Test Drive Unlimited!!!

click above pic for a full wallpaper

In my opinion it's the most anticipated game of 2006 on all platforms. I am anxiously awaiting the release of this game.

Test Drive Unlimited is the only game which immerses you into the Car & Bike enthusiast lifestyle, with total freedom to race however and whenver you want. The game has has 1000 miles of Roads and it means you can drive for hours without feeling bored of going through the same places again and again. This game has alot of other features which you can check out at http://www.testdriveunlimited.com I will be posting updates and comments whenever I came to know some new stuff about this game.

Game Features:

• Test Drive® Unlimited is redefining the racing genre online with M.O.O.R.: Massively Open Online Racing. It is the only game that allows for literally thousands of gamers to play within the same game world simultaneously. The seamless online connection offers unlimited new challenges, opponents and competitions as well as monthly additions of vehicles, aftermarket parts, clothes and apparel;
• More than 125 licensed vehicles from exclusive manufacturers including Lamborghini, Ducati, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Saleen, Shelby, and Jaguar;
• Realistic cars and bikes: Amazing render quality and unrivalled interior details including full car functions such as radio, electric windows, horn, wipers and more;
• Personalization: Upgrade each car or bike with options from the actual manufacturers’ catalog. Players create characters, buy new homes and garages, and tune and upgrade vehicles with aftermarket parts;
• Create challenges or races from more than 50 game rules and settings. Upload your created challenges online to become part of the player community;
• A gathering of communities: Players can create or join a club to talk, chat, trade, race or organize club-based competitions and tournaments;
• Simplified match making and division based rankings make this game the most comprehensive and accessible online racing experience.

Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 2 Review - PlayStation 2 Street Fighter Anniversary Collection Review

Street Fighter << This is the name which has sticked to my Childhood and Teenage years and always reminds me of the days of Street Fighter 1 and the supreme of all, the father of Arcade Fighting games, the Revolutionary "Street Fighter 2". I was the champ man!!! Read the review of new games on PS2, no matter when you play them, they are just going to be addictive.


Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 2 Review - PlayStation 2 Street Fighter Anniversary Collection Review:

The two games in Street Fighter Anniversary Collection have aged gracefully. In particular, Street Fighter III: Third Strike stands out as one of the best 2D fighting games on the PS2.

In 1991, Street Fighter II was released in video arcades all over the world, and it became an instant classic. This one-on-one 2D fighting game featured incredibly responsive controls and unprecedented depth, what with its eight memorable and highly complex playable characters. It ushered in a new era of arcades--a decade dominated by Street Fighter II-inspired fighting games. Street Fighter II itself saw several substantial upgrades over the years, which added new characters and new moves for the returning fighters, but the core gameplay never changed, and it didn't have to--it's timeless. Now you can experience the Street Fighter II series, as well as 1999's Street Fighter III: Third Strike, in a single volume in Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. Unfortunately, the name of this volume is misleading, since it's a missed opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest gaming franchises of all time. It's also worth noting that, while the forthcoming Xbox version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection promises online play, this version lacks that option. But the good news is that these fighting games--true to their classic roots--have aged gracefully. In particular, Street Fighter III: Third Strike stands out as one of the best 2D fighting games available on the PlayStation 2. Read More on GameSpot.com

Live-Action Warcraft Movie In The Works (News)

Live-Action Warcraft Movie In The Works (News)

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures today announced that they have entered into an agreement to develop a live-action film based on Blizzard Entertainment’s award-winning Warcraft universe. Based on the terms of the agreement, Legendary Pictures has acquired the movie rights for the best-selling game universe, and both companies are now focused on translating the high-quality Warcraft entertainment experience to the big screen.

“We searched for a very long time to find the right studio for developing a movie based on one of our game universes,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “Many companies approached us in the past, but it wasn’t until we met with Legendary Pictures that we felt we’d found the perfect partner. They clearly share our high standards for creative development, and because they understand the vision that we’ve always strived for with our Warcraft games, we feel there isn’t a better studio out there for bringing the Warcraft story to film.”

movie Warcraft Blizzard Legendary Pictures fantasy

"One of our goals at Legendary Pictures has been to bring heroic stories to life in groundbreaking ways, and it's inspiring to work with a company such as Blizzard that takes that approach with each of its products," stated Legendary Pictures chairman and CEO Thomas Tull. "The Warcraft universe is possessed of such a rich mythology and, as such, serves as an ideal platform as we go about translating that universe into what we intend to be a major event film."

Blizzard's Warcraft games have developed a loyal following since the series debuted in 1994. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, released in 1995, won multiple Game of the Year awards and is still considered one of the best games ever made, and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos broke multiple sales records when it launched in 2002. World of Warcraft, Blizzard's latest entry in the critically acclaimed franchise, has quickly become one of the world's most popular online games, with more than 6 million paying customers worldwide.

"From our first Warcraft game to our latest novels, our intention has always been to develop a rich fantasy universe that could support stories and products in many forms," stated Chris Metzen, Blizzard Entertainment's vice president of creative development. "In addition to being a truly rewarding experience for us, the creation of this motion picture also feels like a natural next step for the Warcraft universe."

"It's not always the case that interactive game properties lend themselves to proper adaptation to film," said Jon Jashni, Legendary Pictures' chief creative officer. "We are intending to approach this as we would the adaptation of a best-selling novel: respect the essence of all that it is but also build upon that fertile base while translating it into a new medium."

Further details about the upcoming Warcraft movie, including director, cast, and targeted release date, will be revealed in the months ahead.

Xbox.com | Xbox Live Home

Xbox.com | Xbox Live Home

LIVE!

You are unique—choose your gamer card, gamer picture, motto and much much more on the XBOX Live! website, check it out it's cool. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live

Game Distributor Sued Over Boy's Suicide

By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - The parents of a 13-year-old Chinese boy who they say jumped to his death from a tall building after playing one of the popular "Warcraft" online games for 36 hours straight are suing its Chinese distributor, a news report said Friday.

Zhang Xiaoyi died on Dec. 27, 2004, leaving behind a suicide note saying he wanted "to join the heroes of the game he worshipped," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

It said Zhang's parents, who live in Tianjin, just east of Beijing, are seeking 100,000 yuan ($12,500) from Aomeisoft, the Chinese distributor of "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans."

The suit says Aomeisoft failed to include a warning that the game's U.S. maker rates it as suitable only for players above age 13, according to Xinhua.

The Warcraft games are made by Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of Paris-based Vivendi Universal SA. Xinhua said a Tianjin court rejected a claim by the parents against the game maker.

The vice president of Aomeisoft, Bai Jie, told The Associated Press that he saw news reports about the lawsuit but that the company hasn't received any official court notice.

Bai said Zhang's parents were suing the wrong company, because Aomeisoft was set up in August, eight months after his death. Bai said he didn't know which distributor sold the game in 2004.

China has 111 million Internet users, second only to the United States. It is one of the world's biggest markets for online games, with tens of millions of players, many of whom hunker down for hours in front of PCs in public Internet cafes.

But the government has expressed concern about the violence and sexual content of some games. It has imposed curfews and time limits on children in Internet cafes and banned them near schools.

Also Friday, a newspaper said the Beijing city government has launched a review of the Chinese capital's 1,007 licensed Internet cafes to ensure they are complying with rules on admitting minors.

Violators could lose their licenses, the China Daily said.

In 2004, China shut down thousands of Internet cafes nationwide after a series of fatal fires and other accidents.

Xinhua said Zhang played at a "game hall," but didn't say whether that was an Internet cafe, which would have been required to limit his time there to a few hours.

Several cities have clinics to treat what psychiatrists have dubbed "Internet addiction" in users, many of them children and teenagers, who play online games or surf the Web for days at a time.

Specialists at a Beijing hospital examined Zhang's diary, school records and suicide note and concluded that "Zhang had excessively indulged in unhealthy games and contracted serious Internet addiction before his death," Xinhua reported.

His parents' suit also calls on the distributor to put a warning on the game's packaging saying "playing games excessively harms health," the report said.

Bai, the Aomeisoft executive, said the company plans to add "anti-addiction warnings" to future games.

The Warcraft games have 2.5 million players in China, with copies in more than 100,000 Internet cafes, Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Bernard Levy told reporters in Shanghai in April.

Playstation 3 Specs

PLAYSTATION 3 SPECIFICATIONS

CPU: Cell Processor PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
--1 VMX vector unit per core
--512KB L2 cache
--7 x SPE @3.2GHz
--7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
--7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
--*1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
--Total floating point performance: 218 gigaflops

GPU RSX @ 550MHz
--1.8 TFLOPS floating point Performance
--Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
--Multi-way programmable parallel Floating point shader pipelines
--Sound Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-based processing)

MEMORY
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
System Bandwidth Main RAM-- 25.6GB/s
VRAM--22.4GB/s
RSX-- 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
SB2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)

SYSTEM FLOATING POINT PERFORMANCE:
2 teraflops

STORAGE
--HDD Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
--I/O--USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
--Memory Stickstandard/Duo, PRO x 1
--SD standard/mini x 1
--CompactFlash(Type I, II) x 1

COMMUNICATION
--Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
--Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
--Bluetooth--Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
--ControllerBluetooth (up to 7)
--USB 2.0 (wired)
--Wi-Fi (PSP)
--Network (over IP)

AV OUTPUT
Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI out x 2
AV multi out x 1
Digital out (optical) x 1

DISC MEDIA
CD
PlayStation CD-ROM
PlayStation2 CD-ROM
CD-DA
CD-DA (ROM),
CD-R,
CD-RW
SACD Hybrid (CD layer),
SACD HD
DualDisc (audio side)
DualDisc (DVD side)
PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM
PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD+R,
DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc
PlayStation 3 BD-ROM
BD-ROM
BD

Nintendo Exec Courts Nongamers With Wii - Yahoo! News

Nintendo Exec Courts Nongamers With Wii - Yahoo! News

By MATT SLAGLE, AP Technology Writer

LOS ANGELES - The latest round in the video game console wars appears to be a race among Sony Corp, Nintendo Co. and Microsoft Corp. for the flashiest, most powerful system. But that's not how Nintendo President Satoru Iwata sees it.

While Microsoft and Sony have wooed gamers with speedy processors and high-definition graphics on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Iwata said Nintendo's Wii console is trying to address a more pressing concern: luring more nongamers into the fold.

"The approach to make more gorgeous-looking graphics ... to have the horsepower, to have much faster processing — they don't do anything to ask nongamers to play with a video game," Iwata said through a translator in an interview with The Associated Press.

Ever since the Wii console was announced last year under the codename Revolution, company officials have pushed the system's nonconformist ways and declined to talk much about any high-tech specs.

And while Microsoft and Sony have divulged pricing and availability details, Nintendo has yet to say anything about cost or set an exact launch date, except that it will be available sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

At the center of the company's vision is the Wii's TV-remote style input device, which can be swung around to mimic a baseball bat or pulled back and aimed like a bow and arrow. A palm-sized attachment, which plugs into the end of the controller, adds two-handed capabilities for games like "Super Mario Galaxy."

Iwata said traditional video game controllers, bristling with buttons and triggers, have intimidated nongamers. He said he believes the Wii could break down the barriers between avid gamers and newcomers.

"We thought if we could make this type of TV-remote, these nongamers would play also," Iwata said. "We are hopeful this kind of approach can expand the gaming population. What we have come up with has turned out to be something really different from what other game companies have come up with."

Though the Wii will play traditional DVDs with an add-on accessory, it lacks features like Blu-ray or HD-DVD drives for high-definition movies or startlingly realistic graphics.

Still, the Wii has been a huge draw at this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

As the show opened each morning, a stampede of attendees sprinted to Nintendo's booth to get first dibs on Wii games such as the off-road racer "Excite Truck" and "Wii Sports."

In "Wii Sports," players were on their feet and swinging their arms wildly in virtual tennis courts and baseball stadiums. Other games have people conducting an orchestra or casting a fishing line.

"Nintendo's mission is to try to make people happy, to try to make people smile," Iwata said.

This happiness extends beyond fans to business adversaries like Microsoft Vice President Peter Moore.

"I'm a huge fan on Nintendo and I love the innovation," Moore said of the Wii controller. "I'm sure it's going to be fun in a lot of games."

As for the name Wii (pronounced "We"), Iwata said:

"We wanted people to remember the name as soon as they heard it," he said. "When people become so accustomed to the Wii name, nobody is going to say it's a strange name, just like nobody is going to say that Google is a strange name, or Ikea is a strange name today."

Video Games, Video Games, Video Games

You know what i mean!