The long awaited new chipset, codenamed “Jasper,” has finally been confirmed by Microsoft as shipped in Arcades and unleashed on store shelves near you. Jasper, a larger and cheaper 65nm GPU chip differs from its predecessor, the Falcon chip, in that it allows the 360 to run much cooler and quieter. The easiest way to spot one? Look for Arcade 360s without the memory cards, as they are preloaded with 256MB internal memory storage. So, for those of you who either crapped out on your current 360, or haven’t had the gale to purchase one as of yet, you might want to keep that in mind while you’re doing your Christmas holiday shopping.

-Chris Weng

Source: Xbox360Fanboy.com

Looks like this years VGA (Video Game Awards) might actually be worth watching. For one, they’re replacing long-time badass host Samuel L. Jackson for musician/actor Jack Black, who also happens to be working on Tim Schaffer’s game, Brutal Legend. For another, long waited news of the PS3-exclusive God of War III will be revealed during the awards ceremony, along with another sequel to a strong PS3-exclusive title, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. And just to add icing on the cake, news of purpotedly publisherless title Brutal Legend will be announced during the show. Also to be announced during the show are some add-ons to Gears of War 2, FIght Night Round 4, Watchmen, Terminator Salvation, and MORE. December 14 at 9, TIVO IT!

-Chris Weng

And the sequel trail just keeps on rolling. After the mild success achieved from GRID and Colin McRae: Dirt, Codemasters have decided to team up again with the McRae family and develop a second iteration of their nasty, dirty, muddy car racer. The sequel, aptly named Colin McRae: Dirt 2, will continue to focue on off-road racing and FUN (I hope). A Yahoo! interview reveals that the more info will be revealed in the coming months.

-Chris Weng

Source: Kotaku.com

I’ve been excited for Mirror’s Edge ever since it was announced. When I played the demo, I absolutely loved it. Maybe there’s hope for EA after all.

-Chris Weng

Bioware and Lucasarts have announced a new MMO for you to be sucked into and possibly die from: Star Wars: The Old Republic. The MMO will take place in the Old Republic, 300 years after KOTOR 2 and 3500 years before the films. There will be two factions to choose from, the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, each with their own sub-classes. EA will publish the games, and a release date has not been announced.

-Chris Weng

Source: Joystiq.com

Just a reminder. You know, in case you want to buy last minute tickets to your front row seats to the biggest show on earth this announcement event.

-Chris Weng

While Microsoft is suing DHL for the “train accident” that destroyed their beloved Xbox 360, another group of people decided to take matters on the famous Red Ring of Death into their own hands. A few days ago a lawsuit was filed against Microsoft for knowingly launching the 30% defective Xbox 360 to the public, the reason being that since the beginning the Xbox 360 has had serious manufacture problems like overheating, malfunctions, problems with the DVD drive and our “favorite” the terrible Red Ring of Death (RRoD) which practically makes your Xbox 360 useless.

The lawsuit filed in the Sacramento County Superior Court under California’s consumer protection statutes claims that Microsoft knew about the initial problems of the Xbox 360, and even knowing about the defective product they ignored the warnings and decided to leave it as a “minor problem” which they thought they could be fix with an update or patch. They were wrong. Years passed and people started returning their 360s to Microsoft due to problems with the system (RRoD), Microsoft then giving back a refurbished system which after a period of time suffered the same fate. In fact, in a report it’s said that at least half of the first production of the consoles were defective.

The lawsuit tries to make a program to “disgorge all profits attributable” to Microsoft for selling the defective product. Microsoft thought that their extended warranty extension plan would help but it cost them over $1 billion dollars to implement this plan, and yet we still suffered the rage of the RRoD…

Hope after this Microsoft decides to take care of the products we consumers buy from them, because it’s damn annoying to wait every 3 months for our new defective consoles to be shipped back so we can play our tower of “new” games, waiting to be opened…

Sources: Reghardware.co.uk, ComputerandVideoGames.com

If you all remember Bioshock, then you’ll remember the kickass time that you had playing it on your Xbox360. PS3 owners, however didn’t get their Game of the Year 2006 until now, and it looks like 2k has a special treat for them. Above is the teaser for Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams. Yeah, I just came in my pants am just as excited as you guys are.

Source: N4G.com