XCM XFPS 360 Sniper Edition

This is their latest revised build of their product which allows keyboard and mouse use on the Xbox 360 which is ideal for first person shooters as well as allowing the use of Playstation controllers on the system. XCMLive.com

gt5 vs forza 2 complete post " you decide"

Side by side graphics comparison of the recently released demo of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on PS3 and the full game Forza Motorsport 2 that was released a while back on Xbox 360. Images were taken with the same TV, same camera, same settings, same track, same color car, same positioning on track, same room lighting. The comparison is simple, GT5 is on the left while Forza 2 is on the right side. Which looks better in your opinion?

see posting below

GT5 VS FORZA MO

http://gameplanets.blogspot.com/2007/10/gt5-vs-forza-2-graphics-comparison.html

Free HD-DVD Movie Offer Extended to UK

You've heard about the free HD-DVD movie that has been running in the United States, well that same offer has now been extended to the United Kingdom. Here's the official press release:Microsoft today announces a major promotion with Hollywood’s leading film studios that will offer five blockbuster movie HD-DVDs completely free when you buy the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player at an ERP* of £114.99.From now until the 31st January 2008, anyone who purchases the state-of-the-art HD-DVD player for their Xbox 360 will be able to choose from 13 major film titles from studios including Warner Brothers, Universal, Dreamworks and Paramount. To receive their movies, customers simply send in a form, along with the barcode of their new HD-DVD player and Microsoft will ensure they are sent their HD-DVDs within 28 working days.Commenting on the deal, Stephen McGill, Head of Gaming and Entertainment for Microsoft UK said: “The HD-DVD player for Xbox 360 gives customers a high quality and affordable way to enjoy state-of-the-art HD-DVD movies. We’re delighted to enable everyone to enjoy the technology to the full and offer some fantastic movie releases, completely free.”The titles on offer are: Serenity, The Chronicles of Riddick, Hulk, Children of Men, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Troy, Full Metal Jacket, Corpse Bride, The Prestige, Swordfish, Black Rain, Dreamgirls, Word Trade Centre.

Big Surprise: Halo 3 Leads September Game Sales

Market research firm NPD Group, a provider of video games sales date in North America, released today its Top 20 Video Game Titles report for the month of September, 2007. As expected, Halo 3 was the top-selling game of the month.
Halo 3*
Play W/ Remote
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Madden NFL 08
Skate
Madden NFL 08
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Bioshock
Brain Age 2: More Training In Minutes A Day
Heavenly Sword
Medal Of Honor: Airborne
Stranglehold**
Mario Party 8
Guitar Hero 2 W/Guitar
Carnival Games
My Sims
Pokemon Diamond Version
My Sims
NBA 2k8
High School Musical: Makin The Cut

MAJOR NELSON

· NPD reported that in the US, Xbox 360 was the #1 console for the month; outselling PS3 5:1
o Xbox 360 sales built upon its growth from last month, showing a 50 percent increase for the month of September selling an average of 105,600 consoles per week. Total sales were more than 528,000 Xbox 360 consoles sold, compared to 501,000 for Wii and 119,000 for PS3.
o PS3 sales posted an average weekly decline of 27 percent.

· Xbox 360 software revenue at retail outsold PS3’s software portfolio 8:1 and Wii’s 4:1, selling 3 times more than both platforms combined.
o For the month of September according to NPD, Xbox 360 software represented 74 percent of total software sales for the next generation market compared to 17 percent for Wii and 9 percent for PS3. Even without the sales of “Halo 3” the Xbox 360 portfolio outsold the PS3 portfolio 2:1.

· Additionally, Xbox 360 is home to the best-selling games with the top-rated next-generation titles. According to the world-wide authority in entertainment reviews, Metacritic, Xbox 360 has 80 titles with a Metacritic review score of 80 or higher compared to just 31 for PS3 and 11 for Wii.
o Newly released title “The Orange Box” (Valve) and the highly anticipated title “Mass Effect” (Microsoft Game Studios) have both generated rankings of 97 and higher according to Metacritic. And not to forget “BioShock” (2KGames) which remains one of the year’s highest rated games.

In spite of the unprecedented success of “Halo 3,” Xbox 360 continued to drive third-party games sales across all platforms. PS3 and Wii had ZERO third party titles in the top ten console title list for the month, while Xbox 360 weighed in with 3. Since November, third party partners have seen their titles hit the top ten 27 times for Xbox 360, compared to 2 for PS3 and 1 for Wii.

Everyone knew “Halo 3” would be big -and it didn’t disappoint- but it wasn’t the only good news for the industry. For the month of September, according to the NPD Group data, Xbox 360 held six spots in the Top Ten Console Games. Led by initial sales of “Halo 3” Xbox 360 software is flying off the shelves. Below is a breakout of title sales from the September NPD data:
· In its first two weeks, the three editions of “Halo 3” placed #1, 2 and 3 overall for console title sales - for a total of more than $225 million in sales in the U.S. with 3.3 million units. Average unit prices were $69 per game. The $130 “Halo 3: Legendary Edition” alone sold twice as many units as the top title for PS3 “Heavenly Sword” (SCE); the helmet is mightier than the sword.
· Proving that Xbox 360 is the new home for sports gamers, “Madden NFL ‘08” (EA) on Xbox 360 was again the leading next gen platform with 173,000 units sold, compared to the PS3 at 62,000 and Wii at 58,000. To date, “Madden NFL ‘08” has sold 1.1 million units on Xbox 360, 87 percent more than other next-gen platforms combined.
· Xbox 360 exclusive "BioShock" has sold 641,000 units through the end of September and remains to be on track to sell more than 1 million units. While “Halo 3” and “Madden NFL ‘08” have led the way as the first of a string of titles that are expected to sell more than 1 million units between now and the end of the year.
o As we announced earlier this month Xbox 360 has an unprecedented lineup of titles expected to sell at least a million units worldwide, including new and upcoming releases such as “Call of Duty 4®: Modern Warfare™" (Activision), "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" (RedOctane/Activision), "Mass Effect" (Microsoft Game Studios)
· Rounding out the top titles for Xbox 360, “Skate” (EA) came in at #6. The Xbox 360 version of the innovative titles outsold the PS3 version 6:1.

Gamers buy gaming consoles to play games, and Xbox 360 has the best lineup on the market. This, paired with the newly priced points of $349.99 (U.S.) for Xbox 360 and $449.99 (U.S.) for Xbox 360 Elite which includes the addition of two games with every console “Forza Motorsport 2” (Microsoft Game Studios) and “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” (Activision) for a retail savings of more than $100, provides gamers with an unmatched interactive entertainment experience.

http://www.majornelson.com/ more here. very good site, put on your favs brilliant podcast every sunday, major nelson is in charge of xboxlive gets updated daily a must for 360 owners..

Face/Off HD DVD release will be a 2 Disc release

We can now confirm extras on the upcoming HD DVD release of "Face/Off." It arrived today for review and it will be a 2 disc release.Rumors sparked that the HD DVD release would contain less extras than the DVD (and Blu-ray which was announced but later canceled when the studio dropped support.) However, all extras are here including "The Light and Dark: Making off" and "John Woo: A Life in Pictures."All extras will be in HD.Check below for more details and expect a review very soon.

http://www.dvdtown.com/

XBOX 360 sells almost 5 times more than Playstation 3

September proved strong for the Nintendo Wii and the XBOX 360, leaving the Playstation 3 gaming console in the dust.The numbers for September:XBOX 360, 527,800Nintendo Wii, 501,000Nintendo DS, 495,800PlayStation Portable, 284,500 PlayStation 2, 215,000PlayStation 3, 119,400Game Boy Advance, 75,000The big reason for the raise in XBOX 360 sales is mainly attributed to the release of Halo 3, which is released exclusively on the XBOX 360 console. Analysts believe that it will keep the XBOX 360 strong through the holiday season.Still, these must be very disappointing numbers for Sony. The company has a goal of selling 11 million units world-wide before March 2008, which will be hard to meet. In July they said they had sold 4.5 million world-wide, with only 1.7 of them in the U.S. In early July they lowered the price trying to boost sales, which helped but only for a few months it seems, according to the new numbers. Yesterday they did it again, cutting prices with $100 and introducing a new entry model priced at $399 hoping to turn the ship around.If they will succeed we don't know. No doubt this holiday season will be watched with great anticipation by a lot of companies. It could be the make it or break it season for a lot of them.

360 outsells wii

http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/News-75674.aspx

Assassin's Creed walkthrough

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/2581.html

Lots of new footage

street fighter 4 trailer

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/26535.html

GRAW 2 Co-Op Collection

Five new missions and nine new maps are coming to Xbox Marketplace. First details and full Achievements list.

- A few fairly major shooters shipped in the past few weeks and, frankly, Ubisoft is sick of everyone going ga-ga over Halo 3 and Orange Box. GRAW 2 has been lost in the busy FPS season (and Game of the Year conversation). Ubisoft hopes to change that, by getting gamers to pop GRAW 2 back into their 360s. To do this, Ubisoft is releasing the GRAW 2 Co-Op Collection in late October or early November.The Co-Op Collection offers five brand new campaign missions that continue the story from GRAW 2. There are also nine adversarial maps for online play. Seven of these maps are remakes of GRAW classics, while two are brand-spankin' new. And for those Achievement whores out there, the Co-Op Collection offers nine new Achievements totally 125 Gamerpoints.

Xbox 360 Gets Exclusive Guitar Hero III Tracks

Guitar Hero is truly a phenomenon. Now they are including Xbox Live freebies on music soundtracks. I thought I’ve seen everything until now. Here’s the full release:
MORE THAN A VIDEOGAME SOUNDTRACK - GUITAR HERO® III: LEGENDS OF ROCK COMPANION PACK BREAKS THROUGH WITH PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED SONGS EXCLUSIVE TO XBOX 360SANTA MONICA, CA - October 16, 2007 - Music and videogames take the next step in the digital revolution with expansion songs included with a game’s soundtrack CD for the first time. Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock Companion Pack (Interscope Records), to be released on October 23, 2007, features not only the key songs on Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock, available October 28, 2007, but also exclusive access to more gameplay with three previously unreleased expansion songs to play with Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock for Xbox 360.
Included in each Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Companion Pack is a unique code users may input at www.interscope.com/guitarherocode to receive a unique Xbox Live code. Users may then input the Xbox Live code into their Xbox 360 console when logged into Xbox Live, to download the expansion songs. Xbox Live codes are expected to be available when Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock launches on October 28.
The three expansion tracks are “Carcinogen Crush” from AFI (from an EP due in December), “Tina” from Flyleaf and a remix of Marilyn Manson’s “Putting Holes In Happiness” by Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The latter two recordings also are heard on the soundtrack CD, along with AFI’s “Miss Murder,” Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing,” Queens Of The Stone Age’s “3’s And 7’s,” Smashing Pumpkins’ “Cherub Rock,” Velvet Revolver’s “Slither,” Living Colour’s “Cult Of Personality,” Rise Against’s “Prayer Of The Refugee,” the Guitar Hero rendition of “Devil Went Down To Georgia” by Steve Ouimette and the game’s intro by Slash, who is also a character in the game.Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will include explosive new content and features including a multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a host of exclusive unlockable content and visually stunning rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer game modes will also allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true legendary rock status. While continuing to retain all the key features from their prior legendary performances, fresh downloadable content will be offered on multiple platforms, and players can now shred to a killer set list from many of the most popular rock songs ever recorded.
For the first time ever, Guitar Hero fans will also be able to thrash and burn with new wireless guitar controllers available for each platform, including exclusive Gibson Guitar’s Les Paul model for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii(tm) home video game system from Nintendo, and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. PlayStation®2 gamers will also get to shred on a new exclusive shape, Gibson’s Kramer guitar, popularized by hard rockers and known for its body design, pickups, electronics and construction for furious finger fretting.

Tekken 6 On Xbox 360 Is Highly Probable

Tekken 6 will be hitting the Playstation 3 in 2008. Tekken has always been a Playstation only series since day one. Even the first Tekken was developed on the PS1 arcade board. Namco followed suit with every game in the series including 6, which is being developed on PS3 arcade hardware. Another series that was Playstation only was the Ace Combat series. Ace Combat 6 is now a 360 exclusive. Does Namco have reason to bring Tekken 6 to the 360? Read on for the facts.
We’ve already seen proof that it’s easy to port any game over to the 360. AM2 did just that with Virtua Fighter 5 which is graphically identical to it’s PS3 cousin. So porting Tekken 6 over wouldn’t be a difficult task. It’s all a matter of whether or not putting Tekken 6 on the 360 makes sense financially.
Halo 3 sales opened the eyes of a lot of game publishers. You can’t deny that they want a piece of the Halo pie. The 360 attach rate is higher in Japan than it is for the PS3. It’s 3.6 games per system on the 360 versus 1.7 games per system on the PS3. With an attach rate so high it’s almost a no brainer to greenlight games on the 360. It’s why Ridge Racer, Beautiful Katamari and Ace Combat 6 are already on the 360.
The next thing it comes down to is whether or not 3D fighting games are still good sellers. Well we know they sell in the US, but in Japan it’s quite different. To everyone’s surprise, Virtua Fighter 5 moved only 82,000 copies total in Japan. That’s pretty sad considering Virtua Fighter 2 broke 1 million+ and the acclaimed worst game in the series, Virtua Fighter 3TB moved 365,000 copies. Attach rate is a big deciding factor. It’s probably what made Sega put Virtua Fighter 5 on the 360 in the first place.
Japanese publishers are highly interested in the western market these days. In order to sell their IP’s to a worldwide market, they must be more open to system diversity. You cannot ignore a combined 360/PS3 userbase of 18 million. The possibility of Tekken 6 coming out on the 360 is very high given the current state of gaming. We won’t know for sure until next year so for now, enjoy Katamari and AC6.

Paramount will release 30+ HD DVDs next year

On October 9, the DVD Forum held a DVD Conference in Universal City, Calif. Here, Paramount commented on its HD DVD support so far.With only four exclusive HD DVDs for the rest of 2007, the studio promised to bump things up next year. According to a representative, 30 titles exclusive for HD DVD from Paramount and DreamWorks are already planned for 2008.They went HD DVD only this August.

Transformers review

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/1110/transformers.html

Will the 360 beat the wii we find out on 18oct!

Vgchartz reports that the Xbox 360 has lead the next-generation consoles in sales for the month of September. They attribute much of the gain to the release of Halo 3. On October 18, 2007 at approximately 6:00 pm EST, NPD will release its data for the USA and Canada videogame markets - barring delay. The figures in the report will cover ‘September' which is a five week period running from September 2 to October 6. The previous month was only four weeks. For the purposes of comparison, data from NPD and Vgchartz has been assembled below. Over the five week September period, Vgchartz reported the following figures. Platform....8-Sep....15-Sep....22-Sep....29-Sep.....6-Oct....Totals DS........109,710...111,962...120,520...143,137...135,581...620,910 Xbox 360...75,690....88,658...103,530...122,834...129,986...520,698 Wii.......116,659....93,455....92,504....98,173....95,800...496,591 PSP........47,409....69,113....77,144....88,586....91,966...374,218 PS2........56,726....54,979....57,015....61,409....60,804...290,933 PS3........51,714....30,158....27,122....29,618....29,781...168,393 GBA........17,729....17,497....19,071....21,269....21,579....97,145

Film Execs Blame Halo 3 for Poor Movie Ticket Sales

Movie ticket sales for October are already being recorded as some of the lowest in recent years. And who’s to blame according to the film industry? Why, Master Chief of course. Several film executives and researchers are convinced that many movie-goers stayed home playing the game instead of venturing out to the theater.
“The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you’d see in cinemas,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, a Denver research firm, adding that “this could last for several weeks.”
As their prime example, they cite the newest Ben Stiller comedy, The Heartbreak Kid, which cost $60 million and only collected $14 million on its opening weekend. What they don’t mention though is how that same weekend another film, The Game Plan, starring The Rock, collected $2 million more than Heartbreak Kid, even though it had been out for a week. Mark Weinstock, marketing chief at Screen Gems, who released the newest Resident Evil movie, has noted that mediocre reviews and an R rating could have hurt the movie’s sales just as much as Halo.
Honestly, this whole thing isn’t all that surprising to me. Every weekend, me and my friends look at what’s out in theaters to see if there’s anything that worth paying $8 to see. For the past month, the answer has been a resounding, “No,” and then we usually rent an old movie or, yep, play video games. My point is, if people actually want to go to the theater, but can’t find anything worth seeing, I wouldn’t completely fault a video game for poor ticket sales. Let this be a lesson to you, film execs: don’t give Ben Stiller $60 million to make a movie. Just don’t do it.

Perfect Dark 2 - Xbox 360’s Next Humungous Killer App

Microsoft’s in a bit of tangy soup at the moment, with so many mergers, acquisitions and transfers taking place, it seems the industry seems to be poised on a much more global front, majority of developers being engulfed in bigger organizations which push for a multi platform development.
This year has been an absolute blast form Microsoft, its stellar line up of games has satiated almost every gamer’s fantasy, with regular intervals of AAA titles. Microsoft “may” end up very well being Sony of 2007, funny analogy but quite true, but where does this juggernaut do when the New Year dawns upon.
My sources tell me “Rare” will be back and ready to take the reigns from the Chief himself. The game is probably coming along considerably well and is a step up in the genre of first person shooters, cutting down on all the other festive string of words, Joanna dark is back in the “sequel” to the smash hit N64 game Perfect Dark.
Although most parts of the story are under wraps, I managed to get hold of a couple of hints to the game. Joanna’s character has got significant changes, she is darker than usual to give the player a feeling of a twisted edge and the entire game has tints of grey surrounding all the characters.
The world is now based on a morality system, choices are going to have a huge impact on the gameplay, giving players a variety branches in the storyline itself. (This was somewhat there in the previous games as well, but in those played out in terms of levels of difficulty).
The engine that is being used allows full interactivity with the environment, and there are probably going to be no cutscenes in the entire game, everything is going to be from the player’s perspective.
Half-life is the only game so far that can pull off such a trick and allow a pure sense of seamlessness in the entire game. The AI responds to emotions of fear and aggression of the player and its teammates.
An official announcement is due sometime during the latter part of next year. Gamasutra had a little chat with a couple of its key members and this is what they had to say about their next project:
“Hopefully our next game will be out…We’ll be able to talk about something next year, we hope Hopefully you’ll see something from us before next Christmas.”
At this point of time this is still a “big rumor” floating around so wait for the official announcement guys. It’s definitely going to be big as Halo with Microsoft pumping it all up, and will probably test Rare’s true potential with the next generation of games.

Elite sells through in japan

Are things beginning to turn around for Microsoft? Maybe, just maybe: Last Friday, the Xbox 360 Elite went on sale in Japan. By the end of the day, the black HDMI console with a 120GB HD sold out at several major Akihabara retailers. AsoBitCity, Gamers, Messe Sanoh and Sofmap sold through all their Elites on launch day. When the Xbox 360 originally went on sale in Japan, it bombed. No, it worse than bombed. The 360 launch was a miserable failure, and Microsoft has been playing catch-up ever since. These Elite sell outs do come as a surprise.

Xbox 360 & PS3 Have Assassin's Creed Problems

Xbox 360 & PS3 Have Assassin's Creed Problems
by Matt Gibbs


The creative director of Assassin's Creed has told Pro-G that they are struggling to make the game as good on the Playstation 3 as it is on the Xbox 360 due to memory problems. However the 360 version is not without its own issues either - they are also struggling to fit everything on to the Xbox 360 DVD format as opposed to the Blu-ray of the PS3.

"Both have their own challenges. Right now we have a big challenge on the 360 to make it fit on a DVD, to put five languages, to put all the data on eight gigs. On the Blu-ray side we're really good, but then the memory is quite different. How we handle memory is really different between the two machines and we're struggling right now on the PS3. But we have people who are really dedicated and we're having help from Microsoft on one side and Sony on the other side to have the same quality on both systems. It really depends on the week basically as to who's best."

However Ubisoft have assured everyone that there will be "the same quality on both systems" as they have gotten people in from both the Sony and Microsoft camps to sort out the issues.

BioWare: No plans to pursue Mass Effect on PS3

BioWare has said it currently has no plans to bring Mass Effect to PS3 in the wake of news hitting on EA snapping up the developer.

"Our focus is pure and simple; it's to deliver the best game possible for our fans with Mass Effect, and that's an Xbox 360 exclusive. Microsoft's a great partner... and they've really helped build the value of the product and we're proud to work with them", BioWare's Ray Muzyka said

Half-Life 2: Orange Box (Xbox 360 review 9.6

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was hardly a gamer's natural habitat: a fluorescent-lit conference room filled with HDTVs and Xbox 360s manned by gaming journalists in office chairs adjusted to max recline. We were summoned to publisher Electronic Arts' northern-Cali offices to review The Orange Box, developer Valve's chest of treasured titles: 16-player shooter Team Fortress 2, warped first-person puzzler Portal, and Half-Life 2, along with minisequels Episodes One and Two. Valve, burned before by game-code leaks, refused to send the press copies so we could review it in the comfort of our own hi-def bunkers.

But while sequestering ourselves at EA was a pain, it drove home one point: The Orange Box is the greatest quantity of quality gaming ever. At any given moment during my multi-day review process, I could look around and see a few players skirmishing in Team Fortress 2, the most well-balanced, deepest team-based shooter on the consoles. Across the room, I'd see another reviewer contorting his spatial-reasoning skills through the mental gymnastics of Portal, a revolutionary and hilarious puzzle game that delivers an "aha!" rush every time you use your dimensional-doorway gun properly (it's this year's smartest weapon). I'd see someone else reliving the fantastic -- and now graphically up-to-date -- Half-Life 2, which has for too long remained a hot property with the PC crowd only. Elsewhere, a reviewer would be caught in a firefight in Episode One's claustrophobia-inducing environments. All the while, I was having the most fun with Episode 2, which rolls out showstopping encounter after encounter and culminates with a final battle that requires serious multitasking of gameplay skills, from simple marksmanship to pedal-to-the-metal muscle-car driving.

Looking around, it was hard to believe all this stuff was included in one box. And although PC players may crow that their version of The Orange Box experience is superior because of their mouse-keyboard controls and ability to purchase contents à la carte from Steam, console gamers have nothing to fear: Despite the minor hassle of using the D-pad to switch through multiple tiers of weapons, the games control fine with the joypad. And, seriously, even at $60, Orange Box is value-priced to the point of philanthropy. Click the links below to read our individual reviews of all the games in this, the greatest gaming compilation ever.

Virtua Fighter 5 demo is up on Xbox Live

The demo features Akira, Sarah, El Blaze, and Eileen and three different stages.

New Assassin's Creed footage

Sony will release a new 40GB PS3 for 299 at 11/10

Halo 3 Matchmaking update

Bungie has announced that Halo 3's matchmaking feature has received a surprise updated today which is in effect right now. Check out all the details at bungie.net

PGR4 Demo is up on live, here is the video review

Stunning COD4 pixs

Halo 3 Tops Japan Sales Charts

01./--. [360] Halo 3 - 59,000 / NEW
02./03. [DS] Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Toki - 55,000 / 440,000
03./01. [PSP] Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII - 54,000 / 649,000

Pioneer VSX-1017AV-K FULL 1080P HDMI SWITCHING

PIONEER - VSX1017AVK
Black 7 Channel AV Receiver with 2 x HDMI In, 1 x Full HD 1080p upscaling HDMI Out, iPod Input, USB
Descriptions

Pioneer VSX-1017AV-K

Product Features:
• 1080p Advanced 7-Channel Home Cinema AV Receiver
• 150W output per channel
• 3 x HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) Digital Link for superb digital pictures and sound
• Full HD 1080p Up-Conversion (upscaling) with HDMI
• USB Host (Sound Retriever) and iPod connection with on-screen display
• USB supports MP3, WMA & MPEG4 AAC formats
• Advanced MCACC with 5-band EQ
• Advanced MCACC calibrates and optimises sound output for your room environment
• Also neutralises the effects of reverberation for more accurate tonal measurement and calibration of the frequency balance
• Basic Phase Control calibrates delay and aligns the phase precisely for advanced levels of sonic purity
• Midnight listening mode compresses the dynamic range and dampens the sound
• Stream Direct, Sound Retriever & Virtual Surround back
• 11 + 1 Advanced Surround Modes
• THX Select2 & WMA 9 Pro Surround Sound Modes
• Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIx
• DTS, DTS-ES, DTS Neo 6 & DTS 96/24
• RDS Radio Tuner with 30 presets
• Digital Core Engine Freescale 180 MIPS Processing DSP
• 7.1 Multi-Channel Input
• Input connections include: 1 x USB Host, 1 x iPod, 2 x HDMI, 2 x Digital Coaxial, 4 x Digital Optical, 2 x Record In, 5 x S-Video, 5 x Composite AV & 3 x Component, AM/FM Antenna
• Output Connections include: 1 x HDMI Out, 1 x Digital Optical, 1 x Audio Record Out, 1 x S-Video Record Out, 2 x Composite AV Record Out, 1 x Assignable Component Out, & Pre-amp (7.1 ch.)
• Learning LCD touch-panel remote control
• Power consumption 450W, 0.5W standby
• Measures (WxHxD) 420 x 173 x 465mm
• Weighs 15kg
What better way to compliment your 360 elite with this hdmi switching feature packed amp only £416!!!
Multizoneav.com

FIFA 08 takes second, 360 sales double

Halo 3 has claimed the number one spot in the UK all-format charts, in a strong week for new releases.
Chart Track also stated that Halo 3 had doubled sales of 360 hardware to the highest level this year.
EA Sports' multiformat football update, FIFA 08, entered the chart in second place behind Microsoft's Xbox 360 blockbuster. Last week's top two - Tiger Woods 08 and MySims - claimed fourth and third places respectively for EA.
Other new entries in the top 10 were Juiced 2 at 5, and Sega Rally at 7. EA's new skateboarding franchise Skate just missed out, debuting at number 11.

As well as the 360 itself, there was one other notable beneficiary of the Halo effect: Microsoft's racing sim Forza Motorsport 2, which soared 22 places, from 35 to 13.

Army Of Two aggro video

Burnout paradise new video

Halo 3 sells 3.83 million copies worldwide in 5 days

Halo 3 has become the fastest selling game in history with an unprecidented 3.83 million copies sold worldwide in just 5 days. Over 2.6 million of those came from the US and Canada, over 1.1 million from Europe and Australia and about 60.000 from Japan.

PGR 4 review - IGN awards it a 9.1/10

Unreal Tournament III video interview

Click - TGS 07 Mark Rein Interview

PGR 4 - get into that winter feeling

360 release dates

Project Gotham 4 - 12/10/2007
HL2 Orange Box - 10/10/2007
Virtua Fighter 5 - 26/10/2007

Naruto - 02/11/2007
Call Of Duty 4 - 09/11/2007
Assassin's Creed - 16/11/2007
Mass Effect - 16/11/2007
Ace Combat 6 - 30/11/2007

Devil May Cry 4 - 29/02/2008

Resident Evil 5 - TBA
Unreal Tournament III - TBA
Grand Theft Auto IV - TBA
Soul Calibur 4 - TBA
NINJA GAIDEN 2 - TBA

Xbox 360 Falcon Chip

Some new Xbox 360's can still suffer from the dreaded Red Ring of Death. What makes this 'special' is that these systems are supposed to come with the new 65nm CPU / GPU chipset which should in theory help reduce the RRoD problem the Xbox 360 experiences.

FIFA 08 review

Bungie: Halo 3 is "Missing" 80 Pixels

Bungie: Halo 3 is "Missing" 80 Pixels
by Matt Gibbs

Does Halo 3 run natively in high definition? No. In fact Bungie have commented on the issue and provided a reason why they "shortchanged" users those 80 pixels. Earlier in the week a Beyond3D user discovered that the vertical resolution in Halo 3 was only 640 pixels, which is 80 pixels shorter than the lowest vertical HD resolution of 1280x720. Bungie made the following comment via their weekly update:

In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers – both of which render at 1152x640 pixels. The reason we chose this slightly unorthodox resolution and this very complex use of two buffers is simple enough to see – lighting. We wanted to preserve as much dynamic range as possible – so we use one for the high dynamic range and one for the low dynamic range values. Both are combined to create the finished on screen image.

This ability to display a full range of HDR, combined with our advanced lighting, material and postprocessing engine, gives our scenes, large and small, a compelling, convincing and ultimately “real” feeling, and at a steady and smooth frame rate, which in the end was far more important to us than the ability to display a few extra pixels. Making this decision simpler still is the fact that the 360 scales the “almost-720p” image effortlessly all the way up to 1080p if you so desire.

In fact, if you do a comparison shot between the native 1152x640 image and the scaled 1280x720, it’s practically impossible to discern the difference. We would ignore it entirely were it not for the internet’s propensity for drama where none exists. In fact the reason we haven’t mentioned this before in weekly updates, is the simple fact that it would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game, and given tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they catalogued their toenail clippings.

Microsoft to Continue Project Gotham Racing Series

Following yesterday’s announcement of the acquisition of Bizarre Creations by Activision, everyone wondered what will happen to the Project Gotham Racing series. Is it destined to follow the same path of RalliSport Challenge after EA bought Digital Illusions?

Microsoft has announced that it plans to continue the Project Gotham Racing series on the Xbox platform since Microsoft Game Studios owns the intellectual property. However, the publisher didn’t clarify if Bizarre Creations will be the developer of future PGR titles.

Does this mean that Microsoft's Turn 10 studio, the developer of the Forza series, might take on the job?

It’s Official: Halo 3 Is Biggest Entertainment Release Ever

In the U.S. at least. Coming off of the analytical speculation that sales for Halo 3 on Day 1 could top $4 or even $500 million, official word has come in securing the titles’ place as the most successful entertainment product launch in history. Take that Star Wars.

According to the Microsoft press document, their first party shooter pretty much owned every other product release by raking in over $170 million alone, in the first 24 hours of release, topping even the most lucrative Box Office opening. There are even some incredible stats for Xbox Live: over one million gamers logged onto the service within the first 20 hour window of availability. Congratulations Halo 3. Finish the fight indeed…

Activision Acquires Bizarre Creations

Activision Acquires Bizarre Creations
by Matt Gibbs

Activision wants a piece of the $1.4 billion racing game market and today announced that they have acquired Bizarre Creations. You can find the official press release below, but Bizarre also wanted to say the following just to allay any fears you might have:

Bizarre Creations continues to exist as is. We won't become Activision Liverpool or anything like that.
We will have absolutely no redundancies.
All of our teams continue to exist exactly how they are at the moment. Amax team (PGR4) and Shitstorm team (The Club) will move onto new games, whilst our Shared Technology team will use this opportunity to take our experience and tech to new levels and new formats.
The Activision way of running things is "hands off". Bizarre continue to have creative control over what we do, we still run the studio how we see fit, and we still get to run our own web site and do all sorts of fun community things! :)

Activision today announced that it has acquired U.K.-based video game developer Bizarre Creations, one of the world's premier video game developers and a leader in the racing category, a $1.4 billion market that is the fourth most popular video game genre and represents more than 10% of the total video game market worldwide.

This acquisition represents the latest step in Activision's ongoing strategy to enter new genres. Last year, Activision entered the music rhythm genre through its acquisition of RedOctane's Guitar Hero franchise, which is one of the fastest growing franchises in the video game industry.

With more than 10 years' experience in the racing genre, Bizarre Creations is the developer of the innovative multi-million unit franchise Project Gotham Racing, a critically-acclaimed series for the Xbox and Xbox 360. The Project Gotham Racing franchise, which is owned by Microsoft, currently has an average game rating of 89%, according to GameRankings.com and has sold more than 4.5 million units in North America and Europe, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and Gfk.

Bizarre Creations is currently finishing development on the highly-anticipated third-person action game, The Club, for SEGA, which is due to be released early 2008. They are also the creators of the top-selling arcade game series Geometry Wars on Xbox Live Arcade.

Bizarre Creations and its games have won numerous industry awards including: Best Racing Game for Project Gotham Racing 2 from the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA); the Industry Grand Prix Award from Develop; MCV's UK Development Team 2006 award; Best Racing/Driving Game from IGN; Game of the Year from OXM and Gamespy for Project Gotham Racing 3; and IGN's Best XBLA Game for Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

"Activision continues to grow and drive greater value for our shareholders by broadening our portfolio and entering new gaming categories with strong global appeal," said Robert Kotick, Chairman and CEO of Activision, Inc. "Bizarre Creations is the leading independent developer with a proven track record in developing highly successful and influential original properties, especially in the racing field. They are one of the most innovative and creative studios in the industry, and we are very excited to welcome this talented creative team to Activision."

Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc., added, "Bizarre Creations will play an important role in our growth strategy as we develop an original new intellectual property for this important racing segment, expand our portfolio in other genres and utilize their proprietary technology for cross platform development."

Martyn Chudley, Managing Director of Bizarre Creations, said, "Our goal at Bizarre Creations has always been to do all we can to nurture our creative and passionate teams, who excel at and enjoy what they do. Activision's independent studio model will continue giving us creative freedom to build exciting new brands. Their financial support and marketing prowess will also enable us to build upon the commercial success that we currently enjoy, and take the company - and our games - to an even higher level."

Under the terms of the acquisition, Bizarre Creations will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision and the company's management team and employees continue with the company as their teams start to develop two new AAA titles alongside their current projects. The 160-person development studio is located in Liverpool, England. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Activision expects that its first game from Bizarre Creations will be released after fiscal year 2009.

EDGE SLAMS LAIR & PRAISES HALO 3 & PGR4

14 The newest edition of the British games magazine EDGE has just hit stores and first readers already posted all the review scores on the internet. This months edition contains reviews of some big titles like Halo 3, PGR4, Metroid Prime 3, Lair, SKATE, Stranglehold, SEGA Rally and Eternal Sonata.

Like many other reviews, Lair did not score so well with a 3/10. Two Worlds didn't do much better either with just a 4/10. Phoenix Wright and Jam Sessions on the Nintendo DS did not impress either with both just a 6/10. Metroid Prime 3 also quite disappointed according to EDGE with just a 7/10. Stranglehold, SKATE, Sega Rally, and Eternal Sonata all were rewarded with 7/10 scores.

Halo 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 were this months' best titles with Halo 3 getting the top score of 10/10. PGR4 did very well to with 9/10. Check out all this months' scores below.

Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 10
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii, Nintendo): 7
Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9
Sega Rally (PS3/Xbox 360, Sega): 7
Lair (PS3, Sony): 3
Stranglehold (Xbox 360, Midway): 7
Skate (Xbox 360, EA): 8
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2, Atlus): 7
Singstar (PS3, Sony): 8
Two Worlds (Xbox 360, SouthPeak Interactive): 4
Grimgrimoire (PS2, Koei): 7
Jam Sessions (NDS, Ubisoft): 6
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP, Square Enix): 9
Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360, Bandai Namco): 7
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (NDS, Capcom): 6
Sonic Rush Adventure (NDS, Sega): 5

Why 'Halo 3' will decide the Xbox 360's fate

Don Reisinger blogs about the tech closest to home

With Halo 3 hype soaring, people are already dreaming about fragging aliens, dual-wielding machine guns and taunting 12-year-old kids when they sneak up behind them and put one in their head in a massive online battle.

But what many may not realize is that tomorrow's release of Halo 3 could be a watershed moment for Microsoft and the Xbox 360. With a blockbuster title that will surely captivate millions across the globe, the Xbox 360 will be the most played video game console for the month of October and should catapult the system to the top of the video game world.

The Xbox 360 Savior
(Credit: Gamespot)As we're all aware, Nintendo currently enjoys the top spot in the video game console war. With nearly 404,000 Wii units sold last month alone, Nintendo is hands down the most successful hardware company of this generation. And while Nintendo fans are quick to cite this number when their favorite console is under attack, they fail to mention how it compares to previous months.

According to The NPD Group, Nintendo Wii sales dropped 5 percent from July, while the Xbox 360, with 277,000 units sold, witnessed a sales increase of 63 percent from July. To round it out, the abysmal Playstation 3 sold just 131,000 units--a drop of nearly 18 percent.

Sure, the Nintendo Wii is doing well and it continues to sell better than the competition, but the main reason the Xbox 360 did so well last month was its software. Most notably, Madden. According to NPD, Electronic Arts sold 897,000 copies of the Xbox 360 version of Madden, representing the first time in years that a non-Sony console topped the Madden sales list.

I've said it once and I'll say it again--software and software alone will drive hardware sales after the initial hype dies down. And if the 5 percent drop in sales is any indication, maybe the Nintendo Wii's hype is finally dropping too.

Halo 3 will undoubtedly be the biggest game of the year. With millions already enjoying previous iterations, tomorrow's release could be the biggest we have ever seen. For many casual gamers, the release of Halo 3 means it's time to buy an Xbox 360. And it's this cadre of individuals that Microsoft has been waiting for.

Up to this point, the Playstation 3 has performed about as poorly as we can expect from a console. With no games to tout as deal breakers, the PlayStation 3 is dead in the water. And while some still hope for the days of Killzone saving the PS3's day, it's time to give up hope--nothing can save it now.

But Nintendo is in an entirely different situation. There is no denying the fact that Nintendo has a stranglehold on the industry and has realized that by appealing to the general public instead of just gamers, it can have some success.

But the main issue with Nintendo is its poor software library that is rife with mini games and barely appealing titles that don't offer enough of an experience to appeal to owners for too long. At this point, the Nintendo Wii feels more like a novelty item than a video game console.

But for all of its issues--shoddy hardware and underpowered technology--the Xbox 360 will take the day as long as Halo 3 becomes the success we all expect it to be.

By the end of this year, Halo 3 will sell millions of times. And as long as current Xbox 360 aren't purchasing the game two or three times, we should expect higher console sales numbers going forward.

Much like Mario games of the '90s and Final Fantasy VII, Halo 3 is a blockbuster title that will sell consoles. In fact, Halo 3 is the only reason some people will buy a console this generation.

So before everyone runs out to tell the world that the Nintendo Wii will be the de facto leader going forward, it's incumbent upon all of us to realize that Wii sales are falling, Xbox 360 sales are rising and with Halo 3 right around the corner, that trend will only continue until the latter cements itself as this generation's console war victor.

PGR 4 POWERSLIDES IT WAY TO A PERFECT 10/10

The newest edition of the British Official Xbox Magazine has just hit stores and already some review scores have made their way to the internet. Two big games from Microsoft for this holiday season have been reviewed, Halo 3, which came out yesterday and Project Gotham Racing 4 which will hit retail in about two weeks.

Though you would think Halo 3 would steal the show easily, PGR4 has earned a perfect 10/10 review from OXM UK. No specific ups and downs have been revealed yet but the game has managed to score a perfect 10/10 score. This compared to Halo 3, which has 'just' received a 9/10 score.

Although it is obvious that the hype and sales for Halo 3 will probably be way bigger then Project Gotham Racing 4, this is still a remarkable achievement.

Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 10
Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9

HALO 3 BREAKS US OPENING SALES RECORD OUTDOING ANY GAME OR MOVIE DEBUT!

MICROSOFT Corp's Halo 3 video game set an opening-day US sales record of $US170m ($194m), outdoing any video game or movie debut and giving the company's money-losing entertainment unit a strong boost toward profitability.

Alien-shooting fans also surged onto Microsoft's Xbox Live online service. More than a million members took up virtual arms in Halo 3 in the first 20 hours on September 25, the day the game debuted, Microsoft said yesterday.

Halo 3 easily surpassed its predecessor, 2004's Halo 2, which racked up $US124m ($142m) on the first day. The $US59 ($68) game also beat the $US58.2m ($67m) US opening-day movie box office record, set by Spider-Man 3.

"It's a good number," said Andy Miedler, technology analyst at Edward Jones. "This certainly goes a long way toward bringing Microsoft's entertainment division toward that full-year profitability, which we think is important for investors," he added. Microsoft aims for a profit for the division in the current fiscal year.

The game is also key to Microsoft's quest to widen its lead over rival Sony Corp in the battle for industry dominance of the current generation of game machines.

The game, in which players try to save humanity from an army of aliens, had drawn wide praise from reviewers for its lush settings, cinematic story and breadth of features.

The first two Halo games have sold a combined 15 million copies and cemented Microsoft as a serious player in a video game industry that was dominated by Sony's PlayStation 2.

Sony's follow-up PlayStation 3 is more expensive than the Xbox 360 and so far lacks any "system-seller" games like Halo 3.

"HALO 3 SMASHING IT"

1UP.COM 10/10
EUROGAMER 10/10
PRO G 10/10
GAMESDAILY 10/10
IGN 9.5
GAMESSPOT 9.5
GAMEPRO 5.5
CVG 9.7

ace combat multiplayer coming soon

Gamers who have no fear of heights and enjoy fighter aircraft will be pleased to know that Namco are planning a new Ace Combat demo for the end of September, possibly even the end of this week. The new demo will be a multiplayer only where gamers will be able to prove how ace they are in aerial combat. This demo will compliment the already released single player demo.

Samurai Spirits 2 & Metal Slug 3 (XBLA) coming soon.....

Halo 3 review

First Halo 3 reviews

The official Xbox Magazine of Australia awarded Halo 3 a score of 10/10 despite citing that the graphics of Halo 3 look similar to Halo 2 but just in HD. Elsewhere, the official Xbox Magazine of Brazil awarded it a 9/10 again stating it looked like Halo 2 in HD but all in all it is a fantastic game.

DMC4 - too much pleasure I am losing control

Halo 3 Limited Edition case scratches discs

The problem reportedly lies with the fact that there is a poorly made plastic nub and foam disc pad holding mechanism which results in the disc's becoming loose easily.

Current Xbox 360s Are Improved

M$: We have made all the improvements in our manufacturing process. All the consoles on the market have those improvements. We will repair the console sent to us with these improvements. It should be similar to buying a new console off the shelf.

ps3 & wii sales drop significantly as xbox 360 hardware explode

The new charts have been updated on VGChartz for the week of September 9 - September 15. Hardware sales are showing some very interesting things as Wii hardware figures drop 20% to well over 90k and Playstation 3 even drops an amazing 40% to just over 30k. This compared to Xbox 360 figures which increase by almost 20% selling nearly 90k, almost as much as the Wii.

Heavenly Sword did not impress in first week sales, with not even 80k copies. Bioshock and Metroid Prime still doing amazing with another 90k and 70k this week respectively. EA's SKATE debuted this week with just over 50k as the NHL 08 and NHL 2K8 games fail to impress.

New MGS4 trailer

Halo 3 Ban Only For MS Employees

MS confirms to Pro-G that consumers will not be banned for playing Halo 3 before official release.

Today's Live Games - Geon:Emotions & NBA 2K8

Mass effect combat trailer

UK Charts: Airborne Stays Sky High

A host of new releases fail to knock EA off the top spot


UK ALL FORMAT FULL-PRICE TOP 20, WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 15

1 MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE
2 JOHN WOOD PRESENTS: STRANGLEHOLD
3 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 08
4 SUPER PAPER MARIO
5 HEAVENLY SWORD
6 THE SIMS 2: BON VOYAGE
7 BIOSHOCK
8 COLIN MCRAE: DIRT
9 TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME
10 STUNTMAN: IGNITION
11 TWO WORLDS
12 HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
13 WORMS: OPEN WARFARE 2
14 BOOGIE
15 MARIO PARTY 8
16 RUGBY 08
17 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS.
18 TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON: WARFIGHTER 2
19 POKEMON DIAMOND
20 POKEMON PEARL

UK ALL-PRICE INDIVIDUAL FORMAT (UNITS) TOP 20, WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 15

1. JOHN WOO PRESENTS: STRANGEHOLD (X360)
2. MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE (X360)
3. SUPER PAPER MARIO (WII)
4. WII PLAY (WII)
5. MORE BRAIN TRAINING FROM DR. KAWASHIMA (DS)
6. HEAVENLY SWORD (PS3)
7. THE SIMS 2: BON VOYAGE (PS3)
8. DR KAWASHIMA'S BRAIN TRAINING (DS)
9. TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 08 (WII)
10. COLIN MCRAE: DIRT (PS3)
11. BIOSHOCK (X360)
12. BIG BRAIN ACADEMY: WII DEGREE (WII)
13. MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE (PC)
14. TWO WORLDS (X360)
15. BOOGIE (WII)
16. MARIO PARTY 8 (WII)
17. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. (DS)
18. TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 08 (X360)
19. RUGBY 08 (PS2)
20. COOKING MAMA (DS)

CliffyB: Bioshock is Hands Down My Game of the Year

The latest entry on CliffyB.com reveals Cliff Bleszinki's thoughts on BioShock, which has been chosen as the Game of the Year by the lead designer of Gears of War:

Bioshock is hands down my game of the year. That's right, I said it. I was looking forward to coming home from work and firing this bad boy up throughout the entire experience. Last time that happened was RE4 and God of War(s.) I'm not just saying this because it uses our technology or because I'm friends with some of the team members, no, it is in fact a phenomenal blend of well paced horror, narrative, action and meta RPG moments.

Will Cliff change his mind after other serious candidates for the Game of the Year award arrive later this year?

Halo midnight launch cancelled!

CVG has learnt that all plans for a Halo 3 midnight launch have been pulled as Westminster council feared that too many fans would turn up, causing chaos in the streets of London in the early hours of September 26.

Halo 3 will launch on September 26 and it's quite likely that it'll bigger than the PS3 launch back in March. At least the council thinks so, as that went ahead fine. When contacted HMV knew nothing of a midnight launch for Halo 3.

A GAME employee did though: "It's opening hours as usual," we were told. "The council won't allow a midnight launch."

Ninja gaiden 2 demo awesome!!

"just dont know what to say i feel like crying"