New HALO : Reach Xbox to Sport 360 Design, Custom Sound

Microsoft will release a limited-edition Xbox 360 console themed around Halo: Reach this fall, it said Thursday night at Comic-Con International.
The Halo-inspired Xbox will be released on the same day as the new shooter, Sept. 14. It will have all the bells and whistles of the recently released Xbox 360 redesign, from built-in Wi-Fi to a 250-gigabyte hard drive. A new paint job and custom sounds trick out the machine with Halo flair. Bundled with two similarly customized controllers and a copy of the game, the package will cost $400.
Halo: Reach is the hotly anticipated next installment in Microsoft’s key game series. The first-person shooter serves as a prequel to the events of the original Halo.
Bungie and Microsoft say that they spent a great deal of time adorning the limited-edition box with visual and audio references to the world of Halo.
“We used the ONI as the backdrop for the console,” said Bungie designer Jim McQuillan to Wired.com in an exclusive pre-show interview. McQuillan was referring to the shadowy Office of Naval Intelligence, a key part of the fiction of the popular shooter series.


Players should think of the console as a real-life version of an in-game artifact, “the archive reader for the last remaining days of Reach,” said McQuillan. “We wanted something that felt high-tech, something that you would see rows and rows and racks of in a military installation.”
The console will appear inside the game, said Microsoft industrial designer Claire Gerhardt. “You have this console in your living room and then you go through the levels and you see it in a lab,” she said. “It’s badass.”
The sounds that the machine makes are also cued to the Halo world. For instance, when you press the disc eject button, you hear the sound of the Spartan character’s energy shields charging up — music to the ears of any Halo player.
The limited-edition Xbox also has a surprising custom paint job, says Gerhardt.
“One thing that’s interesting that you can’t see in any photography is that the console is painted with two different shades of gray,” she said. “Depending on how you hold the console, the metallic finish, the grays kind of shift.”

Sourece: www.wired.com

Microsoft Responds To 360 Slim’s “Red Dot” Claims

Did Xbox 360 slim still have RRoD problem? and did Microsoft already solve overheating problem whihc happened in old Xbox 360?  - which i would say overheating is the most disadvantages of Xbox 360.

Videos and screenshots have started popping up on the web showing the Xbox 360 Slim (which was revealed during this year’s E3) with the “Red Dot of Death”-Basically it’s an overheating issue- which has caused quite an outburst of fanboys. Today, Microsoft has responded to these issues with an email.

The email, which was sent to the folks over at Now Gamer, was a response to Now Gamer after the website had asked about the specific issue:

“We couldn’t be more proud of the consoles we are building now, as well as the new Xbox 360. This console is the culmination of years of continuous innovation in design, testing and learning. Today we are confident we are shipping a high quality product.”

If you remember recently, Gamer Syndrome was the first to report on a couple of screenshots which showed an Xbox 360 Slim with an overheating issue.But make console overheating is a easy way, you can turn of its fan of you can close it air circulation, so need to make sure that news is valid.

When your new Xbox 360 Slim is on the verge of overheating, the green Power LED will turn red and you’ll get a warning message:

Apparently the Slim model makes use of an elegant way of preventing overheating – it shut itself down and won’t allow you turning back on until the system is cool enough. Once the Power LED stops flashing red, you’ll know the Xbox is ready for gaming again.
It’s good this time Microsoft has been wise enough to implement some preventative measures against permanent hardware damage due to overheating.

Xbox 360 Sales Reach Best Seller on July 2010

Console from Microsoft, Xbox 360, won the best sales in July and managed to occupy the top video game sales in the United States.

According to research firm NPD Group, Xbox 360 has sold 443 500 units during July, more than double the number of sales in the same period the previous year. Xbox 360 that has been revised to take advantage of technological advances chips and components and slimmer than previous versions. It already includes several upgrades, such as Wi-Fi is faster and more USB ports.

Xbox 360 has exceeded sales of the Nintendo Wii sold 253 900 units and the PlayStation 3 which sold 214 500 units. Still according to NPD, in the portable category, Nintendo DS sold 398 400 units and as many as Sony's rival PlayStation Portable is behind it by selling a total of 84 000 units.

While for the game itself, "NCAA Football 11" from Electronic Arts is the best-selling games for July. Game Xbox 360 version taking the number one ranking with sales of 368 000 units and the PlayStation 3 version of the game is the second best-selling games in July with sales of 298 800 units.

Source : www.ictfiles.com