Ravenprose said:

So this new disk format will allow MS to store more data on a normal Xbox 360 DVD? Playable on any Xbox 360 console? Interesting.

That's the guess.  That and/or some piracy thing maybe?

travo said:

Multiplayer in an hour, guys? U2.

Looks like I just missed yez.  I'm on PS3 now for hte next 4 hours or so if anyone is still around.

SteelAttack said:

edgecrusher said:

What about Ebay or Amazon? Or buying directly from Razer?

I quickly scoured my version of Ebay, and found nothing but a big fat penis. Ignorant hicks. AFAIK, Razer doesn't ship over here.

So, yeah. I'm fucked.

You could always get Dvader to send you one.

aspro said:

edgecrusher said:

Dvader said:

Holy shit that is sexy. When I get a 360 I will buy one for the dpad.

So this controller hasn't even been talked about on here until now? Damn you guys....

...

I blame you.

I blame Steel.

I'm not a fanboy (or detractor) of particular sites or anything... BUT the news editors at gamespot are asleep at the switch.  They JUST NOW posted a story about the 360 disc beta.  FUCK!

And they only post like 3-4 news stories a day.  Brandon Sinclair, for the love of god, FIND AN RSS READER and see what your competitors are doing.  Even Ars Technica pumps out 5 stories a day.  JESUS!

Even if you use this site as a feed as to what is hitting with gamers, that's cool.  No need to credit us.  Just please, publish timely stories.

Don't buy Rush'N'Attack Leo. It's shit.

aspro said:

AND... it's been four years. FOUR YEARS since the last Half-Life installment.

In that time, Labor has been ousted from the British Parliament, Obama has ousted Bush, there has probably been an Olympics or Commonwealth games, perhaps even a FIFA, and ... I don't have the energy for this... the POINT IS.. it's been FOUR YEARS!

And long may it continue!

I'm just going to raid my GAF outbox messages to cobble together some 3DS impressions I told Vader and Steelo about:

The 3D...... of the 3DS.


It fucking works?! What?


Wow. All I did was click the icon for photo taking and these photos starting swirling around in 3D. Wow.


And I took some photos too, I think the quality of the camera is allright, you can only view them on the 3DS screen so the quality doesn't need to be really high anyway.

EDIT: Camera quality is actually bad, but when you use the augmented star pics for nintendo characters, they probably grab a high res character image or model and overlay it onto the poor quality picture.

3D picture taking is hit and miss for me, sometimes it works really well, sometimes I see no 3D effect.

I bought Nintendogs. What a waste of cash, will try and trade it in tomorrow. It's graphics and sound are all better but they haven't added any incentive to play the damned game. It's like a virtual toy.


Crazy, the 3D effects of the cats. You know I've read a lot of media impressions saying that 3DS is just depth. They haven't unlocked the cats in nintendogs. Once you click on them they pop their paws straight out of the screen, and then slowly bit by bit, poke their entire heads out of the screen for a full inch or so.


I have actually been freaked out a little bit by some of the 3D stuff I have seen and sworn profusely, then laughed like a maniac. I didn't think it would be possible.


Did you guys get the video download with the extreme sports guys and nature stuff? Didn't do anything for me, is that what it's like watching 3D movies in the cinema? It seemed sort of artificial, like planes of the video had been artificially separated.


The augmented reality stuff is wild too. When I've seen this stuff before with like the PSEye I've been like pfffft.


Nutzoid stuff here, the way it warps your table or sofa landscape and the shooting stuff with the gyroscopes...


I hear that capcom is doing some horror game where you use the gyros to look around a haunted house.


The 3D effect seems to vary depending on what application you are using or game that you are using. On nintendogs the 3D is crystal clear, no eye straining or anything either.

Is it just me or does the 3D make the graphics look better?


I know that when you use the slider it's just enabling the 3D display. I know it's the same textures and lighting and yet everything seems clearer, richer, deeper and flat out more immersive compared to when you have the slider set to OFF.


Nintendogs, the character models are brilliant but some of the backgrounds are like DS quality minus the jaggies, simple clean stuff, but even these look much better in 3D.

Some of the 3d is so good it actually freaked me out, feeling like it was SO wrong. It shouldn't be possible. I was cursing and swearing and then laughing like a maniac.


Those experience adverts are nothing compared to me. This cat poked his paws through the screen then very slowly started pushing his whole thread out of the screen.


I audibly said What the fuck?! Noooooooooooo! This is SO wrong. Wow, that's amazing.


Nintendo are like the willy wonka of game makers. This shit is crazy.


I traded in Nintendogs though because the game is like a virtual toy with no incentive to keep playing. Got SF4, graphics are damned close to the home console version. The 3D effect is great, it feels like there are little figures and a little set inside the screen. The 3D makes graphics look better, I don't know how to describe it, say you see a game with N64 textures, you pop the 3d slider up and everything looks richer, clearer and just plain better. I read on gamesradar a preview which said this when it was talking about the graphics. I didn't understand it then, I do now.


Even though the lighting and textures are all the same, you pop that 3D button and it's like magic in front of your eyes.

I got SF4.


Fuck, even the menus, when you go from 2D to 3D, it separates them into different planes. 3D makes the jump from SD to HD seem like a cruel joke.


The graphics in SF4, it's like it's real. I don't mean photorealistic. I mean it looks like someone has built a little diohrama inside the screen and there are little plastic men inside fighting, almost like a stage set.


I love 3D. It's crystal clear too. Unlike Nintendogs it's all depth effects though and I think that is probably better for a fighting game. Fireballs popping out of the screen might disorientate you.


I love the lite controls too, I choose to either not use them or use them, but I love having the option. Means I dont have to memorise 34 characters move sets either. I have SF4 on 360 but I prefer playing this game on a handheld. Graphics are great, like really great close up.


Seth is like the silver surfer too

Really minor quibbles, the stylus is in a hard to reach place and the camera isn't all that in quality but works fantastically for augmented reality and gyro stuff. Battery life is fine, I have not had a problem.

My friend code is: 1590 4697 3693

Dvader you are registered.

Um... looks like the new 360 disc format is a bust.

Remember that the 360 dvds don't even hold 8.5 gb as wii discs do. There is an unreadable partition.

Eurogamer said:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-1gb-360-disc-upgrade

Source: Xbox new disc format gains 1GB

A highly placed development source has confirmed to Digital Foundry that the new disc format being beta tested in a new dashboard upgrade adds 1GB to the storage of Xbox 360 game discs.


The maximum space allocated to game data on the current disc format is just 6.8GB out of a maximum of 7.95GB on a standard dual layer DVD, with over 1GB dedicated to a DVD-Video partition that also contained anti-piracy security sectors. Astonishingly, this meant that the last generation PlayStation 2 had a higher level of raw storage available to games developers than the newer Xbox 360. It seems that this video partition has either been drastically reduced or omitted completely in the new format Microsoft is looking to roll-out.

So no new Blu-ray like mass storage discs or anything.

I don't know what this means but apparently the 3DS has 128 meg of RAM and it's 3.2 gbs per second whatever that means.

"After a thorough teardown of the 3DS and its components, Chipworks was able to figure out how much RAM the 3DS has. X-raying the chip in question, the Fujitsu MB82M8080-07L, led to a special model code being discovered inside the die. From the number Chipworks was able to conclude that the 3DS comes with 128 MB of RAM. The speed of the chip is claimed by Fujitsu to be 3.2 GB/s, which is about double that of DDR2′s capability.



Now, wouldn’t it be easier if Nintendo just mentioned that, without having to all X-ray on the thing? That’s Nintendo: making things difficult since Battletoads."

http://www.ifixit.com/blog/blog/2011/03/28/nintendo-3ds-has-128mb-ram/

Fujitsu claims that their Fast Cycle RAM has a data rate of 3.2 GB/sec, which is approximately double the capability of DDR2 RAM, according to their chart. That’s certainly an impressive statistic, but we’ll have to see if the relatively-low memory amount hampers the 3DS’ performance over time.

EDIT:

"96MB also makes Wii ports a lot easier since it's 8MB more than what the Wii has.


FCRAM is also lightning fast, much faster than what any smartphone uses (including the iPhone and iPad). That's a typical Nintendo choice (who, since the N64, have gone for the fastest RAM available, even at the expense of capacity)"

edgecrusher said:

You could always get Dvader to send you one.

He's going to send it to me wrapped in his own pubes.