The Rumor Mill: Microsofts Next-Gen Console to be Six Times as Powerful as Xbox 360?

Rumors of next-gen consoles shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone in the gaming community as we all want to know what the successors to our favorite consoles such as the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Wii will be. The latest next-gen console rumor comes from popular gaming website IGN.  IGN reports that the next-gen Xbox or the "Xbox 720" will ship to retailers around October or November of 2013 and will be "Six Times" as powerful as the current Xbox 360.

According to IGN sources "mass production of the system's GPU will indeed begin by the end of 2012 but will not, however, be based on AMD's 7000 series Southern Islands GPU" Once again this is just a rumor until proven and i'm taking this with a grain of salt as well. I'm not really a Microsoft die-hard like some of my fellow writers on the site so i'm not really too keen on all of this information, but I would like to see some next-gen goodness in action no matter who it's from.

Xbox Live Breached?

If you bought FIFA 2011 or 2012 then watch out, since certain Xbox Live accounts which have played those titles are apparently "being accessed while their Xbox is off, having all points on the account spent, and then having someone attempt to purchase more points from the credit card on file, before moving to the next account".  Many people have reported upwards of $100 or more of loss through the spending of points on DLC and other items.  Microsoft is currently locking down affected accounts for 25 days until further notice, because it's not like people had anything to do anyways.

Microsoft released the following statement, and while they say they have "no evidence" this is clearly happening to people around the Xbox community.

We do not have any evidence the Xbox LIVE service has been compromised. We take the security of our service seriously and work on an ongoing basis to improve it against evolving threats. However, a limited number of members have contacted us regarding unauthorized access to their accounts by outside individuals. We are working with our impacted members directly to resolve any unauthorized changes to their accounts. As always, we highly recommend our members follow the Xbox LIVE Account Security guidance provided at www.xbox.com/security to protect your account.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary ViDoc Released, Pre-Order Bonuses Detailed

Halo is still the one of the biggest FPS games in the current-gen, but with Bungie working on their own project with Activision and 343 Industries taking over the franchise, some people can begin to speculate. Not to mention that there will be a new Halo trilogy, beginning with Halo 4. For now, get yourself nostalgic with 343 Industries remake of Bungie's console debut of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

This'll be the first time we'll be looking at more of what this HD re-master of the Halo will be like, with this new ViDoc that 343 Industries has released.

In the video, 343 Industries take a look back at why Halo: Combat Evolved was one of the biggest FPS games to ever release on a console. Not only does the team love the original Halo and everything about it, but they're also bringing back many of fan favorite things, one of which is the old school pistol. Another is Co-Op play, which will be utilized online as well! From the looks of it as well, in multiplayer, we may be playing this game with the Halo: Reach engine.

That's not all! One of the most unique features in the game is the ability to change between the old graphics to the new graphics with just a push of a button. I reccommend checking out the video right above to see that game and comparisons in action.

With all of you getting pretty damn excited about this, there will be a pre-order bonus. When pre-ordered, you will receive the "Grunt Funeral" skull (skulls being "options" in the game to either change difficulty or just for plain fun). What this skull does is causes all hell to break loose when you kill off a grunt. Once it's down, it'll blow up as if a plasma grenade had been stuck on it, as portrayed in the video below.

The other pre-order bonus will be Master Chief Power Armor for your avatar, which hasn't been seen yet, but I'm pretty sure we can all see in our imagination what it would look like on our avatars.

With November being 4 months away, I'd suggest to keep your eyes peeled for this one.

Sonic Generations Revisits Green Hill Zone in This New Trailer

Honestly, I used to play the old Sonic games when I was younger at friends' houses and I loved it. I was actually one of the few who had a Sega Saturn and played the hell out of Sonic 3D Blast and even owned Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. Now, we all know that fans have been really uptight about the beloved blue hedgehog, but with the recent announcement of Sonic Generations, it's really something to look forward too.

SEGA just released a new gameplay trailer for Sonic Generations, where Modern Sonic and even Classic Sonic go revisit Green Hill Zone. Check it out!

Sonic Generations is set to release on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 later this year.

Here's 5 Minutes of RAGE Gameplay

It's been a little while since we heard of anything about id's upcoming title, RAGE. The last time we actually saw or really heard that much from it was last year's Electronic Extertainment Expo, otherwise knows as E3 2010. With people going goo-goo-gah-gah since then, it's hard not to constantly watch every single detail about this game.

Thankfully, id software has release a new gameplay video, which could be released every now and then as a gameplay series of videos, with a setting that we haven't seen before; Dead City. With mutants living in the stranded city, we get to see some of the hardcore action and cool gameplay mechanics that have been implemented. Check it out!