OverRoll.com

The PlayStation Online Store and mainly its navigation (or lack there of) has taken a lot of hits compared to its rival XBOX Live. Word on the street is that that the Playstation Store is getting ready to launch an upgrade that will help bolster its online offering.

Reports this morning surfaced that Sony’s PlayStation Store would be getting a revamp in Europe. As it turns out, the digital storefront will be overhauled here in the U.S. as well, Sony Computer Entertainment America confirmed today. When it launches in mid-April (via a firmware update), the new PlayStation Store is expected to offer a “more dynamic look and improved navigation.”

Now with more reasons to check out PlayStation Online (see: BluRay), is Sony gearing up for a brawl come Holiday 2009?

via GameDaily.com

Take-Two Interactive’s announcement regarding its plan to delay the release of the highly anticipated “Grand Theft Auto IV” has been a shock to many. The franchise’s newest addition is being postponed from its original release date of Oct. 16th to as late as next fall. Which means it will miss the highly profitable holiday shopping season and disappoint scores of eager gamers who have had the game reserved for months- people such as myself.

Even if, we have many great games on the horizon (Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, and Metal Gear Solid 4) none will fill the void of no GTA in my book…

Think you’re pretty good at checkers? Well, if you played Chinook, a computer opponent developed by Canadian researchers, the best you can do is force a draw.

Not exactly world-changing, as even the researchers themselves note, but still pretty cool. See the whole article HERE on CNN.com. I found this line particularly interesting -

“Every combination of 10 checkers offers 39 trillion positions for the endgame, [Schaeffer] said. Chinook can calculate them all. It does not matter how the players make it to 10 checkers left because from that point on, the computer cannot lose, [he] said. For two players who never make a mistake, every game would be a draw, he said.”

As it turns out, while it seems like Chess has been solved by computers already, it really has not. Chess programs still use rules of thumb to play, not figuring out every possible position. Why? Because according to the researchers “Checkers has roughly the square root of the number of positions in chess,” the researchers said. “Given the effort required to solve checkers, chess will remain unsolved for a long time, barring the invention of new technology.” Scary.

Next up - poker. The researchers who created the checkers program will pit their poker playing program “Polaris” against two professionals for $50,000 in Vancouver. Stay tuned…

The thing this makes me think about it how despite the fact that we’re constantly surrounded by new and amazing technology, there is still so much to be found. If checkers is this complicated, think about how far we have to go with search, for example. I look forward to writing a more detailed post on this in the future, but just take a moment to think about search and how nascent it is. Think about how often you can really just type in what you want and get directed to where it is…not that often. We’ve all had to develop our own “search speak” to type into those engines because we know they’re not intuitive enough to understand what we’re asking for. And that’s the entire world of words and websites, not just a few squares and pieces that can only move one square at a time.

Here’s your chance to vent some stress and be in one of the most popular video game franchises ever!

Rockstar Games is currently giving anyone who calls their “WKTT Radio Hotline” a chance to express their feelings about whats wrong with their health, the world, America, or themselves.

This is such a great idea… It gives fans the opportunity to be part of the game, it gives Rockstar free content, and it creates a chance to sell more games. In fact, here is a perfect chance to harness the power of social media. For instance, they could produce and provide HTML badges to the lucky chosen “talent” that announce their “guest appearance” in the new GTA, so they would be able to post it on the web for others to see.

As well, I hope other video game developers get inspired by this and start implementing similar ideas in their game development.

Just imagine being able to to send in your photo and having a chance to be chosen as a character the next Tom Clancy game or sending in your own drawings/paintings and having them appear as scenery items in the next Resident Evil. In fact, the possibilities are endless, so it will be cool to see what is to come of all this.

Nevertheless, if your interested in the chance to brag to your friend about being in the new Grand Theft Auto. Just follow the link below…

WKTTradio.com

In the dawn of the new, more lean E3, comes the news of Sony’s new, more lean PSP. Actually, Sony has developed a thin PSP system with a variety of colors to match customer personalities (as seen below).

These new PSPs will be 33% lighter, 19% slimmer and have a more efficient battery. The most amazing part of this new PSP is the video output capabilities to TV (480 x 272). This means you can watch movies and play games on the big screen as well during your ride on mass transit. There will also be bundle opportunities for software developers (limited editions) like a ‘ceramic white’ color with a Darth Vader silk screen that includes a 1 GB memory stick along with Star Wars: Battlefront Renegade Squadron for $199.99 (due out later this fall).

It appears Sony is gaining momentum coming out of E3, and with these types of innovations, they may be able make up some ground on the Nintendo DS. We wonder how this will go over in Japan, where the DS is the clear market leader.

 

This just may be the best iPhone news yet!

We all know the iPhone can view YouTube videos, surf the net, and so
much more. But I bet you never thought you could play World of War Craft (WoW) on it! However, before everyone stops reading to finally go buy an iPhone, I must let everyone know it’s not exactly what you’re thinking…

Yes, Alan Joyce from EverythingDigital.org did in fact get WoW to run on his iPhone with a little help from telekinesis, a remote access tool for the iPhone that allows you to control your Mac. It wasn’t exactly perfect…

His results can be seen in his YouTube video HERE.

Though, you are limited to a few basic functions and forced to endure poor performance, this is still quite an extraordinary task!

Hopefully, this will inspire Blizzard to make a mobile WoW very soon!

Wired News reports that Rooster Teeth, the small company behind the now famous ‘Red v. Blue’ Halo, inspired Machinima series has decided to retire the show. As the true pioneers in Machinima, we owe this creative bunch a warm thank you for helping to evolve the concept — video games as art. The folks over at Rooster Teeth had this to say regarding the series finale:

Having labored on the series for four years, Red vs. Blue creator Michael “Burnie” Burns, who remains the series’ writer, editor, director and lead voice talent, wants to make sure fans aren’t let down.

The 15-minute final episode will be “the biggest one we’ve ever done,” says Burns, “but The Sopranos stole our ending, so we had to change it completely.”

With a strong Machinima fan base this only marks the end of the beginning of this fast growing segment in video game culture. How long will it take before we see a feature length film in this genre? In any case, thanks for the laughs.

Wired Story

Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive, the makers of the very controversial “Grand Theft Auto (GTA)” series, are once again causing a stir with their new video game, Manhunt 2, the sequel to 2003’s Manhunt. Manhunt is about a man who is being hunted for sport and the only way out is to kill your way out.

 

And if you couldn’t already tell, here is where the game’s problems begin…

 

The tactics used to kill in Manhunt 2 are about as horrific and violent as any game out there. Therefore, this has lead Ireland and

Britain to ban the game and the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) to rate the game “Adults Only.”

 

Now here’s the dilemma: many large retailers will not carry games with “Adults Only.” This includes Best Buy and Wal-Mart. In fact the highest rating a game could be to be sold in any of these places is “M” for mature.

 

 

This is all VERY bad for the business!!!

 

Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive’s chairman, responded by saying the game, “Brings a unique formerly unheard of cinematic quality to interactive entertainment, and is also a fine piece of art.”

 

I will be the first to say that video games are just as much a piece of art as any, but when you are in the business of making video games that sell for profit, good games that never get a place on store shelves are bad games for business!

 

Still, it will be very interesting to see what comes out of all this. Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have pushed the envelope before with GTA, so they are no strangers controversy.

 

Even so, doesn’t it seem a bit peculiar that Rockstar Games is the only game maker with such troubles?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but we see many games that are full of violence come out everyday. In fact, most don’t seem to have a problem getting by with “M” ratings. Could it be that Rockstar is really being the one hunted in all this? They have already come under great political scrutiny regarding their upcoming GTA release. I guess only time will tell…

 

As of right now the game makers have decided to suspend the release of the game, which was originally slated to release July 10, in the hope that the game can somehow get the ESRB to change the rating to “M.”

 

Happy “M” hunting!