XBMC DEV CON 2008 will be the first event in which the XBMC developers get a chance to get together face-to-face, meet and greet, discuss XBMC, and maybe get a little coding done as well. After 6 years and with so many users, it is time for the XBMC programmers to get out of the IRC chat-room and meet up in person to talk about the past, present, and future, set priorities and make plans (and yeah, play a few games), and who knows, this may even lead to a XBMC fan convention in the not too distant future.
When and where?
June the 13th, 14th, and 15th in Amsterdam.
Who is boxee?
boxee is a NYC-based start-up company that will soon be offering a social networking multimedia-platform built on-top of XBMC. Much as Red Hat and Firefox are specific businesses that have products built on open source code and open technologies as their framework, boxee's aim is to bring the core XBMC platform to the mainstream consumer. boxee is fully committed to the growth and success of XBMC and will continue to contribute back upstream to the XBMC code base under the GPL license. boxee is hosting the 2008 DEV CON, and will be going into public alpha testing of their product beginning on the 15th of June 2008. Team-XBMC is very excited to have our code base used in boxee's product, and we look forward to more people discovering XBMC through boxee. This initiative will hopefully lead others to use XBMC in a similar fashion.
How to get involved:
* Propose ideas for stuff that you would like Team-XBMC to discuss: XBMC Community Forum Discussion
* Meet Team-XBMC for drinks on the evening of June the 14th (details will be posted on the boxee blog)
* Sign up for boxee alpha testing: www.boxee.tv
* Follow boxee progress on the boxee blog: blog.boxee.tv
* Send boxee a Twitter with a comment or question: http://twitter.com/boxee
* MCV: "Ninja Gaiden II has got some great previews from the press - how proud of it are you?"
* Itagaki: "I'm very happy with it. It's not 100 per cent as I think that's not possible to do, but I think that I was successful in making a game that no one else could. This is a game that only my team and I would be able to make."
* MCV: "Do you prefer to develop on the Xbox 360, rather than the other consoles?"
* Itagaki: "Yes. In my opinion it is the most powerful hardware. I have a lot of friends that develop on it so in some ways I regard it like being at home when I'm working on it. There's no reason for me to go to a strangers house to make games."
Following a Netflix analyst event in San Francisco, Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter has reiterated his belief that the popular rental company will partner with Microsoft to offer a new streaming service over Xbox Live.
"The company is investing heavily in building its online streaming capability, to the point where it is a market leader, and a desirable partner for consumer electronics companies that hope to participate in digital media convergence in the near term. As we have speculated in the past, we believe that one of Netflix's partners is Microsoft. We arrive at this conclusion based upon Netflix management repeatedly mentioning 'Internet enabled video game consoles.' While there are three such consoles, only one (Microsoft's Xbox 360) has a sufficiently large installed base to make sense from a streaming partnership with Netflix," Pachter stated in his latest research note.
"It strikes me that the right business model for Microsoft and Netflix is that they both participate for free, and I think the idea is that Netflix has 8 million subs in the U.S. and Microsoft has probably pretty close to that many Xbox Live members in the U.S., and there's probably not 100 percent overlap - my guess is there's a couple million of overlap, but there's 5-6 million Xbox Live subscribers that Netflix would love to have join Netflix service and there's probably 5-6 million Netflix subscribers that Microsoft would love to sell an Xbox 360 to," Pachter told us.
As you can see, Microsoft have effectively hoisted themselves by their own petard when it comes to XBLA. In trying to manage consumers and overcome what they believed was an image issue, they have created a network that organisationally can't actually sell a lot of games. Their solution is to reduce the catalogue, but this is essentially an admission of failure on their part.
With the 360 probably having peaked in terms of overall appeal and other console providers and technology companies now delivering credible alternatives, it is up to Microsoft to rethink their whole strategy and decide whether this is a sector of the business that they really want to be in any more.
Next Gen recently had a chance to sit down with Ubisoft and discuss the next addition to the Prince of Persia franchise. The team is excited that this isn't just another tired rehash of the same characters and setting, however, promising a new prince and open world adventuring on top of the already rich world of the previous games.
"'We had a whole story with the previous trilogy, and Prince of Persia is a general universe where several different stories can unfold,' [creative director Jean-Christophe] explains. 'We're starting afresh, in the same universe, and we wanted to bring something new while keeping what worked before. We introduce a new Prince, who won't start as a prince, more a drifter and adventurer, lost in the desert. He'll be confronted by a lot of fantasy settings, as opposed to Assassin's Creed, which was more realistic. Here he will come to a land and be engulfed in the conflict between two ancient gods, in this very specific region of Persia. It's based on an old Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, and the battle between light and darkness.'"
We're usually pretty skeptical about rumored release dates as developers and publishers often keep that card close to their chests -- however, we can't help but put our complete faith in a man with a name as awesome as Lester "Mighty Rasta" Speight. Yes, Mr. Rasta, who voiced Gears of War's "Cole Train", recently made an appearance at the TriForce panel at Wizard World to shoot the breeze about the company's line of GoW-related replicas. When asked about the sequel's release date, the TriForce crew remained tight lipped, though Rasta suggested asking him again on November 16.
DS and Wii Fanboy's David Hinkle was at the panel to witness the football player-turned-actor's Q+A session, and hopes to further press Mr. Rasta to discover the accuracy of his claims. Given that it falls in the game's suggested November release window, we wouldn't be surprised if Speight's date was legit.
features
Intense mission-based combat: QUAKE Wars pits teams against each other on massive maps located in desert, Arctic, and tropical environments. Players battle through intense skirmishes with real military style objectives
Offline and online modes: Hone your skills against surprisingly lifelike A.I. offline, then join the battle online with friends.
Unique teams and character classes: The GDF and Strogg are two distinct armies with different soldier classes, weapons, vehicles, and tactics.
Team-based combat: Using class-specific skills, players can be the linchpin of an entire operation
Skill-based matchmaking: Get the perfect challenge in every online game with a match geared to your skills
description
Experience the ultimate team - and mission-based multiplayer warfare, defined by award winning Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer, now set in the legendary QUAKE universe. Choose to play as the human Global Defense Force or the invading alien menace, the Strogg. Each side has distinct classes, vehicles, and weapons to choose from, giving players countless ways to join the battle.
description
GRID will take players to beautifully realised and dramatic race locations over three continents to compete in an unprecedented variety of racing events. Packed with the most powerful race cars – new and classic, circuit and drift – players will compete to conquer the most prestigious official race tracks and championships and then go beyond to compete in challenging city-based competitions, through to road events and urban street races.
In Europe, race gamers will compete on the greatest official tracks in prestige Marques including Aston Martin, Koenigsegg and Pagani. Iconic cities across the U.S. – including San Francisco, Washington DC and Detroit and each with their own atmosphere and events – play hosts to diverse street races. Here, high-performance V8 muscle cars set the pace in aggressive closely fought pack competitions.
In the Far East, Japanese racing culture sets the tone where night races, including Drift racing, take drivers through neon illuminated cities and to outlying mountain roads. There is also the opportunity to compete in races that operate on the fringes of legality in the back streets and industrial areas of Yokohama.
You know it, you love it, Tell Us Dammit. No, rather TELL US DAMMIT. Yep! Time to learn about each other. How it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interesting in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Sadness.
Question
What is the longest you have gone without gaming?
Codemasters has said it is busy working on a patch to stop stuttering issues in the Xbox 360 version of Race Driver: GRID.
Developer boss Gavin Raeburn waded into the official forum to confirm as much, and offered a temporary solution for those of you affected.
"We're close to getting to the root of the problem and we will be including a fix and a backup workaround option (just in case) in our forthcoming patch due within the next few weeks or sooner," said Gavin "Uncle Chewy" Raeburn. "We think the issue is due to specific drive hardware, possibly with bad blocks /sectors.
"The best temporary measure is to copy your Gamertag to a memory card, remove the hard drive and run the game that way. Replays and caching will be disabled, though instant replay will still work as this caches to memory."
The Xbox 360 version appears to have the bulk of the problems, although some have reported similar issues when running the game on PC.
Another strong week for Penny Arcade, (don't forget that high price point), and a decent first week for Buku Soduku, but a disappointing performance for classic Atari remake Warlords.
LucasArts has told Eurogamer that it plans to offer a Fracture demo either in August, or alongside the full game in September.
The PS3 and 360 sampler will let you stomp around the tutorial level where you'll get to grips with the terrain deformation at the core of the title.
Fracture is in development at Day 1 Studios, the outfit that made the MechAssault games, and gives you tools like the Entrencher that can instantly carve holes in the ground or force hills to burst from the floor.
There's much more besides the Entrencher, and you'll use them to tackle hordes of genetically altered futuristic baddies - or up-to 11 of your friends online.
Thanks to an online advertisement that is in rotation over on Gamespot, we're thinking an "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars" demo will be hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace any day now. We say this not because we love XBLM demos and would actually enjoy playing some Quake Wars, but because the advertisement says that you can "download the demo now from Xbox Live Marketplace". Don't hurt yourself though, we already checked the XBLM and there is not Quake Wars demo to be found. But we say it'll be up soon, because we have faith in online advertisements and their validity. We are trusting fanboys.
Microsoft has announced plans to re-release Gears of War in North America with updated maps and achievements.
The updated version of Epic's game will be available from June 24, and cost USD 39.99 for the Xbox 360 and USD 29.99 for the PC.
The two-disc version of Gears of War will feature a preview of its sequel, Gears of War 2, including trailers and other extras.
There has been no date set for a European release of these new versions.
Since its release in November 2006, Gears of War has won numerous awards, including three from the Game Developers Conference, and sold over 4.7 million copies worldwide.
Wedbush Morgan Securities has speculated about a possible Netflix deal to stream movies through Xbox 360 consoles.
The conclusion, made by the investment banking firm, came off the back of comments made by Netflix management. If true it would allow the online rental service to stream movies directly into consumer's consoles.
"As we have speculated in the past, we believe that one of Netflix's partners is Microsoft. We arrive at this conclusion based upon Netflix management repeatedly mentioning 'Internet enabled video game consoles'," said a Wedbush Morgan statement.
"While there are three such consoles, only one - Microsoft's Xbox 360 - has a sufficiently large installed base to make sense from a streaming partnership with Netflix."
"The competitive advantage of such an alliance is clear: Netflix customers who are Xbox Live members will have the ability to stream online content through their Xbox 360s directly to their televisions. The ability to do so is available without the Xbox 360, but requires a measure of technological sophistication and a high tolerance for failure," it added.
Earlier this year, Netflix had surveyed subscribers on the possibility of streaming movies via the Xbox 360 console.
The actor behind Gears of War character Cole Train has hinted that the upcoming sequel will be out on 16th November.
Lester "Mighty Rasta" Speight (who used to play professional American Football before deciding he likes his dramatics) spilled the beans by cheekily suggesting press ask him again after that date.
He was chatting at a TriForce event in the US; this is the company that has just announced it will be creating official life-sized replicas of the Gears of War armour and weapons.
Microsoft was unavailable to clarify the date, which falls on a Sunday according to our calendar - neither a Tuesday when the US typically gets games nor a Friday when Europe gets them.
It is within the November window previously and officially promised, though, and similar to the original Gears of War "Emergency Day" date [I added that bit and I'm not changing it - Ed].
The platform holder and publisher has also just revealed a fresh edition of the original Gears of War for PC and Xbox 360.
It goes on sale across the US on 24th June, and contains all of the downloadable content so far, 250 fresh Gamerpoints to achieve, plus a second disc with a preview of Gears of War 2.
Unfortunately its European whereabouts are still unknown.
Microsoft has said that the decision to delist under performing Xbox Live Arcade titles will force developers to focus on better quality games.
Titles which have a Metacritic rating of less than 65 per cent, have been on the service for at least six months and have a trial conversion rate of less than 6 per cent are due for the chop from the download service this autumn.
Director of product management, Aaron Greenberg, has also told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes developers will still be willing to experiment with niche or new concepts, rather than adopting safe gameplay in order to receive a high score and stay on the service.
"I really don't think we will see that at all, in fact many unique style games typically get stronger reviews because they stand out from the pack," he said.
"If anything you will see developers take more time, make use of the new additional storage space and focus on game quality now more than ever to ensure the title is well received."
Xbox Live Arcade has been criticised in the past for a glut of poor titles, making it difficult for users to find quality games in a crowded digital market. As well as forcing developers to tighten quality control, Microsoft is also planning its own in-house Live Arcade team to lead the way with downloadable content.
"What we are saying is that our focus with Xbox Live Arcade is going to be on quality over quantity," offered Greenberg.
"We are also thinking about the future of the service and want to ensure that new Xbox 360 owners that come into XBLA for the first time have a great experience. We believe that with this focus, the increased size limits and the investment in our first-party studio you will see XBLA games continue to improve throughout the year."
Although Microsoft is still quiet on the amount of titles to be delisted in 2007, Greenberg said the cull will not begin until after the summer, with users and developers receiving at least three months notice.
He also stated that this new policy will not have any affects on the proposed Community Games project due to launch later this year, which will showcase games created using Microsoft's XNA tools.
"This program only applies to Xbox Live Arcade, Community Games created with XNA do not go through the same submission and certification process and since they are developed by community members are less likely to have review scores assigned to them like Xbox Live Arcade titles," clarified Greenberg.
I've gotten word that the "Opus" Xbox 360 motherboard is now shipping and will be included in the repair and refurbish (RnR) operations at Xbox. This means that folks who have their 1st generation "Xenon" Xbox 360 die on them with the Red Ring of Death (or a Core Digital error as Microsoft internally call it) might get a new motherboard. This is a newer "Falcon" generation chip set with a cooler 65 nm CPU but no HDMI port.
Also work on the "Jasper" Xbox 360 is going well and is on track to be out first week in September.
features
Adventure with up to 20 playable characters including Prince Caspian and many creatures from Narnia
Engage in epic combat with hundreds of characters and massive battles
Drop in and play with a friend in co-op mode
description
Experience the full potential of next-gen gaming as you travel back to Narnia to overcome the evil King Miraz and restore Prince Caspian to his rightful throne
In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Activision has let it slip that Aerosmith won't be the only band to get a dedicated Guitar Hero game. Metallica is set to receive it's own entrant into the rapidly expanding franchise sometime in the near future with Guitar Hero: Metallica. No further details aside from the title were revealed but given Activision's history of sharing the love, you can expect to find it on numerous gaming platforms.
According to the document, "In fiscal 2009, we [Activision] plan to publish Guitar Hero: On Tour for the NDS; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and Guitar Hero IV across multiple platforms." If you care to read the entire report, head over to the SEC archives. There you'll also see that Activision's fiscal year ends on March 31, meaning you'll see Guitar Hero Metallica on store shelves before that date in 2009.
Tomonobu Itagaki has reportedly left Tecmo under a cloud, leaving a hefty lawsuit and a personal attack on company president Yoshimi Yasuda in his wake.
1UP has relayed a statement - sourced from "Itagaki aide Andrew Szymanski" - in which Itagaki says he has filed a lawsuit claiming damages of 148 million yen (GBP 750k / EUR 915k).
In the statement, he also apologises to his fans, pointing out that Ninja Gaiden 2 (due out this Friday in Europe) will be his last ever Ninja Gaiden. "I will also never be able to make Dead or Alive 5," he added.
Itagaki seems to blame Yasuda primarily for all this. He says he was promised a completion bonus for Dead or Alive 4 (released in Europe back in January 2006), which Yasuda then denied him, telling him to put up or shut up about it. Itagaki says this caused "significant emotional distress and worsening [of] my personal relationships and work environment".
He claims Yasuda acted in a way "unbefitting of a publicly-listed company", and says he wants to "question the social responsibility" of Tecmo and Yasuda "as well as condemning them for their unjust acts".
"Thus, I have no choice but to resign from Tecmo," he concluded.
Ninja Gaiden should be up on Xbox live now (Tues 10.00 GMT) in all regions except India, Germany, Canada and the U.S.
Its still unknown when it will be available in north America, but Major Nelson hopes it will be out before the end of the week. I should also note that I doubt that it will ever be released in Germany, being so violent and what not (the game, not Germany).
"My fellow Canadians, a matter of the greatest importance has come to our attention. TOMORROW new laws will be passed by the Canadian government which will effectively OUTLAW the use of modchips and flash carts, among other things.
This new copyright reform in the form of the Canadian DMCA has been influenced by US lobby groups rather than the voice of the Canadian people. What we're faced with is legislation that is potentially even more extreme than that of the US DMCA which is what allows the RIAA, MPAA, etc to function in the United States as they do.
This would be a blow not only to Canada, civil rights, and copyright law, but also YOUR rights, this fine community, and all of the businesses that make their living by selling said products. Our digital way of life would effectively come to a stop. They're even going as far as proposing a minimum $500 fine per incident. While copyright reform is an important issue, this is not the way to go about it.
In response to this backdoor policy making a growing movement and coalition has been actively pursuing making the Canadian voice heard in this legislative process. All is NOT lost; they previously attempted to impose similar legislation back in December but this very movement's response stopped them in their tracks. We MUST speak up! We MUST make ourselves heard before it's too late!
As such the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights has created a simple letter sending service that will allow for us to be heard. I implore any and all Canadians to use this service to send a letter to Prime Minister, Stephen Harper; Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry; and Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage TODAY before we have no tomorrow."
Bionic Commando producer Ben Judd has told Eurogamer to expect elements of the re-imagined XBLA, PSN and PC game, Bionic Commando Rearmed, to fill out the back-story of next year's 3D game.
"We intentionally put in some nuggets in the story that later tie into the 3D version," Judd told Eurogamer.
"You'll talk to some characters that will ask Spencer about his wife and he'll say, 'my wife left me, I don't why she left me - maybe she just couldn't handle a military man and that lifestyle'.
"So the user is going to play that game, and certainly a fan of the original is going to play that game and go, 'Wait a second, that wasn't in the original game,' so they'll be curious and wonder what that's about. And later you find out more about it in the 3D version."
Judd said that the team behind the 3D version had to work hard to produce a story that would satisfy fans.
"When you think about the original game, it was NES, very limited words and dialogue, so it really is a very thin story, so there wasn't a lot to go off of, so trying to find enough to build out into a real-world serious story that was on multiple levels, versus the original game but yet still have enough dialogue in there that fans would appreciate," he said.
"Trying to find that perfect blend was not easy."
In the end the team went for a shades-of-grey story of a bionically enhanced super-soldier who has to hunt down terrorists driven to act against society by their government's decision to try and strip them of their life-giving bionic enhancements.
"We wanted to drill it down to technology. For us, there's a lot of technology that's good, but it carries a heavy price," Judd explained.
"We wanted to blur the ethical line for the government, because they blur the ethical line a lot [in the real world] when it comes to weapons technology."
Capcom's rebirth of the Bionic Commando franchise arrives this fall in the form of a 3D action game on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. This just in: You won't have to swing alone. At its 2008 "Captivate" event, Capcom finally gave some details on the multiplayer component in BC, though only single-player was demoed.
The multiplayer in BC is set prior to the events of the single-player campaign. Gamers play as test subjects giving a revolutionary new grappling weapon a go in various combat arenas. Not only does this give some context to the BC single-player storyline, but it also allows developer GRIN to alter some of the game mechanics to fit multiplayer. See, this way they can say, "Hey, this is what the prototype was like." According to GRIN, the single-player gameplay just didn't quite fit multiplayer and has undergone some tweaks.
Don't worry, you still get to swing around with a grappling hook. But it's combat functionality will be slightly different than in single-player. Rather than having a fully replaced bionic arm like BC hero Nathan Spencer, multiplayer has players in colorful powered suits.
Expect the standard set of multiplayer modes, including Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. The difference, of course, is that you get to swing around -- something we haven't really seen in a multiplayer game before. In fact, there are going to be some cool tandem moves for those willing to experiment in team modes. If your buddy is swinging, you can attach your bionic arm to him (don't ask where) and swing off him, allowing you to get a greater arc and therefore greater loft to get to otherwise unreachable places.
There will be boundaries to arenas and places where you can fall to your death. In fact, if you get knocked off a platform, you will have one shot to hook your grapple or it's bye-bye for you.
GRIN promises that multiplayer is "a lot of fun." It certainly has that potential. But we won't know for certain until we get our hands on MP, something that will likely occur at E3 2008 in mid-July.
Dark Void creator Airtight Studios has said that it chose to partner with Capcom on its upcoming cover-based third-person shooter because the publisher allows developers to innovate.
"A lot of other companies are like, 'Make it just like the last game that came out because it sells well worldwide'," lead designer Jose Perez told journalists at Capcom's Captivate 08 event in Las Vegas last week. "Capcom is known for innovation...and I just want to see their logo come up before our game."
An interesting side story in Dark Void's creation is that it sees a family of figures who worked on Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge for Microsoft Game Studios brought back together nearly five years after the game shipped on Xbox.
Airtight Studios was founded by members of the Crimson Skies team at FASA Interactive, along with Ed Fries, who helped build Microsoft Game Studios, and soon after Capcom signed Dark Void the publisher's US arm installed another former MGS figure, Scott Baylis, as its US development head.
"Scott came from Midway and before that EA, but before he was at EA he worked for me at Microsoft, and worked with Crimson Skies. In a way it was like this homecoming - all these people coming back together," Fries explained.
Fries himself became part of Airtight because, he joked, he had ruled out including on-foot gameplay in the original Crimson Skies and had promised the development team that he would be let them do that in the next game - only to leave in early 2004 after 18 years with Microsoft.
Given the group's history with the Xbox platform holder, we wondered why they had turned to Capcom with Dark Void rather than go 'home' to Microsoft.
"When we got together as a company Microsoft had just recently cancelled Crimson Skies, so we didn't feel like it made sense for us to go back and pitch Microsoft again on a title that had a lot of similar elements to it, and certainly the original pitch was more like Crimson than where we ended up," Fries told Eurogamer.
The original pitch was an action game that would see players fighting their way out of a pyramid, hopping onto a motorbike, flying a plane and shooting it out with a gigantic boss character all in the space of one level, but Fries said that despite the ambitious prototype, produced in four months, the developer ended up with a good demo but no one element that stood out from the crowd.
Capcom felt the same, but saw something in Airtight anyway and decided to fund development - a reaction that left the team with mixed feelings. It wasn't until subsequent meetings back at the studio that Dark Void started to take shape. The concept of vertical cover-based combat, which applies the gameplay of something like Gears of War to ascending a cliff-face, was what got things back on track.
If Fries is bitter about Microsoft's decision to ditch Crimson Skies though, he wasn't showing it at Captivate 08, and he believes that Dark Void will justify Capcom's faith, hoping to achieve a "95" rating on aggregators like Metacritic and Gamerankings. "I think if we took Dark Void back to [Microsoft now] they'd probably be pretty interested," he told Eurogamer. "But it really took somebody betting on us early when the IP was pretty unformed to get to where we are today."
More wicked and gritty Gears of War 2 screenshots have cropped up on the internet, this time showing off areas of the game a little less vague than before - namely multiplayer action and a 'ruddy great flamethrower.
In the shots (which come in all sorts of sizes) you can clearly see the napalm weapon alongside a new riot shield, which could turn cover standoffs in Gears 2 well and truly on their head.
The player count for multiplayer games has been upped from eight to ten, with five-on-five gameplay options.
New modes include Wingman, which sees ten players face off in teams of two, and Epic's own take on CTF, 'Meatflag', where the flag is a (presumably CPU-controlled) character who runs around the map trying to defend himself. Sounds good.
Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono spoke to Eurogamer about Seth, one of the boss characters in Capcom's upcoming beat-'em-up, last week, and hinted that he will be playable.
"Seth is indeed a new character and a boss. Seth is a really interesting character because he has connections to some other important characters in Street Fighter IV. You may have noticed of course that M. Bison is back. At the end of Street Fighter II everyone presumed that Shadowloo had been destroyed and Bison presumably had been killed. He's a hard guy to kill and he's once again returned.
"What we need to figure out as players looking at the story is why are Shadowloo back, how did that happen, how and why did Bison come back, and what is Seth's connection to that, and he's very much connected to it," Ono told Eurogamer in a video interview you'll be able to see in a Captivate 08 EGTV Special soon.
"If you look at him he's got a kind of expressionless face and a strange skin colour, he has some sort of device embedded in his stomach. He's a unique-looking character, he's clearly not an ordinary human being - there's something going on with this guy."
Seth's story will be explored in some part by the arcade version of SF IV, due out in arcades this summer, but the home version - for PS3, 360 and PC - will go into much greater depth with him, Ono said.
Interestingly, Ono told assembled hacks that Capcom would be unlikely to include any fully-animated characters without letting players control them. When pushed about this and how it relates to Seth, Ono laughed but quickly hushed up. "If people express a desire to take control of Seth, we might see a movement in that direction at some point," he said. "I certainly don't want to say much more than that - I've already said too much!"
Microsoft and Silicon Knights have gone skill tree mental, releasing a video and screens demonstrating how you can spend your Too Human experience points on the game's beefy Berserker class. Riveting stuff.
But seriously, there's some decent footage of robots getting there face smashed in as well, so be sure to give the video a look - the art style's gorgeous as well.
The 360 exclusive has been dated (finally) for August 19. There's a disturbing trend of press writing it off as a generic hack 'n slasher at the moment, but we had a play at Microsoft's showcase last month and found Too Human to be surprisingly deep and satisfying.
Let's hope they sort those camera controls out, though.
Capcom has released a bunch of new screenshots from Resident Evil 5, showing off zombie-dogs, more white zombies and a bunch of gorgeous looking locations. They look stunning.
The shots look mostly like they've been taken from scenes from the awesome trailer released earlier this week, but there are a few glimpses of areas we've never seen before.
Resident Evil 5 is planned for release this financial year. Unfortunately that could be anytime up until March of next year and Capcom has been known to flout normal conventions and release things earlier on in the year. Like Resident Evil 4 for example.
Take a look. We're sure there's more to follow soon.
features
Assume the role of a ninja warrior and experience an all-new combat system that requires skill and mastery of your full arsenal of weapons
Ninja Gaiden II’s new auto-healing system featuring semi-permanent damage restored at save points is the natural evolution of the franchise’s distinctive gameplay
In addition to the single-player campaign, upload Karma scores to Xbox LIVE® leaderboards and participate in an all-new Master Ninja Tournament.
Ninja Gaiden II represents the best in amazing visuals, responsive control, and thrilling combat with an extensive assortment of ninja weaponry
description
Ninja Gaiden® 2 makes its long-awaited debut on Xbox 360™ as the blockbuster action-packed sequel to Ninja Gaiden®. Ninja Gaiden 2 features a new and improved game engine, developed from the ground up exclusively for Microsoft and Xbox 360 by Team Ninja and legendary game developer Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of the famed Dead or Alive franchise.
Guide Ryu Hayabusa on a mission to avenge his clan and prevent the destruction of the human race. Armed with an assortment of ninja weaponry, help Ryu to skillfully maneuver through a world fraught with peril and danger. Ninja Gaiden 2 features an all-new gameplay engine, new auto-health regeneration system, levels, adventures, enemies, and thrilling combat with an extensive assortment of ninja weaponry, representing a true evolution of the highly popular franchise.
features
Re-live his epic adventures in a humorous LEGO world based on the original trilogy of movies
Journey from the jungles of South America to the snowy mountaintops of India
Use Indy’s signature weapon to capture and disarm enemies, swing across gaps, activate levers, and interact with a world of LEGO objects and puzzles
Choose from over 60 playable characters, each with a variety of unique abilities
description
LEGO® Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures takes the fun and creative construction of LEGO and combines it with the wits, daring, and non-stop action from the Indiana Jones cinematic adventures that enthralled audiences everywhere.
With a tongue-in-cheek take on these original adventures, LEGO Indiana Jones follows Dr. Jones' escapades through the jungles of South America to the mountaintops of India. Build, battle, and brawl your way through your favorite moments, from Indy's entanglements with snakes to his dashing boulder run.
Compared to basically every other appliance you have plugged in at home, the Playstation 3 sucks up more juice. That's according to a new study by Australian consumer agency Choice, which found that when a PS3 is running, it sucks up five times more energy than a refrigerator. If you leave it on all the time for something like Folding@Home, you're looking at an energy cost of nearly $250 a year.
The Xbox 360 isn't all that much better, using 23.57kWh per week when idling compared to the PS3's 31.74kWh. The Wii, on the other hand, is downright dainty in comparison, using only 2.97kWh per week when idling, less than 10% of the energy used by the PS3.
It's all a good lesson to simply turn off your console, whatever it may be, when you aren't using it. I'm not one to disparage the good work done by Folding@Home, but if you leave your console cranking away on it all the time you'll spend enough to go out and buy a Wii by the time a year is up.
Within the 85 plus new features and enhancements in Madden NFL 09, EA Sports BackTrack and the Virtual Training Center allow the gamer to have a unique gameplay experience each time they load up the game. Both Madden NFL veterans and casual gamers new to the franchise can utilize these two features to be competitive in Madden NFL 09 and also improve their overall football knowledge, regardless of their initial skill level.
The Virtual Training Center is a new interactive tutorial mode, set in a holographic environment that aims at teaching gamers fundamental concepts about football strategy and how to use the controls in quick, fun and stylized drills. After players complete these drills, a Madden IQ score is given, and their "My Skills" difficulty settings are automatically set based on their strengths and weaknesses. Throughout their Madden NFL career, the all-new Adaptive Difficulty Engine will continually tailor the difficulty settings as the gamers' Madden IQ score evolves.
EA Sports BackTrack is a new replay learning tool imbedded within the game that dissects plays and shows the player what they should have done in certain circumstances. When a mistake is made, Cris Collinsworth will breakdown where the user went wrong and what they could have done better. For advanced players, EA Sports BackTrack will give more technical information such as the play calls that were made and the success rates of the play.
Madden NFL 09 marks the 20th anniversary of one of the best-selling and most critically-acclaimed videogame franchises of all time, and the game will feature adaptable gameplay tailored to every type of gamer, online enhancements and a broadcast style presentation delivering an authentic NFL experience. Madden NFL 09 will be available in stores across North America on August 12.
The graphical enhancements of Madden NFL 09 are extremely impressive and bring the emotion of NFL football to life. Madden NFL 09 features amazing detail to stadiums, weather effects, player models and a whole host of other elements.
Madden NFL 09 will be available for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game systems from Microsoft, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment systems, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP (PlayStation Portable) handheld entertainment system and is rated E by the ESRB.
2K Games is planning to release a demo of Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network this Thursday.
According to GameSpot, the demo will be on Xbox Live worldwide and PSN in North America, with a PAL PSN release to follow at some undetermined point in the future. We've asked 2K to clarify.
The demo will give you control of either Caesar or Cleopatra and allow you to play against the CPU or human players online until 1250 AD. But if you're staring at your 2008 Kylie calendar in alarm, don't worry, you've misunderstood the premise: building civilisations up from nothing and trying to outdo competing cultures by achieving things like military, diplomatic, economical or scientific superiority.
The demo is set to weigh in at 1.08GB.
The full game isn't due out for a month in the US, but for once in our wretched lives the news is better for us, with a European release on PS3 and 360 set for 13th June. A DS version will then follow in the summer. The previously-planned Wii version is on indefinite hold.
Infinity Ward has boasted that its acclaimed shooter Call of Duty 4 has surged past 10 million sales around the world.
The developer spilled the beans to News.com, and revealed that the Xbox 360 version had been most successful, although no figures were mentioned.
Call of Duty 4 was released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 last November. Its attraction is such that it still commands a top 10 place in the UK All-Formats chart, holding on at nine for the week just passed.
It won universal praise for its cinematic battles and a welcome move onto a modern battlefield, marking a high point for the series as a whole. We also liked the one with the bushy beard moustache thing and cigar. Extra points.
Alas, although unconfirmed, it appears to be alternate series developer Treyarch set to deliver Call of Duty 5, with action rumoured to return to the tired fields of World War II.
NinjaBee, a division of Wahoo Studios, has announced its latest project in unique fashion. The studio, known for Cloning Clyde, Band of Bugs and Outpost Kaloki X, sent out word today it intended to hire 20 three-foot-tall Keflings to work around the office…and that the game they star in will release this fall on Xbox Live Arcade. The only description of the game given is that it will "feature fun and light-hearted gameplay with graphics and original music to match."
Square Enix has released eight new screens from 360 title Infinite Undiscovery, a game that we bet was named by a couple of Japanese guys picking two English words they liked and stringing them together.
The game is being developed by Tri-Ace, which previously made the Star Ocean series and Valkyrie Profile.
Infinite Undiscovery is said to contain ten years worth of ideas from programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda that could only be achieved with current-generation technology.
Looking at the screenshots (below), there's a bunch of kids dressed up in medieval armour, a nice-looking woman, a freckled-faced girl and a couple of fights jam packed with statistics and targeting circles. All seems fairly familiar to us.
SEGA's UK product manager Ben Payne believes everything is in place to ensure the publisher's Hulk video game is a smash hit.
"The Incredible Hulk is Marvel's second biggest property, so awareness of the character is high. As usual, the success of any film tie-in video game is linked to the film itself, " Payne told UK trade magazine MCV. "Thankfully this film is going to be massive, and is well timed, in that it gives Indy IV its deserved moment in the spotlight, and is released two weeks before Prince Caspian.
"We envisage the game doing very well, especially as none of us will be watching the football."
SEGA's isn't banking on the popularity of the movie and the Hulk character doing all the work for them though, with a huge marketing campaign planned.
"We are replicating our Iron Man cinema activity for the The Incredible Hulk. Over the opening two weeks of the film which is released on June 12, we will hit 1.5 million admissions across Carlton Screen and Pearl and Dean advertising," said Payne.
The Incredible Hulk will be release for Xbox 360 and DS on June 13, followed on June 20 by PS2 and PS3, PC on June 20 and Wii on July 11.
Interesting news out of the EA camp today as it was just announced that the Playstation 3 version of the upcoming Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has been canceled with no reason given. Eurogamer is reporting that EA has stopped production on the PS3 version and will focus their developing efforts on the Xbox 360 and PC versions. Also, it's good to know that the cancelation of Red Alert 3 on the PS3 will not affect the game's scheduled Fall release on other platforms. So, the only place to get your console RTS fun this Fall will be Red Alert 3 on the 360 ... or Halo Wars on the 360. That is if Ensemble can get it out the door sometime this year.
Due to our site being focused on "Retro" we want your entry's to be inspired/focused on "Retro" things or "Retro" gaming. So if your planning on entering a game into the competition, we want it to be based on something "Retro" or based around "Retro" gaming.
Now this doesn't mean it has to be all 2d and pixelated sprites. You can make something 3D if you would like. As long as it is based on something "Retro" its fine by us. Same goes for emulators. If you plan on entering a emulator, your only restriction is your target console. Your emulator cannot be based on any console that is in the 7th generation.
The below list will show you what category each console is listed under :
1st > 7th Generation Consoles List
What do you mean by "Retro"?
By this we mean either any retro games : circa 1970 > 1999 or any event from that time frame. Use your imagination, a 1970's flower power game is one example I guess.
3. You MUST post your entry at RetroEmu first (including the file). You may post about your entry on other sites but you MUST post a link back to your submission post on this site.
4. Judges are Zack and hardhat, and will send out prizes two weeks after the final deadline.
5. Prizes are: 1st place - Nintendo Wii Console + Wii Sports Or 2GB Asus EEE PC (CELM-900M) 2nd place - 2GB iPod Shuffle + $100US paid by PayPal, 3rd place - Indiana Jones collection DVD Or $50US paid by PayPal.
6. You can post and update your competition entry as much as you like, from now until August 31st 2008 at 23:59 GMT.
7. Your entry/submission MUST include the RetroEmu.com splash screen at the beginning/start up of your game/emulator. You can find the splash images at the bottom of this post or HERE
8. You can choose between the following target platforms for your game/emulator entry/submission : Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, NDS, PS3, Wii, PSP, Ubuntu Linux.
9. You may enter an updated version of your emulator/game, but it MUST have significant changes done from the previous version.
10. Both open source and closed source submissions are allowed.
11. Breaking the rules excludes you from the competition.
12. The submission deadline will not move, so don't ask for a change.
13. The judges decisions are final, so don't say that they are unfair.
14. The judges will take into consideration user votes upon judging.
15. There is no restriction on sprite/content, you may use commercial sprites if you wish.
16. There is no restriction on programming language used. However you must include all needed runtime's, images etc with your entry in order to run your game/emulator.
17. Implementation of the Splash screen counts for a 5% judging bonus, so be creative. (i.e Special effects on splash screen).
18. You MUST include a screenshot with your entry/submission.
19. Have fun and enjoy the competition!
Splash Images :
Here are the splash Images that you MUST have displayed at the start/beginning of your game/emulator entry/submission.
Note : You may NOT make your own variations of these images, you be as creative as you like your implementation of it though. For your entry to be accepted you must use one of the following images. To request a different size, see the bottom of this message.
Remember that there is a 5% judging bonus for your implementation of the splash screen so be creative!
For PS3/Wii/XP/Vista/Mac/Ubuntu Linux :
(640x480)
For PSP :
(480x272)
For Nintendo DS :
(256x152)
If you have any questions regarding the competition or would like a splash image in a different size to the ones posted, feel free to send me a pm (private message) (at RetroEmu)
Forbes recently ran a story focusing on the best-selling US games using updated NPD Group data.
Despite the fact that the data Forbes looked at went back 15 years, all of the titles on the list were released after 2001 - perhaps not so surprising when you consider that the best-selling console of all-time (the PS2) was released in 2000.
Three titles from last year - Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, both from Activision, and EA's Madden NFL 2008 - have now made the Top Ten list, no doubt bolstered by their release on multiple platforms.
The Top Ten best-selling titles in the US based upon units sold are:
* 1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (9.43 million)
* 2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (8.2 million)
* 3. Madden NFL 2007 (7.7 million)
* 4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (7.3 million)
* 5. Madden NFL 2006 (6.65 million)
* 6. Halo 2 (6.6 million)
* 7. Madden NFL 2008 (6.56 million)
* 8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (6.25 million)
* 9. Grand Theft Auto III (6.2 million)
* 10. Madden NFL 2005 (6.1 million)
Grand Theft Auto IV sold 8.5 million units between 29th April and 31st May, with shipments to retail now at 11 million, Take-Two said in its latest round of financials, which announced a USD 98.2 million Q2 net profit.
It took Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games just a fortnight to surpass one million units sold in the UK alone, as part of six million sales in its first week on the shelves worldwide - worth USD 500 million according to Take-Two's figures.
However, the publisher also revealed yesterday that the much-anticipated GTA IV downloadable content for Xbox 360 has been put back a bit and will now appear in the company's November-to-January quarter.
Those waiting for more Grand Theft Auto IV content will have to wait a little bit longer. According to Take-Two's Fiscal Q3 2008 report, the first batch of GTA IV downloadable content will be coming in Q1 of fiscal 2009, instead of the originally planned Q4 of fiscal 2008. In real calendar terms, that means the DLC, which is rumored to include whole new cities, is due between November 1, 2008, and January 31, 2009.
The reason behind the delay, according to Take-Two, was to "provide a better balance in Take-Two's release schedule." The statement specifically mentioned Xbox 360, with no talk of content for the PS3.
Sega has announced its UK lineup for the current financial year, revealing the official launch dates for two new Sonic titles.
Speaking to MCV, the firm confirmed Sonic Unleashed will launch in November for PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 and PS2, while also announcing the Bioware-developed DS exclusive Sonic Chronicles will be out in September.
Sega also confirmed that Aliens: Colonial Marines, one of its big hopes of 2008, has been delayed and will not now be released until early 2009. The PS3 and Xbox 360 title was originally scheduled for a winter 2008 launch.
The full Sega lineup:
* The Incredible Hulk (DS and 360 - June 13; PS3 and PS2 - June 20; PC - June 27)
* Beijing 2008 (360, PS3 and PC - June 27)
* Sambe De Amigo (Wii - August)
* Space Siege (PC - August 22)
* Picto Image (DS - September)
* Golden Axe Raiders (360 and PS3 - September)
* Sonic Chronicles (DS - September)
* Yakuzza 2 (PS2 - September)
* Valkyria Chronicles (PS3 - Autumn)
* Sonic Unleashed (Wii, 260, PS2 and PS3 - November)
* Empire Total War (PC - early 2009)
* Alpha Protocol (PC, 360 and PS3 - early 2009)
* Mad World (Wii - early 2009)
* Aliens: Colonial Marines (PS3 and 360 - early 2009)
Japanese hardware saw a jump for the week ended June 1, with all consoles increasing upon their sales, according to figures from Media Create.
The PSP maintained it's dominance of the market, selling 71, 986 units this week compared to 64,449 last week. The Wii trailed behind with a total of 50,851 units sold, compared to the previous week's 49,047 units.
The Nintedo DS and PlayStation 3 followed, selling 38,355 units, up from 37,404, and 9169 units, up from 9017, respectively.
Sony's PlayStation 2 managed to sell a respectable 7203 units, an increase on last week's 7189 unit sales, while the Xbox 360 lagged behind selling only 1959 units, although this too is an increase on last weeks 1947 units.
Speaking to investors in a quarterly financial conference call today, Take-Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick confirmed that plans exist for a third BioShock game, which will likely coincide with the release of the Gore Verbinski-directed film version of the game franchise.
At the tail end of the call, when asked when Take-Two expects the Verbinski film to hit theatres, Zelnick responded, "Its unlikely the picture would be released coincident with BioShock 2. It's more likely it would be released coincident with BioShock 3."
It's been less than three months since Take-Two execs officially confirmed its plans for BioShock 2, which will be handled by the company's new 2K Marin studio. BioShock 2 is set for release in Q4 of Take-Two's fiscal year 2009.
No platforms for BioShock 3 were announced on today's conference call, and there was no mention of which studio will be involved with the project.
Following news of the PSN demo's arrival, EA's Battlefield: Bad Company demo has arrived for download on Xbox Live Marketplace too.
The demo includes a snippet from the game's single-player campaign, apparently giving you an "early look into the quest for Gold with Bad Company".
Meanwhile on the multiplayer side of things you get to try out "the all-new Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map, featuring land, sea and air vehicles," which sounds far more appealing to us than the comedy solo campaign.
And if you reach multiplayer rank 4 in the demo, you'll apparently unlock "an exclusive in-game weapon". Lancer? BFG? Someone let us know what it is.
Microsoft is unhappy with the ability to find content on Xbox Live Marketplace, 360 product management director Aaron Greenberg has put on record.
"I think that we are not, I would say...happy with the ability to find and discover content as easily as we'd like for consumers to be able to do that," Greenberg, told MTV Multiplayer.
The feeling has caused the platform holder to start removing underperforming and poorly reviewed Xbox Live Arcade games from Marketplace.
"I think a lot of that is we built Xbox Live Marketplace for a few hundred items and now we have 17,000 items," said Greenberg. "We built a small store and we filled it with lots of lots of stuff. We're feeling some of these growing pains and [the new policy] is one of those tradeoffs we've had to make.
"Longer term, we're looking to make the ability to find content and organize the 17,000 pieces of content we have a lot better."
