Resident Evil 5 Hands-On Preview (Xbox 360)

Capcom recently held a press event in San Francisco to offer up a fresh look at the latest installment in its hard-core survival-horror franchise, Resident Evil. From what we were shown, the title provides a lot of the thrills and chills that you’d expect, but there was also plenty of gameplay variety over what we’ve seen in previous RE releases.

As is normal for such high-profile games, Capcom limited what we were able to see of Resident Evil 5, though, to its credit, the publishing giant had plenty of displays and systems set up, so everyone could get some time playing it, as well as to see how others handled the situations into which we were all dumped.

The first thing I did was scope out a couple of people while they played co-op, not only to get familiar with the controls, but to better assess how it all flowed. This one section they were playing was tied to a timer, with the objective being to get from one side of a boat dock to the other in a couple of minutes’ time. Of course, there were myriad ghoulies fixated on trying to keep them from meeting their goals, with all forms of blades and bullet slingers—there’s no way it was just a scenario set up to see if the good guys could get across the map in the allotted time. But it was clear that the mission had multiple threats: If you don’t end up succumbing to the direct attacks of the horde, dawdling and allowing the timer to tick closer to zero…well, then you risk having the boat go boom all over you.

Download 200 gamerpoints for free

It's a promotional game in the spirit of Yaris (oh oh) but fortunately, NinjaBee is the crew behind this one, so it's not too bad to play.

Never mind all that though. What's important is it'll take you about 10 minutes to get all the achievements, so you're effectively downloading 200 gamerpoints, free of charge. The achievements are spread across the truck and T-Rex campaign with only a split-screen multiplayer achievement worth 10 points needing another pad and profile to be created (just make a free one).

Not bad, eh? Almost makes you want to buy a bag of Doritos as some sort of thank you for this surprise early Christmas gift.

Report: MS knew about disc-scratching problems with the 360

Even though a vast number of gamers own and love their Xbox 360 systems, they are often imperfect machines prone to a multitude of problems like the oft-encountered Red Ring of Death. A problem that has received less media attention is the issue of game discs being scratched by the console when moved or reoriented while in use. According to a motion that seeks to establish class action status for owners of 360s with defective disc drives, Microsoft knew about this problem before the console was launched in 2005.

The motion contains testimony from program manager Hiroo Umeno, which claims that the manufacturer was well aware of the damage that could be caused to discs when players repositioned their consoles. "This is ... information that we as a team, optical disc drive team, knew about. When we first discovered the problem in September or October, when we got a first report of disc movement, we knew this is what’s causing the problem."

There are also allegations that the company considered and rejected three possible solutions to this issue before the console was released: the first solution would have increased the magnetic force of the disc holder was rejected because, "it would allegedly interfere with the mechanism that opened and closed the disc tray,"; the second would have required slowing disc rotation speed to 8x, but was ruled against because it would have apparently increased loading times; the final solution would have involved installing soft patches called "bumpers" (routinely used in other consumer optical disc drives), but was deemed too costly to implement at $0.50 per console.

According to the documentation within the motion, Microsoft had registered roughly 55,000 complaints from consumers about this issue as of April 30, 2008. Subsequently, the company has instituted a replacement plan, but it only replaces Microsoft games and requires a $20 fee to do so.

Student Uses Wireless Controller to Track Down Stolen Xbox 360

We love it when the good guys win.

A clever student at Missouri State University used the Xbox 360 controller's wireless capabilities to track down his stolen console, reports school newspaper the Standard.

It seems that someone swiped Ryan Ketsenburg's 360 from his dorm room after the sophomore forgot to lock his door. He managed to recover his system, however, with a tidy piece of detective work:

Ketsenburg... turned on his wireless Xbox controller and found that it was still connecting to his Xbox. Based on this discovery, Ketsenburg said he realized that his Xbox must be nearby...

The controller connected to the Xbox on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of Hutchens but not on the third floor and seventh floor, so through process of elimination, Ketsenburg said he figured out that the stolen Xbox must be on the fifth floor.

Following the controller's signal, Ketsenburg said he was able to pinpoint the room where his Xbox was stolen... The 5th floor resident assistant checked the alleged room where the stolen Xbox was and was able to find the Xbox, Ketsenburg said.

The controller was able to prove that the Xbox belonged to Ketsenburg, because the controller was able to turn on the console unit, he said.

Pearl Jam debut album Ten coming to Rock Band

MTV Games has announced yet another band's seminal album as Rock Band DLC. Pearl Jam's debut record, Ten, will be re-issued on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009. The press release states the 1991 album will also be downloadable on Rock Band that day, but we are assuming this only applies to the Xbox 360 version of the game. Most likely, the album will be made available to PS3 owners on March 26th, a Thursday, the day PS Store is usually updated.

* "Once"
* "Even Flow"
* "Why Go"
* "Black"
* "Jeremy"
* "Oceans"
* "Porch"
* "Garden"
* "Deep"
* "Release"

Alive is missing because it is already on the Rock Band 2 disc. Pricing information hasn't been announced, but our crystal ball past experience tells us it will be $1.99 per track.

Fallout 3 Operation: Anchorage Screenshots

Bethesda released today screenshots from the first downloadable content for Fallout 3, Operation: Anchorage, which will be available exclusively for the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows in January. Two more downloadable content packs are coming in February and March. Below is the description provided by Bethesda:

* Operation: Anchorage Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.
* The Pitt Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.
* Broken Steel Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.

Infinity Ward to stop making DLCs for Call of Duty 4

Unfortunately, there won't be any more DLCs coming your way for Call of Duty 4 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). But why would Infinity Ward pull such a mean stunt? Well, it's more of unfortunate than mean, actually. But there's actually a very good reason for this move.

That's because they're all gonna be busy prepping for their next title. That's right, no less than Infinity Ward's communications head, Rob Bowling, divulged this detail over at the Xbox Forums. According to him, "Every level designer/ texture artist/ environmental artist/ etc. working on a new map for a previous game is one less working on a map for a future game."

Makes sense, don't it? Anyway, it's not hard to figure out what "future game" he was referring to that would require everyone's participation in the developmental process. They've already confirmed another Call of Duty next year, remember?

First Assassins Creed 2 Details Accidentally Revealed

Prince of Persia animation director David Wilkinson seems to have slipped the first information on Assassin's Creed 2... which hasn't even been officially announced yet. Speaking in a very frank interview with AusGamers, Wilkinson was quizzed on the current status of Assassin's animation guru Alex Drouin.
"He's busy making Altair even more beautiful," Wilkinson revealed. "Last thing I saw him do was getting Altair to swim."

Uh-oh, someone's going to get sacked...
So it looks like Altair will be assassinating bad men from the watery deep - and if we know Ubisoft, probably reaching up and dragging guards into the drink with him as well. Ubisoft hasn't said much of a second game, apart from making it clear that Assassin's Creed is "a franchise". So there will be more games.

The conclusion to the original also heavily hints at plot points for a follow-up.

Afro Samurai Hands-on Preview (Xbox 360)

Just a few minutes into Namco Bandai’s Afro Samurai—a title based on the adult-aimed, Samuel L. Jackson voiced anime series—and I was hooked hard by its super-stylized production values and ambitious presentation. The visuals, voice work, and score come together beautifully, delivering an authentic experience fans of the series will absolutely adore, and even Afro newcomers will have a hard time resisting. Put simply, it provides a detail-drenched showcase of artistic ass kicking. All this, and the combo-heavy, gory combat is pretty slick, too. But more on that in a sec; first, lets dig a bit deeper into the title’s amazing over-the-top style.

Wheelman Hands-on Preview (Xbox 360)

Vin Diesel is turning into the Tom Hanks of videogame actors. The dude is in everything. But more importantly he’s really good. The voice is great, and his look translates so well into a 3D model that I actually look forward to him being in a game. Amazing that an actor has the power to elevate any videogame he’s in. The guy is a gamer too, and knows his stuff, so I also have faith in him to make good choices. That’s why I have faith that Wheelman will actually be a decent game.

After getting a decent amount of playing time with it, I can also confirm that it’s going to be an exciting one too. Matching the thrill-a-minute pace of an action movie filled with car chases, shootouts and lots of big explosions has been objective number one for the developers at Midway Newcastle. While the Stranglehold engine doesn’t necessarily provide the power to pull off really realistic landscapes or awesomely beautiful fireballs, it does result in a game that’s colorful and moves fairly well.

Rockstar Announces Upgrade and DLC for Midnight Club: LA

Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce the massive downloadable upgrade and content pack for Midnight Club: Los Angeles, the latest installment of its critically acclaimed and genre-defining Midnight Club franchise. The content will be available early next year for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

The "South Central Upgrade Map" provides players with a whole new area of the city, about one-third the size of the original map, and will be available for free. This area features L.A. landmarks such as Exposition Park, the USC campus, Shrine Auditorium, Crenshaw Plaza, and the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and stretches south to the 105 Freeway. In addition to the free new city area, players will be able to purchase the "South Central Content Pack" which includes new character competitions, races, cars and music available in a single complete package. The new vehicles include a variety of cars and a motorcycle. Also making an appearance for the first time in Midnight Club: Los Angeles will be SUVs, a longtime favorite of the series' fans. "This downloadable content hones in on a very iconic area of Los Angeles," said Jay Panek, Midnight Club Producer at Rockstar San Diego. "'This South Central download features staples of the area, from the landmarks to the types of cars, and we think it really helps enhance the overall L.A. feel we set out to recreate."

Game Informer described Midnight Club: Los Angeles as "just what the doctor ordered: a fun, fast racing experience with enough content to keep you playing for months." The addition of South Central will enhance the overall experience and extend the game even further.

Developed by Rockstar San Diego, Midnight Club: Los Angeles provides a seamless, breathtaking environment for everyone who loves to compete. With no load times, no tracks, and no rules, the game allows players to race at breakneck speeds through an unbelievable recreation of Los Angeles in fully customizable, licensed cars.

The racing experience in Midnight Club: Los Angeles is extended online at the Rockstar Games Social Club (www.rockstargames.com/socialclub), where players are able to enter tournaments, share in-game photos, rate other people's rides, track stats with other gamers, and listen to and purchase music from the soundtrack.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is currently available for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 and is rated T for Teen. The “South Central Upgrade Map” and “South Central Content Pack” both require players to have the full version of Midnight Club: Los Angeles for Xbox 360 or PLAYSTATION 3 and an Xbox LIVE or a PlayStation Network membership to download.http://www.planetxbox360.com/screenshotlist_346/ for pics

The Godfather II Producer Interview - Exclusive Video

Wanted

You'd be forgiven if you mistook GRIN's adaptation of comic book/Hollywood hit "Wanted" for Dark Sector. It's a good-looking game that's filled with a fair share of hard-hitting, flinch-worthy violence. It's got specialized one-hit, one-kill projectiles that have a stylized "killcam" to accompany the attacks. It's got attitude in spades. And that's coming from someone who hasn't seen the film. In conjunction with the movie's home video release, we got a chance to try out three brief levels from Wanted: Weapons of Fate at an event yesterday. We doubt it'll be a perfect game, but the snippets we played seem to form a fairly mindless, if not spectacular, shooter. Not too different, we imagine, from its Hollywood source material.

The three levels showcased different environments and effects. Each was rather short and seemed designed to show different elements of the game. Wanted's difficulty levels seem designed to cajole the player into playing tougher levels, as the easiest bar of entry is called "Pussy," and medium is "Assassin." I'd like to admit that I picked "Assassin" mainly because I default to medium difficulty when I play, but I'm sure no one would believe me. In any case, "Assassin" didn't seem to mean that I was the assassin. "Assassinated" would have been a more apt description, as Wanted is hard. Almost too hard, in fact.

Skate 2 Exclusive Skitching Trailer HD

Its alright,graphics kinda crappy tho.Cant wait to play it

Epic sequel already "raising eyebrows" from the press

Just a week after its first press showing, Gears of War 2 is already receiving flack from the mainstream press for its "level of gore and detail".

"[Gears of War 2] certainly attracted attention for its realistic visuals and battle scenes, but caused some pause when game designers showed off a new attack players can use in the game," the article reads.

"In the demo, the player can use the chainsaw to cut a person in half, starting at the groin and moving upwards. Also, players can pick up the corpses of fallen enemies and use them as a 'meat shield' to protect themself from enemy fire as they engage in battle from behind the corpse."

That's a "corpse" that you can clearly see Marcus snapping the neck of, even in the Xbox Live video, yes? (Though we suppose Azfamily isn't going to be much happier knowing the poor 'meat shield' is alive...)

The site hardly lays into Gears 2, but to be honest the sequel didn't look that much more shocking than the first when we saw it. But a chainsaw to the crouch - ouch.

Catch a nasty ghost in this Ghostbusters gameplay

Thanks to this fairly recent Ghostbusters gameplay footage, we certainly aren't afraid of ghosts anymore. The game looks pretty nice and we hope it jump-starts the classic franchise back to life -- a lot of lesser movies and TV series' have been getting brought back, after all. What's interesting, but not in the video, is the use of Sixaxis for the PS3: apparently, you use it to control the trajectory of your ghost-bustin' stream. Of course, crossing them is a bad idea unless you're facing the final boss, we'd imagine.

GTAIV sells like crazy, console sales neck and neck

It's that time again when corporate execs are held accountable for their actions, sales figures are calculated and the North American "digits" are revealed. It's time for April NPD! W00t!

Last month's video game competition was a heated race between Microsoft and Sony as the Xbox 360 was able to move 188,000 units narrowly beating out the PS3's 187,100. That news on top of Microsoft announcing the 360's 10 million U.S. milestone make it a pretty good month for team Microsoft. Though, Nintendo's Wii continues to dominate even without Grand Theft Auto IV's help moving an amazing 714,200 consoles. Speaking of GTAIV, it rocked the final week of April selling a jaw-dropping 1.85 million units on the 360 alone which is nearly double that of the 1 million units it sold on the PS3. And that's always good to hear. Check the break for a complete rundown of the April NPD hardware and software data.

[Via Joystiq]

April Hardware Sales
1. Wii - 714,200
2. DS - 414,800
3. PSP - 192,700
4. Xbox 360 - 188,000
5. PS3 - 187,100
6. PS2 - 124,400

April Software Sales
1. GTA IV – Xbox 360 – 1.85 million
2. Mario Kart Wii – Wii – 1.12 million
3. GTA IV – PS3 – 1.00 million
4. Wii Play w/ remote – Wii – 360,000
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Wii – 326,000
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – PS3 – 224,000
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness – DS – 202,000
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time – DS – 202,000
9. Guitar Hero III – Wii – 152,000
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Xbox 360 – 141K

Console War Update!

Winning in first place Xbox 360
Xbox 360:11,785,282
Wii:11,268,352
Ps3:4,964,793
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=America&cons2=PS3®2=America&cons3=X360®3=America&start=39040&end=39579&weekly=1

Lost Planet: Colonies Edition Screenshots

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition provides explosive action for both online and offline players. Gamers who missed the original Lost Planet will have the opportunity to experience the epic gameplay that made the original a global hit with the added bonus of fresh new content and cross platform multi-play all at a great value price. Fans of the Lost Planet’s online action will be thrilled at the inclusion of new online modes, maps, weapons and models.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition will be available for the Xbox 360, as well as Windows-based PCs that support Games for Windows – LIVE. The suggested retail price is $29.99. Capcom plans to ship the game on May 27, 2008.

New Burnout Paradise Location Revealed

Criterion Games unveiled today a new location from the upcoming Davis update for Burnout Paradise.

Here's a great video from the world team. These guys worked on the incredible game world that you'll recognise now as Paradise City.

Since we're releasing images of our new island location, we thought it would be great to give a little insight into how the Paradise City mainland came together.

Here, one of our leads, JohnL, concentrates on a single, small area - the Fish Market in the South Docks (just off Manners Ave). You'll get to see how each of it's distinct components evolved through development.
Criterion Games unveiled today a new location from the upcoming Davis update for Burnout Paradise.

Here's a great video from the world team. These guys worked on the incredible game world that you'll recognise now as Paradise City.

Since we're releasing images of our new island location, we thought it would be great to give a little insight into how the Paradise City mainland came together.

Gold Fever Hits an All Time High with the Upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company Demo (X360)

The single player and multiplayer demo hits Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store on June 5.
Official Press Release | May 9, 2008

You've been drafted to 'B' Company! DICE, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that a demo for its highly anticipated summer release, Battlefield: Bad Company will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace* and PlayStation Store* on June 5. Players will land on the battlefield as part of the 'B' or Bad Company, a wayward band of soldiers more interested in the pursuit of gold and personal financial gain than following the rules. Gamers will get a sneak peek at how tactical destruction changes the way shooters are played, both offline and online in the single player and multiplayer demo.

Players can also gain early access to the demo by pre-ordering the game through participating retailers in North America and Europe. More details on this special pre-order campaign can be found at http://www.battlefield.com/badcompany.

Players who missed their opportunity to participate in the closed beta get a second chance to experience the intense multiplayer Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map while the single player portion starts gamers at the beginning of their 'B' company career. The single player portion of the demo sets the stage for players as they're introduced to the humorous and sometimes irreverent set of characters that make up the 'B' company. As gamers embark on their quest for gold, they'll experience the same classic Battlefield gameplay including access to numerous vehicles, weapons and open maps as well as the new tactical destruction that only Battlefield: Bad Company can deliver.

In stores on June 25 in North America and June 27 in Europe, Battlefield: Bad Company is developed by Sweden-based developer DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment, www.dice.se). The game will be available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and is rated "T" by the ESRB and "16+" by PEGI. For more information about the game, please visit http://www.battlefield.com.

* INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED

Xbox 540 coming in 2009

A dramatic and perhaps visible change will happen next year: TSMC plans to begin producing the Valhalla chip, which will be the foundation of the mid-cycle refresh of the Xbox 360, thus called ‘Xbox 2.5’ or simply ‘Xbox 540’ (360+180), in fall of 2009. This new chip is apparently much more than a die-shrink and end up as a system-on-a-chip design. This change is likely to enable to redesign the Xbox 360 casing and go towards a slim-design, much like what Sony did with the Gen1 and Gen2 PS2. We believe that TSMC will use a 45 nm process for this Multi-Chip-Module package (CPU+GPU+eDRAM).

There are also some interesting pieces of information that Microsoft is shopping for a more efficient cooling solution – efficient in more ways than just one: Several people close to the cooling industry told us that Microsoft approached them and asked for better and cheaper cooling than what is used in the Xbox 360 right now. Some may claim that the current Xbox 360 cooler design is already as cheap as it gets, but we have no doubts that Microsoft will find a way to drop the cost once again.