Developer Void Star Creations has revealed that its erm, smashing Poker game Poker Smash will be released on Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday.
It'll be out on Wednesday, February 6 (thank Christ January's out the way) and it's set to cost 800 Microsoft Points (about £6.50) - exactly what we don't fancy shelling out for a hi-def card game.
Thankfully thought it isn't just your straight-forward hearts and clubs affair; Poker Smash is spruced up with a fancy puzzle twist which has you picking out sets of Poker hands from a conveyor belt of scrolling cards. Interesting, but it still doesn't sound worth seven quid.
Look for it on Xbox Live next week, along with a short news story where we tell you it still doesn't sound like it's worth the money.
As if you weren't excited enough about next week's Poker Smash, unknown and rubbish-named developer Merscom has revealed that Buku Sudoku is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this spring.
Featuring "high resolution graphics" (!), Buku Sudoku takes the game on the back of the ratty tube newspaper and makes it even more confusing, by replacing the numbers with fish, Japanese characters and probably different shades of brick for all we know.
There's even the promise of Xbox Live Sudoku deathmatch. Oo-eer...
But we digress; it'll probably appeal to a certain kind of Xbox audience who've gone ignored up until now, and we might even but it if it's going cheap... and has Sonic 3 as an unlockable side-game.
Have a look at the (tiny) screenshot on the right.
Nintendo's Wii Fit is the best-selling console game in Japan for the fourth week running.
The game has sold an estimated 1,283,000 units since it was released on December 1, 2007.
According to data from Media Create, the highest new entry in the Japanese charts for the week ended Jan 27 is Konami's World Soccer Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 for the PSP, at number two.
The Soul Calibur games have always been among the best looking titles on their respective platforms, and SCIV is no different.
Here are 19 super-shiny shots of Namco's latest fighter, featuring Yunsung, Raphael, Cassandra, and a very vainy Maxi swinging their lethal blades around in sparkling new current-gen worlds.
Soul Calibur IV is expected to arrive with it's weapons-based combat on Xbox 360 and PS3 in summer. We'll have our arcade sticks ready.
In case you missed it, you've got to take a look at this movie of the game, revealing Darth Vader and Yoda in the game. We don't care what you say, it's going to rock.
Eidos has released the first batch of screenshots for Tomb Raider: Underworld for the Xbox 360, and look how Lara has changed! This is definitely the latest in a long line of more realistic Lara models, standing there on that tree limb, teasing those panthers with her delicious human flesh. Yum! I'd daresay that within a few more games, Lara Croft will actually be more realistic than you and I, causing us all to look like our hips and breasts are ridiculously disproportionate. Looking good, Lady Croft.
* Q: After reading the article, my Xbox got the RROD, but that's not what this post is about. Instead of sending off refurbished systems, why not send consumers a brand new xbox when they experience the RROD? Isn't sending them one that got the RROD, just delaying the inevitable?
* A: Sorry to hear about your 360 dying. I hope you get swift satisfaction from MS and get back into the action soon.
The reason MS uses used materials to fulfill repair and refurb needs is purely economic. It is rational for any electronic company to try to do what MS is trying to do. Especially when the failure rate is so high. If MS had to eat the cost for all those failed units, it would put pressure on the biz unit up and down the food chain. Who can write off 4 million units at 400 bucks each? Well MS can. But they won't. Another bad decision.
What's irrational about the way they are doing this is that they don't have a good idea, a high confidence, that the actions they take in repair lead to a unit that is as good as new. Or as good as it needs to be. They don't even clean them off. So you can baby your console, play it 100 hours, have it fail, and get one back that has been abused at a frat house and has a couple of thousand hours of use on it. Not a very fair deal. Regardless of the warranty. I could write for hours about this subject alone. But I hope you get what I'm saying.
Q: You mentioned in the past that the 360 can scratch you discs. How does this happen, and is there a way to fix that problem?
There was only a span of about 4 years between the launch of the XBox and the XBox 360. Should we expect to see the newest XBox within the next 2 years, or is it more likely for Microsoft to perfect (Or get as close to that standard as possible) the 360 before even thinking of launching a new console?
* A: Disc Scratches?
The 360 scratches discs when gamers jump around. The shock gets coupled into the console through the floor. The disc wobbles and hits the laser assembly. The part of the laser assembly that causes the scratch is about 1/2 inch to the outside of the laser, so the console doesn't show a problem at the time the disc is scratched because it isn't reading where the disc is scratched. It's only later when the laser hits the scratch that read errors occur. Then the user doesn't associate their activity with the damage because they didn't happen at the same time as far as they can see. An ODD has to be susceptible to this. It must be missing the pads on the inside of the top cover that are put there to stop the disc from traveling into the laser. A lot of this info is on the web, but I figured out how it happens and why it's controversial when it happened to my son on a new game. I sent this info to a friend at MS. Let's see if they do anything about it.
3rd gen when?
The reasons the span between XB1 and 360 was so short were that XB1 was losing so much money, and MS wanted to get a head start on Sony in this gen. But the plan for 360 was for a 7 year life cycle before the next console. I don't know if that has changed since I left, but I don't see anything to cause it to. Just because they are already working on it doesn't mean it's anywhere near shipping. It's normal product development practice to always be working on new technology. And what should they be doing, given the problems on 360? I'm sure they don't want to repeat that.
GAME CRITICS: GAME OF THE YEAR AWARDS ANNOUNCED
BioShock Takes Top Honors as Game of the Year
The full list of the 2007 Game Critics Awards: Game of the Year winners is now posted on the Game Critics Awards website. You can see the full list of winners at http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/goty.html.
Top 10 Games of 2007:
1.) BioShock
2.) The Orange Box
3.) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4.) Rock Band
5.) Super Mario Galaxy
6.) Halo 3
7.) Mass Effect
8.) God of War II
9.) Assassin's Creed
10.) Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
For the last year or so talk of the new, fabled 65nm Xbox 360's have circulated the interwebs. Now - in this brave year 2008 - I have installed one of these newer 360's in a laptop-type environment, to replace a Zephyr Elite I had been using.
The hottest visible spot on these heatsinks is an area I like to call the "crotch" - where the [GPU] heatpipe emerges from the base of the 'sink'. Anyway, word on the street is that the GPU remains 90nm, and this seems to be the case. At peak it was reading about 140 degrees, which is in line with the Elite Zephyr MB. So in this laptop I think I'd like to shore up the cooling for the GPU more than the CPU because ... the CPU runs a lot cooler than it used to. Even after 30 minutes the crotch of my "super copper heatsink" only got to about 110 degrees. This is in contrast to the Zephyr which easily got up to the 150's at this same spot, with the same heatsink.
Here's also hoping I can finish up this laptop and show it on the site. Everything is done but the heat issue, and it's quite the looker.
Steve Ballmer may be the worst CEO among large tech companies - now that Kevin Rollins got booted from Dell and Sanjay Kumar of CA is in jail. Put him in a room with Steve Jobs of Apple, John Chambers of Cisco and Mark Hurd of HP and he'd look like the bouncer, not a peer. He just isn't in their league and Microsoft is suffering for it.
What hath Steve wrought?
If he wasn't Bill's freshman roommate at Harvard - and Bill wasn't majority owner of Microsoft - any other board would have booted Ballmer years ago. He's cost Microsoft billions in profits while the stock price stagnated.
Just to pick some of the most obvious fiascos on his watch:
* The Netscape anti-trust fiasco.
* The Google fiasco.
* All the other product and market fiascos. Virtualization: late to the game. The Xbox - losing market share to the Wii - will never pay back its investment despite a recent Halo-fueled lurch into profitability. Vista's 5 year development cycle. The continuing security mess. The smart phone failure - a market they should have owned. Major resellers, like Dell, offering Linux. The steadily shrinking cash horde. Continuing anti-trust troubles. The current OOXML debacle.
Creating Voice Recognition Controllers. Here is Part 1 of this video tutorial the SR07 board this is the brain of the kit and does require loads of soldering. This kit is super easy to put together. This controller board is what analyzes spoken words and determines matches. I plan on adding this kit to a Xbox 360 controller for things like (Reload, Scope, Plasma...) this kit can be found here
* Are you any closer to resolving the problem of getting user-gen content into the Xbox 360 version?
* Not yet but we're hopeful. Microsoft hasn't said "no" yet, but then they haven't said "yes" either. We need them to say "yes," and we need them to do it soon.
* So it's technically possible?
* Sure. I mean, you can go onto the console and copy your songs on to it and play movies off a memory card - the machine's capable of allowing you to transfer your content around, and even letting you play your music while playing many games.
* So why wouldn't Microsoft say yes? Is there a fear of losing control of Xbox Live?
* Well, yeah and we don't fault them for that. They've got a closed system where everything's checked, users know the quality of everything they download, and you know it won't crash your machine. User generated content - well, it can be dangerous, you could theoretically download a mod that uses too much memory and crashes your machine.
I think Sony are real pioneers in this - I think they deserve a lot of credit for letting us do this. They're really doing something different, and it hints at what they want to do with the PlayStation Network in the future. They're definitely on the right track!
If it doesn't work out with Xbox 360, depending on sales of the game on that platform, I imagine we'll find a few of the best mods and get them on Xbox Live Marketplace. I don't think 360 users are going to suffer drastically - they're just going to miss out on a lot of crazy, cool fun stuff and the ability to exchange it among themselves. They may also end up paying for content that is free on other systems because Microsoft now has to host it and certify it. But I'm confident Microsoft will look at what's happened with UT3 on the PS3 so far and think, 'Well, we'll take that baby step with you,' because what we've done so far really is just a baby step if you think about it. You've got to go online, you gotta download the mod, and you're responsible for putting it on your machine yourself. There are some exceptions - there are mutators, which modify how gameplay works, that are pretty small - and we let those auto download, but most of the other stuff you've got to go and say 'I'm going to install this on my machine.' We hope to change that in the future.
So it really is the user knowing what he's doing. He's not accidentally going to a server which has this really horrific mod on it... and if you do find a horrific mod we have a way to make sure that people can't serve that mod for other users. I think we're going to do much more with the PS3 version - maybe have an easier way to download mods, a way to auto download some that have been approved, ideas like that. We're looking at ways of taking the mod scene and making it better and broader.
The game is up and running on Xbox 360 - it has been for a long time, and its running wonderfully - it just doesn't have any Xbox Live written into it yet so that's the work that remains.
Retailer EB Games has hosed down reports suggesting that a spate of hardware defects with Xbox 360 video game consoles were straining its relationship with Microsoft.
A chat transcript published on the popular gaming blog Kotaku purportedly showed a high-ranking EB Games employee saying the retailer had $10 million worth of defective Xbox 360 consoles for which Microsoft refused to reimburse it.
"There have been threats of EB dropping the Xbox range all together," the transcript read.
"It's 99 per cent bullshit really," EB Games chief executive Steve Wilson said in a phone interview.
Wilson said EB Games had to recall and replace its stock of Xbox 360 units in the middle of last year, but that was an isolated "hard drive batch problem" and all defective units had been returned to Microsoft.
Wilson said EB Games had experienced high returns due to the red ring of death issue earlier in the Xbox 360's life, but the number of defective consoles had declined since Microsoft announced the extended warranty.
"Even when we had the batch problem six months ago, we were talking about a couple of thousand units," Wilson said. "$10 million is 25,000 units - that's a ridiculous number."
Bring order to the next generation of entertainment with the JOYTECH Control Center 540C. State-of-the-art technology fuses with organic design and cutting edge aesthetics, allowing you to organize and customize your AV universe like never before. Exclusively designed to compliment your Xbox 360?, the Control Center 540C not only matches the design of the console, but also the flexibility, automatically adjusting the exterior LCD display for horizontal or vertical use. Exhaustive next generation connections and removable faceplates ensure that the Control Center 540C will remain an essential part of your gaming lifestyle.
- High Resolution Digital 9.2 inch LCD colour screen provides ultra pin sharp picture quality and true RGB colour definition. The TFT screen provides a wide 160-degree viewing angle for a clear picture in any seated position.
- SRS 3D Surround Sound dramatically improves audio quality by providing stereo sound with a rich spatial effect.
- Integrated twin modular Stereo Speakers use Dynamic speaker box to deliver full rich sound.
- 2 Stereo Headphone Outputs for private multi player gaming.
- PAL50/60/ NTSC auto switching function
- Multi Digital OSD menu allow you to adjust your Monitor sound and picture settings.
Controller play and charge cable and NiMH Play and recharge the Xbox 360 wireless controller's battery pack simultaneously. The Power Kit includes a high quality NiMH rechargeable and an extra long USB charging cable. The battery provides up to 25 hours of play per charge while the extra long cable allows simultaneous play and charging up to 11 feet from the console. The extended cord makes it easy to kick back at a comfortable distance from the TV without accidentally disconnecting the controller. Never worry about running out of battery power for your controller during play again.
Another exclusive product from XCM, this cable will let you connect your non HDMI Xbox 360 with an HDMI cable to a HD TV or DVI monitor with a high resolution signal of 1080i.
Connect your regular Xbox 360 (the version without HDMI port) to a HD TV or DVI monitor with a high resolution signal of 1080i thanks to XCM HDMI 1080i Cable for Xbox 360 without HDMI Port.
You can now enjoy the same resolutions than people with Xbox 360 Elite!
The Logitech? DriveFX֠Racing Wheel works with all Xbox? 360 racing games, and features Logitech's axial-feedback technology to provide realistic road feel with precise control. Gas and brake pedals, wheel-mounted paddle shifters, and an injection molded wheel with soft rubber grips add to the realism of your driving experience. Standard Xbox 360 buttons and adjustable-sensitivity steering put customizable control in your grasp.
According to tipsters, a little bird, and our crack team of cybernetically-enhanced super-searchers, the Xbox 360 Elite is suddenly very hard to come by. From what we can tell, the console configuration is missing from the stockrooms of a number of shops, both online and off, making it rather difficult for new buyers to begin wasting their life playing Bioshock with the top of the line 360. We're making some calls and trying to get to the bottom of the situation, but let us know if you're seeing units on your local store shelves -- or not.
Daylight (~Sylvester Stallone, Viggo Mortensen, ...) HK US$ 27.90
Dispatch Zimbabwe: Live At Madison Square Garden (~Dispatch) US US$ 29.97
King of California US US$ 34.98
Sahara (~Matthew Mcconaughey, Penelope Cruz, ...) JPN US$ 46.90
U-571 (~Matthew Mcconaughey, Bill Paxton, ...) JPN US$ 46.90
Underworld (~Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, ...) JPN US$ 46.90
OK, so, we've just about had it with the colons. Just recently, we've been assaulted with Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men and we're sure we're forgetting several dozen others. If you're the sort that needs to actually play these games to help yourself keep them straight, a single-player/co-op demo for Conflict: Denied Ops has just arrived on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.
You could always save yourself some time, we guess, and read our hands-on of the game which ... well, let's just say it was less than "glowing." But honestly, where's the fun in that? It's free, go try it for yourself, then come back and let us know what you think. Just take it easy on the colons when you do ... they're a finite resource, you know.
Maintenance on the English PC/PS2 servers is complete, however the update for the Xbox 360 servers has been delayed due to an unforeseen issue with the scheduled title update. SEGA will announce a new date for the content delivery as soon as possible. In the meantime, here is a rundown of what new content to expect.
New story mission
"Restorations," the second chapter of Episode 3 has been released. Take a trip to Moatoob with Laia as you try to assist the Trade Union in their recovery following the SEED attack.
Item exchange mission
"The Collector" is now available at Melton's Shop in Holtes City. This mission lets you trade various items to Yokus Melton for new room decorations and more. Ms. Melton will also share with you any information she has on where certain items drop across Gurhal.
New items
Five new color combinations have been added to the Waiwad and Hanaura sets of clothing while the Musagante and Valatines parts sets have both received their CV versions. Also check out the offertory box at Shitenkaku, as new items have been added to the lineup of possible gifts for your donations.
System updates
Meseta drop rules have been adjusted making it where party members must be in the mission field to receive Meseta that is picked up mid-mission. Anyone in a lobby will not receive Meseta during that time. Furthermore, numerous adjustments have been made to item drops across the board. All original PSU missions have received adjustments to increase their drop rates to those of the AotI missions. Also, the drop rate for rare materials from containers has been increased in missions with enemies over LV125.
Please stay tuned for further information on the Xbox 360 update.
While it doesn't take a soothsayer to guess that Grand Theft Auto IV is going to make quite a splash in the pool of a number of family watchdog organizations when it's released upon the world come April 29 -- Dan Houser, Rockstar's VP and writer for GTA IV, recently said in an interview with Yahoo! News that he expects the fumes of controversy to waft especially thick and heavy over this particular chapter in the GTA franchise.
Why, you might ask? What could be worse than territorial gang violence, drug trafficking, or poorly rendered depictions of consensual sex between two adults? Houser explains -- the studio will definitely be hearing about certain gameplay elements, such as drunk driving, and the inclusion of current-gen advancements in video game strip club technology. Well, duh -- if a space marine and his azure-skinned concubine can't tastefully bump uglies without a media explosion, we doubt an in-game visit to The Booby Trap will be overlooked.
CastleAttack is my tribute to Warlords (one of my favorite Atari 2600 games). The object of the game is to protect your castle from the ricocheting fireball while trying to destroy your opponents' castles.
One to four players can play at once (the cpu assumes the remaining positions). There are three difficulty levels.
This project was developed using XNA 2.0 so you may need to download the update before you can load this project into your environment.
Full source is included. Versions for Windows and XBox 360 are included. I didn't include the contents of the bin folder for the 360 (so that the zip file was small enough to be uploaded) so you'll need to build the 360 version before deploying to your 360 (which you would probably want to do anyway).
Turok is an epic, story-driven first-person shooter set on a dark, mysterious planet in the future. Players take on the role of Joseph Turok, a former black ops commando, now part of an elite special forces squad, known as Whiskey Company, which is on a mission to take down a war criminal – Turok’s former mentor, Roland Kane. While Whiskey Company is traveling to the genetically altered planet inhabited by Kane and his soldiers, their ship is shot down. Turok must use his elite military training to elude Kane’s well-trained army, known as Mendel-Gruman, and the ravenous, unpredictable dinosaurs, huge insects and other massive creatures that populate the dangerous environment. Turok’s mission? Survive at all costs.
features
Pages: 192
Platform: Sony PlayStation 3, X-Box 360 and PC
Maps: Labeled maps of every level make navigating easy and finding items even easier.
Combos: A full combos list including secret moves!
Walkthrough: A complete walkthough of the game will keep you from getting stuck on any one boss or puzzle.
Items: A full items list! Know what's out there and where to find it.
features
Individualize your Xbox360™ Controller without losing the warranty
Made in Germany - high quality product
Easy to add and completely removable without a problem
description
Turn your Xbox360™ into an individual piece of art, with Pebble Entertainment's Modding Skins.
This skin is not only preventing scratches, will attract a lot of attention.
This stickers are 100% removable and thinner than most available products. Pebble's modding skins are made in Germany.
A few months ago, we had reported that Sega was coming up with a new game for the PC called Space Siege. The action role-playing game, it seems, could find its way on the consoles also! Now VG247 is reporting that publisher Sega is considering bringing Space Siege to the consoles.
Shawn Green is the associate producer of Space Siege at Sega. He said, “We are talking with them about it. We don’t want to let any cats out of the bag too early but definitely a console version is something that’s being considered right now. But currently it’s not confirmed.”
Green also said that console gamers like the short and sweet experience. Space Siege was showcased at the Consumer Electronic Show 2008 in Las Vegas last month. The game is being developed by Gas Powered Games. The RPG was expected to be out in the first quarter of 2008 but now it looks like the game will release for the PC in September 2008.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outlined Microsoft's top eight growth targets during his annual "Strategic Update" for Wall Street analysts in New York on February 4. Ballmer repeated several times during the hour-long presentation that "growth will require investment." He noted that his view of what constitutes "long term" is "five to seven to ten years" out -- most likely a lot longer than the typical three-year timeframe typically envisioned by analysts and shareholders.
1. Windows on new PCs
2. Corporate desktop value
3. Server units
4. SMB (small/midsize business) wares
5. Portals and search
6. Online advertising
7. Xbox: When Microsoft talks about hardware, it mostly is talking about Xbox. Ballmer said to watch for Microsoft to continue to push for broader Xbox acceptance in markets where it has been less popular, like continental Europe and Japan. Also watch for the company to do more outreach to non-classic gamers in order to continue to build Xbox market share.
8. Windows Mobile
Microsoft has announced that a new entry-level Xbox 360 unit will go on sale in Japan next month.
The Xbox 360 Arcade, which was launched in the US last year, will target new gamers when it hits Japanese stores on March 6.
While the unit's 27,800 yen price tag will match that of existing models, the Arcade 360 will sport an HDMI port and come bundled with a wireless controller, a 256MB memory unit and five Xbox Live Arcade titles, including Uno, Boom Boom Rocket and Pac-Man: Championship Edition.
On Wednesday we reported about a guy who got a brand new X360 after mailing Bill Gates about the problems he was having with his console. Tons of news sites reported on this and the result seems to have been a massive increase in angry mails towards the man.
Microsoft now has sent out a note that people shouldn't be contacting Mr. Gates:
"Bill Gates or Microsoft executives are not an appropriate escalation point for customer service issues. Customers experiencing issues with their Xbox 360 console should contact Xbox Customer Service. Our customer service team is well equipped to ensure that the repair process goes smoothly."
EA's Burnout Paradise is the first title of the new year to hold on to the number one spot in the UK all formats charts, despite a drop in sales of 13 per cent.
Spending its second week at the top of the charts, sales of the Xbox 360 sku have dropped 16 per cent, with PS3 sales down 9 per cent.
It's much better news for Nintendo, where replenished stocks of Wii Play have seen the game benefit from a massive rise in sales of 87 per cent, according to data from Chart Track, putting it at number two.
Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is at three this week, while sales of Sega's Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games are down 46 per cent as it sits at number four.
DS title Dr Kawashima's Brain Training is at five this week, EA's FIFA 08 is at six and More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima is at seven.
THQ's WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2008 is at number eight this week, with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed at nine and The Simpsons Game at ten.
The only new release to enter the UK charts this week is Microsoft's Kingdom of Fire: Circle of Doom for the Xbox 360, entering the charts at number 33.
Electronic Arts estimates that Sony's PS3 will outsell Microsoft's Xbox 360 during 2008, while the Wii will remain the clear frontrunner in the home console market.
While Sony has cut its internal PS3 sales target for the current fiscal year, and EA has admitted that PS3 development hurdles have not yet quite been cleared, the mega-publisher behind the Madden and FIFA franchises expects Sony's next-gen console to sell up to 5.5 million units more than Microsoft's Xbox 360 across Europe and the US during 2008.
According to EA's internal estimates, Sony will sell between 4.5 and 5.5 million PS3s in the US and 5 to 6 million PS3s in Europe during 2008 - that's 9.5 to 11.5 million units in total.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is expected to sell 4.5 to 5.5 million Xbox 360s in the US, but only 1.5 to 2.5 million units in Europe, so between 6 million and 8 million units altogether.
EA also forecast that Nintendo's Wii will outsell both rival systems, shifting between 5.5 and 6.5 million units in the US and 6.5 to 7.5 million units in Europe, totalling between 12-14 million units.
US and European PS2 sales estimates range between 3.9 and 4.9 million units in total.
EA therefore estimates that total home console sales for the two regions during 2008 will range between 31.4 and 38.4 million units.
The company also expects Nintendo's DS to dominate the handheld market, shifting between 14 and 16 million units, in comparison to PSP sales of between 6 and 8 million units. Combined handheld unit sales would therefore total between 20 and 24 million.
EA stresses that its estimates may not reflect the views of the hardware manufacturers, and that its predictions are subject to alterations.
Last week Codemasters' CEO Rod Cousens told Next-Gen that he also expects Sony's PlayStation 3 to gather sales momentum over the coming years.
After a week of women name-calling guys who play games Man-teens and Child Men, Amanda Marcotte has proposed a radical idea: A woman can play video games, and can even spend that time with the man in her life. Marcotte's article responds to a piece written by Kathryn Jean Lopez, Arrested Development, on how Jason Bateman's character in Juno is nothing more than your typical immature husband, opting out of adulthood for an idealized adolescent lifestyle. Marcotte isn't having any of it. She sounds as tired of this whole "manboy" thing as the rest of us, and is stepping up to the table to say what all these angry women seem to be missing:
Women play video games. Our vaginas, surprisingly, do not stop us from using a controller.
The Xbox is not a widow maker. No matter how many TV specials say otherwise, men can be happy, productive individuals - both as part of a couple and a part of society - while still playing video games.
Movies are not the ideal place to be developing deep psychoanalytical theories about men.
Finally, a woman who isn't cursing all things video game related.
Fulfilling the commitment to fans to offer new downloadable content every week, Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the latest slate of downloadable tracks available for Rock Band. Starting the week of February 5, 2008 players can download 3 new tracks, which include "Roam" by the B-52s, "We Care a Lot" by Faith No More, and "Calling Dr. Love" by KISS. Details are as follows:
Release date:
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 (Microsoft)
Thursday, February 7, 2008 (Sony)
Tracks:
B-52's "Roam"
Faith No More "We Care a Lot"
KISS "Calling Dr. Love"
Price:
$1.99 per track
Locations: Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network
Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change.
In addition to the 58 songs that come packaged with Rock Band, Harmonix and MTV have been offering a robust calendar of new downloadable content including packs, full albums and individual tracks to satiate the desire for constantly refreshed Rock Band content. New music is available on a weekly basis. Recent downloadable content that has been offered has included tracks from iconic rock artists from all genres from Metallica and Black Sabbath to The Police and All American Rejects.
Rock Band allows online play and features that expand the boundaries of music gaming. Rock Band downloadable content is playable and integrated into setlists in all game modes including: Solo Tour, Band World Tour, head-to-head competition either locally or online, and from any Quickplay mode. In order to play downloadable content for head-to-head matches or multiplayer online, all players must own the same downloadable track. Downloadable content for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft will be available for purchase via Xbox Live Marketplace using Microsoft Points and is downloaded directly to Xbox 360's built in hard drive. Downloadable content for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system's version of Rock Band will be available for purchase on the PlayStation Store through the free PlayStation Network and is downloaded directly to PlayStation 3 system's built in hard drive.
Do you like the concept of poker but feel perpetually bored by the not-so-visceral aesthetics of the game? Perhaps the gambling aspect always gets you down in the mouth (and wallet). As announced last week, Void Star Creations' puzzler Poker Smash will be this Wednesday's Xbox Live Arcade title. The game will, erm, smash its way onto the network February 6 at 4:00 a.m. ET for 800 MS points ($10). Unfortunately, that $10 is not an ante, and you can't win that money back with a good play.
Also coming this week is a free update to Crystal Quest that, according to the Gamerscore blog, will "add a crazy multiplier scheme to offer even higher scores."
The blatantly in-development sequel to Gears of War is featured in some form in the next issue of US mag, GamePro. Don't get your knickers in a twist just yet; it could be a load of guesses.
Gears 2 appears twice on the magazine cover, which can be found over on the Gamepro website, once along the top of the magazine logo and once in a siderbar, in the form of a big gears cog logo with a '2' next to it.
Epic is still in bed and we don;t want to wake them, but Microsoft was kind enough to deliver a standard "no comment on rumour and speculation" to our inbox.
Just the fact that a dodgy-looking Rainbow Six Vegas 2 cover - and not Gears - forms the main hit and image of the issue sets off our alarm bells.
Surely if this was the world's first look at Epic's sequel it'd be flagged front and centre over R6? That's what we'd do anyway.
Either way, the increasingly loud Gears 2 chatter adds more fuel to the rumours that the follow-up will be making an appearance at next week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Either way, there's not long to wait now.
microSDHC Features/Benefits
Compliant: with the SD Association Specification, Version 2.00
Versatile: can be used as full-size SDHC or miniSDHC card with appropriate adapter
Compatible: with microSDHC-enabled devices/readers only
File Format: FAT 32
Reliable: lifetime warranty
Call of Duty 4 on PS3 and Xbox 360 is receiving a little loving this spring with Activision promising new multiplayer maps for the FPS on console.
Neither Activision nor CoD 4 developer Infinity Ward have been generous with further details, only adding that "the upcoming downloadable content will thrust gamers into a hot zone of added combat across a variety of intense multiplayer locales" and speaking of "added gameplay variety".
Will the new maps be released as a free download? That's not currently clear. Nor is there any mention of them being released for the game on PC.
Atari has finally concreted the Beautiful Katamari date as 29th February in Europe.
It follows a bit of indecision by the publisher, which said February then changed its mind to March.
However, we were treated to a demo for it at the end of January, so you can hop on Live now and roll things up as if you were in control of a giant magical snowball.
Beautiful Katamari is the first instalment in the acclaimed puzzle series to appear on new generation hardware. It arrives without the help of Keita Takahashi, who designed the first two games on PS2.
He's off making Nobi Nobi Boy for the PlayStation Network, you see, and his departure leaves a rather gaping hole here.
But whether this is because Beautiful Katamari is more an HD and online incremental update or because it lacks creative flare is hard to tell.
Today Konami confirmed to IGN that the franchise formerly titled Winning Eleven Soccer in the United States will now be known as Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. This in no way affects the title in Europe where it will stay known as Pro Evolution Soccer.
While we lament North America's loss of the Winning Eleven brand name (especially this year, of all years -- if Konami had stuck with the name, the game could have been called "Winning Eleven 11", and now the world will never know how awesome the world's greatest game name could have been), the change does make the series easier to talk about. Winning Eleven has always been known as "Pro Evolution Soccer (PES)" in Europe for years, while the US branch of Konami struggled with a number of names for the soccer series. Finally with the 2007 edition, Konami set up this change-over with the first step of a hybrid name, "Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer." Having both names in the game was a bold, pan-global compromise uniting all PES/W11 fans under one banner in the great land of America, but it was also an unwieldy name sure to collapse under the weight of two titanic titles clashing as one. This year, there is no conciliation in the name -- outside of Japan, Winning Eleven will now only be known as Pro Evolution Soccer. A sad day for fans of the "Winning Eleven" denomination dynasty? Perhaps. But with the grand "Pro Evolution Soccer" monogram emblazoned across the newly-christened package, Konami's winning eleventh soccer game promises to take the series to new heights of glory.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is scheduled to ship on March 11, 2008.
Criterion, the developer of Burnout Paradise, has responded to criticism that the Xbox 360 version of the game requires a hard disk drive in order to play online.
Although all PlayStation SKUs contain a HDD, as do the Xbox Elite and Premium models, the Xbox Core and Arcade models do not.
Core and Arcade users have access to the online Road Rule gameplay and leaderboards, but cannot race directly against others online.
Criterion explained its decision in an open letter posted on the company's website. In a nutshell, the developer decided that its vision of an open world extended through downloadable content was not possible if it supported "the lowest common storage denominator."
The company did not want to split the playing community between those that have updated data and those that don't.
"We opened a dialogue with Microsoft to attempt to discover a possible solution and all possible technical options were investigated to retain the seamless freedom of Burnout without requiring the HDD," the statement read.
"Unfortunately a solution was not available and we decided together that it would be in the best interests of the Burnout community if we require the HDD for full online play."
Burnout Paradise remains atop the UK All Formats chart for the second week running, with PS3 sales improving on last week to take 49 per cent of the pie.
Sega and Secret Level have released the first screenshots of their long-announced Golden Axe revival Beast Rider, which is a bit of a departure from the old bruiser we remember.
Beast Rider has you playing as Amazonian hero Tyris Flare, and instead of straight-forward fighting shifts focus over to free-roaming environments and - surprise, surprise - the various beasties you can ride and battle on.
There are five in total, ranging from the light and nippy to hulking, slow dragon-ites with scales the size of toilet seats.
Fear not though; the traditional hack and slash combat is (in some form at least) still there. And if you're tired of fumbling around on a dragon you can hop off and perform combos on foot - plus you've got plenty of obligatory fire spells to chuck around too.
The open environments are looking rather good, but as always it's going to come down to how decent Golden Axe's combat system.
Since the last game in the franchise was released in the terrifying time before Joystiq (2003!), you were probably too busy fending off saber-tooth tiger attacks to bother acquainting yourself with THQ's sci-fi first-person shooter, Red Faction. The series drew much attention to its use of "GeoMod" technology, a fancy bit of programming which enabled the real-time destruction and geometric alteration of specific and often rare in-game surfaces. A third game, unsurprisingly referred to as "Red Faction 3," has now been revealed to be in development for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Speaking in a recent conference call, THQ CEO Brian Farrell noted that the game would once again be created by Volition, the same developer that's somehow responsible for both Saint's Row and Descent: Freespace. Red Faction 3 is expected to further enhance the franchise's destructive tendencies through the aid of today's more powerful platforms (translation: bigger 'splosions plus bloom) and should arrive somewhere between April 2008 and March 2009.
features
From the producer of the original Devil May Cry® and Resident Evil® 4
High-definition visuals moving at 60 frames per second
Blend of familiar and new: newcomer Nero clashes with veteran Dante
New characters and environments
Signature blend of guns and swordplay
Deep combo system rewards stylish dispatching of enemies
Unique "Devil Bringer" arm opens up a range of combo options
Distinct set of weaponry and moves for Nero and Dante
Exceed System allows Nero to charge up his sword with a throttle effect, revving up to three levels with powerful attack options
New active style change system for Dante allows him to switch styles and weapons on the fly, producing crazy combo possibilities
description
Devil May Cry® 4 immerses gamers in a gothic supernatural world, where a new protagonist clashes with a familiar hero. As the new leading man, Nero, players will unleash incredible attacks and non-stop combos using a unique new gameplay mechanic, his powerful "Devil Bringer" arm. Dynamic action and undeniable style combine with explosive fighting options and a gripping story to produce the incomparable experience that only a Devil May Cry game can deliver.
Garland-based video games developer 3D Realms has confirmed Duke Nukem Forever, the highly anticipated sequel to its revolutionary 1996 PC game Duke Nukem 3D, is headed for retail release in late 2008, and will be coming to Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 home video game consoles, as well as the PC.
"We haven't formally announced any platforms for DNF," wrote 3D Realms President Scott Miller in an e-mail exchange. "But, of course hitting the big three makes the most sense (PC, PS3, 360)."
Miller added a note of caution on the 12-years-coming sequel and its release window, claiming, "we may miss the mark by a month or two, but I feel very confident that we're on target this time."
Duke Nukem Forever is not the only 3D Realms title coming to home video game consoles in 2008. Miller also confirmed the existence of a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade version of Duke Nukem 3D, which will feature on-line multiplayer support, Xbox Live achievements, on-line score boards, and a co-op mode.
"We're really excited about bringing classic Duke to the 360," said Miller during an interview. "We're talking to Microsoft about getting a release slot sometime this year."
Microsoft has slashed USD 50 off the price of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player in the US, Canada and New Zealand.
The movie peripheral will now retail for USD 129.99 [£66], down from USD 179.99 [roughly £92], and can still be bought with an offer that gives the consumer five free HD-DVD movies.
HD-DVD is becoming increasingly less attractive as a viable format, as more and more movie studios opt for the rival Blu-ray format.
Last month, UK retailer Woolworths said that it would no longer be stocking HD-DVD movies in store.
A pleasing amount of classic fighters - including Chun-Li and still-cheap Blanka - have been revealed in all their Street Fighter IV glory, via the latest issue of Japanese Famitsu magazine.
Leaked scans from the mag (which you can see here) show off all eight original characters from Street Fighter II; Guile, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim, E. Honda, Chun-Li and of course Ken and Ryu.
We also get a glance at newcomer Crimson Viper in the game, plus a look at some familiar Street Fighter moves. Ah, nostalgia...
In a series of emails with the Dallas Business Journal, 3D Realms' President Scott Miller confirmed all sorts of news about the Duke Nukem franchise of games. (We wish that anything "confirmed" about Duke Nukem didn't just make us giggle at this point.)
First and foremost, the elusive Duke Nukem Forever is slated for a late 2008 release. As for platforms, Miller explains:
We haven't formally announced any platforms for DNF...But, of course hitting the big three makes the most sense (PC, PS3, 360).
As for rumors of an XBLA version of Duke Nukem classic, those are now looking pretty legit.
The details are light, but the XBLA version will feature everything you'd expect, including online multiplayer, co-op (unspecified if that is online or not), and your typical scoreboards and achievements. 3D Realms is negotiating with Microsoft to get a release window of "sometime this year" on this title as well.
But this XBLA download makes me wonder—I've always considered LIVE's retro titles to be designed for "glory days" gamers who were looking to recapture magic of years gone by. How many of our younger readers use the service to download games that they never originally played, like Tapper or Doom? How many of you will download the original Duke Nukem if you like the new version?
'Duke Nukem Forever' confirmed for 2008, coming to home consoles.
BioWare and Microsoft sent out word today to announce the first set of Mass Effect downloadable content. The pack, called Bring Down the Sky, is set to release on March 10 at 2AM PST for 400 Microsoft Points (US $5). This is the first in a series of upcoming downloadable content planned for the game that Microsoft claims 1.6 million people have picked up.
The Bring Down the Sky download will introduce a new uncharted world and features the alien race of the Batarians. An extremist group has hijacked an asteroid station in the Asgard system and put it on a collision course with the colony world Terran Nova. It's up to Commander Shepard to save the innocent civilians.
The download is estimated to last roughly 90 minutes and adds a new 50 point Achievement.
Microsoft has announced three more original Xbox games will soon be available for download from Xbox Live.
The titles in question include Ninja Gaiden Black, Tecmo's super-hard, super-fast fighting game, and Black - the 2006 shooter from Burnout boys Criterion. The third game is action RPG Sid Meier's Pirates!
All three will be released for download on February 11th, each priced at 1200 Microsoft points (around GBP 10 / EUR 14).
Meanwhile, you may have noticed the Internet afire with rumours Jade Empire and Conker Live & Reloaded are also joining the Xbox Originals collection. The rumours are rubbish, it turns out. Ah well.
Bungie has made a teasing reference to its next game after Halo 3 in a podcast, revealing it'll be "totally different" from the FPS series the studio is now famed for.
The developer revealed it had a new IP in production in November last year, shortly after it split from Microsoft.
"We can say... that Bungie's next game, that isn't Halo 3 expansion and DLC-type stuff, this would be something totally different from Bungie," the dev said in the podcast, but added that it's "Far, far too early in its state to even say more than that".
Bungie fans keen for more details were to be left disappointed then.
Eden has parked the sixth batch of Test Drive Unlimited cars on Xbox Live.
Splash out on the 350 Point premium pack and you will be treated to a Nissan 350Z Roadster 2004, Audi A4 Touring Car, Cadillac Sixteen, Dino 246 GTS, Triumph Dayton 995i, Pontiac Solstice and a Lamborghini Diablo GT.
If you are cheap and drive a normal car in real life you might like the free Nissan 350Z Roadster 2004. But ha, you still have to buy it with in-game currency.
Test Drive Unlimited is as old as a year and bunch of months, and is an open world driving game where you roar around a tropical island in lots of very expensive cars. Pretty good, too.
There was lots of sequel chatter last May claiming a follow-up would be out in early 2008, but the publisher avoided commenting and we have heard nothing since.
Unfortunately Atari was unavailable to dodge yet more probing this afternoon.
The first level of the upcoming PS3/Xbox 360 game
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be a Jedi-hunting trip to Wookiee planet Kashyyyk, where you get to assume the role of Darth Vader. It's like a childhood fantasy come true!
According to Vanity Fair, Vader must battle Wookiees using his full range of powers, simulated by the various technologies that make the game look so special.
Speaking about the level, Vanity Fair writes, "Then, pushing another button, he hurls that energy at the furry, fanged Wookiees. A bunch of them go flying off into space, causing the D.M.M.-enabled bridge to start rippling like a water bed. This sends more Euphoria-infused Wookiees toppling over the sides while those that remain struggle to regain their balance."
Between this and the tech trailer, it's hard not to get excited over the game's potential. We're still somewhat doubtful it actually plays as well as it seems to. It can't possibly live up to this, can it?
UPDATE: Vanity Fair also has an exclusive video of the Raxus Prime level, which we think is the first underwhelming thing we've seen on the game. Click here to check it out, and come back to let us know what you think in the comments below.
SonicTeam have resubmitted their title update for the Xbox 360 servers and are awaiting certification. However, it will not make it in time for this Friday's update, but it may be ready for the following maintenance period on February 15th. In the meantime, the 360 servers will receive part of last week's originally scheduled update along with the Valentine's lobby scheduled for this week. SonicTeam deeply apologize for the inconvenience, and hope to have everything sorted out soon.
PC/PS2 players can expect the following content this Friday:
Seasonal lobby
Love is in the air as cities across Gurhal will be celebrating Valentine's Day. Check out the decorations and be on the lookout for the rare Rappy Amure!
GUARDIANS Boost Road
GBR kicks off on Moatoob! Run through the five assigned missions to earn points toward a ranking which will increase drop rates in these particular missions. This applies to System Defense, Desert Terror, Tunnel Recapture, Caves of Ice and Awoken Serpent.
New S2 missions
Two missions will be receiving the S2 difficulty level: Caves of Ice and Awoken Serpent.
New items, clothes
Tons of new items are being added such as the Casino Voloyal costume for all women and a plethora of new PM evolution devices including two which can transform your partner machine into completely new forms!
Please note that the rare free mission Forest of Illusion was planned to be released this week, however it has been rescheduled for the February 22nd update which should introduce even more new missions. We'll keep you updated as information surfaces.
Hard times are falling on the arcade scene in Japan. Thanks to a combination of high oil prices - keeping families away from shopping malls - and the continual inroads of home console gaming, two of Japan's biggest gaming names have announced they're closing down huge numbers of their branded arcades. Namco Bandai have announced they're closing 50-60 of their Namcoland centres (around 20% of their total), news which comes not long after Sega also announced closures, planning t
