Bungie has released a "Making of Halo 3 trailer" online. The team that put together the trailer talks about the combination of artists and engineers on Halo 3, Master Chief's battle-worn details, Cortana's dilemma, showing in-game graphics over pre-rendered cinematics (promising what you see in the trailer is what you will get in the game), scoring the musical composition and the ending of Halo 2.
Watch the video here, available in Quicktime and Windows Media Player formats.
Condemned: Criminal Origins and Ridge Racer 6, for the Xbox 360, have been reduced to a $39.99 retail price. This follows the recent price drops of Burnout Revenge and The Outfit, bringing several more affordable games to the next-gen Xbox 360. The launch titles were originally $59.99 MSRP.
Xbox's TriXie is looking for "gamer girls of all ages, all sizes, all platforms and all skill levels" for a gamer group.
From TriXie:
"Here's the GamerchiX manifesto (yes, I wrote it in a shack in the woods):
If you play games, you’re a gamer chick. Whether you’re an Xbox Halo 2 Champ, play RPGs on the PC or Mah Jong Tiles on MSN Games, you’re a gamer chick.
Xbox GamerchiX don’t talk trash about other women. Ever. When women stop hating on each other...we will rule the world!
Xbox GamerchiX support each other.
Xbox GamerchiX are good role models for young gamer girls.
Xbox GamerchiX are not pin-ups. We're all hot in our own unique way, but it's about the games and the companionship, not T&A."
If you are a qualifying female gamer, send TriXie an email at
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The official web site for Konami's upcoming Metal Gear Digital Comic gives you an inside look into features of the upcoming release. Check out trailers, screenshots, information on Metal Gear's "Memory Building Simulation," pre-order the digital comic and more. This is Konami's second digital comic to be released, following the "Silent Hill Experience" digital comic. Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel will be available on 6/13/06. Visit the Official Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel web site here.
Crysis is the third installment of the "Far Cry" game series, set for release on the PC gaming platform. The following web site features videos that demonstrate the Crytek's Engine stunning graphical abilities. Visit the web site here. (Warning: The server has been fairly busy, so it may be down at times.)
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.”
