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PlayStation 3 $100 Price Drop Confirmed, Sorta
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: PlayStation 3, Rumors,
As was first reported by Cheap Ass Gamer, it looks like the PlayStation 3 will be seeing a $100 price drop to $499.99 beginning July 12. Initially, it looked like this might simply be a promotion for the week of the 15th, but GameDaily BIZ has confirmed this with a merchandising manager at one of the world’s biggest retailers who wished to remain anonymous.
While the price drop is scheduled across retail to take place on July 12 (which is a Thursday), the first wave of ads won’t be seen until July 15. SCEA declined to comment when contacted, but this was bound to happen at one point or another – and with the PS3 losing more and more ground to both the Xbox 360 and Wii each month, something needed to be done.
Assuming this pans out, this puts quite a bit of pressure on Microsoft; the Xbox 360 Elite is still $479.99 and lacks many of the features the PS3 has, such as a Blu-ray player (the Elite doesn’t even have an HD-DVD player) and built-in Wi-Fi.
Well, I’m certainly glad I haven’t plopped down the $600 just yet. And only about five hours ago I was contemplating gathering the cash to pick one up. This price drop leads me to wonder, though – will the 20GB SKU see a return, meaning that there would be a $399.99 PS3? Or will Sony launch a new SKU with a larger hard drive? We’ll know next week when Sony holds its press conference at E3.
Read More 
| GameDaily BIZ
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Blue Dragon Demo To Be Launched On July 20, Game Releases On August 28
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Microsoft, Release Dates, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
If you’re a JRPG fan with access to nothing more than an Xbox 360, then things have been a bit slow going. That’s an understatement… since release, you’ve gotten nothing more than Enchanted Arms, which is arguably not all that good. But worry not, because a JRPG is coming to the U.S. next month in the form of Blue Dragon. Originally released in Japan late last year, Blue Dragon has gotten a tremendous amount of attention due to Hironobu Sakaguchi –creator of the Final Fantasy series.
Those wanting to give Blue Dragon a try before plopping down the cash for a copy will have that opportunity, as a 1.1GB demo is going to be available for download from July 20 – August 3.
Heavenly Sword Demo Coming In “Very Near Future”
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, PlayStation 3,
I’ve aired my concerns over Heavenly Sword, which by all indications looks to be nothing more than a game where you beat the hell out of enemies in a coliseum setting. We’ve been promised a lot more, but we haven’t seen much more, so I’ve been reserving my excitement for when we get to see some of the real meat of the game. Well, it looks like we’ll have that opportunity when a demo is released on the PlayStation Network in the “very near future,” whatever that means.
The head of production at developer Ninja Theory, Mat Hart, had this to say on the developer’s IGN blog:
I can confirm that we are, of course, going to be releasing a demo for Heavenly Sword - and soon! This will be downloadable via the Playstation Network, so keep an eye out for it in the very near future - and I mean very near future!
Maybe this will be something we’ll see next week during E3. We know that Microsoft will be releasing tons of Marketplace content during the event as it did last year, so perhaps this is Sony’s way of combating that. Keep your fingers crossed.
Read More | Ninja Theory IGN Blog via Eurogamer
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles To Feature Co-Op Play
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, CAPCOM, Screenshots, Survival Horror, Wii,
Good news for Wii owners: the upcoming on-rails shooter, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, will feature co-op play. While it isn’t the most exciting concept for a game, Umbrella Chronicles sounds like it’ll definitely be worth picking up if you’re looking for something to play with a friend on Wii and don’t care for mini-games.
This comes way of Famitsu, which has two pages dedicated to the game - scans can be seen on NeoGAF. While you might not be able to read Japanese, you can enjoy the screenshots, some of which feature my personal favorite, Albert Wesker. He always looked so good in those sunglasses.
Read More | Famitsu via NeoGAF
Halo 3 Campaign Screen Emerges; Bound To Be Second Most Viewed Image On Internet Behind Paris Hilton
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Screenshots, Xbox 360,
Luke Smith has posted a drool-worthy Halo 3 screenshot over on Bungie.net, saying only that it is in-game and from the game’s campaign. That’s it. We know nothing more, but at least we can stare to our hearts’ content. Come on, September 25!
Read More | Bungie.net
Hallelujah, Microsoft To Further Expand Xbox 360 Warranty
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Corporate News, Microsoft, Xbox 360,
Microsoft has announced that if you suffer the ever-dreaded red rings of death (indicated by three flashing red lights), you’ll be covered for up to three years following the date of purchase. This is terrific news, but at the same time it was a necessity with the rate of Xbox 360 hardware failures appearing to be extremely high. It was only a matter of time before Microsoft was facing a class action lawsuit from pissed-off consumers. Anyone who has had to pay for repairs that would have been covered by the new warranty will qualify for reimbursement.
The press release stated:
As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures. Having identified a number of factors which can cause general hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, Microsoft has made improvements to the console and is enhancing its Xbox 360 warranty policy for existing and new customers.
Microsoft stands behind its products and is taking responsibility to repair or replace any Xbox 360 console that experiences the ‘three flashing red lights’ error message within three years from time of purchase free of charge, including shipping costs.
Microsoft execs have chimed in, with an open letter from Peter Moore being posted on Xbox.com and a statement from Robbie Bach appearing in the press release.
“The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But, this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division. “We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base. We look forward to great things to come.”
Big knock on wood – I’m probably one of the three lucky individuals who have a launch console that hasn’t failed. Aside from an unfortunate glitch in Oblivion which wrecked a save file of mine, I’ve had nothing but good times with my Xbox 360.
The Min-E3 2007 Games Lineup
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Activision, CAPCOM, E3, Eidos, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Portable/Mobile, PSP, SEGA, Take2, THQ, Ubisoft, Wii, Xbox 360,
Sure, the convention is much smaller this year and all, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a ton of games to be seen. Eurogamer has posted a list of the announced lineups and then some of what you’ll be seeing at E3. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have been quiet on what they’ll be showing, so it looks like we’ll need to wait until their respective showings to know for sure. The event is taking place next week, so expect it to be a busy week in news.
But please, please, please, Nintendo, show me Animal Crossing Wii. Something. Anything. Please?
Read More | Eurogamer
EA Sports Family Play Makes It Easier To Play Madden, NBA Live, And FIFA
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Casual, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Sports, Wii,
Most gamers that play sports games, either casually or hardcore, have certainly run into the problem of attempting to explain complex controls to a friend – which usually results in your friend QB scrambling or shooting half court jumpers each time he or she gets the ball. But the new Family Play feature, which is debuting in this year’s Wii versions of Madden 08, NBA Live 08 and FIFA 08, is aiming to make it easier for youngsters or game novices to jump in and play against friends and family who would otherwise wipe the floor with the competition.
When playing, you can choose either Advanced or Family Play. The former allows you to make use of both the Wiimote and Nunchuk, while the latter assists the player in-game and requires them to use only the Wiimote. Family Play users will control only the key actions, like shooting, passing, throwing, etc. And by simply plugging in a Nunchuk, someone playing with the Family Play style can easily try out Advanced mode.
This sounds like a truly fantastic idea – sports games have a huge market, especially Madden, and by opening the floodgates and allowing for an otherwise complicated game to be played by most anyone, EA Sports is poised to make quite a bit more money, while also allowing gamers to begin experiencing a new genre.
This Year’s Football Offerings Run At 60 FPS on Xbox 360, 30 on PlayStation 3
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Electronic Arts, Microsoft, PlayStation 3, Sports, Xbox 360,
1UP is reporting there’s a pretty major discrepancy between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of All-Pro Football 2K8, Madden NFL 08 and NCAA Football 08 – the 360 versions will run at 60 frames per second, while the PS3 versions will do just half that. Especially in a football game, that’s a major issue, as minor animations are what really make the on-screen action gel. And this isn’t just an issue one developer is having – EA Sports is the developer of Madden and NCAA, while 2K Sports is behind All-Pro 2K8; clearly, there’s some issue to be had.
“We have already proven that sports titles can run on the PlayStation 3 at true HD with 1080p output with NBA 07,” says Dave Karraker, Sony CEA’s senior director of corporate communications. “If you have questions about specific third-party games, you should speak to those publishers.”
1UP went ahead and did just that. 2K gave a “no comment,” while EA exec Todd Sitrin chose to reply.
“We want to make sure that we give the best experience we can on each platform. In designing a game, there are all sorts of tradeoffs that include frame rate, visuals, features, AI, etc. Football is an extremely challenging sport to replicate because of the number of people on the field, their interaction, and the scope of the environments. As you can see, every company making a football game this year made a decision that the best experience for the Xbox 360 included 60fps whereas the best experience for the PS3 was 30fps. We certainly believe that both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are our football products are outstanding experiences and recommend that each gamer look at the entire experience, not just one aspect. We think they’ll be very happy no matter which version of the game they play.”
Head over to the 1UP story for the full scoop and some further analysis on what might be behind all of this.
Read More | 1UP
Xbox Live Arcade 7/4: Missile Command
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Retro, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
The classic Missile Command is now available on Xbox Live Arcade. While it isn’t a particularly exciting game by today’s standards, at 400 Microsoft Points ($5) with update graphics and multiplayer over Xbox Live, it’ll be hard to say no for anyone who played it as a kid.
Maybe this week’s theme was to coincide with the Fourth? “Bombs bursting in air,” you’re blowing up missiles in this game… it makes sense. In my head, at least.
Click to continue reading Xbox Live Arcade 7/4: Missile Command
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