Resident Evil Zero Heading to Nintendo Wii

One of the best games to be released on the Nintendo GameCube was Resident Evil Zero. Now a port of the survival horror game is all set to hit Nintendo’s next generation console. Video games news website MCV UK is reporting that Capcom will be bringing the Resident Evil Zero to the Wii.

Details about the Wii version Resident Evil Zero (also referred to as Resident Evil 0) have appeared in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine. Though the game will not have a graphics overhaul, it is expected to make full use of the Wii Remote controls. Capcom seems to have an affinity for the Wii as last year they made two RE games for the Wii, one was Resident Evil 4 and the other was RE Umbrella Chronicles.

The saddest part about the Resident Evil Zero for the Nintendo Wii is that the game will be launched only in Japan. The GameCube version released in Japan as Biohazard 0. It would be nice if Capcom would bring Resident Evil Zero for Nintendo’s next-gen console to the western shores, as gamers would love playing such a game, especially with their Wiimotes!

http://www.gameguru.in/nintendo-wii/2008/28/resident-evil-zero-heading-to-nintendo-wii/

Japan watchdog raids Sharp, Hitachi unit for suspected price-fixing of LCDs

TOKYO - Japan's fair trade watchdog raided two electronics companies Thursday on suspicion of fixing prices of display panels for Nintendo's popular DS portable game machines, officials said.

Fair Trade Commission investigators searched several offices and factories of Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Display Ltd., a display unit of Hitachi, an FTC official said on condition of anonymity.

The two companies are accused of fixing prices of LCD panels before supplying them to Nintendo for its DS consoles since about 2005, the FTC official said.

Osaka-based Sharp and Hitachi Displays, based in Tokyo, are the only two suppliers of small LCD panels for DS and DS Lite models produced by Nintendo Co. and the allegation deals an embarrassing blow to the leading game-maker.

Sharp has been supplying the panels since DS machines debuted in November 2004 and Hitachi Display became a second DS panel supplier for Nintendo a year later, the FTC official said. Investigators believe the alleged price-fixing began around the time of Hitachi's participation, he said.

A violator of anti-monopoly law would face a fine of 10 per cent of their sales. The sales figure was not disclosed.

Sharp and Hitachi Display acknowledged Thursday's raid. Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said she could not release any details of the allegations. Hitachi Display spokesman Masayuki Ishibashi said the raid involved its LCD products but he could not identify its client.

Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said it was too early to comment on the impact of the allegations or whether to consider changing panel suppliers.

Nintendo's DS portable machine, which comes with a touch panel, has introduced new kinds of gaming, including brain teasers, virtual pets and cooking recipes. It has drawn interest from a wide range of users. Since its debut in 2004, the machine has sold 64.79 million units in cumulative global sales.

The Kyoto-based company said it expects to sell 29.5 million DS machines, as well as 18.5 million of another popular Wii game machines for the fiscal year through March 31.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8oUi52MRvRTKg7HA6AgLT-eT6qQ

Wii Fit Priced for Europe by Nintendo

Wii Fit is eagerly awaited by Nintendo Wii users in North America as well as Europe. There was some confusion about the price of the package in Europe, but it seems that Nintendo has put it to rest. IGN is reporting that Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii Fit pack will cost GBP 69.99 in the UK (approx. Rs. 5500) and EUR 89.99 (approx. Rs. 5340) in the rest of Europe.

Wii Fit will have four training categories like Aerobic Exercises, Muscle Workouts, Yoga and Balance Games. It will feature more than forty different activities within these training categories such as Hula Hoop, Ski Jump, Press-up Challenge, Rhythm Boxing, Rowing Squat, Lunge and classic Yoga poses such as Half Moon, Tree and Crocodile Twist. The game will include an on-screen fitness trainer as well as helpful tutorials.

Wii Fit will be released in the UK and Europe on April 25, 2008. Gamers in Europe would be happy to get the game before their North American counterparts, who get the game on May 19, 2008. Wii Fit was released in Japan in the first week of December 2007 and has sold more than 1.4 million units till now.

http://www.gameguru.in/nintendo-wii/2008/28/wii-fit-priced-for-europe-by-nintendo/

Nintendo Wii Outsells PS3 Four to One in Japan

Enterbrain has revealed the Japanese hardware sales figures for the four weeks leading to February 24th and the Wii is once again steaming ahead.

The PlayStation 3 was outsold by nearly four-to-one by the Wii over the four week period. Nintendo shifted 331,627 units, while Sony moved 89,131 PS3s. Microsoft's Xbox 360, as ever in this region, trailed, selling 14,079 units. SPOnG did the maths and that means it was outsold by the Wii by 23.5 to one, while the PS3 outdid it by 6.3 to one.

In January, the Wii outsold the PS3 in Japan by nearly three-to-one.

Meanwhile, the Japanese software charts are in for the period from February 18th to February 24th, courtesy of Media Create. Smash Bros. Brawl once again rides at the top, while seven out of the Top 10 games are for Nintendo platforms. You can see the Top 10 in full below last week's position is bracketed.

(01) 1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo) - 78,000
(NE) 2. Etrian Odyssey II: The Royal Grail (Atlus) - 69,000
(2) 3. Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 62,000
(NE) 4. Musou Orochi (Koei) - 47,000
(NE) 5. Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Marvelous Entertainment) - 45,000
(NE) 6. Winning Eleven Play Maker 2008 (Konami) - 36,000
(NE) 7. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom) - 23,000
(NE) 8. Bioshock (Spike) - 18,000
(6) 9. Wii Sports (Nintendo) - 17,000
(8) 10. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic

http://news.spong.com/article/14909?cb=178

AMD and IBM successfully produce first EUV ‘full-field test chip

AMD and IBM have said they have successfully produced a working test chip utilizing “full-field” EUV lithography for the critical first layer - instead of ‘narrow field’ (R&D sample applications) - in the fabrication process across an entire 22mm x 33mm AMD 45nm node test chip. 

“This important demonstration of EUV lithography’s potential to be used in semiconductor manufacturing in the coming years is encouraging to all of us in the industry that benefit from chip feature sizes shrinking over time,” said Dr. Bruno La Fontaine of AMD. “Although there is still a lot of work to be done before the industry can use EUV lithography in high volume production, AMD has shown it can be integrated successfully in a semiconductor fabrication flow to produce the first layer of metal interconnects across a full chip.”

The AMD test chip first went through processing at AMD’s Fab 36 in Dresden then shipped for imaging using the EUV Alpha tool from ASML at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in Albany, New York.

The next step will be to apply EUV to all critical layers including metal interconnects to demonstrate that a complete working microprocessor can be fabricated using EUV lithography.

http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/6166/

AMD produces first EUV test chip

AMD released a very interesting statement yesterday regarding their developments of newer CPU technologies. In conjunction with IBM, they have been working on Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) Lithography, a method of etching for the purpose of creating a circuit. The advantage EUV offers is that it is significantly more precise and uses a shorter wavelength, allowing denser circuits. AMD's announcement is that they have successfully produced a working chip using this technology, opening up new doors for them in terms of processor manufacturing.

Scaling processors down has faced brick walls at many points in history. EUV promises to allow significant further reduction of processor sizes, which will be critical as clock speeds continue to climb. The technology is still ways down the road however – with production goals aimed for as far out as 8 years from now. You can read the full press release at AMD's site.

http://www.techspot.com/news/29197-amd-produces-first-euv-test-chip.html

AMD ATI Catalyst v8.3 Preview

Hothardware gives us a sneak peak at the new AMD ATI Catalyst v8.3 driver suite.

Quote from the preview: "About every year or so, the software team at ATI, which is now a part of AMD, produces a Catalyst driver suite that introduces a handful of major new features, above and beyond their regular monthly release. And at least so far, for 2008, the upcoming Catalyst v8.3 suite appears to be that major release. In addition to the typical batch of performance enhancements and bug fixes, the v8.3 suite is going to deliver official support for three and four GPU CrossFireX and Hybrid CrossFire configurations, plus some new anti-aliasing features, previously unavailable tweaks for video playback, and GPU LCD scaling, among some other things. "


http://www.i4u.com/article15172.html

Sony Blu-Ray is about to win the HD War

"We can not yet claim victory but the balance has been seriously on our side." Philippe Citroen, general manager of Sony France, welcomed the good results attributed to the Blu-ray format on the occasion of the presentation of the new products 2008. According to him, the Blu-ray occupy 90% of the DVD high definition to only 10% for its competitor HD DVD Toshiba (NPD Group pushes even to 93% it's market share).

The leader acknowledges, however, that the bulk of sales of Blu-ray devices comes from the Playstation 3. With 4.9 million video game consoles sold in the fourth quarter 2007 in the world (including 600000 in France), sales of PS3 "is once again profitable." And the consumer who acquires a PS3 quickly discovers the qualities of HD and converts to Blu-ray, according to Philippe Citroen.

An analysis that the sales of Blu-ray films tend to confirm. According to the European Committee for Promotion of Blu-ray Disc. Association, which is based on Media Control GfK, with 2.79 million discs sold in Europe, the Sony high definition format holds 79% of the sales of HD. In France, 440,000 Blu-ray films were sold since January 2007 against 169,000 for the HD DVD. The Blu-ray catalog contain currently 263 titles against 163 for his competitor.

Recently, Toshiba had tried to accelerate sales by slashing the price of its consoles on several occasions. In vain. 80% of American studios now support the Sony technology. And retail chains like Best Buy or Netflix announced the abandonment of the commercialization of HD DVD.

Suddenly, the rumors have intensified around the possible abandonment of Toshiba in the market for HD. Nothing official yet, but according to Jodi Sally, vice-president of marketing in the United States, quoted by Hollywood Reporter, "Toshiba will continue to study the effects on the market and the benefits to consumers, particularly regarding our Recent tariff reductions on all HD DVD players. " The conclusion is likely to be without appeal in the light of the latest figures. The victory of Sony in the market of high-definition video could be closer than Philippe Citroen think.

http://www.mister-info.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=10113&format=html

Sony, Samsung Offer Best Value in Blu-Ray Players: Grace Aquino

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Now that Toshiba Corp. has conceded the battle over next generation DVD technology to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray, it's time to evaluate high-definition players.

Unlike current DVDs, Blu-ray can store a full-length, high- definition movie on a single disc. When viewed on an HD television, a Blu-ray movie should look amazingly sharp and rich in color. The selection of movies should improve, too, as Hollywood focuses on one standard.

I tested Blu-ray players from four companies: Sony, Panasonic, which is owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Tokyo-based Pioneer Corp., and Samsung Electronics Co., based in Suwon, South Korea. I also played Blu-ray movies on my Sony PlayStation 3 game console to see how it stacks up against the standalone players.

The image quality on all five devices was impressive, ranging from very good to excellent. I connected each player, one at a time, to my plasma TV and watched the Blu-ray versions of ``Planet Earth'' and ``Spider-Man 3,'' as well as the standard DVD versions of ``Lord of the Rings'' and the animated film ``Tarzan.''

Samsung's BD-P1400 and Sony's BDP-S500 showed a slight edge over the other devices. Images looked extra sharp on my plasma and colors were truly vivid. Even standard DVDs looked better because the Blu-ray devices I evaluated can perform a technique called upconversion which takes standard definition content and converts it to high definition by adding pixels on the screen. Both of my DVD flicks looked great on the HDTV, although movies on Blu-ray discs appeared even richer.

Start Speed

Startup speed -- the time between pressing the power button on the remote and the player showing the movie on screen -- was where I noticed a difference. The PlayStation 3 and Panasonic's DMP-BD30 were the fastest at 31 and 32 seconds, respectively. The Samsung came in next at 55 seconds, followed by Sony's BDP- S500, clocking in at 1 minute and 1 second. The Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD was the slowest at 1 minute and 11 seconds.

In general, Blu-ray players cost between $400 and about $1,000. Based on my tests and online research, the higher priced models don't provide noticeably better performance or features than their lower priced counterparts. For most users, I don't see a significant advantage to buying a more expensive player. The $999 Pioneer BDP-95FD was slower than the others and has features almost identical to Samsung's $400 BD-P1400.

The key difference is the additional infrared port on the Pioneer, which allows you to connect an external infrared box for a specialized remote control designed to access the Blu-ray player even through cabinet walls. This would be useful for someone who wants to hide their equipment. Pioneer said you can also access movies and photos from your computer with the BDP- 95FD player using an Ethernet cable.

Play Music

The four Blu-ray players can be plugged in to high-end, surround-sound speakers and they all support high-definition audio. They all play music CDs, although to play MP3s on the $600 Sony BDP-S500, you must have the content saved on a DVD.

The BD30 from Osaka-based Panasonic is the only player I looked at that's designed with a SecureDigital memory card slot, which can let you view videos from a camcorder or photos from a digital camera. Convenient, but you can also just plug your camera or camcorder directly to a TV with a standard audio/video cable.

The Samsung and Pioneer Blu-ray players, as well as the Sony PlayStation PS3 game console, have an Internet connection, allowing software upgrades. They all come with remote controls, though only Samsung's and Pioneer's are designed with handy, glow-in-the-dark buttons.

Good Looks

Sony's BDP-S500 is the most aesthetically pleasing for my taste, thanks in part to the glossy blue, auto-sliding front cover. Pioneer's 95FD looks classy and would fit right in with an audiophile's home theater setup. The $500 Panasonic BD30 is the lightest and smallest -- ideal for tight spaces.

All companies plan upgrades this summer or fall. Sony said this week that it will introduce two models, the $400 BDP-S350 and the $500 BDP-S550. Enhancements will include an Internet connection for software updates and the ability to access interactive content, a feature that the industry calls BD-Live.

Sony's new players will also have a feature called Bonus View or Picture-in-Picture. Typically, this is used for extra material on a movie disc, such as a director's commentary while the movie is playing. Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung also promise to add Bonus View to new Blu-ray models. None of the Blu-ray players I reviewed have Bonus View and BD-Live. The PlayStation 3, though, can be upgraded for those features through its online connection.

Samsung's BD-P1400 and the Sony PlayStation 3 have the most bang for the buck, although I read several reports on Amazon.com from people complaining that the Samsung machine wouldn't play new releases in Blu-ray format. Samsung said it will provide software updates that users can download via the Internet. To possibly avoid such hassles, consider the pricier Sony DBP-S500 or Panasonic BD30.

One advantage of the PlayStation 3: You can also play video games on it.

Blu-ray Players Scorecard

Panasonic DMP-BD30 $500 7/10 http://www.panasonic.com

Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD $999 6/10 http://www.pioneerelectronics.com

Samsung BD-P1400 $400 7.5/10 http://www.samsung.com

Sony BDP-S500 $600 7.5/10 http://www.sonystyle.com

Sony PlayStation 3 $400 (40GB), $500 (80GB) 8/10 http://www.sonystyle.com

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=acrJv7TQqC5o&refer=muse