Gears of War 2: Gameplay!!

Here’s a fairly long video of the new Gears of War 2 game. Looks like some nice features have been included.

Click here for the HD version

Gears of War 2 - Unreal 3 Engine Demo

I was browsing around my RSS feeds tonight after having substantially hacking my wordpress theme (comments welcome) and I game across some Gears of War 2 info. So I started looking at YouTube and found the video below.

Gears of War 2 will be using the updated Unreal 3 engine and the following video shows what that can do when applied to Gears of War 1 levels, characters and objects. It looks INCREDIBLE! I am really looking forward to this release… but I think Call of Duty 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV should tide me over until it comes out.

Xbox 360, Blu-Ray 180?

Microsoft are denying rumours they have done a 180 and are discussing the possibility of Taiwanese manufacturer Lite-On, makers of optical drives, possibly making a Blu-Ray player for the Xbox 360. The rumours suggested initially an external add-on for the console (like that of the now defunct HD-DVD drive) but it now appears to be an INTERNAL drive for use in the next generation of the Xbox 360 as an external drive was seen to pose problems of full HD through USB and with the HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection) which might result in movies requiring this being unable to play.

An industry ‘watcher’ has stated that if this is indeed the case, Microsoft would have to sell the upgraded Xbox 360 at a loss. The reason being the current DVD drive costing $20 per unit to Microsoft and the new Blu-Ray drive would cost $100. People would be unwilling to pay more just for the ability to play HD films and may instead turn to their competitors, the PS3, for a better deal.

I hope there is some truth to these rumours. There were also rumours about Microsoft talking to Sony about licensing their Blu-Ray technology for use in their console but they deny this as well.

With the current state of broadband connections it is naive of Microsoft to believe that consumers will be happy with a download only service for HD content. I would turn to the PS3 and play all my existing Blu-Ray movies and have another HD games console.

Consoles Are Dead: Long Live Convergence (Apparently)

According to an ex-xbox employee “consoles will be dead in 5-10 years”. The article says that this is because of the increase in convergence of technologies like set top boxes, media centers and mobile phones. He also says that virtualization and internet distribution will negate the need for physical distribution networks.

I think people will always want ‘dedicated consoles’ as otherwise the units would get cluttered up with unrelated ‘junk’ (like my laptop) which would inhibit the performance. I’ll always want the ’switch on and play’ console with performance that never dwindles. Otherwise it would be like playing games on my laptop… ok but not top.

Steam already release all their games via the internet as well as in stores and because a digital download costs less to distribute than a disc with loads of unnecessary (but costly) packaging, you get a great deal on the game. The downloads can be a bit slow sometimes, even if you have a big connection. I have a 20Mb connection and it still took too long. Using a peer 2 peer system might be more effective in the future and also might drive down the price as they won’t have large bandwidth and server bills.

While I agree that we will see physical distribution shrink in favour of ‘anywhere’ delivery systems over the web, the speeds needed to download entire HD films and games in an acceptable time will need to be much higher than they are at the moment. This is obviously going to happen as the speeds have been increasing steadily for years. The only way people are going to save on bandwidth however is to use a Peer2Peer style network. Not in the way that we see it today but it will definitely spawn a new generation of network for fast, easy global distribution with the emphasis on sharing ANY kind of media.

The use of peer 2 peer technologies is already seeping into the mainstream with this set-top box having a built in bitTorrent client as well as being able to play 1080i HD content - something which the Xbox 360 lacks (when playing from an external device).

To accommodate the new style of network sharing we will see the end to the traditional supplier/consumer financial model. With the high availability of ‘free’ music and films on the internet already using peer 2 peer networks I believe the answer lies in the death of the fixed price per media - rather a fixed price for access to unlimited media. Like with the internet, we started with a ‘pay for what you use’ but now we pay a fixed fee for unlimited access each month. Why couldn’t a service like this be implemented for media?

All it takes is someone to try and succeed, then others will follow. If you build it, they will come!

The legal Napster was doing this years ago but their selection of music was poor and their fees were still too high. Plus it cost extra to transfer the files to an external device such as an MP3 player or CD. I’m not sure what they’re doing now. Worth a look though.

This proves that it can be done people! Sit up and take notice!

New 360 Controller

Have a look at this article on SlashGear. It details a guy who has made a custom 360 controller for people who are unfortunate enough to only have one hand. It is designed for use with the right hand at the moment but there is no reason why the design couldn’t be switched to the left.

No idea how long it would take to get used to but it would be interesting to see what people who need it think of it, or even people who don’t. I’d try it, to try and see how long it would take to get used to it.

Great idea. More people should be looking at things like this.

Microsoft Says No Way to Blu-Ray

Microsoft has confirmed that they will not incorporate Blu-Ray technology into the Xbox 360. They’re argument is that they can still deliver HD content through the ‘rental’ of media through their Marketplace.

Personally I think this is ridiculous. There were always rumors during the HD format war that Microsoft had deliberately invested in a failing format to draw out the battle so it could develop its online push for HD content. The news that this is now the ONLY way for Xbox 360 owners to watch HD content comes as no surprise to me. While I love the 360 I was (naively) hoping that Microsoft would be consumer focused for a change and release a Blu-Ray add on for it. They were even in talks with Sony about licensing their technology but nothing has come of it. Would be nice to see an instructable with a Blu-Ray PC drive connected to the 360. Even a 3rd party add-on would do VERY well. I know I’d buy it.

So love the 360, hate Microsoft.