Microsoft has ended months of speculation and rumour by announcing a revamped and slimmer Xbox 360 console today at E3. The redesigned console ditches the boring beige colour of the original Xbox in favour of a nightmare to photograph, ultra shiny black finish. The console also looks much more menacing and angular, but in a good way as you can see.

As it's an updated console and not actually a new architecture there isn't a whole lot to talk about, but the new console does sport built in wireless connectivity of the 'n' variety no less. Built in wireless is something that Xbox 360 users have been craving for since the launch of the original and something the PS3 fanbois have been poking fun at for far to long now, well not any more. As well as this the new slim version features the following:

• Touch sensitive buttons
• 250GB hard drive which is also swappable
• Kinect port, this port will provide power and data transmission to and from Kinect (formally natal). Original Xbox 360 consoles will need to use one USB port for each operation.
• Quieter running, reportedly whisper quiet (uses one larger fan as opposed to two on the original boxes).
• Five USB ports, two of which are on the front
• Integrated CPU/GPU based on a 45nm manufacturing process.

Although it is much smaller the console still makes use of an external, albeit smaller more efficient 'power brick', which may disappoint some. What will also disappoint is the lack of a Blu-Ray drive. For months rumours have been circulating that Microsoft would build Blu-Ray support into their console, but hope of that happening any time soon has all but vanished.

What won't disappoint is the fact that gamers in the US can get their hands on the new Xbox 360 (that's it's official name) as early as this week for $299. Gamers in the UK/EU can get their hands on one from July 16th.

Epic has confirmed that the much loved and massively successful series of games, Gears of War will reach it's climatic end on April 5th 2011 in the US (and Asia) when it's third and final instalment comes to the Xbox 360. The first two blockbuster games have sold more than 12 million copies and continue to draw people to the Xbox 360 platform. Microsoft and Epic are looking to whip up a frenzy before the game's release next year by announcing it early. Epic say the third game will tie up all the loose ends from the first two games and bring the story to a close one way or the other.

Gamers in Japan will receive the game on April 7th while those in Europe can get their hands on it the following day on the 8th. The really awesome news about Gears of War 3 is that it will feature 4 player co-op throughout the campaign, allowing players to play as Baird or Cole. Now that's just spiffy.

There will also be several enhancements to online multiplayer including better region filtering which will limit laggy gaming. GOW3 will also see the return of some of the original multiplayer maps that gamers enjoyed previously.

Epic's design director Cliff Bleszinski said, "When we released 'Gears of War' more than three years ago, we set out to tell the world an unforgettable story of bravery and sacrifice in the face of insurmountable odds, and a year from now, players will get the chance to experience the final chapter in the story of Marcus Fenix and his companions in Delta Squad. This is definitely the biggest and most dramatic chapter yet in the 'Gears of War' saga, and we can't wait to deliver it."

The third instalment will see Marcus and his Delta squad team fight to save what's left of humanity after the last of the human cities has been destroyed by the Locust armies and the Lambent. Of course to do this one needs the right equipment which is why you'll find some new weapons in Gears of War 3.

Gamers will get the satisfaction of pummelling the Locus with rounds from a double-barrel shotgun. The new shotgun is more powerful than the original but on the flip side takes longer to reload. In addition to this there will also be the Pendulum Lancer, which in the Gears universe is the model before the Chainsaw Lancer which is the gun of choice in the original two games. Don't worry about the lack of chainsaw however, as the gun features a large blade instead.

Click to enlarge

The game will also see the return of Anya from the original games, fighting along side Marcus as part of Delta Squad. It's not clear if she'll be a playable character, however it will be the first time that a female character has been seen fighting in Gears of War.

As part of the  announcement, Microsoft and Epic have put together a little teaser trailer to whet our appetites for the game. The game looks awesome, can't wait, end of story...just watch the video :).

Let us know your child like excitement for Gears 3 by leaving a comment below. I know I can't wait for sure.

According to Major Nelson and Joystiq, Microsoft are preparing an update for the Xbox 360 that will see the system gain "USB Mass Storage Device Support". Currently Xbox 360 gamers can only save content to official Xbox 360 Memory Units and hard drives. Both of which are prohibitively expensive considering their capacities.

On April 6th it seems that Microsoft will relinquish control of what type of storage device can be used on their system and will in effect bring an end to official Xbox 360 Memory Units. The largest capacity at the moment for these devices is just 512MB, which in this day and age is no good to man or beast, particularly gamers.

After the update is applied gamers can plug their flash storage device into the system and will have to configure the device either manually or via an automatic means. It is not just a simple process as whacking the device in and saving straight to it, this is Microsoft after all.

The catch however is that only two USB Storage devices can be used at a time and further to this only 16GB can be used on each device even though both devices may total more than 16GB each. In effect you can add up to 32GBs of extra storage space to your beloved 360.

The configuration process will basically perform a check of the device to make sure it is compatible and in good working order. It will also set a system partition on the device which will occupy 512MB of memory. The remainder of the device (or up to 16GB of it, whichever comes first) can be used by the gamer to store virtually anything that can currently be saved to the 360's hard drive. This includes game profiles, demos, themes, video and saved game files.

This also means that one could install their games to multiple USB sticks and run the game off those devices when they require them. This is instead of from the game disk its self. The disk will still need to be inserted into the tray to authenticate the installation on the flash device. This is the current operation when installing a game to an Xbox 360 hard drive.

Although the system will only allow you to use up to 32GB at anyone time, the addition of 3rd party storage devices on the 360 is a welcome move by Microsoft if it turns out to be true.  After all, the PS3 and Wii have allowed 3rd party storage devices to be used on their consoles from day one. Microsoft should have been on board with this from day one as well instead of locking the system down the way they have. Now Microsoft need to open the system up to enable gamers to install their own hard drives...one can dream!

Source: Major Nelson and Joystiq

Alan Wake, the game teetering on the fringes of being regarded as vaporware and announced as the first PC game to run exclusively on DirectX 10 five years ago has rather ironically been scrapped for the PC. Microsoft has officially confirmed that the PC version of the game will no longer bear fruit as the platform is "too intimate" for the game. This is yet another blow for PC gamers who will surely see red yet again.

According to StrategyInformer.com a Microsoft spokesman said, "Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realised that the most compelling way to experience "Alan Wake" was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive. Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform."

Remedy, the game's developer, is said to have changed the games focus and will only release the game on the Xbox 360. Speaking at Microsoft's X10 event, Remedy Entertainment and Microsoft finally after years of development stated that Alan Wake would be released on the Xbox 360 on May 18th 2010 in the US and May 21st for the rest of the world.

Pre-orders for the game will receive the 'Bright Falls Bonus Pack', which includes an Xbox Live theme, making of video and an avatar. However not all retailers will be offering this deal.

As is popular these days, a 'limited edition' collectors version is planned for release also. It will include bonus materials such as behind the scenes footage of the game's development, soundtrack, in-game commentaries and a book about the game. To keep gamers' interested the game is also expected to have episodic expansions in the future.

Sources: Bit-tech.net (one, two), StrategyInformer.com, ShackNews.com

Razer a company respected by many hardcore PC gamers for offering high-end precision gaming hardware and accessories has announced that it has reached a deal with Microsoft that will see the company develop two new products for the Xbox 360 platform.

The Razer Onza is a wired "Professional Gaming Controller" and will according to Razer offer a set of special features not present on other controllers which will help enhance the gamers experience. Firstly the controller will feature Razer Hyperesponse buttons that will allow for a "faster actuation and a crisp, tactile feel". Another interesting feature of the controller is the ability to vary the tension required to move the analogue sticks, so you can customise how much force you need to exert on the sticks to your comfort level for the game you are playing. You will have noticed that I mentioned it is a wired controller. Razer say that the controller will feature a 15 foot braided cable with a gold USB connection which will guarantee tournament grade lag free gameplay without the embarrassment of failing batteries at a crucial moment.

The pad also has two multi function buttons located under both the left and right bumper buttons, that will allow certain actions to be mapped to them such as the analogue stick buttons. This could make it easier to use the sticks while using their button actions as with the current pad this combined action can be quite tricky if you require precise control of the stick as you press it's button.

You will notice from the images that the pad will also feature a true D-Pad with individually distinct buttons. It must be said that the D-Pad on the official controller is woefully awkward and clumsy so hopefully Razer have addressed this issue. The green edging you see is also part of the design and Razer say the controller will have a sharply lit edge.

The Razer Onza will go on sale for approximately $49.99, €44.99 which is about the same price as the official controller - Good deal. No word on UK release dates or pricing.

The other product to be released is the Razer Chimaera Professional Gaming Headset, another exclusive Xbox 360 accessory. The headset is designed to provide superior quality and clarity of sound to the gamer over other headsets by incorporating 5.1 Virtual Surround sound. The headset will also feature a Daisy-Chain solution that will allow multiple Razer base tations to be connected to creat a direct and private communication channel for in-game team conversations. Razer say that the design of the headset allows for optimum noise reduction and comfortable waring for hours of fragging fun.

The Razer Chimaera headset will be priced at around $129.99, or €109.99. As with the controller no pricing or release dates have been announced for the UK.

All images copyright of Razer USA Ltd

Microsoft and Sky have today officially launched Sky Player on the Xbox 360 in the UK and Ireland. The service as previously mentioned will allow Xbox 360 users to stream live and on-demand TV content for a monthly subscription to Sky.

Available Content

This kind of TV service is a first for console systems as Microsoft proudly point out and will include full access to all the content currently available on Sky Player. The Sky Player channel line up was previously leaked for the service earlier this month but no word is better than the official word, so here are the channels that are launching today according to the press release:

• G.O.L.D.
• Boomerang
• British Eurosport
• Cartoon Network
• Disney Channel
• Eden
• ESPN - Additional Cost
• ESPN Classic
• History
• MTV ONE
• Nat Geo Wild
• National Geographic
• Nick Jr
• Nickelodeon
• Sky Arts 1
• Sky Movies - Additional cost
• Sky News
• Sky One (on demand)
• Sky Real Lives
• Sky Sports - Additional cost
• Sky Sports News

The service will also allow users to watch TV when they want by providing access to thousands of hours of on-demand programming, what's more the service provides over 400 movies to watch at the users convenience. On-demand content covers a range of genres include sports, entertainment, drama, music, documentaries, kids and comedy.

As well as being able to watch TV over the net on your Xbox, the platform it will be presented on opens up a whole new world of interactivity for TV broadcasting. As such viewers will be able to use their Xbox 360 avatars in the 'Avatar Party Mode' and watch TV alongside their Xbox 360 friends' avatars. This presents the opportunity for friends to interact and chat with each other while watching the same channel.

Pricing and Availability

Current Direct to Home Sky Subscribers

To be able to take advantage of the service you will have to be an Xbox LIVE Gold subscriber, have a subscription to Sky's TV service and be a Sky Multiroom or Broadband Ultimate subscriber. If you already have all this then you can fire-up Sky Player right away and access the service at no extra cost. Access to channels and on-demand content depends on your Sky subscription; if you don't subscribe to Sky Movies through your Sky DigiBox, then you can't watch Sky Movies through Sky Player on your Xbox 360.

If you only have an Xbox Live Gold and Sky TV subscription, but don't have a Sky Multiroom or a Broadband Ultimate subscription, but want to access Sky Player through the Xbox 360, then you will need to subscribe to Sky Multiroom at a cost of £9.75 per month. If you subscribe to the service through xbox.co.uk/skyplayer then you can use coupon code XBOX1MONTHFREE to get Sky Multiroom free for one month.

Dedicated Xbox 360 Sky subscribers

If you haven't currently got a subscription to Sky TV through a Sky Digibox (you might have Virgin TV or freeview), then you can access the service on Xbox 360 for £15 per month, using promo code XBOX3FOR2 you can get three months for the price of two.

This subscription includes Sky Player's Base Entertainment Pack. If you want to add Sky Movies and Sky Sports, to your subscription you can add them at any time for an additional monthly cost.

Yesterday it was announced that Sky Player for the Xbox 360 would be made available on October 27th and that channel line up and pricing information would be available at launch. Today however it would seem that an official  XML data feed for the service is revealing to anyone who can read it, what the launch channels will be.

The feed which provides data to the Xbox 360 Sky Player application through an XML format was found by a forum member on neowin.net. Given that the URL is http://xbox.sky.com it's probably a safe bet that the channels listed in the XML feed are the ones that will be available at launch. The indications are, that amongst others the following channels will be available:

• G.O.L.D
• Sky Movies 1 and 2
• Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and Xtra
• Sky Sports News,
• ESPN,
• Sky News,
• National Geographic
• History channel
• Cartoon Network
• Sky 1

These are most of the major channels that are listed on the feed. You can view the other Sky Player channels here. If you look carefully at the title element of the XML data you will see that some channels are Live and others are On-Demand channels. According to the data Sky1 is going to be an on-demand channel, at least for now.

Pricing

If you are a current Sky customer then it would seem that you will be able to watch Sky Player content on your Xbox 360 for free, but this depends on your package. If you subscribe to Sky Movies you will be able to watch those channels for free. If you only subscribe to the basic package sans Sky Movies then you will have to pay to watch those channels.

If you are a new Sky customer that wants to watch TV through the Xbox 360 Sky Player than you can subscribe to the service from £15 per month according to neowin. This will give you over 20 channels including, National Geographic, ESPN classic and G.O.L.D. You will also have the option of upgrading the package to include Sky's premium Movie and or  Sports channels.

Sky Multiroom and broadband account holders can watch all the live channels there subscribed to on their Xbox 360's at no additional charge. All other Sky TV customers can watch Live TV on Sky Player for Xbox 360 for £9.75 per month.

Source: Neowin.net

Earlier in the year, Sky and Xbox 360 announced a partnership that would see Sky offering their Sky Player service on the Xbox 360. Sky Player will allow Xbox 360 users who subscribe to the service to watch a large number of live channels found on Sky's traditional digital TV service, including movies, sport, documentaries, entertainment and on-demand programming.

Since the service will be delivered over the Internet, that's all you'll require as far as hardware goes is a decent broadband connection. The ubiquitous (at least in the UK) Sky Dish will not be needed, but in it's place you will need to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber.

This service marks an exiting development in the history of TV broadcasting as the live TV stream will be sent over the Internet. One of the benefits of this is that it will allow you to chat to your Xbox 360 buddies who are watching the same program as you, and adds an extra dimension of interactivity while watching your favourite soaps, movies or football teams.

Up until this point however no release date for the service was announced. Now though Xbox 360 have confirmed that the service will be launching in the UK on October 27th 2009 and will be available to first time Sky subscribers and existing customers.  Xbox 360 have not confirmed the full channel line up or pricing, but state this information will be made available at launch on the 27th. Stay tuned as we will provide details of pricing and channel line ups as we learn of them.

A couple of weeks ago Microsoft confirmed the existence of an 802.11n WiFi adapter for the Xbox 360. At the time they did not give any details on price or when the new adapter would be coming to market, although it was assumed it would be soon.

Now though it would appear that a release date and price has been set thanks to Gamestop. According to Gamestop their product catalogue is listing the new adapter for a pre-order price of $99.99 and will be released on November 3rd.

What's interesting though is that the older 802.11b/g adapter is also $99.99, which seems a little odd when Microsoft stated that the new adapter would offer "another choice to consumers". Granted two products of a similar nature is a choice, but when they are both the same price it seems pointless to have an older piece of technology on the market as it offers no obvious reason for purchasing it. What I mean is, why would you buy the slower device when you can buy the more future proofed version and have backwards compatibility with the slower standards anyway?

It is still early days yet, so the price of the older adapter may indeed drop in price. It could be that Microsoft and the retailers don't want to radically drop the price of the current adapter because they are worried that people may not want to spend the moment on the new adapter as they a) don't have a wireless n router and b) for now 802.11g might be fast enough for most people anyway.

We have had a look around the major UK retailers sites and haven't spotted the new adapter on their sites, so at this stage we have no word on UK release dates or pricing. If you happen to see it listed somewhere then we would greatly appreciate you telling us about it.

Xbox360 Wireless N Adapter product packaging

With the Christmas holidays fast approaching us (it's just eleven weeks away), Xbox360 has thought it a good idea to announce two new bundles for the holiday season. The first is the Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Value Bundle, and comes complete with two free games; LEGO Batman: The Videogame and PURE which is a quad bike action sports game released by Disney Interactive Studios. As per usual the Elite package comes complete with a 120GB hard drive and wireless controller all clad in a matt black chassis. This bundle is available now for an ERP of $299.

The second offering from Xbox 360 is a new Wireless Controller Game Pack. This new Controller Pack features a black wireless controller, four top Xbox LIVE Arcade games of which these include, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Lumines Live!, Bomberman live and ms.Pac-Man. ms.Pac-Man is accessible through a downloadable token which we presume will be bundled in the box. You will also receive a 48-hour Xbox LIVE Gold trial. This pack is expected to be available from November for an ERP of $59.99.

According to Joystiq.com Microsoft has confirmed [to them] the existence of a wireless n adapter for the Xbox 360. This comes just days after the new standard was approved by the IEEE. Joystiq had previously reported that a product image for the new adapter was depicted next to the wireless g adapter on a leaflet provided in a GOW2 GOTY Edition box.

Source Joystiq (original source mondoxbox.com (Italian))

Given the two have been seen together and that Microsoft has stated that the 802.11n adapter is "another choice to consumers", it is probably a safe bet to assume that the original wireless adapter will for the moment be sold alongside the new 802.11n adapter.

Unfortunately no other details were confirmed to Joystiq other than according to Microsoft the new adapter will allow gamers to "seamlessly connect with their home network with the highest wireless 'N' technology". No release date was given or details on price. Given that many 360 gamers are already peeved at having to spend quite a bit of money on a wireless g adapter that should in this day and age be built into the device, then it won't do Microsoft much good if they insult these gamers further by placing excessive pricing on the new adapter. The hope now is that the original adaptor will fall in price a bit to make it a little more affordable for what it is.

In light of the recently announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bundle, Xbox.com have confirmed that the UK (and South Africa) will be able to get their hands on a 'Super Elite Bundle' of Forza Motorsport 3 when it is released on the 21st October. The bundle will consist of a 250GB hard drive (which won't be made available as a separate accessory add-on), two Wireless Controllers, Xbox 360 Headset and a standard copy of Forza 3 for an RRP of £249.99 in the UK. The console is not expected to feature any special Forza branding and will be the standard black finish Xbox 360 Elite console.

Forza Motorsport 3 Screenshot - Image copyright Microsoft Corporation

In addition to this announcement, Microsoft has also announced via the official Forza Motorsport site, that a demo of the game will be made avaialbe on Xbox live on the 24th of September, so you'll have about a month to try the game before it comes out in October. The demo will allow you to drive five cars these being:

• 2007 Porsche #80 Flying Lizard 911 GT3-RSR
• 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro
• 2009 Ferrari California
• 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR
• 2009 Mini John Cooper Works

According to the official announcement you will also be able to drive all the cars in full cockpit view, experience damage, rollover (which wasn't part of forza 2) and have access to official leaderboards when connected to Xbox live. The full game will feature over 400 customisable and tunable cars, 100 tracks coupled with breathtaking graphics and physics.  For more information about Forza Motorsport 3 visit the official site.