Why does it seem like all the news is bad news?

How incredible is Doom. I received Doom 3 BFG today so I put it in to see how Doom 1 looks and well it looks and plays perfectly on the PS3. That game is SOOOOOO much better than most any shooter these days. I could not stop playing, its so brilliant. I have played this game a ton of times and each time its so intense. The levels design is so genius, there are ways to reach spots that are like windows that allow you to basically take out a room before you get there, kind of like an early stealth kill. I have never found all the secrets in any of these levels, they are so well hidden. The action is simply the best, I was simply "oh shit oh shit OH SHIT SHIIIIIITTTT!!!!" the whole time.

I tried Nightmare mode for the first time to get a trophy. In the first level enemies are teleporting in all over the place, its insane! What a masterpiece.

I watched that Assasins Creed 4 video, I was interested in checking it out this winter but the video just brought up the memory of AC3 and put me off. I think I would rather check out Brotherhood or Revelations.

aspro said:

EA’s “Unprecedented Partnership” with Nintendo and Other Fairy Tales

When you think about it though EA is correct in categorizing thier partnership with Nintendo as "Unprecedented".  Unless you go down the Ceasar-Brutus/ Jesus-Pilate route.

LOL true.

They did it with the Dreamcast. But with Wii they did more, but I guess that missed most of their big games so there is no difference there in some regards. Perhaps they are going to do a few select titles like Boom Blox and Dead Space Extraction rather than take a parity approach like Warner Bros and Ubisoft? I think in the past 7 years the only EA games I have bought are Mass Effect, Dead Space, DS Extraction, NFS U and the two Boom Blox games. Out of their franchise lineup the only properties I am really interested in is Crysis - and not interested enough to actually buy one (with no IR support).

Dead Space, Mass Effect are essentially dead to me I would probably have bought the trilogy on U if it meant I could play off screen and not break my f***ing back trying to play it on 360. Battlefield, Dragonage have no meaning to me or franchise affiliation. I did quite enjoy Criterions NFS so I am slightly miffed that the next NFS game is using Frostbite 3. But then it's not being developed by Criterion anyway who are moving onto a new game and might also be using their Chameleon engine which does work well on U.

It's weird, EA could just use Cryengine 3 and get compatitibility across all platforms instead they go with their in house solution and give the middle finger to U. To me everyone backing off U is very shortsighted, given how long it takes to makes games - assuming Wii U gets a sales boost in the next couple of years, third parties wont have the games ready to take advantage of that and by the time they are ready, interest will have waned.

And fuck EA for cancelling a near finished Wii U Crysis 3. Seriously, not even a digital release?

RUMOR - Recent Wii U update ups clock speeds?

Technical Specifications Processors The CPU and GPU are built on the same package. CPU: IBM PowerPC 7xx-based tri-core processor "Espresso" clocked at 1.24 GHz before the 3.0.0 update, 3.24 GHz after the 3.0.0 update. This is an evolution to the Broadway chip used in the Wii, is 64 bit and uses Power6 technote When IBM has said that Nintendo has licensed the Power7 tech from IBM, Nintendo is not using it for the Wii U, explaining its backwards compatibility. GPU: AMD Radeon High Definition processor codenamed "Latte" with an eDRAM cache built onto the die clocked at 550 MHz before the 3.0.0 update, 800 MHz after the 3.0.0 update.

That would be a huge performance bump.

If true.

Another rumour from a different source:

"So I was browsing Nintendo forums and saw someone mentioning their analysis of the Wii U tech. Apparently the CPU has a built-in infrastructure for "overclocking", which is where you increase the clockspeed of a CPU's cores. Now, typically this results in a massive increase in heat and will surely fry your hardware unless you set up a high-powered cooling system. However, this guy said that judging by the PSU and airflow design of the system, Wii U could easily be clocked to 3.0 Ghz if not higher. Moreover, it is possible to do this at the software level, i.e. without specialized hardware."

We do know that the 1gz CPU and 400mhz GPU were bumped to 1.24ghz and 550mhz respectively before E3. Would be interesting to see if any of this pans out.

I'd love for this to be true but I think from what everyone has said it's highly unlikely.

Still just talking about the OS improvement, Nintendo Everything and Polygon measured the speeds and found on average it was 44% faster.

On the power draw, I know nothing about tech or whatever just remembered this in the Criterion interview and thought it might be relevant:

"Wii U is a good piece of hardware, it punches above its weight. For the power consumption it delivers in terms of raw wattage it's pretty incredible. Getting to that though, actually being able to use the tools from Nintendo to leverage that, was easily the hardest part."

GAF are saying Wii U is like 30w in idle and only a few watts more when playing a game like NFS? So if there was a clock jump how much more power would it draw, if playing a game only draws a few watts more?

There were rumours that Nintendo purposely underclocked the Wii U CPU prior to E3 to prevent overheating? Digital Foundry said that U is incredibly power efficient and runs cooler than most laptops. Perhaps Nintendo has tested the heat tolerance levels with that massive heat sink and airflow system and found it could handle more so took the handcuffs off the CPU a bit? Again I know nothing about tech just wondering. They are saying the GPU speed increase is more likely would would put the GPU more on an even keel with PS4's GPU. A tri core 3.24 ghz Espresso would rival and perhaps exceed the 8 core Jaguar setup - GAF are saying, so it's highly unlikely to be true. But they say a modest bump is possible.

Titty fuck.

Okay, 65 hours into LEGO City this is getting silly now, 96.5% complete. I have like 2-3 tokens to get in missions.

phantom_leo said:

Not game news, but '24' may be returning to Television. I know that news will make a bunch of you very happy!  

I've actually been rewatching the entire series on Netflix.  Up to Season 7 now.

Yodariquo said:

phantom_leo said:

Not game news, but '24' may be returning to Television. I know that news will make a bunch of you very happy!  

I've actually been rewatching the entire series on Netflix.  Up to Season 7 now.

I loved 24 but...what more can they do with it? I kind of want them to leave it alone. Weren't they supposed to make a movie?

edgecrusher said:

I loved 24 but...what more can they do with it? I kind of want them to leave it alone. Weren't they supposed to make a movie?

Jack Bauer kicking ass is more than enough to watch it again.

What Ubi did with the POP, AC and Splinter Cell had jaded me toward Ubi in a big way. I get it, you make a game based on a single creative premise and then milk the fuck out of it.  Or, you spam games at system launches.

I'm anti-Ubi for now.

And since I am bitching, I just got internet back and figured I'd synch my trophies after a month of not taking the PS3 online.  Just something quick sice I have a short amount of time to play some Resistance 3.

System Update.

So they don't just say, "Hey System Update! Yes/No" They say, "System Update, go to Settings, Sytem Update".  Then you click yes. a minute goes by: 1%, another 30 seconds 2%...

If Sony does anything, ANYTHING, with the PS4 they have to get on top of their user experience and fucking download system.  If they make the world's best console with the PS4 and have their UX and still have their internet systems stuck in 2005 it will be a major let-down.