Citing a lack of “full-scale funding” for controversial game Six Days in Fallujah, Atomic Games is reporting today that it’s trimming staff. According to Atomic, the 75 employees of the studio remained until this week when an undisclosed amount were let go.
Though the developer assures the “dozens of Marine veterans” who have spent “hundreds of hours in this project” that it will “fight on,” we worry that this is just one more sign of a likely to-be-canceled game. After Konami dropped out as the game’s publisher back in April, Six Days in Fallujah’s fate has been up in the air. It probably doesn’t help that rumors circulated yesterday about the studio’s creative lead hitting the road for (presumably) greener pastures. We’ve reached out to Atomic for further information about those let who were let go and will update this post as we hear more.
GamePro got all scientific and decided to test the battery life of the current-gen wireless controllers. As we’ve learned over the last year, the hidden cost in this generation’s consoles is the money spent on batteries and/or charge kits. For GamePro’s testing it used only “out-of-the-box hardware” and followed various reasonable rules in its procedures. The results:
PS3: The Sixaxis died after about 19 hours and doesn’t have an auto-off feature. The upside is that the controller recharges through USB connection to the console and doesn’t require purchasing batteries.
Wii: The Wiimote lasted almost 37 hours, but depending on what games are played the rumble and audio within the controller can drain the battery faster. Although the batteries won’t last as long, consider rechargeable batteries or the Nyko Wii-charge Station.
Xbox 360: Lasting almost 57 hours the controller was the winner in the battery life test. Just like the Wii, consider getting the first-party Xbox 360 Quick Charge Kit to save cash in the long run.
All the controllers have their good and bad sides. Although the Sixaxis allows gamers to plug in and charge while playing, for those who have their PS3 more than a few feet from where they actually sit and go on gaming benders, it may be worth investing in a USB extension cable. As for the Wii and Xbox 360, investing in charge kits (or rechargeable batteries) will definitely save cash and avoid the awkward situation of a dead controller with no AA batteries in the house.
When Crysis 2 was announced, we looked forward to seeing the evolution of one of the most eye-catching FPS titles ever created at this week’s E3. Well, folks, it looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer for that, because the trailer released for E3 is sorely lacking in the content department. Well, unless the kind of content you’re looking for is big chunks of broken glass floating in a black space.
Our old buddy Peter Moore doesn’t spit fire as often as he used to now that he’s at EA Sports. But that doesn’t mean he won’t bring it on occasion. Why look, just recently, Moore told MCV that he wanted E3 to reclaim its “strut and swagger” explaining “If there was ever a time when our industry needs to look confident and optimistic, it is now.”
Moore was openly hostile to the expo last year, calling it “soulless.” Whether or not this year’s iteration will have enough soul for P-Moore will remain to be seen until next week.
Patrick Beja (who was on the WoW Insider Show not too long ago) and Shawn Coons host a great occasional podcast called How I WoW, which focuses on popular folks in the WoW community (they talked to our very own Turpster a while back, and have done an episode with Felicia Day as well). And apparently they’ve already talked to everybody else in the WoW community, because this week they made the mistake of inviting me on the show. They actually ask more about me personally than you’d ever want to know, but there’s lots of great information about WoW Insider there as well, including who’s really in charge around here, what we think of you great commenters, whether or not I’m really a fanboy, and things Blizzard could do better with their game.
It’s a long show (all of the How I WoW shows tend to be long, I think, and though I tried to keep it short, mine didn’t end up being the exception), but if you’re interested in me, the WoW Insider Show, or how we run the site in general, there should be something fun for you hear in there. Plus, you can hear me murder some French if you stick around long enough.
The episode is up right now on their site. Thanks to Patrick and Shawn for having me on there — hopefully you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we did making it. And stay tuned — we’ll have to have both of them on the WoW Insider Show with us soon.
After hearing word about Gears of War 2 selling a few million units its first week at retail, Epic Games VP Mark Rein just confirmed with Edge Magazine that Gears 2 has reached the 3 million unit sell through milestone. Wowzaz!
Rein announced Gears 2’s 3 million sell through success late last night, noting that Gears 2 achieved 3 million in sales in four weeks. In comparison, the original Gears (which ended up selling around 5 million copies) took ten weeks to tally up the same amount of sales. Now, Epic, we just ask that you not forget to keep supporting your lil’ money making gem with regular DLC and as many title updates as necessary. Congrats!
Thankfully, the disgruntled French factory workers that kidnapped Sony France chief executive Serge Foucher didn’t look anything like this (Warning: link goes to Killzone 2 spoiler). Because, if they were anything like the Helghast seen in that clip, he wouldn’t have been released safe and sound.
Foucher had spent a night as a hostage at Sony’s “videotape” plant in Pontonx-sur-l’Adour, southwest France, before being released this morning. Over a dozen laid off factory workers held him captive, barricading the building’s entrances with tree trunks. Foucher was originally there to officially close the factory and send-off over 300 workers. Luckily, everything ended peacefully without having to call in the ISA.
Last night’s beta patch brought a new round of Shadow Priest changes and glyphs (along with every other class), some good and some bad. Some of them are rather exciting like the addition of Devouring Plague to our repertoire and the changes to Dispersion, but I’ll let you dig right into things.
Devouring Plague cooldown has been reduced to 30 seconds (down from 3 minutes) and has had its mana cost greatly reduced.
Holy cow. Not only did they make the awesome move of finally getting rid of the horridly unbalanced Priest racials, but Devouring Plague will now be firmly in every Shadow Priest’s damage rotation. Not only will this be a solid DPS boost, but the healing on it will be fantastic to offset how often we Shadow Priests like to punch ourselves in the face.
While most of America is busy watching a football game or something, Sony has released a new firmware update, version 2.5.2, to the PlayStation 3. What does it do? Not much, according to the official PS blog:
The playback quality of some PS3 format software has been improved.
A text entry issue that occurs when using the on-screen keyboard, USB keyboard or Bluetooth keyboard with some PS3 format software has been addressed
Now back to, erm, whatever it is most of you are watching. (Reminder: Let’s keep politics discussion elsewhere — like this post. Anywhere else on the site and you’ll get the banhammer.)
Every week, Raid Rxwill help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. So is over healing a really bad thing? Or is it overrated? Let’s discuss!
First, a quick apology is in order. I goofed on the last Raid Rx post. I play an Elemental Shaman during my off time. Everything I read pointed me to the original conclusion which is clearly not the case. Ergo, I must apologize.
Today’s Raid Rx is a discussion and a debate that’s centered been a focal point for many raiding guilds and raiding healers. The point of contention?
Over healing.
Yes, there is a segment of healers who believe that healing too much can lead to bad things. Is over healing bad or is it just being blown out of proportion? I’ll do my best to outline arguments and main points from both perspectives.
Atomic Games unable to secure funding for Six Days in Fallujah, reduces staff originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Patrick Beja (who was 
