A certain Gaming Blog got a tad worked up over a supposed Capcom Press Release, which states that the console versions of Devil May Cry 4 run at a sub-HD resolution. This press release was fake.

The press release reads thus:

PC version will supports DX9 and DX10 versions.The PC version support higher resolution (In order to maintain stability in the game at 60 FPS, XBOX360, PS3 supports only 1024 * 640 resolution).

Apart form the questionable English, which could be explained by being a poor translation, the “press release” is wrong. Both console demos of DMC4 have been confirmed by Beyond3d’s pixel counters to run natively at 720p. That is, 1280 by 720 pixels.

Although the blogger asks for confirmation from the retail game and not the demo, his fears should be put to rest. In my experience there has yet to be a game that has reduced its resolution from the demo to the full retail release release.

Furthermore, games are designed with a particular resolution in mind and a decision to lower the resolution would not be made at the last minute.

Need more evidence? Each console demo runs at a very strong 60 frames per second at 720p. There is no need for the resolution of the game to be lowered. Moreover, the development of both the demo and the full retail game were finished simultaneously, which would make a difference in native resolution all the more absurd.

As Nicolas Parson’s would say, we’ll give the blogger the benefit of the doubt and presume he was actively misled, rather than attempting to mislead others himself. One things for sure, he can calm the hell down:

NICE GOING, Sony and M$! Making consoles that can’t handle stable 60FPS at 1080p. I HATE YOU ALL *smashes head into wall*

Both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of Devil May Cry 4 run natively at 720p and at 60fps.

Credit: Quaz of Beyond3d

Play.com Live will be taking place in Wembley Stadium, and on March 15-16 you can attend for free from 10 AM to 6 PM. This also looks to be the biggest games convention to be available to the general public in the UK; an event backed by Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Activision, and THQ among others.

All attendees on those dates will get free goodie bags and many prizes, including the chance to win £50,000 each day of the public event. To access all areas of this event you will need a VIP pass, but these cost a reasonable £16 for a chance to play the big hitters of 2008.

Let me preface this with the sentiment that I find this following retailer comment interesting, but not indicative of the whole of the United Kingdom gaming market. This is from one small independent retailer, and not from a main retailer such as HMV or Woolworths. I would still like to share my findings with you.

On my trip to a local town I thought I’d have a wee gander in the gaming store for a Playstation 3 game to treat myself for Christmas. Maybe a little bit of Assassin’s Creed or Ratchet and Clank, and to check whether they had my current favorite PS3 title, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Wandering into the store I can hardly find any Playstation 3 titles at all. To my delight I do discover a corner plastered with Heavenly Sword posters and a small selection of titles. Firstly, most of the PS3 games appeared to be used and not new.

This isn’t to say that people are returning PS3 games more than other platforms, as there were also many used Xbox360 titles, but the amount of new PS3 games were few.

So I asked the shop owner whether these were all the PS3 games he had.

Yes, that’s all.

In asking why, I get the reply.

People only started buying the system 6 weeks ago, so we just don’t get the trade.

Really? But there are lots of great games out now and the system is more affordable. How about Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune?

Oh we get the new titles in and they sell out very quickly, but it’s high risk having Playstation 3 games in stock, as we aren’t guaranteed a sale. So we just let them go.

O.K. thank you. (Not).

What does this mean? Well firstly it means that he lost a sale, as I was very willing to fork out £50 for a game. Thus, he could just be a foolish store owner who isn’t pushing the Playstation 3 and its games enough, especially when he says the exclusive titles sell out straight away. Perhaps he just knows his buying public very intimately.

Is this even a sign of the whole UK market? Playstation 3 exclusives aren’t selling at a huge rate, but Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty 4 have done quite respectably – both of which weren’t in this store. Their Xbox360 counterparts were. Is this retailer just out of the loop?

The UK is one of the few European countries where Xbox360’s outsell the Playstation 3, so this store may well be a sign of the other gaming stores around the country. This retailer suggests that the PS3 only really kicked off 6 weeks ago after the price cut, hence stocking PS3 titles just isn’t worth it.

This is a shame, because it could turn into a vicious circle. Low PS3 sales mean small retailers don’t stock PS3 titles, meaning gamers don’t know what titles the PS3 has, meaning they don’t get to see great games like Uncharted, and thus the PS3 doesn’t seem like a worthwhile buy.

So is this retailer’s understanding of the market correct? Is it still high risk for small retailers to stock Playstation 3 titles in the United Kingdom? Isn’t the PS3 now selling well enough to justify trying to push the console and its games?

The latest sales are in from Japan for the week starting 12/11 and ending 18/11, and surprisingly, the PS3 is holding on in there with its new 40GB model, fighting off Nintendo’s Wii for another week. The Xbox360 saw a rise, and Super Mario Galaxy and Heavenly Sword also had respectable sales. Find out the numbers after the jump.

Hardware:

DSLite: 81,000
PSP: 66,000
PS2: 8,800
PS3: 53,000
Wii: 36,000
Xbox360: 5,700

Software:
1. Mario Party (DS)　115,000 （Total: 357,000）
2. REUC　(Wii) 105,000
3. Dynasty Warriors 6 (PS3)　73,000 （Total: 250,000）
4. Game Center CX　(DS) 46,000
5. Famista (DS)　45,000
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)　43,000 （Total: 378,000）
7. Heavenly Sword (PS3)　16,000
8. Wii Sports (Wii)　15,000 （Total: 2,106,000）
9. Wii Play　(Wii) 15,000 （Total: 1,662,000）
10. FFTA2　(DS) 14,000 （Total: 249,000）
11. Nishimura Kyoutarou suspense (DS) 11,000 (Total: 123,000)
12. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (DS) 11,000 (Total:1.05m )
13. Dynasty Warriors 6 (360) 10,000 (Total: 37,000)
14. Complete Literature Works (DS) 8,800 (Total: 100,000)
15. My Household Budget Diary (DS) 8,700 (Total: 286,000)
16. Ratchet & Clank: Future (PS3) 8,500 (Total: 19,000)
17. Ghost Scad (Wii) 7,500 (Total: 38,000)
18. Mario Party 8 (Wii) 5,500 (Total: 890,000)
19. Cooking Mama 2 (DS) 4,700

Source: Famitsu

The notoriously critical UK Magazine has revealed its December edition scores. Another 10 is given, but not to a PS3 or Xbox360 game. Interesting scores this month, with Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect getting the same score. Find out after the jump.

Edge only gave out five 10/10 scores in nine years, but in the last three months there have been three additions; Halo 3, The Orange Box, and now:

Super Mario Galaxy – 10
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – 8
Assassin’s Creed – 7
Crysis – 9
Mass Effect – 7
Call of Duty 4 – 9
Kane and Lynch – 6
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground – 6
The Simpson’s Game – 5
Zack and Wiki – 8
The Witcher – 5
Bladestorm – 8
Castlevania Dracular X – 7
Silent Hill Origins – 7
Hellgate: London – 6
Timeshift – 6
Mutant Storm Empire – 8
Guitar Hero III – 6
Beowulf – 5
Need for Speed: Pro Street – 6

As soon as we find out the magazines pluses and minuses about some of these games we will post them. So check back soon to find out why Bladestorm got an 8/10 and Mass Effect only got 7/10.

While you wait, why not have a read of our reviews here at Ripten.com, which stack up quite well against the very harsh Edge Magazine.

Source: Neogaf

Broken links on both Xbox.com and Bungie.com? What’s the deal here? It appears that Microsoft has “updated” the details to the promotion which originally stated that those who bought an Xbox 360 between November 21st and December 21st would receive a free copy of Halo 3.

The update now states that in order to qualify for the free copy of Halo 3, you must have an active XBL subscription on the original Xbox. Seems like poor logic if you ask us, as Microsoft is essentially telling new customers “take your money elsewhere”.

Source: Kotaku

It’s quite funny what rumors can start in gaming forums, all from the poor comprehension of the few. So now, here’s a good one. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, developed by Naugthy Dog for the Playstation 3, could be ported to the Xbox360. We like this. Just as moronic as PS3 fanboys screaming about Bioshock coming over to their little baby.

So it all starts in an innocent interview with Evan Wells, Naughty Dog’s co-president, at Eurogamer. The question in question is this one, “How hard would it be to port Uncharted to the Xbox 360?” I will cut down Evan’s response into manageable chunks, and we’ll see what we can discern from it.

Firstly, he says “I won’t say that it would be impossible, but it would be very difficult and we most certainly would have to make enough concessions that it would start to feel like a different game”. Naturally, of course it isn’t impossible, or at least it would be hard to say it’s impossible without actually attempting to port the game. And since Naughty Dog developed the game exclusively for the PS3, it would indeed be very difficult.

We’ve already seen how third party developers are struggling with porting to the PS3 from the Xbox360. Quite simply, porting is a bitch. However, it’d be even more difficult in this case. Naughty Dog have used the SPU’s (mini processors on the PS3’s Cell) in their animation system, calculating physics and more. They have perfected this so much, that at this moment, much of the game relies on the specific nature of Cell. For example, Christophe Balestra (Naughty Dog’s co-Vice President) states; “We developed a brand new animation system that took full advantage of the SPU’s. Nathan Drake’s final animation is made of different layers like running, breathing, reloading weapons, shooting, facial expression, etc; we end up decompressing and blending up to 30 animations every frame on the SPU’s.”

Whether this animation system will translate over to the Xbox360 is hard to say. It’s certainly not impossible, but since the game was made with Cell in mind, some concessions would need to be made. Furthermore, since Uncharted is the best looking PS3 game, Naughty Dog have had to work very close to the PS3’s hardware to get the visuals they have achieved, and would need to work just as hard to achieve them on the 360 – meaning a port might take over a year.

Evan then gives an example of what might be conceded in the port: “One thing that would be particularly difficult would be keeping the game load-free. The HDD really came in handy and allowed us to have pretty big open levels with lots of detail.” Yes Uncharted is one of the very few games that has zero loading throughout the whole game. The game is completely streamed, and this is only possible with the PS3’s Hard Drive, which not every Xbox360 has. Not game breaking perhaps, but it would make it a very different game, making it less of the movie experience that it is trying to achieve.

Furthermore, the game takes up 22GB of a Blu-ray disc, whereas an Xbox360 DVD is only 9GB. Lets not get into a fanboy war about the advantage of Blu-ray, since the Xbox has Mass Effect, a huge game, in fact far longer than Uncharted in game length. But that somewhat misses the point, could Naughty Dog have compressed the game to fit into 9gb? Perhaps. However, once again they would need to make a lot of concessions, and spend money doing so, removing resources from making the visuals and gameplay as good as they are. The high quality surround sound, the hundreds of minutes of HD cutscenes, and the high-res textures all take up space. As Christophe says, “To get such high-resolution textures and movies, a Blu-ray was indispensable to achieve the graphic quality of Uncharted. We fill the disc at 91 percent and it’s optimized, meaning we don’t duplicate any data. That includes all our game data, sounds, 7 spoken languages and 102 minutes of movie.”

Some how Evan’s reply drew this response from a particular gaming blog: “In order to have those huge levels, it has to be installed on the hard drive, because the Blu-Ray drive is far too slow to load quickly (which is why in many PlayStation 3 games have repeated content on the discs.)” No the game doesn’t have to be installed on to the hard drive because the Blu-ray drive is too slow. There is no loading in Uncharted, none, and the hard drive helps with this yes, but the game isn’t actually installed onto the PS3: “We’re only using the hard drive as a cache, the game doesn’t need to be installed, but the fact the hard drive is on every PlayStation 3 helped our streaming technology dramatically.”

Moreover, the PS3’s blu-ray drive is not slower than the Xbox360’s drive when the 360 is reading a double-layer DVD, and let’s face it, most if not all games are on a double-layer DVD. Read speeds are approximately equal. And no, many PS3 games do not have repeated content on the discs. Oblivion is said to do this, for unknown reasons, but I can assure you that the 22GB’s of Uncharted does not include any duplicated data, though of course much of it will be extras and HD cutscene movies.

And so, does Evan’s comment mean Uncharted could be ported to the Xbox360? I don’t bloody know! Both consoles have not hit the roof of their capabilities yet, they both have a long way to go with developers squeezing more and more out of them each year. What I do know, is that they are very different beasts, and if you develop exclusively for the PS3 you have to think very differently about your game engine. Using the SPU’s means you have to program to the specificity of the PS3 hardware and this can result in very specific things, like Nariko’s hair (Heavenly Sword) or Naughty Dog’s animation system. Porting this over to the Xbox360 might just be more trouble than its worth. Let alone Naughty Dog is owned by Sony and anything they make will only be on a Sony console…

So in celebration of this gloriously absurd rumor I present to you Nathan Drake dancing in this hilarious little video: