Another Harry Potter movie, another Harry Potter game. This is a good thing, of course, because we actually quite liked the last one. Half-Blood Prince isn’t a huge jump over Order of the Phoenix as far as presentation or core gameplay goes, but it does offer a few great minigames and a couple of hilarious set-pieces, and even though we ran all over the castle in the last game already, exploring Hogwarts is still a lot of fun. Fans of the series, especially kids, will love it.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Review (X360)

Image © EA

Chris Cashman just announced it tonight during 1 vs. 100 Live. Skill-based prizes will start being awarded Friday, July 10th. The game is still considered to be in Beta, but Microsoft is going to start giving away prizes. Great news!

Just to clarify. Skill-based prizes are only awarded during 1 vs. 100 Live shows on Friday and Saturday. You can win prizes as the One by eliminating all 100 members of the Mob or by quitting and taking the prize. Or if you're in the Mob you can win by answering questions correctly until the One loses. The top three players in the crowd will also win an XBLA game.

A few other announcements tonight were that there will be a Community Written episode of Extended play four days a week. And there will be Videogame Trivia every Monday in Extended play. The current sweepstakes (which you earn entries for in Extended Play) is coming to a close on Sunday, July 12th, but a new one will start on Monday, July 13th.

For more information on 1 vs. 100 Live on Xbox Live, check out our FAQ.

Activision and Radical Entertainment’s Prototype is like the ultimate superhero (maybe super villain is more appropriate) sandbox game. Pretty much every super ability we have seen in a sandbox game over the last few years has been crammed into Prototype to ensure that you can literally do anything you want. And that is a good thing because it makes Prototype one of the best pick up and play goof off games we have seen in a while. Find out all of the details right here in our full review.

Prototype Review (X360)

Image © Activision

Microsoft's ambitious visual game programming tool "Kodu" is available for download now in the Community Games section of the Xbox Live Marketplace for 400 MS Points ($5).

What Is It? It is essentially a game that lets you create games (rather like Sony's Little Big Planet, but at the same time completely different). It lets you create 3D game worlds with any terrain you want, and then populate that world with items and objects and characters. Anything that you put in the world can be adjusted with custom physics and other instructions to really make a full, complete experience. And the best part? You can do anything and everything with just your controller. No programming skills required here.

Now, it doesn't quite let you make fully custom games (you're limited to the preset character and item choices and you won't be able to do everything you might want) but for $5 it is pretty darn robust. After spending some time with it I'm sure people are going to be able to make some pretty nice things with Kodu, so it is definitely something to keep your eye on.

Check out the official Kodu website here.