Joystiq

The Best Of Big Download: June 8-14, 2008

John Callaham — 2008-06-14T14:00:00+00:00

Did you have a good week? We had a terrific one at Big Download but with the release of Spore Creature Creator next week it promises to be an even busier time for our site. In the meantime here are the highlights from the past week

Exclusive Features

Interview: Vic Davis of Armaggedon Empires: We chat with the creator of the acclaimed indie turn based strategy PC game.
MODverlous Monday: This week we examine two custom mad maps for Blizzard's classic RTS game Starcraft.
Casually Speaking: We take a look at the "death" of the video arcade.
Freeware Friday: This week's free featured game is the nearly graphics-free RTS/RPG title Dwarf Fortress
Big Iron: Our regular hardware column takes you through some video card basics

Downloads

GRID downloads: Three major new downloads for Codemasters' racing game were released this week, including a new eBay Motors demo, a new retail game patch, and a new version of the original demo.
Sim City Societies demo: Several months after the game was released, Electronic Arts finally produces a demo for the city sim game.
Supreme Ruler 2020 demo: Check out a taste of the upcoming strategy game from Battlegoat Studios.
Universe at War patch 3: This patch for Petroglyph's 2007sci-fi RTS finally adds cross-platform multiplayer with its Xbox 360 counterpart.
Hellgate London Abyss Chronicles trailer: Check out footage of the next content update to Flagship's action-RPG.

News

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Big Versus pits all three GRID versions against each other

Ross Miller — 2008-06-03T23:25:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving

After all that hubbub over GameTrailers' GRID comparison, are you ready for yet another side-by-side? Our friends at Big Download have a new Big Versus for the racer, with the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions all pitted against one another.

If you're the kind of person who drools when screenshots are cut in half and then re-spliced with similar shots from different platforms, there's no time to waste!

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Race Driver: GRID demo races to a million downloads

Jason Dobson — 2008-05-26T21:30:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving

With the latest in Codemasters' Race Driver series, GRID, expected to roll up to the starting line next week, the company has announced that the demo for the upcoming, not to mention decidedly un-boring racer has been downloaded over a million times over Xbox Live, PSN, and the PC.

The demo, which was released a couple weeks back, offers a look at what players can expect when Race Driver: Grid races to European retail shelves on May 30. Following this, North American players will be able to slip behind the wheel on June 3, while a more touchable version for the Nintendo DS is expected around the same time as well.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

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Race Driver: GRID's multiplayer explained

Jason Dobson — 2008-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving

When we're not shopping for cars online or squabbling with forum goers over botched video coverage, most of our time spent with Codemasters' cryptically named racing game GRID will likely be spent online. It's something the devs obviously understand, as the company has revealed what multiplayer shenanigans we can look forward to when Race Driver: GRID ships for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on June 3.

According to Codemasters, the game will have us eating the dust of up to 11 other racers at once on some 32 different online racing events spread across 80 circuits and 15 different global locations. The devs also note that care has been taken in "maximizing" the time spent actually racing, while keeping the minutes spent in lobbies idling in neutral at a minimum. Of course, our driving skills, or rather lack thereof, have us more interested in what the Codies call "full car damage," which will be able to be turned on or off. The laundry list of features also includes the ability to download ghost cars of top drivers to race against as well as a spectator mode, you know, for those of us who learn by watching instead of doing.

Gallery: Race Driver: GRID (PS3)

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Joystiq interview: GameTrailers EIC sets record straight on GRID controversy

Ross Miller — 2008-05-12T17:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Interviews

There's been a lot of controversy surrounding GameTrailer's comparison video of Race Driver: GRID, which pitted the PlayStation 3 version up against ... um ... the PlayStation 3 version. Is the site horrifically biased? On Microsoft's payroll? We spoke with GameTrailers Editor In Chief, Shane Satterfield, to clear up the matter.

How did this mistake happen?

It was a mistake in our post-production process. After we captured the footage from both versions, some of the footage of the PlayStation 3 version of the game was incorrectly placed in the bin for the Xbox 360 footage. Our video editor on this particular project is not a games person and completely overlooked the fact that he had the wrong footage in the wrong place. We normally have multiple checks from games editorial on every segment that is published, but there was some confusion on who did/did not look at it before it was sent out for compression. Thus, the mistake.

Gallery: Race Driver: GRID (PS3)

Was the audio narrative written before, after or during the video editing process? Was it based on the video published or an actual comparison of PS3 and Xbox 360?

There is no audio narrative in the video we produced. People went in and inserted their own audio narrative and then tried to pass those videos off as media we produced to suit their own agenda. We have never had any sort of audio or text commentary in any of our comparison videos.

What is the process by which you vet and edit these videos? How many people (and who) proof these videos before they go live?

I think I answered this one above. Obviously our procedures that are put in place did not succeed in this case, but it will never happen again.

What other videos have been pulled in the site's history?

This is the first piece of media we've had to pull down due to something like this.

Is this an endemic issue?

It is definitely an issue that's unique to our business because it's difficult to find video editors that are as embedded into video games as much as the GameTrailers editorial staff. Therefore we have to include more fail safes than the average gaming site to make sure things like this don't happen. While these fail safes are in place, this was the first case where the process was not adequate.

Why were comments disabled, forums posts deleted, etc?

"If you take a look in our forums there are plenty of examples of users giving us criticism--constructive or otherwise. Feedback is essential to improving a product."

Honestly, I don't know anything about this happening. The video was removed immediately once the mistake was noticed, so there wasn't an opportunity for us to even close the comments on it because it was no longer live on the site. If forum posts were deleted it was likely because there were so many threads about it that the moderators decided to cull them down to one thread, but I do not know this for a certainty. We do not close threads on GameTrailers because of criticism. If you take a look in our forums there are plenty of examples of users giving us criticism--constructive or otherwise. Feedback is essential to improving a product.

By merit of being the only player in the comparison, doesn't the PlayStation also win?

Haha! Well, there is footage from the 360 version in the comparison, but admittedly there's no way to make an educated decision due to our mistake. We're working on an updated version of the video that will lead with an apology for the gaffe.

How recently had the intern been hired?

What intern? I'm not sure what you're asking about here. We're not going to call out anyone publicly for a mistake that they made, though. The situation has definitely been dealt with, though.

Why do you hate the PlayStation SO MUCH? How much does Microsoft give you?

Ha! We haven't had any advertising from Microsoft on GameTrailers.com for over two years. In all honesty, we made a mistake and we're terrible sorry for it. We're also putting measures in place to ensure it never happens again. It's surprising how paranoid people are and how desperate they can be to try and manipulate the masses into believing that there's some kind of malicious activity going on that will slight their favorite console.

"It blows my mind and saddens me that people took the time to go in and doctor our original piece of media to make us look worse."

It blows my mind and saddens me that people took the time to go in and doctor our original piece of media to make us look worse. I'm also disappointed that so many publications ran their stories without contacting us for the real story and instead took the word of random Internet folks who were totally manipulating the situation.

Of course, the moral of the story is that if we had not made a mistake this wouldn't be happening, but at the same time I'm shocked that such an innocent mistake has been portrayed as intentional and malicious. We work hard to make sure there's quality content for everyone on the site, and when stuff like this happens you feel a litle betrayed by the people you're working so hard for. Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world where people just enjoyed video games regardless of what platform they're released for?

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GameTrailers compares PS3 GRID to 'PS3' GRID

Ross Miller — 2008-05-12T14:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

Ladies and gentlemen, to your pitchforks! GameTrailers obviously has an acute case of fanboyitis, of which there is no cure. The site has sparked a massive, internet-wide flame war with its PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360* comparison video of GRID. (The asterisk (*) denotes "Xbox 360" here has been replaced by a shiny black mass that plays Blu-rays and, until very recently, lacked the ability to rumble.)

So GameTrailers compared the PS3 GRID to the PS3 GRID ... and the PS3 version somehow lost. But by merit of being the only player, does that mean it also won? The video has been removed, and various reports indicate GT has also removed comments and disabled the email contact function. Hold your comments of teh bias because we seriously doubt a major site would intentionally spark a flame war. We've sent a request for comment and will let you know.

[Via videogaming247; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Demo for GRID races on to Xbox Live

Justin McElroy — 2008-05-08T11:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving

You know why you're reading this instead of playing Grand Turismo 5 Prologue or Burnout or any of the multitude of other racing franchises available? Because they're boring. It's a true, scientific fact straight from Codemasters who said they're going to "make racing exciting again" with its latest entry in the Race Driver series, GRID. Now, you can put that to the test with the 750 MB demo that's just been dropped onto Xbox Live. (We're not sure, but with this being a Thursday we'd bet you'll see this on PSN later today as well.)

Graphically, Codemasters certainly seems to be on the way to its lofty goal. But the rubber doesn't truly meet the road, as it were, until you get your hands on the controller. As usual, we'd love for you to give the demo a spin and share your thoughts, that is if you can control your shaking hands long enough to type them out. You know. Because of all the excitement.

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Codies share design knowhow with automotive tech firm

Jason Dobson — 2008-04-10T09:10:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Business

Worlds are colliding, as Codemasters has announced what it calls a "strategic partnership" with automotive 3D effects firm Realtime Technology to share vehicle rendering and modeling practices for upcoming projects.

The partnership includes collaboration over rendering tools such as RTT DeltaGen and RealTrace, used in rendering CAD models in real time, and Codemasters' EGO game engine, seen in titles such as last year's DiRT and the upcoming Race Driver: GRID. What exactly this meeting of the minds will mean for gamers remains fuzzy, though considering Realtime Technology's considerable footprint in the automotive industry with clients such as Audi, Maserati and Rolls-Royce among many others, maybe this is all part of Codemasters' grand scheme to make racing games exciting once more.

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Codemasters announces Race Driver: GRID for DS

Christopher Grant — 2008-02-12T16:49:00+00:00

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Driving

Despite our affinity for playing the DS while in the car, we're not sure the DS is the platform we want to race cars in, if you catch our drift. Nevertheless, Codemasters is bringing the Race Driver: GRID franchise to Nintendo's ubiquitous handheld. Most notable is the game's track editor, first spotted in last year's Race Driver: Create and Race DS game. Online multiplayer functionality enables up to four-player races, online leaderboards, and track-sharing ability including the ability to upload and download new tracks from a central server. The DS version is scheduled to release simultaneously with the already announced PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 releases sometime mid-2008.

Gallery: Race Driver: GRID (Nintendo DS)

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New Codies racer aims to 'make racing exciting again'

Jason Dobson — 2007-11-29T13:56:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving

We hate to be the ones to break it to you, but you know those racing games you think excite you so much? Well, they really don't. But don't worry, because according to Codemasters' game design chief Ralph Fulton, the studios' newly announced racer Grid aims to "make racing exciting again." How? Well, according to Fulton, the game, which is the latest in Codies' Race Driver franchise, is not about collecting cars or tweaking suspensions, but rather about "the drama, the rivalries, the aggression and the crashes." Sounds like someone's a fan of Burnout.

Due sometime in the middle of 2008 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, Grid is being developed on a refined version of the engine used to make Dirt, and will include a variety of different circuit and drift vehicles, new and old. Grid aims to test your driving prowess on both real life tracks as well as in street races "on the fringes of legality" in cities such as Detroit and San Francisco, as well as in the neon underworld of the Far East. Forget Burnout. It sounds like Need for Speed has passed the baton.

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