Gamernode: Latest Xbox 360 News

Shane Kim cornered by Games Radar

Anytime gamers get to pose questions to anyone on the Microsoft staff the Red Ring of Death will inevitably come up.  Games Radar is pretty well known for their 10 questions feature.  They round up someone in the gaming industry and users submit questions, from which Games Radar selects 10.

This time it was Shane Kim on the chopping block.  For those who don't know, Shane Kim is the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Games Studio, aka the software side of the Microsoft's gaming contribution.

The readers of Games Radar didn't hesitate asking him hard hitting questions.  Oh no! "What steps are you taking to ensure that the next iteration of Xbox isn't rushed to market like the Xbox 360 was? Has Microsoft learned anything from the $1 billion write-off?"

Talk about bringing out the big guns.  ...

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Judas Priest Screaming for Vengeance on Rock Band

Prepare yourself metal fans; Judas Priest's 1982 album "Screaming for Vengeance" will be the first full-length album available as Rock Band downloadable content. Expect the album to hit Xbox Live on April 22nd and the PlayStation Store on April 24th

Fans can download the entire album from Xbox Live for 1200 Microsoft Points ($14.99) or individual songs for 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99) each; pricing for the PlayStation Store weren't revealed. In addition, all ten album tracks will be original master recordings.

Screaming for Vengeance was released in July 1982 and ended up hitting double platinum at the end of its run -- being the band's first album to do so. The album includes the #1 hit "You've Got Another Thing Comin", which was also previously featured in the original Guitar Hero and the ...

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Castle Crashers take on the mighty sea

I just swung by the Castle Crashers Development Blog of Love, as they call it. Seriously, that's what they are actually calling it. Well it seems our friend Dan Paladin has been up to some more insane creation.

Part one of a three part series "The Kings Boat" went up today on the Behemoth Vimeo. The video is about 5 minutes long and shows the rough image then the refinement and further refinement of the art in the game.

If you look really closely you can see that Dan actually borrows the color of the King's (only a guess) beard and uses it as the color for the foaming water as it breaks on the bow of the ship. Hilarious. Also I loved the re-refinement of the cannon after it was already one, he went back and changed it and made it even better.

Sigh. I sill can't wait for this game to c...

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The Xbox 360. You love it. You hate it.

There definitely is a love-hate relationship between gamers and Xbox 360. Since the first light of day glanced upon the 360's case, reports have continued to stream in about the ongoing problem of the RRoD (Red Ring of Death). Other problems such as the DVD drive being faulty have also become commonplace.

But in spite of all these problems with the quality control of the unit, gamers still remain enthusiastically loyal to the creaky Xbox 360. The game library continues to astound and delight fans with games such as Mass Effect, Bioshock, Call of Duty 4 and a solid Xbox Live Arcade library.

But let's face it, this is the 21st century where electronics are some of the most reliable products that consumers can buy. Buy a television set and you can expect it to work for at least 10 to 15 years. ...

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Soul Calibur IV dated for July 29th

Soul Calibur IV has been eagerly anticipated by gamers the world over. The wait isn't over just yet, but we now know exactly how much longer we'll need to keep waiting, as Soul Calibur IV has been dated for release on July 29th in North America. The game will launch in regular and limited Premium Edition packages.

If you pick up the Premium Edition, you will also receive an art and comic book, a tournament kit, and access to extra customization content that the regular edition does not offer. Namco didn't say what the tournament kit contains but it will reportedly "give fans the opportunity to document the battle amongst friends." The Premium Edition will come in a metal case and will available for purchase at the price of $79.99

I've been planning to pick up SCIV on day one ever since its a...

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Kid vs. Mom. Kid: 0, Mom: 2

It seems that the continuing battle between parents and kids over game time is alive and well.

For your consideration: a 13-year-old boy in Virginia decided that it was a good idea to break the family vacuum cleaner in order to get out of his chores around the house and play video games. Not so fast whippersnapper. It looks like your mom won this round.

She has decided to sell her kid's Xbox 360 on eBay. But the story continues. It turns out that while his mom was going through his computer, she checked out the cookies and found that her innocent little boy was frequently checking out porn sites. So she decided to hack into his My Space page. The mom talks about the incident and states:

"My 13 year old managed to break the vacuum....thinking it would release him from that duty. He also has a...

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Epic hints at release date for the 360 version of ...

Epic's Mark Rein recently told VideoGaming247 that the company does have a release date in mind for the long-awaited Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3. The catch is gamers will have to wait a bit longer to hear the date for themselves.

When asked if the game had a date, Mark replied, "We do, but I don't think we put it out yet. It's kind of a when it's done thing. We have an idea of when it's coming. We have a big Midway Gamer's Day next week, in fact, in Las Vegas, where Midway's invited a whole bunch of people to come and play the game. I'm sure after that happens you'll see lots of impressions of the game."

The Epic boss added that the code is up and running smoothly. "It's in really good shape," he said. "I was playing it yesterday here in my office."

Chances are high that we'll ...

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Pro Tip: Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

I finally, finally, finally got to put some time into Rainbow Six yesterday. Although I think they should change the name of the game to 'Creighton dies a lot' I loved it. The game has been sitting on my shelf all wrapped up since its release and it felt good to finally play it. 

Having not played a tactical shooter like Rainbow Six since I completed Vegas 1 at the end of 2006, jumping back into the swing of things took some getting used to and so I bring you this weeks Pro Tip.

Pro Tip: Seriously the tactical commands are not just for show; use them.

I have been playing games with a more frenetic pace lately; Halo, Turok, Army of Two, Fronlines... just to name a few. It took me some time to get used to not only the controls, and use of the cover system, but the pace.

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 ...

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Xbox 360 HD DVD gets one last upgrade

It's no secret that HD DVD is dead. The consumers choose Blu-ray and Sony is going to be (maybe) rolling in the dough.

Those who bought an HD DVD have found themselves on the wrong end of a format war and are a perfect example of how dangerous supporting an unproven format can be. Luckily though, some of the HD DVD consumers bought their add-on for the Xbox 360.

While it still carried a steep price, no Xbox 360 was negated when Blu Ray won. Better still is that small morsels of hardware support are trickling out for Microsoft's now dead add-on. While in some way insignificant, Microsoft is releasing one last update for the fans who are going to be left in the dust. Some may praise Microsoft for doing this, but this update could have been planned months in advance before Blu Ray was declar...

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EA not charging for weapons in BF: Bad Company

There's nothing that irritates some gamers more than having to pay for more content, let alone content that seemingly should have been put into the game in the first place but cut and released later with a price tag. When word got out that EA was planning to charge players money for additional weapons in the ongoing Battlefield: Bad Company beta, folks weren't too happy.

EA confirmed today that all ten usable weapons in the beta won't cost gamers anything but you'll have to work for them. While owners of the Gold Edition of the game will receive the ten weapons straight out of the box, regular gamers will have to achieve the highest rank in the game in order to utilize all the weapons.

Originally, only five out of the 10 weapons would have been released, while the remaining five would stay l...

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The Empire Strikes Back, MS has own Wiimote?

Since the Wii launched in November 2006 it has sold bajillions and shows no sign of stopping. Things like that usually lead to other companies looking for a way to cash in on that popularity. Sony's attempt is the SIXAXIS but Microsoft has yet to counter, until now. 

An anonymous tipster told MTV exclusively that Microsoft has been working on "a controller designed to do all the Wii remote does, and more." Tipster McGee also claims that the functionality will be very similar to Wii remote, but will have its analog stick on the device itself, instead of as a separate attachment, ala nunchuk.

The whole thing seems like it's going to be a tacked on mess. Adding another type of controller will probably confuse people more than help them, because clearly the three Xbox sku's weren't doing a ...

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Why is Mass Effect a trilogy?

Ka-ching. That's the sound Mass Effect developer BioWare has heard since November. It's like a lullaby that allows executives to sleep easy. Quite often that same sound is what drives developers to create sequels to games. BioWare, however, claims otherwise.

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Saints Row 2 shipping on August 26th

Here's Gary Busey marketing Saints Row 2. Why, well the real question is why not! In the meantime, you can be satisified that Saints Row 2 will be released on August 26th for Xbox 360 and PS3.

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Mr. Driller Online is a buggy mess

You may have purchased XBLA's newest title, Mr. Driller Online. If so, you may not be the happiest gamer right now. Critics and consumers alike are reporting that the game is filled with bugs, crashes, and is plainly just a showcase of terrible programming skills.

When playing online, the game will frequently crash, your character will get stuck in walls, and you will often encounter awful game-breaking lag. Players report that these problems do not present themselves when playing the game's offline portion, so these bugs are probably just caused by buggy netcode.

Still, it's quite ironic (depressingly so) considering this game is called Mr. Driller Online. Hopefully a patch is issued soon to fix these glaring bugs.

[Via Kotaku]

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Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. launch trailer

Previously unveiled last year under its Air Combat brand, Ubisoft confirmed H.A.W.X. today. H.A.W.X. -- an upcoming aerial combat game for the Xbox 360, PC and PS3 -- is set to release this fall. Here's the debut trailer:

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Sonic Unleashed officially announced!

I got a press release from Sega a few hours ago in my inbox officially unveiling Sonic Unleashed for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and Wii. That's right, Sonic Unleashed is coming to all of these consoles. I wasn't surprised about the confirmation of a Wii version in the works, but I was surprised that a PS2 version is also being developed; I guess that console really isn't dead yet.

It goes on to say that Sonic Unleashed will utilize, what they call, a powerful engine called the "Hedgehog Engine" which has apparently been undergoing development for three years.

That name begs critiquing though. "Hedgehog Engine"? I would've preferred "Blast Processing Engine". That sounds much better and it has the added nostalgia factor. There's also mention of a new night-to-day transition system, but at this ...

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Real signs of Blu-ray coming to Xbox 360?

Remember back when we reported that Microsoft said it wouldn't be implementing Blu-ray in the Xbox360 and we laughed? It looks like we were right and they've been fibbing.

You would think that Blu-ray technology, with its obvious success over the format war, would be a wise consideration for Microsoft to implement in their popular Xbox 360 gaming console.

According to industry sources over at digitimes.com, Lite-On IT is developing built-in Blu-ray Disc ROM drives for the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console.

"It is reported that Microsoft plans to offer a new Xbox 360 hardware revision equipped with a BD-ROM drive to compete with Sony's PlayStation 3. Taiwan-based Lite-On IT is said to have been invited to participate in designing the drive. Lite-On's shipments of the BD ROMs to Microsoft will ...

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Prototype's multiplayer mode cut from the game

Developers always have a difficult time when it comes to multiplayer in a game. Sometimes it can awesome but other occasions it can bog down development, and ultimately take away from the single player team resources making the overall game more mediocre than good.

Such was the case with PROTOTYPE, a free roaming experience which allows the gamer to take control of a genetically infected human who has been gifted with inhuman abilities and hunted by a secret faction of the government. One would think that co-op would be an awesome addition to this experience and for a while the team tossed around the idea. "From its inception PROTOTYPE was planned first and foremost as a single player open-world/action game. Naturally, with Alex's genetically mutated shape-shifting abilities, we started t...

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Mark Rein 'blown away' by new 50 Cent game

The Unreal Engine 3 is being used everywhere these days, which makes VP of Epic Mark Rein happy. But sometimes you can't just fathom how a game can look and play out without looking at it in real-time. So when Rein saw what Swordfish Studios were doing with the new 50 Cent: Blood and Sand game, he was "blown away."

"When we heard he was coming we were like 'oh no, we're gonna get killed!' But he was over the moon, we're chuffed about it," game director Julian Widdows told CVG in an interview. "We're obviously an Unreal Engine 3 licensee and he just came in for a visit and said 'oh my god, I can't believe you're working on this, it looks phenomenal'. That was it; it wasn't anything particularly formal, he came in to say hello to his licensees and was blown away by it. That was great for us....

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Gamerscore cheating. Does size really matter?

Most gamers see the Xbox game achievements as a fun way to make their games more challenging. But for some, a high Gamerscore or a perfect achievement point score is a badge of game prowess.

Sure, you can't do much with them, (except for the time when Microsoft offered swag for points), but other than that, Gamerscores are just ammo for bragging rights. But for others, they'll go as far as cheating to get bigger numbers.

Last week, Xbox Live addressed the problem of gamers who cheated in order to enhance their Gamerscores. But what goes on in the mind of these cheaters? One gamer, Aaron "coldraccoon" Mesec, has turned from his evil ways and related his story to multiplayer.blog.

Mesec said of his life of cheating, "I started cheating, I guess, because I got addicted to gamer score completio...

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