04.29.07

Lies, Racism, Sexism…Add Animal Torture to Sony’s Résumé

Posted in Xbox 360 News, PS3 Related at 4:21 am by UNSCleric

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said it was “outrageous” that the animal’s death had been used “to sell a few computer games”.

A spokesman said: “We are always opposed to any senseless killing of an animal and this sounds like a gruesome death. We condemn Sony’s actions. It is stupid and completely unjustified.”

Guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach.

Sickening images of the party have also appeared in the company’s official PlayStation magazine.

They also threw knives at targets and pulled live snakes from a pit with their bare hands.

Topless girls added to the louche atmosphere by dipping grapes into guests’ mouths, while a male model portraying Kratos, the game’s warrior hero, handed out garlands.

The image from Sony’s magazine is pictured above, but has been pixilated to spare readers the sight of the goat’s decapitated head hanging by a thread of tissue from its corpse, with blood dripping to the floor.

But the magazine’s readers were shown the picture in its full horror.

The article, based on a Sony Press release, shows more vivid pictures from the event under headlines such as Topless Girls! and Flesh Eating?

It asks readers how far they would go to get hold of Sony’s next-generation console, the PlayStation 3.

“How about eating still warm intestines uncoiled from the carcass of a freshly slaughtered goat? At the party to celebrate God Of War II’s European release, members of the Press were invited to do just that . . .”

“I would understand if customers wanted to boycott other Sony products such as their televisions because of this controversy.”

- Former Minister Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East

—————————–

So what else does Sony have to do until people wake up?  Not much else I would assume.  Not only is Sony destroying the gaming industry with their overpriced, proprietary garbage and lazy, arrogant tactics, but now they are bringing this kind of attention to the gaming industry, which is going to do nothing but further the agenda of those who want games to be censored or banned completely. 

Microsoft, on the other hand, is working with parents to make sure they have total and complete control over their kid’s experiences on the Xbox 360, with unique and customizable security features.  This is the kind of thinking that will keep freedom in the gaming industry, a freedom that is being abused by Sony as they use blatant racism, sexism, and now the murder of animals to promote their half-assed, over-hyped products.

Related:
Sony Promotes Racism & Sexism
Sony’s 2006 Review

Permalink 50 Comments

04.27.07

Xbox 360 Elite Video with Major Nelson

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 3:19 am by UNSCleric

Video: Xbox 360 120 GB and Elite Migration

Permalink 2 Comments

04.23.07

High-Res Halo 3 Beta Footage (7 Min)

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 7:25 pm by UNSCleric

Finally, some gameplay footage that is exciting.  As usual, the person doing the recording is terrible at the game.

Permalink 11 Comments

04.20.07

Command & Conquer 3 Demo: Now Available

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 3:50 pm by UNSCleric

Command & Conquer 3 Demo
Command entire armies & unleash epic warfare! Hone your skills & destroy friends; complete with Xbox Live Vision support!
Size: 1 GB

The critically acclaimed Command & Conquer™ series returns with Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars™. This highly anticipated next chapter takes the popular series back to its roots in the Tiberium Universe. Get ready for the fast, fluid gameplay that Command & Conquer is known for with an epic story that will set the standard for the single-player experience for real-time strategy (RTS) games.

It is 2047 and the stakes could not be higher. Tiberium—a self-replicating alien substance that has infected the Earth—is spreading like a radioactive ice age. The Global Defense Initiative, a high-tech alliance of the world’s most advanced nations, is fighting to contain Tiberium, but Kane, the megalomaniacal leader of The Brotherhood of Nod has other plans for Earth.

Kane’s secret society turned superpower is bent on using Tiberium to take control and transform humanity into his twisted vision of the future. All-out war rages over Tiberium and the fate of the planet rests in the balance.

The sage of Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars is seamlessly tied together with live action, high-definition video sequences featuring top Hollywood talent including Tricia Helfer, Josh Holloway, Michael Ironside, Billy Dee Williams, Grace Park, and more.

Engage in massive sci-fi battles via Xbox LIVE® and experience the exclusive multiplayer modes. The Xbox 360 version also supports the Xbox 360 Vision Camera, so preapre to meet your opponent face-to-face.

Permalink Comments

New Silent Hill 5 Info

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 10:12 am by UNSCleric

In a recent interview with GamePro, Akira Yamaoka revealed a few of their plans for the next installment in Konami’s popular Silent Hill series. Yamaoka producer the PC version of Silent Hill 3 and also worked as a sound director on the series.

According to Yamaoka, Silent Hill 5 will more or less resemble Silent Hill 2 ” in the terms of the way the player is directed and the characters’ behavior.” There’s also a strong chance that the game will be losing the camera angle used in Silent Hill: Origins. “I like it and agree with the choice for the [PSP], but I don’t think that’s the camera angle we want on a home console,” said Yamaoka. “That way you don’t see enough of the surroundings that really mean a lot to the player in Silent Hill.”

As for which console the game will be released on, Yamaoka said that while details have yet to be finalized, they are currently thinking of putting the next canon game on next gen consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360. “We have had a good past experience with Playstation,” said Yamaoka, “and we hope to continue that trend, but there are no definite plans as of yet.”

 - SilentHill5.net

Permalink 3 Comments

04.18.07

New Info on Burnout 5

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 2:18 pm by UNSCleric

From GamePro.com -

This is Paradise City.

It’s a sprawling metropolis of industry and commercialism and entertainment, tangled up in 90 miles of wheel-melting asphalt. It’s a haven of interwoven pathways; of heart-stopping jumps at unfathomable speeds through unbelievable obstacles. It’s a world tailor-made for racing and crashing, built from the ground up to steer the genre’s most explosive franchise to the top of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 hit lists. This is Burnout 5: Criterion Games’ latest and greatest ultra-speed destruction derby.

But this is no ordinary retooling of a square-pegged game to fit the round holes of the next-generation platforms. This is a complete reinvention of everything under the series’ hood. We jumped at the chance to talk with Criterion about how their prized possession is evolving from a multi-headed speed demon to a streamlined, destructive machine, and we weren’t disappointed one bit with what we learned.

It’s still Burnout — you don’t have to worry about that. It’s just got a new transmission and a hell of a lot more horsepower. Read on for all the gritty details.

Table of Contents

• Page 1: Introduction
• Page 2: Burnout 5’s Open World
• Page 3: Under the Hood

Permalink 7 Comments

04.16.07

Guitar Hero III Confirmed, New Halo 2 Maps Tomorrow + Two New Arcade Titles!

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 8:08 pm by UNSCleric

Guitar Hero III will add online multiplayer, wireless

Next incarnation of the popular music game franchise will feature both cooperative and competitive online modes, as well as wireless guitar controllers; Wii and PS3 editions now official.

On board a specially designed Guitar Hero rock bus in London today, RedOctane president and founder Kai Huang confirmed details about the third installment of the Guitar Hero game to GameSpot.

Huang announced the game’s platforms–as rumoured, it will indeed be coming to the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2, arriving in stores just before the end of year holidays. There will also be a Nintendo DS version of the series, which will arrive “early next year.”

The latest game will also boast new wireless controllers “so that fans can finally rock out in their living room and jump off their couches and do all that crazy rock star stuff.” There will also be a variety of colours and a new design for the guitar controllers, along with some higher-end options made to look and feel more like real guitars.

Like developer Harmonix’s recently announced Rock Band, Guitar Hero III will also feature strong online elements. There will be both cooperative and competitive online modes, along with extra downloadable content.

“We’ve got a lot of songs and artists still that we would love to have,” Huang commented. “In particular, we’ve been trying to get Metallica, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin. So hopefully sometime in the near future, my wish and everybody’s wish will come true and we can get some of their music in the game.”

For more about Guitar Hero III, check out GameSpot’s full interview with RedOctane founder and president Kai Huang.

The two new Halo 2 maps will be released tomorrow! 2:00am Pacific

Also, two new Arcade titles will be released Wednesday.  Gyruss and 3D Ultra MiniGolf.

Permalink 5 Comments

04.10.07

Halo 3 Beta : May 16th

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 7:26 am by UNSCleric

As Bungie promised last Friday, major Halo 3 news hit the Internet this week, and as most had guessed, it was the release date for the Halo 3 Beta.  I am happy to see the beta is only lasting three weeks, it’s so tempting to just skip the whole thing and wait for the game, but I know I’ll end up playing it.  The “secret” X-button function, which is “revealed” in the new Halo 3 Documentary that also was released today, looks awesome as well, and doesn’t look to stray too much from the feel of the Halo gameplay.

From Bungie.net -

The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will go live on May 16th at 12:00 AM PDT and run through June 6 ^th at 11:59 PM PDT. That means that folks who purchased specially marked copies of Crackdown, or won a spot in the Beta through the “Rule of Three” or other regional promotions, will be able to log into their Xbox Live Gold accounts, download and play the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta and enjoy an early peek at the multiplayer aspect of the game.

If you’ve been sitting on the fence, and are interested, you can still enter the Beta by picking up a specially marked copy of Crackdown, which would ordinarily be a chore, but thankfully Crackdown is an awesome action game which might ironically distract you from the Beta I’m pimping here. Bungie is also giving out a few Friends and Family spots to valued community members, but those are few and far between, so it’s safer to assume you’re not getting in that way.

Now, I will say this again and again – the game you’re going to play one month from now, is Beta software – and while it will look somewhat close to the final game, it IS Beta – and will contain quirks, a couple of roughedges and all that jazz. But we’re pretty confident you’ll find it a dynamic and exciting taste of what’s to come in Fall.

this could be you, in May.

The Beta itself consists of three maps – Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound – graphically improved since our first MP screenshots – and all three will be playable in Matchmaking only (that is after all, what we’re Beta testing here). All three maps are suitable for a wide variety of gameplay types, and you will have the chance to try all manner of game types, familiar and new.

There are a number of new features you’ll get to test out – including a new grenade type, a completely different class of weapon and some of the enhanced online functionality we plan to bring to the game – but it should be noted, a lot of secret features are hidden in this Beta. We’re keeping a lot of our powder dry for Fall. In May, when your firing the Spiker, sniping vehicles with the Spartan Laser and sticking fools with the Brute Spike grenade, remember that it’s just a peek-a-boo fraction of what’s to come.

And do me a special personal favor – walk down to the beach, the river or the lake in High Ground and Valhalla, and take a look at the water.

There will also be new guns, vehicles and gameplay features to try – including the mysterious “X-Button” functionality. But you don’t have to wait to find out what that is, since you can now view part of its functionality in our latest Vidoc, “Is Quisnam Protero Damno!” a long look at the making of Halo 3’s Multiplayer game.

Here you’ll meet the Multiplayer team and watch a level get built from concept to completion. You’ll see the care and attention that goes into every aspect, and yes, you’ll see a level or two that nobody has ever seen before.

There are a lot of questions raised in this Vidoc, and we’ll be answering them in the next couple of weeks, so keep checking back for more updates. You’re probably not even reading this huh? You’re watching the Vidoc. I give up.

NOTE: All of the game footage in this doc was taken during the Alpha stage and isn’t even representative of what you’ll see in the Public Beta, let alone the final game. You will see frame rate skips, unfinished animation and graphical features that will change come Fall. All the footage is clearly marked Alpha. You’re looking at the features here folks, not the final quality bar – which we’ve set pretty high. Your next taste of that will be in May.

And there’s a ton of stuff in the Vidoc you simply haven’t seen before (including the X-Button) – and it’s well worth the download. Now, there’s nothing like seeing it in 720p in Dolby Digital, so remember this Vidoc is also available today on Xbox Live Marketplace, where big screen TVs can do it more justice than your PC.

Click here for links to download the video

Permalink 21 Comments

04.09.07

Instant Messaging Comes To Xbox 360

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 6:48 am by UNSCleric

Instant Messaging Comes to Xbox 360 - Xbox.com

Your Xbox Live® friends list is about to get a whole lot bigger. Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Windows Live™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft® Windows®-based PCs and Windows Mobile®-powered devices.

Chat with your friends via Live Messenger.

With this update to Xbox 360, friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts.

“Xbox Live has really become the
largest social network on television.”
—Jerry Johnson, Microsoft

Beginning the week of May 7, 2007, the Xbox 360 Spring Update will provide Xbox 360 owners worldwide with access to Windows Live Messenger features, broadening the communication options on the Xbox Live social network.

Connected Experiences
Members of the six-million-strong Xbox Live community currently send more than two million text and voice messages a day and can now use Windows Live Messenger to text chat with up to six people on their contact list at one time, while playing games, listening to music, or watching movies. Text chat adds to the variety of options friends and families already have to communicate with on Xbox Live, including voice and video chat.

Look for this new accessory this summer.

Current relationships on Windows Live Messenger and Xbox Live will be unified on Xbox 360 and users will see at a glance if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags, instantly expanding the breadth of connected experiences they can share online.

“Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox Live has really become the largest social network on television,” said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox Live at Microsoft. “For our growing community of six million on Xbox Live, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience. They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music, and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice, and text chat. With this announcement we are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox Live users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360.”

Know instantly which achievement you accomplished.

Beginning the week of May 7, users of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 can text chat using the virtual keyboard accessible on Xbox 360, or by connecting a USB keyboard to the console. This summer Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging.

Other New Features
Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including:

• A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
• Enhanced family settings features for Xbox Live communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
• A new Xbox Live Marketplace blade lets Xbox Live members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States)—from one place on Xbox Live.
• Updates to Xbox Live Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox Live Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox Live members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded “Tell a Friend” capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
• Expanded “Tell a Friend” capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
• A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox Live Arcade games.
• New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.
• Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

The Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7 and will be easily accessible to every Xbox 360 owner through Xbox Live or on Xbox.com.

You may not even notice all the new features, but they are all designed to enhance your Xbox Live experience. Some of the other features in this upgrade include:

• The name of game in tray is now displayed in the dashboard.
• When the tray icon is highlighted, a list of achievements, game icon and gamerscore for that game is displayed.
• Video trick modes are enabled for content that is being progressively downloaded from Video Marketplace.
• Playback progress bar indicates download completion.
• Improved skip forward, skip back functionality during video playback.
• Switchable aspect ratio now available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native).
• Player and friends lists now quickly show session presence information for quick identification of users that are joinable.
• Support for streaming WM-DRM protected content from a PC
• Folder view for video content on connected devices
• H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
• Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
• Show folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices.
• Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays remembering the users last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user choose for that file.
• Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content.
• Skip forward and backward functionality has been improved to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 “chapters” allowing you to quickly skip around video content.
• The information bar that is turned on via the On Screen Display (OSD) now shows you exactly where you are in the playback of the video file.  In addition it will also show for Video Marketplace content how much of the file has been downloaded and where the “chapters” exist in the file.
• Windows Media protected content (WM-DRM) can now be streamed from the PC to the console. If the WM-DRM license is missing or corrupted then a specific error message is displayed to the user. Bookmarking is also stored for protected content.
• When the user is in the dashboard and an Xbox 360 game is in the console then the name of the game is displayed in the tray icon of the dashboard. If the user highlights the tray icon then achievements and gamer score are displayed for that game based on the signed in user. Xbox1 games show the name and image of the game.
• Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays. The user can delete all bookmarks but this will reset all bookmark information for every video that the user has played. The bookmark database is exposed in the system/memory/system items
• When a user selects an item for download from Marketplace then the system will determine if there is sufficient disk space for the item and, if not, will ask the user to delete content on the HDD. The system provides a sorted by size list of videos, game trailers, demos and arcade content to aid the user in the deletion process. The same list of items are also available from within memory so that users can quickly see which items are consuming the most disk space.
• The console will block the user who attempts to download content onto a storage device that will never have the capacity to store the item without deducting any points associated with the content item.
• The screensaver is disabled when playing photos from any source

Permalink 8 Comments

04.07.07

Sneak Peak At Spring Update

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 4:30 am by UNSCleric

- Releases May 7th.
- Add up to 600 Windows Live Messenger contacts to your Friends List.
- Text chat with up to 6 Live Messenger contacts at once during games or movies.
- The Marketplace will be getting its own Dashboard Blade.
- The Marketplace will be skinned independently of the Dashboard, for special events.
- The Marketplace will be getting a new, easier-to-navigate remake.
- Achievement Pop-ups will now display how many points and which Achievement you have gained.
- Low-power downloading (fans off) and auto-off after finishing queued downloads.
- View partially downloaded video files.

Permalink 9 Comments

04.05.07

"Madness? THIS, IS, XBOX!"

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 1:55 am by UNSCleric

Permalink 8 Comments