Gamernode: Latest Xbox News

The Xbox that went on a diet

In what is one of the best case mods of the original Xbox that I've ever seen, user ghostavel over at Xbox-Scene has created a DVD-less, vertically-oriented, hdd-equipped, dead sexy version of the normally bulky console.

This master modder has completely done away with the DVD drive, instead adding an 80GB hard drive. All of the visual design was drawn in AutoCAD, and the plexiglass case was then cut by laser so, as ghostavel says, "everything is precise." He can even use interchangeable faceplates!

He's even gone so far as to custom-produce a miniature power supply for the unit, so I'd imagine the removal of the optical drive's power-hungry mechanism was quite helpful there.

The final product is almost ready, but even now, in its unfinished state, the thing looks awesome.

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Reservoir Dogs to be Unleashed October 24

By John Duong and Billy Wang, GN Writers

Eidos Interactive announced October 24 as the release date for the upcoming Reservoir Dogs for the PS2, PC and the Xbox. The game follows the 1992 film where players can experience all five characters who carry out a diamond heist.  Included with the game will be the full and original soundtrack from the film. 

Kevin Gill, U.S. Marketing Manager for Eidos, exclaimed confidence the game will carry on the film's legacy, "Eidos is proud to bring one of the most esteemed and influential films of all time to the video game consoles and PC. Gaming and movie fans alike will have the unprecedented opportunity to play through the events of the movie as well as experiencing parts of the movie that happened off screen but are essential to the main plot....

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Scarface Blowing Up Stores on October 8

By Billy Wang, GN Writer

Consumption of cocaine and wielding large automatic weapons unite, as Scarface: The World Is Yours now has a release date of October 8. Based on the classic 1983 film starring Al Pacino, the game will be available for the Xbox, PS2 and the PC. Playing as Tony Montana, players will be engulfed into the seedy 1980's, in a universe in which Tony survives the film's explosive finale. Featuring Hollywood voice talent including Vida Guerra and Ricky Gervais, and a script written by writer David McKenna (American History X), Scarface: The World Is Yours will be providing all the F-bombs and explosions you need.

Along with the date announcement, collector's editions of the game will be available for both the PS2 and the PC. The collector's edition will include a bonu...

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SC: Double Agent Gets a Release Date; Demo Plans

By Billy Wang, GN Writer

Two weeks ago in their published first quarter financial reports, Ubisoft announced a delay to October for their continuation spy action game Splinter Cell: Double Agent.  Today, courtesy of a post on the game's official forum by Ubisoft's CM, the game now has a release date of October 19 across all platforms.

Along with that, demo plans for both the Xbox 360 and PC were announced.  Even though no release date (planned for sometime next month at least) for the demos have been nailed down, 360 owners will get a multiplayer demo while PC folks will get both a single player and multiplayer demo.

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Midway Plans to Drop Xbox Support

By Frank Ling, GN Senior Writer

Midway’s executives gave their take to investors as to which present gen game consoles the company expects to continue to support. In light of the successful sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the head brass believes that the original Xbox’s days are numbered. Midway said in a conference call to shareholders that, “Clearly, Microsoft has shifted onto the 360. Xbox software sales, month over month, continue to drop pretty quickly."

Microsoft, in a statement made in January of this year, quickly denied rumors of any plans to drop support of the original Xbox. "We remain very supportive of the Xbox platform and there have been no announcements about plans to cease or alter production.” While the Big M’s commitment to the or...

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Moore Predicts PS3 Controller Flop

By Frank Ling, GN Senior WriterMicrosoft vice president Peter Moore has responded to Sony’s decision to add motion sensing technology in favor of the dual-shock mechanism for the PS3 controller.Moore said in an interview with Eurogamer TV, and said somewhat sarcastically, "At Microsoft we did the same controller six years ago - most people remember that. The gamers' response was muted at best. We remember it being applicable to flying games in particular and some driving games but overall there was somewhat of a collective yawn from the gaming community about the motion sensing technology."Moore was also asked what he thought of the expensive price tag of Sony’s PS3, "When I remember the furor we got for 299 and 399 Euros [$382 and $510 USD, respectively], I can only imagine wh...

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Tomb Raider Is #1

By Frank Ling, GN Senior Writer

The Tomb Raider series by Eidos has fallen on some rocky times, as the once critically acclaimed franchise began to show obvious signs of age in the decline of play value and game originality. The Tomb Raider franchise gasped its apparent last breath with the release of the failed offering of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness last year. The title received many notices of displeasure from game critics and fans of the franchise. The resulting flak was so heated that Eidos dropped Core as their developer and switched allegiances to Crystal Dynamics.

But Lara Croft has come back and with a vengeance as Sci, the parent company of Eidos, announced that Tomb Raider: Legend has recorded sales of over 2.6 million copies. Legend is available for the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360 an...

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Free 'Xbox Live' Week Proves Phenomenal

By Frank Ling, GN Senior WriterDuring the E3 conference, Microsoft decided to open its doors to its Xbox Live Marketplace to provide a free week of gold membership to Xbox owners. No one had to twist the arms of the Xbox faithful, as millions of gamers flooded the gates to download game demos, music videos, Xbox themes, photo packs and trailers to their heart’s content.The event was such a success that it prompted Xbox head honcho Peter Moore, to crow a bit at the news. Moore said, "The sheer volume of downloads during E3 week was simply staggering. To put it in perspective, all the printed material in the U.S. Library of Congress is estimated to be about 20 terabytes, and Xbox Live delivered 30 times that amount in just seven days."The statistics quoted by Moore, regarding the Libra...

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Free Xbox Live Weekend. Really!

A few weeks ago, Xbox Live subscribers saw something on the calendar of events that sounded almost too good to be true. On April 1st was an event that indicating the date as a free weekend of Xbox Live. How cool is that? But once the internet hounds sniffed out this news, and started to spread the good tidings to Xbox fans, the entry in the Xbox Live calendar suddenly vanished from sight. Was it an alien abduction? No, evidently somebody let the Xbox Live news out of the bag before they were supposed to. But good news sounds again. Microsoft has officially announced that there will be a free Xbox Live Gold weekend. What does this mean? The Gold weekend will allow Xbox users to challenge, bash, race, frag, and play online, to their heart’s desire…for a limited time. There will ...

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Present-gen Xbox Games at Bargain Prices

There’s some good news and bad news coming to present-gen Xbox fans. The good news is that Microsoft has dropped the prices of 11 of its titles and has placed them in the “Best of Platinum Hits” category. Each title will cost only a mere $9.99, so for the price of two 360 games, you can purchase all these present-gen titles. The bad news is that over half of the titles are Tom Clancy games. Unless you are heavily into the Clancy world, or are thinking about starting your own Tom Clancy video game shrine in your room, the offering of titles may not totally win you over. But there may be a few gems you may have over looked in any case. The 11 titles in the “Best of Platinum Hits” to be offered are: Counter-Strike The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Fuzion Frenzy Me...

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Will the 360 Go Black?

With the imminent release of the game BLACK for the PS2, many in the Xbox 360 community have been wondering, “When does this great shooter come out for us?” According to remarks made to Eurogamer, the answer appears to be, not anywhere in the near future. Alex Ward, of Criterion said, "I keep reading all over forums that we're going to make a 360 version of BLACK, and it's just not true." Will BLACK ever be made for the 360? To this, Ward replied, "The only time you'll see [this game] on the Xbox 360 is when we make BLACK 2 on it in a few years." The reasons for not making BLACK on the 360 are revealing. Ward indicated that it was not from a lack of desire to port the game over to the Xbox by Criterion, but had to do with issues between the developer and Microsoft. Ward offered...

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The Future Looks... Black

Today is a Black day for companies EA and Criterion Games. After 19 months, since it was shown at E3 2004, their mysterious FPS for the PS2 then titled “Black”, has been shipped to the factory for reproduction. During that time, EA bought Criterion for their in-house development studios, and announced that they would release the game for the Xbox as well. Black is rated as M for Mature for its violent content.. It has been described by developers as “Gun Porn.” Players will take on the role as Sergeant Jack Kellar, a seasoned veteran of the US military and the leader of a BLACK ops team sent to Eastern Europe to bring in a traitor. Most of these missions are set up as ultra violent Hollywood film-noir type flashbacks. The game features a whole arsenal of weapons, in...

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Microsoft Denies Rumors About Ceasing Current-Gen ...

Rumors about the production discontinuation of the current-gen Xbox have been washed aside by Microsoft. The stories, which appeared on several internet websites, alluded to the fact that Microsoft had stopped production of the original Xbox. The reports generated instant concerns from Xbox owners and the developers for Xbox games. According to GameIndusty, a Microsoft spokesperson tried to quell the rumors by stating: "We remain very supportive of the Xbox platform and there have been no announcements about plans to cease or alter production. While we do not have other titles to announce at this time, we are committed to providing existing Xbox customers with exciting gaming experiences in 2006. There are 200 Xbox titles expected to ship this year. It is the responsibility of the first pa...

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XBox Backwards Compatibility Gone?

Backwards compatibility is not gone, but it's definitely on hold. One of the perks of the 360 was the fact that you could get the currently released XBox games, and be able to get an update that would allow you to play these games on the 360. However, Microsoft is now saying that there will be no updates until at least March. This means that any of the XBox games that are coming out now, are totally useless to 360 users until Microsoft decides to do the updates again. This is definitely going to cause a drop in sales of XBox games. And with the slow nature of 360 titles being released, there may be a lack in variety for at least the next couple of months.

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25 to Life Goes Gold

Today Eidos Interactive has announced that their upcoming third person shooter, 25 to Life, will be released on January 18 for the PC, PS2, and Xbox. The game will retail for $39.99 on consoles and $29.99 on PCs. 25 to Life lets gamers take on the role of either cops or street thugs. Although the game does have a single-player story mode that plays out through the perspective of a detective named Lester Williams and a thug known as Freeze, the main portion of the game seems to be directed more towards multiplayer. The multiplayer consists of 16 players broken into teams of 8 that try to take each other out on the streets of South Central. This type of gameplay will pan out a lot like a game of cops and robbers. It's nice to see that 25 to Life will finally make its release date as its come...

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High Moon Studios Sold!

Vivendi Universal has just announced its acquisition of the California-based game developer High Moon Studios, formerly known as Sammy Studios. High Moon Studios is the developer responsible for the creating Darkwatch, a vampiric first person shooter set in the Wild West, which was released on the Xbox and PS2 last year. The studio is still very much a fledgling developer, as it was only created back in March of last year, and only has one major release under its belt. As part of the deal, all 100 employees who previously worked at High Moon will remain on the payroll for VU. At the official announcement of the acquisition Vivendi CEO Bruce Hack talked about becoming a major player in the next generation and added that "VU Games and High Moon are already collaborating on a soon-to-be-annou...

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Beware the Xbox Live Predator

26 year old Ronnie Watts of Placerville, CA has been arrested on charges that he molested a teenage boy that he came across while playing on Xbox Live. Watts has not yet entered a plea against the charges which include the use of the internet to solicit a minor. He is due back in court on January 20th. The man was arrested on December 15th after the teen told his mother about the alleged incident. The two gamers were to have come in contact with each other sometime during the months of October and November while online through Xbox Live. The two kept the relationship going through e-mail and other types of communications. Watt™s allegedly received the boy™s home address and phone number and the two met in a park in Santa Rosa where the molestatation supposedly took place in Nov...

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Rapper 50 Cent Gives Parents His Two Cents

By Frank Ling, GN Writer Wednesday, November 23, 2005 Rapper 50 Cent, a.k.a. Curtis Jackson, said in an interview with Reuters that he believes his new video game, “50 Cent: Bulletproof”, would not only be ok for kids to play, but that he heartily recommended the game so they could learn “life lessons” from it. The game, which is published by VU Games, has a rating of “M” for mature (17 and older) and has a storyline in which our hero goes against crime syndicates, in search of the scum that shot him. He offs as many of the buggers as he can, and loots their dead bloody bodies for cash in order to buy more weapons, fighting moves and videos. His friends from the ‘hood accompany him on his mission of snuff, armed and ready with weapons such as saw-o...

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