LANCOZA Blog

There will be free DLC for Batman: Arkham Asylum dropping on 17 September. There are no details on what the new content will be but the rumour mills, as ever, are grinding away. Perhaps new challenge rooms? A new playable character? It would be great if they turned Batman into a franchise which explored more of the DC comic universe. Bring on Two Face !

If you love the Penny Arcade comics the way that I do, then you will really love their new Tekken 6 and Dragon Age comics.

WebAfrica is starting a trial of a new service which sounds very promising. They have become a Tier 1 ISP and plan on passing along savings to us long suffering bandwidth consumers. I have already signed up for the trial which starts in about a month. With 10GB of free banwidth on offer, how could I say no? Perhaps this is the start of the long awaited bandwidth price reductions that were promised by the arrival of the SEACOM cable .

Following hot on the heels of Sony's announcement of the PS 3 Slim, Microsoft announced a price cut for the Xbox, now there are rumours floating about around an Elite with a 250GB hard drive. The scary part about an Xbox with a 250GB hard drive is how much it will cost as a stand alone considering that the 120GB drive retails for R1500. With the cost of international bandwidth, there is very little chance that us locals can fill a 120GB drive let alone a 250GB one with Live content.

The guys over at Penny-Arcade think that the price drop for the PS3 is the final nail in the coffin of Sony's once great console and that it heralds the end of the console as a serious contender in the next-gen console wars. I disagree, I think that the price of the PS3 is only part of the equation. If the PS3 had a good mix of games including head liner exclusives then it would have been competitive despite its price. But I think that we can all agree that the PS3 game catalog is still fairly lean, combine this with the high price of the console and it spelt disaster for sales. The reduced pricing will make the console more affordable in the run up to the Christmas season. Although we can still only hope that the game catalog will improve. Given Sony's history in this business I think that it is much too earlier to count them out.

Inside the Slim
Ever wonder what the insides of the new PS 3 Slim look like? Well wonder no more, the guys from iFixit have you covered. From the looks of it, most of the space is taken up by the Blu Ray player and a HUGE cooling fan.

Sega World
For those of you who remember the Trocadero, here is the SEGA Republic to help you on a trip down memory lane.

District 9 has made more than 37 million dollars in its opening weekend. Considering that it cost 30 million to make, it is already profitable which is no small achievement. In addition to that it has also beaten GI Joe at the box office, which is fantastic.

District 9 opens locally on 28 August. If you live next to Osama and don't know what the movie is about, have a look here .

Sony has finally revealed the long rumoured PlayStation 3 slim. The slim version has all the features of its fat big brother except for the ability to install Linux, no real loss there.

The slim will have a 120GB hard drive , it will be 33% smaller and 36% lighter. The unit will cost R2399 ($299), it will be available from September. The current 80GB version has been reduced to $299 but for my money I would wait for the Slim and cash in on the bigger hard drive.

You can have a look at the new Slim here. I like the smaller form factor, at least it no longer looks like a George Foreman grill. As soon as I have information about the local relase date and price, I will updatemy blog.

If Ninja Gaiden was re-imagined as a movie I am pretty sure this is what it would look like.

The news of a drop in the Xbox 360 price has been reported in the USA, the UK is in for a price hike . The Arcade is set to increase in price from 130 to 160 Pounds. The apparent justification for the price increase is because of the poor exchange rate between the Pound and the Euro.

Fingers crossed that South Africa gets a nice, juicy price cut once the old Pro is phased out.

 I spent alot more time playing Warcraft 2 than I did StarCraft but both games were my first choice real time strategy games. I have had a look at the trailers and screenshots for StarCraft 2 and they look awesome.The guys at Kotaku have a hands-on preview of the single player campaign . If you are interested in a few campaign spoilers, you can check them here .

 You may have heard about the Think before you speak campaign. If you haven't, Penny-Arcade can enlighten you in their own, unique style .

It looks like there is more evidence of the Xbox 360 Pro being discontinued. A drop in the Elite price is predicted for the end of August.

If the Elite is reduced to the current Pro pricing, then it will certainly be a great buy. So if you are looking to get hold of a new console it might be worth your while to hold out for a little bit.

I went away for the long weekend and feel like my batteries have been re-charged. It was good to spend some time away from my PC. Aside from a TV which played movies for the littles ones, I did not spend any time interacting with technology.

A few bits of news that are noteworthy, the new Xbox Live update is available today. It is a mandatory update and will include the following: An Avatar market place, downloading games on demand and allowing you to rate any Xbox Live content. Given the price of local bandwidth, I don't think that downloaded games will be a viable option for us but it is an interesting development. Digital delivery does appear to be gaining momentum.

The PlayStation Slim rumours simply will not die. Now we even have an estimated retail price of about R3400, provided of course that this is not another fabricated post. There is also speculation around a September release date.

In line with my policy of not watching too many movie or game trailers, I saw the District 9 info but did not watch the trailer, not wishing to spoil any part of the movie. I had the vague notion that it was some alien/sci-fi action movie, I had also heard Peter Jackson's name bandied about. Upon closer inspection it turns out that Peter Jackson is the producer and it has a South African director, Neill Blomkamp. District 9 is based on District 6 in Cape Town and the aliens versus humans dynamic has obvious paralells with Apartheid South Africa. From the trailer it looks like it will have good special effects at the very least. The movie opens locally on 28 August.

Say what ?