The slowdown in consumer spending apparently does not apply in Liberty City. The fictitious city is the setting for the wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto IV" game that sold 1.5 million copies in the fiscal third quarter of games publisher Take-Two Interactive, which, not coincidentally, just reported sharp increases in revenue and profit for the period ended July 31. ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg (9/4) , The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (9/5)

In a world where video providers seem to be adding increasingly disruptive digital rights management into their video streams, you can always count on video game accessories to provide a hole for unprotected video to break through. First it was the Xbox 360's HD-DVD drive, whose component output allowed for DRM-free copying of the now-defunct high-def discs. Now it's Sony's European PlayTV digital video recorder add-on for the PS3, which CVG reports can "export [recorded] videos to your PS3's XMB menu as MPEG-4 video" for free use on other devices. At a time when everyone from Tivo to Microsoft seems to slap some sort of protection on digital video recordings, it's frankly a little baffling that Sony (itself a major video producer) would leave this hole in its digital recorder. Not that we're complaining, we're just waiting with trepidation for the other shoe to drop.

Though Master Chief is little more than an adorable baby during the events of Halo Wars, it should come as no surprise that his Spartan brethren are a pretty big factor on the battlefield. Ensemble recently went into detail about the role of the Spartan in a fight on their official site. The secret to nailing the right feel for the Spartan according to Ensemble? Not nerfing them. Spartans aren't just dudes in good armor: They're one-man tipping points, able to grab an enemy vehicle and turn the tide. Sounds good to us; now, if there were only some way to get some more Spartans on the box.

Having already come to an arrangement with Japanese star developers Goichi "Suda 51" Suda and Shinji Mikami to publish a mysterious horror franchise, who could blame EA for showing interest in other Eastern talent? Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, David DeMartini, who oversees the EA Partners program and a board swathed in secret plans, candidly admits, "EA looks at the top 20 developers in the world and we try to sign anything those guys are working on." DeMartini explains that deals such as the Suda/Mikami one represent "something that is very unique and very special," despite being, like many of our relationships, "slightly uncomfortable for both parties." We're dying to see the results of EA's collaboration and share DeMartini's unshaken hope that it "will serve as a springboard to a successful formula that we can apply to some of the other great Japanese designers." You know, like Gackt.

As part of its recent quarterly earnings announcement, Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto IV has sold ten million copies through Aug. 16. These sales helped lead the company to a staggering $433.8 million in revenue in the third quarter, over twice as much as the same quarter last fiscal year. For comparison, the PS2 version of GTA: San Andreas sold 12 million copies worldwide. During a conference call, the company said it would continue to promote GTA IV through the holiday season, and that it expected lifetime sales for the game to "track well ahead of any previous GTA title."

]]> http://shaggy4dog.wordpress.com/?p=86 Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:10:02 +0000 shaggy4dog http://shaggy4dog.wordpress.com/?p=86 Welcome to where I talk about the News Today by pulling news from my Google Reader. I will do my best to do this daily and we'll see how it goes.

Britney Spears to raise curtain on MTV awards (Reuters)

from Yahoo! News: Television News

Reuters - Britney Spears is to star at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, a year after a calamitous comeback performance at the same award ceremony. But this time the pop singer won't be performing.

Google's Brin says Chrome headed to Android, probably

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

As the root of our name implies, desktop browsers aren't really our thing in Engadget-land. Still, we're pretty sure that you've managed to learn about Google's new Chrome browser even without our assistance. However, when we hear Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin discussing Chrome on Android, well, we're all in. Even though neither has been released out of beta yet, Brin said that the Webkit-based Chrome browser is expected to soon supplant the Webkit-based browser in Android. "Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack," Brin said before adding, "My guess is we'll have 'Chrome-like' or something similar," when asked about the brand name. While we have lingering doubts about the likely stability of the initial 1.0 Android OS release, version 2.0 with Chrome is likely to be killer in every sense of the word to Symbian Nokia, Microsoft, and Apple. Of course, we'll be first in line for the HTC Dream regardless.

Kim Couture: ‘I kind of feel sorry for’ Brock Lesnar at UFC 91

from UFC blog for UFC news, results, videos, rumors, fights, pics and tickets -- MMAmania.com by MMAmania

Quoteworthy:

“It’s surprising to me, shocking that they’d throw a guy in there with only three fights. I kind of feel sorry for the guy. He poses some interesting problems but that’s what Randy is good at, is taking care of those problems. He’s no bigger or tougher than (Gabe) Gonzaga or Tim Sylvia.”

Count Kim Couture, the wife of UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture, as among those who feel that inexperience will play a large role when “The Natural” takes on Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 15. Lesnar has just three professional mixed martial arts bouts while Couture has nearly 25. Whatever, maybe she’s correct — experience could play a factor. But Lesnar is much bigger than Gonzaga or Sylvia. Maybe this thought process helps her sleep better at night.

Serena edges Venus in all-Williams US Open quarter (AP)

from Yahoo! News: Top Stories

AP - Serena Williams watched the final shot sail beyond the baseline, and immediately her sister called for an instant-replay challenge. At that point, Venus Williams really had nothing else to lose.

U.S. troops could quit Baghdad "by July": report (Reuters)

from Yahoo! News: Top Stories

Reuters - U.S. combat troops could be pulled out of Baghdad within 10 months because of declining violence in the Iraqi capital, General David Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq, said in an interview published on Thursday.

GTAIV DLC Due In November, Two Ten-Hour "Episodes" [Rumor]

from Kotaku by Luke Plunkett

According to "sources close to Rockstar North", GTA IV's 360 DLC is still on-track for a Fall release. Specifically, it's on-track for a late November release, which backs up earlier rumours. But wait, there's more! The sources, speaking to Eurogamer, disclose what the DLC will actually be. They say it'll take the form of two ten-hour episodes, both of which will feature new achievements. Could be real, could be not real, if it really is November guess we won't have long to wait to find out.

Rumor : E3 considering going public to revive glory

from Xbox 360 by Mabie A.

What we heard: From Fable II to Gears of War 2, Microsoft Game Studios has a number of highly anticipated releases headed to the Xbox 360 in the coming months. While the software division has been busy, the hardware team has had its hands equally full with the Xbox Live dashboard overhaul. A hot topic during this year's E3 2008, the latest firmware upgrade to Microsoft's system adds a number of features, including avatars, Netflix integration, and the ability to install games to the console's hard drive, to name a few. Not to belie the obvious, Microsoft has thus far only said that the dashboard overhaul will be rolled out this fall. However, confirmation of a more narrowed release window appeared to arrive earlier today. After attending a Microsoft London event last week demoing the new update, a representative of the publisher reportedly told UK gaming blog RPG-TV that the dashboard revamp would be pushed live in November. "I'm not sure if this has been confirmed already or not but I was told the new dashboard would arrive in November," said the gaming blog. RPG-TV also noted that the much touted downloadable content for the Xbox 360 edition of Grand Theft Auto IV would also arrive in November. There, the information sat quite innocuous for the remainder of the week, seemingly destined to be lost in the Internet's murky depths. That is, until a variety of gaming Web sites and blogs went deep-sea diving earlier today, hauling the revelation to the fore.

The official story: Unfortunately, it appears as if RPG-TV's information was either erroneous or off the record. After contacting the publisher to confirm the validity of the information, a Microsoft representative has said, "We have not yet announced the timing of the fall update."

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus that the fall Xbox Live dashboard update is a lock for November. However, given that the hardware maker's last two fall updates arrived at the end of October and the beginning of December, a November launch is certainly possible.

"In autumn there will be news from Liberty City; the first episodes of GTA IV will be available for download exclusively on Xbox Live," Microsoft said in a press release, causing GTA fans to rejoice.

"In June, publisher Take-Two "delayed" the exclusive Xbox 360 content to Q1 2009. But thanks to wacky fiscal calendars, that still meant the content could arrive in November 2008 at the earliest, which now seems to be the case." Gamepro.com

To date, Grand Theft Auto IV has sold an estimated 10 million copies across all platforms, easily one of the best-selling games of the year.

The guys or should I say guy at computerndvideogames.com got a "eyes-on" of the yet to be released PC version of Grand Theft Auto - IV and going by their experience I am pretty pleased.

Grand Theft Auto has had a special relationship with PC games, a contraversial one though. It was on PC that GTA made its debut and found fame. It was the PC gamers who bothered to make innumerable modds for the game. (Lets forget the nude coffee thingy for now.. shall we) and looks like Rockstar hasn't forgoptten that past.

GTA IV for PC will be different though the story will remain the same. The game packs in a "replay system", improved (marginally) graphics and a  solid framerate @ 60fps. Cool heh

The PC version will also have the ability to record gameplay and compile videos like in Halo 3. I am pleased, now all I have to do is, hold tight, upgrade my computer and wait till November 18 when the game will launch.

Kära ägare av PlayStation3, medborgare i Sverige och potentiella köpare av nya spel (det finns mer än GTAIV och MGS4) - här är försäljningsstatistiken för vecka 32, detta nådens år 2008.
Bow your heads and read on.

1. Soul Calibur 4 (vem har inte velat leka Vader?)
2. GTA 4 (otippat...)
3. Buzz! Quiz TV (parmiddagar och efterfester är härmed räddade)
4. Battlefield Bad Company
5. Beijing Olympics (upp, ner, ner, upp, höger under prisceremonin för att kasta bronsmedaljen)
6. Guitar Hero Aerosmith
7. FIFA 08
8. Army of Two (så många suckers finns det alltså)
9. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
10. Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock

Нека заедно да погледнем, какво написах в GTAIV мултиплейър ревю-то през май.

“Ще има ли GTAIV за PC?”
Според мен, отговорът е повече от ясен - Въпросът е грешно зададен! :) Би трябвало да не е - ще има ли GTAIV за PC, а КОГА ще ги има за PC?
Дайте да мислим логично? Rockstar са всичко друго но не и глупаци. Колкото и да си говорим за пиратство и прочие, една PC версия ще продава, и ТО МНОГО! Единственият сериозен въпрос, е какво са подписали “рок звездите” в онези ексклузивни договори с Microsoft и Sony т.е. след колко време ще могат да разпространяват играта и за PC. Другият въпрос е, какво ОЩЕ ще включва PC версията, предвид очаквания DLC (downloadable contents) за Xbox версията.

Ето новината на деня:
Rockstar Games, с гордост обявява, че Grand Theft Auto IV ще излезе за PC на 18-ти ноември в САЩ и 21 в Европа.

Rockstar Games Announces Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC @take2games.com

Това което се знае със сигурност (освен датата) е, че играта ще е вързана с Games for windows Live...

Повече детайли за съдбата на DLC-то за играта, системни изисквания и прочие детайли... веднага щом се появят ;)

Чудесна новина с която да се завърна от света в който няма интернет нали ;)

Понеже още си нямаме PC трейлър, предлагам да се завършим :) с онзи толкова хубав UK спот, който дори беше баннат някъде, поради някакви безумни причини:
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1109656&w=425&h=350&fv=]

За не разбралите (винаги има такива) повтарям: ОФИЦИАЛНО Е! GTA IV излиза за PC на 18-ти и 21 ноември в САЩ и съответно в Европа.

PS: Аве като ще е от Games for windows Live серията не може ли най-накрая да направят да може Xbox юзърите и PC юзърите да играят на едни и същи сървъри, да ви наритаме д-тата най-накрая :P

Evel Knievel

The airport is a great place to pull off stunts. Simply get a few friends and fire up a free mode game there. Have a few guys grab choppers and the rest should grab identical vehicle. Now if you look at the end of the runway, you should see a floating platform with boxes on it. Have the people with cars going to the opposite side of the runway and the chopper drivers fly just a meter above the water between the platform and the end of the runway. At the signal, have them cross the runway, take the jump and -once they go airborne- jump out of the car. If everything went well, they should hit the rotor blades, fly away and die.

Swingset

There is a glitch with a swingset in the Firefly Projects that can be quite fun once you figure out how to get it to work. Jump out of the car in midair for increased distance. We spent countless hours playing with that glitch :P

Hide and Seek

Start a new private team deathmatch game with your friends and have all of them go in the same team except one (the guy that has to find the others). Put a short duration and set the blips to team only. Agree on a distance limit and count to something like 30 before trying to find the others. This is pretty damn fun, trust me.

Last stand

Start a new free mode game with friendly fire off and police on. With the weapons you start with and the one you pick up during the rampage, you and your friends must last for as long as possible. This can take epic proportions when the police choppers kick in.

I will tell you what I think about the game though. Simply put, it's awesome but I will elaborate further. In the previous Grand Theft Auto games, the stories somewhat lacked in depth. At least that's how I feel about them. I'm much more impressed with the depth in this one. I actually felt a connection to the characters and felt happy/sorry for the situations they are put in. It's funny that I enjoyed hanging out with the characters when they called me.

Gameplay is pretty much the same formula as the previous ones. Steal cars, do missions, make money with the added dating scene in this one. Essentially the free roaming world is fully intact but much improved. There are more pedestrians walking around and more cars in the cities. Physics have been improved greatly with the vehicles and npc's. I make it a point to crash into any motorcyclist I see just so I can watch the body get thrown into oncoming traffic (sorry... did I just write that?). It's crazy fun but not surprisingly violent.

Controls are lacking but much better than the previous games in line. The lock on feature is a godsend since free aiming really is too inefficient to survive a battle. Yes auto lock was in the previous ones but it seems better this time around. I only have two major control complaints. One is when flying a chopper. Both analog and SIXAXIS controls are extremely frustrating to use. I actually don't enjoy flying one. I only do it to complete missions that require the use of a chopper. Second complaint is shooting and driving. I preferred shooting out the side of the car in the old games rather than aiming in front in this one. It's actually only a minor complaint but it still bothers me.

Overall I'd say that this game is a must have for any PS3 or 360 owner.

I'd score it a $80/$90 for the Special Edition

For the standard I'd score it a $60/$60

La revista PC GAMER ha sido la encargada en confirmarlo oficialmente.  Después de su indudable gran éxito en las versiones de Xbox 360 y PlayStation 3 es normal que Rockstar haya decidido en lanzar también este juegazo en PC.

En los próximos días se espera nueva información sobre este lanzamiento y una posible fecha oficial de salida ya que estos datos son todavía una incógnita.

Una gran noticia para los que quieran hacerse con el juego en su versión de PC. Cada vez son más los juegos que en un principio iban a salir solo en videoconsola y finalmente también salen en PC, es el caso de The Last Remnant y quizás FFXIII también salga en PC.

Well, to celebrate the fact that I have over 2000 views of my blog (I totally only noticed by random) and the fact that everyone seems to love Futae No Kiwami, and to get that huge multi-coloured blog post out of the way, here's a brand new (probably not) funny (even more likely not) fantastic (no) Futae video.

So in other news, I've not really been doing that much recently, well, I have re-activated my FFXI account, and to save me going to find a new screenshot, here's one from some time in 2006, which is the same character I use now.. only he's a Monk now, not a BLM. My plan? Eventually I wish to have him as a Paladin, so.. Monk to level 18, then Warrior to level 37, and then Paladin.

We (Me, Frahlo, Mike) have been playing alot of GTAIV recently, just free mode really, mucking about, but for like 4 hours a session, EVERY DAY almost. Pretty crazy, but hey that's what holidays are for, some people go to exotic locations, I sit at home playing games. In my defense, I have been to America three times, Tobago, Ireland, many places in the UK, and France a couple of times.. just nowdays.. I.. don't like going places. I figure, all I want to do when I'm working, is relax and play games and talk to people, which I can do for (sort of) free, paying all that money to just go and sit in the sun and stare blandly isn't something that appeals to me, but oh well.

Here's my Taru, Beitetsu, from when I first was playing him, he looks the same now more or less, only he's got a wierd beret and angry fist weapons, along with Mike's Taru.

Who knows wtf I'm talking about, I probably saw an event and started screaming about it, I tend to do that.

Anyhoo, bye!

My Taru Taru Monk.

stay within the routine and system of Rockstar game's  method of clues

http://truxtertech.com/news/?p=164

http://truxtertech.com/news/?p=165

See the kids have gotten lazy and so rockstar does not realize they are out there

there used to be horedes and groups of people actually trying to find the nex clue and or how to compile the fricken game themselves.  but from what I see, rockstar games does not see that the kids  need to hear  themn say "HEY STUPID WE PLAY A GAME OF  FIND THE CRAP, BEFORE WE RELEASE TO PC FIRST...... YES.... EVERY TIME"   They make us drool before we get the game. They make us prove we are the smarter of the gaming world.

The game is coming and we can see it in april from what i suspect and see. that puts us right in schedual for what they wanted in the first place, but a year later.  due to the hold of the 360 version and sony arguement.

Yes Grand theft Auto  is meant for the pc computer

Shock horror PS3 fans; Grand Theft Auto 4 is the absolute must have game to own on your amazingly underused consoles! If, for some ungodly reason you don't already own a copy then click for the link to sort this problem out sharpish and we won't have to tell your mates how much of a loser you are.

Anyway, after your finished completing the story mode of the game, which I'm sure many of you reading this will already have done - you find yourself making use of the GTAIV's unique and amazing ways to while away countless hours of fun even after the story is long over. Your sick little imagination is the limit here because you can do anything from buying clothes, taking helicopter tours, going drinking with your pals, maybe go to a gun store, purchase an AK47 and unload 500 odd rounds into an unsuspecting group of pedestrians... its your call..

One of the things I'd highly recommend you have a go at though is exploring the city and finding all the unique stunt jumps and other unofficial things you can use for some Evel Knievel style antics.

Want an Idea of what I mean? Check this video out we've found of a brilliant compilation of GTAIV stunts - with a wicked bit of Metallica to boot. Enjoy.

-Jason

there are tons of misslead posts and fake youtube videos that show people playing the game. In most cases you can see the human clicking wrong to open doors, and his navigation is wrong, oir the head tilts without the free mouse roam a pc can give you. So it's clear the posts are missleading.

There is a forum that is created with hopes of gtaIv coming to pc, heck it even shows hope for liberty and vice city stories coming to pc. It even has a moddifications section already waiting. HERE is where everyone goes to just read, and occassionally post theories/hopes/finds/facts so others can help in the research of this/these game(s) coming to pc.

From the looks of things, if we can see anything, it will not be till April 09

After a nice night of unprotected sex, I finally decided at about 8am this morning to finally run through the last few sections of MGS4. Yes, this game is better than Grand Theft Auto IV (I'll upload the show GTAIV vs. MGS4 show in the real near future). This is arguably the greatest game of all-time! I sound like a fanboy, but fuck it! Do yourself a favor, buy a PS3 (if you don't have one already) and get MGS4, or fuck it, get the bundle! Save yourself some time.

Right after completing the game, I find out immediately that there's a whole 'nother game within the game! Don't worry, no spoilers, I'm just talking about Metal Gear Online. Where you create a soldier and face off in a bunch of different modes in the Metal Gear Universe. So in a way, you get to play the role of all the other soldiers you've been killing throughout the campaign. It's kind of hard to really explain and breakdown without you knowing and understanding the Metal Gear story. To make a long story short, any person who's ever loved video games, shit, anyone who's really loved a good movie needs to play this game. The unlockables are unlimited making space for multiple play throughs and a crazy amount of longevity. Thanks to both GTAIV and MGS4 (let's not forget COD4 which is still heavy in the rotation), I'll be in the crib for quite sometime now, haha.