Late Night Consoling
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Five PSP Launch Titles Playable Online
[psp]While Nintendo DS owners are still wondering if they could ever play together over an Internet connection, Sony delighted their fans by confirming five of its launch titles will feature an online mode. Connecting with its WiFi capabilities, the three sports titles from 989 Studios, MLB, NHL, and NBA, along with ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails and Twisted Metal: Head-On, will offer multiplayer mayhem. The PSP launches March 24 in the U.S.
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Pre-order Bonus for Unreal Championship 2
[xbox]If you're uber-excited for Unreal Championship 2, then Midway has a surprise for you! Go in and pre-order a copy of the game and you'll instantly receive a free Xbox Live-enabled demo. You'll also receive 3 of 12 available character collector cards. If you missed it, Maarten interviewed Epic Games' president Mike Capps about UC2 just last week.
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New Rayman Titles Official for Nintendo's Portables
[gba] [ds]Ubisoft announced that along with Rayman DS, it's also publishing a Rayman title for the GBA. Both Rayman DS and Rayman: Hoodlum's Revenge will ship sometime March for $29.99. "Rayman is a beloved character and we think it’s great that fans will have two unique Rayman titles to choose from at the same time," said Tony Kee, vice president of marketing, Ubisoft.
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Xbox 2 to Use Standard DVDs?
[xbox]Sony will be using their own Blu-Ray discs for the PS3 and Nintendo is rumored that it'll use HD-DVD for Revolution, but Microsoft has not revealed which next-generation optical format it'll use for the Xbox 2. According the Inquirer, that's because it won't use either; Microsoft will stick to standard DVDs instead of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.
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Misc. Q&As/Features
[ps2] [xbox] [gcn]GameSpot interviews the writer of Sprung, the Nintendo DS dating sim. They also talk to director David Doak about TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.
Misc. Media/Previews
PS2
The Magic Box has more images of Wanda and the Colossus. 1UP has impressions of Cold Winter. IGN has video of Tenchu: Fatal Shadows and images of Shining Tears. 3DAvenue goes bananas with EyeToy: Monkey Mania.
Xbox
GamerFeed goes hands-on with DOOM 3. GameSpy spends time with Phantom Dust. IGN talks about Raiden in Unreal Championship 2.
Portable
We have a handful of shots for Rayman DS and Rayman: Hoodlum's Revenge (GBA). EuroGamer has impressions of WipEout Pure (PS2, Xbox). GameSpy has images of Ape Escape: On the Loose (PSP).
Multi
Game Informer plays around with FIFA Street (PS2, Xbox, GCN). GamerFeed gives Batman Begins (PS2, Xbox, GCN) a first look. Another movie for MVP Baseball 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN) is at GameSpot. They also have screens of MLB 2K5 (PS2, Xbox). TeamXbox details their hands-on with Red Ninja: End of Honor (PS2, Xbox). IGN has new info on Fight Night Round 2 (PS2, Xbox, GCN).
Console Game Of The Evening [Submit Yours!]
Virtua Fighter for the Sega Saturn. "I wanted it so bad I tricked myself into believing that the stuttering and flickering were from causing major damage to your opponent. In reality it was just a bogus rush job..." (submitted by tcpvip).
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BulletPro
replyI can't imagine that a dual-layer DVD with 9.4 GB of storage would "constrain" the XBox2 in any way. Even 16:9 720p couldn't stress that... could it?
Blu-ray for PS3 means Sony will have a brief time where no one can copy discs for less than buying them off the shelf.-
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I hate to say this because I'm not the biggest GC fan but their mini-disc really hasn't hurt them much.
Developers will be forced to use the smaller storage space when producing cross-platform titles and exclusives won't be bothered by it because historically they tend to make the most of resources available.-
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Yeah, absolutely it causes those problems. But I don't think you could identify that as being the main problem with the GC.
That was my point.
It won't cause developers not to develop for it and it probably won't affect consumer sales because of the small storage size.
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Apples and oranges. The bottom line is that for data, 9.4 is spacious for current technology. It's hard to say what might be imporant down the road. I wouldn't jump to say it's a fault or weakness right away (like some people will).
As an owner of all 3 at one point (now just no Xbox untill X2), I never really minded swapping discs. You have to do it in PCs often enough. Is it a hassle, can be. Overall, no.
I say it's not that big of a deal at all. People will make it one though.
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DVD technology is what, 8 years old? I still think it has plenty of life, IMHO. While Sony's shouldering the burden of producing 90% of the world's blu-ray discs, Microsoft will be laughing all the way to the bank. Besides, this hardware is getting to the point where in-game-engine movie sequences will be easier to do and not that much worse looking than 16:9 720p HD FMV.
Sony's kept Rambus alive (and their new Cell chip will continue that) for PS2, now they'll be keeping blu-ray if the next-gen DVD format takes more time to shake out.
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Compare it to a PC game. They can certainly fit today's high end PC games on a single DVD (hl2, doom3), and that can run at amazing resolutions.
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At first I was bummed, but I think it's the best move to keep the price of the system down while still being powerful. I'd rather have more RAM (for example) than have more disc space.
Besides, why cast a vote in the next-gen disc war when the side you chose from could be the loser.
I think this will be a smart move in the long run. -
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HD-DVD can be manufactured on the same equipment and processes as normal DVD -- you just change out the aperture screen used for the UV lithography. So, it's very cheap to manufacture. In comparison, Blu-Ray needs an entirely new process and new machines. So Microsoft has backed HD-DVD in the past. (They may not always do so.)
Microsoft's WMV9 codec is used in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, though, so they win from licensing deals either way.
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