Mike Doolittle writes:

''Bioware's highly acclaimed and formerly XBox 360 exclusive RPG Mass Effect is fast approaching its release on the PC. Most PC gamers were undoubtedly pleased to hear about enhanced graphics, faster load times, and a re-designed menu system; but it's likely that fewer were happy to hear about the evil digital rights management that will be unscrupulously bundled with the game.

Like an increasing number of PC games nowadays, Mass Effect will require an online activation when it is installed. This has been common practice ever since Half-Life 2. But Mass Effect will also "phone home" every 10 days to make sure the key is valid, and it will carry a three-install limit. This has set many message boards afire with rants about "draconian" DRM and people threatening to pirate the game precisely because of the DRM.''

This article outlines some ideas that could be interesting if they were implemented in GTA V. Keep in mind that probably none of these ideas will ever make it in a GTA game, and that Rockstar North has a very focused design which tries to keep what is quite a complex game very accessible to a lot of people. Therefore, some of these ideas may be too involving to incorporate if they make the game overwhelmingly complex for too many people.

Dialogue Trees
Random Rival Family Hits
Informants Among Your Friends
Protagonist: Son of a Mob Boss?
Let's Head to Colombia

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Gamesradar:

"You can get your mother enough flowers and custom hug-a-bunch bears to choke a Bed, Bath and Beyond, but all the aging coot really wants is to spend time with her precious little you."

First screenshots from Banjo-Kazooie 3.

GTA on SNL? Well, if a movie did a $500 million opening week, bet your ass there'd be a skit on it the very next show. Here Niko Bellic and Vlad Glebov appear on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" to complain about the negative image the game gives to Liberty City.

Hot new footage of Gears of War 2!

Featuring a special preview of MK vs. DC's milder fatalities.

Five new shots of Gearbox's definitely-coming-out-this-time WWII shooter.
After an eternity in development and a short while gone AWOL, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway has resurfaced in five new screenshots. So we can assume it might actually be coming out sometime soon.



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Everyone dies.
"There's an Einstein quote that's in our design bible which goes 'everything should be as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler'", says Endwar's Creative Director Michael De Plater. "Designing complex stuff is easy - you just add new features on the top. Designing something simple is really hard, but the results can be fantastic - and simple doesn't mean either shallow or basic. Endwar is a game where the winner is going to be the guy with the best strategy, not the guy who memorises the hot keys or the build queue."



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New developer diary shows off more fancy effects.
Ubisoft has sent us another developer diary, taking a look at the making of Far Cry 2.

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