Cortana has been very busy!

"Oh, Cortana is here. Yup, her soft blue loveliness is recording dialog  today in Jay’s booth. Jen Taylor, as she’s known outside the world of UNSC virtual AI projections, is an accomplished actress in her own right, with dozens of game, movie and theater roles under her belt (she’s also the voice of Princess Peach from the Mario series), but we love her best as Master Chief’s right hand girl.

Her reprised role in Halo 3 will probably be a challenging one, since Cortana’s circumstances are considerably darker and more terrifying than in prior appearances. One thing you already know from Halo 2 – she’s not with the Chief now, but rather, in the clutches of the Gravemind on the ruinous High Charity. I got chills listening to some of her dialog, but not when she said, “The damn popper-stopper ruined everything!” Don’t worry, that’s not Cortana dialog."

From Bungie's weekly update!

Halo 3 alpha screen shots leaked!

This is from XBOX360fanboy.com but please be patient because the site that has the pics is currently being bombed and might load very slowly or not at all.

"It's time to unleash your inner Halo fanboy, because we have some goodies for you. Hot off the screen grab black market, we've received some fresh Halo 3 alpha screenshots for your viewing pleasure. German website Evo-X posted seven un-seen screen grabs of the Halo 3 alpha build. And surprisingly enough, the quality of the shots is pretty good. From these new screens we noticed the HUD has a slight concave effect and can clearly see the new spike grenades situated on the top left. There are also a few shots that showcase a letter/number combination over teammates heads, which is either their login name, some sort of alpha crud, or has something to do with the rumored military rank. Ok, enough reading already! We're proud to present all seven leaked Halo 3 alpha screen grabs after the jump ... but remember guys these are shots of the alpha version."

PS3 Oblivian downgraded from 360 version do to lack of memory!

"When we learned that the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion would not feature the majority of downloadable content found on the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game, it was a blow to fans of horse armor everywhere. This weeks episode of The 1UP Show (02/02) provides the follow-up hook as Managing Editor Garnett Lee relays a juicy bit of info from Bethesda. As it turns out, it's due to a memory limitation with the Playstation 3 itself.
Bethesda simply could not find a way to load every piece of downloadable content without affecting the performance of the game. Considering that the Xbox 360 can pull off this feat without a hitch, it looks like the $1 billion dollar gamble has paid off again for Microsoft. Bethesda will still be looking into getting that content available for PS3 users, though how and when this will happen is currently unknown.
As for the PS3 version of Oblivion trumping the 360 in the visuals department, it just so happens that the new shader techniques applied to the PS3 will also be worked into the 360 version of the game. And thus, they are equals once more. Unless you want some horse armor. In which case, you're boned.
Finally, Shacknews sat down with Bethesda's VP of Marketing, Pete Hines, and questioned their plans beyond the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. When it comes to waggling your remote in Oblivion, "It's not really going to run on a Wii for example, but if it could we would put it there. Our philosophy is to make a game and make it available to as many people as possible."

 

From Joystiq.com!

Details on the Force Feedback in Forza Motorsports 2!

By Dan Greenawalt

"When we set off to create Forza Motorsport 2 on the Xbox 360, we knew we had to up the ante on realism for console racing simulators. To that end, a big part of our next-gen racing experience lies in the use of controller rumble and wheel force feedback to completely immerse the player. Racing in the real world is a multi-sensory experience with drivers relying on a well-integrated stream of visual, auditory, vestibular, and haptic information -- everything from the sound of the wind and tires to the pressure of the brake pedal and engine vibration traveling up through the steering column – to let them know how their car is performing. For the last couple weeks here at Turn 10, we’ve been fine-tuning the force feedback implementation in Forza Motorsport 2 using the Microsoft Wireless Force Feedback Wheel. In the process, I’ve written a whitepaper on why force feedback is so important to the overall racing simulation package. Below are a few abstracts from the article…

• Visual and audio cues are simply not enough to convey reality. Forza Motorsport 2 uses haptic interfaces to reproduce a realistic sensation of driving. Whether you play our game with a rumble-enabled controller or a full racing cockpit with force feedback wheel setup, Forza Motorsport 2 gives you tactile cues to improve your game.
• Force feedback is the primary language between car, road, and driver. Force feedback is an extremely useful haptic interface. It provides real-time info on several key aspects of Forza Motorsport 2’s physics model. Obviously, force feedback simulates the steering wheel torque created by having the front tires on different terrain types, such as asphalt, rumble strips, or grass. It also simulates load balance between tires as well as slippage.
• Without simulating “aligning torque,” your force feedback is useless. When driving a car in real-life, aligning torque is what your hands “feel” in the steering wheel. Aligning torque wants to point the steering wheel in the direction of travel. Aligning torque auto-corrects the steering wheel when you are over-steering or drifting. Aligning torque helps you find peak friction when you are understeering. Basically, aligning torque is the primary language that your front tires use to talk to you.
• Your hardware is only as good as your software. Most of what you feel, as you play a racing game with wheel-in-hand, comes down to game design and software. When force feedback is poorly implemented in a game, even the best force feedback wheel is often a less effective controller than a rubber-band wheel with a good deadzone."

For all of the details on why Force feedback is so important in capturing the realism go to Forza Motorsports.net!

Just a blurb!

I am getting some information about a Solitaire game being developed for XBLA. Now I wouldn’t doubt it but at the same time I am surprised that this game has not been done earlier do too the extreme popularity of this game.

When I get a little more information on this game I will post all of the details like the release date the cost and the studio that is producing it.

Quote of the day!

Yesterday I was reading the latest issue of EGM and was checking out the interview they did with SCEA's Jack Tretton. When he was asked if he was concerned about all of the PS3's just sitting on store shelves he said this.

"If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you 1,200 bucks for it."

Now if I was the one interviewing him I would have grabbed my phone and in about 10 minutes I would be a rich man and he would be filing bankruptcy right about now.

Lost Planet and Dead Rising made Capcom a little nervous!

"...management initially was very much against developing the games. Actually for a while there we were practically on the verge of having the projects cancelled. But I knew that Capcom just had to follow through with these titles, that the company needed them. So over the course of several months, I did my best to convince the decision-makers that these games have what it takes to succeed, to be hits and make money for the company. There was a time when I considered giving up on these two games, but I'm really glad I stuck with them and convinced management to let us make the games.
But looking at it from management's perspective, this is the (Xbox) 360 we're talking about, in Japan. So there's that. Plus, being next-gen means development's not going to be cheap by any means. It's a very big investment for a company. So I guess it's only natural that they would be apprehensive about okaying the games, both Lost Planet and Dead Rising. But as a game creator, if you can't convince them to take those kinds of risks, you'll never be able to make any good games."

From 1UP.com

Gears of War takes 8 AIAS awards!

This year's AIAS (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences) Awards have been given away, and Gears of War walks away as the winningest game with 8 awards. Gears snagged awards for animation, art direction, best male performance (go John Di Maggio!), visual engineering, and online gameplay. Gears of War also came away with three game of the year awards including action/adventure game of the year, console game of the year, and the coveted overall game of the year. It's not like Gears of War really needs any more accolades heaped onto it, but we're sure CliffyB and the gang are happy about the results. If they haven't already, Epic needs to start shopping for a bigger trophy case.

From XBOX360fanboy.com!

Killzone 2 demo ready to counter Halo 3 beta test? (UPDATE)

Apparently this rumor has been shot down, probably because the game has to exist to be shown!

"No, Killzone won't be at GDC at all," stated SCEA Manager, Ryan Bowling, in a conversation with IGN held yesterday afternoon. "The time for that game is coming and we'll have new information about it in the future, but not at GDC."

From Kotaku.com

A NEW BLACK XBOX 360 IS COMING DOWN UNDER?

According to Gamersreports.com there is a 120GB black XBOX 360 with HDMI ports launching in Australia in April.

"Just yesterday our inside source gave us a tip that Microsoft Australia has told a store named Myer to prepare the store for a Black 360 with a 120GB hard drive in April. Well day 2 of product knowledge today (Brisbane, Australia) featured Microsoft themselves and it's now 100% official that the Black 360, (with black controller), 120gb hard drive and HDMI is due out in Australia for $749 AU in April. They will try to push this forward to late March to deter buyers from the March 23 PS3 launch. Hopefully we see this good news sometime in Europe and USA. Should you take it as a grain of salt or not, whats your thoughts?"

Hell must be a very cold place right now, IF this is true!

"Say it with us now: "whaaaaa?" Coming from our friends at Xboxygen (they're like, totally French), is a dandy of a rumor: Square-Enix is currently developing an MMORPG for the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. Perhaps the most interesting part of the rumor, the game may not make it to the PS3 at all. Hiromichi Tanaka, director and executive producer of Final Fantasy III for the DS, reportedly made this announcement in a recent interview: "We're working on a next generation MMORPG for the Xbox 360 and Vista but a version for the PS3 is possible."

Assuming this is true, we can only guess as to what the MMO will be. Considering that Final Fantasy XI is already available for the 360, it's not too much of a stretch to assume it might get a sequel. Still, the important thing is that Microsoft may be getting more Square-Enix love in the near future. Could a legitimate Final Fantasy be in the works as well? We can dream, can't we"


This article is from XBOX360fanboy.com!

XBLA founder Greg Canessa has a new job!

Soon to be former Xbox Live Arcade general manager, Greg Canessa joins casual game maker PopCap as newly minted vice president of video game platforms. Canessa's tenure at PopCap officially begins next week. No longer confined to Xbox 360, Canessa will help spread PopCap's products to a variety of platforms, including mobile phones, iPods, in-flight entertainment systems, slot machine adaptations -- even scratch-off lottery tickets.

From Joystiq.com!

EA press release on when we will see Half Life 2!

"Electronic Arts the world's leading interactive entertainment company, and Valve, the award-winning studio behind the blockbuster franchises Half-Life and Counter-Strike, today announced the naming and product configurations The Black Box and The Orange Box, two of the most anticipated action game offerings shipping worldwide in Fall 2007. The Black Box will ship for the PC, and includes Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. The Orange Box will ship for the PC, PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system, and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, and includes all the content of The Black Box, plus the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One."

This will save alot of paper!

Recently I was listening to one of Major Nelson's podcast's and he made a mention of an online magazine from Gamerzines.com. I decided to check it out and I must say that it is impressive to say the least, I really enjoyed the layout and the interview with Cliffy B. So head on over and give it a read, it is a PDF file and there will be a new issue every month.

Just a taste of what XNA can do!

Gears of War only cost $10 million to make!

In a recent interview with wired magazine, Mark Rein VP of Epic Games made a mention on the cost of developing Gears of War.

"We spent less than $10 million to make Gears of War. Somewhere between nine and ten million dollars," Rein says. "People are always saying that making next-generation games is really expensive, and we're saying, you should license our technology."


Now the first thing I thought was that he didn't include the development cost of the Unreal engine 3 which is used in Gears so in theory Gears probably ended up costing 10's of millions more than they are saying.

Looks like Microsoft is going to reward people on their gamerscores!

Check it out!

Killzone 2 demo ready to counter Halo 3 beta test?

"Remember this game? We haven't heard much about Guerilla's Killzone 2 since it appeared in video CG form back at E3 ages ago. The studio and Sony Computer Entertainment went dark on the title after the E3 presentation.

Rumors pointed at the game's intended resurgence at their pre-launch Gamers' Day event last year. Ultimately, if the rumors are to be believed, Sony shelved showing Killzone 2 in favor of spotlighting Insomniac's new shooter franchise (and it will be a franchise) Resistance. The same rumors have pointed to Killzone 2 being much further along than previously expected -- with the apex of the rumor arc concluding that the game has been playable online for almost a year.

Microsoft and Bungie's beta program for Halo 3 is all the rage this Spring. It's garnered countless news stories with its multiple points of entry and even landed a cover in EGM back in November (I expect the beta to be similar but with more weapons and polish to the maps covered in that series of stories).

Aside from the obvious connection between Killzone and Halo being first-party developed shooters and the first Killzone being branded with the unfortunate moniker of "Halo-killer," the ties between these games are going to bind even closer this Spring.

Expect a playable Killzone 2 demo to be released (hmm, Phil Harrison is keynoting at GDC...) before gamers are participating in the beta for Halo 3. "

From 1UP.com

New quiet DVD drives!

People are discovering that XBOX 360's manufactured in NOV 06 on have a new DVD drive in them. The new drives are manufactured by Ben Q corporation, people are claiming that the drives are super quiet and load faster.



To see all the pictures go here!

Gears of War in Japanese!

Now that Gears of War has shipped in Japan it is interesting to hear Marcus fenix speaking Japanese. Now I must admit the actor doing the voice work in the Japanese version did a pretty good job because you know as well as I do that Japanese voice actors are usually horrible and over act big time, (Godzilla anyone).

I also need to mention that Gears of War has sold extremely well in Japan which is a HUGE shocker since the Japanese hate American style shooters, they typically go with real fruity RPG's with bad acting and bizarre puzzle games but maybe Japan is beginning to become more hetero, I'M KIDDING I think.

Ok what you just read their was the opinion part of the XBOX gamer news and opinions!

Some 360 owners want some tilt!

The Hole - video powered by Metacafe

Root Beer Tapper on XBLA this Wednesday

"Not to be confused with the highly controversial and equally disturbing hunting sim, Rude Bear Trapper, this Wednesday's Xbox Live Arcade release is none other than the classic study in bartending technique, Root Beer Tapper. Being the non-alcoholic version of 1983's Tapper, the game sees players tending to a bunch of surprisingly demanding bar patrons. Failure to deliver the beers, excuse us, root beers, to your dehydrated cowboy and football player patrons often results in a gross violation of personal space. Just imagine how rowdy the hard alcoholics must get!

Appended to the Xbox 360 version of the game are the usual enhanced graphics, gamerscore points, online versus and co-op modes and, of course, a 400 point price ($5). Catch your mugs, tend your bars and tap your root beers this Wednesday at 1AM PST."

 

 

From Joystiq.com!

 

 

 

Gamestop employee's are playing jokes right?

I am not even going to go into detail over this one, all I know is that the Burger King games are $3.99 new so I think you get the picture.

Konami unveils 2007 lineup!

Today Konami unveiled their 2007 lineup, I must say that yes, this list is big but Hadley "earth shaking" like they claimed it would be. The most interesting is what is not on the list and that would be no MGS4. It looks like MGS4 is being pushed to 2008 but nothing has been officially announced.

Brooktown High Senior Year

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

Coded Arms Contagion

Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSE

Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party

Death, Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom

Dewy's Adventure

GoPets

Hellboy

Honeycomb Beat

Konami Classic Series: Arcade Hits

Lost In Blue

Lunar Knights

Kororinpa: Marble Mania

Time Ace

Wing Island

Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

For a breakdown of what platforms these are appearing on go here!

PS3 game sales dissapoint EA!

"(Video Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The videogame publisher with the largest market share in PlayStation 3 titles reported last week that sales of games for the platform were less than expected during the holidays.

During a conference call elaborating on financial results for the quarter ended Dec. 31, Electronic Arts executive VP Frank Gibeau said the publisher was "disappointed" at the tie-ratio of PS3 games sold to each system purchased.

EA holds a 32% share of PS3 game revenue based on $41 million in orders from retailers and distributors (900,000-plus units at $44.99 wholesale) through the holiday quarter.

That's far fewer games than sold during the Xbox 360 launch in 2005. Then, EA filled orders for Xbox 360 games totaling $76 million (1.69 million units at $44.99 wholesale). Both platforms suffered from manufacturing problems that kept supplies tight at launch.

Xbox 360 revenue for the quarter was up 126% to $172 million, while PS2 revenue declined 19% to $400 million.

Gibeau attributed the lower PS3 game tie-ratio at launch to "the eBay effect," with many early purchasers more intent on selling their systems for a profit than buying games. Although he did not provide figures, Gibeau said PS3 tie-ratios have improved appreciably during January.

Meanwhile, VB
sister publication Daily Variety
reported that a Sony senior executive said the company might consider cutting the price of the PS3."

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. All Rights Reserved.

From ip communications.com!

Mortal Kombat 8 is shooting for GOW like graphics!

ED Boon on the next Mortal Kombat.

"To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, 'Holy sh**!' That’s the look that we’ve been talking about.” Visually, that’s what we want to do." But gameplay wise, the game won’t be about taking cover or using a chainsaw attachment on a rifle. It's all about starting from scratch. "We’re not going to have three fighting styles, we’re not going to have the same punches and kicks and the same kind of control scheme. Everything is getting trashed. We’re reinventing everything from the ground up. We really think that’s needed—you know, we’re on Mortal Kombat 8, in a sense—to kind of wipe the slate clean every once in a while, and I kind of feel that now is the time."


Article from Game informer!

Epic considering interplay between Xbox 360 and PC with UT3!

Jeff Morriss, Epic's lead producer was interviwed by Gameinformer. He said that Epic is considering interplay between the PC and XBOX 360 version of UT3 but it depends on the success of Shadowrun.

"There’s certainly no technical reasons why we couldn’t do interplay between platforms, but the one thing with that is the input between the two. We’re a fast-paced action game. With the mouse, you’re looking here, and then you swing over here, and you stop and you swing up there and you stop. You’ve got all these quick movements, and I don’t know that a 360 controller is ever going to have an analogy to that. If it’s not fun or balanced to do it, we don’t do it.

The Live network also makes it not a trivial task to make it integrate with the open network of the PC and the PS3. We’re very interested to see how Shadowrun does it and if people will want that. As a consumer of games myself, with Battlestations: Midway I’ll violate my rule, because I really love Battlestations: Midway. There’s a great PC version and there’s a great 360 version, but I want to play with the biggest number of players. I want the biggest server pool. I don’t want to have to decide and artificially split my audience between the two. I’m going to go where the bigger audience is. With UT, I don’t want to have the PC players to play with just half of the UT players just because of the platform. There’s a real motivation to make it interchangeable with one big pool of servers out there that everybody can play in. If I can have a hundred servers with great ping to me by having all those servers shared, that’s really compelling to me. Oftentimes, you’ll see something like Battlefront 2, which is another game I love - there are much more players on Xbox, more servers, than there ever were on PC. As a player, I want to play better servers with more people."

You can read the whole interview here.

Rare working on XBLA game!

According to a news article on CVG, the latest issue of the UK's Edge Magazine contains mention of Microsoft-owned developer, Rare, working on a new and original Xbox Live Arcade title. Holding the reins of the mostly mysterious steed is one Nick Burton, who was previously involved with Starfox Adventures and the more recent Kameo: Elements of Power.

Burton is collaborating with a team of ten others on the unnamed game which may or may not feature disturbingly proportioned, anthropomorphic characters.

From Joystiq.com!

Super Ghouls N' Ghosts to XBLA?

An entry for a 360 version of Super Ghouls N' Ghosts recently popped up on the ESRB website, leading many to believe that Capcom's classic will soon be appearing on Xbox Live Arcade. Beloved by old school gamers for its charm and tough-as-nails difficulty, Super Ghouls N' Ghosts would certainly be a welcome entry to the Arcade. Unfortunately, that's all we have to go on right now, as no announcements have yet been made. As such, chalk this up as a rumor for now. Still, once a game shows up at the ESRB, it's a fair bet that it's coming (let's hope it arrives with a save function).

From XBOX 360 Fanboy.com

Pinball FX coming to XBLA!

Zen Studios’ new Pinball FX offers an unparalleled pinball
experience for novices and experts alike. It combines the arcade
thrills of traditional pinball with enhanced gameplay and exciting,
innovative features not found in any other pinball game. With the power
of the Xbox 360 behind it, Pinball FX sets a new standard for
realistic ball physics and graphical detail in pinball video games.

1.Live chat via the Xbox 360 Live Vision Camera

2.Three vibrant, 3-dimensional tables provide dozens of hours of play

3.State-of-the-art physics model that surpasses the best titles in the genre

4.Tables start out simple, but new challenges open up as a player’s skill advances

5.Flipper arms can be controlled with hand/arm motions via the Xbox 360 Live Vision camera

6.Downloadable tables on Xbox Live Marketplace

7.Real-time head-to-head mode for online multiplayer competition

8.Amazing realism and polished presentation