Xbox Live Arcade games in a shop near you

Tuesday 27 Jun 2006 : 23:45 PM



Microsoft plans to release a collection of the most popular XBOX Live Arcade Titles through high street retailers later this year.

Dubbed "XBOX Live Arcade Unplugged", the compilation is rumoured to include the following titles.

- Geometry Wars Evolved
- Texas Hold 'Em Poker
- Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
- Outpost Kaloki X
- Wik: Fable of Souls
- Hardwood Backgammon

There are certainly some great games in there and it should help fill a gap in the 360's release schedule as Microsoft are probably saving up some of the bigger releases to coincide with the launch of the PS3 and the Wii.

The package will apparently hit the shelves in October priced £20.

Tags: Xbox Live Arcade

Formats: Xbox 360

Prey demo available on PC, 360 version delayed.

Thursday 22 Jun 2006 : 18:53 PM



A playable Demo of Human Head's upcoming 1st person shooter Prey is now downloadable for PC from the official website - click here

Xbox 360 fans are going to have to waith though, as it won't be available to download from Xbox live today as promised.

A spokesperson said, "We do not want 360 people waiting up for the demo or having false expectations. The 360 demo will not appear on Marketplace tonight.

"I'm still waiting for specifcs, but I'm being told that it's still in testing at Microsoft. From what I understand this isn't Microsoft's fault, and is more likely just an issue of timing.

"I'm hesitant to give any estimates for a release, but I've been told it should be reasonably soon after the PC release, but could be as long as a few days."

Tags: 1st Person Shooters , Human Head , Prey , Shooting Games

Formats: PC , Xbox 360

Xbox 360 Price slash rumours

Wednesday 21 Jun 2006 : 12:42 PM



Rumours of an Xbox 360 price slash to coincide with Sony's launch of the PS3 just before christmas are cirulating after a report by BritXbox claimed that they were preparing to drop the price, possibly to £200 for the core system and £220 for the Premium.

We can forsee two problem with this strategy though.

Firstly, the 360 will already be considerably cheaper than the PS3 and the worry for MS is that people will perceive their console to be less powerful, those with money to spend will assume they are getting the best console by buying a PS3. Wouldn't this be a bad move in terms of peoples perception of the 360's power ?

Secondly, if you're going to lower the price of both the core and premium units then at what point does it become pointless to have two price points (some would say from launch day!) , if there's only going to be £20 difference then surely they would drop the core ?

As one BritXbox user has already pointed out, MS could just bundle more good software with the machine to make it look more attractive but still make it look like it's in competition with the PS3 price/power wise. We agree.

Tags: Microsoft

Formats: Xbox 360

Only 27% of top 300 xbox games backwards compatible on 360

Thursday 15 Jun 2006 : 23:29 PM



OK, so the titles a bit of a mouthful but it's a pretty amazing fact. According to Cheap Ass Gamer if you take the top 300 Xbox games on Metacritic, only 27% of them are backwards compatible, despite Microsoft's assurance that they are working towards 100% compatibility.

The handy graph also shows that 80% of the top 10 are backwards compatible, only Burnout 3 and Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 aren't on the list yet.

Come on Microsoft, Pull your finger out.



Tags: Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility

Formats: Xbox 360

Doom3 and 26 others added to Xbox 360 backwards compatibility

Tuesday 13 Jun 2006 : 22:23 PM



Having clarified their position on backwards xbox backwards compatibility this MIcrosoft have added 27 games to the list this morning. Most notable additions are Doom 3, Lego Star Wars and Amped 3.

They've still got a fair few games to add to the list but this is definitely welcome news. Here are the latest additions.

4x4 EVO 2
Amped(R) 2
Bad Boys 2
Big Mutha Truckers
DOOM 3
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Fatal Frame
FlatOut
Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Intellivision Lives
LEGO(R) Star Wars
Minority Report
MLB SlugFest 20-04
The Punisher
RalliSport Challenge
Silent Hill(R) 4: The Room
Spawn(R) Armageddon
Spider-Man
Star Wars Battlefront
State of Emergency
Zapper

along with a further 6 that have only been released in Japan.

Bistro Cupid 1
Flight Academy
Othello Seminar
Igo Seminar
Shogi Seminar
Mahjong Seminar

For a full list of backwards compatible xbox games visit xbox.com

Tags: Doom 3 , Microsoft , Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility

Formats: Xbox , Xbox 360

UNO most successful demo on Xbox Live Marketplace

Tuesday 13 Jun 2006 : 16:52 PM




Microsoft says that UNO by Carbonated games has become the most successful demo on XBLM ever in terms of conversions to full paying customers. Apparently between 40% and 45% of users that download the demo have been snapping up the full game beating the previous record of 39% set by Geometry Wars.

The game has been incredibly popular online and will be the first game to use the new XBOX 360 camera which will supposedly hit the shelves in September.

Tags: Puzzle Games , Uno , Xbox Live , Xbox Live Arcade , Xbox Live Marketplace

Formats: Xbox 360

See Virtua Tennis 3 in action

Tuesday 13 Jun 2006 : 10:44 AM



This is the first video to be released of Virtua Tennis 3, the best tennis game ever (until Wii sports comes out !) it's coming out next year on xbox 360 and Playstation 3. More details to follow.

Tags: Sports , Virtua Tennis 3

Formats: Playstation 3 , Xbox 360

First video of new Golden Axe remake

Monday 12 Jun 2006 : 21:31 PM



This video was apparently taken at this years E3, presumably it's taken this long to surface because whoever shot it wasn't supposed to be.

We have absolutely no details about it, but the video suggests it's coming out on xbox 260 and PS3 in 2007. We'll let you know if we hear anything else.

Tags: E3 , Golden Axe , Retro , Sega

Formats: Playstation 3 , Xbox 360

Lumines Live and more coming to Xbox Live Arcade this summer

Monday 12 Jun 2006 : 17:49 PM



A leaked magazine article has launch dates and prices for loads of new 360 game content and Live arcade games according to a story on GamesRadar.

New games coming to Live arcade this summer include an online enabled version of the classic PSP puzzler Lumines, to sell for 1200 points (around a tenner) , which is great news. Other arcade games coming over the summer include updates of Pac-Man and Frogger and new games Cloning Clyde and RoboBlitz to be priced between 400 and 800 points.

There is also going to be more downloadable content for PGR3 (5 new cars and 2 new racing modes – cat and mouse and proximity based racing) along with new maps for Perfect Dark Zero and a new co-op mode for Kameo.

Looks like the Xbox live content drought may be coming to an end.

Tags: Lumines , Xbox Live

Formats: Xbox 360

Xbox 360 Dashboard update finally live

Monday 12 Jun 2006 : 14:05 PM



Microsoft finally released the long-awaited update to the Xbox 360 dashboard on Friday. According to Microsoft main man Major Nelson the update contains 125 improvements, some of them very noticeable such as the background downloading (at last!) and some of them less noticeable such as the ability to clear the memory cache.

We upgraded our 360 over the weekend and we're pleased to report that the process was incredibly quick (although it was over an 8meg broadband connection) and completely painless. So far we've noticed that your music selection keeps playing when you go back into a game (although initially disappears for the intro screens), the live arcade games list is more organised. and we've immediately set our box to “boot to dashboard” , a feature which should have been there from the start but is very welcome.

So full marks to Microsoft. We wouldn't be surprised if the next major update was around the time Sony launch the Playstation 3, to steal a bit of their thunder.

For a full list of all 125 changes click here

Tags: Xbox 360 Dashboard , Xbox Live

Formats: Xbox 360