StuffWeLike

Toshiba: HD-DVD sells more than Blu-ray, more laughing at Sony

One of technology’s more heated battles is between the HD-DVD and Blu-ray storage formats, a rivalry comparable to Windows/Linux/Mac, UT/Quake 3 and Sony/Microsoft. The latest strike has been made, and Toshiba reports that HD-DVD is in the lead!

HD-DVD players began to outsell Blu-ray ones since about mid-September, according to NPD sales figures. Jodi Sally, Toshiba VP for marketing of digital A/V products said that year to date, according to NPD figures, HD DVD players command 53% of sales; Blu-ray players, 44%; dual format players, 3%. The lead may sound marginal, but it may just herald a dark future for Blu-ray.

Sony managed to woo many customers to their camp of evil when they released a cheaper version of Blu-ray players, and attained a status of absolute win. Sally says that the victory was short-lived and that HD-DVD still dominates the scene. Sony can be seen crying in that corner again, like last week (or the week before).

And as for the PC, Toshiba expects 5 million HD-DVD drives to be sold in the fiscal year 2008. With this, they seek to compete further against the atrocities of Sony’s Blu-ray. What is Toshiba’s master plan?

Toshiba believes more people are buying PC HD DVD drives with the pure intention to watch high-def movies than people who are buying the PS3. Sources have estimated that just 20% of PS3 owners have played movies on the machine.

Where will war turn next? Will Blu-ray strike back? Will Toshiba merge with Sony to form the Imperial Japanese Electronics corporations and attack American shores? We can only ~~hope~~ wait.

[Via Video Business]

Eric Bana joins Star Trek XI

Eric Bana

As the search continues to find the cast for Star Trek XI the newest casting announcement is that Eric Bana (The Hulk, Munich) is set to play the villain Nero.

Set for a November start date the studio still needs to cast a young James T. Kirk and Scotty for the J.J. Abrams (Lost) directed project.

While adding the first bankable big name actor to the roster will work in Paramount’s favor as far as box office numbers are concerned we will have to wait until the films release on Christmas Day 2008 to see if Bana is a right fit for the Star Trek universe.

Bana joins the already announced cast members Anton Yelchin, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto (Heroes) and Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek: TOS).

Super Smash Bros Brawl Delayed

Super Smash Bros Melee

It appears that Nintendo has delayed the Japanese release of the upcoming Super Smash Bros Brawl. What was supposed to be released this year is now To Be Determined! Nintendo has said that the game won’t be released until sometime after January 28, 2008.

What kind of impact will this have on the other territory debuts of Super Smash Bros Brawl, no one exactly knows. It’s possible that Nintendo will push the American version to a release date of 2008 as well.

My guess is that Nintendo is focusing on the American version first and foremost. Nintendo may need the extra man power from the other versions to focus in on the American version. Considering that Super Smash Bros Brawl took off in the States and is what convinced people to buy a Gamecube, Nintendo needs Super Smash Bros Brawl in its Holiday 07 lineup.

But as of right now everything is up in the air.

Sonic in Super Smash Bros Brawl

It’s about time Sonic the Hedgehog receives a decent game! Ever since the demise of the Dreamcast is seems like his games are on the utter-crap rictor scale. Thankfully Nintendo is coming in to save the day and is bringing Sonic the Hedgehog into Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Let the fanboy celebration begin!

From the looks of the new SSBB trailer, Sonic is going to be a kick-ass character as he was always meant to be!

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Leaked info on Battlefield 3 shows 80-player battles, late-2008 release

It looks the waterworks just got broken, because the leaks have started afresh. DigitalBattle has gotten their murky hands on a PDF that outlines Battlefield 3’s (which has not been announced yet) features and stuff. The document was supposed to be for investors, but, ya know.

The game looks fantastic from where I stand. There will be two factions – the NATO and the Middle-Eastern Coalition, who will fight it out in “ticket-based” battles. 8 maps will be included in the release and 40 players will be the max for each team – making for a humongous 80 player standoff! Wow!

Maps will mostly be set in Middle-Eastern cities, with one map titled “Baghdad Burning”. There will be 24 vehicles per faction, (total of 48!) 17 weapons per faction and 22 unlocks – which makes for a whole lot of weapons included. The game will also introduce “Battalions” which will consist of 3-4 squads. Five classes – Five playable classes; Sniper, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Support are present – not a big surprise there.

Other features include:

Online stats tracking, awards and “real world ranks”
“Soldier” feature, looks like MMO-styled characters and avatars
Ranked servers will be available for resellers weeks before the game ships (for testing, apparently, ed.)
In-game replay and recording feature
VoIP, friends list, in-game IM-client and “extensive clan support”
Built-in auto software updater (no more patches!, ed.)

As for release and stuff – here’s what we know. It will be released in late 2008, with a teaser and announcement in January. Vista and OS X are supported, with no mention of XP (oh noes!). EA has played the diplomatic corporation and has given a stern “no comment” comment right now. We stand by for updates.

Guitar Hero III or Rock Band?

On October 28th the face-melting world will finally get its hands on the next iteration of the Guitar Hero franchise. And what is that you say? ANOTHER guitar playing game is coming out on November 23rd, and it has drums, the bass, as well as a microphone? Yes my axe-slinging friend, two games with guitars are coming out.

While the general gameplay and guitar seem to be fairly similar between Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III, the guitar playing in Rock Band has some interesting new additions. One of these such addition is smaller frets at the bottom of the neck of the guitar that are used for solos. These notes can be pressed without stumming the guitar on solos and will be extremely helpful on harder note streaks.

Also, the creators of Rock Band have added a nob on the guitar that allows for the user to change what kinda of sounds come out of the guitar. With new additions like these, I can’t help but try to think why someone would rather get Guitar Hero III than Rock Band? While playing the guitar in the first two Guitar Hero games was absolutely amazing, it got to the point where it seemed like it needed something more, and another slew of songs just didn’t seem like it would do it for me this time.

Ever since I played the first Guitar Hero, I thought about how awesome it would be to play another instrument, especially the drums, and how cool it would be create an entire band with my friends. While the bundle for Rock Band is significantly more pricey than Guitar Hero III (about $80 more), it seems like it’s worth it for what you are getting. Also, from what I’ve seen of the confirmed song lists, it seems like Rock Band’s is more solid.

All in all, if I had to put my money on one of these games for the holiday season, it would most definitely be Rock Band. As a matter of fact, I just preordered it.