Entropy

We’ve recently launched GameSane - a gaming blog with content we find interesting (obviously) - if you’ve enjoyed the gaming related content here we’ll now be posting the same stuff there, but dedicated to gaming.

Please have a look and feel free to leave feedback — GameSane.

As the days count down to the biggest gaming release of the year (imho), the GTA IV previews and features are piling up. 1UP.com has a new information, with some nice screenshots on the maturity on the gaming franchise and what we can expect.

If — for the purposes of the standard preview preamble — we were to liken the Grand Theft Auto series to the U.S. primary education system, it breaks down quite conveniently. So what the heck, let’s do it. [Continue at 1UP.com]…

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is going to be available for download on the Playstation Network tonight! As a part of their new store included in the version 2.30 update, at midnight Eastern, 9pm Pacific - GT5 Prologue will be available for download on the newly-redesigned PLAYSTATION Store at a price of $39.99 [Source]

For continuing updates on GT5 Prologue, see http://www.us.playstation.com/granturismo/.

Its time to get in the internet waiting line, in just a few hours the Rockstar Social Club will be opening for pre-registration, 12 days before the launch of GTA IV.

But this Rockstar Social Club to coincide with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV intrigues me. Online leaderboards (for single and multiplayer), a virtual police blotter, wine, cheese … what doesn’t this social club have? Well, the answer is a catchy single like “Rumors,” of course. But that’s not going to stop me from signing up later in the week … or from asking our readers to come up with a catchy pop single for the Rockstar Social Club. Read on at Destructiod …

A seperate Destructoid post has some actual details on what will be included (aside from cheese) for the GTA IV launch –

GTA IV, the first game featured on the Rockstar Social Club, has
exciting features beyond multiplayer leaderboards, including:

* LCPD Police Blotter — A virtual map and tracker of single-player
criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of
millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of
town, most commonly used weapons and more.

* The Story Gang — This special single-player leaderboard recognizes
players who complete Niko Bellic’s main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV
- The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing
time it’s taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by
who has completed it first.  Members of this club will receive special
online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game
accomplishments.

* The 100% Club — Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100%
of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as
reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative ‘key to the city’
to mark their accomplishment.  In the future, the 100% Club will then
carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed
100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.

* The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those
singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various
statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards
display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club
competitions.

* The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones
achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam
- to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped.  There will be
additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this
area as well.

Now as you know, we never post videos here but wow. This really was epic failure. A warthog fell out of the sky, and crushed this poor dood.

Grand Theft Auto IV is coming out this month, and Kotaku has put up “The GTA IV Compendium” with everything we know about the game - the story, the city, single and multiplayer styles, music etc.

So we’ve created a GTA IV compendium to get you up to speed on the game before its release. Because the last thing you want to be caught saying to the cashier is, “Wait, so this game has multiplayer??”

Read more at Kotaku…

Image via Wikipedia

Wii Fit has finally been dated for South Africa, due for release on the 5th of May. Yes, before America (high five).

“Wii Fit, the latest innovative game for the Wii, looks set to revolutionise the gaming community. Core Group today confirmed with El33tonline that Wii Fit will be flexing its muscles across South Africa on the 5th of May.”

The game combines fitness with fun as the whole family can participate in daily exercises. Wii Fit comes bundled with the Wii Balance Board, a new accessory developed exclusively for the Wii. The Wii Balance Board is a pressure sensitive, wireless boards that gets placed on the floor in front of the TV. It senses a players weight as well as shift in balance in every direction so when you step on to it during activities, you can imitate on-screen movements. The Wii Balance Board will also be compatible with other titles in the future including Namco Bandai’s Family Ski.

Read more at EL33TONLINE.

Image via Wikipedia

In easily the most interesting GTA  IV article I’ve read recently; Games Radar debates 12 potential flaws in the new GTA. From the removal of customization, the loss of humour, the smaller world etc; Games Radar discusses the potential problems with Rockstar’s decisions and then the positive side of it.

You’ve heard the hype. Grand Theft Auto IV is going to be amazing… monumental… revolutionary… life changing… world altering… universe shifting… the best game of the year, if not the best thing in the history of EVER.

Or is it…?!

Goodbye Xbox laptop of 2007; hello Playstation 3 Laptop of 2008. Ben Heck has taken 14 months to create the next in his line of portable gaming hardware - the PS3 Laptop.

Some of the features of his Playstation Laptop include –

• Original 60 gig PS3 model with backwards compatibility.
• 17″ HDTV 720p screen, with HDMI connection. (Same as last Xbox 360 laptop)
• Built-in keyboard and stereo audio amplifier.
• Measures 17″ x 13.75″ x 3″ (actually thinner than a stock PS3) and weighs 16 pounds!

Read more at BenHeck.com, or Engadget.

The unfairly lucky guys at Joystiq have recently been given a demo of Fallout 3, in a shady hotel room.. anyway.. here is what they had to say –

In a hotel conference room, Bethesda’s Pete Hines recently demoed the latest version of the Fallout 3. He trudged through a collapsed building, firing a machine gun at ambling, radiated mutants. The gore made me wince a little, with blood gurgling from zombie limbs. Earlier, he shot the head off another enemy, and blood arced straight out of the neck, as if it was trying to reach the brain one last time.

The character creation steps sound awesome; something I’m particularily focussed on due to my need for the most kicking character, who absolutely has to have the saddest background.

Only minutes earlier, he’d shown me how the player’s character grows up in an underground bunker, with those moments acting partly as tutorial and partly as a character creator.

An on top of that, the number of endings is now over 500. Ridiculous. Read on at Joystiq.