Sony has also confirmed their release dates of the new models. The 250 GB PS3 will release on September 25th and will cost $269. The 250 GB model comes with Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception Game of the Year Edition and bonus content for Dust 514. The 500 GB will release on October 25th at the price of $299 and will include a copy of Assassin's Creed III. Both of these models will come in charcoal gray and classic white colors.

So far the 12 GB Flash Drive model has only received two release dates; one for September 27th in Australia and October 12th in Europe. No word on if or when that model will make it's way stateside.

via Gamespot

In the latest twist to the popular Fable franchise set fifty years after the events of Fable III, players take control of Gabriel; a dweller who has been separated from his tribe and later meets up with the mysterious seer Theresa who informs him he must save Albion from the darkness called, The Corruption. Players must use their hands to wield magic and steer their horse drawn carriage to various plot points in the game. Fable: The Journey will be able to read your save files from Fable III and will adjust the world according to your play style and decisions from the previous Fable.

Fable: The Journey releases to eager hands on October 9th for the Xbox 360. Kinect sensor is required.

via Major Nelson

via Sega Blog

http://youtu.be/ERe3wZdIAtc

"The PS2 is a unique one — we still generate a whole lot of profit off PS2 sales, but we're going to keep PS2 where PS2 does sell, and we won't put it in stores where we see really lapsed sales. It's somewhat demographic — it's somewhat regional, it is. The heartland of the U.S. tends to catch the wave a little bit later than the coasts to a degree. So we kinda bring it in, and we'll take it out of the stores where the shelves would be better served by next generation product, or they're just small stores where they can't fit it in." explained GameStop's senior vice president of store operations. "I think the PS2, as long as it serves a need for the consumer that we can fill, we'll have it in some store base until the consumer tells us, 'Take it out".

GameStop added that they are preparing for the upcoming release of Nintendo's Wii U and are also looking forward to the announcement of Sony and Microsoft's next gen consoles stating that they have been hearing alot of rumors that began this past week about a 2013 holiday release for both Sony and Microsoft.

via The Verge

The internet division of the retail giant from Bentonville Arkansas currently has an advertisement for GTA V on both XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 for which the shipping date is listed as December 31st, 2012.

The release quarter originally given for the newest entry of Rockstar’s flagship series was Q4 of 2013. Quarter four of the fiscal year would put the release date between Jan 1st and March 30th 2013.

GTA IV, the last iteration was released on April 29th, 2008. Rockstar doesn’t quite share Activisions predilection of releasing their top series on consistent dates, however this time frame has another reason for being quite likely.

Take-Two the parent company of Rockstar North has reported an outlook for Quarter 4 of the fiscal year which it plans for an increase of $1.75 to $2.00 per diluted share. Several analysts including Michael Pachter believe the only answer to Take-Two’s generous forecast is a title selling at least 18 million units. With Bioshock Infinite being the only big name release currently being slated for the target quarter, GTA V begins to look like a lock for release in this time period.

As for the Walmart.com release date, it seems to be more of a place holder date than a true release point. Also listed for release the same day is Sanzaru Games title Sly Cooper: Thieves in time. Originally given the same q4 2013 release period, it has since been confirmed with a Feb. 28th release date.

So while the December 31st release is quite possible, it is just as likely as any date between then and March 30th.

The screenshot was leaked by someone going by a moniker of SuperDaE who late last week leaked the $10,000 development kit for the next Xbox being code named "Durango". The supposed development kit was met with alot of criticism including claims of being photoshopped.

According to The Verge, one of their sources familar with the Kinect 2 and the next Xbox say that all of the photos are legit. Their source is not the only one repeating those words. Other developers who have spoken to Eurogamer's Digital Foundry who are confirming that the photos are all legit.

Hall who was speaking about Microsoft's products during the interview said, "We've operated Hotmail for about 16 years, We obviously have Exchange and Outlook that people use at work, and we just decided it was time to do something new and bring the best from each of those and put them together and release it right in time for the new wave of products that we have coming out with Windows 8, with the new version of Office, with the New Windows Phone and the new Xbox...". Whoops!

Microsoft has since said that he was speaking about the fall dashboard update, however a job posting ad by Microsoft says something different.

"Over the next eighteen months Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products including Windows (Client, Server, Phone and Azure), Office and Xbox, along with completely new offerings like Microsoft Surface. This wave of product launches will define the course of the company for years to come and thus provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to refresh and evolve our strategic brand."

The ad which has blew up all over the internet, has since conveniently disappeared.

via OXM

Halo Waypoint has released the full set of achievements that will be in the game and the folks behind Master Chief's newest adventure said that they "to live up to Halo tradition with weird ass names for some of them".

• Dawn: Complete Mission 1 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Requiem: Complete Mission 2 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Forerunner: Complete Mission 3 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Infinity: Complete Mission 4 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Reclaimer: Complete Mission 5 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Shutdown: Complete Mission 6 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Composer: Complete Mission 7 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Midnight: Complete Mission 8 on any difficulty 10 Points
  
• Wake up John: Complete the Campaign on Normal or harder 20 Points
  
• I Need a Hero: Complete the Campaign on Heroic or harder 40 Points
  
• The Legend of 117: Complete the Campaign on Legendary difficulty 70 Points
  
• Lone Wolf Legend: Complete the Campaign solo on Legendary difficulty 90 Points
  
• Skullduggery: Complete any Campaign mission with 3 or more Skulls on Heroic or harder 15 Points
  
• Bropocalypse: Complete any Campaign mission co-operatively on Heroic or harder 10 Points
  
• Bromageddon: Complete the Campaign co-operatively on Heroic or harder 40 Points
  
• Contact the Domain: Find a Terminal in the Campaign 10 Points
  
• Terminus: Find all of the Terminals in the Campaign 50 Points
  
• Digging up the Past: In Mission 1, find and access Chief's record 20 Points
  
• Midnight Launch: In Mission 2, get significant air in the Warthog at midnight 20 Points
  
• This is my Rifle, this is my Gun: In Mission 3, carry a UNSC weapon all the way through on Heroic or harder 20 Points
  
• Bros to the Close: Make it through Mission 4 without one preventable Marine death on Heroic or harder 20 Points
  
• Mortardom: In Mission 5, hijack a Wraith and use it to kill at least four enemy Wraiths on Heroic or harder 20 Points
  
• Explore the Floor: In Mission 6, trick or force a Hunter to fall to his demise 20 Points
  
• Give Him the Stick: In Mission 7 in solo Campaign, take out both Hunters using only the Sticky Detonator 20 Points
  
• Chief, Smash!: In Mission 8, kill 3 Crawlers in one hit with the Gravity Hammer 20 Points
  
• Not Some Recruit Anymore: Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-5 15 Points
  
• Movin' on Up: Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-20 30 Points
  
• I ♥ Red vs Blue: Win 5 War Games matchmaking matches 10 Points
  
• The Dongblainer: Win 20 War Games matchmaking matches 30 Points
  
• Operation Completion: Complete a Spartan Ops Mission on any difficulty 15 Points
  
• A Legendary Episode: Complete all chapters in Spartan Ops Episode 1 on Legendary difficulty 40 Points
  
• Dedicated to Crimson: Complete all chapters in the first 5 episodes of Spartan Ops on any difficulty 80 Points
  
• Crimson Alone: Complete a Spartan Ops chapter solo on Legendary 20 Points
  
• Roses vs Violets: Find one of the RvB Easter Eggs in Spartan Ops 20 Points
  
• Rescue Ranger: Save at least one Marine in Chapter 3 of Episode 2 of Spartan Ops on Heroic or harder 20 Points
  
• Knight in White Assassination: Assassinate a Knight in any Spartan Ops mission 20 Points
  
• What Power Outage?: Complete Chapter 4, Episode 5 of Spartan Ops without losing a generator on Heroic or harder 20 Points
  
• No Easy Way Out: In Ch 1, Ep 5 of Spartan Ops survive all enemy waves during the defense on Normal or harder 20 Points
  
• The Challenged: Complete a Challenge 10 Points
  
• The Challenger: Complete 25 Challenges 20 Points
  
• Armorer: Change your Spartan's armor in the Spartan Armor card 5 Points
  
• Badge: Change your Emblem in the Spartan ID card 5 Points
  
• PWND: Change your Service Tag in the Spartan ID card 5 Points
  
• What a Poser!: Change your Spartan's pose in the Spartan ID card 5 Points
  
• The Cartographer: Create and save a Custom Map in Forge 5 Points
  
• Game Changer: Create and save a Custom Game type in War Games 5 Points
  
• Snapshot!: Save a Screenshot from the Theater 5 Points
  
• The Director: Save a Film Clip from the Theater 5 Points
  
• Sharing is Caring: Upload a File to your File Share 5 Points
  

Not included in the new lower pricing are Japan, Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

via Major Nelson

Details on the VIP membership that is included in the $80.00 limited version of Turn 10's Forza Horizon have been released.

VIP members will have access to five cars; the 2011 Koenigsegg Agera, 2011 Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, 2012 Audi R8 GT Spyder, 2012 Pagani Huayra, and the 2011 RUF Rt 12 R. Other goodies included in the VIP membership are a VIP icon that appears next to your gamertag, extra slots in the Store Front, in-game gifts, and extra space in your My Forza gallery.

Besides the VIP membership, the limited edition version of the game comes with a steel book, a Horizon Festival ticket to XBL content, day one car pack, a Horizon Accelerator pack, and five exclusive LCE Car Pack liveries. Details of the other cars will be revealed each day beginning tomorrow on Forza's Facebook and Twitter.

via Forza Motorsport

Remember that controversial video game dubbed Six Days in Fallujah that was being developed by Atomic Games and later dumped by publisher Konami in 2009? Rumor has it that Sony once considerd publishing the game that was based on the second battle during Operation Iraqi Freedom called "Operation Phantom Fury" which spanned six days, hence the title.

The ever so outspoken David Jaffe sent a tweet over Twitter and revealed that Sony developer Allan Becker may have been behind Sony's possible involvement with the shooter that has been on the back burner for three years.

"A few years back, Allan left Sony Santa Monica to take over Sony’s Japan Studio after a very, very successful run as the SM studio head. When he was at Santa Monica he spearheaded a lot of amazing games, including bringing Gran Turismo PS2 to America (along with sir Taku, of course), TM:BLACK, WAR OF THE MONSTERS, FLOW, FLOWER, JOURNEY, KINETICA, and the GOD OF WAR franchise. He also was the guy who funded and supported LA NOIR for a long time before that game left Sony and went to RockStar, along with SIX DAYS IN FALLUJAH..."

Regardless of Sony's rumored involvement, IGN revealed in late 2010 that Six Days in Fallujah is finished and will be coming out despite Atomic Games having to get rid of most of their workforce the prior year.

Six Days in Fallujah is the story about a squad of U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion 1st Marines who were involved in the second battle of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The game was developed using stories from fellow Marines returning from combat and their likeliness for physical character details, historians, Iraqi civilians and insurgents, and military officials about the six day battle that took place in Fallujah.

via David Jaffe

The three classic character skins join a long list of character skins (over 45 to be more precise) for Skin Pack 2 including that precious tiny little cube of meat Super Meat Boy, Perfect Dark's Joanna Dark, Gears of War: Judgement Day Baird, the Pretztail from Viva Pinata, and Bill from Left 4 Dead.

via PlayXBLA blog

Nothing beats a kick in the scrotum to start your day. Ex Darksiders 2 Senior UI Designer, Xander Davis has said in an interview with Not Enough Shaders that Nintendo's upcoming console the Wii U is "$400 Xbox 360 seven years late."

"I’ve not worked on any Wii U version of anything (luckily). But, y’know, I very early on raised my major concern about this. Anybody buying any Wii U game that’s a port is probably buying it almost exclusively and specifically for how it can play differently through the Wii U’s alleged innovated UI. I’m already a known skeptic on whether the interface paradigm is at all anything but idiotic. But if you’re gonna do it? Fine. Then, you HAVE to do it right. You HAVE to innovate on the UI. You HAVE to enhance game mechanics and gameplay in a MATERIAL way that justifies all the hassle and a $400 Xbox 360 seven years late."

Davis hurled the insult towards Nintendo when asked what he thought of the Wii U, but he did not stop there. Davis went on to say none of what makes up Wii U make sense and that others who have the chance to preview the console are saying it's gimmicky and well just plain sucks.

"I can’t comment on THQ / Vigil specifically. However, just in general, I doubt any studio or publisher is truly giving it the kind of proper UI design and thinking it deserves. Hell, apparently this is a huge leap for regular triple-A console releases. From what I’m hearing from people who have actually played a Wii U as recently as a month ago, the games pretty much suck and the tablet is pretty much a complete gimmick. Still tethered, not wireless. Maybe publishers can pull off something clever. But won’t it just kind of be clever for a little bit, then not really worth your $60 dollars and just annoying afterwards? Kinect comes to mind. PlayStation Move comes to mind. Motherfucking Wii comes to mind. But, sure, we’ll have to wait and see… I can’t comment on specifics. I can only speculate, but as a UI Designer applying experienced critical thinking to game mechanics UI and the Wii U tablet, none of it makes sense to me to truly add value to gamers, even if you try..."

Nintendo was not the only party to feel the wrath of Davis. Davis also took a bite of out both THQ and Virgil Games, the folks responsible for Darksiders 2. Davis called THQ a catastrophe; " ...Catastrophe, is a word that comes to mind. Remember that fable about the desert landfill of Atari E.T. cartridges that crashed the industry? Same thing, except now it’s filled with uDraw tablets that crashed a publisher. That might have something to do with everything else..." and went on to attack Virgil Games by claiming that he was not given credit for his work in Darksiders 2; "Most of my direct experience was with dealing with the management at Vigil. Needless to say, I’m not impressed. All the other people that lost their jobs are not impressed. The person I most directly had to answer to seemed to have no investment at all in the UI. Not part of one meeting for it. But sure, I’ll take the blame, even though I solved his emergency problem and he ultimately used my work."

Virgil Games did release a detailed response to Davis's claims and said that they are not "focused on the issue of employees that voluntarily left or were fired from the company".

"To reiterate, Vigil’s primary concern while doing Darksiders II credits was that we credited team members that were affected by the recent downsizing. We were not focused on the issue of employees that voluntarily left or were fired from the company. We find it alarming that a former employee would personally attack and lie about other team members while falsely inflating his contribution to the game."

Speaking to NowGamer, Treyarch Game Design Director David Vonderhaar said that "In Black Ops they were called Wager Matches, and there was the 'gambling' component. But those somewhat oddball, out-of-context, just kind of fun game modes are actually going to make a fairly significant return in Black Ops 2, as what we call Party Games".

Let's just hope that they aren't taking the term "oddball" to seriously.

The details on the sequel are unknown except for a tiny tidbit of information that Konami revealed at this year's E3. (If you have yet to play the Castlevania: LOS or beat it, you might want to skip this part) Gabriel is back as Dracula and the Belmont family is out for his blood.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is expected to release on the PC, PS3, and 360 next year.

The long awaited feature has already been implemented in the Playstation 3 version of the Netflix app and also on the internet. Other devices will receive the update soon.

via PC Mag

Organizers of the show have spoken directly to Eurogamer and said that it was a "mistake". Also on that list of games that included another "mistake" was Dragon Age 3.

Eurogamer did ask three times why both of the games were mentioned and are now a "mistake", however the people behind Gamescom did not give an answer.

Was it really a mistake on the part of an employee behind the scenes or was Half Life 3 suppose to be announced but Valve changed their plans?

Halo 4 has jumped on the day one DLC express that gamers just love. Microsoft and 343 Industries made the announcement concerning day one DLC and put a price tag of 2000 MS Points or $25.00 on the War Game Map Pass. If you purchase the limited edition version of Halo 4, the War Game Map Pass is included.

The War Game Map Pass includes nine multiplayer maps, two helmets for your Spartan, and the Falcon in game emblem.

343 Industries and Microsoft also gave details regarding what happens when a player reaches a level 50. At level 50, each player will get to choose between eight specializations; two of the specializations, Wetwork and Pioneer will be available from launch day. However if you do purchase the $99.99 limited edition, all eight specializations are available to you from day one along with different skin options, avatar props, three videos, and let's not forget the $25.00 War Game Map Pass. Each specialization is designed to give you the upper hand in combat based on how you prefer to play the game.

• 
  
• Wetwork - Allows you to move quickly and silently giving you the upper hand for stealth kills.
  
• 
  
• Pioneer -Gives the ability to gain more XP in battle allowing you to level up faster than those that do not choose the option.
  
• 
  
• Engineer - Gives you an advantage to knowing when an ordinance drop will happen containing supplies.
  
• 
  
• Tracker - Allows for better long range tracking.
  
• 
  
• Rogue - Provides aiming stability when in combat.
  
• 
  
• Stalker - Allows you to track and find previous enemies who have killed you in combat.
  
• 
  
• Pathfinder - Decreases weapon overheat when operating a vehicle's turret; also allows the player to move faster carrying a detached turret.
  
• 
  
• Operator - For those that prefer to be behind the wheel, this mod provides increase stamina and durability of the vehicle you are operating.
  
• 
  

Once you choose one of the specializations it cannot be changed until after you complete the additional ten rank levels that each class adds to your Spartan. Each specialization also comes with a weapon skin, a set of armor, emblems, and a visor color.

Specializations via Halo Waypoint

via The Examiner

BitBag spied the two questionable tweets, “Silent Hill” movie that I borrowed from Murashu as the next sequel is coming out. It would be a scary game if we make Silent Hill game on FOX engine.?(?_?;)" and “Silent Hill” is in closed room setting and doesn’t require full action so that we can focus on the graphic quality. Enemy doesn’t have to be a lot or move fast. It only requires scariness by graphics and presentation. As being a creator making action game in open world, such game is very enviously attractive. Wish someone could create this on FOX engine." and now there is speculation that Kojima might be looking into developing a Silent Hill of his own using the newly developed FOX engine which will be showcased in the next Zone of Enders release.

via Playstation Blog

Is this decrease in sales another sign of economic times taking a toll on the gaming industry or just the long summer video game drought that gamers face in the rather boring summer months?

The "Just For Kids" section not only seperates Netflix's standard movie and television genres, but also allows the user to search by characters which can be found without having to type in the character's name and is located on the main area of the new section. This feature makes it easy for young children who cannot read yet to shout out the names of their favorite characters that they want to watch. Case in point, my living room lit up like it was Christmas morning when my two year discovered the character icons that were for "Thomas The Train", "Spongebob Squarepants", and "Dora The Explorer" would take him to his favorite shows without mommy and daddy having to choose for him allowing him to be feel a bit more independent.

David Watson, Director of Product Innovation for Netflix on the kids and family friend end stated on his blog that the "Just For Kids" area of Netflix is very "popular" among their users on the PC, PS3, and various other devices so they "are sure it will also be a hit on Xbox 360".

This update has been met with criticism with some Xbox 360 users saying they don't need it and wish they could disable it, others wishing for back to back play features instead of a kid only section along with various other updates and the addition of new shows and their episodes, and there is also the simple fact that this feature has been available to PS3 users since March 2012 and Wii users since November of 2011. Ouch!

What do you think? Was this a necessary update that Netflix needed for families with young children or was this just a waste of time when Netflix should have been concentrating on refreshing their content and adding options to make it easier for the user to use the app?

After downloading the app, Crunchyroll appears in the same video section with the likes of Netflix and Hulu. It’s similar to those as well with a few exceptions.

First it has more quantity and quality than both in the Anime and Drama genres, as well as having current running shows updated up to an hour after they air in Japan. From standout Dramas like My Lovely Sam-Soon, Prince’s First Love, One Fine Day, Pink Lipstick, and Iris to the requisite Anime Bleach, Naruto, Mobile Suit Gundum, Demon King Daimao, Fist of the North Star and yes… even Digimon.

The app so far has had a few problems, but Crunchyroll has said they are aware of them and are working on getting things fixed, as well as bringing the feeds up to 720p and 1080p from the current 480p that it’s streaming at. Another issue I found was when signing up you are asked to input your credit card information, but it never states the pricing for keeping the service. After looking up the site on the computer it has a handy comparison chart.

$11.95 per month will get you the premium all around content streamed to PS3, PC, Tablet, or Android and Apple devices. A smaller $6.95 will get you either the Anime or Drama collections if you’re only interested in one of them.

You’re allowed to preview the app on the PS3 by either watching all the 1st episodes that show on the screen or by entering a credit card you get 30 days to decide if you want to keep it. If you don’t like it just remember to cancel before the 30 days are up.

Speaking to NBC4 news out of Columbus, Ohio, Jessie Rawlins mother of 15 year old Tyler Rawlins said that her son emerged from his bedroom after a possible four to five day continous gaming session looking pale and his lips appeared to turn blue.

"I was very scared. I thought he was going to die. He just fell over three times." explained Jessie Rawlins to the local news.

The mother who cannot confirm if it was four or five straight days that Tyler spent in his room engrossed in Modern Warfare 3 did say that her son came out of his room one time to get snacks, use the restroom, and take a shower. Tyler was diagnosed as being severely dehydrated and was immediately given an IV with fluids during his transport to the hospital.

Tyler has since been released and Ms. Rawlins says she and her son learned a lesson the hard way and that Xbox is now gone.