A director has been found to bring the video game Halo to the big screen.
It's taken a while but xbox.com are reporting that a director has been found to bring a movie version of video game sensation Halo to the big screen, and this will be his directorial debut.
The man who will call the shots is Neill Blomkamp who's best known work in the UK is the rather good commercials that are on TV at the moment for Citroen, the ones where the car "transforms" into a human shape and dances for a few moments before turning back into a car.
He has also been acclaimed for his short film, especially one called Alive in Joberg and he has also worked with Sci-fi master James Cameron, she he has been in the hands of a master.
Peter Jackson is on board to executively produce the feature so we can rest assured that things are in good hands and with Weta providing the special effects it’s a double dose of reassurance. This is shapeing up to be one of the big films when it is released in 2008.
Dead Rising utilizes multiple cores and really strains the life out of the 360. If not in a well ventilated area it looks like the system is freezing up on some people.
The Dead Rising demo killed my launch 360, so it went back with the PRP. I guess Dead Rising actually uses more than one core at a time, and really tests your 360's cooling system. I predict more 360's will fry because of Dead Rising. Because, you know, nobody @!$%#s with the undead.
If any 360-hq members are experiencing issues with this title please post about it in our forums..
In a presentation at the Gamefest event in Seattle, Microsoft's product unit manager for hardware Robert S. Walker made some comments suggesting that the company may release a new optional "advanced" version of the Xbox 360 controller at some point in the future. The presentation was largely focused on Xbox 360 peripherals coming in the near future, such as the Xbox Live Vision camera and the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel, but at a certain point the topic shifted to the issue of fine control in genres such as first person shooters which are arguably less suited to traditional console controllers than to a mouse and keyboard. After confirming that, as previously stated, the company has no plans to allow in-game mouse and keyboard support on Xbox 360, Walker noted that Microsoft is looking at ways to modify the right analog stick on the controller to make it more conducive to the precise movements used in shooters and various other genres. This controller would not replace the original controller, and would merely be an option available to players looking for a more advanced control scheme.
When asked for clarification by Shacknews, Walker reiterated that Microsoft does not yet have any concrete plans for the workings of such a device, nor is there any projected release period. Rather, it is something under consideration by Microsoft's hardware development teams as a long term possibility.
There's been a lot of interest in the PS3 due to its stated 1080p output for both games and movies (via Blu-ray). What's interesting is that a lot of folks don't realize how meaningless 1080p actually is in this generation.
Let's take games first. The PS3 has roughly the same pixel-pushing capabilities as the Xbox 360. Don't need to take my word for it, it'll be obvious soon enough over the next year. Even if this wasn't the case, consider we now live in a multi-platform development world, and that the current sweet spot developers are targeting is 720p due to the extremely similar system specifications. Simply put, a developer who is planning to release their game for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 will aim for a common attainable ground. In fact, I'll stick my neck out and predict that that you won't see any 1080"x" games for the PS3 this year.
Let's move on to HD movies. Home Theater Magazine (recommended!) has a sister website, and I wanted to point you to a great blog post by Geoffrey Morrison discussing the topic. To quote:
"Movies and almost all TV shows are shot at 24 frames-per-second (either on film or on 24fps HD cameras). All TVs have a refresh rate of 60Hz. What this means is that the screen refreshes 60 times a second. In order to display something that is 24fps on something that is essentially 60fps, you need to make up, or create new frames. This is done using a method called 3:2 pulldown (or more accurately 2:3 pulldown). The first frame of film is doubled, the second frame of film is tripled, the third frame of film is doubled and so on, creating a 2,3,2,3,2,3,2 sequence. It basically looks like this: 1a,1b,2a,2b,2c,3a,3b,4a… Each number is the original film frame. This lovely piece of math allows the 24fps film to be converted to be displayed on 60Hz products (nearly every TV in the US, ever).
This can be done in a number of places. With DVDs, it was all done in the player. With HD DVD, it is done in the player to output 1080i. With Blu-ray, there are a few options. The first player, the Samsung, added the 3:2 to the signal, interlaced it, and then output that (1080i) or de-interlaced the same signal and output that (1080p). In this case, the only difference between 1080i and 1080p is where the de-interlacing is done. If you send 1080i, the TV de-interlaces it to 1080p. If you send your TV the 1080p signal, the player is de-interlacing the signal. As long as your TV is de-interlacing the 1080i correctly, then there is no difference. Check out this article for more info on that."
Microsoft have detailed the titles due for release via Xbox Live in the forthcoming weeks, revealing in the process, the drop date of the much anticipated Lumines Live!
Xbox Live Wednesdays are set to continue into August and September, with Pac-Man and ther previously announced Texas Hold 'Em poker leading the way.
Lesser known titles, Time Pilot and Scramble are soon to follow with Lumines kicking off September in fine fashion. The highly addictive Lumines Live! puts a next-gen twist on the familiar puzzle title with its in-game 'skins' - acting as background to the block busting action, the 360 version will offer popular music videos as the backdrop to your play. With an initial number included on purchase and more to follow, again over Xbox Live, in the Artist Pack.
Have you been waiting for Bomberman Act: Zero Trailer??
Well, wait no longer.
You can now download a trailer for "Bomberman Act: Zero" from the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Check it out now on your 360 or keep up-to-date in our Xbox Games area with all the info we can find for you all...
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The man who will call the shots is Neill Blomkamp who's best known work in the UK is the rather good commercials that are on TV at the moment for Citroen, the ones where the car "transforms" into a human shape and dances for a few moments before turning back into a car.
