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Thursday, May 19, 2005 |  |
Daddy's away
Mr. Wu is gone. So is the rest of the HBO staff. Doesn't mean they're completely ignoring this site while at E3, but they're going to be very busy trying to squeeze the last drop of info from Sketch and Frankie.
I know you're jealous, but don't make a mess of the house, willya? Thanks! (Ding 15:08:49 UTC) (permalink)
E3-bound.
Okay, that's it for me. Time to pack up and head to the airport - though I won't be landing in LA for another 8 hours. (Gotta love travel times.) Almost all the rest of the HBO admin staff is already there for E3, so news coverage will be pretty sparse for a bit. We'll do our best, however - and for a taste of what's there that might be of interest to Bungie fans, check out this quick forum post from mnemesis. (Louis Wu 09:42:20 UTC) (permalink)
New movies out of the MPRRS - sort of
Well, it's not working out like I'd expected... but yeah, we're still tweaking. The Movie Peer Review Rating System hasn't passed a film since May 8 - but I've taken to looking at the 'near misses', and I've got a pair for you to watch today. Bunker 27 is an upcoming Machinima series which looks to be following in RvB's footsteps - their trailer is 9.1 mb, 1:41 long, and shows potential. (WMP9 or QuickTime.) The Noobs, Experts, and In Between trailer is a short (sub-one-minute) vid that makes use of Halo Resolution sprites and came off pretty funny to me. (Several of the reviewers thought there was too much text to read.) This one's 3.7 mb, and also in WMP9 or QuickTime. And we'll keep working on the MPRRS to make it more consistent. (Let's be clear - I'm not saying it needs to be 'dumbed down'; I LIKE the fact that the reviewers take the quality issue seriously. I AM saying, however, that the guidelines we've given reviewers are nebulous enough that interpretations vary pretty widely. The Bunker 27 trailer was reviewed by 10 people, and passed by 8 of those. One of the two non-passing scores was dropped in our scoring algorithm - but the other was enough to bring the overall score below passing. I'd like to avoid this sort of situation in the future.) (Louis Wu 09:00:11 UTC) (permalink)
More on Xbox 360 backwards compatibility
Yesterday, we pointed out an article that suggested that certain titles in the Xbox collection would be singled out for backwards compatibility - Halo and Halo 2 among them. That article implied that emulation would be involved; code running on the Xbox 360 that handled the calls to the Intel CPU that Xbox games expected to see in the unit. A new article at GamesIndustry.biz, however, says that rather than the box itself emulating Intel hardware, the games will be recompiled to run on the PowerPC chips inside the Xbox 360. Why does this matter to you? In the first case, you'd be able to simply put your existing copies of Halo and Halo 2 into the Xbox 360 - they'd play. In the second case, you'll be able to PLAY the games on the new machine - but not with your old discs; you'd have to buy the new, recompiled versions. Depending on how many Xbox games are made to be compatible with the new machine (and how many you decided you couldn't live without), you could be spending a fortune to replace games you already have. If this turns out to be true, the 'backwards compatibility' claim goes out the window - yes, you'll be able to play older games on your new Xbox 360 - but not the versions you have; you STILL have to buy new copies. Here's hoping GI got it wrong. Thanks, 3Suns. Update: Eep, it looks like 3Suns posted it on the forum as well - so go chime in with your own opinion! (Louis Wu 08:18:51 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chef?
Halo popped up in yet another webcomic yesterday - 6X9 College looked at its ability to suck your concentration right down. Thanks, Elizar. (Louis Wu 08:07:09 UTC) (permalink)
Wednesday's news in brief:
Tuesday's news in brief:
