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<title><![CDATA[Kombo.com]]></title>
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<description><![CDATA[The latest updates from Kombo.com.]]></description>
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<copyright>Copyright (c) 2009 kombo.com</copyright>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:03 -0600</pubDate>
<category>News</category>
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<title><![CDATA[IBM Ending Cell Processor Development]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[

IBM has confirmed that it will cease development of the Cell Processor used on the PS3 among other systems.  This does not equate to an end of production.

IBM has been co-developing the Cell Processor along with Sony and Toshiba.  Even after the PS3's launch better models of the processor have been developed between the three.  IBM's most recent and supposedly last version of the Cell Processor is the PoweXCell 8i which is currently used in the world's second fastest supercomputer.  IBM will not develop the planned 32 SPE version of Cell.

The status of actual development of the Cell Processor does not equate to the status of production of current models of the processor for the PS3.  No reports have been made on changes to production or production of PS3s.

Despite ending development of the Cell itself, IBM will still incorporate parts of the Cell into future designs.  Apparently they will pursue a CPU/GPU hybrid route in the future.

Technically, Sony can still hire IBM to develop a new Cell Processor for the Playstation 4.  Their decision in this matter could affect things like backwards compatibility with PS3 games when the next console comes around.]]></description>
<link>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11381</link>
<guid>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11381</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:47:19 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Infinity Ward Considered Alien Warfare?!]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[

The team at Infinity Ward is made up of quite a unique and creative group of guys, and as such, I'm not surprised when I hear some of the outlandish ideas they originally had for Modern Warfare 2.  From zombies and viral outbreaks to alien invasions, the development team considered a number of different possibilities when approaching the sequel.

In an interview with GamePro, Infinity Ward writer Jesse Stern describes the initial thought process that was involved in deciding what direction to take the game. 

Hit the cut to see how it all began.]]></description>
<link>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17807</link>
<guid>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17807</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:45:31 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[British Government Recruiting Over Xbox Live]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[  Gaming has been prospected as an armed forces recruitment tool for years, so it was only a matter of time before online games were targeted as an avenue.  It's just that the British government ended up doing it first.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – a British intelligence agency working with the armed forces is initiating a recruitment drive over Xbox Live using in-game ads.  The six-week campaign will target the 18-34 male demographic with streaming video banners and in-game ads.  The effort will be led by GCHQ communications recruitment partner TMP Worldwide.

The first time GCHQ advertised over Xbox Live was its 2007 ad campaign for job opportunities in Splinter Cell Double Agent.  The drive increased traffic to its website by over 500 percent.

The most famous gaming-related government recruiting tool has been the free America's Army games which seem to be proving legitimately effective.  Real dynamic advertisements have been appearing in games and even on the Xbox Live dashboard for years now.  A government as an advertiser in gaming seems like the next logical step.]]></description>
<link>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17806</link>
<guid>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17806</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:20:29 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Rebuttal: Is Infinty Ward Anti-PC?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A few days ago we published an article under the title "Modern Warfare 2: The Battleground for PC Gaming?" in which one of Kombo's Editorialists, Eric Frederiksen, discussed the hardcore PC gamer's opinions regarding Infinity Ward's move to do away with dedicated servers for their latest release. Like Eric, I'm a huge PC gamer. I've been playing PC games since DOS, and I don't plan on quitting. I fondly remember Quake LAN parties and dialing-up friends for Warcraft 2 matches. I'm also sad to see that games are straying from dedicated servers. In fact, the only statement of Eric's that I directly disagree with is that Infinity Ward's decision to use matchmaking in Modern Warfare 2 is "...one of the loudest shots fired from the bow of a major publisher against PC gaming." Infinity Ward isn't anti-PC, they're anti-piracy. If they were anti-PC they wouldn't have spent the time and resources to port the game to the PC. I know piracy played such a huge role in the decision, because shortly after the first Modern Warfare was released, Kotaku dug up a blog post of Robert Bowling's (creative director of Infinity Ward and a major proponent of the new matchmaking system) in which he mentions a disturbingly large number of people playing pirated versions of the game on the online multiplayer. Mr. Bowling titled this blog post "They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More". With that said, it can't be denied that Infinity Ward did, in fact, anger a lot of their hardcore PC fans with the decision to use matchmaking in Modern Warfare 2. ]]></description>
<link>http://www.kombo.com/article.php?artid=13830</link>
<guid>http://www.kombo.com/article.php?artid=13830</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:16:10 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[REVIEW: God of War Collection Gives the PS2 Games a Facelift]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[What the Game's About
God of War: Collection is the re-release of the PlayStation 2 classics God of War and God of War II. The games tell of the story of a tortured anti-hero named Kratos who seems to always get tricked by the Olympian gods, gets really pissed and ends up destroying a lot of stuff and people. The reason they are re-releasing on the PS3 is that Sony's Santa Monica studios updated the visuals to a crisp 720p while retaining everything else you remember about these games.

What's Hot
A visual upgrade is a great way to reintroduce the wrath-filled tale of Kratos. The games looked great on the PS2 to begin with, but the PS3 has since blown anything the PS2 could do out of the water and them some (nomination for understatement of the year!). The new coat of paint on the textures remain faithful to the original material but gives it an HD shine that looks stunning on TVs. This is the real reason to pick this collection of classic games all over again. Screen shots don't do this texture rehaul justice, you need to see it in action. ]]></description>
<link>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11379</link>
<guid>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11379</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:45:43 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[BLOG: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Hater]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Before I begin my diatribe, please understand something about me first. I am a huge Kingdom Hearts fan. The original game was pretty much what pushed me from casually playing videogames to becoming a hardcore gamer, particularly in the realm of RPGs. I love the franchise so much that I completed the Chain of Memories installment on the GBA (of which I'm told I'm one of five people to suffer through this game), I imported the Japanese version of the same game just to buy the game again when it was released State-side, and I bought and played Kingdom Hearts 2 as well as the imported Final Mix. So when word first got out about 358/2 Days, I was one pumped little KH fangirl.

I really liked Roxas' character in KH2, so I was excited to get to play his side of the story. However, instead of loving every minute of it like I did with the other games, I've been utterly bored. Roxas' character barely has any personality. This Xion chick is annoying as hell, and I can't wait until she dies off (that's not a spoiler, people, she wasn't in KH2). What's up with all these missions that are exactly the same? You either gather hearts, take care of some nasty boss, shoot globs, ambush the Emerald Serenade, collect emblems, take the occasional endurance test or perform a bit of recon. That's it, rinse and repeat for 93 missions. And this panel system…where have I seen this before and didn't I hate it then? Oh yes! It was in Chain of Memories! ]]></description>
<link>http://ds.kombo.com/article.php?artid=7614</link>
<guid>http://ds.kombo.com/article.php?artid=7614</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:40:29 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Satoshi Sakai Talks Phantasy Star 0, Plus the Return of Phantasy Star Online?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Our buddies over at Gamereactor were able to catch up with Phantasy Star 0's producer Satoshi Sakai to talk about the upcoming RPG.  While there, he dropped some big hints of what to expect from the future of the PS franchise.



As you heard, Sakai is looking into a return to consoles for the next Phantasy Star game, which would be celebrating the ten year anniversary of the original Phantasy Star Online's release on Dreamcast.  Not a bad bet, but I'm more hoping for a revival of the ORIGINAL Phantasy Star series.  Seriously!  Phantasy Star V!  Anyone?  No?  Just me?  Okay.]]></description>
<link>http://ds.kombo.com/article.php?artid=7655</link>
<guid>http://ds.kombo.com/article.php?artid=7655</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:38:13 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Beta is Up and Ready for Download]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[

Dice has announced that the US client for Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Beta is ready for download and servers are ready to start accepting players.

If you keep an eye on the Official BFBC2 twitter every day they will be giving out beta codes for PS3 users to redeem and play. So if you don't have a code yet definitely keep an eye on @OfficialBFBC2
]]></description>
<link>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11378</link>
<guid>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11378</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:29:53 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Ubisoft Opens Rabbids Comic Blog]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[

If you simply cannot get enough Raving Rabbids, then Ubisoft has found a way to keep you entertained twice a week without running up their computer animation budget.  Just check out the Rabbids Comic Blog to see more of their efforts to reach the moon, presumably before they decided that stacking up tons of junk was the most ideal way to achieve their goal.]]></description>
<link>http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=15231</link>
<guid>http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=15231</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:21:10 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Random Video of the Day: Death Metal Bowser's Castle Theme]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The folks at CollegeHumor.com suggest that "If you can't handle this, then you shouldn't be inside a kidnapper dinosaurs death castle."

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

And of course, my first reaction near the end would be "what?  But he doesn't get any points for killing him that way!"  And my wife was thinking the same thing, more or less (along the lines of "why have fireballs if you're not going to use them?").

Now, I just have to wonder what a full Mario soundtrack in death metal would sound like.  In any case, I do wish Nintendo would remix that theme sometime.]]></description>
<link>http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=15230</link>
<guid>http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=15230</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:11:27 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[15-Year Old Calls 911 When Parents Seize Xbox]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[CNET News relays a story from the Chicago Tribune of a 15-year old boy from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, who called 911 to ask whether his parents were within their rights to take away his Xbox.

The boy soon hung up, said Commander Steve Husak, but officers went to the residence anyway to inform the youth that yes, his parents do indeed have such a right, and that maybe he should consider listening to them.  Why they chose to take it away remains unknown, though one can only guess.

Upon learning of this, Microsoft's Director of Programming for Xbox LIVE, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, would say "No no no NO folks. Do NOT do this."  We concur.]]></description>
<link>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17804</link>
<guid>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17804</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:08:13 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[The Re-Imagining of Mortal Kombat That Might Have Been]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[

Before departing Midway last year, artist Vincent Proce put together a proposal for a new Mortal Kombat game that was "a re imagining of the Mortal Kombat franchise from the original premise but mixing modern muti-player and dismemberment game design with the original fighting mechanic."  As a part of that proposal, he redesigned four of the characters from the original roster.

Given that he's no longer with the company, the idea isn't going to happen and only stands as a vision of what might have been.  Nevertheless, he says "I still would like to one day redesign all the rest of the original characters if I ever find the time.

You can check out the four designs in much higher resolution alongside brief descriptions at his blog, along with some other cool stuff, including various MK vs. DCU endings and images.]]></description>
<link>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11376</link>
<guid>http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11376</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:58:27 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA['Return to Ostagar' in New Dragon Age: Origins DLC]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Bioware announced today that it would be releasing DLC for Dragon Age: Origins this holiday season. Players will literally Return to Ostagar. The expansion involves a quest, a King Cailan, and said king's honor. If you've played the game that might make sense, but I have my doubts. 

This marks the third DLC pack to be released for the game since it was released. This is an unprecedented pace for DLC for a game that doesn't involve guitars or bands. 

The expansion will cost 400 MS points, 400 Bioware points, or $5 in the Playstation Store. As is usual EA has received some criticism for not including this obviously planned DLC on the disc in the first place. Considering the game on the disc could take 60+ hours it does beg the question: what do gamers paying $60 "deserve." ]]></description>
<link>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17801</link>
<guid>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17801</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:44:44 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Gamer Fails at Suing Sony, Goes After Microsoft and Nintendo Instead]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[One lawsuit-happy gamer by the name of Erik Estavillo didn't have much luck when he tried to sue Sony Computer Entertainment America for banning him from the PlayStation Network, so he has instead decided to try his luck against the industry's other two big platform holders.

And at the same time, no less.]]></description>
<link>http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=15228</link>
<guid>http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=15228</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:35:56 -0600</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Media: 20 Screens of No More Heroes: Hero's Paradise; Marvelous Losing Money on Most Wii Titles, Profiting on PSP]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[

Marvelous has launched the official Japanese website for the HD version of No More Heroes, known as "Heroes' Paradise."  Unfortunately, there is almost nothing to do there, but never fear; it just so happens that the Japanese Xbox.com website has updated to include the game, and has presented 20 new screens which now reside in our gallery below.]]></description>
<link>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17800</link>
<guid>http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=17800</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:57:34 -0600</pubDate>
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