microsoft game studios
Hands On
12:40PM Michael McWhertor | Turn 10 ups its driving game with Forza Motorsport 3, the self-proclaimed “definitive” racer of this generation, a sim that strives to let the more casual racing fan into the fold with a series of options that are noob-friendly. More »
Forza Motorsport 3 Review: Definitively Maybe
12:40PM Michael McWhertor | Turn 10 ups its driving game with Forza Motorsport 3, the self-proclaimed “definitive” racer of this generation, a sim that strives to let the more casual racing fan into the fold with a series of options that are noob-friendly. More » 
Media
Pacific City Still Not Pacified In Crackdown 2
7:40AM Owen Good | Four new Crackdown screens from Microsoft show you what to expect in Pacific City, still in the throes of a crime war. The last depicts a mutated foe, previewing the virus outbreak that will make your adventures more challenging. More »
News
Producer: Halo Natal Will Be Done ‘When It Makes Sense’
12:00PM Owen Good | For those wondering if Microsoft’s Project Natal motion control automatically means they’re working on Natal-enabled Halo titles, Halo 3: ODST producer’s says, not necessarily. “We are committing to only doing it when it makes sense,” Alex Cutting told VideoGamer.com. More »
Rumours
Rumour: Next Halo Game Is “Halo: Reach”?
1:00AM Owen Good | Yesterday we got dropped that image of a Bungie forums search menu, which tipped something called “Halo: Reach.” Such things are easily faked, and I couldn’t run it down. Well, now someone’s found a cache of since-deleted Bungie forum posts on this subject. More »
News
Gametap Partners Up With Microsoft
7:00AM Owen Good | Age of Empires 2, Fable: The Lost Chapters and Mech Warrior 4 are on the way to the game portal GameTap, following an agreement reached with Microsoft Game Studios, announced last week. More »
Hands On
Halo Wars Review: A Fistful of Spartans
5:00AM Brian Crecente | Halo has been safely nesting in the loving hands of Bungie for more than seven years. And it’s excelled as a first-person shooter, proving finally that you can make a great shooter on a console. More »
Lips Review: Kinda Puckered Up
4:00AM Luke Plunkett | Let’s get this out of the way now. Yes, Lips is a shameless rip-off of Sony’s massively-successful SingStar franchise. From intent to mechanics, the mission brief for the iNiS team was never “make an original, inspiring music title for the Xbox 360″. It was “do SingStar, but on the Xbox 360″. And that’s exactly how we’re going to assess the game. More »
Gears of War 2 Review: Bigger, Better and More… Poignant
4:00AM Brian Crecente | Gears of War hit a lot of high notes when it was released in November 2006, but despite all of the high scores and hoopla surrounding its release, the game missed out on plenty of fantastic potential. There was that short, rather unsatisfying story, the shallow, almost stereotypical characters, the paltry eight-person multiplayer engagements. With Gears of War 2, Epic Games promises a title that is bigger, better and more badass than the first. Does that mean we can expect some story to go along with all of those chainsaw kills and blood baths or will plot continue to be superfluous as the franchise marches ever onward toward its culminating third game? Hit the jump to find out. More »
McFarlane Toys Joins The Halo Wars
1:20AM Mike Fahey | Microsoft Game Studios and McFarlane Toys plan on continuing their very lucrative partnership this spring with the announcement of action figures based off of the upcoming Halo Wars RTS take on the Halo universe. Closer to traditional army men figures than actual action figures, the toys will stand at 2.5 inches tall, with the only articulation being found at the waist. The first wave of figures consists of four sets of three figures each, with each pack carrying a retail price of around $US 10. Up top you can see a pair of unpainted prototypes, courtesy of GamePro. Tiny figures with little articulation sold in three packs? Sounds like someone wants us to create our own giant Halo Wars dioramas. If only I had a basement. Hit the jump for more details, including the composition of each of the first series packs. More »
