10.31.06

Halo Movie Postponed + 60GB HDD for Xbox 360"?

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 9:37 am by UNSCleric

The following is a statement by Peter Jackson’s studio in regards to the Halo movie:

“As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.”

Also, yesterday during the Xbox event in Japan that I posted pictures from yesterday, there was one picture that may have revealed a 60GB (or larger) HDD is coming for the Xbox 360.

Some believe this HDD actually is 80GB with just over 20GB used.  It’s also possible that this was a development kit.

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U.S. Department of Justice Investigating Sony

Posted in PS3 Related at 9:20 am by UNSCleric

- Partial article is below - Link to original story (AP)

TOKYO (AP) - Sony said Tuesday the U.S. Department of Justice is probing its electronics unit as part of an industrywide investigation into sales of a particular type of memory chip. The news could spell more trouble for a company already stung by sinking profits, a global battery recall and product delays.

The Japanese company received a subpoena from the Justice Department’s antitrust division seeking information about Sony’s static random access memory, or SRAM, business, company spokesman Atsuo Omagari said.

“Sony intends to cooperate fully with the DOJ in what appears to be an industrywide inquiry,” the company said in a short statement.

The probe could add to a growing list of headaches for Sony.

It has been battered by a worldwide recall of lithium-ion batteries on fears they could overheat and burst into flames. The recall affected almost every major laptop maker in the world, including Dell Inc. (DELL), Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) and Lenovo.

Just last week, Sony Corp. (SNE) said profit plunged 94 percent in the July-Sept. quarter, thanks to a worldwide laptop battery recall and red ink in its video-game business.

It also has lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2007 to 80 billion yen ($673 million), down 38 percent from its initial projection and down 35 percent from fiscal 2005.

SRAM is a kind of computer memory that is faster and more reliable that DRAM, or dynamic random access memory. Although it does not need to be refreshed like DRAM, SRAM is also more expensive.

SRAM is found in relatively small quantities in personal computers. It’s also used in disk drives, communications equipment and networking gear.

Problems with its long-awaited next-generation PlayStation 3 console have also dug deep.

Sony reported a 43.5 billion yen ($366 million) operating loss in its gaming division in the July-September quarter because of charges related to its development.

Sony said last month the machine’s launch in Europe will be delayed until March next year because of mass production problems in a video technology called Blu-ray disk that the machine supports. The PlayStation 3 is set to go on sale in the U.S. and Japan next month.

The company also reduced the PS3 price in Japan by about 20 percent in an effort to win buyers - a move that’s likely to reduce sales revenue because initial shipments are expected to be limited and sell out.

The company announced the probe after the market closed. Sony shares, which have fallen about 15 percent since May, finished up 10 yen, or 0.2 percent, at 4,850 yen ($40.75) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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We truly are watching the death of a company here.  Karma is drowning Sony in the pool of their own greed.

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Upcoming Releases

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 6:01 am by UNSCleric

You’ll be able to find the following in most stores today and tomorrow:

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (note the $7.77 price tag)
Halo Faceplate
F.E.A.R.
Need For Speed: Carbon
FIFA Soccer 07

There’s also a possibility you’ll be able to find the new Wireless Headset somewhere this week as well, but no retailer seems to be clear on when they’re getting it.  Most GameStop stores seem to think it’ll be there either in the next day or two, or sometime around the 7th, some Toys R Us stores however say they will have it on the 31st or 1st, I’ve also heard that Wal-Mart already has a spot on the shelf for it, so it could be any day there.  Basically, for the headset, you’re going to have to call all your local stores.  Putting down $5 for one at GameStop might not be a bad idea either, just incase they end up getting it first.

As far as next week:

Gears of War
HD-DVD Drive
Blitz: The League
Call of Duty 3
Tony Hawk Project 8
Fuzion Frenzy 2 (may be pushed back)
Viva Pinata

and then the week of November 14th:

Sonic The Hedgehog
WWE Smack!Down vs. RAW 2007
The Zune

and finally on the week of November 20th:

Rainbow Six: Vegas
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Superman Returns
Star Trek: Legacy
College Hoops 2K7
The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine (DLC)

From that list alone, it’s not going to be hard to spend several hundred dollars this November.  This is the time we’ve waited all year for.

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Fall Dashboard Update

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 5:32 am by UNSCleric

It’s now Live!

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10.30.06

PS3 Cuts Launch Numbers In Japan

Posted in PS3 Related at 4:22 pm by UNSCleric

First they were going to ship several million, then they cut it down to 2 million, then they cut it down to 100,000, and now it’s gone down another 20% due to (surprise) part problems.  Japan will now get 80,000 consoles on its November 11th launch day.  There’s no word yet if the supposed 400,000 North American launch number will be affected.  This shouldn’t even be called a console launch with these kind of numbers.

Here’s the full story.

For those who got a PS3 pre-ordered, I saw a PS3 pre-order sell for $2,025 yesterday on eBay, and those pre-orders are selling for way less than the actual in-hand consoles will on November 17th.  If you’ve been lucky enough to pre-order a console at GameStop/EBGames/ToysRUs, you’re going to be making a lot of money in a couple weeks.

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Dashboard Update Officially Confirmed

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 12:19 pm by UNSCleric

Update:  Full list of updates here, it’ll go live around 4am central Tuesday morning.

Here’s official confirmation on what I reported last week, from the official Microsoft Gamerscore blog:

Fall System Update Coming Tomorrow

Beginning Tuesday, you can download a free system update.  It includes support for native 1080p games and movies, faster Arcade game list display times, and more video playback options.

This free update will be distributed via the Xbox Live® online gaming and entertainment network to all members (Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold) with no disc or hard drive required.

From the Media Alert:

Expanded HD Display and Video Playback Options

• With 1080p resolution, gamers now have the ability to enjoy both game and video content in the best HD resolution currently available.
• Expanded video playback options increase the ways gamers can enjoy video content on Xbox 360. It is now possible to stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Connect.
• Gamers can now play video files from data CDs and DVDs, as well as from storage devices like USB 2.0 flash drives and Xbox 360 Memory Units.
• Xbox 360 will support 50hz HDTV display modes, providing viewers greater choice in how they watch DVD and HD DVD content.

Xbox Live Arcade Enhancements

• Keeping up to date on Xbox Live Arcade games is now even more convenient with the ability to automatically download newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games. This eliminates the need to manually search for new downloads on Xbox Live Marketplace each time a new game trial is released.
• Fast Enumeration of Games. You’ll see the games in your Xbox Live Arcade collection appear almost instantly. Get in and play right away.
• With so many games to choose from, Xbox Live Arcade added new sorting options such as “Recently Played” and “By Category.” These enhancements make managing Xbox Live Arcade collections faster and easier than ever.
• A new expanded Friends Leaderboard within Xbox Live Arcade allows gamers to compare themselves directly against their friends and view leaderboard details of their top-10 friends.
• A new expanded Achievements View within Xbox Live Arcade lets gamers view their full Achievement details for their Arcade games including descriptions, icons, allotted Gamerscore and more, right from the Xbox Live Arcade dashboard interface.
• The “Play Now” launch feature has been streamlined. Selecting “Play Now” after downloading a game in Xbox Live Marketplace now bypasses Arcade and takes you directly to the game.
• Xbox Live Arcade now offers a “Tell a Friend” feature. Select this from the game info screen to send any friend on your friends list a message telling them about the Arcade game.

XNA Support

• Amateur game designers will be able to test and play the games they create using XNA Game Studio Express on their Xbox 360s systems when it launches later this year (separate download and subscription required).

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Only White Wiis At Launch

Posted in Wii Related at 11:46 am by UNSCleric

For those of you getting a Wii this fall, you’ll be getting a white one.  In an attempt to create the highest number of consoles they can, Nintendo has decided that white will be the only color for now. 

In the future, they will be releasing silver, red, black, & yellow consoles, along with colored Wii-motes.

- Full story here

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Dashboard Update Tomorrow

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 9:20 am by UNSCleric

Six days ago I predicted the Dashboard update would come in a week.  Looks like that was right, news all over the Internet today says that tomorrow, October 31st, will be the day.  Below are the details.

 

Gamefront.de reports that Famitsu said we’re going to get the Fall update tomorrow. This coincides with earlier rumors, claiming the exact same date. The Fall update will contain over 80 additional features including an overhaul for the Xbox Live Arcade and the Marketplace, 1080p and HD-DVD support and more. The report doesn’t say anything about the US and EU release of the update but sources tell us that this is a worldwide release.

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Update: WatchImpress has the first pics from the Japanese press conference. WMV streaming via Windows Media Connect, from a CD-R/DVD-R and a USB thumbdrive has been confirmed.

Microsoft will release its “Fall 2006 System Update” on 31.10.06 in Japan, according to a Famitsu report. The update is free and available to all Xbox Live members.

The update, among other things, improves Xbox Live Arcade and Marketplace functions, provides 1080p support, adds a start menu for XNA-developed games, adds HD-DVD player support and over 80 additional functions.

Microsoft is holding a press conference in Japan at which additional information will be provided.

There is also a Halo Trilogy Theme now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 150 points, but it comes free with the Halo faceplate, which ships tomorrow.

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10.28.06

Hi-Res Halo 3 Multiplayer Scans

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 8:44 am by UNSCleric

Hi-res scans of the 12-page magazine special on Halo 3’s multiplayer have now made their way onto the Internet, and UNSCleric.com has them for your viewing pleasure below, along with some direct quotes from the magazine.  I went through all the information yesterday, but now you can see the direct quotes where that information was gathered.  Click the picture and click again to zoom in all the way.

On plot twists:
“Halo 3 will contain more plot twists than any other game in the series” –Jaime Griesemer

On Gears of War being competition:
“We’ve played lots and lots of multiplayer and some single player, and yeah, it’s really good. But it’s also quite a bit different from what we’re doing. I realize that a lot of people are concerned that Halo 3 and Gears of War are going to compete for the same audience, but I think that when people get to play, they’ll realize how different the games are. Gears is a much slower game where strategy and cover plays a bigger part.” –Jaime Griesemer

On graphics:
“A lot is still missing in this build. Weather- and water effects are missing, and most of our HDR isn’t in there yet. We’re still at alpha stage, but when everything is in place, Halo 3 will be the best X360 has to offer.” –Brian Jarrard

“We definitely have another strategy than Epic Games when it comes to graphics. We’ll never engulf our game environments in lots of details like that. GoW looks absolutely fantastic, but we want to avoid compromising Halo’s unique visual style. That’s why we’re making a clean, sharp game as opposed to one with insane amount of details.” –Brian Jarrard

“There are many ways to convey emotion. Graphics is not the most important one.” –Brian Jarrard

On multiplayer and bots:
“Multiplayer has always been important, but it’s developed in a different way which makes it look bigger for every game. We have a base that we always build the MP part on, whereas the SP mode practically has to be built ground-up every time. Xbox Live also made MP in Halo 2 even more important.” –Brian Jarrard

“A lot of people ask us about bots. They think that the AI in Halo was pretty damn good, and would work well in MP as well, but it’s really not that simple. The enemies in Halo are optimized for encountering the player in large numbers. They would be a lot worse at abstract thought AI like ‘I have to defend my flag’ and so forth. In short, to create bots for Halo would be an immense undertaking, and we rather put that time into making new levels, weapons and netcode.” –Jaime Griesemer

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There’s also a bit more news on the Halo movie that came out yesterday.  Microsoft is now talking to Paramount and Warner Brothers about being partners in the Halo movie, but if all else fails, they will fund it themselves or from private sources.

While all this wrangling is going on in the background, the film itself is moving ahead. The original script by Alex Garland (28 Days Later) has been rewritten by Ender’s Game scribe D.B. Weiss and will reportedly get another rewrite by Josh Olsen, screenwriter on A History of Violence.

Thanks to Matt for sending in the movie news.

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10.27.06

More Halo 3 Details

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 4:11 pm by UNSCleric

1UP.com/EGM have responded to the Halo 3 info leak that occurred earlier today.  They confirm the details that were leaked as being true, and also give a few hints of what is still left to be uncovered, like something about a recording option in Halo 3, and what the starting weapon will be for multiplayer.  Below is the full article from 1Up.com:

In the just-redesigned December issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (subscribers should have it any day now) a handful of editors took Halo 3’s multiplayer game hands-on.

The result? A 17-page cover story and a three-week series of stories on 1UP called “3 Weeks of Halo 3.”

Before all of that information ends up in your hands, though — here’s a small taste of what to expect from both EGM and 1UP over the next few weeks:

What are these new Brutish weapons? What’s a Spike Rifle…or a Spike Grenade?

The Mongoose (the once-scrapped ATV from Halo/Halo 2) is back!

Halo 3 will have three retail SKUs: standard, collector’s edition, and Legendary. Guess which one comes with a helmet and four discs of content?

Adding bumpers to the 360 controller means there’s some extra real estate for Bungie to play with. Now the left bumper reloads your dual-wielded weapon and the right bumper is the normal reload. What does X do, though?

Starting weapon: Bungie thinks they have the “perfect” starting weapon in Halo 3. It’s not the pistol, the battle rifle, or the SMG…and it’s pretty familiar. How does the new Assault Rifle play?

One of the new maps, Valhalla, is being called “the new Blood Gulch” — but this isn’t another coat of new paint on the Combat Evolved classic. This is, from-the-ground-up, a brand-new map. How is it?

What if you could save your own movies from Halo 3’s single- and multiplayer gameplay and then re-watch them? In Halo 3, you can.

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It seems we already know everything that will be revealed as far as the magazine specials go, now we just need more details (in English).  Hopefully Bungie releases some footage, or at least some official pictures on their site sometime this year as well.

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Halo 3 Multiplayer Revealed

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 12:40 pm by UNSCleric

The Swedish game magazine “Level” has a 12-page special on Halo 3’s multiplayer, announcing new weapons and vehicles that we will see in Halo 3, as well as a few pictures and some details on what the Collector’s Edition of the game will come with.

Legendary Edition
The CE will be called “Legendary Edition” and is a replica of Master Chief’s helmet complete with four DVD discs. The first disc will be the game disc, the second will contain documentaries and developer comments, the third disc is all about the spin-off material that has been created (Red vs. Blue, Spark of Life etc) and the last disc will contain all of the cut scenes from Halo 1 to 3 in HD.  You can see a glimpse of what this Legendary Edition will look like in the upper left of the 4th picture.

The magazine reveals new details about weapons, vehicles and multiplayer:

Weapons
Spiker - a new Brute weapon
Spartan laser - a laser that tears vehicles apart
Nail Grenade - sticks into walls and sends nails everywhere

Vehicles
The Mongoose is in! This is the ATV that was cut from Halo 2. It seats two and has no weapons. Designed from recon and quick travel.

Multiplayer
The “Man Cannon” - A device that shoots people into the air, much like a jump pad, though it sounds like it might be aimable.

Controls
The X button has a new, still secret feature. Reloading has now been allocated to the bumper buttons. Right bumper reloads the right weapon, and the left bumper reloads the left.

Three New Levels
- Valhalla = Blood gulch
- High Ground = Zanzibar
- Snowbound = Frost bite 

There will be no multiplayer bots.  They take too much time to develop, and that time can be used for more meaningful things.

Also, you can now see your secondary weapon when it’s not in use. In other words, it’s actually slung over your shoulder instead of magically appearing out of thin air.

A taste of the Halo movie will be on one of the discs as well.

“We definitely have another strategy than Epic Games when it comes to graphics. We’ll never engulf our game environments in lots of details like that. GoW looks absolutely fantastic, but we want to avoid compromising Halo’s unique visual style. That’s why we’re making a clean, sharp game as opposed to one with insane amount of details.”

Bungie.net just put up an entry in the past few minutes condemning the leaking of these pictures to the Internet. EGM will have a big special on Halo 3 when it hits news stands in mid-November here in the USA..

It’s also revealed in the article that what the magazine editors played as an Alpha build of the multiplayer.  No weather or water effects were present, and the HDR lighting was not there for the most part either.

They also say that Halo 3 contains more plot twists than any other game in the series.

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I’m excited to see these pictures and everything, but I don’t get why Bungie decided to reveal Halo 3 multiplayer for the first time via snail-mail magazines.  They knew scans would come out before most people could even buy one of the magazines, and now are whining about it.  I don’t know about you, but when seeing Halo 3 for the first time, I would rather it be at some big live press conference, or have it be at Bungie.net at least, showing off huge, high-definition pictures.  Doing this exclusive sit-down with several magazines seems a bit old-school when we’re in the age of the Internet and Xbox Live, where they can deliver high-def content within seconds to billions of people.

We’re hopefully going to see different pictures in the EGM article in a couple weeks, and hopefully after that magazines hits the stores, Bungie will release some nice HD pictures of the game, as well as maybe some MP footage.  I would personally rather not see anymore storyline footage.  I still think Halo 3 will be out in the first half of 2007, either on or before 7/7/07.

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