Posts Tagged ‘HD’
Halo 3: ODST won’t feature 720p resolution
In an age where HD reigns supreme along comes Bungie to let everyone know that Halo 3: ODST will not feature a 720p resolution. In fact, it will run at the same resolution that Halo 3 did, 1152×640.
Now, you can’t really get on Bungie’s case about this as ODST is essentially just an add-on for Halo 3 which means it’s running on the exact same engine. But for those of you who think the improved graphics of the ODST mean enhanced technology, think again.
Bungie elaborates on the subject:
“Everything that existed in Halo 3’s engine was there from the beginning. So the graphical differences that you’re seeing in ODST is really testament to the artists, because they were able to just take the tools that we had from the beginning, and just make awesome looking stuff.”
Halo 3: ODST will hit store shelves exclusivly for the Xbox 360 on September 22nd, 2009.
Read (GamesWire)
Microsoft bringing HD ads to Xbox Live
Have you ever been looking at advertisements and gawked at their poor quality, wishing they would be portrayed in HD? No? Me neither. But for those of you who have your days of gawking are numbered.
Microsoft advertising exec Sean Alexander was recently caught speaking about Microsoft’s Flash alternative, Silverlight, and it’s amazing features. Of course, he took the time to tell everyone that Silverlight will give advertisers to ability to display full HD ads pretty much anywhere they want, including Xbox Live.
Now, the feature won’t be added to the Xbox 360 for some time now with Joystiq predicting it will be included with the next major Dashboard update reportedly hitting this fall.
Overlord II Announces Release Date
For the people who have heard of the coming of Overlord 2, you can mark your calendars now. Codemasters is bringing back hoardes of minions with the release of Overlord II on June 23 in North American for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, a date much sooner than anyone had anticipated.
Overlord II wraps itself around a brand new story, more combat options and a whole new breed of minions out to capture blood and laughs. No word on an improved camera which plagued the original, but an on-screen map has been added as detailed in one of the new screens below.
(Source) The HD Room
Envizions EVO Smart Console
There is a new game console set to hit the market and it goes by the name of EVO Smart Console. The EVO Smart Console will be powered by an AMD Athlon 2.4GHz processor, and will be accompanied by a Fedora-based Linux distro. The open-source console will give you game play, Internet access, VoIP communications and HD video playback all in one box.
It should work with Envizions “cloud” computing service, where users can pick up Amiga-based games and a video on demand service where you can choose from over 10,000 titles. The beta shipment for developers will begins next week with approximately 100 units. More systems will be released later.
Specs:
- AMD Athlon 64×2 5600 2.4GHz processor
- ATI HD 3200 graphics processor
- 2GB DDR2 RAM
- Supports H.264 VC1
- MPEG2 video codecs
- DVI and HDMI connectivity
- 120GB hard drive
- CD/DVD ROM
- Integrated biometric scanner
You can pre-order the EVO Smart console for $380.
Blu-ray Xbox Never Going To Happen
After it turned out Microsoft had backed the wrong high-definition horse, people began speculating how long it would be before the Xbox 360 would get Blu-ray capabilities, be it a new SKU with a built-in drive or more likely an external drive similar to the HD-DVD add-on. Microsoft has continually denied any rumors that they plan on using Blu-ray for the Xbox 360. Robbie Bach gave an interview to Todd Bishop of FlashTech at Microsoft’s booth at the CES. Bach is the president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division and in the interview he explained the reasons why we won’t see a Blu-ray player for this generation of Xboxes.
Bach explained that first and foremost there is very little demand for a Blu-ray player: “when you ask people the list of things they want to see us spending time creating in Xbox, Blu-ray is way, way down on the list.” He also points out that a Blu-ray drive would be of no use for developers. Even though a Blu-ray disc would greatly expand the storage capacity that Xbox games have, allowing for higher quality visuals, more intricate textures and more content in general, it would severely limit the number of people purchasing these games.
There are twenty-eight million Xboxes that have already been purchased or shipped, none of which currently have the capacity to utilized Blu-ray technology. Even if Microsoft did release an external drive, there would be no guarantee that people would purchase it, and developers would be hesitant to create Blu-ray Xbox games.
While Microsoft might be sticking to their new ‘digital download’ guns as far as video content goes, by the time the next Xbox comes out it will likely have Blu-ray capabilities, or at least some other comparable technology, if only because DVD storage will be insufficient for the games of the future.
3D Gaming and HD Video Coming to Netbooks?
I bet you’ve desperately tried to play games on your newly acquired netbook. Sometimes you might have even managed to make some older games run right? What if NVIDIA or ATI introduced a graphic card in those tiny netbooks? Would you buy netbooks as a gaming device only?
NVIDIA has announced plans to release a mobile GPU, the 9400M to work together with that Intel Atom processors to deliver 3D gaming and HD video to netbooks. The 9400M will get you 1080p video decoding, dual-link DVI out, DirectX 10 graphics, CUDA and OpenGL.
The competition is also going to work out some sort of a solution for netbooks. AMD will roll its Yukon ultramobile platform and it will pair it with a mobile Radeon GPU from ATI.
And let’s not forget about VIA. VIA announced its Trinity platform which will get you a Via Nano processor, the VX800 northbridge and an S3 GPU. It will support too HD videos and DirectX 10 gaming.
It all sounds good, but I don’t see myself playing games on my netbook. How about you?
via Arstechnica
What Is “Next Gen”?
Ask any game developer what sort of feature that the title in question includes, chances are the first thing they mention is the “next gen” graphics, or physics, etc; Of course, it has not taken long for people to start to ask whether features can be next gen or not. After all, all three platforms have been out for over a year. Speaking of which, what about the Wii? Is it truly a “new gen” console? What is “next gen”? What is “new gen”? These questions and more will be answered after the jump.