Halo Wars is one of those odd games that should be better received, an RTS set in the Halo universe featuring tons of units and vehicles from the expanded Halo canon and told with an interesting series of cut scenes and some fairly fun RTS missions. Unfortunatley I think far to many of the twitch oriented Halo gamers out there just can’t wrap their heads around strategy like an RTs and the RTS fans don’t live on the console, even if Ensemble Studio’s game does a pretty good job of translating the traditionally PC oriented experience to the console.

Regardless, those who found the swansong of the studio an enjoyable diversion will have more maps to play around with. The latest downloadable content pack includes 4 new maps and 4 new achievements for you achievement hounds out there – totaling 100 additional points. The new pack, called – “Historic Battles” will be available July 21st for 800 MS points.

800 Points for 4 maps? Seems a bit steep to me… maybe its just because of the extra achievements.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of a brand new MechWarrior game comes another announcement that gives us something good to do right now.

Smith & Tinker has authorized the release of MechWarrior 4 as a free download on BattleTech.com. It’s not live yet, but it should be up very soon. According to the Smith and Tinker website,

In honor of BattleTech’s 25th anniversary, Smith & Tinker has authorized MekTek.net and MekTek Studios to distribute MechWarrior 4 (along with its expansion packs) completely free. For years, MekTek.net has been the central point for online distribution of MechWarrior 4 expansion packs. Now they can provide the core game free to the fans as well. Keep an eye on BattleTech.com – the free download will be available soon!

Today is just a great day for gaming. There’s this announcement, plus Daggerfall for free. Could this day get any better?

There’s been a fair bit of speculation about MechWarrior the last couple of days, due to some short video clips that appeared on the net. The videos really didn’t show much, just a quick look at some unmarked mechs. Still, excited discussions ensued.

Fans debated the type of mechs, armament of mechs, and what the videos actually meant. Well, the speculation can all come to a screeching halt now.

According to IGN AU, Jordan Weisman is behind the revival of the franchise. If don’t remember Weisman, he was the co-founder of FASA, the company that created the BattleTech universe. He also founded Smith and Tinker, the company that acquired the rights to MechWarrior from Microsoft in 2007.

You’ll find more details on the next MechWarrior after the break.

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Hi, my name is Shawn and I’m a recovering Magic-aholic.

Magic is like paper crack to me. I find it consumes my life when I’m playing it. It becomes my goal in life, I will forsake food, personal hygiene and even intimate relations when I’m on a bender. It’s a sad part of my life but I thought it was behind me.

Struggling through Magic addiction is a daily challenge. I fight to avoid the Magic cards at the grocery, I refused the free Magic tournaments at the local game store. I’d been clean for almost a year when it happened.

I’m ashamed to admit my weakness but here, amongst a gathering of others with my problem I feel relieved to admit it. I had a moment of weakness and I slipped up. It wasn’t with that shiny foil packaging, I wasn’t huddled in the alley behind the game store.. no, I gave in to Magic last in my home and there was no physical evidence left afterward, just a note on my bank account for the purchase of 2500 Microsoft points. ( I only needed 800, but I wanted some extras on hand to buy cards later)

There is something so insidious about the digital version. It’s too perfect a translation in fact. While currently I can’t sidle up to the counter and pay for my next fix of booster packs and I don’t have access to the thousands of cards in my physical library I have little doubt the masterminds behind my addiction already have the plan for my digital downfall in the works.

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Sumthing Else Music Works is bringing the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts soundtrack out to videogame music fans everywhere.

The Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Original Soundtrack features original musical compositions by Robin Beanland (Killer Instinct, Conker’s Bad Fur Day), Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie) and David Clynick (Perfect Dark, Perfect Dark Zero).

The Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts OST will be available at retail stores June 30 as well as for digital download on Sumthing Digital www.sumthingdigital.com and iTunes.

This weekend Xbox has hooked up with Linkin Park to offer gamers a shot at playing frontman Mike Shinoda at Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. For your chance to Game With Fame with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, Xbox LIVE gold members should send a friend request to Gamertag Mike Linkinpark and be online Friday June 26th 30 minutes before the 4:00 pm EST (1:oo pm PST) start time. You can also follow the game on Twitter.

Linkin Park contributed “What I’ve Done” off their Minutes to Midnight album to the original Transformers live action movie. Their new hit single “New Divide” is on the Revenge of the Fallen soundtrack.

More details from the press release follow the break.

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One of this weeks’ Xbox Live release hint at a coming “nerdpocalypse”.

I say this in the nicest terms of course as a fan of said instrument of destruction. The long rumored Xbox version of Wizards of the Coast’s popular trading card game is available on Micrsoft’s Online service Wednesday June 17, 2009.

Magic the Gathering: Duals of the Planeswalkers recreates the game using virtual cards for a mere 800 Microsoft Points. Purchasers also get a code to claim a free foil card – Garruk Wildspeaker. Luckily the title features eight included dueling decks and a multitude of game modes including single-player, co-op custom and campaign modes.

Duels of the Planeswalkers also allows you to play against others via the service, customize your decks and I’d imagine get on the virtual paper crack train as updates to the game are released in future DLC sealed packs. (Though technically I don’t see an official mention of DLC for the game anywhere I’d bet if it sells well Wizards will be quick to capitalize on its popularity.. and face it they have 20 years of cards they could convert and sell to old timers like me – and the Xbox site mentions Content Downloads)

Duels of the Planeswalkers might just reintroduce the addiction to lapsed or recovering Magic players worldwide. I know it would rank right up there next to Rock Band 2 DLC for me in splitting my disposable income.  Especially since it appears to handle more than 2 players in a competition.. my preferred form of Magic.

I plan to download the title soon so look for a review in an upcoming edition of The Analog Gamer.

There’s a new spin on the rumor that Microsoft’s Project Natal for the Xbox 360 doesn’t work for everyone. The peripheral free motion control system based on near infrared technology was demonstrated at E3 2009. In a live Paradise demo, media personality N’Gai Croal was unable to steer his car with his hands although his foot controls worked fine.

VGChartz has put a new angle on this conspiracy theory. Author Jacob Mazel cites an article published in the Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing in 2005 on Reliability of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in People With Dark Skin Pigmentation to support his theory that Microsoft knew the prototype Natal system had trouble distinguishing N’Gai’s motions because of his melanin rich skin. He says he saw N’Gai later that day wearing light colored shoes. He believes this is the reason the Natal demo was so restricted and videos demos of black celebrities trying out the system, like the one following the break, were shown.

The glitch experienced during his demo could have been a known problem that Microsoft couldn’t avoid because of N’Gai’s re pore with the Games Industry. It could also have been a fluke in an otherwise well tested system…

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The rumor mill is chewing on a possible price drop for the PS3 this August to kick off EA’s latest Madden game. Unnamed inside sources have indicated to Industrygamers‘ James Brightman that “industry sources indicate Sony is planning a $100 price cut on the PS3 in mid-August, just prior the launch of Madden (8/18) and the start of the back to school shopping season. This will naturally be a positive for the industry.”

Those of you holding their breath with me at the end of Sony’s E3 2009 presentation only to be disappointed shouldn’t give up on seeing a PS3 price drop this year. At least PSP fans should be getting a price break on games and just more games altogether because of the PSP development kit price break announced at the press conference.

I could be paranoid, but I suspect there may be other reasons Sony is holding firm on the price of its overly expensive gaming console.

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Just in the nick of time we’re posting the embed for the Microsoft Live streaming coverage for Today’s Microsoft Press Briefing at E3. Follow the jump and you can watch the whole thing live, followed shortly by the GT opinions. Liveblogged below the embed… so open a second window to see and make comments so you don’t lose the stream if you’re watching “live”.

Thanks to the folks at G4TV for the JustinTV link. Read the full article »