SUXOR.

That sux. I have bad karma with laptop hdd which die off easier. (experienced it...3 laptop hdd gone)

Wait a minute, what you means is in order to play xbox games on xbox next, you need to buy optional hdd?If xbox next games, the default settings will do?

Oh man, that's great. Remember it's not suppose to be backwards compatibility. So that's the loophole microsoft been talking abt. Before that they can't make it backwards compatibility 'coz of legal binding, nvidia etc and they said they gona find a way to make it happen.

Yes, The HDD is only needed to play Xbox 1 games. Also if you want to use custom soundtrack. I think the load time of Xbox 2 game will decrease if we have the HDD installed.

Laptop HDD is expensive. 40 GB is RM 275 and 100 GB is RM 780. And still not sure whether we can buy any laptop HDD and plug it in or need some kind of adapter to attach it (like PS2).

But using laptop's HDD will make Xbox 2 unit smaller and slimmer.

This post has been edited by tidusthecoolest: Mar 12 2005, 09:05 PM

Sony promises developers an easy ride on PS3

The 25GB Blu-Ray discs makes me think, do we really need that much of a storage? I mean, 10GB sounds reasonable. I'm worried that the trend of putting cheap, generic extras (galleries, interviews, scene viewer, etc) just to fill in the freespace will become all too common. How will console ports to the PC be? Perhaps that is why high capacity HDs of 200GB and above are slowly becoming affordable to mid-range users. Heck, add in maybe another three years and low-end users may be able to enjoy that luxury for a third or less of the price three years before.

GDC: Getting Unreal with Epic's Mark Rein

A peak at the next Xbox's launcher

i dunno bout the blu ray disc....but i heard the nextboxt gonna have dvd9 as standard media!!

dang!!

Why dang? Should be good news for pirates and users from this side of the globe. Otherwise people might just pack up and publicly claim gaming being too expensive and quit altogether.

I am just worried how much all the next gen games gona cost as the game developing are getting more and more expensive. Just wondering whether i could afford ori in the years to come.
Price of ori is very high already, so as an alternative to "game rental"...malaysia have its own robin hood.

I AGREE! I am so glad they use back the DVD. But if use HD-DVD oso not bad i think.

I hope this is not a repost:

Xbox 2 Gets More Square Enix Talent!!

Since the surprise announcement a couple of weeks back that Japanese development studio Mistwalker, a team headed up by Final Fantasy father Hironobu Sakaguchi, would be developing two Xbox 2 RPGs, things have seemingly gone quiet on the games... on our side of the Pacific, at least. In Japan, however, the island nation's most popular game magazine, Famitsu, has featured weekly interviews concerning the new projects.

This week's interview, conducted with Sakaguchi himself, contains a big surprise: more Square Enix talent for Xbox 2. According to the magazine, Daisuke Fukugawa, who previously served as battle planner on Final Fantasy Tactics and as planner for Legend of Mana is now serving at Mistwalker as director on one of the team's two projects. Hiroshi Arai, who supervised 3D graphic design for Final Fantasy 7 and served as modeling supervisor on Final Fantasy 9 is now at Mistwalker, doing modeling work on both projects.
Sakaguchi suggests in the interview that work on the new projects is progressing smoothly. Over one hundred developers are working on the games, which are being co-developed by Microsoft and Mistwalker. As was originally revealed, Mistwalker is working on the music and scenario sides of the games with Microsoft Game Studio handling the technical aspects.

If you want to play Sakaguchi games early in the next generation, you're going to have to get an Xbox 2. According to Sakaguchi, the only next generation games currently in development at Mistwalker are these two Xbox 2 titles, which pushes aside the possibility that the company is also developing for PlayStation 3 and Revolution at this time.

Microsoft Game Studios Chooses Unreal Engine 3

Epic Games, one of the world's leading developers of cutting-edge computer and videogames and the pioneer of the award-winning Unreal Engine, today announced that its Unreal Engine 3 technology and tools will be used in games developed by and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Earlier this year, Epic became an official licensed tool and middleware provider for the next generation Xbox platform, and its partnership with Microsoft Game Studios further demonstrates its commitment to meet the challenges of developing for next generation hardware, and to deliver tools and technology that empower the development and publishing communities to efficiently deliver high quality, unique content.

In using Unreal Engine 3, the Microsoft Game Studios team will be able to truly exploit the unique hardware features of the next generation Xbox platform and harness the enormous power that its team has at its disposal.

"We only work with the best partners and utilize the best technologies, and Epic and the Unreal Engine 3 hit the mark on both those fronts," said Shane Kim, General Manager, Microsoft Game Studios. "Our teams are creating incredible games and content for the next generation Xbox platform, and by integrating Unreal Engine 3 into our development infrastructure we are able to really maximize our teams' performance and deliver the quality content and creativity that the market has come to expect from us."

Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games agrees, "We are hugely excited that Microsoft Game Studios have selected Unreal Engine 3 for its next generation Xbox platform games. It's an opportunity for us to show the industry the true capabilities of our tools and technologies and is a testament to the incredible amount of hard work by our teams here to deliver tools and technologies that are 100% tuned into the needs of next generation development. It further demonstrates our ability to deliver the most flexible, most productive tools and technology in the market today."

Somehow, I've a feeling that the industry might be killing itself with it's own weight...some developers commented that next-gen games are going to cost a heck lot more with more people needed and longer time to develop.

With all this factor in mind, publisher and developer will try to stay safe to tried and true formula...we are already seeing less and less original games this generation, only more sequels based on successful franchise.

I don't hope to see another industry blowout like the days of the Atari...

And yes, i think ori price will only go higher....i wish there's game rental in Malaysia too, i wouldn't mind renting original games which can play online and other benefits. But the cost is too prohibitive (imagine, one game is RM200 to RM300.....1000 titles in the library will cost RM200K to RM300K already)...and i don't think it can survive...look at DVD rental...only a few shop (only one i know of, actually, in Mont Kiara), which probably struggling to survive.

what happen to those good ol days where gaming is all about fun, not serious techie stuffs..

I think the trend now is to have more realism and better graphics rather than gameplay and story.

That's why M$ is pushing for HD games in their Xenon

i just hope the push for realism and better graphics doesnt kill gameplay and story

Here's an extremely nice read on tech details of the CELL chip.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2379

Seems like it might not be much more powerful than the XBOX2 3 Dual Cores PowerPC chip....more importantly....IT DOESN'T SOUNDS LIKE EASY PROGRAMMING AT ALL.....seems like it's the PS2 all over again....at least, with Nvidia at helm with the GPU, we don't have to worry so much about jaggies!!!

i found this at one of the xbox next generation website.





This post has been edited by Chee: Mar 20 2005, 05:18 PM

Perhaps the 21st century trend in games is better graphics. I mean, new skoolers nowadays prefer eye-busting graphics more than new gameplay mechanics. Otherwise, they'll whine crap like:
- "OMG, game is RoXXorz but gfx so SuXXorz!"
- "Why the hell did [insert reviewer here] gave [insert title here] a 9 out of 10? With the graphics as ugly as a 6-year-old drawing, it must've suck, and the strange thing is, I never even own or played that game!"
^Trust me, I met someone like that before, really piss me off!
Yup, its new engine and an old chassis. I guess for us old skoolers who had been on the scene for quite some time, the era of gameplay revolution is over. Maybe it isn't, but its my opinion anyway.