Xbox 360 Features

History and videogames have been intertwined since at least the early ‘80s, but at best it’s been a shaky relationship. Until fairly recently, concepts like “realism” and “accuracy” weren’t often a consideration, and they tended to be thrown out the window if a cool explosion or giant monster was judged more beneficial to gameplay. As technology has progressed, however, more of these games have been trying hard to be true to their historical roots – and, predictably, a lot of them don’t do so well...

Just over a week ago, Activision opened the doors on its first-ever Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles, bringing together a broad assortment of fans for a two-day, awesome-activity-filled festival devoted to all things Call of Duty. Really, the event was about one thing – giving fans a chance to try out the multiplayer in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – but there was a lot more to see, most of which had nothing to do with planting yourself in front of a screen. And in case you weren’t able to make it to L.A. yourself, GR’s own Chris Antista was there to deliver a comprehensive overview of what went down...

Behold! 20 minutes worth of in-game action from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The gameplay is also intricately narrated by the games director, Todd Howard. Click into the article to see the beauty with your own peep-holes.

If you're a gamer, the GamesMaster Golden Joystick Awards need no introduction. Which is great for us because it means we can skip the bit about them being the only gaming awards that matter because they're the only gaming awards that are voted for by gamers.

To get everyone feeling sexy and in the mood for the awards, we'll be highlighting each of the categories in turn. Today, we're looking with almost uncontainable excitement at the Sports, Action/Adventure and Music-based nominations.

We have a little something for everyone in this week's iPad review roundup, with a varied set of recent App Store releases that starts off with Fractal: Make Blooms Not War, an amusingly-titled original puzzler that'll kick your ass – and probably still leave you wanting more. Beyond that, we're checking out Touchgrind BMX, which puts your pointer and middle fingers in command of a realistic bike, along with free shoot-'em-up Phoenix HD and the long-overdue iPad version of iPhone megahit...

Basically 700 games came out this week and we reviewed almost all of them. On top of that, we talk 7 games that were way better than they deserved to be, Call of Duty XP, and other awesome stuff...

This fall, the Xbox Live experience will evolve once more. Past dashboard updates have brought us features like Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, ESPN and customizable avatars. So what’s new this time? Yesterday we spoke with Terry Farrell, Senior Product Manager of Xbox, about the coming changes and, for your convenience, stuck the most significant ones in this handy list right here...

There are quite a few things wrong with Dead Island, but thanks to the raft of technical issues at play, one problem which isn't often focused upon is its terrible script and somewhat patchy acting. So we thought we'd focus on that problem with this week's Highlight.

I suspect this is Cam 'Liquid Snake and a million others' Clarke in this here audio-diary (accompanying animation by myself). I'm a big fan of Cam Clarke, but there's absolutely no way he could have polished this dialogue-turd.

                                        Platform: Steam | Publisher: EA | Developer: EA | Price: Various

When there's a sale on where the lowest price cut is 50% you know you've got a sweet deal and this is exactly the case with the Need For Speed series on Steam right now. Hit the jump to see what's included and what other sparkling treats we've selected for your hard earned pennies this week.

If you're a gamer, The GamesMaster Golden Joystick Awards need no introduction. Which is great for us because it means we can skip the bit about them being the only gaming awards that matter because they're the only gaming awards that are voted for by gamers.

To get everyone feeling sexy and excited for the awards, we'll be highlighting each of the categories in turn. Today, we're looking with feverish anticipation at the Fighting, MMO and Racing nominations.