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Retail Radar: Forza 3, Halo 3: ODST in new 360 bundle
Posted by GAMINGGEN on 03-08-2010 3:42 PM
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Amazon lists Xbox 360 Elite spring 2010 hardware package with 120GB hard drive, two of last year's biggest exclusive releases.
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Gamers in the market for a new Xbox 360 system have a wealth of options on the way. Beyond the already available Xbox 360 Arcade and Xbox 360 Elite options, Microsoft has announced a pair of bundles that will see a 250GB version of the Xbox 360 Elite packed with a long-awaited game launch and two controllers. Next week, the Square Enix role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII will receive the Elite bundle treatment, while Ubisoft's stealth action game Splinter Cell: Conviction will get its own Elite bundle in early April.
Microsoft is apparently not over its bout of bundle fever just yet, as online retailer Amazon.com is listing a new spring 2010 Xbox 360 Elite configuration that will see the system packed in with two of its biggest exclusives from last year: Halo 3: ODST and Forza Motorsport 3. Judging from packaging art, the bundle will include a 120GB hard drive and a single controller. The product page suggests the package will arrive March 9, but Amazon has not started accepting preorders for it, nor is the retailer listing a price.
A Microsoft representative did not return GameSpot's request for confirmation and further details regarding the spring 2010 bundle. For more on the packed-in games, check out GameSpot's reviews of Halo 3: ODST and Forza Motorsport 3.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
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Valve opens up to Macs
Posted by GAMINGGEN on 03-08-2010 3:38 PM
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Half-Life studio announces full support of Apple's OS for Steam, catalog hits this April; Portal 2 compatibility confirmed; all future games getting simultaneous PC, Mac, 360 release.
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Apple's OS X operating system for Macs has largely been regarded by game designers as the unimportant step cousin to Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows interface for PCs. Today, Valve announced plans that may go a long way toward changing that phenomenon, announcing that its digital distribution hub Steam as well as its proprietary Source game engine will now be compatible with Mac computers.
Valve plans to launch Mac support with Steam and its personal library of games--which includes the Half-Life and Left 4 Dead series, as well as Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, and Portal--in April. Valve also said that it has updated its Steamworks development toolkit to allow a game built using the software to be interchangeable between the two desktop platforms.
"Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge," explain Valve's director of business development Jason Holtman. "For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac."
Valve's first new game to support the Mac platform will be Portal 2 when it launches this holiday. The sequel to Valve's highly acclaimed The Orange Box pack-in, Portal 2 was officially announced for the Xbox 360 and PC last week, after a prolonged teaser campaign. The full-length, stand-alone title will include both single- and multiplayer modes in addition to other new features. Valve went on to note that the PC and Mac versions of the game are being developed in tandem.
"Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Portal 2 project lead Josh Weier. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."
The Kirkland, Washington-based developer went on to note that it now considers the Mac as a "tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360." Further, Valve also intends to release game updates for Windows and Mac editions simultaneously. In fact, Mac and Windows users will intermingle in online matches, playing and communicating on the same servers and game lobbies.
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
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PS3 crashes end, PSN service fully restored
Posted by GAMINGGEN on 03-01-2010 8:52 PM
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[UPDATE 2] Following nearly 24 hours of the "ApocalyPS3," afflicted units of Sony's console begin to come back online, initially with an erroneous date; this evening, Sony sounds official all clear, blames false leap-year reading.
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The past day has been a traumatic one for owners of the PlayStation "Fat." Last night in Australia--one of the first territories across the international date line--reports began to surface that non-Slim units of Sony's console were suffering from "Error 8001050F," which force-quit games shortly after they were started. As a result, thousands--perhaps millions--of owners of pre-2009 PS3s were locked out of the PlayStation Network for an indeterminate amount of time.
With furious console owners decrying the "ApocalyPS3" in myriad forums, this morning Sony announced that a solution to the problem would arrive within 24 hours. By this afternoon, the global crisis appears to have begun abating. Around 3 p.m. PST, all the older-model PS3s in the GameSpot offices began working again. Similar reports began popping up on other game-news outlets and in online forums.
Though Sony had not responded to requests for clarification about the cessation of Error 8001050F, it did say this morning that the problem was likely associated with the internal clock in older PS3s. Indeed, the problem's sudden abatement was accompanied by a resetting of afflicted consoles back to Sunday, February 28. This was true of all the PS3s in GameSpot's US office, including debug units used for testing preview games. The fact that no system updates needed to be downloaded and installed adds weight to Sony's theory.
Unfortunately, the erroneous date raises the issue that many believe was at the center of the problem--that the clock error was causing problems with the PS3's trophy system. Sony warned specifically that playing afflicted PS3s could result in loss of trophies. Several GameSpot editors who resumed playing games on older units were earning trophies, but with the wrong February 28 date affixed. Inquiries sent to Sony Computer Entertainment America about the status of the trophy system were not answered as of press time. However, gamers worried about losing trophy data may want to hold off until the official announcement before resuming playing.
[UPDATE] As of 5 p.m. PST, afflicted PS3 "Fats" were awarding trophies with the correct date and time.
[UPDATE 2] Around 6 p.m. Sony declared the PlayStation Network was fully operational and gamers could resume playing as normal. A spokesperson also revealed the exact problem which led to the nearly day-long outage.
"We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year," said Patrick Seybold, SCEA's director of corporate communications and social media, on the official US PlayStation Blog. "Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally."
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
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