August 11, 2009 Xbox LIVE Update truly cranks it up a notch – with features that improve your entertainment experience and give you new ways to express your individuality and connect with friends. With this update, you can download full Xbox 360® games and play them without a disc, and you and your friends will be able to party watch movies online through Netflix! Dress up your avatar to impress with premium props and branded apparel from fashion labels. And this update allows every piece of game content on Marketplace to be rated, so add your personal ratings and see what others think is cool. But that’s just the beginning. Check out all of the new features of the Xbox LIVE Update below.

Games on Demand

Enjoy the convenience of finding and buying new games right from the comfort of your own living room. Download a wide selection of full Xbox 360 games over Xbox LIVE. Games on Demand will be available for purchase on Xbox LIVE starting August 11 as part of the Xbox LIVE Update. You will be able to browse and purchase games through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web starting August 13.

Avatars

Avatars have seen lots of love! Check out the new Marketplace and Avatar Props. The Avatar Marketplace will be available on Xbox LIVE starting August 11 as part of the Xbox LIVE Update. You will be able to browse and purchase Avatar apparel through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web starting August 13.

Netflix

Now you can watch movies with your friends and find new movies to add to your Instant Queue without leaving your seat.

Party Watch – Catch a show with your friends! Bring your party into Netflix and watch a movie or TV show together

Parties

Everyone loves to Party! Check out the new and improved party reconnections and streamlined party invites.

Party Reconnections – If a user is disconnected from a party inadvertently, they will be automatically reconnected to the party without any user interaction.

Gold Member Veterans – Been here long? Show it off! Anyone looking at your gamer card will now know how long you’ve been an Xbox LIVE Gold member. And who knows, there might be other perks for you, too. Thanks for sticking around!

Many changes have gone into the account recovery process to speed it up and to increase reliability.

Video Display Options

Various improvements have been made to make it easier for you to see your game in the highest resolution possible when using an HDMI connection.

UI Improvements

Some parts of the dashboard have been slightly re-organized to make it easier to find the things you’re looking for.

Indie Games – We listened to our community and have decided to rename Xbox LIVE Community Games to Xbox LIVE Indie Games. This new name better represents the independent spirit of these titles. User ratings are also available for Indie Games, allowing you to share your rating for a game and use ratings from others to find great new games.

Achievement Browser – Launch a game directly from the Achievement browser making it even easier for you to max out your Gamerscore.

This fall, Xbox LIVE will see the addition of the following new features as well:

Facebook
Twitter
Last.fm
Zune Video

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So, you want to play Crysis as bad as I do, but your PC barely has enough power to run MSPaint, let alone the sickest, power hungry FPS out there? Well, MaximumPC has put together a sweet gaming rig for under $500 including a case this time… versus the cardboard box they used last time.

The build includes a PowerColor AX4870 512MB Videocard ($175) and a Intel Pentium E5200 2.5GHz Wolfdale CPU ($71), both great choices in terms of power, but I think there are a few more video cards around the same price that you could substitute.

The Parts:
Videocard: PowerColor AX4870 512MB
CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 2.5GHz Wolfdale
Motherboard: MSI P43 Neo3-F LGA 775
Memory: Crucial 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 800
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVDR
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB
Case and Power Supply: Rosewill TU-155 II 500 Black

I couldn’t find every, single part, but I found most at TigerDirect. If you are willing to spend a little more, for $89 more you can get a EVGA 790i Ultra SLI Barebone Kit – Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 OEM, 4GB OCZ Fatal1ty DDR3-1333, 1TB SATA2, Clear Side ATX Case, 550 Watts at just $589. Bring on the Crysis! [via Gizmodo via MaximumPC]

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If you loved the first BioShock as much as I did, you have been waiting… waiting… and… waiting for some sign that BioShock 2 wasn’t just vaporware, and now you have it thanks to GameTrailers. I, for one, am very excited! Look at how even more beautiful everything is, including the already stunning water effects. What do you think? Comment below!

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Needless to say I’m not really very shocked, but Richard Thornhill found 4 ecstasy pills under the front cover in his second-hand copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, which he bought from Gamestation in Cheltenham, England.

Mr Thornhill said: “What made me feel the most distraught was the fact we let our 12-year-old play the game”… you know, that makes me sick as well… a 12 year old playing GTA IV? That kinda seems a little young. Don’t get me wrong, I love the GTA series, but the game is rated “18″ here in the UK, that’s actually worse than taking a 12-year-old to an NC-17 movie in the states. The fact is that Rockstar Games, the developer of GTA series, has to pass out free drugs to the kids so that they’ll play their games.

The local Gamestation manager invited them to hand the drugs over to the company so they could destroy them and also points out that they have rigorous procedures for accepting pre-owned titles and checking them before they are put back on sale… [just not for common street drugs apparently]…

Is the video game rating system so difficult to understand that parents can’t read them or do they just not care? How early would you let your kids play GTA or not? Why or why not? [via BBC]

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I forgot to post this the other day… it’s weird, creepy, and Japanese–a perfect morning treat. Apparently the Xbox 360 can “bring people back from the dead” because of its immense power… wow… who knew… and yes, that was really made by Mircosoft.

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OnLive delivers the hottest games from top publishers for instant, high-performance play on TV, PC or Mac over broadband…

Claimed to be in “stealth development” for years, OnLive works by using a server farm to do all work of your current console and then send it over broadband to your house. I’m pretty sure that means that even my single player games will lag now…

When it was first announced, my initial reaction was “Wow, that’s amazing” followed immediately by “But I don’t want to give up that much control over my games.”. And I don’t. I don’t want to rely on so many X factors to access and enjoy my games. I don’t want to rely on the OnLive service functioning, as well as the internet service to deliver it. What if I wanted to travel somewhere that doesn’t have internet? I could take my console. With OnLive I’d be completely cut off.

I don’t want to not “own” the game I’m paying for. I know more and more things are going digital these days, but there’s still a lot of comfort in owning a physical copy of something you paid for. You know it’s there when you need it. I imagine it’s the same reason people purchase the Ctrl+Alt+Del collection books even though all of the comics are available for free online. Sometimes you want tangible stuff that you know can’t disappear with an internet outage or a corrupt hard drive. [Tim at Ctrl+Alt+Del]

As for me and my house, we are keeping our beloved Xbox 360 and Wii for now, but in the future, who knows!

OnLive is currently recruiting for their Beta test. Interested in helping? Me too! More to come.

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New details for Capcom’s Lost Planet 2 have surfaced revealing the story’s change of focus and a combined team power bar. According to a first-look article in the latest OXM, the game no longer includes a core character instead players create and fully customize their own solider for the ice cold war zone. Teams are comprised of four characters — with four player co-op — that each sport their own health bar (aka thermal energy reserves) but teams also share a combined power meter. The “Team Military Power Bar” reacts to team actions, depleting when a downed member of your squad respawns for example.

If you played the first Lost Planet (I’m sure you’ll remember… (I threw my controller quite a few times trying to beat expert mode), then Lost Planet 2 is shaping up to be everything you loved from the first one, plus a whole lot more. Lost Planet 2 going to be more team based with many different strategies and new various weapons, new melee moves (described as, “a little like the chainsaw in Gears of War”) and VS units (Lost Planet’s mech-like suits) at their disposal… not to mention more bitingly cold landscapes. Capcom just has a way of taking a proven game genre like the third person shooter, and giving it an arcade feel and I love it.

Lost Planet 2 is currently planned for the Xbox 360 but my PS3 is still holding out… but I think it’ll be a cold day (hehe) before it sees any Lost Planet action…

[via Joystiq via CVG]

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Capcom has officially confirmed one of the more exciting features found in Lost Planet 2’s announcement trailer: “The intense and action packed campaign mode comes with the ability to form teams of up to 4 players online to clear mission objectives with friends.” Based on the initial gameplay footage, said mission objectives generally involve coordinated mech maneuvers and wanton destruction of the titular planet’s more unfriendly creatures.

The press release also provides a general outline of the story, which takes place 10 years after the amnesia-riddled and ironically forgettable exploits of Lost Planet’s Wayne Holden. Players will now take control of several customizable snow pirates “as plot threads evolve from various perspectives.”

Capcom promises to deliver more information on Lost Planet 2 over the coming months. At this time, the game has only been confirmed to be in development for the Xbox 360.

I hope they include a “really, really easy mode” because holy crap, was it not the hardest game ever? Still though, I am so excited! [via Joystick]

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Microsoft has released pictures of the Exclusive Red Xbox 360 Resident Evil Limited Edition Console, which was confirmed earlier tonight and mentioned officially by Microsoft earlier this month.

The Xbox 360 Elite console is bundled with a red wireless controller, black Xbox 360 headset, 120GB hard drive, via-LIVE-downloadable-Resident-Evil-theme, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and a copy of Resident Evil 5. All this is priced at US$399. Check back, I’ll update you when you can pre-order. [via Kotaku]

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The Quake Live team has announced that the beta will open to the public on Tuesday, February 24th. On Monday, they will take the servers down, wipe all stats and prune inactive accounts, then re-open on the public site.

Personal settings and current account info will be maintained for active accounts. They also said, “We’re going to post some additional information in the Developer Notes about the opening of the game, what it means to leave the ‘beta’ tag on the site during this time, and discuss some features and functionality that we’re planning for the next couple of months that we know you’ll be interested in.”

GameSetWatch ran a story recently by a columnist who tried out the closed beta, and we discussed John Carmack’s thoughts on the game a few months back.

Quake LIVE is set to be released for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

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