Quote:Not everyone has to wait around to hear details of Microsoft’s sexy new Xbox 360—and now, thanks to Kotaku, neither do you. An exclusive Kotaku source has revealed a bevy of facts about the next-generation console set to rock the Xbox world.
The original Xbox was a manly chunk of square black-and-green plastic meant to win over a generation of hardcore male gamers. The Xbox 360° will be about winning over gamers of all persuasions, with a customizable look and a kindler, gentler Circle of Light marketing campaign.
Our inside source says that the console is a sleek silver device worthy of countertop display, and features an inhaled design that turns the harsh angles of the original Xbox into sweeps and curves. The device will also be able to stand upright or on it’s side, much like the Playstation 2. The side of the 360° is dominated by an oversized, back-lit power button called the ring of light, and the rest of the case can be customized with colorful designer face plates that pop on and off. The 360°s dashboard will also be customizable, making each console a thing totally unique to its owner.
Some of the inner workings of the 360° have also been confirmed. The device will feature high definition audio and video and wireless controllers, and will come in two flavors—one with a hard drive and one without. The biggest shock is that while Microsoft wants to make their 360° backwards compatible, they haven’t yet been able to pull it off.
“They’re working on it,” said our source.
Retarded name (that's been rumored for months), but I like the idea of it being lighter colored and slimmer. The whole ring of light thing sounds retarded though.
Quote:StarCraft Patch 1.12 Now Released!
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Version 1.12 of StarCraft has arrived! This latest patch includes a host of new features that will make playing against your online friends and competitors all the more fun. For a complete list of all the new features, please read the StarCraft Patch Text.
Some of our most popular ladder maps were also updated. Dire Straits and Rivalry received minor changes, and Lost Temple was balanced and enhanced to accommodate the more recent style of Ladder play. For a comprehensive breakdown on how Lost Temple changed, read the Lost Temple Upgraded Map Page.
We wanted to thank all of our fans for their insightful input and continued support of the StarCraft Universe. We had a lot of fun making this patch for you, and we hope to see you taking advantage of it on Battle.net!
Quote:Changes in StarCraft version 1.12
New Features
* Changed Speed from "Fast" to Fastest" for Ladder Games.
* You now can preview your map in the Multiplayer chat screen.
* Added feature that allows the creator of a private Battle.net game to make the game public under the creator's name in Multiplayer Chat screen.
* Added full Korean language support for battle.net and in-game.
* Added a Friends List Feature and button that allows you to keep track of your friends on Battle.net.
* Added Friend mail feature that allows you to email members of your Friends List.
* Added Password Recovery and email registration features (like Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2) so you can recover your password via email.
* Changed the default race type in single custom games to Random.
* It now remembers your last map and folder setting when you create single or multi player games.
* Brood War will now show 'maps\BroodWar' folder as your default map folder.
* When a building is selected and if a ground rally point is set the rally point will briefly animate.
* Added minimap ping (Alt-left-click on minimap to show graphic location.)
* Added alliance colors on units - Shift-Tab changes your color to green, your allies to yellow and your enemies to red.
* Added right-click feature that will set your building rally point.
* Added shift-# to add a unit to a control group.
* The mouse cursor stays on the game's monitor in multi-monitor environments.
Updated Maps
* Lost Temple has been updated, while Dire Straits and Rivarly have been slightly tweaked to balance resources and space for building.
* All maps have been resigned. If you have moved standard maps to different folders you must do so again. If you have maps downloaded from our FTP site you must do so again.
Bug Fixes
* Fixed bug related to seeing Question marks instead of Korean characters when using /where command in Battle.net
* Fixed a bug that hindered Korean text in Battle.net chatrooms and game advertisements.
So... what do I think? Mostly good. A few of these things are bad -- do we have to redownload all the officially released add-on maps again if we want them to still be signed as Blizz maps? Looks like it. :( Also, I really liked the fact that ladder was Fast. Not Fastest. I really dislike Fastest and have never been very good playing at that speed... I'm not great at Fast either, but at least I can do that. Ladder was the one refuge from everyone playing stupid Fastest and now that's gone too... okay, I don't exactly play SC online very often. But still, it's too bad.
Other than that, it's all good. Well, I really love Lost Temple so changing it is weird, but the original version is still accessible (this just changes the Ladder version of the map, I'm pretty sure), so it's not that bad. And some of those changes are good -- moving the top center base enterance farther from the edge of right's upper left cliff, recentering all the base locations for better access to the resources (it was not balanced), etc... top is still disadvantaged with their base enterance, but it's not nearly as bad now.
New preview. Screenshots too. Looks great (unless you hate Gauntlet games)... well, except for the fact that it's not coming out for Cube, but that preview says that there's going to be a PC version in addition to PS2 and X-Box... :) (And they might eventually add a Cube version... maybe... they did with Mortal Kombat Deception, after all.)
According to Matt Cassamassina. That's really good. He added:
Quote:It was the best-seller for the month. Outsold GTA, Mercenaries, Need for Speed 2 and Halo 2, among other games. And it did release on Jan. 11, let's not forget. I expect sales of 500,000 through February/March, which is not bad.
Quote: Prepare to Test the Limits of Speed and Catch Some Serious Air while Racing to the Finish Line in Eight of Midway's Greatest Racing Games Ever Midway Games Inc, a leading interactive entertainment industry publisher and developer, today announced the newest addition to the company's Midway Arcade Treasures franchise, Midway Arcade Treasures 3. The third installment in the successful Midway Arcade Treasures series, Midway Arcade Treasures 3 follows in the wake of million unit seller, Midway Arcade Treasures (2003) and the 2004 holiday hit, Midway Arcade Treasures 2. Scheduled to ship Fall 2005, Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is in currently in development for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, and the Nintendo GameCube with a suggested retail price of $19.99.
Midway Arcade Treasures 3 includes: Badlands, Hydro Thunder, Off Road Thunder: Mud, Sweat 'N Gears, Race Drivin', San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition, San Francisco Rush 2049, S.T.U.N. Runner, Super Off Road & Bonus Tracks Pack.
The only catch, of course, is that these will be the arcade versions... meaning better graphics than most of the home ports, but missing the additional features the home ports added... which doesn't matter for some of those games, but it matters a LOT for the Rush games and to a fair extent for Hydro Thunder (four vehicles and two or three tracks are console-exclusive)... still a very nice package, but it doesn't replace the N64/DC version of Rush 2049 for sure (because the arcade game has no battle or stunt modes, and perhaps also no coins... and presumably no (or much less) stat-tracking... leaving just the base racing game.
But still, it's an awesome collection, even if I DO have two Rush games and Hydro Thunder, in their more feature-rich home versions, already -- I mean, Race Drivin'? Super Off-Road (Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road? Great arcade game! I want it! :))? S.T.U.N. Runner? Rush 1 (home port didn't add nearly as much as Rush 3's port did, and Rush 2 was N64-exclusive with the exception of the Alcatraz track...)? Off-Road Thunder? Nice collection. :)
Of course, it's not complete. No Arctic Thunder (which I think was released on PS2 at least, perhaps explaining that) and no Cruis'n games, for instance... but the eight games in the collection are a pretty good overview of Midway's racing game history.
Oh yeah, and it'd be a really nice touch if they added splitscreen play for the games that had multi-system multiplay, like Hydro Thunder and the Rush titles... those games with no multiplayer would definitely not be as good.
Not just some cute little bonus like a DVD with the making of, though there is that too. This special edition you have to preorder actually has an exclusive character with special abilities.
...
In other words if you have interest in getting this game, you better preorder or you'll be playing this game with the nagging realization that you'll never be able to experience the WHOLE... experience.
Touched is coming out tomorrow and for some stupid reason the msrp is $40 so you're gonna have to fork over that much at places like eb and gamestop, but with those BB coupons you can get it there for $30 (the regular BB price is $35). Crappy, huh? Reviews have been out for a while and everyone says that while it's a lot of fun, Wario Ware Twisted (which comes out next month for the GBA), is even better. So yay! Two Wario Wares in two months!
*parties on the beach in an awesomely-gay full-body leotard*
![[Image: 360mock1.jpg]](http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/images/360mock1.jpg)
