Microsoft is fully aware of the moniker given by the players to their Xbox 360 console. The name it also goes under is the “Shooter box”. Why? Well, because if games don’t entail some form of creature, living or undead being virtually murdered down the barrel of some digital crosshair, bottom line is it’s going to have a hard life on “The Box”.

Enter Rare. Rare’s mission? Win the minds and hearts of that “Ohh So Lucrative” casual player market. The new Xbox Experience is only the beginning of this new vision. Rare/Microsoft have plans for releases spanning the entire 2009 calendar year and in a not-so surprising announcement Rare has stated that they have franchise favorites preparing to make their Hi-Def appearance, including: Jet Force Gemini, Killer Instinct and Ghoulies 2. Now if they’d only make another Blast Corps, how great would that be?

- Ralph Tricoche

Besides the much anticipated dashboard update for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the good boys and girls over at Redmond want to give away 1 million MS gamer points. You know, those “mysterious” points that gamers use to “buy” downloadable content or basically anything MS sells in their marketplace. The catch? Well you have to download (read buy) specific content between 6:01am PST on November 19th, and 11:59pm PST on November 23rd to qualify.

Categories that qualify are movies, TV shows, full arcade games, Xbox Originals games, game add-ons, and music videos. MS plans to divvy up the prizes as follows: One Grand Prize of 500,000 MS Points, Five 1st Prizes of 50,000 MS Points, Ten 2nd Prizes of 10,000 MS Points, and Thirty 3rd Prizes of 5,000 MS Points.

- Ralph Tricoche

Does NBC’s Heroes make sense anymore? Does anyone care? Apparently, Ubisoft doesn’t think so. The company has pulled the plug on its Heroes video game, which was announced more than a year ago. Since then, the TV series has gone from a pop-culture hit to a tangle of incoherent stories, so the French publisher decided to cut its losses. Ubisoft got burned earlier this year when Lost: Via Domus, its tie-in to another cultish serialized TV drama, only sold about 100,000 copies. Which raises the question: Does it make sense to produce games based on ongoing television series when characters may die and plots may shift dramatically during the development cycle?

Source: Fox News

I’m sure you’ve heard by now, (and if you haven’t what are you waiting for?) that during Friday’s podcast interview with Pete Hines and Emil Pagliarulo a question came up about a future editor for Fallout 3.

According to Pete Hines, “…we can’t talk about it yet, but we will be able to talk about that soon. I don’t want to give people the impression that we’ve abandoned it and moved away from it. This is the first time we’ve ever developed for 3 platforms simultaneously across the world in 9 languages. It was a massive undertaking. You only have a certain amount of monkeys with a certain amount of typewriters. There’s just not a button in the office that says ‘editor’ on it that you just press and it propagates itself on the Internet. Folks who are interested in that should stay tuned, because hopefully we’ll have some good news on that soon. We do stuff all the time on our blog interviewing people from the mod community and what they’re up to and that kind of thing, so it’s definitely something we enjoy and support to the best of our ability. We have not forgotten you.”

This caused quite the stir in the Bethesda forums, and speculation on how exactly to translate what Pete said and whether or not there will be an editor in the offing continues. As soon as a concrete answer can be ascertained we hope to bring it to you first.

For two years, Microsoft has steadily added new features to its Xbox 360 console and Xbox Live online service, expanding their capabilities far beyond video games. As the competition for holiday sales heats up against a dismal economic backdrop, the company is releasing a major software update Wednesday meant to make it easier for console users to access features like downloadable movies and TV shows, photo sharing, online “parties” and other social content.

Microsoft hopes its New Xbox Experience, along with a price cut it was able to make ahead of its competitors, will drive more console sales to a mainstream audience (analysts say the company has nearly saturated the hard-core-gamer market) and generate more revenue from Xbox Live through subscriptions and content downloads.

Source: Seattle Times

Brash Entertainment is ceasing operations as of today. Why? In a nutshell, the few games it managed to put out sold poorly, it wasted money on some ill conceived ideas, and talented executives fled as they saw how things were going. Since co-founder Thomas Tull left the board, investors who had committed $400 million when Brash launched last year have pulled out. Brash is simply out of cash. Now the question is what happens to the many projects in development, from Saw to Superman to Night at the Museum 2, and don’t forget Tale of Desperaux, which was supposed to come out next month?

Source: Variety

Ubisoft has announced that the leading actors from the television show CSI: NY will lend their voices and likenesses to the all-new video game CSI: NY – The Game. Golden Globe winner Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, Carmine Giovinazzo, Eddie Cahill, Hill Harper, Anna Belknap, Robert Joy and A.J. Buckley will all provide their voices and faces to the video game, adding to the authenticity of the interactive adaptation of CBS’s CSI: NY television series.

For the first time in the CSI video game series, CSI: NY – The Game will allow you to play as actual characters from the hit TV show. The video game features a brand-new graphic novel art style, interactive mini-games and interrogations, as well as original cases crafted by writers from the CSI: NY television series. The game will launch for the PC on November 18th.

The newly formed CPL Holdings Group, LLC announced today that it has acquired the Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL) in an all cash transaction that divests NewWorld.com, Inc. (former parent of CAL) and its shareholders from any interest in CAL.

The new management of CAL will seek to increase its worldwide presence, enhance its infrastructure, and create a more interactive and fair environment for online game competitions. Participation in CAL will continue to be free of cost.

Ms. Angela Summers, a spokesperson for the CPL Holdings Group, LLC, said, “We are excited to have completed our first acquisition at the new CPL. We are also evaluating other media and gaming technology properties in Europe and Asia for either acquisition or partnership.”

CAL was launched on March 6, 2001, when NewWorld.com, Inc., acquired the Domain of Games online league. Beginning with a single Counter-Strike division and 3,000 members, CAL has since grown to 16 game divisions and 300,000 registered members. Over the last 12 months, CAL has generated 17 million visits and 170 million page impressions.

The Cyberathlete Amateur League or CAL was the world’s first online league to form periodic structured seasons, complete with pre-season, regular season and playoffs. In addition, CAL was the first online league to introduce integrated team predictions, roster locks, score tickers, draft leagues, and game ID locks.

Notice: NewWorld.com, Inc. is also the parent company of the Adrenaline Vault.

Ubisoft announced this week that Far Cry 2, its open world first person shooter on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, has already sold one million units worldwide in less than three weeks of availability at retail.

Far Cry 2’s open world environment allows gamers to create their very own individual game experience. Built upon the Dunia engine, players are offered a lush visual landscape, where they can live a realistic 24-hour day to night cycle in the beautiful African savannah.

Check your gear and get ready to move out to your nearest retailer, as Activision and Treyarch, have shipped Call of Duty: World at War to retail stores nationwide. Available now, Call of Duty: World at War takes players to WWII facing down Imperial Japanese Banzai charges and guerilla tactics in the Pacific, and to the steps of Berlin one bloody inch at a time. In addition to introducing franchise-first four-person cooperative gameplay, Call of Duty: World at War serves up new enemies/tactics and a cache of weapons, like the flamethrower.

Call of Duty: World at War shows a side of World War II never seen previously in the series. Players will experience swamps, beach invasions and tropical undergrowth as they go head to head with one of the most brutal enemies of the war. The European campaign will feature the Red Army as they push into the heart of Berlin.