GAME CASA .NET

Got a message from the OnLive Facebook page today that had some awesome news.  Here’s the fillins, from their blog:

The one OnLive feature request near the top of everyone’s list is support for Wi-Fi, and today I’m happy to announce that Wi-Fi Beta (available to all OnLive members) will be enabled starting in mid-September.

We know that a number of OnLive members have been using Wi-Fi “unofficially” since we launched, and many have reported good results. But what will be different with this “official” Wi-Fi release is new technology optimized for various real-world Wi-Fi scenarios including handling interference, congestion and drop out issues. Why a Beta version? Because even though we’ve thoroughly tested Wi-Fi in a wide range of real-world scenarios, there still exist a large number of possible scenarios which require further tuning of the technology to address optimally. We’re looking forward to receiving your valuable feedback when Wi-Fi Beta is released mid-September. Please send any and all comments to support@onlive.com.

Furthermore, and available today, OnLive will be directly supporting lower minimum system requirements, including most netbooks, and connection speeds as low as 3 Mbps. And, for Macs, OS 10.5.8 is now supported. These minimum specs will be suitable for small display devices like netbooks and small laptops, but we continue to recommend at least 5 Mbps, a dual-core CPU and on a Mac, OS 10.6, for larger displays.

Again, we know OnLive members already are experimenting with these low-end systems and many are getting solid results. But, with this “official” low-end support, you should find the video quality to be better and more consistent, and will be able to use a lower speed connection.

And if you’re attending PAX this week, swing by our booth—we’ll be glad to show you a demo of our “official” Wi-Fi Beta and answer any questions you might have. Definitely check out the pre-release MicroConsoles there, too. We have lots of other great contests and events planned for the booth throughout the weekend—so see Rachel’s post for more information.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

—Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder & CEO

Good stuff!

Rescuers funnel down PSP’s to trapped miners — Kotaku

There are 33 miners stuck 2,300 feet underground. It could be Christmas before the escape shaft is finished. How to pass the time? PlayStation Portables.
Food and toiletries are being funneled to the trapped men. As a diversion, PSPs have been included in the cups each men receive, containing their daily necessities.
Worst case scenario is that the men will be out in four months. Depending on use, the PSP’s battery ballparks at around six hours or more. Power cables to the rescue.
Playing cards and board games might have been better as they don’t run on batteries. But, it’s the thought that counts! And those PSPs will definitely provide a much needed diversion for a couple hours. The men have already been trapped for two weeks and were discovered after a mine collapsed in Copiapo, Chile on August 5.
No word on when the official PSP Mine Tournament is.

This week in Germany, land of great beer and David Hasselhoff worship, they are holding a huge gaming conference. Gamescom is the world’s largest games event with 245,000 visitors, more than 4,000 journalists and 458 exhibitors from 31 countries attending the show in its first go round in 2009. There is also an event called Game Developers Conference Europe, which is being held in conjunction with Gamescom in Cologne. GDC Europe is the largest professionals-only game industry event in Europe. All this week GameCasa will be bringing you all the freaky news and Scheisse Videos that will be released over in Germany. Ok, no Scheisse Videos. Sorry. But there will be lots of video game stuff to discuss.
Red Faction Battlegrounds Announced
At the Game Developers Conference over in Germany, THQ confirmed the existence of a new Red Faction game for XBox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. The game came up in an interview with Don Whiteford, the company’s digital creative director who used to run Juice Games. This studio formerly worked on large scale projects but has been scaled back and renamed THQ Digital Warrington. The studio is currently working on three projects, one of which is Red Faction: Battlegrounds which is described as a top-down car, mech, and rover combat title. The game will support up to four players online and will unlock new items in the upcoming Red Faction: Armageddon. This title is expected to release this November or December, a few months before Red Faction: Armageddon ships.

No Heavy Rain Sequel?
During his panel at the Game Developers Conference Europe today, developer David Cage of Heavy Rain fame, said he doesn’t plan to make a Heavy Rain 2. In fact, he has tried to make his name, David Cage, a brand unto itself specifically so he won’t have to make a sequel. Instead of Heavy Rain 2, he can make “The Next Game from David Cage.”
Cage said he takes no pleasure in putting his name out there like that, but in an industry driven by sequels he knew that, once Heavy Rain became successful, people would be pressuring him to make another. But the developer seems more interested in making new games and exploring new ideas. By using his name as his brand, instead of being tied to the brand of Heavy Rain, he hopes to gain that creative freedom.
Read the rest of this entry →

In one of those “why couldn’t I be 15 now” cases, Christine Shreeve Hubbs, an attractive, 42-year-old Mormon mother of three and wife of a dentist, was arrested last week by Livermore, CA police. She was charged with 67 felony counts of sexual assault for multiple trysts with young teenage boys, many in her 2006 black Hummer that gave her the neighborhood nickname “the Hummer Mom.” As well as Visa cards and food, Hubbs used Xbox 360 systems to make the boys more agreeable to gettin their freak on. She would basically give them Microsoft in exchange for Microhard. Nude photos of Hubbs were discovered on the cell phone of one of the victims, and police obtained a warrant for the woman. Turns out that as well as being a sexual predator, Hubbs was also pretty stupid, as cops discovered not only sexual text messages, but photographs of her having sex with the kids. It is unknown whether or not the boys got to keep the Xboxes.

GameCasa Note:  Here in Philadelphia, our Milfs have the common sense to trade sex for something like World Series tickets… with consenting adults

Blizzard cracking down on in-game World of Warcraft sex roleplay–Joystiq

In what many telecommunications scholars and sociologists are tentatively referring to as “the saddest forum post in the history of all mankind,” Blizzard recently informed World of Warcraft players on the Moon Guard server that moderators would now be patrolling the server for … erotic role-playing. Particularly in one in-game town, Goldshire, which appears to be a non-stop, Bacchanalian festival of delights of the virtual flesh and oh man, that’s the creepiest thing we’ve ever typed.

Blizzard customer service reps will now “regularly” keep an eye on the town’s public chat channels, privately punishing players who violate the game’s harassment policies. We can’t wait to hear about some of the super awkward /Tells this enforcement will lead to. “Dear Razorbladez, please stop trying to have cybersex with that level 2 Paladin. That is very, very gross.”

The Next Borderlands Add-on May Have Just Been Seriously Spoiled–Kotaku

Gearbox Software’s loot-centric first-person shooter Borderlands recently got an update, one that added Steam achievements and new hardware support. That update also may have laid out, in extreme, spoiler-filled detail, the next downloadable expansion for Borderlands.

According to contributors to Gearbox’s online forums, that new Borderlands patch featured a folder chock full of potential details about the future of the game. The next expansion—the follow-up to The Secret Armory of General Knoxx—appears to be heavy on Claptraps. You know, those unicycling robotic helpers with the funny voices? Well, you may be fighting them and cybernetic zombies in the game’s next add-on.

Gearbox forum member Legendrew summarizes the details gleaned from the latest patch, telling of an “Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap” that leads a robot revolution against the Vault hunters. Your task in the next DLC pack is to take down those Claptraps and the re-animated human-Claptrap hybrids they’ve enlisted for their cause.

Skag ‘traps, Rakk ‘traps, Psycho Midget ‘traps and dozens of variations on the Claptrap, only way more evil, will be your enemies in the expansion, according to those update files. The DLC appears to span some 21 missions—”9 Main Missions, 12 Side Missions”—and will see plenty of familiar faces return.

If you feel like potentially spoiling the details of those missions, the Claptrap bosses that await you and even more details on the alleged Borderlands add-on, head over to the forums.

We’ve asked Gearbox if these details are legit and will hopefully update with confirmation or denial or some roundabout statement on the matter soon.

Stabbing at Comic Con 2010 – Man stabbed in face with pen at Resident Evil panel–San Francisco Chronicle

Trailer: PixelJunk Racers – 2nd Lap (Q-Games)–GamerBytes

The first trailer for Q-Games’ update to PixelJunk Racers has been released, and the release date isn’t too far off either.

Courtesy of PSNStores, who picked up the trailer from the PlayStation Store, the trailer shows off 2nd Lap‘s additional Trophy Support, ghost attack mode, and worldwide rankings. It will still contain all the content from the original game, plus more.

The game is currently set for a June 15th download in Japan, where it will be available for ¥500. The update will also be available for those who already own PixelJunk Racers for ¥100.

BioWare Announces Dragon Age 2–PC World

After teasing gamers that today would be “a great day for BioWare fans,” the company responsible for chatty roleplaying epics like Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 has officially trotted out preliminary details onDragon Age 2.

The new site’s predictably skeletal, just some vaguely Asian-Nordic looking guy clad in pointy greaves, gloves, and boots, grasping a sword-spear weapon in front of a dragon rising phoenix-like behind a crowd of silhouettes (The people you’ll encounter? A doubled or tripled array of potential party members?)

“Rise to power…by any means necessary,” teases the site, just below a note indicating the debut trailer won’t be out until August 17. (Kind of early to announce, then, given the month lead on video–I guess that’s how marketing keeps “exclusive”-subsidized print mags like Game Informer happy.) Read the rest of this entry →

Nintendo to host its own summer olympics–MSNBC

Hula hooping may not be an official Olympic sport, but Nintendo believes gamers around the country are more than ready to gyrate their hips competitively.

Nintendo will launch Wii Games: Summer 2010 — a kind of Wii olympics — in more than a dozen locations around the country starting July 16th. Players will compete against each other in five game categories — the hula hoop challenge from “Wii Fit Plus,” the basketball and bowling games from “Wii Sports Resort,” “New Super Mario BrosWii” and “Mario Kart Wii.”

Between mid-July and mid-August, tournaments will be held on five consecutive weekends at Six Flags theme parks in California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Massachusetts and New Jersey, as well as at 16 shopping malls across the country. (For specific mall locations check out the Wii Games site.)

The Wii Games will be open to two- and four-player teams organized by age group. Categories will include Teen, Adult and Super Adult (kudos to Nintendo for coming up with a far better way of saying “senior citizen”).

There also will be age-combined categories in which adults and younger players can compete together with friends or as a family. Participants’ best scores in all five featured activities will be combined to determine their total scores.

“The Wii Games: Summer 2010 events are a celebration of the fun, active, inclusive spirit of Wii,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales and Marketing.

Qualifying winners will travel to Los Angeles for the Wii Games: Summer 2010 national championships.

Personally, I’ve got my fingers crossed that the Nintendo winter olympics includes Wii Curling.