Video Game News

Compelling game concepts

Game Matters on the elements that make up a good game idea:

http://dukenukem.typepad.com/game_matters/2004/08/the_strange_att.html

Regulation of violent games

GamerDad has an article on video game violence and attempts by government to regulate the game industry:

http://www.gamerdad.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=955&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Console price cuts and publisher consolidation

IDG Analysts and industry execs are looking for more price cuts, plus mergers among the big publishing houses:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=industryNews&storyID=5997759

Tech Report benchmarks Doom 3

Tech Report has benchmarks of Doom 3 running on a long list of recent video cards:

http://techreport.com/etc/2004q3/doom3/index.x?pg=1

Playstation 3 to use Blu-Ray

Sony has announced that the PS3 will use Blu-Ray high-density optical discs:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/08/04/news_6104095.html

Atari announces Neverwinter Nights 2

Atari has announced a sequel to the well-known RPG:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040804/45442_1.html

Game sales decline

NPD has released some new game industry sales figures:

http://news.com.com/Study%3A+Game+industry+sales+slip/2100-1043_3-5280059.html?tag=nefd.hed

Sales during the first two quarters declined from $3.5 billion last year to $3.4 billion this year. Maybe the Bush economic boom isn't helping the game industry as much as it is the rest of the economy?

Stardock announces totalgaming.net subscription service

Stardock Entertainment has announced a new PC game subscription service:

http://www.stardock.com/newsitem.asp?id=644

They're apparently accepting game submissions from independent game developers, although the details seem a bit unclear.

Doom 3 benchmarks

HardOCP has benchmarks for recent high-end cards with Doom 3:

http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQy

Sadly, there are no benchmarks included to give us an idea as to how badly Doom 3 performs on more mainstream hardware.

LinuxDevCenter on Stratagus

LinuxDevCenter has a good article on the Stratagus open source 2D RTS engine:

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/07/15/stratagus.html

The SourceForge project page for Stratagus is here:

http://stratagus.sourceforge.net/

Now for the bad news: According to the project page, this is GPL'd software, so this won't be useful for many of you. However, those of you willing to deal with the terms of the GPL may find this a good base for real time strategy games.

Doom 3 web site opens

The Doom 3 web site no longer just shows a "coming soon" message:

http://www.doom3.com/

The site's not exactly well-designed, but there are screenshots and a trailer.

Half Life 2 source code theft detailed

The Guardian has more details on the theft of the Half Life 2 source code:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1260989,00.html

Valve took an unconventional approach to catching the hackers...

Judge strikes down violent video game ban

A Washington state law attempting to ban violent video games has been struck down:

http://news.com.com/Judge+strikes+down+violent-game+law/2100-1043_3-5272512.html

This is the latest of several attempts by various state and local governments to argue that video games are not subject to the same First Amendment protections as books, television, or movies.

Ballmer: "I bet we can take Sony"

Steve Ballmer of Microsoft did an interview with CNET in which he predicted that in the next generation, the XBox can take Sony's Playstation:

http://news.com.com/Ballmer%3A+Xbox+%27can+take+Sony%27/2008-1082_3-5268571.html?tag=nefd.pop

Update Your Past Submissions

There are lots of games in the database now, particularly in the indie section. If you've submitted a game in the past, please consider looking at the database entry and adding or updating the information to make sure it's complete and correct.