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On VIP Breakdown: Are Glee’s Finn and Rachel Dating in Real Life?

Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer Looking Fresh and Innovative

Posted by Max Dickey Categories: Activision, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

CoD4

With , series creator Infinity Ward is determined to change a lot of things. Aside from the obvious temporal leap forward from World War II to the present, the game is set to provide us with a pretty unique multiplayer offering. Imagine a game that offers a variety of character and equipment upgrades as you gain combat experience. Sounds like an , doesn’t it? In fact, what we have here is a unique blend of shooter and RPG elements that gives players the chance to create a custom supersoldier as they improve.

Although Call of Duty 4 is still a shooter like many others, its multiplayer modes are slated to include a bevy of opportunites to earn skill points. These points may be earned via straight kills, assists, or headshots, as well as by more unorthodox means such as by killing a foe through a wall or even taking a dive off a building. These points will lead to promotions through the military ranks and the availability of new weapons, more powerful ammo, or unique tactical advantages. For example, you may be able to automatically drop a live grenade at your feet whenever you’re killed. In order to keep players from getting too powerful, some of the more devastating upgrades will feature drawbacks designed to level the field somewhat. This level of customization looks like an exciting new direction for the genre that should allow each player to build a character suited to his or her own style. Combined with a variety of new maps and gameplay modes, Call of Duty 4 could be a winner with tons of variety. We can expect a playable beta version later this month, and the game itself is scheduled for a November release. Keep an eye out for it!

Read More | Gamespot

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This Week on Xbox Live Arcade: Marathon: Durandal And Spyglass Board Games

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, Casual, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Release Dates, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade

Marathon Durandal Xbox Live Arcade

Finally, Bungie’s Marathon. The game that was arguably better than Doom back in the day, but got little no attention because it was released only on Macs. (That’s what they get.) Marathon: Durandal, however, is actually the sequel to the original Marathon which saw a release on both Windows and Mac. The XBLA port was developed by Freeverse, and includes a variety of features that will make it worth its 800 Microsoft Point price tag – HD graphics, Xbox Live play, and co-op.

Spyglass Board Games has been heavily anticipated by many gamers, as for 400 Microsoft Points you get a sweet package of Chess, Checkers, Mancala and Reversi, all with Xbox Live Vision Camera support.

Both games will be available this Wednesday on Xbox Live Arcade.


Time To Kill Diablo Again: Diablo Movie Is Coming

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, Corporate News, Internet, MMORPG

Diablo novelLegendary Pictures’ website has listed Diablo as a title under their “In Development” section. The same guys who brought you 300 and are also working on a big-screen adaptation of World of Warcraft are apparently set to send you to Hell.

We’re praying that this isn’t going to be based directly upon either of the Diablo games, which – when you really look at what they boil down to – essentially offer up the gameplay equivalent of Windows. Now don’t get me wrong – I spent thousands of hours playing Diablo II, taking part in more Baal runs than I wish to recall.  But it’s just not the sort of thing that you make a movie out of.

But at least there’s more promise for a real plot here than there is in the WoW movie – there’s quite a lot of Diablo backstory, and a number of novels out there based upon the games (which, sadly, one of which I have actually read. While it hasn’t been revealed, WoW is an open-world game, whereas Diablo follows a tight narrative. Regardless, hopefully these monster series of Blizzard’s are done justice. Just keep Uwe Boll far away, and they’ve got a shot.


Soltrio Solitaire Xbox Live Arcade Review

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Casual, Microsoft, Reviews, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade

Soltrio Solitaire screenshot

Typically when I download an Xbox Live Arcade game, I know right away whether or not it’s something that I’ll play for three minutes and delete, or if it’s something that’ll sit on my hard drive awaiting me to plunk down however many Microsoft Points it costs to own it. Soltrio Solitaire is one of those games I expected to delete right away. I mean, it’s just solitaire. Albeit, 18 different kinds of solitaire, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is something I’ve played enough of as I waste time on my computer. So I played a game of regular old Solitaire (which is apparently called Klondike – who knew?) and enjoyed it, and decided to try another type. Then I noticed that I was playing over and over and over. I quickly snatched up the full version so that I could attempt to climb the leaderboards and try out some of the game’s other features.

After a ridiculous number of games played (including time spent willingly playing this over the Halo 3 beta), I can safely say that if you’re a fan of card games, you should pick up Soltrio. Casual fans with short attention spans or graphic whores need look elsewhere – this is clearly aimed and successfully works as the type of game that sucks in anyone that can appreciate the depth of a card game.

Click to continue reading Soltrio Solitaire Xbox Live Arcade Review


Alex St. John Talks Wii, Casual Games, Blasts Vista

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, PC

VistaAlex St. John, CEO of online game publisher Wild Tangent, recently talked with Dean Takahashi at Mercury News about casual gaming, Vista, and a little about the Wii, but most of the interview seems to focus on a withering criticism of Vista. St. John has long made his feelings known about the things he feels are broken in the gaming support in Vista, but here he seems to go into a little more depth. Some of the stuff isn’t that shocking – it’s fairly well known that there is generally a performance hit when gaming in Vista. Gamers don’t really get any benefits from DirectX 10 right now without content to support it, and of course St. John goes after the standard Microsoft criticisms of code bloat and memory footprint.

Beyond that, St. John’s big criticism is that the security mechanisms and parental controls, in his opinion, are horribly poorly thought out and implemented. St. John claims that Wild Tangent had to do tons of work to make sure that their online platform worked correctly in Vista, and very few of the competing online providers did the same, resulting in a broken experience for most casual gamers.

Interestingly, Microsoft sent a response to the interview, but the email from Microsoft reads more like a general “feel good” press release about how they worked with developers and families to come up with the solution in Vista, while countering none of the issues that St. John raised. St. John is saying that the implementation is broken, and Microsoft’s response basically seems to be “we talked to a lot of people and tried really, really hard” which in itself seems to be an indictment of Microsoft’s development process.

Read More | Mercury News

Top Ten Improvements in Halo 2 for Windows Vista

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Action, Editorial, Features, First Person Shooters, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Halo 2 Vista

So, Halo 2 for Windows Vista is launching on May 8, 2007, and we have been able to spend some time reviewing the title. Since everyone is familiar with Halo 2, we felt a full review wasn’t in order. Instead, we wanted to clue you in on the ten best improvements we experienced while reviewing the game. These ten features raise the bar for Halo as a whole, and may be a foreshadowing of things to come in Halo 3:

Achievements: If you are looking for something fun that adds another level of fun and challenge to the Halo 2 world, this is it. We have said it before, and we will say it again - Microsoft hit a gold mine with the notion of achievements. No sooner than when we finished a multiplayer deathmatch did we rack up a total of three achievements. Meleeing five people from behind (and thusly earning the Ninja achievement) was nice, but Meleeing someone who already had the Ninja achievement (and thus earning the Flaming Ninja achievement) was even better. We have the achievement to prove it. For those wondering, yes, the achievements you earn in Halo 2 for Vista (or any other Games for Windows game) is counted towards your Xbox Gamerscore.

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X06 Webcast Video Download

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Corporate News, First Person Shooters, Hardware, MMORPG, PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade

X06 Barcelona

Microsoft is making a download of their opening announcements for the start of X06 in Barcelona available at Xbox.com. Microsoft announced a new game in the Banjo & Kazooie franchise coming from Microsoft Game Studios. For Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft announced that Doom would be available starting tonight on Xbox Live Arcade. Other Live Arcade games announced include:

  • Sensible Soccer
  • Contra
  • Ultimate Mortal Kombat
  • Small Arms
  • Gyrus
  • TotemBall
  • Defender
  • Assault Heroes
  • Heavy Weapon
  • Settlers of Catan

In terms of upcoming games, the Japanese RPG Blue Dragon will be available in the US and Europe in 2007. Bungie will have an announcement about Halo 3 by the end of the year. Project Gotham Racing 4 was officially unveiled. Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto IV will have two exclusive episodes available for download on Xbox Live. Ubisoft demonstrated Assassin’s Creed interactive gameplay for the first time ever. Bioshock was announced as an Xbox 360 and Windows exclusive. Lost Odyssey was confirmed for the US and Europe, with a trailer showing some of the battle gameplay. More than 500,000 gamers downloaded the Lost Planet demo, and both multiplayer and single player gameplay will be available on the show floor. Splinter Cell: Double Agent footage was shown, and the sequel will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and on Windows.

The Xbox 360 HD DVD was confirmed to be available in Mid-November 2006 in Europe and the United States for $199.00 US, 199.99 Euros, and 129.99 British Pounds. The package will also include remote, and for a limited time King Kong on HD DVD. Moore also discusses Microsoft’s Games for Windows initiative, and indicates that Windows Vista is still on track for a January 2007 release. Moore also revealed the first preview of Marvel Universe: Online for the Xbox 360 and Windows.

Peter Jackson spoke at the presentation and announced that he has formed a partnership with Microsoft Game Studios. His first project will be an interactive entertainment title set in the Halo universe, apart from Halo 3 and the upcoming film, and Jackson will also be creating a new interactive game series based on original IP. Finally, the presentation wraps with a trailer from a Halo real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, called Halo Wars.

The video should be available online soon on Xbox.com at the link below, and should be available as a download via Xbox Live.

Read More | Keynote Summary at Xbox.com

Read More | Xbox.com

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