Valhalla
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Aston Martin's Valhalla hybrid supercar hints at its EV future
Aston Martin has introduced the Valhalla, a plug-in hybrid supercar that can reach 62MPH in 2.5 seconds but still make short trips in EV mode.
'Assassin's Creed Valhalla' update lets you turn off cinematic kill animations
With Valhalla latest 1.2.1 update, Ubisoft is adding a toggle that turns off the short cinematic cutscenes that play when your character executes a finisher.
'AC Valhalla' update patches NPC lip syncing issues and other problems
Ubisoft has announced an upcoming patch that will fix a bunch of Assassin's Creed Valhalla bugs.
Cyberpunk bartending for racist corgis, Waifu in VA-11 HALL-A
VA-11 HALL-A is like Papers, Please, but with alcohol instead of immigration papers. Developers at Sukeban Games lovingly call VA-11 HALL-A a "booze-em-up" game. It's set in a post-dystopian, corporate-controlled society where every citizen is infected with nanobots designed to oppress, and law enforcement agents called White Knights trawl the streets, ensuring no one breaks the law. And of course there are racist corgis with translation devices. As a bartender in a small downtown joint called VA-11 HALL-A – or just "Valhalla" to regulars – players meet and talk to a wide range of people, hearing stories of this brave new world and helping customers through their issues. "While the player can perform different actions besides bartending – changing the tunes in the jukebox on past versions of the game is a good example – the bartending will be the only way the player has to interact with the character," Programmer Fernando Damas tells Joystiq. "This is mainly because that format offers a more seamless experience between gameplay and story. It also offers a more complex yet easy-to-understand approach to the choices menu and dialogue trees these kind of games have."
Journey through Viking purgatory with Jotun
We've seen games about Vikings and we've seen games about purgatory – but this is the first time we've seen a game about Viking purgatory. Jotun is a top-down, 2D, action-exploration game with mechanics inspired by classics such as The Legend of Zelda and Super Smash Bros. It's not hack-and-slash, and the game uses minimal numbers and text, meaning there are no experience points and few stats. Jotun follows Thora, a Norse warrior who dies a dishonorable death and must prove herself in purgatory, facing off against the gods to enter Valhalla, the glorious Viking afterlife. "Jotun's core loop revolves around collecting Runes to summon and fight the jotun, gigantic Norse elementals," creator William Dube says. "The game focuses on the balance between atmospheric exploration and ferocious combat. Imagine the mysterious romantic mood of Journey mixed with the scale of the boss fights in Shadow of the Colossus in top-down 2D." Jotun was Greenlit after fewer than six days on Steam's brand of community-driven purgatory, and its Kickstarter is well on its way to a CAD$50,000 goal, with almost CAD$34,000 raised and 16 days to go. Jotun is due out on PC and Mac – via Steam, of course – by September 2015, with alpha and beta launches before then. [Image: William Dube]
The early (early) concept of Monaco dev's RTSMOBA in Valhalla
Andy Schatz is doing it again. Monaco seemed to linger in development limbo forever because it received attention from the IGF early in its production process. In reality, it took 3.5 years to come out. Schatz's new project, codenamed Armada, is a vague concept at this point: He has a clear vision for the design, but the theme, style and development team – not to mention the name – are all still up in the air. He announced it anyway. "I don't care this time because, fuck it," Schatz tells me at GDC. He's not going to release a game until "it's worth buying," but this time around he plans to throw Armada up on Steam Early Access and get player feedback. Monaco launched on XBLA, so Early Access was out of the question. Schatz isn't shooting completely in the dark with Armada – he knows what type of game it's going to be, and he has an idea for the theme. He wants to build an RTS with MOBA elements, something accessible yet still complex. In the way Monaco twisted the stealth genre, he wants Armada to feel familiar to RTS players, but with layers that smooth out the learning curve. He throws around the name StarCraft, and elements such as "champions" and "decks."
Valhalla map reborn as Ragnarok in Halo 4
It looks like 343 Industries is bringing back the popular Halo 3 map, Valhalla. Halo 4's version of the massive map is called Ragnarok and, aside from its usual cliffs and cannons, will now feature the new Mantis mech. In the above video, you can see the Mantis stomping on Ghosts and unleashing general carnage with the requisite dubstep backing.
Devil's Third rights relinquished to Itagaki's Valhalla Games
THQ apparently couldn't find a buyer for Valhalla Games' first project, Devil's Third. The rights to the project were handed back to creative lead Tomonobu Itagaki and his studio, THQ confirmed to Eurogamer. "All of the game's IP rights have been returned to Itagaki-san and the Valhalla team," the statement reads.The news comes on the heels of a Famitsu interview Itagaki participated in, where he expressed gratitude to THQ and Danny Bilson for trying to make things work before giving in. "We were anguished and they were really kind to us. Mr. Danny Bilson was searching for a way to work together until the very end. I do appreciate him and THQ managers that signed the transfer contract," Itagaki said, according to EG's translation.Itagaki also said that the game is "in its final stage now, though he admitted that the final stage is also "most expensive." THQ announced its collaboration with Itagaki and Valhalla Studios in 2010 – part of its "Core Games" push – but the publisher's recent financial issues eventually gutted the deal. It's unclear what publisher, if any, will pick up Devil's Third.
Microsoft details Vejle, the new Xbox 360's system-on-chip architecture
There aren't many unresolved mysteries with Microsoft's new console by this point -- apart from perhaps why it wasn't named the Stealthbox, like we were suggesting -- but one thing that hasn't been covered in excruciating detail yet is the new 360's splicing of the CPU and GPU into the same chip. Microsoft has remedied that today, informing us that the 45nm system-on-chip (codenamed Vejle; sorry, Valhalla fans) inside the refreshed Xbox makes do with a relatively minimal 372 million transistors, requiring only 40 percent of the power and less than 50 percent of the die space of its 2005 ancestor. A somewhat bemusing addition, noted by Ars, is the FSB Replacement sector you see in the image above. It's designed to induce lag in the system so that the Vejle chip doesn't run faster than the old stuff, something Microsoft couldn't allow to happen. Facepalm away, good people, facepalm away.
New Xbox 360 250GB review
When we first saw its face in a Italian ad, more than one Engadget editor called its bluff: "The top half doesn't line up with the bottom," some said, "that's got to be Photoshopped." While that early image was indeed CG, the form factor was certainly not -- the new Xbox 360 sports enough sleek angles and disappearing curves we've taken to calling it the Stealthbox. As mother always told you, though, it's what's inside that counts; does that glossy exterior house any improvements, or is it hiding just another Xbox? Find out after the break.
New Xbox 360 shuts down before overheating
Okay, gang, we really need your help. Though Microsoft's shrunken, Valhalla-equipped version of its home console was announced last week, new functions of the device are just now starting to surface. The latest is an auto-shutdown feature which turns off the console when its primary cooling vent is blocked, which displays a warning prompt on screen and turns the console's power button into the ominous vision seen above. So, here's what we need your help with: We feel like we can still get in front of this thing, and coin the new colloquial phrase for this warning. That guy who came up with "Red Ring of Death?" He's making bank off royalties, and papa wants a slice. So, let's start spitballing: Red Eye of Danger? Red Dot of Poor Ventilation? Red Light of Uncomfortable Proximity? How about, like, "The Killswitch?" It's foreboding, yet strangely catchy.
Xbox 360 'Valhalla' model torn down, new hardware exposed
Viewers of Microsoft's E3 media briefing reacted to the reveal of the new, slimmed-down Xbox 360 in peculiar ways. For instance, tech writer Anand Lal Shimpi apparently reacted with excitement -- not because he couldn't wait to add the new model to his collection, but because he couldn't wait to completely dismember it. You can check out the pictorial fruits of Anand's labor over on his site, and glimpse some of the technology that powers Valhalla. The highlight of this teardown? We finally get to see the single chip (teased by the motherboard we had Ben Heck look at earlier this year) that houses the 360's CPU, GPU, and eDRAM, which can all be cooled by a single, more powerful fan. When you turn on your new 360 and it doesn't sound like a pair of jet engines, you've got this little guy to thank.
New Xbox 360 gets a proper teardown analysis: power and noise reductions confirmed
Anyone can take a hammer and rib-spreader to a new piece of hardware. But it takes someone like Anand Shimpi, the man behind Anandtech who has personally suffered through four out-of-warranty Xbox 360 failures, to bring sage analysis to a teardown of the new Xbox 360. His reluctant sixth Xbox 360 is the new slimster (codename Valhalla) which, for the first time, combines the CPU, GPU, and eDRAM onto a single chip -- previous Xbox 360 motherboards featured two discrete packages that split the CPU from the ATI designed Xenos GPU and eDRAM. The design allows for a single heatsink to be cooled by a single, larger fan making the new Xbox "noticeably quieter," measured at 45dB when idle or 51dB with the 1.5Gbps SATA Hitachi HTS545025B9SA00 with 8MB buffer spinning at 5400RPM -- that's down from 50dB and 54dB, respectively, as measured on late 2008 through 2010 Jasper-class 360s. Regarding power consumption, Anand measured a 50% reduction from the original 2005 Xbox 360 (25% less than Jasper-class rigs at idle, or 20% to 17% less under load) and pulled just 0.6W when "totally off" compared to the 2W of vampire power pulled by older 360s. Anand speculates that Microsoft might finally be using cheaper 40nm components. However, we shouldn't expect to see a price cut anytime soon as it will take Microsoft awhile to ramp up the material and manufacturing cost savings. Regardless, with Kinect and several new game titles on the horizon, Anand concludes that there's still plenty of life left in the old Xbox 360 platform for those looking to make the jump.
Leaked Xbox 360 'Valhalla' motherboard analyzed by Ben Heck
Sure, you might've seen the purported Xbox 360 Valhalla motherboard leaked yesterday... but have you ever really seen it? There's a subtle difference, one that requires you gaze through the ocular receptors of our dearest old friend (he hates when we call him that) Ben Heck. Joystiq sat down with him to deconstruct the pictures and get his take on all the hardware nuances. First and foremost, there appears to be no connectors that "look remotely like a Xbox 360 memory card reader," which lends credence to the thought process they might be going the way of the dinosaur. WiFi is still missing in action, and as for Project Natal integration, Heck's highly doubtful that's in the cards, though he shares our mindset that a bundle would make sense. The big question is size reduction, and to that our game console laptop guru suggests that, given the constraints due to a DVD drive, the best we can expect is a one-inch drop in height (standing console), 0.5 inches in depth, and just "slightly thinner." Sorry folks, looks like even in your wildest dreams, it'll still tower over the Nintendo Wii. A great read, don your thinking cap, give yourself 15 minutes, and hit up the source.
Xbox 360 getting USB storage support in Spring 2010 firmware update
Are we gazing onto the cusp of a new horizon, one where our Xbox 360 storage needs aren't shackled to overpriced proprietary hard drives? Probably not quite. Our best friends at Joystiq have managed to obtain documents (corroborated with multiple sources) showing that the folks in Redmond are mulling over an option to enable USB mass storage support for its game machine. To elaborate, that means downloaded Xbox Live and Arcade games, DLC, other associated game files, and even installed disc-based games can be saved to an external HDD of your choosing. The documents further elaborate that the storage device itself must be 1GB or more; a system partition of 512MB is required, and by default beyond that the consumer partition (i.e. your games and the like) will occupy the remainder of the drive or 16GB, whichever is smaller -- and unfortunately, that's as much as you're gonna get. This could be another way for Microsoft to, alongside the rumored Valhalla motherboard, trim some fat for a slimmer future... but given the size constraints, we're guessing it's more likely to be a more spacious alternative to Memory Units than the main HDD itself. Word has it the feature will be rolled out in a Spring 2010 firmware update -- that is, if Microsoft keeps to its paperwork here. Excited? We are. Read the full documentation over at Joystiq.
Rumor: Slimmed-down Xbox 360 motherboard images leaked
Last week, speculation surrounding a pending announcement of the oft-rumored, slimmed down "Valhalla" model of the Xbox 360 was kicked into high gear, thanks to a Microsoft hiring notice for a motherboard engineer, and Steve Ballmer's reference to "more form factors" for the hardware. Earlier today, a Chinese tech forum purportedly posted a pair of pictures of the newly remodeled motherboard, which has undergone a massive size reduction from the current iteration of Xbox 360 hardware. A few noteworthy changes in the motherboard (full pictures of which can be found after the jump) are a consolidated GPU/CPU (one of the rumored features of the Valhalla chipset), an extra SATA port, and a much smaller heatsink. Though the design could just be a mock-up from an extraordinarily talented modder, it certainly looks like professional-quality work. We've contacted Microsoft to see if they'll comment on the skinny-fied hardware.
Xbox 360 'Valhalla' motherboard leaked on Chinese forum?
Been to the gym lately? If not, then let this be your new motivation. What we're looking at here is a purportedly forthcoming Xbox 360 motherboard redesign that takes aim at slimming down the portly figure of Microsoft's console. Sure, there's a small chance that this diet could be the work of a scarily talented console modder, but it'd still be a near-impossible task to work in what appears to be a CPU / GPU combo chip (pictured after the break) under that greatly reduced heatsink. Note that there's also an extra SATA port at the top left corner. Perhaps this is the "Valhalla" revision that we've all been waiting for? On a related note, Microsoft is currently hiring a Motherboard Design Engineer for the Xbox 360 Console Development team, with such saucy tasks as "specifying, designing, implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line." Feel free to sign up if you think you can hack out a better motherboard.
Secret Xbox document tells us absolutely nothing
So, a top-secret document has popped up over at the Cheap Ass Gamer forums from a reliable source, detailing some Xbox 360 name changes. Unfortunately, we have no idea what those names mean for us, since they're fairly idiotic, could just be internal code names, and could be fake altogether. We're trying not to believe Microsoft is going to hit the market with the Xbox Lean, Xbox Granite and Xbox Pure, unless the "Lean" is actually slimmed down, and the "Pure" version is truly the purest of all Xboxes. HEXUS has a theory that these could be names for that 65nm unified-chip Valhalla Xboxen due for the end of the year, which may actually be feasible, but implications that the Pure could be a full-on sequel to the 360 seem preposterous at best.Update: Turns out this is a fake. [Via HEXUS.gaming]
Halo 3's Valhalla gets Boom Bloxed
Come one, come all and witness the creation and destruction of Halo 3's multiplayer map Valhalla in real-time, utilizing the building block awesomeness that is Bloom Blox (a Steven Spielberg Wii game don'tcha know). Watch as Boom Valhalla creator EazyB2189 gives a tour of his Blox creation then attacks it with bowling balls of destruction all set to the comical tune of random Boom Blox sound effects. We know the ancient Forerunners would not approve of the mindless destruction, but for a bored fanboy who is attempting to make it through another Wednesday, the mindless Valhalla destruction is much needed entertainment. [Via HBO]
Rumor: Xbox 360 slimming down in 2009 [update]
Since it won't go anywhere near the Wii Fit balance board and is extremely likely to die during a heated workout, your obese Xbox 360 isn't going to get thinner in its lifetime. No, that's what the "Xbox 540" replacement is for, claims TG Daily. The site reckons that Microsoft will release a "mid-cycle refresh" of the system in Fall 2009, one built around a new and more compact "Valhalla" internal chipset. (Have we introduced you to Jasper yet?)The shrinking of innards will reportedly allow a redesign of the system's exterior, much like the PlayStation 2's second iteration. Our fancy next-gen games may be getting bigger on the screen, but much like our Wiis, it seems we'll end up with something smaller to play with. On. Play games on. Multiplayer games. Curses! is there any way out of that one?Update: Microsoft says it has "no plans to release a new console in 2009."[Via X3F]
