Get ready to rock all morning, all night and weekend long with the Xbox.com and Harmonix sponsored Rock Band 2 Rock the World Live Weekend.
Beginning today through Sunday, October 5th you can experience a weekend full of fun, Play & Win prizes , Game with Developers action and even a Game with Fame session where you'll get the chance to jam with Panic at the Disco in Rock Band 2. But you'll have to register and add some people to your friends list to get the complete Rock the World Live Weekend experience, so get to it and we'll see you rockin' out online.
Rumor word coming from Game Guru is that Electronic Arts is in the market, not only for a developer, but also for a gaming engine. Believe it or not, EA is said to be looking to purchase Epic Games and the Unreal Engine. Gasp!
Game Guru claims that EA is looking to gobble up developers of established franchises and quality lineups, which Epic Games fits the bill with Gears of War and Unreal Tournament as well as the added bonus of the Unreal Engine. Seeing that EA's attempt at purchasing Take-Two ended in failure, it wouldn't be entirely out of the realm of possibility that EA would ponder the acquisition of a company who's engine (Unreal Engine 3) powers a good chunk of the industry's titles. Just think, the future could see EA owning exclusive rights to Unreal Engine 4 and somehow involved in GoW ... maybe? ... meh!
Next week's Rock Band downloadable content was just announced by the Harmonix crew and, well, we're in for a treat!
On October 7th, there will be an Offspring three-pack released and it actually includes GOOD Offspring tracks like "Self Esteem", "Gone Away" and "Pretty Fly". The pack is 440 MS points or each song can be purchased individually for 160 points. On top of the Offspring DLC goodness are six other tracks from bands including George Thorogood ("Bad to the Bone" FTW!), Harvey Danger, Static-X, Free and more. Each will cost 160 MS points apiece. Check the complete listing of next week's Rock Band DLC below and be sure to support the Offspring.
The first Dead Space review has made its way online and, no surprise to us, it got a pretty damn good review.
CVG spotted the first game review over at Xbox World 360 magazine who gave it a 91% and went as far as to say that Resident Evil developer Capcom should take note of Dead Space,"because EA can teach them a thing or three about survival horror." Ouch. The review goes on to gush about the game's film-worthy script, intense horror themes and describes it as "Rapture in space: every bit as disturbing, just as meticulously designed and easily as believable." We think it's safe to say that if more reviews mirror these kinds of impressions, then Dead Space delivered as promised. Our excitement level rises ...
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will be receiving it's first ever title update on Monday, October 13th with the release of a "Total Payback" update that's aimed at connecting gamers from around the world, adding more variety and enabling cheaters to, well ... cheat.
The Total Payback update will add an additional six characters to the Mercenaries 2 mix, give players the ability to enter cheats and (this one's a biggie) enable cross-region support of Xbox Live multiplayer. Huzzah! Again, this is an update, meaning it'll be applied instantly and for free come October 13th.
Also, Pandemic revealed that they'll be releasing the first set of Mercs 2 downloadable content sometime this November. So, keep an eye out for that.
Update: To clear up any confusion regarding the suite DLC, we just heard from EA that the Elite skin will be available as a free download off the XBLM for two weeks after the game's release. After two weeks, we aren't sure if it'll go paid or disappear, just know there is no pre-order necessary.
Today, EA made the big announcement that the violently abusive space adventure Dead Space has gone gold and is being laser inscribed to disc so you can enjoy the fun on October 14th. But that's not all, because EA also mentioned that they're awarding gamers who purchase the game within' two weeks of launch with platform specific Dead Space skins. Xbox 360 owners will be able to download the free Xbox-themed "Elite Suit" (get it, the naming, Elite?) and PS3 owners will get the less interesting "Obsidian Suit". Check out pictures of each in the gallery below.
Finally, for those of you who are online ordering folks, simply head over to NoKnownSurvivors.com, sign up for their adventure and you'll insta-receive a $5 off coupon for your Dead Space purchase at the EA Store.
Free. Is there any word half as awesome in the English language? Harmonix agrees and is now accepting redemption codes for the twenty downloadable tracks that were included with the purchase of Rock Band 2 (the code is located on the back of your game manual). Once the registration information is filled out and you receive your confirmation email you get to play the game ... the waiting game that is.
Unfortunately this process is only a precursor to the tracks being made available which Harmonix promises will be "in a few weeks." When the tracks are available gamers will automatically receive an email that includes a unique code which is then used to grab the tracks from the Xbox Live Marketplace. The track list for the free content has yet to be released, however, the official Rock Band forums has a possible set list if you're eager to spot possibilities. Regardless of the track list, this could be the best "free thing" ever made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. You know, unless you count those Nacho Libre gamerpics.
Some of the fine print for Rock Band's upcoming AC/DC track package has been clarified thanks to a report by Variety. What we can now confirm is the 18 song pack will be a standalone product that can be played by itself or transferred to an Xbox 360 and act as downloadable content for Rock Band or Rock Band 2.
The standalone version will feature most, but not all, of the features found in both Rock Band titles. Players can play all four instruments (vocals, guitar, bass and drums), will not play as AC/DC themselves but as standard in game avatars because the product features no character customization. Players can participate in a tour style mode which plays through the entire set list, participate in tug-of-war and a score duels mode but the disc itself does not support online play.
In order to get online with the AC/DC tracks players must transfer the songs to their hard drive, as was required to play Rock Band songs in Rock Band 2 - which also opens up other restrictions such as character customization. Where things get hairy is that transferring the package can only be activated "once per disc," to prevent players from buying one copy and sharing the music with other machines.
The information was parsed from Paul DeGooyer, senior VP of electronic games and music at MTV who also stated the AC/DC tracks were only exclusive to Rock Band for "a term."
Posted Sep 30th 2008 4:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
After being slapped with a delay or two and being given no explanation to why, today EA made the announcement that the Command & Conquer based FPS Tiberium has been canceled and is no longer in development.
EA studio head in charge of the game, Mike Verdu explained in an email to the press that "the game had fundamental design challenges from the start" and that Tiberium was ultimately canceled due to these flawed design decisions not being able to be corrected.
Poor Tiberium, you weren't loved by all, but you weren't hated by all either. Your trailer piqued our interest, but just couldn't get the job done. As a way of saying goodbye, we embedded your debut trailer after the break. Rest peacefully.
Harmonix and MTV Games just made an announcement this morning regarding the release of a special edition of Rock Band. This "expansion" of sorts will be releasing this holiday EXCLUSIVELY at Walmart stores and it's called AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack. So, yes, the rumor was true.
This new AC/DC themed edition of Rock Band will include 18 AC/DC songs that were pulled from their "Live at Donington" DVD and will retail for $39 at, again, Walmart stores. The game will ship to North American retailers in November and to our friends in Europe and Australia in November.
Interesting too is the fact that this retail AC/DC Rock Band edition is being called a track pack yet the game's description reads it's a "fully-featured, standalone extension" of Rock Band and Rock Band 2. But the game also comes packaged with a keycode to download the songs straight to your HDD and import the 18 tracks into your current Rock Band setlist. Speaking of setlists, check out the 18 AC/DC tracks that'll be included in the AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack after the break. Oh, and uh ... hurray for Walmart?
For those of you who are just jumping into the Rock Band experience with the purchase of Rock Band 2, yet still want to jam to some of the original tracks on Rock Band 1, then you best purchase the disc.
Variety just confirmed with MTV Games that none of the Rock Band 1 setlist tracks will be released as purchasable hunks of DLC. Ever. So, your best bet would be to buy Rock Band used (or borrow it from a friend) and do the 400 MS point song export. Cheap and efficient!
A flash-based trailer showcasing one of the most impressive looking titles to hit this holiday? OK, EA we'll bite. In a society seemingly ripped from the pages (in concept) from a George Orwell novel, Mirror's Edge is the story of a world where citizens are trained and controlled. After a failed resistance the city has grown sterile and without emotion but now a new group leaps from rooftop-to-rooftop in search of freedom from control. How does Mirror's Edge rank on your holiday buying list?
As with every Friday, over on the official Rock Band forums, hmxsean posted next week's Rock Band DLC and it's Chili Peppers'tastic!
Available for purchase next Tuesday, September 30th is the entire Red Hot Chili Peppers album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The album will be comprised of 16 master tracks (excluding "Give it Away", because it's available in Rock Band 2's setlist) and can be purchased for either 160 Microsoft points each or as an album for 1600 points. Complete listing of DLC goodness below.
There's a new Dead Space video featurette available today and the subject being discussed by the dev team is animation. Yes sir, animation. The movement and feel of every character's animation, including our friend Isaac and those icky Necromorphs. Fun fact: They actually had to animate two different sets of animations for all creatures, one for general movement and one for zero gravity. Another fun fact: The game's death animations are brutal, twisted and gory as all hell. Just watch and you'll see.
As part of Microsoft's global "Live Your Moment" ad campaign, a curious text descriptor appears at the bottom of one of their European ads promoting Rock Band 2, hinting at a possible November retail release.
The commercial (embedded after the break) depicts gamers rocking out to Rock Band 2 inside a person's head (weird, don't ask) and at the bottom of the screen the phrase "Rock Band 2 out November. Rock Band out now." is flashed for a few seconds. Confirmation of Rock Band 2's release to Europe in November? Close, but we're not going down the official route just yet.
Rumor word coming from Game Guru is that 
Some of the fine print for Rock Band's upcoming 
Harmonix and MTV Games just made an announcement this morning regarding the release of a special edition of Rock Band. This "expansion" of sorts will be releasing this holiday EXCLUSIVELY at Walmart stores and it's called AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack. So, yes, the 
For those of you who are just jumping into the Rock Band experience with the purchase of 
