Xbox 360 News

You Could Be on the Cover of Madden

Each year the discussion of who will appear on the cover of the annual iteration of the lead EA Sports franchise, Madden NFL Football, seems to escalate. It’s gone from an announcement of the athlete, to an announcement of multiple candidates, to a fan vote with multiple candidates, and now, taking a cue from March Madness, we’ve reached the point where the fans will be voting based on a 32-player bracket.

The list of players covers all NFL teams and includes such notables as Super Bowl-winning quarterback Aaron Rodgers from the reigning champion Packers, to the controversial QB from the Eagles, Michael Vick.

Game Over for Printed Instructions

While we are
still years away from the end days of physical media, there is one aspect of
the disc-based game that may be on its last legs: the instruction manual.

Speaking with
Kotaku, Rob Semsey, a representative from EA Sports, confirmed that they’d be
taking a cue from Ubisoft and no longer including physical instruction manuals
with their games. No word yet on if this is an EA Sports-only initiative, or if
it will carry over to all EA titles.

Multiplayer Silent Hill on XBLA?

While the next trip to Silent Hill is still a solo journey, there may be some room for friends – but only on Xbox Live Arcade.

In a translated interview from Italy’s Xbox 360 Magazine posted on Hell Descent, Radek Marek, art director on Silent Hill: Downpour, let it slip that while there are still no plans beyond a single-player campaign, “Konami are investigating a separate chapter devoted entirely to the multiplayer. We do not know the details but it should be an XBLA title that most players have to survive in the town of Silent Hill.”

Square Enix’s Gun Loco Silently Cancelled

Square Enix’s Gun Loco was announced way back in August and made news mainly because of its wacky, eccentric art style that features some absolutely maddening character models. The characters in Gun Loco are all deranged criminals that have been sent out to a deserted planet to try and regain their freedom by killing off other prisoners.

That crazy game will sadly never see the light of day according to Square Enix’s Japanese site which announced the cancellation of the title. No reason was given for the cancellation, my guess would be that the game was either lacking in quality or Square Enix thought that game was just too ridiculous and would be critically vaporized because of it.

Mass Effect 2 “Arrival” DLC Due March 29

The final DLC add-on for Mass Effect 2 is on its way. “Arrival” will be Mass Effect 2‘s last DLC until Mass Effect 3 later this year. Bioware has done right by supporting Mass Effect 2
with DLC which helps keep it relevant on everyone’s mind. “Arrival”
will take Commander Shepard and the rest of the Normandy crew to the far
reaches of the galaxy. It centers on an undercover agent who is missing
in Batarian space after this agent has discovered an impending Reaper
invasion. Shepard must rescue this secret agent and discover what the
“Arrival” is. The DLC will also feature three new achievements.

Activision Announces New Wipeout Game For Kinect

Activision announces new Wipeout game exclusive for the Xbox Kinect. Activision is in partnership with ABC Entertainment to bring Wipeout In The Zone to Xbox Kinect players this summer. This is the first Wipeout game to come to the Xbox; the first Wipeout game was a Wii exclusive. Wipeout In The Zone
will feature all of the obstacles you enjoy from the TV show. Of course
the big red balls are back along with the Smack Wall Sweeper. 

Wipeout In The Zone
will also feature commentary by John Anderson, John Henson, and Jill
Wagner. This time the whole family will be able to take on obstacles,
unlike the Wii game that only had 2 player co-op. The press release also
says that the game will have you running, ducking, and dodging. The
game has over thirty different obstacles to race through while trying to
complete each challenge without wiping out.

Gameplay Footage for Arkham City Released

The first
gameplay footage for Batman: Arkham City is out and even though
it’s not giving away
everything that Rocksteady Studios has been working on for the past
couple of years,
it is certainly awesome. Plenty of new abilities are shown in the
trailer as
well as a lot of insight into who you’ll be running into along your
travels. This has definitely been long overdue for a while, but believe
me when I say the wait has been justified. No word on
what version the footage is from, but everything does look a little sharper
than the first game. I’m not going to spoil it all for you, though — go and watch
the trailer below and then get ready for some more Batman this October.

Xbox Live 3 Pack of Games

Amazon.com has posted a 3 pack of Xbox Live games. Limbo, Trials HD, and Splosion Man
will be made available to buy on one disc. They have the disc priced at
$29.99, which is a good price if you are interested in all three games.
Limbo is currently $15.00 on Xbox Live, Trials HD is also $15.00 on Xbox Live, and Splosion Man is currently $10.00, which makes this 3 pack disc a good value. This means you get Splosion Man for free which is from what I hear an amazing game.

Microsoft Plans to Punish MS Point Exploiters

This past week it became clear that some clever Xbox Live users had found a way to reuse previously used Microsoft Codes to obtain all sorts of MS points, Halo Reach Avatar items, and various other goodies.

Batman Arkham City Opens its Gates in October

This is
about as good as news can really get with regards to Arkham City, well apart
from Rocksteady calling you up and telling you they’ve mailed you a copy.
Seeing as the latter is unlikely to happen, you’ll have to make do with this,
Warner Bros has confirmed the release date for Batman: Arkham City.