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BBC Coming To Xbox Live?
Posted by Brian Crecente at 11:52 PM on September 10, 2007
Microsoft and the BBC are in talks about selling BBC television as downloadable content via the Xbox Live Marketplace when the Video service hits the UK, the Sunday Times reports. Last year the BBC signed an agreement with Microsoft to explore ways of developing its digital services.
"We are working diligently on multiple fronts to make it happen," said Ross Honey, senior director for media at Microsoft's content and partner strategy group. "The BBC is a great content provider."The story goes on to say that they are also in talks with "several other European media companies," but doesn't name them.
BBC courted for Xbox link [Times Online, via Xboer.tv]
Say what you will about the Roger Avary's Silent Hill script, the filmmaker has churned out some great pictures including The Rules of Attraction and Killing Zoe. His next project? Bringing Return to Castle Wolfenstein to the big screen. Avary wants to do the first-person-shooter as a "men on a mission" movie like The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare. The director explains:
The original Xbox? Loads of good times, but it wasn't exactly pleasing on the eye. Oh, it also took up too much space; you couldn't even put other console/DVD player things on top of it since they curved the roof. Gah! Thankfully, those two shortcomings have been rectified by this case mod, the Xbox Mini, which chucks out the old DVD drive in favour of an 80GB HDD and comes in a oh-that's-much-better, smaller case. It's not quite finished, but it's getting there. 
Illustrator 
I'm a David Braben fan. Guy makes Elite, he gets me on his side for life. David Braben, though, is not a fan of the UK's BBFC ratings system. Not a Manhunt 2 fan, either, now you mention it. 
Toy/Halo 3 fans will remember the badass Kotobukiya Master Chief statue from a few months back. Well they just sent word that there are two more Master Chiefs on the way, both variants on the existing mould but sporting new colour schemes. One red, one blue. The blue version, money can't buy, it's one of the prizes in a Mountain Dew competition. But the red one, it's a Gamestation exclusive for the UK market and will be available in October.
Yup, these are the MapleStory anime designs. No, really. They look like anything BUT the cute characters that populate the Korean MMORPG. Not as though we were counting the days down until it airs this October on TV Tokyo, but this cartoon must be a cruel joke! Who is creating this garbage! Seriously!!
As far as how well songs are suited towards Rock Band, Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun is BORING. The Chili Pepper's Dani California is even worse. Yet for some reason we have people claiming that the Rock Band tour currently doing the rounds shows these two tracks have made it into the game. Not really a Chili Peppers fan, but I at least know their older works are rock-heavy (at least for the purposes of this game). I am a Soundgarden fan, and know that this is the band that brought us Jesus Christ Pose.
Classy! Here is a print ad for the new slim and lite PSP that does a nice job of emphasising it's lighter. This ad is way easier to grasp than Japan's 
Oh, didn't you know? Blue Dragon is out. In the West. In English and everything. And it's being totally ignored. Which having played it non-stop for the past week makes me a little sad. Sure, it does absolutely nothing new, but the old stuff it does, it does with a degree of polish you rarely see outside of a first-party Nintendo title. I love it. Might even be, at time of writing, one of the platform's strongest titles, and it definitely plugs a big hole in the 360's lineup. In fact the game's biggest problem is not its own, it's Microsofts decision to ship it in the second half of 2007. The cupboard was bare earlier this year: had this been released then I'd have played it for months. Now? I don't think I'll get past disc 2 before the downpour starts, and I'll end up retiring it to the cupboard until next year. Which is a damn shame.
Back before SNK was bought by a pachinko company (SNK is now once again independent), the company announced it was working on new hardware. What kind of hardware? Most assumed that meant a new Neo Geo portable. A former employee tells Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield that SNK that wasn't quite true. Apparently, SNK sunk a chunk of cash into a new chip that was going to be used for next-gen arcade hardware and a new home console. SNK's cash flow got tight, and the new chip started to look "a bit silly" when compared to other consoles that were on the market between 1999~2000. The chip was small enough to fit in a portable device, and that could've been another option. So, how did it look? "Much better than Neo Geo 64," the insider tells Sheffield. Good to know!
The PS2 was the undisputed last gen winner. Going into the current generation, Sony had a huge leg-up momentum and brand-wise. Many pegged the PS3 as once again the winner, but the PS3 has so far failed to live up to expectations. Japanese game journalist Kiyoshi Tane lays out why the PLAYSTATION 3 has been a bust in his new 207-page-book Why Did The PS3 Fail?. Tane, an editor at culture mag 
There's a GameStop manager's meeting going down in Vegas at the moment. According to Opposable Thumbs, the assembled throng have been treated to the first footage of a game being bundled with the Wii Zapper. Their sources are saying it's a Zelda game. Zelda Crossbow Training. Which plays in the third-person and is running on what looked to them to be the Twilight Princess engine. Thoroughly promising, but also totally unconfirmed at this stage, so keep your knickers untwisted and your horses held.
Hey! Today is National Grandparents Day. So, hopefully you called your parents' parents or wrote them an email or sent them a card or screamed loudly in their general direction. Because remember, if they didn't have sex and make your mum-and-dad, you wouldn't be here. And if you weren't here, you couldn't play video games. Think about it!
This is definitely the coolest (and I think only) GTA cake I have ever seen. I'm particularly fond of the copious use of knick-knacks on the cake like the tiny cars and the fake money. I'm a sucker for an overly decorated cake that uses lots of little toys. The only thing that's missing is some tiny hookers and some blood. It's a well done cake, but despite the subject matter it is a bit on par with something you might see coming out of the local grocery store with the pre-rendered photographic icing. Although, the use of this cake for a four year old's birthday seems highly questionable. Oh, and that sound you hear is the head of certain Florida lawyer exploding.
Art Guitar is creating some very special, limited edition Guitar Hero guitars called the AG Riff Master Guitar Controller. But, these aren't your average tiny plastic versions, oh no! These are made from actual real Peavy guitars and are full sized to heighten your gameplay experience. As an added bonus, each guitar will be decorated with paintings of some of rocks most beloved iconic stars including Kiss and a few more that will be announced soon. The fancy peripherals are set to drop in the holiday season this year. No word yet on how much these puppies are going to cost , but we'll be sure to keep you updated as more is known.
One of our Best Buy moles has provided us with a list of Best Buy locations that will be holding midnight launch events for Halo 3. Eighty-eight stores have been chosen for this honour and there will even be some additional freebies to go along with your purchases. New SKUs show that promotional materials will be a Halo 3 Inflatable Chair and a mysterious "Official Launch Kit" the contents of which are currently unknown. 
Today marks the eighth birthday of one of the most underrated and unappreciated consoles ever to hit the market, The Sega Dreamcast. The little system gave birth to some really great games including Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, Rez, Wetrix, PowerStone, and many others. Although it didn't do too well commercially and eventually left the market when some heavy competition appeared on the scene, The Dreamcast nevertheless garnered a rabid cult -like following. Despite it's failure on the commercial front, the system still lives on thanks to the tireless efforts of homebrew creators and fans, giving extended life to an otherwise dead system. So, Happy Birthday Dreamcast, we hardly knew ye.
When I posted the story about the 
Despite the fact the Call of Duty 4 beta keys seem to be flowing like water, many people are reporting problems including downloading the beta itself. I have received many emails on the subject and 
Games Radar has posted an interesting interview with Editor-in-Chief of Official Xbox Magazine, Francesca Reyes who apparently has gone to Bungie and played through and beaten the entire of Halo 3. When asked about the experience, Reyes who lives in San Francisco, had this to say:
