This Weeks New Releases. (04/31/07)
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Tuesday Friday DVD Theater |
Radio GTN – Episode 15 – Party at 3’s House!
Yo-Yo is still MIA, Izzy’s 360 goes radioactive and Grim is amazed by the number 3. All in this and more in the last Radio GTN Podcast.
Radio GTN – Episode 14: – Castlevania IV – Stage 08 (Super Castlevania IV) by Konami Kukeiha Club
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Xbox 360 backwards compatible list updated
Xbox 360 backwards compatible list updated
More games have been added to the list:
Tenku (Japan only)
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Legend of Aang (EMEA/ANZ)
Breakdown
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Call of Duty 3
Cars
Crash Bandicoot 5: Wrath of Cortex
Daisenryaku VII
FIFA Soccer 2007
Full Spectrum Warrior
Guilty Gear Isuka
Innocent Tears (Japan only)
Jet Set Radio Future
King of Fighters 2002
King of Fighters: Neowave
Mad Dash Racing (Japan only)
Mech Assault 2
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Nascar 2006: Total Team Control
NFL Fever 2004
Oddworld Munch’s Oddysee
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Petit Copter (Japan only)
Phantom Dust
Reservoir Dogs
Return To Castle Wolfenstein
Rugby League 2
Sengoku Warriors (Japan only)
Sonic Riders
Soul Calibur 2 UPDATED
Spider-Man 2
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Tony Hawk’s Underground
Ultra Bust a Move /ULTRA Pazzle Bobble
Unreal Championship 2
Some New Silent Hill 5 info
We’re serious, despite there being hardly any news on Silent Hill 5. Akira Yamaoka recently sat down with the German side of GamePro and spilled the beans on some details of the title. Oddly, not much has changed from when we last talked about the game, but that’s a good thing because the game seemed like it was on the right track. We’ll summarize the interview.
* The game, as previously told, will resemble the best Silent Hill game in terms of player direction and character behavior. The best is, easily, Silent Hill 2.
* The game’s platform is still up in the air. PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 are obvious choices, but Akira hints at what may be a timed exclusive by saying that “we have had a good past experience with Playstation [where the series was born] and we hope to continue that trend.”
* Akira will probably be lead sound guy again, which is great.
* They’re not going to adopt the system used in the PSP Silent Hill: Origins because Akira said it didn’t show off enough of the environment and surroundings… and that’s what makes the games so awesome.
Short interview, but it gives us a clear enough idea of what to expect. Still no scans floating around, although we’re sure that’ll change sooner or later. Come on, Konami, let’s get this game rolling!
Source | PS3 Fanboy
Xbox Live add The Colbert Report and The Daily Show
This week on Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace in the US, the team is proudly announcing something that’ll excite Comedy Central fans. You can now begin downloading episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, as soon as six hours after they air. In fact, Last night’s episodes are already up on Xbox LIVE.
The Colbert Report – Get all the ‘truthiness’ of THE COLBERT REPORT right here on Xbox. Host Stephen Colbert treats the important topics of our time and the daily news with absolutely no seriousness whatsoever.
The Daily Show – The most trusted name in fake news is now available on Xbox. Get your fix of Jon Stewart, his intrepid team of correspondents and their spin on all the day’s news and newsmakers.
On top of your daily dose of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, you’ll find some great new movies and TV shows this week.
Source | Gamescore Blog
Chargers fans plead to keep LT off Madden cover
For many pro athletes, there is nothing like being bestowed the honor of cover athlete for a high-profile sports game. Some fans, however, want their favorite athletes to have nothing to do with box art–particularly that of the popular Madden NFL series. The “Madden curse” is infamous among sports gamers and pro athletes, with several cases of pros having injury-ridden or statistically awful seasons the year they appear on the cover of a Madden NFL game.
Last year’s cover athlete, the formerly durable Shaun Alexander, broke his foot and saw his NFL record for rushing touchdowns broken by San Diego’s Ladainian Tomlinson after just one year in the record books. The previous year, Donovan McNabb graced the cover of Madden NFL 06 and fought injuries all season long. In the biggest case for the existence of the curse, Falcons quarterback Michael Vick broke his leg in a preseason game shortly after Madden NFL 2004–with Vick on the cover–hit store shelves.
San Diego Chargers fans are now trying to take matters in their own hands. Their cherished runningback, last year’s Most Valuable Player Tomlinson, is one of the leading candidates for the cover of Madden NFL 08, and the fans would like nothing more than to see the honor go to someone else.
One man has started the Web site SaveLTFromMadden.com (and an accompanying MySpace page), complete with a crossed-out mock-up of a Madden NFL 08 cover with Tomlinson, in an attempt to keep curses as far away from the athlete as possible. The site’s main point is an online petition directed toward Electronic Arts asking the publishing giant to not put Tomlinson on the cover of Madden NFL 08. As of press time, the petition had 606 signatures.
Chargers fans won’t have long to wait to see if LT will be tackled with “the curse.” EA will unveil the new Madden NFL 08 cover athlete tomorrow night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Source | GameSpot
This Weeks New Releases. (04/16/07)
Tuesday
Bust-a-Move Bash! (WII)
Classic Action: Devilish (DS)
Eureka Seven Vol. 2: The New Vision (PS2)
Made Man (PC)
Pocket Pool (PSP)
Raiden III (PS2)
Tokyo Xtreme Racer DRIFT 2 (PS2)
UFO: Extraterrestrials (PC)
Valhalla Knights (PSP)
DVD
The Last King of Scotland
Smoking Aces (also on HD-DVD)
Spider-Man 2.1
hack//ROOTS, Vol. 1 (Limited Edition Boxed Set with T-Shirt, Soundtrack, Art Box, Game Demo)
Theater
Vacancy
Fracture
Hot Fuzz
Monster Madness demo hits Live
A 434Mb demo of Artificial Studios’ Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia has crept onto Xbox Live.
Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 beats away at the heart of the top-down shooter, which finds a group of teenagers battling supernatural monsters in a slice of typical small-town America. It’s all presented in B-movie style, with a tongue-in-cheek approach to the horror invasion.
The full game is due out next month, and comes complete with co-op and competitive multiplayer modes that support up to four players.
Source | CVG
Staten Island feeling left out of GTA IV
Many will recall yesterday’s big Grand Theft Auto IV news including
plenty of new details about the game. One of those details is causing a bit of a stir in Staten Island. It was revealed yesterday that only four of New York’s five boroughs would be represented in GTAIV, with Staten Island being left out. It seems that Staten Island (or at least one of its newspapers) is miffed at its exclusion from the game. As John Annese writes in the Staten Island Advance “When did Staten Island get run off the road as a borough of New York City?” A gamer at a local gaming center stated, “If you’re gonna base a game on the five boroughs and you leave out one of the boroughs, it’s kind of unsettling” (he added that he would still probably buy the game though).
Of course, not everyone is displeased with the news. Linda Baran, the president of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce noted, “That’s something I appreciate being left out of.” A mother at the gaming center shared similar sentiments, noting that GTA is “not a great game” and that her son wasn’t allowed to play it.
Naturally, as game journalists, we’re disappointed that so many people remain unaware that games have grown up over the years. Still, the response is expected at this point. Considering the flack companies have been getting lately for basing their games on real world locations, it’s interesting to see things turned the other way around.
Source | Xbox Fanboy
Playstation 3 20 GB Dead…..
Straight from Sony: The 20GB PS3 will no longer be offered to retailers for sale in North
America. The decision was made based on consumer and retail demand favoring “the 60GB model 10 to 1.”
Dave Karraker of Sony America states, “At launch, we offered two separate models of PlayStation 3 to meet the diverse needs and interests of our PlayStation fan base. Initial retail demand in North America was upwards of ninety percent in favor of the 60GB SKU, so we manufactured and shipped-in accordingly. Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60GB model from both retailers and consumers, we have ceased offering the 20GB model here in North America. In addition to the larger internal hard drive, the 60GB PlayStation 3 features added storage media slots and built-in Wi-Fi not found in the 20GB system. Based on retailer and consumer feedback, we have decided to focus our current efforts on the more popular 60GB model.”
This follows mounting evidence that the 20GB was on its way out the door at Best Buy and even the Sony Style store. And so we say goodbye to the PlayStation 3’s 20GB model. Goodnight sweet Prince, we hardly knew ye.
R.I.P. PlayStation 3 20GB
Nov. 17, 2006 — April 11, 2007
Source | Joystiq
Guitar Hero II DLC is out now
There is now downloadable content for GH2 on the XBL market place:
GH II: Song Packs (3 of ‘em)
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 1
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Bark at the Moon as made famous by Ozzy Osbourne, Hey You as made famous by The Exies, Ace of Spades as made famous by Motorhead, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 2
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Killer Queen as made famous by Queen, Take it Off as made famous by The Donnas, Frankenstein as made famous by The Edgar Winter Group, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 3
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Higher Ground as made famous by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Infected as made famous by Bad Religon, Stellar as made famous by Incubus, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.
But here is also an interesting comparison as to what some new/older tracks are costing you to play them on the 360.
“If you break it down, there are 47 tracks in the Guitar Hero 1 release for the PS2, which retails for about $40 currently. That’s about .85 cents a track. Each Track Pack is available for 500 Microsoft Points ($6.25) on the Xbox 360, which includes three tracks. That’s about $2.08 a track on the Xbox 360. And to put it into perspective, if it keeps at this rate, that means Guitar Hero 1 on the Xbox 360 will cost you $97.76. While future track releases and pricing has yet to be announced, it will surely be judged according to the response on these purchases. Put your MS points where your mouth is, 360 gamers.”
Source | Evil Avatar
Retro Vision: Videos from Gaming’s Past #7
Game: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
Year: 1987
Ghost Rider Creator Sues Marvel and Sony for Making Crappy Movie
Well you don’t see this every day. Gary Friedrich, creator of the Ghost Rider comic book character, issuing Marvel Enterprises, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the film’s other partners for copyright infringement and for “failing ‘to properly utilize and capitalize’ on the Ghost Rider character”. Friedrich, who wrote the first story involving Johnny Blaze and his fiery alter-ego back in 1968, claims that in 2001 the copyright reverted back to him and not only have Marvel and Sony failed to compensate him, but they also have damaged the value of his property by “by failing to properly promote and protect the characters”.
Well, I kind of agree with him on that last point, in the sense that the movie made Ghost Rider a laughing stock (although to be fair, Ghost Rider is a pretty ridiculous character to begin with). The thing is, it sounds like Friedrich believes the movie actually should have made a lot more money than it did. I don’t think he realizes that it generated more bank than it ever deserved to (approx. $214.6 million worldwide). He should just be happy if he manages to get even a tiny piece of that pie!
Source | Film Junk
Halo 3 Beta Dated, Also New Mutliplayer Video Posted.
Multiplayer Beta goes live May 16th at midnight PDT and ends on June 6th at 11:59pm PDT. In short: Those who picked up Crackdown with the Beat or snagged a spot through promotions will be able to check out the game’s multiplayer earlier. You didn’t? Then, you’ll have to give into Microsoft’s sneaky plot and pick up a marked copy of Crackdown to get in. Other details according to Bungie’s Frankie:
* The Beta itself consists of three maps – Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound – graphically improved since our first MP screenshots – and all three will be playable in Matchmaking only (that is after all, what we’re Beta testing here). All three maps are suitable for a wide variety of gameplay types, and you will have the chance to try all manner of game types, familiar and new.
* There will also be new guns, vehicles and gameplay features to try – including the mysterious “X-Button” functionality.
* There are a number of new features you’ll get to test out – including a new grenade type, a completely different class of weapon and some of the enhanced online functionality we plan to bring to the game – but it should be noted, a lot of secret features are hidden in this Beta.
* You will see frame rate skips, unfinished animation and graphical features that will change come Fall. All the footage is clearly marked Alpha. You’re looking at the features here folks, not the final quality bar – which we’ve set pretty high. Your next taste of that will be in May.
Source | Kotaku
GAMEBOX 1.0 Trailer (Poor Topanga)
I got a friend request the other day and as I usualy do I briefly check out the profile to make sure it isn’t a club promoter or any other spambots like that. So there was this request for a person called Gamebox 1.0 and when I went to check out the page I saw that it was a request for a movie page.
I’m ok with accepting request for movies that I like and I know I am going to go see but this was no ordinary movie page request…this was a video game movie-movie request.
The movie poster had some gamecube/ps2 controller mess thing on it which is how I came to the concllusion this movie was about video games in some way.
I then noticed the name on the box ‘Danielle Fishel’ so I figured I would check out the trailer because I knew the name I just couldn’t place it.
After watching said trailer I threw up a little then I watched it again.
Ok I’m happy and all that Danielle Fishel who played Topanga on Boy Meets World and that dude who played Harvey on Sabrina the Teenage Witch has found work but this movie is a mess.
Gamebox 1.0 WTF is that? I’ll tell you what it is its taking a person who knows nothing about games and names it after the first thing they could think of.
Is 1.0 suppose to be like an upgrade or something? This title alone makes me want to punch something.
The premise of the movie is another mess ‘OMG I’m in the game!’ like that’s never been done before.
Here is the trailer I’ve been ranting about:
Original uncut trailer GAMEBOX 1.0
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Xbox 360 Spring Updated, Now with 100% Instant Messaging.
Instant Messaging Comes to Xbox 360
Redmond , Washington —Your Xbox Live® friends list is about to get a whole lot bigger. Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Windows Live™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft® Windows®-based PCs and Windows Mobile®-powered devices.
Chat with your friends via Live Messenger.
With this update to Xbox 360, friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts.
“Xbox Live has really become the
largest social network on television.”
—Jerry Johnson, Microsoft
Beginning the week of May 7, 2007, the Xbox 360 Spring Update will provide Xbox 360 owners worldwide with access to Windows Live Messenger features, broadening the communication options on the Xbox Live social network.
Connected Experiences
Members of the six-million-strong Xbox Live community currently send more than two million text and voice messages a day and can now use Windows Live Messenger to text chat with up to six people on their contact list at one time, while playing games, listening to music, or watching movies. Text chat adds to the variety of options friends and families already have to communicate with on Xbox Live, including voice and video chat.
Look for this new accessory this summer.
Current relationships on Windows Live Messenger and Xbox Live will be unified on Xbox 360 and users will see at a glance if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags, instantly expanding the breadth of connected experiences they can share online.
“Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox Live has really become the largest social network on television,” said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox Live at Microsoft. “For our growing community of six million on Xbox Live, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience. They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music, and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice, and text chat. With this announcement we are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox Live users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360.”
Know instantly which achievement you accomplished.
Beginning the week of May 7, users of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 can text chat using the virtual keyboard accessible on Xbox 360, or by connecting a USB keyboard to the console. This summer Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging.
Other New Features
Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including:
- A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
- Enhanced family settings features for Xbox Live communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
- A new Xbox Live Marketplace blade lets Xbox Live members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States)—from one place on Xbox Live.
- Updates to Xbox Live Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox Live Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox Live members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded “Tell a Friend” capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
- Expanded “Tell a Friend” capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
- A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox Live Arcade games.
- New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.
- Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.
The Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7 and will be easily accessible to every Xbox 360 owner through Xbox Live or on Xbox.com.
You may not even notice all the new features, but they are all designed to enhance your Xbox Live experience. Some of the other features in this upgrade include:
- The name of game in tray is now displayed in the dashboard.
- When the user is in the dashboard and an Xbox 360 game is in the console then the name of the game is displayed in the tray icon of the dashboard. If the user highlights the tray icon then achievements and gamer score are displayed for that game based on the signed in user. Xbox1 games show the name and image of the game.
- Integrated support for the new Xbox 360 text input device. Note that this device includes a new wired headset.
- Playback progress bar indicates download completion.
- Switchable aspect ratio now available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native).
- Player and friends lists now quickly show session presence information for quick identification of users that are joinable.
- H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
- Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
- Show folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices.
- Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays remembering the users last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user choose for that file.
- Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content.
- Skip forward and backward functionality has been improved to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 “chapters” allowing you to quickly skip around video content.
- The information bar that is turned on via the On Screen Display (OSD) now shows you exactly where you are in the playback of the video file. In addition it will also show for Video Marketplace content how much of the file has been downloaded and where the “chapters” exist in the file.
- Windows Media protected content (WM-DRM) can now be streamed from the PC to the console. If the WM-DRM license is missing or corrupted then a specific error message is displayed to the user. Bookmarking is also stored for protected content.
- When a user selects an item for download from Marketplace then the system will determine if there is sufficient disk space for the item and, if not, will ask the user to delete content on the HDD. The system provides a sorted by size list of videos, game trailers, demos and arcade content to aid the user in the deletion process. The same list of items are also available from within memory so that users can quickly see which items are consuming the most disk space.
- The console will block the user who attempts to download content onto a storage device that will never have the capacity to store the item without deducting any points associated with the content item.
- The screensaver is disabled when playing photos from any source
Source | Xbox.com
This Weeks New Releases. (04/09/07)
Monday
Pet Vet 3D: Wild Animal Hospital (PC)
Ship, The (PC)
Super Paper Mario (WII)
Whirlwind Over Vietnam (PC)
DVD
Bobby
A Scanner Darkly (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)
Payback: Directors Cut (also on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray)
Hogan’s Heroes: Season 1-5
Dog Day Afternoon (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray)
Theater
Perfect Stranger
Disturbia
Pathfinder
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
On the VC:
Galaga™ (NES®, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points): Players control their fighters, with their unique ability to combine with other fighters and shoot down the invading aliens. Aliens attack in formations using a variety of attack patterns.
BRAVOMAN™ (Turbografx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points): The village of Nitta has been invaded by the army of Dr. Bomb, an evil scientist who is plotting to take over the world. Facing this crisis is Bravoman, who received his powers from Alpha Man to stand up against Dr. Bomb in the name of justice. The village of Nitta consists of 22 stages – action stages that take place on the ground and shooting stages that take place underwater. Action stages use a unique control system in which the height of a jump and the distance of an attack changes depending on how long players hold down the button.
Alex Kidd™ in the Enchanted Castle (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): When King Thor was kidnapped, his son, Alex Kidd, held out hope that his father would return to their kingdom on Planet Aries. Finally, it was revealed that he was being held captive on Planet Paperock. As Alex, players race to his rescue through 11 levels, battling enemies and avoiding obstacles while winning coins that will buy special items and vehicles.
Xbox 360 Spring 2007 Dashboard Update
Once again Gamespot broke an embargo and by the time they noticed the leak, the Internet savvies saved the video and put it up on YouTube.
The movie, which you can see below, takes a detailed look at the new features that will debut with the next dashboard update.
Beginning the morning of Monday, May 7, you’ll be able to download the 2007 spring system update for the Xbox 360, which provides new features and enhancements for the dashboard, including a dedicated Xbox Live Marketplace blade, Windows Live Messenger interoperability, improved functionality for Achievements, downloads and movies.
Unfortunately, there won’t be Clan Support in this update so we’ll have to wait for the Fall system update.
Source | Team Xbox
Spider-man comes home (Spidey 3 Premieres In Queens)
The Tribeca Film Festival will host the U.S. premiere of Spider-Man 3 on April 30 in New York City’s Queens borough, the hometown of the film’s Peter Parker. The premiere, part of the film festival presented by American Express, will mark the first-ever star-studded film premiere in the borough’s history.
Stars of the film, including Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, will land in New York, their final destination after an eight-city international tour, and join a crowd of 3,000 people at the U.A. Kaufman Astoria 14 in downtown Astoria. The premiere will feature a marching band leading the stars to the black carpet. The premiere is one of several events throughout the festival and part of the “Spider-Man Week in NYC”, presented by Columbia Pictures and NYC & Co.
Source | SciFi.com 
Resident Evil: UC Wii site launches!!!
Yey! The site for the upcoming Resident Evil for the wii is now up with a 32 second trailer.
There is a link on the bottom of the page that will lead you to a RE4 wii page.
I was worried about being sleepy but I saw Wesker and Chris Redfield so now I’m all awake.
(updated to add more info:)
1. it will be a shooter
2. it will be FULLY POLYGONAL, so no pre-rendered backgrounds like someone was telling yesterday in system wars
3. there will be a command like the action command in RE4 which will be used for close-up fightings. Using this command will actually show the character inside the screen fighing the zombie. I think this is due for giving a more cinematographical look to an hand-to-hand fight with a zombie (there was even a pic of it)
4. during the interview with the producer this was one of the question:
Q:- don’t you think to have betrayed the series making a shooter?
A:- there is a part of hard core gamers that don’t like it for sure, but a lot of more gamere were tired of the same formula and we are doing somethin gnew to please all the people that have found the previous RE quite repetitive.
