News: Medal of Honor: Airborne New Screenies

While building on the key tenets of the franchise including historical accuracy and authenticity, Medal of Honor Airborne is set to redefine the series by introducing players to an entirely new way of experiencing a WWII FPS – namely the fully interactive Airborne experience. As the first game in the Medal of Honor series to be released on next generation platforms, Medal of Honor Airborne will ship to stores in Winter 2006 under the EA brand for the Playstation 3 and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment systems, Xbox 360 and entertainment system, Xbox videogame system from Microsoft, and Windows PC.

Step into the boots of Boyd Travers, Private First Class of the 82nd Airborne Division and engage in battles throughout Europe. From rocky beginnings in Sicily to war-winning triumphs in Germany, each mission begins behind enemy lines, with an intense and fully interactive airdrop. Your ability to determine your own starting point dramatically changes the way each mission plays out. View the entire operation from the air, and then control your parachute to choose your landing spot. On the ground, gather your senses and assess the terrain. A wide variety of authentic, customizable weapons are at your disposal, each with distinct characteristics. Choose your path in this free roaming FPS environment. Medal of Honor Airborne will also feature exceptionally photo-realistic characters, adding to the intensity of the cinematic, story-driven game.

The Medal of Honor Airborne development team continues to ensure that the ideals and integrity of the prestigious congressional Medal of Honor are accurately reflected in the game. The producers sought counsel from numerous expert sources to make certain the game is historically accurate and as true to the WWII Airborne experience as possible. Serving as a military spokesperson for Medal of Honor Airborne, Capt. Dale Dye, who has worked as the Military Technical Advisor for the last 7 Medal of Honor games, will help to create a truly authentic experience.

Developed by EA Los Angeles (EALA), Medal of Honor Airborne has not yet been rated by PEGI. For more information on Medal of Honor Airborne and the Medal of Honor franchise, please visit: http://www.moh.ea.com.

Source: Gameinfowire

News: Microsoft Sayz "No Cut 4 U!"

Writing blogs during class is a blessing. Thank god for the internet.-KURMYSTA

Microsoft has once again denied that there are any plans to cut the price of the 360 - at least, not before the end of 2006.
Rumours of a cut began to emerge as early as May, resurfacing in June and July - but each time, MS dismissed them. However, in August, the price of the Core system did drop from GBP 209 to GBP 199, with retailers claiming the initiative was driven by Microsoft and vice versa.
There has recently been speculation that a price cut could be on the way in time for Christmas, in a bid to give the Xbox 360 an extra boost as the Wii hits shelves worldwide and the Ps3 arrives in the US and Japan.
But speaking to SeattlePI.com, a spokesperson said there are "no plans to adjust the price of the Xbox 360 this year".
It would seem that the company is sticking to its guns for the time being, with more than 6 million consoles sold and a year's head start over Sony and Nintendo. There's also the fact that the PS3 has been delayed in Europe until March, giving Microsoft even more time to establish a healthy installed base over here.
Analysts speaking to SeattlePI.com agreed that a price cut for 360 is unlikely in the near future, with Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter explaining that the price gap between Xbox 360 and the PS3 gives Microsoft "the luxury of waiting".

Source: Gameindustry.biz

Guide: How to Get Around 360's Country Lock

This may be painfully obvious once you think about it, but for those who haven't, here's a way to get around the Xbox 360 country lock for downloadable content. Microsoft's chosen to disable certain game demos and game videos for people of certain regions, but we want all our media to be free, don't we? Go online to xbox.com and register a new gamertag with an email address not associated with any previous account. Then make sure you set your country to either Japan or America—perhaps making one tag for each. Then when that's done, go on your Xbox 360 and choose "recover gamertag" to grab the info from this tag onto your 360. Now you can see all the Japanese games you've been missing out on.

Source: Gizmodo.com

News: New Blue Dragon Scans!

In the latest edition of the Japanese magazine Famitsu, there are four pages of information on the upcoming game Blue Dragon

(however, the magazine is in Japanese unfortunately) and new scans.

For those of you who don’t know, Blue Dragon is the game that has pretty much put Japan on the map in terms of Xbox 360s. In Japan, there is a very nice 360 bundle including the core system, Blue Dragon, a Blue Dragon faceplate and a set of mini figures of the characters in the game all for only 29, 800 Yen (or $250).

Source: Xboxic.com

Review: Ninety Nine Nights

Game Information:
Genre: Action Adventure > Fantasy
Developer: Q Entertainment
Developer: Phantagram
ESRB Rating: M

My Personal Review:
This game reminds me of an MMORPG without the MMO. It most reminds of me of Ragnarok Online for the simple reason that you have to fight a bunch of random monsters (goblins, etc.) and gain items and level up. Ninety Nine Nights is a fantasy-type middle ages roleplaying game where you play as a great hero of the Knoght of the Light. I would also consider this game to be a strategy game because the missions often take many restarts to complete and you have to form a plan of action as to where your army will be, and how you will defeat the enemy. You can choose from 6 different campaigns each one can be accessed by completing the previous campaign. You and your army (you can choose what kinds of backup you want, like archers, heavy infantry, etc.) must defeat the evil doings of different armies... and that's what makes this game so much fun to play. The fact that you get to take on entire armies, sometimes even solo adds a whole new factor to the level of fun. N3 is like most of RPG's where you must kill to gain experience, items, levels, and new combo skills. 1 things that's different about N3 is that if you have ever played an MMORPG (such as RO, WoW, or GW) you know about mob-training or farming... that's exactly what this game is. You can easily reach over 1000 kill combos and thousands of kills (each mission varies). Usually I wouldn't rent these games for console gaming but I felt this game has redeemed itself in my view as a really fun and challenging game. One thing I really liked about this game was the RPG type feel and the mucho kills you can get. One thing I really hated about this game was that I really relied on a game guide to get through the game, and I hated restarting about 50 times for each single mission... starts to get annoying. -KURMYSTA

My Rating:
I give this a rating of 7/10.
The good things about this game are:

• I love killing armies at a time.
  
• Fun gameplay of leveling up and gaining items.
  
• Very challenging, and took me quite a while to beat.
  

The bad things about this game are:

• Might be a little bit too hard.
  
• Hated restarting everything after I died and constantly restarting the mission 50 times.
  
• I used it on a small tv and the text was hard as hell to read.
  

Resources:

• Official Website
• IGN Coverage
• Team Xbox Coverage
• Gamespot Coverage
• Cheats & Codes
• Ninety Nine Night's Walkthru
  

News: Microsoft sells 6 Million 360's Worldwide

Microsoft on Thursday announced that it has sold 6 million Xbox 360 units worldwide amid first quarter losses in its Xbox game division.

The Xbox 360 dropped to U.S. retail in Nov. 2005 and in July, the company announced that it had served 5 million Xbox 360s in worldwide markets.

Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division posted a $96 million in the first quarter ending Sept. 30, lower than the $173 million loss posted one year prior. In addition, Microsoft said that the division saw a 70% revenue increase from the previous year.

Source: Punchjump.com

News: 360 Sales Break Sales Records in Australia

Xbox 360 has become the fastest-selling console in Australia, shifting over 100,000 units since its release in March this year.

The previous record was held by Sony, with PlayStation 2 selling 78,000 units during its first seven months on sale.

"Our figures show that Xbox 360 has been the fastest ever console to sell 100,000 units in Australia, reaching that mark in just seven months," said Daniel Morse, senior account manager at GfK Australia. With software sales amounting to 400,000 according to GfK, the 360 continues its strong performance in the region, where it also became the fastest-selling console at launch, selling over 30,000 units in just four days.

Source: GameIndustry.biz