Heads Up — 10/30

Welcome back to our weekly online column, Heads Up. If you’ve ever searched around the internet looking for a current report on everything the Xbox 360 has to offer, you’ve no doubt hit numerous dead-ends. Heads Up attempts to alleviate your frustrations by offering a quick and complete guide to what you may have missed over the past week, online and in stores.

These past two weeks have been a great time for gamers. If it wasn’t for the pumpkin carving and fright fests, we’d mistake the coming holiday for Christmas! While your local retailer is hoarding several big hits, the Marketplace is overflowing with great Arcade games, a classic old-schooler, dozens of new Rock Band tracks, and plenty of videos and game demos, not to mention some terrific movies.

 

JEWEL OF THE WEEK:

Fallout 3

With so much gaming goodness piling on our plates, it was a bit hard to choose just one game for our Jewel of the Week. But rarely does a game earn a coveted 10.0, so we have to hand this spot over to Bethesda’s instant classic, Fallout 3. After playing through glimpses of your childhood in a post-Apocalyptic vault, it’s up to you to brave the dangerous outdoors for your lost father. With an immersive story, a beautifully massive world, RPG craftiness, and FPS combat, this futuristic epic will grab you for not just 40 hours of engrossing gaming but tons and tons of replay. Never has a radioactive wasteland been so fun.

 

NEW RETAIL GAMES:

Fable II
OXM Review Score: 9.5

Fallout 3
OXM Review Score: 10.0

Far Cry 2
OXM Review Score: 8.5

Guitar Hero World Tour
OXM Review Score: 8.5

Midnight Club: Los Angeles
OXM Review Score: 8.0

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
OXM Review Score: Not yet finalized

 

NEW XBOX LIVE ARCADE GAMES:

Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 2
OXM Review Score: 7.5

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
OXM Review Score: Not yet finalized

Portal: Still Alive
OXM Review Score: 9.0

 

NEW XBOX ORIGINALS:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

 

NEW GAME DEMOS:

Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts demo (FREE)

Tomb Raider: Underworld demo (FREE)

Scene It? Box Office Smash demo (FREE)

Endwar demo (FREE)

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway demo (FREE)

 

NEW GAME VIDEOS:

Dead Space trailer (FREE)

Vigilante 8: Arcade trailer (FREE)

C&C Red Alert 3 – Howard Ackerman interviews (FREE)

Mirror’s Edge training trailer (FREE)

Fifa Soccer 09 – Inside the Game: Parts 4 & 5 (FREE)

Golden Axe: Beast Rider trailer (FREE)

 

NEW DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT:

Marble Blast Ultra – Marble It Up! level
Price: FREE

Rock Band

Siouxsie and the Banshees Pack 01
Price: 440 MS Points/160 MS Points each

“Hong Kong Garden”
“Kiss Them For Me”
“The Killing Jar”

The following tracks are 160 MS Points each:

“Well Though Out Twinkles” by Silversun Pickups
“Melatonin” by Silversun Pickups
“Pretty in Pink” by Psychedelic Furs
“Dammit” by Blink-182

Nirvana Pack 01
Price: 880 MS Points/160 MS Points each

“Breed” “Lounge Act”
“On a Plain”
“Polly”
“Something in the Way”
“Stay Away”
“Territorial Pissings”

 

NEW MOVIES:

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG-13

Two Weeks Notice
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)
Rated: PG-13

Kenny
Price: 320 MS Points (SD)/480 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG-13

Airplane!
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG

What a Girl Wants
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)
Rated: PG

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: R

Star Trek: First Contact
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG-13

The Departed
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: R

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)
Rated: Unrated

Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
Price: 320 MS Points (SD)/480 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG

2001: A Space Odyessey
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: G

Serenity
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG-13

Van Helsing
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG-13

Summer School
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG-13

Beverly Hills Cop III
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: R

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG

Internal Affairs
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: R

Vanilla Sky
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: R

Cinderella Man
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: PG-13

The Talented Mr. Ripley
Price: 240 MS Points (SD)/360 MS Points (HD)
Rated: R