We all remember the controversy with UbiSoft Assassin’s Creed’s exclusivity. First it was shown off as an Xbox 360 title as Assassin at the X05 event and later confirmed only as a PlayStation 3 title. After, what was known as the worst kept secret in the biz, the Xbox 360 and PC versions were confirmed the question lingered; is there a difference between the console versions?

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I’ve always wondered why games like Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy haven’t yet made their way to next gen consoles. It may sound like an odd suggestion at first glance, but combine online playability with fresh downloadable content and you have a recipe for online trivia brilliance. That’s why I was so excited when I’d first heard about Scene It making the jump to pixel nation.

Unfortunately the details on this title are a bit confused. According to the PR rep at X07, there are no plans for downloadable content and the title should be retailing for $59.99 USD despite coming with four custom controllers. The fact sheet, however, indicates planned downloadable content, a $69.99 estimated price point, and online multiplayer. I’m more inclined to believe the fact sheet, so that’s the story I’m sticking to unless I hear otherwise.

As mentioned, the game ships with four custom controllers. It can be played with a standard 360 controller, but with these little one-hand-wonders in your house, why would you want to? The controllers have a pretty solid feel, and overall the game is exactly what you’d want it to be. There’s a solid variety of trivia, five different game modes, and gameplay so accessible your Grandma can get Scene on.

Cinephiles rejoice - Scene It is coming this holiday season.

That’s right kiddies, Microsoft wasn’t just their to pimp their games and XNA — they had new toys to play with too!

Pictured above are the weakest entry in this years line up, pink and blue 360 controllers. PR was pitching them to me as handy to have if you have a lot of four player gaming going on and you want to know whose controller is whose — I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the ring on the controller can do the same thing without making me look like a little pink princess.

Luckily, everything else on display in the accessories part of town was reeking of awesomeness (and completely devoid of pastel colours) — like the Messenger Kit.

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If you’re a regular reader of the site, you’ve no doubt discovered our not so secret love for all things Harmonix. That’s why, up until now, Rock Band was at the top of my list for most anticipated games this fall. Don’t let that last sentence fool you - I’m still excited as all get out and definitely picking it up the day it hits. But now that I’ve gone hands on with it? I’ll be honest with you - it’s not everything that everyone has been making it sound to be.

My nitpickiness is going to focus on one thing and one thing alone — the drums. They’re the only thing I played and the only thing I cared about. I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, and although the full sized guitars looked sweet they’ve still got a “been there, done that” feel in my mind. So for me, Rock Band has always been about the drums. They could have just named it “Jim’s Drum Simulator” and it would have been just as accurate a title. Hit the jump for both still and moving images of me humiliating myself.
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By now you’ve all heard about the blackout that happened during X07. Let me just say this: two and a half hours in a dark room full of bloggers + an open bar = one hell of a good time. Xav and I met a lot of groovy mules on Tuesday, and I just wanted to give a big shout out to our comrades in arms.

First up would be the boys over at This Week in Geek and their friend Brent from The Closet Geek Show. They’ve got a killer podcast/radio show that I’d encourage you all to listen to. Those boys were a hell of a lot of fun, and they’re local to me. Now if only I could arrange a play date..

Speaking of local play dates, Faith from Destructoid popped by to say hello. Faith was fantastic, as expected. If you’re reading her over at Destructoid and somehow not reading her at The Girl Gamer, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Last but not least I’d just like to take a moment to recognize my new arch-nemesis, David Dreger. David writes for one of my favorite 360 blogs, Xbox360Fanboy. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to look up to read it when I have to hang my head in shame. You see, David schooled me - repeatedly - throughout the day. When I first met up with him and told him I was a Halo virgin, he stroked my arm and said “I’ll be gentle.” Needless to say, he wasn’t. From there it was his shredding on Rock Band guitar, hard level, while I kept sinking the song on easy drums. And then finally a Guitar Hero III showdown that was really just one kick ass gamer and one guy holding a guitar and crying softly to himself. David, I salute you — and I’ll beat your ass raw in Monopoly any day of the week.

We got hands on time with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the Xbox 360 at Microsoft’s annual event in Toronto, X07. While the multi-player beta has just begun across the globe, Infinity Ward used the event to showcase two single-player campaign levels.

The first was a war-torn cityscape mission titled, The Bog and the second was an invasion of a sea bound tanker in Crew Expendable While we watched as other media outlets played The Bog, where the end mission objective is to infiltrate a base and use the new javelin missile-launcher to destroy enemy armored vehicles, we decided to stick to the rainy invasion found in Crew Expendable.

See our full impressions inside.

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One of the biggest highlights of this years X07 Canada wasn’t the power outage or the illegal street racing (more to come on those later, I promise) but the work of 10th grade student from Toronto’s own Western Technical-Commerical School, David Hu.

WarPong is exactly what it sounds like, and that’s a very good thing. Think Pong, but armed to the teeth. In addition to bouncing the ball back and forth a la Tennis for Two, your paddle is weaponed up and ready to dispose of the opposing paddle as best it can. Power-ups cause the size of the paddles and their weapons to grow, providing a surprisingly fresh experience for a title that until now had been done to death.

The real story though isn’t about WarPong as much as it is about XNA. Microsoft has been beating their chest about the flexibility and accessibility of XNA for a while now, and it seems as though at X07 they set out to prove it. WarPong, one of three XNA demos on show at X07, was developed by a 10th grader. Not only that, but it was designed by a 10th grader to be a multi-platform title. That’s right — WarPong is Games for Windows ready.

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