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Ultra Street Fighter 4 introduces new challengers this summer
Ultra Street Fighter 4, the new wing of Capcom's palatial Street Fighter estate, is coming to consoles in early June. In a post over on the Capcom-Unity blog, it's revealed the add-on for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Super Street Fighter 4 will arrive in early June for $15, while the PC update will arrive two months later in August. The full digital bundle and retail versions – which include all of the released costumes and the base Super Street Fighter 4 game – will also come to consoles in August for $40, while Capcom is giving PC players the digital bundle for $30 in August since they have to wait longer for the new challengers. Capcom announced Ultra Street Fighter 4 at this year's EVO fighting game tournament. Ultra Street Fighter 4 introduces five new characters: Rolento, Poison, Hugo, Elena and one character that has yet to be revealed. Capcom has no plans to release Ultra Street Fighter 4 on PS4 and Xbox One.
Ultra Street Fighter 4 knocks out new Super, Ultra combos
Ultra Street Fighter 4 is going to solve a lot of disputes with more than just fightin' words in 2014, but in the meantime, Capcom Unity has highlighted a few videos that showcase new Ultra and Super combos. Poison, Hugo, Elena and Rolento (shown above) take turns pummeling foes in the clips, presumably for completely justifiable reasons. The four characters are new additions to the Street Fighter 4 series, but they've made various appearances in previous Street Fighter games and, with the exception of Elena, in the Final Fight series. All four appeared in Street Fighter X Tekken, but the fifth, yet-to-be-announced character joining the cast of Ultra will make their Street Fighter debut.
New version of Street Fighter 4 to be revealed at EVO 2013
A new version of Street Fighter 4 will be revealed prior to tomorrow night's Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition finals at EVO 2013, Capcom announced during its panel at the event. The new version of the game, which will be distributed digitally as DLC as with Super Street Fighter 4's Arcade Edition update, will include five new characters, six new stages and various balance changes. Elena, Rolento, Hugo and Poison will be added to the game's character roster, in addition to a fifth mystery character. The DLC pack will reportedly cost $15 when it launches on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC; a release date will be disclosed in early 2014.%Gallery-193762%
Fusion-io announces ioFX, a super-SSD that's already garnered an Oscar
You've heard of Fusion-io, right? It produces super-SSDs with the teeth-whitening ioMemory that's so fast it can manage a billion input and output operations every second. Now it's bundling that gear into a workstation PCIe card for FX professionals and speed-conscious multi millionaires. Capable of delivering 1.5GB/s (we checked, GB/s) of bandwidth, it's capable of previewing 3D movie effects on the fly. The gear's even managed to cover itself in Academy awards after it was used by studio Pixomondo on the special effects for Martin Scorsese's "Hugo." A 420GB model will arrive in late Spring, setting you (or more likely, your departmental budget) back $2,495 with an inclusive one-year support contract.
Netflix Watch Instantly's life after Starz includes Academy Award winners, more captions
In a change of conversation that would make Don Draper proud, Netflix has picked up its blogging pen and accentuated the positive, even as hundreds of titles provided by Starz Play blinked away this week. The first bit of good news? Content that's coming instead of going includes several movies that scored trophies at last weekend's Academy Awards,including Best Picture winner The Artist, and Best Documentary winner Undefeated that will arrive "later this year, plus Best Animated Feature Rango that goes live on the service March 31st. That extends to movies in theaters too, as last weekend's top two, Act of Valor and Good Deeds, are pay-TV window exclusives for Netflix. The other positive note is that it achieved a goal of offering closed captioning on 80 percent of the hours streamed by the end of last year, and notes 90 percent of streaming is now done on devices that have been updated to support optional captions. The bad news there is that some embedded TV and Blu-ray player software might not be able to be updated for captions, and progress on adding captions for that last twenty percent of content may be slower since it's content that isn't viewed as often. So, is the red envelope company doing enough to keep you hanging around, or are you going to blow through the last few eps of Lillyhammer and pull the eject button?
'Hugo' director Martin Scorsese, cast explain the advantages of shooting movies in 3D (video)
We'll have to wait until this weekend to find out if Martin Scorsese's Hugo takes home any hardware from the Academy Awards, but we've got an early preview of one the Blu-ray 3D release's special features right here. Press play to hear the director explain why 3D affects the storytelling by bringing in qualities usually found in the theater to film, as well as comments from actors Christopher Lee and Sascha Baron Cohen. Scorsese explains "We see in 3D, we see in space... most of us do. Space is part of our lives. It means something. I think, for the individual person who has a vision of telling a story through images, how that person uses space -- that extra element, that extra dimension -- to tell a story is very, very important." Adapted from a book inspired by filmmaker Georges Méliès, the movie hits stores February 28th -- check out the trailer after the break.
Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' Blu-ray 3D set for release February 28th -- 3D haters beware
Considering that Hugo was a flick capable of earning 4 out of 4 stars from noted 3D hater Roger Ebert, it will be interesting to see how it's received upon its home release February 28th. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and currently rocking a 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the fantasy tale of a boy who crosses paths with legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès in 1930s Paris may be the best example yet of how an artist can make use of the effect. The two hour six minute flick will be available in Blu-ray 3D combo pack, and 2D Blu-ray editions, with a 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack and special featurettes on the making of the film and the real magician/director who inspired the story.The release date is two days after the Academy Awards, and if this flick can snag Best Picture or Best Director it could become a turning point for 3D. New 3D movies are already on deck from other high-profile directors like Ridley Scott (Alien prequel Prometheus) and Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby), while big budget conversions like Star Wars -- coming to theaters next week -- and already-sold-out-for-Valentines Day Titanic test the waters for older movies. Add in sports broadcasts planned including UFC 143 tonight and the London Olympics in the summer, and 2012 is shaping up to be an especially rough year for 3D haters -- you have our deepest sympathies. Those on the other side of the fence can check after the break for a press release with more details and (2D) theatrical trailer, it's currently available on Amazon for preorders at $27.99, 2D only is $21.99.
Zeno the child-robot apes Astro Boy, Chucky
Hanson Robotics, creators of the wildly creepy Albert Einstein and (now missing) Philip K. Dick robotic heads has turned its attention to children... er, that is, a child-robot. Sure, it's somewhat difficult to look at little Zeno and not find him just slightly disturbing, but that won't stop the team from breaking ground on this new cybernetic-tyke. The bot will stand 17-inches tall, weigh 6-pounds, and will cost you around $15,000 apiece (consumer models could be $200-300), though you can't put a price on a child-bot that walks, talks, and makes eye contact, right? The original design for Zeno is based loosely on Astro Boy, though somehow the creators have imbued him with a slightly more Chucky-like appearance. Zeno will be controlled wirelessly from your PC, but will also have, "His own moods," and make, "His own decisions." The bot is due out for mass consumption in "a few years," though no word yet on whether Zeno will silently creep into your bedroom at night and stare at you while you sleep.[Via The Raw Feed]
Hugo Chavez to give out free PCs to Venezuelans?
While we're not sure what happened to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's $6.26 million plan to manufacture $350 "Bolivar" PCs with unnamed Chinese manufacturers, it seems as though that project's apparent failure hasn't set ol' Hugs back at all -- CNET is reporting that Venezuela is planning to enter the oddly crowded PCs-for-undeveloped-regions market, alongside such players as Intel and OLPC. Details are pretty light, as you'd expect, but apparently Venezuelan authorities are contacting Asian OEMs about building the machines, which will be funded by oil profits and either heavily subsidized or given away free to people in various Latin American countries. It's a nice idea, but we're wondering why these "authorities" don't just call up any random catalog reseller and place an order -- last we checked, you could spec out a laptop at retail for under $500, so we can't imagine the wholesale revolutionary-discount price would be over $300. And hey, we just might know someone who'll laser-etch Hugo's face on the lids for cheap -- feel free to give us a call, El Presidente.
Behind The Scenes with the Disco Icon
Regardless of what one might think about Disco as a functioning application, it's hard to deny that the latest app from the Madebysofa crew certainly has a unique look to it, and it is spiffy to boot. For the Disco application icon, designers Jasper Hauser and Hugo van Heuven collaborated to create something that I think deserves almost as much praise and attention as the application itself. Jasper has been kind enough to recount for us on his blog how the icon came to be, and the thought processes behind it.
