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- 90's game hero Duke Nukem returns after delay of more than a decade
published on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:45:49 -0400
By Tim Conneally, Betanews Friday, 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced they will be releasing Duke Nukem Forever on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC in 2011. The game was first announced in 1997 and has long been considered the most legendary case of "vaporware," that is, hardware or software that is announced but released either too late or not at all.The story of Duke Nukem Forever is so legendary that its delay inspired its own parody game franchise. D3's Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard was released in 2009, and featured a gun-slinging action game hero very similar to Nukem returning to video games after a six-year hiatus."Gearbox has enabled die-hard key Duke Nukem franchise builders and skilled veteran game makers to stand together and deliver," Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software said today. "All gamers deserve a happy ending and after all of us gamers feeling the full range of emotions about Duke Nukem Forever, I am thrilled to be in a position with the trust, power and means to make it happen."Following 3D Realms' hit Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, the company announced Forever a year later. In November 1997, it was featured on the cover of PC Gamer, and hype for the title was pretty high. A series of setbacks pushed back the game's release, but it was never cancelled. 3D Realms changed its website to say the game would be released "when it's done." Five years after the title was announced, 3D Realms' then-president George Broussard told Wired magazine, "We're undeniably late and we know it. We've switched engines a couple of times, and we've started over a couple of times. We've made some mistakes, and we've learned from them. I'm just glad we're in a position to do those things, and to be able to make the game we want to make, instead of being rushed out the door to meet stock projections."In 2008, 3D Realms' president Scott Miller spoke on rumors that Duke Nukem Forever would be released some time that year, but still did not announce a date. "We can't make an official announcement," Miller said. "Frankly, we may miss the mark by a month or two, but I feel very confident that we're on target this time. It's definitely an internal push."Of course, 3D Realms never did put out the game. In 2009, funding issues caused the company to shelve development, which then caused publisher Take-Two Entertainment to sue 3D Realms for breach of contract."Our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis at the time. "In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever."Gearbox Software --which recently scored a big hit with dystopian first person shooter Borderlands-- subsequently picked up development of the title, and is giving attendees at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this week an opportunity to actually play portions of the game."All great things take time... a lot of time," 2K's President Christoph Hartmann said in a statement Friday. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010 Duke Nukem Forever - Randy Pitchford - Gearbox - 3D Realms - PlayStation 3 - Ping off to a rocky start as spam, issues plague service
published on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:36:11 -0400
By Ed Oswald, Betanews Apple's foray into social music is not going well as its Ping service is experiencing a multitude of problems, including comment spam, a lack of promised functionality, and generally inconsistent user experience.Security researcher Chet Wisniewski at Sophos said Apple is not employing any type of spam or URL filtering, as comments such as those advertising "free iPhones" were already appearing some 24 hours after the site's launch. He also said that Apple has made it easy for those to abuse the service."No credit card or other positive identification is required to participate," he pointed out in a blog post. Without this, a user could create accounts easily simply by creating a bogus iTunes account which in turn would allow a bogus Ping account to be created.Ping is also suffering from a case of overpromising and underdelivering, apparently. In his presentation on Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the service would tie in with Facebook in order to assist in music discovery and finding friends to follow.That is not to be. Facebook has blocked Ping from using its free APIs to connect to the service, fearing that a deluge of users could cause stability problems with the social networking site. Negotiations to make some type of arrangement don't seem to be going so well either: Jobs told All Things Digital's Kara Swisher that Facebook's terms were "onerous."Users now must search for friends by name, or invite them through e-mail, making the process of getting up and running on the service much more difficult. It is not clear whether Facebook and Apple may come to terms, although reports indicate talks are "ongoing."Another problem encountering early adopters of Ping is an inconsistent user experience. Apple has instituted a policy of approving profile pictures before they go live on the service: some have reported that the images fail to even upload.Its recommended bands and users to follow seem stuck in time: the same 13 bands seem to be shown to all users regardless of their musical preferences, and the people recommended to follow seem also to be pretty much similar among early adopters.Some are criticizing Ping for not living up to its potential. "Ping could be so much more than it is: isolated, controlling, and a bit boring," TechCrunch's Erick Shoenfeld wrote. "Ping debuts as this odd little social network sitting by itself in the corner refusing to, you know, network. And be social," CNBC's Jon Fortt said in his own review. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010 Apple - Facebook - Steve Job - iTunes - Application programming interface - Company of Heroes Online open beta launches, rewards early adopters
published on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:20:01 -0400
By Tim Conneally, Betanews Video game maker THQ has opened the beta of Company of Heroes Online, a free-to-play World War II strategy game based upon THQ's critically acclaimed real-time strategy franchise Company of Heroes, originally released for Windows in 2006.The open beta of Company of Heroes Online includes 17 multiplayer maps which can be used in two, four, six, and eight-player modes, and beta testers can play one-player campaign mode from Company of Heroes for free. Users that register on companyofheroes.com before September 8 receive bonus in-game content for their early adoption. Minimum requirements for Company of Heroes online include: Windows XP SP3, Vista 32/64bit or Windows 7, Intel Pentium 4 2Ghz, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9500 or better, nVidia 5200 or better, 20GB free space, and DirectX 9.0C. The beta is currently limited to users in North America, and the final version is expected to be released later this fall. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010 Company of Heroes Online - World War II - Software release life cycle - Company of Heroes - Real-time strategy - Verizon offers prepaid data plans for smart phones
published on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:23:52 -0400
By Ed Oswald, Betanews Verizon strengthened its prepaid offerings on Thursday, introducing prepay data plans for consumers who wish to use smart phones on a no contract basis. While the acquisition costs for those phones will be significantly higher, a customer would be free to leave at any time.Prepaid data plans would cost the user $30 per month, and include unlimited data access. The company would offer a 250MB data plan for "multimedia" phones, which would be a $10 per month add on. Both offerings would become available beginning immediately in Verizon's own stores, and online on September 28, the company said.Data plans are not mandatory on prepaid phones, but would require a voice plan in order to be added to a user's account. The monthly fee is the same as a postpaid contract holder would pay, although its voice plans start at a $5 premium to the postpaid customer.Many of Verizon's popular smart phones would be compatible with the prepaid service. These include the carrier's Blackberry line, the Droid X, the Droid 2, and HTC's Droid Incredible, among others. Multimedia phones compatible with the cheaper plan included the LG enV and Chocolate, Samsung Alias, and Casio Elixim."These new data offerings will help our prepaid customers experience the full breadth of Verizon Wireless' robust device portfolio," Verizon Wireless marketing director Jim Sullivan said. The move is also likely aimed at keeping the carrier in step with its competitors, who have increasingly been offering more smart phones in their device lineups as of late.Essentially, prepaid users would for the most part have to pay a $200 premium on their desired device. That extra fee is compensation to Verizon Wireless for the subsidy that is normally paid for by the device manufacturer in exchange for carriage on the company's network. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010 Verizon Wireless - Smartphone - Blackberry - Droid - Prepaid - Samsung bets on Galaxy Tab in race against Apple's iPad
published on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:23:41 -0400
By Ed Oswald, Betanews In what could potentially be the first serious challenge to Apple's dominance in the tablet sector, Samsung Thursday debuted the Galaxy Tab, a 7-inch Android powered tablet device. It will initially be available in European markets later this month, with a broader worldwide launch shortly afterward.Although the device's screen size is smaller than the iPad, much of the rest of the specifications are quite similar. The Tab includes a 1GHz processor; up to 64GB of storage space; 3G, Bluetooth, and 802.11 wireless connectivity, and high definition playback of digital content.One thing it does have that the iPad does not is a front and back facing camera: the front one is 1.3 megapixels, while the back camera would support 3 megapixels as well as an LED flash. No announcement was made as to the pricing for the new device, nor carrier partners for the included 3G connectivity.Samsung says the Tab, which is part of the company's broader line of "Galaxy" Android devices, is only the first of a line of tablet devices from the manufacturer. "Samsung recognizes the tremendous growth potential in this newly created market," mobile chief JK Shun said in a statement.He said that the Tab was designed to maximize the user's online experience, and would "push the market in new directions." Built upon Android's 2.2 "Froyo" update, the Tab also includes something that has notoriously been left out of the iPad: Flash.Adobe Flash 10.1 is supported, which Samsung extols the Tab as being able to view every single web page as the developer intended. In order to make these same pages viewable correctly on the iPad, some web developers have had to tweak their designs to take advantage of HTML5 vis a vis Flash, which could be inconvenient. Getting into the e-reader business is something that Samsung is also interested in: each Tab would come with an application called the "Readers Hub," which would link into a library of content. The hub concept would also translate into other forms of media discovery including a "Music Hub" and "Media Hub."The Korean manufacturer did not specify if it would use proprietary or open technologies to deliver this content to users.Among many of the first looks given of the Samsung Galaxy Tab today, mobile messaging and VoIP software maker Fring gave a quick peek at video chatting on the device. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010 Apple - Android - Bluetooth - Adobe Systems - Adobe Flash - Why can't Apple's Ping sing?
published on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:08:00 -0400
By Joe Wilcox, Betanews Is Apple going to compel me to write another "I was wrong post?" Yesterday I extolled Ping -- Apple's new social music discovery tool -- based on features and product strategy. Finally, late last night, Apple widely distributed iTunes 10, giving me the chance to finally use Ping. The results aren't good. The discovery tool is simply useless, because Ping doesn't reflect my current music listening habits.One of Ping's most important personal features is "What I Like." It can automatically display 10 popular songs, allowing friends to see what the Ping user (hereafter referred to as Pinger) listens to (there is a manual option, too). "What I Like" is crucial to music discovery friend-to-friend, and it broadcasts the Pinger's music tastes to the world. How embarrassing for the teen chugging Ke$ha, B.o.B., and Katy Perry, only to find Ping plunking Perry Como into "What I Like."My list of 10 preselected songs is totally surprising. I haven't listened to one of these tunes in months. Some are MP3 files purchased from Amazon and others are AAC tracks bought from iTunes. I've looked through the songs and so far can see only one commonality: I don't listen to them much. Ah, isn't that the opposite of what Ping is supposed to do? Sure, there are many more songs that I listen to less, but many others I do more. Ping rightly reflects past listening habits as current. How dumb is that?Among the songs, Ping asserts that I like: "Your Love is a Drug" by Ke$ha "The Beauty in Ugly" by Jason Mraz "This River is Wild" by The Killers "Warning" by Green Day "Shadow of the Day" by Linkin Park These are all bands I do listen to. I don't recall ever listening to the Jason Mraz song. Last.fm or Zune.net would let people know what I listen to most and most recently. There's simply nothing current about Ping. Here's my confessed musical reality:1. Last five played songs: "Banquet" by Bloc Party "The Ghost Inside" by Broken Bells "Too Dramatic" by Ra Ra Riot "Bourgeois Shangri-La" by Miss Li "Hate to Say I Told You So" by The Hives 2. Most played songs: "Shattered (Turn the Car Around)" by O.A.R. "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train "You Won't Know" by Brand New "Narcotic" by No Second Troy "Fortress" by Pinback 3. My current fav albums: "The Orchard" by Ra Ra Riot "Beneath It All" by Hey Monday "The Script" by The Script "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me" by Brand New "Silent Alarm" by Bloc Party Does Ping represent you, because it sure doesn't reflect me. This morning I tweeted: "Does Ping accurately represent what you like? Tweet back w/answer. I'm writing a story about Ping's music choices." Paul Sorensen responded: "It represents what I listen to, which is perhaps different than what I would like to think of myself as liking."Adam Hall quipped: "I ticked Alternative and Rock options, and it recommended Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. that's a #fail to me!" But follow-up tweets revealed Ping's musical recommendations to Hall, not what he supposedly listens to.Another problem: I went to bed with a Facebook Connect option, but it was gone this morning. Over at All Things Digital, Peter Kafka tries to answer: "What Happened to Apple's Ping/Facebook Connection?" Regardless, Ping is off to a somewhat rockier start than I would have guessed from yesterday's demo.If Ping can't accurately display "What I Like" the service is useless to me. How about you? Have you used Ping? Are you satisfied? I ask Last.fm or Zune.net users to pipe in about these services compared to Ping. Please respond in comments. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010 Apple - ITunes - Jason Mraz - Shadow of the Day - Steve Jobs