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Gaijin Entertainment let fly its new World War II combat flight sim Wings of Prey on Christmas Day, and now there’s a downloadable demo for those of you pondering dusting off the old flight stick.

Wings of Prey is a pretty robust PC combat sim, with more than 50 missions, 40 planes, and extensive online multiplayer set across six different theaters – The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Ardennes, Berlin, Sicily and Korsun. Gaijin released a 1.46GB today, giving players a small taste of the game’s tutorial and a couple missions above the skies of London. You can snag the demo by clicking on some text within this post, or visit the game’s official website for the latest trailers, screenshots, and wallpapers.

How do we know? Well, it wasn’t from a press release or anything. No, it was a reply on the Wall of PopCap’s Facebook page. How hip and modern and fresh are we for pulling news items off Facebook. Aw, who am I kidding? My mom just signed up for Facebook. “I got a Facebook,” she says.” I’m getting pictures of relatives’ babies now. Somehow they don’t mix with my drunken party poses and my massive gallery of bird-flipping shots.

Oh, yeah, Plants vs. Zombies. Amazing game. One that needs to be portable to be fully enjoyed. According to a reply on the Wall of their page, PopCap says that we can expect the iPhone version of the tower defense title in late January. Next month. Nice. I already have the PC and Mac versions. Another won’t hurt anything.

In related news, PopCap titles Bookworm, Peggle, and Chuzzle are on sale on the App Store for $1.99 now.

Filed under: Features

Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq (“LGJ”), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

I would imagine anyone reading this column has seen the coverage of the UK government’s plan to create a “Pirate Finder General” and other new anti-piracy activities. The Pirate Finder General would have exceptionally broad powers to find and punish pirates with little supervision in an almost Judge Dredd-esque “I am the law!” kind of way. Of course, the whole matter is couched as a necessary measure to protect rights holders, ignoring what impact the ability to permanently revoke use of the internet might have on the average household. To me, this is just another sign of the times in the constantly tumultuous intellectual property ecosystem. While the situation could certainly turn out poorly for our friends in the UK, could something like this ever happen in the United States? The answer might not be as clear cut as you think.

We have been over intellectual property topics of all shapes and sizes in the history of LGJ, and the one universal truth is that intellectual property rights exist for one reason: to balance the rights needed by IP producers to be able to profit from their work with the rights needed by IP consumers to be able to enjoy those works. The concept of intellectual property has never been about granting unlimited power to rights holders, nor unrestricted access to consumers. However, since the advent of the Internet, we have been in the middle of a digital arms race between pirates and various parts of the entertainment industry, which we have seen to have substantial resources and connections given some of the legal changes like the UK law cited above or the infamous Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Both sides have, at times, taken unsustainable or unrealistic positions, be that utopian unrestricted access to all intellectual property or draconian restrictions to simple use, like the position that ripping a CD you purchased to your iPod is copyright infringement.

Continue reading LGJ: IP Police, Arrest this man, He talks in torrents

LGJ: IP Police, Arrest this man, He talks in torrents originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I was going to do the standard Ten Minute Taste thing for The Saboteur, but then I figured you guys deserved something a little sexier than that. Instead, have a saucy little slice of something we talked about earlier today — The Saboteur’s “Midnight Show” DLC. Be warned that the video is very much NSFW.

Those who buy The Saboteur brand new get this little thank-you from Pandemic. You can choose to view a naughty dance from one of three lovely ladies, or you can choose the full monty and have all three girls at once. We naturally went for the trois option, and have recorded it for your own sordid amusement.

It’s worth noting how the nudity in The Saboteur is not as creepy as it usually is in videogames. There’s something quite classy about it, which makes it altogether sexier. The women are fairly well proportioned and realistic, and while it’s clearly sex for sex’s sake, it still manages to look more mature and less cheesy than most games that claim to have important, intelligent sexual content. Dragon Age, I’m looking at you!

The Saboteur is out next week in North America, and will hit the UK tomorrow. Be on the lookout for our review, which will go up before the game’s American release.

By now you’ve all heard about the recent Tiger Woods drama. It’s been discussed everywhere. The Daily Show even synced up a bunch of news reports on it to the tune of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Then Jon Stewart broke out into song, and it was great.

Look at me, going on like recapping the events of a television show is somehow this grand story. The sketch was funny, but not nearly as funny as this reenactment of Woods’ car crash using the wonders of what looks to be The Sims 3.

And while I’m at it, Conan O’Brien did a similar, albeit less involved bit using Grand Theft Auto IV. Is this going to be the new thing for machinima or what?

[Thanks, Edward]

Blip Festival 2009 is almost upon us! The three-day concert takes place later this month on December 17 and is a celebration of the chiptune scene. Numerous chiptune performers will be at the show blipping and blooping the night away. Find out more about the concert over on the official Blipfest site. 

Are you planning on going? Tickets to the show are dirt cheap and many members of Dtoid New York will be attending. And thanks to The Tank, we had two tickets to the show to give away last week. All that we asked for you to enter was tell us your favorite chiptune song and why you like it so much. We were able to narrow down the finalists to four people and it was incredibly hard to just pick two winners.

Congratulations to pixelpunx and Barton! You both will be getting a three-day pass to attend Blip Fest 2009. See their winning entries, along with the two runner-ups, after the jump.

Be on the lookout later today as Destructoid is about to hold a entire months worth of contests!

Winners:

Barton:

Anamanaguchi – “Helix Nebula”

The reason I decided on “Helix Nebula” is twofold.

First off the song is nostalgic; though this is true for the chiptune genre as a whole and will probably be the central point of mention for many of the posts here, it’s an important one to remember. It shows that games are now at a point where they are so deeply rooted into our culture that we are remembering and even referencing them in other forms of media, be it music or canvas or literature (which admittedly is arguable). Whenever I sit down and really listen to Anamanaguchi’s Helix Nebula, I feel there should be a controller in my hand. I don’t know if it’s just the nerd in me, but I’m excited by that.

Second and more exclusively to this song, listening to it really makes me feel like I’m about to go on some sort of an adventure or begin a journey. This point ties back to the first, since many of video games’ greatest songs (Mega Man 2’s Dr. Wily Stage, Duck Tales’ The Moon, Actraiser’s Fillmore to name a few) try to do precisely the same thing. The catchy hooks and and fast pacing are secondary to the fact that I’m imagining the words “READY!!” or “GAME START” as the song’s playing.

Also I guess there’s a third reason which is Anamanaguchi is fucking awesome but far be it from me to post a fanboy comment and expect that to garner any credibility. Except I just did. Shit.

pixelpunx:

What an incredibly difficult question to answer. I think one of my most recent favorites would be “Counter of the Cumulus” by Disasterpeace.

I think that the chipmusic scene is saturated with a ton of folks simply trying to make good music. Disasterpeace definitely achieves this goal, while at the same time managing to accomplish so much more with each track he releases. Each song feels as though it’s telling a story – accompanying each melody, beat, and chord with a narrative. Counter of the Cumulus is one of those songs that sends goose bumps down my back each time I hear it. Not only because of its sheer beauty, but because of the song’s ability to inspire an almost disturbing sense of sadness and despair. As if holding the most beautiful thing you’ve ever witnessed two minutes before your own execution.

In short: Disasterpeace fucking rules. Whoever wins these tickets is going to have their mind blown when they see him perform at Blipfest.

Runner-ups:

Ary Warnaar

Being in a chiptune band myself, I might have to stick to my own category and say “Triangular” by Chromelodeon. That or “Polygon Sun.” Both off the same album, but honestly can’t pick just one.

“Trianglular”:

“Polygon Sun” (live):

“Polygon Sun” (not live, excuse video):

Why? It is perhaps the most ‘emotionally’ charged 8bit track I have ever heard. And while I have total appreciation for people that can make super energetic music, or dancy music, happy, sad music.. etc (all of which are arts on their own), Chromelodeon remain one of the rare few that somehow surpass those feelings. They make me feel the whole “i can’t explain why i like this so much” feeling that can come from pretty much any media and is often unexpected. I was (and am still) so happy that that”feeling” popped up for me in chip music, of all places.

Honorable mention? The total ear-fuck last song Nullsleep played at Shea Stadium last Saturday with Starscream and Graffiti Monsters. I would totally lose even more of my hearing just to hear those sounds again.

Awesine

http://isfuckingaweso.me/song/1164068/Ove-Oldberg-Bappalander-Brutality-4

I have a lot of favorite chiptune songs, but I chose this one because it fits how I’d feel if I won the tickets. I’ve been meaning to go to blip fest for the past 2 years but I just never made it. I’ve turned a lot of .sid files into mp3s so I can listen to them when on the go, and it magically makes the world a happier place. When Brutality 4 comes on i can’t help but smile, just reminds me of my childhood, blue skies and the vividness that childhood seemed to have. I love the bassline, and the melody is killer, I love all the slidey bits in it. No other genre of music makes me feel the way the majority of chiptune does.

Other great chiptune that I love is all the stuff by Rob Hubbard, especially the Road Rash 1 music for the Genesis! And Radix, man do I love everything that guy makes. Bit Shifter ofcourse is awesome as well, I saw him at a basement show with one speaker blown, and the sound was unbelievable I felt like I was in the future, I got to shake his hand afterwards, and there was a naked dude walking around too. Crazy night.

I’d love to go to blip fest this year, and I will go if I win or not, depending on if I have the money of course (Ramen for dinner here I come)

In gaming we are often (if not always) tasked with taking on the role of someone else. We put ourselves into a virtual representation, an avatar. Sometimes we’re forced into a certain avatar and other times we’re left alone to decide what kind of avatar we want to be in. According to a recent study the avatar we choose to play as both says something about us and can also affect how we act.

Jorge Pena, a University of Texas communication-studies professor, conducted a study called “The Priming Effects of Avatars in Virtual Settings” and concluded that if you’re avatar is negative then your actions become negative as well. After having a group of gamers play Jedi Knigh II, some on the dark side and others on the light side, he also had them play in a virtual museum with some dressed as KKK members and others as doctors. After the gameplay he asked participants to write a story about an ambiguous picture or to make decisions with virtual team members dealing with problems that arose during the game. Those who played with negative avatars “consistently exhibited negative, aggressive and antisocial behaviors.”

The fact that these avatars were randomly assigned means that even people who aren’t normally showing those kind of negative behaviors do when they play with negative avatars. Pena is hoping that his study helps game designers make smarter decisions when creating avatar options, especially in children’s games where cooperation can be taught. He also notes, quite fairly, that it isn’t just videogames that can prime people like this, but all sorts of environments.

3D entertainment may have been a throwaway gimmick of the nineties, but it seems that the game industry is convinced it’s here to stay this time. Among them is Ubisoft, a company committed to investing in the technology and convinced that 3D gaming will be something we can’t live without.

“3D is to pictures what Dolby Stereo was to sound,” states Ubi executive Yannis Mallat. “No one wants to go back to mono.”

James Cameron’s Avatar will release next month as an Ubisoft-published title, and it will be able to support 3D visuals. The movie will also be jumping on the 3D craze.

What do you make of this recently returned interest in 3D gaming? I can’t say I’ve ever really been interested in the gimmick, but I guess if this is the way the industry is headed, I’m going to have to start caring. Do you believe this will be as important as stereo sound, or is it merely hyperbole cooked up by a publisher who wants you to be excited about an upcoming game?

A survey conducted on behalf the Entertainment Software Association this month shows that 42% of American adults plan to give or hope to receive video games as presents this holiday season. Where do you stand?

I’d probably fall into both categories had KRC Research, who surveyed 1,001 U.S. adults earlier this month, had bothered to ask me. They didn’t, though they did get a hold of a nice little cross-section of people, 52% who felt that video games were a good gift option given the current economy. The popularity of video games continues to grow, with the giving/receiving figure up 9% from 2007, with the number of women intended as game recipients jumping 31% from two years ago, or 47% of respondents.

“Computer and video games are topping holiday lists because they provide a superior entertainment value for the whole family,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA… “With 68 percent of American households playing computer and video games, U.S. consumers value the creative and innovative products the entertainment software industry produces and are seeking them out for themselves and to give as gifts.”

Of course to most of us, these numbers mean nothing. I’ve been giving video games as gifts since I bought myself my first Sega Genesis. Wait, does gifting yourself count?