House of Cards isn’t Netflix’s first original series, but it’s the most important to the streaming service’s future.  Arrested Development has the benefit of a built-in audience, but House of Cards is built from the ground-up (aside from being a remake of the British series), and Netflix is hoping that the clout of executive producer David Fincher and star Kevin Spacey will help draw in viewers.  Judging by the trailers, the show looks to have a highly entertaining and pitch-black take on modern American politics.  All 13 episodes are now available online, and if I weren’t working, I’d be marathoning them right now.

Netflix is hoping it can lure in new members by offering the series premiere for free on its website.  Furthermore, all Xbox users can watch the show this weekend provided they’re already Netflix members.  No Gold Xbox Live membership is required.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer for House of Cards.

Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day is Mass Effect 3 for $29.99 (50%) for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.  While Bioware and EA have tried to bill the final installment in the trilogy as a place where newcomers can jump on, that’s stretching it.  Technically, you could start playing at ME3 and the massive Codex would fill in the backstory, but that’s not as much fun as playing the backstory.  The half-off is great because it gives newcomers the opportunity to save $30 bucks on picking up the whole trilogy, so today you could pay $66 on Amazon for all three Xbox 360 games (PlayStation 3 doesn’t have the first Mass Effect).  Despite the highly controversial ending of Mass Effect 3, the Mass Effect series is a high-water mark in gaming, and not to be missed.

Click here to go buy Mass Effect 3 for $29.99, and hit the jump for the game’s trailer.  [Note: Collider earns a small referral fee when our readers purchase something on Amazon through one of our links. The money generated helps pay our staff and keep the site running. Thank you for reading and supporting Collider.]

In a move that finally gives the Xbox 360 a bit of an edge over the Playstation 3 as an all-encompassing entertainment device, a whole slew of international TV partners have been revealed by Microsoft to be providing services to users of the popular video game system. The new deal allows for channels like SyFy, Bravo, Epix, Crackle, TMZ, UFC, Verizon FiOS, ESPN and the morning news program The Today Show to be available through Xbox LIVE. However, the real cream of the crop comes from Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand service and (drumroll please) HBO GO to be available through the game system, but only in the United States at the moment. Personally, I can’t wait to be able to watch older HBO shows like Six Feet Under and The Sopranos thanks to this new deal. As for the rest of the world, there are plenty more TV partners for Xbox LIVE coming your way, and you can check out the full press release with the list of new partners.

Beginning tomorrow (a.k.a. Friday, April 29th), Hulu Plus subscribers will be able to stream the service’s content via XBox Live. Functioning similarly to Netflix’s downloadable XBox 360 app, Hulu Plus will also be compatible with the console’s Kinect motion sensor so that users can control video playback with the appendage of their choice. Per Variety, Hulu Plus’ $8/month price point will remain intact and the launch will simply allow current and future subscribers the convenience of partaking in the service through their 360 console.

In order to promote the launch, Hulu is currently offering new users a free week of their subscription service through May 6th. While I enjoy Hulu’s free service, I’ve yet to completely buy into Plus. Call me a skeptic, but I’m just not sold on the extra content being worth $8/month (although the 360 streaming is a nice start). What are your thoughts? Are you among the service’s near one million paying customers? If so, do your best to sell me on its merits in the comments section.

Not every movie needs (or should have) a video game tie-in, but I can’t imagine TRON: Legacy without one.  Disney Interactive is releasing TRON: Evolution ten days before the film’s release and will be offering a special collector’s edition for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  The collector’s edition will contain a light cycle model designed by Sideshow Collectibles, as well as a special case for both the game and the model bike.

Hit the jump to check out images of the collector’s edition and the press release.  TRON: Evolution will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PC, Nintendo DS, PSP, and Wii (the Wii game’s title is “TRON: Evolution – Battle Grids“) on December 7th.  TRON: Legacy opens in 3D on December 17th.

One of my most-anticipated video games of the year is Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption.  At its most basic level, the game is Grand Theft Auto but in the Western genre.  That idea alone is amazing.  And to bring more attention to the game, Rockstar has hired director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) to helm a half-hour trailer for the game using machinma.  For those who don’t know, Machinma is a story told by using a video game’s assets.  You’re basically creating an animated film, but you’re doing it in-game.  The most famous machinma is the Halo-based Red vs. Blue series.

Hillcoat’s a strong director and The Proposition shows he has the chops to do a western (and it was probably one of the big reasons why he was hired for the gig).  It will be interesting to see what he does in such a niche genre of animation.  The trailer/short film will air on Fox on Saturday, May 15th.  Red Dead Redemption will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on May 18th.  Hit the jump for the trailer and the game’s official synopsis. [The Futon Critic via Kotaku]

If the idea of a sandbox-style spaghetti western video game, doesn’t appeal to you, then we have nothing to talk about. Ever again.  A new trailer for Rockstar San Diego’s Red Dead Redemption has come online and it makes the time until the game’s release date feel like an eternity.  I know I should try to employ some wider and less vocabulary in my writing but “completely fucking bad-ass” is the best way I can describe this trailer.  It kept reminding of the 2005 video game Gun which was such a great first step of a western sandbox game; it just required a bigger sandbox, some more side quests, and a more balanced leveling system.  Oh, and a final boss fight that wasn’t complete crap.

For those who don’t know, Rockstar is the company behind the Grand Theft Auto games.  However, the GTA series is specifically by Rockstar North while Rock Star San Diego is known for the Midnight Club series as well as the previous Red Dead game, 2004′s Red Dead Revolver which received mixed to positive reviews.  Hit the jump to check out the new trailer and remind yourself that April 27, 2010 is only five months away if you’re a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 owner.  If you only own a Wii, tough shit.

It took a few years, but the PlayStation 3 has finally become competitive in the mainstream marketplace and no longer giving the Xbox 360 a free ride.  After slimming down the size of their system earlier this year along with slashing the price from $400 to $300, the PlayStation 3 will now allow users to stream their Netflix “Watch Instantly” queue to their console.  Hit the jump for details as XBox 360 fanboys snarl and gnash their teeth.

It is the slogan for one of the most anticipated racing games to come out in a long time. The Forza series is the premiere racing game for the Xbox 360 and is constantly in the discussion for best racing game available, period. Two years since their last installment, the folks at Turn 10 and Microsoft have kicked this franchise into another gear now (pun admittedly intended) with Forza Motorsport 3.

Every time a console’s price drops, it makes me wish I’d waited to buy one, but the Wii was already a steal (by comparison) at $249, and I bought mine at the Universal City Walk launch party, so lord knows I didn’t have the patience to wait. Yes, the Wii is to drop by $50 to $199 starting Sept. 27–valuable intel pulled from Toys ‘R Us and Best Buy circulars. More about the change and why after the jump.

For nearly eight years now, developer Bungie has continued to please Xbox owners with their “Halo” franchise.  Two years ago, “Halo 3″ set the benchmark for gaming sales, surpassing every previous release in the entertainment industry.  Not only did it outsell every other game on the Xbox 360, its opening day sales topped that of the “Spider Man 3″ feature film opening.  Needless to say, the games protagonist Master Chief has left an indelible mark on the gaming industry.  However, fans of the series were told that “Halo 3″ was the culmination in the saga- that we had seen the end of Master Chief.  Though this is true, Bungie is soon releasing “Halo 3: ODST”, a game in the Halo universe that does not involve Master Chief, but does involve all of the previous goodies plus a lot more!  Not being an avid “Halo” fan myself, I must admit that is a welcome addition to the franchise and is possibly my favorite game in the series.  Read about this amazing title after the jump.

Yesterday, I did something I’d been dreaming about since I first heard the announcement last year; I finally played “The Beatles: Rock Band”.  As I expected from a marriage between “Rock Band” and The Beatles, the game is everything I hoped for and more. From the opening of the game to the interludes in between gigs in Story Mode, “Rock Band” creators Harmonix have created a game that fans of The Beatles will cherish and will open up the Fab Four’s music to a whole new generation of fans. For more of my thoughts on the game and why I think a (hopefully) inevitable “Rock Band 3″ is going to be awesome, click the jump:

Come on, come all, gamers.  If you’ve never bought an Xbox 360 and/or a PlayStation 3, now is your time.  Last week we reported on the price drop for the PlayStation 3 along with its slim and sexy new design that should finally make the console fly off the shelves like it never has before.  But Microsoft isn’t going to stand for that.  When it comes to gamers, they own this town and they’re not going to let Sony, with its over-due price drop and fancy-schmancy re-design to step up.  No.  Not without a fight.  So hit the jump to find out how Microsoft is stepping up its game (-ing console’s market share).

Whispered amongst the people and long foretold by the prophets, it has finally come to pass: The PlayStation 3 is slimmer and $300.  It is now competitive with other next-gen systems on the market.  When it first came out, it was the best Blu-ray player you could buy because it was not only the cheapest, but if you wanted to play videogames on it you could.  But with the prices of Blu-ray players steadily declining far below the $400 of the PS3, Sony finally had to pull the trigger on the long-awaited price drop and now that it’s slimmer and only costs a hundred bucks less, I say it’s a must-buy.  Hit the jump to find out why and to get some looks at the new hotness.

Another E3 has come and gone, and this year, luckily was a bit more fun than last.  Yep, bigger booths and actual babes go a long way in sprucing up the proceedings.  The announcements made were about as fun, while nothing completely revolutionary was revealed.  Let’s take a look at what we got.

MICROSOFT

The flashiest announcement came from Microsoft in the form of their new “controller-free” peripheral, Project Natal.  The name will surely change, but it’s essentially a camera that tracks precision motion, as well as patterns, such as facial features.  This allows for a lot of speculation about how the camera might be used, but could end up being just a lot of “Imagineering” (as they say over at Disney).  While it will surely track motion, we would warn any interested parties that the preview video for the device that’s floating around the ‘net epresents only ideas at this point.  Yes, gaming guru, Peter Molyneux has shown the facial recognition to work in his behind-closed-doors demo of his new MILO, the majority of the fine mechanics of the machine have yet to be demonstrated.  Take it all with a grain of salt, of course, as with any new gaming peripheral – let’s not forget how gaga we went over the Nintendo Wii’s controls, and that some of its potential has still yet to be realized…