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LFG Armory uses Armory to match up characters and guilds
LFG Armory is a new site that's aiming to beat the official Armory at its own game. Blizzard's site, as complete as it is, is still occasionally buggy and slow, and LFG Armory is looking to give players an alternative. And it works fairly well -- while the FAQ claims that data may be a little behind (due to caching of Blizzard's information), both the guild and player profile pages look pretty good and load quickly (and if the site can stay up after we link to them here, that'll be a real sign that it's a stable server).But the real feature that makes LFG Armory something more than Blizzard's official site is that it has a guild and arena team matching system built in. Once you register your name and your characters, you can do a search for guilds and arena teams and try to find one that matches what you want -- percentage of level 70s, class makeup, and number of members. On the guild side, you can set your guild as looking, and then when you hit a match, LFG will match you up.It's an interesting system, but like all social networks, it all depends on participation -- when I looked for a guild for my Hunter on Cenarius (who could use a guild, by the way), nothing came up, because likely no one on the server was looking (for a Hunter at least). But as an alternative to the Armory, LFG is looking pretty good. If they can get people to the site and stay up, they might give Blizzard's official site a run for its money.[Via World of Raids]
Matchstick puzzling hits Europe next year
Ignoring the fundamental silliness of paying $20 or more for a game that can be played with a fifty cent box of matches, we're actually quite looking forward to Matchstick Puzzles by DS. Which is a good thing, really, as publisher Mercury Games has just confirmed that its puzzler is on its way to Europe next February, for a wallet-pleasing budget price of £19.99 / €24.99.No news on a U.S. version just yet, though a European release bodes well for those who bought a DS to rearrange little pieces of virtual wood. There's a video of the game in action past the jump, and the first English language screens in the gallery below.%Gallery-11690%
Texas Hold 'em champs face off with pokerfaced computer
While highly intelligent computers have been pwning humans in backgammon, checkers, and chess for years, machines haven't had nearly as much luck against poker sharks. According to a number of researchers, however, that will surely change over the next decade or so as the programming is honed to better anticipate the human's moves. Nevertheless, poker champion Phil Laak and fellow professional Ali Eslami will soon sit down for a two-day contest at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Up for grabs is a $50,000 prize, but moreover, University of Alberta's games research group will be interested in figuring out how to better prepare computers to understand and deal with the complex scenarios that only apply to poker. 'Course, with one-petaflop supercomputers now available for civilian use, we're sure it won't be too long before silicon and PCB rule supreme over our feeble brains in yet another facet.
Matchstick puzzles headed to the DS
Do you ever catch yourself thinking, "Gee, the only thing missing on the DS is matchstick puzzles! Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to carry around all these matchsticks?" No? Well, if you were that guy (or girl), then this could be the best day ever. But even if the idea of shifting matchsticks (without using any actual matches) doesn't thrill you to the core, odds are that you'll find this at least oddly interesting. While we wonder just how many matchstick puzzles there are -- and we're sure they all fit within this one DS game -- this could certainly be worth checking out as a rental at least. If nothing else, simple puzzles are pretty good for pick-up-and-play, and matchstick puzzles always seem to go well with alcoholic beverages. Matchibo Puzzle DS is due for the end of the month in Japan, and we're actually half-hoping this one makes it across the ocean, just to see.
DS Daily: What remains
DS cartridges are tiny. Really effing tiny. So small, in fact, that with but a matchbox, one can generally hold as many games as he or she could possibly need in a single trip out.The games, of course, aren't sold as such. They come in boxes, proprietary boxes. There are very few, if any, specially made racks and stands for these cases, and many find them to be nothing more than a hindrance. Our question to you: do you keep the boxes and instruction manuals for DS games, and if you do, do you actually store each game inside its respective box? They quite literally inflate the size of the game by a factor of a hundred ... do you stand for it?
Clans still possible for Gears of Wars ranked matches [update 1]
Mark Rein maintains that Microsoft prevented the developer from implementing clan support (e.g., Halo 2's Party System) into Gears of Wars' ranked multiplayer matches. But, in a recent interview with Gamer Andy, Epic's VP did hint that team support could still be added, stating vaguely, "In the future we might roll out some additional functionality."In the meantime, a tedious workaround does exist. If one member hosts a ranked match, it's possible for the rest of the clan to grab spots in the match via the custom search menu. Of course, this method will become more difficult as the Gears player base grows and you and your teammates' TrueSkill ranks begin to differ.Update: Gamer Andy contacted us to clarify that his conversation with Rein was not an interview. According to Gamer Andy, Rein's comments did not hint at future clan-play implementation. The cryptic statement about upgrading functionality was just an offhanded remark delivered to steer the conversation toward a new direction (i.e. away from concerns about Gears' multiplayer).See also: Gears of War's ranked matches smell rank[Via 1UP]
Virtua Fighter 5 only for PS3 next spring
There was a time when Virtua Fighter 5 was considered a strong candidate for an arcade port to the Xbox 360, but that multiplatform hope's been dashed with the official announcement that VF5 will appear only on PS3 in the spring of 2007. Sega's technical fighter is a Sony exclusive once more.While home-console online play remains doubtful at this point, next-gen PlayStation owners can now securely look forward to facing off as El Blaze and Eileen (the new luchador and monkey kung-fu artist, respectively) along with the other 15 fighters, decked out in all sorts of items purchased in the in-game store with prize money earned through in-game matches.VF5 will support up to 720p HD resolution and will be featured in game footage in the SEGA booth at E3 (South Hall, Booth #946) later this week.[Thanks, Matt; also via Joystiq]
