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Wednesday December 10, 2008
MLB 09 for PS3 Offers a Virtual Tour of the New Yankee Stadium
Categories: Games & Entertainment
Tags: Sony Playstation 3

We got a sneak peak of a slew of upcoming Playstation 3 games early today, courtesy of the folks at Sony. One of the day’s highlights was unquestionably the early look at MLB 09, the latest in the company’s popular baseball title. The new version of MLB features a number of graphical improvements, including realistic shadowing, which changes as the game goes later into the game–or night.

This being New York City, we naturally picked the Bronx bombers for our sneak preview. Once we fired up the game, we were met with a pleasant surprise–the new Yankee stadium. This being the 2009 baseball season, the virtual Yankees had since moved across the street to the new and improved version of their famous Bronx home.

Check out a quick video tour of the new virtual Yankee Stadium, after the jump

dailygamenews.com

MediaMolecule has teamed up with the Independent Film Channel to offer players a chance to have their crazy creations broadcasted and win up to $5,000 in prize money. Details below:

Our friends over at IFC (Independent Film Channel) are looking to take your creativity to a whole new level. As you know we love challenges, so we’ve teamed up with IFC to present the “Play. Create. Share. Short film challenge”. The winning submission will receive $5000, and two runners up will get $1000 each. In addition, the winning film will air on IFC, and we’ll highlight a few of the top videos here.

“Play” with one great idea that you can’t get out of your head.
“Create” a short film based on that idea.
“Share” this masterpiece with IFC, LittleBigPlanet and the world.

The IFC is accepting submissions now through December 21st so don’t delay! So head over to IFC to learn more, grab your friends, your video camera and your creativity and make a short film (no more than five minutes in length).
Sounds simple enough, get your user videos broadcasted on TV and win money for it

The Covini Engineering team’s been clamoring to get the C6W into production for the last 30+ years. Now they might finally have their day.

The Covini Six Wheeler takes its engineering inspiration from the 1976 Tyrell P34 race car which had two pairs of smaller front wheels that were intended to increase air penetration and have a smaller frontal area effectively reducing drag.

The ideas behind the Tyrell P34 don’t necessarily translate to the C6W, though Ferruccio Covini, the company’s founder, gives the following reasons for creating his modern-day six-wheeler:

• Less risk of front tires deflating
• Less risk of aquaplaning
• Better braking
• Better grip
• Better comfort
• Better absorption of frontal impact

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The C6W was first shown in 2004 and a revised version was shown at the Geneva Motor Show a year later with new wheels, interior and roof structure. Numerous prototypes have been developed and tested and now ItaliaSpeed is reporting the Covini C6W will be produced in limited numbers starting at the end of 2009. Power for this RWD 6-wheeled beast will be a 4.2-liter Audi mill channeling 433bhp (440PS) and 346lb-ft (470Nm) through a 6-speed manual gearbox. Top speed is expected to be 185 MPH.

Take a look at the C6W in action below:

By Ismael AbduSalaam
Pioneer Hip-Hop turntablist Grandmaster Flash is set to kick off 2009 with a brand new studio album entitled The Bridge: Concept Of a Culture.

Backed by Strut Records and Flash’s very own Adrenaline City Entertainment, the LP marks the DJ’s first major label release of all original material since 1988’s On the Strength, the last album that featured the original Furious Five lineup.

A student of fellow Hip-Hop legends Pete “DJ” Jones and Kool Herc, Flash is credited with popularizing the groundbreaking turntable technique known as “cutting,” where phrases, edits, and overlays are done simultaneously between two records.

The technique was prominently displayed on the seminal 1982 street single “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,” which created a blueprint for a whole generation of turntablists, and solidified the DJ’s status as the backbone of early Hip-Hop culture.

Last year, Flash and the Furious Five became the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Aware that the new album represents his introduction to a new generation of fans, Flash meticulously worked on the project for the last two years.

The purpose was to craft an album that reflects Hip-Hop’s current uniting power as a worldwide phenomenon, and Flash’s 30 plus years as an ambassador of the culture.

“As a DJ, I’ve been blessed to see many different people, places, and styles,” Grandmaster Flash explained. “The album title represents all the bridges I’ve crossed worldwide.”

The Bridge boasts an impressive list of contemporary and veteran artists including KRS-One, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip, Red Café, Mr. Cheeks, Princess Superstar, Grandmaster Caz, Big Daddy Kane, and Supernatural.

The Bridge: Concept Of a Culture hits stores on March 3, 2009

By Ace Cannon
DMX has been apprehended by FBI Agents at Scott Storch’s house in Miami, according to reports.

The rapper was arrested today (December 9), after police followed up on a tip in regards to his location.

Police could not confirm if the rapper was being treated at a local rehab facility as his lawyer Bradford Cohen has suggested in previous, published reports.

The rapper is expected to be held in a Miami jail until tomorrow morning, when he is expected to be extradited back to Arizona in the next 15 days.

The arrest comes one day after Phoenix, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio offered a $5,000 dollar reward for any information leading to DMX’s arrest.

A woman in Georgia tipped Florida told authorities about DMX’s whereabouts in order to collect the $5000 dollar reward for information leading to his capture.

The troubled rapper, who is reportedly in rehabilitation attempting to kick what many say is a long-time drug habit, is wanted for animal abuse, drug possession and theft of services charges, for defrauding a local clinic of $7,500 in services.

The rapper must post a $120,000 cash bond, or surrender his freedom.

www.split-screen.com

As many no doubt know, the gaming scene is going to get very busy in 2009. This is due to the sheer number of scheduled blockbusters – Final Fantasy XIII, Forza 3, Resident Evil 5 and more. And the momentum doesn’t stop there. Today, we’ve received a jaw-dropping news release and a momentous rumour: details of God of War 3 for the PS3 and Gears of War 3 for the Xbox 360, respectively.

So, GoW 3’s “detail is crafted with highest of care and the animations sell the experience like nothing you’ve ever seen” and Gears 3 is rumoured to be releasing somewhere in 2010. The latter is especially interesting, since David Jaffe stated his new game would be out “sometime in 2010. Certainly not later than that. Perhaps sooner.” His exclusive contract to produce games for the Playstation platform and collaboration on God of War 2 (despite not being a part of SCEA per say) only fuels rumours of his involvement in the third game.

Which leads to the million dollar question: Are we looking at a 2010 clash between these two giants?

Both are equipped with their own tweaks – GoW 3 with a second playable character and new game play mechanics, and Gears 3 with it’s 5 player co-op. Both are summations of the most illustrious trilogies in next-gen gaming. Hell, both of them have the same initials.

It certainly makes business sense for both companies. Both platforms will have access to EA, Capcom, Bandai-Namco and Square-Enix multi-platformers. Microsoft, with no other exclusive AAA blockbusters planned (Too Human is a joke; Mass Effect is absconding). Sony, with Killzone 2 and timed FFXIII exclusivity, is ready to sustain its momentum going into 2010. It’s great to know that Sony and Microsoft are ready to pull out all the stops, economically and technologically, to please gamers worldwide.

www.gamesareevil.com

I’m not expert when it comes to technical aspects of a Blu-ray disk, nor will I pretend to know exactly what makes a Blu-ray so much better than a regular DVD. I do know that Blu-ray disks are read with a blue laser instead of a red laser, which allows the information to be more tightly packed onto the disk, in turn allowing greater disk space. I also know that Blu-ray can run in all HD resolutions including true 1080p, but what does that mean for your average movie watcher? What about your average gamer?

I own a PlayStation 3 and I love it to death. I don’t think I’ve ever had quite as much fun as hurling down the race track in wipEout HD or spending hours creating random machines in LittleBigPlanet. Point is I bought my PlayStation 3 to play games, it is after all called the PlayStation. Which is why it bothers me when I hear people say they want to buy a PlayStation 3 simply because it plays Blu-ray movies. I’ve owned my PlayStation 3 pretty much since launch, and I just recently got into Blu-ray movies. Meh.. Blu-ray is not the magical picture show that I had imagined. I’ve been told by countless friends that Blu-ray looks amazing, that I wouldn’t want to go back to watching regular DVDs after seeing what Blu-ray had to offer. But after watching several movies, it really isn’t that amazing. Sure the picture looks slightly better, but if you’re already watching on an HDTV then you aren’t going to notice a huge difference. And is this slight difference really worth 30 bucks? That’s a lot of money to shell out for a movie. Content has been argued to me many times. The fact that a movie comes packed with mini-games and extra features are bursting out of the seems. What if you aren’t into all of that extra stuff? What if the only reason you buy a movie is to **gasp** watch the movie? Then Blu-ray suddenly doesn’t have much to offer.

The cost of a disc is really starting to pull Blu-ray down. I understand that it’s more expensive to make a Blu-ray disk, but when buying a movie costs more than going out to the theater and getting the full experience with snacks and all, it’s hard to justify. I like watching movies just as much as the next guy, but until the price of a Blu-ray movie drops or they find some way to make the picture significantly better, I’ll keep using my PlayStation 3 for games.

Over all I do like what Blu-ray has done for the gaming industry. Though I feel we have yet to see anything substantial come out of Blu-ray as far as games are concerned, I know the possibilities are almost endless. Which brings me to another point about the cost of a Blu-ray disk. The price of movies has almost doubled since going onto a Blu-ray disk, why have games stayed the same price? If the gaming industry can adopt Blu-ray without jacking up their costs on consumers, why can’t Hollywood? So I guess the real question would be; am I getting cheated when I buy a movie or am I getting a great deal when I buy a game? ‘Cause if it’s the latter, with all due respect to Sony, the games on a Blu-ray PS3 disk don’t look any different than the games on a regular Xbox 360 disk. In time I’m sure this will change, I just hope they don’t jack up the price of a game because of it.

My final verdict on Blu-ray, is that it has almost come before its time. I think that eventually it will take over the gaming and movie industry, but not because of the picture quality. Blu-ray will take over these industries because it can hold more information. As far as gaming is concerned it’s good because gamers are still getting Blu-ray at no extra cost. But for right now the best way to get Blu-ray movies, if you’re interested in them, is by renting them. Blu-ray is simply not worth the money