Nothing like being called out for short-cutting and thieving your way to a game release..

Limbo of the Lost developer Majestic Studios is under a bit of scrutiny at the moment after gamers started to point out painfully obvious similarities between some environments in their games, and ones in Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The crazy thing? That’s not the only game that Limbo has apparently “borrowed” from. Eidos’ Thief: Deadly Shadows is also being looked at as a possible source of material. Gaming site GamePlasma has a side by side comparison of screenshots, and the similarities are…well, startling, right down to the number of books on each shelf and the tapestry on the left wall.

Oblivion (left) & Limbo of the Lost (right)

Limbo publisher Tri Synergy claims innocence, emphatically stating that it had no prior knowledge of the issues. They’ve also been having a hard time contacting the Majestic team, who appear to be on vacation to celebrate the completion of their (well not-so-their really) game. Limbo has already seen limited release, with Tri Synergy planning on a wider, big retail release in the near future. I’m suspecting that those plans will have to be scrapped and the game pulled if investigation does conclude that intellectual and commercial property rights have been violated.

Neither Bethesda nor Eidos have released a statement on the issue, but Bethesda has acknowledged that they are aware of the allegations.

Did Majestic rip off Bethesda? Your call.

Via | Gamespot.com

I know a few perfectly sane adults who took their kids to see the movie Kung Fu Panda recently, but left the theatre remarking how much fun the experience had been. Must be Jack Black as the panda that does it. Oh, and the kids loved it as well.

With every movie of this sort comes a game nowadays, and generally a game on every platform known to man so that the franchise can reap the rewards of the movie release as quickly and as ubiquitously as possible. The game is now out on the PC, DS, PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 (phew), and with it a new trailer :

You feelin’ the Panda?

There was a huge line outside the Virgin Megastore in Manhattan yesterday. The line stretched around an entire block, and the person at its head had been there for 30 hours, since 7p.m. the previous night. Who was in town? Was it the Spice Girls? Korn? Gorillaz? What could possibly be causing all the midnight ruckus??

The answer, of course, was Hideo Kojima, the talented director behind the insanely popular Metal Gear Solid series.

We’ve had to make so with updates and interviews for years while Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was being developed. Everything we saw and heard suggested a fantastic game crafted with the typical attention to detail, strong storyline, and intense action that have made Kojima and MGS such a staple for fans of stealth style games. During the development process, Kojima hinted that this might be his last game in the series in the director’s chair, so the line up in New York was not only to be one of the first to get their hands on the game, but also to get the autograph of a man who has permanently left his outspoken mark on the industry.

He descended an escalator in the superstore just after midnight accompanied by actress Yumi Kikuchi, the motion-capture model for the game, to much cheering and excitement. Copies were bought, autographs were signed, and everyone went home with a double bonus of having met one of the most iconic developers in the industry, and holding in their hot little hands one of the most anticipated games of the last couple years.

Via | Wired.com

Harmonix, MTV Games and EA announced that the long awaited European version of Rock Band will launch exclusively for the Xbox 360. Don’t despair, however, the exclusivity period is timed and will expire sometime over the summer when the game launches for other consoles as well.

The release date for the Xbox 360 version is May 23^rd and will include 58 tracks from North America, Germany, France, and the UK.

The day after the release, all of the songs currently available for download in North America will be made available to players in Europe. That’s over 70 songs! Each will cost about 160 MS points. Even better news: all future songs from that point forward will be made available for download both in the US and Europe at the same time. It’s great when Europe doesn’t get left behind.

For more on what songs are available, visit the Rock Band Website.

Via | Video Gamer

Image courtesy of Harmonix/MTV/EA.

With the end of every old poll comes the birth of a new one, so here’s one for all the marketers out there.

I want to know what makes you, the consumer, dig around in your wallet for the cash to buy a new release. What factors most contributes to your urge to buy?

Is it:

• High-scoring reviews from gaming media. They know what they’re talking about!
• Television and radio ads. They’re great hype builders.
• If it’s the next game in a franchise I really enjoy.
• Genre. If it’s my type of game, I’ll buy it.
• Sweet-looking trailer and/or screenshots.

It seems appropriate that “Serious Games” advocate Ian Bogost should take a stab at the corporate food and beverage world, given its recent attempts (ie. McDonalds) to overshadow its own part in the growth (no pun intended) of childhood obesity by pointing fingers at ‘couch potato’ entertainment forms like video games.

Bogost’s Persuasive Games has released a game examining the importance of nutrition, exercise and general good health, all under the happy, squishy name of Fatworld. Bogost describes the game in a January post on Water Cooler Games by saying that:

The game’s goal is not to tell people what to eat or how to exercise, but to demonstrate the complex, interwoven relationships between nutrition and factors like budgets, the physical world, subsidies, and regulations. In Fatworld, you create a world, design a character, and live out an accelerated life in that world. By choosing your character’s dietary and exercise habits, you can experiment with the constraints of nutrition and economics as they affect your character’s general health.

Basically, think of it as The Sims Meet Richard SImmons, all packaged in educational, thought-provoking look at our current cultural love of fast food. Bogost is quick to say that he isn’t blaming McD’s entirely, but that it’s a complex issue with many factors that need to better examined.

Via | WaterCoolerGames.com

This is just further proof that iPods are secretly Apple’s vehicle with which to control every aspect of our lives. iPod gaming is starting to take off and not just with typical mobile games either, we’re talking retro, we’re talking blue, yes, we’re talking Sonic.

Sega and Apple have teamed up to release the original 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. First released in 1991, this relaunch hit the iTunes store for both the Classic and Nano iPods at the beauty price of $4.99.

Simon Jeffery, Pres. and COO of Sega of America, hinted that relations between the publisher and Apple are peachy keen and expressed interest in bringing more Sega titles to the little white mind-controller.

Will iPod gaming really take off? Will Apple shift its sight to focus more on the iPhone? Will we see wireless Virtua Fighter battles in the near future? Sweeeet.

Via | NextGen

A heads up for you PS3 owners and Rampart fans, the 1990s arcade-strategy warfare game is hitting the North American PlayStation Network today. You can purchase the game download for $4.99.

Nintendo of Japan has released the line-up of upcoming titles for the Wii. Of course, who knows when they’ll make their way out of Japan. But here’s some titles to look forward to (eventually):

• Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn (February 22)
• Eyeshield 21 (March
• Super Paper Mario (April 19)
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007)
• Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2007)
• Mario Strikers Charged (2007)
• Totsugeki Famicom Wars W [Battalion Wars 2] (2007)
• Disaster: Day of Crisis (2007)
• Wii Health Pack (2007)
• Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (2007)
• Mario Party 8 (2007)
• Project H.A.M.M.E.R. (2007)
• Wii Music (2007)
• Forever Blue (2007)
• Animal Crossing (TBA)
• Kirby (TBA)

Via | Pro-G

A few weeks ago, I wrote that India was finally getting the Xbox 360. Well, Microsoft is now releasing sixteen (16) games for the Xbox 360 in the following cities: Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.

Some of the games include:

• Top Spin 2
• Table Tennis
• Dead or Alive 4
• Need for Speed Most Wanted
• Prey

Titles are said to be priced at Rs 2,510 a piece. So if you’re in India, be sure to check your local game store.

Via | IceNews