Famitsu recently rounded up some high-profile Japanese developers to gauge their reactions to Nintendo's 3DS hardware. According to a translation by Andriasang, the responses ran from business-minded declarations of intent to somewhat philosophical thinking-out-loud.

Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono seemed to be most able to keep his excitement in check. He was collected and business-minded when he said, "We'd like to put in some ideas that make effective use of the portability." Hideo Kojima was happy that he wouldn't have to change glasses to use 3DS and mused about the implementation of CO-OPs, the multiuplayer mode featured in Peace Walker, "and other things -- elements fitting of a 3D and portable game machine." Super Monkey Ball (and Yakuza) creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, already working on a 3DS Monkey Ball game, said that he would "like to make a variety of proposals" for games that use the Wi-Fi and 3D aspects of the system. Shinji Mikami and Tomonobu Itagaki were on their way to a meeting in which they planned to talk about the system (and eat yakiniku).

Others developers got more ... philosophical. Suda 51, for example, wants to make "The Next Game," in the same sense that he sees 3DS as "The Next Hardware." Bayonetta producer Hideki Kamiya hopes to make "a 3D game where you can enjoy the feeling of existence given by portable 3D." Kamiya's Platinum Games partner, Atsushi Inaba, " "experienced a strong jolt of the feeling 'I want to make something.'" He added, "Since the start of the game industry, there's never been a system that better fit the words 'dream' and 'next generation.'"

Japanese devs sound off about 3DS originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic is planning an extra XP event for Gears of War 2 that will coincide with next week's San Diego Comic-Con, tied to producer Rod Fergusson's Twitter account -- and designed to promote it, of course. The more followers he gets, the more XP gamers can earn during the upcoming event.

Continue reading Gears of War 2 XP bonus driven by Twitter

Gears of War 2 XP bonus driven by Twitter originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for the new New Xbox Experience? French site Logic-Sunrise has posted shots of what appears to be a new version of the Xbox 360 Dashboard interface -- or a really Microsoft-esque fake. In addition to an updated appearance, this purported UI features a "Natal Tuner" application and a "Natal" setup process (which cutely directs requests for help to the @xboxsupport Twitter account).

It makes sense Microsoft would ready a new Dashboard -- the console has a new look and a new controller, so it only follows that Microsoft would take that last rebranding step for the next phase of the Xbox 360 life cycle.

Rumor: Images of new Xbox 360 dashboard leaked originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These days, every developer and their brother seems to be making a beeline for hot new gaming platforms like Facebook and the iPhone, visions of Farmville- and Doodle-Jump-style riches dancing in their heads. But nDreams CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh says all these gold rushers might be ignoring a more welcoming and neglected platform for their gaming projects: PlayStation Home.

Continue reading Develop: Is PlayStation Home the next great game development platform?

Develop: Is PlayStation Home the next great game development platform? originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier yesterday, the team at Turn 10 Studios released a new car pack for Forza Motorsport 3 dubbed the World Class Car Pack.  This brings the total of DLC cars available via the Xbox Live Marketplace to 80, and this one packs quite a punch.

The headlining car is obviously the new McLaren.  Set to hit the roads sometime later this year for the rich and famous, the MP4-12C is the next iteration in the McLaren family.  The MP4-12C is also the successor to the McLaren F1, which held the top speed record for production cars for nearly 10 years.

Alongside the McLaren are 2 Mercedes both with AMG tuning, making them quite a bit better than their stock counterparts.  Continuing with the luxury sportscar theme are the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe and the Acura TSX V6.

The second “portion” of the pack are a set of subcompact cars; most of them coming tuned straight from the factory.  They include the Fiat Punto Evo SPORT, the Mazda 2, the Citroën DS3 and the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart.  Every car pack has one car which can be tried out for free, and this time the honour falls to the Mitsubishi Colt.

If we were playing a game of odd one out, that car would definitely be the Kia Forte Koup SX, being a performance coupe, but not belonging to either the subcompacts or the luxury sportscars.  Personally, I’ve been looking into a Forte Koup, so it’ll be nice to see how it performs in the world of Forza Motorsport 3.

The full list of cars included in the World Class Car Pack:

• 2011 McLaren MP4-12C
• 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG
• 2010 Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG
• 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe
• 2010 Fiat Punto Evo SPORT
• 2010 Acura TSX V6
• 2010 Kia Forte Koup SX
• 2011 Mazda 2
• 2011 Citroën DS3
• 2010 Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart

The car pack is available in 2 flavours: one for 400 Microsoft Points for 10 cars, and the free one which comes with the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart.

You've already seen a near photo-realistic rendering of LeBron James in a Miami Heat uniform, and now you can see a comically over-the-top version, courtesy of NBA Jam.

Continue reading NBA Jam screens give us a taste of the James, Bosh, Wade trifecta

NBA Jam screens give us a taste of the James, Bosh, Wade trifecta originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you know that in addition to being the new CEO of Activision Publishing, Eric Hirshberg is also responsible for giving birth to fake Sony pitchman Kevin Butler? It's true, the towheaded adman sprung fully formed from Hirshberg's loins while he was still with marketing firm Deutsch LA. However, he says in a Kotaku interview that he's not interested in plopping out a clone for Activision, saying "Kevin Butler was the right solution for Sony." Hirshberg doesn't take the job until September, so he says he hasn't settled on how he'll be attacking Activision's image problems.

Hey Eric, if you're hard up for ideas, you can feel free to co-opt our new character: "Blogger Who Carries On a Birthing Metaphor Too Long Until Both He and the Readers Are Grossed Out." We think he's headed for big things.

New Activision Publishing CEO is Kevin Butler's dad originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twenty-five years ago, Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper had to reverse engineer a Japanese Famicom development kit in order to make the early NES game Slalom. Today, at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Rare Talent Director Nick Burton outlined some of the very different challenges the company has run into in the developing of Kinect Sports for Microsoft.

"Kinect was a no-brainer as far as we were concerned," Burton said. "Just the opportunities it brought ... because it removes one layer between you and the computer." Burton said that Rare has always been interested in technology and game design that "is trying to remove that barrier to entry, trying to get that fun experience the entire family could have, but also getting the fidelity gamers could love."

The problem with older motion control solutions Rare has worked with -- like accelerometers and even the Power Glove -- was that the fidelity wasn't there, Burton said. Rare tried to fix this for years by augmenting the original Xbox Live Vision Camera with a PlayStation-Move-style light-up handheld wand made out of a supermarket vitamin tin (pictured above). The first-person spell-casting game they made for the wand, Soulcatcher, never got out of the prototype stage, but it did go a long way to "prove you could have that kind of hardcore depth of experience with this kind of control scheme," Burton said.

Continue reading Rare discusses new challenges of Kinect development

Rare discusses new challenges of Kinect development originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here is a look at LIVE activity for the last week:

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

1    Modern Warfare 2  
2    Halo 3

3    Call of Duty: WaW
4    Red Dead Redemption
5    FIFA 10
6    Call of Duty 4 (Purchase the full game for direct download)
7    Gears of War 2
8    GTA IV (Purchase the full game for direct download)
9    Battlefield Bad Co. 2
10   Blacklight: Tango Down
11   Left 4 Dead 2
12   Crackdown 2 Demo (Purchase the full game)
13   Forza Motorsport 3 (Download the demo)
14   Halo 3: ODST
15   NBA 2K10
16   2010 FIFA World Cup
17   Crackdown 2
18   Madden NFL 10 (Download the demo)
19   Borderlands
20   Fallout 3

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1    Blacklight: Tango Down
2    Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge
3    AFTER BURNER CLIMAX
4    MEGA MAN 10
5    RISK: FACTIONS
6    Puzzle Quest 2
7    Castle Crashers
8    Toy Soldiers
9    Trials HD
10    Game Room **
11    UNO
12    Hasbro Family Game Night **
13    Snoopy Flying Ace
14    Earthworm Jim HD
15    Magic: The Gathering
16    The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
17    Worms 2- Armageddon
18    Battlefield 1943
19    Marvel vs. Capcom 2
20    Perfect Dark
The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.
**Combined sales of all Game Room titles

*Combined sales of all Hasbro Family Game Night titles

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1     Try Not To Fart
2     I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 
3     Avatar Ninja!
4     The Impossible Game
5     Baby Maker Extreme
6     Avatar Paintball
7     Avatar Racedrome
8     Avatar Karate
9     Avatar Onslaught
10     Zombie Estate
11     GET TO THA CHOPPA!!1
12     Avatar Drop
13     Avatar Showdown
14     Miner Dig Deep
15     Avatar Bumper Cars
16     Breath of Death VII
17     RC Airplane Challenge
18     Bloody Death
19     This Is Hard
20     Home Run Challenge

Games for Windows Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

1    GTA IV
2    Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
3    Street Fighter IV
4    Colin McRae : Dirt 2

5    Fallout 3
6    Bioshock 2
7    Red Faction Guerrilla
8    Resident Evil 5
9    Halo 2
10    FlatOut UC
11    Batman: Arkham Asylum
12    Gears of War
13    Fuel
14    Tinker
15    Battlestations: Pacific
16    Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
17    Quantum of Solace
18    LOST PLANET COLONIES
19    Section 8
20    Juiced 2: HIN

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Indie Games, full versions purchased during the week.

Some content (and therefore the links) may not be available in all Xbox LIVE regions.

A select few are able to partake in Hulu Plus on the PS3 right now, thanks to an introductory preview program, and we thought we'd capture some footage, just for you, the dedicated gamer and television viewer. Beyond the break, you'll find a lengthy video walkthrough documenting all of the features found in this impressive content delivery platform -- however, if you feel the sheer awesomeness of high-speed HD video may be a bit too much for your puny little eyes to handle, enjoy the stills in our gallery below. The future is now, people!

Continue reading Video: Hulu Plus on PS3

Video: Hulu Plus on PS3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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