Texas developer Edge of Reality, best known for producing movie tie-ins such as Shark Tale and Over the Hedge, has announced that it is developing a new IP for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Titled Cipher Complex, the self-funded project is billed as "an intense, cinematic military combat game." It follows the adventures of US Government operative John Cipher, who must go behind enemy lines to discover why a recon satellite has been mysteriously blasted from orbit.

"The evolution of action games has seemed to plateau, perhaps because of the emphasis on sequels,” said EoR president Binu Philip.

"We are exploring and developing brand new styles of gameplay and methods of storytelling. The concept and mechanics of Cipher Complex have been incubating in our mind for years, and with power of the next-gen consoles, we can finally make our dream project a reality."

Cipher Complex is slated for a 2007 release.

Via GIbiz ...

John Porcaro, group manager of PR and communications for Microsoft US, has reacted to persistent rumours by reiterating that the company has no current plans to cut the price of the Xbox 360.

In a post on his blog, Porcaro wrote: "As you’re all aware, there have been rumors of a price drop for the Xbox 360 coming along later this year. The official word from folks in the know is that there are currently no plans for a price drop this fall."

"If you’ve been holding off picking one up because you think they’ll be cheaper in the future, or they’ve been hard to find, or because you’re too busy catching up on past episodes of Lost, wait no longer," he added, before highlighting the Xbox 360's features and the range of games available for the console.

Porcaro also took a potshot at the PlayStation 3, which is due to launch in the US on November 17th priced at US$499 / US$599. "Just think… This holiday as some people go broke because they’re forced to buy movie technology with their game console, you’ll be choosing from 160 games, including Gears of War, Madden 07, Splinter Cell, Forza 2, and lots more."

Not forgetting Mass Effect, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto "later on", Porcaro added.

His comments echo those made to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year by Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis, who said that the PS3's price point "forces the consumer down a choice path in a way that I'm surprised to see."

He said Sony's decision had removed any pressure on Microsoft to cut the cost of the Xbox 360 by year-end, stating: "We're confident that we are at the right price at the right time and will remain so."

Via GIbiz ...

News Via Gamesindustry

England may still be clinging to the hope of a World Cup win, but the dream is over for EA this week as Rockstar moves back into Liberty City and climbs straight to the top of the charts.

Jumping from way down the list at number 37 to claim the top spot, the PS2 launch of GTA: Liberty City Stories has rocketed sales, pushing FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 into second place.

The third spot is claimed by Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training on DS, which climbs a single place and marks the highest of eight DS exclusive titles in the top 40 - the bulk of which are re-entries as a result of hardware bundling at retail to support Nintendo's latest handheld launch.

In fourth place, Konami's Pro Evolution soccer is the only football title to show an increase in sales, gaining 15 per cent on last week's figures and stepping up a single position from last week's number five.

Eidos is sticking to the top end of the charts with Hitman: Blood Money and Tomb Raider: Legend, both of which slide three places to rest in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Nintendo proves that a puppy is not just for Christmas as Nintendogs: Dalmatian and Friends enjoys a five place climb from 12 to seven, Midway's epic Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War taking the top spot in the PC charts and securing eighth place in the all-formats chart - up from last week's number fourteen.

Sensible Soccer concedes three places and drops into ninth position and another DS title clings to the bottom of the top ten, despite a 30 per cent rise in sales for Animal Crossing: Wild World.

Notable new entries this week include Activision's latest animated movie tie-in Over The Hedge, which almost made it to the top ten but nestled instead at number 12, followed by Koei's Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires.

The DS Lite launch has clearly had an impact on general software sales, chart re-entries coming thick and fast for Metroid Prime: Hunters at 16, Mario Kart DS at 27, Tetris DS at 29, Sonic Rush at 33 and Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll at number 40.

As sales of the latest hardware unit continue, there's likely to be a further reappearance of some of the more innovative multi-format releases and several DS exclusives in the coming weeks.

New releases this week include the triumphant return of everybody's favourite miniature racers, as Codemasters launches Micro Machines V4 on PC, PS2 and PSP, THQ releases PC title Titan Quest and SEGA sets more primates free with Super Monkey Ball Adventure on PS2 and PSP.

If we were placing bets on chart success however, our money would be riding on the resounding success of hugely anticipated DS title, New Super Mario Bros. ...

Xbox Live Arcade boss Greg Canessa has reaffirmed Microsoft's commitment to promoting online distribution as games get more expensive to produce and traditional genres begin to disappear.

Speaking at the Hollywood and Games Summit, Canessa said that Microsoft's executives "are big believes in online distribution", highlighting the success of Xbox Live Arcade.

According to Canessa, XBL was at least in part developed because "Games are getting more expensive to produce... And the great game genres are disappearing."

With Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft hopes to create a brand new market for games, covering all genres - there are already 21 titles available via the service, and nearly 400 developers and publishers have signed up to produce games. Canessa described XBLA as "The Sundance Film Festival of Games."

Xbox Live Arcade, which launched alongside the Xbox 360 last year, allows consumers to download and play games such as Uno and Zuma at low cost. Bizarre Creations' Geometry Wars has proved to be one of the most popular titles - by January, more than 200,000 trial downloads and 45,000 purchases had been recorded. Canessa did not reveal what the download figure stands at now, but did say: "It's well into the six figures."

Canessa then turned to the subject of episodic content, which Microsoft plans to release for games such as Grand Theft Auto IV. According to Canessa, episodic content is the "natural evolution of digital distribution."

Microsoft has repeatedly confirmed its commitment to the digital distribution model, and the success of Xbox Live Marketplace appears to have strengthened that commitment. However, it's also clear that the company still believes in the importance of traditional retail channels - it's rumoured that a compendium of Live Arcade games, aimed at consumers who don't have online access, is currently being put together for a retail release.

Via Gamesindustry ...

Reesy has updated probably the best Genesis emu on any console, heres whats new:

Rom browser updated, you can now change directory and setup your default rom directories for MD, SMS and GG roms.

6 button support added

GG support added

GG and SMS full screen modes added

Fixed bug in TV-out, now works perfectly

Fixed bug in MD rendering that was causing some games to crash that used to work on previous versions of DrMD.

Re-wrote save state code which has broken backward compatiblity with beta 2. I'm not going to fix this because basically I have no idea what has changed. The re-write means that save states should never be broken again though.

Download and Give Feedback Via the Comments ...

Hardwin Spenkelink a.k.a. aapje89 posted this:

Now everyone can run old dos games using dosbox, no more difficult configuring of config files!

Make sure to read the readme.

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Jorge posted this :

This is the program I use to encode videos so that I can watch them on the GP2X. This program can't be easier to use: it has got 3 quality presets (tested, of course), and the UI comes in both Spanish and English. Generated videos work with firmwares 1.4 and 2.0, although they hang when in "save mode" (I'm starting to think that this is just a problem of mine). A longer description of this program and its installation process is included in the README file.

This is not the invention of the century, just give it a try and tell me if you found it useful

Download Here --> http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfile...,0,0,0,17,1621 ...

Optimus posted this news:


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Another Dev Release, heres the full info:


Download Here --> http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfile...,0,0,0,37,1617 ...