Gamernode: Latest Xbox 360 News

Prototype delayed till 2009

A few thrilling gameplay video montages later and Prototype, Radical Entertainment's upcoming open-world action game seems to still entice gamers on its mysterious storyline and zany powers wielded by the game's main character Alex Mercer.

Unfortunately, Sierra Entertainment announced today that Prototype has hit a snag and will now ship in 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

The representative said, regarding the game's delay, "Since its announcement, Prototype has been regarded by many as groundbreaking and taking the open-world genre in new directions, and in the simplest explanation possible, we need more time to deliver the game the team initially set out to create."

It's interesting to note that last month, the multiplayer component for Prototype was cut in order for the developer to comple...

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Gamer finishes GTA IV in 17 minutes. Cheat or bug?...

Rockstar Games has a Grand Theft Auto IV Hall of Fame listing for all those dedicated gamers who have completed 100% of GTA IV-not a small feat by any means as the entire game is reported to have over 100 hours of SP game time.

Enter a gamer by the screen name of ninjaraiden2003 who had his finish time officially logged onto Rockstar's website. Did he do it under a respectable time of less than 80 hours? 50 Hours? How about 20 hours? No, keep on going down. According to the posted time, he finished the game in 17 minutes and 15 seconds.

Now three things come to mind when I read this. One, we've got a cheater here. Two, he somehow got his hot little hands on a copy of GTA IV and played the game almost to the end, and finished the last part of the game when the Rockstar Social Club went up, o...

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Quick fix for "problems" regarding GTA IV

What do you do when the most anticipated game of the year has problems? I guess nothing. Rockstar has made no statement concerning the claims that Grand Theft Auto 4 causes freezing problems on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

This is the second time in as many months that Rockstar has released a game with these problems. I kind of wonder what goes on during testing. Are there even consoles at Rockstar? Do they play more than 5 minutes? Or do they only have one of each system and believe if its ok on one it should work on all, even though both Sony and Microsoft have gone through numerous hardware variations already?

I experienced freezing problems on my Xbox about a year ago. It got bad enough that I had to send it to Microsoft and I received another console. I did learn a l...

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Crytek thinking of developing console games?

Adding to the ongoing mess that is the debate of the "decline" of PC gaming are some comments from Crytek president Cevat Yerli. Crytek is well-known for its two PC-only FPS: Far Cry (2004) and Crysis (2007), along with pushing PC hardware to its limits.

When asked about the current state of the PC gaming industry, Yerli made some comments that may irk the PC gaming crowd, especially with a prominent stance of saying console shooters trail behind PC shooters -- assuming that Crytek remains a FPS developer.

"...We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis. We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that's the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC Gamers that pirate games inherently des...

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Peter Jackson team takes control of Halo

Revealed by a number of job openings in Microsoft Game Studios, Bungie will no longer create further Halo titles. Don't cry just yet! MGS has created a new division to create future Halo games, with Bungie watching over like some divine entity.

So, who is directing the first game produced by this development team? Why, Peter Jackson, of course! Not pleased with the Halo movie being shelved indefinitely, Jackson has taken charge of the next game, and is hard at work designing the future installment of the Halo franchise by working with Microsoft and Bungie.

This raises plenty of questions, namely "What game is being produced?" An answer to this may have been given as well. With speculation that the game would be the mysterious and elusive Jackson game announced in '06, dubbed "Chronicl...

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Portal rejected by Microsoft for Xbox Live Arcade

Portal, the eccentric puzzle-brain buster game included with The Orange Box, was offered to Xbox Live Arcade but was shoved down the black hole of rejection by Microsoft. It turns out that Portal couldn't meet certain parameters in order to qualify for a spot on XBLA.

Doug Lombardi, marketing director at Valve said they were looking forward to Portal being on Microsoft's download service but was hitting some snags.

"We'd love to do that. Right now it's something we'd love to do. I'd love to sell Portal on Xbox live. [But] the platform holders aren't doing that right now. There's a size limit and all kinds of other things."

The present size limitation of Xbox Live games is 150MB.

"We've asked [Microsoft], we said we were open to it. So it's a decision for the platform holder and how they want...

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Prototype gameplay montage

While everyone is gearing up for Grand Theft Auto 4, news about other games is being overshadowed by that mega-release (which, of course, drops tonight at midnight).

Well here's a look at another game set in New York City, or at least copy thereof. Although this video of Radical Entertainment's Prototype isn't as graphically impressive as one might expect, the title is certainly looking good, concept- and gameplay-wise. Check it out:

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Lost Odyssey DLC available to all today

Japanese gamers have been hoarding their Lost Odyssey DLC for a long time now. However now us Americans and Europeans can download a piece of DLC today for 200 Microsoft Points.

The DLC contains a new dream sequence and a few new items. Namely, the Killer Machine ring and the Memory Lamp. The former allows for extra protection against weapons imbued with magic while the latter allows players to relive previous dreams.

[via X360 Fanboy]

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Ninja Gaiden 2 dated for June 3

Today, Microsoft announced that Ninja Gaiden 2, exclusive to the Xbox 360, will be on store shelves June 3rd of this year.

They also revealed that Europe will be seeing the game a mere three days later on June 6th. The game will go on sale for the expected $59.99 here and €44.49 in Europe.

Microsoft said:Ryu Hayabusa returns in this action-packed sequel to ‘Ninja Gaiden', on a mission to avenge his clan and prevent the destruction of the human race. Universal themes of vengeance and honour are played out from Tokyo to New York and to the netherworld as a series of dramatic events create a truly compelling story.

Players must become the ninja, utilising a revolutionary combat system that demands skill and mastery of a massive arsenal of weapons. "Ninja Gaiden II" features unique ac...

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Modder adds motion control to his Xbox 360

A modder has taken it upon himself to add motion controls to his Xbox 360 controller. Specifically, he bestows upon his controller the gift of tilt and motion sensitive capabilities.

The modder said, "The mod uses a two-axis accelerometer that measures the left/right and up/down tilt, which is determined by measuring the force of gravity on the axis. The only part of the left analog stick that works after the modification is the button."

Certainly cool, but there's just one question: is this really needed? Wii motion control certainly adds to the experience and is fun and unique enough. However, those games are specifically designed and built around the Wii remote.

The 360's games are designed to be played with standard control methods. There is the case of the PS3, but no one I know actual...

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No Gears 2 demo, says Epic

It looks like Epic Games will not be offering a demo version of Gears of War 2 prior to its release this November. This is the same route the developer took when the first Gears game was released back in 2006.

Associate producer Tanya Jessen revealed this decision to the gaming press:

"[There are] no plans for a demo. The reason being that it's been such a fast turnaround. A two year production cycle, for a game of this caliber, is really short.

Our focus is always on putting out the best possible game we can. Whenever you do a demo, you have to basically ship a whole separate product. As far as our plans after we ship, I can't really speak to that."

To add to that, I think it's safe to assume that anyone who hasn't been living inside an anorexic's refrigerator for the past two years know...

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Web of Shadows um... web of site

Two days ago, during New York ComicCon, Activision and Marvel announced a new Spider-Man game coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 (and DS and PSP and PS2 and Wii and PC... I heard it will be coming out on the ColecoVision also). Shortly after the announcement a trailer popped up and the official site went live.

Going to the site and clicking on your region immediately loads up the trailer, which was slightly annoying but easy enough to stop. The whole site isn't up yet, but there are two things to note. The first is a counter in the upper right. At the time of this writing it ends in about 9 days. It seems that is when the next trailer will be arriving... maybe.

What I find interesting about this game is that the community gets to decide what goes into it. The site actually says "Membership g...

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1 million CoD4 map pack sold

Activision just made a whole lot of money. Their popular first-person shooter Call of Duty 4 recently came out with a new map pack--downloadable on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Everyone knew it was going to be a hot commodity, but just how hot was it?

Just over 1 million map packs were sold in just nine days since release. The map pack sold for ten dollars a pop for those of you who play CoD4 on the Xbox 360. That's $10,000,000 bucks straight into the pockets of Activision.

Let's talk about some more numbers. Xbox LIVE members played 30 million sessions and logged over 30 million hours of gameplay! That's 1.9 billion minutes played in the first nine days just on the Xbox 360! It looks like the juggernaut that is CoD4 still has steam in the engine.

For those of you who are PS3 CoD4 players, exp...

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Silent Hill 5 gets a name and a release date

Silent Hill fans have been waiting for a solid addition to the series for almost four years now (five if you are in the "I hated Silent Hill 4" camp). Hopefully, the upcoming Silent Hill 5 will be the game we've all been waiting for, and restore a lot of lost faith in walking mannequins and hissing pocket radios.

Silent Hill: Homecoming is now scheduled for a late September release in Europe, with no official word on a U.S. release date.

The press release also reminds us that this "'next generation'" game will have pretty graphics to look at, along with an all-new soundtrack composed by Akira Yamaoka. What is most exciting, however (at least to anyone who has ever wished they could absorb the story without wrestling with the infamously awkward controls of Silent Hill games of yore), is th...

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Shane Kim cornered by Games Radar

Anytime gamers get to pose questions to anyone on the Microsoft staff the Red Ring of Death will inevitably come up.  Games Radar is pretty well known for their 10 questions feature.  They round up someone in the gaming industry and users submit questions, from which Games Radar selects 10.

This time it was Shane Kim on the chopping block.  For those who don't know, Shane Kim is the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Games Studio, aka the software side of the Microsoft's gaming contribution.

The readers of Games Radar didn't hesitate asking him hard hitting questions.  Oh no! "What steps are you taking to ensure that the next iteration of Xbox isn't rushed to market like the Xbox 360 was? Has Microsoft learned anything from the $1 billion write-off?"

Talk about bringing out the big guns.  ...

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Judas Priest Screaming for Vengeance on Rock Band

Prepare yourself metal fans; Judas Priest's 1982 album "Screaming for Vengeance" will be the first full-length album available as Rock Band downloadable content. Expect the album to hit Xbox Live on April 22nd and the PlayStation Store on April 24th

Fans can download the entire album from Xbox Live for 1200 Microsoft Points ($14.99) or individual songs for 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99) each; pricing for the PlayStation Store weren't revealed. In addition, all ten album tracks will be original master recordings.

Screaming for Vengeance was released in July 1982 and ended up hitting double platinum at the end of its run -- being the band's first album to do so. The album includes the #1 hit "You've Got Another Thing Comin", which was also previously featured in the original Guitar Hero and the ...

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Castle Crashers take on the mighty sea

I just swung by the Castle Crashers Development Blog of Love, as they call it. Seriously, that's what they are actually calling it. Well it seems our friend Dan Paladin has been up to some more insane creation.

Part one of a three part series "The Kings Boat" went up today on the Behemoth Vimeo. The video is about 5 minutes long and shows the rough image then the refinement and further refinement of the art in the game.

If you look really closely you can see that Dan actually borrows the color of the King's (only a guess) beard and uses it as the color for the foaming water as it breaks on the bow of the ship. Hilarious. Also I loved the re-refinement of the cannon after it was already one, he went back and changed it and made it even better.

Sigh. I sill can't wait for this game to c...

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The Xbox 360. You love it. You hate it.

There definitely is a love-hate relationship between gamers and Xbox 360. Since the first light of day glanced upon the 360's case, reports have continued to stream in about the ongoing problem of the RRoD (Red Ring of Death). Other problems such as the DVD drive being faulty have also become commonplace.

But in spite of all these problems with the quality control of the unit, gamers still remain enthusiastically loyal to the creaky Xbox 360. The game library continues to astound and delight fans with games such as Mass Effect, Bioshock, Call of Duty 4 and a solid Xbox Live Arcade library.

But let's face it, this is the 21st century where electronics are some of the most reliable products that consumers can buy. Buy a television set and you can expect it to work for at least 10 to 15 years. ...

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Soul Calibur IV dated for July 29th

Soul Calibur IV has been eagerly anticipated by gamers the world over. The wait isn't over just yet, but we now know exactly how much longer we'll need to keep waiting, as Soul Calibur IV has been dated for release on July 29th in North America. The game will launch in regular and limited Premium Edition packages.

If you pick up the Premium Edition, you will also receive an art and comic book, a tournament kit, and access to extra customization content that the regular edition does not offer. Namco didn't say what the tournament kit contains but it will reportedly "give fans the opportunity to document the battle amongst friends." The Premium Edition will come in a metal case and will available for purchase at the price of $79.99

I've been planning to pick up SCIV on day one ever since its a...

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Kid vs. Mom. Kid: 0, Mom: 2

It seems that the continuing battle between parents and kids over game time is alive and well.

For your consideration: a 13-year-old boy in Virginia decided that it was a good idea to break the family vacuum cleaner in order to get out of his chores around the house and play video games. Not so fast whippersnapper. It looks like your mom won this round.

She has decided to sell her kid's Xbox 360 on eBay. But the story continues. It turns out that while his mom was going through his computer, she checked out the cookies and found that her innocent little boy was frequently checking out porn sites. So she decided to hack into his My Space page. The mom talks about the incident and states:

"My 13 year old managed to break the vacuum....thinking it would release him from that duty. He also has a...

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