• Home
• Archives
• About
• Send news tips

Search:

• All news
• PC
• PlayStation 3
• Xbox 360
• Wii
• DS
• PSP
• Gear
• Featured stories

Subscribe to Newsfeed

Crytek Recommends Upgrading To Vista ASAP

Crytek boss Cevat Yerli spoke to FiringSquad about, you guessed right, Crysis. They talk about the technical aspect of the game, graphics, AI, phyics, and of course, DirectX 10. Yerli pointed out that DX10 not only generates better particle effects and visual quality, it also runs faster than DX9. He mentioned that while it didn’t add anything in particular concerning gameplay, it could add an advantage to DX10 users in the PvP multiplayer part of the game.

Both versions of the game play are exactly the same though, while in Multiplayer we are evaluating technologies that may benefit gameplay in DX10 to finally enrich that PvP experience to a new level.

He added: “Given the host of improvements Windows Vista offers for gamers though, we would recommend upgrading as soon as possible”. With no games today supporting DX10, no affordable hardware, and Crysis being at least six months away, there aren’t many reasons to go out and spend a few hundred bucks on Vista anytime soon.

Updated Cell CPU In Production

According to PlayStation Universe, Sony has started manufacturing the Cell processor using 65 nm SOI technology. The PS3s on the market today have a 90 nm Cell chip, while the new 65 nm will not only be cheaper to manufacture, it will also be cooler and require less power. This could result in cheaper PS3, but considering that Sony is already losing a load of money on every PS3 they sell, it’s highly unlikely that consumers will see a price cut this year. The Cell is also used in IBM’s cluster servers and in various products from Toshiba.

GRAW 2 Singleplayer Demo Available Now

Ubisoft has just released the singleplayer demo of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, which lets you play the full 2nd mission of the campaign, consisting of 12 levels, alongside 14 multiplayer maps and 6 co-op maps. You play as Scott Mitchell, continuing where GRAW 1 ended, and will be fighting the Mexican rebels both in and outside of the city. You can download the demo now (it’s just over 500 MB), while the full game will be released on March 9, 2007.

PS3 Causes Sony Profit Drop

Sony just announced its Q4 2006 profits, which dropped by 5.3% compared to 2005. The games divion lost $441 million in the last quarter alone, mostly due to the costly PS3 manufacturing process. Sony is selling the PS3 console at a big loss, estimated production cost is over $900. But it’s not all bad news, as Sony’s other businesses did quite well to compensate for the loss. Their HDTVs and digital cameras, as well as successful movies like Casino Royale 007, contributed to an overall Q4 profit of $1.3 billion. This is significantly higher than Nintendo’s record profits of $991 million for all of 2006. Analysts are still doubting the PS3 becasue of the weak start, resulting in Sony’s stock taking a modest hit on the Japanese market today.

Read (NY Times)

SiN Episodes Officially On Hold

After Ritual Entertainment was acquired by Mumbo Jumbo, the future of SiN Episodes was unclear. Today the series have officially been put on hold, as the first episode, Emergence, simply didn’t sell enough copies to finance a sequel. Ritual co-founder Richard Gray said:

“The first episode did well, but not good enough to completely self-fund the second episode. We did continue with Episode 2, but we had to stop a few months ago due to a funding problem.”

Last week Mumbo Jumbo CEO Mark Cottom said that both Ritual and Mumbo Jumbo would focus on causal games, but didn’t say whether SiN was completely canned or not. Certainly at this point, it appears that SiN Episodes is no more, as the whole concept of episodic content is looking to fail (except Valve’s own HL2 Episodes, naturally). Gray did add that they’re working on casual games for both the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, so we’ll certainly see Ritual again.

Read (Ritualistic)

Vista Goes On Sale

Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista has officially and finally, launched. It took them around 5 years, 6 billion dollars and numerous delays, but it’s finally here. Too bad gamers can’t expect much from it now, as there are no games supporting DirectX 10 yet. Company of Heroes will be the first game to support DX 10 with a patch, while Crysis, the most anticipated DX 10 title, is still at least 6 months away. In the future, Microsoft’s Live Anywhere service will make it possible to connect to Xbox Live using Vista, and playing against gamers on the Xbox 360 network.

As for the operating system, reviewers aren’t impressed, to say the least, as the new OS has been criticized for everything from DRM to licensing issues.

Moving To New Servers

As you undoubtedly have noticed, things aren’t running so smooth around the DigitalBattle headquarters these days. That’s because we’re moving the site to new servers located at a hollowed out volcano on a secret island. Or, we were hoping to. Anyway, we’ll be back very, very soon.

Review Roundup: Europa Universalis 3

While you may not know about the Europa Unversalis games, most likely because of lack of general promotion of the excellent strategy games. Those who tried the previous games found them rather complex with a stiff lurning curve. Europa Unversalis 3 on the other hand, is the easiest to pick up and play, and features more than the other games combined.

GameSpot (87/100) “Europa Universalis III is the best game in the franchise, thanks to such new gameplay elements as espionage and national ideas, yet what makes it even greater is just how easy it is for almost anyone to enjoy. If sweeping strategy games with multiple layers of complex decisions have turned you off before, this is the perfect opportunity to find out what enthusiasts love about them.”

IGN (85/100) “Though it will never have the mass appeal of games like Civilization it certainly fills a niche and feeds those gamers who are looking for a deep and involved historical strategy experience. With that in mind, Paradox has milked the franchise for years now, using it as the basis for a variety of other games that are little more than reskins of the original.”

1UP (90/100) “In anything this complex, someone’s bound to tease out nitpicky balance issues eventually. But off the tarmac and for its breadth, Europa Universalis III feels remarkably well-honed-arguably Paradox’s finest achievement in the form to date.”

Biggest LAN Party Ever

The Dreamhack 2006 Winter LAN Party was the biggest in the world, as they succeeded to attract a reported 10,000 people. Guinness Book Of Records calculated the attendance at 7,752 people and 7,788 computers in the network. However, Dreamhack sold over 10,000 tickets to the event, and estimates that the real number of attendees is well over the 10,000. Check out some more photos of the event here.

Via Digg

Epic’s Mark Rein Supports The PS3

Epic’s Vice President Mark Rein spoke to GameInformer where he gave Sony some credit (as opposed to Valve, Ubisoft and Atari), joining the club of few developers who have praised the machine.

Rein said he didn’t see Sony being in trouble, and wanted people to “give them a break”.

People, just give them a break for crying out loud. People think it’s bad if they can’t ship enough, and then they think it’s bad if they can ship enough. It’s like, which is it? Either they can’t fulfill your order or they can, and they’re both good.

He added that since the PS3 is in stock most places, people should go and just buy some.

Go out and buy your PS3 now. You can get one. That’s miraculous. They sold more PS3s in North America than Microsoft sold Xbox 360s in its same period of time, and they clearly aren’t going to have the shortage problems that Microsoft had.

I wonder what makes him say that. Wait, didn’t Epic sell a bunch of Unreal Engine 3 licenses to Sony last year? Yeah, they did. Go figure.

Homebrew Xbox 360 NES Emulator

A developer with a lot of free time on his hands, has developed a homebrew NES emulator for the Xbox 360 using the XNA framework. However, you need to be a member of the XNA creator’s club and also have a PC running Windows (of course).

“It runs at 60% or 70% of normal speed on the 360, so it’s playable but slow. There’s probably some very easy optimizations and cleanups to be done still”

Although that is good for a “few hours” work, it does beg the question as to why anyone would do this instead of just running the emulator on the PC. It does however serve as an interesting tech demo. You can keep up with development at the Google code page.

Duke Nukem Forever Screenshot

3D Realms president, George Broussard, has posted on Shacknews message boards a screenshot of Duke Nukem Forever to prove that the game actually does exist. Well…the screen is a very tiny image, and it has been noted that this is an in-game shot. If this screen is really in-game, then I guess it is worth waiting for Duke Nukem Forever after all… and I guess we’ll still be waiting for a while. Hopefully it’ll run at a higher resolution than 200×125.

Read (1UP)

Review Roundup: Elebits (Wii)

Konami’s Elebits is probably one of the most underestimated Wii games released, and while it’s not perfect, if offers a lot of fun and addictive gameplay. But since it’s essentially a kids game, it’s too simple and offers little challenge.

GameSpot (75/100) “You’ll come away from Elebits with an interesting mix of reactions. The motion controls are nicely done, and the puzzle nature of the levels can be quite addictive. But as cool as Elebits can be, it’s rarely the game part of it that really stands out. “

IGN (83/100) “Elebits is a great first wave Wii game. Not only does it present some interesting new gameplay mechanics, but it makes full use of the Wii remote to enhance the experience. It’s clear that the title was hatched from the very beginning for Nintendo’s new console and it’s refreshing to encounter a game that could not be done well on any other videogame system.”

GameSpy (60/100) ” Although Elebits offers up plenty of replay options, the game as a whole starts to feel repetitive fairly quickly. After the first hour or so of lift, shoot, capture — lather, rinse, and repeat — the game starts to feel a little stale. There’s just not enough substance to really hold onto the player’s attention for an extended period of time. Still, in short bursts of play, the game manages to remain fairly entertaining.”

Eurogamer (60/100) “Elebits is a fairly competent FPS tidy-’em-up with a great edit mode, but that’s all.”

Another Stunning Crysis Video

Do we have to remind you again that this game will absolutely blow everyone away? Actually, it already does, despite being months from release.

Nintendo Reveals Q1 DS Lineup

Nintendo has revealed the strong lineup of games for the first quarter of 2007. Most noticeable are the two first-party titles, Diddy Kong Racing DS and Wario: Master of Disguise. The DS is also showing considerable third party support at the moment, but that’s not surprising at all.

January

• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (Nintendo)
• Arthur & the Invisibles (Atari)
• Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All (Capcom)
• Fossil League DTC (D3)

February

• Diddy Kong Racing DS (Nintendo)
• Lunar Knights (Konami)
• F24 Stealth Fighter (Majesco)
• Disney’s Kim Possible: Global Gemini (Buena Vista)
• Meteos: Disney Magic (Buena Vista)
• Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (Konami)
• Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja (Atlus)

March

• Wario: Master of Disguise (Nintendo)
• Custom Robo Arena (Nintendo)
• Disney’s Herbie: Rescue Rally (Buena Vista)
• Disney’s Meet the Robinsons (Buena Vista)
• Spectrobes (Buena Vista)
• Steel Horizon (Konami)
• Cake Mania (Majesco)
• Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (D3)
• TMNT (Ubisoft)

Unreal Tournament 3 Trailer

The first trailer of the recently announced Unreal Tournament 3 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game is looking really good, perhaps the best use of the UE3 engine yet (yes, better than Gears of War).

Ritual Acquired, SiN Episodes In Doubt

Ritual Entertainment was recently acquired by Mumbo Jumbo, who’s CEO, Mark Cottam, ironically used to be the CEO of Ritual. He stated that Ritual will, together with Mumbo Jumbo, focus on casual games, and not first person shooters like SiN Episodes. He said:

“The idea of acquiring Ritual was to have them strengthen our development in the casual genre and not to have them involved at all in the action style games. If there’s an opportunity to have them do something on the SiN Episodes, we would look at that, but that will not be the focus of the company.”

SiN Episodes: Emergency (read our review here) was released last summer as the first episode of many (so they promised), but the two-hour singleplayer campaign and no multiplayer didn’t even justify its original $20 price tag (the game currently costs $10 on Steam). Maybe the ending of SiN was a decent decision, as the game didn’t sell well either.

Square Enix Licenses Unreal Engine 3

As everyone else, Square Enix too is impressed by the Unreal Engine 3, so much that they’re licensing it for their future projects. While Final Fantasy XIII is built using their own, and equally impressive White Engine, the licensing of UE3 might hint that Square Enix is moving towards multi-platform titles, since the UE3 is optimized for all next-gen (we’re still using that term?) platforms.

Another Bummer By Sony

A recent image on Sony’s PSP website, depicting a download of a video clip, advertising the PS3 game Gran Turismo HD, has turned out not to be Gran Turismo at all. In fact the screenshot is actually quite a prominent picture from their competitor’s Project Gotham Racing 3. Someone at Sony clearly got muddled when finding a screenshot. The error has since been rectified, but thanks to the Internet, someone has grabbed a screen.

Read (Kotaku)

360 Price Deterioration Starting In The UK?

With major price cuts happening in Tesco’s on Xbox 360 games, it appears to many consumers that the value of 360 games is already deteriorating. From the original RRP of 50 GBP, the games Final Fantasy XI and Ubisoft’s King Kong have now gone down to 15.97 GBP. As well as Tomb Raider,Hitman, Gun and X-Men, now available for 17.97 GBP. The game page shows that this applies to other 360 titles as well, with some real bargains to be found (for a game site).

Deterioration of title quality is always seen, yet these sorts of price cuts happening around Britain bring fears that the value of Xbox 360 games might be seen as low in consumer’s eyes.

Read (MVC)

Next Page »

Latest Headlines

• First Gears of War 2 Gameplay Footage
• Guitar Hero 4 At the Drive-In
• Mass Effect, Spore "Draconian" Online Check Removed (Partially)
• EA Gets $1B More for Take-Two Purchase
• Sonic Youth, Clash, Blondie in Rock Band
• Call of Duty 5 Announced
• No Tony Hawk Game This Year
• Burnout Paradise on PC, First Screenshots
• Bizarre: No PGR4 DLC From Us
• Codemasters Gets F1 License, Developing Multiplatform Game
• Battlefield: Bad Company Demo on June 5
• Bioshock Coming To Big Screen
• Everyday Shooter on Steam
• Vampire Rain Drizzling on PS3
• Activision Reveals Massive Profit
• Party Crashers on Wii
• Wrestlemania Game Announced
• The Mummy Game Announced
• THQ Gets Master Mind
• Coming Tonight: Gears Of War 2

All content Copyright © 2007 DigitalBattle | Privacy Policy | Contact | Log in