Persian Penguin Network

We had a pretty firm idea that this was happening, but now Major Nelson has gone and made it official: mass storage is coming the Xbox 360 at long last. There will be a system update on April 6th, which will allow up to two simultaneous USB flash drives plugged into the system, which will be capable of storing profiles, game saves, demos, “and more.” The maximum size supported is 16GB, and even though regular USB hard drives will be supported, they’ll be up against the same size cap, and performance will suffer as well. You’ll have to manually format a USB device for use in this way when plugging it into the 360, but Microsoft will be partnering with SanDisk for a branded drive in May that will come preconfigured. Also tweaked is the new memory management screen (what convenient timing!) which should make shuffling around these files less of a chore. Check out some screenshots below.
By Engadget
[Thanks, Jeff]

OnLive was one of my personal highlights of last years GDC and the service made another announcement at this year’s outing. OnLive will finally launch on June 17th in the United States at a monthly subscription fee of $14.95. Loyalty and multi-month pricing will be announced at E3 later this year. There are currently no details on how much extra rentals and purchases of games will be.

The cloud computing service could steal a lot of Sony and Microsoft’s motion tech thunder if it becomes a hit. But why can it also fail?

I raise this question for one specific reason, pricing. At 15 bucks a month an OnLive subscription will get consumers many features such as instant play demos of all games, cross platform multiplayer (PC, MAC, OnLive Mini Console), Brag Clips and spectating but there is a hook – no rentals are included. I can perfectly understand that full purchases will cost us money but why rentals? I can pay 15 Dollars a month and get unlimited rentals from GameFly or Gamerang including console exclusives which WON’T be available on OnLive. I believe the pricing structure for game rentals will be a pivotal point for OnLive’s success. If consumers have to shell out an additional 8 bucks or so to rent a game this service will cost a lot of hard earned cash.

Will consumers buy into cloud gaming or will they look elsewhere if an annual subscription can cost us up to 180 Dollars to simply play demos ‘instantly’?

I personally have a problem with this unless a weekly rental is sub 3 Dollars or the monthly fee is decreased since 180 bucks only provide limited access to this gaming platform. Sure, the service will allow owners of mediocre spec computers to play games like Burnout Paradise and Crysis but the cost at accessing the service might be too high.

OnLive also announced that the first 25,000 people who pre-register here can get 3 free months of OnLive to get a taste. Hurry and sign up!

By onPause !

When Dead Space 2 comes out in early 2011 on consoles, PSP and potentially iPhone and iPod touch will be getting their own versions as well.

EA revealed today that development of handheld versions of the survival-horror epic is underway with an eye for simultaneous release with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

No specific platforms were announced, but the term “handhelds” as used in the company’s third quarter 2010 fiscal year financial report undoubtedly refers to PSP.

Underwhelming sales and excessive piracy on DS make it an unlikely choice for Dead Space 2; moreover, the failure of mature games makes it an unattractive proposition.

EA’s recent affinity for PSP releases – Army of Two: The 40th Day and Dante’s Inferno – make a Dead Space 2 highly probably.

While the financial report did not cover mobile platforms, iPhone and iPod touch seem to be the elephant in the room. The amazing success of the platform almost guarantees that Dead Space 2 will ship to the App Store as well.

Dead Space 2 will be available in early 2011.

By Pocket Gamers !

Heavy Rain ‘looks brilliant’, says Sony, reveals that greenlighting the IP was a gamble for the company.

Every year or so at the Apple Keynote Event, Steve Jobs, the face of the company, has presented something to the slavering public to make just about everyone want it, even the PC and Linux faithful. So, much to the disappointment of several gadget wizards and technophiles, the unveiled iPad is proving to be far more underwhelming that originally thought. Following off the heels of products like the iPhone and iPod Touch that are slowly proving Apple’s capability to compete in the greater video game market with creative and clever apps, the iPad seems to be taking a minimal step forward, if any at all. Regardless of whether or not gamers will quickly dismiss the iPad as merely an enlarged version of the iPod Touch, that’s really what it’s shaping up to be. Sure, it has the accelerometer that Touch owners have come to expect and love. But while this is cool, it isn’t something we haven’t seen before. Also, take into account that the iPad isn’t capable whatsoever of multitasking. For a product attempting to be a middle ground between the iPod Touch, currently available netbooks and Macbooks, this is a monumental disappointment.

Sure, my PC and Linux machines can multitask exceptionally well along with my Xbox 360, which allows me to talk in party chat while playing a game or seamlessly moving between online mediums like Twitter, Last.fm, Facebook and Netflix. But, iPad doesn’t do this. You better be content doing one thing at a time on your giant iPhone that can’t make calls, because that’s all you’ll be able to do. Additionally, it seems that if you want to attach anything to the iPad, it is going to require a monstrous amount of adapters. Oddly enough, the damn thing requires an adapter for usb. Usb is supposed to be the universal standard for adapters, however I have the feeling that this is just another way Apple is seeking to nickel and dime the early adopters of the iPad. In an age where just about every piece of electronics has some form of HDMI, VGA or DVI for high-definition output, the iPad completely lacks it.

I think this is utterly hilarious that my 360 is hooked up via HDMI, yet if I want to watch something I’ve downloaded from iTunes in glorious high-definition from my iPad, I’m basically out of luck as far as Apple is concerned. Most of all, it doesn’t support any kind of flash which is positively ridiculous. Even web browser enabled consoles are able to support flash video is some capacity and if not, it’s a simple conversion for them to be able to do so on their respective stores (i.e. WiiWare, PSN, XBLA). If this game was able to play flash, even via the Safari browsers, it would garner a huge following from gamers, casual and hardcore alike who just enjoy lounging around and wasting time every so often with the newest browser game. Most damning of all comes from a hopeless reliance on the App store. While this shouldn’t be a problem, Apple has consistently done so to prove otherwise. Apple consistently pulls apps or disallows them from being released on the App store for arbitrary and outrageously poor reasons.

If nothing else, it’s this Draconian mindset on Apple’s part that has pushed many developers away from creating programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch, inevitably garnering the conclusion that the iPad stands to face the same scenario. While the iPod Touch is without a doubt a clever little gadget, the same can’t necessarily be said for the iPad. Besides an immensely silly name, its technical offerings lead potential gamers into a locked down situation with a piece of hardware that is too big to necessarily warrant ever being called a handheld in any capacity. Hopefully later iterations might stand to compete far better in the video game community. But for now, I think gamers can comfortably continue holding onto their controllers with a fair measure of confidence. This new toy may look somewhat pretty, but that’s all it seems to be doing for now. In the past Apple has openly stated they’ve been trying to increase their share of the gaming market by reaching out to the community, but for now, my only real question for Apple is: What the hell am I supposed to do with this?

by Andrew Galbraith (PX360)

It’s The World Most Powerful Netbook ever made !

I never thought the words “gaming netbook” were two that I would ever utter together seriously. Leave it to the guys at Alienware to prove me wrong. Announced back at CES, the M11x features some pretty hefty specs:

- 11.6-inch display
- NVIDIA GT335M switchable graphics
- 6.5 hours of battery life, normally, with a purported “over 2 hours” when gaming

- Processor

• Processor make:
  Intel
• CPU family:
  Core2 Duo (mobile)
• CPU model:
  SU7300
• Processor speed:
  1.3 GHz
• Number of cores:
  Dual-core
• Cache size:
  3 MB L2 cache

So, there you have it. A viable gaming laptop, scratch that, netbook, for $799. It almost makes me fond of the days when even being able to play a PC game could make your wallet ache. Almost.

By PPN

With both the PS3 Motion Controller (rumoured to be called “Arc”) and the Xbox 360 Project Natal having probable release dates for Holiday 2010, it is only natural to ask which one will be better. Since that neither of these technologies are out on the market, it is only fair to ask “Which one will have more potential?”

The short answer to the question is Project Natal by a landslide. Before anybody rips my head off, let me explain.

From what we know and a little bit of speculation, the PS3 motion controller works by having the Eye Toy “sense“ the tip of the wand that has a light attached to it. The controller will most likely contain at least one accelerometer to determine what angle the controller is on and help with keeping track of the motion. This allows for all 3-axis to be measured in a 1:1 motion and at what angle the remote is pointed on the screen. In comparison, the Wii remote uses infrared (IR) sensing technology as well as three accelerometers (one for each axis). These two technologies work together and apparently provides a 1:1 motion control. One advantage that the PS3 Motion Controller will have over the Wii is the ability to track the z-axis (distance from television to remote) accurately because the PS3 relies on both the accelerometers as well as the camera. To track motion in the z-axis, the Wii relies solely on the lone accelerometer.  Another advantage that the PS3 Motion Controller will have over the Wii is far better graphics (and hopefully more hardcore games). Since the PS3 has the same capabilities as the Wii and more, it is safe to say that the PS3 Motion Controller can do whatever the Wii remote can do and more.

On the other hand, we have Project Natal having the ability to track the entire body as well as voice. I am not going to waste any time on explaining why the voice feature may be used; it is a fairly common technology with obvious applications. What intrigues me was how the motion capture worked and what it could be used for. Project Natal is works via a special type of camera called a “time-of-flight camera.” It essentially shoots out signals, have them bounce back, and then reads them. Then with sophisticated algorithms, develops an image of whatever is in front of it.

This means that you could possibly hold any stick (like a wood stick, plastic gun, baseball bat, the PS3 wand, Wii remote etc.) and it could possibly be able to detect it, in 1:1 motion and at what angle you are at. Basically, Natal could be able to do anything the PS3 or Wii can do and so much more. Granted, with the recent leak that Natal could use up a portion of a processor on the Xbox, it seems like the PS3 will have better graphics.

Once again, I must stress that both of these technologies are not on the market and how they are going to work is not yet fully known, so this article is purely written about the potential of these add-ons .

Think I missed anything on either Natal or the Motion Controller? Have any more potential ideas for this technology? Leave it on the boards or in the comments.

Thanks to couchmercenaries

Rolf Nelson, a Wheaton College psychology professor, has just released the results of his study which aimed to shed some light on the impact of playing video games between tasks. The study, which is directed to the speed and accuracy of accomplishing tasks, yielded that those who played an action game managed to finish a task faster but less accurate, while those who played a strategy game got it more accurately, but required more time to do so.

Nelson, who specializes in human visual perception, made use of Unreal Tournament for the action game, while turned to Portal for puzzle-solving strategy. Subjects were asked to spend an hour with these games in between two tasks, and the outcome saw their own pros and cons. “If they’re playing an action game and then switch to homework, they may try to blaze through their homework at the cost of making mistakes,” Nelson said.

“Results convincingly demonstrate a priming effect for two different types of video games,” Nelson says. “Playing Unreal Tournament, an action video game, resulted in faster reaction times and lower accuracy on a location task, while playing Portal, a puzzle game, resulted in slower reaction times and higher accuracy.”

If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of the study, you can check its abstract here.

[via NewsWise]

VidZone, the free online music video service for the PS3 will be expanding to 11 new countries in Europe this month.

The Netherlands, Portugal and Austria will be able to download and access the service from November 23. Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland will gain access on December 3 while Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and New Zealand can try it out on December 10.

Unfortunately for all of us in America & Asia, this free music video streaming service isn’t coming our way any time soon.

By QJ

Tech blog Digital Foundry reports that sources “intimately involved with the alliances and deal-making within their sector” have effectively confirmed that Nintendo and nVidia are indeed teaming up for the next DS iteration. The report also mentions that Sony has formed an alliance with IMG for the PSP2.

While neither devices have been flat-out confirmed by both groups, Digital Foundry tosses around some tentative tech specs for the next generation of handheld gaming supposedly leaked by industry insiders. It’s a long post, so we’ll just get a few snippets for each handheld.

Here’s what they can say about the DS2:

So, how does the Tegra 2 we expect to see in the new Nintendo handheld stack up? Let’s just say that it is a significant improvement, and a colossal jump in performance compared to the current DS. While the amount of vertex shader units remains the same, TMUs and pixel shaders are doubled, and as the chip will be manufactured at a physically smaller size (40nm perhaps, versus the current Tegra’s 65nm), we can expect a reasonable bump in clock speed too. Our sources can only speculate at this point, but suspect anything up to 300MHz is possible, depending on just how much the platform holders want to concentrate on battery power. The faster the chip, the more impact it has on battery life.

…

Regardless, there’s no doubt that the new Nintendo unit will have a useful graphical power boost over what’s been seen in the currently available Tegra devices, and in terms of the tech demo discussed previously, we also need to factor in that handheld consoles are unlikely to require full WVGA 800×480: an iPhone utilises a 480×320 screen, for example. Fewer pixels means more effects or potentially higher frame-rates.

And here’s what PSP fans can allegedly expect from the PSP2:

From what we’ve learned about the in-development PSP2, the device is going to be a technological monster. Insiders in the mobile space are fully aware that a deal has been struck between Sony and IMG (creators of the PowerVR derivatives found in the iPhone) and, as previously reported by Eurogamer, a multi-core variant of the forthcoming SGX543 looks set to the GPU of choice for the new machine. A four-core version of the chip appears to be most likely, and while this sounds like overkill, at 45nm you’d be looking at die of around 20 square millimetres based on measurement derived from IMG’s own whitepaper. That’s significantly lower than the silicon used by the current-generation PSP’s graphics unit, which should give some inkling of an idea on costs and power consumption.

…

The raw potential of Sony’s mooted solution is seriously impressive, to the point where you really have to sit down and take a deep breath before reading the next bit: we’re talking about a GPU with the potential to be a halfway house between the raw power of the original Xbox’s graphics chip and the Xenos GPU found in the Xbox 360, without factoring in all the advantages of running on a much lower resolution screen.

You can check out the full post by clicking the source link below. It’s long and filled with a lot of technical terms, but it does make for some interesting weekend reading, especially for hardcore technophiles.

By QJ