Late Night Consoling
by Chris Remo, Dec 08, 2005 8:20pm PSTI was hoping to get another story in tonight that featured every single platform icon, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards.
- With the daily rumors this week regarding the technical specs of Nintendo's upcoming machine, the company has officially responded with an explanation of what gamers should expect. It did not confirm or deny any specific technical details, but mainly touched on the lack of high definition support in the console. The statement acknowledged that high definition graphics are impressive, but also noted that they cause game development costs--and, in turn, consumer prices--to rise, and the more powerful hardware needed to run them becomes more expensive as well. It noted that improved graphics are simply part of next-generation evolution, and claimed that Revolution games will look impressive whether played on standard or high definition television. The response ended as follows:
Nintendo Responds to Spec Rumors
[nintendo]Nintendo has created a gaming system that is sleek and compact in size, powers up quickly with minimal load times, makes game development easy and fast, is easy to use, and is affordable for everyone. We are confident that gamers and non-gamers alike will support the truly next-generation experience only Nintendo can provide. Once you have a chance to play games on the Revolution, we think you'll agree!
In related news, Nintendo PR man Reggie Fils-Aime gave a presentation at the 33rd Annual Global Media Conference, reiterating his recent presentations about Nintendo's general strategy but also making new comments regarding the Revolution. He emphasized that Revolution is designed to be easy for developers to port games to. In regards to the unique controller, Fils-Aime pointed out that developers can choose to support the Wavebird-like "shell" that will be supported by the system, while "the most ambitious of the developers will write new code, different code, to allow the [freehand] controller to be taken into brand new directions." Further touching on the controller, he listed positive comments from a range of developers and publishers, including Electronic Arts: "It's a brilliant controller, and as usual we can credit Nintendo with being innovative and neat and fresh and fun. They continue to pioneer in our industry...they make some of the best games in the industry and we look forward to partnering with them." - Buried in an Ottawa Citizen interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about Microsoft's finances, its role in innovation, and its presence in Ottowa was question about why the company hasn't supplied more units to retailers. The interviewer brought up the accusation that Microsoft may be deliberately engineering the shortages, a claim Ballmer flatly denied. Ballmer echoed the oft-repeated line that retailers are getting more units each week, and explained that Microsoft expected low yields, but actual yields have been even a bit lower than their estimates. "We're doing our best," he said.
Ballmer on the Xbox 360 Shortage
[xbox360] - The distinction of being named MarketWatch's Worst CEO of 2005 has fallen to Paul Eibeler of video game publisher 2K Games. The article explained that there were a few other potential candidates that "lost" by virtue of no longer being employed by their respective companies, but as Eibeler is still at Take-Two and would have been next in line anyway, the award goes to him. MarketWatch notes that Eibeler took a rather odd "medical leave" during which he became the CEO of Acclaim for a few months before ending up back at Take-Two (Acclaim went bankrupt soon after, which probably isn't all Eibeler's fault), and "has done such a poor job getting his arms around the company that Take-Two has missed its own earnings guidance for multiple quarters." Whoops.
Take-Two's Eibeler Named Worst CEO
[ps2] [xbox360] [xbox] [gba] - Hellboy and Blade II director Guillermo del Toro has confirmed rumors that he has been talking with Peter Jackson about possibly directing the Halo film adaptation. He is interested in the project, but between Hellboy 2 and Halo, he'll only have the chance to do one. Hellboy 2 isn't yet a sure thing, but if the movie is greenlighted, he indicated that he will definitely pick that project over Halo. Like Jackson, del Toro agrees that there has not yet been a good video game-based movie, and said that "Halo is very much an interesting project because it's so full of monsters."
Del Toro Interested in Halo for Right Reasons
[xbox] - MTV Films announced that it has acquired the movie rights to The Collective's recently-delayed Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (PS2, Xbox, PC), currently expected to ship in early 2006. The press release claims the film will be "an homage to graffiti's rich culture" and will be produced by Ecko, who also did story and character work on the game bearing his name. Entertainment personalities whose voices will be featured in the game include Sean "Diddy" Combs, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy, George Hamilton, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam West, Andy Dick, Charlie Murphy, The RZA, and Michael "M.C. Serch" Berrin, though it was not mentioned whether any of them would contribute to theh film.
Getting Up is Getting a Movie
[ps2] [xbox] - GameSpot has a video interview on Tecmo's Monster Rancher 5: Circus Caravan (PS2).
Misc. Q&As/Features
Dear Esther Mac port confirmed
Killing Floor hits a million sales, discounted on Steam
Jam Live Music Arcade announced for PS3, Xbox 360
Metal Gear Online to quietly die this summer
Mad Riders: Techland's ATV racer coming to PC, PSN, XBLA
Comments
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to watching my VHS movies, listening to my music cassettes and then later I'll talk on my rotary phone.
/rant off
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"Games with high definition graphics are expensive to develop because they must be developed in both standard and high definition formats."
Maybe I am just ignorant, but this sounds like complete and utter bullshit. Increasing resolution has nothing to do with the development of actual art assets and everything to do with simply having the hardware capable of rendering it. One could argue that higher polygons and larger textures are required to actually appreciate HD, but that still doesn't explain why Nintendo thinks two formats are required as opposed to just one that is output in HD and then downsampled to regular definition (which is how the 360 does it). Furthermore, resolution has a visual impact regardless of the polygons being pushed, just load up Quake 1 and cycle through the resolutions if you don't believe me.
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http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/Refurbishing-the-HL-Xbox-360-DVD-Drive.htm
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Ok, that does it for me. If the reason he's interested in the Halo movie is because of the "monsters" I don't want him anywhere near the Halo movie.
What about the story? the universe? the characters? the struggle for human survival? Nope it's all about the monster for him. I mean I want the covenant to look cool, but I want a deeper focus that this story deserves.
Guillermo.... STAY AWAY!!
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I got say I was really impressed how varied the enemies were in RE4. FEAR is great but there's only a handful of different soldiers.
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Well, Halo is very much an interesting project because it’s so full of monsters...It’s a big temptation. I’m in talks with them [Universal and Bungie Films] and Peter, but it’s not true that it’s on and Hellboy’s off. Hellboy’s on. If everything goes as planned, Hellboy will go.
Most of the time games don’t have an universe or creatures that interest me enough. And this one does. Master Chief [Halo’s mysterious hero] is such an iconic character and it’s very much a sort of a good version of [Hellboy villain] Kroenen.
I really love the technical and visual challenges of the movie. It’s a very intense game and I thought it was very cinematic. The game is structured in many ways like a movie. It could kick some ass.
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"Quake 4 proves that you can't just take a PC game and dump it on the 360. Without optimizing for the new hardware it embarrasses itself and the new machine. How Microsoft allowed this to ship in its current state -- not to mention how id and Activision had the audacity to charge an extra $10 for it -- is beyond us."
Framerate issues on "next gen" hardware! LOL @ everyone involved!
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I wasn't really looking forward to the Revolution but the more I hear the more Im getting interested. I have a HDTV and will buy either a PS3 or XBox 360 next year. At the same time It really really bugs me to think its going to cost me ruffly $500 to buy one of them. Nintendo is taking another road. Better graphics than the Gamecube (which has very nice graphics at 480p) and a new control scheme. Plus the cheaper factor than the other two.
Nintendos looking good in my book right now. Look at the DS. The games coming out for it are getting very good reviews. Its not even close to being as powerful as the PSP but right now I'd rather have a DS because of the games coming out for it. Im not buying either since Im won't use them. Just pointing out an observation.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/articles/news/massive_multiplayers_online/play_final_fantasy_xi_online_with_oxm360!
If I had a 360 I would play this :[
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http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm
New games are the Tom Clancy games,
# Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon™ 2
# Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon® 2 Summit Strike
# Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3
# Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3 Black Arrow™
# Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell®
# Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Chaos Theory™
# Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Pandora Tomorrow™
hopefully more will be coming soon.
*cough* Psyconaughts *cough*
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Savage 2!!
Now the CEO is a freakin loser!! god damn it!!...
(btw.. Savage 1 hasn't really been 'updated' all that much compared to the demo they released a long time ago... laggy network code, gameplay not much hammered out... )
Maybe I just noticed because I live there for another 3 weeks...
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For anyone debating whether to get RE4 on Gamecube or PS2, the GC version is noticeably better looking, though it's missing the new weapon and missions. Comparison shots (slow loading site):
http://ruliweb3.dreamwiz.com/ruliboard/read.htm?main=ps&table=img_screen_con&page=1&num=8547&find=&ftext=&left=h&time=
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I finally got my Mario Kart DS in the mail.
I've only seen 360s come in for the launch, our next instock estimate is Dec. week 4.
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Im a huge fan of the original and the one that was on PSX. Or was that the original?
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