Hardcore Live Arcade Gamers Rejoice!

Finally, the peripheral to end all peripherals for all those Arcade game addicts has been announced. The ArcadeStick is rumoured to be released October 1st, with the price rumoured at $70, however, the price has now been confirmed by the manufacturer, MadCatz, as $49.99. As i'm sure some of you also did, i let out a groan when i heard that the manufacturer was MadCatz, who have an impressively abysmal record of producing very poor quality peripherals. But, to make you feel that little bit better about slamming $50 down to get your joystick, you are also going to get a collection of full arcade games with your purchase, MadCatz are still finalizing which games they are going to include, i'm willing to bet it will be PacMan or similar retro games, not Geometry Wars or Marble Blast Ultra.
I for one won't be purchasing this, i have always found the 360 pad more than adequate for arcade games, but i'm sure it will make some peoples day to hear this news, and to those i wish happy arcade gaming.

Xbox 360 Live Camera to come with free game

Thats right, when the miniscule camera for your Xbox360 releases come september 19th, retailing at 40 dollars, it will come with a free game, dubbed Totemball, which really shows off the best feature of the camera - gesture recognition.

Totemball is being developed by Freeverse Software and Strange Flavour, who from what i can gather have had much experience with gesture recognition or motion sensing technology based games.
You control the game almost solely using your arms, moving the totem pole around the level and collect items within a certain time limit.

I'm sure for those interested in this peripheral, it will be good news to hear this. So now you have something to do other than taking a fuzzy picture of your balls and promptly putting it as your gamerpic and messaging your entire friends list.

HD-DVD Drive ONLY For Movies

Due to speculation on the 360's HD-DVD drive, on Microsoft's Gamerscoreblog employee John Porcaro has decided to reinstate the software giants intentions with its upcoming HD-DVD drive for the Xbox360. In the blog he says

"I'm seeing lots of speculation about our upcoming HD DVD Player, and whether we have plans to publish HD DVD games. The answer is no.

Since announcing the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player accessory at E3 2006, we’ve been clear that it is designed exclusively for playing HD DVD movies. It will not play games on HD DVD.

At this point, we haven’t seen anything to suggest that next-gen DVD formats offer a better game experience than current DVD. What we do know is that these formats will bring added cost to game developers, disc manufacturing, and could even result in added costs and longer load times for the consumer, which would negatively impact the game experience. We are focused on making great HD games available to consumers now, and games like “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” clearly show that beautiful high def graphics and huge, immersive worlds to explore are possible on the DVD9 format."

Well, i guess that clears up that then...but, although there have been no developers asking for more room as of yet, later on in the 360's life, will they be?
Because towards the end of the original Xbox's life cycle, developers were using up much more space on the discs as they were able to push the machine harder, although no multiple disc games came out (were there??), developers were getting mightily close to the limit. I just wonder whether or not due to the HD content with this generation of games, will they eventually be needing more room, or will they have to go down the, very unelegant, multiple disc route?

Just Cause Trailer Released Onto Xbox Live Marketplace

Today Microsoft has updated the Marketplace with a 90mb HD trailer for upcoming game, Just Cause.
Just Cause is currently in development for Xbox360, Xbox, PS2 and PC. Publisher Eidos is backing first time developer Avalanche Studios to produce a truly next gen sandbox game come this September.
From viewing the trailer my anticipation for this game has really increased, the gameplay, although not looking as tight as i'd like, looks insane and i'm sure will be a real blast to play.

For anyone with a 360 connected to live, log on and download this trailer, watch in awe at the ridiculously over the top things you can do, and then begin waiting for the demo to be released on 24th august.