The first major update to the Xbox 360's Dashboard interface is set to be available tomorrow, June 6, 2006 at 5 AM EST time (see times across different zones here). Highlights include the ability to have personal gamer pics, background downloading (download while you do other things on your Xbox 360) and Marketplace improvements.
The AudioFX Force Feedback Headset from eDimensional takes gamers to a new level of sensory immersion. Using a tactile technology called “PSC (Positional Sound Capability)” the headset increases your environmental awareness through vibrations. The headset not only surrounds you with the auditory hum of machinery found in games, but you feel it reverberating through the vibrations in the headset’s padding. You can feel the thuds of bullets and sense the “pops” from your retaliation of fire. Coupled with a force feedback controller, you feel more immersed in a game than ever.
eDimensional explains: “The human ear cannot hear anything below 20-25Hz but other frequencies can be "felt" as vibrations. If you've ever watched movies on a powerful home theater system then you know that bass is often times more a "feeling" than a "hearing" sensation. The Audio FX's bass amplifier interprets frequencies below 20Hz and transforms them into vibrations that we can feel through the headphone earpiece. Advanced transducers located in the earpieces convert these low frequencies into real vibrations to be felt for the most realistic and immersive sound experience ever. “
Coral Gables (Florida) Attorney Jack Thompson urged sheriff debuties to search a teenager's home for video games after Thompson concluded that the manner of the teen's brutal murder of a 55 year old man, Michael Gore, matched scenarios found in violent video games. Several "M" rated games were seized during the search of suspect Kurt Edward Neher's home.
From the news report: "Sheriff’s Capt. Spence Dilworth said the question of whether video games can spark violence in juvenile players may be 'more of a debate for the living room rather than the courtroom.'”
Thompson said published reports that Neher told detectives he, and his accomplice Everette, killed Gore because Gore would not let them borrow his car follows “the same scenario in (the video) ‘Grand Theft Auto.’ ” An autopsy of the victim revealed that he had been shot in the face after a brutal beating. “Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you’re a hit man or a video gamer,” Thompson said, adding that the apparent repeated “pummeling” of the victim is consistent with scenes in violent video games.
ESA President Douglas Lowenstein responds: “The Entertainment Software Association expresses sincere sympathy to the family of the victim of this senseless crime. But efforts by discredited anti-video game zealots to blame video games are cynical and misplaced,” Lowenstein said, "Violent crime involving kids predates video games. Common sense tells us that video games do not create killers and that tragedies like this have to do with far more complex issues, from deep-seated psychological problems to a society in which violence and guns permeate the culture, from TV news to child and spousal abuse to war.”
After an interview with Xbox's Peter Moore rapidly spread through the internet with Moore saying "nobody is concerned anymore about backwards compatibility," the Microsoft Team at Gamerscoreblog.com swiftly responded with "rest assured, we're not done yet."
An update to the Backwards Compatibility List is scheduled to come soon, adding more Xbox compatible games to the Xbox 360.
The upcoming puzzle/action game for the Sony PSP, Loco Roco, is now available as a demo download in English (or other languages besides Japanese). The demo originally comes from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe but was made available to US PSP gamers from PSP Crazy. Just download the "EBOOT.PBP" file, hookup your PSP via USB cable to your computer, create a directory called "UCJS10041" in the "GAME" directory under "PSP" on your PSP and transfer "EBOOT.PBP" to the "UCJS10041" directory. If you rather wait for the official US release, you can check it out here.
[EDIT 6/3/06]: The US Loco Roco demo is now available. See this page for more information on how to install using your Sony PSP's web browser.
An email from Xbox Live has announced that four new maps are available for 500 Microsoft Points. The four new maps are:
Gas Plant
Plaza
Rooftops
Trench
From Xbox: "Download your Perfect Dark Zero™ Map Pack now at Xbox Live® Marketplace. Immerse yourself even deeper into Joanna Dark's battle against dataDyne with Perfect Dark Zero Map Pack #1, available for download for just 500 points. Take on friends, bots, or other Xbox Live gamers on four new multiplayer maps."
Japanese newspaper Nikkei Business Publications interviewed Nintendo's Satoru Iwata’s on the Nintendo DS and Wii.
On the WiiConnect service: "Let's say your Wii is connected to the Internet in a mode that allows activation on a 24-hour basis. This would allow Nintendo to send monthly promotional demos for the DS, during the night, to the Wii consoles in each household. Users would wake up each morning, find the LED lamp on their Wii flashing, and know that Nintendo has sent them something. They would then be able to download the promotional demo from their Wii's to their Nintendo DS's."
Read more on the Wii controller and WiiConnect service in the interview at TechOn.
Pac-Man will be arriving soon to the Xbox Live Arcade. There's a total of 200 gamer points you can achieve, if you still have the old school skills in you:
1. All Ghosts - Eat all ghosts in succession after eating a Power Pellet. - 10 points
2. Clear Round 5 - Beat the first five rounds. - 15 points
3. Perfect - Eat all ghosts four times within a stage. - 30 points
4. Clear Round 21 - Clear round 21. - 40 points
5. Cherry - Eat a Cherry, Round 1. - 5 points
6. Strawberry - Eat a Strawberry, Round 2. - 5 points
7. Orange - Eat a Orange, Round 3 or 4. - 10 points
8. Apple - Eat a Apple, round 5 or 6. - 10 points
9. Melon - Eat a Melon, Round 7 or 8. - 15 points
10. Galboss - Eat a Galboss, Round 9 or 10. - 15 points
11. Bell - Eat a Bell, Round 11 or 12. - 20 points
12. Key - Eat a Key, Round 13. - 25 points
