2K Australia, the developer working on the Xcom reboot, is helping Irrational Games out on Bioshock Infinite. The studio also helped to put the finishing touches on the original Bioshock, so this doesn’t come as a surprise. This puts some perspective on Xcom’s recent delay into fiscal 2012, which runs until March 2013. Bioshock Infinite is a flagpole release for publisher 2K, so it’s likely they’ll want the game polished and finished post-haste.
I
hope you weren’t too comfortable with the existing Xbox Live Dashboard, because
come December 6th, Microsoft is deploying a new update for the service which
will bring a ‘newly designed user interface… expanded voice control with Kinect,
and the first group of new entertainment customer applications’. The intention is to beef up the Xbox 360’s
capabilities as a voice-controlled media centre, with the ability to navigate
easily through menus using either your voice or gestures thanks to the Kinect
hardware.
According to the press release, ‘New, customized applications for television, movies, internet videos, sports and music will begin rolling out from world-leading providers in more than 20 countries’, which makes quite clear Microsoft’s intention to position the 360 as the main media center of most homes.
Do
you like platformers? Especially very
old-school platformers, the kind that punish you relentlessly, leading to an
intense sense of personal achievement when you finally defeat them? If the answer to the last question was ‘yes’,
indie developers Fun Infused Games have just the game for you- their new
platformer Volchaos will be hitting
the Xbox Live Indie Game Service on November 30th and promises ‘super retro
graphic emulation’ and an ‘ultra-challenging’ experience.
Rockstar Games announced yesterday that there will be a special edition of their upcoming sequel, Max Payne 3. This package, which will retail at $99.99, will only be available for pre-order from November 21st, 2011 through January 15th, 2012. The package will be available for all platforms, which includes the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
The special edition, which launches in March 2012, will include the following:
With Final Fantasy XIII-2 just around the corner, it may come as a surprise that if director Yoshinori Kitase had things his way, there would be a new Final Fantasy game every 1-2 years, a la Call of Duty orAssassin’s Creed.
Kitase recently stated in an interview with Game Reactor that (referring to the above franchises) “They make a new game in 1-2 years. That is something we need to follow up, because that seems to be the best way to keep our fans interested and attracted to the franchise.” Kitase continues to admit that Square-Enix took too long to finish the original Final Fantasy XIII, but that there are no timelines set for faster releases of future games.
Despite increasingly frequent rumors
that the next Xbox will launch in 2012, Microsoft has confirmed that Halo 4 will launch as an Xbox 360 title.
Halo 4 has been given a launch
release window of Q4 2012, which is also the prominent rumor of the next Xbox’s
release. This has led some to believe that Master Chief’s latest adventure will
be a launch title for the next Xbox.
Pirates, beware: Microsoft is once
again cracking down on pirates and their modded Xbox 360s, and it looks to be
extremely effective. The latest update, which happens without the user’s
consent, updates the console’s “dae.bin” file. The update adds unique data to
each console, which allows Microsoft to flag consoles and trace the users who
distribute their dae.bin file. Users who play discs with the AP 2.5 disc
protection will immediately receive a flag on their console, which could then
lead to a ban. The update is said to be “silent,” installing automatically
without the user being aware of it. Once the update is complete, users who try
to play their pirated games will discover an “Unsupported disc” error. Further,
users will be banned from online multiplayer.
Call of Duty Elite hasn’t had the smoothest of launches, but developer Beachhead assures fans that its battle station will be fully operational by December first. Beachhead Vice President Daniel Suarez has asked fans to be patient and admitted to making some misguided assumptions based on Elite’s beta.
“It was our fault that the service wasn’t up and running the day [fans] put in their token or the day they bought it,” Suarez admitted. “They kind of have to bear with us while we bring this all back up, but for us it’s literally ‘Give us those couple weeks, we’re giving those to you for free and come December 1st the goal is that we’ll have everything up and running.”
Ninja Gaiden has always had a dedicated following of hack ‘n’ slash gamers who appreciate the dark and mysterious. The third game in the franchise is shaping up to please these fans more than ever. With that in mind, let us not forget that blood and gore are part of these games and we have finally gotten some new screenshots. Gore and all:
The King of Fighters series, while generally less well-known in the
West than the all-conquering Street
Fighter and Tekken franchises,
has been grinding away in Japanese arcades for about fifteen years now. The console adaptation of the latest game in
the series, King of Fighters XIII,
is set to hit the 360 on November 22nd, and developers ATLUS U.S.A have
confirmed their long-term commitment to the series by announcing a DLC plan for
the game alongside the release of a new trailer.
