Huge Kinect Software Savings at Microsoft Stores This Friday!

Black Friday is the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and a day notorious for huge sales and stampeding crowds.

Microsoft have announced the savings that can be had in their various US stores tomorrow, and there are a few great prices for Kinect and Kinect-supported games, including some amazing savings on newly released titles such as Dance Central 2, Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Sports Season 2. Check out the list below:

• Dance Central 1: was $49.99, now $15.00
• Dance Central 2: was $49.99, now $15.00
• Kinect Sports: was $49.99, now $15.00
• Kinect Sports Season 2: was $49.99, now $15.00
• Kinect Disneyland: was $49.99, now $15.00
• Halo CE Anniversary: was $ 39.99, now $15.00
• Forza 4: was $59.99, now $28.00
• Just Dance 3: was $39.99, now $24.99
• Rabbids: Alive and Kicking: was $49.99, now $24.99
• Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster: was $49.99, now $24.99

Expect more in store deals for Xbox 360 and Kinect hardware. Unfortunately these prices will only be available in retail stores, not online. If you live next to one of these, get yourself down tomorrow!

Microsoft Store Black Friday Hours, 11/25:
Bellevue Square Mall (Belleview, WA) – 12 a.m.
Westfield Century City (Los Angeles, CA) – 12 a.m.
Fashion Valley Mall (San Diego, CA) – 12 a.m.
Houston Galleria, (Houston, TX) – 6 a.m.
Lenox Square Mall (Atlanta, GA) – 12 a.m.
Park Meadows Mall (Lone Tree, CO) – 5 a.m.
Scottsdale Fashion Square (Scottsdale, AZ) – 5 a.m.
South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, CA) - 5 a.m.
The Shops at Mission Viejo (Mission Viejo, CA) – 12 a.m.
University Village (Seattle, WA) – 12 a.m.
Oakbrook Center (Oak Brook, IL) – 12 a.m.
Tysons Corner Center (Tysons Corner, VA) – 12 a.m.
Mall of America (Bloomington, MN) – 12 a.m.
Westfield Valley Fair (Santa Clara, CA) – 5 a.m.

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Raving Rabbids, Grease Dance and Leela Demo's Now Available

Released in a couple of days, you can get a taste for Ubisoft's new Raving Rabbids title Alive and Kicking now. Featuring a group of mini games with a focus on augmented reality, you can try it out on your Xbox 360 via the marketplace, or by queuing the download online here.

If Dance Central 2 isn't quite quenching your thirst for some rock and roll jiving, you can now try out Grease Dance featuring songs from the movie and era that you can dance and sing along to. Queue the download online here, or check it out on your 360 via the marketplace.

And finally if you want to get a better sense of what exactly Deepak Chopra's Leela is, you can try it out for yourself. Engage your chakras, develop a flow state and express your essence on the Xbox Live Marketplace or, once again, queue the download online here.

As is the case with all Xbox 360 demo's, the downloads are exclusive to Gold subscribers only for the first week. Everyone else will have to wait until next week to try them out!

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New Just Dance 3 Trailer Shows Off Just Create Mode

The latest trailer for Ubisoft's Just Dance 3 shows off the new Just Create mode which allows users to record and create their own custom dance moves for friends to play locally, as well as via online sharing.

With 4 player local multiplayer support too, Ubisoft clearly aren't shying away from Dance Central's huge success, packing in a host of unique features. Whether that ultimately results in a better game, we'll have to wait and see.

Check out the latest trailer below and let us know what you think!

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Kinect @ Gamescom

Gamescom, the worlds largest games event, kicks off tomorrow in Germany with Microsoft's Xbox Play Day, a 3 hour event allowing the press to get hands-on time with all of the top upcoming Xbox 360 games.

We expect a Kinect-heavy showing, with new footage for games such as Kinect Sports Season 2, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, Kinect Star Wars and Dance Central 2. There will also be a new playable demo of Fable: The Journey, which will hopefully fare better than its initial outing at E3 which Molyneux described as a "horrendous mistake". We'll also likely get a better look at the new Xbox 360 dashboard launching this fall!

All of the major third party studios will be bringing their latest games too. Ubiosoft will be showing off the latest from games such as Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, The Black Eyed Peas Experience, Just Dance 3 and Rabbids: Alive and Kicking.

EA are taking the latest builds of Mass Effect 3 and The Sims 3: Pets, both of which feature Kinect support, and THQ are showing off their latest fitness title, Adidas MiCoach. Also expect the latest demo's for Rise of Nightmares and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.

Of course there will be more than what is currently announced and hopefully Gamescom will hold a few surprises, as usual. Check back all this week for the latest news and content!

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Just Dance 3 coming to Kinect

After the huge success of the first two games on Nintendo Wii, Ubisoft has announced that Just Dance 3 is also coming to Kinect for Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation Move for PlayStation 3.

Presented at Ubisoft's E3 conference, Just Dance 3 is scheduled for a worldwide release in October 11, 2011. It will bring together more than 40 tracks spread across a wide variety of musical genres. Some of the featured hits include:

• 2 Unlimited–“No Limit”
• Black Eyed Peas–“Pump It”
• Duck Sauce–“Barbra Streisand”
• Groove Century– "Boogie Wonderland"
• Gwen Stefani–“What You Waiting For”
• Katy Perry–“California Gurls”
  
• Kiss–“I Was Made For Lovin’ You”
• Laura Bell Bundy–“Giddy On Up (Giddy On Out)”
• LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock–“Party Rock Anthem”
• MIKA–“Lollipop”
• Taio Cruz–“Dynamite”

Each version will sport platform-specific features. The one revealed for Kinect is called “Shout Out!” and it "allows players to score extra points by belting out their favorite song verse".

You can check out the debut trailer featuring Katy Perry below.

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