OnLive Gaming Service Launches - Offers One Year Free Subscription

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The OnLive, online gaming service has finally made its official debut. The service has been in beta and available for a select number of users since September 2009, and has now officially begun activating new accounts to the general public. As an incentive to gage interest and increase subscriber numbers, gamers who sign up between now and July 15th will receive one free year of service, after which the cost will be $4.95 per month.Beta testers will receive the same subscription offer with a free game thrown in as a bonus. Before any of you start getting excited over the thought of one year of free gaming, this one year offer is only for the monthly subscription but does NOT include the cost of games which will range from $5 to $55. The titles include Assassin’s Creed 2, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Mass Effect 2, NBA 2K10, DiRT 2, and more. If you are still interested in the service and you have an Intel Mac or Windows PC with a broadband Internet connection, then head on over to OnLive and sign up for the free trial. If you do, let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!

PlayStation Move Announced At The GDC

Sony officially announced the PlayStation Move motion controller at GDC 2010. The company refers to their new product as the "next generation of motion gaming" because of its precision. The latency is about the same as the DualShock 3. The device uses the PlayStation Eye camera to track the controller's location and movement. Sony refers to the controller as an "extension of your body." The goal sought out by Sony is to engage casual gamers with the new PlayStation Move but also to create "new experiences for core gamers." Many of the demos shown at the GDC involved a controller video in each hand with demos of action and RPG games. Much like the Wii controller, there is going to be a secondary "subcontroller" with an analog stick for shooters.

There are currently 3 ways Sony plans on selling the Move. The first being a PS3 bundle which will include the controller, the second being a standalone version of the controller, and the third being a starter kit which is aimed to be sold "under $100," which will include the PS Eye, a controller, and a bundle of games. Sony mentioned that they are treating the launch of the Move much like a major console launch, so we can all plan on seeing the Move everywhere when it launches around the holidays later this year.

Check out the videos below:

Personally, I think Sony is headed in the right way. Depending on how Sony manages to implement their PlayStation Move for their hardcore gamers, the Move could be a big hit. I think its safe to say that people play the Wii for the silly / casual games and/or the Nintendo franchise games (aka Mario, Zelda, etc) but for all the hardcore gamers, they turn to the PS3, The Xbox 360, or the PC. If Sony manages to implement precision and a twist for hardcore gamers to keep going at it on their console, the Move could be a huge success. What do you guys think?

Will iPad's Rich Gaming Platform Out Sell iPhone?

The iPhone and iPodTouch have been awesome for gaming, being an iPhone user and a gaming junkie myself, having a larger screen would be awesome. According to an article published on the Silicon Alley Insider, the iPad would be great for third party gaming app developers to offer an even richer gaming experience for their users.

This could be just the beginning of Apple as a gaming platform manufacturer. With a larger screen the iPad would offer a more visible experience to gamers, it also includes extra pixels and additional controls which were not available on the iPhone OS games could give users a chance for a whole new and exciting gaming experience.

The most vital enhancement done to the iPad gaming platform, is most likely the additional multi-touch input sensors available on the device. The iPad has nearly 11 simulataneous multi-touch inputs, which can provide a gaming experience that is way better and richer than what users are use too with the iPhone or iPod touch.

The dominance that the iPad platform has over its iPhone OS predecessors is also Apple's greatest challenge. Although app developers see great potential in the iPad they won’t know the full extent of it until iPad games are developed.

This won’t happen not until the iPad matches the iPhone in terms of number of devices sold. This will become plausible when the iPad goes on sale on April 3. If the hype about this iPad is all what is seems to be then the success of the device is just a matter of availability.

In the mean time check out the video display of iPad's gaming experience from one of our sources -

PQ Labs Shows off Warcraft III On iTable [Video]

There's some exciting news for Warcraft III fan, this year at the CeBIT PQ Labs displayed their latest version of the iTable, by installing a screen to a coffee table this version can register up to 32 touch points and can determine the shape of the object being placed on the screen.

iTable is very slim and has portable Multi-Touch system 80-200 times larger than the size of the iPhone touch screen. It can sit there as a table or be tilted as a drafting panel. Multiple users can use multiple fingers to directly interact with the iTable for entertainment, gaming, business presentation and window shopping.

But what had everyone amazed was the installation of the game Warcraft III, this might be the true future of touchscreen interface.

League of Legends – New Content Incoming!

For those of you who don’t know what League of Legends is, consider it a free to play and free to download version of DoTA (WarCraft III’s popular custom game, Defense of The Ancients.) Developed by a California based company from scratch (Riot Games), League of Legends was released on October 27, 2009 and since then has won a number of awards for its fabulous gameplay as well as its progression into developing a competitive game for e-sports and the tournament scene. With continuous work, Riot has managed to bring the game a long way from when it first started out and further more seems to be bringing more updates in the near future.

This week, marks the release of an upcoming ranged champion known as Ezreal: The Prodigal Explorer. Ezreal seems to be the hype and also has developed into a much more refined character with testing done on League of Legends’ Test Realm. The champion first started out on the test realm with the following look (blonde Harry Potter anyone?) and abilities:

With feedback from the test realm community and some tweaks and changes, Riot will be releasing Ezreal this upcoming patch (probably Wednesday or Thursday) and most likely continuing with the trend of making him available to buy in the store this week and part of their free champion rotation next week. The finalized lore released by Riot for the champion can be found below as well as some pictures and fan art of the new champion.

Lore:

Ezreal was born with the gift of magic flowing through his veins. However, Ezreal was also born with a much stronger sense of wanderlust. Though enrolled in Piltover’s most acclaimed school for skilled young techmaturgists, Ezreal quickly became bored with magical studies. By the time the boy genius was eight years old, he had fully mapped out the underground tunnels of Piltover. The quality of his work was so remarkable that the government of Piltover purchased his maps and commissioned his services as the city-state’s Master Pathfinder. This sealed the deal for Ezreal’s true calling – he would eschew the arcane arts in favor of archaeology. Since then, countless adventures of his have been romanticized and published.

One of Ezreal’s more recent adventures brought him face-to-face with his other legacy – his latent magical power. While exploring the pyramids of the Shurima Desert, Ezreal uncovered an amulet of inestimable power. He barely managed to extract it from its sandy abode due to its sheer magnitude (it was made for a being easily twice Ezreal’s size). After fervent investigation, he found that it allowed the wielder to control and shape magical energy – provided there was a source of magic nearby. This permitted Ezreal to tap into his latent magical abilities without having to put any serious effort into it – a “big win”, as the young prodigy notes. The lingering drawback is that, for some unknown reason, the amulet is highly attuned to summoning magic. This means that without warning, Ezreal may find himself acting as a champion for, as he puts it, “a summoner hell-bent on resolving some irrelevant world-shattering League conflict.” Still, Ezreal feels that being summoned to a Field of Justice on occasion is a small price to pay for his prized artifact.

“There’s little time to study ancient, musty tomes when you’re busy trying to find them.”

-Ezreal



Abilities:

Mystic Shot: Ezreal fires a bolt of energy. If it strikes an enemy unit, it reduces all of Ezreal’s cooldowns.

Essence Flux: Ezreal fires a fluctuating wave of energy, damaging enemies and reducing their attack speed. This also heals allies and increases their attack speed.

Arcane Shift: Ezreal teleports to a nearby target location and fires a homing arrow which strikes the nearest enemy unit.

Trueshot Barrage: Ezreal channels to fire a powerful barrage of energy missiles, which do massive damage to each unit they pass through (barrage deals less damage to each successive unit it passes through).

Rising Spell Force (passive): Hitting a target with any of Ezreal’s abilities increases his attack speed for several seconds.

-Community Manager, ByronicHero

There has also been some gameplay footage of Ezreal released which can be seen below:

Not only, is the new champion being released, this past Friday, Riot had a test realm event where they opened up Twisted Treeline for their matchmaking. After almost 5 months from release, finally players get to play a new match (for normal games, which actually count on records) and possibly can que up for solo and with an arranged team. This has been one of the many things the community has been asking for and the testing for it has started. Although there is no set release date for TT matchmaking on live servers, it is surely being worked on. The news should leave all fans and players excited.

What are your thoughts of Riot and League of Legends? Does the new champion seem cool to you? Are you excited for the new map being available for the Normal Game mode? Leave your thoughts and comments below!

QuakeCon 2010 - Announced

For those of you who don't know what QuakeCon is, it is a media event that is held by id Software, Bethesda SoftWork, and their parent company ZeniMax Media Inc. Gamers from all over the country come to one location with their friends to form one giant gaming network, see cool new technology, hear about games in development, and compete in world-class tournaments.

QuakeCon 2010 was announced today and it will be taking place at Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas,Texas from August 12 to August 15. The event is free for all attendees courtesy of id and Bethesda as well as the QuakeCon volunteer staff and the 2010 event sponsors and exhibitors. Mark your calendars and get ready!

Halo 2 Gamers To Get XBox Live Termination Incentives

As we all know by now that Microsoft is preparing to pull the plug on online gaming for the original XBox on April 15th. The software giant discontinued the original XBox in late 2008 and officially stopped supporting the aging console in March 2009. With only six weeks to go MS has decided to reward the loyal Halo2 gamers with some consolation prizes.

They are offering –

• A free three month XBox live membership
• 400MS points
• A place on the Halo: Reach beta

For a console that's nearly a decade old, it's understandable that online gaming support would've had to end at some point.

GameStop To Start Selling 250GB Hard Drives For Xbox 360

Microsoft has said in the past that they don’t plan on selling the larger drives without a bundle, contrary to Microsoft indicating otherwise, GameStop has figured out what makes it’s customers happy. GameStop is planning on selling the 250GB Xbox 360 hard drive marked for release on 3/23 online. This hard drive is sold individually.

Microsoft has sold a number of special edition Xbox 360 console bundles that usually features some cool paint jobs and larger hard drive. Like Modern Warfare 2 bundle, a larger 250GB. We are pretty sure that there will be similar and even larger sizes bundles to come.

Some gamers just want more storage not a new console, but Microsoft would rather you spend hundreds of dollars on a bundle rather than selling the hard drive separately, It’s frustrating.

The drives will be on sale $129.99. There is very little information about this hard drive, and no indication whether its new or used or how they came about with selling this drive separately. We just have to wait and see as we get closer to the release date.

iCCup's StarCraft Season 12 Ladder Opens

For those of you who read about our previous StarCraft article, you would already know about iCCup's competitive StarCraft ladder which was mentioned. Hopefully by now you are setup and ready to go because the next season (Season 12) has started today. As mentioned before it is a great way to get practice for the upcoming StarCraft 2 if you, like many haven't gotten a beta invite from Blizzard.

Despite the Season 12 ladder opening today, several players have already played many games and are trying to get a lead on the others in the ladder. Many of the top 10 have played over 35 games already and some are sporting over 80% win/loss ratios. If you want to see for yourself, check the following ladder links below:

1v1 Ladder

2v2 Ladder

Remember that the iCCup's ladder is open to the public and the client used to play StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood Wars is free to download and free to play. If you need any help setting up their client, feel free to leave a comment and we can help you set it up. In the mean time, share your thoughts on it or on any StarCraft related news.

Preparing For The StarCraft 2 Tournament Scene - Without SC2 Beta

If you don't already know about it many people have started to prepare for the StarCraft 2 tournament scene. Some people have quit their jobs, others have been practicing heavily on the StarCraft 2 beta as if it was their job, and others have been looking for a way to prepare but are stuck without a key. For those of you in the latter situation, there is a solution for you which might help you get very good practice until the StarCraft 2 beta turns to open beta or until you get that lucky email telling you that you are accepted into the closed beta. Play amongst the pro's in the original StarCraft! It can also prove to be useful for those who are interested in StarCraft 2 but haven't played the original at all. Instead of going out and buying it while the sequel is on the verge of release, download it and practice for free amongst the very best!

An organization known as the International Cyber Cup is trying to enhance the competitive scene for competitive blizzard games (outside of World of Warcraft) by hosting their own private servers to compete on, complete with an anti-hack tool and a ladder system that allows you to be ranked amongst the pros. Many from all over the world have started to compete and the organization has run 11 successful seasons, growing with popularity for each season. Many of those who are stuck in the situation of no beta access have turned to the iCCup to practice and for many reasons.

The best part of the iCCup private servers for the competitive scene is that you can play StarCraft: Brood Wars for free. The organization allows you to download the client (the original StarCraft and it's expansion - StarCraft: Brood Wars) from their site and provides step by step instructions on how to properly set up access to their private servers. If you are interested in trying it, just follow the steps below:

1.1. Getting the latest version
To play on our server you will need a StarCraft: BroodWar 1.16.1 client. If you don't have one, you can download it from our FTP. Note: You won't be able join official servers. We strictly recommend you to buy a licese copy.

1.2. Adding our server to server list
You will need to add our server to your server list to start playing. You can do it in two ways:
1) download an auto-reg file. Note: this will overwrite your current server list.
2) download Anti-Hack Launcher and run it, it will be added automaitcly in you registry.

1.3. Game account registration
You will need to fill this form to register your nickname. It is allowed to use only roman letters and numbers in any form field. Nickname length shouldn't be lager 14 symbols. Please, specify your real e-mail address. You won't be able to retrieve a password with non-existing e-mail address. You should also accept a basic rules of our server. And Ladder rules.

1.4. Playing on our server
Our server have a ladder-based system. To play ladder games you should set game type to «one on one» for 1x1 games or «top vs bottom» for 2x2 games. It is not allowed to play ladder games on non-official iCCup maps. You need download the latest mappack.

If reading and following instructions step by step isn't your thing, then you can hit up the following YouTube video explaining the same steps while showing you what to do step by step simultaneously:

If you are interested, right now is the best time to install the client and get ready because iCCup's 12th Season is about to start (In the next 1-2 days as mentioned on their site) for StarCraft. Just a heads up to anyone who might be having trouble connecting as of right now; in between seasons they take their private server down (so don't panic thinking it isn't working) and when the new seasons starts you will be able to practice away!

As for those of you who don't find interest in playing the original StarCraft competitively again and rather wait for the upgraded, StarCraft 2. There is a crack out there that lets you play the StarCraft 2 beta vs AI (you won't be able to play with friends but you can play vs bots.) MGN will cover how to do that soon, so stay tuned. Don't forget to leave thoughts and comments to discuss iCCup's ladder or any StarCraft related news below!

PSN Is Down, And Sony’s Trying To Fix It

You’re not the only one having problems with the Playstation Network, as Sony confirmed that PSN is down for many users. “We’re aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we’re looking into it. Stay tuned for updates,” says the official Twitter feed for Sony Playstation.

It's unclear exactly what's going on at the moment, but it appears that the PlayStation Network is down and causing a whole host of related problems for PS3 systems, including 8001050F error codes, game crashes, corrupted trophy info, and even the complete inability to launch certain titles. There's no ETA on when things will get back to normal.

Razer Introduces New Gaming Mouse - Naga

Razer introduces the Naga Gaming Mouse gadget which was designed specially for MMO games. The Razer Gaming Mouse is designed to enhance your ability to control your character with 17 MMO optimized buttons so you can programmed different game commands to each button. Aside from the keypad, the Naga looks like a wired version of the Razer Mamba from earlier this year. Like the Mamba, the Naga has all of the speeds and feeds common to high-end gaming mice, including a 5,600 dpi laser sensor and 1,000MHz polling rate. You won't really need those high-precision settings to master the assisted targeting and timed-attack mechanics in a MMO, but it's hard to find a gaming mouse these days without such crazy settings, so you might as well have them.

From  first sight, the Razer gaming mouse looks like a cell phone because of the neatly arranged numeric buttons at the left side. Razer Naga mouse is a gaming mouse designed exclusively for MMO gamers, where they can ‘enhance their ability to control their character’ with the provided 17 MMO optimized buttons.

It also boasts in-game configuration add-ons for World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online for the Naga, which will hopefully simplify mapping the various key commands. Razer Naga Mouse will be available soon with the price tag of $79.99. 

PS3 hacked by iPhone Hacker (George Hotz)

iPhone hacker who gained props for unlocking Apple's iPhone as a teenager (George Hotz) has told BBC News that he has now hacked Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3).

George Hotz said the hack, which could allow people to run pirated games or homemade software, took him five weeks.

Hotz rose to fame in 2007 at the age of 17 when he unlocked the iPhone, which could only be used on the AT&T network in the US at launch.

The hack allowed the popular handset to be used on any network.

He has since released various other hacks, allowing people to unlock later versions of the popular handset

He said he was still refining the hack but intended to post full details online soon.

The PS3 is the only games console that has not been hacked, despite being on the market for three years.
"It's supposed to be unhackable - but nothing is unhackable," George Hotz told BBC News.

"I can now do whatever I want with the system. It's like I've got an awesome new power - I'm just not sure how to wield it."

Sony said it was "investigating the report" and would "clarify the situation" when it had more information.
Hotz said that he had begun the hack last summer when he had spent three weeks analysing the hardware. After a long break, he spent a further two weeks cracking the console, which he described as a "very secure system".

He said that he was not yet ready to reveal the full details of the hack but said that it was "5% hardware and 95% software".
"You can use hardware to inject an insecurity and then you can build on that," he said.

He admitted that he had not managed to hack the whole system, including the protected memory, but had worked out ways to trick the console into doing what he wanted.
Hotz said that he was continuing to work on the hack and, once finished, would publish details online in a similar way to his previous iPhone exploits.

Hotz said, he would publish details of the console's "root key", a master code that once known would make it easier for others to decipher and hack other security features on the console.

He said his motivation was "curiosity" and "opening up the platform". 


"To tell you the truth, I've never really played a PS3," he said. "I have one game, but I've never really played it."

Opening the system could allow people to install other operating systems on their console and play homemade games as well, he said.

In addition, the hack would allow people to play older PS2 games on their consoles.

Recent versions of the PS3 do not have the ability to play PS2 games after Sony controversially removed a piece of hardware.

He admitted that it could also allow people to run pirated games.

"I'm not going to personally have anything to do with that," he told BBC News.

As we all already know - Gaming firms do not take the issue of game piracy and console modification lightly. Recently, Microsoft disconnected a large number of gamers from its online gaming service Xbox Live for modifying their consoles to play pirated games.

Hotz said that the nature of his PS3 hack means that Sony may have difficulty patching the exploit.
As per the Sony spokesman - "We are investigating the report and will clarify the situation once we have more information,"

Gameloft backs iPhone and backs away from Android

iPhoneTo iPhone or not to iPhone? That is the question on which a number of high-profile app developers are weighing-in. A couple of weeks ago it was Facebook app developer Joe Hewitt and software maker Rogue Amoeba saying they'd had enough of jumping through hoops to be on the iPhone and that they'd be working on other things.

Last week, Instapaper web-service and iPhone app [iTunes link] developer Marco Arment said, 'Go if you want to, but there are more than enough people in the App Store to keep me fat and happy and not nearly enough in any other mobile app ecosystem to draw me away.' I'm paraphrasing of course.

Now, French mobile phone game developer Gameloft has given its two cents. According to a company exec, Gameloft and other software developers are drawing down the resources spent on developing applications for Google's Android platform. Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference late last week, 'We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others.'

Did he say what others? No. Did he say why? Yes.

Rochefort, like Instapaper's Arment, says the people just aren't there for the Android. 'It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone,' says the exec. 'Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue.'

Meanwhile on the App Store, money flows like water for Gameloft and the water's fine. Games for Apple's handhelds generated 13% of Gameloft's revenue last quarter. According to Rochefort, Gameloft is selling 400 times as many games for the iPhone and iPod touch as it is for the various Android powered phones.

[via Reuters]

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]