Gamernode: Latest Xbox 360 News

Microsoft finds Goldeneye 007 XBLA re-release rumo...

Last week, GamerNode reported on the possibility of Goldeneye 007 making its way to Xbox Live Arcade.

While Microsoft has been typically mum on the subject, SPOnG managed to get a response from the company in regards to how the great demand for the game’s re-release via digital distribution has affected them.

"We don't comment on rumours and speculation. While the games community's response to this rumour is extremely flattering, we don't have anything to announce at this time," stated a Microsoft representative.

If anything, this serves as proof that the individuals calling the shots at Microsoft Game Studios acknowledge the fact that many gamers are partial to the idea of playing an upgraded version of the 64 bit classic.

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100 DMC4 Collector's Edition copies autographed

The practice of offering "special," or "collector's" editions of videogames has been around for a while. It really started becoming common practice though, after Halo 2 proved that lots of people are willing to shell out an extra $10 to have their game encased in low-grade plastic/tin hybrids. 

There's been a lot of really stupid "Special Edition" games since then, for instance--Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Rainbow Six: Vegas (worst behind-the-scenes documentary I've ever seen.)

I wonder though, if Capcom is taking it a bit too far this time with their Special Edition variant of Devil May Cry 4. First off, it's $79.99 (US). A bit pricey no matter what is included in the package.

Beyond that though, the package is pretty stuffed. It comes with a making-of DVD, four anime episodes, tons o...

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Bionic Commando coming to XBLA, PSN

Fans have been crying out for a re-release of the original Bionic Commando for quite some time now. Many assumed that the most likely place for it to show up would be on Nintendo's Virtual Console, considering the game appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) way back in 1988.

Capcom has now revealed that the game is indeed coming, but to every current home console EXCEPT the Wii. It will be available via Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network sometime in the near future. No further details were given, so the specific release date, Xbox achievements, and/or any game upgrades remain a mystery.

With a current gen 3D addition to Capcom's beloved franchise also on the way, 2008 is shaping up to be the year of the Commando.

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Condemned 2: Bloodshot trailer

If you know me, I love any game released by Monolith Productions. Condemned: Criminal Origins gave me some creepy scares so I've been eagerly waiting for its sequel. Smashing heads into TVs and flinging around exploding baby dolls sounds awesome to me. The game heads to Xbox 360 and PS3 next month.

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Awesome Brutal Legend website opens

Personally, I don't ever pay even an ounce of attention when a game launches its official website. There usually isn't any point. 99% of the time what you'll find is a decent piece of art and the game's name in fancy script on the front page. From there you'll have the opportunity to either listen to the developer tell you why their game is the be all end all of consumer software, or read about it.

This time however, you should pay just a little attention. Tim Schafer's newest game project Brutal Legend, starring Jack Black, has just launched its website and boy is it a doozy; by far and away the best game website I've ever had the pleasure of navigating.

The first thing you'll come to upon getting the site open is a virtual rock concert. Rocking the crowd is none other than the game's p...

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The truth about Lost Odyssey and more

Keeping up with a game throughout its development can be difficult. There's always rumors and speculation about gameplay feature x and the involvement of company z. Keeping up with the rumors isn't so hard, if you read the daily gaming news, but figuring out which of them were debunked and which were factual can be quite a chore for even the most attentive gaming news hound.

That's why we decided to take this opportunity to sort out exactly what you can expect to see in the imminent RPG opus from Mistwalker Studios, Lost Odyssey.

- Produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who has been credited with involvement in all of the following games: Final Fantasy II-XII (including X-2), Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, and Blue Dragon. Quite an impressive list.

- Story be...

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Gates says "sorry" and pledges reliability for 360...

Bill Gates knows that his 360 has had problems and promised to make his machine the most reliable game console out there in comments made to the BBC during the Consumer Electronics Show.

Gates said, "Well we certainly had to apologize to our users about the number of boxes that had to be replaced. We did that for free, for all those people, and we got a lot of positive feedback about the way we handled it."

As inconvenient as it was to have my very own Xbox 360 sent in for repairs, I'd have to agree. The customer service was pretty good. Microsoft provided shipping for the Xbox to and from the repair center, and not only fixed my Red Ring of Death, they replaced my 360 with a brand new one. But in saying this, some have experienced quite the opposite.

He pledged to make the 360 game console t...

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MS: XBL was down due to server problems. Duh

Microsoft finally came clean with the goods and admitted to what everyone already knew--Xbox Live service broke during the holidays because of a massive flood of new users and holiday gamers jumping on the grid.

Albert Penello, marketing manager at Microsoft, explained:

"We had the biggest concurrent day we've ever had on Live. We had more people than ever signing up on Live, it was 9 million, then 10 million, and it literally was that a lot more people were trying to get on, sign up and play than we had expected over Christmas."

During the outages, GamerNode speculated that Microsoft probably had a skeleton crew during Christmas and didn't have enough people on board to deal with the flood of Xbox Live users. Penello confirmed our guess and said, "It's easy when we're all [at] the office ...

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Xbox 360 backwards compatibility ending

One of the many perks that the Xbox 360 has to offer is the ability to play games from its older self, the original Xbox. As of now Xbox 360 owners are capable of playing 465 titles from the original Xbox without many problems.

But at CES this week, Albert Penello marketing manager for the Xbox 360 told Kotaku that the most recent update to the list could very well be the last.

"I don't know if we have plans to do any more releases," Penello said "it feels like we kind of hit the point of diminishing returns there. For the most part, we've crossed off games that people want to play," he said, adding that "there's always going to be a notable exception here or there."

Also according to Penello, internal data shows low playtime on Xbox Live for BC games with the exception of Halo 2. So do you...

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XBL users still fired up over broken service

Comments on the xbox.com forums, regarding server problems on Xbox Live, are still coming in loud and clear from dissatisfied users who are still struggling to play their games online.

The posts on the forum range from irate customers who are threatening to switch over to the PS3 from users who doubt that a free XBL arcade game will heal the wounds.

Most of the complaining revolves around the service still being broken and the relative silence of Microsoft in explaining why and what happened during the last three weeks of spotty service.

One rant on the Xbox live forums, by Lucard Tepesh, took a swipe at Marc Whitten, XBL's general manager, in his congratulating users for breaking records associated with the mass numbers logging on to Xbox Live.

"This is rediculous!!!! (sp) Come on M/S, when ...

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Fee forced on Xbox Live Diamond members

Diamond, not as good as gold but better than silver? However the hierarchy goes, Diamond XBL members won't be enjoying their free status any longer because sometime this year a fee will be forced upon all Diamond members.

The Diamond Card program will also be wholly run on your Passport Unlimited information.

Even though the annual subscription fee of $6.95 isn't very much, any subscriptions that were privioiusly free or joined later will have a fee tagged on--which seems to always anger customers. Current Diamond Card members won't have to pay the fee until their current subsciption runs out.

According to the Xbox Live website, the Diamond Card gives paid subscribers exclusive benefits and discounts from stores, restaurants and retailers. Such stores include Ticketmaster, Cambridge Soundwo...

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Peggle confirmed for XBLA!

Released back in February 2007, a little game called Peggle from PopCap Games caught the world by storm.

PC fans have been enjoying the game for several months; in fact, somewhat recently, owners of the PC version of The Orange Box got an appropriately themed version of Peggle called Peggle Extreme to enjoy.

Don't worry console folks though, Shacknews received confirmation from PopCap that an Xbox Live Arcade version is on the way and is tentatively scheduled for a Q2 2008 release.

The game has been a phenomenon here at GamerNode, I've been playing it on and off for a few months; heck, Peggle cracked GamerNode's top 10 games of 2007 list by snatching the #10 spot. If you like what you see, nab Peggle Deluxe from Steam for only $9.95 USD.

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Goldeneye 007 coming to XBLA?

If there is one thing many N64 owners can remember from their childhood, it's flipping the switch of their black box with Rare's Goldeneye 007 inserted firmly into the cartridge slot and spending a significant period of time taking on their friends in one of the best multiplayer experiences of that generation.

Those who possess an undying adoration for the 64-bit first person shooter have been clamoring for a re-release of the classic through digital distribution (namely through Xbox Live Arcade, considering Rare is under Microsoft’s wing). But so far, they have had no reason to believe that they'd be playing it on an Xbox 360 gamepad anytime soon.

However, Xbox-Evolved is reporting that a graphically updated, Xbox-Live enabled version of the game will be available on the Xbox Live Mar...

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Microsoft says Blu-ray for 360 is possible

The latest company to possibly jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon is none other than Microsoft itself, the backers of the rival HD-DVD format.

According to BetaNews, Albert Penello, director for global marketing at Microsoft, revealed that while his company will continue to back the HD-DVD for the 360, that because of the external drive capability of the Xbox, that it would be also possible to ship a Blu-ray drive for the game machine if HD-DVD didn't survive the battle against Blu-ray.

However, Penello also stated that the numbers don't really add up as far as which next gen DVD format is leading. While more movie studios are jumping ship to Blu-ray, he noted that consumers are still choosing the HD-DVD format over the Sony format.

"Consumers are choosing HD DVD, but Hollywood isn't listening. W...

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Bioshock sequel is a prequel?

We all knew it was coming. A Bioshock sequel was bound to happen, and when 2K announced a second Bioshock game, we were wide-eyed with anticipation. Internet rumors, however, have been floating around that the second Bioshock game would actually be a prequel to its predecessor.

Rumors say that the prequel would focus on the fall of the underwater "utopia" Rapture, the original game's setting. It would take place before the 1940s, letting us play the events that took place which ultimately brought down the society through greed and corruption.

Pre-production has already started with a hopeful release of 2009, making Take Two's previous comments of turning the series into a franchise by releasing a game every two years viable. If true, the game will most likely be developed in 2K's new studi...

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No Xbox 360 ultimate edition, says Gates at CES '0...

Bill Gates is slowly siphoning his role within Microsoft to a part-time gig, which is expected to be completed in July 2008. During the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, folks were expecting a big Xbox 360 announcement from Gates since this will be his last appearance at the event.

One theory was that Gates would announce the Ultimate Xbox 360, some super and probably bulky looking version of the Xbox 360 with features that would have pushed the price to over $1000.

Unfortunately, Xbox 360 fans' hopes were dashed when Gates, instead, announced that MGM and Disney agreed to a deal with Microsoft for its content to be released on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

While its a nice deal, it's probably wasn't what fans were looking for. Perhaps Microsoft is saving the expected juicy Xbox 3...

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Xbox Live hits 10 million subscribers, yay!

Hot on the heels of announcing that 17.7 million Xbox 360s have been sold worldwide, Microsoft went ahead to announce that Xbox Live hit 10 million subscribers.

One may speculate that the Xbox Live downtime many folks experienced during the holiday season may be attributed to this new milestone; simply because a massive influx of new players being introduced every second to Xbox Live just took its toll on the servers.

Still, hitting 10 million paying subscribers is great celebration to be had especially since it was a full six months ahead of Microsoft's planned schedule.

In addition, all Xbox Live members will be getting a free Xbox Live Arcade title (the actual title has yet to be determined) due to the downtime.

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Class action suit filed over Xbox Live outage

Over the holiday season, the incredible popularity and vast userbase of Xbox Live managed to break Microsoft's service, causing intermittent outages over the course of about 10 days. Microsoft has already issued apologies, and even a free Xbox Live Arcade game as a sort of consolation for all Live members.

Well, that's not enough for some gamers. A Texas-based group of....three....has filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft over this issue, seeking compensation for damages such as Live subscription costs and attorney fees. According to the suit, Microsoft was in breach of contract and "failed to exercise reasonable care or competence in communicating information regarding the nature of services offered through Xbox Live."

The Seattle Times has the complete nine-page complaint avail...

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CES HD-DVD press conference canceled?

Alright, I know this isn't technically gaming-specific news, but I'm making it fit since there IS an HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, and frankly, I like movies and this kind of stuff interests me.

As you probably guessed from the title, a short while ago the HD-DVD Promotions Group sent out an email to all the media invited to the CES announcing that they're indefinitely postponing their press conference at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show due to the Warner Bros. Blu-ray announcement. The email stated:

"Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, we have decided to postpone our CES 2008 press conference scheduled for Sunday, January 6th at 8:30 p.m. in the Wynn Hotel. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

We are currently discussing the potential impac...

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Stranglehold map pack is ready to go

If your trigger finger is itching to do more in your Stranglehold game, you'll be happy to hear that a new downloadable map pack is now available on Xbox Live for your shooting pleasure. 

You'll get 10 additional multiplayer maps which will be in various locales such as the Kowloon Market all the way to Chicago's rooftops. Added to this will be 21 new characters and 10 new achievements that will be worth 250 points.

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