XBOX News

[GhostRiderTGAC]

Halo 2 Multiplayer Maps in June![
(COPIED FROM: www.xbox.com/en-US/news/2005/0325-halo2mappack.htm)


Console gaming will never be the same again, as Microsoft Game Studios has announced a June 28 release date for the highly anticipated Halo® 2 Multiplayer Map Pack. The multiplayer expansion pack, which is the first of its kind for a console title, contains nine new multiplayer maps to push gamers' skills to their limits and will be available in both retail outlets and via Xbox Live™. The retail package also features two new videos: an animated short from the single-player story in New Mombasa and a mini-documentary that includes interviews with the map designers, combat strategies, and fly-throughs of the new maps. The retail pack also allows gamers who prefer offline play via System Link and split-screen to upgrade their Halo 2 experience with new maps. The retail version of the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack carries a suggested retail price of $19.99 (U.S.). More information about Halo 2 is available at www.halo2.com/.

As a special bonus, Xbox Live subscribers will get an early chance to check out four maps from the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack in late April. Two maps, Containment and Warlock, will be presented by Mountain Dew at no cost to Xbox Live subscribers. Two additional maps, Sanctuary and Turf, will be available for purchase via Xbox Live for $5.99 (U.S.). To complete the Map Pack collection, subscribers can download the five remaining maps on June 28 for $11.99 (U.S.).

Set in a Forerunner environment on Delta Halo, Containment is a massive, icy, outdoor environment suitable for vehicle combat and large team objective games such as Capture the Flag. Warlock, a small to midsized indoor arena set in ancient Forerunner ruins, offers ample opportunities for a variety of game types such as Territories, Slayer, Team Slayer, and more. Located in the streets of Old Mombasa near the wreckage of a downed Covenant Scarab, Turf is a midsized asymmetrical urban combat environment with narrow streets, dark alleyways, and easily defendable buildings. The sunlit remains of an ancient Forerunner temple, Sanctuary is a medium-sized symmetrical environment excellent for Capture the Flag, Assault, Territories, and Slayer games.

More information on the individual maps and the Multiplayer Map Pack can be found at www.bungie.net.

Halo 2, the most popular Xbox® game to date, has sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide since its November 2004 release. Launched to critical and consumer acclaim, the game has earned more than a dozen awards, including several for Game of the Year, Best Soundtrack, and Best Shooter.

[GhostRiderTGAC]

Microsoft Reveals First Details of Next-Generation Xbox

Company’s Chief XNA Architect Shares Vision for HD Era of Gaming

SAN FRANCISCO — March 9, 2005 — Today at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), Microsoft Corp. announced the first details of its next-generation Xbox® video game system platform, highlighting how hardware, software and services are being fused to power enhanced game and entertainment experiences.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Chief XNA™ Architect J Allard further outlined the company’s vision for the future of entertainment, citing the emergence of an “HD Era” in video games that is fueled by consumer demand for experiences that are always connected, always personalized and always in high-definition.

“In the HD Era the platform is bigger than the processor,” Allard said. “New technology and emerging consumer forces will come together to enable the rock stars of game development to shake up the old establishment and redefine entertainment as we know it.”

Building on 10 years of innovation with the DirectX® API, the Microsoft® Windows® and Xbox platforms will enable ground-breaking game experiences in the HD Era. Illustrating what that means for gamers, Allard shared the first details about the next-generation Xbox guide. Persistent across all games and media experiences, the guide is an entertainment gateway that instantly connects players to their games, their friends and their digital media.
Features of the guide include these:

Gamer Cards. Gamer Cards provide gamers with a quick look at key Xbox Live™ information. They let players instantly connect with people who have similar skills, interests and lifestyles.
Marketplace. Browseable by game, by genre, and in a number of other ways, the Marketplace will provide a one-stop shop for consumers to acquire episodic content, new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins and new community-created content.
Micro-transactions. Breaking down barriers of small-ticket online commerce, micro-transactions will allow developers and the gaming community to charge as little as they like for content they create and publish on Marketplace. Imagine players slapping down $.99 to buy a one-of-a-kind, fully tricked-out racing car to be the envy of their buddies.
Custom playlists. This feature eliminates the need for developers to support custom music in games. The guide instantly connects players to their music so they can listen to their own tracks while playing all their favorite next-generation Xbox games.
Typifying the HD Era game experience, the guide requires hardware designed with software in mind. System-level features of the guide such as custom playlists, the Xbox Live Friends list and voice chat are enabled at the chip level, liberating developers to focus on creating games, not developing for technical certification requirements (TCRs).

To support consumer demands for the HD Era, the next-generation Xbox is designed around key principles that let developers maximize real performance, using concepts they are already familiar with.

The next-generation Xbox hardware design principles include the following:

A well-balanced system that will deliver more than a teraflop of targeted computing performance
A multicore processor architecture co-developed with IBM Corp. that provides developer “headroom” and flexibility for the HD Era
A custom-designed graphics processor co-developed with ATI Technologies Inc. designed for HD Era games and entertainment applications
In addition, familiar software technologies such as DirectX, PIX, XACT and the recently announced XNA Studio — an integrated team-based development environment tailored for game production — complement the new hardware to help game developers unlock increasingly powerful and complex silicon.

The HD Era gaming platform will strike an elegant balance of hardware, software and services to power the new experiences consumers demand. Games and entertainment features such as the next-generation Xbox guide represent a shift toward more immersive and integrated consumer experiences. This shift will be further illustrated by a significant leap to high-definition graphics, where character movements and expressions are intensely vibrant and nearly indiscernible from real life; by multichannel, positional audio fidelity so clear and precise that players will be able to hear the faintest enemy footsteps sneaking up behind them; by richer online communications; and by an abundance of on-demand content for game consoles.

To listen to a podcast or watch video of the keynote, go to www.xbox.com.

About Xbox
Xbox (http://www.xbox.com) is the video game system from Microsoft that brings people together for the most exhilarating game and entertainment experiences. Xbox delivers an expansive collection of breakthrough games, powerful hardware and the unified Xbox Live online service. The tag line “It’s good to play together” captures the spirit of Xbox as the social hub of the new digital entertainment lifestyle. Xbox is now available in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

[GhostRiderTGAC]

I was reviewing the features of XBOX 360's media center extender and decided that when my wife and I buy our new Dell PC in about a month, we are definitely going to purchase it with Windows XP Media Center Edition. According to the information Microsoft has put out on the subject, both the current XBOX with the MCE kit as well as the new 360 will be able to communicate with the PC and you will be able to watch live TV (also record and rewind live TV), play videos, music, view photos and also use MSN Messenger and have caller ID pop ups as well as view game invites from Live! I used to have a digital cable box with recorder capabilities but this will give me that capability in three places in my house at the same time. Of course in order to watch 3 different stations I would need three tuner cards but most likely we would be watching one station while also watch a recording. I can't wait!
If anyone else already has a media center PC and uses it with their XBOX let me know. I am very interested in how it works for you.

[witefeather]

So does this mean that in order to record "everybody loves ramond" I'll have to defeat three Elites and plant the bomb in a bust of Ray Romono?

LOL