Halo fans rejoice, the next edition of the famous Halo franchise now has a release date – September 14th, 2010. Halo Reach will come in 3 flavours, basic, limited edition and legendary editions, details of what’s included is listed below. The Halo Reach beta seen more than 2.7 million players participate in the multiplayer mayhem, making 3 times larger than Halo 3’s beta and the largest video game beta test ever.

Fingers crossed all the data collected during the beta makes for a great experience in-game. With Halo fans being some of the most fanatical and franchise-loyal customers in the world, Halo Reach is basically assured of success.

Halo Reach is available for pre-order now.

Halo: Reach Limited Edition

In addition to the game disc and manual, the Limited edition includes:

• Game disc housed in recovered ONI ”black box”
• An exclusive Elite armor set for use in multiplayer modes
• Artifact bag containing Dr. Halsey’s personal journal and other classified documents and effects that unravel long held secrets from the “Halo” universe

Halo: Reach Legendary Edition

The complete “Halo: Reach” collection. In addition to the game disc, manual, and the complete contents of the Limited edition, the Legendary edition includes:

• Noble Team statue expertly crafted by the artisans at McFarlane Toys. Individually molded, hand-painted and individually numbered, this statue is a must-have for any serious “Halo” fan
• UNSC-themed custom packaging

More information @ MajorNelson

Service	PS3 Movie Downloads	Xbox Zune Video Marketplace
Catalogue	Extensive	Growing, but limited.
Image/Sound quality	Excellent	Excellent
HD/SD	Both	Both
Rent / Buy	Both	Rent only
Pricing (A$)	$6.99 (HD) / $5.99 (SD) Older titles are $1 cheaper.	$6.93 (HD) / $5.94 (SD) Older titles are A$4.95 (SD)
Time to watch after initiating playback	48 hours	24 hours
FAQ	PS3 FAQ	Zune FAQ

While both services are similar in specs, the PS3 version is more expensive, however that’s counteracted by the extra time you have to watch the movie. Both options look and sound great and both can run into the occasional buffering even on ADSL2.

Personally I’m lucky enough to have both consoles, so it’s great to now have another option for on-demand digitally distributed movies. The choice of where to rent will likely come down to the library for me, given the experience is very similar. I do like that PS3 uses real dollar amounts rather than the Microsoft Points system on the Xbox 360.

For those who who have either an Xbox 360 or PS3, then your obviously stuck with what you’ve got, but those considering a console purchase, the good news is you now have a viable option regardless of whether you land in the Microsoft or Sony camps.

I don’t think many people will be buying movies on the PS3 Movie Store, cost wise you’d be much better off buying in a retail store – to buy HD movies cost A$32.99, while the SD version costs A$24.99.

One last thing you should be aware of is the data used when downloading / streaming a movie from the PS3 Movie Store. Whilst Microsoft has partnerships with a number of Australian ISPs to deliver the content unmetered, there’s no information about Sony doing the same. So make sure you check with your ISP, before burning through your data cap in an afternoon.

PS3 Movie Downloads are available now from the PlayStation store item on your XMB.

Video Walkthrough

In a demo a Tech.Ed Middle East, Eric Rudder showed how a single project (in this case a game) could be published and run on 3 entirely different platforms. Running on Windows, Xbox and Windows Phone 7 which all have different input mechanisms – keyboard and mouse, controller, touch-screen and accelerometer, this begins to get very interesting.

This gets a whole lot more awesome when you find out that your game/app can sync across platforms. So hit the save point on the Xbox, run out the door and continue playing on your phone. Someone should sort through the old beyond 2000 footage, this technology is probably in there somewhere. It sounds like futuristic and probably will be some ways off before you get a triple-platform app in your hand.

My biggest question out of this is the pricing model. Are we expected to buy the game 3 times to get ultra-portability ? It’s important to also recognise that this isn’t functionality everyone wants. So building it into the price of the first purchase will hurt those who only want it on one platform. For the right price, those that want ultra-portability should pay for that feature, but at a subsidised price. Maybe after the primary purchase, you could then pickup the same app/game on the other platforms for 5-10% of the original cost. I think that’s a model that would work.

For a $100 Xbox 360 game, you should be able to get the PC version for an additional $10 and maybe an additional $5 for the mobile version. Currently pricing models don’t recognise that people game in different places, when in reality that’s very true. Imagine if you didn’t have to make the console vs PC choice, but could have the game on both for an affordable price. Crazy thought right ?

More @ Engadget

Last night the Xbox 360 update was released to the public. Zune Video Marketplace and Facebook will require a quick download before use, but twitter simply requires login.

I got to review the update over the past couple of weeks, I had thought the catalogue of videos available in the Zune Video Marketplace was going to be significantly increased upon full release of the service. Sadly this isn’t the case. Sure there’ll be movies added over time, but it’s not the knockout line-up that it really should have been.

The Music marketplace was a surprise, something that wasn’t in the preview program. This is pretty much a joke of a service. Music videos are available in 480p, but costs Microsoft Points while the PS3 VidZone offers a much larger catalogue, friendlier interface and for free.

The Facebook and Twitter interfaces are really held back from the lack of a browser on the 360. A large part of social networks is their ability to link friends to content. These links are un-actionable on the Xbox. At best you can favourite a tweet, then go to a mobile or desktop browser to launch the link.

Yesterday was a big day for the Xbox, the arrival of one of the best (if not the best) racing game available – Forza 3, as well as the launch of the Xbox Live Update Preview Program.

If you applied, like me, then you may have received an email acceptance into the preview program.

Available in the update for Australia is Facebook and Twitter integration as well as the brand new Zune Video Marketplace.

Xbox Live Update – Zune Marketplace

Other than the Zune desktop software, this is Zune’s official introduction into Australia. The Zune Video Marketplace offers movies in 1080p that start streaming instantly. It’s recommended you have least 4mbps to get HD, given how Australia’s broadband speeds are tiered, 1.5Mb will be too slow, so your going to want at least an 8Mb connection.

Quality

I hired the movie Uninvited in HD to review the quality and was very happy. Let me precursor this with the fact I’m on an ADSL2+ connection. The movie did in fact start straight away, with lower quality, then after about 30 seconds, the quality kicked in and the video was indeed great quality high definition. Now this is still obvious a lower quality bitrate than Blu-ray, so for those HD purists out there, this may not be for you. But for me this is a great service.

With HD using a large amount of data, you may be concerned about your download quota being chewed up by renting movies. A number of ISPs will offer Zune Video Marketplace content unmetered. An official list has not yet been released, but expect most to do this, it’s the only feasible way this service will work for Australian consumers.

Catalogue

Lets make no questions about this, the current movie selection is horrible. It is important to keep in mind this isn’t a product that’s officially launched, so by the time this goes public, I’d hope the catalogue of movies to choose from is dramatically improved.

Australian Pricing

Xbox Live Update – Facebook

Xbox Live Update – Twitter

Overall

In terms of updates, this is a good one that actually ads a lot of functionality. As for Last.fm, there’s no sign of it.

The new Zune Video Marketplace with a better catalogue will become my movie rental service of choice. Compared to  Blockbuster On Demand available through the TiVo, the Zune rentals are in HD and millions of Australians already have their credit card with Microsoft, lowering the barrier to entry.  SD videos on Zune are 4 cents cheaper at $5.94 compared to $4.95 on Blockbuster or iTunes.

The social features are nice, but without the messenger kit add-on, i don’t see people contributing content via the Xbox much. It’s $29.99, will this be the new must-have accessory ?

The guys over at Joystiq have a fantastic interview with Dan Greenawalt, game director of Forza 3. In the interview they discuss the all mighty Bugatti Veyron coming to Forza 3. This is just another reason I’m excited about the game. Being able to drive one of the fastest production cars in the world will be awsome.

To add to that, you can customise it with your own personal styling, making it your own show piece online.

Check out the video below, which shows the amazing lengths the developers go to, to accurately recreate these cars in the game.

Probably the most staggering piece of info from the video was that Forza 3 uses 10 times the amount of polygons that Forza 2 did. Maybe we haven’t yet hit the ceiling for current gen consoles.

More @ Joystiq

Here are some images from the update. Enjoy!

Update: There’s quite a few images now, I’ll leave it at that, unless you have specific queries about changes, leave a comment and I’ll take a new screen. Overall it’s a good update, but avatar add-ons and On-demand games are expensive, so get that piggy bank ready.

Unfortunately, my most anticipated feature – Video On Demand, is not yet available.

Those keen to get in on the action, don’t stress, the Xbox Live Update will be available for all on August 11th 2009.

Update 2: Just found a new feature in the update – Video Chat !! (it does look like u’ll need an Xbox Live Vision camera).