If you've been thinking of changing your Xbox Live Gamertag now is the time to do it.

The latest XBL deal of the week offer enables Gold subscription members to alter their online handle for 560 Microsoft Points (about £4.80), representing a 30 percent saving on the regular price.

You can change it via the Gamertag option in the My Xbox section of the console's dashboard. There's no need to tell your friends either as their friends list will automatically update with your new name.

Microsoft told CVG last week that Xbox Live's last 12 months were its biggest ever in terms of recruiting new members to the service.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...your-gamertag/ ...

EA Sports boss Peter Moore has said good old-fashioned retail remains "a very strong partner" despite today's announcement of an EA Sports 'Season Ticket' subscription service which heavily focuses on digitally distributed content.

Launching today for PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America, and for Xbox 360 only in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, it offers subscribers early digital access to full games, 20 percent off DLC, free premium web content and other features for $24.99 / 2000 MS Points (about £17.30) a year.

It could be seen as the first major step away from retail distribution methods for EA, but Moore insists retail remains important to EA Sports.

"With regards to our ability to look at this as a full service... we still see retail as a very strong partner here," said Moore in chat with Industry Gamers. "There are still millions of people who go through the doors of the GameStops of this world every single day and they're the core consumer we're looking at."

He went on: "But we're going to learn a lot in the next 12 months. This is about understanding what the consumer likes, understanding the price points so we can do some price elasticity testing on this and making sure what we're delivering is what the consumer wants... we'll see how we evolve this program in the coming years."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...trong-partner/ ...

If you play multiple games via Valve's Steam service, you'll have probably noticed it repeatedly installing what would appear to be the same version of DirectX over and over again. Annoying, right? Blame Microsoft.

Valve has pointed the finger in a lengthy explanation of why Steam is required to perform these repeated installs, pissing off PC users obsessed with running a streamlined OS in the processes.

"There are over 40 different versions of the D3DX library for D3D9 alone, and many more for D3D10 and 11 as well. Each game that uses the D3DX helper library is linked to a specific version," said Valve (thanks Destructoid).

"We can't stop, it's required due to a bad versioning/packaging scheme as well as bad redistribution licensing terms on the D3DX libraries," they added, but said there are small changes Steam can make to improve the situation.

"Steam could be smart enough to know if an exactly matching version of the dx installer is already downloaded and share that content so you don't download it with each game," they said, but went on to admit that "any improvement to avoid duplicates isn't an immediate priority, but we may be able to improve it slightly in the future".

Here's the full statement for those of you who want the nitty gritty details:

"Running [the DX installer] is not a matter of making sure your overall DirectX install being up-to-date. Microsoft has a helper library with D3D called D3DX. You'll find binaries for this like d3dx9_43.dll in your Windows\system32 folder. There are over 40 different versions of the D3DX library for D3D9 alone, and many more for D3D10 and 11 as well. Each game that uses the D3DX helper library is linked to a specific version. As such the game must run the correct D3D installer version that it was specifically compiled with to ensure the binaries exist. Even if a later version of the binary is already installed, that version cannot be used, and even if your DirectX install is up-to-date because you've run a more recent version of the installer that is not guaranteed to have installed all previous versions. Even worse, if a version is installed for x86 it doesn't guarantee the same version is installed for x64, so 64 bit and 32 bit games may need to run the same exact installer version but targeting different platforms when run.

"Furthermore, Microsoft's licensing terms prevent anyone from distributing the files directly, the only way to distribute them is to run the installer, that's also the only supported method from Microsoft to check that the correct version installed. Trying to manually check for the correct versions is extremely complicated because there are numerous files that must all be present and individual system configuration options like dll search paths complicate the situation.

"In addition, the dependencies and required checks may change in each new version of the D3DX runtime. The code to check correctly and repair broken installs all exists in the installer and running it is a guarantee that the correct binaries will exist when you run the game and prevents lots of bad cases where a game would fail to launch with an obscure error if a windows install was either missing the correct version or somehow corrupted in the past.

"Games which don't use the D3DX helpers (such as Source engine games) don't require running the annoying installer on first launch as they only depend on major d3d9/10/11 versions being installed. However, games that do use D3DX must run it as it's the only way Microsoft has allowed for distributing and checking the version info on the files.

"So that's why we do it for lots of game installs. We can't stop, it's required due to a bad versioning/packaging scheme as well as bad redistribution licensing terms on the D3DX libraries.

"The one thing that could be made better on our side is that Steam could be smart enough to know if an exactly matching version of the dx installer is already downloaded and share that content so you don't download it with each game. Since the installer is relatively small compared to most game installs that wouldn't be a huge win though and requires a good deal of new complexity for partners in how they package up their games and manage installation dependencies.

"You'd also still end up with lots of different versions of the installer, since as discussed above they are often targeting different D3DX versions and as such are all required. As such any improvement to avoid duplicates isn't an immediate priority, but we may be able to improve it slightly in the future."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...t-dx-installs/ ...

"At the end of July 2011, Microsoft can say that Windows XP finally fell below the 50 percent mark. In other words, Redmond's decade-old operating system is now used by less than half of all Internet users."

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08...Falls-Below-50 ...

A small Australian software company — backed by almost AUD$2 million in government assistance — is claiming they've developed a new technology which is '100,000 times better' for computer game graphics. It's not clear what exactly is getting multiplied, but they apparently 'make everything out of tiny little atoms instead of flat panels.' They've posted a video to YouTube which shows their new tech, which is apparently running at 20 FPS in software. It's (very) light on the technical details, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but they say an SDK is due in a few months — so stay tuned for more."
John Carmack had this to say about the company's claims: "No chance of a game on current gen systems, but maybe several years from now. Production issues will be challenging."

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/0...0-Times-Better ...

An article at Ars goes through some of the biggest sins game publishers commit when porting a console game to the PC. At the top of the list, predictably, are annoying DRM and inconvenient game settings. From the article: 'PC gamers like to play with their mouse settings, adjust the amount of detail in the characters or environment, and change the audio mix between the music and the sound effects. We want to adjust the resolution, the aspect ratio, and even the field of view settings. The more options given to PC gamers, the better. While some engines support more options than others, there is a minimum amount of tweaking that should be available when we jump into the game. For an example of how badly PC gamers can get screwed on this issue, we can take a look at Bulletstorm when it was launched. Not only was mouse smoothing turned on as a default, but there was no way to turn it off. You had to find the configuration files, which were encrypted for some insane reason, and then install a third-party program to be able to turn off mouse smoothing and get the game feeling like it should on the PC."

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/0...-Games-PC-Port ...

Action role-playing game The Lord of the Rings: War in the North will be released in November, Warner Bros. has announced.

This bloody, limb-loosing game takes a trio of adventures - human, dwarf, elf - on an adventure parallel to that made famous by Tolkein's book and Peter Jackson's films.

You'll head north to the snowy lands of Gunabad and face the forces of arch-villain Agandur, Sauron's "crulest ally", according to the LOTR: War in the North website.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance dev Snowblind is at the helm, crafting a loot-happy action-RPG that relies heaviliy on co-op, either with AI bots, friends in the same room or friends online.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North was announced in March 2010, and so appears to have had a healthy amount of development time.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...h-release-date ...

Update: EA Sports has explained to Eurogamer why the EA Sports Season Ticket is only available on Xbox 360 in Europe.

"While we have not reached an agreement for the program with Sony Europe," EA said, "we're pleased to be able to offer EA Sports Season Ticket for both PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America and Xbox 360 in Europe."

Original story: The vision EA Sports vice president Andrew Wilson presented to Eurogamer of a paid subscription service has come true - EA Sports Season Ticket has launched.

For an annual fee of $24.99 or 2000 Microsoft Points, you'll get early access to EA Sports games, discounted DLC, premium web content and membership recognition.

You can subscribe through Xbox Live today. EA Sports Season Ticket is available on PS3 in North America only.

On Xbox 360, download and launch the EA Sports application and "follow the prompts" to take part. On PS3, search for EA Sports Season Ticket. The first EA game to support the Season Ticket will be Madden NFL 12, which launches this month.

Future Season Ticket games include FIFA, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL Hockey and NCAA Football.

Season Ticket holders get access to EA Sports games three days before release via digital distribution. Once the game hits shop shelves, the digital version will disappear and you'll have to go to a shop and buy the title. All your Achievements and Trophies carry over, and you'll have had a crucial head start on the competition.

The small print: "Digital download is available at 6pm EST four days before launch to ensure subscribers get a full three days to play following the download time. The digital version will time out when the product is available at retail."

All DLC will be knocked down 20 per cent for Season Ticket holders.

All EA Sports games will pack 'premium web content' that Season Ticket holders get for free. This will begin with the Creation Center packs for FIFA 12. These offer better customisation tools with which to build teams and tournaments.

Season Ticket holders will also stand out by brandishing a special and exclusive badge on EA Sports profiles and in game.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ption-launches ...

You could use PlayStation Vita as a controller for PS3 games, Sony has revealed.

This Wii U-like capability was explained by Sony Europe R&D manager Phil Rogers at the Develop Conference 2011.

"What could you do with all of this?" Rogers asked a room of developers and Eurogamer. "Here's a few boring technical ideas: you could drive a display from a PS3 game, for example.

"PS3 can send data down to Vita and Vita can display it. You could use the unique features [of Vita] - gyroscope, touch front and back - as a control device for a PS3 game.

"You can run software on both devices and use the network to sync the game states. And that's pretty good, because you then have the processing power of PS3 doing that work, Vita [doing] fancy graphics - however you want to do it. You're not sacrificing the PS3's CPU to be able to have a rich experience on Vita."

Rogers said this was "a fairly new idea", and encouraged developers to talk to Sony if they have any ideas for it. "Most of the time we'll be OK with it," he said.

Another thing Vita can do is cross-platform play. This was demonstrated with WipEout 2048 on Vita talking to a bespoke compatible build of WipEout HD on PS3. The two games connected via PSN and, after a lengthy wait for the Vita version to load, worked together seamlessly. The PS3 version had a visibly higher frame-rate and was the better looking of the two games, although the difference at a glance was minimal.

Rogers mentioned that pool game Hustle Kings will also support cross-platform play. He also confirmed Vita Remote Play support for platform launch, whenever that will be.

"At launch we're going to have some PSN features that work across both platforms."
Phil Rogers, manager, Sony Europe R&D
"At launch we're going to have some PSN features that work across both platforms," said Rogers. "You could access data on each side and access scoreboards, for example. We're building on that.

"Obviously we had to bring certain things on and make sure that servers work against all the features and it doesn't break the PS3 experience, because there's a lot of PS3 users.

"For launch we'll also have Remote Play, which does look good on Vita - I saw an early version of it running recently."

Remote Play allows the Vita to receive encoded video output in real-time from PS3.

One of the more ambitious and alluring PS Vita capabilities is called Continuation Play. This allows a PS3 game to be played and then taken on the move on PS Vita.

"We have a system called Title User Storage, which allows 1MB of data on our servers for games," explained Rogers. "And that can be accessed on both platforms; you can access that same data.

"You can save your game on PS3, go over to Vita, pull that data back and swap it between them, so you can play a game at home, take it on the train and continue."

"You can save your game on PS3, go over to Vita, pull that data back and ... take it on the train and continue."
Phil Rogers
Rogers said Ruin, a Diablo-like action RPG, was the only announced PS Vita game that currently uses Continuation Play. "But there's probably a few that we've seen via the support site that we can't talk about," he teased.

"The feature is there," he added. "We've told developers that you can use Title User Storage to push the game data across."

The connection between PS Vita and PS3 will be handled via Wi-Fi and through the PlayStation Network.

"The important thing to note, and people always forget this, is that the Network exists; you don't need fancy cables, you don't need to have that there," said Rogers. "You're connected over an access point; send IP to each other - it just works.

"We did support USB, but [there's] not really much more point for that - wireless is fairly decent."

Further down the line, Rogers said developers will be able to retroactively patch-in support for Vita in existing PS3 games.

He also said Sony was making a concerted effort to encourage developers to use these new ideas arriving with PlayStation Vita.

"There's a push from our third-party team for encouraging licensees to be having those features [cross-platform, continuation play] in game," he said.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ps3-controller ...