If you were interested in getting your hands on Capcom’s Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix before it officially releases - you can!  Capcom is releasing a beta of the game, but there is a catch, you need to buy Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 on Xbox LIVE Arcade, 800 Microsoft Points, which will grant you access to the beta for the much anticipated Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

I still wish I hadn’t let someone borrow my copy of Soul Caliber for Dreamcast as it was one of my favorite games for the system… Oh well, later this year, more specifically July 29th, Namco will be releasing Soul Calibur via Xbox Live Arcade - 800MS points ($10.00US) the download will be large since the original was over 400mb in size, should make it the largest XBLA title and maybe a good reason to get a larger hard drive for my 360.

 
Earlier today Namco Bandai announced a release date for SCIV, but as it turns out, that wasn’t the only Soul Calibur news in store for the day. Namco has now revealed that the original Soul Calibur will appear as a downloadable title on Xbox Live Arcade later this year.

While we’re currently light on exact details about this port, Namco has confirmed that every character and mode from the Dreamcast game will be made available, and leaderboards will be added. In light of Soul Calibur IV’s release — likely not long before or after Soul Calibur arrives on Live Arcade — it’s unclear if the original will be upgraded with online play, although not doing so would be out of line with most other XBLA releases.

Not only will Soul Calibur on XBLA present what is likely to be one of the biggest games (in terms of download size) available on the service thus far, it’s also one of the most recent. As Soul Calibur first appeared on the Dreamcast, it is, for all intents and purposes, a game from last-gen. But unlike the last-gen Xbox Originals, this release should feature all the upgrades we’ve come to expect with a Live Arcade title.

Here is the original intro from the Dreamcast version of Soul Calibur.

[source]

Loading.Ready.Run shares with us a brilliant glimpse of our future courtesy of Halo. While quite similar to the most excellent EPIC (which I also recommend viewing at your earliest convenience) I consider the following to be the best video game mockumentary I have ever seen. Enjoy.

The free XBOX Live Arcade game promised by Microsoft as compensation for the issues Xbox LIVE service was experiencing over the past month has been announced.

Undertow (normally 800 Microsoft Points) will be available to download by XBOX Live Gold and Silver members from Wednesday 23rd January at 10:00 2008 till Sunday 28th January 2008 at 08:00 (Pacific Standard Time Zone) for free.

Here is the official letter from Microsoft:

An Open Letter from Marc Whitten about Xbox LIVE this Holiday
Published January 3, 2008

Dear Xbox LIVE Members:

During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service.

As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.

At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.

Thank you again for helping make Xbox LIVE everything that it is today!

Sincerely,

Marc Whitten
General Manager, Xbox LIVE
Gamertag: Notwen

Updated January 18, 2008

We’re pleased to announce that from 2:00 a.m. PST Wednesday, January 23, 2008 through 11:59 p.m. PST, Sunday, January 27, 2008 you can download the full version of the recent Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Undertow free of charge.

Developed by Chair Entertainment Group, Undertow is one of the highest-rated and best looking games available on Arcade. Undertow redefines aquatic based shooters through a mix of high-definition graphics, intuitive controls and multiple modes of game play action. The game features a full story driven-single player campaign, on and offline co-op, and multiplayer for 2-16 players over Xbox LIVE for Gold subscribers. Players battle for control of the oceans as one of three selectable races, each with four unique, upgradeable units.

Major Nelson announced at his blog that users who already purchased the game should contact Xbox Live support (800-4MY-XBOX), and they’ll be “taken care of.”

[source]

Been waiting to grab a few new Arcade titles? This weekend is the perfect time as we’re having our first ever LIVE Arcade price drop.

For the 48 hour period beginning at 12:00 a.m. GMT on Sunday, September 2 and continuing until 11: 59 p.m. GMT on Monday, September 3, the following Xbox LIVE Arcade games will be available for half their usual price:

Small Arms - 400 Microsoft Points (normally 800 Microsoft Points)
Easy to pick up but hard to put down, “Small Arms” is a frantic multiplayer action game with the feel of an arcade shooter.

Zuma Deluxe- 400 Microsoft Points (normally 800 Microsoft Points)
Explore more than 20 realms in Adventure mode and put your skills to the test in this fast-paced puzzle game.

Gauntlet - 200 Microsoft Points (normally 400 Microsoft Points)
The original dungeon crawler lets four adventurers explore and fight together as a warrior, valkyrie, wizard, and elf.

Dig Dug - 200 Microsoft Points (normally 400 Microsoft Points)
Experience the fast-paced action of this quarter-cruncher from 1982 as you take control of Dig Dug himself and vanquish Pookas and Fygars.

Remember: If the game is available in your region, it will be available for the ‘sale’ price during the above time.

Engadget reported this:

That two year old rumor that the Xbox 360 was to get a qwerty keyboard attachment has been resurrected, with the appearance of another Gamespot article (leak?) referring to a 47 key keyboard which snaps onto the Xbox 360 controller and communicates through the headset jack. Gamespot says that the peripheral is to be used in conjunction with the cross-platform instant messaging capabilities to be added to the Spring dashboard update. Apparently it’ll be available in the Summer for an as yet unnamed price. Bring on the tired thumbs.

This will make messaging anyone a breeze, and the picture above got me thinking - What if they swapped a LCD screen for the keyboard area? That be an awesome design for a handheld game system, anyone else agree?

Way back when we announced the videogame2play Xbox Live Leaderboard - October 9th, 2006 to be exact I asked the question,

“Who will be the first to 20,000gp?”

Well recently this question was answered by our gamerscore leader, PERRYLYZR 541. Currently weighing in at 20,080 points and leading by over 2,000 points it looks like he’s the gamer to beat… it’s a race that is not over yet - next goal 30,000 points! Good luck to all who are involved.

Go ahead and press that play button again you know you love that sound.

[via metacritc]

It seems that the recent rumors about real world rewards for virtual world Xbox Live Achievements are true. Microsoft has just announced a cross-marketing promotion with Old Spice deodorant to give some freebies to American Xbox Live users who add at least 1,500 Achievement points to their gamerscore between Feb. 12 and April 12.

Players have to be at least 13 years old and register at Xbox.com/rewards after Feb. 12. Prizes are divided in to three tiers, depending on the participant’s “annual gamerscore” (which we can only assume is the number of points you’ve gained in the last year):

All told Microsoft will be giving away $500,000 in prizes to gamers who would probably be earning these Achievements for free anyway. Sure, T-shirts and a few hundred MS points aren’t anything to write home about, but Fusion Frenzy 2 is a $50 game that can be had for nothing but some diligent gaming. We applaud Microsoft for showing a bit of tangible recognition to some of its most loyal customers. Sony, Nintendo, the freebie ball is in your court.