PGR 4 Details..

Finally some details on PGR 4, all leaked from Official Xbox Mag due in May.

Enhanced Weather Simulation: “One of the slickest new features in PGR is its weather. Bizarre’s using what it likes to call ‘extreme weather’ for more than just making the sky gray. Water beads up on beautifully on all the gorgeous paintjobs, spray jets out from the tires, and in the in-car view, wipers move and windshields ice up.”
Enhanced Raceway Environments: “A TV-style intro sets up each event, with a commentator offering wisdom…Choppers buzz overhead, camera crews and video vans are everywhere, and hordes of fans line the track. They’ll wear gear with your logo, wave your national flag, and react far more obviously to your performance.”
Extended Car Selection: “PGR4 will deliver a much broader set of vehicles, ranging from a vintage’63 Corvette Sting Ray and the ’54 Maserati 250F to the sleek, ultra-modern Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.”
On the tracks: “You won’t want to miss out on your viewing time with PGR4’s tracks, which tally up to 200-plus in 10 locations.”
On Xbox Live initiatives: “PGR4’s cooking up a mysterious new matchmaking system (like Halo 2’s).”
On in-car view: ” Bizarre has two key improvements in the works.You’ll now see drivers moving more- feeding the wheel as they zip through turns or pumping their fist after a win. Special effects will also crank up the tension in key moments: you’ll get a shake effect at high speeds, and your vision will blur after spending some quality time with a a wall.”
In conclusion: “PGR4 feels hugely promising- like a proper sequel with loads of cool new toys.”

Mag Preview

Comments and Suggestions

So it's been over a week since I set up this blog and it seems to be working pretty well. I'm getting alerts to new entries and can view the post from anywhere. But what do you guys think? Any problems, or suggestions on what can be improved? What do you think of the layout?

The Getaway PS3

In the spirit of the GTA IV announcement, just wanted to share this, there remaking The Getaway for PS3, apparently there london model is astounding, it was good on PS2 but difficult to tell in low res!

I always loved the car driving in it but its when you got out of the car it sucked! The controls for the guy were pretty bad, they nicked GTA's car control stuff, dont see why they didnt nick the rest too!

Lets hope they fix it =)

GTA IV Trailer

Due at 11pm tonight (45 minutes away!) here...

GTA IV Trailer Link

Can't wait to see what they've done, there using the new Havoc engine i believe, the same one used in the great looking Rockstar Table Tennis on the 360.

Now... PS3 version or 360 version... Really, Really hoping for online play.. theyve gotta do it this time havent they...?

Colin McRae: DIRT

Good grief, this looks amazing and IGN seem suitably impressed. Roll on June.. You're not a gamer if you've never played or owned at least one Colin McRae game!

I was thinking about it and whilst the 360 has a reputation as an "FPS" console, it equally deserves a rep as the console of choice for racers, a great force feedback wheel, excellent racing exclusives (PGR is THE best arcade racer there is, Forza was the best racing sim last gen, Rallisport was a good series that was for its time, visually stunning as well as being fun / challenging, MotoGP from Climax is probably the most overlooked racer there is and has built on its name with each xbox version that's been released).. Looks like Colin McRae DIRT will add to what's already a great lineup of games. All they need is a great F1 game (what ever happened to Geof Crammond's Gran Prix 4 or whatever it was called being released on Xbox?).. I'll even take an A1 racing game, just MAKE IT HAPPEN!!

Here's the IGN preview

Colin McRae: DIRT

Hands-onWe go hands-on with Codemasters's rally racer for a
fresh spin around the track.

by Rob Burman, IGN UK UK,

March 28, 2007 - Codemaster's upcoming installment in the
long-running and exceedingly popular Colin McRae series isn't just the
best-looking rally game we've seen, it's one of the best-looking next generation
titles, period. This week we've been lucky enough to go hands-on with Colin
McRae: DIRT and were immediately blown away by the impressive visuals, superb
handling and high-speed rally racing. Clearly Codemasters has had its best
development team locked up in a garage for several years with only programming
tools for company, if the impressive results we've seen so far are anything to
go by.

For those that haven't been following the progress of DIRT -
more fool you - it's the latest rally game featuring Scotland's favourite
off-road racer. After successful appearances on previous generation consoles,
Codemasters has invested plenty of time and effort into this latest iteration,
even building its own game engine (called Neon) especially for DIRT. It's also
the first Colin McRae to feature Hill Climb events and Rally Raid competitions.
So far, so good… but we were interested to see if DIRT could live up to our high
expectations.

Luckily, from the moment we fired up the preview build of
the game, we were amazed by how slick everything felt. Even the menus have a
level of polish we weren't expecting. As you select the race you want to take
part in, options fly around like someone's been watching that bit with the
futuristic computer in Minority Report too much. The impressive menus continue
as you're waiting for a track to load. Rather than a simple loading bar, stats
flash up on the screen showing how many miles you've covered, how many times
you've travelled on just two wheels and other fascinating, if superfluous,
information. For once we were quite happy for the game to take its time loading
up.

There are plenty of different vehicles for you to unlock
during the game.Truthfully, we would have settled for a kitten in a bucket
during loading, given how good the actual game is. Our first challenge was a
Hill Race on Pikes Peak - a location immediately recognisable to American rally
fans - and we were instantly impressed by the astounding level of detail
Codemasters has packed into the course. Everything from mountains to houses, or
even port-a-loos, are in exactly the right place compared to their real-life
counterparts. Other nice touches include crowds lining the edge of the track
that, unlike Gran Turismo HD Concept, actually respond when your car slams into
the barrier in front of them

Unfortunately our car slammed into the barriers a little
more often than we would like. That's because - compared to most modern racers -
McRae pulls no punches when it comes to difficulty. Part of the game's charm is
pushing your driving skills to the limit by braking at the last moment and
hopefully skidding round the corner ready to fly straight towards the next one.
Those worried that Codemasters may have tweaked the difficulty to sit more
comfortably alongside the likes of Need for Speed fret not - DIRT is still a
tough but enjoyable challenge demanding you find the perfect racing line to
succeed, just like previous McRae ventures.
Ridge Racer fans expecting to
drift round bends at 180mph are in for a rude awakening. Instead, decent lap
times require that you hone your driving skills and learn when best to brake
hard before slamming down the accelerator and powering out of a bend.
Thankfully, tight controls mean that easing off the gas slightly when braking
round a bend or squeezing pedal to metal on open ground feels extremely
natural.

Although crashes were a regular occurrence for us initially, there was a silver lining in so far as each smash helped demonstrate DIRT's incredible damage engine. Slight knocks against objects dint and scratch the paintwork of each car, whereas a full head-on collision with a tree can crumple the bonnet like an accordion. Icons on the right-hand side of the screen show how much damage each section of your car has endured - with red indicating your car is basically about to fall to bits.

That said, cars can take quite a lot of damage to peripheral elements, like the bodywork. At one point we even managed to stay road-bound on three wheels briefly before tumbling off the track and smacking into a tree. However, damage affects the performance of your car, so it's inadvisable to keep whacking into things at 100mph. Still, it's great fun watching race replays, trying to pinpoint when you lost your wing mirror or your gearbox started crumbling after one too many collisions.

There've been a few complaints across internet forums about the fact that DIRT only runs in 30 frames per second. To be honest, it's hardly noticeable when you're hurtling round a hairpin bend trying desperately to beat your best time. DIRT isn't choppy at 30FPS: it certainly didn't ruin our experience of the game. Of course, the pay-off is that the game looks so damn awesome. After reaching the heavens with some of our favourite ever videogame clouds in Heatseeker, Codemasters has brought things back down to earth with the most realistic road surfaces we've seen in a game. Thundering along in first-person view - where you're hanging perilously close to the tarmac - is an intensely thrilling experience and the sense of speed is almost unparalleled.

DIRT is definitely shaping up to be a truly next generation racing game, which looks great and plays brilliantly too. Its June release for Xbox 360 and PC - with a PS3 version following soon after - can't come quick enough for us.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/776/776484p1.html

Xbox Elite Officially announced: Anti-climax or what?

Seriously, MS are having a laugh, $179 for a 120Gb drive. No wifi in the elite, and no 65nm processor in the elite!

I was quite enthusiastic initially about the Elite and the larger HD, however there's glaring omissions in there and it means it doesn't really match up to the PS3 (not in my opinion) as a "home entertainment hub" or whatever they're calling overpriced consoles these days. As my friend @ MS said

They should have made this the kitchen sink console. 65nm. Hdmi. 120gb wifi hd
dvd. Charge $500. Accept losses on each sale cos ppl wont be spending 500 on
that AND 500 on the ps3. You effectively steal market share.

Pretty much sums it up. According to Engadget the 65nm processor won't go into production till midway through this year, so hold fire on buying the Elite (especially since we don't really need 120Gb yet, not until we get the Video marketplace or IPTV)

Here's the preview from Engadget. It does look nice, but as an xbox loyalist, this is a disappointment to me

Xbox 360 Elite and 120GB drive now official


Posted Mar 28th 2007 12:00AM by Ryan
Block



Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment



HD nerds and Xbox fanboys, the moment you've been waiting for: the Xbox 360 Elite we alerted you about way back when it was
just called the Zephyr has finally been announced. As we previously
mentioned, it will be black, it will have HDMI, and it will have a 120GB drive
(it'll also come bundled with a one month Xbox Live trial) for $479.
Unfortunately, also as mentioned before, it's not going to have the new 65nm
CPUs, it still doesn't have integrated WiFi (Xbox said it's because a study
showed the majority of their customers use Ethernet to connect -- huh?), and it
won't have an integrated HD DVD drive (not that we expected otherwise).
Microsoft did make some marketing decisions since our sources spilled the beans
on this thing though: it's not going to be limited edition, as we previously
had. Instead, the Elite will be a permanent SKU, the third and top-tier Xbox
device. On the solo 120GB drive side of things, that unit will cost $179, and
will come with a cable and software to migrate from your old 20GB drive.
(MSFT wasn't yet sure if that kit would be sold separately for new Elite users
-- sounds like it will be though, and will be priced very reasonably.)

The console will come with component and composite cables, as
well as an HDMI cable. (Take that, Sony and Apple!)
The console will come with a
black wireless controller and black (wired) headset.

Sorry, the new black controller still doesn't have backlit buttons --
don't let the pic fool you.

The black controller, black rechargeable batteries, black headset, and
black Play & Charge kit will all be available in retail for the same price
as the white gear.

The HD DVD drive will not be released in black.

Xbox didn't know what HDMI version the Elite uses, nor whether it
supports PCM 5.1, TrueHD, etc.; it will obviously support 1080p, though.

Sorry, no price cuts on the Premium or Core packs.

Xbox Live Marketplace will also begin vending content from New
Line, Paramount, and Universal (and their properties). (EUROPE DAMMIT,
WE'RE OVER HERE!!)

It's out April 29th in the US and Canada, people. Ready for your second
Xbox? No? Well, it's still cheaper than that other black game console.Update:

Added more pics; also, Major Nelson has live hands-on pics, too.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/28/xbox-360-elite-now-official/

Capcom: Dead Rising & Lost Planet remain Exclusive

Nothing about the (inevitable) sequels though...

Dead Rising and Lost Planet to remain Xbox 360-exclusive(News)
by Tom Bramwell

27/03/07

Whatever's going on with Devil May Cry 4 (it's coming to Xbox
360 and PC as well as PS3 - where have you been?), Lost Planet and Dead
Rising "are not slated to appear on Wii or PS3 as far as current plans
go".

That's according to Capcom's director of strategic
planning and research, Christian Svensson, who was drawn into clarifying his
earlier comments on the publisher's official forum. Previously he had said that
Capcom is "committed to making its titles available to as wide an audience as
possible" in reference to DMC4's situation.

"The quote delivered above references our strategy moving forward, not something that is necessarily retroactive. You can see evidence of this with our previously stated [Resident Evil 5] plans going to 360 and PS3 simultaneously," Svensson noted.

So why are Lost Planet and Dead Rising exclusive, then? "I'm bound by [non-disclosure agreements] on these matters so I can't divulge why this is the situation." Fair enough. With Capcom having said Dead Rising sequels are likely, though, it's an issue the company's probably going to have to return to at some point.

God of War II...

I've seriously considered buying a PS2 just to play this game.

I'll just nick my cousin's one instead!



Or as Penny Arcade so eloquently put it

Shoot the birds!!

Well, come Halovember, we all know I'll pretty much be "uncontactable" (is that a word) due to the gaming greatness that will be Halo 3. I checked the Bungie blog today and read something that whilst not a massive gaming revolution, had me grinning from cheek to cheek

But on a more literal scale, one of our contract 3D artists is working on birds. So far I’ve seen seagulls and what appears to be some kind of cockatoo. Both kinds flock, wheel and fly in very large numbers. Who knows what those numbers will grow or dwindle to in the final cut, but right now the demo was about 50 seagulls wheeling and cawing above a cliff top, and looking remarkably like Discovery channel footage of an otherwise boring scene.


Perhaps more importantly, the seagulls and cockatoos can (at the moment anyway) be shot. They will then fall, individually out of the sky and you can go take a look at how detailed they are. Believe me, we’re not wasting any processor cycles on this stuff, so if it causes a hit, out it goes, but hopefully they’ll be there. There are at least two keen hunters on staff who want to go grousing in Halo 3.

The prospect of Mal running around shooting the birds (giggling as he does!) while I snipe him from a nearby tower is too good to be true! lol!

The full bungie update is here loads of stuff about the environment and little AI tricks... and Seagulls.. Gotta love them seagulls!

Liquorice 360's

Well this looks pretty much confirmed, racks and racks of the new liquorice 360. Yum!

Linky

Im guessing there will be an official announcement soon, im mystified still that they havent added built in wireless, i really dont need the extra hd space either, we have nothing worth buying here on the store, i wonder if we'll get the IPTV anyway....

Halo 3 Case Mod

I can see Lee wanting one of these, He'll also be playing Halo 3 (whenever it finally turns up..) wearing a full size replica Master Chief Helmet! Shame the one that comes with the legend pack would only fit a cat...

Case Mod

Afrika

New title from Sony on PS3, Phil Harrison refused to say anything more about it at GDC so no one knows what you actually do in it, im guessing from the jeep at the end your either a park ranger looking after the animals or a photographer.

Whatever.. its just mind blowing to look at.. half expecting david attenborough to jump out!



Personally.. if the game developers are listening, im hoping i can be one of the hippos and just lie in a puddle of mud for 8 hours...

PS3 Episode 1 - Boom or Bust?

Its big, black, very shiny and weighs as much as a sherman tank, but i like the ps3!

Looks super sexy in 1080p, loadsa connection options, 4 usb ports, compact flash, sd card, memory stick etc, bluetooth that supports loads of stuff including wireless keyboards and mice, built in wireless lan (surprised the 'elite' xbox still doesnt have that).. setup was just 2 cables, power and HDMI.. and away we go =)

quick games run through...

resistance- nice fps, not far into it yet, but liking the story line and the graphics are superb, great draw distance, lots of stuff going on.. things blowing around etc.. shows a lot of promise.

virtua tennis 3- looks gorgeous but meh its tennis, plays very well. slightly worringly they look a little 'undead' close up, more a bad palette choice issue than the ps3 i think! ...ok but not sure how much ill play it

virtua fighter 5- in a word... stunning, gameplay is fantastic and looks jaw droppingly beautiful. easily one of the best launch titles.

motorstorm- this is the system seller.. absolutely fantastic, bombing down a valley, screen getting covered in mud, buggies, trucks, rally cars taking side swipes at you, a kings of leon track blasting at you from the tv, really good, tried online last night for the first time, was hilarious, no lag or any other problems even with 12 of us. only downside is fairly long load times.

Bought some titles off the online store, tekken.. still the same game, looks great in 1080p tho, good as always.
Blast Factor, awesome little shoot em up, very similar to geometery wars but uses the sixxaxxis too, a steal at 3 quid.

Pros..

- Lots of ports! showing holiday photos from the compact flash card slot was easy.
- Great selection of games at launch. Cheap too, most titles coming in at 39.99
- Well built machine, weighs a ton, mostly due to it having an internal psu (no huge brick like the xbox, thanks sony!)
- Being a mac head im all about the UI.. i far prefer the 'minimalist' style of the xmb menu to the xbox look.. much cleaner and less tacky & cheap looking than the xbox (no bloody ads everywhere for a start!) altho PShome will probably end this!
- Like the dual shock, nice to be using one again.
- Some nice, real cheap games on the store. Tekken 5 for 6 quid?? can't go wrong.

Cons..

- Price, i can afford it so i dont really care =) can't afford it? get over it. or wait 6 months ;)
- Heat.. it does get pretty warm =) might save on the heating bills this year...
- Even tho i prefer the XMB look, it lacks a few features the ms live stuff offers, no doubt these will come in time
- Expensive Blu Ray movie discs.. online prices are finally nearing dvd prices which is a start
- Whilst nice, the new controller is too light.
- Lack of rumble.. altho i hear this may be returning! (God of War 3 PS3 specs were quoted as having rumble..)

Conclusion.

Sony are taking an awful lot of flak, mostly from people who havent even played a ps3. Its a nice system, certainly not without its flaws.. but so far im very impressed, if they can keep the games coming its going to be a fun ride. Great line up coming for the rest of the year.. ninja gaiden sigma, loco roco, LittleBigPlanet, gta4, final fantasy 13, MGS4, Heavenly Sword and plenty more

I seriously hope sony give microsoft some competition, it will work out much better for us the consumer over having one dominant system.

Gamer Tags

I have added our gamer tags to the site because, well, because I can!
Any suggestions for other stuff that might be nice to add to the site?

Moment of weakness.

I have to confess I had a moment of weakness earlier today. I saw a PS3 in a Argos and for a brief moment thought "I'd quite like one of those"!
Brrr. Sent a shiver down my spine!
Thankfully I had the decency to slap my face and snap out of it.

What I found amusing was that there was a PS3 awaiting collection at the counter for at least 20 minutes! A womand at the counter kept on calling out "Anyone waiting to collection the PS3?"! I guess whoever it was must have had a moment of weakness too but was so ashamed he couldn't bring himself to own up in front of all those people!

Ok thats enough Sony bashing for now.

It's just so pretty

Went to John Lewis on Oxford St tonight and saw this. 103inches of HD Plasma goodness. I really wanted to just hook a 360 or PS3 up to it (imagine Gears of War on this!!), but I thought being forcibly removed from John Lewis wasn't the best way to start the weekend

Despite the "negative" comments we've made about Sony on here, the PS3 is a gorgeous looking console (the controllers really could do with a rework tho), I played F1 and I was very impressed. It'll be good if they get over their bumbling and really make this a console war the consumer won't forget. One that gives us numerous classic gaming moments etc.

We shall see... In the meantime imagine how good it'd be to own this TV and actually have enough space to house it somewhere!

Wot no PES6 Online?!!

Maybe I'm bitter, but when PES6 came out on the xbox, I felt cheated. Xbox360 owners paid more for PES and yet, we were left with a game that was pretty stripped down (8 stadiums?!! No replays?!! NO BLOODY CUSTOM OPTION FILES!!!!!).

Well now, PS3 owners won't be able to play PES6 (the PS2 version) online either. Konami are blaming a change in PS3 specs, don't know who to believe, but its a pretty big loss for Sony until October when we get a full next gen version of PES (unless we get the excuse that creating a ball on next gen machines is hard, so it's been omitted, we'll just have to imagine where the ball would be)

Anyways, the Gaming God's will be angered with my PES rant (I go through this phase every 2 or so months). Here's the full story from Eurogamer.net

Konami blames PS3 spec change for loss of PES6 online(News)
by Tom
Bramwell
Game links:
Pro Evolution Soccer
6
Publisher:Konami
Developer:Konami
23/03/07
16:00

Any of you hoping to continue playing Pro Evolution Soccer 6 online using your shiny new PlayStation 3 will be disappointed to learn that the PS2 version can't do this yet.

Although Konami has confirmed that the single-player and versus modes in the PS2 game are compatible with PS3, it released a statement this afternoon saying that online play is incompatible.

The publisher blamed "alterations made to the console's hardware specifications" - certainly a reference to the loss of internal chips dedicated to PS2 emulation in the PS3 units manufactured for PAL regions.

Sony's backwards
compatibility site currently lists PES6 as playing "with noticeable issues".

Additional advice on playing PS2 games, posted along with the compatibility guide, notes that users should avoid the use of 60Hz and network modes "which may experience noticeable graphical corruption not present in the main game".

On the plus side, Konami said that it and Sony would let us know about changes "as soon as they occur", which suggests that they're not content to leave it at that. With no prospect of a PS3-specific PES game in the immediate future, we expect a solution is pretty high on Konami's agenda.

We imagine Sony's probably quite keen too, what with Xbox 360 having a version of its own

MS really isn't pulling its punches is it?!

Read this on Kotaku, a mysterious (lol) party handed out chairs @ the Sony launch in London with the mysterious url http://www.shkyw.org

Anyways, as busy as I am at work (lol again.. don't let my boss see this), I checked it out...

Let's just say, we're in for the most entertaining "console war" since Nintendo and Sega battled in the 16bit era!!

Seeing as Ben and Kevlar are considerably more "pro MS" than me (if that's actually possible), I'll try and give the "positive" Sony news etc on here.. My posts may well be few and far between!

Xbox Crashes French PS3 Launch

More Microsoft tom foolery for PS3 launch.

Pretty much sums it up!

PS3 Launch / TV Giveaway!

Unbelievable!
All buyers at the London launch given free taxi home. At London rates, that must have cost Sony a fortune! Oh and the 46" TV's! ;-)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6474045.stm

PS3 Release Day

Not sure this is really news worthy but can't thing of anything interesting to write about just yet. Apparently Sony have finally relased their competition to the George Foreman grill in the UK. You can also play games on it.

Welcome

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