The CoG

How deep would you like to go?

2005-05-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

Are you curious to know how the IBM processor and ATI GPU will work together in the Xbox 360? Look no further than ArsTechnica.com. They have an in-depth explanation of what exactly is going on inside of Microsoft's upcoming console. As is par for the course on their site, this article will satisfy the most seasoned of tech jocks. Needless to say, most of the discussion was way beyond my simple reasoning. You will not find a more detailed article regarding the technical side of Xbox 360 gaming.

You can read the first in their series of Xbox 360 related articles by using this link.

Technorati Tag: xbox 360

Perfect Dark Zero details

2005-05-26T00:35:00.000-04:00

It’s been five long years since Joanna Dark made an appearance. Her 2000 debut, Perfect Dark, redefined the first-person shooter genre as laid out by her predecessor, GoldenEye 007. Now with the advent of the Xbox 360, she’s got her guns sighted at you.

Xbox.com cornered the game's development team at Rare and got some new details on Perfect Dark Zero, including the game’s A.I., vehicles, weapons, and other stealthy treats.

Here are some highlights:

Stealth: The game has many opportunities to be stealthy, with a few new moves introduced to assist this. Ultimately, the choice is the player's: Be stealthy or grab the biggest weapon you own. Keep in mind that you might have to deal with the consequences of not being stealthy.

A.I.: Teammates are also there to assist gamers who play on thier own, and some interesting things happen when another human joins in to help.

Vehicles: Vehicles feature heavily. Take the jetpack (a single user exoskeleton armed with twin guns having both air and ground capabilities). Plug away at the main body, target the weaker but harder-to-hit wings, or go straight for the pilot. Those are the options presented when in combat against a jetpack.

Multiplayer: There are two types of multiplayer experiences. If you want a more arcade-like multiplayer experience, then Deathmatch is for you. A tense tactical multiplayer is catered for in our DarkOps mode.

Xbox Live: Player choice is now greater than ever. The most obvious one is the ability to play against more than 50 players in multiplayer. If you want to play on your own, that's great. And up to four players can play from a single machine locally or over Xbox Live. If human opposition is not your cup of tea, then add some bots that work both locally and over Xbox Live.

Replayability: We have really striven hard for replay-ability. We wanted to give players a compelling reason to play story mode again and again. Multiple ways to achieve goals on the levels enhances this. We're not going to say how yet, but Xbox Live plays a big part.

History: PDZ is set three years before the original. It's business as usual: Giant corporations fight for control of the planet, working to achieve their shadowy objectives by any means necessary. Jo is thrown into this world of intrigue and conspiracy and meets many of the characters and organizations in the Perfect Dark universe for the first time. There are plenty of links to the original game, but because PDZ is an origin story, just like the Spider-Man movie, new players won't miss out on a thing. So yes, there's plenty of the cloak and dagger stuff, but that doesn't meant there can't be an explosion or two along the way.

Weapons: Here are five out of the 26 weapons in the game, all of which have secondaries that add new gameplay elements to the mix.

The Phantom: The weapon of choice for stealth fanatics. It's an energy weapon with a secondary that allows you to cloak. It's a shame it needs to de-cloak to fire.
The Laptop Gun: For tacticians. Throw this down and it turns into a sentry gun that shoots at enemy players. Put it down in a clever spot to reap the rewards.
The RCP-90: For the paranoid. The secondary activates the threat detector mode, which highlights enemies (even cloaked ones) and hostile targets as red and friendlies as green. A cunning player can also use this to reprogram hostile enemy weapons such as the sentry gun.
The Shockwave Rifle: A scout's dream. It's a sniper rifle with the powerful ability to see through walls, even revealing the skeletons of enemies. Line an unsuspecting enemy up as they come 'round the corner and—blam!
The Psychosis Pistol: Loved by the truly evil. Mess with the minds of your opponents and turn enemies against each other.

Click HERE for the full interview.

Technorati Tag: xbox 360

Extreme Tech indeed..

2005-05-26T00:21:00.000-04:00

ExtremeTech has a great post-E3 comparison of Microsoft's and Sony's next-gen consoles. It is a great read that is un-biased and to the point. You can check it out by following this link.

They also have a very interesting read with their interview of Todd Holmdahl, the VP responsible for all the hardware development, hardware and semiconductor teams, manufacturing, and test teams on the Xbox 360. You can read the full interview by following this link.

Technorati Tag: xbox 360

"Must Read" Articles

2005-05-23T22:56:00.000-04:00

1up.com has some interesting feature articles posted on the Xbox360 portion of their site. The following articles should be considered "Must Reads" by anyone interested in the Xbox 360.

Building a First-Party Legacy
Xbox 360 Developer Roundtable Discussion
Xbox 360 Revealed (Everything you need to know about Microsoft's Next-Gen Console)

Technorati Tag: xbox 360

Xbox 360's GPU ..an in-depth look

2005-05-23T09:03:00.000-04:00

The Tech Report is one of the first un-biased sources to get a chance to go deep inside the Xbox 360's GPU and see what really makes it tick.

TR's Scott Wasson was afforded the privilege by ATI to discuss the 360's GPU and the architectural details of the graphics processor that they created for Microsoft's next-gen system.

From Scott Wasson's Report;

I had a brief but enlightening conversation with Bob Feldstein, Vice President of Engineering at ATI, who helped oversee the Xbox 360 GPU project. He spelled out some of the GPU's details for me, and they're definitely intriguing.

Feldstein said that ATI and Microsoft developed this chip together in the span of two years, and that they worked "from the ground up" to do a console product. He said that Microsoft was a very good partner with some good chip engineers who understood the problems of doing a non-PC system design. Also, because the part was custom created for a game console, it could be designed specifically for delivering a good gaming experience as part of the Xbox 360 system.

The report details the various capabilities of the new system's GPU. It is definitely an interesting read and the details revealed are more than a little intriguing.

Follow this link to read the full report.

Technorati Tag: xbox 360

Xbox 360 -vs- PS3 ..The real story?

2005-05-23T00:06:00.000-04:00

Since the specs for both the Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 have been revealed there has been a lot of talk about which console is the more powerful game maching.

A lot of media outlets have made claims that the PS3 is up to 3 times as powerful as the Xbox 360. People seem to believe those outrageous claims after seeing footage of PS3 games at this year's E3, Killzone 2 being the most talked about of those games.

It has since been revealed, by the Killzone 2 developers, that the footage is a "representation of what we wish the game to be". In other words, it's NOT in-game footage and in no way represents what final PS3 graphics will look like.

Now, people at Microsoft have taken a hard look at each system's specs and have published their own version of the story. Head over to Major Nelson's Blog for full details regarding their findings. Their opinion may be a little biased but people outside of Microsoft, who have in-depth knowledge of how these systems work, seem to be agreeing that the two consoles are a lot closer in performance than most people would have you believe.

Read the 4 part post and decide for yourself what the truth is.

Technorati Tag: xbox 360