Wondering what ever happened to Microsoft's original plan for Live Anywhere? For some, it's been taking the company a while to fully finish the integration of the service across many platforms. Xbox Live Executive John Schappert said that the service is till going to push through. Know more after the jump!

Although not especially high in Epic Games' priority list, interconnected multiplayer sessions between PC mouse-twitchers and PlayStation 3 analog-fumblers may be more than a probability now. Next Generation has reported that IGN's GameSpy has just signed a licensing agreement with Epic Games.

 

As a result, GameSpy's online multiplayer technology will now be incorporated into Unreal Engine 3, permitting the connectivity of PC (and therefore, also Mac) gaming's online infrastructure with that of the PlayStation 3's open network infrastructure. Along with the interconnectivity features, additional online helper applications, which include communication, statistical, and competition tools, will follow.

But more importantly, the licensing of GameSpy tech will now allow all other UE3 licensees to cross the Mac-PC-PlayStation 3 gap. That's a list that includes Codemasters' Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Ubisoft's Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway.

GameSpy now joins a slew of other companies in Epic Games' Integrated Partners Program, while offering the quick solution to Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 networking capabilities. Director Todd Northcutt of GameSpy Technologies told Next Generation that Epic decided not to develop the engine's networking technology and searched for a third-party solution instead.

And yet the interconnectivity scenario continues to broaden. Despite the fact that Midway's Unreal Tournament III (Mac, PlayStation 3, Windows PC on DVD, Xbox 360) will not be supporting Microsoft's Live Anywhere initiative, GameSpy added that it would offer its own solution to bridge the Xbox 360, PC, Mac, and PlayStation 3 gap.

"We're huge believers in cross-platform play. It's something gamers would love to see, to be able to play with one unified community no matter what platform they're on. We certainly have the technology to make that happen," said Northcutt.

Now the only hurdle left is whether Sony and Microsoft would even agree to such a move.

This could probably be old news to cult followers behind Unreal Tournament since it released back in 1998 (Game of the Year by 1999). But just in case there are still people hoping for console first-person shooters to tag along with seamless online Unreal Tournament III (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Mac) play on PC, we thought this might interest you.

 

Lurking around the official Unreal Tournament III forums, we've found that Mark Rein himself stated that they will be looking into what the PlayStation 3's open-network technology and the PC's already-established networking capabilities could add up to:

We have not decided about cross platform play between PC and PS3. We're not 100% sure that users want that feature but if we get time we'll play around with it and see how it works. In the mean time we plan to be able to serve the PS3 from PC servers so that should help us gets lots of great servers going.

Unreal Tournament Classic, UTGOTYE, UT2003 and UT2004 have all been hosted upon various dedicated servers around the world, and thanks to the Sony's open-network infrastructure for the PlayStation 3, fans on the console won't run out of servers to join online. 24/7 coverage, while amazing, may not even cover half of the Sony camp's excitement over this development.

The question of whether these servers will be viewable on PC gamers' server lists is still left unanswered, while concern for accidentally joining a match for PlayStation 3 players still looms over the horizon. If Epic does pull through with PS3-PC play, such a case would no longer be an issue. They might have to resort to control balancing issues instead, which will likely spark from the PS3's control handicap - a viable aimbot that's considered cheating to professional UT players.

From here on end, however, things look bleak for the Xbox 360, as Epic Games reiterated that Unreal Tournament III will not utilize Games for Windows LIVE for obvious reasons and critical repercussions that could stem from the loyal PC gaming community.

If Microsoft and FASA Studios' Shadowrun was any indication of cross-platform play between PC and Microsoft's next-gen console, things may not be 'going anywhere' for the Live Anywhere initiative - at least in the PC gamers' perspective.

For sure. When Microsoft seemed bent to advocate Live Anywhere to game developers in order to connect console thumb-flippers to PC twitchers on what might have been the modern gamer's World War I, they probably didn't expect to be stopped dead cold by Infinity Ward's two-lettered dumb-founder: "No." Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ain't going Live, says Infinity, and that's that.

 

But Infinity Ward's Grant Collier did reveal in an interview with IGN that CoD4 (for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) was not going to be a sandbox destructive game. Instead, they've put more focus on producing better frame rates on the game than creating a world that's "totally destructible."

And according to Collier, full destructibility is just another fad in the shooting genre that could end sooner than later. While everyone is else is requesting for such a feature, Infinity Ward doesn't feel that it delivers fun in any of the games that are being designed with that concept in mind, like EA's Battlefield Bad Company. He added:

I think it's a buzzword, it's a badge, it's a bullet-point option, but a lot of games they get in there and they try to do that and then they're like 'okay we have the sandbox, now why don't we try to make the game fun'. And total destructibility, you can really ruin the gameplay. ... So I think right now it's a fad, and the fad will pass, we're not going to be bite on in it - we want the game to be fun first, and destructibility comes second.

Oh and Price is coming back. Again. Revived for the modern era, the lovable Brit is going to get new shoes to fill, with arch-nemesis Zakhaev. Collier said that a foiled assassination attempt has your paths cross with Zakhaev and Price and much of their history gets revealed through flashbacks set in Ukraine.

And even though facts have been tossed around that Call of Duty 4 was set in present-day Iraq, it actually revolves around conflict touching the four corners of the modern world. And enemies aren't under-equipped, cowardly Guerrilla types; they've got the technology and the tactics to take you and your band of brothers (circa 2007) out.

1UP fleshed out the details concerning the new Xbox Live Messenger. It is really meant to be the Xbox IM, and is part of the entire crossover "Live Anywhere" drive Microsoft's pushing.

The chat window overlay "pops up over movies and games in the center of the screen," and is slightly transparent. Future updates may include options to reposition and customize the chat window. The window doesn't pop up immediately when a message is received, especially when you're busy doing something else (like, for example, gaming); pushing the Guide button at the prompt will pop the window.

Now, your Xbox Live Friends' List is independent from the 600-person Messenger Buddy List that XBL Messenger will accommodate (now, if you manage to fill both lists... that is some networking). Pressing Y will toggle between the lists. XBL Messenger also supports chats with multiple friends, like tabbed chatting in AIM 6.0, 1UP notes.

Oh, and 1UP mentions something about the option to use USB keyboards as well as the keypad or the on-screen keyboard.

After knowing more about Left 4 Dead from Valve's project manager Eric Johnson and marketing manager Doug Lombardi, we now focus our attention to Turtle Rock Studios' founder Michael Booth and his opinions about their game bound to hit the Xbox 360 and PC.

FiringSquad was able to secure a chit-chat with Mr. Booth and various topics were raised, including main human characters and how different they are in terms of gameplay. To that, he said:

In Left 4 Dead, players may assume the role of any of the four Survivors or one of four "Boss Infected." Our AI technology allows games of 1 to 8 players - bots will assume the remaining Survivor and Boss Infected roles when human players are not available. The four Survivors have the same abilities and weapons available to them at the beginning of each campaign. However, it's the weapons you find and the tactical choices you make that define your role on the Survivor team.

He also mentioned the types of zombies in the game. There are the mobs of AI-controlled zombies (or as Booth calls them, "infected"), then there are five "Boss Infected" (the higher, more powerful zombies) - Witch, Boomer, Hunter, Smoker, Tank.

All of them, with the exception of the Witch could be played by human players. When asked about the main goals in each round of the game, he said:

Similar to Counter-Strike, the goal of the environments and objectives are designed to present immediately recognizable situations that also allow for unique combat, even when played multiple times. In this case, each of the four campaigns included in the first release are of the "Escape and Survive" variety for the Survivor team. However, each mission is set in different geographic places which naturally lend themselves to varied play styles and challenges.

Since the game is coming out on the Xbox 360 and PC, questions about Live Anywhere are inevitable. Unfortunately, Michael didn't want to talk too much about it as he mentioned that they haven't yet revealed any details regarding the 360 version just yet. Please stay tuned for more".

Stay tuned we will. Check out the word-per-word account of the interview by clicking on our read link below.

 

Shadowrun (Xbox 360, PC) is starting to rack up a rep of being an unconventional game. First, an FPS from a traditionally RPG genre. Second, cross-platform gaming. Third, now only multiplayer. And now, despite it being a shooter, no split screen multiplayer, even as shooters like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 feature the ability to throw a party more intimate than LAN - or Live.

In the Official Shadowrun Community forums, FASA Studio's lead program manager Kimona confirmed reports that split-screen isn't going to make it to the Shadowrun final build. And not for lack of trying: he says the team's been wanting to implement split-screen, but simply had too much work remaining. FASA decided on the bird in the hand: to work on what they already had and try to make it really good instead.

How does this affect the appeal of the game? Despite its being touted as a multiplayer like no other (particularly because of cross-platform gameplay), losing the single-player could dilute some interest in the game - especially on an IP that's traditionally associated with RPGs. Bot to lose split-screen will make the game one of those that are Xbox Live-required, like Chromehounds (while it had single-player, it was all training. All the lead was on Xbox Live).

It's not a bad thing, but it means that the game's ultimately going to be only as good as Xbox Live (or Live Anywhere) makes it. It doesn't have a single-player component or split-screen multiplayer component to fall back on.

 

The Live Anywhere service (or is it called Live for Windows, now?) which was first unveiled at the E3 2006 aims to extend the Xbox Live service to multiple platforms so as players could move easily from one gaming environment to another while using a single player identity. It would also let PC gamers check out and access their Xbox 360 Gamertag. At the CES 2007, it once again made waves during its demonstrations. Now, what's up with Live Anywhere?

IGN reports that during a Games for Windows event at San Francisco, Live Anywhere was seen running with Uno and Shadowrun. Aside from this demo, no release date has been set and it is speculated that it will ship within the next few months along with the said games and Halo 2. Apparently, the files of Live Anywhere is pegged at around 5MB and will be shipping on the actual game discs.

It will only function while a supported app is open. Logging in will require you to enter your Windows ID and after that, you'll be able to see your friends list, send text and voice messages, game invites, file player reviews among many other things. A Home button brings up a guide blade which will allow access to all the functionality. Its first release would likely include the ability to update an application simultaneously on the X360 and PC so as both platforms are prevented from operating with different versions of the game.

Future Live anywhere updates may be rolled out simultaneously with Xbox Live updates while access to Gamertags on a PC outside of an application is still being worked on. Pretty much, they're gearing for an IM kind of atmosphere.

We'll dish out more updates as more info come our way.

There sure ain't a bigger critic than a fan. That's why Microsoft is asking you for your suggestions as to the future of the Xbox 360, Xbox.com and Xbox Live. Yep, they want your ideas. And for sure, they are not gonna be ignored.

Ozymandias aka Andre from the XBox team has this to say, "...we're looking at a future where multiple devices will be able to connect into [Live on Windows]. My question to you is what big features would you want to see out of Live in the future?" Apart from that, he's also asking for suggestions on the devices based around the future of Live anywhere.

Major Nelson add, "With your input, you have helped mold what the service is today. You talk, we listen...that's one of the ways we get feedback. I get a couple of hundred emails each week suggesting new Xbox Live features and I pass those onto the developers here in the building...so we are listening."

So there. Feel free to pitch in your ideas via their blogs, Ozymandias's and Major Nelson's.

First of all, what is an XBList? For the relatively new Xbox 360 owners, an XBlist is a Windows app written in C# format that allows you to display your Xbox Live friends list on your PC.

The app also displays other Xbox Live features like Gamer Tiles and Gamer Cards and will also display Halo 2 player emblems. Think of it like the Live Anywhere feature Microsoft is developing, except that it's already out on the streets.

With that detail cleared up, we're letting the 360 owners know XBList 3.0 is out. Aside from visible tweaks like its new message bubble for incoming Xbox.com messages and the new logo, it now features a more stable .NET 2.0 platform. This in turn makes for a more stable app that shouldn't cause too many problems.

Now, for the guys asking if this will work on Windows Vista (Which will be carrying Live Anywhere), the author says XBlist 3.0 may work on this latest OS, though he strongly advises reading his instructions before making the attempt. Given the amount of games going Vista, it would be interesting to see how handy this app may prove itself to be. Click on the read link for the full details.

Download [XBList 3.0]