Bungie has posted news about 2 new Halo 2 maps that will become available for purchase ($4) on both the original Xbox and Xbox 360. Bungie says:The maps ar Tombstone and Desolation - remakes of Hang 'Em High and Derelict, respectively.
That's right kids Frankie can't spell. It seems like April 17th that Andy, Josh, and Charlie will be back on the Halo 2 grind. I do have to argue that Hang 'Em High wasn't as popular as Sidewinder or Blood Gulch.
Friday, March 30, 2007
New Halo 2 Maps on April 17th
Boo Yaka! Ninja Gaiden on DS!
More news coming out of Tecmo that yes a Ninja Gaiden game is coming to the DS. It will be dubbed Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, so that it stays with the DS initials naming scheme that most DS games have been using. The screen shots on IGN for the game look pretty tight. The game will be played in the vertical style, so it looks like a book and the graphics look great for a DS game. IGN notes that to throw ninja stars you tap the screen on the enemy you want to chuck them at. Seems easy enough. I'm excited about it.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Yes, Virginia, There is an Xbox 360 Elite
Ok, Eric keeps picking on us because we haven't commented on the confirmation of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite. Picking on us despite the fact that he quit us and says that we're too Xbox 360 biased. :-P (Which I am)
Anyways, yes. The Xbox 360 Elite is coming. We can now confirm or deny what were once rumors.
So, what if you just want the bigger harddrive? You can buy the 120 GB harddrive seperately for $179. And there is some sort of cable/transfer system so you can transfer your 20 GB harddrive's contents to the bigger one.
However, there are limitations. You can only load one 20 GB harddrive onto the 120 GB harddrive. Every time you load a harddrive onto a 120 GB harddrive, it first wipes the 120 GB harddrive clean. After it transfers, it wipes the 20 GB harddrive clean. You can't load from a 120 GB harddrive to a 20 GB harddrive.
I'd like to point out that as people start buying up the individual 120 GB harddrives, you might be able to get some 20 GB harddrives for cheap on eBay... Also, if you are technically savy, Joystiq once again points out that you can actually use a SATA Western Digital BEVS drive for your 360.
We Are Not Respected Game Journalists
Ok, I guess I can only speak for myself. But I did not get an e-mail invitation to E3 and all the invites have gone out. Shame on you, gaming industry! Recognize these skills and give me some swag!
And in other non-gaming news, I'm now sporting a goatee!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
June Gets Two Big 360 Games
Two games that have been rumored to be coming out in June are now confirmed.
First, Mass Effect will be released in the United States on June 5th and in Europe on June 22nd. Sweet.
I might be able to defeat Mass Effect by the time the second game comes out. The Darkness is now confirmed for June 25th in the US. June 29th for Europe.
So in June, first I get to be "Jack Bauer" in space, fighting back the robots, and later I get to be a gangster turned master of the darkness.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Shivering Isles is Live!
That's right. Just in time for the Xbox Live downtime, Oblivion's expansion Shivering Isles is available on the marketplace for 2400 Microsoft Points($30). The expansion (which is available only through the marketplace) clocks in at 993.75 MB. Which sucks because Xbox Live will go down for 14 hours of maintenance in a handful of hours. So if you're quick, you might get it all downloaded. If not, you might have to wait.
Shivering Isles adds about 30 hours of gameplay to the already lengthy Oblivion world. In Shivering Isles, your character can explore a new world known as the Realm of Sheogorath where madness and chaos reign. There are also 10 added achievements totalling 250 extra points.
I'll probably get this when Xbox Live comes back online because I've been feeling like getting some more Oblivion in recently(I downloaded some of the very minor additions to it in the past but haven't played them all yet).
Always Bet on Black
I know it's been mentioned here before, but word on the wire, (and by wire I mean Wired) is that we should hear an "official" announcement from the big M this wednesday about that beautiful black bastard...the 360-Elite. Seems Chris Kohler received word via email from a Microsoft PR rep about this "big" news. Well I will be officially holding my breath starting now, so someone be sure to wake me if I pass out before the news....gasp....
Friday, March 23, 2007
Listen All Y'all It's a Sabotage!
Apparently, PS3's Europe launch hasn't been going very well. And Microsoft isn't helping any. Reports are coming in of Microsoft agents pulling all kinds of stunts at some of Sony's PS3 release events.
Some of the stunts include driving boats past events with big signs saying "Xbox 360 (hearts) You", handing out chairs to people waiting in line with links to a site saying that Sony is late in coming to the Next Gen game, and sending out text messages of "The Xbox 360 team wishes you a good night" to game journalists.
One of the best things I saw was that Microsoft sent some bloggers £146 worth of Foster's. £146 is supposedly the difference in price between a Xbox 360 and PS3 although my calculations put it as $286.47 which seems wrong. 
Hey, Microsoft! We're bloggers! But please, Bud Light instead of Foster's. Foster's gives me a headache.
Xbox Live Update 03.27.07
Major Nelson is giving everyone the heads up that Xbox live will be going through some maintenance work. What does this mean? There will be no Xbox live, Xbox.com, or Xbox.com forums for 14 hours on March 27th. Larry does state that this is not a dashboard update. The dashboard update is apparently coming in late spring.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Black Xbox 360 Confirmed by Game Informer
Kotaku is confirming that Game Informer is confirming that next month a black Xbox 360 will be on the market. Microsoft still is not budging on whether this is true or not. What will this include. Well a 120GB hard drive (nice), HDMI connections (that's swell), and a low price of $479 (what the hell!).
Not included is the HD-DVD drive (why the HDMI connections) and no confirmation if IPTV software/hardware will be built in. Maybe they are saving that for another Xbox 360 release. Boo.
PS3 Price Cut?
Some analyst over at Goldman Sachs says that Sony will cut the price of the PS3 worldwide by $100 in October. Rumors have been coming out since before the PS3 was launched that the price would come down, but this one seems a little more credible. However, it remains to be seen if it is true. People have been guessing for a long time that the Xbox 360 price would drop by $100 and it still hasn't.
If you're really into the PS3, this news probably doesn't affect you. But if you feel like sitting around sans PS3 and waiting to see if the price comes down, you've got a target date to look forward to.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Jack Thompson happy to be sued
Jack Thompson recently sued Take Two... again. Recently, Take-Two has decided to countersue Jack Thompson for "nuisance lawsuits."
Now Jack Thompson is back in the news saying he has been praying for Take-Two to sue him and that he will be able to use this lawsuit to destroy them.
You can read his whole e-mail over at Joystiq.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night coming
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night will hit Xbox Live Arcade this week, Wednesday the 21st for 800 Microsoft Points($10 US).
It is the first Playstation game to cross into the Xbox Live Arcade. It is also the first Xbox Live Arcade game to exceed the previous 50 MB size restriction. I definitely plan on getting this one and killing me some undead.
Play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Now
I stumbled across a multiplayer beta of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the PC over at WorthPlaying. It's around 500 MB. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work. It keeps crashing on me, but some of you might have better luck.
The beta's in Russian. There's a patch to change the menu into English, but when you're installing the beta, it's all in Russian. ... Maybe I installed it wrong since I can't read the buttons...
Saturday, March 17, 2007
No Mo' PS3 20GIG?
Charlie told me about this article a couple of weeks ago, where a dude went out looking for some PS3s with the 20GB sku. He was unable to find any, and after talking to some of the stores he was told that those sku's were removed from their systems. Kind of weird. Now Joystiq has a Best Buy printout showing that the PS3 20GB is discontinued. Sony still says that they are manufacturing them. Are retailers phasing them out or is Sony?
If it's Sony, then I say good job Sony. Don't make the same mistake that X-Box 360 made with a 2 sku system. It only causes problems for the system later.
Friday, March 16, 2007
DS Headsets Finally Coming
When I first got my DS I asked Charlie what the headset port in the front was for. He said for a headset. I said "What headset you douche bag?" He said "It's not out yet you f#%@!ing tard!" About 2 years later it is making its debut. According to IGN, a DS headset is coming out near the release of some Pokemon game on April 22nd. Gamestop says the headset comes out April 23rd and will run you $14.99. Not bad and about time.
Halo 3 Box Art Done
Word from the Germans, along with pictures, is that the Halo 3 box art is done. Looks pretty sweet. Check it in ultra big size. Charlie and I both have our Legendary Editions reserved.
Jeff's SingStar Dreams Come True
We all had a good laugh at Jeff last week when he mentioned his uncontrollable anticipation for SingStar. For those not hanging out with Jeff and his American Idol friends, SingStar is a PS3 game that allows users to sing against their friends. The players are graded on how well they sing based on tone and pitch. It's got online playability and news has been released that it will be released on Blu-Ray with 30 smokin tracks (the smokin is my word not theirs).
Players will also be able to upload their performance for all to see and heckle at. The videos on the Blu-Ray disc will be in HD, so make sure you upgrade your TV. Word is that new songs will cost ₤1.49 (AUD $3.64 / EURO 2.17). Where's Jeff? I'm going to let him borrow my pair for a while.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Captain N to the Rescue!
Some of you may remember the cartoon Captain N: The Game Master which ran 1989-1993.
In it, a high school student named Kevin gets drawn through his TV into Video Land, a land filled with characters from Nintendo games including Mega Man, Kid Icarus, Mother Brain, GameBoy, Link, and Donkey Kong among others. Kevin helps the good guys fight Mother Brain and her group of bad guys.
Well, remember it or not, it's coming to DVD soon. Those of you who enjoyed it can relive the fun. Those who have never heard of it can check it out. I remember it. It wasn't groundbreaking, but it was enjoyable. Of course, I was in high school at the time...
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Shadowrun Coming in June
I told ya, and I was right! Shadowrun is not coming in April. As part of a recent press release about Games for Windows Live coming out May 8th, there's a small blurb about Shadowrun coming out in June.
Shadowrun will be the first game to be cross platform on both Games for Windows and Xbox Live. The second game that will be cross platform is Uno. Which seems less exciting to me.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Shadowrun Release Date Probably False
There's a rumor burning across the internet that Shadowrun will be released in April.
Looks like that rumor is probably false. I've been waiting since Day One to enter the beta so I ran over and checked the beta forums. The moderators over there say that no date has yet been set and it's probably not April.
The mass invites for the beta haven't even gone out yet! They just recently patched the beta. More educated guesses place Shadowrun's shelf date in May or June.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Halo 3 Keeps the Good
With all the recent announcements of no splitscreening/no standard def support, etc, Bungie is keeping it real.
Frankie's weekly Bungie update assures gamers that Halo 3 will still have splitscreen co-op play. It will still be like Halo 2 where splitscreeners can't play on ranked games.
And Bungie still understands that a number of gamers still play on standard definition TVs so they aren't making text or symbols that SD users can't read clearly like many games have been doing lately(Dead Rising, Fight Night Round 3, etc.)
Some new developments are that weapons will actually appear a little bigger when they are on the ground so users can see them better.
And muting annoying players should be easier than ever.
Miyamoto wants to compare Miis
Shigeru Miyamoto announced at the GDC that he is working on a new Wii Channel where people around the world can compare and rate each other's Miis.
Sounds like the "Am I hot?" website but for Miis! Eric can enter his 200 Miis he has created. I like the Dr. Venture Mii he created.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Epic Lawyers Hate Freedom
Epic representative, Zachary R. Bishop (The Douchebagger), has sent a letter to an Emilio Lopez to remove any Gears of War logos from a Munny doll he made or they will take legal action. A Munny is a figurine that you can customize to your liking, but apparently Epic's I-Hate-Freedom department says that fans of the game and franchise aren't allowed to do such "illegal" acts. Everyone should write Marc Rein, VP of Epic Games, and tell him that he should put a big Gears of War style boot in the ass of Zach.
Hey Epic, do like Bungie and allow your fans to have the freedom to do things with your precious IP. Without your fans you wouldn't have a Gears of War franchise. And fire that Zach Douchebag guy.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Microsoft/Xbox bragging rights
Microsoft has released a stats sheet letting everyone know how well they're doing.
Some interesting things I saw were that since the 360 came out, over 300 million achievements were achieved for over 7.5 million gamerscore.
Also, more than 6 billion Microsoft Points have been purchased. After using the handy Microsoft Points Converter website, I found out that 5 billion MSP is equal to $62,475,000. (I also discovered that the converter doesn't covert numbers higher than 2,147,483,647.)
And out of the 10 million Xbox 360s out there, 6 million of them are members of Xbox Live.
Most the stat sheet boils down to "Yay! Xbox Live kicks ass!" And I actually agree. Here's to you, Microsoft.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
The Commodore Returns
Pro-G has a blurb about the Commodore returning to PC gaming. Stay tuned to CeBIT in Germany because on March 15th they are launching it and making some announcements that should be "surprising". The jokes are already rolling in on Slashdot, with people wondering if it will be a 64bit system, so they can start calling it the Commodore 64 again. Here's a picture of Andy dreaming about his Commodore 64, while punching me, while it looks like I'm trying to kiss him.
Monday, March 5, 2007
No Split Screen for Shadowrun
It may be the first actual use of the cross platform system, but it has been confirmed that there will be no Split Screen for Shadowrun. That's pretty disappointing. Especially for a multiplayer only game.
The developers said they really wanted Split Screen capabilities and did a lot of work on it, but they basically ran out of time.
This makes me sad. Just as sad as the fact that they haven't invited me to the beta yet. I signed up on the first day of the beta selection and have played every Shadowrun game made. Please, let me in!
Bigger 360 Memory Units
Microsoft announced at the GDC that they will start selling larger 360 memory units. A 512MB will retail for $49.99 starting this April. This ain't a big surprise since we all knew they were going to have to bump it up to make up for the larger Live Arcade size limit. The surprise is that for a limited time the 512MB card will come preloaded with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and that the 64MB unit will drop from $39.99 to $29.99. I say they should go lower for the 64MB unit. Look at the price to MB ratio. You are getting ripped off if you buy the 64MB unit, so stay clear of it.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Two Worlds
I saw something about Two Worlds a while back but never really paid attention to it. When compiling the lists of March game releases, I came across the name again. It simply said "March 2007" release.
I looked deeper into it because I was interested. I highly doubt a March 2007 Xbox 360 release. I imagine the May release I saw for Europe to be closer to the US release. However, I saw that it is supposed to be crossplatform. Windows and 360. This peaked more interest because I didn't think that was available yet.
It's not. While the game should have crossplatform capabilities in the future, at release it will not. That's pretty disappointing but not unexpected.
However, the game still looks good. While originally touted as an "Oblivion killer," I don't think it'll be that in depth. But it still should be fun.
Single player and multi-player modes seem to be very different. Single player you can only be a human and have some quests. Multiplayer(up to 8 players in a world) allows you to choose from a list of races and you have different quests. You cannot use your single player character in multiplayer and vice versa.
Previews of the game seem to indicate a "card type" of skill/item/magic system. You can stack the cards on each other, making them better. You apparently can ride more than just horses, such as big lizards and other mounts. And of course, you can be good or a self-centered jerk. It's up to you. Necromancy is not in the world, but you can release it upon the world. So if you want to learn necromancy, others will start to use it against you. All in all, this game bears watching.
Game Releases for this month
I'm going to post this month's scheduled game releases. However, because I don't want to clutter up the front pages, all the dates and games will be in comments. Check the comments for the info.
Gametap
Jeff Cohen had sent me a link before the last podcast talking about how Gametap is running a 1st month for $0.99 special.
I decided to check it out this week. I had seen the site before but thought that the $15/month was too much to try it.
Interesting? Yes. Nostalgic? Yes.
Also frustrating! Older, DOS games like from Infocom or Sierra will not save. It always has an error or says the disk is full or copy protected. Those games were not made to be played in one sitting.
Now I'm playing X-Com which I think I actually still have on CD around here. It's fun, but every so often it crashes out. Also, I accidentally built my base in Africa. Africa is very safe from aliens, but everyone else is pissed at me.
Also, you have to download every game you're going to play through Gametap. But you can only run them through Gametap.
So I'll probably end out the month, but that's it. Still, it's worth the 99 cents to play some old games from when I was a kid. But no save on Space Quest I means that the desert is frustrating and I get eaten. And I don't feel like going through the ship again.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Rumble on the PS3 Coming Soon
As part of the truce, Sony will pay San Jose-based Immersion $97.2 million in damages and interest, as stipulated in the original court award that Sony was appealing. Sony will also pay $22.5 million in licensing payments through 2009 plus an unspecified amount of fees and royalties. In total, Sony will cough up at least $150.3 million to settle the litigation, when factoring in $30.6 million in compulsory license payments the Japanese company has already paid.
So what was the real reason that Sony didn't add rumble to the sixaxis? I recall they said it was because it interfered with the gyros in the controller. Another reason was that Sony claimed rumble was so 2005. Turns out that Sony didn't have the permission to use the technology from Immersion Corp. Sony is finally following Microsoft's lead and paying millions to Immersion for the patent. From the AP Wire article the monthly payments breakdown as such.
Not a bad chunk of change for Immersion. Apparently their stock jumped 32% after this news broke. So how long will it be till we see a sixaxis controller with rumble now that Sony has the permission? I'm guessing PS4.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
GTA IV dated
GTA IV is scheduled to be released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 16th.
And supposedly exclusive episodic downloadable content for GTA IV will be released for the Xbox 360 in 2008. Of course, rumors also exist that the PS3 will get entirely different exclusive downloadable content for GTA IV...
Hopefully with all the great sandbox games lately, GTA IV will step it up even more.
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