Xbox 360

Xbox Indie Titles Officially “Games” Again

After being shuffled around by Microsoft, Xbox Live Indie Games have been returned to the Games & Demos section of the Xbox Marketplace, reports gameindustry.biz.

The re-re-categorizing follows last week’s update to the Xbox dashboard, which placed the indie games in the “Specialty Shops” section alongside clothes for Xbox Avatars. Furthermore, the indie games no longer showed up in Marketplace search results.

Though Microsoft said that the move was meant to make Xbox Live Indie Games easier to find, many indie developers saw their work as being marginalized by Microsoft. A gameindustry.biz article from last week quotes Xbox indie developer Michael C. Neel as saying, “We [are] now beside the walking dead Game Room…The list of Specialty Shops is almost a ‘VH1 Where are they now?’ episode.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

After the betrayal, the controversy, the fighting, and the reorganizing the new Call of Duty game is out. Will it impress, or does this game deserve a good tactical strike on it?

It’s been an odd time for the Call of Duty series. With the original creators out of the picture from last years controversy the series has been in limbo.  The fans were split, and even we journalists found our selves upset with the giant known as Activision. However, the game has been played, and the hour of truth is here. It’s time to put bias to the side, and talk about how this game is.

The story starts out with the main character Alex Mason tied up in a room filled with all kinds of equipment and tools. A voice begins to interrogate him on his recent military career. It is not certain what the voice wants from Mason at first, but it acts as a guide through Mason’s memories. These memories being about 90% of the game’s story. The story its self is your classic Cold War conspiracy story, topped off with a fictional WMD called Nova 6. Bes

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom Preview

Teamwork is a big part of Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. You take the control of a young thief who has managed to befriend a mythical beast named Majin in order to exterminate a blight called the darkness from the land. Majin is an intimating giant that looks like a cross between a rock golem and a tree. Enlisting Majin to your quest not only provides you with an intense bodyguard, it also opens up new possibilities for puzzle solving or exploration.

On your own, the thief is an agile sneak that can easily get the drop on enemies before they see him and assassinate them with one hit. The thief is a lot smaller than Majin, so getting through tight spaces is more his forte.

007: Blood Stone (X360) Review

I have no connection to the James Bond series. I’ve watched a few of the movies but never enjoyed them that much. So the thought of a James Bond game was largely something I had no interest in, granted I did enjoy Goldeneye on the N64. Bizarre Creations, the developer of 007: Blood Stone are mainly known for their racing games, namely the Project Gotham Racing series (which I’ve always adored). My main attraction to 007: Blood Stone was to see if Bizarre could make a solid shooter with a bit of driving. It seems a James Bond game was almost the perfect fit.

In 007: Blood Stone, you’re James Bond. That’s pretty much all you need to know. Of course, you’re having to take down some big boss man, but he’s mostly forgettable, similar to the rest of the story. If you came to 007: Blood Stone for a great Bond story, you’re in the wrong game. The plot is mostly nonsense stacked upon nonsense and serves mainly as a stepping stone to the many ridiculous and fun sequences you find throughout the game. The characters (except for Bond himself) are never that fleshed out or interesting in any way. You’ll find yourself counting down the seconds to the next gameplay section in almost every cutscene. All of this is topped off by one of the most random, unexplained plot twists I’ve ever seen. It literally made me burst out into laughter.

It’s Official, Kinect Has Launched

So, the Kinect is now out, and while we don’t have one, you do. However we all shared one thing. We all thought our TVs would be safe with the Kinect, and our TVs could sleep easy knowing we didn’t have controllers that could fly at them. Well, they be wrong!

What Would You Do For Black Ops?

Black Ops is out this Tuesday, and it seems a pair of gamers just couldn’t wait.Black Ops is out this Tuesday, and it seems a pair of gamers just couldn’t wait. This Saturday two men robbed a Game Stop at gun point giving Bel Air GameStop workers a scare Saturday. The two waited until the store was about to close when acted. Two unlucky customers happened to walk in right after this, but thankfully they were not harmed. The workers and customers were both put into a storage are while they ran off with 100 copies of Black Ops.

New Transformers, Spider-Man, X-Men Games for 2011

Activision is prepared to roll out new Transformer, Spider-Man and X-Men games for 2011, according to a story on CVG. The publishing giant held an investors conference call Nov. 4 where Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg promised new releases in “proven franchises,” such as the above properties.

Hirshberg said that these games would be in addition to a new installment of the Call of Duty franchise in 2011. One X-Men game has already been announced for next year – X-Men Destiny, which will be developed by Too Human developer Silicon Knights. The announcement of new Spider-Man and Transformers games are not too surprising given the positive reception of this summer’s Transformers: War For Cybertron and September’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.