Rumor: Halo 4 announcement coming at E3
>> From sarcasticgamer.com:
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Our inside woman/man/thing got hold of some pretty exciting news.
News that Bungie was already hard at work developing what will be Halo 4.
Now we're told that this will be announced officially at E3.
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Full Story: sarcasticgamer.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Best Buy Ad Shows Xbox 360 Price Drop Too
>> From kotaku.com:
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Another retailer has shown that Microsoft is planning to drop the price of the Xbox 360 20GB model -- formerly known as the "Pro" -- to $299, as a Best Buy employee has forwarded us (obligatorily blurry) cell phone pics of an upcoming weekly ad.
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Behold, the MS E3 08 press briefing Passport
>> From xbox360fanboy.com:
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We just received our "Passports" for the Microsoft E3 press briefing set to take place on July 14. For what amounts to a press pass, the thing is pretty elaborate as is the package in which it was delivered.
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More Pictures: xbox360fanboy.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Video Tutorial: Stream Netflix Movies Directly to your 360
>> From crave.cnet.com:
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Last week we reported about this amazing hack and now we're showing you how to do it! It comes courtesy of Lifehacker.com and takes about 20 minutes to set up.
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Full Story: crave.cnet.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
AcidMods DIY FPS Controller for Xbox 360
>> From F00 f00 on acidmods.com:
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This is basically how I think the xbox controller should have been in the first place. Its way more comfortable now and my gaming has improved too.
Its pretty obvious from the pics what Ive done. I moved the right hand stick to be level with the left and moved all of the buttons to the back. I happy with the way it came out.
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Full Story: acidmods.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Analyst questions validity of 'hybrid' Xbox 360
>> From gamesindustry.biz:
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Following recent rumours that have suggested Microsoft may allow electronics firms to develop hardware featuring Xbox 360 technology - effectively paving the way for third-parties to build Blu-ray players, PCs and set-top boxes which play 360 games - a leading analyst has said that such a move would prove too expensive.
Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan Securities, believes that any such radical repositioning of Microsoft's hardware business model might help the Xbox 360 penetrate Japan, but in other markets it wouldn't be a viable business for third-parties.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox 360 Getting a 3D Dashboard Make-Over?
>> From kotaku.com:
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We're now hearing from a number of sources that the Live dashboard is going to be getting a second interface option, one that will use the yet-to-be announced motion controller to navigate.
This new user interface, we've been told, will recreate the increasingly cluttered dashboard "blade" system in a 3D environment that will be something more akin to the Minority Report than a filing cabinet.
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Full Story: kotaku.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Official: 360 price slashed in Australia
>> From mcvuk.com:
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The Xbox 360 has become the cheapest home console on the Australian market after Microsoft slashed the price of the entry level Arcade model from [AUD] $399 (£191) to $349 (£167).
The mid-range 360 console, with a 20GB hard drive, now sells for $499 (£239). Before the cuts it was $579 (£277).
The high-end black Xbox 360 Elite, which adds a 120GB hard drive, HDMI cables and a free 30-day Xbox Live Gold membership, was slashed from $729 (£349) to $649 (£310).
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Full Story: mcvuk.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
XLink Kai 7.4 Beta released
>> Team XLink released a new version of their global gaming network (that allows you to play system-link enabled games (incl. Xbox and 360) online for free):
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What's the point?
XLink Kai(info) 7.4 began a few months ago to address the following issues:
1. Internationalization - the existing Kai UI does not support many languages and character encodings.
2. Platform Independence - Linux and OS X client software is no longer feature compatible with the Windows client
3. Unified Development - numerous versions and variants of the engine and client exist creating compatibility issues and fragmented development/support.
Team XLink prides itself as a 'Global Community' of gamers. To us, this means people who speak different languages, who use different Operating Systems, and who live all over the globe should be able to connect with one another and make Team XLink their home. Our year to year userbase growth and concurrent player statistics tells us we've been making excellent strides towards our global ambitions. Still, to truly move forward with the project, we need to address infrastructure and compatibility issues so that we have a solid platform that encourages further growth. Kai 7.4 addresses these issues and provides a solid foundation for future plan that simply would not be possible with the previous versions of Kai.
So what's new?
The biggest change to Kai is somewhat invisible--the code. Kai was designed primarily as a Windows-based system with compatibility for Linux/OS X (and other *nix systems) added later through the Kaid project and numerous third-party clients. This created a rift in development where any features added to the Windows Engine and Client needed to be added to Kaid and the third-party clients needed to be updated. A small change in the Windows client required all the other clients to be updated. Updates to the Windows engine (ex: new PSP MAC addresses) required Kaid be updated. As developer interest in Kaid and the many clients waned, it has become increasingly difficult to add any new features without breaking existing compatibility for those not using Windows. To address this, Kai 7.4 uses a single codebase and non-proprietary libraries so that the same code that compiles the Windows binary also compiles under Linux, OS X, BSD, etc. This required removing all the MFC code from Kai and replacing it with platform-independent alternatives like the Boost and wxWidgets libraries. With this unified codebase, future updates and changes will be made available on all supported Operating Systems at the same time.
The most visible change found in Kai 7.4 is the Client Web UI. Instead of designing multiple User Interfaces for every supported OS and every language we decided to drawn on the strength of existing cross-platform technology: the web browser. The Kai 7.4 engine contains a small web server which serves the client to your web browser (Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer(info), etc.) and communication between the web browser and the Engine is achieved using Ajax programming. Aside from the obvious elimination of platform compatibility issues, switching to a browser-based client has some wonderful side effects:
1. Updates and additions to the client are served immediately without the need to restart the Engine.
2. The client is 'skinable' allowing users to develop and share their own customizations.
3. Kai can integrate other web technologies such as streaming audio and video.
4. Kai can be controlled using embedded systems with compatible web browsers (ex: iPhone).
5. The Kai engine can be accessed and controlled remotely via the web browser ( chat from work/school :P )
Another notable improvement found in Kai 7.4 is the support for uPnP routers. Most modern routers support uPnP allowing on-the-fly port mapping. When started behind a uPnP router, Kai just works--no port forwarding or router configuration required.
Lastly, all language has been stripped out of both the Engine and the Web UI Client and replaced with language templates. Currently, English and Japanese translations are available; however, support for Korean, Spanish, and many other languages are being added as translation becomes available through the community.
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Official Site/Downloads: http://teamxlink.co.uk
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Aussie Retailer Adds To 360 Price-Cut Chorus
>> From kotaku.com:
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It's not just American retailers convincing us that a 360 price-cut is imminent. Australian retailers are now in on the act as well. The local branch of K-Mart is advertising a 360 Pro bundle for AUD$449 (USD$430), a steal when you consider the rrp for the console is AUD$579 (USD$555).
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Full Story: kotaku.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
