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Ok, here’s the new one by Sony marketing geniuses:

The PS3 will be the leading choice for multiplatform titles.

Leading. Choice. For. Multiplatform. Titles. Common-sense error. Must. Reboot.

Now that the PS3 as Blu-Ray player is a popular choice (and sales are reflecting it), they just screwed everything sending the message that it’s not a viable gaming console at all. Well, releasing very popular multiplatform conversions that don’t sucks will help, too (looking at you, Fallout 3!).

It was time for Microsoft to improve the XBox Dashboard to a more usable and Next-Gen experience.

I’m very positive about NXE and the cleaner in-game Dashboard, the new contextual actions (expecially while you’re gaming) are a nice feature. It’s easier to chat via MSN when you can just respond with a single click, instead of navigating through the conversation window.

I really liked the new Avatars and Gamecard features, the new Gamecards are cleaner and much better looking than the older ones.

A more complete assortment of screenshots is here (sorry but the gallery system of Wordpress is mental!).

Well, sometimes being Italian is good. Since my conationals are everything but cosmopolitans (and most of the time that’s embarassing compared to other national online communities), so when I applied for the NXE I was almost certain that I won’t have so much competition.

And here’s the mail:

Congratulations on your acceptance into the Xbox 360 Fall Flash Preview Program. As a member of this program you will be receiving the New Xbox Experience (NXE) System Update.

The update will be made available to you on or before November 1^st. In order to receive the update, log in to Xbox LIVE with the Preview Program registered console.

In participation with this program, you should not move your storage device (hard drive, or memory unit if you do not have a hard drive) to any other console as it will also update that console. If an unregistered console is updated with the NXE update, that console will not be able to connect to Xbox LIVE until the NXE has been officially released on November 19th.

Please remember that your participation in the Public Preview Program is subject to the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use.

We thank you for your participation and hope that you enjoy the New Xbox Experience.

See you online,

The Xbox 360 team

The update is installing as I write, I will post more details this evening, after work.

Well, after several years they realized that simple listboxes are not enough to promote games and gaming in general. Really a step forward in the right direction, but still a perfectable implementation of a console-based community portal.

Damn, those Burnout Paradise updates are so cool that I’m resilient to play the game just now.

Being a completist, I’m worried that when the next Motorbikes add-on (with night & day cicle, too!) will be released I will be so burned out (pun intended) that I will skip it regardless of its quality.

Oh, to have limited time and lots of games to play!

To be honest, I doubt I will ever spend all the necessary money to personally grab the whole European Rock Band Scam Set. Said so, I will never been more grateful to my pal Gianluca to have spent all that money by yourself, just to let us friends play.

Rock Band is an astonishing game because everything it lacks in innovation (like the whole *Star/*Hero/*Band/etc product line), was gained back from a social point of view, making the video games a get together event again, something we stopped to do as soon as massive games started to wheel their gears in the late 90s.

It’s also safe to mention that Rock Band did the online support with tracks and events millions times better than Guitar Hero. Too bad for the European screw-up.

OK, since my folks on Ars Ludica are covering the matter in every possible way, I’d like to share my 2 cents here, just to revive the blog that is witnessing the most long hiatus of his history, due to my precarious health conditions.

You know, I’ve been one of the biggest detractors of GTA III (and its many variants). From this point of view, GTA IV is another game, even if it remains faithful to his own roots. What GTA IV does better is to be a game that a real mature player can enjoy. There are a lot less gangsta jokes and stereotypes, expecially in the leading roles.

Niko Bellic is a survivor and states over and over that crime is not his life, he’s in Liberty City for revenge or, in my book, for justice. He embraces crime because he needs connection, work and to stay alive. He has apparently no choice, but the game is surprisingly good to let you make the right choice even in the worst circumstances.

The distinguishing point from the past crap, it’s the script. It’s so good that the experience is intensely cinematic and you’re caught more often than not to crave for another episode, more than mission. It’s like Sopranos, with a tint of noir and lots of social critics. Something you wouldn’t expect, basing your judgement on the past teenage-teasing GTAs.

Technically, the game is a bit of a let down, aside cut-scenes animations (with poor lighting and shadowing) and a really good physics engine (with lots of limitations in the area that borderlines animations and physical interaction: you can’t seem to be able to close a car door or open an house door without bumping into it, which is cheap), the game is not really turning tables on graphics. The engine does a lot better on creating a believable, lively and realistic enviorment, instead of indulging on the small graphical details, like realistic trees or better shadows (maybe the less solid aspect of the whole game).

Microsoft confirmed our worst fears: they won’t embed Blu-Ray tech in their newest models, despite previous announcements and the tenets of the 360 marketing since launch: “We will adopt the standard that wins”.

The choice is understandable: adopting Blu-Ray would mean paying royalties to Sony, bolstering its definite reprise in the home theater and entertainment segment. In addition, Microsoft is going to champion movie streaming  and having a set-top-box able to play any rentable mass-market HD movies may be less than ideal to improve digital revenues.

I still question the wide adoption of Blu-Ray as a non-gaming format. Given that most of Next Gen consoles are not used in HD mode, why movie playback may be different, if it’s targeted to a still less sophisticated market segment?

Still, to be able to play Lost Odissey in a single media is not a such bad idea!

Let’s hope at least for a future “install to HD” option…

The hard, but cold truth.

And you need to consider consider that those stats refer to console manufactured. As also Microsoft recognized, the infamous 30% return rate of the first production run (more than 10 millions pieces) had a huge impact on the number of manufactured consoles that actually landed on retail chains.

In addition, I can confirm that MS is more than eager to let out all those faulty consoles, before selling the new Falcon hardware in every bundle. In Italy most of the 360 stocks now have the console internal packaging upside down so you cannot read the production date without opening the box. A smart move… pissing off customers during the holidays.

Well, after looking at the great Final Fantasy Retrospective on GameTrailers, I was shocked and saddened by the fact I didn’t recall almost anything about Final Fantasy 7. I was able to recall specific game-defining moments, but the bulk of the gaming experience was a bit foggy.

Since I will be away from home for about another month, with only a crappy Thinkpad R52 to keep me company (aside a PS2, a PSP and a DS), I dumped my FF7 discs, installed pSX Emulator and here we are. Why not playing it on the PS2? The reason is simple: Playstations scratch discs like people drink water and I’m always on the move, so being able to carry the game with the laptop is great. I didn’t go for the PSP option because my huge hands ache after long sessions on the bloody thing and FF7 deserves a lot of attention to be appreciated (and to be able to save).

So here we are, Reactor 1 was blown up, Cloud agreed with Tifa to stay a little longer as an Avalanche mercenary and the attack at Reactor 5 started. Reactor 5’s layout was very similar to Reactor 1: it is a pretty understandable design choice that adds realism, making the city more believable and consistent. The boss battle on the top of the Reactor, with the long fall of Cloud and the introduction of Aeris it’s just a classic example on how get players on their toes. After the chase for Aeris, it is clear that Cloud is almost out from the denial phase of his own Hero Journey and he’s about to accept his role in Avalanche and in the overall Final Fantasy storyline.

The game is exactly as I remember it: simple but very effective to convey emotion and a sense of huge participation to the player.  Through the lens of ages, I found some quirks that simply shouldn’t be there. The most hindering and sad game design choice for FF7 till now is the almost complete inability to understand where your player can go and where he can’t. It is frustrating: the indicators to help you navigate maps are ugly and cumbersome and, frankly, they only make the whole thing feel like a last-minute solution to a huge ovesight in the quality assurance and ergonomy department. No game that lasts so much should have so detrimental flaws. No game should need a finger pointing at where your character is on the screen.

The problem is in the representation of locations: details abounds, but the PSX low resolution and the confusionary texture choices made the pre-rendered backdrops a complete mess at best. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize a door from a solid wall and lens flares and other pre-rendered lighting effects just worse the situation.

After a long exposure to Final Fantasy I, II and III, the low encounter rate was a bit relieving: the random battles are a lot, but not too much to be a nuisance. Just getting re-used to the Materia system: i’d like to have some original set-ups for the various characters.