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Xbox 360 Price Cut

Xbox 360 Ring of Fire

Hot off the presses here is Microsoft official statement:

Microsoft Corp. today kicked off the greatest holiday lineup in video game history by announcing it will reduce the estimated retail price (ERP) of Xbox 360 by $50 (U.S.) beginning Aug. 8. Soon to follow, Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) will release its blockbuster video game title “Madden NFL 08” on Aug. 14. “Madden NFL Football,” one of the most important mass-appeal franchises in video games, was the top-selling game of 2006 and is the top-selling franchise of the past 10 years. Only Xbox 360 offers a console for all interests and budgets.

“The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of Xbox 360,” said Mitch Koch, corporate vice president, Global Retail Sales and Marketing Group, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “On the eve of the best holiday games lineup ever and the launch of ‘Madden NFL 08,’ there has never been a better time to jump into Xbox 360.”

Xbox 360 will enhance the value of its entire family of consoles beginning on Aug. 8. At a new ERP of $349.99 (U.S.), Xbox 360 offers an unsurpassed experience right out of the box with a 20GB hard drive, wireless controller, Xbox 360 headset, and more. For those looking for the ultimate value and the freedom to customize their console as they see fit, Xbox 360 Core System now has an ERP of $279.99 (U.S.). Xbox 360 Core System provides everything needed to start gaming while giving consumers the ability to add new features and accessories they want. Dressed in black and equipped with a 120GB hard drive, Xbox 360 Elite will be priced at an ERP of $449.99 (U.S.) for those who want the premium games and entertainment experience. In anticipation of this year’s largest blockbuster game launch, the Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Console will hit store shelves in September with an ERP of $399.99 (U.S.). Featuring an authentic Spartan green-and-gold finish, this console will include a matching Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 20GB hard drive, Xbox 360 Headset, an Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit, and more.

In addition to being a great value, Xbox 360 is the only console on which consumers will be able to play all of this year’s biggest titles: “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” (RedOctane/Activision), “Halo 3” (Bungie Studios), “Madden NFL 08” (EA) and “Rock Band” (MTV Games). Xbox 360 is also home to the most exclusive games, such as “BioShock” (2K Games), “Lost Odyssey” (Mistwalker/Feel Plus), “Blue Dragon” (Mistwalker/Artoon Co. Ltd.), “Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action,” (Screenlife), “Project Gotham Racing 4” (Bizarre Creations Ltd.), “Mass Effect” (BioWare Corp.), “Naruto: Rise of a Ninja” (Ubisoft), and “Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation” (NAMCO BANDAI Games). With a record-setting attach rate of 6.1 games per console sold (NPD, Life-to-date, June 2007), a new price and the greatest holiday games lineup ever, Xbox 360 has proved itself as the home of the best games and entertainment at the best value.

World of Warcraft movie to be “better than Doom”.

BlizzCon is on and Blizzard is throwing at us what they’ve got about the upcoming World of Warcraft movie. While WarCraft III became one of the most popular RTS games ever, WoW was the game that brought MMORPG to the mainstream audience and Blizzard doesn’t want to stop milking it. The movie is being handled by Legendary Pictures, truly legendary for movies like Batman Begins and 300.

No director has been attached to the project yet, but it will certainly be someone of ‘caliber’. Man, I can’t wait for Uwe Boll to hear this. Blizzard and Legendary are intent on “not creating another video game movie”, but an actual “epic movie”. They further commented that they aren’t making this movie for the 9 million WoW fans alone, but for the general audience. When describing the $100 million movie, Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull said, “We’re not gonna make some cheesy little.. I don’t even know what a good example is,” when the crowd began crying “Doom!” Tull answered that he’s not giving any examples.

The storyline will not be buried in thousands of years of continuity, but will be more “recent”. The main character is touted to be “bad ass”, and the setting will be some time before World of Warcraft, so that fans can see the races, the places and cleavage spaces from the game. The movie is described as a series of plot points rolled up together in a 2.5 hour long movie, like X-Men. While Legendary saying it sounds good, I’m not entirely so sure myself.

The movie will not be a “quest movie” like Lord of the Rings, but a full-fledged war movie. Well, with War in its title already, I didn’t know what else to expect. It will be set from the perspective of the Alliance, which set all the Horde-fans into “hate mode”. Chris Metzen from Blizzard confirmed that he loves the Horde and that Thrall is an “interesting character”. After saying that a green-skinned guy doesn’t make for a Hollywood protagonist, a fan yelled “Shrek!” The fan, who went missing is rumoured to have been a Pixar employee wanting to create a G-rated film and rake in the moolah.

Metzen says that they want to include the intensity and not compromise on the action in the movie. It will definitely not be a G or a PG-rated movie, thank God. R is extremely unlikely, hinting that the movie will most likely fall in the PG-13 group. According to an answer to a question posed by a fan, Chuck Norris has not been contacted for a cameo (as of now). We can only keep hoping, though.

The movie is slated for a 2009 release and is too early in production to talk more about. No big stars have been confirmed yet, but not denied either. As a parting gift, Blizzard gave us some concept art for the game, which you’ll see at the top (yeah, it’s just that). Click on it to see a super-sized version.

This is shaping up to be more of a kick-ass movie than it was originally thought of. We’ll see how it shapes up in the end in 2009, though.

[Via Kotaku and Shacknews]

Repairing My Xbox 360

For those of you that remember, a couple of weeks ago my Xbox 360 died. The ring of fires burnt inside and I had to cry. For my time was over, a game over, and I had to speak with the devil himself. I called up the warranty service and low and behold 50 minutes later a box was one its way. This is the story of a box and how it changed my life forever…

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Uru Goes Episodic

The canceled series is yet again back to puzzle us all.

Today GameTap is launching “Familiar Voices,” the newest episode in “Myst Online: Uru Live.” Players can now continue the journey that has featured to date – all-new puzzles, content and Ages as seen in recent episodes “Scars” and “A New Light.”

“Since launching in February, Myst Online continues to be one of our top titles at GameTap,” said Ricardo Sanchez, vice president of content and creative director for GameTap. “One of the strengths of the game is the commitment of the community, whose interaction and feedback has a direct impact on the direction of these new episodic segments.”

In “Familiar Voices,” the newly-elected D’ni Restoration Council (DRC) releases its first Age – Jalak. Though Cate Alexander has been elected to lead the DRC, there still remains a power struggle within the Council which begins to spread throughout the cavern. Rumors of a war continue to grow, but a voice from the past returns to offer new hope.

During this latest episode, the never-before-seen Age of Jalak will be released. Jalak features an ancient arena that was once used for D’ni competitions and will allow players to compete and even create their own games.

To keep up to date with the latest news and art assets for “Myst Online: Uru Live” and to play the game for free visit www.mystonline.com.

New PS3-exclusive Rockstar game announced

Rockstar

Michael Shorrock, the Director of 3rd Party Relations at SCEA has announced not long ago that Rockstar Games, the controversial developer behind games like the GTA series and Bully has signed up with Sony to make a new PS3-exclusive franchise. As you may know, Rockstar and Sony have had a sweet relationship, so this is definitely something worth checking out.

Shorrock conforms that he’s not talking about LA Noire and that he’s not drunk. Note that he keeps saying ‘franchise’ and not ‘game’, which means that he could be hinting at a multi-game series. Allow your mind to go wild now and come up with all sorts of speculations. What could the infamous Rockstar Games be devising now?

Here’s an interesting chunk of what Shorrock said:

We have had incredible success with the GTA franchise and are happy to continue to offer those titles on our platforms, and even more excited about what’s to come from the current and future relationship between our companies. Rockstar really wanted to make a game that you can truly only do on PS3, harnessing the power of CELL and Blu-ray disc and this deal lets them do just that.. This is really a win-win situation for both companies.

I don’t like the way he said win-win. It doesn’t suit Sony. But otherwise that sounds rather good, because a lot of fans have been waiting for something that only the PS3 can do. We wonder what Rockstar has up its sleeve!

No more information has been disclosed, because of a pesky deal. But just you watch out, because leaks and rumours are rather common when game property is as hot as this.

[Via Playstation.blog]

“The Scourge Project” is the latest game to use Unreal Engine 3

You’d think developers would be disheartened after all the Silicon Knights/Epic Games hullabaloo, but you’d think wrong. Instead, Epic has been swimming in publicity since. Also, they have caught the eye of the Spanish Tragnarion Studios. Tragnarion will be utilizing the might of Unreal Engine 3 for their newest title, which was also announced today, named The Scourge Project. As you can probably guess, it’s going to be an FPS with co-op elements embedded.

Carl Jones, the head of Tragnarion said:

We’ve been amazed at the speed and quality of results on Unreal. We’ve only had the engine for a couple of months, yet we’ve already been able to build a great-looking, fully playable prototype, which we’ll soon show to publishers, featuring our innovative narrative system for multiple players and our unique co-op focused game play mechanics. Every single feature we want is easily implemented in Unreal – for all the major high-end platforms.

This is looking to be a splendid game, complete with emphasis on team play, slick graphics and well, the Unreal Engine. And for people like me, who are supporting Epic, here’s what Mark Rein had to say:

When we saw the demo that Tragnarion produced, we were really impressed with the progress they had made in such a short time. The high quality visuals, innovative game features and co-operative story have come together in only a few months. It made us very proud to see how quickly they were able to learn Unreal Engine 3 and we can’t wait to get a look at this title again in a few more months.

And he’s damn right. Tragnarion has done a fine, quick job there. This is one of those games that would be worth tracking. The game will be released some time in 2008, for the PC, Xbox 360 and the PS3. Hopefully, the Unreal Engine won’t cause any problem-induced delays.
Check out the game’s trailer below:

[Via Gamershell and GameDaily]