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Xbox News is a site that brings you the very latest Original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One news, the latest games and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
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October 5th, 2006, 17:50 Posted By: wraggster
EA is making a concerted move into downloadable content delivery on Xbox Live Marketplace with the launch of several premium packages for Madden NFL 07 and NCAA 07, and says we're only going to see more of it from now on.
Vice president of online commerce Chip Lange told GameSpot that downloadable content was "a real creative opportunity that we're now starting to embrace".
EA's first releases include two downloadable stadiums for Madden, for 300 Microsoft points (GBP 2.55) each, along with video strategy guides aimed at teaching advanced techniques in both Madden and NCAA, priced at 160 points (GBP 1.36) per guide.
Lange says EA extensively analysed existing offerings on Marketplace to arrive at those price tags. "I can imagine it's probably one of the more thorough pieces of price analytics that have been done on the Marketplace today," he said. "We worked closely with Microsoft on it." He argues that the stadiums, which might seem expensive to some, will provide authentic experiences that fans of individual teams really want.
Going forward with Madden, EA's looking at new modes, uniforms, stadiums, strategy guides and "there's a bunch of other more out-of-the-box ideas that we're looking at" too - although Lange says they will continue to provide roster updates for free. He also raised the possibility of pay-to-play online tournaments.
In a separate interview with IGN, Lange also mentioned that the new Tiger Woods game would offer players a choice when it came to unlockable golf courses - either unlock them the hard way, in-game, or pay a small fee to grab them immediately.
And expect plenty more where all this is coming from, too - and on PlayStation 3 and Wii as well, providing they go that way. "If post-release content becomes a key component of those platforms' release strategies," said Lange, probably licking his lips, "there's no company in the world better to address it than EA."
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October 5th, 2006, 00:08 Posted By: wraggster
Halo Wars, the Xbox 360 real-time strategy game announced last week, was the subject of developer Ensemble Studio's latest blog post, letting drop a few choice details.
The game has been under development for some time at the previously PC-only studio - we'd heard on the grapevine months ago that it was working on an Xbox 360 game, which was obviously Halo Wars. As Bruce Shelley on Ensemble notes, "It's being played every day now and we are feeling very good about where it is and where it is going".
Shelley also confirms that Halo Wars is built specifically for 360 (although, like with Halo itself, PC gamers might get to enjoy a port in a few years), and that Halo creator Bungie is keeping a close eye on the game to keep it true to the Halo universe. In fact - you might want to save this one for a particularly geeky pub quiz - the original Halo design was for an RTS-style game, so in a way Halo Wars is going back to its roots.
Sadly, Shelley doesn't spill all on the fine details of the game, closing with, "This game has a long way to go before being published and we won't be getting into too many specifics about it for a while". You can be sure we'll be waiting patiently for those specifics, though.
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October 4th, 2006, 23:59 Posted By: wraggster
New from Divineo USA
Cosmo wireless RF controller has a range of up to 6 metres! It uses radio frequency technology which gives very accurate results even if you are far from the receiver. Autonomy is about 15 hours with a full charge. 2 vibration motors are built in as well as 2 expansion slots for memory card on receiver. There is as well a turbo function (with a Led indicator, and another LED for battery status).
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October 4th, 2006, 17:57 Posted By: wraggster
In today's busy world not everyone has enough time to clean the house, walk the dogs, pick up the dry cleaning, or become a Master Thief in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's Thieves Guild. While several of the above chores can be completed with just a phone call and some cash, the latter was up to gamers themselves...until now.
Like the phenomenon of power-levelling other people's characters in massively multiplayer online role-playing games for a real-world price, gamers can now see their Xbox 360 GamerScore increase while they do other things.
Levelmy360.com and its team of "powerleveling veterans" are offering to increase Xbox 360 GamerScores for money. Low-end rates include 500 points for $39.99 and 750 points for $59.99, with higher-end packages of 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, and 3,000 points going for $1 for every 10 points.
Gamers who use the service are required to hand over the password that is linked to their gamertag (which also happens to be their Hotmail password) and send funds through PayPal.
The site claims to have more than four years of experience in "similar Internet based online gaming businesses" (likely power-leveling for EverQuest or other PC games) and says Levelmy360 was started "due to popular demand."
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October 4th, 2006, 17:44 Posted By: wraggster
Need For Speed Carbon has joined the list of downloadable game demos on Xbox Live Marketplace, although it's 1GB so you'll probably want to put the tea on before you start downloading it.
Should be useful for gauging whether you can be bothered with this year's update to EA's increasingly successful racing game series, due out on 360, Xbox, PS2, Cube, PSP, DS and GBA on 3rd November.
As you'll know if you've been following it, NFS Carbon sees you racing around a city trying to take over neighbourhoods one at a time, with the action eventually heading to Carbon Canyon where there's, you know, more racing.
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October 4th, 2006, 17:42 Posted By: wraggster
LucasArts' Chris Williams has declared that next-gen gaming is about more than "pretty graphics" - conceding that games have yet to reach the level of movies when it comes to visuals.
Williams, who is project lead on LucasArts' new Indiana Jones game, made his comments in a speech at GDC London this morning. He talked extensively about the studio's relationships with sister company Industrial Light & Magic, observing, "Film and game technology really compliment each other."
However, he went on, game developers still have "a lot to learn from film". As an example, he cited the CGI character Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean 2. According to Williams, it's highly unlikely that such a high level of character detail could be recreated in a game "for next-gen, or even the generation after that".
For LucasArts, he continued, "Next-gen is not just about pretty graphics, and we're okay with that." Instead, the studio is looking for ways to change the gameplay experience - for example, by simulating instead of scripting characters.
To demonstrate this, Williams showed a level from the Xbox 360 version of the Indiana Jones game. He highlighted the many different and unpredictable ways enemies will fall when hit, or grab out for something to hold onto when falling.
"There are different payoffs for every action in the game," Williams explained, adding, "When you are creating these moments that are truly your own, you are telling your own story."
Williams then demonstrated some impressive physics effects in a new, as yet unnamed Star Wars game from LucasArts. R2-D2 was shown being repeatedly thrown into planks of wood, which broke in realistic and different ways depending on their thickness, and a similar demo followed featuring the character of Jar Jar Binks encased in carbonite ("arguably where he belongs"). To conclude, Williams played a short video highlighting 'force power', which allows gamers to release bursts of power, pick up enemies and objects and slam them into walls.
According to Williams, LucasArts' "core underlying simulation technology, we think, is really going to change the way people play games". However, he continued, "We think this is just the tip of the iceberg."
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October 4th, 2006, 17:41 Posted By: wraggster
There's so much pre-rendered content in Dead Or Alive X2 that it's filled up an entire DVD, according to Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki.
Speaking in Famitsu Xbox 360, in an article partially translated by IGN, Itagaki also said that the game was now 80 percent complete, with start and end sequences finalised.
The preview also revealed for the first time that the game will feature multiple hotels, with your choice of character sending you to a particular location based on their personality. Elena, for example, prefers the five-star Gemstone Suite, but there's also the Seabreeze Cottage hotel near the beach and Moonlight Reef, which appeared in Kasumi's Dead Or Alive 4 end sequence.
DOAX2, which features jet-ski sections as well as volleyball and a host of mini-games, is very much about the characters and their interaction with you and one another, and Itagaki revealed that if they really get to like you, they may even get changed into new bikinis in front of you. Calm down though, because you're unlikely to see anything.
With the game nearing completion, ahead of its US and Japanese launch dates of 15th and 22nd November respectively, Itagaki confirms that they're down to bug-testing, with approximately half the work done there, along with translation of the huge volumes of text that make up item descriptions, which need to be rewritten in nine languages.
Expect more on the game around the time of its US launch.
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October 4th, 2006, 17:39 Posted By: wraggster
TotemBall, the Xbox Live Arcade game designed to make use of the Xbox Live Vision camera, has been released for download - and as promised it's available for free.
You'll need to spend some money on the camera to play it though, as TotemBall - which puts you in control of Pterry the Pturtel on a quest to uncover musical totems - uses a gesture-based system of control.
Along with a story mode, TotemBall promises a co-operative juggling game, pinball, freeplay (infinite lives, no time limit), super challenge (one life, severe time limit) and TotemJam (for mixing and matching totems).
We'll be taking a look at Xbox Live Vision soon, and we'll also be talking to its creators - when we do, we'll be sure to ask more about Microsoft's answer to EyeToy, what else they have planned for it, and how they can legislate against the clever people who buy a web-camera and then get offended by the sight of other people on their screens.
Xbox Live Vision goes on sale this week, and in the meantime you can download TotemBall now - it's a shade over 40MB in size.
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October 4th, 2006, 17:30 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft's Xbox Live Vision Camera allows you to transplant mugs shots onto the faces of in-game characters, so you can, for example, really shoot your mates in multiplayer showdowns. Well, kind off...
Simply capture a portrait and side profile of your face using the Vision Camera and then, via the wonders of technology, a computer rendition is mapped onto a game character's head. Apparently, the level of detail in the end result is impressive, hitting close to photo-realism.
One of the first games to use this feature of the Xbox Live Vision Camera is Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Vegas, where you'll be able to use it to personalise multiplayer avatars.
Perfect Dark on N64 nearly got there first though, using the Game Boy Camera to do pretty much the same. The feature was pulled at the last minute as parents and MP-types didn't like the idea of kids shooting their teachers in the face.
The Vision Camera officially launches in the UK this Friday and comes in two packages. One for £34.99 that includes the camera, one month's Xbox Live gold membership and a head-set. And one for £54.99, which features 12 months Live membership and three Live Arcade games.
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October 4th, 2006, 17:28 Posted By: wraggster
The only thing going for Superman Returns (the game) at the moment is that it was delayed a good six months for some extra tweakage. That means it'll be a bit better than what it would have been if it came out alongside the movie in May.
EA has been super quiet about the movie-tie in for some time, but the silence has been shattered with five new shots.
The game's now slated for release next to the DVD movie release this November on pretty much every platform out there. All things going well...
Check out what must be 360 shots right here.
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October 4th, 2006, 17:27 Posted By: wraggster
Crytek developed the original Far Cry for Ubisoft, but left after the original to join EA and create the graphically spectacular, Crysis. Ubisoft has since moved the Far Cry franchise to consoles with recent versions appearing on Xbox 360, and soon, Wii.
"I'll tell you the truth; as shocking as it is I didn't complain," Crysis art director, Michael Kiamzon told CVG. "I worked on the first Far Cry and I loved to work on that project; I worked three years on it but after my first time on Crysis I didn't look back.
"I mean, it's not our franchise anymore and Ubisoft is working on it now and to tell you the truth I hear that the ratings - we had 90s and 89s on Far Cry and now it's like 70-something. I think the franchise can have a lot of success if it's done right."
Stay tuned to CVG for the full interview coming soon, where Kiamzon also divulges his influences for Crysis' icey, alien worlds, the aliens underneath the exoskeletons and his illegal tree-chopping antics.
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October 4th, 2006, 17:23 Posted By: wraggster
Ahead of Friday's launch of the Xbox Live Vision Camera, developer Strange Flavour has revealed it is already working on two more titles to take advantage of the new 360 peripheral.
Strange Flavour's first title, TotemBall, is currently available to download free over Xbox Live Arcade, with map packs and other content due in the near future.
Other titles supporting the camera include UNO, which is provided free with the peripheral, World Series Poker from Activision, Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Vegas and Texas Hold 'Em, which is expected to receive an auto-update within weeks.
Speaking at a launch event in Central London this morning, Microsoft revealed that other publishers are currently considering how to make use of the camera, with EA Sports said to be "thinking about it."
One thing that isn't being planned at the moment is cross-platform chats between Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 users, despite the fact that the camera itself works with Windows as a simple USB webcam.
The Xbox Live Vision camera is available from Friday priced GBP 34.99 and comes with an Xbox Live headset, a copy of UNO and one month free Xbox Live Gold access.
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October 4th, 2006, 17:22 Posted By: wraggster
LucasArts' Chris Williams has declared that next-gen gaming is about more than "pretty graphics" - conceding that games have yet to reach the level of movies when it comes to visuals.
Williams, who is project lead on LucasArts' new Indiana Jones game, made his comments in a speech at GDC London this morning. He talked extensively about the studio's relationships with sister company Industrial Light & Magic, observing, "Film and game technology really compliment each other."
However, he went on, game developers still have "a lot to learn from film". As an example, he cited the CGI character Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean 2. According to Williams, it's highly unlikely that such a high level of character detail could be recreated in a game "for next-gen, or even the generation after that".
For LucasArts, he continued, "Next-gen is not just about pretty graphics, and we're okay with that." Instead, the studio is looking for ways to change the gameplay experience - for example, by simulating instead of scripting characters.
To demonstrate this, Williams showed a level from the Xbox 360 version of the Indiana Jones game. He highlighted the many different and unpredictable ways enemies will fall when hit, or grab out for something to hold onto when falling.
"There are different payoffs for every action in the game," Williams explained, adding, "When you are creating these moments that are truly your own, you are telling your own story."
Williams then demonstrated some impressive physics effects in a new, as yet unnamed Star Wars game from LucasArts. R2-D2 was shown being repeatedly thrown into planks of wood, which broke in realistic and different ways depending on their thickness, and a similar demo followed featuring the character of Jar Jar Binks encased in carbonite ("arguably where he belongs"). To conclude, Williams played a short video highlighting 'force power', which allows gamers to release bursts of power, pick up enemies and objects and slam them into walls.
According to Williams, LucasArts' "core underlying simulation technology, we think, is really going to change the way people play games". However, he continued, "We think this is just the tip of the iceberg."
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October 3rd, 2006, 22:31 Posted By: wraggster
We kind of wish Microsoft would stop putting their best foot forward with the marketing peeps on Zune, and instead let the product stand on its own. Having Chris Stephenson get on camera for CBS and say stuff like "brown is the new black is the new white," and "welcome to the social -- that's one of our key lines" smacks a mite bit disingenuous and wanton, but at very least they learned their lesson about package design from that internal video of theirs -- we're going to miss the "excessively human" marketing materials with "shelf presence" that "communicates the richness of the product." Ah well, one less surprise to look forward to when we finally get our hands on a unit.
Screen Via Comments
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October 3rd, 2006, 19:02 Posted By: wraggster
Lucasarts project lead Chris Williams has revealed the scale of the company's next gen ambitions in his keynote address to the inaugural London Game Career Fair, currently under way at the Café Royal on Regent Street.
"We have 70-80 people working on next gen teams," Williams, who is currently in charge of the company's Indiana Jones project, said to a packed audience.
Williams will show the next gen versions of Indiana Jones and a new Star Wars game at his GDC keynote in London tomorrow.
"We can do real material physics now and that technology's really exciting," he said as a teaser of what's going to be on offer Wednesday morning.
Williams went on to give advice on software packages to become familiar with for those aspiring to enter the games industry professionally, specifically into project management, and offered some frank pointers on what larger publishers are looking for in terms of new talent.
"It really is working with people and sticking to schedules," he said. "Games are notoriously late, and that's something we want to correct."
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October 3rd, 2006, 12:07 Posted By: wraggster
Garyopa has posted this:
There has been many changes done to the new Hitachi GDR-3120L - Version: 0078fk drive:
- 1: No "memdump" command works, totally new program needed
- 2: Chip type has been changed to a 39VF020, so new "flashsec" program needed
- 3: Black hard glue has been added covering all the chip pins and the controller pins.
- 4: External "debug" triggering into ModeB has been removed.
What does all mean:
- 1: The Team-X kit will no longer work on this drive.
- 2: Dumping the firmware by software is currently not possible
- 3: Wiring in a patching-on-the-fly "mod" would be very hard due to the "new black glue"
- 4: Removing the flash chip to externally be read will destory the drive due to the "new black glue"
What options are left to us:
- 1: Get more people working on this new drive, currently only in UK and Aussie.
- 2: Destory at one drive to be able to dump the firmware, using a external programmer.
- 3: Afterwards sitting down and re-writing all the programs: "memdump, firmcrypt, flashsec".
- 4: If you can't wait, buy an older produced x360 console (Before Late July/Early Aug. dates).
That's all for now....
We are working on it....
Hopefully some poor soul will give us one personally...
So we can destory it and play with it for everyone else....
Seems like Microsoft are gearing up for another battle of wits with the hackers.
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October 3rd, 2006, 12:00 Posted By: wraggster
A raid at a house in Burton on Trent, Staffordshire has resulted in the arrest of a man who has allegedly been making money from creating vast quantities of illegally copied games and pornography.
The raid, which was executed at 7am on the morning of Friday 22nd September at the premises of the 36-year old man by Staffordshire Trading Standards, an ELSPA investigator and Staffordshire police, resulted in the seizure of a large, state-of-the-art PC connected up to four burning towers (each with seven trays) and up to four Xbox 360 consoles.
The man’s heavily pregnant wife was present in an upstairs bedroom, which had been converted into a production factory for duplicating illegally copied software and he was actually caught copying Xbox 360 games as the raid was being carried out.
Of the discs confiscated during the raid, the majority – over 1,000 – were games discs. Also discovered were five removable hard drives, allegedly containing his master files for all products. A large amount of pornography was also found on an undisclosed number of the discs.
Financial documents were recovered and a POCA (Proceeds Of Crime Act) investigation has already started to estimate the criminal gain from his illegal activities. The man has been bailed to appear before Staffordshire police at a later date.
Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA commented: “This raid came as a result of a thorough and professional investigation by Staffordshire Trading Standards department and ELSPA investigators and proves that increasing numbers of pirates are paying the price for pursuing illegal business activities.”
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October 3rd, 2006, 11:24 Posted By: wraggster
If you're a gamer living in South Africa, chances are that your visual periphery was dominated this past weekend by Microsoft's Xbox 360 launch and its accompanying marketing campaign. Nearly a year after the system's first-worldwide launch, the Xbox 360 became officially available to eager shoppers at the stroke of midnight on Friday, 29 September. Playable in-store kiosks, radio advertisements, campus tournaments and vaguely sinister cardboard stands announced not only the arrival of "the next generation of gaming," but the expansion of choice.
Unless you wanted to import the original Xbox or stick your hand into the awkward and tangled mess of Gamecube distribution lines, the PlayStation 2 was the only console the average gamer could reliably and affordably find in game stores. The merits of Sony's system have long since been established and it's easy to argue that South Africa got the best console out of the bunch, though "best" loses much of its meaning when it becomes interchangeable with "only." Consider for a moment how your gaming habits might be affected if two out of three consoles weren't readily available to you.
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