What Happened to Xbox Rewards?

"I used to have a problem; a points problem, if you will. Yes, I’m talking about those stupid achievements that give you stupid points that go on your stupid gamertag. But early on in the life cycle of the Xbox 360, I was absolutely hooked on getting all the achievements I possibly could to show the world that I was a “hardcore gamer” and I had the points to back that statement up. Despite it being an irrational and idiotic stance to take, the draw of it early on was fantastic; my competitive nature was being tapped into through this points system.

Over time my interest waned. Maybe the novelty wore off or I came to the realization that there was no reason I should be playing Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (there is no reason anyone should be playing that damn game) for these mystical “points”. Then the Xbox Rewards Program came out.

But, as quick as it came, the quicker it went away.

For those of you who are unaware of the Xbox Rewards Program, it basically allowed you to get free stuff because of your “gamerscore”. The first and only offering was on February 12, 2007, entitled the “Old Spice Experience Challenge”. It had three different levels for rewards, which was based on how much gamerscore you had accumulated in the past year. After your prize level was ascertained, all you had to do was raise your gamerscore by 1,500 points, and you had your prize. There were rewards that ranged from a gamer picture all the way up to a sealed copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2. (A game is a game, son.)

Since then, we’ve heard nothing more about “Xbox Rewards”, despite Microsoft still saying there will be “more to come,” on the initial rewards page:

Xbox Rewards is not just about playing online and racking up your Gamerscore—you don’t even have to be an Xbox LIVE member to participate and score some great rewards. As the community responds, the program will grow and new challenges will be announced. Some will be open only to certain Rewards levels, some may be specific to certain games, and others won’t even require you to turn on your Xbox 360.

Fast forward a year and we still haven’t seen another reward program. What the hell happened? I can only speculate on the possible issues. The one that seems to be the most logical is that they couldn’t secure another partnership to justify all the prizes they handed out. The only other explanation is that gamers weren’t interested, but I’m not buying that. The servers for Xbox.com were crashing because there was so much interest.

It’s a shame. For once, the gamerscore that you achieved was actually worth something tangible. Perhaps this is much ado about nothing, but I, for one, would like to see this program restored. How about it, Microsoft?"

Source

Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack Delayed, Hits April 10

"In a brief email today, publisher Activision gave a revised release date of April 10 for the Xbox 360 version of its upcoming Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack. The release of the map pack was originally scheduled for April 3.

Set to cost 800 Microsoft Points ($10), the map pack includes four new multiplayer maps, namely Creek, Broadcast, Chinatown and Killhouse. Alongside the confirmation of a release date, Activision sent over a new batch of screenshots from each of the aforementioned maps."

Hopefully this is an April Fools Joke...

Source

Hotels offering Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, Xbox Live to guests

"Video games in hotels are certainly nothing new -- we remember playing Nintendo 64 in Best Westerns for a hefty per-minute price. Fancier hotels, however, are looking to introduce more contemporary offerings through special partnerships with Nintendo and Microsoft, bringing titles like Wii Sports and Guitar Hero to more playful guests.

USA Today reports on a handful of hotels across the US which have begun incorporating more physical games into their services and offerings. Some offer hand-delivered consoles to rooms, while others like Hotel Monaco in Seattle host Guitar Hero nights at the bar, giving the title a social feel which can only draw further comparisons to karaoke.

Perhaps most interesting is Hotel Sax, which is working with Microsoft to create a special Xbox Live network, which will allow guests to play games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero with guests in other rooms, free of charge. Sounds pretty good to us. LAN party at the Hilton, anyone?"

Source

Call of Duty 4 Broadcast Map Multiplayer Gameplay

Daily Wrap-Up 3.31.08

Here's what went on today in the world of videogames, popular culture and technology!

• A couple big titles are out for the Wii's virtual console.
• The Gears of War movie may have a release window and a director.
• There will soon be original video on your Xbox.
• Check out the portable SNES.
• "Still Alive," the song from Portal's end-credits, will be downloadable for Rock Band this week.
• Realtime Worlds, developers of the sleeper hit Crackdown, just raised $50 million dollar
• Call of Duty 4 has a lot of players.
• The PlayStation Store is getting an overhaul.
• Established PSP hacker, Dragula96, has found an exploit in the newest PS3 firmware.
• Capcom has just purchased K2 Studios, developers of the recent Tenchu games.
• A group of hackers descended on a support message board for epileptics last weekend and posted animations designed to trigger epileptic seizures.

• A hacker demonstrates how to change someone's mood in the Moods application on Facebook.
• Ubisoft is revising its profit expectations upwards.
• Hackers are inserting malicious code into a reported 1 million websites.
• On July 8th, Square Enix Inc. will release Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon.
• The achievements for Grand Theft Auto 4 may have leaked over the weekend.
• Superman's creator is finally getting paid.
• The CIA just bought a mess of hardware from Google.
• NBC released their season line-up.
• Endless Ocean has Nice music...and fish!
• Check out the trailer for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
• Aldous Huxley's dystopic novel Brave New World will finally get its first film treatment.
• Much beloved puzzle game MR. DRILLER is coming to the Xbox Live arcade this Wednesday.
• Want a look at the Call of Duty 4 Variety Pack multiplayer maps that come out this Thursday?

Unity engine to power iPhone gaming

"At this time of year, every press release must be taken with a grain of salt, but sometimes products announced on or around 4/1 can prove to be real even when they seem a bit unlikely (1GB of free email? Must be a hoax). It's in the vein of strange-but-true (I hope) that Unity Technologies announced a beta program for Unity 3D on the iPhone.

Unity's dynamic game development system (used by some fairly big names), if it makes the leap to the iPhone and iPod touch successfully, will give game creators a spectactular platform for rapid development. Hopefully that will include the unique interaction modes (multitouch, accelerometer & maybe even location awareness) that we saw at the SDK announcement. Can't wait!"

Source

Rock Band Gets Portal Tune

"Portal's highly quotable protagonist, GLaDOS, is coming to Rock Band. The end credits song performed by the rogue A.I., "Still Alive" will be a downloadable for free in April.

The song will be available on the Xbox 360 on April 1st and the PS3 on April 17th. In case you're wondering, the release dates are different because the Playstation Store is currently undergoing much-needed renovations and won't get new content for two weeks.

If you haven't played Portal yet, I'm not sure how much you'd enjoy performing "Still Alive." In fact, you might not want to download the song if you're planning on buying Portal as it contains a few spoilers. Nonetheless, a song featuring a female A.I. crooning about cake and science with ukulele accompaniment is an interesting addition to the Rock Band catalog."
Source

Rockstar to launch Social Club site for GTA IV

"Social Club (teaser site here) will grant players online access to single and multiplayer leaderboards starting with Grand Theft Auto IV. Site registration begins April 15 for Xbox Live and PSN members.

In addition to leaderboards, Social Club will feature a virtual map to track single-player criminal activity in Liberty City, achievement contests like the first 10 people to complete the game 100%, and special competitions. Additionally unannounced features are also planned for future Rockstar games.

Additionally, Rockstar released the fourth and final Grand Theft Auto IV trailer before its April 29 launch on Xbox 360 and PS3. The game is rated Mature and carries a RRP of $89.95.

To see the GTA IV trailer click here."

Source

New Campaign, Multi Maps for Army of Two

"EA's buddy-play shooter, Army of Two, has been one of the most popular games in the UK over the past fortnight, but just in case you missed it, the company has decided to give people on the fence a taste of the full experience.

Assistant producer Matt Turner said in a post on the EA forums that the demo will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace on Tuesday, 1 April. There will not be a demo for the PlayStation 3.

"We figured that now is as good a time as any to get it out there," Turner wrote in the post.

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners who have already picked up Army of Two can look forward to new content soon."

Source

Did Xbox pick the right Hollywood producer?

"Did Xbox pick the right Hollywood producer?

Hollywood producer Peter Safran is expected to produce original content for Microsoft's Xbox Live video service, according to this New York Times story today. With such film credits as "Jiminy Glick in LaLaWood" and "Scary Movie," Safran might seem a perfect match for the Xbox 360, with its core demographic of teenage boys and young men. The Times says Safran will focus first on shows of less than 10 minutes, in genres "that appeal to the Xbox 360 audience," such as comedy and horror.

But it's worth remembering that one of Microsoft's big goals with the Xbox 360 was to broaden the audience beyond that core demographic, with more content to appeal to women, children and families. In that context, the choice of Safran as a marquee Xbox Live video partner would seem somewhat inconsistent with the company's broader efforts.

Then there's the issue of quality. No one would suggest that Xbox 360 owners are film snobs, as a general rule, but Safran's latest, "Meet the Spartans," earned this review from Slate's Josh Levin: "This was the worst movie I've ever seen, so bad that I hesitate to label it a 'movie' and thus reflect shame upon the entire medium of film."

The company does suggest, in the Times story, that it expects to make additional deals with others for original video content. On a separate front, Microsoft last year announced plans to work with Peter Jackson, of "Lord of the Rings" fame, on video-game related projects.

Responding to my inquiry today, a Microsoft representative said there were no further details available yet about the type or price of shows that Safran will produce. For whatever it's worth, the company's official statement doesn't exactly trumpet the arrangement: "Microsoft is in talks with Safran Digital Group to distribute original entertainment content via Xbox LIVE on Xbox 360," it said.

In the meantime, there are more bad reviews to be had. Reacting to today's news, for example, tech blog Gizmodo summed up its thoughts with this headline: "Microsoft Gets Worst-Movies-Ever Producer to Create Exclusive Xbox Live Shows.""

Source

A Whole New PlayStation Store for PS3

"What do you get when you smarten up a clunky browser-like interface and drag access to all its goodies down local-like? Try the new PlayStation Store interface, coming sometime in April, localized and optimized to make browsing for content less of an eye-squinting, d-pad tapping fiasco.

If you've used Sony's PlayStation Store much, you know it's more or less like using a gamepad to navigate a browser. You've probably at one time or another lost the cursor while tapping around, groaned waiting for half the screen to refresh after a screen change, and generally felt like you'd traded the snappy confines of the PS3's native interface for something tacked on and klutzy.

Sony's PlayStation Store 2.0, coming soon to a PS3 near you.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the new PlayStation Store looks like it's part of the PS3's native interface, probably because it will be, and while you'll still access it via the XMB (XrossMediaBar) you won't be whisked off to somewhere else, but instead zip around in an ostensibly-as-snappy menu schema that breaks things down a bit more the way Microsoft and Nintendo already do. There's no shame in pointing that last bit out. It's not who gets it right first, after all -- just ask Blizzard."

Full Article

Rainbow Six Vegas Boosting… sigh

"Looks like Rainbow Six Vegas is going to be in need of a patch and soon since people are cheating their way to Elite status at an epic rate. Boosting is always unfortunatley a part of online gaming, but players have figured it out very quickly in Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and are playing like 1 minute matches to gain 400 experience points. I can only hope that Ubisoft figures out a quick patch for this since we will have a lot of non legit Elites running around. The only saving grace is that rank does not really mean much except that you get to unlock some gear for your character faster and get some achievements. Still stinks though if you are a legit Elite and then see all these other guys boost their way up to you.

What do you guys think?"

Source

Boy steals $10K, buys Playstation 3

"Indonesian police said Monday they are searching for a nine-year-old boy who ran away from his home in Jakarta with more than 10,000 dollars in cash belonging to his father.

The boy reportedly bought a Playstation video games console and a mobile phone after enlisting the help of a shopping mall security guard to change around 800 dollars into Indonesian rupiah.

"We have deployed our forces to look for the boy, but with no results so far," said local police officer Agus, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name.

The boy ran away from his home in a suburb of the capital after his mother grounded him for not doing his homework, the Jakarta Post reported.

He spent the night at the shopping mall and asked the security guard to take him into school the next morning, but disappeared after telling a teacher he was going to play basketball, the paper said.

"I'm just afraid that my son is being used by somebody else who knew that he had thousands of collars in his pocket. I want to know where he is," the boy's father told the Jakarta Post.

The boy has been missing since Thursday, and Agus said the local force had enlisted the help of Jakarta's metropolitan police force to find him."

Source

Battlefield: Bad Company boycott video

Unfair pricing structure found on PlayStation Store

"As you might have noticed, the PS Store is currently blooming with new content (in certain countries of course) and with a new layout coming soon the PS Store has quite a promising future ahead of it.

Price wise however things don’t seem that promising. As you know all purchases on the store are done via credit card. The store however only allows you to activate your PSP on one country setting. What this basically means is that say you sign up for an American account but change to UK afterwards all your content downloaded from the American store won’t play due to license restrictions.

Well since I live in South Africa I obviously selected the South African store as I prefer viewing the currency (Rand) from my own country for easier purchases. Last night I had a little peak at the American store just out of curiosity and was quite shocked at what I discovered. They are overcharging me!

1 USD ($) currently equals 8 South African Rand (R).

Here is an example:

Beats on the USA store costs $5 which equals to R40 whereas on the South African store the same game sells at R75 ($9+). I haven’t checked the pricing on the stores from other countries but I’m sure there’ll be some differences too. Why is Sony doing this? There is no import costs involved since its downloadable content. If I knew this from the beginning I would have signed up for the USA store, and even if I do that now all my already purchased games simply won’t work. I could have purchased Flow and Beats from the USA store for basically the same price as only one game from the SA store.

Really sucks.

P.S. As I’ve mentioned in one of my previous posts If you really can't afford a PSP game then you’re more than welcome to email (don't spam!) me and I'll show you how to make $30 or so to go buy Patapon or whatever."

Source

Confessions Of An Xbox 360 Gamerscore Cheater

"Meet Aaron “coldraccoon” Mesec, an 18-year-old Xbox 360 owner from Murrieta, California. He’s a gamerscore cheater.

He’s a former cheater — or so he now claims to MTV Multiplayer.

Mesec was one of the gamers caught during Microsoft’s attempt last week to reign in gamerscore cheaters. Microsoft won’t say how many people have, like Mesec, been branded with a “Cheater” tag, had their questionable Achievements stripped and their gamescores re-set. But I’ve heard that the number of users whose gamerscores were reset wasn’t more than a few handfuls. The punishment is meant as a message to others.

And it appears to have worked on Mesec. “The cheating days are over for me. I just want to kick back and enjoy gaming again,” he told us over the weekend.

If that’s true, why did he start cheating in the first place?

After Microsoft revealed their new approach, I wanted to chat with a cheater. Xbox Cheater Watch, an unofficial website tracking possible gamerscore cheaters, pointed me in the right direction. I sent requests to more than 10 cheaters, but Mesec was the only one to respond.

“I started cheating, I guess, because I got addicted to gamer score completion,” Mesec said over e-mail. “This means that I must finish the game 1000 [out of 1000 achievement points]. I would play through the game and get the basic Achievements, then do some saves or glitches to get the rest. I started because I wanted more and more gamerscore.”

He’s not alone. 1UP editorial director Dan Hsu told me he spent more than five hours playing through the epilogue mission in “Call of Duty 4″ on the veteran difficulty to unlock the last Achievement. Five hours! He eventually gave up.

Mesec would download game saves from community websites that unlocked all of a game’s achievements in seconds. While Shoe’s addiction lead him to spend countless hours tackling extreme achievements, Mesec exploited game saves simply because it was “a piece of cake to cheat.” It didn’t start that way, though. When Mesec purchased his Xbox 360, he was a legit player for achievements."

Source

5 rules to better XBL trash talking

"I've heard you running your mouth on Xbox Live. You're not funny. In fact, you're stupid as hell. But that's okay. Help has arrived. Put down your controller and mic and listen to me for a few minutes. I'm going to tell you how to be a better trash-talker.

Rule 1 - Make sure you're not actually insulting yourself.

This should sound obvious. But you've broken this rule a lot. You said something like, "Hey buttmuncher, ready to get your buttmunched?!" Ha Ha. That was a good one. I saw what you did there. You went for the ghey joke, insinuating that they eat ass. Good one.

Except…

You're the ghey. Think about it. You asked if they were ready to get their butt munched. Who's gonna do the munching? According to you, YOU ARE! Remember that south park episode where cartman thought that by putting his rod in Butters' mouth that it made Butters ghey? You should totally watch that one.

Rule 2 - Have a comeback ready

The best offense is a good defense. This is true in all forms of competition, including verbal kicks to the balls. I suggest having two to three, good, all purpose comebacks ready. For example, "I love you." That throws them off. If that doesn’t work, just shout and make noise and drown out the other guys. After all, if you can't hear them owning you are you really getting owned? Why do you think Tyson bit Holyfield's ear off? If you say "because he's crazy as hell!" then you're ninety nine percent right. The other one percent is because he was getting destroyed.

Rule 3 - If they're not crying then you didn't do it right.

Speaking of Mike Tyson's crazy ass, did he settle for TKOs? No he didn't. When he was in the ring he threw powerful haymakers that laid mother f***ers out cold. You need to do the same. Except instead of physically knocking people out you need to make them cry like the pathetic little 12 year old girls they are. In the event that person you make cry actually is a twelve year old girl, you get double points and a shot at the showcase showdown.

In the past you probably came up with junk like "You guys are terrible. I had a rampage. You're all a bunch of f***ing f******," or some such lame nonsense. First off, calling someone a n***** or a f***** is played out and ineffective. Not to mention just plain immoral. Go for physical characteristics instead. Do they guy have a high pitched voice? Then he probably is a little fat and has one testicle. So call him a one-balled Mickey mouse. Or a one-balled Minnie Mouse if you simply must work in a ghey joke. Either way, He won't see that right hook to the temple coming.

Rule 4 - Train, train, train.

Do professional fighters go into the ring without having trained for months before hand?! Of course not, and you shouldn't either. Your goal is to watch You tube clips of Morton Downy Jr. and learn to insult people into a frenzied rage of hatred. Morton was a master of drawing information out of people and then using it against them. Watch this (Downey vs. George) You tube clip of him dealing with Wally George. Watch how Wally stutters his way through it all while Morton is calm and goes for the throat. Be like Morton. That's your mantra. Be like Morton Downy Jr. Only after you can pull out creative, person specific insults are you ready to step into the ring.

Rule 5 - Know when to throw in the towel.

I hate to say it, but even if you take the previous four rules to heart, you're still gonna get creamed sometimes. Mike Tyson was one of the baddest dudes in the world for awhile. But eventually he ran into someone bigger and badder and his status was lost. So the final point for you to learn is that when you're on top and you've just verbally assaulted someone to the point that they're speechless and crying, hit the B button and back out of the lobby. Leave your opponent on the floor and go out on a high note. Don't let them have the satisfaction of a comeback. Leave everyone else in the lobby with an image of you standing in a shower of golden light, angles flying about your shoulders as you deliver insults so effective that they think you're a messenger from God, there to remind them that they have sinned in trying to argue against your mighty mouth. F*** those one-balled Mickey Mouses."

Source

Pixels to paper - 10 videogame novels reviewed

"Videogame novels are easy to scoff at. And not just because the average videogame plot is thinner than the paper the tie-in novel is printed on. They're unashamedly commercial, often branded with references to the 'award-winning' game that inspired the hacked-out work of fiction, and the writing quality is... Well. Adequate. But gamers love them.

It's easy to see why: Videogame novels create an extension of the worlds we adore. One GamesRadar staffer has read every Resident Evil novelisation - and enjoyed them - despite having a English degree and a decent appreciation of what makes a well-written novel. And what kept him going through the dirge-like dialogue and stilted exposition? A rabid love of the Resi universe, of course.

But what games are spawning these novels? And who's writing them? And do they scratch that fanboy itch? We've gathered together 10 examples of videogame novels, complete with mini-extracts and even a bit of critical analysis, to get an idea of what's out there in the world of pixels to paper.

Halo: The Fall of Reach

The Grunts looked like a living carpet of steel-blue skin, claws, and chrome weapons. Some ran on all fours up the slope. They barked and howled, baying for the Spartans' blood.
"Roll out the carpet," the Chief told Blue-Four.
The hill exploded - plumes of pulverised sandstone and fire and smoke hurtled skyward.
The Spartans had buried a spiderweb pattern of Lotus anti-tank mines earlier that morning.
(Courtesy Amazon.com)

What is it?
A prequel to Halo, throwing some light on gaming's most inexpressive hero - Master Chief.

Who wrote it?
Eric Nylund, who also works as a writer for Microsoft Game Studios. He's written three Halo books, but also several of his own novels.

Fanboy factor?
All the Halo hallmarks are here - the proper weapon names, pseudo-military jargon barked into comm-units in the heat of battle, victory against the odds... Perfect for the Halo-shaped hole in your life.

Is it any good?
Nylund's delivery is very 'and then this happened ... and then this happened', especially during action sequences, and the character exposition seems pretty spartan (hoho! Yes?) and undeveloped. But, then, what do you expect from a novel inspired by the emotional-vacuum that is Halo?

Further reading
Nylund's other Halo novels: Ghosts of Onyx and First Strike. Also, try Contact Harvest and The Flood."

full article here

The GameShark Top Ten: Baseball Games

"When formulating any ‘Top Ten’ list, it’s important to set the parameters. When you’re talking about PC and videogames this is particularly important. Unlike music, movies, books, and even other forms of gaming, boardgaming for example, time can be exceedingly cruel on electronic entertainment. As technology advances, many of the games of yesteryear look increasingly shallow, ugly, and even comical. This is true with baseball games, as well. Time isn’t always kind.

These selections represent more of a snapshot, a peek at what baseball gaming was like at each specific point in time. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the number one game is better, even today, than the number six game. You need to take yourself back to when these games were released and consider their impact and they’re importance on the day they hit the scene.

Finally, these lists are always going to contain some personal bias—which is part of the fun. There have been a lot of baseball games released in the past 30 years and some classics just missed our cut. Games like Baseball Stars, The World’s Greatest Baseball Game, Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, World Series Baseball, Tony LaRussa/Old Time Baseball, right down the line. Great games all, but they just missed the Top Ten.

Special Honorable Mention: MVP Baseball 05 PC

MVP Baseball 05 is a special case that deserves mentioning before we get to the actual list. The series had a short run thanks to the exclusive licensing deal that removed EA as a player on the baseball scene. MVP Baseball 05 was the last from EA Sports, if you discount its trek into college baseball, which went over like a lead balloon."

full article here

Halo 4: The Secret Files. Everything Bungie talked about

"The following Bungie developer interview notes are a summary of everything Halo 4 the company talked about or what was hinted at. We dubbed it “The Secret Files” that puts one and one together. Every Halo fan obviously knows the (original) Halo trilogy is over (and left with an open ending). But with Ensemble Studios working on the Halo Wars RTS prequel and an episodic Halo: Chronicles cinematic-game trilogy series still in the works by Peter Jackson, would a Halo 4 FPS really be that far fetched? Time to line up the facts…

July 14th 2006: Bungie audio director, Marty O’Donnell, said at the UK Game Developers Conference that “We all want Halo to be the great ending to an epic trilogy. We look at what Peter Jackson did with the Lord of the Rings films - which each film bettering the previous one and that is what we are aiming for.”

September 25th 2007: At the launch of Halo 3 the cinematic designer, Lee Wilson, said “There’s a lot of people who have been working on Halo much longer than us two have and they’re really interested in exploring new games, new stories, and whatever comes out of those conversations is what we’re going to pursue. We’re still going to make games for us.” And Joe Tung, multiplayer producer, said that the team was “figuring out right now what we’re working on next. We really don’t know what that is yet but as soon as we know, everyone else will know. Halo 4 is not in development.”

October 8th 2007: Halo movie director, Neill Blomkamp, confirmed that the Halo “film is entirely dead,” but consoled fans of the series by mentioning that “Well, we are already at work on another Halo game — I wouldn’t call it ‘Halo 4′, but it is based in the Halo Universe and represents a collaboration between Bungie and Peter Jackson. Halo 3 was definitely not the last Bungie Halo game.”

November 9th 2007: Bungie studio manager, Harold Ryan, mentioned that “Obviously Microsoft wanted us to make more Halo games. Both I and some of the more senior guys from the original Halo game have deep piles of game designs for the Halo universe that we are excited to build at some point. If the stars align and motivations are good and the platforms are right we’ll do them.”

Now in 2008: Bungie are still supporting the Xbox 360-exclusive Halo 3 with new map packs, as well as the above mentioned two Halo game spin-offs that are set for tentative Q4 2008 releases. It does look like they want to take a break from the series, which might be part of the reason why Bungie became independent from Microsoft. But since money makes the world ago around, and of course fans do want more, it’s doubtful Microsoft or Bungie will want to give up on the Halo series that as of October 4th, 2007, combined sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Perhaps by the time the Xbox 720 launches in 2011-2012 we’ll hear about Master Chief’s comeback in Halo 4."

Source

Gears of War Movie Update

"ComingSoon.net got a chance to talk to Twilight producer Wyck Godfrey about the status of the proposed Gears of War video game adaptation. "We've got our script on and a director we're about to attach. We'll hopefully make that early next year for the summer of 2010," said Godfrey.

It was announced in March of 2007 that New Line Cinema (now a unit of Warner Bros.) had acquired the feature film rights to Epic Games' award-winning video game. Stuart Beattie was attached to adapt the project and Temple Hill Entertainment set to produce.

Since its debut in November 2006, "Gears of War" has broken sales records on the Microsoft Xbox 360, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide. The game thrusts players into humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. The story unfolds as a ragtag group of soldiers use every last ounce of strength to survive the onslaught from the forces of evil, which begins on the historic Emergence Day."

Source

Resident Evil 4 Classic Edition for PS3/Xbox 360?

"Sketchy details emerged early last week about the possibility of yet another version of Resident Evil 4 being readied for the marketplace. Following the success of the game on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, PC and Wii, if the source was to be believed then there is yet another iteration in the works for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, called ‘Resident Evil 4: Classic Edition’. But is this truth or nothing more than an elaborate April Fools’ joke?

According to website ‘The Horror is Alive’, this is definitely the truth and nothing but the truth, with Capcom eager to squeeze even more sales out of the highly rated entry into the popular Resident Evil franchise. But rather than merely porting any of the previous editions, it seems Capcom will be pouring even more than before into this next generation update. The original entry on the website states:

“I was sent this goody by a friend who works at Capcom’s San Fransisco building. He spied an artist working on what appeared to be boxart for an upcoming port of Resident Evil 4 for the XBOX 360 and PS3 entitled “Resident Evil 4 Classic Edition”. Details are sketchy, but from what my contact could gather, the game will feature Hunk more than before. When pressed further, they said Hunk would be getting his own story-campaign, similar to Ada’s Separate Ways scenario in the PS2/PC/Wii versions. I’m attempting to get direct captures of the boxart, and not a quick cellphone grab but this will have to do for now. We’ll have more to report on this in the coming days!” "

Source

Stick Skills Gets New Call of Duty 4 Map Pack Screens

stickskill.com Full Pics

"We got our hands on nine new screens of Call of Duty 4’s new upcoming map pack featuring Killhouse, Creek, Broadcast, and Chinatown. The map back will be released on either April 3rd or 4th (pending certification from Microsoft). We’ll continue to bring you media as it’s released to us, click the below image to be taken to the rest of the screenshots."

Bridging the gap? Mouse and keyboard for Xbox 360?!

"Enter the XFPS 360 *PRO*. This product (made by TeamXtender) allows you to connect a mouse and keyboard to your Xbox 360, and then "intelligently" maps any key presses to controller inputs. It even gives you a "turbo" ability (akin to the old turbo-controllers in the SNES days). This product has a chance to act as a bridge for MKDs to enter the console gaming world, but will it do that?

I'm not so sure... From a technical perspective, mapping buttons isn't a big deal, but translating mouse movements into analog stick movements is tricky, and I'm not sure how this product will handle the acceleration factor. For example, in PC games, the quicker you move the mouse, the quicker your character will spin around. However in console games, the speed your character spins (or aims, really) is governed by sensitivity settings in conjunction with the measured input of the analog stick. Addressing this problem is less of a technical issue and more of a question of feel... How will this product feel to use? How much adjustment is necessary to get used to using the XFPS (especially from an MKDs' perspective)?"

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Top 5 Racist Videogames

"Shocking racial insensitivity in videogames both began and hit its very peak at the same time with the release of Custer's Revenge for the Atari 2600. You know, that game with the priapic general negotiating a field of raining arrows to repeatedly rape a naked Indian maiden tied to a post. Really, that's pretty damn hard to top. So this time, we're going to look at sheer quantity of racial caricatures rather than simple ability to offend.

5. Spanish for Everyone
System: DS | Release Date: 2007 | Publisher: Activision

Every bit as important as educating children in other languages is teaching them about other cultures, and it just makes sense to do both at the same time. And by "teach children about other cultures," we mean, "instill in them a deep and abiding fear of foreigners." Spanish for Everyone gets off to a great start, with your Hispanic friend accidentally stealing your DS and taking off in a shady-looking car that's being chased across the border by police cars. Thankfully, a sultry, innuendo-spouting señorita will give you a lift as far as Tijuana, and along the way she "can teach you many things, and Spanish is definitely one of them." Edutainment is awesome! It only gets weirder from there. Your second lesson is taught by a talking bull, who eventually departs to "fight in the coliseum of man against the evil red devil." Followed by a trip to a ramshackle town full of foreboding music, where you are next aided by an "exporter" who has business with the people who own the cop-chased car from the intro. When you finally catch the kid who took your DS, he apologizes for the misunderstanding and happily gives it back...but meanwhile your exporter friend has left you with a mysterious package and a plane ticket to France. Hm. It's far and away the least offensive game in our lineup, but something about all that definitely gives us the willies."

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11-year-old takes school network by the horns

"When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Millbrook, Ala., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager.

Penn did it to help his mother, Paula, the school librarian who had computer support added to her workload a week before the school year started when the existing IT systems overseer suddenly departed. For Jon — who says his favorite reading material is computer trade magazines — it’s been the experience of a lifetime, even getting to select and install a gateway security appliance largely by himself."

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Best Buy Confirms CoD4 Game of the Year for PS3

"Best Buy seems to have confirmed what we have all been wondering. Will there be a Game of the Year edition of Call of Duty 4 on the PS3? Well, the answer is yes.

According to the electronics retailer, the PS3 version with the Variety Map Pack will be shipping on April 24th, exactly 21 days after the Xbox 360 maps hit the Xbox Live Marketplace.

If you’re a PS3 owner and are looking to buy CoD4, it would be a good idea to wait a bit to get that extra content for free."

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HaloRadar: 37 reasons to hate Halo 3!

"First of all, we don't really hate Halo. We're just pretending. That said, we're not going to hop on the fanboy wagon and pretend that there aren't any parts of the game that we don't like. To be exact, there are 37 of them. Maybe you agree with them, and maybe you don't. Either way, you should give them a read, and maybe you'll discover that you hate Halo 3 just a little bit, too.

1. The story
After years of waiting and hours of gameplay, what have we learned? The Covenant is bad, Master Chief is awesome and Bungie needs to write better scripts. Here's our vastly improved version: Sarge says, “Those aliens are assholes! Go kill them, Chief,” and then nobody says anything else for the next six hours.

2. In online matches, you can't choose which maps to play
You can pick your gametype, armor color and species, but the maps are always random. This is simply unpatriotic."

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BADJoystick - Gamer Comedy

BADJoystick is a new site covering all weird, crazy and amusing videos pertaining to gaming culture.

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Stalk Your Friends with Verizon and Loopt

"Want to stalk your friends? Verizon can help.

Verizon Wireless next month will offer access to Loopt, a social networking service that utilizes GPS technology to let you keep tabs on yours friends' location. You have to opt-in and pay $3.99 a month for the service, though, so friends won't be able to monitor your whereabouts without your consent.

Users will be able to see where their friends are via a map display on their phone, and share their whereabouts with anyone in their address book or AIM buddy lists.

Loopt has previously only been available via Boost Mobile on certain Motorola phones. Loopt for Verizon will be available on about 20 "Get It Now"-enabled phones, including the Chocolate by LG, the Motorizr Z6tv, and the G'zOne Type-S."

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MacBook Air Hacked In Two Minutes

"Mac OS X's reputation for security was tarnished on Thursday when a team of security researchers from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) managed to hack a MacBook Air in two minutes using a zero-day vulnerability in Apple's Safari 3.1 Web browser.

The ISE security researchers -- Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel -- were participating in the "PWN to OWN" competition at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, Canada, that began on Wednesday.

"Pwn" is computer gaming slang for "own," as in conquer. The "p" typo serves to heighten the humiliation of defeat by emphasizing that the loss came at the hands of a youth who can't even spell or type correctly. The term has also come to be used in security circles.

Contest participants had their choice of trying to hack an Apple MacBook Air running OSX 10.5.2, a Sony VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10, and or Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1. During the first day, when attacks were limited to network attacks on the operating system, no one managed to compromise any of the systems.

That changed on Thursday when attacks on default client-side applications -- Web browser, e-mail, IM -- were allowed. The ISE team won $10,000 from seccurity firm TippingPoint for compromising the MacBook Air.

The undisclosed vulnerability in Safari 3.1 has been shown to Apple and no further information about it will be revealed until Apple can issue an update, Tipping Point said.

In a blog post on Friday, Tipping Point said, "[S]ince the Vista and Ubuntu laptops are still standing unscathed, we are now opening up the scope of the targets beyond just default installed applications on those laptops; any popular 3rd party application (as deemed 'popular' by the judges) can now be installed on the laptops for a prize of $5,000 upon a successful compromise."

Apple did not respond to a request for comment."

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AT&T to debut mobile TV in the US

AT&T is to launch a live mobile TV service in the US in May, following in the footsteps of rival Verizon Wireless which has offered a similar service in major US cities since the middle of last year.

Like Verizon's, the AT&T service will use Qualcomm's MediaFlo network. AT &T has not announced the price of the service, but has stated that it will be available on two new handsets: LG's Vu and Samsung's Access.

AT&T signed an agreement with MediaFlo in February last year and originally said that the service would be rolled out at the end of 2007.

Consumers have been slow to adopt mobile TV. Few companies that provide the services are willing to talk specifically about subscriber numbers or hours viewed.

Mobile market analysts attribute consumer reluctance to high prices, and cultural factors including mobile handsets not being a natural device on which to watch broadcast TV.

The move will also put the US out of step with Europe, which has adopted the DVB-H standard for mobile television.

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Photoshop Express a fine, free tool for teachers and students

"Adobe recently released into public beta (ready to go, though, for all intents and purposes) their online Photoshop Express application. A further distillation of Photoshop Elements accessible via a web browser with Adobe’s Air technology installed, Express is no GIMP, but it’s free, available across platforms, and serves the needs of the MySpace set very well.

Sure, you can make your head really big, but all of the basics (red eye reduction, retouching, cropping, etc.) are all available for the cost of a registration (meaning free). While Adobe is looking to monetize Express through some sort of premium service later on, it appears that Express will remain free in this form.

For the purpose of most teachers and students posting content to the web or editing pictures for presentations, reports, etc., Express provides plenty of features in an easy-to-use package with 2GB of web storage/sharing for your photos."

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Rockstar and Amazon bring digital music distribution to GTA4

"If the hugely successful, industry-changing Grand Theft Auto 3 is any barometer, Rockstar's soon-to-be-released Grand Theft Auto 4 has the potential to be one of the biggest titles of all time. Looking to cash in on that potential, Amazon and Rockstar Games have teamed up to create an interesting new aspect of the game that will leverage the ever-increasing bond between gamers and music: Grand Theft Auto 4 is set to include a unique new model for digital music distribution: gamers will be able to buy music for their iPods, PCs, and other devices in-game.

The in-game radio feature of the Grand Theft Auto games has long been lauded, and now players will have the chance to scoop up the songs they hear in the game to listen to in the real world. A new technology called "ZiT" uses the game's cell phone feature. When players hear a song they like, they can dial a number on their in-game cell-phone to receive a text message detailing the artist and track title. For users that sign up for the new Rockstar Games Social Club, an e-mail will then be sent with a link to a custom Amazon.com playlist which features the tracks phoned in. These DRM-free tracks will be priced in the 89-99¢ Amazon price range."

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On college campuses, video games move into classroom

"Attention parents: The video games that drive your kids to distraction could soon become a staple of higher education.

For a growing number of college professors, computer games are no mere child’s play. Instead, such games are seen as a 21st-century tool to promote critical thinking, social collaboration and even civic participation to students raised clutching joysticks since they learned to walk.

"The experience kids can have in a game world are more authentic than those they can have in a classroom," said David Shaffer, an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"These new technologies are fundamentally changing what it means to be educated," added Shaffer, author of "How Computer Games Help Children Learn."

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EA Announces Madden NFL 09 Official Ship Date and Special Collector's Edition

"Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced today that Madden NFL 09 will be available in retail stores in North America on August 12, including a special collector’s edition in celebration of the 20th anniversary of one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. The Madden NFL 09 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition will be the ultimate interactive NFL experience - featuring full versions of both Madden NFL 09 and the all-new NFL Head Coach 09, exclusive classic Madden NFL gameplay, and an extensive library of exclusive bonus video content. "The Madden NFL franchise has a rich history, and we’re proud to be celebrating it with this definitive video game package,” says Peter Moore, president of EA SPORTS. "Featuring two deep and innovative new standalone games, as well as a host of exclusive bonus content, the Madden NFL 09 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition is the ultimate interactive offering for both long-time Madden NFL fans and anyone who enjoys football on Sundays."

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50 Cent Is Back in New Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION(R)3 System

"In this fictional story to the multi-million unit seller Bulletproof video game, players will be able to play as one of the world's biggest hip-hop stars in an all out battle to protect 50 Cent's assets and to collect payment from a crooked overlord.

"We are taking this sequel to the next level with exciting combat and gunplay, new original music, great graphics and a new story," said 50 Cent. "50 Cent: Blood on the Sand will have everything my fans are looking for in a 50 Cent game."

The 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand video game will feature multi-player drop-in and drop-out co-op, interactive counter-kills, driving, and aerial combat. Following the success of the 2005 Spike TV Video Game Award winning Best Original Song, "We May Be Crazy" 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand will be packed with more exclusive unreleased music from 50 Cent and G-Unit."

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New Team Fortress 2 Content Scheduled for Mid-April; Includes Goldrush, New Weapons, Meet The Scout

"The next batch of free content for the PC edition of Team Fortress 2--including the new Goldrush map, unlockable weapons, and Meet the Scout video--is slated to arrive the week of April 20, developer Valve has informed Shacknews.

Outside of that general timeframe, a specific release date for the new content was not provided.

Goldrush will mark the first map in a new game mode called "Payload," which will task the Blue team with herding a mine cart full of explosives toward the Red base. The more players near the cart, the faster it will move, the Red team winning if it prevents Blue from reaching its goal. The map will also be the first to utilize the cinematic physics technology from Half-Life 2: Episode Two."

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Robot Chicken: Star Wars Blasts onto DVD in July

From XBL to DVD

"Robot Chicken: Star Wars, the Adult Swim stop-motion sketch that cracked up geeks (like us) everywhere, is coming to DVD this summer. Warner Home Video announced today that it will bring Robot Chicken: Star Wars to DVD, with a host of bonus features, on July 22.

The Robot Chicken: Star Wars special debuted on Adult Swim in June 2007. The stop-motion animation spoof intertwines the staples of George Lucas' Star Wars universe with "yo' momma" battles, riffs on George W. Bush and of course on Star Wars fanboys."

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God of War Machinima Competition

"Sony is running a God of War Machinima competition. Gamers can head over to the God of War Machinima website and use the God of War online editing suite to create their own God of War Machinima. You can choose from a large library of clips, text, effect, music and you can even add your own voice to the video using a microphone, headphones or speaker.

After you have completed your video, you can publish it and embed it to your social networking pages as well as upload it to the God of War gallery so gamers from around the world can view it.

By registering on the site and submitting your video before the 19th of May, you stand a chance to win prizes including a PSP, a copy of God of War: Chains of Olympus, an exclusive God of War artwork print, God of War T-shirts as well as Kratos action figures."

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Grand Theft Auto IV to be Banned?

"What impact could this morning’s publication of Dr Tanya Byron’s review on video games ratings have on the release of Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV)?

The study recommends that video games should have cinema style ratings and this should be a statutory requirement instead of the voluntary code currently in place. This could mean big changes in what games are available and whether they can even make it into the shops without having large parts of the gameplay experience cut from the final release (as happens with films)."

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With Firefox 3, Microsoft Has Reason to Worry

"In the chronology of Internet browsers, Netscape came out earlier, but Microsoft figured out a way to do most of the same things at least as well, if not better. It didn't hurt that the company violated the law as it mobilized to crush a nascent challenge to its desktop monopoly.

Still, it's an incorrect rewrite of history to explain the triumph of Internet Explorer solely in terms of antitrust violations. Fact is that by the time Microsoft got around to the third incarnation of its Web browser, IE was arguably as good--if not better--than Netscape. We all know how that story finished up."

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Dead Space producer would “love” to continue series

"Dead Space executive producer Glen Schofield has told videogaming247 that the promising new EA horror game is likely to just be the start of an ongoing series.

“We can definitely do more with this world,” he said. “And I’d love to.”

Dead Space - currently in development in California and set for release 360, PS3 and PC on Hallowe’en this year - is already surrounding itself with cross-media properties, including a graphic novel and recently confirmed cartoon film."

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