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Xbox Live Arcade 6/6: Pac-Man Is Back, Now With Neons
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Casual, Retro, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Today’s XBLA release was first revealed yesterday as Pac-Man Championship Edition. Before you roll your eyes thinking that this is another port, you’d be well advised to give it a look – despite being 800 points ($10), this is a pretty rock solid release. I spent some time with it earlier today and had a blast; expect a review in the next few days.
New modes and redesigned mazes are the big attraction here (although those neon visuals sure are pretty). The new modes are as follows:
The Championship Mode. This is the main game mode designed by NAMCO BANDAI Games and Iwatani specifically for the championship round of the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship. This mode – as well as all others within the “Pac-Man Championship Edition” – features redesigned mazes with wide maze walls and a widescreen configuration to better enable high-speed game play. Timed limit of five minutes.
Challenge Mode 1 (Patience and Reward Course). This mode is an evolution of the Championship Mode. Patience mazes strategically offer fewer Power Pellets and Reward mazes provide a large number of Power Pellets – providing unique challenges and rewards for the player. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
Challenge Mode 2 (The Darkness Course). In this mode, only the area directly around Pac-Man and the Ghosts is visible and the maze walls are completely hidden. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
Extra Mode 1 (The Freeway Course). An extremely high-speed mode for advanced players, this mode features warp-speed Pac-Man and Ghosts and plenty of tunnels. Timed limit of five minutes.
Extra Mode 2 (The Manhattan Course). A mode inspired by the streets of Manhattan — the home for the first-ever Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship. Timed limit of five minutes.
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New Content For Xbox Live Video Marketplace
Posted by Kyle Ulrich Categories: Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Over in Microsoft’s camp, chest thumping has commenced with their announcement of over 7,000 pieces of digital content for their burgeoning, yet still controversial – see Guitar Hero II, horse armor – Xbox Live Marketplace. The month of June will absolutely clobber their current video collection with brand new stuff.
Geneon/Funimation is preparing an all new addition to the Video Marketplace stable: Anime! Akira, Samurai 7, Basilisk, and Lupin the 3rd should be tempting you as early as next week. It’s said that more are to come soon, so let’s cross our fingers for HD Evangelion and Samurai Champloo, shall we?
MTV is offering a slate of Country Music Television programs to the table, including Comedy Stage, Foxworthy’s Big Night Out, and Prankville. Another slate comes from the networks gay/lesbian channel, Logo, offering up The Big Gay Sketch Show and Noah’s Arc. While it’s nice to see companies attempting to broaden the current demographic, one has to wonder how this kind of content will do on the notoriously immature Xbox Live service.
The obligatory new movies are also on their way: Pan’s Labyrinth, Dreamgirls, Shooter, Black Snake Moan, Team America: World Police, and Letters from Iwo Jima are all scheduled to arrive in June.
Chatlog: The Halo 3 Beta: Two Weeks Later
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, Features, First Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
The Halo 3 Beta has been available to the public for nearly two weeks, and with well over a hundred games between the two of them, editors Chris Pereira and Kyle Ulrich have a discussion about the experience thus far - what they like, what they don’t, what needs to be changed, and more.
Kyle: First off, the graphics. While the beta looks good, it’s absolutely clear that what is there is merely a foundation for what the finished product will become. A lot of people have been quick to criticize the game for looking too similar to Halo 2, without taking into consideration that the majority of the assets that we’re seeing in this beta - the levels, weapons, and character models - have been finished for months, as early as last October. Particle effects are nonexistent - grenades and muzzle fire lack flourish. From my perspective, we’re going to be looking at almost an entirely different game come September. I’d imagine that there are layers and layers of polish that have yet to be implemented. Believe.
Chris: You’re right. Bungie is the type of developer that waits until the last moment to slap on that extra layer of gloss that makes everything oh-so-pretty. And unlike many games, gimmicky bloom effects aren’t what make Halo look good. And after all, this beta isn’t a tech demo; don’t expect it to wow you with its graphics.
Kyle: The gameplay is an entirely different story, though. Even in this early, unfinished stage, the balance is remarkable. Nothing feels particularly unusable and the power weapons are exactly what they should be: hard to use, one-hit skill kills. Everything from the recoil of the sniper rifle to the shortening of the Shotgun’s ammo chamber make major strides at leveling the playing field. The even smattering of spray and prays and one-shots coalesce and riff off each other beautifully. For my money, an unfinished product has never played so marvelously. Also, the tweaking of the objective game types shakes things up well. Territories is simply awesome.
Click to continue reading Chatlog: The Halo 3 Beta: Two Weeks Later
Guitar Hero: Rock the 80’s Coming to PS2 and… Nothing Else Yet
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Activision, Music, Party Games, PlayStation 2, Xbox Live,
The official Guitar Hero: Rock the 80’s website has launched, and there’s a nasty surprise waiting for Xbox 360 owners. Currently, it looks like the game will only be released for the PS2. Still, given the money-printing nature of the GH franchise, I’m guessing the 80’s tunes will be made available to 360 owners one way or another. The big question, of course, is whether 80’s edition will ever be released in disc form for the 360, or whether the new characters, locales, and songs will just be released as downloadable content for the 360’s GHII, making it exclusive to Xbox 360 Premium and Elite systems.
We’ll keep you updated as we get more info about this title. For now, check out the tracklist and other info available at the official website. Guitar Hero Encore: 80’s edition will launch in summer ‘07.
Read More 
| Guitar Hero Website
Halo 3 Beta To See Maintenance And Playlist Update
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, First Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
This week will showcase the first substantial change to Halo 3’s matchmaking playlist. Team Training is going bye-bye in order to be replaced by Big Team Training – 6v6 games of the objective and slayer variety on High Ground and Valhalla. Luke Smith also stated on Bungie.net, “… we’ve made some slight tweaks to the Team Skirmish playlist that should add greater variety in the opponents you’ll face.” If only that meant no slayer games in the skirmish playlist. Slayer is not an objective game! Go play Team Slayer if that’s what tickles your fancy.
In unrelated news, later today (May 23), some sort of proverbial flip will be temporarily switched between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. PST. It supposedly should have no impact, but Frankie warns of what may potentially happen:
Should your game encounter a rare crash, your Xbox 360 will give you an alert screen, explaining that it’s uploading data to Bungie servers. We actually need this data, and we need your cooperation too. Although you probably won’t see that screen, if you do, let it finish uploading the data. It may take some time – upwards of 10-20 seconds and perhaps longer. So we beg your patience. When the process has completed correctly this is the message you’ll see, “File upload complete. Visit http://www.bungie.net/forums/halo3beta for more information (safe to reboot).”
Read More | Bungie.net
Aegis Wing Impressions: Wait, Something for Xbox 360 is Free??!?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
For all of you out there distracted by, oh I don’t know, the biggest game of the year, you may have missed the little tidbit that Microsoft released a free (yes, FREE!) game, Aegis Wing, over Xbox Live Arcade yesterday. Aegis Wing, developed internally by interns at MS, is a side-scrolling shmup and is undoubtedly a bit of a ploy to attract developers to the ease of use of the XBLA developer tools. Still, it’s a fun little game with a great feature list for its $0.00 price, including Leaderboards, 4-player Xbox Live games, and voice chat.
What did we think of this bare-bones shooter? Click the jump for our impressions…
Click to continue reading Aegis Wing Impressions: Wait, Something for Xbox 360 is Free??!?
Finish The Fight On September 25; Halo 3 Release Date Announced
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, First Person Shooters, Release Dates, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
With the Halo 3 beta just hours away from release comes this bombshell: Halo 3 will be headed to retailers on September 25 (26 if you’re unluckily living in Europe). The beta alone has caused a tremendous whirlwind of press coverage and buzz among the community, and the release of the game is only going to be bigger.
“‘Halo 3’ is much more than a video game release; it’s the biggest entertainment event of the year,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. “On Sept. 25, we intend to deliver a finale that will go down in entertainment history and leave people around the world with an experience that will be shared and enjoyed for years to come.”
Previous proclamations from Microsoft and Bungie placed Halo 3’s release this fall, which September 25 certainly qualifies for. Many people, myself included, predicted the game would launch in November, as to avoid the October release of Grand Theft Auto IV, and to be on store shelves by the holidays. Apparently, Microsoft is instead opting to ride on the initial wave of sales in September and October, and then benefit from the holiday shopping season.
Halo 3 will no doubt be working in tandem with Mass Effect in order to counter the onslaught of PlayStation 3 titles that will be seeing release later this year. Expect to see plenty more Halo-branded things in the coming months, too – another Halo novel, the Halo 3 Zune and that limited edition Master Chief Mountain Dew can you see on the right.
Xbox 360 Sees New HD-DVD Player Update
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Accessories, Hardware, Internet, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Owners of the Xbox 360’s HD-DVD add-on will be the recipients of a new auto-update next time they try watching a movie while connected to Xbox Live. The new additions (tweaks, really) are minor, but the more improvements, the better. Those without access to Xbox Live will be able to download the update from Xbox.com later this week.
The list of improvements:
- Added option for user to select from the following audio output formats via TOSLINK or HDMI: -Digital Stereo (2 channel PCM) -Dolby Digital 5.1 -DTS 5.1 -WMA Pro
- Added “Dynamic Range Control” toggle for digital audio output
- Improved HD DVD networking support
- Improved HD DVD title compatibility
- Improved performance with MPEG-4 AVC / H.264
- 1080p via HDMI is supported on the Xbox 360 Elite with HDCP compliant displays
- Improved parental controls
Read More | Major Nelson
Shane Kim Responds To Shadowrun Pricing Structure Questions
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: First Person Shooters, PC, Release Dates, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
The upcoming Shadowrun has two price points on two different systems. That’s not all that unusual in itself – we’re used to seeing PlayStation 2 versions of games cost less than those on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. But when a game is seeing a simultaneous release on Xbox 360 and PC, and being put in a position to be the flagship cross-platform title, why are Xbox 360 owners paying $60 when the game is only $50 on PC?
Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal hunted down Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president Shane Kim to get an answer.
The $59.99 for Xbox 360 and $49.99 for Windows Vista price points are our standard pricing for each platform. This pricing structure is not uncommon in the multiplayer-only first-person shooter genre, as numerous titles have seen success at this price point and gaming model. I think it’s premature to speak to pricing for all future projects, but as of now this is our pricing structure for our marquee titles like Shadowrun. Additionally, MGS has the same development costs as other developers and publishers out there. One advantage other publishers have that we do not is that they can leverage their marketing and development costs over all platforms, while we are focused on Windows and Xbox 360 as a first party publisher.
That still doesn’t quite answer the question; is it impossible to deviate from the standard pricing scheme? This is the first real Xbox 360/PC cross-platform release, so the standard pricing being referred to is nonsensical. And that’s not to mention, of course, the fact that much of the public is in upheaval over the price already – given that there is no single player and a limited number of maps, paying a “standard” price isn’t what gamers want. The studio manager of Shadowrun developer FASA Studios, Mitch Gitelman has frequently retorted that the game offers an innovative experience that adds “verbs” to the FPS experience. We’ll just have to wait and see how gamers vote with their wallets when the game is released on May 29.
Read More | Level Up
GamerAndy Live! Episode 80.5: Halo 3!
Posted by Edie Sellers Categories: Bungie, Features, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, GamerAndy,
Edie, Andy and Sherveen from MyGamerCard.net (who went to the NYC Halo event) discuss at length their impressions of Halo 3 after about seven hours of play.
In addition, they give away the last of the Halo 3 Beta keys they scored at last night’s event. Well, more like they gave you an opportunity to enter into the pool of those who might win. Make sense? Well, listen in and you’ll understand.
By the way, IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE HALO 3 BETA GIVAWAY: SEND YOUR CONTEST ENTRIES FOR THE HALO 3 BETA KEY TO ANDYTHEGAMER@GMAIL.COM - NOT THE EMAIL MENTIONED IN THE SHOW!
What did we talk about specifically? Well, here ya go:
- No anti-aliasing but nice looking
- Not a game to for a newbie to the series
- Button changes for the new Halo versus old Halos (context-sensitive button, communications button)
- New weapons (spartan laser, buffed needler, buffed plasma pistols)
- Changes/new vehicles (mongoose, warthog, ghost)
- New game modes (VIP)
- New Maps (Snowbound, Valhalla, High Ground, etc.)
- An in-depth discussion of the relative value and proper use of grenades
- More weapon discussions (melee, shotguns, return of a nerfed assault rifle, spikers)
- Man Cannons?? MMM…..
- New class of weapons: Really Big ####### You Can’t Run With
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