l0rd writes "A good piece on wired says : A few games of Roller Coaster Tycoon don't usually translate into productive work, but for one developer the diversion planted the seed for making website analysis more intuitive. Several years after playing those inspirational games, Robert Savage came up with VisitorVille, a website-traffic analysis package that essentially crosses the DNA of SimCity with that of the traditional chart- and graph-centric tools businesses have long been using. Screenshots included."

Thanks to Eurogamer for its two-part feature discussing developer Starbreeze's path to making a high-quality licensed videogame in Xbox FPS Chronicles Of Riddick, as the author asks of movie licenses: "Should they mimic the structure of the film and allow players to relive key events? Should they act as a supplement to the main picture, fleshing out secondary characters and back-stories whilst adhering to the tenets of genre?", before analyzing the development of the well-received title, which has drawn impressive scoring from GameSpot, who rated it "one of the most-impressive games on the Xbox and seems destined to be remembered as the most inspiring collaboration between Hollywood and the gaming industry yet." The Eurogamer article concurs with this, praising the "very cohesive first-person game blending elements of stealth, all-out action and storytelling." What did Starbreeze do right?

Thanks to GamerFeed for its news story noting that publisher Mastiff has picked up the quirky Arika-developed Technic Beat rhythm title for American release. It's explained: "Players listen to music represented in the game by radiating concentric rings of sound. Picking up the beat, they dance into the middle of the rings and try to 'catch' the music", and a hands-on preview at IGN PS2 has screenshots and more info on the "wickedly weird" PlayStation 2 title. Mastiff, the tiny U.S. publisher also responsible for bringing cult PS2 SRPG La Pucelle Tactics to the States, are also publishing PS2 action title Gungrave OD in the U.S., according to IGN, who describe the sequel to the somewhat one-note Sega-published shooter as "an assault on the senses."

Thanks to Google News for its link to the press release announcing Jon Van Caneghem, founder of New World Computing, has been hired by MMO developer NCSoft to work as "executive producer... on a new, unannounced online game project." As the release notes, Van Canegham "created the Might and Magic and Heroes series and turned them into two of the industry's most successful titles, with more than 20 million units in combined sales", and following the dissolution of New World Computing due to owner 3DO's collapse, and the sale of the Might and Magic franchise to UbiSoft, he'll be "working with [Ultima creator, Tabula Rasa developer, and NCSoft Austin head] Richard Garriott and NCsoft's... designers to create the next generation of massively multiplayer online games."

Channard writes "You can add another footnote to the strange fortunes of Ion Storm. It's been revealed that Thief: Deadly Shadows has a bug that affects the intelligence of the guards and other characters in the game, both in the PC and Xbox versions. Ion Storm Austin, the creators of the game, really went to work on the character AI in Deadly Shadows - on Expert level, the guards notice things like open doors, missing objects and the like. The catch, as reported on the official Ion Storm forums, is that a bug in the game resets the difficulty level to Normal level if you save and load your position in-game. The word from one of the Thief developers is that: 'We're looking into it.Can't say anything more for now, and there aren't any guarantees... but the find isn't being ignored.' The PC version should be relatively easy to patch, but fixing the Xbox version would be trickier, perhaps requiring a full recall (Microsoft doesn't allow the Xbox Live service to be used for anything other than patches that affect online play.)"

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing the problems of online console gaming without dedicated servers. The author points out: "Let's consider the top upcoming shooters on both the PS2 and the Xbox: Killzone and Halo 2... the cold, hard fact is that these games will only offer a maximum of 12- and 16-player online multiplayer, respectively. In other words, if you can find a good nearby server, you'll be playing a game that isn't fundamentally different than what we've been playing for about eight years on the PC in Quake 1." He continues by contrasting this to the PC experience: "EA has promised that the upcoming Battlefield 2, currently scheduled to ship in the first part of 2005, will have more than 100 simultaneous players", before suggesting: "The bottom line is that console games need dedicated servers. As it stands today, only individual Xboxes are serving matches while simultaneously allowing the host to play. You simply cannot run a 24- or 32-player game with just a 733MHz processor and 64MB of system RAM available, hooked up to a potentially flaky cable or DSL line."

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing the quashing of rumors regarding media giant Viacom buying Electronic Arts, with Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone (also in the process of privately buying into Midway) saying: "We have looked at the obvious companies like Electronic Arts... but their price is so high, it would be dilutive to our earnings. We have ruled it out." Meanwhile, EA's annual financial report has been released, showing "net revenue for fiscal 2004 was $2,957.1 million, up 19.1 percent", and also confirming "an [in-progress] workforce reduction of approximately 117 personnel in development and administrative departments", following the closure/relocation of "the majority of our leased studio facility in Walnut Creek, California and our entire owned studio facility in Austin, Texas." The financials also note that rising online sales from casual gaming portal Pogo.com was "partially offset by a decrease in subscription net revenue from The Sims Online, Ultima Online, and Earth & Beyond subscription services."

digitaltacoGSI writes "Fans of LucasArts-style adventure games (Monkey Island, Day of Tentacle, etc) would be wise to check out the brand-new, freely downloadable PC graphical adventure entitled No-Action Jackson, from independent developer Britton O'Toole. The story revolves around a young nerd -- Jackson -- who must escape the confines of his house and free his friends from their daily activities in order to make it to their D&D sessions at the local comic book store. It's very funny, very professional, has a great old-school look, and includes some very difficult puzzles." Judging by the positive reactions on AGSForums.com, this is well worth checking out.

Ozh writes "Did you ever wonder what you could do with a cluster of 20 AMD XP 1800s? Some German students and videogame fans did, and their answer has been what they call 'ray-tracing egoshooters', an entirely raytraced game engine which 'runs about 20 fps@36 GHz in 512x512 with 4xFSAA'. The first game to get this treatment is Quake 3 Arena : the screenshots look slightly better than the original 3D engine but the video (56 Mb, 3'19) is quite dramatic."

Thanks to GameSpy for its interview with Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma on the Zelda franchise, as the EAD deputy manager reveals he wasn't a fan of early Zelda efforts ("I could not stand the original Zelda. When I first played it, I did not know what I was doing. I was overwhelmed by enemies and I got killed right away"), questions the infamous CD-I Zelda titles ("I must admit, they were a strange characterization of the Zelda games"), and mentions future franchise plans, including a previously unconfirmed Nintendo DS Zelda title: "We have a Game Boy Advance Zelda [Minish Cap], a DS Zelda, and this [realistic] GameCube one."

Gaming Nexus writes "Over at Gaming Nexus, we've posted an interview with Alienware about their new video array technology, which 'will provide gamers with an expected 50% increase in gaming performance by utilizing two video cards.' The interview covers the creation of the technology, the problems they had in developing it, as well some more details on how it works." The short version is that it utilizes multiple cards to render one screen, similar to SLI, but with many more features added in as well. What Alienware has developed is a software layer that sits between the video drivers and the application, routing things to where they need to be.

xDCDx writes "LucasFan Games have just released an impressive 256 color remake of Maniac Mansion. There is a sequel to Zak McKracken available too. Their website is scarce in details, but the games speak for themselves. It seems the perfect timing for this release, now that LucasArts is obsessed with killing the graphical adventure genre. (If only Ron Gilbert would buy Monkey Island rights and made Monkey Island 3a: The Real Story...)"

Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing whether the Xbox has grabbed much of the development effort and talent from the PC gaming scene, with the author arguing: "From what I've been able to gather, there just isn't much interest in PC games unless as an afterthought to a console release. Deus Ex 2 and Thief III are superb examples of this mindset." He continues of the Xbox: "Its introduction has clearly robbed a lot of the resources that used to be dedicated to making PC entertainment. This is fine if you're willing to buy an Xbox and support Microsoft directly that way. It's not fine if you're a PC gamer that wants what the PC can offer specifically, and not some watered down version of what you've come to expect from a company." Do you agree?

Thanks to Water Cooler Games for its discussion on whether the U.S. mobile carriers' business practices are slowing down the growth of phone gaming. The author discusses a myriad of problems with upgrading his phone through his current carrier within an existing service contract, agreeing: "I understand that the carriers subsidize handset purchases as loss-leaders for service revenue", but going on to argue: "So, why is this a problem for mobile gaming? Because mobile gaming is still undergoing significant growth at the technology base. I can't run Symbian apps on my 6610. I can't run Series 60 apps. I simply need a new phone if I want to get serious about mobile gaming." Are these types of problems the ones stopping mobile phone gaming from taking off in the States?

Team Pokeme writes "Nintendo's Pokemon Mini LCD mini-handheld has been hacked by us - you can check out the videos on our site for more information. The cartridge pinout has been reverse engineered by using logic analyzers (thanks to DarkFader), and also the instruction set by disassembling (thanks DaveX!) the Pokemon Mini emulator that is built into Pokemon Channel, a GameCube game. DaveX wrote the first homebrew game, SokoMini, after finding out the tilemap stuff."

Thanks to IGN Vault for its multi-part report on the Star Wars Galaxies Fan Fest, held in Anaheim, California, on the 4th and 5th of June. There's also a summary of a developer's panel, in which the important question "When will Wookiees get Mohawks?" is addressed - apparently: "While the response was not overwhelming, more than a few attendees thought it would be a good idea." Regarding new in-game locations for Lucasart/SOE's MMO title, it's noted that the devs "all want [Coruscant to be added as a location to the game] very much. It's on the list, just as is Hoth and Bespin." There's also a Fan Fest photo gallery up on SWG Warcry, and there's currently a free 14-day trial of the game via FilePlanet.

Thanks to Winterwind Productions for its two-part interview with Chris Avellone, former RPG designer for Interplay's Black Isle division, discussing the continued turmoil at that company ("Projects getting cancelled just happens, but the reasons that projects were getting cancelled at Interplay never felt like good reasons"), his new home at Obsidian Entertainment ("I think our starting line of titles are going to be a good foundation to build Obsidian on... and should help when pitching new ideas to publishers"), and his work on Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2, including more specific endings compared to KOTOR ("The current game mechanic we're playing around for the endings with is something similar to Fallout, but it will be presented a little differently.")

Thanks to the IGDA for its 'Culture Clash' column exploring the effect of technical and gameplay advances on videogame problem-solving. A situation regarding Deus Ex: Invisible War is discussed, where "...testers approached a T intersection: to the right were laser tripwires and gun turrets; to the left was a locked door; and directly in front was a (usable) window. He said every single one of them, without fail, went to the right." The author explains: "One can imagine how frustrated developers must occasionally get when they watch gamers consistently employ Neolithic problem solving tactics when modern development tools make much more advanced techniques available." Is this a problem that developers or gamers should work to overcome?

Thanks to GameSpy for its 'Pixel' column discussing whether the early days of the PlayStation and Saturn are a newer, but nevertheless interesting stage of 'retro'. The author points out: "Moving to 3D brought a lot of challenges along with it, not the least of which involved graphics. The 32-bit generation differs greatly from its 16-bit predecessor in that a lot of 32-bit games' visuals have not aged well." But he nevertheless highlights the fact "there were so many vibrantly original games released for these machines, some obscure, some blockbusters... Motor Toon Grand Prix brought cartoonish designs to 3D life. King's Field put you in a truly non-linear, 3D dungeon. WipeOut married futuristic racing with high-caliber visual design. Panzer Dragoon gave flight to every kid's 'Neverending Story' fantasies." What were your favorite titles from the early days of 32-bit?

Thanks to 1UP for its reviews of the second batch of Famicom Mini (NES Classic) series for Game Boy Advance, since "Japanese gamers... are already enjoying their second batch of remakes", following this week's release of eight of the portable conversions from the NES in the States. Intriguing second-batch picks from the almost-complete review set include Ghosts 'N Goblins ("The return of the game that made masochism fun"), Balloon Fight ("Has a simple, universal appeal"), and Adventure Island ("...may well be the most fun you'll ever have running in a straight line from left to right"), and a stuttering IGN has also started coverage of Series 2.