Got Vista Premium? You Can Stream Netflix To Your 360

Gaming Leads to Less Tree Climbing, Which Leads to Weak Children

In 2006/07 - the latest year for which data is available - 1,067 children under 15 needed medical assistance for tree falls. In 1999/00 the figure was 1,823.

Rumors have abounded regarding an upcoming motion control device for the Xbox 360, purportedly codenamed "Newton" — first, a loquacious anonymous source told MTV that such a controller is in development with support from developer Rare, and next 8bitjoystick pegged patents from Gyration, the same company responsible for Nintendo's Wii remote technology, as the likely tech behind Microsoft's top-secret project.

Gyration, however, unequivocally denied yesterday that it has any such project in development with Microsoft. However, talking to Rare, Microsoft and a company called Motus revealed more items of interest regarding the "Newton" — the picture seen above is Motus' "Darwin" controller.

These evergreen features are made for weekends: GamesRadar has a list of the 15 best video game stories of all time. It's good for a midafternoon bull session between the hours of whatever you're playing (still hammering on Bully, myself.)

I haven't played many on the list to be quite honest, as lots are PC games and I am one of those lifelong Mac users (sue me). In fact, the only Portal I played was the interactive novel on a Macintosh Plus back in 1987. Not sure if interactive novels qualify, they might be more novel than game, but that one was outstanding.

I'm also a little surprised that neither Sam & Max nor, for that matter, Full Throttle (an extremely underrated game) didn't make the list. Throttle especially, as it had one of the great finales of all time, when Ripburger goes into the chasm clutching a "Can't beat a Corley" license plate. Indeed.

I've put the full list after the jump, if you want to see what made it without going through the whole article, which has some nice YouTube and flash videos of game highlights.

Just to show I don't have knee-jerk Microsoft hate every time an Xbox crashes, here is an utterly retarded story that involves a bricked 360, fire, and Arkansas. Dangerous combination, in all.

We start with Carl Olson of Little Rock. I would call him a gamer but I'm not sure what game he was playing, as he tells us that his 360 had already gone into Rings O' Death mode. Maybe he was enjoying 30 seconds of startup screens, I don't know.

One thing Namco loves is their Japanese RPGs and in particularly, their "tales" series. The franchise has moved over 10 million units which is pretty damned impressive when you think about it. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the series and to celebrate, they are rolling out two new Tales games, Tales of Symphonia for the Wii and Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox 360.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is set two years after the original tales of Symphonia. A new game mechanic has been introduced that will allow players to capture over 200 monsters and raise them to help out in battle. The real time battle system is back allowing you to switch your attacking character on the fly, even in the middle of battle. The graphics have received an upgrade for the Wii as well with new character and background designs. While there are quite a few changes, onlookers observed that it is still very similar to the original.

Tales of Vesperia will debut on the 360 and marks the first time a Tales game will be presented in HD for in game play and the animated cut scenes. The graphics looked quite nice and gave me a little bit of that Eternal Sonata feeling just not quite as sharp. Vesperia also sports a real time battle system and the ability to customize your characters with various powers and abilities. If you are a Japanese RPG fan, this is one you won't want to miss as I was very impressed with the small portion that I saw.

Both games are set to release this year although there is no hard release date set. make the jump to check out some screens from both of these upcoming games.

The Panzer Dragoon series is one of Sega's most successful yet most under-utilized, and in a way I am glad. While Sega's flagship sonic the Hedgehog series has been nearly beaten to death by their own hands, Panzer Dragoon remains pristine and pure. From its early days on the Saturn to the Xbox masterpiece Panzer Dragoon Orta, the series has been handled with great care, and while part of me desperately wishes for a remake of the excellent Panzer Dragoon Saga, another part of me appreciates the fact that the fond memories I have of the original remain unsullied by what could very well wind up a sub-par revisitation, especially after what they did with NiGHTs. No, I am perfectly happy to reminisce about the series with articles like Gamasutra's latest, The History of Panzer Dragoon, a excellent overview of the series from start to possible final end.

The History of Panzer Dragoon [Gamasutra]

Splinter Cell, Metal Arms Join Xbox Originals Lineup

Do Gaming Skills Develop Like Other Childhood Skills?

Brandon Erickson at Gamecritics puts forth an interesting question. Is there a "critical period" in children for learning video game skills, the same as there is for language? It doesn't preclude the learning of languages, or the innate hand-eye coordination specific to video games, later in life, but it may explain why younger kids who grow up using controllers second nature will, depending on the game, always whip the ass of an adult who learned on that stupid Colecovision phone-looking thing.

"Guess the Date Owen's Xbox Returns" is officially over. Corey Goupil correctly guessed April 7, winning a Rock Band hoodie and some other great schwag. But really, there's only one winner here: Me. I got my Xbox back yesterday, delivered to my office.

As you can see, I have properly memorialized Corey and the four others to pick April 7: (I'm guessing at correct names here, from their email addresses): Mitchell Tai, Joe VanHoudt, Fred Collin and Donald Walen. Corey was randomly drawn from those five. All of their "autographs" now adorn my Xbox case. More than 160 of you entered, and that was just too many to write on my case, but I thank you all. Keep reading after the jump.

Ingredients: Kids, a camera, an Xbox 360, a microwave, the timeless human desire to bust stuff up real good. Preparation: Remove white plastic shell from console. Cooking Directions: Insert Xbox 360 in microwave. Cook until in flames. Remove from microwave, inhale toxic fumes, high-five everybody in the room, take photographs. Serving Suggestion: Video of microwaved 360 is above, with a gallery of fried console components in the gallery linked below.
Xbox 360 [Microwave Science, via Giz]

From reader Michael Hurt comes this: a watercooled Xbox 360. As casemods go, this one looks like someone locked the A-Team in a barn, Murdoch and B.A. improvised with some aquarium tank hose and an aerator, and the gang saved the day. I love it when a plan comes together.

My first instinct was to call b.s., on this, but then I don't know what the hell I am talking about, either in the realm of casemods or electrical engineering. And, clearly, there are holes in the top of the console where he's routed the cooling tubes. So it looks like he gave his 360 a cochlear implant. (Seriously, you ever seen an old geezer with one of those? Looks like Lobot from Star Wars.)

The guy who made this also laid a better heatsink on the power supply. Check the link for pics of that, and more. Now I'm wondering if I can get his phone number.

Watercooled Xbox 360 {Thanks to Michael Hurt]

Why The Xbox Hate?

Killer Murders 2, Stabs Seven, Played Sexy Game

I just wanted to see what it was like to kill. It could have been anyone.

Meet The Amazing Nintendo Wii

Behold the gorgeous ladies of the night of Fable 2! Which one would you pick, were you so inclined? I just can't decide. This little snippet of concept art accompanied an interesting post on the Fable 2 development blog that deals with an internal back-and-forth email about the lack of soap in the office. The reasons for the soap shortage were soon made chillingly clear.

Five days ago, in an unexpected terrorist attack, the entire shipment of liquid-soap for Europe was hijacked - hundreds of lorries diverted towards Paris and their contents spilled over French capital. The scenes were horrifying - millions of Frenchmen who hadn't washed in decades screaming as they were forcibly cleansed.