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E3 2007: Sony’s Press Conference Recap And Impressions
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, Activision, Adventure, CAPCOM, Corporate News, Driving, E3, Electronic Arts, First Person Shooters, Hardware, Internet, LucasArts, MMORPG, Mods/Hacks, Music, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Release Dates, Role Playing Games, SEGA, Sony, Special Editions, Sports, Trailers, Ubisoft,
I’m going to come right out and say it: I’m coming away from Sony’s presentation more impressed than I was either Nintendo’s or Microsoft’s. They were very straightforward and showed exactly what we all wanted to see: the games.
In fact, this was one of the more impressive E3 press conferences in recent memory – check inside to find out why.
Click to continue reading E3 2007: Sony’s Press Conference Recap And Impressions
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E3 2007: PS3’s Price Officially Drops, Metal Gear Solid 4’s Exclusivity (Once Again) In Question
Posted by Kyle Ulrich Categories: Corporate News, E3, PlayStation 3, Rumors, Sony,
The once mammoth 60GB PS3 has had its sticker shock peeled, if only partially. At $100 lighter - effective immediately - the urge to grab one is getting harder to resist, and Amazon sales seem to indicate that I’m not the only one who feels that way. Big spenders aren’t being ignored, either—the new new 80 gig PS3 (now with 100% less Emotion Engine, the component that allows hardware to power backwards compatibility) hits store shelves next month at $599, packaged with MotorStorm for free.
Unfortunately, things aren’t as rosy for Sony elsewhere. The often-rumored-to-be-going-multiplatform Metal Gear Solid 4 seems to be doing just that, at least according to Kazumi Kitaue, Konami’s North American and European COO, in an interview with Reuters. Though no specific consoles were named (few choices exist when speculating), the executive questions the impact that the price drop could have, and how the so-far unspectacular sales of the PS3 will hurt their bottom line if they remain exclusive. “With $500, you can buy a personal computer. I don’t expect a substantial impact.” Amazon begs to differ…
In regards to the yeti that is the Xbox 360 port of MGS4, it remains uncatalogued. For now.
Read More 
| 1UP
E3 2007: SEGA Unveils Their E3 Line-Up
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Action, Driving, E3, Fighting, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Portable/Mobile, PSP, SEGA, Wii, Xbox 360,
SEGA sent us a listing of all the titles they plan on showing off at this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit, and it seems like they are betting on thirteen titles to turn heads this year. One of the more unique concepts stars Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Virtua Fighter 5 with online play, and one we have our eyes on, the return of NiGHTS. You can take a peek at the full list after the break.
Click to continue reading E3 2007: SEGA Unveils Their E3 Line-Up
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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
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
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
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
GamerAndy Live! Episode 84: 100 Percent Less Andy
Posted by Edie Sellers Categories: Corporate News, E3, Electronic Arts, Hot Deals, Microsoft, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, Politics, Release Dates, Reviews, Rumors, Square Enix, Survival Horror, Take2, Third Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, GamerAndy,
Yes, 100 percent less Andy this episode, as he’s in L.A. for a CoD4 event. Instead, Edie and Hawkes cover the week’s gaming news and go off on wild tangents. On the plus side, this episode may be Andy-free, but it has 100 percent MORE of Hawkes’ cat.
Topics discussed:
- The unusually large amount of games released this week, including The Darkness and The Bigs.
- Toys ‘R Us is holding a 3-for-2 sale on Nintendo DS games until this Saturday. U Bai Now!
- Microsoft sues Immersion back. If you can’t take it, don’t deal it!
- New York Times reporter plays Manhunt 2 and deems it less violent than R-rated horror movies. Hypocracy much?
- The new Hitman movie trailer… and yes, we blew it. It’s Agent 47. Stoopid internets.
- Square Enix says on one hand that it’s not releasing any games for PS3 until April 2008 at the very earliest. Then it says, baby, I’m sorry. The PS3 really is the only console it could ever love. Why does watching these two feel like family-night at Ike and Tina Turner’s place.
- A group of psychologists want to label video games as an addictive substance. Someone’s been sucking on the lead popsicles again….
- Larry Flint had hoped to fire the entire staff of Tips and Tricks magazine while they were all at E3. Too bad he fired the freelancers a week early and they told the staff. Don’t you hate when being a nice guy blows a really great evil plan? And isn’t it ironic that the guy who built his empire on other people s*cking c*ocks turns out to the the biggest c*cks*ucker of them all?
- Shadowrun for Vista has been cracked to run on XP. And there was much rejoicing. (yaaay!)
- Lyndon LaRouch, notorious conspiracy theorist and gay hater, and his merry band of crazy geezers are ticked because the final report on the Virginia Tech massacre doesn’t mention video games—despite the fact there’s been no evidence the shooter ever played games. LaRouch figures it’s… wait for it… A CONSPIRACY!!
Ed. Note: Edie apologizes to for mistaking LaRouche as a guy who was notorious for anti-gay legislation. Actually, he is the freak who tried to get anti-gay legislation passed by California voters back in the 1980s that would have quarentined gays to prevent AIDS. I knew he smelled crazy…
- The 100th episode of Red vs. Blue! Gratz, guys!
Off-topic hits include Paris Hilton, porn (again), the iPhone, how to properly prepare for a night of binge drinking, Andy’s impending move, and… did we mention Hawkes’ cat?
If you want to hear it? Go get subscibe on iTunes already… ya slacker.
Game Releases For The Week Of 6/25: The Darkness, Pokemon, And Transformers
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Release Dates, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Some big name titles are hitting this week, including the much anticipated The Darkness for both Xbox 360 and PS3. Transformers is bound to be a big seller by virtue of its name and the number of platforms that it’s coming out on. And Pokemon Battle Revolution for Wii is going to sell a scientifically accurate 1,432,345^100, or in other words, a metric crapton.
Read More | Gamasutra
New Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer In Three Days, And New Details
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, PlayStation 3, Trailers, Xbox 360,
In three days, the Internet is set to crash once again when the newest (the second of three) GTA IV trailer sees the light of day. Hopefully we’ll be seeing something more action-oriented this time around, as opposed to the first, which was more of a showcase for Liberty City than anything else. The video is titled “Looking for that Special Someone” and a special website is being prepped by Yahoo in order to withstand the insane amount of traffic it will receive once the trailer goes live. Anyone want to place bets on how long it’ll take for the site to crash?
Expect us to pick it apart piece by piece once it goes live, and later in the week Kyle and I will be debating over the excruciating details and nuances the trailer presents us with.
As an added bonus, last week, the Turkish Official Xbox Magazine revealed several tasty nuggets about GTA IV. Everyone loves lists, so I present you a list of GTA goodness:
- There’s a slight vibration with every footstep when you run (sorry PS3 players)
- No more HUD (health and armor indicators are gone), and instead everything is visual – if you have armor, you’ll see the bulletproof vest and it will visually deteriorates
- Flamethrowers and rocket launchers are in the game
- Explosions are larger, and the game features a missions where you cause a chain reaction of car explosions
- Cars don’t explode from crashes or hitting them; you need to actually blow them up
- Niko doesn’t get tired, he just begins running slower over time
- The game is much more time-sensitive. An example that isn’t necessarily in the game was a mission where you need to catch a train by a certain time, and if you don’t, you don’t get to do that mission.
- Gore is more prevalent; bullet wounds show, blood appears as you shoot people, they limp when shot in the leg, hold their arm if it’s shot, and running people over is “disturbing”
- No more eating, working out or having a girlfriend, but skills improve over time
- 100% completion yields secret vehicles and “plenty of goodies”
- The land size is larger than the three cities (sans countryside) from San Andreas
No more girlfriends? Hooray!
Read More | Xbox Live Addicts
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