On Gear Live: Samsung S95C: The OLED TV You Can’t Afford (to Ignore!)

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Looks like someone was kind enough to record a video of the Half-Life 2: Episode 2 trailer from the Episode 1 release and post it to YouTube. It looks like Episode 1 will end with another cliff-hanger, with Alyx in peril early on. This only continues as the viewer sees her unconscious (or possibly dead?) body being carried by a vortigaunt. The trailer also shows some lush forest environments, and gamers get some voice over from what sounds like Doctor Eli Vance talking about taking the fight to the aliens, to finally take back the planet. Of course, since we know there’s going to be an Episode 3 at some point, things aren’t going to go particularly smoothly for Gordon Freeman in this episode.


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Call of Duty 3

British Gaming Blog has a picture that they are claiming is a leaked screenshot of Activision’s upcoming WWII shooter, Call of Duty 3.  There’s some debate as to the authenticity of the picture, and we have to agree that it looks pre-rendered.  If indeed it is an in-game pic, then “wow” is all we have to say.

Some features of the new shooter are:

- Up close, hand to hand combat and traps to disarm, all requiring fast reflexes in the battlefield. - More destructible environments gives your enemies (and you) nowhere to hide. - Split level design means your tactics from sniping to guns a blazing will open different routes for you. - Execute parachute drops, armoured assaults or SAS commando raids. Riddle battlefields with tank shells and explosives. Drive tanks to topple barricades and invade enemy emplacements. - Brand new multiplayer engine featuring multiple occupancy vehicles for team based combat.


Read More | British Gaming Blog


Halo 2Bungie’s Weekly Update drops a couple of new details about Halo 2 on Microsoft Windows Vista. First, Halo 2 won’t require a DirectX 10 graphics card to render, and second, Vista users will not be able to play online against Xbox and Xbox 360 users, and will instead be segregated into their own PC server realm. Forcing Halo 2 to Windows Vista then seems to be more about making the game operate with Microsoft’s Xbox Live Anywhere service, rather than any specific graphical technical reason preventing the release. The Vista version will also include new exclusive maps, and a map editor, taking some of the sting out of receiving the game two years past the Xbox release.


Read More | Bungie.net


Latest Gear Live Videos

HL2 Episode One

Valve announced today that Half-Life 2: Episode One has gone gold and will be available for download via Steam and the retail channel on June 1. The episode will be the first in a trilogy of follow-up content to the hugely popular Half-Life 2. Episode Two should be available by year-end, and the trilogy will conclude in 2007. Each episode promises roughly 5 hours of gameplay; given that the original game held about 15 - 20 hours of gameplay, and sold for between $50 to $60, the split into episodic content may not be the best value for the money, but is still pretty competitively priced at $19.95.

Full Press Release after the jump…

Click to continue reading Half-Life 2: Episode One Available June 1


Gears of War Documentary

For those gamers that missed the show on Friday, or will manage to miss one of the five thousand re-airings of the documentary, Gears of War: The Race to E3, MTV has the show available for streaming online, along with some bonus footage not shown on the air, including some more in-depth footage with Cliff Bleszinksi and Tim Sweeney, and some insights into motion capture and art direction. In some ways, the additional footage is more worthwhile than the documentary aired, but there is some playtest footage where gamers can get glimpses of Gears of War in action.

More after the jump…

Click to continue reading Gears of War Documentary Online


MTV2 will be airing their mini-documentary featuring Epic Games, and focusing on the preparation work that went led up to their presence at E3 2006. Major Nelson has some of the details on his blog, but the show itself will be airing Friday, May 19th, at 10:00 PM ET/PT. Of course, this will air multiple times over the next couple of weeks, so those who don’t set their TiVo in time will have additional chances, and the future airings are listed on the Major Nelson blog. The marketing guys at Gamerscoreblog have also posted a promo and some pre-release clips on YouTube as well. From the clips, it looks like there is going to be some actual meat to the show, with nary a hobbit to be seen from last year’s MTV Xbox 360 non-event. Hopefully in addition to seeing developers sweat, there will be actual information about the game, but with the focus on the E3 presentation, there may not be a lot there.

Read More | MajorNelson.com
Read More | Gamerscoreblog Preview Clips


Halo 3

The folks at Bungie have come home after E3, and have a little insider information about what went on behind the scenes when they debuted their Halo 3 teaser trailer at the Microsoft pre-E3 conference. There were six debug units from Bungie, three of which were used at Grauman’s Chinese. Apparently, there were actually two units running the trailer simultaneously, in case something catastrophic happened to one system. If some unforeseen event had happened to one debug box, the other would be running in parallel as a kind of hot-swap system. Luckily, they had no technical difficulties; most of the issues seemed to be with marketing timing. Since the Microsoft presentation was delayed, the E3 Halo trailer actually hit Xbox Live before the official announcement. These details and some talk about what went on at the closed-doors press briefing are posted on Bungie.net.


Read More | Bungie.net


Master ChiefMicrosoft has posted the official Halo 3 teaser trailer online, available both on Xbox.com and via the Xbox Live Marketplace. The trailer doesn’t show any real gameplay shots, but more or less sets the stage for the sequel. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of plot to go on in the trailer either, other then the fact that a lot of crazy stuff is going to go down, so those people looking for at least a little closure after the very unresolved ending of Halo 2 are still going to have to wait until 2007 to find out what really happens. Perhaps Bungie will actually have a real ending this time, and answer more questions than they raise.


Read More | Xbox.com


100 Bullets
The last gamers heard of the 100 Bullets game, based on the noir comic book series by DC Comics, Acclaim had the license and was on track to release the game in the Fall of 2004. Acclaim’s crash and burn changed all that, and left the license in limbo. Today, Warner Bros. Interactive and D3Publisher of America announced that they are moving forward with the license, and are targetting consoles, the PC, and handhelds for a release in the third quarter of 2007. While the 100 Bullets comic book has a strong pedigree, having won both Harvey and Eisner rewards, D3Publisher is a bit of a blank. The company’s US website currently lists a Naruto game for both Gamecube and Gameboy Advance, where apparently mostly localization work took place. The site also lists a couple of licensed titles (presumably original) for the Gameboy Advance and a puzzle game for the PSP. Since the track record for Warner Bros. licensed titles has been spotty at best, the 100 Bullets must be considered a question mark at this time.

Press Release after the jump.

Click to continue reading Another 100 Bullets


Head Crab: It's What's For DinnerValve Software posted a quick update on their Steam website with some notes about some upcoming games. SiN Episode 1: Emergence has gone gold, and is available for pre-load via Steam now. The last SiN game was published back in 1999, and eventually would spawn an Anime movie, released in the year 2000. The new episode will be officially available on May 10th. In addition to the new SiN content, Valve announced that Half-Life: Episode 1 content will start pre-loading next week as well.

And, apparently, gamers can pick up a plush headcrab now. Just the thing to spice up a geek’s cube.


Read More | SteamPowered


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