Catch some concepts at the New York Auto Show!

Richard Mitchell
Tulsa, Oklahoma - http://www.xbox360fanboy.com

Richard received a BFA from the University of Oklahoma. Foregoing the endless rejection that is the life of an actor, Richard opted instead to follow his true passion, games. Lucky for him, the internet has turned writing about games into a financially viable occupation. Otherwise he would be condemned to a life in hell, also known as community theatre.

FaceBreaker video: meet Steve, ninja boxer

Posted May 9th 2008 6:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News

A new trailer for FaceBreaker has been released, this time featuring a deadly ninja warrior by the name of ... Steve. It turns out Steve isn't quite a ninja master per se, but rather a quadruple black belt in ninja boxing. He is also apparently the regional quest master of his Wizards & Lizards guild. In other words, he's the nerd who thinks he's a badass (think Napoleon Dynamite's brother, only fat). If FaceBreaker can keep its sense of humor and be fun to play, we'll be mighty happy.
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Guitar Hero set to make 'significant leap' this year

Posted May 9th 2008 6:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News


Did somebody say instruments? Actually, no, no they didn't. Still, it's hard to imagine what else could be in store for Guitar Hero. According to Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith, the series is set to make a "significant leap forward in innovation." The information was revealed in a conference call yesterday, and while no more details were given, Griffith did note that more info would be released "in the coming weeks." Honestly though, what would it be other than more instruments? Maybe you can also tilt the guitar down now? Real strings instead of buttons? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments as we wait for the official answer.

[Via Joystiq]
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New shots of X-Blades, Things on Wheels, and Roogoo

Posted May 9th 2008 5:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade


Southpeak has released some new screens from their upcoming lineup of 360 titles All told, there are new screens for X-Blades, Roogoo, Things on Wheels. A quick refresher: X-Blades is an action game starring a typically sexy heroine with big weapons. Roogoo is a colorful, intriguing puzzle game. Things on Wheels is a racer featuring RC cars racing through household environments. X-Blades is a retail release, while both Roogoo and Things on Wheels are Xbox Live Arcade titles. Check out the galleries after the break for all the new media.

Continue reading New shots of X-Blades, Things on Wheels, and Roogoo

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New Bizarre racer set for 2009

Posted May 9th 2008 5:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News


While Bizarre Creations may be done with the Project Gotham Racing series, there's nothing stopping them from creating a brand new racer. Lo and behold, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith has revealed that Bizarre is developing a new racing IP scheduled to be released during Activision's 2010 fiscal year, which begins April 1, 2009. The revelation was made during a conference call (at 29:55) with Griffith stating, "Bizarre is deep in development on two multi-platform titles and we are looking forward to the release of our first new racing IP in fiscal 2010, which already looks very strong." Now all we need is a cool new name for the new franchise. It should be something cool like ... um ... Moject Protham Racing. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[Via Joystiq]
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LEGO Indiana Jones achievements swing online

Posted May 9th 2008 4:35PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News

Let's get the best part out of the way right now. Every single achievement in LEGO Indiana Jones is named after a line from the films. From the well-known "Why did it have to be snakes?" to "He chose... poorly," the lines run the gamut of all the films released thus far. There are a total of fifty achievements to earn, ranging in point values from 10 to 100 points. The single 100 point achievement is awarded for reaching a 100% completion level. If the LEGO Star Wars games were any indication, reaching 100% will take a significant time investment. Oh, and we hope you like secret achievements, because there are sixteen of them. Hit the "read" link to check out the list on 360Sync.
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Halo Wars audio designers make birds you can't see

Posted May 9th 2008 3:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News


The Halo Wars RTS Chapter on Bungie.net has conducted an interview with Ensemble Studios' Kevin McMullan and JD Smith, the two people in charge of the audio in Halo Wars. Again -- as seems to be a trend with Halo Wars -- you won't find any breathtaking news in the interview, but it does serve as an interesting glimpse into the development process. McMullan and Smith discuss how complex the soundscape is in RTS games, which combine the sounds of combat, dialogue, UI effects, and music all at once. They also talk about the challenge presented by creating sound for a Halo RTS that has to stay true to the series and yet still create its own identity. Finally, and perhaps most interesting, is the discussion of creating ambient sound effects. In particular, Smith mentions creating birds that aren't graphically represented in the game, but instead are represented solely through moving, intelligent sounds. Fascinating stuff. Even more fascinating is Smith's source file he used to create one of the game's bird calls: his 3-year-old daughter. Hit the "read" links below to read the interviews and hear the sound files.

Read - Interview pt. I
Read - Interview pt. II (including sound files)
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WRUP: expanding boundaries edition

Posted May 9th 2008 1:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Fan stuff, What are you playing?


Okay, we know that most everyone is still playing Grand Theft Auto IV. That's fine. We can accept that. However, with summer fast approaching, we find ourselves reflecting on games past. Given the usually thin trickle of releases during the summer months, it's a good time to take some older (and cheaper) games for a spin. For instance, we just wrapped up the single-player campaign in Marathon: Durandal for XBLA. The upcoming DLC got us all excited, what can we say? Of course, we don't speak for everyone, so we must ask again: what will you be playing this weekend?

Leaderboards:
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X3F Gamertags:
Richard Mitchell -- SenseiRAM
Dustin Burg -- SuperDunners
Xav de Matos -- Snypz
Terrence Stasse -- EnlightenedApe

What were you playing? (WRUP archive)
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X3F Week in Review: May 2, 2008 - May 8, 2008

Posted May 8th 2008 7:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Fan stuff


It seems like Xbox 360 Fanboy is right on the cusp of the oncoming storm of great entertainment. Sure, GTAIV is great, but with E3 right around the corner, news of the next wave of 360 titles is slowly trickling in. Below you will find links to the latest on Gears of War 2, Fable 2, and Ninja Gaiden II. We also take the Bourne Conspiracy demo for a spin in a video hands-on feature that you should definitely watch. Now, if someone would just release the Ninja Gaiden II demo we've been waiting for, we could do a video feature on that too.

Community Stuff
News
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Video: meet the bosses of Assault Heroes 2

Posted May 8th 2008 6:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade

With less than a week to go before Assault Heroes 2 arrives on Xbox Live Arcade (it's scheduled to drop on May 14), Sierra is ramping up the publicity, releasing a new two part trailer featuring some of the game's massive bosses. There seems to be an obsession with throwing mechanized versions of various fauna at players this time around, as the bosses featured in the video are the Mecha Gorilla, Mech Scorpion, Mecha Killer Orca (really?), Mecha Snake, Mecha Quadruped, and Mecha Demolition (guess they ran out of animals with that last one). Suffice it to say that the bosses are appropriately huge and they seem to be capable of dealing death quite adequately. We approve. Find the second trailer after the break.

Continue reading Video: meet the bosses of Assault Heroes 2

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Ninja Gaiden 2 video madness continues

Posted May 8th 2008 5:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News

It's hard to know what exactly we did to deserve this fine month of May. First we get the Iron Man movie. A new Indiana Jones comes out later this month. Then there's all this Ninja Gaiden II coverage (not to mention the demo coming out sometime this month). GameTrailers has just unleashed a veritable flood of Ninja Gaiden II videos. Seriously, there are six of them. Seasoned Ninja Gaiden players will likely feel the urge to yell at whomever is behind the control though (he never jumps!!!11!!). Still, it's new footage and we're not about to complain. To be fair, we've actually featured one of the videos already, but we're throwing it in again anyway because the GameTrailers player is much, much better than GameSpy's. Check 'em all out after the break.

Continue reading Ninja Gaiden 2 video madness continues

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Pandemic reveals Lord of the Rings Conquest

Posted May 8th 2008 5:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News


click to enlarge
EA returns once more to the golden money spigot that is The Lord of the Rings franchise with The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Currently under development at Pandemic, IGN states that Conquest is essentially the studio's Star Wars: Battlefront set in the LOTR universe. Players will take control of the series' many creatures and characters (no word on whether or not the game will feature heroes å la Battlefront) and wage war on some of the films' most famous battlefields. The game will also include battles not featured in the films (dare we hope for the Battle of Bywater?). Conquest will feature up to 16 players online, 4 player co-op (online and local), where players will fight battles that feature up to 150 characters on screen at one time. The game will include both a good and evil campaign, including a scenario in which Sauron -- the leader of the evil forces -- reclaims the One Ring. Expect Conquest to arrive in fall 2008.

Gallery: Lord of the Rings: Conquest

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Halo Wars designer talks controls, DLC, and more

Posted May 8th 2008 3:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News


Australian site Gameplayer recently managed to snag a few minutes with Graeme Devine, lead designer on Halo Wars at Ensemble Studios. While there are no earth-shattering announcements to be pulled from the interview -- sorry kids, still no confirmation of playable Covenant or Flood -- there are still a few tasty bits to be gleaned. First of all, Devine reemphasizes that one of the main goals of Halo Wars is to prove that RTS games can work without a keyboard and mouse.

With this in mind, the team at Ensemble created simple controls, consolidating similar actions -- such as different types of unit selection to presses of a single button. For example, single press of the A button will select one unit, a double click will select all units on screen, and a triple click will select the entire army. Another addition, all levels have been designed so that they can be completed without rotating the camera. Sure, players can rotate the camera, but they don't have to.

Finally, Devine mentions that there may be a level editor included with Halo Wars and also details Ensemble's plans for downloadable content. At the moment, new units and maps are definitely in the works. Even more exciting, Ensemble is considering releasing extra campaigns as well. Hit the "read" link for the full interview.
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Jasper 65nm chips could hit 360s by August [update]

Posted May 8th 2008 3:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Console wars


Note: those afraid of tech-speak should skip the first paragraph.

According to Cens.com, the first 65nm GPU chip equipped Xbox 360s -- codenamed Jasper, the successor to current Falcon 360s, which incorporate a 65nm CPU but use a larger GPU -- will start showing up in by August of this year. IBM will reportedly manufacture and test the CPU chips, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has reportedly been contracted to manufacture and the graphics chips, which will in turn be tested and packaged by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE). Nanya will be responsible for supplying flip-chip packaging substrates (don't ask us). Furthermore, CENS reports that industry watchers are betting on TSMC to win contracts to manufacture chips for Japser's successor, Valhalla, which will combine both the CPU and graphics chips into one super chip.

The upshot of all this is that new chips should be arriving this August, making for cooler, quieter 360s everywhere. that's something we can all enjoy, right? Oh, and no, there was no mention of Microsoft cramming Blu-Ray drives into either the Jasper or Valhalla.

[Via Joystiq]

Update: Clarified differences between Falcon and Jasper units
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Marathon: Durandal DLC video blowout

Posted May 8th 2008 2:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade

Looks like 360Sync decided to turn the drip feed of Marathon: Durandal DLC info into a full torrent. There is now video of seven more maps in addition to the two that were revealed already. According to 360Sync, they also have video footage of one more, making ten maps so far. Here are all the maps currently revealed:
  • Duality
  • Thick and Chunky
  • Melatonin
  • Mime Target
  • Fortress Lh'owon
  • Arena
  • Mars Needs Women
  • Vulcan
  • Beyond Thunderdome
Not only that, but Bruce Morisson, project lead for Marathon at Freeverse, has left a comment stating there are "several" more to be included with the upcoming DLC. That's a lot of maps. Check out video of all of the maps revealed so far embedded above. Once the first video is over, the next will automatically load (alternately, you can skip to the next video using the navigation buttons).

[Thanks, StLouisRibs]
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X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Wits and Wagers

Posted May 7th 2008 6:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Xbox Live Arcade, X3F TV

After a one week break -- no new XBLA games last week -- XBLA in Brief is back. This week we take a look at the new trivia game Wits and Wagers. Aimed squarely at casual gamers, Wits and Wagers emphasizes simple gameplay over the more hardcore elements of games like, say, Ikaruga. No sharp reflexes needed here. Just select your answer, place your bets, and see who wins. Not bad, though it's definitely not for everyone. Check out the video and see what you think.

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