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Xbox News is a site that brings you the very latest Original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One news, the latest games and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
THE LATEST NEWS BELOW
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November 14th, 2012, 23:43 Posted By: wraggster
The narrative for this Q4 has already been written to some extent, but the industry’s big triple-A’s are looking to prove it wrong.
Both the UK and US markets are significantly down year-on-year and the belief that the market has peaked and consoles are losing popularity is becoming increasingly commonplace.
A host of big titles throughout the quarter have sold is far fewer numbers than we would have hoped, with notable exceptions like FIFA 13 and Borderlands 2 providing the few highlights.
We already know that Halo 4 failed to match the week one UK sales numbers of both Halo 3 and Halo Reach. If Black Ops II has managed to break records we’ll likely hear about it today or tomorrow, though some think there's a chance this won't happen.
But hope lingers.
Amazon revealed last night that Black Ops 2 has broken its internal records to become the most pre-ordered game ever.
And now Microsoft reckons that halo 4 is on track to amass $300m in its first week and inch above Halo 3 to become the biggest launch in the series’ history. The game already made $220m in its first 24 hours, smashing any comparable Hollywood records.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/halo-...ecords/0106359
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November 14th, 2012, 23:41 Posted By: wraggster
Warner has confirmed that an error has led to a “small number” of Xbox 360 copies of LEGO Lord of the Rings being labelled as demos.
Reports spread around the internet this morning as consumers claimed that had found a demo and not the full game in the box.
Fortunately this is not the case. The issue has only hit American gamers.
"Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment is recalling a small number of LEGO The Lord of the Rings video games that were released for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft to Walmart, Target and Toys 'R' Us in the United States with a disc labelling error,” the publisher said in a statement.
“The discs in question are incorrectly labelled as demo discs, but those discs do contain the full game content and are fully functional. This error does not affect any other formats of the game.
“We are in the process of remanufacturing the discs and will get them to the stores as soon as possible. Consumers who purchased a copy of the Xbox 360 version of the game with the disc labelling error can contact customer support via email at support@wbgames.com.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/don-t...-rings/0106372
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November 14th, 2012, 14:42 Posted By: wraggster
Dan Houser has said that the end of the current console cycle is exactly the right time to release Grand Theft Auto V.
Before its release date was revealed last month, Rockstar’s enduring silence about the game had led many to speculate that the studio was holding off for a potential next-gen launch.
Such theories were ended when a spring 2013 release was announced.
"Rockstar is a content company, not a hardware company," Houser told Japanese weekly games mag Famitsu, as translated by Polygon. "We use the technology we have to create content, and we try not to let ourselves get beholden to the hardware.
“The fact that hardware's so mature right now is exactly why we're able to go on to the next level. GTA 4 was our first attempt at a new platform and HD visuals, so the first part of development was seriously difficult. Now we know what the hardware's capable of, so it's become a lot easier to move things along and a lot more fun, too.
“GTA: San Andreas came out at the peak of the PlayStation 2's cycle, and we put out a really good game thanks to that. All the best games for a console come out at the end of the lifecycle, right? So now's the best timing of all."
A second trailer for Grand Theft Auto V will be released by Rockstar later today.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/rocks...auto-v/0106368
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November 14th, 2012, 02:17 Posted By: wraggster
EA and Criterion have released a single-player demo for Need for Speed Most Wanted.
 The demo, available now via Xbox Live and PlayStation Store for PS3, lets you hit the tarmac in an Aston Martin V12, and jack into other cars and multiple challenges as you explore the open city.Here's the official blurb on its contents:
"The Most Wanted demo starts players behind the wheel of one of the game's most recognizable, rides: the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Players can also jack into three additional cars placed in different areas of Fairhaven- the Porsche 911 Carrera S, the Audi R8 GT Spyder and the Ford Focus RS500 - if you can find it, you can drive it.
"Each vehicle has its own unique races, challenges and mods to unlock. Autolog 2 puts social competition at the heart of the experience by tracking and comparing everything players do against their friends and offering up gameplay recommendations and challenges throughout the open world as a result."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...xbox-live-psn/
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November 14th, 2012, 01:23 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft's offering a hearty thank you to some of its longest running Xbox Live members with the handsome limited edition Xbox 360 seen above -- totally gratis -- celebrating this month's 10 year Xbox Live anniversary. Director of Xbox programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb posted an image of the box to his Twitter account this evening along with a tease that Redmond's hooking up more than just old-school XBLers. "I'll have details on how you can win one for yourself later this week," he noted. One lucky Kotaku reader already got their hands on the limited edition 360, which appears to be a Slim model -- it's unclear how much HDD space it comes equipped with. Hopefully it's more than enough to handle the 10 years of downloadable content it'll soon be holding.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/13/1...sary-xbox-360/
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November 14th, 2012, 01:23 Posted By: wraggster
No pressure, folks - just another product in the world's largest entertainment franchise. A franchise which has steadily increased its phenomenal retail presence over the last five years since its departure from a WWII setting with 2007's Modern Warfare, hitting a high water mark with Treyarch's original Black Ops in late 2010.
That game, despite predictions from Activision itself that it would undersell Modern Warfare 2 by 20 per cent, made $1 billion in revenues in 42 days - almost double Modern Warfare's $550 million chump change in the same period.
An incredible attachment rate for DLC meant that, on average, each of the 30 million plus players of Black Ops spent over $76 on the game in total - totalling over 18 million map packs. A record selling title around the world, Black Ops remains the highest-grossing entertainment launch of all time to date.
So what of the sequel? Despite some pessimism from analysts about its chances at breaking its own records, citing ageing console hardware and engine tech, Black Ops 2 has already tripled the pre-order total of the original.
So do the reviews even matter? A tightly enforced embargo, which only expired at 8am this morning for the UK and Europe, meant that the game had already been available for eight hours by the time the reviews went live, thanks to a plethora of midnight openings from games retailers. For the thousands who queued in the cold to grab their copies for a late night binge before things got really busy, scores were not important. For them, as for so many customers, any Call of Duty purchase is a given.
 Near future settings are artfully realised with some surprisingly close attention to detail, say critics.
So far, the Metacritic rating is similar to its predecessor's, hovering around 85 per cent on Xbox 360, whilst Black Ops ended up at 88. 31 Reviews had been posted at the time of writing, ranging from 94 to 80 per cent, but there were a few notable gaps, including GamesIndustry International sister site Eurogamer, as a few outlets eschewed Activision-organised review 'events' or waited to get a better look at public multiplayer.
Looking at a range of scores from some of the biggest media outlets today, the trend is to see a wave of pleasant surprise at some interesting tricks worked into the single-player campaign to keep things fresh, including a range of choices which lead to multiple endings and a geographically and horologically diverse storyline. Multiplayer sees some new tricks, including a deepening of the RPG-lite perks and classes system, as well as plenty of new guns and gadgets.
Despite that, there's a general feeling that Treyarch haven't stretched themselves quite as far as they might have, and may not have brought as much innovation to the table as they did with the original.
Starting at the low end of the scores, we have Russ Frushtick at Polygon, who awards an 8/10 - painting Black Ops 2 as a Treyarch's chance to prove that the original wasn't a fluke but a sign of the quality to come - an attempt which he feels offers somewhat mixed results.
"These excellent new additions are layered atop an already-refined multiplayer blueprint which is as good as it's ever been. Black Ops 2 multiplayer feels like a Swiss watch I could never afford."
Russ Frushtick, Polygon
"Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 easily hits some of those expectations," says Frushtick. "At times it's genius, as with the multiplayer's redesigned class system. But at others, it doesn't feel like it's trying very hard. Occasionally, it's a complete mess."
Opening with a run-down of the changes to game's multiplayer, a consideration much more weighty than that of the single-player for most readers, Frushtick praises the flexibility of the new "create a class" system which allows players to balance weapons, attachments and equipment themselves rather than adhering to pre-set choices. Alongside these improvements come encouragements for support roles, with the kill-streaks of previous games being replaced by score streaks, letting players build momentum for the potentially match-changing rewards which they offer in more tactical or defensive ways - a lesson perhaps learned from EA's Battlefield series.
"Treyarch took a big risk with the Pick 10 create-a-class system, and it paid off, reimagining how players customize their experience," Frushtick believes. "They could have stopped there, but the developer's drive to go deeper, changing certain core elements of Call of Duty multiplayer to encourage more teamwork, makes Black Ops 2 online play even more remarkable. No other online shooter is offering a better experience right now."
A new ranking system also receives cautious praise, but Polygon rightly points out that it'll take a few days of public play before the effectiveness of this system can be properly assessed.
Where Black Ops 2 compares unfavourably with the original, says Polygon, is in the execution of its single-player campaign story, which drops some of the intrigue and characterisation of Alex Mason's story in favour of a villain who is "a cat-stroking Bond character" who attempts to take over the world of 2025's advanced military technology with "a magic computer chip and some spitfire technobabble but seemingly not much else."
This, says Russ, results in "Only a pair of missions in Black Ops 2 stand[ing] out, one offering a major structural departure from the linear Call of Duty mission format, the other an interesting glimpse into civilian life in the year 2025. More often than not you're running from one uninteresting room to the next, shooting guys."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ty-black-ops-2
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November 14th, 2012, 01:19 Posted By: wraggster
UK magazines PSM3 and Xbox World are to be closed by publisher Future.
The final issues of both mags, which are renowned for sharing content between them, will go on sale in Wednesday December 12th.
"After careful consideration, Future has made the decision to close Xbox World and PSM3 magazines with the final issues going on sale on December 12,” Future’s head of entertainment Clair Porteous stated in a statement on CVG.
"This decision has been taken as Future continues to focus on its strategy on accelerating digital growth across its international digitally-focussed brand business.
"Future's gaming portfolio saw over 14m unique users for October 2012 – up over 20 per cent on October 2011. We intend and fully expect there to be no redundancies and will be looking to redeploy all staff within the business.
"Future continues to publish the highly successful Official Magazines for Xbox and PlayStation."
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/futur...-world/0106282
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November 14th, 2012, 01:18 Posted By: wraggster
Gem is running another trio of deals this week for independent retailers.
Indies can pick two titles from the Classic range, and the shooter Halo ODST, for £14. Classic titles includes Gears of War, Mass Effect, Fable II, Halo 4, Halo Wars, Gears of War 2 and more.
Meanwhile, the distributor is offering special pricing on Xbox 360 Holiday Bundles. The two bundles includes a 250GB console, a Kinect, plus copies of Dance Central 2, Kinect Adventures and Kinect Sports, and a 4GB unit with Kinect, Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Adventures.
The firm is also offering special prices on Xbox LIVE 12 months cards.
These deals run until November 18th and can only be accessed by calling the Gem team. The team includes Rob Brown (01279 459081), Peter Foreman (01279 459199) or Adrian Fairbrother (01279 459014).
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/gem-o...indies/0106284
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November 13th, 2012, 23:42 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft is to chop up previous full release Kinect Sports: Season Two into smaller, downloadable chunks.
Specifically, three of the game’s individual events are to be made available for 240 Microsoft Points each – Darts vs Zombies, Ski Race and 3 Point Contest. Each will offer a total of 50 Gamerscore points spread across ten awards.
All three will be available on Xbox Live from November 20th.
Recent retail Kinect releases such as Fable: The Journey and Warner Bros’ Harry Potter Kinect have significantly flopped at retail. Considering the nature of Kinect titles – that being that they are light on gameplay and good for parties or in short doses – a bite-size downloadable model does seem like a more natural fit.
And considering how much Microsoft has invested on linking Kinect to the Xbox brand, it is imperative that it finds a way to sell the games to consumers. And quickly.
Also on the way to Xbox Live is Square Enix’s Sleeping Dogs and Silicon Knight’s topical outing X-Men: Destiny.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/indiv...x-live/0106292
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November 13th, 2012, 23:37 Posted By: wraggster
Long-serving Microsoft exec Harvey Eagle has this week been appointed the new marketing director for Xbox UK.
Eagle was previously Interactive Entertainment Business Category Director across the EMEA region, working for Jeremy Dale.
Prior to that, he has been a key member of the EMEA Xbox team for the last 12 years. He joined in 2000 as EMEA advertising manager, before moving to the role of Interactive Entertainment Business CategoryLead for western Europe.
Jonathan Grimes, head of Microsoft’s retail sales and marketing division in the UK said: “Harvey brings with him a wealth of experience and I’m very excited to have him join the Retail Sales and Marketing team to lead the IEB business, in what is going to be a very exciting time.”
Eagle added: “I'm privileged to join a team that has already achieved leadership position in a market where the competition is fierce and ever-changing. Every single person on the planet likes to be entertained. When you think of Xbox as an entertainment service that will show up on any device, you realise our journey has only just begun.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/new-m...box-uk/0106294
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November 12th, 2012, 23:26 Posted By: wraggster
Treyarch has published its Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 security and enforcement policy, outlining the behaviour that will result in a ban.There are plenty of obvious offenses in there, for modding/hacking, for example, and for running pirated content. You'll also want to avoid using modded controllers, IP flooders and lag switches.Boosting is a big no-no. Boosting, for years a problem with online games, involves colluding with another player to exploit the game to gain experience points and unlocks. Glitching, or abusing an exploit in game code, will get you banned too. This might include using a hole in the map geography to intentionally go outside its boundary.You'll face a ban for using offensive behaviour, such as aggressive or “racially charged” language. If you create an offensive emblem, that is, one with “sexually gratuitous images” or racist material, you could get a ban.New for Black Ops 2 is an in-game live streaming function that outputs to YouTube. This carries its own ban conditions. So, don't pump out offensive live streams or stream unauthorised content.“Offensive content includes but is not limited to foul language, racially charged language and nudity," Treyarch said. "Unauthorised content includes but is not limited to unlicensed music, TV shows, movies and brand logos.”Black Ops 2 launches at midnight tonight and is expected to set records for game sales and online play.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ty-black-ops-2
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November 12th, 2012, 23:04 Posted By: wraggster
Halo 4 has achieved the biggest launch of the series' history and is "on track" to become the biggest entertainment launch of 2012 so far, according to Microsoft.
 The publisher said in a press release today that the game is "on track" to hit $300 million in global sales in its opening week.The game hit around $220 million in sales worldwide in the first 24 hours, which MS says "eclipses the record for the biggest day-one opening in US box office history", beating record holder 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,' and the biggest movie of 2012, 'The Avengers' - although it notes that this is based on US sales alone.
Over 4 million players were logged in the first five days - another record for the seres.
Lifetime sales for the Halo franchise are now over $3.38 billion, says MS.
"We're thrilled that 'Halo 4' has emerged as the biggest U.S. entertainment launch of the year," said corporate VP of Microsoft Studios Phil Spencer. "Thanks to the millions of fans worldwide who helped make this another record-breaking launch for the 'Halo' franchise, 'Halo 4' is kicking off a strong holiday season and has become the must-have blockbuster experience of the year."
Halo 4 debuted at No.1 on the UK all formats chart for the week ended November 10. It ranks as the UK's 18th biggest SKU launch in terms of week one unit sales, but failed to beat 2007's Halo 3 (15th biggest) or Halo Reach (12th biggest).
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...f-2012-so-far/
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November 12th, 2012, 23:00 Posted By: wraggster
Rumors have swirled that Microsoft is developing a high-powered 7-inch gaming tablet dubbed Xbox Surface, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of Microsoft's homegrown hardware brands. Such a move wouldchange the landscape of Microsoft's Xbox and portable game initiatives. It would mark a reversal for the company, which has stayed out of the increasingly challenging handheld space in favor of promoting Windows Phone as part of its ecosystem battle. However, it would be in keeping with Steve Ballmer's promise (or is it OEM warning?) to expect more hardware from Microsoft. As the tablet was partly Apple's answer to the netbook, it could also be Microsoft's answer to the PlayStation Vita.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/11/t...-xbox-surface/
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November 12th, 2012, 22:16 Posted By: wraggster
Halo 4 is packing a mighty punch this holiday season, as Microsoft has just revealed that its global sales total in the first 24 hours has hit $220 million, and the title looks to be on pace to hit $300 million in the first week.
Microsoft noted that Halo 4's sales total eclipsed the record for the biggest day-one opening in US box office history, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and the biggest movie of 2012, The Avengers - based on US sales alone. Additionally, these latest sales now have pushed lifetime sales for the Halo franchise past $3.38 billion
Another touchpoint Microsoft passed along is that Halo 4 secured the record for the largest number of players in the history of the Halo franchise, with over 4 million players in the first five days. Players spent a total of 31.4 million hours playing Halo 4, and the total number of gameplay hours across the Halo franchise now exceeds the five billion mark.
“We're thrilled that Halo 4 has emerged as the biggest US entertainment launch of the year,” said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. “Thanks to the millions of fans worldwide who helped make this another record-breaking launch for the 'Halo' franchise, Halo 4 is kicking off a strong holiday season and has become the must-have blockbuster experience of the year.”
“Consumer demand and excitement for Halo 4 is even greater than we anticipated,” said Tony Bartel, GameStop president. “Day-one sales of Halo 4 make it the biggest Halo launch in GameStop history and the biggest game launch on any platform so far this year in our stores.”
Halo 4 went on sale on November 6, with more than 10,000 retail locations hosting midnight launch events. Of course, there's a good chance that Call of Duty: Black Ops II will more than surpass these figures, given the franchise's history and the fact that it's a multi-platform game. Modern Warfare 3 last year generated more than $400 million in its first 24 hours.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...on-in-24-hours
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November 12th, 2012, 22:13 Posted By: wraggster
Supermarket chain Asda has announced its midnight opening plans for Call of Duty: Black Ops II tonight.
250 stores will sell the game from midnight tonight. In total 479 of its outlets will be carrying the game, as well as 114 of its local Supermarket stores “making it very accessible for local customer to grab a copy of the game”.
“We also have tonnes of in-store activities, free giveaways and a huge sampling programme to keep the crowds entertained tonight,” a spokesperson told MCV. “I believe Activision themselves will be filming in Asda Pudsey, where queues will be literally all through the store.”
Activision revealed on Friday that around 2,000 retail outlets are expected to open their doors to sell the game at midnight.
600 Tesco stores are included in this number as well as 450 Blockbuster stores and 319 GAME stores.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/asda-...stores/0106206
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November 12th, 2012, 21:05 Posted By: wraggster
Mass Effect 4 looks to be in the pipeline after one of the game developers tweeted that a new title is in the early stages of development.
Bioware executive producer, Casey Hudson wrote: “We're in early stages of designing a completely new Mass Effect game. What would you want to see in it?”
This suggests that the developers are looking to develop an entirely new storyline, separate from the previous titles, and judging from his follow up tweets there seems to be a lot of demand playable alien races.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...nfirmed/029586
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November 12th, 2012, 14:39 Posted By: wraggster
cOz is proud to release the new version 3.04 of DashLaunch, the app for your JTAG / RGH Xbox 360 that allows the system to boot from a homebrew app.
The changelog below:
[QUOTE]
* kinect health message block fixed for 16197
* updated polish translation (thanks Pelcu!)
* fix CIV hook issue, may break some titles that use CIV (a gamy Call of Decay: Body Odor 2 now works)
* lump updater version limit patch into noupdater option so it can be disabled
* improved installers ability to prevent install on unsupported kernels (including devkit and unsupported retail versions)
* installer will now only offer to update, if the embedded version is newer than currently running one
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...VZigkqlDwt.php
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November 12th, 2012, 14:37 Posted By: wraggster
Swizzy has just released xeBuild GUI 2.086, the popular app that helps us to create a NAND image for the RGH and JTAG or the possibility of returning it to retail version. The new version comes with some fixes and new features.
The changelog below:
[QUOTE]
** Removed: No additional checks are made for additional patches (apart from NOHDMI patch, which can really only be applied to any motherboard apart from xenon anyways) this should fix errors here…
** Fixed: Finally fixed that display bug with Xell icon not beeing shown properly for RGH 2.0…
** Fixed: F*ing jasper failsafe keeps beeing gay… >_
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...ukwVrpKWeu.php
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November 12th, 2012, 14:34 Posted By: wraggster
Mojobojo has released FatX USB Explorer 1.1, the windows app that allows us to explore and extract files of 1GB or less from USB devices in Xbox 360 format.
The changelog below:
[QUOTE]
*** Hundred of bugs fixed
*** Added a reference file (More than 5000 known IDs)
*** Two languages : EN/FR
*** User will be prompted for existing files
*** Can save gamertags
*** Added a search bar & some settings
*** Can be resized quickly
*** Updatable
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...AkALZTJnBV.php
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