World Cyber Games Ireland ends toady
The Sunday Tribune reports on the World Cyber Games Ireland…
Kicking off at midday yesterday, the crowd of predominantly male
competitors were preparing for a long day (and night) of non-stop
gaming. “It’s more of a social gathering, ” explained Eric Mooney from
website room101. org, who helped organise the event, as we walked into
the warm-up room…Paddy ‘Spaceman’ Conway from Dundalk was there to play Quake 3. “We’ll
play all dayand all night until they throw us out.” Where does he get
his energy? He gestures towards a can of Coke and a Snickers bar.
Comment: Irish journalists to battle in Cyber
In a bizarre turn of events, Irish tech site ENN are reporting
that in a fight of “old media vs new media” an Irish Times
columnist will square it off with one of the tech site’s journalists.
Roisin Ingle, known for her column in the Irish Times on Saturdays,
will be challenged by ENN’s Jonathan McCrea.
It is interesting that the old media sits up. Could it be just
because the “World Cyber Games” is mentioned? One of the Irish
Times’ marketing slogans goes along the lines of “you live life, we
report it” (not a quote). It’s a pity the paper of record does not
usually reflect a large proportion of the population’s use or love of
computer games. Outside of the odd feature or the tech pages buried in
the business section — little or nothing.
As Games Toaster reported before,
the Irish leg of the World Cyber Games is set for in September 23 –
24 at the state-sponsored Digital Exchange on Crane Street (off Thomas
Street, near the Guinness Storehouse). Registration to the competition
is now closed, spectators however are welcome.
Wii price and dates for US Japan
Ubisoft’s Red Steel, for the Nintendo Wii.
Nintendo has revealed their launch dates and price for their Wii
(pronounced ‘we’) console for North America and Japan. European
launch details are expected tomorrow (Friday 15).
It will sell at $249.99 and 25,000 yen (RRP), launching in America
on November 19, followed by Japan on December 2. The move is the second
Japanese console maker to give a greater focus on the North America.
The territory includes the United States, the strongest Xbox market,
although among the only market in which the Xbox is doing exceptionally
well.
Around 30 titles are expected before the end of the year. The company says their own games will be set at a RRP of $49.99.
Nintendo says that in the US the one wireless remote control-shaped
controller, along with one “Nunchuk” controller (both pictured),
and what the company terms as the “groundbreaking collection of five
different Wii Sports games on one disc”. Wii Sports includes tennis,
baseball, golf, bowling and boxing.
Nintendo
today also named their menu system as the “Wii Channel Menu”. The
firm claims it will make the console “approachable and customizable
for everyone”. Besides games the interface will feature the ability
to look at news and weather, or to upload and send photos, in a release
the company stops short of saying full internet access. The sensors in
the PlayStation 3 controllers are more limited, for example can not aim
and act more like real aeroplane controllers.
In technical terms the Wii is said to be relatively close to the
GameCube. It is not next generation in comparable hardware terms to the
Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3, leaving less of a graphical “jump”;
however the central change is the normal controller with built-in
sensors, allowing games to be controlled with swings, swipes, aiming,
punches, and slices.
The console will have 512 megabytes of internal flash memory, two
2.0 USB ports, built-in Wi-Fi, an SD memory card port, four ports for
GameCube controllers, GameCube memory cards slots, and an AV
Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video.
Dublin LAN with Battlefield 2142 focus
GameCon 10, the Dublin based gaming event is to feature Battlefield 2142 (pictured), before the game officially launches.
The event is to host a “huge 5 Man Battlefield competition”, in
which Battlefield 2 will be used but prizes will be copies of the 2142
game. The organisers also say that real-time strategy (RTS)
competitions are to make a comeback, along with the normal console and
PC events.
Entry has dropped to 10 euro on the door, or 5 euro pre-pay, and
there are 200 places. It is set to 36 hours at the Tyrrelstown Park
Plaza Hotel run, from October 20 — 22.
GameCon is sponsored by
Battlefield publisher EA Games, as well as Xbox, PlayStation, Creative
Labs, GameStop, Ubisoft, Logitech, and Alienware. “We use GameCon to
analyse the market, otherwise gamers are very hard to find: We run
show reels and conduct questionnaires to get feedback on particular
games” organiser Jermain Williams (aka Jazz) told the Sunday Business Post.
Ireland Online servers to go
Free Ireland-based PC games servers provided by Ireland Online (BT
Ireland) are soon to be dropped. Last week an administrator, “Rev
Hellfire”, stated on darkkeep.com
“[It's] been a fun ride but all good things must come to an end. And
the end in this case is that the Ireland Online servers will most
likely be pulled by the end of this month”, adding “I’d start looking
for a new home now if I was you”.
The servers were sometimes marked by their Irish linked names, or
references to the Irish gaming community. Currently listed servers
include “Driving miss kdjac” (Games1.iol.ie) a GTA:San Andreas mod
server; “Pirates of Portlaoise” (Games2.iol.ie) for the Battlefield
1942 pirates mod, “Viet-Navan” (Games4.iol.ie) a Battlefield
Vietnam server, and an old server for the Battlefield 1942 mod Desert
Combat (pictured) was named ‘Cavan Combat’. Servers for Counter
Strike, Battlefield, and Quake line of games have featured throughout
the years.
PS3 launch setback in Europe, again
Sony’s upcoming console, the PlayStation 3, now has a launch date of
March 2007, after the company has set back the release for PAL areas
for a second time.
The delay will also affect Russia, the Middle East, Africa and
Australasia, but the November launches in North America and Japan are
so-far unaffected. Sony still hopes to ship 6 million units by the end
of the 2007 financial year.
According to the firm, “The revision of the launch date in the
SCEE territories is caused by the delay in the mass production schedule
of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the
timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PlayStation 3″.
The second launch postponement adds to grievances over the high
price points for the console, and the questionable removal of the
rumble feature from the console controllers.
Ireland gets official Pro Evo championship
- Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Wexford heats
- Ireland to host European Championship
Xtra-vision, the Irish entertainment retailer and rental store, is
to sponsor the Irish Pro Evolution Soccer Championship, with heats in
Dublin, Galway, Limerick, and Wexford.
Irish heats are to have places for up to 256 “avid gamers” each; in
Galway (Sat, Sept 9) at Corrib Great Southern; Limerick (Sun, Sept 10)
at the Clarion Hotel; in Dublin (Sat, Sept 16) at the Alexander Hotel;
and in Wexford (Sunday, Sept 17) at the Talbot Hotel. All are set to
start at 9am. The top 16 winners gaining entry to the final at
Microsoft’s infamous Atrium Building in Sandyford, on Saturday Setember
23.
The press release says the events “will be co-ordinated through
World Gamer Live’s interactive website”, but says to register at xtravision.proevorankings.com. Xtra-vision also sponsor WorldGamerLive.com, and their events.
According to Mircosoft, the Irish championship is to be followed by
an Ireland-hosted Pro Evolution Soccer 5 European Championship. “The
Irish Pro Evolution Soccer Championship is the first of its kind in
Ireland and is a prelude to leading game developer Konami’s high
profile Pro Evolution Soccer 5 European Championship which will be held
in Ireland for the first time ever later this year” reads a statement
from the company.
There is still confusion over the exclusivity of Pro Evolution
Soccer 6, even on next generation formats. Although, Mircosoft says it
is “bringing the next generation edition of Pro Evolution Soccer 6
exclusively to Xbox 360 until late summer 2007″, Pro Evo 6 producer and
creator Shingo Takatsuka had said “We never said exclusive for one year
on the next-gen platforms. We said this year,” and the publisher Konami
issued a statement saying “It has been falsely reported on some websites that KONAMI will release its “Pro Evolution Soccer 6″ exclusively for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. These reports are not true.
KONAMI is currently proceeding with the production of a multi-platform
release of “Pro Evolution Soccer 6″ so that as many people as possible
can enjoy the game”.