Reading this little tidbit on the Movies made me feel - well - glad I’m a gamer and also a movie hound. Fame and fotune wihout a reality TV show? Wild.

“Remember how we used to think The Sims was interactive online? You could post your slide show stories and houses andwhatnot? Well, Peter Molyneux, in all his Gaming God glory, has decided add a bit more depth to his upcoming game, TheMovies. In fact, it is something that can only exponentially increase the game’s addiction. The Movies Online will be aspecial site on the web where every player will have his or her own page. Each “studio page” (as you are playing someentity representing a movie studio in the game) will feature areas for you to upload your films, which can then berated and commented on by visitors to the site. As your reputation increases (higher ratings), you earn more virtualcredit online to download new content for your game – so the intent is on actually making films that people will enjoy.Also expect to see “a host of competitions, Awards Ceremonies,” and more.”

A Joystiq - www.joystiq.com

Today MSFT released the priceing plans for Xbox Live on the 360. the “gold” package will allow users the following for $70.00 1yr subscription.
Xbox Live Gold level

Paid level of service
All the features of Silver level, and additionally:
o Play multiplayer games online
o Video chat
o Multiplayer online tournaments
o Participate in Xbox Live online programming, such as Game with Fame, Play and Win, and Prime Time activities

If you buy an Xbox 360 and stick with the silver lvl your xbox will tech. be online but you CAN NOT PLAY MULTIPLAYER, unless you shell out the 70.00 for “gold”

Xbox Live Silver level

Create an online Gamer Profile
Access the Xbox Live Marketplace
Engage in voice and text messaging
Talk to a single friend at a time using voice chat
Receive video messages from Gold level members
Access massively multiplayer online games (additional fees may apply)

So what this means if if you can find an xbox 360 not in a bundle you will need to shell out $470.00 total including online play.
however presently EBgames and Gamestop are charging 700.00 for the Xbox 360, 4 games (no choice). So if anyone out there is getting an xbox 360 @ launch be prepaired to shell out 808.50 (with MA sales tax).
Good times………sigh

Under the title of Interesting, I submit to you a device that records A/V directly to your PSP memory stick.

This beauty which I saw on BoingBoing seems like an interesing offshoot for the PSP world. And.. its only $129. Nifty.

I dont have the perfect link for you, and I’m sorry for that, but if you listen to the pcgamer podcast they mention how recently people inside of Star Wars Galaxies staged protests after the release of a big patch that altered the combat system.

These protests basically had hundreds of players gethering outside of the spaceports (where newbies enter the game) and yelling their objections constantly. Sony, the maker of Starwars Galaxies, didn’t like this as it was immediately putting new users into a bad situation (hearing that the game is bad).

The amazing thing is… it worked. Sony reverted the patch. Online protesting in a virtual world actually worked.

Galaxies’ Mass Gathering Policy

If you find any links to this story.. post them in comments.

pcgamerpodcast.com

PC Gamer is making a move to become more net-aware. It’s about freakin time, honestly - I could see how the monthly magazines are fighting a losing battle against the the free daily gaming websites.

Their first episode contains a Q&A session with Chris Taylor ( Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege, and the upcoming Supreme Commander that I gushed about last month ). There’s also some misguided commentary about China’s MMORPG mandate — the PC Gamer podcast crew is more up in arms about the mechanism that’ll limit your characters abilities will after 3 hours than the mandate itself. They’d rather the game just kick you — but seriously, do we really need to debate THAT? Give dorks some air-time…

Anyway - to sum up: this podcast itself is well run, the voices are clear, distinguishable, and nobody sounds like a stoner speaking into a Mic. Some of the gaming commentary seemed ‘meh’. The Q&A session was entertaining and full of good-stuff, and I’m sure PC Gamer will continue host industry bigwigs in future episodes. They certainly have enough pull as the top industry magazine

Man. The game industry is reaching a point where its near impossible to keep on top of, even for an obsessive gamer like me.

This morning I found GameMusic.com while searching for free downloads of the Katamari Damacy Soundtrack. This site has something unexpected. There’s a complete Top 40 list with weekly streaks and records (the Katamary Soundtrack has been in the top 40 for 33 weeks ). Soundtracks are for sale by the major publishers and there are VG cover bands selling their CDs, too. It’s a one stop VG music shop.

I would have totally laughed at this idea a year ago, but recent titles have gone through great lengths to produce good VG music. I don’t think I could sit with a beer and enjoy Mario level 1-2, but it could be fun to get into “Nananan Katamari” on a long car ride. The “We Love Katamari” sound track is already up on that site, too (The game just went Gold).

This site has serious long-term growth potential.

Jeffrey Anderson, chief executive of game publisher Turbine, told gamers that the company would be shutting down Asheron’s Call 2, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and sequel to Asheron’s Call, which remains up and running.

“In spite of our hard work and the launch of Legions, AC2 has reached the point where it no longer makes sense to continue the service,” Anderson wrote. “We will be officially closing the Asheron’s Call 2 service on 12/30/05. Until then, we plan to run live events, but we will not be adding any content or features. We deeply appreciate the many dedicated fans of AC2 who have stood by us over the years. You have our sincerest gratitude.”

More at: Sci Fi Wire

http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/stellapsp.shtml

An atari 2600 emulator has hit the web. And you can have it on your PSP, just so long as you delay getting the 2.0 firmware update.

When will Sony learn to embrace the emulation and hacking!!

Firing Squad has a great AO3 preview full of honest-to-goodness opinions! *gasp* It’s not a one of those heartless feature-lists that most gaming sites call ‘previews’ (Yeah Gamespot, I’m looking at you).

According to the hands-on report the game incorporates other recent RTS game play advances (such as the streamlined resource gathering of Rise of Nations) plus has a few cool innovations of its own. There’s a new 5-unit group queuing system that could prove interesting, and there’s the new Home City feature which is almost old news at this point. Firing Squad also reports the game attains an equivalent level of atmospheric polish that Blizzard can produce. That’s definitely saying something.

A blurb from the preview:

The way units organize themselves is noteworthy. No longer is the player fiddling with jumbles of anti-archer, anti-cavalry, anti-infantry and anti-anti-x units in various groups. Rather, the AI manages to arrange them all in a certain order if you group them. It won’t necessarily fight them against what they’re best matched against, but creating a super-group of multiple unit types arranges them in a logical fashion; cavalry up front, infantry in the middle and ranged units in the rear.

Age of Empires 3 is slated for an October release.

Shacknews has word on China’s new mandate for limiting Online Game playtime.

The system will progressively lower a character’s statistics and abilities the longer the player stays online past a three-hour mark. China’s General Administration of Press and Publication has defined playing online games for under three consecutive hours as “healthy,” for three to five hours as “tiring,” and for more than five as “unhealthy.” After three hours, a character’s level is cut in half and drop rates for items is decreased, and after five hours the character’s level is reset to the minimum. The character will not return to normal until the player has signed out for five hours.

The major MMORPGs will adopt to this system. To all you Chinese gamers out there: Good luck with your 3-hour maximum raids into Molten Core. Expect Gold prices to go up!