Game On for Take-Two
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Profits may disappoint, but revenue strength is evidence that the game company is a relevant player.
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Tycho:  Having already purchased two fifths of The Orange Box over the last few years, the level of value I have derived from it is "fantastic" but not "supernatural."  For Gabriel, who never finished the second Half-Life and never purchased the first episode, the aforementioned Box represents an intimidating and possibly even brutal level of content for one's holiday dollar.  It's hard enough trying to keep up with all the games that are coming out, but when you start putting more than one game on the disc the difficulty is compounded.   We're lucky, then, than the best thing on there can be completed in only a couple hours.     I've tried to make my rounds through the disc, but I kept coming back to Portal until I'd completed it.  I expect every part of this strange collection to be full of virtue, in the way that Valve's anomalous position in the games industry allows: self-funded development in their sky-high Bellevue commune until each product sings.  But Portal is strange, even for them.  Risky on every axis, we may now say that the "first person puzzle comedy" has now been proven out as a genre.  The gameplay is strong, but Portal's unique combination of hilarity and menace elevates it, resulting in a few perfect, indelible hours of gameplay.          My TeamFortress 2 experience so far on the console has been fairly uneven.  Coming from the PC beta, where I sometimes battled with stability concerns but the games played smooth, I'm now grappling with the reverse.  I love the play experience, as I've already expressed, and I'm rarely of the opinion that having more players automatically improves a game - so the differential between the PC and 360 platforms isn't as important to me as it might be to others.  No, the problem with TF2 on the 360 (and likely the PS3, as well) is that peer to peer hosting just ain't cutting it.  There are games that seem to manage it better, but with Vista PCs authenticating into the service now peer to peer games should be an option.  This needs fixed overnight.     I'll try to complete the second Episode over the weekend, interleaved with finishing the writing on my own game, which has become more difficult since completing Portal.  I'm starting to think that Precipice needs a greater concentration of synthesized ladies.      I would be abdicating my duty if I neglected to mention the EA thing, which is really the EA/BioWare/Pandemic thing.  I was under the impression that BioWare and Pandemic had merged precisely to give themselves leverage over monolithic publishers like Electronic Arts, but who knows.  The biggest fallout in the short term is that, beyond the first Mass Effect, a multiplatform release is almost certain.  Of course, I wholly endorse that kind of thing, but I imagine that Microsoft might hold a different opinion.  After spending years promoting the series, enduring delays, and now having spent months beating the shit out of it in test, it's fair to say that MS was investing in a larger trilogy - one that gamers would associate exclusively with their brand.
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Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.   said on Monday it formed a new publishing label  devoted to casual games called 2K Play.
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There&#39;s a balance to making a sequel to a successful video or computer game. The developer, at the very least, is expected to match the quality of the first game.
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Blog: Newsweek has the story, and there are two games in the works.
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Try these (slightly) more palatable tactics.
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By Clint Cooper, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.  Dec. 19--Talk about getting up close and personal with your video game.
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Tycho: I just read through one of the conduits of Leipzig gaming news, and was jolted by a piece of news: Xbox Live is going to be moving into classic board games. I don't mean, like, Chutes and Ladders or some shit - though I don't doubt that GrowPot420 would snap that up on day one. No, I mean like Settlers of Catan and Carcassone. Pillars of the tabletop gaming community, so to speak. This is probably the biggest news of that convention for me. Getting people together to play these games, or finding people to play them with at all can be a trying endeavor. This is near Goddamn optimal.(CW)TB
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Tantalizing new games for Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3, and Microsoft Xbox 360 are on the horizon.
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Blog: Newsweek has the story, and there's two games in the works.
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The Manhunt 2 controversy continues. After Take-Two acknowledged recently that their game had received a [preliminary "Adults Only" rating] from the ESRB, spokespersons from both Sony and Nintendo confirmed that the game would not find itself a home on their console systems should that rating stand.
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Tycho:  Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is impressive in many ways, as I've suggested: certainly as a technical showcase, it's nice to have in your bag.  As a catalogue of Japanese aggression toward gamers, it's clear now that future generations will refer to these advanced cups as a deeply scandalous exhibit.  I have seen a Goddamn ninja weave a dark circle, disappear with a burst of leaves in some strictly Hattori Hanzo type shit, and then phase back into the physical plane to haunt our mortal hoops.
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Bungie's follow-up to its wildly successful shooter provides hours of fun, provided you're not too irritated by the ending or the long wait for a match on Xbox Live. By Lore SjÃ¶berg.
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Xbox owners can rejoice as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas finally gets confirmed for the Xbox. &quot;Take Two took the opportunity presented by the results announcement to reveal a number of changes to their release
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New consoles are old news. What's hot now? Sequels to old games.
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Life & style: Blokarting, octopush, goalball - weird new fusion games are being invented all the time to encourage more people to play sport. Anyone for blackminton?
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How old school: Most  moviegoers will have to settle for 2-D this weekend.