So, I also watched they keynote last night. Looking back on it now, I feel it was a huge waste of an hour or so. I was expecting microsoft to really bring out something interesting. Xbox 360 related or not, I was just hoping for something. I think the IPTV thing was the most interesting part of the keynote, but even thinking back on that, I don’t see how this will provide anything that you’d really want to see over watching cable or satellite as it is now. On top of it, I’m pretty sure that because it’s microsoft we’re talking about, none of the content is going to be free.

We saw no hdmi or hard drive announcements. The only halfway interesting thing game related was the cross platform gaming, with uno. Although at first, this was kinda a cool demo, after thinking about it, it’s not really that amazing. Microsoft is most likely going to try to force pc gamers to start paying for live, across as many games as possible. Uno and Halo2 are supposed to be the first cross live titles, but I heard that Halo2 is actually not going to be cross platform multiplayer, only cross platform in the sense you can message each other via the 360 or pc. This is kinda stupid, but the alternative would surely mean that console users would be slaughtered.

It’s not all doom and gloom for microsoft, but Sony even announced higher sales during their launch than Microsoft had during theirs a year ago. Personally, I think this is mainly because of people buying the systems only to resell them, but it’s definately something that needs to perk microsofts ears up.

It made me think of a funny way to look at what Microsoft says about the number of consoles shipped. With the constant back and forth motion of refurbs being sent in and then arriving doa to users nationwide (possibly worldwide) it makes me wonder how many consoles are actually out there.

The only other part of the keynote I felt was worth commenting on was the whole “house of the future” crap. Bill Gates demoed a kitchen where rfid works in tandem with a projection or otehr type display to show you recipes and other stuff thats kitchen related. We saw this all a few years ago, and why it’s in the keynote I have no idea. Then we saw this bedroom with lcd panels on the wall showing weird random pictures and a webcam view in a picture frame. I just can’t shake the feeling that MS really has nothing new or interesting to show this CES, it’s kinda like they are unprepared or something.

I hope the next few days show us something better here.

Move over Xbox 360. Move over PS2. The PS3 is the fastest console to sell 1 million units. In the period from launch until last week, Sony sold 1 million PS3’s. In the same time frame, the Xbox 360 sold 600k units last year. I’m honestly shocked at that huge number. Maybe that’s why there’s lots of PS3’s available now, because Sony ramped the every living hell out of production and get them to market.

I’m happy that there’s a glimmer of good news here for Sony, in the midst of all the negative press they’ve been getting. If these sales keep up, and they sell more than Microsoft’s touted 10.4 million in the first year, expect BluRay to win the format war over HD-DVD.

From the press release:

SCEA went to great lengths to help meet demand for PS3, including airlifting systems into North America on a weekly basis to ensure a steady stream of units were available to consumers throughout the holiday season,” said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA. “The fact that we were able to reach the one-million mark faster than our top-selling platform, the PS2, further validates the strength of the PlayStation brand and our belief that consumers are ready to experience true high-definition gaming.” … “Reaching the one million mark for PS3 is the first of many major milestones for us as we head into a new year. Even more impressive, is that we were able to accomplish this feat while successfully managing two other gaming platforms-PS2 and PSP,” said Tretton. “With three PlayStation platforms now available to gamers, 2007 will be about software and delivering innovative, new experiences and award-winning franchises to consumers, both through retail and through our online PLAYSTATION Network.

So Bill Gates keynote just ended at CES. All I can say is… what a fucking waste of time. No announcement of HDMI enabled 360 or larger hard drive. They announced more about Live Anywhere, which we all already knew about. They just said UNO and Halo 2 will be playable as cross platform. Cool and all, but where’s the good shit? No fucking where. That’s where it is.

With the recent news from Sony today that they’ve sold 1 million PS3 units (Xbox 360 sold 600k in that same time frame), Microsoft better capitalize NOW on whatever they can, meaning HDMI and a larger hard drive. The longer they wait, the more they’re going to piss off their user base.

Just to remind anyone interested that Bill Gates’ CES Keynote Address is tonight at 6:30PM PST. It’s being streamed live here.

Expect announcements of the IPTV service, larger hard drive, and HDMI version of the Xbox 360. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bill talks about Halo 3 either (yeah, I went out on a limb on that one).

So Xbox Scene basically confirmed the living hell out of this “rumor”. They have very high resolution pics of the case and motherboard, showing all the changes. The main change to the motherboard is replacing the “Ana” scaler chip with a “Hana” scaler chip. This can only mean that the current scaling in the 360 CANNOT produce a digital output, hence the redesign. Check out the video for yourself. I’m expecting announcements tomorrow at Bill Gates’ CES keynote.

Video after the jump
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Engadget got their hands on a nice pic of the new version of the Xbox 360, code-named “Zephyr” which should be coming “soon” according to their insider. Check the pic below for what proves to be the biggest feature: a dedicated HDMI port. I guess this puts to rest all the rumors that the AV port could actually ouput an HDMI signal. Also reported to be included is a 120GB hard drive, which should ease the pain of running out of space all the time, which I’ve even done a time or two, and I haven’t even downloaded any movies or TV shows yet.

My big question is what is Microsoft going to do for everyone that already has a 360 that has been bitching about no digital video output? Are they going to say “Oh well” and make everyone buy a new one? How much is this upgraded box going to cost anyway. I know I would LOVE to have HDMI output on my 360 for the HD-DVD movies at 1080p and full HDMI uncompressed audio, but I don’t see myself spending another $400 on it. Microsoft better be offering some sort of major discount to current 360 owners, or even better, a trade-up program. Send them your old 360, pay a small fee, get a new HDMI 360.

UPDATE (from jmel): Xbox-scene now has footage and more details on this nice little present to 360 gamers that have listened to the xbox team play down hdmi since the consoles launch a year ago.

Pic after the jump
Hit the jump for more…

Well video games have come a long way and if you happen to be near the London’s Science Museum you can actually witness the evolution of video games first hand. There is an exhibit here called ‘Game On’ which chronicles the voyage from the original video game ‘Space War!’, designed by Steve Russel and some buddies at MIT in 1962, to our current era. The exhibit is sponsored by Nintendo and is available to the public now until February 25, 2007. Wish I could check it out first hand, if anyone knows more let me know, I would love to see something like this in the US.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/gameon/

So I decided to hook up my Xbox 360 with VGA cables to my new Samsung 1080p HDTV, since the only way to get 1080p from HD-DVD with the console is to use VGA. Yeah, absolutely retarded, I know. Can you say HDMI cable? Anyway, I am among the close to 100% of VGA users who are experiencing issues. You either get washed out colors, extremely soft picture, or both. I’m experiencing the ridiculously soft picture quality. You can tell right away with the text in the dashboard looking muddy. Another huge problem I have is that the picture doesn’t seem to truely be 1920×1080. When you first turn it on, the image doesn’t fill the screen at all. There’s a 1-2″ black border around the whole screen. I was able to zoom the picture with the TV menus, but it still is not the same picture as the component video cables. You can tell it’s not zoomed in as far.

I’ve read a couple places where Microsoft outputs in a non-standard way over VGA, which is why people are having issues with VGA. Seriously, why the bloody fuck can’t Microsoft just put out an HDMI cable? This would solve just about every issue people with 1080p sets are having right now. My guess, which I would wager a good deal of money on at this point, is that the hardware just isn’t there to output digital video. Unless they update the hardware, there’s no chance of getting HDMI output on the 360. And I know for damn sure I’m not buying another one. If they could do it, they would have released one already to combat the only thing the PS3 has going for them.

[Update] I know a lot of people have no problems with the VGA connection on a computer monitor. I was referring to TVs here.

Drunk Pandas

So now that 2006 has come to an end, I figure it’s time to pick my game of the year. This year was a tough pick. There’s 4 games all close to that number 1 spot. You’ve got Zelda for Wii, Guitar Hero 2 for PS2, and Final Fantasy XII for PS2 that all came close, but just didn’t cut it. So my winner for the 2006 Game of the Year is Gears of War for the Xbox 360. This game lived up to the hype machine that was created around it. The graphics, gameplay, and story are all amazing. Kudos to Cliffy B and the team at Epic for creating such a great game! Hopefully the trilogy rumors prove to be true.

Hopefully next year PS3 will have some better showings and even come close to the top of the list, as well as PSP and DS (which both had some damn good titles this year).

Jmel

I would have to say that my most enjoyable gaming this year has come with Gears of War. The commercial that came out built up the hype, then I got to go to the event in Chapel Hill, and play the game. I knew at that moment, it was going to be a hot seller. It’s the only game I’ve ever gone back to play a 2nd time or more (I’m on my 3rd time now). The game is not without its flaws, (still voice problems when joining an in session game online) but for the most part it is everything that a next gen game for the 360 should be. The cooperative play, the basic yet fun tactics. It’s just a fun game all around. My runner-ups would be Oblivion which easily defined the bar for the first half of the year, and also oddly, Test Drive Unlimited, which really gives people a peek at what racing games can evolve to in the coming years.

StevenSteel

Although I am limited in the amount of systems I have played, I think Oblivion is by far the game of the year. Even after beating the game and finishing all the achievements, I continue to play the game, download content and extra missions, and hack away at the numerous skill parts for each character. For me in 2006, Oblivion occupied most of my time and kept me glued to the graphics and game play features. Not to take anything away from GOW, because it does have amazing graphics and online features, I just don’t think it has the depth and overall features of Oblivion. I can only hope Elder Scrolls V will be even more in depth and make each time playing the game with a different character just as exciting as the first. I would say my view is skewed though, since I am not a huge fan of online play, I prefer to just sit down and play a game at my own leisure. Purchasing a PS3 is in my near future and hopefully will be able to add more titles to my arsenal.

Taz8080

This year had quite a full lineup for almost every system, the top 4 that stick out in my head overall are Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas and Dead Rising. I played these all on e the 360 and saw the difference and elevation of game play to the next generation console. I have logged quite a few hours in each and enjoyed them all but I will break down my choice as follow: Rainbow Six Vegas and Marvel ultimate Alliance are great titles that provide good old fashioned online gaming and coop with your buddies. Both titles build off of their predecessors extremely well but in essence are rehashes of older iterations, to me the GOTY has to be original. That leaves Dead Rising and Gears of War, both awesome games that were innovative and tough, while providing a fresh new gaming experience and really puling you into their story. For me this is a tough choice and I would love to go against Gears to be different, but it just provided the full package, I think if Dead Rising would have given me online options I would pick it hands down. My GOTY pick would have to be Gears it lived up to it’s hyped up billing, sorry Dead Rising, but if ripping a man in half with a chainsaw is wrong… I just don’t want to be right.