Men Free Blog

With the leaking of the Elizébet character earlier today, the list of leaked achievements mentioning her name got a bit more credible, but what about the rest of the names on the list? The last name on the list, Genshin, is in fact the game’s ultra-ninja counterpart for Ryu, and is the leader of the Black Spider clan, who have allied themselves with the fiends in an attempt to end the Hayabusa bloodline. Elizébet is the queen of the greate - … y’know this “story” stuff really doesn’t matter, just watch the videos (the second one is after the break and is a bit NSFW).

Read

Microsoft has quite a bit in store for the Zune faithful with its new Zune version 2.5 software update. The high points are the new Zune Card integration and the addition of TV show downloads on Zune Marketplace, but much-requested features like gapless playback, improved syncing controls, meta data editing, auto playlists and other tweaks have also been included. On the marketing front, Microsoft is really pushing the Zune Pass going forward, and will be launching a new TV commercial to help plug it. Subscribers will particularly benefit from the new Zune Card sharing, which lets you automatically score copies of your pal’s favorite songs, artists and recent plays — non-subscribers can view that Zune Card info, but will have to buy the tracks if they want to have a listen. Unfortunately, news on the video store front isn’t so compelling: Microsoft is only adding TV shows at this point, no movies, and there’s no way to pull video you’ve bought on your 360 over to your Zune. There’s no reason Microsoft can’t close this loop and turn some scattered media offerings into a compelling ecosystem, but until then we suppose we’ll have to thank our lucky stars that we can shell out 160 MS Points ($2.00) for TV shows we can watch for free online. The 2.5 Spring Update is a free download and should be available nowish.
Read

Microsoft’s still isn’t solid on a final consumer release date for XNA games for the Zune, but they are aiming for the first CTP (community technology preview) to be released in May. We also learned that Zune games can support ad-hoc wireless play with up to eight players, the devices won’t support any hardware 3D acceleration, the “16MB for storing games” we heard before actually refers to how much Zune RAM games can take over, and Microsoft’s got at least four games running on the platform (which may or may not ever be released to the public): Zauri (which we’ve already seen — video after the break), as well as Hexic, Potato Chase, and Alien Takeover.

Read

Here’s your heartwarming story for the day. Microsoft has teamed up with Companions in Courage in order to bring “hundreds” of Xbox 360 kiosks to children’s hospitals across the nation, and the gaming stations have already been installed at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, California. The customized units are “hospital-friendly” and come pre-loaded with a variety of E and E10+ rated games, Y-rated television programs, G-rated movies and the Xbox Live headset / Vision camera in order for gamers to play online. Speaking of, each kiosk is wired to a private Live network which “allows hospitalized children across the country to play games and chat” with each other. There’s no word on where the stations are slated to arrive outside of the three venues already mentioned, but those interested in broadening the reach of the endeavor can feel free to donate to the cause.

[Via OhGizmo]

Read

We’ve known for some time that Ninja Gaiden 2 will be releasing on June the 3rd, but some of the game’s finer details have been a bit under wraps. In an article in Famitsu (kindly translated by folks over at the Ninja Fortress boards and reposted at NeoGAF) there is some more details on the game’s changes and tweaks. There’s tons of little tidbits, but some of the biggest ones are more revealing, like the fact that some gamers have beaten the game’s beta version in 15 hours (difficulty wasn’t mentioned.)

Other things of note include the fact that there are no longer armlets in the game, as Ryu more or less has those abilities inherently now, and the fact hat Ryu no longer carries around potions to heal. Healing items are now different sorts of powders (”‘This time, Ryu uses drugs to heal’ he said while laughing.”). And if you missed the xbox.com update, the Flame Wheels are now flaming birds that will circle you, attacking enemies who come too close. If you’re interested in reading a little more, just follow the read link.

Read

Well, that’s that! Microsoft has officially pulled its bid for Yahoo! — inflated for good measure this weekend by another $5 billion — after the company did “not move toward accepting [the] offer”, asking again for even more, another $4 bil (totaling $9b more than the original offer). In a letter from Ballmer to Yang, he states that Microsoft also won’t be looking at its option for a hostile takeover, stating that Yahoo! likely “would take steps that would make [it] undesirable as an acquisition”; Ballmer then goes on to make a few backhanded criticisms of Yahoo’s possible new partnerships with Google (which is no surprise). Good night, Microhoo, the monstrous, hamstrung, lumbering mega-merger that might have been.

Update: Yahoo! makes its pubic response here. Yang sums it up: “With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus…” etc. Alright then.

Not unlike the early colorized versions of the original Zune before it, the red Zune 80 looks like it should finally be ready to make its un-tattooed retail sales debut . If you’ve been considering getting loud and/or proud with your next Zune, call ahead to your local gadget stock keeper and see if they’re in.

Read

It’s taken a few years, but lightning’s struck twice for Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division (the portion of the company responsible for Zune, Windows Mobile, and Xbox). The operating profit of $89 million that E&D drew is just a drop in MSFT’s far, far larger fiscal bucket, but unless business turns sour, from here on out it looks like the group making all the[Via  fun stuff in Redmond is no longer in the business of losing cash hand over fist.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

You know the drill. Days before the official consumer release on the 29th, out pops the final version of Windows XP SP3 on torrents, usenet, and warez sites. We haven’t confirmed it for ourselves but we’ve received multiple reports that this final, unmodified version features a legit Volume Licensed Key which handles that pesky WGA check without breaking a sweat. Should you be brave enough to install it then by all means drop us a line in the comments about your experience. Then again, why rush? You’ll likely have until 2012 to perform the update.

[Thanks, Chris]

Read

Windows XP has a date with destiny scheduled for June 30, but it looks like the plucky OS just isn’t ready to go: Ultraportable OEMs will be able to preload XP until “one year after the general availability of Windows 7,” whenever that is, and now we’re hearing reports that Dell’s telling customers it’ll sell XP on professional systems until 2012. The Dell thing is just a rumor for now, but what’s Steve Ballmer doing telling reporters that although XP is EOL, “if customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter” and extend XP sales? Um, Steve? Customers have been feeding back like crazy and Microsoft has kind of ignored them, remember? Maybe it’s time for a quick nap.

Update: That was pretty funny for a totally unintentional typo, wasn’t it?
Read - CNET article quoting Ballmer
Read - Dell rumors