Games Archive

The PlayStation 3. For a long time, it was a rather well-protected machine, and it wasn't until early this year that George Hotz finally managed to crack the thing wide open. In essence, it was now possible to jailbreak the PlayStation 3 like you would jailbreak your iPhone, but of course, Sony wasn't pleased. With the recent firmware update, v3.50, Sony went from surgical precision to the battle axe - they blocked all non-Sony USB devices controllers (and a lot of PS2 > PS3 controller adapters) from working.

"Duke Nukem Forever was announced in 1997, after its predecessor, Duke Nukem 3D, had rocked the PC market with a hero who liked kicking ass, hanging out with strippers, and murdering alien police officers that were, literally, pigs. It was inappropriate, raunchy, and amazing. It was also one of the games that gave 3D Realms the success that brought its destruction. Duke Nukem Forever began life as a completely self-funded game; its developer wanted nothing less than perfection, and would chase every update in technology in order to deliver it. The game saw monumental delays, suffered the slings and arrows of a gaming world that was first angry and then tolerant of its favorite whipping boy, had its home taken away, and has since risen from the dead. Is the public still interested in Duke Nukem? Hell yes it is. This is the story of the gaming industry's favorite joke, and how Duke may finally have the last laugh."

I pay the cab driver, pick up my suitcase, and step outside. The background's filled with the notes from Dean Martin's rendition of "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", and as I walk away from the cab the sounds of the city drive away the memories from the war, back in Sicily. It's February 8, 1945, Empire Bay, and the war is drawing to a close. Welcome to Mafia II.

We don't do a whole lot of gaming news (a few reviews every now and then, just for my own personal fun), but in this case, I'd like to make an exception. Iconic and legendary, Duke Nukem is going to really really really return to the main stage of gaming. Borderlands developer Gearbox has announced that Duke Nukem Forever will be released early next year, for both consoles and PC. A playable demo is now being trotted around PAX. Instant update: VIDEO! VIDEO!

A rumor has been going around for about four months now that Valve is coming out with a Linux version of Steam and had a lot of people in the Linux community very excited. However Valve have officially killed the rumor. And it is not what people wants to hear - there is no Linux version of Steam in development.

The Xbox 360 Kinect may be designed for games, but its true potential lies in Apps. Because Kinect has full-body tracking, gesture recognition, and specialized microphones that are good for hands-free voice recognition, new types of non-game apps that have never been seen anywhere except maybe in Star Trek could come into being. "Computer, show me the best Italian restaurants in North Beach." Kinect could then show these on the screen, and you could flick through this list with gestures, minority report style. What app is this? Why, Yelp for Kinect, of course.

"Valve Corporation has today rolled out their Steam Mac OS X client to the general public and confirmed something we have been reporting for two years: the Steam content delivery platform and Source Engine are coming to Linux. This news is coming days after we discovered proof in Steam's Mac OS X Client of Linux support and subsequently found more Linux references and even the unreleased Steam Linux client. The day has finally come and Linux gamers around the world have a reason to rejoice, as this is the biggest news for the Linux gaming community that sees very few tier-one titles." This means Linux users can finally enjoy two of the best games in recent years: Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. BOOMER!

Wolfire blog writes: "It's 'common knowledge' that Mac and Linux gaming are so unimportant that they might as well not exist. Everyone 'knows' that Mac games sell a tiny fraction of the amount that Windows games sell, and that Linux games simply don't exist. But are these ideas based on reality? Where did these figures come from? Anyone who has ever worked with statistics knows that it's unwise to trust 'common knowledge' without data to back it up. I decided to ask some developers about their sales distribution, and get some real data about Mac and Linux game sales."

I think we need to start a digital rights category or something (the next version of OSNews will have it, for sure), because we have yet another article about this subject. After Sony removed the Other OS feature from the PlayStation 3, a European PlayStation 3 owner successfully secured a partial refund from Amazon under the European Sale of Goods Act. Sony has now retaliated, stating it is not going to reimburse retailers

Good times, good times. Sony received a ton of deserved flak after it announced it would remove the PlayStation 3's "Install other OS" feature, despite advertising the machine with said feature, and despite promising only a few weeks earlier not to remove the feature. iPhone and PS3 hacker George "Geohot" Hotz promised to restore the feature - and less than a week later, he delivers.

That Sony is a company known for its rather... Unfortunate stance towards DRM and copyright infringement should come as no surprise to anyone, after they more or less crippled the MiniDisc format with DRM, installed rootkits on users' machines, and started removing features from the PlayStation 3. That last one doesn't seem to end well: George Hotz, the famous iPhone hacker and the first to crack the PS3's security, has vowed to bring Linux support back to the PS3.

"One game on the Web has been accused of being little more than an elaborate scam designed to bilk gamers out of their money. The game, Evony, has an extensive Web presence that has gained a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons, and that's just the beginning of the bad press surrounding the title. Accusations of shady business practices, legal bullying, and physical intimidation surround the game; some of these claims are easy enough to parse, while others are practically impossible to figure out because the real story has become so convoluted that it's a Gordian Knot of facts."

This Sunday, Nintendo will launch its newest portable gaming gadget -- the Nintendo DSi XL. This latest version of Nintendo's best-selling DS game machine is large and in charge with not only an expanded waistline but two super-sized screens. But while the DSi XL hasn't even had a chance to sashay out of its box yet, another portable gaming gadget is already hogging its spotlight. And it's another portable gaming gadget from Nintendo. It's called the Nintendo 3DS ... and it doesn't exist yet.

"It's officially official: Valve will bring its Steam online distribution service and titles from its massive library of hit games to the Mac this April, the company confirmed Monday. The successful content-delivery service will bring Valve titles like Left 4 Dead and the upcoming Portal 2, as well as games from other publishers, to Apple computers for the first time. The move was telegraphed last week in a series of teaser posters that mashed characters from Valve games into retro Apple ads." The big thing: native! Native! No emulation! Great news for Mac fans, and hopefully, a Linux version is on the way too.