1UP Staff, 12/23/2007:

"We really should hate attending the Jump Festa videogame and comic show. But the promise of Square Enix titles making their playable debut is way too much to pass up."

"At this year's event, open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, Square Enix was once again the main attraction for the videogame crowd. With the promise of playable debuts for the Final Fantasy fighting game for PSP, Final Fantasy: Dissidia, the new DS Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and the new mobile Final Fantasy IV spinoff, Final Fantasy IV: The After."

"This year's showcase had Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XIII sandwiching short clips of the Parasite Eve mobile sequel and the Blu-ray version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children."

In addition, Sega, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Nintendo, and Microsoft all have booths at the Jump Festa this year. 1UP's report briefly covers all of them.
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MSNBC video game section has been polling gamers about their favorite games in a number of categories, trying to narrow down the search for the Game of the Year.

On Thursday the site put up the poll to decide which of the finalists, culled from the best of each genre, should be named the game of the year.

The finalists are:
¿ Madden NFL 08
¿ Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Mass Effect
¿ Bioshock
¿ Call of Duty 4

At the time of this writing Call of Duty 4 was leading with 31 percent of the vote. BioShock was close behind with 22 percent and Mass Effect was in a distant third with 8.6 percent.

[ Words: Kotaku's Brian Crecente ]
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Xbox360Fanboy took the time to go through all the Black Friday ads and list all the Xbox 360 deals.
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Nov 15, 2007 The latest download content delivery has arrived on Xbox Live Marketplace for Project Gotham Racing 4, adding a bunch of online tournaments for those who fancy themselves as a bit handy behind the wheel. The free update adds four new races including Daily Tournaments, Super Saturday, Simulation Sundays, and the Global Cup. To qualify for the tournaments (which happen either daily or bi-monthly depending) you've got to set a decent lap time on a Solo Hot Lap race and check the ... » Read More

Starting tomorrow, Nov. 15th, Project Gotham Racing 4 players will have the chance to download four new game modes that will allow them to participate in daily tournaments. The four new modes will be: Daily Tournaments, Super Saturday, Simulation Sundays, and the Global Cup. Each race is a little different so check out all the details below.
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Link's latest Legend of Zelda adventure for Nintendo DS debuts at No1 in Spain and Germany, and at No2 in Sweden.

FIFA 08 makes three entries in the Spanish chart and two in the German top ten. In Sweden, Football Manager for PC tops the league.

While PC titles dominate the German and Swedish top tens, the Spanish chart has a distinctly console, specifically DS, flavor.
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The Orange Box debuts at 3, Phantom Hourglass at 4

Sega's Football Manager 2008 has entered the UK's all-formats chart at number one this week, knocking EA's FIFA 08 off the top spot.

Accounting for 38 per cent of all PC titles sold in the past week, Sports Interactive's management sim is Sega's first multiformat number one title since last year's version of the popular football franchise.

1. Football Manager 2008 (PC)
2. FIFA 08 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, PC)
3. The Orange Box (Xbox 360, PC)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
5. Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
6. Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)
7. Ratatouille (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, PC)
8. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, PC)
9. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
10. Crash of the Titans (Wii, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, DS, GBA)
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These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live. Major Nelson had no access to the Arcade title data this week, so no Arcade list for now. Here are the top 5 for both charts, see the source for the complete top 10 list.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles
1. Halo 3
2. Gears of War
3. Madden NFL 08
4. Virtua Fighter 5 Demo
5. Guitar Hero II

Original Xbox Top Live Games
1. Halo 2
2. Battlefield 2: MC
3. Counter-Strike
4. Star Wars: Battlefront 2
5. Madden NFL 08
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Driving title Project Gotham Racing 4 helped boost Xbox 360 sales in Japan nearly 400 percent in the latest retail sales data from the region.
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Bizarre Creations let Teamxbox know that the main bulk of the PGR Nations web site is now online ¿ including all of the fun country statistics and worldwide PGR4 leaderboard.

If people click a nation on the front page they will be taken to a detailed statistical overview of totals and averages across the entire nation.
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These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week. Here are the top 3 for each charts, see the source for the complete top 10 list.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles
1. Halo 3
2. Gears of War
3. The Simpsons Game Demo

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1. Tetris Splash
2. Puzzle Quest
3. Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Original Xbox Top Live Games
1. Halo 2
2. Battlefield 2: MC
3. Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
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The newest Game Informer has just landed in stores in America and this months' issue contains some very interesting reviews of all the coming and available games. Games like Halo 3, Half Life 2: Orange Box, PGR4, Mass Effect, Syphon Filter, Ace Attorney, DiRT, Ace Combat 6, NBA Live 08, NBA 2K8, NBA 08 have all been reviewed in this months' edition.

Most noticeable scores are for Halo 3, Mass Effect and Orange Box, which have all received reviews of 9.75 given by two different editors. Ace Combat 6 and PGR 4 also did very well with a 9- for Ace Combat and a 9+ for PGR4. Syphon Filter for PSP did very well with a 9-. Two Worlds was slammed again with two disappointing reviews of a 4 and a 2. Check out all this months' reviews below.

Mass Effect (Xbox 360, BioWare): 9.75/9.75
Ace Combat 6 (Xbox 360, Bandai Namco): 8.75/8.75
The Orange Box (Xbox 360, Valve): 9.75/9.75
Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9.75/9.75 **Game of the month**
Zack and Wiki (Wii, Capcom): 8.25/7.75
NBA Live (PS3/Xbox 360/Wii, EA): 7.5/7.75
NBA 2K8 (PS3/Xbox 360, 2K Games): 8.25/8.5
Conan (PS3/Xbox 360, THQ): 7/7.25
Blazing Angels 2 (Xbox 360, Ubisoft): 7.5/7.75
Crash Of The Titans (Xbox 360/Wii/PS2/PSP/NDS, Sierra): 7.25
Spyro: The Eternal Night (Wii, Sierra): 6.25
Two Worlds (Xbox 360, SouthPeak Interactive): 4/2
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (Xbox 360/PS2/Wii/PSP/NDS, Activision): 4.5/5.5
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (Xbox 360/PS2/PS3): 8.25/8.5
Dirt (Xbox 360/PS3, Codemasters): 8/8.5
NBA 08 (PS3/PSP, Sony): 7/6.25
Carnival Games (Wii, Take-Two): 5.5
The Sims 2: Castaway (Wii/PS2/PSP/NDS, EA): 7.25
Victorious Boxers: Revolution (Wii, Xseed): 6.75
Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360, Bizarre): 8.75/9.25
FlatOut Ultimate Carnage (Xbox 360, Warner): 7.5/8.5
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (PSP, Sony): 8.75/9 **Handheld game of the month*...
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VGChartz has just uploaded the new hard- and software sales for the week of September 30 - October 6. Not suprisingly, Halo 3 remains the top selling game in the US with an additional 562.000 copies in its second week, which brings its total to almost 3.2 million. Nintendo DS's biggest title of the year thus far, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, debuted on second place with almost 350.000 copies. Also, NBA 2K8 on the Xbox 360 outsold NBA Live 08 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 2 with a debut of 116.000, compared to NBA Live's 102.000 on the Xbox 360. Microsofts exclusive title Project Gotham Racing 4 debuted with just 90.000 copies in its first week.

On the hardware side, the Halo 3 effect seems to still effect the Xbox 360 hardware sales as Xbox 360 hardware numbers jumped another 6% to almost 130.000. Nintendo DS was still the top selling hardware this week, despite a 5% decline to 135.000 copies. Nintendo Wii sales dropped 2% to 95.000 as Playstation 3 numbers remained at the same level with almost 30.000 units. Check out all this weeks numbers after the jump.
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Oct 9, 2007 A playable demo of the daddy of 360 racing games is now up on Xbox Live Marketplace. Give the bikes a try for yourself... As CVG reported back in September, the demo even features content not seen in the final game. This officially makes it a collector's item and we're downloading the 1.3GB demo right now. You get to race three exotic cars and two bikes across courses based in Macau and a snowy Nürburgring. There's an exclusive Nürburgring Snow Challenge to fail ... » Read More

Two new demos landed on Xbox Live: Project Gotham Racing 4 weighs in at 1.27 GB and available in every regions, while the demo of F.E.A.R. Files: Extraction Point is available only in Canada and in the United States, its size is 584.87 MB.
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Oct 9, 2007 Up to now racing games have given you one thing to worry about; get as far in front of your opponents as possible and stay there until you reach the chequered flag. But now, thanks to Project Gotham Racing 4, power sliding its way onto 360 this Friday, you'll also have changing weather systems to deal with. Rain, fog, storms and a host of other condition's can all loom over the race track at a moments notice, causing you to change your breaking distances and racing lines ... » Read More

Oct 8, 2007 The launch of Project Gotham Racing 4 this Friday will not only give 360 owners the chance to experience one of the best racing games ever made, but also the opportunity to sample Geometry Wars: Waves, a new version of the frantic, high-score shooter. While keeping the same simple premise of blasting everything in sight there are some notable changes. The enemies now attack in waves, travelling back and forth across the screen. Smart bombs are now a thing of the past and your ... » Read More

The Xbox Community Network recently caught up with Ben Ward, Bizarre Creations Community and Web Lead to ask him some questions about the much anticipated Project Gotham Racing 4.
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Oct 3, 2007 Bizarre Creations has elaborated on comments made by PGR lead designer Ged Talbot, who shares his ideas for his next racing game with us below. A Bizarre spokesperson has stated that Talbot's ideas, which include non-city environments and ATV vehicles, were referring to "the next game he works on," rather than any one particular title. In a recent interview, PGR 4's lead designer Talbot said that "next time" he'd like to focus more on the detail. "That's what we think; we think ... » Read More

If you're au fait with the whole import scene, it seems that you'll be able to get hold of Project Gotham Racing 4 ahead of its PAL release, because the game is region free. According to Play-Asia.com, the Asian version of Bizarre's final instalment in the Gotham series will work with all three territorial versions (PAL, NTSC-U and NTSC-J) of the 360, and better still, actually has the Asian version in stock.

Although 360Gamer are not able to validate this claim at the moment they point out that Play-Asia's usually pretty reliable when it comes to such matters. Better still, with it being the Asian version, it's considerably cheaper (£25, sans tax and import duty) than the official PAL release will be as well ¿ so not only does that mean you can probably get hold of Gotham 4 earlier, you could wind up saving a bit of cash, too.
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