An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla Labs has started an initiative to promote and develop gaming based on Open Web technologies. They write, 'We are excited to present to you the latest initiative from Mozilla Labs: Gaming. Mozilla Labs Gaming is all about games built, delivered and played on the Open Web and the browser. We want to explore the wider set of technologies which make immersive gaming on the Open Web possible. We invite the wider community to play with cool, new tech and aim to help establish the Open Web as the platform for gaming across all your Internet connected devices.' To that end Mozilla Labs will launch Game On 2010, a game development competition, at the end of September."

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VVVVVV is now available on Steam. To commemorate its release, the game is available at a 10% discount now through September 14th, 2010 10AM Pacific Time.

VVVVVV is a retro-styled 2D platformer by Terry Cavanagh. You play as the fearless leader of a team of dimension exploring scientists who inadvertently crash, and are separated. The game involves exploring the strange world you've found yourself in, and reuniting your friends.

VVVVVV explores one simple game mechanic: you cannot jump - instead, you reverse your own gravity at the press of a button. The game focuses on playing with this mechanic in a variety of interesting ways.

The game is designed not to artificially gate your progress. In VVVVVV there are no locks, no power-ups, no switches, nothing to stop you progressing except the challenges themselves.

YOU! Yes, you!

You want to be credit to team?

I don’t just mean build teleport for me and fellow comrade.  I mean real credit to team.

Yes? Then read.

Being credit to team is not possible by just shooting bullet and standing on point, stupid. Is much more than that. I have list of things that can help you be good credit to team.

I start with something easy that everyone know:

1. Protect Medic and Demoman

Medic is biggest credit to team. So make sure he is safe, always. I see so many dumb Soldier jumping away from Medic, or running away with stupid pick-axe like babies. Very bad.

Good Soldier leads Medic into safe area. Good Soldier think more about keeping Medic safe than about killing enemy team.

Is OK for other Soldier to jump away if other Good Soldier with Medic. But both Soldier should always think of Medic first.

Even Scout can protect Medic if Scout is nearby. Scout very good for stopping jumping enemy Soldier. Scout should always think about where enemy Scouts might try kill team’s Medic, and save Medic. Scout should especially help Medic when team Soldiers are dead or are cowards.

Demoman is also big credit to team. Especially if he smart. If he not smart, still protect him because that’s what good comrade do. Is usually Scout job to protect Demoman from other Scout, especially in Middle-point battle. Soldier and Medic should stay close to Demoman to give health and safety so Demoman can do job well and be credit for team’s defense.

Also, Medic and Demoman is important, but everyone is important in team. And if you want to be good credit to team, you help and protect everyone whenever you can.

2. Stay alive

So you think you can run in, shoot bullet, get kill on everyone, get on point? Maybe. But can you do that all the time and without being dead? Is not possible.

So much times, I see dumb comrades run in, die for nothing. No credit to team. Why? Because they think they can outsmart whole enemy team and kill.

Is not your job to kill whole enemy team. Is job to stay alive long enough time to help when everyone pushes, then kill enemy team together.

Is credit to team if you get kill, run back, but not like coward! Is just for recharge before going in to kill more.

Is no credit to team if you get kill, then die. BAD!

However, there is exception. Let me introduce you to man everyone know:

This is Scout. For long time, Scout is very stupid, especially in South Africa TF2 Competing Commune. Why? First, Scout is exception to Stay Alive rule because sometimes he goes in for Medic and Demoman kill, which is very good credit to team. But is no excuse for dying for nothing.

Stupid Scout runs in, thinking is his job to die, and maybe get lucky and get kill. Is not good. Is dumb. So, Stupid Scout is problem in team and local commune. But how does Smart Scout stay alive AND get important kill? Simple. Smart Scout is not greedy like Stupid Scout.

Smart Scout gets kill, then gets back to friendly team if possible. Smart Scout know when he is outgunned. He does not go for kill unless he sure he can get it, and maybe get out alive. Smart Scout also thinks about team, just like Good Soldier thinks about Medic. Smart Scout think: If I die, enemy Scout can be coward and go straight for weak comrade like Medic.

So Smart Scout spend most of his time stopping enemy Scout on flank area.

So enough of this baby-talk. Is simple: think about staying alive, more than about killing enemy team. But this no mean be coward and run from fight when team is fighting! Help comrades in battle!

3. Get to Middle Point, fast!

All you babies have baby guns. I have real gun. Is why I get to Middle Point fight slowest. But rest of you cowards have no excuse.

You slow to middle? Then watch the amazing video demonstrations on the network of wirewebs:

Soldier Jumps

Demoman Jumps

For Stupid Scout: run with other Scout, hopefully he Smart Scout and show you way. Otherwise watch Smart Scout in action: TF2demos

4. Be aware. Look alive.

Sometimes I see comrades that lose focus and make stupid mistake. A lot of time, I see this happen:

• Very Stupid Scout take Health Kit when Demoman or Medic need it more.
• Stupid Scout take ammo pack when Soldier need rocket.
• Stupid Scout never looking for Sticky Trap when running through dangerous doorway.
• Stupid Soldier running into Sticky Trap after Smart Scout told him is there.
• Very Stupid Scouts run in same choke that Soldier, Demoman and Medic go through, leaving flank open.
• Dumb Demoman pushing too far forward, too far for Smart Scout to protect him.
• VERY Stupid Soldier running away from own Medic with Stupid pick-axe out.
• Stupid Scout going for kill when should be going for point.
• Medic try to use Charge very late in big fight, to look impressive. Then die.

There are many more, but you see picture. These things easy to fix. But much concentrate needed.

5. Talk to Team-mate. Respect fellow comrade.

One thing that never impress me: comrade that know how to shoot bullet, but know not how to talk to team-mate, or respect for that matter.

Sometime, saying important info is better than shooting bullet well.

Worst, is team-mate who disrespect fellow comrade. I care not how well you can shoot bullet; if you disrespect fellow comrade you are minus credit to team.

Best is smart comrade, who know how to shoot bullet, but also know that respect and talking important things for team is just as important.

So I hope my talk help you to be credit to team in near future. And remember, sometimes, being real credit to team take time. Be patient and improve weak areas. Practise and patience make for real credit to self-improving.

RyuuzakiTetsuya writes "Destructoid is reporting that the 3.42 firmware has been released for the PlayStation 3, and it has fixed the USB vulnerability that allows the PSJailbreak exploit to work." Sony's brief announcement of the update refers only to "additional security features," though the EU blog post acknowledges that a vulnerability was addressed. PS3-Hacks.com confirms that the patch is effective against the various jailbreak tools, and they point out a different tool for bypassing the update. Sony told the BBC, "... as we always have, we will continue to take necessary actions to both hardware and software to protect the intellectual content provided on the PlayStation 3."

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Save 33% on Puzzle Quest 2 during the Midweek Madness Sale. Hurry, as the offer ends Thursday, September 9th, 2010 at 4PM Pacific Time.

Updates to Garry's Mod have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

• Added Toybox tab to spawnmenu
  
• Added protection from spoofed Admin SteamID's
  
• Toybox entities can now have materials/models/sounds downloads
  
• Dedicated Server spits Warning's instead of Msg's for Lua Errors
  
• Fixed stutter when downloading from Toybox
  
• Made Lua do extra checking to make sure arguments are of the right type
  
• Various improvements to Lua's errors
  

An anonymous reader writes "I bought a bunch of old Wing Commander games for Windows, but they use DirectDraw, which Microsoft has deprecated. They don't work too well under Windows 7, so I ended up reimplementing ddraw.dll using OpenGL to output the games' graphics. I wrote an article describing the process and all the fun workarounds I had to come up with, and released all related source code for others to hack on."

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In this quarter's System Builder Marathon, we balance out our CPU and graphics subsystems, rather than piling on the GPU performance like last time. The results are shocking, to be quite honest. Check out the performance of our $1000 enthusiast system.

Further your Mafia II experience with the new Mafia II DLC: Jimmy's Vendetta. Available in NA at 12:00am PST on September 7th.

Jimmy's Vendetta will take players into an alternate perspective of the mob through the eyes of Jimmy, a mercenary. Jimmy is the guy the other guys call when they need to finish the job.

Secret of the Magic Crystals is available at half price now through September 13th, 2010.
Act now and save!

Purchase Space Siege before September 13th, 2010 and receive 66% off!

Save big on Football Manager 2010. Purchase before September 13th, 2010 and receive 50% off!

Hugh Pickens writes "JP Mangalindan writes that for years psychologists have studied what makes video games so engrossing — why do players spend hours accruing virtual points working towards intangible rewards and what characteristics make some games more addictive than others? Now, companies are realizing that 'gamification' — using the same mechanics that hook gamers — is an effective way to generate business. For example, when Nike released Nike + in 2008, it 'gamified' exercise. 'Place the pedometer in a pair of (Nike) sneaks and it monitors distance, pace and calories burned, transmitting that data to the user's iPod. The Nike software loaded on the iPod will then "reward" users if they reach a milestone,' writes Mangalindan. 'If a runner beats his 5-mile distance record, an audio clip from Tour de France cycling champ Lance Armstrong congratulates him.' In addition, users can upload their information, discuss achievements online with other users, and challenge them to distance or speed competitions. The result: to date, Nike has moved well over 1.3 million Nike + units."

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The final fourth leg of the Do Gaming League is upon us and will run from the 10th of August till the 20th of September. Eight teams will battle it out over the next several weeks in a round robin with pre-determined maps.

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YokimaSun writes "Sony may have dealt a major blow to the PSjailbreak sellers, but the release last week of PSGroove, an open source version of the hack, has now opened the floodgates of ports to mobile phones such as the Nokia N900 and Palm Pre. The final kick in the teeth is that a port of the exploit has been released by Waninkoko of Wii custom firmware fame for the Dingoo Handheld, which is a homebrew console that is very popular amongst emulation fans. It makes you smile that you can use one homebrew console to hack another to get homebrew on that console. Awesome." pudge notes that you can apparently do the same with a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator (YouTube video).

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A Zoë Mode production for the video game charity initiative OneBigGame, Chime pits gamers against the melody in an all-new puzzle experience. Place blocks against the clock, complete solid quads and try to cover the whole playing surface, all the while remixing and embellishing pieces by musicians from across the planet. And you get to feel good about yourself, too: The console version of Chime was originally developed for OneBigGame with all the developer’s royalties going to Charity for sales up to June 2010, and Zoe Mode will continue to donate a proportion of its royalties (equivalent to 5% of purchase price) for sales of the Steam version. OneBigGame always aims to donate a minimum of 80% of all donations to its charity partners Save the Children and the Starlight Children's foundation.

A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the File menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

Steam

• Fix selection highlighting of hyperlink text in chat
  
• Compatibility fix for Steam Service and MS KB2264107 with 0xFFFFFFFF registry setting
  
• Fixed issue with Steam Cloud that occurs when a game is launched outside of Steam
  
• Compatibility fix for in-game overlay and MS KB2264107 with 0xFFFFFFFF registry setting
  
• Steamworks fix for matchmaking
  

Updates to Puzzle Quest 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

• Hero selection - the first hero that appears in the hero select screen is now the hero you were last using in quest mode
  
• Chasm spell text updated
  
• Extra hero info in inventory - when you mouse over the portrait in the inventory, a tooltip appears to show you the stats you can't normally see
  
• 1600x900 & 1024x600 resolution support added
  
• Steam button - selecting the Steam button on the main menu gives you the option to view achievements, stats, the official group, and the PQ2 steam forum (must have Steam Community In-Game enabled)
  
• Treasure Grab! minigame loot drops have increased. Gives extra loot for matching 4/5 chests, extra loot on higher difficulty
  
• Mod support added
  
• Fix for the "Royal Door" quest door - the pathfinding sent the player to the wrong door, this is now fixed
  
• Gem dragging ability - added the ability to drag gems to move them
  
• Updated directx web installer - fixes issues on windows 7, the game wouldn't install correctly with the old directx installer
  
• Fixed issues with hint arrow - the hint arrow would appear in some cases when it was turned off mid-battle
  
• Balanced the Assassin spell 'Weaken' - gave it a two turn cooldown and increased the cost from 5 Yellow to 5 Yellow and 4 Green
  
• 'Completionist' achievement counter fix - the achievement was working, but the counter displayed on the user's achievements page wasn't updating
  
• 'You're doing it wrong' achievement fixed - it was counting the molten metal and hammer of the righteous weapons when it shouldn't have
  
• 'Hold the Line' spell fixed - it wasn't correctly giving immunity to Fear
  
• Poisons of the same kind (but with varying rarity and/or race) were stacking - poisons stacking with two varieties of the same base type was never intended and was removed. eg. You can now stack Wyvern with Manticore, or Manticore with Arachna, but not Wyvern with Wyvern, or Manticore with Manticore.
  
• Updated FMOD version
  
• Item drop tables tweaked - players will see less Normal, Fine and Masterwork grade items as they get deeper into the game. They'll see more Legendary and Epic items instead
  

Monday the 30th of August will see the start of South Africa's first ever team-based Starcraft II league when PolarfluKe Factions kicks off. 12 teams featuring some of our best local talent will battle over the next month.

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We bolstered our latest high-end build with a six-core CPU from AMD and two super-fast video cards from Nvidia. Is it possible to fit uncompromising performance within a $2000 budget? Remember, you can even enter to win this potent behemoth; just read on!