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Microsoft Acquires Lionhead Studios
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, PC, Xbox 360,
The rumors became official today, as Microsoft Game Studios acquired Peter Molyneux’s Lionhead Studios. This move bolsters Microsoft’s game development machine further, with Lionhead joining Rare and Bungie as another high profile game studio now focused on Xbox 360 development. Fable 2 should now be considered a dead lock to appear on the Xbox 360 (as if it wasn’t almost a certainty before), and this shouldn’t impact current title development negatively. Hopefully the additional resources Microsoft can afford will make it less likely that Peter Molyneux will continue to overpromise and underdeliver on his game releases. You can check out the full release, after the jump.
Click to continue reading Microsoft Acquires Lionhead Studios
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MLB 2K6 Features Dynamic Advertising
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Sports, Xbox 360,
Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the MLB Player’s Association, Take-Two Interactive, and Massive Incorporated have reached a deal to include dynamic advertisements in 2K Sports latest release, Major League Baseball 2K6. Potentially, this agreement could lead to advertisements appearing in other sports games under the 2K Sports brand.
It is not known at this time how the advertisements will appear in-game; potentially these could appear in-game as advertisements around the ballpark, as well as during between inning interstitials. How obtrusive these ads are will greatly impact player’s acceptance of the advertising. It is also doubtful that monetizing advertising in this way will result in a savings for the gamer buying the titles, as well. Also, if the advertisements replace stadium-based banners and decoration, would the companies paying money to display their corporate logos in the physical locations have some say in how these are displayed virtually?
Read More 
| Massive Incorporated Press Release
Breakdown Of Oblivion PC vs Xbox 360
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360,
GameSpot has an excellent article breaking down the differences between the Xbox 360 and the PC versions of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Those people with low to high-end PC configurations and an Xbox 360 can now decide which is the best platform to experience Oblivion. The Xbox 360 version will definitely offer more “tuned” performance for smooth gameplay out of the box, but users will obviously lose access to the significant online mod communities that were built up around previous Elder Scrolls releases. PC users will more than likely have to do some tuning and tweaking to get the best performance out of Oblivion and the graphical experience will likely be for the worse on anything but high-end PCs.
GameSpot also compares load times; potentially the PC could have better load times, but the Xbox 360 isn’t extremely slow to load. It would have been interesting to see a comparison of the load times on the Xbox 360 with and without the external hard drive, however.
Gamespot does an excellent job of laying out the differences, and for people who already have the hardware and aren’t considering upgrading to bigger and badder tech, the guide certainly sets expectations for the user experience in various configurations. However, when the question of upgrading comes around, things are a little more murky, and the choices will come down to budget and personal preference.
Read More | GameSpot
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Win A Trip To E3
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, E3, Internet, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Gamers itching to attend one of the largest gaming expos, E3, can win a trip via Xbox.com. Simply send a mail to the e-mail address at the linked site with your gamertag and real name. The prizes include: 2 round trip tickets to LA, 2 day passes to E3, a 2 night stay in a hotel, and $300. Winners also get a tour of the Microsoft booth from Major Nelson and Trixie.
Read More | Xbox.com Contest Entry via Major Nelson
So you want to make backup copies of your saved Xbox 360 games or simply feel like prodding the contents of the hard drive? Instead of disassembling the drive unit, you can now purchase the 360SATA, an adapter that simply plugs into the bottom of the drive, and via an internal SATA cable to one of your computer’s SATA ports. It doesn’t get much easier than that. It’s inexpensive and apparently very popular as they are currently sold out, but back orders are being accepted so get in line.
Priced at $15 USD.
Read More | 360SATA via NordicHardware
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II Screens
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Screenshots, Strategy, Xbox 360,
TeamXbox has four new screenshots for EA’s summer release of Battle for Middle Earth II on the Xbox 360. Screenshots can’t capture how fluid the gameplay will be, but the shots show off some pretty crazy water and shadow effects with a high level of texture detail. Here’s hoping EA can translate the RTS gameplay that has traditionally been restricted to the realm of the PC so that gamers can experience Battle in all its high-defination, surround sound glory.
Read More | TeamXbox
Xbox Live Gold Free Weekend Starts Now
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
For all of the Xbox 360 owners who haven’t made the leap and subscribed to Xbox Live Gold, this weekend (3/31 - 4/2) features free Xbox Live Gold play for all Silver members. According to Major Nelson, the Xbox Live Free Weekend actually starts at 7pm PST, on March 30th. All Xbox Live Silver accounts will still report as Silver, but all services will see the account as Gold. It will be interesting to see how many people take advantage of this, and how this changes the complexion of the online gamers. Microsoft has also published the list of Xbox Live Ambassadors to try and make the new users feel welcome. This promotion is available only for U.S. Xbox Live gamertag holders only.
Read More | Xbox.com Free Weekend via Major Nelson
Playfeed’s Fight Night: Round 3 Review (Xbox 360)
Posted by Rob Stevens Categories: Features, Fighting, Reviews, Sports, Xbox 360,
What a beautiful game. I don’t buy EA games on principle, so this is one that I’ve had sent by GameFly, but Fight Night Round 3 is just amazing looking. I’m having a ton of fun with it, too, as my wife would attest to after hearing me heckle the other pugilists with ridiculous nicknames like “The Body Snatcher”. (Not that my nickname of “The Professional” is much better.) I sat there last night threatening to send The Body Snatcher home in a body bag, stuff like that.
I normally shy away from the idea of creating fighters in my own image, since I’m not that attractive a guy, but for some reason I decided to make my fighter in the career mode look just like me. I started out pretty pudgy, but as I’ve trained and gained in skill, I’ll be damned if I don’t look like I’m chisled out of granite.
Click to continue reading Playfeed’s Fight Night: Round 3 Review (Xbox 360)
Gaming: Is There A Middle Ground?
Posted by Sparky Categories: Editorial, Features, MMORPG, PC, Xbox 360,
We have come to an interesting time in the gaming history - a giant chasm is appearing in the gaming market, one separating the casual and hardcore gaming audiences. While the hardcore gaming market has existed for quite some time now, only recently has the casual gaming market really come into existence - the question being ‘Is there a middle ground?’; is it possible to create a game with a low enough barrier to entry that it can attract the casual gamer, yet keep a hardcore gaming fan interested for hours on end?
Click to continue reading Gaming: Is There A Middle Ground?
Xbox and Xbox 360 versions of Battlefield: Modern Combat Compared
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: First Person Shooters, Trailers, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
TeamXbox.com has a video interview with Ed Thomas, lead technical artist on Battlefield 2: Modern Combat detailing the various upgrades that have been made to the Xbox 360 release. The visual comparisons in the video are very striking in the amount of changes that have been made. Some of the highlighted Xbox 360 changes listed in the video are:
- 10x the polygon count from the Xbox version
- 1.5 million polygons per scene
- 15-20x the texture memory used
- A more advanced lighting and shadow model
- More dynamic lighting used, impacting gameplay (muzzle flashes will more accurately give away positions)
- Overhaul of damage and effects engines
- More AI units in game
Overall, do these changes make the Xbox 360 version worth $20 more than the Xbox version? Of course, it is hard to tell until the game is released, but the video changes and Ed Thomas’ comments certainly make it seem likely. The demo is also currently available via Xbox Live.
Read More | TeamXbox.com
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