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Too Human was released for Xbox 360 today. The third-person action game puts you in the role of Baldur, the cybernetic son of Odin. It is his duty to protect humans from a rising ancient machine presence set on ending human life. The game can be played individually or cooperatively on Xbox LIVE with Gold Membership. Full Story »
Batman: Arkham Asylum, what is described as a “haunting, action detective game,” is coming to Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows in 2009. Batman: Arkham Asylum puts you in the role of Batman as he battles the Joker and other Gotham villains. I’m looking forward to this release, as the original script for the game was written by Batman writer Paul Dini. Full Story »
Starting today Best Buy is discounting the 20GB Xbox 360. The console is now on sale for $299, $50 less than it’s previous retail price of $349. The big box retailer is also offering a high-definition gaming bundle for $749 which saves you $200. Full Story »
Microsoft is calling on Xbox Live developers to create Xbox 360 games and upload them onto the site. Developers can make money off the games when purchased, up to 70% of the sales revenue. Most games will sell between $2.50 and $10 which is based on a point system per game. Full Story »
Todd Greenwald, an analyst at Signal Hill Capital Group in Baltimore was quoted as saying, “For the first time since the console launched, I really think there’s more reason to buy a PS3 than the 360.” He’s got good reason. Full Story »
Microsoft today announced plans to partner with Netflix to offer high-definition (HD) content via Xbox Live. The partnership will make available what they call the world’s largest online library of on-demand high-definition TV shows and movies, numbered at over 10,000. Full Story »
Target has already dropped the price of the Xbox 360 in an “in-store only” promotion. The company ran an advertisement setting the price at $299 for the Xbox 360 (without any games.) Other retails are following suit. Full Story »
NASCAR 09 was released yesterday for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The high definition game from Electronic Arts features Jeff Gordon as your guide, offering advice for the challenges that you will face in the new career mode or in the Sprint Driver Challenges. Full Story »
Sales of “Grand Theft Auto IV” (GTA IV) broke the 24 hour sales record in the U.K. Sales topped 609,000, breaking the previous record set by “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” at 501,000 copies. The game is now the fastest selling game ever in the United Kingdom. Full Story »
The Chinese language Economic Daily News has reported that an order has been placed from Microsoft to manufacture new Xbox 360s with an internal Blu-ray drive. Are the rumours true or is this just wishful thinking? If Microsoft does include the Blu-ray drive will it hurt their former statements that the Xbox 360 would focus on downloadable HD content via Xbox Live, and that the future of content is not with discs? Full Story »
A long way away, but worth the wait don’t you think? The sequel to Bioshock for Xbox 360 has been confirmed for release in about 1-1/2 years. Take-Two Interactive said it has begun development, but instead of being headquartered in outside Boston in Quincy, MA, the game will be developed by a Take-Two team in California. Full Story »
In a side-by-side comparison, Gameplayer.com.au out of Australia was able to play “The Bourne Conspiracy” on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The results? Running on Unreal Engine 3, they say that the Xbox graphics were “maybe” less jaggy than the PS3. But that’s about it. As far as frame rates and controls, no difference. You can read the article, which doesn’t really tell you more than what I have, but gives a few screenshots. Thanks for the comparison guys.
Greenwave Games out of Seattle announces “Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm” to be released in April 2008 for Xbox 360 and PCs. In the game you will captain your own boat, battle giant waves, storms and ice with a fatigued and hungry crew. The creators say the game “features the best wave effects in a video game to date.”
Microsoft announced Saturday it would stop making the HD DVD add-on player for its xBox 360 gaming console. The company said Toshiba’s discontinuation of its HD DVD players, and poor market saturation, lead to the decision. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida estimated the HD DVD add-on player only sold 300,000 units.
Today Microsoft announced it will drop the price of the xBox 360 HD DVD add-on player again. The price will drop to $129.99 (about £65). The best thing about this deal is you also get 5 free HD-DVD’s with the purchase. The xBox 360 HD DVD player was originally priced upon it’s release at $199. If HD DVD really wants to make a go of it, they should have dropped it down to $49 and be done with it. HD DVD needs all the help it can get to catch up to Blu-ray sales.
Microsoft announced the release of the Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator, enabling film studios and disc authoring companies to model the behavior of HD DVD disc content, including encoded video and HDi interactivity, in a virtual environment before committing to burning a single HD DVD disc.
This comprehensive tool is among the first commercially available, software-based solutions of its kind, eliminating the need for expensive hardware or time-consuming and costly trial-and-error processes for testing HD DVD titles, helping to ensure that titles ship error-free.
EA Sports is bringing high definition hockey to both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners for the first time this September with NHL 08. The new game takes the revolutionary Skill Sticks controls, which puts the finesse of on-ice moves into the two analog sticks, to the next level with all-new offensive and defensive maneuvers.
Dave Lipman, producer of NHL 08, said the goal is to keep the Skill Sticks innovation going and improve the core fundamentals of hockey. The team in Vancouver has focused on shooting, passing and improved artificial intelligence with the new game. In the shooting department, there’s now the NHL All-Star target drill that allows you to line up a shot and knock out the five targets around the goal. To improve shot accuracy, NHL 08 will offer sweet shot shooting similar to Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf. This translates to some strategy for scoring, as the straighter the shot, the more accurate it will be.
Thanks to next gen platforms, players can actually perform crossovers while skating in tight circles. Players can also now glide or skate faster without a speed burst button. This makes everything about the game more natural and realistic and really opens up the gameplay to new moves and dekes. The game has transformed from an arcade-style speed skating, one-timer endeavor to a more realistic finesse skating game.
Defenders can now use the Skill Sticks to take out pesky forwards. It opens up one-one-one matches between forwards and defensemen and adds a lot of strategy to the game. The forward can tap the shoulder button and try to pass the puck through the defender, but most of the time the defender will steal the puck from this move. Defensemen can now use Vision Control by holding down the left trigger and see the puck at all times.
Real physics are now being implemented for checks, which means when a big defensemen goes to hit a smaller forward that’s moving towards him, gravity will take full effect. The collisions on the ice are just like the ones you’d see in an NHL arena, including hip checks. The same type of physics have been applied to fighting this year, which makes the game a lot more physical. By hitting the Y button it’s easier to get into fights this year. The only thing you can’t do in a fight is pull up an opponent’s jersey, which is because the NHL won’t allow that in a game–even though it’s allowed in the sport.
The next gen game also gets a Dynasty mode that allows puck heads to take their team through the grind of multiple seasons. In this mode, practice drills like the power play will actually improve the real power play performance in games.
EA is also making full use of next gen audio. Last year’s game had roughly 30 percent of capacity in this department, which meant that I’d hear the same comments over and over again during a season. This year, the other 70 percent capacity on the audio side has been utilized for more accurate season-long commentary.
Of any sport, hockey has always translated great to videogames. EA Sports and 2K Sports continue to clash in this sport with competing games, which results in new features and gameplay that are taking the virtual sport to new levels of greatness.
Source: AllthingsHiDef.com
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