WBX: WinBreak Exclusive - Follow up
Remember in EARLY JANUARY, when I said two specific games would be making their way to the still-new Xbox Originals? One of those games I mentioned, was Guilty Gear X2 #Reload. Well, as of yesterday, June 11th, Major Nelson has confirmed Guilty Gear X2 #Reload will be released this coming Monday, June 16th, along side The Legend of Spyro™: A New Beginning.

While Spyro might be for the ESRB aged “E10″ in your home, and not getting a warm welcome from the “gaming elitist” community, I have actually heard many good things about Guilty Gear X2 #Reload and think that there are more than just a few people excited about this one coming to the Originals program.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, don’t distrust the WBX, you’ll only end up embarrassing yourself.

WBX: WinBreak Exclusive
Okay, so it’s only an exclusive in that, I may be the only one who cares.

The gear heads (determine just how funny that is as you read on) over at Psyonix are working on their own game. Tired of barely getting recognized for their work in other multi-platinum games, the team that brought us “Burn’t Rubber” in Gears of War is now combining cars and sports… some how.

The team hasn’t officially announced much of anything, but based on their previous publication efforts, the game will be on the Playstation 3 only. Hopefully similarities in the platforms will lead to an Xbox 360 version, as well. The website only points to one image, with the initials “bb” - renamed and shown below:

I did a little detective work to find the picture I put at the top of the article, and thus the title. But the name of the screenshot having the initials “bb” could mean that Crash Course may just be a working title, or “BB” was a hint at a working title - who knows - but for now, I’m calling it Crash Course.

It’s hard to tell what’s going on in that picture, really, other than a huge ball, and some cars… cars with guns. The game really has no description, so let’s hope some early looks at the game by reviewers are able to decipher more of what’s going on. But graphically, it looks exciting, and the giant Samus Aran morphball looking thing is almost a tease to old school Metroid fans.

WBX: WinBreak Exclusive
IRISHprik411 pointed me to an article at dbtechno.com which said Microsoft was planning to buy Epic. Unfortunately for them, it’s completely bogus. It might get them some hits, but it’ll die off soon enough.

After CliffyB stating, last week, how Epic intends to focus the majority of their work on consoles, I can’t expect that they’re suddenly going to buddy up to Microsoft. Further cementing the idea that Epic is out on their own, today they announced the implimentation of Scaleform GFx, which “…[enables] artists to create scalable data-driven UI elements for menuing systems, overlays, HUDs and animated textures directly on 3D objects. GFx also provides an innovative text and font system specifically designed to enhance productivity and streamline localization.”

Additionally, I got in touch with a source “friendly” with Epic who, preferred to remain anonymous, who had this to say: “Its a rumor, lol …. well, rumors start easily …. I’m not sure where it came from, or why.” I just had to include the “LOL” in his message, reaffirming that Epic isn’t going anywhere, and they’re certainly not about to join Microsoft Game Studios. Clearly the most popular game engine right now (what game have you played lately that didn’t have the Unreal Engine logo at the beginning!?), Epic still has enough money to resist even the best offers from Microsoft, if they were to make one.

WBX:WinBreak Exclusive
I announced Peggle several days ago. Four days later it’s picked up by other sites and it took them even longer to confirm what we knew all along. Don’t doubt WinBreak, please. It’s embarassing to you!

In keeping with WBX tradition, here are two more un-announced Xbox titles which we have confirmed will be released on the American Marketplace (and perhaps others) as Xbox Originals.

• Raze’s Hell
• Guilty Gear X2 #Reload

At this time, we don’t know when these will hit the marketplace, but we don’t expect it to be along side Burnout 3 Takedown, slated to come out January 14th.

WBX: WinBreak Exclusive
It’s not quite as exciting as our first post of the day, but nobody has really made mention of this little headline. The game has been a huge success on the PC, but nobody has announced that it’s coming to the 360. Rated “E for Everyone” and confirmed by the ESRB, popular time waster “Peggle” will be making its way to the Xbox Live Arcade later this year. Rated by multple people’s favorites list (last link not work safe - ZeroPunctuation), there is no reason for Popcap to assume it will sell hugely on the Xbox Live Arcade. The game is widely available, even through iTunes now, apparently. So go ahead and check out their official site, and see just what you might be spending your Microsoft points on in the near future.