On the eve of the most glutinous day of the year we have found out that the Japanese will be getting a nice holiday treat from Capcom. Today we discovered that the Resident Evil 5 Demo is set for release Dec. 5th in Japan. The demo will be available only on the Xbox 360, and only to the land of the rising sun.  Sorry homeboys it seems we will not be seeing a Resident Evil 5 demo in the good old USA yet.

RE5 Development is said to be going so well that it will be released a whole week early then originally scheduled. Here in the U.S. RE5 is set for release March 13th, as previously scheduled. Although we have heard nothing of a demo in North America, we are set to get one for the 360, and PS3 but when is still unknown.

So while we are getting stuffed this Thanksgiving just know that Japanese people will be getting stuffed as well, but with the knowledge that they will be getting a RE5 demo Dec. 5th, and be getting the full game a week earlier then previously scheduled.  2 Japan, United States ZIP.

As Christmas is quickly approaching we are sure that you are trying to come up with a creative gift idea for the gamer in your life.  Since gamers tastes are picky we know it can be hard trying to find the right type of gift for them. So here at NothingButSoftware we decided to compile a short list of games and accessories that are sure to please any gamer.

1. The Atari Flashback 2

For the classic gamer the Atari Flahback 2 is a plug and play console. It has 40 classic Atari games including, Pong, Centipede, and Pitfall.  Plug and plays have been around for a while so the price will be low. A great gift idea for any gamers stuck in the 80’s.

2. Wrath of the Lich King Expansion

If you are looking for a gift for a Wow Gamer this Christmas this expansion is a must. This is the greatest endeavor thus far from Blizzard.  Wrath of the Lich king is already breaking sales records, and it continues to grow in popularity.  So get this one as early as possible. A good price for a lot of great content, and a whole new Wow experience.

3. The Wii Lightsaber
Of all of the Wii Accessories this one has got to be the best. A great gift for a Wii gamer, and a must have gift for a Star Wars fan. The Wii Lightsaber is designed to be like the real thing, when turning it on the light actually rises from the bottom to the  top. It is available in a dual pack with two separate colors, and it is reasonably priced.

4. Guitar Hero World Tour

Hands down the most popular music series in video games is Guitar Hero. Recently released Guitar Hero World Tour is rumored to be one of the most popular game titles this holiday season, and it is already flying off the shelves.  It has a huge music library, and supports download content. If you know a gamer that likes this series or wants to get into it check it out.

5. Nintendo Wii
After two years of shortages I am sure we are all weary of the Wii holiday craze. Wii sales are still through the roof, and from what we have heard this year will have it’s share of shortage nightmares. If you have a special gamer in your life who has not been able to get his hands on a Wii yet this would certainly make his/her Christmas I’m sure.

Since it was announced, Aliens Colonial Marines has generated a great deal of buzz. The fact that it was written by a team of writers from Battlestar Galactica has been part of that, not to mention it is based on one of the most popular series in the history of the Sci-Fi film genre. The buzz recently took a negative turn when a rumor that a layoff at Gearbox had halted, possibly canceled the release of the game. It has been rumored that up to 26 people have been laid off from Gearbox due to poor sales of Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway, and this in turned caused a huge hiccup in the release of Aliens.

Gearbox president Randy Pitchford helped dispel some of the rumors with a recent statement. He was quoted as saying “Aliens isn’t canned, we’ve made some transformative changes and yes, that’s meant some talent changes, but that’s not the real story.”

Although the release date for Aliens is a bit ambiguous at this point, at least we know we will still be getting it.

We recently did a post on how Nintendo was taking steps to prepare for the Wii demand for Christmas, and from what we had surmised they were all system go for this holiday season.  Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was quoted as saying “We’re producing an unprecedented level of hardware to try and meet demand.”

Well it seems there are only a few things in life that are certain death, taxes, and Wii holiday shortages. This has been an issue for the past two years and it seems that the sales clerks at GameStop will have another wonderful year of it.

GameStop CFO David Carlson has stated that he is expecting all Wii stock to be sold out by Christmas, gone, bone dry. “Wii Fit is in very, very short supply. It sells through as quickly as it hits the stores,” Carlson stated. “And although the Wii hardware is in very good supply right now we believe it may as well be out of stock by the holiday season.”

It seems we are getting two different stories; one from the retailers and another from Nintendo, as Reggie has been quoted multiple times as saying that Nintendo was better prepared this year for holiday sales.  For now keep your fingers crossed, but if we start hearing this story from other retailers you may be getting a really nice pair of shoes instead.

Avoid the lines, the crazed parents, and just get your Wii from us. Seriously!

At long last my dream has come true a new batch of educational games are on the way to cultivate my mind and enlighten me to the international community. For all you gamers who nodded off in geography class while your teacher was talking about tribal rituals in South American Jungles, here’s your chance to catch up on the lesson.

National Geographic has announced that they will begin developing video games.  The non profit educational outlet has announced National Geographic Games which, is part of their profit division National Geographic Ventures. NGG has already released one title “Herod’s Lost Tomb” which was released for mac and Iphone. NGG has stated that some games will be developed in house and others through partnership.  NGG has said that their main focus is to release games that further geographic knowledge.

As excited as you gamers must be to hear this, we have decided to compile a comprehensive list of possible games that NGG could release in the near future. Enjoy.

1. Tribal Drum Hero
Honor your family and the ancestors who have come before you not to mention pick up chicks by tribal drumming. You will play before your family, your tribe, and then compete against other tribes in drum offs. The stakes are high, but so are the rewards; because if you fail at drumming the ancient rhythms of the god’s you lose a finger but if you keep perfect beat you get the neighboring tribal chief’s virgin daughter.

You will also get to play these popular tribal hits:
“Party like a Cherokee” -by the Native American Cherokee
“Big Girls Don’t Cry When They Get Malaria”- by the Jharkhand tribe of Palamu
“I’m Bringing Skinning Back” - By the cannibal Asmat tribes of Papua

2. Woodchuck Breeder for Gameboy DS
Tired of Dogs, Rabbits, and I know your sick of kittens. Well then here is the latest heart warming, I feel fuzzy inside, simulated pet game with all the fun of having a pet and none of the responsibilities. In“Woodchuck breeder” you will help protect the population of these fascinating creators by raising and breeding them. As you progress through the game you will develop new breeding skills such as; selecting the right type of wines, purchasing Barry White albums, and overall setting the right type of mood for breeding.

3. Kill Zone “O” Zone
Help protect the planet from global warming.
Progress through your journey to achieve a planet free of pollution by doing your part.

Here are a few of the exciting missions you will get to play:
-Turning off your lights when you leave a room
-car pooling
-and the funnest mission of them all standing in line at the refinery with a bag of Pepsi cans

4. F.irst E.ncounter A.rachnid R.eaction
A great game for Kids! This game takes you on a journey through the most dangerous spider ridden realms of the world, and teaches kids all the really cool facts about spiders.
Such as:
Goliath Bird Eating spider - of South America that could potentially eat your hand if it wanted to.
The Black Widow - which is native to Southern States of the US such as Florida, be careful on that Disney Land trip!
Brown Recluse - Which is Highly venomous an native to the US and could quite possibly be in your house. Isn’t that a neat fact kids!

5. Education - The Game
Learning is fun! Who needs guns and explosions when you can cultivate your mind.  Education the game will teach you the power of imagination, through comprehensive in depth studies of geographical regions and the indigenous people that live in them, and their effect on our world as a whole. Now that sound like a fun game!

The Dead Walk RUN
The creators of Half Life Valve, have brought us the FPS survival horror title Left 4 Dead. Within this four person co-op title you fend off oceans of the living dead, who certainly don’t drag their feet when the dinner bell rings.  There are many reasons why this game stands alone from other survival horror titles, and why it is most likely going to become one of the greats within the genre. Today, Left 4 Dead infects the store shelves (Nov. 18th), and the survival horror genre in a big way.

The Infection
The story begins within a city completely annihilated by a zombie infection. You will have the option to play as four separate characters. Bill the Vietnam Vet, Louis the IT guy, Zoey the college student and horror film fanatic, and Francis the bar brawling biker. Each has their own unique skills that aid one another in their survival. The Infected (which you can play as as well) are the living dead creatures that have ransacked the city. They consist of the Horde (your basic zombies that accumulate in large groups and attack any living thing), and then the mutated zombies, such as the Witch (big claws and completely crazy), the Boomer (don’t shoot this one up close), the Tank (which is basically a Mack truck with arms), and other types as well.  The game’s plot line is  surprisingly simple. The goal is to survive, and the only way to achieve that is through teamwork.

Three Four is the magic number
As said before there are four major characters within the game who progress as a team to survive. Each teammate has a colored outline that it visible through walls that changes status to indicate danger or injury so you are able to know where your teammates are at all times and whether they are in need of help. Your teammates will assist you in gunning down zombie, healing your injuries, and helping you recover from attacks. You will want to do the same for them because if you loose any member of your team you will loose firepower. The game is primarily a first person shooter in which you fend of a droves of zombies. The monotony is broken up by the mutated zombies each one with their own unique abilities that are potentially devastating to your team; for example the Hunter which can pin you or anyone one of your teammates. In this instance when mutated zombies attack you or your team you must act quickly or you may loose a teammate, or be killed yourself.

There are four basic phases of the campaign mode of the game; No Mercy (urban Setting), Death Toll (suburban setting), Dead Air (air port), and Blood Harvest (a rural setting).  Each has it’s own challenges, and obstacles, in which teamwork is required to survive. The unique thing about Left 4 Dead that sets it apart from other survival horror games is the “AI Director”, which adjusts intensity and frequency of zombie attacks according to your performance. The “AI Director” will change themes, ambiance, and moves zombies, and ammo to different locations within the maps so each mode of the game is never the same when you replay it.

The versus mode will allow up to 8 players; in which you will be able to play as the four survivors, or as four of the infected. Playing as the infected in this mode will allow you to play as the mutated zombies each one with its own unique ability.

Here’s the Deal!
The four person co-op is one of the best aspects of this game. I personally believe this is one of the few games within the survival horror genre that has capitalized on it.  The other and most unique aspect is the “AI Director” with this you will never play the game the same twice. These are the two strongest pillars of this title and the reason why it is truly great. If you are a fan of FPS or Survival horror you will want to pick this game up you will be getting hours of enjoyment from it.  Valve has given us a great title in the survival horror genre. We give Left 4 Dead an A+ rating.

Creating a CTO position in the U.S. Government?

An interesting article appeared in Friday’s - 11/14/08 Washington Post regarding President Elect Barack Obama’s plan to appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer.

According to Obama’s Website this person would help “to make government work better” by helping federal agencies use technology. It has not been determined whether this person would hold a Cabinet level position or just an administrative slot.

Another question is whether the potential CTO would be an executive from the tech sector or someone currently in the Government.

Some have mentioned current Google CEO Eric Schmidt (he has already stated he is not interested) or Vint Cerf, who is the ‘Chief Internet Evangelist’ at Google – either of these choices would have likely caused a storm anyway since Google has a major stake in how the government approaches ‘net neutrality’ and regulates broadband in general. Here is Google’s guide on Net Neutrality: http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html

Over the past two years Google has greatly increased its lobbying presence in D.C. With the new administration, it will be interesting to see how complex issues like ‘net neutrality’ (especially in Google’s case) are handled.

No matter what, the focus on technology in general and the possibility of appointing someone to devote more focus on how technology can help make things more efficient amongst the various government agencies seems like a good move for any administration.

Yang Giving Up the Good Fight and the Fate of Yahoo!

In Tuesday’s – 11/18/08 Wall Street Journal, it was reported that Yahoo’s co-founder will be stepping down after they find a replacement. Apparently Mr. Yang will stay on the board and remain a senior executive within Yahoo. With the rejection of the earlier Microsoft offer and now its co-founder about to step aside - the fate of Yahoo in general and whether it will remain an independent company remains unclear.

Of course the announcement on November 5, 2008 surely didn’t help (or the final nail in coffin) when Google decided to abandon their advertising partnership with Yahoo due to pending antitrust challenges by the Government. With Google essentially turning its back on Yahoo by backing away from their advertising partnership - everyone immediately speculated that Yahoo was back in play with Microsoft.

What Could Have Been

So the irony. . . because of Google’s move, the pressure on Yahoo is greater than ever for them to renew talks with Microsoft and sadly. . . get much less than the $33 per share that Microsoft had offered in May 2008.

A shame to Yahoo shareholders when you consider Yahoo’s stock as I type this is on 11/18/08 is at $11.71 per share. And, no doubt Yang has heard the roar for months from investors who kept saying he should not be the one to lead Yahoo – especially since only 66% of shareholders agreed he should stay in his current position. So, at this point – the Board is considering going with Susan Decker, Yahoo’s current president but some investors have said her former role as Yahoo’s Chief Financial Officer, still does give her enough experience to weather Yahoo’s uncertain future.

Timing is Everything

With the current economic environment and new people soon to be appointed in antitrust roles within the Government, the on-again-off-again negotiations with Microsoft remain in question. This past summer Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer mostly blamed Yang for the companies’ inability to draft an agreement. So, at this point who knows what will happen - no matter what – whether it was its partnership with Google or Yahoo being acquired by Microsoft, there will be less competition in the Internet advertising arena.

The fifth installment in Capcom’s super Survival Horror series Resident Evil 5 will be attacking the shelves March 13th, but until that day comes the ever growing Resident Evil 5 popularity cloud continues to swell. It has just gotten a little bigger with the release of the new screenshots on Capcom’s blog.

Just to be sure all you guys are up to speed. Here is a quick list of the major RE5 info Capcom has released on their Blog.

10/3/08   The first batch of RE5 screen shots
10/7/08   The One up show on RE5 co-op play
10/8/08   The TGS RE 5 Trailer
11/15/08 The new batch of RE5 screen shots released

The new batch of Screen shots show some images of Chris and Sheva. Also some Zomibe dogs whose heads open up and reveal…well in a word teeth. They also show a giant deformed bat, that seems to splash some type of goo on Sheva.

The Lich King Rises
The second expansion from Blizzard, the long awaited Wrath of the Lich King has finally arrived. The Lich King has awakened and established his throne in Northrend, and if the Alliance and Horde factions to not  act maybe all of Azeroth.  Here is our review for the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion.

The Legend
Long ago the land of the ancient wars, Northrend was part of a single continent until it broke free and drifted to the north.  Separate from the rest of the world Northrend was ruled by the Nerubians who grew in power, and strength. Though the Nerubians had ruled for ages they soon were cut down by the Lich King who was given power by the demon lord Kil’Jaeden to command an army of the undead. Resurrecting an ancient race the Vrykul from beneath the ice of the Northrend the Lich King soon laid waste to the Nerubians.  Arthas met the Lich King in battle and shattered his frozen thrown and  took his sword.  Not knowing the enchantment placed on the blade by the demon lord, Arthmas’s soul was forever merged with it making him the new Lich King. Arthas soon after disappeared into the frozen wastes falling into slumber until he was awoke by Kil’Jaeden to command the undead army and conquer the land of Azeroth.

Game Play
Unless you have lived under a rock for the past few years you know that like the Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King is an expansion not a separate game.  So you are getting the same type of game play you always had with WoW, but evolved.  You will still get the standard quests such has “go kill these guys,” and “gather these mushrooms,” but they are few, over all the new quests are much more creative, and the majority of them are tied into the main plot witch was rare in the last expansion.  Also the enemy encounters are much more creative, and realistic then ever before.

The content that has been added through this expansion is vast, and should keep fans at bay for a time. The first and most notable change is the new land you are able to explore, the Northrend; which includes such territories as IceCrown, DragonBlight, and Storm Peaks. All of them beautiful in design and unique to the World of WarCraft universe. Northrend is great addition to Azeroth and is new and unique realm to explore. The new realm will have enemies above level 70, giving you the ability to level up to a cap of 80, good news fro those who have conquered the Outland. The second must notable addition is the new class the Death Knights. If you are more of Horde kinda guy the pull of these new characters will be nearly irresistible, and very enjoyable. You will get to pillage, plunder, and reek having to your little black hearts desire. The other notable pieces of content added would be the siege weapons, which are accessible during…you guest it sieges, and very from catapults, to ballistas.  More barbershops which will allow mullets now (very popular for the 80′ hair band fan’s), and the new achievement system in which your achievements will be visible for all other players to see.

Long Live the King
If you are a long time Wow addict you have probably already pre-ordered this title, but if you have recently  gotten out of your WoW rut, this expansion is more then adequate to push you right back into a new one. Blizzard has evolved their universe, and designed a new realm of game play that is sure to keep the dedicated fans satisfied, and bring wayward ones back. With new content, evolved game play, and a vast new realm of adventure to explore Wrath of the Lich king is sure to satisfy your WoW fixation.  We give the Wrath of the Lich King an A+ rating.

Quick Reference:
Northrend - land of ancient wars and current kingdom of the Lich King
Nerubians - dominate race of Northrend
Vrykul - ancient race of giants that existed before the Nerubians
Kil’jaeden - the demon lord, the Lich Kings master, and source of power
Arthas -  the Lich King
Azeroth - the collective known world of World of WarCraft
IceCrown, DragonBlight, Storm Peaks - individual realms of Northrend