G-News

One of the latest mods featured on the Oblivion Files features a tribute to Metal Gear Solid IV. AlexScorpion’s Adamantium Battlesuit is the featured armor pictured above. Yes it’s inspired by Raiden’s armor in MGS4, as it confirms in the description. By the way for the Bethesda Blog Devs that spotted it; this is a cool mod but your conclusion on the inspiration for the piece was a bit off. Wolverine’s adamantium skeletal makeup and claws are internal, not body armor. You were closer with your first guess of MGS2.

Other featured mods are the “featured home” mod from newcomer Arron_Dominion who contributed the Solsthiem Abandoned Shack and the “featured spell” from Trollf is Unnatural Aura. This spell mod contains two new spells, Unnatural Aura and Unnatural Perception. They aren’t strictly useful, but they are sweet:

“There’s the ‘Unnatural Aura’ Spell, which lets you put several different effects(Shaders) on your character, from the fog that comes off a Zombie, to the electricity from a shock spell, to the eerie glow of a ghost. The second spell, ‘Unnatural Perception’ allows to to put these same effects on Non Player Characters and creatures.”

fourtwozero of the IW forums writes:

“Hey Guys –

Well I’m back from GDC, sorry for the lack of direct updates from me last week as my internet access was limited while in San Francisco. I did want to let you guys know however that the PS3 Feature Patch for Worldwide users (except for Japan and Korea) is starting it’s certification process.

It finished up internal QA at Activision today and is making it’s way to Sony so I probably won’t make the official “Hooray we’re in cert on PS3″ post till tomorrow but I wanted to let you guys know that it’s on it’s way there. The great news is that both the US and Worldwide versions of the patch are going to cert at the same time so no one should be left waiting while the others are going through cert.

This patch includes all the new features we’ve talked about such as Quick Mute, Additional Kill Cams, Recently Met Players, Sniper Rifle Improvement, Acog Scope Improvement, more Spawn Points, general connectivity optimization, etc.”

The Riverside Safer Neighborhoods team of London’s Metropolitan Police has begun testing a new initiative in Southwark called Project Gamerz, which aims to encourage youth involvement in community through video games and interactive entertainment.

Project Gamerz intends to build a social network that encourages people age 11 to 18 who live or attend school in the Riverside Ward of Rotherhithe to connect with their local community.

CVG reports that HMV has cancelled pre-orders for Sony’s Play TV after apparently being informed by its “supplier” that the product “no longer has a scheduled release date”.

Customers were able to pre-order Play TV - a digital TV receiver and recorder for PS3 - for £99.99, dated for a March 28 release.

Those orders, however, have now been cancelled, with email notifications going out to customers. Unfortunately we have been informed by our supplier that this title no longer has a scheduled release date,” reads HMV’s notice.

PEGI is “just a tick-box system”, public “is confused by symbols”, it says.

The British Board of Film Classification has hit back at suggestions that it doesn’t provide a more effective ratings system than the Pan European Game Information version, as suggested by Microsoft’s UK head of corporate affairs Matt Lambert, at a CMS Select Committee hearing yesterday.

So gamers thought the feather stylus that came with Zelda for the DS was sweet, Loot Ninja calls shenanigans and presents the Dragon Sword Stylus! Thats right if you pre-order your copy of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword from GamStop you get this stylus.

Ubisoft Entertainment may speed up its expansion plans as a result of the bid by Electronic Arts for Take Two Interactive Software but is targeting the purchase of new licences for games rather than a major takeover, Yves Guillemot, chairman of the French video games maker, told Les Echos.

‘The desire of EA to buy Take Two pushes us to go faster, to accelerate internal growth but also to look at acquisition opportunities,’ the business daily quoted him as saying.

Tuesday afternoon four well-known games industry writers and designers got together to discuss the best storytelling gaming has to offer in a panel entitled “Stories Best Played: Deconstructing the Best Interactive Storytelling.” Each of the authors brought a pair of games that they viewed as some of the narratively strongest yet made.

Prior to the panel all four men played the ten titles, and came prepared to talk about the strengths and merits of each. Panelists Richard Rouse (Paranoid Productions), Steve Meretzky (Blue Fang), Marc Laidlaw (Valve Software), and Ken Rolston (Big Huge Games) offered up, in essence, a top ten list for gamers looking to get more from exposition than explosions.

The Home Office has released its extensive review into the issues and effects of violence in society with its Violent Crime Action Plan, and while it references the possible effects of violent videogames, according to ELSPA it represents a shift in attitude towards the subject.

The report states in its New Challenges section that: “There are concerns that the way in which violence can be presented in popular culture, for example in music, television, films, videos, computer games and on the internet, may attribute towards a general atmosphere in which violence is tolerated and even glorified.

Over at InvestorTV there’s an extremely eye-opening talk with some of Australia’s most prominent game developers. Included in the all-local mix are Tony Hilliam, CEO of Auran; Tom Crago, CEO of Tantalus and Krome Studios’ CEO Robert Walsh. While Hilliam gets stuck explaining the downfall of Auran, Tom and Robert go over the positives of games development in Oz.