XBox 360 Rally

At long last, we have details about the next entry in the revitalized Prince of Persia series. It was only a tiny bit of information, as well as some concept art, but we do know a few things about the next PoP game:

~It looks like the franchise may be heading back to it’s Middle Eastern roots.
~He’s wearing some kind of kick-ass gauntlet on his left hand. Maybe this is some sort of mystical object that does massive damage to anyone who tries to mess with the Prince.
~There’s a new love interest. Isn’t there always?

That’s really all the info on the game. Ubisoft’s been pretty good at keeping quiet with this. If you remember, the only reason we even KNOW there is going to be a new PoP is because that info was leaked.

Ok, every once in a while you may see a story on here that you already know about. This is called a “reserve” story. It’s basically a story we hold onto to ensure we meet our 10am deadline. It’s usually news that is somewhat interesting, but not earth-shattering. Such is the case here.

Capcom has licensed out the Unreal 3 engine for an as-yet-unannounced game. In a statement regarding the licensing deal, Capcom has this to say:

The Unreal Engine is one of the most powerful and versatile tools available for next-generation game development,” said Mark Beaumont, executive vice president, officer and head of Capcom consumer software publishing in the Americas and Europe. “More than just a graphics engine, UE3 will empower the development team to create the quality experience that gamers expect from a Capcom product.”

“Capcom is known for the quality and artistry of their games,” said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic Games. “We’re glad that Unreal Engine 3 can be a part of their creative process.

Look, I’m going to be perfectly blunt: Resident Evil 5 is already in development. Dead Rising and Lost Planet already have sound engines. No one wants to see a Next-Gen Mega Man. Unless they plan to adapt the Unreal 3 engine for a Next-Gen Street Fighter game, I honestly don’t give a rat’s rump about Capcom licensing out a damn game engine.

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Guitar Hero 2 has been a pretty hyped game. Television commercials bombard all my hockey games (Yes, I watch hockey) advertising this damn game, and blogs just can’t stop talking about it. Case in point: Right now.

We’ve heard a few things about GH2, from there being a wireless Guitar, to there being ten extra songs for download off of the Marketplace. In fact, according to the Official Xbox Magazine, one of those songs could very well be the rock-guitar mix of the Halo music that was featured in Halo 2.

Seems like a good move to me. It’s not going to drive sales up (of course, Guitar Hero doesn’t need help with that), but it’s a nice little perk for the people who are going to buy the game, and it would probably be a popular purchase off of the Marketplace. Hell, if people are buying those POS EA Sports themes for their dashboard, you KNOW people are going to throw down a few bucks for a pretty kick ass addition to a game they won’t be putting down any time soon.

Last year, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance was hailed as one of the best games of the year. Comic book fans hailed the plot as being one of the best stories to ever be told inside of a comic book game, while gamers praised the game for providing a solid game that you could go back to time and time again.

Activision would like to thank you for all their support. In fact, they already have. In an open letter from Activision’s Global Brand Manager, who goes by the name “Daniel” does just that. But pay close attention to the last paragraph:

While the Ultimate Alliance VIP experience is coming to a close, we do have some nice “downloadable” surprises coming your way so stay tuned for that.

It seems a little late to be coming out with downloadable content for this game, but hey… if it’s good, I’ll be there.

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This is a BIG week for the Xbox 360, in terms of new releases. With the first of the month due, and people getting their paychecks, you can imagine that this is some awfully good timing. (All release dates from Gamespot.com)

Major League Baseball 2K7
2K Sports and Kush Games return to the diamond with their latest edition of their hit Major League Baseball series. This year’s game features improved player models and animations, new game modes and features, and (but of course) updated rosters.

The game was released yesterday, so there really is no excuse as to why you shouldn’t already have it — it’s the best (and only) Xbox 360 Baseball Sim on the market, so if you love baseball, what’s the hold up?

Release Date: February 26th, 2007.

Read after the break for other new releases.

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Earlier today I posted that Best Buy was selling games for the Xbox 360 and other consoles for as cheap as $1.99. Well, after calling three seperate Best Buy stores for some kind of confirmation on this, I was told one thing: It’s online, and they’re sold out.

This could be a simple case of ignorance on the part of the employees of Best Buy (I wouldn’t put it past them), but as of right now it seems that the big Best Buy game sale is an online-only venture.

If any of you out there know differently, tell me.

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Even if Halo 3 winds up being the final title in the series to follow Master Chief (not very likely, but I also expected an ending to Halo 2), his story will continue to be told thanks to Marvel Comics. Taken from Newsawama’s coverage of the New York Comic Con:

Quesada also announced a Halo ongoing, naming Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev as the surprise creative team on the new series.

For those of you who don’t know how cool this really is, let me elaborate: Brian Michael Bendis is one of the fathers of the Ultimate Marvel universe, and Ultimate Spider-Man in particular. In addition to his Ultimate Marvel work, he has also written Eisner Award winning stories for the Daredevil series.

Alex Maleev worked with Bendis on the Daredevil comics, as well as working on issues of the New Avengers, The Crow and will be working on Spider-Woman with the aforementioned Bendis.

So in short, what that means is… it’s gonna freaking rock.

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Best Buy is clearing out their stores today, and that means one word: CLEARANCE! They are getting rid of TONS of old video games, including games for the Xbox 360, but it’s for today only, so get your happy asses out there RIGHT NOW and pick these games up, because you will find no better offers out there.

$1.99
King King
Full Auto
Riiiiiiiiiidge Racer 6

$4.99
College Hoops 2K6
NHL 2K6

$9.99
Dynasty Warriors 5
FIFA World Cup 2006
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Collectors Edition
Final Fantasy XI
Quake IV
Moto GP 2006
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland

If you own other consoles (blasphemy!), not to fear — they have similar deals for you, too.

Read Entire List via IGN

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See that image? That is a leaked screen shot of the menu screen to an upcoming Xbox Live Arcade version of the 1989 classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade game! In an e-mail sent to 360style.net, a “Random Rumor Mole” gave the following statement:

TMNT Arcade is coming to XBLA arcade. It hasn’t been announced yet, and no release date is set, but it is currently in testing at Microsoft.

If this turns out to be true (which I assume it is, otherwise that is a GREAT forgery), then you can expect another hit for Microsoft, and considering the timing of this (with the TMNT movie and corresponding game due soon) it’s hard to argue that this is a fake.

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Video Games have turned into a multi-billion dollar industry, employing tens of thousands of dedicated and hard working people to keep the gears of the gaming juggernaut well oiled. They provide entertainment and inspiration to millions with their work, turning going to the mall into a compulsion for an entire sect of people who would otherwise still be hidden in their parents basements.

Naturally, every once in a while you’re going to have something pretty damn strange happen. That is why this exists. This is… t3h w31rd.

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In an interview with superblog 1UP, Aaron Greenberg was on the defensive over the lack of stellar Xbox Live Arcade titles over the past several weeks. In addition to the traditional lines supporting their handling of XBLA, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. There were a few things from the interview that were notable, and worthy of mention

1.) Greenberg promised that we will be seeing new XBLA titles at the coming GDC in March.
2.) He acknowledged that the past few weeks have, quote, “We hear the feedback, I can assure you that these last few weeks of Xbox Live Arcade releases was not the way we planned it…”
3.) Alien Hominid is coming next week, this why you’re still reading this.

Yup, in the interview with 1UP, Greenberg gave us this little gem:

We are excited to bring Alien Hominid out next week; we are excited to make up for lost time.

I don’t know how much more concrete you can ask a release date to be, short of having Greenberg state “Yes, Alien Hominid will be released on February 28th, at 12:01am PST.” So, those of you were suckers and bought the PS2 game… have fun. As for me, I shall continue to get my fix online — because I didn’t find it that good to begin with.

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Ok, I am an absolutely HUGE fan of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games. Absolutely freaking huge. I have, at one time or another, owned all four versions on the market (Two for the Xbox, Two for the PC), and even broke them out to play on my Xbox 360. For those of you who have tried to play them on the 360… it’s not pleasant. So, when I was perusing the Xbox forums, and saw the threat entitled “Knights of the Old Republic 3 info” you can only imagine how stoked I was.

On the Official Xbox Forums, a man claims that he has an old colleague working at Pandemic (not too unbelievable — we all have to work, right?), and that this colleague has learned that the order to develop the KotOR 3 website has been given! That would mean, obviously, that there must be a KotOR 3 game coming. After all, why else would you want a KotOR 3 website?

Read after the break for details…

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If you aren’t aware of Xbox360Achievements.org, you should be. If you have ever wondered what those “Secret Achievements” are that are inside some games, these are the guys you turn to in order to find out those nasty little secrets. Well, if you go there right now, you will find achievements for two games that aren’t exactly available to the masses: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.

Without listing every damn achievement, I’ll just summarize: TMNT has 23 achievements adding up to 1000 points, and GRAW 2 has 43 achievements adding up to 1000 points. When you look at the GRAW 2 achievements, you can already tell that you’re gonna be putting some serious time into the game, not to say you wouldn’t otherwise, though. As for TMNT… they’re weak. You could do every one of those playing one time through, if the stars aligned.

…yeah, it’s a slow news day for the 360, and I’m not going to take the Joystiq route and post stories of people’s consoles breaking and try to pass it off as “news.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Achievements
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Achievements

Ok, there has been a story going around the net the past few days that has slowly been picking up steam. That story: That a software update will quiet the Xbox 360. The question: How will software quiet the 360? I think I can explain.

After doing a little reasearch on a poorly translated Deutsch website, I think I know how they’re going to try it. The new software update will give developers to create games that can run at lower speeds than they do right now. Currently, the disc drive runs at full speed for all games (which, for Xbox classics like KOTOR, still doesn’t help), with out any option to slow it. While a slower speed would undoubtedly slow load times, it could also cut back on systems overheating.

…ok, I think that’s what it said. I have no idea, ok? I had to dig that crap out of THIS:

Microsoft delivers since short one a software update to the technical literature, which makes the Xbox360 substantially quieter. The possibility is given by the update to the play manufacturers to drive the drive assembly speed down of the box. So far the drive assembly always runs with plays with full speed - or not at all. Up-to-date the update functions only on special Debug boxes. We assume however Microsoft immobilizes also conventional Xbox360-Konsolen shortly by updates.

…this is what Google calls “translation,” by the way.

Remember when I wrote up on a bunch of new Platinum Hits for Japan? Well, now it’s our turn — and we’re in for quite the treat. Come March 16th, EIGHT more games will be added to the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits library:

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Burnout Revenge
Call of Duty 2
Dead or Alive 4
Fight Night Round 3
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Rockstar presents Table Tennis
Top Spin 2

Each game will retail for $30, and again, will be available on March 16th… thankfully, I got about that much from Gamestop when I traded them in about four months ago. Every-single-one. Beating the system FTW!

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