Gamernode: Latest Xbox 360 News

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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Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 sells two million copies

For you Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 fans, Ubisoft announced today that the game has sold over 2 million units for the Xbox 360 and PS3 since its release on March 18th.

Thanks to the success, the company increased its 2007-2008 sales figures to 920 million Euros ($1.45 billion) from the previous 875 million Euros ($1.38 billion).

In addition, the company updated its sales guidance for the anticipated fourth quarter to be around 210 million Euros ($331.5 million) instead of the previous 165 million Euros ($260.5 million).

Yves Guillemot, president and CEO of Ubisoft, made some follow-up comments, which also hint that Assassin's Creed is continuing to sell well too -- as of February 2008, the game has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

"As expected, 2008 is off to be a record year for ...

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Get Still Alive on Rock Band for free

Great news for Rock Band owners who live in the US and Canada: you can now download the awesome Portal hit by my pal JoCo for free! Still Alive, which caused Portal players worldwide to fall in love with the delightful singing of a murderous machine (the first incident since Jason Alexander starred in Terminator the Musical), is one of the most popular songs on lists ranging from Audiosurf to Last.FM, and for good reason. Now, we can rock out to the epic tune with friends, and constantly tell people "The cake is a lie!" because that totally isn't old yet.

According to Major Nelson, it might be free for a limited time only, so if you're in the US and Canada get to downloading while you can. (For those of you in the UK, South America, or Australia, no word yet on when [or if] you'll get the ...

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GTA4 achievements leaked?

Are you a goal digger? Do you play games, even awful ones, just for the achievement points? If so, today (may) be your lucky day. Two members at Gamespot and Xbox360Achievements have come together and posted what appears to be the GTA4 achievements list. I have no idea how they came upon them and can only speculate nefarious deeds (or Rockstar-related jobs), but the lists and captures are pretty convincing, and seem authentic. So let's pretend they are, shall we?

Overall there are 49 achievements (give or take, I counted very quickly and refuse to recount) ranging from the easy like "beat a friend at pool" to the insanely difficult sounding like "get 100% completion." Of course, they wouldn't be Rockstar achievements without a degree of humor in there; my personal favorites are Warm Coffee,...

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Xbox 36izzle gives parents street cred

Listen up, parents. Are you trying to remain cool, but whenever you talk with your kids about what's crackalackin' they just jive you instead? If so, Microsoft and Xbox 360 are here to help, with their new site, Parental Street Cred. (Complete with the most radical entry gate ever, yo!) In a series of unfortunate adverts, a group of what I assume are failing scientists give tips on how to be cool, and reinforce that the Xbox 360 is good, wholesome family entertainment. (You know, like that one Nintendo game thing your kids like.) While some of the videos are entertaining (and I'm all for hot scientists doing the worm), for the most part... Well, just take a look for yourself.

(More in full st...

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Gamertag deemed offensive. Gamer stripped of tag

It's a sad day for Xbox live members around the world as Xbox Live Ambassador, Cow Moolester, has had his gamer tag stripped away from him--never to appear again on the phosphorescent LCDs and picture tubes of monitors or television sets.

The title of Xbox Ambassador is bestowed upon members of the Live community who have proven themselves to be trusted and reliable citizens. Getting the title of Ambassador means these individuals help to introduce new members to the Xbox Live service and community.

But apparently some individuals on Xbox live reported that the gamertag, Cow Moolester, was offensive to them and Microsoft dictated that the once ingenious gamertag be changed to a dreary and bland Moo Cowlester.

The Xbox Live member formerly known as Cow Moolester said of the incident:

"Sad. Is t...

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Banjo-Kazooie is alive! Coming to the 360 in 2008

Were you a fan of the old-school Banjo-Kazooie game created by Rare for the N64? I remember those days hopping on platforms, jumping on enemies and switching from the strong bear to the quick and cunning bird by a press of the button.

I would spend hours exploring the multiple worlds that the game featured, and collecting all of those jigsaw puzzle pieces to unlock the next world. Back then Rare nailed the game down pretty well.

If you try really hard to remember back a couple of years ago, we heard something about a Banjo-Kazooie game coming to the 360, but it was so long ago with no follow-up information that it might've been a figment of our imagination. Fear not though, Rare community manager George Kelion posted in a NeoGaf thread about the new official website for their upcoming plat...

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