There's general agreement that Sony stumbled out of the gate with the PlayStation 3. Months of intense hype were followed by a late launch (fully a year after the Xbox 360) and a staggering $600 price tag for the deluxe model.
Even worse, the PS3 didn't initially have any real must-have exclusive titles, and despite the power of its vaunted Cell processor, multiplatform games from third-party developers didn't look appreciably better than the respective titles on the Xbox 360.
Since then, the company's been modifying the PlayStation product line to better fit the competitive market landscape. As of August 2008, a new "bargain" PS3 is available with a larger, 80GB hard drive, and a "deluxe" model is due in November, doubling the capacity to 160GB.
Both, however, lack backward compatibility with PS2 games and do not come with flash card readers. If those features are a must, it might be best to pick up the 80GB "Metal Gear" bundle version on eBay w... More »
SEGA's glorious past is gathered in one colossal collection that is heading to both the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 in early 2009.
Press Release: LONDON&SAN FRANCISCO – SEGA® of Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc today announced the development of SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.
This compilation will feature the best first-party games from SEGA’s respected 16-bit Mega Drive years, as well as bonus content from its 8-bit Master System and 1980’s arcade era games library.
“SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection is a must-have for any SEGA enthusiast,” commented Gary Knight, European Marketing Director for SEGA Europe.“Fans will get a chance to relive fond memories from these classic games in HD format.”
Developed by Backbone Entertainment, SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection contains over 40 ce... More »
Although this is nearly two weeks old, we missed it so here it is... According to eaapoc from the official Electronic Arts boards (linked above) a new policy will see EA simultaneously banning people from both the forums and EA games.
So for example, if you have SPORE or Red Alert 3 and get banned from the forums or in-game, then your SPORE/Red Alert 3 account will be banned too. EA states this is part of their plan to make people play nice and act mature.
To quote: Well, its actually going to be a bit nastier for those who get banned.
Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned t... More »
Per Mike Skinner of Team RamRod via PS Blog today:
Hello everyone! Team RamRod is here again this week to introduce some new High Velocity Bowling (HVB) goodness. I know it’s gonna be tough to compete with last week’s release of the FREE HVB Online Play update in North America, but we have more great news for our fans here in the States.
To all our fans in Europe who are waiting for the online action and new content, please know that we are working as fast as we can to release it to you as well.
Anyone that has played HVB knows that it is filled with an eccentric mix of characters and bowling alleys. Joe and Jill might be your average family playing in a common setting, but it’s not everyday you can mix it up on the lanes with a biker who wants to be a Viking.
Most of you know that HVB hasn’t had any new faces in the neighborhood for quite a while, so without further delay, I am proud to introduce everyone to our newe... More »
Yes folks, it's October, which means that the crazy end-of-year games rush has begun. A boggling number of games are due out over the next few months, so let us guide you towards the titles we really think you should be keeping an eye on.
Remember though, most of these recommendations are based on previews, so wait until the final review verdict before picking any of them up.
1. Animal Crossing: City Folk - Wii, 16th Nov US, December EU
It might not be the great hardcore hope Reggie claims it to be, but the Wii version of Animal Crossing certainly promises to be the definitive entry in the series. It's got proper online play, mic and keyboard communications, Mii support, a new city area full of customisable gear to pick up and connectivity between Wii and DS. In other words, it's got everything Animal Crossing always needed. AC is one of those games you either love or just don't get at all, but if you're the former, this will be a must.
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From ReadMe: PS3 NAND FLOW REBUILDER v3.50 (including ECC Algo by RPS).
This tool allows to unscramble the blocks of a PS3 dumps ordering them in a way that the dumps become readable and extractable!
It also allow you to re-scramble back to the original order once you modified the data you wants, then from now on it include the ECC recalculation algorithm that was private until today.
It's for study and tests purposes, for experienced people only (devs) that this way can manage the files inside the flashes and patch sensible areas.
Well this week we have some exciting news that we hinted about last week.
First, a small technical explanation. We were not able to modify any data on the PS3's flash chips due to the ECC. The ECC is a checksum basically, that ensures whatever data is in the block is not changed or corrupted, and if it is it errors.
So, the problem was since when we tried to alter data, the ECC would then in turn be invalid, causing errors, making the system not boot.
We did develop a way around this, however, it was time consuming and quite slow. We used the PS3 to write data to the flash, then dump it, with its proper ECC, then rewrite to where we needed it. This would take hours on end! We were not able to regenerate the ECC since we did not know the proper algorithm.
But now, we can!!
After multiple tests done by NDT to see what the ECC... More »
A bullish Microsoft has declared it's happy to go toe-to-toe with rival Sony products, as the two companies prepare for another bloody battle at retail this Christmas.
Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Games Studios, has declared that first-party publishing has always been about exclusives, and he's confident his titles can better anything his bitter rivals at Sony can turn out.
"Let's start from the beginning of both consoles - PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - which first party has had more success on their own platform? We have Gears, Halo, Forza, we're continuing to push existing IP while bringing new IP to market. I'll line up against Sony's first party any day," offered Spencer in the first part of an interview published today.
Despite closing internal studios such as Ensemble and FASA, Spencer says the company has spent the n... More »
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