Bungie and Microsoft have announced that as of 2 a.m. this Tuesday, March 25th 2008, the previously released 800 M$ point Heroic Map Pack will now be free to download on Xbox Live Marketplace. If you own Halo 3 and haven’t already paid for these maps then you should definitely grab them. They’re free, ’nuff said. Bungie will also be releasing their new Legendary Map Pack soon for the same initial 800 M$ points. Look for that to be free sometime this fall.
More info on the Heroic map pack:
CounterAgent: Announcement, CounterAgent: Pics, CounterAgent: Videos
Bungie’s official announcement
Story via Joystiq
Got Rainbow Six: Vegas 2? Already tired of all the multiplayer maps and ready for a new one? Yeah! Comcast has got you covered. Think of this as more of actual “game” advertising, not just “in-game” advertising. Comcast, you know, the cable company, has decided to offer a free Vegas 2 map entitled the “Comcast Event Map”, ta da! You don’t have to be a Comcast subscriber to get’ em either, you don’t even have to like Comcast (just don’t tell them).
Here’s what you gotta do. Load up the game, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Go to the “Extras” menu from the main screen. Select “Comcast Gift” from the options. Then, enter the code “Comcast Faster” (without the quotes) when prompted and enjoy the new multi-player map.
If you’re a PC gamer, you’ll have to wait. Sorry, no map for you just yet. However, you can keep checking back at this link. They say they’ll have the map for you guys soon.
Boom!
I’m generally not a big fan of these small downloadable arcade games, however, many companies have been putting a lot more effort into making them more worth your 10-15 dollars. Capcom has to be one of the foremost of these companies. At their recent conference, Digital Day, they announced quite a number of upcoming downloadable arcade games, most of which are remakes of existing franchises.
Enter Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, not an existing franchise in the video game world, it is an existing game franchise, as in collectible card game. Capcom hasn’t exactly reinvented the wheel, or the arcade game, but they have included a number of great features to stretch your gameplay dollar. Some of these include 4 player drop in drop out co-op gameplay throughout the entire game. Customizable stats, semi-custom characters, and a good amount of powerups.
Keep reading for the giveaway details and the entire review.
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Fox and NBC Universal little video site Hulu.com is up and running. It’s been in beta for about 4 months and went live this week. If you haven’t signed up yet what are you waiting for? It’s pretty great. I’ve spent the last couple of nights catching up on shows I’ve missed.
The site has both TV shows and movies that are free to watch. I found the TV show database to be pretty good so far and according to Jason Kilar the sites CEO it is just going to grow. It’s got everything from some great new shows like The Office and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Some old classics like Doogie Howser M.D and my favorite The A Team. Even some great cartoons like Exosquad. It’s all paid for by ads so you will have to sit through 3 commercials for a 22 minute show, which is less then a real TV show unless of course you use Tivo. The quality is really good and except for a couple of buffering incidents it runs great.
Right now there are some shows that don’t have their entire catalog up yet hopefully they will soon. The movie side of it isn’t as extensive yet but still no bad at all. Although I haven’t done it yet you can cut parts out of any show or movie and share it anywhere. If this little Hulu thing works out it could put quite dent in the DVD sales of classic TV shows.
With nothing good on actual TV right now it’s the perfect time to try Hulu and catch up on episodes you may have missed.
Check out the video after the break
The Battlefield franchise has been around for a while and has a pretty big, loyal following. The games have continued to move forward with each release (I’m talking specifically about the PC games, not the console versions), although some may disagree that the last release, Battlefield: 2142. Well, whether or not you’re a fan of the previous Battlefield PC games, they are continuing the trend of change with their latest entry in the franchise.
Battlefield Heroes not only changes everything by introducing a completely new take, labeled “cartoon shooter”, but they’ve also changed the entire payment structure, offering a completely free-to-play model. If you prefer not to, you’ll never have to drop even a single penny to play this game. The game will instead make it’s money through advertisement. Not even in-game advertisement like you may think. They will be showing ads on the games loading screens, and while you download the game and run it off of your personal computer, you will be required to launch the actual game from their official website at battlefield-heroes.com. That way they ensure not only the loading screen ads, but also any ads on their site as well.
All in all the game has tremendous potential. The look, while many may compare it to the recent hit shooter, Team Fortress 2, is done for maximum accessibility and, according to the developers, just plain fun. The system requirements are also pretty minimal, especially considering most of the latest system hogs like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3. Look for the game to go live sometime this summer.
Gallery and Trailer after the break. Boom!
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Did you have a chance to download and try the demos for the new XNA created community games? They were only available for a limited time. Why? No real reason, guess it was just a test to see if there was any interest. So, was there any interest? At first, yeah, I was totally interested. Then I downloaded and played all the games.
They’re only 15 day trials, which for the vast majority is plenty enough, if not too much time. Some of the games seem very much like tech demos, not games. One of the games, Jelly Car, is a really cool little tech demo, but it kind of gets boring real quick. Probably the most fully fleshed out title was The Dishwasher. The game, Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, is actually not at all about washing dishes, more about killing stuff in the most brutal, bloody way possible. The game starts slow and builds nicely, adding new moves every once in a while to extend you’re arsenal of death. It’s definitely not for the squeamish.
Other than these, there really isn’t anything you can’t just play online at any number of flash casual game sites. We’ll have to wait and see what actually becomes of this whole community games thing. At this point nothing really compels me to grab my M$ points wallet just yet. I’m still waiting for games that are actual games, like the upcoming Bionic Commando: Re-Armed.
Boom!
M$ as they’re often lovingly referred to on “the internets”, or Microsoft had some problems over the past holiday season. Problems keeping Xbox Live, well, live. The resulting backlash had them release this letter. Basically telling everyone, sorry our service is so popular, blah, blah, blah, we’ll give you a free game to ease the pain. They gave us no real information on what that game was or when we would get it.
So, that day has come, they have announced that the game is… Undertow! Tada. Yay, now we can all be happy and go back to loving big papa Microsoft. Technically they don’t have to do anything, as per their terms of service state nothing about the level of actual uptime or quality of that service. But, being the generous monopoly, I mean company that they are they have decided to offer us Xbox Live Gold customers a free game. All of us, the same game. A game, if you don’t already own, you might play for all of five minutes before going back to Mass Effect or Call of Duty 4.
I’ve heard that if you already own the game, according to Xbox Live front man Major Nelson. He said, “If you have already purchased the game, you can contact support and they will take care of you.” That almost sounds like a threat. I’m sure it’ll be just as painless as it sounds though.
So, when do we get this game? And who gets it? I’m glad you asked. Microsoft has said, “all Xbox LIVE members (Gold and Silver) around the world would have access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game [Undertow] to download free of charge.”…”beginning next Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. PST through Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST, Xbox LIVE members worldwide can download the full version of the recent award-winning Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Undertow.”
Wait, am I reading this right? All Xbox Live Member? Silver to? The people who were effectively unaffected by the Xbox Live outages? Really? Okay.
Why don’t they just give us 800-1200 Microsoft Points, that way, we’re all happy. The people who actually want to buy Undertow can, and everyone else can buy a good game. I’m sure I’m not the only one less than satisfied with this “solution”. What do you think Microsoft should do for Gold Live Members? Let us know. Comment below or post in the forums.
Boom!
Story via GamingNews
Join the forum discussion on this post 
A few chaps over at BusinessWeek discuss if video games are still for kids. In other word….are gamers losers still? Or is gaming a viable form of entertainment?
Humankind’s epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet.” However stellar the game play, that’s basically the 1990 movie Tremors minus Kevin Bacon.
-Derek Thompson on Gears Of War.
So wait….I’m slightly confused here….Is he saying it’s a bad thing to be similar to Tremors? That’s news to me! Does he realize that it had Reba in it? Probably not.
Take for instance, last year’s sleeper hit, BioShock from 2K Games, a first-person shooter. The game’s narrative and dystopian setting wove an argument about the relationship between power and freedom, ultimately building to a rejection of Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophy. Not exactly Mario territory.
Gaming in general is becoming more and more sophisticated. So….how long before “Gamers” loose the stereotype of….well…lets have Derek describe it since he did so magnificently in the article.
Today, the average gamer is 33, part of a $7 billion national industry, and, well, possibly still living with his parents.
[slow clap] Yes……ooooh yes! How very comical indeed! You sir are marvelous! Now where was I? Ah yes! Reading my Shakespeare!
Source - BusinessWeek
The MacWorld Keynote went down today and there were some great new updates announced for the iPhone and, apparently it’s red headed step brother, the iPod Touch. Some of the updates include new arrangement features for customizing your home screen, up to 9 total home screens can be saved, on both iPhone and iPod Touch. You can also SMS multiple people at once, find your location via Google Maps and Skyhook Wireless, and Webclips can be accessed via the home screen.
Steve Jobs also showed off other new features like Lyrics, Chapters, Languages, and all the new multimedia features included in the v1.1.3 firmware update. Jobs says, “All of this is valuable today as a free software update for every iPhone.” But wait, there’s more. “But what about the iPod touch? What can we do for the touch? We decided to add five Apps to the Touch. Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather!” That’s great, right? Wrong! “Starting today we’re going to build it into every new iPod touch, for existing iPod touch users it’s going to be just a $20 upgrade.” See. Epic Fail.
So, let me get this straight. I can pay a mere $20 to get all five of the Apps that the iPod Touch was stripped of originally, you know the ones the iPhone comes with, or I can hack it and get all those plus a ton more, minus the $20. Hmm? That’s a hard choice. Probably the worst thing about this is that Jobs said starting today, all new iPod Touch’s they ship will come with these updates. What the heck? Do you have to pay $20 more for a new iPod Touch in the store? Let me think… NO! While this is nowhere near the amount of $200 that original iPhone user’s were outraged over paying for early adoption last year, I think it is a problem on the same level.
Epic Fail Apple! I still like my iPod Touch. I just like it hacked.
Boom!
Is Guitar Hero just too much for you? Too hard? Well, the guys over at Jada Toys have you covered with the new Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker just revealed at CES. If you’ve always dreamed of combining your passion for air guitar and actual music with sound and all, then this is for you. It’s a little amp that you attach to your belt along with a “magic” belt buckle, that not only looks totally sweet, but picks up your air guitar strumming skills and converts that into one of ten different guitar tracks.
The thing comes out in March and retails for $29.99. That’s not bad, but I have a pretty sweet air guitar that I got from a guy downtown for a lot less money. Watch the video to see it in action. Wig not included.
Here’s an excerpt from the press release: The Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker features patented technology which includes guitar pics and a rockin’ belt buckle that, when connected to a wearable, mini-amplifier, allows run-of-the-mill rock fans to transform into legendary guitarists. With an air guitar in hand, the user waves the pic over the belt buckle to determine the tempo of the song. The product comes with an Air Cartridge(TM) that features 10 guitar riffs, ranging in skill level from 1-5, including Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades,” Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me”, Boston’s “More Than a Feeling,” and five original Air Guitar Rocker freestyle riffs. Users are encouraged to listen to the demo tracks, then try to master the riffs on their own. The product can also be connected to external speakers to really rock the house!
Thanks to GearLog for the video.
Boom!
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