QuickJump QuickPeek Issue # 01: Of Illuminatis, GTA mafia, and imaginary wrasslin’ gaming execs

(Welcome to the first issue of QJ.NET’s weekly feature, QuickJump QuickPeek! This weekly-updated spot will run the top news of the past week, think of it as your own directory of sorts to the week’s news breakers in our second home we like to call video gaming industry. This page could contain something as trivial as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft bigwigs gathering together for an afternoon teaparty or as groundbreaking as that teaparty turning into a free for all, take-out-as-many-gaming-execs-as-you-can brawl. With that, we take you to this week’s mover and shakers…)

We weren’t treated to news of filthy rich gaming execs going at each others’ throats this week, but we did have an equally gory debacle with the Manhunt 2 and Red Ring of Death bad rap. There’s also the groundbreaking release of PSP homebrew hero Fanjita’s Illuminati exploit (via Lumines UMD) that later on brought us the highly anticipated 3.50 downgrader. Throw in the talks about Nintendo’s WiiWare and the PS3 firmware update and we have a really interesting week. Now for the QuickJump quick peek to the week’s top stories…

The QuickJump QuickPeek awaits after the jump!

 

(Welcome to the first issue of QJ.NET’s weekly feature, QuickJump QuickPeek! This weekly-updated spot will run the top news of the past week, think of it as your own directory of sorts to the week’s news breakers in our second home we like to call video gaming industry. This page could contain something as trivial as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft bigwigs gathering together for an afternoon teaparty or as groundbreaking as that teaparty turning into a free for all, take-out-as-many-gaming-execs-as-you-can brawl. With that, we take you to this week’s mover and shakers…)

We weren’t treated to news of filthy rich gaming execs going at each others’ throats this week, but we did have an equally gory debacle with the Manhunt 2 and Red Ring of Death bad rap. There’s also the groundbreaking release of PSP homebrew hero Fanjita’s Illuminati exploit (via Lumines UMD) that later on brought us the highly anticipated 3.50 downgrader. Throw in the talks about Nintendo’s WiiWare and the PS3 firmware update and we have a really interesting week. Now for the QuickJump quick peek to the week’s top stories…

PlayStation Portable
Despite all talks of PSP having a great year in terms of commercial games this year, we’re pretty sure only one game will stick to our minds for the rest of the year – Lumines. Q Entertainment should think about giving Fanjita huge chunks of mana after his Illuminati exploit and 3.50 downgrader finally made one PSP game outside Loco Roco selling like hotcakes.

This week we were held witness to the undying strength of the PSP scene after the said exploit allowed Fanjita and his team to run HEN (Homebrew Enabler) on PSP firmware 3.50, which in turn paved the way for the release of the groundbreaking 3.50 downgrader. We heard Sony’s just come up with another firmware update – 3.51 – to address this security breach, but meh, that’s just another bug in the homebrew scene’s windshield and our wipers are raring to do some wipin’.

That’s just not it, lucky stars are indeed smiling upon the PSP community this week as StrmnNrmn timely provided us with another huge update for his Nintendo 64 emulator, Daedalus. This project, closely followed by most homebrew-using PSP owners, is now on revision 12. Among the notable updates include the Super Smash Bros. running well with dynarec enabled, and the oft-problematic GoldenEye running properly.

Here’s hoping we could have at least half of this week’s homebrew treat in the coming days.

– by QJ’s PSP team

PlayStation 3
From Sony’s handheld, we move on to the hardware freak of techno-ture, PS3. First of, we have word of the Blu-ray players maintaining its “five to one units sold” advantage over its HD-DVD counterpart. It’s big news for PS3 ’cause first, it’s the Blu-ray players installed in the PS3 that’s padding the lead, and second this ongoing format war can tip the ongoing console war balance in favor of Sony’s next-gen machine.

Another thing that puts smiles on PS3 owners’ lips is Sony’s fimrware update for the said console, bringing it up to 1.82. More than the features it carry, the latest firmware appears to be a firm testament that Sony is listening to the pleas of its consumers. Most of the requests aired by PS3 owners on various intarwebs (our comments’ section among the hottest) was addressed in the very beefy firmware 1.82 changelog.

As an icing to the cake, we were treated to the release ofGrand Theft Auto IV‘s second teaser trailer. We won’t be ashamed in admitting that we did sit in front of our computers minutes before the promised time it’ll be released, refreshing every 20 secs or so, just so we could be among the first to watch it (and of course among the first to report it to you guys). It was worth every F5 and Ctrl+R as the video did its job of hyping the game some more (dang shiny chopper!).

This week was a welcome breath of fresh good publicity, especially after months of getting negative press. We all wish to have the same tone when we for issue # 02 next week.

– by QJ’s PS3 team

Xbox 360
Our team must admit that it’s quite a bad week for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and we’re not just talking of Paris getting released from prison here. Kidding aside, our mean and green machine got a load of bad publicity the past days, but for what it’s worth, we believe it’s just the sort of thing we fans need to feel the competition’s vague tug at at our feet.

First, we saw a barrage of hate posts regarding the alleged lingering problem with Xbox 360’s hardware dubbed as the Red Ring of Death. Figures released, admittedly, were a a bit concerning with 2,500 units said to be sent in daily for repairs. What’s really being used as ammo by haters though, are reports that some retailers and some console repair-focused businesses have started declining requests for Red Ring-related repairs, claiming that it’s a problem “endemic on the XBox 360 console”.

Another medium of hot debate revolves on Xbox Live being on “no payment, no access” scheme. Some fans are claiming it should be free since it’s a feature of the purchased console, while many argue that the incomparable online services (on console level) provided is enough reason to pay for it. Fortunately, Chris Paladino of the Xbox Live Community Team and PR Manager Michael Wolf did a good job of justifying the setup and explaining where the US$ 50 a year investment goes.

It’s not all about the dark side of the moon though. Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV updates kept our green hearts merry. A new Halo 3 site emerges, and RockStar treated us with a hot new trailer. Of course the latter drew more second takes (and third, and fourth…) as it’s an official bit of info from its creators, not to mention it was awesome video in itself. And oh, critically acclaimed Blue Dragon got an official UK and U.S release, that’s another virtual rainbow for us.

That said, we’re sure the tides will turn next week. You just can’t keep a good system down for that long. We’ll be eagerly awaiting the opportunity to report even greater things next week, so ye’ Xbox 360 loyalists better watch out for that.

– by QJ’s Xbox 360 team

Wii
Our blog for Nintendo Wii has been held witness to the consistent positive news and content. There’s just no stopping Wii, and this week has a couple of updates that support that. Like WiiWare for example.

WiiWare is Nintendo’s answer to the gaming industry’s plea for fresh games and ideas. It was announced only a couple of days ago and already the anticipation for it is fast building up. WiiWare is a service that’ll allow developers large or small to create downloadable games specially made for the Wii. This can then be peddled through the Wii Shop Channel and can be bought using the same Wii Points we use to purchase virtual console titles.

We also had a cartload full of updates for highly anticipated Wii-exclusive video game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. How heavy was the cart o’ updates? Well we have news about the Wario’s smooth moves, personalized button configurations, the banana peel weapon, Legend of Zelda’s Ocarina of Time medley, Zelda brawling, and many more.

It’s not all sweet news though. You’re all probably aware of the Manhunt 2 controversy, and this week still had some spillovers from that ugly event. It’s not something that fuels the fire though, they’re actually heartwarming moments for us. There’s this letter of thanks from Rockstar expressing gratitude for all the support they’ve been receiving from the gaming fans, as well as their firm stand on the matter. You can real the full letter here.

Also, former Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) head Roger Bennet offered support to the said videogame while criticizing the Manhunt 2 ruling. According to him “there is no evidence for it to make such a flawed assumption and concerns should be apparent that through pressure from Government, games are becoming increasingly and wholly unjustifiably separated from other forms of screen entertainment”. You can read more of his juicy statements here.

That’s it from us this week.

– by QJ’s Wii team

General Games and other honorable mentions

PC Gaming had it’s own share of the spotlight when Bilzzard’s Rob Pardo resurrected talks regarding Starcraft Ghost. It would be remembered that Blizzard pulled the plug on this one once it became clear it’s really not at par with the other games under their belt. Here’s a snippet of his long statement: “Rather than work on that we had to focus on our other games. We’re hoping one day to return to it [Starcraft Ghots].” Now ain’t that a group of words that provided a glimmer of hope? You can real the full story here.

Nintendo DS once again hit pay dirt with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass breaking a number of sales records. World of Warcraft on the other hand got loads of updates on gaming guides, trips, and tricks. Couple that with the healthy number of MMORPG lore posts and you’ve got a really busy week for online gamers.

– Various contributions

That’s it for this week’s issue of QuickJump QuickPeek! It’s been one hell of a week for all of us, and you can all expect the same for the coming months. We dare not rank them in the manner of importance, but we guess you can do that for us? Fire away at the comments section and let us hear which you think is the most relevant of these groundbreakers.