Skyrim: Hearthfire Review

Building your own home out in the boonies has been something that I’ve wanted since TES: Oblivion. That’s why I was pretty stoked to see just that in Bethesda’s Games Jam video. Annoying music notwithstanding, the video showed off some cool additions. Several of them have already been implemented in updates (mounted combat, Kinect support) and DLC (vampire lord, lycanthropy perks). Hearthfire’s home building adds yet another.

Perfect Dark XBLA Review

I was huge fan of the original Perfect Dark when it first came out on the Nintendo 64, spending more time on it than any other game in its generation.  Let’s be honest, the N64 wasn’t exactly a top-of-the-line machine, but it had some great games.  Chief among those was, of course, Goldeneye 007’s spiritual successor: Perfect Dark.  Now it’s back and looking better than ever.  The Studio that brought Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie to the Xbox Live Arcade has graced us with another one of Rare’s classics.  After our hopes of ever getting a port of Goldeneye were dashed (thanks a lot Nintendo), we got bumped up to first class: Perfect Dark.

The Coming Darkness

My free time of late has been somewhat limited and what free time I've had has been spent playing the hell out of Perfect Dark for XBLA.  Those of you who remember the glory days of the N64 with Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have no excuse not to pick this one up.  Come on, 800 MSP ($10) is definitely worth the (visually updated) fun to be had with one of the best classic FPSs now available on the Xbox Live Aracade.  For more classics, I recommend Doom and Duke Nukem 3D (just not Marathon -  that was a mistake).

Perfect Dark(ade)

Well, it's been a long time coming, but it should be worth it. It has been confirmed that Perfect Dark will be released on the Xbox Live Arcade on March 17, 2010. I may be a bit slow on this news, but it's still awesome news, nonetheless. So I'll give you a few moments to collect yourselves. It's looking like the game (NOT a remake) has been polished to a 1080p, 60 frames-per-second shine, and has everything intact (complete with ornamental sniper scopes and back-pedaling simulants).

R.I.P. Ol' Xbox

"Furby", refurbished Xbox 360: November 19th, 2008 - November 21st, 2009

That's right, I have experienced yet another death in the [game system] family.  Just over a year old, the refurbished Xbox that Microsoft sent to replace the first one has decided to RRoD.  The worst part is that the warranty expired two days ago.  Oddly enough, a friend of mine had the same thing happen today as well...  I'm now convinced that this "failure" rate thing is on purpose.

Left 4 Dead DLC on "Course" to XBL, Steam

Valve has released the announced Crash Course campaign for Left 4 Dead today, making it their second DLC. Unlike the Survival Pack, Crash Course adds an entirely new campaign, and this time it will cost Xbox 360 users 560 Microsoft Points ($7.00/free for PC). Crash Course is meant to connect the No Mercy and Death Toll campaigns, giving it a sense of continuity. We'll see how that works (or doesn't work). The content is supposed to deliver "a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes." So, this might be perfect for a quick game.

Perfect Dark Game Page Up At Xbox.com

Microsoft has posted some of the details of the XBLA release on their Xbox website. It will include all of the original features and improved graphics. Winter 2009 can't come fast enough.

Check out the page here.

Straight From the [Major]'s Mouth

I'm sure most of you have heard by now that Perfect Dark will indeed be coming to XBLA this winter. For those of you who didn't: PERFECT DARK IS COMING TO XBLA!!

Miss Dark, are you trying to seduce me?

Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb posted the news on his Twitter account. (is this really how we're going to find these things out from now on?) It gets sweeter with the fact that it apparently runs in 1080p and that there's a free theme due tomorrow. Yay for free stuff!

Check out the tweet here.

Project Natal

Ladies and gentlemen, Project Natal:

Perfect Dark for XBLA Confirmed?

Please Note: The source site is considered reliable with possible connections to Rare. Do not take this to mean that this news is 100% confirmed.

According to a post on Rare-Extreme, Rare has confirmed the long-standing rumor that they are working on the classic N64 shooter, Perfect Dark. This is really only question of when, after their release of Banjo Kazooie and its sequel, Banjo Tooie. Rare would unwise to not release one of the greatest shooters of all time onto XBLA. The very thought of playing this game with usable control sticks (let's be honest, the N64 controller was never user-friendly) will make it all the more enjoyable.

Left 4 Dead DLC

For those of you who have been anticipating it (not for very long, considering it's Valve), the Left 4 Dead DLC has been dated.
Microsoft has confirmed that the ‘Survival Pack’ for Left 4 Dead will be releasing on April 21st on the Xbox 360, free of charge (w00t). This pack introduces a new 'Survival' multiplayer game mode and support for Dead Air and Death Toll in Versus. While Valve has said that they wished to release the content simultaneously, no word yet on the PC release date.

Get your shotguns ready.

For more info on Survival Mode, see the IGN preview.

[Source]