Bungie: Halo 3 is "Missing" 80 Pixels

Bungie: Halo 3 is "Missing" 80 Pixels
by Matt Gibbs

Does Halo 3 run natively in high definition? No. In fact Bungie have commented on the issue and provided a reason why they "shortchanged" users those 80 pixels. Earlier in the week a Beyond3D user discovered that the vertical resolution in Halo 3 was only 640 pixels, which is 80 pixels shorter than the lowest vertical HD resolution of 1280x720. Bungie made the following comment via their weekly update:

In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers – both of which render at 1152x640 pixels. The reason we chose this slightly unorthodox resolution and this very complex use of two buffers is simple enough to see – lighting. We wanted to preserve as much dynamic range as possible – so we use one for the high dynamic range and one for the low dynamic range values. Both are combined to create the finished on screen image.

This ability to display a full range of HDR, combined with our advanced lighting, material and postprocessing engine, gives our scenes, large and small, a compelling, convincing and ultimately “real” feeling, and at a steady and smooth frame rate, which in the end was far more important to us than the ability to display a few extra pixels. Making this decision simpler still is the fact that the 360 scales the “almost-720p” image effortlessly all the way up to 1080p if you so desire.

In fact, if you do a comparison shot between the native 1152x640 image and the scaled 1280x720, it’s practically impossible to discern the difference. We would ignore it entirely were it not for the internet’s propensity for drama where none exists. In fact the reason we haven’t mentioned this before in weekly updates, is the simple fact that it would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game, and given tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they catalogued their toenail clippings.

Microsoft to Continue Project Gotham Racing Series

Following yesterday’s announcement of the acquisition of Bizarre Creations by Activision, everyone wondered what will happen to the Project Gotham Racing series. Is it destined to follow the same path of RalliSport Challenge after EA bought Digital Illusions?

Microsoft has announced that it plans to continue the Project Gotham Racing series on the Xbox platform since Microsoft Game Studios owns the intellectual property. However, the publisher didn’t clarify if Bizarre Creations will be the developer of future PGR titles.

Does this mean that Microsoft's Turn 10 studio, the developer of the Forza series, might take on the job?

It’s Official: Halo 3 Is Biggest Entertainment Release Ever

In the U.S. at least. Coming off of the analytical speculation that sales for Halo 3 on Day 1 could top $4 or even $500 million, official word has come in securing the titles’ place as the most successful entertainment product launch in history. Take that Star Wars.

According to the Microsoft press document, their first party shooter pretty much owned every other product release by raking in over $170 million alone, in the first 24 hours of release, topping even the most lucrative Box Office opening. There are even some incredible stats for Xbox Live: over one million gamers logged onto the service within the first 20 hour window of availability. Congratulations Halo 3. Finish the fight indeed…

Activision Acquires Bizarre Creations

Activision Acquires Bizarre Creations
by Matt Gibbs

Activision wants a piece of the $1.4 billion racing game market and today announced that they have acquired Bizarre Creations. You can find the official press release below, but Bizarre also wanted to say the following just to allay any fears you might have:

Bizarre Creations continues to exist as is. We won't become Activision Liverpool or anything like that.
We will have absolutely no redundancies.
All of our teams continue to exist exactly how they are at the moment. Amax team (PGR4) and Shitstorm team (The Club) will move onto new games, whilst our Shared Technology team will use this opportunity to take our experience and tech to new levels and new formats.
The Activision way of running things is "hands off". Bizarre continue to have creative control over what we do, we still run the studio how we see fit, and we still get to run our own web site and do all sorts of fun community things! :)

Activision today announced that it has acquired U.K.-based video game developer Bizarre Creations, one of the world's premier video game developers and a leader in the racing category, a $1.4 billion market that is the fourth most popular video game genre and represents more than 10% of the total video game market worldwide.

This acquisition represents the latest step in Activision's ongoing strategy to enter new genres. Last year, Activision entered the music rhythm genre through its acquisition of RedOctane's Guitar Hero franchise, which is one of the fastest growing franchises in the video game industry.

With more than 10 years' experience in the racing genre, Bizarre Creations is the developer of the innovative multi-million unit franchise Project Gotham Racing, a critically-acclaimed series for the Xbox and Xbox 360. The Project Gotham Racing franchise, which is owned by Microsoft, currently has an average game rating of 89%, according to GameRankings.com and has sold more than 4.5 million units in North America and Europe, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and Gfk.

Bizarre Creations is currently finishing development on the highly-anticipated third-person action game, The Club, for SEGA, which is due to be released early 2008. They are also the creators of the top-selling arcade game series Geometry Wars on Xbox Live Arcade.

Bizarre Creations and its games have won numerous industry awards including: Best Racing Game for Project Gotham Racing 2 from the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA); the Industry Grand Prix Award from Develop; MCV's UK Development Team 2006 award; Best Racing/Driving Game from IGN; Game of the Year from OXM and Gamespy for Project Gotham Racing 3; and IGN's Best XBLA Game for Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

"Activision continues to grow and drive greater value for our shareholders by broadening our portfolio and entering new gaming categories with strong global appeal," said Robert Kotick, Chairman and CEO of Activision, Inc. "Bizarre Creations is the leading independent developer with a proven track record in developing highly successful and influential original properties, especially in the racing field. They are one of the most innovative and creative studios in the industry, and we are very excited to welcome this talented creative team to Activision."

Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc., added, "Bizarre Creations will play an important role in our growth strategy as we develop an original new intellectual property for this important racing segment, expand our portfolio in other genres and utilize their proprietary technology for cross platform development."

Martyn Chudley, Managing Director of Bizarre Creations, said, "Our goal at Bizarre Creations has always been to do all we can to nurture our creative and passionate teams, who excel at and enjoy what they do. Activision's independent studio model will continue giving us creative freedom to build exciting new brands. Their financial support and marketing prowess will also enable us to build upon the commercial success that we currently enjoy, and take the company - and our games - to an even higher level."

Under the terms of the acquisition, Bizarre Creations will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision and the company's management team and employees continue with the company as their teams start to develop two new AAA titles alongside their current projects. The 160-person development studio is located in Liverpool, England. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Activision expects that its first game from Bizarre Creations will be released after fiscal year 2009.

EDGE SLAMS LAIR & PRAISES HALO 3 & PGR4

14 The newest edition of the British games magazine EDGE has just hit stores and first readers already posted all the review scores on the internet. This months edition contains reviews of some big titles like Halo 3, PGR4, Metroid Prime 3, Lair, SKATE, Stranglehold, SEGA Rally and Eternal Sonata.

Like many other reviews, Lair did not score so well with a 3/10. Two Worlds didn't do much better either with just a 4/10. Phoenix Wright and Jam Sessions on the Nintendo DS did not impress either with both just a 6/10. Metroid Prime 3 also quite disappointed according to EDGE with just a 7/10. Stranglehold, SKATE, Sega Rally, and Eternal Sonata all were rewarded with 7/10 scores.

Halo 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 were this months' best titles with Halo 3 getting the top score of 10/10. PGR4 did very well to with 9/10. Check out all this months' scores below.

Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 10
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii, Nintendo): 7
Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9
Sega Rally (PS3/Xbox 360, Sega): 7
Lair (PS3, Sony): 3
Stranglehold (Xbox 360, Midway): 7
Skate (Xbox 360, EA): 8
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2, Atlus): 7
Singstar (PS3, Sony): 8
Two Worlds (Xbox 360, SouthPeak Interactive): 4
Grimgrimoire (PS2, Koei): 7
Jam Sessions (NDS, Ubisoft): 6
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP, Square Enix): 9
Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360, Bandai Namco): 7
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (NDS, Capcom): 6
Sonic Rush Adventure (NDS, Sega): 5

Why 'Halo 3' will decide the Xbox 360's fate

Don Reisinger blogs about the tech closest to home

With Halo 3 hype soaring, people are already dreaming about fragging aliens, dual-wielding machine guns and taunting 12-year-old kids when they sneak up behind them and put one in their head in a massive online battle.

But what many may not realize is that tomorrow's release of Halo 3 could be a watershed moment for Microsoft and the Xbox 360. With a blockbuster title that will surely captivate millions across the globe, the Xbox 360 will be the most played video game console for the month of October and should catapult the system to the top of the video game world.

The Xbox 360 Savior
(Credit: Gamespot)As we're all aware, Nintendo currently enjoys the top spot in the video game console war. With nearly 404,000 Wii units sold last month alone, Nintendo is hands down the most successful hardware company of this generation. And while Nintendo fans are quick to cite this number when their favorite console is under attack, they fail to mention how it compares to previous months.

According to The NPD Group, Nintendo Wii sales dropped 5 percent from July, while the Xbox 360, with 277,000 units sold, witnessed a sales increase of 63 percent from July. To round it out, the abysmal Playstation 3 sold just 131,000 units--a drop of nearly 18 percent.

Sure, the Nintendo Wii is doing well and it continues to sell better than the competition, but the main reason the Xbox 360 did so well last month was its software. Most notably, Madden. According to NPD, Electronic Arts sold 897,000 copies of the Xbox 360 version of Madden, representing the first time in years that a non-Sony console topped the Madden sales list.

I've said it once and I'll say it again--software and software alone will drive hardware sales after the initial hype dies down. And if the 5 percent drop in sales is any indication, maybe the Nintendo Wii's hype is finally dropping too.

Halo 3 will undoubtedly be the biggest game of the year. With millions already enjoying previous iterations, tomorrow's release could be the biggest we have ever seen. For many casual gamers, the release of Halo 3 means it's time to buy an Xbox 360. And it's this cadre of individuals that Microsoft has been waiting for.

Up to this point, the Playstation 3 has performed about as poorly as we can expect from a console. With no games to tout as deal breakers, the PlayStation 3 is dead in the water. And while some still hope for the days of Killzone saving the PS3's day, it's time to give up hope--nothing can save it now.

But Nintendo is in an entirely different situation. There is no denying the fact that Nintendo has a stranglehold on the industry and has realized that by appealing to the general public instead of just gamers, it can have some success.

But the main issue with Nintendo is its poor software library that is rife with mini games and barely appealing titles that don't offer enough of an experience to appeal to owners for too long. At this point, the Nintendo Wii feels more like a novelty item than a video game console.

But for all of its issues--shoddy hardware and underpowered technology--the Xbox 360 will take the day as long as Halo 3 becomes the success we all expect it to be.

By the end of this year, Halo 3 will sell millions of times. And as long as current Xbox 360 aren't purchasing the game two or three times, we should expect higher console sales numbers going forward.

Much like Mario games of the '90s and Final Fantasy VII, Halo 3 is a blockbuster title that will sell consoles. In fact, Halo 3 is the only reason some people will buy a console this generation.

So before everyone runs out to tell the world that the Nintendo Wii will be the de facto leader going forward, it's incumbent upon all of us to realize that Wii sales are falling, Xbox 360 sales are rising and with Halo 3 right around the corner, that trend will only continue until the latter cements itself as this generation's console war victor.

PGR 4 POWERSLIDES IT WAY TO A PERFECT 10/10

The newest edition of the British Official Xbox Magazine has just hit stores and already some review scores have made their way to the internet. Two big games from Microsoft for this holiday season have been reviewed, Halo 3, which came out yesterday and Project Gotham Racing 4 which will hit retail in about two weeks.

Though you would think Halo 3 would steal the show easily, PGR4 has earned a perfect 10/10 review from OXM UK. No specific ups and downs have been revealed yet but the game has managed to score a perfect 10/10 score. This compared to Halo 3, which has 'just' received a 9/10 score.

Although it is obvious that the hype and sales for Halo 3 will probably be way bigger then Project Gotham Racing 4, this is still a remarkable achievement.

Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 10
Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9

HALO 3 BREAKS US OPENING SALES RECORD OUTDOING ANY GAME OR MOVIE DEBUT!

MICROSOFT Corp's Halo 3 video game set an opening-day US sales record of $US170m ($194m), outdoing any video game or movie debut and giving the company's money-losing entertainment unit a strong boost toward profitability.

Alien-shooting fans also surged onto Microsoft's Xbox Live online service. More than a million members took up virtual arms in Halo 3 in the first 20 hours on September 25, the day the game debuted, Microsoft said yesterday.

Halo 3 easily surpassed its predecessor, 2004's Halo 2, which racked up $US124m ($142m) on the first day. The $US59 ($68) game also beat the $US58.2m ($67m) US opening-day movie box office record, set by Spider-Man 3.

"It's a good number," said Andy Miedler, technology analyst at Edward Jones. "This certainly goes a long way toward bringing Microsoft's entertainment division toward that full-year profitability, which we think is important for investors," he added. Microsoft aims for a profit for the division in the current fiscal year.

The game is also key to Microsoft's quest to widen its lead over rival Sony Corp in the battle for industry dominance of the current generation of game machines.

The game, in which players try to save humanity from an army of aliens, had drawn wide praise from reviewers for its lush settings, cinematic story and breadth of features.

The first two Halo games have sold a combined 15 million copies and cemented Microsoft as a serious player in a video game industry that was dominated by Sony's PlayStation 2.

Sony's follow-up PlayStation 3 is more expensive than the Xbox 360 and so far lacks any "system-seller" games like Halo 3.

"HALO 3 SMASHING IT"

1UP.COM 10/10
EUROGAMER 10/10
PRO G 10/10
GAMESDAILY 10/10
IGN 9.5
GAMESSPOT 9.5
GAMEPRO 5.5
CVG 9.7

ace combat multiplayer coming soon

Gamers who have no fear of heights and enjoy fighter aircraft will be pleased to know that Namco are planning a new Ace Combat demo for the end of September, possibly even the end of this week. The new demo will be a multiplayer only where gamers will be able to prove how ace they are in aerial combat. This demo will compliment the already released single player demo.

Samurai Spirits 2 & Metal Slug 3 (XBLA) coming soon.....

Halo 3 review

First Halo 3 reviews

The official Xbox Magazine of Australia awarded Halo 3 a score of 10/10 despite citing that the graphics of Halo 3 look similar to Halo 2 but just in HD. Elsewhere, the official Xbox Magazine of Brazil awarded it a 9/10 again stating it looked like Halo 2 in HD but all in all it is a fantastic game.

DMC4 - too much pleasure I am losing control