David Hayter is a really lucky man, he has a good career as a screen writer and has voiced one of the most legendary gaming characters of all time aka Solid Snake. Recently at an event gamers interacted with David Hayter, who told them that he was a little disappointed with the MGS 4 climax. The following is his official quote:

“I didn’t agree with that [Snake flinching at pulling the trigger on himself] at all, and I begged them to change it, but I think it’s still in the final game… I didn’t buy it at all. I think it’s weak for Snake to be killing other people and then not be able to kill himself when it’s time. If he knows it’s time, then it’s time.”

 Well he may not agree with the end…but I know millions of Solid Snake fans who were…your opinion.

Konami has gone ahead and announced the ever popular soccer sim, ProEvolution Soccer (PES) 2009 due for release this October. To rival that the dudes at EA have gone ahead and announced its nemesis, in the form of the eagerly anticipated successor to the technically brilliant and adept FIFA 08 which is to be released somewhere in October itself. What seems imminent now is that the two giants are heading towards a head-on collision!!!

It’s was not long time back that we saw some ruffled feathers in the EA camp. During the pre FIFA 08 era, the dudes at EA were really weary about the challenges the developers from Konami threw at them. PES was considered by far the most photo realistic soccer sim ever to hit market. For God’s sake we even saw the strikers cringe every time they took a shot at goal and defenders gawk at the ball every now and then (Have a look below if you do not believe me).

Then a stage arrived when we experienced the jerseys of the players sway with every movement they made. That was the amount of realism that went into the making of these PES games. As my friend Po in the movie Kung Fu Panda puts it” It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness!” This was what happened eventually with FIFA. But instead of getting bogged down, they took stock of things and as they say rest is history!!!

Come October 2007 and the fans witnessed the critically panned PES 2008, thanks to its buggy online mode and the crappy PS3 version helping EA leap frog ahead in the race between the two goliaths. Not to mention FIFA Next-Gen’s amazing gameplay and online capabilities (with the “Be a Pro” mode at the forefront of them all) aiding EA to become the numero uno of Soccer sims available in the market.

Konami now stands deserted by most of its staunch supporters who needless to say have become FIFA faithfuls, me included(for the time being atleast). They face an uphill task which involves winning back their fan base and dislodging EA from the summit, all of which happens when the face-off begins this october. But trust the Giant Japanese company to adhere to the japanese idiom i.e.,”Koketsu ni irazunba koji o ezu” which quite literally means “If you do not enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub.” So all i can say as of now is that if everything goes to plan this autumn, we soccer fans will have our hands full and by the end of it, Football will be the eventual winner.

Guest Blogger Nikhil Naik from Bangalore.

This is bad news for Nvidia and its shareholders, the recent ATI surge has led to an Nvidia fall. Next Generation reports that:

Having announced that it expects Q2 sales to fall to between $875 million and $975 million from a previously estimated $1.1 billion, Nvidia’s stock dropped $5.54, or 31 percent, to $12.49 at market close on Thursday, reports Bloomberg.Nvidia, which has been forced to trim its chip prices in the face of increased market competition, has seen its shares decline 63 percent this year.

 The firm, which will record costs of as much as $200 million because of a defect in some laptop chips, also said it will be less profitable than previously estimated. click here for the full story.

McFarlane Toy company making action figures for Call of Duty: World At War apart from the Guitar Hero Action figures that they promised. It has partnered with Activision in bringing the action figures. The Action figures cost $10-15 each and are expected to be out this fall.

The following are the 4 detailed descriptions of the action figures that are incoming:

* Marine Infantry, Battle of Peleliu - Includes M1 Garand rifle and M1 bayonet
* Marine Corps with Flamethrower, Battle of Peleliu - Includes M2-2 flamethrower with removable flame, and M1911A1 pistol & holster
* Marine Corps with Machine Gun, Battle of Okinawa - Includes M-1928A1 machine gun w/20 round magazine and M1911A1 pistol & holster
* British Special Ops, Battle for

Recently, the much-hyped PlayStation 3 firmware 2.40 update — with in-game XMB and Trophies - was made available online. But this came with a bag of surprises. Owners of every model of PS3 are reporting problems ranging from the minor microphone problems, to the gigantic ones, like consoles not booting at the initial wave screen. In response to this, Sony has taken down the update for the time being and updated their knowledge-center post for the 2.40 boss with the following text:

“UPDATE: 7/2/2008, the PlayStation 3 system software version 2.40 has been temporarily taken offline and will not be available for download as our engineers examine any possible issues with this update. The Knowledge Center will be updated with information as it becomes available; please check back here for further details.”

Sony PR director Patrick Seybold believes this problem might be an individual one, will are “looking into it right now and will work with those customers [to] directly address any issues they may be experiencing.” Unfortunately, the only currently known fix for those with a non-operational system is to reformat the hard-drive, erasing all the savegame files. The repair cost are estimated to be 150$. Given Seybold’s comments, presumably Sony will be working out other fixes for systems that were broken with the update soon.

The massive update includes an in-game Cross-Media Bar, the much talked about Trophy system, and many more features

A petition has gone up, with over 2,000 fans signing on to complain about Diablo 3’s art direction.The petitioners feel that the graphics are too bright making them cartoonish .They feel that WoW might have strong influence ruining the dark series of Diablo.

This is what Keith Lee, The Diablo III lead producer had to say for a brighter, more colorful Diablo. “One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for ‘Diablo III’ is the fact that color is your friend. We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ — not everything is dark. It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast.”

Diablo is meant to be a fairly dark, brutal game.That said we can have more brutal looking  dark things like the dungeon. The current ’style’ in games is to have this drab palette of brown, which apparently means ‘realistic’, if you’re a partially colour blind mole who’s never left a tunnel. Not everything has to consist of black, brown, and gray. The game takes place in the human world for the most part it seems which has a little something we call color.

So what do you think?

I am eagerly waiting for LBP, the game looks fun, its simple and features co-op. What is really interesting is the ability to create almost anything with the available tools. A recent interview with David Smith, co-founder Media Molecule on Eurogamer, revealed a few new details about the game:

Speaking in a Eurogamer live text interview, he said, “The game uses a lot filmic techniques like depth of field and motion blur, so this fits the game pretty well.” When asked about the game’s HD install Smith replied, “We haven’t finalised the details on this.”

However, he did go on to add, “The game is designed to be fairly lightweight, to make the sharing of new content easier. Our levels squidge down into really tiny files, which means that when the community makes new ones, they’ll download quickly. “The HD install is perhaps around a gig. Perhaps more or less. It’s not finalised yet.”

(click on the screen shots for larger image)

Yes, we are excited too! These screen shots from the latest 3D game, Love Story 2050, based on the Harman Baweja starrer, with the same name. Rocking Pixels have developed the game and Zapak has lapped up the distribution rights. Judging by the screen shots, I find it resembling Doom to a lot of extent.

More on the game, very soon, only on WATGame.com.

Almost a decade ago I was lured into the fascinating world of football by a franchise which was already making inroads into becoming “The colossal gaming franchise” of this planet. For most of the games, EA’s attention to detail, gave the gamers a lot to cheer about. With the new installment of the next-gen FIFA 08 series it has added another feather to its cap. (Bravo EA, bravo!!!) The buzz is that EA has already set out to make the 09 version, “The Best Soccer Sim” available (my friends at KONAMI might beg to differ). As an ardent soccer fanatic I am waiting with bated breath to see what unfolds from this exhilarating saga.

But amidst this hoopla there is still one glaring fact that empowers me with gloom. And that is the step-sisterly treatment towards another equally popular sport which we all know as CRICKET. The efficacy of the aussies, the tenacity of the Indians and the glamour and glory of the T20 have added to the popularity of the sport, leaving a true cricket fan wonder, why EA has not managed to perform admirably with its Cricket module. I have been following the evolution of EA’s cricket games since its glorious Cricket-97 era. From then on, EA has taken baby steps towards making the game a comprehensive and a delightful package for its gamers. There is no outright change in the entire setup starting from the Cricket 02 to the current version, all of which have left a lot to be desired. The upgrades as one might like to project it, have been few and far between.

The fielders running after the ball still resemble the velociraptors from the Jurassic Park movie. The batsmen are awfully rigid and the ambience, repetitive and dull. The game itself suffers from lethargy, slowly dragging itself to oblivion and beyond. Player movements have time and again been emphasized in football and basketball versions. Why not cricket? Euro 08 game has an ambience which makes you feel a part of the team and gives you goose bumps every time the player on screen enters the arena. Then why not cricket? If one has seen the cricket matches live from a stadium in INDIA, one might agree that whenever TENDULKAR has walked out to bat there has been a deafening roar from the buoyant crowd across the stadium. On the other hand, the ambience noticed in Cricket 07 feels as though we are watching two second division clubs playing against each other.

Keeping in mind the giant steps EA has taken with its football and NBA franchise, I only hope we see a dramatic overhaul of its cricketing module. The advancements in gaming have reached unprecedented heights but the ones made towards EA’s cricket games are dilatory and depressing. I dream, not the one that Martin Luther King Jr. had, but the one that a day will arrive when EA wakes up and takes note of the fact that Cricket is a serious game and needs to be dealt with utmost professionalism and sincerity. Till then I guess I need to turn my attention towards Codemasters impish take on the game.

Guest Blogger: Nikhil Naik from Bangalore.

Its finally here, the most simplest of things for the PS3, is here. A few days back we mentioned about the confirmation of the PS 3 v2.40 updates- well the day has finally arrived .Today it is finally being released- the in game XMB access and the trophy system!

The following are a few details revealed by Eric Lempel, Director of Playstation Network Operations.You can’t use web browser in game, must exit the game before doing that. The XMB is an exclusive feature for PS3 game titles. Currently only music stored on the HDD is accessible in games that support this feature. Firmware v2.40 merely enables custom soundtracks. Cross-game invites are not available in this system software update.

There’s not a limit on number of trophies the devs can put set by Sony, but there’s a value assigned to each trophy. Developers must balance out the trophies that are available to stay within an overall value based on whether the game is considered large-scope or small-scope. Essentially, a user that has unlocked every trophy in one game would have the same level as a user that unlocked every trophy in another title, all titles (depending on scope) have the same overall impact on a users’ level