XBOX360

Here's the thing: we refuse to watch this video. Sorry, guys, but Halo: Reach is a little less than a week away and we want to go into it fresh. Still, not everyone has the same desire to remain pure, so for those of you chomping at the bit for more Reach stuff, head on past the break for a video walkthrough of "Tip of the Spear." If you need us, we'll have our fingers firmly planted in our ears, shouting "la-la-la-la-la-la-we-can't-hear-you!" ...

Microsoft has chosen the small hours of the night to announce pricing of its second Kinect bundle, which is set for launch along with the standalone and 4GB options on November 4 in the USA and November 10 across Europe. The new package throws in the 250GB slim version of the Xbox 360 to accompany the newfangled motion tracker, a spare conventional controller, and a copy of the utterly unmissable Kinect Adventures! (it has its own punctuation, it must be good). ...

Just when you thought you couldn't train your brain any more, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima – the Tokyo University-based professor who turned "brain training" into a video game hit with Nintendo's Brain Age series – is bringing his particular brand of supposed self-improvement to Microsoft's Kinect this November. Instead of using the DS stylus, Karada de Kotareu Atarashii Nou-tore (or "Respond With Your Body: New Brain Training," as translated by Andriasang) tasks one to four players with moving their body to solve problems. For example: Align your arms ...

Next week's release of Halo: Reach carries with it some dire consequences for one New York City Best Buy-owned location -- the Times Square Best Buy theater will be taken over by thousands of rabid Halo fans, patiently waiting for their copy of Reach at 12:01am Tuesday on the dot. Additionally, the theater will feature a "surprise musical performance" and a chance to meet the creators of Reach. Seattle will also be holding a major launch event. The Experience Music Project / Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame will host folks from both Bungie ...

PopCap's puzzle tour-de-force Plants vs. Zombies will be released tomorrow on Xbox Live Arcade. There's no mention of a price just yet, but we do know the Xbox 360 version of the game gains multiplayer. Either you and a friend can fight off zombies co-operatively, or one of you can play as the fauna and one as the undead. Plants vs. Zombies is PopCap's best game to date. And considering the rest of the portfolio, which includes Peggle and Bejeweled, that comment can't be understated. ...

Microsoft put out montage trailers of both Joyride and Kinect Sports this morning, showing one woman soundly beating both a small boy and young girl. She really takes them to school. The Kinect Sports video sees a family competing in a variety of events before taking on another family online in a soccer game. Mom wins the day with a childhood-crushing penalty a certain young man will most likely carry to his deathbed. It’s rousing stuff. The Joy Ride trailer consists of a bunch of gameplay modes, including stunts, split-screen, racing and more ...

A new, bug-free version of Crackdown 2's "Toy Box" DLC pack was released yesterday morning on Xbox Live Marketplace, according to Ruffian Games. Unfortunately, rather than a patch, the DLC has been re-issued, meaning that folks who downloaded the content will need to delete it and redownload. The new version fixes issues ranging from "crash on loading" to issues with the narrator's voice and Achievement problems, which we reported on earlier this week. Ruffian says that the glitches were "caused by problems mastering the DLC package," thus the reissue ...

Ubisoft’s released a new trailer for its Kinect launch title, Motion Sports, showing some gameplay from the six event types included on the disc. The video, which you can see below, shows American football, horse riding, boxing, hang gliding, skiing and soccer. As you would expect, the game is completely controller-free, so you’ll play through each of the game types and the included 40 challenges by jumping, waving and rolling. Or whatever. Motion Sports is set to launch alongside Kinect this November. ...

As beta testing programs go, Microsoft's Kinect venture has been kind of... leaky. No surprises, therefore, that we've now received our first in-the-plastic pictures of the motion-tracking camera peripheral, replete with a few select shots of its packaging. Redmond's promise that hardware was en route to testers was clearly not a hollow one, and we can now probably expect a bunch more unauthorized disclosures about the user experience with what should be final retail units. ...