Tag: xbox 360

Capcom: still making games for all platforms!

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This picture comes to us by way of 1up… and it shows just how out of hand console fanboys can get sometimes. It also shows what appears to be a proposed number of titles developed for 2010-2013. The last few days I’ve been reading articles on how the PS3 is Capccom’s new platform of choice. Some articles suggested they were swayed by the incentives package recently proposed by Sony, offering PSN developers a bigger cut of the sales. Another article suggested that the PS3 had a large line up of exclusives, and the Xbox 360 would be getting some table scraps. Countless websites were making it sound like Capcom was abandoning the Xbox 360 and intended to become a Playstation-centric developer. A lot of focus has been placed on the numbers: 12 to 13. Everyone wants to know what the ONE PS3 exclusive title will be. How soon we forget.

Articles like that, which will popup continually throughout the day, suggest that the other 12 games will be the same on both platforms. First of all, both of these platforms will be getting a plethora of attention from Capcom, so I don’t think anyone needs to worry about what game to play in the next few years. Some websites suggest that also includes titles from this year. If that’s true, consider this: Xbox 360 seems to have lost Dead Rising 2 exclusivity, and according to all accounts Dead Rising 2 will be multiplatform, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. However, the Xbox 360 should be getting Lost Planet 2, which, at this time, is still considered an exclusive. PS3 and PC versions are likely in the works, but if it remains an exclusive, that is one less game they have in common. Which would mean two exclusive titles for the PS3 *gasp*! I know, it’s enough to make mountains crack… but why don’t we all just breathe in for a second and relax.

Got that? Relaxed? Less tense? Good… now, why don’t we brainstorm how 8 “new” titles could possibly run on the Nintendo Wii? What’s next for them? Dead Rising 2: Chopping Spree?

Xbox 360 In-Store Kiosks to get update

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Remember the Xbox 360 Retail Kiosks, and all of the hype they delivered? Exclusive Gamerpics, Demos, and I thought I heard something about a special achievement, back during the Xbox 360 Launch. Much of this was before my time, and I’ve never had much face time with these Demo kiosks… but for t hose of you who always had the intention of snagging any downloadable goodies for the kiosk, now is the time.

I was recently contacted by a games store manager and told that an update disc is being mailed out for all of these stores, and the “Xbox Retail Experience Demo” (XRED) 5.0 will be installed on kiosks accross the country very soon.

Update: International readers have contacted me and confirmed this thing seems to be global.

Whether this new demo will include any downloadable goodies like the others, I was not told. What we do know is this new demo show cases the NXE, and encourages users to create their own avatars.

This disc will actually install the NXE dashboard to the console itself, as well as include the traditional demo disc goodies – so expect to hear quiet rumblings of more “Red Ring’d” or “E74” retail kiosks in the coming weeks.

Halo Wars ViDoc, Mythic Screens, and more!

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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.

IBM Master Inventor compares 360 and PS3…

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Above: Cell processor block diagram… if it makes sense to you, you should apply at IBM.

Today, I just wanted to share with you this: I seemed to have overlooked a quite fantastic article where IBM’s David Shippy compares PS3 and 360 processors. Shippy was co-creator of the Cell, and with the Xeon being the IBM/Intel pride’n’joy for several years, based on Shippy’s own PowerPC architecture, I’m sure he knows a thing or two about it. Shippy has been given the highly distinguished honor of being an IBM “Master Inventor.” In short: he knows his stuff.

In the end, he says the two consoles about balance out, because of the extreme differences in design. It sounds as though he’s willing to give the Playstation 3 a bit of an edge in the hardware department, but also sounds unsure if anyone will ever fully harness the power of the PS3, stating that “the real hardcore coders would argue that, once you do understand it and can program to it, you absolutely get the most out of the hardware, and really write some fairly low-level code that’s really high performance.” Still, he doesn’t go so far as to proclaim a winner (read his uneasy responses on page 3 🙂 ).

This whole discussion between PS3 and 360 owners has taken on such a life of it’s own that Shippy has recently co-authored a new book, entitled “The Race for a New Game Machine.” The article is an astonishing read, they even talk about some of the personal struggles you have when designing hardware for competing companies. Being IBM must not be easy, when everyone is coming to you demanding “the best you’ve got.”

See also: IBM’s “Introduction to the cell multiprocessor” – also co-authored by Shippy.