Gamernode: Latest Xbox 360 News

Gears of War 2 bundle offers Lancer rifle too!

Now look, we're all adults here. Ok, well sort of. Let's admit it, who has pretended to hold the Gears of War Lancer rifle in their hands while making the chainsaw sound as you slice through your friends or imaginary enemies? I see those hands. You can put them down now.

To fulfill your dreams, you can get the Gears of War 2 bundle. But wait, there's more! If you go over to the Amazon.com site and look up the Gears of War 2 bundle, not only will you get your eager little hands on a pre-order for the game, you'll also get a life-sized Lancer rifle replica that works!

Well, it doesn't shoot bullets, but it does have sound effects and vibrates when you pull the trigger. It also has side handles that fold in and out and slides back and forth. The Lancer is 36" long and about 10" tall. The rifle ...

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Infinite Undiscovery gameplay video

At E3 I had the chance to play a new Square Enix game that looked beautiful, but being an rpg that was trimmed down to just a few minutes of show floor gameplay, failed to leave a lasting impression on me. The fact that no photos or video could be taken at that time didn't help, either. 

That game is called Infinite Undiscovery, and it is coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 on September 1st from tri-Ace. Those are the folks behind the Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean series, so least there is still hope that the game will be a little more impressive in the long run. Take a look at this gameplay clip:

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Castle Crashers price announced. It'll be cheaper

One of our staff writers, who will remain nameless, (I'm talking about you, Creighton) has had his skivvies in a knot since he first heard that Castle Crashers was going to be released.

The game has been delayed numerous times and wasn't expected to hit XBLA until next year. But it seems that the developer of the game shifted into high gear and the title will finally be in everyone's hot little hands by August of 2008. 

But the Dark Side was spreading rumors around that his beloved game would cost a wallet jarring 1800 Microsoft points to download it from Xbox Live Arcade. The rumors have been proven to be false as Castle Crashers' Dan Paladin said on the official website:

Hello everyone on the internet!

The price for Castle Crashers will be 1,200 Microsoft points. This month's only online mul...

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Gears of War 2 to have language and blood filters

Remember Gears of War? Remember how bloody and vulgar it is? Well the sequel will have just as much of that "mature" content, but this time will come equipped with optional filters to block it, as well.

The game has already received an M rating from the ESRB for "Blood and Gore," "Intense Violence," and "Strong Language," but Microsoft has told the gaming press that the included filters will let Xbox 360 users "turn the blood into sparks," "take out all the swear words," or both.

Honestly, what's the point of a violence filter? The game is violent, no matter what spews from the severed appendages of Marcus Fenix's slain enemies. Be it blood, green ooze, sparks, or butterflies--body parts are still getting blasted, torn, and sawed off all over the place. 

Regardless of that, hopefully this mak...

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Accessorize your Xbox 360 avatar... for a price?

Microsoft's recently announced Xbox 360 Avatars may very well be another moneymaker for the company, allowing 360 owners to purchase and download "accessories" for them. The Mii-like characters will be released alongside the new 360 dashboard update coming at the end of the year.

When questioned about additional Avatar customization and accessories, Microsoft's games corporate VP John Schappert responded:

"That may be in the future. In the near term, we want to launch these with great customization and a great library of accessories this fall. I think there is a lot more we can do with them. You will see us continue to add experiences that make use of the avatar. Our goal is not to create a sterile environment where you move furniture around. It's about how can we make our gaming experiences...

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Rumor: Bioshock 2 to have multiplayer mode

Most of us can agree that Bioshock was one hell of a game. With its strong narrative and its fun and innovative combat system, it deserved its praise from many people last year as game of the year.

Even though it had such a great single player mode, it was lacking multiplayer. How fun would it be to fight multiple players each with their own sets of powers? An online co-op might suffice as well, but Bioshock 2 might be covering multiplayer mode.

According to job profiles on Gamasutra, the team who worked on the original Bioshock is looking for an experience designer to lead their multiplayer team. Even though the job profile doesn't exactly state that it's for Bioshock 2, the description does mention the original.

"BioShock had no multi-player mode. We don't believe in throwing in something...

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Update: Target and Walmart selling 60GB 360s now

Due to hit store shelves next month, the new 60GB Xbox 360 is the remedy for storage woes on Microsoft's console. But why wait for an official release?

Both Target and Walmart stores have allegedly been selling the system before its street date, as early as Sunday the 27th at a Target in New York. Not to be outdone, Walmart has quickly followed suit, also releasing the electronic beast into the wild before its time. The specific Walmart location in question is in Roanoke, Virginia.

The official street date for the new SKU is August 4th, but if you're hurtin' for a new 360 with a whole lot of storage space, I recommend you take a trip to your local Target or Walmart. You might just get lucky.

UPDATE: Microsoft's Major Nelson has responded to reports of a broken street date, saying that the ne...

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Dead Space trailer the ESRB doesn't want you to se...

The ESRB has refused approval of the following "Lullaby" trailer for EA's upcoming survival horror game, Dead Space. It is apparently just a tad too gory to come stateside, although Europeans can watch as much of it as their little hearts desire. So, here is the trailer for all of our European readers. ;-)

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XBL Silver members get (some) free online play

Microsoft announced today that all current Xbox Live Silver members will have free multiplayer access to a few select cross-platform games till this fall. Currently, the only games freely available are Universe at War, Shadowrun and Lost Planet: Colonies Edition.

The free online gameplay will only last till this fall when Xbox Live will get a hefty update. But as of now, it's unclear if this is only a limited promotion or if all cross-platform games will get free multiplayer in the future.

According to a Microsoft representative, "For a limited time, we are offering free online multiplayer on Xbox 360/Games for Windows titles that offer Live cross platform play. This promotion won't last, so we encourage everyone to take advantage of it while they can."

The representative made it clear that o...

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August XBLA games. Verdict: it's going to be good...

Anyone who reads this site knows I'm pretty smitten for a little game called Castle Crashers that is coming eventually to the Xbox Live Arcade. And while I origionally pegged it for a 2009 release due to Microsoft's fairly lengthly certification process, today I come bearing good news.

We will see Castle Crashers in August. This August. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. The nice chaps over at the GamerScoreBlog (an official Microsoft blog) have announced the XBLA releases for the next 5 weeks. Drumroll please:

July 30: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 - The most addictive game on the arcade releases a sequel. We knew this was coming, but it's a nice reminder.August 6: Braid - Some game that apparently is a "mind-bending and artistic puzzle-platfoormer."August 13: Bionic Commando: Re...

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60GB Pro Xbox 360 appears at NYC Target

The new 60GB Xbox 360 Pro edition was revealed at E3. The scheduled release date is around the first week of August and the pre-orders at Circuit City, Amazon, and other stores are mounting daily.

But although the 60GB isn't expected to show its shiny face until then, reports are coming in from New York City that the new Pro version has already appeared at several Target stores.

This isn't necessarily a big thing since the launch date is only a week or so away, but for those who can't wait, if you live in NYC, you maybe able to snag one ahead of everyone else.

If you live in the NYC area, have you seen the 60GB Xbox 360 in stores?

[via penny college]

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Bionic Commando swinging to consoles next week?

For those of you who have been following, Capcom is working on two--not one, two--completely unrelated Bionic Commando games due out in the next few months.

They're also working on two Street Fighter games that are unrelated and while that is also interesting, today we are talking abut Bionic Commando.

While the all-new adventure dubbed Bionic Commando has a release date set for January, Capcom has been silent on when the remake of the NES classic will hit the PSN and Xbox Live Arcade. While I presume it will be driving the hype train before the IP is relaunched next year, I didn't think it would be coming until November.

This site (which will translate from probably well-written Japanese into only slightly coherent English) talks a lot about a whole bunch of stuff having to do with the re...

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Molyneux feels sorry for Denis Dyack and Too Human...

Peter Molyneux knows what it feels like to be chastized for getting a little too excited about his in-development work and making bold claims that don't quite come to fruition. He even touches lightly on the subject in his upcoming autobiographical essay, How I Promised Too Much For Fable And Made Everyone Hate Me.

That's why Sir Molyneux is sympathetic toward Denis Dyack and his game, Too Human, which is just under a month away from release. Molyneux says that since Too Human made an underwhelming appearance at a past E3, it has become popular among members of the gaming community to bash the game.

"...what I realize over time is that talking about a game before it's released is a dangerous game. You can just say a few things wrong and then it's like an avalanche. I feel sorry for Denis Dy...

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New release date for Geometry Wars sequel

We've waited too long for the sequel to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. What started as a side project while producing Project Gotham Racing 3 turned into the best launch title the Xbox 360 had going for it. While it wasn't a Halo, it certainly gave people a reason to justify their hefty console purchase. Sorry Perfect Dark Zero.

So why haven't we had a direct sequel sooner? Beats me, but I for one am just glad that we are actually getting a second chance to enjoy the controller breaking, eye melting, and sweating inducing gameplay of GW all over again. To say the wait has been unbearable would be a drastic description, but it sure hasn't been easy.

While we were scheduled to receive Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 next month, Microsoft has decided to bump up the release by a full seven days, ...

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Gears of War 2 event at GameStop!

Proving again that not all news comes from E3, we just received a tip letting us know that there will be a mysterious Gears of War 2 event held at GameStop stores next Friday.

Details are scarce but we were able to get a scan of the email sent out to GameStop stores.

Could this be another midnight trailer showing like they did for Gears the first? Or is Epic done with Gears of War 2 and they're having a surprise release next Friday? I'm willing to bet on the former.

Check out the FBI looking document after the jump. 

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Too Human Demo Released

The moment is finally here. Some will see this event as relatively insignificant, however I think it will prove to be rather interesting. For literally years now we've been hearing all about how Too Human is awful. Game previewers have notoriously been far less than kind when dealing with Too Human.

However, now it is going to be up to the public. Dennis Dyack's stock defense whenever a bad preview would come out is that the gamers will decide, or that the game isn't finished and the previews themselves are flawed.

Now Too Human and by extension Dennis Dyack are all out of places to hide. The gamers will be able to decide, and unless internet history is of zero consequence, then the internet mob will have made up its mind in less than a day or so. The intarwebz are notoriously swift in dolin...

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Microsoft announces 60GB Xbox 360, 20GB price cut

Microsoft likes to be the first to announce everything it seems. With rumons and pictures flying around showing the Xbox 360 with a cheaper price tag of $299, people were already starting to believe it was true.

Well Microsoft has officially announced that the 20GB Xbox 360 is indeed getting a price cut, and they are releasing a brand new 60GB version for $349. That's a really good deal for 60GB, if only Microsoft didn't have a track record of thousands of broken 360s.

Here is the official release from Microsoft:

Redmond, Washington - Microsoft is giving consumers more gigabytes for their buck. The company today announced an Xbox 360® console with triple the storage space of the original console, but for the same price of $349 (U.S.) estimated retail price.

Available in retail stores in the ...

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Halo 3 fanboy + cardboard = very, very sad

Sometimes you see something that makes you laugh, but also die a little on the inside. This is definitely one of those moments. Marvel (or cringe?) as the young man plays host to a showcase of his cardboard Halo weapons collection. If it's any consolation, I will admit he's better at using cardboard to make Halo weaponry than I'll ever be.

PS, I'm sorry if this ruins Halo for you, as it nearly ruined Halo for Chris.

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Best news I've heard all day

I was getting really concerned about the looming Rock Band 2 release.  I have invested quite a bit of time, money, and Microsoft points to Rock Band, purchasing at minimum one song per week since the game was released.  I, like many others, did not think there would be a Rock Band 2, just a continuation of the weekly downloadable content.

Well Rock Band 2 is official, and it posed a ton of questions.  Questions like will my old instruments work with Rock Band 2? Will my sweet character and all his guitars carry over to Rock Band 2? And most importantly, will the over 100 dollars worth of tracks that I purchased be playable in Rock Band 2?

These were all questions I thought would be answered during E3 (which some of us will be attending) but it seems Kotaku has the scoop, answering all of th...

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Brian Bendis comments on the deceased Marvel Unive...

Comicmix.com recently held an interview with Brian Michael Bendis (read: longtime writer for Marvel comics) and though the subject of the interview was meant to be about hardcore comic matters such as Skrulls and Dire Wraiths, the conversation nevertheless shifted towards videogames.

As it turns out, Bendis himself is a big gamer, but beyond that he was also an executive producer on the tragically departed Marvel Universe MMO. (I still have the introduction video saved on my 360's hard drive. It hurts too much to delete it and admit that it's gone.)

Perhaps the most heart-breaking part of Marvel Universe's cancellation is that nobody ever bothered to tell us why. One day it was there, and one day it wasn't. From the sound of Bendis's own words, that's pretty much the same way the folks on t...

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