arcadeblender.com

Fans of BioShock for the Xbox 360 and PC platform will be happy to hear that 2K Games, the publishing arm of Take-Two Interactive Software have heard their fans and will release new contents and upgrades for the game.

“As one of the highest rated games of the year, we wanted to continue to connect with the fans that made BioShock such an overwhelming retail and critically-acclaimed hit,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. “We are excited to offer new downloadable content that will extend and enhance the replay value of this title.”

From the feedback from gamers at the “Cult of Rapture“, the game will now offer Widescreen option, allowing a wider horizontal field of view. The updates will be automatically installed on the Xbox 360 users connected to Xbox Live. The PC users will need to download the patch from 2K Games.

The free downloadable contents are:

• Sonic Boom: Hurls creatures and objects back with a blast of force
• EVE saver: Enables Plasmids to use less EVE
• Vending Expert: Reduces prices in the vending machines
• Machine Buster: Increases the amount of damage players deal to cameras, bots and turrets

Exclusive to Xbox 360 users:

• Xbox 360 players can gain 100 points for “Brass Balls,” by beating BioShock on the “hard” difficulty setting without dying.

I’ve found a cool article about using the HD-DVD kit for the Xbox and converting it to be used on your PC.

You will need a mini-ata adapter or USB kit drive. It seems the recommendation is to use the USB format as the driver for the drive will automatically be installed where as the mini-ata will need you to install some drivers which weren’t mentioned.

April 7, 2007 is the last date posted for any comments about converting the player for use on the PC.

Check out Hack-a-Day.

As many times as people have heard about scams and how these cyber criminals make away with people’s life savings, its also easy for criminals to fall for the same scam.

The El Paso police department and the U.S. Marshalls, working together, sent out messages to wanted criminals telling them that they have won a free Xbox 360, plasma TV or other prizes.

The police and the marshalls were able to arrest 115 felons with outstanding warrants over a five day period.

Read more at cinemablend.

All you pizza eating, grease loving, game players may now be in heaven.

In a news release today, Domino’s and Microsoft will be giving away 10 Xbox 360 consoles and Project Gotham Racing 4.

Between Dec. 1 - Dec. 12, participants can enter by going to Domino’s website.

The “XII Days of Xbox” contest will receive,  a 48-hour trial of Xbox Live Gold, and will instanly receive Xbox prizes.

Contest rules:

• No purchase necessary
• Must be at least 13 years of age
• Enter between Dec 1 - Dec 12

Enter at Dominos.

The mercenaries are back, and they want payback!

In Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, the mercenaries go to fight a war against a power-hungry tyrant trying to take over Venezuela’s oil supply.

Pandemic Studios will bring their game to the Xbox 360, PS3, and PS2 while I-Play working with Pandemic Studios will bring out a mobile version of the game.

All the console games will be released with the mobile version at the same time.

David Gosen, President of I-play said, “Pandemic Studios is a AAA developer, and we are excited to be partnering with them to bring the Mercenaries franchise to mobile. We are thrilled that Pandemic Studios has chosen I-play to expand the Mercenaries universe.”

Josh Resnick, President of Pandemic Studios said, “I-play is a leader in the mobile market with a successful track record of developing and marketing game franchises. With this partnership, Pandemic Studios is excited to have I-play bring the Mercenaries 2: World in Flames experience to life on mobile devices. We can’t wait to let our fans unleash Mercenaries-style destruction while on the go.”

The game’s ETA is Feb. 2008

Take a look at the vid and see what happens when you fall off the map.

You’re in limbo, baby! This vid was posted in August so they might have a fix, than again maybe not…

Seeing Chow Yun-Fat in such earlier films as “A Better Tomorrow”, “The Killer”, and off course “Hard Boiled” you can’t help but be in a dream like state of amazement over the way his character could hold two guns and make a shootout so cool.

The term, “Ballactic Gunfire” was probably used for the first time to describe the way Chow Yun-Fat fired off his guns in some amazing gun fights.

All this wouldn’t have been possible without John Woo, the director, who has made Chow Yun-Fat into an international star and has made holding two guns a requirement in any movie that has a shootout.

With John Woo’s entrance into Hollywood, he has created Lion Rock Productions and Tiger Hill Entertainment to produce movies and games.

His company, Tiger Hill Entertainment, has brought to us our beloved Chow Yun-Fat character Tequila from “Hard Boiled” to Xbox 360 and PS3 fans a much needed and refreshing shooter game titled “Stranglehold.”

Stranglehold has been released for some time now but Europe is finally getting the game now. To help with the launch of Stranglehold for the European market, Midway is pretty much following the marketing campaign in the states.

Until mid-Jan., users will be able to create their own mini-short films with over 160 classic films, texts, and sound bytes to be edited together for a 90 sec. short film about Stranglehold.

The contest will run for eight weeks, and awards will be given out every week to the best short films created.

The winners will receive a limited edition game console with a Stranglehold design and the grand prize winner will win a luxury trip for two to Hong Kong.

Midway will also give away games signed by the director, John Woo, to some lucky registered users that have participated in the voting.

To enter, go to www.massive-d.com and create your own Stranglehold short film. The contest runs till mid-January.

Naruto fans, stop eating that bowl of Ramen and get to your Xbox Live, now.

Ubisoft announced the free download of the Japanese Voices for the Xbox 360 game, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja.

The downloadable voices include:

• Junko Takeuchi - Uzumaki Naruto
• Kazuhiko Inoue - Hatake Kakashi
• Chie Nakamura - Haruno Sakura
• Noriaki Sugiyama - Uchiha Sasuke
• Kujira - Orochimaru
• Akira Ishida - Sabaku no Gaara

To download the voices:

1. Sign-in into Xbox Live (Silver account required)
2. Start the game
3. In the main menu - go to ‘Xbox Live Marketplace’
4. Download Japanese voices package from the Marketplace
5. Go to options - Play Japanese voices - select ‘yes’

It took over 2 years for the Kiev based GSC Game World to pass Microsoft’s rigorous program and become certified to be a Xbox 360 developer and the company is ecstatic.

The CEO of GSC Game World, Sergiy Grygorovych said:

“We are happy to say the big efforts of our company aimed to obtain the official Xbox 360 developer status now ended with success. Obtaining such a status for an independent developer based in ex-USSR means a lot - it took us over 2 years to get. We are very thankful to Microsoft for the assistance and high esteem of our team’s professionalism.

From now on, our old ambition to create multiplatform projects has become a reality. Such a policy is also fully compliant with the current game industry tendencies.

Creating games for PC, we achieved practically everything, and now are prepared to garner the top spots in sales charts and gamers’ recognition in the world of console games too. This said, we will continue paying maximum attention to the PC platform.”

GSC Game World is known for their projects are:

• Cossacks: The Art of War
• Cossacks: Back to War
• American Conquest
• American Conquest: Fight Back
• Alexander (Oliver Stone’s movie tie-in)
• Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
• Heroes of Annihilated Empires
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl

The company’s first success came with Cossacks: European Wars which was released in 2000. I am thinking the company will port over the Cossacks games for PCs to the Xbox 360 with some newer graphics.

From 1995-1997, the company was creating multimedia encyclopedias and edutainment programs. The company began focus on game technology and computer game development since 1997. It has only published PC based games to date.

GSC Game World was found in Kiev, Ukraine in 1995.

Hate to be tangled up in lines when you’re rocking out?

Activision sent out a press release announcing plans for the Guitar Hero III wireless controllers designed by Gibson designs.

I am not sure if Gibson is manufactoring them or giving Activision the rights to the design but players on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii will be using the exclusive Gibson Guitar’s Les Paul model.

The PS2 gamers will be able to shred on the Gibson’s Kramer guitar.

The ETA for these guitars are early 2008.