The Full Circle: 360 News Report 08.12.07
Posted by Mike Minotti on 08.12.2007
The 360 gets a price drop and a spiffy new HDMI port. Best of all, Track and Field is finally on Xbox Live Arcade! What, you're not excited?
We've got a lot of hardware news this week, but not much on the software front. Of course, with all the big games coming this pretty soon (including BioShock and Halo3), it's not like we should expect much "news". People are to busy counting down the days until they "Finish the Fight" to care if Microsoft said something about some other game.
That said, let's get to the news.
News
Xbox price drop official.
The rumors are true. Here are the new Xbox 360 prices:
$449 Elite SKU
$349 Premium SKU
$280 Core SKU
We still have a fair share of rumors though. Sources inside Best Buy claim that the Core SKU may be phased out soon. Which makes sense considering…
Premium SKU now includes HDMI port.
Like, right now. If you buy a premium Xbox 360, it will have an HDMI port. Pretty spiffy. I kind of wish I had one. Of course, there's no such inclusion in the Core system. Oh well, if you don't want a freaking hard drive, I doubt you'd be all that into HDMI. Besides, Best Buy says the Core's going bye-bye anyways.
Eternal Sonata demo on Live.
So those of you wanting you JRPG fix should go download it right now. It's 584MB and features three short sections of the game.
This should give you something to do if you're bored of the Blue Dragon demo.
Dead Rising now Platinum.
Dead Rising has joined the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits club, bringing the game's price down to a nice $30. That feels like a much more appropriate price for such a silly game.
XBL Arcade Demo Reviews
Eek. Not the best month ever.
Track and Field - 400 points
This is an old arcade game, composed of a bunch of track and field mini-games like the long jump and pole-vaulting. The demo lets you try a short foot race and the long jump. It's incredibly simple. You're just mashing at a button trying to go as fast as you can. In the case of the long jump, you have to hold down the A button at a certain point to start and arc your jump.
Still, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't somewhat amusing. And who knows, maybe the games they don't let you try on the demo are even more fun. The full game also offers support for two players. I mean, you could probably find some better way to spend $5, but there are worse Xbox Live Arcade games.
Rating: Try it.
Weekly Releases
We've got something!
Madden NFL 08 – 9/14
Reviews seem to be indicating that this is the best Madden in some time. I wouldn't really be able to say since my exposure to the series is limited. Still, I'm sure that you all know at this point in your lives if you're Madden fans or not.
Weekly Poll
Last week's results:
Which upcoming 360 game is most likely to be delayed?
Here's a Call of Duty 4 trailer via Game Trailers. This game is shaping up to look rather good, and even had some people calling it Game of Show at the past E3.
The Other Guys
Nintendophiles' Theo Fraser has the latest Smash Bros. Brawl info. If you don't care, you may not deserve to breathe. Just saying.
Game Over
We're getting closer to BioShock, and I'm getting pumped. A good atmospheric FPS is just what a need. I prefer them so much more over the more action based FPS's, like Resistance and yes, even Halo.
Gasp, the person writing the Xbox column doesn't have a hard on for Halo?
