PS3 ISO loader on the way?

If you're a card-carrying black-hat hacker, then a couple of significant news items have hit the crackerverse this week. First, the last reminaing PS3 game to be dumped, Tiger Woods 07, has hit the newsgroups for your downloading pleasure. Now, what to do with all of that binary goodness? An answer may be on the way. In the .NFO file for Tiger Woods, an interesting hint of things to come was made:

| sPECIAL nOTE: |
| |
| Stop nagging about loaders - it will come if and when its ready |
| Now sod off and let us beta test it ! |

Interesting, indeed. PS3Fanoby in no way condones the illegal downloading or playing of PS3 games. However, Xbox 360 games are aok. We kid, we kid. PS3 Fanboy

Gamexpert Cooler King cools your Xbox 360, hubs its ports & adds VGA

Quite exactly why anyone would want to connect "up to 4 media players at the same time" to their Xbox 360 is beyond us, but fortunately that's one of only three jobs that the Gamexpert Cooler King claims to do very well. As well as providing a 4-port USB hub for a quartet of PMPs, the Cooler King "cools" your Xbox 360 in a similar -- but not identical -- way to the Nyko Intercooler, and provides standard VGA, component, optical audio out, and S-Video connections, bypassing the need for pesky proprietary cables altogether. As the Cooler King appears to draw its power from the Xbox 360's unique A/V port, it should hopefully bypass the concerns that dogged Nyko's solution as well as providing the bonus of a non-proprietary port for each of the Xbox 360's currently supported outputs. Play.com is currently shipping the Cooler King to the UK for £17.99 (around $35), which is only a modest premium over its primary, and less featured, competitor. Next up from the third party Xbox 360-cooling cottage industry? A HDMI output for pre-Zephyr Xbox 360s: pretty please! Engadget

• 3 in 1 high definition, multi-tap and cooler
• VGA, Component and S-VHS connections/li>
• Optical output for digital surround sound
• 4 USB hub multi tap for media players/wired controllers
• Internal cooling system prolongs play times
• Easy installation - plug in and go
• A/V scart cable supplied for standard definition TV connection

Jaw Dropping New Crysis Trailer

Gaming site IGN has put up a new direct feed gameplay trailer of Crysis that, for the first time (at least officially), contains footage of battling the aliens inside the ice sphere. They also chatted with Crytek president and CEO Cevat Yerli asking how the development of the game has progressed, the capabilities of the nano suit, DX9 vs. DX10 and more. IGN: Crysis Trailer, Videos and Movies

Bungie Weekly Update hints at cool new "thing"

Last night, over at Bungie.net, Frankie posted his semi-famous Bungie Weekly Update. In this week's edition we learn that Halo 2's matchmaking will be revamped next month with Team Swat coming back in an un-ranked state. There are also a few tidbits of info surrounding how the alpha for Halo 3 is progressing, complete with a fully dotted "death map" for Snowbound. But the exciting news is that Frankie dropped a hint that a new feature or "thing" will be included (99% certain) in Halo 3. Frankie goes on to say, "the MLG boys will sweat blood with excitement. They will all still moan at me about how we nerfed the pistol from Halo One, but this new thing will at least cheer 'em up for a few months. Or years. It's that big". Why must you do that to us Frankie? Ok fanboys, time to put on your official speculation hats and get a speculating. Xbox 360 Fanboy

Microsoft May Lower Xbox 360 Prices, Revise Hardware

(International Business Times) - Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) slashed the shipments forecast of its Xbox 360 video game console yesterday, in a move some analysts believe will pave way for a future price cut and even an updated version of the game system.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said on Thursday that Microsoft aims to ship a total of 12 million of its game consoles by June 30 of this, the end of its fiscal year. This is down from a previous 13 to 15 million units target, but some industry observers feel the Redmond, Wash.-based firm is winding down inventories for an upcoming price cut.

"We assume roughly a $100 price cut with the premium unit selling for $299 versus $399 previously," said Rick Sherlund, research analyst for Goldman Sachs.

"With Sony likely delivering enough consoles to meet demand by the June quarter," he explains, "this would seem to be an appropriate time for Microsoft to move down the price curve and benefit from the elasticity of demand."

Also, with Microsoft's smash hit Halo 3 likely to begin shipping in September, Sherlund feels the software giant can still "become profitable in this quarter even with this price reduction."

International Business Times -

Sony May Cry - Another Capcom Betrayal?

Devil May Cry, like it or not, is a big Capcom franchise. Whilst not up there with the likes of Resident Evil and Street Fighter, it is oft touted as one of the really good titles available for the PS2. It’s newest incarnation Devil May Cry 4 was to be a PS3 exclusive, and Sony were obviously quite happy to have it. Problem is, like most of Sony’s so called exclusives…it could be coming to the 360.

This rumour has been thrown around before, but like our recent MGS4 piece new evidence has come to light which makes a port seem much more likely. Xbox360fanboy.com had this to say on the matter:

Jonah tipped us off on the contents of his official Playstation Magazine (yes, the same one with the Gears ad). Inside, there is an article discussing the future of Devil May Cry 4 and whether it will remain a PS3 exclusive. PSM is reporting that Capcom will be showing some more Microsoft love and will be bringing the series to the Xbox 360. We’ve all heard this rumor before, but we’re starting to feel a little more giddy by the day. Are you guys interested in Devil May Cry 4 coming to the 360 and do you think it’ll help with console sales?

Sony seem incapable of any luck at the moment. Between losing franchises left right and centre to the competition and posting up a picture of Project Gotham as a screenshot for their own Gran Turismo HD, it seems Sony need to concentrate hard on just staying afloat in the business. The fact the PS3 is going to cost over £100 more in the UK than in the USA doesn’t help matters much either.

But enough with the Sony bashing for one news piece. Devil May Cry is a good action series, and the more people who get the opportunity to play it, the better. Bring it over Capcom - or did those incredible sales of Dead Rising and Lost Planet not convince you we 360 owners love your games? Xboxic

Built with XNA, a NES emulator on your 360

For everyone who thought Microsoft's XNA project would be worthless, now is the time to rethink your opinion. Xbox-Scene got word that a guy by the name of Lone Coder has used XNA to build a NES emulator that runs on the 360 called XNA SharpNES. Though, you'll need to purchase a XNA Creator's Club membership, have Visual C# Studio Express and XNA Game Studio Express installed on your computer. There are a few bugs to work out yet, like no ROM loading menu and overall performance on the 360 running at 60% - 70%. But at least things are moving in the right direction. For more information and to download the code head over to XNA SharpNES's Google Code site. And if you're willing to try this out please comment on your experience with the emulator so we can live vicariously through you. Xbox 360 Fanboy

Note that to run this on your Xbox360 you will need a 'Creators Club' account ($99/12m or $49/4m) on your LIVE subscription and both Visual C# Studio Express (free) + XNA Game Studio Express (free) installed on your Windows PC. The emulator will also run on Windows, if you have the XNA Framework installed.