Slashdot Mirror

Via Joystiq, an article on Gaming Horizon defending the PS3 from its detractors. The article looks at a number of the biggest concerns about the system (price, HD, rumble, blu-ray), and attempts to explain why most of these problems are nothing to worry about. From the article: "As Sony is a company that manufactures HD-TVs, it's in their interest to add that compatibility to give consumers another reason to upgrade. There's various numbers about how long it'll take for HD to 'replace' standard-feed televisions (just as broadband has all but eliminated dial-up), but it's conceivable that HD televisions will become affordable during the PS3's lifecycle, and for those of us that have been blessed by the high-def gods, it's another reason to take advantage of the highest-quality visual equipment available."

Asriel86 writes "Pulling from the AFP newswire, Yahoo, CNN, and others have been reporting about how a gamer broadcast his own suicide on a gaming forum via a webcam, and that members of the forum continued to ridicule the gamer while he killed himself. Gaming Horizon has just learned that this is completely untrue. The newswire reporter failed to check the facts, and in turn painted this simple gaming forum into cruel monsters. The forum (hosted at metalgearsolid.org) has been taken offline at the request of Government agencies following these news reports."

Pixelfoot writes "Loud music, scantily-clad models, guys hoarding free 'schwag', these things are all the lifeblood of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, but the writers of Gaming Horizon have had enough. They've got an article entitled Stuff We're Sick of: E3 Edition, going into their biggest gripes about the show and giving suggestions for how to improve it, including the now-popular notion among journalists to include a full day where the show floor is only open to media." I'll buy that for a dollar. From the article: "It seems like everybody has forgotten what E3 is for, exactly. Without droning on about the vibrant history of the expo, it's more than fair to say that E3 is supposed to be a place for people to do their jobs and it's turned into a carnival for looky-loos and swagbaggers."

DataportJunkie writes "Most people choose to trade in their used game consoles when a newer one comes out to save a few bucks, but this editorial at Gaming Horizon suggests that you just hang onto them. 'Stores typically only make $1 or $2 when you pick up a new console from them, but when they give you $70 for your used PlayStation 2 and sell it for $95, they just made themselves an easy $25.' The author recommends using eBay or donating your used consoles to hospitals if you need to get rid of a system."

Tim Grube writes "Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a model at E3? The process is long and very tiring. Just think, what if you had to prepare to be a character from a videogame on stage that involves a sword fight. Professional stuntman and actor Ilram Choi has been in multiple commercials for Nike and Mountain Dew. At this year's E3 Ilram was cast as Soul Calibur III's Mitsurugi. Ilram wrote a diary on the days leading up to E3."

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is reporting that the Xbox Live 360 specifications and console specifications have been leaked. Xbox Live on the next generation is said to have two version, a free one and a subscriber one. The Xbox 360 iself will have a DVD-RW, be Wi-Fi Ready, contain 3 USB ports, and have 512 GDDR3 RAM."

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is reporting that the Xbox Live 360 specifications and console specifications have been leaked. Xbox Live on the next generation is said to have two version, a free one and a subscriber one. The Xbox 360 iself will have a DVD-RW, be Wi-Fi Ready, contain 3 USB ports, and have 512 GDDR3 RAM."

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is reporting that the Xbox Live 360 specifications and console specifications have been leaked. Xbox Live on the next generation is said to have two version, a free one and a subscriber one. The Xbox 360 iself will have a DVD-RW, be Wi-Fi Ready, contain 3 USB ports, and have 512 GDDR3 RAM."

Tim Grube writes "Electronic Arts has released the very first image of Madden NFL running on the next-generation consoles. This Saturday, on April 23rd, the NFL Draft begins on TV and EA has already scored a promotional commercial to unveil Madden Next-Gen. It will air on ESPN."

An Anonymous Reader writes "Gaming Horizon has a nice editorial taking a look at how gamers are poorly stereotyped and pandered to. (SpikeTV awards, anyone?) The writer proposes that gaming media unionize to help fight the stereotypes perpetuated by outsider media and interest groups, perhaps a more "Oscar-style" awards show, and further establishing the ESRB rating system among parents."

Gaming Horizons is reporting that Sony is working on an application to be used to recieve television broadcasts on laptops and, more interestingly, the PSP console via an internet connection. From the article: "The software will allow you to complete a task called "place-shifting," which is the ability to access content stored from remote locations through high-speed web links."

Asriel86 writes "Tokyo Game Show has just kicked off, and with quite a bang. Sony just officially announced the PStwociting a stateside release date of November 1st, 2004. The system will be 25% smaller than the current model, will feature a sleeker design, and a built-in Ethernet port (no adapter required). Sony also says that there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end of the year. That equates to thirty games per month or about one game per day for the rest of 2004."

Asriel86 writes "Sony will be officially unveiling twenty titles for their upcoming handheld, according to Gaming Horizon. These games will be revealed for the Playstation Portable (PSP) this week at the Tokyo Game Show, and will include an Ape Escape and Metal Gear Solid title."

Asriel86 writes "Sony will be officially unveiling twenty titles for their upcoming handheld, according to Gaming Horizon. These games will be revealed for the Playstation Portable (PSP) this week at the Tokyo Game Show, and will include an Ape Escape and Metal Gear Solid title."

Tim Grube writes "According to Gaming Horizon and several other industry insiders, Sony will be celebrating their fourth-year anniversary of the Playstation 2 on October 26th by releasing a smaller, more compact version of the game system with the new name PStwo. Some analysts believe the PStwo will retail at $149.99, the current price of the Playstation 2."

Tim Grube writes "According to Gaming Horizon and several other industry insiders, Sony will be celebrating their fourth-year anniversary of the Playstation 2 on October 26th by releasing a smaller, more compact version of the game system with the new name PStwo. Some analysts believe the PStwo will retail at $149.99, the current price of the Playstation 2."

Tim Grube writes "According to Gaming Horizon and several other industry insiders, Sony will be celebrating their fourth-year anniversary of the Playstation 2 on October 26th by releasing a smaller, more compact version of the game system with the new name PStwo. Some analysts believe the PStwo will retail at $149.99, the current price of the Playstation 2."

Thanks to 1UP for noting that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has founded his own independent development company, according to Japanese magazine Famitsu Weekly. The company will be using "a small group of elite creators", planned to include "artists Yoshitaka Amano and Takehiko Inoue" - the article author also mentions: "Sakaguchi was ousted from any position of significant responsibility at Square after the multi-million-dollar boondoggle that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." Elsewhere, RPGFan mentions a third Final Fantasy VII spin-off has been announced, following the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and the mobile phone-based Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, but "no release date or platform information has been given so far" for this new title. Finally, Warcry reveals the Final Fantasy XI clock, due out Fall 2004 in the U.S., and featuring "the time, day of the week, date and year in both [Final Fantasy XI's game world] Vana'diel and also here on Earth."

An anonymous reader writes "Rockstar Games has been deliberately coy about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - it 'was announced as a Playstation 2 exclusive title' in today's Sony press conference, but 'that was the extent to which the game was discussed.' However, Rockstar just put up an official GTA: San Andreas webpage, confirming a release date of October 2004, and featuring the first three screenshots of the game, leading GameSpot to conclude that the game 'will be set in modern times (not the 1970s-set game some had said) and will have a heavy West-Coast gangsta flava' - they also say the site's splash screen 'changes each time the site is loaded'."

Thanks to GamingHorizon for its summary of the pre-E3 Square Enix press conference at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, during which the company mentioned they "are determined to expand their reach across all forms of media, not just limiting themselves to the gaming market", before holding the Dear Friends: Music From Final Fantasy concert in the same venue. However, specific game-related material includes details (though not downloads) of a new Final Fantasy XII trailer, alongside new direct-feed screenshots of the title, as well as snapshots of Before Crisis - Final Fantasy VII, a mobile phone-only spin-off. Also revealed is information on the previously unannounced Musashi Samurai Legend, a sequel to "the original Brave Fencer Musashi on the PlayStation" featuring "Tetsuya Nomura handling the character design... [and] Studio Gainax creating the animated cutscenes", as well as new details on Disney-licensed sequel Kingdom Hearts 2 and its handheld partner, Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories.

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is currently hosting a feature that informs gamers on what to buy this holiday season. The 2003 Holiday Gift Guide presents twenty-five titles per console including the Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, PC, and HandHelds."

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is currently hosting a feature that informs gamers on what to buy this holiday season. The 2003 Holiday Gift Guide presents twenty-five titles per console including the Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, PC, and HandHelds."

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is currently hosting a feature that informs gamers on what to buy this holiday season. The 2003 Holiday Gift Guide presents twenty-five titles per console including the Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, PC, and HandHelds."

Thanks to Slate for their article discussing the Madden football game series' enormous popularity. The article suggests: "To a new generation of football players, landing on the cover of the latest version of the game is a career-defining experience, the way an enormous shoe contract, or the Wheaties box, or the cover of Sports Illustrated once determined which sports stars had hit the big time." It also points out that "In the last two years, only the Grand Theft Auto games sold more copies than Madden", and Wired News are also running a story on the Madden franchise, which debuts its 2004 version this week, and was recently voted into the Pro Football Hall Of Fame.

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is running a story announcing that Nintendo of Japan has revealed a special edition GameBoy Advance SP to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Famicom/NES. A total of 1000 will be made and will not be available for sale. Instead, they will be given away as part of a lottery if you purchase certain GBA games." IGN Pocket has more information, including a good picture of the unit, which sports the original maroon and white Famicom colors.

Tim Grube writes "Ubi Soft have put out a press release revealing the next Splinter Cell title in development. It's called Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (here's more screenshots at Gaminghorizon), and will be released on all next-gen consoles in early 2004." Prominently mentioned is multiplayer co-operative online play, a definite plus for the new iteration of this stealth action franchise.

Ever since the Microsoft press conference at the outset of E3, various audience-filmed videos of the Halo 2 demo showcased there have been circulating, but we've been waiting for more stable mirrors before posting. So, you can find the full trailer at IGN.com if you're a subscriber, and they have freely downloadable smaller excerpts. Thanks also to Tim Grube for pointing out this 85mb MPG Halo 2 for Xbox trailer, courtesy Gaming Horizon. Finally, and most usefully, there's now a 39mb WMV BitTorrent of the trailer up at Gametab News.

Asriel86 writes "GamingHorizon has a leaked trailer from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Expect more details from E3 next week." The trailer confirms the name of this much-awaited title, as well as showing some spectacular action, apparently in a jungle setting. Other articles and mirrors include this one at IGN.com, and this one over at Gaming Age.

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is running a story revealing Dead or Alive Online for the Microsoft Xbox. An anthology is planned, and the original graphics for Dead or Alive will stay as if it was being played on the Saturn, plus DoA 2 will contain improved graphics." Of course, half the fun of DoA is getting my ass kicked by my Lei Fang wielding wife, but I guess then, she could kick my ass when I'm out of town on business too.

Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is running a story revealing Dead or Alive Online for the Microsoft Xbox. An anthology is planned, and the original graphics for Dead or Alive will stay as if it was being played on the Saturn, plus DoA 2 will contain improved graphics." Of course, half the fun of DoA is getting my ass kicked by my Lei Fang wielding wife, but I guess then, she could kick my ass when I'm out of town on business too.

Victum_ writes "Over at Gaming Horizon they have posted some new Counter-Strike Xbox screens. These are supposedly the very first screenshots that have been released of the Xbox version. They look pretty much identical to CS:CZ screens, save the lower resolution." Anyone else feel like innovation in the FPS genre has stagnated since the introduction of Counter-Strike? I played this mod in college and loved it, and while I don't play it much anymore, I can't find another game that gives a better FPS experience.

Victum_ writes "Over at Gaming Horizon they have posted some new Counter-Strike Xbox screens. These are supposedly the very first screenshots that have been released of the Xbox version. They look pretty much identical to CS:CZ screens, save the lower resolution." Anyone else feel like innovation in the FPS genre has stagnated since the introduction of Counter-Strike? I played this mod in college and loved it, and while I don't play it much anymore, I can't find another game that gives a better FPS experience.