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Oasis star wants action on knives

July 4, 2008
Noel Gallagher calls on the government to take action on knife crime as Oasis pick up a lifetime achievement award.
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International Herald Tribune

Action games deliver thrills

The truly great action films of our time — "Die Hard," "The Road Warrior," "Aliens," say — can be summed up in one word: relentless. Once they get in gear, they put the pedal to the metal and don't slow down. If only "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Whatever" had such single-minded drive.
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Yahoo! News

Depths of Peril action RPG released (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - Soldak Entertainment has released Depths of Peril for the Macintosh, a new single-player action role playing game (RPG). It costs $19.99 and a playable demo is available.
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Macworld - FATE 3D fantasy action RPG game released

FATE is a new 3D action RPG from WildTangent, available for sale from Macgamestore.com.
09/19/08
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The Wall Street Journal 'Grand,' but No 'Godfather'

Critics have hailed 'Grand Theft Auto IV' as equal to great movies and books. But here's what it's missing.
06/28/08
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Arstechnica With new Wii Sports, Wii Music, the...

Nintendo's press conference held few surprises, but a new Animal Crossing, Wii Sports, and the announcement of Wii Music show that Nintendo is more dedicated to the casual...
07/15/08
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Yahoo! News Microsoft, Sony Copy Nintendo's...

Investor's Business Daily - Nintendo raised the bar for casual, easy-to-play video games again Tuesday, as rivals Microsoft and Sony scrambled to imitate the family-friendly...
07/16/08
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B.B.C. NEWS Nintendo shows off new Wii add-on

Nintendo unveils a highly-sensitive motion controller add-on for its Wii system at the E3 conference in Los Angeles.
07/16/08
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Yahoo! News Videogames getting more social ...

AFP - Videogame makers are riding the social-networking wave with a flood of soon-to-be-released titles that let friends play online as teams and even create their own characters.
07/17/08
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Yahoo! News

GAMES REVIEW: Action heroes (AP)

AP - I don't envy video game designers who have to work on movie tie-ins. Artists have to duplicate the look of a film with a much smaller budget. Writers have to stick pretty closely to someone else's script, even as they stretch a two-hour story into an eight-hour game. There's not much room for creativity.
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macNN

Instant Action gaming portal to gain Mac support

Garage Games' Instant Action portal should soon open to Mac gamers, according to the company. Instant Action is a web-based gaming service, but one which concentrates less on casual puzzlers, and more on the action games PC and console users are familiar with. Titles use a modern 3D engine, and include games like Marble Blast Online and the futur...
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B.B.C. NEWS Future fun

Nintendo boss talks about what's next for the Wii
07/17/08
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The Wall Street Journal Can Videogames Be Funny?

Hail to the Chimp, a videogame who's humor revolves around lampooning the political process and the cable-news cycle, is a rare humor entrant in a marketplace dominated by...
06/21/08
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Yahoo! News Videogames getting more social ...

AFP - Videogame makers are riding the social-networking wave with a flood of soon-to-be-released titles that let friends play online as teams and even create their own characters.
07/17/08
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Yahoo! News At E3, video games shift their aim to...

USATODAY.com - This year's downscaled E3 video game expo drew about 4,500 gamemakers, analysts, retailers and journalists to L.A. last week - less than a tenth of E3's size two...
07/22/08
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The Independent Queen's Birthday Honours: Full list

06/13/08
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AppleTell Appletell Review - Fable: The Lost...

Section: Software + Apps, Games, Mac + Computers, Software, Features, Review Genre: Action/RPG Format: DVD Developer: Lionhead Studios Macintosh Developer: Robosoft...
07/25/08
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AppleTell

Appletell review - Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes

Section: iPod + iTunes, iTunes, iPod, iPod nano, Features, Review Genre: Tactical RPG Format: iPod Game Developer: Square Enix Minimum Requirements: 3G iPod nano, iPod classic or 5G iPod (video), iPod Software v1.2, 129MB disk space Price: $4.99 ESRB Rating: N/A Availability: Now I recently wrote an article for Appletell in which I wondered if the App Store / iPhone combination would kill iPod gaming. In the article, I opined that it will, and probably should, but that it saddened me to say so. For one reason or another, developers just never figured out how to program games for the click wheelbinterface, or what games to port over to the iPod. A few games stood out, a few were terrible, and the majority were simply mediocre. Then, suddenly, along comes Square Enix. Square Enix of Final Fantasy fame. Square Enix of Valkyrie Profile fame. Square Enix of Dragon Quest fame. Square Enix has released some of the best and most beloved RPG franchises—be they action, tactical or what have you—on pretty much every platform worth mentioning since the NES. And now, with the release of Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, they’re on the iPod. Just having this company acknowledging the iPod is big enough, that they’ve also released arguably the best iPod game yet makes it all the more satisfying. Song Summoner is a tactical role playing game, meaning players control warriors one turn at a time, positioning them on a battlefield grid and having them attack their opponent (or not), before moving on to the next soldier. And although Song Summoner will draw many comparisons to Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Tactics, it actually plays more like Fire Emblem in that you move all of your soldiers before the computer gets a turn. These battles take place on a fixed, isometrical battlefield. The battlefield designs are somewhat uninspired, but they’re at least very colorful. The graphics in general are quite nice; along the lines of what you’d expect to see on the Nintendo DS. The sprite-based characters look good enough, but it’s the small battle animations that make the graphics work. They’re not going to win awards, granted, but they come together in a cohesive package that indicates the developers understood the strength and weaknesses of the device’s graphics capabilites, and worked with them accordingly. In games of this type, you’re usually presented with characters that you level up throughout the game, giving them access to greater weapons and abilities as they face greater foes. If Square Enix had been content to bring Final Fantasy Tactics to the iPod, that’s what we would’ve gotten. Instead, they decided to embrace the iPod for what it is—a music player—by letting you create Tune Troopers based on your music. You can create soldiers from any song in your collection, and that character will get its capabilities from the song’s characteristics (check out Jenni Lada’s Four Tips for Sturdy Tune Troopers). The ability to create your own soldiers is pretty cool, but not as intelligent as it sounds. I found that songs of similar styles could create wildly different characters. On the other end, you’ll also find yourself with quite a few characters who are extremely similar in capabilities despite being made from wildly different songs. And, of course, there are only around 50 character designs programmed into the game, so it’s not as if your soldiers can be truly customized based on your choice of music. These Tune Troopers don’t level up like characters do in standard tactical RPGs. Rather than gain experience trooper by trooper, battle spheres are earned at the end of a fight, which can then be used to beef up your army. However, each Tune Trooper has a limited number of uses (determined upon its creation) before it’s gone for good. This obviously will play with your use/level-up strategies, and can be frustrating for those used to dumping experience points onto characters in an effort to make them very strong by the end of the game. Here, that work can be for naught. On the other hand, it does force you to create more warriors, which leads to more fun with your music collection. Square Enix’s use of the click wheel is quite effective, as they chose to stick with the spinning motion for selection and execution instead of relying on the more cumbersome left/right button approach. The menus and battlefield are all circular, so you can just drag your thumb around the wheel to make your selections. This may take a little more time, but it allows for simple, one-handed play, and feels quite natural. In fact, the only annoying decision Square Enix made was apparently based on the assumption that we’re all fans of Pink or Avril Lavigne. The majority of the characters are exceptionally bratty, and are based on the “attitude = funny” equation that’s just really, really not true. The story is exceptionally dorky, too; evil robot guy rids the world of humans and music in order to control the planet with his mechanized “network,” and one lone rock and roll rebel must lead the fight against him. This idea was dorky was Styx used it for a concept album, it was intentionally dorky when Queen used it for a musical, and it’s just as dorky now. But, it’s fun. And honestly, this is the first iPod game that rises above the casual gamer audience to appeal to hard core gamers. It’s not enough bring it up to the level of the iPhone or Nintendo DS, the latter of which already has dozens of games such as this available to anyone willing to look in the used section at GameStop, but it does show that a great, ambitious game can be made for this little MP3 player if developers know what to do with it. Hopefully, now that Square Enix has shown them the way, more will be willing to make the journey. And hey, speaking of Journey, I wonder what kind of Tune Trooper “Stone in Love” will give me… Appletell Rating: Buy Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes See other iPod game reviews. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
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The Wall Street Journal

Keeping Up Nintendo's Momentum

After overseeing several years of rapid growth at Nintendo, President Satoru Iwata faces new challenges: how to keep players of the company's videogames interested, and how to cultivate a new wave of customers.
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Yahoo! News Make Father's Day a day for play ...

USATODAY.com - Some guys like ties, but all boys love toys. Whether dad's the sporting type, a race-car driver in training, an action hero, a rock-star wannabe or the more...
06/10/08
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Macworld - Depths of Peril action RPG released

Depths of Peril is a new action RPG for the Mac from Soldak Entertainment.
06/05/08
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Arstechnica Gods among menus: a review of Too Human

With its epic, Norse-inspired story, strong customization systems, and fluid combat, Too Human manages to stand out even in the wake of controversy, albeit with its fair share...
08/19/08
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Yahoo! News Spielberg piles on action in...

Reuters - "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" seems to be more of a sequel to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" than to the last film in the adventure...
05/18/08
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Yahoo! News Spielberg piles on action in...

Reuters - "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" seems to be more of a sequel to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" than to the last film in the adventure...
05/18/08
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Yahoo! News Nintendo set to launch "Wii Fit"...

Reuters - For years, video games have been blamed for turning kids into idle layabouts who only venture off the couch to fill up on potato chips and soda.
05/17/08
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