As my friends and family will tell you, I was HUGELY excited for Gearbox’s Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway. I consistently wore them out with a particularly cool video, which showcased some incredible physics and camerawork (it is the first of a series of three below). As you will see in the three videos below (arranged in saddening chronologically developer-released order), there’s less and less reason to be excited about this one.
Whew, thanks Anon 56. You know how to cut to the core of me… 
In reading the disgustingly disappointing news yesterday regarding the Spring Dashboard Update (or lack therein), I decided to surf through some of the staggering 464 comments left on Major Nelson’s site (at the time of this writing). Outside of the viscerally gratifying title of this post, I tried to grab the most level-headed of the comments and post them here to show that the community (when not riled up of course) has some really decent points about this most terrible of decisions:
I’m not sure how to process this, except to be in complete denial until we get an official announcement. And then I shall commence weeping.
Next Generation has an interview with Marc Whitten about some of the oh-so-wonderful milestones Xbox Live has hit, and an interesting plan Microsoft will be implementing to delist poor performing titles on XBLA (not a terrible idea, IMHO). But it was this gem that actually stopped my heart for a second:
One of the reasons I support Microsoft’s efforts in the gaming space is because of some really bold steps they took over five years ago in regards to Xbox Live. This podcast (featuring one of my favorite Microsoft folks Scott Henson) throws around a really well-placed term: “heavy lifting”. Essentially, Microsoft decided a long time ago to take things like matchmaking, friends lists, and voice communication off the hands of developers and integrate them into the development platform (now known as XNA). This means that those items (and any that are folded in over time) will work consistently across different titles. The flipside of this is that those features need to have flexibility at the API level or creativity will be stifled (there hasn’t been much report of this happening, as many developers have commented on Microsoft’s willingness to adapt the Live platform over time, but it is certainly worth mentioning).
I’ll admit that I typically start my postulating and ruminating about the next Dashboard update earlier than most (generally around 48 hours after the newest one drops), but it seems that the Internet is bursting at the seams to have their Spring Dashboard 2008 update shipped and writ large to their firmwares!
Well, it might have (and hopefully will have) taken them four years to get it together, but this…looks…wonderful…
Hello fellow Burners! (You know who you are…)
The Burnout Paradise Bogart Xbox 360 title update will go live Monday, May 12th!
What’s this? An announcement about Assault Heroes 2? I just turned on my Xbox 360, and the ad on my Media blade says (quite clearly) “Assault Heroes 2″ with a corner slice of text stating “Out next Wednesday”. I guess that solves that one, eh?
Put it on your calendar, folks: May 14th, 2008 is Assault Heroes 2 Day! Check out this link for IGN’s latest preview of the game. (Tygerfyr’s son is gonna flip for this one!)
OK, so I promise this will be the last thing I post about the Spring Dashboard Update for 2008…today.
I would like to call attention to two different Entertainment Division-flavored updates:
Quick update from the Criterion folks:
“Bogart – when can I play it?!!”
Microsoft and EA are currently working hard to bring 360 players the revised Bogart software update on Tuesday 13th May.
We’ll post the latest as we get it and keep you informed, if there’s any change to this date.
By TheTeam@Criterion – Wed, 07 May 2008 15:58:21 GMT
Topic: Burnout Paradise News
Can’t wait!