Alex St. John, the CEO of online video game company WildTangent, has predicted at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle that consoles will be "extinct" by 2020. He said that "the PS3, the Wii and the X-box are the last generation of consoles that you either see or that anybody regards as successful in the market." Want to know what else he had to say? Well, the "read more" link is right below, use it.

Massive Development and Swordfish Studios' project of porting the PC real-time strategy game World in Conflict to both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is looking really promising. It seems that the developers have figured out how to put in some Direct X 10 effects into the console versions of the game. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

Want more information on JoWood's upcoming title, Gothic 4? Well, you guys will be getting that and even more. We were able to catch the first details that were revealed by the German PC Games magazine for this RPG game. Find out the details after the jump!

One topic that this year's Nordic Game conference aims to discuss is regarding game development. To this end, Nordic's organizers have unveiled their initial line-up of professional programmers who will be giving talks at the event grounds. Details are available in the full article.

When I first found out that I was getting assigned to work on Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) Open Beta, I honestly had doubts. The CoD series (I've played all three previous games, FYI) was traditionally a WWII FPS, and it felt very strange to have this latest of the game franchise into a contemporary setting. I'd imagine there were only so many sides you can portray back in WWII...and the devs probably weren't prepared to set the Nazis as a protagonist.

So with a tinge of hesitation, I powered up our Xbox 360, logged on and entered my very-first multiplayer frag-fest. That was a little less than three weeks ago. These days, I'm still heavy hearted, but not for the game - it rocked - but for the fact that Open Beta's soon coming to and end. There's still so much to do, people to kill, and prizes to win. And I'd imagine it's about to get double-ugly come this 28, when Infinity Ward unlocks the level caps to 25. I want that M60, damn it!

I'll be providing the readers with a basic lowdown of COD4's Open Beta mechanics, and of the various features that made it such a success. Given that this is strictly a multi-player affair, you don't have to worry about plot spoilers, unless you count the three stages that were used for the matches. So, what exactly did we and the rest of the other shooter encounter for Open Beta? Read on to find out....

Just click on Full Article for the full review!

Owners of Capcom's Lost Planet (Xbox 360, PC), may want to watch out for next week, as the company reports that a new series of game downloadables will be cropping up. For the PC gamers in particular, expect an automatic patch to kick in this August 16, which will carry specialized DirectX 10 Geometry Shaders. This update is expected to enhance DirectX 10 capabilities, including visual effects like depth of field effects, motion blur, and fur shading.

The second part of the patch is support for a new chat system in Lost Planet PC's multiplayer mode. This feature will carry four general messages to be used to communicate with other players in the lobby, in-game, and result screens. Here's a shortlist :

• Lobby
• Let’s go.
• Hold on a sec.
• It’s nice to meet you.
• Roger!
• In-game
• Thank you.
• I’m sorry.
• You’ve gotta hold’em off!
• Roger!
• Result Screen
• Let’s go.
• Thank you.
• What do we do now?
• Thanks.

Last on the list is Lost Planet PC's Map Pack 2, which will carry Battleground, Lost Technology, Ruins, and Ice Drop. These maps were originally part of Lost Planet's Packs 2 and 3 for the Xbox 360, with their PC port now being handed out for free.

For the Xbox 360-based owners, good news comes with the announcement that your Map Pack 3 (Lost Technology, Ruins, and Ice Drop) will be available for free. And as previously reported, Map Packs 1 and 2 will also be free. All three packs are available on Xbox Live at the same time as the PC updates (August 16) - just be sure to have ample storage space to hold them all. Also expect an update to improve connectivity to be released in the near future.

Buy: [Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (360)]
Buy: [Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (PC)]

Ouch. Biggest news in the techies' Utopia is Epic Games' Mark Rein expounding his predictions that technology on PCs would be throttled, after a showcase of Unreal Engine 3 titles on consoles haven't even come close to pushing the DirectX 10 envelope.

 

After PC gaming (at least in the North American side) had drifted off to a steady decline, game companies have steered their focus into development for the next-generation platforms, such as the Xenon-powered Xbox 360 and the CELL-powered PlayStation 3. But with their physical limitations, consoles can only power so much in a game before plateauing at a certain performance level.

Epic Games' vice president Mark Rein told CVG that the game industry has to "dumb the games down for the consoles," so it's highly unlikely that gamers on PC will see anything pushing the graphical or technological envelope in the near future. In fact, Rein thinks that it most likely that no game would even tap DirectX 10 until the next iteration of consoles.

While Banzai Runners the world over could be "facepalming" in unison, this doesn't present more of a threat to "geeked up" gamers than to, say FutureMark or NVIDIA, whose businesses has been at the brunt of graphical technology advancement since the late 1990s. Sneaking around the Web's most reputable tech forums, we've found that majority of the reactions aren't even concerned with Rein's statements.

It is true that the opinion is worrisome to an extent (essentially, while unproven, it is potentially viable), but it appears that more concern has been emphasized toward creativity, variety and (gasp!) quality games for the PC, rather than always push the frontlines of graphics with first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers or real-time strategy games. Is a revolution at hand? If so, this blogger wants X-COM back (please?).

And as for PC gaming technology being throttled, however, some people believe that Germany, banded together with computer companies worldwide, may have something different to say altogether.

 

By Crom! If you're like some of us here at QJ.NET anxiously awaiting Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, then here's a deluge of screenshots, artwork, the latest logo, and the European packshot. It's enough for any barbarian to want to go out and start pillaging some villages in glee.

If you're not sold on this game yet, you should know that it has won multiple E3 awards when it was showcased before, including Best Game in its genre and One of the Most Anticipated PC games currently in development.

In addition to this, the features listed below are quite extensive and very impressive. It was even mentioned by Funcom that players can actually befriend King Conan himself in the game.

Feature list:

• The First Mature Rated MMORPG
• Real Combat System
• True Conan Experience
• Conan's World
• Advanced Technologies (Optimized for DirectX 10 and Multi-core CPUs)
• Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment
• Guild and Solo Gameplay
• Diverse Gameplay
• Character Customization
• Amazing Graphics
• 7.1 Surround Sound

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is slated to be out this October 30, so get ready for it! Here are the promised screens, artwork, packshot, and logos! Enjoy!

   

Artwork, packshot, and even more screenshots in the full article!

In a recent interview with Game Informer, id Software's John Carmack gave word that they will not be using DirectX 10 for the upcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for the Xbox 360, PC, PS3, and Mac.

According to Carmack, so far there is no "massive pull" for him for DX10 and it all depends on how widely adopted Vista will become.

Microsoft's Director of Games for Windows Rich Wickham has responded to this and to the people who have been pointing out that Microsoft's DirectX 10 is not gaining as much acceptance among game developers.

"What I believe Mr. Carmack said was that he did not currently see a compelling reason to develop on DirectX 10...," said Wickham. "We obviously work with id, and a lot of id’s progeny." He also added that he would be "shocked and amazed if id doesn't build a DirectX 10 title some day" and that he suspects that it will be "sooner rather than later."

Those are pretty strong and confident words from Wickham regarding their product. Whether his predictions come true or not remain to be seen. Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates on the gaming scene.

 

Thanks much to their zombie shooter Dead Rising, top performer Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, and PSP phenomenon MonsterHunter Freedom 2nd, Capcom's fiscal year (FY) for 2007 saw a boost in operating income, nearing almost 46% in increase at 9.6 billion Yen (US$ 792.86 million).

This was following a 6.1% increase in sales, amounting to 74.5 billion Yen (US$ 615.29 million), as reported by an unaudited financial report filed by Capcom for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007. But the company suffered a net income decrease, attributing it to a review of tax valuation reserve for deferred assets.

Having formerly announced their plans to expand to the West, Capcom insisted that the company's move is right on track, after noting millions of units sold for each of their three titles - two for the Xbox 360 and one for the PSP. Lost Planet is being ported over to the PC and should be available soon in glorious DirectX 10 glory.

DS title Mega Man Star Force and three PS2 titles - Devil Kings 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Okami - have also performed well last year, while Capcom noted an unsatisfactory performance of their arcade operations. Their arcade division may have garnered a 12.8% increase in sales of 13 billion Yen (US$ 107.37 million), but suffered a 17.6% loss of 2 billion Yen (US$ 16.52 million) in operating income.

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for the additional information.