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Its up on the 360 market place. Now before we get too critical SOL who works on the game posted on the GAF that the framerate is not final. thats the bad thing about demos. People judge a little to quickly. I always go into them with a "this is a work in progress" outlook. IMO, its really fun, and should be a total blast online. Very nice graphics too.

I have this friend, for the sake of anonymity, let's call him "Antoine". "Antoine Merriweather". He works for a company that does consulting work for larger tech oriented companies. I'm not exactly sure what "Antoine" does there, as I have never really asked, but according to "Antoine", a lot of the stuff that goes on at his job is big time hush, hush, under some pretty heavy NDAs with pretty stiff punishments for offenders. But since what he told me was strictly "rumor", he was allowed to talk about it - even so, he still did not wish to broadcast what he'd heard online for fear that it may be true, and it would get back to him as the source if he posted any of it directly.

I digress.

Back in January, I burned through some saved vacation time and took a trip to the CES in Las Vegas. "Antoine" was there in business capacity with this company, and got me passes to some of the more behind-closed-doors exhibits and keynotes and such. I've been to CES several times before, but this was the first time I got a more insider view of the event, and I had a blast. I think it was the second or third night of the show, we were having a few drinks after hours, and got into a full-on geek pow wow, which ultimately got around to gaming. And like most conversations on the topic, things eventually worked there way around to console exclusives. I was observing how 2009 turned out to be a real turd in terms of quality exclusives (what was there was great, especially the PS3 exclusives, but exclusives in 2009 were not exactly plentiful), and how I was hoping 2010 would turn out better. I further commented on how Q1 and Q2 for 2010 looked great, but beyond that, the rest of the year looked dead; no one had any killer apps lined up for the year end blow out. It was at that point that Antoine gave me the briefest of knowing glances - I would have missed it had I not been looking directly at him when he made it. So I asked him to spill if he knew anything more to add the subject. At first he would not, but a few more drinks, and about an hour of goading later, he finally spilled the beans.

Recently the firm he works for has been doing some work with the Big M Software Company of Redmond, WA. Even though he was not on the team working with the Big M, the team he did work with shared office space with the team working with the Big M, and there was some pretty interesting flotsam floating around the workplace. It was at this point that he pointed out, that even in the office, everything he was about to tell me was considered rumor, so none of it may be true, and we both could just be getting excited over nothing if we put to much faith in the rumor. However, it was all pretty juicy stuff if any of it turned out to be fact, and he proceeded to spill the deets.

According to the office rumor mill, the Big M has a ton of announced and unannounced videogame exclusives waiting in the wings. On the list of exclusives are of course the likes of Fable 3, Halo: Reach and Project Natal. But where things get interesting is the list of unannounced titles. He threw out a list of names, fully half of them IPs I had never heard of, but the ones that did stick in my mind were the IPs I knew - IPs we all know. Those included Half Life 2: Episode 3, Portal 2, Halo Remix, Halo 2 Remix, and Gears of War 3. All the games he mentioned are tentatively set to release in H2 of this year, and all will be officially announcement by E3 at the latest - some of them could see announcements as early as the Big M's X10 event in February (later this week, in fact), held in the US for the first time since 2006.

When you add the unannounced titles to a list of exclusives which includes the likes of Alan Wake and Splinter Cell: Conviction and Mass Effect 2, it certainly does add up to a pretty solid year of exclusives that are spread out across the entire year. On the one hand, some of it makes sense, but then on the other with the Big M's focus on Project Natal this holiday, this other list of unannounced exclusives seems like overkill. Even though we were both excited at the prospect, we both pretty much agreed that it was all likely wishful thinking on the fanboy in all of us, and the "rumor" just as likely bait created by someone in his office, trying to see how many coworkers could be lured into making idiots of themselves spreading this stuff on the internets as fact.

After that, while I obvious kept all this in mind, I put it on the back burner - after all, a rumor is still just a rumor, right?

Exactly.

So into the back of my mind this rumor went . . . that was until I saw the news today (or technically, it was Friday's news, but I did not see it until today). And just like that, the two games on Antoine's list that made the least sense (Halo Remix and Halo 2 Remix), suddenly made the most sense. I may be going out on a limb here, but with Xbox 1 support being turned off as of April so the Big M can further upgrade the LIVE network unhindered by X1 support, would definitely create a market for HD remakes of the two most popular games on the original Xbox - especially when it's revealed the remakes can still be played on LIVE . . . doubly so when punters realize they can finally play the original Halo online for the first time on console. I was just thinking back over the Holidays when God of War Collection came out to the PS3, why couldn't we see more classics from last-gen get a 1080p60 makeover complete with Achievements/Trophies and stuff (of course at the time, I was thinking more along the lines of Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Skies of Arcadia and Headhunter). What even sells the idea more, is how Marc Whitten singles out the Halo fans in particular, with last Friday's announcement. It's almost as if he has more to say on the subject matter, but not just yet. And if the two least likely games on the list turn out to be the real deal, then what about the rest of the rumor?

Yeah, I know it is all a stretch. A stretch based on a rumor told to me second hand no less. But at the same time . . .

Anyway, just in case there is any validity to the whole thing, I thought I'd give you guys the heads-up. And as the case with any rumor, please take it with a grain of salt.

All I want is crackdown-esque flow gameplay and I am sold!!!

Well, I've now joined the ranks of many of our members here. My 360 is showing me 3 flashing red lights and just before that the screen froze up on me. Couple that with the fact that the MS repair site is telling me that my system is out of warranty (it was manufactured on 3/6/07, which is still within the three years extended by MS to 360 owners), I am not a happy guy. They'll be getting a call from me tomorrow so I can dispute the warranty thing.

So that's the good part- the bad? Just like Army of 2 40th day and other demos- if no one is playing in an online game w/ an open slot- you cannot get online to play. Why do we have this trend of demos these days when the demo goes online only a few weeks before the game is sold? I can't play AvP until i see one of you online to play along with? Which means I guess I'll NOT buy this game either as I can't see the part of the game I really want to try- online co op/single player. Multiplayer demos are fun and appreciated- but this new batch that often result in "no games available at this time" completely defeat the purpose of a demo.

So has anyone played this? What do you think? Do you want to get some demo action on this weekend? send me a live invite.

http://gamerscoreblo...2/05/gh789.aspx

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