via standard

Christmas became XXX-mas for a 14-year-old Layton boy who discovered hard-core pornography on a video game he received as a gift.

Kolton Mahoney was shocked when he put the Madden NFL 07 game in his new Xbox 360 console Christmas day and an explicit image popped up on his television screen.
"This is definitely not Madden," he said recalling his first thought after seeing the image.

Kolton turned off the Xbox and notified his parents, Linda and Tim Mahoney, who viewed the video game and were equally stunned.

"It wasn't a pretty scene," Tim Mahoney said.

The Mahoneys have been in contact with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force sponsored by the Utah Attorney General's Office, which will attempt to determine how porn ended up on the video game, Lt. Rhett McQuiston, an investigator with the agency said Friday.

"We'll get rolling on it," he said. The incident may be the first of its kind in Utah, he said. "If somebody is doing this, we want to stop it."

The task force will work with Layton police and California authorities to determine who may be responsible for placing the smut on the computer game, so charges of providing pornography to a child can be filed, McQuiston said.

"The hard part will be finding out who did it," he said. "We'll give it a shot. I would go through the roof if this happened to my kid. Whoever did this is a complete and utter coward."

Kolton received the video game from his uncle, Dan Mahoney, who purchased it Dec. 2 at a Circuit City store in Modesto, Calif. The game appears to be authentic, is embossed with a Madden NFL 07 label and came in a factory-sealed case, Linda Mahoney said.

The Madden NFL 07 game is manufactured by Electronic Arts, based in Redwood City, Calif. Officials with the company did not return numerous phone calls seeking comment.

EA has sold more than 5 million copies of Madden NFL 07, making it the most popular video game of the year, according to a news release on the company's Web site, www.ea.com.

Stephanie Nightlinger, a spokeswoman for Circuit City based in Richmond, Va., said company officials were unaware of the problem with the Mahoneys' video game until contacted Friday by the Standard-Examiner.

Nightlinger said to her knowledge the company has not received similar consumer complaints about Madden NFL 07 or other video games it sells, but will investigate the incident.

"There was some sort of slip up somewhere," she said.

The Mahoneys have contacted representatives with EA and at the Circuit City store where the game was bought, but no one is taking responsibility for the problem.

"The buck's being passed," Tim Mahoney said. "Somebody should be held accountable."

The Mahoneys aren't looking for a financial settlement, and only want a new Madden NFL 07 video game and a guarantee that no more games containing porn are sold. "We don't want anyone else exposed to it," Linda Mahoney said. ...

via Fox

A criminology professor says SWAT team raids are usually reserved for high-risk situations to prevent suspects from arming themselves or destroying evidence.

David Klinger is an associate professor at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. He was talking about the death of Peyton Strickland on December First in Wilmington.

Strickland was was shot as New Hanover County's Emergency Response Team, a SWAT equivalent, raided his house to arrest him in connection with an attack in which another teenager was struck with a blunt object and robbed of two PlayStation 3s.

Strickland was unarmed.

In the Strickland case, the team was requested by the University of North Carolina Wilmington police, who were investigating the PlayStation robbery.

They had seen an image of another of the suspects and two other men posing in pictures on the Internet with a shotgun, assault rifle and handguns. They considered that suspect likely to be armed. ...

Heres the Sony PS3 timeline for this year, and im still pissed at losing Lik Sang:


via gamespot ...

Via gamescentral

So the “next gen” format war is upon us with two sides lined up, ready to take your money for your fourth version of Full Metal Jacket (I can’t believe that you actually got it on Laser Disk…what were you thinking). If you are like most people, you are wondering a couple of things, the first being why would I want to buy another version of Full Metal Jacket, and is the $200 add on drive for the 360 worth the money, especially if I already have the PS3? More importantly, which one of the two (the PS3 or 360 HD DVD drive )looks and performs better. This article will attempt to answer these questions with background and information, as well as present evidence to why the ultimate conclusion was reached.

What is the difference between next gen and current gen?

Well, with Blu Ray and HD DVD, you get the picture that the creator intended. This is full, uncompressed motion picture glory brought to you in up to 1080p resolution with true 16x9 widescreen support. Compare this to the current gen of DVDs which offer only 480p and although they do offer widescreen support, it is not “true” in the sense that it is not output in 16x9 format. DVDs, and anything that is broadcast in 480p is actually a compressed signal that is stretched by the display that is projecting it. This causes image degradation and coupled with the fact that current generation movies are limited to, at the most, 9 GBs of space to work with, and that is the reason why artifacts (those little digital square thingys) and picture noise are so common on DVD.

Next Gen disks have much more space to work with, and will therefore (if the transfer is good) nullify any artifacts and noise as well as increase picture depth, color intensity, black level and clarity. If you have watched TV in HD and then switched to the standard feed, you will experience an exaggerated version of what I am explaining. DVDs have better quality then standard TV, but HD DVDs and Blu Rays have better quality then HD TV, so the comparison is not completely crazy.

OK, so that question is answered (I hope) and I have piqued your interest. Well, your second question (one of multiple parts) is why are their two formats, what is the difference, and which one (and player) is better? This is the “money” question, and the reason that I have written this article. You see, unlike most sane people, I have both HD DVD (in the form of the Xbox 360 add on drive) and Blu Ray (in the form of the PS3) players and I am going to try and answer all of your questions while staying completely unbiased (I am not a 360 fanboy even if my previous story on the 360 HD DVD drive was featured on a site by that name).

Why are there two formats?

Remember the debate between Beta Max (a Sony format) and VHS? Well if you don’t, those were the two formats that battled it out to be the first home video, with VHS being the ultimate winner (there are still plenty of bad jokes made at the expense of poor Beta Max). The funny thing is that when Beta Max was introduced, it was highly touted as a superior format sporting better quality, and although this was true, it was ultimately the arrogance of Sony that caused its demise. Sony has been behind a few of these proprietary blunders (MiniDisc, UMD), always attempting to push new formats on consumers that must be played on Sony players, and the comparisons in this generation are warranted.

With Toshiba being the leader of the HD DVD camp, and having numerous other companies supporting their format, HD DVD has already been called the winner. This may be a little presumptuous as Blu Ray has many backers as well. The real issue is not that there are two formats, but rather that not all studios are supporting both formats. The war was almost avoided, but the two sides were unable to come to an agreement and the confusion to the consumer began. The war may be pointless, however, as there are reports of players capable of playing both formats being released in the not to distance future, so there may be never be no clear winner.

So what is the difference between the two formats?

This is a question that I have attempted to answer in my previous two write ups of the individual players, so this may be a bit of a rehash. I find that the best way to show not only what each drive is capable of, but to also showcase their differences is with the following chart.

More at the link above ...

Via gamescentral

So the “next gen” format war is upon us with two sides lined up, ready to take your money for your fourth version of Full Metal Jacket (I can’t believe that you actually got it on Laser Disk…what were you thinking). If you are like most people, you are wondering a couple of things, the first being why would I want to buy another version of Full Metal Jacket, and is the $200 add on drive for the 360 worth the money, especially if I already have the PS3? More importantly, which one of the two (the PS3 or 360 HD DVD drive )looks and performs better. This article will attempt to answer these questions with background and information, as well as present evidence to why the ultimate conclusion was reached.

What is the difference between next gen and current gen?

Well, with Blu Ray and HD DVD, you get the picture that the creator intended. This is full, uncompressed motion picture glory brought to you in up to 1080p resolution with true 16x9 widescreen support. Compare this to the current gen of DVDs which offer only 480p and although they do offer widescreen support, it is not “true” in the sense that it is not output in 16x9 format. DVDs, and anything that is broadcast in 480p is actually a compressed signal that is stretched by the display that is projecting it. This causes image degradation and coupled with the fact that current generation movies are limited to, at the most, 9 GBs of space to work with, and that is the reason why artifacts (those little digital square thingys) and picture noise are so common on DVD.

Next Gen disks have much more space to work with, and will therefore (if the transfer is good) nullify any artifacts and noise as well as increase picture depth, color intensity, black level and clarity. If you have watched TV in HD and then switched to the standard feed, you will experience an exaggerated version of what I am explaining. DVDs have better quality then standard TV, but HD DVDs and Blu Rays have better quality then HD TV, so the comparison is not completely crazy.

OK, so that question is answered (I hope) and I have piqued your interest. Well, your second question (one of multiple parts) is why are their two formats, what is the difference, and which one (and player) is better? This is the “money” question, and the reason that I have written this article. You see, unlike most sane people, I have both HD DVD (in the form of the Xbox 360 add on drive) and Blu Ray (in the form of the PS3) players and I am going to try and answer all of your questions while staying completely unbiased (I am not a 360 fanboy even if my previous story on the 360 HD DVD drive was featured on a site by that name).

Why are there two formats?

Remember the debate between Beta Max (a Sony format) and VHS? Well if you don’t, those were the two formats that battled it out to be the first home video, with VHS being the ultimate winner (there are still plenty of bad jokes made at the expense of poor Beta Max). The funny thing is that when Beta Max was introduced, it was highly touted as a superior format sporting better quality, and although this was true, it was ultimately the arrogance of Sony that caused its demise. Sony has been behind a few of these proprietary blunders (MiniDisc, UMD), always attempting to push new formats on consumers that must be played on Sony players, and the comparisons in this generation are warranted.

With Toshiba being the leader of the HD DVD camp, and having numerous other companies supporting their format, HD DVD has already been called the winner. This may be a little presumptuous as Blu Ray has many backers as well. The real issue is not that there are two formats, but rather that not all studios are supporting both formats. The war was almost avoided, but the two sides were unable to come to an agreement and the confusion to the consumer began. The war may be pointless, however, as there are reports of players capable of playing both formats being released in the not to distance future, so there may be never be no clear winner.

So what is the difference between the two formats?

This is a question that I have attempted to answer in my previous two write ups of the individual players, so this may be a bit of a rehash. I find that the best way to show not only what each drive is capable of, but to also showcase their differences is with the following chart.

More at the link above ...

via joystiq

Xbox Live's Major Nelson posted some interesting year-end numbers, including this ranking of 2006's top Xbox Live Arcade titles ranked in order of sales:

1 UNO
2 Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
3 Geometry Wars Evolved
4 Marble Blast Ultra
5 PAC-MAN
6 DOOM
7 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
8 GALAGA
9 Gauntlet
10 Frogger
11 Bankshot Billiards 2
12 SmashTV
13 Contra
14 Zuma
15 Texas Hold 'em
16 Bejeweled 2
17 Feeding Frenzy
18 Small Arms
19 Cloning Clyde
20 LUMINES LIVE!

A few comments:

1. Who the heck is purchasing Gauntlet? That game is broken! (Hitting "Y" on the controller is the same as inserting a quarter into the original arcade game, but it can be hit an unlimited number of times, making it equivalent to an "invincibility" button.) Gauntlet's place on this list demonstrates the power of nostalgia over gameplay when it comes to arcade titles. We suspect that Nintendo's virtual console is benefiting from the same misguided gamer nostalgia. Some old games just don't hold up.

2. Most (all?) annual Xbox Live Gold subscriptions sold in the retail box (the one with the cheapo headset) included a free game code to redeem Bankshot Billiards 2, making that $15 game's rank on this list suspect.

3. Feeding Frenzy would be higher on this list if there were a reason to pay for it. It feels like the demo mode lasts forever. It's quite satisfying to play without ever purchasing it.

4. Street Fighter II would have been number one on this list if a solid arcade joystiq had been released simultaneously with the game. First- and third-party peripheral manufacturers really blew an opportunity there. ...

via engadget

You're fairly aware by now of how Team Xtender's XFPS was all set to shake up the FPS realm on the Xbox 360 by giving gamers the ability to use the undisputed king of controls (that'd be the keyboard / mouse tandem) -- or Sony's widely adored Dual Shock controller -- instead of Microsoft's own rendition, but according to Xbox360Fanboy's review, it's not quite the post-Christmas miracle we were all hoping for. While expectations were admittedly set rather high, it seems the unit simply underperforms where it mattered most, and excelled in a somewhat less important department. Using Gears of War, Halo 2, and Rainbow Six 3: Vegas Demo as tests, reviewers found the keyboard / mouse setup to be a breeze, but actual in-game results were not only poor, but relatively unacceptable. If the "slight button delays" weren't enough to turn your nose up, the simply inability for a keyboard to emulate the "analog support of the Xbox 360 controller" made critical run / crouch movements next to impossible to pull off, and the mouse aiming was purportedly dreadful as well. It was stated, however, that it worked perfectly with a Dual Shock (PS1 or PS2 flavor) controller, so folks digging the Sony design but unable to locate (or afford) a PS3 should take note. Overall, the XFPS reportedly fails fairly miserably at giving Xbox 360 owners the chance to use their keyboard / mouse combo to shoot it up on a console, and just seems relatively expensive for a simple Dual Shock-to-Xbox 360 liaison, so unless you just have to learn things the hard way, we'd suggest holding off. ...

So what's in the latest episode of PSP hacking 101? They discuss which particular PSP's are good to buy, give a run-through of which firmwares can run homebrew, show how to install and Run Devhook 0.52, inform you folks how to install 3.02 OE-B, and how to to subscribe to Audio and Video Podcasts with the RSS Reader. You can watch the video HERE ...

I've made the card game Skip-Bo using DSLua. To move a card, tap it then tap the spot where you want to put it. The only main difference between this and the actual game is that you only get one card for each discard pile, so if you try to put a card on top of another card in your discard pile the other card will be erased first.

There's more information in readme.txt (which you'll need)

DSLua 0.6 doesn't work in emulators so I can only give a titlescreen screenshot.

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