What Have You Played This Week?

Football Manager 09 – PC – Still playing, still going. It is my vice and will be for many years to come.

Space Invaders Extreme – PSP – I found this game at a local Morrison's for only £4 and I had to get it. The 360 version is fun, but on the PSP's small screen, the busy backgrounds are almost insane, but it doesn't detract from the gameplay which is fast, fun and just as crazy.

Ratchet & Clank – PS2 – I Had a old save file, and I really wanted to finish the game. The story is really good, and for a old PS2 game,the graphics were quite impressive. It didn't run well on the PS3, framerate would regularly drop to a slideshow which made the already difficult levels tough. The story is compelling enough to wade through this, but the end battle tested me. Still glad I finally finished it and seen how the series started.

Motorstorm Pacific Rift – PS3 – Played a lot of multiplayer, but the problem is the game doesn't match to rank, so i'm finding it hard to progress against those who have been playing the game much more. The main game has a similar problem. The races are much much harder and can be frustrating. But the game is good because there is always at least 4 very different races/tracks to race on, so if one is getting frustrating there is always another to try. What I did want, but couldn't do, was a simple casual race. I couldn't find one. I even tried to create one but after 15 minutes only 1 other person had joined.

Pokèmon Platinum – DS – Another guilty pleasure for me. Loved the series since Blue, and got platinum for my birthday. Over 24 hours into it i'm two gyms away and only 5 Pokèmon in my squad so far. As good as this series of Pokèmon games are, it really makes me want a Pokèmon MMO. There's not much else to say to be honest, like Football Manager, it's a series I always enjoy.

So What have you played this week. feel free to comment on what i've played, or add the games you've played in the comments below.

Current UK 1 VS 100 Beta Show Schedule

The UK Beta for 1 VS 100 went live last night. personally i managed to get into a couple of games but i was also kicked out of them, which took crashed the game and took me back to the dashboard and signed me out of Xbox Live. what i played was fun and it 3was nice to have UK Specific questions, like which channel 4 presenter wears silly ties, but there were also a few other questions which were by far much more difficult.
How Was Everyone Else's experience with the game?

The Extended Play Shows do not have "The One" and is just a 30 minute show with up to 37 questions. The Primetime shows do feature "The One"and are live. the more extended play games you play, the greater the chance you will be the one in Primetime.

The UK 1 VS 100 Dashboard has the following dates and times for future 1 VS 100 shows.


Featured Shows
13/07/2009 – 19.00 - Superhard
14/07/2009 – 19.00 - He Said, She Said
15/07/2009 – 19.00 - Community Written
16/07/2009 – 19.00 -Football Fans
20/07/2009 – 12.00 -Superhard
23/07/2009 – 19.00 -Football Fans
27/07/2009 – 12.00 -Superhard
30/07/2009 – 19.00 - Football fans
03/08/2009 – 12.00 -Superhard
06/08/2009 – 19.00 -Football Fans
10/08/2009 – 12.00 -Superhard
13/08/2009 – 19.00 -Football Fans
17/08/2009 – 12.00 -Superhard
20/08/2009 –19.00 - Football Fans
24/08/2009 – 12.00 -Superhard
27/08/2009 – 19.00 -Football Fans
30/08/2009 – 19.30 - Xbox 360

1 VS 100 Extended Shows
13/07/2009 – 17.30 - Pan Euro
13/07/2009 – 18.00 - Pan Euro
13/07/2009 – 18.30 - Pan Euro
13/07/2009 – 19.30 – General Trivia
13/07/2009 – 20.00 - General Trivia
14/07/2009 – 17.30 – Pan Euro
14/07/2009 – 18.00 – Pan Euro
14/07/2009 – 18.30 – Pan Euro
14/07/2009 – 19.30 – General Trivia
14/07/2009 – 20.00 – General Trivia
15/07/2009 – 17.30 – Pan Euro
15/07/2009 – 18.00 – Pan Euro
15/07/2009 – 18.30 – Pan Euro
15/07/2009 – 19.30 – General Trivia
15/07/2009 – 20.00 – General Trivia
16/07/2009 – 17.30 – Pan Euro
16/07/2009 – 18.00 – Pan Euro
16/07/2009 – 18.30 – Pan Euro
16/07/2009 – 19.30 – General Trivia
16/07/2009 – 20.00 - General Trivia
17/07/2009 – 17.30 – Pan Euro
17/07/2009 – 18.00 – Pan Euro

Re-Cap of Yesterdays News (oldest to newest)

• QTE Blog: Re-Cap of Yesterdays News (oldest to newest) http://tinyurl.com/m73qup

• DSi: Scribblenauts ESRB listing says its a puzzle game, cabbage can be fed to dinosaurs, and more. http://tinyurl.com/m5ry82

• PS3: Killzone 2 DLC Dated and Priced. Napalm And Petrusite, July 23rd,Cost 800 Yen(5.99 Euros), two new weapons. http://tinyurl.com/mhe82z

• QTE Blog: EA - Screenshots for Need For Speed Nitro On Wii and DS http://tinyurl.com/mkc6nu

• DSi: game & Watch titles are coming to DSIWare. they are priced at 200 points. http://tinyurl.com/krpqlq

• PS3: A new game of the year edition of Little Big Planet, with all the DLC on, is coming out later this year. http://tinyurl.com/lthhja

• QTE Blog: EA - Two more Command and Conquer Screenshots Released http://tinyurl.com/ktphvn

• Wii: Reggie says the Wii Vitality Sensor reaction was not surprising, like Wii Fit and DS, expects it to be big. http://tinyurl.com/n3x32z

• 360: UK 1 VS 100 game to take place tonight at 7.30 BST. http://tinyurl.com/l9g4wv

• The third developer working on Bioshock 2 has been revealed as Arkane. they are assisting with levels. http://tinyurl.com/l7j88z

• PS3: it is rumored that a popular 360 title is coming to the PS3, set for release near end of the year. http://tinyurl.com/m5xp2r

• Plants Vs Zombies is coming to other consoles, but not mobile phones. http://tinyurl.com/leklqb

• PS3:Little Big Planet Ghostbusters DLC Detailed. costumes of stay puff, no ghosts, and the team, plus Slimer hat. http://tinyurl.com/lfrya7

• PS3: God Of War III maynot receive a classification in Australia. The Dev's are concerned with this. http://tinyurl.com/mk2mhu

• PS3: US PS Blog details Killzone 2 DLC+Patch. Napalm & Cordite maps. new trophies coming, new multiplayer weapons. http://tinyurl.com/mdku7l

• 360: 1 Vs 100 UK Beta is live at the moment.

• Battlefield 1943 Coral Sea challenge has started.once a body count of 43 million is reached,Coral Sea Map unlocks http://tinyurl.com/mac6cj

• 360: Xbox Summer of Arcade has changed, Splosion Man is July 22nd, TMNT Turtles In Time Re-Shelled is August 5th. http://tinyurl.com/lnjoj7

• QTE Blog: Hudson - Horror Game Calling Announced For The Nintendo Wii - Press Release http://tinyurl.com/lr6t8m

• PS3: Bethesda says there will be an announcement next week over the status of the Fallout 3 DLC. http://tinyurl.com/llxdj7

• DSi:Pokemon Gold/Silver details, new mini games called pokeathelon.gyms have traps,Mewtwo is in game, maybe kanto http://tinyurl.com/ljhzt9

• QTE Blog: EA - FIFA 10 Online Producer Blog http://tinyurl.com/lg388p

• PSP: Myst is coming out on the PSN on July 16th. it is the original game plus Rime Age that was never released. http://tinyurl.com/nb86fz

EA - FIFA 10 Online Producer Blog

EA have uploaded a blog by on the online producer. it talks in great depth about how the online part of the series evolved from FIFA 04, to its current peak with FIFA 09 and the 2 Million-match-per-day bar that they reached back in march.
For FIFA 10, EA are going to not have custom teams available for online games, nor will they encourage players to play against a specific team. they have also made a big effort to stop all exploits and faster punishment and recognition of those who cheat the system.

Online Producer Blog

Christophe Labrune
FIFA 09 was the year of Online for the FIFA series. Usage more than tripled over FIFA 08 and each day since launch has seen more than 1 million matches completed. We even broke the 2 million-match-per-day bar in March.

Let’s step back for a bit, and see where this all came from...

FIFA console and online – the early days
I was brought on to the FIFA 2004 team as the PC and Online producer. Only PC had online play at the time, and the idea was to follow the early online success of console games like Madden. Internally, we wanted to focus on gameplay and Manager Mode, and we didn’t know what to expect of online on a non-PC platform. It was up to me to find that out!

We implemented 1-vs-1 gameplay on PS2 and focused on making the experience stable and fun. While testing and tuning, we started realizing how much potential Online had for FIFA.
[Side Story #1 – At E3, in 2003, we demoed very early PS2 online code on a big screen, during Sony’s conference... The game would 100% crash if you scored, triggered a cut scene, or tackled. The 2 minutes we spent playing online - me in Vancouver, the product manager at the conference - were the most intense in my whole life. I ended up taking a shot, missed it, but not close enough to trigger a cut scene, and we stayed alive!!!]

Once FIFA 2004 shipped, the early going was slow, with online usage mostly concentrating in North America. The year after, FIFA 2005 saw the arrival of Online on Xbox, and more and more people were playing every day. Learning from the first year, we had made the game more stable, had improved match-up and cheat detection, had cleaned up connection issues. Europe started playing more online, a trend that would continue in the next years.

The arrival of Online Team Play
Let’s fast forward to FIFA 08 and the 5-vs-5 update.
Ta-da! A dream had come true... play as a team, online, against another team of human players. The fact that it was delivered through an update was a tell tale sign that times had changed and that Online had become super important. Making an update is hard, indeed, as you work past the final date of the project (i.e. you go from crazy-tired to almost-zombie) and eat away at resources scheduled for the next iteration. However, 5-vs-5 online was considered a major addition and we couldn’t wait another year to get it out.

It was so successful that FIFA 09 took the obvious next step – 10-vs-10. Every outfield player controlled by someone anywhere in the world. Wow.

First though, we had to get to every outfield player controlled by someone anywhere… on the development team floor. The tech was such a jump over what we had done before, that it materialized only very late and very painfully. We spent long hours gathering people around to organize sessions, shouting over the cubicle walls to go into Quick Match at the same time. A chore at first (we were crashing a lot!), it slowly became a great time for all involved, with stability improving. At the end, we were all cheering on goals scored and laughing at badly timed tackles – ‘hey you took me out, we’re on the same team!’

Now that 10-vs-10 started fulfilling its promise, we had to make sure we had a good screen flow to support it. Quick Online Team Play was one avenue, but Clubs was the bigger ticket item. To play as a team, you have to play with friends, or at least with a group of people with a common gaming vision. And Clubs were the way to get these same-minded people together over multiple matches.

Unfortunately, with time running short on FIFA 09 development, we didn’t have the chance to iterate as much as we wanted on our Clubs feature. And, as you have told us multiple times, it showed. Clubs matches were hard to get into, involving sitting patiently for lengthy periods of time in the Room, most times failing to find opponents in a timely manner.

We saw this ourselves when we created a dev team Club, after FIFA 09 shipped. Nothing like playing in the ‘real world’ to get the best feedback. We were frustrated to have come short on this feature… and swore we would do better on FIFA 10. The 10-vs-10 gameplay itself was there, was fun, and people were definitely enjoying it! We just had to polish flows in and out of Team Play. And also not forget the rest of Online, following the comments that you guys in the forums were leaving for us.So we started working on FIFA 10 Online.

[Side Story #2 – So, right, I am the producer… but what kind of an online gamer am I? I started with a terrorist vs counter-terrorist First Person Shooter, while at Infogrames. Yep, playing at work! Got into the Elves vs Orks vs Humans RTS (version 3) a tad later, while a tester at EA. Yep, still playing at work! I finally played a bit of a turned-based French MMO for a while. Guess where I was playing it…

And what kind of a FIFA Online gamer am I? I must admit, I’m not too good at 1-vs-1, my favorite matches being when I can play my home team Metz, against other 2-to-3 star teams. I am a much better 10-vs-10 player, because I tend to play my position, I stay disciplined, and I focus on making the right play.]

So now, let’s go over what you can expect from FIFA 10 Online.
1-vs-1 is still the cornerstone of online play…
As much as we love our 10-vs-10 modes, 1-vs-1 is still, by far, the most played mode in FIFA, offline and online combined. It is actually likely the most played mode in all Sports games, period. As a result, we spend a lot of time keeping it stable, fun and safe.

… And 10-vs-10 is now your playground
We are providing you with the stage. Up to you to find the Club that you like, with the friends of your choice. We vastly improved the usability of the Club screens, making it easy to get into games. We show you more and better player stats, so that you can have that little internal competition going. We tell you who the best Free Agents are, if you are in the business of running a competitive Club. We even tell you who the best players in the world are!

We will also be using the web (Football World) as an extension to the feature, so that you can check out your Club status when not at your console.
We are confident that the improvements we have made will make Clubs an even bigger hit!
Everyone should play within their comfort zone
Some play for fun, some play for team pride (or glory hunting), some play to be the best out there. Some play for all three reasons! The idea is to make sure everyone gets a chance to stay within their comfort zone.

- Our Matchmaking logic has always matched in priority users from the same region, and within the same level ranges. We improved this again (especially in Clubs) and are showing the range searched in the matchmaking screens. In FIFA 10, you will see when your search hasn’t returned results within your range and is expanding to different levels. You will be free to cancel then, and possibly refine your search.

- A common complaint we hear is the lack of visibility in our ranking formulas. We addressed this, so now, at the end of each game, you will see how many ranking points you got, broken down by criteria: team level, rank level and our brand new match performance rating. Even if you lost, having played the game well (good passing % for instance) will get you extra ranking points.

- Something else we added after reading the forums – more end of match options. In 1-vs-1, you can end the match as a draw. You can actually see what your opponent is choosing: agree to the same choice, and off you go again. Disagree, and the session simply ends. We tried this end of match flow in 10-vs-10 but ultimately left it out, as it proved messy. 7 would agree to rematch on one side, 5 on the other… No way everyone would agree. So we left it at improving screen flows, so that finding a new session to play as a team is super easy.

- No more ‘any’ setting that imposes settings on you. This was a bug, and ‘any’ now means what it should have meant in the first place: ‘I don’t care for that setting’.

- While we are on the subject of settings…. You can search for matches by team level, with multiple ranges available. You can also create 5-vs-5 matches again. And we are improving the search logic for control assistance settings. Lots of good stuff!

- Some modes are not for everyone. If you play the FIFA Interactive World Cup, be ready to face the toughest competitors, in more restrictive matchmaking conditions. FIWC is now Quick Ranked only, as the community pointed to us that top players ‘chose’ the matches they were playing. If you are good, you should play anyone and win. We are also leveling all teams, similarly to Clubs – we want it to be based on skill alone. Call that tough love for our best players out there… Qualifying for the next FIWC Final will take 110% dedication!

Online Fair Play needs to be enforced
In the end, great online features do not matter if we cannot enforce Fair Play. FIFA 09 saw an increase in cheating, which, to be honest, caught us somewhat by surprise. We were so happy about our offering, that we forgot for a second how petty people can be sometimes. And how willing they are to defeat a system to gain anything out of it. Aided by some community members, we were able to track down most cheat mechanisms. We fixed some (custom teams in FIWC), addressed others by punishing offenders (repeat wins against same opponents), while some others had to wait until FIFA 10 to be addressed (original teams in Clubs).
This is our pledge for FIFA 10:

- No more custom teams in ranked games. Their presence in FIFA 09 Online was a bug, and we are implementing foolproof checkpoint-based loading and unloading of squads in online matches. This also applies to original teams in Clubs.

- Diminishing returns for playing repeatedly against the same team. The more you play someone within a close period of time, the less ranked points you get. Ultimately, it is not even worth the effort. And to those who tried to hide their tracks by playing other modes in the middle of winning streaks… This won’t work anymore. Nice try though.

- No more game exploits. Halfway goals are gone, goalkeeper 6-sec exploit is gone. CR7 is still there however, so use our brand new Training Mode to learn how to better defend against him…
- Faster identification and punishment of cheaters. Never say never… if someone finds a way to consistently cheat our game, our improving stat tracking will flag inconsistencies in their logs, and we will find and punish them. We are actually setting up a Live Team, whose responsibility will be to track down suspected cheaters.

- As a minor but nice new safeguard, we now disconnect players who idle for too long in 10-vs-10. No more AFK’s getting control of the ball as the last defender!

- What about disconnects? For this one, we cannot do any better detection than the one our current system is providing. Peer-to-peer means that connections can be lost for network reasons, freak outages, anything really. Understanding how you connect to the internet and setting up the connection in consequence is key, but we still cannot guarantee 100% connection results. We will strive though to keep explaining how to properly setup internet, as it is definitely not as easy as plug-and-play! And, oh, downloading risqué videos is a major cause of network disruption, so don’t do it!

Hudson - Horror Game Calling Announced For The Nintendo Wii - Press Release

Hudson have announced a new horror game for the Nintendo Wii called Calling. it is exclusive and set for a 2010 release date. The game is a traditional horror game with real people and emotions, it doesn't use chainsaws or armor.
The game starts with a website, it has a counter which is the number of people who have died after visiting the site. they witness an event and are drawn into a mysterious world called Calling.



Press Release

SAN MATEO, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Jul 10, 2009 Hudson Entertainment will bring players face to face with death as they roam an alternate existence in an attempt to survive Calling. The adventure horror title is set to be published by Hudson Entertainment, the North and South American publishing arm of HUDSON SOFT, and will be exclusive to Wii in 2010.
“Players will be asked to use their wits and senses to survive the world of Calling,” said Mike Pepe, Director of Marketing of Hudson Entertainment. “It is a game that revolves around real people and real emotions – no chain saws or suits of armor. The game is traditional survival horror at its finest.”
In Calling, players begin by visiting a mysterious “Black Page” website with a simple number counter. Some say it is a bridge to something sinister; the counter indicating the number of people who have died after visiting the page. It is said that people who have visited the site and witness a certain event are drawn into a mysterious space compiled of the memories of the dead - the space between life and death. Someone or something is drawing the living there for a reason, and it is up to the player to discover the horrifying truth. In order to do so, players will use various equipment including flash lights, phones, and other items to navigate and escape the Calling.
Throughout the game players will visit various parts of the Calling world. Memories of houses, schools, hospitals and more bring players closer to either an escape or an untimely death. Players will solve puzzles, search and interact with objects, and ultimately try to avoid the inhabitance of this alternative existence.
For more information on Calling, as well as other titles from Hudson Entertainment, please visit www.hudsonent.com.
Hudson Entertainment is the North and South American publishing arm of Hudson Soft, an international provider of games and entertainment content founded in 1973. Hudson Entertainment focuses on four key businesses: console retail games, digital download content, mobile games, and music. Hudson introduced best-selling videogame franchises including Bomberman, Bonk, Military Madness and Deca Sports. Hudson's mobile division is a leading supplier of games and personalized content. Through numerous partnerships with record labels, Hudson has become a leading provider of digital music and video content. For more information on Hudson Entertainment, please visit www.hudsonent.com.
Hudson Entertainment, and Hudson Soft and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Hudson Soft.

EA - Two more Command and Conquer Screenshots Released

EA have released two more pictures, click on them to see them full size, for Command And Conquer 4, after yesterdays announcement of the game being in development.

EA - Screenshots for Need For Speed Nitro On Wii and DS

EA have released some screen shots for Need For Speed Nitro on both the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

DS


Wii