PS3: Games for the Summer
IGN covers the upcoming PS3 games coming out for summer (again, a somewhat dubious claim). My pick is Heavenly Sword.
Click here to read the full list
And here is the rest of it
Friday, June 29, 2007
Xbox 360: Games for the Summer
IGN continues the pre-summer listings for console games. Here is the lineup for the 360, along with my fav: Bioshock (if it makes it in time).
Click here to read the full list
And here is the rest of it
Wii: Games for the Summer
IGN has posted a list of upcoming Wii games to look forward to for the summer (note: apparently Americans count September as summer. I guess it makes sense seeing as everything else is bigger over there too)
Click here to read the full list
And here is the rest of it
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The 5 Worst Ways to Die in an FPS
Grenades in Counter-Strike Source throw differently than in the original Counter-Strike. Flashbangs produce greater and longer lasting effects, while smoke grenades produce a pure black smoke which is impossible to see through when inside. When grenades are thrown at enemies or teammates, they take away a measly 1 hit point in damage. It is sad to die by this. Even though you know you have 1 hit point left, you don’t want to die from a smoke grenade or flashbang. When it happens, it’ll definitely attract a good amount of “LOL” remarks. The shank, a classic in all shooters. There is always that one melee weapon that nobody ever uses other than for the sole purpose to embarrass someone with. The shank is by far the weapon to embarrass any gamer with. The most popular shank to date is obviously the knife in Counter-Strike. Sneaking up to an unsuspecting enemy and sticking that cold steel in his back is as rewarding to you as it is degrading to the opponent. We’ve definitely all been there and done that in Counter-Strike. One of the more hardcore shanks definitely has to be the Gauntlet in Quake III Arena. This fast paced game rarely sees action from this weapon, but it is absolutely the greatest embarrassment shank to date in any game. Not only are you killing a person with a melee weapon in a world of Railguns and Lightning Guns, but the announcer indulges in the action by calling out the kill with the famous quote, “HUMILIATION!”
5 - The “Other” Nade Kill
Counter-Strike Source is a fairly new game. A hybrid between the Source engine and Counter-Strike, this popular mod is the top shooter of the decade. Little remains changed from the original game, but a key element was noticeably re-done for Counter-Strike Source, the grenade.
This isn’t a well-known technique, at least in First-Person Shooters. Crushing sounds like it was taken straight of Mario, but it’s there in some shooters. One in particular is the fast-paced Unreal Tournament 2003/04 series. Jumping on an enemy’s head does 1 damage for each successful bounce. This is often discovered by people on accident, but on rare occasions will sadly frag a player with low HP.
3 - Cratering
Cratering is included in nearly every First-Person Shooter. Player A decides to go next to a cliff. Player B can either blast him off the cliff, or just watch him accidently jump off and plummet to a quick death. This is one of my favorites to see happen in live action. It’ll often cause me to outburst in laughter, how can anyone be so stupid to fall off the cliff? Surely enough the next time I play the same game and map, I find myself to be the one falling off the exact same cliff -_-. Definitely a worthy embarrassing death.
2 - The Shank
1 - The Telefrag
Telefragging has become an art in First-Person Shooters. Suprisingly, telefragging has been around since Doom. The embarrassment still remains impassable in most cases. Gamer A has 12hp, and desperately needs a frag to kill his stacked opponent, Gamer B. With health and armor in the triple digits, Gamer B has no idea where he is standing. Gamer A suddenly enters the entrance to the portal which warps him inside of Gamer B, instantly gibbing him. The player of Gamer B goes on to mash his keyboard in, while Gamer A spams “LOL” a million times through text.
Source
Xbox 360: A Guy With 8 Dead Consoles Speaks His Mind
In response to a recent Mercury News interview, a user who is on his 9th Xbox 360 speaks his mind about what he believes is the real problem with Microsoft's gaming console. "... the problem isn’t just with launch units. Of the 8 I’ve had so far, only 2 were manufactured in the first three months of launch. The last one I had red-ring on me was manufactured in November of ‘06 - a full year after launch. The problem is that the cooling design of the 360 doesn’t hold up. The cooling of the CPU was well done, with a heat pipe to draw the heat away from the chip (and accordingly, away from the mainboard). The problem is that the GPU and its low-profile heatsink sit under the DVD drive, and are given a very narrow channel for air to be pulled acrosss the heatsink by the fans. When the GPU heats up enough, not only does it reflow the solder in the ball grid array slightly, it can cause the entire mainboard to flex - a phenomenon largely caused by the X-shaped brackets that hold the heatsinks on under the mainboard. They hold the heatsinks down to the chips with a tension fit that presses up directly underneath those chips. So when the system gets too hot, the combination of loosened solder with a mainboard that flexes from heat causes the GPU or CPU to actually break its connection from the board - resulting in the 3 red lights and secondary error code 0102 (the “unknown hardware error” code). This is true of ALL systems manufactured thus far, not just the launch systems. Hopefully, Microsoft’s new measure of adding a heatpipe to the GPU heatsink will reduce the heat on the mainboard itself enough to keep this from happening. We shall see." Reports are coming in of Microsoft receiving up to 2,500 broken 360s per day in the UK alone. Another user has just admitted to having 11 broken 360s and yet Peter Moore, head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division, which controls the 360, has merely stated: "I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now."
More after the jump.
These revelations come after Microsoft recently denied having any "systematic issues" with the 360. Reports coming from Australia have also indicated that the failure rate of the 360 is much, much higher than what Microsoft is letting on. Retailers are claiming the figure is closer to 30% than the 5-6% that has been officially claimed. The unlucky user's explanations can be found in a recent interview with Microsoft's Todd Holmdahl.
TECH: iPhone Reviews From Around The Web
NY Times
Newsweek
AllThingsD
USA Today
And here is the rest of it
Monday, June 25, 2007
360 / PS3 / Wii Exclusives Compared
Okay, so its not the prettiest Excel work I've ever seen, but you get the gist of it. And the gist is, the Wii has the quantity, the PS3 has the quality, and the 360 just has both the quantity and quality.
Source
And here is the rest of it
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