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Depp Lends Voice to Pirates Game
Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Adventure, Corporate News, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox,
Movie star Johnny Depp is voicing the lead character in Bethesda Software’s new title “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow,” reprising the role he originated in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Depp recorded his lines for the game in a Los Angeles studio; the game was also designed in LA. 7 Studios, a company under license with Buena Vista Games (Disney) is the game’s designer. Bethesda, the game’s publisher, released the title yesterday.
Read More 
| Washington Post
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Being A Professional Gamer At Age 8
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Corporate News, First Person Shooters, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Victor De Leon is living the dream at 8 years old. Victor is better known as Lil Poison, a Major League Gamer who plays to win in Halo. Victor picked up the controller from his father at the age of 2 when “Dad” found that a controller makes a fine pacifier. Victor has already competed in several tournaments and has also earned enough playing video games to ensure his college education is fully funded. Victor’s parents have done a great job by adding some balance to his life. He does homework before gaming, puts in some physical activity at his grandparent’s swimming pool and caps off the evening with some team gaming for 2 hours. Let’s hope getting into the gaming spotlight at such a young age doesn’t disenfranchise Lil Poison. I don’t want to see a VH1 special in 15 years about child gamers and where they are now!
Read More | News 8 Austin
Superstar Mode Added To Madden 07
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Sports, Xbox, Xbox 360,
IGN was able to score an interview with David Ortiz who is currently working on the Madden 07 offering for next gen systems. Ortiz confirms that Madden 07 will include Superstar mode, which was one of the many features missing from Madden 06 on the Xbox 360. The new and improved Superstar mode was added after EA heard the complaints of gamers and had already shaped up much of the onfield play. In the new NFL Superstar Hall of Fame Mode you can control a character from their point of view. You don’t choose the plays, and if your position is on the offense, then you can opt not to play defense. The changes to the Superstar mode will definitely mix up your play to play role in the game, David Ortiz explains,
Before every drive, you select your role in the scheme. Using the receiver example, you can play as a Possession Receiver, and this will increase your catching ability and the QB accuracy. You can play as a Burner, and this will send you deep, affecting not only your speed and awareness, but it will also negatively affect the rating of the CB trying to cover you one-on-one. Or you can be the Lone Wolf, forgetting about the team game and trying to rack up as many yards and catches as possible. As a cornerback, your roles are Coverage DB, a Blitz Specialist, or again, the Lone Wolf. This all leads to character development and how you’re viewed as a teammate, adding extra depth beyond simply catching passes over the middle or picking off a pass and trying to take it to the house.
The Superstar mode is a much needed addition to the next gen Madden franchise which debuted with a very lackluster Xbox 360 version last fall. Madden 07 is due out for the Xbox 360 and current gen systems on August 22nd followed shortly by the PS3 release on November 1st. You can also spend an extra $10 to get the “Hall of Fame” edition which includes a bonus video disc chock full of John Madden!
Read More | IGN
How Much Power Does Your Console Use?
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Just in case anyone was wondering how much power a console draws when it is in standby, and when it is running games, DX Gaming has the rundown. They compare several consoles, including the original Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, and the Dreamcast, to determine how much power the consoles utilize when off, when at the “dashboard,” and when in use. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the Xbox 360 power brick that that console was the biggest eater of energy, but there were some other interesting data points.
First was that the Playstation 2 in standby consumes as much power as the Xbox 360 in the same state, 2 watts. When powered on, but running no games, the Xbox 360 is the pig, pulling 145 watts, followed by the Xbox at 61 watts, and the Playstation 2 at 23 watts. While running games, the order of the console’s power hunger doesn’t change. The Xbox 360 boosts up to 165 watts, the Xbox jumps to 70 watts, and the PS2 runs up to 30 watts.
DX Gaming also runs some numbers to try and determine the average cost of a console over a year’s time, as well as the watts drawn per cycle. Gamers might have some issue with the estimate of 14 hours per week, and then the Xbox 360 causes problems in the watts per cycle measurement, since it operates a multi-core CPU, the numbers depend on whether one considers the megahertz rating additive, or in parallel. Still, the numbers are interesting, and give some insight into what might be expected from the Wii and Playstation 3 consoles.
Read More | DX Gaming
Build Your Own Racing Game Chair
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Driving, Nintendo Gamecube, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Do you feel full of jealousy any time you spy an arcade racing setup being used to own others in Ridge Racer or Project Gotham Racing 3? Store bought racing chairs are often poorly constructed and expensive or good quality and even more expensive. Over on the ToolMonger blog there is a how-to for making your own racing chair setup for just $80 in parts. All you need after parts is the racing wheel and pedals for your particular system. The project requires welding and isn’t for everyone. If you decide to tackle the project, the original makers recommend a $380 welder, which is quite cheap for a quality welder. Judging from all the required welding it is a good thing that video games are good for hand eye coordination.
If you don’t have the hands on ability to make your own, or are just too busy playing video games, ToolMonger is giving one away! To enter, just post a comment somewhere on their site by July 31st.
Read More | ToolMonger
GamePro’s Eleven Most Groundbreaking Controllers
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, Nintendo, PlayStation 2, Xbox,
GamePro has a list of what they feel to be the eleven most groundbreaking controllers of all time. Most of the controllers on the list aren’t that controversial, but we thought you might be interested, so here they are:
- The Zapper (NES)
- Dreamcast Controller
- Nintendo Wavebird (Gamecube)
- Super Nintendo Gamepad
- Atari 2600 Joystick
- Nintendo 64 Controller
- Wii Remote
- Xbox Controller Type S
- Playstation Dual Shock
- Keyboard and Mouse
- NES Controller
Its hard to argue with the likes of the Zapper and the Dreamcast controller. Even the Atari 2600 controller was groundbreaking in its own, breakable, hand-cramping way. But while the concepts behind the Wii controller are innovative, it remains to be seen whether this controller will really alter the industry in a meaningful way. It certainly pushed Sony to adopt motion-sensing, but it’s hard to consider this a real breakthrough until the console actually ships. Similarly, the Xbox Type S controller may be best known for being released in response to the horrible feedback that the original Xbox “Duke” controller got; while it is a well executed controller, there isn’t a whole lot new that it brings to the table. Its amazing to see how many of the controller breakthroughs come from Nintendo; they weren’t always the first to implement a control scheme, but they usually were the first to make such things usable and gamer friendly.
Read More | GamePro
Xbox Pioneer Ted Hase Leaves Microsoft
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Xbox,
Ted Hase, the last of the original team of four that pitched the concept of the Xbox, has left Microsoft after sixteen years. Originally, Hase, Otto Berkes, Seamus Blackley, and Kevin Bachus were the group that spearheaded the drive towards the Xbox. Blackley left in 2002, and last known reports have him working as an agent at the Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood. Kevin Bachus was CEO of Infinium Labs for a while, trying to lend them some credibility, and has since moved on. Berkes currently works on the Origami project for Microsoft. Ted Hase left the Xbox project early on in its inception, as the box shifted from a Windows-based machine to a dedicated games console, and has since worked on projects that would ultimately become the Windows Media Center operating system.
All four of the team members were instrumental in getting buy-off on the original Xbox project, and the fact that the original was such a success and that their replacements on the team have been able to get the Xbox 360 out the door so quickly is a testament to the level of trust that was built up in the platform. Hase will certainly have a number of opportunities waiting for him as he leaves Microsoft; he might be a good match for Apple, as they try to drive towards media center-like features in their hardware.
Read More | Mercury News
Tim Schafer Calls for Psychonauts on Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility
Posted by George Hatzidimitriou Categories: Xbox, Xbox 360,
The always charismatic Tim Schafer, founder of Doublefine Studios and of Monkey Island fame, posted this amusing call to action this week, pleading for fans of the cult hit Xbox title, Psychonauts to help get the game added to the Xbox 360’s backwards compatiblity list by sending emails to Microsoft’s backwards compatibility team and voicing their support through whatever methods necessary.
“I want you to get up. I want you to walk over to your window right now. I want you to open your window up, and then I want you to stick your head out, and then I want you to take in a nice breath of fresh air, and then I want you to close that window and walk back to your computer and click on this link and send Microsoft a heartfelt message. Something to the effect of, “I am a 9-year-old boy in the hospital, dying of consumption, and my last wish is to play Psychonauts on my XBOX 360!” (Please, try to make up your own disease.)”
Apparently that entails posing as a terminally ill child with a dying wish. A noble cause if I ever saw one. Rock on Tim.
Read More | Double Fine
Resolving HDTV Lag In Games
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360,
The Xbox 360 has sought to usher in the era of high definition gaming, and many gamers have purchased HDTV sets to go along with their new Xbox 360s. However, while HDTV offers spectacular pictures at stunning resolutions, there are some issues, the most vexxing of which is HDTV lag. IGN.com tries to dissect the problem, and offer up some solutions to the issue. There are basically two areas where HDTV lag can occur: first, when resolutions other than the native resolution of the television are used, the TV will have to alter the signal to display correctly on the set. This will sometimes require scaling the image up or down in resolution, and may also require converting the signal from an interlaced signal to progressive, or vice-versa, depending on the television type. This conversion takes a finite amount of time, and depending on the television, will either be so quick as to be unnoticeable in gaming, or can be long enough to affect the ability to play games at all.
The second issue occurs when there are additional filtering options offered by the TV. One of the more common is Samsung’s DNIe, but most of the high end HDTV manufacturers will have their own proprietary signal filter that will attempt to improve the picture seen by the user. This process again takes time. Usually it doesn’t take that long for signal processing to occur, but combined with the time taken to scale the image in the previous examples, this can again cripple gaming.
IGN proposes a few solutions to this problem. First, if the gamer hasn’t bought an HDTV set, try to test the set first with some timing intensive games in the store first. Obviously, it will be difficult to bring your dance pad in to work through some 10 foot Dance Dance Revolution tracks, but fighting games are notoriously twitch sensitive.
If you already have a set, try and set your HDTV to as close to native resolution as possible. With some consoles, this will be next to impossible. The Gamecube supports 480P resolution on some games, but most will be 480i. The Playstation 2 will have even fewer 480p games. Most original Xbox games are also 480p, but some will support 720p and higher resolutions. The Xbox 360 should offer native support for most resolutions, including 480p, 720p, and 1080i. Relying on the Xbox 360’s internal scaler should help resolve the issue in most circumstances.
They also recommend turning off any image enhancement filters on the TV. Some sets offer a “game” mode that passes the signal through without any additional filtering, and this may help as well. Finally, if none of these help, it may be necessary to purchase hardware that has a faster scaling engine than the one in the television set. IGN has a couple of recommendations, including the Micomsoft XRGB boxes that are usually available from import stores like Lik-Sang or NCSX.
Read More | IGN Gear
Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility Update Available
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Retro, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Major Nelson reports that the promised backward compatibility update is now available via Xbox Live. The update includes the following new titles:
- 4x4 EVO 2
- Amped 2
- Bad Boys 2
- Big Mutha Truckers
- DOOM 3
- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
- Fatal Frame
- FlatOut
- Grabbed by the Ghoulies
- Intellivision Lives
- LEGO® Star Wars
- Minority Report
- MLB SlugFest 20-04
- The Punisher
- RalliSport Challenge
- Silent Hill 4: The Room
- Spawn Armageddon
- Spider-Man
- Star Wars Battlefront
- State of Emergency
- Zapper
In addition, the following Japanese-only titles are now supported: Bistro Cupid 1, Flight Academy, Othello Seminar, Igo Seminar, Shogi Seminar, and Mahjong Seminar. The highlights are probably Doom 3, Star Wars Battlefront, and RalliSport Challenge. Its also nice to see a Rare title on the list, but it looks like Conker is still not supported. Other titles still AWOL from the backward compatibility list include both of the MechAssault titles, among others, but it looks like they are making good progress in getting more original Xbox support out there. For those gamers without Xbox Live, a CD-burnable update and physical media should be available soon.
Read More 
| Major Nelson
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