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Archive for May 15th, 2007

[RUMOR] Sony & Incog Inc. going their separate ways?

Posted by Aaron on Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Add this one to the rumor bin. According to Stupid Gamer Incog Inc. and Sony are going to go their separate ways.

According the post Sony hasn’t been very happy with Incog Inc. lately and they will split once Warhawk is completed. And Sony is looking to form a new studio with people from Incog Inc. that choose to stay at Sony.

[Source]

So do you all think this rumor is True or False?

Posted in News, Playstation 3, Rumors, Sony | Leave a Comment »

Nintendo & Delta team up to provide free Nintendo DS game demo downloads at JFK International Airport

Posted by Aaron on Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Via Press Release:

GAME ON! DELTA AND NINTENDO PROVIDE TRAVELERS ACCESS TO FREE VIDEO GAME DEMOS

Nintendo DS download program lands at JFK International Airport for peak summer travel season

NEW YORK, May 15, 2007 – As global travelers get ready for an active summer travel season, Delta Air Lines and Nintendo are teaming up to provide customers access to free video game demos for the Nintendo DS™ portable gaming system during their down time at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Today, on-the-go Nintendo fans of all ages can download interactive demos and sample a variety of new games for free to help pass time as they prepare for their flights.

Through this service, travelers can easily and wirelessly download video game demos at no cost by bringing their portable Nintendo DS video game systems with them when they travel to or through New York-JFK. Travelers stand within a few feet of one of the four DS Download Stations located in Delta Terminals 2 and 3 at JFK and follow the simple download instructions. Within a few seconds, a temporary demo version of a popular Nintendo DS game transmits wirelessly to the Nintendo DS. Game demos available for download include Brain Age™: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, Elite Beat Agents™, Cooking Mama™ and Lara Croft Tomb Raider®: Legend. Demos are updated periodically and will showcase everything from brain training to action games, appealing to baby boomers and seniors, and to teens and kids.

The service also is available in Delta terminals at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

“Delta is excited to partner with Nintendo, makers of some of the most popular video games of all time, to provide yet another innovative entertainment offering to our global travelers,” said Joan Vincenz, Delta’s managing director of Product Marketing. “This program reflects our ongoing commitment to provide a distinctive, enjoyable travel experience – both on the ground and in the air – especially during the busy spring and summer travel season.”

Added George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications: “Partnering with Delta builds on Nintendo’s goal to expand the world of video games to new audiences. Because people typically have a lot of down time, airports are ideal places for people young and old to try out free new game experiences and see what they like.”

This airport technology addition is one of many changes Delta is making to improve the travel experience for customers. Earlier this year, Delta announced that beginning this summer it will offer HBO content and popular programs on select worldwide flights. The new programming will be available through Delta’s new two-class, domestic transcontinental aircraft featuring all-leather seating in both first class and coach. On these refurbished aircraft, every customer has a front row seat to great entertainment with Delta’s state-of-the-art, digital in-flight entertainment – boasting movies, live television, music and games – available on demand at every seat. The airline’s new standard in domestic transcontinental flying will be available to all passengers traveling on select Delta flights over four hours (or more than 1,750 miles), including those from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to cities including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle and others, beginning this month.

This year, Delta also continues updating its international BusinessElite class with a similar, industry-leading entertainment system on its current fleet of 75 aircraft flying international routes. And, beginning in 2008, Delta plans to be the first U.S. airline to offer its international business class customers a true lie-flat seat in its BusinessElite® cabin on ultra long-haul flights to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

About Delta
Delta offers customers more flights to more destinations from New York City’s two preferred airports combined — John F. Kennedy International and New York-LaGuardia — than any other airline. At LaGuardia, Delta operates the city’s leading Shuttle product to Boston and Washington, D.C., in addition to nonstop Delta and Delta Connection carrier service to 26 other destinations. At New York-JFK, Delta operates a major international and domestic hub with 183 peak-day departures to 75 worldwide destinations, including nonstop service to 31 international destinations.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) offers customers service to more destinations than any global airline with Delta and Delta Connection carrier service to 311 destinations in 52 countries. With more than 60 new international routes added in the last year, Delta is adding international flights at a faster rate than any other major U.S. airline and is a leader across the Atlantic with flights to 32 trans-Atlantic destinations. To Latin America and the Caribbean, Delta offers more than 600 weekly flights to 58 destinations. Delta’s marketing alliances also allow customers to earn and redeem SkyMiles on nearly 15,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Including its SkyTeam and worldwide codeshare partners, Delta offers flights to 462 worldwide destinations in 98 countries. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at delta.com.

About Nintendo
The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems, and Wii™ console. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 387 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.

[Source]

Posted in demos, DS, News, Nintendo | 1 Comment »

Make a short film win $10,000 from Nintendo

Posted by Aaron on Tuesday, May 15, 2007

ATTENTION ALL ASPIRING FILM MAKERS! Want to win $10,000 from Nintendo? Of course you do! All you have to do is create a Nintendo-themed short film or video. For full details check out the press release after the jump 🙂

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News, Nintendo | Leave a Comment »

New Picture Packs, Themes, Demos & more on XBLM

Posted by Aaron on Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Over the past few days I forgot to post whats new on the Xbox Live Marketplace. So here is a list of the current releases:

More dashboard messenger FAQ’s
Eurogamer videos (UK Only)
Demo: Blacksite: Area 51
Crackdown DLC Now available
U.S. Video Marketplace top downloads for week of 5/7
Xbox Live Activity for week of 5/7
Bullet Witch In Game Content
Test Drive Unlimited DLC (Free and Premium)
Trusty Bell/Eternal Sonata Demo (Japan Only)
Red vs. Blue Wacky 2 Picture Pack
Heroes Pictures and Themes
This week on Arcade: Aegis Wing (free!)
Demo: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Demo)
Viva Piñata (Demo)
Demo: Tenchu Z
Red vs Blue Halo 3 Beta PSA (HD)

Posted in downloadable content, Microsoft, News, Trailers, Videos, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Picture Packs, Xbox 360 Themes, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Market Place, Xbox Live Video Marketplace | Leave a Comment »

Xbox 360 HD DVD Auto Update

Posted by Aaron on Tuesday, May 15, 2007

If you have a HD-DVD player for your Xbox 360 the next time you sign into Xbox Live you will be prompted for a update. Here are the details:

Added option for user to select from the following audio output formats via TOSLINK or HDMI:
o Digital Stereo (2 channel PCM)
o Dolby Digital 5.1
o DTS 5.1
o WMA Pro
Added “Dynamic Range Control” toggle for digital audio output
Improved HD DVD networking support
Improved HD DVD title compatibility
Improved performance with MPEG-4 AVC / H.264
1080p via HDMI is supported on the Xbox 360 Elite with HDCP compliant displays
Improved parental controls

If you don’t have access to Xbox Live fear not then update will be available for download at Xbox.com later this week 🙂

[Source]

Posted in Auto Update, Microsoft, News, Xbox 360, Xbox Live | Leave a Comment »

Game Review: Calling All Cars!

Posted by Jay on Tuesday, May 15, 2007

We here at Next-Gen Gamer would like to announce a new feature to our little blog…game reviews! We know, we know, it’s been done before. But we want to help you, our readers, with your gaming selections. We’ll try to be as unbiased as possible, but keep in mind that these are our personal opinions on the games, so you don’t have to take our word for it. With that said, the lucky first review goes to the recently released PlayStation Network game from God of War creator David Jaffe…Calling All Cars!

callingallcars.jpg

Concept
The concept of the game is very simple. Criminals have escaped a jail and your job is to bring them back to jail. Easy enough, right? Problem is, there are three other people competing with you, trying to do the same thing.

At the start of a game, a criminal will pop up out of the ground (imagine those cartoons where criminals try to dig themselves a tunnel to get out of jail), and all four players will try to pick the criminal up and take him back to the police. Whoever gets to the criminal first will have a siren placed on top of their car and a game of tag will ensue. The other three can steal the criminal away from you by ramming into you, or by using one of the in game weapons. You score by taking him to the police station, by putting him into a paddywagon, or by driving under a police helicopter and waiting for them to pick the criminal up. The more difficult the method, the more points you get. Once you score, another criminal pops up, and the process repeats. Whoever has the most points at the end of the round wins.

Graphics
The graphics look pretty darn good. Everything is cartoony so this game can’t be critiqued for not being realistic. The levels are well drawn out and the many different cars look cool. I didn’t notice any framerate issues and playing in high definition is just great. I don’t think I can say much about the graphics because of the whole cartoon feel. It’s either you like it or you don’t.

Gameplay
Gameplay is this game’s selling point. Calling All Cars! is a game of rugby, racing, and hot potato combined. It’s so easy to get into as the controls are very simple. A lot of reviews had gripes with the single player mode, but I didn’t find it that bad. The one problem I had (and I still do), is that some of the cars are really hard to unlock. One of them can be unlocked by not letting your opponents score for 5 minutes on a certain map on Captain (hard) difficulty. That’s a lot easier said than done. However, that’s not much of a hassle because the amount of cars available at the beginning are good enough if you’re just going to play multiplayer.

That brings us to the meat of this game, its main selling point: multiplayer. Playing with other people, whether it’s split screen on one console or online over PSN, is an absolute blast. With the game being so fast paced and the criminal bouncing around from car to car, things can get really competitive, while being really fun at the same time. Playing online is really fun, virtually lag free, and being able to play 2 player splitscreen against other people online is great if you have someone to play with at home. If the single player isn’t doing it for you, the multiplayer will keep you coming back.

Final Thoughts
Calling All Cars! is a definite must buy for PlayStation Network users. Graphics are great, controls are simple, online and offline multiplayer are a blast, and at $10, you have a super fun party game. The only things that I feel will complete this game are more maps and an easier method to unlock new vehicles. The many positive things far outweigh the shortcomings though, so I still recommend this game.

Posted in Next-Gen Gamer Blog, Playstation 3, Playstation Network, Playstation Store, Reviews | 3 Comments »