DICE traded laptop for 100 buns

"Marie Wiegurd in Stockholm had some difficulties with getting enough money for her two teenage boys, Pontus and Rasmus, that needed a computer for their schoolwork. But then she got a great idea. She put up an ad on the internet, in hopes that someone would want to trade their computer against her 100 newly baked buns."

"The ad was discovered by the four coworkers Calle, Niklas, Jannis and David from the game developer DICE in Stockholm.
- We thought it was a really fun thing. We talked over a lunch about the computer we had and her 100 buns and decided that we should make the deal, said Calle Wahlfors."

"When Marie Wiegurd came to DICE, the bun baking mother was met by applauses and cheers.
- We mailed everyone in the company that we had buns. They were consumed in half an hour, said Calle Wahlfors."

De bytte dator mot bullar

Assassin's Creed - PAX'07 Presentation

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Assassin's Creed - Factoids compilation
Assassin's Creed Developer Diary: Art Direction

Bioshock OST (Thank you 2K)

01 Bioshock Main Theme (The Ocean on His Shoulders).mp3
02 Welcome to Rapture.mp3
03 Dr. Steinman.mp3
04 The Docks.mp3
05 The Dash.mp3
06 Step Into My Gardens.mp3
07 Dancers on a String.mp3
08 Cohens Masterpiece.mp3
09 The Engine City.mp3
10 Empty Houses.mp3
11 This Is Where They Sleep.mp3
12 All Spliced Up.mp3

Download (.zip)

Bioshock Artbook

Violent game ban might force Crytek to leave

The Council of Interior Ministers (IMK) has agreed on a ban on the production and distribution of violent games. Plans are also afoot for a ban on not only games that ‘glamorise violence’ but also those that are ‘dominated by violence’.

Should the former ban come into effect, Crytek would be forced to either leave Germany or stop producing first person shooters.

As Yerli explains, though, the company would not be prepared to move to other genres, and is already making contingency plans.

In addition to mentioning his like of Budapest, where Crytek already has an office, he also explained that the company has been approached by the governments of many other countries: "Especially England, Scotland, Austria and Singapore are very active."

Crytek threatens to move from Germany
Germany doesn't really like Crytek

Fallout 3 - Still looking good

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Patch 1.0004 Released

-= 1.0004 =-

Saved games.
Saved games from 1.0003 version will work with 1.0004 version.

Connectivity.
Connecting to the server will be possible only if the host's version of the game is the same as yours.

Patch 1.0004 changes and fixes:

Optimization:
1. Calculating detailed objects was moved to the second CPU stream.
2. Engine optimization, which resulted in FPS 10-15% gain.
3. Shaders optimization.


MP features:
1. Implemented the standalone dedicated server.
2. Retail version now works correctly with the standalone dedicated server.
3. Added remote control for the dedicated server.
4. Max ping disconnect option implemented.
5. Self-correcting network packets wrapper was implemented. This resulted in better ping values and traffic reduction by 50-100%.
6. Artifacts counter is not shown in the statistics.
7. Checking available maps without disconnecting the current game is now possible.
8. The list of the players is not dropped to the beginning upon the attempt to scroll it. Now it became easier to put the players on ban voting.
9. Fixed some bugs with defining the cause of death.
10. The exploded grenade does not continue lying on the ground after the detonation.
11. Fixed the artifact activation and the spawned anomalous zone functioning algorithm.


MP crash fix:
Fixed all known crashes.


SP fixes:
1. Fixed the bug with shooting from the grenade launcher. The grenade is fired with the first shot now.
2. Fixed the disappearing weapons when crouching for a long time.
3. Fixed the game crash on Pripyat location, when the player approached any of the monolithians' camps.
4. Fixed Voronin's tasks to eliminate the bandit Poker.
5. Fixed the random quests at the Wild Territory.
6. Fixed the random task to destroy the bandits' camp at the Cordon.
7. Fixed the random Barkeep's task to clear the snorks lair at the Dark Valley.
8. Fixed the bug with the automatic task to defend the camp when switching location or saving/loading the game.
9. Fixed the random quest to destroy the mutants lair when pseudo dogs are nearby.
10. Fixed the task to destroy the mutants lair.
11. Fixed the random tasks with the raids of characters' camps.
12. Fixed the choice of goods at Barkeep and Petrenko after completing the random tasks.
13. The wounded do not run away from the grenade now.
14. The zombies at Yantar do not run from the grenade now.
15. Fixed the crash caused by the patrol route at Yantar.
16. Fixed the crash caused by the patrol route at Agroprom Research Institute.
17. Fixed the task with getting rid of the Duty group in the village at the Military Warehouses level.
18. Fixed the bug with repeating the scene of the Duty group ambush at the beginning of the Military Warehouses level.
19. Fixed the bug with camera fly-through on the stadium at Pripyat.
20. Fixed the bug with Bes character, when the latter couldn't be healed.

Patch version 1.0004

Sony HDR-SR7, and splitting up payments 2

Yeah, that went really smoothly today. They'll just send home a form that needs to be signed for authentication purposes, and they send it to my registered address on Gotland.

Too bad, since I just did a address change yesterday, that will go active sometime during next week, and they won't send the camera until that form have been signed.

But no worries, the person that lives on that address will forward it to me as soon as possible :)

The payment program will work like this. They'll 'borrow' the money to me without fees, and then send home a invoice every month for 12 months until everything have been paid off. The invoice is blank, so I can enter whatever sum I want, and therefore I'll be able to pay it off earlier. Really flexible.

Sony HDR-SR7, and splitting up payments

Sony HDR-SR7, and splitting up payments

Just placed an order on the Sony HDR-SR7 camcorder. I normally despise splitting up payments, but I really wanted/needed this one as soon as possible.

Problem is, the place that offered payments split over two months, required that you've been fully employed for 6 months or more, and I've only had my full employment for 5½ months... typical.

So I had to buy it from another site, and sign some weird bank credit application, and I need to call them up tomorrow, for a manual credit check. *Shrugs*

We'll see how this goes, but I feel really discomfortable with this, but if everything goes smoothly, it will have been worth it.

Speaking about payments, in the next month or the month after that, I will have completed the payment on my laptop that I've paid 80$ monthly for since three years (wow, has it really been that long?), back when I started studying at the university.

Sony Handycam HDR-SR7

Want to play The Darkness against me?

Unleash your powers on the developers of The Darkness!

Have you embraced The Darkness and lived to tell the tale? Have you journeyed to the far reaches of evil and emerged from the other side? You may think you've seen the worst excesses of Hell, but a challenge even more horrifying lies ahead...

On 30th August 2007 the Starbreeze Studios, the developers of The Darkness, will be emerging from the gloom to take you on over Xbox Live! These guys are the very origins of the evil that pervades the game, so you'll need to call on all your skill and cunning to defeat them. Be sure to practice plenty of Capture the Flag, the game mode where you have to claim the enemy flag while defending your own.

For the chance to take part all you need to do is add ONE of the GamerTags below to your Friends List, get on Xbox Live between 1900 and 2000 on 30th August 2007, then wait for your invite to play the developers of The Darkness! We'll try to get as many people involved as possible, but unfortunately we can't guarantee that you'll be able to play.

Please note that you will need an Xbox Live Gold account to take part in this Developer Showdown. Don't have Xbox Live Gold? You could be playing with your friends and joining millions of other players on Xbox Live - find out more about Xbox Live Gold here.

When: Thursday, August 30, 1900-2000 BST

Who:

Anders Ekermo, Engine Programmer
Roger Mattsson, Gameplay Programmer
Tobias Lundmark, Quality Assurance

How:

Add ONE of the following GamerTags to your Friends List then get on Xbox Live between 1900 and 2000 on 30^th August for your chance to play:

StarbreezeA
StarbreezeB
StarbreezeC

Unleash your powers on the developers of The Darkness!

Bioshock restrictions resolved?

"In response to complaints that the copy protection on the PC version of BioShock was too restrictive, 2K Games has decided to give gamers a little more slack when it comes to installing the acclaimed FPS title.

The number of different machines that one user will be able to install the game on will go from 3 to 5, and the number of times a user can install the game on a single machine will go from 2 to 5."

Personally, I feel that when I buy a product, it's my property and I should be able to do whatever I want with it. This feels more like renting than actual ownership.

If the SecuROM would expire after a certain date, then I could be fine with this solution, but if it requires you to connect to their authentication servers five years from now (which isn't even certain that it's still online then), I feel kind of cheated.

It feels kind of ironic that I end up cracking the games I buy...

Updates On SecuROM, PC Activation, and a Technical FAQ
Bioshock can only be installed on two computers
Levine response to Bioshock copy protection

Levine response to Bioshock copy protection

I've followed up on the circular email with securom and we are working on this issue. I agree, it sucks, and we need to get that sorted.

I've been told by 2k that we will.

-Ken

Levine Responds to BioShock Copy Protecton Woes
Bioshock can only be installed on two computers

Battlefield Bad Company - Blowing Things Up!

Download High-Quality (.wmv)

Bad Company Teaser

Cooking skill +1

Some kind of pepper meat, paprika, onions
with garlic potato croquettes and champignon sauce

Bioshock can only be installed on two computers

"With SecuROM™ ‘s Product Activation concept, Sony DADC offers software publishers the possibility to secure their content either distributed via the physical or electronic sales channel with one solution. Only legitimate customers who have purchased the product are able to unlock the program which is bound to the hardware after activation. This ensures that once activated, it cannot be transferred to another PC and therefore not being mass pirated. SecuROM™ ‘s Product Activation can be easily combined with Sony DADC’s n-CD solution. Let your end-customers register first and collect important market information prior allowing them to use your software products. See www.n-cd.com for more information."

"i installed it when i got home. didnt know anything about this only instal lto machine so many times no documentation on it anywhere i have read.

Decided to install my vista. haveing probelms instaling vista so i decided to install on dads vist which is under the minimum specs some to play around on it. No sound lol. so i boot up the dual boot xp version on the same machine and guess what guys? No install wont accept actiavation only 2 machines so lets seee what this means for me 1 i installed on my machine and then wiped it out so that machine is no longer viable to install on and the other one i installed onto has crappy grafix and no sound so thats a no go in essance i just spent 60 dollars now just look at a broken game untill a pirtate version comes out no way in hell im paying for this shit again. Blows my mind that the same machine but dual boot is two differnent machines to them."

"this happened to me too, i can't even express how angry i am..

I picked up my LE copy of BioShock at midnight, and I installed it on my PC thinking it would run with playable fps, but it turned out to be pretty choppy. So, I installed it on my laptop instead, thus letting me play Bioshock. However, once my brother tried to install it on his PC, he got the exact same error shown in the picture. No more than 2 installations? outrageous. How about future system upgrades? I wish I hadn't opened my LE box so I could at least get my money back. Nowhere does it ever mention that only 2 installations are allowed.

There must be something that can be done about this problem."

Once again, it shows that consumers are only getting screwed over while pirates can skip all the hassle.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5527

Epic acquires Painkiller developer

Warsaw, Poland 20-Aug-2007. Epic Games today announced that it has acquired a majority interest in Warsaw, Poland-based game developer People Can Fly. People Can Fly ("PCF") is best known for creating the hit PC game, Painkiller, but most recently has been collaborating with Epic on the PC version of Gears of War. In addition the two companies are collaborating on a new intellectual property which Epic will be previewing privately to publishers at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany this week.

The relationship began last year when People Can Fly was evaluating Unreal Engine 3 to use for a new multi-platform game project. "PCF showed us their early prototypes within only a few weeks and we were totally blown away," said Mark Rein, Vice President, Epic Games, Inc. "The quality of their work was extremely high, and knew we had to find a way to work more closely with them in the future." Epic hired PCF to work on the PC version of Gears of War, and collaborated with them on design of a new IP.

"Working with this team of guys who love making over-the-top shooters was a blast, and we didn't want it to end," said Dr. Michael Capps, President of Epic Games. "And their work was outstanding. The multiplayer levels they created for Gears PC look as good or better than the original. How could we not jump at the opportunity to work together on a long-term basis?".

"We are very excited to be working with Epic Games" said Adrian Chmielarz, Creative Director and Co-Owner of People Can Fly. "To be able to work with the best technology company in the business and collaborate on making amazing fantastic games is an offer you just can't refuse. Making games is hard work but it is also great fun. Working with Epic reduces the stress of being an independent developer and lets us focus even more on fun side of the business."

Epic Games Acquires Majority Stake In People Can Fly

Saboteur Debut Teaser

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Pandemic Studios Saboteur

Rewriting the history

"One American student sent major corporations, governments and even the Vatican on the defensive after coming up with Wikipedia Scanner, a software program that reveals who changed Wikipedia entries."

"What Virgil Griffith did was come up with a program that reveals who edits these articles, via a system where it scans the I.P address and cross-references it with the I.P. directory."

• Apple edit Microsoft entries, adding more negative comments about its rival
• Bill Gates revenge? Microsoft edits Apple entries, adding more negative comments about its rival
• In the 9/11 Wikipedia article, the NRA added that “Iraq was involved in 9/11”
• US Republican Party changes the "Post-Saddam" section of the Baath Party article to a different account of the war, changing the language from "US-led occupation" to "US-led liberation"
• Coca Cola removes negative content about its effects

Student’s program sends PR chaos in Wiki-scandal

Team Fortress 2 - Illustrative Rendering

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Half-Life 2 Machinima

BORN

Dopefish and Syselkitna do Stockholm - Part 2

Dopefish and Syselkitna do Stockholm

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Bioshock Artbook

Download the low res artbook (15 MB)
Download the high res artbook (75 MB)

Heavy Rain

It's been incredibly hot here for a while now, so this complete downpour is more than welcome and hopefully will cool down Uppsala for a bit.

Sunset boulevard
Rainbows! :)
My new mobilephone 3
Crimson Skies

Welcome home old friends!

It only took 11 months, but now I finally got my old speakers shipped up here to Uppsala!

O Speakers, Where Art Thou?

Syselkitna brought me some Italian pasta

He also gave me spices, biscuits and several recipes :)

Dopefish and Syselkitna do Stockholm

• Getting up early, and taking the train to Stockholm at around midday
• Walking around for a bit, checking out stores like Buttericks that had alot of small funny stuff, hats and masks
• Eating at a restaurant where I took a plank steak and Sys took a Margarita pizza (Italians doesn't dare to have anything on their pizza, when they don't know if they can trust the restaurant)
• Went and saw the swedish premiere of Rush Hour 3 at the cinema
• Was going to test drive Segways (I've always wanted to do that) and go rooftop walking, but sadly, both of those tours were full booked
• So we walked through Stockholm for an hour or something
• Then we took a boat over to Djurgården and went to the amusement park Gröna Lund
• We stayed there until Sys became sick from all the rides (Free fall, Extreme, Hanging rollercoaster, 4g-force rollercoaster and the Bumper cars)
• Took the train back home at midnight, exhausted

About the Free fall; I'm not the one that easily gets affected by attractions, and I didn't mind this one at all, but my entire body sent out signals such as "oh, hell no" and "you're not meant to be falling". It was alot of fun, and I wouldn't mind doing everything again sometime :)

(More pictures to come, when Syselkitna has uploaded his ones...)

Gröna Lund (.pdf)
Stockholm Rooftop Tour

Bioshock - Gametrailers EcoShock Feature

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Buka Entertainment announces The Hunt

Buka Entertainment announces The Hunt

New ground-breaking FPS from Orion Games

MOSCOW, August 8, 2007 - Buka Entertainment and Orion Games are pleased to reveal The Hunt, new First Person Shooter to be presented at GC 2007.

In 2025, the criminality among the society reached levels not known before. The government approved an extreme, though sure measure to ensure peace, security and prosperity for the society.
Being a common citizen, there is a probability of one in a million of receiving the back mark... a device implanted in your body that emits a signal which can be followed. But sometimes happens... If you are marked, you have become the main star of The Hunt... the degeneration into a TV show of the governmental cleaning action. "The Beaters" are the gangs that participate officially as hunters. The Hunt is a brand new FPS which breaks the established rules of the genre. Now shooting won't be enough to survive.

Key Game Features:

• Brand new engine with state-of-the art features. Real time lightning and shading. The enemies will react to your noise and shadow.
• The AGEIA PhysX technology allows not just to break almost every element of the scenario, but also to use it as weapon... a stone, a brick, a pipe...
• The main character is not a soldier or a well-trained hero... is a normal person who receives the Black Mark and has to escape and learn to survive.
• Stealth will be an important part of the gameplay. Special killing moves.
• Multiplayer. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Survival mode...

The Hunt Announced and Screens

Steam 'Community Features' tour

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Star Wars vs Star Trek lightwriting

Lichtfaktor

John Carmack talks about id Tech 5

id Software next title announced as Rage

Quake Zero to be released for free as advergame

During today's Quake Con keynote the id folks announced that they have a team of developers working on a little pet project called Quake Zero.

QZ will be a free web-based version of Quake 3 multiplayer. Todd Hollenshead told me they decided to kick off this project for several reasons. First and foremost, id hated to see their game, once quite popular for online matches, losing its prominence in the online gaming scene, this will allow virtually anyone with a computer to play matches of their games.

Hollenshead said id also wanted to dip their toe in in-game advertising, and that this seemed like the best way to approach it. So expect ads to be running on the web page when you play Quake Zero,but free games for ads seem absolutely fine to me.

Quake Zero Announced

Talking about Quake Zero. Carmack's idea for how to start a second team at id, which has never existed before. "Even at id, we can't just snap our fingers and say, 25 of the best developers in the world, drop what you're doing and come work on this."

Brought in some new people to start staffing up, eventually will grow to team of 20-30 people working on Quake 3 Arena game powered by id Tech 5. For Quake Zero, will spiff up graphics slightly and allow people to play for free. Visuals have never been the key thing--people used to run with all graphics settings turned down. "The core gameplay goodness was there."

"Quake Arena was always my favorite game, my favorite id game." Not the company's biggest blockbuster, but "I have always liked the simple, straightforward and elegant game."

These days gamers like big intricate productions, which is why Carmack lets Willits head up design and he sticks to tech. Working with Apple to ensure Quake Zero will run on Mac.

id is a private company, so he can talk about unsigned projects; so while everything tonight is not guaranteed, it's stuff id is trying to do.

QuakeCon 07: Press Conference

id Software games now available on Steam

Commander Keen, Episodes 1 through 5
Wolfenstein 3D
Spear of Destiny
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Ultimate DOOM
DOOM II
Master Levels for DOOM II
Final DOOM
DOOM3
DOOM3: Resurrection of Evil
QUAKE
QUAKE Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
QUAKE Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
QUAKE II
QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning
QUAKE II Mission Pack: Ground Zero
QUAKE III Arena
QUAKE III: Team Arena
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
HeXen
HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
HeXen II

id Software next title announced as Rage

Download High-Quality (.mov)

id Tech 5 demonstration

Codemaster go advergaming and gives for free

"Didn't quite believe the news yesterday, so thought I'd check with Gametap. Surely they couldn't be offering all of Codemasters new/upcoming titles, games like Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Clive Barker's Jericho, DiRT and Overlord, for free?

Seems they are, with Gametap confirming today that yes, as long as you're willing to put up with the odd commercial here and there, you can play them all for free on their ad-supported section.

We all like to bitch and moan about the negative effects of advertising on gaming. I know I do. Let's pause then for a second and give thanks for a rare instance where it's actually going to help you out."

Yes, The New Codemasters Games Are Free

Project Offset trailer is from a year old build

The project offset video which was available on the net a few days ago was leaked and the devs seem very angry about the incident. So angry that, they have decided not to even show the video from the newest build of the game.

They confirmed that, the leaked video was from a year old build, very early in development and were in the process of putting things together to release the first official footage from their latest build.

“It has come to our attention that a video we made for internal purposes was leaked and is being spread around. Again, this video was for internal use only and we didn’t intend to release it publically.

We’d like to request that news sites please not post this video”

Project Offset Devs Pissed
Project Offset Trailer

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky Gameplay

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Download High-Quality (.mov)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky - Screenshots
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky coming 1st half of 2008

Assassin's Creed - Factoids compilation

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Assassin's Creed - Ubidays '07 Trailer
Assassin's Creed - Live Demonstration E3 2007
Assassin's Creed Developer Diary: Art Direction

Fable 2 Video Diary 2: Combat

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Fable 2 Video Diary 1: Love
GDC'07: Molyneux Presentation Videos
Leipzig: Fable 2 Fighting System

Project Offset Trailer

Download High-Quality (.mov)

Project Offset (working title)