2007 March archive at RotPod

Archive for March, 2007

Mar

New Gears of War Update Details

By Pat McLane 0 Comments

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Mark Rein made a post on the Official Gear of War forums today detailing a soon to come update for Epic’s blockbuster shooter. Everyone was expecting a patch to fix the many glitches still remaining in the game, but few saw a new gametype coming. You heard right, just in time for the 1st Xbox Live Gears of War tourney comes a new gametype called ‘Annex’, which has gotten ‘good feedback’ according to Rein. More details will reportedly show up next week, but all the recent GOW news is enough to keep any fan excited about what’s to come.

-Pat McLane

Mar

Screenshots of New Halo 2 Maps Released

By Ali Shah 0 Comments

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Desolation

At the peak of Halo 3 excitement with the beta on its way and Bungie revealed more and more about the game, Bungie also releases new information about a new set of Halo 2 maps. The new maps were first promised by Bungie’s 2AM update and were originally only suppose to be for Xbox 360 Halo 2 players. But, when they were annouced by Frankie , the new maps are the Halo 2 versions of Hang Em’ High and Derelict. They are officially named Tombstone and Desolation and are for $4 for the pair and will be released April 17th. I think it’s cool that Bungie keeps this little promises they make and also they keep updating Halo 2 even though, they are probably working hard on Halo 3. I hope these maps are fun.

Tombstone

-Ali Shah

Mar

Weekly Wrap Up

By Pat McLane 1 Comment

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I have settled here over in England but am currently on a Dial-Up connection so it will be hard to post until I find a hotspot. So here’s a bunch of posts in one!

This week’s top Stories:

Xbox 360 Elite SKU Officially Announced by Microsoft

Yes the Rumors were proven to be true when Microsoft released the final details for the Elite 360 this week. The system will of course come in a sleek black case along with a black wireless controller and headset, and will include HDMI and an HDMI cable. The SKU will also come with a new 120gb hard drive along with a Data Transfer Cable* which allows transfer of data (who would have guessed?) between the new HDD and the original 20gb version. Contrary to many rumors, the console will not come with 65nm chips, built in wifi, or a built in HDDVD drive. This Xbox 360 will retail in the US for $479.99 USD and will be released on April 29th, 2007.

*Data Transfer Cable details: The cable will only allow data to be transferred from a 20gb HDD to a new 120gb HDD, not vice versa. Once the data has been transfered, it will be erased on the 20gb HDD. The system will only allow data to be transferred from one HDD to the 120gb, so if you try to put saves from a second HDD onto the new one using this cable, it will overwrite the first 20gb HDD’s data. [Lame!]

Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer Released

The long awaited GTA IV spilled a few of it’s beautiful guts this week with this minute long trailer which can be checked out here. The trailer shows the new venue of the game which will take place in the classic streets of Liberty City. This one is pretty much self explanatory so go check out that trailer!

Official Gears of War Xbox Live Tourney Announced

Just scroll down to check out Ali’s story on this. I’m just glad I’ll be back in the states in time to rock this tourney! Too bad I’ll have no access to an Xbox 360 until then…

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles Released

As you know if you regularly read this blog, the expansion pack for Oblivion, Shivering Isles was released on Monday of this week. While i got some quality time with this title before shipping off to the U.K., I will definitelybe playing it nonstop when I get back! If you don’t already know, Shivering Isles adds 30+ hours of new content to TES IV, including an entirely new continent which is 1/4 the size of Cryodill. It also allows players to embark on an all new main quest and adds tons of new items and weapons to the game.

That’s all I have for now, I will try to post at least once a day, but I don’t know if that is really going to fly until i find some broadband access. Until next time,

-Pat McLane

Mar

Official Gears of War Tournament Annouced

By Ali Shah 2 Comments

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Gears of War, is Microsoft’s big 360 hit with over 3 million copies played and over 1.5 million of them playing on Xbox Live. I personally love the game, but every match that I go into everyone claims their the best and all that stuff(*cough*cough*Pat McLane). But, now Microsoft has annouced the official tournament on their tournament website . The gametype is Warzone and matches start April 9th, 2007 and go into May 6th, 2007. The prizes include these as listed on the website:

Grand prize(s): The 11 top ranked overall players receive a trip for 2 to Prague to compete in the Gears of War World Finals.

Secondary prize(s): The top 12-25 overall ranked players (after the Grand Prizes have been awarded) receive an Xbox 360 Bundle (Xbox 360 Pro Console, Viva Piñata, Project Gotham Racing 3, Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Volume 1, Kameo, and Xbox Live Gold 12 month subscription) and Gears of War faceplates and statues

World Cyber Games Prize(s): The top 4 overall ranked players in each participating country win a trip and automatic entrance to their country’s 2007 World Cyber Games National Championship event.

You have to be 18 to participate. This tournament will show how well a real Xbox Live tournament in Gears of War can go because their is the issue of host advantage and stuff, but the game remains fun and some people are better than others. So we will have to see.

-Ali Shah

Mar

Xbox Live Still Down

By Ali Shah 1 Comment

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Xbox Live had a scheduled maintenance today for what seemed like a shockingly long time, 14 hours. But, its 8:10P.M. EST and Xbox Live is still down, 3 hours than the scheduled back time 5:00P.M. EST. I actually really want to play Gears of War, so I am personally affected, but this longer than expected time may signal some probelems or even, as some are expecting, time for the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta Release. Many people think this time allows for upgrades to the servers to accomadate the massive amount of bandwidth that would be needed many thousands of players are downloading the estimated 1GB file for the Multiplayer demo. I think this is far-fetched, but who knows? I just hope it comes back up soon.

-Ali Shah

Mar

Pictures of the Xbox 360 Elite in Production

By Ali Shah 6 Comments

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Now is the Xbox 360 Elite a rumor? I don’t think, we can think about that anymore because here are some shots of the Xbox 360 Elite in production in China. “TV Games Fans Club”, the people that aquired the screenshots used a camera phone, so they aren’t the best quality, but they aren’t that bad. Now, without further ado, here they are:

-Ali Shah

Mar

Shivering Isles Ships for PC, Is Downloadable For 360

By Pat McLane 0 Comments

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Yes, the first real TES IV Expansion is here! This post will be very short and pictureless initially, because I am busy playing Shivering Isles. But I’ll have you know I will be fully reviewing this game after my12 day journey across the pond to the UK beginning this Wednesday!

Ta-ta for now!

-Pat McLane

Mar

IslandOfRhodes.org: God Of War Countdown For What?

By Ali Shah 20 Comments

(13 votes, average: 3.77 out of 5)

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Well I got God Of War II, played it, beat it, and am now ready to review it(stay tuned for the next podcast for that review). I failed to get a 999,999 hit combo however, which I think is crazy in any circumstance, but someone has managed to do it and they show it in this video:

The crazy thing about this video, besides the actual getting of a 999,999 hit combo, is that the website URL “www.islandofrhodes.org” is shown. Upon visiting this website, you will see a counter that is counting to April 11, 2007. Now what will happen on this date? Who knows. Will it be amazing? Hopefully. And will I try to get a 999,999 combo now? Yes.

There is some speculation on what can this countdown is actually for. Many think it is just a viral marketing scheme, others believe that it could have something to do with the PSP God of War game that is planed for later this year. However, no-one knows for sure since this could just be a big hoax. Or it could be this crazy leprechaun’s scheme when he snuck into Sony Santa Monica and added this to the game without anyone’s knowledge. Either way I’m excited just because I love God of War.

-Ali Shah

Mar

International Shutdown Day

By Pat McLane 1 Comment

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Yes today is International Shutdown Day, and I must say that I have jumped on the Engadget bandwagon and am officially against this event. For me, it would just be very very hard to go without any sort of computer for 24 hours, but I’m sure I could handle it (not trying by the way). On a larger scale however, a massive universal shutdown would be catastrophic in every way. Many things we rely on every day of our lives exist only because of computers, and just pulling the plug on these things would completely turn the world upside-down.

Does anyone agree, or perhaps those who participated disagree? Comment with your opinions!

-Pat McLane

Via: Engadget

[Thanks to Engadget for the image]

Mar

F@H Stats Dominated by PS3s

By Will Bertlesen 0 Comments

(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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Since its PS3 release on the 22nd Stanford’s Folding@Home’s processing power has been given a considerable boost. As of Sat, 24 Mar 2007 10:48:41 the two OSs with the highest teraflop contributions were Windows at 152 TFLOPS and PS3 at 606 TFLOPS. In fact right now PS3s alone out power all other contributors put together.

Folding@Home uses idle CPU time on a range of platforms to crack to mysteries of protein folding and misfolding. Research into folding could hold key information than could be used to fight many as of yet incurable genetic diseases. Sony’s inclusion of this application, which is downloaded from the XMB rather that the store might have more than philanthropic motivations. It allows Sony to flex the muscles of the Cell Processor in a very high profile way, long before games are developed to truly tap it. The PS3 version of F@H has more of an advantage of processing power. Beautiful 1080p models of the protein are rendered for the user in either ball and stick, spacefill, or ISO surface mode. Serving as a backdrop is a earth model showing a yellow dot for each contributor.
Full current CPU stats

http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

RotPod F@H Team:58107
-Will Bertelsen

Mar

Countdown To Shivering Isles – 4 Days

By Pat McLane 0 Comments

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These introductions sure are getting old, but here goes. For the past few days, today, and the next few days up until the release of TES IV: Shivering Isles, I have been, am, and will be giving you a new reason to buy Oblivion’s first and last expansion…phew. Well anyway here’s today’s reason:

Reason #4: In shivering Isles, the player will be able to complete a whole new main quest based on a new storyline set in the Realm of Sheogorath. This main quest puts you in the place of Sheogorath’s personal champion, who is put in charge of defending this world and its citizens from utter decimation. This new storyline will fufill the hardcore TES players need for a fresh adventure, while starting new TES IV players off with an even bigger world to explore.

More reasons each day!

-Pat McLane

Mar

Xbox Live Maintenance Next Tuesday

By Ali Shah 1 Comment

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Xbox Live is probably everyone’s favorite online console system, but sadly on Tuesday(March 27th, 2007) the service will be going down along with the forums and Xbox.com. The update will be from 3:00 A.M. EST – 5:00 P.M. EST, making it a long 14 hour period. Even though this down time is one of their longest, it is said to only be for “internal maintenance” and there will be no updates to the dashboard. Their is a update to the dashboard expected later on in the Spring, but what could be taking this one so long? 14 hours without Gears of War, Halo 2, or any other game that you play on Live? Many people might not make it through.

-Ali Shah

Mar

Xbox Owns Paris PS3 Launch Event

By Ali Shah 3 Comments

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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The PS3 finally launched in Europe and Sony threw a big launch event in Paris among huge lines of soon to be PS3 owners . Well, the console war being what it is, Microsoft sent a boat with an Xbox 360 ad on it to try and win over the people waiting in line. The ad read “Xbox 360 <3 You” and was very well lit and probably easily visible by everyone. I think this is really funny and I actually commend Microsoft for this, if they were responsible for it. Here is a video of the whole thing

-Ali Shah
VIA[Kotaku]

Mar

Countdown To Shivering Isles – 5 Days

By Pat McLane 0 Comments

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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What more reason could you need to buy this sure to be fantastic Oblivion expansion? Why just leave it to me, because I will be bringing you a new reason every day up until the release day of shivering isles! For reasons #7 and #6, scroll down! Here’s the next reason:

Reason #5: TES IV: Shivering Isles adds many new creatures, spells, ingredients and Radiant NPCs into the world of Tamriel. These new unique and semi-disturbing beasts will make the journey through the Realm of Sheogorath perilous enough for the fiercest adventurer! The New spells and ingredients will allow mages and alchemists alike to experience all new ways to preform their favorite tasks. And the new NPCs found in the expansion will provide the player with all new interesting side quests and tasks.

Tune in for tomorrow’s reason…..tomorrow.

-Pat McLane

Mar

Beat My Stats Contest Reminder

By Pat McLane 2 Comments

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Don’t forget to email me your weekly Gears of War stats for this week on Sunday if you want a chance to win a classy RotPod t-shirt as well as a RotPod.com/.net Premium membership. This membership includes a customized @rotpod.com email adress brought to you by GMail. All you have to do is beat these stats from last week with your stats from this week. The online leaderboards can be found at GearsOfWar.com.

-Pat McLane

Mar

Countdown To Shivering Isles – 6 Days

By Pat McLane 2 Comments

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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My week long countdown to The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles continues today with yet another reason for you to pick this expansion up. If you are a fan of Oblivion, you should definitely listen up:

Reason #6: Shivering Isles promises to add 30+ hours of new content, including an all new main quest, as well as tons of additional side quests to perform. There are also many new dungeons to explore full of all new beasts unlike anything TES players have ever experienced.

Look for a new reason tomorrow, and keep checking this blog for the latest tech and gaming news.

-Pat McLane

Mar

Xbox 360 Elite Edition Details

By Pat McLane 2 Comments

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Engadget has the details from Microsoft on the long awaited black ‘Elite’ Xbox 360 package that will be hitting North American stores at the end of April. As well as a hot new black paintjob, here are the other known details of this edition:

- Retail Price: $479.99 USD

- The Elite Xbox 360 will have HDMI and an included cable

- This version will come with a 120gb Hard Drive out of the box

- It will include a black controller and headset

- It will run cooler than current versions of the console

- It may or may not come with the new 65nm chips

- WiFi is not confirmed with the elite bundle

Microsoft will only be shipping a limited quantity of the Elite SKU (a few hundred thousand units). After this SKU is discontinued, the Premium Packs will be replaced by Xbox 360s with all of the features of the Elite bundle except the limited edition black paintjob.

There you have it. For the original fact sheet check out Engadget.com

-Pat McLane

Mar

GI Confirms Black Xbox 360

By Pat McLane 1 Comment

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Game Informer’s latest issue features an article confirming the existence of the long rumored ‘Zephyr’ Xbox 360, and it sure does look nice. As foretold, the newly designed 360 will sport a fully black case and will support HDMI output, as well as include an HDMI cable. Not only that, but its topped off with a whopping 120GB HDD that blows all other starting console bundles out of the water. According to GI, you will be able to pick up this hot item for the surprisingly reasonable price of $479.99 USD around the end of April. No doubt this new machine will contain the new quieter drives, and rumor has it that fan noise will be reduced as well.

Microsoft plans to release a press statement portaining to the black 360 in April, so keep your browser pointed here for more info!

-Pat McLane

Mar

New Line buys Gears of War movie rights

By Ali Shah 1 Comment

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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gearsofwar New Line, makers of the highly-acclaimed Lord of the Rings‘ movies and About Schmidt, have won the bidding war for the Gears of War movie. This adds to the ever growing list ofgames that are becoming movies now such as Halo, Metal Gear Solid, and God of War. The fate for some of these game movies have not turned out so well, just like the Mario Brothers movie. The writing for this movie looks pretty good, with the screenplay writer Stuart Beattie, who also wrote The Pirates of the Caribbean and Collateral. The Gears of War game has received many rewards and sold over 4 million copies with a trilogy planned by Microsoft. Let’s hope this turns out better than some of the other video game movies or even get’s played in theaters.

-Ali Shah

Mar

Countdown To Shivering Isles – 1 Week

By Pat McLane 0 Comments

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In celebration of the release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, I will be posting one reason to buy this game every day until the expansion’s release next tuesday. That means that by the time it ships, you should have no reason not to get this title (unless of course you dont have TES IV: Oblivion allready).Th

Reason # 7: Shivering Isles adds a whole new realm to the 2007 GOTY which contains as much land as 1/4 of Cryodill. This island alone provides a refreshing change of pace for TES players with its strange and unique design.

Look foreward to more and more reasons in the next week, and don’t forget to pick up TES IV: Shivering Isles when it launches on the 27th.

-Pat McLane

[No, I was not paid to write any of the contents of this article.]