Rumors began circulating yesterday that Microsoft was preparing to test an Xbox Live rewards program and today emails have been sent out confirming that fact.

Below a Microsoft spokesperson comments on the program:

“We are always exploring ways to provide the most value for our members and are currently testing a pilot rewards program with a select base of our Xbox LIVE community in the US. We have no further details to share at this time.”

Yup, same deal, they let us know what they are doing but refuse to give us any details on the matter. Kotaku says there will be a sign-up period to test the program out that ends on October 21st.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

Now I’ve never been one to put much stock into the speculations of industry analysts but Michael Pachter has a good track record and his latest analysis is one I like, so I shall tell you about it — Pachter predicts that the motion sensing technology from Microsoft currently entitled Project Natal will cost no more than $50.

He elaborates by saying that Natal is just a single camera and when compared to the PlayStation Motion Controller it will most likely cost a great deal less as Sony’s offering is both a controller and a camera.

Whatever the case, Microsoft is going to have to price Project Natal very competitively as it is essentially an add on for the Xbox 360 and they will have to do so to keep up with both Sony and Nintendo.

via industrygamers

VGChartz

However, you have to make note that ODST was released on a Tuesday while Gears of War 2 was released on a Friday, giving ODST 5 days in their first week of sales while Gears 2 only had 2. So, literally, it’s the 4th fastest selling Xbox 360 game but technically. it’s the third. Get it?

Anyways, sales were right around 1.8 million with 1.7 million of those copies being taken off store shelves in North America, 230,000 in the UK, 50,000 in France and about 20,000 in Japan.

So, it’s official, put Halo on anything and it’ll sell like hot cakes!

We may be seeing much more feature extensive titles hitting the Xbox Live Arcade as it was recently announced that the file size limit for titles offered on the service will now be capped at 2GB.

News comes to us from Microsoft’s Scott Austin who took center stage at TGS ‘09 to say the following:

In order to continue fostering the creation of great titles on the platform, Microsoft has increased the file size limit of XBLA titles to 2 GB. We pride ourselves in being the premier destination for downloadable games, and the new file size limit allows developers to push their creative boundaries.

With this new file size increase the line between an Xbox Live Arcade title and a full fledged title will be drawn even thinner.

via destructoid

Inside the box you will find the 250GB Xbox 360, of course, in addition to 2 wireless controllers, an Xbox 360 headset and Forza Motorsport 3. American gamers need not get excited as this SKU is currently exclusive to the European market when it drops on October 23rd for £249.99 or about $413.

Unfortunately, there will be no ODST brandings on the console itself but it will include Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and the Halo: Reach beta in addition to a Xbox Live 1-month membership card.

There’s no word if us Americans will ever be seeing this SKU but European gamers can expect it to hit store shelves sometime in early October.

Of course, with the 120GB hard drive priced at $150, you could only assume a 250GB hard drive would be $300 or more. And who would want that, right?

via kotaku

There’s no word on when we will see this hardware hit the streets but let’s hope it’s soon.

via engadget

Jefferies recently went on record to say that Microsoft has just recently given developers to go ahead to develop games that run below a 720p resolution. You’ll make note that we reported to you a while back that games like Halo 3: ODST and Modern Warfare 2 run at a resolution lower than 720p, although those developers most likely got special treatment considering the scale of both titles.

via kotaku

The add-on will allow players to venture into a new arena, where they will be pitted against new foes for a chance at new items and spells. For 360 owners, new achievements have also been unlocked. Word on the Windows DLC will be announced soon, but no word as of yet.

The DLC will cost you 400 Microsoft Points, or $4.99.

Yesterday Microsoft let us know that there would be an anime miniseries inspiried by their flagship franchise, Halo entitled Halo Legends.

Today, the internets are a buzz over the miniseries’ debut trailer, included above. As you can see, there are segments produced by all 5 Japanese studios that are signed onto the project.

But wait, during Casio Entertainment’s segment there are the beginnings of a CG swordfight. I don’t remember Master Chief moving so nimbly in the video games. Oh well, let’s hope Halo Legends does the franchise justice and isn’t just an attempt by Microsoft to milk the franchise.

A notice offering you none other than the update’s beta version. Now, the full update’s not expected to go live until next month, so the offerings are subject to change, but below is a list, courtesy of Engadget, detailing some of the new features:

• Netflix now has way, way more options. You can actually browse content via the app, which is great. As a commenter points out, HD content is now denoted with a tag.
• There isn’t any avatar prop content available just yet — hopefully we’ll get to pick out an awesome gun to carry around soon though.
• No Games on Demand content from the current gen console is available, but apparently the games will start rolling out in early August (sigh).
• As we noted in previous posts, the preview doesn’t boast any of the Last.fm, Facebook, or Twitter additions yet.
• We know they’re still working the kinks out, but there seems to be noticeable slowdown when shifting between pages, something we’ve never noticed before in the NXE.

So far they seem to be satisfied with the update although we will all have to hold judgement on the New-New Xbox Experience until it’s actually released to the masses.

Halo Legends will apparantly make its way onto DVD and digital platforms (Xbox Live?) in early 2010 courtesy of Warner Bros. The show will be produced by 5 Japanese anime studios which include Bones, Casio Entertainment, Studio4 C, Toei Animation and Production I.G.

Frank O’Conner, creative director of 343 Industries, let us know that Halo Legends will exist to give viewers a further insight into the Halo universe and along with giving it a new direction. A new direction? You mean to set us up for the impending release of Halo: Reach.

via Joystiq

However, instead of a fully fuctional 3D environement players will instead take the form of an avatar that is determined based on the advertisment. Still don’t get it? Below is an excerpt from the patent filing that might give you a better picture:

In one example, to advertise the movie TRANSFORMERS, an advertiser may provide the robot BUMBLEBEE, which is a popular character in the movie, as the advertiser-generated avatar. The BUMBLEBEE avatar may include functionality to “transform” between the robot and the CHEVROLET CAMARO depicted in the movie. In another example, to advertise the cereal TRIX, an advertiser may provide the TRIX RABBIT as the advertiser-generated avatar. The TRIX RABBIT avatar may include functionality to say the popular catchphrase “SILLY RABBIT, TRIX ARE FOR KIDS.” In yet another example, to advertiser the ZUNE digital media player from MICROSOFT CORPORATION, an advertiser may provide an image of the ZUNE digital media player as the advertiser-generated avatar. The ZUNE digital media player avatar may include functionality to change colors, change models, and play various digital media.

But what will Microsoft give us in return for participating in these 3D advertisment environments? I’ll take Microsoft Points.

via Kotaku

That’s the thrust of the review today, folks–this IS in fact the ultimate racing simulation experience if you’ve either never actually had a racing simulation experience before or you’ve never actually driven anything before.

Basically, the plot of the game, such as it is, is exactly that. You’re going to drive cars.  No, this doesn’t exactly have the same literary quality of Ridge Racer’s young up-and-comer looking to burn his way through the ranks of the professional driving circuit, or the various underground racers where you’re out to gather pinks and impress hot chicks who like to wave flags half-naked for little or no conceivable reason.  You’re just here to go fast and turn left, except for when, on occasion, you will be called upon to turn RIGHT.

You may be asking yourself at this point, hey, if that’s all I’m supposed to do, then why even bother?  I mean, if I wanted to be stuck in traffic for twenty minutes while I tried to drive a car down a twisty, windy track, then why don’t I just jump in my car and actually, you know, go somewhere?  At least then everybody on the Internet’ll stop calling me a basement dweller because I haven’t left the house in months.

Sadly, I don’t have much of an answer for that.  Oh, sure, with Race Pro you’ll get to try out various different kinds of cars, on various different types of tracks, with various different types of options.  I give Race Pro due credit for having an almost OBSCENE number of options–not only can you tweak the difficulty, you can also tweak subclasses of the difficulty as well.  For instance, if you’re racing on hard mode and find the AI’s just a little TOO aggressive with the competing drivers, you can actually dial down the racers’ AI difficulty level.  It’s an absolutely customizable racing experience.

Absolutely customizable, yes…but worthwhile?  That’s where I’m going to have to say no.  I had SERIOUS problems with the controls on this one–even something that should be video-game simple, the drift maneuver, I couldn’t manage to pull off.  In fact, driving the Mini Cooper in the first level felt exactly like the headline described, like driving a brick through wet cement.  I remember trying to pull off a turn, so naturally, I decelerate so I can jam on the gas after I’ve started to pitch my nose a bit.  The car promptly decides that it prefers going straight, and thusly goes COMPLETELY OFF THE TRACK and into the dirt.  The game then warns me that I’m “cutting track”, to which I respond with a torrent of obscenities detailing the fact that, one, I already KNOW I’m off the track and, two, that I wouldn’t have been if the game had done what it was told to do in the first place.

This is, of course, profoundly irritating, but there’s probably a workaround if you’re desperate enough for a new racing game to try.  I personally say that there are better racing games out there–vastly better, in fact–but if you want a driving sim that’ll give you a huge fight, then Race Pro is the game you want.

First, the plot itself.  A prequel to the original Call of Juarez, this time we’re with the McCall brothers as they fight their way through Georgia at about the same time William Tecumseh Sherman began his infamous March to the Sea.  With Georgia in slowly burning ruins, the McCalls, despite their spectacular valiance, aren’t able to repulse the invasion.  It even gets personal when Sherman’s March takes the McCall family farm with it.  Thus, two out of the three brothers McCall turn outlaw and go off to find the legendary gold of Juarez.  Along the way, they’ll tackle a variety of enemies–an Apache connected to the gold, a Mexican bandit and his lovely concubine, and even the Confederate army they went AWOL from in otder to turn outlaw.  The McCall brothers will thus launch a swath of lawlessness and destruction that will in turn leave its mark on the entirety of the old West forever.

I know, it sounds like an awesome story.  And watching it unfold, it really IS an awesome story.  But this is not where the aforementioned problems come into play.  The problems themselves come in on the actual gameplay end of things.

The controls are solid enough–no real problem there–but the biggest problem is that Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood is so very limited.  For instance, in the first level, you’re mostly crawling around in some trenches, trying to piece together where exactly you’re supposed to go.  Sure, you’ve got a marker giving you some idea where to go, but it’s still tough to tell if you need to take this corner or that corner back there and go around the long way, if you get my drift.

I’m convinced that I’ve become somewhat spoiled by Fallout 3 as I wind up comparing every first person shooter I play to it.  And sure enough, stacked up against an opening act like that, pretty much everything else will have to pale in comparison.  There’s just no two ways about it–you can’t eat a porterhouse steak then go chow down on meatloaf and say it’s on par with the best beef ever.  So what you have to do in response is take everything in isolation.  By itself, Call of Juarez has a decent multiplayer mode with lots of options, plenty of wild action, lots of gunplay and explosivesplay and all the things that make a shooter game solidly entertaining.  The graphics are at least fair, and the sound is solidly done.

And yet I still find myself somewhat let down, because I’ve seen what first person shooters actually can be. I’ve seen the kind of fun that can be had when you put someone behind the gun and let them roam wild and free over a huge map.  Every maze-crawler, every railroad run, every point-a-to-point-b game that follows is just a sad, sorry imitation.  Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood may be good enough for a play, but it’s definitely not as good as it could be.

Fuel assumes a future in which Al Gore is allowed by Federal law to laugh and point at everybody who can’t produce a receipt for a copy of An Inconvenient Truth.  Seriously, though–it’s an “alternate present” in which the weather has only very recently gone completely insane, turning large areas of the United States into “no-go” zones, or areas where no human being can safely live.  Thus, humans pack themselves into huge megacities, a la Judge Dredd, except these human hives are apparently warm and comforting places powered by wind and solar and biodiesel, and thus everyone lives in Al Gore’s fantasyland.

There are, however, a few mavericks who realize that, the sudden cessation of gasoline usage has left a whole LOT of spare capacity just sort of lying around, and thus, this gives them the opportunity to take it for their own use.  Hey, why not?  Not like anyone ELSE is using the stuff anyway!  So they appropriate large quantities of fuel and use it to stage quasi-legal offroad joyride races.

To that end, you’re dropped into a scale area of roughly five thousand square miles and set to race.  You’ll be able to select various races against other competitors, as well as having an opportunity to engage in “free riding” but more on that in a minute.  First, we have to deal with the races themselves.  In this way, Fuel is a lot like literally every other racing game on the market.  You drive around trying desperately to pass other people and reach the finish line.  In this way, Fuel is just as good as any other.  The graphics are solid enough, the controls are a little twitchy and take a little getting used to but still do fairly well, and the background music is appropriately rock.

Fuel would be a game much like any other if it weren’t for one critical difference–the free ride mode.  Free ride does just what it sounds like it does; free ride allows you to tear around the map in literally any direction you please, pulling tire-squealing turns on roads, donuts on the beach, whatever you like,  There’s even some structure here as your free ride mode allows you to drive to places where challenges are being held.  Completing these challenges nets you extra fuel, which in turn allows you to buy other vehicles.  Plus, you’ll be able to obtain new parts for your livery, find fantastic views at so-called vista points, and just generally run riot all over the map.

Fuel is, therefore, a game of surprising depth and substance, as well as plenty of fun.  For those of you who already like racing games, you may well have found the ultimate in racers right there.  But for those of you who haven’t been very fond of the racing game subgenre, then you may well want to give Fuel a try.  This is the game that just might change your mind about racers.

Only open to US and Canadian gamers, the beta previously required gamers to have bought or redeemed a Xbox Live Gold subscription.

The beta of the trivia game is unique in the sense that it will provide real-life skill-based prizes, including virtual Microsoft Point funds and Xbox Live Arcade games. The basic formula is this: the more members of the 100-person mob that “The One” outlasts by correctly answering questions, the higher payout he/she gets, with the remaining mob receiving prizes if they outsmart “The One”.

If you’re buying a new copy, the price will be:

• Windows 7 Home Premium – $199.99
• Windows 7 Professional – $299.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate – $319.99

If you’re upgrading from Vista or XP, the price is:

• Windows 7 Home Premium – $119.99
• Windows 7 Professional – $199.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate – $219.99

Of course, one of the first questions posed had to do with whether or not we’d be seeing the game released for PS3 as well as the Xbox 360. Though the Splinter Cell games so far have been exclusive to Microsoft consoles, most third party developers and publishers are putting out their games for any capable system. Most have cited this as a better business practice, so it would seem that Ubisoft could be going down the same path.

Ubisoft has put paid to any rumors about a multiplatform release, citing that Splinter Cell is a ‘true Microsoft exclusive title’. They begin with pointing out that there’s a historical link between the console and the games, saying that the original Splinter Cell was the first game to truly utilize the Xbox’s potential. In response Microsoft was excited about the game and supported it heavily, leading to what they referred to as a “link of heart” between the two. Finally they point out that by focusing on a single console they can devote more time to completely optimizing the game for its single system.