Gaming Rats

Forza Motorsport 3 Goes Gold!

2009-09-14T22:30:00.004+02:00

Announces Xbox LIVE Demo on Sept. 24.

The white flag waves as “Forza Motorsport 3” has Gone Gold, entering its final lap before launching on Oct. 22 in Asia, Oct. 23 in Europe and Oct. 27 in North America exclusively on Xbox 360. To mark the occasion, Microsoft and Turn 10 today confirmed that a demo of the highly anticipated title will arrive on Xbox LIVE Marketplace starting Sept. 24.

The new demo lets you get behind the wheel of five of the world’s most amazing cars on the full circuit of the game’s Camino Viejo track. The demo includes five playable cars:

-2007 Porsche #80 Flying Lizard 911 GT3-RSR

-2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro

-2009 Ferrari California

-2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR

-2009 Mini John Cooper Works

You will be able to drive all of the cars in the demo in full cockpit view as well as experience damage, rollover and try out the game’s new rewind feature as you take turns on a beautiful Spanish mountain course inspired by the Montserrat region just outside of Barcelona, Spain. When logged into Xbox LIVE, the demo will also support official leaderboards for lap times, giving you a further taste of what players will experience in “Forza Motorsport 3.”

With today’s Gone Gold announcement and the recent announcements around the fan-designed R8 V10 5.2 FSI quattro and the exclusive Limited Collector’s Edition (which includes 10 exclusive bonus cars, VIP community status, and more), there has never been a better time to pre-order “Forza Motorsport 3.”

Additionally, Turn 10 is proud to unveil the first collection of Forza Motorsport-branded clothing and accessories for your Xbox LIVE avatar. Included in our first batch of gear are the following items. Check out the pictures below. The prices for Avatar gear will vary between 80 to 320 Microsoft Points.

-4 T-shirt prints featuring logos from new tracks in the game

-Forza-branded Racing Shoes

-Forza-branded Baseball Cap

-Forza-branded Fingerless Racing Gloves

-Forza-branded Leather Jacket

-2 Racing Helmet (in white or black)

-Forza-branded Race Driver Fire Suit

The Forza Motorsport 3 demo and all Avatar items will be available on Sept. 24.

See you at the finish line!

Found on: forzamotorsport.net

XBOX 360 used for cardiac research

2009-09-14T22:23:00.002+02:00

A researcher at the University of Warwick says the Xbox 360 GPU could save thousands of pounds.

A new study by a University of Warwick researcher has demonstrated that researchers trying to model a range of processes could use the power of the Xbox 360 graphics chip as a much cheaper alternative to other forms of parallel processing hardware.

Dr Simon Scarle, a researcher in the University of Warwick's WMG Digital Laboratory who had previously worked as a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare development studio, wished to model how electrical excitations in the heart moved around damaged cardiac cells in order to investigate or even predict cardiac arrhythmias. These kind of simulations would normally require time on a dedicated parallel processing computer or thousands of pounds of investment in a parallel network of PCs.

However, Dr Scarle's time at Rare made him aware of the parallel processing power of the Xbox 360's Graphical Processing Unit (GPU), which he has now been successfully put into practice.

"This is a highly effective way of carrying out high end parallel computing on "domestic" hardware for cardiac simulations," said Dr Scarle. "Although major reworking of any previous code framework is required, the Xbox 360 is a very easy platform to develop for and this cost can easily be outweighed by the benefits in gained computational power and speed, as well as the relative ease of visualization of the system."

This isn't the first time a video game console has been used for medical research. Anyone with a PS3 can join the Folding@home program, allowing their idle console to help study the causes of diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and many cancers.

Found on: virginmedia.com

Microsoft: Cross-platform Titles "just work better" on XBOX LIVE

2009-09-14T22:08:00.003+02:00

Chris Lewis of Microsoft has told MCV magazine that cross-platform titles "just work better on Xbox Live."

Lewis, the VP of Interactive Entertainment at Microsoft Europe, was answering a question on where Microsoft is heading in the next 18 months.

"We have a great journey through to Christmas," he answers, "there are key titles that are exclusives but also great cross-platform titles that will just work better on Xbox Live."

"And in terms of content and networking, we have more content partnerships for Xbox Live."

Found on: oxm.co.uk

XBOX LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 31st

2009-09-14T21:51:00.002+02:00

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

1 Call of Duty: WaW
2 Halo 3
3 Call of Duty 4
4 Gears of War 2
5 Madden NFL 10 (Download the demo)
6 GTA IV
7 Batman: Arkham Asylum (Download the demo)
8 FIFA 09
9 Left 4 Dead
10 Trials HD (Download the demo)

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1 Trials HD
2 Shadow Complex
3 Defense Grid: The Awakening
4 Battlefield 1943
5 NBA 2K10 Draft Combine
6 Castle Crashers
7 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
8 Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
9 Splosion Man
10 Hasbro Family Game Night **

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.
**Combined sales of all Hasbro Family Game Night titles

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)

1 Halo 2
2 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3 Counter-Strike
4 Fable
5 Splinter Cell Chaos
6 Conker: Live Reloaded
7 Star Wars: Battlefront
8 Doom 3
9 SW: KOTOR
10 SW: Republic Commando

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1 I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
2 Avatar Drop
3 Headshot
4 Track Architect
5 Avatar Golf
6 Who Did I Date Last Night
7 Miner Dig Deep
8 The Drinking Game
9 Physics Sandbox
10 ezmuze+ Hamst3r edition

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Community Games, full versions purchased during the week.

"XBOX LIVE" September Plans

2009-09-14T21:43:00.004+02:00

Microsoft has detailed its Xbox LIVE plans for September, revealing which games you'll be able to pick up from the Games on Demand store and which will be offered at a reduced price as part of the Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week promotion.

September will bring four new weeks of value with the Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week. Look out for discounted prices on Lode Runner (available September 14) and Pinball FX (available September 21). Microsoft is ending the month with a 50 per cent discount on the top 10 downloadable songs from Guitar Hero World Tour.

If it's full Xbox 360 games that you're after then you might want to check out the new additions to the Games on Demand store:

September 15: FIFA Street 3 (Electronic Arts): FIFA Street 3 brings you the flair, style and attitude of street football like never before. Play as your heroes in unique street environments and show what you can do with the ball at your feet! Available in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

September 22: Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft): Get ready to experience the ride of your life. Conquer extreme peak conditions, create your own paths in the back country or compete with other riders in the terrain parks. The choice is always yours. Ride in a world where your friends are always around. Do your own runs on mountains populated by other gamers on Xbox LIVE, or join them for a quick session, its guaranteed fun any time, all the time. Available in the U.S., Mexico, Europe and Asia.

September 29: Fable II: Game Episodes (Microsoft Game Studios): For those who have watched from the outside, unsure if they were hero material, a surprise awaits. Fable II: Game Episodes delivers the entire Fable II experience in five consecutive instalments, with all the Achievements, challenges, and excitement of the disk-based game. Best of all, we’re bringing you the first episode completely free! Experience childhood and the trials of being a young adult in the world of Albion. After completing the chapter, you have the choice to then purchase the next instalment and continue your adventure, fully compatible with both Game Add-ons, “Knothole Island” and “See the Future.” Available worldwide except Japan and Korea.

If that's not enough to keep you going this month, then there will also be new items heading to the Avatar Marketplace.

September 10: Have your avatar rock-out in neon and fringe with original styles from the 80’s Modern collection.

September 17: Prove that you’re a digital tastemaker with the latest from Urban Culture.

September 24: Deck your Avatar out in authentic racing apparel from Forza 3.

Found on: videogamer.com

Avatar Thursday goes 80's

2009-09-11T02:17:00.004+02:00

While this week’s offerings on the Avatar Marketplace do not carry any specific game brands, placed rather within the Lifestyle section, they do harken back to the Mod scene and unique fashion it spawned.

xbox.com

Mass Effect 2 Xbox 360 Interview - PAX 09: Greg Zeschuk

2009-09-11T01:56:00.002+02:00

Valve wants to put Left 4 Dead 2 mods on Xbox 360

2009-09-11T01:27:00.002+02:00

One of the main benefits of playing Valve games on the PC is the fact that you get access to a great amount of mods created by a ravenous community of fans. And Valve hopes to at least bring a little of the community's creativity over to home consoles.

"One of the things I'd like to do is to allow these modules that are being released on PC to somehow integrate with Microsoft's system," says Valve's Yasser Mailaka. "We'll have to filter them, we can't allow any copyrighted materials, so it's going to have to go through a process ... And you know, if they are a paid system, perhaps that could go back to the authors. I think that would be a great story."

Turn 10 Thinks About Natal

2009-09-09T23:01:00.003+02:00

Forza Motorsport 3 director Dan Greenawalt is excited about Natal, and by the sound of it he's even come up with some ideas on how the 360 motion cam could transform the racing series.

"The thing that excites me the most is Natal. To me it all comes down to that core vision I pitched back in 2002 - turn gamers into car loves and car lovers into gamers," he told Xbox World 360 magazine. "What really excites me as a designer is that car passion.

"What gets me excited about Natal is getting people involved with cars - touching cars, opening doors, smashing cars, taking parts out, that visceral feeling of moving and playing inside a car," he said.

"Is that what Forza 4 is? I have no idea, but I'm excited about it because I can get the controller out of the way and get people even more excited about cars."

Of course Greenawalt isn't the first racing game designer to dream of controller-less driving; a version of Burnout has already been demoed to press running on Natal. Whether or not that setup would be comfortable for a full racer though, it remains to be seen.

Found on: computerandvideogames.com

James Cameron's "Avatar: The Game" Impressions

2009-09-09T22:51:00.005+02:00

There were a lot of games out on the show floor during the past few days, but one that caught my eye in particular was the Avatar game that is coming out soon as a tie-in to the movie. Intended to be a prequel to the movie, and based on a third-person shooter mechanic, the game was a bit of a surprise for me. Regardless of how the movie fares, there is a great deal of potential for the game to do well; assuming, that is, that the story tie-in will leave the game with enough freedom to do its own thing and do it well.

The demo I played started off with me assuming control of some fancy, semi-futuristic aircraft with dual rotor blades to keep it aloft and a whole lot of missiles to fire at any outcroppings that got in my way. There weren’t any enemies to fight; I just had to navigate my way to a landing pad while avoiding running into anything, which was fairly easy to do. Vehicle controls, at least didn’t feel loose or awkward; right trigger fired the rockets and the joysticks controlled the aircraft and camera position. The only difficulty I had was that the option to invert the controls wasn’t available in this build of the demo, so I had to readjust my thinking of which direction on the joystick was “up.” Even this early on in the demo, the visuals were absolutely stunning and made full use of the Far Cry 2 graphics engine. The area I was navigating through was a series of tall rock plateaus with vegetation hanging down and water cascading off the sides that quickly transitioned into a jungle-type environment that would be where the remainder of the demo would take place. During the entire time I played, I never noticed the slightest drop in frame rate, which is truly impressive considering what I was in store for in the jungle.

Once I was on the ground, I was placed in control of one of the Marine grunts that has come to Pandora to find minerals. The Ubisoft rep told me that, in the game, players would eventually be able to switch between the grunts and the Na'Vi, those blue cat-like creatures. I didn’t play as a Na'Vi, but for the grunt, the controls felt like a cross between Gears of War and Metroid Prime. Similar to Metroid, there is a button that allows you to scan the florae and fauna in the environment in order to gather additional data that is stored in a database you can access at any time through the menu. There wasn’t an exact number given for how many entries in the scan database there would be, but it was suggested that there was a lot to look at and scan on the planet. You could bring your weapon up to do precision aiming, or fire from the hip, and, interestingly enough, you could jump. Looks like the grunts will be doing some off-roading. The d-pad on the controller changed weapons and I could choose between an assault rifle-type weapon, a pistol, and (my personal favorite) a flamethrower. I immediately selected the flamethrower and started going scorched earth on anything and everything around me. As should be expected, all those plants around me didn’t last long and I left a few black patches of dirt in my wake.

The Ubisoft rep that was standing with me told me that, in this game, if something looks pretty then it’s probably dangerous. She was right. As I approached a group of interesting and beautiful looking plants, a vine suddenly swung out and struck. This called for some fiery retribution and once I had dealt with the floral foe, I was set upon by some panther looking things that would strike, dash away into some nearby tall grass, and then strike again. A few ample applications of napalm later, I was safe once more. In addition to the 60+ weapons that will available, players will also have access to approximately 30 special skills that include healing, stealth capabilities, and speed boosts. At this point, another group of grunts showed up and we proceeded to go through the rest of the demo that included a chance to ride in a dune buggy vehicle, strap myself into a power suit (ala Aliens) that came with a machine gun, and take on a very large and very angry rhino. The appearance of a team of fellow grunts that were roughing it through the jungles with me inevitably raised the question of "so is there co-op?" The rep told me no and didn't have much else to say on it; which is a shame as Avatar has all the makings to be a great game. Without the presence of co-op, though, it’s success or failure will likely ride on whether or not its story is enough to make it an outstanding title, or just another third-person shooter.

Found on: co-optimus.com

Impressions: "Assassin's Creed 2"

2009-09-07T13:16:00.004+02:00

While the Splinter Cell Conviction demo at PAX was (mostly) free of anything new, Ubisoft decided to show off a completely new live demo of Assassin's Creed II. The demo was guided by creative director Patrice Désilets, who was a mite nervous giving a demo in front of a frothing throng of rabid fans. After the demo, we can safely say his fears were unfounded.

The demo was set in Florence, and Désilets showed off many new abilities for the game's lead character, Ezio. First, picking pockets is as simple as bumping into pedestrians. We saw Ezio saunter through a crowd, brushing his hands against random citizens and swiping a few Florens from each of them.

Money can be used to purchase various items, like poison, which Désilets bought from a doctor. You can also use money to hire mercenaries to help do your dirty work. Side missions return again, only this time around many of them set restrictions for players. The mission in the demo, for example, required that Ezio assassinate a target without raising an alarm -- sounds like a good use for poison, but not in the way you'd think.

Désilets explained that the development team wanted to make exploration less restrictive than the first game. To facilitate this, Ezio will sometimes encounter hanging baskets on the corners of buildings. Players can use these to swing around the corner, effecting an instant 90 degree turn without losing any momentum. It's very reminiscent of Prince of Persia. Eagle Vision has also been streamlined. Players can now walk while Eagle Vision is enabled, which makes tailing targets much simpler.

Speaking of targets, Désilets eventually caught up with his, except there was one problem: The target had a bodyguard. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the poison comes in. Désilets slyly trotted over to the bodyguard and dosed him with poison. Rather than simply keeling over and dying, Gertrude-style, the poor soul quickly went mad. He quickly began to slash everything in sight with his halberd, including Ezio's target. Mission accomplished. Désilets, however, wasn't finished.

Ezio has another new ability: He can throw money from his purse onto the ground. It just so happens that Désilets did this within range of the enraged bodyguard, causing many of the innocents to be slaughtered before he finally succumbed to the poison. At this point, all Hell broke loose, and Ezio soon became embroiled in a battle with half a dozen guards. While Désilets had to struggle a bit to show us a new feature -- the AI did a good job surrounding and cornering him -- he did eventually succeed in using an enemy soldier as a human shield, another new feature.

And, as if all that wasn't enough, Désilets revealed that Assassin's Creed II also plays host to a new style of gameplay. There are several catacombs located throughout the game, offering players a more linear, puzzle-oriented section. He noted that they were inspired by Prince of Persia. Players enter a dungeon-like catacomb and must reach the exit -- in this particular mission, Ezio was tasked with listening in on a secret Templar meeting. The Prince of Persia influence is evident immediately, as once Ezio enters the catacomb, the camera pans through the chamber, revealing the path he must take. Désilets noted that there are three to five hours of catacombs in Assassin's Creed II, further explaining that they can be used to teach the player different ways of playing the game -- something he earlier admitted wasn't done very well in the original.

All in all, it's clear that Ubisoft is aiming to offer as much variety as possible to players in Assassin's Creed II. Given that repetition was the main complaint leveled at the first game, that's a very good thing. Assuming the new features, abilities and missions we saw in the demo can manage to keep the game fresh, fans are in for a real treat.

Found on: joystiq.com

"Halo 3: ODST" Live-Action Trailer

2009-09-07T12:26:00.002+02:00

"Mass Effect 2" Screenshots

2009-09-07T12:07:00.003+02:00

Two years after Commander Shepard repelled invading Reapers bent on the destruction of organic life, a mysterious new enemy has emerged. On the fringes of known space, something is silently abducting entire human colonies. Now Shepard must work with Cerberus, a ruthless organization devoted to human survival at any cost, to stop the most terrifying threat mankind has ever faced.

To even attempt this perilous mission, Shepard must assemble the galaxy’s most elite team and command the most powerful ship ever built. Even then, they say it would be suicide. Commander Shepard intends to prove them wrong.

"Forza 3" Career Mode: Start Your Engines

2009-09-04T16:01:00.003+02:00

IGN got some very interesting news about the "Forza 3" career mode.

Forza Motorsport 3 might end up twice as good as its predecessor. It's certainly twice as big. The Career Mode has been completely redesigned in an effort to make the experience accessible to Forza's hardcore fans but also casual racing game players. As developer Turn 10 admits, the Career Mode in Forza 2 was too broad and too easy to get lost in if you weren't a core gamer. Over the next three days, we're taking you in-depth with Forza 3's spankin' new Career Mode. Why three days? There's just that much going on.

We're kicking things off with the basics. What follows are the nuts and bolts of Forza 3's Career Mode. Tomorrow, we'll dig deeper and look at tuning, the progression of your career and more. For today, let's just stick to what you can expect in your first season.

Your time in Career Mode is guided by a voice over from your British mentor. It's somewhat like how Travis Pastrana talked people through Codemaster's Dirt, only there's a little more hand holding here. Don't worry experienced racers, none of this has to slow you down from powering through the menus to get into a race. But what Turn 10 has done is put the entire Career Mode on a single button. If you don't know what to do first (or ever) just press A. It will always get you into the next recommended race. You don't have to read menus, search for the right race, worry about tuning or even figure out which car to use. You can always press A to launch into the action. Sure, there's plenty to do if you want to scan the menu, which we'll talk about tomorrow, but the entire career can be boiled down to that single button. Press it and go.

Check it out: ign.com

The Face of Bayonetta

2009-09-04T13:48:00.003+02:00

Facial animator Masanori Takashima from Platinum Games explained on his blog how the facial expressions of Bayonetta work. Two videos and some very interesting insights await you.

"I think everyone has seen faces or had their faces seen almost everyday, which means that we are all well tuned to “(changes of) expressions.” Expressions break through the walls of words and have the power to share emotions with others. Thus, to make an empathetic, interesting character, these expressions hold an incredibly important meaning."

Read more on: platinumgames.com

Penny Arcade Avatar apparel is now on Xbox Live Marketplace

2009-09-03T23:02:00.003+02:00

"Never before has a shirt had some kind of weird, practically unidentifiable organism on it. What is it? We have always taken to calling it the Wombat, but we've never actually seen one. Are they orange? Do they live on shirts? Are they perpetually happy? There are no refunds for this item. For more information"

Source: xbox.com

New "Forza 3" Screenshots: V8 Supercars

2009-09-03T21:02:00.004+02:00

Find the whole set here: forzamotorsport.net

"Assassin's Creed 2" Visions of Venice

2009-09-03T20:34:00.004+02:00

There's a new trailer in town...

Interview with "Forza 3" game director Dan Greenawalt

2009-09-03T00:47:00.004+02:00

Christopher Grant from Joystiq had the chance to talk with Dan Greenwalt from Turn10 about the upcoming sim racer "Forza3":

JQ: Tell us about this new car you guys are showing off in this trailer, the Bugatti Veyron.

Dan: Well, the Bugatti Veyron is kind of one of those Holy Grail cars right now. It's reported to be 1,000-horsepower, though it's actually a little bit less but 1,001 sounds really cool. It's all-wheel drive made by Bugatti with parts from Audi and Volkswagen amongst others. It's got a 16-cylinder engine with four turbos; it's all-wheel drive. It's about the size of a TT, so it's pretty small. And it's the current production car world-speed record holder. So it hit 250 miles per hour. It's a very fast car.

JQ: How did you guys get this car into the game? What process did you follow to build the model, to actually tune it and make it drivable? Did you have to drive it? Did you work with the engineers at Bugatti to duplicate it? How did that work?

Dan: Well, you know, first this car had come on our radar a long time ago and we had contacted Bugatti about it maybe eight years ago -- six years ago, probably. And they really weren't interested in being in video games. But since then they've changed their mind a little bit and become a really strong partner for us.

It's a pretty rare car, it's kind of hard to get your hands on it. But we found one through Bugatti in San Diego, somewhere in southern California. And we had this group named Acme that go in and they laser scan the cars. So the process is they go in and they put tape along the major creases and the major seams of the car and they basically outline all the really nice rounded shapes. And then they use the laser to actually scan those lines directly into a CAD drawing.

It allows them to get incredible level of detail on how they're scanning. And we also take thousands of photos of the car. We didn't drive it ourselves. We did talk to some guys that drove it in our reviewer community and they told us sort of how it drives and what have you.

And then we also spent a lot of time listening to the car and recording other cars on the Dyno, other types of engines, other types of noises in order to recreate the car's sound.

Read more on: joystiq.com

"Forza Motorsport 3" Preview

2009-09-02T18:52:00.005+02:00

It’s perhaps not in my best interests to kick off a preview by detailing my ineptitude, but in Forza’s case, I’m willing to make an exception. Barrelling around the gorgeous track of Montserrat in a glistening Aston Martin, I brake late and zip into a corner too fast. With the apex of the curve on an incline, my tires kick up off the smallest integer sending my poor, beautiful car into a pirouette. I spin wildly off the bump, all four wheels leaving the ground before I crash back down onto the grass verge on the other side of the track.

Now, ‘useless driver goes too fast into corner and spins out’ is hardly headline news for a motorsport video game as technical and revered as Forza, but going into that corner, I felt every single little bump, I felt the exact point where the wheels twisted my fate. The maths are that the tyre physics refresh at 360htz, meaning the track updates every 0.8ft, apparently. Frankly, I don’t have a clue what those numbers mean on a technical level, so I’ll happily leave them for the fact sheet. What I do know, as I found out all too well, is how those numbers translate into the drive that Forza provides. Somehow I doubt the tag-line "it’s never been bumpier" will make it on to the back of the box, but the feedback and authenticity of feeling every deviation in the track was what left the greatest impression.

Of course, it’s possible that that’s because spiralling off the track became something of a theme. Luckily, this Forza 3 aims to be the most approachable ‘serious’ racing simulation yet, from the ‘rewind’ feature which allowed me to go back in time during a race at the press of the button to the multitude of assists you can switch on and off before the start of every race. Steve Beiner, Head of Marketing for Microsoft Games Studios insists that while the third entry in the series will make a huge push for the uninitiated, developer Turn 10 have in no way ‘dumbed down’ the racing experience. Turn all the assists on, such as ABS, suggested racing lines and even an auto-brake, and Forza 3 is a laid back Sunday drive. The game cheerily holding your hand while you pilot a gorgeous car of your choosing through a winding mountainside track, spectacular views stretching out below you.

Turn all the assists off, however, and you have a ferocious, precise and technically brilliant racing simulator. This approach to being everything to every man could cause the wheels to come off, but Turn 10 seem to have struck that elusive balance. This ethos stretches to the career mode. If you wish, you can zip through all of the impossibly sleek menus -all clean whites and stylish sweeps- by tapping the A button, the game selecting your next race, the perfect car for it and tuning it up depending on how many in-game credits you’ve accrued. You are on the track and behind the wheel within a few button presses.

The more petrolheaded among us, however, can take their time in the garage. Building up a selection of finely-tuned machines that Jay Leno would be envious of, getting under the bonnet themselves, tweaking engines and wheel-axels just how they like them. The career for them is not a few sweeps of a menu screen, but a daunting grid of 200 events, waiting to be conquered.

Throughout Forza 3’s development, Turn 10 have repeatedly proclaimed it the ‘definitive racing simulation of this generation’. This is presumably code for "we’re going to be better than Gran Turismo 5." We still have to see what Sony’s racing giant has stored in its own garage, but on this evidence Microsoft’s Forza has set the bar. The race is truly on.

Found on: telegraph.co.uk

"Forza 3" includes 1000-hp Bugatti Veyron

2009-09-02T18:46:00.005+02:00

"Assassin's Creed 2" Cinematical Trailer

2009-09-02T16:22:00.006+02:00

Assassin’s Creed II is the product of over two years of intensive development by the original creative team behind the Assassin’s Creed brand. In a vast open world environment, the game invites players to incarnate Ezio, a privileged young noble in Renaissance Italy who’s been betrayed by the rival ruling families of Italy.

Ezio’s subsequent quest for vengeance plunges players into a captivating and epic story that offers more variety in missions, surprising and engaging new game play elements, diverse weapons and a profound character progression that will appeal to fans of the original Assassin’s Creed as well as entice players new to the brand.

Assassin’s Creed II is scheduled to launch on November 20, 2009 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

For more information about Assassin’s Creed II, please visit:

www.assassinscreed.com

Gears 2 heats up Labor Day with a double XP event

2009-09-02T16:04:00.002+02:00

Got plans for this Labor Day weekend? Cancel them, because you’re going to be busy gearing up for battle in a Gears 2 multiplayer double XP event! From September 4 through 8, earn double experience for all games, plus an experience bonus of 500 for the winning team in a Public competitive multiplayer match. Plus, in Horde, matches default to Hardcore difficulty, with every tenth wave populated entirely by Sires. Get ready for action!

XBOX LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 24th

2009-09-02T15:56:00.002+02:00

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

1 Call of Duty: WaW
2 Halo 3
3 Call of Duty 4
4 Gears of War 2
5 Madden NFL 10
6 GTA IV
7 FIFA 09
8 WET Demo
9 DiRT 2 Demo
10 Batman: Arkham Asylum

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1 Shadow Complex
2 Trials HD
3 NBA 2K10 Draft Combine
4 Battlefield 1943
5 Castle Crashers

6 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
7 Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
8 Splosion Man
9 Worms 2: Armageddon
10 Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)

1 Halo 2
2 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3 Counter-Strike
4 Fable
5 Splinter Cell Chaos
6 Conker: Live Reloaded
7 Star Wars: Battlefront
8 Doom 3
9 SW: KOTOR
10 SW: Republic Commando

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1 I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
2 Headshot
3 Who Did I Date Last Night
4 Miner Dig Deep
5 The Drinking Game
6 Track Architect
7 Physics Sandbox
8 Zombies 2.0
9 RC-AirSim
10 Streets of Fury

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Community Games, full versions purchased during the week.

Xbox 360 sales climb 43% in UK

2009-09-02T15:49:00.003+02:00

Sales of the Xbox 360 Elite jumped 43 per cent during the bank holiday weekend in the UK. Microsoft dropped the price of the Elite to GBP 199 in the UK on Friday, undercutting its bitter rival Sony's PlayStation 3 by GBP 50 in the region.

"Sales of Xbox 360 are up 43 per cent," a representative for GfK Chart-Track told GamesIndustry.biz. "Essentially, looking at the price, obviously it's the Elite that's done the business with those sales."

The rep added that "it's an early start" for the Xbox 360, which dropped in price just days before Sony's slim PlayStation 3 hits retail shelves this week. "It's quite a big deal for Sony next week," added Chart-Track.

Although a GBP 50 difference looks impressive on store shelves, Microsoft has stopped including a HDMI cable as standard in the package. The company also raised the price of its Arcade unit from GBP 129 to 159, and is phasing out the GBP 179 Premium SKU.

Speaking following the price drop last week, Microsoft's Euro Xbox boss Chris Lewis said that the new price is designed to help the company maintain its lead of Sony in the Christmas period and into 2010.

"We know that when we get to price points that are logical and sweet – and EUR 249 / GBP 199 is certainly one of those – we know that we see exponential growth rates," said Lewis.

"The holiday phase will give us seasonal growth of course, but we have a very bullish plan this year, we have bullish plans every year. Our appetite to continue to win, and to hold our lead and grow our lead over the competition is very central to what we have planned in and budgeted in for the year."

Found on: gamesindustry.biz