Fans of the popular Xbox game, Fable: The Lost Chapters might be happy to learn that the PC version has been confirmed as Gold. Gold meaning the game has been (or should have been) extensively tested and deemed worthy to be put into mass production.

The PC version of the popular role-playing game will not be a straight forward port either, it will be spruced up with lots of special features and brand new content.

In the mystical land of Albion, the game will immerse players in a world where every action has a consequence, and players shape their destiny to rise to fame… or descend into infamy. Fable: The Lost Chapters builds upon Fable'’s legendary and award-winning gameplay with spectacular new spells, devastating new weapons and stout new armour, all of which will be needed to contend with new monsters and other threats in the treacherous Snowy Wastes.

Fable: The Lost Chapters Goes Gold

Microsoft Games Studios announced on Monday the game's 'Gold' status with a release date set for 23rd of September.

Related:
Microsoft Fable website
Discussion >>

It seems the force is not enough to stop you from being mistakenly taken for a thief wielding a gun. A guy dressed up as a Stormtrooper at JVL-CON science fiction convention on Friday at the Ramada Inn in Janesville must have aroused the suspicion of someone as Janesville police received report of an armed robbery at the Ramada Inn, 3431 Milton Ave.

The alleged suspect was dressed as a Stormtrooper, a soldier for the Galactic Empire in the science fiction movie series "Star Wars."

"Apparently some people who saw him felt there was a threat," said Sgt. Kay Nikolaus of the Janesville Police Department.

Whoever called police must have missed the Ramada's marquee out front, which announces the convention being held there, Lewandowski said.

The Stormtrooper got a warning from police-leave the plastic laser gun inside.

So, if you're passing the Ramada this weekend and you see a little green guy with pointy ears and wearing a robe, it shouldn't be an alien concept.

The convention continues at 9 a.m. today and Sunday. For information, visit www.si-fi-nut.com.

'Armed robber' was really a Stormtrooper at JVL-CON

Discussion >>

I just love sitting on the fence and watching companies duke it out, especially when it's Kutaragi Vs Gates (Kutaragi sure kicked Bill's Gluteus into the cosmos). This time AMD has went as far as to take out an advertisement challenging Intel to a dual-core, dual. Intel CEO said it spoiled his cup of coffee when he saw the ad.

The advert, in broadsheet the San Francisco Chronicle flat-out challenges Intel to match it in dual-core performance. I wonder if AMD has something up their sleeve, the ad seems pretty cocky.

Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel has purportedly turned down AMD's challenge to a dual-core showdown (what a wuss). Just when I thought we were going to see an interesting bout. Hell, they owe us that much with the price-tags on these dual-core processors.

Oh well, we'll just have to wait until some more scandal comes 'round before we can see AMD and Intel in the coveted 'bout to overclock the other CEO out'.

We'’ve often noted the resemblance of both Intel and AMD to the Tweedledee and Tweedledum characters in Alice through the Looking Glass. These brave warriors were forced to live a sort of mock Groundhog Day existence but no blood ever got shed because both of them were basically frightened.

Intel refuses gauntlet AMD throws down

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It seems that Sony and Toshiba just cannot come to a compromise with the next generation of DVDs. Recent talks to agree on a unified DVD format have failed. Sony is looking to unload Blueray disks upon the public, which can play back 25 GB of data compared with HD-DVD's 15 GB. The Blue-ray disks will inevitably cost more to produce, but some games developers are arguing the case that more space is needed, especially when it comes to large, pre-rendered sequences in next-gen titles on the new consoles.

Toshiba spokesman Junko Furuta acknowledged that a unified format did not look likely for the time being. Furuta also said the more sophisticated Blu-ray disks would be harder to adopt for use in laptop computers, as well as in car-navigation systems, also popular in Japan.

Both sides are already developing products that feature the respective DVD formats. Toshiba plans to roll out HD-DVD players by the end of this year, while Sony's game console PlayStation 3, which will play Blu-ray disks, is due out in spring 2006.

DVD Peace Talks Break Down

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PS3's Blu-ray to Thwart Jolly Roger Pirates
What is Blu-ray?
Kutaragi is not Krazy, he's a Marketing Genius
Kutaragi Justifies Expensive PS3
How Blue-Ray sunk the moral ship
Blue-Ray all the way, consumers say
Xbox 360 to side with HD-DVD?
Kutaragi: No agreement on Next-Gen DVDs
Discussion >>

You can preorder your shiny new Xbox 360 console from EBames.com, if you just need to feel like the wheels are turning. The only trouble with their offers is that despite Microsoft delivering the news of 2 deals "Core" and "Premium", they are nowhere to be seen here.

The site is offering two completely different packages. The "Ultimate Bundle" (nice choice of words) for $700 is apparently for the 'serious' gamer according to EBgames. I agree, they're pretty seriously insane/ or rich.

The Ultimately expensive edition includes:

• Xbox 360 Game Console
• Wireless Controller
• Combination High-Definition Component and Standard A/V Cable
• 20GB Hard Drive
• Ethernet Cable
• Headset
• Universal Media Remote
• Xbox Live Silver
• Xbox Live Gold 30-Day Trial
• Perfect Dark Zero Limited Edition
• Dead or Alive 4
• Kameo: Elements of Power
• Project Gotham Racing 3
• Extra Wireless Controller
• Play & Charge Kit (for extra controller)
• Rechargeable Battery Pack (for included controller)

The $600 "Core" bundle includes:

• Xbox 360 Game Console
• Wired Controller
• Composite A/V Cable
• Xbox Live Silver
• Xbox Live Gold 30-Day Trial
• Perfect Dark Zero: Limited Edition
• Dead or Alive 4
• Kameo: Elements of Power
• Project Gotham Racing 3
• Extra Wired Controller
• Memory Unit (required to save games without hard-drive)

Xbox 360 Preorders

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Discussion >>

Latest word coming in from Gamespot is that the 'Halo' movie, based on the immensely popular Xbox game may be coming your way in 2007, later than previously expected. Variety is reporting that Fox and Universal have their sights set on 2007 (Summer to be exact) to bring us the Master Chief.

The franchise itself has bagged more than $600 million in sales and merchandise, with Halo 2 netting $125 million on its first day of release, it was really only a matter of time before Hollywood realized the potential of the game as a movie.

However, negotiating a movie deal proved as challenging as taking down a Covenant dropship, as several studios surprisingly passed on producing a Halo movie. The reason: Film studios may be used to kowtowing to A-list actors' demands, but they don't typically cave in to requests from non-Hollywood players. Initial reports saw the software giant asking for $10 million against 15 percent of the gross (whichever is higher), a below-the-line budget of $75 million (budget before hiring actors and crew), near-immediate production of the movie, and a large say in the creative development of the movie.

Fox and Universal eventually bent and accepted the project, paying Microsoft $5 million against 10 percent of the gross. Universal will oversee production and domestic distribution, and Fox will handle all overseas operations.

Halo goes Hollywood in '07

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Discussion >>

Xbox frontman J Allard recently attempted to answer questions regarding the Xbox 360. The recently injured Allard was at hand on a webchat session to offer fans explanations regarding key 360 issues, like the recent pricing scheme, plus the dilemma of the lack of HDDs with "Core" Xbox 360 packages.

I'm actually more interested in asking him what's up with those glasses, seriously. What is this 'The Running Man'?

QUESTION: Can Microsoft guarantee that the HDD will be fully utilised when present or are we going to see long load times with a slow DVD unit as standard from most developers.

J ALLARD: Just like last generation utilization of things like Xbox live and the hard drive will be up to the game designers and just like last time we expect game developers to be excited by this. We have been in clear communication for more than a year that some scenarios will include a disconnected hard drive and it has not slowed them down

QUESTION: Will Xbox 360 games use the hard drive for game saves and caching like the original Xbox did?

J ALLARD: Absolutely. We think game designers have all kinds of innovative ideas that the hard drive will be used for. Use of the hard drive is not limited to game scenarios. Like Xbox 1 you will be able to do things like rip and store music and don't forget about live scenarios and all the downloadable content

QUESTION: Why is the hard drive so highly priced? A 20GB hard drive currently sells for about $20 to $30... Why $100 for the 360? I believe this will deter a lot of sales.

J ALLARD: The 20 GB hard drive is a 2.5 inch user-serviceable drive and is more expense than a pc "crack the box" drive. it's one of the reasons we pushed to create a compelling premium bundle. One of the reasons that we designed a user removable hard drive is in direct response to the hard core gaming audience to make it easier to take game saves, game maps, soundtracks, etc easily to their friend’s house or LAN party. They also wanted the ability to upgrade to larger capacity drives. And if the drive is not present because someone in the house took it on the road, you still want to be able to use the console for movies, music or games.

QUESTION: Will losing the hard disc mean that all games will be made without the unit in mind, therefore effecting users of the premium pack?

J ALLARD: Absolutely not. Consider this last generation where somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20% of game consoles had hard drives attached. This did not deter game developers from utilizing the hard drive both for exclusive games and cross platform games on Xbox. This generation, our first party team and our exclusive content developers are just as committed to using the hard drive and like we they demonstrated with this generation our third party cross platform developers are committed as well. Games like Splinter Cell, Madden, and Tony Hawk’s all demonstrated unique capabilities in hard drive configured systems.

QUESTION: Can we stream videos from our PCs?

J ALLARD: Yes. If you have Windows Media Centre on those PCs, you will be able to stream standard and high definition video.

QUESTION: Why even offer the core package as it seems quite useless?

J ALLARD: Great question! The thing to remember is that while we designed a no-compromises game system, a huge percentage of our customers are not like the folks in this chat room. Recognize that more than 75% of the folks on Xbox have not played Halo. By introducing the core system we are sending a signal to the market that we are committed to this part of the market just like with the Xbox 360 premium bundle that we are committing to you. The significance of this message can not be understated. Many of the publishing and retail partners want our commitment to grow the market. And as you have heard from us in our press conferences and such we are very committed to growing the market.

QUESTION: Can you use your Xbox live Gamertags for Xbox live gold on the 360?

J ALLARD: Absolutely. We want to make sure you can preserve your identity, friends, and investment in Xbox live moving forward with Xbox 360 and of course you can keep gaming with your identity on Xbox 1.

QUESTION: Why not package the Xbox 360 with only the hard drive and a wireless controller for $349.99, so that you can have one SKU?

J ALLARD: Good question and one of the many combinations we looked at. With our research with hardcore gamers, retailers, and the broader market, we felt like these two configurations were the right starting point. The great news is that the way we have designed the system in a modular way we can easily adjust these configurations over time.

QUESTION: Will the cables in the $400 (£279) package work with my TV that uses A/V cables?

J ALLARD: The AV pack bundled with the premium pack will work with component and composite cables. This means it will pretty much work with all HD and SD sets out there. The other cool thing is that you can take that cable between high def and standard def TVs.

QUESTION: What is your opinion on HD-DVD?

J ALLARD: It's going to be interesting to see how and if a high def format for movies plays out. When we designed the initial Xbox, many people asked if SACD or DVD audio would be the successor to the CD format for music. As everyone knows the real successor was MP3 and digital distribution with things like Napster, iPod and MSN Music. While there is a lot of talk about this in the industry it will be interesting to see what the exact future of this is for movies. Of course I think there will be a need for higher capacity optical media for storage applications. We prefer HD-DVD to Blu-Ray in terms of the flexibility it offers to different applications as well as the infrastructure costs to the market.

QUESTION: Will consumers be able to purchase and download songs or other media directly through the Live Marketplace?

J ALLARD: Not at launch. It is something we would love to get your feedback on. Please give us your thoughts.

QUESTION: Will developers utilize the hard drive when one is detected, or will most games be made without using it at all? Will the HD speed up load times?

J ALLARD: Speeding up load times is one of the many things a hard drive can be used for but really it is up to the imagination of the developer. We have been talking with game developers for a while now to make sure that games will load efficiently without a hard drive present. In terms of load times, as a gamer i am super sensitive to how frustrating load times can be, which is one of the reasons we put in a dual layer 12x DVD in the system to make sure gamers get great performance with or without a hard drive. One of the challenges with new optical formats when they first come out is the performance of the media which was a consideration when we decided what the optical format for Xbox 360 would be.

QUESTION: Can USB Memory be used by the Xbox 360 as the 360 has USB ports?

J ALLARD: At present our design for Xbox 360 uses the USB ports in a read-only capacity for playing music and viewing photos. If there are other applications that you guys think are interesting then please give us your feedback.

QUESTION: Why doesn't Wi-Fi work out of the box?

J ALLARD: We worked with game designers and talked to hard core gamers and asked them what their top priorities were and the bulk of our investment went into the silicon to the CPU and the GPU so we would have kick **** games. We had a fixed budget and could not do it all. In the end we had a budget and had to offer Wi-Fi as an option, but we did decide to add "a" as a standard in addition to b and g. we are also compatible with existing devices already on the market.

QUESTION: Will the core system come with a memory card? if not, how can u save games?

J ALLARD: No it does not come with a memory unit. Gamers will need an MU or a hard drive to save games with, which is consistent with the games industry for the last decade. I think it is really important to emphasize especially for the folks in this chat room that we did not design the core system around you guys. Similar to the shuffle, the Boxter, the 4:3 TV, we designed the core system as a way to get folks to come into the family at a cheaper price and decide if and how they scale the system. The great thing about our approach - unlike these examples - is that the core owner can upgrade the system and match the capabilities of the premium system when the time is right for them.

QUESTION: Will a completely black 360 be available?

J ALLARD: Not currently in plan for launch but, as you know, we will have removable faceplates and I expect down the line we will get feedback that people want other colours and we will provide it

QUESTION: $399 price point for Xbox 360 seems steep.

J ALLARD: I think that the capabilities we are offering with Xbox 360 are unmatched in the history of videogaming. It's a great value, and the system that most of the folks in this chat room are going to prefer. I saw a posting earlier today where someone looked up the historical prices and capabilities of games systems. It was worth noting that the PS2 launched at $368 (in Japan) with no hard drive, no online service, no wireless, no voice, no network adapter, no remote, and only support for 2 controllers. That’s not the reason we priced the system this way but it does provide a comparative frame of reference for what you are getting. When you consider you are getting the most powerful games system, best CD player, digital media player, movie player, etc. it's a great value.

QUESTION: Why do they have the core package? Why doesn't Microsoft just release the package with the hard drive so developers will be able to fully utilize it?

J ALLARD: Independent of the configurations we have at launch, it was imperative that we work with developers now to abstract the storage system because (1) the drive is removable and we want people to play even if the drive is not present, (2) another possibility is that 5 years from now you want more storage on the box or on the network and will be able to take advantage of that. By abstracting storage in the system we are making sure that all Xbox 360 games will work on all configurations moving forward and early customers will be able to take advantage of future scenarios like bigger drives and network storage.

QUESTION: What about backward compatibility in the core system?

J ALLARD: Because we didn't abstract storage in the first generation Xbox, back compact will require a hard drive. The good news is that the core system owners can upgrade if they desire to update at a later date.

QUESTION: When can we expect an official release date to be announced?

J ALLARD: This is our last question we are able to take for the chat and then i have one thing i want you guys to know after. Answer in short is: stay tuned. Just like all of you talking about the system around the clock we are working around the clock to finish the system and the games. We will have more announcements soon.

J: I just want to thank the community for the enthusiasm and passion for Xbox since the beginning. Conversations like this are super valuable and we would love to do this again.

In summary we tried to optimize launch around three critical audiences:

One - The game developer - by offering them a no compromises platform with great hardware, tools and the leading online service with live.

Two - The hard core gamer - by putting together a configuration with everything you would want at a compelling price.

Three - The entry level gamer - that wanted to get into next generation gaming and was excited by the media capabilities and wanted an entry level option

I know the multiple configuration strategy has introduced some confusion and concern with the hard core gamers in particular. Hopefully this has helped explain some of the thinking that went into it. If you - like me - want gaming to get bigger and want to see more creative games out there we need to grow the market.

Like the consumer electronics industry or the automotive industry, having a family of products (we believe) will be good for the market.

At the end of the day, you guys make Xbox a success and we designed Xbox for you and dialogs like this are what have gone into the Xbox program to date and will continue to give life to Xbox for years to come. Check out our Live Updates at Club Skill, on the webchat with J Allard, who will be answering questions on Xbox 360.

J Allard answers tough Xbox 360 questions

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Discussion >>

As was reported yesterday, the Quake 3 source-code has been released under the GNU General Public License. Already fans are starting to check it out an do some experiments of their own.

An interesting thread over on Slashdot, concerning the aging gaming engine sees id's own John Carmack onboard offering comments of his own.

Personally, I think the Q3 code is pretty clean on the whole. It was a commercial product done under time pressure, so it isn't a polished gem, but I consider it good.

Anyone working on the Q3 codebase today should just delete all the asm code and use the C implementations. Making a commercial game with fairly high end requirements go 10% faster is sometimes worth writing some asm code, but years later when the frame rate pressure is essentially gone, the asm code should just be dumped in the name of maintainability. All the comments in the world wouldn't change this decision a bit.

>But there's really little reason to use asm
>anymore, since the autovectorization in gcc is
>very nice.

I was pretty much with you until that point. I fully agree that there is little reason to use asm anymore (I haven't written any in years -- Jan Paul did all the SIMD work for Doom 3). Knowledge of asm is good to allow you to manipulate compiler output by changing your C++ code, but there isn't much call for writing it by hand.

However, autovectorization in gcc is a particularly bad argument against writing asm code. Scalar compiler code is much, much closer to hand codeed asm in performance than compiler generated SIMD code is. Optimized SIMD coding almost always requires significant transformations that compilers can't really do on their own.

The argument about inline asm hurting compiler optimizations is only true if you are trying to use short snippets of asm, which is generally a bad idea. Asm code that doesn't loop a lot isn't likely to contribute significantly to your performance, with the exception of things like ftol replacements.

John Carmack

Quake 3 Slashdot Thread

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Discussion >>

With faster and faster gaming peripherals in our PCs and the need for gamers to have the latest hardware for best possible play, comes a need for more and more power.

Nvidia's latest offering, the 7800 GTX alone sucks up a staggering 285 Watts of power under full load conditions. Now though, you won't have to worry about a shortage of juice to power even the most hungry parts, as Enermax are unleashing their new power supply that is set to push out a whooping 1,000 Watts of power to the PC.

So now you can ad parts with confidence, be it 10 HDDs, a SLI configuration or whatever.

1,000 Watt Power Supply

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Discussion >>

Now you can take your feisty gaming attitude with you to the streets, with this dazzling collection of gaming t-shirts. From controller pads to the proclamation that 'campers do indeed suck', you'll be the trendiest.

One thing to note, you don't want to get carried away with this and say, call for backup while you're in the shops getting smokes and queue just ain't moving. Lose yourself, but don't lose yourself in the plot.

Guys Tees

Discussion >>

A mighty impressive batch of Unreal Tournament 2007 screenshots has been posted up on Shacknews. If you've not seen much of UT2007, these high-res screens will blow you away. Check out the detail on the armor and the vehicles...sweet.

Unreal Tournament 2007 is currently in the works by Epic Games, and a release date is still unclear. The game was announced earlier this year behind closed doors at E3. The next-gen tournament will be using the ground-breaking Unreal 3 engine and is set to be an entirely new game, not a continuation of the previous franchise.

I'm looking at a level from the next Unreal Tournament game, and it's not pretty. In a darkened conference room at Epic Games' North Carolina offices, lead designer Steve Polge, lead level designer Jim Brown, and producer Jeff Morris are walking me through a level that appears to be made of the equivalent of digital cement blocks -- and gently explaining to me why this is a good thing.

You can check out a preview of the game here.

Check out the high-res shots here.

Related:
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Discussion >>

This looks the business, some guy on eBay is selling off 2080 Nintendo games, from the Nes, Snes and N64. The massive bundle of old and new consists of 1313 Nes titles (82 boxed and 54 complete), 530 Nes games (38 boxed and 27 complete) and 237 N64s (10 complete and 8 boxed).

This monster collection is enough to put a smile on the face of anyone who enjoys the classics. The bidding so far for this ultimate Nintendo bag of delights is $8,000.00, so if you have some green paper to spare, head on over and check out what exactly you'll be getting. There is a full list of the games posted so you can sift through and see if it's worth all that effort.

The lucky winner of this auction will receive the this MASSIVE lot all listed and pictured below. There are 1313 NES games (82 boxed and 54 complete), 530 SNES games (38 boxed and 27 complete), and 237 N64 games (10 complete and 8 boxed). That comes out to somewhere around 2,080 games!!! They are all listed below but I'll highlight a few of the more valuable ones. NES: Blackjack, Chubby Cherub, Castle of Deceit, Dragon Warrior 3, Final Fantasy, King Neptune's Adventure, Ms Pac-Man (tengen), Ms. Pac-Man (namco), Nobunaga's Ambition 2, North & South, Panic Restaurant, 2 Princess Tomato, and Tagin' Dragon. SNES: 3 Chrono Trigger, 4 Earth Bound, 2 E.V.O., Final Fantasy 2, 2 Final Fantasy 3, 2 Final Fight 3, Final Fight Guy, King of Dragons, 2 Lemmings 2, 2 Mega Man X2, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, Ogre Battle, 2 Secret of Mana, and 3 Super Mario RPG. N64: 2 Dr. Mario, Harvest Moon, 2 Kirby the Crystal Shards, and Ogre Battle. Here's the full list for those of you with more time!!!

***2080 NINTENDO GAMES: NES, SNES, AND N64***

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Discussion >>

Amazon.com France has published a page revealing both the release date and price of Nintendo's next-gen console, the Revolution. It lists the Revolution's release date for June 15th 2006, with a price tag of Euro 299.

Interesting to see such a price-tag, even if it is not to be taken at all serious. With the Revolution already conceding technological advancements to the PS3 and Xbox 360, and thus having a cheaper price-tag, this certainly does not pay that claim any mind.

Amazon.com France has slipped a page with the European release date and price for Nintendo'’s monolithic new game console, the Revolution. The release date is listed as June 15, 2006. The total, after conversion, would be about $365. European console prices tend to be a bit higher than here in the U.S., but this still sounds like a fool'’s ransom given the Xbox 360'’s $299-$399 pricetag. (Remember that Nintendo says its console will be less technologically advanced and thus cheaper than the Xbox 360 or PS3). Based on the GameCube'’s 2001 launch cycle'—it arrived in Europe six months after it debuted in N.A.'—this leak gives credence to rumors that the Revolution could see a surprise 2005 launch.

Revolution Price | Via Gizmodo

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Discussion >>

Just when you thought Half Life 2 couldn't look any better. Now you can actually download high-res skins for the characters in the game. The skin-pack was made by FAKEFACTORY and the skins of Alyx, Eli, Human Females, Kleiner, Mossman and Odessa are replaced with high resolution 2024x2048 and 2048x1024 versions.

You can grab the skin-pack over at Filefront (16.37Mb)

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Discussion >>

70's icon Lynda Carter is set to star in the upcoming Elder Scrolls 4 game 'Oblivion'. The former Wonder Woman star will be lending her voice alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation's Patrick Stewart.

Oblivion will be making an appearance on the PC and Xbox 360, although there is still no clear release date set for the fourth iteration of the Elder Scrolls franchise, which has been in development now for over three years.

Lynda Carter's career seems to be undergoing a minor resurgence of late, as the star of the classic 1970s Wonder Woman TV show has appeared on the big screen in this summer's The Dukes of Hazzard and Sky High, and she will be returning to the small screen in Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit next month. In recent years, Carter had become most visible as the celebrity spokesperson for the mail-order contact lens retailer Lens Express, but she found work on the side in a variety of projects, including voice work for the open-ended PC and Xbox role-playing game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

Lynda Carter joins cast of Elder Scrolls IV

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Discussion >>

Ever wanted to play your favourite Sega Megadrive (Genesis) games on your PSP? Well now you can with an emulator for the PSP. DGEN lets you emulate all those classics of yesteryear, from Sonic to Road Rash.

A new version of the popular emulator has just been released.

A new version has been released of one of the most popular Genesis( aka Megadrive) emulators for the PSP. It's previous version was already quite good, all the roms I tested played and it had a nice little feature which is that it would take a screenshot of the game when you used a save state.

The older version was a bit slower than the PSP Genesis emulator however, after testing both the emulators just now with Sonic the Hedgehog at 222Mhz, clearly, DGen was much smoother in both Normal and Full Screen modes.

So, what are you waiting for, go get this great emulator and start playing your favorite Genesis/Megadrive games on the go.

NOTE: Do not download ROMs unless you own the original copy, or unless you plan on deleting them in less than a week and please do not ask where you can get them because your comment will be removed, do not ask in the forums either.

DGEN 0.90 Released - Genesis/Megadrive Emulator for PSP

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Discussion >>

If you like your Hot-Coffee with a side of redemption, you might be interested to know that there is a team of modders working on a Half Life 2 mod that is based around the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Called 'HL2:Fueled', there will be a single and multiplayer mode for the mod, in which the devs will be bringing in some 'Battlefield' style play.

Fueled (as we refer to it) is both a multiplayer and a singleplayer mod for HL2. The multiplayer gameplay is centered around the type of mayhem you would find if Grand Theft Auto were multiplayer, mixed with the kind of strategic gameplay of the Battlefield series placed in a dystopic (almost post-apocolyptic) setting. And while the mayhem will be esque` of Grand Theft Auto, and the teamplay will be biased towards BattleField like structure - Bot SP and MP will share a dark, decaying gloomy atmosphere.

Whereas the multiplayer component is similar to the likes of GTA meets Battlefield with Stalker makeover, the singleplayer component will take inspiration from games like Deus Ex (the original, not the sequel) in terms of gameplay. Using an in depth character and faction system in addition to the core Fueled technology to produce a truely immersive and largely non-linear gaming experience.

Head on over to their website to check out some cool videos and screenshots of the team's development so far.

Related:
HL2:Fueled - Videos screenshots and wallpaper
Discussion >>

A fresh batch of Quake 4 screenshots are now available in high-res. The pics are 4000x3000 resolution so that should be sufficient to whet your appetite in anticipation of the game's release (which is yet to be announced).

Don't forget about the Quake 4 logo contest, if you're the creative type.

High-res Quake 4 screenshots

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Well after a long, long wait, the Quake 3 source-code has finally been unleashed upon the public. It is now available under the GNU General Public License. So now you can go create something bold, something daring, something that may not look good standing against the latest gaming engines but hey, we'll always have the nostalgia.

Go grab it for a measly 5Mb over on Fileshck (free reg req)

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John Carmack's QuakeCon Speech Video
Official John Carmack blog
QuakeCon.org
Official site for Quake 4
id Software
Carmack Snubs PS3, likes Xbox 360
High-Def DOOM Movie Trailer
Quake 4 to be "Better Game" than DOOM 3
Yay, a Quake 4 logo contest
New Quake Wars Details Let Loose
Classic Doom on Doom 3 Engine
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AnandTech take an interesting look at the world's first universal Mac and PC video card. As the two systems have been growing more and more similar over the years, ATI is currently developing the Radeon 9600 with 256Mb of ram to work in both PCs and Macs.

Will we soon be playing Half Life 2 on the Macintosh?

It turns out that making a universal Mac and PC video card isn't that tough. It's just that there are some implementation details that had to be worked out before doing so. One of the biggest problems ended up being Apple's powered ADC connectors that were featured on the previous generation of their Cinema Displays. The ADC standard calls for video, USB as well as power for the monitor to be sent over a single cable from the video card to the monitor. Generally speaking, drawing enough power to drive a 23" Cinema Display takes a little more than what can be delivered over a standard AGP slot, especially if the slot is tasked with powering the GPU as well.

Apple's solution to the problem was to outfit ADC enabled cards with a separate connector to feed a 25V line to power any monitors and USB devices connected to them over the ADC port. The problem is that no PC motherboards feature support for this additional connector and an ADC connector isn't too useful for most PC users. But with Apple's move to DVI for their latest monitors, suddenly there's a lot more in common between PCs and Macs and their video card requirements.

ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Mac & PC Edition: One Card for All

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Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green has been announced recently for the PC. The zombie-based shooter is set to scare the pants of gamers this coming October.

Road to Fiddler's Green is based around this summer's George A. Romero's Land of the Dead and will act as a prequel to the film. It was also developed by Brainbox Games using the Unreal engine and is to see you rid the world of zombies with all or any weapons you can muster.

A first-person shooter built using the Unreal engine, Road to Fiddler's Green lets gamers cleanse the land of the zombie scourge with a variety of melee and ranged weapons, including baseball bats, fire axes, shovels, sniper rifles, and M16s. The game also features a multiplayer mode that lets players work with or against other humans to save or doom the race.

Land of the Dead gets its groove on

Related:
Brainbox Games
Discussion >>

Oh, just in case you guys missed this. Here's a really awesome collection of old arcade coins. Someone has gathered together pictures of just about every variety of arcade & miscellaneous token-coins and posted them up on flickr.

It's pretty damn impressive, or maybe I'm just an old arcade junkie that likes to reminisce, either way it brings back some good memories of ditching school for the day to improve my Street Fighter II skills.

Arcade Tokens
Discussion >>

It appears that the official brochure for the Xbox 360 has been leaked to the web. It's not really all that exciting, there's nothing there we didn't already know. Oh wait, the wired controller will be compatible with an XP-based PC out of the box.

I guess some people will like having this round-up of all the features on paper. The brochure is available in .jpeg format. So if you just need some sort of Xbox 360 related fix, if you need to get the brochure just to drool over the pictures and contemplate which game you're gonna play first when it comes out...get some help !!

The Xbox360 Marketing brochure has been leaked onto the internet, and we have managed to obtain a copy for everyone to check out.

The brochure is divided into several pages, each one pertaining to a different aspect of the Xbox360 console:

- XBox360 General Info
- XBox360 System
- XBox360 Core System
- XBox360 Accessories Overview
- More Accessories #1
- More Accessories #2

Xbox360 Marketing Brochure Leak

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Top 10 most important Xbox 360 Launch Titles
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Discussion >>

The plumbing legend is set to celebrate his 20th birthday on September 23rd. With this in mind, Nintendo has set up a website for the mushroom munching Mario. There is very little on the site apart from two videos dedicated to his honour.

If you wanna pay your respects and wish him another 20 years of success, head on over. If you think that he has been at it 20 years to long, why not go and protest about it, I'm sure he'll appreciate the constructive criticism either way.

HAPPY! MARIO 20th

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Video game TV spots, lots of them
Games music, mash-ups and remixes
Discussion >>

Browse our archives:

Igniq.com Weekly News Archives

Archive for this week:

24.8.05 Fable: The Lost Chapters for PC turns Golden
 He's a Stormtrooper, not a thief
 AMD to Intel, bring it on biiatch !!
 Next-gen DVD talks collapse
 Preorder your Xbox 360, only $700
 Halo movie looking for 2007 Summer release
23.8.05 Allard faces fans in Xbox 360 showdown
 Carmack on Quake 3 source-code
 Will 1,000 Watts be enough, Sir?
 Cool gaming T-Shirts
 High-res Unreal Tournament 2007 screens
 Ultimate Nintendo Collection on eBay
22.8.05 Amazon 'leaks' Euro Revolution Release Date?
 High-res Half Life 2 Skin-pack Mod...w00t !!
 Wonder Woman lends voice to Elder Scrolls IV
 Megadrive games on your PSP
 HL2 Fueled - Bringing GTA to HL2
 Quake 4 high-res screenshots
 Quake 3 source-code unleashed under GNU
 One Card To Rule Them All
 Land of the Dead Set to Scare this Halloween
 Old Arcade Coins Collection
 Xbox 360 Marketing Brochure Surfaces
 Happy 20th Mario !!