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
The next installment in the popular Battlefield series, Bad Company, is coming out this June for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. However, some lucky gamer’s will have the opportunity to play it early. PC gamer’s that happen to be members of either IGN Founders’ Club or IGN Insider will be offered a beta key, while supplies last. Beta keys will also be given out from a number of IGN site’s like, IGN.com, FilePlanet, GameSpy, TeamXbox, Planet Battlefield and Voodoo Extreme.
For console gamer’s only the Xbox 360 will be included in the beta, sorry PS3. To get in to the 360 beta you’ve got to pre-order the game form GameStop.
In North America, GameStop will also offer keys on a first come, first serve basis for this Exclusive Beta Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network event. With only 5,000 beta keys available at GameStop, gamers should pre-order their copy now at GameStop
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This is a Multiplayer Only beta, similar to the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer beta last year. The beta will only include 2 maps to play on. It will, however, have a number of play modes and weapon upgrades to explore.
Boom!
Could it be? Does the PS3 have more and better exclusives this year? Looks like 2008 may possibly be the year of the Playstation, again. Just like old times.
Is it just me or is almost every big game coming out this year a sequel? No matter what console you’re on. Either way, you got to be excited about something on the list. If the majority of these games actually release this year, wow. But does anyone really expect that? So, let’s jump in and analyze the exclusives. Note, this list in no way represents the entire list of exclusive titles for each console. It does, however, represent what we at Counteragent think are the biggest exclusives most likely to actually be released this calender year.
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.
More…
Castle Crashers is the next big little thing from the people behind the frantic and colorful Alien Hominid. Sorry, but this game isn’t a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. However, it does share some similarities to the old arcade and NES turtles games. If you where a fan of the old arcade games where you and three of your buddies could drop quarter after quarter fighting armies of faceless minions, then this is for you, minus the quarters.
Castle Crashers is a high intensity, 4-player co-op, action hack and slash game. The game is all hand drawn and rendered in beautiful HD. The gameplay is very much like the old two and a half demensional side scrolling co-op fighting games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, and The Simpsons arcade games. The Behemoth, the company making the game is still very much a indie developer, as they do everything in-house, from development, to marketing, to distribution. This game will be fairly easy for them to distribute, seeing as how it will be coming to the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Arcade. All the better for them and us. They make more actual profit and get to easily distribute a game, we get a great game at a much better price than full retail.
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 the newest numbers released by every-one’s favorite Major, Major Nelson Call of Duty 4 has taken over the top spot on Xbox live for the week of Feb. 4th. I can hear all the 13 year old Halo players cursing up a storm right now. It’s been a while since a Halo wasn’t on top of this list, last I can remember was when Gears of War took the top spot. I could be wrong with that so correct me if I am.
Here’s the list :
Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
1 Call of Duty 4
2 Halo 3
3 Guitar Hero III
4 Gears of War
5 Rock Band
6 Madden NFL 08
7 Devil May Cry 4 Demo
8 Assassin’s Creed
9 Forza Motorsport 2
10 FIFA 08
Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Poker Smash
2 Rez HD
3 Chessmaster Live
4 Metal Slug 3
5 UNO
6 Bomberman LIVE
7 Sonic The Hedgehog 2
8 TMNT 1989 Arcade
9 Worms
10 Marble Blast Ultra
The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.
Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
1 Halo 2
2 Battlefield 2: MC
3 Counter-Strike
4 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
5 Madden NFL 08
6 Call of Duty 3
7 Fable
8 Street Fighter Anniv.
9 Ghost Recon 2
10 Rainbow Six 3
These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased that week
From Major Nelson
As reported last week the demo for the new Turok game was available to download…..unless of course you live in North America. Well rejoice America because we can now download the demo. It’s available on Xbox live so go check it out.
The hype bus for this game is starting to roll. I saw a commercial for the game 3 times in about 2 hours of TV watching last night. The game hits stores Feb. 5th and it looks pretty good.
Download the demo and let us know what you think. Anytime you can hunt a T Rex it’s gotta be somewhat good.
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!
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
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