by Steven Kurutz, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Fantasy video games and heavy metal music seem like a perfect marriage, given that both often rely on Tolkien-esque imagery and create elaborate, male-centric alternate worlds.
But while games use metal songs in their trailers, during play the soundtrack usually transitions into orchestral music. “Brutal Legend” on the other hand, a game for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 that’s being released tomorrow by Electronic Arts, is all metal, all the time.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Sometimes the good news is the bad news. Or vice versa.
Consider, for instance, today’s call on Microsoft by Caris & Co. analyst Curtis Shauger.
In a research note today, Shauger warned that weakening Xbox sales were likely to hurt top-line results for both the fiscal first quarter ending September and for the June 2010 fiscal year.
I have to admit that this story seems so bizarre that I’m not quite sure I believe it. A bunch of folks have been submitting the news that the Nigerian government is apparently so upset by a Sony Playstation commercial that it’s demanding an apology from Sony for allegedly “portraying Nigeria as a home of fraud where its citizens hardly do genuine business.”
Last week, when the hardcore gamers of the world were supposed to be firing up The Lost and Damned, a new, downloadable episode of Grand Theft Auto IV, I instead decided to spend more than $400 for the privilege of playing a $10 game.
Jenova Chen and thatgamecompany have created a delightful videogame-meets-art title. After playing Flower to completion on the PS3, we can confirm that they have given us another game to talk about, puzzle over, and enjoy.
by Mike Musgrove, Technology Columnist, Washington Post, @play
“Dude, this place is quiet,” says one avatar, a rather generic-looking 20-something guy, as we lurk on one side of the Home central plaza, watching virtual people go by on what appears, on my television screen, to be a sunny day in a modern town center. “This could get boring fast,” texts another in agreement, a speech balloon popping up over his head.
The Sony Video Store on the PlayStation Network is filled with a good selection of movies, and you can’t beat the convenience of renting or even buying movies from your couch and watching them on your big screen with your PlayStation 3. Renting movies is a joy on the system–although it would be nice to have longer than 24 hours to watch the content–but what happens when you buy a movie?
Gaming’s goodwill processor—the one inside the PlayStation 3—has proved once again that it’s around for more than just kicking butt in Grand Theft Auto. Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have used microprocessors developed for the PS3 to power the fastest supercomputer on earth, the Roadrunner.
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