id Software’s Tim Willits spoke candidly about his companies latest project, Rage. During a discussion at Austin’s GDC he stated that the Xbox 360’s limited disc storage is holding the game back.

“The PC is limitless in the amount of data you can put on it…The PS3 has about 25GB. But the Xbox 360 roughly has 6 to 8 GB of data. We’re hoping we can squeeze the game down to two discs for the 360 version.”- Tim Willits (Lead Designer, id Software

According to Mr. Willits, the game had grand things planned for gamers. What were they exactly? Well, hit over to 1UP.com and find out!

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Acclaimed Metroid Prime Developers form New Studio and Sign Exclusive Publishing Deal with Electronic Arts

AUSTIN, Texas, Sep 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Three of the principal developers of the critically acclaimed Metroid Prime series have announced the formation of Armature Studio which is now welcoming resumes. The company, located in Austin, Texas, is headed by Mark Pacini, Todd Keller and Jack Mathews, the former Game Director, Art Director and Principal Technology Engineer of the hit Nintendo franchise. The goal of Armature is to create compelling new intellectual properties with a unique development framework that leverages a small core creative team and partners them with strategic external developers. The innovative new model is designed to enhance the creative flexibility of a small independent studio while offering modular scale through external partnerships. The company has signed a long term, exclusive publishing deal with EA.

“We are very excited about trying to rethink how games are developed for this generation of consoles, and our partners at EA have been nothing but supportive in this pursuit,” said Mark Pacini, co-founder of Armature Studio. “What really gets me going is that now, no platform is off limits. That is just something we didn’t have the ability to do before.”

“I can’t begin to describe how thrilled I am to be working with the talented team that created such an amazingly well-crafted series of games,” stated Louis Castle, General Manager at EA and acting Executive Producer of the Armature Studio games.

Additional information about the company as well as new employment opportunities can be found at www.armature.com.

Okay, I didn’t get to go but I was working on something game-related and important (oddly enough it did not involve playing video games!)

Rest assured I am going to update you with everything I find…RIGHT NOW!

Unfortunately, I set this site up too late to go to Austin GDC, but maybe if I do this for a year, that can be my reward!

Red Fly Studio is in attendance, however, and have some pictures up on their blog. Also linked there are the Studio’s Flickr pages, so check them out!

Click here to view

Guide-Live.com was able to attend the GameStop expo that took place last week, and wrote some impresions from the games there, here’s a portion:

Grapevine-based gaming retailer GameStop held its annual managers conference in Las Vegas this week, and I was lucky enough to attend some of the festivities.

While I didn’t get hands-on time with everything, I did get to see almost all of the big new releases.
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This isn’t so much about video games as it is about the story of one Latina woman living in San Antonio, TX. However, I did want to mention it because it’s a good story and is though-provoking. How could video games influence Hispanic, or any other cultures, in the future? As a new form of expression, how long before “Call of Duty” moves away from WW2 and maybe goes into the battle of the Alamo because Hispanic devs (a minority at best) one day are in charge? I stray greatly from the article itself, but that’s sort of where my mind went as I read this success story.

Here’s a portion of the article:

Seven-year-old Zachary Diaz, feet dangling off the overstuffed arm of a chair, eyes the action while jabbing the buttons on a portable video game player, aiming for a high score. His 4-year-old sister, Courtney, sways back and forth on the swing set in the fenced backyard, while his father, Gilbert, 39, warms up pasta for dinner.

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Infendo has an article up about the games that were at a charity event over the weekend, one of which was Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars. Click below and check it out!

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Troy Gilbert is the creator of “Mockingbird: The Game Making Game”, and is from Austin, TX. Hidden at the bottom of the game’s website is a link to his blog, where he’s just posted an article about the price of video games. Here’s an excerpt:

Hey, I’ve made that argument myself in the past. But I see the err in my thinking now. The argument is flawed by relying on a wrong premise: I pay $15 for a DVD and it gives me 2 hours of entertainment; I pay $60 for a game and it gives me 40 hours of entertainment; thus, games are a better value for your entertainment dollar.

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Austin’s Red Fly Studio must have turned on some of that Texas luck, because originally Les Claypool (Primus) wasn’t hip on Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars. Eventually, Mr. Claypool’s kids found out about the game and pushed their dad to commit to the project. They ended up loving the game so much, they made drawings based on it! See the drawings and more at the link below.

Link

See the listing here