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Hardware / Kinect lag 'shouldn't be judged in milliseconds'
« Last post by VSG Admin on July 12, 2010, 11:54:00 am »

Microsoft has claimed that players of Kinect can input control into Xbox games just as fast as players using joypads - and that the lag of the device should be judged in terms of experience rather than "milliseconds".

Questions of lag have dampened excitement around the device - previously dubbed 'Project Natal' - since it was first announced at E3 2009.

There was little evidence of slowdown in Microsoft's full on-stage E3 demo a year later, however - when it revealed a casual-focused line-up for the device.

MGS general manager Kudo Tsunoda told the August issue of Edge: "It's funny, because when we measure lag, it's a very technical way of doing things: 'Hey, it's this many milliseconds.'

"I mean, controllers have lag. The great thing with Kinect is that we can receive an input just as fast. Let's say we're playing a game in which we're gonna see a bell go off, and whoever can enter an input faster wins. You're going to press a button and I'm going to [gesture]. We can do it as fast with Kinect as with a button.

"... the way we measure 'lag' is by putting people in front of the experience and measuring their thoughts. Either it feels good or it feels sloppy. It's not how many milliseconds, it's: 'Does it feel good? Does it react fast? Does it feel as if you're in control?'

"We were down here last E3 and we bought a racing game for that reason. At high speed, if there's any lag, the controls will feel bad. Kinect Joy Ride feels really tight - you feel like you're in control and the game's doing what you want, and that's the important stuff."
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Hardware / Dead 'Courier' walking: Microsoft gets dual-screen design patent
« Last post by VSG Admin on July 12, 2010, 11:50:52 am »

A U.S. design patent received by Microsoft today for a "dual display device" looks like a mere remnant of the days when the company's Courier project was still a going concern. However, the fact that Microsoft filed for a design patent earlier this year shows that the company was serious, at one point, about the possibility of bringing Courier to market as a product in its own right -- before killing it off.

Based on the illustrations, the design patent is pretty clearly for the Courier device, the "secret tablet" from Microsoft that was revealed by Gizmodo last year and held up as a potential rival to Apple's iPad. In April, Microsoft confirmed and canceled the Courier project in one fell swoop but noted that the underlying technologies would still be "evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings."


In an interview with TechFlash in May, outgoing Microsoft Entertainment & Devices President Robbie Bach said Courier was never a "device," instead calling it a project and an incubation leading to innovations that could find their way into other Microsoft products.

The design patent was filed on Jan. 19. These types of patents, covering a product's ornamental design, are good for 14 years, so Microsoft has a bit of time if it decides to revive the Courier concept.

Another clue from the filing provides further evidence of how serious the company was about the project, showing that the company went so far as to hire an outside design firm to work on the Courier.

In addition to Microsoft's Jonathan Harris, the inventors named in the patent filing are Scott Wilson and Stephen Christopher of the Chicago design firm Minimal, whose website lists "Multiple Confidential Programs" for Xbox and Microsoft among its projects currently in progress --- including "ongoing cross-divisional collaborations on future mobile devices, PC hardware, gaming systems and experiences."

Apart from Courier, another of those confidential Microsoft design projects was apparently the new Xbox 360. Wilson has been credited publicly for his design work on the slimmed-down Microsoft game console .

Here are the rest of the images from the filing.



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Hardware / Capcom: Xbox 720 'within two to three years'?
« Last post by VSG Admin on July 12, 2010, 11:38:57 am »
Top Capcom exec feels that the next generation of consoles will be sooner than we think.

Capcom's David Reeves reckons we could see Xbox 720 in two years, reports GI.biz.

While Microsoft has put the timeframe on Xbox 720 at around five years, Capcom exec David Reeves thinks two to three years is more likely.

"Anything they can add to revive and pique interest in the games until we have another clash of the titans in two years time," Reeves told GI.biz when he was asked about Move and Kinect.

"I don't have any inside information. All the first-parties have got to be working on something. The tricky thing is when do you put a stake in the ground on technology? That's the problem.
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Gaming News / New Halo Being Developed by 343
« Last post by VSG Admin on July 12, 2010, 03:25:50 am »
343 Industries - Microsoft's internal division devoted to expanding the Halo universe through anime, comic books and novels - has been tasked with picking up the Halo franchise when Bungie sign off with Halo: Reach.
As such, 343 has been advertising numerous job vacancies for the next Halo title following Reach, on it's official site, with roles being offered for a mission designer, a senior 3D artist, a senior character artist and other key roles.
"343 Industries is forging the future of Halo, expanding and building upon one of the most important and successful franchises in gaming history. Halo is a rich and exciting universe that encompasses AAA video games, New York Times best-selling novels, world-class animation and much, much more. Just you wait. 343 is set to revolutionize gaming and entertainment by putting the industry's fiercest talent in one room and diving for cover. Come be part of the awesome," reads the site's careers page.
Now if that isn't a tempting invitation to apply for a job, we don't know what is.
So, with 343 Industries "forging the future of Halo", what can we expect from the next installment in the franchise following Reach? For now, your guess is as good as ours, but Halo 4 might be a capital idea.
It's early days yet for 343's Halo venture though, so don't expect to see or hear much on it for the time being. Why not focus on Halo: Reach's release in September instead?
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Gears of War 3 / Gears of War 3 To Feature Dedicated Servers?
« Last post by VSG Admin on June 26, 2010, 09:43:14 pm »
According to the most recent issue of Official Xbox Magazine (August 2010), Gears of War 3 will feature dedicated servers that will finally rid the Gears universe of host advantage. "Expect dedicated servers that'll reduce the lag that plagued Gears 2 down to practically zero..." This is something that has not previously been announced but OXM even went as far as saying, "Will Gears try to defeat its network-code demons with a pre-release multiplayer beta? Epic isn't saying yet, but if it happens, we'd guess it'll be in January."

Both of these sound pretty good to us just as long as the final game ships in slightly better condition than Gears 2 did. Oh, and sorry OXM, but yea, we're going to call you out on this one, "Fans of big guns will delight in the fresh additions to the Gears' arsenal...the Hammerburst..." Ah not quite new guys, just redesigned once again. As always remember to check back here for all things Gears of War 3.
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Hardware / Apple Unveils All New Mac mini
« Last post by VSG Admin on June 15, 2010, 08:39:46 pm »
Apple today unveiled a completely redesigned Mac mini, featuring up to twice the graphics performance, a new HDMI port and a new SD card slot, all in an amazingly compact aluminum enclosure. Mac mini is the world's most energy efficient desktop and starting at $699, is the most affordable way to enjoy Mac OS X, iLife or Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server.


"The sleek, aluminum Mac mini packs great features, versatility and value into an elegant, amazingly compact design," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With twice the graphics performance, HDMI support and industry-leading energy efficiency, customers are going to love the new Mac mini."

Created with the unibody construction process pioneered by Apple, the new Mac mini features a compact aluminum enclosure just 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches thin. A new integrated power supply eliminates the need for an external power adapter, reducing overall system volume by 20 percent and keeping cable clutter to a minimum. A removable panel underneath provides quick access for memory expansion. Mac mini is incredibly versatile, effortlessly connecting to existing peripherals such as mice, keyboards and digital displays, while the new HDMI output connects Mac mini to an HDTV and the new SD card slot enables easy transfer of photos and videos from a digital camera.

Inside its sleek, compact enclosure, the new Mac mini includes the fastest integrated graphics processor on the market today. With 48 processing cores, the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor delivers up to twice the graphics performance of its predecessor, making Mac mini ideal for graphics intensive applications or visually rich games. Mac mini comes standard with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 320GB hard and 2GB of RAM for $699. With twice the graphics performance, the new Mac mini is still the world's most energy efficient desktop. The new Mac mini reduces power consumption by an incredible 25 percent to less than 10W at idle, less than half the power required by competing systems. Mac mini meets Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status. The new aluminum enclosure is highly recyclable and Mac mini uses PVC-free components and cables, contains no brominated flame retardants and features material-efficient system and packaging designs.

Mac mini comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the world's most advanced operating system, and iLife, Apple's innovative suite of applications for managing photos, making movies and creating and learning to play music. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. iLife features iPhot, to easily organize and manage photos; iMovie with powerful easy-to-use new features such as Precision Editor, video stabilization and advanced drag and drop; and GarageBand which introduces a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar.

Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server fulfills all the server needs of a workgroup or small business including email, calendar, file serving, Time Machine backup, Wiki Server, Podcast Producer and more. Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server uses less than 11W of power at idle, a fraction of the power consumed in comparison to typical entry-level tower servers. Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server is faster than before with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two 500GB hard drives now running at 7200 rpm, 4GB of RAM and supports unlimited clients for $999.

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Hardware / New Xbox 360 is Slimmer, Shadier & Sexier.
« Last post by VSG Admin on June 15, 2010, 07:22:35 pm »
Microsoft has released photos of the new Xbox 360 console revealed at E3. The new model is slightly smaller, and appears to have been modeled on Darth Vader's helmet, with striking angles and a glossy black finish. Under the hood it comes packing a 250GB hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi 802.11N.

It's shipping now in the States for US$299 (compared with US$249 for an Elite or US$149 for an Arcade).

Also shown here is the Kinect sensor bar, which has had a mild redesign from last year's Natal concept photos.







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Gaming News / hello
« Last post by jacksonh1 on June 04, 2010, 02:13:21 am »
Hello Everyone! How is everyone doing???
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Industry News / Hulu coming to X360
« Last post by VSG Admin on June 02, 2010, 04:50:33 am »

Wondering what big announcements Microsoft has up its sleeve for E3, aside from all the Project Natal stuff? Well, it looks like Hulu is gonna be their other surprise. While everyone was looking to the iPad as the device that would kick off the subscription-based paid model for Hulu, it instead looks like the Xbox 360 is going to get that honor. We've heard from a very reliable source (who has never been wrong before) that Microsoft is set to unveil Hulu as an Xbox Live service at E3 2010. Similar to how Netflix is integreated into the Xbox 360 dashboard, Hulu would be there as well, and would require a subscription fee. We have no idea how Microsoft will charge for it, but our assumption is that you'll pay for a block of access time (a month? a quarter?) by using Microsoft Points--but again, that part is just a guess. We also have no idea as to whether you will get the entire Hulu catalog that's available on the web, or if it will be pared down for TV consumption, despite paying the premium.
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Gaming News / Valve Cancels Portal 2 E3 Event, Promises Surprise
« Last post by VSG Admin on June 02, 2010, 04:49:07 am »
Valve  has apparently canceled its planned Portal 2 event during E3 for a new surprise.

An e-mail was sent out to gaming press today that announced the cancellation. Read the entire message below:

    Dear Subject Name Here,

    Aperture Science is pleased to inform you that we have partnered with Valve to announce the gala CANCELLATION of the June 14 Portal 2 event at the Regal Theater. The event will be replaced by a surprise. And even though the cancellation of the event certainly counts as a surprise, we are pleased to further announce that the cancellation of the event is not THE surprise. However, per International treaties regarding the definition of the word "surprise", of which both Aperture Science and Valve are signatories, the time, date and content of the actual surprise will only become available as you experience the surprise.

    If you'd like to ask fruitless questions about the E3 Portal 2 surprise or, more fruitfully, schedule an appointment to attend a Portal 2 screening at the Valve booth during E3, please contact Valve's Special Envoy to Surprises, Doug Lombardi.

    Thank you for [[RECORD SCRATCH!!!]]

    PS: The surprising record scratch is also not the surprise.

What could this be? Valve confirmed to us Portal 2 will still be shown at its booth during E3.

Any guesses?


Original Source: IGN
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