Thanks to the fallout caused by the massacre that is the Xbox 360 shortages, there has been massive debate and widespread speculation as to whether Sony would present a more formidable strategy with the release of their highly anticipated Playstation 3 systems. Although most sources tended to swing on the lower side, anticipating that Sony would ship fairly similar amounts at launch as the Xbox 360, a couple notable sources have been leaning in the opposite direction.
In what was considered a very optimistic look, analysts at Pacific Crest Securities stated that Sony should have 1 million PS3’s ready to ship at the expected November launch of the system. However, this number is chump change compared to the estimates provided by Pioneer, who happens to be a leading producer of the Blu-Ray disc format which the PS3 will come equipped with.
“The PS3 is launching right at the forefront of Blu-ray disc,” Parsons, executive VP of Pioneer, said. “If Sony ships the kind of numbers we expect them to this year, that will provide a very rapid growth of players out there hungry for titles. We’ve been hearing between 4 and 7 million [PS3s] could ship.”
4 and 7 million PS3’s is indeed a lofty number and such a shipment would lead to incredibly high launch sales and few shortages. Is Sony indeed going to be able to match those numbers? Guess we’ll all have to wait and see.
Needless to say, support from third parties has been few and far between for the Revolution. However, recent announcements from various companies appears to make it seem as if this was simply due to the fact that Nintendo has kept details on its system so under wraps, and companies were tentative to make their support open. Thanks to Nintendo finally becoming a little more revealing, more and more companies have begun to step out.
Capcom, the company behind the Resident Evil series, is one such company. Although tentative to say whether the popular Resident Evil games would make an appearance, it was stated that a new franchise would probably appear on the Revolution. Capcom producer Minoru Nakai was quoted as saying, “”It’s certain that the Nintendo Revolution controller is its key element, but the real question is whether the innovation within the Resident Evil series requires the usage of all of this unique controller’s functions?” he asked. “We recently redefined the series with Resident Evil 4, in which the camera is repositioned behind the hero and elevated the action and intensity of the gameplay. Even if the gameplay of Resident Evil 4 remains up to my taste, we’d clearly love to exploit the potential of the Nintendo Revolution controller to prevent players tiring of this style of gameplay.”
Capcom is just one of a few companies to begin announcing their support of the Revolution, and this news is sure to be very welcome to the ears of Nintendo fans who have long worried that the only games that would be appearing on the new Revolution system would be first party titles from Nintendo alone.
Gaming fans are taking a new look at the Nintendo Revolution following videos released by Nintendo which show how players will be able to control and interact with their games. This comes in stark contrast to the nothing short of terrible response that was received following the original announcement of the Nintendo Revolution’s “revolutionary� new controller. Gamers worldwide resounded their disappointments over the apparently numerous restrictions due to its resemblance of a TV remote control and bearing only a couple buttons to boot. These feelings quickly changed following the release of how it actually works.
The videos display how simply pointing the controller at the screen and moving it results in a seemingly very responsive corresponding action from the game. For instance, a clip of Mario was shown from “Mario Sunshine� where simply flicking the controller upwards would get Mario to jump. Further flicks up resulted in a double and the final flip from Mario’s jumping combo. Mario could also be seen effortlessly jumping from side to side up and between the walls by using similar methods. The two buttons were merely used for action and interaction purposes.
Although the new controller hasn’t completely quelled the near uprising of Nintendo fans, these new videos have indeed brought about a new feeling of interest that is rippling throughout the gaming community. Hopefully, this will be just the first of many promising aspects of the upcoming Nintendo Revolution.
Although speculation has run rampant for months, Ubisoft has finally made its next game in the Splinter Cell series official. Carrying a spring 2006 target release date, “Splinter Cell: Double Agent� seeks to bring all the Splinter Cell goodness back to current gen consoles as well as being the first Splinter Cell to debut on a next-gen system, the Xbox 360.
Ubisoft revealed that each system will carry its own multiplayer aspects and has been confirmed that there will be online play, however details are very sketchy at this point and no specifics were spoken of in the press release. The most interesting aspect of the game is that instead of just one studio working on the game, Ubisoft Montreal has been responsible for two of the three games so far, three different Ubisoft studios are collaborating on this title. Montreal, Shanghai, and Annecy, France are all working to make this newest Splinter Cell the best one in the series so far.
The gameplay plot details include that Sam Fisher will be infiltrating a high security prison and will have to work as a double agent within. He will have to answer to both the NSA as well as terrorist organizations and he will have to run a fine line between trying to not do too much evil while on the same hand trying to discover crucial information without giving away his true identity and therefore risking his own neck.
Stay tuned for more Splinter Cell: Double Agent details in the near future including whether or not this game will indeed be making a Playstation 3 debut as has been rumored.
After the recent success of Jack Thompson and other advocates forcing an “Adults Only� rating on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas due to a highly controversial “Hot Coffee� modification, Jack Thompson has decided to set his crosshairs on a new title, The Sims 2 from Electronic Arts. Jack Thompson is attempting to get EA to pull The Sims 2 off store shelves due to what he believes is even worse than the “Hot Coffee� mod for GTA: San Andreas.
While EA has gone to great lengths to insure that The Sims 2 is safe for teenagers to play, including “blurring outâ€? the nudity on naked Sims and by choosing to not show alcohol and similar items in its recent University expansion, Jack Thompson insists that EA is “cooperating, gleefully, with the mod community to turn Sims 2 into a porn offering.” This attack is the result of mods which can be readily downloaded from various websites which will remove the blurring on nude Sims.
EA’s has countered this recent controversy by saying, “This is nonsense. We’ve reviewed 100 percent of the content. There is no content inappropriate for a teen audience. Players never see a nude sim. If someone with an extreme amount of expertise and time were to remove the pixels, they would see that the sims have no genitals. They appear like Ken and Barbie.” Indeed, once the blurring has been removed, all that can be found underneath are mannequin like models which contain no unwanted body parts whatsoever.
This, however, is not enough for Jack Thompson who plans on moving further with his case against The Sims 2. In reference to the blurring, he has stated, “”Electronic Arts has done nothing about (the blurring removing modification).” Stay tuned for more developments on Jack Thompson’s cases against gamers everywhere.
After having a very disappointingly small selection of RPG’s on the Xbox, Microsoft appears to be attempting to fix this problem with the Xbox 360. Already, multiple RPG’s have been announced and studios that used to do work primarily for other consoles, such as Squaresoft, have already voiced their support and announced games to be released on Microsoft’s next-gen console. Additionally, Mistwalker, a studio formed by former Square top man Hironubu Sakaguchi, has put on display two enticing RPG’s for the Xbox 360.
In support of these games, the Japanese actually lined up to watch trailers of them at a recent event. Given the Japanese’s minimal support for Microsoft, this was a major victory for the big MS. The two games displayed were Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, with both games showing a lot of Squaresoft flavor in them.
Although neither game had too much on display in terms of actual gameplay, both apparently left the crowd very excited over the future prospect of the games. The Squaresoft feel and the simple fact that they are actually Japanese influenced RPG’s on the Xbox 360 appear to show that Microsoft is heading in the right direction for many gamers.
What’s worse than having massive shortages of Xbox 360s? Having massive shortages and being teased by having a few more trickle in here and there. Stores around the nation have begun receiving very small shipments, usually 20 to 40 per store for big stories, of the popular next gen console from Microsoft. What’s even worse is the way these companies handle selling the systems. The systems are usually gone in the matter of an hour, and many times the company will jack up the price severely (Xbox 360s have shown to have sold for more than $1,000.00).
Despite this, Microsoft assures that they are working on the shortage problem and will continue to provide stores with whatever they can. Gamers, meanwhile, can basically count on not being able to actually be able to find and buy an Xbox 360 from any store for at least a few months (some speculation points to March or April of next year).
All that can be recommended is for gamers everywhere to remain strong and have patience as they wait for their long awaited systems to arrive in any sort of meaningful quantity.
The recent craze of game-to-movie transitions has spurred the decision of turning God of War, the epic game which takes players deep into Greek mythology to battle creatures and ultimately the god of war, into a blockbuster film. God of War will join the ranks of BloodRayne, Metroid, Halo, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Doom, Spy Hunter, and countless other video games that are taking the plunge into the film industry.
Vice president of Universal (the company who is overseeing the release of the Doom film as well), Jeff Kirschenbaum, will be overseeing the God of War film release. Brought on to produce the film are Charles Roven and Alex Gartner of Mosiac Media. Roven has a now proven track record after producing the amazing Batman Begins film. No other cast or director announcements have been made.
One thing that can be said about God of War is that it’s premise is perfect for a feature film movie, but then again the premise of video games in general always seems to be fitting for the silver screen. Yet, for some strange reason, the transition can almost never go through without some kind of hitch. Whether it be some change of the storyline that completely throws off the original fan base or terrible casting or directing that makes it unbearable to watch, video game based movies are almost destined to fail in the box office.
Will God of War be a rare piece? Will it be one of the few games that can make the difficult transition into a feature film? That all remains to be seen, and needless to say now is the time to cross those fingers.
Hillary Clinton has fulfilled her promise to further attempt to put restrictions on the gaming industry through Congress. Clinton, along with Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh, has put forth the Family Entertainment Protection Act. This act basically intends to fine all game retailers who sell games rated Mature, or Adults Only to under aged children.
“Video games are hot holiday items, and there are certainly wonderful games that help our children learn and increase hand and eye coordination,” Clinton said in a statement. “However, there are also games that are just not appropriate for our nation’s youth. This bill will help empower parents by making sure their kids can’t walk into a store and buy a video game that has graphic, violent and pornographic content.”
This bill is currently being put in front of Congress to be passed. If it becomes law, it would be the first of expected many attacks on the video game industry by the federal government. Woe to gamers who may be seeing the last of the modern gaming euphoria if the federal government moves forward to begin placing restrictions on the gaming industry.
The original Xbox was home to a flurry of modding and enhancements. From mod chips to hard drives to LED’s to Linux to custom skinning, Microsoft’s Xbox offered some of the most customization ever in a console (although, of course, none of it was ever condoned by Microsoft itself). Most gamers will be happy to know that the race to modify and customize the Xbox 360 has already begun and much progress has already been made.
Current modifications that have already been found and have begun to be carried out include LED modifications. Similar to those for the Xbox, modders have begun to take apart systems and controllers and input LED’s, or little colored lights, into them that light up when the Xbox is on. Although designed purely for show, such modifications can be very appealing.
Skinning has also gone completely crazy. The Xbox was by far the most skinned system ever, and already the Xbox 360 has quite a skinning following behind it. Gamers everywhere are making and ordering their very own custom skins from various online sources and putting them onto their Xbox 360’s. These skins vary from custom designs to action shots from games such as Halo. The biggest appeal of skinning is in the fact it allows gamers to set their own systems apart and make them unique amongst the pack of systems. Also, custom skinning is cheap, easy to find, and generally very easy to install.
Thanks to the fact that the Xbox 360 can hook up with things such as mp3 players and digital cameras, there are already a ton of modifications in the works for these areas. Things such as being able to listen to podcasts on the Xbox 360 have already been done and other media modifications (such as being able to watch or listen to various types of media and being able to install a media player different than Windows Media) are already in development and should hit the Xbox 360 very soon.
Although the Xbox 360 runs off of a Windows core, similar to the original Xbox, the process of attempting to crack the system and use another application, such as the highly modifiable Linux, has already begun. Simply put, the potential modding ability under a different application like Linux is almost endless, and hackers/modders absolutely drool over the possibilities.
No mod chips are currently available for the Xbox 360, however, fear not because they are under development and will most likely be available online very soon. Despite efforts by console manufacturers, no one can stop the mod chip business. The Xbox was able to be modified so that it could have a larger hard drive, play illegal copies of games, and store games on the enhanced hard drive thanks to mod chips. Expect similar capabilities of Xbox 360 mod chips when they eventually arrive.
Essentially, it all boils down to being able to improve the hardware in the Xbox 360. And, since the system is essentially built like a computer, improving the hardware should be a snap once the process is figured out. The future seems very bright indeed for Xbox 360 modding and hacking.