By Joel Barish The black debate continues Back last year, when the Xbox 360 was yet unreleased, rumors started to abound about the existence of a black Xbox 360. Photos floated around showing the mystical ebony console, but they turned out to be creative Photoshop jobs. Then came actual pictures of a black Xbox 360, but those dreams were soon crushed as well. "That black Xbox 360 is the current Xbox 360 development kit and for the moment, Microsoft doesn’t plan to sell a black Xbox 360," explained Team Xbox. And that seemed to be that. On 1UP's latest show, they did a brief segment on what it like to work for the big guys, and an observant viewer saw a black Xbox 360 on the screen. Being the dedicated soul that the viewer was, they made a quick video as well as a few screenshots.

By Craig Schwartz Camera-shy gamers' nightmare begins At long last, a North American release date has been announced for the long-awaited Xbox 360 camera. Xbox Live guru Major Nelson broke the silence on his latest podcast when he uttered the glorious words, "We've actually given a specific date both for North America and Europe of September 19th." Xbox Live Vision (which sounds not unlike my cell plan) will be compatible with PCs, and no drivers will be necessary to get this baby up and running. You're going to have to buy this particular camera if you want a webcam experience for the Xbox 360; not other Web cam will play nice with the console. Some more details from MTV:The camera will show off some features even when gamers aren't actively using it. On the 360 dashboard, a new setting will let gamers set the background of the dashboard (like themes) and interact with it. Waving hands in the view of the camera when it's on its "watery" setting will cause the background to "undulate" and ripple as if underwater. Other options include an "edgy" setting (likened to a "bad music video" by Hryb) and a "dotty" setting.

By Joel Barish It's more than just a rumor Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where games releases are announced by the actual publisher, and not by rumors, innuendo, forums, and preview pages by retail stores. I wouldn't want to live in that world. Valve may be bringing multiple Game Of The Year award-winner Half-Life 2, to Xbox 360 to be released on Feburary 07, 2007. The retail giants EBGames and Gamestop both have Half Life 2 listings for the Xbox 360 at a price of $59.99 a pop. IGNwent quote hunting and not surprisingly, did not get anybody to 'fess up. "We've only announced development for 360," said a Valve representative. "No specific titles to reveal just yet, but folks can expect to hear more before the end of this year." Electronic Arts, which distributed the console version on Xbox, told IGN, "EA has not made any announcements regarding Half-Life 2 on next-generation systems."

By Nathan Bronfman I slay myself, I do Today is not only the day that millions of people have to trudge back into their workplace after a gloriously long weekend, it's also the day that Hitman: Blood Money comes out on the Xbox 360. After all, there's nothing like going back to work to make you want to come home and pretend to be an assassin. So what are the critics saying about the fourth game in Eidos' Hitman series? So far, there's a whopping three reviews on Metacritic, and even though they don't give an average score, I'm such a dedicated guy that I calculated it anyway. It only took me seventeen minutes, too! It's 78. Not bad at all. Here's some choice quotes from the critics: Official Xbox Magazine (85): If you're a Hitman fan, Blood Money will make you fall in love all over again, and if you never dipped your toes in 47's particular brand of wetwork yet, the time has never been more ripe.

By Joel Barish Paradise by the dashboard lights We reported about the new Xbox 360 dashboard update a while ago, but now that it's been officially decreed, we figured it was worth mentioning again. The best new feature, in our humble opinion, is the new download manager. It features six queue slots so Xboxers will be able to multitask like nobody's business. Some more details, by way of Gamasutra:A number of changes have also been made to the main dashboard, with a new Media and Entertainment category being added to the Xbox Live Marketplace menu, creating a specific section for movie trailers, music videos and other non-games related content. The existing Game Demos category within the Marketplace can now be searched by genre and there are new sections for gamer pictures and game trailers.