XBOX 360 PREMIUM KIT TO INCLUDE BUNDLED SOFTWARE?

I was surfing Kotaku earlier today and came across this Xbox 360 rumor - ClubSkill is reporting that starting on September 30th, Microsoft will be changing the contents of the $399 premium Xbox 360 kit to include Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and the Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged retail disc which includes Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Bejeweled 2 Deluxe, Wik: Fable of Souls, Hardwood Backgammon, Outpost Kaloki X and Texas Hold'Em along with the usual contents. If this turns out to be true, that's a pretty nice bonus to include with the purchase, and it makes me wonder if the Core system will see some type of addition as well.

Check out the Kotaku article here and the original ClubSkill report here. Anything that gets more copies of Geometry Wars into people's hands has to be a good thing - no 360 owner should be without it in my opinion. (Which along with $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee)

MAME V.108U4 RELEASED

The fourth interim update to MAME v.108 is now available. This time around, some changes have been made to the core of the emulator, and the dev team's comments lead me to believe that there may be a few issues with the release. As there are really no huge changes as far as features go, I'd probably suggest waiting until the next full version release before upgrading.

The updated files can be found at the official MAME page at Mamedev.org. You can Click here to see what's new in this update.

NINTENDO WII TO LAUNCH ON NOVEMBER 19TH AT $250

Gamasutra is reporting that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has reprinted a New York Times article that states Nintendo will be launching the Wii in the United States on November 19th at a price of $250. The console will include Wii Sports as a pack-in, games will be priced at $50 each, with Virtual Console titles selling for "around $5-$10". No mention of what other accessories will be included with the console were published. According to the article, here's what Reggie Fils-Aime had to say about the launch;

"Our goal is to bring gaming back to the masses, you see that in our pricing, you see that in the number of units we plan to make available this year and you see that in how we are positioning the Wii to appeal to every member of the household, including but not limited to the hard-core gamer." -Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer, Nintendo of America

On the subject of the Virtual Console titles, Nintendo has stated that there will be roughly 30 games available at launch, including several Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong titles.

Well, I think I'm going to take a wait and see approach on the Wii now, as at $250 I'm not going to jump headfirst into something that I just see entirely too many problems with. If you're wondering, my main concerns are around the space needed to play it, how well it will work in a real-world environment and the sensitivity of the tilt control - because I don't know about you, but I don't hold my hand perfectly level for hours at a time while playing video games.

Had Nintendo simply priced the unit at $199 with no pack-in game and given me the option of deciding what game I'd like to buy with the system, I probably would have jumped at it - but Wii Sports hasn't been high on my want list, so I may just wait and see if a "core" system comes along in a few months.

My guess is we'll be getting all the specifics regarding what will be found in the box at this mornings press conference - who knows, maybe they'll pack so many goodies in with the system that $250 will sound like a bargain to me. Until then, check out the Gamasutra article here and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article here. I'm not writing the system off mind you, just saying that for a buy-in price of $250, I need to be convinced that I'm going to be able to enjoy the experience. Guess I'll be playing Twilight Princess on my Gamecube this holiday season.

You know, i've now got to wonder how wise it is to be making a Gamecube version of Twilight Princess. I mean, it was one of the titles I was really excited about on the Wii, and it's was pretty easy for me to just say "Oh well, I'll play it on the 'Cube" right now. I wonder how many other people will make that exact same choice this holiday season.

XBOX LIVE ARCADE WEDNESDAYS - SCRAMBLE

After a one week delay, Konami's 1981 classic side-scrolling shooter Scramble gets it's Xbox Live Arcade makeover. Two things about Scramble always stick out from my childhood... first off, I loved the game. It was fast paced, it was fun and it just seemed a bit ahead of the other games around it. Secondly, I stunk at it. It was one of those games that I'd only play one game of, because it just always ended too soon and there were other games that I could spend my money on. It wasn't until years later that I was able to play for more than a few minutes without my game ending. Hell, to this day I still have a hard time getting through that maze and hitting the enemy base.

Title: Scramble
Developer: Konami Digital Entertainment
Publisher: Konami Digital Entertainment
Genre: Arcade / Shooter
Release Date: 9/13/06
Console: Xbox 360
Players: 1 - 2
Xbox Live: Yes
HDTV Support: Yes
Full Game: 400 Points ($5)
Demo?: Yes

Description as per Xbox.com

"Scramble your fighter and take on the enemy base in this newly enhanced version of the arcade classic. The base is heavily guarded and you must guide your ship through five levels of enemy defenses before you can destroy your objective. 

Featuring brand-new graphics and sounds for Xbox 360™, take your skills online and challenge the new "Versus" and "Co-op" modes. List your high score on the Xbox Live® leaderboards and prove you're the best in the world!

• Enhanced artwork: Hand-painted models, particles systems for explosions, and smoke and cosmic new parallax scrolling backgrounds make for a visual feast.
• Upgraded sound: Listen to digitally enhanced sound effects and tunes.
• Multiple levels: Play through six levels of ever-increasing challenge and excitement.
• Multiplayer modes: Try the new Xbox Live split-screen multiplayer modes, including Versus Mode and Co-op Mode.
• Achievements: Score a series of achievements which range from straightforward to challenging.
• Leaderboards: Online scoreboards capture a range of statistics including highest score (single-player and co-op) and win/loss ratio in Versus Mode. Leaderboards are displayed for all time as well as weekly." - Xbox.com Scramble product page

Just gave the game a try, and it plays pretty well, though it seems the bombs arc a little more than they did in the original game (at least in enhanced mode) and there is no way to change the default control settings - which is a bit annoying, as I'd prefer to choose which buttons to use. Other than that, the game is a lot of fun and controls quite nicely with the 360 d-pad. The maze was surprisingly easy to navigate - which, along with the bomb issue mentioned above, makes me think the timing (again, in enhanced mode - didn't try original yet) is a bit off.

This release finishes off the list of currently scheduled Xbox Live Arcade games. Oh, and just for the record, as of 4:30am, I'm still #1 on the leaderboard. =)

TELLTALE GAMES RELEASES FIRST SAM & MAX FOOTAGE

The folks over at Telltale Games have finally released some in-game footage of Sam & Max: Season One, and while the gameplay seems to be fine, there is a serious problem. It's Max. His voice is HORRIBLE. I had to turn the first video off after a few seconds because of how grating his voice is.

If you follow this site, you know I had some issues with the way Max sounded in the teasers for the game, but believe it or not, it's actually gotten worse. It's almost to the point that I can't even watch the footage all the way through before wanting to just turn the thing off. This is bad folks - this is just bad.

I have to take one other beef with the voice acting, and that's that it sounds a bit... flat. As an example, watch the bit when they pull someone over in the driving mini-game. The voice acting - and even just the sound of the voices - seems off. Almost out of place. I'll also hope that the "jokes" used in these trailers isn't going to be indicative of the entire game, because they just weren't funny. (Again, watch the driving mini-game video to see what I mean)

Looking past the voice issue, which is nearly impossible to do, the game seems to run on a classic point and click interface for both standard movement and control in the mini games, and at first glance seems to be an upgrade from them system they used in the Bone series - which is a good sign.

I'd talk about the trailers a bit more, but I really am so bothered by Max's voice that I'm not going to bother. Here are two of the gameplay videos - one showing standard gameplay, and the other showing the driving mini game as mentioned above. If after seeing both of these, you still want to see more of the game, head over to Telltale Games blog post on the subject here - and may God have mercy on your soul.

Telltale stated that while playable, they still have some fine polishing to do on the games graphics and sound effects, but I guess it's too late for them to re-record all of Max's dialog, huh?

Still no video love here in the archives, so either use the link for the Telltale Games blog posting for your required linkage or click here.

CAPCOM: NO PATCH FOR DEAD RISING SDTV TEXT ISSUES

It looks like Capcom has finally gotten around to taking a serious look at the issues involving Dead Rising and the way it displays text on standard definition televisions. 1UP.com is reporting that Capcom has announced that due to the amount of effort it would take to change all the text in the game to something more readable on non-hdtv sets, there will be no patch to correct the issues. That's right, they looked at the problem and basically said "Oh well."

"Due to the amount of text and the size of the patch necessary to change the text, a patch isn't possible for this issue. We had asked the team if it was even possible but ... due to the scope of what a patch would need to cover, it wasn't possible." - Capcom as reported by 1UP.com

So now we've gone past the point of releasing a buggy game and fixing it via Xbox Live, to releasing a buggy game and not even bothering to fix it after release. You may be saying "so what?" right now, but as more and more companies continue to barely test their games and release them with glaring bugs (Dead Rising text, Madden fatigue, King Kong darkness, etc) because they think they can just patch any problems later, stories like this are probably going to become more prevalent. It's bad enough when something that should have been caught on the first day of testing gets through, but when you then stick your fingers in your ears and proceed to shout "I'm not listening" over and over, that's unforgivable.

Hopefully Capcom is at the very least going to come up with some way for people to return their copies of Dead Rising, as they kept everyone on the hook so long that I really can't imagine many stores would take the game back at this point. For more details on Capcom's announcement, head on over to the 1UP.com article via this link.

MORE ON THE PLAYSTATION 3 LAUNCH NUMBERS

Next Generation is reporting that Sony has announced the answer to a question we've been wondering about since they slashed their available launch unit projections for the Playstation 3 - namely, how many of those launch systems will be the $499 low end model PS3, and how many will be the $599 high end model.

According to Next Generation, Sony has confirmed that 80 percent of the launch units will be the higher end ($599) model Playstation 3, which is a small bit of good news among a sea of bad for Sony - and good news for those who don't feel like paying through the teeth for PS3 upgrades after launch. Sony has also reportedly firmed up their projections for the remainder of 2006, stating that they expect to have 1.2 million units available in the United States by years end.

Check out the Next Generation article at this link for more details on Sony's most recent comments on the launch situation.

LEGO BATMAN IN THE WORKS?

ArsTechnica is reporting that the next movie series to get the LEGO treatment will be Batman. The article isn't very clear on what exactly has been announced for the game, or what exactly it will cover, but it does at least make it seem apparent that someone is working on LEGO Batman somewhere. Here's to hoping it can break the seemingly endless string of horrible Batman games.

Check out the ArsTechinca posting for more details at this link.

CAPCOM DOUBLES DEAD RISING TV AD BUDGET

Firing Squad is reporting that Capcom has decided to double the television advertising budget for Dead Rising in hopes of continuing to expand on the success the title has already seen. Capcom had originally budgeted 3 million dollars for advertising, and given the games brisk sales,they've decided to double that amount and take out more advertisements on Fox, ESPN, MTV, VH-1, Comedy Central and the like. if you thought the initial TV blitz was big, get ready for round 2.

Check out the Firing Squad article here for more information.

GEARS OF WAR COLLECTOR'S EDITION CONTENTS CONFIRMED

Ok, so it's not completely newsworthy, but I get a little antsy when I haven't spoken about Gears of War in awhile, so deal with it. Epic Games official Gears of War website has posted the finalized list of what you can expect to find in the Gears of War Collector's Edition. Here's what you get for that extra $10;

"The Gears of War® Limited Collector's Edition ships in a highly collectible embossed metal box suitable for self-defense against most Locust Horde adversaries, and includes Destroyed Beauty: An Inside Look at Gears of War, the Gears of War hardbound art book by Cliff Bleszinski, Jerry O'Flaherty, and Eric Nylund

The Gears of War Limited Collector's Edition also includes a bonus "Special Features" DVD with inside information on the game and its creators!

• An inside look at the making of Gears of War
• The "Art of Gears of War" trailer
• Gears of War: The Race to E3" - Gears of War official website

So there you have it - that's what you can expect should you order the limited collector's edition of the game. Mine has been ordered since April or May, so I know I'll have mine.