Archive for May, 2011
WWE ’12 Announced
As if November wasn’t packed full of big releases already, THQ has officially revealed the next iteration to their WWE simulation titles. The Smackdown vs Raw titling was dropped for the next title, with the new one simply being called WWE ’12, and with the announcement, THQ promises some huge changes to the ever popular wrestling titles (more so than past titles). Bigger, badder and better is the tagline, and it might just be a proper description for the title.
Some of the new features have already been announced, including the mysterious Predator Technology. THQ described it as a system that “delivers a fresh and strategic gameplay experience that looks, feels and plays better than ever before.” Action is supposedly more fluid, animations are more realistic, the AI has been improved, and there is a new submission system called “Breaking Point”. This has a new mini-game that includes a scramble to the ropes for a rope break, something fans have been asking for for a very long time.
Watch E3 on your PS3!
Posted by Jason in E3 2011, PlayStation Home, PS3, PSN on May 31st, 2011
For the first time ever members who take advantage of PlayStation Home will be able to watch the entire press conference free! This is some neat stuff here. Sony’s E3 press conference is on Monday, June 6 at 5pm Pacific Time and will be live in a special screening room available in Home. The popular Event Booth will be making another appearance this year as well. You will gain exclusive virtual items for attending the event and visiting the booth.
The Sony team will also be streaming the hottest games live from the show floor bringing a virtual E3 right to you. Will you be attending a virtual E3?
Source: PlayStation.Blog
Rockstar Pass and DLC Details for L.A. Noire
Posted by Oly in L.A. Noire on May 31st, 2011
Rockstar Games has announced the details of their Rockstar Pass and upcoming DLC content for L.A. Noire. All previously “pre-order only” content is now available. They also announced that two new cases will be coming this summer.
The “Nicholson Electroplating” Arson case will be released on June 21, and the “Reefer Madness” Vice case will be released on July 12. The cases will sell for $3.99 each, or you can get all the DLC by purchasing the “Rockstar Pass” for $9.99.
Call of Duty Elite Info, and Beta Testing Sign-up
Posted by Oly in Beta, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on May 31st, 2011
This somewhat funny video, entitled The Legend of Karl, has been released to give us more information about the newly announced Call of Duty Elite subscription service.
They have also announce a Call of Duty Elite Beta starting sometime this summer. You can sign-up now, at callofduty.com/elite.
Although pretty vague, here are the main features announced:
Read the rest of this entry »
Blu-ray Releases for the Week of 5.31.11
Posted by Tosh in Blu-ray Movies, PS3 on May 31st, 2011
This week we have Nicolas Cage being upset in another movie called Drive Angry. Never heard much about this movie really. For you John Wayne fans they are bringing some of his old movies to Blu-ray. Anything interest you this week?
Highlights for this week: True Blood: The Complete Third Season, Once Upon a Time in the West, Barry Lyndon, Drive Angry, Legend, Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, American Graffiti, Big Jake, Rio Lobo.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to get a Subscription Service
Posted by Baba0Booey in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on May 31st, 2011
So after getting home from a night shift, I was doing some searching trying to stay informed as a gamer. Well I came across a little diddy from the Wall Street Journal of all sources, they reported today that Activision-Blizzard announced the new Call of Duty will feature a pay service called Call of Duty Elite. Reportedly the service will include added content such as map packs, and extra content that has yet to be announced, now don’t fret, the fee isn’t required to play multiplayer.
PlayStation Store to be fully restored this week.
Posted by PAUL FIERCE in PLAYSTATION Store, PS3, QuickNews on May 31st, 2011
According to an official press release, Sony will plan to roll out the PlayStation Store this week. The press release goes on to state that they have added considerable updates and full security enhancements throughout. Japan, Hong kong, and South Korea are still waiting on the full restoration of the network. There was no word on when those regions will become fully active again.
Sony’s SmartAR Technology NGP Bound?
Posted by Jay in Media, PlayStation Vita, Tech Demo on May 30th, 2011
If you watch the video included, you can see how fast it is able to track, and even how it will remember where it rendered particular objects in a room. It was pretty insane and I think it would be something the NGP could really utilize and feel right at home with. Further into the video, it will even memorize pictures/posters, and allow you to flip through them with a motion of your finger, becoming a pretty nifty idea for a user interface.
Currently, the press release has only stated it’s use towards smartphones, but that does not, in any way, mean that this won’t be heading to the NGP as well, since it would definitely have a better appeal towards mobile gaming as a whole. If anything, this is probably the most advanced AR technology available to regular consumers at least.
From GI.biz
Sony develops “SmartAR” Integrated Augmented Reality technology
Featured with markerless and high-speed object recognition & tracking as well as dynamic 3D space recognition & image rendering
Sony has developed integrated ‘Augmented Reality (hereafter referred to as ‘AR’) technology’ called as “Smart AR.” When capturing visuals through a camera on a device such as a smartphone, the technology enables additional information to be displayed on the device’s screens such as virtual objects, or images and texts that cannot be identified by visual perception alone. The technology employs the markerless approach, forgoing any requirement for special markers such as 2D barcodes. The object captured by the camera is quickly recognized and can be tracked at high-speed along with the movement of the camera, as it is displayed over the actual 3D space.
AR technology has recently been the subject of much interest, and is being used in a variety of applications such as advertisements, promotions, games, and information searches. Sony began researching AR in 1994 with two-dimensional barcodes recognition (marker approach), and in 1998, it developed VAIO “PCG-C1” personal computers equipped with software which automatically recognized ‘CyberCode*2.’
“SmartAR” technology combines ‘object recognition technology’ (markerless approach in which no special markers are required) for recognition of general objects such as photographs and posters with Sony’s own proprietary ‘3D space recognition technology,’ which has been fostered through the research of robots such as “AIBO” and “QRIO.” With “SmartAR” technology objects can be recognized and tracked at high-speed. In addition to displaying virtual objects or additional image or text information (hereafter, ‘AR information’), the technology also facilitates the expression of AR information over an extended space, thus producing a dynamic, large-scale AR experience.
Furthermore, information can be acquired or navigated by simply touching the AR information directly on the screen of the smartphone or other device, thus achieving an intuitive and seamless user interface that is unique to “SmartAR.”
Sony will continue to experiment with “SmartAR” technology with the aim to add new value for various services and business applications such as advertising and games.
< Main features >
(1) Object recognition that enables the markerless approach
AR information can be displayed on the captured image which appears on a device’s screen, including those images that do not have any special markers for AR. This technology is also compatible with image recognition technologies that use conventional markers (such as “CyberCode*2”). Because “SmartAR” can recognize everyday objects such as posters and menus, it has the potential for a wide variety of applications.
“SmartAR” object recognition technology identifies objects by analyzing features detected from a portion of the image (hereafter, ‘local features’) together with their positional relationship. Our feature matching technology that employs a proprietary probabilistic method that matches local features with minimal calculations enables high-speed recognition that is resistant to changes in lighting or the position of the object. In addition, recognition is still possible even if the object captured appears to be comparatively small in the display.
(2) High-speed tracking (‘rapid & accurate’)
Sony achieved its natural-feeling ‘rapid & accurate’ AR by quickly displaying AR information on the screen and then tracking the camera’s movements at high-speed. This has been realized by combining object recognition technology with our proprietary matching technology that uses features detected from a portion of the image (‘local features’) and image tracking technology that is capable of dealing with changes in the shape of the object.
(3) 3D space recognition
With our dynamic, large-scale AR, virtual objects can be merged with 3D structures detected in the physical world. For example, even if the AR image is a gigantic virtual character whose size exceeds the dimensions of the device’s screen, the technology allows the user to grasp the entirety of the virtual character when the camera is moved around. Furthermore, it is also possible to move the virtual object in the actual 3D space as if it were really there.
Three-dimensional space recognition technology is based on use of the disparity observed by the camera movements to estimate the shape of the 3D space and the position and angle of the camera. By combining this with object recognition technology, devices become capable of identifying and remembering 3D space constructions.
(4) AR Interaction
Information can be intuitively acquired and navigated by directly touching the AR information displayed on the smartphone or device’s screen. The distinctiveness of “SmartAR” technology comes from the user interface which enables users to naturally use and operate additional information and virtual objects.
*2. CyberCode is a two-dimensional barcode (marker) for enabling AR applications.
CyberCode is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation and is a technology that was developed by Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.
* VAIO is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation.
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