This Week In Xbox — 7/24

How 'Bout Some More of the Chief?

In a strange turn away from its more "American"-style game, the team behind Halo has announced that the series will be brought to the anime scene in a series of seven episodes of anime goodness. Each episode is slated to be created by different legendary Japanese animation studios. To coincide with the anime adaptation of the series, Microsoft has announced that Halo will be receiving a brand new home on the Xbox 360 Dashboard. The Halo Waypoint will be a gamers' resource for just about everything anyone could ever want to know about Halo, including screenshots, trailers, and podcasts. Of course, there will also be content relating to the past and upcoming Halo games, including a "career system" and something to do with "in-game and out-of-game accomplishments". Check out Kotaku's article right here.

VERDICT: "Out-of-game accomplishments"? Wait, we can get Achievements for going outside? Sounds like a trap...

Dashing, To Say the Least

An update for the Xbox Live Dashboard is coming, and some people are getting the chance to check it out before it officially goes live to the public, Joystiq reports. The new update will include several new features, including a new Netflix page, both free and purchasable Avatar items, a community games ranking-system (see below), and the much-touted Games on Demand feature, which will allow players to download certain games directly to their hard drive with no need for a disk. Only certain people are getting to see the update for now, but everyone will be able to download it when it hits Live on August 11.

VERDICT: Games on Demand, huh? Welcome to the future, kids. A future without those pesky DVD cases. Or DVDs at all. Or paper money.

Stand Aside, Indie Rock

After recently renaming the independent games corner of Xbox Live from "Xbox Live Community Games" to "Xbox Live Indie Games" (a move we're huge fans of), it seems that Microsoft has decided to finally make the independent developer's job about a million times easier by giving them both the ability to price their games anywhere from 80 to 400 Microsoft Points ($1-5), as well as adding in both a player-rating system and an automatic-update program for already sold indie titles. You can read more about the changes made here at Joystiq.

VERDICT: Finally. Independent developers are sorely underrated in the world of gaming, and it's nice that Microsoft is finally making it easier for them. Unless, of course, what Team 17 has to say is true.

Let's Carve Ourselves a Witch

1UP managed to get their hands on some footage from the playable demo of Left 4 Dead 2 at the San Diego Comic-Con. The videos include images of several new weapons including the scoped assault rifle, Ak-47, and two of the much-anticipated melee weapons. The clip takes place in what looks to be a sort of bayou and offers a brief glimpse of a new infected type. Expect to see Left 4 Dead 2 on store shelves on November 17.

VERDICT: When it was first announced, I felt like Valve was cheating us out of money releasing the sequel so soon. Now I don't even care anymore, I just need to bash zombies with cricket bats.

Speaking of Zombies..

Casual games giant PopCap has announced that it will be bringing its hugely popular tower-defense title Plants vs. Zombies to the Xbox Live Arcade, Shacknews has confirmed. The company is known for creating the ridiculously addicting and high-selling games Peggle and Bejeweled. No details have been announced other than the port will be happening, so get your green thumbs ready.

VERDICT: If you haven't yet picked up Plants vs. Zombies for your Mac or PC, I highly recommend it. And I don't even like tower-defense games!