Microsoft's Mii-too 'Avatars' begins monumental info spillage

When blog site Xbox 360 Fanboy posted picture evidence of Microsoft's rumoured Mii-styled 'Avatars' system yesterday, it triggered a deluge of secret information spilling on to the net, including info on Guitar Hero 4, Forza Motorsport 3, a 360 karaoke game called Lips and plenty more besides. We've got a bullet-pointed rundown of the 'leaked' information further down this page.

The fun started when 360 Fanboy linked to the 'Avatars' image (above) hosted on the site of market research company Intellisponse. It didn't take long for industrious NeoGaf forumites to figure out how to bypass the password control for other files stashed on a supposedly secure section of Intellisponse's site. Inevitably there then followed a lengthy period of ransacking in which much information was stealthily procured.

By the time Intellisponse took action to stop the raiding, there was already a heap of pilfered info posted on NeoGaf. You can find it all here or just skip over the highlights in our list below.

So, good work NeoGaf - without you there would be approximately 90% less interesting game news on the internetz today.

Here's an easy-to-digest list of highlights, but remember that until officially announced, all of these should be treated as rumour and speculation...

• Avatars for Xbox 360 will replace gamer pictures. There will be "hundreds of clothing options" for them and they'll be playable in "various arcade and retail games". Looks like a massive rip-off of Nintendo's Miis.

• Guitar Hero 4 will cost $180 and will come with a new touch-sensitive guitar. Featured artists will include Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, System of a Down, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, Muse "and dozens more"

• Lips is an Xbox 360 karaoke game. It'll come with 30 songs and two wireless motion-sensitive (dance, move, swing to score more!) microphones. Players will be able upload songs from CDs and iPods.

• Tony Hawks Huck Jam/Adrenaline for PS3, 360 and PC will use a motion-sensing skateboard controller that will help gamers "feel the sensation of going big".

• Forza Motorsport 3 will be sold on two discs because of such an impressive feature set of cars (over 400) and tracks (over 100).

• A new Spider-Man game on Wii will use the Wii Fit balance board to control Spidey.

• A Transformers 2 game will go "beyond the movie".

• New comic tie-ins including Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Spider-Man Vs Marvel Zombies are in development.

• Too Human dev Silicon Knights is working on a game called The Crucible.

• Ultimate Band is a Rock Band clone for Wii. All instruments are controlled using the nunchuk and remote.

I don't have the energy to really hate anything properly. Most things I think are OK or inoffensively average. I do love quite a lot of stuff as well, though.