Straight from the latest issue of Edge, a great feature all about the life inside Bungie studios. The article gets into a good bit of detail on the mindset of this insular part of Microsoft's development network. Interviewed developers discuss what it is like working for Microsoft, and how hard it is not to be hard on themselves. Specifically, the developers have some surprisingly harsh criticism of their own opus - Halo 2. From the article, comments by technical lead Chris Butcher: "One of the things that stuns me when I think about it, and I can't believe this is true - we had [no time to polish] for Halo 2. Take that polish period and completely get rid of it. We miscalculated, we screwed up, we came down to the wire and we just lost all of that. So Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways because of that. It kills me to think of it. Even the multiplayer experience for Halo 2 is a pale shadow of what it could and should have been if we had gotten the timing of our schedule right. It's astounding to me. I f***ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it. And that's why I know Halo 3 is going to be so much better."

1up reports that XBLA's 50MB size limit is no more. Microsoft has upped that to a whopping 250 MB, just a week after it was revealed that the upcoming Symphony of the Night would be almost double that in size. While this is great for the possibilities of the service, games, and gamers, it does mean that 'Core Pack' owners are now even more 'out in the cold' when it comes to downloadable content. Unless a HDD is purchased for the system, Core Packers are reduced to using the 64MB memory cards, which are clearly not large enough for even one 'expanded' game title. From the article: "However, how many folks are out there downloading Live Arcade games without an HDD? It probably works out to a small percentage. We asked Microsoft about those users and the memory card issues that the console will face with this new expanded size for Live Arcade titles. Microsoft said 'There is already one possible solution in the works for this category of gamer should we decide to increase the Xbox Live Arcade game file size from its current 50 MB limit. As announced at E3 last May, a larger Memory Unit is being developed which will allow gamers who do not own a hard drive to store and easily transport several Xbox Live Arcade games at a time. We have no further details to announce at this time.'"

Freshly Exhumed writes "In an interview with Marcus Yam at Daily Tech legendary PC/Console game creator John Carmack holds forth on DirectX 10: 'Personally, I wouldn't jump at something like DX10 right now. I would let things settle out a little bit and wait until there's a really strong need for it.' and then zings Microsoft's marketers over DX10's mandatory use of the Vista OS: 'Carmack then said that he's quite satisfied with Windows XP, going as far to say that Microsoft is artificially forcing gamers to move to Windows Vista for DX10.' There are a few good tidbits on Xbox 360 vs. PS3 development, and a fairly clear disinterest in Wii as a platform for his company's products is shown."

With the seventh generation of consoles now in play, and online gaming shooting for the stratosphere, games markets in other nations are now seeing unheard-of growth. Gamasutra reports that China's online gaming market saw 74% growth in 2006, up to 6.54 billion Yuan, or $US 839 million. Over half of the titles in that market are home-grown. Meanwhile, GameDaily has the word that Canada's games industry is rapidly approaching $1 Billion. Games sales are up worldwide, as that article reports. "The U.K. had a record breaking year, game sales in Japan hit an all-time high, the U.S. video game industry achieved a new record of $12.5 billion, and now it would appear that our North American counterpart also set a new record. The Canadian Press has reported that Canada's video game industry came close to $1 billion in sales during 2006, hitting a new record of $933 million (up 22 percent)."

Gamasutra has a piece up from earlier this week, with some late New Year's resolutions for the games industry. Their frequently-done 'Question of the Week' series pulled in comments from game developers and designers working right now, with their hopes for the best in 2007. From the article: "Now that 2006 is over can we finally stop worrying about who's going to win the console war and start focusing on the games? Arguing about which next-gen system is the best is as silly as arguing about which five-star restaurant has the finest china and silverware. It's the food on the plate that matters to the customers after all. With any luck we'll see delicious games with plenty of innovation on all of the platforms this year! - Patrick Curry, Midway Games"

njkid1 writes "Research from the NPD Group shows that kids are increasingly playing games earlier in life. Playing games, whether on a PC, console, phone or music player, was the highest ranked activity for kids in a survey conducted by the organization. From the article: 'NPD said it used an online survey sent to a 'nationally representative' sample of mothers with children ages 2 to 14 in their households. The survey revealed that an overwhelming majority (93 percent) of kids play games on a computer, cell phone, video game console or portable or digital music player. This was way ahead of the second highest activity reported, listening to music, which garnered 52 percent.'"

A New York law introduced by Representative Keith Wright seeks just that, a section for gaming stores that keeps 'violent games' under lock and key, and is accessible only to people over 30. The law is one of two poorly-thought pieces of legislation being considered by New York state's legal system. From the 1up article: "The history of the courts striking down such legislation goes just about as far back as politicians who attempt to bolster their own image by capitalizing on the public fear and hysteria over the bogeyman of video gaming. It's interesting to note that recently, courts have begun penalizing entities who purposely waste their time with attempts at passing frivolous and unconstitutional anti-videogame legislation. You'd think might deter motions like [these] somewhat, wouldn't you?" Update: 01/19 04:10 GMT by Z : As ahecht points out in the comments 1up has things wrong here. There is only one bill, and it restricts violent games from being sold to those under 18 only. Line 5 of the bill's text is the section in question.

The rumored first 'real' expansion to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been confirmed. Shivering Isles will be available for the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game, with the expansion available as a download for 360 owners. In additional Oblivion-related news, GameSetWatch made a point to single out the double-layering of content for the PS3 version of the game. The title (due out next month with all 'add-ons' included) overcomes the slow speed of Blu-ray discs via a simple kludge: putting the content on there twice. From the article: "A perceptive comment from 'Marvin' is worth reprinting: "You'd automate the duplication at the image creation stage to avoid any stale data problems. People have done this on other platforms before for the same reasons - particularly the PSP, with its horrible UMD seek times. However, it does rather negate the whole increased storage capacity advantage."

"Computer Gaming World" may now be "Games for Windows: The Official Magazine", but they haven't forgotten the little guys. Straight from the new issue, 1up is hosting an impressive list of 101 freebie PC games. Every genre and topic you can think of is covered by the exhaustive exploration of 'free'. From the article: "We've tracked down another 101 absolutely, positively, no-strings-attached free games that are actually worth playing, grouped them into handy categories, and put most of 'em up on FileFront.com. There's something here for everyone, from RPGs to real-time strategy to Asteroids Flash games, though we have to confess up front: There are actually more than 101 free games here. So no complaining that you're not getting your money's worth." My favorites include Ninja Loves Pirate , Tripline , Iris (HL2 Mod), Super Mario: Blue Twilight DX , and Star Control II .

FloatsomNJetsom writes "High Definition Content Protection is supposed to make sure you're not playing pirated content, but sometimes your devices screw up the HDCP 'handshake' (over an HDMI cable) and nothing works. This happens with some regularity with the PS3, and Popular Mechanics investigated and found a quick and dirty workaround. From the article: 'We then checked with Leslie Chard, president of HDMI Licensing, which owns the rights to the standard, who told us that HDCP is one component of HDMI that has been plagued with interoperability issues. HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) is designed to prevent the interception of data — specifically copyrighted Hollywood movies — between an output component and a display. As Steve Balough, the president of Digital Content Protection, the licensing company for HDCP explains, the two pieces of hardware must exchange a key, a sort of certificate of authenticity unique to each individual device, to verify a secure connection.' The problem isn't limited to the PS3 — many HDTV cable boxes and have the same problem. The fix there? Unplugging the power cable."

Via GigaGamez (which has a breakdown of the problem), a GameDaily article about the unfriendliness of Vista towards Indie games. The problem is this: Vista has a setting which allows parents to restrict user profiles from accessing ESRB games 'above' a certain rating. IE: Timmy can't play F.E.A.R., or any other 'M' rated game. The problem is that getting ESRB rated is expensive: '$2000-3000 for the privilege', according to GigaGamez. Shoestring budget Indie games just may not have the money for that kind of expenditure. From the GameDaily article: "'It's unfortunately a mercenary way of doing things,' [GFW Group Manager Chris Donahue] explains, 'but, even though we're Microsoft, we do have limited resources. And we do look at the sales charts to determine where our help will have the most impact. Certainly we want Blizzard's 'World Of Warcraft' [currently the most popular massive multiplayer online game] to work flawlessly on day one of Vista because 8 million tech support calls would be a very bad thing. The casual developers don't sell quite as many.'"

westlake writes "Washington Post columnist Mike Musgrove offers a rare and balanced view from the mainstream press of the Slamdance Competition and Super Columbine Massacre RPG. Surprised by the effective use of flashbacks and the authentic dialogue of the Columbine game, he goes on to say: 'But when it came time to start creating mayhem in the school's halls, I couldn't bring myself to push the buttons to continue. Odd, I suppose, because I have killed thousands of video game characters over the years. And though the game's chunky graphics are primitive...no game has ever made me feel nearly as queasy. I didn't want to be responsible for the real-world violence that happened that day, even in a game.' Ledonne figures that games will either grow into a medium in which it is acceptable to confront and challenge an audience with titles like his, or will devolve into a stagnant, failed format."

Croakyvoice writes "The Dreamcast games Last, Hope Karous and Trigger Heart Exelica will the last officially licensed Sega games for the Dreamcast because from February Sega Japan plans to stop production of GDRoms. The death of the GDRom format will mean no more Dreamcast or Naomi Arcade games. The Dreamcast Community has sent emails to Sega Japan to ask for a rethink on this issue. From the article: 'This doesn't need to happen, as developers are fond of the NAOMI for its relative low cost, ease of production and accessibility, and straightforward ports to the Dreamcast home console. Warashi returned to the scroll shooting genre with Trigger Heart Exelica on NAOMI, and Milestone would likely gladly continue to produce further games following Karous on the system as well. Sega themselves have recently presented Dynamite Deka EX running on NAOMI. If GD-ROM production continues, there is a much greater chance that we'll see a home console port of this game on DC within a year.'"

covert.c writes "A real-life drama in the political world has spilled over into the virtual, as the Second Life headquarters of France's controversial Front National political party fell to violent protesters. The anti-FN activists, who had armed themselves with slogans, placards and weapons, leveled the digital buildings occupied by Front National. Second Life is often home to established political and social movements. It seems logical that opposing forces would also choose to make SL their stage."

Despite an accidental slip-up on the part of Sony CEO Howard Stringer, the PlayStation 3 is set for launch in the EU this March. When it does launch, folks in the UK and Ireland will be paying a pretty penny for Sony's new console. From the article: "Sony has confirmed ... that the 60GB PS3 will cost EUR 629.99 in Ireland, as suggested on the official website. 'Ireland is traditionally more expensive than other territories,' a spokesperson explained. 'The VAT rate there is 21 per cent, whereas it can be as low as 16 per cent in other EU countries.' However, the spokesperson continued, the PS3 will still cost EUR 599 if you're buying it elsewhere in Europe. Of course, here in Britain we're still using the funny old money with the picture of the rich lady on it, so we'll get a price point all of our own. And according to our old friend Senior Retail Sources, that price point will be set at GBP 425."

FredDC writes "Germany is seeking support among other European countries to ban violent videogames during its EU Presidency, according to Infoworld. In an initiative led by Franco Frattini, the European Justice commissioner, Germany is pushing for restrictions on the sale of games with violent content of any kind, from Half-Life to Star Trek . In the eyes of the EU, gaming and real-world violence is 'linked', and steps should be taken to prevent the purchase of these games by younger people. From the article: 'The German government said it will conduct a study of all the different national rules concerning video games, with a view to setting Union-wide norms. Its initiative makes the prospect of a ban much more likely. Video game violence became a hot political issue in Germany at the end of last year when 18-year-old Sebastian Bosse shot up a high school in Emsdetten, Germany, injuring 37 before fatally turning the gun on himself. Police said Bosse spent most of his waking hours playing Counter-Strike.'" This, just days after two Final Fantasy VII fans were arrested in connection with a series of killings.

njkid1 writes "Electronic Arts has committed to launching a game for Xbox Live Arcade, their first ever downloadable console game. Entitled Boom Boom Rocket, it's slated to be a musical rhythm game using rockets to keep the beat. From the coverage at Eurogamer: 'Originally conceived by Pogo.com, the game challenges you to trigger rockets to the beat of the music whilst travelling through a 3D cityscape. The better your timing, the higher your score. Ian Livingstone has composed 10 original tracks for Boom Boom Rocket, each choreographed into three skill levels. Master these to unlock new firework designs.'"

VonSnouty writes "With the DS and PSP now out of their 'early years', handheld specialist Pocket Gamer has taken the innovative approach of warning readers off of the 10 worst games for the PSP released so far, as well as the and 10 worst games for the DS. The latter piece notes that: 'The DS has suffered from as many bad games as its Sony rival. Indeed, according to this unbiased evaluation of the PSP and DS game reviews on MetaCritic, DS has played host to even more dreadful, money-sucking stinkers. The reason? Probably the same things we love the DS for — its unique features, such as the dual-screens and the stylus. A lazy PlayStation 2 port might at least result in a mediocre game on PSP, but DS games done on the cheap are likely to be pure evil.'"

GameDaily is reporting that the much loved Guitar Hero series seems to have been given over to new developers. NeverSoft, makers of Gun and the Tony Hawk series of games, are now advertising open positions on their Guitar Hero team. Harmonix, Activision, and Neversoft are all mum on the development at this point, but it's hard to argue with a big 'hiring' sign. Notably, Neversoft appears to be hiring for a PlayStation 3 version of the game. From the article: "Neversoft is undoubtedly filled with much talent, but we're not quite sure why RedOctane would give the development duties to them after Harmonix created two hugely successful games. Guitar Hero II really cranked it up to 11 with sales of more than 805 K units in December alone in the U.S. In fact, according to recent NPD data, the game was the fifth best selling game for all of 2006 with 1.3 million units sold in the U.S."

A post at Game|Life lays out details on the upcoming Half-Life 2 releases. Instead of an unwieldy name (Half-Life 2 : Episode Two and a bunch of other stuff) they've given the PC and console releases color-coded names. The PC release, containing Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 will be available as Half-Life 2: Orange. Half-Life 2: Black will be the 360/PS3 release, and will contain all of the above plus Episode One and the original campaign. Both boxes are expected in 'late summer' of this year.