Woooo doggy! My employer, Turner Broadcasting, took the wraps off a project which has been in the works for around two years, the broadband gaming service dubbed GameTap. Following the model which has created robust businesses from archival content like Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies, GameTap will be a subscription service allowing users to play hundreds or even thousands of game titles, going all the way back to early arcade classics. Reuters has this quote from my coworker Blake Lewin who created this product:
“We have a brand new network … but Turner’s in the same business it’s always been…We want to program games as if they were TV shows.”
The service will leverage the same infrastructure built by the team I’ve been working with here for years – serving CNN.com, SI.com and NASCAR.com.
In a world where new game titles are often known years in advance of their release, this skunk works project has been in development for over two years, with nary a leak, despite a team of more than 100 members.
So after having ‘lost’ my install disc for HalfLife2, I thought I had blown the $50 I’d spent on the game and would never get to play it on my our new Dell XPS machine. Well, in our ongoing nesting in preparation for the baby, I discovered the missing install disc in a CD case beside my bed. I’d literally torn my office (home and work) apart looking for this. Anyway, that let me install the game this morning. When I launched the game, I was expecting Valve’s Steam service to apply various patches, inform me what was new in them, etc. Read on to see the amazing set of realism enhancements they added to the game in the latest release. Continue reading Half-Life2 Update Released→
The first review of the PC version of Brothers in Arms is out, and there are high marks all around. IGN.com offers up a 9.1 rating, and this closing paragraph sums up their take:
Like most of us here at IGN, I’m still a huge fan of Call of Duty and Battlefield 1942. While those games have their own unique strengths, Brothers in Arms takes some of the best features of each and adds an entirely new tactical dimension. Offering up engaging, squad-based battles and presenting it all in an authentic yet undeniably cinematic setting, Brothers in Arms is a game that, to borrow a phrase from General Patton, “grabs you by the nose and kicks you in the ass.”
Fedex.com reports that my copy arrived in the Atlanta sort facility last night, so there’s gonna be some Nazi-killing on the ol’ XPS 2nite!
Gamespot today is reporting that there will be a PC version of Fable coming to us soon. Screenshots, story here at Gamespot.com. I really enjoyed this game on the Xbox, and look forward to this version on the PC. Gamespot’s report below:
Microsoft today announced that the popular Xbox game Fable is headed for the PC this fall, under the name Fable: The Lost Chapters. The much-hyped game was released on Microsoft’s console last September and was developed by Big Blue Box, which is owned by Black & White developer Lionhead Studios.
My guess is that the PC will make for a better experience with this game – the controls were quite obtuse on the Xbox version, and this type of role-playing game should be a perfect fit on the PC.
