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TGS 'best of' video roundup, yeehaw!
Our must-see-Tokyo Game Show list of videos delivers a jab straight to your optic core. This year's standouts are embedded after the jump. Click the links for larger and downloadable versions.Tell us what your favorites were from the show and we'll add 'em to the lineup.
Widget Watch: YouTube widget
As if you can't waste enough time at YouTube, Sport Monkey Design has doomed the productivity levels of Tiger users everywhere by bringing YouTube to the Dashboard. The YouTube Widget isn't so much of a viewer for videos, but it lets you view a list of new videos and filter them by tags, user and even most viewed, most discussed, etc. The only way this widget could be more of a threat is if they integrated an actual video player so you never need to leave Dashboard.
Movie links appear on German QuickTime page
The evidence continues to mount. Several eagle-eyed readers have spotted the images and links depicted at right on the Quicktime page of Apple's website for Germany. Of course, the links aren't working for me right now (clicking them just brings up the "It's Showtime" message), but they do begin with the familiar "phobos.apple.com..." address. Some of you have argued that these are for soundtracks, but the title of the column is "iTunes Videos." I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.If you're in a country that has not yet had television and/or videos in iTunes and you find such a link on your respective country's Apple site, please let us know!Thanks to everyone who sent this in
Leaked Burning Crusade Alpha Videos
Within the past few days, as you're probably aware, the Burning Crusade Friends and Family alpha disc has leaked its way out onto the internet, and recently videos have sprung up made by people who were able to reverse engineer (or otherwise emulate) the WoW servers. It's probably worth noting at this point that that's definitely against the Blizzard TOS, if not completely illegal.But if you're hungry for Burning Crusade information (and don't care about spoilers or seeing unfinished product), there's a ton of information to be seen in these videos. One more disclaimer: besides the fact that watching these will probably spoil a lot about the expansion for you, these screens are all from the alpha version of the game, and so every single thing here is subject to change, or could even be faked-- there's no guarantee about any of this, and it's definitely not confirmed by Blizzard. But hey, if you're still interested, here they are. the new Draenei mount, the Elekk character creation process, featuring Blood Elf and Draenei roaming around the new areas, including a map screen tour of the Blood Elf newbie area Personally, I can't wait for the expansion, so I'd rather be surprised by what I see in the game than spoil it by either watching these videos or playing on a hacked server. But as I said, there's lots of information in these videos already, and we'll probably see more and more of this as we get closer to release. Enjoy.. if you want to.[Thanks, Slipknot, and others]
Bob Dylan iPod ad on Apple.com
Even the great Mr. Dylan is getting in on the iPod promo fun, as a new iPod ad featuring the man himself has been posted on Apple's site. This particular iPod ad seems to break away from the norm, featuring a non-silhouetted Dylan, a plain white background and a dancer + iPod. It's also a promotion for Bob's new album, Modern Days (iTMS link), which we blogged a while back (that mega box set, titled The Collection, is also now available - iTMS link).In fact, in the same vein of this ad's breakaway theme, it doesn't even look that good. The white is an ugly off-white, and they might as well have made Bob a silhouette - given that the lighting on him is so crummy. The guy may be a little older these days, but he's still an icon, y'know?Either way, it's nice to see a truly influential cultural figurehead like Bob Dylan receiving the iTunes + iPod love.Thanks Andrew
iTunes to allow video burning soon?
I used the question mark because nothing is set in stone here, but TUAW reader Ann-CA tipped us off to a report at the DVD Newsroom that Hollywood might actually be close to lifting some of their over-the-top restrictions on DVD burning. This slightly loosened grip on their content could allow for things like DVD burning kiosks (it better be a darn fast burner), and it could also give the green light to vendors like the iTunes Music Store to allow burning of purchased videos.The panel in charge of making and (finally) rewriting these rules is called the DVD Copy Control Association, according to DVD Newsroom. This DVDCCA is currently working on licensing the encryption technology (Content Scrambling System, or: CSS - nothing to do with web design) to digital distribution services, which is the key to allowing video burning.No ETA is offered on when these rewritten rules could see the light of day, or when video burning could arrive in the iTMS. If Hollywood's reaction times of the past are any indication (and I genuinely hope they aren't), however, we might all be using 7th or 8th gen iPods before we can watch iTMS video on something besides Apple-branded devices.
Horrible Halo site of the day
When the best thing about your Halo machinima site is a picture Chuck Norris as Master Chief, you're in trouble. You're also probably trapped in the throes of puberty. Reader Bill says his Mom won't let him play Saints Row. He also says his site "so horrible it's funny" and needs some traffic. I'd say the emphasis is on horrible, but here's a little link love to take the sting out of Mom's censurous attitude towards simulated gangland violence.
360 dashboard update to be ready by morning
The long awaited 360 dashboard update is finally coming, arriving by invite for most Stateside gamers sometime early tomorrow morning.The update will actually begin to go out by 2:00 AM PT, but, according to Major Nelson, it "can take up to four hours for a user to be prompted to receive this update," so the invitation to download the small-in-size (but large-in-scope) update could arrive as late as 6:00 AM PT.Patient gamers can look forward to 125 new features for their cream-colored Xboxes, including the ability to queue multiple Marketplace downloads, keep your place in DVDs, and even fast-forward to just the choicest parts of videos (like the one featuring the titular Tomb Raider above). Plan your evening and/or morning accordingly, folks.See also: A video tour of the Xbox Live Spring update 360 BC update "in the next few weeks" [Thanks to everyone who sent this in; also via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Lair off-screen trailer looked good at GDC
Stills and screenshots can only do so much to convey how good a game looks. Here's an off-screen video presentation of Lair recorded from GDC, showing off the Factor 5 game in action (or, should we say, motion).You might recognize some of the animation from videos seen elsewhere, but it was nice to catch the newer footage of a dragon wireframe model meticulously rendered with layers of musculature and skin, too.If that's not enough for ya, you can always just listen in to the audio, which features a young lady from Washington asking questions of a developer with the hope of getting hired. Consider this a lesson in networking.[Via GameBrink]
Widget Watch: Google Music Video
This Google Music Video widget sounds pretty slick: it pulls song information out of iTunes and searches Google Video for any related videos. I haven't tried it, but with everything that YouTube is able to get away with, I think it'd be a good idea if the author could add support for searching their catalog too.
DoA4 gameplay videos
If the impending release of Dead or Alive 4 hasn't got you frothing at the mouth, then how about some videos to go with the news snippets trickling on to the web? As usual, Xboxyde has come up trumps with these videos, covering the game's intro and (naturally) some fighting. It's looking good, although eagle-eyed DoA fans are already marking the similarities between previous versions and the next-gen iteration.
