XBox 360 Rally

Hi, boys and girls. It’s just me, your friendly neighborhood JW, here to remind you all that we’re currently looking for people to replace us here at Xbox 360 Rally. All you have to do is go HERE, fill out the form, and wait to hear back. It’s really not that hard.

So, get to it already — so Paco and I can get to the NEW site!

Ok, people, here’s the deal — Paco and I are on our way out. We’re taking over at 1PStart.com in an effort to restore it to it’s former glory. …that, and I just plain want to write about another game every once in a while, is that so wrong?!

Anyways, here is what we’re looking for: A competent, capable writer with a love for all things Xbox. Now, by competent writer, we mean someone who spells “you” correctly, and knows when to capitalize. If you can do that, you’re a shoe-in. So, CLICK THIS DAMN LINK, do the required stuff, then get paid to play video games and write about stuff.

…hell, Mike and I did the hard stuff already, and YES, the GTA4 Banner contest will continue, and I will still give you a copy of GTA IV… or something. So, hop to it.

Xbox 360 Rally, JW, Stuff, Job Openings

So, I took my daily trek over to the Assassin’s Creed website, and I noticed something that I hadn’t seen before. The “Not Rated” logo has been replaced with a “T for Teen”. Don’t believe me?

Now, when you go to the ESRB website, Assassin’s Creed isn’t listed on the site. Yet. If it shows up on the site, I’ll let you all know. But for now, it looks as though Assassin’s Creed will NOT be solely for the mature audience.

[Assassin’s Creed]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed

The servers are melting. Paco spilled his cola on the keyboard. JW’s out back trying to wrangle the horses. In short, we’re all kinds of FUBAR, so we may not be able to update as much as we’d like today.

Sorry, peeps. We’ll be back soon.

There has been a lot of controversy regarding a recently posted rumor regarding SEGA’s possible Tokyo Game Show line-up. Now, I was originally very defensive of this piece because of who sent it in. He, a long-time go-to guy named Rob, has sent me exclusive tips for four years, and until this most recent one, they were ALL accurate.

Regardless, after the link had been posted by reader “Cedge”, I immediately contacted Rob via GoogleIM.

(more…)

You know, I’ve said it a billion times already! The ESRB can NOT keep it’s damn trap s… oh, wait… this is about Mass Effect? Oh, well we all knew about Mass Effect, so all is forgiven.

This time.

That’s right, folks — the ESRB has laid their verdict on the upcoming Bioware Epic of Awesome, Mass Effect, and they have ruled that Mass Effect will, in fact, be rated M for Mature. Why? Well, apparently Mass Effect is gonna have two of my favorite things in life: Blood and boobies.

It seems that Bioware has gone down a more mature path with their latest title, which is NOT a bad thing. Their previous titles, such as KotOR and Jade Empire, were aimed more towards a general audience. They were rated T for Teen, and didn’t feature blood. However… KotOR DID feature a lesbian storyline, which you could consider risque — even if it was just due to an oversight on Bioware’s part.

This news only has me MORE excited about Mass Effect now, and I can hardly contain myself as E3 approaches. Maybe we’ll even find out when we can expect to see Mass Effect on our store shelves.

CLARIFICATION: Newbiezilla is right — Jade Empire got a M rating. My error. It happens sometimes.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Bioware, Mass Effect, ESRB

First of all, any excuse to post images of Lara Croft is a good enough excuse for me. But for once, I actually have a real reason to post said image. You see, the ESRB… well, they just plain love to jump the gun whenever they get the chance. This time, it seems the ESRB has revealed a secret that will make many a Lara fanboy very happy.

Click This. Go on, click it. It won’t hurt you. …you click it yet? Yeah? Good. As you can see, there are five separate listings for Tomb Raider: Anniversary on the ESRB website: Peru, Greece, Egypt, Lost City and Croft Manor. So, what could this mean?

Well, the popular theory is that each level of the Tomb Raider: Anniversary PS2 release will, in fact, be released over Xbox Live. Honestly, that’s a crock of bull. Not the story, the idea. To make us go through this micromanaging crap in order to sit there and wait while a level downloads, all the while knowing that we could always just dust off the ol’ PS2 (I have a theory that everyone in the United States owns a PS2) and play it on a DISC!

…I’ll get into my little rant about micro-transactions on Monday, after I get back from Drills. But know this — they’re bull.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Eidos, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Lara Croft, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace

Maybe there was some merit to that rumor I refused to post last month regarding the possibility of Sega releasing a “vintage collection” on the Xbox 360. Over at the ESRB, there are ratings for two new games. Those games?

Ecco the Dolphin

Sonic the Hedgehog

Boy, those guys at the ESRB sure know how to keep their mouths shut, don’t they? Either way, I do hope this is true, but with that said… I’d much rather have seen Sonic 2 instead of the original Sonic. But either is better than neither.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, ESRB, Sega, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ecco the Dolphin, Sega Vintage Collection

Well, the ESRB is at… it… again? Hey this is all in German! That’s right, my friends — the German equivalent of the ESRB, the USK, has started in on the rating fad of SPILLING THE BEANS! This time, as you can see above, it’s the Prince of Persia!

For once, I am glad this leaked — we need games like PoP on the Arcade, in order to help combat the growing (and admittedly superior) line-up that the Wii Virtual Console has to offer. Then again, it’s kind of hard to keep up with the entire damn Nintendo library, but so far, so good.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, Prince of Persia, Germany, USK

I continue to say that the ESRB needs a reality check — in short, STOP POSTING UNANNOUNCED GAMES! Here is another prime example of the ESRB’s inability to keep it’s metaphorical mouth shut. There has been no official announcement of Quake III Arena coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, but here is the ESRB showing their rating for said game.

BUT, if you go to the ESRB now, and type “Quake” into the search engine, you’ll see only one game for the Xbox 360 — Quake II.

Someone at the ESRB please, PLEASE… stop. Or at least check with the damn publishers to make sure they WANT their game listed on your site before they announce it.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, ESRB, Quake III Arena

You know, someone at the ESRB really needs to realize that putting games on their ratings list before they’re formally announced is a bad idea, and is probably pissing quite a few developers off. Case in point: Super Contra.

No one here had any idea that Super Contra would find it’s way to the XBLA, but thanks to the incompetence at the ESRB, we now know for sure. Which is great, but to me this isn’t the big story — this is at least the fourth time in the past year that the ESRB has listed a game on their website before it’s officially announced. You wanna talk about pain in the ass? If I knew I was working on some super-secret project that people would get psyched about when they found out, and that secret was botched by the damn ratings board, I’d be PISSED!

After the first couple of times, it’s easily written off as a mistake. Cool. But after four? Come on, that’s just stupid.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, Super Contra, ESRB, ESRB Alert