Thursday, October 19, 2006

Tony Hawks Project 8 Demo Out Tomorrow



The promised-to-be-revolutional Tony Hawks Project 8 Demo will be available on XboxLive Marketplace tomorrow, officially announced by Activision, this heads up come from the British Gaming Blog



Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Lumines Live! Available on XBLA come Wednesday!

Finally! The long awaiting and eagerly anticipated 'Lumines Live!' will be available come next Arcade Wednesday, HOT DAMN that's tomorrow i hear you bellow, yup, that's right, you'll be able to play games to madonna videos all day if you want to. At least now we know the real reason Xbox Live was down for a day! Head over to TeamXbox for the full article.
Oh, yeah, its not all good news...it's 1200 points, PLUS a further 600 points for the 'Advance Pack', ouch. Well, it's still not that expensive really when you compare it to the PSP version. Who'll be snapping this up the second it comes up for download?

Splinter Cell: Double Agent Review/Info

Lucky you, we have a double whammy of Next-Gen Splinter Cell goodness...

Splinter Cell Co-op impressions. 1UP has a comprehensive look at the multiplayer co-op mode specific to the Xbox360. This can clear some confusion up about the difference between the this and the Versus mode. A thoroughly enjoyable writeup.

IGN's Review of Double Agent is mostly glowing of praise, even going as far to say that "The level design in Double Agent is off the hook." After reading through the review, all i can say is, me want, right now!

Enjoy reading these two great writeups, Splinter Cellites! (cellulite? sorry, it's what came to mind)

Bored with your 360?? FEAR NOT!

No, this isn't some lamely titled post about F.E.A.R. It is infact about an interview brought to you thanks to Kikizo. The interview is with Europe Xbox boss Chris Lewis. Now, in relation to the title, one of the more significant things to come from the interview was that Microsoft is "Of course we're thinking about that" when asked about the Xbox360's successor. Research is being put into the successor already, i wonder if they could lose even more money per Xbox sold next next generation...

Fable 2 Preview

I know i know, how did i get my hands on the official Fable 2 logo, well, let's just say i have friends in high places.
Moving swiftly on, Teamxbox have an in depth preview of Fable 2. Note they have not actually seen a build of the game, the article is comprised of things which have been said about the game and how things will play out in the game because of these features, intriguing stuff. Well worth a read.

360 Optimized Source Engine, Devs Rejoice [Update]

Courtesy of the guys over Xbox360fanboy comes the heads up that Valve, creators of the quite masterful Source engine, has announced "the availability of the Source engine as an official middleware option for developers on the Xbox 360."
What does this mean i hear you cry, well, according to Valve

"The combination of Source and the Xbox 360 provides game designers throughout the industry the chance to create powerful entertainment experiences, whether they're pursuing a traditional FPS, RTS, RPG or delving into new genres, Source and the Xbox 360 are designed to offer the flexibility and tools to allow designers to pursue any design imaginable."

So there you have it, couldn't of put it any better myself! Also to note is that the engine has been optimised to utilise (love that phrase) the 360's graphics hardware, including full Xbox Live support, good stuff.

UPDATE: Xbox360fanboy have also pointed out that Joystiq followed up this announcement by interviewing a Valve employee about the optimized Source engine. Some clarification for anyone a little confused by the announcement, and a little further info about the different between the PC Source engine and the 360 optimized Source engine.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Phantasy Star: Universe Beta out

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the beta for the much fabled Phantasy Star: Universe is out now. A couple of things to note, the beta has limited capacity, so at prime time like weekends it will be difficult to get in, and the Developers are urging players to really get stuck into all the customisation in the game, as it both helps them work out bugs, and shows off the real depth of customisation they've worked so hard to get in.
I'm enjoying my time so far with it, as a MMO newbie it was very daunting at first, but i'm starting to get the hang of it.
Impressions will follow, but with a twist, a twist you won't find anywhere else. 360insight is going to have two impressions from two different perspectives, one from a newbie to MMO's, and one from a MMO whore, JonnyW, if i may call him that. Tune in within the next 24hrs for those impressions.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent demo out

Released a few days ago was a demo for a little game called Splinter Cell: Double Agent. This is one of many of the hotly anticipated titles come to the beautiful white box (no longer must we say big black box) this fall. The demo is stricly multiplayer, but is not the versus mode online splinter cell players have come to love. It is a mode called Co-op challenge, an exclusive to the Xbox360 version of Double Agent. One thing to note is that many of the player i have spoken to online have not been able to tell the different between this new mode and the Versus mode of old.

A review of the demo will be in another post shortly in the name of not making single post gargantuan in size. Suffice to say i was highly impressed by all aspects of the game. Gameplay was very tight, graphics fantastic, and sound was excellent. I'm looking forward to giving you guys my impressions.

Tiger Woods 07 Demo out

Tiger Woods demo out now on marketplace. For a 916mb download, you get five different fully licensed courses, but you only get to play through one hole on each of them. You can choose to either play them one by one, or all of them in succession. Also tucked away is a tutorial, which explains most aspects of the game for those who are new to the series. There are some fantastic animations to be seen, and the graphics are really nice. It would be nice to get some rumble when i'm teeing off though, as seen in the original 'Links' for Xbox. Give it a whirl when you have some free time, you'll enjoy it, golf fan or not.