http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/index/ HardwareGeeks.com offers users tech news and reviews on the latest products from some of the biggest tech companies, like AMD, ATI, Intel, Microsoft and more. en Michael@hardwaregeeks.com Copyright 2008 2008-09-03T22:12:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/microsoft_drops_xbox_360_price_now_199_399/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/microsoft_drops_xbox_360_price_now_199_399/#When:22:12:00Z Microsoft today announced that Friday September 5th it will drop the prices of it’s Xbox 360 systems just intime for the Holiday Shopping Season. The Xbox 360 Arcade will retail for the estimated retail price of $199.99, the Xbox 360 console for $299.99 and Xbox 360 Elite for $399.99. “We are thrilled to be the first next-generation console on the market to reach $199, a price that invites everyone to enjoy Xbox 360,” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Xbox 360 delivers amazing performance at an extraordinary value with the leading online service and best lineup of games, downloadable movies and TV shows available from a console. The majority of consumers make the decision to buy consoles once the price falls to this mark, making this an important milestone for consumers and the industry.” said Microsoft in a press release. xbox 2008-09-03T22:12:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/ea_its_not_a_glitch_he_is_just_that_good/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/ea_its_not_a_glitch_he_is_just_that_good/#When:18:22:00Z In responce to a YouTube video by a user who claimed they found a glitch in the popular golf game Tiger Woods 2009, EA released a video of their own, showing that the supposed glitch was in deed not a glitch but the fact that Tiger Woods simply is that good. Let’s roll the Video Tape! As you can see, according to the video Tiger Woods can walk on water. So there is no “GLITCH” in the game. Thanks to my buddy John for linking me to the vid. Electronic Arts 2008-08-28T18:22:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/sony_announces_new_ps3_configuration_wireless_keypad_attachment/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/sony_announces_new_ps3_configuration_wireless_keypad_attachment/#When:22:55:00Z Announced by Sony at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, is a new PS3 configuration.  The limited edition Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune PS3 Bundle will include a 160 GB PS3, a copy of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, a voucher to download PAIN from the PSN, and a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller.  The 160 GB PS3 is taking the same route as the current 80 GB model, and will not include PS2 backwards compatibility.  The Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune PS3 Bundle is set to be released in November for a retail price of $499.99. Also announced is a Wireless Keypad attachment, similar to the Chatpad for Microsoft’s Xbox 360.  The new accessory will attach to the top of PS3 controllers and feature a full QWERTY keypad as well as a feature that turns the key area into a touch pad for cursor navigation.  The accessory also has shortcut keys for quick access to your friends list and messages.  The Wireless Keypad makes use of Bluetooth, so you will not only have the ability to use it with the PS3, but also with mobile phones or other devices with Bluetooth that support it.  A price has not been announced, but the Wireless Keypad will be sold starting in late November. Source: PlayStation.Blog Sony Playstation 2008-08-20T22:55:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/sony_announces_psp_3000/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/sony_announces_psp_3000/#When:22:24:00Z Today at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, Sony announced a new PSP model.  Set to replace the current Slim & Lite PSP (PSP-2000), the PSP-3000 will include a built-in microphone, an enhanced screen designed to reduce glare outdoors, and enhanced video out with support for interlaced TVs.  Other notable changes include a slimmer metal ring on the back of the unit (probably to reduce scratches), as well as a PlayStation logo button which replaces the Home button (probably to match the PS3 and lessen confusion with Sony’s upcoming Home service).  The PSP-3000 will go on sale October 14th in North America, and October 15th in Europe. In North America, the PSP-3000 will be sold as a standalone Core Pack ($169.99), in the recently announced Ratchet & Clank PSP Entertainment Pack ($199.99), as well as a newly announced 4GB Memory Entertainment Pack ($199.99), which will include: Piano Black PSP-3000 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo Voucher to download Everyday Shooter from the PSN In Europe, the PSP-3000 will be sold in eight different bundles, each with a different game included. Source: PlayStation.Blog Sony Playstation 2008-08-20T22:24:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/the_godfather_ii_impressions/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/the_godfather_ii_impressions/#When:02:51:00Z There are times where you have to act like a mobster, but think like a Don.  That’s the theme behind the sequel to the 2006 game based on the movie The Godfather.  We got a chance to preview The Godfather II at EA’s 2008 Studio Showcase.  Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us play the game.  Instead, Creative Director Mike Olsen walked us through a thirty minute demo of a very early version of the game.  Here’s the scoop. In The Godfather II, you take on the role of Dominic Corleone.  Instead of starting out as a nobody off the street like in the first Godfather game, you actually start off this time as a Don.  As the Don, you have control over every aspect of your family, from taking over small business to completely destroying others.  It is your job to secure and maintain control of crucial rackets.  According to Mike, the way you go about doing that is really up to you.  The ultimate goal for any family is to have complete control over the cities, and that is done by building and destroying relationships with rival families.  True to the movie, The Godfather II will feature three cities; Miami, Havana, and New York City. The game features a standard open-ended sandbox world, in which you can drive around through the cites, kill innocent bystanders, as well as go on main missions and side missions.  Great, so it’s another game with a free-roaming world that attempts to mimic Grand Theft Auto right?  Well, not exactly.  Thankfully, the team at EA Redwood Shores decided it’s time to change the game up a bit.  The twist here, is that the game will feature RTS-like strategy elements.  Included is a world map view, appropriately titled the Don’s View.  This map gives you an overview of the city and shows you which families are in control of which rackets.  It will be in your best interest to use the Don’s View since it will give you an overview of what your rivals are up to, and help you plan your next move. One element of the strategy in this game is that you’ll have the ability to recruit people to join your family.  People interested in joining your family will often spend time around your hideout.  Different candidates have different specialties and different personalities.  For example, recruit somebody who is sneaky and you’ll be able to use him to assassinate people from behind.  If you recruit somebody who is good at escaping, he’ll have a better chance of getting away if caught by the police.  With the ability to pick and choose the members of your family, it’s up to you to build the best one however you see fit. True to the powers of a Don, aside from being able to recruit the members of your family in the game, you’ll also be able to direct the members of your family.  This was shown to us during a mission where they infiltrated an oil refinery to seize control of a racket currently owned by another family.  With multiple ways to enter the facility, it’s up to you to decide how you want to proceed.  In this situation, they directed the crew to perform a flank.  With options to direct your squad like this, you’ll be able to play the game as strategically (or unstrategically) as you wish.  If you’re not a strategic person, you’ll still have the option of running in with guns blazing. Aside from missions, you’ll also be able to perform favors for people in exchange for their support.  One such scenario was shown to us by Mike.  As Dominic, he drove to a porn shoot to meet with the crooked District Attorney.  When he arrived there, the DA asked Dominic to do him a favor and if successful, the DA would return the favor.  The DA asked Dominic to create a crime scene at the local diner so that when the cops arrive, they would find planted evidence.  In exchange for this favor, Dominic asked the DA to put a sting on a local rival gang.  That way, Dominic’s family could weaken gang territory and recover it for himself.  Once Dominic arrived at the diner and trashed the place, he went up to the owner of the diner and fried his face on a grill to get him to listen.  This showed off the pressure gauge system, which was also featured in the first game.  Different people in the game have different breaking points, and if you pressure them the right way, you can get them to cooperate. Besides having guns at your disposal, you’ll also be able to engage in good old fashioned fist fights.  We were particularly impressed with the fighting controls.  To grab hold of a person, you hold down the shoulder buttons.  After you’ve got someone in a lock, you can use the joysticks to throw punches and beat them to a pulp.  If you want to finish someone off, just click both joysticks in and you’ll perform a choke.  We felt the fighting controls were good representations of what they actually did respectively. When we asked about multiplayer, the developers weren’t ready to divulge many details.  They did however, mention that you would be able to bring along the family you put together from single player into multiplayer. Also back in the sequel is MobFace, the system that lets you customize your character’s physique and apparel, effectively allowing you to put yourself in the game.  There’s no need to become a real mobster, you can just live out your fantasy in this game! There’s still a good amount of time before we’ll see The Godfather II on store shelves.  The game is currently set for a February 2009 release.  Although this was a very early build of the game we saw, it appeared to be coming along nicely.  We were especially impressed with the strategy elements of this game.  We love how the game is very non-linear, allowing you to do things your way and truly play the role of a Don.  Few games based on movies usually turn out to be successful, but this is one that seems to have the formula right.  This is a game we’ll definitely be looking forward to next year. Electronic Arts 2008-08-19T02:51:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/battlefield_heroes_impressions/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/battlefield_heroes_impressions/#When:07:47:00Z With the next iteration of the Battlefield franchise, EA and DICE have decided to take on a completely different approach.  Unlike previous games in the Battlefield series, Battlefield Heroes is a cartoon-styled third person online shooter.  Set to be released for the PC, the biggest change of all is that this game will be free to download and free to play.  I got a chance to try it out at EA’s 2008 Studio Showcase, and it looks to be a promising game! Being so different from the previous games, I was curious to see how it would live up to the Battlefield name.  New players to the Battlefield series should find it easy enough to pick up, while veterans will find that core aspects of the Battlefield games that make them so popular are still there, such as the conquest game mode with the ticket system, vehicular combat, and player classes. It was hard for me to judge the game since I was playing in a relatively small server, and in my opinion, Battlefield games thrive in large battles with players working as a team.  Teamwork is definitely a focus in this game though.  I found it hard to capture and defend a flag on my own; it certainly would have been easier if there were people there to help me.  For another example of teamwork, I saw an airplane that was being flown by one person, while two other people sat on top of the plane’s wings and fired rocket launchers; all this made possible by the game’s cartoon theme.  With a lot of players working together, the game should be a lot of fun. The character customization features looked awesome!  The game lets you customize your character however you wish based on numerous different aspects.  People will truly be able to show off their personalities with the different combinations you can come up with, using unique items such as bunny ears, eye patches, and peg legs.  New clothing items can be bought with points you receive for completing missions.  If you wish to do so, you can even purchase clothing through microtransactions with your personal hard-earned cash.  With so many ways to customize your character, we’re sure to see some creative costumes out on the battlefield. Being a free to play game, Battlefield Heroes features in-game advertisements.  From what I saw, no advertisements were visible during actual gameplay.  The only ads I saw were in the menus of the game, which is very reasonable.  I’m glad they’re not plastering the game with ads everywhere. Graphically, the game looked great!  Granted, the demo appeared to be running on an HP Blackbird PC with full graphical settings enabled.  It has been said however, that one main focus of this game is to make it fully playable on older hardware.  They’re aiming for minimum requirements for PCs with as low as 1.0 GHz CPUs and 64 MB video cards.  Let’s hope that they’ll be able to keep the system requirements low, since it will widen their install base. Unfortunately, Battlefield Heroes was unable to meet their initial release date, which was planned for this summer.  Battlefield Heroes is currently in a closed beta phase.  By fall, they hope to expand the beta and incorporate new community-oriented features such as friends lists, groups, and messaging.  By winter, they hope to have the game officially released to the public.  After that, they plan to add new content such as maps, vehicles, and factions.  That sounds reasonable, so let’s hope that they can stick to their schedule.  I know there are tons of people waiting to play this game! Electronic Arts 2008-08-16T07:47:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/mercanaries_2_world_in_flames_impressions/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/mercanaries_2_world_in_flames_impressions/#When:05:49:00Z Pandemic Studios have been working on this title for a long time now. I finally got some hands on time with the Xbox 360 version of the game and I am happy to say it left me very satisfied. Check out the full preview with screenshots after the jump. Sequel to the 2005 title that also featured an open world setting, Mercenaries 2: World In Flames will feature some of the same mechanics of the first game and then some. The first Mercenaries took place in Korea but the new title takes place in Venezuela. Taking it to Venezuela allowed the developers to diversify the environment by featuring jungles, oil rigs, buildings, lakes and even mountains. In order to get around the world, the player will have access to over 130 vehicles, including a helicopter. Flying up in the air and seeing the scope of the land for the first time is unlike anything I have seen in an open world game. The sheer variety of the land makes it seem like a massive world left to be explored. What I found really cool was the helicopter featured a giant magnet to pick up vehicles and drop them anywhere you feel. Although this version was running at a solid frame rate, it had some glitches that will hopefully be fixed before the release of the game. In addition to that, the game featured popping which was especially apparent when flying in the helicopter. Regardless, I believe most of this will be taken care of before release. All that aside this game features some of the best explosions I have seen in a while. The first time I shot the nuke, I gasped at the size of the mushroom cloud that was left behind me. It was surreal seeing the building disappear in a cloud of smoke right in front of me and those are the moments that really excite me for this game.  While this may seem like another open ended game, it is definitely one to keep an eye on. It will be released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and PC . The game will be available August 31st, 2008 in the States, while Europe will get it September 5th, 2008. And with that ladies and gentlemen, I leave you with a trailer. Please enjoy. Electronic Arts 2008-08-16T05:49:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/burnout_paradise_coming_to_psn_with_bikes/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/burnout_paradise_coming_to_psn_with_bikes/#When:04:47:00Z Criterion Games and EA have announced that Burnout Paradise will be available as an exclusive download from the PlayStation Network.  Priced at just $29.99, PS3 owners will be able to purchase and download the full game this coming fall.  The download will include everything the retail version of the game has, as well as all the free update packs that have been released so far.  We hear the download will be under 2 GB.  An exact release date will be announced soon. Also coming this fall is another free update pack which will add bikes to Burnout Paradise.  Keep reading for details and screenshots. The free updates just keep coming, as part of what Criterion calls the “Year of Paradise.” The next free downloadable update pack will introduce motorcycles to the game.  Seventy new events specifically for the bikes will be included, which easily adds roughly ten hours of gameplay to the game.  Also new in this update will be the addition of day and night cycles in the game, as well as weather variations.  The lighting in the game will cycle from day to night depending on the actual time of the day, or a sped up cycle where one minute equals one hour; the choice is up to you.  The events you see and the traffic will vary depending on the time of the day in the game. I got to see the bikes in action at EA’s 2008 Studio Showcase day, and it looks incredible!  This is sure to be a fun update to look forward to once they announce an exact release date. This truly is the Year of Paradise with all the continued support Criterion is giving to Burnout Paradise.  It’s great to see developers who are truly passionate about their games and incorporating feedback from their fans.  We’ll just have to wait and see what else they have in store for us. Electronic Arts 2008-08-16T04:47:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/ea_announces_new_development_partners/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/ea_announces_new_development_partners/#When:04:30:00Z Today EA announced that they will publish a new horror game by Grasshopper Manufacture. For those of you who don’t know, they are the minds behind Killer 7 and No More Heroes.  If anyone is worried about this partnership, don’t. The game will be directed by none other than Suda51 and be produced by the infamous Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil. The new title will be an action-horror game and it is slated to be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC. In addition to the Grasshopper Manufacture announcement, a partnership with Epic Games was also announced. The new title will be an an entirely new intellectual property and be developed by People Can Fly, the developers behind the Painkiller game. The only detail released about this game is that it’s going to be an action game that will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.  Electronic Arts 2008-08-15T04:30:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/spore_goes_gold/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/spore_goes_gold/#When:04:56:00Z Today EA and Maxis have announced that the highly anticipated game Spore has gone gold!  Spore is an innovative new open-ended game that lets you take control of a species and watch it evolve from a mere single-celled organism all the way to an advanced, intellectual space-exploring creature.  In development for over five years, this game will finally be hitting store shelves.  Both PC and Mac versions of the game are scheduled to go on sale September 7th for North America and Asia Pacific, and September 5th in Europe.  Also available on September 7th will be Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS, and Spore Origins for mobile phones (including the iPhone). If you haven’t seen it already, view the trailer after the break. Source: EA Electronic Arts 2008-08-15T04:56:00-05:00