10.30.07

Special Halo-ween Playlist & New Halo Book

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 4:55 pm by UNSCleric

Starting tonight at midnight there will be a special “Living Dead” ranked playlist introduced into Halo 3 Matchmaking, which will be for one day only, and will feature Infection/Zombie gametypes.  Click here for details.

 
This is how it began…

It is the year 2524.  Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space.  But we have trespassed on holy ground–strayed into the path of an aggressive alien empire known as the Covenant.  What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter catapults mankind into a struggle for its very existence.

But humanity is also locked in a bitter civil war known as the Insurrection.  So the survival of Harvest’s citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines and their inexperienced colonial militia trainees.  In this unlikely group of heroes, one stands above the rest…a young Marine staff sergeant named Avery Johnson.

The new Halo novel, Contact Harvest, went on sale today.  Someday in the future it’ll be included in The Halography, not sure when though.  You can read the Prologue for the book here,

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10.29.07

Coming this week…

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 7:21 pm by UNSCleric

Games, lots of games.

There are a ton of things finally releasing this week.  One of them is the Arcade title I have been waiting nearly two years for, the sequel to Mutant Storm Reloaded (an Xbox 360 Arcade launch title from 2005.)

• The art of blasting: Practice the way of “Blastikkidoo” or the art of blasting, as you plow through the different worlds in Mutant Storm Empire. This all-new sequel to Mutant Storm Reloaded ratchets up the competitive challenge!
• Numerous levels: The four different worlds feature sixteen challenging levels, all in gorgeous high-def 3-D graphics.
• Multiplayer modes: Play co-op offline with a friend, or head into Xbox LIVE® territory and go multiplayer for up to 2 people.
• Achievements: Twelve new achievements to master ranging from easy, such as getting a single combo of beasties, to difficult, such as completing the game on the Black Belt level.

From the footage I’ve seen of Empire, it looks to continue right where Reloaded left off.

Before we get to the list of game releases this week, let’s look at what HD DVD is offering this week.  After last week’s record-breaking Transformers release, HD DVD continues the trend of amazing HD DVD exclusives and is bringing out Face/ Off on HD DVD, a movie that many people believe to be one of the best action movies ever made.

As far as games go, the Xbox 360 is swamped with amazing titles right now, and they’re about to pile on even more this week.  Here’s the list:

• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
• Bee Movie
• Cars: Mater-National
• Naruto: Rise of a Ninja
• Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition
• Timeshift
• The Simpsons Game
• Virtua Fighter 5
• Viva Piñata: Party Animals

Releasing next week: Call of Duty 4, F.E.A.R. Files, and more.

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10.26.07

Microsoft Reports Profit, Burnout Paradise Dated, & More

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo at 1:40 pm by UNSCleric

Microsoft Reports 27% Revenue Growth; Fastest First Quarter Since 1999

“Customer demand for Windows Vista this quarter continued to build with double-digit growth in multi-year agreements by businesses and with the vast majority of consumers purchasing premium editions,” said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft.

During the quarter, Microsoft’s two consumer focused divisions passed milestones with the successful close of the company’s largest ever acquisition, aQuantive, and Halo 3 achieving the biggest entertainment launch day in history.

It’s not a coincidence that Microsoft has every big game this fall (with a lot of being exclusive).  The people that work with the third-party developers have done an excellent job planning all this for the past one or two years, and now this fall they’re going to see the benefit (and they already are).

In other news, Burnout Paradise will be coming out January 22nd, and will have a demo on the Marketplace in December.  They’ve been working on it quite a while, and it has a lot of new changes and features, but hopefully it has a good overall feel to the driving in it.  The first three Burnout games did an excellent job with that, but the fourth one just felt weird to me for some reason.

A new Halo video has also gone up on Marketplace, but it’s not actually new.  It’s just all three live action Halo shorts edited together.

Halo: Landfall

Director Neill Blomkamp explores the lives of Marines and ODSTs on a last, desperate mission in a post-invasion Earth – a mission that may secure the salvation, or usher the destruction of the entire galaxy. Edited together as a standalone piece for the first time, these three shorts are the first glimpse at what a live-action Halo could and should look like and a must-see for Halo fans of every stripe.

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10.25.07

It Has Just Begun

Posted in Site News at 12:01 am by UNSCleric

Tonight at midnight the wait will be over.  For several years now, the SAW series has gone hand-in-hand with Halloween, and has been one of my favorite events of the year.  If you haven’t seen any of the previous SAWs or want to see them again just before SAW IV on the big screen, there are many theatres doing Midnight Movie Marathons again this year, where they will be showing all three previous SAWs leading up to the midnight premiere of SAW IV.  Go to SAW4.com and click the link near the bottom of the page for the list of theatres having events.  Most theatres will be having standard midnight premieres however.

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10.24.07

Electronic Arts To Layoff Developers

Posted in Xbox 360 News, PS3 Related, Wii Related at 10:39 pm by UNSCleric

When Electronic Arts bought up Bioware and Pandemic a few days ago, some said it was good, because this would give the developers more time and money to work on games thanks to the over-watch of the mighty EA.  The fact is, EA has been taken to court by employees in the past for being forced to work unpaid overtime and other unsatisfactory work conditions.  EA of course has tried to strike this from the record by having its employees delete the stories from sites like Wikipedia, but all that does it make people like me mention it even more frequently.  On to today’s new though…so EA is buying up all their third party developers, and supposedly fostering them with bags of money and all the time they need to make a game right?  Wrong.  They’re buying up these people, and then dumping them on the street.

Restructuring, layoffs forthcoming at EA, Mythic Studios

Owing to sagging profits and and a less-than-firm grip on their once invulnerable spot at top of the third party heap, Electronic Arts is looking to make some changes in their corporate structure, starting with Mythic and their Redwood Shores studio. An internal email from a trustworthy source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals that John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, has tasked every studio and company within the monolithic publisher with getting their rising costs in line with revenue, which in plain English means layoffs.

The email from Mythic VP Rob Denton was sent to all employees of Mythic and details some of the plans to reduce costs by cutting jobs as well as some actions already taken. Headcount will be managed through “attrition, performance management, stricter hiring guidelines and layoffs”. Over the next two months, the Ultima Online team will be moving from EA Redwood Shores to Mythic’s Fairfax, VA studio to streamline operations. Meanwhile, a number of employees at both studios have already been let go as of earlier today, with more to follow as EA tightens its belt in the coming months.

While this is the first we’ve heard directly of the layoffs, increasing efficiency and lowering costs in the face of falling profit margins and flat revenue can’t be achieved by just two of over 20 studios. While we were asked not to print the email in its entirety, one direct quote from the email we can show you is the following:

“Given this, John Riccitiello, our CEO, has tasked the company to get its costs in line with revenues … Every studio, group and division of the company has been tasked to review its overall headcount and adjust its organization to meet the needs of the business moving forward.”

Such an order coming from the top likely means some far-reaching consequences within the company.

The only good thing is that maybe EA is done buying up developers for the time being, but the bad news is that we have to watch them kill off development teams one by one in their downward spiral of debt since it seems more and more people are sick of being ripped off by purchasing average and below-average EA-developed games.

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Amazing Halo 3 Jumps Discovered

Posted in Halo at 8:19 pm by UNSCleric

They’re the good kind, the kind that actually take skill and will (most of the time) actually help you within an actual game.

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10.22.07

HD DVD Breaks Records / Sony’s Online Network Doesn’t

Posted in Xbox 360 News, PS3 Related at 8:19 pm by UNSCleric

‘Transformers’ HD DVD Smashes records for any next-gen format

The ‘Transformers’ HD DVD has smashed first week sales records selling over 190,000 in its first week. This makes it the making it the fastest and best-selling week one release on either High Definition format as well as the best selling HD DVD ever. However even these numbers are a far cry from the 8.3 million sales of the normal DVD version, which makes it this years top-selling week one DVD. This comes after Paramount suddenly dropped support of Blu-ray and exclusively backed HD-DVD, reportedly receiving $150 million in exchange for its exclusivity.

BlackSite: limited online features for PS3 version

According to IGN the PS3 version of BlackSite will have less options than the 360 version. On the 360 version: “players will be able to play ranked and unranked matches, and voice support will have constant chatter for teammates while everyone will be able to hear each other if they’re close enough, regardless of which team they’re on.”  However the PS3 version features none of those options.  The online mode for this game is looking like it could be great with these features, as they are just like Halo 2′’s.  It’s going to take more than that though for it to be a competitor in the online feild these days with the amount of AAA titles coming out in the next month.

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10.19.07

Comcast Engaging in Data Discrimination

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 2:33 pm by UNSCleric

Via Engadget -

ISPs throttling or downright banning access is certainly not unheard of outside of America, but for Comcast customers fully expecting an unadulterated portal to the intarwebs, the AP’s latest findings may cause some serious kvetching. Reportedly, the Associated Press has “confirmed through nationwide tests” that Comcast is indeed “actively interfering with attempts by some of its high-speed internet subscribers to share files online.” Deemed the “most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a US internet service provider,” the outfit seems to be stifling BitTorrent uploads (but not downloads), and spokesman Charlie Douglas even went so far as to confirm that the company utilizes “sophisticated methods to keep web connections running smoothly.” Granted, we’re not shocked at all that Comcast is engaging in traffic shaping, but as of now, it has yet to come clean about its apparent involvement in hindering P2P uploads. So, dear Comcast users, have any of you noticed any such shenanigans going on?

So, since Comcast has such a horrible monopoly, how long until they start tampering with customer’s Xbox Live speeds to get customers to spend more money on a “Gamer’s package” or additional speed overall?  Oh wait, they’re already doing that.

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10.18.07

September 2007 Sales Numbers

Posted in Xbox 360 News, Halo, PS3 Related, Wii Related at 11:03 pm by UNSCleric

They have arrived.

Xbox 360 Tops Console Sales in September and outsells PS3 5:1

As the holiday season heats up, September 2007 is sure to go down in history as one for the record books. The launch of one of the greatest properties in entertainment history, “Halo 3” (Microsoft Game Studios), was largely responsible for driving the biggest month in US video game history with consumer spending on games reaching an all time high for 2007.

Hardware Sales
PlayStation 2 215K
PlayStation 3 119.4K (weekly sales decline of 27%)
PlayStation Portable 284.5K
Xbox 360 527.8K
Wii 501K
Nintendo DS 495.8K
Game Boy Advance 75K

Software Sales
1. 360 HALO 3 MICROSOFT (CORP) 3.3 million
2. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA 282K
3. NDS LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS NINTENDO OF AMERICA 224K 4. PS2 MADDEN NFL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS 205K
5. 360 SKATE ELECTRONIC ARTS 175K
6. 360 MADDEN NFL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS 173K
(360’s Madden launched last month with 800,000+, an all-time record)
7. WII METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION NINTENDO OF AMERICA 167K
8. 360 BIOSHOCK TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) 150K
9. NDS BRAIN AGE 2: MORE TRAINING IN MINUTES A NINTENDO OF AMERICA 141K
10. PS3 HEAVENLY SWORD SONY (CORP) 139K

As you can see, Sony is in last and second last place, just barely beating out the ancient Game Boy Advance.  Then, PS3’s big game for the year barely makes the top ten list, still being beat out by months old games.  It’s clear to see why Sony is so desperate right now, I don’t think any of us know how truly afraid they must be right now.  These numbers tell the whole story, and this story is not going to have a good ending for Sony.

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10.16.07

Sony: Still Scamming Customers

Posted in PS3 Related at 10:11 pm by UNSCleric

Sound familiar?  Here’s a story from a few months ago where Sony voids the warranty on a new, broken PS3 because he’s using non-Sony video cables.

1.17.07 - Sony Scams Continue

Just got off the phone with Sony Support. Because I have a generic brand of component cables, instead of officially licensed Sony components, Sony has voided the warrantee on my PS3 and will only replace it for $150 dollars!

Here’s the newest trick Sony is using to weasel its way out of repairing under-warranty & defective hardware.  This story is exactly why it’s good to see Sony failing horribly with the PS3, their attitude still hasn’t changed after all these years.

PS3 warranty voided by surge protector - ‘great’ pay up $150 say Sony

A member of the Playstation forums called up Sony regarding his four month old PS3 which had turned into a brick, with the trouble starting back a while ago when the system would just shut off.  Spread the word and Digg This.

So I woke up yesterday morning and saw that my PS3 was not on. You know that little light letting you know it’s getting power? That morning, no light. This happened once before, but I was able to unplug it and plug it back in to get power, and then it worked. I tried that yesterday morning, but nada. Nothing would work… it was completely dead and not getting power.

So I call Sony and let them know that my less-than 4 month old PS3 was now a brick. I tried to tell the guy that the trouble started when I first tried to play Call of Duty 3 a while back - it would just completely shut off the system and the only way to get it back on was to unplug it and replug it back in. (an issue that’s been well-documented now in threads such as these.)

The service representative didn’t care about any of that. Instead, he starts asking me a bunch of questions to try and void my warranty. Things like, “I want you to check the sticker above the hard drive and tell me if it looks damaged.” I’m like, “no, no, no” to everything he’s asking. Then he asks me if I had a power surge recently. Again, I tell him no, that I have all my electronics protected with a high quality power surge protector.

He then says “okay, great, Sony can fix it right up for you for $150.” I asked how long the warranty was, and he said a year… but then he tells me that I voided my warranty by plugging it in to a surge protector. I asked him if he was kidding me, and he says nope, the PS3 is only allowed to be plugged into the wall directly.

This is just another example of why there are millions of us that want Sony (and the PlayStation brand) to drive itself into the ground, which they are doing a fantastic job of.

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Sony’s Most Desperate Move (Update)

Posted in PS3 Related at 8:00 pm by UNSCleric

Sony has made it official.

Reuters reports that Sony has officially announced the 40GB Playstation 3 for North America, with the new SKU going on sale November 2. The 40GB PS3 will cost $400 USD and, as in Japan and Europe, will no longer feature backwards compatibility.

No, Sony isn’t starting another fake fan site, or hiring fake reviewers, or doing another smear campaign on the competition where they flat-out lie about everything.  This time, they’re moving in the right direction.

Coming later this month, will be a 40GB, $399 version of the PS3.  Target has leaked the news all over the Internet as usual.  Sony, seeing they have no appealing games for this fall, is obviously pulling the card they never wanted to, at least not this soon.  Less than a year into the PS3’s life, the system is falling over $200, and Sony was already losing hundreds on the PS3, and now it’s going to be several hundred for each console sold.  This is really the only thing Sony could do though, they’re sitting in last place, have the most expensive console, no big titles so far or coming in 2007, and have maybe one exclusive game in 2008 that people are truly looking forward to. 

It’s actually fun to watch Sony, a company that has gave the finger to gamers for so many years, struggle to keep the PS3 afloat every day now.  We saw this coming all the way since 2005, and it’s been clear ever since E3 2006 & last fall when the PS3 launched that we were always right.  The PS3 is failing before our eyes.

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