Rumor: Firmware 5.0 = PS Store, new RSS, screen capture
Filed under: Downloads
It wasn’t too long ago that firmware 4.0 (and higher) dropped on our laps, and we’re already hearing about the next major revision to hit the handheld: the big five-o. The word on the street (and by street we mean French website PSPGen) is that firmware 5.0 is currently in the hands of an unknown French dev studio and it will include several key features such as that direct-to-PS Store functionality we’ve heard so much about.
Other features like a revamped RSS reader would (*gasp*) be able to read text files. The inclusion of a screen capture tool echoes another rumor which is also said to be available in the upcoming PS3 Firmware 2.5. Regarding this, parallel development for screen grabs does seem to make a whole lot of sense.
[Via PSPWorld]
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id’s Growing Pains
Tim Willits, Todd Hollenshead talk about Rage, Quake Live, Wolfenstein. Digital distribution is still on the table.
Id’s long been known for its philosophy of working on one game at a time. But that’s changing for the storied developer. With Quake Live, the production of Wolfenstein, and the preparation for the release of their new id Tech 5 multiplatform engine — which powers Rage — it’s no surprise that id is getting bigger. Can id juggle so many projects at once? And after years of working with Activision, why is id going with EA for Rage? We sit down with id Software creative director Tim Willits and CEO and co-owner Todd Hollenshead to catch up on all of these topics and more.
1UP: I have to ask — why EA? Why not stick with Activision as your publisher?
TW: Well, we’re still working with them on Wolfenstein. We’ve always had a good relationship with Activision, but [with] each game that we do, we like to license them out separately. When we were looking at Rage, we had proposals from all of the publishers, and we were actually most impressed with the upper management at EA. Those guys actually play more games and are more informed about gaming than you would actually expect. We felt that a new partner and a new IP [would be] kind of a fresh start. It wasn’t actually about money, because they were all basically the same deal. We felt EA Partners and EA would actually do the best job for us and were the most enthusiastic about the title. That was it.
Fable 2 Developer Feature
Fable 2 has gone gold and is on its way to retail. Whether it is actually finished is an entirely different debate (online co-op is coming in a postrelease patch), but regardless, you’ll have a chance to play it starting Oct 21. In our recent hands-on preview of the game, we noted that Lionhead lead designer Peter Molyneux had “said enough” about the game — which would be true for nearly any other developer — but anyone that’s followed the man and his previous releases knows that he’s not one to back down from an interview.
Back at E3, Molyneux shared with us an anecdote about Lionhead composer Russell Shaw, with tears in his eyes after completing the game, telling a worried Molyneux that Fable 2 was the most incredible game he’d ever played. That isn’t the first time that someone’s told us that Fable 2’s intended to tug mightily at players’ heartstrings, so during a recent phone chat, we asked Molyneux to explain what makes it such an emotionally compelling experience.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Fable 2 screens.
“What makes Fable 2 different is that you start with absolutely nothing,” says Molyneux. “You start as a little kid with no power, no sword, nothing at all — you’ve just got a wooden sword and a pop gun. When you end the game, you’re absolutely your own unique hero. Whether or not you’ve chosen to have a family, whether or not you’ve chosen to make friends, whether or not you’ve chosen to become a part of the community — it’s all your choice, and that is what makes it so emotionally significant. When you actually play the game, if you start getting more people involved in what your choices are, they get wrapped up in the story, so we’ve really tried to pull on your heartstrings a couple times with things like the family and the dog.
“When you get to [the game's ending], it’s more than a moment; it’s a whole sequence of events — [it's] so much more emotionally engaging than it would be [if you were] just going out and being a predescribed hero. We don’t take that approach at all. It really is your story and your journey as a hero, and whether or not the world likes you or loathes you, it’s completely up to you.”
‘Have you seen Doctor Who?’
Despite strong sales and very positive reviews for the original Fable, Molyneux criticized the game in previous interviews for not meeting his expectations in numerous regards. When asked about the lasting impression he has of Fable, Molyneux says, “It’s kind of like a really good episode of the old-style Doctor Who. Have you seen Doctor Who? It’s like a B science-fiction movie. The story is OK, the effects were OK, but when it was put all together, you weren’t on the edge of your seat the whole time. And that’s what I really wanted from Fable — to put you on the edge of your seat, to make you feel like a hero.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Fable 2 screens.
“I think Fable failed on that front. It failed to really surprise people, and I think mainly because — and we put a huge amount of passion into it — but I think where it failed was the drama and the story and the pacing, the balance of the game and the gold — they were all very slightly off, just like watching a B science-fiction movie. It’s not like you can pinpoint anything and say, ‘That is horribly wrong,’ but it’s just slightly off. And now, coming to the second time around, we’ve seen that. We’ve listened to a hell of a lot of people. We’ve actually listened to the community, listened to a lot of press, listened to a lot of people who’ve played the game before and ourselves, and we’ve really tried to address some of those issues.”
Molyneux says he is “absolutely without question” more satisfied with Fable 2 now than he was with its predecessor prior to its 2004 release, though he admits that some things could have been refined further. “There are things in Fable 2 which I’m kind of thinking, ‘Well, that’s a bit clunky.’ But that’s on the fringes. The [Graphical User Interface] — I’ll be honest with you, it could be a little bit better. It could be more sexy and polished, but it’s a very functional, very RPG-like GUI. The game was much, much bigger two years ago, and as we’ve refined and distilled things down, we’ve cut a few things — because that was right for the game — which I’d love to revisit again. But I am incredibly happy with Fable 2. As a designer, I’ve probably learned more from Fable 2 than I’ve learned on any other game before.”
…continued, (page 2 of 3) Read more
Warhammer: Battle March Review
Anyone who’s heard me on Legendary Thread or the late GFW Radio knows that I’m a huge Warhammer fan. I’m not talking about the recently released Warhammer Online, though - I mean, the tabletop war game. I’ve spent hours upon hours reading various army codices, painting miniatures, and constructing armies that I’ll never even play with. My friends and I regularly sit around discussing the basics of Dwarf army strategies and engaging in verbal pissing matches where we emphasize how our respective dice rolls will trump anything we can throw at one another.
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March, Namco Bandai’s second PC real-time strategy game and an expansion of Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, takes away the dice rolls and turn-based combat while maintaining much of what makes tabletop Warhammer great. You create an army prior to each battle — you can’t create or bring in additional units after the skirmish begins — and deploy your troops before the action starts. Most importantly (again, just like the board game), maneuvering is what matters most. Smashing a ton of troops into an opposing force can work, but paying close attention to how you maneuver and attack — or protect — flanks and rears of units makes all of the difference in the amount of casualties you sustain or inflict. Battle March, just like Mark of Chaos before it, manages to balance the complexity of the tabletop experience while keeping it manageable for a human playing in real time.
Read more
Xbox Live Back Up After Maintenance With One-page Friends List
This is just a friendly reminder that The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s genre defining opus “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” is finally available on XBL for your downloading pleasure. Each track is 160 MS Points ($2), while the full album will cost you 1600 MS Points ($20). PS3 owners will be able to download the same tracks this coming Thursday.
Tracks include:
- The Power of Equality
- If You Have to Ask
- Breaking the Girl
- Funky Monks
- Suck My Kiss
- I Could Have Lied
- Mellowship Slinky in B Major
- The Righteous & the Wicked
- Give It Away
- Blood Sugar Sex Magik
- Under the Bridge
- Naked in the Rain
- Apache Rose Peacock
- The Greeting Song
- My Lovely Man
- Sir Psycho Sexy
- They?re Red Hot
Like Dustin mentioned last week, “Give it Away” is not included with this downloadable content because that particular song is present on the Rock Band 2 disc. Therefore, if you MUST have that song, go out and get the recently released sequel and start moshing around your living areas pronto.
Wal-Mart Locks Up Exclusive Rock Band AC/DC Disc
According to a recent press release, MTV has inked a deal with the band and Columbia Records to release “AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack”. The gaming disc is slated to arrive November 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. It will be a standalone game, and the songs can be exported to play in both Rock Band 1 and 2 when you input an authentication code. A Wii version is expected to hit shelves on November 16. All versions feature songs from the band’s DVD “AC/DC Live at Donnington” and will sell exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Kotaku reports that a clarification they received from Harmonix today also included word that the songs will not be coming as DLC. Those living in Australia, Europe, and New New Zealand can expect the game to be made available in early December from their local retailers.
Here is the full track list:
- “Thunderstruck”
- “Shoot to Thrill”
- “Back in Black”
- “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be”
- “Heatseeker”
- “Fire Your Guns”
- “Jailbreak”
- “The Jack”
- “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”
- “Moneytalks”
- “Hells Bells”
- “High Voltage”
- “Whole Lotta Rosie”
- “You Shook Me All Night Long”
- “T.N.T.”
- “Let There Be Rock?
- “Highway To Hell?
- “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)?
Other than the absolute coolness of an AC/DC-only title to draw gamers into the store, each store will have prominent displays to attract uninitiated shoppers to not only the game, but the band’s latest album “Black Ice”, as well as T-shirts, DVD’s and other licensed merchandise relating to AC/DC. Wal-Mart and MTV are also in talks regarding the set up of temporary stores in Los Angeles and Manhattan where the retail chain is devoid of shops.
id’s Growing Pains
Tim Willits, Todd Hollenshead talk about Rage, Quake Live, Wolfenstein. Digital distribution is still on the table.
Id’s long been known for its philosophy of working on one game at a time. But that’s changing for the storied developer. With Quake Live, the production of Wolfenstein, and the preparation for the release of their new id Tech 5 multiplatform engine — which powers Rage — it’s no surprise that id is getting bigger. Can id juggle so many projects at once? And after years of working with Activision, why is id going with EA for Rage? We sit down with id Software creative director Tim Willits and CEO and co-owner Todd Hollenshead to catch up on all of these topics and more.
1UP: I have to ask — why EA? Why not stick with Activision as your publisher?
TW: Well, we’re still working with them on Wolfenstein. We’ve always had a good relationship with Activision, but [with] each game that we do, we like to license them out separately. When we were looking at Rage, we had proposals from all of the publishers, and we were actually most impressed with the upper management at EA. Those guys actually play more games and are more informed about gaming than you would actually expect. We felt that a new partner and a new IP [would be] kind of a fresh start. It wasn’t actually about money, because they were all basically the same deal. We felt EA Partners and EA would actually do the best job for us and were the most enthusiastic about the title. That was it.
Fable 2 Developer Feature
Fable 2 has gone gold and is on its way to retail. Whether it is actually finished is an entirely different debate (online co-op is coming in a postrelease patch), but regardless, you’ll have a chance to play it starting Oct 21. In our recent hands-on preview of the game, we noted that Lionhead lead designer Peter Molyneux had “said enough” about the game — which would be true for nearly any other developer — but anyone that’s followed the man and his previous releases knows that he’s not one to back down from an interview.
Back at E3, Molyneux shared with us an anecdote about Lionhead composer Russell Shaw, with tears in his eyes after completing the game, telling a worried Molyneux that Fable 2 was the most incredible game he’d ever played. That isn’t the first time that someone’s told us that Fable 2’s intended to tug mightily at players’ heartstrings, so during a recent phone chat, we asked Molyneux to explain what makes it such an emotionally compelling experience.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Fable 2 screens.
“What makes Fable 2 different is that you start with absolutely nothing,” says Molyneux. “You start as a little kid with no power, no sword, nothing at all — you’ve just got a wooden sword and a pop gun. When you end the game, you’re absolutely your own unique hero. Whether or not you’ve chosen to have a family, whether or not you’ve chosen to make friends, whether or not you’ve chosen to become a part of the community — it’s all your choice, and that is what makes it so emotionally significant. When you actually play the game, if you start getting more people involved in what your choices are, they get wrapped up in the story, so we’ve really tried to pull on your heartstrings a couple times with things like the family and the dog.
“When you get to [the game's ending], it’s more than a moment; it’s a whole sequence of events — [it's] so much more emotionally engaging than it would be [if you were] just going out and being a predescribed hero. We don’t take that approach at all. It really is your story and your journey as a hero, and whether or not the world likes you or loathes you, it’s completely up to you.”
‘Have you seen Doctor Who?’
Despite strong sales and very positive reviews for the original Fable, Molyneux criticized the game in previous interviews for not meeting his expectations in numerous regards. When asked about the lasting impression he has of Fable, Molyneux says, “It’s kind of like a really good episode of the old-style Doctor Who. Have you seen Doctor Who? It’s like a B science-fiction movie. The story is OK, the effects were OK, but when it was put all together, you weren’t on the edge of your seat the whole time. And that’s what I really wanted from Fable — to put you on the edge of your seat, to make you feel like a hero.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Fable 2 screens.
“I think Fable failed on that front. It failed to really surprise people, and I think mainly because — and we put a huge amount of passion into it — but I think where it failed was the drama and the story and the pacing, the balance of the game and the gold — they were all very slightly off, just like watching a B science-fiction movie. It’s not like you can pinpoint anything and say, ‘That is horribly wrong,’ but it’s just slightly off. And now, coming to the second time around, we’ve seen that. We’ve listened to a hell of a lot of people. We’ve actually listened to the community, listened to a lot of press, listened to a lot of people who’ve played the game before and ourselves, and we’ve really tried to address some of those issues.”
Molyneux says he is “absolutely without question” more satisfied with Fable 2 now than he was with its predecessor prior to its 2004 release, though he admits that some things could have been refined further. “There are things in Fable 2 which I’m kind of thinking, ‘Well, that’s a bit clunky.’ But that’s on the fringes. The [Graphical User Interface] — I’ll be honest with you, it could be a little bit better. It could be more sexy and polished, but it’s a very functional, very RPG-like GUI. The game was much, much bigger two years ago, and as we’ve refined and distilled things down, we’ve cut a few things — because that was right for the game — which I’d love to revisit again. But I am incredibly happy with Fable 2. As a designer, I’ve probably learned more from Fable 2 than I’ve learned on any other game before.”
…continued, (page 2 of 3) Read more
Warhammer: Battle March Review
Anyone who’s heard me on Legendary Thread or the late GFW Radio knows that I’m a huge Warhammer fan. I’m not talking about the recently released Warhammer Online, though - I mean, the tabletop war game. I’ve spent hours upon hours reading various army codices, painting miniatures, and constructing armies that I’ll never even play with. My friends and I regularly sit around discussing the basics of Dwarf army strategies and engaging in verbal pissing matches where we emphasize how our respective dice rolls will trump anything we can throw at one another.
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March, Namco Bandai’s second PC real-time strategy game and an expansion of Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, takes away the dice rolls and turn-based combat while maintaining much of what makes tabletop Warhammer great. You create an army prior to each battle — you can’t create or bring in additional units after the skirmish begins — and deploy your troops before the action starts. Most importantly (again, just like the board game), maneuvering is what matters most. Smashing a ton of troops into an opposing force can work, but paying close attention to how you maneuver and attack — or protect — flanks and rears of units makes all of the difference in the amount of casualties you sustain or inflict. Battle March, just like Mark of Chaos before it, manages to balance the complexity of the tabletop experience while keeping it manageable for a human playing in real time.
Read more
Xbox Live Back Up After Maintenance With One-page Friends List
This is just a friendly reminder that The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s genre defining opus “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” is finally available on XBL for your downloading pleasure. Each track is 160 MS Points ($2), while the full album will cost you 1600 MS Points ($20). PS3 owners will be able to download the same tracks this coming Thursday.
Tracks include:
- The Power of Equality
- If You Have to Ask
- Breaking the Girl
- Funky Monks
- Suck My Kiss
- I Could Have Lied
- Mellowship Slinky in B Major
- The Righteous & the Wicked
- Give It Away
- Blood Sugar Sex Magik
- Under the Bridge
- Naked in the Rain
- Apache Rose Peacock
- The Greeting Song
- My Lovely Man
- Sir Psycho Sexy
- They?re Red Hot
Like Dustin mentioned last week, “Give it Away” is not included with this downloadable content because that particular song is present on the Rock Band 2 disc. Therefore, if you MUST have that song, go out and get the recently released sequel and start moshing around your living areas pronto.
Top 10 Best Selling Games
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