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Halo Graphic Novel Digital Preview
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, First Person Shooters, Xbox, Xbox 360,
The Halo Graphic Novel will hit the streets on July 26, 2006, but those gamers looking for a preview of the stories that will populate the book can find such on Marvel.com; user registration is required for the interactive preview, but there are glimpses into the stories that will be told, as well as some previews of the one-shot art pages. Included in the preview are some of the pages from famed artists Simon Bisley and Jean “Moebius” Giraud. The graphic novel hopes to expand the Halo universe, and back fill some of the open questions left by the game.
Read More 
| Marvel.com
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Nintendo DS Lite Wrist Strap Available
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Accessories, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
One of Nintendo DS Lite owner’s biggest complaints has been that the DS Lite does not come with a wrist strap like the original DS did. The strap was not only useful for quickly grabbing your DS or toting it around, but for writing on the touchscreen as well. The end of the wrist strap had a small stylus that is perfect for the sliding requirements of many mini games and a convenient way to keep your touchscreen fingerprint free. Fear not wrist strap lovers, Nintendo sells the strap in the replacement section of their website. A replacement wrist strap is $3.95 with $2 for shipping. While it would be great to have it included in the original package, $6 is not too much to get the wrist strap/stylus fix you need. You can also pick up a replacement battery for $15 or a original rumble pack for $9.99.
Read More | Nintendo Store
According to a report on Gamasutra.com, Oklahoma House Bill HB3004, the so-called “Videogames as Porn” bill has been signed into law by the state Governor, Brad Henry. The law would take effect on November 1, 2006, but gamers can expect that the ESA will make a First Amendment challenge to the law soon. The law seeks to regulate violent videogames by amending Oklahoma’s previous pornographic materials law to include “inappropriate violence.” The bill sets the following criteria for determining the standard. First, the violence must be judged to be “patently offensive” to the prevailing standards of the community, and second, the game lacks “literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value” based on the following:
- is glamorized or gratuitous,
- is graphic violence used to shock or stimulate,
- is graphic violence that is not contextually relevant to the material,
- is so pervasive that it serves as the thread holding the plot of the material together,
- trivializes the serious nature of realistic violence,
- does not demonstrate the consequences or effects of realistic violence,
- uses brutal weapons designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain and damage,
- endorses or glorifies torture or excessive weaponry, or
- depicts lead characters who resort to violence freely;
Clearly, under these standards, a large percentage of video games could be found to be violating the new law. The ESA will probably attack the law for being vague, as with many of the previously enacted bills. Still, banning violent videogames seems to be the one thing that various state legislatures can agree on, and there are many more bills being enacted.
Read More | Oklahoma Bill HB3004
Playstation 3 Retailers Planning For Shortage
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PlayStation 3, Rumors,
Retailers are preparing for a PS3 launch that could be far, far worse than the Xbox 360 shortages that plagued retailers during Holiday 2005, according to a report on GamesFirst. They source an internal Gamestop e-mail (the new parent company of both the Gamestop and EBGames chains) stating that stores that received “between 50 and 100 Xbox 360s at launch [expect] to get no more than 20 PS3s.” Gamestop still has not launched an official pre-order plan, and apparently entertainment store Hastings will not be taking pre-orders at all.
These numbers do seem to be at odds with Sony’s predicted launch numbers. Sony’s current plan involves having 2 million PS3’s available at launch in three territories, and an additional 2 million by the end of the year, with another 2 million shipping post Holiday 2006. If Sony holds to its numbers, that would be 4 million during Holiday 2006, in contrast with the 1.5 million Xbox 360’s shipped during the same period in 2005. The biggest variable here, however, is Japan. Sony should expect to sell an order of magnitude more consoles than Microsoft sold in Japan; Microsoft managed only 100,000 units in Japan in Holiday 2005. With Japan potentially taking upwards of 1.5 million units by itself, the US could be in a bad position. However, if traditional console distributions hold up, it will more than likely be the European territory getting the short end of the stick.
Another potential explanation may be Sony’s plan for the console; Sony’s corporate messaging has been that the PS3 is more than a mere console. Sony could be focusing on distributors like Best Buy, that can emphasize the “multimedia” nature of the machine.
Read More | GamesFirst.com
National Public Radio has started a podcast on video games, called “Press Start.” The hosts of this new podcast-only program are Robert Holt, Ralph Cooper, and Kyle Orland, who will cover the complete gamut of video game culture, detailing what’s new and discussing what games they’re playing. “Press Start” is a part of alt.NPR, unique contemporary content that NPR creates especially for podcast delivery. Alt.NPR podcast topics are “not tied to specific subjects, production styles, frequency, or length.” As such, these programs provide a perfect way to chronicle new media and “youth” culture topics. “Press Start” will run about 15 minutes per show and will be available for download every other Friday at 12:30am ET. A subscription is available directly via iTunes, My Yahoo!, or generic RSS.
Read More | NPR.org
New Backward Compatibility Update Coming Next Week
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Corporate News, Retro, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Peter Moore announced by way of Major Nelson’s weekly Podcast that next week there should be an update to the backwards compatibility offerings for the Xbox 360. He explained that 20 titles will be added to the growing list of BC games including Lego Star Wars and Doom 3. Moore withheld the full list of backward compatible games for fear of “emulation ninjas.”
Peter Moore also went on to explain how his comments on backwards compatibility were taken out of context last week. According to Moore the comment referred to backwards compatibility not being as big of a deal at E3 2006 compared to E3 2005. Peter Moore ends the interview by saying “Its not the case that we don’t care about backwards compat, boy we care about backwards compat.” He also states that Microsoft plans to get as close as possible to the original goal of having all of the Xbox games working on the Xbox 360. Readers, what games are you waiting for to be backwards compatible?
Read More | Major Nelson
Saint’s Row Release Date Announced
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Action, Release Dates, Xbox, Xbox 360,
THQ has announced that Saint’s Row for the Xbox 360 will be released August 29, 2006. Saint’s Row is an action adventure game with free roaming capabilities similar to the GTA series. The game takes place in Stilwater where you are a member of the 3rd St. Saints. On your rise to power you are given a multitude of choices in a given situation, each of which will affect how other characters in the game respond to you. THQ is also developing a version of Saint’s Row for your mobile phone, though it isn’t clear if you can get the mobile version through Live Anywhere.
Read More | Saint’s Row
Games Update for the Touch Generation
Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile, Strategy,
The “Touch Generation” titles keep rolling in, with Nintendo announcing new ones at a goodly pace. Nintendo’s master DS games list already counts titles like Magnetica, Big Brain Academy, Brain Age, Nintendogs, True swing Golf, and Tetris DS as currently available. New titles listed as in the pipeline, like the upcoming Sudoku Gridmaster, look to capitalize on current pop culture crazes. With over 250 titles either in release or in the works, there will be no shortage of fun or interesting games to play on your new DS Lite.
Read More | Nintendo.com
The ads for Gametap are everywhere, but does the service stack up? Ryan A. Allen over at Game Industry News takes an in-depth look at the subscription-based retro-gaming service. Gametap concentrates on classic ROMs using its own proprietary emu software (37 MB download). The service has a lot of games available (over 500 titles in the “Game Vault”). And according to Allen, it’s fairly easy to install and use.
After selecting a game, users are presented with a product detail page covering everything from the games original release date to instructions on how-to play. The game play Allen experienced is a surprising replication of how he remembered playing specific titles back in the day.
The service has a few quirks, however. Allen complains that there are no chat areas so that players can talk with each other. Also there aren’t any vintage Nintendo titles. He also wishes there were more systems in the lineup, and says that the mouse control on some of the DOS titles was a problem. But in spite of these issues, Allen says that the $9.95/month subscription is a good value for this retro-gaming service.
Read More | Game Industry News
Microsoft Clarifies How System Cache Is Cleared
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
A post on the Xbox Team blog seeks to clarify what exactly the system cache clearing code will and won’t do on an Xbox 360 system. The official Microsoft line on this code is as follows:
The HDD cache clearing feature is a part of the Xbox 360 technical support process and is only supported in those instances. While the cache clearing operation will not harm or render your console inoperable, it should only be used when instructed by the Microsoft customer support staff. As always, any gamers experiencing any issues with their console should contact 800-4-MYXBOX instead of attempting to troubleshoot on their own via this feature.
According to Indiegames, the cache clearing code:
- Will clear out the temporary copies of achievements and gamertiles on Memory Units or Hard Drives (note these get re-downloaded when re-connected to Xbox Live)
- Will clear out Game Updates stored on Memory Units or Hard Drives. (note these will get re-downloaded when launching that Game while connected to Xbox Live)
- Will not clear out system updates.
- Will not clear out the game areas of the hard drive where game titles cache their own information
So, the cache clearing code may help some users in certain circumstances with Xbox Live Marketplace content, but certainly does not seem to be a way to troubleshoot problematic games, since they apparently store their information in a different area of the Xbox 360 hard drive.
Read More | Xbox Team
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