Activision has unveiled the new Tony Hawk game, along with an intriguing looking ‘digital skateboard’ peripheral, following numerous rumours over recent weeks that such a peripheral was in the works. It’s a risky move, for sure. For skaters and fans of skate games out there this means one of two things – Tony Hawk Ride will either be the best skateboard videogame ever made (thus consigning EA’s next Skate game to the bargain bucket) or it will be an unresponsive gimmick. And thus flop. High skate stakes The stakes (skates!) are high, as this has been one of Activision’s most profitable franchises in recent years and a flop for Ride could kill the reputation of the Hawk brand amongst fickle gamers, who remember little other than the last outing in the series. “This is either the smartest, or stupidest, thing Activision have ever done,” agrees US gaming blog, Kotaku. The announcement was made on the latest episode of GameTrailers TV in the US. The game will ship on 360, PS3 and Wii. Expect more details and the first hands on previews from E3 early next month. Just be careful how hard you Ollie on that thing! Related Stories New Carol Vorderman keep fit game on DS Sony halves its number of suppliers Exclusive pics of the Queen’s “Royal Wii” Turn your iPhone into an iGameboy Game of ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ announced

Read the rest of this entry

When EA announced the closing of their Chicago Studio, it raised many questions about the popular Fight Night Franchise. Would there be a Fight Night 4 and if so, what changes would be made? The list of questions could go on but fans wanted answers. Of course by now I have learned the more you ask, the more there is left unanswered. Let’s face it, there were rumors, but when they dried up it seemed forever until some glimmer of hope arrived. Then in typical EA fashion during last year’s Spike VGA awards, Peter Moore took to the podium with that youthful smile and he not only announced that Fight night 4 is coming out but he also showed the first trailer. The new game has a slightly new angle. What if you could fight against the greatest fighters of all time and who would win? Of course the big tease was announcing that “Iron” Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali would be the first two boxers officially to be in the game. Read the rest of this entry

Last week I headed out to LA to Pandemic Studios for the Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Community Event. Xboxsolution got invited along with several other community sites. I was a huge fan of Mercenaries when it first showed up on the original Xbox console. I was hoping the sequel would keep the great gameplay that worked in the first one but also add Co-Op play and a larger game with more action and missions. In case you never played the first game, it was the type of game where you could complete a mission several ways. The game became a sleeper hit and a title that had a cult following. So expectations were high. What you are about to read is what I experienced. I specifically waited to write this review until it was cleared that all the information on the game could be communicated. I did not want to write half of what I learned about the game and leave you in the dark about certain things. I wanted to be able to talk about everything. After having time with the game, it left a great impression on me and the group so let me get into the game and what to expect. Read the rest of this entry

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the latest installment in the Call of Duty series, and its the third one to hit the Xbox 360. The first one, Call of Duty 2, was a launch game that received much critical acclaim. The next one was Call of Duty 3 which was released last year and was developed by another developer than the previous Call of Duty installments. It fared OK with review scores. Now we come to Call of Duty 4, developed by the same people that brought us Call of Duty 2. They have moved away from the World War 2 scene and they are now moving into modern warfare with a story involving Russian and Middle Eastern terrorists.

Read the rest of this entry

Guitar Hero 3 is the next installment in the incredibly successful Guitar Hero franchise. With the recent success of Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock was just a matter of time. This year the new online play an amazing list of new songs, wireless guitar and versus battle modes, Guitar Hero III promises to be the best game in the franchise.

Read the rest of this entry

There is no secret I enjoy playing sports games and I have mentioned my favorites plenty of times. At times some may listen or read my top-ten list of favorites and be surprised to see a golf game listed. I think many gamers even those who enjoy playing sports games have it in their minds golf is either to easy or just boring and have passed on some great tiles. Back in the early days of the PC gaming world golf was one of the games I played the most for me it was a way to relax and have some fun. I recently got invited to the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 community event. While I was looking forward to going I had some hard questions and things that I needed proven to me. So early Last Monday morning I headed off to Florida for the event while on the plane I listed a few things that kept running through my head about this series.

Read the rest of this entry

In May XBS was invited to the Medal Of Honor Airborne Summit at EA’s LAX Studio’s. I walked away from the single-player summit impressed and already knew that there were plans for a multi-player summit. A few weeks ago I received an invitation for the multi-player summit. The big surprise was not the fact of the summit but where it was going to be held. The event was going to be held at Fort Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne. We also learned that we would be on the base for the entire summit and even have a chance to go through Jump School training if we wanted to. I was not only going to an event I was going to be a part of history since no one has ever hosted an event outside their studio before. Read on to find out why I walked away even more impressed with the game and can start off by saying it will be a hit when it ships!

Read the rest of this entry

Skateboarding is nothing new for videogames. Many of us here at XBS have enjoyed playing THPS series for years even online through GameSpy before Xbox Live support. The sad thing is that when one company has the market cornered, there is no reason to really raise the bar. The first three games of Tony Hawk were a blast to play and they kept my attention. While I thought Project was a step in a new direction, it still had the basic controls for the most part. I started to read about Skate and it grabbed my attention. The trailers alone were great but the question was could EA really bring something new and fresh for those who enjoy skateboarding games? Well, XBS was invited to attend the Skate Community event at EAX Studio in Vancouver. What you are about to read is a recap of the event and my impressions of the game — you maybe surprised at what I think!

Read the rest of this entry

By now everyone knows how I love FPS games and especially war-themed ones. Throw in the fact Jason loves them as well and we both have logged in more hours than I care to admit. When the Xbox 360 launched, I remember making a statement that this will finally give game developers a chance to really challenge gamers with new AI systems and better overall gameplay. While the graphics have been enhanced, I have to be honest and say the games are not as challenging as I wanted them to be. A lot of our readers may think we just play through a game and then review it and move on to the next one. Well, at times we do need to limit the time we spend on each title, but after hours you can find us on Xbox Live playing our favorites. Chances are it’s an FPS we are playing.

Read the rest of this entry

Last week XBS was invited to Vancouver BC to attend the FIFA Community Event at EAC. In case you’re not used to the lingo, EAC is simply Electronic Arts Canada and it’s the largest studio EA has. Heading off I saw they had a full schedule for us at the event. I arrived at the Sutton Place Hotel, a 5 Star Hotel that is way out of my league. I soon met up with a few others including Daylon, from http://www.unscripted360.com/, and Kyle, from http://www.gamefreaks365.com/. I also met DJ from http://www.gamingtruth.com/. We got there a bit early on Thursday and had a few hours to kill so soon we were playing Mario Kart to pass the time. Later that night we had a great dinner at Earl’s where the main action was the Mets game. We hung around talked and got to meet Rob and Clive from EA as well as a few of the other team members of the game. It was a nice group and we all got along great joking, laughing and talking about our personal favorite games. We also talked about the worst game ever made for a console, which I have to admit was not as easy but still fun. Since the flight was very long, the first night was over pretty early and we headed back to the hotel since we had a full day ahead of us.

Read the rest of this entry