Samsung has announced a 102 inch plasma TV, which they say will be “affordable” to the masses within the next 3-4 years.

Mmm.. Halo 3.

Gamefly let’s you rent games via mail ala Netflix. Now they’ve always let you buy used games from their servce, but they’re currently trying to clear stock - From now until Janurary 9th they have free shipping on all used games. I’ve purchased 3 games through their service and not once have I found a disk of questionable quality.

You don’t need to be a subscriber to buy from Gamefly.

Check out their sale at their store - you can search for games on all 3 major platforms as well as all GameBoy models. Most games are in the 20 dollar range but you also narrow down with a specific price range.

I played planetside in beta for a bit, and it was fun. I found that it got old after a little bit, but it did have some hot action. Also it has a pretty solid fan base at this point. At any rate, slashdot was reporting on some guerilla marketing that was going on, and they linked this fan made movie. Check it out, its pretty awesome.

Check it out

Slashdot says, that voodooextreme says, that Interplay is being forced to liquidate.

“Voodoo Extreme is reporting that Interplay has had judicial liquidation take place. If you’ve been reading the gaming news, a lot has been going on with Interplay financially, it seems all this finally caught up to them. Interplay has formerly published very well known games like Icewind Dale, the Baldur’s Gate series, and Descent. Farewell, Interplay.”

This is a crazy interview with Hiroshi Yamauchi, the former CEO of Nintendo’ and father of their video game ventures. (scroll down the page to read the scan images) It’s a must read - insulting at times (’stupid fat Americans’), but gotta admire his gaul.

When Microsoft visited Japan in attempt to acquire Nintendo, Yamauchi-san’s boardroom reaction to Steve Balmer was, “Hey Balmer, why don’t you suck my tiny yellow balls?”

He thinks American businessmen are soft and complacent, that Americans don’t fight for anything anymore, that Sony is soulless, and that their PSP is derivative, cheap, and garbage. In many many ways he’s spot on. I love his contrast of Japanese and American business philosophy and motivation.

There’s also some bits about the history of Japanese/USA business relations during WWII, and the decades following. A great read.

-DDB

IGN has some non-scanned screenshots of Age of Empires 3. I can’t post them here because they’ve got the IGN logo on them, but click through to their site because they are INCREDIBLE. The water and textures look as good as Total annihilation did when it came out.

There’s also a Q&A session on the ign site. The first 2 AoE games spanned a to medieval timeline, this installment focuses solely on the expansionist Colonial times. Engine improvements include pixel shaders, a total revamped economic model (which scares me a bit because they’re one of the games that got it right the first time), and ragdoll physics.. yes ragdoll. Cannons will blow soldiers into the air and smack them against rocks and trees.

“Age of Empires III has more programmers working just on graphics than worked on all of Age of Kings. While gameplay still reigns supreme, it would be accurate to say that the bulk of our programming time has been spent on graphics. Everything from low-level shader architecture to higher level, applied things such as unit movement and combat have been taken to the next level. Simply put, we set out to create the best looking PC game of all time with Age of Empires III.”

Mmm. And thankfully there will be a random map generator again.

-DDB

Originally quoted from TheForce.net, it seems another RTS in the Star Wars universe is on the way. As usualy questions abound about its potential quality. Will it be a Rebellion, or a Kotor?

“This new PC game is set two years before ANH with a certain amount of cross over from Episode 3. Screen shots look superb. It appears to include ground battles set in dessert and greenland areas with attacking AT-AT’s and a new Imperial ground based vehicle called ‘TIE Crawlers’ which I’ve not seen before (cross between a tank and a TIE Fighter). The action also takes place in space with rebel fleets taking on Star Destroyers (think of the game Homeworld). Unsure when the game will be released as it is in the early phases of development.”

p.s. For the record. I really liked Rebellion. The space battles were cool

Welcome back from the holidays everyone. I hope you all had a safe and happy one. I was lucky enough to get a copy of Paper Mario from Santa, and i hope to review it at some point (when WoW is not sucking away my life).

And in the news…. Peter Molyneux is being knighted. WOW. The first to be knighted “for services to the computer games industry”. Too awesome. All hail the queen and her excellent choice.

“The veteran game maker says he has one problem still to solve.
‘Being an absolute geek I’ve got no idea what I’m going to wear when I go and pick it up,’ he said. “