Microsoft Extends Xbox 360 Warranty

Great news for all you Xbox 360 owners. Microsoft has decided to extend the general hardware failure coverage for all X360 consoles to 3 years:

"As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date.

We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience."

New Warranty FAQ <--> Letter to Xbox 360 Owners

The Lord of the Rings Online first free content expansion...

Turbine's The Lord of the Rings Online which only launched about two months ago has just gotten one of its first free "expansions" today. Launching around 2PM EST today, Book 9: Shores of Evendim greeted everyone as they happily patched the game up. Though the patch was quite large (about 600 megs or so), considering the amount of content included I doubt anyone complained much. Just taking a look at the three page long changelog and you can see how much stuff is here. Over 100 new quests, an entire new zone to explore (Evendim, with around 70 of the new quests) new armor sets, new deeds, monster play additions, character class changes (hear that Champions??), you name it - it'll probably be here.

Of course there are the usual bug fixes and game changes, way to many to list. Normally I would list some of the changes/additions etc, but not this time. There are just way, way to many. Turbine, known for giving lots of content away for free, did not waste much time with its newest MMORPG hit. Turbine has four (4) major content updates planned, Shores of Evendim being the first obviously. Just to compare, the new Evendim area is roughly the size of The Shire in the game.

Multiplayer Online Games Directory also has a nice interview up with Turbine, explaining what the update includes, the new raids available and monster play changes among other topics.

Multiplayer Online Games Directory Turbine Interview

SOE announces online action game 'The Agency'

Sony Online Entertainment, (SOE) a global leader in the online gaming industry, announced it is developing The Agency™, a fast-paced online action shooter filled with espionage, intrigue and betrayal. The Agency is being developed at SOE’s Seattle studio for both the PC and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

The Agency is a pick-up-and-play experience where players assume the role of elite agents in a modern-day world. Both solo players and groups will enjoy a wide variety of cooperative and competitive story-driven missions set in exotic locales across the globe.

“The inspiration for The Agency came from the spy and espionage genre. We want to put players in the heart of the action to experience what it’s really like to live the life of an elite agent,” said Hal Milton, Lead Designer, Sony Online Entertainment. “Players will jet set around this virtual world to exotic locales, infiltrate enemy organizations to steal secrets and perpetrate sabotage, all the while building their own agency with an eye towards global domination.”

Persistent character development allows players to supplement their gear with exotic and powerful skills that make them feel like the elite agents they’ve always dreamt of becoming. Additionally, in lieu of the typical class systems in many other games, The Agency’s approach is simply, “You Are What You Wear.” Players will customize their character’s attire based on the mission at hand, emphasizing combat, support, stealth, or even cover identities.

Players begin their experience by choosing to be a slick UNITE spy or a gritty ParaGON mercenary. Both factions will have players tangling in illicit activities such as drug smuggling, assassinations, espionage and counter intelligence. As they gain ranks within their chosen agency, players will increase their influence over the world while experiencing a deep story of action and intrigue. Along the way players will be able to build their own agencies, team with others to create joint agencies, and recruit a roster of useful Operatives.

GamesIndustry

id Software Shows Off New Game Engine

At Apple’s worldwide developer conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, California, John Carmack, the chief technology officer of id Software, a well-known game developer, has demonstrated the company’s new game engine, which, it claims already works on numerous platforms including game consoles. “In the last couple of years we’ve been working, pretty much in secrecy, on a next-generation technology and a next-generation game core. This is actually going to be the fist time that we show what we’ve been doing publicly,” Mr. Carmack said during his two minute keynote at WWDC.

The new game engine, which id calls id Tech 5 supports Microsoft Windows-based PCs, Apple Macintosh computers running Mac OS as well as popular game consoles – Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. No information was released about the game engine itself, though, it was implied that it also features MegaTexturing, a feature in id’s Enemy Territory: Quake Wars game due out this year.

XbitLabs

Three Gaming Keypads for Your Pleasure!

Three new gaming keypads competing to take up that empty space to the left (or right) of your existing keyboard.First there's the updated Flexiglow Cyber Snipa, designed exclusively for FPS gaming with its creative layout of gaming keys. Next there's the Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit that's capable of handling tasks in FPS and RTS gaming. And last, there's the Genius ErgoMedia 500, a spitting image of one of our recommended gaming keypads: the Nostromo N52. How will these gaming keypads fair against each other? And, how do they match up against our favorite gaming keypads: the WolfKing Warrior and Ideazon Fang? Because it's been a while since we reviewed these older game pads, we'll be grading the three in this roundup on a tougher scale to keep up with today's crop of demanding games.

Read Full Review...

80GB PlayStation 3 for South Korea

According to official information posted on the PlayStation Korea website, the territory will be getting an 80GB hard drive inside the PS3 when it launches June 16. Neither the 20 GB nor the 60 GB PS3 consoles will be available in South Korea. Aside from the 80 GB hard drive, the hardware of the Korea-bound PS3 is identical the European model – which also means software-based, instead of hardware-based, backwards compatibility.

DailyTech

Condemned 2: Bloodshot Announced for Xbox360/PS3

Ask anyone who owns an Xbox 360 what one of the most memorable and surprising hit launch titles were and I’m sure Condemned will be at the top of everyone’s list. Thankfully, SEGA knows this and has announced today Condemned 2: Bloodshot will be released in early 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot will put us back in the shoes of Ethan Thomas. It seems Ethan’s former partner has gone missing, so he sets out to find him. Ethan though isn’t the same man he used to be. He was effected by all of the craziness that went on in the first Condemned and is now a “desperate burnout”, according to SEGA’s description.

One of the biggest surprises from the announcement is the fact there will be online multiplayer included in Condemned 2: Bloodshot. No further details on what we should expect with this addition, but as soon as details emerge we will make sure to update you guys accordingly.

Full Story

Prof Turns PS3s into Supercomputer

If this doesn’t tell the Sony executives that they better get a killer app game out for its PlayStation 3 sooner rather than later, we don’t know what will. Over at the North Carolina State University an associate professor of computer science went out and bought eight PS3 units and then clustered them together to combine their processing power. Apparently the demos for “Resistance: Fall of Man” wasn’t enough to impress Dr. Frank Mueller about the PS3’s gaming ability, but he can get a decent level of supercomputing processing power out of the 64 logical processors that are banked together.

Mueller admits that his Sony supercomputer solution is constrained by the 256 megs of RAM and networking hiccups, but for $5,000 the Cell chip architecture gives high enough performance for a relatively cheap cost. And, Mueller says, if he had 10,000 PS3s networked together he could create the world’s fastest computer. “Of course, here at NC State we will use it for educational purposes and for research,” said Professor Mueller, dispelling any hopes we had of a 8-player “Armored Core 4” deathmatch on campus. We would like to see what Professor Mueller would create with a Nintendo Wii or Microsoft Xbox 360 but then again the software for those consoles may distract him from his academic work.

Sony brings it 'Home' for the PS3

At Wednesday’s Game Developers Conference, Sony unveiled Home, an immersive 3D social space created exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Phil Harrison, Sony Computer Entertainment's president of worldwide studios, gave a keynote regarding Home, which is essentially a 3D, avatar-based social environment available to users of the PlayStation 3 network. Home will be available as a public free download this fall, after the large-scale beta in April. Home participants will be able to meet other members, most likely in a main public area known as the "Central Lobby," and communicate through text, audio or video chatting. They will also be able to pipe in, either in public or private theatres, the latest movies or TV shows available through the PS3 network, as well as their own user-created videos. Users will be able to customize their avatars and their small private spaces.

Compared to Second Life, Home appears to be a much more controlled space as Sony will moderate anything meant for public spaces, most likely to ensure that the service remains a family friendly space. But maintaining such control over content creation means devoting large amounts of time and manpower to the vetting process, and that can translate to a significant delay in the approval of content, as well as minimized user creativity. Harrison emphasized the despite some obvious similarities, Home is not a Second Life knockoff.users would be able to create some forms of their own content, they would be able to conduct transactions in exchange for some form of payment and, of course, purchase in-world goods, in-world advertising (Home allows for high-quality, realistic advertising) and business-to-business services like sponsorship opportunities.

Source: News.com