QuickJump QuickPeek 22: Of Dark AleX’s comings and goings, the Battle of the Exclusives, and Optimus Prime circa 1200 AD

(Editor’s Note: “Gobble gobble!” We sure have a lot to be thankful for. And after last week’s QuickPeek edition, we want to give all of you one big serving of the freshest, meatiest, and most importantly, juiciest QuickPeek turkey ever!)

For this week’s Quickpeek, as some of you might know, it’s “Battle of the Exclusives” week, but is that all? Heck no. Read the full article!

(Editor’s Note: “Gobble gobble!” Yeah that’s turkish – turkey the animal, not Turkey the country – for “A big jolly THANK YOU to all of you QJ.NET readers!” We sure have a lot to be thankful for. And after last week’s QuickPeek edition, we want to give all of you one big serving of the freshest, meatiest, and most importantly, juiciest QuickPeek turkey ever!)

Good day, and a happy Thanksgiving weekend to all! We’ve all been through thick and thin, hell and high water, and a side dish of some flame war commenting.

Regardless, we’re all friends here, and by “all” we mean you, you, and YOU! You, mister tipster who’s been ever so helpful! You, mister reader who will only jump up articles but not comment! You, mister x(unregistered) person with an ingenious username! You, mister homebrew artist with a flair for Lua programming! You, mister wisecracking flamer who sometimes also makes great intelligible arguments! You, mister developer/publisher/advertising guy!

Everyone, thank you!

As for this week’s Quickpeek… Have your Black Friday purchases so utterly depleted your funds? As some of you might know, it’s “Battle of the Exclusives” week, with the PS3’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and the Xbox 360’s Mass Effect hitting shelves. There has also been some development on Assassin’s Creed as more and more people are buying the game and exploring its many little nooks and crannies.

So let’s stretch our Thanksgiving metaphors one last time, dig through the refrigerator that is this past week’s news, ignore the tough turkey (and the lumpy gravy) and go straight for the pumpkin pie of wholesome newsy goodness. Time to dig in…

We had more news of the “Dark AleX is back” variety. Sort of. Well, most were unsure of DAX’s status in the community, whether he’s really gone “adios amigos” or not. Given that he’s been popping back from time to time after, it’s good to hear further confirmations of DAX’s comings and goings.

Mathlieuh states it explicitly: Dark AleX is still very much alive and is steering Team M33, however “you should not expect as regular updates as there used to be.” Updates from now on will be released “only when believed necessary, thus no 3.72M33 planned (we are waiting on future official firmwares and keep improving M33’s features from now on.)”

Link: Homebrew scene news flash: Dark AleX hasn’t given up yet

StrmnNrmn has also made someone’s day by announcing the winner of his design contest for Daedalus PSP. He’s received nearly 200 entries, and it took him quite a while to come up with the finalists, from a long short-list of 30 to the actual short-list of 10 finalists.

All final 10 entries were pretty creative and each one had a different look and feel from the next. But finally, the winner was eventually announced: Patrick Ahmann. In the course of the competition, StrmnNrmn’s “come to realise that the main objective of the competition should be to define an identity for Daedalus,” and now, we finally get to see its new face. Expect to see Patrick Ahmann’s icon and background in future Daedalus releases!

Link: StrmnNrmn: Daedalus design contest finalists announced
Link: Patrick Ahmann wins Daedalus icon and background contest

Speaking of Patrick Ahmann – though no relation to whatsoever – we also have Ahman finally releasing the latest version of iR Shell! The best thing about it? Finally, PSP users get PSOne 2-player Adhoc support in their games!

Aside from this, iR Shell v3.8 (and later, v3.81) supports the latest M33 firmwares for both the Phat and Slim, as well as the latest 3.71 M33-3 Popsloader from Dark AleX. After some minor bugs whcih resulted in faulty launching of UMDs via XMB among others, Ahman later released v3.81 to fix up loose ends.

Link: iR Shell 3.8: now with PSOne 2-Player Adhoc support
Link: iR Shell v3.81 – bug fix release

Probably the biggest, greatest, and best news of all is that PS3-less PSP owners can finally get some DLC (downloadable content) into their handhelds. As announced by Kaz Hirai during the TGS 2007, the PlayStation Store can now be accessible via the PC.

The official PC version for the PlayStation Network portal has finally gone live. All you have to do is sign up with your PSN account and it’s DLC time.

It’s all about interconnectivity, baby!

Link: PlayStation Store PC goes live
Link: PlayStation Store PC: Initial launch list

And that’s it for this week. Loosen up that belt buckle, we’re sure to have more news as November rushes headlong into December.

– QJ.NET’s PSPUpdates Team

Sony‘s entry into the Battle of the Exclusives arena is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. We’re sure quite a lot of you have already picked up a copy. But before you get yourselves lost in the game, you might have missed out on a couple of news from this week.

Last week’s PS3 Firmware 2.0 already showed signs of problematic areas, so Sony released PS3 FW 2.01 earlier this week, promising to make things more stable. FW 2.01 fixed certain issues and ironed out the kinks in 2.0, some of which include PS2 upscaling and a minor tweak to the Remote Start function.

However, there have been reports of FW 2.01probably causing some major Call of Duty 4 glitches during online play – ok not just a “glitch” but something utterly debilitating altogether.

Some PS3 users have already complained that ever since updating their system, they haven’t been able to log on to play the game online. At all. Other reports stated that they were able to play online (with the PS3 FW 2.01 installed), but after two hours they’d be chucked out.

Link: PS3 Firmware v2.01 now available for download: improved stability confirmed
Link: PS3 firmware 2.01 to blame for Call of Duty 4 online woes?

As a Thanksgiving gift, Sony’s rolled out their PSN update ealy this week. If some of you might not have noticed (where’ve you been, man?), PSN updates regularly occur on a Thursday. This week though, the updates rolled out two days early, on Tuesday.

Link: PSN Thanksgiving update goes live earlier than scheduled
Link: Two new games for the PS Eye in PlayStation Store today
Link: PlayStation Store (US): Thanksgiving updates list

Now, let’s check up on some good news: the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 has finally gone g-o-l-d, gold!

This news comes directly from Epic Games’ Mark Rein, via a news post on the game’s official blog. Sony’s finally given the green light for UT3 PS3’s release, with the master copy sent to North America for manufacturing.

Link: Unreal Tournament 3 for PS3 goes gold

Now in order to entice more game developers and designers to work with the PS3 system, Sony’s just dropped the price for a PS3 development package by a whopping 50%.

This is one offer that developers will surely bite into. If this thing picks up, PS3 owner can expect more third-party developers releasing new games for the Cell-powered console!

Link: Sony slashes 50% off price of PS3 development package

“We had our best programmers on the PS3 version of Call of Duty and it shows,” said Infinity Ward studio head Vince Zampella. Given a multiplatform title, you’d have to ask what development was like for different consoles. For Infinity Ward, this answer from Zampella might shed some light on their view of multi-platform development.

Bottom line: they don’t want to rush things, much less focus on just one platform and then just “quickly port the game over to another one.”

Link: Infinity Ward: Call of Duty 4 for PS3 had the best coders

Oooh, did someone say… more games to come? Well, with Heavy Rain getting primed for perfection, we’re definitely keeping an eye out.

– QJ.NET’s PlayStation 3 Team

First off, not only do we get to greet everyone a happy Thanksgiving, but to Microsoft, a happy Xbox 360 birthday too!

Last week, it was Xbox Live’s fifth year.

This week sees the 2nd year anniversary (“birthday”) of the Xbox 360 home entertainment video games console.

What better way to celebrate it than to have an Xbox 360 exclusive hitting shelves this week?

Mass Effect, finally! Hellooo, Commander Shepard!

Link: Happy 2nd Birthday, Xbox 360!

Before we continue though, Microsoft is tightening its grip on the modding of Xbox 360 consoles. If you have modded firmwares installed on your Xbox 360, you might want to give Xbox Live a wide berth. It seems that Microsoft is once again exerting its efforts in purging modded units and banning them.

Reports have pointed out that the BenQ drives seem to have been able to stay low under the banning radar, but those using Toshiba-Samsung and Hitachi-LG drives with Xtreme and iXtreme firmwares had their units sporting the Z Code 8015-190D barrier. Ouchy.

Link: Microsoft banning modded Xbox units once again

Speaking of Xbox Live, Master Chief dropped in this week with some downloadable content (DLC). No, not for Halo 3. If you haven’t checked XBL out yet, the Guitar Hero III downloadable track “Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix” is already available.

Best thing about it: it’s free!

Link: Free Halo 3 theme DLC for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

In a rather stinging remark about the PlayStation Network, Robbie Bach maintains that the Xbox Live network reigns supreme (there are 8 million users on Microsoft’s XBL).

Bach was asked about his thoughts on Sony’s efforts in online network expansion.

“Sony has done some things online, but nothing that can be called a service,” Bach replied.

Bach maintains that Microsoft will continue pushing its XBL advantage with more downloads in the future.

Link: Xbox Live: We don’t have competition on online services

Now how’s that for a “Battle of the Exclusives” week? Keep checking back for more and, again, happy Thanksgiving weekend, folks!

– QJ.NET’s Xbox 360 Team

Like Microsoft, Nintendo also celebrates a birthday this week. November 19, 2006 (if some of you can remember), was the US release of the Nintendo Wii. That makes the Wii console a year old this week!

But there’s more good news for the Nintendo Wii: the Wii Zapper. Just a week in and the Wii Zapper is already sold out – well, for the online website of Wal-mart at least. See what happens when you don’t pre-order? Other online websites seem to have also reported this product shortage, but you can probably still find a few units around town of the Wiimote light-gun attachment and its bundled Link’s Crossbow Training.

Link: Wal-Mart, Amazon run out of Wii Zappers

The well known D2CKey Wii modchip seems to have gotten a bit of an upgrade. The modchip was criticized for its “excessive” use of wires, so the developers are now going to release the FlexPCB tool, making installation easier.

Link: D2CKey modchip get the FlexPCB tool

Activision seems to be in a bit of a bind with Guitar Hero 3. With numerous reports coming in about the game’s sound output, people have been whispering that Activision is already starting to pull out copies of the game from retail shelves. Though no official statement has been given about this, Activision is still looking into the issue. We’ve yet to see what form of solution they will have for this mix up, but rest assured we’re bound to hear from Activision soon enough.

Link: Activision pulling out GHIII: Legends of Rock Wii retail copies?
Link: Activision checks Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wii sound issue

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is looking ripe-to-ready, with more regular news updates from the DOJO. First off, we get to seem of the costume changes of some of the Smash contestants. Well, not so much costume “changes”: many are color variations with a few additional quirks.

This week also reveals the inclusion of Sin and Punishment‘s Saki Amamiya as an Assisst Trophy. There’s also the training mode, the Smart Bomb, and snowcapped mountaineers Popo and Nana’s Final Smash.

Link: Character costume change
Link: Saki Amamiya: newest Assist Trophy
Link: Smart Bomb, Training Game mode
Link: Ice Climbers’ Final Smash

Yeah, we’re pretty sure some of you are still getting busy with Galaxy. But for those who’re feeling sentimental of all things Hyrule, Link’s Crossbow Training could be a good game to add to your Wii library. Time to arm those Zappers.

– QJ.NET’s Nintendo Wii Team

The raging console wars are still raging, and in Japan, not only is it raging, but swaying as well. For two weeks in a row, the PlayStation 3 has managed to beat hardware sales of the Nintendo Wii, while both the DS and PSP have maintained their hot spots at the top (they’ve been up there for quite some time now).

All in all though, from last week to this week, everyone stood their ground. Follow the bouncing ball now: from DS to PSP, then PS3, Wii, PS2, 360. That’s the lineup for you! Specific numbers still say a lot though. More details behind the links below.

Link: PS3 beats Wii in Japan’s hardware sales for week ending Nov 11
Link: PS3 beats Wii sales in Japan for the third week

Also in Japan, DS owners are getting quite restless in the few days prior to the DS 1seg TV tuner peripheral’s release. A recent survey conducted by Famitsu reveals that only 18% of the DS population actually want to get it. But… Considering the sheer size of that slice of the market pie, “only 18%” is actually a whole lot of people.

Link: Demand for DS 1seg TV tuner floods Japan

Often, we find ourselves geeking out when two fandoms collide. Imagine our excitement when we saw what washed up on our blogosphere shores.

Barring the tear-jerking “Animal Crossing is Tragic” YTMND video making rounds over the web (it’s an old story traced back to 2005, but recently given a video “To Zanarkad” treatment) and reduced some of us here in QJ.NET to tears – hey we’re human too – there’s still a handful of other stuff to go over. (BTW, since you’re asking, just YouTube “Animal Crossing is Tragic” in your own time, you’ll eventually find it.)

So, is that strange woodwork really an Easter egg or an outright coincidence? A couple of gamers have already noticed that strange little nook in Assassin’s Creed‘s city of Damascus.

It’s Optimus Prime trying to pass off as a wooden building!

Does that mean Jade Raymond is also a Transformers fan? Well, who can tell, really? You know how devs can get playful at times. Is there a screenshot of Optimus Prime in Assassin’s Creed? Of course!

“You’ve got the touch! You got the poweeer!”

Link: Optimus Prime in Assassin’s Creed, transform and roll out!

After much speculation, the plot for the Castlevania movie has finally been revealed. Though it’s long been thought to involve some Transilvanian knight getting stuck in Dracula’s castle. Well, take that plot and seal it in a, ahem, coffin. The official plot has now been revealed and the coolest thing about it is that it goes back to the original storyline with none other than Simon Belmont.

Link: Spoiler alert: Castlevania movie adaptation plot revealed

IPTV video-on-demand services have long gotten quite a, well, demand. Different kinds of set top boxes have played a role in the raging battle of the digital media format (which is still different from the platform wars altogether).

The latest entry in the IPTV arena is none other than the PlayStation 3. Well, in Korea, at least. This week finally saw the launching of the PS3 IPTV servce called MegaTV. Though the service is only limited to Korea, lots of people are now fueled even more in hoping that soon enough, US, Europe, and the rest of the other regions catch up to the video-on-demand feature.

As for the Xbox 360’s planned IPTV capabilities, details about its development (if there really is development going on) are close to nil.

Link: IPTV for Sony PS3 finally launched tomorrow… in Korea

Meanwhile, what’s been forever rumored about but now officially trashed is the PSP Phone. On account of the recent misquoted statement from one Jim Ryan of Sony Computer Entertainment (he said that the PSP phone is “plausible”), an SCEE rep stated that they are “can categorically state that [they] are not currently working with Sony Ericsson on any form of PlayStation phone.”

If we dissect this statement though, we find a couple of interesting implications. 1) The word “categorically” connotes something absolute and that it’s only answered by a yes or a no – in this case a “NO, we are not working on it.” And 2) the word “currently” still might hold some hope for you guys.

Link: Sony “categorically” denies confirmation of PSP phone

For QJ.NET reader Aces In The Palm, owning all three next-gen consoles is something worth explaining. Here’s the commenter’s two cents worth on the topic and what role each system plays: