Entertainment Electronics Blog

We know Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 will have access to Xbox Live, but it looks like their connectivity ambitions between the Xbox 360 and Phone 7 are even loftier than that, including not just turn-based gameplay but eventually real-time multiplayer between Phone 7 games and Xbox 360 games as well.

“So initially we’re turn by turn-based,” said a Microsoft representative to rgbFilter during the recent X10 event in Toronto (via Joystiq). “We are working on real-time phone-to-console, likely initially through Wi-Fi — again, operator networks are sensitive to that. That’s not on day one; day one will be turn-by-turn as well as companion-type gaming where you play a level on the phone and it may unlock a level or a weapon or some special achievement on the console game.

“But, uh yeah — absolutely working on phone-to-console real-time. That is something we’re working on and expect to have in the near future,” the rep concluded. He also confirmed they’re working on multiplayer connectivity between the PC and Phone 7 as well, referencing — believe it or not — 2007’s Shadowrun as an example (which itself was noteworthy in its time for offering cross-multiplayer between the PC and 360).

The rep didn’t get into much detail about how exactly real-time 360-to-Phone 7 multiplayer would work, what kind of games to expect it in, or when it’ll even be ready, so there’s still much to be revealed. Windows Phone 7 is planned for release in October.

Microsoft is a massive company that ships quite a lot of products each year. And yet, when CEO Steve Ballmer decided to highlight just one as Microsoft’s most exciting product of 2010 in front of a group of executives, he talked about the upcoming Natal. Ballmer was in South America to speak with customers primarily about Microsoft’s line of Online products, such as Exchange Online and Live Meeting, but it was Natal that was bestowed with that honor — though it wasn’t necessarily the videogame functions he seemed excited about. While we’ll primarily see Natal as a method for playing games when it’s released later this year, Ballmer is also excited about the non-gaming applications of Natal.

“Perhaps for me the most exciting product we’ll bring to market this year, and it really fits in this context, actually comes out of our videogaming group,” he said earlier this week in Bogota, Colombia (via ZDNet). “You might say, why would I talk to a group of CEOs about videogames? Because the technology actually is very general purpose, and we’ll see come into the rest of our lives pretty soon.”

“It’s a technology that we call Natal. It’s a little camera and microphone that sits on top of your TV set,” Ballmer explained for the uninitiated. “And if you want to control the TV, you don’t go get some remote control or big fat gaming thing. If you want to look through TV channels, you just gesture, and the computer recognizes your voice, it recognizes your gestures. You want to see the next sports program, you go like this, it will cycle you through. You want to play a game and you need to jump, you jump. I’m not going to jump too hard; a little bit too high altitude here in Bogota for that, at least for me. But it recognizes you, it knows your voice, who you are, your gestures, what you’re doing.”

He continued, “And if you think about that in a lot of settings, why am I carrying this thing? I’ve already forgotten three times where I set it down. I should just be able to go like this, and the camera should recognize that gesture and control the slides for me, and let these kinds of things freely happen.”

Whether or not that’s something that the average consumer is actually interested in remains to be seen. Either way, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Natal at E3 in June, ahead of its release later this year.

Sometimes telling a loved one goodbye for the last time is just too painful, especially after spending the better part of the last decade at one another’s side. Such is the case for a handful Halo 2 fans who’ve refused to let go of their first-person shooter of choice, even after Microsoft pulled the plug on the original Xbox Live roughly two weeks ago.
It turns out these intrepid gamers have been able to remain connected to the old Live service as long as they don’t shut down their consoles or lose their internet connection. As a result, there are still around 13 people still playing Halo 2 online. The initial group of holdouts started much, much larger, but — as tends to happen when you leave your system on for weeks at a time — many have dropped out due to their consoles overheating, random disconnects, and other issues.

A fellow going by the name of Joe Campbell decided to chronicle this stalwart bunch of Halo players in a thread on the official Bungie forums. You’ll find his updated list of remaining Halo 2 users inside, as well as links to any livestreams that may still be running.

“We will keep playing until we are all forcibly removed,” Campbell writes. “It could be by Microsoft, Bungie, our Xbox’s overheating, or just lagging out. Not for competition, not for a prize, but for the love, and memory of Halo 2.”

Microsoft is working to get ahead of rumors that started circulating yesterday regarding Blu-Ray support for the Xbox 360. It started when company CEO Steve Ballmer commented that Blu-Ray drives would be coming as accessories, in response to a question about the Xbox 360. Word got out fast, and last night Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) made a blog post to clarify. “Steve was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC,” he explained. “As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360.”
It does still seem odd that Microsoft’s main man mentioned the accessories in response to a question about the Xbox 360, if he were merely talking about the PC. But, Ballmer does have a history of making erroneous statements regarding the console, so we can probably chalk this up to a simple misstatement. At this rate, an inaccurate comment about the Xbox 360 is bound to be dubbed a “Ballmer.”

The sequel to the best selling first person action game in history, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2: Call of Duty 4 is coming soon in November. Rumors have been spread over and over around the November release, saying that together with it will come the new developed accessories we still don’t know clear. Moreover, Mad Catz, leading third-party interactive entertainment accessory provider, has announced that they have partnered with Activision and Infinity Ward to develop a range of controllers and accessories. The release goes on to state that the company will develop accessories for all platforms currently announced for the title, which include Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 systems.

“Mad Catz’s innovation and fresh approach from Day 1 has been great,” said Vince Zampella, CEO of Infinity Ward. “Their team has really poured their hearts into the new line of accessories for Modern Warfare 2 and we can’t wait for our fans to have a chance to play for themselves this November.”

What indeed is Mad Catz building, the coolest ever in existence or the opposite? We can make a guess.Will they be new types of night-vision goggles, turbo controllers, or even a “special” keyboard and mouse for the game? Well, whatever, the answer is coming out soon.

John Carmak, influential game desiner and technical director of id software, has predicted that Sony will be the first to make a move into the next generation of gaming hardware, probably to prevent “the same kind of 360 lag from happening to them again”.

“The whole jockeying for who’s going to release the first next-gen console is very interesting and pretty divorced from the technical side of things,” Carmack told CD-Action, as spotted by Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry.

“Whether Sony wants to jump the gun to prevent the same sort of 360 lag from happening to them again seems likely.

“As developers, we would really like to see this generation stretch as long as possible. We’d like to see it be quite a few more years before the next-gen consoles comes out, but I suspect one will end up shipping something earlier rather than later.”

One of the main reasons behind the success of Microsoft Xbox 360 is its release one year ahead of Sony PlayStation 3 as well as considerably lower pricing. Sony might want to release its PlayStation 4 ahead of its arch-rival. But anyway, I hope this generation could last a long time. I hate they force me to buy these new stuff.

Wedding is always something romantic and dreamful. Some women may have planned their own weddings since a little girl, as Monica (in Friends). People all have their own perfect wedding models, with their dreamed Mr. or Mrs. Right. Today, let’s share some special wedding pictures of those frenzied video game fans. 

Katamari Damacy Wedding

I suppose, it wold be more fantastic if the bride should have worn velcro and had the groom roll her around, picking up debris.

To see more pics: http://www.ksweddings.com/aidra_ernest/

Halo Wedding

Officiated by the Master Chief himself!

Wii Wedding

So cute and delicious!! With the mouth watering, I even cannot make up my mind to take a little piece of it!

In an exclusive interview with Play, Tecmo Koei president Kenji Matsubara revealed that the Ninja Gaiden series could be adapted to work with Sony’s motion control technology sometime in the future.

“I’m very interested in the new motion-control technology announced at E3, but we really need to know how responsive it is,” said Matsubara. “I’m sure that for casual games these motion controls will be very popular, but for action games like Ninja Gaiden we need quick responses and if you’re swinging your arms around like you’re using a sword you will soon be tired.”

He makes motion tech sound like something he wants to work up to: “Maybe we have to change the playing style and check the technology to see how quick it can be,” he said. “So, at first it will be casual games and then maybe hardcore games and we have to prepare for that and provide the games to satisfy that playing style.”

Since Nintendo’s Wii games, Motion-control gaming is getting more and more popular. Videogame publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has even committed itself to releasing titles for both Sony’s and Microsoft’s recently demoed motion-controlled gaming peripherals. Though no juicy details of any Project Natal or Motion Control videogames has been revealed yet, it’s widely expected both peripherals will appear towards the end of next year. We’d have to keep our patience. And here’s a picture about PS3 SIXAXIS Wireless Controller, which adds motion control, and actually the controller can sense six different movements.

With the release of The Beatles: Rock Band coming up next month, the instrument controllers have been players’ major concern: what instrument controllers will work with the game, and what other games will work with the new Beatles-themed guitars and drums. In fact, this has always been a question for players. To that end, Harmonix has compiled a detailed chart informing visitors which instruments are compatible with which titles.

That image above is just for Xbox 360 guitars. The full chart features all platforms and both types of controller. You can pop over to this website to see the thing in full: http://www.rockband.com/compatibility

According to the chart, Beatles will work with every instrument in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band line for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. For those players eager to save dollars and storage space, you can relieve now, as the regular instruments controllers are also compatible.

Electronic Arts Inc. has unveiled the UK cover athletes for EA SPORTS’ FIFA 10. Chelsea FC midfielder Frank Lampard and Arsenal’s rising star, Theo Walcott, join Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney as the faces of FIFA 10 in the UK.

“FIFA is definitely the best football game on the market, and I am delighted to be featured on the cover again,” said Manchester United and England striker, Wayne Rooney. “I play the game regularly online and against a lot of the lads at the club and I’m looking forward to the 360 degree control as it will make FIFA even more realistic than any other football game out there. “

“I’m really pleased to be part of the EA Sports FIFA franchise. Being on the cover of this great football video game with such a long history is really special for me, “said Lampard.

“To join the likes of Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard on the cover of FIFA is a huge honour for me,” said Theo Walcott. “FIFA is the game of choice in the Arsenal dressing room so I’ll have to keep on top of my game to make sure I’m the best FIFA 10 player at the club.”

FIFA 10 will be the first-ever football game to exhibit ‘true’ 360-degree dribbling action. 70% of total development time was apparently devoted to refining and improving the series’ gameplay. The rest 30% was spend on innovating and adding brand-new features to the game. Therefore, players certainly have a good reason to expect its coming. And FIFA 10 will be available in stores worldwide from October 2 on PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, PC platform and NDS. For Nintendo DS owners, R4 DS cards no doubt are perfect preparation for this upcoming exciting game!

R4 DS Revolution Card