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The anticipated NEOTOKYO mod has been released today and the website has been getting a decent hammering!  NEOTOKYO° is a first person shooter that aims to provide a visceral & realistic combat experience in a rich futuristic setting.

Background Story and World:

NEOTOKYO° takes place in and around a fictionalized Tokyo approximately 30 years in the future. Mankind has begun to fuse with technology. Government and corporate corruption have transformed Tokyo into a deadly dystopian nightmare. After a near-successful military coup by ranking members of Jinrai, the National Security Force (NSF) is formed - answering directly to the Prime Minister, it's mission is to investigate and eliminate all threats to Japan, both abroad and at home. The initial core of the NSF is made from an exodus from within the intelligence branch of the military. With this betrayal begins the war in the shadows between the NSF and Jinrai.

Welcome to NEOTOKYO

!!!! TORRENT IS UP...GO GO GO!!!! ------> TORRENT LIIIIIIIINK HERE
CLIENT LINKS coming soon.

Welcome to NEOTOKYO's release.. the website is getting hammered hehe... so we're just putting up this page for now. I guess you guys took us literally when we said spam the refresh button on July 3rd.
In the meantime you can hammer ModDB instead if you want to see some NT stuffz

Bethesda Softworks excellent RPG Fallout 3 is half price this weekend.  Depending where you live this is either a great deal for $19.99 if you live in the US or an average  $34.99 in Australia.

Included is an expansive world, unique combat, shockingly realistic visuals, tons of player choice, and an incredible cast of dynamic characters. Every minute is a fight for survival against the terrors of the outside world — radiation, Super Mutants, and hostile mutated creatures. From Vault-Tec, America's First Choice in Post Nuclear Simulation.

Regional Price fail:

• US$34.99 in Australia
• US$19.99 in the USA
• £13.49 in UK
• US$19.99 in Japan
• 22,49€ in europe.

From the 8th of July, Street Fighter 4 will be available on Steam at the price of US$35.99. That's 10% off.  Start preloading today before the Capcom Dragon Punch.

About Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter® IV brings the legendary fighting series back to its roots by taking the beloved fighting moves and techniques of the original Street Fighter® II.

• High Definition stylized 3D environments and characters
• Traditional "2D" Street Fighter six-button gameplay
• 25 Fighters including:
  • Classic Street Fighter characters re-imagined for a new generation of gamers, including the original cast of Street Fighter II
  • New brawlers: female super-spy Crimson Viper, lucha libre wrestler El Fuerte, mixed martial artist Abel and more!
• New special moves that go beyond any Street Fighter fan's wildest imagination, including Focus Attacks, Super Combos, and the revenge-fueled Ultra Combo system
• New gameplay elements provide challenges for both newcomers as well as the most seasoned Street Fighter pro
• Global Online gameplay
• Exclusive to the PC version of the game, three visual shaders based on the "artistic" trailers give a new look to the gameplay: Watercolor, Poster, and Sumi-E ink styles

Changes/Fixes

• Fixed Delayed Gravity Gun fire
• Fixed Crossbow first person effects
• Fixed Issue with Impulse 101 not giving crossbow Ammo
• Changed Combine movement sounds to rebel movement sounds,cause In competitions the loud noises would give away your position and cause a huge disadvantage
• Improved Movement to act more like regular hl2dm
• Windows dedicated server files Available for download,Also thanks to [KBH]Keeper for the Linux version

Visit the web site to download

Our good old friend, the always excellent Senator Conroy and his bodacious team at the Aussie government have really outdone themselves.  Conroys wacky magical internet Cleanfeed filter has another country selectable mode which can block "Downloadable" game content if it does not fit into our old MA game rating system.  In fact  the filter is set to block websites hosting and selling video games that are not suitable for 15 year olds in general.

Is it really possible that implementing a simple a R18+ classification for Australia was just too hard for our communications minister and government to fathom?

There is no chance in hell such a filter will be able to legally block online content networks such as Steam who have a massive list of 3rd party content providers which supply you the games.  Yes that includes every major Australian ISP and gaming network.

The Clean Feed filter in general shows complete disregard for our common-sense and intelligence and is a testament to an average uneducated, archaic, politically correct and ratings crazed government.

You may have seen this article from the age:

Far from being the ultimate weapon against child abuse, it now will officially censor content deemed too controversial for a 15-year-old. In a free country like ours, do we really need the government to step in and save us from racy web games?"

Senator Conroy's spokesman said the filter would cover "computer games such as web-based flash games and downloadable games, if a complaint is received and the content is determined by ACMA to be Refused Classification". All games that exceed MA15+ are deemed to be RC.

Is this a typical morning at the Conroy mansion?

Backwards Man from Pepsi on Vimeo.

This gadget looks pretty spiffy,  maybe not something to fully replace the trusted keyboard and mouse FPS combo but intriguing nonetheless - especially now it has a pistol attachment.  The Falcon was originally announced at CES 09.

The Novint Falcon lets you control a game in three dimensions, and also lets you feel high-fidelity three-dimensional force feedback. The Falcon controller moves right and left, forwards and backwards, like a mouse, but also moves up and down.

The Novint Falcon currently works with a number of popular games including full Orange box support and has had the backing of Gabe Newell himself.

Gabe Newell, Valve: “The Falcon adds a new level of interaction for PC gaming, adding compelling force feedback while maintaining controls as accurate as a mouse, and now the millions of Steam gamers will have the chance to play, feeling this new type of experience.”

The device itself seems targeted at the PC gaming market though I personally think it would be better suited to the console FPS crowd due to better contol compared to the tradition controller. For the privilege to show off a Novint Falcon, you will need to fork out  about US$350 or get it bundled with games you probably already have. Source.

I missed these when they were released last week; The Black Mesa Media youtube page has been updated with some early alpha gameplay / test footage - Note is does not reflect the current state of the mod.

This one is probably my favourite half Life map:

Some major TF2 fixes in this update including left and right handed selection and some major Spy improvements:

General

• Added an option to the advanced multiplayer menu to select left or right handed view models
• Fixed a bug where a spectator's wearable items could be seen floating around the player they were spectating
• Fixed a bug where a fake Spy hand would appear on the screen of other players
• Custom death animations now only play 25% of the time
• Fixed teleporters not being build-able in some places where they should be (such as within the pit at the end of Badwater Basin)
• Fixed rare client crash on connection and level change
• Removed refract from water ripples caused by bullet impacts for performance reasons
• Added log entries for player extinguished events using the medigun, jarate, flamethrower and dispenser
• Started tracking localisation settings to help make decisions regarding localisation in the future
• Fixed the blank progress bar in the upper-left of the screen when the client scheme is reloaded

Mapmaker requests

• Added spawn flag to func_respawnroomvisualizer that allows it be non-solid to players
• Added SetSolid input to func_respawnroomvisualizer to change solidity to players dynamically
• Added OnWonByTeam1 and OnWonByTeam2 outputs to the TFGamerulesProxy

Sniper

• Fixed a bad detection case in the "Friendship is Golden" achievement
• Changed the description of the "Triple Prey" achievement so it better describes how to get it
• Critical arrows now have a trail and correctly deal enhanced damage
• The Huntsman now defaults to be right handed
• Friendly arrows will no longer trigger the near miss sound on you
• Fixed several sources of floating arrows

Spy

• Fixed disguised Spies occasionally looking like they have invulnerability, instead of the correct fake Spy mask
• Disguised spies will no longer lose their disguise weapon when they interact with a weapon locker
• Fixed a bug where the spy's watch would randomly change models during play
• Fixed uncloaked spies flickering in and out of the cloak effect when taking damage
• The Cloak and Dagger now always regenerates at its intended rate. Previously it only regenerated at the correct rate when the spy was cloaked
• Increased the Cloak and Dagger regeneration rate slightly
• Capped the rate of energy loss from moving faster than run speed (falling / air toss) while cloaked with the Cloak and Dagger
• The Dead Ringer's cloak consume rate has been slightly reduced, giving about an extra second of cloak time on a full meter
• Emerging from the Dead Ringer's cloak now drains up to 40% of the cloak meter instead of 100%. This drain only happens if the meter is at least 60% full
• The Dead Ringer's cloak meter can now be regenerated from ammo sources
• The Ambassador now only crits when fully accurate and no longer penetrates enemies
• The Spy can no longer change weapons from the knife while shocked by the Razorback
• Force-A-Nature & Flamethrower air blast knockback effects no longer work on disguised spies
  Fixed disguised Spies showing the wrong teleporter effects when using an enemy teleporter

The Open Source Itunes killer, Songbird has just had an update.  Along with Foobar2000 it is probably the best free music player available.

New Features

Automatically Organise Library Files

Songbird can now automatically organise the files that are contained in your library. Once enabled, it will consolidate your media in one location. You can customise the structure of the folder and file names based on metadata contained in every track.

2-way Sync with iTunes
If you're using iTunes Music Store to purchase content, you can now automatically expose iTunes library tracks and playlists into Songbird. You can also export tracks and playlists added to Songbird back into iTunes, so that they can easily be synced to your iPhone or iPod touch.

Last.fm Radio
Last.fm Radio supports artist, tag, and user stations, mapping station links on the Last.fm website to play internally in Songbird. It includes the Radio Directory allowing you to conveniently browse and explore the tag and artist relationships on Last.fm. Additionally, the Radio directory includes quick links for playing stations based on your Last.fm library, your Songbird library, and friends/neighbours' libraries.

10-band Equalizer
Now you can tweak the frequency response of the audio playback to match your room's acoustics or your personal preferences.

Performance Enhancements

• Faster search
• Deleting many tracks at once is faster
• Selecting a large amount of tracks from the library is no longer slow
• Reduced the amount of threads required to be running at all times by 50%
• Fewer Crashes: We've worked hard to identify and fix some of the most common crashes in Songbird.

In a refreshingly to the point Internet Explorer 8 promotional stunt, Microsoft has buried $10,000 somewhere on the internet.  Be the first to find it and you keep it.

How?

Visit the IE8 $10,000 competition website and follow tengrand_ie8 on Twitter.

But you will never find it using old Firefox. (So get rid of it, or get lost)

1. To enter the competition, the entrant must follow clues released by @Tengrand_IE8 on Twitter and on www.tengrandisburiedhere.com. The clues section on www.tengrandisburiedhere.com is only viewable in Internet Explorer 8. These clues will lead the entrant to the hidden webpage.
2. The hidden webpage can only be viewed in Internet Explorer 8. The entrant must have download Internet Explorer 8 to successfully view the hidden webpage. Upon discovery of the hidden webpage, the entrant must register his/her details, via the hidden webpage 'Claim' button.
3. The first successful registration received via the hidden webpage by the Promoter will be adjudged the winner of the competition.