Originally Posted by Hasney (Post 3202792)

The Cerberus Network is $10 though, so if you can get a second hand one for more than $10 off the new price, get the second hand one.

Originally Posted by G (Post 3203482)

Originally Posted by Drakul (Post 3202177)

Just bought Worms 3D (Xbox) for £1.99 online. I had it for the Ps2 when it first came out but, for some reason, my Ps2 hated certains games and the music would just jump and skip and, a lot of the time, the game just died on the loading screen. It wouldn't even read some discs at all.

Anyway, I looked online and it's compatible with the 360 so I can finally play it without random freezing. Although I bought Munch's Oddysee a few weeks ago because it was "compatible" and that was a let down. Yeah, it "worked" but the speech was completely inauidible which makes an Oddworld game unplayable.

Originally Posted by BigDaddyCool (Post 3204318)

Originally Posted by Snowden (Post 3204085)

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/111/1113397p1.html

Dragon age 2 drops on March 8th, pretty stoked.

Originally Posted by Hasney (Post 3204329)

It's funnier to see him do a SammyG, but with a quicker return :-\

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 3204372)

Fuuuuuuuck still havn't started the first one. And from what I've heard, multiple playthroughs give you very different experiences.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 3204372)

Fuuuuuuuck still havn't started the first one. And from what I've heard, multiple playthroughs give you very different experiences.

Originally Posted by Snowden (Post 3204514)

Playing through it now for the first time. I can see where multiple play throughs would totally change things, as your origin story plays a big part in how you're perceived throughout the rest of the game, and playing good versus evil makes the game world VERY different.

Problem is though, game is 60 hours long...dunno if I wanna do that twice.

Originally Posted by Kotaku

Microsoft's 360 avatars are looking a little on the portly side, because come the release of Kinect in November, they're in for a little redesign.

Why? It's because of Kinect. Rare, the developers behind the avatars, say the motion-sensing camera has been causing problems for users when playing a game where their actions were replicated on-screen by an avatar.

It's not a technical issue with the camera; instead, it's apparently an issue with player perception, because the avatar's pudgy little cartoon proportions aren't like those of our more elongated selves. So people's hand-eye coordination in certain games "broke".

Nick Burton, senior programmer at Rare, says the new avatars will be a little more realistic.

Originally Posted by Drakul a few months ago.

We'll get official details at E3, I'm sure. Speaking of E3, I saw a German video of Natal. The Breakout game had new avatars. They looked more "realistic" than the current Avatars but not as "realistic" as the avatars from Home.
My first thought was maybe a revamping of Avatars announced at E3? It's more likely to be models just loaded into the breakout game, I guess.

Originally Posted by Extreme Angle (Post 3205750)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqxPB-BCLRM
Dragon Age 2 Trailer, I have a feeling you play as the darkspawn kid

Originally Posted by IGN.com

Microsoft is treating the launch of its Windows Phone 7 operating system, backed by Xbox Live, as a portable gaming console. Though Microsoft is relying on third-party manufacturers to make the hardware, the operating system and Xbox Live enabled games are not being put on the back burner.

The philosophy carries through from the top down, including an internal first-party division of Microsoft Games Studio dedicated to mobile games and a minimum hardware spec sheet for phone manufacturers that will ensure all games and applications will run the same.

"We want to give our hardware partners a chance to differentiate themselves, and a lot of people like to have choice in their handset…but we want to make sure when people build apps or games for the phone that it's going to behave the same on every phone," said Brian Seitz, senior marketing manager for Windows Phone 7.

"It helps having a constant hardware platform that is a minimum guaranteed hardware set when you're developing games with XNA," added Kevin Unangst, senior director of PC and mobile gaming at Microsoft.

Those minimum hardware specs include a powerful processor, 256 MB of RAM, 802.11 b/g wireless, a 4 point multi-touch screen and a sensory array (A-GPS, accelerometer, compass, proximity and light). WVGA screens will be used at launch with the option of HVGA coming later.

Unangst continued, "We're looking at this like: Call it like a console launch. It's really like our portable console launch in that there's a constant hardware set, we're specifically choosing the content we want, and it's about bringing all of those service features over."

Originally Posted by IGN.com

There was a lot of skepticism floating around the Internet regarding the Windows Phone 7 Series and how much resources Microsoft would dedicate to making it a viable game platform. This week, Microsoft took great strides towards answering the critics. First, it announced a launch lineup that includes 60 games -- with more likely to be added. Then it gave members of the press a tour of how Xbox Live carries over to the phone, what features are being included, and how the gaming actually works. I sat in on one of these demos and came away thoroughly impressed.

The games you'll see on the Windows Phone 7 are comparable, and many times identical, to what you see on the Xbox Live Arcade. And in some ways, they exceed XBLA in terms of features. There will be plenty of standard games as well, such as Uno, but unfortunately only turn-based multiplayer gaming will be available at launch.

Games like iloMilo, a puzzler where you must direct ilo and Milo to meet each other, and Rocket Riot are titles that look and play about the same on both XBLA and the phone, save for the change to touch controls. Others are being brought on specifically to showcase the touch features. I got to try Max and the Magic Marker, a WiiWare game that will come to the mobile device at launch. If you haven't played it, think of Crayon Physics Deluxe on the PC, a game where you draw on the screen to solve puzzles.

Most impressive, however, was Crackdown: Project Sunburst. This is a tower defense game that imports Bing maps into the game to dynamically build levels. Freaks come pouring down the streets and it's up to you to build defenses against them, all in real places around the world.

The games I played all looked gorgeous and handled comparably to any decent iPhone game. For any hardcore gamer, it's the Xbox Live features that will likely make them want one of these phones.

Microsoft-sanctioned Xbox Live games on the phone will carry achievement points (200 per game), as well as leaderboards and other standards of the service. You won't have to pay extra to play these games online. Unlike the Xbox 360 with Xbox Live Gold and Silver accounts, there is no concept of a tiered service or any fees.

Every game will have its own free demo, much the same way as it works on Xbox 360 with Xbox Live Arcade or Indie games. Simply download the free trial and if you want to play more all you have to do is hit a button to unlock the license. "You shouldn't have to go download a bunch of free demos that you download and then have to delete," explained Kevin Unangst, senior director of PC and mobile gaming at Microsoft.

The company won't hold an iron grip over the Marketplace, however. Indies that don't utilize the Xbox Live tools and aren't officially promoted by Microsoft can still be made. "It's an open marketplace," said Unangst. "They can give them away, or sell them for whatever they want." Games that carry achievements and other Xbox Live features will have specific, tiered price tags similar to the Xbox Live Arcade. What those prices are has not yet been announced.

Though Windows Phone 7 games have the advantage of iPhone games in terms of demos, selling downloadable add-ons won't be possible at launch Unangst explained, "For the initial release of the phone, you're going to see that sort of thing through updates to the games themselves rather than standalone title content, but that is the sort of thing I would expect to see moving ahead."

Microsoft is hoping to leverage its Xbox Live heritage in ways other than gaming as well. Halo Waypoint, a portal for all things Halo currently available on Xbox Live, will be coming to the Windows Phone 7 as well.

Avatar applications will also be a big marketing point for Microsoft. Called gadgets, these are common apps you can find on any phone with an Avatar twist. All of them feature your Xbox Live Avatar in some neat way. The flashlight app puts your Avatar on the screen holding a light. The level uses the accelerometer to tell you if something is flat, but also puts the Avatar up on the screen swaying back and forth as you tilt the phone.

The coolest gadget I saw was the coin toss. Here the coin has a 2D outline of your Avatars face on it for "heads". And if you look close enough, you can see your Gamerscore etched into the coin as well. (OMG!!)

I'd be pretty excited about picking up a Windows Phone 7 capable device later this year if I wasn't already locked into a contract with my iPhone. One thing is certain here: Apple will soon have some serious competition in the gaming space.