via PS3Fanboy:



Don't mix beer and wine. Ever. And don't dabble in Golden Axe: Beast Rider when suffering from intercontinental jet lag. Let my folly become your wisdom. See, the Secret Level-developed update to the Golden Axe franchise is probably more... let's say... relaxing than it should be. That's a nice way of saying rather bland, as the rainbow of browns that permeate the game may lull hack 'n' slash fans into a restful slumber.

I mean, even the purple chicken things are brown.

That's not to say Golden Axe: Beast Rider is a bad game, from our hands on time with it. Just a bit uninspired, lacking in some tangible oomph, in the graphics department and the swordplay.

Beast Rider star Tyris Flare looks fantastic though. Whomever is responsible for her model and those perfectly modeled lower back dimples deserves a raise. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game does have its moments, visually. Hopping on a ridable beast that can camouflage itself with a Predator like effect looks pretty snazzy too.

The hand-to-hand action though, feels like a sludgier take on Heavenly Sword's combat system. Prior to attacks, Death Adder's minions will glow blue or orange, indicating whether you should parry or evade. If they glow green, it's ladies' choice. Respond accordingly and your next attack will be of the flaming sword variety.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider definitely gets some things right. The inclusion of throwback elements like the green and blue gnomes that drop refreshing meat ad magic potions return, as do the multi-tiered magic spells.

But many of the series' main draws — bright environments, co-op multiplayer and dazzling, increasingly ridiculous spells, metal bikinis — have been overlooked. And Flare's magic abilities just ooze boring. Where are the giant, fire puking dragon heads, guys? It's a game that appears to be full of good intentions — middling, road to Hell paving stuff.

We're not quite writing it off yet. Golden Axe: Beast Rider may have been only a semi-enjoyable slog, but we can see ourselves playing through a good portion of it, if only wanting for a thrill. Who knows if we'll leave the experience disappointed, because the game showed at least promise, even if it was a bit bland around the edges. ...

A new trailer for Sega's upcoming music title Samba de Amigo has hit the net, showing off such songs as "Mambo #5" and "Hot Hot Hot," as well as "Soul Bossa Nova." For those of you who've caught the whole track list, you're pretty much settled on whether this is a strong track list or one that's lacking. So, what is it? Are you looking forward to this? Are you going to get those maracas, too?

See more pictures of Samba De Amigo Wii here! ...

via Xbox360Fanboy:



The latest Bungie Weekly Update is an informative "doosy", chock full of matchmaking playlist updates, a title update release date, PAX 2008 plans and some rumor squashing. So, let's dive in.

First on the list of Bungie news, some rumor squashing. According to team Bungie, the Halo 3 acceptance videos that fans across the internets have picked apart and analyzed have been picked apart and analyzed way too much. Bluntly put, Bungie informs us that "there will be no insertion of Campaign objects, enemies or friendlies via the Forge as folks have speculated" and that there will be no "new feature that implements Campaign objects into multiplayer." Bungie then gives everyone some life advice, telling us all to "calm yourselves down, pump the brakes, and take a breath." Consider us calmed, breathed and our brakes pumped.

Other than some rumor busting, there's a list of September Halo 3 matchmaking updates (the removal and addition of various playlists) and confirmation that, come September 16th, the second Halo 3 title update will be released. Finally, for PAX attendees, Bungie plans on doing a few autograph signings, a few Recon competitions and selling a limited number of PAX-exclusive Bungie t-shirts. Phew! We're out of breath, make the jump to get your weekly (double) dose of Bungie news ... ...

via DSFanboy:



Wow, we sure called this one. Like the rest of the game, the boxart for the DS version of Chrono Trigger is very similar to the original. Of course, in some cases, less (effort) is more, and this just may be one of them. Was there any way Square Enix could have improved on Chrono Trigger's boxart?

See more lovely pictures here. ...

via Gizmodo:



Last May Pioneer told us that autumn would bring a "super duper" Blu-ray player--the most powerful Blu-ray player ever built. It makes up for the current crop, which are lower in price but are missing key features like BD-Live for internet-based content. Well, not a leaf has fallen off a tree, yet here it is already, the $2,200 Elite BDP-09FD. Feature-wise, the best Blu-ray player on the market has been the PS3--turns out, an extra $1,700 will buy you something that kills Sony's game console as far as Blu-ray and other media are concerned.



As you probably guessed, Pioneer finally accepts the need for 2.0. This will come with Ethernet and be fully capable of BD-Live playback, no firmware updates needed at the get-go. Unlike other BD-Live players, which require SD cards, this one comes with 4GB of internal memory for downloads.

The thing is a Mack truck, 45 or 50 lbs. of steel and aluminum with everything mounted carefully to eliminate vibration. The bottom layer of the aluminum-housed chassis is a quarter-inch plate of solid steel, and it's even got feet from a Japanese company called TAOC, supposedly the most vibration-free platform you can get. There are no wires inside either; all connections are physically mounted from the circuit board to the walls to reduce noise.

Pioneer says all of the engineering is so that this can be a single box that replaces some home theater snob's high-end CD player, DVD player and previous-gen Blu-ray player, blowing each in turn out of the water.

In the audio department, Pioneer recommends using this for decoding all music and movie soundtrack, and going analog out with those gold-plated 7.1 RCA jacks. It's decodes all known codecs from DTS and Dolby using a separate digital-to-analog converter for each channel. This is a little like having a separate motor for each wheel of your car. Combining this with some crazy audio engineering, they created a way for "completely perfect noise-free signal" to come through RCA jacks instead of the costlier old-school XLR jacks. "It's far better than what you find in most receivers," says Pioneer's Chris Walker. In fact, everything, including speaker preferences and other receiver-like tweaks, are adjustable from inside the player.

It's also got that crazy CD-playback technique first seen on Pioneer's summer models: When used with certain Pioneer receivers, it produces jitter-free disc playback.

In terms of video, it has 1080p/24 for Blu-ray and DVD content too, as you might expect, with a best-on-the-market image processor also found in Meridian's crazy 10-megapixel projector.

The 09's next-level achievement is that it upconverts color information to 16 bits, previously unheard of because nobody had a system that could handle 16-bit color data. (Pioneer had to build their own for this mission.) That means that each picture can have up to "2,800 trillion" (um, 2.8 quadrillion??) colors, which the processor interpolates by looking at each frame of the Blu-ray's 8-bit color movie. Though most TVs only process 10-bit, Walker says that it's better to send over a richer signal that the TV has to tone down, than letting the TV upgrade the Blu-ray data itself. When TVs hit 16-bit, this sucka will be ready.

Cooler to me are the two HDMI jacks on the back. It's a first for a Blu-ray player (or PS3), and it means you can hook up the same player to both your projector and your flat-panel display without a splitter or some on-the-fly rewiring. You can even split it up so that HDMI 1 only does audio, while HDMI 2 does video, freeing up more video bandwidth, especially in those pesky longer cables that might get a bit choked. The HDMI can detect the source, and automatically determine what audio and video to send over.

Obviously, some people are going to be content with their PS3s for the time being (after all, they are only $500, a small price by comparison). And Walker acknowledges that speed is always going to be the saving grace of the game console. ("If we were to build a Blu-ray player around an Intel or Cell processor, we'd have those kinds of speeds too.") But as far as picture and audio output, nothing quite resembles this "super duper" machine. And on top of all that, we can stop bitching about Pioneer ignoring BD-Live, and getting on with the future. Now, seriously, why would ANYONE buy Pioneer's last batch? Save your money, home-theater snobs. This badass will be out soon. ...

via DSFanboy:




If you've been waiting on Bioware's Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, then you've been waiting on a definitive look at the game's combat system. Heck, we have! Well, boys and girls, the wait is over. Feast your eyeballs on the trailer above and tell us what you think in the comments!

Here's a Photo Gallery! ...

Hello, DCEmu users.

What do you think of Grand Theft Auto coming to the Nintendo DS?

Honestly, I myself am thrilled. The only problem I'm thinking of is whether or not the DS could handle GTA in 3D like PS2 did.

Still, I think that the game wouldn't be so well recieved if it was like the original GTA games that were in 2D.

If you had to choose between a not that good looking 3D Grand Theft Auto game or a 2D Grand Theft Auto 2-style GTA game on the DS, which would it be?

I myself would go with 3D, just because I really dislike the original aerial camera 2D GTA games, but we all have our differences.

So, DCEmu, what would you pick?

Written by: Eviltaco64 ...

via Xbox360Fanboy:



Update: It seems GameSpot has pulled this story, though as of this update the story headline is still displayed on GameSpot's 360 page. For what it's worth, Kotaku is reporting the same thing, so we're not sure exactly why GameSpot's article has been pulled. See our original post below.

Gamers with the Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2 have had kind of a rough time. First we see the PC version get Medic updates and achievements, then the Pyro gets the same treatment, and now our good friend the Heavy is getting his own update (not to mention the Sandvich). We 360 gamers have sat idly by as PC gamers get to romp about with new weapons and there's a even a new map on the way. It's time to cheer up fanboys, because Valve has confirmed to GameSpot that all of the TF2 content released thus far should be hitting the Xbox 360 before the end of the year.

And now be sad again, because it looks like it's going to cost you. In an interview with VideoGaming247, Valve boss Gabe Newell spoke about the updates saying, "On the consoles, they want us to charge money for them, because that's in their model, and our model is very much more to grow the community by giving out free updates." Boy, we like the sound of Valve's model much better. From the sound of things, it's soundling like Microsoft wants Valve to charge for their content even if Valve doesn't want to (now that sounds familiar). ...

via Xbox360Fanboy:



Microsoft has announced that it has partnered with Rock the Vote to bring several new political features to Xbox Live just in time for the last leg of the U.S. presidential race. Some of the new features include letting gamers register to vote, participate in special online forums and take part in presidential polls. The new features are set to go live starting August 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention. Xbox will also be promoting the Rock the Vote message at both the Democratic and Republican conventions while also "educating delegates about creating a safer entertainment environment on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE." Specifically, the press release is referring to the Xbox 360's "industry-leading" parental controls.

The press release also makes mention of Xbox Live's 12 million members, noting that if Xbox Live were a state, "it would rank as the country's seventh largest, giving it approximately 20 electoral votes." An impressive statement, even though Xbox Live's 12 million members aren't all located in the United States.

All of it sounds pretty neat but, frankly, we're holding out for some presidential candidate "Game with Fame" sessions, or at least some video chat town hall meetings. ...