Looks like Microsoft found a way to solve the storage problem for Xbox 360 owners who don't have the necessary space to install the upcoming New Xbox Experience, which demands 256 MB of free space.

How does a free 512 MB memory card sound? Or a 20 GB hard drive for US$ 19.99? If sounds had flavors, then it sounds sweet. Details after the link.

Want more evidence to support the possibility of an Xbox 360 price cut? How about some pictures to go with it? If that's what you're looking for, then that's what we've got. Find out more after the jump!

*Update* We've gotten more word from a GameStop employee saying that the price drop is indeed real and will take effect at all GameStop (and possibly EB Games) stores on Sunday.

Russia will be closing one of two nuclear reactors in the city of Seversk this Sunday. Although they served to create bomb fuel for the Soviet Union's weapons programs more than a decade ago, they've only been used to produce heat and power since then. Full story after the "read more" link below.

It's the curse of a lot of gadgetphiles out there to fall in love with gadgetry but just not have enough to support the gadget lifestyle. Most just sit and wait for prices to go down (only to have a new and better gadget crop up). But going back to the point. Perhaps you wanted an iMac but your budget just doesn't cut it? Maybe you'll consider getting one now: Apple is offering a bunch of refurbished iMacs and tossing them out at a discount. Most of them are going for as low as 17% off. More in the full article.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (or Λ Core, however you like it) is indeed coming to the Nintendo Wii. Turn up the music as we've got some rocking magazine scans from Famitsu via Jeux-France.

Sega and Arc System Works' Guilty Gear XX Accent Core is a fighting game which features anime style visuals and a heavy metal-hard rock soundtrack. For those who are familiar with the series,  Accent Core is a refurbished version of Guilty Gear XX with several changes to gameplay. An example of this would be the "Force Break" attacks which uses up 25% of the Tension bar and powers up special moves. In the scans, we see old favorites like Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, Faust (the guy with a paper bag over his head), Johnny, and May.

We'll keep you posted on more info about Guilty Gear XX Accent Core for the Wii. It's still slated for a July 26 release in Japan so while we wait for release announcements, check out the scans.

  

Developer Cryptic Studios has always been proud of its MMO titles City of Heroes and City of Villains. And for quite a while now, they have been boasting of the games' new Veteran Rewards System. In a nutshell, the system awards players with special powers, base items, badges and costume pieces every three months.

Actually, the above mentioned system was included in the recently released expansion - Issue 8: To Protect and Serve. In case some of you are still to get this freebie, we were thinking that an interview with Positron">Matt Miller (aka Positron) regarding the matter would finally persuade you to do so. After all, Positron himself is claiming that the Veteran Rewards was one of the coolest things he'd done so far as a lead designer.

"It was really a challenge to come up with cool rewards that players have been asking for while at the same time making sure that nothing became the end-all-be-all reward," Positron argued. He added that he'd always wanted to make the veteran players' lives easier by providing items that are both flashy and useful.

Trench coats, Greek chest emblems, Samurai armors are the items to be given first to three-month-old players. Wings were supposed to be included also but were pulled out at the last minute. Positron explained, "Since I had promised wings in Issue 8, we decided that two wing styles would be made "preview" pieces, available only as Veteran rewards for fifteen months." The full crafting system concerning Wings will be the highlight of the next expansion, Issue 9.

Most of the Temporary Powers are now being used as permanent powers available to characters. This here is quite interesting as it first appeared before as bug. While Cryptic corrected the anomaly at once, Positron on the other hand is amused by it. "We fixed the bug ages ago, but I really liked the idea that players would work temp powers into their character's story, so I wanted to make sure that the Veteran Rewards allowed them to do just that," he quipped.

Finally, the Veteran Rewards System wouldn't be called that if the most veteran of players wouldn't benefit from it the most. Positron happily announced, "For our 36 month reward this coming April, players will be able to select from five non-combat pets; a small Demon, a renegade Clockwork, a docile Red Cap, a domesticated Rikti Monkey, and a refurbished Robot."

Admittedly, we haven't been playing City of Heroes/Villains for quite that long yet. But we will be looking forward to get that cute Rikti Monkey...

Officially, the classic video game Legend of Zelda is two decades old. First published by Nintendo in 1986, the elven Link and Zelda the Princess sure has come a long way, becoming superstars in their own fantasy way.

Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, the Zelda franchise has proven to be one of the more resilient games around, maintaining a loyal fanbase as well as recruiting new ones. And with the emergence of Nintendo's Wii, it's just gotten a face lift. One that is deemed by some as necessarily called for, now that Zelda is getting old.

Or is it, really?

Scott Colbourne, over at globeandmail.com seems to think so. After all, fighting monsters in caves didn't seem to be as much fun anymore. Nor does exploring caves give him as much thrill as he used to. He calls this "adulthood: the moment you stop caring about whether Link saves Zelda, when the promise of innovative puzzles at the 20-hour mark can no longer sustain you through 15 hours of not having to think much."

Pretty much, that alone already gives the answer to the question. It is not Zelda that's grown old; it's us. So it may be the same characters, the same classic storytelling, the exploration of its trademark setting, the same task of saving the ever-in-trouble Princess. So it may have the same elements, tried and tested as they are. But that doesn't mean it's getting old.

To a certain degree, maybe Colbourne was right in saying that for those who grew up with Link, the game may seem old. Then again, it could just be that we would want to believe that he does, just like we do. After all, there's nothing more sucky than being reminded that you have aged, while your childhood pal, Link, never did.

It could be some form of denial, that we inevitably have to face life apart from the fantasy world we so love to lose ourselves in. There won't be a second chance if we mess up on this one. We can't reset that part of our life we screwed up in. And most definitely, we can't save a portion of it, and just get back to it when we already feel like taking it on again.

So while it's not entirely wrong to credit the Wii's technology for the refurbished Zelda adventure, it would be a big injustice to conclude that that is all the game has to offer. Yeah, so it's a breakthrough to be able to get the character to respond according to your own physical movements, or to fish in the game as you would in real life. But these aren't what makes and sustains a classic.

It's the escape we cannot afford to have in real life. And really, we could all use the reminder of youth every now and then, if only to free ourselves from the suffocating grasp of adulthood. Yeah, we sure have every reason to envy Link.

Major Nelson posts in his blog that they are aware that there are a number of people having issues with the Fall update of the Xbox 360 Dashboard.

He says that he has already spoken with the dashboard team and that an Updated version of the Fall Update is now available on Xbox Live. The updated update (we feel so bamboozled by this) has eliminated issues relating to new or refurbished consoles failing after applying the Fall Update.

Users who have already applied the Fall Update and are seeing an error message should call their local Xbox Support number. In case you have no idea what your Xbox Support number is, you can go to Xbox.com.

I bet you guys have been waiting for news about the eagerly anticipated Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, and why not? The first game on the PSP was one of the best-selling titles, and knowing Rockstar, it would be foolish to expect anything but greatness. Well, we've got some news and info which you guys might be happy to look at. All these details were published in Gamepro, an Australian gaming mag. Firstly, here are the screenshots I'm talking about.

• You'll be playing as Victor Vance - Lance's brother.
• Victor, and his brother Lance, will be playing a big part in Vice City Stories. He's seen in the opening scene of GTA: Vice City, as he get killed by a SWAT team.
• The game takes place in 1984 - two years before GTA: Vice City
• Victor is a 28 year-old US Marine
• Players can now take on the water of Vice City With jet ski's!
• The animations are more life-like and is a ''step-up from previous titles in the series''
• A multiplayer feature similar to the PSP version of LCS is in the game
• VCS is ''much, much bigger than Vice City''
• Some landmarks are half-built or yet to be refurbished to their state circa 1986
• There's new or altered locations and buildings
• All new vehicles and weapons
• You can fly helicopters!
• Radio stations from Vice City make a return
• New weather effects that could include hurricanes
• You can swim in the game!
• Bikes handle better than before
• There's also no more seamless exterior-to-interior gameplay as seen in LCS (There'll be a slight loading time)
• A new addition in Vice City is the chunder-wheel, which you can ride in first-person view!
• Binoculars is in the game
• LCS is ''rookie first-gen PSP title compared to VCS''
• Draw distance is great and is said to be better than Vice City on PS2
• Trip skips make a return (If you die or get busted a taxi will take you back to the location where you received the mission from)
• New animations which give both the lead characters and pedestrians a whole new degree of humanity
• Far richer color palette that brings sunsets to all new levels of beauty, and realism
• Increased density of pedestrians, cars and objects
• Reduction in clumping (where groups of the same model type appear together)
• Far more interiors that its predecessors
• So far there's no word on character and vehicle customization, as well as wall climbing.

All the screenshots and scans after the jump!

A couple of weeks ago, we featured the heartbreaking story of an Xbox 360 Fan Boy who was told to pay up if he wanted his console fixed. While it wasn't his fault, since his Xbox 360 was suffering from a manufacturing defect, he was told by an MS CSR that he has to foot the bill because his console's 90-day warranty has expired. Does that sound fair to you? If you said "no" you can do something else than shake your head.

There's an on-line petition calling for changes in Microsoft's warranty policy - mainly extending it from three months to one year. The petition was started after several Xbox 360 owners complained of running into console manufacturing defects months after the warranty period.  Here's the full text of the petition:

We the undersign believe that the MICROSOFT CORPORATION needs to revise the current length of warranty on the XBOX360 videogame system. At the present time XBOX360 owners within the United States of America are only protected by a three(3) month warranty period through the manufacturer(Microsoft). This length of time is not sufficient. The minimum warranty period should be one(1) year for all systems.

Our backing for this claim comes after large numbers of consumers who purchased systems, are now experiencing defects with the product. These defects cause the product to become un-operational. The company (MICROSOFT) has only been replacing system up to 3 months old with either a)new systems, or b) “refurbished” systems. After the 3 month period consumers are expected to pay between fifty(50) and One Hundred and Twenty-Nine(129) dollars for repairs. This warranty is outrageous, and is in place to protect the company and a product that is obviously inherently flawed. Many consumers have had units replaced 2 or more times, in some cases upwards of 5 to 7 times, within the past 8 months since the system launch.

We the undersigned are DEMANDING that MICROSOFT re-evaluates and amend the current warranty and make a new warranty retroactive so all past consumers are covered. At this time we are seeking replacement systems for ALL consumers who are experiencing defective hardware.

Signing the petition won't guarantee MS will have a change of heart. But if enough of you Xbox 360 Fan Boys get together, who knows? Isn't that how Coke fans brought the Coke Classic back from the cola graveyard? If you want to join this "fight" click on the 'Read' link below.