Games Toaster

REVIEW: Iron Man

Developer: Artificial Mind and Movement | Publisher: SEGA | Format: Wii

Reviewer: Craig Jay Gallagher There exists a rather unfortunate trend where games based upon films are generally poor. Oft times they are cheap cash in rushed out to coincide with the films release. In recent years this rule has been broke a number of times, most significantly by Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay which remains to this day the finest FPS on any platform as well as being based upon a film. Iron Man which is currently doing extremely well in cinemas is also out across all gaming platforms. While a long way from the quality of Riddick it's still a step above many tie in games.

Havok in court over brand firm dispute

Telekinesys Research Limited, the Dublin-based games middleware firm known as Havok, is being sued by a design agency that helped created their brand.

Intel buys Dublin games firm Havok

Dublin games middleware company Havok is to be taken over by chip manufacturer Intel.

The deal will see the company that grew out of Trinity College become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel.

Havok’s software tools have been used on games such as BioShock, Harry Potter, Half Life 2, MotorStorm, and Second Life, and upcoming titles such as Halo 3, Alan Wake, and Indiana Jones (pictured above).

FULL STORY: Dublin gaming firm snapped up by Intel

Havok update from Dublin games firm

Dublin-based Havok have released an update to their physics and animation tools for PlayStation 3, Xbox360, and Nintendo Wii.

‘Havok 4.5’ has been optimized for the PlayStation 3, Sony’s new console soon to be launched in Ireland.

“We made sure that we met our customers’ demand for a PS3 optimized version of Havok as soon as possible” commented David O’Meara, Havok CEO. “Havok 4.5’s ability to allow developers to massively scale game content will make it possible to develop ever more compelling, realistic and complex worlds that harness the full power of new generation architectures”.

After an agreement with Sony in 2005, Havok Physics middleware comes with PS3 ‘Software Development Kit’ for games developers working on the console.

The Dublin company’s software was used on last year’s high profile games such as Oblivion, F.E.A.R., Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, and Superman Returns, and PS3 titles such as MotorStorm (pictured above), Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, and Tony Hawk's Project 8.

Havok warns of lack of graduates as high numbers fail science and maths in Leaving

A representative of Havok, the Irish games middleware company, has been on RTE Radio One’s Liveline saying that Ireland is no longer turning out high numbers of the computer graduates that is needed. He was saying that while they would like to hire locally, they had to hire people in from abroad.

Havok’s spokesperson also highlighted that while their company may be seen as fun orientated because of computer games their job placements are mostly heavy on math.   

This comes as the same day of the Leaving Cert results with high failure numbers in science and maths, and with 4,000 students failing ordinary level mathematics. Mary Hanafin, the Minister for Education, asked students who did well in the subjects to look at doing relevant third-level courses.