Atarinvader

I've submitted four entries to Al, which hopefully he'll post shortly. I have them over on my blog if you'd like to have a look in the mean time. There's some really nice work on the contest page! Really liking Renato's entries.

It's been a while since I last posted here, as I've been so busy. Just thought I'd make a quick and shameless plug to a game I built for a Uni project, was hoping for some feedback, if possible from you lot. Be warned it's really tough! It's here

Word had it that there was massive migration of talent away from Rare, starting with Free Radicals. Nintendo knew that the company was in trouble and Microsoft made an offer to secure the team and what IPs it had that weren't owned by Ninty (Kameo, Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct and Conker) rather foolishly. Grabbed By The Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero nor It's Mr Pants have really set the world on fire. I really don't understand how it took them so long to get a simple puzzle game like It's Mr Pants out and still make it a complete lemon.

That would account for a buffer in the case of skippings discs. I'm always skeptical about these sorts of things, the numbers are never as straight forward as they make out and I'm sure that games will be based around suitable loading times. I've not been keeping up with the industry of late, but isn't the sentiment that the PS3 is dead in the water and it is expected Sony will lose a huge market shares this gen?

http://uk.gamespot.com/wii/action/sonicrev...tml?sid=6150974 If you have a look at the E3 footage you can clearly see it running in 16:9. I'm sure if the Wii doesn't support that aspect ratio natively in hardware you can force it in software. Also, I think those images are photos rather than screen grabs, which is why the resolution isn't what you expected, Wiz, and is in fact much higher. The blur is a bit of a give away. I hope that stops all the petty arguements.

I did think about this a while back, but I was informed that the vibrations from the rumble pack and the Trance Vibrator were very different. I really don't know if the TV was intended for erotic purposes, really. I mean to start with it isn't the optimal shape and secondly what's sexy about Rez? Space Channel 5, yes. But Rez? That Game Girl Advance article really got it noticed, but I think it was intended to enhance the effects of the game whilst under the infulance of Ecstasy. Or 'synaesthesia', rather....

Nope, the PS2 Trance Vibrator connected via the USB port and will only work on the PS2 Rez and Space Channel 5 Part 2

I think you'll see a sudden reduction on the price-point by Sony before release. These are tactics they used on the PS2 launch: get people thinking they won't be able to afford a launch machine, then dropping the price before launch in order for people to justify the investment to themselves. I expect Sony will make an anouncement in about a month or two about how they've listened to customers and decided to drop the price.

Yeah, and I'm fed-up with everybody going on about Atari around here - you guys can curl up and DIE!!!

I think that you missed the bandwagon by a couple of years on this one. Collecting anything worthwhile on the DC is now very expensive and time consuming. There was a time where retailers (rather foolishly) started to dump off there stock, relised there was still a demand and bumped the prices back up. But for a few weeks after Sega pulled the plug it was heaven. My suggestion would be to keep checking Lik-Sang.com for the trickle of new offical releases that are still happening in Asia. These games will be the ones that will attract BIG money in the future.

I'd recommend Halo 2, Outrun 2, Fahrenheit, Crimson Skies, Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball (if you can grab it cheap), Burnout 3, Prince of Persia series and Metal Slug 3. Galleon, Beyond Good and Evil and Fable are curios worth a look. EDIT: You have to grab Shenmue II if you can't get your hands on the PAL DC original. It's absolutely brilliant despite the poor voice work over the original.

Lot's of developers have been complaining that because all models for 360 games require texturing for both standard and hi-def outputs that a standard DVD isn't sufficient. This could be a massive oversight; rumor has it that Halo 3 will be shipped on four discs. Moreover, previous Xbox games installed to hard drive and that won't be an option now, unfortunately as the ownership is split. I really have some reservation on the 360 at the moment. Anyone think that the launch line-up was a little weak?

That's a shame because Fahrenheit was awesome.

Having just played through HL2 on the PC I can assure you that you're in for a treat, but you're enjoyment will be somewhat sullied by the console controller. I'd personally wait until you have a PC that is able to handle the game and really get the most out of it rather than have some second rate experience with a port. Moreover, slowdown and stutter are a known problem with PC version, especially around any explosions where the physics are pushed, so that is really a moot point. More important, however, is if or not you want to play Counter Strike: Source. I'd say you do.

Large budget Dreamcast developement, using the luminares of both the homebrew scene and those of the Jap Sega dev teams that left or were forced out after the Sammy acquistion (most importantly Tetzua Mizuguchi). But in a real world where this would never happen I would fund my own productions on my own concepts.

Project Gordon?

There's a possibilty of easy ports of the Atomiswave games that never made it to DC. That would be really awesome, as would a budget machine for 'niche' games, as mentioned before. However, this isn't the first time that the DC has gone back in to production in Japan (a run was done six months or so after the machine was discontinued). The fanboy in me wants to believe that all this will happen, however I doubt it will beyond a few new Jap DCs.

Linux can be made to run on the system without a mod chip. You can in fact just disable the write protection on the BIOS by soldering across two points on the PCB, then reflash it using a flaw in Mechwarriors that allows you to execute code from a compaitable flash drive or a memory card. Not that any mod is implied in the article.

Something seems a little strange about all this. No explanation as to what 'publishing rights' include - are you getting the IP, code and orginal assets or just the rights to publish these titles as 'back catalouge'? Some of these definetly aren't 'in-house' creations. Moreover, there's no closing date on the auction. Can anyone shed some light?

REZ is teh uber rarez!!!!11

There's loads of canned DC games which I'm dissapointed about. But the one game that is really up in the air is Shenmue III. I'm insane for this game and I just hope the rumours about that it will hit next-gen are true.

My Raedon 9700 Pro (lower mid-range card) running Half Life 2 looks much better than Call of Duty, Kameo and King Kong (the only games I've played on it so far). My PC cost me under £300 building most of it and getting lucky on cheap components. In fact, I can't notice much improvement over Xbox / Cube graphics and I think a lot of people are getting suckered by marketing hype.