Sure, the word “exposed” is pretty provocative – especially when you’re talking about a dashboard for a video game console, but considering that the above video showcases the sleek and sexy nature of the revamped Xbox 360 dashboard, the word seems somewhat appropriate.

Justified or not, we invite you to sneak a peek at...]]>

Sure, the word “exposed” is pretty provocative – especially when you’re talking about a dashboard for a video game console, but considering that the above video showcases the sleek and sexy nature of the revamped Xbox 360 dashboard, the word seems somewhat appropriate.

Justified or not, we invite you to sneak a peek at the future of M-soft’s super sleek dash and then “expose” your thoughts below.

via Kotaku

As posted by Major Nelson, the price hike will affect Xbox LIVE members in Canada, Mexico, the UK and the...]]>
Hang onto your hats…and your wallets…Microsoft is raising the price of an Xbox LIVE subscription by $10/year in North America beginning November 1. 2010. Other regions will see a price increase as well.

As posted by Major Nelson, the price hike will affect Xbox LIVE members in Canada, Mexico, the UK and the US, with various yearly, monthly, and 3 month subscriptions seeing an increase. In the U.S. the one month Gold subscription will increase from $7.99 to $9.99 while the three month will raise from $19.99 to $24.99. After the change takes place, the 12 month will set you back $59.99 as opposed to the current $49.99.

It’s worth noting that renewing your 12 month subscription via a special promotion being offered right here, right now, will allow U.S. customers to save $20 off the new price and renew for $39.99.

As for the regions outside the U.S., Canadian gamers can expect to pay $1 more for the monthly subscription, Mexico’s 12 month plan increases from 499 Pesos to 599 Pesos, and those of you in the United Kingdom will be charged 5.99 GBP for the monthly subscription instead of 4.99 GBP.

“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.”

So, do you think Microsoft has added enough new features and content to XBL to justify a price increase? Do you think the new rates are fair or unfair? Let us know your thoughts below.

In addition, Microsoft also...]]>
After countless amounts of rumors and speculation, Microsoft has today confirmed that the Kinect motion-sensing camera will retail for $149.99 when it ships to retailers this fall. A copy of Kinect Adventures, the casual mini-game collection which was demoed during MSoft’s E3 Press Conference, will be included with the hardware.

In addition, Microsoft also announced a new Xbox 360 “S” Model that includes 4GB or internal storage, but is capable of using up to 32GB of USB storage. You’ll be able to pick up this Xbox 360-Arcade-like unit for $200 by itself when it goes on sale in North America on August 3, 2010 or for $300 bundled with Kinect when it launches November 4th.

Lastly, according to Aaron Greenberg of Microsoft (via Joystiq), pricing on first-party Kinect software will be $50 while retailers are listing third-party games a bit higher at $60.

Oh, and if you pre-order Kinect in any form “today”, Microsoft has stated that you’ll earn a token good for three exclusive levels of the included Kinect Adventures.

Have an opinion on the pricing? What about the new “S” model? Plan on picking this thing up?!?!? Connect with your fellow gamers and share your thoughts below!

Source

The Original Gangster is set to be an original character in Gears of War 3, voicing the role of Griffin, who leads “a rag-tag group of human survivors, known as the Stranded, who Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad will encounter as they battle the infected Lambent,” Xbox 360 Press said.

Speculation...]]>

The Original Gangster is set to be an original character in Gears of War 3, voicing the role of Griffin, who leads “a rag-tag group of human survivors, known as the Stranded, who Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad will encounter as they battle the infected Lambent,” Xbox 360 Press said.

Speculation of Ice-T’s role began to appear after he mentioned it on a Ustream meet-up with his fans, followed by Gears creative director Cliff Bleszinski tweeting, “Yo Ice hit me up, we should talk about what happened this weekend…” Well now it is official, he’s in.

Grammy Award-nominated rapper Drake is also voicing Gears 3 character Jake Stratton, who was portrayed by Nolan North for his brief stint in Gears 2.

On top of his acting role in Law and Order: SVU, Ice-T (born Tracy Marrow) has performed voiceovers for a number of video games, most notably playing Madd Dogg in 2004′s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Gears of War 3 drops April 2011 exclusively for Xbox 360.

Demo: Crackdown 2 Platforms: XBL Demo Release Date: June 21,...]]>
Welcome to EpicBattleAxe.com’s DemoUP!, the feature that invites the EBA Community to gather around gaming’s hottest demos to play together and share your reaction. Pretty simple premise really, so hit the jump to participate as we DemoUP! for the highly-anticipated Crackdown 2.

Demo: Crackdown 2
Platforms: XBL
Demo Release Date: June 21, 2010 | Official Website

Demo Description: Pacific City is no stranger to chaos. But this is total anarchy. As part of a new breed of Agents armed with a more powerful arsenal, you must bring back peace and order to the city. Are you up for the task? This demo features accelerated Agent leveling, four player co-op, and the ability to earn Achievements to be awarded once you play the full version of Crackdown 2. This demo is available in English only.

NOW, GO DOWNLOAD THE DEMO, PLAY IT, THEN CAST YOUR VOTE BELOW AND USE THE COMMENTS TO GIVE THE COMMUNITY YOUR FEEDBACK!

“What you’ve...]]>
It’s alive! Microsoft is banking on Kinect to not only revolutionize our gameplay, but to also elongate the lifespan of the Xbox 360 itself. Paired with the new Xbox 360 model, Microsoft’s European executive Chris Lewis expects Kinect to keep the console’s heart monitor beeping for another five years.

“What you’ve seen is with this new sleek design and Kinect for Xbox 360 we’ve got at least another five years of this generation where we continue to offer great experiences for people,” Lewis told GamesIndustry.biz. “We continue to attach more games than competitive platforms and we have the healthiest ecosystem with 25 million people connected through Xbox Live. So we are uniquely placed to continue to do really, really well in this business and enjoy ongoing momentum.”

Elapsed time between the release of the Xbox and the Xbox 360 was roughly four years, so the current generation is already outliving its ancestor. But with Sony’s prediction of a 10-year lifespan for the PS3 (which was released in 2006), the 360 would still be dying prematurely if it wasn’t plugged into the correct hardware this year.

So Microsoft has created the technological fountain of youth – How do five more years of our current consoles sound to you? Are you ADHD Generation X-ers itching for something more than Kinect and Move, or are these hardware add-ons enough? Microsoft says it has “the healthiest ecosystem” and “more games than competitive platforms,” but after its E3 showing, it might be time to pull the plug after all. What do you think? Shout out below!

When I first saw Mortal Kombat, it was at my first job. The grocery store where I worked cycled 1 new arcade game every 3 months. Since it was how I spent all my break time, I always hoped we would get something cool and fun to play.

When I...]]>

When I first saw Mortal Kombat, it was at my first job. The grocery store where I worked cycled 1 new arcade game every 3 months. Since it was how I spent all my break time, I always hoped we would get something cool and fun to play.

When I walked into work on the day of ‘delivery’ I was skeptical – It appeared to be a fighting game similar to Street Fighter, but with a more ‘realistic’ look to it and a block button?!. A couple of quarters later, I was wondering why the hell the other character dizzied around and the game kept yelling ‘FINISH HIM!’ after the matches. WTF? One of my co-workers walked up and asked if he could play. “Yea, I played this before,” he said, “lemme show you something.” So, he challenged me – and whipped my ass with Sub-Zero. Then, something strange happened. He walked up to me, performed a button combination, and then ripped my characters head off (I was playing with Scorpion) with his spine attached. Nothing like some over the top violence and innovative combat to hook a new generation of gamers.

Over the past several years, the Mortal Kombat name has taken a beating (with the exception of the critical success of MK vs. DC). Midway went under, and subsequently was acquired by Warner Brothers. Fortunately, Ed Boon side stepped the Nerd Rage and quit; and NetherRealm Studios was born. On the heals of the 3D side scrolling monster that is Street Fighter IV, Mortal Kombat looks to draw on next generation power and an improved style to draw in a new era of fans (without all the quarters).

That being said, I had a chance for a ‘hands off’ behind the scenes preview of Mortal Kombat at Warner Brother’s booth. We’ve all seen the trailer – but that just scratches the surface of generating excitement for this title. It’s graphically amazing, true to it’s roots – and incredibly, graphically, gory. When I entered the demo, the player selection screen was up, showing Sub-Zero and Scorpion. There were at the time 8 playable characters, and throughout the demo, they were all shown. the demo was live, so they proceeded to spar in 1v1 and tag team matches that were fast paced and full of lethal combos.

There are 2 major additions to the game which will be of huge strategic use. The power bar serves as a marker for ‘super’ moves and ‘x-ray’ special combo moves. Super moves are more exaggerated versions of the normal special moves. For example, Sektor’s missile attacks turn into heat seeking missiles, and Reptiles ‘juggle’ orb is huge and appeared to be unblockable. The X-ray moves are devastating combo attacks. This is where one of the unique development features of the game kicks in. The entire skeletal and muscular system has been rendered for each character. When the X-ray move is initiated, the action slows down, and it zooms in on the areas where the impacts occur. For example, Kung Lao slams his hand into temple of Mileena, and it shows the x-ray image of the bones in her neck breaking from the impact. Then, immediately after, he slams the back of her neck, breaking the spine and causing teeth to spew out of her mouth. It’s very graphic, and extremely brutal. So, basically awesome.

Another feature I noticed was the persistent damage to the characters – throughout the fight, major attacks caused gashes on the body, revealing bleeding cuts and exposed bone – even the closeups at the end of the match show a very beaten down player (if the match was close!). Kung Lao had a huge bleeding gash across his chest and it looked like his eye was hanging out of the socket.

They mentioned that multiplayer would play a huge roll in the game (duh) but they didn’t provide any additional details. All in all, the game was classic Mortal Kombat – but reminded me loosely of Street Fighter IV in generalized gameplay and the ‘power up’ bar. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

From what I could tell, there were 28 players on the select screen, but only 8 were selectable: Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, Reptile, Nightwolf, Sektor and Mileena. Sources at the hands off demo mentioned it would be an early 2011 release, but who knows. The game looked so polished, I was thinking more like Christmas of this year

Mortal Kombat had a strong showing at E3 and had many old school fans eager for more – but what about you? Maybe I’m biased by my own nostalgia. Let us know what you think by sounding off on our forums! Let’s hope for a Flawless Victory!

After playing the demo...]]>

It’s been a long time coming, but we will soon have a worthy follow up to the Contra franchise – even though it’s not an ‘official’ sequel. Hard Corps: Uprising is a classic style side scrolling shooter loosely following up the original Contra: Hard Corp title released on the Sega Genesis.

After playing the demo on the floor I have to say, the visuals are amazing. In full HD, the hand drawn artwork will satisfy the fans of Arc System Works’(http://www.aksysgames.com/) style (developer and publisher of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue).

Even though the ‘Contra’ title has been stripped, the gameplay is classic Contra. I was playing the XBLA version of the game in 2 player mode. After blasting my way through most of the level, I received a weapon upgrade that was reminiscent of the Spread gun (damnit, I used to get so pissed after losing this weapon in the original!), and later an enhanced ‘laser’ upgrade. We quickly blew through the first mission which ended with a very familiar mini-boss – a blockade which you had to blast your way through to continue the level (nearly identical to the mid level boss in the original Contra).

So visuals and play mechanic similarities aside from the Contra series, there are a couple very noticeable differences, which I feel are definitely bad ass. First off, you have a health bar!!! You will, however, lose your weapon if you are hit. The other difference is a type of player advancement system. You will gain experience and level attributes to your character, and there will also be a shop with which you can pay for upgrades. Although I didn’t see this feature hands on, it will make it’s way into the final release.

It may not have the Contra name on it, but this is the definitive next generation Contra title. I only left wishing I could play it once I left the E3 floor, but I’ll have to wait for the Winter release date.

Check out some of the gameplay footage HERE, courtesy of Gametrailers.com

Now it’s your time to sound off, fellow axeheads! Is it not Contra without Bill and Lance??! Will the title be the definitive reboot of a classic franchise?