News via Runtime

There is a new ‘Automatic’ installation option that will run T360 in the task notification area (system tray); this makes configuration super-easy and mitigates the network permissions issues some users encountered.

Both 2 and 6 channel (5.1) AC3 is supported and the AV sync issue affecting NTSC content has been fixed. Note that due to reliability issues Forward/Backward Skip are disabled while streaming AC3 soundtracks.

In addition to regular playback of XviD and DivX, Transcode 360 supports DVD ISO and VIDEO_TS folder streaming with subtitles; determining the best combination of soundtrack/subtitles appropriate to you based on your locale. ...

Via IGN:

IGN: What is it like to program and design the game for Xbox 360 versus the PlayStation 3? We're not looking to start a blood war here. We're more interested in what it's like to program for each, and what each one's strengths and weaknesses seem to be? Also, how do you foresee the two versions differing in the final product visually, gameplay-wise, sound wise?

Magnus Högdahl: The PS3 will have a content size advantage with blu-ray and a CPU advantage for titles that are able to utilize a lot of the SPUs. The Xbox360 has a slight GPU advantage and its general purpose triple-core CPU is relatively easy to utilize compared to SPUs. I expect that it will be near impossible to tell Xbox360 and PS3 screenshots apart. ...

Press Release from Datel:

With its comfortable, over-the-ear design and snazzy hi-tech look, Communicator Headset for XB360 is the ideal companion for Xbox L!ve. Communicator Headset works with any Xbox 360 game with voice chat. With a microphone positioned near your mouth and an earpiece for crystal-clear sound, you can bark out your orders or taunt your opponents as you play.

Xbox L!ve’s online gamers’ community is a great way to make new friends and keep in touch with your old ones. You can talk to anyone who’s currently online, regardless of whether you’re playing the same game. In fact, you don’t need to be playing at all – with Communicator Headset and your Xbox L!ve account, you can log on and simply chat.

But it’s in the games that Communicator Headset really comes into its own. Taunt your opponents and discuss strategies with your team-mates during the game, and get ready for your next blast in the lobbies. All Xbox 360 games which feature multiplayer online gaming are compatible with Communicator Headset, so you’ve no shortage of titillating titles. So if you want to keep in touch with gamers from all over the world as you batter them in a beat-‘em-up, drive ‘em crazy in a driving game or blow ’em to bits in that first-person shooter, Communicator Headset is the ideal choice.

Features

• Comfortable, stylish design
• Crystal clear sound
• Mic positioned near mouth – no need to shout…
• Works with WiFi connection

Communicator Headset for Xbox 360 is in the shops now, and costs £9.99 (UK) or $14.99 (USA). ...

Heres the press release:

With its comfortable, over-the-ear design and snazzy hi-tech look, Communicator Headset for PSP is an essential purchase for gamers on the move. It’s fully WiFi-compatible too; the ideal companion for Datel’s own WiFi MAX.

Communicator Headset works with any PSP game with voice chat. With a microphone positioned near your mouth and an earpiece for crystal-clear sound, Communicator Headset lets you bark out your orders or taunt your opponents as you play your favourite online-enabled PSP titles.

Take Sony’s brilliant SOCOM: US Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo. During online play, it’s essential that you communicate with the rest of your squad. Plan your strategies, warn your comrades in arms of impending danger and make sure everyone is doing the job they’re meant to be doing. With Communicator Headset, you can hear every word your buddies utter, and your own instructions are never lost in the heat of battle.

With more and more Sony PSP games making use of microphone communication, and for those inevitable occasions where listening to the in-game sounds is the only option, Communicator Headset is the ideal choice.

Features

• Comfortable, stylish design
• Crystal clear sound
• Mic positioned near mouth – no need to shout…
• Works with WiFi connection

Communicator Headset for PSP is in the shops this June, and costs £9.99 (UK) or $14.99 (USA). ...

Article Via Spong

It would seem Wired Magazine is obsessed with the topic of sex in videogames. Why this is the case is anyone’s guess? SPOnG suspects that it is because it is mainly written by elderly American liberals (read: hippies) who previously - somewhat mistakenly - thought that sex was the path to all human liberation.

Anyways, in the wake of last year's ridiculous Grand Theft Auto/Hot Coffee debacle, and what with E3 being sex-free this year (well, scantily-clad booth-babe free at least) we thought it was time to give a bit of our fractured, ADD-addled attention to the subject of sex and how it is handled by videogame designers and marketers. Sex, as any male human with a pulse will tell you, is something that we think of a lot. So it makes sense that some games will incorporate it in one way or another: some potentially good, some cringeworthily bad.

Wired spoke to Brenda Brathwaite, lead designer on Playboy: The Mansion, and a vociferous campaigner for sex in videogames. Brathwaite leads the sex task force at the International Game Developers Association (yes, there is such a group!) and gives talks at numerous conferences. Many refer to her simply as 'The Sex in Games Lady'. Braithwaite has just penned a book, simply titled ‘Sex in Video Games’ (out later this year) and is set to chair the first Sex in Games Conference in June.

Without further ado, here is an edited extract of the most interesting bits from the Wired interview:

Wired News: So what's it like to be the sex in games lady?

Brenda Brathwaite: I am the sex in games lady -- how'd that happen? I'm very passionate about it, I love it, and it's also very weird. Somebody has got to speak about adult content.... It's a real industry and I'm ever aware that saying something tasteless could immediately send it 10 years back.

I believe it's not fair to be forced to have a Disneyesque palette for your games. If somebody said to an artist you couldn't have any nudes in a museum, you have to take them all down because kids might see them, then artists would be in an uproar. If that happened to the movie industry? Actors would walk. Everybody would. But when that specter is raised in games it doesn't make the news.

It's also kind of personal -- things happen that you'd never expect. I regularly get people coming up to me who have a particular fetish and want to know where they can find a game for it. I never expected that people would tell me about their sex experiences. But when we moved -- I have an overwhelming amount of research material, porno games, etc. -- the movers assumed it was my husband's. When they found out it was mine, the look on their faces was worth everything.

WN: Why have a Sex in Videogames Conference?

Brathwaite: Because it's never happened. This is the stuff I sit in my office and wonder about. Every one of the panels was put together because I'd like an answer. One is on the moral issues we face in these type of games -- and the ethics when people can be anything they want. It's also an opportunity for people interested in networking, and for people interested in investing, hoping to meet with developers. There's so much as an industry that we need to discuss in depth.

WN: How does the industry respond to you?

Brathwaite: I'm out there saying that games aren't just for kids, they're for the average 29-year-old male -- and he has a healthy sex drive. So far it's all been supportive. People might be thinking, "What's she doing?" But they haven't said it.

There are many companies and individuals working on adult content and afraid of being blackballed. Yet we're seeing more mature themes integrated into regular games. People don't have to like sexual content, and not every game should line up and have it. But don't tell me or any other developer we can't have it. It's about censorship.

WN: Do you have any games that you'd like to mention?

Brathwaite: Second Life is just the granddaddy of them all. It's really incredibly supportive of all the cultures that have arisen in it. Everything from people hooking up and going on dates, to Furrys, BDSM, emergent family structures, emergent sex businesses -- if you can think of it, it's there. LoveChess: Age of Egypt (NSFW) changes the way you think about chess strategy. When you take a square, basically, the pieces mate. You end up thinking, "How do I engineer that without losing the game?" Naughty America is a massively multiplayer online erotic game that will be really cool to see (when it's released).

WN: What do you see for the future of sex in video games?

Brathwaite: Probably in the not-too-distant future there will be games that could improve peoples' sex lives, therapy for couples. Sex is completely normal and natural. Humans have sex drive and interest and it's not an abnormal thing.

What do you think about Sex in Games ? ...

Via Joystiq

With many titles sure to be announced at next week's E3 conference, here's a list of Wii games via Gamers Daily that are believed to grace the console or have been confirmed in one way or another. Let's hope they all see the light of day. From sure bets like Super Mario Bros. to wishful thinkers like Kid Icarus, what are you most anticipating?

Super Mario Wii
Super Smash Bros. Wii
Metroid Prime 3
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Wii
Animal Crossing Wii
Killing Day
Splinter Cell 4
Madagaskar 2
Legend of Zelda Wii
Mario Kart Wii
Donkey Kong Wii
The Darkness
Possession
Madden NFL 07
Suda51/Grasshopers Studio Title
Minoru Nakai Title
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Two Titles from “Artistic Quality”
James Bond 007: Casino Royale
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Sadness
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Pangya Golf
Elebits
SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam
Red Steel
Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting
Spider Man 3
Raid Over The River
Midway Wii Project
Disney/Pixar’s Cars
TNA iMPACT!
n-Space Wii Project
Kid Icarus Wii
Blitz Games Wii Project
Camelot RPG
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2007
Sonic the Hedgehog Wii
Trauma Center Wii
Cooking Title ...

Via Gizmodo

For they lady—or man fond of diamonds—in your life, we present these bejeweled headphones straight outta Milano. The metal part is covered in delicate while gold, the diamonds come in multiple patterns including moon and star, and there are no holes on the headphones—those who purchase diamond-encrusted headphones are too dense to register audible sensory input. Ooo la la! ...

Via Gamespot

Nintendo is looking to getting things moving for owners of the company's DS handheld. As of today, owners of the dual-screened handheld who purchase Metroid Prime Hunters will get a rumbling throw-in--the DS Rumble Pak.

Previously, the Rumble Pak was available with another DS Metroid game, Metroid Pinball. Gamers can also buy the accessory directly from Nintendo's Web site for $9.99. Currently, only a handful of DS games supports the Rumble Pak.

A statement from Nintendo doesn't specifically say where gamers can purchase the Hunters/Rumble Pak bundle, only saying that it is available at "select retailers" while supplies last. Requests to Nintendo for a more detailed list went unanswered as of press time. ...