Microsoft builds Gears of War heat with cheap edition

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that Microsoft has perfected the art of marketing gigantic titles. Last year, Microsoft’s elaborate Halo 3 marketing campaign saw the game make a mockery of many video game sales records and now it is geared up to do the same with Epic’s Gears of Wars 2. The game is scheduled for a November 03, 2008 release but Microsoft, the game’s publisher, has already announced two new Gears of Wars editions - not Gears of War 2. There will soon be a two-disc collector’s edition and a generic game disc at a discounted price. The discounted copy will be priced $39.99 for the 360 and 29.99 for the PC, while the collector’s edition will lighten your pockets by $39.99.The collector’s edition will include previous GOW downloads and special GOW 2 content.

Sony PS3 Controllers: No Replaceable Battery?

It doesn’t seem official yet but news swirling around the internet about the PS3 controllers is not all good. It seems that they will have bluetooth technology to be wireless but once the battery doesn’t charge anymore, off we have to send it back to Sony. Think Apple and iPod. Read more.

Game Consoles Duke It Out

Even though consoles such as the PS2 has been a smash hit, video game makers can never sit back and rest. They always need to have the next console model bigger and badder than ever, plus they need to have great games that will keep the money rolling in. So who will win when the Wii and PS3 comes out?

Great Graphics on PS3 Japan

Take a look at the excellent graphics coming soon from White Knight on the PS3 Japan version video game. How much longer before the characters in video games looks so real you think your watching a movie?

White Knight PS3 game for Japan

Wii, Wii…No, No

Nintendo has apparently gotten in on the joke that is the Wii. After recieving over 200,000 emails with let them know that their precious new console is being acquated to urine, it seems that it might be enough to get them to change this incredibly stupid name.

Will they? Hopefully it’s a resounding wii.

The Evolution of the Video Game Console 1972-Present

The Wii Controller, Really?

Just when you think that you will need to start taking classes just to figure out how to use your video game controller, it seems Nintendo might be taking us back to a simplier time with their Wii Controllers.

If this is really the controller, all I can say is it’s about time. I can never remember which of 50 buttons does what anyway. It’s hard not to feel like your flying a jet with the amount of buttons we have on the most recent gaming systems.

Source

The Nintendo BS

You’ve all seen the Nintendo DS but someone with a sense of humor made the Nintendo BS. This has been around for a few years, but I still have friends who have never seen it, so here it is The BS. More than anything else it’s pretty fun and makes a lot of people say “I’d like to them them fold it up”. I however think that if the nerds got beat up before, wait until somebody sees them with this thing. =)

Nintendo’s New System Is Less Whee, More Why?

Millions of fans are confused as to why the video game maker Nintendo decided to go from Revolution to Whee for the name of their new upcoming system. Everyone is trying to figure out what it means and so far that’s not happening.

All they can assume is that when it’s close to release time for it, they might just explain it to us. There will more than likely be a massive ad campaign. So until thing wee wee to you.

Resident Evil 5 Comes to 360 and PS3

Capcom has issued a press release announcing that their Resident Evil 5 title would be ported on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

Gamespot also gives a few more details about this in a recent news article:

The announcement of an Xbox 360 Resident Evil 5 does mark an increasing change of heart for Capcom. Traditionally, the company has given Microsoft’s current-generation console, the Xbox, only tepid support in the form of rereleases of older titles such as Genma Onimusha. However, that changed during this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, with the unveiling of Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance and Final Fight: Streetwise, two top holiday titles that will ship on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 simultaneously.

Capcom’s brief announcement did not mention a ship date for Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360, which is due in Q4 2005, or the PlayStation, which currently has a “spring 2006″ launch window. American Capcom reps told GameSpot that they “do not have any further details at this time” on the announced versions or a potential version for Nintendo’s Revolution, which was not mentioned in the release.

Devs Can Start Working Now

GameIndustryBiz.com reports that MicroSoft has now begun shipping development versions of the Xbox 360 to studios - not as powerful yet as the final product will be, but more advanced than the G5-based ones used for game demos at E3. In fact, the hardware seems to be much closer to the one of the final version, rather than the contrary.

It looks however like the launch being planned for the fourth calendar quarter, said developers will have to work quickly in order to finalize games. We’ll see, we’ll see. This at least sounds like good news, being able to work on more stable hardware than the alpha version.

About the Revolution Controller

Some more from GamesAreFun.com, with a little bit regarding the controller for Nintendo’s upcoming Revolution console. It seems that nobody exactly knows what it will look like - nobody from the public, that is.

In an interview with EGM, Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime said that just because “you and your fans haven’t seen the controller doesn’t mean that no one else has. The thing that I always find surprising, and certainly in the last year I’ve had wonderful opportunities to spend quality time with a number of our key third-party publishers, is when you sit down and share the innovation with them, just how excited they get. I saw it firsthand with DS, we’re seeing it now with Revolution,” he continued.

But since he wasn’t content at just talking up Rev and plugging the DS, he dropped some hints as to the design of the controller, saying, “If you just think about it, we’re going to have the ability through wireless internet to download all your great games from NES, SNES, N64. Think about it - each of those controllers are different. How are you gonna play? That captured some of the imagination of what our controller needs to be able to do, and certainly as you get into the meat of that type of innovation with the developers, their eyes truly light up because they start to imagine what’s possible with that kind of configuration, which is vastly different than a sheer horsepower kind of game.

I also saw some comments praying “No touchscreen, please”. We’ll see what other news will be gotten from Nintendo about this in times to come - “soon” would be nice.

Game Controller Family tree

Want to learn when the analog stick’s speciation from its ancestor the d-pad? or how about where the mutation known as shoulder buttons came from? Well, fear not, all your game controller evolution questions are answered in Sock Master’s Game Console Controller Family Tree. Starting with the classic Atari joystick, and Nintendo’s Game and Watch (alright I admit it, the only reason I know what that is, is Mr. Game and Watch and his flipping bacon from Super Smash Brothers) it covers everything up to the just released PS3, 360, and Revolution controllers, clearly illustrating the Nintendo, Sony, and Sega/XBox lineages along the way.

I was also glad to see that I’m not the only one that finds the original XBox controllers less intiutive and more badly mishappen than I’d hope. Fun fact for the day:

In what has perhaps become an industry first, the original Xbox controller has largely been abandoned in favor of the Controller S, which has now been adopted as the controller of choice.

I’ll just pretend that they left all these original controllers in the stores, and thats what I keep getting stuck with whenever I play the demo for five minutes, succeed in shooting everything but the alien, throwing a grenade not quite three feet, killing myself, and in short realizing I still don’t quite feel the need to buy an XBox just yet.

Don’t Forget To Carry The One

If Microsoft ships 3 million Xbox 360s, at under $300 each, by December 25, 2005, on a train moving east at 70 mph, how many more human souls will der Führer Gates have under his control? Goldman Sachs integrates the function. [GameSpot]

Six Degrees Of Xbox 360

The six degrees of Kevin Bacon game is for Communist puppy abortionists — play this instead. Get from pop star slash (alleged) toddler fornicator Michael Jackson to Microsoft’s next next-gen console in six steps or less. Give up? Allow us:

In 1991, Michael Jackson (allegedly) inappropriately touched Macaulay Culkin who starred in the 1993 thriller The Good Son with Elijah Wood who will host a 30-minute show on MTV this May to preview the XBOX 360!

Boo yeah, bitches, we win again! In three steps, no less. Learn about it.

Ixnay On The Ivehundredfay Ollarsday!

According to an April 7 GameFAQs Poll of the Day, nearly 3% of respondents are willing to pay $500+ for a next-gen console. That’s 1,600 of you spoiled brat, Neo-Geo buyers of yore. Do everyone else a favor and STFU! — we don’t need Microsoft and Sony getting any bright ideas. This has been an exclusive Thumb Gods editorial. Church. [GameFAQs]

The Return Of The Cart

Remember when “troubleshooting” consisted of blowing the dust out of the ass of a Nintendo cartridge to make the fucker work? Those simpler times are returning, reports Gaming Horizon:

While various reports continue to pour in about the upcoming generation of console systems, Nintendo of America has today confirmed in an industry report that the Big N’s next console system (currently codenamed Nintendo Revolution) will indeed use cartridge media for game software, and not any sort of optical media as one would expect… “The best we can do at this time is return to our time-tested cartridge format. In addition to ensuring copyright security, cartridges are much more durable than any other alternative. We have developed a new, flash-based N-Cart© technology that allows over 2 Gigabytes of content in the same form-factor as the Nintendo 64© console’s cartridges.”

We smell backwards compatibility — and burnt toast. Should we call a doctor?

Nintendo Revolution to Use Cartridges [Gaming Horizon]