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Sure, it may owe a lot to its predecessors, and its timing may be bad given the emminent release of God of War II. But I’ll be damned if this game doesn’t look like some straight-up chop-up-some-baddies fun.
I mean just LOOK at that carnage! I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen a floor that bloodied and limb-covered since a bunch of yakuza bit it in Kill Bill I. OK, Conan isn’t the most original game, and given the history of movies turned into games, I don’t have the highest of hopes. Still, some developer had a lot of fun figuring out n different ways to cut a person into bits.
Conan (not to be confused with the upcoming MMORPG Age of Conan) will be hitting the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008. Hopefully these previews will keep your bloodlust in check until then.
See more images, after the jump…
Click to continue reading New Conan Movies, Screens Look Dismember-ific
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| GameVideos.com
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The Playstation Home Fiasco And Its Aftermath
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Rumors,
For you gamers out there reading our blog who don’t also visit Kotaku.com regularly, you should! These guys have shown themselves to have real journalistic/bloggeristic integrity this week. For those of you that missed out, here’s a blow-by-blow account of what will one day doubtlessly be known as “The Playstation Home Fiasco”
For a few weeks, Phil Harrison had been talking about how the PS3 news to be presented at the GDC would make gamers “very happy”. Around this time, Kotaku starts hearing from “sources” rumors that Phil’s big announcement will be Playstation Home, described as fellows:
Basically, you get to make an avatar for your console (like a Mii) and this avatar has a room. As you play games and accomplish certain tasks, you will receive items with which to adorn the room that are specific to the game (achievements). The kicker is that this is going to be a new requirement for every PS3 game.
Before posting this story, Kotaku asked Sony if they had any comment. Instead of just replying with a standard, coy “Sony does not comment on rumors and speculation”, the reply this time was “post that story and you won’t enjoy the consequences”. So, being the good journalists that they are, Kotaku ran the story.
Well, this evidently went and made some folks at Sony very mad (thus only adding to the veracity of the rumor), and Sony decided that they would no longer deal with Kotaku. In fact, Sony dis-invited Kotaku from all future exclusive events, and asked for their PS3 dev kit back. Then the uproar REALLY began. Joystiq, noting that this meant the rumors were obviously true, reported on how Sony was blackballing Kotaku, a story that got some serious diggs.
In the end, Kotaku and Sony kissed and made-up, but I think Sony learned a valuable lesson about treating their bloggers right. Next time, let’s just keep people salivating with a standard “we don’t comment on rumors” reply, OK Sony? It’ll save everyone a lot of grief.
Read More | Kotaku
Worms Finally Finds Its Way Onto Xbox Live Arcade
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Internet, Strategy, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
It looks like after Worms finally passed certification last week Microsoft put it on the fast track for release, as the title will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday for 800 Marketplace Points ($10). A Worms game online, on a big screen HDTV, supported by Xbox Live would seem to be a great match; hopefully the extra time in certification will mean that online play will be polished upon release.
The full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading Worms Finally Finds Its Way Onto Xbox Live Arcade
Sony And Immersion Kiss And Make Up
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Immersion and Sony Computer Entertainment have officially ended litigation and reached a settlement regarding the use touch feedback technologies patented by Immersion Corp. According to the press release, it appears that Sony has decided to stop any appeal process and pay the full amount of the judgment against them. In addition, the two companies have entered into an unspecified business agreement to explore including the technology in future Playstation products. This may well mean that there will be a new Dual Shock SIXAXIS controller on the horizon, as Sony miraculously figures out a way to combine rumble and motion-sensing technology into their controllers.
Read More | PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance
Phil Harrison Talks PS3 Backward Compatibility Numbers
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
The “still unofficially sort of official” Three Speech blog spoke with Phil Harrison at Sony about the recent backward compatibility controversy with the Playstation 3 in Europe. Harrison estimates that there will be roughly 1,000 Playstation 2 titles supported on the Playstation 3 at launch, with more potentially coming in future firmware updates. Now, with an estimated 8,000 Playstation 2 titles released during the PS2’s (continuing) lifetime, the distribution of those 1,000 backward compatible games will be important. Still, 1,000 is a fair chunk of games; Microsoft so far has managed around 300 for their emulation solution. Percentage-wise, though, Sony is hitting roughly 25 percent of their past catalog, while Microsoft is around 30 percent. So, while things might not be as bad as some assumed, Sony again seems to be flailing around somewhat trying to get a clear message out about their flagship console.
Read More | Three Speech
Tekken Dark Resurrection Delayed
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, Internet, Namco, PlayStation 3,
Well, while Tekken: Dark Resurrection was initially promised “this month” by Namco Bandai, February has passed and there is still no sign of the brawler on the PlayStation Store. If IGN’s latest release list is to believed, the game should be available on March 8th, another week out. With Namco Bandai promising basically a straight port of the arcade and Japanese PlayStation Network releases, it seems strange that the US version would see an unexpected delay. One can hope that extra functionality or optimization is being worked into the product, but that would seem to be doubtful at this point.
Update: Looks like IGN was wrong, according to reports, Tekken: Dark Resurrection should hit the PlayStation Network today at 5pm PST, only a mere day late.
Read More | IGN
Getting The Most Out Of Cell
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
It has been said that leveraging the power of Sony’s Cell processor and its architecture will be a lengthy learning process for game developers; Vivendi Games recently participated in a workshop with IBM to try and get a leg up on the process. One of the participants, High Moon, talked with Next Generation about what they learned. High Moon discussed the complexities of utilizing the SPE cores and balancing load; they also talked about new methods of game development and world generation, like “procedure synthesis.” Gamers best exposure to the concepts behind “procedural synthesis” in the future would probably be Wil Wright’s Spore, but one could see the technology being used in a number of different types of games. Still, learning the architecture sounds like it will take time; it could be years before the full power of the Playstation 3 will be unlocked.
Read More | Next Generation
PCMag Loves Wii, Doesn’t Know How to Play Wii Sports Baseball
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Reviews, Simulation, Sports, Wii,
The Wii has already seen heaps of praise from major news sources sources such as The NY Times and The Washington Post. Well, some of those major reviewers are still catching up on with the Wii love bandwagon… this time it’s self-proclaimed console gaming hater John C. Dvorak over at PC Magazine.
For all the praise he heaps on the Wii, though, it seems like he didn’t read the instruction manual. Just look at this quote about how you’re supposed to pitch in Wii Sports Baseball:
Those news reports about people losing control of their controller and hitting the dog? They seem to stem from the baseball simulation, where you create a 100-mph curve ball by letting go of your controller while it’s still strapped to your wrist. And you thought real pitchers had it tough.
Is there some sacrasm I’m missing there? Or is Mr. Dvorak going to be next in line for a Wii replacement strap soon?
Read More | PC Magazine.com
Xbox 360 Security Hole Revealed, Already Patched
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
The Bugtraq mailing list recently published the details of an unsigned code execution security hole on the Xbox 360. The timeline of the security hole would seem to make this vulnerability the same one demonstrated at last year’s 23C3 Hacker Congress, as seen in this excerpt:
Timeline:
Oct 31, 2006 - release of 4532 kernel, which is the first version
containing the bug
Nov 16, 2006 - proof of concept completed; unsigned code running in
hypervisor context
Nov 30, 2006 - release of 4548 kernel, bug still not fixed
Dec 15, 2006 - first attempt to contact vendor to report bug
Dec 30, 2006 - public demonstration
Jan 03, 2007 - vendor contact established, full details disclosed
Jan 09, 2007 - vendor releases patch
Feb 28, 2007 - full public release
The public demonstration date is key; that would be the same date of the anonymous Xbox 360 hacker video release. Further, the overview of the vulnerability claims:
We have discovered a vulnerability in the Xbox 360 hypervisor that allows
privilege escalation into hypervisor mode. Together with a method to
inject data into non-privileged memory areas, this vulnerability allows
an attacker with physical access to an Xbox 360 to run arbitrary code
such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full
hardware access.
According to the release, Microsoft has patched the vulnerability as of January 9th, but then Sony thought they had patched the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories security hole as well. The existence of such a vulnerability indicates that the security of the Xbox 360 isn’t as bulletproof as Microsoft intended, and it would seem a mere matter of time before another exploitable hole is found to enable homebrew development on the system.
Read More | SecurityFocus via Xbox Scene
Xbox Live Worms Certified
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Strategy, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
It looks like the Xbox Live Arcade version of Worms should be hitting the Marketplace soon; Team 17 recently confirmed that the game had finally passed Microsoft certification to Eurogamer. While a firm release date was not set, the Team 17 representative claimed the game should be showing up on Xbox Live in the next few weeks.
Read More | Eurogamer
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