An anonymous reader writes "It's official: Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that two-headed ogres, each head controlled by a different player, are now a playable race in World of Warcraft, their upcoming PC massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Giving two separate players simultaneous control of a single body, this new race introduces a unique cooperative gaming experience never before attempted. Current beta testers should expect to see these innovative new game mechanics added in the coming weeks."

Thanks to GameSpot for its feature discussing plans to give full-audio speech to non-player characters in PC MMORPG sequel EverQuest II. The article points out this is "a first for online role-playing games, which have previously only featured silent characters that interact with players by sending them text chat messages", and elsewhere, a Grimwell Online article mentions a new PC Gamer magazine article specifying "an expected 130 hours of speech across 70,000 lines of dialogue", and revealing that "EQ2 is a $25 million dollar project." This new information comes as EverQuest celebrates its fifth anniversary with a multitude of developer interviews on the official site, as well as the re-activation of all old accounts until April 15th.

Thanks to ShackNews for pointing to the impressive technical feats showcased at the unofficial IF Quake page, which bills itself as "...a port of id Software's Quake 1 engine to the Inform programming language." The site includes riveting in-game screenshots, and the FAQ page has important info on bugs with this genuinely playable, downloadable Alpha release, noting: "IF Quake interfaces directly with the Quake engine, which was obviously not designed for [this advanced] output. The errors you see related to audio and OpenGL are due to the fact that the engine is being tricked into thinking it's running normally." Rumors that John Carmack will be switching Doom 3 to this impressive new engine are yet to be substantiated, however.

Thanks to the New York Times for its article (free reg. req.) discussing the plethora of recent videogames based on the Vietnam War. The piece notes: "Before the year is out, the game industry will have released five major titles involving a conflict that it has largely ignored for nearly two decades", and muses: "World War II games have in principle been simple to design. But because Vietnam changed the rules of engagement, the virtual battles had to be chaotic and the goals less clear." The article ends with a quote from one of the creators of Shellshock: Nam '67, arguing: "With video games, I think you can be more neutral. You can say, this is the environment. Go and experience what it was like and then come up with your own verdict of what you think of war."

Thanks to Game Science for its review of Namco's extremely odd PlayStation 2 game, Katamari Damacy, recently released in Japan. The game's premise involves fixing your father the King's drunken heaven-trashing exploits by "...collecting a load of junk from Earth, rolling it into clumps, and sending it up into the Cosmos to make stars." The gameplay is also distinctly unconventional: "Starting with a clump no bigger than the Prince himself, you must roll around the deepest crevices [MPEG link] of a house, picking up tiny things like drawing pins, moving up to Shogi tiles and batteries", before moving all the way up to "picking up giant octopi and huge monsters." The reviewer ends by noting: "A European release can't be ruled out, but a US release seems very unlikely. It's likely to become hot property when word spreads of its goodness, so I recommend a quick purchase if you're teetering on the brink of buying it."

Thanks to GameSpy for its 'Pile On!' feature discussing Beta impressions so far on Blizzard's long-awaited MMO title, World Of Warcraft. Reactions range from the effusive ("I'm more convinced than ever that this game may finally be the first truly mass-market MMO") through the delighted ("I'm... completely in love with World of Warcraft"), to the ecstatic ("World of Warcraft delivers just what people are expecting: a tight, fun MMOG from a trusted developer.") Elsewhere, a WorldOfWarcraft.com forum discussion has a Blizzard representative mentioning release estimates of early this summer are likely wrong: "Definitely not July. As you know, we never set release dates, but you can expect the beta to run for another 5+ months." But, more importantly, does anyone _not_ like World Of Warcraft?

securitas writes "In his latest Game On column, the Boston Globe's Hiawatha Bray describes Xbox and PS2 game console hackers as software pirates who use mod chips and damage game industry revenue. The focus of the column seems to be on the use of mod chips as a way to circumvent game copy controls and glosses over legitimate uses, although he mentions some of them. Without offering any research or concrete numbers, Bray facetiously writes, 'But how many mod chip users are interested in making honest backups? You could probably fit them all into the trunk of a Cadillac, with space left over for a spare tire.' Are the majority of mod chip users 'pirates' or are they legitimate users with legitimate applications for the modifications that Bray hasn't considered?"

Thanks to Blue's News for pointing to a Stardock press release discussing the announcement of a new PC strategy game based on running a U.S. Presidential campaign. An official site for The Political Machine has already been launched, with info on the game "in which you are the campaign manager for a candidate for President of the United States. Choose a political party, put together the dream presidential ticket and go for it." The title, from the developers of the niche favorite Galactic Civilizations, will debut via public Beta on the Steam-like Drengin gaming network on April 8th, and is due in stores this June.

Thanks to Atari Age for pointing out an updated demo of the Homestar Runner Atari 2600 RPG has been made available on their forums, and an attached message notes "...new bigger tiles, bigger map, ability to move between different maps and enter some buildings, [and a] partially done inventory screen." There's more information on this previously covered title at the official Homestar Runner RPG site, which lists pertinent features for the game, which is due to be released this May, including: "Will be released as a cartridge for the Atari 2600", and "Strongbad is not playable because he is the villain!"

Thanks to IGN Xbox for its article revealing that long-awaited Xbox platform title Psychonauts has been dropped by publisher Microsoft. According to an official statement: "Microsoft Game Studios has made the decision to end its publishing agreement with DoubleFine... [It] believes in the vision of the title and would like to see the game on Xbox... [and] is supporting Tim Schafer and DoubleFine in their search for a new publisher." There are some fine-looking comics on DoubleFine's news page, but no comment as yet from the developers regarding plans for one of the most long-awaited, intriguing-to-many Xbox platform/action games.

Thanks to Insert Credit for its GDC 2004 in-depth feature, in which last week's Game Developer's Conference is alternatively analyzed, from basic impressions ("the GDC's show floor was even more low-key than last year, with few real surprises") through lectures on game criticism ("Certainly it was a bit dry, and filled with references to Foucault and Baudrillard... But it was an excellent discussion of the pitfalls and potential methodologies of extraditing oneself from the trenches of the 'technical review'"), through American Idol 'star' William Hung's appearance caterwauling to PS2 music game SingStar ("even if you have a record deal; even if you don't quite understand your fame; even if thousands of women profess to want to be your wife -- Mom is still Mom.")

Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Space Channel 5 and Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, held on the final day of last week's GDC show. As for his future projects, he seems in no hurry to reveal anything, mentioning: "Well, it's been about six months since I left Sega... I think we'll be able to make an announcement [about new projects] at E3 or maybe next year." But he does indicate: "I think my next game will be for the PSP or Nintendo DS", and when asked if it would be a sequel to Rez, suggests: "In my mind, yes. But I won't use the Rez name because that belongs to Sega."

Petrochard writes "For all of you programmers who are big chess fans, check out Apple's release of Chess 2.0's source code. It would be cool if somebody could make a Simpson's Chess mod." Chess is based on sjeng (logic) and glChess (interface).

tripmaster writes "I'm lucky enough to have been asked to assemble and moderate a panel at the Smithsonian on May 16th; so I asked myself, who can I ask, given the cachet of an invite to speak at the Smithsonian (prior speakers: Berners-Lee, Cerf, Gates, Streep, Albright, etc.)? We ended up choosing Shigeru Miyamoto for console gaming, Richard Garfield for pen and paper games, Doug Church for PC games. /.-ers in the DC area (or on the East coast) should come see the panel, which will be a meaty 2-3 hours. I'm looking forward to asking questions and getting out of the way -- I think their cross-talk could be especially interesting. It's the weekend after the E3 Expo, which is probably the only time Miyamoto's in the States and available -- hopefully he'll also bring his E3 demos to show." Although a little pricey at $40, this is certainly a rare chance to see game design legends, particularly Miyamoto, in a roundtable.

jtcm writes "In a follow-up to several previous articles, The Inquirer has obtained a copy of of the suit filed in the Infinium vs. HardOCP case. It's certainly worth perusal."

madopal writes "Well, it's no secret that Microsoft has been slashing internal development (Mythica, anyone?). Now, they've announced that they're cancelling their entire 2004 line-up of XSN Sports games for Xbox. Wow, with Ed Fries gone, it sure is a different place over there." The article quotes Kevin Browne of Microsoft as saying: "We need to be making great games, and the marketplace told us that we're just not at that level."

Thanks to GameTunnel for its editorial discussing the outcome of last week's Independent Game Festival awards, as previously covered on Slashdot Games, and part of a comprehensive GameTunnel IGF section. The writer is particularly concerned that the relatively high-budget, but still publisher-less Savage: The Battle For Newerth won major awards: "IGF has this year shown that a team's ability to raise money is as important as innovation itself. Consider this, if Savage was done on a $50,000 budget instead of a $1.5 million dollar budget, how would it be different? Would things that are in the game have been left out? I believe that the clear answer to this question is yes." What defines an 'indie' game for you, and should there be a maximum budget for IGF-entered games?

Thanks to 1UP for its feature discussing the precise financial details of videogame publishing, described by Mastiff Games publisher Bill Swartz at GDC in San Jose last week. Swartz "put together various slides showing where the money goes for a hypothetical game", revealing that "a publisher can clear seven dollars on a game [after all costs are taken into account]." However, it appears that "only one of every five games will sell enough copies to make money, since publishers have to consider things like taking back inventory that doesn't sell through to customers", and elsewhere in the article, photos of the GDC slides show "a breakdown of how much publishers, wholesalers, and retailers can make, as well as what risks they face."

Thanks to GameSpot for its feature discussing the history of video game music as an artform, as they point out: "Once an afterthought in terms of game design and overall pop-culture consciousness, video game music is now a legitimate industry of its own." The feature goes on to chart game sound from 1972's Pong ("The sonar-blip sound that's generated as a digital ball is batted back and forth is the first true video game sound effect"), through the 1980s and Tetris ("...millions of glassy-eyed players endure endless loops of vaguely martial Russian Muzak playing in their heads"), right up to new titles such as Frequency ("notable in that it reduces visuals to a near-abstract level... and provides a gameplay experience that is primarily aural.")

bpitzer writes "It's official - Microsoft is cutting the price on the Xbox to $149, effective tomorrow, according to CNET News. Now, will Sony follow suit on the PS2? And how long until the next price drop? Maybe at this year's E3, making three in a row?" We previously reported on rumors to this effect, and other readers point to the official Microsoft press release, sporting a quote from noted tech analyst P.Diddy: "[I] believe that the system's cultural influence as a social entertainment brand has only just begun."