Starcraft 2’s patch 1.01 was just released, so next time you start up the game you’ll be receiving an update. This minor patch, made live less than a week after the game was made available to the public, does not appear to fix the menu overheating issue, rather it addresses two minor problems with the [...]

Source: Geek.com Games

date Saturday, July 31, 2010

-This Week In Facebook Icon-

Google Developing A Rival To Facebook

Though Google hasn’t directly admitted that they are developing their own social network site to rival Facebook, the pieces are starting to fall into place that serve as evidence. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Google is currently in discussion with several online game makers. The goal of these talks would be to develop a social networking site with broader capabailities than Facebook. The expected site would have a much larger variety of abilities than their already existing Google Buzz. Learn more by reading the article here.

Facebook and Amazon Join Forces

Facebook and Amazon officially teamed up this week as the one-stop online mega shop will start using Facebook Connect to send users reccommendations for their online shopping. The service would be available on both the Amazon’s US and Canadian sites. The deal comes as Facebook also annouced that it would allow publishers to contact users who click the Like button a particular story.

Facebook Launches Questions

On Wednesday, Facebook offically annouced the release of their new service Facebook Questions. The service will let you ask questions to the community, and the answers could come from both your immediate friends and the public. Though the product is only being released to small beta group, more news about its release will be revealed based on how the service performs in the tests.

Facebook Launches User Safety Page

With the social networking site now surpassing a 500 million user milestone, the question of privacy becomes an even bigger concern. Facebook announced this week that they will be releasing a safety page to compliment their security page. The page will allow users to receive updates on the best ways to protect their safety and privacy on Facebook.

Facebook Launches New Media Page

Another new Facebook annoucement this week was the opening of the Facebook Media page. The site serves to help media organizations by offering tips and reaching out in the interest of better utilizing their Facebook ages. The page also offers great separate reference tabs for journalists and developers.

Facebook Launches Public Relations Page

Another Facebook page that launched this week was PR for Facebook. The page will serve as a great networking tool within the profession and also offer helpful tips and resources for professional in the field. Seeing as Facebook is a focal point on any PR campaign, it is a logical step for the site.

Facebook Wins Patent Lawsuit

Facebook won a lawsuit in Delaware this week against Leader Technologies. The lawsuit was intially filed in 2008 when Leader claimed Facebook had infringed one of its patents. After a six-day hearing the jury ruled in favor of the social networking site.

Spanish Facebook Hacked

Those who have used the Translation application and put their Facebook page into spanish may have noticed some offensive terms where their daily birthdays were supposed to be. It appears that this was caused by tricking the application. If enough people vote on an incorrect translation, it has the ability to replace the correct phrase.

Don’t Wait For Facebook To Go Public Anytime Soon

A recent story published by Bloomsberg revealed details about Facebook’s 2010 revenue and IPO. Mark Zuckerberg and company continue to delay the public offering, and see no need for it in the immediate future. Don’t expect Facebook to go public before 2012, and that is still no more than an estimate.

LiveWorld Launches Fan Engagement Platform

LiveWorld, one of the numerous Facebook Page service providers, released LiveConnect this week. LiveConnect is a new product which aims to help Page administrators more effectively engage with fans.

The Contract Lawsuit

Over the past few weeks much dispute has come out over whether Mark Zuckerberg signed a contract giving Paul Ceglia 85% of Facebook’s rights. Facebook and its lawyers are claiming the contract is a forgery. Now news of Ceglia being busted for shrooms and defrauding customers is showing up.


Source: All Facebook

date

Closing in on GamesCom and PAX Prime and early announcements are starting to trickle out. A rich man wins more money, and we had our weekly podcast. Now for the stuff we didn't get to.

Daily (Stale) Bread: The news we didn't post July 30, 2010

07/30 -- ProTip: Don't fire people while they're in space

EA issuing pre-order refunds for Battlefield 1943 PC, release date still unknown
AJ: That's a bad sign.

Firmware 3.41 Causing Problems to HDD Upgraders
Dave: Does a firmware update ever not cause problems?

Video Games Live airing on PBS - find out when it's on in your area
AJ: Call me a snob, but I prefer live performances. Besides, I don't even know if you can buy the t-shirts from PBS.

Governer Of Maryland Honors Sid Meier With "Civilization V Day"
AJ: Aw, Sid Meier gets his own holiday and they name it after a sequel? Poor taste.

Source: Daily News from GamePro.com

date

Here is your weekly Minoto’s Point’n’Click Adventure game! Today, Alladin and the Magic Lamp! If you enjoy this game, don’t forget to check out Beauty and the Beast, Stray Cat, Rat Ranger, Football Association 2, Lunch Time, Football Association, Lions Story, Bird Egg 2, Resident on Cloud, Evening Time, Chef VS Panda, Uncles Old Times, Bread [...]

Source: FreeGamesNews

date

PokerBuddyPokerBuddy Pro – With the popularity of Zynga Poker, a new application called PokerBuddy Pro, from EV-Plus has come about. Consisting of three advisers (aggressive, versatile, or tight aggressive play), the app will give advice when playing Zynga Poker based on your hand, pot size, and the rest of the table.

Booyah Introduces Product Check-In – Location-based iPhone title, MyTown, from Booyah is getting an update with its new product check-ins. Using the iPhone camera, players will be able to scan in bar codes of products in order to earn points and exclusive virtual goods.

Exorcists vs DemonsDark Roast Media Uses Sweepstakes API – Dark Roast Media, the developer behind Exorcists vs. Demons, launched a new campaign using the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes API, dubbed PCH Boost. With the offerings of instant win opportunities, the company reports a monthly active user growth of about 15,000 (it now has 20,000 MAUs) and claimed a 30% reduced user acquisition cost.

gWallet Guarantees Publisher Results – Virtual currency platform gWallet is guaranteeing publishers revenue growth this week with cash in the “gWallet Challenge.” According to the company, premium publishers that participate will get 30 day performance test of their current solution versus the gWallet platform ” if the desired results are not achieved, gWallet will pay the publisher $20,000.”

Stand Up To CancerMajor League Baseball Stands Up To Cancer – Major League Baseball (MLB) and Stand Up To Cancer have teamed up to offer MLB fans an interesting take on virtual items. Fans can now purchase virtual stadium seating from 30 different MLB stadiums. Of course, these are replications and will be turned into a memorial for those affected by cancer. Moreover, the site in which they are bought also offers other items beyond a seat such as a suite, base, or the pitcher’s mound. With prices ranging from $5 – $500, users will be able to purchase and moderately customize (photo, name, and message) these with all proceeds benifiting Stand Up To Cancer.

ItsmyItsmy Opens its Mobile Social Network – European developer and gaming network itsmy stated this week that it will be relaunching its itsmy mobile social network this August as a “pure and open mobile web gaming network.” Thus far, itsmy has developed over 50 differently free-to-play social games over the past year for the network.

Second Life Continues to Thrive – According to a report from Media Post, Second Life is doing quite well for itself with anywhere from 680,000 to 820,000 active users so far this year. However, these users are spending increasingly more time online with 126 million hours logged for the second quarter of this year (a number 33% larger than the same time last year). Additionally, active users are spending an average of 100 minutes online per session, with virtual goods sales on course to be around $700 million for 2010.

World Series of PokerPoker Palace to be Re-Branded – Playdom‘s social game Poker Palace is getting a re-branding on Facebook as they and Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment are set to relaunch the title with the World Series of Poker brand. While the game goes live this week on Facebook, it will also be expanding to other social networks, such as MySpace, in the near future.

China ComputerworldChina Computerworld Brutalizes Tencent – China’s internet gaming goliath, Tencent fell victim to a brutal assassination of character in China Computerworld this past week. In the explicitly named report, critics hammer the company from a competitor’s perspective, accusing them of never taking risks and merely muscling out the competition in matured online spaces with “unscrupulous” imitations.

[image via Danwei.org]

Snooki Comes to Social Games – Social game developers are certainly stretching for ideas as Snooki, and the rest of the Jersey Shore cast have come to Facebook. Simply called Jersey Shore, the game is a simple Flash-based RPG filled with comical versus battles and everyday jobs and items centered around the show.

Project: MyWorld is Set to Change Social Games – From Grand Theft Auto designer, Dave Jones, Project: MyWorld is a combination of social networks, social games, and virtual worlds. Set in 3D replicas of real-world locals, players will be able to receive all their regular updates from networks such as Twitter and Facebook, while exploring a virtual world that they build up themselves.

Source: Inside Social Games

date

Many Facebook users will be relieved to know that the ability to hyperlink to names and pages in status updates will return shortly.

The feature, which lets you hyperlink to friends and ‘liked’ pages by using the @ in a status or wall update, was launched in September last year. Since then it’s become popular with Facebook’s 500 million members, who value the ability to tag their friends in updates, ensuring that the right people will see their content. It’s also been a boon for page administrators who value the ability to easily update other page owners when they link to their content.

However, many Facebook users reported that the hyperlinking feature no longer worked after they received access to the beta rollout of Facebook Questions. The change coincided with the launch of the new publisher tool, which creates more separation between status updates, links, photos and questions and means that status and wall updates now require two clicks rather than one.

The loss of the hyperlinking feature prompted furious comments from users - such as this one from Dayngr: “Tagging in status messages is gone now AND posting pictures of pages doesn’t seem to work either. So much for functionality!” Another user, Savanah Brentnall, commented: “As usual, Facebook didn’t consult with any of its top page admins to see how these changes would affect people in the real world. Dealing with Facebook is like dealing with an incompetent version of Microsoft–all of the arrogance and none of the ability. As an admin on many different high-profile pages, I can’t wait until there’s an alternative.”

However, a Facebook spokeswoman has said the loss of the hyperlinking feature is a temporary bug. “The hyperlink issue is a bug that we are working on fixing and the feature will return shortly,” she said.

facebook-hyperlinking


Source: All Facebook

date Friday, July 30, 2010

Just because you are defending a planet from the Zerg onslaught doesn’t mean your computers are going to be perfectly stable. Yes, Blizzard went there–they built a BSoD into StarCraft 2’s Xel’Naga Temple, which isn’t exactly the best sign for the future… especially considering that the error happened to Xel’Naga (an ancient and highly advanced [...]

Source: Geek.com Games

date

While EA has yet to make a formal announcement regarding the highly-anticipated next chapter in the Battlefield franchise, the reveal of the Limited Edition bundle for the company's October-due Medal of Honor provides initial hints regarding Battlefield 3, including the game's beta.

So far, the extras revealed by EA as part of the Medal of Honor Limited Edition seem to be exclusively digital, as early purchasers will be granted extra weapons, ammo, and equipment. The biggest downloadable bonus, however, is a beta code for Battlefield 3.

While no media or gameplay information has been provided for the upcoming shooter, previous comments made by EA COO John Pleasants to G4TV suggest that DICE is remaining at the helm of the franchise. Additionally, the official Medal of Honor website (which you can find in the source link below) indicates that the Battlefield 3 beta will begin within a year of Medal of Honor's October 12 launch, and will land on the same systems as the Limited Edition, meaning Battlefield 3 will see release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC.

SOURCE: Get Access To The Battlefield 3 Beta [Medal of Honor official website]

Got any tips, corrections, or feedback? Contact GamePro's news team or follow the author of this story on Twitter.

Source: Daily News from GamePro.com

date

-President Goodluck Johnson-Exhibiting poise, insight and respect, Nigerian President Goodluck Johnson has risen to the top of the list of politicians using social media effectively. Johnson set up a Facebook account a little over a month ago and has posted at least once a day since. However, it is not simply the number of posts that makes his account one to watch for interested politicians and pundits, but rather the content therein.
Read the rest of this entry on Social Times


Source: All Facebook

date

StarDunkThere’s something to be said about classic arcade games. They’re simple, nostalgic, and it’s always fun to try and beat the next guy’s high score. Of course, in the modern era, such games are less analog and tend to find themselves revamped for platforms such as the iPhone. At least that’s what developer Godzilab is doing with its Plus+ enabled, basketball-shooting space adventure, StarDunk.

Okay, so it’s not actually a “space adventure” but it does take place in orbit around Earth. It’s a simple game reminiscent of those basketball shooting arcade games, but rather than using an actual ball, players use a mere finger and some basic physics. What makes it better though, is that all of this takes place in live, synchronous matches. All the same, like any game that relies heavily on multiple players, it does run a risk of falling short of its potential.

The idea behind the game is simple enough. Players are given two minutes to score as many baskets as possible. Using their finger to drag and direct a half-arc for aiming, users try to guestimate how much force and arc is needed to make it to the spacey hoop. It does take some getting use to, but the physics are pretty accurate and it’s fairly easy to catch on (the game also gives players a full arc when they start doing poorly).

ContestFor each basket scored, points are obviously gained, with extra earned for not using the basket’s four-sectioned backboard. Curiously, this does not mean the backboard should go ignored. In addition to making shooting a bit easier, as each of the four sections are hit, they light up. Once all four are illuminated, a random power-up will be enabled such as a flaming fireball for more points or multiple balls shooting at once. As one would expect, this means there is a small tactical choice to be made when playing a round, for hitting each backboard light may require some intentional misses, but could pay off in the long run.

The most attractive, and addictive, part of StarDunk, however, is its synchronous online play. Dubbed “Contests,” a match will start every two minutes, apparently with any players currently logged in. You don’t actually see any of them shooting, but there is a nice feature that displays their names, score, and location upon the rotating globe in the background. Once the round is over, a leaderboard pops up of all participants in the Contest (there are also overall global and regional leaderboards) that not only displays their score, but where they hail from as well (we keep losing to some guy in Germany).

StarDunk LeaderboardsUnfortunately, this is where the biggest downside comes into play. As with any online game of this nature, the fun factor of the game directly correlates to the number of people playing. In truth, it’s less devastating here, as it is just as much fun to play with a few people, as it is a dozen, but with more competition, it does tend to be more enjoyable. Unlike SGN’s newer EXO-Planet Elite, iDevice, title, the synchronous multiplayer is more of an enhancement than a necessity.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed at jumping into a contest right away, its also possible to play offline for some additional practice. However, the long list of achievements, stemming from StarDunk’s integration with the Plus+ network, are not earnable in this mode. Additionally, an equally long list of unlockable balls are also unavailable.

As a matter of fact, these different balls do add an extra level of interest to the Godzilab title. When first starting out, users get a basic ball with no special properties. Nevertheless, the more they play, the more they will unlock; each with their own unique attributes that will tailor themselves to virtually any play style.

UnlockablesEach of the balls are tied to some corresponding achievement and have their own stats of size, bounce, and speed that is visible via the main menu. Some examples include the Star Ball which gives four, instead of three, balls whenever one gets a multiball bonus as well as increases the chances of getting said bonus. The Ying Ball is more accurate with minimal bouncing. And then there is the Moki Ball (earned by logging into another Godzilab app, iBlast Moki), which increases points earned when a shot is scored without using the backboard. Obviously, this can give veteran players a slight edge over newer ones, but it isn’t all that noticeable. For the most part, it is the level of skill and accuracy of the player that is most apparent.

It is also worth noting that StarDunk is a game with a wonderful presentation. It may be a simple concept, but the visual effects and sound are quite gratifying, down to the slow motion close up of the player’s final shot of the round. Additionally, Godzilab does an excellent job of optimization in that the game never seems to slow down, despite how many effects might be going off.

Overall, for $0.99, StarDunk is a pretty fun time killer and a quality addition to one’s iPhone game collection. Granted, it’s a game that might not be suited for everyone, but it is a fun remake of a classic arcade title.

Source: Inside Social Games

date

Privacy Is Bad For Facebook IconOne of the less discussed aspects of Mark Zuckerberg’s interview at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View last week was a comment he mentioned about the impact that privacy settings have on engagement. While Facebook is known for providing a series of advanced tools for managing privacy, the company’s metrics have revealed that in the broad sense, less privacy settings results in increased engagement. This could explain some of the push for making information public by default. It could also explain the new embrace of Facebook Questions.

The Case Of India

Mark Zuckerberg explained an interesting phenomenon that the company realized when they expanded the site into new countries. As the company expanded globally, the only networks that were available in new countries, were the countries themselves. In other words, if you joined as a user in India, you became a member of the network “India”. In the U.S. however, users joined as members of Universities, companies, and other networks. While Facebook has since killed off “networks” as it pertains to privacy, networks were originally used as a way to limit what information users could access.

For example, if you attended Harvard University, other users at Harvard University had much of their profile information exposed to you by default. In India however, whenever a new user joined, they could view all other users in the entire country of India because there was only one network: India. According to Zuckerberg, this form of “open network” resulted in a dramatic increase in overall in engagement. In the U.S. however, engagement has decreased as a result of advanced privacy settings.

Privacy Settings Hurt The Site

While Mark Zuckerberg’s theory that the world is becoming more transparent may be a legitimate one, it’s also clear that the founder has other motives behind making information more public on the site. As someone who was sitting in the audience, it appeared as though this decreased level of engagement actually pained Zuckerberg or was at a minimum a point of concern. If users that have more public settings spend more time, that must mean that the world prefers to be more open, right?

Ultimately, the level of engagement on the site is the best metric of determining a user’s core desires, however I’m not quite sure that users believe that they want to be more public. Regardless, users in the United States, and other areas where privacy settings were much more restrictive, have been extremely vocal about maintaing their privacy settings. Facebook however is doing whatever they can to make more information public, as they appear to believe that making more information public will keep people on the site for longer periods of time.

They may be right, however this also contrasts the long-term vision that the future of Facebook is off of the site, as Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly stated. Between the conflict of private versus public and on-site versus off-site usage, Facebook has a lot of internal conflicts that will need to be resolved as the company moves forward. In the meantime, users that want privacy will continue to have privacy for the most part and continue to grow less engaged, while the rest of the world opens up and increases their level of engagement on Facebook.


Source: All Facebook

date

It's just two months until Bungie's highly anticipated Halo: Reach hits store shelves. To get Halo fans even more hyped than they already are, Bungie has released a new trailer titled "The Battle Begins" that details the game's campaign.

Source: Geek.com Games

date

It seems like every publisher with a stockholder decided to report their profits (or lack thereof) today. Besides that, we had the departure of a long-standing LucasArts developer and the arrival of zombie Michael Jackson's understudy. Even with all of that craziness, a few stories remain, and they have a home here in today's daily stale bread.

7/29--The Force Unmanned

Killzone 3 and inFamous 2 being 'fully localized' for Latin America
AJ: This is kind of cool. The Latin American versions will include localized voice acting and dialogue. Adios, subtitles.'

Will: Quick, someone Photoshop a mustache and sombrero onto Cole McGrath, stat.

Assassin Creed 2 Black & White Costume Ezio Figure Images

Daily (Stale) Bread: The news we didn't post on July 29, 2010

AJ: So sexy. Can I call an action figure that?

Will: This also needs a sombrero and moustache.

Report: XBLA earned $46m in 2010 so far
AJ: Hm. A research firm is claiming that Toy Soldiers is the highest earning XBLA game in 2010 so far.

Dave: Color me surprised. And expectant of Limbo to take the title by the end of the year.

Keeping Kerrigan from Infection
AJ: Microsoft's watching SC2 illegal copies for malware issues.

Will: After yesterday's article, I'd worry about angry StarCraft fans leaving a Zerg head at the foot of your bed.

Damon Lindelof rewriting Alien prequel, maybe
Dave: This isn't game-related, but it's awesome enough for me to justify its inclusion.

AJ: What? WHAT?! Rewrite Aliens 3 -- THAT'S the one that needs work.

nail'd - Music Trailer

Will: ATV just got a whole lot more metal, yo.

Dave: MMA Supremacy, the overblown metalness of your trailer has been surpassed.

Source: Daily News from GamePro.com

date

-Profile Boxes Icon-Facebook is sticking to its guns over its decision to remove support for application boxes on user profiles.

Members started reporting their profile boxes had disappeared earlier this month, but there appeared to be a reprieve after a slew of complaints. At the current time, some users still have application boxes on their profiles, but the feature is disabled for new accounts.

A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed the boxes would disappear but did not elaborate on the reasons. “As we announced last year, we will no longer be supporting profile boxes from applications,” she told AllFacebook.com. “People can more easily showcase their favorite applications by bookmarking them, or highlighting them in their application tabs. We’re always evaluating new and interesting ways for people to express themselves through their connections with applications, and we’ll continue to listen to user feedback about how we help make Facebook profiles even more useful and relevant.”

One reader of AllFacebook told us that profile boxes were disappearing from all new Facebook Pages, yet not the existing ones. We have not been able to confirm whether or not this is the case though. There are plenty of small business who are frustrated with this change as it removes the ability to get new fans to enter their email address as well as add other types of calls to action. Whether or not Facebook plans on pulling boxes all together is unknown, however new Page creators have been reporting that the feature is gone.


Source: All Facebook

date Thursday, July 29, 2010