Xbox 360News for - August 28, 2008
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  Be a part of Battlefield: Bad Company on June 23rd (via Xbox 360 Fanboy) - Now that we can (almost) put all that negative purchasing in-game weapons talk aside, we can proudly scream from the rooftops that EA has officially announced that Battlefield: Bad Company will release to retailer shelves on June 23rd. Yes, it's acceptable to say that Bad Company has had its fair share of controversy and negative sentiment, but we know some enjoyed the beta and can look past the game's . | |
 Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack Now Available (via Gamescore Blog) - Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie released the Legendary Map Pack today, for 800 Microsoft Points. The map pack includes three new multiplayer maps, as well as a bunch of new Forge options. From the media alert: Avalanche is a throwback all the way to “Halo: Combat Evolved. | |
 Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility Updated (via Loftygaming) -- From Major Nelson, here is the list of 38 new titles added and updated. | |
 First Ever Grand Theft Auto IV Review From OXM And It Gets A 10 (via OXM) -- The Official XBOX Magazine have been the first people to review Grand Theft Auto IV. Overall its a good review and they've also leaked a few pictures of the in-game HUD in action. | |
 Universe at War demo goes LIVE finally! (via Gameconnect) -- Universe at war as been out for a couple of weeks now, but the Demo has only just gone onto LIVE. So if you're on the fence with this one, now you can check it out for free! | |
 GTA 4 set to beat Ironman into the ground (via IGN) - Rip off another page to the countdown calendar to GTA 4. With this monster of a game coming April 29th. Hollywood is incresing concerned that the Ironman will be as soft as the Marshmellow man, and be crushed by the success of GTA 4. Ironman is set for release on April 30th. | |
 Games-Aggression link questioned (via Guardian) - This is unsurprisingly all over the game networks: a Middlesex University research study has found that long-term play in MMO World of Warcraft is not linked to increased aggressive tendencies. On the contrary, it's linked with a heightened sense of relaxation. The results were presented at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in Dublin last week in a paper titled, 'Sex and violence and playing games: reduced levels of anger after violent online play'. | |
 Why You Should Care About Saints Row 2 (via Nidzumi) -- With all this talk surrounding Grand Theft Auto 4, who is really thinking about Saints Row 2? The original was great surely but nothing can beat the behemoth that is GTA4, right? right? | |
 Forza 2 shifts a retail gear to $29 (via Xbox 360 Fanboy) -- Have yet to pickup Forza Motorsport 2 simply because your video game allowance has been in the red for the past year? If so, we have good news, because Microsoft just announced that the retail price for Forza 2 has dropped to a rather nice $29.99 in the U.S. | |
 NPD March Preview (NPD release to come April 17, 2008 at ~6:30 pm) (via VGChartz) - Jacob Mazel of VGChartz writes: "NPD will report USA videogame sales for the five weeks ending April 5, 2008 on Thursday April 17, 2008 at ~6:30 pm EST. Vgchartz data for the five week period is already available. Last month, the sales reported by NPD were from a four week month, so while total sales for the month are up on a monthly basis, on an average weekly basis only Wii and PSP saw increased sales compared to February. | |
 Playing Dead: Physics In Video Games (via HalfLifeHavocMod) - Video game physics have always been an important factor in how enjoyable a game experience is. All of the most memorable video games have found ways of overcoming the constraints of the technology of their time to create experiences that keep players coming back to try to master the nuances of the particular game. | |
 GTA4 Intro Leaked Real Or Fake You Decide (via YouTube) -- This intro has been put up on YouTube, is it real or fake though ? I guess the juries out until we get the real game ! | |
 Mafia II New Screenshots, Platforms Announced (via Team Xbox) -- 2K Games announced today that Mafia II is currently in development for simultaneous release on Xbox 360, PS3 and Games For Windows. To coincide with this announcement, they released new screenshots. | |
 Alone in the Dark to sell '2 to 3 million units'? (via GamesIndustry.biz) -- Infogrames CEO thinks Alone in the Dark will sell between 2 and 3 million units. That would put it up there with Rainbow Six Vegas 2. | |
 People Already Camping Out for GTA IV? (via GameRush Entertainment) -- The retailer Webhallen in Sweden has posted some photos of some "hardcore" or stupid gamers already camping out for the game that will not be released until April 29. This could be a publicity stunt as similar stories surfaced about fake campers for the Halo 3 launch. | |
 100 Top Selling Games of the Last Year Across all Systems (via Next Generation) -- Next Generation has posted a list of the top games of 2007. It is no surprise that COD4 tops the list, but there are others on the list that are surprising. This list does show the power of having your game released on multiple platforms. | |
 Rock Band price won't be cut (via Computer And Video Games) -- Harmonix dev sounds off over European price outcry. Harmonix has again responded to the outcry over the European price of Rock Band, this time through a post on its forum.Click here to read the full article | |
 Interview with Microsoft's Chris Satchell (via Eurogamer) -- Eurogamer has posted an interview with Chris Satchell from Microsoft. The interview focuses on the XNA platform and how it will work on the 360. He covers some interesting issues involving security concerns with user generated content. | |
 Resident Evil 5: "Clearly no one black worked on this game." (via MTV) -- Newsweek's N'Gai Croal shares his opinions about the racial imagery in the Resident Evil 5 trailer... | |
 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Live Fire Weekend 2008 (via IGN) -- Yet another reason to play COD 4 as if you need any reasons. | |
BattleField weapons WILL BE FREE (via IGN) - So just so every single one of our readers is clear on what they'll need to do to get every single weapon in Battlefield: Bad Company, here's a quick summary. The Gold Edition, priced at $69.99, will have five weapons not seen in the launch disc in the Standard Edition. Those who purchased the Standard Edition can unlock these guns by reaching the level cap of 25. | |
 Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball Delays Release (via IGN) -- Looks like we won't be getting our dodgeball fix on the XBLA anytime soon. Shame cause this is one of the XBLA games that I quite like the look of. | |
 Portal's GlaDOS as a bondaged slave? (via game-ism) -- An interesting artistic take on GlaDOS's final form (minor spoilers after the jump). | |
 New Zealand man uses hedgehog as a weapon, faces five years in jail (via BBC) -- There is no word yet on if the hedgehog was dyed blue, or if it was named Sonic.... | |
Earthworm Jim, MDK, etc. Returning (via Eurogamer) - Interplay has confirmed that they are looking to revive previous franchises. Earthworm Jim, MDK, Dark Alliance, Descent and a Fallout MMOG were all mentioned. "Going forward, we have the vision, unique intellectual property, and low debt and operational costs to help us pursue financing for our various projects," said Interplay boss Herve Caen. | |
 Harmonix defends European Price (via Eurogamer) - Rob Kay, of Harmonix has gone on record defending the announced European price. "The combined price, if you add all that up (all three instruments and the game) and decide you want that full experience, is quite high. It's not something that is normal in videogames. "But Rock Band isn't normal in videogames, this is an entirely new thing. | |
 Nintendo copied Microsoft first - MS invented motion controls back in 1998 (via Xboxer) - Here's a little look at an old Microsoft invention - the Sidewinder Freestyle Pro MOTION CONTROLLER. Yes, that's right! It would appear that SHADY and UNDERHAND Nintendo copied the idea of motion controls from Microsoft, thanks to the INNOVATIVE version of the SideWinder that came out for PC in 1998. | |
Battlefield Bad Company : The Boycott (via Sarcastic Gamer) -- Sarcastic Gamer are running a boycott of BFBC in response to their announcement of premium DLC on release of the game. | |
 Hands-on with some of Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer modes (via Kotaku) -- Will this be the game that overtakes Call of Duty 4 on Xbox Live? | |
 CryENGINE 2 on the 360 nearly equal to PC version (via Xbox 360 Fanboy) - Crytek' gorgeous and uber resource intensive CryENGINE 2 (which is the engine that powers the visually stunning Crysis on the PC) is slowly making its way to consoles. But how well will the engine run on console hardware that equates to half of what Crysis demands? According to Crytek, surprisingly well. | |
