Via Joystiq

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Via Joystiq

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News via Kotaku

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This will probably be obvious, but with nothing to actually launch in Europe this Christmas, Sony has dropped an axe on the meaty neck of its Europe and UK advertising campaign.

The campaign was set to cost about 50 million pounds across Europe and Australia, and was hailed as the most important advertisement campaign since, well, the launch of the PS2. What did Sony have in store for us? Well...

The first two - called "Real-time" and "Blu-ray" - feature a boxer and an avid collector respectively.
In the boxing ad, the short film dramatises the power the PS3 has to learn and counter a player's moves.

The film featuring the collector aims to illustrate Blu-ray technology's capability for storing information.

Other films include a children's craze called "speed stacking" to show the processing speed of the PS3; BMX trick riders to demonstrate how to play using body movement; and a behind-the-scenes look at King Kong and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson's special effects studios to underline the console's cinema-level production quality.

In other words, 50 million pounds worth of bullshit. ...

According to Sony, the official US PlayStation 3 site's caveat that the HDMI connection is required for 1080p signals in Blu-ray movies is fallout from uncertainty over the Image Constraint Token - a next-generation anti-piracy measure.
Sony has made an issue of pointing out that 1080p, which the Xbox 360 is incapable of, is the Holy Grail of "full HD". As it stands now, the only game that is running in 1080p, said Fargher, is Gran Turismo HD - a tech demo crafted by Polyphony to showcase what the system is capable of.

This is in line with our earlier report, where a development source told Kikizo that, "even with [final hardware] in mind, reaching good frame rates at 1080p with next-gen graphics is almost impossible. Instead many developers, ourselves included, are reworking so they run at 720p. "

In other words, movies will play at 1080p. Games won't, and maybe never will. Not that this is really new, but it's always distressing to have the obvious reiterated officially. ...

Burnout 5's speedsters will atomise stupendously during crashes, with more than six times as many breakable pieces in each car compared to Burnout Revenge. This will mean you can tear your car in half, rip the roof off or achieve other satisfying shunt stunts. And all of this carnage is down to one thing: Star Wars.

Well, not quite. But developer Criterion takes its inspiration from everywhere, and director of game design Alex Ward only wants fun from his physics: "Real physics don't make for great gameplay all of the time. If we want to blow the car up, we'll blow the car up. Like when they blew up the Death Star - there's no fire in space." In other words, expect ridiculously entertaining levels of explosions when Burnout 5 launches on Xbox 360 and PS3 next year. ...

In the wake of the news that Sony won't be launching PS3 in Europe until March 2007, we were keen to find out what Microsoft's official response - not just the obvious unofficial whooping, cheering and high-fiving - to the bombshell would be. And this is what Neil Thompson, Microsoft's UK director of Home and Entertainment Division, told us:

"We know how challenging it is to pull off a global launch, so it's not surprising that Sony has backed away from its previously announced launch plan due to the unproven technology it is trying to pack in to its console.

"Europe remains a priority for us and that is why gamers have been able to experience Xbox 360 from day one and why we're confident that we're going to have a great Christmas, regardless of what competitors are or are not in the market. Xbox 360 will have over 160 high-definition games including Viva Pinata from Rare, Gears of War from Epic, Pro Evolution Soccer 6 from Konami and FIFA 2007 from EA, a growing and innovating online gaming service, fantastic entertainment capabilities, optional HD-DVD capability and a great-value price.

"These factors will help us reach our goal of 10 million consoles sold worldwide by the end of the year."

So, while diplomatically sympathetic, Microsoft is keen to reinforce the fact that it is delivering the next-gen era in Europe right now, while Sony is still some way from the starting blocks.

Of course, with nearly 40 million PS2s shipped in Europe to date, Microsoft - and the rest of us - knows better than to underestimate the power of PlayStation. We'll just have to see what happens in Christmas 2007... ...

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News from Lik Sang

Over in Japan the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) has always been a fascinating subject for films and stories, providing a dark atmosphere but with an interesting sense of honor, respect, and loyalty. Last year however for the first time Sega let people experience that seedy underworld for themselves with a free roaming PS2 action adventure title. Costing a massive US$ 21 million to produce, it was right up there with the most expensive titles ever made, but it also scored a whopping 37 / 40 from Famitsu, a sequel is already due for release this Christmas in Japan, and a feature length Japanese movie based on the game is in the works too. We're looking at it this week though because the US port is arriving and it boasts an impressive voice talent of Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Sin City, Kill Bill), Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor in Smallville), Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bring It On), Rachel Leigh Cook (She's All That, and the voice of Tifa in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children) and Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Wing Commander, Batman: New Times).

The storyline was penned by an award winning Japanese novelist, Seishu Hase, and stars Kazuma Kiryu, previously a rough member of the Yakuza who has been locked up for a decade after taking the blame for a friends mistake. Now not a moment after getting out he's was back in the world of dank allies, dive bars and dodgy strip clubs, but the rules of the game have changed however. That's where you and complex story including over a dozen intricately detailed chapters begins. The designers went to great lengths to authentically re-create the city streets and illicit haunts of Tokyo's nightlife district, and the graphics are some of the best seen on the PS2. As you get into street brawls the fighting engine lets you string together attack combos to take out multiple enemies or grab and use in-game objects as weapons. Your strength, stamina, and skills can be upgraded, and a heat gauge is powered up by pulling off perfect combos. You can also accumulate weapons and items, engage in numerous side missions, interrogate and bribe informants, gamble, and even stop in one of the many shops or hit baseballs in a batting cage if that takes your fancy. Those after a deep adventure set in a world unseen in videogames to date should pick up the US release of Yakuza today. ...