Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming: Year in Review/Preview teaser, Free Xbox Live, and a Holiday Shopping List ...

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

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NEWS:
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Year in Review/Preview is coming
- My annual Year in Review/Preview will be coming in the next few weeks (in theory). We'll revisit some predictions from last year, and see if we see any trends moving forward. Stay tuned ...

Free Xbox Live
- Sign up for Cox High-Speed Internet by December 31, and get a free 12-month subscription to Xbox live, and a copy of Burnout 3: Takedown. Check out www.cox.com/xbox/ for details.

Holiday shopping list for the Xbox faithful
- The game mags have got their Xbox wish lists. TeamXbox.com has one in general, and once for kids.
- Here's mine:
  - First-Person Shooter: Halo 2 (duh); own it.
  - RPG: X-Men: Legends (own it), Fable or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (I or II)
  - Sports: ESPN NHL 2K5 (own it)
  - Action: Beyond Good & Evil
  - Fighting: Dead or Alive Ultimate
  - Fitness: Yourself!Fitness
  - Audio: Spherex Xbox 5.1 Surround Sound System
  - Xbox Live Headset: Logitech Xbox Cordless Headset
  - Wireless controller: Logitech Precision Cordless
  - VGA Adapter: VDigi Electronics Enhanced VD-Z3
  - Video: Boxlight Raven DLP projector
  - Wireless networking: D-Link GamerLounge wireless router or one of the dual 108 mbps b/a offerings (D-Link and Netgear)

New backing for Blu-Ray
- Sony Corporation's Blu-Ray standard received new backing from Disney, who said The Walt Disney Company (the 2nd-largest US media company), and Buena Vista Home Entertainment (its home video division) will use the format. This just a week after Warner, Universal, New Line and Paramount announced their support for the HD DVD format. However, like those studios, Disney's support of Blue-Ray is non-exclusive.
- Thomson, "the Authorized Xbox Replicator and manufacturer of the original DVD drive used in the Xbox console, plans to support the Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD formats by manufacturing players and discs for both technologies." OK, but Thomson arguably has the most fault in-tolerant of the three drives shipping in Xboxes ...

Star Wars Battlefront to Support 32 Simultaneous Players
- An upcoming auto-update for Star Wars Battlefront will up the supported number of players from 16 to 32, and add a Jabba's Palace playable map. Hosting 32 players will require a guaranteed up- and downstream of 1.5 megabits.

Gaming magazines on the fold?
- IDG's GameStar and Ziff Davis' XBN and GMR on the verge of closing, ostensibly due to competitive pressures making their continuing untenable. Might explain why I haven't gotten the last 5 issues of my GMR. Hey, Electronics Boutique, GameStop is still shipping me my GameInformer Magazine!

Electronic Arts gets exclusive NFL agreement
- EA scored a 5-year contract with the NFL, leaving companies like Midway Games and ESPN Videogames out in the cold. Midway's turned it into a win, though, promising their next game (Blitz: Playmakers) will feature parts of the professional football scene that the NFL license would restrict them from including.

For a bigger Climax
- Climax is moving offices for its Santa Monica, CA studio, and beefing up staff, with a second growth spike of 80 employees shortly thereafter.

Phantom Dust is coming to North America
- I was seriously bummed last year when the Xbox Live-enabled Phantom Dust was announced as a Japan-only offering. However, Majesco just announced they'll bring it stateside early in 2005. Majesco is out of control (in a good way).

SpikeTV Video Game Awards
- Right, so I screwed up and forgot to prep y'all for the SpikeTV's 2004 video game awards on Dec. 14. It was a long commercial, but some justice was done. Halo 2 took "Best First Person Action game", and Jason Jones and Bungie Studios (the guys who did Halo 2), got "Designer of the Year". Halo 2 was an tap for "Best Graphics", "Best Soundtrack", and "Game of the Year", but lost out. Fable (Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Game Studios)took "Best Role-Playing Game".

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Xbox-bound
- Rockstar Games' controversial Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is coming to the Xbox next summer. Meh.

Take-Two Buys Microsoft XSN?
- Sort of. Take-Two Interactive, the gutsy parent company of Rockstar Games (owners of a little franchise called Grand Theft Auto) bought Indie Games, developers of the top-rated XSN Sports titles Links and Amped.

Comic book franchise updates
- This is the 2nd year running where a number of comic-book properties were announced at the tail-end of the year. Most recent are The Incredible Hulk from Vivendi Universal which looks to bring a Peter David-esque brutality and playability to the franchise ("everything is destructable, everything can be used as a weapon."). It's being developed by Radical Games, the stars behind Simpsons: Hit & Run.
- Secondly, it looks like Starbreeze Studio secret next generation game is going to be based on multi-million seller The Darkness (Top Cow).
- I've been remiss in talking about Constantine, because I'm conflicted on the Neil Gaiman spin-off; even more so with the upcoming Keanu Reeves film version. Anyway, THQ is bringing it to North America mid-2005.

New Releases
- Week of 12/12/2004
  - GunGriffon: Allied Strike
  - Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics
  - Chicago Enforcer
- Week of 12/19/2004
  - NFL Street 2
  - MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.