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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Briandre9's Sanctuary Intro Clip

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

StarBucks(WiFi) + Free = Epic









Mmm... nothing like the smell of a warm caramel macchiato in the morning being masked by the smell of fresh greenbacks being burned, right? All jesting aside, we're pretty stoked about the world's most recognized coffee joint turning off the pay wall surrounding its in-house WiFi hotspots, and in case you missed the original announcement, we're here to remind you that the free-for-all begins today. As of this very moment, the next US / Canadian corporately-ran Starbucks that you enter should be offering free one two-click WiFi, meaning that no password is required and no time limits will be set. Of course, this also means that you'll never see an open chair in any Starbucks ever again, but hey -- that's why sidewalks were created, right?

White House pledges another $800 million for broadband stimulus

Usually, when we see"stimulus" and "broadband" in the same sentence it's because someone turned off our Google Safe Search filter, but today we have one such item that is totally safe for work. According to Information Week, the $7.2 billion in broadband grants and loans that we've already seen will be buttressed by an additional $800 million. A total of sixty-six new infrastructure projects (with up to 5,000 new jobs created in the process) are planned to launch in every state of the union (and Washington DC to boot). That is, of course, if the congressional appropriations committee doesn't siphon off $602 million of it to offset the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Once we emerge from the immediate crisis, the long-term economic gains to communities that have been left behind in the digital age will be immeasurable," President Obama said in the announcement.

PlayStation 4






Sony is only four years into it's ten-year PlayStation 3 lifespan, but it's already doing some preliminary planning for the next console in the line. Develop reports that Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida talked frankly about the company's new direction and future plans in a recent interview. "When Ken Kutaragi moved on and Kaz Hirai became the new president of SCE, the first thing Kaz said was, 'get Worldwide Studios in on hardware development'," Yoshida said. "So he wanted developers in meetings at the very beginning of concepting new hardware, and he demanded SCE people talk to us [developers]." He also said they are "undergoing many activities that we haven't yet been talking about in public. Some future platform related activities. The move was probably a smart one. Ken Kutaragi may get credit as the father of the PlayStation, but he also took the blame for the PlayStation 3's lackluster launch. Hirai's differing philosophy means we'll see a very different kind of launch for the PlayStation 4 or even PlayStation Portable 2, whenever they happen to come.

Obsidian Expresses Interest in Working on Chrono Trigger





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Obsidian is teaming up with Square Enix to create Dungeon Siege III, but what if the studio behind Fallout New Vegas had a chance to work on one of Square Enix's classic properties? Siliconera posited that scenario to Obsidian CEO Feargus Uquhart, who joked that he would love to work on Chocobo. But thinking about it more seriously, he said, "If I could come across everything that I played I would have to go with Chrono Trigger. I think Chrono Trigger was one I really enjoyed.” Urquhart and lead designer Nathan Chapman went on to note some of the key similarities between Chrono Trigger and traditional western RPGs, such as its open-ended design.” There are lots of differences, like you can beat Lavos at different parts of the game and you get different endings based on that. There are obvious answers like dialogue trees and all of that good stuff. The seeds are there for that kind of development," Chapman said. The pair are also interested in the setting, which Urquhart described as a "is a weird mix of fantasy and sci-fi mashed together. “An Obsidian-developed Chrono Trigger remains purely wishful thinking on their part, but Square Enix has recently been farming out well-known properties to western developers. One example is Front Mission Evolved, which is an action-oriented take on the classic strategy franchise developed by Double Helix. Don’t expect Obsidian to take on Chrono Trigger anytime soon, but with Square Enix continuing to experiment and expand its brand, anything is possible.

Gold Subscribers








Microsoft recently announced that half of the 25 million Xbox Live user account more than $600 million dollars in revenue from Gold subscriptions. Add up revenue generated by DLC, movies, and TV shows sales it looks like Xbox Live revenues topped a whopping $1 billion in a single fiscal year for the first time ever. That’s a lot of money and in an Bloomberg reports, Microsoft says that sales of DLC, movies, and TV shows exceeded the revenue brought in from subscriptions for the first time this year. This is big money Microsoft is talking about and if you combined the numbers of everything there generating revenue from it quickly exceeds the $1.2 billion mark. None of this can really be confirmed since Microsoft doesn't release detailed sales and revenue figures for Xbox Live. Sarah Frier of Bloomberg put her own estimate for Xbox Live revenue this past fiscal year at $1.1 billion, far exceeding the $800 million she estimated for the prior year. With Microsoft making such a hefty sum from their online network, it's no surprise some third parties are becoming increasingly more vocal about revenue sharing. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick claimed to the Financial Times that 60 percent of Xbox Live users were there "principally because of Call of Duty," and Activision isn't seeing a fair share of the revenue.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Blockbuster Avoids Bankruptcy








Things stateside haven't gone the way of Blockbuster Portugal (yet) but while the Blockbuster was able to make arrangements with creditors and avoid bankruptcy this week, it will be forced to delist from the New York Stock Exchange after a proposed reverse stock split fell through. Even the extension on debt payments it was able to negotiate hasn't satisfied analysts, with our old friend Michael Pachter telling Reuters "there's nothing on the horizon that makes it look like Blockbuster is going to be more profitable." Ouch. A substantial amount of debt has long been a problem for Blockbuster as it tries to adjust to a changing marketplace with Redbox and Netflix, and with shares trading at .18, has now made its existence more precarious than ever.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

ASUS Eee PC 1215N.

The words Netbook and powerhouse usually don’t float well with some people. That was until ASUS announced the Eee PC 1215N featuring the new Atom D525 processor running at 1.8GHz, dual core of course. It also comes with NVIDIA Optimus to intelligently switch between the NVIDIA Ion discrete and integrated graphics. So it will rip right thought 1080p videos with no problem no matter the display, also to thank for that is the HDMI jack. Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11n WiFi, integrated webcam with lens cover, choice of 250GB or 320GB hard disk , 500GB of ASUS WebStorage and pass-through USB to charge connected devices like cellphones when the Eee is powered off. No mention of battery performance, price, or availability on this so-called netbook. But I’m sure it wont be over 500$, and the battery might last two to three hours depending on what your doing.


Kinect Specs Reveal Two Player Limitation

UK-based online retailer Play.com has listed the full technical specifications of Microsoft's upcoming Kinect, as provided by Microsoft. While the system apparently tracks up to six people at a time, it is only capable of tracking two "active players." We're not sure exactly how an "active player" is defined, but reading the specifications, the term is again used to describe the twenty-point skeleton tracking system and "ability to map players to Live Avatars," so it would appear that for all intents and purposes, only two people can play full-body Kinect games at a time.

The full spec sheet, courtesy Play.com, is below.

Sensor
Colour and depth-sensing lenses
Voice microphone array
Tilt motor for sensor adjustment
Fully compatible with existing Xbox 360 consoles
Field of View
Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees
Vertical field of view: 43 degrees
Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees
Depth sensor range: 1.2m - 3.5m
Data Streams
320x240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec
640x480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec
16-bit audio @ 16 kHz
Skeletal Tracking System
Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players
Tracks 20 joints per active player
Ability to map active players to Live Avatars
Audio System
Live party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox Live Gold Membership)
Echo cancellation system enhances voice input
Speech recognition in multiple

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Capcom Boss Expects New Consoles in Two to Three Years


Most in the industry recognize that Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move and 3D pushes are ways to extend the lives of their consoles. Capcom Europe head David Reeves, however, only expects the stop-gap solutions to last a few more years. Speaking about the new technologies in a GamesIndustry.biz interview, Reeves said, "Capcom is definitely going to embrace it and just as the first-parties are doing, we see it as another blip before we come into the next cycle. Anything they can add to revive and pique interest in the games until we have another clash of the titans in two years time." He says he hasn't been given any inside knowledge of future hardware plans, but expects "two to three years" before we see new systems. "All the first-parties have got to be working on something," he said. "The tricky thing is when do you put a stake in the ground on technology? That's the problem. You can be waiting a few extra months to implement something, but you've got to set a date to go with a certain chip at a certain point otherwise you're going to miss the key milestones." Reeves also cites titles like Wii Fit and Guitar Hero as making the most money for the industry in the last few years. "And then on the other side you've got the Activision and EA hardcore titles," he said. "They're in a box. Publishers don't want to give up their core values but they need to reach out to this wider market." He says only the games that are "purpose built for Kinect and Move" will be successful on the devices. He may be right in his predictions. Sony's proposed 10-year life cycle for the PlayStation 3 didn't necessarily mean new hardware wouldn't be introduced before it was over -- the PS2 lived healthy along the PS3 for quite a while, after all. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, is borrowing time with Kinect and treating it like a new hardware launch, but they're likely preparing for the next generation as well. Nintendo is the biggest mystery, since years of speculation about a Wii HD have constantly turned up nothing.

Nintendo CEO Makes About $2.1 Million a Year







You'd think Satoru Iwata would be making some serious bucks for being the top guy at a company as successful as Nintendo. According to an recent shareholder meeting the president and CEO don’t bring as much bacon home as you would expect. Andriasang interpreted a story out of Japanese site Asahi regarding Nintendo's shareholder meeting. Their report puts Iwata's annual salary at just ¥78 million (about $768,000), with an additional ¥109 million (a little over $1.2 million) in performance-based bonuses, reaching a grand total of ¥187 million (roughly $2.1 million). For comparison, Sony president and CEO Howard Stringer makes a cool ¥816.5 million (more than $9 million) annually. Yoichi Wada takes home ¥240 million ($2.7 million) each year as CEO of Square Enix. Meanwhile, Apple's Steve Jobs only pulls in $1 a year from his position as chairman and CEO of the company.

Microsoft hints at touchless Surface combining camera and transparent OLED





We've always wondered whether Microsoft's multitouch table
would actually ever arrive, dreaming of Minority Report hijinx all the while, but after seeing what the company's Applied Sciences Group is currently cooking up -- a touchless telepresence display -- we'd rather drop that antiquated pinch-to-zoom stuff in favor of what might be Surface's next generation. Starting with one of Samsung's prototypetransparent OLED panels, Microsoft dropped a sub-two-inch camera behind the glass, creating a 3D gesture control interface that tracks your every move by literally seeing through the display. Combined with that proprietary wedge-shaped lens we saw earlier this month and some good ol' Johnny Chung Lee headtracking by the man himself, we're looking at one hell of a screen. Don't you dare read another word without seeing the prototype in a trifecta of videos after the break.

writing by : Sean Hollister

Monday, June 28, 2010

Apple sells 1.7 million iPhone 4






Well I’ll be damn even with antenna problems, screen related issues, and only 600,000 pre- orders Apple managed to sell 1.7 million iPhone 4 in sales this Saturday. Sunday transaction haven’t even been added up yet, I guess its another reason why Apple and Steve Jobs can walk around with that smug look on there faces. The sells number eclipsed the 3GS with only sold about 1 million units its opening weekend. I know Apples competitors aka Google has a ominous feeling larking over there shoulders with the threat of another launch by Apple.

Dead or Alive 3DS Sports Motion-Controlled Breasts Really ?

One of the biggest aspects of the Nintendo's 3DS, that is not talk about much, is the built-in tilt sensor. Until most developers have been silent on the matter or they do not have any plans in the works to utilizes the feature. Team Ninja is the first developer to reported they intend to implement motion controls in Dead or Alive 3DS. Picked up on by Blogger "Silconera" a Japanese investor who spend some hands on time with the 3DS; claims to have spoken with Tecmo representatives about their plans for Nintendo's upcoming handheld. According to a Tecmo employee, players will be able to tilt controls to jiggle female characters' breasts in the 3DS version of Dead or Alive. Shocking right ?, Nope not really Team Ninja games like Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and Extreme Beach Volleyball all have utilized motion capabilities for similar effect. Plus bouncy boobs are kind of Team Ninja's calling card.





Sunday, June 27, 2010

Mini-e ER1402 for only 299$

Looking the Mini-e Pc up and down you can tell its a space saver, and doesn't it look cute standing upright like in this picture. eMachines latest, um, machine "looks like a computer of the future, or at least a idea of what desktops my look like later on down the road. Tell me it doesn't look like something you would see in BattleStar Galactica or Star Trek. The Mini-e ER1402 measures at 7.1 inches and weighs 9 pounds. While it won't handle the latest installment of Crysis running at full spec of course, but stuff like Hulu, and Youtube you'll be ok. What about the spec on this bad boy?the computer features a 1.7GHz AMD Athlon Neo processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, NVIDIA nForce 9200 graphics, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. There are four USB ports and HDMI output (VGA, too) for connecting to your TV or monitor. A wireless keyboard and mouse are included as well. So picture this baby over-clocked running at about 2.0Ghz with 3GB of Ram; its like I said before you wont be able to run Crysis at full specs but it will run most high ends games at the lowest setting. I say "better playable than not right," and at $299.99 need I say more.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Peripherals

I feel bad for Microsoft and Sony right now accorded to an news report that suggests most gamers are aware of Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect peripherals, but few intend on buying them. Despite the core gaming community have a high awareness of the two new peripherals, both failed to break top twenty charts say analysts at EEDAR. The report also said more gamers in total are interested in Kinect than Move, only because more Xbox 360s are in more homes than PlayStation 3s. "When weighed on a relative basis (number of consoles vs. interest in the new controllers), Move and Kinect "showed near equal popularity"EEDAR stressed. The data does not mean the Move and Kinect will have poor sales, but as new game come out the purchase sales will go up. Please note that EEDAR's report is based off of traffic data from IGN.com, which tends to skew "hardcore." Purchase intent may be much higher among the more "casual" gamers once they're aware of the products.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

NVIDIA thanks Intel for saying GPUs are 'only' 14 times faster than CPUs



Well, we've gone a full month since the last episode of NVIDIA's and Intel's ongoing public feud, but it looks like Intel has now stoked the flames once again (albeit inadvertently) in a paper presented at the recent International Symposium on Computer Architecture. That attempted to debunk the "100X GPU vs. CPU myth," but it also contained the tidbit that GPUs are "only" up to 14 times faster than CPUs in running application kernels, which NVIDIA has more than a happily latched onto. In a blog post, NVIDIA's Andy Keane says that it's a "rare day" when a competitor states that their technology is only14x faster, and that he can't recall another time when he's "seen a company promote competitive benchmarks that are an order of magnitude slower." Of course, he then further goes on to note that Intel's tests were done with NVIDIA's previous generation GeForce GTX 280, and that the codes were simply run out-of-the-box without any optimization -- but, still, he seems more than happy to accept this bit of "recognition." In Intel's defense, however, the overall finding of the paper (linked below) is that the performance gap between a GTX 280 GPU and Core i7 960 processor is actually just 2.5X "on average," which NVIDIA hasn't highlighted for some reason.

Is Final Fantasy 7 That Great ?

Don't get me wrong I don't think Final Fantasy7 is a bad game; I just think it’s a very overrated and over hyped. I know of plenty hardcore fans that claim it’s the greatest Japanese Role Playing Game (JRPG) of all time. But many people that adore Final Fantasy 7, because it was the first JRPG they ever played. If you played Final Fantasy 4-6 first, you would have realize that they are better games with better character growth systems, better stories, and even though the graphics are not as advanced I think they hold up better overtime. “Where to start?” I know how about the battle system and the story line the most important elements of a JRPG. Final Fantasy 7 failed to add anything meaningful or different to the {ATB} system that wasn’t already used in Final Fantasy 4-6; other than the long ass summon spells. Bahamut Zero and Nights Of The Round yeah do I need to say anymore, and don’t get me started on the use of save points and random battles. Now, the Materia System which essentially gives any character the same ability kind of breaks the system, because there’s no different between the case of characters; unlike Final Fantasy 5 which did a far better of executing the use of this system. The Materia system hides the fact that there is no real progression in the leveling system, because whatever Materia you give to one character doesn’t necessarily mean the character is good, just the Materia is. One the biggest problem with Final Fantasy 7 and other modern JRPG’s is they suffer from is a bad story lines and poor character development. The main character is a sword- wielding, spiky-haired hero, get this he Has Amnesia! Well I’ll be damn imagine that. Go and play a game called Planescape Torment and Memento; I don’t know about you but I’m sick and tired of stories using amnesia it’s the most overused plot device in JRPGs period. Also what kind of fucking name is Cloud Strife; the name is half Emo have Goth and very lame. Just joking about that previous sentence I really don’t care about the names of the characters.


But most of the characters in the game are clichĂ©s like the Mr. T clone Barret; Cid of course who is in ever Final Fantasy game; the bizarre anime character that has no place in the story Cait Sith; Aeris the girl whose magic powers will determine the fate of the world. The list goes on but I will stop to talk about one particular character I that requires a closer look. I am referring to the worst character to ever grace a video game, Yuffie. Webster dictionary defines a (Ninja) “as a member of a feudal Japanese society of mercenary agents, highly trained in martial arts and stealth (ninjutsu), who were hired for covert purposes ranging from espionage to sabotage and assassination”. Why do I hate the adorable, fun loving ninja? First of all, her name is Yuffie. Second, ninjas are neither fun loving nor adorable! Infiltration, carnage, and drinking the blood of their enemies is what makes ninjas happy. Yuffie on the other hand is the stereotypical anime chick that jumps up and down screaming “Ya-ta!”. What’s my point? Yuffie is the only ninja in the history of video games to break the tradition of ninja being awesome in spite of their lame surroundings. Final Fantasy suffers in my opinion the worst character designs ever to grace the series; I would think the story would carry the game right? Not so; the main protagonist has amnesia which is lame. The setting is cool, he lives in a technologically advanced steam punk world or so you think until you leave this highly futuristic city. Too find the entire surrounding world looks like a generic Final Fantasy countryside. It’s like leaving Neo Tokyo and winding up in Tennessee for the rest of the game. Here's a quick run down of the story, so Cloud meets Sephiroth, who is still filled with teen anger towards Shinra his Mom and Dad. To get back at them for being mean, Sephiroth arbitrarily burns down a village and summons a meteor. Aeris decides that she is going to use the power of love and hope to stop him, and gets stabbed in the back. In a scene that is poorly executed, then she dies. Whoops!, I should have put a spoiler alert for that, but you can’t ruin a story that is already bad. Cloud has amnesia so he forgets to cast resurrection. Cloud kills Sephiroth but is too late and Aeris uses her magic to stop the meteor. Oh and I forgot to mention Cloud thinks he some guy name Zack, because when Zack was about to die he told Cloud to live for him. Fin
And that’s why I don’t like Final Fantasy7, but who the hell I’m I to judge. I really didn’t even make any good or compelling points to back my argument; I guess I’m just hating to hate something a lot of people enjoy.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Film Review: Splice


Splice (2010)
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Writers: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, and Doug Taylor
Cast: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, and Delphine Chanéac
Grade: B

Creature features tend to be cautionary tales: "Don't fuck with science because it will fuck with you."

It's worrying to see such a regressive message toward technology as a trope in horror sci-fi films, but honestly, it works.

Splice
fully beautifully exploits common and misunderstood fears of cloning and stem cell research for a compelling sci-fi drama.

Our heroes are Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, a scientist power couple. Their discoveries include slug-hybrids which make moist, gushing sounds whenever on-screen.

In their world, Brody and Polley are so hip and cool, they hang posters of anime characters on their walls, listen to heavy metal and jazz, and have made it onto the cover of Wired.

These character flourishes are a nice deviation from the stuffy scientist archetype. They also confirm that Brody and Polley's characters, despite their breakthroughs, still have a very juvenile attitude toward life.

Their teenage personas are challenged when they introduce a third character into their life, a creature far more complex than a meaty, gooshy slug.

Pieced together from human and animal DNA, the CG and puppet rendered monster is a lovely young woman with a bisected head, goat legs, and a tail. It grows quickly, a child maturing into the attractive Delphine Chanéac.

The conflict comes when Dren, as they name the creature, becomes resentful of her adoptive parents and eventually tries to fly the coop. Literally.

This thoughtful film about the uneasy transition of parenthood becomes a standard horror movie by its third act.

Splice's careful drama falls apart as it becomes the very creep-fest its posters promise it to be. Clunky dialogue becomes far more jarring as the film draws to a close.

But the thoughtful build-up in the first two-thirds of the movie are still with worth the price of admission.

Brody's traditionally quiet performance shows a man struggling to juggle responsibilities. Polley threatens to become a cinema scream queen during the first part of the film but finally settles on a heart-rending performance where her emotions lurk just beneath her skin.

Both they and Chanéac give excellent performances, even if they are stuck in a world where scientific advancements only mean trouble.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Korean StarCraft Match Fixers Banned by Pro League

Man, talk about burn; the StarCraft Professional League Kespa has permanently banned a host of players involved in last month's cheating scandaled. Some of the greatest players to ever grace the game won't be able to play professionally anymore. Reports say team Liquid not only barred the eleven players from playing again but also took there awards and professional recognitions out of the record books. Goes to show that South Korea takes their Star Craft very serious, and how its an deep part of there cultural. So deep that matches are regular aired on T.V the way football or basketball is watched in America.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Bethesda E3 "Secret"

Japanese mag Famitsu Abstract 360 latest issue reports that several company's still have unannounced surprises to reveal at E3, including Electronic Arts, Capcom, Konami, Square Enix, Sega, and Ubisoft. Even though Bethesda studios already released their E3 lineup earlier this week, the company claims to have a "secret" announcement to reveal at E3. What on earth could Bethesda have up there sleeve's; seeing how they already announced Fallout: New Vegas, Brink, Hunted, and id Software's Rage at an early show. The net has been buzzing with rumors of the next installment of the Elder Scroll series or possible MMO base in the Elder Scroll universe. According to a source speaking to VGA247 back in January, Bethesda had plans to announce an Elder Scrolls MMO last year, but ended up pushing the announcement back (for unexplained reasons). According to court documents which involved a dispute with Interplay and Bethesda. Interplay said that Bethesda has been working on an new MMO since 2006; with a team of 100 so working on the project, but Bethesda hasn't confirmed or denied anything yet. Elder Scrolls V doesn't seem possible now after the statement made by Bethesda game director Todd Hines "we no current plans to make another game in the Elder Scrolls series." But not long after the new Elder Scroll novel was released which seem to hint at the possibility of an new game in the series, and the publisher describe the book as "[partly bridging] the gap for the next game, which is set 200 years after the Oblivion crisis." All this speculation makes me wonder what the big surprise is.

25 Best Video Game Cameos (6-25)

Mikhail Gorbachev in Zangief's Street Fighter 2 Ending
In Street Fighter 2, When you take down M. Bison as Zangief, you're greeted by the splotchy headed former President of Russia. Ol' Gorby thanks Zangief for his fighting on behalf of the Soviet Republic. Then they do a traditional Russian dance. Yes, this happens.

Not only is Rockstar willing to tip their hat to Miami Vice as a source of inspiration for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, but in the PSP game Vice City Stories, they go nearly wholesale and have you go to a Phil Collins concert to hear "In the Air Tonight."

The King of Pop was a huge video game fan, and apparently a SEGA fanboy. When shown a near-final version of Space Channel 5, he asked to be put in the game and "Space Michael" was born. His cameo in Space Channel turned into a full-fledged role in Space Channel 5: Part 2.


After his "Chaos Dunk" caused millions of deaths in Neo New York, NBA legend Charles Barkley became a wanted criminal on the outs with the law. When a second "Chaos Dunk" kills millions more, a framed Barkley becomes hunted by the "B-Ball Removal Department" led by one Michael Jordan.

Back before Bill Clinton stormed Washington D.C., he didn't fake the funk on a nasty dunk in NBA Jam. Bill and Hil weren't the only unlock-ables, which also included Al Gore, Scorpion, The Beastie Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff and a ton of others.

Mario showed up in a slew of NES games, but perhaps his best cameo is as the referee in Punch-Out!! Too bad he sucks at keeping it clean and allows magicians to cast spells and drunks to spit their booze in Little Mac's face.

By Paul Furfari of 1up.com

Predictions Anyone ?




E-Readers Vs. Books



Well I knew it would happen sooner or later. If you aren't aware E-readers are a growing business, and like all businesses there in it to win. And to show that there product is better and superior than the current norm. So what’s my point? It’s the question that no one in the industry has tried to predict yet. That is in till now, typical Sony jumping the gun as always recently made bold statement predicted the demise of books within five years. That comment comes courtesy of Sony's Steve Haber, head man of Sony (DRBD) digital reading business division. He said that: "within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content." Really, Mr. Haber I wonder, because he said "digital content" so I presume this also includes magazines, newspapers, and books too. That’s a very bold statement for Sony to make, but there more to this story than meets the eye. Haber also insisted that there is no room in the market place for a stand alone E-reader; with devices like the Ipad to compete with. saying that, "it's just like digital imaging, where you can take pictures with a cellphone - and many people take pictures with cellphones - but if they want the best possible picture they'll use a point-and-shoot camera or a digital SLR." I can't really make what Sony is trying to say; do they have plans to bring out a product similar to Apples Ipad. This would eventually lead to the fall paper-back products, just like Cds have already lost to MP3 players.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Greatest Game Of All Time.


GoldenEye

Whenever I hear the words GoldenEye I reminisced fondly of my younger days as an adolescent in junior high school. Coming home everyday racing to my friends Donelle’s house to get a spot to play. In retrospect GoldenEye change what first-person shooters were all about, and by far it's one of the best movie-based games ever created. Almost every aspect of this game is amazing; for starters the A.I was highly intelligent and unpredictable for it's time. Whenever I would encounter enemies immediately two guys would take cover shooting, while one guy ran for the alarm button. It doesn't stop there either in some encounter the A.I would run a short distance take cover and fire; then if you got within a certain distant of them they would get out from that cover and repeat the process. In a way it s kind of repetitive but for its time it was pretty impressive. Second, just the way the story float altogether it gave you the same adrenal rush as the movie did. Most of the time in movie-based games the developer throw in extra stage or add characters that weren't necessarily apart of the original story; it’s mostly stuff you don't care about, but it’s not the case with GoldenEye. The best and most Important aspect of GoldenEye is the multiplayer FPS were pretty much the same back in the day, but it was the way Rare implemented a user friendly interface with the playability to match that made GoldenEye a huge success. The huge assortment of weapons and stages to choose from the balance between catering to a hard-core audience and a casual was done to perfection. Anyone could just pick up the game and play it and be juggernaut or just okay at the game. So whenever someone started a match they could really specify what they want as far match types guns, and characters; at the time a lot of FPS did not offer this depth in playability.

The game did so many things right from the amount of characters you can choose before a match, the number of stages available. There was a real science to the game; the precision and accuracy of your shot all play a major role in whether or not you got a kill. The choice of weapons and even the character you pick all played a part and the placement of weapons it was truly a game of wits. I still remember all the nights I spent at Donelle’s house playing all the way until the next morning. Golden Eye was a game of its generation it came out at the right time to give people something to talk about, something to reminisce about later. A Nostalgic feeling comes about when I think of Golden Eye. It was more than a game it is a part of my history something I would tell my children about. Something that sets my generation apart from the rests, and you can look back on and smile upon behold this is what we had back then and we were damn happy and it's still fun to this day. Golden Eye is a game that should and always will be remembered by those who grew up on and it is by far one of the greatest games of all time.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Nvidia GTX 470 Prototype

Measuring in at 12 inch Long and Housing not one but two Fermi dies on the
same broad; with six GDDR5 memory controllers, each operating two channels of memory. This is one nasty little monster, and powering the two 8-pin power connector goes beyond the normal standard of 470's 215W TDP, this dualie card sure looks set for a similar future of pretty pictures and no retail viability. The GTX is so powerful you might find yourself using it too power a wind turbine or factory. Engadgets's Vladislav Savov reported that the GTX actually caused an power shortages in Taipei recently.



Epic Mickey Getting Graphical Overhaul










Wii exclusive Epic Mickey may be seeing a graphically overhaul this upcoming E3. The rubbery appearance presented in the first images of the game had disappointed many fans. And the creators distributed the originally concept artwork of the game; which gave a steampunk style to the world of Disney movies really let fans down. French website GameKyo reports that Disney haves plans to unveil the new visual style sometime during E3, but Disney has commented saying "it doesn't comment on speculation." But in other related news Disney said they want Epic Mickey to reach Nintendo levels of quality. Meaning something similar to Mario Galaxy a very beautiful and well polished game showing off the power of the Wii. Epic Mickey developers have also went on record reassuring fans not to worry too much about it despite the Wii lack of power compared to its competitor. But in till then you'll have to wait too weeks to see if any of this is true.

Monday, April 19, 2010

PS3's summer 3D firmware update




Hey do you want to look like the family in this picture to your left? Well fear not, because you can if your a PlayStation3 owner. Come this summer Sony plan's to release an firmware update to support 3D. The update implies just to the games for now, but Sony was quoted saying they have plans to release support for Blu-ray movies later this fall. Good news I guess if your into the whole 3D hype. I for one think it's stupid, because you still have to put on the dumb glass to get the 3D effect, and second I'm not 5 years old anymore seeing how that was the last time I was ever excited about 3D. And I hate this stupid picture as much as 3D, and I wish this lame ass fade would just die already.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Star-Craft Cheater : ~ (


South Korean authorities are looking into allegations of fixed matches, by professional players of sci-fi-themed strategy game Star-Craft. The game is developed Blizzard who is the same creators of World of War and Star-Craft which is enormously popular in South Korea. Star-Craft is so popular in Korea that, they have Teams compete in televised tournaments. Player's even receive coaching and sponsorship, and the Korean police believe some of these players accepted bribes from gambling websites to lose matches. Surprisingly, the Korean mainstream news hasn't discuss it at all, but the Korean Times Website said "the e-Sports Association has filed charges against individual players and coaches in March 2010". Just to give you a better understanding of how popular Star-Craft is in South Korean it accounts for 70% of sport activities in the county. A Korean spokesperson in the UK told the BBC "They have no official statement from the minster of cultural." But he did confirmed that the incident is under investigation by the police." The website Gamepron.com compared all this news to the 1919 Chicago White Sox (Black Sox scandal).

Toyota why ?




The BCC News reported on Thursday April 15th that Toyota would be suspending sales of their Lexus GX 460 worldwide. Much to the dismay of Toyota and their on going legal issues regarding their merchandise. The fear with this vehicle is that it may roll over. Millions of GX 460 have been recalled for public safety. What must Toyota do to regain public trust if however that trust has been tarnished? Has the issue with Toyota effected other car manufacturers? Toyota has been in the red for most of 2009 and 2010. From committee meetings with executive leaders to now this. What must be done? Toyota blatantly has to get their act together. I do not know the intricacies of the automotive industry, however their appearance in the media lately has been that of incompetence. Toyota seems to be in a state of disarray. On April 18, 2010 Toyota also recalled 600k minivans. Who is running The show here? As consumers, whether we are American born or Japanese born have a right Safe and secure in the automobile that we drive. When the consumer, his or her family and friends are put in danger the company must do any and everything to reassure security. The people should also protest Toyota and make them aware that incompetence will not be tolerated. We the consumer must take the initiative to not only respond to Toyota but to other car manufacturers as well. Time is of the essence, it is more than necessary for the automakers to be the responsible businessman they claim to be. There needs to be investigations from the Top up to down. There needs to be a checks and balances to ensure the absolute safety of the consumer. It is the consumer that pays the salary for these top CEOs and CFOs of these companies and we should have some say. Oh, and by the way I drive a Toyota.


Evil Google







According to popular opinion and statistical evaluations Google has become a powerful entity in the global scene.Google allows for the access of information in a nano second. From looking up basketball scores to searching for your home on Google Earth, Google enables it’s users to do just about anything.Google has become a global dominance on the web mainly through advertisements. Its position is growing and it has affected people and businesses like no other entity on the web.Google has become a major driving force in the information age. It connects mankind like no other form of technology. Google has become the master of information. It has become the vehicle behind advertising. With Google you can even look at current pictures anywhere on the planet through its satellites. Google also has a negative influence amongst many people. Google has been viewed by some as a negative aspect to life. Many people view Google as having to much power in regards to information. It is viewed as a way to spy on people due to its satellite ability. Also Google is viewed as having to much power. Google in many peoples eyes is a monopoly. It controls a vast array of information. Google is the search engine for most of the worlds population and it has a future that has yet to be determined.