When we received a very mysterious invitation from Apple to come check out a new product we were a bit confused. Why would Apple want us at GameOnion to look at one of their products? I mean we are the #1 Video Game News Source, but Apple does not make games or consoles.

Until now. We were completely shocked to see the new Apple Mac Z. This machine is amazing. At every detail of this machine we were just blown away. We are not allowed to divulge too many details at this point, but we were able to obtain permission to show these pictures from their marketing department.



From the pictures we were able to obtain, you can witness their unique styling in every product they make. In the case of the Mac Z, they went for more of a retro look with a nice progressive twist. If you look closely, you will notice they went all out with the retro look. They have a DVD burner disguised as 3.5" floppy drive and a ethernet port disguised as a phone jack. Those clever little dudes!


We were able to witness this machine running Half Life 2 like a dream. The Mac Z topped out at about 120 fps for HL2 and we were promised that by ship time, there would be significant increases in that number. That brings up another interesting thing about the Mac Z. Shipping date. This is unknown at this time, but if we had to guess based on their progress so far, we would say 2nd quarter of 2008. As for the cost, we have no idea.

An anonymous hacker claims to have uncovered a critical security flaw in the software that runs Microsoft's Xbox 360 that could allow a users or attacker to take over control of the system.

Microsoft has acknowledged the vulnerability and issued a patch on January 9. The hacker had demonstrated the vulnerability late December, but only now provided details on how to exploit the flaw on Wednesday on the Full Disclosure security email list.

Hack it up dudes. This is not typical of Microsoft products. ;)

First reduction price? All of us here do not remember there ever being a reduction in price for x-box live downloadable content.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter now has 'Chapter 2' which includes extra characters, levels, co-op missions: all the goodies you normally expect. The price was 1200 points but now has dropped to 600! When converted to $ that is a price reduction of $10. xbox360-files.com analysis: Freaking awesome.

Check on Live for more info.

Just when you thought your computer was good enough.

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Developer CryTek says that despite the muscles of the new machines from Sony and Microsoft, neither will cut it when it comes to its new game.

More than one person has done a double-take when walking by EA's new alien-themed shooter Crysis, just to make sure the stuff showing on screen wasn't real. Apparently the graphical voodoo developer CryTek is using is so potent that not even the soon-to-be-released PlayStation 3 will be able to run it.

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Read more at kikizo.com

Check out this useful little gadget. Not sure how long this has been out. I just might be out of the loop, but I would not mind having one of these cables.

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The VGA cable allows you to hook up your 360 to a PC monitor for improved graphics over a standard TV, since all monitors can display HD (however some HD TVs also have VGA input, which the cable can also be used for). It also features an optical output for Surround Sound beauty. Also attached to the cable are red and white leads which carry the audio, since VGA is image only, and are used if you do not have surround sound. In the box you also get a little splitter for audio purposes, in case you monitor or TV does not have "PC Sound" slots. Theefore you plug the red and white leads into this, then place that in a suitable headphone jack.
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Read More at xboxic.com

I saw this first on tv before the internet actually. They showed PacMan and Frogger on tv. It will be sweet to play these on Live because of the achievements though.

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Microsoft said Wednesday that it would add retro video games as part of its offerings in Xbox Live Arcade. The first game to be available through the program would be "Frogger," costing the user 400 Microsoft Points, equivalent to $5.00 USD. Over the next five weeks, the Redmond company plans to release a game every Wednesday. In each game, Microsoft has updated the classics to support better graphics, as well as creating new ways to play through the company's Xbox Live service.
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Read More at betanews.com

A new Red vs. Blue has been released Red vs. Blue: Out of Mind. Right now it is exclusively on Xbox Live.

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We're very happy to announce that as of today, Xbox Live Marketplace is featuring our new Red vs Blue Mini-Series, Out of Mind. When they asked us to make some new exclusive content for Marketplace, we thought telling a short story that's not part of the RvB storyline would be a great fit. The rest of this post contains some slight spoilers, so don't read on if you don't want to know.

Out of Mind will be a six-part story, with each new installment debuting the same time every week. It chronicles the adventures of Tex between her exit in Season 4 and her re-emergence in Season 5. It does not focus on the main characters of the episodic series. It's free to download, although the first episode weighs in at a hefty 168 MB (RvB:OoM is 720p resolution). May we suggest a game of Uno while you wait? I've been playing quite a bit and I think I finally found a game that I'm worse at that than Team Slayer.
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Read More at rvb.roosterteeth.com