Not at first. I really hope they don’t "upgrade" the 360 to HD-DVD later on, thus forcing people to buy a new one. I just can’t see Microsoft doing that given the inevitable negative reaction from early adopters, but Bill Gates hath spoken:

“We are looking at whether future versions of Xbox
360 will incorporate an additional capability of an HD DVD player or
something else.”

A statement that’s open to interpretation, certainly (one being that this will just be for HD-DVD Video). We’ll see where this goes.

Very nice. Sadly they’re from the Pre-Production stretch on an earlier version of the DOOM movie so there’s still no guarantee The Rock will go toe-to-toe with the Spider Mastermind. Still, I can dream right?

Book publishers aren’t known for being terribly exciting with their marketing, however Double Day is giving it a damn good stab. They’re promoting a new book, The Traveller, as Alias meets the Matrix (already sounding like a Hollywood pitch then). They’re marketing it with street teams, hyping the editor (he also edited The DaVinci Code), running an ARG and highlighting the mystery surrounding the author.

Author John Twelve Hawks (buh?) supposedly lives "Off The Grid" - untraceable phone line, no address, masked voice. All a cunning hoax? Who cares, it’s all pretty intriguing even if that’s exactly what the publishers intended. Suddenly there’s more to it than "just a book". Cool stuff. (via Kotaku)

Here’s an interesting look at Sega’s future direction over at Next Gen.

"We emerged from not being a hardware company to being a software company with a
lot of flamboyance but then maybe didn’t quite live up to expectation. We didn’t
really plan out our platform strategy widely enough."

I couldn’t agree more. They really seem to be picking up steam again though, can’t wait to see what they release in coming years. Oh, and there’s mention of a new Afterburner too - it’s about time!

I’ve been looking for something like this for a while (or in English if you prefer). Sadly I can’t spot one that does WYSIWIG, image uploading/thumbnailing, TypePad importing, comments and template editing. Not sure why Moveable Type is so devoid of useful features compared to TypePad either since both are from SixApart. Ah well, the search for my ideal self-hosted blog tool continues. Hmm, Plog might fit the bill actually…

Creating a flawless third person camera in a game must be a right pain, in fact I still don’t think it’s been done. Ragnar Tornquist would possibly agree. He’s currently working on Dreamfall and most recently documented their efforts to make a good "action camera". Scroll down his site a bit and it’s all there in a trio of posts, interesting read.

I love Double Fine. While some people try too hard to be whacky, it’s like these guys were just born that way. Either that or they were all dropped on their heads as a child - take your pick. For example, how do you announce that there won’t be a GameCube port of Psychonauts? Like this of course - have the consoles talk to each other! Plus their site even hosts three rather good ongoing comic strips. Loons one and all, Tim Schafer especially.

Also, whoever decided that the logo on their front page should be knitted clearly deserves a gold medal and a sack of cash. In other news, Psychonauts is still not out in the UK (date TBC according to EuroGamer), making its release delay even more frustrating than the reportedly superb God of War, which America has had for ages. Boo.

I can’t believe I missed this from a month ago. A hilarious Civ IV trailer in the guise of a Civ addicts support group video. Top stuff, talk about perfectly targeting your audience.

Your average Top Ten list tends to come across as a faintly pointless excercise, so it’s nice to see one that practucally aims to be just that. Top ten beam weapons in film! (via Waxy)

Over at GameSpot, Adam Buchen has a great rant about fanboys which I… kinda agree with.

So you see, dear readers, the best part about being a fanboy is that
you can never be proven wrong. As long as you ignore the rules of logic
and sensibility, you will never have to worry about whether or not you
made a good investment.

Fair comment. On the flip side though, it’s irritating when fanboy is used as a term to slate someone with a legitimate passion that doesn’t blind them to competitors. "You’re an Xbox fanboy". You could say that. I’ve enjoyed my Xbox the most of all the current gen consoles, but that didn’t stop me from loving Metroid and Manhunt on the other two. 

Needless to say, Battlefield 2 has been taking up a lot of my time recently. Joining a 64-player server with disciplined  players is astonishingly good fun and full of brilliant moments. Seeing your squad mates formed up on a hill suppressing the enemy then running for cover from artillery exploding all around you, then moving as a unit to assault a new commander-designated target… at it’s best, simply exhilarating. There’s a great Wiki up full of great tips for the game, well worth a browse.

Recessed text entry boxes, including a search box to the right? Minimal navigation buttons? Kinda similar to FireFox then, plus the RSS reader is apparently rather reminiscent of the Safari. Hardly the first time they’ve been "inspired" by other people’s software designs and ideas either. Ah well, who cares, as long as they adopt and tighten up various web standards finally I’ll be happy for web designers everywhere. (via Anand)