New, exciting info on the upcoming special edition of Gears of War for the Xbox 360. The special content is split into two halves, GoW junk and GoW 2 junk. (I use the word “junk” with only the upmost of sincerity.) As far as the GoW</i< stuff goes, gamers can expect picture packs (!), themes (!!), a special message from CliffyB (!!!), and two multiplayer map packs (~!). As for the GoW 2 hotness, there’s a picture pack and some trailers. Yeah, nothing to stand on a roof and shout about, but worth a quick mention. Hence, the above. → Read More
Other than some under-the-hood code to prepare for the big spring update, there are “no other changes or enhancements in this update…in other words no new features.” And what of the vaunted spring update? “At this point we have nothing to announce.” Why would they even release this update now, when they have nothing to say? Why not release the update and the information at the same time? → Read More
In trying to log into Xbox Live last night, I kept getting error messages left and right. Naturally, I assumed it was just Time Warner behaving as expected (read: awfully), but it turns out there was a legitimate problem last night. Kotaku speculates that the just-released Call of Duty 4 map pack may have had something to do with it. I just logged in now (had to download an Orange Box update… yes, I still play that game, 18 minutes at a clip) and all is well. Thank heavens! What would I and countless others have done without Xbox Live’s warm, non-judgmental glow? → Read More
Whatever upgrade is being done to Xbox Live on April Fools is anyone’s guess, but recent surveys and speculation might lead some to believe Netflix is coming. Was Monday’s meltdown a result of this? Hmm… → Read More
I just logged onto Xbox Live and found this message waiting for me and thought I’d share. → Read More
Microsoft is on the prowl for cheaters on Xbox Live. Those who have been known to tamper with their Gamerscore or Achievements are probably waking up to a horrifying discovery. Their accounts have been reset to zero and they’ve been publicly labeled as cheaters. Yikes. Major Nelson → Read More
[photopress:xblbaby.jpg,full,center] You’re looking at the first baby conceived because of Xbox Live. The baby girl’s parents met while playing Rainbow Six Lockdown, the daddy in the Bronx and the mommy in Georgia. The story is that the two would-be parents didn’t initially see eye to eye—you sunk my battleship! or somesuch—but then decided to meet each other in real life, or IRL as my old WoW crew used to put it. The mother called it a “leap of faith” that they met. That’s one way to put it, sure. There’s a larger issue at work here—meeting people IRL after meeting online. I first met Biggs at some “office” (read: chat room) get-together after only conversing online; it was sorta weird, yes, but now we’re two peas in a pod. I think he initially offered candy or a puppy or something. I’m still waiting for that damn puppy. The Power of Xbox … It’s an Xbox Baby! [Xbox.com via ComputerAndVideoGames.com] → Read More
[photopress:gta4sweep.jpg,full,center] Grand Theft Auto IV is supposedly coming out for the PS3 (and maybe exclusively thereafter?), but you wouldn’t know it listening to Microsoft. Redmond is having itself a little contest to celebrate the cultural phenomenon that is GTA. The grand prize is a trip to New York for the game’s launch (I imagine there’ll be some sort of party). Other goodies for non-grand-prize-winners include Xbox 360 Elites (there’s 100 of those), Xbox Live memberships and oodles of Microsoft points. You need to be 18 years old by April 14 and have an XBL account to enter. I will be entering as soon as I finish writing this. Xbox Live GTA IV Sweepstakes [Microsoft via Xbox-Scene] → Read More
Just because Bungie is out on its own doesn’t mean they’re abandoning their baby, Halo 3, just yet. A new map pack is due in the Spring, but they’re getting their ass beat by COD 4 on the Xbox Live charts. “We have a lot of awesome new content coming up. We’re not walking away from Halo 3,” Bungie’s community lead Brian Jarrard told Eurogamer last week at GDC. “We have a group of people at the studio that are just focused on keeping the game going strong for the foreseeable future, so I think we’ll continue to evolve and I expect there to be a back-and-forth [between us and COD4] for a while.” The Bungie folks are COD fans, too. Let’s see what happens. I don’t think I’ve played H3 in a couple months. Bungie hopes to knock COD4 off top spot [Euro gamer] → Read More
[photopress:littlegamers.jpg,full,center] Little Gamers is one such game Also mentioned in Microsoft’s Game Developers Conference keynote was that it will let independent developers release their XNA-created games on Xbox Live. The XNA toolkit came out in 2006 but there previously hadn’t been a way for devs to release their work for mass consumption. Seven such games, dubbed Communtiy Games, are already on XBL; they’ll only be downloadable until February 24 and then functional until March 4. So if you want a taste of what’s to come you’d better log on before Sunday. How much these games will cost in the future, not known. XNA games only available until March 9 [VideoGamer.com] → Read More
GDC is underway in San Francisco and the physical format war is dead. So what do the two have to do with one another? Well, it appears Microsoft might make an announcement this week at GDC about a partnership with Netflix. Microsoft definitely played their cards right by not including an internal HD DVD drive and downloadable content appears to be the next big thing. Microsoft has been known to drop a few bombs at GDC in years past, but I’m not sure how likely this rumor is going to materialize. A developers conference hardly seems fitting to announce a content deal. → Read More
Satan! Satan! It looks like XBL fans will have even more sexy content for playback tomorrow. Expect Paramount titles like Stardust, Disturbia and A Might Heart as Paramount officially signs with XBL. Xbox 360 signs Paramount to Xbox Live Marketplace, for classics like Naked Gun [TechDigest] → Read More
So, who saw “LOST” last night? It sucked, right? Welcome to another season of agony and blue balls. If you’re just joining the craze then gawd help you because you just might become as bitter about the show as me. If you need to catch up then do so on your Xbox. Infiltrating LIVE is ABC, Disney Channel and MGM. So, yeah, you can download HD episodes of “LOST”, “Hannah Montana” or flicks like “Mr. Brooks” (filmed in Oregon!), the “Rocky” series and James Bond films. “King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters” is also being added to the marketplace. Look for all of this and more to roll out this month. → Read More
[photopress:ps3freexblnot.jpg,full,center] What’s a guaranteed way to stir the hornet’s nest that is the console wars? If you’re Sony you start an ad campaign reminding people that its PlayStation Network is completely free. The not so subtle “what doesn’t this ad say?” is that Xbox Live costs $50 per year. And then both camps started calling each other names. Wonderful. To me, $50 over the course of a year more or less rounds down to $0, but if I’m actively paying for something, I really shouldn’t have to deal with crappy network connections, free Xbox Live Arcade game or not. “The fun’s always free” says new PS3 online ad [ComputerAndVideoGames.com] → Read More
For all of our troubles over the holidays, the Xbox team is bestowing upon all Gold and Silver members a free download of Undertow. That’s pretty weak sauce if you ask me. Granted, I won’t be throwing a fit and trying to sue Microsoft for $5 million, but a free game certainly doesn’t make me feel better about the situation. Beginning next Wednesday at 2:00 a.m. PST through Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST all Live members can download the game for free. Yay! → Read More
Not from Texas, but they are d-bags. I’m just as pissed as everyone else over the Xbox Live outage over the holidays, but suing Microsoft probably isn’t going to get you very far. The three douches from Texas who are suing Microsoft are seeking an excess of $5 million in damages. That alone warrants some finger pointing and name calling, but their lawyer is an even bigger d-bag. Why? Check out his fantasmic quote about how these guys aren’t looking to get rich. Yeah right, dude. Are the millions of other Xbox Live users going to get a cut of that dough? No. → Read More
[photopress:cod4xbl.jpg,full,center] Xbox Live’s downtime around Christmas was due to server strain, with an unexpectedly large number of people (10 million) trying to sign up and play online. Microsoft simply wasn’t prepared for that number of people using the Live servers, hence its shoddy performance, and subsequent free Live Arcade game. Microsot also says that, when the servers were misbehaving on Christmas day, it was difficult to contact its staff, for reasons you might expect. Maybe it’s my terrible Internet connection, but I still think XBL is a little slow: signing on is nowhere near instant. I tried to play Call of Duty 4 two nights ago online and just logging into XBL from the Dashboard took a long time, maybe one to two minutes. Microsoft Says Xbox Live Outage Due To Server Strain [Kotaku] → Read More
Here it is, folks. What we’ve been waiting for from the Xbox team. Dear Xbox LIVE Members: During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service. As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state. At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you. Thank you again for helping make Xbox LIVE everything that it is today! Sincerely, Marc Whitten General Manager, Xbox LIVE → Read More
Gamers who tried to log onto Xbox Live last week faced a problem: they couldn’t. That’s a hell of a problem, since the only major difference between Gold and Silver membership is the ability to play multiplayer games online. Now Microsoft is hinting that it’s going to do “something” to make it up to Gold members. Quoth the PR rep: we will definitely be doing something for our Gold members that weren’t able to get online over the last week I know when I tried to log in last week I was having intermittent connections. I chalked it up to my terrible router but I guess there were bigger issues in play. I’d be fine with a free movie download as recompense, hint hint, Microsoft. Microsoft Taking Care Of Its Gold Members After Last Weeks Live Outage [The Bitbag via Xbox-Scene] → Read More
San Francisco, CA
