Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Halo 3 Matchmaking update
Bungie has announced that Halo 3's matchmaking feature has received a surprise updated today which is in effect right now. Check out all the details at bungie.net
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Halo 3 Tops Japan Sales Charts
01./--. [360] Halo 3 - 59,000 / NEW
02./03. [DS] Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Toki - 55,000 / 440,000
03./01. [PSP] Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII - 54,000 / 649,000
Pioneer VSX-1017AV-K FULL 1080P HDMI SWITCHING
PIONEER - VSX1017AVK
Black 7 Channel AV Receiver with 2 x HDMI In, 1 x Full HD 1080p upscaling HDMI Out, iPod Input, USB
Descriptions
Pioneer VSX-1017AV-K
Product Features:
• 1080p Advanced 7-Channel Home Cinema AV Receiver
• 150W output per channel
• 3 x HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) Digital Link for superb digital pictures and sound
• Full HD 1080p Up-Conversion (upscaling) with HDMI
• USB Host (Sound Retriever) and iPod connection with on-screen display
• USB supports MP3, WMA & MPEG4 AAC formats
• Advanced MCACC with 5-band EQ
• Advanced MCACC calibrates and optimises sound output for your room environment
• Also neutralises the effects of reverberation for more accurate tonal measurement and calibration of the frequency balance
• Basic Phase Control calibrates delay and aligns the phase precisely for advanced levels of sonic purity
• Midnight listening mode compresses the dynamic range and dampens the sound
• Stream Direct, Sound Retriever & Virtual Surround back
• 11 + 1 Advanced Surround Modes
• THX Select2 & WMA 9 Pro Surround Sound Modes
• Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIx
• DTS, DTS-ES, DTS Neo 6 & DTS 96/24
• RDS Radio Tuner with 30 presets
• Digital Core Engine Freescale 180 MIPS Processing DSP
• 7.1 Multi-Channel Input
• Input connections include: 1 x USB Host, 1 x iPod, 2 x HDMI, 2 x Digital Coaxial, 4 x Digital Optical, 2 x Record In, 5 x S-Video, 5 x Composite AV & 3 x Component, AM/FM Antenna
• Output Connections include: 1 x HDMI Out, 1 x Digital Optical, 1 x Audio Record Out, 1 x S-Video Record Out, 2 x Composite AV Record Out, 1 x Assignable Component Out, & Pre-amp (7.1 ch.)
• Learning LCD touch-panel remote control
• Power consumption 450W, 0.5W standby
• Measures (WxHxD) 420 x 173 x 465mm
• Weighs 15kg
What better way to compliment your 360 elite with this hdmi switching feature packed amp only £416!!!
Multizoneav.com
FIFA 08 takes second, 360 sales double
Halo 3 has claimed the number one spot in the UK all-format charts, in a strong week for new releases.
Chart Track also stated that Halo 3 had doubled sales of 360 hardware to the highest level this year.
EA Sports' multiformat football update, FIFA 08, entered the chart in second place behind Microsoft's Xbox 360 blockbuster. Last week's top two - Tiger Woods 08 and MySims - claimed fourth and third places respectively for EA.
Other new entries in the top 10 were Juiced 2 at 5, and Sega Rally at 7. EA's new skateboarding franchise Skate just missed out, debuting at number 11.
As well as the 360 itself, there was one other notable beneficiary of the Halo effect: Microsoft's racing sim Forza Motorsport 2, which soared 22 places, from 35 to 13.
Halo 3 sells 3.83 million copies worldwide in 5 days
Halo 3 has become the fastest selling game in history with an unprecidented 3.83 million copies sold worldwide in just 5 days. Over 2.6 million of those came from the US and Canada, over 1.1 million from Europe and Australia and about 60.000 from Japan.
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Monday, 1 October 2007
360 release dates
Project Gotham 4 - 12/10/2007
HL2 Orange Box - 10/10/2007
Virtua Fighter 5 - 26/10/2007
Naruto - 02/11/2007
Call Of Duty 4 - 09/11/2007
Assassin's Creed - 16/11/2007
Mass Effect - 16/11/2007
Ace Combat 6 - 30/11/2007
Devil May Cry 4 - 29/02/2008
Resident Evil 5 - TBA
Unreal Tournament III - TBA
Grand Theft Auto IV - TBA
Soul Calibur 4 - TBA
NINJA GAIDEN 2 - TBA
HL2 Orange Box - 10/10/2007
Virtua Fighter 5 - 26/10/2007
Naruto - 02/11/2007
Call Of Duty 4 - 09/11/2007
Assassin's Creed - 16/11/2007
Mass Effect - 16/11/2007
Ace Combat 6 - 30/11/2007
Devil May Cry 4 - 29/02/2008
Resident Evil 5 - TBA
Unreal Tournament III - TBA
Grand Theft Auto IV - TBA
Soul Calibur 4 - TBA
NINJA GAIDEN 2 - TBA
Xbox 360 Falcon Chip
Some new Xbox 360's can still suffer from the dreaded Red Ring of Death. What makes this 'special' is that these systems are supposed to come with the new 65nm CPU / GPU chipset which should in theory help reduce the RRoD problem the Xbox 360 experiences.
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Friday, 28 September 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, 27 September 2007
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.
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.
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