Darksiders II packshot contest ends at midnight tonight

You have until midnight tonight Eastern Standard Time to enter the Darksiders II Collector's Edition packshot contest on Facebook. To enter, just head to the Darksiders page on Facebook and cast your vote for one of the three sample packshot designs in the running.

Three lucky voters who shared their packshot selection after voting will be chosen by sweepstakes drawing to receive a free copy of the Darksiders II Collector's Edition. You must have a Facebook account to vote and enter the sweepstakes.

THQ has also announced that the Darksiders II Collector's Edition will ship with a life-sized replica of Death's Mask, the in-game Shadow of Death item set, a digital copy of the game's soundtrack, and a hardcover art book. The Darksiders II Collector's Edition will only be available via preorder.

Quick Take: Random reporting from the 2012 Game Developer's Conference

I've been running around the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco the last few days, so I was asked to report what I learned during my session-sit-ins. (Although I suspect the assignment was a Trojan Horse method to prove I haven’t been sitting at home in boxers watching college basketball.)

The Game Developers Conference (or GDC) is an annual, multi-day event where thousands of those responsible for making every type of game imaginable, from social Facebook diversions to AAA blockbusters, come to speak, listen, philosophize, and network during the day, then hit the bars at night.

Each new day brings marathon sessions of talks and panels where developers and those related to the industry address issues associated with the games industry and development.

Here’s what I’ve taken from some of the talks I heard:

"Creative Panic: How Agility Turned Terror Into Triumph," presented by a gang from Double Fine Productions.
Conclusion: The quirky crew at Double Fine ran through the creative process for its Amnesia Fortnight events, where the staff took two weeks off, split into teams, and conceptualized new ideas for smaller games. The results of its experiments spawned successful XBLA and Kinect titles such as Costume Quest, Once Upon A Monster, Iron Brigade, and Stacking. I unfortunately also learned that Costume Quest’s lead designer, Tasha Harris, has sadly left Double Fine to head back to Pixar :(

"GDC Microtalks 2012: One Hour, Ten Voices, Countless Ideas" presented by a bunch of games industry folk including Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski and Naughty Dog’s Amy Hennig.
Conclusion: Microtalks rule. The format for the “Microtalks” were like mini-TED talks. Each of the 10 speakers was given a general theme (in this case, relating to time) and allowed around 5 minutes and a limited number of slides to get their point across. A lot of cool stuff came out of this one, but one of the highlights was Naughty Dog’s Amy Henning talking about how the 1941 movie Sullivan’s Travels had a huge influence on the Uncharted series, and that the film’s message— how it’s okay to just entertain people and not take yourself too seriously— can resonate across all forms of media. More on this one here.

"Marketing For Indies: The Indie Games Summer Uprising," presented by Dave Voyles (indiegames-uprising.com)
Conclusion: Even with a large, coordinated marketing effort, it's still hard to sell an Xbox Live Indie game. Voyles detailed the months of planning that went into the Summer Uprising promotion of 2011, which featured 10 XBLIGs, and how the process involved cutting down over 70 submissions. Even with some advertising placement on the Dashboard free of charge from Microsoft, the entire promotion only sold something like 200,000 total. The thing is, that's a successful promotion for XBLIGs, and you can tell that Voyles and his crew worked really hard at pulling the whole thing off. One brighter note was that there did seem to be lot of emphasis on independent game development on a whole at GDC this year, and I'm hoping more indie game developers test the waters of XBLIGs. (Although Cliff Bleszinski did somewhat depressingly encourage indie developers to go the PC route over XBLIGs in his Microtalk. Thanks bud!)

"Awesome Video Game Data," presented by Geoffrey Zatki (EEDAR)
Conclusion: EEDAR does its homework. From the company's research, games have about three months from release to make the bulk of their money and that reviews definitely factor into scores. Also fun facts were presented like; 76-percent of Xbox 360 owners are connected to the internet, around 45,000 iPhone games were released in 2011, and a game with really low review scores can sell more copies with an all-out marketing blitz.

"Why I Hate Women in Games Initiatives," presented by Mare Sheppard (Metanet Software)
Conclusion: Proactive initiatives to include more women in the making of videogames can completely backfire, leading to even more gender segregation, exclusivity, and bias. Sheppard maintains that hiring for games development (and I'm guessing just in general) should be a meritocracy, where someone gets a job based more on their skills then their biological makeup. Really interesting perspective and if you're intrigued here's some more on this talk.

"Don't Shoot the Messenger! Messaging Across the Front Lines," presented by Linda Carlson (Sony Online Entertainment)
Conclusion: Social media managers have really hard jobs. Carlson runs the community management teams at Sony Entertainment Online, which includes monitoring the forums for massively popular MMOs like EverQuest. She described the process of being a community manager as basically communicating feedback from the players to developers and vice versa on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. It’s a 24-hour job, and sounds brutal. Nevermind the trolls.

Sidenotes: There was a energy drink pavillion blasting annoying dance music on a street corner for two straight days that I'm sure neighboring businesses are stoked to see gone...While I didn't see any talks by Rockstar Games here at GDC, the company was here in spirit, through fliers adorning sidewalks and the floors of bathrooms boasting that they're hiring...There was a guy holding a sign outside of one of the main entrances to GDC that read, "God Hates Game Developers," but didn't want to do a stop-and-chat to see if he was serious or not...the demo station for the game Fez was absolutely mobbed everytime I walked by it...GDC's Experimental Gameplay Sessions included a game made exclusively for the Occupy Oakland movement...and a security guard is telling me I gotta go...

Rumor: New Xbox won’t have a disc drive

With Microsoft doing their best to maintain radio silence about the next generation of the Xbox, rumors continue to build about what we can expect. Though the console’s codename may have leaked, there’s still no hard evidence that the ‘Durango’ will have an HD touchpad controller, that it will run a version of Windows 9, or that this new console will not be able to play used games. Now a new report from MCV is indicating that Microsoft’s new console won’t even use discs.

According to MCV’s sources, the next Xbox won’t even have a disc drive built in. This conflicts with earlier reports that Microsoft would be adopting the Blu-ray format, but both concepts are still entirely possible. The source also states that there will be some sort of solid-state card storage, though it was unclear what sort of role that tech would play. Supposedly due out in 2013, this new Xbox would clearly strike a bigger blow to the used video game market, and further the importance of digital downloads.

Of course, until Microsoft actually reveals their true next-gen console, all of these reports should be taken with a grain of salt.

Halo 4 skipping the multiplayer beta

Fans hoping for an early glimpse at what the new multiplayer will play like in Halo 4 will just have to wait for the final game. According to a recent Q&A session on Halo Waypoint, 343 Industries isn’t planning to release a multiplayer beta. When asked by a fan about the chances of 343 releasing a multiplayer beta, Frank O’Connor, the franchise’s development director, said, “While we are testing Halo 4 code, gameplay, and systems at significant scale to get excellent data, input, and feedback, we are focused on polishing and shipping our experience for the duration of the year, and splitting resources to manage and build a beta is not on our schedule.”

While a public beta isn’t always a necessary tool for good game development, it is a bit odd that a title such as Halo 4 won’t be getting one (especially given Halo 3  and Halo: Reach's betas). 343 Industries obviously has faith in their in-house testers, as O’Connor said, testing is being done on a “significant scale.” Though the move will likely disappoint fans eager to see how drastic the changes are in 343’s Halo will just have to wait until later this year when Halo 4 arrives at retail.

SOURCE: Halo 4 bypassing beta test [GameSpot]

Just Cause devs to reveal new IP at E3

Avalanche Studios is going to reveal a new game at this year’s E3. Though rumors of a third entry in the Just Cause franchise had been making the rounds late last year, it appears that this new game will be based on a licensed property. Avalanche’s CEO Christofer Sundberg spoke with IGN about their plans for the next few years, and indicated that though this new game is a licensed property, people shouldn’t be expecting a movie tie-in. "We aren't particularly interested in movie-based games," Sundberg explained. "I think the whole industry destroyed that. So much money's been pumped into those crappy games, it's amazing. It's really scary when you look at how bad they are."

The yet-to-be-revealed game will be due out in 2013, and Sundberg is looking forward to showing it off. "It's really challenging and fun to show license holders what we can do with an open world," he said. Sundberg also said Avalanche’s New York studio was working on another game for 2014, but wasn’t quite ready to say much more than that. It’s a little disappointing that there won’t be a new Just Cause title anytime soon, but since this new game will run on an upgraded version of the Just Cause 2 engine, perhaps this game will be an acceptable substitute. We’ll just have to wait until this June to find out.

Methods for Repairing the Xbox 360 for the Red Rings of Death (RRoD); Part I

Methods for Repairing the Xbox 360 for the Red Rings of Death (RRoD); Part I
The biggest question I get is, “why did my Xbox 360 fail?”  The second biggest question I get is “what is involved in repairing the Xbox 360?”  This article will go over steps in repairing the Xbox 360 for the Red Rings of Death (RRoD).  If you read my previous post on the “why” question, then you have an understanding of how the Xbox 360 gets the dreaded Red Rings to begin with, which will help you in understanding how to repair the problem.

What we are trying to repair are all the solder balls under the graphics chip (GPU) and under the central processing chip (CPU) as the solder balls have developed cold solder joints.  Most people that explain the failure of the Xbox 360 state that the solder under the GPU has melted… this is not the case.  Lead Free solder cannot get hot enough in the Xbox 360 case to melt.  The hottest it will get in the case is about 200 degrees and it takes a much higher degree of heat to melt solder.  The solder balls under the GPU will, however, begin to breakdown and oxidize causing cold solder joints.  There are about 900 solder balls under the GPU (called Ball Grid Array or BGA), so there are many potential points of failure.  To actually melt the lead free solder you would have to get to 220 degrees Celsius (°C) or about 428 degrees Fahrenheit (°F), which is the specifications for melting lead free solder.  It is also recommended that you stay about 20 degrees below this level since we are only trying to get to the point of melt and not have it start flowing.  The process of getting the lead free solder to the point of melt is called “Reflow”.  Once the lead free solder gets to the point of melt it will reform and correct the cold solder joints that are like micro fractures.

There is different equipment types that can be used to take lead free solder to the point of melt during the reflow process such as a heat gun (although not recommended), the hot air solution and the infrared system.  The heat gun is the cheapest way to perform the reflow but is also the most damaging if it isn’t done properly.  To use a heat gun you would need to cover the area surrounding the GPU and the CPU so as to not damage other electronic components.  All the nearby components are held to the motherboard by the same type of lead free solder and if you get these components as hot as the GPU, you will melt the solder and the components may slide away from where they belong.  As with the heat gun, the hot air solutions have similar potential to damage the surrounding electronic components except that most of the hot air solutions come with a nozzle that fits over the chip you are heating. Hot air solutions normally come with a temperature gauge and a timer, but since they do not built up the heat slowly enough the heat can do damage to the chip.  


Most of the infrared systems will come with an option to set up profiles for heating.  With these profiles, you can tell the infrared system how to heat the board based on the chip size.  That gives you the ability to set up profiles for the Xbox 360, PS3, and other board types that you are reflowing on a regular basis.  The infrared systems use a heat wave as opposed to blowing hot air and that gives a better ability to correct the cold solder joints.  When you set up a profile you are telling the system how to perform; you are giving the system instructions on how long to Preheat and at what temperature, how long to Soak and how rapidly to increase the heat, how long to perform the Reflow and at what temperature and then finally, how rapidly you want the system to Cool the motherboard down.  The other great benefit of most infrared systems is that they will come with some type of cooling system.  The infrared systems that come with the ability to set up profiles are the best way to eliminate errors to repairing the Xbox 360 for the RROD.  The best BGA Rework Station on the market today is the PACE IR 1000 from PACE Inc., out of North Carolina.  This system provides everything you need to repair the Xbox 360 and the PS3 motherboards and even repair industrial type boards if you need that.  


You may contact me for more information on PACE infrared equipment as Gameday handles their US sales and distribution for game console repair.