Microsoft studying appeal of Xbox 2-PC hybrid

"One slide describes the unit, which would require a PC monitor or high definition television, as being backward compatible with current and next-generation Xbox titles. It would also play PC games and include a fully functional version of Windows, CD burner, DVD player (with remote control), built-in access to Xbox Live and a hard drive. Control-wise, the system would come with both a keyboard and mouse and a standard Xbox controller. The price point this particular study tested was $599."

Warren Spector Leaves ION Storm

This is a string of comments on a very interesting development at ION.

The problem with being a newbie

The problem I see with the fact that I started console gaming about a year ago (after the Nintendo 64 days), is that my collection is missing so many of the classics. I am finding myself at EB Games every few days looking for old titles that I want in my collection.

This week, I bought/found Ace Combat 4, Panzer Dragoon, Ico, Halo (never owned a copy), Wave Raze (thanks hammah) and Space Channel 5. To top it all off, I finally bit the bullet and ordered my own copy of REZ. John and I spent a night playing this recently, and I kept leveling down. It pissed me off so much, that I laid down the $80 for a used copy. You heard me right. A new copy cost upwards of $145, but you can get a lightly played copy for the grand price of $80. I mean, I love Mizuguchi as much as the next chick, and am the first one holding out hopes that he is secretly working on REZ 2 for Eye Toy, but $80 for a used game? Come on.

New games this week (within the last year or so): FarCry, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (LOVE THIS GAME, LOVE IT) and Viewtiful Joe. Also picked up a copy of Primal, but that does not fall into the category of "classic" or new, so I will just throw it in last.

I also have a "classic pack" I have yet to start playing, more on that later.

65% Wired

I took the $40 plunge, and bought a network adapter for my PS2. It hurts to do when now you can buy a PS2, network adapter AND a game for $149, but my mother taught me to never cry over the milk you dropped. I signed up for my own XBox Live account (I am DeadKat for now), and bought a Game Cube/GSP connector cable. Now all I need is the network adapter for my GameCube so I can play PSO.

The EvBots: When Evolution Trains Robot Teams

"If the theory of evolution has worked well for us -- even if this is arguable these days -- why not apply it to mobile robots?, asks Technology Research News. Several U.S. researchers just did that and trained neural networks to play the Capture the flag game. Once the neural networks were good enough at the game, they transferred them to the robots' onboard computers. These teams of mobile robots, named EvBots (for Evolution Robots), were then also able to play the game successfully. "

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dirty thoughts

You have no idea the things that go through my mind when I see this hottie. I had no idea he was at E3? I would have been on a "Mission".

The Ultimate War Sim

"Like my Grandpa always said, there were no naked human pyramids in Starcraft." I want a real war sim.

(via Angus)

Olsen Twins Don't Got Game

"The tween twosome are, like, totally mad at Acclaim Entertainment, which has allegedly done a slipshod job of developing and marketing a line of videogames featuring the adventures of the young power duo."

E3 2004 Photo Album: Press Events

This was the staff's photo album of the first two days - press conferences, and what all. I love it, check it out. I mean, we got photos of the gold and purple "I fucked Coby" tank tops.

Speaking of gaming. I went out with one of my game buddies tonight, and I have to say, you realize you have met a friend for life when he goes to EB to shake them down for an that old copy of Panzer Dragoon you wanted, even when you only have one eye to play it with. Thanks.

Sammy buys Sega

"After taking a 22.4 percent stake in Sega Corp. last December, news out of Japan this morning is that Sammy Corp. will fully envelop Sega in a deal worth approximately $1.4 billion."

EA To Get Exclusive NFL Player Rights?

The Sport Business Journal (a trade mag covering the athletic entertainment business), says EA is close to a billion-dollar deal. Sega's ESPN games claim the story is false.

According to TSBJ, Electronic Arts is in negotiations with the NFL Players Association to get exclusive rights to NFL players for the next four years, with EA ready to pay some $250 million a year for these rights. With sport title publishers already struggling against Madden as it is, this deal would end all player look-alike titles from hitting the shelves. (via Shacknews)

I have a small issue with EA Sports; their titles are not the best on the shelves, but the marketing behind them is so powerful, you would never know it. Casual gamers make the large marketshare of these titles. This gamer does not take the time core gamers do to find the hidden gems in the marketplace. This is why Sega Sports became ESPN I assume. Instant branding. But thinking long term for the Sega brand, it seems to me like a strategy foul. Now with the Sega/Sammy deal, and the potential EA lockout, it is left to be seen where ESPN video games lands.

Bitter Sweet

When I woke up this morning after the Sony event last night, I could only think about one thing... I can't wait for E3 to be over, but at 4:00 when the bells rang, I was really sad. Part of it was because E3 season was the only thing that was keeping me in the game biz for now, but mainly it is all the great people I only see here or GDC. Souris is having a BBQ I am going to swing by tomorrow on my way home, but even that will be too short.

Instead of fighting at the airport with the other thousands who were on the 8pm flights, I decided to stay the night, not only for the BBQ, but to give myself a little down time to decompress before heading back to babies and broomsticks. I almost feel as if I am actually taking that vacation I promised myself back in February. Sure, it is not the sunny, romantic beach vacation with Prince Charming I had imagined when I would picture a vacation, but there were luxuries none the less (and a few interesting stories I won't tell here).

I ordered room service (after a long needed nap), two movies (Monster and Big Fish) and a nice glass or two of scotch. Financially, I don't really have it right now, but for the next day, I am on vacation. And after such a long week, tonight I needed to be alone in front of a TV, curled up with a book that had nothing to do with games.

There are a ton of photos I will try to post tonight, but if not, it will be this weekend.

Run Down

I am so tired I could sleep all week. Stayed out too late again last night at the Gigex, GameStar and IGN parties.
On the cool side, I played a bunch of DS games today! Wario ware had a samplings of 4 or 5 challenges, and the stylus adds so much to the game. Also, Metroid on DS, and a few pac man games.... more later. Have to run back to South Hall and meet Christian.

E32K4 Day 1

Not too much happened today.
Justin dropped me off at the GamerFeed guys hotel in Bum-Fuck-Egypt with my overstuffed suitcase prepared for a month in LA in case the "big earthquake" hits and I have no way to leave town.

A girl need options.

Two things really happened today in my world. Sega announced they were publishing Matrix Online (formally UBISOFT - need to iron out what those details are). While it is a great departure from the Sega of the Dreamcast days (first MMO, and possibly PC title if I am correct), it was not the HUGE EXPLOSIVE ANNOUNCEMENT they touted in a genius Press Release last week. They must have some damn smart guys in PR over there ;)

Tonight was the XBox press conference. Top things you might want to know?

• EA Sports announced XBox LIVE users will be able to play their titles online (and a special appearance from Muhammad Ali).


• Halo 2 (with multilplayer option) ships November 9, 2004 - with a promise the date shall not slip (he had it tattooed on his arm.


• They are freakin siked about XNA. What is XNA. You know, I should be able to answer that question, but I need to do more research. It is a combined Xbox and Windows development platform, and the first title to ship using XNA will be Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, a massively multiplayer role-playing game from Sigil (founded by the Everquest guys). As it was described, you will be able to play the game on a PC with an XBox controller.


• Xbox LIVE will eventually include video chat, video mail, MP3 sharing capabilities, match making, "tickles" as well as the current friend requests, and other features. He called it the "next step in online social community". Honestly - I can see FOAF working into this strategy if 33% household console penetration fact is accurate. What was missing from this "announcement"? The necessary peripheral. Will there be an EyeToy-ish for XBox. Well they have to go there somehow, but how is left to be seen.


• XBox Arcade: They are taking some classic old-school as well as current java based hits that hopefully will bring these casual crack addicts onto LIVE. Where do the new stats reporting a huge female gaming audience come from? They include these online games such as bejeweled. Women gamer executives can get pissed at me if you want, but the fact is, that is where a lot of these stats are padded. XBox has the right idea.


• "Forza Motorsport"? I might have that name wrong. My handwriting in the dark is not the best. But it features REAL car destruction. Cool ass shit. None of this, 'oh, my bumper is dragging after I crashed into the concrete wall' crap.


• "Jade Empire" from Bioware looks awesome. More after I play it.


• "Star Wars: Republic Commando" is the single best trailer I have seen in a while. The game aside, props to whoever put together the trailer. It was the single best job I have seen of combining CGI, gameplay, suspense, and movie-style story telling into a 30 second clip.


• If they said the word "software" one more time.... We all know this year is about hardware. E32K is about handhelds: DS, PSP, Nokia2, Tapwave. Every other sentence nailed home the message, "We ain't gonna tell you jack shit about the specs for XB2". Come on, any good screen writer would have left us with a tease. If the developer kits are out there, why not let us all split a piece of gum. We didn't need the whole pack.

Tomorrow is the Sony and Nintendo Press Conference. More later.

Sticking that DS in my mouth...

More later, but the highlight of the morning for me was the Nintendo press conference. I was not that excited about the DS, but I take it all back. In one word, it is sexy.
Wireless 802.11b as well as Bluetooth, slick design, backwards compatible, touch screens... thank goodness it comes out this year, so we will not have to wait too long.

Outside of that, we saw the trailer for the new Zelda GC game with was fucking fantastic. Running to a meeting, but I will update more later tonight.

Who knew LA was so sunny?

Being here in LA feels like another world. I am staying with Corinna for the weekend in Culver City, and her area is so quiet, sunny, peaceful. It looks like something straight out of a movie where a psycho killer takes over the picture-perfect suburban neighborhood.
I love it!

Last night, I has a chance to meet her new boy, Justin (great catch btw chica), who works at Blizzard on the WoW team. I probably talked his ear off since I had just started playing the beta that morning. (By the way, I am "JieShal", a Night Elf Priestess if you are playing - add me to your list.) We all went to this huge club that was similar to Ruby Sky, where I actually danced in stilettos for 3 hours. I will never understand why people want to club in heels, but when in Rome...

Now, I am waiting for our crew to get into town, and head to the hotels. Tomorrow morning the fun starts, and it is going to be my first E3 working on the media side, so I am more than a little nervous. Usually I am the girl programming 20 hours a day for the months up to E3, then once there, I just drink for 5 days. This will be very different.

On a side note: I have a new haircut, I now look like a 17 year old boy with a white-man's fro. I would not call it attractive, but it is fun.

What am I looking forward to? Pretty much the same as everyone else. I want to play Prince of Persia 2, KotOR, Sith Lords, Halo 2 multiplayer mode, see the Nintendo DS, catch up on the titles launching for the PSP, and of course hear the "explosive Sega announcement". I'll be posting photos from the show every day, so stay tuned.