This thing gets me all too excited every year, especially now I am working in the business as it were.

No doubt those of you who care have been keeping up to date and such. Needless to say the HL2 trailer is sitting proudly on my desktop. Halo 2 is out November 9th. San Andreas has BMXs! Doom 3 looks like it will give me the willies. And the PSP and Nintendo DS look super-sexy-good.

INDULGE THE GEEK WITHIN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

http://www.e3insider.com/index.htm

I have to say I'm looking forward to the Nintendo DS. Not least because it is backwards compatible with GameBoy Advance. The design looks rather vanilla though. I hope they redo that aspect of it. PSP looks awsome with its widescreen format. But it will take awhile for it to get on its feet, as it is a completely new system with a new set of games.

Biggest surprise for me is the new Zelda game. I can't wait. Other games to look out for is Battlfeild 2, Stalker, Msg3.

Oh and funniest moment:

LA Convention Centre security staff were left flat-footed and red-faced yesterday as two unknown perps had it away with a copy of the MGS3: Snake Eater demo code. According to eyewitness reports they achieved this by leaning heavily on the unit before simply ejecting the disc."

One of the perps was heard shouting "Run Steve! RUN!" in what witnesses describe as a "German accent".
from gamesradar.com

:haha:

Yeah the new zelda game looks gooood. Still haven't finished ocarina or started majora's mask. I haven't even bought wind waker. seeing as the game won't hit western shores for a good year though that should be enough tiome to get through the series though.

Not overly impressed by either the DS or the PSP, 2 1/2 hours of gameplay? noooowhere near enough. I really hope they improve this before release or at least sell a long life battery as an add on.

What happened to this mystery new GC periphiral that ninty were supposed to be unveiling too?

I think it is supposed to be similar to the ps2's Eye toy thingy. Well that was the rumour. I haven't heard any anouncment yet though. Weird.

really? Never heard that rumour. If it is that sounds pretty cool, the eye toy looked like a decent toy from what I've heard.
That or a dancemat and appropriate game would be high on my nintendo wishlist. Not as high though as 'I wish nintendo would stop announcing that they have a secret something in development but they're not going to let on what it might be'

They *have* confirmed that the N5, or next generation Ninendo console, is now in developement though. Not that that news is especially surprising but still.

I Was Keeping My Fingers Crossed Digitalrex (Took Over AM-2) Would Finally Get Around To Announcing Shenmue III. Alas No :(

http://news.gaminghorizon.com/media/1081868871.html
that must be where I spotted it.

I personally would like to see some sort of dvd add on for the Cube. It would at least put it on even par with the xbox and Ps2.

PooperScooper spouted:
I personally would like to see some sort of dvd add on for the Cube. It would at least put it on even par with the xbox and Ps2.

I disagree. As it stands the GC is by far the best console as a pure gaming platform. When used and programmed for correctly that is.

I suspect in the next wave of consoles we will see a major shift in direction and possibly parting of the ways for the game console as a pure entity with the creation of a more versatile home entertainment system on the other side. With that in mind I am unsure where exactly the XBox 2 will fit in. PS3 is most probably going to fit into the PSX mould with MP3, DVD-R and Tivo-style functions along with more support for sound systems and such. Without the sort of experience in the home entertainment field that Sony have I am unsure how Microsoft and Nintendo are going to be able to cope without sticking to their guns and making their games systems really work for games alone.

I'm with stokie on this one, games consoles whould play games, not DVDs, that's what DVD players are for. I appreciate the one box idea but if you want good quality it's always better to go for seperate. I'm a little concerned that the more games companies try to do in one box, the worse it performs at each individual task. It's the 'jack of all trades' problem.
The nokia N-gage is a perfect example. it's not a great phone, it's not a great MP3 player and it's not a great handheld games machine,. it's simply passable as each. It's only a few months old now and they've already released the QD to replace it, when products get replaced that quickly you know there's a problem.

The thing is I'm all for system integration and rather like the sound of the PS3 being modelled on the PSX style of "all-in-one" box. And I think Sony have the experience to make it work.

My concern is that Sony *can* make this work and competitors can't. Thus Microsoft and Nintendo sales drop and you end up with Sony entirely controlling the market. And that sort of sterility and control is not a good thing.

I fear what will happen though is that there will be a parting of the ways, with Sony taking the home entertainment system approach and Microsoft throwing all their PC knowhow and resources at the XBox creating a massive split in the market. In such a situation Nintendo, I fear, will end up going the way of Sega. Which would not be great.

I beleive Nintendo's plans are to not so much push the cutting edge of technology but to make a platform that is easy to code and make the best games for. Lets face it, there wont be much difference between the current generation of machines and the next generation graphics wise and Nintendo does have the knack of making the best games out there.
Graphically the PS2 is a shitbox when compared to a Gamecube or an Xbox. The games are enjoyed by retards and are generally over simplistic with not much attention payed to diversity (lets make a beatemup/ fps/sportsim for the PS2).

sirk spouted:
LA Convention Centre security staff were left flat-footed and red-faced yesterday as two unknown perps had it away with a copy of the MGS3: Snake Eater demo code. According to eyewitness reports they achieved this by leaning heavily on the unit before simply ejecting the disc."

One of the perps was heard shouting "Run Steve! RUN!" in what witnesses describe as a "German accent". [/B]

Do you reckon they sidled up to the stand first, tapped on a nearbye crate to distract the security guards and then escaped by getting inside a big cardboard box and shuffling away every time people turned their backs? That would've been cool.

dominoid spouted:
Do you reckon they sidled up to the stand first, tapped on a nearbye crate to distract the security guards and then escaped by getting inside a big cardboard box and shuffling away every time people turned their backs?

I LIVE ON THROUGH THIS ARM!

Sony have said there will be 2 versions of the PS3. one thats a pure console, and another which is more expensive but is an entire home entertainment system in a box. I'll dig out the details when i get home from work.

Jedichef spouted:
I'll dig out the details when i get home from work.

Ooh! Do!

stoke_fields spouted:


Ooh! Do!

ok the things i had seen before as is common with the net are hiding from me now. i'll post what i can find. might be shite, might not. i'llk try and keep it to stuff that attributable to reliable sources.

not sure what bits will be new nes to you but here we go. to be honest i forgot about this and seeing as how i'm prett drunk right ow i'm not in the best frame of mind for finding stuff :P this might all be old news to you :)


In a recent interview with David Reeves, SCEE’s President and COO, it was revealed that there may be two versions of the PS3 at launch.

Reeves stated that there are plans for an "all-singing, all-dancing" version of the PS3 (similar to the PSX) which might retail for 600 or 700 Euros (or 730 to 850 US dollars), along with a simpler version of the console available which would just play games and movies, retailing at approximately 200 Euros (or 240 US dollars).

In the interview Reeves also commented on the end goal of the PS3, which is to have always-on broadband connections for every PS3. It will not be a simple task, however, with him stating, “it's going to have to be a 2 or 3Mb [connection speed], something like that... Ken [Kutaragi]'s even talking about 30Mb!”

So it seems Sony has huge plans for the future of the gaming industry, and it certainly will be very interesting seeing how they unfold!


Sony said today that they will be investing $1.13 billion into the fabrication of 65nanometer microchips. These chips will be using 300mm wafers and are going to be the core of the “Cell” technology, which will power the Playstation 3. Some $340 million of that total will go towards production lines at IBM's East Fishkill, New York facility. Out of the rest, $500 million will go toward upgrading Sony's Nagasaki lab, and $293 million on a Toshiba plant in Oita, South-west Japan. Toshiba is itself investing $397 million on that facility. The three firms will together produce up to 15,000 units per month, and IBM say test productions from all three lines will commence during the first half of 2005. This investment is set to take place at the start of Sony's next fiscal year (April). The "Cell" microprocessor is being jointly developed by IBM, Tohsiba and Sony; but meanwhile IBM is developing the PowerPC- based CPU to be used in the guts of the Xbox 2. With both platforms aiming to use 65 nanometer chips it will certainly be a head to head battle when both units are released.


In a report by the Japanese computer magazine, Asahi Personal Computer, Sony manager Kiyoshi Nishitani commented on their want to include Blue Ray ROM (BD-Rom) as the medium for PlayStation 3 games. Blue Ray technology would allow up to 50 Gigabytes of space per disc, a size which would allow even the biggest Next Gen games to fit comfortably without the need of multiple discs. These comments, however, are not by any means a new revelation. As rumours have been spreading about BlueRay for quite some time. This is not confirmation of the definite inclusion of Blue Ray, just an indication that Sony are strongly looking into it.

Sony Corporation has developed a triple wavelength optical head, which is capable of recording and playing back Blu-ray, DVD and CD Formats. Experts believe that Blu-Ray may feature in Sony's PlayStation 3 Console.

They achieved this by developing a triple wavelength laser, and also an object lens corresponding to the 3 different wavelengths that each format operates on.

Sony plan to commercialize the newly developed triple wavelength optical head within the next 2 years. They also plan to further reduce the number of parts used and achieve even smaller sized optical heads. As a result Sony hope to increase productivity and reliability of the unit and therefore contribute to the BD market expansion. Read the Full Press release here. (http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200405/04-026E/)

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by thirteen leading consumer electronics and pc companies icluding Dell, Hitachi, HP, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition television (HDTV). Blu-ray can record over 2 hours of HDTV, or more than 13 hours of SDTV on a 27GB disc. There are also plans for higher capacity discs that are expected to hold up to 54GB of data.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD use a red laser to read and write data, BD uses a blue laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. The benefit of using a blue laser is that it has a shorter wavelength (405 nanometer) than a red laser (650 nanometer), which means that it's possible to focus the laser beam with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly on the disc and makes it possible to fit more data on the same size disc. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray Disc recorders can be made backwards compatible with current red-laser technologies and allow playback of CDs and DVDs.

Sony Computer Entertainment chief technology officer Masa Chatani gave some intriguing comments at E3 this year.

In the fourth quarter of this year Sony Computer Entertainment and IBM plan to debut the first prototype of a powerful workstation based on the Cell. The workstation will prefigure the eventual arrival of a Cell-based development tool for Sony's next game console.

The workstation will use a new development environment created by Sony and IBM and will feature some of the same development tools as the eventual PS3 development kit. The workstation will include the following features:

Rendering modeling
Visual effects
Facial expressions
Physics
AI Behaviour
Testing and analysis
And many others
Sony will handle the applications, tools, and middleware for the new platform, while IBM will develop the operating systems and hardware.

While the workstation will precede the dedicated development tool, Chatani said it will still play a key role in the development of games, taking care of intensive tasks like physics simulation and movie rendering. It's also not limited to game applications. Sony and IBM plan to market it for use in digital content creation for movies and other media.

Chatani expects movies, games and other entertainment to share a common delivery medium, reaching the user through a network created by numerous broadband-connected Cell-powered consoles dubbed the "Cyber World," claiming that users will one day "jack in" and seamlessly navigate a networked virtual world acquiring whatever entertainment they want.

whys didnt that lst post of mine show on the forum page? weird :/

Jedichef spouted:
this might all be old news to you :)

I've heard some of it before (mostly the stuff about the Cell chip) but the rest is new and very exciting. Good find!

booth babes. hmmmmmmmmm *drool*

games i can't wait for

half life 2
pariah
F.E.A.R
playboy the mansion ;)
doom 3