Sunday, January 27, 2008

Resistance: Fall of Man Only Used 10-20 Percent of PS3's SPU

According to a newly released brochure from Insomniac early this month, Resistance: Fall of Man, which played great and looked terrific, only used 10-20% of the PLAYSTATION 3's SPU.

SPU System

- Animation
- Audio (NextSynth and LR1)
- Bucketer sort
- Collision (separate broad and narrow)
- Dynamic DB
- Dynamic joint
- FX update
- Geom Cull Clip (for shadows and decals)
- Glass
- Moby constants
- Physics collision
- Physics simulation
- Particle (weather fx)
- Render mats
- Static DB
- Water (FFT)

10-20% Total SPU Utilization
Resistance: Fall of Man was a great title, with it only using so little, we are in for a bigger ride when Resistance 2 hits us.

[Via NeoGAF]

Grand Theft Auto IV: Best Buy's Three New Images


The official Best Buy page for Grand Theft Auto IV reveals three new (small) images of the upcoming title. Once we have high resolution versions of these, we will be sure to post them, but as of now, we must suffer. The new images look like a major improvement on images we've seen released from just two days ago. Enjoy! [Thanks GTA4!]

Circuit City Dropping HD-DVD Altogether?

Circuit City has discontinued the HD-DVD format so it can expand it's Blu-Ray lineup.

Circuit City has always carried a limited quantity of HD-DVD titles as well though. It's Blu-Ray inventory is much bigger. Seven Circuit City stores were contacted. Three confirmed that the store has discontinued the HD-DVD format altogether, meaning Blu-Ray exclusive. This decision is probably based on company sales of the two formats which consisted of 87% for Blu-Ray disc and 13% for HD-DVD.

It will be any day before Toshiba announces the death of HD-DVD.

[Via 1080Living]

Turok Pre-Orders Come With Dino-Fang

GameCrazy seems to be giving away a special gift for Turok pre-orders. A local buyer received this fang (to the left) while pre-ordering the game there.

If anything, you should go for the $10 gift card at Circuit City for pre-ordering the game.

[Via Kotaku]

Pre-Order Crisis Core and Receive Free ShinRa UMD Case

If you pre-order Square Enix's upcoming Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, you'll be getting a bit extra than just the game. You'll also receive a special "Shin-Ra Electric Power Company" UMD case for your PSP games.

Currently, only Amazon is showing this pre-order bonus, but retailers such as GameStop and GameCrazy should be showing it soon as well.

The game is releasing March 25, 2008. Get your pre-orders in fast.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Midnight Club: Los Angeles: Eight New Screenshots


I've always enjoyed the Midnight Club series. Whenever I was bored, I would pop in Midnight Club 2, get on my motorcycle, head in the ditch and try to ride off to land on top of buildings. It gives you freedom. Today, Rockstar San Diego released a new batch of Midnight Club: Los Angeles screens. Yes, I agree these are some of the sexiest cars I've ever seen. [Thanks PrimoT!]

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII: Fifty New Screenshots

PSU has updated their gallery with a massive amount of new Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII screenshots. The screenshots look pretty impressive.

You can play this upcoming title this coming March 2008. The screenshot gallery at the link below.

[Crisis Core Gallery]

Grand Theft Auto IV: PLAYSTATION 3 Owners Get DLC Too

For the PLAYSTATION 3 owners worried that you won't be getting any downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV, then worry no more. The PLAYSTATION 3 version will receive downloadable content as well.

Microsoft made a some million dollar deal with Rockstar for exclusive DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV. Two downloadable chapters will be exclusive to the Xbox 360. All other downloadable content released will be available through the PLAYSTATION Store as well.

Who knows, Rockstar has been with Sony for years, maybe they will toss us some exclusive downloadable content of our own to have some fun with.

[Via XGN]

Turok Vignette #4: Weapons


Propaganda Games releaesd a new vignette of their upcoming Turok today. This vignette focuses on the weapons of the game. They show us their whole arsenal that will be available for us to kick dino-butt throughout the game. Enjoy!

[Via ENe3]

Turok's Teammate Killing Feature Removed

Propaganda Games, developers of the upcoming Turok, have announced that a patch will be disseminated that will change the "Grab Bag Achievement". This achievement required payers to kill "at least 1 creature, 1 enemy, 1 teammate, and yourself" in a single online match and was hotly protested when it was announced. The resulting patch would remove the requirement of killing a teammate, leaving you only needing to kill "at least 1 creature, 1 enemy and yourself."

Although the PLAYSTATION 3 doesn't have achievements, but the PLAYSTATION 3 version of Turok features a similar rewards system that will be fixed by a patch, along with adding rumble support.

The fix should be available for download the day the game is released. They changed this because many players were upset of having to kill a teammate. Well, now you don't.

[Via Kotaku]

National Geographic Goes Blu-Ray Exclusive

National Geographics today sent out to retailers information on the day and date about their upcoming title, Sharkwater. The title will not be coming out on HD-DVD even though it releases on 4/8, which is before Warner's HD-DVD June cut off date.

As of now, BBC is the only company under Warner Bros. who still stand by their June HD-DVD cut-off date.

[Via HDD]