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Why All This Gearbox Halo 4 Talk Here's Why...
(Maybe) [Rumor]

post from Kotaku on 27 August 2008 10:40:00 PM. © Kotaku

Earlier we posted that Gearbox Software (Brothers In Arms, Borderlands) was rumored to be working on Halo 4. With Bungie out of the picture, Gearbox does seem like a logical fit — the developer did do the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved.

What's more, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford stated in February: "I've started a new project. It's big. It's, like, look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big. I'm Directing it myself. I can't mention it publicly yet. When you find out what this is, you'll likely agree that I can't oversell this one." But that doesn't necessarily mean Gearbox is doing Halo 4. The "big" project Pitchford is talking about could be something else entirely. And Halo 4 hasn't even been announced. (Though, Microsoft would be silly not to do it.)

So, why all this talk about Gearbox and Halo 4?

The current Director of Technology at Gearbox is Corrine Yu. Corrine Yu (pictured) has been called, for lack of a better comparison, "the John Carmack of female programmers". She's an industry vet, cutting her teeth as the Lead Programmer for the 3DO's Asia launch, going on to work as Lead Programmer for the Prey Engine and even working as Director of Techology at John Romero's ill-fated ION Storm and also at 3D Realms.

Her recent work at Gearbox includes programming Brothers in Arms, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Borderlands. So why all this talk about Corrine Yu? We've come in possession of an internal Gearbox email that Yu sent out. It reads:

Hello, friends.

I am Corrinne Yu, Director of Technology of Gearbox Software.

I was offered and recruited to the position of Principle (Lead) Engine Architect of Halo Franchise Team at Microsoft. I accepted the offer to lead the team to build the engines and games for future Halo's on Xbox'es and PC's at Microsoft.

I am staying to simu-ship Brothers In Arms all versions. I will start Halo after BiA starts manufacturing. Aliens: Colonial Marines and Borderlands are more than mostly completed. I assure you I will continue to help Gearbox. I am starting on Halo Team at Microsoft after 09/15/2008. My email after that day will be XXXX@microsoft.com.

I would be glad to introduce my friendly helpful Corrinne replacements at Gearbox to you. I am stoked to program and design and build some awesome Halo's.

Let's stay in touch!

after 09/15/2008

Corrinne Yu
Principle Engine Architect
Halo Franchise Team
Microsoft

after 09/15/2008:
XXXX@microsoft.com
XXXX@XXXX.com
XXXX@XXXX.net

before 09/15/2008

Corrinne Yu
XXXX@XXXX.com

before 09/15/2008:
XXXX@gearboxsoftware.com
XXXX@XXXX.net
Director of Technology
Gearbox Software

Obviously, we added the "XXXX" for privacy. So this email doesn't exactly confirm that Gearbox is doing Halo 4 (it doesn't even confirm Halo 4), but it does make it seem more possible. Perhaps Yu has been hired to act as a go-between for Gearbox and Microsoft? Or maybe Yu will be lending her programming wizardry to internally developed Microsoft Game Studios Halo titles.

We are following up with both Microsoft and Gearbox.

[Pic]

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alk-heres-why-maybe

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Natasha Bedingfield, the face of Boogie Superstar

post from Gaming Nexus on 27 August 2008 10:39:00 PM. © Gaming Nexus

by: Randy Kalista
NEWS - Natasha Bedingfield is now the spokesperson for EA's Boogie Superstar for the Wii, the game that will purportedly "have girls cheering for more." I'd criticize that embarrassingly drab line, but if I personally knew how to market more effectively to teens, then I would've pulled more dates in high school. But I digress. The 40-song tracklist is revealed in part, to include hits from Fall Out Boy (I wonder if the Fallout 3 soundtrack will feature them too -- just kidding), Maroon 5, the Jonas Brothers, Kanye West, and three tracks from Miss Bedingfield: "Angel," "Love Like This," and "Pocketful of Sunshine."Comment

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rstar/Item9794.aspx

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Bubble Tanks 2

post from Online Games on 27 August 2008 10:26:00 PM. © Online Games

From Hero Interactive (Starshine, Light Sprites, Storm Winds) comes Bubble Tanks 2, the[...]

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Pandemic Batman Game Given The Arse [Rumor]

post from Kotaku on 27 August 2008 10:20:00 PM. © Kotaku

Another rumour burger! Let's pile this one atop the other Pandemic Batman ones and just chow down. According to Australian Gamer, the staff working on Pandemic's Batman game - which was being developed at the studio's Brisbane outpost - have been told to wind things up. Game's cancelled. Why? Seems it missed too many deadlines, and "the higher ups" - either EA or Pandemic HQ - decided it was time to cut their losses. Do try and keep the already-tiring "why so serious" jokes to a minimum, please.

Why so serious Pandemic? [Australian Gamer, via Kotaku AU]

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Rumor: LucasArts planning Wii MotionPlus
lightsaber game

post from Joystiq on 27 August 2008 10:12:41 PM. © Joystiq

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Action

The Force which compels LucasArts to concoct more ways to utilize the Wiimote for lightsaber gameplay will be with it ... always. According to the latest EGM rumor section, "Quartermann" brings unconfirmed word that the Star Wars factory is looking to follow up its Wii version of The Force Unleashed and The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels with yet another lightsaber-centric game, this one utilizing Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus accessory.

You may recall that LucasArts was one of, well, pretty much every Wii third-party left feeling a bit ... seventieth-party by Nintendo's choice to unveil MotionPlus to them on the same day as the public. According to the Q-man, now that the company has access to the tech for development purposes, it wants to make the bestest lightsaber game ever. Might we suggest it be called: Star Wars: Lightsaber Duels - This Time It's Not All Spazzy, Really!

[Via NWF]

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Blizzard Starts Pushing Ringtones And Wallpapers
[World Of Phonecraft]

post from Kotaku on 27 August 2008 10:00:00 PM. © Kotaku

Do you really need to have the gurgling murloc sound as your telephone ringtone? Do you not hear the World of Warcraft opening theme enough on your PC? Perhaps you can't figure out how to create your own cellphone wallpapers and would rather spend a couple bucks on letting the extremely nosy know that you're into Diablo or StarCraft? Well you're in luck, as Blizzard has just opened up a ringtone and wallpaper store at Mobile.Blizzard.Com. In partnership with Echovox, Inc., the store carries a wide selection of wallpapers from Blizzard's three biggest money makers, along with choice sounds from World of Warcraft that could very well lead to an awkward conversation with a total stranger that reinforces the fact that with 20 million servers and two factions, chance of you knowing them are slim to none.

Currently the service mainly services Europe, South America, and a few bits of Asia, so those of us in the U.S. will have to make due with obsessively humming the theme song to WoW until allowances are made.

Blizzard Mobile Store [Official Site via WorldofWar.net]

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YouTube Social VWs Tour

post from Terra Nova on 27 August 2008 09:53:00 PM. © Terra Nova

Gary Hayes recently posted a video tour of over fifty social virtual worlds -- his blog entry here (with some commentary). I had not seen many of these before. This is a neat resource to get a few seconds of...

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First Impressions: Castle Crashers

by: Charles Husemann
NEWS - John and I spent about 90 minutes playing through Castle Crashers tonight and so far the game is really living up to expectations. The biggest thing I noticed is that the game is closer to Golden Axe than TMNT (an error on my part), and there are even a few sequences that are directly lifted from the classic Sega game.

The game is a straight beat 'em up with a small RPG layer grafted on top of it. You gain XP as you play and as you level up you can put points towards your strength, magic, health, and agility. This gives you a lot of options in how you want to play the game. Personally I loaded up on strength and magic which while making me a stronger fighter, annoyed John to no end as he had to constantly revive me (this is done via a sliding scale ala the reload game in Gears of War). You can also pick up different weapons and pets as you play the game which alters your play strategy as well.

So far I'm having a lot of fun with the game and the online play is fairly solid. We did hit a little bit of lag and had the game crash on us once but after that it was smooth sailing. The art style and animation are top notch and there are a lot of cute moments in the game. The humor is a little churlish at times (the game confirms that bears do poop in the woods) but there's a lot of fun to be had in the game. Like Alien Hominid before it the game is pure old school game mechanics with a few new touches tossed in for flavor. There's a lot of depth to the game as well as you can play as any of the four knights or any of the unlockable characters in the game. Each one has different abilities which adds a lot to the replayability of the game. Plus it's a done of fun to just to beat the crap out of each other in the arenas and after defeating bosses.

I don't have a problem recommending the game to people who are looking for a fun party game. The fact that you can mix local players with online players is a nice touch. I do wish they had added drop in/drop out support to the game but it's not that hard to exit the game and start a new one with everyone in it (it autosaves your progress so you just have to restart the level you are playing). So far it feels like Castle Crashers is living up to the hype.Comment

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Guitar Praise - Knocking Off Guitar Hero.. For
Jesus [Guitar Praise: Solid Rock]

They say that the Devil has all the best tunes — 'they' are noticeably quieter on the subject of who has the most original video games, however. (Hint: it appears to be the devil again)

The description for Guitar Praise: Solid Rock seems a little familiar - Two guitars can be connected at the same time, so two guitarists can play together - either on the same track or one on lead, the other on bass. Players press the fret buttons and strum on the strum bar in time to the color-coded notes as they scroll onscreen.

I'm sure I have heard that somewhere before — almost as though someone has been coveting his neighbour's gameplay.

Anyhoo, GP:SR lets you strum along to the very best in Christian Music - bands like Thousand Foot Krutch, Relient K, the faintly sinister-sounding Whitecross and many more who I am sure actually do exist, but have yet to make it to the secular radio stations here in the UK.

Guitar Praise is out for the PC and Mac in September, lifestyle sold separately.

Guitar Praise: Guitar Hero for Christians [via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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Soul Caliber IV Review.

One of the big hits of the summer has been keeping us satisfied until the holiday games hit the market. This is defiantly my favorite fighting game on the market now.

The developers have done everything to make sure this game keeps getting play time.1/2 fighting game, 1/2 rpg, and awesome online matches. This game will take care of all of your needs.

Nothing is better then playing with a couple of friends online, and busting their ass with a lucky last minute blow. Controllers will be thrown, pillows will be kicked. This is how fighting games should be played.There are many characters to choose from, unlock and buy.

One of the best aspects of this game, is the character creation mode. One can design a character, add gear and weapons that add different stats to the character. This aspect of the game can take up much of your time.

To obtain the items to upgrade your character, you have to play through the game, and achieve certain goals. Playing online, you're certain to see some interesting looking characters that look like something from Tromaville pictures.

This game has everything a fighting game should have and more...so enjoy it! This game deserves perfect scores all around. I'll see you online....and hopefully bust you up.

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