News

Halo: ODST isn't even out the door and most likely won't be for a few solid months, but you can't keep a giant, billion dollar making franchise down. Since we all need something new to look forward to (or complain about, depending on your feelings towards the extension of the Halo series without Bungie) a new hint is available as to what is coming next. Members of the Halo forum sent the above screen grab over to Kotaku and as you can see Halo: Reach was at some point listed as a game to discuss. Back up the image is a cache that was found showing that the forum did in fact exist at some point.

As expected, Sky and Microsoft have joined forces to bring Sky Player, Sky's online TV service, to Xbox Live, giving Xbox owners access to a range of channels and programmes to either view live or on-demand.

Before you get excited and decide on what package you want though, no details on pricing or packages were even hinted at during the Central London unveiling hosted by Sky Sports News lady, Georgie Thompson.

Europe's Xbox Live boss, Jerry Johnson, would only point CVG in the direction of the PC equivalent of the Sky Player, until further details are given nearer the autumn...

Looks like Microsoft and iNiS are challenging SingStar for a second year in a row. They've announced Lips: Number One Hits, the sequel to last year's Xbox 360-exclusive karaoke title.
From the looks of it, not much will be changing for thse second go around. Number One Hits will feature a new soundtrack, but will also work with existing microphones as well as all of the original's DLC.

The announced songs include:


"Viva La Vida" by Coldplay
"Disturbia" by Rihanna
"U Can't Touch This," by MC Hammer
"More Than...

Rockstar Games has announced the second Xbox 360 exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable episode, titled The Ballad Of Gay Tony.

"As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka Gay Tony), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price," the company said.

The DLC will...

Since there are custom Mii cake toppers, you'd think there would be cutom Xbox 360 Avatar. There are.

Design firm Paul Pape Desgins is creating Avatars (along with sculpted Miis) based on the images users send in. Each 4.5-inch, hand-sculpted cake topper Avatar is priced at US$100. Paul explains why:

My Miis are created from molds I made, and thus their bodies and heads are poured plastic, and all I sculpt is the hair. The Avatars are so varied in their styles, that there is no way for me to mold any part of them, so I will be creating each by hand, starting...

Microsoft's quietly released the Halo Wars Strategic Options DLC on Xbox Live Marketplace. A warning would've been nice.

The add-on pack adds three new multiplayer game modes including 'Keepaway', 'Tug of War' Mode, and 'Reinforcement' mode. More details on those after this story.

The pack also adds four new Achievements worth a total of 100 points.

It's up now for 800 Microsoft Points (£6.80).

Microsoft has detailed Halo Wars' first DLC pack, called Strategic Options.

The add-on pack, which is said to be arriving on Xbox Live...

This helicopter-borne robot sniper can fire 7 to 10 aimed shots per minute, and does so using a modified Xbox 360 controller plugged into a laptop. Each trigger squeeze costs $4 (320 Microsoft Points).

Wired wrote up the ARSS (stop snickering, those in Commonwealth nations) - which stands for Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System, and imagines it could find greater use to a military that finds itself dealing more with quasi-criminal activity such as piracy and hostage situations.

Remote snipers still need training on top of their existing marksmanship expertise. But those operating...

Description
I finally had an opportunity to make soap in the shape of an Xbox controller! Now, the PlayStation soaps will have a proper rival. This weighs seven ounces and has raised buttons.

Despite its weight of 7 ounces, it fits well in the hands...unlike the original Xbox controllers.

Made with great quality glycerin soap.

Scented with Mountain Dew fragrance oil, a gamer's best scent.

Soap Ingredients:

· Coconut Oil
· Cocoa Butter
· Palm Oil
·...

Beto Cuevas, former lead singer of popular Chilean band La Ley, and now embarking on a solo career, will play Gears of War 2 with Xbox LIVE Gold members April 30. If you're an Xbox LIVE Gold member (if not, upgrade now!), and you want a chance to play with Beto Cuevas, send a friend request to the following Gamertag (Beto GWF) and be online half an hour before (10:00 P.M. ET) the Game with Fame session starts on Thursday, April 30, 10:30 P.M. ET.

Beto Cuevas recorded ten albums with well-known Chilean band La Ley, but after they broke up in 2005, Cuevas started working on his solo career...

Netflix has told Edge that its streaming service on game consoles is exclusive to Xbox 360 for the time being, although when asked about its future plans the company didn't rule out the possibility of taking its movie and TV offerings to other platforms.

"Netflix is always looking for ways to grow the service. For now, Netflix streaming on game consoles is exclusively on the Xbox 360 - and it's a terrific hit," a spokesperson said. "More than one million Netflix members who are Xbox Gold members have watched more than 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes instantly...

Think you know a lot about Halo? We bet the people that are behind the official Halo Encyclopedia know more. A firm called DK will publish the officially licensed encyclopedia.

DK says, "The Halo Encyclopedia will be a comprehensive guide to the characters, weapons, vehicles, equipment, and locations from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST." No mention of Halo 4 though.

Encyclopedia nerds should be excited. "Created in full collaboration with Microsoft, the book, which is scheduled for publication in November 2009, will give fans...

Xbox 360 owners have committed mass Covenant atrocities to the tune of 10 billion aliens killed in Halo 3's story driven campaign mode. Covenant-hating Halo fans reached that milestone this weekend, Bungie announced.

That statistics comes not long after the announcement that Halo 3 fans have played one billion multiplayer games, another indication that Halo is, like, pretty popular with the kids.

Billions of things are a little harder to wrap one's brain around than, say, dozens or thousands. To wit, Bungie's breaks it down in more digestible terms: "Crude math places...

A while back, thanks to the modding scene on the Xbox, we learned that Microsoft began requiring developers to press their discs differently. Jason raised the question: "Will these new tactics be enough?" For those that don't know, the new method would add extra data to each disc on a new partition that houses the now standard NXE update. For most pirates, this meant that these games would not work on their systems. Everyone assumed this to be an anti-piracy measure brewed to stop the moungrels in their tracks.

While this is all only speculative, it makes just as much sense...

Microsoft says that Xbox gamers have unlocked 2.5 billion Achievements, racking up a collective Gamerscore of 52 billion points.


"We never anticipated this reaction... where there are achievement fan sites and people playing games that they would never play [for the achievement points]," chuffed Xbox exec Aaron Greenberg told Gamasutra.

Greenberg also reckons that Achievements are driving 360 game sales, pointing to the console's attach rate of eight titles per system, which he said is the highest ever.

The massive number of Achievements unlocked...

It’s getting tough to review Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, simply because they’re all pretty identical once you get beyond the tracklists. Sure, you might find a tweak here or there, but in truth, this series has been practically perfect from its inception. Guitar Hero: Metallica is more of the same goodness.



Guitarists, drummers, singers, and bassists can all play together – no rhythm guitar parts, sadly - and thankfully, the star power and performance meters are somewhere you can see them now. But the big addition to gameplay is for the guys banging...

Sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 continue to decline, as the system manages to sell a mere 4,849 units for the week ending March 29.

Just over a month ago the console had managed to sell over 25,000 units across the region, in line with the release of Square Enix's Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope. By mid march it was discovered, however, that the system's weekly unit turnover was at 15,000. One week later the console was selling 8,378 units, before falling to 5,441 last week.

A simple explanation is provided for the current 360 sales slowdown; not a single game in Media Create's...