Real artificial intelligence

light-Bot is a story of a robot who must light up all the blue tiles in the robot factory.

Assist this humble droid with his task, using your powers of figuring out how the heck to get him from point A to point B.

Feel those rusty brain-cogs creak into motion. I gave up on level 10 – can you beat that?

Fable II (Xbox 360)

In a very small nutshell, Fable 2 (Xbox 360) is just like its predecessor – only richer. Beautiful artwork and a gentle ambiance set the scene for your hero’s unfolding tale, coupled with rich voice acting and script-writing, it’s not unlike a childrens’ story for big kids that’s just as fun to watch as it is to play.

The first thing I noticed was how easy it was to get stuck in. RPGs in general turn me off because of how much you have to learn before even thinking about doing anything fun. But this is a game for dippy punters like me: three simple character stats determine whether your hero is adept at fighting, shooting or spellcasting. Golden breadcrumbs guide you through quest adventures, and one button takes care of interacting, jumping and fighting – well, three buttons depending on what sort of fight you’re after, but even then, it’s preschool-easy. All this makes for a game that’s easy to pick up, easy to play and easy to stay engaged in.

As in the original, the series’ famed cornerstone of ‘good vs evil’ doesn’t seem to make much difference here, but adds that entertaining nicety to buff the fantasy aspect of play.

All in all, it gets two thumbs up – but only when I’ve put down my controller.

Gordon is at it again at the LHC

Some of you might remember this article we posted back in September about an employee of CERN at the Large Hadron Collider bearing a striking resemblance to Gordon Freeman of Half-Life fame.

Well some folks from site reddit decided to make sure that Gordon was ready to face the incoming alien invasion by sending him an actual red crowbar and throwing in a headcrab hat for him to practice his skills on.  Gordon (aka Sandro Bonacini) even posed for a variety of photos outside of CERN showing him practising for the imminent alien invasion by the combine.

Full article is at reddit here with the full collection of photos on Picasa here.

GTA 4 – The Lost and Damned [DLC] Feb 2009

"The story is not directly impacted by decisions you took in the main game," he says. But "tons of details and mysteries from the main story get explained, so it will add a lot of color to the main story."

Rockstar have set a date of February 19, 2009, with no word yet on when or if this new episode will be available for the PS3 or PC.

[Source: USA Today]

Guitar Hero on a bike

A video that’s doing the rounds at the moment involves a best selling music video game and a bicycle. What on earth could the two achieve together? A traffic hazard possibly, but the general consensus is that this is nothing short of a spectacle.

Left 4 Dead released

Everyones favourite coop zombie survival FPS has just been released on Steam. Valve have taken an interesting route with this release in that the demo will actually be disabled now that the full game is out. This coupled with requiring people to pre-order the game to get a chance to play the demo early has already generated some pretty heated discussion, but to be honest .. I don’t care. The game is awesome and I can’t wait to get home and battle a whole bunch of zombies.

3FL servers are updating now, which means all those 64 demo servers are turning themselves into full game servers.  WA is already done, NSW will follow shortly.  Also remember to join the 3FL steam group – soon all the servers will be listed under this group and you will be able to browse them ingame if you’re a member.

See you in there, save some zombies for me.

Call of Duty World at War – out now + servers

Today has seen the release of Call of Duty World at War (aka Call of Duty 5) from Treyarch.  Already there is a patch out and we’ve got a bunch of servers setup and ready for you to have a go at.

After you’ve finished installing, you’ll want to head on over to our downloads section and grab the 318Mb 1.1 patch from here whilst reading about the things they’ve changed already:

• Mods are now enabled in Co-op, Single Player, and Multiplayer.
• Players will now be notified when a new patch is available.
• Improvements for SLI support.
• G_Spawn: no free entities crash has been fixed.
• Server no longer runs out of script variables.
• License key is no longer required to run a Dedicated Server.
• A Dedicated Server can now be started from the Command Line via Remote Desktop Connection.
• Various fixes in Server Browser.
• Players will no longer see multiple friend invites from the same friends.
• When a player calls in a recon plane in a Hardcore match, the HUD will properly appear.
• Clan Tags will now display in game where appropriate.
• Map holes fixed
• Spawn improvements and weapon balancing

After you’ve downloaded and installed that patch, you might want to head on over to our Serverspy and check out the servers we’ve got setup.  At the moment we’ve got 8 servers up in NSW and 4 in WA all providing 24 slots each.  I’ve got a combination of pretty much all of the game modes that CoD has, so jump on and let us know what you think by hitting up our Call of Duty forum here.

Enjoy!

Left 4 Dead demo out now for everyone

Overnight Valve have released the Left 4 Dead demo to everyone, so whether you’ve pre-ordered or not, you can get stuck right into slaying some zombies.  So if you haven’t already, fire up your steam client and you should see the Left 4 Dead demo in your available games list.

Due to the matchmaking system, by default you can’t select which server to join.  You can access a server browser (even though its a bit buggy and doesn’t show up all of the servers) and select which server to join.  I’ve posted details on how to do this on our forums here.

We’ve had a bunch of servers (64) for it up since the demo was released last week, so plenty of Freezone free traffic gaming to be had for iiNet and Westnet customers.

Enjoy!

World of Warcraft: Scourge Invasion

Blizzard like having world events in World of Warcraft.  There are regular events such as the Darkmoon Faire, seasonal events such as Hallows End and for special occasions there are events such as the Scourge Invasion currently underway.

The last time the Scourge Invasion made an appearance, it was for the release of the 40 man raiding instance Naxxramas, which was the last raiding instance in the original game before the first expansion The Burning Crusade was released.  This time its different, Naxxramas has disappeared from Azeroth and now lurks over the frozen wastes of Dragonblight in Northrend, where Dalaran once was there is only a crater, but the Scourge are back in Azeroth and have started their attacks.

First it started off with a mysterious plague turning unsuspecting players into ghouls, then the addition of necropolis’ floating around certain zones with scourge summoning circles appearing nearby and now abominations and frostwyrms are attacking all of the major alliance and horde cities.  The city leaders are involved in this latest, and even leads to Garrosh Hellscream and Thrall fighting against each other in Orgrimmar.

No doubt there will be more to come in the next couple of days before the continent of Northrend, home to the Lich King himself becomes available for play with the second expansion for World of Warcraft – Wrath of the Lich King that is due out on Friday.

MMO-Champion has more coverage of the Scourge Invasion event as it happens here.

Xbox 360 sees a price drop

Microsoft Australia have dropped the price on all versions of the Xbox 360, just in time for Christmas and the launch of the Xbox dashboard update due out on the 19th of November.

The price drops sees the entry level Arcade pack coming in at an RRP of $299 (a drop of $50), with the standard and Elite dropping $100 off the RRP and coming down to $399 and $549 respectively.

Full release from Microsoft is as follows:

SYDNEY 11 November 2008 -Microsoft today has lowered the price of the Xbox 360^TM video game and entertainment system in Australia to a starting price of AU$299.00 RRP* – less than half the RRP price[1] of the next cheapest hi-definition console in the country.

With Christmas just around the corner, all Xbox consoles will come with complimentary games for a limited time at participating retailers.

"Gaming is set to be one of the hottest categories this year. Consoles are a great gift for the whole family. Now that we’re making gaming even more affordable Australians can have more fun for less this holiday," said Jeremy Hinton, Xbox group product marketing manager, Australia and New Zealand. "Xbox 360 is the cheapest next-gen console on the market[2], has the biggest number of next-gen games and it’s the home of Xbox LIVE, the largest social network on TV,"

"The Xbox 360 also has an amazing line up of games this festive season including Lips, Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, making it a great present for the whole family," added Hinton.

Microsoft is dropping the price of their entire Xbox 360 console range.

Xbox 360 Range	New RRP	Previous RRP	Saving on previous RRP
Xbox 360 Arcade	$299	$349	$50
Xbox 360	$399	$499	$100
Xbox 360 Elite	$549	$649	$100

The Xbox 360 offers a collection of over 300 games, with more titles than any other games console. The power of Xbox LIVE also connects over 14 million people worldwide to the things they love – from game demos, hundreds of multiplayer games and other downloadable content.

"At the end of the month Xbox owners will be able to download a new user interface for their consoles, effectively updating the console. The New Xbox Experience is cleaner and more user-friendly and will allow users to create online parties, chat with friends, share pictures, create avatars of themselves and much more," added Hinton.

The full contents of the three entertainment systems are:

• Xbox 360 Arcade (RRP AU$299.00*): Great for those looking to hit the ground running and allow consumers to customise as they wish.Includes the Xbox 360 video game console and entertainment system, wireless controller, and composite AV cable, 256MB Memory and Xbox LIVE 5 Arcade 5 game compilation disc including Pac-Man Championship Edition and UNO.
• Xbox 360 (RRP AU$399.00*):With a 60GB hard drive it’s a LIVE-ready experience for fans of interactive entertainment. Includes the Xbox 360 video game console and entertainment system, 60GB hard drive, Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 headset, component High Definition AV cable and an Ethernet Connectivity Cable.
• Xbox 360 Elite (RRP AU$549.00*): For those looking for a premium experience the Elite offers twice the storage of the Xbox 360 and a stylish black finish. Includes the black Xbox 360 Elite video game and entertainment system, 120GB hard drive, wireless controller, Xbox 360 headset, component HD AV cable, HDMI cable, an Ethernet Connectivity Cable and a complimentary 30-day trial Xbox LIVE^® Gold membership.

* Recommended retail prices only at participating retailers. The price consumers actually pay will be determined by the retailer.

So just in time for Christmas eh?