via IGN


Development studio High Voltage Software yesterday announced a release time frame for its forthcoming Wii first-person shooter, The Conduit. The game is set for a "Q1 2009" debut, according to the company.

High Voltage says it is, "... fusing fast and fluid gameplay with an advanced set of visuals intended to squarely establish the Wii as a true next-generation gaming platform." To that end, the title uses dynamic environment mapping, interactive water with real-time reflection and four-stage texture composition, including gloss, diffuse and bump-mapping.

Meanwhile, the developer confirmed that The Conduit will feature a, "... competitive online multiplayer component," but did not yet offer specifics.

"Too many Wii owners have been told that the Wii is a casual platform with no room for serious games or top-tier graphics," said Eric Nofsinger, chief creative officer at High Voltage Software. "With The Conduit, we intend to prove that theory wrong by providing gamers with the kind of title they imagined back when the platform was first announced."

"The Wii has tremendous potential," said Kerry J. Ganofsky, CEO and founder of High Voltage Software. "We've invested heavily in our technology to make certain that potential is realized with The Conduit."

"Conduit was especially designed for the Nintendo Wii," stated Matt Corso, creative director at High Voltage Software. "From the weapons to armory and graphics, we tailored everything to the Wii which sets this game play apart from anything else on the market right now."

Although publisher interest in The Conduit "has been overwhelming," according to High Voltage, the studio plans to continue evaluating its options in a search for the best possible partner. ...

So the long-awaited Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 is out TODAY on Xbox Live. The game is a lot of old-school run+gun fun.

That much is simple, but unfortunately there’s also a bit of confusion swirling around the details about the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Beta (that you get free!). Let me try and clear this up.

To play the SSF2T HD Remix Beta, here’s what you do:

1) Buy Commando 3 on XBL. Play it, love it.

2) In the Commando 3 menu, you’ll notice an option for “Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Beta” (insert long name joke here). If you hit that option, you’ll get an error. Why is this? Because the SSF2T HD Remix Beta isn’t live until June 25th.

3) If you hit the Beta menu option on or after June 25th, 2008, you’ll be taken to an XBL blade
offering to let you download the new SSF2T HD Remix Beta.

4) Download the Beta, and then you can find it your “Games Library” under “Demos.”

5) Start it up and commence dragon-punchery.

And also, just to be clear, the SSF2T HD Remix Beta does not come with Commando 3 on PSN. Unfortunately the Beta is only available with Commando 3 on XBox Live, although the network improvements that we make post-Beta will improve the final, full product on XBL and PSN alike.




Source: http://blog.capcom.com/archives/1291


Baboon's bit: I've just bought this game and its pretty cool. To be honest though I only wanted it for the SF2 beta... and I'm gutted you can't play that till the end of the month! ...

via Computer and Video Games


The mystery behind the Xbox 360's infamous 'Red Ring of Death' problem, which has been bricking consoles left, right and centre since it launched in 2005, has finally been unravelled.

Speaking at the Design Automation Conference in California, Bryan Lewis, research VP and chief analyst at Gartner, said that the reason Microsoft was forced to admit 360's hardware fault and conduct a $1 billion recall was because it wanted to manufacture the 360's graphic chip itself, rather than paying a third party.

"Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor," said Lewis. Microsoft designed the GPU itself, cut a traditional ASIC vendor out of the process and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, he explained.

But in the end, by going cheap MS ended up paying more than $1 billion in its 360 recall.

To try and fix the problem, said Lewis, the platform holder went back to an unnamed ASIC vendor and redesigned the chip. According to him, it was probably ATI.

"Had Microsoft left the graphics processor design to an ASIC vendor in the first place, would they have been able to avoid this problem? Probably. The ASIC vendor could have been able to design a graphics processor that dissipates much less power."

We're sure it won't make the same mistake twice... ...

via Kotaku




Midway just dropped seven new screens for the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament III. The 360 version, if you don't recall, will include five new levels, two new characters, a splitscreen mode and all of the previously released downloadable content.


Screenshots here ...

via Eurogamer


Insomniac Games has said that while Resistance 2 will have Trophy and PlayStation Home support, the features won't be added retrospectively for Resistance: Fall of Man.

Last week, during our live interview with Insomniac, CEO Ted Price was asked whether Trophy and Home support would be available for both Resistance games.

"We didn't notice the R1 in there, and while we are planning on the support for R2, we have no plans to update Resistance FOM [in this manner]," Insomniac told Eurogamer today.

Resistance 2 follows the continuing heroics of Nathan Hale in the face of the growing Chimeran threat, and features two campaigns - a regular single-player game of comparable length to the original first-person shooter release, and a separate eight-player co-operative mode. There will also be online multiplayer with support for up to 60 players.

The full game's due out in Europe this November. ...

via IGN


KOEI, recognized worldwide as the premier brand of strategy and action games, today announced that Fatal Inertia EX has reached gold status and will be available on June 19, 2008 exclusively on PlayStation Network, and only for PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. A free demo of Fatal Inertia EX which includes an online multiplayer mode will also be available on the same day. ...

via Games Industry


Despite the fact that Nintendo is a rival in the console war, Microsoft respects the company's DS handheld and plans to take advantage of the system's audience.

"They see DS as a very viable platform," Joe Humfrey an engineer for UK development studio Rare, told our sister site Eurogamer during a visit to play the upcoming Viva Piñata DS game.

Since acquiring Rare in 2002, Microsoft has allowed the studio to maintain a handheld development team working on GBA and DS titles although it has not published any of them itself. Rare has even made one game directly for Nintendo during that time - last year's Diddy Kong Racing DS.

In the case of the THQ-published Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, Humfrey pointed out that it's in the software giant's own interest to have the game appear on the Nintendo machine.

"They put the Viva Piñata franchise on TV to reach a broad audience, they put it on PC to reach a different broad audience, and they're doing the same thing with the DS," he said. "They're trying to widen the audience of the franchise, basically."

Lead designer Gary Richards explained that this wouldn't be at the expense of dumbing down the game, however. "We wanted to tie it in with the TV series more, we thought that would be enough to get the younger audience into it. But we didn't want to lose any of the depth that Piñata had," he said.

The developers explained that their main headaches in bringing the 360 and PC game to the dual-screen portable was simply squeezing the amount of content - animations particularly - onto the cart, but the DS surprised them with its technical capacity.

"We were split into two camps, those who thought we could do it, and those who thought we couldn't do it," Humfrey said.

"But I don't think we ever got to the point where we had to start taking stuff out of the game," added Richards. "And the interface was never going to be an issue," he added, alluding to the ease of use of the DS' touch-screen controls. ...

New version of the sound plugin for PCSX2 (a PlayStation 2 emulator for PC).

Changelog:



Download and give feedback via comments ...

Distracted while MemorizeME was showing the combination?
No problem! Sacrifice one try and it will repeat the sequence!

Download HERE

Changelog:

• Repeat button added
• Last song changed
• When pressing the repeat button, he takes all points from current combination and starts over.
• High score gets reset too

To newsposters:
If you want my game in your website, direct link it! If you want to mirror it, please email me at madcat1990(at)gmail(dot)com! ...