Bungie Server for Saving Films

Frankie mentioned in his weekly Bungie update that Bungie will be supporting the Saved Films feature. To prove it he posted a screenshot of the server size which is a humongous 70.9 terabytes. Thats a good amount of space, but will it be for the hundreds of thousands of players who will use it on a daily bases saving their films? Most likely we'll all get an alloted amount, like we did during the beta. Lets just hope its more than 25 megs.

For those of you who don't know what the Saved Films feature is, basically you can save your game data after each MP match you play. This game data is then rendered to play the game again and will allow the user to pause and hopefully move the camera to other areas of the game to study how they died or why they survived so well. Frankie mentions in an older post that they also want to include the ability to trim the movie.

The game data can be saved to your 360 harddrive as much as your harddrive will allow, but now you'll be able to save it online where your friends can download it and watch it.

Another interesting thing is that Frankie mentions it will be used for saving screenshots as well. So we'll be able to pull stills from the footage as well, which is pretty cool. Remember kids, Halo 3 comes out Sept 25 and Sept 19th for the French.

Always Bet on Black... and Also Red

Rainbow Six Vegas has two bonus packs for it - Player's Pack Black Edition and Player's Pack Red Edition.

The Black Edition includes 5 multiplayer maps(3 new and 2 recreated from previous games).

The Red Edition includes two new gameplay types (Assassination and Total Conquest) along with 5 multiplayer maps.

The Red Edition is on Xbox Live Marketplace right now for 800 points. The Black Edition was up briefly this week for 800 points. However, The Black Edition was supposed to be free. It was quickly taken offline and will go back online June 30th(tomorrow) at the proper price of free. Those who did pay for The Black Edition should receive a refund within 8-10 weeks.

And as a "show of appreciation for the Rainbow Six community," the Red Edition will become free on July 6th. (But no refund for any who have already paid for that.)

Haze Writer Slams Halo 3

Rob Yescombe, scriptwriter for Haze, has been making the news lately with some anti-Halo 3 remarks. According to Kotaku, Yescombe said the following about his game:

"It's about what's happening in the world today - it's ludicrous, and how can you make something that doesn't reflect that? Well, you could bury your head in the sand and make Halo 3, but the fact of the matter is there are more important things at stake."

Of course, this is probably just some publicity grab, but that statement seems ridiculous to me. Haze takes place in like 2043. And it's about a wartorn country where there is possibly a dictatorship with its Mantel Troopers maintaining order and taking Nectar which empowers them in different ways. There are also guerilla fighters called the Promise Hand who fight against the government.

Is that the world today? And more importantly, I like to play video games to get away from the world today. For me, that's what video games are about. I don't love Crackdown because it's based in reality.

And no, I'm not slamming Haze. Looks like a good game and hopefully I will play it after it comes out. But to go around making crazy statements just for the publicity is lame(and apparently effective).

GTA IV Trailer 2 is Out

GTA IV has released their second trailer: Looking for That Someone Special. This trailer has a LOT more to get excited about. There's a lot more action and dialogue. The graphics are very nice, and it looks awesome.

But one thing bothers me. Niko Bellic's facial hair.


At some angles, it looks fine, but then at others it looks like there's too much space between the facial hair and his mouth. Is he shaving around his mouth? Usually it just seemed distracting to me when he was doing a lot of movement.

Red vs Blue Finishes with a Bang

The 100th and last episode of the wildly popular machinima Red vs Blue was posted today(after only an overnight delay).

I've been a fan since episode one four years or so ago and a sponsor on their site for the last couple years. In order to prepare for the final episode, I sat down on Tuesday and watched all of the final season in one sitting.

The series is very funny, and some of the shots and tricks they are able to pull off in their video work is amazing. Rooster Teeth is definitely one of the best in the machinima business. Their new Shadowrun series 1-800-MAGIC is coming along very well.

I don't want to give any spoilers away, but the ending is definitely unexpected but clever. Some viewers might not like it, but on reflection, I thought it was the best way it could have gone.

My only complaint is that the episode is only viewable through a flash player. I had some problems getting it to work at first, and I'm not alone. Of course, at this point, the server might be getting bombarded and that's the reason, but I prefer to be able to download the video and watch it off of my own harddrive.

Coming to America

Blue Dragon was the game from Microsoft and Final Fantasy creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, that was built to help get Japanese people interested in the 360 console. The RPG game is finally coming to America and Europe this August. Europeans can start playing Shu and his friends on August 24th, while us yanks have to wait until the 28th. I'm looking forward to it though it only gives me a little over 25 days to complete it before I start smashing it up with Halo 3.

Halo 3 Helmet for Sale on EBay

Thanks to Lead Spartan on Bungie.net. Apparently someone is selling a Halo 3 Legendary helmet on Ebay. The description reads:

Brand new in box LIMITED EDITION Halo 3 Master Chief Helmet purchased directly from a Microsoft Employee. 100% authentic made by BUNGIE!!

All HALO fans will know how collectable this item is. It comes with a serial number showing how limited this is. This item is not available to the public.

Please bid with confidence. As you can see, I'm a legit seller with 150+ positive feedbacks.

Shipping and Handling fee is $30 for orders within USA, $60 for International orders.

Any questions please contact me.

Happy bidding!!

Boo yaka. I'll place my bid now. Andy I'm getting this for you little buddy. Someone is definitely getting fired at Bungie or Microsoft for this.

Halo 3 Sets Trend - GTA IV Follows

In what may be a disturbing trend, GTA IV has announced what will be included in its Limited Edition. The Limited Edition will include GTA IV (with special boxart), The Art of Grand Theft Auto: IV book, The Music of Grand Theft Auto: IV CD, a Rockstar duffel bag, a Rockstar keychain and all of this will be contained in a Grand Theft Auto IV safety deposit box(with key).

Now, that's not the disturbing trend. In fact, I think that stuff is cool. The disturbing trend is the price. GTA IV Limited Edition will cost $90. Now, this is not the ungodly price of $130 like Halo 3's Legendary Edition (which I still refuse to buy), but it is still higher than the normal $10 more for a limited edition. Sadly, I will shell out the extra $30 for this edition. Damn you, cool merchandising!

And in a related note, GTA IV's next trailer comes out June 28th.

Assassin's Creed - The Short Movie by You

IFC(Independent Film Channel) and Ubisoft are teaming up on a short movie contest. They are accepting submissions of up to six minute long movies from June 25th(yesterday) until August 20th.

The movies should be "Assassin Creed inspired" and include at least some of the following:

• Planning, assassination, escape
  
• Social stealth - using crowd as a means of disguise or escape
  
• Assassination in public and in close proximity to the victim
  
• Assassination of historical figures
  
• Conspiracy surrounding historical assassination

The grand prize winner will be awarded $10,000, an Xbox 360, their movie will be included in the Assassin's Creed Limited Edition, a copy of Assassin's Creed and their short will air on IFC. Two runner-ups will receive the same prizes except they'll get $2,500 instead of $10,000.

More details can be found at the official site.

Manhunt 2 Isn't Take Two's First AO Rating

With all the controversy surrounding Manhunt 2's ESRB rating, I wanted to get a list of games that were rated AO by the ESRB and to my surprise I saw that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PC, PS2, and Xbox was rated with an AO. I thought it was a M rated game, so I checked some different sites and found that Gamespot and Wal-Mart list GTA: San Andreas as rated M. It looks like San Andreas is listed twice on the ESRB site, one for M and the AO. So I e-mailed them and they replied.

"Thank you for contacting the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) with your comments regarding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is a serious and complex issue, and we appreciate your concern.

Through its investigation, the ESRB determined that the code for the hidden "Hot Coffee" scenes existed on all three platform versions of the game released to the public. The patch to unlock the content on the PC version of the game was made freely available on the Internet, while certain console accessories provided access to the content on the PS2 platform version.

Once it was determined that the previously undisclosed scenes were on the shipped discs, ESRB raters reviewed the original submission of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, without the "Hot Coffee" scenes, and once again assigned the original rating of M (Mature 17+) with content descriptors for Intense Violence, Strong Sexual Content, Strong Language, Blood and Gore, and Use of Drugs. However, when reviewing the newly disclosed "Hot Coffee" scenes, raters assigned an AO (Adults Only 18+) rating, along with a Nudity content descriptor. This discrepancy indicated that the accuracy of the original M rating had been undermined, and resulted in the ESRB's revocation of that rating until new versions could be manufactured and shipped without the "Hot Coffee" content. Copies of the game that are produced without this content on the disc will retain the original M rating.

It is inevitable that some may disagree with the ESRB's actions when considering the rest of the playable content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, or other games like it. We simply ask those who disagree to consider that consumers, especially parents, count on ESRB ratings for reliable information about what's in a computer or video game. They deserve to know what they are buying, and the ESRB is both obligated and committed to providing the most reliable ratings information possible. If content that would affect a rating is on the game disc, and it's accessible, it must be considered in the assignment of that rating.

The strength of our self-regulatory system lies in its unique ability to independently evaluate publisher compliance with a wide variety of industry-adopted rules and regulations, and enforce instances of non-compliance with a range of sanctions, including penalties, fines and corrective actions. The interests of parents, gamers, and other consumers are best served by having an effective self-regulatory body, whose actions are objective, judicious and fair. We appreciate your taking the time to write, and hope that you better understand our actions.

Regards,

Entertainment Software Rating Board"