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Unauthorized Memory Units Won’t Work in Next 360 Update
Unauthorized memory units are verböten under the next dashboard update to Xbox Live, which isn’t of mainstream concern right now, but will be to those participating in the Xbox Live Preview Program. Says Major Nelson, the Xbox Live community guru: When Preview Program members start receiving the Xbox 360 system update next week, one of…
By Owen Good -
Early Play on Illegit Forza, Borderlands Resulting in Permabans
Illegitimately obtained early copies of Forza Motorsport 3 or Borderlands, being played online over Xbox Live, have resulted in permabans for the accounts of offending players, Microsoft has confirmed. The Microsoft chief of police Stephen Toulouse has said that his enforcement team is inspecting early play and applying permabans only to those with illegitimately obtained…
By Owen Good -
Reviews
Zombie Apocalypse Micro-Review: Paint the Town Red
Nonstop carnage is on the menu in Konami’s Zombie Apocalypse, which brings games’ undying affinity for the undead to a top-down, multidirectional shooter. Does it also hold the same appeal when it’s one – or four – against a thousand? Loved Senseless Slaughter: Who wouldn’t want to go up against an undead horde with unlimited…
By Owen Good -
N’Gai Croal Breaks the News to Miyamoto that Mario is Dead
N’Gai Croal, the former games writer for Newsweek (and friend of this site) floored Mario’s creator with news that one of the famed video-game character’s live-action, uh, actors had died recently. During a roundtable discussion earlier Thursday, Croal asked Miyamoto, straight up: “Where were you when you heard that Captain Lou Albano passed away, and…
By Owen Good -
Joe the Condor Ties Up Chun-Li, Busts a Cap in Her
Here’s more than two minutes of Joe the Condor – announced recently as Tatsunoko’s last combatant in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom – beating ass galore with teammate Jun the Swan, versus Chun-Li and Morrigan. Capcom’s nothing if not a gracious host. Condor and Swan Gameplay [Gametrailers]
By Owen Good -
Why Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Co-Op was Scrubbed
Modern Warfare 2 was due to have a full co-operative mode in its main campaign, but the Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling told VG247 that it “ruined the experience” of the game. “We did it early on; that’s what Spec Ops started out as, as co-op through story,” Bowling told VG247. “But it really…
By Owen Good -
Turbine: Free Model Boosted D&D Online Subs 40 Percent
Since moving to a free-to-play model, Dungeons & Dragons online has seen a 40 percent increase in subscribers, the developer Turbine said in an interview with Ars Technica The game’s free account mode limits players in classes, races and quests, which can be bought via microtransaction or though a full-boat $15 monthly subscription. “We have…
By Owen Good -
First Borderlands DLC Involves, Yep, Zombies
2K Games today announced the first DLC package for Borderlands, Gearbox’s open-world “role-playing shooter” due to hit the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on Tuesday. “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” is the DLC’s title. A 2K release describes the pack’s story thusly: Tasked with keeping the workers of Jakobs Cove alive, Dr. Ned (who…
By Owen Good -
Buy Your Cheap Halloween Costume on Xbox Live Marketplace
It’s mid-October, which in my childhood was the time Dad would take me down to the TG&Y to buy a cheap, vinyl Spider-Man costume with flammable plastic mask. If the smell of polypropylene, and dyes that run off when you sweat on ’em make you nostalgic, Xbox Live Marketplace is selling avatar costumes. There are…
By Owen Good -
Video Games and Balloons: Because Everyone’s Talking About this Right Now
The saga of Colorado’s Balloon Boy had me and Crecente nostalgic for our days of four-alarm all-hands coverage at the Rocky (which only happened every week). So I’ve localized today’s report to include the video game angle to balloons. So here we go: All the games I could think of involving balloons, their age relative…
By Owen Good -
Rare: ‘Who Knows” Why Donkey Kong 64 Hasn’t Hit the VC
Who knows? Maybe it has something to do with Rare being owned by Microsoft, and it and Nintendo being unable to decide who divides the loot. But yeah, answering a reader question, they don’t know what the deal is either. Asked in the latest RARE Scribes mailbag why Donkey Kong 64 isn’t on the Wii…
By Owen Good -
Sega’s Office Prank Doesn’t Think Too Much of Game Informer
Jen Groeling went off on a two-week vacation and came back to find her cube at Sega cordoned with plastic wrap and filled with about a zillion pages from Game Informer magazines. See for yourself in this video. I totally would have cannonballed into that pile. SEGA’s Office Pranks [YouTube, big hat tip thanks to…
By Owen Good -
Look Who’s Gonna Buy Uncharted 2
I’ve always wondered if Pepsi guys, on vacation with the fams, ever pull into a McDonald’s and go, the hell with it, gimme a Coke. Of course, that’s a smidge different from deliberately buying and complimenting a competitor’s flagship product. But give the Major his due, the Xbox Live community guru Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb…
By Owen Good -
Classic Call of Duty Offers a Dirty Dozen Achievements
Xbox360Achievements.org, on the ball as ever, found the set of 12 achievements for the original Call of Duty, which will soon arrive on Xbox Live Arcade and will be free with Modern Warfare 2’s Prestige Edition. The achievements are worth 200 points in total and not one of them is offered for multiplayer performance. Here’s…
By Owen Good -
Miyamoto’s Secret Hobby: Measuring Stuff
Shigeru Miyamoto and the Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata chat about Wii Fit Plus, and Miyamoto discusses an odd fixation he has – guessing the length and weight of certain things. It’s why he carries a tape measure. For real. Says Miyamoto: “I’ve always enjoyed guessing the lengths of objects, which is why I carry a…
By Owen Good -
GameFly Filing Shows Netflix-Only Mail Slots
The slapfight between GameFly and the U.S. Postal Service now extends to the question of official-or-unofficial “Netflix Only” mail slots, which the rent-by-mail service contends is another example of the inappropriate preferential treatment its peers and competitors receive. Last month, GameFly filed an order to force the USPS to provide figures showing how many of…
By Owen Good -
Two Years’ Worth of Dragon Age DLC is Planned
Mark Darrah, the BioWare executive producer for Dragon Age: Origins, said the studio has a two-year plan for downloadable content for all versions of the game. Speaking to The Game Reviews, Darrah said: We have plans that stretch out for basically two years. And it’s going to be everything from really small stuff like item…
By Owen Good -
NBA 2K10’s 10th Anniversary Edition
Sports unboxings are kind of a rare breed; some version of the major game comes out every year. But this is the 10th Anniversary of 2K Sports’ NBA title, and they celebrate in style with this special edition. As detailed earlier, the set is a sports locker with shelf space for 25 games inside. It…
By Owen Good
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