*Controller doesn’t actually have bells or whistles.

Analog Sticks

I never had any real complaints about the analog sticks on the original 360 controller, save for the texture. During extended and strenuous gaming sessions, in which my hands would begin to sweat, I often found that my thumbs would begin to slip. This led to inaccuracy and having to readjust my thumb position during gameplay, a split-second distraction that can often lead to death in games like Gears of War or Halo. The analog sticks have little grip nubs, but as I mentioned above, they wear away with heavy use, leaving a slick surface.

Microsoft addressed this problem by changing the texture of the analog sticks to provide more friction. Additionally, they chose to use a more pronounced indent at the top of the analog stick in place of the nubs to give your thumbs a more defined resting place. Overall, I find them much more comfortable to use and they definitely provide more grip. If you love shooters, like me, you’ll definitely appreciate this change.

D-Pad

Microsoft’s most touted feature of the new controller is the redesign of the directional pad, and with good reason. The original d-pad was a circular disk that acted as an eight-way directional input, with a raised cross devoted to the four primary directions. Due to the nature of the disk design, accidental diagonal inputs were common, as were residual inputs, where pressing one direction would sometimes result in another directional input being registered immediately afterwards. Do you know what happens to a COG soldier when they switch to their shotgun as an enemy approaches, only to accidentally switch to their smoke grenade a moment later? They become wall art.

This lack of precision also made playing fighting games on the controller a pain in the butt. Even the most talented of Tekken veterans would have been hard-pressed to pull of an Electric Wind God Fist on the old controller, but what about the new one?

Well, Microsoft decided to give gamers the best of both worlds with a new hybrid d-pad design. The new d-pad can transition between the original disk design (for those that took a liking to it, through some twisted form of peripheral Stockholm Syndrome) and a traditional cross design with a simple twist and click.

While the d-pad still feels loose and springy in disk mode, the cross mode feels much tighter. However, due to the d-pad being noticeably smaller than the cavity in which it resides, it slides around a bit when being used. Despite this movement, my experience with the d-pad in cross mode has been a very positive one. Individual direction inputs, such as choosing a weapon in Gears of War, feel much more deliberate and no longer result in residual inputs. Inputting more complex strings, such as those found in most fighting games, benefited from the accuracy of the improved design as well. I borrowed a copy of Tekken 6 for my Xbox 360 (I usually play my fighting games on the PS3), and with little adjustment, I was pulling off my characters’ most complicated strings and juggles. Definitely an improvement, but in my opinion, this new d-pad design is still inferior to that of the DualShock for fighting games. It is a very good substitute though, and if you don’t own a PS3, it may be your best option.

Buttons

The buttons on the new controller remain the same as those found on the old controller, with the exception of their colour, or lack thereof. Throwing the red, yellow, blue, and green colour scheme out the window, Microsoft has chosen to adopt a monochromatic colour scheme instead. While this change certainly makes the controller look more sleek and modern, and less like a toy, the new colour scheme no longer matches the on-screen tips seen in most games. This isn’t a huge issue for those that already know the controller like the back of their hand, but for those that play less frequently, or for those that aren’t familiar with the console, finding buttons by colour was both quick and helpful.

Summary

The new Xbox 360 controller is a big improvement. The new design is slick and easy on the eyes, the analog sticks provide more grip, and the new d-pad design is very welcome. Hardcore gamers, especially shooter and fighting game aficionados, will get the most out of the controller, but these days, the casual gamers are their own controller anyway. So if you’re in need of a new 360 controller or just want more precision at your fingertips, I’d strongly recommend picking one of these puppies up.

In less than two hours, Kinect will be released into the wilds. Will it change the course of gaming history? As Mr. Flannagan says: “This is the beginning.”

GN: It was recently announced that Microsoft is spending 500 million dollars in marketing for Kinect. How much of that budget did you get here in Canada?

CF: <laughs> I don’t know the specifics of that one. What I can say is that we are really behind this, and it’s going to be huge. What you see here is a celebration, and it’s a celebration worthy of the launch we’re going to have. We’re really excited about the Kinect. We have some great feedback so far and it really makes you the controller and people are really digging it, it’s good.

GN: It was reported today that the US is giving away a free Kinect to every Boys and Girls club. Do you have any plans for marketing like that in Canada?

CF: We’re really just at the beginning now with Kinect. I think between now and the holiday you’ll see a lot more from us for Kinect for sure.

GN: One of the worries about Kinect is from the hardcore fanbase. It was made especially significant because of your E3 presentation where it was mostly Kinect and there were a lot of casual games. I don’t think there is a really hardcore title at launch. Where do you see that market going with the new technology here?

CF: Again, I say we’re at the beginning with Kinect. Our strategy has been clear from the beginning; we really wanted to secure the core when we launched the Xbox 360 and we did. There are amazing games and Xbox 360 is the number one console for playing blockbuster games on. When it comes to Kinect – we’re at the beginning. We think gamers will gravitate and love Kinect. We’re seeing a lot of our hardcore Xbox community out here tonight, because the games for Kinect are fun. They’re great to play and that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. We think the gamers will love it. And with great features like being able to talk to your console, being able to navigate your dashboard with your hand while sitting on your couch – it’s a pretty cool feature, so we think gamers will be pretty excited about it.

GN: One of the disconnects [diskinects??] I see is with Kinectimals specifically where you’re petting or the pet is trying to lick your face, but you don’t have the tactile feedback. How do you get around that challenge?

CF: That’s actually one of my favourite games in the lineup. Kinectimals does do a pretty great job of breaking the mold for videogames and breaking down the barriers. It’s an interesting game where at different points you kind of forget you’re playing a game. You’re not holding any controller with Kinect, so that’s a good start, but when you actually start being able to interact with these exotic cats, when they’re in their beautiful high def[inition], when they come right up to the screen, there are some pretty cool moments [and] you kind of get lost in the Kinectimals world.

GN: I did see a kid down there enjoying it, it was pretty funny.

CF: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. You have a number of exotic cats to choose from, mostly of the African variety. You can come up and pet your cat, you can play with your cat, you can teach your cat tricks. There’s a robust and in-depth storyline to the game and a lot of progression and achievements so it’s a great game. I think that one will surprise a lot of people.

GN: If there was any franchise that you would want on the Kinect, which one would it be?

CF: I’m a fan of a lot of the games that we’ve already got coming. I’m a huge fan of sports, and I’m a big fan of Dance Central. And I think I’ll start to get a little bit more fit with Your Shape Fitness Evolved from Ubisoft. But it’s just the beginning – every developer in the industry has a development kit for Kinect right now and they’ve been working on them for two E3s, so I think, like I said before: this is the beginning and we’re going to see a lot of cool games. At Tokyo Game Show, there were a lot of core games announced, so it’ll be interesting to see some M rated titles and see where they go.

GN: Are there any plans to backwards patch any of the games like the Move did?

CF: Not at this time. It’s important to know that everything you see at launch was built from the ground up for Kinect. So everything was built with Kinect in mind, everything was built to take advantage of the Kinect sensor and the innovation that’s there. So no, you won’t see a lot of porting.

Did he just say that Kinectimals has an in-depth storyline? Now I’m pretty intrigued. Kinect launches in about an hour for $150 CAD, or $300 CAD if you want the bundle that comes with an Xbox 360.

There was also a strange problem when we started the second game that it lost Richard completely. I guess I should’ve also turned sideways to see if it would lose me (as I am basically two dimensional when viewed from the side), but I didn’t think about it. After a little bit of moving and jumping around, Richard mysteriously re-appeared though and we went on our second adventure.

There is a little bit of delay between our motion and the action appearing on screen, which messed up some of our dodging. It appeared to me that jumping had the most lag, and is especially noticeable with some warping when going from crouch position to jumping. It could’ve been the setup in the room we were in, but I don’t have any conclusive data either way.

It was kind of fun to jump around, though it didn’t feel any more exciting than when I first played Wii Tennis. Having been very impressed with the original Kinect unveiling (when it was still called Natal), I probably expected more from the experience than I received. But then again, it’s still in its infancy, and there could still be some very cool things to come in the future.

Kinect releases for $150 CAD on November 4th, 2010 for the Xbox 360.

First, here’s the 30-second TLDR (too long; didn’t read) version:

• Natal is now Kinect, releasing November 4th, 2010 with 15 launch titles
• Call of Duty: Black Ops will have map packs and addons released first on the Xbox 360
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising really focuses on cutting everything. Lightning Bolt Action. Not sure if it’ll have Kinect integration.
• Gears of War 3: 4 player co-op, female Gears, mutating enemies, trading weapons, and a new mode called Beast
• Fable 3: Looks the same. There was a trailer and no discussion, and I haven’t played the previous ones. There were muskets.
• Codename Kingdoms: Xbox 360 exclusive. Microsoft is publishing this title and ‘partnering’ with Crytek. Great graphics from the short trailer, as expected.
• Halo Reach: It’s the Halo prequel. Added melee stealth attacks, and there was a spaceship shooter sequence that seemed pretty cool.
• Kinect apps: Kinect Zune to play music and movies, videoKinect for voice chat (think Skype), and the camera tracks you as you move so you don’t have to adjust it.
• There’s an ESPN partnership for live events and videos on demand, but that won’t be coming to Canada yet.
• Kinect first party titles: Kinectimals (virtual pet), Kinect Sports (Wii sports), Kinect JoyRide (exactly what you think it is), Kinect Adventures (some casual rollercoaster type game)
• Kinect third party titles: Ubisoft’s YourShape (a pretty cool fitness title), Harmonix’s Dance Central (exactly what it sounds like), LucasArts’s Star Wars (fun with lightsabers and force powers, looked pretty cool)
• Forza folks demonstrated what they would do with Kinect, but there was no promise of a new title or anything.
• Xbox 360 Slim, with a 250GB hard drive and built in Wi-fi with Wireless N. Your router is probably not working off N anyway, but maybe! Shipped today.
• In talking to a Microsoft rep, he stresses that “core” gamers should not be worried that not as many hardcore games were shown this year. They tried to emphasize that the Xbox 360 is THE gaming platform now that it has games for everyone.

Now, for those of you interested in more of the nitty-gritty details, here are some of my impressions and more detailed description of each. Call of Duty: Black Ops had several things that caught my eye, though nothing was revolutionary. Modern Warfare 2 wasn’t revolutionary either and it was the best selling game of all time or something, so I’m assuming that doesn’t matter. With Treyarch at the helm as opposed to Infinity Ward though, this CoD will be scrutinized tightly. First, there seemed to be unique reactions to friendly fire that other characters remember. I’m not sure how different or varied these are, but it was pretty neat as the player was crouching through the tunnel with some allies. There was some authentic sounding voice acting in a foreign language and a jungle landscape as the player hijacked a helicopter and went on a destruction spree. As he blew up enemies dirt would come flying and everything looked really nice. And like I mentioned in the short version, Microsoft has worked out a deal where all the addons and map packs will be going to Xbox 360 first, which I’m not sure is a huge score or not.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising is not an exclusive to Xbox 360, but it will be the first Metal Gear on the Xbox 360. Konami said they wanted to make something new and unique, and this seems to take the form of… cutting lots of things with Raiden’s sword. Seriously. The trailer showed him cutting pillars, watermelons, cars, and of course, people. Really, the entire thing can be summed up as “CUT EVERYTHING!!”

Gears of War 3 looked amazing in the usual Gears of War way. Things were hectic and in your face, but now you have more buddies to help! There were these new mutating enemies that should switch up the encounters a little bit, but nothing extraordinary. It looks like a great time for Gears fans. Unfortunately Dude Huge did not show any of the new Beast mode.

Fable 3 didn’t get anything but a trailer, and it wasn’t exciting. It seemed to be set a little bit later in timeline as there is a revolution of some sort and some people had muskets. That’s really all I can tell you, go look for the trailer!

Codename Kingdoms had a short CG trailer of a gladiator or Spartan soldier with blood dripping from his sword. Nothing else announced from the short trailer and when I asked the Microsoft rep about the “partnership”, he couldn’t tell me if it would be multiple games or just one with Crytek, or he’d have to kill me.

Halo Reach looks exactly like every other Halo to me. I will leave that coverage to our resident Halo experts.

The Kinect stuff had potential. I’ll really enjoy not having to find the controller to control movies and music. Waving to sign in to the Xbox 360 was kind of neat. The videoKinect application is pretty much what’d you expect, except the camera follows you as you move so you won’t have to adjust it, which is technologically cool. Kinectimals will let you add your own animals by scanning barcodes that will probably be attached to some plush toys made by some toy manufacturer. Details were pretty vague from the rep on that one. The demo was with a cute little child, and it was all going okay until the virtual pet tiger went to lick her and she laughed and said “It tickles!” which seems far fetched to me. Still, I’ll probably get it for my toddler. Well, either that or a real tiger. Kinect Adventures is a game where the players are each on rails and you have to jump and duck to avoid oncoming obstacles and also try to collect as many tokens as you can by moving your limbs and body. But the crazy thing is that there are spots where there are cameras, just like a roller coaster ride, and they’ll take pictures of you playing the game as you pass through. Your images are superimposed onto the background of the game so it’s okay if your living room is messy while you’re playing. These pictures are then (optionally I hope) uploaded to your Facebook automatically.

Ubisoft’s YourShape was really cool, I thought. It is a fitness program that can actually give you feedback if you’re doing exercises wrong. If your knee is bent at an incorrect angle so that you’re not getting the full workout, it will let you know right on the screen. Also, there are actual classes you can take like kickboxing. I doubt these will bring you much expertise in those things, but we didn’t get too many details about it.

Dance Central by Harmonix is… well, full body dancing using Kinect. It has the requisite dance moves trainer to teach people with no rhythm or style, but I can guarantee I’ll look like a fool in front of this thing anyway. Still, I’ve heard from other people that they think it’ll be a good time and I have to admit it was amusing watching other people play it, so in the words of Captain Falcon: Show me yo moves!

Star Wars seems fun even though the movements looked a bit awkward or forced (pun optional) on the screen. Activating Force powers with actual movements was cooler than flailing the lightsaber to me.

Finally Microsoft teased us with what the Forza people were toying with, and then announced the new Xbox 360 Slim for the same price as the Elite. It includes a 250 GB HDD and a much overdue built-in Wi-Fi card that supports the 802.11N specification. They then gave it away to everyone in attendance. I cried a little inside.

And that was the show, folks! What are you most and least excited about from the Microsoft presser? Let us know in the comments!

“There really is tons of analytical data that we need to derive from the beta test with regard to the network and back-end systems, [and] we needed our fans to provide feedback. We needed a very large audience to hammer on this game, which allows us to use the data that really helps shape the final product,” said Creative Director Marcus Lehto.

This is Bungie’s last Halo related game. This is going to be big. We know Bungie will go and take things to another level, so with E3 and the Tokyo Game show coming up we can hope to see some new features for this game.

Everyone mark your calendars for September 14th.

As far as the Beta itself goes, I have seen nice things. One flaw I was able to spot while simply watching was the armour lock function being used as a panic button. Bungie says it’s to reduce grenade spamming down hallways and such, and it could definitely solve that problem, but being used right after grabbing a power weapon in the middle of a firefight could cause some serious frustration. Another flaw was the assassination animations, similar to those of the Gears of War series, and with similar problems. That’s right, the flashy moves come at the cost of exposing yourself to fire, or even worse, potential assassinations upon your showboating Spartan.

In terms of the release, you get three flavours. The regular edition is just the game, the Limited Edition ships with Elite armour for online play, an art book and a special box, and the Legendary Edition packs hand painted figurines, a flaming helmet for your online Spartan and comes in an even bigger box. The prices range significantly, and all the details can be found on the Bungie landing page.

At the end of the day, the official Beta is underway and the release arrives on September 1, 2010.

The promotion was that if enough fans tweeted about Final Fantasy XIII, they would receive a special avatar promo code. Twitter users accomplished the set goal on xbox.com just a couple of weeks later and began registering their accounts and receiving the avatar codes to be used online. I had tried registering only to be redirected to a page notifying me that the promotion was not open to Canadian residents. But after some URL tinkering, I found the link that allows Canadian players to share the love. So enjoy the building hype and free DLC as we approach the March launch date for FFXIII.

In addition to the social networking suite, the Dashboard update also brings plenty of new media to the Xbox 360, including some home-grown content. In addition to the Zune Video service, the Video Marketplace will allow users to instantly stream television shows and movies in 1080p high definition from studios such as, CBC Television, The Comedy Network, Nickelodeon, MTV and more.

Sadly, the Last.FM service that was previously announced as part of the update is exclusive to our American friends to the South. Here’s hoping that Canadians will gain access to the service in the future, because it was the one I was most excited about using.

Now all we need is a web browser so that we can make GameNorth posts without having to leave our couch! That would be so win.

Check out our extensive review of Forza Motorsport 3 here.

Forza 3 and the chance to learn something?  Sounds like the place to be.

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Ahem.

GameNorth spent the a day in London yesterday. Not London, England, or even London, Ontario, but This is London, a trendy nightclub nestled in the heart of Toronto’s fashion district. Typically home to dance parties and fashion shows, This is London hosted a different kind of event yesterday: Microsoft Canada’s annual holiday gaming preview, X’09.

The venue was smaller than the one used last year, but that didn’t stop Microsoft Canada from filling it wall to wall with their most anticipated first and third-party titles of the upcoming holiday season. And if you were unable to make the trip out to London yesterday, have no fear, GameNorth took one for the team and played each and every one of them.

Throughout the remainder of the week, our Microsoft X’09 coverage will include previews and impressions of Splinter Cell: Conviction, Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, and more, as well as interviews from the event floor. We may even provide details on a top secret project out of Harmonix that involves the one and only MC Hammer!

Also noteworthy were the games and developers that were absent from X’09 this year. BioWare was a no-show, leaving many who were hoping to see Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins disappointed. Alan Wake and Crackdown 2 were also absent, and several third-party developers, such as SEGA and Namco, chose not to make an appearance at the show. Regardless, we had a great time, played some great games, and met some great people. We can’t wait to do it all over again next year!

If you have any X’09 stories, feel free to post them in our comments below.

But it’s been a damn good series and a fun ride.  We finished the fight just last year, with a release that was so huge the movie industry blamed it for movies sucking.  So that’s it: no more Halo, time to move on.

Not so fast.  Bungie’s got a couple more in them, and we’ve just been treated to the latest iteration:  Halo 3: ODST.  Not since the original Halo have we had a colon in the title.  Appropriately, the gameplay is also a throwback to the original series, bringing back health packs, losing dual-wielding, and lessening the jumping insanity.

Originally planned as a sort of stand-alone expansion pack, ODST has evolved into a full retail game.  We get a Campaign mode and the Firefight survival mode on disc one and all the Halo 3 multiplayer goodness packed onto a second disc.

All of ODST supports standard Bungie.net functionality.  Saved films, saved pictures, as well as a log of all games played, with stats, medal counts, and other goodies for an OCD-enhanced gamer to worry over.

ODST runs on a modified version of the Halo 3 engine and uses a large number of Halo 3 assets (weapons, aliens, vehicles and so on).  There’s been a few improved shaders and lighting effects.  The new VISR mode looks really good and adds a useful twist, but this is a Halo game through and through.  The level design and art direction is solid.  Local co-op’s been cut down to two player split screen, but all co-op modes still support up to four player on Xbox LIVE and through System Link.

Sound is typical of Halo, although the familiar Gregorian chant from the previous games in the series is taking a vacation.  There are some jazzy little bits for the detective parts, but otherwise the music’s about what would be expected.  I had no problems with the voice acting, although I seem to be in the minority in this regard.

On the whole, the package is good and offers a decent value for its price.  But I’m a Halo fan who knows other Halo fans, and I’m interested in seeing the story from the first three continue.  For someone who’s new to the series, or who doesn’t have a lot of interest in the various multiplayer modes (both versus and co-op are significant portions of the game’s content), it’s somewhat less attractive.

Campaign

ODST’s story focuses around a squad of ODSTs dropped into New Mombasa, sometime between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3.  Other squads were aiming for a Covenant ship, but this one had mysterious orders from a new commander.  Things go awry and the team’s rookie member (conveniently referred to as Rookie) passes out and awakens six hours later, alone, in the night streets of New Mombasa, looking to piece together what happened to his team and what to do about those mysterious orders.

The campaign mode alternates between two approaches.  Rookie wanders New Mombasa at night, gathering clues and triggering flashbacks of what’s been going on the past six hours.  These flashbacks are played out in full.  There’s no real difference between the various ODST members in terms of control, although some have slightly different loadouts.  These levels are fairly standard and full of Halo goodness.  Depending on the difficulty, they start off about half an hour long, slowly increasing in length over the course of the game.  There’s a good variety to these stages.  There’s nothing that takes place on Covenant ships, but also nothing that involves any members of the Flood.  No Flood is a very, very good thing.

In between these stages, control shifts back to Rookie.  New Mombasa is a massive city, and there’s a lot of area he can cover.  He gets a map and knows where he has to go, but it’s up to the player to figure out how he’s getting there.  It’s an almost non-linear approach to Halo, except that he’s usually limited in terms of where he can go and what his goals are.  I enjoyed the city sections.  It’s possible to sneak around enemies instead of engaging them.  The game’s new VISR mode (a friend-and-foe identifying night vision mode) really shines at night.  Not only because it’s not blindingly bright, but it really helps the design of the city pop out.

There’s a little more to do during these night sections than just idly wander in the general direction of the blip on his compass.  The city is controlled by a Superintendent-class AI with a bit of a story of its own.  It’s quite interested in having this story told, and will try to help Rookie understand what’s going on.  There’s audio logs to be collected from assorted locations throughout the city.  The AI will try to get his attention by flashing headlights, changing billboards to read “Detour”, “Turn Left” or “Slow down”, making ATMs freak out, phones ring and so on.  The AI has a limited vocabulary and wants to Keep It Clean however it can manage.  The sidestory is a little melodramatic, but adds a personal touch (and a number of faces) to the Halo backstory.

All in all, the campaign’s a little short.  It can be completed in five to six hours, again depending on difficulty.  There’s an assortment of achievements for doing specific things on specific levels, as well as clearing the game on difficulties up to Legendary.  Although Halo 3’s Campaign Scoring mode returns, with par scores in the campaign levels, there are no achievements associated with them.  Playing through Campaign on at least Normal will unlock the majority of ODST models for Firefight mode, as well as the remaining Firefight levels.

Much to our surprise, the Avatar Marketplace saw the addition of some previously unannounced content this morning to coincide with the launch of the update. Star Wars and BioShock 2 clothing and accessories are now available, making it possible to give your Avatar a lightsaber or a Big Daddy helmet in addition to COG Armour and pirate regalia. Good times!

Check out our hands-on impressions of the update here.

What’s new?  Not a huge amount, from the time I’ve spent with it.  There’s a few tweaks that I’m quite fond of, and some minor additions that range from questionable to decent.  I’m using a pre-release version of the interface, so everything I say might be totally wrong.

Parties

It’s a fact.  Parties are just plain awesome.  I can form a party with some friends and their friends to have a private chat channel in a shared game, or across different games.  It kind of breaks the limitations some games try to impose on voice chat (Gears of War comes to mind), but being immune from screaming pubbies has its price.

Parties are getting a couple tweaks.  First, when connection to a Party is lost, Xbox LIVE will automatically try to reconnect.  Second, the whole process for inviting to a Party has been streamlined.  I haven’t had a chance to try out the first feature, but it should be a solution for those weird, netsplit-like times when a Party gets fragmented into a number of sub-Parties.  The streamlining seems straightforward enough.  Previously, when I was both in a Party and a game and brought up my Friends list through the Guide, I could use X to invite people to the game, but had to drill down to their account to invite them to the Party.  Now, X will automatically invite to both the Party and the game when I’m in both.  Nice.

Account Management

There will now be a notification that pops up on Xbox LIVE when a Gold subscription is about to run out.  Not a huge deal for those of us who have the thing set to automatic renewal (it used to be the only option, after all), but nice enough.  There’s apparently a fix for expired Windows Live IDs, allowing them to be updated directly from Xbox LIVE.  I’m going to assume it required hopping over to a PC previously, as I’ve never had this problem.

For those of us who are too cheap to get a memory card, but still want to port around their Gamertag, the whole Account Recovery process has been sped up, and features “increased reliability”.  I had a couple friends who insisted on doing this, and I’ve basically cut off all contact, because it’d take forever.  We’re not supposed to be using the feature this way, anyhow.

Finally, there’s a little tweak going in that shows Xbox LIVE Gold member status in the upper-left hand corner of the Gamercard, in years.  Mine is currently showing a five.  Not that it really matters, but there you go.

Avatars

We’ve all slowly grown accustomed to having a little freaky version of ourselves (or not ourselves, if we’ve got a vampire Avatar) looking back at us from My Xbox.  The most common complaint?  Need more clothes! And more stuff!  We’ll be getting a bit of each.

There’s a new category of wearable items called Props.  They’re things for your Avatar to hold and fiddle with.  Some have animations, some just get looked at, but it’s another way to customize your appearance.  Not a bad idea.

There’s also an Avatar Marketplace, which is currently only accessible from within the Avatar Editor system. It’s pretty empty at the moment, with a handful of things in there to give people the rough idea, ranging from 80 MSP for a shirt up to 320 MSP (!) for a remote controlled Warthog.  Yikes.  This will probably encourage more developers to want to do Avatar stuff for their games, but $5CAD for a little zippycar that doesn’t even do anything for me?

There’s no real documentation on it, but since it’s related, there’s an Awards option that has appeared in the Avatar Editor, as well as a matching Awards section under the Games blade on the Guide.  Both are currently completely blank.  I’m assuming this is where the Awardables will go, once that feature has been completely unlocked.  Will they be related to Achievements, or based around something else entirely?  It is a mystery!

Video Display Options

There’s really only one new option here: Display Discovery.  Normally, the Xbox 360 (when using a DVI or HDMI connection) communicates with the display using something called EDID to figure out what stuff the display supports.  Things such as resolution, sound and that sort of thing all use EDID.  Sometimes the whole process goes wrong, and the dead wander the Earth.  Or everything just looks and sounds like junk.

The feature seems to be the ability to turn Display Discovery off.  This will allow certain resolution / sound settings to be forced.  Clearly, this is a bit of an advanced option that requires one to know what they’re doing.  But it should be a useful feature for those sorts who’ve been having trouble getting things working just right, especially with a computer monitor.

Including popular titles such as Mass Effect, BioShock, and Assassin’s Creed, the inaugural line-up should offer something for just about everyone. If not, Microsoft assures us that new titles will be added to the Games on Demand service every Tuesday. Like all content on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, your Games on Demand purchase history will always be saved, allowing gamers to delete games and download them again at a later date.

The Canadian launch line-up is:

Assassin’s Creed – Ubisoft
BioShock – 2K Games
Burnout Paradise – EA
Call of Duty 2 – Activision
Fight Night Round 3 – EA
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga – LucasArts
MX vs. ATV Untamed – THQ
Mass Effect – Microsoft Game Studios
Meet The Robinsons – Disney
Need for Speed: Most Wanted – EA
Need for Speed: Carbon – EA
Prey – 2K Games
Rainbow Six Vegas – Ubisoft
Ridge Racer 6 – Namco
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis – Rockstar Games
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG – SEGA
TEST DRIVE: UNLIMITED – Atari
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks
Viva Piñata – Microsoft Game Studios
Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise – Microsoft Game Studios

Stay tuned to GameNorth for a full hands-on Dashboard Update preview.

Set for release in September, Crash Course is meant to fill the void between the No Mercy and Death Toll campaigns, depicting what befell our beloved survivors after boarding that fateful helicopter atop Mercy Hospital. While Crash Course will offer both a Survival Mode map and a co-operative campaign, its primary focus is to deliver a complete Versus Mode experience in just thirty minutes. A recharge timer for infected teammates is said to have been added, and the item spawn behaviour has been changed to provide more balanced gameplay.

“Since the release of Left 4 Dead last November, the design team has been excited about creating new experiences for this world and allowing players to do the same, by releasing much of our internal toolset, like the Survival Pack and Authoring Tools,” said Gabe Newell. “We’re working with the fans toward the ongoing entertainment value of the product.”

Left 4 Dead: Crash Course is targeted for release in September and will be available free of charge on the PC and for 550 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360.

Fans will be able to pilot these new tracks with some new snazzy Euro Sport-Compacts such as the 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera Ti and the 2008 Saab 9-3 Turbo X . Along for the ride comes a whole list of other Sport-Compacts for you to race and tinker with.

2009 Alfa Romeo Mito
2010 Fiat 500 Abarth SS
2009 Ford Fiesta Zetec S
2009 Ford Focus RS
2009 Lotus Evora
2009 MINI John Cooper Works
2009 Renault Twingo Renault Sport Cup
2009 SEAT Ibiza Cupra
2009 Vauxhall Corsa VXR
2009 Volvo C30 R-Design

Get behind the wheel of these new rides this October.

• California Love- 2Pac feat. Dr.Dre and Roger Troutman

• Barbie Girl-Aqua

• Just Dance- Lady Gaga feat. Colby O’Donis

• Everybody Wants To Rule The World- Tears for Fears

• The Fear-Lily Allen

• Don’t Phunk With My Heart- Black Eyes Peas

• I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’-Scissor Sisters

• Heartless- Kanye West

• Touch My Body-Mariah Carey

• Hey There Delilah-Plain White T’s

• Always On My Mind-Pet Shop Boys

• I’m Yours- Jason Mraz

• Push The Button-Sugerbabes

There will  be theme packs available as downloadable content after the release so singers can personally customize their track list. All the songs from the original Lips are also compatible with Lips: Number One Hits so you will always have a chance to expand your library.

The game releases October 2009. Just make sure you have some earplugs handy.

I understand that Microsoft is eager to promote this year’s Summer of Arcade offering, as it pales in comparison the last year’s promotion in the eyes of many gamers, but why make such an incentive to purchase the games exclusive only to Americans? Does Microsoft not realize that this may actually deter international sales of the very same titles? Now that the cat is out of the bag, could you really fault any Canadian or international gamers (hello, Australia, we know you’re reading!) for holding onto their hard-earned Microsoft Points a little longer, hoping that a similar deal may come their way? I won’t.

The solution is simple, Microsoft, especially if you’re concern is with Canadian and international give away laws: when the last Summer of Arcade title is made available, give every region the opportunity to buy a Summer of Arcade Pack, which would include all five games, for 4800 Microsoft Points – the sum of all five titles minus the 800 Microsoft Points we would have been given if we were American. But if you can arrange to give us the same 800 Microsoft Point gift that our neighbours to the south will be getting, we’ll take that too.

Gamers that choose to pre-order the game will earn themselves a limited edition Audi R8 V10, custom painted by Forza Motorsport 3 Design Challenge contest winner, Justin Van Dusen II from Midland, Michigan. After earning nearly three-hundred thousand votes, Justin’s car was picked by the Forza Community as the exclusive downloadable pre-order car.

And for those that are really serious about hitting the track, the Forza Motorsport 3 Limited Collector’s Edition is for you. Those who purchase the Limited Collector’s Edition will earn instant VIP Membership status within the Forza community, including special recognition in the new Storefront feature as well as the online Auction House, scoreboards, ForzaMotorsport.net, and more. Furthermore, as a VIP member, gamers will earn exclusive access to five of the world’s hottest cars:

2009 Aston Martin DBS
2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
2007 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (977)

And as another perk of the Limited Collector’s Edition, gamers will receive an exclusive car pack, personally hand-picked, tuned, and painted by the development team at Turn 10:

Audi R8 5.2 FSI Quattro
Acura NSX
Nissan Fairlady
Aston Martin DB9
2008 Dodge Charger Stock Car

VIP Members will also gain access to exclusive designs and tuning kits made by the Turn 10 developers as they become available.

The Limited Collector’s Edition will also feature a Forza Motorsport 3 collector’s keychain and a 2GB USB thumbdrive that gamers can use to store their Forza videos, photos, and more. It may not offer night vision goggles, but it still sounds like a great purchase for hardcore Forza fans.

Forza Motorsport 3 hits the road on October 27. The price of the Limited Collector’s Edition has yet to be announced.

Officially debuting today at a panel presentation at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Halo Legends will bring the Halo franchise to an entirely new medium in the form of several original anime short films. Produced by Microsoft’s 343 Industries with creative direction from anime pioneer Shinji Aramaki, the director of the critically-acclaimed Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina films, and anime legend Mamoru Oshii, director of the Ghost in the Shell movies, Halo Legends will explore different times, themes, and characters from throughout the Halo universe. Halo Legends will be distributed globally by Warner Home Video, and will feature the work of studios responsible for some of the most celebrated anime to come out of Japan, such as Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Dragon Ball, and more.

“The opportunity to work with talents such as Shinji Aramaki, Mamoru Oshii and others from some of the greatest anime studios is a very rare opportunity for Microsoft,” said Frank O’Connor, Halo franchise development director and provider of story and creative direction for 343 Industries. “We’ve seen the world through Master Chief’s eyes, and we’ve experienced facets of the universe through a variety of literary prisms, but now we get to watch new tales unfold in really rich, visually dynamic ways. I think anime fans and ‘Halo’ fans alike are in for a real treat.”

July 22 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled – A three-dimensional remake of what many consider to be the best of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat-’em-up arcade games. 1200 Microsoft Points.

July 29 – Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – A re-release of one of the most popular two-dimensional fighting games ever released. The original roster will remain intact, and all 56 Marvel Comics and Capcom characters will be available immediately. 1200 Microsoft Points.

August 5 – Splosion Man – A quirky platforming game with an old-school feel and an exploding hero for a new age. Splosion Man overcomes every obstacle he encounters with a bang! 800 Microsoft Points.

August 12 – Trials HD – A physics-based motorcycle racer that will let players create and share tracks and obstacle courses over Xbox LIVE. The physics in Trials HD make failing a course half the fun! 1200 Microsoft Points.

August 19 – Shadow Complex – A two-dimensional shooter set in the world of Orson Scott Card’s novel Empire, created by Epic Games and Chair Entertainment. Using Unreal Engine 3, Shadow Complex will blow you away with fantastic visuals and revolutionary shooter gameplay. 1200 Microsoft Points.

For trailers to these games and more, check out the Summer of Arcade preview trailer.

As per the games original rules, if you’re chosen as The One, you will earn Microsoft Points for every member of the The Mob that you eliminate – up to ten-thousand Microsoft Points! If you’re a member of The Mob and The One chokes, you and all remaining members of The Mob will share the bounty of Microsoft Points instead. And lastly, if you’re relegated to the Crowd, the top three scoring members of the Crowd in each round will win an Xbox LIVE Arcade game.

Additionally, Microsoft is still holding their sweepstakes in which every question you answer will earn you another entry in the draw. Winners will be chosen at the end of the Beta and could win a Microsoft Zune or an HDTV home theatre system!

Get your buzzers ready kids, this game show just got a lot more real!

Enlisting the help of Vancouver developer Pirahna Games, the studio behind the recent Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen videogame, Smith and Tinker have announced the development of MechWarrior for the PC and Xbox 360. Claiming that the game will be a complete reboot for the franchise, Smith and Tinker and Piranha Games have opted not to use the name MechWarrior 5.

The development team feels that the previous MechWarrior games were limited by technology, and with the computing power of modern PCs and consoles, they hope to provide gamers with a more realistic simulation of piloting a giant robot. Both Piranha Games and Weisman have announced some ambitious goals for MechWarrior, revealing plans for a four-player co-operative campaign and a full multiplayer online suite in addition to the single-player campaign experience, but they’ll need a publisher before their budget can be determined.

Check out the reveal trailer below, courtesy of IGN.

Source: IGN

And without further ado, the winner of GameNorth’s Canada Day 2009 Microsoft Points contest is..

Kirk!

Kirk entered the contest with the following comment, sharing his plans to celebrate our nation’s birthday:

“I plan on going to Chingcousy Park and watching all the festivities. I hear that there will be some live music. I of course will be spending time with friends and family. Of course watching the fireworks.”

Congratulations Kirk!