Halo 3 to support True (not upscaled) 1080p at 60fps

The Xbox 360's flagship title Halo 3 will support true (not upscaled) 1080p at 60fps, after Microsoft issued an edict to developers Bungie that it must be the most technically advanced game available on the platform.



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New Hi-Res Quake Wars: Enemy Territory Screens

Four new hi-res screen shots of id Software's upcoming Quake Wars: Enemy Territory for the PS3/Xbox360/PC.



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Mass Effect delayed to September

BioWare's much-anticipated Xbox 360 RPG Mass Effect has finally been pencilled in for release this September, months after the June/July arrival date previously expected.



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Blu-ray Disc Goes Over 1 Million Mark

"The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) announced today that Blu-ray Disc has become the first high definition optical disc format to sell more than one million discs, a milestone it has achieved in less than a year.

'Sales of Blu-ray Disc titles have taken off since the first of the year,' said Andy Parsons, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association’s U.S. Promotion Committee and Senior Vice President New Product Development at Pioneer Electronics. 'Blu-ray Discs have been outselling HD DVD by more than two to one since the beginning of the year and the gap is steadily widening. It’s exactly what we’ve said all along would happen - the strong support for Blu-ray among movie studio and equipment manufacturers means that consumers have more choices when it comes to players and titles. And they’re choosing Blu-ray by an ever-increasing margin."

Leaked Halo 3 beta vid: the new Zanzibar

Sure, it's not quite as exciting as a new episode of the Xbox 360 Fancast, but we figured some of you might be interested in watching this freshly leaked video of Halo 3. The video showcases what looks to be the new version of Zanzibar. It's the beta build of the game, and you can see many of the changes (such as the stationary bubble shield) are in place. Give the video your undivided attention and tell us what you think. You'd better do it quick, too. There's no telling when Bungie's ninjas will descend upon us, demanding that we remove the video on pain of death.

Skate trailer grinds onto Marketplace

It's only a month and a half late, but the first gameplay trailer for Skate is now available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace. Originally released at the beginning of March, the trailer shows off Electronic Arts' more realistic take on the sport. Skate eschews the giant combos and tricks of Tony Hawk for a simpler and arguably more accurate version of skateboarding. If this video is anything to go by, you won't be landing many 900°s in Skate. No, it seems that the idea is centered much more around landing simple, real world tricks. Whether or not that makes for an entertaining skateboarding game remains to be seen. Go download it and revel in the HD goodness. Of course, you could also watch the streaming version that came out last month.

New PGR 4 scans with details

"We brought you an exclusive look last month of PGR 4 with some nice details about what to expect. A Polish magazine now has more details, with the pages being scanned for your viewing pleasure. All is after the jump for you to get excited about."

Save some cash, use your own 120GB HDD

"The hard drive prophecy has come true. Xbox-Scene is reporting that the new version of HDDHackr has been released allowing the use of an unlicensed 120GB hard drive for your 360 storage. The HDDHackr program uses the newly found 120GB signature and will allow anyone to use a specific 120GB WD HDD for their 360 storage saving roughly $100 over Microsoft's official Xbox 360 120GB HDD. Though, you'll need to be somewhat familiar with hacking programs and PC hardware setup to get the drive up and running. But, if that's your thing, you can save big bucks and up your Xbox 360 hard drive capacity to 120GB the l33t way. So, is anyone up for the challenge?"

Xbox Live's Major Nelson : Show #222

"This week’s show:
Xbox news
Interview: Spencer Brooks about Boom Boom Rocket
Interview: Ned Canty tells you how you can win US$ 100,000 to produce your own TV series
Interview: Jeff Bell, VP of Games talks about the upcoming Pac Man World Championship
Xbox 101
…and who knows what else? "

Halo Wars Update

Ensemble Studios has provided an update on the development of Halo Wars, a real-time strategy game that lets you to take charge of the human UNSC armies and see the Halo universe from a totally new perspective.

We are cranking away on the development of Halo Wars, and recently passed another milestone. (Yes, this can be rather unpleasant sometimes) These deadlines for having features in the game start to come fast and furious when you're well into development on a game, and it certainly feels like we're at that point now. There's still a mountain of work to do, but everyone on the team has their toothpick and is working away on it.

One of the many talented toothpick wielders here at Ensemble Studios is Graeme Devine, the Lead Designer on Halo Wars. Graeme has been in the games industry for a great many years, and has his fair share of stories to tell. I burst into his office on milestone day to ask him a number of very important questions, such as, what does a lead designer do?