Closing out last night’s Activision ‘not, E3′ press conference, Neversoft performed and confirmed Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” in Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The track, with its blindingly fast drums intro and blazing guitar solo, looked mesmerizingly difficult. Also confirmed (via in-game menus and music) were Smashing Pumpkin’s “Today,” The Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn,” and Paramore’s “Misery Business.”

Talking of Paramore, lead singer Hayley Williams was on hand to prove that she’s both short and young, in addition to announcing that she’d be included as a “playable” avatar in the game. She joined drummer Travis Barker, who will also appear in the game, along with other unannounced celebrities and musicians.

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The surprise E3 Xbox LIVE Arcade game turned out to be none other than Double D Dodgeball (800 Microsoft Points). I’m sorry to disappoint, but if you think this is anything like Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, you’re sadly mistaken. Simply put, it’s a retro-style 8-person dodgeball title with Space Giraffe-esque visuals.

The second XBLA release for this week is Coffeetime Crosswords (800 Microsoft Points). It has got more than 150 puzzles of varying skill level, as well as co-op for 2 players. Yes, that’s really all there’s to say about it.

Next, there’s EA Sports Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker (400 Microsoft Points), which is available to the U.S. and Canada only. By creating your league here, you can then import your settings into the Live Draft Tracker, which will keep track of your stats throughout the season on Xbox LIVE.

Finally, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords has been reduced in price to 800 points, and a free pack for Buku Sudoku containing 1,200 puzzles has hit the Marketplace.

There are so many new entries to XBLA this week, yet I won’t be buying anything. How about you?

Via Destructoid

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Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft’s Xbox business, spoke with MTV Multiplayer yesterday and has revealed that a new Halo game is in the works by Bungie. This a totally new Halo game and has nothing to do with Halo Wars or Peter Jackson’s mysterious Halo project.

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If you are at all interested in the new Prince of Persia, you really need to hit the jump immediately and watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the developer’s walkthrough that was shown off at yesterday’s Ubisoft press conference. I was absolutely blown away by what I saw.

In the level shown, the developer talked about wanting to show off three specific things: the acrobatics, the use of your partner Elika, and the fighting mechanic. The acrobatics are very similar to the old Sands of Time trilogy, but this time they look a lot tougher. Since the game is totally non-linear, finding ledges to grab onto and walls to run across is pretty tough. The fighting looked similar as well, but is deepened by some breathtaking combo moves that you and your partner can do. (In a cool statement, the developer mentioned he wanted each battle in the game to feel like a well-designed boss fight.) What left me impressed the most, though, was the creative uses of your partner, Elika.

In the game, the Prince cannot die. I know that sounds lame, but here me out for a second. Instead of dying, every time you fall of a ledge or miss a jump, Elika grabs your hand and pulls you

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Closing out last night’s Activision ‘not, E3′ press conference, Neversoft performed and confirmed Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” in Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The track, with its blindingly fast drums intro and blazing guitar solo, looked mesmerizingly difficult. Also confirmed (via in-game menus and music) were Smashing Pumpkin’s “Today,” The Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn,” and Paramore’s “Misery Business.”

Talking of Paramore, lead singer Hayley Williams was on hand to prove that she’s both short and young, in addition to announcing that she’d be included as a “playable” avatar in the game. She joined drummer Travis Barker, who will also appear in the game, along with other unannounced celebrities and musicians.

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From the makers of Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, and Metal Gear Solid IV comes the transcending rhythm experience of Rock Revolution. For the first time ever in a music-based game, players will have access to over two instruments to choose from. Drums, guitar, and possibly even a microphone will be offered when the game hits store shelves next year.

Konami said to CVG that Rock Revolution will be “the most advanced music title for any format,” and have “the most authentic drum kit imaginable.” If authentic drums weren’t enough, over forty songs will be available. There is also a new “freeform” mode that allows the industrious to create their own songs and then play them. The Wii version will allow users to utilize their Wii Remote and Nunchuck like they were playing some imaginary game like Wii Music or something. Also, scissor kick bonuses utilizing the motion sensing devices of the Wii have been confirmed.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re not ready for the Rock Revolution. In all seriousness, Revolution does have a few things going for it. The drum kit may not be as cool as the crazy Rock Band 2 optional kit, but it certainly looks a bit more challenging than what Rock Band offers by default. Plus, there’s definitely a possibility to get more Eurocentric music, and I love the Spice Girls.

Via Destructoid

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I’ll come right out and say it: when the new Xbox 360 dashboard was unveiled during Microsoft’s press conference yesterday, I wasn’t really feeling the drastic change in design.

Yes, it’s much prettier, more user-friendly, and contains some sweet new community features and Netflix integration, but it’s so radically different from the current dashboard which I’ve grown to love over the years.

That (and the silly avatars) was my biggest concern about the upcoming update, until I saw the walkthrough video above.

Anyone who currently owns an Xbox 360 should be happy to know that the brand new Xbox guide looks almost exactly like today’s dash, so you shouldn’t have any navigation problems come this fall.

Via Destructoid

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Microsoft has been slowly working on promoting their XNA Creator’s Studio and Community Games distribution system for some time now. Yesterday, that labor showed a tiny bit of fruit, as the Massive M showed off footage of some of the new independent games at yesterday’s press conference. Now, they’ve provided some details and screens of the first five titles to hit the service:

• Clean Up: An environmentally friendly, third-person action/puzzle game where you maintain your own little biosphere by eliminating pollutants and transforming them into energy.
• Word Soup: Described as a “tactical word hunt”, players must connect tiled letters to form words and try to clear their screen of tiles in this puzzle game with single and multiplayer modes.
• Hot Potato On the web: Another dodgeball game for a service that’ll already have two, this one has an explosive potato with a very short fuse.
• Colosseum: A 3D fighter with cel-shaded graphics. Very tiny information is available on it at this time.
• Megachile Pluto: This oddly-named title has you racing through solar systems and combining found resources to provide dying planets with the elements necessary to save them.

Of the list, Word Soup obviously piques the interest of my verbose nature but I’m really curious to know more about Megachile Pluto. It looks to be somewhat complex, with an item collection/combination component and gravity effects when navigating the levels. My only question is, what happened to The Dishwasher?

Via Destructoid

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I’ll come right out and state it: when the new Xbox 360 dashboard was unveiled during Microsoft’s press conference yesterday, I wasn’t really feeling the drastic change in design.

Yes, it’s much prettier, more user-friendly, and contains some sweet new community features and Netflix integration, but it’s so radically different from the current dashboard which I’ve grown to love over the years.

That (and the silly avatars) was my biggest concern about the upcoming update, until I saw the walkthrough video above.

Anyone who currently owns an Xbox 360 should be happy to know that the brand new Xbox guide looks nearly exactly like today’s dash, so you shouldn’t have any navigation problems come this fall.

Via Destructoid

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After nothing but just screenshots, we finally have the first video footage of Tomb Raider: Underworld. The video starts off with Lara swimming underwater fighting against some sharks. She then makes her way to an ancient doorway/puzzle that she needs to figure out to continue on with the level. Lara eventually makes her way to a cave where she starts climbing her way up all while avoiding a giant squid.

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