Console vs. PC – WHICH IS BETTER?!
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Combine a PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U into a Single Frankensystem
Swapping wires and switching inputs on your TV to use different game systems is a pain. Ben Heck was sick of it, so he hacked-together a custom system that combines a PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U in one box. Ben walks you through the process over the course of three episodes of his eponymous Revision3 show. With new generations of the Playstation and Xbox on the way this year, this could be a fun use for your old systems. If you want to try it yourself, you’ll need a fully-stocked workshop and a surplus of courage, but the finished product is a modern marvel of gaming. Even if you don’t want to try it yourself, the episodes are worth watching, if only to marvel at the creativity. If you don’t have a Wii U handy, we previously featured a similar build that only combined an Xbox and Playstation, so give that a look for some more ideas. Episode 71: Ben’s Ultimate Combo Gaming System Episode Part 1 | Element14 Episode 72: Ben’s Ultimate Combo Gaming System Episode Part 2 | Element14 Episode 73: Ben’s Ultimate Combo Gaming System Episode Part 3 | Element14
“Skyrim: Sneaking” on YouTube
Next-Gen Console Wars Will Soon Begin In Earnest
When the Wii U was released at the end of last year, Nintendo got a head-start on the long-awaited new generation of video game consoles. Now, Sony has announced a press conference for February 20th that is expected to unveil the PlayStation 4, codenamed ‘Orbis.’ This will precede the announcement of the Xbox 360′s successor, codenamed ‘Durango,’ but that too will likely be announced by E3 in June. Specs for development kits of both systems have leaked widely. The two systems both use 8-core AMD chips clocked around 1.6 GHz. Durango has 8GB of DDR3 RAM, while Orbis has 4GB of GDDR5 RAM, though Sony is trying to push that up to 8GB for the console’s final spec. Reports also suggest Sony is tinkering with its controller design, going so far as to add a “Share” button to let people exchange screenshots and recordings. Developers indicate the systems are very close in power, though Sony’s system currently has an edge. With the upcoming announcement of the PS4, the big-three console makers will kick off a new round of direct competition. They’ll maneuver to one-up each other with the most powerful hardware and the slickest software. However, they’ll also hope the release of three major consoles in rapid succession will help to anchor a part of the games industry that no longer enjoys the dominance it once did, thanks to threats from mobile.
Watch “Skyrim Top 10 Joke Mods” on YouTube
Skyrim DLC Reveal Appears To Be Imminent
Skyrim Includes Oblivion And Morrowind Landmasses Downloadable content for Skyrim is much more of a “when” than an “if,” and it’s looking now like the “when” is actually fairly soon, as a tweet from Bethesda’s PR and marketing VP Pete Hines reveals. Hines claims to be “working on getting a little more info out on Skyrim/DLC,” with news coming “maybe next week?” Hines also mentions that he’s working on getting a final release date for the previously announced Skyrim update that will add Kinect support to the game.
Those comments a preceded by another tweet in which Hines gives a “no comment” to fresh rumors that Bethesda now has the rights to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise. It’s entirely possible that the DLC talk is meant to deflect us all away from digging deeper on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. rumor, but there’s no denying that Skyrim fans are waiting with bated breath for word of an official expansion for the game. I certainly am. What do you think it will be? Will it be something as ambitious as adding map locations for Cyrodiil and/or Morrowind, since the framework for those locations is already built into the game?
Anticipation builds for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
It looks like Sony really are planning to release a Super Smash Bros style game exclusively for PlayStation 3 owners. More clues have turned up over the weekend, including a domain name now which has officially been registered by Sony.
You may remember that we recently informed you about a survey that Sony was apparently conducting, in which they were asking gamers what they thought of a game with the title ‘PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’.
At the time we were thinking that the name is a bit long winded, but it seems that Sony may be pressing forward with the long title, after the discovery that the company has now obtained a domain name. The website www.playstationallstarsbattleroyale.com now officially belongs to Sony Computer Entertainment America as noted by Joystiq, and it is looking very likely that this is the same game that was originally unveiled as ‘Title Fight’.
Furthermore, we’re hearing that this game may even be unveiled this Thursday, during a special episode of GTTV. If true that’s pretty massive and very surprising, as you would have assumed that such a reveal would be saved until their E3 press conference which we now know will take place on June 4th. After the unveiling of God Of War: Ascension last week – what does Sony have left to reveal for the event? We would at least like some things to be kept a secret if possible.
What do you make of the name as well folks? PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale is a bit too long in our opinion – what’s wrong with just ‘PlayStation All Stars’? That’s a much better sounding title we reckon, so let’s hope Sony are still reviewing this.
The game is seemingly on the way, so what characters are you looking to see? Abe from Abe’s Odyssey? Heihachi Mishima from Tekken? The possibilities are endless on this game and if it plays in a similar style to Nintendo’s Smash Bros franchise, consider us very interested.
Nvidia: Smartphones Will Beat Console Performance by 2014
Mobile devices are expected to reach Xbox 360 level of graphic performance by 2014, if not sooner.
On Thursday Nvidia released a slide showing the progression of GPU performance in the console, PC and mobile sectors from 2001 to 2014. As Nvidia showed us last year, consoles have created a “Z” on the chart, jumping up one level after releasing a new version with better hardware, but flatlining for numerous years thereafter. They can outperform the PC on a graphic level thanks to an integrated design, but that victory is only brief to say the least as PC hardware performance steadily climbs.
What’s shocking is the steep increase in GPU performance in the mobile sector. According to Nvidia’s chart, devices began to show a real increase between 2008 and 2009, but the steepest climb thus far has been from 2010 until now. What’s interesting is that Nvidia’s chart shows the mobile GPU to be cranking out better graphics than the current Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles starting 2013. That says a lot given that smartphones weren’t even considered as competition until Apple released the iPhone in 2007.
To some degree, smartphones are in a “golden era,” mirroring a similar era experienced in the 1990s when GPUs began to infiltrate the PC sector. Developers like id Software and Epic Games were always pushing the envelope, squeezing out every ounce of performance the current hardware could provide while also pushing hardware manufacturers to implement features into the next generation. We’re seeing that again in the mobile sector, and it’s downright fascinating to watch this technology mature so quickly.
On a visual level, the progression has been phenomenal. We’ve moved from monochrome Tetris-like games to console-quality titles like Modern Combat 3 in a span of a few years. The rise in visual performance wasn’t quite so dramatic in the PC sector, moving from the likes of Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 (PC, Mac) to Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001 (PC, Mac, Xbox, PS2).
Naturally Nvidia’s chart will change once Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo release their next-generation products. Reports indicate that the Wii U will likely reside with the current crop on a GPU level while the other two take another stab at pushing past PC-based GPU performance. Yet based on the sharp rise in the mobile sector, it looks highly likely that the console and mobile sectors will eventually merge. Today’s top mobile chips are already on the same playing field as the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PlayStation Vita, if not better.
Timing of Skyrim DLC, possible eight month wait at E3 2012
So the hunt for Skyrim DLC goes on it seems. After teasing gamers with an upcoming announcement which everyone thought was related to DLC, we were actually treated to a brand new trailer for Bethesda’s other game instead – Dishonored.
It goes without saying that they are taking their time on the new content for Skyrim. It has been six months since the game released in November and aside from numerous patch updates and the Creation Kit for PC users, console players have had little to get excited about.
Could it be that all the excitement about new content is actually turning to frustration? After it was revealed that Bethesda had trademarked the name ‘Dawnguard’ all sorts of speculation started to fly around, with many believing that the Mythic Dawn cult group from Oblivion would play some part in the first expansion pack.
Talking about expansion packs, it does now look certain that the first piece of DLC won’t be on the minimal side. Bethesda had teased the idea of add-on content being substantial, and it looks like Skyrim players are going to see content on the scale of the brilliant Shivering Isles pack that released for Oblivion.
Unfortunately, not everyone will be enjoy the content at the same time though. The Elder Scrolls franchise has fallen victim to the Call of Duty exclusivity plague and it means that Bethesda will be releasing the new content on the Xbox 360 first for a month, before those of you playing on PS3 and PC can access it.
It’s not an ideal situation obviously and there is bound to be ton of jealousy when the pack finally does surface. With just two months to go before E3 2012, could Bethesda actually be keeping gamers waiting until then to announce their DLC plans? If they have made gamers wait six months so far, it wouldn’t surprise us if we had to wait another two months as after all – E3 is the grandest stage of them all to make announcements.
What are your honest opinions on the lack of DLC for Skyrim at the moment? It seems unheard of for a modern game of this generation to not provide any additional content after six months. Are you bothered by the wait, or are you happy for Bethesda to take their time on it? Are you contemplating an announcement at E3 2012 now, or do you still think the content will be announced before?
Capcom disappointed over Street Fighter X Tekken DLC hacking
Capcom has spoken out on the now infamous affair involving those locked DLC characters on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Street Fighter X Tekken. The producer for the game has spoken of his disappointment after seeing the characters unlocked by hacking on the Xbox 360 version of the game.
For those of you that still aren’t aware what happened – here’s a brief recap. The game shipped with 12 locked characters on console that Capcom originally planned to make exclusive to the PS Vita version of the game. After Xbox 360 users hacked the game and unlocked the characters, Capcom has now come clean and announced that PS3 and 360 owners will have to pay $20 to play with the characters when they release officially later this year.
A lot of people are not too happy with Capcom for locking away content on the disc that they paid full price for as you can imagine, and now producer Tomoaki Ayano has revealed that he is ‘pretty disappointed’ that Xbox 360 players have found a way to hack the game, even using these locked characters in online ranked matches against legit Xbox 360 players as a further kick in the teeth.
Ayano has spoke about this in an interview with GameSpot, saying that he was also a bit ‘surprised’ at the level of skill that these hackers have in being able to unlock the characters in this way. Disappointment is the key word mentioned several times by the man though, but would you argue that the company brought it on themselves?
If they didn’t lock the content away in the first place, there would have been nothing to hack. We suppose they may have felt that they needed to adopt a different DLC strategy after fans didn’t particularly like the various ‘ultimate’ editions of games that they keep bringing out.
Capcom are disappointed that their game has been hacked, but are you disappointed that the company are not treating their customers with respect? You can bet that they won’t be pulling similar stunts with future games from now on – or will they?
