figures there are Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, Vash the Stampede of Trigun, Jill Valentine of Resident Evil and Sakura of Sakura Wars

Oh and those pictures from my wall were taken from a video game convention our team went to. I took a picture with Tifa from Final Fantasy VII, Freya from Valkryie Profile, Yuna from Final Fantasy XII, and Ling Xiaoyu from Tekken.

Yup, those are katanas.  They’re only for display though cause their blade is very, very dull.  The real ones I keep in my home of course.

When EA screwed up, they gave away free games.  To say that Activision screwed up the Wii version of Guitar Hero III is pretty accurate, so what are they doing?  They are giving away freebies of course!  Don’t expect a game though, all they are giving away is a Guitar Hero guitar controller faceplate.

The faceplate also comes with a nice love letter from RedOctane and Activision.  Here’s how it looks like:

If you are one of those waiting for a replacement CD, should you be happy with it?  You should.  It means Activision hasn’t forgotten you.  The fact that this was not publicly announced gives a little more credibility to their sincerity.  Maybe they really are sorry.

Let me ask you a question, do you know what a EULA is and have you ever read through the many EULAs you had to agree to?  If you don’t know what a EULA is, it stands for End-User License Agreement.  It’s those long contracts you have to agree to before you can install or use software and chances are, you never read one to the end.

I wouldn’t blame you though, I don’t read most of them either.  Somehow, I’m beginning to think that they were written that long so that you can miss some important and rather alarming provisions; provisions that curtail consumer rights.

(more…)

I have always loved Sonic.  I would even dare say that I like him better than a certain mustached Italian plumber.  However, despite my fanboyism, the last Sonic games released in recent times have been complete disappointments to me. 

Finally, Sega may have seen the light, and returned the side of Sonic we all came to love.  Here is some footage from the game:

Looks like sea battles take semi-center stage (of course there’s still land and air). Looks like Red Alert 3 is going all-out naval warfare. Always good, of course. Graphically, Red Alert 3 looks like it’s going to kick it up a notch.

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

Those tesla ships better do AOE damage, considering that electricity + a whole body of water = lots and lots of dead fish and sailors.

Look! Look! The destroyed naval structures and units underwater is a fine, FINE touch.

The water looks wet. Nice nice nice. The waves slapping the shore walls look real. EA really did a nice job with the water physics *looks at the wake following the purrty speedboats*

Ohhh looks like the Kirov are back!

The allies now have an "amphibious battleship"! Sweet.

This may be a long-shot but I think that EA is going to release this game around the same time that Blizzard unleashes Starcraft 2.

How come there are no Armored Bears?!

Thanks kotaku!

As if playing Puzzle Quest isn’t addicting enough, D3Publisher announces Puzzle Quest 1.5, and expansion pack due for Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords.

FOR THE XBLA… great.

Eeeek!

This time around, the game is centralized in the southern area of Etheria and the plot involves a lot of smelly ghouls, a cranky sorceress from beyond the grave, oh and Lord Bane’s big bro, Antharg - The Lord of the Plague.

Man, Lord of the Plague, the other is the Lord of Death. That’s a pretty sick family.

Back on point, the ultimate selling point of this game is the four new classes: Bard, Rogue, Ranger, Warlock. Of course, there are new items to play with and around 50 new spells to chuck at opponents.

Man, it sucks that this is going to the XBLA first. I hope they release this for all other consoles as well.

Oh oh oh by the way, D3 Publisher posted this on the game’s website:

(Don’t forget to turn off your pop-up blocker)

In conjunction with this announcement, D3Publisher is reaching out to fans to help name the expansion pack! The winner of the contest will have their submission used as the official name of the expansion pack, as well as receive a free download of the content. Two runner-ups will also receive a free download.

Isn’t that cool? They’re giving their fans the chance to emblazon their legacy on the game.

Man, that Ranger looks mighty tempting. And the bard’s gonna swoon your enemies better than Steven Tyler. Yowza!

Hmm if you’ll excuse me, I need to think of a good name.

Puzzle Quest: The Sumodownload Love.

hmmm scwatch that.

There is nothing better than waking up to such a beautifully made video.  Created from the various gun sounds found in Call of Duty 4 and spliced meticulously together by serpento99, the video has gained instant popularity garnering an impressive 17,000 views in its first day at Youtube.  Within a week, the video got 168,000 views and 800 subscriptions. 

It’s not surprising such a video has gained so much fame.  The editing was top-notch, and I couldn’t imagine the amount of time it took to make such a wonderful video.  Best of all, the beat is catchy and I love how the different guns sounded as percussion instruments.

If you liked it that much, a high quality version is available for download.  For the password, enter “serpentoisthebest” without the quotation marks.  An mp3 version is also available so you can take the soundtrack along in your portable mp3 player.