While at the 2009 SEMA show, Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi talked to Autoweek, and besides confirming Gran Turismo 6 and its development time-span being shorter, he also had a little something to say about Forza Motorsport 3, which up until now has been labeled by many as the Xbox 360 exclusive equivalent to the PS3-exclusive Gran Turismo 5.

The GT series has long been known for being the “real driving simulator” and after checking out the competition at the office, he shared his impressions at SEMA. “I tried it a little bit. It’s very similar in a lot of aspects to Gran Turismo. Some base components of the game are very different from Gran Turismo.” He then added  that “it’s a little bit different from what a simulator is. You can feel it when you drive it.”

He also went on to say that one of the reasons for GT5 having been in development for so long, is due to the fact that it has been built from the ground up, rather than having the GT4 code implemented to it. It remains to be seen what this new code will deliver in terms of simulation, and what Yamauchi meant by saying that Forza 3 was different from a simulator. How will they compare?

We’re closing in on what is ramping up to be one of the biggest launches in videogame history, and besides the boycotts, the wipeout of dedicated servers is still the hottest issue going on about Modern Warfare 2. While Infinity Ward has been busy dealing with outraged PC gamers, Activision hasn’t been too talkative on the matter. Something that changed this week when the words “not overly concerned” were pronounced by Activision president Mike Griffith.

Infinity Ward and Activision are doing what they think will benefit most of those playing Modern Warfare 2. Putting aside if whether removing dedicated servers is the solution or not, the fact remains that these companies will never be able to accommodate everyone into their plans whatever they come up with, consequently infuriating some people while pleasing others. Unfortunately, that is something we’ll all have to accept at some point, whether we like it or not.

However, Mackey McCandlish - studio veteran in charge of single-player scripting and design at Infinity Ward - did mention during the live chat session on the Best Buy forums, that their “goal is to provide the best experience for our users,” and that nothing is ever “off the table.” “We are always evaluating our options,” he added. While that doesn’t necessarily mean that dedicated servers will be available in the future, it might be a “light at the end of the tunnel” kind of deal for those PC gamers unsatisfied with this whole situation.

Here’s one more fact for you: whatever the outcome, we’re still psyched about playing Modern Warfare 2, and next Tuesday, November 10th, can’t come soon enough.

BioWare has made it easier for the aspiring game makers to bring their ideas to life - from within the Dragon Age world at least. With the just released Dragon Age: Origins toolset, creators can do anything from changing camera angles to syncing speech and movements, to creating their own full-blown campaigns.

The toolset will allow us to create our wildest fantasies, allowing Lord Butterbean of Flatbottom Shoals to come to life if we so wish. Lord Butterbean would live in a castle we took from example artwork and improved on because, you know, those BioWare guys are not really in tune with the Butterbean clan. His Lordship would naturally have to endure numerous quests, with extremely pretty cut-scenes that we created with our own camera angles and cut aways.

Finally, Lord Butterbean of Flatbottom Shoals would be a mere figurehead without some conflict to test his mettle. BioWare has that covered too, as the toolset allows us to create our own battles and determine the creature AI. Lord Butterbean will have the most detailed combat history ever told over the campfires of his vast land.

To see what’s possible with the toolset, watch the video above. And then download it here, here, or here.

You can do a lot when you give people wings. That’s the case for NCsoft as they have announced that Aion, their recently released MMORPG has done quite well in North America and Europe. By quite well, they mean just short of a million copies — more than 500,000 units in North America and 470,000 copies in Europe, reports Gamespot.

In the third-quarter earnings call, NCsoft reported revenues of KRW166 billion ($142 million), a 112 percent increase. Profits increased to KRW46.9 billion ($40 million), which signaled a year-over-year gain of 836 percent. Despite Aion’s strong showing in the west, a large portion of the revenue came from Korea, followed by North America, Japan, Europe, and Taiwan. Aion doesn’t show any sign of slowing down in Korea but we’ll have to wait and see if and how it holds up in the west.

In case you weren’t sure if Microsoft had plans to hit the ol’ drawing boards for their upcoming Project Natal, or even if you had doubts that they decided to take a breather on the Halo franchise, you’ll notice some job listings on Microsoft’s site that confirm that both are still at work.

With Halo, there’s a good chance it’s all just to get some more hands to help with Halo: Reach, but when the listings say things like “new experiences in the Halo universe,” it can get the wonderers wondering. Among some of the listings are Level Designer, Animation Director, and AI Developer.

For Natal, you’ll notice an aesthetic sland with jobs like Environment Layout Artist or Concept Artist. Because… you know… wouldn’t want ugly Natal games now would we?

The timing of the listings would suggest a possibility that “Natal job” and “Halo job” would work together toward a common goal. That said, new experience in Halo universe at least overlaps with “an exciting next-generation Natal project.” Who knows? Some people at Microsoft do, and until they talk, we’ll all just sit and guess.

Owners of the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins who were playing on Easy or Normal will now have some of their stresses alleviated as BioWare has released a patch for the recently released RPG. The patch, which “made Easy difficulty easier,” and “slightly increased attack, defense, and damage scores for all party
members at Normal difficulty,” not only adjusts the difficulty of the two levels but also provides some tweaks and fixes.

“The patch is for PC only, and addresses certain issues that were discovered between the certification of the PC build and the certification of the console builds. The difficulty tweaks are already in the console versions, and other issues are PC specific.” BioWare lead designer Mike Laidlaw said in a forum post mentioning that there will likely be another patch on its way, concluding that they will continue to watch their forums and “nail down any issues that are creeping up.”

Earlier this week, retailer Best Buy sponsored a developer chat with Infinity Ward where players got the opportunity to ask a few designers present about Modern Warfare 2. Among the questions asked, many of them revolved around the IW.Net and the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. “PC has no common provider of matchmaking like on xbox360, so to have match making on the PC we had to create IW.Net, kind of similar to the match making networks created for RTS games on PC. This was not a trivial undertaking, although it’s understandable that these days consumers may take match match making for granted.” An Infinity Ward designer said, “I’ve been playing mainly with around 100ms ping and it was great.”

In the chat, the developer confirmed an abundance of changes to the version. The max player limit on the PC will be 9v9, a decrease from previous Call of Duty titles on the platform where the official max player limit was 32 but was sometimes exceeded due to the presence of dedicated servers. Leaning, a staple of the PC versions of the franchise that allowed players to peak around corners, has been removed with a IW designer citing, “The game is not balanced for lean.” Also removed is the developer console, a tool often utilized by players on the PC platform for several functions ranging from modifying in-game variables to smaller tasks such as displaying framerates. Near the end of the chat, when asked if the PC version was merely a port, Infinity Ward responded with, “No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.”

The announcement of the changes has done little to alleviate the vocal resistance against the title. When asked a question pertaining to the petition requesting Infinity Ward to review their decision regarding dedicated servers, Activision president Mike Griffith said that the company is closely watching the situation, “But we’re not overly concerned about it.” Griffith continued saying, “One of the problems with our PC SKUs in the past is that it has not been as friendly a consumer experience in terms of matchmaking and online play as the consoles have allowed it to be. Our solution here improves that consumer experience overall by a significant margin. And so we we think that the benefits we will see are going to far outweigh any negatives that seem to be surfacing,” reports Kotaku.

“We make a fantastic PC game,” Infinity Ward Creative Strategist Robert Bowling said. “Modern Warfare 2 is our most feature-rich PC game yet.” Bowling downplayed the concerns of the PC audience saying, “We have 14 million players on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The hardcore gamers make up a smaller core of that, and PC gamers are the smallest group of that core.” While Infinity Ward is somewhat known for keeping their community informed Bowling admits, “Our community gets so invested in our games, therefore they feel, and rightfully so, that we should justify every design decision to them. I think that it’s very important to understand that you should be very involved in your community and work with them, but not to be held prisoner to their demands.”

Whether or not the studio’s direction with the PC version of the upcoming first-person shooter is seen as one that the PC audience will adjust to, one thing remains certain, it was a busy week for the developer and it may just get a bit more busy when Modern Warfare 2 lands on stores next week.

Everyone’s favorite Nintendo President, Reggie Fils-Aime, has emerged to once again crush all rumours of a forthcoming HD version of the Wii. On the latest ep of GTTV he was rather brief and to-the-point, “I don’t know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD.”

Of course, this simply triggered further rumors on gaming forums that Reggie was concealing a new high-definition Wii so that Christmas sales of the current model wouldn’t be affected. The real question is whether anyone actually wants or needs to play Wii games in HD. Do we really have to see every follicle on Mario’s tache or the Rabbids’ hairy behinds? One disappointed bunny will be producer Shigeru Miyamoto, who recently predicted a step-up in Nintendo’s graphical prowess. Gamers so far seem to be unfazed, but let us know what you think by dropping a comment below.

Shattered Horizon x 2

Plain Sight