Games for the week of 5/28/07!

Forza Motorsports 2

Ships 5/29

With authentic simulation physics, bone-jarring damage, photo-realistic graphics, and licensed tuning and customization options, the franchise improves on the unprecedented features gamers enjoyed in its debut installment. Loaded with more than 300 of the world's hottest cars for you to collect, personalize and tune, "Forza Motorsport 2" gives you a complete racing experience.

Shadowrun

Ships 5/29

FASA Studio, the creative minds behind “MechWarrior®” and “Crimson Skies®,” are back with “Shadowrun,” the new multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) based on the much-beloved role-playing game (RPG) franchise. “Shadowrun” propels team-based combat into a new dimension with a revolutionary blend of modern weaponry and ancient magic. Up to 16 players can battle for control of this new world through Xbox 360-to-Windows Vista online compatibility. In “Shadowrun” players vie for supremacy in a constantly evolving battlefield where advanced technology and ancient magic provide an unprecedented and high-velocity tactical action experience.

Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia

Ships 5/29

Four friends get together for a party while the parents are away, but somebody ... or something, is about to crash the party. In four-player melee action, you will fight off the monster invasion in this top-down action/shooting game. Customize and build your own weapons by grabbing parts from the house and town to create more powerful attack tools, and find rare parts to build some ultimate weapons. Jack abandoned vehicles and deck them out with weapons to ride through the terrain and take out creatures. Visit five locations, including the suburban town, the high school, and the "Shopping Maul." The use of the Ageia NovodeX Physics platform allows you to interact with the environments physics to give yourself an advantage, such as creating barrides or throwing large objects, while the visual system uses the advanced Unreal 3 Engine.

Surf's up

Ships 5/29

Surf’s Up is an exciting arcade surfing and extreme sports video game. The action is set at the annual "Reggie Belafonte Big Z Memorial Surf Off," where surfers from around the world are ready to risk it all for glory. Players will experience the rush and thrills of surfing in exotic surf spots around Pen Gu Island and can rip it up and play as one of 10 characters from the film, including Cody, the young challenger from Shiverpool; Tank, the merciless champion; or Big Z, the surfing legend from the past. Only by mastering and understanding the waves can the player become not only the new champion, but a true surf legend.

The above list was compiled by release dates from Ebgames.com and are subject to change.

Halo 2 Vista ships with accidental partial nudity!

I am not sure what to think about this because it is pretty bizarre to say the least but apparently, Halo 2 for Vista has shipped with "accidental" partial nudity.

Now I don't know what the partial nudity is but I would love to see what this is all about so if someone out there could send me a pic of this it would be greatly appreciated.

It has come to our attention that an unfortunate, obscure content error which includes partial nudity was included in our initial production of "Halo 2" for Windows Vista. As such, we have updated the initial game packaging at retailers with a label, so customers are aware before purchasing the game. Additionally, we've developed an online update which can be downloaded from www.halo2.com to remove the content.

I would love to see what a grunt's unit would actually look like or better yet, Cortana's digital dairy pillow's.

Lawsuit claims XBOX killed baby!

A lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft claiming that an XBOX 360 power cord over heated and caused a fire that killed a baby in 2004. 

I think the lawsuit that has made it's way on to the Internet's has made a mistake because the 360 wasn't even out in 2004.  Now if you remember back in 2005, Microsoft issued a recall on XBOX 1 power cords and it's this issue that the lawsuit is actually about.

InformationWeek is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft and Wal-Mart, claiming that a house fire that killed an infant boy in Illinois was caused by the overheating of an Xbox 360 power cord. The lawsuit stated the fire occured in December 2004, which means that the console couldn't had been caused by an Xbox 360 since it had not yet been released to stores. Microsoft did announce a recall of 14 million original Xbox power cords in February 2005, however. The lawsuit is seeking damages in excess of $50,000. An unnamed power supply maker is also named in the lawsuit.

This story comes via Firingsquad.com!

Halo 3 to drive the XBOX game division in to the black!

Gamespot.com is running an article about the sales of Halo 3 pushing Microsoft's XBOX game division in to the black for the first time according to analysts Goldman-Sachs.

Perhaps more significant than the sales figures that Goldman-Sachs expects
Halo 3 to put up is the analysts' expectation that by the end of its first week
of release, the game will have driven Microsoft's Xbox division to its first
profitable quarter ever. Microsoft has been touting its fiscal 2008 as the
turning point in the entertainment and devices division for some time, as Robbie
Bach first made mention of the profitability goal in
July of 2006.

Popular PSP game Exit is headed to XBLA!

Taito's much loved PSP platformer Exit is coming to XBLA for 800 points.

The Xbox 360 version is promised new levels, and of course fancy hi-def graphics - which should help make Exit's unique art style look even more fantastic. Apparently it's due for release on the download service sometime this
summer, at the very reasonable price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Sold.

Hour of Victory is set to drop June 22nd!

It was announced today that Midways epic WWII FPS has been give a release date of June 22nd with a demo set for next week.

Another day 5/23/07!

I want everyone to know that I will be updating the blog later than usual tomorrow.  Normally I do it all throughout the day of course but tomorrow I will be traveling and in meetings most of the day.

I will be updating my Twitter through my phone if anything big in the gaming world comes down that can't wait to be posted, so keep an eye on that, so until than I will be out until tomorrow evening.

1. Multiplatform games may jump ship and become 360 exclusives! 
2. HAZE to be a PS3 timed exclusive! 
3. PS3 exclusives for 2007 continue to slip to 2008! 
4. Bungie says if you have any questions to please ask! 
5. Gears of War sweeps EMA awards! 
6. Microsoft considered a new system every 2 years!

Multiplatform games may jump ship and become 360 exclusives!

Game journalist Geoff Keighley revealed in a Newsweek blog that  some previously announced mult-platform games might be pulling out of the PS3 camp in favor of being an  XBOX 360 exclusive if the sales of the PS3 continue to sell under a 100K units a month.

And we both know the sales need to pick up, pronto--especially if Sony wants to keep third party interest. Already third party executives are telling me that if PS3 sales stay below 100k for 3 consecutive months, PS3 SKUs may start disappearing from release lists and in turn create a wealth of de-facto exclusives for the Xbox 360.

HAZE to be a PS3 timed exclusive!

It was announced yesterday that the PS3 will be "leading the release" of HAZE in 07.  What that probably means is that the XBOX 360 and PC will get some HAZE love in 08 which means that HAZE is a PS3 "timed exclusive".

This may have been a smart move by the guys at Ubisoft because HAZE and many other games will most likely be overlooked by the Halo 3 shockwave this fall.

Something tells me that since this is a Ubisoft published game it will probably be delayed until 08 anyway's.  Every Ubisoft game for the PS3 like R6V and GRAW 2 are battling it out to see which game gets delayed the most.

PS3 exclusives for 2007 continue to slip to 2008!

IGN.com is reporting that Final Fantasy XIII has been delayed until April 2008 at the earliest.  Now I am reporting on this because yesterday news came from Konami that MGS 4 probably wont be released until 2008 as well.

This news is pretty big because Sony doesn't have any other exclusive "system sellers" scheduled to come out this year. 

GTA 4 is coming out later this year but that game is more likely to sell more 360's than PS3's do to it's lower price point.

It looks like the 360 camp will be enjoying Forza 2, Shadowrun, The Darkness, Bioshock, Hour of Victory, Halo 3, GTA 4, Blue Dragon and countless others and as for the PS3 community.....well I guess you can leave your systems on so you can cure cancer with your folding at Home deal. 

So I guess there is a good reason to turn your PS3 on huh? if you can't play games I guess curing cancer is the next best thing.

Bungie says if you have any questions to please ask!

Bungie has a post on it's website letting people know that if you have any questions regarding the beta to please ask.

As part of this week's Weekly Update we're going to take a look at some of your questions about the Halo 3 Public Beta and answer them as best we can. Click here to succept yourself to ridicule and in rare cases, enlightenment.

Gears of War sweeps EMA awards!

The following comes VIA Gamasutra.com:

The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) has announced the winners of its 2007 Video Game Home Entertainment Awards, with Gears of War taking home four awards, including game of the year, and Guitar Hero II winning the most innovative category.

Gears of War and Guitar Hero II were just two of the multiple award winners, with LucasArts' Lego Star Wars II and World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade also taking home more than one prize.

Microsoft considered a new system every 2 years!

Original Xbox co-creator Kevin Bachus revealed to the Mercury news that Microsoft considered bringing a new console to the market every 2 years.

"our very first thoughts on Xbox included the somewhat misguided notion that we might upgrade the system every TWO years. Now wouldn't that have been disruptive!"

It's a good thing they didn't because I think the consumers and developers would have taken a shit on that idea.

Another day 5/22/07!

Today's stories:

1. HAZE to support 4 player co-op! 
2. Jack Thompson has the Masterchief in his sights! 
3. XBOX 360 Elite comes in 18th in PC WORLD's top 20 list! 
4. Halo 3 beta maintenance scheduled for tomorrow! 
5. Shadowrun demo goes LIVE on June 6th! 
6. Halo 3 beta banshee video! 
7. Images of the Halo 3 legendary SKU surface!

HAZE to support 4 player co-op!

Today Free Radical announced that HAZE will support 4 player co-op in both campaign and online modes.

HAZE is an innovative first-person shooter based on new intellectual property. The game is set twenty-five years in the future, when governments have outsourced military operations to private multinational corporations. As Jake Carpenter, a newly enlisted soldier in the Mantel army, you are seeking fulfillment and thrills by fighting for a good cause.

David Doak worked extensively on GoldenEye and Perfect Dark before going on to co-found Free Radical Design.