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.