New Xbox 360: Confirmed.

Paul Thurrott, the man behind Windows Weekly and Winsupersite.com, confirmed on the latest episode of Windows Weekly that the newly announced IPTV function of the Xbox 360 will require a full hardware upgrade, not just a software update. This new 360 will feature motherboard components to support IPTV, a bigger (much needed) hard drive, and the quieter, cooler 65mm chips. Curiously, he said nothing about the inclusion of an HDMI port... This is big news for current 360 owners, is IPTV worth another purchase, especially if it's the only way to get the new bigger HDD? Will you buy one?
Listen to Paul and Leo on Windows Weekly here

XBLA's Castlevania, To Be Over 50MB.

For those of you who don't know, Castlevania SotN is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, the big deal (other than it's everyones favorite Castlevania game) is that it will be over the 50MB limit Microsoft imposed on developers. Up until now every XBLA game had to be under 50MB, so we'll see what all the other devs say after working so hard and cutting out material from their game to make it fit and now it doesn't have to. There is talks of a bigger memory card in the works so that could be the reason for the bump up in capacity.

(Via: 360 Fanboy)

Who Wants a Mongoose?

Me, that's who. Okay, so it looks pretty bland, but the write up is more than enough to get any self respecting Halo fan (not you Bacon) salivating at the thought of using one of these babies to get away, flag in hand, to zip over the hilly terrain just in time to dodge a Spartan Laser. We can't wait to play the Beta, Jay and I are both signed up, George is no doubt on his way, we'll see you there! Zoom Zoom!!

Heavy Weapons - XBLA's Next Release

Heavy Weapon is another original game (No retro classics wanted here!) coming out for the Xbox Live Arcade, and is scheduled to be released next Wednesday. IGN got a chance to play the game in a pretty much complete build at the CES 2007 show. Luckily for us, they wrote up a small preview of the game. Sounds very simple to play, and very fun to boot, if the image above doesn't intrigue you, how about the promise of co op, lots and lots of explosions, a boss blitz mode - you pitted against boss after boss to see how long you can survive, a standard survival mode, and full leaderboard support?

Is this appealing to your destructive nature, or do you think developers have to work a bit harder in order for you to fork out for some XBLA goodness? What would you like to see from the Arcade?

More 'The Darkness' Images

And oh my does it look good. The lucky guys over at Gamertagradio got a brilliant batch of images for the upcoming game from Starbreeze, The Darkness. Its over 10 times the amount of images 2k games released for Bioshock, and the detail in the images (some of which are of the 720p variety) is simply fantastic, the lighting is used very well to create a great contrast between the light and, erm, the darkness. You can view all the images over at flickr, or alternatively, you could just have a look at (and click for larger versions) some choice pictures below. Here's a little rundown of some of the features you can expect from the game when it ships to retail sometime this quarter, followed by those images:

Features:
• Based on the comic book “The Darkness”, created by Top Cow.
• Game story written in collaboration with acclaimed comic-book author, Paul Jenkins.
• Experience extremely intense cinematic action in this gritty, first-person, action-adventure game with a horror twist: you are the horror!
• Varying manifestations of the Darkness allow you to devour, impale or implode your enemies.
• Cannibalize the corpses of your slain victims and transform them into Darklings – impish and hilarious demonites that commit unspeakable acts.
• The absence of light feeds and replenishes the Darkness so seek the shadows wherever possible.
• Fight your way through the dark and seedy underbelly of New York City as well as the ethereal realm of the Darkness.
• Play as Darklings in online multiplayer games and face other players in traditional multiplayer modes as well as all-new innovative game modes.
• Developed by the team behind the award winning, “The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay”.

Now, it's media time...
Same damage effect as RS: V. In other news, nice helmet.


Aw man, looks like he just got hit by the Cole Train...


Taken straight from Viva Pinata, nope, wouldn't wanna meet this critter in dark alley...


Awesome detail


Now, compared to the last set of images we brought to you guys, do you think it's getting better and better, or still only warranting a 'meh'?

Gears of War Map Pack Impressions

Xbox360fanboy has some impressions of the much talked about Gears of War Map Pack which were released today for the despicable price of...free!
It seems they are two very contrasting maps, one more suited to the stop and pop gameplay which made Gears so fun to play, the other, it's so small there's simply no damn time to get to cover, soldier!

GRAW 2 Hands on preview

IGN has a large hands on preview of a game we have particular interest in, GRAW 2. Also included in the preview is an in -game video (oh yes) and some gorgeous single player screen grabs. It's a great read and is shaping up for be a must by for everyone at 360insight, head over and have a look-see yourself.

New Bioshock Screens

click for larger image
To tide us over till June (just), 2k games have released a number of screenshots (just qualifying for usage of the plural sense of the word) of Bioshock in action. Those who aren't aware of the greatness that will be Bioshock should go familiarize themselves with the previous coverage it has got here at 360insight. It's shaping up to be a truly epic game, and arguably a worthy successor to its well known predecessor, System Shock (1 and 2). Below are both screenshots (yes, that's only two) displayed as large as the web page will allow, but feel free to click on them for larger versions. These pictures come courtesy of the wonderful Xboxyde.

Reminder: Ms. Pac-Man on XBLA Tomorrow

The overly successful successor (see what i did there?) to the original loose change gobbler, Pac-Man, is coming to an Xbox360 near you come this VERY exciting Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday. Exciting in that we get free Gears of War maps, not so much about, no dis-respecting Miss, the release of Ms. Pac-Man. At 400 points for a game superior to a game you've may already have bought, will you be paying for yet another coin-op classic?

New 360 exclusive bonus songs for Guitar Hero II

RedOctane has released a list of bonus songs for their new 360 game Guitar Hero II. This game is expected about march sometime. We the 360 people get 10 more songs than the 64 PS2 gamers got. These are the songs below enjoy.

"Billion Dollar Babies" by Alice Cooper
"Dead!" by My Chemical Romance,
"Hush" by Deep Purple,
Life Wasted" by Pearl Jam,
"Rock 'n' Roll Hoochie Koo" by Rick Derringer,
"Possum Kingdom" by Toadies,
"Salvation" by Rancid
"The Trooper" by Iron Maiden.

With some of these songs, we here at 360 insight never even heard of them. So if you buy this game and the songs are duds, don't spam us on xbox live.

GoW with new maps

They know you love GoW so they are releasing new downloadable content. On January 10th, the second emergence day. What to content has in stored for us are "Raven Down" and "Old Bones"
here is a description of them.

Raven Down: A Raven Helicopter has gone down in the middle of a large scale battle with the omnipresent Locust Horde. Gears have taken out the Seeder and gamersjoin Delta Forces moving into the crash site from all angles to search for survivors.

Old Bones: In an attempt to eradicate any traces of human history and culture, the Locust Horde has emerged under Sera's Capitaline Museums and has begun to destroy them brick by brick. Each gamer's mission is to help the Delta Force recapture the museums before all remnants of humankind's existence are obliterated.

(DannyOB ed. The maps are free, along with an autoupdate fixing a lot of greivances people had, the maps are being sponsored by the Discovery Channel)

TV Through You Xbox 360.

Bill Gates announced tonight at CES in Vegas that later this year the Xbox 360 will be supporting IPTV. Now, IPTV is just a fancy label for "TV over the Internet." Think of it this way, it will basically turn your X360 into your cable box. Oh and did I mention that you can record TV with it too? So now your 360 can play:

• Games
• Demos
• Pictures
• Music
  
• Movie Trailers
  
• Movies
• TV Shows
• TV
  
• Record TV

What the hell else do you need it to do? Now we just need that much rumored bigger HDD...

Hard To Believe, No One Wants A PS3.

Don't they get it, people don't buy the PS3 because they can't find one, it's because its worthless (for now). As Joystiq says, "Get 'em while they're hot, expensive, and short on (good) games!!!"

(Via: Joystiq)

Xbox 360, Take Two.

The big rumor on the proverbial Blogger street today is a Xbox 360 revision, one with an HDMI output and 120gb HDD drive. Engadget has the scoop on all this crazy info including a cooler (and quieter) processor and Joystiq even speculates on the inclusion of built-in WiFi... Now, I'm not too excited about the HDMI (until I get my DLP ;-), but the 120gb HDD would be awesome for new obsession with the Video Marketplace and the ease of downloading HD TV Shows like: CSI, Studio 60, Chappelle Show, South Park, and even Macgyver!

(Via: Edgadget)

Buy The Halo 3 Demo, Get Crackdown For Free!

Just like a box of cereal, *Specially Marked* boxes of Crackdown (Microsoft's newest GTA Clone) come with and invitatation to play the Halo 3 Beta (Read: Halo 3 Demo).