Hurray for capitalism! Time for gamers to get prissy again.
Microsoft announced today that as of November 1, 2010, the price of Xbox Live Gold will increase in Canada, the US, UK and Mexico. The annual price for Xbox Live Gold increases with $10 in the US, with appropriate price hikes in the other mentioned countries as well.
PC Gaming, you guys! 2010 has been a great year for the Computré de Personnel as a gaming platform, with Alien Swarm released by Valve for free, StarCraft II consuming the gaming stratosphere, and Civ V expecting to do the same next month. Now Microsoft have gotten their finger out as well, and have revived their two most successful PC-centric franchises, Age of Empires and Flight Simulator.
The game will be known as “Microsoft Flight”, and the website so far only has a classy, but vague teaser trailer on it, with a biplane flying over an ocean. I expect it to get a similar treatment as Age of Empires: Online, releasing it as smaller downloadable title, given the rather small target audience for flight sims. Read the rest of this entry »
Strategy games are back! Starcraft II is currently dominating the gamer landscape, while it seems just about everyone is anticipating the release of Civilization V. And now we see the return of another beloved strategy franchise, namely Age of Empires.
Microsoft announced at Gamescom that they’re bringing back the series as Age of Empires Online, a downloadable, “free-to-play” title, with cartoonier graphics, and more multiplayer & social hooks.
Gamescom is coming up in a mere nine days, meaning developers and publishers are slowly trickling out more and more information on game line-ups and press conferences.
VG247 can confirm today that Microsoft will be holding a Gamescom press conference next Tuesday, August 17, a day before the event officially opens.
Do you want to make your own mark on Fable III? Why not create your very own villager to put in the game once you’ve bought it? You can find the villager creator here. Lionhead also released a tutorial video, which you will find after the cut.
The development and potential release of Peter Molyneux’s Kinect project Milo & Kate can best be described as something of a clusterhump. First it would see release, then it wouldn’t, then no one knew, and now it appeares to be on again.
Last week at the TEDGlobal Conference in Oxford, Peter Molyneux said Microsoft wasn’t planning on releasing Milo & Kate. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg said two weeks before “right now, it’s not a game”. Eurogamer spoke to Greenberg again last night, and there’s still a chance Project Milo will be released.
Microsoft confirmed the Kinect price points in the major release territories: $149 in the US, £129 for Kinect in the UK, and €149 in mainland Europe.
Microsoft has also confirmed a new Arcade console, with a Slim design and 4 GB of internal flash memory.
According to a recent story over on GamaSutra Microsoft has confirmed that Kinect won’t be seeing release in China. It’s received a dutiful ban-hammer from the country’s Ministry of Culture.
Microsoft’s China COO Michel Van Der Bel has explained that the technology has fallen victim of a government notice from June 2000, in which the Ministry of Culture banned gaming equipment. Some Nintendo consoles are on sale in the region, but both the 360 and PS3 are banned in the region.
Van Der Bel has stated that Microsoft intends to cooperate with the law.
Were you one of the few wondering where the hell Milo and Kate was during this year’s E3? Me too, because Milo should have been there, if only for us to keep an eye out for what will undoubtedly become the real life version of SkyNet.
First off, let me say WOW. E3 2010 is off to a great start and the TGV staff has been hard at work in the summer heat of LA keeping you up to date with new details the minute they’re spoken into a microphone. Our crew has been manning the liveblogs as well as providing frequent updates to the site with the latest updates, and we’ve all had a blast doing so.
We’ve heard some amazing news from a bunch of awesome developers, and got an extensive look at Microsoft’s newest motion-controlled project, Kinect, formerly known as Natal. We also got some impressive updates from Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, who’ve both announced some amazing games that I can’t wait to get my hands on.
Let’s take a few moments to look back at the first day of the 16th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. Read the rest of this entry »
We here at The Gaming Vault thought we’d give a quick run-down of our first impressions and opinions on the conference. The press conference was dominated by Microsoft’s upcoming motion peripheral Kinect, and most of the press conference was delegated to showing off upcoming Kinect games and various Kinect features.
Of the hardcore variety, Microsoft showed off a handful of titles we were all expecting: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Metal Gear Solid Rising, Halo: Reach, Fable 3 and Gears of War 3. All the games looks pretty good, but Halo: Reach in particular caught my attention. The transition from CGI cut-scene to actual gameplay looked seamless, and the inclusion of space battles has really got my attention.
Microsoft’s still shooting for the Xbox becoming the ultimate living room entertainment platform, and during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, the sports channel ESPN was announced for Xbox Live. It’s probably America exclusive, so sorry my fellow Europeans.
This deal is an exclusive partnership between ESPN and Microsoft, offering live and on demand sports events – Football, Basketball, NBA, MLB, Soccer (European Football) – the works. This is a killer deal. Xbox Kinect allow you to control the games you watch via voice command and gestures.
The sports you want, when you want it. In America…
New exclusive Crytek game shown off during Microsoft’s E3 press conference:
Codename Kingdoms
It appears to be a game about gladiators, and it’s an exclusive partnership with Crytek. During the video shown off for Codename Kingdoms it was difficult to tell if the people in the trailers were CG or actual people with a visual filter draped over them.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is now confirmed for 11/09/10 by Microsoft’s Don Mattrick during Microsoft’s E3 press conference. The game looks incredible, running on what appears to be a modified Modern Warfare engine.
Microsoft and Acitivision have made an exclusive multi year agreement. All COD Map Pakc and Add-ons will launch first on Xbox going forward 3 years. PS3 and PC owners will have to wait for the map packs. Strange how Microsoft is ignoring the PC when it was technically the platform they started with before the Xbox took off.
We’re live at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 covering all the breaking news and all the exciting developments – and we’re Live today at the Microsoft Xbox 360 E3 2010 Media Briefing, where Project Natal will be elaborated on Rareware will be reborn and Gears of War 3 will be properly revealed. At least, we think so – they’re just our guesses!
Check out our LiveBlog below, and get involved by sending us messages and comments!
