Microsoft and Lucas Arts have announced that Star Wars Kinect, along with the special edition Star Wars Xbox 360 will release on April 3.

The console, along with the game were delayed late last year after the game received majorly negative critical reception. Here’s hoping it’s tuned up from our time with it at last year’s E3.

When Alan Wake’s American Nightmare hits Xbox Live Arcade later this month as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Live House Party, you won’t be visiting the same old woodsy locations. Rather, the folks at Remedy have taken everyone’s favorite darkness fighting author and put him into a haunted desert location. Check out these new screen shots to see check out some of the game’s new locations, weapons and enemies.

The often rumored but not yet confirmed next generation Xbox is being said to be more than six times more powerful than the Xbox 360 and reportedly will finally play Blurays — but that’s not the big news. According to a report on Kotaku, the new console could prohibit used games from being played on it.

Citing an unnamed source, the site doesn’t say how the proposed technology could be implemented, but does theorize that the most probable solution would be to link each copy of a specific game with a unique code (similar to the current online pass system), though that can easily be bypassed by keeping the console offline.  Taking such a strong stance on used game sales would make publishers, who see no revenue from second hand sales, but may not sit well with retailers like GameStop or consumers.

Another rumor suggests that the next Xbox console will ship with a brand new version of the Kinect peripheral, complete with an onboard processor.

There’s been no confirmation when we’ll see the new Xbox, but rumors suggest some sort of unveiling to happen during this year’s E3 in June.

A new report on Inside Mobile Apps reports that Microsoft may be looking to phase out its Microsoft Point system that it has used since the inception of the Xbox Live Marketplace in favor of real world money, a move that would effect not only Xbox Live, but the Zune Marketplace, and Windows Phone users as well.

Citing memos sent to company partners, the site claims that Microsoft has reportedly been warning said partners to get ready for the change by the end of 2012. Given the recent rash of Xbox Live Point thefts and phishing scams, one has to wonder whether security is a main reason for the possible change.

Bill Gates isn’t going to send you a large chunk of cash for forwarding you an e-mail, a Nigerian Prince doesn’t want to give you his inheritance and no, you’re not going to be one of the first to play a beta version of Halo 4. Sorry, those sign ups that are being e-mailed around are fake.

David Ellis of 343 Industries, the studio behind Halo 4 took to Twitter to warn that any site or e-mail offering access to a beta for game is not to be trusted.

Microsoft has yet to announce any Beta plans for Halo 4, but that’s not to say that there won’t be one. Both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach had betas,so the safe money is on an eventual beta, just don’t give your info to anyone just yet.

Microsoft is investigating reports that workers in a factory in China that manufactures Xbox 360 consoles have threatened mass suicide in the midst of a pay dispute. Reportedly, anywhere between 80-200 workers climbed to the top of a six story building and threatened to jump unless conditions were improved.

Though details have been scarce, FoxConn, the owner of the plant has confirmed that 150 workers were part of the protest, which started when the decision was made to transfer all employees to an alternate production line. Though talks have settled, 40 of those workers have resigned.

“Microsoft takes working conditions in the factories that manufacture its products very seriously,” read an official statement from Microsoft. “We are currently investigating the issue.”

After years of being in a public beta, Minecraft for PC is finally out, so what does MineCon turn its attention to? The Xbox Live arcade version of the game set to hit…soon..ish. Take a look at the trailer for the game, outlining some of the new features.

For the better part of five years, I worked as  Disney cast member. I spent day after day learning the biggest secrets of a company that protects that to no end and as a result, I lost what Disney and its fan know as “the magic.” The extraordinary became mundane,  and in a weird way, I began to step away. Who knew it would take a virtual trip back to reignite my love.

In that sense, Kinect Disneyland Adventures does its job, and it does it very well; you’re constantly reminded of just what’s right about the Disney company and its brands, especially if you play with those familiar with the park. As a game though, it’s more of a mixed bag. It’s really fun and a cool demonstration of the tech behind Kinect to interact with the characters, but basic mechanics like moving around feel incredibly complicated, and will make you practically hate the experience. Still, I can’t help but recommend Kinect Disneyland Adventures for all of its charm, especially if you’re big on the park itself.

The idea behind Disneyland Adventures is simple, guide your avatar through the Disneyland park and go on adventures and quests as given to you by Disney characters. Now, this is a very idealized version of the famous theme park, there are no lines, the cast members all speak English, it’s not crowded, and you’re able to walk directly up to any of the characters at anytime. Curiously enough — there’s always a crowd around the characters, but no one — but you, ever goes up to them.  To the game’s credit, the Disneyland in the game is pretty accurate compared to the real deal; I was able to run around, without looking at the map, and get where I needed to go just based on my memory of the parks. Of course, some changes have been made for the sake of gameplay, but those are few and far between. The permanent popcorn carts and stands are even in the right place, impressive for a game that basically serves as a commercial.

The characters are also impressive in their recreations. For instance, we found Captain Hook outside of Peter Pan’s Flight in Fantasyland, and one of the options is to extend your arms in a hug motion to interact in that way with the characters, and while everyone from Mickey and Donald to Cinderella and Buzz Lightyear was happy to give a squeeze, Captain Hook (along with the rest of the Villains for that matter) were unsure of what to do and seemed very confused when we tried. Of course, this is a Disney game and every villain has a heart of gold deep down inside, so we eventually got our hug. There’s a fair number of interactions with each character, like dancing and signing autographs. The autographs are one of the game’s coolest feature, as you’ll gain points for collecting different autograph books (there’s one for heroes, one for villains, one for Princesses and so on) and getting the right characters to sign them. I was at first a bit annoyed that I had to do so much backtracking, but it became incredibly fun to dash around the parks with different books.

Each character you find will give you a different quest to go on in the park, whether it be giving something to another character, tracking something down or going to one of the attractions. The attractions are where the Kinect capabilities really come in. The rides and shows take the form of motion themed mini games, where you’ll interact with the attraction and its story. Much like The Disneyland park itself, these are idealized versions inspired by the attractions, so instead of actually going on the Matterhorn itself, you’ll be bobsledding down a hill and trying to evade the Yeti. A lot of these worlds are pretty cool, like the Haunted Mansion inspired world, which finds you hunting ghosts with a flashlight while the famous Ghost Host narrates your adventure. The worlds are given a more cell shaded look than the rest of the game, which lends a classic animation feel to them. The best part of all of this again is just how right they got everything, with the Ghost Host in the Haunted Mansion, Captain Hook and Smee in the Peter Pan levels and even the corny jokes in the Jungle Cruise section.

Now, it can be pretty hard to walk in a Disney park because of the crowds, but even though they are pretty much non existent in the game, it’s an incredibly frustrating experience just to walk. Kudos to the developers for trying to not just making it an on-rails game like most Kinect developers, but there’s simply got to be a better way. You move around the game by holding your hand up; holding it straight causes you to move forward while moving to the left or right has you moving in that direction and putting your hands to your side to stop. When it works, it’s great, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work a lot. The slightest movement will cause your character to shoot off into another direction — just hope you don’t get into a corner, as it’s going to be hell to get out of it.

Things get worse when you start unlocking different items to use like a magic wand or a megaphone. You gain these items by lifting your hand up and selecting them from a pop up wheel. While it may sound simple, the game has a hard time registering whether you’re trying to pick an item, or run forward and it’s incredibly frustrating. At one point I had the wand equipped, and saw the same teacup animate probably 20 times because the game wouldn’t register that I was just trying to put it back. On that same note, the voice controls are pretty superb. While they weren’t perfect, the game was incredibly responsive a good portion of the time.

The Blast Factor:  It may be a pain to get around, but Kinect Disneyland Adventures does its job of reminding you just why you love the  Disney parks. You’ll interact with your favorite characters, go on your favorite rides (sort of) and even find some secrets hidden around the park. The game is at its best when its played by families and kids get excited when they see their favorite characters. At the very least, it serves as a running commercial for the Parks.

When it was released alongside the Kinect last November, Kinect Sports was one of those no question purchases for a good majority of the peripheral’s early adopters. It was easy to jump in, fun for the whole family and a good display of what the camera system could do. It was also filled with flaws and glitches that affected the game’s visuals and gameplay. Now, one year later, Rare and Microsoft return with Kinect Sports: Season 2. Filled with more sports, and fine tuned Kinect functionality, this year’s game goes miles ahead of last year’s, but unfortunately, it’s still packed with many of those same flaws that ruined the previous game.

Kinect Sports: Season 2 introduces players to five new sports, baseball, football, tennis golf and downhill skiing; along with darts (note: not a sport – just sayin’). Of these six, skiing is the easiest to jump in to; simply stand like you’re skiing and move your body from side-to-side to move between your markers. From time to time you’ll have to jump for style points, and while it’s quite fun, it can be irresponsive at times. The game does a great job of adjusting the difficulty so you never really feel like you’ve lost until the end of the race – even if you’re doing terrible.

The game’s football mode is disappointing, but comes with some impressive tech. Players control either the quarterback or one of the receivers. The quarterback crouches down to hike the ball and either yells “Hike!” or moves their arms as if retrieving the ball to start the play. Your receivers icons above their heads will turn green when they’re open and you can either throw the ball to the left, right or straight ahead.  Receivers catch the ball by stretching their arms out, and then run in place to get to the end zone. The quarterback can also call an audible at the line of scrimmage if he sees a weakness in the defense, though don’t expect a Madden-like level of strategy here, calling audibles is basically a game of chance more often than not.

As basic as the football controls are, it’s easy to envision next year’s Madden, which has been confirmed to feature Kinect functionality use something similar to the system here.  Imagine walking up to the line as Aaron Rodgers in the Superbowl, looking over the defense and calling an audible using the same system the actual team does.  The ideas in Kinect Sports: Season 2’s football mode feel an awful lot like a great starting point for other things – even if they’re not all that fleshed out here.

It should come as no surprise that golf is the game’s most fun and responsive mode. The majority of the golfing mechanic is easy and responsive, and the addition of voice controls for club selection makes things seem even more fluid. Admittedly, it was a bit weird being so used to having a Wii-mote in my hands to golf, and it threw me off a bit at first, but thanks to how intuitive the game the system is, that problem didn’t last long at all. It’s important to note that it took a while to get used to putting, as the game kept hitting the ball too hard regardless of my motion, though a quick trip to the Kinect tuner seemed to rectify this.

http://youtu.be/1XOvszz-bdU

In a similar fashion, baseball is also a mixed bag. Pitchers can throw the ball with either their left or right hand, curving the ball by curving their arm. Sounds pretty simple right? Unfortunately, the game seems to fall apart once you step into the batter’s box. As you’d expect, batting is based pretty solely on timing, but sometimes even when you get a good hit, the game sends it directly to a spot in the outfield where an opposing player is, which triggers a mini game for the outfielder. It just seems like the baseball portion of the game is built mostly on luck rather than any kind of skill.

By far, the most disappointing aspect of the game is the darts section. Put quite simply, it’s almost unplayable due to limitations in the Kinect system itself. Darts is a game of accuracy, and the Kinect seems to have no way to judge where you’re trying to send the darts you’re throwing. Quite often I would aim one for an upper portion of the board, only to see it go to the very bottom. To see just how bad the game’s recognition for darts was, I closed my eyes and made a cartoonish throwing motion and to my surprise it went almost perfect straight. Hopefully this is something an update can fix.

One of the biggest problems with the original Kinect Sports was that you had to be playing a full game either online or against a local opponent to compete with friends, but Season 2 adds a challenge mode to each sport that adds a ton of replayability to the title. Baseball for instance has the home run derby and golf has a targeting mini game.  Season 2 also introduces a much more streamlined menu process that features a responsive voice system. Want to play football? Just say it. This year’s game is much easier to navigate through.

The Blast Factor: Though it’s not a drastic change from last year’s game, the teams at Rare and Microsoft have done a nice job addressing the majority of the issues to make Kinect Sports: Season 2 a much more enjoyable experience. Not all of the sports are as enjoyable as the next, and unless you’ve got a big group looking to play, you’re likely to get tired of the game rather quick, but Kinect Sports Season 2 is a fun if not flawed party experience.

As a kid I wanted nothing more than to be Hulk Hogan, in fact there are probably more pictures in the family album of me wearing a Hulkamania shirt than anything else –  and why not? He was the guy who made a room pop when he entered, he stood up against the bad guys for what was right, he showed no fear in the face of adversity. He trained, he prayed and he ate his vitamins.

Fast forward a few decades and much has changed. Hogan is arguably no longer the immortal icon he was before, he’s a failed reality star, slinging everything from energy drinks to grills and what’s worse – he seems to be clinging to fading glory. It wasn’t until this week that I felt his legend had hit rock bottom.

Enter Hulk Hogan’s Main Event, the Kinect based wrestling title (for lack of a better word) that makes you the protégé to the biggest name in the history of sport’s entertainment.  Long story short – it’s as bad as it sounds, in fact, it’s worse, much worse. Utterly broken and uninspired in every way, Main Event easily takes the championship as Kinect’s worst game, and that’s saying something.

The problems with Main Event start before you even pop the disc in. The game brands itself as a wrestling title, but it’s far from it. There’s no mat work, no ring psychology; no, this game is all about the entertainment aspect of the “sport.” You’ll create your superstar, who will oddly enough be noticed by the Hulkster at a backyard wrestling event, and from there you’ll work on showmanship, personality and eventually throw a few punches. This might be acceptable if you were allowed to show any spark of creativity when creating your wrestler – the entire creation suite is severely lacking; there’s no even an option for long hair. How the hell am I supposed to tease my hair ala Rick Rude to make the ladies in the crowd swoon?

The story mode in Main Event finds you attempting to climb up the ranks of a wrestling organization but being held down by an unfair booker, who is named….booker (no, really). This is told to you through a series of comic book panel like cut scenes, complete with speech bubbles. Why they didn’t just have Hogan record the lines is beyond me, but perhaps they realized how annoying the majority of the lines he did record can become. During any match, Hogan will randomly yell “inspirational” phrases your way like “You’ve got to believe in yourself” and “Nice finisher brother!” It’s important to note that Hogan seemed to yell that last one regardless of what move I was doing or what portion of the match I was in.  Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer is training to climb the giant mountain and his trainer just stands behind him and yells promotional slogans? To the Max! Push it! Yeah, it’s kind of like that, just not nearly as funny.

Yup, that's a winner.

So here’s how your typical match in Main Event goes; Your character is introduced and from there your goal is get the biggest reaction out of the crowd by posing how the Hulkster tells you to. Now don’t get too excited, this isn’t a free-for-all, you won’t be making your own poses, that’s what you have Hulk Hogan for, and you’ll be doing such thrilling maneuvers as raising your right arm (ohhh) and puffing out your chest (double ohhh!). From there, you’ll enter into a food dodging mini-game and yes, you read that right. The crowd seems insistent on pelting you with their nachos and beverages, which would make sense if you’re  a bad guy that’s getting over, but it happens every time. Every…single…time.

The game’s in-ring action finds you doing a lot of punching and kicking while throwing in a few actual wrestling maneuvers (if you count clothes lines and simple throws) for good measure. Your basic goal is to repeat your moves until your opponent is finally on the ground and ready for the pin, upon which you’ll have to do the strangest motion for a pin – moving side to side wildly. The most infuriating part of all of this is that your opponent’s health bar is constantly regenerating, so if one of your moves gets blocked, it’s back to square one.

It could be easy to forgive Hulk Hogan’s main event if the damn thing worked at all. The game is a perfect example of how not to make a motion game. Less than half of your moves are actually registered by the game, but it’s not like you really have to try, the game doesn’t really require you to do any certain moves. Oh, it tries to tell you that it does, but at certain parts I got so frustrated with the game that I began to wildly flail my arms around, and the game picked it up as whatever it wanted me to do. Air guitar? That’s a punch. Moving around like an airplane…that’s a punch too.

The Blast Factor: It’s tough to say just who Hulk Hogan’s main event is marketed to; it’s not really a wrestling game, nor is it a good Kinect game. Hell, it’s not even a good game at all. It’s broken, uninspired and cheap. They say you should never meet your heroes, apparently you should never play their games either.

There are a lot of ways you could describe Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 4. It’s a racing game, it’s a driving simulator, but the easiest way – it’s simply pure unadulterated car porn.  Gorgeous and deep, the latest in the long running Xbox racing series feels like the genre perfected and while it may not change the way those who don’t like driving games feel about the genre, it’s impossible not to appreciate the level of detail and depth put on display.  Forza 4 is quite simply a car lover’s virtual dream.

The Forza series has always been a visual treat, but nothing that came before it compares to what Forza 4 is packing, and it’s all thanks to the game’s new image-based lighting model.  The locations you’ll be racing in come alive with picturesque scenic vistas and stunning backdrops, and they’re made all the better by the superb lighting model which causes shadows to stretch out to just the right points and interact in just the right ways.  You want a show piece for your new HDTV? Pop-in Forza 4 and show someone its visuals.

Of course, all of this works together to make the game’s main attraction; the cars look downright stunning.  Turn 10 has poured a ton of work into ensuring that each car is perfect down to the smallest detail.  Going through and inspecting the models, especially some of the more exotic and vintage car proves to be an impressive endeavor (especially if you’re able to do so with Kinect). The cars look great in motion as well, as they’re incredibly smooth and weighted just right as they roll down the game’s multitude of tracks.

For true car lovers though, Forza 4’s sweet spot has to be its audio presentation. The game features a wide variety of cars, from classics, to exotic models and each of them sounds incredibly authentic when punching the engine.  Want to get to the heart of a car junkie? Turn the volume up real loud and crank a few engines, it’s stellar, strangely rewarding and almost impossible to resist.

Of course, much like any good car, the true heart of Forza isn’t in its looks, but under its hood, and Turn 10 delivers here as well. Genetically speaking, Forza 4 shares a lot of its core with that of its predecessor Forza 3, but thanks to a generous amount of tweaks and new additions, this is now slight upgrade.  The most noticeable of these updates is how smooth the games monstrous suite of cars handle. Each of the cars handle remarkably true to their real life counterpart, now I may have never driven a Ferrari, but the ones in Forza 4 feel an awful lot like what I’ve always dreamed they would. One of the things I really found myself enjoying about Forza 4 is trying out different cars, how they feel, how they sound – and I’m not even a huge car guy.

One of the most notable features of Forza 4 is just how accessible it can be when compared to other hardcore driving simulators. Sure, the focus here is on sheer driving and skill, but Forza also features a slew of driving aids and tweaks that will allow even the worst driver to enjoy their time with the game. Perhaps that’s the mark of what makes Forza so enjoyable, it’s perfectly fine being one of the most deep racing sims on the market, but it’s also not afraid to turn things down a bit to encourage others to play.

Turn 10 has also made other changes to the Forza formula to better accommodate novice players, but they haven’t necessarily made the game easier, just easier to jump in to. At the easier settings, AI controlled drivers aren’t dumbed down so they’re worse drivers, they’re just not as confident as those found on the higher difficulties. These inexperienced drivers will brake more often and be cautious going in to turns, allowing newer users the ability to learn the finer points of the game, and not just scale by on the easier difficulties.

In previous Forza games, you would only be able to level up cars until they reach level 5, leading to a lot of replayability being lost. That’s fixed in Forza 4 as the game introduces manufacturer specific levels called affinity levels which can be attributed to any vehicle; as long as it’s in the same manufacturer family. In essence, what these levels do is allow players to continue using a car they really like no matter how fine tuned it is while still earning XP and credits you’re able to use throughout the game and adds a ton of replayability.

As robust as the single player experience is, Forza 4 also packs a rather impressive multiplayer suite. The best mode of this suite is easily the rivals mode, which allows you to play against your friends whether they’re online or not thanks to a ghost system. Perhaps most impressive about the multiplayer suite isn’t how robust it is, but how everything works together. Playing online will also give you XP and credits to use throughout the game. In short, that means ultimate bragging rights.

Forza 4 could also be the first game baring the “better with Kinect” branding that I actually believe, as Microsoft’s motion sensing camera actually adds to the experience quite a bit. Using Kinect will allow you to use the cool steering wheel controller as well as the ability to look to your left and right while driving, by simply doing so in real life.  The true allure of Kinect is when you use it to oogle the cars in the auto vista mode…hands off of course.

The Blast Factor: I may never own an Italian sports car or high performance muscle car (unless Guilfoil ups my salary), but thanks to Forza 4, I can know what it’s like. It’s the most detailed, fun and rewarding driving simulator I’ve ever played. Car junkies are going to love that Turn 10 gets it, and even those who don’t get hot under the collar at an engine will love the jaw dropping presentation values. Forza 4 is simply an accomplishment in every sense of the word.

At this point, it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that the next Microsoft gaming console is already in development, but new LinkedIn postings, as spotted by Internet super-slueth supererogatory point us in the direction of just who may be working on the project.

Jeff Faulkner, Xbox’s User Experience Creative Director now lists himself as “Xbox Next Gen Creative Director” on his profile while senior creative director Jonathan Harris says that he’s “designing the next generation of entertainment” at Microsoft.

Visual designer Patrick Corrigan lists a former job (listed as ending in June of this year) at the publisher as “providing groundwork and integration for branding elements for next-gen XBOX on all forms of media. Ranging from print to UI across future releases of the XBOX platform.”

Microsoft hasn’t returned our emails looking for comments about the listing, and don’t expect them to, they’re keeping the new console, and any information regarding its development under wraps for now.

Video games normally take years to plan before they’re even pitched to a publisher — just don’t tell Twisted Pixel that. Twisted Pixel COO Josh Bear recently told Joystiq about how the idea for the Gunstringer, they’re Kinect title staring an undead puppet was thought up in three minutes.

According to Bear, the studio had an idea for a completely separate Kinect game in mind that incorporated precise finger movements, but after playing around with the tech pre-release, they realized that they couldn’t pitch the idea. The only problem? They already had a meeting with a Microsoft representative, and they had to come up with a new idea — and fast.

“Mike [Wilford, CEO]‘s kind of chatting with other Microsoft people, and I’m like, frantically looking around the restaurant just trying to think of ideas,” said Bear. “To my left, there was this painting of a skeleton cowboy and I looked at it and just — literally — I was like ‘OK: Skeleton cowboy that needs to get revenge on posse … marionette. F*** it.’”

For a game that started so uniquely, it sure turned into a great title. Read our full review here.

You can always count on Suda 51 for wierd and quirky games, and his latest is Diabolical Pitch; a horror baseball game for Kinect. Let that sink in for a bit.

Diabolical Pitch, expected to hit Xbox Live next year allows you and a friend to throw rocket baseballs and other powerups at weird mascotish creatures. Check out the first trailer below.

Ryan Payton, the creative director of 343′s Halo 4 has left the game’s development team and company. He’ll start his own company, Camoflaj, which already has two titles in development.

“I had a great run at Microsoft,” Payton told Kotaku. “I don’t regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn’t creatively excited about the project anymore.” Payton tells the gaming website that he wanted to create a different Halo 4 than the team at 343 industries, but is still excited for the project. “The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don’t think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through.”

Payton talked about his goals with his new company, and they’re lofty ones indeed.“Some people say I’m crazy, but I want to make a game that one billion people play at once, and it’s something that hits them harder than a great book or film,” said Payton.

With a name like Hole in the Wall, it’s easy to get the wrong idea. It’s probably not a phrase you’d want to Google at work, for instance. As it turns out, this downloadable Kinect title is a mostly innocent and goofy full-body motion game based off of a Japanese game show. So, expect weirdness to abound.

The basic premise is that a wall is coming toward you, with a shaped hole in it that you must fit through. Most of these shapes are poses—some standing, some sitting, kneeling, or even laying down—and a timer is running, so you have to be quick and flexible. If you don’t fill the hole within the time period, your avatar is shoved into a pool of water.

Hole in the Wall is pretty weird, but not entirely original even for American audiences. Nintendo released the far more bizarre Muscle March on the Wii’s online store a while ago, which was basically the same concept. Also, iPhone/iPad users might recognize all this wackiness from Tic Toc Body Pop, where you move a mannequin around to match the hole in the wall.

The first concern with any Kinect game is how accurately it uses the camera. From that perspective, Hole in the Wall is good with a few quirks. The game actually uses your avatar as the on-screen character, which mimics your body movements amazingly well. You’ll have to move all over the playing area to position your avatar in line with the hole, then adjust your limbs, head, and height accordingly.

There are occasions when you’d swear you were in the right place, but the game still doesn’t register success. There are more times when you’re barely in the spot and the score meter starts to rise. At first, it’s easy to assume the game only notices when you’re simply standing in the right spot, as that’s generally when the score meter starts moving. In reality, the game fills the score meter faster based on how much of the hole you’ve filled and if your various limbs are in basically the right spot.

When it all works right—which is most of the time—it’s bizarrely entertaining. This is especially true in the multiplayer mode, which dangerously supports two teams of two. While the teams do take turns, striking poses with your teammate at the same time will likely end up creating some hilarious, yet possibly tragic new Youtube videos. After all, isn’t that where all motion gameplay mishaps end up?

Packaged around a game-show theme, the main portion of Hole in the Wall contains ten different multi- stage rounds. Each round has a theme (sports, winter, etc…), but the gameplay seldom varies in the slightest. The final stage of each round throws in a quirk—the first, for instance, turns off the stage lights, while others just speed up the pace of the wall entirely. There’s also a survival mode, where the object is to pass through as many holes as possible without fail. Unfortunately, this mode rampantly reuses the same poses over and over.

The Blast Factor: Much like the show it’s based on, Hole in the Wall is entirely hinged on a single gimmick. In short doses, the game is entertaining for a cheap thrill and certain to elicit laughter from bystanders. Whether this limited amount of value is worth 800 points is a personal decision, but for what it is, Hole in the Wall is an odd, amusing diversion from the norm.

\Next year’s Halo 4 won’t be the next game in the colossal first person shooter series, it will also be the first chapter in the new “reclaimer trilogy”. The announcement was made over the weekend at PAX Prime’s Halo Fest.

Long running players will remember that Master Chief was referred to as The Reclaimer a few times in the original Halo.

343 Industries, the studio behind Halo 4 has also uploaded a video of new concept art for Halo 4.

Microsoft announced this morning that it has pushed the release of Star Wars Kinect back from this coming holiday season until 2012.  The Star Wars themed Xbox has also been pushed back to coincide with the new release date. No concrete date has been announced.

“Microsoft and LucasArts have elected to move the launch of Kinect Star Wars beyond holiday 2011 to ensure the full potential of this title is realized,” a spokesperson told Official Xbox Magazine.

It’s not incredibly surprising, when we went hands on…errr…off with the title at this year’s E3, the game showed potential, but was marred by technical issues and questionable design choices.  Here’s hoping that the issues are fixed by next year.

Microsoft has announced that its theme park exploring sim Kinect Disneyland Adventures will release exclusively for Xbox 360 and Kinect on November 15, just in time for the Holiday season. Check out the brand new screenshots for the game!

Google will buy Motorola’s former phone making division, Motorola Mobility, for $12.5 billion in cash, marking the search engine giant’s largest acquisition to date.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,” said Google CEO Larry Page in a statement. “Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers.”

Google Android competes directly with iPhone, Blackberry, and Microsoft Windows-based devices. Mobility makes smartphones for the Android, but sales have floundered, especially against the iPhone/iPad.

Motorola Mobility split from the rest of the company in January.

In the sale, Google will pay $40.00 per share, 63 percent over Motorola’s closing stock price on Friday.

The Associated Press reported that Google is likely interested in Motorola’s many, many patents on mobile phone technology, as a consortium of its competitors, which included Microsoft, Apple and Blackberry maker Research In Motion, recently won the chance to buy thousands of patents from bankrupt Canadian networking gear maker Novell.

You’ll soon be able to get your Game of Thrones fix right on your Xbox or PS3, thanks to HBO and Time Warner’s announcement that the on demand service HBO GO will soon be hitting consoles.

The announcement was made via a conference call with investors, and shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as it was revealed earlier this week that over half of all Netflix instant stream users connect via a game console.

HBO GO is an on demand video service free for anyone with an HBO subscription.

Why an elephant? Because.

Probably not. But isn’t wild internet speculation fun?

The latest rumors come after the domain microsoft-sony.com was registered and traced back to Microsoft. It could be something, or it could be nothing as domain names are known to be wacky for ass covering reasons.  But hey, who knows.

Making the rumor even more interesting is the rumor that Kotaku reported that the two companies were in active discussion regarding their new consoles — to be released in 2014.

What does it mean? Probably nothing. But he stranger things have happened. Did you ever think Mario and Sonic would be in a game together?

Shane Kim, former VP of strategy and business development for Microsoft’s  Interactive Entertainment division, and one of the fathers of the Xbox 360 and some of it’s biggest franchises has joined the GameStop board of directors.

Though no concrete details are available on just what Kim will be doing for the Texas based company, executive chairman Dan DeMatteo said, “[Kim will] bring valuable insight in supporting the advancement of GameStop’s digital strategy.”

It’s a safe bet that Kim will lend his Xbox Live fueled knowledge to the company’s growing online presence. In recent months, the retailer has purchased both online gaming portal Kongregate as well as digital distribution service Impulse and streaming game company Spawn Labs.

Microsoft announced that as of Monday they have sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses worldwide since its release in October 2009.

While that is great news for the company, they also discussed their Windows 8 OS during a Worldwide Partner Conference, but only briefly, as more will be revealed later on in the year.

Why all the fanfare over Windows 7? Besides the growth, the company also wants people to ditch XP for 7, because Microsoft announced that customers now have 1,000 days until the company stops supporting Windows XP.

According to Erwin Visser, senior director for the Windows Commercial Product Marketing team “Windows XP served us well, but in the ten years since it launched, the world has changed. It’s time to retire Windows XP and move to Windows 7 to take advantage of the last decade of innovation in areas such as security, performance and more natural, intuitive interface.”

How will this work, since the two OS are not really compatible with each other? Microsoft lauded the cloud-based service Intune can help users manage and secure their computers from any location.

“Windows Intune has proven to be the comprehensive solution [partners and customers] need, giving them cloud services for PC management and security and upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise (and future versions of Windows) from a single, simple subscription,” said Visser.

It sounds like Microsoft is trying to help the demise of XP by providing tools to help people make the transfer.

Many XP users stuck with the venerable operating system after downgrading from the failed Windows Vista a few years ago.

Sometimes even executives have a bad day at the office. Skype, the video chat service that allows you to talk to anyone around the world with a computer, a camera and a microphone, is closing in on a deal with Microsoft and fired several executives to make a sweeter deal with the company this past Monday.

Why? Well according to Bloomberg, firing them now, before the deal is final will actually reduce the actual value of their payouts. Ouch. Talk about company sincerity.

Skype even let go Allyson Campa who just started with the company when they acquired Qik to boost their already popular video chat service.

If the execs had stayed around until after the deal closed with Microsoft, then their stock options would be worth more, so Skype and Microsoft save money by firing them now, Bloomberg reported.

The acquisition was approved on Thursday, by the Department of Justice $8.5 billion.

Microsoft has confirmed that Halo Anniversary, the upcoming HD remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved will feature Kinect support.

The announcement came via a Gamespot interview with Microsoft Game Studios VP Phil Spencer. “As a first party we believe that Kinect will be important to all genres of games, be it racing games with Forza, combat games like Ryse — even games like Halo Anniversary has Kinect integration,” Harrison told the publication.

Though it’s not known just how the game will support motion control, a Microsoft representative did comment to Blast that it will “not affect the core gameplay experience.” Our guess? You’ll navigate the game’s menus with Kinect.

The announcement that the game will feature Kinect support follows Microsoft’s announcement at this year’s E3 that all first party games will feature some form of Kinect support. So what do you guys think?

LOS ANGELES — Cambridge-based Harmonix Music Systems Inc. has had well-documented troubles lately, including poor sales of its last Rock Band franchise titles that led to parent company Viacom/MTV Games practically giving it away to an investment group.

New York investment firm, Columbus Nova LLC, clearly had faith in Harmonix to assume $100 million in liabilities when it paid just $50 for the company in December.

But another big time player also outwardly expressed support for the music game pioneer: Microsoft.

“The team at Harmonix has delivered ground-breaking music titles to the video game industry including Dance Central, the best selling dance game on Kinect for Xbox 360. While quite a few developers can create a compelling vision for an experience, Harmonix is one of the few who can actually bring it to market. Kinect challenges game designers to think differently and it’s been a joy to see Harmonix embrace the technology to create a fun dance experience for everyone to enjoy,” said George Peckham, general manager of Microsoft’s Global Publishing Group, when asked by Blast for a comment on Harmonix’s position at E3.

For the first time in years, Harmonix does not have its own booth at E3 this year. Instead, Dance Central 2 is mixed in with a half dozen Kinect titles inside Microsoft’s booth.

Microsoft, however, has no problem giving Harmonix a platform to showcase its latest offering.

Will Tuttle, editor of GameSpy.com, agreed with the sentiment.

“Right now, I think it’s too early to say that the music/rhythm game genre is dying. It’s definitely evolving, and Harmonix has been the developer most responsible for driving that change. When they first released Guitar Hero back in 2005, doubters questioned whether anyone would buy a plastic guitar. Sure enough, they did,” Tuttle said. “When Rock Band was revealed, we wondered if people would care enough about music games to invest hundreds of dollars in a complete band set. The game was a smash hit and spawned Rock Band parties and bar nights dedicated to helping people live out their rock ‘n roll fantasies. Once that market soured slightly, Harmonix adapted and embraced Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, making Dance Central the system’s first killer app.”

To Tuttle and other analysts, the decision to back Harmonix is simple: people love music, and Harmonix does music video games better than anyone else.

“Harmonix has shown that they know music games far better than any developer in the game industry,” he said. “More importantly, the musicians themselves now respect Harmonix enough to work closely with them, ensuring a finished product that is more polished than competing games. They’ve also shown an affinity for pushing the music genre outside of traditional ‘gaming’ in an effort to actually teach people how to play music. With music department budgets shrinking in our public schools, this should be viewed as a step in a very good direction.”

Dance Central 2 features more than 40 songs, including a new multiplayer dance mode, allowing two players to dance at the same time.

“While this week’s announcement of multiplayer dancing in Dance Central 2 wasn’t earth shattering, you can bet that fans of the first game will snatch it up,” Tuttle said. “So what’s next for Harmonix? I’m personally hoping for a game that combines dancing and singing, allowing me to channel my inner Justin Timberlake to put on the ultimate stage show.”

LOS ANGELES — Blast is seated at the Galen center and ready for the Microsoft E3 2011 press conference to begin. Will we hear about Star Wars Kinect? the next Halo? A new Kinect overhaul?  Click Here to follow along and find out!

Liveblog transcript:

9:23

hello folks! we’re seated and grtting ready here at the Gallen center!
Monday June 6, 2011 9:23
9:24

briefing begins in 5 minutes!
Monday June 6, 2011 9:24
9:27

By the way, this is Blast Games Editor Joe Sinicki and i’m incredibly greatful you’re all with us.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:27
9:29

one minute warning
Monday June 6, 2011 9:29
9:31

lights are dark. were underway
Monday June 6, 2011 9:31
9:31

were talking modern warfare 3
Monday June 6, 2011 9:31
9:32

whoops, the trailer was interrupted.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:32
9:32

impressive scope and pacing for mw3
Monday June 6, 2011 9:32
9:33

the trailer shows an underwater mission as seen in the teasers. live gameplay now.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:33
9:34

giant fucking sub passes over.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:34
9:35

submarine blown to bits, we come over the water to a birning new york city
Monday June 6, 2011 9:35
9:36

Critics be damned, modern warfare 3 looks very tight and polished
Monday June 6, 2011 9:36
9:39

were viewing an on rails section on a raft in the water, very tense. very awesome.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:39
9:40

robert bowling and glenn schofield on stage
Monday June 6, 2011 9:40
9:41

proud to be teaming with infinity wardsl to create biggest, most epic cal of duty yet
Monday June 6, 2011 9:41
9:41

don mattrick welcomes us now
Monday June 6, 2011 9:41
9:42

he promises new kinect, bigger blockbusters and a new way to enjoy tv
Monday June 6, 2011 9:42
9:43

were getting our first look at the new tomb raoder now
Monday June 6, 2011 9:43
9:44

new tomb raider much grittier, much darker. sort of like uncharted.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:44
9:47

cool way to hide amid the debris shown. very cool
Monday June 6, 2011 9:47
9:48

very cool platforming session shown. quick time events inclused.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:48
9:48

the scale on the new tomb raider is absolutley stunning
Monday June 6, 2011 9:48
9:49

game will launch in fall of next year
Monday June 6, 2011 9:49
9:49

peter moore hits the stage
Monday June 6, 2011 9:49
9:50

four ea sports titles, tiger madden, fifa and a mystery title will feature kinect functionality
Monday June 6, 2011 9:50
9:51

sims pets and family game night also getting kinect support
Monday June 6, 2011 9:51
9:51

bioware is on the stage to talk mass effect 3
Monday June 6, 2011 9:51
9:52

its true, mass effect 3 will support kinect via voice re ognition
Monday June 6, 2011 9:52
9:53

youll interact with characters via kinect
Monday June 6, 2011 9:53
9:53

you read the text on screen rather than pressing a button.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:53
9:54

very intuitive and very fluid
Monday June 6, 2011 9:54
9:54

kinect will also be used for combat, issue commands to squad members via voice commands
Monday June 6, 2011 9:54
9:55

kinect will also be used for combat, issue commands to squad members via voice commands
Monday June 6, 2011 9:55
9:55

kinect will also be used for combat, issue commands to squad members via voice commands
Monday June 6, 2011 9:55
9:56

very impressive.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:56
9:56

were now talking the kinect infused Ghost Recon, future soldier.
Monday June 6, 2011 9:56
9:59

flicking through and customizing weapons via kinect. really cool and futurisitc. 20,0000 different choices
Monday June 6, 2011 9:59
10:00

were now aiming and shooting with kinect
Monday June 6, 2011 10:00
10:01

all future tom clancy titles will support kinect
Monday June 6, 2011 10:01
10:02

marc witten is out to talk xbox live
Monday June 6, 2011 10:02
10:02

talks about making tech more fluid
Monday June 6, 2011 10:02
10:03

new xbox experience looks a lot like windows media center
Monday June 6, 2011 10:03
10:04

increasing content and partnerships for more content. you tube comibg to xbox live
Monday June 6, 2011 10:04
10:05

bing is coming to xbox live. ability to search all of your entertainment options
Monday June 6, 2011 10:05
10:05

bing makes finding things kn xbox live so much easier. take that google…
Monday June 6, 2011 10:05
10:06

live tv is coming to xbox 360
Monday June 6, 2011 10:06
10:06

live tv is coming to xbox 360
Monday June 6, 2011 10:06
10:07

new experience launches this fall
Monday June 6, 2011 10:07
10:08

dana white is on stage
Monday June 6, 2011 10:08
10:09

ufc partners with xbox, live fights and interactivity similar to that of espn
Monday June 6, 2011 10:09
10:10

phil spencer is next
Monday June 6, 2011 10:10
10:11

talking about games making the brand what it is.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:11
10:11

were talking Gears of War 3.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:11
10:12

war pigd teaser plays
Monday June 6, 2011 10:12
10:12

cliffy is here
Monday June 6, 2011 10:12
10:12

ice t is here too
Monday June 6, 2011 10:12
10:13

were looking at the campaign now. giant sea creature. huge set piece.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:13
10:14

im a scale whore. im in heaven
Monday June 6, 2011 10:14
10:15

were being shown silverback footage
Monday June 6, 2011 10:15
10:17

horde mode iw back.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:17
10:18

were now Finally getting a look at codename kingdoms.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:18
10:19

well, maybe its called ryse now
Monday June 6, 2011 10:19
10:19

and now were on to Halo
Monday June 6, 2011 10:19
10:20

the remake is real, and looms stunning
Monday June 6, 2011 10:20
10:21

fully remastered campaign, coop and seven favorite maps
Monday June 6, 2011 10:21
10:21

getting a lpok at Forza 4
Monday June 6, 2011 10:21
10:22

all in game footage is absolutley gorgeous
Monday June 6, 2011 10:22
10:24

peter molyneux is talking fable next
Monday June 6, 2011 10:24
10:24

yep. its fable: the journey
Monday June 6, 2011 10:24
10:25

its kinect controlled as we reported yesterday
Monday June 6, 2011 10:25
10:26

controlling and riding a horse, throwing magic via kinect
Monday June 6, 2011 10:26
10:27

kinda cool. crowd seems unimpressed.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:27
10:28

phil spencer back on stage
Monday June 6, 2011 10:28
10:28

minecraft!
Monday June 6, 2011 10:28
10:28

kinect controlled minecraft hits xbox this winter
Monday June 6, 2011 10:28
10:29

disney hits Kinect this year too. visit a virtual disneyland.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:29
10:30

peter pans flight controlled throgh kinect, as a Disney fanatic…i say yea
Monday June 6, 2011 10:30
10:32

available this holiday
Monday June 6, 2011 10:32
10:32

and were talking star wars
Monday June 6, 2011 10:32
10:33

lots of footage now. very diverse worlds
Monday June 6, 2011 10:33
10:34

were in cloud city as a jedi looking for prisoners. kinect light saber of course
Monday June 6, 2011 10:34
10:35

kinect force powers
Monday June 6, 2011 10:35
10:36

still shows lots of lag though.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:36
10:37

tim schaefer is out to talk once upon a monster
Monday June 6, 2011 10:37
10:41

coming out this fall
Monday June 6, 2011 10:41
10:42

kudo is on the stage
Monday June 6, 2011 10:42
10:43

kinect fun labs is official. its a way to let players use the kiect.mods weve been seeing
Monday June 6, 2011 10:43
10:43

kinect me makes an avatar for you. much like the 3DS
Monday June 6, 2011 10:43
10:44

really cool
Monday June 6, 2011 10:44
10:44

kinect finger tracking
Monday June 6, 2011 10:44
10:45

kinect sparkler lets you draw in 3d using your fingers.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:45
10:46

impressive
Monday June 6, 2011 10:46
10:46

also new is object capture
Monday June 6, 2011 10:46
10:46

scan any obkect, its n the game
Monday June 6, 2011 10:46
10:47

really cool kinect features here
Monday June 6, 2011 10:47
10:48

kinect fun labs is live today!
Monday June 6, 2011 10:48
10:48

kinect sports 2
Monday June 6, 2011 10:48
10:49

baseball, golf, tennis…football
Monday June 6, 2011 10:49
10:52

coming this holiday
Monday June 6, 2011 10:52
10:53

dance central 2 features voice commands and the ability to import tracks.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:53
10:53

simultaneous dancing
Monday June 6, 2011 10:53
10:55

this holiday
Monday June 6, 2011 10:55
10:55

don matrick is back
Monday June 6, 2011 10:55
10:58

were looking at new footage from Halo!
Monday June 6, 2011 10:58
10:58

its halo 4!
Monday June 6, 2011 10:58
10:58

holiday 2012.
Monday June 6, 2011 10:58
10:59

were done here. join us for ea

LOS ANGELES — See that picture? That’s Peter Molyneux, creator of Fable hanging out with Gears of War head Cliff Bleszinski backstage rehearsing for Microsoft’s E3 presentation this coming Monday. We know that Cliffy is there to talk up Gears 3, but Molyneux doesn’t have anything confirmed for the show…yet anyways.

Internet sleuth superannuation has discovered a few new website domains, all registered to Microsoft that seem to point to a few new reveals, including one for a brand new and presumably Kinect powered Fable title. The other domains point to reveals for the highly rumored Kinect Fun Labs, Dance Central 2 and Kinect Sports 2. The list:

• Dancecentral2.org
• Kinectsportsseason2.org
• Fablethejourney.org
• Kinectfunlabs.org

We’ve seen domain names pop up and never turn out before (We’re getting a ton of rumored domain names for Project Cafe), so anything can happen, but this one seems pretty legit. We’ll know for sure tomorrow morning as Microsoft kicks off E3 2011 at 9:30 AM. Don’t forget to check out our liveblog!

Commander Sheppard’s latest adventure could be Kinect enabled , that is if a new box art that popped up on the EA Store is to be believed.

The box art, as seen to the left, which shows the Mass Effect 3 box with the “Better with Kinect” header across the top was taken down quickly after being spotted by a NeoGaf forum member. Games adorned with the header feature some motion control functionality, but do not require it.

Could this be a hint as to what will be revealed at next week’s E3? While it could just be a mistake, and neither EA or Microsoft has commented on the image, it’s not hard to believe that the tech would be used for one of the platform’s biggest franchises.

Stick with Blast for more on this and all the hot news leading in to next week’s E3.

At last year’s weird E3 Kinect debut thingy, Microsoft showed off a bit of test footage for a Star Wars game powered by the peripheral. We can now confirm that the actual game will be shown at this year’s E3 next month in Los Angeles.

“Yes, Star Wars for Kinect will officially be unveiled live during the Xbox 360 E3 briefing on Spike. Tune in on June 6 for more,” gaming Journalist Geoff Keighley tweeted recently. Keighley is the host of Spike TV’s Game Trailer’s TV, which will be broadcasting the entire Microsoft press event.

Star Wars Kinect is rumored to be scheduled for a Holiday 2011 release. Stick with Blast for more information on the game and all of the E3 breaking news.

Here’s the brand new Gears of War 3 trailer, which aired just minutes ago in Europe and Mexico following the UEFA championships.

E3 2011 is under two weeks away, and it’s shaping up to be one hell of a show. As usual, there’s a ton of rumors circulating around just what’s going to be revealed June 7-9 in Los Angeles. This week, we’ll be bringing you our predictions of just what we’re going to see. Here’s our Microsoft predictions, be sure to check out our Nintendo predictions.

Love it or hate it, Microsoft was all about Kinect at last year’s E3, and don’t expect this year to be any different. This year is going to be critical for Kinect, and expect Microsoft to bring the goods, albeit different than last year. Expect a lot of new game reveals,  but this time they won’t all be the casual gamer stuff we saw last year. Expect full reveals for the now Kinect enabled Ghost Recon: Future Solider, and finally the Kinect Gears of War title we’ve been talking about for the last year. We should also see reveals for the Suda 51 Kinect title Codename D. There’s also even talk of a Crimson Skies Kinect title.

Oh, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get those casual gamer target titles. A big rumor suggests that we’ll see a title called Kinect Me and one called Kinect Fun Lab. What exactly are they? We don’t know, but we’re hearing they’re Microsoft’s response to the plethora of hacks that have been hitting the device, fun little games allow you to be creative with the world around you. Just how many new Kinect games will we see? I’m going t go with 10.

E3 2011 will bring more information on Avatar Kinect

It won’t just be new games we hear about for Kinect, we’ll also finally hear about the updates software that’s going to bring improved tracking and new features to the peripheral. We’ll also see more information on Avatar Kinect, the cool chat function announced earlier this year.

Microsoft’s press event won’t be all about Kinect though, as we’ll see a slew of new titles and information on highly anticipated titles. Expect new info on Gears of War 3 as well as the new Xbox Live Alan Wake title. Expect one or two major announcements about major games coming to Xbox Live as well. Killer Instinct maybe?

My gut tells me that either Sony or Microsoft will be showing off new Modern Warfare 3 gameplay at their event, and given Microsoft’s DLC deal, and the fact that they showed Black Ops last year, expect a reveal here.

Then there’s the game that brought Microsoft to the dance in the first place. Halo. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the release of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, and I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see the long rumored HD remake. I don’t think we’ll see brand new Halo game just yet.

One of the major rumors for Microsoft’s press conference is that they’ll be unveiling 3D technology for the Xbox. While it’s not too far fetched, I don’t see it happening. Microsoft has been strong in their convictions against 3D and I don’t expect much to change.

What do you expect to see from Microsoft at this year’s E3? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to keep with Blast during this year’s E3, as we’ll be live blogging the press conferences and giving you our hands on impressions of the latest games and info.

Check back later this week for our predictions for Sony!

Remedy games has confirmed that a new title set in the Alan Wake universe is currently in development, but here’s the tricky part — it won’t be a direct sequel or DLC for the original game.

“Fans of the franchise will be excited to learn that yes, more Wake is coming! But to be absolutely certain to avoid confusion, this next Wake installment will not be Alan Wake 2,” Oskari Hakkinen told Eurogamer.

So what exactly are we getting? Will it be DLC, a prequel, perhaps a spinoff? We can’t say for sure, but Hakkinen says that whatever it is, we should see it by Fall of this year, so an E3 reveal is likely.

It’s something that’ll definitely give more to the Wake fans out there, but just as importantly, this installment will also give an opportunity for players who aren’t familiar with the franchise to finally jump on board,” he says.

In its largest purchase ever, Microsoft said Tuesday that it will purchase Skype SA for $8.5 billion.

Skype, the mega-popular Internet telephone and video chat service, gives Microsoft 170 million people in its user database, with users spending 207 billion minutes of voice and video airtime in 2010, Microsoft said in a statement.

“Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally,” the statement said. “Microsoft has a long-standing focus and investment in real-time communications across its various platforms, including Lync (which saw 30 percent revenue growth in Q3), Outlook, Messenger, Hotmail and Xbox LIVE.”

Skype will become a new business division of Microsoft, while bringing its services to Xbox, Kinect, Windows Phone and a variety of other Microsoft devices and services.

“Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, in the statement. “Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.”

Skype CEO Tony Bates will become president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.

“Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers,” said Bates. “Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype’s plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate.”

Skype was founded in 2003 and purchased by eBay in 2005 and then by another investment group in 2009. The majority of its users are in Europe, and country-to-country calling is its most popular service.

Still not in the awesome Gears of War 3 Multiplayer beta? Want to be one of the cool kids? Blast has you covered. We’ve partnered with Microsoft to give you a total of 10 codes for the beta that’s happening right now.

So how do you win? Simple, just comment on this post and tell us what your favorite weapon in Gears is and we’ll pick ten names at random. You can comment as many times as you want, but only one entry will count.

Good luck!

Earlier this month we told you about Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C3P0 in the Star Wars movies tweeting about the MIA Star Wars Kinect game, now thanks to an apparent survey obtained by Kotaku, we may be getting our first look at some of the game’s features.

Reportedly the survey, which also features a number of storyboard panels for an apparent commercial indicates that the game would feature light saber fighting, pod racing ( to be controlled similarly to Joyride) an perhaps the coolest possible feature; the game could let you stomp around as one of the most badass creatures from the Star Wars universe, The Rancor.

You may remember the Star Wars Kinect demo presented by Microsoft at last year’s E3 conference, which featured a, let’s say less than thrilling light saber battle with Darth Vader. Reportedly, the game has been retooled, and we’ll be getting our first look in June at this year’s E3.

At last year’s E3, Microsoft showed off a Kinect infused Forza title, only to have it never be seen again. Until today. Now, a leaked video, which has been confirmed by Microsoft to be for internal use only, shows off the impressive technology and visuals in the upcoming racer. We expect to hear more about Forza 4 at this year’s E3, where Blast will of course be bringing you all the latest news and hands on previews. Check out the video below!

Tim Schaefer calls his next game ”extremely, extremely manly” — and no, it’s not Once Upon a Monster.

Trenched, Double Fine’s latest downloadable title was unveiled during last night’s Game Developer’s Choice Awards ceremony during GDC in San Francisco.

Giant robots. Giant Guns and Double Fine? I’m in. Check out the official trailer below.