On Gear Live: Video: Google Maps Navigation feature walkthrough

Pew Study Finds Most Teens Play Games

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: MMORPG, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox

Kids PlayingA recent study by Pew finds that 97% of American teens of the age 12 to 17 play computer, portable, console or online video games. When asked, half of them claimed they played yesterday and the ones who admitted to daily playing say they did so for at least an hour. Here are some of the other statistics:

  • 86% of teens play on a console like the Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii.
  • 73% play games on a desktop or a laptop computer.
  • 60% use a portable gaming device like a Sony PlayStation Portable, a Nintendo DS, or a Game Boy.
  • 48% use a cell phone or handheld organizer to play games.
  • 80% of teens play five or more different game genres, and 40% play eight or more types.
  • Girls play an average of 6 different game genres; boys average 8 different types.

We expect that if Pew queried adults, they would find at least the same statistics, or more for those who play MMORPGs like WOW. As for the good news, another study last September found that, for the most part, teens playing games resulted in positive social action.

Read More | Pew

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Activision New Game Lineup

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Activision, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360

DJ HeroWe already mentioned the new Guitar Hero 5 that will be coming out this year. In addition, Activision has released the rest of their lineup for PS2, PS3, Xbox and Wii that includes:

  • Tony Hawk: Ride
  • Modern Warfare 2
  • DJ Hero
  • Guitar Hero 5
  • Blur
  • Singularity
  • Prototype
  • Wolfenstein
  • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
  • Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

Lots of titles, lots of variety and, most important, a whole lotta music goin’ on.

By the way, you can win a set of 5 tickets to 5 different concerts if you enter the GH5 scavenger hunt. Look for the list of artists that will appear in the game by searching online and verify the information by June 25.

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Guitar Hero 5 - New Features, More Musicians

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Activision, Music, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox

GH 3Activision has announced that Guitar Hero 5 will be available for the PS3, PS2, Xbox and Wii this fall. The new game has a set list of tunes from 85 different bands such as the Stones, Tom Petty, Kings of Leon and the White Stripes. The company says more than 25 musicians will make their debut in the game. Also new to the game are Party Play and RockFest modes, and Band Moments that gives the entire band a point boost for a good performance.

Read More | Activision

New shoe styles for your Avatar now available on Xbox LIVE

Posted by Drea Avellan Categories: Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace

Xbox Avatar ShoesXbox wants your avatar to get its Summer on in style this year by bringing you new shoe styles to rock. Yes, classics such as the flippy floppies, or even the amazingly sexy socks and sandals looks are now available to you. Of course, the ladies will get some love, although limited, with pretty sandals and boots.

Listed below is what you will find to be shiny and new:

The Boys:

  • Flip Flops
  • High Top Sneakers
  • Socks and Sandals
  • 70’s Leather Platforms

The Girlies:

  • Sunny Day Sandals
  • White 60’s Boots

Read More | Major Nelson

ARM Processors Improve Look of Games

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Driving, Portable/Mobile, Xbox, Xbox 360

Project Gotham RacingRemi Pedersen, a graphics product manager at ARM, says that by this winter the Mali-200 and Mali-400 processors will allow you to play what looks like an Xbox 360 game on your lowly cell phone. On display at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, he will be running Project Gotham Racer, an Xbox 1 title, in Open GL ES, which performs like the original but feature-wise looks like a 360 title.

Read More | Yahoo News

The Beatles Come To Rock Band

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Music, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360

Beatles Rock Band

MTV Games and Harmonix have convinced Apple Corps, the Beatles’ music company, to put some of their tunes on Rock Band. Included in the deal will be:

  • The Beatles: Rock Band Software - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii: $59.99.
  • The Beatles: Rock Band Standalone Guitars - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii: $99.99.
  • The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii: $249.99.

You can visit the site, but the only info available is the date, so we suppose more information will trickle out eventually.

Read More | DVICE

Amazon selling Xbox Live Gold subscriptions for $29.97

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Internet, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Xbox Live Gold discountWe are gonna go out on a limb and say this is likely the best gaming deal you’ll see today. Over at Amazon, they are selling the 1-year Xbox Live Gold subscription at just $29.97. That’s a little over $20 off the standard price of $50 that most of us pay on a yearly basis to stay connected to the Xbox Live golden world, or in other words, a full 40% off. If you are nearing the end of your subscription, you’ll wanna grab one, certainly. Heck, I’m gonna pick up a few just so I can stay stocked up. At $30, why not?

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first sale of its kind, as Buy.com was also pulling a similar stunt last week. Could we be seeing the beginnings of an Xbox Live Gold price drop? Maybe?

Your thoughts?

Read More | Amazon

Xbox 360 system update released, preparation for new Xbox experience

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Downloadable Content, Hardware, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Xbox 360 system update

When you log in to Xbox Live today, you are gonna get a notification that a system update is available for you to download. We are here to let you down easy, and prepare you for disappointment. You see, we know that, like us, you are patiently waiting for that new Xbox experience dashboard that we saw back at . That is still scheduled for the fall. The update that you get today does nothing. Well, at least, it does nothing noticeable. According to our pal Major Nelson, today’s update “prepares for future growth of the service.” “Prepares”? What?

Nevertheless, go ahead and hit the install, just don’t expect anything fancy to come of it.


E3 2008: Xbox Media Briefing: Gears of War 2, Lips, Guitar Hero Tunes, Final Fantasy XIII announced

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, E3, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace

We’ve entered the auditorium here in the West Hall, and are currently waiting for the Media Briefing to begin. Very nice setup in here, by the way. Bunch of stage lighting, high definition displays, and…oh, even a mock living room setup. Snazzy. Anyhow, keep it locked here, as we will be bringing you live updates from the keynote as it happens. Any predictions on what we will be seeing announced today?

Oh, as for images, we will update the post with a bunch of those after the keynote ends. We wanna focus on bringing you the text updates for now, mkay?

We start with some Xbox 360 Street Talk, where apparently Microsoft went around town and interviewed people off the streets, and asked them about what they like about Xbox 360. Obviously, all good comments here. Now we get answers for questions like “What is a noob?”, “What does it mean to be ‘pwned’?”, “What does melee mean?”, “What does RPG mean?”, etc. Basically, what do average people know about video game terms. This is kind of like sitting through the advertisement trailers in the movie theater, the ones that come before the actual trailers.

Check out the rest of the keynote after the jump:

Click to continue reading E3 2008: Xbox Media Briefing: Gears of War 2, Lips, Guitar Hero Tunes, Final Fantasy XIII announced


Xbox Live Arcade Drops Select Prices For One Week

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Casual, Downloadable Content, Sports, Xbox Live Arcade

Xbox Live Arcade SaleMicrosoft announced that starting at midnight GMT on Wednesday, they’ll be reducing prices for a select number of Xbox Live Arcade titles for one week, ending at 11:59 Tuesday October 2nd. This is similar to the Labor Day sale they ran earlier this month where they dropped the prices on Gauntlet, Zuma and Dig Dug.

The titles featured this time around are Bankshot Billiards 2, Hardwood Spades and Frogger.

The price reductions are less dramatic here, the earlier labor day sale halved the prices of the games while these are marked down less severely: Bankshot Billiards 2 normally goes for 1200 ($15.00) Microsoft Points but has been reduced to 900 ($11.25); Hardwood Spades and Frogger are both usually priced at 400 Microsoft Points ($5.00) but have been dropped to 300 ($3.75). Still, if you were considering any of these games as possible purchases, now might be the time to jump on them. Perhaps combined with the Best Buy/Halo 3 Live promotion you can have yourself a few days of super-cheap online gaming.

Read More | Gamerscore Blog

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