MGO Beta up and running in Europe

I currently going through the novice training. From what I've seen so far I'm impressed. As soon as you spend 10 minutes with the game you can begin to appreciate the detail and thought put into this beta - a breath of fresh air. Not only that but it looks pretty smoking hot too! I think after Kojima's recent (and undue) complaint, we all needed a bit of reassuring about our MGS4 pre-orders.

11 signs you're no longer a hard-core gamer

This article hit home a bit too close for comfort. Give your arcade stick a farewell button tap and prepare to feel a slight emptiness inside you as you take down your Counter Strike youtube videos that no longer hold true and disconnect your Super Nintendo for storage, for you are now a casual gamer, just like everyone else you know.

*looks at the "Super Saver" delivery status on his Amazon GTA IV pre-order*

But it's ok though, right? It's for the best...

Take 2 send warning to gamer for Live streaming

A user by the name of swiftor had been using Justin.tv to stream a webcam featuring him playing (presumably pirated) GTA IV on the xbox 360. Having scored over 450 000 views over the last two days, he finally received a message from Take 2 warning him that they have his IP and will contact his ISP to secure his real identity just a few moments ago. He was told to cease his broadcast or they will be resorting to legal means assuring him that "any legal action will not end amicably".




Many live streams have been circulating around the internet following the scene releases of GTA IV for the xbox 360 over the last 48 hours. I for one am glad to finally see some real gameplay footage! But be warned you will get a sense of shame and dehype after watching. With only 3 or so days to go, can you survive not watching this guy play right now :)

Here is a screenshot of some of his viewers' responses shortly after swiftor let people know about Take 2 contacting him.

EDIT: Screenshot link fixed with higher resolution image

YouTube: Higher Quality Videos with one string

Simply appending &fmt=18 to a youtube video's URL, will give you the same 320x240 video in H.264 encoding at 480x360. Audio is improved too with 22K to 44K and mono to at least stereo (not sure if it can do any better as I'm still getting by with a 2.1). The difference in audio and video quality is immediately noticeable, provided the video you're watching is capable and you're not still using speakers or a monitor from 1980 ^_^.

Would be worth the effort if you are watching a particularly long clip, or a tutorial video which you can't quite make out with the normal quality. Or, a Futurama clip.

And before you tab-out to more adventurous places, it doesn't work on redtube.

Here are linked-screenshots of the two versions of the same video. The first is the original, and the second is from the string-ified (&fmt=18) clip. Click to hear and see youtube in all its glory!

And to make life simpler, here is an extension for Firefox that will do this for you, and has a few nice extras too.