Ultra know-it-all head-hancho, Kathy Vrabek, of EA Games said that she is definitely not concerned with the poor ratings that EA games get from online game review sites such as Gamespot, IGN and Joystiq because she firmly believes gamers don’t actually read any of the reviews.

“I get less concerned about game reviews because the casual gamers don’t read any of those things,” EA Casual president Kathy Vrabek said.

Sales figures and game review scores obviously don’t seem to share a connection when it comes to the purchasing power of the average gamer. Advertising and word-of-mouth chatter have been keeping some of EA’s terrible titles very successful, regardless of the pounding they take from the major review sites.

“[casual gamers are] not swayed by a low score on IGN or a low score out of one of these gaming sites,” she went on to say. “It’s a little bit amusing, in that it’s people reviewing games against measures that are important to core gamers yet are not important to casual gamers.”

Are game review sites such as IGN and Joystiq even worth having around for anything other than screenshots? Probably not. Lose those high-paid game reviews and focus on more screenshots and video previews please! Let the hype machine roll on!

Video Game Nerd and Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter is predicting the video game market to show incredible sales numbers this year — more specifically a 50 percent increase over last year. The boffin’s forecasted sales for 2007 are $555 million USD compared to $369 million USD last year.

Gamers this year have sucked on the teets of titles such as Guitar Hero III, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4. The milk money that flowed out of Guitar Hero III’s swollen breast accounted for over $100 million USD in sales.

Pachter also predicts that the Wii will continue to lead the market in hardware sales, stating Wii will stand at 450,000, PS3 at 125,000 and the 360 at 325,000.

Basically, Guitar Hero III + Halo 3 = huge e-boner.

After a smooth release of Call of Duty 4, Players around the world are now scoffing in disgust at Infinity Ward, the creator of the recently-released COD4 game, because of some newly-discovered bugs within the game’s multiplayer engine. With the game shipping out this past Monday, players have been eager to hop into a multiplayer game to start building up their online ranks and getting to know the map layouts. Unfortunately, after careful observation, a sour discovery was made: online rankings are not kept server-side but rather stored on the player’s local machine. An even dirtier discovery was made later — players that switch between modded/unranked servers and official/ranked servers run the risk of having their stats completely reset! This also means that users owning a laptop and a PC can’t use the same account for sharing their rankings/stats. Instead, each computer will have to store it’s own ranks and achievements. Total bummer.

“Infinity Ward just needs to refund everyones lost rank. I can’t play now because I had 30 game hours played, that’s a lot, and I did it all on my day’s off,” said Private Srtusmc via the COD forums. “Sorry to whine, this is probably not helping IW troubleshoot this, but a suggestion from me as a customer would be to just refund my rank back if possible and I’ll be happy from there. I can do the challenges all over again, it’s just that it’s hard work AND TIME getting that high rank to unlock your guns.”

“I agree, if they don’t refund us for our time invested into this game I don’t think i will be picking it up again,” said Faktion. “One of the big draws for me was the leveling system, but losing 18 hours of invested time for something you have no control over is a bit outrageous. Sure getting your stats and ranks wiped for cheating or exploiting is understandable ..but joining a game or having vista crash? C’mon now…”

It was quite obvious that Infinity Ward was trying to cut the overhead of having their own Stat/Rank Authentication server, but as we are now seeing, their shortcuts have caught up with them and a lot of angry players are wanting a resolve.

We can only hope that a new patch is in the works that will allow ranks to be stored on an official IW Ranking server.

PC gamers have waited months for the release of Gears of War on the PC platform and now they’ll be getting that and a whole bunch more. And thankfully, the day is almost upon us — November 6, 2007 is the game’s scheduled release date. Just to recap, the PC version features the following special unique features:

• Three new multiplayer maps
• A new multiplayer game-type
• Game Editor
• Five new campaign chapters
• DirectX 10 Support

“Gears of War” [PC] will feature locations that are unique to the franchise and the genre. Players will encounter all their favorite foes from the Xbox 360 version; however, these intense encounters will take place in some new environments and allow players to manipulate the new game modes and technology found only in the Games for Windows title. “Gears of War” will tap into the power of Games for Windows — LIVE to deliver online matchmaking for its Gold account members. The service will enable gamers around the world to connect via their PCs, allowing players to experience individualized matchmaking, view player statistics, earn player Achievements, customize games and create personalized profiles.

 

The game will also feature the all-new Game Editor, guaranteeing new user-generated content in the future. The “Gears of War” community will be able to tap its endless creative potential to develop an unlimited number of user-created levels through complete access to the Unreal Editor. Using the new engine, players can now import custom artwork into the engine, create particle systems, scripted encounters, cinematics and more.

 

“Gears of War” ushers in the next generation with incredible visuals, pushing DirectX 10 visual designs and bringing out the smallest details in the largest battle. Gamers experience a rich, dynamic world with a supreme level of detail. Characters come to life with unbelievable model quality and a physics-integrated animation system that has them truly reacting intelligently to events unfolding around them.

 

The Windows System Requirements are as follows:

OS: Windows Vista or Windows XP
Processor: 2.4+ GHz Intel; 2.0+ Ghz AMD
RAM: 1 GB
Hard Drive: 12 GB free hard drive space
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600+, ATI X700+
Online Multi-player: Broadband Internet Connection, Games for Windows — LIVE

I’m definitely looking forward to sinking my teeth deep into this title. Thankfully, GOW seems to have been fairly optimized so gamers won’t require a super-computer to run it, which means more people will be online for multiplayer insanity.

The infamous creator of Pong, NOLAN BUSHNESS (also the brain-child behind the Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time restaurants) has decidedly poo-poo’d on the current state of video games:”Video games today are a race to the bottom,” he spouted off. “They are pure, unadulterated trash and I’m sad for that.”

Bushness feels that the future of gaming lies in family-based multiplayer environments where players participate in non-electronic tabletop games, where families can interact with one another socially, and enjoy tasty, reasonably priced meals.

“Social games represent something that has been missing,” he adds. “Most of the board games are purchased by women for families. It is this gaming world that can be re-energized. We used to have families sit down and play a game together. A lot of video games today are very isolated. You don’t see mom and dad, sister and brother, sitting down like they used to play, say, Monopoly,” says Bushnell. “That represented good mentoring time for families that just isn’t happening now.”

Source

During some nerd-based event in North Carolina, the Unreal Tournament 3 Demo was leaked to selected members of the press. Happily enough, a lot of those members of the press have uploaded the demo to fellow Internet-users and can now be enjoyed by everyone in the world!The demo weighs in at 741 MB and is expected to be peppered throughout every torrent site by later tonight.

Download Link 1

Download Link 2

The upcoming Sci-Fi shooter, Crysis has finally had it’s system requirements officially announced and ladies and gentlemen: prepare to shit your pants. The bare MINIMUM setup requires a 3.2GHz Processor, 1.5GB of RAM, a 256MB Video Card and a whopping 12GB of hard disk space. The RECOMMENDED setup pumps things up a notch with a Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM and a GeForce 8800 GPU. Have mercy!

Forum-goer & gamer-by-night, Dwayne Dibbly said, “When I bought a PC for back-to-school this year, I thought I was going to get something decent that should last me for a while. Unfortunately Crysis has burst the imaginary bubble in my head that once led me to believe 1GB of RAM was going to be at least the minimum I’d need for a game. I guess it’s time for a Geek Squad hardware update pretty soon.”

Another angry gamer, Paul Parrish said, “Things are getting retarded in this industry. First there was Rainbow Six Vegas with it’s ridiculous video card requirement of Shader Model 3.0 and now Crysis’ system spec recommendations. Are development houses no longer taking the time to do a little optimizing of their games for older system rigs like they used to? Obviously not! No wonder PC gamers have fled to the console markets.”

THQ officially announced the final expansion for it’s critically acclaimed real time strategy game, Warhammer 40,000.

The expansion is called Soulstorm and will feature two new races including the Dark Eldar, and likely the Tyranids

“In Dawn of War - Soulstorm, we’ve taken Games Workshop’s epic war from one planet to an entire star system,” said Tarrnie Williams, general manager, Relic Entertainment. “Allowing gamers to play nine unique races, introducing air units and providing multiplayer achievements for the first time creates a tremendous amount of new and challenging strategic gameplay for all players.”

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm is set in Games Workshop’s (LSE: GAW) Warhammer 40,000 universe - a dark, futuristic, fantasy setting where armies of technologically advanced warriors, fighting machines and hordes of implacable aliens wage constant war - and is played by millions worldwide. Executive produced and co-developed by Relic Entertainment in association with Iron Lore Entertainment, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm is a complete standalone title and will feature two all-new armies, including the malicious Dark Eldar, for an unprecedented total of nine playable races. In addition to new units across each of the seven existing races, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm will incorporate air units for the first time and introduce multiplayer medals, adding a whole new level of depth to online battles. The revolutionary meta-game introduced in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade is further expanded to an interplanetary scale in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm, allowing players to battle across an entire star system.

Here’s a cool trailer for Assassin’s creed. With the game looking so good I think it’s the storyline that will make me get this game!

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