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If there is one sector that is sure to ride out the economic downturn in some comfort it has to be business punditry. Today's instalment in Things That Will Be Either Better Or Worse In The Next Financial Cycle comes from the HD3 Conference in LA, where a panel of entertainment execs discussed how the Blu-Ray format might suffer as the credit crunch begins to bite.
Yesterday Sega announced the 40-strong Mega Drive Ultimate Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3, and fans were ecstatic, until they saw screenshots of the title's HD smoothing in action. Yes it's hideous, but it's also completely optional. Martin Snelling of Sega UK confirmed with RPG Site that the hideous-looking smoothing filter can be shut off. Even better, all games will play in whatever aspect ratio your television supports.
"I've had confirmation that the filter can indeed be switched off...And the games will display at whatever ratio your console is set at - 4:3 or 16:9. If playing in 16:9 the game will fit and not have black borders at the side."
Super Street Fighter II Turbo isn't the only classic getting the "HD Remix" treatment, as an unofficial, fan-created remake of Sonic 2 is underway. A team of five superfans from the Sonic "community" have released some of the artwork and animation from the high-def update which can be gawked at SavyGamer. Early looks at Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Dr. Robotnik should give you a clear indication just how pretty this looks. Let's hope they finish it before the cease and desist departs Sega HQ.
Sonic 2 HD fan remake on the way [SavyGamer via UK:R]
Early test reports are finding that Grand Theft Auto IV is only running at 630P on the PlayStation 3—falling short of hi def—while the game runs at 720P on the Xbox 360. Clearly, the PlayStation version must look worse, right? It's not that simple. But the basic explanation is easy enough to understand.
We already know that over 65% of PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers play on an HDTV. But we didn't know that 18% of HDTV watchers played Xbox 360 or PS3.
After the less-than-awesome reaction to the really-quite-shit first vid of the game, Capcom have posted a couple of screens for SSFIITHD (which we're now officially just calling SFHD) over at the game's developer blog. Screens they go out of their way to throw disclaimers on, saying that their screen-cap machine is broken, that they're not indicative of the game's final, full resolution, etc etc. I don't know. They look pretty fantastic to me. Imagine they'll look even better at the proper resolution, whenever Capcom get their do-hickey contraption working again.
Where Dragon's Lair walks, Space Ace is never far behind. The sci-fi follow-up to Don Bluth's classic animated dungeon romp is following in it's more popular older brother's footsteps, as Digital Leisure announces Space Ace PC HD, due out this fall. The game features an all-new 5.1 surround sound mix, making the beautiful Kimberly just that much more adorable.
"Don Bluth's animation just pops in Space Ace HD" says David Foster, President of Digital Leisure. "It's fantastic that today's computers allow gamers to enjoy full high definition products. There are details in the animation that I didn't know existed before seeing the game in such high definition. The colours are incredibly vivid and the surround sound mix will have you looking over your shoulder!"As with their Dragon's Lair HD release, Blu-ray and HD DVD versions will be hitting stores sometime next year.
CEDIA was most definitely my type of show. While Gizmodo's Brian Lam was practically dry-humping the endless rows of high-end cabling, theatre seating, hydraulic desks (which I tagged the Upskirt 2K because they had booth babes riding it up to eye level), I found very little gaming wise to talk up.
Dammit, will you people make up your minds? Every time I start feeling good or bad about my 360 HD DVD purchase, news comes along that flips things all around again. I was just starting to regret it once again and now Paramount announces they've decided to back HD DVD exclusively after having spent some time leaning towards the Blu-ray side of things. The motivation? Rumour has it that a $US150 million exclusivity agreement has been reached that includes everything but Spielberg films for some reason.
Serious folks, this has dragged on long enough. Just stop f***ing with us consumers already? At this point I am so disgusted I'd rather just buy movies on DVD and be done with it. Hell, I'm amused by YouTube videos, why do I need hi-definition picture and sound anyway? I say we all just quit and form travelling bands that perform movies in people's house in exchange for room and board.
Paramount Drops Blu-ray Support; Does Not Include Spielberg Movies [Blu-Ray.com]
