Uncharted development on course

Uncharted will soon find itself on store shelves. Naughty Dog copresident Evan Wells has posted on Sony’s PlayStation blog that the PlayStation 3 action adventure game has hit beta.

“The team really pulled together to help achieve this deadline and we couldn’t be more excited about the progress we’ve made,” Wells wrote. “Finally, most everything is in the game and we are just chasing down the last bugs and making a few minor balancing tweaks here and there.”

Wells also mentioned that the team had finished its last major round of focus testing on the game last week. Focus testing has been a staple of Naughty Dog games since Crash Bandicoot, he said, noting that the feedback from testing is used to help tune the difficulty of the game, among other things.

Naughty Dog has just under four weeks to finish the game, Wells said. Sony Computer Entertainment America has scheduled Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for a November 20 release. There won’t be any shortage of competition for the game, given that it will launch the same week as Rock Band for the Xbox 360 and PS3; Kane and Lynch: Dead Men for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC; Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii; and Mass Effect on the Xbox 360. However, Uncharted has the distinction of being one of the holidays’ highest-profile PS3 exclusives, along with Haze as well as Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

‘Halo 3′ rings up $300M in first week (AP)

AP - Gamers around the globe dropped nearly $300 million on “Halo 3″ in the week since the first-person shooter for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 console debuted, the company said Thursday.

Wii returns to Harvey Norman

The Wii is back at retailer Harvey Norman nearly 12 months after it was dumped by Nintendo weeks out from the launch of the Wii. The move comes as Nintendo chase market share only weeks out from the biggest buying period of the year in Australia. The company said \”We now have a good relationship and they are back in the Harvey Norman catalogue with the Nintendo Wii\”.

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Halo 3 boosted UK retail by pumping in

DX10 - How Far Have We Come?

MojoKid writes “When DirectX 10 was first introduced to the market by graphics manufacturers and subsequently supported by Windows Vista, it was generally understood that adoption by game developers was going to be more of a slow migration than a quick flip of a switch. That said, nearly a year later, the question is how far have we come? An article at the HotHardware site showcases many of the most popular DX10-capable game engines, like Bioshock , World In Conflict , Call of Juarez, Lost Planet, and Company of Heroes, and features current image quality comparisons versus DX9 modes with each. The article also details performance levels across many of the more popular graphics cards, from both the mid-range and high-end.” PC Perspective has a similar look at DX10 performance..

PS3 price drop puts Sony back into the race?

A Tech blog is asking the question of whether the PS3 price drop puts Sony back into the race. They say that bowing to consumer pressure, dropping the price and creating an entry level system will \”allow Sony to get back into the race\”. They say the wii has sneaked in and appeals to the mass market rather than hardcore gamer, while Sony and MS battle to sell consoles to a niche market. Was the PS3 ever out of the race? Wasn\’t a price drop always part of Sony\’s plans?

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Halo 3 boosted UK retail by pumping in

MS: 360 has the greatest lineup in the history of video games

Microsoft seem to be getting just a teensy weensy bit carried away following the success of Halo 3. The latest press release quite rightly praises the success of Halo 3 and the $300 million in sales. However there is one part of the press release that is rather cocky “Xbox 360 has the greatest lineup in the history of video games and is the only console where consumers can play all the year’s biggest blockbusters.” The best lineup in the history of video games eh? What do you think?

Microsoft says "Halo" 1st-week sales were $300 mln (Reuters)

Reuters - Microsoft Corp said on Thursday that its "Halo 3" video game racked up worldwide sales of $300 million in its first week, making it one of the year's best sellers and helping to nearly triple sales of its Xbox 360 console.

Halo 3 makes

Halo 3 boosted UK retail by pumping in

Dark_Alex releases Despertar del Cementerio v3, we smell 1.5 kernel on Slim

This update is mainly to support the screen of the psp slim in the mixed 1.50/3.40 kernel used in the recovery, but i aproached to put 3.71 M33-2 on it. In the nearby distance we are receiving the sweet smell of a v1.5 kernel on the PSP slim. Anyhow, check out the latest release at the official release thread.

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Halo 3 boosted UK retail by pumping in

Dementium afflicts factory

In August, Gamecock Media Group firmed up plans to hatch its first two projects–Auran’s Fury and Renegade Kid’s Dementium: The Ward–on October 9 and 31, respectively. Counting its chickens a bit too soon, Auran last week revealed that its massively multiplayer online game had slipped a week to October 16. However, with October 31 being a bit of a loaded date, Renegade Kid’s horror-themed shooter isn’t exactly afforded the same luxury.

Nothing says spooky like a rundown hospital ward.

Luckily, Gamecock announced today that Dementium: The Ward has gone gold and is on track to fly the coop on October 31 for the Nintendo DS. The maiden effort from Renegade Kid, Dementium is a survival horror first-person shooter where players must escape from a degenerate medical facility, solving puzzles and shooting up abominations along the way.

Dementium: The Ward is rated M for Mature and will retail for $29.99. For more on the game, check out If Its Games’s previous coverage.

Jade Raymond confirms there will be no Assassin’s Creed demo

Jade Raymond has confirmed there will be no playable demo of Assassin\’s Creed as well as discussing characters, downloadable content, the PS3 build of the game, Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Jesus Christ, among a ton of other things.

CNN: Sony spokesperson says Euro PS3 announcement imminent

CNN has revealed that a Sony spokesperson has commented that an announcement was imminent based on news of a 399 Euro\’s 40GB PS3 SKU as well as multiple reports of a 100 Euro\’s price cut on the original PS3 starter pack SKU.