Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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.

Monday, October 29, 2007

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 :)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

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

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

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

Sunday, October 14, 2007

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

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

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.

Monday, October 8, 2007

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

Saturday, October 6, 2007

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.

Friday, October 5, 2007

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.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

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.