DirectX 11 and Dirt 2: The best eye candy money can currently buy…

I’ll admit that my time is extremely precious. Between work, blogging on two sites, and college, any spare time I may have is used for simple tasks such as eating, going to the bathroom, and when the mood strikes me, taking a shower (just kidding, I’m much cleaner than that.) But every now and then I do manage to break away from the daily grind and get in some good ‘ol gaming time. While first person shooters are one of my old favorites, I find as of late that I’m being more drawn to racing games — you know, from the likes of Gran Turismo 5, Forza 3, and now Dirt 2. When Dirt was first released, I played the hell out of it even without a steering wheel. The graphics were near the top of the food chain though the physics tended to err on the side of fantasy with copious amounts of understeer going into turns and then a mountain of oversteer kicking you from behind right at the apex. Hey, it at least made for a good seat of the pants driving experience.

Now I’ve never been a big PC gamer — instead sticking with consoles — but Dirt 2 could very well have me testing my computer building skills as it is one of the first games to support and fully make use of DirectX 11. Even though the image above is pre-rendered with actual game footage not coming out quite as pristine, the fact that DirectX 11 will be on board means the image above is closer than ever to being actual gameplay footage. That is impressive. Considering you can set yourself up (albeit expensively) with a few Eyefinity enabled panels cranking out pixels in 7680 x 1600 bliss, gaming with Dirt 2 on the PC should be a real treat.

For now, the only cards that support DirectX 11 are AMD’s HD 5970, HD 5870, HD 5850, HD 5770, and HD 5750 as Nvidia either doesn’t have their stuff together or is moving in a different direction with a heavier future emphasis on GPGPU processing. While I’d like to see Nvidia continue the cut throat pace they were once operating at, a minor lull in activity so that AMD can once again enjoy some spotlight is more than welcome.

TechShout
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Microsoft throws the ban hammer at over a million Xbox live accounts over modded hardware.

Microsoft giving the ‘ol ban hammer to Xbox live users for various reasons is nothing new. Though banning over 1,000,000 users because they’re running hacked or modded hardware is certainly a deviation from the norm. The whole problem with modded 360′s is it allows end users to circumnavigate the many layers of DRM in use by the Xbox software. Obviously game developers have a problem with this as games are then easily copied and saved to the device sans payment. Apart from legal worries, having a modded Xbox actually brings about unlimited potential that Microsoft either refuses to build in themselves or is taking too long to do. Just go to any Xbox/gaming enthusiast site and scour the countless threads on Xbox modding. The units are incredibly capable.

Banning one million plus Xbox users because of hacked units is pretty dumb. You’re always going to have people going against the ToS, breaking the rules and the law. Nothing you do can stop it. I wouldn’t discount the fact that Microsoft was probably getting heat from game developers who were and still are upset about hacked ‘boxes have the powers to copy games. If you assume that the hacked units were all Xbox Live Gold members ($50/year), then that’s $50 million per year that Microsoft just cut from their budget. Then again, $50 million is like pocket change to a company as large as Microsoft so I don’t think it was that much of a con.

It’s also important to note that there isn’t a time line as to when these banned accounts can regain access. Anything from 1-day, 1-month, to a “life time” ban have been thrown around the interwebs leading many to panic. Getting a lifetime ban from hands down the best online gaming environment to date isn’t something any Red Bull fueled gamer is going to take lightly. For the sake of many gamers, I sure hope the ban doesn’t span millennia. Putting initial fears aside, banned users are probably looking at at least a couple months of downtime.

Through it all, there has to be a better way of protecting game developers other than simply banning hacked ‘boxes from accessing Live services. Punishing those who simply tinker with their gadgets is no reason to neuter them with a digital kill switch.

What do you think? Is Microsoft’s unleashing of the ban hammer justified or is there a better way to do it?

Cnet

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Early Wii 2 rumors leak. Blu-ray, simultaneous world-wide launch in 2010?

Great jumping Jehoshaphat. HD Wii! Hear that? Oh you missed it? That’s because it was the sound of a single, tiny grain of salt hitting the floor. Which signals how you should treat this rumor. According to a “very reliable source” of Logic-Sunrise (Google translated), the 2nd gen Wii, for now cleverly named “Wii 2″ will debut in 2010.

The main rumored feature that stands out is the Blu-ray support and hardware support for both 720p and 1080p. Sweet. Finally some HD. I know the Wii is still more popular than the Xbox 360 or PS3, but I’m just not into video games made in 2009 that still feature characters with blockheads ala late 90′s games. The whole jumping around and waving my arms like a mad man doesn’t strike my fancy either. I want eye candy and graphical power.

We know Nintendo has to embrace modern graphics and technology at some point unless they plan on jumping out of this whole gaming business all together. But somehow I just don’t think that’s on their future projection charts littering HQ do you?

CrunchGear

Backwards compatibility no more — PS3 Slim also 30+% slimmer software wise

While have mixed emotions about the PS3 Slim (love the new price, pretty much hate the cheap looking plastic crap they covered it in), I’m not so excited about the loss of PS2 backwards compatibility. Yes I know that PS2′s are still dominating sales charts, but I would assume a big part for that is because of the PS3′s higher price tag up until a few days ago. Though Sony also claims that most of the PS3′s usage goes towards Blue-ray movies and next gen PS3 games. Still, many such as myself love popping in a golden oldie every once in a while to re-live the glory days and don’t want to deal with cable switching or even pressing a button on an actual switch to toggle between systems. Coupled with the fact that the PS3′s two other competitors offer backwards compatibility, this new found software diet isn’t something I take lightly.

I chalk this up to a poor business model on Sony’s end. If you can’t figure out how to make a new system cater to the old and new while being competitive and innovative, it’s time to clean out the closet and hire some new people. But that’s just me. Many will continue on through life never thinking twice about the abilities now gone from the new, slimmer PS3. I will remember however, the next I have to hop back to my PS2 to play an old title…I will remember.

Source: Engadget, Joystiq

Sony removes head from sand/ass finally reducing PS3 cost, giving us the PS3 slim? [Updated]

The Sony PS3 is long overdue for a price cut and a diet. As their competitors have lowered prices to cope with sagging sales in this economy, Sony has remained steadfast in their pricing time and time again denouncing rumors of price cuts and a slimmer more energy efficient PS3. However, a lucky FYE worker has managed to hit the mother load. The Kotaku reader apparently received some promotional flyers for his store that included two very juicy bits of information.

The first bit of good news states: “New Low Price” with the tag teaming second sentence reading: “New and Exciting PS3″. So, the 80GB and 120GB PS3 are presumably getting price cuts from $399 -> $299 and $499 ->$399 respectively. The “New and Exciting PS3″ wording potentially reveals that the PS3 slim rumored about for what seems years now may finally be getting its grand revealing. Further backing up these claims is a front page ad by Kmart with the exact same claims of low price and a new exciting PS3. Sony is supposed to make press announcement of some sort at the Cologne Gamescon Expo that starts at 12 noon (EST) today. Could this be the day we’ve all been waiting for?

**UpdateKmart now has a PS3 slim model available for pre-order as does Sears. The rumors seem to be coming true. So ya think Sony is going to announce it today?

**Update 2Cat’s outta’ the bag. Sony has just announced the PS3 Slim which will consumer 34% power and take up 32% less space. Yippee!

[Kmart ad]
[FYE Poster]

Source: Engadget

Xbox 360 attained a 54% failure rate…..ZOMG!!!

If you wanted a slap in the face to rocket you back into the sad sick little world that *used* to be the Xbox 360, a non-scientific poll (paper only) conducted by Game Informer revealed that the failure rate on Xbox 360′s (presumably pre-die shrink to the smaller more efficient processors) was 54%! I don’t care who you are or what company you run, a 54% failure rate is beyond god awful. Of course, such claims can’t be verified by Redmond themselves as such data is locked away in some secret vault guarded by fire breathing dragons and a mean sea turtle who won’t hold anything back. It’s no secret no matter how much Microsoft wants to deny that the 360 was rushed to market. Soon after release RRoD (Red Rings of Death) issues were popping up left and right. It was so bad if you remember, that Microsoft had to end up spending several billion dollars extending warranties for RRoD victims. So far, my Xbox 360 has had RRoD syndrome twice. Adding insult to injury, Microsoft also managed to snatch up the award for worst customer service and longest service times with replacement/refurbished 360′s taking over a month to return home.

Since undergoing the die shrink which brought smaller, more efficient, less heat radiating processors, the RRoD problems seems to have been greatly diminished. Still, having a product that had a failure rate claimed to be so high is certainly not a consumer confidence builder. By the way, just to compare, the PS3′s failure rate is/was around 11% with the Wii bringing up the rear at a much more dependable 7%. Of course, a percentage point or two could be attributed to the 360′s generally longer playing times. But that’s a huge stretch to say the least and certainly doesn’t account for mountain of trouble that not so long ago plagued the system.

So we all know I’ve been at deaths door twice. Have you see RRoD on your 360? If so is it a return appearance or is it your first?

Source: CrunchGear, Consumerist