backwardscompatible
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Head back to Liberty City in 'GTA IV' on Xbox One
Grand Theft Auto V recently shipped 75 million copies, but if you wanted to play what came before it on Xbox One you were out of luck. Until now. Starting today, Grand Theft Auto IV and its $50 million expansion packs will be playable on Microsoft's latest console. The base game and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" will run you $20 each, while the biker-focused expansion "The Lost and Damned" is $10.
Xbox One adds backwards compatibility for 'Witcher 2' and more
Microsoft is keen to make its Xbox One Backward Compatibility as robust as possible. The feature, which lets users play Xbox 360 titles on Microsoft's latest console, continues to grow thanks to help from developers. A testament to this is a slew of new backwards-compatible games arriving today, including Soulcalibur, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (free until February 5th) and Counter-Strike: GO, plus a few others. What's most interesting here, though, is that Microsoft says it will now start releasing titles as they become available, instead of setting a launch date for them every month. That's a good move, if you ask us -- the sooner we can reminisce over old games, the better.
Microsoft admits Surface might ruffle OEM feathers, vindicates Acer in annual report
Redmond's upcoming Surface slate is brimming with potential -- but Microsoft recognizes that building its own tablet comes with some inherent risks. In the firm's recently submitted annual report, Microsoft tells the Security and Exchange Commission that the new family of slates could loosen ties with some of its partners. "Our surface devices will compete with products made by our OEM partners," the report reads, "which may affect their commitment to our platform." This, of course, echos Acer's sentiment, which accused Microsoft of forgetting the PC builders that helped it become what it is today. Then again, maybe Acer was just preemptively upset it wouldn't get picked for Windows 8's starting line-up.
Switched On: Surface tension
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. If you hadn't been paying too much attention to the wide swath of tablets and clamshells (and mashups of the two) that Microsoft is targeting with Windows 8 and Windows RT, then the announcement of Surface contained many surprises. If you have, then there were probably far fewer surprises. But even if you knew just about everything about Windows 8 and Windows RT, you were probably a bit surprised to see Microsoft jump in with its own pair of devices to support the flavors of the imminent Windows upgrades supporting Intel and ARM processors. After all, the fundamental business model of Windows has relied upon licensing to third parties. Ballmer himself has noted in the past that products that ship in the hundreds of millions (or more) of units per year lend themselves well to the licensing model as opposed to the vertical integration model most notably pursued by Apple among Microsoft's main competitors.
Sony NGP confirmed to be backwards compatible with downloaded PSP games
There was a bit of confusion over what sort of backwards compatibility the Sony NGP would have when it was announced earlier this year, but it looks like that particular mystery's now been cleared up. Eurogamer reports that the NGP (or whatever it's eventually called) will be indeed compatible with existing PSP games -- of the downloadable variety only, of course. What's more, the site says that it has actually seen Resistance: Retribution demonstrated on the handheld, and that all PSP games are run via a software emulator that will let you turn upscaling on or off to suit your preference -- games will also be able to take advantage of the NGP's dual analog sticks (to control your character's view in Resistance, for instance). As Eurogamer notes, that sounds similar to Sony's remastering effort for PSP titles on the PS3, which also promises to add cross-device playability. Might the NGP also get in on that act? We should know more at E3 next week.
Wii HD rearing long-rumored head at E3 2011?
Another year, another chance for Nintendo to deliver what it's alternately denied and teased since day one -- a successor to the Nintendo Wii capable of displaying games in high resolution. Will Nintendo finally make it happen? Multiple totally anonymous sources say yes: they told Game Informer, IGN and Kotaku that just such a system will debut at E3 2011 in June, possibly with a teaser of some sort next month. While the ninja moles didn't provide many hard details -- mostly just the typical iffy claim that the system will wipe the floor with competitors in terms of speeds and feeds -- they told IGN that it will support 1080p resolutions and be backwards-compatible with games for the Wii. Naturally, we'll believe it when we see it... so here's hoping we see it fairly quickly. Update: Rumors are bursting out of the woodwork at this point, and we're going to refrain from posting them all here, but anonymous sources tell IGN and CVG that the new console might have controllers which double as the console's display -- each sporting a sizable screen.
Buffalo outs USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter, we see a trend coming
After our adventure in figuring out the particular ExpressCard version of the StarTech USB 3.0 adapter, here's Buffalo joining the fray and, naturally, there's zero indication about whether this is an ExpressCard 1.0 or 2.0 device. The difference is that with the latter you can get all the way up to 5Gbps theoretical throughput, which is just above the USB 3.0 max rating of 4.8Gbps (typically advertised as 5Gbps), whereas the former hardware will get you only up to 2.5Gbps. Considering there's a pair of USB SuperSpeed ports on there, you'll want to make doubly sure you're getting what you think you are. Or, given that early bird UK e-tailers are listing it for £35 ($57; no stock yet), you could just order one up and pray to Cthulhu that you get the maximally awesome stuff.
GE shows off 1TB holographic discs but Wolf Blitzer remains skeptical
We're confused as to how technology that was supposed to be available in 2006 can still be featured at an Emerging Tech conference in 2009, but so it is for General Electric's attempt at holographic storage. Predicting drives for archival purposes in two or three years with consumer products around two years after that, manager Peter Lorraine claims Blu-ray has "two to four years of life to go" and expects licensees to clean up with speedy 3ms access time, 1TB+ storing (up from a mere 200GB), backwards compatible hardware. The latter portion, plus other breakthroughs in cost and reliability are listed as reasons to believe the market will catch HVD anytime soon, but right now it's about as likely returning to a matching 2006-era MySpace page or believing Wolf was staring at anything other than a mark on the floor on Election Night. [Via Physorg]
Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite gets unboxed and uncased
What once was special has apparently lost its exclusivity, as not only did Target completely ignore the April 29th street date set for the Xbox 360 Elite, but now we're seeing that a Wally World in Minneapolis (among others) has followed suit. As these things always go, an avid gamer with a hand at photography has done the honors of unboxing and uncasing the new updated console, but we've got to give props for going the extra mile and offering up a comparison shot between the new and old motherboards. Additionally, he pointed out that a Hitachi GDR-3120L FK78 DVD drive and Fujitsu MHW2120BH 120GB HDD were the new weapons of choice, and while he couldn't quite determine if Microsoft had snuck a 65-nanometer CPU core in there, we do know that Microsoft has updated the legacy compatibility list for the first time since December, giving you dozens of new titles to drown your sorrows in. Go ahead, indulge yourself.[Thanks, l3ftonm3]
Japanese PS3 back compat problems? [update 1]
Reuters has just posted an article saying the Japanese PS3 has problems running roughly 200 games from the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 catalogs. Their source is the Japanese Sankei Shimbun newspaper, and a bad Google translation of the original article does indeed say a "portion of the game software of PS and PS2 of the expectation which is compatibility not to operate just."The short, translated article doesn't detail which of the thousands of PS and PS2 games aren't working or how many were tested, but it does quote someone from Sony as saying ""when system renewal of the substance and you improve with the software individual correction software, there is," which we can only assume means that future system updates will fix this problem (we've signed up for Japanese classes).For reference, our backward compatibility tests with various PlayStation and PlayStation 2 software on the U.S. retail console turned up no problems. Then again, we only tested a handful of discs as we don't have the time or resources to test every PlayStation game ever made. If we hear about any similar problems with the American version of the system, you'll be the first to know.[Update: fixed link to the Japanese translation.]
Psychonauts still not guaranteed to be Xbox 360-compatible
Despite yesterday's promising development, Psychonauts is still not guaranteed to make Xbox 360's backwards compatibility list. Microsoft's Emulation Ninjas are indeed working on the next batch of BC titles, which includes Psychonauts, but Emulation Ninja Alan Stuart warns: "Even though we are working on Psychonauts, there is no guarantee we will ever be able to make the game backward compatible. We may run into technical limitations that will prevent us from ever shipping the game; we don't know yet."Ominous words from an official Ninja. But hope lives on ...
360 BC update "in the next few weeks"
Thanks to the folks at the Gamerscore Blog, we've learned that the next Xbox back compat update "should be out in the next few weeks." In his earlier blast against BC, Peter Moore proclaimed that nobody is concerned about it anymore, but thankfully the gentler Gamerscore peeps have set the record straight, stating: "We know for a fact that there are lots of people who continue to care about backwards compatibility, including the 'Emulation Ninjas' who are working full time on the updates. And those of us posting on this blog. And, of course, many of you." We suppose quarterly updates to the BC list aren't TOO bad (hey, they sure beat semiannual dashboard updates), but getting more than a dozen titles to work each time would definitely help a lot more for those with original Xbox favorites they'd prefer to play on their new machines. Personally, this blogger would like to see the following titles added to the list: Dead or Alive Ultimate, Doom 3, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Project Gotham Racing 2, LEGO Star Wars, Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, Soul Calibur II, and Capcom Classics Collection. It may not be realistic to expect Street Fighter support when Hyper Fighting is set to hit Live Arcade sometime in the near future, but one can (vainly) hope. [Via Major Nelson's blog] See also: Xbox BC not a priority, says Moore No Black on 360 till MS makes it so... or a sequel comes out US 360 backward-compatibility list shrinks A video tour of the Xbox Live Spring update SFII on Xbox Live: what's taking so long?
Warner's first HD-DVD/DVD combo disc, additional titles announced
HD-DVD is moving the movement, with their latest announcement that we will see the first back-and-forwards compatible movie hitting store shelves May 9. Rumor Has It (which I have never heard of) will contain a high definition version on one side and a standard definition DVD on the other. The second piece of good news is that it will premiere on the same day as the standard definition release. The bad news is that this hybrid disc is going to cost you $39.99, a 135% premium over just the standard DVD as eHomeupgrade points out.Also announced today for HD-DVD release are Goodfellas, Swordfish and Training Day, all of which will cost $28.99.Now we'll see if anyone is really interested in future-proofing their DVD library, especially at such a price. Blu-ray also has similar types of discs on the way; with neither format expected to gain that much traction in its first year, getting consumers to build up libraries of content and locked into a format early could be key. That said, content will mark the true victor in the next generation wars, and with the "special features" provided by Eva Mendes and Halle Berry I see where Warner is going early and I kind of like it.
