So as you can see the colour scheme has gone for a silver look, with even the A,B,X,Y buttons are losing there traditional colours and going for a translucent white, black and grey look.  I really like the look of this, and for gamers that have been playing for a while who don’t even think about where the buttons are anymore, great.  But for all the newbies out there, they might struggle a bit not having the colour prompting anymore.

But the changes are more than just skin deep with this new controller.  For one the joysticks are now a little bit concave, which is supposed to make it a bit more comfortable.  Although I think I would still stick with my Caps4stix.  The piece de resistance though, is the newly engineered DPad.  A lot of people have moaned that it didn’t quite do the trick in the past and so it has been redone.  With a 90 degree turn it now raises the cross section up by a quarter of an inch, making it a lot easier to use.

So when can you get your grubby little paws on this new controller I hear you asking.  Well if you are living in the States it should be available from Nov 9, but only as part of the Play and charge kit and selling for $64.99.  If you’re stuck this side of the pond it will only hit our shelves next February, and the price, well we can only guess, £50, £60, £70.  No, I’m not bitter about Microsofts’ pricing policy in this country.

I am wondering, however, if this going to replace the standard controller that you get with your Xbox. I’m not sure that I would fork out the dough for this controller.  Especially if I knew I would get one next time I upgraded.  If it does become the new standard controller, I feel sorry for all you guys who have already bought the new xbox.

According to Xbox Live’s Major Nelson the change is going to look as follows

So start saving guys as it seems that to carry on doing what we’ve always been doing is going to cost us more in the future.

There’s guys and girls shirts available and I’ve even agreed to post ‘em out to the USA for our friends across the water.

The shirts feature our new ‘controller’ logo and will be high-quality tshirts, suitable for everyday wear.

You can check ‘em out here: http://www.thelostnfound.co.uk/tshirts/

Any questions email me : hilikus@theLostnFound.co.uk

Now Sony themselves have jumped on board and said that they support the idea of charging 2nd hand game owners a fee to play online.

Personally I can’t believe what these companies are saying.  They feel that they have a right to make money of the 2nd hand market.  What product developer in the world get’s any part of the 2nd hand market of their product.  Please if you know put your answers on a S.A.S.E. and send them to me, because I can’t think of any.

I don’t understand the rational behind them thinking that they are entitled to more money, just because a new person is playing the game.  Once the original owner no longer has the game it’s not like they can still access any of the online game play.  If they could then I could understand the developers wanting some remuneration.  It seems to me that they want to be paid over and over for the same product.

This is the biggest threat the online gaming community has ever seen.  And could cause a real rift between developers and gamers.  Here’s hoping that common sense or maybe some legal block will stop these companies going down this route.  Please Microsoft, take a stand against it.  Don’t let this happen on the Xbox.

I’ve just been thinking about how the game developers would be practically able to do this.  And the only way that I can see it working is that each game would have to have some kind of unique serial number embedded in the code.  That would have to be logged on their servers against your user id or games console (otherwise other people playing on your console wouldn’t be able to use it.) So they would be storing our personal info on their servers.  And seeing as a lot of console owners are legally underage so even if they tick the agree box it still wouldn’t be legal.  Just a thought.

I was totally blown away by this CGI trailer for Halo Reach, they should definitely make a full film like this, it’d be amazing!

I’m currently reading the Halo book ‘the fall of Reach’. It’s really good and helps you understand how the Spartans were first trained and just how important the planet Reach is to the Halo story.

So check out this awesome trailer, thanks to Dark Populous for sharing this with us on Members Chat. Not long guys till we’ll all be playing Reach!!!

We’ve always frowned heavily on video game piracy here at theLostnFound, especially when it comes to copying xbox games. Xbox has a really strong gaming community and we’re united by our joint commitment to keep buying games. So the idea that some people aren’t paying is not only punishing the game developers, but all of us.

So I was pleased to see Microsoft are taking action, anyone who plays a pirate copy of Halo Reach before launch will receive an email from Microsoft notifying them that they have been permanently banned from Xbox Live. Don’t think you can get round it by only playing offline either, cause as soon as you reconnect to Live it’ll get detected.

Their reason for the permanent ban? “playing a game prior to release.” So if you do happen to come across a pirated copy of Reach or even if your mate has it, don’t you dare play it!

It’s due out 14th September, so hold tight guys, we’ll soon be there!

Well there is now a new option to tempt you to part with your gaming buddies. In the form of Tescos. Yes that’s right they are now good for more than just energy drinks and snacks to keep you going during endless Red Eye Sessions.

They have started to roll out a trade in scheme. And not just for credit towards games. You can use the money for anything they sell. And the prices they are offering seem surprisingly decent.

For example they are offering £19 for Red Dead Redemption, £12 for 2010 FIFA World Cup and £17 for a used copy of Mario Kart.

So the prices seem decent. And let’s not forget all the tech they sell through their website, and suddenly my connection to my Gears of War disk is not feeling so strong anymore.

However I don’t think that you’ll be able to trade in bundled games as Game won’t even take these, but hey there is always eBay.

On a final note I think that it’s a really good thing. The more options gamers have the better. And if it forces other suppliers to put their trade in prices up all the better.

You can Pre-Order Halo Reach from Tesco Entertainment and use two promo codes to bring the price down to £28.74. Unfortunately only one of the codes works on the other editions, but for the standard edition both work! Use code: GAMES5OFF-1 which gives you £5 off the pre-order price and FTSL15-1 to knock another 15% off!

I’ve gota admit, I’ve ordered something with Tesco Entertainment before and it was late, so i’m not filled with confidence that they’ll get to to me on release day, but I’m actually out of the country that week, so i’m pretty sure it’ll be waiting for me when i return. If you’re looking for the cheapest deal, this is it!

Hey guys, me and Tamak just checked out the latest video from Bungie previewing the new map builder coming with Halo Reach. Looks like they’ve created a huge blank map with 5 separate areas to build on and massively improved the toolset.

This got us super excited, imagining all the possibilities! take a look and let us know what you think.

We quickly got back into the swing of things and the guys insisted on teaching us a new set of game rules – Mike Myres. What followed was one of the funniest sessions eva with Tamak in hot pursuit of Alenah for what has got to be the longest chase eva, with the whole team spectating and whooping him on.

Quote of the night goes to LewisSpearing:
“Hey Tamak…[stabs from behind] did it hurt?”

Not to mention the first appearance of Fish, who despite being fairly new to the game, seemed to pwn me on a number of occasions.

We’ll be playin our summer holiday Red EYE Session next Tues, so if your free, ur welcome to join us. We’ll be playin a mix of COD and Halo 3.

Thanks to all the guys who joined us, and I’m lookin forward to the next one…