• The Killers to debut new tracks off new album in Guitar Hero: World Tour as DLC

...non-DS users have the ability to avoid accidentally attacking kiwis when they go careening through the hallways. The intent is you can bind it to,say [L], and then hold that when you want to move safely. If you want [L] to attack, you can change the global option. SDL users may use the ctrl key. Unless they are using vi-keys in which case I'm afraid they are out of luck for now. I can only hope those players believe that Safe Walk is for weaklings.

• The mouse will work again for the onscreen keyboard in SDL builds. (Ilya, Teun Peelen)
• Description when wearing necro dress code spells servant right. (David Damerell, Andreas Bohm)
• Vacuum correctly spelled in death message. (David Damerell)
• "Click on your self to search" rather than Clicking. (Narius Varigor)
• Starting as cultist will immediately tell you ><0 V 's whim. (hotpoo)
• Loading a save game worshiping ><0 V will likewise report the whim.
• Zapping a hostile wand of create monster will have a chance of the creature turning on you. (hotpoo)
• New boon from gods: hostile creatures surrounding you can be smitten. (Indirectly Ambvai)
• Earth hammers can be forged into artifact earth hammers with the proper setup. (David Damerell)
• Level up hitpoints and magic points are now 2d2 1 rather than 1d4 1, giving a tighter distribution and slight boost to the average. (Teun Peelen)
• Earth hammers have an encyclopedia entry. (David Damerell)
• When you can move in diagonals you can use the diagonals of the numberpad. (Andreas Bohm)
• There is now a SafeWalk mode which stops you from attacking when walking about. You can toggle this by pressing Ctrl when using the arrow keys or binding the Safe Walk command to a button in GBA mode. (Andreas Bohm)
• The delete key works the same as the backspace key, a useful feature on Macs whose keyboards lack a backspace. (Roger Bolton)
• Wishing for a level teleport no longer uses atoi() so hopefully works on gpsphone. (Roger Bolton)
• We now promote room flags to map flags when loading. This way loading the game on the final levels will not turn the levels into floor-diggable and hence suddenly create holes to short-circuit the levels. (Ambvai, debugged by Andreas Bohm)
• A case where you could achieve barbarian dress code despite not wearing armour is fixed. (Malte Helmert)
• You now gain piety for the barbarian and necro dress codes. (Malte Helmert)
• You can no longer move diagonally if both orthogonal directions are blocked by walls.
• Spells cast when you have the can dig intrinsic will no longer disintegrate earth elementals. (SparroHawc)

• Powder release 107 for DS, PSP - new tilesets added
  

...non-DS users have the ability to avoid accidentally attacking kiwis when they go careening through the hallways. The intent is you can bind it to,say [L], and then hold that when you want to move safely. If you want [L] to attack, you can change the global option. SDL users may use the ctrl key. Unless they are using vi-keys in which case I'm afraid they are out of luck for now. I can only hope those players believe that Safe Walk is for weaklings.

• The mouse will work again for the onscreen keyboard in SDL builds. (Ilya, Teun Peelen)
• Description when wearing necro dress code spells servant right. (David Damerell, Andreas Bohm)
• Vacuum correctly spelled in death message. (David Damerell)
• "Click on your self to search" rather than Clicking. (Narius Varigor)
• Starting as cultist will immediately tell you ><0 V 's whim. (hotpoo)
• Loading a save game worshiping ><0 V will likewise report the whim.
• Zapping a hostile wand of create monster will have a chance of the creature turning on you. (hotpoo)
• New boon from gods: hostile creatures surrounding you can be smitten. (Indirectly Ambvai)
• Earth hammers can be forged into artifact earth hammers with the proper setup. (David Damerell)
• Level up hitpoints and magic points are now 2d2 1 rather than 1d4 1, giving a tighter distribution and slight boost to the average. (Teun Peelen)
• Earth hammers have an encyclopedia entry. (David Damerell)
• When you can move in diagonals you can use the diagonals of the numberpad. (Andreas Bohm)
• There is now a SafeWalk mode which stops you from attacking when walking about. You can toggle this by pressing Ctrl when using the arrow keys or binding the Safe Walk command to a button in GBA mode. (Andreas Bohm)
• The delete key works the same as the backspace key, a useful feature on Macs whose keyboards lack a backspace. (Roger Bolton)
• Wishing for a level teleport no longer uses atoi() so hopefully works on gpsphone. (Roger Bolton)
• We now promote room flags to map flags when loading. This way loading the game on the final levels will not turn the levels into floor-diggable and hence suddenly create holes to short-circuit the levels. (Ambvai, debugged by Andreas Bohm)
• A case where you could achieve barbarian dress code despite not wearing armour is fixed. (Malte Helmert)
• You now gain piety for the barbarian and necro dress codes. (Malte Helmert)
• You can no longer move diagonally if both orthogonal directions are blocked by walls.
• Spells cast when you have the can dig intrinsic will no longer disintegrate earth elementals. (SparroHawc)

• Powder release 107 for DS, PSP - new tilesets added
  

The short answer: Buy it. Play it. It’s amazing. I love it. As we got nearer to release, I was getting worried that it just wouldn’t be as awesome as the first two, but it’s absolutely incredible. Bethesda has put an enormous amount of work into making this a truly great and authentic Fallout experience, and it shows.

I’ve already beaten it once (about 20-25 hours played), and I’m working on my second playthrough now. I should point out that when I say I “beat it,” I mean I played through the main quest to completion in a way that ended the game while doing the side quests that I stumbled across. I didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the wasteland or going out of my way to do random things. In that whole time, I really only thoroughly explored a fourth of the map and found only one or two locations on the entire north side of it. Basically, there’s a TON of game here, and digging into it all will take you a long, long time.

There are a few criticisms that can be made: The wasteland feels a little cluttered sometimes. The melee enemy AI isn’t stellar. The main quest feels rushed towards the end and is a little anticlimactic, in my opinion (plus you won’t even realize that you’re ending the game when it happens). It would be nice to have more random encounters where hostiles tried to talk to you or run away instead of just attacking until you’re dead.

However, those criticisms are really minor points in the big picture. The dialogue and quests are much more interesting and much tighter than previous Bethesda games. Unlike Oblivion, I’ve never found myself bored or at a loss for what to do. There’s SO much content. The combat system is ridiculously fun and cool-looking (try using Unarmed with a power fist — it’s glorious). It definitely “feels” like Fallout from a lore perspective. There’s plenty of history and silly side-diversions to be found in the many computers you can hack.

It’s everything I hoped it would be and then some. I know I sound like I’m being a fanboy here, but I’m really having a blast with it. When the mod tools come out for PC, I’ll probably buy it again just to take advantage of the fan-made content. If you like open-ended RPGs and post-apocalyptic settings, if you’ve ever been a fan of the Fallout games, or if you just want to check out a cool game, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Now I’m going back to playing…

Article here

The controls are tighter than last year’s version, and the whole sci-fi alien theme that didn’t quite work in the original has been replaced with a create-your-character and try to be a star theme. Boogie SuperStar allows tweens to sing along and move to music they really enjoy.

• PlayStation Official Magazine UK (100/100): "There simply isn't anything else like LBP on any system, anywhere. It's a beautifully elegant and powerful creative tool that puts unlimited potential in the palm of your hand."
• CVG (96/100): "You'll look for inspiration for levels, mechanical dilemmas or puzzles in every corner of your life. And in your sleep. It will take over your conversations with fellow players. You will become obsessed. You have been warned."
• IGN (95/100): "Media Molecule has created a brilliant platformer, and then given you the tools to recreate the whole thing over again, or better yet, to create your own ideas from scratch. It's not perfect - the controls could be tighter, automatically shifting between planes can be problematic, the editor isn't quite as robust as you might hope - but what's there is nothing short of astounding."
• Eurogamer (90/100): "The promise that anyone could create something simple and fun and personal with LittleBigPlanet hasn't come true. In a way, it's the opposite of Spore, which makes it easy and fun for every single player to have creative input, but doesn't let any of them change the fabric of the game. LittleBigPlanet lets them run wild, with unprecedented results, but it locks the majority out of the creative process, because it's time-consuming and simply not very enjoyable."

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As was indicated a few months ago, significant changes have come to the PlayStation 3 version of Alone in the Dark. The changes are not only in some of the gameplay mechanics, but also the name. Atari would like to introduce Alone in the Dark: Inferno.

The game will feature an enhanced camera system, which will allow for 360 degrees of rotation. It will has have tighter controls, quicker inventory management, and improved driving. Atari also fixed up the “59th Street” level to include an added checkpoint and better directions.

In addition to all of this, Atari also added what they describe as an “all-new action sequence revealing a previously unseen enemy of epic proportions.” I hope the enemy is a giant cheeseburger because, frankly, I’ve always wanted to fight against a giant cheeseburger.

Full press release is included after the break.
 

As was indicated a few months ago, significant changes have come to the PlayStation 3 version of Alone in the Dark. The changes are not only in some of the gameplay mechanics, but also the name. Atari would like to introduce Alone in the Dark: Inferno.

The game will feature an enhanced camera system, which will allow for 360 degrees of rotation. It will has have tighter controls, quicker inventory management, and improved driving. Atari also fixed up the “59th Street” level to include an added checkpoint and better directions.

In addition to all of this, Atari also added what they describe as an “all-new action sequence revealing a previously unseen enemy of epic proportions.” I hope the enemy is a giant cheeseburger because, frankly, I’ve always wanted to fight against a giant cheeseburger.

Full press release is included after the break.
 

The latest issue of sister publication Game Developer magazine includes a creator-written postmortem on the making of Metanet's N+, the company's Xbox Live Arcade version of its original freeware PC platformer N.

These extracts reveal how the studio of two developers (with some contracted help) faced development obstacles on a platform with tighter restrictions than those to which its members were accustomed, as well as how the nature of the remake allowed the team to focus on refinements and simplicity over unnecessary features.

Metanet co-founders Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns crafted the postmortem, which was introduced in Game Developer as follows:

"N+ is the indie success story of the year thus far, with over 100,000 downloads on Xbox Live Arcade. Here, the developers chart their path from the original N to its high definition iteration, contending with TCR problems, networking issues, and cut features along the way."

User-Created Content And Level Sharing

One of the chief stumbling blocks Metanet encountered over the course of development was the issue of user-created content, something the team very much wanted to include (and had developed the capability to do so) but for a variety of reasons was unable to ship. As the pair explains:

"At first, discussion was limited to the technical, 'how' it could be done, rather than 'if' it could be done. Microsoft supported the idea but expressed a very reasonable need to limit users from creating offensive content such as hate speech, representations of male genitalia, offensive language, and so on. The problem was that severe limitations would cripple the user's ability to create interesting content, negating the editor's reason for being.

For instance, limiting levels to only 8x8 tiles would be effective in preventing the tiles from spelling profane language, but would also limit the scope of level creation to an unacceptably restricted degree.

We eventually settled on a number of passable solutions, and development of this feature began. But then, the great Forza debacle happened.

Because of limitations of the leaderboard system, Microsoft was unable to delete the specific offensive content uploaded by a user of Forza, which could also not be flagged by other users, and was resolvable only by the deletion of the entire user account.

Near the end of N+ development, we were told to disable the content-sharing features for launch, with the suggestion that they could be re-enabled when and if the leaderboard back-end was altered to allow effective user-created-content control.

We complied, regretting the backlash that would surely occur, but were optimistic for the future when we could re-enable. Unfortunately, this last-minute change caused a certification failure, and a lengthy launch delay for N+, but we worked to get through the new issues.

We pushed to keep developing content creation and sharing in because we knew it would benefit everyone: the game would be more popular because players would appreciate the creative possibilities, and it would add a lot of value to N+ as available levels would become essentially infinite.

Perhaps, though, we should have just cut it when Microsoft initially started expressing reservations. It was a lot of work for everyone, and since there was a chance that it would be cut, it's possible this was a case of poor risk management on our part. As it stands, this feature is not likely to be allowed any time soon, if ever."

Cert Hell

The Metanet team ran into some problems during the Xbox 360 certification process -- a process that ended up taking much longer than expected, and introduced a glitch that remained in the shipping game:

"After failing Certification the first time, we were stuck in a burnout-inducing pre-submission loop, a never-ending trickle of bugs that would go on and on until we finally resubmitted in December. There wasn't much we could do except buckle down and grind out the bugs; it was a morale-destroying end to what had been an otherwise pretty smooth year.

This string of required bug fixes unfortunately introduced a "save bug," which was the result of a last-minute Technical Content Requirement (TCR) workaround.

Because the frequency of saving/writing to leaderboards can't exceed a stipulated frequency as per XBLA TCRs, we were forced to disable post-level saving, and instead save data only when the user returns to the main menu.

This saving "bug" can cause loss of progress when users fail to return to the main menu before quitting their game or turning off the console-and losing progress in N+ can be particularly devastating given the difficulty of the game's later levels!"

Early Feedback

But plenty of things went smoothly as well, including getting feedback from the fans:

"We saw huge value in using feedback from N players to improve the design of N+ -- very few know the game better! We hold the N community in very high regard because their enthusiasm towards providing honest criticism of N and passion for the game in general is unparalleled. We considered several fan suggestions when planning N+ prior to development.

Showing N+ at PAX 2007 was an opportunity for us to get the game into the hands of gamers, listen to their feedback, and make some important changes.

One of the things we learned was that the progression of level difficulty, even though it had been refined and simplified several times, was still too hard for the average player. This led to our revising and playing through the levels several more times, to the benefit of gamers everywhere."

Additional Info

The full postmortem, including a great deal more insight into N+'s development, with "What Went Right" and "What Went Wrong" reasoning, is now available in the September 2008 issue of Game Developer magazine.

The issue also includes an analysis on the state of outsourcing, a technical article on Nintendo DS ragdoll physics, and an entertaining feature on fun by Masaya Matsuura (PaRappa the Rapper) -- plus tool reviews, special career sections, and columns from Power of Two's Noel Llopis, Bungie's Steve Theodore, Lucasarts' Jesse Harlin, and Maxis' Soren Johnson.

Yearly print and digital subscriptions to Game Developer are now available, and all digital subscriptions now include web-browsable and downloadable PDF versions of the magazine back to May 2004, as well as the digital version of the Game Career Guide special issue.

In addition, the September issue of Game Developer is available in paid single-issue digital form (viewable in a web browser, and with an associated downloadable PDF).