Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
Next Generation has posted a nice (although somewhat short) article on some games scheduled to come out this year on Microsoft consoles. In fact, 5 of the games are 360 titles while one is an original Xbox title that’s also coming for PS2. The list follows.
Xbox
Lost Odyssey
Full Auto
Halo 3
Gears of War
Elder Scrolls: OblivionsXbox
Black
While it’s unfortunate that the list isn’t any longer, each of those titles are expected to be big. Still, a lot more games are scheduled to come out this year on Microsoft consoles - especially the 360 - so do you think anything’s missing from the list?
Read More 
| Next Generation
Highlights of Peter Moore’s CES Speech
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Corporate News, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Peter Moore addressed a few interesting points during the Microsoft CES keynote:
Selectica to join Flextronics and Wistron as a third manufacturing partner.
Xbox 360 to ship between 4.5 and 5.5 million consoles by the end of June.
On Xbox 360 more than 50 percent of all consoles worldwide are now connected to Xbox Live (Compare to 10% on Xbox).
Since the launch of Xbox 360, more than 4 million Xbox Live marketplace downloads.
Xbox Live Arcade games count up to 20 by March.
We’re certainly not going to complain. We’ll be seeing more consoles on store shelves, more Xbox 360 games, and more Live Arcade games soon. The future is bright.
Read More | Next Generation
Advertisement
Bruce Carver, one of our industry’s finest, passed away on December 28th. He suddenly lost a battle with cancer. Caver was a great innovator and made huge contributions to sports games. Most notably, he worked on Links in the 1980s; Links was the first game to feature the swing-meter that’s used in all modern golf games.
Make the jump to read a great obituary Next Generation has put together on Mr. Carver. Rest in peace, Bruce. We’ll never forget you - and we’ll always have fond memories of Links.
Read More | Next Generation
Latest Gear Live Videos
This week at CES, Microsoft announced plans to release an external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360. The drive will be an add-on and it looks like it will only be able to play HD-DVD movies.
The next-gen dvd format battle is looking to be a brutal one, with Sony supporting Blu-Ray Microsoft has had no choice but to team up with Panasonic, the manufacturer of the HD-DVD format. We respect Microsoft’s decision to manufacture an external HD-DVD drive for the 360 since the PS3 is definitely going to feature a Blu-Ray drive. Had Microsoft decided to sit out of the next-gen dvd format war, consumers who desire high-def movies - along with their games - would rush to the PS3. Now though, Microsoft is giving consumers yet another reason to run out and buy an Xbox 360. Of course, we don’t know how much the HD-DVD drive is going to retail for but it will most likely go for at the minimum two or three hundred dollars at first. Meanwhile, the PS3 will have a Blu-Ray drive already built into it. And finally, recently the Blu-Ray format has been looking like it’ll edge out HD-DVD anyways because more studios support it.
Still, we should sit tight for now and watch things unfold this year. In all honesty, the HD-DVD format does have a chance of winning the war.
Read More | Microsoft
A new art book entitled “I am 8-bit” was just released and a number of pictures from the book have been posted online. As you could probably guess, the pictures are based upon games from the 8-bit days. The artistic styles of each of the pictures certainly vary but all of them have a strong feeling of 8-bit nostalgia - it’s definitely worth a look.
Read More | I am 8-bit
7 Year Old Finished 2nd In Halo Tournament
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Culture, First Person Shooters, Xbox,
If this doesn’t put a smile on your face and make you chuckle, nothing will. MLG has posted details of a gigantic Halo tournament in Chicago where a 7 year old, know as ‘Lil Poison’ finished in second! We can only imagine how horrible the gamers who lost to this kid felt…
Read More | MLG
New Sega Genesis Game Coming Soon
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Adventure, Retro, Role Playing Games,
Yeah, you read that right. The developer Super Fighting Team is going to release Beggar Prince, a new RPG, for Sega’s old machine this spring!
Beggar Prince tells the story of Steven, a bored prince who decides to escape his castle dressed as a beggar to experience life among the commoners. Of course with the prince gone the evil Minister usurps control of the throne and now Steven is barred from re-entering his own castle. Thus begins Steven’s adventure of who must prove his identity and retake the throne.
The game sounds worth a look, but unfortunately it’s going to retail for $46. Yowzers!
Read More | Gaming Steve
Live At CES 2006: Hands On With Verizon UTStarcom XV6700 Windows Mobile 5 Device
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, CES, CES 2006, Features, Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi,
We just got our hands on the new Verizon XV6700 UTStarcom Windows Mobile device. This is the other WM 5.0 device available on Verizon’s network, and we are actually quite a bit more impressed with this one than with the Treo 700w, which launched yesterday. This one sports EV-DO, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 2.8-inch 65k color 240x320 display, 1.3 megapixel camera/MPEG-4 camcorder, MiniSD card support, and 64MB internal RAM. It also has a sliding QWERTY keyboard, which when opened, changes the display from portrait to landscape on the fly. The phone is available now to Verizon Wireless Business customers, and will be available to general consumers on January 19th at a price of $299 USD after $100 rebate and a two-year agreement. We have a few more images of the XV6700 after the jump.
COD2: Call For a Better Xbox Live Experience
Posted by Oscar M. Cantu Categories: Activision, First Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
If you’ve played Call Of Duty 2 (Xbox 360) on Xbox Live then you know that the experience is less than stellar as a result of the lack of options. Some gamers decided to do something other than just complain - actually, maybe it’s not much more than complaining at this point, but at least it’s something in writing and directed at the people that can do something about it. Thanks to the ease of making online petitions there is now a petition online that needs your signature and your help promoting. The petition calls for the following additions:
(Thanks Munkyxtc!) Sign The Petition
- 16 player support
- Ability to create custom games
- Host is chosen by person who has best upload speed
- Admin options such as kicking a player out of the game
- Options such as map vote, vote kick player, etc…
Live From CES: Hands On With Vista—Parental Controls
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: CES, CES 2006, Software,
Now, it’s true that something like parental controls are usually the last “cool” feature you’d expect a blog site to chat about, but Vista has big plans for keeping Timmy’s future porn habit at bay. The administrator account can impose controls on each user, including what times the accounts are allowed to access the computer, what sort of web site filters are applied (allow Timmy to see sites tagged “pornography” but not “bomb-making”, etc.) and even time limits—how many hours per day he’s allowed on the machine. One of the most impressive elements of this implementation is that the access limitations for web filtering are controlled at the network application layer. What this means is that they’re applied across the board: In Internet Explorer, Firefox or any other browser, feed readers or any other services bouncing over TCP/IP. I go into some more of the advanced parental control features after the jump.
Click to continue reading Live From CES: Hands On With Vista—Parental Controls
