Last year was a wonderment of joy for the Xbox 360 sales. They had a multitude of promotions, the introduction of the Kinect, and their upright rendition that eliminated the red ring of death scenario. Taking in account to all of these things, they have finally surpassed both the Wii and the PS3 console sales numbers for 2011. Geekwire reports these numbers in a pretty graph with colors and such.

So congrats Microsoft for achieving this landmark. I do not own, and don’t see myself in the future owning, a 360 so I cannot celebrate this with the rest of the community. But I do remember something about the PS2 outselling the 360 when it was a mere baby…

David Jaffe, the man helming his beloved series of flaming clowns in cars (squarely awesome) comes with some unfortunate clarifications for the upcoming Twisted Metal. Replying to a fellow poster on the NeoGAF forums, Jaffe let loose some truth bombs in regards to censorship.

This isn’t a complete loss, however, as Jaffe’s looking at the Spielberg side of things and reveling in how much we don’t get to see actually improving the gruesome nature of violence, but it’s gotta stink to get your content chopped left and right. Because the game is heading for localization now in all regions, the game must be uniform in the respective censorship laws.

He doesn’t like it much either, but here’s what he had to say about it: “99% of the cuts were in the movies and the movies are still intact and I sat with the editor—the same editor of the American movies—and we went [through] and addressed the notes from [Sony Computer Entertainment Europe] and made sure the stories still worked. And to be fair, there have not been that many cuts.” He goes on to give a few examples regarding a few dropped frames right before Tooth gets his eye stabbed or how a man previously thought to be alive, screaming, and immolated, is now just a re-animated burning corpse. Though these developments in storytelling are hard to digest, at the end of the day, the game is being made into a whole other animal because of it.

Due to the following of universal guidelines, the Twisted Metal will be available for worldwide multiplayer, but unfortunately had put the game under a bit of a delay. Though it isn’t definite, Europe will be getting the game in March while North Americans will still receive it this coming Valentine’s Day.

For those that have followed SSX closely the last few months, you probably noticed there are in-game challenges during the course of your races. By completing said challenges, you unlock badges, which are tracked by RiderNet (a guide within SSX, if you will). The system can be somewhat confusing however, so here is a bit of a summary as to what RiderNet actually is:

To begin, the badges one can earn are split into eight categories among three game modes. Each challenge has three levels of difficulty. When you pass a challenge on a certain difficulty, you will earn a badge (i.e. the easiest difficulty will earn you a Bronze badge, the hardest will earn you the Gold badge, etc.).

And how many badges are there? 50? 60? Try 177. It looks like you’ll be clamoring for badges for a while.

By obtaining all badges in a certain category, you will unlock an Xbox Live achievement or PlayStation trophy (really? You don’t say?). And to spice things up, SSX also uses a Drop Bonus System in two of the game’s multiple modes: Explore and World Tour.

Think of drop bonuses as just that: bonuses for performing various feats during a run. A drop bonus is awarded at the end of a run, and you can earn as many drop bonuses in a run as you want. They are little morsels on top of an excellent run, and you will want to do your part to earn drop bonuses in each run in order to get the best score possible. The press release explains drop bonuses as such: “If completed, players are rewarded with SSX Credits calculated by tallying the top three most valuable Drop Bonuses achieved per run. The first time a player achieves a Drop Bonus, they will earn a Badge.”

SSX is looking very promising, and is seem like it will rejuvenate the franchise in a huge way. Look for it to hit the PS3 and Xbox 360 on Feb. 28.

One hundred thousand nerds (term of endearment I assure you) just got a great little present for the weekend.  Blizzard announced yesterday that they sent out 100,000 beta invites for the upcoming Diablo III title. While there is still no indication on when the hell this game is coming out, chances are that this could be the last big invite before release. If that’s the case, we may see Diablo III before April. That’s strictly my non-mathematical guess. To find out if you’ve been selected, simply go to your Battle.net account and keep your fingers crossed if you haven’t gotten an invite yet. If you did, let us know how the beta is shaping up, we’re still the unlucky few who haven’t been invited.

Sad face.

The official SWTOR patch notes for 1.1.2 were released on the official SWTOR forum yesterday. Not a whole lot going on unless you are a Jedi or Sith warrior. Those of the Jedi Knight, Sith Warrior, Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor classes will see the most difference this coming patch. Most of the other classes will notice a change in the Operation Boss enemies, as a lot of abilities no longer effect these baddies.

One interesting update (that I am sad to see) is the bug fix where your companion will no longer appear unclothed randomly when summoned. Why the no random nudity BioWare? I like my chance that I will see a naked something anytime I log onto the interweb.

For a complete listing of all the patch notes go here. See something that should have been left alone, or think something else is missing? Let us know in the comments below!

The crew here on MMOMFG is going to the shooting range every day in preparations for Mass Effect 3 and it just so happen to be that we got new information regarding the game’s weaponry today. A post on Bioware’s forum is up to grant us with more than a sneak preview into the armory, listing the guns that will appear in the game. No word from Bioware whether the list is legit or not, yet still we’re obliged to update you with any information regarding Mass Effect 3, even the rumors (MIRANDA IS NOT WEARING ANY UNDERWEAR)

Anyway, there are tons of new guns to play with, and it is rumored that the weight tolerance affects the recharge speed, which means the fewer guns you carry the faster you can recharge.

To the list minions:

Assault rifles :

M-8 Avenger

M-76 Revenant

M-96 Mattock

Geth Pulse Rifle

Collector Assault Rifle

M-15 Vindicator

Cobra – new

M-37 Falcon – new

M-99 Saber – new

Phaeston – new

N7 Valkyrie (DLC) – new

Chakram Launcher (DLC) – new

M55 Argus (DLC) – new

Pistols:

M-3 Predator

M-5 Phalanx

M-6 Carnifex

Ivory – new

Scorpion Defensive Ordnance Pistol – new

M-358 Talon – new

Thor – new

Arc Pistol – new

N7 Eagle (DLC) – new

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Shotguns:

M-23 Katana

M-22 Eviscerator

M-27 Scimitar

M-300 Claymore

Geth Plasma Shotgun

The Disciple – new

Graal Spike Thrower – new

Striker – new

Centurion – new

N7 Crusader (DLC) – new

AT12 Raider (DLC) – new

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If you wish to read the rest of the list, feel free to check out the original post on Bioware’s forum.

Without any further ado ladies and gents, the full-blown official Max Payne 3 site is up and running. And it seems like they pre-announced the arrival of such a site with reason.

Packed to the brim with new videos, 360° full renders, screens, and interviews of stuff we’re still anxious to see, you might spend more than a couple minutes drooling over them all. Wanna know what you’re up against? A complete detail on the thugs is worth seeing on their page and it comes with interactive translations—seriously, this might be the closest thing to a primer on the game, which makes waiting that much harder.

Not only that, but remember when Rockstar Games mentioned that they wanted to put your Twitter mug on a multiplayer character? They released that also, showing the finalists in their full, now digital glory.

News and all other upcoming details will probably be updated on their site first, so be sure to check it out. If not, you’ll be missing stuff like this video preview of the 608 Bull Revolver.

It’s about time! Alan Wake is finally coming to Steam after a very long wait for PC gamers. Remedy Entertainment Ltd. announced today that it will be released on the 16th of this month. That’s a whole two days after Valentine’s Day, so save up some gift-giving money for yourself. Maybe go for the half dozen roses instead of the full thing.

The game with some DLC attached will be marked at $29.99 and the special limited collector’s edition will be at $34.99. All digital content of course, as we laymen can’t yet download physical objects. Soon, though I’m sure.

If you’re not planning on getting this for Steam, it was also announced that they’ll release the game eventually on other digital distribution methods. But that is at an undetermined date as of now.

The game that was set to outshine Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has just surpassed 10-million sales. USA Today reports that in a Q3 earnings call, it was announced that the game has surpassed the 10 millionth mark since the first-person shooter launched in October. Add to the fact that FIFA 12 also topped the 10-million sales mark, and you have a year that was fairly bright for Electronic Arts.

During the course of the sales call, it was also stated that an announcement was going to be made as early as next week. There has been speculation that new DLC for Battlefield 3 is in the works, and the announcement could drop at any time. Could next week’s announcement be a revealing of the DLC Battlefield fans have been clamoring for? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Fans or foes of Star Wars: The Old Republic who think the sky is falling and that EA/BioWare’s massive MMO title is beginning to fail should take notice of some facts that just came out. Reuters reported that EA sold two million units of SWTOR since the game’s release in December. More importantly, they have managed to get 1.7 million users to signup for at least a one month subscription. Not a bad start by any stretch. Of course it’s entirely possible that after a month some subscribers will leave, as a lot of people who’ve played MMOs in the past generally give a game more than the 30-day trial that comes with every copy. If EA/BioWare can keep that number from dipping however, that will be an impressive start.

The really challenges they have to look forward to is when other MMOs like Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World come out later this year.