Joystiq reports that this weekend Xbox Silver members (the free membership level) will be able to participate in the 1vs100 online gameshow. The US beta has been going for several weeks so far, and personally I’ve found it to be a lot of fun, especially in a party with friends.
Ars Technica reports that an “inside source” says both 360 and PS3 price cuts can be expected this fall.
Yesterday we mentioned a new Michael Jackson game was in development, coincidentally only hours before learning that the singer had passed away. There is no word yet whether the production is going to continue or not.
Remember the Moonwalker game for Sega systems and arcades, starring the one and only Michael Jackson? Clash Music is reporting that a new Michael Jackson game is in the works for Wii/PS2/PS3 by Jackson’s own production company MJJ Productions.
Team Xbox posted a rumor that Microsoft is readying a 1TB hard drive for Xbox 360. With full Xbox 360 games soon available to purchase electronically, the need for larger drives is inevitable. It’s unfortunate they still don’t have a way to use a standard HDD, but perhaps with 1TB drives available, the price of the smaller drives will drop.
A few artists who worked on the more cartoonish version of the Ghostbusters game for Wii and PS2 early on in its development life are complaining that they were omitted from the credits. Red Fly Studios responded that they ran out of room.
Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Plainswalkers (whose launch was delayed by some Microsoft snafus yesterday) then you might have noticed the Spellslinger achievement, a viral achivement that requires you to defeat someone who already has it. I did a little sleuthing and asked on the Xbox forums if anybody had heard about this, and low and behold, we got an answer from a Wizards of the Coast staffer. Eric Sorensen, from the Community Team just announced on the Xbox.com forums the first times to be on the lookout for Spellslingers.
Your first chance to get this achievement will be our Game with Fame this weekend. We’ll have 6 pro Magic Players on DotP and they will have the achievement. The next chance will be the weekend after that when developers from Wizards of the Coast and Stainless Games will be online playing. After those two events you’ll have to likely find another player who has it.
There are a few folks out there who already have it though, but if you want to be sure to get the achievement, get online this weekend and beat a pro! Contraptica’s full review of Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Plainswalkers is coming soon!
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was a difficult game for me to review. More than any other game I can remember, TFU is a game that I went from absolutely hating to absolutely loving it, back and forth, throughout the entire experience. The game has phenomenal moments, yet has some of the most frustrating gameplay you might ever encounter at times. This is a game that really could have used a few more months of playtesting to iron out some of the annoyances. I think what bothered me most is that the game had so much promise, as one of the most fun experiences in gaming.. and yet failed to deliver what it was capable of.
Several media outlets are reporting on rumors that Microsoft’s Project Natal, their camera-based motion capture technology, is the precursor to an upgraded Xbox product line coming in fall 2010. While the report at 1up was scant on details, the unknown site FGNOnline listed the following specs:
GPU
Whereas the original XBox 360 used a Shader Model 3 GPU with on-board 10MB eDRAM for 720p acceleration, the new XBox has a Shader Model 5 capable GPU with 32MB of eDRAM for 1080p output. The GPU again is designed by AMD and runs at a clock rate of 600MHz.
CPU
The IBM developed CPU shall have 6 cores instead of the 3 found in the original model.
Each single core shall have the same processing throughput as each single core from the XCPU. Meaning the chip is literally 200% as strong and shall now be on equal footing with the PS3 CELL CPU in GFLOPS performance.
MEMORY
The main system RAM has been upgraded from 512MB to 1024MB, and from GDDR3 to GDDR5.
The system retains a Unified Memory Architecture.
OTHER
The platform integrates a 2.5″ 32GB SSD (Solid State Drive) instead of a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) as found in the original models. The system also uses a standard DVD drive foregoing Blu-ray thus ensuring backwards and forwards compatibility whilst simultaneously keeping the bill of materials low. Internet connectivity is provided via WiFi.
RELEASE & PRICING
Microsoft plans on a Q4 2010 simultaneous worldwide release. The company is targeting a sub $300 price point.
What nobody has answered is whether or not this new console would spell a new generation of games or not. Would new games allow playback on Xbox360 as well as Xbox3, with added effects available on the newer console? This is not without precedent, as the Burger King Xbox titles were released as Xbox1/Xbox360 games, with better graphics enabled on the 360. How long then, until new games go Xbox3 only, requiring users to have the additional RAM and processor power in order to play?
Jimmy Fallon had some folks from Microsoft on the show last night to demo Project Natal, their camera based control system for Xbox 360. From the looks of it, the avatars were very nicely responsive to the player’s movements, although it looked like it would take a bit of time before you really got the hang of things such as aiming. Check out the Hulu clip below (sorry non USA people!)
Variety’s video game blog The Cut-Scene is reporting on rumors that Neverwinter Nights, the well received RPG series from Atari is being made into an MMO. Neverwinter Nights (NWN) takes place in the Forgotten Realms universe, a popular Dungeons and Dragons setting, home to a multitude of media, from books and art and many successful video game franchises (most notably Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale). NWN offered its fans a powerful development tool, bundled with the game, to allow players to create their own worlds, with scripted events, their own equipment, and the ability to host their own servers. This basically allowed players to create their own personal MMO using the NWN framework. Now rumor has it that Atari is using their recently acquired developer Cryptic Studios to turn NWN into it’s own MMO. In a sea of MMO’s dwarfed by World of Warcraft and its 10 million subscribers, how can NWN set itself apart? There is already a Dungeons and Dragon’s MMO, DND Online, which today announced it will no longer have a fee to play, but instead will make money via micro transactions. However, no other campaign setting in Dungeons and Dragons (save perhaps Dragonlance) is as widely known and regarded as Forgotten Realms. The rich history of the Forgotten Realms game world dwarfs that of the World of Warcraft series. We’ll keep an eye on this story. via [Evil Avatar]
The horror classic Silent Hill is being “reimagined” for the Wii, PS2 and PSP with familiar characters and story, but new gameplay. How this will fly with fans of the original game is yet to be seen, but from the preview video it appears as though the Wii version at least will make great use of the Wiimote as a flashlight. The release date looks to be sometime this fall. Check out the creepy trailer below.
While the original Just Cause mostly flew under my radar, this demonstration of the follow up, Just Cause 2 looks incredibly fun and crazy. The developer, Avalanche Studios, has created a game full of creative ways to accomplish tasks, including a grappling hook and parachute combination that I haven’t seen before. Check out the video below to see what I mean.
I’ve given WoW a break for a while so I can actually form opinions on other media. So with that, I’ve revamped the logo, am in the process of changing up the scoring system, and will hopefully post content to this site once again. E3 has just passed and there is a lot of news out there. I’ve got a few ideas for new things here at Contraptica, and hopefully they’ll materialize soon.
Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Plainswalkers (whose launch was delayed by some Microsoft snafus yesterday) then you might have noticed the 
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was a difficult game for me to review. More than any other game I can remember, TFU is a game that I went from absolutely hating to absolutely loving it, back and forth, throughout the entire experience. The game has phenomenal moments, yet has some of the most frustrating gameplay you might ever encounter at times. This is a game that really could have used a few more months of playtesting to iron out some of the annoyances. I think what bothered me most is that the game had so much promise, as one of the most fun experiences in gaming.. and yet failed to deliver what it was capable of.
Variety’s video game blog The Cut-Scene is reporting on rumors that Neverwinter Nights, the well received RPG series from Atari 