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Where did you hear that Titan was going to be any of those you listed? According to this article, Titan is only known as being Blizzards next-gen MMO that is due to launch at the end of 2014. Now the whole Starcraft 2 trilogy is due to be finished and released in the beginning of 2013, a year and three quarters before Titan is released. This is around the same time span as World of Warcraft was released after Warcraft 3 (if you ignore a few months, due to it being pushed back.) Sounds like this will be like what Blizzard did with World of Warcraft. Release the game, give it around 2 years for the public to have a good grasp of the worlds lore, then release MMO set a little further beyond the last game, profit (wouldn't want to release it too soon or it could hurt the RTS's sale, and not too late that it's foggy for people to remember the lore). This time it looks like it will be Starcraft to use this formula.

Please, we're talking about a game system. All of the consoles are much tighter locked down than your description of

a car that has an inaccessible engine, a dealer padlock on the hood? Do they call it “tampering” when I change my own oil?

And here's the sales numbers for PS3 and XBOX360 :

http://www.totalvideogames.com/PlayStation-3/news/PS3-Sales-To-Overtake-Xbox-360-In-2011-14421.html

wow, you don't have much imagination, do you?

oh alright, lets go over the _possible_ reasons that people might want to modify their Xbox

- to fix security issues that microsoft/Xbox Live hasn't patched yet. e.g.
        http://www.totalvideogames.com/Xbox-360/news/Xbox-360-Website-Security-Flaw-Patched-7405.html
this wouldn't be possible if microsoft had banned these guys from researching a fix.

- to fix hardware issues that microsoft/Xbox Live refuses to fix
        http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/101070/court-filing-microsoft-knew-about-refused-to-fix-xbox-360-flaw.html
        http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/47671
so microsoft stiffed you with a dead box. why can't you fix it yourself? because inserting a different hard disc can already be considered a mod! yay!

- to make a game backup (which is 100% legal in many countries, if not everywhere)
        http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/141037

I can go on for a while... want some more?

Do you see the Xbox 360 as the main platform as opposed to the PC? During the whole Unreal time it was very much PC focused.

The PC right now is a fair amount different to what it was back in the day, with all the badly integrated video chips. Here's the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software. Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC.

So piracy was a main point for you...

Right now, it makes sense for us to focus on Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Not least PCs with multiple configurations and piracy.

But when the dust has settled, is there any possibility of Gears 2 on PC?

No.

Definitely not?

No.

From: http://www.totalvideogames.com/Gears-of-War-2/feature-13270.html

http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/North_America_ And_Japan_Also_Hit_By_PS3_Component_Crisis_10566_0 _0.htm

400 000 units for USA and 100 000 for Japan - the launch starts to sound not-so-spectacular.

Or is this clever marketing?

Don't think for a second that Sony didn't do this because of the continuing litigation regarding the Dual Shock vibration. They're losing their case, but to include vibration feedback would incur more litigation, but to ship without some controller gimmick would make for a marketing loss.

The question is, will it be included?
http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/PlayStation3_H DD_To_be_Sold_Separately_-_Official_9311_0_17.htm

TWILIGHT PRINCESS SHEDS NEW LIGHT

I've played some games lately that had the potential for greatness (the most personally annoying for me being Vampire: Bloodlines) where it was obvious at some point that the developers ran out of time.

A quote something like this was attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto "A game delayed may eventually be good, but a bad game released is bad forever." I'm glad he's taking his own advice.

Consoles also have GPUs. ATI and Nvidia supplied current-generation consoles with their chipsets, so a lot of GPU programming techniques would be useful on current-generation consoles. Also, next generation consoles are also going to use graphics hardware by ATI and nVidia. Sony has already said the PS3 is going to use Cg (which is what this book focuses on).

But you're right that only the graphics team needs to worry about shaders, unless (as discussed in the review) other areas start to use the GPU for general programming.

A European release for the sequel has been mentioned here and there. No details, but some scant info here and here. Also, Namco sent Katamari 2 press packs to the Euro press, which would be pointless if there were no Euro release planned. Failing that, there is a Nintendo DS version coming out.

Fingers crossed, eh?

Apparently, there will be a European release, too! Woooo!

They're not quite the same image -- the earlier image you're talking about (this one here) is slightly different than the new one. Whether one is a pre-rendered mock-up and the other is a real screen shot, I don't know. It's getting harder and harder to tell the difference...

It seems that it would be pretty unlikely that this product is pure vaporware seeing as how there's some pretty substantial developer support. (link) It's pretty difficult for these guys to get developers on board - ATI and NVIDIA both have issues, and they're industry standards. I highly doubt Epic, Ubisoft, Sega and the others that have come on board this early signed deals based on pure speculation. Add to that the reports that the product is to be available this year (link) They must have some sort of prototype already functioning.

Now I believe "Black and White 2" will be a different story. A good review can be found here: http://www.totalvideogames.com/pages/articles/inde x.php?article_id=5638

Some of the finer points from the preview:

"If you look after your people's basic needs, they will manage themselves. You are no longer an errand boy to your people - you are a powerful God. Now you easily have the time to affect your people's lives as a nation, not worry about where their next meal comes from. Though, if you want to mess around in the detail, helping farmers, you are still able to."

"Unlike B&W1, the whole world exists all the time, so if you have been to one land you can revisit it at any time and play God. Your people may have progressed since you last visited them though..."

"Some of the key features discussed in the game are about waging massive wars, sieges and battles, discovering and using new 'Epic Miracles'... There is research and players can create new forms of weaponry, from swords to bows to siege machines. Build and design unique defensive gates and walls. Control and marshal huge and varied armies. Create and control settlements that include housing, farming, and many other buildings, like fountains and lush gardens (if you're Good) or stocks and guillotines (if you're Evil). Multiple tools to help train and improve Creatures are on hand. As well as using sticks, whips, and feathers, players can create their own unique tools."

"The thing I am most proud of is that the game 'makes the player feel like a God'. In Black & White 1, you never felt significant enough - you felt like an errand boy. In Black & White 2 you are a powerful God."

Wyrd One

Stalker looks very cool.

Holy christ. I'm afraid and excited that it might be better than Half-Life2.

Of course, I'm also afriad that it might suck.

Check out this article.

GameCube's biggest flaw at this point is the FUD that keeps getting tossed at it, your post being a great example.

There are a lot of mature games for the GameCube, both in terms of games that are actually mature and in terms of games that get that big M for their rating. Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil, BMX XXX, Blood Omen 2, Mortal Kombat, i can look up more if you really want.

The media has often encouraged the view of the GameCube being for younger players, although their latest tendency has been to distort sales figures of the GameCube and XBox to make Microsoft look good and Nintendo look bad. The MagicBox reported on wednesday (you have to scroll down a little bit) that "Nintendo clarified that they have sold 800,000 units of GameCube worldwide in the first quarter of 2003, not the 80,000 units reported by other agencies such as Lycos, Reuters and Bloomberg."

Yet despite that, two days later most news sites are still reporting the 80,000 sales figure, and none of the major news sites have issued corrections to their reports, which are still being used as fodder for Nintendo-bashing. Only a few sites are reporting the correct number and are willing to say that the GameCube and XBox are actually neck and neck. Some people have claimed that 80,000 is an accurate number of units shipped, but if so, then the news sites should be reporting 80,000 shipped not 80,000 sold.

Some analysts think that Nintendo needs to cut prices to which i agree. However that alone won't be enough. They need to advertise the mature games for their system better. They're doing poorly because they're allowing Sony and Microsoft to gain the upperhand in the image department.

First of all, i was speaking in generalized way about the type and quality of games for the system.

Despite that however, i see no reason to assume 100% that it can't play PSX games. Given the large amount of research they've put into emulation for the PS2 (note that Sony has said that one of the reasons for the projected low price is "the unit used a lot of the technology that has already been researched and manufactured for the Plasytation2") there is no reason why the PSP wouldn't be able to run PSX games reburned onto UMD disks. However given that that might make piracy too easy in Sony's opinion they'll most likely make it necessary to make at least a few changes to the code. (i have little idea how much UMDs differ from DVDs and how likely it is that people could burn their own, if it turns out to be fairly difficult Sony may not bother with making direct transfes difficult.) However i would be suprised if Sony didn't make it as easy as possible to port PSX games to the PSP (piracy issues aside) since it would be their best weapon again the GBA's huge back-library.

(And memory cards for a portable? Ugh!)

What's your rational for this? You think it will be too annoying to have to carry around pieces of plastic that you have to insert into your handheld system? :)

That's one thing i'd be quite happy with, regardless of whether the system in question was using cartridges or optical media. The memory in cartridges eventually dies. I can't save games on my original FF for the NES anymore. Eventually almost all my GBA cartridges will be useless for the same reason, and there's no easy way to get the data off them and onto a new cartridge even if i was willing to pay for a new one.

They claim it will cost about as much as the GBA. Obviously if it's as large as a GameCube it won't sell. However if it were say, 25% bigger than the original GBA, would you turn down a device that could play movies, music, and PSX games for the price of a Gameboy Advance just because of that?

Regardless, i'm sure they know size is an issue and are doing their best to squeeze it down, we'll have to wait for more specific information to be sure.

I hope not. The optical disc will not automatically yield better games.

Sadly i agree with you on this one. In my opinion FF7 and FF8 didn't measure up to FF4-6 at all, and there are a lot of other games for which i can make that comparison. I've been getting a lot of use out of my GBA as the last bastion of 2D gaming.

However time stands still for no man. As the PSX and other newer consoles have shown, my opinion of 2D vs. 3D games is not reflected by the majority of the marketplace. They didn't stop making 3D games because i liked 2D games better. And if Nintendo sticks with a Cartridge based format that's best suited for 2D games, my support alone will not keep it going if Sony convinces everyone that 3D handheld games are the wave of the future.

I'd rather have a living 3D system for which i can hope for the occasional 2D game being made, rather than a 2D system that dies after a year or two and i never see another game for it again.

(And yes, i'm simplifying the issue, but there is a strong correlation between 2D games vs. 3D games and cartridge format vs. optical format)

Some links from news.google.com:

Gamespot news
TotalVideoGames(don't ask me)

These seem to be dated last month. They seem to indicate that most of the pulling ahead happened Christmas 2002.

I still think that Europe is a severely underrated game market, though god forbid I be able to find *any* sales figures comparing sales per region. Darn internet.

I don't know much about Australia, though I do know Slashdot did a story about their Game Developers Conference recently.

So while everyone argues about the exact usage of the term "open source," here are some pages with screen shots of Black and White.

Preview at Daily Radar (English)
Total Video Games - Screen shots and Interview (English)
Games On Line (Italian)
BW Zone at GamesWeb (German)

Enjoy!