Madden and Fifia 2013 to use kinect

EA Sports is trying something new with Fifa and Madden this time around by integrating Kinect voice commands into the games, rather than just updating rosters and getting slightly better graphics.

with the use of Kinect, you can now use voice commands to call out plays and passes in real time rather than just selecting an action play in a menu screen. Even though nothing has been said about how it will be used for Fifa and other features the kiect has to offer, EA has plans to reveal more about this in the near future. Possibly later at E3.

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Harmonix announces Dance Central 3

If you're done with the crowding of shooter games like Halo 4, Black Ops II and Gears; then maybe you'll be happy to hear that Harmonix revealed the next Just Dance game this morning at E3 and followed the announcement with a huge performance by Usher.

Not much can I say for this, just mainly because I have no interest in this game whatsoever. And I'm sure you feel the same way.

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The Avengers Battle For Earth Announced

Marvel and Ubisoft are teaming up for The Avengers: Battle for Earth for the Wii U and Kinect.

Battle for Earth will be based off of one of the most memorable cross over events, Secret Invasion, and will feature 20 different characters. It will also be exclusively for the Wii U and Kinect, both using motion sensitive controls so it will be interesting to see the mechanics of Battle for Earth. There is no release date for the game.



[Discuss this on the forums.]

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The New Xbox 360 With Kinect $99 Bundle Has A Catch

Ever wanted a 4GB Xbox 360 with a Kinect for just $99? Well it's totally possible, but there is also a big catch.

Microsoft announced today that they will be releasing a $99 Xbox 360 bundle but it comes with a purchase of a 2 year Xbox Live Gold contract that will cost you $14.99 a month; if you do the math then you come out with $360 that you need to pay upfront for the contract then add the $99 for the bundle.

Unfortunately this is not a money saving bundle as a 4GB Xbox 360 and a Kinect costs $299 (or $284.99 at Amazon) while a 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscription costs you $59.99 (or $48.41 at Amazon). So ideally you can spend $420 on everything if you buy them alone or you can buy them from Amazon for about $381.

There is also another catch, you can only buy the $99 Xbox 360s at Microsoft Stores, you also need to print out this coupon and redeem it at the said Microsoft Store.



[Discuss this on the forums.]

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Kinect Star Wars And Bundle Release Date

A release date for the Kinect Star Wars game and the special awesome bundle has been announced today.

On April 3, you can land a copy of Kinect Star Wars for $49.99, but if you want to spend an extra $300 on the bundle then you can get a C-3PO themed X-Box 360 controller, a R2-D2 themed Xbox 360, a white Kinect and the game itself.

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Kinect For Windows Comes Out Next Month

Microsoft has announced that they will be allowing Kinects to work on Windows starting February 1, but you won't be using the Kinect device just for video games.

Third party companies are jumping on board with the Kinect for Windows that will allow the camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters without a loss of accuracy or precision. Kinect for Windows also gives customers a source development kit, which is needed in order for the Kinect to Windows to run on PCs, in order to do some nifty little things since the main focus is commercial development.

As for a price, the Kinect for Windows will be costing you $249.99, which is a bit more than Kinect for the Xbox 360.

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New Xbox Update has Gone Estrange (first impressions)

Microsoft has been having trouble today with the launch of the new Xbox Dashboard, and the issue has yet to be solved.

What I first thought to be my router crashing, apparently plenty of Live users have been experience issues while trying to install the new update. The problems at first was just a simple delay from the morning to mid-afternoon, however there has been technical issues when trying to update.

Most users would receive an error code when selecting "yes" to install the new update, and would have to restart their system to try to install it again, which I had to repeat several times just to get one update. Then a second update was needed which caused my internet to crash a few times then a final "Terms and Agreement" license which would for some reason appear at any moment even if you're online and will kick you from live if you are. Microsoft has addressed the issue and is working on fixing the issue as we speak. After 30 minutes or so of running up and down stairs and hair pulling I finally managed to get the new dashboard working, or should I say Xbox Home?

How is this new update? Pretty nifty I got to admit. This was the biggest dashboard update since the New Xbox Experience and despite the onslaught of internet issues, the update installed fairly quick.


The new "Home" menu is a lot more organized, is pretty easy to follow and has a lot more options to choose. There is now a bing search engine that allows you to find content on Xbox live much quicker, we are finally given a Youtube app that lets you view videos on the famous website and an easier, more interactive Facbook and Twitter page.

There are also some new features that are worth showing off. The best is the new "cloud" option that lets you save your game data onto Microsoft's servers without wasting data on your storage device. There are more options for keeping up with your friends too. You can check out their recent activity and even set a beacon that notifies your friends what game you wants to play together. Also those who own a kinect will be able to use voice commands and hand motions to search the new dashboard.

It's quite a massive update, and I'm still discovering all the new things and changes that Microsoft made but it's late at night and I need some sleep. Till then see you guys later!

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Video Game Releases for October 2011

September marked the end of the video game drought of the year and we had some amazing games come out from Dead Island, Deus Ex Human Revolution and Gears of War 3 . Now September has finally come to a close however the video games will keep on rolling this month. Unfortunately I will be unable to get any of these games because I'll be saving my money for next month slew of games.

October 4
Crysis - PSN, XBLA
Dark Souls - PS3, Xbox 360
NBA 2k12 - PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360,Wii
RAGE - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Spider Man: Edge of Time - DS, 3DS, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii

October 5
Orcs Must Die! - XBLA

October 7
Just Dance 3 - PS3, Xbox 360, Wii

October 11
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon - PS3, Xbox 360
The Cursed Crusade - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Forza Motorsport 4 - Xbox 360
Seasame Street: Once Upon a Monster - Kinect
Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights - 3DS

October 12
Orcs Must Die! - PC

October 13
Might and Magic Heroes IV - PC

October 16
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure - 3DS, PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii

October 17
Professor Layton and the Last Specter - DS

October 18
Batman: Arkham City - PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One - PS3
Rocksmith - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
The Sims 3: Pets - Mac, PC
Stronghold 3 -PC

October 21
Football Manager - Mac, PC

October 24
Kirby's Return to Dreamland - Wii
Pokemon Rumble Blast - 3DS

October 25
Battlefield 3 - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Dance Central 2 - Kinect
Disney Universe - Mac, PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Dragonball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi - PS3, Xbox 360
Silent Hill: Downpour - PS3, Xbox 360

October 27th
Kinect Sports: Season 2 - Kinect

September's Game of the Month - Gears of war 3

Games I've Italicized I will be hoping to do a Review of. Lets see how my paychecks from work look like...

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Grease the video game

Tired of modern day dance games like DDR and Michael Jackson the experience? Well then look no further! From 505 studios, the masterminds who brought you blockbuster, totally-not flop games like Naughty Bear and Mean Girls present you Grease!

Hope there's a "Face Off" John Travolta skin...

Take a trip back to the swinging 50's, pick your favorite Grease character and dance to your favorite tracks from the hit broadway musical including: "Grease Lightnin" and "The one that I want". The game will feature competitive and cooperative game modes, up to 8 player (not simultaneously) party mode and will support singing mechanics as well.

Get your swing on and rock out on PS3 Move and Kinect this October 25th. Seriously though, it's games like this is the reason why I'll never buy a kinect.

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Child of Eden Included In New Kinect Bundle

Today, Microsoft has announced that customers will be recieving a free downloadable copy ofUbisoft's and Q Entertainment's Child of Edin with their purchase of the new Kinect with the 3D camera sensor starting next week. Child of Eden won't be the only thing packed into the new Kinect though, players will also be getting a copy of Kinect Adventures. You can snag this bundle next week for the price of $150.

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Rise Of Nightmares Bonus

Sega is at it again with a House of the Dead like game for the Kinect. Rise of Nightmares seems to pretty similiar to House of the Dead in which you don't use a controller or mouse, even the design of the maps looks like they come from House of the Dead.



Anyways though, GameStop is offering a pre-order bonus with Rise of Nightmares that includes a mini zombie avatar pet, a theme, and a 10 picture pack.

I would love to get this game, but unfortunately this is a Kinect exclusive; I don't think Sega is going to do very good with this game, if they put it on all consoles then I think they would.

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Star Wars-Xbox 360 announced

Today at comic-con, Microsoft just announced a new, limited edition Star Wars Xbox 360 bundle pack.

The console is modeled after the famous droid R2D2 with a blue/silver trimming and even makes his iconic sounds while activating it and opening the disc tray and will have a 320 GB hard-drive. The controller is modeled after his companion C3PO with copper gold casing, wireless capabilities and the new-and-improved d-pad. The bundle will also include a white colored kinect peripheral and two kinect games: Kinect Star Wars and Kinect Adventures.





The Whole bundle will be released this year in Fall for $449.99.

While the console and controller look awesome 450 dollars is too steep for me, even with a huge hard-drive, kinect and two games especially since I would never use the kinect peripheral, But this is a must have for any collector.

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Sony Starting PS4 Production In 2011

DigiTimes is reporting that Sony and their Taiwan-based partners will start the production of the PS4 at the end of 2011 and will include Kinect like features.

"Sony will have Taiwan-based partners begin production of PlayStation 4 (PS4) featuring body movement-based control like Kinect at the end of 2011 for launch in 2012, according to Taiwan-based component makers.

Foxconn and Pegatron Technology, assemblers of PS3, will undertake assembly of PS4 as well, the sources pointed out. The planned shipment volume of PS4 in 2012 is at least 20 million units, the sources indicated."

 Nintendo and Sony are stepping forward with their new consoles, leaving Microsoft behind, unless Microsoft has a secret project they are working on. But it is nice that Sony is aiming more at motion sensor than they did with the PS3. Let's just hope that they will add backwards capability and keep it for all their models.

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E3 Day One Coverage - From Halo 4 to PS Vita

So far we have gotten some pretty exciting stuff from E3; news about a Halo 4 with its new trilogy and Combat Evolved HD, Arkham City demo, Fable for the Kinect, realistic Battlefield 3, new trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, new trailer for Mass Effect 3, an interesting Need For Speed: Run, Gotham City Imposters trailer, an extremely nice looking Overstrike done by Insomniac,Uncharted 3 and the reveal of the PS Vita (formerly known as the NGP).

One of the first big announcement was of a rumored Halo 4 that became reality during Microsoft's conference; Master Chief will be back again, not once, not twice, but three more times in 343 Studio's adaptation of Halo.



I am not that big of a fan of Halo; the only good games out of that series was Combat Evolved and Reach. Speaking of Combat Evolved, Microsoft has announced that Halo: Combat Evolved HD will be coming out later this year due to the 10 year anniversary.

If you do not like it in its nicely updated graphic mode, you are able to switch back to its old look. Rocksteady Studios gave us an interesting look at Arkham City with their demo. The demo showed Catwoman being playable and some of Batman's new tricks. I'm getting more excited for this game, I believe it will blow Arkham Asylum out of the water with its open world city.



One game that caught my attention was Fable: The Journey for the Kinect. I have never been interested in Fable at all, but if I ever were to get a Kinect, it would most likely be for this... and the Star Wars one. By looking at the hands on video for it, it actually looks pretty nice.



When I was watching the trailer for Battlefield 3, I thought I was watching an Army commercial; that trailer looked extremely realistic and nicely polished.



The new trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic made me want the game more, despite if it will have a subscription cost. The Old Republic is looking to be promising with everything it has announced, from its diverse classes to its planets and systems. We still have no word on the release date though.



One of the biggest games to be talked about at E3 was Mass Effect 3. Even though we have known aboue Mass Effect 3 for months already, it did not stop BioWare from giving us one hell of a trailer.

So Insomniac showed us their new game they have been working on, not Sly 4, but a magical gake called Overstrike. This game is on my top wanted games. This baby will have co-op and looks a little like Borderlands, but hopefully not as disappointing. If i hear good things about this, then it definately will be on my ganlme shelf playing with friends.



During Sony's conference, they announced Uncharted 3; I have never played Uncharted, but I think this third installment will make me pick up the series. The trailer looks freakin amazing and looks like its an actual movie.



Probably the biggest news is the PS Vita, Sony's PSP predecessor and what the PSP Go should have been. This impressive device is what I really want with its front touch screen AND the back touch screen. Sony gave attendees a preview of how the front and back touch screens work, so I myself am not to entirely sure but I really do want to know. The look of the PS Viva is similar to the PSP by the looks of it, but with Wi-Fi ($249.99) or 3G ($299.99) and a touch screen. That is not all though, Ken Levine who works with Bioshock also announced a Bioshock pet project for the PS Vita. Both versions of the PS Vita should be hitting stores sometimes this year.



That is pretty much the biggest things to hit E3 today; most of the stuff announced were things already known and a few surprising information. Hopefully day 2 will bring us a lot more stuff and Nintendo will be announcing some actual games, a gamer can wish.

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