Filed under: News, Video Marketplace

Microsoft and premium cable channel Starz have partnered up and are giving away two free TV episodes downloads as well as running a sweepstakes where entrants can win a new Xbox 360, some games or a DVD box set.

United Says residents, you can haz a free episode of both “the ultra-offensive” The Bronx Bunny Show and Martin Lawrence Presents: First Amendment Standup by simply heading to StarzOnXbox.com and registering. Once registered, they’ll email you redemption codes to use on the Xbox Live Marketplace to score your free TV downloads. Also, while registering, be sure to check the box to enter their sweepstakes, because, well … why not? And we’d like to say thank you to Starz. Thanks for giving us free downloads of TV shows we normally wouldn’t even think about watching. Zing!

[Via Xbox.com, Thanks HazyCloud]

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Xbox Live Marketplace

We’ll admit it, upon seeing that there was a demo for Crash Time on Xbox Live Marketplace this morning, it was actually the first time we’d even heard of the game. It was made by Synetic, a company we’ve never heard of. It’s based on a German Television series that we’ve also never heard of. Those things in and of themselves don’t really mean much though. What we know is that it has cars and, presumably, said automobiles will crash. That’s two points in the game’s favor right there. Three points actually, considering the vehicles can explode. Wait, it also has a cheesy hard rawk soundtrack. That makes for a potential fourth point. Whether or not it’s actually any fun is a quandary we’ll leave up to you. Go grab it and tell us what you think.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Here’s a bit of sad news for those of you wanting to play more Grand Theft Auto-style games without actually playing GTA: THQ has announced that Saints Row 2, which was originally scheduled for release on August 26 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, will now be delayed until October 14.

“Product quality and marketing considerations” were the official reasons behind the delay. Honestly, you can’t really blame them for wanting to distance Saints Row 2 as far away from Grand Theft Auto IV as possible. Sure, the two games take different approaches to the open-world genre, but people are still going to draw comparisons anyway.

No offense to the guys at Volition, but I can’t see Saints Row 2 getting the same critical acclaim that GTA IV has received. Hopefully, though, this delay will help get the game that much closer to reaching a similar level of success.

[Via Gamasutra]

Via Destructoid

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On June 5, Electronic Arts will officially drop a demo for their upcoming first-person shooter, Battlefield: Bad Company. Available for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the demo will include single-player gameplay, as well as the all-new Gold Rush mode on the “Oasis” map (featuring land, sea, and air vehicles).

Sounds good? Don’t want to wait. You don’t have to. EA has given Destructoid a slew of tokens to download the demo this day. We’ll be giving out a handful today — 25 for the Xbox 360 version of the demo, and 25 for the PS3. But you’re going to have to work for it …

Entering and absolutely random: Using digital image editing software of your choice, we want you to bring together the disparate worlds of Battlefield: Bad Company and the popular late-70s/early-80s sitcom, Three’s Company. The rules are you have keep it clean and the image can’t exceed 468 pixels in width, otherwise it might be deleted.

Tokens will be given out on mostly a “first come, first serve” basis, going only to those who put some effort into making our Three’s Company/Bad Company dreams come true. Along with the image, be sure to let us know what system you need the code for in the same comment as the image. All winning tokens will be sent to the email address associated with your Destructoid account, no exceptions.

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The newest Dead Space developer diary is all about the sound and music. David Feise and Don Veca, the sound and audio designers on Dead Space, walk us through some the workings of audio and sound they’ve implemented into the game to heighten the atmosphere.

One thing that really separates the audio in Dead Space from other games is the fear emitter system. In other games, such as Resident Evil, there would be a dramatic score playing, but it would keep playing if you just stayed in one place. In Dead Space, the fear emitters control the audio and music based around what the player is doing, so the sounds are rarely ever the same, ensuring a suspenseful feel throughout the game.

One really cool detail that’s revealed at the end of the diary is that they’ve taken the sound the San Francisco BART train makes when it’s crossing the bay and used it in the game. I’ve to cross the bay every time I go into San Francisco, and this sound really is one of the worst things you’ll ever hear.

If you’re still itching for more info on the game, just head on over to the official Dead Space Web site. What do you all consider what Dead Space is doing with the sound and audio design: will it make for a more frightning gameplay experience?

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Looking back, it’s all to simple to point to the launch of the PlayStation 3 as the low point in Sony’s otherwise domineering position in the console landscape. However, it’s a bit of uncharted waters to hear the CEO of Sony himself, Howard Stringer, finally admit to the bleak outlook of the PS3 at the time.

While speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s D6 conference, Stringer commented that even though the PS3 seems to be smelling like a rose at the moment, it wasn’t all that long ago when the console was very much on the ropes — and basically on life-support. Thanks to games like GTA IV, and other unmentioned titles that tapped into the PS3’s powerful architecture (Uncharted comes to mind), things have been on the up and up for them ever since.

That, and the eventual success of the Blu-ray format, kept the PS3 alive long enough for developers to release the games that would make the console relevant in the eyes of consumers. All too aware of what was riding on the battle against HD-DVD (and Sony’s previous record of proprietary formats), Stringer joked that had Blu-ray lost this battle, “Betamax 2″ would be etched on his tombstone.

For once, it’s nice to see Sony admit the obvious, and having it come from the top-tier is a great begin. Let’s just hope that they keep this information (their missteps) filed away in the back of their minds, so that we don’t end up with a repeat of a part of what nearly killed a dominant brand in the first place — smoke and mirrors.

[Via GameDaily]

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Better late than never, it’s finally here — the Destructoid review for Grand Theft Auto IV. Wanting to give this review our fullest attention, we wanted to make sure we had played enough to feel comfortable in our knowledge of the latest GTA before we attempted a review and give you the most honest, unaffected-by-hype review on the World wide web.

Given the vastness of GTA IV, you can see how this might take us some time.

The hype train for Grand Theft Auto IV was a large one, and one that is still continuing to roll. With such high expectations, Rockstar would have had to deliver an opus to avoid disappointing the fans, and continue its long trend of spearheading the sandbox genre.

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Tom Clancy’s EndWar, probably Ubisoft’s biggest hyped up game of this year. And for good reason too. This is the stepping stone in a new direction Ubisoft is going towards. It’s an RTS game designed just for consoles and implements other Tom Clancy games such as having Ghost Recon soliders and H.A.W.X fighter jets. This is also the first current-gen game allowing players to just use their voice to control each aspect of the game.

Hit the jump to see what I thought of Tom Clancy’s EndWar and it’s voice command system.

Via Destructoid

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I already previewed a good portion of Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway last month, so I skipped the latest build of the game during Ubidays. I did take a glance at what was going on at least and the only difference was that this preview was for a level towards the end of the game. What can I say? It looks exactly enjoy it did last time.

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Wait, what? What’s Ubisoft doing with Soulcalibur IV? No need to worry folks, Ubisoft is simply handling the PAL distribution of the title. This is still Namco Bandai’s little baby.

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