I think MGO has promise, but the complicated registration process (really, Konami, do we need to have two accounts before we can play?) is a big turnoff.

Konami promises they're working on streamlining the registration before the game is complete.

Also, I mention in the preview that I couldn't figure out how to play as Snake.

Konami was helpful enough to send me the solution to my quandary:

It is actually possible to play as Snake in MGO. It's a certain game mode where one person takes on the role of Snake (with all of Snake's cool tricks, such as OctoCamo and the Metal Gear Mk II), and everyone else tries to hunt him down. Snake gets points for killing people on the map, and everyone else gets points for killing Snake. So it's this back and forth of trying to hunt Snake while trying to help your team. Seems to be a very popular game type.

id Software, based in Mesquite, Texas, just sent out a press release announcing that it is now hiring developers to work on Doom 4.

Of course, id hasn't even finished the last game it announced, so I'm guessing Doom 4 is a few years away, at least.

Still, kind of cool. And any of you who happen to be world-class game developers looking for work might want to freshen up your resumes.

Full press release after the jump.

Continue reading "id Software hiring for Doom 4 (oh yeah, Doom 4 announced)" »

As I said on Punchbutton last week and in my column on Saturday, there was some talk that GTA IV might siphon off moviegoers who would have otherwise gone out to see Iron Man.

With Iron Man raking in $100 million-plus in its opening weekend, I think we can put that theory to bed.

Like I mentioned in my column, though, I am curious to see the GTA IV sales numbers for the PS3 versus the Xbox 360. If the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto outsold or even came close to the sales of the 360 version, that's a huge win for Sony.

Old-Wizard.com (should even I know about this site? I don't!) listed their 5 worst video game related sites of all time.

Thank goodness we didn't make the list!

You can read their list here.

The tech blog on Yahoo points out that a manufacturer is claiming to have won the contract to make Blu-Ray compatible Xbox 360's.

Will this rumor ever die?

Will Microsoft finally come over to the Jedi side or are they happy on the dark side?

Will someone replace my HD-DVD's?

Besides the non-shop complaints about the in-game freezes, now the 'GTA IV' glitches are appearing on YouTube. I know there are problems with every game, but weren't similar problems the reason everyone bagged on 'Vice City?'

Here are some awesome glitches (there may be some language, so be warned before you click):

The sink hole of death:

Break dancing with the bus:

Here are some more... enjoy.

I don't know why I didn't think about this before.

I've had some major PS3 freeze-ups in the fast, just like the 'GTA' bugs.

Once, when installing the 'Motor Storm' updates and DLC, I couldn't get past the menu screen in the game. I had to delete all downloaded content and re-install everything from scratch (I didn't lose my saved games, they are in a separate file). That worked.

While playing the 'Home' beta, I would constantly freeze every time I would reach a certain doorway in the game. I deleted those data files, re-downloaded, re-installed and it was fixed.

And finally, when adding DLC to 'Warhawk,' the game locked up my whole PS3. Deletion of the files and a fresh install, again, fixed the problems.

The 'GTA' problems seem awfully similar to what I was going through. I just think the sheer number of copies bought, brought the problem to a lot more people.

The 360 issues, I'm at a loss there.

The freezing issue on GTA IV doesn't seem to be going away.

I contacted Rockstar for an official comment, but they declined and suggested I get in touch with Sony.

From what I've seen on other game news sites, Sony doesn't have much to say, either.

But Gamespot did contact Take-Two's tech support team, and came away with an extensive list of suggested fixes for the PS3 version of GTA IV (no word on whether these fixes work on the Xbox 360 version).

While the checklist is probably worth a try if your copy is freezing on you, the length of the list suggests to me that the cause of the problem is still unknown and Take-Two is basically trying every gimmick it can think of to solve the issue.

I'm sure an official patch will be coming at some point.

For now, though, good luck with the list.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bored with 'Grand Theft Auto IV'... but I want to know what's next.

Seriously (or, um, SRSLY), what are you looking forward to, now?

For me:

• 'Iron Man'
• 'Lego Indiana Jones'
• 'Ninja Gaiden 2'
• 'GRID'
• 'Battlefield: Bad Company'

Some analysts have been saying that box office sales for Iron Man could suffer if gamers stay home to play GTA IV this weekend.

I really doubt it, because I can't think of a single gamer who isn't drooling over Iron Man.

I mean, just look at this preview and tell me you don't get a tingly feeling all over.