via register

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the controversial Grand Theft Auto series of games may be close to settling a long running legal battle with a New York granny who attempted to sue the company after it emerged one of those games contained adult content.

This week, a Manhattan District Court judge order the case to be suspended pending the outcome of settlement negotiations between plaintiff and defendant, Reuters reports. The judge may review the stay after lawyers report on their progress on 12 March.

The action centres on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' infamous 'hot coffee' sex scenes, originally hidden from players but exposed on July 2005 by a hack posted on the net. The game had been given a US Entertainment Software Rating Board 'Mature' classification, for its violent content. Once the blue material was revealed, the ESRB quickly re-rated the title 'Adults Only', causing some major US retailers to yank the game from their shelves.

Take-Two duly withdrew GTA: SA and reissued it with the offending eye-full excised, but not before an 81-year-old grandmother from New York, Florence Cohen, took the company to court, claiming she'd been misled into buying the game for her 14-year-old grandson.

As we noted at the time, the game's portrayal of murder, robbery, drug dealing, foul language and bad driving doesn't appear to have bothered her one jot...

In June 2006, Take-Two settled a similar case brought about by a Federal Trade Commission probe into the 'hot coffee' content. ...

via register

Hardware hackers have developed a technique to hack Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming console so that it might be possible to run alternative operating systems on the hardware.

The approach, which only works given physical access to the hardware and is strictly for fun, relies on a taking advantage of a vulnerability in the Xbox 360 hypervisor. Properly exploited, the bug allows tinkerers to run arbitrary code (even an alternative OS) with full privileges and full hardware access.

The hypervisor on Xbox 360 machines controls access to memory and provides encryption and decryption services. The approach means that all games and other applications running on the Xbox 360, in theory at least, need to be cryptographically signed with Microsoft's private key and run in non-privileged read-only mode.

Unprivileged code cannot change executable code, but flaws in the way unprivileged code interacts with the hypervisor via the syscall instruction laid the groundwork to the hack.

Full details on the ingenious exploit, including proof of concept code, were published on BugTraq on Wednesday. The anonymous hackers tipped Microsoft off about the issue last month and "following cordial discussions" the software giant quickly produced a patch. The hack has been possible since since the bug was introduced in late October. ...

via kotaku

Japanese game site Eg has the the country's software sales data (via Media Crate) for the week of February 19th to February 25th. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd did better than originally thought. Way better.

1.) Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP) Capcom — 705281 (Last Week) 705281 (Total)
2). Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (PS2) Alchemist — 80002 (Last Week) 80002 (Total)
3). Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami (Wii) Nintendo — 75359 (Last Week) 75359 (Total)
4). Sim City DS (NDS) Electronic Arts — 50826 (Last Week) 50826 (Total)
5. Professor Layton and the Mysterious Town (NDS) Level 5 — 49979 (Last Week) 186716 (Total)
6). Wii Sports (Wii) Nintendo — 47053 (Last Week) 1090736 (Total)
7). Naruto Shippuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX (Wii) Takara Tomy — 45792 (Last Week) 45792 (Total)
8). Dragon Quest Monsters Joker (NDS) Square-Enix — 40507 (Last Week) 1174576 (Total)
9). Hajimete no Wii Pack (Wii) Nintendo — 35811 (Last Week) 944586 (Total)
10). Picross DS (NDS) Nintendo — 26693 (Last Week) 183357 (Total) ...

A port of Raiden IV for the Xbox 360 is apparently in alpha stage and is scheduled to be released in the US at some unspecified point in the distant future. This news comes from an interview with one of UFO Interactive's managers recently conducted by Team Fremont. (And don't forget, UFO is also bringing to the US the PS2 port of Raiden III later this month.)

This is all very surprising, especially considering that it's going to be a while before Raiden IV is even released in Japanese arcades (it's currently slated for July). Moreover, no news of a Japanese 360 port has emerged through any of the usual sources. What has me worried the most is that UFO is considering releasing this on XBLA, which could very well mean a shoddy port in unsuitable resolution and with no option for tate. On the other hand, even if this is a regular disc release it could turn out ugly. By Royal decree all Xbox 360 games have to be 720p minimum and Raiden IV is a 640x480 game -- which is not even a widescreen resolution. G.rev faced the same problem when porting Senko no Ronde, but then again their game was in yoko so things were much simpler. It will be interesting to see how this gets handled.

via insert credit ...

via gamesradar

Gamers from England have the most capacity for evil of all the world's videogame enthusiasts, according to Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, quoting statistics from a study of people who played his Xbox RPG, Fable.

The research also showed that most American gamers found it difficult to make evil choices during the game's freeform adventure, with roughly 90% of gamers in the US roleplaying as good characters.

"There was a disappointing number of people that tended towards good," Molyneux told US mag GamePro, "but it is also very interesting that the percentage of good players versus evil players varies very strongly by nationality".

For example, "the English are probably the most evil of all," but Molyneux reckons that 70% of the Americans researched played good characters, while 20% "didn't have the moral fibre to keep going down the evil path" and eventually turned to good.

Molyneux also revealed that in Fable 2 the divide between good and evil will be far bigger than before, explaining that gamers who wish to be either pure good or pure evil will be forced to make some sacrifices - and not just the bloody kind.

Although Molyneux has focused so hard on evil actions that, during a recent meeting at Lionhead, one staffer exploded that he would "never play a game" that had all the nasty things in it that Molyneux had suggested. We would, mind. ...

via gamesradar

It's hard to believe, but today is the tenth anniversary of the UK launch of Nintendo 64. Has it really been that long since we stood as teenagers in the then-new Virgin Megastore and watched in awe as some kid manoeuvred his way skillessly across a spectacular landscape in PilotWings 64? Apparently so.

Of course, as we all know, the console was eventually overrun by the PSone horde, despite N64's superior technology. Blurry graphics, a 'child's toy' image and a severe shortage of new games all contributed to its premature demise. But we, like thousands of fans across the country (and millions across the world) saw past its relative shortcomings and rejoiced at its innovation and charm.

So now we look at its legacy - the innovations that helped shape gaming as we know it today. Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses to... Nintendo 64. ...

Glu Mobile has become one of the first mobile publisher's to publicly support Nokia's new N-Gage platform.

The successor to Nokia's N-Gage will be officially unveiled at GDC next week, with a platform release expected towards the end of 2007.

"Glu Mobile is one of the driving forces in the mobile gaming industry and we're excited to be working with them to bring premium mobile game experiences to our N-Gage platform," said Gregg Sauter, director of games publishing for Nokia.

"Glu's reputation and experience in creating compelling mobile games makes them a natural fit for the N-Gage platform."

The first title due from Glu on the new format will be World Series of Poker: Texas Hold 'Em, which will allow players to take on up to eight mobile players at a time.

"We're excited to be part of Nokia's mobile gaming efforts, and are impressed with the offering that Nokia has brought together with its new N-Gage Platform," said Kristian Segerstråle, MD of EMEA at Glu Mobile.

"The combination of Nokia’s hardware and mobile platform vision and expertise along with Glu's top-rated, quality mobile games will deliver consumers a truly unique, immersive entertainment experience."

via gibiz ...

Phil Harrison's got a big announcement up his giant sleeve for next week's Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, according to Sony, which will be outlined in his keynote speech on Wednesday, 7th March, at 18:30 GMT.

"All I can say is we've said there's going to be a big announcement at GDC, and Phil's Keynote speech will form the basis of that," a spokesperson for Sony told Eurogamer this afternoon.

His talk will revolve around developing and creating games for the third age of videogames, delving into the meaning of "always on", and the opportunities presented by connected communities of players and developers.

Given that, we'd expect the "big announcement" will have something to do with the company's online strategy. However, we're open to suggestions; maybe the PSP will stick onto the PS3 and create a unique media-hub window, or perhaps there's a giraffe in the blu-ray disc drive. We're just not sure.

via eurogamer ...

Phil Harrison's got a big announcement up his giant sleeve for next week's Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, according to Sony, which will be outlined in his keynote speech on Wednesday, 7th March, at 18:30 GMT.

"All I can say is we've said there's going to be a big announcement at GDC, and Phil's Keynote speech will form the basis of that," a spokesperson for Sony told Eurogamer this afternoon.

His talk will revolve around developing and creating games for the third age of videogames, delving into the meaning of "always on", and the opportunities presented by connected communities of players and developers.

Given that, we'd expect the "big announcement" will have something to do with the company's online strategy. However, we're open to suggestions; maybe the PSP will stick onto the PS3 and create a unique media-hub window, or perhaps there's a giraffe in the blu-ray disc drive. We're just not sure.

via eurogamer ...