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■libdi, DVDX installer for Wii released
Thanks to QJ.NET Forums member TheSilenceOfNoOne, we've been tipped to the recent release of libdi, the Wii homebrew community's new DVD access library, and the DVDX installer from Wii homebrew source Hackmii. Erant of Hackmii, the author, says,
As you all know, I ve been working on libdi (or the DVD Access library) for a while now. We had some problems getting it out to release because of the difficulties we encountered while writing the second part of this topic. The DVDX installer instead will install a small, hidden, channel on your Wii that allows you to read DVDs on an unmodified system. It is not an installer for a patched IOS. You may however need one, depending on your system.
Now there's still a way to get DVDX to install on modified systems, but you'll have to get the patchmii as well before the DVDX Installer. Developers are encouraged to practice with the library, using the DVDX extension as a way to read data from standard format DVDs.
For example, developer dhewg has come up with a sample homebrew app based on libdi - a full-featured media player. More updates on the homebrew scene as we come across them.
Once again, thanks to TheSilenceOfNoOne for the tip.
Download: libdi and DVDX Installer
Download: Patchmii
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■NCSoft: guitarist, producer, singer to contribute DNA as 'backup for humanity' in Operation Immortality
You've all heard that Richard Garriott, creator of Richard Garriott's Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa by Richard Garriott, will be taking to the final frontier that is space when he takes off this October 12, 2008 for the International Space Station (ISS). But here's something you didn't know: according to official press release, Garriott's going to carry with him digitized copies of human DNA to add to the ISS' Immortality Drive.
And Operation Immortality, as the announcement says, is an ongoing project to preserve as much of the human race beyond it's extinction. It's also a real-life ongoing game in the veins of Tabula Rasa - an amazing, all-out promotion to get everyone interested in NCSoft's biggest MMORPG and yet show a larger picture of the human race's impending fate.
DNA storage on the Immortality Drive, however digitally, is just one of the tasks placed at hand for the immortalization of the human race.
The DNA copies would come from three members of human kind: Cliffs of Dover (from album Ah Via Musicom) guitarist Eric Johnson, Grammy-nominated record producer/musical director Stephen Bruton (From the Five), and Texan rock, pop, and soul icon Patrice Pike (said to be the youngest to be inducted to the Texas Music Hall of Fame).
Why? Well the idea was spurred from a recent alliance between Planet Make-Over and Operation Immortality. As a social networking site inclined to music, Planet Make-Over has more of a chance to spread the word that Earth isn't doing too well through music and stars' fans.
Operation Immortality's goals would have us work to prolong our homeworld and our existence, or else Operation Immortality no longer remains a "game" but reality. Reality that, in the case of our impending doom, would tell us, "Now would be a good time to save your game, humans." Gary Fortin, creator and executive producer of Planet Make-Over, said,
The Concept of Operation Immortality is much more than a theme to an online game. The Earth s population needs to quickly adjust our behavior regarding global warming or else fiction quickly becomes our new reality. When we learned that Richard Garriott will be conducting environmental research while in space, the stars all aligned to support him. Planet Make-Over is about saving the planet. The message is serious but the process can, and should be fun.
Looks like gaming and music are more than just entertainment now. I wonder whose DNA they'll be lining up next?
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■Latest NPD Group report tackles gamer segmentation; PCs played more, PS3 owners are likely 360, Wii owners too
In a report published by NPD Group, the gaming populace was subdivided into seven general segments where they'd likely belong after careful screening. The document titled "Gamer Segmentation 2008" claimed that we could either be an extreme gamer, an avid PC gamer, a console gamer, an online PC gamer, an offline PC gamer, a young heavy gamer, or a secondary gamer.
Confusing, eh?
Well considering that NPD took into account what gaming platforms their surveyed sample population, plus how long and how often they used those platforms, they've got a huge scope of gamers to cover with just any category.
During the course of their investigation, NPD found that the Extreme Gamers consisted of 3 of the surveyed population, which is a great contrast from the 22 that the Young Heavy Gamers they classified.
Despite the fact that Extreme Gamers consists of the smallest population, NPD Group highlighted that just as with the Young Heavy Gamers, Extreme Gamers paid for more than 24 games in a period of just 90 days.
Both segments "over-index" in every gaming platform, though in the US, those platforms are significantly hovering over the highly prized Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s.
For the Young Heavy segment, however, there's an inclination to play more on PlayStation Portables and Nintendo DSes. The Console segment in the US is the second largest, taking at least 20 of the surveyed population in.
NPD also reported that while the PC is the single most-played platform in the US, the Console, Extreme, and Young Heavy segments favor consoles instead. And on terms of ownership, time and wallet share, the market analyst group says that PlayStation 3 owners are likely to have Xbox 360s and Wiis as well. They have found, however, that only 10 of the PlayStation 2 owners own a PlayStation 3.
Avid PC Gamers are quoted to have been the largest segment to purchase games digitally (27 ), though of the entire surveyed population, only 14 of games listed as purchased were acquired online. Extreme and the Avid PC segments have showed that they would love to download an enhancement to their currently owned games.
So in short, the study reveals that PSP and DS gamers are young and heavy. PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gamers are extreme or just simple console, while PC gamers are avid, offline, or online, and a good measure are likely to purchase online as well.
OH WAIT.
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■Holy cow Batman! Arkham Asylum previewed in Game Informer issue 185
According to Game Informer magazine, Issue number 185 of their print publication will heavily focus on Eidos Interactive's latest project, dubbed Batman: Arkham Asylum. For now, very little has been revealed by the folks who've got the "world exclusive" news bits, but what Game Informer did manage to say about the game went like this:
This completely original title explores Gotham City s darkest location, the infamous Arkham Asylum. But as a routine prison transfer goes wrong, the Joker sets his demented plan into action and Batman comes face to face with an army of his worst enemies. In a dark and gritty setting reminiscent of Bioshock (with a story co-written by Paul Dini), Arkham Asylum is setting the stage for a true-to-character Batman game.
Other details include that Arkham Asylum will be powered by Epic's Unreal Engine 3, and that it's geared for release on the PlayStation 3, Windows, and the Xbox 360 sometime in 2009. NeoGAF contributor Sallokin has received a copy of said Issue 185, and there's at least six whole pages dedicated to the information spillage, which highlighted a couple more factoids.
We could quote that info here, but the information would be less skewed if it was read in all context from Sallokin's post. We've provided that below at the source link. Also take a peek at developer Rocksteady Studios' site, which popped a counter ticking quickly down to zero.
Now as some of you would know, EA had a solid grip on the "Dark Knight" game and passed up on that opportunity. It looks like the someone decided the Batman fans deserved more than that. More updates as we get them.
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■Down boy! AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2, 4850 X2 hits market
AMD's next best thing has finally arrived, says the company via press release, and the dual-GPU packing ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 and (yes, surprise!) Radeon HD 4850 X2 are probably heating up the market like brushfire in a mid-summer's day.
Advanced Micro Devices says that their 2.4 teraFLOP computing powerhouse (the HD 4870 X2) is the fastest computing card yet, and it's likely to stay that way while NVIDIA hasn't offered up a dual-GPU option.
We've covered ground on the 4870 X2 before, so we'll be taking a gander at AMD's next "next best thing": the Radeon HD 4850 X2. What we hear from the most trusted of hardware enthusiast review sites is that if you do get one, be prepared to pack double the RV770 (at 625 MHz each) and shader unit count (1,600 streaming in total ).
You also get an upgrade in RAM clock rates (up by 114 MHz to 1107 MHz base clock) and capacity (2 x 1024 MB GDDR5).
While still basically running on a 256-bit PCIE 2.0 interface, the 4850 X2 will sport double the bus width all in all, granting a 256-bit interfacing to each chip. If that wasn't enough, AMD's new Gen2 PCI-E bridge interconnects both RV770 chips and is reinforced with a two-way 5 GBps sideport communication link, and that's a whole new idea for the HD 4800 X2s from the old HD 3800 X2s.
But how much are they going for? What the HD 4870 X2 will cost the early purchaser around US 550, the cheaper HD 4850 X2 will go for around US 400. Tips from certain retail sites say they've got bargains readied for the first few buyers, and some brands have a sweet price going around.
We're waiting for the official plugs from the manufacturing companies, but while we're at it, go check out the numerous reviews rolling out right now. Bottom line: it packs the power, but it doesn't pack the power-per-unit-price that AMD's been leading in recently.
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■iPhone Super Monkey Ball sells over 300,000
Wondering about the iPhone's viability as a game platform? Well, wonder no more. Word from the Wall Street Journal is that Sega's Super Monkey Ball has sold over 300,000 copies. Said Simon Jeffery, president of Sega's U.S. division, "That's a substantial business. It gives iPhone a justifiable claim to being a viable gaming platform." Viable indeed: seeing as the game costs US 9.99 a pop, that's almost US 3 million in revenue!
These figures were recently revealed in an article discussing the rise of iPhone software sales. According to the article, Apple sold an average of US 1 million a day in applications, with Super Monkey Ball serving as part of the equation. If you want to read up more on the power of iPhone apps, feel free to check out the sourced article below.
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■WotLK beta changes: mounts get the OK in Booty Bay
Here's a short report for you regarding the Wrath of the Lich King beta. Word has come from the Livejournal community for the game that you can now ride mounts in Booty Bay.As we said, it 's nothing special in itself, but combined with other bits of information, it paints a pretty interesting picture.
For one thing, given that people can now ride mounts at level 30, and that Booty Bay is essentially a mid 30- early 40 zone, it makes levelling just a tad bit faster, since you don't have to run around the entirety of Stranglethorn Vale anymore.
Furthermore, this bit of news sort of signals a change that may grow to be important for the basic infrastructure of WoW. Specifically, we're talking about what constitutes indoors and outdoors in the game and, thus, what areas you can use fast transport in. We're hoping the system caters more to hub towns being mountable areas, but that's just our personal preference.
What do you think? Do Mounts in other hub cities sound good to you?
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■A Pokemon Platinum overview video
Want more Pokemon? Then have more Pokemon! There's a new overview trailer up for the upcoming Pokemon Platinum game, and it looks as if there are quite a number of new features for you to try out.
The overview is in Japanese, so you might not be able to understand a word about the upcoming game. That said, some things are made plain in the video. In addition to exploring a new dungeon with your Pokemo, via the dark warp at the top of Mt. Coronet, it looks as if you'll be able to engage in new battles in what appears to be a new tournament-style battle arena.
In any event, watch and marvel at your new wall-walking abilities, the new available Pokemon, and the great adventure that awaits!
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The overview is in Japanese, so you might not be able to understand a word about the upcoming game. That said, some things are made plain in the video. In addition to exploring a new dungeon with your Pokemo, via the dark warp at the top of Mt. Coronet, it looks as if you'll be able to engage in new battles in what appears to be a new tournament-style battle arena.
In any event, watch and marvel at your new wall-walking abilities, the new available Pokemon, and the great adventure that awaits!
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■Street Fighter Alpha Coming To PSN on Thursday
The Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix beta may not have hit the PlayStation Network, but a similar game is certainly making its way to the PSN on Thursday. Capcom has announced that they are releasing Street Fighter Alpha for the PlayStation Network on August 14.Since it'll be a PSOne Clasics game, expect it to be playable on the PS3 or PSPs after you pick it up from the PlayStation Store. Sure, it won't have the fancy online play that SSF2THDR will have, but it's a solid fighting game that's definitely worth a look.
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■60 GB Xbox 360 heading to UK on August 15
Microsoft recently announced that the UK would also be getting the fabled Pro model upgrade for the Xbox 360. The press release they sent out states that, once August 15 rolls around, folks in the UK can pick up a 60 GB Xbox 360 model for 199.99. Said Neil Thompson, Senior Regional Director, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Ltd.,
No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver and we know consumers need increasingly more and more space to store the amazing digital entertainment content we provide. Now the Xbox 360 has triple the space to house all your entertainment needs at no extra cost.
If you're in the UK and you happened to buy a 20 GB Xbox 360 recently, do yourself a favor and try and return the darned thing and get store credit. You'll still probably save some money by returning the 20 GB console and picking up a 60 GB replacement.
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■Former Sony boss Chris Deering: Just three in ten games recover their costs
Earlier, we wrote about Chris Deering's remarks on the future of console race being a tie between Sony and Nintendo. Well, we have more from Chris Deering; according to him, the current sources of revenue for games will not be sufficient to develop games as the videogames industry develops. Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Deering posits an intriguing figure: that only three in ten games recover their development costs. He notes that these problems will continue as additional players, such as the cable, satellite, and DSL operators and TV networks, enter the market.
As for a solution, Deering says that "creative use of hybrid online/offline advertising revenue models" could be used to reduce losses. He added, "Gambling will become a source of development funding. Perhaps not directly, but this area can provide some sources of income which [will] eventually be directed back to the developer.
With games like Fury shutting down and certain titles in development losing their publishers, Deering's remarks certainly bear some weight. That said, an additional revenue stream for games development doesn't seem so bad, so long as it helps bring out good games.
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■vlc4iphone v0.9.8 Beta: firmware 2.0 support (beta testers only)
A new version of vlc4iphone is now out, bumping up the app to v0.9.8 Beta. Aside form the usual big fixes, this version also incorporates support for firmware 2.0 . Here's a list of all the updates in v0.9.8 Beta:- Now runs on firmware 2.0 .
- Improved user interface.
- Tons of bug fixes.
- Added experimental support for RTSP streaming.
- Improved playback performance in some decoders such as DivX/XviD.
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■Strong Bad Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner now on Wiiware
Strong Bad is taking his boxing gloves and email-answering skills to Nintendo's Wiiware service this week as he debuts in Telltale Games' Strong Bad Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner, where he has to deal with an unwanted houseguest cramping his style.This is the first in a monthly five-episode series based on the Internet cartoon Homestar Runner. The game also includes Teen Girl Squad comics, achievements, funny costumes and arcade games. You can even send pictures and messages to your Wii Friends using Strong Bad's computer.
Strong Bad Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner is now available and can be downloaded for 1,000 Wii Points. Keep checking back here for more Wiiware news.
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