Rumor: Forza 3 will have 2 discs, 400 cars, more

We know there is a certain section of the readership that hates our guts for posting rumors, but frankly, we really don't much care. We do our best to show exactly where rumors come from, and always leave it to you to make the decision about their truthfulness for yourselves. This next one came from the same survey page that the "Xbox Avatar" rumor came from, and has all sorts of goodies in it.

The page states that Forza 3 will ship on two discs, have some sort of "assist system", will be loaded to the brim with content (400 cars, 100 tracks, etc) and will have car deformation. Really though, the biggest news here is the possible hint (if the survey page is to be believed) that the game was constrained by the limitations of the DVD format ...

Source: www.xbox360fanboy.com/

Rumor: 20GB Xbox 360 is out, 60GB is in

TrustedReviews is pretty confident about their latest "world exclusive" – they say the Xbox 360's 20GB hard drive is going the way of the Core system (read: dying), and in its place we'll have a 60GB Pro system. While the site is sure their info is on the money, they're not sure about when we can expect this new drive (before the end of Microsoft's fiscal year, says their source, which ends June 30). Will the hard drive-less Arcade console replace the missing 20GB model? They can't be sure, but they do say the boys in Redmond are considering adding another SKU to their increasingly complex product lineup. Something in between the Arcade and the 60GB? Or perhaps something with built-in Blu-ray

Source: www.joystiq.com

Ninja Gaiden 2 rated 18 (a first for the series)

The BBFC has rated the upcoming release of Ninja Gaiden 2, and have decided to tag the game with an 18 rating. This is the highest rating the series has got since its debut. According to the BBFC the work was passed with no cuts made.

In the past the board chose to give both Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden Sigma a 15 when they rated those games. PEGI also gave the original Xbox title a ‘16′ back in 2004, but they work on a different scale.

So what does this mean for the content of the game then? Well, according to the BBFC it means the game “contains strong, bloody violence,” although I guess that revelation is not news to most. To tell the truth we could not find a header image for this news item that did not have blood!

Conversely, the last three Ninja Gaiden games have all being rated “M” by the ESRB in the US, so this one is likely to follow suit. However, the OFLC in Australia still only rate games up to a maximum of MA15+, which means Ninja Gaiden 2 could very well get banned or heavily edited down under if their board sees the same rise in violence the BBFC did. They previously blocked Ninja Gaiden Black getting a release in the country.

Source: www.darkzero.co.uk

New Xbox 360 Jasper chipset could lower prices and kill Sony off

Now that Xbox 360s with the new smaller and more reliable Falcon chipset are rolling off the production line, it seems Microsoft are already lining up a replacement. And this baby could potentially steal the Wii’s market, and leave the PS3 expensive and floundering.

The Mercury News Blog is reporting today that a new motherboard codenamed Jasper is being readied to replace Falcon by as early as next August, just in time for next year’s holiday shopping season.

Jasper consists of a smaller 65nm graphics card and smaller memory chips than the existing Falcon. The Falcon board was introduced as a way of reducing costs and also the chances of overheating, the cause of the so called Red Ring of Death that plagued early Xbox 360 consoles and is still costing the company money to solve.

It’s thought that the new Jasper chipset will further reduce this problem, and almost guarantee your beloved console won’t suddenly pack up and need to be sent for repairs.

The other advantage is of course the even lower costs of production, as the smaller graphics and memory chips will both lower how much it costs to manufacture each console. This could, and let’s face it, should be a saving that Microsoft passes on to its customers.

After the Falcon started shipping, the cost of an Xbox 360 was lowered by $50 so come next August that should be the least we expect to see happen.

If Microsoft can push Jasper out sooner than next August we could see two intriguing and important developments in the battle for console supremacy in the marketplace. For one, the Xbox 360 would come down in price nearer to the price of a Wii, and take it comfortably in to the realms of casual gamers everywhere. And secondly and most telling, unless Sony pull a severe price cut out of that top hat of theirs then the PS3 could be killed off as a contender for the top spot.

Seriously, if most people had the choice of a Wii or Xbox 360 for $300 or a $500 PS3, what would they do? We’re not talking hardcore gamers here, we’re now in the middle of kids and parents casual gamers heaven. The PS3 just wouldn’t be able to compete at that price and in that type of competitive marketplace.

Jasper may only be a chipset, but could it kill Sony off as the games hardware top dog?

Rumor: Xbox 360 slimming down in 2009 [update]

Since it won't go anywhere near the Wii Fit balance board and is extremely likely to die during a heated workout, your obese Xbox 360 isn't going to get thinner in its lifetime. No, that's what the "Xbox 540" replacement is for, claims TG Daily. The site reckons that Microsoft will release a "mid-cycle refresh" of the system in Fall 2009, one built around a new and more compact "Valhalla" internal chipset. (Have we introduced you to Jasper yet?)

The shrinking of innards will reportedly allow a redesign of the system's exterior, much like the PlayStation 2's second iteration. Our fancy next-gen games may be getting bigger on the screen, but much like our Wiis, it seems we'll end up with something smaller to play with. On. Play games on.

Source: www.joystiq.com

Report: Xbox 360 Jasper chipset contracted for production, Valhalla on deck

Reports that Xbox 360's Jasper chipset will begin shipping in August continue to hum along, as China Economic News Service has named three Taiwanese companies that have been contracted to manufacture, test and package the pair of 65nm microprocessors in preparation for a summer rollout. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will build the chips, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering will test and package them, and Nanya will supply flip-chip packaging substrates (which sure do sound important). The Jasper combo will ideally use less power, simplify cooling and, most importantly, cut back on the console's jibba jabba.

Industry analysts have also pegged TSMC as the primary candidate for Valhalla chipset production (in addition to the Jasper contract, TSMC has also built 90nm chips for an older version of Xbox 360). Valhalla is rumored to be a single super-chip that combines the properties of a 65nm CPU and 65nm GPU, and is expected to be incorporated into Xbox 360 hardware in the fall of 2009.

Source: www.joystiq.com

Even more problems with MS customer service

Microsoft just can't seem to do much right on the customer support front. So much so that we're rather tired of hearing about it. This time however, the story has more than a few new wrinkles that made it insightful enough to take a second look. The story begins with a review of the whole crazy situation and in it the author remains relatively fair and calm. Then comes the fifth paragraph, and specifics about repeat failures begin to surface.

Things like the fact that the 3-year warranty won't extend to any problem other than the RROD for any replacement console that you are sent by Microsoft. Things like the fact that if Microsoft sends you a replacement console that does not function, you're then stuck with the original 1-year warranty that came with your first 360. Basically, if your 360 RROD'd between 366 and 1095 days after purchase (just over one year to three years) then Microsoft will send you a replacement console. But if that one has something wrong with it other than the RROD, then it'll cost you $100 to send it back to Microsoft to get it fixed. Remember kids, it's wrong to screw people over if you're not a multinational corporation.

Source: www.anandtech.com

360 outselling PS3 in UK after GTA IV Release

GTA IV’s status as one of the premier battles between Microsoft and Sony continues in the European theatre, as Chart-Track has reported that sales of the game have reached 1.3 million in the UK, with 750,000 copies on the 360 and 570,000 on the PS3. When looking at hardware figures Chart-Track examined sales of both consoles from four weeks before the launch of GTA IV, to four weeks afterward. The data shows that hardware sales have risen 47% on the 360, compared to a meager 8% on the PS3.

In order to not let Microsoft get too cocky, some have pointed out that the PS3’s hardware boost came a little bit before the GTA IV hype with the release of GT 5 Prologue, a PS3 exclusive title. Looking even further back, and taking the first 21 weeks of 2008 into account, sales of the PS3 in the UK are 10% ahead of the 360. There’s still something to be said for the lead in 360 hardware sales during the launch of GTA IV, showing that at least in the UK there is not the same kind of PlayStation brand affinity associated with Rockstar’s series that exists in North America.

Source: www.xbox360.thegamereviews.com

Grand Theft Auto receives acclaim

Highly anticipated video game Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV has received a string of near-perfect reviews ahead of its worldwide release.

The game is expected to break records for the fastest-selling game of all time and many shops opened their doors at midnight for gamers.

The game has been classified as 18 in the UK and Mature for US gamers.

US regulators have reminded parents that the title is not designed for children under 17 years old.

In the UK, 41 shops are understood to have put the game on sale at midnight, including outlets in Stevenage, Hertfordshire; Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire; Hammersmith, in west London; and Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent.

Reviews for Grand Theft Auto IV have been unanimous in their praise.

UK-based games website Eurogamer called it "game of the year" and handed it a 10 out of 10 review score, while the New York Times said it delivered a "new level of depth for an interactive entertainment experience".

Source: www.news.bbc.co.uk

Next Xbox 360 Designs are "Opus" and "Valhalla"

The original Xbox 360 motherboard is called the Xenon with both a 90 nm CPU and 90 nm GPU, there has been system cooling revisions to it. Next was Zephyr motherboard with HDMI that was introduced with the Xbox 360 Elite and and some had newer "heat pumps". Currently on the market is Falcon with a cooler 65 nm CPU but still the same hot GPU as the Xenon.

It's well known that the next Xbox 360 motherboard is going to be Jasper and it going to have both a 65 nm CPU and a 65 nm GPU. Jasper is going to be a major advancement in reliability since it is going to run much quieter than previous Xbox 360 systems. Jasper's reliability is in part to the fact that there is no place on the motherboard that is going to be running as hot or as much power as previous Xbox 360 systems, also it might run a lot quieter since it will not need as much power. When Microsoft hired IBM and ATI to provide the original Xbox 360 CPU and GPU Microsoft put it in the contract so that the Xbox team will own the technology for the chips and can make subsequent reduced cost revisions to the chips. The Xbox one had leased technology from Intel and Nvidia and that is one of the main reasons for the change in CPU and GPU venders. Jasper is very real and they are testing prototypes right now. Word from Redmond is that progress on Jasper is going well and on schedule and you can expect it fall of 2008. My birthday is in October and I am probably going to upgrade to a Jasper Xbox 360 if my Xenon lasts that long.

Source: www.8bitjoystick.com

Xbox Jasper 65nm chips all lined up

MICROSOFT has lined up all the chips it needs to build its upcoming Xbox revision named Jasper.

Jasper is due this summer and features chippery shrunk from 90nm to 65.

IBM is supplying 65nm Xenon microprocessors for the box. Now, according to CENS, TSMC is to build 65nm graphics chips and north-bridge chips for its latest version of XBox360 game consoles Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) will do the packaging and Nanya PCB Corp. has a hand in the deal too.

The Chinese wire says Microsoft has booked foundry capacity for some 10,000 300mm wafers at TSMC.

It also says a further Xbox, with integrated GP and CPU and named Valhalla, is set for autumn 2009

Source: www.theinquirer.net

Army of Two Cheats and Codes

Hint: Heavy-Armored Guards
Heavy-Armored Guards are a pain to kill in this game, since you have to shoot them from behind to damage them. However, the powerful fifty caliber sniper rifle can knock back and knock down these guards. When they’re on the ground, they’re prone to any attack.


Hint: Refill Your Ammo
If you're running low on ammunition (or have run out completely) on any of your currently-equipped weapons, wait until Mid-Mission Shopping, which is an option multiple times on almost every stage in the game. Change your weapons when this option comes up, and the new gun or guns selected will be fully stocked with ammunition.


Hint: Briefcase Locations
Below are the locations of all fourteen intel briefcases in the game. Please keep in mind that they can only be collected one time, so if you've collected a briefcase, it won't appear again on a subsequent playthrough. On the flipside, however, if you didn't collect them on your first playthrough, they'll be there on subsequent playthroughs until you do.

Afghanistan

* 1.) Look behind the initial M-11 missile you encounter. There's a small path going uphill near it. That's where this intel briefcase is.
* 2.) Kill the first heavy armor guard you encounter (there will be a cutscene), and search the platform area nearby. The briefcase is on top of a short set of stairs at the back end of the platform.
* 3.) In the area adjacent to Brian Hick's cell, you will find this briefcase.

Iraq

* 1.) Right before climbing up the ladder in order to take out Ali Youseff's Helicopter, grab the briefcase at the bottom of the ladder.
* 2.) After calling in the air-strike on a nearby bunker, seek out a large tent near the dividing wall. The briefcase should be against the wall near the tent.
* 3.) Right before you meet Ali Youseff, there are some metal platforms with armed guards on it. Kill all of the enemies, and then climb up the steps to the platform's second level. Climb another ladder to a third level, where the briefcase is located.

Aircraft Carrier

* 1.) After landing on the ship's main deck, run to the right of the control tower. The briefcase is nearby.
* 2.) When you enter the hangar to use one of the parked planes to blow through a door, seek out some missiles. Look behind them, as they obscure the location of this briefcase.
* 3.) After setting the missiles to blow up the ship in the final hangar, look around to find a sort of makeshift basketball court. Behind the farthest basket is this briefcase.

China

* 1.) After arriving at the dam, head towards the first control tower. Across the dam is a similar control tower, where the briefcase is located.
* 2.) After you arrive at the village and co-op snipe some enemies, choose to take the rightmost path. When you come across the first house you can enter, do so, climbing to the second floor to find this briefcase.
* 3.) When you arrive at the factory, don't enter it immediately. Instead, search around and behind the factory to find this briefcase.

Miami

* 1.) Once you've opened the gates to the luggage area, you'll need to head to the control room. There's a smaller office near the control room where this briefcase is located.
* 2.) When you're on the third floor of the SSC Tower and must operate a lift, ignore the lift and run to the far end of the third floor, where the final of the fourteen briefcases is located.


Unlockable: Free Weapons & Difficulty
Too cheap to buy the weapons? You can unlock access to all the basic weapons by beating the campaign on professional difficulty, or just the primary weapons (assault rifles, shotguns, etc.) by beating the game on any other lesser difficulty.

To unlock professional difficulty, do as the game tells you -- beat the game's campaign on either recruit or contractor difficulty.


Unlocked weapons are only available at their base (no upgrade) version. Hint: Panda Express (Money Farming)
Not really interested in dying over and over again because of the lack of cash in the early stages and don't mind the monotony of MMMORPG farming? Try a new campaign in China. The first objective pays $30,000 and can be cycled quickly (about 3 minutes with co-op snipe). The checkpoint is back down the hill next to the hovercraft. Once you get the checkpoint (saves your money), quit and restart the stage. Tedious but effective. You only wish you could make $10,000 per minute.

Instant Messaging Comes to Xbox 360

Redmond , Washington—Your Xbox LIVE® friends list is about to get a whole lot bigger. Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Windows LIVE™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft® Windows®-based PCs and Windows Mobile®-powered devices.

With this update to Xbox 360, friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts.
Beginning the week of May 7, 2007, the Xbox 360 Spring Update will provide Xbox 360 owners worldwide with access to Windows Live Messenger features, broadening the communication options on the Xbox LIVE social network.

Connected Experiences
Members of the six-million-strong Xbox LIVE community currently send more than two million text and voice messages a day and can now use Windows Live Messenger to text chat with up to six people on their contact list at one time, while playing games, listening to music, or watching movies. Text chat adds to the variety of options friends and families already have to communicate with on Xbox LIVE, including voice and video chat.

Current relationships on Windows Live Messenger and Xbox LIVE will be unified on Xbox 360 and users will see at a glance if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have Gamertags, instantly expanding the breadth of connected experiences they can share online.

"Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox LIVE has really become the largest social network on television," said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox LIVE at Microsoft. "For our growing community of six million on Xbox LIVE, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience. They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music, and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice, and text chat. With this announcement we are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox LIVE users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360."
Other New Features
Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including:

* A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the Gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
* Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
* A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States)—from one place on Xbox LIVE.
* Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list.
* Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
* A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.
* New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
* Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

The Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7, and will be easily accessible to every Xbox 360 owner through Xbox LIVE or on Xbox.com.

You may not even notice all the new features, but they are all designed to enhance your Xbox LIVE experience. Some of the other features in this upgrade include:

* When the user is in the dashboard and an Xbox 360 game is in the console, then the name of the game is displayed in the tray icon of the dashboard. If the user highlights the tray icon, then achievements and Gamerscore are displayed for that game based on the signed-in user.
* Integrated support for the new Xbox 360 text input device. Note that this device includes a new wired headset.
* Playback progress bar indicates download completion.
* Switchable aspect ratio now available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native).
* Player and friends lists now quickly show session presence information for quick identification of users that are joinable.
* Added H.264 video support: Up to 10 Mbps peak, Baseline, Main, and High profiles with 2 channel AAC LC.
* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 5 Mbps peak, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC.
* Shows folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices.
* Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays, remembering the user's last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user chose for that file.
* Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content.
* Skip forward and backward functionality has been improved to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 "chapters" allowing you to quickly skip around video content.
* The information bar that is turned on via the On-Screen Display (OSD) now shows you exactly where you are in the playback of the video file. In addition, it will also show for Video Marketplace content how much of the file has been downloaded and where the "chapters" exist in the file.
* Windows Media protected content (WM-DRM) can now be streamed from the PC to the console. If the WM-DRM license is missing or corrupted, then a specific error message is displayed to the user. Bookmarking is also stored for protected content.
* When a user selects an item for download from Marketplace, then the system will determine if there is sufficient disk space for the item and, if not, will ask the user to delete content on the HDD. The system provides a sorted by size list of videos, game trailers, demos and arcade content to aid the user in the deletion process. The same list of items are also available from within memory so that users can quickly see which items are consuming the most disk space.
* The console will block the user who attempts to download content onto a storage device that will never have the capacity to store the item without deducting any points associated with the content item.
* The screensaver is disabled when playing photos from any source.