As the footage from a former Rare employee shows work on Perfect Dark 2 was done in 2007 before being scrapped as well as Kameo 2. Additionally, MundoRare has some exclusive information to share regarding Perfect Dark 2. According to our own sources, PD2 was indeed started in 2007, but by late 2007, it wasn't greenlighted; it was a prototype instead. Chris Seavor from Conker and Killer Instinct fame was in charge of the project. By early 2008, the PD2 team was cut down to a 3-man team, effectively putting the game on hold. At the same time, our sources revealed that back then, it was "overwhelmingly unlikely" that PD2 would no longer be set in the PD universe. During early 2008, the game (which evolved into something that wasn't PD2) was still in its early stages and with an uncertain future.
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Kotaku:

Here's the list, which eschews games like Fable and Assassin's Creed in favour of some games with a more...Japanese fare.

Idolmaster
Idolmaster Live 4 U
Viva Pinata
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Perfect Dark Zero
Bullet Witch
Fight Night: Round 3
Rainbow Six: Vegas

Each of those games will go for ¥2000 (USD$21), which might be a challenge for Microsoft, since you can find some of those games used for under ¥1000 (USD$10). Then again, others will be bargains!

As with everywhere else, Games on Demand will launch in Japan on August 11.
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"There have been plenty rumors about Perfect Dark coming soon for XBLA... well... we can confirm that Perfect Dark is indeed on it's way to XBLA. This is not a rumor, it's coming! Not just that, there is a very large announcement coming from Rare soon (ahem in line with E3). We last heard that it wasn't known if they would go ahead and make this announcement but as time progressed, it looks as though it's all systems go. Expect a major surprise from Rare this June"
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From the dystopian corridors of BioShock's subterranean "paradise" to the Strogg-infested space stations found throughout the Quake franchise, First Person Shooters have found countless ways to establish themselves as rich, enjoyable experiences, capturing the hearts and trigger fingers of gamers worldwide.

Even if it's just blasting away wave after wave of demons in Blood, or perhaps saving mankind from itself as you traverse Half-Life 2's City 17, the FPS genre has proven itself time and time again.
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at Develop last week, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton, an employee at Rare for over 10 years, has revealed that when talking about the studios' owned intellectual property "there's a good chance of seeing any of it again".

"You might see Killer Instinct, you might see Battletoads. Or as I said the other month Killer Instinct meets Battletoads in the GoldenEye universe!" joked Burton.

The titles the Microsoft owned studio is currently working on is something that's constantly debated on internet forums, and speculation isn't helped by Rare's constant teasing. Do you remember the Rare 2007 Christmas card that hinted at a new Killer Instinct? Burton was all too happy to reveal the story behind the card.

"You'll probably have to rephrase this, we're just fu!$ing with you!" he joked. "Have you not noticed a theme in our Christmas cards? We do it every year! It's just sometimes people don't notice it because it's that subtle.

"Ryan (Stevenson, senior concept artist), when he was doing it said, oh I'm putting Killer Instinct in that, I am. The conversation was, put Battletoads in as well! Or Snake Rattle and Roll, come on do it! We have a reputation for teasing. Sometimes we do it for good reasons and other times it upsets people. We're English, we're allowed to!"

Burton wouldn't be drawn on confirming the existence of a new Killer Instinct title, but say that "you could pick anything in our back catalogue and then turn it into something new".
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton has revealed that he believes the studio's 360 titles could well be remembered by today's gamers in the same way a generation looks back on N64 classic GoldenEye.

When asked if Rare is releasing games now that will have a similar effect on these people as older games did with an older generation of gamers, Burton was confident that they would.

"I think that already happened," stated Burton. "It's funny when you get fan mail. We do. We get quite a bit. Some for old stuff, quite a lot for new stuff.

"Whether we have as many of them or more, you'll have to ask me in 10 years time. But then again the market's much bigger, it's much more diverse, there's many more games."

When asked directly if the games Rare is putting out on the Xbox 360 could be this generation's GoldenEye experience, Burton replied: "Could be, yeah. It would be a different experience from GoldenEye without a doubt."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at last week's Develop conference in Brighton, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton hit out at reports suggesting Xbox 360 launch titles Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero bombed at retail.

"One of the things that I always find funny is when people always quote Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero as being flops at the launch of the 360," said Burton. "In the industry if you break even you're lucky, you're in the minority. If you make a decent amount of money you're really in the minority. You're in the top percentile. Those two games made a lot of money. For the install base they sold phenomenally well. Kameo is still selling now."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the Develop conference in Brighton last week, Nick Burton, a senior software engineer at Rare, has assured Xbox 360 gamers that there's plenty more to come from the console.

"You never can push them as far as they can go. The reality of the peak performance of the console is yes, you could look to a generation beyond where we are now and think, yeah, I could use that power. But the reality is in 360 and the PS3 and the latest generation PC graphics, the amount of power in the GPUs is such that you're more bound by your creativity and the aesthetic you're going for than you're really bound by polygon pushing power," said Burton. "You're probably actually more bound maybe by art authoring and the amount of data throughput that, just the amount of memory you'd need, but I don't think 360 has reached its limit."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the Develop conference in Brighton last week, Nick Burton, a senior software engineer at Rare, revealed that currently announced Rare titles only account for half the development studio.

Asked directly if Rare would be making a second Kameo title Burton replied: "This is where I have to be enigmatically vague. Never say never. I'll say that I'm not working on one at the moment. I'm not working on one at the moment. Doesn't mean nobody else is, but that doesn't mean they are either. Sorry. For the obvious PR reasons we can't talk about what we're doing now."

He went on to suggest that there's plenty going on behind closed doors at Rare that should have gamers getting very excited.

"All I can say is, you know about VP2 (Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise), Viva Piñata on DS, Banjo obviously. There's a couple of things on the roster that are going to be pretty cool as well. Obviously you do the math. Look at the size and how big the Banjo team currently needs to be, how big our shared technology group and asset group are. Look at the number of games and how they're staggered and how many teams we have. There's about half the studio missing from the release schedule at the moment (laughs)," said Burton.
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SEASON 3 of OzBoxLive Radio has just started and we decided to make our first Game Night for the season a PLAYERS CHOICE.

You get to choose what Game we will be playing. Any game on the Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade or Xbox Original that supports 8 Players (or more) online.

On Sunday 20th of JULY at 8PM (AEST) we will have our next OzBoxLive Game Night.

Voting ends JULY 12th and it looks like Bomberman Live is in the lead followed by Perfect Dark Zero.

Note: Must be living in Australia or NewZealand inorder to have minimal lag.

Look forward to the fun night ahead.

The OzBoxLive team.
www.OzBoxLive.com
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XboxFamily has posted what is reported to be a screenshot of Microsoft's FTP which shows recently added assets for Conker Live and Reloaded, Fable, Jade Empire, and two older Xbox 360 games.

The article speculates that since the 360 titles are already Platinum Hits, it's uncommon for old assets to be added to the FTP and believes these titles could be made available for download.
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More images and videos found on an ex-Rare employee's website gets leaked across the Internet. 2 videos from the original Xbox version of Perfect Dark Zero is shown, along with lots of screen shots.
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Oct 15, 2007 A third console installment in Rare's Perfect Dark franchise will be revealed sometime next year, claims a report on games site GameGuru. The site, claiming sources within Rare, says the British developer is hard at work on a sequel to the original N64 shooter (rather than another PDZ-style prequel) and it'll have something to show of the game by the end of next year. According to Guru, the story will feature more prominently this time around with a Darker, grittier Joanna Dark. ... » Read More

A frustrated gamer has employed a clever method of unlocking one of Xbox 360's more mundane Achievement awards - just build a pad-hugging robo friend to do the boring work for you. David Harr, a mechanic from Seattle, had one final task to complete in Perfect Dark Zero: Play 2,000 offline matches. As an achievement, this clocks in at a whopping 40 hours of spirit crushing menu juggling nonsense as you start and then quit, and then start another game in the desperate hunt for those 60 precious ... » Read More

If you're a fan of the Xbox 360's Platinum Hits line up, then you'll be glad to hear that four more games will soon be added to that list.

According to Xbox Japan, the Platinum Hits line will now include:

Chromehounds
Burnout Revenge
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Perfect Dark Zero
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Major Nelson just released on his blog the top Xbox Live games of 2006

Here are the top games for 2006, based on Xbox Live connectivity.
The following rankings are based on data collected from 1/1/06 ¿ 12/29/06:

2006 Top Xbox 360 Titles (UU's)
1 Gears of War
2 Hexic HD
3 Call of Duty 2
4 Ghost Recon 3
5 Oblivion
6 PGR3
7 Perfect Dark Zero
8 Call Of Duty 3
9 UNO
10 EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3
11 Saints Row
12 Geometry Wars Evolved
13 DEAD OR ALIVE 4
14 Texas Hold 'em
15 Madden NFL 07
16 DEAD RISING
17 Need for Speed Most Wanted
18 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas
19 BFMC
20 Splinter Cell Double Agent

Arcade titles and Xbox 1 rankings after the jump
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Kicking off Microsoft's line of lower-priced, uglier-cased Platinum Hits Editions, Xbox 360 shooter Perfect Dark Zero will get a pack-in of six extra multiplayer maps - including remakes of classic deathmatch grounds Ruin and Facility. The other four maps were released earlier in the year as an Xbox Live download but Rare shooter fans should welcome the two classic Perfect Dark maps - especially Facility, which hearkens back to GoldenEye and has provided many hundreds of hours of toilet ... » Read More

Users can now download a map pack containing two classic maps from the N64 version of the game.

Microsoft and developer Rare have announced today that Perfect Dark Zero owners will be able to download a new map pack containing two maps from the original game of the series on the Nintendo 64. In November, Xbox Live users will be able to download for free the pack containing both Facility and Ruin maps from the original release.

Both maps set to be made available are complete remakes of the original N64 versions complete with updated, high resolution graphics.
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One of the few objections gamers are already making about Gears of War is that there is no jumping. Every time a developer decides to disregard a jumping option, gamers cry a river. Sometimes, gamers are right, such as with Perfect Dark Zero. In other cases, the way the game has been designed requires that there is no option for jumping at all. That's the case of Gears of War.

According to Cliff Bleszinski, Gears of War's lead designer, jumping in shooters is reminiscent of the Mario and Sonic era. CliffyB says people jump because it is the fastest way to move throughout a level, but in a game like Gears of War, where you move from cover to cover, you're already jumping-just in the X and Y axes.

In the following movie, CliffyB fully explains his reasons for the lack of a jump button in GoW:
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If you're anything like us, you love good games at a cheap price. Unfortunately, when shopping for 360 games, this confines us to the bargain been at local retail outlets which typically discount used games by as little as a couple bucks off the original price. Enter Microsoft's semi-new (new to the 360 library, anyway) Platinum Hits collection of cheapy 360 titles. Microsoft selected four games to lead the Platinum Hits charge (all priced at $29.99), and it should come as no surprise which ... » Read More