DCEmu Homebrew Emulation & Theme Park News
wraggster
by Published on August 30th, 2012 00:13- Categories:
- PC News
The parent company of LucasArts has registered trademarks and domain names for something named Star Wars: First Assault.The filings primarily relate to "interactive entertainment software" for computers and mobile phones.An array of related merchandising gubbins is also covered - from pencil sharpeners toparlour games.The filings, spotted by Fusible, back up a list of Star Wars: First Assult domain name registrations filed by LucasFilm at the end of last week.It also mirrors the discovery of mature action adventure Star Wars 1313, whose name was similarly spotted as a trademark registration before its E3 announcement.What could it be? Multiple reports earlier this year suggested a third Battlefront game was still in development - possibly at Legendary: The Box studio Spark Unlimited. The project was first started at TimeSplitters developer Free Radical Design, before LucasArts pulled the plug.Or is it another Star Wars Kinect?...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-registrationsby Published on August 30th, 2012 00:07- Categories:
- Playstation Vita News
There's a bonus feature for PlayStation Vita owners who have updated to the system's new firmware: Sony has locked memory cards to specific PlayStation Network accounts.Gamers were previously able to switch PSN accounts via the slightly cumbersome process of "restoring" the system.Now, those with content from multiple accounts or multiple regions will have to buy another memory card or lose their data.One way to separate your content onto several memory cards is to copy it back to a PlayStation 3, NeoGAF users reported. But those with only one Vita memory card handy will need to go shopping first.It's a problem that will hit users who have accounts on multiple PlayStation Stores - useful as not all content is released in all regions.The move comes at an especially bad time - Sony has just enabled PSone game support for the Vita. Those who bought titles using a different PSN account to their handheld's will also need to juggle memory cards....
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...s-memory-cardsby Published on August 30th, 2012 00:01- Categories:
- Nintendo 3DS News
A virtual version of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has taken the stage to demonstrate Friend Collection, an odd life simulation game featuring the company's Mii avatars.Friend Collection 3DS was first teased last year, although Nintendo has been silent on the title since....
It reappeared today during Japan's Nintendo Direct conference, accompanied by a new Japanese 2013 release date.Will it see release outside of Japan? It's unlikely. The original DS version of the game was left untouched by Nintendo's western localisation teams.The game is, admittedly, bonkers. Iwata's Mii was shown learning to hula dance, riding a roller coaster and singing in a rock band named the Game Boys.A new rhythm-platformer from Pokémon studio Game Freak was also shown. Named Rhythm Hunter: Harmo Knight, it offers a 3D side-scroller where the player must collect notes and blast through obstacles in time to music tracks.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...end-collectionby Published on August 29th, 2012 23:57- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
Well, they certainly made you wait for it, but the BBC has finally delivered on its promise, bringing radio support to its Xbox 360 app. When iPlayer launched on the console in March, patient customers were initially left without access to the national network's vast catalog of audio programming. With today's 22MB update that changes, but only so long as you're sticking with archived materials. You'll have access to the catch up feature, but no live streaming (so don't expect to get your breaking news through your Xbox). You'll also be able to pick up where you left off with previously accessed programs. If you've got an urge to find out about all the work that went into the UI design, hit up the source.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/29/b...t-to-xbox-app/ ...by Published on August 29th, 2012 23:55- Categories:
- Xperia Play News
Looks like those leaked slides showing Sony's Xperia-branded tablet were right about pretty much everything. (Well, everything except the price, anyway). The company just formally announced the Xperia Tablet S and, as rumored, it features a Tegra 3 chip, Android 4.0 and up to 64GB of built-in storage. Like last year's Tablet S, it has that distinctive folded-over magazine shape, except this go-round it's made of metal, and measures between .35 and .47 inches thick (the weight, too, has dropped to 1.26 pounds, down from 1.31). Sony also kept the Tablet S' IR emitter, which allows the tablet to double as a universal remote, and this time you can program shortcuts to do things like watch sports. Rounding out the spec sheet, there's a full-size SD slot, a 9.4-inch (1,280 x 800) IPS screen and a 6,000mAh battery promising 10 hours of runtime.
As we mentioned, the tablet will ship with Ice Cream Sandwich, but Sony is promising an upgrade to Jelly Bean as soon as it can optimize all its custom apps. And indeed, there are quite a few specialized applications here. For starters, there's a new Watch Now app that allows for live TV-viewing (cable subscription required), with the option to "check into" shows and share comments on Facebook and Twitter. Meanwhile, Sony added a Guest Mode that lets you create custom user profiles, forbidding the use of certain apps -- a handy parental control tool, we say. Naturally, Sony also threw in Music and Video Unlimited, where you can buy content from Sony's vast movie and song catalogs. Finally, the tablet comes with 5GB of space in PlayMemories, Sony's new cloud storage service.
The tablet will be available September 7th, though Sony is accepting pre-orders starting today. It will start at $400 for the 16GB model, with the 32GB going for $500 and the 64GB for $600. And yes, as those leaked slides indicated, there will most certainly be accessories. For starters, there's that optionalSurface-like keyboard we heard about, priced at $100. There's also a three-position stand, with HDMI output and a USB adapter for a charging. That, too, costs $100. Sony is also selling a charging cradle ($40), a plain-Jane stand ($25), a dock speaker ($130) and a carrying case, priced at either $51 or $80, depending on whether or not you get it in leather. We very much expect to get some hands-on time atIFA, so stay tuned for first-hand impressions.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/29/s...t-s-announced/ ...by Published on August 29th, 2012 23:45- Categories:
- Windows Phone
Samsung took to the stage in Berlin to showcase its new product lineup, and one of the featured devices is the first confirmed Windows Phone 8 device. Dubbed the ATIV S, the new Microsoft-sanctioned smartphone offers a 4.8-inch screen with an HD Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm CPU, 8MP rear camera and 1.9MP front-facing cam. Additionally, it's got a beefy 2,300mAh battery, 1GB RAM, Gorilla Glass 2 and will come in both 16 and 32GB flavors. At 8.7mm, it's also reasonably thin. Its body is made of brushed aluminum and comes with a WP8-friendly MicroSD slot. We've got another pic of the ATIV S below, and we'll have a hands-on to you as soon as possible.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/29/s...hone-8-device/ ...by Published on August 29th, 2012 23:41- Categories:
- PC News
Samsung didn't leave its ATIV introductions to just an ARM tablet and a phone. We first saw them as theSeries 5 and Series 7 tablets, which will likely be their final US names; to recap, though, the newly branded ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro both look to capture some of that Transformer-likeaura by mating an 11.6-inch tablet with a detachable keyboard dock for a laptop experience. Some of Samsung's own Galaxy Note vibe rubs off on them, too -- both carry an S Pen and a bundled S Note app for some on-the-spot writing. They likewise share support for 3G and 4G as well as micro-HDMI and USB, but there's a clear difference depending on what you buy. Going for the regular Smart PC loads in a modest Clover Trail-based Intel Atom processor and a 1,366 x 768 display, but offers a lengthy 13.5-hour battery life, 2GB of RAM, up to a 128GB flash drive, a rear 8-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. Slap that "Pro" moniker on the front and you have to drop to eight hours of battery life and a 5-megapixel rear camera, but you'll get a much faster Core i5 processor, a 1080p display, 4GB of RAM and as much as a 256GB SSD. Unlike the ATIV Tab, we do know the Smart PCs will be available in the US on October 26th at $649 for a base Smart PC/Series 5, $749 for a bundle with the keyboard and $1,119 for a Smart PC Pro/Series 7 with a 128GB SSD built-in.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/29/s...-detachable-k/ ...by Published on August 29th, 2012 22:16- Categories:
- Windows Phone
Word on the street is that Windows Phone 8 will get its official launch on October 29th. When asked for confirmation, Microsoft issued a pretty standard "no comment," which leads us to believe there might actually be something to this rumor. With Windows 8 slated to land on October 26th, we wouldn't be surprised to see its portable counterpart hit the market just a few days later, as ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley is suggesting. October is already expected to be a rather hectic month for Microsoft, with launch ofcountless Windows 8 tablets scheduled. Putting WP8 out alongside its first batch of handsets (helloATIV S!) would only make sense, really. We can think of a reason or two that Microsoft might want to utterly dominate a few news cycles.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/29/w...ter-its-deskt/
...by Published on August 29th, 2012 22:13- Categories:
- PC News
Why SimCity lead producer Kip Katsarelis isn't afraid to back PC gaming
EA Maxis
Maxis
maxis.com
Kip Katsarelis, EA Maxis' lead producer on the upcoming SimCity has declared the PC gaming space alive and well, and revealed the challenges of working on such a big brand for a new audience.
"Our engine is definitely portable, it could be operated on many platforms, but that's where our market is," he told GamesIndustry International of PC gaming.
"We're still seeing the PC market is not dead, it's very much alive. Blizzard's shown quite a bit of success with their recent Diablo launch, The Sims is highly successful, so there's a market there, we've got an audience there that wants games on that platform, and we are still a PC house and will continue to be so."
He said that didn't rule out different versions of the upcoming game appearing on other platforms, and cited SimCity Social and SimCity Deluxe on iOS as examples that it could work for different devices.
Kip Katsarelis
"I can see us on many platforms, there's definitely an appetite for Sim City, it's one of those games that everybody can relate to, they all live somewhere!"
And it isn't just the devices that have changed since the last true SimCity was released on PC in 2003, said Katsarelis.
"Not only has gaming changed, there is that whole generation who may be aware of SimCity, and maybe they've played the iPhone version of it, but they haven't really experience that true experience on the PC. So we came out with SimCity Social, there's CityVille too, there's a whole new generation of city planners that would probably love to play our game."
Katsarelis was cagey about life beyond SimCity for Maxis, but explained that the Glassbox Engine, the foundation to all the advances made in the new game, was an investment for the future.
"It's a simulation engine capable of doing many things," he promised.
"Internally when we bring people in we give them Glassbox and let them go make their own games. People have made simulation wineries, one guy made a honey bee farm, so there's a lot you can do with it."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s-pc-isnt-dead
...by Published on August 29th, 2012 22:08- Categories:
- DCEmu
With few expecting a giant gaming leap at launch, what may matter most is not what you buy but how you buy it, says Johnny Minkley
Sony Computer EntertainmentSony Computer Entertainment is a Japanese videogame company specialising in a variety of areas in the...
playstation.com
With not a great deal of note happening in the arid console space this summer, gossiping about next-gen consoles has proved an irresistibly fertile way of passing the time at industry gatherings.
It'll be a "quantum leap", Alan Wake developer Remedy chirruped excitedly to this site last week. Which was in stark contrast to the underwhelmed shrug I got from a middleware company I chatted to off the record at Gamescom, familiar with both Orbis and Durango.
Seven years on from the launch of Xbox 360, the first thing to say is it had bloody better be a "quantum leap" from the creaking innards of today's systems. The issue, naturally, isn't that the tech clearly will be an order of magnitude more powerful - it's how platform holders and software publishers can articulate this and "sell" the next-gen vision to spoilt-for-choice consumers via marketing and content.
That there are mixed feelings, depending on who you speak to, about the potential of the next console cycle is hardly in doubt. With official announcements from Microsoft and Sony expected well within the next 12 months, apathy from within certain quarters of the industry itself is worrying if not altogether surprising. But what about consumers?
The HD era began with Xbox 360 as a pure gaming machine; now it's an entertainment hub that also happens to play games. Microsoft always said this generation would be about software and services, and EA now explicitly sees its games less as "products" and more as "services", with Peter Moore recently observing: "Games are turning into 365 days a year live operation experiences".
"Games are turning into 365 days a year live operation experiences".
EA's Peter Moore
As consumers become ever more tied into, and therefore get more out of, their favourite games, then, the argument for upgrading to another expensive box becomes exponentially harder to make.
With little expectation of triple-A software prices falling, all the pressure is on the hardware cost and where that will fit into a diverse market. Ever since Microsoft launched its $99 subsidised Xbox 360 trial in the US earlier this year, there's been much chin-stroking over whether this model will be adopted for next-gen systems.
The irrepressible Michael Pachter is betting that Microsoft is already tying up deals with US cable companies to offer a subsidised next-gen Xbox at a fraction of the standalone price, in exchange for signing up to something like a two-year cable/Xbox Live contract.
It's an enormously appealing proposition. And, irrespective of the details of how this might work across different territories, I'm increasingly of the view that Microsoft and Sony (Nintendo, as ever, ploughs its own furrow) can ill afford not to make it work.
The obvious example of subsidised hardware in the games space to look to is iPhone. Who buys one of those for £500 (the standalone price of the cheapest 4S)? Meanwhile, we're all comfortable these days subscribing to all sorts of related services for our entertainment, from Sky and Virgin to Napster and Spotify.
"The obvious example of subsidised hardware in the games space to look to is iPhone."
The key advantage Microsoft has over Sony here are the many, many millions of customers and credit cards it already has signed up and used to subscribing regularly to a service: Xbox Live. (Sony has the credit cards - let's not go there - but PlayStation Plus is hardly in the same league as Live).
Furthermore, while Sony has broader concerns to deal with across the whole enterprise, Microsoft has the financial clout to spend whatever it takes to help make the next Xbox a success at launch. It will presumably be encouraged here by what it achieved with Kinect. Despite widespread dismay over the price - and, hands up, I thought they were nuts to come in over £100 - the reported $500m the company splurged on messaging was enough to confer 'must buy' status upon it.
As a result, Kinect remains the fastest-selling consumer electronics product in history, beating anything even Apple has achieved. But, needless to say, its success wasn't as straightforward as chucking enough money at a problem: it also had the good fortune to appear revolutionary and represent a step change, perfectly captured by its unimprovable slogan: "You are the controller".
That the reality fell so clumsily short of the vision is beside the point: at the time it captured everyone's imagination. But what step change is the next gen likely to offer at first?
The leap to HD, though it required a not inconsiderable investment in a compatible display, was a clear point of difference last time around. Take away HD and how much better to the untrained eye did a PS3 launch title look compared with, say, PS2's God of War II?
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