MundoRare writes: "Recent times and cancellations have shown that all is not well in Rare-land. As if the cancellations of both Perfect Dark 2 and Kameo 2 in favor of Project Natal have shaken the faith of even the most loyal Rare fans, David Wise's departure from Rare could very well be the killing blow. [...]

From his Facebook: "I think the business of Rare has changed a great deal, and at the moment there is just not the opportunity to create the soundtracks that Rare were fortunately very famous for."

Unfortunately, though, this is only the most recent loss of a distinguished employee within the British developer in the recent months.

Back in August, Steve Burke, another prominent Rare musician from Kameo fame, also left the company to take a year's sabbatical "to go travelling," according to some Rare sources; no word if the real reason could be or not related with his well known desires to work for the film industry. Burke and Wise's departures only follow the trade open by Grant Kirkhope a year ago.

Out of the musical department, there has recently been huge losses, with Microsoft's recent restructuring process affecting several engineers and artists, including Steve Malpass, designer for Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark, Ghoulies and Nuts & Bolts. Moreover, some programmers have also left, like veteran Mark Edmonds, one of the remaining members of the original GoldenEye 007 team, who abandoned Rare in late 2008 after 14 years of work at Twycross."
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Select Target Corp. stores this month began holding a new game clearance for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.
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Rare was acquired by Microsoft back in 2002 and has been at the heart of the platform holder's internal development, but only now, with the upcoming launch of Natal, does the developer feel it and Microsoft are on the same page.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com about Natal prior to gamescom, Rare design director George Andreas explained just why the motion sensing technology is such a big deal.
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PathEngine has announced the release 5.21.00 of their pathfinding and agent movement SDK, with key features of the release being the addition of functionality for projecting 3D geometry to ground shapes, significant optimisation of pre-process data structures, and 3D content processing improvements. In addition, the team have also announced a licensing agreement with Monolith, and to Nexon for Nexon Star.
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360-Deals writes:

"This July 4th, retail Amazon.com kicked off a special promotion on the Xbox 360 Arcade console.

Get a copy of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts free ($29.99 value) when you order an Xbox 360 arcade at Aamzon!

Promotion ends on July 11, 2009 at 11:59PST

Here are the full details..."
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GamingShogun.com writes: "Banjo-Kazooie fans be aware that the soundtrack to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts will be released tomorrow on June 30th via retail stores, www.sumthing.com, and will be available for digital download on www.sumthingdigital.com and iTunes..."
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Retailer Amazon.com this week price cut game titles for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 in the latest video game promotion.

This week, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts held a sale price of $17.97, 40 percent off the $29.99 MSRP.

In addition, You're In The Movies held a sale price of $14.97, 25 percent off the $19.99 MSRP.
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MundoRare writes: "With E3 fast approaching, and the last edition of Scribes being somewhere around mid-February, good ol' Loveday saw it fit to update with yet another tantalizingly teasing edition of Scribes.

When asked about what a Banjo-Fourie would have, Loveday, besides commenting on the horribleness of the name, said that he doesn't know any more than you do on a possible sequel. Keep in mind that, before the game's release, the team originally wanted to build upon (sorry) the vehicle concept. Who knows what the plans are now, if any?

Loveday, in a rather creative manner, acknowledges, once again, the lack of a Blast Corps and a Jet Force Gemini sequel. However, he does wonder if XBLA would "be a good place to reintroduce the whimsical savagery of the originals first." In which case, yes, it would. Bring on the difficulty of Blast Corps and the painfully long Tribal fetch-quest in Jet Force Gemini to a new audience!

While the economic recession has been quite the bitch, it can safely be said that it didn't result "in the canning of entire projects."

On a similar note, when a few of Rare's staff were unfortunately compromised, an employee let slip of four projects. Loveday commented, "I don't know where and when this confirmation happened, but it must have passed me by. The actual situation here is that things are so TEH TOP SECRAT at the moment, I'm a loooong way from being in a position to spill the beans on everything that's cooking. What I will say is that there's little talk of the 'obvious choices' I've seen rumoured elsewhere." This begs the question if he considers KI3 an obvious choice, but as it stands, we hopefully won't have long to find out what Rare's been cooking."
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Quoted from the Official Banjo Blog:

"The time has come, Banjo fans, for a bit of show and tell. What does this entail, exactly? It means that we're at last ready to show you the entries we selected as the best user-created contraptions for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and tell you a little bit about how the fabled Stop 'N' Swop will work in Banjo-Tooie on XBLA, for those who haven't already had the surprise spoiled for them by those scamps over at the Rare Witch Project."
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The Rare Witch Project reveals Stop 'n' Swop on Banjo Kazooie/Banjo Tooie on XBLA. The Scrapped hidden feature intended to be a transfer mode between Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie on the original N64 games.
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Following LOG's Lost Challenges and Klungo's gamerpics, Easter '09 continues with another bunch of Banjo items in the Xbox Marketplace.

As promised by Rare, the so-called Tooie's Splendid Theme can now be downloaded for 250 Microsoft Points, and the two packs of Stop 'n' Swop gamerpics are also available for the price of free (but just until Monday!).

Of course, the highly expected Banjo-Tooie XBLA trailer has also made its appearance.
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LOG's Lost Challenges, the Nuts & Bolts add-on released finally today on the Xbox Live Marketplace, comes with major offerings inside: seven new multiplayer modes, a dozen of extra challenges that take place in the Test-O-Track, the exciting return of Hero Klungo Sssavesss Teh World with new levels, and 250 gamerpoints in form of new achievements. And all of it for just 400 Microsoft Points.

You must admit that, whether you liked Nuts & Bolts or not, this is clearly what can be considered as a big bargain.

Besides, if you are a Gold user of Xbox Live, today you can also get for free a new collection of Banjo gamerpics. And if all of this wasn't enough, check out the splendid aspect of the new Banjo-Tooie theme coming next Friday 10th April for 250 Microsoft Points!
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Console Monster writes: "It's been a while but today sees the return of the Xbox Live Marketplace Update, and boy is it good. Today sees the release of two sets of downloadable content. One of which is for Resident Evil 5, and the other for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. There are also new Rock Band tracks for purchase and some free Gamerpicsss. Here is the full Xbox Live Marketplace Update for Tuesday 7th April 2009:

*Update* It appears the Resident Evil 5 content leaves an error when downloading. It may be best to wait until the problem is sorted before purchasing. *Update End*

Resident Evil 5: Versus Mode
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Size: 2MB
Description: VERSUS is a new mode available for Resident Evil 5. Take control of Chris, Sheva and other RE5 favorites in online battles of up to 4 players! Compete for points by defeating Majini in SLAYERS or take down other players in SURVIVORS. Fight alone or in a team for a total of 4 exciting variations!?You must have an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership to go on-line and use this mode..."
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gmagnus of CheapAssGamer informs the masses of a discounted games offered at Amazon.
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To celebrate the addition of brand new levels as part of L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges, Rare also be giving away a set of free Limited Edition Gamerpics to give your online gaming persona a nice little makeover.
Rare will also release of two Limited Edition Banjo-Tooie themed Gamerpics. These will only be available for download from 10th – 14th April.
Lastly, Rare will also be releasing a very special Easter-themed trailer for the high-definition release of Banjo-Tooie on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. As we all know, Easter doesn't last forever and neither does this trailer – you'll only be able to get your mitts on it from 10th – 14th April, just like the Easter-themed Gamerpics.
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Polish up that toolkit and prepare to dive back into the vivid world of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, where invigorating new challenges await with the Lord of Games' (L.O.G) Lost Challenges Game Add-On pack! Worried that Banjo and Kazooie may be falling back into their lazy ways, L.O.G has created a fresh series of tests and seven additional multiplayer modes for players to continue building their own distinctive vehicle creations. Although Spiral Mountain has been rightfully won, L.O.G. has an enticing reward for completing his new challenges: another version of Klungo's Arcade game.
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Rare has revealed new achievements for their title Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts giving some insight into the upcoming DLC for the game.
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MundoRare writes: "You may remember that some days ago Rare promised through their official website imminent information about some unexpected DLC content for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, entitled "LOG's Lost Challenges".

According to Microsoft's Xbox Live Team this LOG's Challenge Game Add-on is rated PEGI+7 and doesn't have a release date yet (at least, nothing more specific than the typical "coming soon").

From the official forums we also know for sure that "the DLC contains more than just challenges" but it "doesn't contain 'the Weird West'", which was supposed to be the sixth game world, removed in the final version of the game. Rare's Mike Wilson also confirmed that "the DLC will be accompanied by the 3rd Nuts & Bolts community night"."
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Article investigating why game developers make games that alienate at least 10% of their potential market by making the game text completely illegible on a SDTV.
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From Rare.co.uk: "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts – it's not over yet. We can't offer any specifics, but it wouldn't do to let your N&B disc gather dust. To whet your appetite for what's coming, a few words from L.O.G. himself..."
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