XBL Update Preview sign-ups beginning From Gamespot.com

Microsoft accepting submissions for feedback on new XBL dashboard, which will add ESPN, Netflix search, and Zune music marketplace.


Although the next Xbox Live dashboard update isn't expected until its traditional November release, Microsoft is already soliciting feedback on the features it will add. These include the ability for Xbox Live Gold-level members to search and edit Netflix queues, watch ESPN 3 content, and shop for music on the Zune Marketplace.


According to a post today on the blog of Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, the software giant is currently accepting early testers for the new XBL dashboard. Those interested can sign up for a preview via the Microsoft Connect feedback site using the Windows Live ID tethered to their Xbox Live gamertag.


Hryb said that since Microsoft is looking for "thousands" of participants, the chance that an applicant will be admitted to the preview is "good." Those applying to take part in the survey should have their console's serial number handy and also be aware that once installed, the new XBL dashboard cannot be uninstalled. (It can, however, be updated.) Participants will also be required to fill out a survey about the new features.

Tumble Review From Gamespot.com

It's probably been quite a while since you played with building blocks; perhaps erecting towers just so that you could knock them down again or--if it was even longer ago--smashing one against the floor while gnawing and drooling on another. Saliva isn't simulated in Tumble, but if your building block ambitions aren't motivated by teething, then this PlayStation Move puzzle game almost certainly has you covered. Varied and imaginative puzzles challenge you to both build and destroy unlikely-looking towers in the lengthy single-player mode while enjoyable local multiplayer options afford you an opportunity to pit your stacking skills against a friend. Tumble isn't reason enough to invest in any Move hardware, but if you already own a Move motion controller, then that's reason enough to drop $10 on this clever and well-presented downloadable offering.

Tumble is a game that uses the Move motion controller to great effect, and the controls could hardly be simpler. You point at the block you want to pick up, use the trigger to grab and release it, and hold down the Move button when you want to reposition the camera. And that's it. The camera isn't quite as versatile as it could be and refuses to go low enough to be useful during tricky limbo-themed levels, but outside of this minor irritation, the controls are difficult to fault. Tumble even makes it incredibly easy to recalibrate your controller on the fly because you can hit the O button to center your position on the screen at anytime--very useful if you want to sit down and play after standing for a while, for example.

The puzzles in Tumble start out simply enough. Early levels do nothing to mess with the gravity that serves as your enemy and challenge you either to build as high as possible or to use as many blocks as possible. As you progress, puzzles introduce seemingly minor new challenges that end up changing the game completely. Blocks made of different materials, for example, force you to concern yourself with qualities like weight and grip, while oddly shaped blocks (does an egg even qualify as a block?) are clearly more difficult to work with than cubes. The platform that you build on gets smaller, sloped, shaky, and even swapped out for a seesaw on occasion, ensuring that Tumble's puzzles never feel overly repetitive. Other hazards you have to contend with en route to the last level include fans powerful enough to blow light blocks away, moving obstacles that will push your blocks out of the way unless you build around them, and antigravity rooms in which different-colored blocks are pulled in different directions. There are also some really satisfying puzzles that involve using mirrored blocks to manipulate beams of light. Inevitably, there will be one or two puzzles that frustrate you, but attaining bronze medals for level completion is rarely difficult--it's only when you push for silver or gold medals (which you need a number of to unlock subsequent challenges) that things get tough.

When Tumble isn't keeping you busy building, it's testing your demolition skills with score-based challenges that see you trying to take down towers using only a few limpet mines. You score points not for simply bringing the tower down, but for sending the blocks as far away from the tower's original location as possible. It doesn't sound difficult or even particularly interesting, but when you factor in blocks of different weights, blocks that offer score multipliers, and a baseball block that awards you a home run medal if your explosions send it all the way to edge of the level, these challenges become surprisingly compelling. Later demolition levels are among the most fiendish that Tumble has to offer because towers are assembled of mostly heavy blocks and have almost no obvious weaknesses.

Aero the Acrobat 2 Review From IGN.com

Aero the Acrobat's left the circus. He's put the tent behind him for the freedom of the open road, seeking new experiences in the outside world – but, sadly, the outside world just isn't as adventurous as bouncing under the big top back home.

Going into it, this 16-bit sequel from Sunsoft seems to offer about what you'd expect. Not a revolutionary departure from the original Aero adventure, but just a continuation of the Acrobat's same style of platforming play. With a different setting. Aero the Acrobat 2 ditches the signature circus scenery of the first game and swaps in, instead, a variety of much more generic levels that just don't have the same appeal as the trampoline-filled, trapeze-equipped, overcrowded-with-clowns stages we saw before.

Aero is still himself. He can still twirl through the air, spinning like a drill and tumbling around on a variety of interactive set pieces – but it just feels like a lesser experience here. He hops around on gigantic gears in an old, crumbling tower – the likes of which gamers in the mid-'90s had already seen several times in the Castlevania series. He trudges through drifts of snow in the requisite ice level, a staple of just about every other platformer developed in that same era. And even when he mixes things up with a special snowboarding stage, it just feels like a copy of the similar levels we saw elsewhere on the SNES, in Yoshi's Island.

(Though that game actually came out after this one, so the complaint is only valid in hindsight.) 

But at least the levels look great. You can tell that the developers at Iguana Entertainment learned a new trick or two between the time of Aero 1's release and Aero 2's completion, as cool ambient effects, subtle details and parallax backgrounds give more depth and "pop" to several of the stages. 

Aero's control also feels just a bit better, as keeping a handle on his many different types of movements was a challenge in the first game. There are still some cheap hits, and you'll still lose a life or two that will feel like more of the game's fault than your own. But it's a bit better. 

And, lastly, there's a touch of new variety tossed in here. Another of the first Aero the Acrobat's strengths was that its level objectives were often varied – in one you'd be boarding platforms, in the next you'd be collecting items. That exact structure isn't copied this time around, but there are moments when the relative monotony gets broken up. 

There are the vehicle-based challenges like the snowboarding stage mentioned before, and then there's the Ektor cup game. For whatever reason, Aero the Acrobat's chief nemesis – Mad Clown Edgar Ektor – likes to show up and challenge you to rounds of the old classic cup game. (The one where there are three cups and one good item under one of them, and their positions get spun around and swapped quickly to try to trick your eyes into losing track of where the good one went.) It's even a pretty tough little mini-game, when it gets going at higher speeds.

Though any and all of these positive points, for me, don't make this sequel a better experience than its predecessor.

CLOSING COMMENTS

Maybe I'm just being picky, but picking out retro re-releases to spend modern cash on through the Virtual Console is made much easier when the game you're thinking of buying calls out from the Wii Shop with a unique voice and individual appeal – Aero the Acrobat did that with its signature mix of a cartwheeling character and the circus setting that matched his antics, but Aero the Acrobat 2 only offers half of that successful equation.

It's still a fine game, and a decent platformer. Not the worst eight bucks you could spend on the service by far. But even with its refinements in control, graphics and the occasional cup game, I still prefer the original. Take me to the circus.

FIFA 11: Where's cheapest? From computerandvideogames.com

With just over a week to go before its UK release, the price of FIFA 11 is already being cut across the board.

Amazon is offering FIFA 11 for £35.93 on both the 360 and PS3, whilst currently offering the cheapest option for Wii owners, who can pick up the game for £29.91.

ShopTo is taking pre-orders of the game for £34.85 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - a whopping £15 under its RRP. The PSP and DS editions of the game are currently priced at £24.85, with the Wii version at £34.85.


Although GAME has the PS3 and 360 versions at £39.99 online, both versions come with early access to the FIFA 11 Creation Centre. PC, DS and PSP players can also pick up the game for £24.99. 

Meanwhile,Gamestation is selling the Wii version £32.99.

The real fun will begin when the supermarkets disclose their prices. Tesco famously cut Halo Reach to just £28 on release day last week, so expect similar shenanigans in the lead up to the release of FIFA 11.

As always we'll update our price round-up as and when confirmed details come in. 

If you spot any good deals on your travels let us know in the comments section below and we'll add them to the round-up.

Taking a Shot at Medal of Honor From IGN.com

We're getting into the holiday release season, and you know what that means: it's time for the high profile, big budget first-person shooters to hit the market. Bungie's Halo: Reach is already out and Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops is in November, and in the middle sits Medal of Honor. The name isn't new, but this subtitle-less version of the game represents a reset for the franchise. Traditionally, it'd been set in World War II, but like Infinity Ward did with its Call of Duty franchise, EA's bringing Medal of Honor into modern times. 

Development isn't taking place all in one studio. The multiplayer component is being built by DICE, the studio behind the Battlefield franchise. Only a limited number of modes and maps have been shown off so far, playable in a beta that started up a few months ago. The single-player portion, which follows various American soldiers as they fight for their lives in Afghanistan's rocky mountains, is being built at EA LA. Up to now we'd only seen a few stages demoed for us, but recently had the opportunity to go hands-on with three brief levels. If you don't know what hands-on refers to, it basically just means I played it. Here's what it was like. 

The action begins with a mission called Belly of the Beast, which is about midway through the game. I'm told in total the single-player portion of Medal of Honor will offer around eight to ten hours of content and will be divided into multi-mission chunks that flow into each other and follow different protagonists. There will be mission briefings between these stitched-together outings but those weren't shown while I was playing. The protagonist in Belly of the Beast is Dante Adams, part of a group of Rangers who are about to drop into hostile territory. Riding in Chinook transport choppers the mission begins as the soldiers bark back and forth amidst the whine of machinery. They offer encouragement to each other and make nervous jokes about the similarities between the Chinook's exit door and the landing craft used by the Allies in the D-Day invasion. 

The aircraft land and doors open to a sunny, dusty vista as everyone piles out. All's quiet for a moment as additional transports drop off more soldiers all around, establishing a sense that there's a major offensive about to begin. Amidst the excitement of the landing, bullets whiz through the dust and a rocket strikes the side of a Chinook, causing it to veer out of control. Those on the ground scatter as the rest of the air force takes off, and you rally with a smaller group of soldiers near the foot of a rock hill to assess the next step. 


The enemy isn't far, and before long the sound of gunfire is all around, echoing off the walls as bullets chip away at cover. To survive, it's necessary to hide behind rocks while your AI-controlled compatriots fight alongside. Two weapons are available initially, a shotgun and a rifle. You're free to switch between the two and should ammunition reserves run low, additional magazines can be requested from friendly soldiers. It's also possible to pick up weapons dropped by the dead, but if you decide to scoop up enemy guns it won't be possible to acquire additional ammunition. 

In terms of controls there are a few things you can do. The mechanics feel solid and allow you to point, shoot and kill quickly and efficiently. I know that may sound psychopathic to something who hasn't played a first-person shooter before, but it's important in this kind of game since it's a majority of what you do. There's also a lean feature, which is notable because I was playing on an Xbox 360. By holding LB on the controller I could then move the left thumbstick left and right to peer out from behind cover spots to fire at foes. It seemed to work alright, though holding LB, moving the thumbstick left and also holding left trigger to zoom was a little awkward. Aside from that, the game makes it easy to swiftly duck out of the way of incoming fire by giving you an option to slide while running. To be clear you do not stick to cover, but just slide in behind rocks and walls after which gameplay continues as normal. An option to go prone is also built in case you need to make yourself a smaller target. When things get too hectic, lobbing a grenade into enemy territory is usually a good idea. 


Back in Belly of the Beast, enemies surge behind rocks and clamber down the sides of ravines. This means it's necessary to focus in front as well as above and to the sides since enemies will often be running alongside the ridges of hills and will fire from on high behind cover. It's not all long-distance fighting, however. I switched to the shotgun while approaching a town and ran behind houses to surprise enemies who were staring in the other direction under the assumption that my squad would all stick together. Between firefights there are often dialogue sequences where decisions are made about where to go next. The dialogue here helps lend a sense of authenticity to the characters, who often shout during combat, calling out enemy positions and other threats worthy of attention, establishing a sense that they care about your well-being. 


From the town the soldiers surged toward a machine gun nest, taking cover as it unloaded. When things briefly went silent, it was necessary to pop out and send enough bullets at the machine gun operator to get him to stop firing, allowing squadmates to inch closer. Eventually smoke was tossed at the nest signaling to air support overhead that the site was to be demolished. When the bombs hit the sky filled with dust and soldiers coughed and complained as they move into a valley below, eventually reaching a house surrounded by looming hills. It was supposed to be a rendezvous point, but a cell phone is audible near the front door that triggers an explosive. The roof blows off and enemies stream in off the hills, leaving your squad to defend and pray for help. 

At this point the fighting got especially intense, as the squad was under near-constant attack by large groups of enemies firing from different positions across the hillside. By cowering against a rock wall and popping out quickly to make a few headshots it was possible to survive. Cover spots are whittled down by incoming fire and the enemies send an abandoned car crashing into the house's skeleton. Thankfully air support shows up just when you're about to completely run out of ammunition and cover to save the day. 


Through a cutscene the game then changes protagonists, transferring from the Rangers to the gunner in an Apache gunship. Here the flight action is on rails so there's no way to alter the course of the Apache's flight, but you can move around the targeting reticule to direct the ship's machine guns and, to a lesser extent, rockets. Alongside your chopper floats another friendly in this mission that's in constant communication, relaying enemy positions and other important information. The craft cut through the air over a sprawling landscape, weaving between hills and slowing when targets become visible in the distance. By zooming in it's possible to identify enemy mortar teams setting up on hillsides, and by locking and letting loose Hellfire missiles it's easy to bomb these bogeys into oblivion. In a cool effect, there's a period of delay between the action of firing and when the missile actually hits, again adding an undercurrent of realism beneath the otherwise blockbuster action movie pacing. 


The two Apaches continue to circle around hillsides, eventually identifying a line of enemy trucks that need to be demolished. A few rockets take care of that easily enough, leading to a hillside town swarming with hostile forces. Here the helicopters circle around making it easy to rain down bullets and explosives into rooftops and alleyways. There's no need to be overly concerned about ammunition here. Though you will need to manage an overheat meter for machine guns, it's still no issue to have a constant blanket of fire covering the enemy and using rockets to blast apart structures on the ground. 


Should your chopper be hit in the air it'll simply regenerate until stable, though the same can't be said of your airborne compatriots. Eventually they're hit and can no longer operate at full capacity, but will still fly around and designate targets for your Hellfire missiles. Beyond the town the Apaches move to another hillside surprisingly populated with heavily armed hostiles. After several minutes of embedding bullets and rocket shrapnel into the hillside a cutscene triggers that shows a hidden anti-air weapon just about to shoot down both choppers. Thankfully the operator is bit into by sniper fire. 


This section isn't all sniping. After picking off targets on a mountainside Deuce and Dusty take off, crunching through snowpack and squeezing through narrow spaces between rocks and roots to uncover more enemy encampments. An injured enemy is discovered and instead of charging in, Dusty leads the way up a steep incline to a cliff overlooking a small clearing. Other foes slowly creep in and fill the space to check on their fallen friend. Once they're all in view, both Deuce and Dusty open fire, bringing down all enemies within seconds with automatic weapons. Then you return to trudging across the mountain trails until you reach a group of friendly soldiers positioned across a valley on another mountain. 


It's back to the sniper rifle for this sequence, as you must peg enemies ascending the distant slope that are trying to wipe out your fellow soldiers situated near the peak. Since there are plenty of hostiles swarming up this hill this sequence was fairly frantic, and didn't leave a lot of time to carefully track targets to wait for them to slow down. When enough are wiped out your allies are able to escape over the peak. Had the demo continued, the perspective would change again to one of the fleeing soldiers as they blast their way down the other side of the mountain. 


Ultimately where this will stand against in comparison to its predecessors and the current crop of war shooters is something that won't be known until launch, but so far it's fun. It would seem EA LA is trying to deliver a kind of action movie feel with a touch of realism in the sound design and visuals. There's still a lot more to see in the campaign as well as additional maps and modes in the multiplayer portion. Hopefully the rest of the campaign can keep up the same kind of pacing and sense of urgency to make the entirety exciting to play.

New Nintendo 3DS Hardware Info From IGN.com

While it remains uncertain whether or not we'll see the Nintendo 3DS released in western territories before the end of 2010, we have received new information regarding the hardware powering the 3D-enabled handheld. 

IGN has learned that the Nintendo 3DS will pack not one, but two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs, along with a 133MHz GPU, 4MBs of dedicated VRAM, 64MBs of RAM, and 1.5GBs of flash storage. The information comes from persons familiar with the hardware who spoke to us under the condition of anonymity. 


While we were unable to determine which variation of the ARM11 processors the 3DS will feature, we now have a better sense of the system's capabilities. Currently there are a number of devices being powered by the ARM11, including the Zune HD, a variety of Android smartphones, and prior to the introduction of Apple's A4 processor, the iPhone and iPod touch.

As we learned in June, the 3DS' GPU has been named DMP's PICA200, which features a maximum processing speed of roughly 200MHz, though it seems Nintendo is scaling it back a bit for use in the 3DS. Numerous developers working on software for the platform have likened its graphical capabilities to current-generation consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, albeit on smaller, lower-resolution screens.

The handheld will also have substantially larger storage capacity than preceding models, jumping from only 256MBs on the DSi to 1.5GBs of flash memory on the 3DS. The total drive space can, of course, be expanded using the 3DS' SD card slot.

We've contacted Nintendo for comment, so stay tuned for updates.

The Old Republic: First of a New Breed From Gamerlimit.com

I have never understood the acronym “MMORPG”, because it lies.

Role-playing games are what I played as a kid in high school. Combat tables, equipment, and loot only served as structure for the interactions between our player characters and the non-player characters (NPCs) portrayed by the Dungeon Master. The role-playing was the heart of the experience.

Nowadays, we drop the RPG altogether and refer to the genre as MMO. Combat mechanics and loot tables are all that computers are fit to replicate from the tabletop. Role-playing requires human beings, and writing and performing your own dialogue is a challenge for most people. MMO players often establish unofficial “roleplay servers” to make it easier to find one another, as they are so few in number.

When Bioware announced their focus on story in The Old Republic it sounded like a step in the right direction, but I couldn’t figure out how a focus on individual plot lines was going to support the group play that is so essential to a successful MMO. If all the players have their own, individual stories to pursue, what’s to keep them gaming together over time? When I sat down with Daniel Erickson after my hands-on demo of TOR at E3, this was the first question I asked him.

“The demo you played takes place on the origin worlds,” Erickson said. “Most of that is class specific content, but you can still work together to accomplish those goals.”

Why, I asked, would we stay together after that point?

“The great majority of our content is not class-specific,” Erickson said. “Each planet in the game has a world arc. They are giant, multi-quest stories that are designed for party play. Also, you get different dialogue options from NPCs for being in a party,” he added as an aside.

I raised an eyebrow.

“If I talk to an NPC by myself, I get a different set of dialogue options than if I was in a group?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“If I have different types of character classes in my group during different conversations with the same NPC, do I get different dialogue choices each time?” I asked. No MMO has ever given me a reason to repeat a quest other than loot runs.

“We had to prototype the multiplayer dialogue system before we even had an engine,” Erickson laughed. “Brad Prince, our lead world designer, only plays MMOs. He’s a strictly multiplayer gamer, so he always asks how groups work. What we wanted to do was recreate the pen-and-paper tabletop roleplaying experience that people have always wanted.”

In other words, Bioware wants to create the first MMORPG that lives up to the name.

Here’s roughly how it works: you and your party of three players are on a quest together and encounter an NPC. Someone from your party starts the dialogue from the familiar Bioware radial menu. The NPC speaks, and then each member of your party gets to select a response from their personal radial menu, and you all issue your “lines” to the NPC. Think the party dialogue in Dragon Age, where party members opine about the potential choices you might make while dealing with an NPC, but now that party dialogue is being generated by human beings.

“In pen-and-paper roleplaying games, groups tend to move toward the extremes,” Erickson said. “You have a small group of dominant personalities all trying to control the direction of the party.” He gave me an example of how The Old Republic replicates this. Let’s say that your group is composed of three Light Side characters and you’re a Dark Side character. Your party begins the interaction with the NPC, and your three compatriots select Light Side dialogue choices.

You decide to screw with your party and choose a Dark Side dialogue choice.  That gets the NPC riled up, and now your other party members have to try calming him down as the dialogue continues, while you continue messing with them.

NPCs in modern-day MMOs serve as little more than quest bookends. Bioware is not only turning these interactions into substantive content through full voice support, but where groups of players are concerned has turned them into roleplaying exercises.

Bioware has taken the onus off players to learn how to successfully roleplay. The Old Republic may not even require roleplay servers because the game turns everyone into a roleplayer. Groups will no longer be solely about 40-man raids into instances, but about playing characters creating a story.

This may not make roleplaying the heart of the experience, but even introducing it as part of the default experience returns the RPG to the genre’s acronym and may forever change what players expect from an MMO well beyond expecting their NPCs to speak to them.