Lips. It’s like SingStar but with added percussion. You use the wireless microphones to sing along to the words onscreen, and fill in drums, cymbal crashes and tambourine shakes with a wave of  the motion sensitive mic.

There are 40 songs to choose from, as well as the ability to plug your mp3 player into the console to warble over tracks stored on that. It uses original artist videos, and dampens the vocal track so you can lay your own singing over the top.

Details about pricing and some of the specific features were sketchy, but it’s slated for a Christmas release.

On first impressions, it looked a lot like SingStar, albeit with a little bit of Rock Band thrown in. Should be quite fun!

Thanks for reading!
- Alex

Nintendo’s upcoming Wii™ MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote™ controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.

Thanks for reading!
- Alex 

Some are calling it the best game released this year others are demanding it be thrown in the gutter but I have played this game and I have careful considered it and have made up my opinion.

Firstly before I either ratify it or dam it to the pits of fiery hell I will give you a short outline of the game.

Battlefield: Bad Company drops gamers behind enemy lines with a squad of renegade soldiers who risk it all on a personal quest for gold and revenge.

Featuring a cinematic single-player experience loaded with adventure and dark humor, the game delivers the series’ trademark sandbox gameplay in a universe where nearly everything is destructible. Battlefield: Bad Company also features a full suite of the franchise’s trademark multi player options with deep gameplay designed to take full advantage of the game’s massively destructible environments.

Sounds like a good game does it not? Well I didn’t like it

As a seasoned battlefield two modern combat player I was disappointed with the gameplay as it was not as fluid as I remember from modern combat.

Anyhow there are better reviews and comments over at Test Freaks which I would suggest you all check out.

Thanks

Andrew

Microsoft will soon cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 model, according to a published report. The company will reduce the retail price for the 20-GB Xbox 360 Pro by $50, to $299 “in the coming weeks,” according the Hollywood Reporter. The magazine’s report cited anonymous sources in the retail industry. Microsoft officials did not immediately return a call from InformationWeek seeking comment. Microsoft is looking to maintain recent Xbox sales’ momentum in the face of stiff competition from Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii unit. The 40-GB PlayStation 3 sells for $399, while the Nintendo Wii sells for $250.

In its most recent quarter, Microsoft reported that Xbox 360 total console sales surpassed 19 million during the period, up 74% from the previous year. Recent releases of hot-selling game titles, including Halo 3?and Grand Theft Auto IV, have helped spur Xbox 360 sales. Halo 3, an Xbox 360 exclusive, smashed numerous gaming industry sales records when it debuted late last year — including most launch-day sales. Among the upcoming titles that Microsoft is counting to further grow Xbox 360 sales is Rock Band 2, which is slated for release in September. The game lets players perform popular songs by using an array of virtual instruments.

So what is this going to mean for us here in the UK? There is no word on it by hopefully we will be reciving the price cut as well but maybe not to £175 we will just have to see.

- Andrew

Source: Info Week

There’s nothing quite so rock and roll as a reunion tour, a fact underlined by today’s announcement of Rock Band 2, which will see MTV Games and Harmonix once again team up with Electronic Arts to put toy instruments and games on shelves across the nation. However, unlike last year’s series debut, Rock Band 2 will be very selective about which shelves it appears on. The game will debut on the Xbox 360 in September, and after a North American “exclusive launch window,” it will find its way to additional unspecified platforms by year’s end. With this year’s installment of Activision’s rival rocker Guitar Hero going head-to-head with the full four-piece band concept, Rock Band 2 is making a few upgrades of its own. First and foremost among the details revealed today is that the sequel will be backward compatible with the original Rock Band’s downloadable content, with no need to repurchase or redownload it to the system.

That makes for a sizeable potential Rock Band 2 library right off the bat, given that the Rock Band music store currently has more than 200 songs available, which have garnered some 15 million paid downloads since the game launched in November. Furthermore, Harmonix will be offering “new and improved” drum and guitar controllers with new features and designs, “all fully compatible with original Rock Band instruments.” The game’s tracklist will consist entirely of master recordings, and Harmonix is also promising new online modes with a greater emphasis on the Rock Band community’s social aspects. More details about Rock Band 2 will be made public at this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit.

Source: Gamespot

Sony on Monday dated and detailed PS3 firmware update 2.40, a gameplay upgrade that includes in-game Cross Media Bar access and Trophy achievements to facilitate nerd cred. As previously unveiled, PS3 update 2.40 will introduce two features already popularized by Xbox 360; a universal system menu during gameplay, and an achievement system that tracks, records, and shares player accomplishments made in game. Firstly, in-game XMB “means you can access the PS3 menu at any time while playing most games, simply by tapping the PlayStation button on your controller,” say Sony. “With 2.40, you can check if any of your friends are online (thanks to their own user profile), read and send messages, change some settings for games, all without having to quit the game you are playing.”

With regards to the Trophy system, all in-game accomplishments will be recognized with either platinum, gold, silver, or bronze hardware, depending on how much content has been unlocked and at what ranking. Xbox 360 recognizes accomplishments with a single Gamer Score, a total of all unlockable points acquired. Sadly, Trophies will be limited to only a handful of games at launch, and they are not retroactive, meaning any supported will have to be replayed to acquire a Trophy.

Source: Gamepro

Graduation time is near for most students at Tesoro High School in Orange County California. However, two students are facing the prospect of beginning a prison term rather than walking across the stage to receive their diplomas. One of the teens faces the possibility of 38 years in prison.The two teens, Omar Khan and Tanvir Singh, have been charged with multiple felony counts. Khan’s chargers are by far the most severe with a total of 69 felony counts pending against him including identity theft, second degree burglary, computer access and fraud, removing and secreting a public record and altering and falsifying a public record.

The charges stem from Khan’s attempt to hack into his teachers computer using a stolen password to change his low grades to A’s and B’s. Khan is also alleged to have tried to install spyware to allow him access to the schools secure network remotely. In addition to attempting to change his own grades, Khan is also accused of trying to change the grades of 12 other students. Khan was found out when he requested a school transcript in order to appeal a denial of admission to the University of California for the coming fall semester. An investigation was started after school administrators noticed discrepancies in Khan’s grades. That investigation resulted in the officials finding Khan had original tests, answers and copies of his altered grades.

Source: DailyTech

Also known as “CliffyB” Bleszinski’s Cyber Bitch,

The Unreal Game engine has revolutionized the gaming experience over the past 10 years. From its humble beginnings it has now got critical acclaim for its highly detailed indoor environments and awe inspiring outdoor spaces. It caused a great deal of competition with rival company Id Software’s Quake 2 engine. Now a decade later, it has stepped out on its own and dominated much of the online experience with Unreal Tournament, its sequels and the Amazing Gears Of War.The unreal 3 engine has changed the way we think of video games with its highly realistic gun battles and chainsaw kills. The way the pieces of skull bounce off of anything it comes into contact with after scoring a headshot. To how the bodies explode from a close range shotgun blast.

Right around the corner is the mystic Unreal 4.When asked about this developer Tim Sweeny said this..

TG Daily: You already have started working on Unreal Engine 4.0?

Sweeney: “We have a small Research & Development effort dedicated to the Unreal Engine 4. Basically, it is just me, but that team will be ramping up to three to four engineers by the end of this year - and even more one year after that. In some way, we resemble a hardware company with our generational development of technology. We are going to have a team developing Unreal Engine 3 for years to come and a team ramping up on Unreal Engine 4. And then, as the next-gen transition begins, we will be moving everybody to that. We actually are doing parallel development for multiple generations concurrently.”

There are many things i would love to see in UE4 including more open ended gameplay but with the destructibility and detail of the upcoming GOW2. More realistic lip sync technology and an improved physics system.And much much more but ill leave that for another post.

Catch ya next time, Matty

It has been bugging me as I have advanced through the ranks and prestiges that we are not going to get a sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I am coming to the final prestige and have really enjoyed both the online and offline aspects of the game having got almost all of the achievements as well as getting as far online as I have. The game has many great features that have made it in my opinion the best first person shooter to date so why not make a sequel?

Surely there would be a greater market for a game with possibly an even wider array of weapons, even better graphics and game play than for yet another World War two game. We have glorified the Second World War far too many times already doing a disservice to the millions of soldiers that died fighting for our freedoms. There are only a certain number of times that you can run over the same beaches with the same weapons fighting the same battles before you get bored. I know that the graphics and game play will be better than ever before but still the Second World War is one of the most frequently told stories of the modern age. When I first learned to program I was told “Don’t reinvent the wheel” so why not apply that to the making of games. Why go over the same topic so many times when there are so many more to explore in the first person shooter genre.

As Infany Ward hand back the copy right we reflect on the best game that has been released since Halo 2. They as a company have come from nothing to something but are throwing it all away again. It’s not like they have a choice mind you as it was one of the original contract clauses but still it is a great shame. I think that modern warfare should continue in its own series breaking away from the Call of Duty brand as they are on to a winner. People bought it because of its brand but now they love it for the game itself.

I would love to hear some of your thoughts and questions and am available at andrew@anotherblog.co.uk and in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading

- Andrew