Disney movies are now available for download (err…rental really) in high definition via Xbox Live. Why is this significant? Disney supports the Blu-Ray format and not HD-DVD. Apparently that didn’t stop Microsoft from securing the rights to distribute Disney’s “huge classic library” (quote from the E3 press briefing) via Xbox Live. Microsoft went on to say, “…all the biggest hits in theaters today from Disney will be coming to the Xbox Live marketplace.” gg. Click “read more” for a list of what’s available today as of the first offering.

Alice In Wonderland
Armageddon
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Bad Company
Bringing Down The House
Cold Creek Manor
Coyote Ugly
Déjà Vu
Ghosts of the Abyss
Gone Fishin’
Grosse Pointe Blank
Hercules
Meet the Deedles
Metro
Mighty Joe Young
Moonlight Mile
Brother, Where Art Thou?
Pooh’s Heffalump Movie
Prefontaine
Primeval
Sky High
Tarzan
The 13th Warrior
The Aristocats
The Brothers Grimm
The Emperor’s New Groove
The Fox and the Hound 2
The Great Raid
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Queen
The Waterboy
Unbreakable
Valiant
Venus
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A ton of news smacked us in the face last night as Microsoft held their E3 presentation.  They are hyping this holiday season as the “greatest holiday lineup in video game history.”  It’s hard to quantify “greatest” so I’m sure they’ll achieve that goal.

So what makes this holiday season so big?

Gears of Wars is headed to the PC and will run DirectX 10 and support Games for Windows – Live.  I have a feeling my 8800 GTX is going to get a workout.  GoW PC ships with five new campaign chapters, a new multiplayer gametype, new maps, new achievements, and a new game editor. 

A new HALO-themed XBOX 360 and accessories is going to roll out later this year.  It’s the same as the Premium version of the console except for its color and it includes an exclusive HALO 3 dashboard theme and gamer pics.  The console is “Spartan green” colored with shiney gold accents (kind of like Master Chief’s armor) and will ship in September.

Speaking of HALO, a ton of HALO media has been released.  My favorite:  a live action short film.  Bungie.net has a ton of new videos and screenshots.

Unreal Engine 3 will utilize Games for Windows – Live.  This should encourage more developers to make games with GfWL functionality (we’ve ONLY got TWO GfWL titles right now).

Marathon: Durandal his XBOX Live Arcade.  This will be Bungie’s first IP on the Arcade.  Sonic the Hedgehog is NOW available as an XBOX Live Arcade download. 

Major franchise titles will be launched this year including:  Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, Guitar Hero III, HALO 3, Madden NFL 08, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Splinter Cell Conviction.  But other first title games will be launched as well including Assassin’s Creed, BioShock, and Mass Effect.  A complete listing of the games rolling out this holiday season:

• “Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation” (NAMCO BANDAI Games).
• “Assassin’s Creed” (Ubisoft).
• “Beautiful Katamari” (NAMCO BANDAI Games).
• “BioShock” (2K Games).
• “Blue Dragon” (Mistwalker/Artoon Co. Ltd.).
• “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” (Activision).
• “Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSEâ„¢ 2” (Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.).
• “Grand Theft Auto IV” (Rockstar Games).
• “Guitar Hero IIIâ„¢: Legends of Rock” (RedOctane/Activision).
• “Halo 3” (Bungie Studios).
• “Madden NFL 08” (Electronic Arts Inc.).
• “Mass Effect” (BioWare Corp.).
• “Naruto: Rise of a Ninja” (Ubisoft).
• “Project Gotham Racing 4” (Bizarre Creations Ltd.).
• “Rock Band” (MTV Games).
• “Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action” (Screenlife Games/WXP).
• “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction” (Ubisoft).
• “Virtua Fighterâ„¢ 5” (SEGA).
• “Viva Piñata^®: Party Animals” (Krome Studios Pty. Ltd.).

XBOX Live Arcade gets some new titles too.  As mentioned, Marathon: Durandal will be released.  Die-hard Bungie fans will eat this one up.  The hugely popular Hexic gets a sequel, Hexic 2.  I believe I saw multiplayer modes in the presentation for this game.  SEGA is releasing Golden Axe and Sonic the Hedgehog (available now) to the Arcade as well.

30 new Games for Windows titles have been revealed.  Of course, this doesn’t mean that those games will support Games for Windows – Live.  You may be able to play them online, but you won’t be connecting to Live to unlock achievements and (well, that’s about the only thing you can do with Games for Windows – Live).

Games for Windows titles:

• “Age of Empires^® III: The Asian Dynasties” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Bee Movieâ„¢ Game” (Activison)
• “BlackSite: Area 51” (Midway Games)
• “Clive Barker’s Jericho™” (Codemasters)
• “The Club” (SEGA)
• “Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts” (THQ)
• “Empire Earth^® 3” (Sierra Entertainment)
• “Fallout^® 3” (Bethesda Softworks^®)
• “Flight Simulator X: Acceleration” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Gears of War” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Hour of Victory” (Midway Games)
• “John Woo Presents Stranglehold” (Midway Games)
• “Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” (THQ)
• “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men” (Eidos)
• “Nancy Drew^®: Legend of Crystal Skull” (Her Interactive Inc.)
• “Operation Flashpointâ„¢ 2” (Codemasters)
• “Rise of the Argonauts” (Codemasters)
• “Rogue Warrior” (Bethesda Softworks)
• “SEGA Rally Revo” (SEGA)
• “Sid Meier’s Civilization IV^®: Beyond the Sword^TM” (2K Games)
• “Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Gold Edition” (2K Games)
• “Spider-Manâ„¢: Friend or Foe” (Activision)
• “Star Wars^® Empire at War^®: Gold Pack” (LucasArts)
• “The Witcher” (Atari)
• “Thrillvilleâ„¢: Off the Rails™” (LucasArts)
• “Turning Pointâ„¢: Fall of Liberty” (Codemasters)
• “Universe at War: Earth Assault™” (SEGA)
• “Viva Piñata” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Zoo Tycoon^® 2: Extinct Animals” (Microsoft Game Studios)

Microsoft finally gets some support from third party developers for Games for Windows – Live.  Recall that Shadowrun and HALO 2 (PC) are the only games using GfW-Live at the moment.  SEGA, Eidos, and THQ have announced their “intention” in supporting GfW-Live in their games.

These games should support GfW-Live:

• “The Club” (SEGA)
• “Gears of War” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” (THQ)
• “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men” (Eidos)
• “Universe at War: Earth Assault” (SEGA)
• “Viva Piñata” (Microsoft Game Studios)

I’m going to have a lot of say about the news that was revealed last night.  Stay tuned for my takes.  Also, stay tuned for the press conferences by SONY and Nintendo.  I’m sure they’ll have plenty of hype to spread as well.

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currently playing: Shadowrun
on the back burner: Catan, Guitar Hero II, HALO 2 (PC)
Shadowrun rocks!

At last night’s E3 press conference, Microsoft and Bungie unveiled some new goodies for Halo fans:

• A new Halo 3 trailer focused on campaign and including new gameplay footage
• A short film from would-be Halo movie director Neill Blamkomp and WETA called Halo: Arms Race
• A new Halo-themed Xbox 360 hitting stores in September
• The XBLA debut of Marathon: Durandal.

More details at bungie.net

How does that float your boat? Anyone planning to pick up that Spartan-ized 360 in September? Who’s interested in checking out Marathon again (or for the first time)? And does the new short film hint at what might come from the Halo movie someday?

At last night’s E3 press conference, Microsoft and Bungie unveiled some new goodies for Halo fans:

• A new Halo 3 trailer focused on campaign and including new gameplay footage
• A short film from would-be Halo movie director Neill Blamkomp and WETA called Halo: Arms Race
• A new Halo-themed Xbox 360 hitting stores in September
• The XBLA debut of Marathon: Durandal.

More details at bungie.net

How does that float your boat? Anyone planning to pick up that Spartan-ized 360 in September? Who’s interested in checking out Marathon again (or for the first time)? And does the new short film hint at what might come from the Halo movie someday?

At last night’s E3 press conference, Microsoft and Bungie unveiled some new goodies for Halo fans:

• A new Halo 3 trailer focused on campaign and including new gameplay footage
• A short film from would-be Halo movie director Neill Blamkomp and WETA called Halo: Arms Race
• A new Halo-themed Xbox 360 hitting stores in September
• The XBLA debut of Marathon: Durandal.

More details at bungie.net

How does that float your boat? Anyone planning to pick up that Spartan-ized 360 in September? Who’s interested in checking out Marathon again (or for the first time)? And does the new short film hint at what might come from the Halo movie someday?

A ton of game trailers that we’ve been waiting for from E3 2007 are now available for download on Xbox Live, according to Major Nelson. No, Halo 3 and Halo Wars aren’t on the list.

Mass Effect (HD)
Too Human (HD)
Viva Pinata Party Animals (HD)
Lost Odyssey (HD)
Xbox LIVE Marketplace Montage (HD)
PGR4 (HD)
Games For Windows Montage (HD)
Civilization Revolution (HD)
Xbox 360 Games Montage (HD)
Xbox Live Arcade (HD)
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (HD)
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Wow, many many MANY great games were shown to any body actually watching G4! But when i watched it the end Halo 3 trailer was cut off by that damned Adam Sessler. But for those that aren’t quite Halo fans (shame) there was quite a few other games shown that should tickle your fancy. First was Rock Band. Peter Moore actually played bass in the demo song! And screwed it up! The new Fender Stratocaster controllers seem to play fairly well! And anybody thats excited as I am about the drum peripheral and has a Game Informer subscription should be glad to know they have changed the layout slightly so the snare part now is in the standard between-your-legs position. Next was Scene-It (yes the somehow popular board game). Microsoft teamed up with the creators to make a special controller thats very basic for anybody to pick up and play. New Xbox Live Arcade titles were shown but personally I’m not an XBLA fanatic so I wont go to into them (War World looks awsome though I will admit). Then CliffyB (of Gears of War fame) announced Gears of War for Games for Windows Live for Vista and, get this, XP! There’s gonna be 5 new single player chapters, a new Multiplayer mode, if I’m not mistaken 2 new maps, and XBL to GFWL compatibility. O! M! G! RESIDENT EVIL 5!!!!! SOME AFRICAN DUDE BLED OUT OF HIS EYES!!!!! YES!!!! Sorry I’m a RE4 fanatic (Who Isn’t?). Call of Duty 4 looks amazing! Although a step away from the CoD trend its a very GOOD step! The graphics are amazing! But (drumroll) Halo 3 was saved best for last (of course). There was a teaser and a in game trailer shown. The first showed what looked to be a factory in a desert-ish area. Then some computer mumbo jumbo asking for a re-armament only for the re-armament confirmed and initiated. Some Marines were made. Then some Warthogs. Then some Pelicans. and all were ready by the end of the teaser. But the Trailer took my breath away and completely pissed me off at the same time. The graphics were better than the beta’s by far. I cant remember the entire trailer BUT I know for sure there was in game playing in it (the HUD was visible). But sadly that D-Bag Adam Sessler cut it short and I almost flew to San Diego and shot him repeatedly, but I said Goosefraba and calmed my self down. Well low and behold some of your MS info for E3 ’07! For those Iris players like me I didn’t see any info that got us through but the 2nd server should help that.
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Can I plug that out?

The mysterious “fourth console” that was on stage at the Microsoft press event and then surreptituously removed before it began was the rumored additional Xbox 360 SKU– it’s a special edition of the 360 for Halo 3, with a green and orange color scheme. No word yet on specifications.

UPDATE: Bungie.net’s post says the console has HDMI, so possibly the other specs are also the same as the 360 Elite.

According to Bungie.net and HBO, Bungie is showing a two-minute video of Halo 3’s campaign at E3 right now. Bungie.net has three sizes of WMV variants, and HBO as usual has (or rather will have) WMV and QT versions.

NOTE: The link to the download page at HBO seems not to be working just yet, but I’ll wager it will be, soon.

UPDATE: The download link is corrected; you can now download the Halo 3 E3 2007 trailer in three sizes in QuickTime.

HBO is tagging this as a spoiler, but we’ve been told the video itself contains no story spoilers.

Kotaku is liveblogging the Microsoft press event at E3 Lite, and Brian Crecente has Marathon on his list of XBLA titles being mentioned. Stay tuned while we confirm.

Rumors of such a port have been floating around for some time, and recently a German ratings board had the title appear briefly in its database according to a German gaming site.

I’m a Nascar fan, but if your like a lot of people, you probably wonder why in the world anyone would like a racing event where the drivers do nothing but drive in circles for hours at a time. Much less, why would you want to play a video game where all you do is turn left.. drive straight.. turn left. Well it’s hard to explain, but I guess the sport really comes alive when you put your full “fanship” behind a particular driver or couple of drivers. Lots of people inherit their drivers from their parents, sortof the same way football team loyalty is passed down through the generations.

My parents were never big racing fans, but strangely I’ve always been a fan of sorts. I watched Indy Car racing throughout high school, went to a few go-cart and midget races In the past few years, my wife has inherited Nascar’s Tony Stewart as “her” driver. We got tickets to Talledega last year, and the rest is history. Seeing a race in real life is a great experience that I’d recommend to anybody. Once you start to get to know some of the drivers’ personalities, you begin to get interested in who’s winning, who’s crashing, and how the races play out.

Tony Stewart is widely known as a hot-head, he races just about anything with four wheels on a weekly basis (Nextel Cup, Busch Series, Open wheel racing, Dirt tracks) even if he’s got the money to just stick with Nascar-only events. Stewart’s post race media sessions have been known to get lively if he feels he’s been wronged in any way. He usually gets himself into trouble because he’ll tell the media exactly what’s on his mind, even if it has to do with problems with the Nascar organization itself. It’s thought that Nascar has tamed him a bit in the last couple of years, however the personality still will show itself every few races. He’s actually known to be a nice guy though and is quick to give most of the credit to his pit crew and team owner after a win.

There’s other drivers I like. Dale Jr. is a good ole boy who really defines the mold most Nascar fans like in a driver. Jr’s really hard not to like, if not for anything other than the fact of who his dad was. Mark Martin is a guy I really like as a person and driver. Jeff Gordon is fun to hate, his pretty boy, clean cut, proper speaking image isn’t something a lot of people find appealing. Not to mention he’s a damn good driver. At Talledega last year there were a number of Jeff Gordon cutouts with certain parts of the female anatomy glued on to the chest area (I believe “bitch tits” would be the politically correct term). I suppose it’s true when they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

On the 23 of this month (07/23/07) the first Nascar game will be released for the Xbox 360, EA Sports Nascar ’08 with a picture of Tony Stewart and his #20 car gracing the cover. I’m looking forward to this racing game more than any of the others mainly because of my interest in Nascar. Will it prove good enough to buy the wireless steering wheel controller? I’m not sure, however I am looking forward to racing 11-16 other people around the recently fresh paved Talledega Superspeedway on XBL. In previous Xbox versions of Nascar, dirt track racing, as well as road course races were also available to those who find the traditional oval tracks to be less than desireable.

Among some of the other new things, the game will feature the “Car of Tomorrow”. The ‘CoT’ is Nascar’s latest design that was sparked in part because of Dale Earnhardt Sr’s death at the wheel of the #3 car. Some of the features offer enhanced safety and performance of the car. One example of the changes made are that the drivers seat is positioned a few inches more towards the right to provide more crush space in the event of a crash. The vehicles front and rear bumpers are also designed to fit perfectly with each other to allow vehicles to bump each other with less likelyhood of a spin-out. This aims at providing a little more safety to the practice of “bump drafting” where drivers actually push each other forward through the pack in a tightly matched restrictor plate race.

Forza is a fantastic game, however, I’m not sure I’d feel as connected to it as I would a Nascar game. And to boot, they’ve put the #20 on the front cover so it’ll be hard for me to look the other way when release date comes. To me Nascar is 50% about people and 50% about racing. It’s when you understand that relationship that you become a true fan. Add XBL to the mix and I’m looking forward to many redneck conversations of “Jr. vs. Gordon” in my future.

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XBL GT: Mikeulus

Link

This recent release from 2k Games is getting good reviews (~8.5/10) and being praised for having a great story-line, albeit a little linear. Gamespot thinks that multiplayer feels a little tacked on, but said the game looks great and delivers an original and interesting campaign. Great deal from Amazon if you’re interested.

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