Archive for April, 2006:
Half Life 2 Episode 1 preloads next week
If the recent Steam update news, Valve said that preloading of Episode 1 starts next week, and will be avalible to play June 1st. They also, surprisingly, said that Episode 1 was the best singleplayer game they have made yet.
“With Episode One, we really feel like we’ve produced our best single player game to date, and we’re excited for people to be able to play it.”
So there you go. 1 month left.
Xbox360 will blog for you
Xbxo 360 voice is a neat program that posts your current gaming progress to a blog. What you’ve played, music you listened to and so on. Check it out here. Or check out Major Nelsons blog too see it in action.
*UPDATE: Seems that it doesn’t record anything but the usual XML feed from Microsoft. Thanks Trapper.
PSP tips and tricks
Wondered if you’re getting the most out of your PSP? Bruce Beh writes in his blog how to watch movies, stream mp3’s and even play games of your memory stick on your PSP. Read on here
Wii is fake, real name to be announced at E3?
Koraku brings a very interesting feature, where they talk to a branding company about the “Wii” name Nintendo set for their next console. The branding people are convinced that it’s all a trick the Big N is pulling on us. One of the quotes from the Kotaku post;
“…it’s not possible to engineer a worse name for this product.”
Read on here and see if we’re all being Punk’d by Nintendo.
2 minute Halo 3 video at E3?
IGN is reporting that Microsoft owned Bungie Studios will present a 2 minute video of Halo 3 at E3. Microsoft didn’t comment on the rumor, but what has Microsoft to show off at E3? Not much, really.
Battlefield 2 vs. Nintendo
Funny video of Battlefield 2 played the Nintendo (1985) way.
View it here
New Hitman Blood Money screenshots
Our favourite assasin is returning soon on the PC and Xbox360 and Worthplaying.com has got their hands on a series of new screenshots from the game. View them here.
Xbox360 3.2 million units sold
Microsoft’s talked about the Xbox360 at their Q3 earnings conference. They released some stats;
- 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles shipped, bringing sales to date to 3.2 million consoles with 1.8 million in North America, 1.1 million in Europe and 300,000 in the rest of the world.
- Despite a relatively small installed base, three of the top 10 selling video games in the US in March were for the Xbox 360 platform.
- Attach rates on the Xbox Live service remain strong, with more than half of all Xbox 360 consoles sold connected to the service either via Silver or Gold tier memberships.
- Still on track for 5-5.5 million by end of Fiscal Year (June)
Nintendo Wii Intro
[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/v/5BrcRn9ECkw"][/gv]
From nintendo.com
Revolution renamed!
“Nintendo Wii” is the console formerly knows as “The Revolution”, Nintendo announced on their website today. “Wii”, as in “we”, focusing on everyone, not just the hardcore gamer, and of course “we” as in “I’ll own your ass in multiplayer”. We.
What do you think of the new name? Does it stand out?
From Nintendo: “So that’s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because it’s really not about you or me. It’s about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.”
Pretty decent punchline if you ask Mii.
Prey for July
2K Games are saying that their futuristic shooter Prey will be out July 10th on PC and Xbox360. The game has been in development for a long time and uses a modified version of the Quake 3 engine in a similar way Quake 4 (the game) did. Visit the official Prey site here
Revolution has 2 motion sensors?
According to AMN, the revolution add on controller (with the analog stick), also called the “nunchaku” will feature some sort of accelerometer to detect motion and force. As cool as this sounds, it highly unlikely becuase the last thing you want to do with the Revolution is to make it too complicated for everyone to just pick up and play. More »
Valve supports Xbox360
EuroGamer is reporting that Valve is optimizing its Source engine for the Xbox360. No title is mentioned, but Valve states that they are developing for the Xbox360, despite Half Life 2’s low sales on the original Xbox. How much can they push out of the Source engine, now that Unreal 3 powered games are just around the corner?
Bill wants Massive Incorporated
Over the last few months industry analysts are talking more and more about in game advertising and how it’s gonna be a Billion dollar business in the next few years.
Remember the Subway ads in Counter-Strike? Massive Incorporated was behind those and now it seems that Microsoft is interested in buying the firm (we don’t if it’s Bill’s personal wish).
It is said that the buy-out might cost MS anywhere from $200 to $400 million.
EA can’t handle “The Revolution”
In a recent interview, EA mangager Neil Young says that they face a number of challenges when it comes to developing for the Revolution;
“One of the challenges for the Revolution is that it’s not HD. If you think about RTS games, one element is the control scheme, but the other is the distance from the TV screen when you’re playing a console game versus a PC game.”
He does have a point, RTS games look way better in HD and you can fit more “stuff” and details on the screen with the Xbox360. He continues;
“So I think there are some questions there, and the other issue is performance. The hardware performance is sort of current gen plus, versus the 10x or 20x multiple that you get on next-gen. I mean, EA is building stuff for it, but I kind of prefer the DS. It makes the most sense to me.”
Apperantly Revolutin makes less sense than the DS, but developers said the same thing when the N64 launched with the analog control stick. “Who the heck wants that?”