This is funny!

"Xbox 360 costs $698," says Sony 'fact sheet'. Check ggmania for more.

Along with announcing the PlayStation 3's launch title lineup yesterday, the Japanese company published a "fact sheet" (*.doc format) that compares the PS3 to Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. The fact sheet says an Xbox 360 system comparable to Sony's cheapest $499 PS3 costs a staggering $698. This figure is derived from Sony's claim that the $299 Xbox 360 Core System "requires users to buy" a $100 20GB hard drive, a $199 HD DVD drive, a $50 wireless controller, and a $50 Xbox Live subscription.

So, how much does any of the next-gen consoles cost, huh?

+ seen at: ggmania

10 PS3 prognostications

GamingNexus's got 10 PS3 prognostications:

1. PS3’s will be on sale on eBay for over $3000
   
2. Retail employees are going to be very popular people after November 17th
   
3. Hardware horror stories will be rampant
   
4. flOw isn't going to be the PS3's Geometry Wars
   
5. Resistance: Fall of Man is going to do well but not as well as Call of Duty 2 did for the 360 launch
   
6. Crab monster jokes will populate nearly every single Genji II review
   
7. People won't really miss the rumble as much as they think they will
   
8. The motion sensing component of the controller is going to go over better than expected but it won’t go over as well as the Wii
   
9. Sony's new online service is going to be better than people expect but still fall short of Xbox Live. People will forgive this as it is free
   
10. Sony has one last surprise left up its sleeves related to their online service and I think it might be access to the vast Sony music and video library.
    

Right?

+ seen at: GamingNexus

What's inside the Wii box?

1. Wii Console
2. Wii Console Stand
3. Wii Remote
4. Nunchuk
5. Sensor Bar
6. Wii AC Adapter
7. Wii AV Cable
8. Wii Startup Disc

+ seen at: Go Nintendo

Hands on Review of the Wii

Little known gaming site 2old2play has a hands on review of the Wii, Wii Sports and other launch titles. 2old2play had the opportunity to attend the Wii Ambassador parties in Chicago. Nintendo has been holding these events around the United States for a select group of people.
What do they say? Wii has lower grade graphics but that doesn't matter. Gameplay is what matters says 2old2play. "Each and every game offered a new way to hold and utilize the Wiimote to control the action on screen."
They played The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. "All the Wiimote issues aside, there is one thing that was certain, the game felt like Zelda. Everything from the atmosphere, enemies and the puzzles to solve put me right back into the classic Hyrule setting. Within minutes I was sucked in and ready to play for days."
And the hardware? "The single most impressive thing about the actual Wii console is its size." 2old2play says Wiimote doesn't feel cheap at all as some sites reported earlier. "Yes, it is extremely small and light, but that is what you want out of a controller that you are going to be swinging around for hours."
Have you got a new HDTV? "While the Wii may not be HDTV ready, it sure seems to favor the larger sets for optimal use."
Read the whole article at 2old2play Hands on Review of the Wii.

+ seen at: 2old2play

Internet browser for Xbox 360?

Now, that's good question. "Why doesn't the Xbox 360 have its own browser?", Joystiq asks. Wii got it, PS3 as well. Why not Xbox 360?
Xbox Live is an excellent online service. For a gamer. But it's not quite the right thing for a casual gamer, right now. Then there's the controller problem. How to navigate through web pages with a gamepad? How to type? Is Microsoft much more interested in pushing Windows Vista and IE7? Maybe.
There are even some news that Microsoft will be releasing a web browser for it in the next update. We shall see.
Anyway, very interesting question nobody asked before.

+ seen at: Joystiq

Heroes of Annihilated Empires - first impressions

Heroes of Annihilated Empires is a new realtime strategy game from Ukrainian game development studio GSC Game World. I've just been playing it for a few days. Impressions? Well, it's a mix of Lord of the Rings (main theme & fantasy world), Pirates of the Carribean & Gladiator (music is completely copied from Hans Zimmer who did music for all these motion pictures) and Cossacks, GSC's previous RTS game. The overall impression is good - you can build REALLY massive armies with hundreds of units. Graphics is good, maps are huge and detailed, story doesn't suck much yet (apparently it will soon - there is some sort of time-travelling clue in the opening cinematics). Base management is a little disturbing and sounds are poor. Anyway, I enjoy playing this game. Check the official homepage.

Mutant Storm Empire - now that's a SHMUP!

Mutant Storm Empire is a sequel to Xbox Live Arcade launch title Mutant Storm Reloaded. The video looks excellent!

seen at: Joystiq

Hey, that's SHMUP! Lots of SHMUPs!

What's a SHMUP? You don't need to know but you've certainly already played it. These are the classic shooters. Pure action as it was born. R-Type. Xenon. Tyrian. Ikaruga. All these classics.
If you got some time check the archives and look for the good old SHMUPs (that states for "shoot-em-up" or "Shoot Them Up!" or "shoot'em up"). Recommended sites: www.shmup.com (in French), www.classicgaming.com/shmups/ (in English), www.shmup-dev.com (in English).
Anyone knows about more SHMUP sites?

PlayStation 3 online service looks good

Eurogamer is one of the first who got the chance to see PlayStation 3 online service fully working. They went to see the Sony's worldwide studios boss Phil Harrison and his office, which is one of a few in the world to have "a fully functioning PlayStation 3 unit sitting under a massive HDTV screen, and hooked up to the test version of the PS3 online network which will switch over into a live service in early November when the console heads to store shelves in Japan and America."
Overall impressions? Sony knows online is one of the keys of success. They've learned a lot from launching PlayStation Portable (PSP), which despite it's technological superiority, loses the handheld war. Hopefully, they will use the knowledge and do their best.

MS Entertainment division in severe loss

Are you still waiting for the Xbox 360 price cut? Don't wait anymore. It's not going to come any soon. Next-gen has a great article on Microsoft Entertainment division's loos which tossed $1.26 billion, "mainly due to Xbox 360 launch expenses."
Analysts say hardware maybe won't ever turn profit for Microsoft or Sony. They'll have to rely on royalties from third-party software sales. But only when there is installed base of more than 10 million Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 there is gonna be place for really exklusive titles. How many widely expected exclusive titles does Microsoft has today? Gears of War? Not enough.
The price of Xbox 360 will hardly go down until Microsoft's Entertainment division gets into better results.

Gears of War the real next-gen

"The next-gen era truly begins when Gears of War arrives."

During the past few weeks there appeared many Gears of War impressions. I had a mixed feeling from them - like this is not what I expected. Well, guys at HEXUS.gaming made heir wair to London to play the game. Now, this is what I expected! Read their excellent preview of the game.

Gears of War is world's apart from any shooter title currently on the Xbox 360; if it wasn't for having to catch a train home we'd still be there now. The era of next-gen shooters is upon us and you’d be foolish if you didn't want to be part of it.

Company of Heroes vs. Faces of War

I've been recently playing both of these realime-strategy games. Company of Heroes does provide an extremely polished RTS experience. Although delivers a few key innovations to the genre, the overall feeling is a bit contrarious. There were some boring passages where I had just to wait to collect points for new units to begin an offensive.

Now, Faces of War. A lot less hype. Though Ubisoft could do A LOT of hype, company chose not to push Faces of War too much. Don't ask me why. I don't get it. Maybe becuse they knew it's still a little buggy? Anyway, even though buggy, this game rocks. It's not anymore the old-school realtime-strategy concept. No buildings. No resources.

Just your squad, the map and the Nazis. Deal with it. It's more tactical action than real-time strategy game. You have to manoeuvre your troops, take favourable positions, defend key points. Yup, sometimes your troops do not do what they should. There are few glitches here and there. But the overall impression is A LOT better, more detailed, funnier, deeper than Company of Heroes. Shame on you, Ubisoft!

Aquaria - hand-painted indie 2D action

Aquaria is an independently developed action-oriented, non-linear 2D side-scrolling game. Beautiful 2D hand-painted graphics adds a lot of magical atmosphere. Unique gameplay blends an intuitive and fluid mouse control system, creature interaction and expansive environments along with gorgeous visuals. Watch a trailer or check the homepage at www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/. Game should be out spring 2007.

+ seen at: TIGSource

8-Bit: best game documentary ever made?

VH1 Game Break: "Guys, this low budget production by Marcin Ramocki and Justin Strawhand is clearly the best movie about video games that's ever been made. Forget insulting crapola like the Game Show Network's “GSN Video Games” (2003). Here, the documentarians don't spend much time on the history of video games, although smug movie critic turned video game expert Ed Halter put the history into perspective succinctly." read more

Looks really impressive. Check the homepage at www.8bitmovie.com. Looking forward to watch it!

+ seen at: Joystiq

PlayStation 3 - Wii - Xbox 360 - Who Wins? Gamers!

The disputes on who wins the next console war appeared even before the war itself began. You can predict the winner of war between USA a Iraq. But you can't predict the winner where the parties are Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. After all, does it even matter?
Microsoft won't stop making Xbox 360 until the next generation appears. There are too many sold consoles. And too many has to be sold. Sony will surely sell as many PS3's as needed to continue the production for many years. There are too many PS2 owners. And Nintendo? That's another league. Nintendo is not competing with anybody. Nintendo fights alone. Yet, its Wii has the biggest chances. Wii is cheap. Wii is fun. And it has tons of games. So, who's the winner? Gamers!
In the next console war there - surprisingly - are no loosers. Companies win because their hardware get sold and their games get sold, if they're good. Gamers win because they have nice cheap hardware and good games. Who cares about console war anymore?!

Linux-based Wii OS

According to a recent interview with Satoru Iwata Wii console will operate on top of a proprietary form of the Linux kernel. Nintendo intends to develop the operating system in the future via online system updates. Bright future for Wii?

+ seen at: Slashdot