Microsoft has teamed up with Machinima to produce a live-action Halo web series entitled Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn that will launch on Machinima and Halo Waypoint in the weeks leading up to Halo 4‘s release on Nov. 6. The series will consist of five weekly, 15-minute episodes that will focus on Master Chief serving as a source of inspiration for a young cadet.
“[We want] to make Halo accessible for people who haven’t played the games,” 343 Industries, the game’s new development company, rep Matt McCloskey said. “We wanted to do something unique from a narrative standpoint that’s big in scale.”
McCloskey also reports that if the shorts are well received, it could open the door for more live action development. Whether this culminates in the long awaited Halo movie remains to be seen.
(Variety via Blastr)
Holy crap—Microsoft announced at Comic-Con that it will release a Star Wars/R2-D2-themed Xbox 360 Kinect bundle—and you’ll be able to buy it starting this fall for $449.99.
More details and images are available after the break.
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Behold the future of laziness.
Microsoft has demoed a Kinect-powered armchair as a proof-of-concept experiment to promote the Kinect SDK, which opens up development over Visual Basic, C++ and C#.
The entire chair is powered by hand motions, including reclining, which has potential benefits not only for the lazy, but for the handicapped as well. And the best part is that Microsoft will be releasing the project source code with the SDK.
Check out the video after the break to see the chair in action.
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Using a PC, a Kinect, and an expensive bit of tech called a Puffersphere, UK-based web design firm The Technology Studio was able to create a creepy Eye of Sauron that follows you around the room. Holy crap I really want this for Halloween.
Sauron and a video of a regular eyeball version are available after the break.
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Our sister site CubicleBot has reviewed the stylish Microsoft Arc Touch mouse, but is going one better by offering one for free to a lucky reader!
Check out the contest page on CubicleBot for the full review and all the details you need to enter. Better hurry though, today is your last chance.
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Our sister site CubicleBot has reviewed the stylish Microsoft Arc Touch mouse, but is going one better by offering one for free to a lucky reader!
Check out the contest page on CubicleBot for the full review and all the details you need to enter.
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It may not be the most elegant way to play the old Super Mario Bros, but this Kinect hack goes a long way to help visualize what’s possible. It’s also requires a lot more physical effort than most gamers would probably be comfortable with:
“I programmed it to recognize my motions and passed the virtual button presses to the NES emulator,” says Yankeyan. “I could have placed a simulated keypad right in front of me that I can press with my hands, but I thought full body gestures were more in the spirit of Kinect. Of course, Mario isn’t designed to be played like this, so this is really really hard.”
Check out the video after the break.
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We certainly saw our fair share of broken TVs when the Wii came out, but the Wii has a controller. You would have thought the problem would have been all but eliminated with the Microsoft Kinect. Well, you would have thought wrong—and here is the proof.
Blogger Phil Villarreal explains:
A public service announcement: Do not under any circumstances play Kinect Sports Volleyball at 1:30 a.m. while standing under a ceiling fan with a dangling chain for a light switch. You could conceivably spike it into your year-old amazing TV, causing it to die with a rainbow LCD teardrop dripping down from the impact wound.
Plus you’ll lose the match by forfeit.
Phil, you are a true champion. Let’s see how long it takes before someone tops him by breaking the TV with their own body.
(BITYS via The Consumerist)
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Watch as Marines blow off a little steam and blow away their RRoD issues.
Seems to me that sand might have been a factor.
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