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.
Following the release of the Xbox 360 and now that everyone can see just what it can do, the debates on the Xbox 360 v. the Playstation 3 have begun to spring up all over the net like wildfires. While much of the debate won’t be solved until closer to the Playstation 3’s launch when more is known, there are still enough revealed details about the PS3 to form a checklist of what appear to be strong advantages for the PS3 over it’s adversary, the Xbox 360. These advantages should be noted by all gamers prior to taking the plunge and dishing out the dollars to jump on the next-gen bandwagon prior to the next-gen competition being released.
Here are the things every gamer interested in buying a next-gen console should know:
1. Blu-Ray technology being used for the game drive. Indeed, while the fact that this drive has not yet been released is definitely a drawback, especially in combination with the “Cell� not hitting production yet, the possibilities of this drive make it very appealing. In contrast, the Xbox 360’s drive can currently only play standard DVD’s at only decent speeds, but the Blu-Ray technology can hold disks that hold as much as 5 times as much data as DVD’s and this data is all read at a much faster speed. Even better is that Blu-Ray technology can read DVD disks as well, allowing it to play PS2 games and movies in addition to the PS3’s own library of games.
2. The third party support and unique games. While the Xbox 360 will have its own impressive line-up of unique titles hitting the system, Sony still has plenty of great games that it has exclusive to its own next-gen console. Games such as Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots should not be overlooked by any means.
3. The “Cell.� While the Xbox 360 has a good processor, it is really not as impressive and doesn’t have nearly the potential of the Cell. While the true potential may not be seen for a long time (hopefully development will be completed sometime soon!), the Cell truly seems to be an amazing processor that will greatly improve the PS3’s stock in this epic console race.
4. Other PS3 hardware should also be given consideration. While Microsoft generally tends to go for standard hardware (good hardware, but standard), Sony is having a lot of its hardware custom made, which always helps the reliability of a console. Indeed, the Xbox 360 is much improved over the Xbox in this department, but Sony’s PS3 still has the hardware edge (despite claims from Microsoft that the Xbox 360 actually will outperform the PS3 – this remains to be seen).
5. Reliability. While this one is still up in the air, the advantage will most likely fall onto the PS3. The Xbox 360 has had numerous problems that gamers are furious about. No doubt that Microsoft will fix these problems soon, but the fact that they are there really hurts the reputation. Sony is always good at making sure they have a reliable product.
Another great article.
Excerpt from MadBum.com:
Sure, The Bum has ranted and raved about EA before, but now a serious issue has come to rise from this mockery of a gaming company. Their newest release, Battlefield 2, brings with it a deep, dark secret that will take you on a trip down to the darkest corners of dirty dealings in the gaming industry. Yes, enthralled listeners, you will now be informed of the latest in EA’s evil movements: selling out the Battlefield franchise and hence commencing the Battlefield 2 Conspiracy.
“What you don’t know can’t hurt you� seems to be EA’s motto year in and year out. Basically, if you don’t know of how crappy their games really are and how much of a sellout the company is, then you won’t get hurt by their flaming ninjas that will make a visit to your house if you question their motives in the least (don’t worry, The Bum is safe in his secret lair somewhere in the Caribbean…damn, I’ve already said too much).
But now, moving on with the conspiracy behind the game. Take a look at the graph above. A picture tells a thousand words, but I’ll go ahead and give you about 600 words about this in addition to the picture. Basically, EA has decided to go ahead and sell out to NVIDIA and make it so that their game won’t work on anything less than an FX 5700 graphics card when that same game will work on the Radeon 8200. WTF?! I mean, are you kidding? Just look at the graphs which mark the relative graphical processing capabilities of each card and even a kindergartener will start throwing out F bombs like nobody’s business. It is simply ridiculous, and EA has left yet another dark stain on gaming’s history.
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A unique story in the world of gaming is that many companies are now offering Xbox servers. While those not in the know won’t realize the significance of this, those who realize what this means understand that having Xbox servers is a pretty pivotal achievement. Essentially, online console gaming is designed so that one player’s console would act as the host and the other player would connect to it to play (this has been slightly altered for Xbox Live which offers up to 32 players in some cases). Now, however, modded Xbox’s using Linux are being altered so that they can serve as dedicated servers, therefore lowering lag in great amounts in online games.
Online console gaming has always been plagued by frequent lag issues. But now that Xbox servers are being used basically as dedicated servers, online console gaming works with incredible ease and speed. Gamers are now able to play their favorite games, such as Halo 2, Ghost Recon 2, Project Gotham Racing 2, Rainbow Six 3, etc., all seamlessly and with little hassle or slowdown.
As usual with great achievements, however, are the obvious drawbacks that coincide with this. So far it is currently impossible for these Xbox servers to work over Xbox Live, meaning that, at least for now, gamers must use other forms of software. However, this is definitely not the worst thing in the world, since programs such as XBConnect have been around for years now, offering online play in any game that even has System Link capabilities (meaning that even the original Halo can be played online).
Hopefully the future will offer even brighter options for Xbox servers, mainly being compatibility with Xbox Live. For now, gamers can enjoy hooking up with friends and even meet new friends through programs such as XBConnect and play their games with little delay when using dedicated Xbox servers.
Video games and movies. These two markets would seem like they would be tightly interwoven, two that would promote each other and thrive in each other’s markets. However, video games being turned into movies have never seemed to turn out quite how they should. The track record for these transitions has been rocky to say the least, including sub par movies such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros., Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, etc., etc.
Where do movie makers go wrong? That is a difficult question, but it usually involves the fact that there is too little information to build off of. When a company wants a movie made off of a game, they usually want that movie to be based strictly on the material in that game. Needless to say, games aren’t designed at the core to be movies and usually it is difficult to draw a lot of information out of a video game and turn that information into a movie.
This problem only compounds when considering that most fans of the video game will hate the movie right away since they feel it will only ruin the name of the game. This immediately creates and anti-movie movement and this cuts out the original fan base of the title. Additionally, casting a movie based on a video game can be incredibly difficult since no one can ever agree who would be perfect for the role. Needless to say, this creates a lot of problems in the long run.
Yet, despite all of this there are still countless numbers of games that are being turned into movies. Rainbow Six, Doom, Spy Hunter, Halo, and God of War are only a few of the games that are currently being turned into feature films. The question is, will these movies be able to break the mediocrity and set themselves free from the stereotypes? Will these finally be successful when so many others have failed? That remains to be seen.
Of the many games that have been announced for the Xbox 360, there are only a select few who have garnered more attention and generated more hype than the highly anticipated Gears of War. Gears of War, a sci-fi tactical first-person shooter, is an Xbox 360 exclusive title that is set to utilize the amazing technical capabilities of the Xbox 360’s hardware with innovative gameplay features and a gorgeous graphics engine.
Gears of War is being designed by the excellent studios at Epic Games. If the past is any indication, the developers behind the Unreal Tournament and the acclaimed Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict games will be able to deliver a game that not only pushes the limits in terms of graphics (which indeed the Unreal Tournament games have done) but also make the gameplay both refreshing and extremely fun with the fast paced action that their games are famous for.
Although the game isn’t set to be released until early 2006, Epic Games and Microsoft Games Studios have already released quite a few gameplay videos and information about this upcoming title. Early builds and videos of the game only reinforce the high expectations that have been rippling throughout the gaming community.
These high expectations and anticipation is due not only to how beautiful the game is but also to the unique gameplay elements that appear to thrive in Gears of War. While the game is action heavy and contains plenty of shooting, something that is quite obvious due to the setting of the game, the gameplay elements run so much deeper than the game being just a standard shoot em up. Rather, the game introduces some really unique, appealing elements that gamers should look forward to.
The first of these elements is one that was introduced but not implemented overly well in Kill.Switch. This element is the ability to duck behind cover. In Gears of War, characters have the ability to use just about anything as cover (and be sure, you’ll need it). Simply move behind any object, such as a wrecked car, to have the character immediately duck behind it. From there, you can either control your character and shoot at your enemies by popping up or, if the situation calls for it, you can even simply hold the weapon over the characters head and use blind fire.
Even more interesting, however, is the role that light plays in the game. The enemies, the locust horde, thrive in the dark shadows of the Gears of War world. For this reason, any character that strays into the dark for even a short time will find themselves quickly torn to shreds by the ruthless aliens. Players will find themselves sticking to the light and needing to use strategy to reach different areas of the game since darkness prevails and smart thinking is needed to create the necessary light. For instance, in certain parts of the game characters will have to bust open pipes containing flammable liquid and light the liquid on fire to create the all too important light that is necessary to pass by this certain area of the game.
Gamers everywhere should simply be salivating over the upcoming Gears of War release. While being pretty is always a plus, gameplay is truly what matters when determining how good a game really is and Gears of War appears to thrive in this department. With enough unique elements to make it appealing and while having a solid base foundation with the control being very Halo-esque, Gears of War is a game that all should have on their wanted lists.