Devil may cry 4, ps3 version pulls ahead

Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)

* HDD install is 4900MB, which will eliminate load times very much like uncharted, drakes fortune which had zero loadtimes between levels, great news of course and how we want to play our games and for x360 only users, this is a ps3 feature only.

* Save files are 3392KB.
* Some variety of PSN support
* 5.1 LPCM audio, once again a ps3 only feature.

merry christmas, xmas, holidays or god jul på er

have a nice one and make sure you enjoy the few days that´s left of this year and since christmas has already passed happy new year aswell

--------------------
Ah yeas, worldwise sales chart week ending dec 22.

Wii:1,457,872
PSP: 725,370
PS2: 623,899
PS3: 619,388
Xbox 360: 594,520

Wii is looking to get a realy strong 07 christmas, even tho we have one ourselves, besides our ps2, ps3, x360 and psp i realy dont understand how it can sell as much as it do, great for the big n but seriously, except for the casual fun that wii sports is, it doesnt have one single game experience that realy lasts or stand out compared to what other formats offer, and in all honesty, eye toy gave you what wii mote does years ago, a well it´s of no importance, it sells alot and that´s good fun for nintento and i guess for alot of elderly which is good for the entire media business.

Worthy of attention is that x360 is once again last in line of all the three current gen consoles (wii,ps3,x360) both in hardware and software sales.

Blu-ray get´s Digital playground support

If you enjoy sex and nudity then you´ll know what that means, if not, it simply means that Blu-ray has thanks to the ps3? managed to get Digital playground deciding on releasing it´s high def porn movies on the blu-ray format.

According to a dp spokesperson it all comes down to ps3 owners contacting the company asking them when they´ll start releasing their adult films on blu-ray and aparently Pirates (as featured in the image) will be the first porn movie from dp to get some blu-ray loving.

Blu-ray blows hd-dvd out of the water

Hollywood reporter article

It mentions how the paramount sell out didnt manage to even make a dent in the high definition movie war and how Blu-ray outsells hd-dvd in ever single region all over the world, it´s not just outselling, it´s completely tromping the competition, so please warner, end it all and just go blu so we can finaly get all our hd movie loving in one nice format named Blu-ray.

Warhark Omega dawn is officialy out in Sweden

Yep it´s now showing up in the warhawk store for swedish users aswell, 55 skr:- so just go ahead and get it

Omega dawn has been released

We noticed it happening earlier today, but decided that since some managed to download it for free (we decided not to download it) that we would hold off posting about it since aparently someone borked up.

Shortly after Omega dawn was released upon the world the psn store download was taken down and our warhawk built in store reports no new content to download, however some claims that they can still purchase it, not just for free tho, but paying up is fine so update warhawk to 1.2 and check out the new store tab in warhawk and if you´re lucky pick up omega dawn asap, there´s already quite a few servers up and running the new map and has been for a bunch of hours now.

The 1.2 update in itself is realy nice aswell, it´s great to see the ingame store and how easy it is to update Warhawk, no need to restart or anything and the new map layouts is a blast to play, the pace is wickedly high on some of the maps and frantic is now considered foreplay in the world of Warhawk.

Sadly tho we´ll have to wait for later tonight or tomorrow before being able to purchase Omega dawn since it doesnt show up in either the warhawk instore or psn but who knows, you might be luckier.

Folding at home, new features, music and auto shutdown

Some great new features are underway for Folding@home on the ps3.
A new update will bring with it the ability to play all your music that´s stored on the ps3 hd while you´re folding away and or tell folding to auto shut down your ps3 once done or once it reaches a specifiq time.

Warhawk 1.2 and Omega dawn faq

1.2 is due out anytime now, 10.00 GMT and that is today.

1.2 is as every patch will be free of charge, patches for warhawk will as history dictates for other games, fix bugs and issues and add new server side features, however they will also bring with them more layouts for existing maps and new game features, according to official news, the next free of charge patch 1.3 will bring with it new stuff for our beloved warhawk stormtroopers, a fancier word for groundtroops.

And tomorrow, Omega dawn will be out and once 1.2 is installed you´ll have two ways to purchase Omega dawn, through the PSN store or directly through warhawk, by doing it through warhawk you dont even have to restart the game, you purchase it and it will automaticly install and bam, pick a Omega dawn server and rock on, talk about a smooth process.

Read more in the official faq here.

Oh btw, Warhawk will continue to get booster packs like Omega dawn aslong as there´s demand for it, so hopefully Omega dawn will sell like crazy so we´ll get more maps and vehicles to play with in the future :)

Stage6 divx downloads to your ps3

Easy as pie according to ps3fanboy.

URL displayed by browser:
http://www.stage6.com/PS3/video/1827927/PLAYSTATION%C2%AE3---Universe-of-Entertainment

To download this DivX file to your DivX-enabled PS3, you're going to have to edit the video as such:

http://video.stage6.com/1827927/.divx

and that´s all there is to it, not that i personaly see anything worthwile with stage6, but alot of you do use the site.

Gizmodo, misinformed news and firmware 2.10

Aparently Gizmodo´s crew screwed up testing the recent 2.10 firmware, claiming you need wmp 11 to stream movies and music from your computer to your ps3, which is´nt the case, you can use wmp 11 but you can also use alot of other apps and devices, we do it all the time.

Another revelation according to gizmodo is that you cant play xvid files, well thing is, you can, we´ve tried it and it works, and with the exception of to old stuff, every xvid and divx movie we´ve tried works just fine, both streamed or stored on the ps3 hd and played from it, because unlike the x360, playstation can store your xvid and divx files on the internal hd.

Anyway, firmware 2.10 is a great update, bringing with it both divx and xvid support and blu-ray 1.1 and wmv support best of all, it´s up to you to decide if you want to stream your files or store them on your ps3.

Ah yes, the 2.10 update is out as of now, just hit system update in your ps3 menu and off ya go.

Europe, sales chart

From the week ending 16 December sales in Europe was as follows.

Weekly
Wii 349,770
Ps3 257,325
Ps2 237,696
Psp 214,993
x360 172,401

Which brings Playstation 3 to 3,037,110 sold units in Europe.

The best selling active console in totals is still the ps2 with 45,354,391 sold units in Europe and since it´s still outselling the x360 Sony doesnt seem like it´s about to loose it´s crown here in Eu, especialy not now when the ps3 is steadily outselling the box aswell.

Which reminds me, that means that worldwide, the x360 is yet again last in line when it comes to sales out of the three new consoles (wii,ps3 and x360), sadly tho, alot of media is so NA focused that it´s still reporting ps3 to hold that not so intriguing last in line spot when it comes to sales per week.

Well the world is more then Usa and Canada and even tho we love those countries, worldwide sales are far more important then North american sales only, which odly enough doesnt seem to be how some view things.

Ps3 firmware 2.10 this week? inlcuding divx and blu-ray 1.1

According to spanish ps3 users the official spanish playstation website claims that´s the case and it lists both divx support and blu-ray 1.1 as the main new features supported by firmware 2.10.

Great news if true and i dont doubt it, we already know that Sony is about to unleash divx and blu-ray 1.1 so why not this week, anyway, this is great stuff for gamers, movie buffs and people in need of a media center solution.

Swedish sales chart, games week 49

1. Singstar Svenska hits Schlager (PS2)
2. Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock (PS2)
3. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
4. High School Musical: Sing It! (PS2)
5. Singstar Svenska hits (PS2)
6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
7. The Sims 2 Jorden Runt (PC)
8. Singstar (PS3)
9. Need for Speed Prostreet (PS2)
10. Uncharted Drake´s Fortune (PS3)

And the world seems to be evolving around, Singstar, undoubtedly a more then succesful franchise in Europe and a top ten chart that must be pretty enjoyable from Sony´s perspective atleast, to bad not that many singstar 3 mic bundles made it out before christmas, pretty sure that lowered initial sales for Singstar 3 since we had to seek and destroy just to find one single copy of singstar 3 with microphones.

Review.Singstar 3 - Ps3

Well this one is pretty straightforward, if you´ve ever played any Singstar then you know what you´re getting, what´s different is that Singstar 3 is the singstar concept perfected, the inclusion of the Singstore is so superbly done that you wish for all games to have an integrated store on the same level, or for that matter all online shopping to be as smooth and userfriendly as this.

The game itself is Singstar one more time, great if you´re a fan or newcomer looking for a userfriendly game that will entertain you and doing a great job of it, however it´s not for people that´s easily ashamed or people that cant let loose even on their own or even worse, not being able to sing and get crazy along with friends, because Singstar reaches it´s peak when played amongst a bunch of friends or family.

When played by such people that dont mind being the entertainment, then Singstar truly is a bliss, a game that´s as fun as it get´s without realy demanding anything by you, exept for having fun and letting go, which is of course why Singstar is the nr.1 party game in the world.

One warning tho, if you´re going to do a party and singstar thingy, put a lock on your creditcard, the singstore is so smoothly integrated that you just dont see any difference browsing your singstar content or browsing the store, it´s so convenient and nicely designed that you´ll end up paying through your noose if people get drunk enough and just has to have that song and that song and that one :)

And well, that´s the only downside with Singstar 3, it´s in other words the Singstar experience so far and for most of the part in HD.

As for playing the game, 15 minutes into our first playthrough we had chewed through twisted sister´s we´re not gona take it and a few other songs + purchased 10 more songs from Singstore and it´s with no regrets and no hesitation, one thing is clear, we´ll purchase alot more songs as they get available in the weekly updates that´s bringing more content to Singstar 3 and it´s singstore.

As of now, most Singstore songs is in standard definition, which is a shame since the included songs are all in HD, but we´re sure future additions will see HD titles aswell, HD or SD songs will of course be down to the original source material.

Anyway, to sum it up, if you enjoy partying, singing or have a bunch of wacky friends or family and just enjoys a good time, then Singstar 3 for playstation 3 is a must buy.

Score: 9.2 out of 10* if compared to other games, 9.9 out of 10* if we´re only talking about the world of Singstar and karaoke games since it´s the best one yet and realy coudnt have been done any better at this point of time.

Psn prepaid cards early 2008

well it wont make a difference for me or my family from a personal point of view, we already purchase a ton of stuff from psn, (latest purchase was today, 10 songs for singstar 3 on ps3) and our next one will be omega dawn for warhawk.

But it´s a great thing for all those without credit cards or as giftcards (which we´ll use em for)

happy reading

warhawk 1.2 specifiqs

Well if you´re like us you cant enough of warhawk so here´s some specifiqs from the soon to be released free 1.2 update.

5 new layouts (4 to 8 player layouts)

* Eucadia: High City
* Island Outpost: Standoff
* The Badlands: South City
* Destroyed Capitol: Garden Showdown
* Archipelago: Close Corridors

Other updates includes, but arent limited to

Buddy slot reservations which makes sure that if you started the server, your friends will always be able to connect, so no need to lock down a server completely, great news!

And finaly, just like games like Singstar, warhawk will from now on have their own integrated psn store, great stuff once again, you´ll still reach all your warhawk stuff on the regular psn store, but if you´re already gaming (warhawk that is) no more need to hit xmb and then visiting the store, just check out and purchase or download whatever you need straight from the game. Can we hope for an integration on the same extraordinary level as the singstore.

+ lot´s of game fixes and so forth.

Warhawk news, free 1.2 and 1.3 update on route

1.2 will get a worldwide release come, december 19 followed the day after by warhawk´s first add on pack omega dawn (new "boss" type 7 person multiplayer vehicle + one new map with 5 layouts and updates to the original games maps to allow for the new drop ship.).

Once 1.2 and omega dawn has been roled out 1.3 will hit the world of warhawk sometimes in 2008, best of all, this free of charge update will not just contain fixes and updates to available game content, it will contain new content aswell which has to do with troops.

More news is that 1.2 (due out 10.00 gmt, 19 December) will come with free layout updates even for those whom wont pick up omega dawn, great stuff and playstation 3´s best online shooter just keeps on getting better, upping the anté for games like unreal tournament III and killzone 2 and others, not that it´s the same thing, they can side exists, but it´s great to see such an affordable quality game getting improved so heavily upon this early on in it´s lifespan.

Let´s hope it get´s rewarded with tons of new players and even more quality servers.

The HD war, one more blu-ray week

let´s forget worldwide for a short while, not because hd-dvd won in a non na region, but because blu-ray´s lead is even bigger worldwide, so let´s forget that and just look at last weeks North america numbers.

Over 3:1 in favour of Blu-ray and 8 out of the top ten was blu-ray movies, not to mention that blu-ray´s top movie outsold hd-dvd´s top movie by a 8-1 margin.

Ah yes, what does it mean in %? Blu-ray has 76% of the hd market in north america in other words and hd-dvd 24%.

nxtbook has the numbers if you click the link

sales chart, worldwide

worldwide sales for the week ending december 8

Wii 691,329
PSP 439,846
PS3 417,534
X360 414,159
PS2 384,241

eiger gameplay video, gt5 prologue

60 fps, 1080p

73% of sold hd movies in europe is...

Blu-ray of course and that´s total, not per week or anything, it´s total during 2007, a devastating defeat for hd-dvd of course, according to recent numbers from Media control gfk international, read more about it in this article (Swedish only)

Ign previews gt5 prologue

There's no doubting that this is, by far, the finest looking racing game around

GT5 Prologue was just released in Japan on both blu-ray and as a psn purchase, even tho just being an early build of what´s to come in the full game due out in 2008 it´s getting glowing reviews all over the web.

read more

HD disc awards 2007. Blu-ray sweeps it

Out of 11 categories in the HD disc award, Blu-ray takes a wopping 7 including the three heavyweight, movie of the year and best animated movie and best picture quality.

*High Def Title of the Year: 300, Warner Home Video. Blu-ray.
*Best Live-Action Blu-ray: Casino Royale, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Animated: Ratatouille, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Picture Quality: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Long-Form Music Video: Dave Mathews & Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Music Hall, Sony BMG. Blu-ray.
*Best Catalog: Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Collection/Multidisc Set: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.

Not to mention that the third installment in the pirates franchise shuttered all High definition movie sale records so far in it´s first week in North america, one more great week for blu-ray in other words and one more not so great week for hd-dvd.

Ps3 overtakes x360 in totals in France

Yep, Playstation 3 has already sold more then x360 in totals in France, despite x360 having a year lead the ps3 has surpassed it in total amount of units sold a pretty nice performance by Sony, but then again, here in Europe, ps3 outsells x360 month by month so it´s a given that sooner or later the ps3 will get ahead in totals aswell, but it did happen sooner then we had expected.

The PlayStation brand by far dominates the French market, with more than a third of hardcore gamers being "equipped" with a PS2, while 13% are still enamoured with their PS1. The Wii comes next, with 11% of the gamers owning Nintendo's product. The Xbox trails the Wii with 10%, while the Xbox 360 has only 4% market share, even behind its later-arrived rival PlayStation 3 (5%). The good-ol' GameCube is still young and fresh, at 8% market share."

Not sure how they came to the conclusion that 8% is still using a gamecube or that 13% are still stuck with a ps1, but that´s what they claim so that almost gives playstation a 50% marketshare in France.

Aftonbladet.se game of the year award 07

Aftonbladet.se nominees for the game of the year 07 award list makes for a fun reading, sad but still fun, Aftonbladet is Swedens biggest newspaper so it´s a big letdown to see them put up games like kane and lynch dead men but not Uncharted, drakes fortune..

Now, aftonbladet is as bad as they are big so it´s of no real surprise but seriously, no one claiming to be serious can put up a game of the year award for 07 and feature kane and lynch and not even have uncharted on the list.

Uncharted is amongst the top games this year, regardless of platform and Assassins creed is a good game but still with alot of issues and repetitive gameplay so while it deserves it´s place on the list for it´s environments alone and artistic merits Uncharted still is alot more fun and with higher value points, sure it´s all about personal preferences in the end, but not even having it on the list is a joke considering some of the games being featured, i mean, crackdown wasnt directly a showstopper and the darkness was a big letdown both technicly and storywise, still a good game tho but still far worse then Uncharted, drakes fortune and well, we shoudnt even mention Lost planet making it to the list, talk about a supbar experience, didnt entice me enough to play it a second time after giving it a few good hours the first playthrough, heck Warhawk which is a multiplayer only game for a very affordable price on psn is ten times as fun and looks better aswell.

Which reminds me, warhawk´s missing aswell, quite funny to see two of the best ps3 games not even show up while quite mediocre games from other platforms is there, the only decent ps3 games to be nominated is heavenly sword and ratchet and clank and motorstorm and resistance.

funniest thing is, More brain training from dr Kawashiwa is nominated.

Some of the nominated games.

Kane and lynch, dead men.
Assassins creed.
crackdown.
The darkness.
Lost planet.
Heavenly sword
More brain training from dr Kawashiwa

aftonbladet.se, game of the year 07

Update: Even more fun, i just discovered that uncharted, drakes fortune is listed as one of the best newcomers so it isnt even that they missed the game or forgot to mention it, they aparently think the nominees are better. A well, to each his own, taste is individual. Anyway, click this link and vote for Uncharted.

Uncharted, drakes fortune, best newcomer, 2007

Update 2: Here´s the link to gameconsole of the year 2007 if you feel like casting your vote on playstation 3, wii or x360.

Console of the year 2007

GT5P, 39 out of 40 by famitsu

Yep, it´s a demo (the third one actually) of a game that´s due out sometime in 2008 and still famitsu the world famous mag, known for it´s to the point reviews, which will cause a pack of gamers to buy or sidestep games give´s it an unheard of 39 out of 40 score.

Compare that to forza 2 getting 36/40, which of course by famitsus standards still is a realy good score.

This most likely means ps3 will propell it´s sales up, up and away for december in Japan, great little christmas present for the playstation 3 and polyphony digital.

Hd-vmd in real life test

The player NME ML777S is noisy but delivers a decent picture and sound quality on Mel gibsons the apocalypto, however it has issues with panoramas since it doesnt support 1080p 24 and it lacks the content of blu-ray and worst of all, it´s dvd upscale is horrible, it´s ugly looking and several movies kills the player...

Despite the player freezing, which could be credited to a monday morning example, the picture quality when upscaling dvd´s is plain and simply ugly! and the lack of hd movie support makes this a big no no in our humble opinion.

If you´re looking for a true HD movie format, go with blu-ray or hd-dvd(which we think you should avoid since blu-ray is sweeping the stage globaly, kind of stupid to buy into a format that looks like it´s going to extinction, but we might be wrong) anyway, hd-vmd should be left in the dust when you decide which hd movie format to go with.

Console sales, Europe

Numbers from the week ending 9 December here in Europe.

Wii 269,649
PS3 195,606
PS2 170,607
PSP 164,716
X360 143,621

Amazing to see how good ps2 keeps selling now that christmas is around the corner, looking at numbers like that and the fact that the ps2 sold better this year then last year it´s no wonder sony will release yet one more ps2 version during 2008, with healthy sales numbers for all it´s consoles Sony has realy pulled off a nice 2007.

Gt5 ad in Japan

lol, quite a hilarious one and worthy of your time

Amazon.com blu-ray deals

As usual there´s a ton of discount prices and special deals going on over at amazon and with christmas just around the corner getting some Blu-ray loving for less then usual isnt wrong.

Both new movies like spiderman 3 and older classics like terminator 2 are available for lower then ever prices, couple that with the 6 blu-ray movies free of charge if you´ve just purchased your playstation 3 or standalone blu-ray player and amazon.com is more then worth a visit.

Amazon.com, Blu-ray section

Warner leaning towards blu-ray only

As the topic states, warner is leaning towards dropping their hd-dvd support and focus on blu-ray only, currently warner supports both formats but since they sell alot more blu-ray movies and the blu-ray format in general outsells hd-dvd worldwide by a big margin it´s only logical to drop the loosing side.

Great win for ps3 and Sony and blu-ray consumers if that would be to happen, heck in the longrun it would be good for every consumer out there.

Sonycard. Ps3 for 299us$

Best bang for the bucket? How about a brand new ps3 straight from sony for just 299us$, well it´s for real and official for sure.

Sonycard. ps3 299us$

Michael bay pt III. Blue-ray vs hd-dvd

I´ll say no more then to qoute michael bay, who is currently locked to hd-dvd only so nope, he´s not a blu-ray only person speaking out trying to protect his format, this is simply how it is qualitywise for Michael bay.

Does anyone here want to challenge what I feel suits my films better in terms of look? I see every frame of my films over a hundred times before it is ever released. I know the lighting conditions I shot it and the result on the DI. I know the range. I know what the final product should look like - Blu-ray suits my films better.

Simple and sweet

Blu-ray 1.1 for ps3 later in december

It´s finaly here, the rumoured blu-ray 1.1 update for the beloved ps3

Meanwhile, a Sony rep cited internal research suggesting that over 80% of all PlayStation 3 owners had watched at least one Blu-ray movie on their systems. It was also revealed that the Blu-ray profile 1.1 firmware update for the PS3 is expected to be made available for download later this month.

That qoute took place during a home media magazines High-Def 2.0 seminar, great news for people looking for the ultimate hd movie experience and great news for current ps3 owners since our precious console just keeps on getting better.

And during the same seminar, Disney confirmed that Finding Nemo and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will both feature PiP video.

Monster Madness, japanese rts

Ouch, how´s that for a different combination, a Japanese rts, you know rts games havent done to good in Japan previously atleast, but Pixeljunk Monster is developed by a Japanese studio for Japanese gamers, well of course they prefer it if we buy it aswell here in Europe and Usa but it´s prime target is Japan.

And look no further then to the image in this post, the art style is pretty crazy for a ps3 game, lol but still, it´s a psn only game, will sell for just a few $ and you have multiplayer and singleplayer so i can see the replay value of this game being realy high.

Folklore packs underway

Later this month two new gamepacks for Folklore will see the light of the day @ psn.

Each dlc will come with a new custome for the main character, 4 new quests and a new folk to battle it out with and as that isnt good enough, more packs are underway aswell.

read more at the official playstation blog

Yakuza 3 for ps3 march 2008

To be exact, Yakuza 3 will be released for the Ps3 in Japan, March 6, 2008.
Great news and im looking forward to an european release as soon as possible and of course, you guys over there can have it to :)

Michael bay speaks about blu-ray and hd-dvd

Ouch, the outspoken Michael bay has done it again and one has to aplaud a director locked into hd-dvd that speaks up so loud and well about blu-ray, anyway, this is a man that´s not content with seeing his movies on hd-dvd only.

In other words, prepare for Michael bay and his movies to hit blu-ray sooner then later.

What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth.

As you can see, Michael bay blaims Microsoft for keeping Hd-dvd in the race even tho the hd-dvd format is so totally outgunned and outperformed by Blu-ray

And here´s the link to Michaels own post Guess the hd-dvd camp will try to blaim Michael for being drunk again like they did last time he spoke up :)

warhawk dropship video

Vehicle transportation



First flight



What else is there to say, Well the obvious one, give us the download so we can play it, looking far better then i could have imagined and it seems to operate real smooth :)

Sales chart, Eu

The latest numbers from Europe are in and out of the big areas it´s now officialy so that x360 is only outselling the ps3 In us of a, in Europe and Japan it´s the other way around and with a more then healthy margin to and wii just keep on ticking.

Which is weird, but heck im glad for the big N.

Wii 244,133
PS2 168,955
PS3 156,681
PSP 112,035
360 104,965

Uncharted arg hits europe

official website

Players will use Google Maps to track down the ever-elusive Nathan Drake for a chance to win prizes such as an all-expenses paid trip to Cancun and free tv´s.

warhawk

well no need to write anything, the new expansion pack isnt far away and well, it´s warhawk so obviously it´s going to be great fun.

Blue-ray - vs Hd-dvd in Australia

Ouch, one more region and one more gory defeat for hd-dvd.

Looking back at 2007 through the entire year, blu-ray has outsold hd-dvd by an almost 6:1 margin and yes, that´s for hd movies being sold in Australia.

And thus, Video chain video ezy is now joining blockbuster as a blu-ray only supporter.

Msnbc interviews Jack tretton, Ps3

And it´s a realy nice interview aswell, nice q and answers from both partys and you have to give credit to Jack for coming of as a very likeable guy.

msnbc interview regarding sony and ps2 and ps3

petition to remove gamespot from metacritics

remove gamespot from metacritics petition

qouting the petition

In the process, it became immediately clear that GameSpot's reviews are largely inconsistent as well as possibly fraudulent for certain games across all platforms

Vue christmas special

Christmas time is just around the corner, chimneys are starting to warm up, and your stockings are ready to hang in front of the fireplace.

We know sometimes it's hard to think of the best gift for your loved ones (or even for yourself!); that's why we want to help you find that perfect present by bringing you our "Christmas Special"!

Starting today, until January 1st, 2008, you can get 25% off of all Products for Artist (Easel, Esprit, Pro Studio and all modules)!


A few pricing examples:

Vue 6 Easel: was $89, now only $66.75. You save $22.25!
Vue 6 Esprit: was $199, now only $149.25. You save $49.75!
Vue 6 Pro Studio: was $399, now only $299.25. You save $99.75!


This offer applies to boxed AND downloadable products. It applies to full versions and also to all upgrades and sidegrades up to Vue 6 Pro Studio.
Extra modules for Vue 6 Esprit are also discounted!

A big copy and paste from e.ons official vue christmas newsletter, but vue is a breakthrough app when it comes to landscape and scenery, it´s gone from a enthusiast, artist application to a industry standard in just a few generations and grows better and better with each new iteration while still managing to keep that ease of use, great app and the artist versions are more affordable then ever so give it a try, or download the free of charge ple for v6i or v6xstream.

Commercial review sites, what´s wrong with em

The question pops up from time to time, excellent games get´s subpar scores at certain sites and subpar games get´s excellent scores, sure there´s something called point of view and aquired taste and personal preferences, but still, Alot of commercial websites hands out weird reviews, time after time.

The latest happening to cast doubt over the commercial gaming sites out there is the happenings going on over at gamespot.com, Jeff gerstman got fired and the last thing he did prior to that was posting a review of kane and lynch and scoring it average, while at the same time the website had ad´s plastered all over it for mentioned game.

Even without that gamespot has been a site with questionable reviews and especialy for the ps3, like giving ratchet and clank a score of 7.5, not bad enough to stand out to much, but still alot lower then what most others hands out and uncharted also got a noticable lower score at gamespot then other sites.

Now personal preferences could possible make up for that but the recent happenings over at gamespot do cast a big, shadow over gamespot previous reviews.

Shivering isles available on psn

The oblivion expansion shivering isles is finaly available on psn, cant wait for it to hit the european Psn next week or whenever it showes up, a must buy if you have the original oblivion.

Official Bethesda blog

Blu-ray vs Hd-dvd, sales chart

A well, one more week for Blu-ray on the winning streak and one more for Hd-dvd on the loosing streak and one more week with alot of people being fooled into buying a hd-dvd player.

I just read about a poor sod whom bought a hd-dvd player earlier this year to purchase HD movies for his kids, problem is, disny is blu-ray HD only... Makes you wonder when people will catch up to the ugly reality that is hd movies.

Anyway, he´s now buying a ps3 for christmas, first and foremost to use it as a blu-ray movie player and of course also to play games with his kids.

Data for the week shows 72.6% of high-definition discs purchased by consumers were Blu-ray and just 27.4% were HD DVD, which means hd dvd isnt gaining, they are loosing ground in the hd movie war.

Famitsu: sales chart japan

For the third week in a row Sony and it´s ps3 outsells the competition again, this is for the week ending 25 November. Bring on Uncharted and im sure sales will climb even further.

As for software, mario seems to have lost his appeal in Japan since it´s already on it´s way out from the top ten chart.


DSL : 116k
PSP : 89k
PS3 : 58k
Wii : 47k
PS2 : 15k
360 : 5.8k

Hypertexture in vue6

It´s a pretty nice streaming video from altuit which during it´s 30 minutes will cover the basics of how to hypertexture in v6 and how to use gridmodeler to create neat looking objects with hypertexture.

Well worth seeing if you´re interested in either gridmodeler or hypertexture.

Camtasia free of charge

Official information from techsmith

And here´s the download, camtasia 312 download

This isnt a trial and it´s 100% legit and comes with an affordable upgradepatch to camtasia 5 if you arent contempt with the now older camtasia 312 version.

Sony pummels the competition for a greener world

Yep they do.
Greenpeace released recent figures covering how companies care for the environment and how their products impact their users and the environments.

Sony came out on top with a 7.3 score, their products are toxic free and recyclable and Sony even endorse you to give back your old stuff.

Microsoft on the other hand makes good use of harmful chemicals in their products so bevare of green childrens if you´re planing to give away a x360 this christmas and thus recieved an abysmal 2.7 score.

Nintendo? Well the company targeting younger then young kids in their adverts, forcing their parents to buy a wii through the might that is kids, well it´s of no surprise to see that they are the worst ever.. Nintendo scored an unheard of zero points, it´s never ever happened before in greenpeaces history.

So here´s the scores for the big 3 in black and white.

Sony - the green giant, whom cares for you and the earth, 7.3
Microsoft - beware of poision, 2.7
Nintento - ouch, Nintendo is on their way to global disintegration, so i recon they must be working for aliens, 0

check the test yourself

AOL Uk gives away free ps3´s

Well, free is a bit strong, but if you happen to enjoy aol you´ll get a free of charge ps3 if you sign up for their 2 year subscription.

UK citizens only

worlds fastest tetris player?

on the verge of insanty is what comes to mind, and if you fastforward to roughly 3 minutes left of the video, well then it´s starting to get realy sick.

As a website said, it´s evidence of Japan creating cyborgs :).

Black friday sales

According to Sony, PlayStation 3 sales have increased by 245% compared to last year's Black Friday sales, which of course is a realy nice improvement even tho black friday is only a north american happening.

Uncharted, drakes fortune, concept art

awesome looking concept art findings it´s way to the web from the naughty dog crew.

Gridmodeler for vue6

Gridmodeler has finaly been released after month of development.
It´s an unoficial modeler made for vue, which makes use of grids and images to create models with extreme detail while remaining extremely lightweight (in english, alot of high quality detail with a low number of polygons).

Which makes for speedy renders that looks good, combine that with vue´s solidgrowth and ecosystem and atmospheres and you have a realy neat package.

Gridmodeler, official website

Warhawk, expansion Omega dawn at psn in dec

Operation: Omega Dawn pack features:

* Set at night for added impact and tension, + a new aerial vehicle called KT-424 Combat Dropship.
* 5 new map layouts featuring advanced building complexes and huge industrial towers.
* KT-424 Combat Dropship can take 1 pilot, 6 soldiers + 1 ground vehicle; and carries a new weapon – the MBEC-3 Heavy Support Cannon.
* The Original 5 large layouts from the original maps have been modified to include the new Combat Dropship.

Available on Psn this December.

Great news being posted at threespeech, and let me tell you, we´ll be standing in line to purchase this, warhawk is together with nhl 08 the most played game in our household and starting your own server playing with 3 more family members and friends against a bunch of online peeps is crAzy fun.

3speech

Blu-ray (97%) vs hd-dvd, Japan

We continue our travel around the globe to find out how blu-ray and hd-dvd is holding up in the various regions.

We have so far seen blu-ray win in every region we´ve looked up, almost 70% in us of a, and even higher numbers in Sweden, in fact almost as high as in Japan, because even tho blu-ray outsells hd-dvd in north america and outsells it even more in Europe, it doesnt hold a candle to how it is selling in Japan.

Blu-ray players, including ps3 of course since it´s an excellent blu-ray player (best one so far in my humble opinion) outsells hd-dvd and as far as hd recorders, well blu-ray doesnt just outsell hd-dvd, it pummels it into oblivion with a 97% marget penetration and well hd-dvd of course gets the remaining 3%.

Now why is reports like this important? Well from a personal pov they arent, we already have our hd movie player in the shape of the ps3, but for everyone still not using a hd movie player it is. Picking up the loosing side isnt fun, which is something people all over the world can testify to, thing is, the companies making the loosing product dont care about you spending your money on a product that´s loosing out, they want your money even if they´ve already started to make plans to switch in a year or two.

For them well, big deal, you just have to purchase the next thing from them, in this case a blu-ray player in a year or two when hd-dvd is laying in the dust if you´ve been unlucky enough to pick up a hd-dvd player right now, of course, it could be the other way around aswell, but seeing how uneven the fight is, week in week out in sales numbers, hd-dvd winning wont happen. Which is why lifting out sales numbers is important when the difference is as huge as it is between blu-ray and hd-dvd.

Brutal legend, coolest game ever?

Well, who knows, but one thing is for certain, the artwork and style in this game is plain great, how it plays and how the story will work and embrace your or not is another topic alltogether, but it looks temptative so far and i´m for sure waiting to hear and see more of this game, one of the best open gameplay rpg ideas in years for sure.

cvg preview

Oblivion, Shivering isels @ psn 29 nov

A welcome newspost since it´s currently only available on disc, but as of Nov 29 that will change and the Shivering isle adon will increase your oblivion experience with an aditional 30+ hours of gameplay, new stuff, monsters, locations and missions.

Talk about value of money where alot of current gen games sports a total gameplay time of 10 hours or so oblivion gives you 30+ just with a dlc purchase, not to mention that the original game feauters hundreds of manhours of joy.

Unreal tournament III has gone gold for ps3

It will hit stores across Usa Dec 11, so fps lovers, xbots and ps3 owners with a craving for fps, multiplayer games and unreal tournament in particular, now you know what to claim for your christmasgift.

And for us europeans, if you cant wait, import it from the states, it will work on your eu ps3 aswell.

Vue, render settings pdf

A comprehensive pdf focusing on what´s good and bad about vue´s render settings and how to improve or fintume them to fit your prefered render better.

Vure render settings pdf

It´s well worth the read if you´re serious about your vue usage but as always, keep in mind that nothing beats first hand knowledge, do your own thing and make your own findings, but this is an excellent walk through to get you started on understanding the basics of vue rendering.

sales numbers, Japan, 12-18 Nov.

DSLite: 81000
PSP: 66000
PS3: 53000
Wii: 36000
PS2: 8800
X360: 5700

The second week in a row where the ps3 outsells wii and software wise dynasty warriors 6 and heavenly sword keep on recieving high and steady sales with ratchet and clank.tools alittle further down the list.

Wal-mart, ps3 80gig + 15blu-ray movies,499us$

Wal-Mart will be having a “secret sale” on Saturday: the 80GB PS3 will be $499 with 10 free Blu-ray movies instantly - plus another 5 free movies from mail-in rebates.

Not so sure the movies will be something of interest, but still the value cant be denied and out of 15 movies some will be bound to be worth the time and the price isnt one single $ higher then the usual 80gig ps3 pack.

ad number two

Blu-ray vs Hd-dvd the comedy punches

Blu-ray has aparently some funy people behind them and has thus launched honest and to the point video advertisements on the web :).

Anyway, you cant argue with such ad´s, great stuff hd-dvd owners and take note if you´re thinking of buying either blu-ray or hd-dvd.

Oh, for clarity, we do agree with theses ad´s.

x360 new wave of Live ban

Yes, as mentioned previously we do have an x360 aswell as our beloved ps3, but x360 doesnt get to much loving except for the few times our youngest wants to play by himself in his own room, and no this post doesnt apply to us since we dont modify our console and never will, no need to burn games since we dont play that many so if we want a game good enough, we´ll buy it, if not we´ll just check out it´s demo on psn and live, which in the case of the ps3 game uncharted: drakes fortune actually ended up with us buying the game since it was so much better then expected.

But anyway, if you have a modified x360 a new wave of baning has started, seems to include modified dvd firmwares and dvd +-/r discs.

vue 6 xstream review

The reviewer didnt just settle with reviewing it, he´ll continue to make good use of it in his daily job.

How´s that for an impact

digital producer reviews vue

FFVII advent children exclusive for blu-ray

The FFVII movie seequel, Advent children will get a hi-def, directors cut version with plenty of new scenes that wasnt finished in time for the standard def version previously released.

Advent children will be an exclusive blu-ray relese, eta end of November 07.

announcement

Uncharted, second review

Another praise, 9.5 out of 10*´s.
Claiming it to be nost just the best ps3 game but one of the best games ever, regardless of platform.

uncharted,drakes fortune review

First year sales numbers, ps3,ps2 and ps1

Well hard cold numbers cant be argued with but still alot of people claim that the playstation 3´s first year is so much worse then the ps2 and ps1 had, so here it is.

worldwide shipments through year 1.

Ps1: 3.7 million
Ps2: 10 million
Ps3: 6.8 million

3.2 million less then the ps2 but with alot, lot higher pricetag, and more then twice the numbers of the ps1, hard to call that a bad first year.

Sure it could have been even better, but the truth is, if you ask me, that the majority of people complaining are the ones that would liked to purchase a ps3 during it´s first year but never could afford it, to me it´s worth the money and was worth the money on it´s launch day and i would go so far to say it´s priced realy low as of now.

Sure price will go down alittle more next year, but the ps3 is so much value for your money it´s ridiculus, pricy yes, but more then worth it.

Now, the only letdown has been the number of games, the quality is there with several great titles like Warhawk, ratchet and clank, motostorm, nhl 08, skate, oblivion, call of duty 4, uncharted: drakes fortune, heavenly sword and low prices combined with crazy "party" game fun for titles like calling all cars is there, so qualitywise there´s nothing to complain about, but quantity wise the ps3 has had the worst year of the 3 syblings.

Now, all that is about to change with hundreds of games coming out during the coming year and plenty of games hitting home during december, november + i dont see anything to complain about, roughly 70 games in it´s first year is more then anyone could purchase anyway so i rather take good games with a highquality feeling to them then 200+ less great games.

Now, that isnt to say i woudnt have enjoyed having little big planet right now or gran turismo 5, mgs4, the next final fantasy and a hord of other games :) but what we have is more then enough heck i dont even have time to play skate as it is..

blu-ray vs hd-dvd sales chart, nov

Well onward to blu-ray vs hd-dvd.

Last week blu-ray once again walked and jumped all over hd-dvd and this week, well it´s no different then anyother week this year, yes, blu-ray has outsould hd-dvd every single week the entire year, now, why is that important?

Well it means to you as a consumer that you should pick up a blu-ray player if you´re going high definition, unless you can afford both that is.

Nov 4 to Nov 11.

1. Ratatouille -- Blu-ray
2. Spider-Man 3 – Blu-ray
3. Cars – Blu-ray
4. Transformers – HD DVD
5. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry – HD DVD
6. Spider-Man The High Definition Trilogy – Blu-ray
7. Pixar Short Films Collection Vol. 1 – Blu-ray
8. Knocked Up – HD DVD
9. 300 – Blu-ray
10. Meet the Robinsons – Blu-ray

And in case someone doesnt know, every hd movie is available on dvd aswell so regardless of format you can get your movie in standard dvd definition since both blu-ray and hd-dvd plays regular dvd´s, but one movie that should be enjoyed in high def is for sure Ratatouille on blu-ray, great movie for both kids and adults.

Best bang for the buck hd movie player with exceptional hd movie quality? The playstation 3 of course.

console sales, japan, nov 5 - 11

- DS Lite: 78,854
- PSP: 58,964
- PS3: 55,924
- Wii: 34,546
- PS2: 9,043
- Xbox 360: 5,817

that´s a 10 to 1 ratio for the ps3 versus the x360, and almost a 2:1 ratio for ps3 vs wii, and to make things even worse, that period only reflects one single day of sales after the pricedrop so next period should boost even higher numbers for the ps3.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that put´s sony as the nr.1 console division in Japan, the psp,ps3 and ps2 outsells nintendos combined sales.

houdini HD for 99 us$!

In a surprise move Houdini is now available in a HD starving artist edition, it´s the real deal without watermarks or render limitations, which means you´ll save roughly 7000 us$ since houdini HD has all the features of Houdini master.

Talk about a wow announcement, and no you do not have to be a student to purchase houdini HD, the one caveat is you´r limited to 1080p resolution for animations, but that´s hardly a big deal, not to many projects needs a higher then 1080p resolution and the other thing is that it´s not for commercial work.

great deal so pick it up here

Uncharted, one more review

And what a review, the reviewer whom loves Microsoft´s lineup of games claims this is the first must have ps3 title and that he for the first time found himself sitting there, wondering if this game even could be made on the x360.

Even without such loving words it´s a real nice interview, focusing more on the fun factor and feeling of the game then the technical mumbo jumbo.

euro gamer

Poser has been sold

E.frontier has sold of poser, manga and anime studio to smith micro software Inc.

pressrelease by poserpro

From a personal standpoint, well i dont care, i dont like or enjoy Poser, but depending on what Smith micro do with the app it could affect vue since vue has a phenomenal integration with poser going for it and alot of people make excellent use of both apps, just as a ton of architechts make excellent use of sketchup and vue.

Now what i hope happens with this deal is that smith micro takes poser and it´s fellow apps to a hole new level and improves even further on the integration with vue while at the same time vue strenghten it´s integration with daz studio.

If for nothing else the simple fact that we dont know what a company like smith micro will do with a for them completely new type of apps, ruin it completely or realy embrace it and evolve it.

Korean tv service for the ps3

Korean iptv for ps3 and European dvr functionality a few months away, well the beloved ps3 just keeps ticking away the checkboxes on it´s road to becoming the nr.1 media center solution.

To be honest, we do have a x360 in our home aswell but that´s being used for nothing but games in our youngest kids room together with a ps2 and psp and he spends most of his time playing on the family ps3 in the living room with the rest of us, seriously playstation 3 is the real hd cornerstone in our houshold and it´s just so smooth being able to do it all with just one tiny, great looking console, great stuff and just so smoothly behaving it´s something we could never do without again.

Just imagining having to have a dvd and standalone blu-ray player, a x360 + it´s hd dvd standalone adon a stereo and computer in the living room, now our ps3 is doing all that, playing blu-ray and dvd movies, playing music, streaming movies and music from the wireless pc in another room and whenever we feel like it, downloading music and movies from the pc or importing the music straight from the cd (gives a higher quality then streaming) so we can play it whenever we feel like it from the ps3 hd, which in all honesty is what we always do nowadays when listening to music and soon it´ll support divx aswell, removing some of the transcoding needs as of now.

Not to forget that we dont have to pull up the desktop pc or laptop if we want to check out something on the web, we can do that straight from the ps3 and it´s an excellent implementation aswell.

Bring forth iptv to Europe aswell as Korea and give us the dvr thingy come 2008 and things will be even prettier.

Uncharted, first review is up

ign was first out the door and has unleashed a very positive review of uncharted: drakes fortune.

Having played the demo like most of you guys i can only say that i preordered this game right away after finishing the demo for the second time, tons of small and very neat details and pure fun is what makes the drake ride tick, great game and great demo, the first time this year a demo made me go from hmmm we might get it next year on sale to preordering a game.

playstation 3 will support divx

nothing much has been said so far and one cant say much more then it´s confirmed that your shiny ps3 will get an update which enables divx support, which is great, no more recoding of such movies.

threespeech knows more

or

read the press release

Vue6.grid modeler + video tutorial

Chipps working hard on a new module for vue6, a pretty smooth and easy to use gridmodeler.

Now, what one should keep in mind is that vue is a terrain and landscape application which lets you create atmospheres,terrain and plants, it´s great at what it does and probably the most userfriendly app i´ve ever used while still managing to be very powerful at what it does and as can be seen in this video tutorial vue has a very powerful and complex editor, however it´s entirely possible to model in vue aswell.

Vue isnt a modeler and shoudnt be used as one, but for simple and especialy architechture driven stuff vue works real well, the vue userbase have seen such modules as vuetools previously been released and now is the time for the gridmodeler.

video tutorial

ps3 40gig, 36k units sold in one day.Japan

Aparently 31 000 white ps3 40 gig´s where sold the first day in Japan and 5 000 black 40 gig ps3´s.

Not a bad day by any accounts even without adding 60 and 80 gig ps3´s into the mix and white seems to be the color of choice aswell.

article´s in german

Ps3 theme app from Sony.Australia

The Australian playstation division decided to release a small app which will let you create your own playstation 3 themes.

Windows only atm.

click to download

Japan goes Playstation 3

i´ve never seen one system holding the nr.1,nr2,nr3,nr4.nr5,nr7 and finaly 11:th position in the top ten(11) chart and some of them have sold out, which of course is both good and bad, depending on how you look at it.

No im not talking about software and stuff, we´re talking about the console itself, yep it´s correct, right now the various versions of the ps3 system is holding those spots, looks pretty bizzare but im sure Sony must be enjoying it both for the amount of sold consoles and the increase in spiderman 3 movies that gets out there (blu-ray)


amazon,japan chart

Drakes fortune demo updated: worldwide

yep that´s right, the uncharted drakes fortune demo that was released on the USA psn store has now been updated and naughty dog has now made sure that people all over the world can download the demo and play it, so no region lock in other words.

Go ahead and dl the demo once again and send a big thank you thought to Naughty dog dev´s whom went from home straight back to the office just to fix it for us non USA citizens.

read the official naughty dog post

Blu-ray vs Hd-dvd

The numbers speaks for itself.

week ended 4 Nov: Blu-ray 71% of movie sales and hd-dvd 29%.
Year to date: Blu-ray 64% hd-dvd 36%.

Link to nielsens numbers

The transformer boost aparently only lasted for a week for the hd-dvd camp, and not even that week had them outperforming blu-ray.

Now, take into account the new and more affordable ps3 40gig unit and realy, why would anyone go hd-dvd, not even xbox 360 users has a real incentive to pick up the hd-dvd ad on for their console, it´s pretty pricy and ad´s one more unit in front of their tv, so if you´re going to have two units anyway and you already have one x360, far better picking up the more then affordable 40 gig ps3 and use that for your hd movie pleasure, not that big of an difference in price compared to the hd-dvd adon for your x360 and it will allow you to enjoy blu-ray movies instead of just hd-dvd movies and blu-ray is the winning hd movie format.

Secondly, picking up a low priced ps3 gets you access to even more games and since both x360 and ps3 have some neat exclusives this year (think uncharted for ps3 and ratchet and clank and haze and warhawk first and foremost) well that is of course much better then picking up a hd dvd adon for your x360, as of now, hd-dvd is going down the drain, the outsold ratio is increasing, not decreasing, and every hd-dvd exclusive movie will sooner or later end up on blu-ray, as were disney and sony will never release their movies on hd-dvd.

Simple pick aint it? With the exception of some die hard x360 fanboys it would be fun hearing what you sane x360 owners thinks of this.

Oh and dont forget that your lovely ps3 already supports the holy blu-ray 2.0 features, except for the software of course, but unless you´r living in a void like some do, you already know that sony´s lovely ps3´s blu-ray player keeps getting updated firmware per firmware and what it can do today is far beyond what it could do at launch, and when it launched it was already one of the best blu-ray players.

In other words blu-ray 2.0 wont be far away for the playstation 3 which is something that cant be said for early stand alone blu-ray players.

Final verdict is that you just got to love being a ps3 owner as far as high definition entertainment goes (games, movies, music).

Motorstorm 3.0 update + dlc

Yep, Motorstorm just keeps getting better and better on the playstation 3, one year after it´s initial release the dev´s still keep updating the game adding even more to it.

In fact, one year after it´s japanese debut, i still hold Motorstorm as the nr.1 next gen (current gen if you ask me) racer, it´s still better then dirt and sega´s racer in fact, those games arent even close in my book, decent racing games but Motorstorm is ahead.

So what does the new 3.0 and dlc brings to the table, well one new track and 6 new cars with multiple skins and 10 new race tickets is what´s included, the brand new track do look real nice and is what makes the latest dlc worthwile.

3.0 as a free update brings with it support for dualshock 3 and let´s you toggle the dualshock sensitivity, but it will also let you control the sixaxis motion sensitivity which is neat and might make motostorm playable using nothing but motion control, the 3.0 update also brings with it some starting grid position changes, your placement in previous races will now determine your starting position in the next race.

With the low, low price of Motostorm, every new and existing ps3 owner realy should pick it up, great value and a great in your face experience for sure.

Uncharted, 9 min long video from naughty dog

If you dont want to know anything about the game, dont watch this movie, but if you´re dying for some more Uncharted loving, this is a great movie, showing off both gameplay, behind the scene stuff like ai awareness and comments from naughty dog dev´s.

Oh and dont forget the 5 free Blu-ray movies

Yep that is right, once you´ve ordered your ps3 from dell dont forget to pay blu-ray savings.com a visit.

If you live in Usa and Canada Sony and disney will ship you five free blu-ray movies for purchasing any blu-ray player and yes that of course includes all the available ps3 models.

God damn, makes you wonder why europe wont put up such an awesome deal, i would have ordered a second ps3 right away..

And here´s the link directly to the pdf for usa citizens, just fill it and send it in.

Dell sells ps3 + ratchet and hdmi cable for 399us$

Included in the deal is also the Spiderman 3 movie on Blu-ray, best ps3 and game console and hd movie player deal this season? Well we think so, so just go ahead and hit the link and order one ps3 for yourself, the value of this walks all over the competition (wii and x360 and standalone hd.dvd and blu-ray players).

here´s the complete list.

• Game/Movie system (the ps3 itself)
• Sixaxis wireless controller
• The game Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
• AC power cord
• Audio/Video cable (HDMI or Component cable sold separately)
• Ethernet cable
• USB cable
• Startech 6ft HDMI Cable
• Spider-Man 3 on Blu-Ray

Dell, online shop

ps3 breaks guinness world record

Im talking about folding@home and guinness have now officialy confirmed that the folding@home network is the official world record holder for the most powerful distributed computer network.

Pretty nice, knowing that we ps3 users dont just play games and watch dvd and hd blu-ray movies and listens to music and play online through our wifi network, we also cure cancer, how many other console owners can claim such a thing.

Anyway, that´s a pretty impressive number, over one petaflop is generated by f@h.

longer article by betanews.com

Star wars, the exhibition, Sweden Örnsköldsvik

The tickets to the Summer 2008 Star wars exhibition in Sweden, Örnsköldsvik has been released online today.

Read more about it here in örnsköldsvik.net´s official blogg (Swedish only), or buy your tickets right away here

The main Örnsköldsvik.net website will launch a Star wars, the exhibition section in the comming days in both Swedish and English.

Brilliant new tv ads from Sony

The first one has to be one of the greatest tv ad´s i´ve ever seen, brilliantly executed and so smooth and engaging to watch, and that´s coming from someone whom works with media creation.

Sonys new ps3 399us$ tv ad

just for pointers, i never did get sonys this is living ad´s, but this is pure brilliance.

Console sales

Playstation 3 continues to outsell x360 in Europe and it´s now by a 2:1 margin.

Anyway, the numbers are 73,614 during the last week for the ps3 and 38,212 for the box, of interest might be that the ps2 sold 70,057 units during the same week.

Review.Skate - Ps3

First of, ea do surprise you with this title, it´s new, it´s inovative and well made, no reharsh, no replay of last years offering, it truly is a brand new IP for ea.

As for the game itself, it looks real good, i could actually say great, but like most im very spoiled nowadays when it comes to graphics, sure, Skate looks and behaves great, it´s a real treat for your eyes, and by far the best game representation of how it is to skate, but still, the open ended gameplay, the city thingy has been done before, so that´s nothing new, but sure it´s a very pretty looking game and if you havent been playing ps3 games or high end pc games you´ll love what you´ll see.

Is it any fun?
Hell yeah it is. You can skate and break all your bones and pay zero attention to the different missions and challenges, or have fun and take on a mission every now and then, it´s up to you and regardless this is one entertaining game.

Now obviously, if you never take on any challenges you do miss out on alot of the depth in the game, but the fun factor wont go away.

The intro video is a true gem, a bit slow, our 8 year old wanted to click past it right away, but it is very wellmade and fun and spot on in it´s atmosphere.

Graphics: real good but not groundbreaking as far as ps3 and high end pc quality goes, but it is true hd quality for sure.
Sound: top notch stuff
Gameplay: controls are smooth and it´s second nature controling your board and character with the dual analog flick it scheme, great stuff.

Overall: the game is great, skate is the king of skateboard and extreme sports games, it´s actually one of the best ps3, or if you so will, next gen games ´til todays date, but if you´re looking for adult action, gore and violence or off the chart adrenaline rushes or rpg character development then this is not for you, but for everyone else it´s a must have.

verdict: 9.4 out of 10*

Vue timeline, past,present,future

Time sure moves fast and vue is now 15 years old!

1992: The first lines of code are written. Vue is born.
1994: Vue d'Esprit 1 is ready, but not for prime time. To generate your image, you need to tweak configuration files manually!
1995: The first public version of Vue is released: Vue d'Esprit 1.2. With an interface!
1997: Vue d'Esprit 2 hits the streets. It's the first full retail Vue product.
1999: Vue d'Esprit 3 is released. On top of many improvements, Vue 3 adds a fourth dimension: animation.
2001: A space odyssey! Vue d'Esprit 4 rolls out, and welcomes Mac users. In 2002, Steve Jobs himself presents Vue 4 during his Apple Expo Keynote.
2003: Vue drops the "d'" and enters the professional market, with Vue 4 Professional.
2004: Vue is now in its 5th generation, and the professional line is renamed as "Infinite"!
2005: 3 more versions of Vue 5 are released: Easel, Pro Studio and xStream (for 3DS Max and Maya).
2006: Vue 5 Infinite helps ILM generate environments for their blockbuster film Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (3rd place all time box office). Vue 6 Infinite and xStream are pre-released.
2007: The complete Vue 6 line is released, adding LightWave, Cinema4D and XSI users to the Vue 6 xStream crowd.
2008 + : Who knows? Well... we do... ;-)

Well, if you look at the timeline, one can expect a vue7 pre release during summer/fall 2008 at it´s earliest, but that´s of course pure speculation and nothing else :)

Assassins creed, art direction and production focus

Great stuff and imagery in this article by cgsociety which came to place after talking with ubisoft and their concept team.

article and images here

A truly artistic looking game which some great visuals.

Blu-ray in Sweden goes for KO

Sony has just struck a deal with videotoppen for video rentals, totaling 1 000 stores across Sweden, videotoppen currently supports dvd only but will from now on also boost blu-ray in it´s stores thus having both standard definition and high definition movies, aparently spiderman 3 will be one of the first hd movies to hit videotoppens national stores.

Great stuff for blu-ray of course, but how about the hd-dvd camp? Well the situation in Sweden isnt directly top notch, blu-ray as of now sports 87% of the hd segment in Sweden, which of course leaves hd-dvd far behind, i guess the ps3 is more or less the reason for this early and big blu-ray dominance in Sweden, and rightfully so, it´s plain and simply put a great dvd and blu-ray player besides being a over the top game console.

Swedish article

Assassins creed, new gameplay and interview video

best assassins creed video i´ve seen so far, excellent quality, neat and relaxed to the point presentator and it actually made me interested in this game again, yes i had lost a bit of faith, but it´s now back in full and after seeing this vid, i´m just about to pre order this game, which we usualy dont do.

high res video

console sales chart

Ps3 is as of now even outselling the "mighty" wii in Europe and xbox360 is left at a dismal 6:th place outgunned by ds,ps3,wii,psp and the good ol ps2.

As for playstation 2, i think everyone needs to realise it will be on sale for a very long time, so while talking about sony, one cant just mention ps3, ps2 outsells xbox 360 week by week so as far as Sony goes, they are very healthy on the console side of things.

Anyway here´s the latest figures for europe.

Weekly Total

DS 158,975 17,282,952
PS3 77,827 1,697,638
Wii 75,033 3,523,800
PSP 62,027 8,535,003
PS2 53,843 43,151,763
360 42,244 3,754,596
GBA 2,495 19,534,242

Ps3 storms the UK sales chart

The price cut on the 60gig pack and the new 40gig sku has stormed the UK sales chart, increasing playstation 3 sales with 178%.

more details here

And Hd-dvd is suffering from quality problems, the hd version of transformers just wont fit a hd-dvd disc and as of now, there´s no room for high res audio.
I have to confess that i didnt think this day would come this quick, i thought it would eventualy happen, but not as soon as this.

Anyway, it´s just getting more and more obvious that the only real hd solution when it comes to physical media is blu-ray, and as such a cheap 40 gig ps3 should be the perfect party (even tho i would buy the 60gig ps3 anyday over the 40gig version).

Not to mention that ps3 will soon get it´s blu-ray 1.1 update

review.NHL08, playstation 3

Well to keep it short, this is by far the best sports game i´ve ever played and thus, the best ice hockey game ´til date.

It looks great, it moves great and sounds great, it´s pure fun moving and controling the players and you truly do control them, drop the puck ´til the left of the defender and skate past him on the right, catch the puck again and go right,left with the stick and right again, fake a right backhand and once the goalie starts to move to counter your backhand... Swing left with your stick and move your skates aswell to get that momentum going and drop a hard and quick wristshot high up in the net behind the goalie.

Total control and pure fun, that´s NHL.08

The training mode is another great introduction and it´s actually fun training shots and shootouts and even more so is creating your very own plays and realizing it´s not just in theory, they do work ingame once created.
Anyway, Nhl.08 looks and sounds like a hd game thats for sure and it´s animations are just as good and playing online do work and realy good to, but it´s still @ it´s peak when playing against family and friends in the sofa, which we´re happy to say we get to do as much as we want to.

Great game if you have four or more sixaxis to go alongside your ps3, one is enough and two is great fun, but playing 2 vs 2 is plain crazy (and hard).

9.6* out of 10 and playing as last years sm gold winner, Modo hockey and pummeling nhl teams to bits and pieces is almost as good as the real deal

warhawk expansion under way

according to game informer magazine warhawk will get it´s first expansion pack in december, featuring modified and updated maps and amongst other things a complete dropship, able to pick up tanks and ground troops for massive ground assaults, the dropship is also protected by mounted missile turrets.

The expansion pack will be released on psn and also include brand new maps.

We personaly cant wait for this update to hit home on PSN, warhawk is such a bliss to play with the rest of the family and our friends, we regurlarly blast our kids and each other to bits and pieces in what has to be one of the funniest online multiplayer games in years.

one more article about the expansion

skate.ps3 demo impressions and gamespy review

First off, gamespy gave the ps3 version of skate 5 out 5*, and had this to say: great controls, perfect presentation, huge environments, excellent audio and lot´s and lot´s to see.

And you can read the rest here

Secondly we´ve,as in the entire family, has been playing skate since the demo hit the eu psn store, and it is a real blast, neat looking, easy to pick up and contradictory to what gamespy had to say i think the learning curve is real smooth.

Yes, it is very demanding to pull off some of the harder moves, but that doesnt feel frustrating because the controls are second to nature and it´s so intuitive that none of us ever needed any explaining on how to do something, we just played away.

The game itself is a real treat and a very different experience, great music and nice real life graphics, it´s like just hanging around, doing nothing real but still enjoying yourself, and well the family verdict is that it´s a must buy so we´ll pick it up in the store this week.

If you´re unsure, go ahead and download the playstation store demo, we´ll post a proper review once we´ve had enough time under the belt with the real game.

Blu-ray in Netherlands

Free Record Shop, Netherlands's largest home entertainment retailer, has decided to officially endorse Blu-ray as the successor to DVD.

Blu-ray has since it´s launch in Netherlands outsold HD DVD on an average of 4-to-1 and has thus earned it´s rights so to say.

One little piggy... Makes you wonder whom will be the last man sitting on that hd-dvd branch, especialy now with the 40 gig ps3 priced so low that people could pick it up just for it´s blu-ray player features and still make a good deal.

geek@play, vue tutorials

A pretty resource heavy site with small but still good tutorials and some neat tips even for seasoned vue users, well worth a trip if you´re a proud owner of vue.

vue tutorials

100 gb Blu-ray discs

Hitachi recently completed a four layer blu-ray disc that stores up to 100gig of data, makes you wonder what toshiba feels about twisting and bending everything possible to come up with a 51gig hd-dvd disc and now Hitachi and the bd camp churns out a 100gig blu-ray disc.

A 100 gig blu-ray disc that every existing blu-ray player should be able to play aswell after a simple firmware update according to Hitachi, which is something the hd-dvd camp didnt manage to do with their 51gig disc, one that still hasnt been released.

One more win for blu-ray and one more compelling reason why to go Blu-ray.
Talking about blu-ray we recently picked up pirates of the.. pt 2 on blu-ray and i have to say it´s better then ever in blu-ray hd and well worth a purchase, great movie and great picture and sound quality.

official. ps3 40 gig eta, 10 october in Europe

Yep, it´s straight from the horses mouth and hot of the heels from the best eu psn store update ever.

The latest adition to the ps3 console lineup is a very affordable 40gig version, with just two usb ports, no card reader and 20 gig less hd space, but for a very low price.

You´re also loosing out on ps2 backwards compability, which will be a 60 gig only feature, everything else is the same and i have to say it´s great value and the big price difference will realy let people make their own choice, we´re not talking about a 50us$ difference either, the 40 gig version will go for €399 and the existing starter pack will drop in price to €499:- which in my opinion is an even better value for a new playstation 3 user.

Anyway, aparently something bigger will come our way here in Europe aswell since the 60 gig 499:- starter pack price is aslong as supplies is lasting, which sounds to me like we´re getting a 160gig or bigger ps3 starter pack in 2008, yeah i know Sony claims the 40gig will be the only one available in Europe, but who realy believes that? I dont :)

Official scee press release

A well, you know you want one so go ahead and pick up a shiny black ps3 for christmas now that the price is temporarily dropped, or go for the 40 gig package.

Hastings entertainment and target.going ray

As in expanding Blu-ray support in all their stores.
Microsoft can buy as much Hd.dvd time exclusives as they want, it´s obviously that retail and rental and the end users prefers blu-ray and having this recent announcement of hastings entertainment and target expanding their blu-ray support is one more evidence of that.

On a sidenote we´re going to pick up pirates of the c.. today on blu-ray, not that we havent seen them, we have, both on cinema and dvd, but they are excellent and fun movies and more then good enough to have at home and since the image and sound quality is excellent on the blu-ray version that´s what we´re picking up.

sales numbers, consoles

Latest sales numbers from Japan shows sony on top of the world.

- PSP: 277,794
- DS Lite: 70,523
- Wii: 24,992
- PS2: 11,373
- PS3: 10,732
- Xbox 360: 1,687

And the top selling software is two psp titles, final fantasy and metal gear.

Asilefx. vue function editor explained

Asilefx has released two new vue product´s, first the vue6 function editor guide, a pdf that shows every single node and step in the function editor.

check it out here

Looks like a realy usefull little resource.

and 300 colormaps, which i personaly dont realy see any point in picking up, but then again you might.

color maps for vue6

ps3. breaks folding record

The magic barrier of 1 petaflop per second in folding@home has finaly been breaken, and it has so thanks to playstation 3, the ps3 consoles alone calculates more then 1petaflop per second.

In fact the ps3 consoles makes up for an astounishing 80% of the folding calculations even tho they arent more then 20% of the numbers of cpu´s, check the image for a reference.

Now, how´s that for performance and something of real worth.

300.first hand impressions

Call it first hand impressions, a review or whatever, but we finaly purchased 300 on blu-ray and well, you know, my expectaions werent that big, seeing the review during it´s time on the big screen.

But still, i realy did enjoy every footage i did see from it and by the end of the day, a blu-ray movie aint that pricy, sure, it costs more then the dvd, but the money aint much to talk about, so i picked it up for an adult only night at home with my girlfriend.

And it for sure was a pleasant surprise, the image quality is just superb, best i´ve seen so far on blu-ray or anyother format, excellent sound and you know what, the story and narration was spot on.

And that´s comming from someone that doesnt realy enjoy shallow, skin only movies, but i didnt find that here, sure it´s realy violent, and the spartan society could by alot of people be viewed as a light pre wwII german one, but that´s the thing.

Even tho the movie is of course exagerated it still shows off how society was during that timeframe, so nothing weird with that, does it feel bad, yes.

Does it make your skin crawl, yes, but that´s how life was for alot of people and cultures, in the end 300 realy is a sight for sour eyes and the story is good, actors do their thing and with honor, the style and sound, the quality of the movie, it´s all top notch and well worth it´s price.

As for the blu-ray version, if you do have a nice hd tv at home and a phat blu-ray standalone player or that gorgeous playstation 3, do pick it up, if for nothing else, to atleast see how hd movie quality should be as of now.

To round it up.

300 get´s 9.3* out of 10 by me (which puts it one . ahead of gladiator if you´re wondering and slightly below braveheart)

Heavenly sword review @ psu

a 9.0 verdict with the following pro´s:

- Unforgettable atmosphere combined with ample replay value.
- Beautifully detailed with everything in harmony from animation all the way to the audio system.
- Great combat system complimented by impressive A.I.

And the following qoute will have to make due unless you click the link and check out their review.

what it dares to do in the video game industry that makes it remarkable and unique. Never have there been such life-like characters in any game--characters which instill a sense of care from the player through the stories in each of the character’s eyes whether antagonist or protagonist. The presentation is completely remarkable, with support from full motion capture performances and beautiful voice acting.

We´re busy playing warhawk and nhl 08 and Cocoreccho, but we´ll eventually get around to puting up a review of Heavenly sword.

warhawk. part II, first hand impressions

After playing warhawk for a few more weeks i just had to repost again and say that this game is pure brilliance.

The implementation of the sixaxis motion sensor is so smooth it´s like second nature using it, at first it will feel weird, and i guess some sceptics leave it at that, not giving more then a few minutes, but if you do, the rewards are pretty quick.

Driving the warhawks in pro mode, using the right analog for increased and more extreme manouvers, the left analog for separat aiming and the motion sensor for diving,climbinb and banking left and right is just so second nature after a short period of time, makes you wonder how any flightsim can do without motion sensor controls and warhawk isnt even ment to be realistic, it´s all about pure fun and skill based gameplay..

Great stuff in other words and realy, how anyone can prefer the wii control over this is an enigma, sure it´s personl preferences but warhawk truly is an online multiplayer masterpiece.

As a comparision im also recently been playing quake wars on our high end pc and warhawk is pretty much the same thing.

Just that as good as quake wars is, and it is, warhawk holds all the trumph cards.
It´s more fastpaced, it´s more instant to get into, it´s not as cluttered and mystic at first glance, everyone can dig into warhawks goals and gameplay the first few seconds but mastering is another story tho.

Warhawk actually looks better to, but what they do share is that they are both realy fun to play, but once again warhawk has the upper hand.

Best online fps i´ve played since q2ctf now that i´ve given it a few weeks and easily this years online fps king so far, and to be honest, i dont see most heavy contenders being able to detronize it, sure games like UT III will be all out and cool but just like quake wars they wont most likely be able to deliver that pure fun ride that is warhawk.

vue6, back to school sale

yep, thats right, e.on software, the makers of vue is offering a 50% discount on vue6 esprit Monday September 17th to Sunday September 23rd, which means you´ll get to pick up v6esprit for just 99 us% during this time period.

A great way to get into the vue product family and affordable upgrades to more feature packed versions of vue.

With that said tho, vue 6 esprit is a realy, realy nice landscape and scenery application.

HD war. two new players

A well, the stupidity leak continues, yeah, yeah competition is good, that´s for sure and it will atleast help drive down price of both blu-ray and hd-dvd but still, how can movie companies help supporting two new hd movie formats?

People will go crazy, and all it will do is slow down the high definition format acceptance, because a big pool of people wont purchase anything until there´s one last man standing up, which we all know will be blu-ray :).

But anyway, first as we already know china-dvd is on the horizon, a new hd format mainly for china... But it will of course cross boarders sooner or later.

Second of all, a french company will roll out HD-Vmd this year in Usa, central Europe, the nordic countires(including Sweden), Australia, Brazil, China and japan.

Lower price is the big catchphrase for both hd-vmd and china-dvd.

review(s) of heavenly sword

First off the bat is consolemonster which gives HS a nice and positive review, ending giving it a final 87% score, which for consolemonster is a nice verdict, warhawk which is so far the best/most enjoyable ps3 game according to alot of people also recieved the same score, while darkness got 86%.

The positives were:
- stunning graphics
- addictive gameplay
- and the nerdy, ariko is hot factor, haha well she´s beautifuly made and would be a nice looking female in real life, but it´s still a non factor for purchasing stuff, dont you think.

The negatives were:
- lack of multiplayer (which we know ninja is testing, so it might arrive as a download later on)
- somewhat repetitive
- kind of short story

You can read the review here

ps3. firmware 1.93

The latest and greatest firmware update is out, and one have to admire the pace with which sony is releasing new firmwares, atleast one per month since the european playstation 3 launch.

And most of those firmwares have added new and important features to the already impressive feature list of the ps3, comparing an up to date 1.93 ps3 to what launched in europe is a big difference, and especialy blu-ray has come along,long way forward, now supporting both true color, super white and hdmi 1.3 and native 24 blue ray fps playback.

Anyway, the exception from the rule is the 1.93 firmware, all it does is fix some issues with the 1.92 firmware, but that´s not a bad thing, especialy considering 1.92 was released just around the corner.

Review, nhl 08-playstation 3

Ign calls it the best ice hockey game ´til todays date and gives it a glowing review, i for one have this on the must have list and our family will pick it up as soon as it hits the stores, the new ai and skill stick system and the completely analog speed and movement of the players sounds real neat, not to mention the create a play feature, have to see tho if ea realy can live up to it´s promise that every sport game released for the ps3 would boost 60frames per second or not, according to ign the ps3 version only runs in 30 fps, but i recon that might be a pre release issue, anyway, we´ll know for sure once the game is out.

Ign: 8.6 out of 10

Darklight.blu-ray.dvd remote for ps3

Sleek and polished designs are neat and this has to be the best looking remote i´ve seen, makes for a perfect partner for your ps3 woudnt you say :)

blu-ray,dvd remote website

Console sales. Japan

No need to realy say anything since the number speaks for themselves, Aug 27 ´til Sep 2.

Wii continues losing ground, and x360 seems to be heading towards 0 sold consoles per week in Japan, but everyones (some us analysts atleast) favourite hate pet, the shiny ps3, keeps on improving it´s sales, it´s always amusing seeing how out of touch most analysts are with reality, in 12 month they´ll picked up what everyone else can already see, ps3 is gaining momentum each week that goes.


Wii - 39,371
PLAYSTATION 3 - 18,068
PlayStation 2 - 14,280
Xbox 360 - 1,635

Vue. Stereo imaging script

Mark has released a free of charge stereo imaging script for v6i users.
If you have any 3d glasses you´ll know what´s the deal with it, if not the script will allow you to easily render stereoscopic "3d" images of your 3d stills and animations.

Not hard to do without a script either, but this handy little thing do make it even easier.

Mark´s stereo script for vue 6 infinite

flash authoring.Swishmax 2

A pretty handy online webresource from the Swishmax creators which shows off more or less every single feature of the soon to be released swishmax 2 version.

I´m myself evaluating the latest swishmax incarnation and i have to say that Swishzone realy has a nice trackrecord, what started out as a user friendly flash authoring application mainly focused on cheesy text effects in the first swish incarnation labeled swish has matured through each generation and with swishmax 2 it´s clear that besides flashpro, Adobe´s own flash authoring application swishmax 2 is the clear choice for both hobbyists and pro´s.

One realy shoudnt pay to much attention to the cheesy and old legacy of swish, swishmax 2 is a serious flash authoring application and makes use of the same terms and scripts as flashpro due to swishzone deciding to drop their own swishcript remake of actionscript.

But what swishzone has kept is the userfriendly approach, the application is just that more intuitive to take up and learn with as you dwelve deeper into the realms of flash development and design.

Swishmax 2 still lacks a few of flash pro´s features but the difference is alot smaller then what most pro´s would imagine, on the other hand, if you´re already mastering flashpro, well then there´s nothing to gain from picking up swishmax 2.

If you´re a newcomer tho, or if you master flashpro but realy arent into it´s workflow and gui, well then swishmax 2 is an excellent choice, same thing literally, but it behaves friendlier and feels friendlier.

As for myself, well i´ve been using flash since macromedias days and im still using flash now that adobe bought it, but i´m also using swish since the early days of swish 1, so i´ve been through alot of incarnations from both adobe,macromedia and swishzone, all through swish 1 to 2, to swishmax 1 and now the beta testing of swishmax 2.

And you know what, i´ll continue to use both productlines, because the truth is, i realy do prefer the workflow of swishmax 2 compared to flash pro, but some things still are alot better in flashpro or not supported yet by swishmax, so for me both apps do have their place, for other´s flashpro is the only thing they´ll need and for other´s swishmax 2 is a much, much better flash authoring application.

Anyway, check out the online reference for swishmax 2 to get alittle more beef on your feet´s before making your decision, or just download the public beta version and find out for yourself what´s the deal with it.

What´s up with sm 2