After seeing that Major Nelson was going and updating the code for his site, I thought I’d check here for updates and lo and behold, I still hadn’t applied the latest updates.  I finally updated the wordpress code for this blog, now it’s running the latest and greatest. You faithful readers shouldn’t notice anything different, hopefully.

I recently posted about my desire for Chessmaster on 360, and it looks as though Ubisoft is going to meet the challenge to some degree. Gamestop currently has a listing for Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition for Xbox 360, with a release date in September. While this isn’t concrete evidence, these types of things are typically a good indication that someone, somewhere, with some authority told Gamestop that this product would be available on this date. Portable versions, on PSP and DS are listed to come out later in September. Could my cross platform internet playing dream become a reality? I doubt it, but I’m excited at the possibilities these products bring to the table.

Oddly, there is no mention of a PS3 or Wii version. Chessmaster has existed on several older Nintendo consoles, and on each of its handhelds, and it has also appeared on the Playstation in the past. Perhaps this time around, the Sony console will get the enhanced edition of the game at a later date, unlike the last time around when Chessmaster PS2 seriously was lacking in comparison to later released Chessmater Xbox.

Years and years ago, in the days when SNES was still king, and the Internet was still just a whisper, a studio named Bungie came out with a Macintosh only game called Marathon. Back then I was a complete Mac fanboy, having grown up with only Apple computers in my house. Marathon came around and totally blew away the Doom I was playing over at my PC using friend’s house. Marathon put you on an alien planet where you ran around shooting aliens into goo, with pseudo 3D graphics (amazing at the time) and fantastic gameplay. And there was quite a story too. You played a cyborg who crash lands on a planet with aliens who are attempting to take over your ship. You interact with the ship’s various AI’s to enable the defenses, learn the backstory, and fight off the invaders.

There were all sorts of interesting gameplay elements, such as the level where you have no oxygen and have to hurry between oxygen stations, or die. Marathon was my favorite computer game, and although it was extremely popular with us Mac heads, the rest of the PC world was pretty oblivious to it. Marthon 2 came out, followed by Marthon Infinity (which was awarded by MacFormat at the time for the “largest version number increase”), both bringing new advances to the games. There was even a level editor included, that allowed the player to create their own maps, and send them off to friends.

Following the success of Marathon, the studio went on to create a game you may have heard of, Halo. Originally going to be another Mac only title, Microsoft saw the promise of this property and scooped up the studio, so this could be their flagship title in their push towards console gaming. It is very possible that the Xbox would have been a failure without Halo, and there would be no Halo without Marathon. I was extremely late in the game on playing Halo. I didn’t own an original Xbox, and only played Halo once I bought it used shortly after getting a 360. But one of the first things I noticed was the Marathon logo on the captain in one of the first cut scenes. (The second thing was me remarking “What the hell kind of name is Master Chief?”)

Which brings me to the present. Halo 3 is on the horizon, but there is news that Bungie may be thinking of releasing Marathon as an Xbox Live Arcade title. My hopes are that they are not just going to port the original game, which, while it has the great gameplay, simply doesn’t have the graphics by today’s standards. Truth be told, Bungie distributes the old games for free on Mac and PC, but an updated, tight game, with perhaps actual creature and character models to replace the 2d sprites, and a cohesive integration with Xbox Live could be a fantastic way to hold everyone over until Halo 3.

Two news updates for you. It’s been announced that next iteration of the US Army funded game/propaganda machine America’s Army will be an Xbox 360 exclusive title called: “America’s Army: True Soldiers”. I just hope they don’t trick all of us by putting an achievement in there “enlist in the Army”.

In other news, Microsoft and Bungie have announced that first-party controllers and headsets branded with Halo 3 graphics designed by Todd McFarlane (the guy who brought you Spawn) will be available in September, with each of them setting you back $60.

Gamevideos.com has a brand spanking new teaser trailer of Soul Calibur IV, the sequel to the amazing fighting games that have graced Dreamcast, Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox. Rumour has it that this game will be multiplatform (360, PS3), but no word yet if it will feature platform specific characters like Soul Calibur 2. (Sorry Spawn, but Link > *)

Soul Calibur III, which was a PS2 exclusive, was a bit of a let down for many, so we’ll have to hold our judgement for IV until more surfaces. Until then, check out the video, complete with Ivy’s boobs hanging out, but alas, no gameplay footage.

That’s right, you old school gamers can finally get your wakka-wakka on in some new maps on Xbox Live Arcade! The game is widescreen, with new slick looking graphics. It runs in at 800 points, and is available now!