Gamernode: Latest Xbox 360 News

Legendary on track for summer release, loses "The ...

Gamecock Media Group and Spark Unlimited have announced today that their upcoming mythological FPS, Legendary: The Box -- scheduled for release on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as the PC -- is being pushed back a little bit. Rather than the previously "official" release of Spring, Legendary will instead arrive on all three platforms this summer.

Said Rick Stults, Console Chief for Gamecock Media Group:

"I'm happy to report that the team on Legendary is well on target for a simultaneous multi-platform launch this summer. It's no easy feat to pull this off on a game of this caliber, but Spark Unlimited is a talented group."

Added Spark Unlimited CEO Craig Allen:

"This is the project we want to be working on and it's shaping up to be something amazing. Legendary is the type of ga...

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Reasoning behind required HDD for Burnout Paradise...

With the recent revelation that it's required for you to have a hard drive when you want to go online with Burnout Paradise for the Xbox 360, the response from the Xbox 360 user base has been split between "well, duh, all 360 owners should have a hard drive," and "I don't want to spend more money!" But the reasoning behind the required hard drive may be for the good after all.

MTV Multiplayer is reporting that downloadable content for Burnout Paradise will be required for all players, therefore it'll be stored on the 360's hard drive, and therefore that's why a hard drive is required for online play. So even if you don't want it, it appears everyone will be getting Burnout Paradise DLC.

EA went on to say in a released statement with MTV, "It's our intention to extend the life of Burnout with...

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Xbox 360 HD-DVD player takes a price cut

If you've been eyeballing that HD-DVD player add-on for your Xbox 360, the time may be just right to jump in and get yourself one. According to Larry Hryb, a.k.a. "Major Nelson," the 360 accessory will drop in price from $179.99 to $129.99 in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

The ongoing promotional regarding five free HD-DVD movies with the purchase of the 360 unit is still in effect and can be seen here.

There was no explanation regarding the price drop of the HD-DVD player, but it probably can be surmised that the move by Microsoft is an attempt to move the HD DVD units off the shelves in order to eke out some portion of market share against their Blu-ray competition, which many have deemed the winner.

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Mass Effect DLC detailed, new aliens and planet!

BioWare officially announced the first round of downloadable content for their critically acclaimed and smash-hit RPG Mass Effect. Titled Bring Down the Sky, the DLC pack will be released through Xbox Live on Monday, March 10th at 2AM PST for 400 Microsoft points.

Bring Down the Sky will introduce a new planet and a new alien race called the Batarians; the Batarians hijacked a mobile asteroid station and put the nearby world of Terra Nova in its crosshairs. As expected, Commander Shepard and crew will have to do what they do best - eradicate them!

The DLC will contain around 90 minutes of new gameplay and will offer an additional achievement worth 50 points.

Since its release, the game has sold over 1.6 million copies--excellent news for a brand-new franchise. I'm sure fans will be pleased.

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Faith and a .45 debut trailer

From the developers of Total Overdose and Chili Con Carnage comes yet another action-packed gunslinger's tale.  Faith and a .45 will tell the story of a pair of depression era lovers who are on the run and trying to survive a powerful oilman's hunt, and if the developer's track record for making enjoyable games is any indicator, it should be something worth looking forward to (not to mention that it has such an awesome title). The game has no release date or publisher at this time, but will be coming to the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Check out the debut trailer:

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BenHeck's Elite 360 laptop wows (and possibly woos...

Ben Heckendorn is a fairly amazing modding guru. Last October, we showed you the Access Controller, which Ben designed to make one-handed gaming a realistic possiblility. That was impressive, but this time the man has outdone himself.

The following is a video of BenHeck showing off his newest invention - the Xbox 360 Laptop. No further introduction is necessary; just behold the magnificence of this creation. Mr. Heckendorn, I salute you.

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Epic says no announcement of Gears of War 2

In an article about Gears of War 2 in the upcoming issue of GamePro Magazine, Mark Rein, chief honcho over at Epic, flatly denied the revealing of the game in a terse comment he made in the Epic forums by stating:

"It is complete nonsense. We have not announced a sequel to Gears of War to Gamepro or anyone else for that matter."

The link to the cover art generated various excited comments from the readers on Epic's forums but the cover story is most likely an attempt to just boost magazine sales.

Although a sequel by Epic to Gears of War is a no-brainer, it appears that Epic looks unfavorably on "exclusives" that have no basis on solid evidence.

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More CoD 4 multiplayer maps heading to consoles

Activision fired a press release over saying that Infinity Ward are working on new downloadable multiplayer maps for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Call of Duty 4.

In typical PR fashion, juicy details like pricing, map details or plans for a PC release were absent from the announcement other than a spring release date.

Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward's community manager, said, "We've demonstrated our commitment to delivering the best multiplayer experience in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and that continues with our plans for new downloadable content. We're excited about the new maps, and the added gameplay variety, and we can't wait to wrap things up and get online with everyone."

While PC plans weren't mentioned, tips are trickling in that the new multiplayer maps will be shoved into a f...

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You need HDD for 360 Burnout Paradise online

Burnout Paradise has been getting a lot of praise from gamers as the best Burnout yet, with great graphics and entertaining online play. But for the Xbox 360 version, you'll be needing a hard drive in order to race your friends online.

Reports from gamers are starting to come in saying that in order to go online with Burnout Paradise for the Xbox 360 version, you will need a HDD, which means Xbox Core and Arcade owners are out of luck. Videogamer.com looked into this some more and noticed some fine print on the back of the box that says "Online multiplayer 2-8/hard drive required."

A user on Maxconsole.net contacted EA support and received the following reply via email:

"The hard drive is needed to store temporary data when playing online as the data transferred from one console to another ...

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Beautiful Katarmari demo problems for Gold members...

Xbox Live Silver memberships are free and only afford the ability to download content from Xbox Live. Gold XBL memberships, on the other hand, cost $50 in annual fees with the added perk of playing online multiplayer matches.

But this time around the Silver membership crowd scored while the Gold membership guys were left in the dust regarding the Beautiful Katamari demo offered on Europe's XBL service.

It turns out that the Beautiful Katamari demo was only available to the freebie Silver membership subscribers and not for Gold members. Graeme Boyd, the Microsoft Europe community manager, apologized and asked the Gold members to be patient as the problems were worked out.

"There's a Beautiful Katamari demo available on marketplace now, but there's been a wee mistake somewhere along the line ...

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Free console TF2 maps and more Portal!

For you console Team Fortress 2 players, don't fret that you're going to miss out on the upcoming new TF2 maps that are heading to PC soon because you won't! They're heading to console too and will be free on release.

According to Eurogamer, they confirmed with Valve honcho Doug Lombardi that the two upcoming new maps for TF2, one of which is called cp_badlands, will be heading to consoles at some point in the future and will be free! The already-released new capture the flag remake of Well will head to consoles too.

In addition, Lombardi noted that there will be more Portal, yay! Portal snagged the #1 spot in GamerNode's top 10 games of 2007 along with picking up plenty of rave reviews, so to see more Portal on the way is good news to me!

"There'll be more Portal, for sure. But the details ...

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Jack Thompson says Mass Effect is ok. Really

In what may be one of the most bizarre stories to hit the gaming world in 2008, Kotaku reports that anti-game lawyer, Jack Thompson, has stated that the controversy surrounding the game, Mass Effect, is all bogus. In effect he is saying that Mass Effect is ok with him.

Alright, now that you've picked yourself off the floor, the comments were made during an email conversation between Kotaku's Brian Cresente and The Crusader Against Video Games. (In Thompson's comments, he mistakenly refers to Cooper Lawrence as a man.)

Lawrence set off the controversy by slamming Mass Effect as a game containing pornographic scenes. She made these statements during an interview with Fox News, when in fact; she never played the game and based her opinions on what others told her. She has since apologized and...

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Microsoft won't take back defective 360s from EB?

EB Games in Australia maybe having some problems with Microsoft as far as sending back defective Xbox 360s for credit (that were returned by customers to EB) according to a transcript of a conversation with a high managerial person in the EB organization.

The alleged conversation indicated that the value of the total defective units was $10 million.

The friction this may have caused between EB Australia and Microsoft seems to indicate that the EB stores are seriously considering dropping the whole Xbox line altogether. The transcript from the inside EB source states:

"Add to this the fact that price matching got really cutthroat during this past Xmas, they were selling far too many units under-cost and getting a bunch back defective, but Microsoft [refuses] to reimburse for...The whole 360 R...

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Live in Europe? Make a Halo fan-film and win stuff...

Aspiring European movie makers with a passion for Halo, does Microsoft have a competition for you! Starting on January 31st and ending on March 21st, Microsoft is hosting a very unique Halo competition. Instead of proving you're the best with a headset wrapped around your skull and a controller in your hand, Microsoft is asking for the most creative films showcasing Master Chief's untold adventures. They can be as wacky as Master Chief going to college, or as intense as the short films which lead up to Halo 3's launch. A finalist will be selected from each participating country with those entries then being judged by the Bungie crew. One finalist will then receive the ultimate prize for a Halo 3 film fanatic.

"Join the 4-week Film School at Universal Studios - write, direct and edit your o...

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Individual Rock Band Instruments Feb.12th

Harmonix has announced today that in addition to their $170 Rock Band super pack, they will also be offering individually packaged and priced instruments.

The peripherals will begin shipping to the U.S. February 12th with the drum set which will retail for $79.99 USD. Then the Fender Stratocaster guitar controller will follow suit on April 1st at $59.99 USD.

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said, "The release of standalone instruments allows Rock Band musicians to enjoy the full Rock Band experience, including drum, microphone and guitar head-to-head modes, creating a whole new level of competitive fun. We're also delivering a stand-alone wireless guitar solution for all versions of Rock Band as well as providing the opportunity for consumers to build their band one instrument at a time."

This i...

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Fling things around in SW: The Force Unleashed

Does wanting to be Darth Vader's apprentice who scours the galaxy of Jedi and fling hapless foes around like ragdolls sound interesting to you? LucasArts' next huge Star Wars video game is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and the 6 minute developer's video below showcases the three technological engines being used in the game; envision flinging things around with ease, brilliant! The game is heading to Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS and PSP this summer.

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EA challenges FOX on Mass Effect inaccuracies

At long last, EA has responded to the wildly inaccurate claims made by the crack Fox news staff regarding Mass Effect. The controversy started when Fox news brought game journalist Geoff Keighley onto their show to try and clear up the rumors surrounding the supposed "sex acts," found in Mass Effect. 

Though he tried valiantly to show them the truth, he was largely ignored, and the other people on the show continued to talk about the sex acts and perversion of Mass Effect, even going so far as to call it, "Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas."

Now EA has recovered from the shell shock they must have felt when their newly acquired Bioware epic was lambasted in the media. They have issued an response to the claims, and if I may say so myself, it's a pretty good zinger, it's definitely a go...

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GTA IV to be released on April 29th

Courtesy of this press release, Rockstar Games made the official announcement that Grand Theft Auto IV will be released worldwide on April 29, 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

I'm sure this news fills the void that this has left for a few months; I know the feeling of hearing "when its done" for a game's release date, I'm looking at you DNF. Also check out this smattering of GTA IV screenshots that Brendon painstakingly retouched for all of us.

Sam Houser, founder and executive producer of Rockstar Games, said, "We are so excited to be releasing Grand Theft Auto IV. We've pushed ourselves very hard to make something incredible and hope the game sets a new benchmark for interactive entertainment."

Lastly, if you're a Steam user, you can pick up all the GTA games from Steam for a nice low, low pr...

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The Xbox LIVE Arcade Awards are coming

As of today, the Xbox LIVE marketplace has 112 games available for you to download. Microsoft wants to recognize all the developers who were able to make games for the XBOX Live Marketplace in their first ever Xbox LIVE Arcade Awards with your host Billy Crystal!

Ok not really, but during the awards Microsoftwill announce the top XBLA games of 2007, of which some will be decided by the community. Below is the list of award categories that will be open for public voting:

* Best Overall Arcade Game * Best Classic Game * Best Original Game * Best Family Friendly Game * Best Competitive Multiplayer Game * Best Cooperative Multiplayer Game

Other award categories include the following:

* Best selling game * Most played game * Highest rated game * Staff choice

The fi...

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Condemned 2: Bloodshot multiplayer modes revealed

Some new information has surfaced about the upcoming game, Condemned 2: Bloodshot.

In an email sent a short while ago, Sega of America revealed some information on the sequel's multiplayer modes. The game will introduce a variety of online multiplayer modes with support up to 8 players, including:

-Crime Scene, which is a round-based competition to find and protect evidence in the Condemned universe. One team will use forensic tools to track and scan evidence, while the other will attempt to keep it hidden.

-Bum Rush, a team-based race against time. With three minutes before evacuation, players must hold off an onslaught of attacks by the other team in order to survive.

-Deathmatch, which is the classic mode you already understand. You can use any weapon you can find, and the player with the...

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