News

Doom, Fallout, Oblivion, Wolfenstein, Carmack, Howard... all in one company.

Two of the most acclaimed game development studios of all time are joining forces. ZeniMax Media, parent company of Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls development studio Bethesda Softworks, announced today that it is purchasing legendary Doom and Wolfenstein studio id.

In an interview with Kotaku, id co-founder John Carmack, id CEO Todd Hollenshead and ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman said the purchase will change none of the principles or principals of id and Bethesda but will allow id to grow like it never has...

The UK Government has adopted the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) standard as the sole game content rating system. PEGI has revealed its new ratings icons:

Five age rating symbols that are colored green, yellow and red.

Casual games get a "PEGI OK" mark, denoting that they are, well, okay for players of all ages.

On the back of game packaging, there will descriptive symbol (Violence, Bad Language, Fear, Drugs, Sexual, Discrimination, Gambling or Online...

More PC titles from Fallout 3 publisher and developer Bethesda are heading to Valve's digital distribution service Steam.

Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Game of the Year Edition and The Elder Scrolls IV - Game of the Year Edition + Downloadable Content were listed alongside the Headfirst-developed, Bethesda-published Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth in an ad.

While that advertisement, noticed by Gamer Limit, has since been removed from the Steam Update pop-up, it is still hosted on the Steam servers.

No word as to when the two Elder...

Ubisoft has told Eurogamer that Assassin's Creed 2 will launch on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 here on 20th November. The 17th November date announced at E3 was for the US.

The UK will also get an exclusive Black Edition of Assassin's Creed 2, which costs 70 English Queenpounds.

That's because the black, holographic box will be stuffed with goodies. Specifically, a 64-page leather-and-parchment-style "Conspiracy" development book; an Ezio figurine wearing "Master Assassin" garb; three in-game bonus quests promising to cover "the most prestigious moments"...

Being a legendary game studio is no easy task; Square-Enix should know more than most. Releasing some of the greatest games of all-time, there was an era where Square was simply unmatched when it came to pure role-playing goodness. Presently, the masters of fantasy seem to have stumbled into a hole filled with uneventful jargon and the biggest glue guns you’ve ever seen.

If I had to pick 10 of my most favorite games of all-time, at least a few of those titles would belong to Square. Their influence has touched upon practically all of the games we currently enjoy and then some....

Microsoft’s Project Natal and Sony’s Motion Controller were easily two of the biggest announcements to come out of this year’s E3 -- so sayeth the buzz meter. Of course, both objects being revealed within a day of each other invariably brought speculation over which one would be better. Much like the friendly discussions that are popping up across the Internet to discuss this, it seems Sony and Microsoft themselves have decided to weigh in on the matter.

First up is Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, who found Sony’s controller to be very much like the Wii’s,...

Normally, you'd never listen to an 11-year-old kid; but this one's graduating with honors from East Los Angeles Community College this month with a degree in Liberal Studies. That could make him a genius, right?

Moshe Kai Cavalin started college when he was 8. He tutored his older classmates, scored some martial arts competition awards and is graduating with a 4.0. NBC Los Angeles News reports that the prodigy is planning on writing a book for kids on how to succeed in school.

Not on the agenda: playing video games.

"I feel it's a waste of time playing video...

The sheriff of Broward County, Fla. (Fort Lauderdale) says Florida law requires him to treat used games the same as merchandise sold at pawn shops. That means sellers can't go home with their cash (or store credit) without leaving a greasy smudge.

According to the New Times of Broward-Palm Beach, the sheriff sent deputies to every game store in the county in October, telling them to get thumbprints from all used-game sellers. A GameStop manager breaks it down pretty succinctly when asked why he complied: "They have guns. I don't argue with people with guns." That's exactly...

LucasArts and TT Games have announced that LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues will be released this autumn for Wii, DS, PS3, Xbox 360, PC and PSP. The game is in development at Traveller's Tales, the team behind the first LEGO Indy game and the LEGO Star Wars series.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2 presents a tongue-in-cheek take on all four cinematic Indiana Jones adventures - including for the first time ever Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the ability for players to create levels of their own.

Players will be able to take control of all new Kingdom...

Science-fiction and fantasy imprint Tor, which publishes the Halo books, is to publish a BioShock novel this autumn.

That's according to Tor's latest catalogue, seen byGamasutra.

The author of the book is listed as Ken Levine, but Gamasutra is sceptical. "This may simply be because the novel is based on his concepts, rather than his actual writing," it notes, and we'd be inclined to agree, although an anonymous ghost writer isn't out of the question.

That said, Tor has just published a Dragon Age novel by BioWare's lead writer David Gaider, and has...

May 27, 2009 - Burlingame, Calif. - Natsume Inc., a worldwide developer and publisher of family-oriented video games, today announced that it will publish "AFRIKA" for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system. The company's first title for PLAYSTATION 3, "AFRIKA" takes players on a photographic safari of Africa and its exotic animals. The game will be available at retail early fall 2009.

"We are very excited to be releasing "AFRIKA" in North America, and thrilled to be working with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios," said Hiro...

May 27, 2009 - NEW YORK, NY. May 27, 2009 - Thirty of America's finest gamers earned their way to the World Cyber Games 2009 National Final this past weekend by advancing through the stiff competition of nearly 100 'A-list' gamers in some of the world's most popular game titles. The champions and runners-up for each of the games - including Gears of War 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Virtua Fighter 5, FIFA Soccer 09, Counter-Strike, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and StarCraft: Brood War shared in more than $15,000 in cash and prizes while automatically qualifying themselves for the WCG USA National...

May 27, 2009 - As part of its fiscal year-end financial report today, publisher Ubisoft gave guidance on release dates for some of its upcoming games, including Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Some of these games already had official release windows, but some are new and some have changed. Assassins Creed 2 is now expected in the 3rd fiscal quarter of this year (just in time for the holidays), as are the new Splinter Cell and James Cameron's Avatar. Ghost Recon and I Am Alive are scheduled for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009-10 (January-March 2010), leaving Ubisoft...

The Guitar Hero franchise has traditionally seen flagship installments launch right around Halloween in the US, with Guitar Hero III and World Tour coming in about a week before and Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II about a week after. However, such will not be the case with Guitar Hero 5. Activision Blizzard has revealed through the game's official Web site that the latest four-piece rhythm game will take to the main stage on September 1, exactly one week before archrival The Beatles: Rock Band strums its opening tune on September 9.




Along with revealing a release date,...

It seems it's finally happened. Ever since the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, the internet has been awash with fans eagerly awaiting the next instalment in the blockbuster stealth series. After all the videos of hated enemies talking about 'that other thing', cryptic ads with large 5's in the sky, and even an iPhone interpretation of MGS4, an e-commerce database on Seven Eleven's Japanese web site seemingly confirms the development of a new game in the franchise.

The Kanji phrase "メタルギア新作 ", when tossed through Google, roughly translates to "A Metal Gear new work."

Midway Games today announced that it has entered into a "stalking horse" asset purchase agreement with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., and filed a sale and bid procedures motion with the Bankruptcy Court.

A stalking-horse bid is an initial bid on a bankrupt company's assets from an interested buyer chosen by the bankrupt company. This bid then sets the bar so that other bidders can't low-ball the purchase price.

The initial bid is $33,000,000. Under the agreement, Warner Bros. Entertainment would acquire substantially all of the Company's US assets including its...

Epic tech legend Tim Sweeney’s told Gama that absolute graphical realism is games is a mere decade away. Well, a decade and a bit.
“There are two parts to the graphical problem,” he said when asked if games would ever achieve a “100%” movie-like quality.
“Number one, there are all those problems that are just a matter of brute force computing power: so completely realistic lighting with real-time radiosity, perfectly anti-aliased graphics, and movie-quality static scenes and motion.
“We’re only about a factor of a thousand off from...

NKOK will be releasing later in the year a series of three remote-controlled vehicles based on those found in Bungie's Halo 3. One is a Mongoose, one is a Warthog, and the last...a Hornet.

Yes, the nimble little UNSC flier is the most expensive of the three (at $39), and also seemingly the most popular, as it's already sold out over at online toy emporium BigBadToyStore.

Sounds like a rainy-day blast for the Halo fanboys, though Microsoft purists may baulk at the controller, which bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain competitor's long-running pad design...

If you're looking for a big name to voice the president in Fallout 3, who would better to get than, well, a former U.S. President. Lev Chapelsky of the Hollywood firm Blindlight tried just that.

"Celebrity acquisition applies not just to celebrity actors but to sports figures, politicians — we've made offers to Bill Clinton for video games and gotten great responses with attorneys who have said, 'The former president will not participate in one of your video game products, thank you very much'," says Chapelsky.

"We appreciated that frankness and candor...

EU Commissioners have proposed introducing two year guarantees for games.

Retailers aren't currently obliged to offer refunds for buggy games that stop users completing them, but the new proposal could change all that, according to the BBC.

Sounds good, doesn't it? But there's a catch...

According to game industry trade association Tiga, such a law could put devs under pressure to create perfect products and lead to them "playing it safe".

"Consumers need good quality products - that is only reasonable - but if the legislation is too heavy-handed...