2k

Hitting the very definition of a cult hit square on the head, few gamers have heard of the 2002 game Mafia, developed by a small group of Czech programmers and originally released on the Xbox and for PC -- but those that do recall it regularly sing its praises as a superior open-world action/adventure.

Built on essentially the same model as Grand Theft Auto, the game transported its crime family story back to the 1930s, and evoked the Maio Puzo Godfather vibe much better than the stodgy, by the numbers, officially licensed Godfather games did later.

For this long-in-the-making … Read more

Way to up the ante for the rest of us, game designers.

When indie game developers quit their day jobs, the result is apparently good for all of us. Jarrad Farbs, a maker of quirky browser games like ROM CHECK FAIL and Polychromatic Funk Monkey, left 2K Games Australia to pursue his own free-spirited game interests full-time. But before he did, he left an animated calling card that's part Super Mario Bros., part nose-thumbing, and all heart.

Following Mario through an above-ground and sublevel and into one of Farb's own retrofunky titles, he gets to scream "I … Read more

How do you follow up one of the most critically acclaimed video games in recent memory? 2K Games is facing that very challenge with its sequel to the 2007 hit BioShock. We recently sat down for an eyes-on preview of the upcoming BioShock 2 from the game's developers.

The original game succeeded by mixing a solid first-person shooter mechanic with a wildly imaginative fictional world, set in the ruined underwater city of Rapture. The art deco design of the 1940's city was a welcome break from the warehouses and space stations most games are set in, and the … Read more

2K Sports is known for its action-filled titles, but next week it will be making its foray into the statistics side of sports. MLB Front Office will be released, starring Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's. CNET News' Daniel Terdiman got a sneak peek and says it's unlike any sports video game he's ever played. He stops by to tell us about it.

Also in today's podcast: Intel's chairman calls it a career, Forbes releases its list of the most wired cities in America, the Facebook/MySpace debate goes on, and we look … Read more

OAKLAND, Calif.--For the countless of devotees of rotisserie and fantasy baseball, there's a whole new game in town.

On Tuesday, 2K Sports will release its MLB Front Office Manager, and for those addicted to the stat-heavy pastime of running fantasy leagues, being a Major League Baseball general manager may never get closer.

The new game--which is unlike any baseball video game I've ever seen--has perhaps the perfect pitchman, Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane. For those not familiar with him, the game probably won't mean much, since as the main subject of Michael Lewis' hit … Read more

A leap-year issue with Microsoft's Zune music player is still leaving many users cold, despite the company's reassurance that all would be well by sometime on New Year's Day.

Postings on Zune message boards Thursday morning, as people tried out Microsoft's recommendations and fellow Zune users' suggestions, ranged from the hopeful...

"The wipe process should only take a minute or two. If it is hanging on this screen, disconnect it from power, let the battery drain, and then reconnect it to start the device again," user Raw Deluxe wrote on Zune Forums.

...to the … Read more

Looks like the Midwest isn't the only thing that's freezing up this holiday season: many people are reporting that their 30GB Zunes are spontaneously going on the fritz as well.

The symptom is being reported widely on discussion boards about Microsoft's music player, including Zune.net, Zune User Community Forums, and ZuneScene. With the problem, people's Zunes reboot but freeze when the startup status bar reaches 100 percent.

Some users reported the problem happened at exactly midnight PST, at the very beginning of the last day of the year. That timing led some wags to call the problem Z2K after the Y2K problem that was widely feared to cripple the computing industry when computer clocks moved from 1999 to 2000.

"It reset itself. I don't know why," said one owner who posted an account of his Zune problem on YouTube after reporting it on the Zune.net forum.

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning, but issued a statement later in the day (see below).

"I hate to say it but I believe this is the end of the road for the Zune and I. Just as I was happy with the last update and things were fine, we get another major meltdown. I was always supportive and had good things to say about my Zune to those that would ask, however this is the nail in the coffin," griped user Redinight on a ZuneScene discussion board. "I can't take it anymore. I can't sit here all the time and wonder what Microsoft does right or wrong anymore, I just want to get up and go listen to my music. Listening to music is about the last thing I do with my Zune. I always have to reinstall, download new firmware, or wait for the slow software to catch up. Now this? I want to throw it away and never look back." … Read more

NOVATO, Calif.--Sports Illustrated magazine called Tim Lincecum "the freak," and for the motion capture specialists at 2K Sports, getting a good computer model of baseball star Tim Lincecum's unique, and violent, pitching motion presented a special challenge.

Last month, Lincecum, a diminutive 24-year-old whom you would never pick out of a lineup as a superstar ballplayer, won the National League Cy Young award, given to the league's best pitcher. The same day, the San Francisco Giant found out that he'd been chosen as the cover athlete for Major League Baseball 2K9, 2K's hit … Read more

NOVATO, Calif.--We're about to see Tim Lincecum, the 2008 National League Cy Young award-winning pitcher, go deep.

"He's going to hit a home run, which is the first time in his life he's ever done that, including Little League," said Johnathan Rivera, an associate producer for 2K Sports, who was standing near the pitcher, explaining what he was about to do.

"Thanks," Lincecum said sarcastically.

The San Francisco Giants pitcher was here, at 2K Sports' motion-capture studio on Tuesday, because he's the cover athlete for the publisher's forthcoming Major League … Read more