The advert was first spotted on the box for the Gears of War 2 Game of the Year edition. Talking to Joystiq, they saidd it will allow 360 gamers to “seamlessly connect with their home network with the highest wireless ‘N’ technology”., and that it offers “another choice to consumers,”. In other words saying that will sit alongside the current adapter rather than replace it.

The original adapter is sold for around £60 in the shops, but check ebay if you don’t mind paying 20 quid less for a pre-owned one!

Speaking on Famitsu’s “Midnight Live 360″, the games producer Jun Takeuchi said that the 4-player co-op demo will land on Xbox Live “soon, I guess”.

French Xbox owners will be able to have access to the on demand service, as well as the Foot+ football offer. There will be over six thousand titles available, as well as over three thousand films.

Experience points will be allocated as follows in Horde mode:

“My Way or the Highway” (25 points): Without being detected, complete the “Road to Ruin” deleted scene after choosing the stealth option.
“Highway to Hell” (25 points): Complete the “Road to Ruin” deleted scene after choosing the guns-blazing option.
“Two for the Road” (25 points): Complete the “Road to Ruin” deleted scene in co-op as either Marcus or Dom.
“Be Careful What You Wish For” (10 points): Reach level 5 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 10 on the War Machine map in Horde (any difficulty).
“Ride It All Night Long” (10 points): Reach level 10 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 10 on the Highway map in Horde (any difficulty).
“No, But His Face Rings a Bell” (15 points): Reach level 15 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 20 on the Sanctuary map in Horde (any difficulty).
“Lost in Transition” (20 points): Reach level 20 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 20 on the Way Station map in Horde (any difficulty).
“Like Father, Like Gun” (30 points): Reach level 30 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 30 on the Allfathers Garden map in Horde (any difficulty).
“Am I Only Dreaming?” (40 points): Reach level 40 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 40 on the Memorial map in Horde (any difficulty).
“Blood on the Sand” (50 points): Reach level 50 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 50 on the Nowhere map in Horde (any difficulty).
“Afraid of the Dark” (20 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the seven Dark Corners Map Pack maps (any mode).
“Did Not Go Gentle” (30 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the seven Dark Corners Map Pack maps (any mode)
“Is it Hot or Is That Just You?” (25 points): Kill 25 Bloodmounts with a Scorcher Flamethrower while playing Horde on a Dark Corners Map Pack map (any difficulty).

We’ll keep you updated!

Speaking to Kotaku, he said “we’re not going to be launching a new console any time soon,” before mentioning that Microsoft was thinking about making an Xbox 360 with Natal built in. “Yes, we have looked at that, but we haven’t announced any details for something like that.”

That’s probably all the info we’ll be getting about it for a while now. What do you guys think about a Natal Intergrated console?

“Conceptually, the launch of Natal will be like the launch of Xbox 360,” he told Kotaku. “It’s going to be that big. We’re not just going to ship it when the hardware and software are ready.

“We have to make sure that there are enough content experiences that are really good. That’s similar to how you would think of the launch of a new console. It’s got to have a great launch line-up. That’s the same thing here.”

“We’re not focused on this generation’s casual gamers or even PS2 people who haven’t upgraded. This is about the 60% of households were a video game console doesn’t exist… the problem is that the controller is a barrier for some people and now with Project Natal we completely eliminate that.”

It will be launched in 2010 “at the earliest”.

Here’s the official write up on the Xbox site:

The sequel to the award-winning vertical-world adventure, Crackdown 2 is the ultimate open-ended world action experience, only available on Xbox 360®. The game lets you be judge, jury, and executioner for a huge, fully explorable city. Crackdown 2 takes multiplayer gaming to unprecedented levels for the ultimate co-op and competitive multiplayer experience, providing you and your friends with the complete freedom to explore, destroy, and play your way as you restore justice and peace to Pacific City—by any means necessary.

The first Crackdown was an excellent game, let’s hope that this one will be, erm, cracking!

Security wise i thought it was pretty good, usability proved to be a bit of a blunt end though. For the average net surfer, using online banking, e-shopping & checking mail it was perfect. For the more prominent user like myself it didn’t prove to be anything special, more of the opposite really – especially for online gaming, making it an utter nightmare.

Since hearing about Windows 7, I converted back to XP and decided to wait and see if somehow this would do the job. So far reviews of the beta have been quite convincing, however, this time it will take some doing to convince me…

I read an article over on a dedicated Windows 7 blog site, asking if the new system will hold the future for PC gaming, I’ve included some of the details below and my thought on the subject.

Windows 7 is set to be shipped with DirectX 11 loaded and ready to go. The only problem is that AMD are the only company currently capable of producing a card with the power to run this technology. With this said though and I doubt DirectX 11 will take off properly before 2010 or 2011.

One interesting feature the Windows 7 OS includes is touch capabilities. Microsoft has already announced a Touchpack that can be supplied with hardware bundles. The bundle is set to include three application and three game demonstrations that make use of the touch features of the operating system. This is a good idea I think for general computing and perhaps a few game genres but will this ever kill off one of the biggest game genres on PC, First Person Shooters?

I hope this new operating system works well, from a gaming point of view.

Do you think it will? Are you thinking about purchasing a Touch Screen or DirectX 11 card in the future?

Microsoft kicked off this years E3 expo with an excellent announcement line up, check out our summary below.

Hardware/Services:

Xbox 360 Motion Control:

Project Natal is a revolutionary new Motion Capture camera that includes fully interactive games.

Games on Demand

Full retail games will soon be available to download via Xbox Live, just to save time heading into town.

Video Marketplace to stream in 1080p

The Video Marketplace will be launched as Zune Video, and will provide HD entertainment.

Social Networking

Facebook and Twitter will be making their way to Xbox Live and will be intergrated within the NXE. You will be able to keep friends up to date with what you are playing, and take screenshots from games.

Games:

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Halo 3: Reach and Halo 3: ODST

Crackdown 2

Left 4 Dead 2

Alan Wake will be released in Spring 2010

Lionhead’s ‘Natal’ Motion Capture Game

Forza 3

Final Fantasy XIII to get Spring 2010 release

Exclusive Modern Warfare 2 Mutiplayer maps to hit Xbox Live on release

XBLA line up: Splosion Man, Shadow Complex, TMNT, The Secret of Monkey Island, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Battlefield 1943, Joy Ride, Trials HD.

You get to pick from a group of avatars as a starting point, but then change everything about it. I decided to actually do things right and make mine look like me, well as much as i could anyway, if i could get my beard that straight i’d be superhuman. The choice of clothing is actually a little limited for the time being, but there still is something for everyone there. With Microsoft now announcing that clothing packs are going to be free for the first few weeks of releases, I’m sure the avatars will get to grow more individual over time. Yet I will still probably be sad enough to pay for clothes anyway!

The dashboard itself is alot nicer to look at, easier to you, and smoother flowing than the blade system was. The ‘My Xbox’ section has everything you

need, from your profile and gamercard along to the console settings. The Marketplace is also alot better organised now, and easier to brows Demo’s/Themes/Gamerpics and the such, with a simple Ipod style cover flow design.

The friends list is alot better to use now, as it shows which friends are online by showing their avatar and a picture of which game they are playing. If they are in a party it groups all the members avatars together and makes them a little group (which stands and does mexican waves at you).

The new ‘Photo party’ application is pretty cool, as you can share photo’s between one party of friends, and even better, i could plug my phone straight into the Xbox and view them from there.

Eight way party chat is probably my favourite thing to come with the NXE, as you can talk to up to eight friends at one time, no matter what game you are playing. Which is so much better as

1. It drowns out the American kids.
2. You can help each other out in Seach and Destroys in COD after one of you has died
3. It drowns out the English kids.

There are some cons though, like with everything. Whenever I go onto my friends list and view a profile, when I try to exit it, it can freeze for up to 20 seconds, which is quite annoying. Also, when playing online, and you are in a party, it likes to throw you out of it quite alot. Although it tells me the other members have left my party, I have actually left theirs, for no reason! Hopefully these bugs will be fixed in the upcoming weeks with a patch, or a slap maybe.

Overall, the NXE is pretty sweet, and gives the Xbox another breath of fresh air (not that it needed one in the first place). It is alot easier and fun to use than the old blade system, and avatars make your profile and online experience a little more personal than just a name in a list with a gamerscore. Alot of people don’t like the new avatar system but I think it’s a great idea, especially since Microsoft are planning on releasing new games in which to use them(Kindom for Keflings) and implement them into old ones (UNO). There are a couple of annoying bugs, but hopefully they will be ironed out in the coming weeks, as I’m sure Microsoft are planning even bigger things with it