Xbox 360 with Blu-Ray Drive in the Works?

Engadget believe so...

Two years and 1 month ago today we saw the kibosh come down on the Xbox 360 Blu-ray player rumor. This morning it returns with the prospect of a Microsoft player as early as May. According to Smarthouse, their "insiders at Microsoft" claim that a standalone Blu-ray player is already working in-house. With the appropriate approvals it could be on sale within 3 months. A 360 with built-in Blu-ray is also being worked on although the possibility of moving it out to retail is less clear with HD downloads on the horizon. Not that any of this is unexpected given the circumstances. We never expected Microsoft to go down with the HD DVD ship -- they're just passengers on this ill-fated voyage, not the captains.

Harley Quinn in Batman LEGO Game

Great News from MTV

In the "LEGO Batman" video game, Harley Quinn will have the ability to walk a tight rope, perform super jumps and bypass security for all levels with guards in security booths. Harley Quinn appears in the Fairgrounds Villain level as well as one additional level yet to be announced. stay tuned.

Vader & Yoda in Soul Caliber IV Trailer

Vader & Yoda in Soul Caliber IV

More over at 1UP

Amazon sell 17 Wii's per Second in the US

News of a sickening amount of Wii sales from Gizmodo

I realise that it’s pretty sickening to hear that Amazon was selling Wiis at a rate of 17 per second over the Christmas period elsewhere while most of the UK and Ireland got zilch, but that’s life.

Extrapolate those figures and Amazon sold a staggering 1,020 Wiis a minute, 61,200 an hour and a frightening 1.46m per day. Of course, none of that’s actually true, just a theory because there weren’t that many Wiis out there – anywhere.

Amazon actually said that at peak, the Wiis old at a rate of 17 per second “when they were in stock”. Not too often then.

Other stats showed that Dec 10th was the busiest day with 5.4m purchases and that 99% of Christmas orders shipped on time.

8 Hot Hits for 2008

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Set at the height of the Cold War in 1957, Indy is in a race for the Crystal Skull against operatives from the Soviet Union. The adventures take him to New Mexico, Connecticut, Mexico City and the jungles of Peru. Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Karen Allen, Andrew Divoff

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV (referred to as GTA IV or GTA4) will be the eleventh Grand Theft Auto game in the series. Take Two and Rockstar Games Currently have 150 developers working on the game and work has been in progress since 2004, right after San Andreas was released. Since then, the game has been developed by Rockstar teams in Edinburgh, San Diego, and New York. Although Delayed this game will be one of the most desired bit of kit since Halo 3 in 2008.



WALL-E

WALL-E is the story of the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot and his programming was to help clean up. You see, it's set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash. And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again.

Well, the cleanup program failed with the exception of this one little robot and he's left on Earth doing his duty all alone. But it's not a story about science fiction. It's a love story, because, you see, WALL·E falls in love with EVE, a robot from a probe that comes down to check on Earth, and she's left there to check on and see how things are going and he absolutely falls in love with her

Samsung Blu-Ray - HD-DVD Hybrid Player

The BDP-UP5000 will support all the features of either movie format, including Internet extras through an Ethernet connection that both formats will recognize. It should also eliminate the stilted motion effects caused by pulldown conversion and can output movies at either a film-native 24 frames per second or as quickly as 60 frames per second for faster videos. No trouble is expected with playing movies at a full 1080p, Samsung says. While the final cost of the player hasn't been finalized, the device should be ready by October or November and will sell at a roughly 400-Euro ($544) premium compared to a single-format Blu-Ray movie reader by the time it reaches stores.



Master Replicas Halo 3 Force FX Plasma Sword

Master Replicas have recently announced their 2008 product line and with it comes their answer to their hugely successful Force FX Lightsabre range. The Force FX Energy Sword from the Halo Universe. Not many details are known at this stage but we predict this to be a top seller.



The Dark Knight

The follow-up to the action hit "Batman Begins," "The Dark Knight" reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne. In the new film, Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker.



Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Following the style of its predecessors, the game uses a battle system different from that of typical fighting games. Choosing from a variety of characters, one to four players fight on various stages, trying to knock their opponents off the screen. Instead of using health bars like those used in most fighting games, percentage displays are employed. These start at zero percent, and increase as the characters take damage up to 999%. As a character's percentage goes up, the character flies farther back when hit. When a character is knocked beyond a stage's boundary and disappears from the screen, the character loses either a life or a point depending on the mode of play. We expect this to do for Nintendo in 2008 what Mario Galaxy did for Nintendo in 2007, looking forward to this one.



Cloverfield

Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

This film didn't have a name for most of its promotional duties in 2007 helping building up the hype, but alas here is Cloverfield. We all just hope it lives up to its hype. Don't you just love a good disaster movie?

Wii are Hurtin' for some Action!

News that Nintendo are pulling all their UK Wii advertising in place for the more widely available DS probably comes to no surprise to us, we also know that they are upping production to 1.8 million wii units a month & we also know that the words 'Nintendo Wii' are the most searched for words on this planet at the moment (second comes Nintendo DS).

So what is it that makes the Wii so right for the consumer? the answer as if it needed to be said is that anyone can play, i've seen dad's play the Wii console!. Working up a sweat while 'exercising' almost makes the wifes and girlfriends interested in forking out cash that should be put towards better stuff like gardens or rings. The amazing £179 price point helps speed the process of purchase too! (although finding it under £350 with any decent games is like finding a needle in a haystack at the moment).

Looks like Nintendo may of won the console war, i mean they have strong opposition from Microsoft with the 360, and dare i say it the PS3? but being the hottest-impossible-to-get product for a second year running is just incredible.

I myself am still without a Wii, but i can blame owning a home for that! its on the list of things to buy in 2008.

Will Nintendo keep us on the edge of our seats in 2008 with some great titles, lets hope so. The future is bright for Nintendo, seems every one is backing them. I personally want to open a WiiBar and mix great nights out with great social gaming.

Wii have 2 bonus Villians!

Have you gotten your hands on the new Wii? Then you're in luck. According to the EB Games website, the Wii version of the Spider-Man 3 video game includes two bonus Marvel villains: Morbius and Shriek.

Star Wars Next Gen Game Official

The Star Wars saga continues this November in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a videogame developed by LucasArts, which casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi - and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.

Features

* During the period between Episodes III and IV, players hunt Jedi in the role of Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice.
* Unleash and upgrade the Secret Apprentice's four core Force powers - Force push, grip, repulse and lightning - throughout the course of the game, and combine them for ultra-destructive, never-before-seen combos.
* Examples of unleashing the Force in ways never thought possible:
o The Secret Apprentice won't just Force push enemies into walls - he'll Force push enemies through walls.
o The Secret Apprentice won't just Force grip foes to throw them aside - he'll Force grip them in midair, zap them with lightning, then drop them to the ground to explode like a bomb.
* In addition to new adversaries created just for the game, such as fugitive Jedi and Force-sensitive Felucians, players will also confront and associate with familiar faces from the Star Wars films, including Darth Vader.
* Visit locations such as Episode III's Wookiee homeworld

Halo 3 gets a Shhhhh Button

To those people who like to be loud and abusive on xbox live, Bungie says, "shut up." On its latest weekly update post, community liaison Frank O'Connor reveals that Halo 3 will have what one staff member calls "The A-Hole Button." The feature will let gamers instantly mute players of their choosing directly within game sessions.

Currently, the feature is locked onto the Back button of the 360 controller, but O'Connor suggests it may not remain mapped to that position.

One major complaint about Halo 2's online play has been the behavior of gamers over Xbox Live. While Bungie can't police every single person's actions, the company does say, "We're doing our best to come up with lots of smart solutions for stuff like this, but honestly, we can't be parents to some of these poltroons."

Xbox 360s investigated by Watchdog

BBC consumer affairs show looks into a number of complaints about hardware faults on Microsoft's console.

The show's presenters say that they have received 248 complaints about faulty Xbox 360s, and they believe they will receive more as further items come out of the warranty period.

Watchdog highlighted two cases in which consoles that had just come out of the one-year warranty period had shown the dreaded 'ring of death'--referring to the three red lights which appear on the console to indicate a fatal hardware fault. The two owners had to spend around £80 ($156) each to fix the fault--something they considered to be unreasonable not much more than a year after purchasing the systems.

The popular UK TV series, first aired in 1980, investigates consumer problems including faulty or dangerous goods.

A Microsoft representative did not appear on the show, although presenter Nicky Campbell read out the following statement that the company had sent to them: "Most people who have an Xbox 360 have an outstanding experience and there's no common fault. Each incident is unique, and looked at on a case by case basis."

Metal Gear Solid in Official Development

AICN reports that the film version of the hit game is officially on!.

Star Wars PocketModel Trading Card Game Announced

Wizkids anounce new Star Wars Trading Card Game for June 2007

The Star Wars PocketModel TCG combines the best features of classic TCGs with those of constructible strategy games (CSGs), a category that WizKids® pioneered for kids. This TCG innovation allows players to use characters and action scenes from the movies on their cards to help control their fleets of PocketModel ships as they attempt to destroy each other¹s objectives. This exciting, easy-to-learn game derives its content from all six Star Wars movies, making it possible for fans of all generations to enjoy battling for control of the galaxy!

Following in the tradition of WizKids¹ successful Pirates CSG, no Starter is required for game play. Each Game Pack (SRP $4.99) contains four to eight styrene constructible vehicle models, six game cards, two micro dice, assembly instructions and complete rules.

10 New Xbox Live Arcade Games in Feb

“3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures,” from developer Wanako Games and publisher Sierra Online, allows gamers to putt their way through 36 fun-filled holes of manic minigolf action on wild courses that range from the Old West to outer space and feature a bevy of crazy hazards and obstacles.

“Alien Hominid HD” from The Behemoth features side-scrolling, hysterical cartoon action with a quirky twist and exclusive Xbox Live Arcade features.

“Band of Bugs” from NinjaBee is a fast-paced tactical strategy game that offers gameplay deep enough to satisfy tactical genre fans and friendly enough to appeal to casual gamers. Creative gamers can even design their own levels with the built-in level editor, then play them solo or over Xbox Live with friends.

“Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” from Konami is a faithful version of this legendary classic updated for Xbox Live Arcade and featuring the game’s full soundtrack and memorable side-scrolling vampire-hunting action.

“Catan,” from developer Big Huge Games Inc. and publisher Microsoft® Game Studios, is a faithful remake of the immensely popular strategy board game.

“Eets: Chowdown” from Klei Entertainment Inc. is a completely revamped version of the popular PC title of the same name. It offers new items, 120 new levels and the exclusive debut of Marsho Madness, a high-adrenaline action game in which players must keep the impending evil marshmallows at bay.

“LUXOR 2,” from developer MumboJumbo LLC, sets a new standard for action puzzlers as players match and shoot their way through the land of ancient Egypt.

“Paperboy,” from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, is a classic coin-op hit, specially enhanced for Xbox Live Arcade.

“Root Beer Tapper,” also from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, features fast-paced reflex action as players scramble to keep thirsty patrons happy without dropping root beer mugs in the scramble to earn the biggest tips.

“Worms” from developer Team 17 Software Ltd. features armies of adorable weapon-toting worms locked in tactical combat.

Halo ActionClix CMG

Following on from the news that Kotobukiya will be releasing collectables based on the Halo franchise, now WhizKids are jumping on the Bungie bandwagon.
They have signed a licence that allows them to develop a collectable miniatures game based on the Halo universe. Around 80 miniatures are planned to begin with, covering all three entries into in the saga, with more coming in the future.

More information can be found here....

Kotobukiya Grab Halo License

Excellent news... Kotobukiya announces a new partnership with Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios in order to produce collectibles based on the best-selling video game franchise.

Kotobukiya will release at a series of ARTFX Statues (12” tall vinyl figural statues) throughout 2007, featuring characters from Halo 1 & 2, as well as the eagerly anticipated Halo 3. Renowned for amazing sculpting, painting, and design, the Tokyo based company will endeavor to produce high-end merchandise for the discriminating Halo collector.

Hiruma, Deputy Chief of Kotobukiya’s Planning Division said, “We are honored to be able to work on such an incredible game. We are confident that the fans will like our stylish interpretations of the Spartans and other characters of the Halo universe!”

In order to ensure the highest possible level or accuracy and detail, all goods will be fully approved and authorized by the game creators of Bungie Studios. The Halo ARTFX Statues will be available on a worldwide basis, with character line up and release dates to be announced in the coming months.

”It’s our great pleasure to collaborate with the talented sculptors, painters and artists at Kotobukiya, and a true joy to see our favorite characters and creatures captured in this unique medium,” said Brian Jarrard of Bungie Studios.

The epic saga continues with Halo® 3, the hugely anticipated third chapter in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax.

Halo 3 represents the third chapter in the Halo trilogy—an international award-winning action series that grew into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.5 million units worldwide, logging more than 650 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox Live®, and spawning books, a graphic novel, apparel, an upcoming film adaptation, and now Halo’s first ever high-end statue series.

Europe Gets PS3 Launch FINALLY!

Sony have announced the much delayed European PS3 launch as being the 23rd of March 2007, i believe they will sell well but not as well as they could have doone, i believe allot of people have spent their money on the excellent Wii and may decide to leave the PS3 for the time being.

The cost is what really offends me, £425 is a hefty cost for a console, bearing in mind the 360 cost £279.

Admittedly it does come with a 60gig hard drive which is better than the 360, but the 360 has a 100 gig on the way...

The ps3 does have free online access which is something i think Microsoft will need to address.

There will also be 30 titles available for launch, with the 20 gig cheaper version following later in the year.

Things to Look forward to in 2007

In no particular order but this is what we're looking forward to iPhone, Apple TV, Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, The Golden Compass, Halo 3, Oblivion Expansions, Kings of Leon Album, Modest Mouse Album, Lost S3 Back on our Screens, 24 Day 6, Battlestar Galactica S3, Wii's back in stock, Transformers the Movie, Star Wars Celebration Europe, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Smashing Pumpkins new album and tour, Spider-man 3, F4-2, Alan Wake Game, PS3 Failing to grip the market, Xbox 360 Price Drop, Harry Potter Action Figures, HD TV's Price Drop War & the launch of the brand new Cult Press website.

Xbox 360 Price Drop Soon?

Analysts--Michael Goodman and Colin Sebastian talk 360 cash! "At CES, Microsoft is introducing several new services and updates for the Xbox 360 aimed at broadening the content available over the platform beyond video games...specifically, Microsoft is now positioning the Xbox 360 as a media hub and set-top box for the living room, linking broadband connectivity and the Xbox Live service with providers of traditional media content through Internet protocol television (IPTV)."

Goodman put a few more chips on the table, telling GameSpot he was looking at the March-June time frame as fertile ground for a price drop--and that if Microsoft really wanted to disrupt the console playing field, it would slash the price by $100.

"It's a market share battle," Goodman said. The $100 cut in price is what Microsoft would do "if [it] wants to be super competitive--put Sony against the wall and put competitive pressure on the Wii."

Read More over at Gamespot

Oblivion Gets Bigger!

British gaming mags PC Gamer and PC Zone have spilled the beans on a new Oblivion expansion titled The Shivering Isles. The new content will let players explore The Isles, which are divided into northern/southern areas titled (not too invitingly) Mania and Dementia, respectively. Players will be able to reach the Shivering Isles through a door on an island that appears in Niben Bay near Bravil.

The expansion will extend Oblivion's gameplay for another 30+ hours, and includes new quests, creatures, and dungeons. One new quest involves solving a mystery in a town on the Mania/Dementia border, where every citizen has a look-a-like. Among the new monsters are the Gatekeeper, a collection of bodyparts that have been stitched together, and the Knights of the Order, made up of tree roots.

Oblivion's first expansion, Knights of the Nine, was released November 22, 2006 for PC and Xbox 360. So far, The Shivering Isles has only been announced for PC, but with a little fairy magic the 360 and upcoming PlayStation 3 versions will get to vacation in the Isles, as well. The expansion is currently set for a Q2 2007 release.