Rumor has it that Windows 7 will drop in the middle of next year, but last month Microsoft released a "preview" tester build of Windows 7. After living in the Windows 7 Preview for a week now, several features and niceties jumped out at me which promise to make Windows a better place to work come 2009.
Here are just a few of the things to look forward to in Windows 7.
10. Ding-dong, the Sidebar is dead.
One of the first things I hunted down and killed in Windows Vista was the Sidebar, which loaded by default and docked Vista's Gadgets to the right side of your desktop. In Windows 7, the sidebar is no more, and gadgets, should you want them, can roam free across the desktop. This time around, the gadgets feel less distracting to me—the CPU meter and calendar gadgets are my favourites, though this screenshot shows many more.
9. Calculator, WordPad, and Paint got overhauled.
It sucks that Windows 7 is stripping the built-... More »
Sony has already picked "loyal" European community members to join the PlayStation Home BETA, and will send them invites when version 1.0 of the virtual world goes live.
"Your next question is, 'How do you decide who gets picked?' and we had a couple of plans on how that was going to be done and my boss is away so I cant ask him which one he chose (yes, we've picked the names already and no, I'm not going to reveal the list)," said TedTheDog, Home community manager, on the European PlayStation forum.
"I'll let you know what I can, once I find out, but both were broadly based on the concept of loyalty. That's very vague I know, I'll firm up what I can, but don't expect too much detail, it was really complicated last time."
When Home version 1.0 will launch nobody knows, unfortunately, but with American PlayStation 3 owners ... More »
Has there ever been a better video game series than the Zelda video game series? Maybe the Super Mario, Castlevania, Metroid and Mega Man series, but after those, Zelda has no competition.
The single factor that contributes towards a great gaming series is the amount of great games in the series. The same cannot be said for the Double Dragon series, for example, where it fell drastically in quality after Double Dragon 2.
In the Zelda series though, the games seemed to get better with each subsequent addition. This is rare for a video game series, and the Zelda series has been able to accomplish this with flying colors. Controversy will be heard in the sequencing of this list, but that only goes to show how strong each game in the series was.
5. Link’s Awakening
Who thought that Link’s Awakening would be as good as it was on the Gameboy? This game packed in as much information and detailed story line as any of the Zeldas f... More »
Courtesy of Apedosmil from GameTrailers, Japanese PSN member RRR30000 recreated the entire first level from Gradius, complete with a boss fight at the end!
Those interested can grab it via the LittleBigPlanet level browser, simply search for his PSN ID to download this excellent creation.
For those without LittleBigPlanet or even a PlayStation 3 handy, check out the video clip below via GameTrailers.
Earliery today Namco Bandai announced DLC for Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm.
Now, IGN has made available a video review of it as follows:
Ultimate Ninja Storm is a, as I like to call it, "casual" fighting game that follows the first plot arcs of the anime series and gives players the chance to fight classic Naruto battles, play mini-games and roam the quaint streets of the Hidden Leaf Village.
The most obvious thing you'll notice about Ultimate Ninja Storm is the game's phenomenal visuals. While the environments are on the simpler side, the character animations are unreal.
The fluidity, attention to detail and even camera angles are executed with such expertise and palpable, Naruto-passion that you can't help but fall in love with how the characters move and fight. I would almost go so far as to say... More »
Blizzard’s going large for the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, with its central UK event to take place at midnight on November 12 at HMV on London’s Oxford Street.
“We’ve been looking forward to these launch events all year,” said Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime.
“This is one of the few opportunities we get to meet with players in person, and we can’t wait to celebrate the release of Wrath of the Lich King with them.”
Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase the standard edition of the game as well as the limited Collector’s Edition, which contains The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King hardback book; Frosty, an exclusive in-game frost wyrm pet; a behind-the-scenes DVD; the official soundtrack containing 21 tracks; an exclusive mouse pad displaying a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend; and two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game starter decks with two exclusive cards available only in the Col... More »
Sony Computer Entertainment UK managing director Ray Maguire has told VideoGamer that "nothing is ever exclusive" in response to questions surrounding exclusive DLC on Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Microsoft has tied up Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable content for some of this year's biggest games, including GTA 4, Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider: Underworld, leading to complaints from some PS3 owners that Sony isn't doing enough for them.
However, speaking to VideoGamer at the Games 3.0 conference in London earlier this week, Maguire rejected those complaints, saying he would "much rather that we (Sony) were investing money into making sure that we've got great R&D and we start producing games like LittleBigPlanet rather than paying other people a huge amount of money to stop people playing their product."
Maguire's "nothing is ever exclusive" comment is certain to add fuel to speculation that the high profile GTA 4 DLC that is due for release exclusivel... More »
Per Hiroshi Matsuyama (CyberConnect2) via PS Blog today:
Hello, PlayStation.Blog readers, I’m Hiroshi Matsuyama from CyberConnect2, the developer of NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM. I’m very excited to have this opportunity to speak with you all about the game. Since this is my first post, I’ll cover the basics today.
I’m sure some of you that have seen our trailers for the game have thought “I bet this is just a pre-rendered movie” – but it’s not! Everything from all of our trailers is 100% real-time footage from the game running on PLAYSTATION 3 hardware that you will all be able to experience when the game is released next week.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm features two main game modes for players to enjoy – “Free Battle Mode” and “Ultimate Mission Mode.” In Free Battle Mode, you can play as one of 25 characters from the animated serie... More »
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