Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
MotorStorm for the PS3 Will / Won’t Run at 1080p 60fps?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Driving, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Another day, another Sony PR fumble… The web is all a-titter this time with the controversy over whether or not Motorstorm for the PS3 will or won’t run at 1080p and 60 frames per second. For all of you catching up on the history of this story, here’s how it’s gone down so far…
1080p resolution running at 60 fps has been the holy grail of gameplay for quite a while, and a spec that the PS3 can technically support (though it has only done so currently in relatively “empty” titles like Gran Turismo HD and NBA 2K07). This has been a bullet point touted by Sony for a while, since the Xbox 360 doesn’t currently support games running at true 1080p. So when Peter Dille of Sony gave his keynote indicating that the already-beautiful Motorstorm would be running at 1080p and 60fps, the web was ablaze with Sony fans declaring victory. Motorstorm already looks amazing, with some great texture work and impressive physics, and having the game run at that high of a resolution and framerate almost sounded too good to be true. Still, even the attendees at the Sony CES booth were proclaiming that Motorstorm would be breaking this technical barrier. Well, after all this hubbub, it turns out that somebody either got it wrong, or was exaggerating the numbers, or just plain didn’t talk to their technical staff. Motorstorm will be running at 720p and 30fps, at least according to the developers.
All of this has put ArsTechnica’s Ben Kuchera in a pretty foul mood.
It’s not like the gaming press made up the 1080p, 60fps Motorstorm story by ourselves. Sony employees were telling the press that would be the resolution and the framerate. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, and say the people running the televisions at trade shows may get their facts wrong. Of course, the Senior Vice-President of Marketing for your company should know better.
In the CES keynote, which you can watch here, Peter Dille states that we’ll see Motorstorm at 1080p running at 60fps. He makes this point strongly, in an attempt to prove the power of the PS3, before telling us it’s the only “true” high definition system on the market. I would say that point is arguable at best, but there is no doubt he was selling Motorstorm as an example of their 1080p content.
Please Sony, just make sure you’ve got your facts right before you start touting your console’s specs, mmmkay?
Read More 
| 1up.com
Advertisement
The Zelda: Twilight Princess Completion Calculator
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Activision, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Wii,
We’ve all heard about just how big the latest Zelda installment is - Nintendo earlier reported that the land of Hyrule takes about 45 minutes to get across on horseback, and the company also estimated that the game would end up with about 70 hours of play time for most gamers. So you’re probably feeling pretty high-and-mighty, having completed the game in only 35 hours, right? Well, here’s something to cut you down to size - the Zelda: Twilight Princess completion calculator. Simply enter the dungeons you’ve made it through, the number of hearts you have, and some other vital stats, and it’ll spit out a number telling you exactly how close you are to truly doing everything that can be done in the land of Hyrule.
Having not had a lot of time to play recently, I’m still only at about 25% after 16 hours of play time, so the 70 hour mark is looking pretty accurate for me. Anyone else have some especially good (or especially bad) numbers?
Read More | Zelda Completion Calculator via digg
Necro-Nesia Coming to US, With Scary Name
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Nintendo, Rumors, Survival Horror, Third Person Shooters, Wii,
This might go down in history as the worst move by Nintendo, ever. And yes, I’m even including the release of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo has decided to bring their ho-hum survival horror game Necro-Nesia stateside, under the oh-so-scary title Escape from Bug Island. Yes, you read that right Escape from Bug Island. Let it just sink in a bit. Escape from Bug Island.
That’s one scary title - if you’re trying to scare people away from buying the game. Frankly, I think Nintendo would see better sales of this game if they’d even decided to call it Don’t Buy This Game: EXTREME. This game had better start finding a way to get some good press before its May 15 release date. As of right now, the gameplay, the graphics, and the title just don’t seem to be cutting it.
Read More | GoNintendo
Latest Gear Live Videos
Treasure Talks Next Generation Gaming
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Retro, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
1up recently talked with Treasure, creators of the famed Radiant Silvergun and Gunstar Heroes, about their future development plans for next generation consoles. Treasure is working hard on their Xbox 360 shooter, which should feature 3D graphics with classic 2D-style gameplay. The company confirmed that the game is being developed by the same team that created Ikaruga, but is shying away from calling the game a Radiant Silvergun sequel, which puts into doubts recent rumors of a true sequel. Treasure also talked about their upcoming releases for the Virtual Console, and potentially some releases for the Xbox Live Arcade. The company also seemed excited about possibly developing for the Wii specifically; a future release seems more likely than not. Unfortunately for PS3 fans, however, Treasure doesn’t believe they will have the resources to work with the Playstation 3 for some time. Overall, the interview is an interesting look at a developer approaching the next generation consoles with current graphics but a somewhat retro design esthetic.
Read More | 1up
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Coming Soon in 2D
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Adventure, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Rumors,
Say what you will about Nintendo fans, they (we?) are certainly a persistent bunch. For your consideration we present the work of Daniel Barras, a.k.a. TheRealMethuselah, a fanboy who’s been working on a 2D translation of the N-64 masterpiece The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. After 3 years, and an obviously huge number of hours of lost productivity, Daniel will be releasing a beta of his work. The game, which probably infringes on just about every patent Nintendo holds, features the entire N-64 game translated into the 2.5-D style used by A Link to the Past for the SNES and Four Swords Adventure for the Gamecube/GBA.
We just can’t wait to get our paws on this one and see how close it is to completion. If the gameplay is anywhere near as good as the screenshots, we should be in for a treat.
Read More | SomethingAwful.com
Nintendo: Hold on To That Wii-Mote
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Internet, Rumors, Wii,
In response to some of the recent stories of Wii-motes damaging friends, family, and expensive electronics (some credible, some not so much), Nintendo felt it would be a good idea to send out a reminder to all the Wii owners out there. The bottom line? Hold on to that Wii-Mote! And don’t flail your arms around at hundreds of miles per hour, ya dumby!
See an image of the e-mail from Nintendo, after the jump…
Click to continue reading Nintendo: Hold on To That Wii-Mote
First Wii Reviews Trickle In - Overall “Good” to “Impressive”
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo, Party Games, SEGA, Wii,
Today some of the bigger gaming sites out there finally sat down with pencil and paper (or keyboard and mouse I guess), and started drafting out their reviews for the first batch of Wii games. Their overall thoughts? IGN has taken a look at three titles so far—the pack-in Wii Sports, Trauma Center, and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz—and their reviews range from “Good” for Wii Sports (7.5) to “Impressive” for Trauma Center and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (8.0 and 8.4, respectively).
In general, most of the reviews would play out like you would expect - generally somewhat lackluster / simple graphics, but cool/interesting control schemes that work flawlessly in most cases. IGN noted some control issues with the packed-in Wii Sports, stating that some of the sports seemed somewhat half-baked, but the other 2 titles faired very well in the control department. IGN even went so far with Monkey Ball as to state that “If you’ve been on the fence about the Wii controls, put those fears to rest. True, there is a different technique involved, but once you get the hang of it you will be flying through levels with precision and speed. Now that I’ve played through Banana Blitz, I would not want to go back to the older control configurations.”
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for further reviews - Red Steel and Zelda obviously being the two most interesting, and we’ll be posting our thoughts as well once we’re able to get our hands on the console!
Read More | IGN Wii
PS3 Launch Titles See Delays
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, First Person Shooters, Role Playing Games, Rumors, SEGA,
It is looking like Sony’s Playstation 3 launch may be missing a few titles; Bethesda Softworks recently announced that Elder Scrolls: Oblivion has been pushed back to 2007, according to a report from GameSpot. In addition, rumors have Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog also being delayed to 2007 along with Vivendi Universal’s F.E.A.R. Other titles could potentially miss the launch window at this point, but with so few consoles shipping software availability would seem to be the last thing on Sony’s mind.
Read More | Gamespot
Contra on Xbox Live is Really, Really Broken
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Adventure, Mods/Hacks, Retro, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
First a laggy Street Fighter II, now a non-playable version of the nearly-20-year-old Konami classic Contra... What’s next Xbox Live, a Pong clone that runs at 5 frames per second while installing spyware on every computer in your house??!?
Wired’s Gamelife is among the first to note the ridiculous problems that the Xbox 360’s version of Contra has been seeing. According to their story (and the pictures above, to prove it!), online multiplayer for the title is completely, unequivocally broken. Granted, getting any game to work well online is hard, but if we’re expected to drop $4 for a 20 year old game that we could get free by *other means*, shouldn’t we at least expect some quality in the production??
Click the jump for the full transcript documenting Contra‘s woes.
Click to continue reading Contra on Xbox Live is Really, Really Broken
Twilight Princess Previews Hit The Web
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo, Role Playing Games, Wii,
Nintendo’s embargo on all things Zelda ended on Friday, and those people who were invited up to Nintendo HQ to preview The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess were finally able to talk about what they saw and experienced. Overall, the tone has been that Nintendo has released another masterpiece in the Zelda series. Some sites were more effusive than others, with some believing that this release is close to being the “greatest Zelda ever.” Some were a little more cautious about their praise, citing such issues as the quality of the graphics and the adjustment needed for the Wii-mote. Most everyone agreed that this should be one of the longest Zelda outings ever, clocking in with at least 50 hours of gameplay. Overall the previews have been very positive, and Twilight Princess looks to be the launch title to have this holiday season. Those gamers looking to avoid spoilers may wish to stay away from some of the previews; Wired’s Game|Life blog does a very good job in avoiding plot points and details over giving an overall impression of the game, and GameSpot contains the majority of their spoilers to a single page within the preview. Other previews, though, seem to sprinkle the plot points through their coverage, so those looking to go into the new Zelda fresh might want to stay away. Still, reading through all of the coverage for any new details of the game will be really hard to resist for fans of the series. The previews are (in alphabetical order):
Read More 
| 1up
Read More | GameDaily
Read More | Game|Life
Read More | GameSpot
Read More | GoNintendo
Read More | IGN
Read More | Kotaku
Advertisement
© Gear Live Inc. {year} – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.