Insider Mobile Apps reports that Microsoft may be ending its virtual currency and going to a system that will charge users real money.
The most popular platform for MS points has been the Xbox 360, where they debuted with Xbox Live Arcade releases in 2005. In the past 5 years there have been several modifications to the system, including lowering the smallest pack for purchase. When Games On Demand appeared with retail releases available for direct download, Microsoft allowed publishers to charge an actual amount to a credit card.
With the Zune and Windows Phone added to Microsoft’s virtual store fronts, the company no doubt wants to streamline their service. No indication has been made if the retail gift cards will be recalled or if existing points credited to accounts will be converted to their nearest dollar and cent equivalent.
Are you excited to be done with points? Or did you like having a little virtual pocket change rattling around your account waiting to spent?
Hey, so the game has been out for 9 Months. There are still a lot of people who have not made the trip to Reach.
Microsoft has never released a demo for a Halo title (with the exception of the RTS spin-off Halo Wars), so seeing its boldest and most recent chapter suddenly get some free play is kind of unexpected!
The demo is a nice vertical slice of 3 of Reach’s game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Firefight. The campaign is a portion of “Long Night Of Solace” which you saw in the E3 demo last year. Only about half the chapter is included, but thats well over a half hour of play on the ground and in space. You’ll also be able to play multiplayer on “Powerhouse” which has a wide variety of weapons on the ground and lots of high and low combat. Finally, Firefight on “Outpost” will pit you against wave after wave of aliens until the timer runs out, or you finally run out of lives.
If you like it, go ahead and buy the game. You won’t be disappointed. I purchased on day one and still managed to put another 2 hours into the game this morning. There are two downloadable map packs for sale, but I’ve seen dozens of maps made by the community and they’ve all been offered for free and included in regular online play, so even if you don’t buy the professional maps, you’ll still have something new to look at almost every time you play.
Sean’s bad experience trying to reauthorize downloadable content for his new Xbox 360 turns into a horrifying realization that modern downloadable games will not leave behind any artifacts for future generations. Is retro game collecting in trouble? Assuming we all survive the more literal apocalypse on 5/21/2011, that is…
With the current revamp of Mortal Kombat surpassing all expectations of sales and quality, it was only a matter of time before the original ‘trilogy’ was re-released.
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, as revealed by Warner Bros today, is going to be a single $10 download in Xbox Live or PSN that will include the original Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Previously, Midway released UMK3 on XBox Live and MKII on PSN, but with that publisher out of business both games have long since been removed from the storefront.
The games are said to be the original arcade versions, enhanced with online play, leaderboards, and achievements/trophies. Graphics are not expected to be revamped, only upscaled to HD.
Rumors of the collection surfaced a few months ago, originally pegging the collected games at $39.99 on a Playstation 3 exclusive disc. While you won’t have another disc for your shelf, its hard to complain about getting the collection at a quarter of the price of the rumors!
Normally, I don’t do Maximum Letdowns (or for that matter $20 GOTWs and Lost Classics) on games that haven’t been released yet, and since I don’t normally purchase bad games just to smash on them, I concentrate on older titles (along with the occasional dud I find as a download). However in this case, I think the premature bashing is more than warranted, as one of my all-time favorite gaming franchises has been ruined.
Ever since it’s origin on the Japanese PC Engine, the Fire Pro Wrestling series has been notable for its huge list of wrestlers (many of which are based on real-life personalities), huge amount of customization options (allowing players to customize everything from wrestlers, to match types, to ring logos), and its realistic (well as realistic one can get for a scripted sport) simulation-like quality. Not anymore. Thanks to Microsoft, the Fire Pro Wrestling franchise is going to become less than a shadow of its former self, and the upcoming iteration will be a complete mockery of the wrestling franchise I once loved. [Read the rest of this entry…]
The fight may have been finished back in 2007 with Halo 3, but thankfully there are still plenty of stories to tell about the Halo universe. One of them is the tale of a group of Orbital Drop Squad Troopers (or Helljumpers as they are nicknamed, and for good reason) and the losing battle they fought in the ill-fated African city of New Mombasa in the period between Halo 2 and Halo 3. You take control of one of these soldiers as you explore the city in an attempt to find out what’s going on. Originally conceived as a downloadable add-on (and originally slated to be called Halo 3: Recon), so much work was put into the story, setting, and characters, that Bungie ended up releasing the game as a standalone 2-disc package available at full retail price. The first disc contains the campaign (which can be played with up to 4 players) and a new mode called firefight where you fight off waves of covenant soldiers similar to Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. The second disc contains every map released for Halo 3, including those released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The game also includes the Forge map editor for creating your own worlds.
The name Halo has become synonymous with Xbox. Ever since Halo 2’s non-ending, fans have waited for 3 years straight for Bungie to finish the fight, and this sequel does not disappoint. Taking strides forward in both single player and multiplayer, Halo 3 closes out the trilogy in style and it gave players plenty of reasons to keep it in thier consoles long after they are finished with the campaign. Well, at least until Reach came out. [Read the rest of this entry…]
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