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Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Online
Future-cop shooter,
Crackdown, prides itself on nonlinear, sandbox play. It's set in a sprawling city with many areas to explore, and I had fun wandering through a pre-release version at a recent meeting with developer, Real Time Worlds.
The game is violent and visceral; you play a Judge Dread-style super-cop with no moral ambiguity. Every criminal you kill is a victory, and any bystanders that die between you and the baddies were just doing their part for their city. This premise is sure to appeal to the adolescent boy in all of us (and actual adolescent boys). But for a game that gloats about its open, let-the-gamer-decide play-style, I thought that the violence was sometimes too mandatory and too realistic.
I had fun with
Crackdown, and I want to play more. I enjoyed the sandbox elements -- blowing up parts of the city, jumping between rooftops, and driving cars -- but those activities didn't always help me progress. It seemed like I needed to keep killing thugs to advance through the game, and that repetition may violate the sandbox ideal.
To
Crackdown's credit, the Xbox 360 game doesn't take time to dwell on its blunt-instrument kill-the-enemy-gangs premise -- it even approaches it with a crooked smile. And the game's frenzied pace doesn't pause for soul-searching or deep social commentary; gamers will pick it up for its action, not nuance.
Continue reading Joystiq hands-on: Crackdown (Xbox 360)
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SPONSORED BY: Age of Empires III - Real-Time Strategy Game Control a European power on a quest to colonize and conquer the New World. AOE3 introduces new gameplay elements, as well as new civilizations, units, and technologies. http://www.ageofempires3.com/
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
We weren't sure that our government would ever actually, you know, listen to the people that it apparently serves -- at least so far as
electronic voting goes. That may soon change, given that
internetnews.com is reporting that the
National Institute of Standards and Technology will recommend "the 2007 version of the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG) decertify direct record electronic (DRE) machines." (Those would be the non-"software independent" boxes whose votes cannot be audited and certified, yet which are used in 30% of jurisdictions.) Why the sudden change of heart? Well, apparently all of the
attention that's been put on the lack of a paper trail or some kind of verified voting system has actually made a difference -- huh,
fancy that. Of course, predictably, there remains a naysayer in the midst, an election expert named Roy Saltman, who told
internetnews.com: "If you insist on paper you're tying elections to an old technology." Um, Mr. Saltman, that may be true, but until we can get our new tech to work as well as our old tech, then the new tech is sorta useless, isn't it?
[Via
Techdirt]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews
(S07E05) I really have to give Bill Lawrence and his staff credit; they're really doing a nice job of making the final season of
Scrubs a strong one. This is yet another example of how the writers have made the show funnier by making things less wacky. In fact, the lack of wackiness parallels how both Turk and J.D. are becoming more like real adults than either of them want to be.
Were there some tired jokes in this episode? Sure. But the laugh quotient was pretty high this week, and that's all anyone can ask, right?
Continue reading Scrubs: My Growing Pains
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IBM rolls out new and updated management tools for mainframes.
Destructoid reports:
"Silent Hill V will move away from preset camera angles, giving you full control of the visuals. Furthermore, the game will include button tapping puzzles along the same vein as God of War. One example has been provided of using these rythm-lite actions to loosen the straps on your gurney"
You can see Sam run in Snakes On A Plan but here see a different side of Sam... serious.
Runtime: 3 min 46 sec
HMRC data blunder raises new questions…
The lights are going to flicker. And no, I dont mean the lights on the Christmas tree.
Description Not Available
SNL wastes no time commenting on Britney's split from KFedEx.
Runtime: 3 min 14 sec
Corrugate by Silicon Strings produced by Chris Loft for the Radio Curly Collective internet radio from Adelaide, sunny South Australia copyright 2006 www.radiocurly.com all rights reserved original, alternative music video clips tv99.curlyhost.com
Folks in IT tend to ask a lot of questions. We're a curious breed by nature. In fact, we have to be. Change comes about so quickly in our industry, technology moves so fast, and our businesses adapt so fluidly that we have to ask questions just to keep up. Some might even say that a healthy curiosity is the hallmark of a successful IT professional -- and I wouldn't disagree.
Ripten counts down the top ten most devastating weapons in video game history, bringing out the big guns with DOOM's BFG at #4.
Microsoft has confirmed that they've been wielding the banhammer lately over modifications to the Xbox 360 which allow players to run pirated games. Xbox Live's Major Nelson said the action would also void the warranty on the offending console, and that Microsoft will "continue to employ and bolster anti-piracy security measures to counter piracy in the gaming industry and improve security in the Xbox LIVE community." Meanwhile, Blizzard dealt with 350,000 of their own problem users on Battle.net, saying simply that they wouldn't tolerate cheating. This is likely one of many steps to clean up the system before it gets revamped for use with StarCraft II.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We’ve had a lot of noteworthy comics come out this week, but one in particular that’s gotten a lot of attention has been Chuck Dixon’s Batman and the Outsiders #1. A particular point of focus involves a specific scene between Batman and Thunder.
Rokk Krinn of Rokk’s Comic Book Revolution liked the issue, especially that scene:
I [...]
Filed under: Gaming
Like some of our editors here at Engadget, we know you long for the carefree, multi-hued days of the Super Nintendo and all its Mode 7 glory. Well, if you live in Japan, are a member of Club Nintendo (wherein you earn points for purchases of the company's games and accessories), and have the patience to wait until April, you could be the proud owner of the Wii SNES (Super Famicom, rather) controller. The gamepad won't be commercially available, nor will it be offered stateside (as far as we know), so now is the time to firm up your relationships with Japanese friends, or start saving pennies for your forthcoming eBay bidding war. Either way, the chance to relive your youth is just around the corner.
[Thanks, J]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Recordings of the Beatles will soon make their way online for the first time, according to EMI Group vice chairman David Munns. The executive made the announcement at a San Francisco-based music industry conference over the weekend, saying that the Beatle's content will be available online for download "soon." Apple Corps -- the Beatles' record lab...
How come Uncharted and Assassin?s Creed cost 60 dollars, while Super Mario Galaxy cost 50 dollars on the Wii? The first answer jumps to mind is ?lower development? cost, but what does that mean? Do you know when Konami publishes a game like MGS, they only make 1 dollar per game? Here is a breakdown of who's taking a bite out of your pocket pie this Christmas.
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3
After spending much of the night with
the Wii, and
Twilight Princess, we woke this morning to a special treat: a retail PS3! We moved the Wii from the projector screen -- a display option that the system just doesn't agree with (at least in our configuration) -- to the far more manageable 24" Dell flat panel (as seen
here). That means the PS3 could stretch its legs on the projector with 720p or 1080i over HDMI.
The system, as we all know by now, is on the large side, is very shiny, and (your opinion may vary) a very attractive piece of machinery. After being hooked up and running for some time, it remains completely cool to the touch, with a large amount of hot air being quietly evacuated out of the back of the unit. It reminds us that Sony can engineer just about anything.
The system required several quick updates when we popped in
Resistance. First, a patch from 1.0 to 1.02. After a couple quick levels, we were back out in the XMB interface trying to connect to various network services (none of which will be online until the 17th). The system informed us we needed a software upgrade, this time to the more recent 1.10. After a lengthy download (our connection may have been slow), the system issued us the obligatory firmware-upgrade warning: turn it off or do anything else stupid and you'll brick your box ... in so many words. So it was with great dismay that we greeted a blank, black screen. The same black screen we stared at for the next thirty minutes.
"Is it upgrading?"
"Shouldn't there be a progress bar?"
We stared and stared. And stared. Do we dare turn it off, hoping to break whatever infinite loop the system was stuck in at the risk of bricking our very shiny, and barely broken-in, PS3? After about twenty minutes, my hand gingerly trembled its way to the soft power button and the system refused to recognize my command.
"Don't turn me off, idiot! Didn't you read the message? You'll brick me!"
"Bbbbut, you're not doing anything!"
"How do you know? Are you a Sony engineer? Look, I won't let you turn me off, therefore, I must be working."
"Fine."
We waited for another ten minutes before our duty was clear. Our PS3 needed to be
put down turned off. I walked around behind the unit, pausing at the power switch. Flick. Is it dead? Did we brick our brand new PS3? We flipped the switch back on, and activated the soft power switch on the front and were greeted with ...
...
...
...
... a firmware upgrade screen! We followed the instructions (again) and a progress bar informed us of the firmware upgrade's progress.
Phew! After a few short (this time!) minutes, the box was running wonderfully at version 1.10.
The contents of the retail box: p ower cable (just like a computer's ... maybe they were right!); a USB-to-USB mini cable for connecting and charging the Sixaxis; AV multi-out (PSone/PS2 owners should be familiar with this); a rather generous Ethernet cord (we do have the wireless model after all); and, lastly, the Sixaxis.
Anything you want us to check out?
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SPONSORED BY: Age of Empires III - Real-Time Strategy Game Control a European power on a quest to colonize and conquer the New World. AOE3 introduces new gameplay elements, as well as new civilizations, units, and technologies. http://www.ageofempires3.com/
Our very own Travis Moses gives his words of wisdom to make you a COD master.
At Nintendo's secret North Bend facility...whoops...the elves are readying the willy Wiis for ship, along with copies of zelda. The creates are marked "DO NOT SELL BEFORE NOV. 19th" and signed Ganon. There are photos of the trucks being loaded up, too, so here they come, here comes the thing I want most this year.
More photos of the facilities, Zelda discs being put into their boxes, and millions of Wiis, after the jump.
–Brian Lam
This poor chap goes dumpster diving, literally.
Late last week, Kotaku ran a rumor that said Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Technical Officer Izumi Kawanishi had been shuffled out of SCEI and is now working for Sony Corporate. Kotaku contacted Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment of America and Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe. All refused to comment. Odd, because this seems something that could be addressed rather easily if Kawanishi was still at the company. Since Kawanishi had worked on the PS2, the PSP and the PS3, he was obviously a key team member and important to SCEI's past successes.
Kotaku have gotten more details from insiders about the power struggle that supposedly went down.
Now you can howl at the moon in the convenience of your own home, with the $29.95 Discovery Remote Control Moon. This 10-inch model moon cycles through 12 lunar phases, illuminating its accurate moonscape. Plus, you can control its phases and turn it on and off with a remote control.
Too bad it requires four AA batteries to light the thing up and two AAAs for the remote, preventing it from being used as a nightlight. In spite of that, now your kid can truthfully say that you hung the moon. Of course, that will all be null and void by the time the little monster gets to be a teenage werewolf. – Charlie White
Product Page [Discovery Channel store, via Gizmodiva]
Outsells Wii and PlayStation 3.
September was a big month for the Xbox 360, with Halo 3 driving sales of the console. Well, the momentum has kept up, with Microsoft revealing today that according to GFK figures for October, the Xbox 360 was the best selling console hardware for the month.
Halo 3 also remained Australia?s number one game and sold more copies and generated more revenue than any other title across all formats. Australians also spent more dollars on Xbox 360 hardware, software and accessories than on any other platform. David McLean, Australian Xbox Director, says, "We have maintained our momentum throughout October and with the blockbuster range of titles we have coming in November and December, Xbox 360 is primed to finish the year on a very successful high."
The iVue from iPodMods is not a traditional case that wraps around your iPod, protecting its skin from the evils of keys in your pocket. Instead, the iVue is a complete front panel replacement, displaying the iNatomy for the world to see. Then tell your friends it's a prototype or something.
"Hey man, is that an iPod?"
"No, it's way better than an iPod."
"No way. Nothing's better than an iPod."
"It reads your mind, and plays a song from your collection to compliment your mood."
"Oh my goodness! What's it playing right now?"
"It's not a song per se, just a looping voice calling you an idiot."
"Wow! It does work!"
Pricing is not set, but will be somewhere between $20-$35 with free installation.– Mark Wilson
Product Page [via tuaw]
Production Weekly reports that Amanda Bynes will star in Sydney White and the Seven Dorks , to be directed by Joe Nussbaum starting this January in Florida.
Aside from boasting one of the best AND most literal titles,
Wristcutters: A Love Story is a genuine achievement in imaginationthe art-house gem of 2007.
Teaser trailer for Austin Powers in Goldmember quickly cycles through scenes of the film while playing a quickened version of O'Fortuna.
• Bruce Springsteen’s Free Halloween Download
• Fall Gaming 2008: From WWII to WWE
• Random Notes: Mariah Carey, T.I.
• Rolling Stone’s Scariest Covers
• How Duran Duran Made “The Wolf”
• Weekend Rock List: Scary Videos
• AC/DC Use Excel to Remake Video
• The Best of Summer 2008
• Flashback: Rob Zombie Goes Hip-Hop
• Download Cotton Jones’ “Gotta Cheer Up”
• [...]
Answer: Morrissey and ?The Donald.'
Question: Name two improbably quiffed megalomaniacs who like to say, ?You're fired.?
When he's not boycotting Canada for its seal hunting policies, he's playing about with right-wing and fascist imagery. When he's not milking former bandmates out of royalties, he's winning ?most ?Northern' male? polls. And when he's not being coy and aloof about his sexual orientation or proclaiming (...)
-
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Please visit www.speakado.com for Translation and Transcription of this phrase and other phrases in French, Spanish, German, Italian and much more!
The Sims-creator suggests that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are little more than marginal improvements over their predecessors.
VJ hottie will play love interest to the Human Torch.
Such is the aura of NBC anchor Brian Williams that even in what was meant as a puff piece on SNL cast member Seth Meyers, Williams shines through.
"I was thrilled to get him on the first show because I know him to be one of the funniest guys in the building," Meyers says. "I once walked by him wearing a chicken suit, and he waited until I was almost past him and then whispered, 'Living the dream.'"
While being "one of the funniest guys in the building" may not be such an accomplishment these days at 30 Rockerfeller, it is undeniable that Williams can pretty much do whatever the fuck he wants to do.
With all the cost cutting at NBC, surely they could give Williams a couple of million more, give him additional responsibilities and still come out ahead. He could do Deal Or No Deal as well as, if not better than, Howie Mandel, yes? He could easily take over for Conan O'Brien when he moves west after Jay Leno's retirement. And one can easily see him as the real life Danny Tripp and Matt Albie, swooping in to save a struggling late nigh franchise, except we know Williams can actually be funny.
The Difference Between Real Anchors And Fake Anchors: Chicken Suits [HuffPo]
NU alum Meyers is `SNL' anchor -- and you're not [Chicago Trib]
Description Not Available
Behold, every custom PC fanboy's wet dream: The Reactor. It's a sleek, black aluminum case with tons of hard drives (both swappable and integrated), an ultra-powerful processing chip, and three top-of-the-line video cards all begging to be overclocked thanks to the company's special oil submersed cooling system. That's right, the GPUs, CPU, power supplies, custom motherboard and three SSD drives are all completely dipped in oil. And it's only around $4000.
Hardcore, the company making this custom monster, uses non-conductive oil to move thermals faster around all the PC's hottest components. It claims that the oil it uses is about 10 times more effective than simple air cooling, and doesn't require a noisy, clattering fan. What you get is a quiet machine that runs at ambient room temperature, no matter what craziness you're running on it.
The main problem is that most of the components of the Hardcore Reactor is “proprietary.” Which means, if anything breaks down, there's only one place to order a new part from. And when a manufacturer comes out with something new, Reactor users will have to wait until Hardcore's figured out how to fit it into their oil chassis—a giant turn off for the type of PC user they're marketing to. But for that great a price point for this great a machine, this one's definitely one to watch. [Maximum PC]
The Xbox 360 has grown its unit sales more than 157% over the last seven months in the Land of the Rising Sun. The latest lifetime platform sales within...
While we've reported on the Xbox 360 continually outselling the PS3 in Japan in recent weeks, what we weren't aware of was just how much growth Microsoft's platform has experienced across the Pacific for a good chunk of 2008. According to the latest Famitsu Marketing data received by GameDaily BIZ, for the period of March to September, the Xbox 360 has actually enjoyed more unit sales growth year-over-year than any other platform.
So Slate's Meghan O'Rourke, Emily Bazelon, Dahlia Lithwick and some other Slate vagina-havers now occupy a little cordoned-off area called "The XX Factor," where they are expected to crank out what the site touts as "Slate's no-boys-allowed political blog!" (Were they jealous of Salon's Catbox ladyblog?) But man, is the personal ever "political" up in that beyotch.
"Our husbands are better at focused play because they are better at focused everything, when it comes to parenting. They certainly can and do pack lunches and wipe spills. But when they are eating they eat and when they are playing they play. They somehow find time to take care of their own stuff and they don't maniacally multitask while doing it. Not sure what this has to do with our math performance in college," muses Dahlia. We're not sure either!
Emily Yoffe also does some research close to home: "The other day I was talking to my sixth-grade daughter about school and I asked her who the smartest kids in her class were. She listed a bunch of boys. 'What about the girls?' I asked. 'There are lots of smart girls, but they're not the smartest.'" Boy, it is so hard to tell where the line between 'honest observation' and 'stereotype reinforcement' lies, isn't it?
Ubisoft announced today that Far Cry 2 has gone gold.
They say that when planning a wedding, the hardest part is finding a dress. After that, everything else falls into place. If that's truly the case, Katie Holmes may finally have the most important milestone in moving towards actually marrying the man who proposed to her nearly a year and a half ago. Nevermind that in the interim she's borne the brunt of his societal escapades and the fruit of his fertile loins.
Trevor (Bale) lost the ability to sleep. International trailer for
Slide-out speakers give this thick, Flash-based player a unique look--and mediocre jukebox sound.
It?s official; female gamers or ?GameHers? are taking over the web. In spite of the common perception that online gaming is a predominantly male pastime, a staggering 79 per cent(18,738,000)of women in the UK play games and puzzles online, overtaking men by 1.85 million, according to a study published today.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mel Gibson's redemption tour is heading to TV.
