Pure, off road quad game

Pure, which is an off road game for the Xbox 360 developped by Black Rock Studio, is a game which proposes you to drive a quad. Black Rock Studio has experience in this domain so we can hope that the game will have a lot of fun. Not only the game will try to seduce the players with his arcade mode but also by the fact you can do spectacular actions with your quad.

I played the game during an exhibition and i was quite impressed. After i was able to play in the house of one of my friends and i can tell you that Pure impresses a lot. Not only for his good realisation, the driving is very impressive since it gives a very good sensation but unfortunately i will prefer a little more circuits to extend the playing.

Xbox 360, more cheaper but only in Europe

Good news for people who wants to buy an Xbox 360, you dont need anymore to wait until Christmas to have one at home. Indeed, Microsoft plans to reduce the price of his console starting from the middle of this month, the bad point is that those new prices will be available in Europe only for the moment so if you have friends, familly or someone or yourself is planning to travel in Europe, you can catch one before to go home. The price for the Arcade model is about 179€, the Premium model with 60GB for 239€ and the last one the Elite model with 120GB for 299€ (to compare, the price in US is 399.99$) - a discount of 20€ for the 2 first models and a discount of 70€ for the 3rd one. Microsoft, who confirms to have sold more than 5 millions of his console in Europe, bets of this discount to attract new players before the end of the year.

Special edition Soul Calibur IV

If you like fighting game like Soul Calibur series, you should know that Soul Calibur IV is already at your favorite game shop but may be you dont know yet, it s that there will have a colector edition. You can find inside the kit : t-shirt XL, the game, a comic book, a tournament kit. Depending of your console, the t-shirt will have a different color. For Xbox, it s white and for PS3, it s black.

Star wars, the force unleashed

This new game in the Star Wars tradition will bring us to play a jedi and in some moment the player will be able to play Darth Vader. The action is occuring between Star Wars 3 and Star Wars 4 you will have to play an apprendice jedi of Darth Vader on which his mission is to track and to kill all good jedis. This game will use new graphic technologies and a new IA.

Microsoft builds Gears of War heat with cheap edition

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that Microsoft has perfected the art of marketing gigantic titles. Last year, Microsoft’s elaborate Halo 3 marketing campaign saw the game make a mockery of many video game sales records and now it is geared up to do the same with Epic’s Gears of Wars 2. The game is scheduled for a November 03, 2008 release but Microsoft, the game’s publisher, has already announced two new Gears of Wars editions - not Gears of War 2. There will soon be a two-disc collector’s edition and a generic game disc at a discounted price. The discounted copy will be priced $39.99 for the 360 and 29.99 for the PC, while the collector’s edition will lighten your pockets by $39.99.The collector’s edition will include previous GOW downloads and special GOW 2 content.

The Black Xbox “Elite” Is Coming

The rumored black Xbox has now been confirmed. It will be called the elite and it will be limited edition. It will sport a few performance upgrades like all black casing for the case, live headset, and controller, and will have brand new packaging. After the Elite sells out, it will still be produced, but it will be produced and sold as the Xbox Premium. The Elite will run cooler than the normal Xbox 360. It will sport a 120gb Hard Drive, and unfortunately it wont have an internal or bundled HD DVD drive. Microsoft doesn’t currently have plans to do this to any edition of the Xbox 360. The Elite will be at a price point of US $479.

The Evolution of the Video Game Console 1972-Present

Burning Man vs. Xbox 360 Launch

Now I’ve heard everything. Corporate giants are out to copy an anti-corporate festival … The release of Xbox 360 is going to mimic Burning Man … I’m not sure how I feel about this. It’s actually quite disturbing. But for you gamers, I suppose it’ll be a rockin’ event.

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000697067435/

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Burning Man meets E3 for Xbox 360 launch
Posted Nov 10, 2005, 8:27 AM ET by Vladimir Cole
Related entries: Culture, Nintendo Revolution, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Chris Di Cesare, director of Xbox marketing, spent a few minutes rappin’ with us about Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox 360 launch event out in the middle of the Mojave desert. Since we’ve already covered the basics (all you need to know is that event tickets are being given away throughout the day today at participating websites), we’ll spend a little more time deconstructing the event itself.

Chris noted that the event has been likened to the Burning Man festival that takes place annually in Black Rock desert, Nevada. That Microsoft acknowledges and even embraces the idea that this is “Burning Man meets E3” indicates that they’re shooting for a completely different vibe than the Times Square/Toys-R-Us location they chose to host the original Xbox launch on November 16, 2001.

With the Zero Hour event, the company is shooting for “overtones of being something that’s more of a festival or celebration…. We wanted to do something that was different, and something that was true to the audience that the box was designed for, and that’s the gaming audience,” said Chris.

This isn’t the first time that Chris has adopted (some would say usurped) a fringe cultural movement. First, it was the wildly successful I Love Bees campaign that brilliantly adopted the ARG (alternate reality gaming) genre for marketing purposes, a success that subsequent imitators have failed to achieve. Now, by openly evoking Burning Man (and we assume designing the actual event so that it feels like Burning Man), Microsoft (and Sony for that matter) have been tirelessly campaigning to reform gaming’s image in a larger version of the reinvention personified by Xbox architect and Microsoft VP J Allard (pictured below).

Game Developer Lists Top 20 Publishers

For the third year in a row, Electronic Arts has taken top honors in Game Developer magazine’s list of the top 20 game publishers, according to a news release. EA reached revenue of more than $3 billion this year.

Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony rounded out the top five. Microsoft slipped from No. 2 last year, but hopes the release of XBox 360 will improve the company’s revenues as well as its stature among game publishers. Activision jumped up from No. 7, thanks in part to popular titles such as X-Men Legends and the Tony Hawk’s Underground series.

Atari slipped to No. 13, while a strong year for Bandai, LucasArts and Capcom have helped the companies secure spots on the list, knocking Koei and Empire of the list.

The guide will be available on newsstands through Nov. 14, or check it out on Game Developer’s website.

Halo 2 Update Takes Care of Cheaters

The announcement of the latest Halo 2 update was explicit enough regarding the policy about cheats, mods and various other hacks – and for those who use them as well:

Q: What will happen to a player if his or her Xbox contains modded content?

A: You will be banned if you are detected playing our game with modified Halo 2 content. Your ban will be from matchmaking, it will be permanent, and there will be no appeal process.
[…]
A: Playing with ANY modified content online is a bannable offense. Custom game types, created or loaded using Action Replay or similar devices, and then played on Live are considered modified content.

If one were to decide to not download this update, the consequences are also made clear enough – no access to the Live Servers anymore. Beware of softmods, too, because they’re included in what constitutes a bannable offense. As the saying goes: “this is at one’s ownrisks”.

“Fable: The Lost Chapters” Comes To Xbox

Remember the bit about “games and morality” published a few days ago about Fable? Well, good news for the Xbox RPG lovers: Fable: The Lost Chapter is definitively coming to Xbox - and IGN offers a nice article about it:

Microsoft Game Studios announced today that Fable: The Lost Chapters, currently in development for Windows and slated to release this September, will also be available in late Fall for Xbox®. Fable: The Lost Chapters builds upon the original best-selling Fable with loads of new content including new regions, quests and enhanced story elements that further enhance the mystical world of Albion. Fable: The Lost Chapters gives players the chance to fight new monsters, use epic spells to obliterate huge numbers of enemies, don new armor, wield additional weapons and interact with friends and foes using amazing new expressions.

You can read the full article here.

Devs Can Start Working Now

GameIndustryBiz.com reports that MicroSoft has now begun shipping development versions of the Xbox 360 to studios - not as powerful yet as the final product will be, but more advanced than the G5-based ones used for game demos at E3. In fact, the hardware seems to be much closer to the one of the final version, rather than the contrary.

It looks however like the launch being planned for the fourth calendar quarter, said developers will have to work quickly in order to finalize games. We’ll see, we’ll see. This at least sounds like good news, being able to work on more stable hardware than the alpha version.

Game Controller Family tree

Want to learn when the analog stick’s speciation from its ancestor the d-pad? or how about where the mutation known as shoulder buttons came from? Well, fear not, all your game controller evolution questions are answered in Sock Master’s Game Console Controller Family Tree. Starting with the classic Atari joystick, and Nintendo’s Game and Watch (alright I admit it, the only reason I know what that is, is Mr. Game and Watch and his flipping bacon from Super Smash Brothers) it covers everything up to the just released PS3, 360, and Revolution controllers, clearly illustrating the Nintendo, Sony, and Sega/XBox lineages along the way.

I was also glad to see that I’m not the only one that finds the original XBox controllers less intiutive and more badly mishappen than I’d hope. Fun fact for the day:

In what has perhaps become an industry first, the original Xbox controller has largely been abandoned in favor of the Controller S, which has now been adopted as the controller of choice.

I’ll just pretend that they left all these original controllers in the stores, and thats what I keep getting stuck with whenever I play the demo for five minutes, succeed in shooting everything but the alien, throwing a grenade not quite three feet, killing myself, and in short realizing I still don’t quite feel the need to buy an XBox just yet.

The Illuminati Barrels On…

Sumner Redstone and Bill Gates aren’t content with just one circle jerk:

In a new promotion, Xbox gamers who sign up for new Showtime service during a promotional period will get their choice of Xbox freebies. Gamers can choose between receiving two Xbox games, or one game and a starter kit with 12-month subscription to Xbox Live.

Mmmm, do we smell an L Word port? ‘Cause it smells yummy.

Microsoft, Viacom In Another Xbox Promotion [webpronews.com]

RELATED: Six Degrees Of Xbox 360

Odd Move — If Not Completely Idiotic, Which Of Course It Is

Oddworld’s president Lorne Lanning — who at some point OK’d farting and burping as the main means of communication within his company’s high-concept Xbox games and kept his job — announced that “the future direction of the company is not in the videogames industry.” Good thing they’re moving to Berkeley, CA, where a future direction in panhandling is extremely lucrative (God love Cal’s white-guilt-fueled leftist poly-sci majors, armed with nothing but parental allowances to plunk down in a bum’s tip cup on the way to the drum circle at Kip’s on half-priced beer night). [TotalVideoGames]

Area 51 [CLASSIFIED] Goes Gold

Just when we thought the only alien on Earth was growing inside Britney’s uterus comes Midway’s Area 51 for the Xbox and PS2, due to hit the shelves on April 25. [GameSpot]

Jade Empire Is Out, Why Are You Still Here?

Bioware’s latest Xbox gem is kicking ass and taking names, scoring a near perfect 9.9 (damn Russian judge). [IGN]

Top 100: Halo Creators In, Eminem Out

The Detroit Free Press insinuates the question: Why are Halo creators Jason Jones, Marcus Lento and Charlie Gough on Time magazine’s list of 100 influential people, but Eminem isn’t?

We ask the question: Where is the Insane Clown Posse? Number 101?

WHERE’S EMINEM? Time’s list of 100 influential folks doesn’t include seminal rapper [DFP]

In other hip-hop news: We here at Thumb Gods have dropped our slave name that the man gave us, and will now go by the rapper name, “Soul Cube”. You got a problem with that John Carmack? We didn’t think so.

Quickies

According to Nielsen Entertainment, men spend more money on video games than music “lending credence to a growing belief that video games are displacing other forms of media for the attention of young men.” *GULP* Is porn the next to go?!? [Reuters]

Grab your blackjacks, daggers and cannon ball bombs — Spy vs. Spy has snuck its way on the Xbox. Can a MAD fold-ins port be far behind? [GameSpot]

Also quietly out for the Xbox is Obscure, a horror game that pits monsters against teenagers. We’re rooting for the monsters, too. [IGN]

FAQs You Can Use (For Once)

Normally when we come across a game or DVD labeled “Collector’s Edition,” we head for the hills. It’s the oldest scam in the book: Add a bunch of useless, boring crap (a.k.a. “extras”) then jack up the price.

But Doom 3 CE for the Xbox is the exception and it’s definitely worth the extra $10. Sure, there is the usual batch of awful interviews, lame art galleries and even a G4-produced special guaranteed to generate a douche chill or two. But we overlook all that because Doom II and Ultimate Doom are also included in full single-player campaign and co-op/deathmatch modes.

We respect your guts if you play either all the way through in Nightmare mode, but your guts are what’s apt to paint the walls if you’re not prepared. In this spirit, here are a couple of walkthroughs to tempt you with (it’s not cheating if you don’t get caught):

The Ultimate Doom FAQs & Guides [GameFAQs]

Doom II FAQs & Guides [GameFAQs]

Motorcity Madness

It’s always nice when the local paper clowns the hometown team — it’s even nicer when it does so on Opening Day. Some sadistic sports writers at the Detroit Free Press “simulated” the 2005 season on ESPN Major League Baseball only to find the Tigers finishing in last place with a humiliating 60-102 record.

The starting rotation, a potential weakness entering the season, sank below expectations. Four Tigers starters lost 16 or more games and posted ERAs higher than 6.00. Wil Ledezma lost 19 games, Nate Robertson 18, and Mike Maroth and Jason Johnson 16 each. Staff ace Jeremy Bonderman was the lone respectable starter with a 10-11 record.

FYI, the Tigers bashed the Royals 11 - 2 today. Jeremy Bonderman finished with seven strikeouts in seven innings and gave up one run and six hits while Dmitri Young hit three homers — only the third person ever to do so on Opening Day. One win down, 59 to go! And get a clue, Free Pressers, MVP Baseball is way better.

Video game predicts Tigers last at 60-102 [Detroit Free Press]

Ich Bin Ein Impressed

What’s real journalism? Fuck if we know, but Game Informer seems to. In the lede to a story about EA’s upcoming Burnout Revenge, one of GI’s more intrepid reporters wows us with flashy numbers and, like, slightly tangential information. We’re so jealous:

According to the 2004 Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute, U.S. commuters endured 3.5 billion hours of traffic delays in 2002, at a cost of more than $63.2 billion. It’s hell on the highway and Electronic Arts today announced plans to let gamers live out their wildest commuter fantasies this September with Burnout Revenge.

EA Announces Burnout Revenge for Xbox, PS2

The Anticipation Is Killing Us…

If you’re an Xbox owner, tonight marks Doom III eve. If you’re a vapid couch potato, tonight is “Real World/Road Rules The Inferno 2″ eve. We’re both. Here’s to the best Monday ever, yo!

The Demons of Doom 3 [IGN]

Jaws, Take 2

Once upon a time in 1987, Acclaim and LJN shat in the faces of unsuspecting Nintendo owners everywhere by releasing Jaws — we’re still recovering from the horror of that steaming pile. For whatever reason, 18 years later, Majesco is going to give the toothy fish another try. Game Informer sends us this warning in one menacing, unfollowed-up sentence:

Majesco is bringing Jaws into the video game world this Summer, and we’ve got new shots of the PS2, Xbox, and PC versions.

This summer? Hope we have enough time to dust off our conch-collecting skills — we’re a bit rusty.

New Jaws Unleashed Screenshots [GameInformer]

Plot To Swap Xbox Game For Gun Is Foiled

Jeez. We’d like to think with realistic games like NARC that simulate the punching of whores, doing of drugs and killing of cops, society’s youth would get it out of its system. We couldn’t be more naïve, according to the AP (and needless to say, this happened in Kansas):

A mother who called police Tuesday night after her 9-year-old son told her of his plans to swap an X-Box video game for a gun is being praised for helping thwart a potential tragedy. Wichita police spokeswoman Janet Johnson said after the woman called at about 10:30 p.m., officers went to the home of another 9-year-old boy and found a loaded handgun in his backpack.

What’s next, some troubled teen swapping a copy of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for an endangered red-assed baboon?

Phone Call Thwarts Swap Of Gun For Video Game [TheKansasCityChannel]

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