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Microsoft Provokes Xbox360 Hackers

Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, the MIT graduate who cracked the original Xbox in 2001, and later wrote a book about it, is saying that Microsoft provokes hackers when they say “There are going to be levels of security in this box that the hacker community has never seen before.” According to Huang, that’s provocative, and a challenge. A few months ago Dutch hacker “The Specialist” hacked the Xbox360 console so it would play copied games.

Via Next Generation

Iwata Laughed At The PS3 Controller

We were all caught off-hand by Sony’s blatant rip-off innovative controller when showcased at this year’s E3. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata talks about what he thought of when he saw what Sony was doing:

“Actually before they made the announcement we already anticipated that they might do that, so I had to laugh. Even though I was laughing, it was with a grim face, I should add,” Iwata told the Seattle Times. “Having said that, please know that putting the motion-sensor technology into the classic-style controller is one thing. Putting the motion-sensor technology into the Wii remote as well as the ‘nunchuck’ controller, where you can use both hands freely and independently, this is quite another thing.”

Iwata also commented on the PlayStation 3 price, saying what we’ve all been saying, it’s too expensive:

“That’s not something I should comment on as a corporate president. But as one single person, a potential customer for the PS3, I think it’s a bit expensive. But it depends on how the general public is going to see it. So far, within two days now, a majority of people who have commented on the price point are saying the same thing: It’s expensive.”

I still think Iwata was a bit worried, if Sony managed to make a better motion sensing ability, and price the PS3 competitively, the Wii would definitely have a tough time. But for now, all things are looking in Nintendo’s favor. Recent polls indicate that over 80% of Japanese gamers would buy a Wii instead of a PS3.

Via SPOnG (Thanks, Tim)

New Zelda: Twilight Princes Screens

Latest issue of Danish game magazine GameReactor (which is free in Scandinavia by the way) features some new screenshots of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Aussie-Nintendo has all the scans here.

Xbox360 Camera Coming This September

Xbox Live will soon feature video chat via the new Xbox Live Vision Cam (XLV), available in stores September 19th. It will also allow the users to personalize with their gamertag picture and send photos to each other. The price hasn’t been specified yet, but we assume it’ll be priced as a standard Xbox360 controller.

PS3 Online At Launch

Sony counts on having their online functionality available at day one, including downloadable content, at the PlayStation 3 launch. The recently had a job listing looking for programmers to develop “…an unannounced downloadable title for the PlayStation 3 launch in November.” Perhaps some sort of Live Arcade style games?

Via SPOnG

Xbox To Go Portable in 2007/08

Analysts from The Diffusion Group are predicting that Microsoft will enter the portable gaming market by the end of 2007, with a portable Xbox game system/media player. The portable market is expected to reach $3 Billion annually by 2008, with only Nintendo and Sony playing along. They think that would seem unrealistic if Microsoft didn’t try and get a cut from that pie. But would it make sense for Microsoft to do that? The Xbox and Xbox360 have lost Billions, and to try and fight Nintendo (and Sony for that matter) in the handheld market could cost them Billions as well. The DS outsells the Xbox360 almost everywhere now, even the PS2, PSP, GameCube and GameBoy Micro outsold Xbox360 in Japan the recent months.

Console Size

Size and comaprison of today’s consoles, including PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. The Wii is really small, about the size of a discman. Amazing.

Via Aeropause

Nintendo Not Interested In Wii.com

According to PC Magazine, Nintendo doesn’t own the domain “wii.com”, and they have no plans of buying it from Williamette Industries, who had the domain since 1994. Wii.com isn’t in use because Williamette Industries prefer Weyerhaeuser.com. A Nintendo spokesperson said “to my understanding we are not planning on using that website”. Which seems a bit arrogant, since xbox.com and playstation.com are used by the competitors. The (current) official Wii site is wii.nintendo.com.

Nintendo DS Lite Rumblepack

Nintendo has launched a rumblepack specifically for the DS Lite, meaning there aren’t any bits an pieces sticking out like on the regular DS. The DS Lite rumblepack costs the same as the old one, $15 (or 1,650 Yen). Only avalible in Japan at the moment, but we expect it to hit the U.S. and European stores shortly. Games supporting the rumble feature at the moment;

Metroid Prime Hunters
Magnetica (Shunkan Puzz Loop)
Naruto RPG 2: Chidori versus Rasengan
Mario & Luigi: Partners in TimeMetroid Prime Pinball

Via Siliconera (Thanks, Jon)

Sony Embarrassment #14

[gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xiEOBEQlzZc”][/gv]

Featuring:

1. Riiiiiiidge Racer!
2. Now That’s What I Call A Duck!
3. Realtime, ehm, Weaponschange. Ehm.
4. And we’re certainly not interested in gimmicks.

Seriously, we can’t stop making fun of Sony. We try, but it’s like those good old Clinton jokes. Ehm.

Halo 2 Won’t Use “Live Anywhere”?

Microsoft’s big surprise at this year’s E3 was Live Anywhere cross platform gaming, where you basically connect your Vista PC with the Xbox360, you can play on a PC vs. someone playing on a Xbox360. Microsoft’s own Vista launch title, Halo2, apparently won’t be using any of those features, according to an article at 1UP.com. They claim it is simply too much work for Bungie, the developer, to do Halo 2 and Halo 3 at the same time.

But would it make sense for Microsoft to launch Live Anywhere without officially supporting it themselves? Even if it does take extra manpower, I still think there will be at least some Live Anywhere Halo 2 content.

Wii Listed At $160

Japanese online retailer PC-Success had listed the Nintendo Wii at 18,000 Yen, or US$160. Moments later the product was taken down, but some one captured a screenshot of the price. $160 seems “too” low even for Nintendo, so this is probably an error from PC-Success.

Cell CPU: More Than Just Gaming

Researchers at US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have played around with the Cell processor, in order to find out if it’s any good for scientific purposes. The Cell CPU, made by IBM, Sony and Toshiba is also suitable for scientific research, mainly because of its great power. Currently only used to power the PlayStation 3, and in the future, IBM’s high-end servers. The Cell version used in the PS3 sports 8 cores running at 3.2 GHz, far more powerful than todays desktop CPUs.

Full article here (TheInquirer.net)

Wii Sports Faces Confirmed + More

Speaking to MTV, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed the rumors about the possibility of having your own face as a character in Wii Sports, just like Miyamoto, Iwata, and Reggie Fils-Aime during the E3 press conference. Shiggy said:

“Wii Sports” series features these little models which you can put your own faces on … and then you may start to see those characters, with faces you’ve created, appearing in different games on the Wii system.”

How this is done is still unclear, and what other games is Miyamoto talking about? It definitley sounds interesting.

Read the MTV interview here.

Guild Wars: 1,000 Accounts Banned

Seems that WoW isn’t the only MMORPG with cheating problems. GuildWars.com reports that over 1,000 accounts have been banned for cheating violations, namely using bots to do various tasks.

In our continuing efforts to preserve a solid game economy and to support the legitimate GuildWars player, we have been actively pursuing those who use “bots” in Guild Wars. In the last week, we have closed more than one thousand accounts of those using third-party programs, and we will continue to take similar action in the future.

Halo Movie Delayed?

A movie based on Bungie’s Halo game was originally scheduled for a Summer 2007 release, but now IMDb lists the movie with a “sometime 2008″ release date. The movie, still without a director, is produced by Peter Jackson and his WingNut Films production company. Microsoft paid Alex Garland (28 Days Later) $1 Million dollars to write the screenplay, and then sold it to universal for $10 Million.

Halo IMDb site

Koreans Are Too Addicted

South Korea probably has the most extreme gamer culture in the world, where 2.4% of the population aged 9-34 are addicted to videogames. South Korea also has the the biggest professional league in the world, and of course dedicated TV channels showing nothing but videogames.

“I guess I knew I was becoming addicted, but I couldn’t stop myself, I stopped changing my clothes. I didn’t go out. And I began to see myself as the character in my games.”

says Kim, recalled from a clinic where he was undergoing counseling. In 2005, 10 teenagers died from playing video games for a long period of time without a break. In Taegu, South Korea, a 28-year-old man died after playing an online game for over 50 hours without a break.

Seems like we westerners have a lot of catching up to do.

Read more here. (Washington Post)

PlayStation 3 Still Too Big

Rumors are going around that Sony is having trouble fitting the PS3 hardware into its smooth, curvy box. Leaked images of the dev kit show the size is just about a normal computer case. How Sony will fit that in the final case is unknown, one idea suggests further cutbacks on features like backwards capability. Like we didn’t have enough cutbacks from Sony since E3.

Hitman Blood Money Patch

Earlier today Ubisoft released a patch for the new Hitman game, fixing a few bugs, most importantly performance improvement on low-end machines and crashes to desktop.

- Fix to the low performance problems that have been experienced on some hardware configurations.
- After extended play sessions game could crash to desktop when transitioning between levels.
- Items could become stuck in mid-air if game was saved and then loaded directly after a throwing action.
- Hitman Logo on Main Menu could disappear at 1280×720 resolution.
- Screen borders on cutscenes could be displayed badly at certain screen resolutions.
- Game could crash if menu is invoked on death sequence after a 3 headshot revival has been performed.
- Game could crash if when loading and saving within certain locations after making changes to render options.
- Fix to blurring of Weapon Upgrade Icons when running at LOW in render options.
- Fix for very occasional graphics corruption when using fibre-wire in 1st person and moving camera very quickly.
- Fix for slightly oversized Red dot scope zoom.

You can get the patch here (Mentalgamers).

Official site: www.hitmanbloodmoney.com

PSP Tilt Sensor

[gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/jTm-EbnlCk0″][/gv]

Some guy managed to build a custom tilt sensor for his PSP, just like the one used inside the PlayStation 3 controllers.Watch him playing Mercury with the device.

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