D&D Online to go free

Turbine has set the launch date for Dungeons & Dragons Eberron Unlimited, in an announcement made by the company today. The game is penciled in for an August 6th, 2009 launch.

In addition to the announcement, the NDA has also been lifted on the Dungeons & Dragons Eberron Unlimited beta. So with the flood gates now opened, share your information and screenshots with us on the forums!

To celebrate today's announcement MMORPG.com has 13 new screenshots of the game. Check them out here!

For more screenshots of Dungeons & Dragons Online, take a peek at MMORPG.com’s  full gallery.

Check out the game here.  And here’s an article about it here.

[via MMORPG.com]

Zero Punctuation reviews Ghostbusters: The Video Game

This week, Zero Punctuation takes on Ghostbusters: The Video Game.  I was not expecting him to heap praise on this game, since movie crossover/tie-ins usually suck.  There was no surprise.  As usual, this is very NSFW (even more than usual).

Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and writes the back page column for PC Gamer, who are too important to mention us. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review… Hilarious!!!

I have not had a chance to check out the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie yet, but I have to say that I’ve read one of the funniest reviews of the movie yet. Rob, from “Topless Robot” comes off the top rope on the newest installment and has an interesting way of doing it. I have to warn you that it is full of colorful language (to say the least) and spoilers but if you can handle that, it’s worth the read. Check out a sample below:

So it's not as bad as shitting your pants?
Marginally. I honestly had to make a pro and con list to figure it out.

Why on earth would anyone make a film about giant robots but have myriad scenes of some random douchebag's first day of college?
I don't have the faintest clue.

Mitsubishi Drops Price (And Ball) On LaserVue HDTV’s

I remember how excited I was when I first got wind of Mitsubishi’s revolutionary new HDTV called LaserVue. It was introduced a year or so back at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and It was the biggest buzz product at the event. A Laser TV that offered twice the color and picture, at a third of the price of the top of the line plasma and LCD sets. It sounded like Mitsubishi was going to turn the HDTV market on its ear with this new set……….

And then somebody got greedy!!!

Mitsubishi had stated at the Consumer Electronics Show that the cost of making these sets rivaled what DLP sets cost to make. So instead of making these sets very affordable along with one of the best pictures offered, Mitsubishi priced the 65-inch set starting at nearly $7000. A far cry from the $2000 price tag that was briefly talked about, and quite a bit of money for a new (unproven) technology. Well Mitsubishi has heard your cries and has dropped the price a whole $500 to entice you to max out the credit card. Now granted I don’t know the exact manufacturing cost of these new Laser TV sets, but when they were introduced Mitsubishi said that the technology was based similar to the DLP sets. Mitsubishi also stated that the cost would be similar to the DLP sets that are available now…… So what happened?

Visio doesn’t make the best HDTV sets out there but what makes them a player in the HDTV world is their pricing. Your average Joe doesn’t have 6 or 7 grand to spend on a HDTV, so they go with the cheap set with an average picture. The missed opportunity that Mitsubishi had was to offer one of the best pictures HDTV sets out there at a very reasonable price (i.e. $2000), and a chance at owning the average Joe market. They could have been THE major player in the HDTV world……. But as usual, greed always seems to win.

[Crunchgear]

iPhone 3GS Parody

Youtube user Jacksfilms created this iPhone 3G S parody because he thinks "these constant 'updates' for the iPhone are overpriced and ridiculous," but are they really? Video after the break.

Zero Punctuation takes on Sims 3

I knew before I even saw this that it would be hilarious.  If you’ve never watched Zero Punctuation, you will enjoy it.  And as always it is NSFW.

Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and writes the back page column for PC Gamer, who are too important to mention us. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com.

Details For Last.fm On Xbox Live

If you were wondering when we were going to get more details about Last.fm on Xbox Live announced at E3 this year, the guys at Joystiq has taken care of us. It looks like the Gold members of Xbox live will get the 24-hour access free (with ad support that is). And if there is any of you still rock’n the Silver membership, you’ll only get 3 hours a month for a trial period. But if you want to pony up $36 bucks a year, you can have the same access.

Check the quote:

“Silver users will be able access what we’re considering a trial period of three hours a month, which comes with video advertising. Gold users will have unlimited ad-supported access, so they can use it 24 hours a day. There will also be a premium offering on a subscription basis from Last.fm that will be commercial free and will also have more sophisticated personalization features, like Loved Tracks.” - Christina DeRosa, XBL GM.

Not sure why you would spend $36 for this service, when you could put another $14 with it and get the full Gold membership.

[Crunchgear]

Bing vs. Google

Ever since Bing’s launch, there’s been a lot of talk about which search engine is doing a better job. Can Bing compare to Google? Does it do a better job? Or does it do well with some queries and not others? If you’ve had trouble making up your mind about this, there’s a new site that can help you figure it all out. The site is called “Bing vs. Google,” and, like it sounds, it’s a comparison site that pits two sets of search results against each other. Like any other search engine, Bing vs. Google has a simple homepage with just a search box in the middle of the screen and a bit of text explaining what it’s all about. To use the site, all you have to do is enter in a query as usual and hit “search.”

The fun part, of course, is the search results page. Bing vs. Google shows the results in a split screen, bing on the left, Google on the right. Squashing the screens like this can lead to a bit overlapping text in some cases(see, for example, how the results overlap Google’s sponsored links in the image), but it’s still a good way to easily get side-by-side results.

Using the links at the top, you can change the layout of the page to a horizontal split, if you so desire, or you can switch off one engine entirely and show just the one set of results. Either way, if you were having trouble making up your mind (or just making the switch to a new default search provider!), Bing vs. Google can help you put things in perspective.

Okay.  I kind of like the fact that Google puts us first.  Work on it Bing!!

Worst Game Ports Ever!

Street Fighter II port on the C-64. What were they thinking?!?!
We all have played them, great games that originally came out on a competing system which were ported to your system in a way that left you wishing for death to the programmers or project managers who botched the hell out of the game you waited to play for so long.
In the old days the Atari 2600 had a port of Pac-Man. To this day, if I met who was responsible for that abomination I'd (to this day) give them the finger. Especially since Ms. Pac-Man was much more faithful to it's arcade counterpart.
Recent times saw the first version of Madden for the PS3 running around 25 frames per second. No, it's not always the fault of the system you're playing on; it's the crap job the company of the game title did that left you saying, "I paid $50 plus dollars for this?!?!?"
This site has a list of ports that truly sucked. It's a trip down memory lane of rushed titles and programming incompetence.
I want to see your most hated ports here on Cowbell Tech. Let the venom flow free!!!

Talk about personalizing your iPhone!

Ok, now this one is seriously got me thinking about Jailbreaking my iPhone.

Hilarious!!!

[Gizmodo via imgur]