A developers build of Gears of War 3 has leaked its way on to the internet.  The leaked version is said to contain the full campaign and all the multiplayer modes.  After a quick search I was able to confirm that there is a “JTAG” version of the game floating around on a few torrent sites.  This leaked version can only be played on a developers console or a modded Xbox 360 so don’t expect copy’s showing up at your local flea market anytime soon, however there is the risk the games campaign being spoiled on websites like YouTube.

If you have been looking forward to playing the game it would be best to avoid clicking on YouTube videos and online streams relating to the game until its expected September 20th release date.

It seems the Korean Ratings Board is at it again as they have recently published details on Crysis being ported to the Xbox 360.  Crysis was origonally released in November of 2007 exclusivly to PC and is known for pushing the envelope in visual quality for games at the time.

I’m interested in how the game will look on the 360 considering that I still cant get the game to run well on my PC.

Sega’s upcoming survival horror game Rise of Nightmares, which is being developed exclusively for Kinect, has a Japanese release date. The game will hit Japanese shelves on September 8th and cost 7329 JPY (~$91(!)). For this somewhat hefty price, players will also get…an Avatar item?

While the games looks like an interesting mix between House of the Dead and Condemned (and is also being developed by the team behind the former franchise), I can’t help but feel that the Kinect controls will pretty much kill it. Since it’s, you know, Kinect. But we’ll find out soon enough, as the game is slated for a stateside release some time in September, probably not too long after the Japanese one.

Microsoft’s Larry Hrub, a.k.a Major Nelson has just revealed the official list of games that will be released during the Summer of Arcade promotion set to start next month on Xbox Live Arcade.

July 20th will be the day we’ll all be able to jump into the colorful world of Bastion, for 1200 MSP. If you’re into the good kind of dust, you know, the one where silicon comes from, you’ll be able to go with From Dust on July 27th. August opens up with the aptly named Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, for 1200 MSP on the 3rd, followed by Fruit Ninja Kinect on August 10th, in which you massacre helpless fruits while flailing your arms like an insane person, all for 800 MSP. Closing the promotion, Toy Soldiers: Cold War will relive your childhood Rambo fantasies without the need of any steroids on August 17th, for 1200 MSP.

And if you buy all five games, you’ll get Crimson Alliance along with three downloadable characters, for free. Unless you’re like me and live in one of the three countries that Microsoft expressively excludes from the promotion – Brazil, South Africa or Japan. In that case, you get nada. Nani-mo. Fokol.

Kinect was released and became a family favorite but the opinion of most core gamers is that the device is useless to them. If you’re in that camp, get ready to… not change your view. Microsoft is promoting their NUads integration into the Kinect dashboard experience. Huh?

Microsoft is hoping to get the program running by 2012 and use it to give voice recognition to ads. When you see a ad, “Xbox More” will be the option you get to obtain further information about an ad. “Xbox Near Me” give you the ability to track a retailer that sells a particular product near you. Finally, “Xbox Tweet” ads the function to Tweet about the ad you were looking at. I’m sure that will either go unused or call for a lot of unfollows.

So far it’s not known if advertisers are sold on the idea but if it is, you’ll definitely see them next spring. I’ll leave the “Xbox (Insert line here)” jokes to you.

Gears of War fans rejoice! A limited edition console featuring one of Microsoft’s biggest franchises is coming to stores this September during the launch of the game. The system will come with a 320GB hard drive and a sweet crimson design with Gears of War logos on top and front. This limited edition console will retail for $399.99 and here is what you will get for that 400 bucks.
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Head of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer stated in an interview recently that the upcoming Halo Anniversary edition will be shipping with Kinect support.

“Core focus for us in our press briefing this year with Kinect actually came from two sides. As a first-party, we believe that Kinect will be important to all genres of games, be it racing games with Forza, combat games like Ryse.  Even games like Halo Anniversary has Kinect integration.”

No specifics were given as to how Kinect would be used in the title but there is speculation that it involves voice controls.  Microsoft seems intent in pushing Kinect as much as it can and Phil Spencer even went as far as to say that Kinect functionality would be coming to all Microsoft Game Studios titles.

I personally don’t want Kinect to be in any of my games so hopefully Microsoft keeps the support to optional only.

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