Rampancy

[image:6924 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]XLNC has been wowing them in the HBO forum for quite some time with the series of HUDless screenshots he's been producing. For awhile he was recreating some of Bungie's own shots, but at higher resolutions, and he's gone on to do some really well composed original ones.

So now we've got a special treat: XLNC's previous shots have been archived in his own special XLNC Gallery; what's more, we've put up a separate mini-gallery of never-before-seen XLNC HUDless Halo screenshots in our XLNC Series Two Gallery. Check them out!

Computer and Video Games is reporting that the Xbox 2, code-named Xenon but referred to some as Xbox Next, may lose the small black and white buttons from its controller. Apparently some studies they've done show these buttons are hard to find and little used.

Quick reality check: no kidding. How anybody could not know those buttons were going to be hard to find and little used, given their size and placement is beyond me. They were there in case games needed more controls than could be provided by the two sticks, two triggers, and standard diamond of buttons. So taking them out, just because some games don't need them and they're outside the normal set of controls just seems silly.

Unless, of coures, this is another cost-saving measure. You know, plastic is getting expensive these days. The article also mentions that the console is expected to be first shown at GDC next month. Microsoft UK would not comment on this "rumor", according to the CVG article.

News.com's David Becker is reporting that M-Systems, a maker of flash memory, is announcing that they've signed a contract with Microsoft to provide memory systems for future Xbox products.

M-Systems currently makes a line of flash-based drives called DiskOnKey. Their CFO, Ronit Maor, says in the article that what they will be doing for the Xbox is "significantly higher capacity" than the 8Mb memory modules used now to plug into Xbox controllers.

This, along with the addition of online storage as part of future Xbox Live plans, is being touted as a way to decrease Xbox production costs and reduce the liabilities caused by having a standard hard drive in the box (i.e. hacking and Linux). However, if the flash drive offers the same capabilities, I don't see how it won't get hacked, too, and if it doesn't, I don't see how this won't cripple the box.

Cost reductions are speculated to be driven by a desire to reduce the home and entertainment unit's losses, which were $394 million last year, down from $412 million the year before, according to News.com.

Thanks Blackstar for pointing this out.

mrsmiley writes that angrymouse14 (what happened to the other thirteen angry mice, anyway?) has created four new animated avatar files suitable for forum use. And although some of the avatars on that page are larger than the Rampancy forum supports, the four new ones are just right, and there are several smaller ones as well. Check them out!