Late Night Consoling

One of the most frequent criticisms of the PlayStation 3 hardware by early adopters has been its apparent lack of an internal hardware scaler, which has led to a bevy of inconveniences dealing with certain game and movie content not playing--or playing poorly--on displays that do not support the respective content's native resolution. This week, a PS3 firmware update was released, and to PS3 owners' surprise and delight, it fixed a frustrating backwards compatibility flaw that saw many PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games scaled so poorly on high definition displays that the value of the feature was significantly decreased; Sony declined to publicly mention this fix in any of its update notes.

In a detailed article published today, graphics-oriented site Beyond3D published an in-depth investigation alleging that PlayStation 3 does indeed have a hardware scaler, and a high quality one at that--it just wasn't available for use until recently, which might go to explain the backwards compatibility fix. According to Beyond3D's article, the latest version of the PlayStation 3 SDK, released this month, unlocks the ability for developers to access the horizontal scaling capabilities of the chip (though not yet vertical scaling, for some reason). Along with this comes access to new resolutions that can be scaled horizontally to achieve higher standard HD modes than the game's native resolution. Head over to Beyond3D for a detailed run down on the various new modes available.

As the full capabilities of the chip have not yet been let loose, developers still have to personally implement support for additional resolutions, though doing so is now streamlined and much less power-intensive. Presumably, studios will be able to patch already released games to take advantage of these capabilities. Famously, Insomniac's launch title Resistance supports only 720p resolution and not 1080i, leaving gamers without a 720p-capable TV no choice but to play it in 480p or 480i. A patch with scaler support could remedy the problem.

Last night, Wii consoles the world over began to glow blue, indicating that the diminutive white box was ready to be updated. Gamers quickly discovered that the promised News Channel was ready for download. Like the Forecast Channel, the News Channel arrived slightly early; it was originally scheduled for a January 27 release. With content provided by the Associated Press, the Wii News Channel provides news categorized by geographical location, with a display showing the part of the world corresponding to the article. It also includes a full globe mechanism similar to that of the Forecast Channel, from which users can browse news around the world by region and city.

During a press event this week, Midway revealed a new Xbox 360-exclusive World War II-themed FPS entitled Hour of Victory. The game is in development by New Jersey-based nFusion, the studio behind games such as the WWII-themed Deadly Dozen (PC) and its sequel Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater (PC), as well as a pair of Vietnam-themed shooters Line of Sight: Vietnam (PC) and Elite Warriors: Vietnam (PC). Hour of Victory is set in WWII's European and North African theaters, where players will take the role of a frontline assault British Commando, a sniping-oriented US Army Ranger, or a stealthy US Covert Operative.

Hour of Victory is based on Epic's widely licensed Unreal Engine 3.0, and also features online play via Xbox Live.

Midway expects to ship nFusion's Hour of Victory for Xbox 360 this summer.

Publisher Vivendi has been slow to commit to Wii development, so far delivering only the movie adaptation Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, but cover story published in the latest edition of UK-based Nintendo-centric magazine NGamer reveals that the publisher is currently working on taking the GTA-esque Scarface: The World is Yours to Nintendo's home console. It will apparently be handled by original developer Radical Entertainment, which notes that the game will see upgraded models and visual effects from its PS2 and Xbox counterparts, as well as of course a Wii-specific control system. Like many games on the system, the nunchuk's analog stick will be used to move protagonist Tony Montana, with the Wii remote used to aim and shoot. Scarface utilizes a lock on system with supplementary aiming, allowing the player to target specific body parts, which seems like a good fit for the Wii remote. Players can also use the remote to simulate operation of the game's chainsaw, taken from a notorious scene in Brian De Palma's source film; the remote will of course vibrate as chainsaw noises are played through its speaker.

There was no specific release period cited by NGamer, but as the game is a port it seems reasonable to expect it sooner rather than later.

Microsoft sent over a note today with an update on the status of Turn 10's anticipated Xbox 360 racer Forza Motorsport 2, including that the game now has a confirmed release period of May 2007. The note also pointed to Forzamotorsport.net, the game's official site, which features weekly updates on the game's progress. This week's update also includes a full track list for the game. Microsoft noted that it plans to put the game's PR campaign into gear in the months leading to the game's release.

This week, GamersReports posted a brief news item noting that Canadian locations of retailers Best Buy and Futureshop have raised their prices on the 60GB PlayStation 3 model from its launch price of CA$659.99 (US$559.930) up CA$40 to CA$699.99 (US$593.87). GameSpot followed up, determining that the price hike is a result of the presently weak Canadian dollar and is retailer specific, not initiated by Sony as implied in the GamersReports post. Indeed, given current exchange rates between Canadian and United States currency, the updated price on the part of the two retailers brings the console's price more in line with that of its counterpart just south of the border. According to GameSpot, EB Games in Canada will not be adjusting its price.