XBox 360 Rally

Get ready, October 10th, just a couple of weeks away, the Orange Box will be hitting store shelves and hopefully will not be ignored because of some other first person shooters recently released *cough*. Honestly though, I do wish this game well, as I love the Half Life series, however, do not care for keyboard/mouse as my FPS preference (yes, blasphemy for a PC user not to be a -->PC gamer -->, I know), so this is a set I honestly have been waiting for, specifically to check out “Portal” .. however the set also includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Team Fortress 2. At the cost of a regular priced game you honestly can’t go wrong picking this baby up or at the very very least giving it a rental, remember, this is the PC game that can only be second to World of Warcraft, but before WOW, it was #1 for quite some time, if you are like me and have not given this game the attention it deserves, now is the time (well not right now, but very soon!).
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Great news! Yesterday at 10am (PST) the Call of Duty Beta raised the cap for levels to a rank of 25.

So if you aren’t leveling up and taking on challenges, now is the pretty obvious time to get on it to get the extra weapons and crap (crap includes some cool perks and an upgraded weapon in each category.. read full details at FourZeroTwo’s page).
Bad news! Sunday the 30th (11:59pm) the Beta will be done

So what have we learned from this great experience? Fast action first person kicks ass. It may be an acquired taste for all you Halo gun battlers, but this Beta convinced me that this just could be the best way to have objective type games, everyone was very talkative, a big plus, I know you silent players are out there, but stick to deathmatch only games please. Anyways, it was fun, good job Infinity Ward.

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In two pretty unrelated Halo 3 blips, “Chevmeister” over on the Bungie.net forums has posted downloads for all the multiplayer maps sans weapons, power ups, vehicles, etc, just a nice empty sandbox for you to fill (not sure why Forge wasn’t made like this already). Click here and start downloading those right away, awesome job to all the users that helped out with that, this should come standard with Forge and placed as part of the first update that Halo 3 will receive, but for now, at least they made it easy enough for users to share such things (possibly they can share their information with the Unreal Tournament devs).

The second part to these quick blips, Halo 3 madness has invaded even the intelligent people over at MIT, known for their pranks, have transformed a statue of John Harvard into Master Chief with his assault rifle in hand. For larger pictures with different views, click here, they made sure to get some pretty detailed shots in before the prank was taken down at the early hours of 8am where I guess only those in on the prank got to enjoy it, and of course all of us with an internet connection and a love for good old fashioned shenanigans.

[Thanks to Xbox360Fanboy for Cleared Maps info | MIT Prank info thanks to Brian over at TalkingNFL.com]
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After the extremely lame announcement that went across the Xbox sites that a “Saints Row 2″ website had been launched (not all the Xbox new sites fault, just the publishers fault for throwing out such a tease and lack of content for the site, bastards!), not much further has been shown to us from the THQ camp, that is until French site Xbox-Gamer.net posted scans of the EGM issue with a preview of what is to come. Check the screens below for new images and info (scans are large enough where you can actually read the text, woo!):

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Enterbrain, a research company from Japan, has reported on this beautiful Friday morning that Halo 3, which was released in Japan yesterday, sold 45,000 copies.

When you consider that Blue Dragon, the highest selling Xbox 360 title in the land of the rising sun, sold 83,000 it’s first week, I’d say Halo 3 may become a moderate success over there.

In an effort to differentiate my two articles, here’s a little added something: I never could understand why the Japanese hate the Xbox so much. I know that our vastly differing cultures make it difficult to sell one product in the other’s home territory, but come on. Japan is the only market where the PS3 is beating the 360, and that just tells me something is wrong here… or there. Whichever.

[Xbox360Only.nl]

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Unlike the very terrible terrible (terrible) demo of Crash Bandicoot’s “Crash of the Titans” (that was released on the holy Halo 3’s day of birth), two very good demo’s have hit the marketplace today, both hitting opposite sides of the gaming spectrum so you will probably be at least downloading one of the two. Let me once again let you know, Crash of the Titans is horrible, the graphics, the game play (still staying away from true 3D gaming, fools!), just don’t waste your time at all unless you have a child under the age of 10 or so (seriously).

A game I have been waiting for, Jericho however, is going to be making me turn on my 360 in literally a few minutes so I can try any part of this (click for some video goodness). The demo for this game weighs in at 885.17mb.

NHL2K8 demo is out, I am still on my ban of 2KSports games (link), however, so you know, the demo is here and is just over a gig. Be happy 2K isn’t charging for this demo (those bastards).
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I know Metal Slug has a large following, sometimes I wish I was a part of that, however, I missed that boat so I don’t get that feeling of retro fun while playing that. However, I do get that feeling with Samurai Shodown 2, one of the many “Street Fighter” clones that had a following of its own. Of course when I was a kid I couldn’t afford the massively price Neo Geo system to play this on, but when I was in a good enough arcade, I would let the quarters fly on this ‘cool at the time’ yet still very cool now, Asian fighting culture based fighting game (Made GameSpot’s 10 greatest fighting games of all time!). Check the press release below:

(more…)

We knew it was going to happen, and true to the hype, Halo 3 has indeed set a single-day entertainment record, gmabbing itself a cool $170 Million in the US alone!

Inside the first 20 hours, over a million users signed onto Xbox LIVE to play Halo 3, which makes September 25th the most active single day ever.

Now, it’s going to take a little bit to find out what Halo 3 made worldwide, but if the US sales chart is any indication… everyone who even touched Halo 3 during production is rolling in money.

(more…)

And now, in a bit of absolutely pointless news, the achievements list for CSI: Hard Evidence has been discovered. There are, brace yourselves… five achievements.

Just five. 200 a piece, for the standard 1000 points.

The levels of epic are staggering!

[Xbox 360 Achievements]

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Wow, I Could have about a million things to say on this, or I could just let the image to the right do the talking by just throwing a big “Stupid” stamp on Crash Bandicoot’s forehead. I will try and meet somewhere in between. Crash Bandicoot, what I remember as the mascot of sorts back when it was Nintendo (N64 with Mario of course) vs Sega (Saturn with Sonic) vs Sony (PS1 with Crash), it was a mildly fun platform type game. Though it was 3D, it was no true Mario 64 3D game.. but I digress, I am not here to crash the Titan’s party, so I won’t insult Crash himself. Just the fact that whoever at *quickly Googles whoever publishes Crash*… whoever at Sierra Entertainment, must not keep up to date with what is going on in the video game world. Halo 3 just got released today! C’mon, is this really the time to release a demo!?! I mean, I wish the best for the game, but in a couple of months when that new Halo smell wears off, will the Crash demo still be listed on the Live Marketplace in the “New Demo” section, where I assure you that will be the only place people will even have heard that this game is coming out, let alone they have a chance to play some of it (other than us gamers who keep up with this sort of thing, but even us will easily forget about it, who out there is a true Crash fan?! Exactly!).

Sorry, anyways, I will stop short on a rant, I need sleep, you see, I have been playing Halo 3 for a little over 10 hours (with one food break). Haven’t even touched the campaign, all multiplayer for me baby! But hey, that will be coming up in my next post, where I will bring you a great picture of the midnight madness that occurred when I had to secure not one, but two copies of Halo 3, without pre-orders (my little brother calls me and said he needed a copy too, he had school today, ma won’t let him stay up so I have to be the good big brother and help, again though, I digress, I am tired). What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, this is Crash of the Titans time to shine, demo out, download it, only 530.76MB so you shouldn’t have to delete anything off your hard drive if you want to try it out.
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Odds are you’re going to be heading out tonight for the highly-anticipated Halo 3 launch. Hell, it’s very possible that you’re already there, reading this on a laptop… in which case, I pity your soul. But, all the same you should know what to do to survive this Halo 3 onslaught, and get through the night.

So, after the break I’m going to give you a few survival tips to help you get through the long, difficult night ahead.

(more…)

This is it, the biggest edition of “New Releases” for a while. You want to know why!?!

World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets is finally coming out!!! The game that will bring you:
* Your poker skills will be put to the ultimate test by over 30 of the world’s top poker champions
* Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, and Mike Matusow will teach you their tips and tricks in a poker school setting
* With successful wins, you will unlock valuable poker tools that will enable you to become an even more skillful player
* Build your bankroll at all the favorite locations of previous years such as Harrah’s New Orleans, Grand Tunica, Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino and new this year, the hottest poker rooms of the Las Vegas strip!
* ESRB Rated RP for Rating Pending
(At least according to Amazon.com’s description, I never heard of this game beforehand)

The actually pretty good looking CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Hard Evidence is being released.

Oh yeah, I forgot, another title… HALO 3!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!ONG!!!!!!

Yes, the game that is going to be literally selling systems, the game that took over 7-11, Mountain Dew, and Burger King, is here. People will be calling in sick, schools will close, and possible riots will ensue, can’t wait to jump in on some multiplayer.
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Coming from Thrillhouse17, representing -->Platform Nation --> (formerly XBLRadio, now a full powerhouse of gaming communities coming together), is a video detailing what things you can do in Halo 3’s new multiplayer game type, “Forge” as well as whipping out the very bad ass flamethrower and actually using it.

First, the intro video for Forge, more of a tutorial, runs in at about 10 minutes, and I can’t lie, is a little boring at times, but this is for you hardcore Halo fans who just need to see the forge in action and how things are done, so when Tuesday comes, you can just jump right in knowing what you need to know, for those with a short attention span, scroll down to the second video:

This second video is where the Forge shines a little more, not because more is revealed than the first video, but because you can see the split screen, showing one character in regular mode and the other in the Forge edit mode as a camera… oh yeah.. and the bad ass flamethrower! Plus a few more things.. just roll the clip:

So there you go, satisfied?

Of course not, but it’ll have to do for now, unless you also want to see some in game menu’s.. and no doubt there will be more videos to come as we all prepare for what is to come in the couple of days, check back for more updates at -->Platform Nation
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As the time of Halo 3 draws near and there is some sort of news about the game every.. eh.. 20 minutes or so, comes the biggest news of them all…. Halo 3 will have DLC!! This comes from a recent sit down with Next-Gen, having Jonty Barnes and Jay Weinland representing Bungie. When asked about what will happen after Halo 3 is actually released, their reply was:

JW: Although we haven’t announced details, we have talked about downloadable content at some point.

JB: Yeah, I think that’s inevitable. We have released DLC in spring this year for Halo 2, a game that is two-and-a-half years old. We’ve still got 300,000 players of Halo 2 still playing the game. The last DLC was purely to support the call-outs from the community. I imagine seeing more of that in DLC for Halo 3.

I’m really excited by the Forge [Halo 3's map editing feature], and we don’t really think we understand what the people are going to create.

Being a huge Time Splitters fan, I can’t lie, I am very excited about the map editing feature myself more so than having to pay for levels. All I can do is remember the days when they were free, hopefully Bungie will do the honorable thing and stick with what they did with Halo 2 and have a certain time frame for people to buy the levels or whatever else they offer, then give it for free 3 months later or something).

Another note from Barnes sitting down with GameSpot was a quick quote about the Beta and preparing their servers for the horde that will be playing very soon, “The amount of polish feedback was especially helpful, and we also found we had to triple our server capacity.”

[Source 1Pstart.com | Header image stolen from JW because it was too damn funny I had to steal it]
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Kotaku had a sit down with Aaron Greenberg regarding many interesting things I’m sure, however, they decided to just post a blip of what was said. An interesting blip none the less, on the topic of the 360 quality issues:

“We have made all the improvements in our manufacturing process… All the consoles on the market have those improvements…. [We will] repair the console sent to us with these improvements. It should be similar to buying a new console off the shelf.”

Now, I am on my second console, so far, it has red ringed on me once, however never again (still, I don’t care as much as I should, I called Microsoft and am getting another new one, included with a free game which they actually already shipped me, but still haven’t received a coffin for it). Sadly, I have faith that what he speaks is true. I mean, if the trend of returned 360’s being returned and returned again went on, even the mighty Microsoft could fall. Once the general public found out about the Xbox’s breaking a lot, they did get right on top of things with the warranty extended and the new chips/heat sinks.
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