Xbox 360 Fanboy

One of our loyal X3F Army tipsters has outed himself as an employee of GameStop, but to make up for it he sent us a camera phone image of a few release dates. While you should take these dates with a grain of salt some of them are accurate, specifically Ninja Gaiden 2, Soul Calibur IV and Civilization Revolution.

Fueling the fire of the Sega's Sonic Unleashed leak is a release date of November 4 for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PS2. EA's NFL Head Coach 09 is slated for a September 3 release and based on the release of the original in relation to Madden, the time frame seems accurate. A few titles we haven't heard much from are Bethesda Softworks' Rogue Warrior (November 10) and Edios Interactive's Shellshock 2: Blood Trails (September 1), which is being developed by the team at Rebellion.

Other dates include Sierra's Prototype from Radical and the Xbox 360 exclusive Splinter Cell: Conviction from Ubisoft which are dated for October 21 and October 2 respectfully.

Remember, pre-order focused retailers tend to guess-timate releases on a regular basis to structure their sales goals for the final two quarters of the year. However, some of the names on this list make us really glad we have a rumor category.

[Thanks, Travisto]

We told you that Bethesda was partnering with Zombie Studios to create a new FPS on Wednesday. Now we have the first handful of screenshots from the game, titled Rogue Warrior. Said Mark Long, producer at Zombie Studios,

"Rogue Warrior is the game we've been waiting to make for years. We're using terrific technology in a way that's different from other games - we have a unique HUD and control system for your teammates, on-the-fly co-op play, and we've really focused our efforts on making multiplayer more fun and challenging by giving you lots of modes and hundreds of maps you can see and play. We're thrilled to be working with Bethesda on this new initiative using a brand we know and love."

We've now uncovered a handful of screenshots from the game. The screens aren't the greatest quality -- they almost look like scans -- but they do give us an idea of the game's graphical fidelity. The images look decent, though certain parts -- notably the ground texture -- have a last gen quality to them. Still, the graphics are likely to improve considering the game was officially announced only days ago. Also, the custom map feature sounds interesting as well. We've all played GRAW, and many of you have tried the Rainbow Six: Vegas demo, so what do you think? Does Rogue Warrior stand a chance?

According to the latest issue of OXM (Via 360Monster), Bethesda is working on a new first person shooter with Zombie Studios. Entitled Rogue Warrior, Bethesda hopes to make a game that will compete with the likes of GRAW and Rainbow 6: Vegas. Gamers will recognize Zombie Studios as the developers of Shadow Ops. The article doesn't specify, but a quick search revealed a book about anti-terrorism with the same title, upon which the game may be based. Bethesda hopes to separate Rogue Warrior from similar games by spicing up the multiplayer options. One particularly interesting feature is the ability of each team to configure a map prior to a match. The maps are composed of three sections. Each team chooses an outer section, while the computer randomly decides the center section. The player chosen sections are kept secret from the opposing team. Thus, each team starts in familiar territory and must venture into unknown territory. It is Bethesda's hope that this will keep the experience fresh. Sounds like a pretty cool feature to us. What do you think?