Rock Band 2 Announced:

Harmonix and Electronic Arts have announced via the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit that Rock Band 2 is going to be released really soon. “With the original Rock Band title providing millions of players with a new way to interact with the music and artists they love, Rock Band 2 builds upon its core band foundation to offer an unparalleled, deeper, dynamic gameplay experience.”

FFXIII versus still on the PS3:

One of the big shockers from the Microsoft press conference was the unveiling of a new Final Fantasy XIII trailer and the subsequent announcement that the once exclusive title would be coming to the Xbox 360. The foregone conclusion one could draw from the announcement is that all Square Enix titles have the propensity to float multi-platform. Fortunately for the Sony crowd, a PSU interview with Square Enix executive Shinki Hashimoto has revealed that Final Fantasy XIII Versus will remain exclusive to the PS3:

We won’t change policy. Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still a PlayStation 3 exclusive

New Guitar Hero on the DS, already:

Let it never be said that Activision sits idly by while there’s a franchise to exploit. Guitar Hero: On Tour (pictured) may have only just shipped, but it’s already a big enough hit to warrant a follow-up, and Guitar Hero: On Tour — Decades was announced for the DS at Nintendo’s E3 press conference today. We know little about this sequel, but apparently, two versions of On Tour: Decades will be released, and owners of the different versions can swap songs. It adds a Pokémon-like twist to the standard Guitar Hero formula, but at the same time, it does initially seem like an unnecessary added level of complication just to get all the available songs in your game.

First Prince of Persia gameplay footage:

After all the screenshot leaks and poor screenshot videos, here’s finally the first official game play video of Prince of Persia:Next Generation. It was released at E3 just some hours ago. Wow, I just love their new artistic direction, this game will be a killer!”

E3 is the biggest event in gaming and this year it is bigger than ever. Read below some of the biggest announcements:

Full game Installs coming to Xbox 360:

Microsoft’s planned overhaul of the Xbox 360 dashboard is bringing plenty of new functionality, but it turns out it has yet another trick to spring: A new feature will allow players to install full 360 games onto their hard drives, making for faster loading times and quicker access to the games you play most often.

FFXIII defects to Xbox 360:

Square-Enix has announced Final Fantasy XIII for Xbox 360 at Microsoft’s E3 press conference.

The announcement debuted in the form of a new trailer which initially looked like a Panzer Dragoon game with dragons flying in a trench. A ship lands in the trailer and flying mechanical soldiers drop out. Included in the trailer were massive airships. A hint of gamplay was shown and the graphics looked awesome.

GTA coming to Nintendo DS:

Nintendo is really pimping out the DS to anyone who wants a piece. The DS’s newest client? Publisher Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto series. Today at the Nintendo E3 2008 press conference, Nintendo announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be coming exclusively to the DS this holiday. Developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with Rockstar North, Chinatown Wars will take players inside the seedy underbelly of Liberty City’s infamous Asian Triad crime syndicates. Players will use the DS’ specific controls to guide their cars and characters on what is described by Rockstar as “an epic tale of crime and corruption.” OK, good.

New Interface for Xbox 360:

While the look and feel of the 360 dashboard will be completely changed by this update, the update will also feature the long rumored 3D Avatar system. These avatars will represent players and will be completely customizable. Other major enhancements to the LIVE service include Xbox LIVE Party, which will allow up to eight players to stay together across various gaming and media experiences as a group.

 The highly anticipated sequel to the 2007 smash hit Gears of War is releasing this November.  The original game was quite popular for its adrenaline pumping single player as well as for its multiplayer. As per shacknews.com:

Though developer Epic Games and publisher Microsoft have yet to announce an official release date for Gears of War 2 (360), a new splash image on the game’s official site suggests it will arrive on or around November 6.

When translated to their corresponding ASCII text values, the numbers on the dog tags–033 116 117 126 071–reveal a hidden message of “ESC Nov 9.”

Let me break it down for you….I am an avid and have all the consoles so I will try and make it easy for you….

Xbox 360:

Pros: Biggest library of games (amongst the current generation)

Great online matchmaking capabilities,

Good exclusive titles like Gears of war 2, alan wake etc,

Affordable.

Xbox Live has a lot of content like movies, arcade games.

Cons:

You have to pay for the most basic of things like online multiplayer and themes (ticks me off),

A high fail rate due to the infamous RROD,

More for a hardcore FPS game

Playstation 3:

Pros:

Superior graphics, some of the best looking console games are PS3 exclusives like MGS4, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Gran Turismo,

It is a blu ray player, it has wi-fi and web browsing,

Integration with the PSP is a nice touch,

PSN has better casual games

The PS3 will soon have Home- a very unique free service, which will surely give Xbox Live a run for its money.

Little Big Planet looks like a good reason to buy the PS3

You can change the HDD on your own and pimp the PS3 to a 250GB HDD monster.

Sony will support the PS3 with all its upcoming movies via digital distribution and most big studios will follow.

Cons:

Online multiplayer isn’t as good as Xbox Live (should change with Home)

more expensive than the Xbox 360

the 40GB version has no backward compatibility

some games have issues as they are ported on the PS3 like Orange Box

Final Verdict:

Both are amazing consoles, the Xbox is a great gaming console but has its share of problems and the same goes for the PS3, I have both consoles and I enjoy playing them both. But to be honest the PS3 is a much safer long term investment, it will last you at least 7 years and still provide all the facilities that other consoles at that time would.

Rumors are abuzz in the gaming world about a price-cut coming to the Xbox 360.

It all seem to have begun when, recently, a member of the HighDefDigest forums posted some scans of an apparently leaked K-mart circular to be out sometime in July. According to the scans, Xbox 360 buyers may enjoy a price-drop of $50 on the Xbox 360 Premium 20GB model. Members then flocked to that thread, some expressing joy over the price-cut while some calling it an outright fake.

This triggered news reports from various sources claiming that Microsoft is indeed planning to slash the prices of Xbox 360. According to a report by HollywoodReporter, industry sources believe that the price will be dropped to $299, a price drop of $50 (Heh, that K-Mart circular said the same). The price drop is expected to come around  15th of July,  just before E3.

Then comes along this report on Ars that says that not only is a price drop expected but Microsoft is also readying a new 60GB model, which was rumored a while back. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it ? The price cut would shelf out the 20GB models, making way for the bigger 60GB one. This would apparently give Microsoft enough advantage to compete with the PS3s and the Wiis. Or would it ?

Will the price drop make you buy the Xbox ?

We all knew that this day would come, when gamers start bitching about each other. I am not talking about fanboys lashing at each other to protect their precious console, this is far more deep than that. A certain producer was found flaming the upcoming Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway game, basically calling it crap. As per a report on Kotaku:

Fightin’ words. That’s what Call of Duty: World At War senior producer Noah Heller had for Treyarch’s World War II competition, Brothers In Arms. Asked about Gearbox Software’s take on the genre, the newest iteration of which will be Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, Heller said “I watched the trailer and I’m was like ‘These guys aren’t even in the same league.’” Heller has even more gentlemanly things to say about the Brothers In Arms series.

“We don’t even think about them,” Heller noted, giving his opinion about the other WWII hold out. “They’re not a game we even think about when we’re playing, we think about the best shooters, we play [Call of Duty 4] Modern Warfare, we play… Gears of War, we play Halo, you know, that’s the competition. We want to look at the games that do great storytelling.”

 I have always been a fan of Mortal Kombat, but to be honest the last few games have not lived up to the MK brand name. A new game in the series called Mortal Kombat Vs. DC is in development and will be out soon. The game will feature characters from MK as well as super hero’s like Batman and Superman from DC comics. A few screenshots were up exclusively on Destructoid.com:

“The action shots, however, may be be new. So it’s for that reason we’re inclined to pass them along for your viewing pleasure. In them, Scorpion is being put to the test, being pit against Superman, Batman, and the Flash. That dude never gets a rest. Some of the environment renders look particularly interesting, like the war-torn Metropolis and very warm and scary looking Hell.

Midway have also announced that Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon and comic writer Jimmy Palmiotti will be appearing on a panel at Comic-Con on Friday, July 25. The two will discuss the upcoming game, showing off never-before-seen gameplay footage and revealing more roster details. Midway will also be handing out exclusive, limited edition Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Comic-Con posters, so fire up your Ebay accounts accordingly.”  

Read the complete story here. 

Activision announced that COD 5:World At War will support both and offline co-operative play for up to four players online on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, in addition to two-player local split-screen cooperative play on home consoles. Coop usually makes games about twice as fun as they would normally be so it will probably be worth it.

The campaign will allow gamers to gain experience points and unlock perks for use in competitive multiplayer modes. This is quite similar to the perks system in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As players participate with different ranks the difficulty or the toughness changes accordingly.Mark Lamia of Treyarch studio who made COD 5 says that he wants gamers to feel the WWII in a completely different way. A host of new enemies is being provided to employ new tactics as well as new, groundbreaking tools–like co-op and the flamethrower–to succeed in the epic fight.

World at War lands on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS this fall.

Launching on PS3 and Xbox 360, players will join the ‘B’ Company, a wayward band of soldiers more interested in the pursuit of gold and personal financial gain than following the rules. It is rated “T” and landed on retail shelves on June 23 (that’s yesterday) on Xbox and PS3 in North America and June 27 in Europe.

To cherish this occasion, the publishers i.e. EA released a few comic clips, online. In a trailer released June 16th, 2008, the team makes a reference to the Metal Gear series. Sweetwater, a member of Bad Company thinks he’s seen someone wearing an eye-patch, hiding inside a barrel, to which Haggard responds, “A barrel? Why would someone want to hide in there? That’s as stupid as hiding in a cardboard box!” to which Sweetwater replies, “Probably it’s made out of some kind of solid metal! Like its Japanese or something!” Haggard fires a grenade at it, and finds, amongst the wreckage of the barrel, a black eye-patch. He puts it on and proceeds to bump into Sweetwater.

In another subsequently released trailer, Haggard is seen running down a destroyed street while Gary Jules’ Mad World is sung in the background by Sweetwater (a reference to the Gears of War trailer). Haggard then tells Sweetwater to knock it off.

Battlefield Bad Company has only just been released, but early reviews for the game are positive, with the deformable environments, large maps, diverse array of vehicles, and multiplayer mode earning it praise from critics.

A new study from Experian Consumer Research showed that the PS3 is most popular with consumers over the age of 45.

The report also showed that Xbox 360 covered the 35-44 year old demographic, and the Nintendo Wii taking the 18-24 age range.

(What about, 25-34 years? Are they forbidden from playing video games? Or maybe they play all the three.)

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners/players are more likely to say they cannot live without magazines and video game consoles, and less likely to say they cannot live without television and computers than the average new media respondent.  They differ somewhat in their necessity for books, radio and newspapers.

Respondents who play or own the video game consoles depicted are predictably younger skewing than the population of respondents who have been online for 1+ hours per week (new media respondents).  The Nintendo Wii console appears to appeal more to the 18-24 demographic, while the Xbox 360 appeals more to the 35-44 demographic and the PlayStation 3 appeals more to those over 44.