SAU E3 2005 Thread (Possible 56k warning)

[ABuSD]

Thought i might get a nice big thread together listing the games and highlights of E3 this year.

In each post theres a link to the game on a particular site check out them as some have movies. Theres also a copied description of whats in the link to save u from constantly clicking on the site, allowing u to only look more in depth of the games u want.

E3 is not open to the public. E3 is a trade event and only professionals from the industry will be allowed to attend. Individuals who are not able to document their direct and current professional affiliation to the interactive entertainment industry are not qualified to attend E3. All E3 attendees are required to show government-issued photo I.D. (such as a driver's license or passport) upon request.

E3 2005 takes place May 18-20, 2005 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The LACC is conveniently located at the intersection of the Santa Monica and Harbor Freeways. Los Angeles Convention Center 1201 South Fiqueroa Street Los Angeles, California 90015 Phone: 213.741.1151 Fax: 213.765.4266

[ABuSD]

PlayStation 3 announced for 2006

Bye bye XBOX 360!

LOS ANGELES--Today saw the second of the big three console makers announce its next-generation platform. At its pre-E3 press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment gave the world its first look at the PlayStation 3, as it is now officially called. While the device's price has not yet been set, its release window--spring 2006--has. Flanked by Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Kaz Hirai, SCE head Ken Kutaragi introduced it as a "supercomputer for computer entertainment."

The name was not unexpected, since Sony had been running an extensive teaser-ad campaign prepping the public for the PlayStation 3. The company had laid a blanket of posters around the Los Angeles Convention Center, site of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3). Bus stalls and billboards around the convention center proclaimed "Prepare for Chang3" in the distinctive PlayStation font with partial shots of the Dual Shock controller's square-circle-triangle-X buttons.

Sony also confirmed the PlayStation 3 will use Blu-ray discs as its media format. The discs can hold up to six times as much data as current-generation DVDs. It will also support CR-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R formats. Sony also confirmed that the machine will be backward compatible all the way to the original PlayStation. It will also have slots for Memory Stick Duo, an SD slot, and a compact flash memory slot. It will also sport a slot for a detachable 2.5-inch HDD, somewhat similar to the Xbox 360's. Sony did not mention if the drive would be standard.

Sony also laid out the technical specs of the device. The PlayStation 3 will feature the much-vaunted Cell processor, which will run at 3.2GHz, giving the whole system 2 teraflops of overall performance. It will sport 256MB XDR main RAM at 3.2GHz, and it will have 256MB of GDDR VRAM at 700MHz.

Sony also unveiled the PS3's graphics chip, the RSX "Reality Synthesizer," which is based on Nvidia technology. The GPU will be capable of 128bit pixel precision and 1080p resolution--some of the highest HD resolution around. The RSX also has 512MB of graphics render memory and is capable of 100 billion shader operations and 51 billion dot products per second. It also has more than 300 million transistors, larger than any processor commercially available today. It will be manufactured using the 90nm process, with eight layers of metal. The RSX is more powerful than two GeForce 6800 Ultra video cards, which would cost roughly $1,000 total if purchased today.

The PlayStation 3 will also sport some hefty multimedia features, such as video chat, Internet access, digital photo viewing, and digital audio and video. Speaking of video, Sony Computer Entertainment's chief technical officer Masa Chatani was on hand to show off the PS3's panoramic video functions. Since the console has two HD outputs, it is can be hooked up to two side-by-side HDTVs to projecting video in a 32:9 extra-widescreen format (think Cinemascope in your living room). Like a gigantic version of the Nintendo DS, the dual digital outputs also allow for an extended game display, with the action on one screen and either game information or video chat on the second.

Out of the box, the PS3 will have the capability to support seven Bluetooth controllers, which can be used for nearly 24 hours before they require charging. Later, pictures of the controllers themselves were released, showing their almost boomerang-like shape. It will also have six USB slots for peripherals: four up front and two in the back. As rumored, it will also have Wi-Fi connectivity to the PSP, which can be used as a remote screen and/or controller.

Dr. Richard Marx, the inventor of EyeToy, was on hand to show off the PS3's wireless HD IP Camera. The demo recalled rumors that the machine will have Minority Report-esque motion-sensing capabilities. Marx held two small cup-like objects in his hands, which moved the cups on the screen in real time.

To show off the PlayStation 3's graphical brawn, Sony showed several game demos, including an Unreal 3 engine show-off of what appeared to be Unreal Tournament 2007. In what must come as a relief to developers, Epic Games' Tim Sweeney was on hand to vouch for the PS3, saying it was "easy to program for" and that Epic had received its first PS3 hardware two months ago. He proved the tech demo was real-time by showing it again and by manipulating the camera and zooming in.

Sony also showed off several other tech demos. One was a next-gen remake of the famed "duck demo" first shown when the PlayStation 2 launched. Except this time, instead of one duck in a bathtub, the demo showed a whole flock of ducks milling about, as well as several toy battleships. Another demo showed grass and foliage growing while another showed Gran Turismo cars racing with Spider-Man swinging overhead. Speaking of Spider-Man, another demo showed highly detailed renders of Alfred Molina as Dr. Octopus recreated from the film Spider-Man 2.

However, Sweeney's words were only the beginning. Later, Sony trotted out a whole host of publishers that are backing the PlayStation 3. And in the process, it confirmed several games for the console. Hideo Kojima introduced Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4, Capcom showed off Devil May Cry 4, Namco unveiled Tekken 6, Polyphony Digital trotted out a fifth Gran Turismo, SCEE showed off the next Killzone, and Rockstar Games showed a new Red Dead Revolver.

EA President Larry Probst was also on hand to show off a demonstration of the next Fight Night game, which will presumably be called Fight Night Round 3. When one of the two fighters took a blow, his skin rippled realistically. Kudo Tsonoda from EA's Chicago studio was on hand, and said that the goal is to make the facial animation convey the amount of punishment a pugilist has suffered.

And still the games came. SCEE had three on display: A third Getaway, with an even seedier, nastier version of London; a new off-road racing game called Motor Storm from Evolution Studios; and a shooter called Heavenly Sword. Sega is readying Fifth Phantom Saga, and Bandai is prepping another Gundam game. Ubisoft is continuing to innovate in the first-person shooter field with an all-new IP named Killing Day. Koei enlightened the crowd with a demo of Ni-oh, a new martial-arts-themed brawler about Buddha's monk bodyguards. Incognito is developing a sequel to Warhawk, the acclaimed actioner for the original PlayStation.

However, one of the night's most impressive tech demos will likely be the most disappointing for fans of the Final Fantasy series. After showing some footage from the upcoming Final Fantasy XII for the PlayStation 2, Square Enix Yochi Wada showed a very impressive demo called "Final Fantasy VII: Technical Demo for PlayStation 3." The visually impressive demo showed a sequence of a cityscape, culminating with fan favorite Cloud jumping out of a train. However, Wada said the clip was "merely a sample" and Square Enix currently has no plans to release a remake of Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation 3. However, he did say the series would arrive on the console in "some form."

Wada's presence at the PS3 launch was ironic, given that Microsoft announced Final Fantasy XI for the Xbox 360 just hours later. In fact, much of Sony's conference seemed designed to one-up the features of Microsoft's new console point by point.

Sony also emphasized that the PlayStation 3 would have similar online connectivity and services as the next generation of Xbox Live. Calling it "an always on, always connected device," Chatani said the PS3 would be constantly in touch with a "PlayStation World" network "fundamentally based on a on community, communication commerce, and content." He said that subscribers could "exchange unique characters and items through the network," much like Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace.

PLAYSTATION 3 SPECIFICATIONS

CPU: Cell Processor PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz

--1 VMX vector unit per core

--512KB L2 cache

--7 x SPE @3.2GHz

--7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs

--7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE

--*1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy

--Total floating point performance: 218 gigaflops

GPU RSX @ 550MHz

--1.8 TFLOPS floating point Performance

--Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels

--Multi-way programmable parallel Floating point shader pipelines

--Sound Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-based processing)

MEMORY

256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz

256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

System Bandwidth Main RAM-- 25.6GB/s

VRAM--22.4GB/s

RSX-- 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)

SB2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)

SYSTEM FLOATING POINT PERFORMANCE:

2 teraflops

STORAGE

--HDD Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1

--I/O--USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)

--Memory Stickstandard/Duo, PRO x 1

--SD standard/mini x 1

--CompactFlash(Type I, II) x 1

COMMUNICATION

--Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)

--Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g

--Bluetooth--Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

--ControllerBluetooth (up to 7)

--USB 2.0 (wired)

--Wi-Fi (PSP)

--Network (over IP)

AV OUTPUT

Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p

HDMI out x 2

AV multi out x 1

Digital out (optical) x 1

DISC MEDIA

CD

PlayStation CD-ROM

PlayStation2 CD-ROM

CD-DA

CD-DA (ROM),

CD-R,

CD-RW

SACD Hybrid (CD layer),

SACD HD

DualDisc (audio side)

DualDisc (DVD side)

PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM

PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM

DVD-ROM

DVD-R

DVD-RW

DVD+R,

DVD+RW

Blu-ray Disc

PlayStation 3 BD-ROM

BD-ROM

BD

__________________

Meow.

[ABuSD]

PS3 Tekken 6 E3 2005 Preshow Impressions

Click on title for links to the movie. WOW!

Although the teaser trailer for Tekken 6 shown at today's Sony Computer Entertainment conference was only 30 seconds long, and even though it didn't show anything resembling gameplay, there's no denying the fact that Jin Kazama has never looked better. As Jin shows off some of the traditional karate moves that became a part of his repertoire when he ditched the Mishima-ryu fighting style, you can see sweat running down his face and flying off his arms when he throws a particularly violent-looking punch. At one point the camera zooms in for a close-up of Jin's shoulder, and you can even see a very subtle haze effect as if some of the perspiration is evaporating.

Whether or not the teaser footage of Jin is in any way representative of what we can expect to see in-game remains to be seen. Based on some of the other PS3 footage that we've seen, we certainly aren't ready to rule it out, but can we really expect the in-game characters of 2006 to look better than the rendered characters of 2005? Only time will tell.

We'll bring you more information on Tekken 6 as soon as it becomes available. "A new reality awaits," apparently.

By Justin Calvert, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

PS3 Gran Turismo 5 E3 2005 Preshow Impression

Also known as 'Vision Gran Turismo'

Gran Turismo 5 Movies

The next Gran Turismo game made its presence known during today's Sony press conference announing the PlayStation 3. The two-minute clip was the icing on the cake of a game demo showcase that featured multiple games in development for the PS3. Before we begin describing the scrumptious action in the demo, let's get the most important bit of information out of the way first: The days of six-car racing in the Gran Turismo series seem to be over for good. We'll pause momentarily to let the applause die down... There, that's better.

That's right, if the scenes in this GT5 demo movie are to be believed, you won't be going up against a measley half-dozen cars; but somewhere in the range of sixteen or more. Several of the scenes in the demo featured a huge number of cars, including the opening itself, which featured a huge field of screaming through the start/finish line at the Yosemite track from Gran Turismo 4. The quality on the cars was just as high as you've come to expect from the series, and bolstered by the huge numbers of cars on the screen.

Other highlights from the video include some looks at some of the tracks that are featured in the game--some old favorites such as Monaco (being attacked by modern-day F1 cars, mind you), the Nürburgring Nordscheife, the Grand Canyon rally course, and some new faces as well, including one gorgeous snowy track near a perfectly still lake that made for a truely impressive virtual site.

During the demo, the phrase "From partial reality... to complete reality" appeared on the screen, and from the what we saw of the movie, it's hard to argue with that assertion. The power of the PS3 is perhaps most evident in one of the final scenes from the demo reel--featuring multiple cars heading into the pits. As cars pull in for tire changes and adjustments, all by fully animated pit crews, one shot shows an absolutely stunning view behind the pit wall with an amazing amount of bustling motion as seemingly hundreds of people worked in the pit area.

One thing conspicuously missing from the demo footage was any noticeable damage modeling, something the game's producers have said would be a central tenant in the game's development. We'll be keeping a close eye on the game in the future to see how this feature develops.

The final, and most curious, aspect of the GT 5 footage, was the mysterious phrase "Vision Gran Turismo" which appeared near the end of the game footage. Could this be the new moniker for the GT series and, if it is, does it represent a true departure for the series.

Tantalizing footage like this brings up five questions for every one it answers. Still, it's nice to see that Gran Turismo 5, or Vision Gran Turismo, or whatever you want to call it, is in the pipe, even if we have a long wait ahead of us. Obviously we'll have much more information on this game in the coming weeks and months.

By Brian Ekberg, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

Rumor Control: The Nintendo On and PSP/iPod-Xbox 360 connectivity

This is Nintendos new machine 'Revolution' its apparently a fake, i watched the video it convinced me but did seem years off from a technological standpoint.

RUMOR #1: The video portion of Nintendo's next-generation console unveiling at E3 has been leaked.

Source: A video widely circulated in numerous forums on the Web, mostly stemming from a German upload site.

The official story: See below.

What we heard: Over the weekend, many a Nintendophile found what they thought was next-gen gold: a video clip showing what appears to be Nintendo's next-generation console, currently code-named the "Revolution." The video shows a truly revolutionary device indeed--named the "Nintendo On"--one that senses movement, Minority Report-style and has no controls whatsoever. It appears to demonstrate how the On will translate a user's movement into that of a game character, in this case Samus from Metroid. It also shows that the machine won't need a television either, since it will project the image into a set of goggles with built-in headphones. But not even Nintendo is crazy enough to repeat the Virtual Boy mistake. Today, forums were aflame with a rough translation of someone claiming to have created the video. But rather than being merely a prank, it appears that it was done as a protest against the short life span of consoles. "Commerciality forces companies to put out new consoles every 2 or 3 years with the only intent being to erase the limits (set by current consoles) for game developers. This does not allow game developers to let their imagination run wild and delight us (the gamers) with transcendent new games," said the Spain-based poster. But the video was no skin off Nintendo's collective behind. "Anyone is welcome to cover fan art, fan films, etc., so long as they report it as such," a rep told GameSpot.

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus.

RUMOR #2: A leaked ad confirms that Sony's next-gen console is called the PlayStation 3.

Source: A post on the Gaming Age forums (which were temporarily down at press time).

The official story: Sony is saving its next-generation announcement for its Monday press conference.

What we heard: Currently a teaser-ad campaign running around the LA Convention Center heavily hints that the next PlayStation will be called the PlayStation 3. But someone on the Gaming Age forums claims to have come into possession of an advertisement explicitly naming the console. Underneath a Spartan PlayStation 3 logo, the ad reads "PS3" and "PlayStation 3," with the words "ENTER THE THIRD GENERATION" superimposed over the words "SOON." The ad seems perfectly plausible...except for one detail. It misspells the name of Sony's game division as "Sony Computer Entertainement." Oops.

Bogus or not bogus?: The ad is bogus, but we'd be shocked--SHOCKED--if it was called anything other than the PlayStation 3.

RUMOR #3: You will be able to hook up your Sony PSP to the Xbox 360--as well as your iPod.

Source: That mecca for the nuts-and-bolts-conscious gamer, Tom's Hardware Guide.

The official story: "That's interesting."--Microsoft spokesperson.

What we heard: One of the features of the 360 that Microsoft has been touting is how it is a "digital entertainment" hub with USB 2.0 connectivity with devices like MP3 players and digital cameras. And since a memory stick-equipped PSP shows up as a hard drive, couldn't it also be connected to an Xbox 360? Apparently so. When demonstrating the Xbox 360 to Tom's Hardware Guide, Jeff Henshaw, the executive producer of Digital Entertainment for the Xbox, openly said it would work with a PSP. "Other console makers want to force you to buy brand 'S' memory and use a brand 'S' format to play on brand 'S' TVs," he told the site. "We just want things to work for the gamer and be as easy as possible." Also, according to the same article in Time magazine in which Microsoft chairman Bill Gates revealed that Halo 3 was launching around the same time as the PlayStation 3, "You can plug your iPod into the Xbox 360 and play songs off that too." Boss!

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus.

RUMOR #4: Nintendo's Revolution presentation will be of video footage only--no functioning hardware (including controllers) will be shown.

Source: UK trade site Gamesindustry.biz.

The official story: "Nintendo does not comment on rumors or speculation."--Nintendo spokesperson.

What we heard: Of the big three console makers, Nintendo was the first to announce that its next-generation console would be shown off at this year's E3. However, according to G'biz, "Sources close to the company have revealed that no Revolution hardware or specs will be discussed, with the console appearing only as a video of next-gen footage." The site astutely predicts that such a showing would "undoubtedly disappoint many." But is it true? Alas, GameSpot's own near-Nintendo sources think so. "No controller--just video," was the terse response that found its way into our inbox.

Bogus or not bogus?: Sounds not bogus, but we'll find out Tuesday.

By Tor Thorsen -- GameSpot

[ABuSD]

Final Fantasy VII Tech Demo For PS3

One of the more impressive aspects of the Sony press conference was the appearance of a so-called Final Fantasy VII "Technical Demo for PS3," a recreation of the original CGI intro for Final Fantasy VII rerendered in real-time for the PS3 hardware. The power of the PS3 is immediately apparent, as the low-poly CGI of the original game is replaced with some impressively modelled characters; Aeris actually looks recognizably human now. After pulling back to reveal Midgar in all its plume-of-smoke glory, the sequence cuts back to the train from which Cloud first appeared in FFVII. Instead of being up of about 100 polygons with big blocks for hands, though, Cloud here appears to be almost as realistically rendered as he is in the FFVII: Advent Children all-CGI movie.

At the outset, the tech demo features a profile of Aeris, doing her flower-selling thing on the streets of Midgar. As the camera pulls back, we see the actual cars on the streets, faithfully modelled and bouncing realistically, until finally it pulls all the way out to a panorama of Midgar itself, complete with iconic green smoke issuing forth from the chimneys of Shinra's power generation facilities. Soon enough, flashes of the train from the opening sequence of the game appear, and Cloud appears, big-ass sword in tow. The sequence ends with a - we admit it - absolutely gorgeous close-up of Cloud, with sword in tow.

The speculation now revolves around whether or not the "Technical Demo" of FFVII intimates that there will actually be a full remake of the game for the PS3, which is something that fans of Final Fantasy have been begging for for years. Final Fantasy VII is still arguably the most well-regarded of the Final Fantasy games, and speculation has been mounting for a while now that Square might attempt to cash in on that popularity by issuing a remake. Considering that this is a company that's announced at least three other games, as well as an all-CGI movie, based on the characters and storyline of FFVII, we can't rule anything out at the moment. Square didn't state anything for sure at the press conference, but we will of course have more details as they come along.

By Matthew Rorie, GameSpot

[predator]

lol - u should be writing for our site..

[noise]

Why not just buy both a Ps3 and xbox 360? There will be HAWT games on both systems, and they have basically the same system specs.

[ABuSD]

XBOX 360

Product Overview

The Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system places you at the center of the experience. Available this holiday season in Europe, Japan, and North America, Xbox 360 ignites a new era of digital entertainment that is always connected, always personalized, and always in high definition.

Xbox 360 gives you access to the games you want to play, the people you want to play with, and the experiences you crave—when and where you want them.

Key Highlights

● Hardware, software, and services: Unveiled to the world on MTV on Thursday, May 12, 2005, Xbox 360 represents a dramatic leap forward in high-definition gaming and entertainment experiences. Fusing powerful hardware, software, and services, Xbox 360 fully engages you in a gaming experience that is more expansive, dramatic, and lifelike, where the possibilities are limitless and your imagination knows no boundaries. The next generation is here.

● Industrial design: A merger of form and function, Xbox 360 wraps powerful technology in a sophisticated exterior. Two of the most innovative design firms in the world—San Francisco-based Astro Studios and Osaka, Japan-based Hers Experimental Design Laboratory Inc.—came together to craft a sleek, stylish system that conveys the very essence of Xbox 360.

● Xbox Gamer Guide: The Xbox Gamer Guide is an entertainment gateway that instantly connects you to your games, friends, music, movies, and downloadable content. Available at a touch of the Xbox Guide Button, the Xbox Gamer Guide gives you instant access to the experiences and content you want, from the gamer card of the player that just invited you to play online to new downloadable content for the game currently running.

● Personalized interface: Xbox 360 lets you create your own unique system and experience. With interchangeable Xbox 360 Faces, it's easy and fun to change the appearance of your console. Switch on your system and customize the look and feel of the Xbox Gamer Guide and Xbox System Guide with unique "skins." From sleek and sophisticated to fun and funky, pick the Faces and skins that show your personality.

● Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button: Divided into four quadrants, the glowing Ring of Light and Xbox® Guide Button visually connect you to your games, digital media, and the world of Xbox Live™, the first global, unified online console games service. Featured on both the wireless and wired controllers, the Xbox Guide Button puts you in control of your experience. In addition to bringing up the Xbox Gamer Guide and the Xbox System Guide, the Xbox Guide Button lets you turn the system on and off without ever leaving the couch.

● Xbox Live: Xbox Live is where games and entertainment come alive, the only unified place where you can play with anyone, anytime, anywhere. And the best just got better. Connect your Xbox 360 to your broadband connection and get instant access to Xbox Live Silver. Express your digital identity through your Gamertag and gamer card, talk with others using voice chat, and access Xbox Live Marketplace—all right out of the box, at no extra cost. Upgrade to Xbox Live Gold and enter the exciting world of multiplayer online gaming. With intelligent matchmaking, access to all your achievements and statistics, video chat and video messaging, and an enormous selection of games, Xbox Live Gold delivers your competition, on your terms.

● Xbox Live Marketplace: Keep your favorite games fresh with instant access to new content. Xbox Live Marketplace is a one-stop shop to download new game trailers, demos, and episodic content, plus new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins, and more. Accessible to everyone who establishes a broadband connection with their Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace lets you personalize and extend your experience, on demand.

● Games: Xbox 360 redefines what games look like, sound like, feel like, and play like to engage you like never before. With Xbox 360, epic worlds are alive with detail, from thunderous skies rumbling over a mountain range to tiny blades of grass rustling together in the breeze. Vibrant characters display depth of emotion to evoke more dramatic responses, immersing you in the experience like never before. You’ll see all Xbox 360 titles at 720p resolution in 16:9 widescreen, with anti-aliasing for smooth, movie-like graphics and multi-channel surround sound.

● Digital entertainment: Amplify your music, photos, video, and TV. Watch progressive-scan DVD movies right out of the box. Rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive and share your latest digital pictures with friends. Make the connection, and Xbox 360 instantly streams the digital media stored on your MP3 player, digital camera, Media Center PC, or any Microsoft® Windows® XP-based PC.

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU

• Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each

• Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total

• VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total

• 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread

• 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance

• 9 billion dot product operations per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor

• 500MHz processor

• 10 MB of embedded DRAM

• 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines

• Unified shader architecture

Polygon Performance

• 500 million triangles per second

Pixel Fill Rate

• 16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA

Shader Performance

• 48 billion shader operations per second

Memory

• 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM

• 700 MHz of DDR

• Unified memory architecture

Memory Bandwidth

• 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth

• 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM

• 21.6 GB/s front-side bus

Overall System Floating-Point Performance

• 1 teraflop

Storage

• Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive

• 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM

• Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB

I/O

• Support for up to four wireless game controllers

• Three USB 2.0 ports

• Two memory unit slots

Optimized for Online

• Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies, or listening to music

• Built-in Ethernet port

• Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g

• Video camera ready

Digital Media Support

• Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD

• Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs

• Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive

• Custom playlists in every game

• Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

• Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers

High-Definition Game Support

• All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing

• Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported

Audio

• Multi-channel surround sound output

• Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio

• 320 independent decompression channels

• 32-bit audio processing

• Over 256 audio channels

System Orientation

• Stands vertically or horizontally

Customizable Face Plates

• Interchangeable to personalize the console

[ABuSD]

Xbox 360 Peripherals

Developed by the creators of the Xbox® video game system, Microsoft® Corporation's new line of Xbox 360™ system peripherals extend your digital entertainment experience on Xbox 360.

Faces

Unlike any console before, Xbox 360 puts gamers at the center and gives you the freedom to personalize your gaming experience however you see fit. Xbox 360 Faces make it easy and fun to change the face of your console. Change your Faces whenever you like to match your personality, your mood, or your wild side. So flip it, switch it, or leave it be, and express your unique sense of style.

• Interchangeable faceplates allow you to express yourself and create a one-of-a-kind system.

• Find cool, customizable, cutting-edge designs that are fun to change.

• Faces are highly versatile, with multiple designs to choose from.

• Faces are designed for easy switching.

• Maintain full functionality of your system, regardless of which Face you choose.

• Pick up copies of the collectable limited-edition Faces.

Memory Unit

Further enhancing the gaming experience, Xbox 360 Memory Units allow you to save your in-game achievements and unique gamer profiles. The Memory Units are easily portable and enable quick and easy access to previously established benchmarks, putting you in control of your games and your lifestyle. You can save your games, your Xbox Live™ profile, and more with Xbox 360 Memory Units.

• Transport your Memory Unit in the portable carrying case that fits on your keychain.

• The Memory Unit (64 MB) requires no setup. Just plug it in, and you can save your favorite games.

• Xbox 360 holds up to two Memory Units, so you can easily upgrade to more storage space.

Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote

The Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote was engineered to serve as your integrated control center for the entire Xbox 360 experience. Enter a new world of digital entertainment with the touch of a single button. Play DVD movies and music, plus control your TV and your Media Center PC with one controller. The centralized, glowing Xbox Guide Button gives you quick access to your digital movies, music, and games library, and backlit buttons make the keypad easy to see in a darkened home theater. So kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

• Power your Xbox 360 system on or off without leaving the couch.

• The Xbox Guide Button allows for easy navigation of the Xbox Gamer Guide.

• The Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote includes control buttons for your music, pictures, and more.

• The Xbox 360 supports progressive-scan for DVD playback functionality, including a control for opening and closing the tray.

• The remote supports universal TV and console functionality, including volume and mute buttons and up-and-down channel changing.

• Windows® XP Media Center Edition Button and Media Center Edition functionality are featured.

• A, B, X, and Y buttons are included for basic control of your Xbox 360 system, even without a controller.

• Numbered and backlight keypad gives you full functionality, even in the dark.

Peripherals Designed Specifically for Xbox Live

Xbox Live Camera

The Xbox Live Camera for Xbox 360 opens up a new world of gaming and entertainment on Xbox Live, the world’s premier online video games service. With the Xbox Live Camera, video chat and video messaging with your friends becomes more than just a feature set; it is an integrated part of the Xbox Live experience. Connect and communicate while playing the same or different games, watching movies, listening to music, and more.

The Xbox Live Camera also takes personalization to a whole new level and allows you to customize your gaming experience by putting your face on characters in your games, all while being able to video chat with your friends as you play online. And with next-generation online motion-detection-enabled games, the Xbox Live Camera puts you entirely in the game and in control of the on-screen characters over Xbox Live.

● High-end online camera supports up to VGA 640x480 video at 30 frames per second and takes 1.3-megapixel still photos.

• The camera includes a microphone that connects to the controller, so everyone in the room can chat online with their friends.

• The camera supports built-in video chat and video messaging on Xbox Live.

• Your face can be imported into games and can also be placed next to your name on leader boards for even more recognition or fame.

• Chat with your friends while you play online in Xbox 360 games as well as in the Xbox Live Arcade.

Xbox 360 Headset

The Xbox 360 Headset heightens the experience of the unprecedented online gaming community, Xbox Live, allowing you to strategize with teammates, trash-talk opponents or just chat with friends while playing your favorite games. You can record and leave short voice messages for friends or family through the free Xbox Live Message Service or connect with buddies online using the headset in place of the phone. Turn it up or turn it down, and experience the most intense gaming experience possible.

● Boom microphone can be adjusted for optimal sound quality.

• In-line volume control and mute switch let users adjust the headset volume or switch mute on and off easily.

• Noise-canceling microphone improves game response to voice commands, and provides crisp and clear voice communication.

• Lightweight, over-the-head design enables comfortable use.

• The headset plugs directly into either the Xbox 360 Controller or Xbox Wireless Controller for easy use.

Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter

Designed for versatility and ease, the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter enhances your Xbox 360 experience in the digital home, seamlessly synchronizing with the Xbox 360 system. You can easily transfer videos and music to your Xbox 360 system from your Media Center PC, chat with your friends, play games via Xbox Live, and more—all without the clutter of wires.

• The Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter is highly versatile and supports 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a.

• The Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter is powered seamlessly by your Xbox 360 gaming console, so there's no external power adapter to plug in.

• You can transfer high-definition video and CD-quality music from your Media Center PC to your Xbox 360 via 802.11a wireless media support.

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller

High-performance wireless gaming is here! Using optimized technology, the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller lets you enjoy a 30-foot range and up to 40 hours of life on two AA batteries—and when they run low, you're given ample warning so you can connect a Play & Charge cable for uninterrupted play. Plug the Xbox 360 Headset into the controller for full duplex voice communication: a wireless first. With quick access to Xbox 360 features including DVDs, music, pictures, and more, along with the ability to support four wireless controllers simultaneously, gamers can experience wireless freedom, precision, high quality, and performance for endless gameplay.

• It's cordless—no cables to plug in—with a 30-foot wireless range.

• The controller features integrated 2.4GHz high-performance wireless technology.

• New and improved ergonomic design enables maximum comfort and endless gameplay.

• New left and right shoulder buttons are designed for ease of use.

• Six analog buttons have 256 levels of sensitivity.

• Two analog pressure-point triggers, two vibration feedback motors, and one eight-way directional pad are included.

• Experience an unprecedented level of Rumble Control. Set the Rumble Control to Full, Medium, Low, or Off to match your personal preference.

• The Xbox Guide Button at the center of the controller gives you quick access to all your favorite Xbox 360 system activities, such as watching movies, listening to music, contacting friends on Xbox Live, and customizing your gaming experiences. Easily jump to the Xbox Gamer Guide or Xbox Live Marketplace.

Xbox 360 Controller

Based on the acclaimed design of the Xbox Controller-S, the Xbox 360 Controller features an extended nine-foot cable and an improved ergonomic design. The centralized, glowing Xbox Guide Button grants you quick access to your digital movie, music, and games libraries. The ultimate in gamer flexibility, precision, control, quality, and comfort are all yours.

• New and improved ergonomic design enables maximum comfort and endless gameplay.

• New left and right shoulder buttons are designed for ease of use.

• Six analog buttons have 256 levels of sensitivity.

• Two analog pressure-point triggers, two vibration feedback motors, and one eight-way directional pad are included.

• The controller includes a nine-foot (nearly three-meter) break-away controller cable.

• Experience an unprecedented level of Rumble Control. Set the Rumble Control to Full, Medium, Low, or Off to match your personal preference.

• A port for your Xbox 360 Headset is included.

• The Xbox Guide Button at the center of the controller gives you quick access to all your favorite Xbox 360 system activities, such as watching movies, listening to music, contacting friends on Xbox Live, and customizing your gaming experiences. Easily jump to the Xbox Gamer Guide or Xbox Live Marketplace.

GAMES

Among the publishers are all the biggest players, as well as a number of smaller houses which have already committed to the next generation, and are showing plenty of promise. They are:

2K Games

Activision

Atari

Bandai

Bethesda Softworks

Buena Vista Games

Capcom

Codemasters

Eidos

Electronic Arts

FromSoftware

InterServ International

KOEI

Konami

LucasArts

Majesco

Midway Games

Namco

Phantagram

Rockstar Games

SCi Games

SEGA

Tecmo

THQ

TWP

Ubisoft

Vivendi Universal Games

Webzen

Microsoft also has a strong lineup of developers set to create exclusive titles for the new Xbox system:

BioWare

Bizarre Creations

Bungie Studios

Epic Games

FASA Studio

Lionhead Studios

Rare

Yoshiki Okamoto's Game Republic

Hironobu Sakaguchi's Mistwalker

Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment

Nothing has officially been announced, so even if we did have a definite lineup it couldn't be posted. However, there are a few standbys that appear at almost every console launch. The genres that should be covered are football, racing, an FPS, and a killer app. Judging by commercials shown during the draft, it looks like EA has Madden Next-Gen ready to come down the barrel. From images released on Ourcolony.net we are almost positive that Project Gotham Racing 3 will also be available.

[ABuSD]

Halo 3 parrying PlayStation 3 launch

Time quotes Bill Gates saying that Sony's next-gen console will "walk into" the Xbox 360 follow-up to the best-selling sci-fi shooter.

For months, the Web was rife with rumors that Microsoft would ship the sequel to Halo 2 for the Xbox 360 simultaneously with the launch of the PlayStation 3. Now, that has been confirmed--by none other than Bill Gates himself.

In next week's issue of Time Magazine--which features Gates holding the Xbox 360 on the cover--Gates mentioned plans for the release of the much-anticipated follow-up to the best-selling console shooter. In a parenthetical sidebar in the article, Time says the following:

"Note to the hard-core faithful: the next version of Halo will not, repeat not, be ready in time for the launch of Xbox 360. It will be part of the all-important second wave next spring. 'It's perfect,' Gates says, radiant with bloodlust. 'The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3.'"

While Microsoft reps were not available for comment as of press time, Gates' comments appear to confirm the theory that Microsoft will release Halo 3 either simultaneously or near the release of Sony's next-gen console. It also marks further official confirmation that a third Halo is indeed in the works and will be released for the Xbox 360.

Although such statements might be interpreted as grandstanding, such a maneuver definitely would have an impact. Halo 2 sold more than 6.5 million copies to date and is credited with doubling the subscriber base of Xbox Live from around 750,000 to more than 1.5 million. It is also credited by industry-watchers as one of the main reasons for boosting sales of the original Xbox last holiday season.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

Square Enix released new storyline details on Dirge of Cerberus, which will eventually become the third title in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series of products (after Before Crisis and Advent Children are released). While gameplay details are still fairly scant, we do know more about the era in which the game takes place.

Dirge of Cerberus is set three years after the original FFVII game (and one year after the events in Advent Children), and the plot revolves around a group of Deepground Soldiers who emerge from their underground lair--in which they were apparently buried after the meteor events at the end of FFVII--and begin terrorizing Midgar. Vincent Valentine, the enigmatic character from the previous game, is somehow connected to these attacks, and he'll be the character you take control of as you investigate the attacks and attempt to get to the root of the mystery surrounding the appearance of the Deepground Soldiers. The only other character from FFVII that's known to appear in the game is Cait Sith, although we wouldn't be surprised to see a few other familiar faces when the game comes out.

Beyond these basic details, Square isn't tipping its hand at this point. It promises "shocking truths never revealed in the original game," and its press release includes an odd tagline: "The time has come to cleanse this world. Hunt down the unworthy...and show them no mercy."

Unfortunately, no release date has even been hinted at for Dirge of Cerberus, but GameSpot will have more details on the game as they become available.

By Matthew Rorie, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

PS3 Heavenly Sword E3 2005 Impressions

Heavenly Sword is a new game from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for the Playstation 3, and while it doesn't look like it's going to break any new ground in terms of its genre - it seems to be a fairly straightforward one-against-many action fighting game - it is, like the rest of the PS3 titles on display at the Sony press conference here, incredibly impressive from a visual and graphical standpoint.

We don't have many details on the story, but the clip that was shown in the highlight reel shows a young woman - perhaps the Heavenly Sword of the title? - taking on a small group of soldiers and, well, completely demolishing them. She appears to be using a pair of swords similar in function to the blades that Kratos uses in God of War, with blades for slashing and an extension function for swinging enemies around when they're well and hooked. In addition, she also brings to bear environmental weapons, such as by kicking tables at her foes. What's more, there also appears to be some kind of aerial combat segment of the game, a la Dragonball Z, although this seems like it might be more appropriate for one-on-one duels, or perhaps boss fights.

To wind down the demo, or perhaps to wind it up, the mysterious woman is shown destroying an entire army of foes with a single blast from a powerful gun/cannon flame weapon. While this is likely just a conceit for the purposes of the highlight video - any game that let you take down 10,000 enemies with a single weapon blast would have some interesting balance issues - it's still an interesting piece of footage, as it demonstrate's the PS3's impressive ability to render hundreds of characters at the same time with little apparent loss of visual quality. If this represents the graphical capabilities of the system when it finally arrives, then we'll call ourselves impressd.

Stay tuned to GameSpot, as we'll have as many details on Heavenly Sword as we can possibly gather in the coming days.

By Matthew Rorie, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

Fifth Phantom Saga E3 2005 Impressions

Fifth Phantom Saga, from the formidable Sonic Team of Sega, is a PS3 title that appears to be a kind of supernatural FPS. It's difficult to really get a bead on the game from the short clip that was shown, which features a first-person viewpoint, but also had a multi-colored demon-thing-creature in each section of the clip, which implies that Sonic Team will either be pushing coop-play for the game, or that the player somehow controls his own character while also commanding the demon to do his or her bidding in the game world. Or perhaps both interpretations are correct, in that it offers up a single player mode where the demon is controlled with AI, but also supports coop play for two players?

Whatever the specifics are, Fifth Phantom Saga looks like it has a pretty unique twist on the standard FPS conventions. For now, there's not much more to say about the game, except that it's from Sega and Sonic Team, the same combo that has brought us games like Phantasy Star Online and Feel The Magic XX/XY. The teaser site even has the genre listed as "To Be Revealed," so keep an eye on GameSpot for more details on Fifth Phantom Saga as they become available.

By Matthew Rorie, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

Ah, the 1980s, the decade of President Reagan, Miami Vice, big hair, and some of the greatest arcade games of all time, a large number of which will appear in Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection. What's this about 50th anniversary? After all, the '80s were only two decades ago. The 50th anniversary refers to Namco's own 50th anniversary, and to honor such a milestone the company is putting out this collection of 14 of the greatest Namco arcade games ever.

You really can't have this list without Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, the two definitive video games of the decade. But wait, there's more. Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Pole Position and Pole Position II, Rolling Thunder, Rally X, Bosconian, Dragon Spirit, Sky Kid, Xevious, and Mappy. Yeah, some of the games at the end of the list aren't anywhere near as popular as Pac-Man, but trust us, those are some great games. And relax, the arcade games that originally supported up to two players will support up to two players in this collection.

So what will you need to revel in this cornucopia of arcade delight? You'll be good to go so long as you have a PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, or PC. And, let's face it, you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't. (We should probably note that the GBA version will only include Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, and Bosconian.) The Namco 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection will ship for all those platforms this August.

By Jason Ocampo, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

Sega's current push to both reinvent itself and expand the type of material it publishes in the coming generation has led the Japan-based publisher to make some interesting choices as of late. One of the best examples of this push is its recently announced Xbox 360 game Condemned, currently in development at Washington-based Monolith Studios. We recently had the opportunity to check out the atmospheric action horror game in a demo given by Monolith reps, which shed light on the genuinely disturbing next-gen title.

Clearly, Monolith is aiming for an 'E for Everyone' with Condemned.

The visuals in the work-in-progress game were still rough, as it was running off a development kit that was still a few steps below the final hardware specs for the Xbox 360. However, it still packed an eerie punch thanks to a high level of detail, rich dynamic lighting, and creepy art direction. Our demo of the game involved a run-through of different floors in an unsettling building that was big on scares. There were also several game mechanic concepts shown in the demo, such as the ability to use elements from the environments (like pipes and wooden planks) as weapons, in addition to using your various forensic scanning devices to coordinate with other members of your team.

There are some downright scary examples of Monolith's wish for the artificial intelligence, as enemies popped out at just the right moments to freak us out and prove that Condemned is being tailor-made to scare the crap out of the unsuspecting gamer. The graphics in the demo also showed off some very interesting uses of the various special effects you can expect from the Xbox 360, albeit in a limited fashion due to the modest power of the development kit. There was a good sampling of assorted lighting, filter, particle effects, and other touches of eye candy on display as well. Texture detail, despite the dev kits' limitations, already looked razor sharp. But as interesting as the controlled demo was, we've seen more than a few tech demos that have ended up looking nothing like the final games they've become. So we're understandably skeptical.

However, we literally just had the opportunity to get a sneak peek at the playable version of Condemned. And while we were literally held at bay from touching the controller with a pipe, we're pleased to report that Monolith is certainly going to town in developing the game. The playable demo not only touches on all the elements shown in the controlled demo, but it also actually surpasses them. The most significant change from the demo is easily the pacing of the experience. Whereas the demo offered a much more methodical experience, which was obviously designed to show off the finer points of the technology on display, the playable version didn't waste much time in freaking us out and keeping us on the run. You'll still be looking for clues and the like, but the pacing is better. More importantly, the combat, which only pitted us against one or two foes, has been ramped up considerably. You'll now have to contend with multiple enemies that display sharp AI. In one sequence, we saw the enemies size up the main character at a glance, and upon noting his superior weapon, they turned around and scavenged themselves better gear.

Keep an eye peeled for Condemned to hit on or around the date the Xbox 360 launches in November.

Combat is much more nerve-wracking now, with foes coming at you from all sides. More importantly, fighting is much more dynamic. Anyone used to the standard first-person combat seen in other games--which usually consists of bashing away at an enemy until he, she, or it stops moving in a very static sequence of events--should brace for Condemned. One particular sequence in the demo, which we'll admit was a little contrived (but not any more than, say, an episode of T.J. Hooker), found the main character doing battle while on a moving object. We can't be more specific than that just yet, but suffice it to say, the sequence was very cool. The other element of note in the combat we saw was the inclusion of a wealth of other weapons besides the rifle, planks, and pipes from the tech demo. Given that the hero has tech ties, you can expect some more-exotic weapons, not all of which are lethal.

Based on what we've seen, Condemned is a provocative new game from Sega and Monolith that isn't quite like anything that's come before. While there are certainly flashes of elements taken from the likes of Silent Hill, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, and Riddick, Condemned looks to be its own unique beast. We liked what we saw of the controlled demo and are hoping the game can build on the creepiness we've seen so far. Condemned is currently slated to ship near the launch of the Xbox 360, so look for more on the game in the coming months.

By Ricardo Torres, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

The Bible Game

Crave announces game show-style trivia game featuring questions about the Old and New Testaments.

Crave Entertainment today announced The Bible Game for the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance. The game, which will be different for both systems, will be released this October.

PS2 gamers will be able to show who is omniscient in the ways of the teachings of the Bible by answering questions related to the good book in a game show format. Contestants will be quizzed on such stories as Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath, and many more. A thorough knowledge of the work won't do alone; blessed be those who are also quick on the buzzer. The family-friendly game's multiplayer mode allows up to four to jump in on the fun.

On the GBA, gamers will play as either Billy or Jenny as they attempt to protect the "Armor of God." The action adventure trivia game takes characters across seven levels as they answer questions about the Old and New Testaments.

The Bible Game will sell for $19.99 on both systems.

By Staff, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

The Quake games from id Software are made up of the most widely recognized and popular first-person-shooter series of all time. So some were surprised to hear that the next game, Quake 4, was going to be a departure from the "lone hero against an army" style of gameplay used in the previous games. People were probably even more surprised to hear that the game was being developed by longtime id collaborator Raven Software rather than at id's own studios in Dallas, Texas. But now that we've finally had a chance to see the game, it seems safe to say that Quake 4 will have plenty of exciting shooter action and even a few intriguing twists and turns.

Quake 4 will be the first game in the series in which you'll play as an actual named character with an identity beyond a call sign. Specifically, you'll play as space marine Matthew Kane, an elite commando with a mysterious (and possibly checkered) past whose reputation as a tough soldier precedes him. Kane has been drafted into Rhino Squad, one of the squads of space marines currently assaulting the planet Stroggos, home of the strogg aliens. In fact, Quake 4 picks up where 1997's Quake II left off. In that game, the protagonist was a nameless space marine attempting to fight off the stroggs, who have a nasty habit of propagating themselves by capturing beings of other races, retrofitting their bodies with mechanical parts, and implanting neural control chips to turn them into mindless slaves. The climactic battle of Quake II took place on Stroggos as the protagonist traveled to the planet and dispatched the leader of the stroggs, known as the "makron." This surgical strike should have ended the conflict, but it didn't. Now planet Earth has sent in space marines like Rhino Squad to invade the enemy planet and rid the universe of the threat once and for all.

Unfortunately for Kane, his start on Stroggos won't exactly be a glorious one. His dropship is shot down by strogg antiair cannons and he is left for dead. He comes to briefly and hears a foul-mouthed comrade trying to revive him, but then the poor sap gets shot in the head. When Kane finally gets back on his feet, he clambers from the wreckage to find himself in the middle of a fierce battle with nothing but a lousy pistol and a humongous robot monster with long, spiderlike legs and mounted laser cannons trudging past him just over a hill. The dazed Kane makes a hasty and quiet retreat, running by a few scattered soldiers either tending wounded or using, of all things, a laptop computer to try to reconnect with headquarters. Kane shoots down a few strogg soldiers, picks up an assault rifle with a zoom lens (and a flashlight attachment, thanks very much), and enters a strogg complex where he sees one of the aliens dragging away a marine's corpse deeper into the compound. We fought through the first leg of the compound, which consisted of connected corridors and hallways that, unlike those of Doom 3, were decently lit and also lined with rusted, bloodstained metal slabs--much like the strogg areas in Quake II.

We skipped ahead to another field area that led to, of all things, a series of World War I-style trenches where a different squad had regrouped. Kane is eventually reunited with the members of Rhino Squad, like Cortez, the team's cold-blooded sniper who casually blasts a lunging strogg in the head without so much as a look as he rejoins you. According to id Software's Todd Hollenshead, you'll play through about a third of the full game with your teammates in the squad, and you'll find that Rhino Squad is full of characters with distinctive personalities. We rejoined the squad and eventually circled back to an intact dropship, which we entered after going through a decontamination chamber.

The dropship is a huge base of operations where marines stand guard outside classified areas, performing experiments on dead strogg corpses and generally shooting the breeze. We also heard a few awed comments about Kane ("I thought Matthew Kane was just a story they made up to scare new recruits," said one of them). Kane finally heads to the briefing area, a meeting room with a circular table, where the surviving officers make room for him and show varying degrees of acceptance ("Hey, quit giving him s***, Kane's alright," said one). We eventually learned that Kane was to be reassigned to a core group of four squads who are named for the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse (he's assigned to the squad called "death," of course) as part of a joint offensive on the strogg compound. His team's objective is to infiltrate the compound and destroy the "nexus," the strogg compound's communication network, in order to cripple the enemy. (New objectives, once received, will be added to the game's onscreen compass as waypoints to help you find them.)

We then jumped ahead to a later part of the game--a critical, pivotal part of the single-player story in which Kane's squad is thwarted by the stroggs, captured, and then sent to the "medical facility." Apparently, the strogg idea of a medical facility is a mechanized conveyor belt where still-living victims are strapped to metal slabs and "assimilated" into brand-new strogg soldiers. This was a particularly grisly sequence in which Kane (who, from the first-person view, can see only his bare feet twitching as he lies down on his slab) gets ferried from station to station, where he witnesses what's in store for him next, as he can see another soldier just ahead of him on the conveyor belt. Kane then endures a series of gruesome "operations," including having a gigantic needle jammed through his skull, and having two rotating blade saws actually slice off his lower legs below the knee to replace them with artificial legs. Kane fades in and out of consciousness as he is whisked past various terminals, and he begins to realize that he can actually understand the strogg language (which had previously been nothing but jumbled symbols on the compound's computer readouts).

Through a stroke of luck, he is rescued just before the final part of the strogg assembly line, which would have implanted a control chip in his brain. His body was suspended above an amniotic tank just as another squad of marines bursts into the compound. Before one of them could put you out of your misery, another recognized you and instead brought you down from the tank to join them, to considerable disagreement from the rest of the squad. From this point in the game, Kane will be equipped with the superhuman abilities of the strogg, including faster running and higher jumping. Also, his ability to understand the strogg language and interface with strogg technology will make him the linchpin in crippling the enemy's communications and eventually winning the war.

We then jumped to a final action area, in which Kane, now clutching his rifle with metallic hands, is in the desert of planet Stroggos once again, up against enemies like the enhanced strogg berserker (a huge strogg with a heavy club in one hand and a long, sharp knife blade replacing its other arm), which still has a nasty habit of lunging toward its enemies. Kane was able to commandeer a walker--a huge two-legged mech suit that will be one of the game's drivable vehicles. From what we could tell, walkers will be equipped with two standard weapons mounted on each arm, a heavy-duty machine gun on one side and a repeating rocket launcher with a five-round clip on the other. The walker helps Kane devastate regular strogg troops, but he'll be up against much bigger and tougher enemies.

Unfortunately, the demonstration ended at this point, and id Software representatives weren't able to reveal much more information about the game, such as its multiplayer details. Hollenshead did explain that id and Raven looked to previous Quake games for inspiration and determined that Quake II was the "best in terms of single-player story," and that Quake III: Arena was the "best in terms of multiplayer." The id CEO made broad statements about being able to expect the sort of multiplayer matches that were featured in Quake III, like deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag (and possibly some variants of capture the flag), characterized by battles with rocket launchers and railguns. Still, Quake 4 packs a significant visual punch thanks to its Doom 3-powered graphics. And while we were shocked that id and Activision would go so far as to reveal such a critical plot point, Hollenshead assured us that there would be at least a few more twists and turns that we hadn't yet seen. Quake 4 is scheduled for release later this year.

By Andrew Park, GameSpot

[ABuSD]

PS3 Unreal Engine 3: Under the hood

Hardware Analysis: Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 on the PlayStation 3; gamers contemplate a match made in heaven.

The power of one of the next-generation consoles was shown today as Sony and Epic Games showed off Unreal Engine 3 running in real-time on the PlayStation 3. GameSpot had the opportunity to see Unreal Engine 3.0 at this and last year's Game Developers Conference, and while undoubtedly gorgeous, one couldn't help but notice that the then-cutting edge PC hardware struggled to run it smoothly. The PlayStation 3 was the first time GameSpot editors have seen the graphics engine running in beautiful, smooth motion, and it's undeniably impressive.

The demo was given by Tim Sweeney, Epic cofounder and chief technology officer. A quick synopsis is as follows: the demo began with fiery explosions, one of which hurled an Unreal-style soldier clad in metal armor through the air. Sparks flew when the soldier slams on a metal walkway as he aims his weapon at the sinister looking robot chasing him.

The soldier then fires his weapons and drops the robot, gets up and limps to the walkway's edge. However, the perspective changes to the robot's point of view, and one sees it reactivating and getting back up, then charge at the soldier. The soldier, sensing the danger, turns around and tries to raise his weapon, but the robot gets to him first and tackles him over the precipice. They fall to the platform below, and they both get up and stare at each other. Half the robot's head is shot off, and you can see the metal glowing around the shot-off area.

Somehow, the soldier's rocket launcher is thrown into the air, where it begins to slowly tumble. The robot slams into the guy and tries to crush him, but the soldier gets leverage and tosses the robot over another edge. He then catches the falling rocket launcher, and then pumps three rounds at the falling opponent, which explode and destroy it finally.

As a movie, it was a spectacular technological tour de force, and just to show that it wasn't a pre-rendered movie, Sweeney replayed the demo, then paused it and zoomed in and out, showing off various technological details.

The engine was running in 720p on a high-definition screen, about the equivalent of a PC's resolution, giving everything a sharp look. The engine also had perfect lighting and shadowing, with shaders that are approximately 200 times more complex than in the previous console generation.

What was most impressive is that the engine takes advantage of high dynamic range lighting, which allows for a very realistic simulation of real light and shadows.

The engine also uses per-pixel lighting and shadowing, to capture the little details that, when taken together, are most impressive. It's no understatement to say that the industry has reached a new plateau in graphics, and we're looking at games that are on par with Hollywood movies.

Unreal Engine 3 is also a very interesting choice for Sony to demo, as the engine is extremely multiplatform. Epic is primarily a PC developer, and the company is already using Unreal Engine 3 in its game for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Gears of War.

The early screens of Gears of War, as well as early gameplay that we saw at Game Developer's Conference in March, indicate that Unreal Engine 3 will look as impressive on that platform as it does on the PS3. And as PC graphics and CPU power inevitably improve over the next year or so, we'll be able to see that level of graphical prowess on desktops.

So the good news is that Unreal Engine 3 looks good to go on next-generation consoles and PC's, and gamers will be better for it by a large margin.

By Jason Ocampo -- GameSpot

[ABuSD]

PS3: F1 E3 2005 Preshow Impressions

Dont forget these links have movies and hi res pics as well.

Today's Sony teaser trailer of games currently in development for the PS3 began with a Formula One-style bang. Sony's currently untitled F1 title was the first over the start/finish line in the demo reel and set the tone for the rest of the footage with some high octane speed and absolutely ear-blistering sound.

The demo footage begins in the ****pit of a Ferrari, a team that until very recently has been the dominant force in the sport. As your virtual head scans back and forth, you watch as some of your crew members check your tire pressure and generally prepare you for the start of the race. A helicopter flies over the course, and your virtual eyes follow it as it flies by. A few more shots of the grid follow, showing teams like current constructor's championship points leader Renault, as well as Toyota and Sauber. The cars have a spectacularly realistic look to them, not overly shiny but wonderfully solid in appearance.

As the lights go out and the grid takes off from the starting line, the camera pulls back to the familiar camera angle of an F1 standing start. Cars rocket off the line--tires smoking probably a bit too much to be realistic in these days of traction control--all the while jockeying for position heading into that crucial first turn, where many races are won or lost. One car even stalls at the start, a fairly common occurence, and the cars behind the stall struggle to get around him.

The scene then cuts to a shot of Ferrari fans doing the wave in the stands--suggesting that perhaps the track shown in the demo is San Marino or Monza (two traditional Ferrari fan strongholds). A shot of a Fernando Alonso pitboard is followed by a yellow and blue Renault (perhaps Alonso himself?) spinning off the track coming out of a turn and slapping a wall. Cut to an in-car shot of a ****pit view of the Renault driver, where you can now see the right front tire crumpled in after the shunt. A final handful of scenes show a Ferrari speeding down a straight while his front tires lose traction on the tarmac, and the traditional champagne celebration that ends every F1 race.

As great as the graphics look in this F1 title, the sounds are nearly as impressive. The screaming whines of the V10 F1 engines are present and accounted for, along with a punishing "bumpity-bump" as cars pass over the rumble strips on the side of the tracks at upwards of 150 mph. All in all, it's an impressive graphical and audio package.

There's no word yet whether this PS3 F1 game will be coming to the States yet, F1 falling somewhere behind lawn mower racing in the American viewing popularity. Still, we'd love to see more of this title and hope to bring you more information as we approach the PS3 launch.

By Brian Ekberg, GameSpot