Ubisofts Ghost Recon Page Covered With Burning File

When visiting Ubisofts Ghost Recon site visitors are presented with a burning file folder overlay. No other information is given. One could assume that this is a teaser for something to come, or that someone is trying to burn the inter-webs to f*ck.


UPDATE
Here's what all the hullabaloo was about. Yawn...



Tom Clancy's HAWX. Nice name....

Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures

Dutch artist Theo Jansen demonstrates his amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures, built from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His "Strandbeests" (Beach Creatures) are built to move and even survive on their own.

 

 

Ouch! Microsoft takes action against Achievement Cheaters

In an attempt to curb the never ceasing onslaught of Achievement whores cheaters, Microsoft has implemented a new system to humiliate said cheaters into retirement.

Read all about it over at Mr. Larry Hyrbs blog.  Whadda you think?  Will it work?

Freebie: Get a Free Gun in Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Hushed Casket points out that people who purchased Rainbow Six Vegas 2 from Best Buy were given a code to unlock a free gun in the game. The thing is the code was printed on a sticker on the outside of the game. Better still it can be used by anyone who owns the game.

To unlock the gun go to the main menu of the game and do the following:

(Hold RB) Down, Down, Up, Up, X, B, X, B, Y, Up, Up, Y

This is almost as good as that free Comcast map.

[via Kotaku]

EA Charging For Bad Company Weapons?

Word from the Battlefield: Bad Company beta test is that several weapons in the game's arsenal are locked, with "Available for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace" notations next to them. In total 10 weapons are listed as for sale, with five of them also available in the Gold Edition of the game. What this basically means is that people willing to drop a little extra cash, be it in the store or on Xbox Live, will have more weapons to choose from than someone who scrapes together just enough to pick up the game itself. This is not the way microtransactions should be used. Cosmetic additions and extra maps are all well and good, but allowing players to pay in order to get a leg up on the competition is just slimy. Multiplayer games suffer from enough balance issues without this sort of thing going on. Where will this lead? Perhaps eventually they'll allow you to purchase a much better surrogate player to represent you in matches, taking the term "professional gaming" to an all new level. Maybe we can pay for ammo next! "Everybody down! He bought extra clips!" *sigh*

[via Kotaku]

Sadly, the only real way for us consumers to combat this practice is to vote with our wallets. By not purchasing the game and or not purchasing the microtransactions it could send a message to EA and Microsoft that we're not going to take it. Also these "Microtransactions" seem to me to not be so micro anymore. We'll have to wait and see if this is the case.

Battlefield: Bad Company Multiplayer Beta

 

Starting March 25th EA will open up Beta testing for Battlefield: Bad Company.  To get in the Battlefield: Bad Company Beta click this Battlefield: Bad Company Beta Link.  Obviously you'll need a Gold Account on Xbox Live and live in North America.  See you there.

CoD4 Modern Warfare Variety Map Pack Dated and Priced

A new page over at xbox.com announced of the Call of Duty 4 variety map pack will be available for download Thursday, April 3 for 800 MS points.

The Variety Map Pack includes four new multiplayer maps. "Creek" is a
wide-open village ravaged by combat where concealment is the difference
between life and death. In "Broadcast," fight throughout an enemy
communications building with confined corridors and wide-open parking
lots. "Chinatown" is a foggy downtown district, lit only by a full moon
and the neon glow of the city. "Killhouse" features a desolate training
warehouse filled with a variety of building mock-ups and soft and hard
cover points.

These new maps can't come soon enough for me, I've pretty much had my fill of the current playlists. Hopefully these new maps will be integrated in a way that helps these maps occur in the hoppers more frequently.

Kinetic Robots

People who truly know me know that there are two things in this world I can not tolerate. One, are people who don't respect other peoples cultures. The second, is the Dutch. Truthfully you have to admire Dutch ingenuity and perseverance. Take for instance Theo Jansen, he calls himself a "Kinetic Sculptor." I think this is f'ing sick.

Creepy Chinese Woman

This is kind of creepy. I don't know what the use for this site is, other than being creepy. But... Yeah... Check it out.

Call of Duty 4 Gun Sounds

An ode to the Maltese (Video)

Thanks for the inspiration R080T and MxEighty!

Maltese (RIP)

An ode to the Maltese

Rest In Peace, oh grand Maltese.
Your light shone so bright, it burned out in one night.
We put you in a grammy-que. We mistook you for a chupacabra too.
We sprinkled you with cheese. You went best with our favorite cantonese.
You intimidate us with every sight. You piss us off almost every night.
Soon Zirik will be one too, until then we will all miss you.

Activision May Be Considering A Massively Multiplayer Call Of Duty

The head cheese at Activision, Bobby Kotick, recently made headlines for his assertion that, in order to compete properly with World of Warcraft, publishers may need to invest nearly a billion dollars in such a venture. Fortunately for Kotick and crew, they now have access to the big brains at Blizzard and Vivendi, a group of folks who know quite a bit about the MMO business. How then, can Activision exploit its biggest earners into even bigger financial monsters?

The Activision CEO says that during the first few months of integration planning with Vivendi, they asked themselves some serious questions about what they consider "the fastest growing markets in the world", including Asian markets and MMOs.

As an example, Kotick said to investors at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, "What would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively-multiplayer environment and how do you monetize that?"

Kotick parlayed that into a thought on in-game advertising, in which he pointed to Starcraft as a model for short-session, ladder tournament play that can easily support ad spots. While a Call of Duty MMO may be a long way off, if it ever gets off the ground, it's starting to sound like Activision execs may be giving it serious thought and we'd expect it to be a big focus for the publisher's ad revenue model.

[via kotaku]