News

With Christmas only a week away, Rare's delivered its online greeting card for the festive season. There's probably something hidden away in there relating to Rare's future (in true form), but let's just take it one step at a time. You can also pick up a shiny Xbox 360 Dashboard Rare holiday theme for 240 MS points. Enjoy the festive season!

Over the last four days Rare have revealed a new set of screenshots for the upcoming Perfect Dark Xbox Live Arcade remake. As always the game keeps looking better all the time, and we finally get to see how Joanna looks in the game herself - she's a mighty big improvement from her N64 days. Check out the new images below and drop by the main PD screenshots section for a look at the accompanying N64 comparison screenshots.

There's also been word that the game's release is slipping into 2010 territory, but it will be in range of this winter season for the northern hemisphere. Special thanks to Phil for letting us know about the screenshots and release info!

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Rare's released three new visual peeks of the upcoming PD XBLA remake. Check out the gallery below for a look at an updated FarSight, MagSec and Elvis' sharp new look. Drop by our Perfect Dark screenshots gallery for a look at all the screenshots released so far. Special thanks to NNoeLL and Phil for the heads up!

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Been a few months hasn't it? Rare now has a new section on their website devoted to the remake of Perfect Dark for XBLA with plenty of goodies to get reacquainted with the world of 2023.

We've grabbed some of the new media - swing by the PD wallpaper archive for a pair of new selections and the renders page for a curious new look at the mysterious Maians. Two new comparison screenshots also help show the difference between the original N64 version and the shiny new XBLA one - and it's looking mighty good!

Recently the IGN/GameSpy network has unfortunately decided to end their long-time website hosting services, so we've got a new home! Pretty much everything is as it was before only with a new address: http://perfectdark.retropixel.net/. All the ads are gone for now, but the main downloads will remain on FilePlanet for the time being. Please be sure to update any bookmarks - the old address will automatically redirect to this new one but I can't vouch for how long the redirect will remain in place for.

Thanks to the newly updated Perfect Dark XBLA page at Xbox.com, we now have our first peek at what the game will look like. It looks as though texture and model work are the major changes from the original game, with sharper textures and improved polygon counts on character models and weapons. The page also notes Xbox Live Multiplayer - no doubt 4J Studios intends to bring the Combat Simulator online... here's hoping!

Rare has now officially announced PD's journey to XBLA with a few new details. 4J Studios are the team behind the port, the same guys responsible for the recent ports of both N64 Banjo Kazooie titles. There's no solid release date yet but it looks to be around the end of the year.

The game will have visual enhancements and smoothier framerates similar to the ill-fated Goldeneye project, and to help celebrate the news we have our first glimpse of the game with its "box art" and a limited free Xbox Dashboard Theme. See below for a preview of the theme (and some crispy Chicago visuals). Looking good!

That Twitter service is all the range now, especially when it delivers good news. While Rare seems to have missed out on the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft's Major Nelson had these kinds words to say on Twitter:

"Just saw Perfect Dark on XBLA running 1080p. It is coming to XBLA this winter. Free theme coming tomorrow!"

So there you have it! No details yet for any enhancements the game may receive, but info will surely pop up between now and the end of the year.

All this craziness with global economies has unfortunately drawn the world of gaming into the mess, and it seems that Rare's making some changes to keep things going smoothly. Reports of restructures and the loss of job positions are making the rounds. Drop by GameSpot for more details. The upside of all this? The report mentions that Rare's busy at work on four projects, of which we'll hopefully hear something soon. Thanks to NNoelL for the news tip.

Heard of Xbox Originals? Similar to Nintendo's retro Virtual Console, the Xbox Originals service offers up digital downloads of past Xbox titles via the Xbox Live marketplace.

Rare's jumped aboard with the first of their two Xbox offerings now available - the quirky Grabbed by the Ghoulies. An oddball full of Ninja Imps, Zombie Pirates and French Main Skeletons, don't miss out if you skipped it over all those years ago. Swing by Rare's website for more details of the game and a lengthy interview with the game's developers.