Ultimate Games Sale Preview

Next week, the Xbox Live Marketplace will kick off their “Ultimate Game Sale” and they sent over this list of upcoming titles that are scheduled to be on sale. There will be different titles on-sale at different times during the week, and while I don’t know exactly what will be on sale when or for how much, I’ll tweet out details and make a blog post each time a new groups of titles goes on sale. Here’s the full list of titles that will go on sale over the course of next week:

Assassin’s Creed 3
Bioshock Infinite
Borderlands 2
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway
Bulletstorm
Command and Conquer Red Alert 3
Crysis
Crysis 3
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga
Dragon Age Origins
Far Cry 3
Far Cry Instincts Predator
Forza Horizon
Gears Judgement
Hasbro Family Game Night 3
Hitman Absolution
Kinect Sports 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes
Lego Lord of the Rings
Mass Effect
Max Payne 3
Metal Gear Rising: Revengence
Monopoly Streets
Perfect Dark Zero
Prey
Rockstar Table Tennis
The Orange Box
Tomb Raider
Witcher 2
WWE 13 GonD
X-com: Enemy Unknown

Sign ups for the Xbox Live 2012 Fall beta is Open AGAIN

Microsoft had opened Sign-Ups for the Xbox Live Fall 2012 beta update Again . We still don,t know whether this happened by accident or not but anyway if your not in then GO GO GO !

Thanks to A friend for the info

Here is the link : https://connect.microsoft.com/XboxLIVEUpdate/Survey/NominationSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=14514&ProgramID=7776

Content Coming Soon to Xbox Live

Here is a look at some of the upcoming content scheduled for the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.*

Xbox LIVE Arcade	Release Date	MS Points
Wreckateer (MGS)	25-Jul	800
Deadlight (MGS)	1-Aug	1200
Deal of the Week	Discount Dates	Price
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Da Vinci Disappearance (Ubisoft)	24-Jul to 30-Jul	400 (50% off)
Square Enix	31-Jul to 6-Aug
Lara Croft Guardian of Light – A Hazardous Reunion		200 (50% off)
Lara Croft Guardian of Light – All the Trappings		200 (50% off)
Lara Croft Guardian of Light – Raziel & Kain Character Pack		200 (50% off)
Tomb Raider Underworld Beneath the Ashes		400 (50% off)
Tomb Raider Underworld Lara’s Shadow		400 (50% off)
Special Sales	Discount Dates	Price
Kinect Central-Kinectimals: Now with BEARS! (Microsoft)	24-Jul to 30-Jul	600 (50% off)
Games on Demand	Release Date
Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking (Ubisoft)	24-Jul
Prototype 2 (Activision)	24-Jul
El Shaddai (Ignition Entertainment)	31-Jul
Disney Universe (Disney)	31-Jul
Avatar	Release Date
Community(Xbox LIVE)	24-Jul
Deadlight XBLA (MGS)	24-Jul
Tattoo Collection (Konami)	31-Jul

*As with all game related releases, dates, prices and availability are subject to change and vary by region

Minecraft : Xbox 360 Edition 1.7.3 Update released

Yes , You heard it right Mojang confirmed that the Update is rolling to users 

Here is the Quote from his Site ::

 

Boom! New update is live for the xbox and it is pretty slick! To get the update just fire up the game (with your box connected to the net of course!) and it will ask you to download it :D

If you havent tried it out you can grab it here: http://bit.ly/MinecraftXbox

You can find the whole change list for 360 below!

About Installing Snapshots (for PC only)

I have heard that people get some bugs in the snapshots that we put up on the blog and we think it may have to do with people “installing” it incorrectly. What you should do is just overwrite the whole minecraft.jar file with the snapshot one. To download a snapshot right click on the link  and choose “save as”. To find the minecraft.jar file, fire up the launcher and hit Options. There you find the path to your minecraft-folder.

Here is the full changelist for latest Xbox update!

Features:-

- Added Pistons & Sticky Pistons.
- Added Stackable fences.
- Added Shears – required to get wool from sheep, and to collect leaf blocks.
- TNT needs Flint and Steel or Redstone to detonate.
- Redstone wire will now connect to a repeater.
- New textures for Cobblestone and Brick.
- Added Character Skin Selector to allow players to choose their skin from the default skins, or from Downloadable Content skin packs.
- Added lighting improvements (brought forward from 1.8.2 update) and snow & rain improvements.
- Added a save file cache to improve the speed of displaying the saves list.
- Added ban list functionality to allow players to self-ban from levels they feel contain offensive content.
- Added a ban list section to the How To Play menus.
- Added an option for the host to limit online games to only players in their friends list (no friends of friends).
- Added a seed display to the level load screen (requires existing levels to be saved out again to add the display).
- Changed the tooltip display setting to in-game tooltip display, so that tooltips always display in menus.
- Added the crosshair to the list of things affected by the opacity slider.
- On using the quickselect bar, the opacity of the quickselect, tooltips, splitscreen gamertag display, and crosshair will be set to 80,
and will fade back down to the user opacity setting after 6 seconds of no quickselect bar use.
- Added some more Tips & Trivia to the loading/saving screen display.
Tutorial World changes & additions:-

- Added optional tutorial for Pistons and Redstone.
- Added a self-building bridge to the castle using Pistons.
- Added some sugar cane, cactii and clay to the world.
- Added a few other things for players to discover.

Fixes:-

- Fix for only the host being shown the pop-up when any player attempts to place lava near the spawn point.
- Fixed tooltip for Flint and Steel.
- Fix for Note blocks not showing notes.
- Fix for Leaderboard reads taking too long.
- Fix to block players re-entering a level they have been kicked from, until the level is restarted.
- Fix to stop players being able to join a game when they are not a friend of any player in the game.
- Fix for Netherracks re-appearing after being mined.
- Fix for a rare crash on entering the Nether.
- Fix for attacking enemies at a different level not damaging them.
- Fixed a problem causing some save games not to load.
- Removed Herobrine.

Summer just got hotter with Summer of Arcade content for Minecraft and Trials Evolution

Microsoft has announced that in celebration for Summer of Arcade 5 year anniversary they will be release free pieces of DLC for Minecraft and Trials Evolution Throughout the Promotion .

Here is the Quote from Major Nelson Site :

In celebrating five years of Summer of Arcade, Xbox LIVE fans will get exclusive content for Minecraft: Xbox 360 and Trials Evolution.  On July 18 when the campaign kicks off, you can get a special, customized Summer of Arcade skin pack for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition exclusively by visiting the Summer of Arcade experience on the Xbox LIVE dashboard.  And, each week during the campaign you can download a free track for Trials Evolution, inspired by each new Summer of Arcade game release.  Even better?  It’s all free for all Xbox LIVE members.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

• WHAT:  Get an exclusive free customized Summer of Arcade Skin Pack exclusively by visiting the Xbox LIVE experience on your Xbox 360 during the promotion.  The pack will contain skins for all five Summer of Arcade games.

Trials

• WHAT:  Each week during the Summer of Arcade, you can download a free track for Trials Evolution, inspired by each new Summer of Arcade game release.

Summer of Arcade kicks off next week with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD

Angry Birds Trilogy Comes to Consoles in HD

At E3, Activision teased Angry HD on Consoles . Now and According to IGN We know it is Angry Birds Trilogy and it's "built from the ground up" for HDTVs, according to Rovio's Executive Vice President of Games Petri Järvilehto. .

"You can think of the game as the ultimate collector’s edition," he said. "There are new cinematics, extras and other entertaining content. In addition all of the existing material has been uprezzed and re-treated for the high-resolution and big screen."

The game will be released as a retail game unlike its iOS brother .Angry Birds Trilogy bundles the original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio on one disc or 3DS cartridge. Järvilehto wasn't ready to say if players would get access to the free level packs iOS and Android players received, but he did say that there would now be individual leaderboards for each level.

"The backgrounds have been animated, we've added lighting modes, reactive backgrounds, the list goes on and on," Järvilehto said. "We believe that there are a lot of people on the consoles who appreciate a great casual game play experience. This is a game that resonates across a wide audience on many platforms."

Angry Birds Trilogy will support Microsoft Kinect, PlayStation Move and StreetPass on the 3DS. Järvilehto is happy to be bringing the birds to a brand new market this holiday.

"There have been so many fans asking to be able to play the game on their home console with their friends and family, and so far we haven't been able to offer anything to them," he said. "Now we're finally able to have a great high quality experience on those platforms."

Source : IGN

It's Official : You Need 8 GB To use Halo 4 Multiplayer

Microsoft has confirmed that Halo 4's multiplayer needs either an 8GB USB or an Xbox 360 hard drive with 8 GB of free space.

Microsoft also  "Recommends" using Built-in hard drive for the "optimal experience".

But if you own a Core, Arcade or 4GB Slim Xbox model  you'll either have to buy a bigger hard drive or use an external flash drive. Microsoft recommends using one of the official pre-configured Xbox 360 USB flash drives by SanDisk. Other flash drives can be used, of course, but must be configured accordingly.

It's Good that Microsoft Posted this info Now so Last-minute confusion will be avoided

Source : IGN

The new Halo game (Halo 4) means a more Powerful Forge Mode

Certain Affinity the developer responsible for Crimson Alliance,Age of booty and Halo : combat Evolved Anniversary multiplayer .will  also be the developer responsible for developing Halo 4 Forge Mode .

While a huge number of improvements and additions have been added to the Forge mode the most interesting additions are the "Player Trait Zones," which allow the user to modify the characteristics of any players that enters a specific area, changing the power and height of their jumps, the speed at which they run or sprint etc,. It's even possible to reverse the gravity in a given area by using "Grav Volume" field tool.

Enhancements have also been made to the objects that can be placed by users: Elements can now be locked in place, magnetized and more efficiently duplicated. The editor's lighting system has also been overhauled; objects placed now cast and receive shadows normally

This improvement shows how hard - working are the developers working on Halo 4 mainly and forge mode Specifically .

But there is no sign of a Main Fan-Requested Feaure Until Now : Unlimited Cash Flow

Hope Certain Affinity adds it !

 Source : Joystiq

Hexic HD (XBLA) Review

Introduction:

Hexic HD is a tile-matching puzzle video game where the player tries to rotate hexagonal tiles to create patterns. The game was designed by Alexey Pajitnov , The creator of Tetris. Hexic HD is pre installed on every hard drive and can also be downloaded as a free download from the xbox live marketplace.

Graphics and Animation:

The game (As From the Title) Runs at 720p . The game has good animations, Explosions  and crystal clear (of course) crystals

Sounds :

The game Has good sounds but no sound tracks

Gameplay:

the game has a fun gameplay in which the player has to make patterns and cluster of similar hexagonal crystals .                                                                                                       The game has two main modes classic and survival

Conclusion:

The game has a fun gameplay good sounds and graphics but has no sound tracks and it actually does what is expected from a free game

10/10

Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut FAQS

Here are the Mass Effect 3 : Extended Cut FAQ From BioWare Site:

How much is the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut is available to download at no additional charge.

When does the Extended Cut release?

• The Extended Cut will release on June 26th on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 in North America and July 4th for PlayStation 3 in Europe.

How large is the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut requires roughly 1.9 gigabytes of storage.

How do I get the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut can be downloaded from Xbox LIVE, Origin on PC, and PlayStation Network at no additional cost.

What is included in the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut expands on the endings of Mass Effect 3 through additional scenes and epilogue sequences. It provides more of the answers and closure that players have been asking for. It gives a sense of what the future holds as a result of the decisions made throughout the series. And it shows greater detail in the successes or failures based on how players achieved their endings.

Does the Extended Cut change the endings?

• The Extended Cut is an expansion of the original endings to Mass Effect 3. It does not fundamentally change the endings, but rather it expands on the meaning of the original endings, and reveals greater detail on the impact of player decisions.

What save game should I load to play the Extended Cut?

• [SPOILERS] To experience the Extended Cut, load a save game from before the attack on the Cerberus Base and play through to the end of the game. The Extended Cut endings will differ depending on choices made throughout the Mass Effect series, so multiple playthroughs with a variety of different decisions will be required to experience the variety of possibilities offered by the new content.

Where can I learn more about the Extended Cut?

• To learn more about the Extended Cut, please enjoy the Extended Cut interview podcast with Community Manager Jessica Merizan, Executive Producer Casey Hudson, and Lead Writer Mac Walters.

Skyrim Dawnguard DLC Releases Next Tuesday For Xbox 360 !

[tweet https://twitter.com/Bethblog/status/216215967762628611]

According to  Bethesda tweeted Skyrim Dawnguard DLC and "FIGS" 1.6 patch will release this Next Week on Xbox 360  while it will launch in France, Italy, Germany and Spain in mid-July :)

 

Fez Patch is LIVE ! (UPDATE 2)

UPDATE 2: Microsoft has  pulled the update so it wont affect users who still didn't download the patch:

CRISIS SEMI-AVERTED! Microsoft has pulled the patch out of LIVE for now, so at least the problem won’t affect new users. We’re trying to find out what happened and fix it as soon as possible. Like, in less than two months. YAY GAME DEVELOPMENT!

UPDATE 1 : Strangely, a problem was found in the patch which was not noticed by MS here is Polyton's Statement and Fix about the Patch :

UPDATE : BAD NEWS EVERYONE.
There is an issue that seems fairly widespread where the save file can be seen as corrupted by the game after installing the patch. We’re floored that this wasn’t found in testing.
For the moment, deleting your system cache should resolve the issue, but if that fails, there is no known workaround.
We’ll keep you updated on the situation.

Original Story : According to Polytron site the long awaited  Fez update is live ! Here is there official statement with list of updates:

UPDATE IS LIVE
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!
The title update (MS lingo for “patch”) is OUT NOW!
I’d like to thank everyone that emailed us with their problems, without your help this would’ve taken a lot more time and would’ve been generally more painful. And sorry if I haven’t answered every single one of you, sometimes I just had nothing to add or it just fell through. We got a LOT of emails.
You can view the complete list of fixed issues after the break!
Please note that some of these fix descriptions contain spoilers, so you may not want to go through them if you haven’t completed the game.

Major issues
Save file unusable if saved inside one of two village interiors (4-cube wall village)
Save file unusable if saved at the top checkpoint of the lava challenge level, or attempted to use the “jetpack” cheat in this level
Save file unusable after playing for a long time (usually in a new game+) in certain areas of the game (crash within a minute)
Crash when rotating view on a ledge inside the library interior
Crash when attempting to open a blank spot in the artifacts inventory, after collecting the tome
Clock tower framerate slows down to a crawl if system date is too far in the past or the future
Able to escape out of closed interior rooms by rotating near objects, which can cause an infinite death loop
Changing profile might corrupt the save file
Crash on fake reboot at hexahedron encounters (note : measures were taken to fix this, but due to its random nature we can’t know for sure that it’s gone; testers haven’t encountered it!)
Performance improvements
Frame dropping when auto-saving, especially when save device is not the hard drive
Frame dropping while using rotating platforms, time switches, valves and watchers
Poor performance when black holes are on screen
Poor performance in the industrial levels with platforms on railings
Blockers
Infinite death loop if player gets sucked by a black hole near sewage water
Infinite death loop when pulling up from a ledge into a black hole
Infinite death loop when waiting in a space where a destructible block respawns
Inaccessible big parting waterfall doorway even if waterfall is parted, when coming back to it later on in the game or in a “new game+”
Inaccessible secret door if player collects 4 owls, goes to the statue but exits the level too early
Stargate door now two-way, which allows player to return back to the zu village instead of being forced to watch the ending
A certain valve/water height setup in the first sewer level makes sections of the level unattainable
Bumpers would randomly stop working for view rotation
Rare crashes
Crash if player enters the door behind the big parting waterfall too quickly
Possible crash when exiting an exterior level which has water
Possible crash and gltiching sound when holding onto rotating platform and falling
Possible crash and inconsistent behaviour with the “security question” puzzle room
Disconnecting controller in main menu may make the pause menu overlap it, which causes a crash when viewing credits
Upgrading the trial mode to full version from the upsell screen with video and selecting “Continue” could freeze the game
Graphical issues
In-the-sky level transitions visual issues with clouds moving sporadically and disappearing
Map graph does not update properly or nodes/connections disappear while browsing
One face of the “code machine” tetris rosetta stone doesn’t display
Clock tower : player collects anti-cube while falling to his death, camera gets stuck in zoomed-in mode
Jetpack causes graphical issues in the hexahedron encounters
Rotating groups active in first person view, which can cause camera oddities
Opening the inventory cube while using a warp gate or walking to a doorway causes graphical issues
Bell spins violently and disappears if standing idle near it for a very long time
Misdetection
First person view ability retained wrongfully when starting a clean new game from a “new game+”
Finishing with 64 cubes without having gone through a 32 cube ending doesn’t grant the first person view
Finishing the game with 33+ anticubes wouldn’t trigger the achievement(s)
Leaderboards not posting when not connected to LIVE, and would never post again
“Secret solved” jingle plays every time you input a secret code, even if it’s already been resolved
Exploits
Leaderboards should cap at 209.4%
Anti-cubes and golden cubes should cap at 32
Infinite cube collection with the bell tower
Player was able to go through the secret owl door without having talked to the 4 owls
Localization issues
“carte de trésor” -> “carte au trésor” in french localization
All instances of “oe” did not appear in french localization
Sound issues
Birdsong loops don’t pause when opening the map or inventory screen
Several sound effects retouched/added
Credits are missing music when viewed during a cutscene

The Maw (Xbla) Review

Introduction:

From the Twisted pixel comes The maw an action adventure game on Xbox Live Arcade , This game is fun but it's story is really small and lacks any hardcore elements so it is a casual game.
Gameplay:


In this game you take control of an unnamed aliens which looks really close to an ant which controls a strange translucent alien , at the beginning of the story the ant is arrested by some robotic cops and later the location is exploded , In each level you eat a different creature which gives you a different special power every time to help you complete the level , the main objective in each level is to pass it and make the maw eat the creature there

8/10
Graphics:


The game's graphics are terrible and has nothing to do with being even close to realistic and it looks like that twisted pixel wanted that . The world graphics and water simulation gives you a felling that the game is a an animated painting , the game also has a acceptable explosion animation and a very good physics engine

6/10
Sounds:


The game has a lack of any sounds exept in rare parts of the game and explosion sound and many other small sound with a semi-complete lack of any sound tracks

7/10
Conclusion


The game is fun but has a big lack in sounds and graphics
The good: fun gameplay
The bad:1. the story so short 

2. Terrible graphics and sounds

3. Story is unexplained

 

6/10

Amazon leaks (Ubisoft Xbox Live Hits Collection)

Unannounced by Ubisoft, an Amazon listing announce the release date, Price and box art for (Ubisoft Xbox Live Hits Collection) which will be released on September 22, 2012 for £17.99 according to Amazon .

Hot News : Xbox live rewards to award prizes for getting achievements this Fall

Xbox live rewards has just announce on this twitter account that they will be rewarding players based on their xbox achievements
Now achievements really has an advantage other than increasing your gamerscore

Air Band (Kinect Fun Labs) Review

Introduction:

Air Band is the one of the must fun Gadgets in Kinect Fun Labs which utilizes its ability to track hand clearly and to use tour as a background but it is still a Tech-Demo.

Animations & Sound:

The Game has great translucent musical instrument simulation and good hands tracking as will as many sounds and tracks for its tree instrument : Drum, Piano, Guitar across all of its Genres.

9/10

Gameplay :

The games has a simple fun gameplay and promises casual gamers mainly families an hour or two of fun Gameplay.

7/10

Conclusion :

The game has good animation &sounds as will as fun gameplay and musical instrument simulation

8/10

Battle Stuff (Kinect Fun Labs) Review

Another Free Kinect Fun lab gadget from Hyundai
Introduction :
This game has a Fun Gameplay but its pixel graphic doesn't actually fit in the game Main idea and concept .
Graphics and sound
The games animation and sounds ara pretty good but as I said before it's pixel style won't appeal to the fans of it main idea (fighting)
Gameplay
The games gameplay is fun but it's controls are the worst controls I have ever seen in a game

Conclusion
The game is really fun and enjoyable but it's control and graphics are lacking behind .

I Am Super (Kinect Fun Labs) Review

Our First Kinect Fun Labs Gadget Review it will be short as they mainly don't have much to offer,

Introduction:

In the game the player plays as a superhero which has one of 4 ability's : Freeze,Atomic,Heat or Storm.  As a Superhero you can Burn your sister freeze your furniture or do any other type of Stuff

10/10

Animation and Sounds:

The game promsises good effect sounds as will as having good ability animation

9.5/10 : As this is what I expect from a FREE Fun labs Gadget

Conclusion:

The Game offers fun gameplay as will as good sound and animation and is perfect for a FREE fun labs Gadget

9.7/10

Minecraft : 360 Edition (XBLA) Review

Introduction :
Minecraft Xbox gamers your wait is finally over! The 360 edition was released but this time with a whole-new graphics system, Split-screen for HDTV users, a new crafting system as will as running in 60.0 frames per second and busting over 400,000downloads in the first day and 1,000,000 downloads in the first week it is defiantly worth checking

Graphics:

Although it runs in sub -HD If Compared to other games which uses the vortex engine it does a really good job in the graphics and running at a BEAST 60.0 Frames Per Second even in Split-Screen it really gets the perfect mark in Graphics

10.0/10.0

Gameplay :

Each you play the game you will remember your childhood when you were playing with LEGOS Most of the LEGO Games don't actually use your imagination as Minecraft Do ans with an All new Crafting System and a-must-have-been-made Tutorial it gets the perfect mark this Round.

10.0/10.0

Conclusion:

Minecraft: 360 Edition  is a must have masterpiece and deserve its price for using you imagination the right way

10.0/10.0

Xbox Loves you shirt

This RARE Shirt was given only of FB promotion