The Xbox 360 is keeping those third party devices at bay and those who intend to make any would literally need Microsoft's seal of approval. X-Gaming does not have such a seal. So instead of knocking on Steve Ballmer's door to get a "yes" and later find Major Nelson clarifying it as a "no", X-Gaming found a way to bypass security to enable the use of their X-Arcade stick for the Xbox 360. The irony of it all? It uses a PS2 adapter.

Whether you're a PS3, Xbox 360, or PC gamer, Mad Catz has you covered when it comes to Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, and PC). The third-party peripheral maker has unveiled the new fancy controllers and accessories they have in store for the game. Images and text walls after the jump.

One of Russia's most distinguished game developer and publisher, 1C company, has announced two new game projects that will be their first on the next generation consoles. The two games are based on Captain Blood novels and the successful IL-2 Sturmovik flight combat simulation series.  Both are now heading to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (to North America with help), but even handhelds will feel some love as well.

We've just gotten a report claiming that Microsoft is gearing up to announce three new Xbox 360 bundles in response to the PlayStation 3 price drop in Europe. No official statement confirming or denying these new sets has been released yet, so you might want to wait for that before you get excited.

After looking at the alleged contents of each pack, it seems that each one focuses on a different consumer group - from hard core FPS fans to casual gamers. The most expensive of the three is the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare bundle. It is said to be an Xbox 360 Premium with an HDMI port packaged with a single gamepad, and a copy of CoD4. According to the rumor, this will be released early November for around €385 (est. US$ 543).

The second bundle, called the Xbox 360 Premium Value pack, is supposedly going to be released on November 3. It will include an Xbox 360 Premium console with an HDMI port, one wireless controller, Forza Motorsport 2, and Viva Pinata. If it comes out, the estimated price would be at about €349 or US$ 492.

The last of the rumored bundles,  the Xbox 360 Arcade Pack, appears to be targeting casual gamers . It reportedly includes a core system with an HDMI port, one wireless controller, a 256 MB memory card, five Xbox Live arcade games, a CD of demos, a one year subscription to Xbox live, and other various goodies. Like the previous pack, it was speculated that this will be out by November 3 for €279 (est. US$ 394).

If these bundles do make it to the market, we can expect that there will be more than a few happy gamers this holiday season. Hopefully Microsoft decides to "spread the love" by announcing a North American release as well.

And just to settle the score against the competition, EA Sports' NHL 08 (for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) producer David Littman recently made a blog entry for the next hockey sports title and passed new gameplay features and improvements that players might be interested to know. And according to him, from now until shipment, fans of the game can keep checking blogged updates on new developments.

But first, let's see what EA Sports has in store for the new hockey successor to NHL 07, featuring cover athlete Eric "Gunner" Staal this time around. Littman pointed out that all the NHL 07 skating issues have been addressed and that players should have complete, 100% control over each of their players.

"Overall, our goal is to create the tools and the brain of an NHL player, input them into our game, and then leave the rest to you," blogged Littman. So expect brief flicks on control sticks should equate to a precise unique reaction on a player in the game, like a 10% tap in one direction should reflect a player zipping in that location in 10% speed accordingly.

And how about stopping to line up the right pass or shot? That's been improved, too. In any case, the length of time it takes for you to tap the stick on your gamepad, the controlled man will take that long to stop. A simple tap backwards makes a brief controlled halt, and tapping back forward again will cause your player to skirt in that direction again.

And skating has also been improved to the point that animation and gameplay mechanics become more practical and realistic. Teammates on the defense positions will now keep to the blue lines, facing their upper torso toward the puck so that they're always ready to receive a pass from the puckhandler.

Cross-over turns are now just controlled by a genuine, quick roll of the stick, if you want to skirt behind the goal for example to clear up a newly retrieved puck for a new offensive dash toward the opponent's end. He also adds that it keeps player's speeds up while allowing them to change direction.

Skill Stick features in NHL 07 have been further developed to practical levels in NHL 08, and the team behind NHL 08 will also be addressing goals trickling past the goalie and new team-based AI. More on that once they come in.

Wing Commander, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Descent: Freespace, Star Trek: Legacy, Battlecruiser/Universal Combat, Battlestar Galactica (which one?), and now Galactic Command. So as long as there in man lies the need to explore strange new worlds, there lies that... darker need to blow stuff up in those strange new worlds. Here are two gameplay previews from GameTrailers showing off space - and atmospheric - combat.

At least the GUI is indeed friendly: anyone who's hopped into an F-16 in Falcon will recognize the HUD and MFD displays. Ship models look good, but this being a newly announced game, we are presuming this is only the graphic's beginnings, and we will see improvements later on. Combat didn't seem that dynamic, none of the yanking and banking you'd expect a space ace to pull - or maybe the player was green. Still a good start for the game, though. We hope to see more of it in the coming weeks.

With the game making a dual appearance on the PC and the Xbox 360, we're wondering if this could easily become a Live Anywhere game, with console owners and PC owners duking it out for space supremacy. With gamepad support on the PC (or conversely, someone finally comes up with a good mappable flight joystick for the 360), this game could easily become the best game to have a multiplayer PC/360 game with, as opposed to Shadowrun (FPS advantage to mouse control) or Age of Conan.



Going down to the hard deck after the jump.

Before you guys go ranting: "oh noes! not another pong incarnationz this suxxors!!!111" Be a bit patient and hear what we have to say. As standard pong games go, what's amazing about this pong incarnation is that it was made by Rob Loach in 2 hours. Pretty fast wouldn't you say? Props to you Rob!

Does this say a lot about XNA technology? Feel free to tell us in the comments. Meanwhile, take a look at what this game has to offer:

Features:

• Play against the AI computer
• Use your GamePad or Keyboard to control your paddle
• Easy to read code

Requirements:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
• Microsoft XNA Framework (Binary provided)

Download: [XNA- PongXNA]

While technology is supposed to make life simpler, it often backfires making life actually more complicated. Take Prey for instance. Typical of a multi-platform title, the question you have to grapple with isn't just to buy or not to buy. But also, do you  buy the PC version or Prey for Xbox 360. The question, of course, is valid only if you own a PC and an Xbox 360.

As usual, where there is a dilemma there's some folk who are bound to go find out for themselves. In this case it's the team at Gamespot. They decided to put the two Prey versions to test to see which is the predator and which is the prey. According to the team, PC-based games are traditionally superior to consoles especially for the FPS genre. Mainly because the mouse-and-keyboard standard presents better control than a gamepad plus PC graphics outclass the consoles'.

The arrival of the Xbox 360 is changing all that by giving the PC a run for its money. See what we mean by new technology making things more complicated? To make things less complicated, here are the GameSpot score card for the two species of Prey.

Prey (Xbox 360) The Good:

• Solid performance. Uses the console's addictive achievements system.
• Has Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Prey (Xbox 360) The Bad

• Costs $10 more than the PC version.
• Any user-generated content cannot be used.

Prey (PC) The Good:

• Cheaper retail price.
  
• Better graphics when played on high-end PCs.
• More potential thanks to additional content via user mods and maps.

Prey (PC) The Bad:

• No native support for widescreen resolutions.
• Multiplayer designed to only officially support eight players.

The bottomline: Prey PC is great on high-end machines. But the Xbox 360 version is better for gamers who don't want to upgrade their PC.

Twistedsymphony spent two and a half months to get a Sega Saturn controller working on his Xbox 360. Now why, you ask, will he "waste" as much time getting an old gamepad working on a next-generation console? Because upcoming Xbox Live Arcade titles Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 are best played with a good 2D gamepad. Aah...now aren't you glad twistedsymphony was able to finish the project before either games come out?

V1 Prototype of the Sat-2-360 Controller Adapter connects to the Saturn controller using a cut-up cable extender, which was wired to a pin header in the same order as the controller socket. Then the adapter goes to a Microchip PIC16F690, where the "joypad protocol is decoded into a parallel output". The hardworking twistedsymphony gives us a summary of what else was done to make the Saturn controller adaptable:

I was able to do ever button but the "Start" button due to the PIC chip being one I/O port shy of what I needed, being the least integral to gameplay that was the button that got the axe. Once the data is in Parallel form you could easily adapt the Saturn controller to just about anything you wanted to.

Truly amazing. However, a flexible Saturn gamepad does not necessarily mean it's flexible enough for use with the 360. Since twistedsymphony was using a wireless 360 controller, the Sat-2-360 project presented a "challenge". To help reduce the pin count of the next-gen console's encoder chip, Microsoft implemented an "interesting" button matrix - making the buttons non-compatible with a logic high/logic low interface. How did twistedsymphony worked around this? He shares:

Without the equipment to properly analyze the controller to work with this unique system I simply used an array of Analog Switches that emulated a button press on the 360 controller. This proved to work well.

Now the outputs of the analog switches were wired to another custom pin header and into a ribbon cable that connects to the right points in the 360 controller. For easier construction, twistedsymphony "chose points that were easier to solder to as opposed to points that were apparent as to what they attached to".

The result? A working wireless, battery-operated adapter that allows a Sega Saturn controller to work on a Xbox 360. Awed? Still finding it hard to believe? Here's a video that shows that the feat has been done:

If you want to get more info on how to replicate twistedsymphony's accomplishment, just click here.