At the risk of sounding like a forum troll, I have to say, I'm not too impressed with the implementation of Netflix on Xbox 360.
The service, which is available to Xbox Live and Netflix -subscribers, allows you to stream movies to your TV via your Xbox 360, and on paper, it sounds ingenious.
Indeed, that's why I -- along with many others -- was so excited when Microsoft announced this forthcoming feature way back at E3 in July. Unfortunately, Netflix for Xbox Live users is now here, and it's not all it was cracked up to be.
For starters, the selection of streamable movies is lackluster. Netflix users who have used the service's "Instantly Watch" section know that there aren't an incredible variety of movies to pick from. There are few new releases available. Instead, the selection is composed mainly of films like Mission to Mars, The Abyss, Superman: The Movie, Batman Forever and Scarface.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with th... More »
The console market today is as tough as any industry there is, but it wasn't always like this. For the past several years the PS2 has been the console to trump, and before it there was the original PlayStation which also dominated the market.
One unclear question still remains though; will the PlayStation 3 remain atop the market? Many analysts believe that this will in fact hold true, but why are they claiming this? In my personal opinion, here are the Top 5 reasons that the PlayStation 3 will eventually re-take the lead in the game industries market.
#5 The Xbox 360 and How It Matches Up
The Xbox 360 is a great console, but it has its flaws. The Xbox 360 is a very similar console to the PS3. They have similar play and they have similar specifications. The Xbox 360 has an estimated 30% failure rate and this will cost Microsoft dearly. The Xbox 360 is struggling to maintain its position in America, and if that isn't enough it can't even ga... More »
Great news from marcan of Team Twiizers as follows:
As you all know, we’re getting busy with several other projects, and HBC isn’t a priority. However, the BETA 9 release had a few rough edges, and some things that should have been fixed weren’t.
So we’re giving you the chance to voice your pet peeves about HBC now, and we’ll release a new version soon. Consider this version “final” at least for the time being.
HBC is basically feature-complete, so we won’t be adding any new major features, but we want to get rid of some remaining bugs and annoyances. Once this new version is out, you’re going to be stuck with it for a while.
Things that we’ve already fixed/added for BETA 10:
• meta.xml now handles non-ASCII characters properly (you can use iso-8859-1 or utf-8 encoding, but utf-8 is restricted to the iso-8859-1 subset)
• Wiimote shutdown support (in libogc git now - we should have ad... More »
For years, the Tokyo Game Show has been the one show on the calendar you can bet Sony is going to put on a performance.
Okay, they may have had a few issues in the past (overheating PS3s) but in general, TGS is their best show of the year. They nearly always headline the keynote and usually announce something or other.
This year, however, I can't help but feel that Sony isn't trying. Firstly, conceding the keynote to Microsoft is bad news, especially on home soil. With no major announcements from Sony, it was up to the publishers to deliver. At Square Enix, they had a closed cinema screening showing a trailer of their upcoming titles.
Problem was, the queue took forever and the film was too long (around 20 minutes). They showed all their development projects, of which half I'm sure most were uninterested in. There were no playable next-gen titles outside of the 360 area and the Square Enix booth was right next to Microsoft's.
We announced a few weeks back that you'd soon be able to buy Burnout Paradise on the PlayStation Store. We're now able to confirm that this will be released on this coming Thursday (25th of September).
Buying the game gets you all the original Burnout Paradise disk content. If you missed it, that's all 5 neighbourhoods in the Paradise City open world filled with hundreds of Road Rage, Stunt Run, Marked Man and Burning Route events. Every street in the city features a Road Rules record time and Showtime score to beat.
Take it online, and you'll witness the seamless arrival of up to 7 friends. Collaborate with them to beat 350 Freeburn Challenges – simple challenges taking you all over Paradise City.
Starting the game will then immediately trigger the download of all our updates, including the recent Cagney Pack and Burnout Bikes. A pack delivering PS3 Trophy Support will be released imminently and included for free.
The Sony Video Store on the PlayStation Network is filled with a good selection of movies, and you can't beat the convenience of renting or even buying movies from your couch and watching them on your big screen with your PlayStation 3.
Renting movies is a joy on the system, although it would be nice to have longer than 24 hours to watch the content, but what happens when you buy a movie? As one Ars reader found out, and Sony confirmed for us, you have to be careful about what happens to your system once it's filled with video content: you have one download, one redownload, and that's it.
Noise, a forum-goer, sent out a warning after he deleted some video content to make room on his hard drive and then found he couldn't redownload the content. The PlayStation 3 support page is perfectly clear on this matter. "Purchased content can be downloaded to ... More »
When the PSP first launched in North America on March 24, 2005, it revolutionized portable media forever with its ability to play videos, music and display pictures all while being a powerful gaming machine.
Since then, it gained even more functionality with a built-in Web browser, Skype functionality and connectivity with the Playstation 3. When the Playstation Portable (PSP) 2000 or 'Lite' model was released, it had all the quirks of the original model but answered consumer demands with the additional Video-Out socket which allows users to output video to any progressive television.
At the Leipzig Games Convention, Sony officially announced the newest chapter in the life of the PSP by revealing the PSP 3000 (or PSP "Brite", as dubbed in the blogosphere). The PSP Brite is just as thick, weighs the same and even has the same battery life as its predecessor, the PSP Lite. This newer model, however, consists of many ergonomic and aesthetic changes while offeri... More »
Per Grace Chen (Senior Manager, PLAYSTATION Store) today:
Hey, everyone. It’s time again for the PLAYSTATION Store weekly update.
Qore Digital Magazine
Qore Episode 04: September, 2008 ($2.99 Issue, $24.99 Annual Subscription)
Episode 04 of Qore: Presented by the PLAYSTATION Network explores a number of upcoming games, including LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and Prince of Persia, it also includes 30-day exclusive access to the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift demo (scheduled to be available 9/11/08), some great artwork and a new mini-game.
File size: 1.54 GB
Downloadable Games
NFL Head Coach 09 ($49.99)
Brought to you by EA SPORTS, NFL Head Coach 09 gives you the opportunity to make all the decisions that win championships. You can scout players, draft players, sign free agents, chose gameplans, create plays, hire assistant coaches and m... More »