E3 Gaming news!!! X-Box 2, PS3, Nintendo Revolution stuff

[Pezman]

Cool...
Xbox 2 a Year before PS3?
Posted Thursday, June 17, 2004 by wraggster

Microsoft is faced with an important dilemma concerning its choice of release date for the XBox 2. According to developer reports and to a steady supply of leaked statements, Microsoft's next-gen console is the one that is nearest release and the company now has to decide if it will risk launching it by Christmas 2005.
According to several key industry sources, Microsoft is working towards a Christmas 2005 launch for its next Xbox console in US, with a European release likely to take place in early 2006. If XBox 2 does go down that route it will be a clear indication that Microsoft is attempting to pull a Sony on the next-gen console market by getting a clear lead in store-shelves. As is obvious there is an inherent risk in that strategy since rivals will be able to adapt their console designs in order to claim superiority to XBox 2.
US sources, including a major publisher claiming that Microsoft is definitely targeting Christmas 2005 with its next XBox, have been insisting that MS is willing to take that risk, especially when considering that PS3s launch may be pushed back as far as 2007. The first reports surfaced when developers begun revealing XBox 2 game release dates which were very close to the Christmas 2005 season.
Microsoft has suffered this round of the console wars, largely due to Sony's head start with the PS2 and the news coming from Sony itself can only be seen as encouraging with Sony's European chief David Reeves, already having claimed that the PlayStation 2 is only halfway through its life-cycle. There is also speculation that Sony's insistence to integrate high-end DVD technology into the PS3 may also lead to a delay.
If all these leaks and expert guesses prove right, Microsoft could end up with a one year jump on the PlayStation 3, with Nintendo's offering, currently codenamed Revolution, expected to appear half-way between the two.

[Saulbadguy]

I'll buy em both.

[Pezman]

Emu7atorz! K maybe not... but still, hopefully they will both launch with the success that the previous incarnations did

[Pezman]

Not gonna be backwards compatible?

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content...e=dev&aid=3645

[Pezman]

And now the Xbox 2 specs leaked? If this is true, whoa! it might be a loooooong time til the X-box3 will be needed for an upgrade..

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...EVDWcUicJE.php

Xenon Docs Leaked?
>> Thanks to some people who bombarded my email account with this info. Wish I could give credit where credit is deserved.. but oddly enough their email addresses are from an anonymous remailer.

Some interesting quotes..

Basic Hardware Specifications
Xenon is powered by a 3.5+ GHz IBM PowerPC processor and a 500+ MHz ATI graphics processor. Xenon has 256+ MB of unified memory. Xenon runs a custom operating system based on Microsoft® Windows NT®, similar to the Xbox operating system. The graphics interface is a superset of Microsoft® Direct3D® version 9.0.

CPU
The Xenon CPU is a custom processor based on PowerPC technology. The CPU includes three independent processors (cores) on a single die. Each core runs at 3.5+ GHz. The Xenon CPU can issue two instructions per clock cycle per core. At peak performance, Xenon can issue 21 billion instructions per second.
The Xenon CPU was designed by IBM in close consultation with the Xbox team, leading to a number of revolutionary additions, including a dot product instruction for extremely fast vector math and custom security features built directly into the silicon to prevent piracy and hacking.
Each core has two symmetric hardware threads (SMT), for a total of six hardware threads available to games. Not only does the Xenon CPU include the standard set of PowerPC integer and floating-point registers (one set per hardware thread), the Xenon CPU also includes 128 vector (VMX) registers per hardware thread. This astounding number of registers can drastically improve the speed of common mathematical operations.
Each of the three cores includes a 32-KB L1 instruction cache and a 32-KB L1 data cache. The three cores share a 1-MB L2 cache. The L2 cache can be locked down in segments to improve performance. The L2 cache also has the very unusual feature of being directly readable from the GPU, which allows the GPU to consume geometry and texture data from L2 and main memory simultaneously.
Xenon CPU instructions are exposed to games through compiler intrinsics, allowing developers to access the power of the chip using C language notation.

GPU
The Xenon GPU is a custom 500+ MHz graphics processor from ATI. The shader core has 48 Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) that can execute 64 simultaneous threads on groups of 64 vertices or pixels. ALUs are automatically and dynamically assigned to either pixel or vertex processing depending on load. The ALUs can each perform one vector and one scalar operation per clock cycle, for a total of 96 shader operations per clock cycle. Texture loads can be done in parallel to ALU operations. At peak performance, the GPU can issue 48 billion shader operations per second.
The GPU has a peak pixel fill rate of 4+ gigapixels/sec (16 gigasamples/sec with 4× antialiasing). The peak vertex rate is 500+ million vertices/sec. The peak triangle rate is 500+ million triangles/sec. The interesting point about all of these values is that they’re not just theoretical—they are attainable with nontrivial shaders.
Xenon is designed for high-definition output. Included directly on the GPU die is 10+ MB of fast embedded dynamic RAM (EDRAM). A 720p frame buffer fits very nicely here. Larger frame buffers are also possible because of hardware-accelerated partitioning and predicated rendering that has little cost other than additional vertex processing. Along with the extremely fast EDRAM, the GPU also includes hardware instructions for alpha blending, z-test, and antialiasing.
The Xenon graphics architecture is a unique design that implements a superset of Direct3D version 9.0. It includes a number of important extensions, including additional compressed texture formats and a flexible tessellation engine. Xenon not only supports high-level shading language (HLSL) model 3.0 for vertex and pixel shaders but also includes advanced shader features well beyond model 3.0. For instance, shaders use 32-bit IEEE floating-point math throughout. Vertex shaders can fetch from textures, and pixel shaders can fetch from vertex streams. Xenon shaders also have the unique ability to directly access main memory, allowing techniques that have never before been possible.
As with Xbox, Xenon will support precompiled push buffers (“command buffers” in Xenon terminology), but to a much greater extent than the Xbox console does. The Xbox team is exposing and documenting the command buffer format so that games are able to harness the GPU much more effectively.
In addition to an extremely powerful GPU, Xenon also includes a very high-quality resize filter. This filter allows consumers to choose whatever output mode they desire. Xenon automatically scales the game’s output buffer to the consumer-chosen resolution.

Memory and Bandwidth
Xenon has 256+ MB of unified memory, equally accessible to both the GPU and CPU. The main memory controller resides on the GPU (the same as in the Xbox architecture). It has 22.4+ GB/sec aggregate bandwidth to RAM, distributed between reads and writes. Aggregate means that the bandwidth may be used for all reading or all writing or any combination of the two. Translated into game performance, the GPU can consume a 512×512×32-bpp texture in only 47 microseconds.
The front side bus (FSB) bandwidth peak is 10.8 GB/sec for reads and 10.8 GB/sec for writes, over 20 times faster than for Xbox. Note that the 22.4+ GB/sec main memory bandwidth is shared between the CPU and GPU. If, for example, the CPU is using 2 GB/sec for reading and 1 GB/sec for writing on the FSB, the GPU has 19.4+ GB/sec available for accessing RAM.
Eight pixels (where each pixel is color plus z = 8 bytes) can be sent to the EDRAM every GPU clock cycle, for an EDRAM write bandwidth of 32 GB/sec. Each of these pixels can be expanded through multisampling to 4 samples, for up to 32 multisampled pixel samples per clock cycle. With alpha blending, z-test, and z-write enabled, this is equivalent to having 256 GB/sec of effective bandwidth! The important thing is that frame buffer bandwidth will never slow down the Xenon GPU.

Audio
The Xenon CPU is a superb processor for audio, particularly with its massive mathematical horsepower and vector register set. The Xenon CPU can process and encode hundreds of audio channels with sophisticated per-voice and global effects, all while using a fraction of the power of a single CPU core.
The Xenon system south bridge also contains a key hardware component for audio—XMA decompression. XMA is the native Xenon compressed audio format, based on the WMA Pro architecture. XMA provides sound quality higher than ADPCM at even better compression ratios, typically 6:1–12:1. The south bridge contains a full silicon implementation of the XMA decompression algorithm, including support for multichannel XMA sources. XMA is processed by the south bridge into standard PCM format in RAM. All other sound processing (sample rate conversion, filtering, effects, mixing, and multispeaker encoding) happens on the Xenon CPU.
The lowest-level Xenon audio software layer is XAudio, a new API designed for optimal digital signal processing. The Xbox Audio Creation Tool (XACT) API from Xbox is also supported, along with new features such as conditional events, improved parameter control, and a more flexible 3D audio model.

Input/Output
As with Xbox, Xenon is designed to be a multiplayer console. It has built-in networking support including an Ethernet 10/100-BaseT port. It supports up to four controllers. From an audio/video standpoint, Xenon will support all the same formats as Xbox, including multiple high-definition formats up through 1080i, plus VGA output.
In order to provide greater flexibility and support a wider variety of attached devices, the Xenon console includes standard USB 2.0 ports. This feature allows the console to potentially host storage devices, cameras, microphones, and other devices.

Storage
The Xenon console is designed around a larger world view of storage than Xbox was. Games will have access to a variety of storage devices, including connected devices (memory units, USB storage) and remote devices (networked PCs, Xbox Live™). At the time of this writing, the decision to include a built-in hard disk in every Xenon console has not been made. If a hard disk is not included in every console, it will certainly be available as an integrated add-on component.
Xenon supports up to two attached memory units (MUs). MUs are connected directly to the console, not to controllers as on Xbox. The initial size of the MUs is 64 MB, although larger MUs may be available in the future. MU throughput is expected to be around 8 MB/sec for reads and 1 MB/sec for writes.
The Xenon game disc drive is a 12× DVD, with an expected outer edge throughput of 16+ MB/sec. Latency is expected to be in the neighborhood of 100 ms. The media format will be similar to Xbox, with approximately 6 GB of usable space on the disk. As on Xbox, media will be stored on a single side in two 3 GB layers.

Industrial Design
The Xenon industrial design process is well under way, but the final look of the box has not been determined. The Xenon console will be smaller than the Xbox console.
The standard Xenon controller will have a look and feel similar to the Xbox controller. The primary changes are the removal of the Black and White buttons and the addition of shoulder buttons. The triggers, thumbsticks, D-pad, and primary buttons are essentially unchanged. The controller will support vibration.

[Saulbadguy]

Haha. You are talking to yourself.

[Pezman]

Saul you dork ...

[TheManeMan]

Wow...could Halo 3 be on Xbox 2...the specs are sick...cant wait to see the model...or the controller...

[Rock Chalk]

Dude that sucks it wont be backwards compat though.

[Sideburn]

If Microsoft was smart, which they are, the specs would be leaked. Then, they'd up everything half a notch and release it 6 months before the PS3 is due out. That would set them up to easily have the most powerful system and not give sony anytime to upgrade above it.

[Pezman]

Xbox 2 - Everything we know!

With the release last week of a white paper reportedly leaked directly from a Microsoft employee, speculation has begun anew over the state of the follow-up console to Microsoft's Xbox. For months, Xbox fans and industry wags have been putting their two cents in regarding the console, speaking up on everything from the name of the system to the detailed specifications to the possible launch titles, but it's hard to figure out who to believe. Well, we're here to tell you that we don't know who to believe either, but we're going to try to give you all of the details we could find on the new system.

Now, you've got to remember one thing when speculating on upcoming (and as-of-yet unannounced) new hardware: things change. In fact, things are almost guaranteed to change. It's a long time from the beginning of the development process to the end of manufacturing, and as companies see what their competitors are doing, or as they take feedback from fans, they'll tweak their plans accordingly. That's how it's always been, and how it will probably always be. So, please, don't be mad at us if we seem somewhat ambiguous at times, or if we turn out to be wrong about certain things. We're only human (as far as you know). With that said, let's take a look at some of the things we know about the next game console from Microsoft.

What's in a Name?

The first thing that needs to be sorted out is a name for the new console. People have been referring to the console by a lot of different monikers, but nothing has really stuck so far. Xbox 2 has been a popular (and logical) one, but there is a lot of speculation that the folks at Microsoft don't want people to look at the number and think that it's inferior to the PlayStation 3. A lot of people have also been calling it Xbox Next, or in some cases, NeXtBox. While this makes sense, it may be more appropriate for Microsoft to try to set the console apart from its predecessor, which didn't do quite as well as everyone had hoped.

So far, the leading candidate for the console seems to be Xenon. For anyone out there who might have skipped chemistry class, xenon is a noble gas, like neon, and it's pronounced with a Z sound, like xylophone and xenophobia. Of course, there has been no official word from Microsoft regarding this name, but a few internet news sites have posted screenshots of the launcher screen of the console's development kit, and the name Xenon is featured prominently on the top. This indicates that, at least for now, the codename for the system is Xenon, although that could change at any time.

The Power of X

Now, let's take a look inside the box. One of the biggest changes in the system is the CPU (central processing unit) architecture, which is moving from the x86 chipset found in many home PCs to custom processor based on PowerPC technology, not unlike the processors powering Apple's G5 computers. IBM has been developing the new chip with the Xbox team, and early word is that it will be made up of three independent processors, also known as cores, with each core running at a blazing 3.5 GHz. So what does this mean to you, the consumer? Well, basically, it means that your games will be able to run very fast while looking good. If these specs are correct, the processor should be able to issue upwards of 21 billion instructions per second, nearly 10 times the processing power of Intel's chip in the original Xbox.

The only possible drawback to putting this chipset in the new system is that it might make the new console unable to play games from the previous system. This backward compatibility was one of the major selling points for the PlayStation 2, although it is estimated that less than 10 percent of gamers actually played their old games on their new system. Still, that is 10 percent that Microsoft really can't afford to let go, so their internal Xbox team has been working on developing emulators that can run the older games flawlessly. There is a lot of reward there, but there is also a lot of risk, as creating and testing emulators can be incredibly time consuming, as well as expensive.

No matter what Microsoft decides to do in regards to backwards compatibility, it's almost set in stone that the new console will feature the PowerPC processor. In fact, the development kits being sent out to developers are reportedly little more than heavily modded Macintosh G5s, with software installed to emulate the new console.
While the previous Xbox utilized an Nvidia GPU (graphics processing unit), Microsoft's new console will be relying on a custom designed 500 Mhz processor from ATI, Nvidia's biggest rival. So what caused Microsoft to make the switch? Most industry analysts believe that the Nvidia/Microsoft partnership soured after Nvidia was left with a large stock of unusable chips following last minute hardware changes (as well as sales predictions) on the original Xbox, leaving Nvidia in the red. The matter was eventually settled in arbitration, but things have been chilly between the two ever since.

So it wasn't a huge surprise when ATI won the bid to create the graphics chip for the new console, though it is almost guaranteed that ATI demanded a better deal than Nvidia got. By all accounts, the chip that ATI is designing for the console will be much more powerful than the R400 chips that it is currently producing for use in home PCs. One interesting note: the most recently leaked specs noted that the ATI GPU will support the high-level shading language model 3.0 for pixel shading, although ATI's most recently released chips only support model 2.0. Does that mean that ATI's chip will be next generation?

When the original Xbox came out, a lot of people had issues with the industrial design. Many didn't like the size of the box itself, which was bigger than the other consoles, or the layout and size of the controllers, which were admittedly pretty huge. Microsoft managed to make a lot of their fans very happy when they released the S Controller, which was really their Japanese controller. Still, there were some complaints about the tiny black and white buttons on the right side, especially that they were hard to access without taking your fingers off of the main buttons.

Nearly all of the specs released thus far have proclaimed that the new controllers will not have white or black buttons at all, but will instead utilize shoulders buttons, probably along the lines of the ones on the PlayStation 2 controller. This will make it a lot easier for gamers to use those buttons in the middle of heavy action, although Microsoft must make sure that they aren't too easy to hit accidentally. There's nothing worse than dropping a grenade when you're trying to crouch.

The other element is the size of the console itself. Many people believe that the size of the Xbox was one of the reasons that the console never really caught on in Japan, where space is at a premium, while there were complaints on this side of the pond that the console didn't fit well into some entertainment cabinets. Nearly everyone agrees that Microsoft will try to make it's next console smaller, but that opinion begs one little question: what are they going to take out?

Sights and Sounds

We all want our games to look nice, but it doesn't really matter how good they look if your TV isn't up to the task of displaying them. More and more people are starting to purchase TVs with High Definition capability, so it's no surprise that Microsoft is planning on including High Definition output up to 1080i, which provides the sharpest, most colorful picture possible at the present time.

Between a Rock and a Hard Drive

Perhaps the most hotly contested (and divisive) issue surrounding the new console involves the hard drive … or more specifically, the potential lack of one. In March of this year, an Israeli newspaper ran an interview with Dov Moran, CEO of M-Systems, a manufacturer of high-capacity flash memory. According to Moran, Microsoft decided that they didn't want to include a hard drive due to a number of reasons. First of all, the hard drive is one of the most expensive, as well as largest, components in the current system, so removing it would allow Microsoft to make the box itself smaller, and increase their chances of making a profit.

Secondly, many developers either haven't embraced the Xbox's hard drive, or haven't figured out yet how to best utilize it. However, with the rise of online gaming in general, and Xbox Live in particular, it's quickly becoming apparent that gamers appreciate the inclusion of the hard drive. Without a large storage capacity, you wouldn't be able to download new levels of the latest Splinter Cell, save certain games (KoTOR saves can't fit on Xbox's memory card), or create custom soundtracks for supported games. There's also some stuff going on behind the scenes, and it all has to do with the hard drive. See, some of the developers that have begun using the hard drive to cache data, thus allowing the games to load images and objects much faster than if they were pulling them directly from the disc.

The final reason that Microsoft is considering shipping their next console is the rampant piracy. Since the Xbox is essentially a PC in a console's body, it wasn't long before hackers started to modify their Xboxes, installing a mod chip, new operating system, and a new, larger hard drive. This has allowed a lot of people to not only use their Xbox as a media center for photos and movies and arcade emulators, but also to rip games directly onto their hard drives. If people simply go to Blockbuster, rent a game, then rip it, they'll be able to play the game forever, and Microsoft won't see one red cent. You can understand why Microsoft might be leaning towards leaving the hard drive out.

Still, there's a chance the hard drive still might make the cut. A lot of developers have already come out in support of the inclusion of a hard drive, and, thankfully, Microsoft understands that it's the developers, not the company accountants, that will ultimately decide whether the next console succeeds or fails. And even if the hard drive isn't included, the latest leaked specs indicate that Microsoft might have bigger plans in mind.

According to the specs, the next console will allow games to access a myriad of storage options, from removable devices such as flash memory cards or USB storage to remote devices like networked PCs or Xbox Live. There is also a strong possibility that there will be a hard drive add-on released after the console, sort of like Sony did with the PS2 HDD. So, even if there isn't a dedicated hard drive out of the box, it sounds like Microsoft still might have a few tricks up its sleeve.

Just Say When!

So, when can we expect to get the next console in our grubby little hands? By all indications, it appears that we'll be getting something before the holiday season in 2005, well before Sony and Nintendo will have consoles ready. This is yet another issue that has divided the gaming community. In a lot of ways, Microsoft is blaming the relatively weak showing of the Xbox on the fact that they were the last console to make it to market, so they are pushing the development schedule forward in an attempt to be the first to market the next time around.

There are a lot of ways that this strategy could blow up in Microsoft's face. First of all, the first console to market usually ends up being the least powerful machine, and the fact that Nintendo's next console will feature a CPU by IBM and a GPU by ATI means that Microsoft and the big N will have more or less identical key components in their machines. However, if Microsoft's console comes out a year before Nintendo's, there's always the chance that Nintendo can take a look at what Microsoft is offering, then change their machine to trump all of Microsoft's features, essentially making the machine obsolete in the eyes of many hardcore gamers.

Finally, Microsoft has to consider the position of the developers. A lot of the developers that create cross-platform games are still raking in the profits from the current generation, and Microsoft will essentially be asking them to spend a ton of money to create games for one next generation console. If a developer is forced to make a choice between spending a few million dollars to create a game for all of the current generation of consoles (with an audience somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million total gamers) or spending tens of millions of dollars to make a game for just the next Microsoft console (with an audience of a few million gamers at best), which do you think they'll choose? Some large publishers and developers can afford to develop games for both generations, but the majority of them will have a tough choice to make.

So, there you go folks, that's pretty much everything we know. There's sure to be more info coming forth in the next few months, and a lot of these points could be dead on or dead wrong. Only time will tell, right?


Another big rumored addition is the ability to output to VGA monitors, giving players the option to play on their TV or on their PC monitor. This could come in handy in one TV households (a rarity in today's wired world), or for people who simply don't have space for both a desktop computer and an entertainment setup. While you can purchase VGA adapters online, the video quality tends to degrade as you switch from one output format to another. Many gamers have been asking for VGA outputs for years, and it's looking like Microsoft (as well as Nintendo) is finally listening.

Sound plays a huge part in many of today's games, as hearing an enemy sneaking up behind you can be the difference between life and death. The original Xbox had the most impressive audio capabilities of the three consoles, utilizing Dolby's powerful Dolby Digital 5.1 technology to create immersive, multichannel soundscapes. Gamers have loved the Xbox's audio qualities since day one, so nearly everyone expects Microsoft to continue their partnership with Dolby. While there hasn't been anything more than speculation to date, you can rest assured that the audio capabilities will be even more impressive than they were in the previous console.

http://xbox.gamespy.com/articles/527/527245p1.html

[TheManeMan]

the system looks great...thanks for the update Pezman......good lookin'

[Rock Chalk]

One thing I would comment on Pez.

Nintendo may have a similar and even more powerful machine than X-box, but they market an entirely different audience and have always done so. Nintendo goes after the younger kids, 13 and under usually. X-box targeted adults (and from what I understand, will continue to do so but try to grab some of the middle aged and older teenagers from Sony).

Sony is the only console that has targeted all the ranges and really only because they have had their system out longest (PS1 and PS2 backwards compatibility and all).

I do think X-Box will continue with the older gamers as the primary source of their revenue (since they have more money anyway). I just hope they can figure out a way to make it backwards compatible. I dont want to have H2 for a year and then not be able to play it on the new machine. It took too long for the damn thing to come out!

[Pezman]

The first news about the PS3 is starting to emerge now....

New PlayStation set for May debut

Gamers will get their first glimpse of the next-generation PlayStation in May next year, Sony has said.
The electronics giant is planning to show off the console at the annual E3 video games trade show in Los Angeles.

But the chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi, did not say when the machine would go on sale to the public.

Rivals Microsoft and Nintendo are also working on new consoles, which could be unveiled at the same LA event.

Market leader

The PlayStation is the world's best-selling games console.

The PlayStation 2 (PS2) had sold more than 70 million copies by March this year, far ahead of Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube.


The new console from Nintendo is codenamed "Revolution"


The PS2 was helped by the fact that it went on sale a year head of its rivals, giving Sony a lead the others have not been able to claw back.

Its competitors are aiming to prevent a repeat of the same scenario and are racing to be the first to release the next generation of console.

Sony has now given its clearest indication yet of when its new machine will see the light of day.

At a briefing with developers, suppliers and media in Tokyo, Mr Kutaragi said it was planning to showcase its new console at next year's E3.

"There has been some talk that development is not going well, but we expect to have a playable version at E3," he said.

"We are pushing ahead with that schedule in mind."

He did not say when the console would be released. But the PS2 went on sale in Japan almost a year after it was first unveiled.

Nintendo has already indicated that it hopes to showcase its new machine, codenamed Revolution, at next year's E3, too.

And Microsoft is expected to follow suit with its successor to the Xbox to avoid being left behind.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3886991.stm

[Pezman]

The Games of PS3

What PS3 games are coming out? What do we know about them? What do we expect from them?

July 12, 2004 - Despite all the hubbub, rumor, promise, hype, and unofficial "facts," PlayStation 3 is still as mysterious as systems get. While developers have been toying with emulated platforms and playing around with early specifications and tools for some time, consumers -- enthusiast and casual alike -- know virtually nothing of the system or its games. What is a games website to do?

To kickoff our ongoing push to deliver you as much PlayStation 3 info as is humanly possible prior to its unveiling next year, we're going to today roundup all the PlayStation 3 games we know of. This admittedly short list of titles will highlight those games confirmed to be in development, those that an inebriated developer or publisher let slip one fateful eve, and even some titles that are easy money bets (obviously we won't list every Electronic Arts sports game from 2006 onward as they're blatantly obvious additions to the eventual PS3 library).
Just because of the game-centric emphasis of this feature, we're not giving up on the hardware reports, mind you. We're currently working on indexing the ultimate compilation of PS3 data and are naturally assembling an easily referenced FAQ of all available information, but for today we've decided to focus on the games, since the games are of paramount importance to gamers. But, how the heck do we go about doing this?

While we might know of the existence of a few titles, it's uncharacteristically hard to acquire any real details about them. Developers are very tight-lipped when it comes to PS3 specifics, so what little data we have managed to wrangle out of the zipped mouths of those in the know, we've had to augment with a bit of speculation and a touch of hopeful optimism. As such, please enjoy the list but understand that it is not official and is in no way supposed to represent a PS3 launch lineup or the current or final states of any of the games mentioned.

DARK SECTOR
Pub: TBA | Dev: Digital Extremes | Release: TBA Originally a PC title, Dark Sector was to be a hybrid space combat / first-person shooter set within a persistent online world (sort of a cross between UT, Rogue Leader, and EQ). This was the original idea, anyway. The game dropped off the radar in February of 2000 only to resurface just prior to E3 2004, where it was unveiled in video format.
Exact details still remain sketchy, but DS is apparently a stealth / action title, something analogous to a futuristic Splinter Cell with a tad more shooting. It seems to also boast stylized, dynamically lit, normal-mapped environments and characters, lending more credibility to the assertion of developers at this year's Games Developers Conference that such tricks (those same tricks that make Unreal 3.0 look so wonderful) are PS3 norms.
Given Digital Extreme's track record (UT 2K3 and Unreal Championship), we expect great things from Dark Sector.

HALF-LIFE 2
Pub:Vivendi | Dev: Valve | Release: TBA
At the 2003 ECTS Valve's Director of Marketing, Doug Lombardi, confirmed that Half-Life 2 would appear on next-generation consoles. Valve also only recently announced that a release candidate of the highly anticipated PC first-person shooter would be sent off this August. This is real, kids.
The game boasts gameplay-centric physics used in puzzles and everyday combat. It also touts what's supposed to be one of the most advanced artificial intelligence schemes of any action title. Moreover, its multiplayer component (still under close guard) is supposedly just as good if better than the singleplayer game.
It's a package PS3 should no doubt be able to handle. But, will we be getting a straight port, some graphical upgrades, or perhaps even new content (like the PS2 version of Half-Life the original)? Time will tell.

MEDAL OF HONOR
Pub: Electronic Arts | Dev: EALA | Release: TBA Before Rising Sun was released, a prominent Electronic Arts bigwig accidentally spilled a few details about Medal of Honor PS3 to us. According to him, the game had been in the preproduction for some time.
Like all Medal of Honor titles, the game will focus heavily on scripted sequences and tight action to give the title that much wanted "movie-like" feel. However, this one is reportedly highly interactive -- more akin to Pacific Assault (the next PC Medal of Honor title). Of course, we don't know in what theater the game will take place, so there's no telling what kind of specific action to expect or what vehicles, if any, will be included.
While no release date has been announced, sources indicated that the game was intended to be ready for PS3 launch, but that information came many months ago, and much could have changed since then.

NEED FOR SPEED
Pub: Electronic Arts | Dev: Black Box (?) | Release: TBA So we know absolutely nothing about this one. All we know is that there is a Need for Speed title in development and that it will be for PS3. What is there to know, you ask? Well, is it going to be Hot Pursuit or Underground style? Will it be an open-ended world or a variety of preset tracks? Will it have licensed cars and parts? Will the vehicles be destructible? Will there be online play? When's it coming out? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
The several month old rumor mill says it's Hot Pursuit 3, but we find this a bit hard to believe considering Underground's success and the current custom car street racing fad that's sweeping the nation. We're hoping for a combination of the two games mainly because we want to race on dry tracks during daytime.

SPIDER-MAN 3
Pub: Activision | Dev: Treyarch (?) | Release: May, 2007 Shortly after Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 in preproduction announcement, Activision announced that two new Spider-Man games were in development, one being this next-gen adaptation of the new film.
While getting any preliminary information on a title this far away from completion is near impossible, we do a know a few things. Like Spidey 2, the game will follow the Hollywood exploits of Peter Parker, but will take liberties when necessary. Furthermore, Activision and Treyarch are very happy with the GTA-like precedent set by Spidey 2, and the open-world trend is expected to continue.
Treyarch has a solid history of listening to feedback and improving their wares accordingly. A serious gripe of Spider-Man the first was a lacking swinging mechanism and a rather constricted game world -- both problems were fixed with Spider-Man 2. The third should then incorporate more invigorating boss battles and more diverse random missions.

Easy Money PS3 Games
FIFA *Fight Night *Final Fantasy *Gran Turismo *Grand Theft Auto *
Lord of the Rings Game X *Madden *Metal Gear *NBA Live *NCAA *NHL *
Rainbow Six *Splinter Cell *SSX *Star Wars Game X *Tekken *Tiger Woods *WWE

[TheManeMan]

The Spiderman 2 game looks pretty sick...should be a fun game...especially how you can go wherever you please in the city...I just read about the PSP...looks like a nice handheld...



Sony to Unveil New PlayStation in May

Mon Jul 12, 7:06 PM ET Add Technology - AP to My Yahoo!


By MAY WONG, AP Technology Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). says it expects to demonstrate a working version of its next-generation PlayStation video game console at a trade show next May.

Sony has been secretive about its next-generation consoles because of stiff competition from rivals Microsoft Corp. of the United States and Japan's Nintendo (news - web sites) Co.


To date, Sony has not specified a launch date for the follow-up to the popular PlayStation 2 (news - web sites), but company officials in Tokyo on Monday told reporters they'll unveil more details about the highly anticipated product by the end of its fiscal year, which ends in March, said Molly Smith, a spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., based in Foster City, Calif.


"We wanted to let our business partners know that our development is progressing as planned on the future platform," Smith said.


Takeshi Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer, said the PlayStation Portable, dubbed PSP, would be on store shelves by the end of March but didn't reveal the product's specifications, Kyodo News agency said.


If Sony meets its targets, then the public will finally get a glimpse of the next-generation game console at the E3 convention in Los Angeles, set for May. Sony and other video game makers have used E3, which draws game developers, fans and industry officials, for major product launches.


Sony's PlayStation2 (news - web sites) game machine is the industry's best-selling console, though Microsoft's Xbox (news - web sites) and Nintendo's GameCube have been gaining some ground. Microsoft has not said when its next-generation Xbox might be available, while Nintendo announced last month that it would "show" its GameCube successor, code-named "Revolution," in 2005.


Kutaragi also said Sony will sell its PlayStation Portable — a handheld device with a color display, stereo speakers and wireless Internet for multiplayer games, music and videos — in Japan by the end of December.


PSP will be available in the United States and Europe by March 2005, Kutaragi said, according to Smith.


Officials at Sony's headquarters in Tokyo couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

[Pezman]

Halo 2's theatrical trailer is out! (linkies below)

Microsoft Game Studios has announed that it will start a movie-style promotional campaign to prepare for the launch of Bungie's highly anticipated Halo 2.

The Halo 2 theatrical trailer will run all the way through August, and will be shown in more than 1500 Loews Cineplex Entertainment movie screens in the U.S. before many of the hottest films of the summer; including Spider-Man 2, The Village, King Arthur, I Robot, Catwoman and Alien vs. Predator.

The trailer sets the stage for Master Chief's arrival on Earth to stop Covenant forces from destroying all mankind. Halo 2 lands on store shelves on November 9.

The cinematic Halo 2 trailer was created by The Ant Farm, known for their work on trailers for blockbuster films such as The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man 2, Shrek, Kill Bill and the Harry Potter series.

Halo 2 Theatrical Trailer Woohoo!

[Goobzilla]

Originally Posted by Pezman

Halo 2's theatrical trailer is out! (linkies below)

Microsoft Game Studios has announed that it will start a movie-style promotional campaign to prepare for the launch of Bungie's highly anticipated Halo 2.

The Halo 2 theatrical trailer will run all the way through August, and will be shown in more than 1500 Loews Cineplex Entertainment movie screens in the U.S. before many of the hottest films of the summer; including Spider-Man 2, The Village, King Arthur, I Robot, Catwoman and Alien vs. Predator.

The trailer sets the stage for Master Chief's arrival on Earth to stop Covenant forces from destroying all mankind. Halo 2 lands on store shelves on November 9.

The cinematic Halo 2 trailer was created by The Ant Farm, known for their work on trailers for blockbuster films such as The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man 2, Shrek, Kill Bill and the Harry Potter series.

Halo 2 Theatrical Trailer Woohoo!

That trailer is awesome! I will have to stock up on my ear patches. I get very motion sick from a lot of the FPS games but I love them too much to not play. It's going to be an awesome game.

Ron

[Sideburn]

Originally Posted by Goobzilla

That trailer is awesome! I will have to stock up on my ear patches. I get very motion sick from a lot of the FPS games but I love them too much to not play. It's going to be an awesome game.

Ron

If you liked that trailer you should dl the E3 2003 movie. All of the footage from that trailer is in that. It's longer and you get to see the use of new weapons, new moves "like jumping on a ghost and hijacking it". You can now use those light swords that some of the Elites carry. I also believe there a few new "species" of covenant. It looks like the new idea of being in a massive battle is going to pay off well. Instead of being by yourself, most of the game you are in the middle of huge battles. With marines everywhere. In the first game, the marines were there for personal enjoyment. Always fun to toss a frag nade in the middle of a group of marines and watch them fly through the air.

[want2bAbronco]

Not gonna be backwards compatible? who really cares. 95% of people dont play there old games on the new system anyways. also you will still own your Xbox1, so play them on it. i would MUCH rather have a better system and not play old games, then to have a little less of a system and be able to play old games.

[TD30]

It will be some interesting competition

[TheManeMan]

Here is another Halo 2 trailer...its # 4 I believe...Halo 2, 3 days after my b-day...I cant wait!!!!!!


Scroll down a bit, and check it out...

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/...x72304_ot4.asx

[want2bAbronco]

Halo 2 is looking great for single / co-op mission mode. What I am really looking forward to is the LAN parties though! Looks like they did a lot of great work on mulit player. Where team work is demanded, to getting into the other teams bases etc.. Also duel wielding 2 weapons is great, being able to play as Master chief or the covenant is really cool!

[Jens1893]

anyone on here on xbox live?

[TD30]

Originally Posted by Jens

anyone on here on xbox live?

I'm on Live Gamertag PvtKelly