Xbox Jedi

This game was classified by the community with the following category scores - Violence=0/3, Sex=0/3, Mature Content=0/3. Explore the night sky with more than 116,000 stars by learning the locations, shapes, and names of 88 constellations all from the comfort of your game console without ever putting down your controller! Dark Skies offers three modes (Explore, Hunt, and Screen Saver), Explore lets you toggle constellations on and off to learn the locations while Hunt will put your skills to the ultimate test.

Mad Catz has announced that it will be bringing a special limited edition of its Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition Fightsticks to the Penny Arcade Expo. And when we say limited, we mean it: Only 1,000 sticks will be made available -- 650 for Xbox and 350 for PS3 -- and the majority of them will be available exclusively from the Capcom booth at PAX. For those unable to attend, a "very limited stock" will be available at the Capcom and GameShark online stores.

The "Femme Fatale" joystick, as you can see above, is decked out with the ladies of Street Fighter IV, including Sakura, Crimson Viper, Chun-Li, Cammy and Rose. It's also packs a lilac color scheme, which seems appropriate given the bumps and bruises players will be doling out with it (virtual bumps and bruises, of course). The sticks will go on sale this Friday, September 4, on a first-come-first-serve basis, limited to two per customer.

If you want one, you'd best be quick.

Limited edition SFIV sticks at PAX, only 1000 being made originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Along with this rumored feature, the site has posted a list of upcoming DLC, including 10 tracks from Queen and three from The Raconteurs due in October. Three songs from The White Stripes are listed for November release. Undisclosed material from Attack! Attack! and The Duke Spirit appears as undated Rock Band Network content.

When contacted for comment, Harmonix told Joystiq, "While we don't comment on rumors or speculation with regards to our upcoming downloadable content, we can promise that the Rock Band platform is poised to remain the unchallenged best value and source of music for rhythm games."

This supposed "leak" is very conveniently timed, given that Guitar Hero 5 releases tomorrow. Doncha' think?

Rumor: Rock Band 2 will import LEGO Rock Band tracks originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get ready for a Monday news feeding with Kristin Adams who has stories about Disney buying Marvel Entertainment, 'Heroes' topping the list of illegally downloaded TV shows, color coding on Wikipedia and more.

To put it lightly, online play in The King of Fighters XII sucks. It's broken, regardless of which platform you play it on. Weeks after the game's release, SNK Playmore has finally released a patch for the PS3 version. According to the press release, the update "fundamentally changes the way game data is processed and synchronized during online matches, placing greater importance on the game's response time and allowing for much smoother play." Online battles should be improved, especially for those with less-than-ideal internet connections.

An Xbox 360 version of the patch is also in the works and should be available "very soon." SNK Playmore issued an official apology with the release, promising it will "strive to improve their system of quality control for future titles," but we're wondering how the fighting community will response. For some, this patch may be too little, too late.

King of Fighters XII patch fixes online play originally appeared on Joystiq Playstation on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft and Doritos have announced that the "Unlock Xbox" competition - in which gamers compete to have their game ideas developed into a full-fledged XBLA title - is back. Xbox gamers will likely remember Dash of Destruction, the winner of the first competition, likely because it was free and offered some of the easiest Achievements around. Things are a little bit different this year, as there will be not one but two winners, both of which will see their ideas developed into an XBLA title. In addition, the fan-selected grand prize winner will receive a "$50,000 gaming consultant project for Doritos." We're not really sure what that means, but there's probably a lot of nacho cheese dust involved.

If you think you've got a gameplay idea that can top dinosaurs eating Dorito trucks (UNLIKELY!), head on over to the official Unlock Xbox site and sign up. Entries will be accepted until October 4.

New Unlock Xbox contest offers $50k prize originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Podcasts

We've got an interesting show this week. We spend quite a bit of time talking about the Elite price cut as well as the "flexibility" offered by not including HDMI or component cables in the new bundle. We also grill Alexander about GamesCom and his recent trip to Germany. Of course, there's all the other usual malarkey and hullabaloo as well. Enjoy.

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Hosts: Richard Mitchell (SenseiRAM), Dustin Burg (SuperDunners), Alexander Sliwinski (Sli Xander)

Produced by Richard Mitchell

Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. Break: "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1" by Ska Studios.

Continue reading Xbox 360 Fancast 132 -- Flexibility

Xbox 360 Fancast 132 -- Flexibility originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That's, um, sales of single-player games (multiplayer ones don't count!). And, uh, you know, we're just talking about Xbox Live Arcade titles -- not that clarifying this awfully specific sales record is an attempt to take away from the much-deserved success of Chair's excellent Shadow Complex or the 200,000-plus downloaders (much of the Joystiq staff included) who didn't wait long to cash in 1200.

Still, we're not going to label Shadow Complex's sales Achievement(R) (as Microsoft does) the "New Era of Downloadable Games." It takes far too much effort to produce a decent Metroidvania experience than it does a mediocre dual-stick shooter, after all.

We will, however, join in on the not-so-subtle peer pressuring. Seriously, you still haven't purchased Shadow Complex? Shame on you. (So ... just direct deposit that check, cool? Thanks Microsoft!)

Shadow Complex sets week-one sales record originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Specially marked boxes of the upcoming music title The Beatles: Rock Band include a unique bonus: an exclusive Avatar shirt. The freebie marks the first (and hopefully not the last) time Avatar apparel has been given away alongside the launch of a game, giving extra incentive for users to pick up a copy of the Xbox 360 version. Coincidentally, it'll make for a hilarious image when your Avatar shows up in Guitar Hero 5 donning a Rock Band promo t-shirt -- if Avatar apparel is able to show up in game, that is.

Of course, this news only matters if your Avatar's dress code includes wearing band logo shirts. Our Avatar dress code allows only suit and tie, because we're gentlemen. Make sure to check out Major Nelson's Flickr page for details on how to spot the free bonus at retail.

Net a free Avatar shirt with the purchase of The Beatles: Rock Band originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From the dudes being shot in line to the comically large taxis, everybody loves the excitement of a new console launch. But Rich Hilleman, the chief creative officer of EA, says you shouldn't expect similar events in the immediate future. Speaking at the Hot Chips conference in Stanford (via VentureBeat), Hilleman predicted that the current economic climate would better foster smaller updates to existing gaming systems, especially in the face of growth in digital distribution.

"I expected we'll see a PlayStation 3.5 before we see a PlayStation 4 and an Xbox 560 before we see an Xbox 720," he said. "The biggest shift is how fast packaged goods games are changing and going away." Hilleman also added that gaming's future has more to do with Korea than Japan. Isn't it nice that EA and Blizzard can agree on something?

EA's Hilleman expects console growth to be iterative originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Disrespectful bespectacled witch spectacle news now, with Platinum Games expressing the desire to release a demo for its "non-stop climax action" game, Bayonetta. Speaking at a demonstration event in Japan, producer Yusuke Hashimoto told Famitsu (as translated by Andriasang and hilariously mangled by Google) that the developers had already begun constructing a demo in earnest. Hashimoto hopes to provide a snippet of content not merely taken out of the full game, but devised to entice even existing owners.

Said owners will mainly start appearing in Japan this October, when the game is scheduled to launch on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 -- well before the North American release in January 2010. You'll probably want to read our hands-on impressions before you get your hand on it.

Update: Sega of America is unable to confirm plans for a North American demo at this point.

Bayonetta demo will give you a taste of 'non-stop climax action' originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though we'd love to spend our precious time poring over the just-released cover of upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV DLC retail pack, Episodes from Liberty City, we're not entirely certain of what to pick apart. The usual sexified lady and mean-looking gentlemen are present and accounted for, as is another helicopter to remind us of The Ballad of Gay Tony's apparent vehicle of choice. A few friends from the The Lost & Damned also make an appearance, but there isn't much else to ogle.

We still don't have a release date for the expansion or much more than a handful of screenshots, so we really hope you enjoy this box art until the first trailer hits tomorrow afternoon.

GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City gets box arted originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know -- it's tiresome hearing about "DLC" when we're still waiting on "regular ol' C" -- still, our interest was piqued by the mention of possible downloadable content for Final Fantasy XIII in a recent RPG Site interview with Squeenix's Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Kitase. According to Kitase, the developer is "exploring the option of downloadable content, perhaps adding new areas, items or enemies." He went on to add that any DLC wouldn't expand the game's story -- that'll be completely contained within the core game.

Our hope is, as ever, that any potential expansion for the game will finally add that Final Fantasy kart racer mode we've been waiting on ever since -- wait, they already did one of those? Get out of town!

[Via VG247]

Final Fantasy XIII might get DLC, no story expansions originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In celebration of the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo, this week's Xbox Live Marketplace Deal of the Week is none other than Gabe & Tycho's second adventure: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two. Normally 1200 ($15 USD), the Hothead Games' episodic RPG has been reduced to 800 ($10 USD) in Microsoft funny-money.

The sale also begs the question, "Where da heck is Penny Arcade: Episode Three?!" Hopefully Hothead Games and the guys at Penny Arcade will be able to tell us all about the next game in the series when PAX 2009 kicks off on Friday, September 4. Make sure to keep refreshing Joystiq all weekend long as a slew of our minions will be on hand for the community friendly event.

Queue up the XBLM Deal of the Week: Penny Arcade - Episode 2

XBLM Deal of the Week: Penny Arcade - Episode 2 originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week's XBLA offerings are a pair of 800 ($10) titles, reports Major Nelson: Defense Grid: The Awakening and Yo-Ho KaBlammo. Each title is a bit heavy on the combat, with Defense Grid offering plenty of tower defense action, and Yo-Ho KaBlammo taking to the seas for some free-for-all naval combat. That sounds all well and good, but whatever happened to killing 'em with kindness? What would Gandhi say?

This Wednesday: Defense Grid awakens Yo-Ho KaBlammo on XBLA originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TNA Home Video presents the 2007 Turning Point DVD release, featuring Johnny Devine and Team 3D vs. Jay Lethal and The Motor City Machine Guns in a Tables Match, Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong for the TNA Women's Championship, Abyss and Raven vs. Rellik in a Match of 10,000 Tacks, The Angle Alliance vs. Samoa Joe, Kevin Nash, and Eric Young, the Feast or Fired Battle Royal to determine future TNA title shots, and much more!

Continue reading Now Playing: August 31 - September 6, 2009

Now Playing: August 31 - September 6, 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell's website is basically always the cheapest way to get a new console, as the company frequently offers 15% off coupons that can be applied to console purchases (as well as "computers" or whatever). That discount is always wonderful, but it's particularly exciting right now, what with the launch of the new PS3 Slim. Use coupon code 6FWJ247J1P44CK and your PS3 Slim will cost just $254.

The coupon code also makes for the best Xbox 360 deal yet. A post-price-drop Xbox 360 Pro sells for just $212 on the site. That's almost Arcade-price for a console that you can use! Or if you need an Arcade to replace a busted Pro or something, it's $170.
[Via Slickdeals; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Dell coupon slims down prices on new console SKUs originally appeared on Joystiq Playstation on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PAX is this weekend and all this week Xbox LIVE Gold Members can save 33% on Penny Arcade Episode 2.  Normally 1200 points, Penny Arcade Episode 2 is the latest Deal of the Week at 800 points. 

Add Penny Arcade Episode 2 to your Xbox 360 download queue

 

 Edit: Corrected the pricing

 

 

 

If you are in the US, Doritos and Xbox are teaming up to give you a chance to create your own Xbox 360 video game. Today, registration opened at www.unlockxbox.com. Head over and sign up, pitch your idea and you could add game creator to your resume and $50,000.00 to your bank account.

 

 

You could make the argument that system reliability has been the preeminent conversation of this console generation, but it's one often clouded by speculation and a lack of reliable information. Digital Foundry talked to Darren Thickbroom, an engineer for an independent console workshop, who offered a lot of revealing insight into the issue.

Thickbroom explained that the massive amount of heat generated by the HD systems -- exacerbated by high-end technology crammed into a small compartment -- contribute to their eventual demise (and all because you played on them so often). And like many "exclusive" games this generation, this is by no means constrained to one console. Though Xbox 360 failure rates are abysmal, Thickbroom noted that more PS3s have been appearing in his workshop. His gloomy prognosis? "It comes down to how much you play it. People might disagree with us, but this is the way we see it: if you handle the machines day-in, day-out with the issues they've got, I'd expect to change them every year."

We have the same rule for our underwear, so that part should be easy to remember.

Digital Foundry examines why 360 and PS3 can't take the heat originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Defense Grid and Yo Ho Kablamo are this weeks Xbox LIVE Arcade titles. They will both be available this Wednesday for 800 points each.

 

It appears that Viacom, parent company of MTV Games and Harmonix, guaranteed a minimum of $10 million, along with another potential $40 million in royalties, to its respective estates for the use of The Beatles in the upcoming Rock Band game. Sources familiar with the deal tell The LA Times that the "royalty rates on [the deal] are not even comparable to anything that has been done before." All this cash is being thrown around in the midst of a revenue decline in the rhythm genre.

MTV Games is seemingly taking even more steps away from producing and distributing peripherals. Paul DeGooyer, senior vice president at the company, explains that its "core competency is media" -- he'd rather let Activision "take on the burden of getting those super-tight margin instruments out there."

MTV spent big for The Beatles, slowly backing away from peripheral business originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get a behind the scenes look at the new NBC drama "Trauma, “the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field where the real action is.

Ever suffered from an embarrassing and painful crash after dancing drunk on a glass tabletop? Look no further than amateur attorney Kevin Pereira to see how YOU can profit from your drunken antics.

After two weeks, the guys are up nearly $200,000, but still far from their goal of $2 million. But instead of buckling down and getting serious, they decide to have a little fun and challenge a rival house of poker players to a series of challenges, including football, nightlife and, of course, poker. The winners get ultimate bragging rights and the losers get to clean the other team's pigsty of a house! Meanwhile, Brian's girlfriend Cassie comes to visit and questions his ability to fully commit to their relationship.

Get a recap of last season's finale and a behind the scenes look at what is in store for season 6 of the NBC hit comedy The Office.

The tension is high, with just days to go until Academy Award Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway has to walk the red carpet - and Rachel still hasn’t found her the perfect gown. As she and Brad race against the clock scouring Fashion Week collections in New York, Taylor heads back to the West coast to prep for a photo shoot with client Jennifer Garner. Miles away from Rachel, Taylor grows frustrated with her job and wonders about her future as a member of Team Zoe.

Navy SEAL Cade Courtley fights terrorists in this highly realistic simulation of an aircraft hijacking.

Downloading this gamer picture registers eligible gamers for the McDonald's Rock Band Play & Win Sweepstakes. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to legal residents of the 50 US or DC 18+. Entry Period Starts: 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on August 24, 2009, and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on September 7, 2009. By downloading this item, you are allowing Microsoft to contact you from time to time about this Sweeps. For details including free, alternate method of entry, see http://www.xbox.com/mcdonaldsrockband