Xbox 360

343 has taken the reigns of the Halo franchise. Halo 4 remains faithful to the series Bungie created, but may have failed to step out on their own. This title marks the return of Master Chief, Cortana, Warthogs and more. But will it also mark the return of the near perfect sci-fi first person shooter?

To find out check out our Halo 4 review.

"On the gameplay side, the action is pretty much as you remember it from Halo: Reach. Corridor shooting and sandbox battle arenas are joined by the occasional palette cleanser. No spoilers, but think along the lines of the Broadsword space combat mission or the Falcon sections of Reach. These set piece moments are great fun, though there's little that offers the level of strategic complexity that the best moments in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach offered. The flash is great, but the substance is lacking."

For more, check out our Halo 4 review.

Actress Mackenzie Mason is better known to gamers as her video-game self Cortana from Halo 4. In the video below, we go behind-the-scenes with Mason to learn more about what went in to bringing her unqiue character to life in Halo 4 using the latest motion capture technology.

A common reaction to Microsoft’s E3 briefing this year was “Where are the games?” Core gaming was conspicuously absent from the keynote, supplanted by a focus on the Xbox 360 as an entertainment hub.

This came as no surprise to any observer of the video game industry as the race to provide an indispensable media center for the living room has governed the later phases of the current console cycle. And this year, for the first time ever, the United States Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates featured interactive television polling, hosted on Xbox Live.

It was a clear demonstration of how Microsoft is trying to expand the definition and usage of the Xbox 360 but what, if anything, can we gleam from those polls? Could such an unrepresentative, self-selecting sample of respondents really have told us anything other than what the Xbox Live audience thought? We spoke with David Rothschild, an economist with Microsoft Research, about how the debate polling was planned and executed and what lessons were learned.

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Tomorrow, November 6, 2012, may be the most important day of your life and it's not because of the election. Tomorrow is Halo 4 day. To help you prepare for the real battle between red and blue, we posted the first 15 minutes of Halo 4's single player story. Watch how Master Chief's story of an ancient evil hell bent on annihilation begins.

• REVIEW: Halo 4 Review

Halo 4 is an Xbox 360 exclusive.

The new Assassin's Creed 3 commercial is a bit blockier than the other offerings we've seen so far. Featuring a Team America vibe, the clip, which will show during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, features a marionette version of assassin Connor Kenway facing off against a group of red coats, showing off "new weapons", "skills" and "enemies" you'll face in AC3.  Do you prefer the puppets or gameplay?
 

[adult swim] Assassin's Creed III from cat solen on Vimeo.

You've heard the rumors, now witness the reality. Bethesda's Dragonborn DLC for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is officially a thing, with a new trailer revealing... lots. Let's start with the big-ticket feature add first: yes, it's true-- dragon mounts confirmed.

The setting for this new DLC appears to be Solstheim, the island that was last seen in The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind as post-release expansion pack. The story appears to focus on an evil Dragon Priest, the former ruler of Solstheim who preferred feasting on dragons to serving them. In fact, it seems he was the FIRST Dragonborn.

The trailer is also overflowing with looks at a variety of new enemy types and what appears to be a new alternate form (a la werewolf/Vampire Lord). The Dragonborn DLC will be available on Xbox Live starting December 4, 2012 for 1,600 MS Points.

DmC: Devil May Cry is one of the first big-name releases of next year, with the release set for January 15, 2013, and it looks like Capcom's going to be offering super-fans the opportunity to buy into some bonuses with the Son of Sparda collector's edition. It hasn't been officially announced, but you can check out an image of the set and its contents above (via All Games Beta).

Assuming the promo pic is accurate, the Son of Sparda edition will include a copy of the game, a replica of Dante's necklace, and the Samurai Pack DLC, which transforms Dante's shotgun, scythe, and axe into "Samurai Devastators" and gives players free upgrade points at the beginning of the game. This may or may not be a Europe-exclusive set (based on the PEGI rating), though nothing at all is confirmed until Capcom officially reveals it.

The 2012 Presidential Election is swiftly approaching, and while we won't know who's won the race for another week, we wanted to simulate Barack  Obama and Mitt Romney facing off against each other in a different sort of battle. Utilizing WWE 13's character creator, we re-created both Obama and Romney and pit them against each other in three different matches: a TLC (table, ladder, and chair) match, an inferno match, and a steel cage match, to determine who the victor of the election (and the title belt) will be.

For as much as we’ve seen of IO Interactive and Square Enix’s long awaited Hitman: Absolution over the past year or so, it always seems to surprise us whenever we get a new look at it. We’ve played through the first five chapters of the game (included as part of the final pre-release preview code) at least 3,459 times, and delightfully unexpected stuff just keeps cropping up. So to get you primed for the game’s launch in a couple weeks, we thought we’d give you a little taste of some of the highlights--some humorous, some horrendously violent, some just because they pleased our senses--from our time with Hitman: Absolution's opening levels.

Chapter 1 -- Chicago

The first level in the game is your standard tutorial setup. No real challenges to overcome, just a series of encounters designed to familiarize yourself with Agent 47’s sneaky-death-dealing-in-disguise ways that culminates with you taking out your former employer, Diana Burnwood. The level takes place in a sprawling compound inhabited by security guards, yard workers, and even personal chefs. The highlight for us though came during the ledge-walking training sequence where you have to sneak to and enter through a window that looks out onto a cliff.

But before you can climb through, you are treated to an inspiring phone conversation between a guard and his doctor who informs him that he doesn’t have prostate cancer. In his elated state, he blurts out, “Whew! No one can piss on this day!” which is unfortunate because this also happens to be the scenario that teaches you how to pull people out of windows. We were super happy for the guy for about half a second, and then we remembered why we were on that ledge in the first place and did what had to be done.

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IO Interactive and Square Enix proudly present a brand new gamplay trailer for Hitman: Absolution. This trailer is the sixth released and it focuses on Hitman: Absolution's "Living, Breathing World." Some games are so massive, so immersive, the world becomes a character, and it seems Hitman will be one of those titles. The people who populate the game aren't just advanced AI, it's almost synthetic life.

This trailer was created entirely from original gameplay moments, no pre-rendered cutscenes here!

• VIDEO: Hitman: Absolution "Dynamic Audio" Behind The Scenes Video

You can put a hit out on Hitman: Absolution on November 20, 2012.

With Grand Theft Auto 5 now officially confirmed for a spring 2013 release and pre-orders for the game opening on November 5, 2012, you had to expect that we'd be hearing more news soon about bonuses for those who pony up early. Those who pre-buy the highly anticipated game will be able to nab themselves a collectible Los Santos Photo Viewer, basically a small, plastic bauble that you can look through for an early glimpse at the new face of Los Santos.

The news comes from longtime GTA fansite GTAGaming.com, complete with pictures that prove it. In related news, All Games Beta obtained a copy of a letter sent to retailers by Rockstar that suggests a new trailer will be incoming soon. Rockstar adds in a subsequent update that the fallout from hurricane Sandy has slowed down the launch of that trailer, but promises that "we will have something to show soon."

The developer's lower Manhattan office continues to be without power, along with everything else between Battery Park and 34th Street. New York City officials hope to have the juice restored in the southern half of Manhattan Island by the end of the coming weekend, with a Friday/Saturday timeframe in their sights. 

Nuketown, the fan-favorite multiplayer map from Call of Duty: Black Ops is back in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. In the gameplay trailer below, you can check out the new and improved version of Nuketown, titled Nuketown 2025, an arena-style close-quarters map set in the 50's depiction of the "Model Home of the Future."

Everyone who pre-orders Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will receive Nuketown 2025, and get access to the Black Ops 2 double XP launch weekend.

Sony have unveiled a new spooky trailer for Puppeteer, the action-adventure game set on a moving theatrical stage. In the below trailer, Puppeteer's gameplay looks as vibrant as ever, featuring a graveyard level with ghosts and ghouls and vampires looking for blood.

The best and greatest moments in WWE history happened during the Attitude Era where viewers saw the birth of Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. McMahon, The Rock, D-Generation X, Mankind, The Undertaker, and the feud between Brett "The Hitman" Hart and Shawn Michaels. The Attitude Era was a time in wrestling entertainment that shifted family-friendly programming content into an edgier form.

In THQ's WWE '13, we compiled all the clips of the biggest moments during the Attitude Era in WWE to create a documentary movie so you can revisit the classic moments that launched the WWE to takeover WCW.

Halo 4 is only a few days away from rocking our worlds. To get the good people of Earth ready for what could be the biggest game of the year, Microsoft has created a real life replica of the Halo universe in Europe. The buildings, effects and costumes were all put together to promote Halo 4, and I assume make me insanely jealous of our allies over seas.

• VIDEO: Halo 4 "Scanned" Launch Trailer

Halo 4 will be released on November 6, 2012.