One of the latest types of effects used in the newest game titles, like Unreal Tournament 3 is the advanced physics rendering of spectacular particle movement that can be seen especially in explosions. This is normally powered by an additional graphics card specialised in physics processing.

The catch is that people no longer need to buy a dedicated physics card with the chipset made by Ageia: if they own a system that runs with an ATI videocard, they can buy another one (with lower performances) and use that as a physics processor. So there yo have it - 2 options to get the full eye-candy in one of the games that sets the standards in the realm of the First-Person-Shooter genre. The good news that comes connected to the statement above is that the developers have created two maps designed to show the capabilities of the physics processing cards: CTF (Capture The Flag) Lighthouse and CTF Tornado.

The developers at Ageia said that they will release a PhysX Mod-Kit for Unreal Tournament III in December, that "will allow developers and modders to create completely new experiences in the game and customize existing levels to enhance game-play and interactivity."

I amuses me a lot when I find various comments on the Internet about the music soundtrack of certain games. Some people for example would disagree that some soundtracks even deserve to be put on CDs and sold as a separate item. The idea here is not that we should start judging so fast, having a superficial view - obvioulsy there are people who enjoy such music tracks and the game developers thought it was a good idea to give them the opportunity to own such music discs.

<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->There's an army of fans who have been waiting for a long time and are highly motivated to listen and even buy the soundtrack of the Unreal Tournament 3 - it is after all, one of the goodies that make this game special. Some fans don't listen to those tracks just in the game but also on their mp3 players because they find it stimulating, especially during sports activities. The soundtrack of all the games from the Unreal series has a really good reputation among FPS gamers worldwide, so it's no surprise that Epic Games is releasing a special edition on 2 CDs of the music track from Unreal Tournament 3 (of about 150 minutes), and you can buy it from the Sumthing Distribution website.

If you're wondering about the style of the music, in case you haven't got the chance to listen to it yet, is a mixture of elecro-beats with a lot of techno-gothic influences: “Unreal Tournament 3’s soundtrack largely consists of high intensity fast paced action tracks which provides the drive to match the title’s relentless gameplay style” (...) “Both composers Rom Di Prisco (from Need for Speed series) and Jesper Kyd (from Hitman series) are new to the Unreal franchise contributing a fresh electronic sound in addition to breathing new life into a number of UT classics which were completely re-recorded with modern sensibilities”, said Mike Larson, Audio Director at Epic Games.

Games are powerful tools that serve mainly the entertainment industry and no other master, but every once in a while a big stir come out of debates on its misused educational power or addictive qualities. Today’s issue is about the rating system, how useful and dependable can it be. This Tuesday, four US senators including Hilary Clinton called ESRB officials for a Q&A session with a government committee. Just when people seem to be moving against ESRB, some rather disturbing results come out of a recent study on video game sellers. Apparently almost half the US retailers, or their employees to be specific, sell “M” for mature-rated games to minors without considering the implications.

<-250x250 Square - left->While the tagline might catch you off guard, some clarification is needed. According to the ESRB, M rated games are appropriate for children age 17 and above, while the more drastic “A” for adult-rating applies to ages 18 and higher. One should also take into consideration that the ESRB rating system is purely optional and used only as a “necessary evil” in order to properly sell within the ranks of US mainstream distribution. It states right here that the ESRB is a non profit, self regulatory body that independently assigns ratings, so the enforcement of ratings (or hereby the lack of) is not bound by legal implications.

The undercover survey was conducted by East County Youth Coalition in collaboration with other organizations and performed with purpose of determining just how easy is for minors to get their hands on mature rated videogames. For the sake of logic, we’ll presume that it was a typo and they’re actually talking about children below 17. Over the course of two months, they visited retailers all over the US and tried to buy adult oriented games in over 60 stores. While sexuality, nudity and strong language are mild problems, there is the issue of alcohol, drug use and extreme violence involved. It seems 46% retailers had no problem putting games like Manhunt or Narc into the hands of eager children. The same groups called on retailers to adhere to the rating system, institute formal training for employees, display the rating system in stores and separate mature-themed video games from other games. The ESRB already has a good number of affiliates, the enforcement of the rating denominations seem very lax.

While selling tobacco and alcohol to minors is forbidden by law, there still are some loopholes when it comes to video games and the way they can model young minds. Gaming has pretty much come out of the closet and is nowadays targeting children less and less. After all, the main market is where the money is, and online games are both a very time consuming and successful enterprise which require monthly fees. Selling inappropriate games to minors isn't the videogame industry's fault, yet the blame is always placed here by those pointing fingers. The 50% failure ratio still places the gaming industry ahead of many other entertainment sectors, including the movie and music sector.