The 3rd movie from Disney Pixar’s famous Toy Story has taken a whopping $109mil in it’s first weekend, making it the second highest earning animated theatre feature ever (behind Shrek the Third).
An article on Entertainment Weekly also suggests that it’s not primarily the kids that are flocking to see the movie, but adults who were enchanted all those years ago by the first are also making sure they get themselves a seat, as well as the general masses who seem to be finally letting go of the age-old idea that animation is strictly for kiddies.
According to a press-release on the website of Japanese company “Digital Media Professionals”, it will be their Pica200 chip that drives the graphics on Nintendo’s new 3DS handheld.
The chip runs 200mhz at peak performance, outputting 15.3 million polygons per second. The chip will also support anti-aliasing and other enhancements.
Namco-Bandai is pitching the idea of releasing a 3DTV version of a new Pac-Man animated series. A short teaser was shown at E3 earlier this week.
In this iteration of the series, Pac-Man is a high-school student who must save his world from the threat of ghosts. But, the four ghosts you’d expect him to be saving the world from are actually on his side. Pinky, Inky, Blinky and Clyde will be helping Pac-Man in his mission this time.
For now, nothing is set in stone. Avi Arad, executive advisor at Namco-Bandai as stated that he has yet to approach any studios or potential partners yet.
Researchers in Jerusalem have published findings on their project of providing cheap and simple power to developing countries that don’t yet have the infrastructure for it.
The fruit (or vegetable?) of their research is a battery made of boiled potato hooked up with copper and zinc electrodes, to make a battery that supposedly is more efficient than modern fuel cells, a lot cheaper and can run for weeks in the right conditions.
Here are a few reasons why the E3 convention of 2010 was such a winner.
The 3DS obviously getting the first mention because it was the star of the rather Nintendo-dominant show.
A new handheld from Nintendo that is backwards compatible with previous DS games, but now adding two cameras, analogue control, motion sensing and a unique “3D display” similar to that of digital 3D TV’s and movie theatres, only no need to wear those glasses.
The 3DS had a lot of demo’s on display, with some big names already seemingly working on new titles for the device. Demo’s included franchises such as Metal Gear, Kingdom Hearts, Street Fighter and Resident Evil, not to mention several other Nintendo franchises such as Ocarina of Time of the Zelda fame and Star Fox 64, both of which demonstrated sharper graphics than their N64 past-lives.
The Wii had a few promising titles on display too, a new Kirby game being one of them which has Kirby being a piece of yarn, walking around a fabric-type world in a classic sidescroller with a twist. Kirby can manipulate the softness of the stages in order to progress, from unzipping things to creasing the backdrop fabric itself.
Epic Mickey also appeared and looks to be quite good with it’s paint/erase gimmick in a world that oozes Disney fan service.
Donkey Kong Country Returns was also there. The developers have quite a task on their hands, to create a sequel to what some consider the best sidescrolling series of all time.
The last amazing thing of E3 would be Civilization V which I expressed my love for a few months ago when it was first announced. More details emerged including gameplay footage and some information on how deep the game will go. If it plays as good as it looks, I’m sure it will become the new standard in strategy games.
There was also XBOX and Playstation stuff going on. The usual motion-control things and a few cross-platform titles that will fly off the shelves but nothing too striking. I do own a PS3 myself so, I’m not entirely biased.
So I was uprooted and moved due to work, which of course created a lot of stress and such. Even months on I still find myself doing paperwork for things I need to finalise at my new home, and all this is my “excuse” for not posting anything for so long.
But now hopefully I can relax a bit now and catch up with everything I’ve missed.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has given out their 2010 awards, the category we all want to know about of course, is the animation awards.
Not surprisingly, Up took the prize. You can watch the winner interview on the BAFTA website by clicking the picture above.
For folks in the US holding out on getting a PSP-Go, here’s an offer that might make you take the plunge.
If you purchase a PSP-Go between now and March 21st, you can redeem a code to get either Assassins Creed or Little Big Planet for free.
Again, this applies only to US customers.
June 21, 2010 5:52 pm | 
Subscribe