Forca Blog

Just as it is every holiday season there are a slew of new games on the horizon. Amongst those is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which you can pre-order now on Amazon. If you go for the Prestige Edition then you will get everything pictured above: the game disc, all the extra, worthless packaging and a more impressive case that you will most likely throw away.

The feature that really sets the prestige edition apart from other games however is the fully functioning night vision goggles. For the rare moments when they aren’t mounted to your own head the game developers have also included a head display to mount them on to really spiff up the place.

Other mentionable games coming out over the next 6 months include Halo 3: ODST, Assassins Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, Left 4 Dead 2, BioShock 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction. All of these are available for pre-order on Amazon now. I am sure there are other so let me know what you are excited about seeing this holiday season.

So the question stands–are the night vision goggles worth the extra $90? This is one that I can’t answer for you.

Just like we had assumed when we saw the Xbox 360 “Super Elite” pop up on Amazon, this retail ad in South Africa shows the release date for the new member of the 360 family to be released in October. Pricing for the 250GB bundle with 2 wireless controllers is a little more expensive here in this leak–hovering right around $646. Hopefully the US release is closer to the $400 price we saw on Amazon.

“It’s the future of gaming.” –  or at least that is what OnLive is hoping for. After seven years in “stealth development” they have now announced their new product. OnLive hopes to bring a new world of  streaming video games to TVs, entry level PCs, and MACs, through the internet.

Interested? OnLive is currently looking for beta testers to stay at home wearing the same raunchy clothes for days without sleeping give their streaming game service a try, and provide them with feedback about the experience. To be apply as a beta tester visit the OnLive site and fill out the form. If you are lucky and are chosen to sit at home and play OnLive while gorging on microwaveable meals and delivery pizza as a beta tester you will get to use their service for free, in exchange for your feedback.

We got excited for a minute when we first got word that we would be seeing this bundle headed to the US. This holiday season will bring us a black Wiimote with motion plus bundle as well as a black nunchuck which will be sold separately. Still no word as to whether or not we are going to be getting a black model in the US. The last official word was a “you wish USA”.

Maybe once the Wii sales begin to plummet we will get to see some black in our Nintendo department.

The Xbox 360 Elite has now taken the place of the 20GB Pro model and is officially $299. You can pick one up anywhere the console is sold. Now the price line up is:

$299 – Xbox 360 Elite 120 GB
$249 – Xbox 360 Pro 60 GB
$199 – Xbox 360 Arcade 256 MB

Also some big news–Amazon.de “accidentally” posted a 250GB–super?–elite Xbox 360 bundled with 2 wireless controllers and Forza Motorsport 3.

The 360 Super Elite was listed for 279,99 EUR–just under $400 USD. Amazon.de is the same place where the PS3 Slim was listed 20 days before the official release and they have been nice enough to help us out again. There is no official word on the release of this version of the Elite but Forza 3 is due out October 23rd so we have got  a month or two to wait I would guess. This is a good deal, since a week ago you would have paid $400 for 130GB less, 1 controller less and no new release game.

We have seen alot of pictures of the new 360 box that shows the middle brother of the 360s and we have heard the rumors that the Elite will soon be cheaper. Until now, however, those all seemed to simply be rumors. Today amazon listed the Xbox 360 Elite in a white box–much like those “leaked” images we saw.

This means two things, one we will probably be losing the middle of the road 360–maybe in preparation for a Natal bundled system– and two, we may see the $299 Xbox 360 Elite price drop rumor may come to fruition.

This wouldn’t be a bad idea for Microsoft with the release of the $299 PS3 Slim that has the same sized 120GB hard drive.

Yep, its here. But most users have said the reason they never went with the PS3 in the past is because of the cost. Will it being $100 less sway you away from your Netflix friendly Xbox 360?

The Blu-ray player alone is worth $100 to $200 so if you are in the market for one of those it may be worth the extra cash for the 120GB hard drive and PS3 games. On the negative side the Slim can’t play PS2 games which seems like a really poor decision by Sony.

Redbox is now renting video games for $2 per night in the Reno area. To view all of the participating locations click here. Right now the selection is pretty slim pickins but you can view what they have available here.

Here is what we know right now. Renting the games will cost $2/night. There currently is no way to reserve a game online like you can with a movie and the only available game systems right now are the Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Redbox has been incredibly successful with their $1 movie rentals. Honestly when you rent a movie at a store and get 1 week how often do you actually watch the movie more than once? Surely not enough to justify spending $4-$7 as opposed to $1-$2. But how is this going to work for video games? Generally you spend more than a few days on a video game. If you keep it for a week that is $14 you have spent for one video game. You can pay less than that(around $9/month) from an online subscription service like GameFly(the netflix of video games) and keep the game as long as you want and never even have to leave the house.

This DIY Xbox case mod puts the Nintendo Wii to shame. A member of the forums over at Xbox-Scene has taken his original Xbox, modded it with an operating system called XBMC–Xbox Media Center, and created a super thin case mod for it.

Here is a picture of the original case versus the modded case. One thing you will notice is the lack of a DVD drive and controller ports. The controller ports of the original xbox were simply custom USB ports and you can get adapters to make your controllers USB.

With XBMC you can install a larger hard drive–this modder used a 320GB) and copy your games to the hard drive via the DVD drive or over the network from your PC.

From my experience with XBMC you lose none of the capabilities of the original Xbox but gain the ability to play your games from the hard drive, stream media over your network to your TV and install emulators to play old NES, SEGA and n64 games.

When excitement was building around the initial release of the Nintendo Wii there were pictures circulating that had the Wii in a wide assortment of colors. Much to our dismay we have been stuck with white since release day.

Just recently news and pictures of a black Wii have been making their rounds. It is now confirmed that the black Wii will be released on August 1st…. in Japan ONLY!

Bummer for the rest of the World. Nintendo has said there are “no plans to have other colors of Wii in the U.S.”

Microsoft has decided to let a select few into the new LIVE update early just like they did with the NXE. Follow the instructions on MajorNelson.com to request access to the update early. You will be asked some questions about how you use your xbox. Last year I was one of the lucky ones who got in to the NXE early. None of my friends did. The only difference between us when filling out the survey was I said that I had a Netflix account. None of my friends did and so we think that for them to be able to fully test all the features they only accepted those who would be able to utilize them all. Good luck!

More information has come out about the motion sensing response to Nintendo’s Wii from Microsoft. Gates himself has let is slip that Microsoft is serious about Natal and that they may be planning to use it in more than just video games:

‘[The concept also works] for media consumption as a whole, and even if they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication…I think the value is as great for if you’re in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it’s very cool there.’

Since the device is able to detect movement, distance and audio of multiple people it opens the door for all kinds of fun functionality at home and at the office. Not to mention the limitless power that Microsoft will have once they have a camera hidden in every home. You think you can use Windows illegally?!? Not now that we can see you! Now facial recognition will be required to activate Windows instead of your serial key.

On a lighter note, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO has confirmed that we will be seeing natal next year and in the same speech said:

‘The new device will be equipped with technology that is “really, really, close” to an actuality. The console, which was described as having a “natural interface,” will have a built in camera with the ability to recognize movement and voice.’

So will we be getting a new console as well next year? We think not. After this statement Microsoft responded by saying:

‘As the Xbox team stated at E3 two weeks ago, we are not even halfway through the current console generation lifecycle and believe Xbox 360 will be the entertainment center in the home for long into the next decade. Project Natal will be an important part of this platform, but we have not confirmed a launch date at this time.’

We got to see the scripted videos from the Xbox website as well as the live footage but this was cool to see people who didn’t know the system have the ability to jump in there and play it. Given it is a little buggy now but they have until next year to work out all the kinks.

Yes. If you thought your Emperor Workstation was complete you may have forgotten one tiny 15 ton addition. These guys have created the most awesome–or at least largest–WiiMote mod I have ever seen. Control of two 15 ton crane arms is yours with nothing more than your Wii remotes. Just make sure you have the right remote when you go to play tennis.

Too busy with your hectic life? Too lazy? Now you don’t even have to play those troublesome video games.

Nintendo has confirmed(currently unannounced) that the ‘Super Mario Bros: Wii’ coming out this holiday season will have an auto-pilot feature….

This has got to be one of the most unorthodox(ridiculous?) ideas in video game history possibly with the exception of a video game based on Michael Jackson rescuing little children from kidnappers.

Despite how dumb this seems there are some cases where this could be useful, I guess. We have all been stuck at one point or another and we begin to get frustrated beyond all reason and our tv is at risk of a controller being hurled at it. If this “auto-pilot” was setup to kick in after you had died several times in a row or if it was limited to a few uses per level depending on difficulty I could see this being a good idea.  This could also be useful for kids who couldn’t quite play a certain game without some help.

For more details you can view the article on USA Today.

What will they think of next? Hopefully, a video game that will turn itself on, beat itself, turn off and put the controllers away.