According to The Taiwan Economic News, the first 65 nm GPUs for Xbox 360 are leaving production lines. Xbox 360’s using the 65 nm technology are expected to ship this August. Also there are rumors that a “mid-cycle refresh of the Xbox 360″ should come in the fall of 2009. The Xbox 540, as it is being called, will use the Valhalla chip. The Vahalla chip is believed to be of a “system-on-a-chip design” allowing the console to fit into a slim case.

The Xbox 360 is scheduled to ship in an “all 65 nm” package (Jasper platform) this August. Consumers won’t notice the refresh, unless Microsoft decides to put a Blu-ray drive into the Xbox 360. We were not able to receive a confirmation either way, and we keep digging to find out if the Asustek subsidiary Pegatron will manufacture regular Xbox 360’s or units with an integrated Blu-ray drive. In any case, Celestica, Pegatron and Wistron will have a busy summer cranking out millions of refreshed Xbox 360 consoles.A more dramatic and perhaps visible change will happen next year: TSMC plans to begin producing the Valhalla chip, which will be the foundation of the mid-cycle refresh of the Xbox 360, thus called ‘Xbox 2.5’ or simply ‘Xbox 540’ (360+180), in fall of 2009. We learned that this new chip is apparently much more than a die-shrink and end up as a system-on-a-chip design. This change is likely to enable to redesign the Xbox 360 casing and go towards a slim-design, much like what Sony did with the Gen1 and Gen2 PS2. We believe that TSMC will use a 45 nm process for this Multi-Chip-Module package (CPU+GPU+eDRAM).

There are also some interesting pieces of information that Microsoft is shopping for a more efficient cooling solution – efficient in more ways than just one: Several people close to the cooling industry told us that Microsoft approached them and asked for better and cheaper cooling than what is used in the Xbox 360 right now. Some may claim that the current Xbox 360 cooler design is already as cheap as it gets, but we have no doubts that Microsoft will find a way to drop the cost once again.

by counterstrikesource

Turn on the TV and you have every chance of seeing some pundit attacking Grand Theft Auto IV. With the game being released a week ago, the usual moral crusaders are up in arms about the bad values it teaches and the terrible things players are “encouraged” to do in the game.

I will never hold GTA up as a franchise steeped in morality, because it’s not. The game portrays, just like its tagline, how “good things happen to bad people.” You spend your time working for scumbags and criminals, doing terrible things for money. It’s NOT a game that celebrates the good side of life — nor does it have to.

That said, however, playing Grand Theft Auto IV has been an interesting experience for me. Since I made a career out of writing about games, I’ve been far more aware of GTA’s so-called depravity, and have spent a lot of time in Liberty City thinking about what developer Rockstar is trying to say, breaking down some of the seedier aspects of the game and deciphering what the player is expected to feel as he plays.

I think of the game’s less savory features — murder, female degradation, drunk driving — and I have to wonder, does indulging in these elements of GTA IV really say a lot about the game, or the player? Just how much sin does Rockstar actively encourage, and how often does it actually dissuade you from being a bad boy?

Hit the jump to find out how Grand Theft Auto IV can be just as much Angel as Devil. (Warning: Very minor “spoilers”)

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Courtesy of Rockstar Games

As we’re sure you’re aware, this week sees the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the highly anticipated latest iteration of the popular violence-based, sandbox-style video game series. This time, the action is set in Liberty City, a living, breathing replica of New York. Dan Houser, Vice President of Rockstar Games and co-writer of GTA IV, spoke to Vulture about building a nuttier, dirtier Gotham.So the gaming industry has changed a lot since the last GTA …
Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking. The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic. We’re hopefully going to prove that there’s also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies. We always said: We’re not going release a large number of games. They’re going to have the production values of movies. They’re gonna be about themes that interest us whatever the medium, instead of the weird, special video game–only themes that too many people make — orcs and elves, or monsters, or space. We felt you could make a good game and have it be about something we could actually relate to. Or aspire to.

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It may still be over a year away, with a current release of June 19, 2009 planned, but it seems as if Hollywood is getting into full swing, and is already getting ready to heavily promote the upcoming movie based on the Prince of Persia series.

Recent details hint that the film will loosely follow The Sands of Time storyline of recent games, but will see some changes to better accommodate medium of film. The film will be directed by Mike Newell of Into the West, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Goblet of Fire and Mona Lisa Smile fame, and will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Disney will be in charge of distribution of the film.

It is rumoured that the film will make use of Parkour for many of the quick paced action sequences. Hollywood already used the style to great effect in the opening scenes of the last James Bond movie, Casino Royale.

via darkzero.co.uk