Hey, remember Tony Hawk’s putting of faces into games? Well, it seems like there is finally some concrete information on Xbox 360’s Live Vision Camera (the answer to the EyeToy) and it has tools to do just that (only hopefully better). Rad! I always wanted my gruff and studly video game heroes to look like a badly shaven 30 year old man! Hmmm, I guess most of them already do.
There’s also a bit of info on the pack-in game, developed by the people who did the Toysight games on Mac, as well as some information on face tracking technology. I hear good things about the Toysight games (even if they do look like EyeToy for Mac), and I’m a big fan of Freeverse games in general, so if someone gives me a free Live Vision camera I’ll be all over it.
[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060818/cifaldi_01.shtml]An Update on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Live Vision Camera Technology[/url] (Gamasutra)
Say that 5 times fast. Someone has put up some [url=http://www.playsyde.com/news_3319_en.html]720p versions of Sony’s PS3 trailers[/url] from E3. (They may be slightly edited from their original versions in some cases.)
[url=http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/18/high-quality-ps3-trailers-ready-to-download/]High quality PS3 trailers ready to download[/url] (Joystiq)
So I was reading [url=http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/16/untold-legends-dark-kingdom-previewed/]this article[/url], and while it overstates the case (a downloadable fourth class is purely speculation on Gameinformer’s part), it did make me think of something.
Downloadable content has (mostly) been a good thing, basically allowing small additions to games for small fees. Sort of like an expansion available piecmeal. On the other hand, there has been speculation that some content was cut for initial release in order to save it as a moneymaker off Microtransactions. Certainly, there have been some things worth buying, and some things that aren’t.
On their plus side, paid downloadable content can extend the life of a game that would otherwise be dormant. On the minus side, if the questionable tactic above were shown to work, it might be commonplace to cut down games. I know people like to point out all the free content that a few PC games have gotten, but this is hardly true of every PC game, and console space is a little different. What do you guys think?
There’s a portable Star Wars title in the works, and this one’s being done by UbiSoft, who will apparently be Lucasarts partner in crime for the near future. Two different versions of the game are being developed for PSP and DS. The game will apparently revolve around a young girl and her robot and the theft of the Death Star plans.
I’m not too psyched about that backstory, but maybe I might be satisfied if many Bothans are killed in the making of the game. There should be guest appearances by many of the fan favorites, if nothing else.
[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10520]Ubisoft, LucasArts Announce Partnership, Star Wars: Lethal Alliance[/url] (Gamasutra)
I didn’t even know this one was coming out. Sadly, it sounds like a bad ripoff of X-Men Legends. Only two characters on screen? No online co-op? Still, check out the screenshots. Zatanna’s looking hot!*
[url=http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/16/joystiq-quick-visit-justice-league-heroes/]Joystiq quick visit: Justice League Heroes[/url] (Joystiq)
* Yeah, I worry about you guys if you take this seriously. Go outside!
