RASTABT
1
01:30 PM May. 12, 2004 PT
LOS ANGELES -- Until now, men could only fantasize about living large like Hugh Hefner, the father of the Playboy empire.
But this November, anyone with a PC, PlayStation 2 or Xbox will have the opportunity to put on Hef's smoking jacket and lord over his mansion. Game publishers Arush Entertainment and Groove Games will release Playboy: The Mansion, a video game that puts players in the virtual footwear of the publishing tycoon.
"You can create your own Playboy magazine and throw your own parties," Hefner said.
Given that it's E3 week in Los Angeles, the game was the center attraction at a party at the real-life Playboy mansion Tuesday night -- that is, if it were possible to ignore a bevy of Playboy playmates, bunnies and naked models adorned with body paint designed to look like bikinis.
Think of the game as SimHef. Players take the reins of the Playboy empire, initially concentrating on getting the first issue of a faux Playboy on newsstands. They have to play Hef as a businessman, making financial decisions, developing fame and creating the kinds of personal, professional and romantic relationships Hefner did on his way to the top.
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About time: Activision and Id Software said on Tuesday they will release Doom III, one of the most anticipated games in the past couple of years, later this summer, with the first version coming out on the Xbox.
The companies previewed the game at E3 two years ago and continued to tease fans for months with screenshots and trailers, but they wouldn't give a release date. In a statement, the companies said the game would be released "this summer," but didn't give a specific date.
The original version of Doom was one of the best-selling video games of all time and influenced dozens of other first-person shooter games. Doom III retells the premise of the original game: A space marine on Mars has to fight the hordes of hell unleashed by a science experiment gone wrong.
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Game symphony: Nearly 1,300 fans of the video game Final Fantasy filled the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Monday night for the first American concert of the game series' music.
For one night, series composer Nobuo Uematsu, whose brilliant soundtracks are credited as being the heart and soul of Final Fantasy, was a rock star. As he entered the auditorium, he was recognized immediately and the audience gave him a two-minute standing ovation before the show even got under way.
The performance featured at least one tune from every Final Fantasy game since the original 1987 title, which helped define the console role-playing genre. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya and accompanied by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, handled the classic tunes and new compositions from Final Fantasy XI Online and the upcoming DVD movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children with grace and beauty.
At a press conference following the event, Uematsu expressed his gratitude to his American fans for making the event possible. He also said he was amazed at how music can so effortlessly cross cultural and language boundaries. The fans in attendance were bursting with questions about Uematsu's rock band, The Black Mages. If concert promoters were listening, perhaps we'll see them live next year.
-- Daniel Terdiman and Chris Kohler contributed to this report.
Info Source
LOS ANGELES -- Until now, men could only fantasize about living large like Hugh Hefner, the father of the Playboy empire.
But this November, anyone with a PC, PlayStation 2 or Xbox will have the opportunity to put on Hef's smoking jacket and lord over his mansion. Game publishers Arush Entertainment and Groove Games will release Playboy: The Mansion, a video game that puts players in the virtual footwear of the publishing tycoon.
"You can create your own Playboy magazine and throw your own parties," Hefner said.
Given that it's E3 week in Los Angeles, the game was the center attraction at a party at the real-life Playboy mansion Tuesday night -- that is, if it were possible to ignore a bevy of Playboy playmates, bunnies and naked models adorned with body paint designed to look like bikinis.
Think of the game as SimHef. Players take the reins of the Playboy empire, initially concentrating on getting the first issue of a faux Playboy on newsstands. They have to play Hef as a businessman, making financial decisions, developing fame and creating the kinds of personal, professional and romantic relationships Hefner did on his way to the top.
- - -
About time: Activision and Id Software said on Tuesday they will release Doom III, one of the most anticipated games in the past couple of years, later this summer, with the first version coming out on the Xbox.
The companies previewed the game at E3 two years ago and continued to tease fans for months with screenshots and trailers, but they wouldn't give a release date. In a statement, the companies said the game would be released "this summer," but didn't give a specific date.
The original version of Doom was one of the best-selling video games of all time and influenced dozens of other first-person shooter games. Doom III retells the premise of the original game: A space marine on Mars has to fight the hordes of hell unleashed by a science experiment gone wrong.
- - -
Game symphony: Nearly 1,300 fans of the video game Final Fantasy filled the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Monday night for the first American concert of the game series' music.
For one night, series composer Nobuo Uematsu, whose brilliant soundtracks are credited as being the heart and soul of Final Fantasy, was a rock star. As he entered the auditorium, he was recognized immediately and the audience gave him a two-minute standing ovation before the show even got under way.
The performance featured at least one tune from every Final Fantasy game since the original 1987 title, which helped define the console role-playing genre. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya and accompanied by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, handled the classic tunes and new compositions from Final Fantasy XI Online and the upcoming DVD movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children with grace and beauty.
At a press conference following the event, Uematsu expressed his gratitude to his American fans for making the event possible. He also said he was amazed at how music can so effortlessly cross cultural and language boundaries. The fans in attendance were bursting with questions about Uematsu's rock band, The Black Mages. If concert promoters were listening, perhaps we'll see them live next year.
-- Daniel Terdiman and Chris Kohler contributed to this report.
Info Source