Karaoke Coming to Xbox Live Arcade This Holiday

Microsoft has announced Karaoke, an Xbox Live Arcade-enabled service set to launch this holiday. The singing game will rotate through free sample songs, but what you'll pay for isn't actually the individual tracks. For an unspecified series of Microsoft Points, players can rent Karaoke in two, six, and 24 hour blocks, similar to renting a karaoke room. The 8,000 song library opens up for your selection, and rather than downloading what you want to play, tracks simply stream when chosen.

To answer the most important questions out of the gate: Yes, your Rock Band and Lips microphones will work, as will the default Xbox 360 headset.

Let it out.

Similar to Dance Central 3, SmartGlass users can queue up songs to continue singing uninterrupted. Announced artists range from Beyonce, Rascal Flatts, and Dolly Parton to Lou Bega and Amy Grant, with country, rock, top 40, and even Christmas songs making up the library genres. Working with The Karaoke Channel, Microsoft will support Karaoke on XBLA with new songs post-launch.

via PlayXBLA

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor at IGN. He loves Gears a lot. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

New Photos from White House Down

Here's our first look at the upcoming thriller White House Down, starring Channing Tatum as a Secret Service agent who must protect the President (Jamie Foxx) from terrorists. The film opens June 28, 2013.

Source : ign[dot]com

Check Out This Early Wii U GamePad Prototype

In the most recent installment of Iwata Asks, designers of Nintendo's online service Miiverse revealed the early prototype they used to get accustomed to the "feel" of the Wii U GamePad: one made entirely out of cardboard.

The model even had a slot in which to insert pieces of paper, enabling the designers to change the display.

The prototype was built by Kazuyuki Motoyama, a Hatena designer who worked on the Miiverse UI."We wouldn't know how it felt unless we could actually hold it, but since we didn't have one, the only thing to do was make one," Motoyama explained. "In the middle of the night, I cut pieces of cardboard and glued them together."

"It even has the grips in the back," added Hatena director Yoshiomi Kurisu. "Motoyama-san burnt the midnight oil to make this."

For those who can't wait until the launch of the Wii U, perhaps it's time to get out the scissors.

The Wii U will be released in North America on November 18, and Europe and Australia on November 30.

Source : ign[dot]com

PlayStation Plus Members Get Resident Evil 5 For Free

If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber in North America, you’ll be pleased to learn that the service will get a refresh with November 5th’s PlayStation Store update.

For starters, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, which comes packing extra content, will be completely free for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Additionally, the digital version of Portal 2 will be 30% off (from $19.99 to $13.99), and its newly-announced Portal 2 In Motion DLC will also be discounted 30% (from $9.99 to $6.99). Finally, the new PS3/Vita cross-play game When Vikings Attack will also be 30% off, bringing its price from $9.99 down to $6.99. And Absolute Supercars will be discounted at 20%, bringing its price from $9.99 to $7.99.

European gamers will get Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Cubixx HD and Crysis 2 for free beginning on November 7th. As a result, Just Cause 2 and Borderlands will be removed from the Instant Game Collection at that point, so download them now if you haven’t already.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Xbox Music Is Useless on Xbox

When Xbox Music -- goodbye, Zune Marketplace -- launches on your 360 on October 16, the ad-supported streaming service will debut globally with a song library of 30 million, 18 million of which will be available instantly for United States users on a free or subscription-based basis. The catch (of course there’s a catch!) is that Xbox Music is a fantastic application for a very specific kind of person.

Beyond the broad scope of “the music lover,” Xbox Music is built with the Microsoft fanatic in mind, someone committed to the idea of owning Windows 8, a Surface slate, and a Windows Phone. Ironically, no matter what the name implies, the person Xbox Music is engineered against is the Xbox 360 owner.

So, it’s October 16, you’re an Xbox owner, and you want Xbox Music’s free tunes. You love the idea of streaming Pixies, Black Keys, Boston, Bruce Springsteen, and obscure Canadian artists like Plumtree, Imaginary Cities, and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald. You happen to have impeccable taste, as it turns out. Here’s how it goes down:

You must be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber. From there, you can build playlists and stream all the Weezer and Lana Del Rey you please for 30 days, after which you’ll start paying the $9.95 fee to become a Pass member. To become a full-fledged Xbox Music user, you’ll need to pay $60 for Xbox Live Gold and another $120 for Music per year.

If you’re keeping score, that’s nearly $200 per year simply to have access to Xbox Music on your Xbox.

Ouch.

Windows 8 is the only platform on which you’ll be able to stream unlimited music for free – and for the time being, Microsoft says there’s no ceiling on the number of tracks you can listen to. Better still, you can skip as many junk tunes as you want. Take that, Spotify.

Microsoft isn’t buying much more goodwill with the majority of its audience, though, especially those who’d likely want to use Xbox Music most. Want to use SmartGlass? It won’t be available just yet. Surface? Also unavailable at launch. Oh, you’re an Android or iOS user? Sorry, support for those devices is coming “within a year.”

Even PC users need to wait for Windows 8’s launch on October 26 to take full advantage of the program. The only user who can use Xbox Music out of the gate is the one who gets the raw deal.

Of course, this is a short term problem. Look ahead six months or so. Assume Xbox Music is on your iPad and iPhone and Windows 8 has any launch kinks straightened out. You've adopted a new operating system or tablet and they can all talk to each other. The cloud is great for shooting tracks between devices. In the near future, Xbox Music will be excellent -- possibly outdoing its competition at every corner. It has the edge over competitors like Grooveshark, Pandora, and Spotify because it shares similar features (Smart DJ is your radio), plus it adds Vevo-powered music videos and Pass members can download albums for free. And if you’re streaming on your phone you shouldn't have any interruptions – progressive downloading stores the song without saving it to your device, allowing you to listen to tracks on your tunnel-filled commute even if you lose signal.

But will this be enough to create an audience out of built-in Xbox users as well as tear the Spotify- and Pandora-obsessed away from what’s working already? At launch, probably not. Looking ahead a year, though, and this could be the one and only music service we need.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor at IGN. As a Canadian, he appreciates Microsoft launching Xbox Music in the motherland. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

New Gaikai Site Teases Uncharted, Mass Effect and More

We haven't heard much from cloud gaming service Gaikai since Sony acquired it earlier this year, but that's changed this morning as the service's official site has been updated with an image that teases a wealth of PlayStation 3 classic content.

The image on the homepage, which you can see below, shows off iconic characters from a number of franchises that have appeared on Sony's console over the years, while clicking on other areas of the site unveils even more.

The games that appear somewhere on the site are Metal Gear Solid 4, Mass Effect 3, LittleBigPlanet, God of War III, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Killzone and Infamous.

Alongside the new layout and images, a statement on the site reads, "Over the past several years, we've worked tirelessly to re-define the way people access and play video games. We developed amazing streaming technology, assembled an accomplished management team, and built the world's most widespread cloud gaming network.

"And while we think all of that is pretty cool, we're not done yet. As a new member of the Sony Computer Entertainment family, we're working even harder to ensure the world's best entertainment content is delivered instantly to you, no matter where you are in the world."

Sony has previously voiced its support for backwards compatibility, and we've speculated about how Gaikai could be the means through which the company could make all its old franchises available through streaming.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is glad we've all moved on from making FF7 jokes about cloud gaming. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

New Gaikai Site Teases Uncharted, Mass Effect and More

We haven't heard much from cloud gaming service Gaikai since Sony acquired it earlier this year, but that's changed this morning as the service's official site has been updated with an image that teases a wealth of PlayStation 3 classic content.

The image on the homepage, which you can see below, shows off iconic characters from a number of franchises that have appeared on Sony's console over the years, while clicking on other areas of the site unveils even more.

The games that appear somewhere on the site are Metal Gear Solid 4, Mass Effect 3, LittleBigPlanet, God of War III, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Killzone and Infamous.

Alongside the new layout and images, a statement on the site reads, "Over the past several years, we've worked tirelessly to re-define the way people access and play video games. We developed amazing streaming technology, assembled an accomplished management team, and built the world's most widespread cloud gaming network.

"And while we think all of that is pretty cool, we're not done yet. As a new member of the Sony Computer Entertainment family, we're working even harder to ensure the world's best entertainment content is delivered instantly to you, no matter where you are in the world."

Sony has previously voiced its support for backwards compatibility, and we've speculated about how Gaikai could be the means through which the company could make all its old franchises available through streaming.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is glad we've all moved on from making FF7 jokes about cloud gaming. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

NBCU Shows Coming to Amazon Instant Video

More good news with regard to streaming video for members of Amazon's $79/year Prime service: a deal announced today with NBC Universal is bringing back-episodes of NBCU-owned shows like Battlestar Galactica, Parks and Recreation, Heroes and Friday Night Lights to Prime Instant Videos.

Prime Instant, Amazon's streaming video service, has been free for Amazon Prime members since it was introduced in February, 2011, and its library of available content has grown steadily in that time. "We continue to invest heavily in our content selection," said a spokesman for Amazon.

Amazon designed Prime Instant Video to compete directly with Netflix Instant, so while none of the content Amazon acquired today is exclusive (compared with several shows it recently optioned from Warner), playing catch-up with Netflix is a logical step for the service.

Prime members can check out all the new content here. Let us know what you're most excited about in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Wilfred: "Service" Review

Warning: Full spoilers from the episode to follow.

After last week's incredibly depressing (albeit engaging) episode, it was nice to see "Service" work to get Wilfred and Ryan back to the basics again. Of course, this couldn't happen without the spectacular finish to Ryan's working life. I have to say, of all the ways for Ryan to lose his job, I did not foresee his boss's public suicide pinning the last nail in the coffin. Hats off to Steven Weber, whose inspiring monologue offset his final moment perfectly.

And just like that, Ryan was off the hook once more to smoke pot in his basement full-time, freeing him from all ties both romantic and professional. However, there was still the matter of Kristen and her unborn baby, as well as Ryan and Kristen's mentally unstable mother (reprised by Mary Steenburgen). Following the death of her kitten, it was up to Ryan to raise his mother's spirits.

While it was great to see Steenburgen's return to the show, the whole road trip aspect didn't really ebb with the rest of the episode. There were a handful of funny moments -- the policeman encounter at the forefront -- but it was really Wilfred's own antics before and after the journey that delivered the lion's share of the laughs. His bloody-teethed interactions with Ryan and his passive-aggressive paw-over-hand bit were easily among the story's greatest bits.

I think it was the ending with Kristen going into labor that really elevated the arc to new heights. Some of the best moments between Wilfred and Ryan are when Wilfred lucidly convinces Ryan to achieve his unspoken goals. The final painting scene with Ryan and his mom was also a pleasant way to close out the episode -- a far cry from last week's melancholy conclusion.

In a way, it was kind of nice to see the show hit the reset button on a lot of the events that transpired this season, especially considering Ryan's breakup with Amanda last week. Wilfred's time at the office was also beginning to reach the end of its schtick, anyway. However, it will be interesting to see where this takes Ryan next, if anywhere.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Microsoft Gives Hotmail its Biggest Makeover Yet

Hotmail, the email service no one but your technophobic aunts and uncles wants to admit to using, has long been due for a serious overhaul. As of today, Microsoft has finally cleaned up the interface with a Metro UI overlay, leaving messages even more screen real estate than Gmail. And Hotmail's much-hated banner ads are gone for good, replaced with less intrusive text ads that look (you guessed it) about like Gmail's.

"People weren't satisfied, and with good reason," Microsoft's Brian Hall told AllThingsD. Not content just to fix problems, Microsoft is introducing a slew of new features. Most notably, social network integration will pull contact info directly from Facebook and Twitter, and a forthcoming update will allow direct-from-inbox Skype calls.

The goal, Hall explained, is to attract "tens of millions" of new users, essentially by making Hotmail cool. Sound impossible? Microsoft isn't blind to the Hotmail-is-for-luddites stigma. So Hotmail is now called Outlook.

Longtime hotmail users can transfer their account to a new (less dorky) @http://ign.com/outlook.com address, and newcomers can sign up for one. The new usernames are first-come-first-serve, and as the gold rush only started this morning there's still a chance you could get your actual name, without any numbers or anime references. You can sign up or make the switch here.

On the off-chance that you're attached to that old Hotmail address, no need to worry: Microsoft won't disable it; they'll preserve it as an alias in the new Outlook system. Hotmail holdouts will, however, be prompted to switch over to the new interface over the coming year.

"We will move all Hotmail users," Hall explained, "just because it is a hell of a lot better."

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN. 

Source : ign[dot]com

Watch All the Anime You Want with Crunchyroll on PS3

If you’re an anime fan, chances are you’ve heard of Crunchyroll, the streaming service that brings the masses in the west a slew of hard-to-access (or outright inaccessible) eastern entertainment. You may have even heard in recent weeks that Crunchyroll will be bringing its service to PlayStation 3. And if you’re curious about this forthcoming app, there’s good news. We’ve been given access to it, and have plenty of information you’ll need leading up to its launch.

For starters, why is Crunchyroll migrating over to PlayStation 3? A lot of it, according to the service’s co-founder and CEO Kun Gao, is because there’s an undeniable “synergy” between the PS3 and the audience that enjoys anime. The company polled their audience and found that 40% of those who responded said they owned a PlayStation 3. That, combined with the fact that PS3 offers more games from Japanese developers (and JRPGs in particular) than its competition makes Crunchyroll on PS3 make a lot of sense. There’s substantial audience crossover.

But how about some specifics concerning the app itself? The Crunchyroll app will be available to download free of charge for all North American PS3 users (specifics regarding its release in other territories are still unknown). It can be initially downloaded from either the XMB (under TV/Video Services) or from the PlayStation Store itself. However, access to the application once downloaded will vary.

Crunchyroll is a service that has both free and premium options ranging over different subscription tiers. This is true on the Crunchyroll website as well as on the many devices that already accommodate the service, ranging from iOS and Android to Roku and Google TV. The same is true for PlayStation 3. While a “comprehensive sample” will be made available for users having a taste of Crunchyroll’s service (such as being able to watch the first episode of a series), a premium membership will be necessary to use all of the application’s functions and see everything it has to offer.

If you’re interested in paying for Crunchyroll, then you’ll have unlimited access to its wares. Since Crunchyroll actually offers more than just anime (in the form of live-action dramas from all over Asia), you could opt to get the anime-only membership for just under $7 a month, with other options for a dramas-only membership, or for tying everything in together. Regardless of what you choose, everything will parlay over ubiquitously to PlayStation 3, and any other applicable device you stream Crunchyroll on.

For premium subscribers, Crunchyroll’s library of over 400 anime series will be available on PlayStation 3, and 34 of those series are “simulcasts,” meaning that they are posted on Crunchyroll only an hour after they first air in Japan, complete with English subtitles. Crunchyroll’s co-founder and CEO Kun Gao told me that his service is “one of the only places where you can watch [these shows] legally,” undoubtedly making it enticing for anime fans who may be using other means to get their fix.

The Crunchyroll application itself on PS3 is easy to use and fairly fluid. In many ways, it resembles Netflix. Users will have access to various menus to make navigating Crunchyroll’s roster of shows easier, boiling things down to submenus showing the service’s most popular shows, shows that are available via “simulcasts,” the most recently posted episodes and more. Obviously, users can make their own queue as well, and that queue can be updated and accessed from any device that supports Crunchyroll. Better yet, if you start watching an anime on your phone, you can pause it, then watch it on your PS3, then pause it again and watch it on your computer, and so on.

Crunchyroll on PS3 currently only supports up to 480p, which Gao explained to me was a fairly standard resolution for anime, as it’s more expensive to produce shows in higher quality. So even at 480p, most anime will be viewable on PS3 in its native resolution, though that will still fluctuate depending on the shows you’re interested in.

The Crunchyroll service will also be coming to PlayStation Vita, though it’s farther away from release than the PS3 iteration of the application. Gao told me that his company is shooting to release Crunchyroll on Vita by the end of the year, and “hopefully sooner.” They want to first be able to use the feedback they get from Crunchyroll on PS3 and make necessary improvements to make the Vita iteration of the application as good as it can be.

The release date for Crunchyroll on PlayStation 3 hasn’t been nailed down yet, but it will be coming to a PS3 near you (in North America only) very soon.

Source : ign[dot]com

OnLive Available on Ouya at Launch

The Android console Ouya has signed a deal with cloud gaming service OnLive, meaning hundreds of games from over 80 publishers will be available when the console is eventually released next March.

UK boss of OnLive Bruce Grove said, "When OnLive first heard about OUYA, we were excited to see console gaming becoming more available and open. Like OUYA, we came to gaming with a new vision for making top-quality gaming accessible to more people, and we continue to look for ways to expand on that vision.

"OUYA is rethinking the console business, making waves by using standard technology to make gaming for your living room accessible, affordable and more innovative than ever. In OnLive's case, we pioneered a groundbreaking, cloud-based system that instantly delivers games to any device on demand."

Ouya Console (design still in progress)

The Kickstarter to fund the Ouya console opened last month, with an ambitious target of $950,000. It quickly smashed that record, and with just over 12 days to go, the amount pledged currently stands at $5,551,703.

New renders of the Ouya console and the controller were also released, with the following caveat: "Please note that the design is still in progress--but we couldn’t hold out any longer. We needed you to know that the controller has two handles. You can hold it in both hands.

"P.S. We're still deciding on the buttons. For now, we've stuck with the colored circles as placeholders. But don't fret, we won't leave out colorblind gamers."

Ouya Controller (design still in progress)

Is the deal with OnLive a major coup for the Ouya console? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Daniel is IGN's UK Games Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Google Fiber Could Revolutionize Internet and TV Service

In its latest effort to make our lives more awesome, Google is gearing up to premier its crazy-fast Fiber service, starting with a trial market in Kansas City. The service comes without monthly bandwidth caps or overages, and paid plans come bundled with 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage.

The promotional video for Google Fiber’s KC debut points to average USA broadband speeds as a bottleneck in users’ experience of the web.

Just as the last few years have seen huge expansions in processor speed and storage capacity, Google proposes to multiply home internet connection speeds by 100. “Fiber offers up to 1,000 Mb/sec download and upload,” Google’s “About” page explains. So just to be clear, that means users will be able to download (or upload) any file up to a gigabyte in a second or less.

Google is offering three plans for pre-registration.

Anyone who pays a one-time $300 fee (to cover home fiber-line construction) can have US-average broadband speeds free, guaranteed for at least seven years.

For $70 per month, users can upgrade to gigabit service. That’s the whole monthly price—no introductory rates that double after six months—and that includes the wifi-equipped Network Box. Google will even throw in 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage. Oh, and a two-year contract waives that $300 setup fee.

For $120 per month you get the “whole Google experience.” Again, the network box and 1TB on Google Drive come bundled; and a two-year contract still waives the fiber construction fee. But that $120/mo. will net you all this other stuff too:

• A TV Box with “hundreds” of basic fiber channels (click here for the full list) to replace your cable service (Premium channels will be available as add-ons.)


• On-demand movies and TV shows, plus out-of-the-box support for Netflix & Youtube.


• A networked 2TB DVR “Storage Box” (That’s enough space for 500 hours of HD programming, and the TV Box can record up to 8 programs at a time.)


• A totally free Nexus 7 tablet—your remote control for the TV box.

Residents in high-demand neighborhoods on both sides of the Kansas-Missourri border have 45 days to pre-register here. The rest of us will have to wait a while longer, although Google will all but certainly expand its fiber network to high-demand urban areas first. The packages listed above are residential only; business prices have yet to be announced. Would you ditch your current service for one of Google's Fiber plans? Let us know in the comments.

Source : ign[dot]com

PixelJunk Dev Polling Gamers About PlayStation Vita

The PixelJunk series of games on the PlayStation Network are among Sony’s digital downloadable service’s most popular offerings. From PixelJunk Shooter and PixelJunk Monsters to PixelJunk SideScroller and PixelJunk Eden (and everything in between), these games are generally well received critically and the hardcore PlayStation audience seems to have a soft spot for the games in general.

That’s why it’s good to see that the series’ developer, Q-Games, appears ready to expand on its library by polling gamers on which of its PixelJunk offshoots they want to see on PlayStation Vita the most. PSNStores noted that Q-Games’ Facebook page is running a poll asking “which one of the PixelJunk series would you most like to see on PlayStation Vita? Get clicking and spread the word!”

Such a poll isn’t necessarily confirmation that PixelJunk will make the leap to PlayStation Vita, but it’s certainly evidence suggesting that Q-Games is considering it. It wouldn’t be the first time Q-Games brought a PixelJunk title to a handheld – PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe game to PSP in 2009 – but their efforts have been entirely directed towards PlayStation 3 otherwise. So it would be really nice to see PixelJunk go to Vita. If you agree, get to voting!

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com