News | April 15, 2012 1:00 pm

By Hektic Juggalo

Quite like this month's rent check, XbA's news recap is a day late and a dollar short, but its enough to keep me from getting kicked out...I mean enough for me to bring you the news from this week! One of the largest news articles came in the form of Halo 4 details. That's right, making their way to the net even before the issue of Game Informer that contained them was release, the details included info on the single player story, changes to multiplayer, and perhaps the largest bit of Halo 4 news came in the form of the Spartan Ops game mode. Replacing Firefight completely, Spartan Ops is a coop mode similar to Modern Warfare's Spec Ops, but much more detailed. Receiving its own side story, separate from, and said to be as long as, the single player campaign, Spartan Ops is also boasting that it will receive episodic content. Whether this content will be released for free, or as DLC down the line is yet to be confirmed, but the mode, and Halo 4 itself, looks very promising.

The Netflix app received an update this week. While it was not a reversion to the previous version of the app as I would have hoped, it does allow sign on from Xbox Live cloud profiles, meaning that you can enjoy Netflix wherever an Xbox 360 console can be found! The HBO Go App now supports XFinity subscribers, and just in time for the latest episode of Game of Thrones tonight! Talks with Time Warner are still in the works, but as of this posting the app does not support them as a subscriber.

Sticking on the topic of patches and updates, XBLA title Amy received a title update which is said to make the game easier. The developer based these changes off of community input, and its always nice to see devs actually taking an interest and updating their titles based on feedback. Mass Effect 3 also saw a patch this week. The patch, said to address an issue players were having with importing a Shepard from a Mass Effect 1 playthrough, through a Mass Effect 2 playthrough, and finally into ME 3. Unfortunately, the patch led to some serious, possibly game breaking issues that even BioWare cannot pinpoint at the moment.

These issues don't affect everyone post-patch, but for those of you who are affected some options to try include disconnecting from Xbox Live while playing, clearing your Xbox cache, and good old-fashioned persistence. However you get your copy started, be sure to take part in Operation: Resurgence Weekend going on now! Lasting until tomorrow at 8A.M. Eastern, the Operation: Resurgence Weekend will give players an opportunity to nab some nifty unlocks, as well as get a nice little XP boost.

Skyrim is set to receive Kinect support later on this month. That's right, Kinect support will be making its way into Skyrim via free patch. Aside from the addition of Kinect voice controls, Bethesda also alluded to the first bit of DLC for Skyrim: Said to be a timed Xbox 360 exclusive, Bethesda hopes to give a formal announcement on it very soon.

Pink gets the party started in the Rock Band DLC this week, while Crawford has you covered on everything on sale in the Weekly Deal Recap. COD: W@W map packs made their way into the sale for XBL's Deal of the Week, and the WP7 game 3D Brick Breaker sees a sale price, so check out the link for the comprehensive info.

If you are not one of the three people (myself included) that does not already have the W@W maps, or all of your money is at the bar or in the cute waitress you're pretty sure was making a pass at you's pocket (also me!), then you may want to check out this thread for an RPG giveaway, courtesy of XbA User Brandon.

Well, there's your week in news. Now, as I stare blearily through one blood-shot eye at the computer screen, hopefully I can actually publish this article instead of deleting it. Until next week, stay classy XbA!

Keywords: None