Microsoft Xbox 540 coming in 2009? Xbox upgrade soon?

With TSMC working on a new Valhalla chip that is looking to be a system builder, and numerous other faster, more reliable GPUs coming to creation, the Xbox 360 may be living out its last days. Already.

read more | digg story

Assault Heroes 2 - Exploding on Xbox LIVE Arcade

"Assault Heroes 2," sequel to the award-winning action extravaganza, "Assault Heroes," ramps up the excitement on Xbox LIVE® Arcade this Wednesday, 14th May at 09.00.

"Assault Heroes 2" reveals that the original enemy in "Assault Heroes" is merely a pawn of a more sinister force, which players must now seek out and destroy. Armed with stronger weaponry and the ability to hi-jack more powerful enemy units, players must prepare to face relentless enemies and outrageous bosses in climactic battles, including an all-out skirmish in outer space.

In the sequel, players can experience the full fury of war outside of the safety of their vehicle with even more intense on-foot gameplay, where increased firepower and the new “dodge roll” feature are necessary to survive. Players can choose to fight alone or battle with a friend using the enhanced two-player cooperative mode. Either way, players will travel through diverse and interactive environments on land and in space to overcome the newest enemy and save mankind.

Where can I get this game from?
Developed by Sierra Online, "Assault Heroes 2" will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points.

More information is available at:
• http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/livearcadexbox360 or www.assaultheroes2.com

UK Music Festival "Give It A Name" Smashes Guitar Hero Guinness World Record As GHIII: Legends of Rock Is Performed On Main Stage In Front Of Over 9,6

Two new Guinness World Record holders were crowned at the Give It A Name Festival, Earls Court, London, last night, as they took to the main stage to play Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock in front of over 9,600 fans.

The previous record for “Largest Audience For A Videogame Performance” was set at the Download Festival, Donington, in 2007, when the game was played in front of 3,000 people – so last night’s performance smashed this three times over.

Members of the public competed on the Atticus clothing stand during the day for the right to claim their place in Guitar Hero history – with Renos Georgiou, 16, and Lyndon Jones, 15, winning the chance to perform on the festival’s main stage ahead of headliner 30 Seconds To Mars.

And Guinness World Records’ records manager Gareth Deaves was on hand to adjudicate and issue Guinness World Record certificates cementing the achievement, giving the duo bragging rights for years to come. Their performance of Guns ‘n Roses’ “Welcome To The Jungle” in Co-Op mode on Expert difficulty will go down in videogame history as the largest audience for a videogame performance to date.

“Seeing two Guitar Hero players, rocking the 9,600 plus people in Earls Court was a genuine jaw-on-the-floor moment, illustrating how far we’ve come as a franchise,” says Ian McClellan, senior brand manager, Guitar Hero. “A few years ago, games were mainly played in bedrooms. Now we’re on the main stage of a massive indoor festival only an hour or so before Jared Leto’s band headlines. It’s incredible.”

“When we launched the Guinness World Records Gamers Edition, we expected some spectacular record attempts – but never imagined we’d see over 9,600 people rocking out to a videogame,” said Gareth Deaves, records manager, Guinness World Record. “It was an amazing spectacle. What’s clear now is that this is a fantastic record to beat – we can’t wait to see where people take it next.”

“I doubt anyone else will enjoy such a meteoric rise to fame,” adds Matt Ash, marketing director, Atticus Clothing. “One minute, Renos and Lyndon were auditioning on the Atticus stand; the next they were playing on stage to over 9,600 people. It made the Arctic Monkeys and Lilly Allen look like proper slowcoaches.”

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 now.

Video Game Review: Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz

With the success of the movie board game Scene It? and it’s exclusive video game on Xbox 360, it was only a matter of time when we’d see a copycat game on another system. Well, thanks to Sony Computer Entertainment of America and it’s hit trivial “Buzz!” games we now have “Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz” for the Playstation 2.

When you first see the display box, the first thing you’ll notice is that it contains four of its own controllers. Each controller has a large red button, much like something you’d see on Family Feud. Bellow that, four small rectangular buttons. Each with it’s own color (blue,orange,green,and yellow). Obviously the goal was to give you a game show feel while playing. Luckily, each controller is connected together to one USB port-meaning you can also play this on the PS3.

When you boot up the game you’ll notice the host looks somewhat like a 3-D Philip from South Park. But less funny and more annoying. A lot like Ryan Seacrest actually. What’s even more upsetting is he’ll say the same thing over and over. Nothing will ever change. This can easily get REALLY annoying. The game in total has seven different rounds with seven different types of games. Some good, and some well…not so good. Here are a few examples:


Faster Finger: Each Contestant studies a photo of either an actor or a scene of a movie. The game will give you four multiple choice answers. The faster you choose the more points you receive. Very meh.

Source: SlashFilm

Gamers skate into action with - Skate It - on Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS

'Skate It' Delivers Popular Flickit Controls and Introduces Support for Wii Balance Board to Deliver Unique Skateboarding Experience

Electronic Arts today announced Skate It, a new game in the award-winning Skate franchise that taps into the heart and soul of being on a skateboard. Designed exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS systems, Skate It has Nintendo players riding with the skate pros, owning the best spots in San Vanelona and pulling off the sickest tricks using the popular FlickIt controls. Loaded with all-new gameplay features, Skate It breaks new ground by introducing innovative support for the Wii Balance board which gives players a fresh way to create their own signature skateboarding style.



“We knew it would be an exciting challenge to bring the soul and feel of skateboarding to the Wii and Nintendo DS,” said Scott Blackwood, Executive Producer - Skate franchise. “With fresh new designs and gameplay components built from scratch, we’ve been able to, once again, capture the true experience of skateboarding in a completely innovative way.”

Skate It unleashes the FlickIt revolution on to the Nintendo platforms, letting gamers use the Wii remote or the Nintendo DS stylus to string together their best tricks for the ultimate skate line. The Wii remote becomes a skateboard and reacts to gestures that mirror actual skate flips and moves. Players can also deepen this experience by planting their feet on the Wii Balance board. Skate It brings the hit Skate franchise to a new level of creative ingenuity and gameplay excellence.

Rare says "Gamers shouldn't judge Banjo-Kazooie based on SS"

George Kelion has said that these screenshots only show how pretty the game is, and that gamers shouldn't judge it based on them alone. “You can’t tell altogether that much from the screenshots other than the fact that it’s pretty,” Kelion said.

read more | digg story

Race Driver - GRID playable demo now available

PC gamers can get off the grid and race the world right now as Codemasters announces that the Race Driver - GRID playable demo for Games For Windows is now available to download from http://community.racedrivergrid.com/.

Delivering intense competition right from the off, the demo enables players to compete in single-player GRID World events and 12-player online races.

In the single-player GRID World showdowns, take to the wheel of a Ford Mustang GT-R on the streets of San Francisco in the eBay Motors Muscle Cup; in Japan, compete in a Nissan S15 Silvia in the Advan Drift Trophy at Yokohama Docks, while the sweeping curves and hairpins of the Jarama circuit in Spain plays host to the Euro Touring Cars championship featuring BMW 320si touring cars.

For players who want to compete online, the demo delivers 12-player online competitions at the European and U.S. locations.

Race Driver: GRID is coming May 30th (Europe/PAL) for Games For Windows, the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system. A Nintendo DS edition will follow.

The Race Driver: GRID playable demo is also available for the Xbox 360 from Xbox LIVE Marketplace and for the PLAYSTATION 3 system from the PLAYSTATION Network. For all driver briefings and the latest videos, be sure to visit www.racedrivergrid.com

New screenshots from Sudden Strike 3 Arms for Victory addon

Leading video game developer and publisher, Fireglow Games, today announces a new batch screenshots from Sudden Strike 3 Arms for Victory addon.

In order to make battles more realistic and to improve the gameplay, we have decided to add a new feature for armor units to transport infantry.

About Sudden Strike 3 - Arms for Victory:



Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory is the latest instalment in the award-winning, critically acclaimed and hugely popular Sudden Strike series. It features historically authentic models built to scale, fully interactive giant maps and full 3-D state-of-the-art graphics in the popular Sudden Strike style. Only Sudden Strike plays like the 'real thing'. WW2 gaming at its best: on land, at sea and in the air!

Features:

• Fully interactive landscape (all objects can be destroyed, all buildings and pillboxes can be used as shelter)
• Massive operations on big maps, strategic scale of the maps (front line can be a few kilometres long)
• Thousands of units fighting in real time
• More than 300 tanks, ships, soldiers, guns and planes with original weapons built to scale
• Great sounds, 5.1 supported, nations speak native languages
• New feature - advanced Micro AI-behaviour allows your troops to act exactly as you plan
• Joint naval and ground operations, air raids, artillery strikes etc.
• State-of-the-art technology to render 3D landscape, realistic lines of sight and fire
• Spectacular visual & lighting effects
• Multiplayer mode: up to 8 players, GameSpy supported
• Five campaigns playable for American, British, German, Japanese and Soviet sides

Cake Mania - In The Mix! for Nintendo Wii

Popular Online PC Franchise From Sandlot Games Coming To Nintendo Wii

Baking bedlam goes motion-based as Majesco Entertainment, an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, and Sandlot Games, a leading developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games, today announced Cake Mania - In The Mix! for Nintendo Wii.

Following the hectic, time-management style gameplay of the original Cake Mania, and the branching storyline of Cake Mania 2, Cake Mania: In The Mix! introduces all-new characters, motion-based mini-games and a unique co-op mode where cake baking heroine Jill Evans receives some much needed assistance. Based on Sandlot Games’ award-winning PC franchise that has been downloaded more than 80 million times worldwide and sold 315,000 units on Nintendo DS™, Cake Mania: In The Mix! is expected to release in Europe and PAL territories in early 2009.

“Joining Cake Mania’s trademark resource management play with the Wii’s motion-based control is a natural extension of an incredibly successful brand on PC and DS,” said Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations, Majesco. “The Wii version’s expanded feature set, ranging from catering integration to cake design mini-games, enables fans of the series to experience the franchise in an entirely new way.”

“We are thrilled to combine Majesco’s expertise on the Wii platform with the massive fan base and addictive gameplay of Cake Mania,” said Daniel Bernstein, founder and CEO, Sandlot Games. “The combination of a great story, memorable characters and the Wii platform will deliver something that Cake Mania fans have never seen before.”

In Cake Mania: In The Mix! players use the Wii Remote to lead Jill through nine new bakeries filled with baking and frosting mania. Aspiring bakers control every aspect of the business, from serving cakes and advertising in the Dessert Daily newspaper, to running a catering business by phone.

By unlocking bonus levels, players can expand the bakery to exotic locales on the moon, under the sea and in the rainforest, among others. In addition, the all-new Shop Rating feature lets players earn extra cash, promote catering services and unlock special kitchen upgrades and new cake designing mini-games where they can use the Wii Remote as a cake decorating tool.

Additional new game features include:

• 10 customer friendly bakery add-ons: fish tank, bench, table, table game, promotional decorations and more!
• Phone system allows players to accept catering orders and increase their business exponentially.
• Demanding customers ranging from ninjas to pregnant moms to leprechauns.

Frontier's LostWinds launches with WiiWare in the Americas

As of 5 a.m. PST today, millions of families in the Americas now have LostWinds available in their living rooms - an enchanting adventure bursting with new gameplay ideas that embrace the innovative controller of the Wii.

www.frontier.co.uk/games/lostwinds

That's when Nintendo of America launched WiiWare, a brand new way of delivering games over the Internet straight to your Wii console, with LostWinds as a launch title.

LostWinds puts the power of the wind in the palm of your hand – from raging tornados to the gentlest breeze – as you wield your Wii Remote to guide and protect Toku, a young boy who is the only one who can help you in your quest to release a curse placed on the stunningly presented, magical land of Mistralis. You'll power Toku's jumps and glides through different regions, suspend and smash enemies, meet friends and solve puzzles to progress through the game's environments, which have been designed to encourage and reward exploration using LostWinds' novel, intuitive and playful control system.

"LostWinds has a great new control mechanic that makes the game feel really fresh – I think the quality of the game and the fact it's a WiiWare launch title are things we can be really proud of "

said David Braben, Frontier's Chairman and founder.

LostWinds can be downloaded for 1000 Wii Points, is rated E for Everyone [mild fantasy violence] by the ESRB, and has been created especially for Wii by Frontier, who are the developers behind RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, which was a USA No1 game and is part of the second biggest selling PC game franchise of all time, and Thrillville, which was the USA's No1 original kids game in 2006.