With an upcoming release date of November 17th, the Left 4 Dead 2 achievement guide sheds some light on what we can expect from the 5 campaigns of murderous infected mayhem. The real treat for me will be “realism” mode. Valve VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi says this option is for the super hardcore player. I don’t know that means, but I can’t wait.

I’ve included the entire list of 50 achievements after the jump.

And for those political or philosopher nerds out there: “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously“. Valve, you cheeky bastards.

[Xbox360]

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After being rescued from Mercy Hospital, our foursome crash lands into new DLC released September 29th. Free for PC owners and 560 MS points for the Xbox360, the new campaign features two chapters, original voice acting (which provides good laughs) and a reason to get back into playing Left4Dead. New superficial details such as an improved HUD (which will be utilized in the sequel) and aesthetics like the writing on the wall provide you with the same sense of the murderous infected living behind the corner. The new maps keep the same style and feel of the original, but seem harder.

In the original, you’d run into a weapons resupply once a chapter. In the DLC, they are everywhere and it helps. Playing on expert, the horde is seemingly never ending and rather than the occasional special zombie (smoker, boomer, or hunter), you can expect all three to appear at the same time with the witch or tank in the most inopportune spots during the chase.

While short in length the two chapters appear both in Versus and Survival modes giving the DLC high replay value. Crash Course gives you a chance to hone your zombie killing skills and should you have bought L4D at discount, the $7 worth of MS points you’d spend makes it even more attractive. For those of us that bought it at full price and love the game, it whets our appetite for the real deal in November.

*Also for achievement hunters Valve gave us 10 more to collect…

Nothing is better than getting home after a long day, grabbing your favorite beverage and sitting in front of the TV to do some gaming; maybe you’re going to chat with that friend you met in game or watch a movie on Netflix. Then, suddenly without warning it happens. The flash of your Xbox LEDs indicates a serious malfunction.

Sadly, this has affected many of us gamers, so much so Game Informer magazine decided to do a survey amongst their readership. A staggering 54.2% reported either the dreaded Red Ring of Death or an E74.

However, being the devil’s advocate, don’t let these findings scare you away from buying the 360. Results suggest newer models are less susceptible to overheating and the console is used on average more, by about 3-5 hours, than the PS3 and the Wii. So while M$ is making improvements on design and quality, it’s still a shame to know more than half of every Xbox360 in the wild has issues.

[Consumerist via Joystiq]

Splinter Cell removed what is often seen as a common complaint of Metal Gear Solid, long cut scenes with quirky dialogue. These elements helped define MGS, but it left gamers who wanted fast espionage action, mashing buttons shouting, let’s get on with it.

The rebirth of protagonist Sam Fisher in SP: Conviction gives us impressive action, flexibility of style and a lot more attitude. With an anticipated street date for Christmas 2009, new predatory skills such as “mark and execute” and “Sightline Silhouette” give players the upper hand in using stealth as a means to stalk and hunt; rather than the defensive posturing of previous games in the series.

Well, i thought we had heard the last of this, but it seems the Tokyo Game Show has brought this rumor to surface again. Yoshitaka Arai, the public relations head for Konami was heard telling the Japanese investor bulletin "Morningstar" the following:

"The worldwide demand for an Xbox 360 version (of MGS4) is quite high, and it is something we are currently looking in to."

Sounds like things are still hopeful for us Xbox fans out there, and I’m sure any fan of the series would love to see more people get the opportunity to play it. Will it ever come to fruition? Only time will tell, but keep your eyes pealed!

[Yahoo! Japan]

In a move to trim down the “growing — and even intimidating — list of XBLA titles” Microsoft has announced that they plan to start pulling titles from the service that score a Metacritic rating of less than 65 and have a conversion rate of less than 6% (That is, less than 6% of players who downloaded the trial versions converted to the full version).

At first glance this seems like a good idea. There are currently 130 arcade games available on the XBox Live Marketplace and I’ve found less than half of the demos I’ve downloaded to be worth purchasing. However, this presents a problem for the Cult Hit. 6% may seem like a small number, but with the XBox 360 approaching 20 million units sold, the number starts to get a little more daunting.

I think the idea has more flaws than merits. Being a digital distribution service, combined with the fact that Microsoft puts file size limitations on these games, it’s hard to make an argument that they might need the space. They’re certainly not taking up any shelf room. Instead of blaming a cluttered game list on copious amounts of arcade games Microsoft should instead think about redesigning their XBox Live Marketplace to accommodate for higher quantities of products. Perhaps the thought of a “Search” option never occurred to them.

See Also: Long Tail Economics

[ Wired ]

Harmonix has a lot going for it, making many great music related game series, with Guitar Hero being the most popular, is moving on up to a higher plane, A report came out saying that, EA Games, and major record labels, MI Music Publishing, and Warner/Chappell. Along with EMI Music and Warner Music Group’s Rhino Entertainment, labels which have agreed to supply songs include Hollywood Records and Sony BMG plus Universal Music Enterprises. Have joined Harmonix on their next endeavor, Rock Band. This game is going to come out for the PS3, and The Xbox 360, nothing is really said about it, but with knowing that Guitar Hero is possible, I wouldn’t doubt that the next step would be to incorporate all the instruments, where you and your friends can play in Co-Op. Which in my humble opinion, WOULD BE AWESOME. But nothing has been said, nothing official has been released other than the expected release season: Just in time for Christmas.

[GamesIndustry]

Microsoft has announced that their on line media server XBox Live, will start distributing ADV produced, and released anime, saying that ADV is the largest distributor (legal) in America. No word on when this one will start, it will also start alongside Warner Brothers movies, and various Television shows, and Internet clips from totalvid.com

[ANN]

The world of the 1940’s and all its film noir glory should be coming to a ‘next gen console’ near you sometime in the near future. Or says Rockstar games who just yesterday announced their newest project titled L.A. Noire. The game will be made by Team Bondi, a new developer studio based in Australia.

With no release date or named platforms for which its being developed, all we know is that the game is set on Los Angeles on the 1940’s. A post war era where gritty PI’s and femme fatales made the core of every story. So what did Rockstar have to show for this announcement? A mighty redundant trailer for the trailer. Its a 30 second clip that shows as much as the bathing suits from the 1940’s, which is surely what they where referencing. The full trailer will be released on October 5.

 
[LA Noire]