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

I can’t remember if they did this last year or not but this is cool. You can download the entire 65 team tournament bracket for you Xbox 360. Go check out Xbox Live and get your bracket and play your own NCAA bracket. Of course this gonna cost you a few Microsoft points, 400 points actually.

I really think this is cool but I would only do this if I had 400 extra points just sitting around.

Thanks easports.com

I call it a rumor, but the guys over at Trusted Reviews seem pretty sure of it. According to them they have a “rock-solid source” that tells them that a 60 GB 360 is on it’s way. It will be replacing the 20 GB 360 sometime before the end of the year.

Is this a new SKU with a Blu-Ray player? We’ve been hearing the rumblings that Microsoft is in talks with Sony about Blu-Ray. Maybe these go hand in hand?

Wouldn’t it be great to have this 60 GB 360 for the price of $299? That would hurt the PS3 a bit don’t you think?

Thanks Trustedreviews.com

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!

According to Xbox360Fanboy and Bungie’s own official site more maps are on the way. Duh. Of course there’s going to be new maps. However, the best part of this is that the current Heroic Map Pack will probably be free soon or at least around the time of this new Legendary Map Pack release. So far they’re only showing one map, Ghost Town, from the pack, and sorry, no release date yet.

Boom!

Sequels to popular games? What’s next, movies based on video games? Crazy. Well, here it is in all it’s official gory, I mean glory. Gears of War 2. It’s to be released in November 2008. Here’s the link to the HD teaser trailer over at GameTrailers.

Oh yeah, and Gears of War 2 has a release date of this November. Finally, a new game in the franchise was announced, Gear Wars, an action real-time strategy. Nah, just kidding about that last one. The rest was true though.

Boom!

So it might just be a rumor but it really feels more like a “DUH!” moment. With the death of HD DVD it’s a no brain-er that Microsoft would be looking into switching over to Blu-Ray. According to the Australian site Smarthouse , Microsoft will have a Blu- Ray player by May 2008. Maybe even a Xbox with a built in Blu-Ray player.

We shouldn’t be surprised that this is gonna happen. The more surprising thing is that Microsoft already had a Blu-Ray player in development. Looks like Microsoft saw the writing on the wall much earlier then we thought.

Thanks Smarthouse

I just watched a video about Microsoft’s Surface touch-screen tabletop computer. It uses multi-touch technology. It’s kind of like the iPhone the way you can flip images and maximize with 2 fingers. But this is really neat because you can put your phone or camera on the surface (touch-screen tabletop) and it will recognize the device and let you select files you would like to share with any other devices on the surface. It looks really nice. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said they are trying to speed up the process after getting a lot of demand for a consumer version. Maybe it’ll be ready by spring. Maybe.

Thanks to Sparkingtech.com, CNetnews.com and Microsoft for the information.

It just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Microsoft has made an official bid on the internet search and portal giant Yahoo! according to GamerNode.com. $44.6 billion dollars. Check out the details in their official press release here. On a similar note, Counteragent.com is for sale for just under that price. Eh, Microsoft? I’m just saying.

Anyway, what does this mean for you and me? Probably nothing really. Maybe some stronger competition for Yahoo and Microsoft’s nemesis Google.

The bid would offer $31 per share, which according to Microsoft, “represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.” Yahoo responded to the bid from M$ saying they “will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.” Full details.

Boom!

Major Nelson posted a reminder on his blog today. The Xbox Live Arcade game Undertow is now free for download. Starting today you can download the game. This won’t last forever, the free offer expires Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST. Supplies are limited so get it while they last. And remember, anyone, Gold or Silver can download this game for free.

Boom!