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Last night I went to bed hungry and I had a nightmare that I was racing midget bikes against The Burger King, Brooke Burke, a giant Chicken, and a Whopper Jr., and then today I see THIS! Spooky.

Since the Reuters article doesn't talk about the relation of this software to the Counter-Strike, and was confused myself by an article by the german magazine Der Spiegel, which states that there is no connection. However, having searched Google News and some other search engines, it seems that this Iranian software is in fact a map or mod to Counter-Strike (the Half-Life mod). The best evidence for this I could find was an article supposedly quoting Ahmadreza Nouri, who is apparently one of the designers. I also found some other pages supporting this view.

I agree with you, but I see this as more intensifying their gamble.

Sony has parlayed two bets that the PS3 will do well and so will Blu-Ray. They feel the two technologies helped each other out. Blu-Ray gives the PS3 more proliferation via a selling point while the PS3 proliferates the standard of Blu-Ray throughout the community prematurely.

However, if one of these technologies fails, I believe the other will also. Sony has tied their fates and if consumers balk on either, Sony goes under. A burden? No. A huge gamble that may or may not pay off. Sony has rolled out five times the number of displays for the PS3 as there were for the PS2. I think they realize the amount they're risking on the table.

Who the hell is going to buy a 600$ piece of electronic equipment out of spite with no intention of using it?
The same hate-filled, retarded zealots that "buy" this story? Similar crap was posted about "Micro$loth" and the Xbox ONE...

Oh wait, I am probably not suppose to remind people of that "slashbots predict" failure, and how quick they are to forget a company doing the same stuff they used to be screaming about.....

Guess I better save this post by saying the following "I WOV MICROSOFT AND THE XBOX360! HD-DVD, microtransactons(I love paying more then $60+ for my incompleat, stuff purposely omitted games), and Microsoft branded DRM are a great win for us consumers!"

• GT:HD Premium is GT5 Sneak Preview with full PS3 spec qualities
• GT:HD Classic will feature 770 cars, 51 tracks, 4500 items - all downloadable (still not clear what is included)
• Hoping to add car parts and modifications - change the look of cars - "The GT version of iTunes"
• Every item will not be available to everyone, have to be able to "afford" it - create ownership lust
• Maybe possible to sell rare items to other players.
• New Manufacturer: Ferarri (Ferrari says it's the best CGI modelling of their cars ever)

Kutaragi also pretty much confirmed that we won't be seeing a comparative price drop in other territories. According to Ken, the Japanese pricing changes were merely an adjustment to keep the price inline with the market. He argued that the misconception that 1 dollar equals 1 euro equals 100 yen is not a fair comparison. So keep saving, kids. The PlayStation 3 is looking better and better, but still expensive as all get out.

Aside from Mario stealing the occational kiss from Peach... Mario's buddies aren't really attractive to the 'adult theme'.

That reminds me: What Mario would look like on a Sony console. Thank you very much, but I prefer my Nintendo Mario. Look what "making it adult" has done to Sonic.

Screw that.

"Adult" and "mature" are words that are seriously abused when it comes to gaming. I'm an adult person, and I love to play Mario games. I don't need them to be destroyed by guns, violence or sex.

While Kim expects that some third-party game developers will create 1080p games, he said that 720p will likely remain the norm. "We believe 720p is the sweet-spot for high definition," he said, adding that Microsoft Game Studio titles will, for now, continue to be created at 720p.

Unknown Worlds, which made a great and popular mod of Counter-Strike called "Natural Selection", is funding its future projects by selling a sudoku clone they put together http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/half+life/play-sudoku -to-support-natural-selection-source-183904.php

Even better, how about a link? PS3 to cure Alzheimer's?

No game included for japan. Wii sports included for the Americas. See here

Liveblogging Nintendo's NYC Event

The article came out before the Japanese conference. (Which is happening as I type this) They're live blogging it over at kotaku

I'll believe it when they Iwata announces it.

Try this link for info too!

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/wii-dated-and-pri ced-for-north-america-200514.php

I'm surprised that we didn't get this information in the original post. Nintendo is holding three press conferences tomorrow - one in Japan, one in the US, and one in Europe. The Japan conference is actually happening today at 8:00 pm EDT when you account for timezones. The US conference is in New York at 9:00 am EDT.

It's expected that Nintendo will release launch specifics, including price and launch date, for the three regions during their respective press conferences. This is big big Nintendo news. Personally I'm hoping for a $199 pricepoint with pack-in Wiimote, nunchuk controller, and Wii Sports.

Check out gaming sites (Kotaku is a good one, or any mainstream one like IGN or Gamespot) for breaking news from Japan tonight - I'm sure they'll be up and reporting the Japanese press conference as it happens. Plus those sites don't pull the sensationalistic "get page impressions at any cost" crap that Joystiq does.

Of course according to the Republicans, when Clinton was getting blowjobs, he was a terrible rolemodel, single-handedly responsible for the moral decay of all of America.

When I was a little kid, I looked up to GI Joe, i wanted to be awesome and save the world from the evil forces of Cobra when I grew up. Ronald Regan could have hunted chained up animals for fun and sport and I'd have cared less about what kind of "example" he set. I'm sure that 99.9% of the kids in the late 90's had cooler role models than the President of the United States too.

Now, THIS guy, he's a president that I'd have looked up to as a kid.

>It's only a matter of time before Sony buckles and announces either mass-shortages on the PS3 this holiday season

they already have

http://kotaku.com/gaming/sony/ps3s-at-launch-north -america-400k-japan-100k-198718.php

http://digitalbattle.com/2006/07/24/another-ps3-ga me-cancelled/
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/business/ps3-costs-ca use-little-studio-to-bail-184195.php
http://www.news0r.com/index.php?p=3690

There are others, but it's hard to find articles on it. In a lot of cases the "PS3" part simply vanishes from the website and all future press releases. Longer list of cases (some of which are just conjecture) here: http://www.technophilia.org/2006/07/list-of-cancel led-ps3-games.html

Like I said, no huge companies, except THQ, which does actually plan to make the NEXT game in the series on PS3.

I'm not crazy -- this was already confirmed during E3: E306: Wii WiFi To Use Those Stupid @$#!ing Friend Codes

I thought Dead Rising already came out last week.

This is why the typical model in Asia is to give away the client software and charge for subscriptions. Piracy destroys the economic foundation of our high-production stand-alone mass media.

It's hitting PC games first because PC gamers are by definition going to have better access to pirated software.

DRM is actually the best hope if we want to keep having the same sort of entertainment that we can get now, unless the culture changes to shun pirates and piracy. I'd bet DRM is the reason that Square/Enix is looking into creating their own hardware.

I don't like DRM or subscription services, but when the government can't/won't enforce the laws and the people don't respect them it's inevitable.

An interesting article, especially since yesterday I read some developers think it's underpowered. http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/free-radical -wii-cant-handle-our-game-190723.php FTR, I'm looking forward to it.

Nope. MS does not benefit from the subsequent sale.

Right, cuz things like this looks oh so good on MS.

From Kotaku:

DirectTV and IGN have teamed up with Microsoft and a bunch of other companies to put together a new pro-gaming series that launches next year.

The Championship Gaming Series is a new professional gaming league that will air competitions exclusively on DirectTV.

Now I agree with you - watching people play video games can be atkin to viewing a paint drying contest - but something sees something in it.

Surely you have seen the video of the monkey (okay, an ape) playing Ms. PacMan:
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/retro/watch-a-chimp-p lay-ms-pacman-186031.php

Why on Earth would MS be developing games for the DS if it intended to come out with a competing device?

MechAssualt DS - based on the Xbox games
Diddy Kong Racing DS (a port from the N64, via MS-owned Rare)

M$ only invested about $20 in advertising the system in Japan.

So the Xbox 360 lounge was what, about $15 of that?

This is nothing more than FRAUD in order to dodge taxes. Sony tried this same crap with PS2.

The "computer" aspects of PS3 will be just as useless as the PS2 Linux kit. Don't be suckered into thinking that Linux on PS3 is going to be any use. It only has 256MB of system RAM. What the hell are you going to do with 256MB on a "computer"??

I noticed this blurb on kotaku:

Opera Drops Details On Wii Version
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/opera-drops- details-on-wii-version-178216.php

Personally, I don't think anything less than HD resolution for a TV is horrible for webbrowsing. I've used hand helds, dreamcasts, etc. The only console so far worth web browsing on was a PS2 with netfront. Want to know why?

1. No one designs their site for NTSC.
2. The PS2 browsing was SVGA resolution ( at least the way I was running it over a monitor )
3. You need a real keyboard and mouse at some point.

I'm hoping my playstation 3 will have branded kb+mice at some point, since I like such things to match. At least the other consoles can display the resolutions needed for me to read the websites. It's ok for nintendo since I doubt anyone will do more than browse demos anyway. Also I need a PSP kb, since I still haven't found a better way to use google maps in a handheld. If DS isn't ass for it I'll buy a DS lite for portable web browsing. =)

Is it any good?!? He's porting Awesome The Game, which is just awesome.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/oddities/e306-the-awe some-game-173278.php

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/oddities/e306-the-awe some-game-173278.php

I'll be happy. I can't wait!

Yeah it seems they're already doing this: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/ps3-load-times-17 4292.php

What will load times be like the first time you play the game though? How quickly will HD space fill up I wonder?

I'm actually more concerned with the price of games on Blu-Ray vs DVD than load times. If games cost $70 that's going to suck.

It wasn't really my logic I was just talking smack for fun.

But the whole price point still stands. Why should we be forced to buy games on Blu-Ray that would work perfectly fine on DVD disks (which are supported). They might run a little faster (or not I dunno) and cost less.

Oh and there was a recent blog on kotaku here: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/ps3-load-times-17 4292.php

that talks about how the warhammer game pre-loads content onto the hard drive when you first run the game to keep load times down.

I wonder how much data they have to load and if that means the first time you play games it might take a min to load stuff on to the HD?

I'm also wondering how quickly that'll fill up the HD.

I just read the interview in question and came back to link it here.

Look at all those shills! Nintendo sure knows how to do astroturfing!

if a low price point is given, this console should literally fly off the shelves. I know Nintendo always likes to sell at a profit but I think market penetration may be more important in this case.

Although, with scenes like this then I doubt there will be too much of a problem for them. (take note sony fanboys, even when playing the PS3 is free it's still not as good)

Here's a thought: Maybe not every gamer fits into your stereotype. Nintendo understands this. Sony might, but doesn't care.

Playstation has always been about the games. Its never been particularly amazing as a system. Sony is counting on this. Exclusive Squeenix titles and Jack/Daxter clones aren't for everyone, however.

Did you see the line for the Nintendo Wii?

There's a bit of interest, especially from gamers who might not be too into Final Fantasy type games.

What did you think of it?
It probably sounds a bit odd for someone like me to say, but I appreciate the fact at least to some degree that something like this was made. I think that at least it gets people talikng about Columbine in a unique perspective, which is probably a good thing. But that being said there are a lot of things that are har to play or watch. And it seems to partially glamorize what happened. It shows a stark-contrast between fantasy and real life in an interesting way.

Since we'll have a bunch of ./ers spouting off... might as well make room for someone who lived through the events the RPG depicts:
" What did you think of it?
It probably sounds a bit odd for someone like me to say, but I appreciate the fact at least to some degree that something like this was made. I think that at least it gets people talikng about Columbine in a unique perspective, which is probably a good thing. But that being said there are a lot of things that are har to play or watch. And it seems to partially glamorize what happened. It shows a stark-contrast between fantasy and real life in an interesting way."

There is more of the interview at this site:
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/feature/columbine-sur vivor-talks-about-columbine-rpg-171966.php

Oops, I posted too quickly.

Here is the interview with the survivor.

Here is the interview with the creator of the game.

You can read the full interview with someone who asurvived that day at kotaku. His responses are quite interesting, and he says he has mixed feelings about the game.

I don't think the idea behind the game was to trivialize the shootings, but to comment on them. In other words, it's not trying to be entertainment, it's trying to be art.

Gaming site Kotaku "spoke" with Richard Castaldo, who was paralyzed from the chest down from the attack on Columbine, after he played the game in question. Link for the article.

The kotaku article will give you way more insight than any MSM report on the game (most of which won't even bother to d/l the thing).

What thundering herds?

Wasn't there something about the Revolution having a fancy displacement mapping 3D graphics scheme? (link) Whatever happened to that?

This debate has already been won by a commenter at Kotaku's "Romero to Modders: You Suck":

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/john-romero/romero-to -modders-you-suck-171986.php#c120385

Enjoy. :)

I distinctly remember when "Dreamcast" was released that everyone thought it was a terrible, touchy-feely name. And when the iPod came out, we all thought Apple was smoking the eCrack. Even the PlayStation was a pretty dumb sounding name, and was proof that Sony's SNES CD was never going to amount to anything. For that matter, the Super NES sounded incredibly bad to US ears.

Now all of these names are recognized worldwide. They gained traction on the strength of the systems, and are now highly recognizable and much loved. It's theoretically possible that the same will happen to Wii.

Kotaku has a better breakdown of the situation, which includes the nugget that nobody prior to the announcement had registered any tradmarks or websites with the Wii name.

IGN is reporting that E3 is going to have a two minute Halo 3 video on display, filled with real-time footage, to counterpoint the PS3's all pre-rendered CGI "Emotion Engine" nonsense. Kotaku.

Someone tell me they are joking and being scarcstic, because if they weren't that has to be the biggest bunch of hypocricy I have seen posted there. Didn't the first Halo 2 trailer do the exact same thing, and come relase time it turned out the "real-time footage" was a joke?

Come on, just about every game manufacture exagerates their game graphics, and so do the console companies in terms of graphic capablities. I remember the N64 ads making it out to be as powerful as a SGI machine, the countless games with FMV as "in game graphics," the super amazing console tech-demos(Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo, etc), like one company is exclusive in hyping "pre-rendered" CGI stuff.

Uhm Nintendo has a long history of creating new and innovative controllers and then building GREAT games on top of them.

Think N64 and Mario. Think about trying to play 3d games on a console with a single standard direction pad. Pretty hard to do huh?

Think about the Nintendo DS and fun games like Kirby Canvas Curse and Meteos.

Those are new styles of games that are very fun to play and wouldn't have been as easily possible with out the new style of controls that Nintendo came out with.

The controller is every bit as important as graphical power if not more so. You can't play the game with out the controller, but you CAN play a game with out graphics and I have proof.

Follow this link to find out what I mean: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/in-the-pit/audioonly- doom-game-167797.php

It's a game that can be played with no visuals at all. It uses the rummble feature in the XBox 360 controller. Check it out.

1) We have rumours being bandied about that SOE is going to lose the SWG license.
2) We have a massive shakeup in the Sony Online world - including Raph Koster leaving to head up a _new game studio_.
3) And, at the same time, we have BioWare announcing that they have opened a new division in Austion to produce what? A brand new MMORPG.

BioWare is now, as the above press release shows, hiring for all positions and already has one previous Sony Online Entertainment executive producer on the payroll. BioWare also mentions their highly successful games with SW: KOTOR being the first one mentioned in the list.

Now, let us take #1+#2+#3 and mix in all the other miscellaneous tidbits of information and supposition, stir well with the spoon of "what if" and ... VOILA! You have the makings of a brand new Star Wars MMORPG on your hands. IS this what BioWare is keeping under wraps? *shrug* Who knows?

I, for one, would love to see some of the best parts of the original SWG (intricate crafting, non-combat roles being valued - dancer, etc., MULTIPLE professions being possible and varied, and several other parts) being implemented in a much more Star Wars style universe than what the CU and *gag* NGE did to Sony's bastardization of Star Wars.

"Who really does pay for those $5000 showcase computers that get raved at in magazines like Maximum PC? I always get the feeling that they are put out there more as advertising than actual product. The big rigs get exposure and the fan boys drool over them, but odds are they are buying something a couple notches below."