After what seems like an eternity of legislation limbo, PEGI age ratings for video games have become law in the UK today.
UKIE has done a great job of getting decent coverage of the achievement on the BBC this morning – all the more impressive considering the blanket reporting of the London Olympics that is currently dominating the nation’s consciousness.
The headline change is that it is now for the first time illegal to sell 12-rated video games to youngsters below that age.
But there’s more to it than that, of course. As outlined in Parliament’s Video Recordings (Labelling) Regulations 2012 legislation, games will now be classified by a single body – PEGI.
The actual rating process will be conducted by the Video Standards Council (VSC). It also means an end to BBFC ratings on the front of game cases.
Retailers who are found guilty of selling games to underage customers face a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a £5,000 fine. Those who sell titles without the necessary age-rating certificates could find themselves with a two-year jail sentence and an unlimited fine.
Trading Standard officers will, in the words of officials, “be working with all retailers over the next few months to help them manage the transition”.
“The UK has one of the most dynamic and innovative video games industries in the world, and the games they produce not only entertain millions, but can also educate and foster creativity,” culture minister Ed Vaizey stated.
“Today’s simplification of the ratings system benefits both industry and consumers and will help ensure that the millions of games sold in the UK each year are being played by the audiences they were intended for.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/pegi-...-today/0100368 ...

Streaming games service OnLive has officially launched in Belgium.
It’s the second country – after the UK – to receive an official launch for the platform.
The service is being provided by telecoms company Belgacom, which is offering its customers one month’s free subscription to OnLive PlayPack bundle. The promotion will run until September 30^th. PlayPack subscriptions will cost €9.99 a month.
“Offering OnLive cloud gaming fits perfectly with Belgacom’s strategy of convergence and its aim to enrich its entertainment and application offerings,” an unattributed quote in the press release explains.
“Belgacom wants to create a customer experience that enables the integrated use of platforms, content and devices. Belgacom is extremely well-positioned to offer the OnLive Game Service through its advanced broadband network. Its smart networks will perfectly enable Belgacom customers to play and enjoy the highest-quality gaming experience through OnLive.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/onliv...elgium/0100383 ...

It has been discovered that the Uplay system Ubisoft uses to both check a game is legal and offer up gaming achievements, multiplayer, and additional content, actually contains a rootkit. The discovery was made by Tavis Ormandy, an information security engineer at Google, when he installed Assassin's Creed: Revelations on his laptop. He noticed that during the installation Uplay installed a browser plug-in that allows any website to gain access to your machine through a backdoor and take control of it.The plug-in can be classed as a rootkit because it is thought to allow continued privileged access to a machine without a user's consent."
Update: Ubisoft has released a statement saying it has issued a forced patch to correct the flaw in the browser plug-in for the Uplay PC application.
http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/0...lude-a-rootkit
...

Sega's official Olympics tie-in London 2012: The Official Videogameis the new number one in the UK all-formats software chart.
The games-buying public appears to have been inspired by Danny Boyle's opening ceremony on Friday night, propelling Sega's game to the top of the charts - and the publisher's other tie-in, Mario & Sonic At The London 2012 Olympic Games, has also profited, rising five places to number three.
It means London 2012 ends the recent chart dominance of Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which last week became the first game this year to top the chart for five consecutive weeks.
In a quiet week for new releases, there's just one new entry in the top 40: Nintendo's DS title Pokémon Conquest debuts at number 17.
01. London 2012: The Official Videogame (Sega)~
02. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Warner Bros)
03. Mario & Sonic At The London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega)
04. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Ubisoft)
05. Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros)
06. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision)
07. The Amazing Spider-Man (Activision)
08. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)
09. FIFA 12 (EA)
10. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (Square Enix)

http://www.edge-online.com/news/lond...-tops-uk-chart ...

ModDB, the community site for user-made mods of PC games, is 10 years old.
The site, founded in 2002 by Scott Reismanis, has marked the occasion with a timeline documenting its 10-year history, during which it hosted the likes of Garry's Mod, the million-selling Source Engine mod.
Reismanis said: "Whether game creators encourage it or not, people love to tweak and change their favourite games. In the end we all win, give a modder complete creative freedom and the result is the creation of timeless classics such as Counter-Strike, Dotaand, more recently, DayZ, which millions have played."
More than 17,000 mods have been added to the site's database over the years, and it passed one hugely significant milestone just three weeks before its 10th birthday by reaching a million members. It currently sees between 2,000 and 4,000 new signups a day; if that rate is maintained ModDB will pass two million users within a year.
It's no surprise that the site continues to grow at such a rate: modders are capable of increasingly remarkable things. There's theArmA II mod, DayZ, which propelled Bohemia Interactive's ageing shooter to the top of the Steam charts. Almost 9,000 mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim have been released since the launch of the Skyrim Creation Kit in February.
There's iCEnhancer, too, the stunning Grand Theft Auto IVgraphics mod, and the recent collaboration which saw a multiplayer mode added to Avalanche's open-world action game Just Cause 2. These aren't made just for fun; modding is one of the best applications for a game industry job. Valve hired Dotamodder Icefr0g for Dota 2, and has involved modders in development of upcoming multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Back in 2008, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell said modding was "better [for] both honing your skills and demonstrating your talent to a potential employer than work experience."

http://www.edge-online.com/news/modd...moddb-turns-10 ...

[Autuin] created the most offensive video game ever. Inside a small cocktail arcade cabinet, he installed his own video game that recreates the experiences of the Space Shuttle Challenger and her crew on their last flight.The build started off by picking up an old cocktail version of Space Zap from The Hackery, a neat little recycling place that turns old computers, monitors, and even old arcade machines into something useful again. After [Autuin] lugged his arcade machine back to his home base at Free Geek Vancouver.After drooling over the 30-year-old circuitry, [Autuin] disassembled the old machine and installed a mint condition 19″ VGA monitor where an ancient black and white CRT once resided. The control panels replete with their comically large buttons were refurbished and connected to an Arduino and the whole shebang hooked up to a slightly outdated computer.The real magic happened when [Autuin] coded his game. He created a few sprites from NASA archival footage and made a game where a shuttle takes off and is controllable by each player. As the most offensive video game ever, the space shuttle blows up shortly after launch, declaring ‘game over’ for both players.[Autuin] will be showing off his new arcade game with a new bezel and cabinet graphics during Vancouver’s Eastside Culture Crawl this November. The game will probably be updated by then; we suggested editing the ‘time to explosion’ to T+73 seconds, but [Autuin] said he’s thinking of ways to make it even more awful.

http://hackaday.com/2012/07/29/build...deo-game-ever/ ...

Instead of rock-hard bubble gum that loses its flavor after 2 minutes, this gumball machine delivers apps and games directly to your smartphone.
The communications protocol used by this app-delivering gumball machine isn’t bluetooth or WiFi but near field communication. This protocol allows for a point-to-point network between the app dispenser and a phone to deliver games, music, videos, and ebooks to any compatible portable device.
The hardware for the gumball machine is a Galaxy Tab, an Adafruit NFC shield, two Arduinos, and a few switches and other components stuffed into an old gumball machine. To get purchase an app, just put a quarter or two in the machine, turn the crank, and put your phone up against the dispenser. Through the magic of near field communications, you phone or tablet receives whatever media you purchased.
Near field communication has been a standard for a while, but hasn’t been available in most phones. With oracles of Apple speculating the upcoming iPhone will have NFC capability other phone manufacturers are sure to pick up the tech. Very cool project, and we can’t wait to see some truly home-brew versions of this build.

http://hackaday.com/2012/07/30/gumba...to-your-phone/ ...

Next-gen console to feature Intel CPU, Nvidia GPU and 8gb memory, says source of leak

The leaked Xbox 720 Durango development kit that went on sale for $10,000 was a real piece of hardware from Microsoft, according to a report.
‘Reliable’ sources working on next-gen triple-A projects have told Digital Foundry that the leaked pictures were in fact genuine.

The source of the leak claimed that the current devkits were released to developers in February, and feature Intel CPUs and Nvidia graphics cards.
He also alleged that the kit includes 8gb of memory, although other sources suggested it was 12gb in total.
The report states however that devkits often featured double the amount of RAM to accommodate debugging tools.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...aim-developers
...

Consumers should look at the other features the console has to offer such as its tablet controller, says Tekken director

Developers and consumers are focusing too much on the Wii U's hardware specifications rather than its other capabilities, claims the director of the Tekken series.
Speaking to Dusty Cartridge, Katsuhiro Harada said people had been too busy comparing Nintendo's next-gen console to other systems rather than looking at how to take advantage of its unique controls.

He added that the Wii U was able to comfortably handle Namco Bandai’s “graphically intensive” upcoming fighting game Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
“While developing Tag 2, since it’s very graphic intensive because of the multiple characters on screen, there was still some power left over for graphic capabilities so the graphics chips seems to be pretty decent,” said Harada.
“But to be honest, that’s not really even relevant because people seem to be focusing too much comparing the raw specs to other hardware. You really have to be looking at the capabilities and what features it has.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...e-Wii-Us-specs
...