Xbox 360 Fanboy

And so it begins, a November to end all Novembers. Within the next month, we will be positively assaulted with new and wonderful Xbox 360 games. The summer wasn't exactly thin, especially as summers tend to go for video games, but the sheer amount of games dropping this month alone -- good games, mind you -- is ridiculous. But let's not get ahead of ourselves thinking about the impending arrival of Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Kane & Lynch, and Rock Band (to name a few). No, let's concentrate on this week's titles. One thing at a time, as it were. So, this week we have:

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• F.E.A.R. Files
• Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War
• Scene-It
• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
• Cabela's Big Game Hunter

We have something of a soft spot for Scene-It, but we imagine the majority of you are most excited for Call of Duty 4. We don't blame you either, all of us here at X3F were addicted to its online leveling system during the beta in earlier this year.

Don't get too excited though. We've got three more weeks of high caliber releases to come. You might want to start your financial planning now.

Today, KOEI made the announcement that Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War has officially gone gold and will be on retail shelves November 6th. And just in case you've forgotten, there is a Bladestorm demo currently residing on the XBLM (available to all Xbox Live regions) if you're feeling the need to give the game a test drive before November comes. That's about all we've got for you as far as Bladestorm news goes, so now we think we're going to head off and try to perfect the ancient Chinese art of hacking and slashing. Stab, swing, duck, stab, stab, swing, duck. Repeat.

Today the Marketplace deities bless us with not one, but two demos. The first is Bladestorm, which has arrived a day late and hopefully not a dollar short. The second is the latest edition to the Looney Tunes franchise, Looney Tunes: ACME Arsenal (by the way, please check out the latest DS Looney Tunes iteration: Duck Amuck). As it turns out, both games have accurately descriptive titles, as Bladestorm will have you unleashing your armies on hundreds of foes, while ACME Arsenal employs the use of all kinds of "wacky" weapons. Our hopes were set impossibly high from the first moment we saw Daffy Duck wielding a pie. Why not grab both demos and see how they fare?

[Update: It seems our cynicism got the best of us. Turns out that Bladestorm isn't the hundredth hack n' slash war game from KOEI. It's more akin to the Kingdom Under Fire series actually (which is now becoming a hack n' slash in a bizarre coincidence). While you do hack and slash your enemies, you have more direct control over your various troops. As punishment for our ignorance, we will subject ourselves to three days of Full House reruns.]

No, it's not the long awaited console port of BloodStorm, it's Bladestorm, another hack n' slash fest from KOEI. According to CVG, a demo for the game should hit Marketplace on Thursday. Taking a break from the seemingly endless conflicts of ancient China, Bladestorm centers around the Hundred Years War of Europe and stars a few historical celebrities like Jeanne D'Arc. Lest you are unfamiliar with KOEI's war games, you'd best prepare yourself to hit the X button a lot. Every once in a while you may be expected to hit the Y button as well. So, um, start practicing.

[Via Joystiq]

Today, KOEI announced that demos for upcoming games Fatal Inertia, Dynasty Warriors: GUNDAM and Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War will be releasing to Europe's XBLM in the coming months. Yes, it's true that both Fatal Inertia and DW: GUNDAM demos are available on the XBLM right now, but (for unknown reasons) they are not available to European Xbox Live members. So, KOEI is announcing that the Fatal Inertia demo will be available to European Xbox Live members on August 14th with DW: GUNDAM and Bladestorm demos releasing sometime in October. And be sure not to get too angry fellow European fanboys about receiving delayed demos, because everyone is getting to play the BioShock demo at the same time (except Japan). See, you feel better already.