Xbox 360

By Patrick Klepek In one form, the Xbox 360 is now cheaper than the Wii. Microsoft announced price reductions today for all three Xbox 360 models, and brought the Arcade box to $199. Microsoft is the first company to have hardware cheaper than Nintendo. The company’s director of product marketing, Aaron Gree...

By Tracey John Readers, what new releases are you NOT playing this week, and why? If we had time machines, we’d go back and play almost every single game that came out. But we don’t. So that means some games are just going to have to wait. Such as… Stephen’s Not Playing… “Stubbs the Zombie” for the Xbox Why he wou...

By Stephen Totilo What better way to spend a holiday weekend than to lose half a day in Rare’s Xbox 360 gardening simulator sequel, “Viva Pinata: Party Animals Trouble In Paradise“? This game had held “Spore” at bay for much of Saturday, a testament to its appeal. But Microsoft won’t let me write about it unti...

By Tracey John What the Box Tells Us: Activision seems to be taking a page out of EA’s “All-Play” book, where the Wii versions are more cartoony than their X360/PS3 counter-parts. This box seems to say everyone can fish if you have a fishing pole. And for the hardcore Wii fishermen and women, the box says it c...

By Stephen Totilo I recently had the opportunity to e-mail the creators of Xbox 360 action role-playing game “Too Human” a few questions about the game they just spent the last four years making. I asked not to talk to the game’s lead creator, the widely-quoted Denis Dyack, because I thought it would be inter...

By Tracey John Release Date: PC - October 2003; Xbox - November 2003 Metacritic Score: PC - 86; Xbox - 84 January 2006 #153 - “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent” Release Date: October 2006 Metacritic Score: X360 - 85; Xbox - 89; PS2 - 84; PC - 80

By Stephen Totilo Next: The great portable gaming drought of August continues, possibly to be abated today with a couple of preview builds I was sent for games I never thought I’d even try. Going to try them now! A “Dead Space” disc showed up at my desk yesterday, without warning and with a half-finished press...

By Stephen Totilo Most of the gameplay in “Too Human” is divorced from the story, succeeding or failing on its own without the narrative having any bearing on it. Most of the story and character development — with the exception of chatter overheard during battles — is drawn from non-gameplay cut scenes.

By Tracey John Okay, so maybe we’re not great at making our own box art (hey, you try squeezing in as many names as you can), but we do regularly take it upon ourselves to judge new releases solely on their appearances, regardless of their content. First up, the much-talked about “Too Human” … “Too Human” (X...

By Stephen Totilo Longtime readers of the MTV Multiplayer blog will recall that way back in May of 2008 I reported the request of one average citizen who got the chance to ask Microsoft’s former head of first party game development, Shane Kim, for any change in the Xbox 360 strategy.

By Stephen Totilo I’ve had little time for “Too Human” since I received a finished copy from Microsoft on Friday. I was able to give it just 100 more minutes through last night. (Blame the distractions of a “blazing” new PC.) So I’m merely re-playing parts of the Xbox 360 action-RPG that I already played and wrot...

By Tracey John From big-budget games to indie titles, no box art ever gets a free pass. In this week’s “Judged By The Cover,” we start with a little sports game no one’s ever heard of… “Madden NFL 09″ (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox, DS) What the Box Tells Us: I don’t know too much about football, but [...]

By Stephen Totilo The new “Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2” for the Xbox 360, the latest obsession for high-score-obsessed gamers who own Microsoft’s system, repairs two problems its creators had with its predecessor. And it is setting the stage for a half a dozen more games.

By Stephen Totilo I walked four blocks south and one block east from MTV headquarters yesterday to play some upcoming games from Midway. Among them was “TNA Impact!,” a September game for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii based on the generally more athletic if not as charismatic company of wrestlers who compete ag...

By Patrick Klepek “You could consider it ["Call of Duty"] art, expression,” he said. “You can call a video game whatever you want. That’s part of freedom. It might not be the responsible thing to do, but still, what’re you going to do? Start banning books next?”

By Tracey John I didn’t include the Wii as one of my options because of my love for “FIFA” and “Prince of Persia” on traditional controllers. To those who were suggesting the Wii, don’t get me wrong: I think that the system is an awesome creation where games such as “Wii Sports” bowling or even ping-pong can...

By Stephen Totilo Best Action/Adventure Game Dead Space EA Redwood Shores/EA for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Best Role Playing Game Fallout 3 Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Best Fighting Game Street Fighter IV Capcom for Arcade)

Related articles from Aeropause Games, Joystiq.

By Stephen Totilo The day that I had expected to arrive at least a year ago appeared to arrive on Saturday morning. That is when my launch Xbox 360, a 20GB machine that has whirred through my complete play-throughs of “King Kong,” “Gears of War,” “Mass Effect, chunks of so many other games and dozens of Xbox Liv...

How can there be a better Xbox 360 Achievement than “Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2“’s Wax Off? Let’s back up for a second. In my last diary entryI wrote ... Review – Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 For Xbox Live Arcade CTV.ca Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 hits Xbox Live Arcade Planet Xbox 360

Related articles from Kotaku, Gaming Today, Cinematic Happenings Under Development, ButtonMasher and more.

By Stephen Totilo If I was able to be one of 36 members of the gaming media to nominate the best games of E3, surely someone will allow me, today, to nominate my pick for best Xbox Achievement of 2008? Who cares if the year is barely halfway finished? How can there be a better Xbox 360 Achievement than “Geometry W...

Related articles from Kotaku, Gaming Today, Cinematic Happenings Under Development, ButtonMasher and more.

By Stephen Totilo Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores/EA for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Resident Evil 5 (Capcom for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts for PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360)

Related articles from Gaming Bits, Gaming Today, G4 TV and more.

By Tracey John Other video reports: Sony explains how PSN can trump Xbox Live. Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime talks “GTA” on DS and the PS3’s installed base. And Microsoft revealed Bungie’s next “Halo” game. We asked execs and the iPhone apparently doesn’t scare Nintendo and Sony one bit.

By Stephen Totilo Want to see some of the E3 coverage we aired on MTV? Check out this piece which aired earlier today and features top guys at Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony answering some of the tougher questions I asked them at E3. To Microsoft: Are Xbox Avatars cribbed from the Wii’s Miis?To Sony: How did you g...

By Stephen Totilo One bonus bit of info for long-time “Banjo” fans. I asked Microsoft’s Ken Lobb, a longtime liaison to the folks at Rare from back in the Nintendo days, if the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release of the original “Banjo Kazooie” would link up to the new game to enable a new form of Stop N Swap. He said...

By Stephen Totilo At E3 last week I talked to PlayStation marketing man Peter Dille about a range of topics, the first of which, naturally, had to be the announcement by Microsoft that the formerly PS3-exclusive “Final Fantasy XIII” was also going to debut on the Xbox 360.

By Stephen Totilo So, Xbox 360 owners, are you sold on the new dashboard? Well, too bad if you’re not. There’s no choice in the matter. It will be available for all 360s some time this fall. At the Xbox 360 Community Roundtable at E3 on Monday, I learned a few more small but potentially significant details about th...

By Patrick Klepek It was all about Christmas for Microsoft at E3 2007. “Mass Effect” dated for November “Scene It!” one button controller and game unveiled “Call of Duty 4″ exclusive multiplayer beta announced “Halo” short film shown as consolation for “Halo” movie

By Stephen Totilo Jason’s Top Five Games Of The First Half Of 2008 (ranked for greatness) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)N+ (Xbox Live Arcade)The World Ends With You (DS)Space Invaders Extreme (DS, PSP)Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360) Tracey’s Top Five Games Of The First Half Of 2008 (alphabetical order)...

By Stephen Totilo Faint praise? I know “Too Human” is a controversial game and there are a lot of preview-readers this week questioning whether the game is really for them. My guess is that “Too Human” would be ideal for people who wanted to mindlessly grind and level-up while chatting with a friend — play it l...

By Patrick Klepek If you purchased any songs for “Guitar Hero III,” Activision has said those won’t transfer to “Guitar Hero: World Tour.” That does make sense considering the next “Guitar Hero” includes drum and vocal tracks, but Activision has also said that “Guitar Hero III” downloadable content won’...

By Patrick Klepek It’s been more than six months since “Mass Effect” was released on Xbox 360 and BioWare was picked up by Electronic Arts. We haven’t heard much from the studio since, outside of talking up the recently released PC version of “Mass Effect.”

By Tracey John Last month I saw a demo of “Enemy Territory: Quake Wars” on the Xbox 360. Ported from last year’s PC title, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 versions of the game will be out on May 27. Two different development teams worked on the ports — Nerve Software on the Xbox 360 and Underground Development (former...

By Patrick Klepek Share This Turn on Xbox Live, “Bully” fans. Thirteen days after Rockstar publicly acknowledged freezing and other bug issues with the recent Xbox 360 release of the game, the promised patch is now available. Rockstar Games told Multiplayer yesterday that an announcement was due this mor...

By Tracey John Today, Harmonix announced the details about a major patch for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of “Rock Band” that includes a new in-game music store. The update will be available this week for both platforms, according to the developer. ...