If you think back hard enough, Falling Leaf Systems might ring a bell. It was the company of coders (read: one 19-year old kid) working hard to get programs of various operating systems working in other operating systems. For us, Falling Leaf's project of interest was the "Alky Compatibility Libraries", designed to permit DirectX 10 "only" games to run on Windows XP.

Unfortunately, Falling Leaf has decided to throw in the towel, sink, bath, ferret and source code. According to the latest post on the Alky blog by "CEO" Cody Brocious, he just wasn't able to get the whole compatibility schmoozle to click. Whether this was due to it simply being impossible or too much for one man, we'll never know.

Or maybe we will. As a parting gift, Falling Leaf has released the source code free, and is available to anyone with the balls to give it another go.

Even though it failed at its ultimate objective, Falling Leaf did manage to get the PC versions of Halo 2 and Shadowrun working perfectly on Windows XP, despite their Vista requirement. So some good did come of the affair.

It is with great sadness... [Alky Project via LinuxGames]

Looking back at my gaming stats of 2007, I logged a shameless amount of hours playing Shadowrun. I always liked the game, even if the final product lacked the polish or additional content a lot of people were looking for. Now, a few months after FASA's closing, the game will end its forum support as well.

If you frequented the official Shadowrun forums, they are planning a new place where people can meet in an off-Microsoft type property. Honestly, given that most games have digressed to a chaotic free-for-all (with a fair share of team killing to boot), and troll katana has become absurdly unbalanced, it pains me to say that you might be better off just saying bye for good.

Announcement: Forums Closing Soon [via n4g]

Those worried about the fate of Shadowrun, MechWarrior, and Crimson Skies following the closing of FASA Studios need not worry at all; the licenses for those properties have been securely in the hands of FASA, WizKids (HeroClix), and 42 Entertainment (ilovebees) founder Jordan Weisman. The announcement was made on the website of Weisman's latest venture, Smith & Tinker Inc. back in mid-October. The company's plans for the properties is still up in the air.

We're not quite ready to announce our plans for each property, but please be assured that our goal is to surprise and delight old fans, while welcoming new fans to these fantastic worlds.

Kotaku's own one-time guest editor Simon Carless of Gamasutra speculates that Jordan's fascination with transmedia and job postings on the website looking for people with Web 2.0 and online game expertise could point towards an MMO. A Shadowrun MMO? A MechWarrior MMO? Just typing the words gets me far more excited than I am allowed to reveal to you gentle, innocent readers.

Smith & Tinker's License Procurement Announcement [Smith & Tinker via Gamasutra]

The rumours were true. Shadowrun developer FASA Studio has indeed closed its doors with studio manager Mitch Gitelman confirming the news on the official Shadowrun community forums today. According to Gitelman, today was the last official day of work for employees still at FASA, with many former FASA team members moving on to other positions at Microsoft Game Studios.

Rumours about the studio's closure surfaced in March of this year, well before Shadowrun shipped, when a former FASA worker wrote of an employee exodus and that decision makers would "cut the tumour that is FASA Studio from the body of Microsoft."

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To commemorate Shadowrun somehow making it to into the top five in Xbox 360 game sales last week, Doc Adams and Lono over at Sarcastic Gamer lovingly crafted a song parody that sums up my feelings about the RPG-based FPS quite nicely. It's called "Bad Game"

"Bad Game turned out to be one of our favourite projects so far," said Sarcastic Gamer's Creative Director, Jeromy "Doc" Adams. "We got to use a cartoon voice for this song, because it seemed to fit the subject... Well, that and none of us could sing as high as Daniel Powter."

Tell me about it. "Bad Day" kicks my ass in Singstar every freaking time, and I get awesome scores at "Skater Boi" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". Go figure. Sarcastic Gamer is also holding a contest for the best music video for the song, with the winner receiving either a copy of Shadowrun or a box of granola bars. "Given the nature of the game, our money's on Nature Valley."

Bad Game: The Shadowrun Song [Sarcastic Gamer]

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And so the Shadowrun beta continues well into the retail release, as details of Title Update #3 are posted at the Official Shadowrun Community Forum. The update, which should be ready sometime this weekend, addresses various balance issues, adds new functionality to multiplayer game setup, improves overall network reliability and fixes 'numerous' crashes, exploits, and glitches. IF these updates keep up, one day the game might be worth the $US60 I paid for it! Woot! Hit the jump for the full update details.

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