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Unity and Odama, two games I'll definitely buy. I like companies who try to do something different, instead of just rehashing what's been done hundreds of times before.

Time to go play some PGR2 on XboxLive. God I love that game ...

I think we all know Square is a mercenary developer and will go to whereever they will make money (good old Yamauchi has words for those kinds of people). As far as Xbox 2 having a more open network, who knows? I don't think Microsoft is anywhere near thinking about that because "Live2" will probably run on the same infrastructure as Live and right now Live is completely closed. That's a feature, not a bug.

What's unsaid is that the next gen consoles are all based on technologies from almost the same companies and will all be released almost at the same time. There will be very little difference in the installed user base and the hardware performance initially. Therefore, Square Enix might be justified in putting a game on the Xbox2 if the market demographic is more receptive to it. Hell, because they will be so similar they may develop a standard in-house middleware for all three systems and release cross platform. They have said that they are targeting an online audience and need to "transcend hardware."

There will not be much incentive to pick one platform over another in the next console wars and unless something is done it will be very bloody. Sony and Microsoft will bleed a lot of cash to buy up strong 2nd party developers and exclusive agreements. Nintendo may be at an automatic advantage because it has primarily relied on exclusive titles all along.

There is the possibility some in-box hardware features could give someone an advantage but typically Nintendo's perhiperals have been unsuccessfull while Sony and Microsoft have already decided they will react to whatever the other does.

Sony is using UMD's (Universal Mini Discs) that will allow it to hold close to 2 GB's of Data. Thiw will allow them to fit a very high quality movie onto the UMD (not DVD quality).

One of the best parts about Sony's Press Conference was watching the Spiderman 2 trailer playing directly off the PSP's screen. Not to mention they also played a trailer to a little movie known as Final Fantasy Advent Children which will be released in UMD format alongside the DVD format.

Also in case anyone can confirm this, it seems that a Chrono Trigger sequel is in development for the PSP. Just found this browsing around.

Yeah, DS certainly craps all over PSP, so much PSP could cut itself on DS's jaggies

Yeah, DS certainly craps all over PSP, so much PSP could cut itself on DS's jaggies

Biggest lamer ever. I look at that and you can stop trying to tell me Nintendo isn't for children. Is that a grown man or a 6 year old girl?

If there is something absolutely freaking fvck1ngly impressive is this!!!
Watch this trailer for the sake of god!!

Surprisingly, the guys at IGN are very very pleasantly surprised with this .
Who would had thought that?

Makes me wonder if someone will find a way to make a platformer work on sony's eyetoy

"But since then, we've been left with a very big question: and that was, what are we going to do when we decide to make Link a teenager again -- a 16-year-old Link. So after Wind Waker we tried several different models and made varied versions of them. Ultimately we decided that in showing a teenage Link really the best style of expressing him would be something that's closer to our graphical style in Ocarina of Time. So Mr. Aonuma actually wasn't lying at the Game Developer's Conference when he said we were working on Wind Waker 2. He just didn't tell the whole story. And fortunately because he didn't tell the whole story, we were able to surprise you all here with a big announcement about the series."

Nobody's mentioned Rumble Roses, the mud-wrestling game which advertises a 'hands free' cpu-vs-cpu mode.

And N-Sider has some screenshots from GameCube/GBA/DS games, including all the DS first party titles. Looks like MKDS will have some courses from MKDD? And the new SMB game looks... well, a bit out of place, but cool nonetheless. Doesn't look like it's using the second screen that much, though.

I'm still stumpted as to why DS would be able to play GBA games if it's an entirely different system, but whatever. IGN seems pleased.

DooM3 isn't going to take place just on the surface of Mars (this iteration isn't on Phobos and Deimos). It's also going to have some action in Hell, and probably a little action on Earth, too.

I use IGN.com..

For those of you in a better mood take a look at this new Doom3[Xbox] trailer:
Right Click

So go on, go make that bunny shaving game you always wanted, make it for all of us.

Uh oh, I hope JC doesn't get discouraged by your statement and stop the development of Doom3. Seriously, who are you talking to? Get off the fucking podium, you don't belong there.

"IGN: Last question. There's co-op offline and online for Xbox, but not for the PC. I doubt it could be a technical concern, so what's the reasoning for that?

Todd: That's a good question. The Xbox version, because it's in contemporaneous development with the PC. When it was started, basically was conceived as a console implementation of what we're trying to do on the PC, as opposed to a port where they take whatever we do on the PC and "boom" slap it on the Xbox. The Xbox version was designed from the ground up to support co-operative play over System Link and Xbox Live. There [were] some changes, concessions, considerations that had to be made from a lot of different standpoints in terms of stuff as mundane as how narrow the hallways are to the ability of the AI of the enemies to focus on one versus two players -- because it's no fun to play the co-op guy that the world seems to ignore -- to how the narrative of single-player story is told.

On the PC version, it was always conceived of as a purely single-player experience. The whole, "you're alone in your room and all the lights are turned out." It's an experience where we want you to be afraid to get up and turn the lights off because you're alone. Whereas, because the console market is different, because people like to play together. Now, we won't have the ability to do split-screen, but the console consumer is more, "Hey, we love co-op" and it's all supported within the Xbox with Xbox Live and System Link. It made a lot more sense for us when we were designing [the game] to include that feature, [which] was never considered to be a critical feature for the PC [version], given that our goal from the start with the PC version was to make it the best single-player game that id had ever made."

A new Doom 3 (Xbox) trailer came out yesterday. Looks like all new in-game footage. Get it at IGN or FilePlanet

It was not because they chose to make it play mini DVDs it's because they didn't want to pay the licensing costs. Instead they licensed the GC hardware to Panasonic so that Panasonic could make a DVD capable cube. SOunds smarter to make money off a product one develops than to pay others.

Halo 2 Multiplayer (Team Xbox)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4


Halo 2 Direct Feed (IGN)

Direct Feed Videos

They were put up on bungie.net moments after the conference ended.

get 'em here:

Bungie.net HALO2 Screenshots, page 3.

Xbox.ign.com also has a fantastic preview up, its five pages long, so i wont bother to summarize it -- its simply a must-read though.

IGN Xbox: E3 2004: Halo 2 Multiplayer Hands-On

Not to say that MS's sports games were particularly good -- they weren't. But I can't help but wonder what this year's battle is going to be like with only EA and Sega fighting over the majority of sports titles (Sony also has put it's 989 series on hiatus for a year).

None of the reviews (eg: this one) talk about a Fulci character. The main character is James Earl Cash. The only link for Don Emilio Fulci in Google is a game called Headhunt, and doesn't appear to be the same as Manhunt. Fulci, in Headhunt, is the father of one of the character's girlfriend.

It was released for the PS2 in the US in May 14, 2002.

The catch: this wireless adapter will ONLY work with games that support it (such as Leaf Green and Fire Red). It will not be backwards compatible with older multiplayer games, which I'm filing under the "lame" category.

This Majesco peripheral seems to do just that, however. Why Nintendo couldn't have just worked up an all around wireless device such as this is beyond me.

Here's Garriott's take on Tabula Rasa about a year ago.

I believe that the market will force the MMOG industry to abolish the up-front fee within a few years. Some publishers are already doing that (and more), but the majority seem dead-set on requiring me to pay $49.95 to test the waters. This has kept me away from some that I might otherwise enjoy. Those that offer free trials are in the minority, and should do more to tout their low-barrier-to-entry. Horizons, made by the same folks who brought us the excellent Mordor, might be good, but until about ten minutes ago, I had assumed that they, too, required the initial investment to try out.

Commercial and shareware demos exist because there's so much competition there -- consumers can usually overlook a title that doesn't allow them to kick the tires. Given the sheer number of MMORPGs that exist, I think it it won't be long before their publishers follow suit. Guild Wars' model -- free play, with sales generated from expansions -- is a great way to differentiate it from other games. And what better way to hook someone? C'mon, man. The first one's free.
_______________________________________
Amusing trivia: Will Wright on his first game, Raid on Bungeling Bay: "I found that I was having more fun actually creating and editing these islands than I was actually bombing them in the game."

This is from Vivendi Universal Games' list. (after Half-Life 2, Men Of Valor, Blizzard's titles, etc.

Unnamed secret title, behind closed doors only, a FPS that can be described as "The Matrix meets The Ring" and developed by Monolith.
(Got that from Voodoo Extreme)

What the hell does that mean? Is the Matrix crossed with the Ring even a good thing?

Nintendo needs to kiss ass at S-E badly and get them back into the fold. That alone would shift the console wars in their favor.

Well there is FF: Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube, though some purists are debating whether it's really a Final Fantasy game.

Regardless it is at least a start towards getting FF games on Nintendo boxes for those who feel the need.

But this is Slashdot! Didn't you read the headline? "BILL GATES FINED $800,000 OVER STOCK PURCHASES!!"

This is clearly News for Nerds and Stuff That Matters. I'd definitely rather read about this than, say, a controversial paper on Linux security, or some Diebold news. Or hell, even NES-themed Gameboy Advance, complete with classic NES game releases to coincide, all coming out in June.

After all, those wouldn't be interesting at all and certainly aren't newsworthy...

Nice way to reply...well done.
Now we wouldn't want to make Slashdot too friendly a place, would we? Anyway, sorry if I offended you, though there still is a "or what" option.

Now next to the question of optimisation. If you are so sure about its potential, can you give some impressive examples? I can name some games that ran much slower than warranted by their visual quality (Halo and GTA3 being the prime culprits), but I can't really think of any prominent titles that did the opposite.

My main point is that rendering a modern game at acceptable quality requires rendering about 50 million pixels per second. And there is a minimum number of processor cycles that you need to just generate the geometry and add a simple one-pass texture - you can't cheat here. When we start talking about effects, a lot of shortcuts are possible. But even with the shortcuts, every generation of hardware has its limits. You can get closer to them, but that would never give you a qualitative improvement, like switching to a next generation hardware would.

Check out some PS2 screenshots here and compare it with something like this. Do you see a lot of progress? I honestly don't. This is Quake3 level technology, there is nothing you can do about it. Yes, it's possible to use good artists to try to hide the fact that the platform is almost 4 years old, but whatever you do, you can't hide the fact that Mercedes-Benz World Racing looks way better than any PS2 racing sim and that FarCry or Painkiller look so much better than any game on PS2.

If such extensive optimisation (as opposed to limited improvements during exploring the limits of new technology) was possible, surely we would see some PS2 developers do it. The fact that all modern PS2 games look the same as old ones did (which is like shit, by modern standards) proves that you are wrong.

Gary Liddon told me Jeff's new game (Unity I guess) is the prettiest thing he has ever seen, which is pretty impressive for programmer graphics :-)

I've been trying to do GTA3 with the minimum "people wasted by you" stat which means that I try not to kill innocents OR criminals. You're right, it's VERY HARD.

Whatever anyone says, it's IMPOSSIBLE to finish the game with 0 kills in that stat. The first completely unavoidable one is Mike Lips Last Lunch and there are some missions that require a minimum (like 25 in Trials of Fire). So far, I'm currently at Grand Theft Aero with 52.

Mind you, these are kills credited to you so you could get someone to follow you while you shoot at nearby vehicles that run over the pursuer. That type of kill completes missions, while only affecting the "people wasted by others" stat. There are a number of other ways of avoiding a kill "by you" credit: not causing an explosion, guiding other drivers into water, etc.

I've managed to complete the Taxi, Firetruck and Ambulance missions without any kills, but the Police one is the hardest (though not impossible) since you're required to "eliminate the threat".

Also, there are a few Rampage missions that can be done without killing anyone. The grenade and rocket launcher are easy to pull off since you're only targeting vehicles and can prepare for it in a safe area.

By the way, I just noticed this page which relates to the above and immediately disagree with a couple issues: (1) Taking Out The Laundry can be done by carjacking the trucks and nobody needs to get killed, (2) in game, gang members count as people, so the site's "people wasted" and "wasted by others" counts are incomplete. That is, unless the stat counts are different on console versions.

Nevermind the political partisans.

For ideological games, it's Wisdom Tree

They had their greatest success in the NES era with their bible games, but they continued to produce even afterwards.

Hard-to-forget games like Super 3D Noah's Ark

Freedom Fighters gives Communism a really negative image, in my opinion.

Asides:

DoA3 vs DoA2: Hardcore. Note especially Lei Fang's dress.

Here's the story I referenced above, actually:

First, a funny little bit of information regarding Team Ninja's development of the game. According to the magazine, Team Ninja received their Xbox development kits and wanted to test them out. So what would you do in this situation? Right - port your latest game to the new system as quickly as possible. And that's what Team Ninja did. Two members of the team got to work on a port of Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore from the PS2 to the Xbox. It took just two months to port everything but the sound, and when all was said and done, the game was running at 130 frames per second! On the PS2 and Dreamcast, the game runs at 60 frames per second (your eye tends to not notice the additional frames beyond this).

Asides:

DoA3 vs DoA2: Hardcore. Note especially Lei Fang's dress.

Here's the story I referenced above, actually:

First, a funny little bit of information regarding Team Ninja's development of the game. According to the magazine, Team Ninja received their Xbox development kits and wanted to test them out. So what would you do in this situation? Right - port your latest game to the new system as quickly as possible. And that's what Team Ninja did. Two members of the team got to work on a port of Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore from the PS2 to the Xbox. It took just two months to port everything but the sound, and when all was said and done, the game was running at 130 frames per second! On the PS2 and Dreamcast, the game runs at 60 frames per second (your eye tends to not notice the additional frames beyond this).

"If Microsoft can woo more developers to Xbox, the balance of power in the next round could change."

I'm blatantly biased here, but I'd be thrilled if Microsoft were to make overtures to the independent game developer community. Some noises were made along those lines in November, 2000, but they didn't follow up tangibly. As an independent developer, I don't feel drawn towards Xbox development the way I did, Pocket PC development. In that arena, MS gave the development tools away for free, (something I always felt Palm should have done to keep Pocket PC from gaining market share from 2001 onward).

Xbox development is said to be technically similar to Windows desktop development, so from a development standpoint, I imagine that authors of 95/2K/XP software would feel comfortable developing for the console. Further, 3d engines such as Torque and Conitec's 3DGS make it possible for modest-sized groups to develop popular titles. But both the developers of such engines, and the developers of games, face restrictions imposed by the console manufacturer(s). Conitec's Doug Poston states his case -- the manufacturers make the cost-of-entry too high for smaller studios.

Does the manufacturer-imposed barrier-to-entry for console development raise the quality of games, or does it mean fewer interesting titles and less experimentation? (I suppose the businessman-side of me would be thrilled if larger studios abandoned the desktop PC, leaving the market open. But somehow, I think that'd be a phyrric victory for all of us.)

Ahh. The old "videogames as artform" conversation. Ive had this one with many people. Usually the younger individuals say, yes, videogames are art, just like movies.

Its the elder generation that hasnt grasped that a game can be artistic as well.

Then I put in the game "Rez."

Rez is the best argument Ive ever seen for videogames as an artform. It is unique, beautifully stylistic, and incredibly interactive. You could say that this is just another rail shooter, but that doesnt integrate the way sound, vibration, and visual effects all tie in together. This concept of interactive musical and visual integrated together was originally concieved by Kandinsky, which he referred to as "Synestasia."

Please read this review.

Even my parents found the game to be incredibly artistic and beautiful. I cannot reccomend it enough.

This "illegal software=virus" crap has got to stop. It's a myth purpotrated by the BSA. Legit software is just a susceptible to the problem, and usually it's worse because people trust the software all that much more. Also, people who pirate software have likely pirated an anti-virus app, so its usually a non-issue.

John Woo and Samus Aran ? I can only hope.
Re: Storytelling in games: I agree, but a lot of the fun of Deus Ex comes from the reading material and Shadowrun-like environment/atmosphere: there's so much, and it gives you an insight into the game's world.
After reading an IGN article that interviewed the screenwriter about the Deus Ex Movie, I'm not so certain that it will become a good movie, because they don't specify even half of what made the game truly memorable. My fingers are crossed, however.

Of all the 13 or so games that were turned into movies, each broke away and added to the original plots/stories, and none of the base games had much of a serious plot to begin with -- this allowed for much more of an open canvas, I imagine, but it also hurt the audience reception slightly ... another issue is picking a game that has a complex story rather than one with more built-in artistic license ... i.e. Chronotrigger vs. Dungeon Siege. We have YET to see a movie that sticks to the original story at least marginially (Mortal Kombat being the closest) AND with a complex plot ... Name ONE. Resident Evil doesn't count :-p .

IMHO, the things that make a movie good are plot/ story/ acting/ environment-atmosphere/ music/ scope/ replayability .
For a game, they are handling/ environment-atmosphere/ music/ features/ replayability/ plot/ story.
Any one of those things can make either type stand out as "good", but a combination of at least three of each makes for memorability -- if you want a classic, you need more, and if you want a good conversion, the high marks can be in different areas, but if you want a classic (not yet seen) then my theory is that the high marks in the cateogires must also stay in tact along with anything else during translation from console to cinema, which makes for twice as many problems -- like attempting to roll several dice to get the same group of numbers twice in a row. It doesn't seem that hard, with ready-made music and great game storylines already out there, but have we seen it yet ? I'm not saying that Tomb Raider wasn't good, but I am saying (like everyone else) Chronotrigger would be better, (even in terms of $$ made ... after all, even if the ratings say it sucks, I'm still going to see the Chronotrigger movie ... and this truth, in and of itself, sucks) .

Another issue is fan ideas ... there are so many differing notions and ideas that you can play with for games2movies because so much of the discussion has been left for imagination and debate (think "The Matrix" and compare with its sequels.)
Unreal Tournament 2004 is a prime example:
it's far better than both 2003 and Quake3 due to more features/replayability/plot/atmosphere/music/handl ing, especially with the sports theme/atmosphere/environment which really lends itself to the other categories/dimensions listed. It could make a great movie, but because there is a lack of story, the need for artistic license to fill in the blanks could potentially destroy it. In other words, I, for one, think that both game and movie could be good, if you add more rpg elements and the game's engine to the team management (think Pokemon meets Shadowrun), or explain the respawning like the Matrix, where unlimited energy, wireless connections, cloning vats, replicators, and other planets take the place of a computer-generated universe -- hey, it'd give an in-game excuse for network lag, okay ? Players jack in, and the connections to their respective "tournament" bodies are only as good as the network :-) But I doubt everyone else feels the same way I do.

All in all, John Woo or not, I've not seen anyone with the balls, cash

IGN interviewed American McGee last month about turning Alice, Oz and Grimm into feature films.

I think the visuals could be interesting, but here's to hoping they have a decent story and script...

Looks like when it comes down to a choice between video games and female attention, these days, videogames are winning out.

Or Bachelor 2 was really damn smart, and knows how to pull women.

A baseball stadium filled with thousands of other women was watching this take place, and wondering why he chose the playstation over an attractive woman. Wonder/mystique is a well known (to non-slashdotters) technique for cultivating attraction.

A lot of other women are going to come running like in the lower portion of the image here. He's not only getting a playstation, but he's going to get a lot of phone numbers being thrown at him by other attractive women who were also at singles night at the giants stadium.

50 dates plus a PS2, now that's a winner.

Heck, he might even land a gamer girl who only wants him for his PS2!

I guess you've never played Unreal Tournament?

...It was sponsored by Playstation

I know some of you guys are none too knowledgeable about women, but -- that is not a brunette. She is what is known as a "blonde". Lara Croft is a brunette, as are most of the women in Asian pr0n.

After looking at her, I think I would have taken the PS2 myself. And I don't even want a PS2.

I mean, come on, the crowd cheered when he chose the PS2.

I know some of you guys are none too knowledgeable about women, but -- that is not a brunette. She is what is known as a "blonde". Lara Croft is a brunette, as are most of the women in Asian pr0n.

How about a real ipod killer?
IGN knows what's going on, and it ain't ipods.
After testing my buddy's third-gen model, I can't believe they're so popular. The minis are even more anemic, but the size is an obvious selling point.
No radio, no ogg, no battery life, no decent storage size, no low price? Forget about it.

Tribes and Tribes 2 will be available for free download on May 4th. Or will also be available bundled in Computer Gaming World on the same date.

IGN Article here.

DHCP... i'm sold. that shows Rio was really paying attention to the details.

Here's a rundown of the menu and a nice review.

Check out these reviews for Rio Karma on CNET and IGN. They also review a lot of other MP3 players. That's what made me buy a Rio Karma. Still waiting for it, because it has to be delivered to Colombia.