Xbox 360

In an effort to better provide for our faithful and always appreciated readers, we’re now going to begin a weekly news wrap-up.  Sure, it’s nothing big but it ought to provide our readers with an easy outlet to catch up on the news, reviews, special features and podcasts that are posted throughout the week.

So I hope y’all dig this little update to the site and hopefully everyone will catch up on any potential news stories they missed throughout the week.

FEATURED CONTENT

If there was ever a game that encapsulates the term wildcard, it has to be Monday Night Combat.  On the surface MNC may just seem like another run-of-the mill online action game, but it could end up being a surprise XBLA hit due to its humor, style and gameplay.

Combining tongue-in-cheek humor, stylized art, and pure fun action combat, Monday Night Combat has all the makings of a quality XBLA game. The premise of the game is simple: it’s a televised battle for supremacy between human combatants and their team controlled A.I. robots.

So far what we’ve seen of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II has looked rather good.  The first game definitely had some major issues, but TFU2 seemed to rectify those along with adding some cool new features.  Hype for the project has been steadily rising since its proper debut at E3, but now there’s a disturbance in the force.  Haden Blackman, the head man behind both TFU games has resigned from LucasArts.

When it comes to setting the mood for off-road racing the most logical choice is to include thrash metal music right? Well, head pounding metal music does fit given the context of off-road racing but I’m sure some out there would’ve preferred some buttery beats.  Those who love the hard guitar riffs of metal music should be pleased that the upcoming racing game nail’d is going the metal route with its soundtrack. In fact, nail’d may end up having the most metal video game soundtrack released this year.

The anime goodness that is Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is now available for all to enjoy as the Japanese demo is now up on the PSN. Naruto fans have no doubt been anticipating the release of the demo after it was teased a few weeks ago but now everyone can get their hands on what could be the best anime video game ever made.

After winning the hearts of TV viewers, dominating the heavy metal industry and just being the most metal band in the existence of the world, the video game industry proved to be too much for Dethklok.  I’m of course talking about the “fictional” band Dethklok from the show Metalocalypse.  You see a Matalocalypse game was in the works via Konami but sadly it has been axed, presumably in a metal way.

Last week Sega officially announced the video game version of the upcoming Marvel film Thor. Despite the history of the character and the rising hype for the film, the news was met with a rather lukewarm reception. The less than stellar reaction wasn’t too surprising considering Sega + Marvel Comics + movie games = Iron Man 2: The Video Game. Nuff, said if you ask me.

I kind of thought we were past this stage, but it appears that game publishers are still signing on high profile bands to appear in their video games.  After all that is the best way to insure that a game sells 2M+ units right? I kid of course but it does work in some cases and I’m sure EA is confident their partnership with Linkin Park will pay off for Medal of Honor.

Xbox Live Marketplace updates for the week of July 27 2010:

Demos: (Available only to Gold Subscribers)

• Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
• Madden NFL 11 

DLC:

Slipping late under the “better late than never” guise, QuarterSave episode number 45 has arrived! This week’s show is a special one as we switch from our regularly scheduled beer to some Japanese plum wine brought forth from the bowels of Tokyo by our good friend Michael-Sean! Thanks Michael!

Along with our obvious alcoholism, this week we explore some of the new and upcoming titles that have released (or will be released) including: Medal of Honor’s newly launched Xbox Beta, Limbo (XBLA), and today’s release of Hydro Thunder Hurricane!

The unthinkable has finally happened and worlds have collided in a mash-up that many folks have been asking for.  After it was rumored earlier this week, the wildly popular Street Fighter and Tekken franchises are indeed crossing over in two dual release games.  Announced today at the San Diego Comic Con, Street Fighter X Tekken (best name ever) will have the fighters of Street Fighter and Tekken facing off against one another.

With the San Diego Comic Con going on right now there’s plenty of awesome news going around.  Stuff like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and TRON: Legacy has been major show highlights since they’re so damn awesome.  Well not everything announced at or in conjunction with SDCC 2010 can be awesome and that’s clear with Warner Brothers Interactive announcement of the Green Lantern game.

Capcom is set unleash the Dead Rising 2: Case Zero DLC, which for now is a Microsoft's Xbox 360 exclusive, on August 31st on Xbox Live Arcade.

The DLC will serve as a standalone zombie filled prologue to the story of Dead Rising 2 in which you will guide a character name Chuck Greene trying to escape from the town of Still Creek while in search of Zombrex that he needs in order to save his daughter from becoming one with the undead.

Enslaved is one of those games where it’s just in an odd situation. Not only are the chips stacked against it due to being a new IP, but developer Ninja Theory isn’t exactly looked at amongst gamers as being a studio capable of delivering a AAA game. That of course is up for debate as their previous game, Heavenly Sword, was vilified a bit.  Things are also a bit tricky for Enslaved as it’s coming out in the now crowded month of October, a month where a few games called Fallout: New Vegas, F.E.A.R. 3 and Medal of Honor are also slated to drop.

NBA legend Michael Jordan will be the cover athlete for NBA 2K11 this year but the involvement of his airness just doesn’t stop there. After all it would be a bit silly to have one of the greatest NBA players ever appear in a game and not properly utilize him.  As it was rumored earlier, NBA 2K11 will feature an entire mode centered around the prolific career of Michael Jordan, minus his baseball stint of course.