Reports over at CheapAssGamer (CAG) indicate that at least a few Toys R Us stores have broken the scheduled September 19th release date for the Xbox Live Vision camera.
CAG has been kind enough to post a review of the device, so if you're thinking of picking one up, check out the CAG review here and then check your local Toys R Us to see if it's on the shelf.
Gamespot is reporting that Electronic Arts mistakenly posted the following note in the news section of the NHL '07 product site;
"NHL 07 is right around the corner but why wait? The Xbox 360 playable demo is live on the 360 Marketplace now! Fire up your Xbox 360 and download the NHL 07 demo before it's available in stores." -Note on EA's NHL '07 page
Of course, the catch here is that the aforementioned Xbox 360 demo is NOT currently available in the Xbox Live Marketplace and is most likely trapped in quality assurance testing. While the note has since been taken down, it should serve as a good indication that at some point there will be a NHL '07 demo available via Live - hopefully prior to the game's release on September 14th.
For more information, check the referenced Gamespot article here and EA's NHL '07 product page here.
In the most recent Bungie weekly update, Frank O'Connor spoke a bit about the campaign mode in Halo 3 and how it has reminds him more of the original game than Halo 2. Most importantly, he mentioned that Halo 3 will see a return to those large, open battlefields that made Halo so much fun.
"Don't get me wrong. It's not GTA - it's still Halo, but there's a bigger feeling scope to some of these levels that has me reminiscing about the original game. And yet, conversely, I'm super excited about the new stuff. Using the debug menu, I dropped in a couple of items of new equipment. Maybe they’re for killing, maybe they’re for getting around, maybe they're for both. Who's to say?" - Frank O'Connor
This is great news to me, because my biggest complaint about Halo 2 was that the single player game constantly felt like you were fighting in a box. There were virtually no large, open environments to play around in - everything was very linear and designed just to get you to the next stage of the story.
Click here to head over to Bungie's website to check out this week's update and join me in hoping you'll never have to play the game as a Covenant bastard again.
GameIndustry.biz is reporting that in a recent interview, David Gardner, executive vice president of Electronic Arts worldwide, states that he believes the Nintendo Wii will launch in the United States at a price of $170.
While Nintendo has officially stated that the console will not retail for more than $250 and rumors have gone as low as $199 for the console, this is the first time a price point below that has been mentioned.
The full text of the interview will be published later this week, but to get an early preview of the discussion, click here to head on over to GameIndustry.biz.
For those of you who didn't preorder Madden NFL '07 but still plan on picking it up, here's some good news - the Playstation 2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube and PC versions of the game are currently on sale at Circuit City. The following prices are valid both in store and online;
If you don't feel like heading down to Circuit City or don't have one near you, you can order the game online from Circuit City at this link.
Maybe I'm feeling a little guilty about all the Sony bashing I've had to do lately or maybe I just really feel the need to destroy something, but while sitting around this afternoon looking for new game footage to post, I came across the E3'06 trailer for God of War II and felt the need to share;
God of War II is scheduled to release in February of 2007 exclusively on the Playstation 2 - click here to head over to the official God of War II website. Kratos SMASH!
Still no support for videos in the archive (Hey Tripod, could you get moving on that please?) so you'll have to click here to see the video if the video isn't on the front page of the site anymore.
Following in the footsteps of the command line version, MAME32 v.108, the Windows GUI port of MAME v.108 is also now available.
Check out the official MAME32 page here for more details and the download links.
The latest version of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is now available. Version 1.08 features some debug fixes, correction of the issues regarding taking screenshots of vector games as well as all the other enhancements from the V.107 update builds.
The updated files can be found at the official MAME page at Mamedev.org. You can Click here to see the full list of what's new in this update.
Well, it's still summer and there still isn't much going on this week. Some little independent title called Madden NFL '07 is coming out this week, but I can't see it selling many copies.
Ok, you have no idea how hard it was to type those last few sentences with a straight face. Yes Virginia, Madden NFL '07 hits stores this week on just about every console out there and you can almost smell the anticipation. Here's to hoping it will make up for last year's utterly horrid Xbox 360 version as well as the poorly received "Quarterback Vision" system. We'll hopefully have a copy in our hands towards the end of the week, and once we get to put the game thought it's paces, we'll give you a full report.
Xbox 360 owners should note that Texas Hold 'Em will be making it's debut in the Xbox Live Arcade on Wednesday the 23rd and will be a free download for the first 48 hours following it's release. Once that initial period passes, the game will switch to being an 800 point ($10) download, so if you want it, be sure to grab it within that timeframe.
Here are the weeks scheduled releases;
Please keep in mind these are only estimated release dates and could change at any time.
In a recent interview with Gamespot, SCEA president Kaz Hirai dropped a bomb when he stated that the Playstation 3 is not even in production yet;
"We haven't started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going. We've not announced and we haven't set really a specific date to say, "As of this day we're going to start manufacturing." - Kaz Hirai, president Sony Computer Entertainment America
Beyond that, Hirai didn't provide any other news of note. He responded to recent analysts reports that predict Microsoft will take a huge bite out of Sony's market share in the industry as well as clarifying the company's definition of "launch title" as opposed to the looser definition Microsoft used for the Xbox 360 launch;
"when I say "launch title" I was referring to more, in this particular instance, titles that come out really day and date with the console launch, or maybe out a week or so" - Kaz Hirai, president Sony Computer Entertainment America
I've got to say that I'm very surprised that Sony hasn't already started the manufacturing process for the PS3 - we're less than 3 months from launch and if Sony plans on having their estimated two million launch units ready in time, they really need to get moving.
For more details on Sony's plans for the Playstation 3 launch, click here to head over to Gamespot's interview with Hirai.
