How To Hack The Xbox360 Kinect.

Microsoft has recently said that the company is open to people hacking the Xbox360 Kinect. In fact Microsoft is encouraging people to try and experiment with their software.Microsoft will be releasing a software development kit very soon, this at the time will be for personal only, but i'm sure we will soon have the secrets to the Kinect technology, and if some how they aren't leaked then Microsoft says that they will most likely release a commercial version in due course.
Microsoft are doing this because they want people to take the Kinect to new levels, with currently the Kinect being hacked for PC and the Kinect being used for surgery. So the future seems good for the Kinect. If you haven't already seen have a look at the future releases for Xbox360 Kinect.

R.I.P Guitar Hero

The very popular game of Guitar Hero has been axed by Activision simply because "it's not a category that people are interested in right now, and so i think we need to focus our efforts on the things that get the consumers excited." said Bobby Kotick (one of the main people behind Guitar Hero at Activision.)
This is basically saying that they will not be bringing out a new guitar hero, but this is not forever, yes that right guitar hero might come back in the future, but only if Activision sees a gap in the market for it or if their consumers demand it. But I don't think we will be seeing a new guitar hero games for at least 4 years.
It just seems that Guitar Hero is to expensive to make and that is isn't selling well enough for them to make enough profit to go to all the effort of making any new games. Also there have been lots of complaints about the games being unreliable as the guitars, and other equipment, often break and have to be sent off to be fixed.
So looks like it's goodbye Guitar Hero... For now.

Xbox360 Kinect Rumored Games Including Assassins Creed And Halo

Assassins Creed
Halo
Splinter Cell
Prince Of Persia
Ghost Recon
These are 3 of the most popular games by Microsoft and it is rumored that these could all be coming out for Kinect!
According to "WHOis," a domain registration site, Microsoft registered a domain called KinectHalo.com some time last year. This could easily be proof that there is going to be Halo on the Kinect, I think it would be most likely to be a Halo Wars sequel because I'm unsure how they would do anything else, but nothing has been officially announced just yet.

Next is Assassins Creed and Splinter Cell, and the other games on my list, all of these are made by Ubisoft. And just last month the company were "considering Kinect adaptations for all there major platforms." It was also quoted that "we can propose Kinect versions of all the brands that we have got, but at the end of the day it's down to the production team. We can't promise anything yet. But we will have something for everything, we can assure that!" So to me it seems quite likely that the Kinect could be getting a number of these games and possibly many more, news will be released by Microsoft in the upcoming months. I sure hope that Kinect doesn't kill these games off thought for that would be terrible.

Micheal Phelps - Push the Limit

The newest confirmed release for Xbox Kinect is a swimming game which stars 14 time Olympic medalist Micheal Phelps.
The game involves Micheal Phelps helping to coach the newest upcoming swimmer, the player. The player will have to move there body and perfect there stroke technique to become the best on the wireless console, and eventually if you have perfected your swimming you can then challenge the great Micheal Phelps for a race.
Push the limit is about mastering and improving everything, from controlling your adrenaline before the race to perfectly timing the finish of your race.
"this definitely isn't your typical video game" says Phelps. (but then again he is bound to say that, trying to advertise the game more so he can get more money)
The game is due out in June 2011 and i think will be just another very similar Kinect game, but hopefully I will be proven wrong!

Dragon Age 2 Demo To Be Released Shortly For ALL Consoles.

Bioware have just announced that the Dragon age 2 demo will be out for all consoles and will be released on the 22nd of February, just two weeks before the game itself is released.
This will give anybody who hasn't decided whether they want to buy the game a chance to try it out before you decide. And even if you are definitely going to buy the game it's still worth getting the demo because its been confirmed that if you complete the game you will be given a sick new weapon called Hayden's Razor.
The games demo is already out for all gamestop employees on their computers so we might be able to get some demo footage before the demo is available for the public. (but no promises)
I look forward to trying out the demo and trying the knew fighting style that this game promised and I am very excited for the sequel of a great game.

What Does The Future Hold For Halo?

Microsoft's Major Nelson has said that there will be a new add-on for Halo Reach coming out "very soon."

He didn't give any further details but it's likely to be more multi player maps. It's rumoured that it is very likely that there will be more info soon, possibly tonight.

There is also a rumour that there are going to be at least two more map packs for Reach by Bungie but this source is unreliable.

And earlier this week it was revealed that Microsoft has purchased an online domain which hints at a future Halo Kinect project. But at the time most of what's in store is guess work, but there will be regular updates and we shall keep you informed.

Dead Space Aftermath, Possibly the Worst Film Ever?

So as you will most likely know Dead Space 2 was out last week, unfortunately I haven't played it yet but hopefully I will be doing very soon as the first one was great fun and terrifying to play. Anyway, back to my post. Today I heard there was going to be a film about it so I looked into it. And my God it looks like the worst film ever, so corny and cheesy.

Dead Space Aftermath is the sequel to Dead Space Downfall, both of them are animated films and both of them look truly boring. I mean why ruin a perfectly good game by making it into an awful film. The trailer is extremely unrealistic, with a girl walking straight in front of the zombie/monster and not noticing it until it rips her guts out, this is a great let down after all the time and effort that Visceral have put into there game play. This film could have had so much potential and have been an extremely scary film but sadly not, oh well back to playing Amnesia I guess.

Playstation3 Hack, Warning.

A warning for all hackers of the PS3.

Sony has recently won a court case against George Hotz, who was a successful hacker of the PS3, he is not longer allowed to put any information on the web about the hack to the PS3, the hack allowed people to run any software on there console, including pirated games. George Hotz now has to hand all of his computers to Sony and has been banned from the web.

Also in addition to this Sony have added another security update to there console to download, which has resulted in some players being permanently banned from playing online.

"Help! I've hacked my PS3, what do I do?" This is a common question, whilst I'm not sure if the Hack is reversible you are very unlikely to be banned unless you draw attention to yourself. Also it is highly recommended that you avoid downloading the latest update if possible. But there are rumours that work is ongoing to find a way around this latest update.

Microsoft Profits Going Down.

Microsoft profits dropped in the last quarter of 2010 compared to the last quarter of 2009. (note: last quarter means the last 3 months of the year so October, November, December.) Yes it was released a few days ago that even though Microsoft has sold over 8million Kinect controllers in this quarter they still haven't made as much as the previous year.

In 2010 they made $6.63billion (£4.18billion)

Whereas in 2009 Microsoft made $6.66 billion.

Even though this isn't as good this is a lot better than Microsoft expected because in 2009 they had the release of Windows7 to make them a lot of money, which it inevitably did. And in 2010 they had very weak PC sales which hits Microsoft hard as they are selling less office software.

So still a very successful quarter for Microsoft.

Sony Unveils PSP2!

At a special conference in Tokyo, Sony company bosses revealed that they are in the making of the PSP2, it is to be called the NGP, which stand for Next Generation Portable. It is expected to be out towards the end of 2011, but there are no details to how much it will cost.

The device itself has a 5-inch OLED touch screen, as well as wi fi and built in 3g to allow the gamer to download games and other content. The design (182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm) includes a rear panel touch pad for some reason and a motion sensor. There is a camera on the front and on the back, it features the usual buttons for navigation and for the first time ever two analogue sticks.

Sony hopes that this will be enough to win over customers from the Nintendo, but I highly doubt that with Nintendos latest hand-held console, the Nintendo 3DS.

Black Ops Patch 1.06 Outrage!

So you may well know that the Black Ops patch, version 1.06, was released for PS3 today. And there was an outrage when this image was found on the PS3 console for search and destroy. The image was brought up on a forum not too long ago, it shows that when you go to play search and destroy it says "No Xbox LIVE party chat."
Well I don't think the Play station community wanted Xbox LIVE party chat on Search and Destroy anyway.
But none the less this aggravated a lot of PS3 console owners and even some PC gamers. They said that there systems were used "to test the patch and then they focused on the Xbox360." People were outraged that Activision would take up such biased ways.
I for one think this is a simple mistake and just needs correcting no need to complain really, but some people take things a lot more seriously. To be honest when I first saw this I laughed, it is very unlikely that Activision would favour one console.
If your an Xbox360 Console owner then don't worry, earlier today Phil Amaro (who worked closely on the update) tweeted that the new update will be out "shortly" for Xbox360 owners. Now shortly is a very vague term but I think we can assume that it will be available in the next 24 hours. I sure hope so, I for one am very fed up of having my kills stolen when I put somebody on last stance!

Xbox360 Kinect Helps With Robotic Surgery.

Normally Robotic Surgery is used for difficult operations because it can be a lot more precise than big human hands, but the problem is that the surgeons operating the machines can easily bump into vital organs and cause some damage which could ruin the whole surgery.
Well in response to this problem some graduate engineering students from America have developed an Xbox360 Kinect hack which will solve the problem, it will allow surgeons to have a sort of map of the Human body and help a lot in surgery as they can create "force fields" around the vital organs to stop the robotic arms bumping into them.
Researchers say the Kinect is the perfect device for assisting in robotic surgeries, because it's already programmed to measure and map 3-D environments by using infrared light reflected off surfaces. And, most importantly, it costs only £150 which is nothing to the medical world. Fredrik Ryden, (one of the students involved) said this project could have cost up to about £50000 without the Kinect.
Sounds great but the Kinect isn't quite ready for surgery yet, it needs to be scaled down a lot as its meant to pick up the movement in a whole room so needs to be scaled down a lot which could take time, but this sounds like a great break through for surgery and shows how gaming is good for your health.

New Xbox360 Controller By Razer Out Now!

New Razer Contoller

So this is the first look at the new Xbox360 controller by Razer. Razer has come up through the ranks in the last couple of years to establish its position as a serious competitor in the gaming market, they have earned huge amounts of money with in the PC gaming community and now they have come to try and take over the console market, starting off with this new Xbox360 controller that is available for pre ordering nowx

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Extra button on Razer Controller

So what's so good about this controller?
Well first of all as you can see it has an extra button on the back, so there are a total of four buttons and two triggers, these buttons can be assigned to represent any other button on the Xbox controller. This means you could be knifing with one of the buttons and going prone with the other, whilst the other two remain as normal, giving you an advantage over your enemy in first person shooters.
I'm not sure you can see this from the picture but the sticks resistance can be individually customized. This means you can make it more sensitive or less sensitive, so this will be good for being able to keep control on those tricky corners during driving games. And also you may have noticed that the D-pad looks different, this is apparently superior to the previous controllers D-pad, but Razer are still working on perfecting their D-pad.

Sounds brilliant, what's the catch?
Well the problem is the cost the controller is going to be around £35-45. We still cant be sure on the price at the moment but this is a rough estimate, this isn't that much more expensive than a current standard Xbox360 controller.
To conclude, this looks like a great edition to the gaming network and could revolutionise the controller market as it gives you a huge advantage over your foes. I think its well worth the extra money and cant wait to buy one myself. Hopefully it should be in my possession by February, but there is still no confirmed release date. We will just have to wait and see.
Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any questions, but at the moment there is a lot we don't know so don't expect a solid answer.

First Strike Map Pack For Black Ops.

Yes, it’s that time again! With Call of Duty’s latest instalment ‘Black Ops’ losing interest to many CoD fans, Treyarch have recently announced the release of the game’s first map pack, titling ‘First strike’ and to be honest, the name says it all. The map is set to release on 1st February for all Xbox 360 users, because of the fact that Microsoft struck a deal with Activision for the exclusive content to be on the Xbox first, which is all fair enough when Xbox users have to pay for online. There is no confirmed release date for the PC or the PS3
The map pack will retail at 1200 Microsoft points as priced by Activision. This is about $15 or just under £10. This price may seem a little too much for some; however 1 extra map is included this time around, (4 online maps, instead of the normal 3) along with the all important zombie map that will again "freshen" things up.

Discovery - An Antarctic German research station, abandoned from World War II. There are going to be lots of open ground, meaning this might be the first actual map where you can snipe effectively (not to say that you can’t snipe on a map such as Array for example) This looks like a medium/large sized map.

Kowloon – Inspired from the single-player campaign based off of Kowloon city in China. It's a rooftop map. There are lots of windows, however there is little information about this map and there are no images.

Stadium – Hockey rink in north-eastern United States. This looks like it could be a new favourite for most Black Ops players. Again, another medium sized map, with lots of visible obstacles for cover. Its believed that this is going to be one of the most attractive maps in the series to play on, simply because of the colours and buildings.

Berlin Wall – Takes place at Checkpoint Charlie. A battle between East and West Berlin. To be honest, this is a medium sized map with lots of buildings circling a courtyard, which kind of makes me wonder if it’s going to be a little bit like ‘Block’ from Call of Duty 4.

Ascension – The newest zombie map. There haven’t been any details released about this map, however the word ‘ascension’ may be able to give us a clue, it’s a mystical belief that ascension is when somebody (like Jesus) ascends into heaven. Hmmm, you may think! However there are rumours that this may be set in Dallas where the famous assassination of John F. Kennedy took place. Who knows? We’ll have to just wait and see.

Well that's all the information we have for the time being, but will hopefully get more information near the time and for any PS3 owners there will be information up here once is it is available on Xbox360, so come back in February for the full low down of the newest maps and whether they are worth the money.

New Year Means New Games

So the start of 2011 brings great news for all us gamers. 2011 shall be full of exciting new games, and I'll warn you now there are a lot!
So here's a short list of the biggest games that are meant to be released, with the dates of some which have been confirmed.
Little Big Planet - January 18th
Dead Space 2 - January 25th
Dragon Age 2 - March 8th
Portal 2 April 20th
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine - Summer Holidays
Fifa 2012 - Unknown
Battlefield 3- Unknown
Uncharted 3- December 1st
Call Of Duty - Out for Christmas
Gears of War 3 - Out for Christmas
Rachet And Clank: All 4 One - Out for Christmas
Mass Effect 3 - Out for Christmas
Forza Motorsport 4 - Our for Christmas
And that seems to be the main games that have been confirmed for 2011, so sounds like its going to be a great year, I for one can't wait.
There is also a rumour that Mario Kart, one of the top selling games on Nintendo Wii after all this time, will be coming out in 3d, but I find this unlikely.
Well that's all so far, hopefully there will be more confirmed releases soon, and if so I will add them to the list, if anybody wants to know about any other games or rumours feel free to comment and ill try and get back to you.