General Discussion

Teaser trailers are a tricky treat. Designed to evoke knee-jerk excitement upon initial announcement, they can also evoke more confusion than concept, and such was the case with the teaser for Mega Man Universe, that depicted a claymation Mega Man, Ryu, Sir Arthur, and even the “mega man” from the original US cover taking on various classic baddies. Exciting? Definitely. Confusing? No doubt. View the full article and check out the video on the main site

A small group of members from the now defunct developer Bizarre Creations have joined together to form a new studio, Hogrocket. Peter Collier, Ben Ward, and Stephen Cakebread along with two BAFTA award winning animators formed the studio and are focusing their efforts for the time being to the iPhone/iPad, Mac, and PC. Ben Ward from Hogrocket has announced that their first game is currently under development. Tweet This Post View the full article

Activision is donating $1 for each click to our US veterans. Toss aside the hate you may have for Activision or Facebook, and help raise some money. Activision, as you may or may not know, has created the Call of Duty Endowment, which helps give vets 21st-century job training and career placement. C.O.D.E. works with several different charity organizations in an attempt to help on as many fronts as possible. For every Facebook user who clicks the “Like” icon on the Call of Duty Endowment Facebook page between right now and Monday, May 31st, C.O.D.E. will increase their donation to Hire Heroes USA by $1, up to $50,000. That’s literally all you have to do — just click the L…

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Christmas is full of shiny things That sparkle, gleam and glow; These holiday pleasures dazzle us, And yet, deep down, we know... That Christmas has its special gifts, But our year-round joy depends On the cherished people in our lives, Our family and our friends. -By Joanna Fuchs Merry Christmas Gamercide. To the friends we've just met, to the ones we've grown to love for almost a decade. Here's looking to another great year ahead of us. Love and peace, Gamercide family.

(when asked how she was doing and if our care package to her and Logan arrived) Hey PK! Yes it did and thank you so much and please pass the word around Gamercide that I said thank you as well. That bear is so adorable and what you had on the little note part made me tear up a bit. It was really sweet and we all loved it! Everyone is doing fine too. Logan is healthy and I'm doing good. It was an uncomplicated labor and delivery in fact it went quite fast. It's awesome to see his brother stepping into his big brother role too. He adores Logan so much! I'll be posting pictures soon for Gamercide to see their newest member. I have about 500 to go through on my camera, lol. I…

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html Some Twitter accounts to follow, too. https://twitter.com/#!/MESSENGER2011 https://twitter.com/#!/NASAKepler

Oh man I've got such a bonner for MGS 4 right now I've completely ignored all other games. Yes even Fallout 3, Shadow Complex, and Borderlands. If any of you sent me game invites .. (actually only PK does) and I ignore them it's cause Tam and I are watching The Office on Netflix or she's working out with Wii Fit and watching Netflix. I can't stop playing this game .. and holy crap does it deliver!!! Now I know this game isn't for everyone and honestly if you didn't play the series since the beginning of Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 (**** it even makes references to the first game on the NES) you'll be totally lost and likely rather bored with it. This game took me about 2 …

Steam announced that PC Gamers who preorder Homefront through them will receive a free copy of Metro2033. Gamers will also get a day one unlock for the Air Assault Drone for use in multiplayer. Homefront is set to release March 15th, 2011. via Steam Community View the full article

This is an alleged video of one of the people who was either there at the times of the rapes, or actively took part in. It is beyond disturbing, so please don't watch it if you don't think you're up to it. Trigger warning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22UsHZXPi7Q This little monster... I just want to make him feel all the pain and humiliation he and his monster friends put that girl through. There isn't an ounce of compassion in him.

One of the industries leading titans in technology has bought the innovative internet chat company that allows friends and family to stay in touch over the internet, Skype for a lump sum of $8.5 billion. This transaction beats out Microsoft’s previous purchase of aQuantive for $6 billion as the largest purchase that the company has made to date. After Microsoft made the announcement, many were left wondering why Microsoft would take a gamble on Skype who has a long term debt of $686 million and the company suffered a loss last year of around $7 million according to Wired. Microsoft would also be paying an average $1,000 per customer and only receiving $30 back in profit…

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update Only 1 online check the first time you boot the system and then no more Disks will work exactly as they do know(need to be in the system to play while installed, no used restrictions, no more digital game sharing) No Region Lock Did not see this coming.

What will MS have in-store this year? Watch and see: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/events/e3/briefing.htm

The Beyond3D forums discovered the job postings on LinkedIn. The listings are seeking a graphics architect, a senior engineer, and a senior performance architect. All three listings mention "next generation console architectures from conception through implementation," suggesting that Microsoft is still in the early stages of work on the next generation Xbox. [source - GI]

Do you have a little gamer living in your house or know of a child who is interested in working in the gaming industry? If so, then this little piece of news might interest you. From now until May 10, Microsoft will be accepting submissions for the Kodu Cup 2011 that uses Microsoft Kodu Game Lab technology for the PC and allows younger gamers to develop a game fron the ground up and according to Lili Cheng, the General Manager of Microsoft’s Future Social Experiences Labs will help promote creativity and self confidence. “Our research has shown that Kodu Game Lab appeals equally to girls and boys and helps promote creativity, self-confidence, critical thinking and techno…

More and more info has been leaking out about the next Xbox, codenamed Durango, and all signs are pointing to the rumors being true regarding always online connectivity, mandatory Kinect usage, and the fight against used video games. Previously it's been reported that MS and Sony were looking into ways to disrupt the used game market. There was a lot of uproar over this. Check this out from the Durango Hardware Overview: "Every Durango console will have a hard drive, although its exact capacity has not been chosen. It will be large enough, however, to hold a large number of games. All games will be installed on the hard drive. Play from the optical disc will no…

Microsoft released a statement earlier about how they plan on making sure that Xbox 360 users who have been affected by the new dashboard update still get to play the games that they love and it involves a new console. The new mandatory update has not been compatible with some older models of the Xbox 360 when it comes to the new disc format and Microsoft has announced that they will be replacing those consoles for free with a new Xbox 360 Model S and a 250 GB hard drive. If you are finding yourself having an issue with reading retail copies of your games after applying the update, Microsoft has said to get in contact with support immediately. If you are planning on sche…

So yeah..... earlier today the crimson map pack for Halo 4 came out. Those that had the map pass "bullshit btw" weren't able to get it... took 112 hours to fix. Then when the fix WAS out, nearly anybody, map pass or not, could, and probably still can, download the map pack for free. Only way to do so is by going in the marketplace menu directly from Halo 4 lobby. https://twitter.com/XboxSupport1/status/278254316253507584 "If you can grab it, it's yours."

So, get this. Have you seen any of the new ads for Destiny on TV and stuff? Guess what, it pretty much only mentions Playstation despite the game being available on Microsoft platforms as well. This makes MS unhappy. From what I've been seeing, apparently not only does Sony have rights to exclusive game content till late 2015, but also has exclusive rights to advertise the game as well! Enter Microsoft and trying to get around this exclusivity. http://destinyfragrance.com This was first posted on some UK twitter and facebook sites, and the above link which was advertised within some UK magazine ads also takes you to pre-order stuff at a UK retailer. You kn…

Microsoft filed for, and was approved, Patent #20120278904. What is this patent? It's titled "Content Distribution Regulation By Viewing User", and it wants to turn you Kinect against you. Short form is this. Your Kinect is a camera. Microsoft wants to be able to use that camera to be able to analyze how many people are present in your room, how old they are, and possibly other info to be able to take "remedial action" for whatever reason. I imagine this may be with the intention of good things, like say recognizing a 7 year old boy and not allowing them to watch the unrated version of Hot Tub Time Machine on Netflix, but the scope of description within the patent see…

Ok, so I know this is a video, but check this out. Microsoft is doing R&D work to see what they can do with their Kinect systems and facial recognition to create Avatars which look like you. Most importantly also, they want to create something which will facially animate properly and look like it's actually speaking rather than lyp-syncing.<br><br><br> Get ready to enter, if not pass directly through, the Uncanny Valley. <br><br><br> <object id="flashObj" width="486" height="412" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0"&…

Anyone else get an email about this? Was an official MS thing, supposedly a Beta they want to try out. Answered the email about it this morning. Will see what happens. I like helping out noobs. LoL

This is a pretty neat little video that Microsoft made explaining Quantum Computing. Glad to see it's being spearheaded by large companies. Will change the computing world by leaps and bounds when it hits mainstream. TechSpot Article

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/liveevent.aspx Starts in half an hour. Sony's was earlier, and they showcased a handheld camera that shoots in 3D, will retail for under $200 and won't need special glasses for playback.