Rare's long-awaited Xbox 360 revival of its bear-bird platforming duo Banjo Kazooie will hit North American retailers on November 14, publisher Microsoft revealed today. Dubbed Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the new title sports a suggested retail price of $39.99 and marks the first main entry since Banjo Tooie (N64) in 2000.

A free download code for the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release of the original Banjo Kazooie will be provided to those that pre-order Nuts & Bolts from unspecified "participating retailers," allowing pre-order customers to access the title two weeks before the general public.

Furthermore, players of Nuts & Bolts will be able to unlock "extra content and features" in the XBLA release through the game's "Stop N' Swop" feature.

An exact release date for the downloadable Xbox 360 version of the original Banjo Kazooie was not provided, though Microsoft noted that the public debut will not be "until a couple weeks after" Nuts & Bolts arrives.

In accordance with today's outpouring of announcements, demonstrations and big reveals at Microsoft's E3 press conference, the company has released several new screenshots of the titles included in today's presentation.

Gears of War 2

New Xbox 360 3D Dashboard

Fable 2

More new images from titles including Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2, Lips, and several others are viewable below... Read more

Here's a new trailer for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, offering cinematic and gameplay footage from Rare's Xbox 360 platformer. The game is due out this November.

Hardware developer Motus Games today unveiled Darwin (pictured left), a motion-controlled Xbox 360 controller, on its official website.

Capable of breaking down into two parts, the controller makes use of a number of sensors to detect motion and relative movement without the use of an infrared receiver as utilized by the Wii Remote. According to Motus, the Darwin is presently being distributed to developers and publishers, and could be ready for market in less than a year.

The company's website includes several videos showing the controller in use with a handful of games, including Traveller's Tales' Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy.

The developer also commented on speculation as to whether the Darwin is the realization of the oft-rumored Xbox 360 motion controller believed to be developed by Microsoft.

"We're leaving it to the console-makers and publishers to announce whatever they want to announce," Motus chairman Satayan Mahajan told Kotaku. "There's a lot... Read more