If you are familiar with the site and its members, you should know how much of a GTA fan I am. So it should come as no surprise that I am, at this very moment, as gitty as a prepubescents 7th grader inside of a high school girls locker room. Gametrailers.com has managed to snag an exclusive video depicting the making of the final GTA IV box art! It manages to stick to the tried and true formula used in the past, but also stands out as the best looking cover in the series.

The sweetest surprise comes at the end of the video. Let us all patiently await 3:00 PM EST on the date of 12.06.07, for that is the day a new trailer entitled “Move Up, Ladies” is released to the masses. Ah screw it…WE RIOT!

Check out the new changes at the official GTA IV site. Thanks to Most Spartan 14 for the delightful news.

Discuss
-Mike

 To calm the concerns of some gamers out there, Microsoft has released another backwards compatibility update on Live, proving that they have not forgotten their promise. Some fan favorites such as Armed and Dangerous, ESPN NFL 2k5, and Freedom Fighters have been added to the BC list, which now includes more than 300 titles.

Expect more updates and supported titles in the future as Microsoft hopes to provide BC support for almost every original Xbox game. So far so good Microsoft, now all I need is Advent Rising to be supported and my wish list will be complete. Find anything on the list that you have been waiting for or are you stuck waiting for yet another BC update? Let us know in our forums!

Click below to view the BC update list…….

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So the Xbox 360 Fall Update is going to be coming in on December 4th, which is clearly not Fall.  Unless someone wants to throw that “Well technically the Winter begins on the date of the Equinox on December the 33rd and a half” or whatever garbage, but in my mind, and the minds of others, December = Winter.  Not Fall.

Nonetheless, any update is better than no update if there are some cool features, and there are.  I guess.  The most prominent, it seems, is the ability to see the friends of your friends.  I don’t really know what purpose this serves, as often I’ve actually hated the friends of my friends.  You can, of course, set who can see your list of friends, from everyone to no one at all.  If you are between 13 and 18, you can only set it to “Friends Only”.  If you are younger than 13, than everyone is blocked off.

Of course, it would make more sense to me if you set who can see yourself, not your friends list.  But maybe I’m just too used to things like Facebook.

The better news is the ability to download original Xbox titles….if you shelled out the cash for an Elite 360 or a 100gig hard drive.  I mean, after I clear out some old trailers and demos, I might have enough space for a single Xbox game, at best.  Maybe the announcement of a price drop for the hard drives is in order?  Something a little more sane?

No other features have been made official, unfortunately, and despite my nitpicking, these features are definitely pretty cool.  I’m thinking I’ll nab Psychonauts off of Live since I can’t seem to find it anywhere (and yes, I know it’s free off of Steam, but so sue me I’d rather play on my Xbox).

- Chris “I Talk and Rant Too Much” Cesarano (Grohdinger)

For those few poor souls who have yet to experience the greatness known as Half Life, Valve has been so kind to provide a demo to help you realize what you are missing.

This is only a demo of Episode 2, clocks in at 724MB, and is available in all regions but Germany, India or Japan.

Be sure to thank Tiberian for the info in our forums!

-Mike Skiles

You heard it right, the Halo theme (MJOLNIR Mix) is now a free download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I guess this is Microsoft’s way of saying “Happy Thanksgiving” to their fans. And even if you dislike Halo, free stuff is always good stuff.

Article after the jump.

“In appreciation of Guitar Hero and Halo fans alike, Neversoft, Bungie, Activision/RedOctane and Microsoft have all joined forces to bring players the iconic Halo theme (MJOLNIR Mix) as a free playable song for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, exclusively for Xbox 360 from Microsoft. The theme will be available from Xbox Live Marketplace on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 22nd. The Halo theme was written, composed, and performed by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori; and the MJOLNIR Mix features guitars performed by the Grammy Award winning guitar hero, Steve Vai.

Thank you MostSpartan14 for bringing this to our attention.SOURCE

So a few days ago it was announced that Atlus will be supporting the Xbox 360, which in my opinion means a pretty big push in filling the system up with a variety of titles. Atlus not only has fiddled with plenty of Japanese RPG’s, including the highly successful Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre games and the awesome yet not-nearly-loved-enough Contact, but plenty of other titles of various genres. It should give gamers more than the ultra realistic to look forward to, and here are two titles already announced to help push that forward.

Spectral Force 3, a strategy RPG set in a fantasy realm of ten kingdoms each trying to unify the country…under their own banner. You, the lead character, are a member of a team of mercenaries hired by one of the kingdoms and soon find yourself in command. The game is set to feature over 50 hours of gameplay with 150+ missions, over 40 characters to recruit and the ability to craft items of your own.
Operation Darkness takes place in the constantly overused WWII era, but hey, now there’s a fantasy element! Not to mention it’s Japanese, so its bound to be all kinds of crazy different from all of the realistic WWII shooters. In this turn-based RPG you lead a team of elite troops seeking to take down Hitler. The strategic system will require you to make the best of your character’s abilities, as well as the environment.

Both games are slated to come out in 2008.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

A second demo for Blacksite: Area 51 has crashed into the Xbox Live Marketplace in every region but India. The demo and game are rated Teen and clocks in at 988 megs, almost a gig.

Be sure to check the forums for any impressions, or to post your own.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Team Rainbow in 2008, Ubisoft Montreal has announced that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is in the works for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.  The game will contain new features, new tactical possibilities in the single player campaign and will be breaking new ground in online and co-op features.

At least, that’s what the press release says.  There are no other details available beyond that, though.  Guess we’ll just take their word for it.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

Nintendo has announced today that they are going to be releasing two new limited edition DS systems for the holidays for all those who haven’t bought one yet, or all of those that insist on buying the system over and over again.

The first one is going to be gold and comes with Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, while the other will be “Metallic Rose” and come with Nintendogs: Best Friends.  I guess “Metallic Rose” is a shiny red or pink?

The two limited editions will go on sale Friday, November 23rd…which is the day after Thanksgiving….and is also called Black Friday…because the sales have made it so insane and evil.  So, Nintendo just forced anyone interested to go out on the worst day to shop of the year.  That’s right, Black Friday is worse than Christmas Eve.  If you dare wait for after the weekend, I guarantee they’ll all have been sold out by noon Friday.  So good luck.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

On Tuesday, December 11th, a new map pack for Halo 3 will be released for 800 Microsoft Monies. They even named it the “Heroic Map Pack” for whatever reason. It contains the maps “Rat’s Nest”, “Foundry” and “Standoff”.

Do the map names really matter until you actually play them, though?

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)