| Ex-EA COO thinks Nintendo will stop making consoles Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT  Remember back when the GameCube was trailing behind its competition, and people thought the company would go the SEGA route, focusing purely on software? Well, those pre-Wii days are back again, with respected industry chap Bing Gordon ringing the death-knell for Nintendo's hardware business. "I think Nintendo's already on track to become primarily a software company," the former EA COO told GI.biz. "We saw that with Sega back in the day; Sega made some missteps and became primarily a software company. Nintendo hasn't really made missteps, Nintendo probably has better creative talent and better leadership now than Sega did. It's got the most robust business model, the best creative talent; Miyamoto's still the best in the business. "Apple's most directly competitive with Nintendo. So far, when Miyamoto makes a perfect game, in his career he makes games worth $200 -- it's worth buying a system for. I think the handheld is going to be under a lot of pressure. I can imagine a day when Nintendo wonders -- and maybe it's generational change -- when Nintendo wonders if they ought to take some of their best games and make them apps." I think it would behoove Nintendo, and the other platform holders, to take advantage of mobile gaming in a cooperative, rather than competitive way. I don't know about almost abandoning hardware as Bing suggests, but Nintendo could make a killing if it put some quality iOS apps out there. The only thing stopping it is the thing that stops a lot of good gaming ideas ... pride.  |
| Super Motherload isn't coming to WiiWare anymore Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT |
| LIC Q1 new business premium rises by 8pc to Rs 14,451 cr Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT Country's largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has recorded a growth of 8.3 per cent in new business with premium collection of Rs 14,451 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2012.  |
| LIC to pay Rs 6.5L for "deliberately" rejecting claim Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT LIC of India has been directed by a consumer forum here to pay Rs 6.5 lakh to a widow for rejecting her insurance claim on her late husband's policy "deliberately and arbitrarily".  |
| AEGON Religare Life launches online health plan iHealth Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT Private insurer AEGON Religare Life Insurance (ARLI) today launched an online health plan iHealth targeted at the 'new age' customer, who prefers a direct and convenient process while buying any financial product.  |
| Hands On With Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT 
I spent three hours tooling around Hong Kong in Square Enix's upcoming title, Sleeping Dogs.
Players control Wei Shen, an undercover cop sent to Hong Kong in order to infiltrate a Triad organization called Sun On Yee. Shen has an in via his childhood best friend, and has no qualms about participating in gang activities. However, he is still clearly loyal to the police force, making for an engaging story dynamic. For example, while on an assignment for Sun On Yee, I become a little too rambunctious and destroy some of Hong Kong's city property (when you tell me to chase after that car, I'm going to hit all the mailboxes I need to in order to catch it). That lowers my cop score, which affects how quickly I can level up my cop abilities. The same goes for undercover assignments in the Triads. While on duty for the police, racking up Triad points is more difficult, meaning it takes longer to level up my Triad abilities. Wei Shen’s dual loyalties result in some discomforting moments. I try to play for both sides, which results in a guilty conscience. When I hit city property on Triad missions, I legitimately feel bad. When gleaning information from my trusting childhood best friend, I feel traitorous.
Sleeping Dogs employs a simple leveling and perks system that lets players choose the abilities on which they’d like to focus: cop, Triad, health, melee, or face. Face is similar to charisma, as it boosts the amount of respect NPCs give to Shen. I decide to split my focus, unlocking a strike damage bonus (a Triad perk) and a cop ability called Slim Jim, which allows me to break into cars without busting the windows or setting off the alarm.
Combat is fluid and easy to learn. In the three hours I played the game, I was given a weapon only a handful of times, so the majority of my fighting was done with fists and feet. Some of the unlockable perks seem to indicate that weapons become more accessible and useful later. The game doesn't have a tutorial, though the first few fights were slow enough that I was able to take my time in understanding combos and other fighting mechanics. I dislike button mashing, but rarely feel like I'm able to take my time and execute good combos in many fisticuff games. Sleeping Dogs gets the formula right and makes combat understandable, challenging, and well-paced.
Learning to drive is a little less forgiving. Motorcycles are hard to handle, and it just so happens that Shen's first vehicle is a bike. Going in reverse, be it in a sports car or a city bus (which I drove for a side mission), is frustratingly slow, especially in the heat of a car chase. I drove a lady's car off a dock and into the harbor so she could collect insurance on it, though, so maybe that makes up for it.
The game has a somewhat troubled past. Originally an Activision property, Sleeping Dogs (formerly True Crime 3) was picked up by Square Enix, which dropped the True Crime license. Nonetheless, despite some gameplay quirks, I found myself unwilling to turn off my Xbox and give up playing Sleeping Dogs. The game is a boatload of fun and manages to skillfully combine open world exploration and challenging combat. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the final version.  |
| Talking God of War: Ascension’s Direction With Todd Papy Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT 
How does God of War: Ascension’s new combat system work? Why did Sony decide to make a God of War prequel? Will Kratos ever explore another mythology? We pose these questions, and more, to God of War: Ascension game director, Todd Papy. Why did you guys decide to make the next God of War game a prequel?
With the way that God of War III ended, Kratos, was…um…an a**hole, to say the least. I think some people connected with him, but it was more of an, "I've been through this journey with him from the start." And he wasn't a very likable character, versus God of War 1 – he was still somewhat ruthless, but there was a side to him that you could somewhat relate to. And that was something that I wanted to get across. I felt the best way to do that was going more for a prequel. Since we already know where the character ends up do you feel like we still get that narrative arc?
I think so. The whole idea behind the story is more, “How do you undo selling your soul to the devil?” In essence, that is the question that we are answering in this story. It's something that has never been explained in any of the games. Obviously, it's not something that you go in and you're like, “Oh hey, I quit. Aries, you're a mean guy for making me kill my wife and kid. I'm no longer gonna work for you.” That, to me, is something that we should kind of explain and elaborate on a little more. We know that the Furies are the new antagonists. How do they tie into the game?
They are the bond-keepers of the oath, and we explain how they're there and why they're there, and build them up as antagonists as well. What happens right after you killed your wife and kid? What did you do? Is it that you went to a bar and you drank for a really long time? And then somebody came to you and said, “Hey, this is how you break your oath to a god?” That's what we're explaining. Where does Kratos pick up roughly six months to a year after he killed his wife and kid? What's his mental state? It's not a very pleasant one. Gameplay wise, what are the big things that you wanted to focus on with Ascension?
We had our unique selling points – we wanted to try out the multiplayer. And that was a big one. And then from there, it was looking at our systems, in particular our combat system and navigation and puzzle systems – really the pillars that we build or design our game from. What works, what doesn't work with those? For example, our climb system. We called it the freeway on the wall, or on the ceiling. To me, it didn't really fit into the environment that well. So we went more towards a point-to-point navigation system – almost similar to Assassin's Creed or Uncharted. And what’s different about combat?
So everybody loves the blades, but we tried what we called the combat grapple last game – where you could pull a guy towards you or pull yourself towards a guy – and we wanted to expand upon that. And that's really the genesis of the tether idea. Where we can throw our blade into that guy, we can drag him around, and then basically still attack other people – and then choose when you want to swing him into the combat like a wrecking ball. You also have something called world weapons in the game, where people can pick up weapons from the environment and use those. How does that work?
Basically, our grunts – those are the satyrs that you saw in the demo, the smaller satyrs – they'll have different weapons. They'll actually have five different weapons that they can use. We've showed off the short sword, we showed off the javelin, and then there's the club that we actually showed off in multiplayer. And then there are two other ones that we're not talking about just yet. And then there's Kratos' bare hands. He'll be able to punch people and kick people, so we've actually changed the way that we do controls. You can go smoothly between the world weapons system as well as the blades. Before, circle was our grab and what we called our fun button. And now, R1 is our fun button. So, we moved world weapons to circle, so you can easily change versus having to fumble between the d-pad and your face buttons. You’ve also showed off the Life Cycle power, which allows Kratos to rewind time and reset the state of certain objects. How does that work?
You get that from one of our bosses. You'll see basically what the boss does with it, which is very, very similar to the things you can do. You are able to adjust the world by taking an object from pristine to rubble or rubble to pristine. It also slows the AI down and it’s a good way to start combos. If somebody is coming at you and you're feeling surrounded then you can pop one of those off and it allows you to free yourself and get out of it and figure out how you want to get back into the fight. So for example, if you have the Elephantaur and you've got a bunch of grunts around you, you're going to maybe put the Elephantaur in stasis so he's moving around real slow and then that allows you to clear out some of the grunts or vice versa. You choose to put the grunts into the stasis moment and then you're really able to focus on that Elephantaur. How will it work on environments?
As far as levels go, you saw a very light puzzle where you can take the dock that had been wrecked and take it to completion, and once it was taken to completion there was no way for you to get up. So you'd have to life cycle it back down to a stop point – we can have as many stop points as we want, but we want to make sure that the player has clear points that they can stop at. We wanted to be sure that the players don't get frustrated. It’s more about the steps versus knowing exactly where I needed to stop it. So that's kind of the process behind why we put the stop points there and then you can see where it can be used in a puzzle. If I have an object and I'm trying to get through a wall or something like that, I can life cycle a wall and then I can push an object through and then I can life cycle back. You can see how we can build puzzles off of this one mechanic and it would feel fresh and new compared to anything that we've done before. It has been rumored for a long time that Kratos might venture off into other mythologies. Did you guys consider that this time around?
I wanted to answer the question that we started with, it was basically, let's stay in the Greek mythos. To me, if we're ever going to come out with something that goes to other mythologies or something like that, then it needs time to percolate. For example, you look at The Last of Us. The directors on that game, they didn't work on Uncharted 3. They worked on The Last of Us and probably started it pretty damn close to when they finished Uncharted 2. To create new IPs and do complete overhauls to franchises and stuff like that you need time. It’s not something like, “You have a full team, now go!” Because you are going to be burning cash and people are going to be looking at you and like "What the hell are you doing? Come on, figure stuff out!" You need that time to percolate on those ideas and really hammer it out with a skeleton crew. Do you think the God of War franchise will ever head in that direction?
I don't know. I mean, frankly, ideally after this one, yeah, we get to put it down for a while and I get to take a nice vacation (laughs), so I won't have to think about it. I think that, if anything, that's something that we need to weigh, you know? Can God of War be without Kratos or can God of War be within a different mythology? That would be something that we'd really need to sit down and think about and boil down to the essence of God of War. If we take out one of those pillars, does it make the game better or should we be doing this? 
 |
| Final Fantasy Versus XIII Not Canceled Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT 
Update: Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada took to Twitter to dispel the rumor, saying the long-developed game is still in production. He noted he had just gotten out of a meeting about Versus where he saw a fresh presentation of a city location from the game. [Source: Andriasang] ----------------------- Original Story: Announced alongside Final Fantasy XIII over six years ago, Square Enix's Final Fantasy Versus XIII has been mysterious from the start. Updates on the project have been rare, and opportunities to see the game in action even rarer. If recent a rumor is to be believed, whatever was going on with Versus XIII has resulted in its cancellation. According to anonymous sources speaking to Kotaku, the troubled development of the game has come to an end. Allegedly, the project as it was originally conceived is dead, though the effort that has already been put into the game may be integrated into another upcoming Final Fantasy. The sources also claim that Square Enix is not planning to make a formal announcement regarding the cancellation, opting instead to simply stop talking about the game and letting it fade out of people's minds. In a statement to Kotaku, Square Enix said: "We have no information on the status of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but will be sure to update you as it becomes available." Looks like we'll be hearing a lot of variations on that sentence in the months to come.  |
| FIFA 13 Loads On More Features Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT 
When FIFA series developer EA Canada announced gameplay changes to the franchise earlier this year, including more dribbling control, expanded free kick options, and aggressive off-the-ball AI attacking, fans got excited. At a recent EA Sports event, the developer also revealed additional new features for FIFA 13. The one feature that should make fans anticipate the game's fall release the most?The integration of international play into the the normal club career. For Club and Country 
Whether you chose to play the game's career as a manager or a player (EA removed player/managers this go around), the world stage awaits. Players work their way into their country's national squad through good play, while managers can sign a contract to manage one of FIFA's many international squads. Participation includes friendlies, qualifying, regional tournaments, and a global, World Cup-like tournament that occurs every four years. Either way, the road is long and not easy. You must perform your normal club duties at the same time, and you only get offers from the top-tier national teams as a manager if your club has a high prestige rating and is performing well. Players have to work their way into the permanent lineup by first proving themselves in lower-priority international callups. Managers have national side objectives based on the relative prestige of each country's team, and you can be fired or your yearly contract not renewed if the qualifying campaign is looking grim. One aspect of the international experience that is not completely replicated is your manager's relationship with the players. Although FIFA 13's club career adds more intuitive AI where players are attuned to their roles on the squad (i.e. a bench player isn't going to bellyache if he's not in the starting eleven, but he will ask to be a sub or seek playing time for non-essential games), this is absent from your national duties. As manager you can, however, pick your squad for each game from a deep pool of that country's players. Other than the addition of international duties, new career mode improvements include tweaked player and club AI during the transfer windows. Players are worth more money if they are in good form, and clubs are smarter about letting players go instead of always taking the money. Teams can lure players with a promised role based on that player's ability, and in general, players are more attuned to their place in the overall organization of the team (see above). Finally, you can present counter-offers to teams to create more of a back-and-forth feel to negotiations, and cash-plus-player transactions are allowed. | Hone Your Abilities With FIFA 13 Skill Games 
Anyone can learn how to shoot, pass, and tackle within a matter of minutes, but FIFA games also feature several advanced controls that can take years to master. Even though I’ve played the game since its debut on the Sega Genesis, to my embarrassment I’ve never learned the art of the free kick. Whenever I’m set up a few yards outside the goal box, I may as well pass the ball directly to the defender because I’m either going to sail a shot 10 feet over the crossbar or dump a poor excuse for a shot right into the goalie’s body. Developer EA Canada is aware that not everyone has mastered the subtleties of FIFA, so to surface these technical skills and give players a playground to practice, it has created a new set of skill games for FIFA 13. These 32 new challenges break down into eight disciplines: dribbling, ground passing, lob passing, crossing, shooting, advanced shooting, free kicks, and penalties. Each category has a bronze, silver, and gold test, as well as a skill challenge that creates a match scenario for you to test your abilities. For instance, the bronze level advanced shooting skill has you practicing chip shots over defenders, the silver level tests your one-timing ability, and the gold level requires you to round the keeper with a skilled dribble move before shooting. Most of the early level skill challenges are easy to execute, but I appreciated being taught the more advanced strategies. The ability to practice free kicks over and over with some light guidance gave me an immediate performance boost. Before long I was correctly curving shots over a wall of players. Practicing penalty shots also taught me that when you successfully hit the sweet spot in the shot meter, you can move your aim around the net freely before the kick is off; I had always assumed the shot would go wherever I was aiming it when I released the shoot button. When you successfully complete these challenges, your score is uploaded to a leaderboard where you can compare your skills with friends and the rest of the world. The skill games presented to you while your match loads are randomized, but the game also tracks your performance games and will present you with trials that you need to work on. If you want to spend more than just a few minutes practicing, you can also access the skill games in the main menu. –Matt Bertz |  |
| 100W Power Delivery Spec Approved For USB 2.0 And 3.0 Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT  One of the biggest pet peeves in a technology enthusiast's life is the plethora of proprietary power cables that plague the consumer market, each with a slightly different design. Can't we all just get along and charge via USB? That utopian vision took one step closer to becoming reality yesterday, as the USB 3.0/2.0 Promoter Groups announced a USB power delivery spec that makes the every-port capable of delivering up to 100W of pure power. Yep, your PC can now charge a notebook. Heck, a laptop could even theoretically charge another notebook.
"The USB Power Delivery specification enables a switchable source of power without changing cable direction," the groups' press release states. There's a slight catch; in order to deliver the full 100W, you'll need to pick up special, beefier USB Power Delivery-certified cables. The USB cords you have shoved into your junk drawer will still charge auxiliary devices, but they'll pack a less potent electrical wallop. "We believe USB Power Delivery is the next big step in the USB evolution to provide high bandwidth data and intelligent power over a simple, single, ubiquitous cable," Robert Hollingsworth, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the USB Products Group at SMSC, says in the press release. Thunderbolt lovers may disagree with that "One cord to rule them all" assessment, however; while USB 3.0 now moves a lot of juice, Thunderbolt still moves more data than its counterpart. Via The Register  |
One of the biggest pet peeves in a technology enthusiast's life is the plethora of proprietary power cables that plague the consumer market, each with a slightly different design. Can't we all just get along and charge via USB? That utopian vision took one step closer to becoming reality yesterday, as the USB 3.0/2.0 Promoter Groups announced a USB power delivery spec that makes the every-port capable of delivering up to 100W of pure power. Yep, your PC can now charge a notebook. Heck, a laptop could even theoretically charge another notebook.
Have you bought a preconfigured big-box type PC sometime in the last five years? If so, you might have been slightly screwed over. That's what the European Commission claims, at least. Today, the EC announced that it is investigating 13 optical drive suppliers and two major PC OEMs for antitrust violations as part of an alleged long-standing "worldwide cartel" that ran a "bid-rigging" scheme to get the best prices for the parties involved.
Have you noticed how cheap NAND-powered memory devices have gotten? Flash drives and SSDs aren't quite a dime a dozen these days, but they're significantly cheaper than they have been in the past. While you and I may appreciate the decline in costs, low pricing is putting the pinch on NAND manufacturers, and Toshiba is cutting its NAND production by about 30 percent to compensate. (And drive up prices, of course.)
Bob Feldstein, a name you're probably not familiar with, worked behind the scenes at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) getting the company's chips into game consoles, including securing deals to use AMD hardware in all three next-generation console devices from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. He was a pretty important figure at AMD, joining the Sunnyvale company when it acquired ATI six years ago, and now he's taking his talents to Nvidia.
Sharkoon doesn't have a ginormous presence in the U.S. market, but if the company's going to make a habit of releasing ultra-affordable peripherals for gamers, stateside customers should ready the welcome mat. To wit, Sharkoon's new 
Imagine if the windows in your home or automobile weren't just windows, but transparent solar panels collecting light energy and converting it into electricity? Such a concept could have a monumental impact on future hybrid cars, and could potentially shave your monthly electricity bill. If transparent solar cells existed, of course. Well guess what? Not only do they exist, but researchers at UCLA say they've developed a new kind of transparent solar cell that's better than anything out there.
As we approach the back-to-school shopping season, your online neighborhood Newegg store went out and commissioned a study to determine which technology devices college students are most interested in these days. Not surprisingly, the study, conducted by Wakefield Research, found that college bound students put laptops and large screen televisions high on their wish lists. What's interesting, however, is that a large number of them end up unsatisfied with their purchase.
