Xbox 360

Volchaos Erupting on November 30th

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.

The Best Black Friday Sales for Xbox 360

Are you looking to buy a new Xbox at one of the big sales this weekend? What about a recent AAA game at half price, or maybe an old hit that you never got around to.  We looked through all of the retailers and online sales to find the best Xbox deals for Black Friday and are here with our recommendations on how you should spend your Xbucks this week.

Max Payne 3 Special Edition Detailed

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 21^st, 2011 through January 15^th, 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:

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Director Wants More Frequent Releases

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.

Why All Games Shouldn’t Be $60

The games industry has faced more change in the last five years than it
has had in probably the combined 20 years before that. We’ve seen the
rise of downloadable games, indie games and DLC, which expands a game’s
longevity. We’ve seen components of games getting locked off for used
buyers unless they spend an extra $10. DRM has become more intrusive
than ever, and then it kind of-sort of went away. The cost of developing
games has skyrocketed, and so too have the marketing budgets. After
all, if a game has cost millions of dollars to make, you want to make
sure it sells millions of copies, right? These are the so-called
Triple-A games: games coming out at $60 that the publisher has clearly
put a lot of marketing and development muscle behind. In all these
changing economic conditions, though, one thing hasn’t changed too much:
most console games still cost $60 at retail, regardless of the amount
of cash spent developing or marketing the title. Surely all games aren’t
created equal, so why the uniform approach to pricing in the retail
space, especially compared to the changes the downloadable marketplace
has brought with it?

Microsoft Confirms Halo 4 Will be Released in Current Generation

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.

Microsoft Battles Pirates With “Silent” Update

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.