Who won E3 2006?

This is the million dollar question. To judge this objectively is a hard thing to do, that is why I decided to go the old fashioned way and pull in some numbers.

This graph is generated by the blog-trendsearch http://www.blogpulse.com. As you can see around April, 25th there is a huge spike on the Wii. Obviously this is when the name was announced by Nintendo. Note that it even generated a little bit more buzz than their showing at E3.

Nintendo Wii: generated the most buzz with their new innovative controller that was unveiled to the public for the first time.

Xbox 360: Considerable buzz mainly for it's huge line-up of AAA titles and a few peripherals.

Playstation 3: comes in last in the graph. They showed some promising titles and had the trailer of the show with MGS4 which was simply sublime. I'm guessing their huge price announcement also made quite a few blog ;) Sony what are you doing? :(

So after E3 buzz goes to normal and the 360 is on top again. The reason being that the product is out, games are released, etc. There is a small Wii spike at the date the < $250 price point rumour surfaced. My hopes are at $200 as I stated earlier on my blog.

Personally I was most excited about all the great games Microsoft announced. The games the Wii showed off unfortunately did not really catch my attention, then again I'm really interested in what games devs will come up with for the controller. For Playstation 3 I'm excited about Heavenly Sword, F1 and the Naughty Dog studios game. They really let me down on the controller, and their enormous price. I personally can't miss rumble, simply because this feature is really an added value when playing racing games and some sports games. And I'm really a racing fan. Too bad.

Weeee... uhm... I mean Wii

Nintendo is redefining the way we cheer when playing videogames. They recently announced the official name for their next-gen console, codenamed Revolution. The new name is ... (drum-rolls)... Wii. Pretty odd if you ask me, to be honest I liked Revolution better, but I guess I'll have to get used to it.

Here is an excerpt from their announcement: "While the code-name "Revolution" expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.
Wii will break down that wall that seperates video game players from everybody else.
Wii will put people more in touch with theur games... and each other.
But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like "we", which emphasizes this console is for everyone." Now try reading that with a straight face :D I guess we'll get more info on the Wii at E3.

Ubisoft says goodbye to Starforce

Last week Ubisoft officially confirmed it will stop using Starforce copy protection on it's upcoming games. The official reason being, 'user complaints'. Maybe the lawsuit that gamers filed agains Ubisoft has something to do with it. Anyway, this is strike one. And remember, oh dear Starforce, strike three and you're out :p

That being said, it seems the russian company is losing ground in copy protection world. In my opinion this is a good thing for gamers but also for Ubisoft. Starforce is having a lot of bad press lately, as you might have noticed on my blog :p It's only a matter of time when the few remaining studios / publishers follow suit. As a matter of fact, with Ubisoft ditching Starforce, the only big and wellknown publisher using SF, that I can name off the top of my head, is Codemasters. I sincerely hope they also move to another copy protection scheme. They have some nice franchises like DTM Race Driver and Colin McRae Rally, luckily these are also released on consoles :)

PS3 - First price indication

In a radio interview George Fornay, president of Sony Computer Entertainment France and vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, stated that the PS3 will cost between 500 and 600 euro. Comparing to the X360's prices, 300 and 400 euro, that is quite a difference.

I'm taking this with a grain of salt, since it's not exactly an official statement by Sony. Then again, if it turns out to be true, the war for the holiday season shopper's money might turn out to be very interesting. This makes the christmas next-gen console line-up quite intriguing:


Putting the features next to eachother, reveals an interesting strategy of the big 3. Nintendo is aiming for a back-to-the-roots console, with a unique controller. Cleary concentrating on gameplay and not going along with the performance hype, which is a good thing I think. Microsoft basically offers their customers the choice what they want based on their needs, while delivering a powerful HD console. Sony on the other hand, provides a all-in package. Wether you need WiFi and Bluray or not, you're going to pay for it. And all this obviously translates to the price points.

Is Sony shooting itself in the foot?
The early adopters will not feel any remorse when they throw 500 to 600 euro on the counter for the new console. Without a doubt the console will be sold out during launch, as they projected 1 million consoles to be initially available worldwide. A Xbox 360 availability scenario is looming for PS3. This might also be why they put the price point pretty high. The problem I foresee is getting the casual gamer to pay that amount of money for a console, while everyone got used to the €400 sweet spot and Nintendo offering a cheap console. So either they will have to lower the price drastically when units are more readily available (until then, Nintendo and MS have even more time to expand their userbase), or simply forget about a huge userbase this time around... Sony is probably hoping for videophiles to get the system for the BluRay drive, but I sincerely doubt mainstream sees the benefits of HD movies and on top of that, the HDTV installed base is not that big either.

Sony's excuse? "...while this might sound like a lot of money for a game system, it is in fact cheap for a Blu-ray compatible playback system." Which is true, but this reveals a new strategy to me. With the PS2, Sony pushed DVD to mainstream consumers through the popularity of their console and their game franchises. This time around the marketing buzz seems to be the opposite: they are pushing their expensive console through the "future popularity" of BluRay. Wether they will succeed in this endeavor, remains to be seen. Considering Sony's previous attempts to push a proprietary format, they can only hope that history doesn't repeat itself.

What does this mean for the competition?
You can rest assured that the 360 will be on the shelves in big amounts, so I expect a killer holiday sales number for Microsoft, Japan not included obviously :p Clearly Sony nor Nintendo will have their production and stock at MS' level. I predict Microsoft will either drop the price a little, or make a special bundle. For example a 360 Premium with 2 platinum titles OR one new title. My bets are on the bundle ;) This would up the pressure on the contenders even more, and potentially create a huge sales momentum for the 360.

If Nintendo is going for the somewhat lower price point as I'm expecting, I see them doing very well this generation. They got quite some nice cards in their hands, a very nice playable back catalogue, a unique controller, solid and famous franchises, and most likely an attractive pricing.

Next holiday season however, the best cards will be in Microsoft's hands. A big next-gen game catalogue, a proven online gaming service, high availability and average pricing. A few months later, when PS3 and Revolution are more readily available, Halo 3 will be released (slated for March 2007). A very good strategy if you ask me, because they counter the competition and third party games wont have to compete with Halo during the holiday rush.

Nobody can predict what will happen. However, as far as I can see, Microsoft is doing their very best to expand their userbase, and has a well thought out plan to do just that. Nintendo goes back to the roots of gameplay and Sony just wants everything in their console :) Who will turn out to be the most successful this next generation? In the end it all comes down to the games and what the fanboys will do :D

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review

Oblivion hit stores around the world a week ago. The internet hype around this game has been phenomenal. Why? Well it's the new installment in the popular single player RPG series Elder Scrolls. On top of that it is the first major RPG-title for the Xbox 360, which obviously contributed to the hype buildup. The question is, does the game deliver?

Gameplay: Oblivion is a sandbox game. This means that you basically choose what game it will be. Think Grand Theft Auto in a Fantasy World. After a good "tutorial-dungeon", which enables you to familiarise with the controls and on top of that the main story line starts there. At the end of this stage you get to pick your birthsign and class. You can create all kind of hybrid characters, which is actually fun.

When you get out of the tutorial your adventure begins. At this point you are free to go and do whatever you want. By completing quests or simply kill creatures you gain experience and at a certain point you are able to level up and increase your skills. The story however is really great. I liked it so much that my first 10 gameplay hours have been very slowpaced. When you get into a city and talk with citizens or merchants, you often get side quests, which mostly are pretty cool and not always your typical "fed-ex"-quest. After 10 hours I barely scratched the surface of the game. I didn't see much of the world yet, and the main story line is still in it's beginning stages. This game promises some massive ammounts of gameplay hours.

The fighting system comes together pretty well. To damage your oponent you can use all kind of swords, bows, magic and so on. The blocking system is manual and not calculated on the basis of stats. By simply using abilities you will gain skillpoints which allows you to use better spells.

Gameplay: 8.5 / 10



Graphics: Stunning! Depending on your system the graphics are true eye-candy. However the game scales pretty good, so somewhat older systems will still be able to run it, however with a cost to be paid in the graphics department. This game uses all the latest technoligies, like HDR. The Havok physics engine really adds to the visual enjoyment of the game. When your system is powerfull enough you can tweak the .ini file to replace the low ress textures in the background with higher resolution versions. Also the pop-in of grass, buildings, trees etc can be highly modified. With everything maxed out this is one stunning title. If you want next-gen, there u have it!

Graphics: 9.5/10

Audio: The soundfx and soundtracks are really phenomenal to say the least, they really create a nice atmosphere in the game. Certainly worth mentioning is that every NPC (non-player-character) communicates with you in spoken words, complimented with subtitles. This adds alot to the realism of the game, and also makes it more appealing to get into the story. After all you're playing a game, and not reading a book, so that helps alot.

Audio: 9/10

Wrap-Up: This game really raises the bar. All aspects of the game are topnotch. The gameplay and story are fun, the graphics are stunning and the audio is phenomenal. 'nuff said.

Conclusion: 9/10

Xbox360, PS3 and Nintendo Revolution update

Last week the annual GDC was held. This conference is more geared towards the game devs, as the name implies ;) However time and again, new tidbits of info are released to the public. But rest assured, the big smoking guns are firmly held on to until E3, where the console war will reach a new high this year.

Microsoft did not have a keynote at GDC. Then again, they had some nice stuff to show and hand out to people. The buzzword was XNA, their new game dev framework. Basically what it does is provide devs the tools to create games in a more timely fashion, because of the tools. It allows content creators, programmers, testers to work together in the XNA Studio. It also features a unified set of class libraries which will allow for maximal re-use of code and assets across target platforms. Those target platforms are obviously Xbox 360 and Windows. Write once, play many :)

Attendees of GDC were given the March XNA build , which includes the complete source code of Mechcommander 2 as a product demo. If you are interested in the DVD, you can get it at Microsoft's website.

On the Sony side, not much news has surfaced on the PS3 during their keynote. Most notable was another confirmation of their online service. This will launch simultainiously with the console. So they have a lot of work to do, since they are starting from scratch. It remains to be seen how their cooperation with GameSpy will turn out. However there are some fishy claims about the price of this online service. Some claim online play will be free and gamers would have to pay for particular content. On the other hand, other sites are reporting a per-game fee for online gameplay. I guess we will get more specific details at E3. On a positive sidenote, their final devkits should reach devs before E3 ;)

Nintendo also had a keynote at GDC. Their biggest announcement was that they have made a deal with Sega to make the top Genesis games available through the Revolution. How about that! If you told me years ago, when I was playing my Sega Master System, that by 2006 I would be able to play Sonic on a Nintendo, I would've declared you crazy :D Well time passes, and here we are, being on the virge of doing just that.

I guess the console war will now blend into a cold war, until battle is reopened at E3, where armies of marketing soldiers will draw their guns and let the bullets do the talking.

Starforce forces reboots?

According to the internet rumour mill, the Starforce RING0 drivers are rebooting pc's when someone tries to copy a protected cd. Without an option to save any work. The driver would also interfere with existing drm software, causing legally bought games to stop functioning.

Whether this is true or not, I do not know. But I sure as hell wouldn't be surprised if it was...

Xbox 360 "hacked"

This weekend the first genuine Xbox 360 hack video has surfaced. The video shows a backup copy of PGR3 being booted on the hacked console. "Hacked console" is not entirely true. As a matter of fact it is not the console that's hacked, but the firmware of the Hitachi dvd drive.

The hack doesn't allow unsigned code to be booted, so no XBMC for you guys yet ;) 360 executables are signed and thus cannot be modified. In the executable it is specified what kind of media the software can be run from, in the case of games this would be a genuine 360 dvd-rom. The dvd drive checks the media and reports back to the system. TheSpecialist and his crew have created a modified firmware that always reports the disc is a genuine dvd, even if it is in fact a recordable. Another problem is that genuine dvd's have specific bad sectors on the disc as an extra protection. As these cannot be written with regular dvd recorders, a fix was needed. The hackers use a lookup table that reports the necessary sectors as bad, even when they are not. This implies that for every new game, a new lookup table has to be added somewhere.

As this firmware can only be used for piracy, since running unsigned code isn't possible yet, TheSpecialist has decided to not release it into the wild. This might have some thinking the hack is not a legit one, although I'm pretty convinced it is. For example in the video they do not show the back of the TV which could have another 360 connected. Then again, the group of hackers have a good reputation, and their research is available for review. As of yet nobody has claimed the hack as a hoax, which I do not expect to ever happen.

If this hack got out anyway, it would be a piece of cake for Microsoft to check the firmware for inconsistencies through a live update, so this hack would not be very effective. So what's next, and when will people be able to run unsigned code? (if ever)

PS3 launch delay officially confirmed

Last year at E3 Sony announced the new iteration of their Playstation console would hit the market in spring this year. The previous weeks and even months there was quite some speculation online that PS3 would not make that launch window. There are still no final devkits, hardware hasn't been finalised and the Bluray vs HD-DVD format war didnt help anything either. It has also been suspiciously quiet since E3, with no mayor announcements or news whatsoever concerning the new Playstation console.

Today there came an end to the PS3 silence. The big man himself, Ken Kutaragi, held a press conference where he let out some new info to the public. The most important thing being that Sony will try to launch the console in November this year, worldwide, mind you. They also announced that Sony will start up its counterpart to Xbox Live, namely 'PlayStation Network Platform' which would alledgedly be free.

Anyone could have guessed the PS3 would be delayed, but today it finally is official. I'm quite curious if we will see some playable games at E3. My guess is that there will be, and to be honest I think that last years E3 CGI-hype bubble will burst into thin air when that happens. Sony has proven in the past to not live up to the hype they create, Namco Girl anyone? :D Even a Sony insider claimed earlier this year that Xbox 360 would even be more potent, ofcourse he got fired. Most devs are saying that both will be more or less equal in terms of graphics and overall power.

By the time PS3 is released Xbox 360 games will more or less be going into their second generation of games. So I think it's more then likely Xbox 360 will have better graphics then PS3 launch games. On top of that the 360 will have a much larger game catalogue. Marketshare-wise I think PS3 will certainly be at the top of the list in Japan. US and EU marketshare remains to be seen. But I think the new Sony console will probably also top the list in the other regions after a while.

Either way, by the time PS3 launches, I'll be playing next-gen games on my 360 for a year, give or take :D And it remains to be seen how the 'PlayStation Network Platform' will compare to Xbox Live, considering they are more or less starting from scratch on that regard. Anyway, 2006 will prove to be a good year for gamers!

Starforce links warez on their forum

As you may know, Starforce is a copy protection scheme used to prevent illegal copying of intellectual property, manely used for game protection. There's a lot of controversy around the Starforce copy protection. Quite some users have reported malfunctioning operating systems, security issues, slow CD drive speeds, even to the point of physically destroying CD-Rom drives. Ofcourse the company claims their software is perfectly safe, in contrast users are reporting the above mentioned problems. Whoever is right, I do not know. What I do know is that usually, where there is smoke, there's most probably a fire. For more information what games are using Starforce, and how to remove the drivers it installs, I recommend that you visit the Starforce Boycot website.

A few weeks ago a game called Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords was released. Nothing out of the ordinary you would think, except for the fact that this game doesn't use any copy protection whatsoever. It has a serial number, which you would only need when you want to download updates for the game, or when you want to access the online "Metaverse". This game has some great salesfigures, even claiming to be bestselling software at Walmart, without any copy protection.
This caused quite a stir on the internet, and quite some sites reported the good sales.

Now what happened is that someone had posted a link to such an article on the Starforce forum, to question wether or not copy protection increases sales. Here comes the shocking part, an administrator of Starforce replied with a link to a torrent website that had an illegal copy of the software, claiming thousands of people are downloading the game right now. To me this looks like some mafia practices... "Hey you don't use our copy protection, watch this, we'll help spread the illegal copies". Stardock, the creator of the game, made a statement about this on their website. The link was removed on both the Starforce forum and the torrent site it was linking to.

However, this leaves me with one question. Is Starforce a legitimate Russian company, or are they Russian mafia in disguise?