Archive for the ‘Xbox’ Category
October 31, 2007
Two weeks ago, a little-known game site claimed it had heard firsthand that BioWare’s Austin studio is working on a massively multiplayer online role-playing game of the acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series. However, both BioWare and Star Wars rights-holder LucasArts refused to comment on the project, leading some to believe the Austin project is an MMORPG version of the forthcoming Mass Effect.
Today, though, the KOTOR MMORPG rumor flamed up again, fueled by the unveiling of an official alliance between LucasArts and BioWare. Early this morning, the two companies announced they are collaborating on “a ground-breaking interactive entertainment product” and launched a cobranded Web site, www.LucasArtsBioWare.com.
“Through our previous collaborations, we know that BioWare has an impressive ability to blend gripping stories with technological advancements, and we believe that our upcoming product will deliver an experience that will span the traditional boundaries of video game entertainment,” LucasArts president Jim Ward said in a statement.
Unfortunately, despite Ward’s kind words and similarly rosy statements from BioWare co-CEOs Ray Myuzka and Greg Zeschuk, next to no information was revealed about the game. “Details will be unveiled at a later date,” was as specific as the announcement got. However, since LucasArts almost exclusively publishes games based on the Star Wars universe, the chances of the game in question being Star Wars-related are high.
Today’s announcement did yield one important nugget of information. The mystery game will be published and developed by LucasArts and BioWare, which is now owned by Electronic Arts. When EA bought BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million earlier in the month, one of the three reasons it gave for its pricey purchase was the unnamed MMORPG in the works at BioWare Austin. The secretive studio was formed early last year and employs several former members of the KOTOR, Ultima Online, and Star Wars: Galaxies development teams. BioWare’s MMORPG is scheduled to launch in 2009.
October 25, 2007
An investigation into the death of an 11-month-old girl has shifted to an Xbox console owned by the baby\’s mother, who is accused of her murder. Authorities seized an Xbox from the mothers home, and they were examining her playing habits in hopes of developing leads in the case. Police are investigating to see whether the mother neglected her children while playing an online role-playing game. The mothers home showed signs of neglect and her other three children taken into care. Investigators have been trying to interview people the mother communicated with in online chat rooms to shed light on events that led to the child\’s death.
October 22, 2007
A senior member at the official Rockband forums has confirmed that Band World Tour does not have an online mode. The main reason for the lack of this feature is that there were time constraints involved in getting it perfect although it is something the team is working on for the future.
September 29, 2007
The team behind the Xbox 1 emulator for the PC called Cxbx have announced the project is back on track and have presented us with a few teaser shots from BattleStar Galactica. The shots show the game displays the menu and even some in-game stuff but not much more information has been given out beyond that.
September 9, 2007
A DIY modder has been hard at work on severely reducing the size of the original X-box and making it into a sweet little design that perhaps even Nintendo would envy. He has downsized the moterhboard and power supply and while squeezing an 80GB hard drive into the case it would seem as if he removed the DVD drive but if it is modded then it can run stuff directly off of the hard drive. All of this is housed in a glossy black finished custom case. Just recently we heard cries that there should have been a revised Xbox in similar style to the PSTwo, and this DIY solution is a great example of what could have been MS\’s direct rival to the Wii.
August 23, 2007
A Capcom Play System 3 emulator has been released for the original Xbox. CPS-3 is quite a powerful 2D engine system which was featured in the likes of Street Fighter III, it was the last arcade system board to be created by Capcom.
August 22, 2007
LEIPZIG, Germany–The latest next-generation console wars? Simply history repeating itself as part of a cycle, believes Don Daglow, president of Stormfront Studios (Eragon, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) and 36-year game industry veteran, speaking at the Game Convention Developer Conference. He gave examples from the past including the console war of 1984, which Nintendo won, and the battle between the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube, of which the PS2 won. These cycles go in three distinct phases, he notes.
Daglow says that as a developer, the first phase of the face off between the so-called “next-gen” consoles has been incredibly frustrating to developers. He said, “It’s like getting into a new apartment after midnight, and the lights don’t work, and your furniture’s been delivered and you don’t know where it is.” After a while, developers start to recognise how to do things on the new machines, or, in his analogy, work out where “the furniture” is. It’s also a great time for new IP, and the console will be adopted by only the hardcore, early-adopter audience.
The second phase is evident when there are more than three magazines dedicated to a particular console on the market. That’s when other people who have been waiting to see which way the wind blows make a choice and opt for a particular machine.
The third and final phase of the cycle sees the prior generation fade away, and the size of the installed base allows major hits. Then, every five years or so, it all starts over.
“So what is next-gen?” Daglow asked, before telling the audience “Daglow’s Law of Next Gen 2007.” Simply put: “next-gen hardware is any platform, that, upon its introduction, dramatically changes players’ view of the potential for interactive entertainment.”
Therefore, the Wii is next-gen hardware because people are playing with it in new ways, although Daglow agrees that he can understand why some people think it’s not. He said, “You can make a consistent argument that without the processing power, it cannot be next-gen. But the great thing is we can decide that for ourselves.”
The best next-gen software titles are usually only recognised in hindsight, believes Daglow, who put up a long list of nominees he believes are worthy. So, software-wise, he believes Guitar Hero is next-gen, because “people played it in a different way.” Sim City is too, even though, “a lot of people said that that’s not a game.” Geometry Wars is also next-gen, because “it proved that old games can be new again.” And World of Warcraft is too, because it “proved that a large audience existed for something that we didn
August 22, 2007
LEIPZIG, Germany–Double Fine Games’ CEO and president, Tim Schafer, has worked on projects including the critically acclaimed Psychonauts, Full Throttle, and The Secret of Monkey Island. He usually has something to say about everything.
So today, at his keynote presentation at GCDC, Schafer disappointed the crowd–some of whom were clearly expecting some big news about the top-secret title he is currently working on–by not mentioning his latest project at all, except to say he would not be mentioning it. He said, “There were some rumours that I would be announcing the new game from Double Fine here at Leipzig, but this was a lot of erroneous information that was passed around, so I will not be doing that here. I’m not allowed to talk about the game yet.”
However, in typical Schafer style, the Double Fine president then did reveal one new snippet of information: the time frame for the title, which he said would be coming sometime in 2008. He said, “I don’t want to use this forum to plug my excellent, awesome new game, which is coming out next year.” Details of the game’s existence emerged back in September 2006, when a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Vivendi Games let slip that the company would be publishing the next Double Fine game.
Schafer talked about topics including the difficulties of overcoming writer’s block, having to let go of ideas that don’t work, and dealing with criticism from others. He said, “With the current game, I had all this writing to do, and I kept putting it off and suddenly I came up with the name for the main character…And in the next few days I wrote about half the dialogue for the game.”
He talked of inspiration as the “golden goose” that writers had to follow, feed, and hope would lay golden eggs for them. He said, “You can’t lead the goose around, you have to follow it wherever it goes…And that comes up sometimes in games, when you’ve done a certain kind of game in the past, people want you to do that same game–they want you to just do that one again, do a sequel for that game. I think if your brain’s telling you you’ve got to get on a new idea, you have to do that, even if you feel a lot of pressure to do the thing you did before.”
The executive also drew the battle lines between “us” and “them.” He said, “We are at war, and the enemies are…the publishers. No, they’re not. It’s not that easy. The enemies are mediocrity, laziness, and fear, and they exist in all of us.”
August 22, 2007
LEIPZIG, Germany–Double Fine Games’ CEO and president, Tim Schafer, has worked on projects including the critically acclaimed Psychonauts, Full Throttle, and The Secret of Monkey Island. He usually has something to say about everything.
So today, Schafer disappointed the crowd at his keynote presentation at GCDC–some of whom were clearly expecting some big news about the top-secret title he is currently working on–by not mentioning his latest project at all, except to say he would not be mentioning it. He said, “There were some rumours that I would be announcing the new game from Double Fine here at Leipzig but this was a lot of erroneous information that was passed around, so I will not be doing that here. I’m not allowed to talk about the game yet.”
However, in typical Schafer style, the Double Fine president then did reveal one new snippet of information–the timeframe for the title, which he said would be coming sometime in 2008. He said, “I don’t want to use this forum to plug my excellent, awesome new game which is coming out next year.” Details of the game’s existence emerged back in September 2006, when a SEC filing from Vivendi Games let slip that the company would be publishing the next Double Fine game.
Schafer talked about topics including the difficulties of overcoming writer’s block, having to let go of ideas that don’t work, and dealing with criticism from others. He said, “With the current game, I had all this writing to do, and I kept putting it off and suddenly I came up with the name for the main character… And in the next few days I wrote about half the dialogue for the game.”
He talked of inspiration as the “golden goose” which writers had to follow, feed, and hope would lay golden eggs for them. He said, “You can’t lead the goose around, you have to follow it wherever it goes…And that comes up sometimes in games, when you’ve done a certain kind of game in the past, people want you to do that same game–they want you to just do that one again, do a sequel for that game. I think if your brain’s telling you you’ve got to get on a new idea, you have to do that, even if you feel a lot of pressure to do the thing you did before.”
The executive also drew the battlelines between “us” and “them.” He said, “We are at war, and the enemies are… the publishers. No, they’re not. It’s not that easy. The enemies are mediocrity, laziness, and fear, and they exist in all of us.”
July 13, 2007
Amid the hubbub surrounding the upcoming games being shown at this week’s E3 Media and Business Summit, Microsoft is also catering to nostalgic gamers looking for more from their last-generation collections. The publisher updated its backward-compatibility list with more than 60 games, bringing the total list above the 300 mark.
While many games added are of less-than-stellar quality, Microsoft’s back-playable catalog did receive a few worthwhile additions. A few highlights from the list include The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Mech Assault II, and Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast. The update also includes two from a series that has prominently been absent from prior updates, Project Gotham Racing and Project Gotham Racing 2.
See below for a complete list of newly added backward-compatible games. A full list of games is available on the Xbox’s Web site.
New
America’s Army
Auto Modellista
Bass Pro Shops Trophy Hunter 2007
Blinx 2
Bloodrayne 2
Burnout
Crash Bandicoot 4
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
Drive to Survive
Drive to Survive
ESPN College Hoops
ESPN NHL 2K5
Evil Dead Regeneration
Exaskeleton (Japan only)
FIFA Street 2
Full Spectrum Warrior: 10 Hammers
GUILTY GEAR XX #RELOAD
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge
Justice League: Heroes
King Arthur
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (No Live Access)
Magic: The Gathering: Battlegrounds
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Mech Assault 2
MLB Slug Fest 2003
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
MotoGP2
Myst III: Exile
NBA Live 2002
NCAA Football 06
Nobunaga no Yabou Ranseiki (Japan only)
Outlaw Golf: 9 More Holes of X-mas
Outlaw Volleyball: Red Hot
Outrun 2
Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast
Pac Man World 3
Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory (Europe/Middle East/Africa only)
Pro Cast Sports Fishing
Project Gotham Racing
Project Gotham Racing 2
RoadKill (No Live Access)
Sega GT Online
Shadow Ops
Showdown: Legends of Wrestling
Silent Hill 2: Dreams (US/EMEA only)
Sponge Bob Square Pants: Lights, Camera, Pants!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee
The DaVinci Code
The Sims 2
The Urbz: Sims in the City
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2X
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
Transworld Surf
Trivial Pursuit Unhinged
Winning Eleven 8
Without Warning
WWE Raw
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dawn of Destiny
Updated
Crash Bandicoot 5: Wrath of Cortex
Jet Set Radio Future
Rogue Ops
Sega GT 2002
July 8, 2007
AP - Microsoft Corp. will not say what went wrong inside of its Xbox 360 video game consoles that could lead to $1 billion (euro740 million) in repairs, but bloggers and their online readers seem to have their own answer:
July 5, 2007
UK: For those so inclined, Microsoft has given Halo 2 for Windows Vista an 8th June release date. The title has been delayed slightly in the past but this date now looks certain. The PC remake of the Xbox title from 2004 will feature new maps in addition to graphical improvements.
More: continued here
July 5, 2007
Halo 2 is finally making its way to the PC platform after its initial 2004 release for the Xbox console. The platform switch is perhaps unsuprisingly ensuring that Halo 2 looks better on Windows Vista than on the Xbox. PC resolutions will still give players a sharper, more detailed environments. Check out these comparison shots to see just how much better it looks.
More: continued here
July 5, 2007
Although not really news, it is most impressive to see a band that formed in high school do such a good job on this song.
More: continued here
July 5, 2007
Here is a video of the PulseVU mod for the original Xbox, check out who the very cool underglow moves in time to the beat. Very good looking stuff and a great mod.
More: continued here