Hey neat!

Some guy with an Xbox 360 dev kit thought to connect it to a PSP, and it worked! He played music directly off the PSP, and viewed images off the PSP. He didn’t have to download them to his Xbox 360 first. He even has some Xbox 360 Dashboard screenshots of the process.

But to curb your enthusiasm just a bit, one person noted that these screenshots look just like those if he had connected a USB memory card instead. (Well, a memory card with a folder called “PSP” on it, I guess.) So maybe this is doctored, maybe not. But even if it was, I believe that this is possible.

Another person wished for the same kind of functionality on the PS3. In my view that’s just a little bit silly. Don’t you think that Sony is going to make sure that their PS3/PSP interaction blows anything else out of the water? Duh…

Link: PSP Vault - PSP on Xbox360

Gears of War was unquestionably one of the most impressive games shown off for the Xbox 360 at E3 this year.

Now you can get a full 720p version of the Gears of War trailer, at the small cost of 102MB in disc space. It’s in WMV-HD format, and doesn’t play very well on my 2.53MHz Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM. So much for minimum requirements, I guess.

Gears of War is a third-person shooter, basically. Humanity has to fight against these bug-like aliens for their very survival! “You strap on the combat boots of Marcus Fenix, a disgraced former war hero seeking personal redemption as he leads his fire team against an onslaught of merciless enemies.”

Link: C&VG - SUPER-MASSIVE HI-RES GEARS OF WAR TRAILER!
Link: Xbox 360 IGN - Gears of War High-Quality Trailer

First, Yoshiki Okamoto produced Onimusha at Capcom. Next, Yoshiki Okamoto left Capcom to found Game Republic. Now, Genji.

Genji: Dawn of Samurai by Game Republic is coming out for the PS2 in North America this fall. And not to be left out, the whole Genji experience will be coming to the PS3 as well. Genji is a Samurai fighting game, and IGN has a trailer.

Based on the trailer, Genji takes place three years following the events of the original as Yoshitsune, the hero of the first title, once again sets off on an adventure. The Kamui system will, it seems, be back with this sequel.

PS3 IGN - Genji - Main Page
Gamespot - Genji - Main Page

Hold your horses! Everybody is going nuts about a little throw-away line on the Sony UK website. It goes something like this:

Sony is expected to offer optional hard drives for the PS3 with potential memory capacity of 80 or 120 GB. It remains to be decided whether the standard version of the PS3 will come complete with a hard drive. The operating system has also yet to be clarified. The integrated Cell processor will be able to support a variety of operating systems (such as Linux or Apple’s Tiger).

Obviously, they’re just giving examples of operating systems that could potentially be made available for the PS3. And I think that by potentially, they are meaning physically capable, not how probable. Because while it’s probably technically possible for Apple’s OS X to run on the PS3, do you really think that Steve Jobs would ever, in a million years, ever ever allow it? Seriously now. I’ve seen a gazillion links to the Sony UK website, postulating about the possibilities. Are these people all on crack? It’s not gonna happen! Personally, I think it’s just a bunch of Xbox 360 fanboys trying to fan the flames of disappointment when the truth comes out that the PS3 will never run an Apple OS. [Edit: Some may have taken that part about fanboys seriously. It was meant in jest!]

Think about it. I mean seriously. Sheesh.

Link: Sony UK - PlayStation 3: The Countdown Begins

“Honey, watcha doin’ back there?”
“Trying to connect my PS3 but I’m having problems.”

Don’t let that happen when you bring home your PS3. From what we’ve seen of the PS3 and 360 so far, we have an idea about what we need to maximize our gaming experience. But much is still left up in the air. Thankfully, we do know enough that if you want to purchase an HDTV or receiver/preprocessor today, you’ll know what to get. I’m going to assume you want to play games in full HD, watch movies in full HD, and listen to both in 5.1 surround sound.

PS3

AV-wise, the PS3 has two HDMI outputs, one multi output, and an optical digital audio output.

Games

Unfortunately, Sony has said very little about what kind of connection can be used to play HD games on the PS3. In theory, you should be able to use component (not to be confused with composite) video cables from the multi out to display HD games. But we don’t know this for sure. It is also possible that you’ll be able to use the HDMI output for games. Sony hasn’t said either way. My guess is that the PS3 will support both.

Movies

Toshiba has recently announced that their HD-DVD drives will only put out HD on the HDMI outputs. It is very likely that the same thing will hold for BD (Blu-ray Disc) movies when released. So if you want to catch the HD wave for movies, you’ll definitely need to use the HDMI output.

Conclusion

For video, HDMI seems the way to go. So if you’re buying an HDTV make sure it has an HDMI input. If you don’t want to use your PS3 for movies, you may get away with using your HDTV’s component video inputs for HD gaming. Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure yet.

For audio, your home theater receiver or preprocessor must accept Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound using an optical input or HDMI. It probably has an optical input, unless it’s really old, and probably does not have an HDMI input, unless it’s really on top of things.

Xbox 360

AV-wise, the Xbox 360 has component video outs, VGA out, and a digital audio output.

Games

Microsoft has said you’ll be able to watch your games in full HD from either the component video outputs or the VGA output. So if your HDTV has at least component video inputs, you’re okay.

Movies

The Xbox 360 does not support HD-DVD or Blu-ray. It does, however, support WMV-HD video. This should work through the component outputs, for the simple reason that there’s no other choice. There are so few HDTVs with VGA inputs it doesn’t make sense to expect consumers to watch WMV-HD movies on that output.

Aside: Microsoft has said that it they will release an HD-DVD accessory for the Xbox 360 by the end of 2006. To do this, they would also have to add an HDMI output to the box. To watch HD movies from HD-DVD discs, you would therefore have to use the HD DVD accessory’s HDMI output.

Conclusion

For video, component video inputs seem to be enough for your HDTV. For future reference, however, if you’re going to buy an HDTV, make sure it includes component and HDMI inputs. The HD DVD accessory will need the HDMI.

For audio, your sound system must accept Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound using a digital input. Unfortunately, I can’t find out if the 360’s digital output is coaxial or optical, what I found is “multi-channel surround sound output”. That could be either. So make sure your home theater receiver or preprocessor has an optical digital input and a coaxial digital input, just in case. This shouldn’t be a problem, as most sold today have both of these inputs. But! Since the current a/v pack for the Xbox has an optical connector, you might be okay with just that.

A Note about DVI and HDMI

But what about DVI? Good news! If you have a DVI input with HDCP (a content protection scheme) you’re in luck. DVI/HDCP is basically the same as HDMI (except it’s missing audio, which you can use the console’s digital audio out for). So if you have a DVI/HDCP input on your HDTV, you can buy an HDMI-DVI adapter to use your PS3 or Xbox 360 HD DVD accessory.

You can get HDMI-DVI converters in two forms: Just a little converter with one HDMI on one end and DVI on the other, or a cable with HDMI on one end and DVI on the other.

In a survey of over 2,000 Americans, the top brands holding place in the minds of people were queried. Who holds the number one spot? Sony. Coca-Cola only makes fourth, and Apple didn’t hit this top ten. Here’s the list:

1. Sony
2. Dell
3. Kraft
4. Coca-Cola
5. Ford
6. Toyota
7. Honda & General Electric (tied)
8. General Motors
9. Microsoft and Hewlett Packard (tied)
10. Proctor & Gamble

Maybe this is why the other day people thought the PS3 would be faster than the 360.

Link: Harris Interactive - Sony Tops the List in Annual “Best Brands” Survey for Sixth Consecutive Year

The original Warhawk was a launch title for the original PlayStation console. Now it’s back, and it looks awesome. As the title suggests, it’s a flying game during wartime. The imagery shown during a short clip at E3 was amazing, and according to some wild rumours, it will feature up to 2,000 enemies on-screen at once, and have an on-foot component.

PS3 IGN - Warkhawk - Wild Warhawk Rumors
PS3 IGN - Warhawk - Main Page
Gamespot - Warkhawk - Main Page

Killzone 2 (working title) is one of the most controversial of all games to be released for the PS3. The trailer shown at E3 was simply stunning. The visuals on this FPS were so good that many didn’t believe that they were real-time. But they were! Kinda… They were actually rendered at 5fps and then sped up in post-processing. Quite a cheat.

But the developers have said that they’re aiming to make a PS3 game that looks like that trailer. If they can pull that off, then more power to them!

PS3 IGN - Killzone 2 Main Page
Gamespot - Killzone 2 - Main Page

Dear Sony,

We love the PlayStation. It simply rocks. The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 have brought many hours of gaming fun to me and consumers world over. But the PS1 and PS2 are moving over for the PS3, and Microsoft is pushing hard to become the new console leader with their Xbox 360.

With the spectre of Microsoft forefront in your minds, I humbly submit that you really should fix something with the PS3.

The controller.

Sony, you must admit that the controller shown at E3 has gotten a lot of bad press. Mainly, the criticism is about its looks. But you know, I don’t really think that’s the problem. Many people might complain about its unusual shape, but as long as its comfortable, how it looks doesn’t really matter as long as it doesn’t look terrible. Which it doesn’t. I don’t think that you’ll give us an uncomfortable controller. You’re too good at creating great controllers to do that.

So, more important than the shape, is the seeming lack of improvements over the PS2 controller (outside of the wireless capability). What’s been done to make the PS3 controller better yet? Well, you could take a look at the competition, and take for yourself what good you might find. The trigger buttons on the Xbox and GameCube controllers are exceptional and extremely useful. Racing games like Project Gotham Racing would be so much less without the trigger buttons. Sony must realize how great triggers are, and include triggers on their controller as well. The L2 and R2 buttons could easily be transformed into triggers, and would be a great improvement to an already great controller.

After all the presentations at E3 and PlayStation Meeting, it’s obvious that Sony is working hard to bring great tools to developers. Sony is working hard to bring great games to the PS3 platform. I also ask Sony to improve the PS3 controller by giving it trigger buttons.

Thank-you.

Henning Hoffmann
PS3Blog.net

When an optical drive format it released, it’s first speed is the standard 1x speed. Then manufacturers increase speeds to get us 2x, 4x, etc speeds. The Blu-ray spec defines the base 1x speed of the BD format at 36Mbps. According to Josh Peterson of HP (a Blu-ray member), some first generation BD drives will be 2x drives, meaning 72Mbps. And since these drives are releasing in about November, it looks good for the PS3 to have such a drive. And given that the PS3 could launch a half year later, it could even have a 4x drive, or 144Mbps. That’s 18 megabytes a second!

Just imagine what your load time will be like when your own personal BD drive sucks data off the disc at 18 megabytes per second. With the Cell processor powering the PS3, you could have a synthesized human-like voice telling you how long it takes. Imagine a sultry disembodied voice saying “Loading level… uh. Oh. Never mind. Done already. Go ahead and play!”

Link: IGN GEAR - PS3 May Get 2X or Faster Blu-ray Drive

Lies, damned lies, and statistics. You know the old saying.

But what happens when the statistic measures something that nobody knows yet, and the statistic measures thoughts and feelings based largely on hype and press releases?

Well, you get about 55% of 15,000 people thinking that the PS3 will be the most powerful next-gen console. 31% believe in the 360, and only 10% put forth the Revolution.

I have a PS2 and plan to buy a PS3, but even I have to take a look at these results and think “Waaa?” The only real response should be to join those 4% who said they haven’t formed an opinion yet. Because until we get all three platforms in final form, and they can be scrutinized a bit, we just don’t know.

Link: Xbox IGN - The Most Powerful New Console

It looks like PSM magazine is better at finagling details out of the PS3 developers than the rest of us, because they got some of them to talk off the record about the PS3 in their September issue.

1. No More Memory Cards Not so sure I like that one. If I can play my PS2 games on my PS3, I’d also like to used the games I saved. The PS3 will use Memory Stick Duo cards like the PSP, and I’ll be able to save PS2 games on that, but still. What should I do with all my old game saves? Do I have to start over?
2. No Legacy Periphal Support Hmmm, so I can’t use my old controllers (and other peripherals) either. Given that the new PS3 controller doesn’t seem to be able to do anything my old controllers can’t, that’s a bummer. Especially given that the PS3 sounds like it’ll be expensive, I’d like to save some money by keeping my old controllers.
3. Specs Aren’t Set So the specs aren’t set in stone yet. Things are still being tweaked, including the additional memory. That sounds like a good thing.
4. HDD Not for Games But for media content. No saving games on the HDD. Grrrrr. What about in-game music from ripped CDs? This is something the 360 will support, and I think it’s a killer feature. No more stinkin rap music or hip-hop crap in my games!
5. PSP Remote Don’t have a PSP, and probably never will. So I don’t care.
6. TiVo-Like Add-on Unless this thing can record HDTV from my digital cable (unlikely), I won’t care about this one either.
7. Most Games 720p Many games will be 720p - I don’t care, really. I think that 720p games will look great on my HDTV.
8. Speed OR Quality This one is a little vague. It says “Sony is leaving the door open for developers to offer players the ability to make their games run faster and smoother by using lower resolutions like 480p.” Does that mean that (a) when you boot up the game you can choose a low-res mode or a high-res mode, or (b) that some games will be only low-res ? If (b), that sucks. If (a), that’s okay.

Link: MAX CONSOLE - PSM September Magazine reveals interesting PS3 Information

According to SPOnG, retailers have told them that Sony will slash the price of the PS2 to between £60 and £70 in the UK this Christmas.

“You can expect significant reductions in the price of everything this Christmas, but most noticeable will be the PlayStation 2,” our well-placed source told SPOnG. “We’ve been briefed to expect a price as low as £60 beginning at the start of December. Sony’s probably looking at a global price cut – around $100 in the States and a serious Platinum range announcement too.”

When I read this news I really couldn’t decide if this would impact sales of the Xbox 360 or not. I mean, if you want a 360 you’ll buy it, right? On the other hand, if you’re a kid who has to beg your parents for a console under the tree, maybe it could make a difference.

Thoughts?

Link: SPOnG - Slimline PlayStation 2 for £60 - 360 Spoiler Looms

The World of Mana, codename for the the next Squre Enix game in The Mana series, is currently in development. It will span multiple platforms, though we don’t know if that includes the PS3.

Gamespot - World of Mana spanning multiple platforms

Just to help you keep all your dates straight, I put together this nice little list.