Speaking at the AMD "Cinema 2.0" event in New York City yesterday, Blizzard's Bob Colayco took some time to talk about the shrouded-in-mystery Starcraft II. One of the more interesting points of the discussion: why it took so long for Blizzard to finally announce a sequel to the multi-million selling title.

Colayco noted that the original Starcraft was built on a 2D engine, in spite of the competition having largely switched over to 3D engines. The savings in processing were applied to larger, more epic battles with dozens of units being rendered on the screen at the same time. The crowded battlefield "captured the gamer's imagination more" than the barren fields of competing 3D games at the time, and helped cement Starcraft's place in videogaming culture.

In spite of their success, the team at Blizzard wasn't going to rush into a 3D Starcraft unless it could capture the same feeling of the original. "The truth is that only recently have we had this kind of 3D power where we're able to create a real Starcraft experience in 3D. What we want to see are hundreds of vehicles and creatures clashing on the battlefield, with dynamic lighting and shadows and all of these dazzling special effects -- that's the kind of gaming experience that our players expect from us."

At first, this image may seem rather boring. Who's this woman and why is she on the front page of Joystiq? This image is rather uneventful until two facts are revealed: a) she's a CG creation and b) she's being rendered in real time with new AMD technology. AMD's new effort, "Cinema 2.0," promises to bring photorealistic graphics that blend the visual fidelity found only in the most recent of Hollywood movies to the interactive space. AMD is imagining a future where consumers won't just play movies, they'll play in them.

While practical applications of "Cinema 2.0" weren't showcased at AMD's recent event in New York, the company executives were keen on noting how the tech can be implemented. Movie producers will be able to manipulate digital actors that are more realistic than ever -- in a rendering environment that happens in real-time. Gamers will be able to find character models and environments that are truly lifelike.

AMD (ATI) has just launched its newest assault against competitor Nvidia in the ever-continuing graphics arms race. It is touting the awkwardly-named ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 as the fastest graphics card ever made, with 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power. (In comparison, Nvidia's RSX GPU found in the PS3 promises performance of 1.8 teraFLOPS. ATI's chip in the Xbox 360 promises 1.0 teraFLOPS.)

The performance is achieved by simple arithmetic: combining two ATI Radeon HD 4800 series GPUs into a single card, and a whopping 2GB of onboard memory -- the most of any graphics card on the market. The HD 4870 x2 is the first card that supports AMD's upcoming "Cinema 2.0" effort. However, until there's software that supports the endeavor, purchasers of AMD's latest cards will have to simply appreciate playing current games like Oblivion at 2560x1600 with 24X AA -- y'know, the way games are supposed to be played.

The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 is immediately available from various "e-tailers" with a pricetag of $549 SRP. A cheaper, less powerful little brother, the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2, will be available in September at an estimated price of $399.

A Fred Savage film this is not. At the very least, LAN Party Massacre is living up to the one key tradition of the video game movie "genre" -- it looks terrible. But really, would we want it any other way?

Thanks to Brain Age, millions of kids have been able to trick their parents into thinking that the Nintendo DS is being used as an educational device. With the help of popular college prep company Kaplan, the trickery can continue. They announced their plans to create a SAT prep game for the Nintendo DS with the help of developer Aspyr only a few months ago. Now, they have a fully functional prototype ready, and a name to boot.

FutureU will feature at least four different question types, and over 1200 questions. Now, we asked why it wasn't called something a bit more marketable, like R0x0rz the SATs, or SAT Test Prep DS, and a Aspyr representative informed us that The College Board has strict control over the SAT brand. The title won't have "SAT" in it, but the packaging will make it very clear what the product's purpose is.

A very early version of the game we saw featured some rudimentary character customization, added to give the illusion that FutureU is more of a "game" than a "learning experience." The DS version of the game won't offer any real questions from the SAT, nor will it try to grade you. Instead, players will go through various games that test the concepts found in the SATs. For example, Glyphs will have players attempt to figure out the meaning of a word by deconstructing the word's various roots. Predictions train reading comprehension by removing a word from a passage. Players can then scribble predictions on what should be in the missing blank(s). Then, players will be able to choose from a selection of possible words, and use their predictions to choose the correct missing word.

While its interface is more "game-like" than most edu-tainment titles, it's still clear what FutureU is and what its purpose is. And that's to let you carry your DS around and claim you're "studying." FutureU will be available on DS, PC and Mac this Fall.

Veronica Belmont, of Qore fame, jams into a van with various Joystiq-network bloggers for this "special episode" of Qore. You'd think that a site owned by mega-corporation AOL would be able to give us more than one van to squeeze into. Just, don't tell the Los Angeles police department how many people we packed into the car (and its trunk).

To watch in 1080p, click here.

It looks like Mega Man 9 started something. A new retro-flavored Gradius title has been announced for WiiWare. Gradius Rebirth will strike Japanese Wii systems this Summer. That's pretty much all we know for now -- details about the game's content, like whether or not it's a remake of a previous Gradius game is still unknown. Considering Gradius (NES) lives on the Virtual Console, we'd be surprised if this wasn't a completely brand-new game.

[Thanks, Rlan!]

Most likely, my reaction to Afro Samurai is all wrong. The upcoming PS3/360 game from Namco Bandai translates Spike TV's anime series into a video game. After an eyes-on demo of the game, I walked away ... hungry.

Why's that? Afro Samurai's gruesome rendering of the frightening power of a sword has me craving for some fresh meat. When Afro swings his sword, he will be able to cut right through anyone. No matter where he hits them, the sword will cut cleanly. Hit an enemy's foot, and it will fall off. Cut an enemy's arm off with ease. You'll be able to cut off interesting pieces off your enemies' bodies and see the flesh and bone inside, slowly leaking blood. It's a fascinating sight, especially as you kill dozens and dozens of mindless opponents.

Ultra-violence isn't uncommon in this industry. But, although Ninja Gaiden II had no problem cutting off the limbs of everything that moves, it's strangely unsettling in this cel-shaded adventure. Is it the fact that Afro Samurai absolutely revels in its gore? Providing slow-mo zoom-ins to see the stylized cuts of muscle meat go flying off certainly whets the appetite.

It's hard to judge the quality of the game from such a short demonstration, but at least the development team's goal is clear. Hopefully, they take the violence one step further by ensuring the body parts that you shed off hapless victims stays active in the game environment. The ESRB-approved "tame" version of the trailer, after the cut.

It's not often you get to see new footage of Final Fantasy XIII. But, that's exactly what we have here. Moments after announcing an Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix has released a trailer that still touts its PS3 exclusivity. There's tons of new pre-rendered footage to be feast upon, and a little bit of real-time content ... and it all ends with "for PLAYSTATION 3 Only ... in Japan."

Okay, so maybe PSP firmware 4.05 really did have "other features." A look at PlayStation.com's support page for firmware 4.05 reveals that the update adds "Support for PLAYSTATION®Store Movies and TV video service." Sony has been teasing its video service for quite some time, and it looks like they'll finally unveil all the dirty details tomorrow during their press conference. Will it be able to best Microsoft's video offerings through XBLM and Netflix?

[Via PlayStation Lifestyle]

The Square Enix conference was all about one thing: Final Fantasy XIII. Today's startling announcement was on the mind of everyone in attendance. As a result, journalists were quite fixated on the topic.

According to Siliconera, Final Fantasy XIII's 360 port has not been announced for release in Asia. The team is currently focused on finishing the Japanese PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII. "The priority is to bring it to the PS3 first." Once the game releases in Japan, the team can then work on localization and porting it to the Xbox 360. This may mean we're going to suffer through an intolerable wait for an English-language release.

The main reason behind today's announcement is obvious: the Xbox 360's significant userbase in countries not named "Japan." However, although Final Fantasy XIII has been announced for Microsoft's console, Versus XIII is still in development as a PS3 exclusive. Of course, considering today's revelation -- will that exclusivity truly last?

Major Nelson just updated and offered a bit more detail about the upcoming Dashboard update for Xbox 360. Some of the cooler things:

• Play from hard drive. You'll be able to copy game discs to your Xbox 360 hard drive. Installing the games will prevent wear 'n tear on the disc drive, and will shorten load times. You will still need the disc in the disc tray to prove you own the game. Hopefully, installing things on the Xbox 360 will come with sage advice, a la Metal Gear Solid 4.
• Access Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web. If you're not near your Xbox 360, you can still use this "Internet" thing to browse and purchase things from the Marketplace. Once you purchase something from Xbox.com, it will download automatically to your console while you're away.
• Xbox LIVE Primetime. This is a "whole new category of games" that not only supports Achievements and leaderboards, but will also offer real prizes. Games are played throughout the Xbox LIVE network and each game is "broadcast simultaneously" so that everyone is partaking in the same activity. These events can feature live hosts, "calling the shots as they happen."

[Thanks, Glitch W.!]

Seems like we're inching closer to that July 14th announcement Bungie is supposed to make today. Bungie.net has been updated with a new countdown, which refreshes with a new message:

• Keep it clean
• Please remain calm
• Services will resume
• No public access
• Emergency lights active
• Proceed with caution

What will it be? Halo Blue? A XBLA game? Or something entirely different?

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]

We heard the rumblings ... Netflix is coming to home consoles. But which platform? Microsoft raised its hand today at its E3 keynote and said "us!" Xbox 360 will be getting Netflix's on-demand programming later this year. Xbox Live subscribers that already have Netflix memberships can enjoy Netflix on their TV at no additional cost.