Before we dive into the deep conundrums we prepped within, we'd first like to give full credit to QJ.NET reader refractionpcsx2 - one who managed to tie down one of most plausible theories we've sifted since the Diablo 3 rumors started rolling in like earth from a landslide. Remember the pieces of the "purple walrus" puzzle? Remember their numbers? A new piece popped up while we were away, and it's numbered 16. So now we have 4, 15, 16, and 23. Google the numbers - they're four of six Valenzetti numbers.

Remember Hideo Kojima and Jade Raymond's interview from a few months back? Well, we might have been musing about them coming up with a Metal Gear Solid - slash - Assassin's Creed hybrid, and now... well... Let's just say we're pretty amused. In this gameplay video, we see Altair running around a familiar-looking war zone, carrying his own rifle and trying to fight a couple of... nah. Sorry. No spoilers. Anyways, though the video appears to not take itself seriously (clue: April 1, 2008), you can't help but think if there's actually more than meets the eye...

Will Wright said, "The wait is almost over," referring to Electronic Arts and Maxis' Spore, and from the looks of it, the wait was definitely worth it. Just recently, as new details surface, it has been revealed that the game's PC version (also available on Nintendo Wii, DS, Mac, and Mobile) will have a feature which lets players upload recorded videos to YouTube. Find out what we're talking about at the full article.

Now this is a triumph. A video of Portal's (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC) theme song, Still Alive, being sung by the Japanese synthesizer application Vocaloid has surfaced. It's not by Valve, but appropriate translation and a voice very similar to GLaDOS' make it sound very authentic. Check it out at the full article.

Can't wait to see Lara Croft? Wait no more! We were able to grab hold of these some good quality screenshots of Lara's latest adventure, Tomb Raider Underworld (Xbox360, PS3, PC). These screen captures feature the realistic look of the game. From the looks of it, Lara is able to personify the image of a woman going against the wild.

Find the screenshots of Lara's new quest after the jump!

As we all know Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare by Activision (for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC) will be out on November 5. However, a quite telling video posted on Youtube by user F2sT details a phone call to a local Best Buy employee, which revealed that the Best Buy branch in Westminster, Colorado carries four or five copies of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360. The employee also mentions the phone number of the said branch, so the caller can verify the availability of the Call of Duty 4 copies himself.

Do take note that this may not necessarily mean that the copies of Call of Duty 4 are already placed in the shelves, though. Best Buy Westminster may just have it in stock but will release them to the public on its official November 5 release date. In any case, do check out the video below!

Buy: [ Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) ]
Buy: [ Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC) ]
Buy: [ Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) ]

 

Through XNA boss Chris Satchell, Microsoft has revealed that it indeed has plans to someday create a community where games can be played or watched YouTube-style.

Satchell said in a recent interview with Develop that it has always been part of their goals to allow independent developers to show other users what they've got and the best way to allow the creativity to flow is by setting up the right channels where communities can converge.

"We use a music analogy – you know, it’s like we’ve given the instruments so they can go and play music now, but what’s the radio station where they can reach everyone?" asks Satchell. "It’s cool that they can invite people around and play in front of them, which is sort of the Creators Club, but hey, they want to play to the world."

One of the factors currently limiting the flexibility of the XNA community is the annual subscription fee and the rule that only Creators Club members can share software. Under the "YouTube XNA" vision, everyone can get a crack at playing user-made games for free.

Satchell said that opening up the Xbox 360 independent games scene is a major step towards attaining this goal and now a stage must be set where raw talents could be shown off.

"Now we need to provide people a stage to play on, a distribution medium so that they can show off their creativity to everyone," he says. "That’s always been our vision and remains our vision."

Now we all know the real issue over multiplayer on your "homebrewed" Quake is that there's usually no one to play against. The pre-defined servers are usually empty. The only way to get around that hassle was if you had the opportunity to create your own server and connect to it. Passa91 from YouTube has sent us an email saying that he has figured out a way to do just that, and he's even documented a how-to into a video. View it below:

Cross platform multiplayer, homebrew style! Of course, the big hurdle is that you have to have a wireless network installed locally for it to work. A wireless LAN card or a wireless access point wired to the PC server is bare minimum. Server and network settings might be a problem, too. The PSP homebrew game used in the video is a continuation of Peter Mackay and Chris Swindle's work on Quake for PSP. And it reached version 2, complete with infrastructure mode for connecting to servers.

On the other hand, the DS would require its own version of the open-sourced Quake (the one by Simon Hall), and of course, a homebrew enabled DS. Both releases provided below will have the ability to connect to servers via infrastructure mode, thus allowing you to connect to the server.

And just in case you don't have a copy of GLQuake, WinQuake or a retail version of Quake, you can attempt the procedure with the shareware version (available at any Quake fan site or major download site). Just don't forget to run a dedicated server - listen servers seem to have serious lag issues. And do not forget to go through the Readmes of the homebrew versions for complete installation procedures and proper warnings.

Download: Quake for PSP v2.0
Download: Quake DS pre-release 2

Slipping back to our business suits, we've gotten word that U.S. market research firm Parks Associates has discovered that online gaming still outweighs video streaming or social networking over the Internet. The report entitled "Casual Gaming Market Update" claimed that at least 34% of adult Internet users play online games on a weekly basis. Games they play include casual games, confirming the rise in popularity of the casual gaming sector.

 

In contrast, 29% of those surveyed watch short online videos, and a smaller 19% visit social networking sites at least once a week. Additionally, online gaming is also experiencing a major surge in the North American region. Parks Associates observed a 79% year-on-year rise in online gamers, compared to the 46% climb of social networking users.

Still, video streaming users are ascending at a steep 123%, and the online gaming sector would do well to challenge that rate in the following years. The online gaming sector is becoming a ripe source of income, and Parks Associates still recommends the tried-and-tested Western business models for the region.

In the Eastern front, the online gaming sector is becoming a blossoming playground for the Asian gaming industry, as Taiwan, Korea, and China have experienced phenomenally market booms in the previous year. Market predictions are also off-the-roof for the Far East, and it may have already grown leaps and bounds in the first half of 2007.

Because people WoW and click Flash more than they Facebook or Youtube, we'll be monitoring for more developments as they come clicking by.

A lot of us are Electronic Arts fans who religiously follow every installment in their annual sports franchises. Even that much loyalty though, is not enough to appease an angry gamer after spending US$ 60 to get a copy of Madden NFL '08 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, PC) only to find out how glitchy it is.

Someone going by the name of PSYK0MANT1S on YouTube was very excited to get home from work to play his new copy of Madden. To his disappointment, two games were enough for the glaring glitches to appear. A lengthy post on his bitter feelings accompanied a video he uploaded . Taken from his rant:

...EA needs to STOP releasing beta builds of their games. EA needs to STOP releasing a game that needs a patch the next day. EA needs to STOP letting us the consumer/gamer pay for a buggy product. EA needs to get their act together and get some REAL Quality Assurance going on.

Here are the glitches he was able to record using the game's replay feature. Oh, and before you click on that play button, be warned that the guy is enraged. So expect to hear a lot of... er... unpleasant-sounding rants.