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Immerse yourself in the best next-generation gaming experience - only through Xbox 360.
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Enchance your Xbox 360 Gaming Experience with Xbox 360 Accessories.
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With the Xbox 360 video game you're at the center of customizable experience that brings your games and your digital entertainment togetner in one powerful package.
New Xbox 360 Game Has Quick-Time Events
April 15, 2009
The back of the box for the newly-released XBox 360 game “Ninja Blade” visually advertises three features. One of them is the game’s “Quick-Time Events,” those commonly-used cinematic sequences that require players to tap specific buttons in order for them to play properly. QTEs seldom are offered as a selling point. Do most people even know what they are?
I liked QTEs the first time I saw them, in Resident Eevil 4. (Anyone know the first game to use them?) They were a cool way to make you pay attention to cutscenes. I thought they also worked well enough in the God of War games for the finishing moves — making the game more accessible than if the moves had required memorizing a complex input. But they’re definitely wearing out their welcome, becoming a cheap go-to device in too many games.
The Best Xbox 360 Memory
April 14, 2009
The Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive is the best option for media enthusiasts who game on Xbox 360™. It is the largest storage option for Xbox 360. Expand your Xbox 360 experience with downloadable content. Save your game progress, Xbox LIVE® gamer profile, game demos, and custom soundtracks from your own music collection. Download movies and television shows from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Play original and retro games in Xbox LIVE Arcade.
The Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive includes a data transfer kit to easily migrate all of your saved data from your 20GB HDD to your 120GB HDD. It comes preloaded with great HD game demos, videos, and an assortment of Xbox LIVE Arcade game trials.
- Game downloads: Download game demos, Xbox Originals, Xbox LIVE Arcade games, and extra content for released games from Marketplace.
- Video Store: Download hundreds of movies in standard- and high-definition, as well as television shows, independent videos, game trailers, and lots more.
- Game saves: Even the most dedicated of gamers could spend a lifetime trying to fill up 120GB with game saves.
- Other media: Rip CDs to the hard drive with reckless abandon and no concern for space constraints. Save your own photos or download gamer pics and dashboard themes from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
- Fusion color: The 120 GB Hard Drive matches the style of the original Xbox 360 console and 20GB Hard Drive (the black 120GB Hard Drive is only available as part of the Xbox 360 Elite console package).
This is the best memory for Xbox 360 console .
Max Payne 3 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC Now in Development
April 13, 2009
Max Payne 3 is currently in development for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, Rockstar Games has revealed, with the title set to release during “winter 2009″ (translation: probably after Christmas).
Developed by Rockstar Vancouver, Max Payne 3 tells the story of a retired police detective out to avenge the death of his family. The latest installment will tell a new chapter of Max’s life in which he’s a few years older, even more cynical and on a serious downward spiral after the events of Max Payne 2.
Here’s the plot: Since leaving the NYPD and New York behind, Max has drifted from bad to worse. Double-crossed and a long way from home, Max is now trapped in a city full of violence and bloodshed, using his weapons and instincts in a desperate search for the truth and a way out.
OK, so that’s pretty predictable. But still, with the Mark Wahlberg Max Payne film being pretty much panned, the news of a new Max Payne videogame in the works for the next-gen consoles is quite delightful.
Game Guys Review: “Guitar Hero: Metallica” for Xbox 360
April 11, 2009
Guitar Hero: Metallica is the latest game in the franchise that started the rhythm based music game.
While this game isn’t as audience specific as Singstar ABBA, it definitely caters to a specific audience. However there is a reason for any fan of the Guitar Hero series to pick it up.
The plot (if you can call it a plot) in Guitar Hero: Metallica follows a group of kids so hyped up after seeing Metallica perform, decide to start a band. A buddy of mind who helped with this review says, the same thing happened to him. He remembers seeing the rock gods in the early 90’s and going home and practicing the solos and shredding chords Metallica is famous for.
In fact after acing the intro to “One,” he told me it’s one of the few things he practiced over and over again on a real guitar.
While this is a side project for the Guitar Hero franchise, it features a killer track list with only a few noticeable gaps, and great band animation. There are also a ton of hidden extras for diehard Metallica fans.
The game is for all four instruments, guitar, bass, vocals, and drums. All four members of Metallica are playable characters, once you unlock them. The animated versions of Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo are pretty spot on, more on that later.
The career mode starts out with you playing a two song set as Metallica, then you can go through the standard rocker/band creation.
The rest of the career mode is pretty straight forward. You earn stars on every song you play. Earn enough stars and you unlock the next tier of music. This means you can beat the game without playing every single song, which is nice if a particular riff has you fingers in a twist.
Still there are plenty of unlockables such as custom instruments, characters, and venues, which push a player to go back and earn all of those stars. However it is nice that you can skip songs and still advance in the game and unlock songs. It lets you get to the songs you really want to play while ignoring the once you don’t.
The parts are pretty even, though I do have one gripe about the guitar part. Metallica features three guitars, lead, rhythm and bass. However you can’t separate the lead and rhythm guitar. The part you play is a combo of both. Not a huge deal, but for purists, there is no way to get five guitars going.
As for difficulty, hard is probably where most people familiar with the game will want to play. There difference between medium and hard isn’t as great as the difference between hard and expert.
So here is the best way I can explain it medium is one playable note for every five notes the band actually plays, hard is three to one, and expert is one to one. It gets pretty tough on some of the power cords. However, the version of on Guitar Hero: Metallica is supposedly easier then in Guitar Hero III.
The drums also feature an added challenge, the double bass. If you preordered the game you got the second kick pedal for free, but you can buy it separately with an adaptor. Then cue up the difficult to expert plus, and really challenge your skills on those plastic skins. It’s a lot harder then it looks, but sure to offer a challenge to those looking for one.
Now the best reason to buy this game is the tracks. The list is alone make this game a must have, for Metallica fans. The game has over 45 tracks from Metallica’s entire career, from “Seek and Destroy” on Kill ‘em All, “Enter Sandman” on the black album, and “Broken Beat and Scarred” from Death Magnetic.
Still, I think everyone will have track they are sad not to see on here, I missed “…And Justice For All,” but it’s downloadable for the Guitar Hero, and “Ride the Lighting” which is downloadable for Rock Band. The problem is anything you download in World Tour won’t carry over to GH: Metallica. The only supported downloadable tracks are the entire Death Magnetic album. So you can’t play the World Tour Metallica tracks in this game, you have to swap out the disks. A minor problem, but it would have been nice if the DLC crossed over.
The animated version of Metallica looks great, and the animations are smooth. There is a behind the scenes look at all of the motion capture sessions the band went through, and it really shows, transferring a lot of the individual band members mannerisms into the game.
I think everyone will have a moment where they animation really stands out, for me it was when James Hetfield threw up his arms during “Fuel” and put his hands together to prey during “Enter Sandman.”
While there is a great track list for any Guitar Hero fan, the game really offers a lot more for Metallica fans.
The thing that blew me away were the Metallifacts. After you beat many of the songs you can go back and watch them like a music video, with fact and trivia pop ups. While it’s not available for every song there the feature is an option on a lot of tracks, and the info switches every thirty seconds or so.
There is also behind-the-scenes footage from the motion capture sessions, fan-shot video from tiny club gigs, a gallery with photos and tour notes from years past and song lyrics.
So to wrap up Guitar Hero: Metallica is a top notch music game, what we would expect from Guitar Hero.
There have been some improvements over World Tour, one important one is the look when one rockers gets into the danger zone. The whole screen gets rimmed in red when someone is about to fail, giving other rockers a heads up to start up some star power to save them. Which is good to see since if a single member fails out the song stops, unlike Rock Band’s three strike feature which lets you save a player three times before the song fails.
This game didn’t fix one of my big complaints from World Tour. If you start a band in single player mode it’s stuck in single player mode. Friends can’t join my single player created band, to play the songs I unlocked. So when you have friends come over you have to start from scratch.
The track listing is great over 45 Metallica songs and you get a handful of tracks personally selected by the band, such as Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters and Queen.
The look would appeal to any Metallica fan, and the game offers a lot of perks for life long fans. It’s a great game for any casual music fan or Metallica fan. However if you aren’t a big fan of metal music this game has less to offer you, but hey there’s always Singstar ABBA.
Amazon price cuts Guitar Hero Metallica Xbox 360
April 7, 2009
Retailer Amazon.com this month price cut Activision Inc.’s Guitar Hero Metallica for Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co.’s Wii to under $48 in a new video game sale.
This week, the Guitar Hero Metallica Xbox 360 SKU held a sale price of $47.99, while the Wii version was discounted to $39.99.
Guitar Hero Metallica is the latest release in the popular music franchise.
The title includes 28 Metallica songs and 21 tracks by artists inspired by the rock band.
Additionally, Guitar Hero Metallica holds support for guitar, drum and mic peripherals.
