Dreamlords Launches Feb. 15
Lockpick Entertainment :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
Swedish game developer Lockpick Entertainment today announced the release date for what will be the next step in Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming. Upcoming Dreamlords combines the accessibility of a web game with RPG character development, RTS battles and long term tactical strategy in a never before seen gaming experience.
2K Sports Announces Derek Jeter as Official Spokesman and Cover Athlete for Major League Baseball 2K7
2K Games :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
New York Yankees’® Captain Derek Jeter to Return as Cover Athlete of the Premier Major League Baseball Video Game
Zero Controllers For PlayStation® 3 and Xbox 360
Nyko :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
Critically Acclaimed Controller Headed To Next-Generation Consoles
Need For Speed: Carbon Collectors Edition
Gamepyre :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Need For Speed Carbon is a pretty fun game, despite the flaws. Getting away from a police chase can feel too easy sometimes, for instance when a cop just sits at an intersection while you go hauling away. But other times the cops will overwhelm you, 10 or more cars behind you, all able to perfectly follow your every move. The voice acting needs quite a bit of work, but that is all too common of games nowadays.
Happy Feet (Wii) Review
Driver Heaven :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Born into a nation of mighty Emperor Penguins, the tiny Mumble seemed just like any other penguin at birth. However, his father accidentally dropped him during incubation, and as a result Mumble isn’t like the rest of his species. All of the other penguins can sing a Heartsong to attract a mate, but unfortunately our hero can’t sing to save his life. Mumble’s dancing ways are frowned upon by the rest of society so he doesn’t fit in at all. Although it’s not always fair to judge every game based on a movie, Happy Feet on the Wii is a prime example of a corporation milking a franchise.
An Angel Visits Myth World, Announces Grand Prize Winners
IGG :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
It’s the start of the New Year, and an Angel is visiting Myth World! Yes, from January 1st through 3rd the New Year Angel will be in Blython (165, 540). She has a lucky egg to give out and a new quest for the most daring and adventurous players!
Hollywood Surprised By Xbox Video Marketplace
1Up.com :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
The push for HD has come from all corners of media, but actually accessing high-definition content isn’t so simple — the amount of people with HD televisions running standard-definition content is staggering. But Hollywood’s initial investment into Microsoft’s service has proved a profitable one, as its direction connection to the TV means there’s no technical wizardry needed to move a computer-downloaded film onto the TV. Do I really expect my mom to figure out DVD burning? I can’t even figure it out.
EuroGamer Eye On 2007: Xbox 360
Eurogamer.net :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
While the rest of the Eurogamer galley slaves whirl themselves into a lather debating which the best games of the last twelve months were, over the next five days I’m going to be your guide through what some of the best games of the next twelve months may be.
Eurogamer’s Top Picks for the Xbox360: * Alan Wake * Bioshock * Forza Motorsport 2 * Halo 3 * Mass Effect
Eurogamer’s Honourable Mentions for the Xbox360: Alone in the Dark, Assassin’s Creed, Blue Dragon (US/EU), Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, Bullet Witch, Burnout 5, Crackdown, Eternal Sonata, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Haze, Lost Planet (US/EU), Medal of Honor Airborne, Resident Evil 5, Shadowrun, The Darkness, Too Human
XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) 2007-01-01 SVN rev7469 build
Xbox Media Center :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
T3CH released a new SVN compile (rev7469 *proper*) of XboxMediaCenter(info). This T3CH-compile is a complete snapshot of what is in SVN at the time the build was compiled, with just a few small additions.
Special Notes and Noteworthy/XML/Script changes: * Here’s the first build of 2007. Hope everyone had a nice holiday! * I’m including a preview of the new mplayer Elupus is working on, report issues here. It’s located in the TEST subfolder, simply replace the 2 files in XBMC/system/players/mplayer/ if you want to help Team XBMC test it. * Also see the new NewYears splash made by Smokehead. * Since I haven’t seen any newer version of AMT than 0.93.5, I applied the fix floating around so atleast it works now. * I also tweaked the win32 ‘run_me_first.bat’ so it runs and then unmounts the virtual drives when you exit. * I’m also including the ‘XBMC Win32 PC environment’ .exe that is meant for skinners & python developers, read more about the concept here. It was built using Microsoft DirectX Summer 2004 SDK.
Here’s the added stuff since the 2006-12-25 SVN Rev7428 Build:
Arstechnica: the Xbox 360 and the next generation
Arstechnica :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Microsoft is confident enough in their position that they invited me to New York to see how the Xbox 360 stacks up against the PS3 when both are hooked into the same 1080p display and using the highest-quality connection possible. For the 360 that means the VGA cable, which is currently the only way the system can output 1080p; the PS3 is hooked up via HDMI.
* The hard drive problem The Microsoft team defends the drive by talking about how you can delete a television show and redownload it later to save space, but it’s clear that these solutions are a workaround. It’s a problem, and if Microsoft wants to really get people into buying more content through the 360 and Xbox it’s something they’re going to have to fix. And I’m not going to be happy if I end up paying $200 for a 40GB HDD.
* Microtransactions and you EA has recently angered a lot of gamers with their new habit of putting up what amounts to cheat codes online for pay, and “tutorial videos” for Madden that also cost money. “Vote with your wallet!” I’m told. Fair point, but the fact that these things are being sold at all makes the microtransaction system itself look pretty bad.
* Ana is a bot It’s time to put the systems in the room to the test and check out how the games look and how the Xbox 360 and PS3 handle upscaling. “If you really wanted to be mean you would have run these tests in 720p or 1080i,” I say, referring to the issues that Sony is having with those two resolutions. They realize what I’m talking about, and Scott Henson opens a small package and shows me what’s inside. “Is that it?” I ask. He nods. “We call it Ana. This is the scaling chip that’s in the 360,” he tells me. The PS3 has no internal hardware scaler, which means games that are 720p native can only be shown in 720p or 480p; there is no scaling up to 1080p or 1080i. “It was a critical design decision; we wanted the 360 to be high-definition, not just 1080p or some other standard. That’s why we included component cables in the box; there is no HDTV that doesn’t have a component in,” said Greenburg. They assume that Sony didn’t include a hardware scaler to keep costs down, but get a little cagey when I ask how much it costs to put Ana into the 360. “This isn’t a $1,000 scaler,” Henson says, “but it’s a good one.”
* Mission Impossible 3: the search for an equal resolution We popped Mission: Impossible 3 in the 360’s HD DVD drive, which is external, and we also put in the Blu-ray version for the PS3. Both systems were hooked up at the same time, so we could flip back and forth effortlessly to compare the video quality. In this case, both systems were outputting in 1080p, so there was no advantage in terms of resolution.
Rainbow Six Vegas Review
Gamepyre :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Even if you haven’t been a fan of Rainbow Six in the past, check out the next generation of the series. There’s quite a bit to appeal to normal FPS fans, while still appealing to fans of the series. This game easily gets Gamepyre’s Gold award, and is a must have for fans of shooters of all types.
The LANiverse 2006
Phoronix :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
“While it was no QuakeCon, over the weekend was the Masters of the LANiverse LAN party that turned out 250 gamers for 16 hours of gaming action with several tournaments. We had captured some photographs of this event and have some thoughts to share on this Michigan LAN organization.”
Xbox360 HD DVD Player Review 
OCIA :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
“Firing the unit up shows off the quality of the display, 128×128 pixel resolution and 262k color. When connected to an XP computer the player is immediately recognized as a removable storage device and assigned a drive letter. The player also recognizes it is connected and ready to transfer files. The built-in lithium battery recharges through the USB port.”
The Empire Calls Back – Lego Star Wars 2 Mobile
THQ :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
THQ Wireless and TT Games Publishing Ltd today announced their plans to release LEGO® Star Wars IITM Mobile, the sequel to one of the highest-quality and best-selling mobile phone games of 2005. Created by Universomo, LEGO Star Wars II Mobile is slated for an international release this holiday season.
