amBX signs deal with Sony to go Playstation 3!

amBX Demo



The crew over at amBX have just signed a quite impressive deal with Sony. Not just Sony, mind you, but the Playstation division themselves.

If you play with the little shockwave demo above, you can see that what amBX is all about. More than the demo shows, however, it’s not just about fun ambient lighting. They provide quality sound, force feedback wristpads, and even fans (yes, little air blowing devices) that really make you feel like you a part of the game.

Currently this thing is for the hardcore of hardcore PC gamers. This deal just inked with the Playstation 3 people is going to open the doors for the folks at amBX to truly go big time.
I encourage everyone out there “What does amBX add to your game?” page, as well as my favorite video this far, the one at the bottom of the Quake 4 page.

Joe Cooke, CMO of amBX had this to say: “amBX has already proved incredibly popular and successful within the PC games, music, movies and apps markets and the Tools & Middleware License agreement with SCEI will allow us to bring amazing light, rumble, sound and air movement experiences to game users.

Poll: Dualing Exclusives: Killzone 2 vs. Halo Wars

[poll id=”4″]

On Friday, February 5th, Sony will launch an exclusive Demo for the platform exclusive Killzone 2, available only on the Playstation 3, and downloadable from the Playstation Store. Microsoft, on the same day, will release via Xbox Live their demo for the console exclusive game Halo Wars. Who will pull in more downloads?

Editorial: Xbox 360 Cracking Discs? Solution? Spam Microsoft, of course!

An article of the absurd, today, since I’ve got a lot going on. Not only is there a forum nerd out there who thinks that the Xbox 360 is cracking his discs, he thinks that the best solution to his problem is to perform an “Executive Email Carpet Bomb” (EECB). Basically, the idea is that you flood the email of all of the “figure head people” (who, “executive” or not, generally have among the least power of helping you out). You basically spam them to death, in hopes that they will surrender to your will. It has proven successful, I believe… NEVER.

First of all, I have heard absolutely no reports of the 360 “cracking” discs. Some others lump it in with the disc scratching, but I have to believe that it’s the behavior of the user that results in cracked discs. The pictures posted in the Penny-Arcade forums show that the discs always crack in a similar position. Once the game disc is in the tray it’s spinning at upwards of 7200 RPM’s (estimated 12x DVDROM speed). It’s statistically impossible to cause a crack in the same place every time. However, if you’re anal retentive enough to put your discs back in their case facing the same exact way every time, and instinctively pull them from the DVD packaging the same way every time, there’s a very good chance your cracks will be in the same place. If you learn to press down on the on the center ring of the package, rather than pull at the edges of the disc, you probably won’t crack them.

Rather than people just thinking that maybe this guy has his own set of problems to worry about, the Jergens toting jagoffs over at the The Consumerist are encouraging EECB workarounds. Here’s hoping Microsoft’s spam filters hold up and they never even catch wind of this loser looking for a handout. Go buy your games again, and learn how DVD packaging works.

Halo Wars ViDoc, Mythic Screens, and more!

Last night, TeamXbox broke an interesting story I had heard nothng about. A Swedish online retailer had made mention of a “best of Halo” Xbox 360 system bundle. It would include Halo 3, Halo Wars, a 60GB Xbox 360 “Pro.” As of yet, I can’t find any official documentation confirming this.

Next up, some screenshots. Just three of them, all from the upcoming Mythic Map pack. I want to take a minute to explain where they were: on a closed Microsoft “press” website, under the category of Halo 3: ODST. It’s sounding more and more like the map pack will ship on disk with ODST. Two of them look familiar, though the one for “Sandbox” is not one that I, personally, have seen before. Click on each for a ‘full size view.’ (~12MB TIFF’s).

Finally, I just wanted to remind everyone of a very overlooked Halo Wars ViDoc #1: “Halo Times Ten: Halo Wars.” This is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, or you can download it to your PC (almost exclusively, it’s hard to find!) from our site.