Saturday, June 10, 2006

Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3

There's a good comparison between the 360 and the PS3 at Yahoo! Video Games, it's worth checking out.
One thing they brought up was the Xbox 360's lack of HDMI, saying you should go for the PS3 for HD movie playback. According to this article at Team Xbox though, it may not matter.

Thanks to Xbox-Scene

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Top Ten Games on Live (June 10)

Here are the top ten most played games on Xbox Live (based on users playing), for Xbox 1 and 360, from Major Nelson:

Xbox 360 Top Live Games

1 Call of Duty 2
2 Ghost Recon 3
3 Oblivion
4 BFMC
5 Final Fantasy XI
6 PGR3
7 Hitman: Blood Money
8 EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3
9 Perfect Dark Zero
10 Rockstar Table Tennis

Original Xbox Top Live Games
1 Halo 2
2 Battlefield 2: MC
3 Counter-Strike
4 Splinter Cell Chaos
5 Pro Evolution Soccer 5
6 Rainbow Six 3 BA
7 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
8 Madden NFL 2006
9 Forza Motorsport
10 Ghost Recon 2: SS

If the lists were combined, Halo 2 would be at the top, and then all the 360 games.

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Friday, June 09, 2006

An article about in-game advertising

There's an article about in-game advertising on Gamespot, it's a good read if you want to know some more about how, when, and why ads might be used in video games in the coming years.

Here's my idea of a great way to use it. Why not use ads instead of a monthly fee for MMO games? Let's look at Huxley, and how it would work: There will be around 5,000 people per server. If they had some billboards (like GRAW) and other ads scattered around they could make a lot of money. Plus, Microsoft recently purchased Massive. All I know about them is they do advertising in video games, so it seems like Microsoft already has what they need to set it up. They could also have ads when multiplayer and such is loading, instead of game pictures, tips, or whatever. And for those of you who don't want ads they could have an optional monthly fee with no ads. As long as they could do it without overdoing the ads, it would be a great solution.

More on Huxley: Description, Screenshots

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How to clear your 360's cache

There were many things the recent dashboard update can do, but this is one they didn't tell you about. This will clear the cache, along with any game updates (like the Oblivion patch). Here's how it's done, from GamersReports:

Go to the system blade and then memory. Press Y on either the HDD or a MU and then press X,X,Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X,X. Once you do this a blade will pop up saying: This will perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices. Do you want to continue? Pick yes or no.

I can't think of how this could harm your system, but you never know, so be aware. If it completely messes everything up, don't blame me.

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Thursday, June 08, 2006

Your custom sountracks in backwards compatible games

According to Xbox 360 Fanboy, since the update you can now listen to your own custom soundtracks in any backwards compatible Xbox 1 game the same way as in 360 games. Just set up the music you want, then boot up the Xbox 1 game and it will continue to play. You won't be able to control it though, so set the volume, playlist and shuffle before you go into the game.

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Wednesday, June 07, 2006

New Content on Marketplace-Rumble Roses Demo, PDZ maps, new videos, themes, and gamerpics

Here's what's new on Markeplace:

Demos:
Rumble Roses Double X (854.31 MB)

Videos:
Kameo: Elements of Power 40 Below Video (67.34 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Pummel Weed Video (81.48 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Rubble Video (53.25 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Thermite Video (81.87 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Chilla Video (78.89 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Combos Video (42.36 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Deep Blue Video (53.90 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Flex Video (67.61 MB)
Kameo: Elements of Power Major Ruin Video (54.89 MB)
Matisyahu: King Without a Crown Live - Video (480p, 49.48 MB and 720p, 269.03 MB)

Themes:
Dead Rising Theme 4 (7.29 MB, 150 MS Points)
LOTR, BFMEII: Cinematic Paintings Theme 2 (4.39 MB, 150 MS Points)
12 News Top Spin 2 Themes (150 MS Points each)

Pictures:
Top Spin 2 - Picture Pack 1 (172 KB, 60 MS Points)
Top Spin 2 - Picture Pack 2 (172 KB, 60 MS Points)
Top Spin 2 - Picture Pack 3 (156 KB, 60 MS Points)
LOTR, BFME II: Dwarves Picture Pack (288 KB, 160 MS Points)

Game Content:
Perfect Dark Zero Map Pack One (231.89 MB, 500 MS Points)

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Oblivion patch

A free patch is now available for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, fixing many glitches and bugs.
Read the details of what it does at The Elder Scrolls website.

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New Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter content

I reported earlier there will be new content for GRAW sometime in the future. On the official Ghost Recon website, they give details and say it will be available for download at the end of the month.

Here's some details on what the download contains:

Continuation of Co-op Campaign with 4 All New Missions in Chapter 2:

Coffee Plantation (Day)
Shipping Port (Evening)
River Depot (Dawn)
Jungle Mine (Day)
8 Revisited; Relit MP Adversarial Maps: 8 of GRAW’s favorite MP maps are revisited and relit for a new gameplay experience.
  • Fishing Village (Dusk)
  • Wharf (Late day)
  • Old Town (Morning)
  • Nowhere (Evening)
  • Coffee Plantation (Evening)
  • Shipping Port (Sunset)
  • River Depot (Day)
  • Jungle Mines (Evening)

    2 New Game Types with 1 Game Mode - Team Battle: 2 all new game types add upon GRAW’s long list of available game types.
  • Team Blind Siege
  • Team Battle

    2 New Camouflage Patterns
  • Canadian CADPAT
  • British DPM

    4 New Character Customization Faces

    4 new faces with new camo

    5 New Weapons
    SR-25 SD (Marksman)
    M468 (Rifleman)
    M468/M320 (Grenadier)
    AK-47 LMG (Gunner)
    SCAR-H SV (Rifleman)
  • Go to the Ghost Recon website for a description of the new maps and new weapons, along with more details.

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    Tuesday, June 06, 2006

    Halo 3: Behind the Scenes video


    A little while ago Bungie revealed they were working on a video about the Halo 3 trailer. It is now available on their website, Bungie.net, with both Quicktime and Windows Media formats. They have HD versions for both, and it will be availble in HD on Xbox Live Marketplace in a week or two. You get to see a lot of what went into making the trailer, and the music composing. There are some things that got cut from the trailer, and new angles and views from in the trailer. And the most interesting part: Bungie says, "If you look very, very carefully, you'll see hints of things to come. Nothing too dramatic, but the fans will spot stuff, of that we're certain."

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    Over half a billion games played in Halo 2


    As of around noon yesterday, half a billion Halo 2 games (not player-sessions) had been played. Halo 2 is still the most popular game on Live, and the number of hours and games played are growing all the time.

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    Monday, June 05, 2006

    Chrome Controller Shell

    Team Xtender has made a full Chrome controller shell, which will go nicely with their previous Chrome faceplate.

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    The Dashboard update is (finally) getting realeased at 2 am, 6/6/06

    The dashboard update is finally going to be released. Major Nelson says it will be available Tuesday, at 0200 PT. It may take up to four hours for you to get prompted that it is available, so you will be getting it between 0200 and 0600, or whenever you next sign in to Xbox Live. It will have over 125 new features, for details go to Xbox.com.
    Here is a full list of all the features.

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