Xbox TV launching this holiday season

Microsoft will launch a TV service for Xbox 360 this holiday season, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced at a financial analyst meeting this week. Ballmer said Microsoft is working with "dozens or hundreds of additional video-content suppliers," which makes us wonder if someone should send out a company memo describing the substantial difference between those two figures. Xbox TV will feature live television as well as on-demand services. Xbox TV will use Bing and the Kinect voice commands to facilitate users' searches, a feature that Ballmer said separates Microsoft from previous, failed TV-peripheral attempts by other companies, such as Google and Apple. Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner, said that may not be as much of an advantage as Microsoft thinks. "Search is not discovery," he said. "Search as an answer to discovery implies you know what you're looking for. Most people have no idea what they're looking for." A well-integrated streaming TV service is a wonderful idea, if it's implemented correctly -- we'll see if Microsoft has the magic formula (Wingardium televisiosa!) this holiday season.

Modern Warfare 3 Devs Concerned About Franchise Momentum

Call of Duty recieves a lot of criticism for launching on a yearly cycle, and the developers responsible for Modern Warfare 3 are well aware of these concerns. The franchise always runs the risk of losing steam, and sales momentum when launching each year. In a recent interview, Glen Shofield of Sledgehammer games talked about the internal struggle for innovation, and listening to the fans for feedback to make each game better than the last. Shofield told Gamerzines, " It's not losing momentum right now, it's growing. You can see it out there. It's so big, people love it and I get so many tweets from the community. It's the biggest thing in entertainment. You stay paranoid because things can happen, but staying paranoid actually makes your game better." Early indications suggest that Modern Warfare 3 will be the best selling game of 2011, outpacing Call of Duty: Black Ops in the pre-order department. Black Ops became the single largest entertainment release in history following its November 2010 release and growing popularity among gamers on all platforms.

Modern Warfare 3 Sees No Prestige This November

Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling announced that come November, there will be no Prestige Edition for Modern Warfare 3. Bowling confirmed the news that the Hardened Edition will be the only collector's edition for the game at launch. Bowling said on his Twitter account: "The Hardened Edition of #MW3 will be the only collectors edition available this year". That means no over-the-top bonuses of the likes contained in editions past. Night vision goggles, rc-cars, and other collectors items have made their way to retail in years past. The Hardened Edition comes with a one year membership to Call of Duty: Elite, where you'll recieve "Founders Status", a Steelbook case for the game. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches this November.

Halo: Combat Evolved Beta Coming October 4th

343 Industries will be hosting a beta for the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary edition early next month. With a November release window for the game, Halo fans will be getting a title update for Halo: Reach, and with that, Microsoft will be adding a matchmaking beta playlist to the game for all Xbox Live gold members that own Bungie's final offering to the Halo universe. 343 recently unveiled one of the classic maps for the Halo: CE multiplayer. The fan favorite from Halo 2, Headlong has a load of newly remastered screenshots which can be found here. The Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition arrives on November 15th with a remastered original Halo: CE campaign and reworked versions of classic Halo multiplayer playlists. Get your first look at multiplayer on October 4th.

Battlefield 3 has Jets in Rush Mode for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC

Jets will be featured in Rush Mode on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as was recently confirmed by Alan Kertz of DICE. The jets which Kertz further detailed as "player flown" will be just as viable an option as the many other vehicles that have always populated the objective based mode. While it was thought that with some scaling on the console version of the maps, the jets would not be included for those versions of Battlefield 3. Kertz claims that "We found them fun on the right maps, so we kept them.", while feilding questions about the game via Twitter. Battlefield 3 launches with jets in Rush Mode on October 25th, 2011 on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Xbox Live on Windows 8: True Cross Platform Gaming

Another demonstration for the Xbox Live functionality on Windows 8 was given on Thursday, and the cross platform possibilities of the new operating system were on full display. With Xbox Live coming to the new interface, and plenty of back-end optimizations, a whole slew of new features that work with Xbox Live will be coming to Windows 8. One of the most promising features however, is the aysnchronous multiplayer that allows players on Windows PCs, Windows Phone, and Xbox 360 to play against each other using the same multiplayer and matchmaking functionalities across all platforms. It was rumored that Windows 8 would be centralized around gaming to give Valve a run for its money, and this new Xbox Live functionality incorporated into the new OS is looking to do just that.

Developer Refutes Claims that Xbox 360 Offers Inferior Tech

Recently Sony went on the warpath with allegations that Microsoft refuses to publish games on Xbox Live that release on the PlayStation Network first, in an attempt to "protect inferior technology". While the truth of the matter may be that Microsoft implements these guidelines to protect its own interests, one developer doesn't believe that it's to protect inferior technology in the Xbox 360. According to Mel Kirk of Zen Studios, "Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all have very different cultures. Microsoft has a very specific way of managing Xbox Live Arcade. It makes for a more successful platform for everybody who gets a game up there . Those things are in place to act as a real gatekeeper for quality content.... I'll be perfectly honest, you're going to do better on XBLA than you will on PSN. The policies they have in place really enable that. They don't stifle creativity because, you look like a game like Pinball FX, we did some groundbreaking things there for a free-to-play with in-app purchasing game on console. They let us take those risks. They were there. They wanted to work and help us develop them even further and gave us a lot of good input...If you want to get your game on XBLA, yeah, don't put it out anywhere until you get it there. But XBLA right now, Steam is rivalling, but XBLA is the Holy Grail for digital publishing."

Battlefield 3 Will Feature 9 Maps with 45 Variations

Multiplayer is a huge selling point for Battlefield 3, as any fan of the franchise can tell you. The large sprawling battles that take place on the massive maps of any Battlefield game are an experience indeed, but how many maps will DICE cram into their latest game? EA has revealed that there will be nine large multiplayer maps with five variations on each. Each of the nine expansive maps in the game can be reconfigured depending on which game mode is being played, in five different ways. That totals a massive forty five map variations to ship with Battlefield 3. Whether you are playing the new fast paced action of the classic inspired Team Deathmatch, the squad based combat of Squad Deathmatch, Objective based Rush, Squad Rush, or Conquest, you'll be playing on different map orientations that cater to each mode. The game will also carry over hardcore and non-hardcore options for each mode. And new for Battlefield 3, the game will also give you the option to play with Infantry only, on the off-chance that you aren't digging the dynamic vehicle combat.

Medal of honor disc required to play Battlefield 3 beta early

In a recent tweet from Battlefield, it has been revealed that you will indeed need the Medal of Honor disc if you wish to gain early access to the Battlefield 3 beta. The conversation reads as follows: CodyReed: @Battlefield, I bought MOH: LE for the 360. How exactly will I access the Battlefield 3 Beta early? Will I need the MOH disc? Battlefield: @CodyReed, Yes you will need the disc, you will have to play it off of there ^CT On a good note, they have yet to announce the beta start date and by the looks of it, you have yourself at least a week or perhaps two to re-purchase Medal of Honor before time is up. The manufacturer’s suggested current price of MoH is $19.99USD.

Dead Island Devs Push Back DLC, Refocus Energy on Bug Squashing

Dead Island's expansion packs, both announced and not, may be hitting later than planned as developers refocus their energy on fixing the game, Deep Silver tells Kotaku. "Right now the Dead Island development team's priority is working on fixes and updates across all platforms so that we can take care of all of the fans who have been so supportive of our game," a spokesperson said "There is some awesome DLC content planned for Dead Island, but first we have to put all our focus on the base game experience." Techland released a new version of the computer game and a patch last week to deal with some pretty serious issues. Earlier this week the developer released a patch for the Xbox 360 version of the game. The team is currently working on a PS3 patch. All three patches are meant to fix multiplayer connectivity issues, autosave issues, and a bunch of other minor problems. The team doesn't have a firm release date for the PS3 patch, but are working to get it done as soon as possible, we were told. While Dead Island has some major, teeth-gnashing bugs, some of the oddities people run into seem to be more along the lines of the craziness occasionally spotted in Kotaku fave Red Dead Redemption. Personally, I love the game. I'll be writing up my review this week.

Dead Island ships 1million first week,2million worldwide expected by week's end

Dead Island publisher Deep Silver has gotta be totally stoked, having gone from relative obscurity to successful worldwide game publisher in the span of just one week. It seems that the company's latest release -- the much ballyhoo'd Dead Island -- has already shipped 1 million units to retail in the US, and the publisher expects to have moved 2 million units to retail worldwide by the end of its second week on shelves (that's this Sunday, folks). "The critical 'first week' of game sales has been an enormous sales success for Deep Silver," company COO Geoff Mulligan said in a press release. "We're working quickly with our distribution partner in North America, Square Enix, to restock shelves as quickly as we can." With any luck, Square and Deep Silver can fill those restocking orders before the masses of shambling consumers arrive at retail for a taste of the zombie-filled action/RPG.

Nyko Zoom for Kinect available now, works

The Nyko Zoom is a lens attachment for the Xbox 360 Kinect that simply, snugly connects over the front of the device. The $30 peripheral, which is available now, makes it so that players can stand about 40 percent closer to the Kinect. In other words, it allowed those with cramped, furnished living spaces, like most of the Joystiq team, to get their Kinect on. If you don't need the Zoom for space-saving purposes, don't bother getting it. It won't help if you've already got ample area. It basically works by squishing and widening the playing field so, where a single-player game used to work optimally at about seven feet (nine feet for two players), it now functions well at four feet (six feet for two players). The playing field now ends at around eight feet with the Zoom, instead of ten feet without. Games we tested (Dance Central, Your Shape and Kinect Adventures) worked as intended with the lens on. An awkward side-effect of the lens is that it does create what appears like dead space around the perimeter of your feedback screen (viewable on the dashboard and in some games), but if your body moves into those spaces it will still be recognized. The Zoom also creates slight distortions in the player's silhouette; again, the system still recognizes bodies and creates the correct vector skeleton of the player, it's more an issue of just noticing that it "doesn't look right," instead of it actually affecting games. If you live in cramped quarters and the Nyko Zoom will let you properly play Kinect (or just avoid moving the furniture around to do so), the attachment is worth the investment.

Goldeneye: Reloaded Hits PS3, Xbox 360 In November

Goldeneye 007: Reloaded, an enhanced port of the 2010 Wii exclusive, will be coming to PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 1. The port was previously announced back in July. Activision has also unveiled an enhanced PlayStation Move edition that will release alongside it. The Double 'O' Edition will be exclusive to Move, and includes an extra Move controller, navigation controller, PlayStation Eye camera and Sharp Shooter peripheral. The bundle will also receive exclusive Hugo Drax DLC for online multiplayer. No price has been announced. Synopsis: You are Bond, James Bond. Your mission is to recover the key to a devastating Soviet orbital weapon, GoldenEye. This reimagining of the action classic GoldenEye allows players to channel Daniel Craig's lethal and gritty James Bond in an innovative, modern take on the legendary Bond adventure, GoldenEye. GoldenEye 007: Reloaded improves on the Wii hit with HD visuals and realistic environments running at 60-frames per second.

Gears of War 3 midnight launch plans detailed

GAME has detailed plans for Gears of War 3 midnight launch events up and down the country. On September 20, to celebrate the third release in Epic's most famous series, 258 GAME stores and 170 Gamestation outlets will be opening at midnight so that eager fans can get their hands on the title as soon as possible. GAME's flagship store on Oxford Street will be hosting the official UK midnight launch, where gamers will be treated to exclusive meet and greets with the voice of Dom Santiago, Carlos Ferro. Limited edition Gears of War 3 posters signed by the game's developers, t-shirts and other Gears of War memorabilia will also be given to fan, while attendees will get the opportunity to win one of five Samsung 40" D5520 Smart LED TVs.

Max Payne 3: First Trailer

With about eight years between us and the last Max Payne, the wait for a new game was beginning to feel like the endless screams of a tortured child as it sees the corpse of its mother laying dead on the rain-slicked concrete of a city overcome by indifference. But today, Rockstar’s stepped out of the shadows with all the swagger of a would-be savior of the downtrodden, smugly delivering us the first-ever Max Payne 3 trailer as though it were a stack of bills soaked in the blood of a dog breathing its last gasp in a forgotten alleyway of dashed hopes granite bullets moonlight tear-streaked Raymond Chandler. Max Payne 3 trailer brings bullet time to Sao Paolo Paunchy ex-cop waxes poetic in Rockstar’s debut teaser Words: Mikel Reparaz 2 Comments Email Share / Save With about eight years between us and the last Max Payne, the wait for a new game was beginning to feel like the endless screams of a tortured child as it sees the corpse of its mother laying dead on the rain-slicked concrete of a city overcome by indifference. But today, Rockstar’s stepped out of the shadows with all the swagger of a would-be savior of the downtrodden, smugly delivering us the first-ever Max Payne 3 trailer as though it were a stack of bills soaked in the blood of a dog breathing its last gasp in a forgotten alleyway of dashed hopes granite bullets moonlight tear-streaked Raymond Chandler. In all seriousness, the trailer looks pretty slick. Delivered with typical Rockstar polish, it gives us our first in-motion glimpse of the latest paunchy, aging incarnation of our favorite self-torturing New York cop, as well as the game’s version of Sao Paolo, Brazil. If the trailer’s anything to go by, it looks like the graphic-novel presentation of the last two games won’t return for the sequel, instead replaced by more conventional cutscenes – although it sounds like veteran MP actor James McCaffrey is returning to reprise his role as Max, so that’s a plus for fans. In any case, this gives us something to look forward to as we wait for the game’s March 2012 release to edge slowly closer.

Modern Warfare 3 Game Security a Top Priority

Being the most popular franchise in the world has its drawbacks. Upon release, every iteration of the Call of Duty franchise has millions of gamers looking to break developer code, find exploits, and wreak havok in the multiplayer arenas. This fall when Modern Warfare 3 releases to the world, it'll be no different. Except for the continued efforts of Infinity Ward who has recently reiterated the team's dedication to providing a pro-active approach to curbing these types of activities in their game. In a recent interview, Mark Rubin of Infinity Ward sat down to speak at length about Modern Warfare 3, and one of the topics that came up was security. Here's what he had to say about the company's efforts to make Call of Duty online a better place. "Security was a big problem in previous games, so we've done a whole lot on that to create what we hope is a much more secure game. Part of that is learning from Treyarch's work on Black Ops and being pro-active and aggressive on banning, watching the leader boards, looking for cheaters...And one of the big things we've changed is the ability to alter the game post-launch. So one behind-the-scenes feature allows us to update files, sometimes without even doing a full patch – we can just tweak things like weapon balance, which we could never do before. In the past, we'd put out a game and realise, 'hmm, that's weapon's really over-powered' but there was nothing we could do about it. I mean, with twenty million people playing the game, you learn more in the ten minutes after release than you do in months of pre-launch playtesting. So that tech feature was a big thing for us." Modern Warfare 2 had it's fair share of online problems following release, lets hope this new on-the-fly patching and proactive online monitoring pay dividends for the company and fans this November 8th, when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 releases for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Battlefield 3 Two Disc Breakdown on Xbox 360

DICE has confirmed that Battlefield 3 will be a two disc affair on the Xbox 360. With more and more games on the console requiring multiple discs, Battlefield 3 is going to be the latest to follow the trend. The game will be split on two discs with the singleplayer campaign on one disc, and the cooperative/multiplayer residing on the second. Not the first title to follow this trend, the second disc will also feature content for HD installation. Since the complete single player campaign will be on a single disc, there won't be any swaps mid-game, unless you are looking to switch to one of the game's online modes. Battlefield 3 releases this October 25th on the Xbox 360, PlayStation (on a single Blu-ray disc), and PC.

Activision claims CoD XP was second most-watched livestream ever

Activision used online broadcasting to reach beyond the crowds of attendees during its weekend-long celebration of all things Call of Duty with Call of Duty XP. "We had some pretty amazing metrics," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg told IndustryGamers. "Livestream, the company that broadcast the event for us, indicated that it's the second most viewed event in history." The first was apparently live coverage of the Royal Wedding (not to be confused with the Canadian Royal Wedding), while the third was a speech given by President Obama. So there you have it: Call of Duty is almost as important as noble marriage and more important than the president. Now if only someone could figure out how to make a game where the Royal couple saves the US President from Makarov and stream it online then -- nevermind. Forget that. It'd probably break the world.

FIFA 12 demo released now available on Xbox LIVE

The eagerly awaited FIFA 12 demo is now available to Xbox 360 gamers via Xbox Live ahead of the official FIFA 12 release date later this month. Measuring in at a hefty 1.2GB in size the FIFA 12 demo release is available for download to all Gold Xbox Live members with PlayStation fans to gain access to the market leading football sim tomorrow, September 14th. FIFA 12 developer EA Sports yesterday released three new FIFA 12 trailers teasing the demo’s arrival and offing a first look at the new player skills being introduced to the latest instalment to the acclaimed football franchise. Taking a virtual walk out into Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium FIFA 12 demo content will allow eager gamers to play as Barcelona, Arsenal, Man City, Marseille, Dortmund or AC Milan. A FIFA 12 UK release date has been set for September 30th with a new collision engine one of the biggest new additions to the title.

Xbox Live, Xbox.com currently down

Xbox Live and Xbox.com are currently experiencing some unexplained technical problems. "Xbox.com is having issues at the moment," Director of Architecture for Xbox Live Operations Eric Neustadter noted on Twitter. "It's being worked on - sorry for the hassle, folks." We'll update as we learn more and once everything is operational again. Service Details Xbox LIVE: Users may experience difficulties with the following services: Accessing the Xbox.com Web site We are aware of the problem and are working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience Xbox LIVE Marketplace: Up and Running Account: Up and Running Matchmaking: Up and Running

EA Community Manager Weighs In On Battlefield 3 Leak

That recent leak of a ‘dev build‘ of Battlefield 3? Not fake, apparently, as a community manager has weighed in on Reddit to not only confirm the validity of the screens and movies but also – as you’d expect – dispel fears that the final game will look as – well – poor as the leak did. “So, first of all,” starts ‘crash7800′, “this is an old build and is definitely not representative of the final game. In fact, this is not even reflective of the HD capabilities of the platform.” “Glad to see that you’re all excited,” he continues, “but honestly this is probably doing more harm than serving ‘the greater good’. People that see these videos and captures might not take the time to understand or appreciate the source and quality issues that using a dev build presents.” Quite why a leak of an old build has only just appeared is the confusing issue here, and it looks like – if this chap’s to be believed – the development is going right to the eleventh hour if the game’s to improve as much as console owners are hoping it will. “I’m getting bombarded with people asking me if this is what they should expect from their console copy of BF3, which, of course, it’s not. So, the EA, DICE teams and myself are working to address these concerns instead of working on other things that you guys would probably appreciate more.” Ouch. “There is a reason, and a very good one, why we don’t circulate this kind of stuff publicly.” There’s a counter-argument here, though, that suggests that if EA and DICE had pushed out some Xbox 360 screens we wouldn’t have needed to rely on an ‘old’ build for our first taste of that particular version. Still, there’s time…

Max Payne 3 development cost $105m, estimates Analyst

Rumours of Rockstar's mammoth development investments are a given these days and this time it's Max Payne 3 under the spotlight. Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia estimates that Rockstar has forked out around $105 million on the five years worth of development on the title. Bhatia goes on to say that the firm will need to sell four million copies just to break even. The $105 million figure was reached by multiplying the estimated annual cost of the approximately 200-man development team (worked out at $100,000 a year per developer - a $20m annual total) by the total development time of around 5.25 years. Four million sales seems like a lofty target just to break even, but Bhatia appears optimistic for Rockstar. "Life-to-date, the Max Payne franchise has sold through 7M units between the two prior versions -- Max Payne and Max Payne 2. We think the latest iteration, Max Payne 3, has greater potential for success than either of the two prior versions," said the analyst. "Although the break-even unit level for Max Payne 3 is likely high -- probably in the 4M units range -- due to its long development time, we think the title is highly anticipated and has potential for upside surprise."

Watch an Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Video Dem

If you've been following along with preview coverage of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and noticed nearly every story is filled with reckless enthusiasm, here's your chance to find out why. Bethesda has released footage of the entire demo of the next entry in its role-playing franchise. As has been said in many an article throughout 2011, it looks incredible. In case you've never played an Elder Scrolls title, they are open world, single-player games set in a vast fantasy settings. You quest, craft items, battle through dungeons for powerful gear and make a name for yourself within beautifully detailed fantasy worlds. Be a hero, sneak and steal, or toss fireballs at everyone you see, it's up to you. Also Skyrim has dragons, lots and lots of dragons, which I think we can all agree is awesome.

EA: We don’t expect Battlefield 3 to beat Modern Warfare 3

There has been a lot of mudslinging and smack talking between the heads of EA and Activision, where EA folks have repeatedly stated that Battlefield 3 is designed to take down Modern Warfare 3 and that Call of Duty will be over in 2-3 years. That’s EA when they’re speaking in general to create hype around their product. However, the tone is quite different when they’re talking to investors and shareholders. EA CFO Eric Brown recently told a group of investors that they don’t expect Battlefield 3 to surpass Modern Warfare. Brown said: “Just to be clear, the [Call of Duty] franchise did about 23 million units worldwide. We don’t expect to surpass them with this year’s Battlefield 3, just to be very clear.” To borrow the phrase from Brown, “just to be very clear”, no one really expected Battlefield 3 to beat Modern Warfare 3 in terms of units sold, but it will most certainly give it a run for its money. Many industry analysts expect Battlefield 3 sales to top 10 million, and the game is off to a great start, if recent pre-order numbers are any indication: Battlefield 3 has been pre-ordered 1.25 million times to date, with a month and a half left until game launch.

Battlefield 3 Beta Running on Xbox 360

An EA employee from the UK posted on his personal twitter account a picture of the Battlefield 3 beta running on Xbox 360. His twitter account has since been deleted, but the yfrog account still has the picture and comments. This might suggest that the Battlefield 3 beta has been approved by Microsoft and awaiting release. The Xbox 360 in the picture does not appear to be a dev kit. Community Manager, Daniel 'zh1nt0' Matros tweeted that the image was real, then reverted it and said it was fake. So we'll let you decide what to think.

Infinity Ward's day in court: May 7, 2012

Former Infinity Ward bossmen Jason West and Vincent Zampella have an official court date of May 7, 2012 to settle their dispute with Activision. West and Zampella seek $125 million in unpaid royalties from Modern Warfare 2 sales and wish to reclaim their contractual rights to the Modern Warfare brand. Activision fired both developers in March 2010 for illegally consorting with EA, and has counter-sued West, Zampella and EA for $400 million, claiming EA hijacked its employees. Since The Firings, West and Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment and now have 40 former Infinity Ward employees working at the studio, which is creating an unannounced, blurry IP. Activision's suit is clear to proceed, but doesn't yet have a date -- considering how long this first case could drag on, we guess it'll go to court around January 2068.

Xbox 360 dashboard update beta coming in October

Microsoft is prepping to launch another major update to the Xbox 360 user interface, otherwise known as the dashboard, later this year. Today new previews of the dashboard update were posted on several web sites, including word that a beta test for the update will launch in October before the final version will be distributed free to all Xbox 360 owners. When the Xbox 360 launched back in 2005, it had a "blade" design that was dumped in 2008 with the New Xbox Experience update. Venture Beat reports that the design of the new dashboard update resembles the tile-themed UI created for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 and the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. It also allows Xbox 360 users to go through content much faster which is needed since the amount of content available to Xbox 360 owners has increased dramatically over the years. The new update will also take advantage of the Kinect motion controller camera add-on that launched in November 2010. Players will be able to use the Kinect's voice recognition feature to navigate though the new user interface or you can simply move and wave your hand to interact with the new dashboard. Joystiq reports on the new Bing-based search features that will enable users to look up anything available for the Xbox 360 via the controller or with Kinect via the voice feature. Other new features include players highlighting Xbox 360 game achievements and then sharing them via your Facebook or Twitter account, and "beacons" that let players send an open and invite for friends to play games. Unfortunately, Microsoft is not yet talking about its plans to offer live television via Xbox 360, first revealed at E3 2011 in June, although that should also be a part of the next dashboard update.

Modern Warfare 3 to Discourage Campers

One of players biggest gripes about the Call of Duty franchise is the element of camping. If unfamiliar, camping is an in-game tactic where players will attempt to hold down a specific area of the map (usually a corner) where they can attempt to rack up kills while moving very little. The strategy involves waiting for the battle to come to you, and many online gamers despise this activitiy. Call of Duty might not have invented camping, but the game design decisions have certainly helped in promoting its use in their games. Modern Warfare 3 developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games are attempting to fix that in Modern Warfare 3. Mark Rubin spoke at the recent Call of Duty XP Event, and discussed the methods by which the developers are tending to map "flow", and their hopes that it will entice more players to move more freely around the maps.

“When we looked at that with MW3, we decided that we wanted to get the cool part of verticality and the cool kind of engagements, but we didin’t want to make it so complicated that anywhere you ran you were under fire or that there was danger from every single point. We wanted to have a really good flow to match, and I think that is something CoD4 had nailed really well. I think Crash is still considered one of the best multiplayer maps in any FPS. It has good flow, so our designers spent a lot of time going back to the old Call of Duty maps and other older games to look at the great maps from other games... “Having a map with good flow makes you feel comfortable moving through the map,” he said. “If the flow is not good, people won’t move as much because they are paranoid of getting shot. So, having a good flow is one thing, the other thing is to try not to put – well, you always put these points in because it is impossible to test as much as the public will on day one, honestly when the game ships, during the first 10 minutes you will have more test time on the game than we have in the entire two years of development because of the numbers. Map flow is great and all, but one of the major reasons why people camp in Call of Duty is because of the overpowered Killstreak perks that reward you for doing so. We'll see how Call of Duty's multiplayer finishes up come November, but Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer have been quite public about this war on campers in Modern Warfare 3.

Expect Quicker Updates and Patches in Modern Warfare 3

Infinity Ward details better plans to tweak their upcoming shooter post-launch. Infinity Ward has built in a system to Modern Warfare 3 to administer patches and updates much more quickly to the game. Unlike previous games where weeks and months flew by while waiting for issues to be resolved, this new implementation will make it "much easier on the back-end" to update the game claims Robert Bowling. The creative strategist for the game spoke about the new system in a recent interview. "How we've built the game this time as opposed to in the past is we've made it a lot easier on the back end to update the other aspects of the game beyond just map packs... So now as we're advancing content and releasing new maps on multiplayer, we can also further tweak them to also be playable in Spec Ops, and then look at how we can update the game further in other ways like new modes, weapons - whatever we want to do." "Maybe there's stuff we want to rebalance, Maybe there's stuff we want to patch. We have a lot more control in tweaking the game now, outside of a patch, than we ever did before." If you can recall, Modern Warfare 2 launched with some fairly significant balancing issues and exploits in the multiplayer for the game. While it took Infinity Ward some time to issue fixes for these problems in the past. It looks like they are getting much more proactive on this front, with Modern Warfare 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches this November 8th on Xbox 360, PC, PS3, and Wii.

'Consoles have hit their peak' - say analysts

Sony and Microsoft in no hurry to introduce new hardware - the glory days of consoles are behind us, according to a new report from research firm DFC Intellignce. "We feel the consoles have hit their peak," analyst David Cole said, according to VentureBeat. He expects next year's Wii U release to drive strong sales, but not Wii-level ones, and says Sony and Microsoft are hesitant to introduce new hardware as they're currently enjoying rising profits from PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively. But the longer they wait, the more opportunity console makers give platforms like mobiles, tablets and other devices that can play games as a secondary feature a chance to steal market share, Cole believes. "Systems like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are having their best sales ever five or six years into their lifecycle," he said. "Unfortunately this means Microsoft and Sony are in no hurry to launch new systems that would generate substantial consumer excitement and spending. "Games on Facebook and products like the iPad help expand the audience and the way products are delivered. The console business is firmly established and suffers mainly from the reluctance of hardware manufacturers to commit to expensive new products. "The dedicated console business is still the major driver of industry growth, but we feel overall it has peaked with the current console systems." THQ CEO Brian Farrell said this week he expects future consoles to drop support for physical discs in favour of cloud gaming, resulting in lower hardware manufacturing costs, lower console prices driving mass market adoption, and no physical goods cost for game makers.

Battlefield 3 preorders hit 1.25 million

EA CFO Eric Brown touts platinum sales figures for DICE's shooter with more than a month until launch; taking wait-and-see tack for $50 Call of Duty Elite rival. Electronic Arts and Activision will be going head-to-head in the first-person shooter space later this year, and though the publisher has said that it doesn't expect Battlefield 3 to top Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sales, it expects to at least take some market share. And thus far, it appears as if demand is quite high for the EA DICE-developed shooter. Speaking at the Citi 2011 Tech Conference, EA CFO Eric Brown said that Battlefield 3 has already sold more than a million units at retail. "To date we have about 1.25 million preorders on Battlefield 3," Brown said. "So it's still well ahead of its predecessor title, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, in regards to preorders relative to the same number of weeks to launch, so it's doing very well." In July, EA said that Battlefield 3 preorders were tracking 10 times higher than those of Bad Company 2 at the same point in development. The game is expected to launch on October 25. Bad Company 2 launched in March 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and has gone on to ship more than 9 million units. Brown was also asked whether EA has plans to match Call of Duty's $50 service, which Activision detailed as part of the Call of Duty XP event last weekend. "The short answer is no," Brown said, before detailing some of the postrelease add-on content that will be available for Battlefield 3. He did leave the door open for future installments in the Battlefield franchise to charge players, saying, "We'll monitor and see what the outcome is." Brown also addressed EA and BioWare's upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic during his Citi 2011 Tech Conference appearance. Of note, Brown said that EA still expects to launch the game this year, but the publisher has allowed in its earnings expectations that the game could slip into early 2012. Though he would not reveal The Old Republic preorder figures, Brown did say that demand for the game is tracking in line with the company's expectations. Previously, EA has said that SW:TOR has broken its record for preorders. The publisher has also said that it intends to limit sales of the game to ensure a smooth launch.

Max Payne 3 Release Date

Max Payne 3 will be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in March 2012, according to Rockstar. Single-player kicks off where Max Payne 2 ended, with Max starting a new life working as a private security agent for a wealthy family in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The campaign will see Max "clear his name, in a bid to, once and for all, rid himself of the demons that have tortured him for far too long." The game will also have multi-player, which Rockstar is describing as a "compelling experience". It'll feature traditional modes, in addition to clan support and a "deep reward and leveling system." While Max Payne 1 and 2 were made by Remedy Entertainment, part 3 is being developed by Rockstar's global development teams, using its own Advanced Game Engine. "Max Payne 3 gave us an amazing creative opportunity to evolve one of our most iconic characters," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "We're excited to show fans a modern version of Max that pulls them back into his dark and twisted story."

Modder creates PC case with both PS3 and Xbox 360 inside

While we have seen PC case mods with the hardware of game consoles placed inside in the past (in fact Origin PC sells "The Big O" that has both a PC and a Xbox 360) an enterprising UK resident has now created a new case mod that has both a working Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3 console inside a standard PC case chassis. The modder, who goes by the handle "Timofiend" first posted news about his creation a few days ago on Reddit and later established a blog page to go into detail on how he created the case mod. The PC case has the hardware of a 4 GB Xbox 360 Slim inside as well as the older 80 GB version of the Playstation 3. As Timofiend says on his blog site, "The project was solely for fun, just to see if I could do it - so please don't bother telling me its a pointless or stupid thing to do, because I don't care." He goes into a massive amount of detail on the parts, tools and materials he used to create his impressive project. The mod, as Timofiend points out, isn't perfect. For one, there are no physical buttons to turn on either console or to eject game disks. He states, "I do plan to try and add these in though." Also the mod has to run on two separate power supplies. He states, "I would still prefer to have both consoles powered by the single atx psu. I plan to accomplish this in the next project when I get around to it." There's no word if he has received any offers to sell his case mod creation yet.

First Gears of War 3 Console Unboxing

Seems like Ice T couldn't wait to get his hands on the limited edition Gears of War 3 console. Even with a notice on the box saying "Do not sell or display until September 20, 2011" he opened it up and showed the world what they can expect to see. Watch the video below to see the console being unboxed as well as some extra goodies like a Gears of War 2 Lancer being unboxed, as well as part of Gears of War 3 itself.

Blu-ray Coming To Xbox 360 - Rumor

According to the rumor section of the August 2011 edition of the Xbox 360 Mag Italy, Microsoft is supposedly gearing up to release an external Blu-ray drive for their highly successful Xbox 360 console. If proven to be factually correct, the enticing addition of a Blu-ray drive could be a direct measure to counter the PS3′s rising momentum – following the highly publicized price cut announced by Sony at Gamescom 2011. An interesting selection of rumors have surfaced over the years relating to the possible introduction of an add-on Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360, with SmartHouse previously reporting that Microsoft intended to release both an external Blu-ray drive and also a fully-fledged, Blu-ray-enabled console. “Insiders at Microsoft in the USA have told SmartHouse that Microsoft has already configured a standalone Blu-ray player that can be connected into an Xbox 360 and that subject to internal marketing and sales approvals the model could be on sale within 3 months,” stated Smarthouse back in 2008. The magazine did not elaborate on whether the rumored Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive would be utilized solely for the viewing of high definition movies, or whether the drive would usher in the availability of an increase in disc space for gaming. The Blu-ray drive will most likely be a simple add-on for the console, as the idea of segmenting the user-base is absolutely insane to say the least.

September Game Release Roster

September has finally landed and game fans everywhere are rejoicing in the knowledge that this is a very, very good month for game releases! Starting the bill Macs fans can finally sink their fingers into San Andreas as the title has been reconstructed to operate on the Macintosh OS, and will be released on the 1st. Next week onwards we see some major titles hitting the shelves for the first time, including Resistance 3, Dead Island and Gears of War 3 on the 7th, 9th and 20th respectively. Resident Evil 4 HD rolls out on the 20th also, and for the Nintendo 3DS fans Star Fox 64 3D will be unleashed on the 9th.

Volume wise September is a mammoth month for new and re-released titles – come and check out the full roster here:
Click to View September Roster

Xbox finally joins PS3 with new 3D update

The latest Xbox 360 update which will be available via the latest batch of games and most likely via Xbox Live in the coming days finally places the Xbox 360 on an even keel with the PS3. The new update allows users to enabled 3D for use with 3D TV sets. The text reads "Enable 3D to use stereoscopic 3D in games and experiences that support it. The option also has a setting which will detect TV size and also allow users to input the size manually. The PS3 has had these options for quite some time via one of its updates but is good news that the Xbox 360 finally recognizes 3D games; especially in light of the announcement of 3D support for Gears of War 3, Batman Arkham City and Halo CE: Anniversary. What's interesting is the use of the words "games and experiences", could this mean Xbox 360 will be getting 3D movies from SKY and Netflicks in the near future?