The E3 Media & Business Summit has more than passed us by now, but belated updates still keep pouring in at the aftermath, and gamers on their ol' trusty personal computer aren't left out of the aftershock. During E3 2007, Microsoft Game for Windows' Chris Early and Kevin Unangst didn't let up from their constant campaign for Windows Vista and the new PC gaming initiative, telling Gamasutra how Games for Windows (GfW) raises the "Quality Bar" for PC games.

"Games that carry the Games for Windows branding go through a process where we actually look through and test the games on roughly 25 different areas," said Unangst. Included into those 25 different "areas" are compatibility with the Xbox 360 controller, widescreen support, Windows Vista Games Explorer compatibility, and an easy install mode.

In a nutshell, of course, the GfW initiative actually has a team of testers run any PC game through certain categories, of which Halo 2 for Vista and Shadowrun have likely passed. Whether or not PC gamers would agree is still up for question, since Vista's online multiplayer issues, including some on basic casual games, have beat back many gamers in the PC community with outrageous feedback.

In the wake of TimeGate Studios' hiring of Evolve's public relations specialties, information has leaked out that the Texas-based developer would soon announce three new titles that will hit both the PC and console. Indications that one of them will be the Unreal Engine 3 MMO title that they hinted at before aren't apparent, but it could be possible.

Even while TimeGate was at the verge of a major announcement, there are notably no other juicy bits of information that made their way to the open. Gamasutra reports that it could very likely that Section 8, a title that TimeGate mentioned to be working on back in E3 2005, would also be one of the three titles to be announced.

Section 8 is a first-person shooter which happens to be in the hands of the makers of Kohan and Axis & Allies, and it was noted that the game would become a blend between strategy and FPS. TimeGate is likely to use its current experience with shooter elements having worked on F.E.A.R. Extraction Point expansion pack for the PC version of F.E.A.R.

We're no human resource experts, nor do we purport ourselves to be - but when looking for new employees, shouldn't you be using your company's outstanding achievements as deal-sweeteners, instead of the one thing that makes you look bad?

If you agree, then it's not just us. Because 3D Realms, creator of critically-acclaimed games such as Max Payne and Wolfenstein 3D, is doing exactly the opposite.

In a job advertisement seeking programmers, 3D Realms used a small image, in what could be either the best or worst version of the proverbial carrot dangled in front of a donkey.

The image is about a certain game that's been delayed for almost a decade, resulting in lots of disappointed fans and even loads more of internet jokes and memes of it. Yes, it's Duke Nukem Forever, with the forever-delayed and currently ambiguous release date.

To be fair, the picture looks pretty good, and the perks of the job do sound sweet - but the fact that it's a low-quality GIF, and that it's not much bigger than common message board avatars is a bit suspect. Not to mention that they're only hiring one. It's not our place to make wild guesses, of course, but could it mean that 3D Realms is in fact going to give Duke Nukem Forever yet ANOTHER facelift? We really, really, hope not.

Capcom's not letting their guard down even if they already have a strong presence in the market. Gamasutra sat down for an interview with Senior Director of Strategic Planning and Research Christian Svensson, and he talked about Capcom's future with much focus on Wii and downloadable content.

Svensson expressed his confidence with Resident Evil 4 going to the Wii, saying "anytime you sell another copy to another user, it expands the brand." Even with the PC version getting patches for improvement, he believes that the Wii version of RE4 is going to be the best out of four platforms.

While Capcom will be releasing several titles available for download on PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms, Svensson stated that it's more difficult to make a Wii downloadable game because of filesize limitations. On the good side, he confirmed the possibility of making original content on Wii if Nintendo gets their processes in order. Apart from that, the only main problem for making downloadable games available is the coordination required between them and the company of the console they want the game on.

Support for Windows games haven't been decided yet, but Capcom is trying to extend its market by focusing on the PC. "If you look at a lot of the developing markets like China, South Korea, and India, the gaming platform of choice is the PC" says Svensson. They seem to have great plans indeed, as he believes that Monster Hunter: Frontier will be big when it goes live in Japan.

For the full interview, check out the Read link below.

Just fresh from the "late" presses is SEGA's recent announcement of its games lined up for a 2007-2008 cycle. According to the report by game dev haven Gamasutra, SEGA has set Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Ghost Squad, Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm, Universe At War: Earth Assault and...what's this? A "new PC RPG deal with Gas Powered Games"?

 

The announcement of the title line-up for the next cycle was made at SEGA's Gamer's Day in San Francisco, and the details of the titles were spilled to certain extent although not as comprehensive as you might hope. The big mystery title being developed with Gas Powered Games comes with even more minute details, keeping the specifics of the game as an "an original and as yet unspecified role-playing game for the PC" coming for 2008.

Coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is Condemned 2: Bloodshot from original franchise creators Monolith Productions. The game was mentioned to be coming with "an all-new fighting mechanic and online multiplayer functionality." It was also added that players will be able to engage in "visceral" combat using the usual firearms, blunt makeshift weapons and combination moves for defensive and offensive purposes.

For the Wii, arcade game Ghost Squad, by SEGA's AM2 division, will be coming in the holiday season of 2007. Revamped with a few more Wii-specific features and game modes, the game will otherwise be coming with its original arcade feel and gameplay, for the casual and leisure gamer in you. Players can expect to use the Wiimote for targeting enemies, defusing bombs and rescuing hostages.

Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm will be heading to Xbox 360 gamers over Xbox Live Arcade, featuring the ironically gory concept of the animated series "Happy Tree Friends." The title, currently under the creative hands of Stainless Studios, will be available by fall of 2007. Combining action elements with puzzles, gamers will have to make use of concrete, ice, gasoline and nitroglycerin (among other resources) to save the Friends from their own bad luck.

Universe at War: Earth Assault, which is currently headed for the PC, will also be making a debut on the Xbox 360 by the first quarter of 2008. The game pits planet Earth under siege by an insurmountable Alien force, and Xbox 360 RTS fans can rest assured that the game is being developed with "a control scheme built from the ground up to ensure smooth gameplay and ease of command for console gamers."

Paul Steed, former artist for id Software's first in the Quake franchise, is now Chief Creative Officer at Exigent, an Indian game outsourcing firm. No longer drawing gorgeous pixels for your VGA screen, Steed is now educating Indians and encouraging them to make games for the western market.

We know you're probably asking, "What in the world is he doing there?" In an interview with "The Art of Gaming" haven Gamasutra, he revealed his revelation of the business of outsourcing and how he got interested in it.

After leaving Atari last September, he moved on to Exigent, and hoped to tap into the productivity potential in the Asians' love for games.

But more importantly, he sees that the future of the game industry rests on the mobile game and the PC. He said that there are more computers and cellphones in the world than consoles and "[that will] never change." In fact, he believes once his company goes from outsourcing only to part developer studio "Exigent Interactive," they will be only focused on games for the PC. He defended his position, saying, ""That’s what’s most accessible for audiences."

Steed also spoke about Sony and the PSP. And guess what, PSP folks: he says that "Sony just lost focus" on the PSP. In the defense of his opinion, he added, "They tried to do too much with it. And God, the price. You look at the PSP and you’re like, 'Hey, do you even realize your portable costs as much as Nintendo’s next-gen home system?'"

Piracy is commonly frowned upon by most members of the game industry - but not by Paul Steed. We'll let him explain his two cents worth on the (overrated?) issue of piracy:

My take on piracy is kind of weird. I know I can’t stop it, so I don’t try to stop it. I just try to create a whole fanbase. If you can buy it, buy it. I was in China and I saw a copy of my book ... my first book, translated in Chinese and it had my name on it, and I was like, 'Well, at least they put my name on it!' I don’t think people mean to steal when they pirate your stuff. I just don’t think they realize that it only increases the price.

He also said something about casual gaming, although it's a bit "nit-picky" on the fairer gender of gamers. We'll leave it to you, oh curious web surfers, to hop right to the interview and read it for yourself, via the "Read" link below.

As director of product management at Havok, Jeff Yates explained the intricate details of the Havok physics simulation tool that they delivered to titles such as Half-Life 2, Dead Rising, and MotorStorm, including the insight of how the gears turn for the technical side of the game industry.

 

For two and a half years, Havok has been developing software development kits for use in physics engine and animation development in games. With the official launching of the SDK back in mid-2004, they've had seen a lot of progress with their animation and physics features as the years rolled by.

So it wouldn't be surprising that in an exclusive interview with game dev's haven Gamasutra, Yates got a little bit technical about next-gen console technology and competition against PhysX">AGEIA's PhysX hardware physics accelerator for the titan PC.

Havok, as you must know, delivers software solutions to physics simulation, which is something that next-gen consoles require as of this moment. Many other game developers license the use of the physics SDK to simulate real in-game physics in the most complex and hardware hungry of titles (Half-Life 2 for example).

Software physics is handled by the CPU and its cores, although new solutions have GPUs taking the processing load off the CPU. Havok delivers their physics engine solutions as customers require of them, often catering to the different hardware slapped into the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. After all, they've built their solutions with cross-platform features and consoles in mind.

Click on Full Article to read more on Jeff Yates opinions on next-gen console tech and development, plus PhysX on PCs.

In an interview over at Gamasutra, CEO and co-founder of Xfire, Mike Cassidy, voiced his opinions on the Windows Live service. Apart from that, he also talked about the growth of the PC-based instant messaging service and gaming server tracker that some PlayStation 3 games use, Xfire.

Cassidy notes that at this point they don't fully understand the features/pricing and usage scenarios of Microsoft's Live service for Windows. He notes that they believe that gamers will not want to pay for multiplayer functionality, especially since the said feature has been traditionally free on the PC.

When asked if he sees if the Games for Windows branding as a threat, especially since the games on the brand will inevitably be linked to the Live service, he notes that while they're careful to watch what the competition is doing, they're very much confident in the strength and loyalty of their user-base.

Cassidy notes that integration of the Xfire service with the Xbox 360 has been more difficult than with other console partners. When asked about previous comments that he made that implied that they were in talks with other console makers - Gamasutra speculates an Xfire service for the Nintendo Wii - Cassidy can only tease, saying: "stay tuned..."

While they did experience some problems with integrating Xfire for Vista, he notes that everything is pretty much working well at the moment. Difficulties encountered included the new desktop rendering system of Vista, and the User Access Controls.

Oh, and before we end this, here's a little something for all the Mac gamers out there who feel a little left out. Mike Cassidy says:

The Mac user-base is very passionate. Although only a few top games are released simultaneously for the Mac and PC, Mac gamers have regularly asked us to create a version of Xfire for them. We are committed to supporting as many gaming platforms as we can as long as they have a large enough user-base. However, prioritization of projects is an ongoing battle.

As interesting as Mike Cassidy's words are, our utopian dream is still a true cross-platform "PSWii60PC" messaging service. One, can dream right? For the complete interview, feel free to head to Gamasutra's post via our "read" link below.

 

While the news sparked sad days for Shadowrun fans the world over, Microsoft Game Studios">Shane Kim believes that they can still market the former-RPG-now-FPS title coming to the Xbox 360 and PC as a revolutionary cross-platform FPS. A former FASA Studio developer, however, claimed that "the Shadowrun game offers nothing new in the aspect of first person shooters and that it looks visually uninspiring and mediocre."

In efforts to circumvent the disappointment and bad rep that the title has been reaping before launch, Microsoft has been working overtime. But in order for them to haul back the franchise's "fandom", they had to provide beta testing and press tours to market the game. In an interview with Gamasutra, Shane Kim said:

Ultimately, what's going to win them over or not is how great of a game it is. I think that people who are getting their hands on Shadowrun are realizing that it's a showcase title for cross-platform play online, and it's very important for us because it's how we're launching Live for Games for Windows, with head-to-head play with people on Xbox Live. That I think is what excites me, and will be what gets people over the hump to realize it's not a classic RPG that people expected.

Kim also claimed that a few Shadowrun fans tell FASA that they would never buy the game, but decide after the visit to give it a try anyway. He hopes to be able to use this same phenomenon to bring back the following this cyberpunk title once had while in development.

1UP's James Mielke was ranting three weeks ago regarding the blatant use of the words "Call of", "Rise of", "Empire," "Nations," and "Ops" in game titles. (He was talking about Call of Juarez.) Well, we've lived through this type of stereotyping, but it doesn't mean we can't make fun of it right? Makes us wonder, do devs consult some sort of list when thinking of a title?

Anyway, the guys at GameSetWatch set out to come up with the "most stereotypical video game name... evah". The turnout was pretty crazy: Simon Carless (Game Developer/Gamasutra EIC) "Quaternion: The Beige-ning", Jill Duffy (Game Developer managing editor) came up with "Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Call Of Duty: Revenge Of Duty", and Brandon Sheffield (Game Developer features editor) gave the hilarious "Pauly Shore's XTREME Nude Wakeboarding II: The Awakening". The winner was Frank Cifaldi (Gamasutra features editor) with "WWII: World War II".

My fellow QJ staffers gave a few bits of their own. Victor B. came up with two - "Space Shooter: The Star Galaxy Trek Wars of Gradius" and "Final Generic Fantasy RPG Quest XX" - while our researcher R gave me this - "Death Ride Alliance: Blade War XIII". We're sure you have your own game title cliche and we'd love to hear about it. The more trite, the better.

Ready, set, go!