It's About Time for a Change, says Microsoft.

Console manufacturers always look for something that will give their products a sleek and unique look, which is probably why Microsoft chose the gloss finish for their 360's.  Well, you can say bye bye to the glossy look of the Xbox 360 and say hello to a matte finish.

Microsoft has announced that they will be replacing all Xbox 360's with a matte finished version.  It will obviously take a while to pull all of the 360's off of the shelves so rest easy, you'll still be able to get your hands on one of the dust friendly consoles at a store near you for a while.

Yay or nay to matte finished consoles?

Microsoft Xbox 360 E3 Review

Posted by: Tiara Sleight

Here's a little synopsis of everything that went on today during the 90 minute Xbox 360 conference at E3 in Los Angeles, California and our personal opinions.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

• Included gameplay trailer
• They put a lot of effort into making you feel like you're actually a part of the game
• Really amazing graphics and action packed story line
• You can control a lot of features in the game, such as piloting a motor boat
• Brought the game to the modern day city, which is bad ass

Tomb Raider

• Presented by Daniel Neuberger and Darrell Gallagher
• Live demo included
• Lara Croft shipwrecked by a storm, held captive on an island
• Crawling through collapsed tunnels and escaping from the island, concentrating on her basic skills
• Really realistic voice acting with gasping, fear ridden script
• They really tried to concentrate on detail
• Hitting shelves Fall 2012

EA Sports

• Presented by Peter Moore
• Mass Effect 3
• Mass Effect 3 will include voice command/speech recognition software
• Kinect integrated, it's kind of like shooting with a sharpshooter but without the sharpshooter
• Will be interesting to see how well the kinect integration really works with the game

Ubisoft

• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier
• Kinect integrated
• Voice recognition
• All future games in Tom Clancy's series will be on the Kinect

Xbox Live

• "Giving TV a new voice."
• Voice controlled Xbox dashboard
• "No buttons, no controllers."
• Entertainment products will increase to "millions"
• YouTube is coming to Xbox Live
• Bing is coming to Xbox Live
• Bing is voice controlled
• Use Bing to find the entertainment you want, you don't have to navigate through the Xbox menus
• Find games/movies/music quickly and efficiently without hassle

UFC

• Presented by Dana White
• Order UFC on Xbox Live
• New and innovative way to watch your favourite fighting ppv (pay per view)
• More multimedia features available
• Call the fight with your friends, decide who's going to win and how
• Whoever calls the fight correctly obtains points

Microsoft Studios

• Presented by Phil Spencer, Cliff Bleszinski, and Ice-T
• Gears of War 3
• GOW3 gameplay trailer
• Most people already have played the beta/there is a lot of game play footage already out there

Ryse

• New game by Crytek
• Will be able to be played with controller and connect
• You will be in the warrior's position
• "You are the weapon."
• Will find out more soon **

Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary

• Remastered the first Halo
• All new multiplayer maps
• Completely remastered the entire game
• Hitting shelves on November 15th, 2012

Sporza Motorsport 4

• 16 players
• Kinect integration
• Player car clubs
• Kinect voice
• October 11th, 2012

Fable - The Journey (Fable 4)

• Albion's end is coming
• A hero gets selected out of the millions of inhabitants
• Kinect integrated
• Weapons are all motion sensored
• Specific hand combinations to fire specific weapons
• I'm hoping that there will also be wired integration
• Hitting shelves some time in 2012

Minecraft

• Presented by Phil Spencer
• Minecraft making console debut this winter 
• Xbox exclusive

Disneyland Adventures

• Recreated entire park for family exploration to relive your disneyland memories
• Basically travelling in your home
• Explore attractions
• Family oriented game
• During the holiday
• Xbox exclusive

Star Wars

• Kinect integrated
• Motion sensored
• Controlling the light saber is definitely the coolest part

Sesame Street - Once Upon A Monster

• Presented by Tim Schafer
• Living story book full of monster friends
• Children's game/family oriented game
• Teaches children valuable life lessons
• You are the characters in the video game, etc. jumping up and down with Elmo and Cookie Monster
• Hitting shelves this fall
• Xbox exclusive

Kinect Sport

• Baseball, golf, darts, tennis, football, skiing
• Kinect integrated
• Voice communication
• Hitting shelves this holiday season

Dance Central 2

• Dance Central 1 songs can be imported to Dance Central 2
• Simultaneous multiplayer dancing
• Includes the same fluid motions as Dance Central 1
• Brand new array of songs alongside those from Dance Central 1

Halo 4

• Presented at the conclusion of the conference
• "Dawn of new trilogy for Xbox 360"
• Teaser begins when Master Chief wakes up
• Everything is exploding around him
• Then Halo 4's officially announced
• To hit shelves this Holiday 2012
• Halo 4 will be online because "it's always been online"
• Kinect not officially announced with Halo

Microsoft Experiences Their Own Server Issues

Let’s take a break from the Sony talk for the next 10 minutes and let’s talk about Microsoft.  You see, not everything can fall on Sony’s shoulders because Microsoft are having some problems of their own.

Even though it’s not nearly to the scale of where the PSN meltdown is, there has been an attempt to collect personal information through Microsofts Xbox 360’s online servers.  It is said that Microsoft issued a Service Alert today to warn users of the risk.  Apparently, there has been a phising attempt inside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

“Users may receive potential phising attempts via title specific messaging while playing Modern Warfare 2,” says the message on the Xbox Support website.

With all of the frequent twitter questions, Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling commented and said, “We have a patch in the process of testing for release that should be out soon to address.”

Also, Microsoft put out a comment on the issue as well, “We are aware of the problem and are working to resolve the issue, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.”

Hmmmm, where have we heard that before?






Source: GameSpot

Microsoft Seeks New Console Dev Team

When we look back on the lifespan of a console, it generally points back to about an average of 5 years, maybe a little longer. With this in mind, the Xbox 360 is just about at the end of its journey and Microsoft has recognized this.
Recently, there have been several job postings on LinkedIn by Microsoft where they have stated they are in the process of forming a team to generate a "next generation console". Along with these there have been many other job postings by other departments of the company where they mention development of the Xbox with an emphasis on future platforms. 

Here are a list of some of the job postings that reveal new console development:

• Audio/Video Hardware Architect
• Audio Architect 
• Graphics Architect
• Wireless DV Engineer 
• Design Verification Engineer 
• Senior Hardware Verification Engineer

So hey, if you have any skills in these areas send in your resumes' to Microsoft and you might be recruited onto the next development team that will be creating the next kick-ass console to hit the gaming industry that will replace the Xbox 360!

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