shane

Ohh I missed your BD you dirty old man

When in doubt hit up a pawn shop for some Jewlery... they always have a good deal or two

12 hours to go guys, lets get the calls in!!!

Based on that route, you must still be a pollywog

Yah my Pak back in 97 was crazy... we hit: Australia 2X Singapore UAE Dubai Maritious Dieago Garcia Hong Kong

How was your PAK

Activision makes with the corporate gloating today with news that Call of Duty: Black Ops has surpassed $1 billion in worldwide sales since its release in November. That’s faster than Modern Warfare 2, but James Cameron still has it beat. Selling $650 million in the first five days after its November 9 worldwide release, Call of Duty: Black Ops was already well on the way to topping the sales of Modern Warfare 2, breaking the previous installment’s record of $550 million soundly. Now Activision says the latest installment in the Call of Duty series has reached the $1 billion worldwide sales milestone far ahead of Modern Warfare 2, which didn’t hit the mark until mid-January of last year. “In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and “Avatar” have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “This is a tribute to the global appeal of the Call of Duty franchise, the exceptional talent at Treyarch and the hundreds of extraordinary people across our many Call of Duty studios including Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer that work tirelessly on the franchise. Our ability to provide the most compelling, immersive entertainment experience, and enhance it with regular, recurring content that delivers hundreds of hours of audience value, has allowed Call of Duty to continue to set sales and usage records.” James Cameron’s special effects-laden film Avatar reached the $1 billion sales mark 19 days after its worldwide release on December 18 of last year. The speed is even more impressive when factoring in the price difference between a video game and a movie ticket. Black Ops players likely have Avatar fans beat in terms of entertainment hours at least, with more than 600 million hours logged playing the game, with Microsoft statistics showing the average player logging in more than once a day to play for longer than an hour at a time, with more than half that time spent playing online with friends. Will a video game ever beat Avatar’s $1 billion speed record? Score: 0 (0 votes cast) Urgent Fury Command: More...

Sony Online Entertainment transforms PlayStation 3 and PC gamers into superheroes and super villains on January 11 with the release of DC Universe Online. How much will you pay to battle alongside the likes of Batman, Superman, and Lex Luthor? With the beta well underway on both the PC and PlayStation 3, it was only a matter of time before Sony Online Entertainment revealed the official release date for its once delayed comic book MMO. Now we’ve got a firm date in January 11 for North America (January 12 in Europe and 14 in the UK and Ireland), along with word on how much we’ll need to set aside on a monthly basis to don tights and fight (or perpetrate) crime. The PlayStation 3 version of the game will retail for $59.99, while the PC version comes in $10 cheaper at $49.99. Both versions come with one month of free play. After that a $15 (€12.99) a month subscription fee kicks in, though PC players will be able to purchase a lifetime subscription for $199 (€179.99). Hit up the IGN link below for more details on the upcoming launch and beta player rewards direct from DC Universe Online Game Director Chris Cao. DC Universe Online Gets a Release Date [iGN] Score: 0 (0 votes cast) Urgent Fury Command: More...

Yah that Vincent is a character you know...

It is that time again Ladies and Gents... The Christmas Podcast is right around the corner and we want to hear from you, all you have to do is click on Santa below and Commander Fury will call the phone number you enter and record your holiday greeting for the Podcast. (This is an automatic system enter your phone number and it will call the phone and give you the directions to record your greeting.) Recordings are due Dec 23rd at 9 pm cst. Any recordings after this may not make it in. Happy Holidays from the Directors and Staff of Urgent Fury.

We’re extremely excited to announce that starting tomorrow, on December 21, MAG will be available in its entirety as a full game download on the PlayStation Store. Priced identically to its boxed “Greatest Hits” counterpart, the downloadable version of MAG (4.7 GB) will run you a mere $29.99 and come complete with all the bells and whistles found in our patches up to v2.10. To celebrate its release, PlayStation Plus users can try MAG out for free with an exclusive full game trial! Members can play the game and any of its original modes at no charge for as long as their PlayStation Plus membership lasts, with their only limitation being a level 8 character cap. However, members will continue to earn experience as long as they play the game, allowing them to automatically receive credit for time played once they’ve purchased the full product. Membership has its benefits, yes? Check out the comments section here for more answers to your questions. Score: 0 (0 votes cast) Urgent Fury Command: More...

Earlier this evening, Major Nelson posted his weekly podcast and with it came some exciting Black Ops news. Dan Bunting, from Treyarch Studios, joined Major Nelson’s show for a quick interview to announce the brand new DLC set to release for Black Ops. It was mentioned that it had been previously arranged that the DLC would be exclusive for the 360 for a period of time. The release date was also announced to be February 1. The DLC is titled First Strike and includes 5 new multiplayer maps and 1 new zombie map. The price will be 1200 MSP ($15). If you’d like to know more about the DLC, listen to the podcast, and if you’re even more lazy, just skip forward to 29:10. Major Nelson’s Podcast Score: 0 (0 votes cast) Urgent Fury Command: More...

Fans of SOCOM, are always wondering when the next SOCOM is coming out, well Zipper’s Community Manger has an answer. Head on over to the Socom Forums to see what he said. Score: 0 (0 votes cast) Urgent Fury Command: More...

We're already deep into December, so it's time to start closing out 2010 with the final episode of Zipline for the year. Travis Steiner and Ben Jones return to the show once again to help us close out the year with new insights into the state of MAG and a few new SOCOM tidbits for your ears. Enjoy! Zipline Podcast, Episode 27 39.8MB | 43m:28s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunesYou can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...

The Xbox 360 Epic Edition of Bulletstorm will includes early access to the Gears of War 3 beta, Electronic Arts said today. The Epic Edition will hit stores on Feb. 22 for $59.99 and also includes bonus in-game content like 25,000 experience points, visual upgrades for the game’s leash and special weapons and armor. “Epic is poised to break new ground in 2011 with Gears of War 3 and Bulletstorm,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. “With these two highly anticipated triple-A experiences comes a unique opportunity to do something to really excite players, and that’s what we intend to accomplish with the support of Microsoft Game Studios and EA. This is for the shooter fans.” Score: 0 (0 votes cast) Urgent Fury Command: More...

It's time once again for the greatest audio show recorded inside Zipper Interactive's offices for release in podcast form, Zipline! Our special guests this week are Ben Jones and Jason Olander, MAG designers and Zipline alumni. They're here to give us updates on the ongoing MAG Beta and a glimpse at what the future might hold. Zipline Podcast, Episode 20 43.0MB 46m:55s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes You can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...

Zipline, the greatest podcast ever created in-house at Zipper Interactive, is back once again with our 21st episode. Ed Byrne, Creative Director here at Zipper, returns to talk about SOCOM 4 in its early days, with a little dash of MAG added on the side. Plus, zombies! It's fun for the whole family. Zipline Podcast, Episode 21 48.0MB 52m:25s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes You can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...

Our Developer Profile series introduces you to the many faces of Zipper Interactive. From designers to artists to programmers to audio engineers to producers, you’ll meet the creative minds that make Zipper what it is (and maybe learn a few surprises along the way). This week's profile introduces you to Zipper Interactive's Vice President, Mike Gutmann. Mike has been with the company basically since the start, and he'll be on this week's Zipline podcast to answer your questions! Job Title: Vice President Years at Zipper: 14 Years in the Industry: 14 Favorite Zipper Game: SOCOM 2 Favorite Non-Zipper Game: Uncharted 2 Motto: "Be prepared." What is it that you do specifically, and can you walk us through your typical day? For the longest time I’ve felt like my days are anything but typical -- I really just try to fill in the gaps and make sure everyone here has what they need to make great games. I try to get in relatively early and I like to grab the latest build to take a look at the current state of the game. Then I spend a better part of my day bouncing between teams, talking through features, and generally trying to keep everyone well informed about where we are and where we need to be. How did you get into the industry? Before joining Zipper I had worked with Brian Soderberg so I had an idea about what he was up to. It wasn’t long after that that I decided to give game development a try. 15 years later, here we are... What are some other games or projects that you’ve worked on in the past? I’ve had a hand in about every title Zipper has made, including Recoil and Mech Warrior 3 for the PC and all of the SOCOMs. What’s your proudest moment? Oh man... That’s a tricky one. The moments that really stand out in my mind all boil down to my participation as part of the team. Whether it be debugging issues, brainstorming ideas, or just flat out solving problems -- I’m proud of the team we’ve got here and what we’ve been able to accomplish over the past 14 years. Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans? Thank you for all the support over the years! One of the things that makes game development so exciting is having the opportunity to put a title out, have lots (hopefully lots!) of people check it out, and then to hear what they think. That is one of the most rewarding aspects of game development and wouldn’t happen without you fans! Don't forget to click this link and leave your questions to Mike for this week's Zipline podcast! More...

We're back with the twenty-second episode of Zipline, the official Zipper Interactive podcast! This week we're joined by Zipper Vice President Mike Gutmann who stops by to fill us in on the future of MAG and when we can expect to hear more about SOCOM 4 (and how soon we'll see a demo!). Zipline Podcast, Episode 22 31.2MB 34m:07s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes You can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...

Our Developer Profile series introduces you to the many faces of Zipper Interactive. From designers to artists to programmers to audio engineers to producers, you’ll meet the creative minds that make Zipper what it is (and maybe learn a few surprises along the way). This week's profiled Zipper is David Johnson, Tools Engineer extraordinaire. David's work affects many facets of our titles, particularly with designing the tools that allow the games to be created. Here's what he had to tell us: Job Title: Tools Engineer Years at Zipper:Almost 4! Years in the Industry: 4 in the games industry, 10 in the software industry. Favorite Zipper Game: MAG Favorite Non-Zipper Game: It’s too hard to pick just one! It’s got to be one of Chrono Trigger, Zelda: A Link to the Past, or Tales of Symphonia. Motto: "Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive it isn't." – Richard Bach What is it that you do specifically, and can you walk us through your typical day? If a game studio is like an RPG adventuring party, then I would be one of the white mages: I don’t have a lot of direct damaging spells, but I definitely help everyone else out with the healing magic. My role at Zipper is largely in the support department, doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that helps keep the "more renowned" departments—art, design, and engineering—working at top speed! My main responsibility is to give our level editor all of the TLC that it needs in order to pump out new levels fast. I’ve also been helping the Cinema guys iron out the process for making cutscenes and scripted sequences. The typical day for me right now is 9 in the morning until 7 or so on a smooth day, though not every day is a smooth day! I catch up on emails in the morning and check to see if there are any critical (or just plain annoying) issues that’s keeping others in the company from working. I do a lot of troubleshooting whenever things go wrong and then do my best to fix all of the problems plaguing everyone else. After that, I’m pretty much off to the races by making new features for our level editor, data compile process, and Maya. It’s hard to say what I’ll be working on two weeks from now because my team covers a lot of ground and pretty much affects everyone else! How did you get into the industry? It’s kind of a crazy story when you get down to it. My previous job was in Ohio where I worked as a Department of Defense contractor for the US Air Force. I was looking for a career change and had uploaded my r More...

Our Developer Profile series introduces you to the many faces of Zipper Interactive. From designers to artists to programmers to audio engineers to producers, you’ll meet the creative minds that make Zipper what it is (and maybe learn a few surprises along the way). This week we meet up with Software Engineer Chris Oje. Forum-goers may know him as zpr_WhiteTiger, but everyone will have a chance to get to know him better on this week's episode of Zipline as he'll be one of our featured guests. Job Title: Software Engineer (Gameplay) Years at Zipper:2 Years in the Industry: 10 Favorite Zipper Game: MAG! Favorite Non-Zipper Game: I don’t have a single all time favorite and it’s impossible to list everything, so here are some of my most memorable games: Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid, Quake 2, Asheron’s Call, GTA3 ( sequels). Pretty much most RPGs, open world sandbox games, and some shooters are where I spend all my gaming time. Motto: That’s what she said. What is it that you do specifically, and can you walk us through your typical day? I primarily work on gameplay features such as the weapons, animations, characters, skills, etc. I create the logic that tells the game what to do, solve problems that come up when things don’t work correctly, add data driven support so the artists and designers can easily iterate on their work, etc. I work very closely with the artists and designers to make the game come alive. When I’m tasked with implementing a feature, my first stop is to go talk to the designers to get on the same page and make sure I know exactly what they are looking for. Then I will go talk to the artists and make sure they know exactly what is needed and then agree on how it should be created. At this point, I will start coding, building, testing, and iterating. Some tasks can take ten minutes, some can take a day or two, and some features can even take over a month to complete. My typical day begins with checking email, looking at any open bugs, attending a morning meeting, and just generally getting up to speed on the day. From there I’ll lock myself in my office, blast some music, and do work. Work consists primarily of writing code, but there can be a lot of downtime waiting for builds and other processes to finish. That’s when I like to browse the forums and look for any issues that I can respond to or bring up with the team, and if I have enough time, I’ll even jump in-game and make sure everything is going smoothly. Throughout the day I will have people come by and ask questions about something or I’ll go corner someone and ask them questions. Occasionally I’ll have a meeting to attend, a playtest to participate in, and sometimes QA will find a bug or a crash that I’ll go investigate. During lunch or after work, I try to squeeze in a few games of basketball or some kung fu training. How did you get into the industry? I grew up playing video games starting with the Atari 2600, the NES, an old monochrome Macintosh, and so on. I always enjoyed tinkering with computers and gadgets but had no real focus until high school when I took a programming class at a local community college. I enjoyed the class so much that I knew I was destined to be a programmer. The rest of my school and college career was spent working to achieve that goal. A few months before graduating college, my professor’s husband started hiring for a new game division at his company. She recommended me and I got the job. I started working on all kinds of random projects like a couple of Half-Life and Quake 3 mods and some software to run the GameCube development kits. It wasn’t long before I found out how brutal the games industry can be and was laid off, and the company went out of business shortly thereafter – the first of many layoffs and studio closures I’ve had to endure. From there I’ve worked at a number of other studios on all kinds of things like children’s games, adver-games, casual games, to finally landing at Zipper making PS3 games. It’s taken a lot of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice to make it in the industry, but I enjoy my job so much that it’s all been worth it. What are some other games or projects that you’ve worked on in the past? I started my video game career designing ridiculous Super Mario 3 levels on paper and later making terrible Duke Nukem 3D mods and levels. My first shipped game came packaged in boxes of Cocoa Puffs and I worked on a bunch of other children’s action/adventure games (which my kids love playing). I also worked on a few casual games that were typically done as a form of a corporate advertisement. After all of that, I finally broke into console games as the lead gameplay programmer on Destroy All Humans 3. What’s your proudest moment? My proudest moment is ongoing – watching my three boys grow up. They make me proud every day. Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans? You guys are the greatest gaming community I’ve been involved with. The passion and dedication you guys have inspire me to do all I can to make MAG the best game it can be. As a huge fan of the game myself, working the past nine months or so on MAG updates has been a blast! Don't forget to click this link and leave your questions to Chris for this week's Zipline podcast! More...

We're back with the latest installment of Zipline, the official Zipper Interactive podcast! This time around we chat with two of our software engineers, Chris Oje and David Johnson. We dive into what goes into the bits and bytes that allow our games to run, suggestions for budding programmers who might like to work in the industry one day, and answer a few questions about SOCOM 4 and MAG. Enjoy! Zipline Podcast, Episode 23 35.4MB | 38m:38s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes You can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...

It's almost Halloween, but that won't scare us into skipping the latest episode of Zipline, the official Zipper Interactive podcast! Scott Rudi and Ben Jones return to the show to talk about their moves to the SOCOM 4 team and what's in store for players in the retail release of MAG's Escalation add-on. Listen... if you dare! Zipline Podcast, Episode 24 46.2MB | 50m:30s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes You can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...

We're back with episode 25 of Zipline, the official Zipper Interactive podcast! This week we're joined by Zipline vet Jennifer Cearley to talk about all things MAG (including some hints at its near future) and wax philosophical about SOCOM 4. Stay a while and listen... Zipline Podcast, Episode 25 30.2MB | 32m:57s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes You can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...

Zipline returns this week with its 26th episode, featuring none other than Game Director Seth Luisi! Seth sits down with us and talks about MAG's past, present and future, and we discuss SOCOM 4's state and some of the things that players can expect to see upon release. Enjoy! Zipline Podcast, Episode 26 26.2MB | 28m:38s Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes You can discuss this episode by clicking this link. More...