via Engadget


It's a sorry state of affairs when a media player like the Zune HD has more polygon-pushing power than the latest handheld videogame consoles on the market. If rumors are to be believed, Nintendo and Sony will set things straight with their next-generation portables -- at least for a little while.

We've already heard that the successor to Nintendo's DS will have Tegra power, but the current speculation is that it'll be a Tegra 2 chip, promising twice the power of the current iteration.

On the Sony side the PSP2 is apparently shaping up to use an offspring of the IMG PowerVR graphics found on the iPhone, said to be theoretically superior to what the DS2 will be able to achieve but costing more, being more difficult to develop for, and not shipping until sometime in 2011 -- potentially a year later than the DS2.

In other words it's standard operating procedure if these rumors are to be believed, but even if there aren't any surprises in this showdown we'll be there in the front row with popcorn to watch the bloodshed. ...

While rumours swirl that Grand Theft Auto V is already in development and Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick cries if anyone mentions it, a new interview with Rockstar's Dan Houser suggests it's still a way off.

"We'll think of a city first, then the characters," Houser told The Times in an interview published on Friday (thanks Kotaku).

The author of the article says that the script will be 1000 pages, but it's not clear whether Houser himself said that.

There's also a bit more in there about the anonymous man behind the games, who founded Rockstar with his older brother Sam. For instance, The Times pointed out that some people reckon the keeping-quiet thing is about cultivating an image.

"I've read that about myself, but it's a myth. I often speak to people like yourself," Houser replied. (You never speak to us, Dan. Sniff.) "But me, Sam and Leslie [Benzies, producer] are very aware of the fact that we as a triumvirate do not make the games; 200, 300, 700 people make the games. It's easy for people to focus on individuals because that's an easier story to tell, but it's not relevant to what we do."

"We've got, you know, 100 plus people, at least 80 per cent of whom are far more intelligent than me, and to start saying it's me or Sam or the pair of us because we're such crazy brothers just seems stupid. And it's not fair or appropriate," he added.

Houser's most recent work is showcased in Episodes From Liberty City for Xbox 360, which consists of The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ho...ot-so-concrete ...

via Computer and Video Games


In arguably today's most unusual story, federal officers have reportedly admitted to using PS3 consoles to crack the passwords of tech-savvy child pornographers, who are encrypting all their dodgy content.

Although US special agents have the power to seize and search computers, it's against the Fourth Amendment for them to force suspects to give up their passwords. So they turn to the PS3's almighty processing power, where they can use its chip to literally fly through millions of password permutations in a second.

The result is a surprisingly quick(ish) game of trial and error - considering there are some 282-trillion permutations for a six-digit password!

Of course, the other advantage of the PS3 over other next-gen console is that users can install the Linux operating system to aid them with their task. At least they could on the older systems...

"The newer PS3s have been restricted, locked down, so you can't put Linux on them," revealed Neil Condon of Public Affairs to Axcess News.

So what do the Feds do? They turn to eBay to stock up on older machines. (Minus game controllers and copies of Modern Warfare 2, LittleBigPlanet and SingStar Take That, of course)... ...

via Computer and Video Games


Square Enix has released a batch of new Final Fantasy XIII screenshots. Here you are.

The long-awaited RPG has finally been dated for March 9, 2010 in Europe and North America, on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The Japanese get it next month though, the lucky gits.

See the screenshots at CVG right here ...

via Eurogamer


Konami has announced the arrival of Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation Store this Thursday, 19th November.

It was this PSone game that took the series 3D and established Hideo Kojima's creations as some of the best in the world. Metal Gear Solid will cost £7.99.

Following Metal Gear Solid will be MGS: Portable Ops, MGS: Portable: Ops+ and MGS: Digital Graphic Novel.

The idea is for Konami to build some serious Metal Gear Solid momentum ahead of MGS: Peace Walker's release sometime next year.

That PSP game, remember, is being overseen by Hideo Kojima himself, and has, among other things, four-player co-op. ...

You may recall much ado over some questionable footage in the latest Call of Duty game. Well, that footage has led to a recall of Modern Warfare 2 in Russia. Seems the Russian government was none too happy about the portrayal of Russia in the game and decided to yank it from stores. Infinity Ward has responded with a patch that removes the "No Russian" mission (the content in question) from the storyline. Before you overly criticize the Russian government, there may be some truth to the claim that the game's story line overly demonizes Russians as just terrorists as the Russian site GotPS3.ru alleges. Is cultural sensitivity becoming an overly played card in the gaming world? Not too long ago, Wolfenstein was recalled in Germany for containing Nazi symbols

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/...dern-Warfare-2 ...

Labour MP Keith Vaz has declared in a radio interview that when it comes to ensuring children can't gain access to adult-rated videogames, there is a huge responsibility on the part of parents - and he then went on to admit that he doesn't actually know which games his own 14 year old son plays at home.

Speaking on SubCity's Debate is Free programme yesterday, he also restated his belief that videogame boxes should have cigarette-style warnings about health concerns "splashed across the front".

"Parents have a huge responsibility, and it is extremely important that we should be in a position where we are telling parents about their responsibilities," he said. "I think it is very important.

"It's part and parcel of a partnership, isn't it? You have government, manufacturers, retailers and parents - all four have to do their bit. I have a son who is 14 years of age - I don't know what games he looks at, but I shall ensure that in future I will look at the covers, to make sure that these games are not over the age of 18.

"I think that's what parents are to do - constant vigilance."

When questioned specifically about the fact that packaging already contains rating certificates, as with films, he argued that there were checks in place to prevent children from seeing adult films.

"The difference between films and videogames is that if you go to the cinema and you're under a certain age, you're not let in," he said. "With a videogame, the evidence we have is that people are let in - so something really does need to be done.

"If you look to the packaging of an 18-rated videogame, it's [the size of] a tiny 10p coin. What it should be is the same as cigarettes - it should be splashed across the front: 'This has the potential to damage your health' - and that is not happening."

The debate was taking place as part of a look at the controversy surrounding Activision's Modern Warfare 2, which was released in the UK last Tuesday and broke day one and week one sales records. TIGA CEO Richard Wilson also appeared on the programme, and made the case for a videogames tax relief.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...responsibility ...

Around 42 per cent of adults in the US are planning to give, or hoping to receive, a videogame as a present this Holiday, according to the results of a survey conducted by KRC Research and commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association.

That number is up 9 points in the past five years, while 52 per cent of the 1001 respondents polled between November 4 and 8 this year agreed that videogames represented good value in a tight economy.

"Computer and videogames are topping holiday lists because they provide a superior entertainment value for the whole family," said Michael D Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA. "With 68 per cent of American households playing computer and video games, US consumers value the creative and innovative products the entertainment software industry produces and are seeking them out for themselves and to give as gifts."

Additionally the survey found that of those polled, 54 per cent planned to play a game with a friend or family member, while the percentage of females likely to receive games as gifts was up 31 points over two years, to 47 per cent.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ent-wish-lists ...

Eurogamer's Digital Foundry tech blog has released an article looking in-depth at the options surrounding new handheld hardware for Sony, Nintendo and Apple, and notes the possibility that with Apple already on an annual release schedule, Nintendo could be set to release new hardware next year as well.

"While the combination of crippling losses, the general economic crisis and the advent of motion control are enough to stall the release of true next-generation consoles, there's strong evidence to suggest 2010 won't be the hardware drought we thought it might be," writes Richard Leadbetter. "Both Sony and Nintendo are deep in development on a new wave of handheld devices that look set to deliver a substantial amount of gaming power in a pocket-sized form factor."

He went on to look at detail at the new hardware set to power the forthcoming Sony and Nintendo products - neither of which have yet been officially acknowledged by the respective companies - could include, starting with the NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset in a possible new DS console.

"Let's just say that it is a significant improvement, and a colossal jump in performance compared to the current DS," he explains, going on to detail various attributes the chipset will include. "Our sources can only speculate at this point, but suspect anything up to 300MHz is possible, depending on just how much the platform holders want to concentrate on battery power. The faster the chip, the more impact it has on battery life... NVIDIA is on the record as saying that Tegra 2 offers four times the power of its predecessor.

Meanwhile, his analysis of the technology behind Sony's much-rumoured PSP2 reveals lots of raw power for developers to play with.

"From what we've learned about the in-development PSP2, the device is going to be a technological monster," he writes. "Insiders in the mobile space are fully aware that a deal has been struck between Sony and IMG (creators of the PowerVR derivatives found in the iPhone) and, as previously reported by Eurogamer, a multi-core variant of the forthcoming SGX543 looks set to the GPU of choice for the new machine.

"A four-core version of the chip appears to be most likely, and while this sounds like overkill, at 45nm you'd be looking at die of around 20 square millimetres based on measurement derived from IMG's own whitepaper. That's significantly lower than the silicon used by the current-generation PSP's graphics unit, which should give some inkling of an idea on costs and power consumption.

"So how do the potential PSP2 and DS2 architectures match up? The performance difference is potentially astonishing," he continues, before noting of the PSP2 technology that "you really have to sit down and take a deep breath before reading the next bit: we're talking about a GPU with the potential to be a halfway house between the raw power of the original Xbox's graphics chip and the Xenos GPU found in the Xbox 360, without factoring in all the advantages of running on a much lower resolution screen.

"Could the PSPgo really be a stop-gap unit designed to extend the PSP lifespan until its successor is ready to launch?" he concludes. "It's a possibility, though we suspect Sony would want to launch in the same window as its competition. A 2010 release for the new Nintendo handheld is conceivably no problem - the design of the chipset would've been complete last year and NVIDIA will be in full production of Tegra 2 in a matter of months.

"Up against an annually evolving platform in the form of Apple's iPhone, it will be interesting to see how the next generation of fixed platforms compete. While the prospective chipsets for the new Nintendo and Sony consoles look positively mouth-watering, the success of the DS and iPhone in particular emphasise that superb graphical prowess counts for little in the hearts and minds of today's gamers."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...or-2010-rumour ...