Per Alan McDermott (Audio Lead, Evolution Studios) via PS Blog today:
Since Day 1, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to put a soundtrack together that would have the right vibe for a festival of racing like MotorStorm. You see, Music is one of those things that no one is ever “wrong” about. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone knows best, but no one is ever wrong!
After countless discussions with various people involved in creating the Festival Infrastructure around the MotorStorm racing events, my challenge was set: I needed to put together a lineup that not only fit with a racing game, but one which could feasibly be the Festival line up to end all Festival line ups.
It had to be Anarchic, Aggressive and Raucous. That was the easy part. The tough part was making sure that the soundtrack became as much a signature of MotorStorm as the racing itself was.
This generation of consoles has barely got going, with the price war not really having even begun, and no sign of a winner yet being called (although the Wii is clearly the frontrunner). But, the next generation of consoles could be on their way sooner than we all think. The only question remains: who will actually be involved?
Actually I lied, the other question is when will the next-gen consoles actually arrive on the scene. We’ve spoken about this before, with 2010 being the earliest date mentioned in terms of when a new console could emerge from one of the big three, More likely given the state of the industry (healthy console sales but all three platforms still viable) is 2011 or 2012.
Nintendo is guaranteed to be in there. The Wii and DS have made the company so much money that it is likely to want to throw money at a new development in an effort to repeat the phenomenal success of this generation’s offerings.
Per Grace Chen (Senior Manager, PLAYSTATION Store) today:
Hey, everyone. It’s time again for the PLAYSTATION Store weekly update.
Qore Digital Magazine
Just a quick note to let you know that the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift demo is now available to all Qore annual subscribers and those customers that have purchased Episode 04.
How to get the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift demo:
-Go into Qore Episode 04 under the game drop on the XMB
-Go to the Download Center
-Go to the “MotorStorm: Pacific Rift - Demo” box
-Hit the “X” button and let the downloading begin!
File size: 616 MB
Downloadable Games
JEOPARDY! ($14.99)
Test your knowledge on America’s Favorite Quiz Show! Available for the first time on the PLAYSTATION Network, players can experience the fast-paced fun of JEOPARDY! Featuring a photorealistic 3D set and clues from the producers of the T.V. sh... More »
A funny thing happened a couple of months ago. After completing the PSP version of God of War, developer Ready At Dawn Studios posted a matter-of-fact news story on their site about how they were packing up their dev kits and sending them back to Sony.
The company behind one of the must-play games on the PSP was giving up on the system completely. Around the same time, Sony itself announced a new partnership program where universities could buy up PSP and PS2 development kits on the cheap. It would seem that Ready At Dawn isn’t the only studio giving up on the system.
Presumably, there is an assembly line at Sony headquarters where the old dev kits are repackaged for uni students. Maybe they throw in some typical student freebie favourites in the box, like free condoms, and booklets about doing drugs responsibly.
At any rate, this phase-out is already being felt at retail. There are fewer and fewe... More »
If there’s been one reason above any other to own a 360 it’s the exclusives. Year after year, Microsoft continues to dazzle gamers with an ever increasing library of exciting new IPs and groundbreaking, record-shaking franchises.
This year gamers are being treated to the widest diversity of AAA titles Microsoft has ever assembled with only one FPS in a lineup strewn with RPGs, strategy, platforming, action and adventure.
So come, join up, sign in, login and generally let us know what you think in the comments below and join us this E3 ‘08 as we celebrate our first Electronics Entertainment Exposition with you our loyal readers.
So on with the show, and please enjoy the countdown...
10. Tales of Vesperia If anybody had told me I’d see a Tales game on the 360 at launch I would’ve laughed heartily before returning to my PS2 and GameCube. But how times have changed and what an unexpectedly strong JRPG library the 3... More »
PSP hit the scene about three years ago and while it's been evolving into quite a useful handheld, it hasn't quite taken off like Sony would have liked.
But that doesn't mean that it's dying and SCEA Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller insists that sales have been "red hot" in 2008.
PlayStation 3 has also had a healthy rebound this year and Sony plans to integrate the two more as time goes by.
"I think as we go forward, we're going to see a lot more integration with PlayStation 3, particularly as the install base of the PS3 continues to grow stratospherically in many ways, and the integration that is going to occur there is part and parcel of the strategy that the console is the living room hub and really where your entertainment flows," he told IGN.
"Then, your PSP is your digital living room on the go, and being able to access your PS3 in a wide variety of ways is really a key part of our overall branding strategy. Tha... More »
Self-proclaimed veteran games industry marketer, Bruce Everiss, believes Sony's GPU is holding back the console and that it has made it a less powerful gaming machine than the Xbox 360.
Everiss uses a quote from Richard Huddy of ATI to back up the claim: “I think Xbox 360 technology is likely to outperform PlayStation 3 technology by a pretty healthy margin in the long run. It looks like the GPU is holding the PS3 back.”
To quote: For the PS3 Sony wanted to have a technology advantage so they developed, in conjunction with Toshiba and IBM, the Cell processor. A clean sheet design with many innovations this took $400 million and four years to develop.
The intention was to use two of these in the PS3, one as CPU and one as GPU. However at the last minute Sony realised that the Cell GPU wasn’t up to the job so they went to nVidia and bought their 7800GTX GPU. This gave them a number of disadvantages:
Snake’s tale might be in its final stages, but the hype surrounding it seems to be growing at an unprecedented level.
The community has waited with bated breath and digested the release of every ounce of gameplay, trailers, retrospective chronicles arising from the stables of Kojima productions, and this syndrome of hype seems spiraling choke gamers out of their last ounce of breath.
Well adding fuel to fire, here are a few healthy does of petrol to douse (or rather flame) expectations about the game further.
- The introduction cut scene for the game is close to 17 minutes long (that’s a short film in itself). If we remember that once in 1964 (MGS 3) Kojima implemented pseudo-interactive cutscenes, well there is certain well defined upgrade to this feature with probable camera shifts during the cutscenes.
- An average in-game cutscene is about 5 to 7 minutes long and as we all know there are no loading times between cutscene and ... More »
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