Start your day with a daily deal.
Roll up, roll up, and witness the savings you stand to make as part of the Xbox 360 Ultimate Game Sale day three. We've got old games, new games, classic games and crap games (sorry, Red Faction) - experiences to delight your senses and prices to please your financial advisors. So look on down and see what the Ultimate Games Sale circus has brought to town today:
Sigourney Weaver and other cast members return to voice original characters.
Creative Assembly has just announced Sigourney Weaver and key cast members from Ridley Scott's original 1979 film Alien are adding their voice and likeness to two downloadable bonus levels of Alien: Isolation for those who pre-order the game.
Two new screenshots released to celebrate.
Xbox One dungeon crawler Lords of the Fallen has just received a release date, which puts its launch window in the same week as Sunset Overdrive, WWE 2K15 and Assassin's Creed: Unity. So no pressure, then.
Create, share and play free games from 10th October.
Whilst Project Spark is currently in open beta on Xbox One - and we've been playing around with some of the best user-created content for several months now - the final, complete version of the game will be available from 10th October in Europe, the 7th October in the US, and the 9th October in Asia-Pacific countries like Australia and New Zealand.
Huge savings on select Xbox 360 titles for one day only.
Yesterday kicked off the Xbox 360 Ultimate Game Sale, in which titles like Street Fighter X Tekken, Portal 2, Silent Hill HD, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are up to 75% off for the rest of this week.
Three new maps set on a mining outpost, a beach resort, and a mountainside hub.
Respawn has just announced Frontier's Edge, the second of three planned DLC packs for Titanfall. Hot on the heels of May's Expedition pack, Frontier's Edge introduces three new maps including the isolated mining outpost of Dig Site, the exclusive beach resort of Haven and the mining hub on the side of a mountain known as Export.
New IP from the creator of Borderlands.
Gearbox Software and 2K Games have announced Battleborn, a brand new IP for Xbox One, down to release before the end of 2K's fiscal 2016 - 31st March 2016. It's "an all-new full-featured triple-A hero-shooter", developed by the teams behind Borderlands 2.
Twitter is "the greatest thing ever" for indie devs.
Microsoft has never been under closer scrutiny from developers and consumers than it is today, and while the pressure often gives ID@Xbox program director Chris Charla a headache, it's definitely for the best.
Azure cloud allows for "unique" experiences, says exec.
So this isn't an Xbox thing, strictly speaking, but I think you'll enjoy reading about it regardless - particularly if you're still waiting for evidence that the much-vaunted Xbox Live cloud will have a real impact on how games are designed and played. Speaking during a presentation about cloud gaming at Develop this week, Microsoft's Robert Fraser has detailed the company's partnership with Age of Ascent - an HTML-based "ultra MMO" in which up to 100,000 players can do battle in the same session, thanks to scalable Microsoft Azure server support.
Free to play title integrates Xbox Achievements and leaderboards.
Ed's at the Develop conference in Brighton today. Listen close, you can probably hear the frantic patter of his keyboard borne northwards(?) on the sea air. He's busy cooking up plenty of news and features, but here's one story I can cover without even having to leave the office: a new Zoo Tycoon game for Windows 8 and Windows Phone has just been announced, letting you look after cute animals and accrue gamerscore on the go.
It's US-only for the moment.
As discovered by NeoGAF, Microsoft is handing out a princely $75 in credit to selected Xbox 360 owners when they upgrade to Xbox One. The deal applies to any purchases made in July, and the code must be redeemed by 15th October 2014. It's a US-only deal at the moment.
Don't worry, they haven't forgotten.
The next Xbox One system update will begin rollout "in the coming days" worldwide, Microsoft's Major "Larry Hryb" Nelson has announced. It includes a "new and enhanced" Snap mode for achievements and more voice control options for certain regions.
Stand by for pricing fall.
Here be lists. Frankly, there's not much point in me pontificating over what you should be buying this week - between the Deals With Gold, Ultimate Games Sale and Daily Deals, there's a bank account's worth of low-cost quality in here, literally too much to even approach a fair appraisal on my part. I will point out, however, that the Ultimate Games Sale is open to both Xbox Live Gold and Silver members, and that if you don't own Skate 2, you're medically incomplete. Enjoy!
Book 23rd July off work right this moment.
Guardians! Secure your gear and adopt a dramatic pose near the wistful offworld sunset of your choice. Destiny's beta launches on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on 23rd July at 10am PDT and 6pm UK, Bungie has announced, and runs till 11.59pm on 27th July.
"If fans say 'hey, we'd really like this on a next-gen console', well, we'll think about that.".
Want the currently last-gen-only Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel on Xbox One? All you have to do is ask, say the developers. Speaking to Gamereactor TV, 2K Australia's Tony Lawrence and Gearbox's franchise director Matt Armstrong have conceded that a current gen version is a possibility, though the game will absolutely launch first on Xbox 360, PC and PS3.
Classic map Coagulation also named as one of six fully remastered maps.
Remember the Mongoose, that dinky quad bike from Halo 3? Well, 343 is bringing it to the Anniversary edition of Halo 2, one of four games included with Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One. They're calling it the Gungoose, nowadays. See if you can guess why.
Game will receive full English voice-acting given $100,000 in extra funding.
Despite raising over $3.8 million last year from over 70,000 backers, Comcept and former Capcom developer Keiji Inafune has announced that Mighty No. 9 is seeking a second round of crowdfunding via PayPal.
Free shipping!.
Microsoft has unexpectedly begun accepting pre-orders for the PC-capable version of Xbox One's Kinect sensor, which will release on 15th July 2014. It'll set you back $199.99, which is what we industry analysts like to refer to as "a fairly large amount of money". For reference, an Xbox One without Kinect costs $399.99 in the US. Keen?
"How well do you know your friend, human?".
A new trailer for Halo: The Master Chief Collection has surfaced, and focuses on the mysterious and sometimes playable figure the Arbiter, and his often complicated relationship with John-117.
Developer will never "show off some flash in the pan, high-end PC demo" that isn't actually possible.
Sledgehammer Games isn't in the business of screening top-tier PC-based demos that are literally impossible to achieve on a console, the developer's co-founder Michael Condrey have told OXM. As far as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is concerned, what you see is what you get.
