http://www.ps3news.com PS3 NEWS - PlayStation 3 News - PS3News - PS3News.com - PS3 Games - PS3 Hacks - PS3 Homebrew - PS3 Linux Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:15:35 CST en http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-microsoft-xbox-360-model-may-be-the-red-ring-killer/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-microsoft-xbox-360-model-may-be-the-red-ring-killer/ Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:15:35 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-microsoft-xbox-360-model-may-be-the-red-ring-killer/ report gives us some better details on what to look for, particularly the output voltage on the power brick.

The Jasper chipset is, essentially, supposed to be better in every way, this including the amount of power it requires. So it seems, any 360 made after October 23, 2008 should have the chipset.

My only question is: why the heck wouldn't this be advertised and on the box? I guess if they did that a lot of unsuspecting customers would have suddenly been suspecting, meaning less sales since launch. Still!

VentureBeat reporter and "renowned Microsoft digger" Dean Takahashi has done a write-up on the new model giving us all the details on what to expect, and basically concludes the new model should kill the infamous Red Ring of Death problem.

"We'll see if the systems prove reliable. But logically, they should be a lot better," he writes. Note that Dean was behind the massive six-part series on the thing, so as far as journalists go, he's about as qualified as you get for the subject.

The first change is the graphics chip -- it's now 65nm and doesn't run as hot as previous versions (meaning, hopefully, no overheating issues), or consume as much power.

As such, it should fit nicely into the motherboard socket, meaning less system failures due to the chip coming loose. It's smaller size and less expensive production costs also explain why Microsoft has been price dropping like crazy since September! Some new information on the new chip vs. the old one has surfaced, too. Dean explains:

"The main failure cause [with the older 90-nanometer graphics chips and the boards that came with them] was "thermal fatigue" of the leaded C4 connections between the graphics chip die and its organic carrier. The underfill had too low a glass-transition temperature for the amount of heat generated. That caused cracking over time, resulting in graphics chips coming loose.

In previous versions, Microsoft addressed this with better heat sinks. The temperature sense diode was off in a corner and didn't reflect the true temperature in the core regions. Jasper has shifted to a material with a significantly higher transition temperature. Coming up with this fix took time, since the new material had to be identified and tested. The smaller 65nm chip die also helps since the stresses that cause the thermal fatigue are related to size."

It's frustrating it's not possible for them to just build this optimally from the begining, but such is technology. Under the circumstances, though, I imagine any 360 owners that have had problems are probably feeling pretty ripped off at the moment. There really should be some kind of rebate program, no? Combine it with a recycling program, sure.

The second thing is the internal memory - it's now been bumped up to 256mb from a petty 16mb, which means its capable of storing the New Xbox Experience (NXE), meaning even Arcade users can acquire it. Notably, Microsoft was nice enough to offer the extra memory for those users before, but for those that haven't picked up a 360 yet and are considering it, this is good news. Note that LIVE Arcade games can be saved on this too.

In conclusion, and for fear of sounding like a courtesan for Microsoft, it would indeed seem there's never been a better time to pick up a 360, if you've been putting it off. I've been more or less slamming the system (not in articles) but especially lately, I think it's really come around.

Between NXE (which has gotten mixed reactions, but seems pretty cool overall), the new technology, this year's killer line-up (Soul Calibur, Gears, Fallout, anyone?), and the price drops -- Microsoft's really got this one in the bag. I would even go so far as to say it's not impossible for them to overtake the Wii, eventually...

Will be interesting as well to see if this translates to at least decent sales in Japan, where the console has long been mostly ignored. I don't like to stay mad, so Microsoft: thanks for not sucking.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-increases-active-downloads-queue-from-six-to-fourty/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-increases-active-downloads-queue-from-six-to-fourty/ Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:20:21 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-increases-active-downloads-queue-from-six-to-fourty/
To quote: Just a quick tidbit for you NXE-loving guys and gals out there. In my eternal thirst to find out more technical information about the NXE, I stumbled across a piece of info you might be interested in. This comes from one of the "Voices" Xbox.com pages:

"Speaking of downloads, the Active Downloads queue has been expanded from six entries to a whopping 40, making it much easier to fill your hard drive with lots of great stuff."

Most of the article rehashes the normally touted features, but I thought y'all might be interested in something a little more fresh.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsofts-xbox-360-jasper-motherboard-in-the-wild/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsofts-xbox-360-jasper-motherboard-in-the-wild/ Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:35:50 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsofts-xbox-360-jasper-motherboard-in-the-wild/
The new power supply (pictured below) is now 150W (25W less than those used with Falcon boards), and the plug has of course been changed so u can't plugin this PSU into an older motherboard.

Other unannounced change... the onboard flash chip has grown from 16MB to 256MB. Microsoft included internal memory storage, so the Arcade SKU now ships without (external) Memory Unit and the new NXE dash will install fully on the flashchip (rather than requiring a HDD or external MU).

But the internal memory can also be used to store gamesave data, XBLA games, videos or whatever ... u can use it asif it was an external MU. As the flash chip is also used for the kernel/keyvault/dash etc there seems to be about 214MB left according to scoldingice on our forums to store your own stuff (this is prior NXE install, if you install NXE it will take most of the space).

I'm guessing the Jasper PRO and Elite SKUs will also come with this internal memory. It's just cheaper for Microsoft to make 1 type of motherboard for all SKUs rather than making a different version for each SKU. Also seems logic in a way ... get the full NXE dash on the internal flash is much 'cleaner' than using HDD/MU for it.

The motherboard design didn't change much... besides the bigger flash and what's probably the new 65nm GPU, we also see a new south bridge model... the rest (videochip, CPU, heatsinks, general board layout, ...) seems pretty much similar to falcon boards.

It also appears there are RAM chips on the bottom of the board again (without thermal pads even)... Microsoft recently switched to RAM chips with double capacity so they could drop the 4 chips on bottom (and only place 4 on the top)... but apparently they are back (old stock maybe?).

However the type of RAM chips they use is not bound to the motherboard revision... there are falcon boards with RAM chips only on the top and falcon boards with RAM chips on both top and bottom. Same can happen for the jasper boards.

Check out all the pics linked above!]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-highlights-serious-xbox-360-hdd-problem/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-highlights-serious-xbox-360-hdd-problem/ Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:31:01 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-highlights-serious-xbox-360-hdd-problem/
Make no mistake fellow gamers, hard drives rock. Even still, if you had have told us in 2005 that three years later we'd be complaining about 'only having' 20 gigs of space for our Xbox 360, we would have built a time machine to travel forwards in time to knee ourselves in the groin.

But times they do a-change, especially when you're talking storage. HDD sizes always increase at a frantic rate, and their prices can change just as quick. Just ask one of your PC gaming buddies - you know, the bloke you stay friends with because he has sixteen terabytes of porn - he'll set you straight on the virtues of having HDD space to spare.

Now that the DLC era is fully upon us, it's becoming increasingly obvious that console gamers need not only 'the Gs' to buy content, we also need to have 'the GBs' to store all of it. This is especially true with the New Xbox Experience; you know, that fancy pants dashboard update that had some mixed surprises for all of us.

On the plus side it can now reduce load times by letting us install games onto the hard drive. On the bad side, it introduced avatars and forced every single one of us to take one unwilling step closer towards metrosexuality. Yep, even the guy with the gamertag 'Sgt_Butch_McSlaughter'.

But that's a rant for another time. Today we're more interested with the ridiculously small sizes of the 360 hard drives, and the ludicrous cost of them.

From day one, early Xbox 360 adopters only got themselves a pissy little 20 gig HDD which, quite frankly, is bugger all room. Incidentally, if you are among the chosen few who still has one of these machines - and it hasn't blown its own brains out yet - Achievement Unlocked! Take these 10 gamer points and go buy yourself a lottery ticket, you're on the biggest roll of your life...

Next in line, you've got the folks who bought themselves the sex on a stick Halo special edition console (which has a 20 gig too). After that there are the people who scored a Pro Console with HDMI and a 60 gigger ($349). Also you've also got the forward thinkers who scored themselves an Elite with a 120 GB Hard disk ($549) - for the record, this rant doesn't concern you rich bastards as much. You're swimming in free space, Scrooge McDuck.

Finally, let's all spare a thought for the recent adopters who have jumped on board by buying the insanely low priced Xbox Arcade Pack. These ill-informed punters have squat, no HDD at all. Sure they got a killer deal and a copy of Kung Fu Panda, but John Q Salesperson neglected to tell them this handy formula: Xbox 360 - a hard drive = no backwards compatibility= no Xbox LIVE = no love.

So where does that leave them (and the majority of 360 owners with a 20 gig) when they want to upgrade to a quasi-respectable 120 gig? It means selling off one of Nana's kidneys to come up with an extra 200 pesos. That's right trendsetters, for the cost of a hard drive you can almost buy another Xbox Arcade CONSOLE with the money. This, quite obviously, is ridiculous.

Walking into our local EB (or was it JB? - We can't recall which. It definitely had a 'B' in it) we discovered that there are two 360 hard disk upgrade options available: the 120 gig ($199.95) and the slightly wimpier 60 GB LIVE Starter Pack' ($149.95). Whichever option you choose, you're essentially getting not much space for a crap load of dollars.

Why are Xbox HDDs so goddamned expensive, anyway? Looking online you can get a 750 gig Seagate IDE hard disk for $242. Why then are we buying Bill Gates another ivory back scratcher every time we want to gig-up? We're glad you asked. According to some research the hard drives for Xbox 360 are stupidly pricey because of:

1. The needlessly flashy packaging (why try to sex up a chunk of plastic anyway? It's a fricken hard disk)
2. All hard drives ship with pre-installed demos and/ or XBLA games on it. Someone, or something, has to put them there.
3. All hard drives must be coloured and shaped to fit inside the specially-designed housing that ensures that only a 360 can access the delicious gigabytes within. I.e. MS doesn't like to share.

The end result; it costs MS an estimated $100 to make a 120 GB hard drive, and the leftover $80 profit getting split between them, retailers, and distributors. This being the case, we're largely screwed when it comes to expecting a markdown anytime soon. At this point you've got to respect Sony for going with an easily replaceable, non-proprietary hard disk design for the PS3.

Filthy greenbacks aside, let's get back to the topic of available space. The Xbox 360's attach rate last Christmas was 7 games (up from the previous year's 5.3). Therefore, if a 20 GB owning punter is planning on installing seven of the latest Christmas releases they're in trouble (for example: Gears 2 (6.7 GB), Fable II (6.8 GB), Dead Space (6.6 GB), Fallout 3 (5.9 GB), Call of Duty: World at War (6.5 GB), Midnight Club: LA (6.0 GB), and Fifa 09 (6.0 GB). That list comes to an utterly McStupid 44.5 GB - and it'll essential overload most people's HDDs. Especially when you factor in that the average Xbox 360 is already crammed with music, videos, demos, and every XBLA trial game know to man, from 'Arkadian Warriors' to 'Zuma'.

God forbid you want to download some movies, or any DLC.

Now some people may argue, "why would you have seven games installed at one time anyway? Who plays seven games all at once?". Plenty of people, smartarse, plenty of people. Jumping between different parties/multiplayer games is the culture that MS is desperately trying to sponsor - especially in the face of Sony's impending Home.

As you can no doubt see, this 'overly expensive, under regulation size' HDD problem will quickly become a significant problem for the big M in the battle ahead. What can they do to fix the problem? We'll be watching with keen interest...]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-cheats-xbox-360-gamer-out-of-121250-gamerpoints/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-cheats-xbox-360-gamer-out-of-121250-gamerpoints/ Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:43:24 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-cheats-xbox-360-gamer-out-of-121250-gamerpoints/
Imagine now, with me, that over the course of the past several years, you've played games on your 360 nearly every chance you got. You've racked up a huge gamerscore, only to have it all taken away one day without ANY warning.

This is story of SlapStic reader "JackTheWhack." Jack, whose real name is Jack Barbosa, not only had a huge gamerscore; he had more than any other person in the entire state of New Jersey: 121,250, in fact.

He achieved this impressive score through renting via Gamefly for games that he was only mildly interested in, while he purchased many games that he thought could give him more lasting enjoyment. Obviously, with a score that high, he WAS a MASSIVE 360 fan.

So last night, while playing Mirror's Edge, Jack received an achievement that he had already gotten earlier in the day. Confused, Jack went and checked out his Gamercard, where he discovered with considerable horror that he now had a Gamerscore of 25, and that his Gamer Zone had been changed to "Cheater." He was also unable to change his Gamer Zone to anything else.

This all went down with no warning from Microsoft, and not so much as a letter explaining things once they had done it. JackTheWhack had just gotten over three years of his gaming record wiped clean. There was no trial, and there was no jury. Microsoft simply assumed that he was a cheater, and took all of his Gamerpoints away from him.

This all seems very strange, especially given the fact that Jack was interviewed last Thursday to be featured as a "Spotlight Gamer." He was told that his interview would be up on the 360 dashboard in around two weeks. So at what point did Microsoft decide that instead of being worthy of attention, Jack was a dirty cheater that deserved punishment?

Jack Barbosa is no cheater, and he called Microsoft themselves to see if he could get things straightened out. They essentially informed Jack that he was just out of luck, saying that it was "abnormal for a person to achieve an undisclosed amount of achievements in such a short period of time." Jack even tried to find out what games or achievements on his gamercard were in question, but they refused to comment.

There are things working for Jack to make it seem obvious that he did not cheat. For one, he didn't get the full 1,000 points on many of his games. Like many gamers, he simply gets as many achievements as he can before moving on to the next game if things start taking too long. So with a lot of games he DOES have the full 1,000 points, but more often he has closer to 500, or even as low as 5 for games that he really didn't take a liking to.

I came upon all this information about the situation through an interview that I did with Jack. In it, he mentioned that he was selling all of his 360 products on his Amazon.com storefront. I asked him if he would consider going back to his 360 if he somehow managed to get all of his gamerpoints back, to which he responded, "I will never return to the 360, even if a new system were to be released. I would be gone."

He also went on to inform me that he will be purchasing a Playstation 3 as soon as possible and that all he wants from Microsoft is a change in their policies that will keep such a thing from ever happening to anyone else.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/video-slot-loading-xbox-360-modified-game-console/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/video-slot-loading-xbox-360-modified-game-console/ Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:09:41 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/video-slot-loading-xbox-360-modified-game-console/
To quote: Well, I figured I'd see how far I can get on this thing and have been wanting to take a stab at it for awhile but didn't feel like trashing a perfectly good slot loader drive to see if I could.

Then I remembered I had this little gem just sitting around doing nothing at all, figured I may as well use it for something besides dumpster filler..

f320/RDCXBG/360%20Slot%20Loader/Hitachi-iMac050.flv]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-to-offer-community-games-in-new-regions/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-to-offer-community-games-in-new-regions/ Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:30:51 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-to-offer-community-games-in-new-regions/
Below is the press release with the announcement.

Press Release: Microsoft Opens the Flood Gates of Community Game Development in New Regions

Following the highly-anticipated launch of the Community Games channel as part of the New Xbox Experience on Nov. 19, Microsoft today announced that it will open up the service to even more developers around the world to create their own games for Xbox 360 and share them with millions.

Beginning on Dec. 15, independent, student and hobbyist developers in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand will have the opportunity to distribute their titles on the new Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel and potentially share in the profits from their creations.

For developers like team Gambit of Singapore that created the 2008 Dream-Build-Play first place winner "CarneyVale: Showtime," this offers the unique ability to develop games using Microsoft's free XNA development toolset, share them on a console like never before and potentially turn the hobby of game-making into a full-fledged career.

An XNA Premium Creators Club Membership, which is only $99 (USD) a year, will allow game makers to participate in the multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry. For Xbox LIVE members, it means more diverse and innovative titles that are only available on Xbox 360.

"If our annual Dream-Build-Play competition taught us one thing, it is that there is such a wealth of creativity and imagination in this region, and all over the world, that should be shared with millions," General Manager of the XNA Boyd Multerer said. "Now even more developers can participate in what we expect to be a worldwide movement to truly democratize game development."

A host of new and creative ideas are already appearing on the Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel, including 3-D fighting experiences like "Colosseum" and games for the entire family like "Word Soup." Community-created games on Xbox LIVE are expected to add hundreds of titles of the Xbox 360 video game library, offering some of the most inventive and unpredictable games ever seen on consoles.

By the end of 2008, Xbox 360 owners are expected to have access to the largest, most creatively diverse game library across all next-generation platforms, with more than 1,000 titles spanning Community Games, Xbox LIVE Arcade and retail blockbuster titles.

Singapore, Australia and New Zealand join the growing list of countries including the United States, Canada, England, France, Italy Spain and the Nordic regions that can publish Xbox LIVE Community Games. More detailed information about Community Games and Creators Club Memberships can be found by visiting http://creators.xna.com.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/three-new-final-fantasy-xi-expansions-announced-by-square-enix/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/three-new-final-fantasy-xi-expansions-announced-by-square-enix/ Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:28:22 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/three-new-final-fantasy-xi-expansions-announced-by-square-enix/
This time, while no expansion pack was announced, Square Enix did announce three expansion scenarios.

The three scenarios are titled, in Japanese, Ishi no Miru Yume, Senritsu! Mog Matsuri no Yoru, and Shantotto no Inbou. Each scenario tells a complete story, and all three were headed up by scenario writer Masato Kato. FFXI fans will recognize Kato from his work on the Rise of the Zilart expansion. More recently, he supervised the DS remake of Chrono Trigger.

While not lasting as long as a full expansion pack, Square Enix expects players to clear each scenario in one or two months.

Unlike past expansions, these three scenarios will be offered exclusively through direct download. Square Enix hasn't set pricing, but fans at the event were told to expect somewhere around the 1,000 yen ($10) range.

Ishi no Miru Yume will arrive first some time in Spring 2009. The other two will follow, separated by a few months.

These names, pricing, and release periods concern Japan only. We'll let you know about plans for international versions once Square Enix shares them.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/controller-modifications-cheating-is-the-cancer-of-online-gaming/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/controller-modifications-cheating-is-the-cancer-of-online-gaming/ Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:11:18 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/controller-modifications-cheating-is-the-cancer-of-online-gaming/
He died over and over again, so rather than practice until he could hold his own, he - as many programmers do - asked himself how could automate the experience. And thus, the infamous AimBot was born.

AimBots have been a thorn in the sides of many noble gamers for almost a decade. Talentless players have used them to bring misery upon their innocent foes; foes primarily out to have a good time themselves.

Unfortunately for the honest among us, AimBots are the least of our worries now. A plague of modded controllers have now entered circulation among gamers. These controllers are used to center on a target's head, pull the trigger, and move on.

Others are used to make the buttons easier and faster to push, or are modified with a rapid-fire button (like an old SNES controller) to make mowing down hordes of foes incredibly easier.

Included with one product description was: Everyone has been asking for a Rapid Fire that was "TRULY" universal, and contained our famous Rapid Fire for Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and our new, first released, undetectable Rapid Fire for Call of Duty 5 World at War.

The worst part about this epidemic? There is no cure. The Big Three have been trying their best to detect these controller mods, but as their just a relatively new threat, they don't have many systems in place to detect these modded controllers.

What can you do about this? Currently, not much. In favor of not turning this into a McCarthy witch hunt-type ordeal, reporting every player as a cheater isn't a good idea. However, if you are absolutely sure that the player is a cheater, reporting them is possibly your best and only option. Here are some helpful tips to point out the cheaters:

- The player can, in say a game of Halo 3, shoot off pistol rounds like it's a Thompson sub-machine gun.
- The player is extremely disrespectful, racist, or prejudice.
- After a few games, the player has achieved near 100% accuracy in all their shots and are rarely ever killed.

Though there is little you can do about the cheaters, keep in mind that so far only a small number of players have acquired these controllers. The Big Three are also working on new ways to detect cheaters using modded controllers, so as with people trying to use modded video games to play online, hopefully the threat of cheaters using modded controllers will not last long.

Cheating isn't new; it's been around since the creation of video games as developers have put in cheat codes to prolong the duration of their games. Don't feel like jacking an army tank from a military base in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?

Enter a combination of buttons and one will drop out of the sky. Want to mow down everything in your path in Call of Duty 4? Unlock the cheat "Infinite Ammo" and fill your enemies full of lead.

Being a cheater can bring a new, positive air to the game and is perfectly acceptable as a part of a person's single player game. But these people who cheat are ruining online gaming for everyone because it completely removes the single most important ingredient in online gaming: every single person's own level of skill.

Why do cheaters use AimBots and modded controllers, which play the game for them? E-Rep? Enjoyment from the misery inflicted on others? The inability to enjoy a game for the sheer fun of it? Or a lacking sense of purpose in life?

Unfortunately, like the question of how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never truly know why cheaters do what they do.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/review-netflix-on-microsofts-xbox-360-disappoints/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/review-netflix-on-microsofts-xbox-360-disappoints/ Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:08:25 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/review-netflix-on-microsofts-xbox-360-disappoints/
The service, which is available to Xbox Live and Netflix -subscribers, allows you to stream movies to your TV via your Xbox 360, and on paper, it sounds ingenious.

Indeed, that's why I -- along with many others -- was so excited when Microsoft announced this forthcoming feature way back at E3 in July. Unfortunately, Netflix for Xbox Live users is now here, and it's not all it was cracked up to be.

For starters, the selection of streamable movies is lackluster. Netflix users who have used the service's "Instantly Watch" section know that there aren't an incredible variety of movies to pick from. There are few new releases available. Instead, the selection is composed mainly of films like Mission to Mars, The Abyss, Superman: The Movie, Batman Forever and Scarface.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with these movies. Some of them are actually great films. But I've already seen many of them, and I was more excited about watching new releases. Moreover, as an HDTV owner, I'm disappointed by the scarcity of good high-def content provided by Netflix.

The other issue lies in the interface. Instead of being able to browse Netflix's collection on your HDTV with your Xbox 360 controller in hand, you have to manage your Netflix Queue via your computer. It's a minimalist setup that nearly feels like a hackjob. The whole thing could have been designed so much better, ideally allowing users to browse Netflix without having to go to their PC to Queue-up whatever they want to watch.

Netflix's presence on Xbox 360 isn't a total disaster, though. Its selection of TV shows, like The Office and Heroes, is better than its movie half. Furthermore, there's a lot of potential here. No doubt, the underwhelming collection of movies is due in part to legal and licensing constraints.

I expect -- or at least hope -- that in the coming months, the selection will steadily improve. If that's the case, maybe we'll have the Netflix integration on Xbox 360 that I had dreamt of not too far down the road. But for now, I'm not impressed.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-causing-hdmi-sound-loss-issues/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-causing-hdmi-sound-loss-issues/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:52:15 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-causing-hdmi-sound-loss-issues/ thread at the AVForums, several Xbox 360 users are losing all sound after upgrading to the New Xbox Experience.

Evidently the problem only appears in HDMI-connected systems, but there has been one report of someone having the same problem using a SCART connector. Fortunately, there seems to be a fix.

- Turn off the Xbox 360.
- Remove the hard drive.
- Turn on the Xbox 360.
- When the Dashboard loads, put the hard drive back.

Apparently, the fix is only temporary. If you turn of the Xbox, you will have to receive the process.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-rep-on-xbox-360-rrod-issue-they-fed-us-to-the-lions/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-rep-on-xbox-360-rrod-issue-they-fed-us-to-the-lions/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:22:06 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-rep-on-xbox-360-rrod-issue-they-fed-us-to-the-lions/
While most scoffed at the idea, the prediction held true and MS service lines are white hot with calls from angry customers.

"I hate what the company did this year," says the rep. "They released the New Xbox Experience a few days after the extended warranty period ended for most users and it's tough to explain that to raging callers. How do you say that MS just screwed them all?"

He adds "our bosses really fed us to the lions this time. We're getting everything from crying kids to death threats from angry adults. It's an orgy, I tell ya."

The rep ended the short chat by lamenting how Xbox 360 owners are blaming the update for even the most far-fetched issues. An example, he says, is a call from a 32-year old man claiming that his house's power went out after updating.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/gta-iv-exclusive-xbox-360-dlc-unveiled/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/gta-iv-exclusive-xbox-360-dlc-unveiled/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:05:07 CST hunter316 XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/gta-iv-exclusive-xbox-360-dlc-unveiled/
Revealed by USA Today, the downloadable content is titled 'Lost and Damned', and centres around the character of Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City's biker gang The Lost.

Rockstar's Dan Houser said of the add-on '"I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."

Further details are scarce, although a February 17 release date has been attached to Lost and Damned.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/netflix-speaks-on-sony-movies-disappearing-from-xbox-360-service-1/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/netflix-speaks-on-sony-movies-disappearing-from-xbox-360-service-1/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:22:37 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/netflix-speaks-on-sony-movies-disappearing-from-xbox-360-service-1/
Joystiq broke word this evening that Netflix stopped Xbox 360 users from streaming movies distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

This restriction only applies to Xbox 360 users. PC, Mac and other Netflix-enabled on-demand devices can still stream Sony Pictures Entertainment films, and is not a glitch.

"In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console," Netflix VP of corporate communications Steve Swasey told MTV Multiplayer in an e-mailed statement tonight.

"Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers' computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they'll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly."

When asked if the license just coincidentally expired as Microsoft was adding Netflix support or Sony Pictures Entertainment specifically requested Xbox 360 streaming to be disabled, Swasey wouldn't say.

"As watching instantly becomes a more prominent part of the Netflix service, our goal is to have all of our streaming content licensed for all of our partner devices," he said.

"We're doing well in this area, but it will take some time before we fully achieve that goal. Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time."

For now, however, Sony Pictures Entertainment films available for streaming through Netflix - including "Superbad," "We Own The Night" and others - will remain blocked on Xbox 360, until Sony says otherwise.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-update-says-hello-with-rrod-reports-1/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-update-says-hello-with-rrod-reports-1/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:16:23 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-update-says-hello-with-rrod-reports-1/ are already piling up.

Various forums online (such as the one linked above) have threads and threads of people reporting anything from connection freezes, slow downs, lock ups, broken TV connections, and so many other different numerical errors that, if all of them were strung together, could potentially measure all the way from Earth to the moon (and back).

There are even reports of brickage - yes, the famed red ring of death is back. Some say it's limited to modded consoles only (no surprise there) but other untainted units seem to be affected by the same problem too.

We've yet to hear any official response from Major Nelson or any of the Microsoft staff. Some say the slow downs are caused by the simple fact of surging traffic accessing XBL, but the other problems are still unaccounted for.

If you are experiencing any problems with the NXE update, you might want to contact customer service (good luck!) or check forums to ask around if anyone's getting the same problem as you.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/ten-things-you-should-know-about-the-new-xbox-experience/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/ten-things-you-should-know-about-the-new-xbox-experience/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:00:53 CST takavach XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/ten-things-you-should-know-about-the-new-xbox-experience/
No exceptions; this is what your machine will look like until either it dies, you die, or Microsoft decides to make ANOTHER Xbox Experience.

Unfortunately, unlike Batman, you didn't have time to prepare. Here are the ten things you should know about the new Xbox experience so you can be set for today.

1) Installation is quick. Owners with hard drives that aren't 100% full will be able to update with no problem, but Xbox 360 Arcade fans that rely on memory cards can get in on the free 512MB card deal from Microsoft. We'd recommend you go for the 20GB hard drive for $20 if anything.

The update won't be as fast as the 10-second patches you're used to for standard Xbox Dashboard upgrades, but clocking in at somewhere between five to ten minutes, it's still faster than standard PS3 firmware refreshes. And this changes the entire UI!

2) Avatars are neat, but need some work. They're not necessary in the sense that you've still got the option of using your old gamerpics to represent your gamertag to the rest of Xbox Live, but everyone can create a Nintendo Mii-like avatar.

Because there are only a handful of clothing options and customizability selections, your Mii will only kinda look like you. They're neat, though, and can be used in future games so you can control a virtual you instead of, say, Venus Williams or Marcus Fenix-the second being extremely unlikely.

3) Performance gains are found everywhere. One of the things Microsoft with the new Dashboard was lift restrictions about how much resources it could use, resulting in a much speedier and more fluid browsing experience.

For example, your Xbox Live Arcade game list loads instantly, instead of one at a time in the order you downloaded them. Other time savers are the ability to bring up the Xbox guide from wherever you are and jump into another game, bypassing the need to reroute from back in the Dashboard.

4) Everything is much more usable because it's organized better. By putting in a game and going to its info screen, you can look at its achievements, all its possible downloads and access game details like whether or not it supports 1080p and co-op. In fact, you can do this for all the games in the marketplace, giving you an easy way to browse around and learn whether or not Fable 2 supports online multiplayer (it does).

5) Blades are still there if you want them. Although you're "stuck" with the new interface in the actual Dashboard, you can hit the Xbox guide button on your controller and hop around the console that way. There really isn't a reason to dislike the new interface, but if you're one of those weirdos that hates things because they're new, you've got an option.

6) Netflix movie and TV streaming look great. As Mark covered in his impressions, Netflix streaming to your Xbox works fantastically as long as your connection is fast enough. HD streaming requires 8Mbps for their highest tier quality, but Mark was fine with 5Mbps in their second tier. This all requires you to have an actual Netflix account to be able to access the feature, but the convenience of movies on demand, directly to your TV should make you at least sign up for a trial.

7) Hard disk game installs save time, save wear-and-tear on your DVD drive. As bingegamer details, installing a game on a hard drive usually cuts down load times and improves streaming from the disk in sandbox games. It's very rare that installing actually makes games slower, but it's been known to happen in Halo 3 and a couple other titles.

The other benefit, besides speeding up gaming sessions, is that you eliminate DVD noise. You still need to have the disc in the drive when you play, so you can't go rent games, install them and return them.

8) Media Center and media playback still work. No change in Media Center or DivX/XviD playback functionality in case you were worried about compatibility issues before upgrading.

9) Ads are basically everywhere. You know how there's space set aside in the current Dashboard for ads and promo content? Well, in NXE, promo content can be mixed into the regular menu system, which makes it more difficult to tell at a glance whether you're firing up your own copy of Gears of War 2 or clicking to the Gears of War download page where they want you to download themes. It's not too horrible, on the whole.

10) The future looks good for NXE. Instead of sticking to the Spring/Fall update cycle, NXE allows Microsoft to roll out incremental updates for your Xbox whenever they're ready.

This means more timely feature bumps (stuff like Netflix, for example), and special one-off changes that can skin your interface based on whatever hot game is due out soon. And who wouldn't want to be able to download a Gears of War suit for your avatar?

Our final verdict is that NXE is a good thing. It's great of Microsoft to be devoting precious resources to revamping a usable interface (you won't see a new Wii Experience anytime soon) three years into a console's lifetime because they think they can do a better job the second time around.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/xbox-com-maintenance-nxe-tomorrow-with-capcom-branding/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/xbox-com-maintenance-nxe-tomorrow-with-capcom-branding/ Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:12:08 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/xbox-com-maintenance-nxe-tomorrow-with-capcom-branding/
This does NOT affect Xbox LIVE, which will remain available during this time.

Additionally, similar as was done for the PlayStation 3 recently, Microsoft will give Capcom its own "branded destination experience" tomorrow, to coincide with the launch of New Xbox Experience.

The hub will serve as a sort of one-stop shop for all things Street Fighter. Related add-ons and content, as well information on upcoming releases, will be accessible from one single destination.

Press Release: CAPCOM® PARTNERS WITH MICROSOFT® TO PROVIDE A BRANDED EXPERIENCE WITH SUPER STREET FIGHTER® II TURBO HD REMIX

Street Fighter® Branded Destination Experience to be featured in the New Xbox Experience!

SAN MATEO, CA - November 18, 2008 - Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, is proud to announce that the much anticipated Super Street Fighter® II Turbo HD Remix for Xbox LIVE® Arcade will be one of the first games to be featured in the New Xbox® Experience with a Branded Destination Experience.

Launching tomorrow, the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix destination experience will provide a central place for Xbox LIVE Arcade gamers to learn about new content, view the latest trailers, and access downloadable content, including picture packs, and both Basic and Premium Themes.

The new Street Fighter® Premium Theme features extensive high-definition graphical layers that take over your Dashboard, presenting a fully dynamic and encompassing package for the ultimate social entertainment experience on Xbox LIVE.

"With 1080p high-definition art and graphics, and the ultimate user feature set, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is the perfect game to compliment the New Xbox Experience," said Christian Svensson, VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development at Capcom Entertainment Inc.

"Capcom is dedicated to providing captivating content to the digital space and we're proud to participate in this new era of Xbox LIVE."]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/tomb-raider-underworld-gets-exclusive-xbox-360-chapters-1/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/tomb-raider-underworld-gets-exclusive-xbox-360-chapters-1/ Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:46:47 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/tomb-raider-underworld-gets-exclusive-xbox-360-chapters-1/
In Tomb Raider: Underworld, Lara travels around the world to explore and solve puzzles on a scale grander than any the series has presented before.

In addition, Eidos has confirmed purchasers of the Xbox 360 version will receive an exclusive treat this holiday season.

Available sometime next month only on Xbox 360 will be the first of two new chapters, Tomb Raider: Underworld - Beneath the Ashes. This chapter takes place after the Underworld story has finished and features a new environment to explore and additional secrets to unlock.

The second chapter, Tomb Raider: Underworld - Lara's Shadow, will follow in early 2009 and introduce a new currently unknown playable character.

Tomb Raider: Underworld on Xbox 360 and PS3 sells for $59.99. The Wii version clocks in at $39.99 and DS at $29.99. Finally, a video can be seen of it HERE. Enjoy!]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rod-fergesson-on-gears-2-online-problems-and-imminent-patch-1/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rod-fergesson-on-gears-2-online-problems-and-imminent-patch-1/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:44:05 CST wicked insanity XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rod-fergesson-on-gears-2-online-problems-and-imminent-patch-1/
To quote: We're aware that some folks are experiencing longer-than-ideal wait times while using the skill-based Public matchmaking in Gears 2 multiplayer.

We're working on some solutions but it's a complicated issue as there isn't any one problem; it's a combination of factors. Clearly, scale is one of them as we've had millions of successful matches played online so far, however a small percentage of players are having issues, which is unacceptable.

We're working closely with Microsoft to address the matchmaking issues, I promise you that it is our #1 priority, and we hope to have an update soon.

In the meantime, I would like to suggest some workarounds:

If you're experiencing long delays (longer than 2 minutes) or you're seeing your matchmaking search restarting over and over again, please try a different playlist as that indicates a possible population issue with the currently selected one.

The problem seems to be heightened for parties of 1 and parties of 4 so please try to invite at least one friend into your party before matchmaking. And of course the fastest way to play is to have a full 5 person party before looking for a match since you won't have to find any teammates beforehand. Fortunately our new "What's Up" feature makes finding Friends who're playing Gears 2 online easier.

Also, after a match, if you'd like to continue to play with the 9 people you just played with, simply press Y to look at the previous match stats and press X to invite them all to your party so you can continue to play in a Private match if they accept. Private matches, while not arbitrated, gives you the flexibility to set exactly which map and mode you want to play along with customizing other aspects of the game.

And as always, please ensure that your router is set correctly so that your NAT is considered "Open" by Xbox LIVE as "Moderate" and "Strict" NATs make Xbox LIVE matchmaking more difficult. There are many guides available online to walk you through the process of correctly configuring your router for Xbox LIVE so I won't go into the specific details here.

Also, in case you're curious, a few interesting facts about Gears 2 multiplayer so far:

- Almost 3 million multiplayer matches (excluding Private) have been played.
- Almost 1 million screenshot photos have been uploaded to gearsofwar.com
- The most popular multiplayer mode is Horde.
- The most popular multiplayer map across all modes is River.
- The most lethal weapon is the Gnasher shotgun with almost 29% of all kills.

Again, I apologize for any issues you may be having and I hope the above workarounds give you a better experience until we are able to correct the issues we're seeing.

Thanks,

Rod.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/having-xbox-live-connection-issues-1/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/having-xbox-live-connection-issues-1/ Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:00:08 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/having-xbox-live-connection-issues-1/
Update: I've learned that these issues have been resolved. Thanks for your patience.

Microsoft's Major Nelson reports: In the past few hours, the XBox Operations Center noticed that large number of members were disconnected from XBox LIVE, some more than once.

Our Engineering teams are actively working to determine the root cause of this issue and to prevent it from happening again.

If you are disconneced, you should be able to reconnect after a few minutes. Thanks for your patience as we work quickly to solve the issue.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-what-you-want-to-know-final-countdown/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-what-you-want-to-know-final-countdown/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:22:41 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-xbox-experience-what-you-want-to-know-final-countdown/
There is only one thing we haven't showed you yet, and that is how to get the New Xbox Experience next Wednesday.

It's easy but in case you're having panic attacks and want to know every detail of the prompts you go through, check out a video that our own Major Nelson created below:

bed19f7f

You've checked in with us every Friday for weeks to learn about all of the features coming with the New Xbox Experience, like how to create an Avatar and how you can play with your Avatars in games.

We've shown you how you will have your very own video library of more than 12,000 streaming films and TV episodes with Netflix and how searching for Themes, map packs, movies, TV shows and other downloadable content will be even easier in the all-new Xbox LIVE Marketplace (which you can now access from the Web!).

We've talked about playing from the hard drive, decreasing load times and noise from the spinning disc in tray. We showed you the Community Games channel and talked about how everyone can become an Xbox 360 developer.

You've explored the new Premium Themes and Friends Channel and checked out how the Gamercard, Gamerscore and Achievements will look in the new interface. We let you ride along during an Xbox LIVE Party where we jumped in and out of games, with one push of the button, chatting the entire time, and we shared our personal pictures with you in a Photo Party.

Only a few more days to go. Enough of us feeding you information from our point of view. Now it's all about you - It's *your* new experience. Enjoy your weekend and maybe do some of the things you've been putting off. Remember to kiss your husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/gerbil because once NXE hits, you may not have as much time for them - you'll be too busy using the new features.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-play-system-linkxbl-on-two-xbox-360s-with-one-disc/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-play-system-linkxbl-on-two-xbox-360s-with-one-disc/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:06:48 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-play-system-linkxbl-on-two-xbox-360s-with-one-disc/
It could end with some pretty bad results so its not exactly an ideal solution, meaning the best solution may be to just buy two copies of the game.

However, to perform this method you will need a paperclip, the new NXE, a single copy of the game you want to play on Live/System Link and a steady hand. To quote:

Stage One: Install the game you wish on one of the consoles to the hard drive. You will be doing this on the console that will have its DVD drive emergency ejected.

Once installed launch the game and let the Xbox 360 check the disc in the drive and confirm its valid and allow the game to load.

Its IMPORTANT at this stage to wait for the DVD drive to fully spin down. If unsure, wait at LEAST 10 minutes to be safe. Feel the drive, and make sure the disc is NOT spinning.

Once your happy that the DVD drive has fully spun down, if you wish do continue.

Stage Two: Prepare to emergency eject the DVD tray. There is a system in place in virtually every disc drive made that allows you to eject the disc drive even if the buttons jammed or no power. It involves using a paperclip in a specific hole, the Xbox 360 drives also have this.

Check out the following site to see what DVD drive you have:

Then check this guide to see the method to manually eject your Disc Tray:

At this point, make sure you are 100% sure the disc has spun down, doing it while the disc is spinning could be disastrous!

If you are happy, you may now perform a emergency disc eject and the disc tray should just pop out an inch with the disc in it. You should then be able to pull the tray out fully and take the disc out.

If your lucky, the Xbox 360 hasn't detected the DVD tray is open and the game you are playing continues. You should then be able to put the disc in the other console and launch it as normal and enjoy system link. Do not press the eject button on the console with its drive hanging out as the Xbox will then detect the disc has been removed. Just leave its drive open and enjoy.

This is the point some people didn't have luck on, for some it worked and for others the Xbox detected the drive has been ejected and went to a blank screen and flashing lights. If it works for you or doesn't work for you please share your experience listing your Manufactured date and the DVD drive being used so we can work out if it works on specific models etc.

For those of you the trick worked for, it is recommended that once you finish your game you turn your Xbox off ingame and not attempt to go back to the dashboard as if it attempts to read a disc and the tray is open this could do damage.

Notes: At the end of the day, if your not comfortable with this DO NOT ATTEMPT IT. The method used in this guide with ejecting your DVD drive was designed for situations where your drive got stuck and you needed to get it open, not for everyday use.

You would be better off you just buying a second copy of the game, as that is supporting the game developers and the moral thing to do.

However, if you're a poor student like some of us and just want to play system link with a friend without sharing half the screen with them, you may consider doing this.

This could work with more than 2 consoles, but I only have access to his Console (with NXE installed) and my own Xbox without NXE.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-giving-away-1000000-microsoft-points-with-nxe/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-giving-away-1000000-microsoft-points-with-nxe/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:15:39 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-giving-away-1000000-microsoft-points-with-nxe/
The company is putting 1,000,000 Microsoft Points up for grabs for people who download content from Xbox Live between 6:01 AM PST on November 19th, and 11:59 PM PST on November 23rd.

The downloads must be from the following categories:

- Movie
- TV Show
- Full Arcade Game
- Xbox Originals Game
- Game Add-On
- Music Video
- The Prizes include:

- One Grand Prize of 500,000 MS Points
- Five 1st Prizes of 50,000 MS Points
- Ten 2nd Prizes of 10,000 MS Points
- Thirty 3rd Prizes of 5,000 MS Points

Sounds like a great way to kick off the New Xbox Experience. I think we all could use a cool 500,000 MS Points. If you have a few points laying around you might think about buying a game or two next week.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/left-4-dead-xbox-360-demo-is-underwhelming/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/left-4-dead-xbox-360-demo-is-underwhelming/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:09:28 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/left-4-dead-xbox-360-demo-is-underwhelming/
Unfortunately, I came away from the demo very underwhelmed. Sub par graphics and average gun play killed my enthusiasm pretty quickly. I did find the gun play enjoyable in Left 4 Dead, but I really wasn't overwhelmed by how good each gun felt. They felt appropriate.

The guns sounded average. Nothing praise worthy, but nothing to whine about, either. I don't want to offend anyone, but if you're going to tell me that this game has amazing texturing, lighting effects, environments, character models, and animations then you are probably one of those people that think Turok is a great looking game.

The environments themselves looked appropriately drab but they weren't very inspired or pleasing to the eyes. As for looking like a zombie, I better not have messy hair, or a little ketchup on my chin if I'm living in the Left 4 Dead universe, or I might be confused as one of the undead.

Yes, it's impressive that Valve managed to cram a massive horde of the undead onto the screen without a dip in frame rate, but I would have preferred 20 less zombies for the sake of the zombies actually looking like zombies-and not very angry people without napkins.

I noticed a couple of graphical glitches as well. I didn't think that in 2008 I would see enemy body parts coming through doors and walls, and various other objects, but I did. The draw distance was a bit of a joke as well. I couldn't see the other end of a hallway at one point, which was kind of a "silent hill fog" effect that unveils the rest of the hallway as you walk further.

I also don't like how you are able to walk through, and in to, each other's character models. I know this had to be done to accommodate smooth multiplayer, but this is why a solid single player campaign would have been nice so that I don't have to be reminded all the time that I'm "just playing a game." Things like that have always pulled me out of the atmosphere that a game tries to create.

From the moment I heard about this game, I was hoping it would have above average graphics, and an enjoyable single player campaign. The single player campaign is nothing more than the multiplayer levels with AI bots to assist you instead of real people. The AI is good, and doesn't run into the wall or get lost behind you, but I was hoping for more than AI bots.

I was hoping for something similar to Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, or Resistance where there is an epic single player experience as well as some excellent multiplayer. I enjoy a cinematic experience when I play through a campaign, or story mode of a game, and for gamers similar to myself, I don't think Left 4 Dead is going to be very impressive.

That pretty much covers what I didn't like about the Left 4 Dead demo.

As the graphics are only passable, it makes sense that the main emphasis is obviously on multiplayer. I did enjoy the "AI director" that I have heard so much about. Basically, the AI director places enemies in different locations each time you play through a level, so each level has a huge amount of replay ability.

This feature is excellent for a multiplayer game, because no matter what difficulty setting you are on, knowing where the enemies are going to be is always an advantage. An advantage that Left 4 Dead doesn't give you. The focus on teamwork is probably very appealing to a lot of people as well. I'm more of an independent gamer, so having to rely on other people to watch my back is a little bothersome.

I find the teamwork aspect of the game to be its greatest strength, though. Some enemies will hold your character down and claw them up, and the only way to get them off of you is for another team member to shoot them.

In most multiplayer games, letting your team members die is frequent, but in Left 4 Dead, you want to ensure the survival of everyone, because some of the monsters such as the witch-and the tank-are very hard to take down. I can see this game being very fun with a few friends over Xbox Live.

Despite the plain graphics, the sheer number of undead that you will encounter is intimidating at times. Watching 50 zombies flood the screen, and mowing 10 of them down within a few seconds with a shotgun is definitely rewarding. I didn't really care much for the "special" zombies such as the smoker, or witch.

I'm a zombie purist, and I had the most fun just gunning down the horde. I'm sure this will be the best part of the game for most people. Another positive thing about Left 4 Dead is the death animations. Every member of the horde that you kill falls in a different way. There is no predetermined death animation, which is nice. I think of games like Turok where you stab a raptor for the 100th time and it gets dull to watch.

Overall, I think the demo for Left 4 Dead was passable. It wasn't what I was hoping for. I knew there was a heavy emphasis on multiplayer, but I was hoping for a decent single player experience that it does not have. Zombies are supposed to be ugly, but in this game the ugliness is mainly due to the lack of detail.

Poor graphics really make it hard for me to immerse myself in a video game. I see this game as a gem for the budget gamer. For people that don't buy or rent a lot of games, and absolutely love multiplayer, Left 4 Dead is gold. The AI director and decent amount of levels gives this game near infinite replay ability.

Personally, I like multiplayer, but I don't see myself playing for more than 40 hours if that, so to me Left 4 Dead just isn't that great. When I play a game, I'm hoping that it rivals a good film in the same genre such as the Silent Hill Series, Resident Evil, and even the Condemned series.

If all you're interested in is killing decent looking zombies with people over Xbox Live rather than a good story and atmosphere, Left 4 Dead is probably the game for you.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/xbox-360-nxe-hard-drive-installation-chart-available/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/xbox-360-nxe-hard-drive-installation-chart-available/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:21:42 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/xbox-360-nxe-hard-drive-installation-chart-available/
To quote: All I did here was put their collected information chart form. I will update as much as possible, drop a comment if you know how much time is saved on a particular game (where the "xxx"'s are marked).

I don't think the chart needs to be explained, you have the games, you have how much space they would take on your hard drive, and then how much time you'd be saving (not listed on the chart is how much relief you will be giving your poor disc drive).

No longer do 360 fanboys have the fodder of "oh you PS3 people have to install games blah blah" .. in the end, if you have a big enough hard drive, you know you'll be installing these games soon enough. :p]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-confirms-xbox-live-bans-anti-piracy-efforts-to-continue/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-confirms-xbox-live-bans-anti-piracy-efforts-to-continue/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:26:25 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-confirms-xbox-live-bans-anti-piracy-efforts-to-continue/ reported news of Microsoft starting a new wave of XBox Live bans on modded XBox 360 consoles.

Today, Microsoft's Major "Larry Hyrb" Nelson has confirmed it stating the following via his blog linked above:

Xbox 360 Console banning: I've gotten a few messages and seen some forum threads pop up on console bannings so I thought I'd post and let folks know what's up.

In our our continued effort to keep gameplay safe and secure for our community of more than 14 million members, Microsoft has taken action against a small percentage of Xbox 360 consoles that have been illegally modified in order to play pirated games.

You should know that modifying your Xbox 360 console is also a violation of the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void your warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE.

The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive, both from manufacturers and the local companies that support them.

We will continue to employ and bolster anti-piracy security measures to counter piracy in the gaming industry and improve security in the Xbox LIVE community.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/the-truth-about-microsofts-xbox-360-game-console/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/the-truth-about-microsofts-xbox-360-game-console/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:40:40 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/the-truth-about-microsofts-xbox-360-game-console/
Microsoft has never said publicly why the console was plagued with faults: it seems that poor production quality was at the heart of the failures - an all-round problem with no single cause except impatience on the company's part as it tried to become the leader in videogame consoles.

It was an ambitious attack. Microsoft's engineers started working on the Xbox 360 at least a year after Sony's engineers began work on the PlayStation 3, yet wound up shipping a year earlier. With the first Xbox, the company lost $3.7bn (£2.3bn) over four years, mostly because costs of the box - particularly its hard drive - were too high.

Bill Gates didn't really care about the losses; that was simply the ante for getting into an exciting new business. But Steve Ballmer, who took over from Gates as chief executive during the first generation, really wanted the Xbox business to be profitable second time around.

Software-hearted

Even though early testing showed that production machines had flaws, Microsoft didn't delay the launch because it believed the quality problems would subside. "They got enamored with the idea of the Microsoft army rolling everything out at the same time," says one source. "Their thinking shows that they are a software company at heart," says one veteran manufacturing executive. "They put something out and figure they can fix it with the next patch or come up with a bug fix."

In the hurried design process, Microsoft decided late to add a hard disk drive, and then wireless controllers. The hard drive blocked airflow on one side of the machine; the wireless modules had to have enough space to avoid electrical interference. The console shell was poked full of holes to ensure airflow. In the end, the machine was a series of compromises.

"It turned out in the end that this was all going too far, too fast," says a source. "They were adding too many features after things were locked down. That incremental feature adding just made it fragile."

Some of the defects were latent, potentially not showing up for some time after the machine was used. Up to 50% of all defects can be latent. And production yields - the number of machines coming off the production lines that passed testing - were low. In August 2005, the machines' aggregate defect rate - from Microsoft's contract manufacturers Flextronics and Wistron, in their factories in China - was allegedly just 68%.

In a memo dated August 30 2005, the team reported overheating graphics chips, cracking heat sinks, cosmetic issues with the hard disk and the front of the box, underperforming graphics memory chips from Infineon (now Qimonda), a problem with the DVD drive - and more. At that point, the contract manufacturers were behind schedule and had only built hundreds of units when they were supposed to be making thousands every week.

"There were so many problems, you didn't know what was wrong," says a source. "The [test engineers] didn't have enough time to get up and running." Shutting down production to debug everything properly might have delayed the launch in Europe or Japan.

Microsoft responded to this story (in full at Venturebeat.com) with a statement that it has already acknowledged an "unacceptable number of repairs" to Xbox 360 consoles and had responded to the hardware failures with a free replacement program. "This topic has already been covered extensively in the media," the statement said. "This new story repeats old information, and contains rumors and innuendo from anonymous sources, attempting to create a new sensational angle, and is highly irresponsible."

I have tried to verify the facts. Microsoft has never disclosed its actual return rates. But according to data obtained by VentureBeat, the total number of returns climbed above 1.2m consoles early last year. That is a huge figure, considering Microsoft had only shipped 11.6m consoles to stores by the time of the writeoff in mid-2007.

The warning signs were present even before Microsoft shipped any machines. In August 2005, as Microsoft was gearing up production, an engineer said: "Stop. You have to shut down the line." When production results are really off-kilter, stopping a line and tracing a problem back to its roots is the answer. But in this case, the decision was made to carry on.

Nobody listened to that engineer, apparently because console launches are always hurried affairs. Yields generally start low. As the manufacturers analyse data and tighten controls on each assembly step, they learn how to drive the yields up.

On November 22 2005, the Xbox 360 went on sale. Consumers could run graphically beautiful games on high-definition TVs. But machines started failing almost immediately. At the time, the company said it had received "isolated reports" of console failures and that returns were within the normal range.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, the average return rate for products where the consumer gets their money back is about 2%. Microsoft's internal data assumed that in the long term 6% or 7% of the consoles would be defective before shipping into the market - a yield of 94% or 93%. The rate of return was expected to be low as well. But even after 2005, Microsoft struggled to ship enough units. The yield was typically only around 70% - far short of the target - until May 2007.

Problems denied

By the end of March 2006, Microsoft said it had shipped more than 3.3m consoles to retailers. But there was a growing "bone pile" of more than 500,000 defective consoles in a warehouse at Wistron and a repair centre in Texas - either duds off the factory line or returned boxes, according to sources. Production yield was climbing, but far too slowly. Meantime, Microsoft stood by its statement that returns were within "normal rates".

The denial of widespread problems infuriated customers such as Chris Szarek, who has had five bad consoles: he felt Microsoft was stonewalling. But as production ramped, Microsoft sent replacement units out more quickly and dealt with those who were unhappy about the shortage. In September 2006 Microsoft conceded that the quality of the consoles made during 2005 wasn't as high as it expected and said that it would extend the policy of free replacement for consoles made during 2005, even though the warranties had expired. But what was actually wrong with the machines? In July 2007 Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, said of the launch that "we were confident the product was ready. We did a lot of testing. The problem that shows up with the three red lights on the console is a complex interaction with some very complex parts."

There was no single reason for the failures - though many could be blamed on the graphics chip, which could overheat so much it warped the motherboard. This stressed bad solder joints, causing them to fail early in the machine's life - and the console was also one of the first products that had to meet new environmental standards in Europe prohibiting the use of lead in solder. Paul Wang, a Microsoft test engineer on the Xbox 360, said in a speech in 2007 that lead-free solder created a lot of problems.

Wii takes the lead

Sometimes the heatsinks on top of the GPU were put on the wrong way, resulting in overheating. Games would sometimes crash because of sub-par memory chips from one of the two suppliers. Problems with the DVD drive lasted longer than expected. Eventually, in January last year, Microsoft shut down manufacturing of the console and didn't build any more machines until June.

Early this year, SquareTrade, which sells warranties for electronics, reported that was seeing a 16.4% failure rate for Xbox 360s. Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, estimates that the number is 3m, about 15% of the total.

In the meantime, Nintendo's Wii has outstripped rival consoles around the world, having sold some 35m machines since its launch at the end of 2006. Microsoft has sold about 22m Xbox 360s since its 2005 launch, while the Sony PS3, which came late to the party with a European launch in March 2007, has sold 16.6m consoles around the world.

But is the war really lost? Shane Kim, head of the game division's business development efforts, recently said that it was too early to call the console war in favour of Nintendo. We won't know the winner, he says, until somebody sells 100m units. Microsoft's plan is to sell 75m Xbox 360s. The only way it could ever do that is to be more aggressive on its pricing. And by doing the right thing for its customers from now on.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-begins-a-new-wave-of-xbox-live-bans-on-modded-360s/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-begins-a-new-wave-of-xbox-live-bans-on-modded-360s/ Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:33:13 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/microsoft-begins-a-new-wave-of-xbox-live-bans-on-modded-360s/ HERE, it appears Microsoft is on another XBox Live ban rampage.

According to reports, today they have issued a new wave of bans against XBox 360 consoles with modified DVD firmware. That being said, it's recommended to stay off XBL for the time being if you have a modified system until further details are available.

To quote: Dunno if its a massive wave or not, but my console was literally just banned from live within the hour.

If anyone else gets banned let me know please. iXtreme 1.4 and all games were burned right and stealthed.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/grand-theft-auto-iv-xbox-360-dlc-not-coming-until-next-year-1/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/grand-theft-auto-iv-xbox-360-dlc-not-coming-until-next-year-1/ Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:45:15 CST wicked insanity XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/grand-theft-auto-iv-xbox-360-dlc-not-coming-until-next-year-1/ Variety, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser gave some disappointing news about the downloadable content that Xbox 360 user's were promised to come out by the end of the year.

While its still on track to be released for Microsoft exclusively, he's just not sure if we'll see it by the end of the year.

"Me: On another topic, I have to ask you about the "GTA IV" downloadable content you're doing. Do you still expect that to come out this year?"

"DH: I'm not sure. It's going well. But we don't know a date. We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We're still figuring out a few things. We're more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It's shaping up to be something we're very proud of. That was our goal."

By saying "Not sure," we're 'pretty sure' that means we won't be seeing any new content until next year. Considering as we write this article, the date is November 9th - 52 days until the year ends. If they don't even have a date set and their still developing it, we're probably not seeing it till 2009.

Here is even more proof. Houser said the content of the downloadable features are still being decided upon. "It's new territory for everybody. We're making it up a little bit as we go along," he said. "That's always fun, but it makes you nervous."

Maybe we're reading to much into it, but doesn't it sound like their still creating new idea's for the game? Meaning at this point, they're not even close to being done. Not only do they have to implement the features into the game, they need to make sure bugs/glitches are not included with the download.

Because of that, it could take weeks upon weeks of testing/developing. If that is the case, next year is the earliest we'll see the DLC.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/360-degrees-of-frustration-with-microsoft-customer-service/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/360-degrees-of-frustration-with-microsoft-customer-service/ Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:27:37 CST takavach XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/360-degrees-of-frustration-with-microsoft-customer-service/
Now, I'm well aware that the internet has become a haven for Xbox customer support horror stories and with good cause. In fact, I think that these types of stories are quickly catching up to porn as the most popular use of the internet.

I kid of course, and I would think my experiences with these people would be good for a laugh or two if I didn't have a fresh copy of Gears 2 staring me in the face. Before I begin with my multiple tales of woe, let me tell you a bit about how our operation works here at GamingExcellence.

GE is made up of a staff of about two dozen very enthusiastic folks that contribute to the site through sheer love of all things gaming related. We're not doing this for the big bucks, we're not doing this for the fame, we're doing this because gaming is our passion, and we want to share that passion with our readers.

Being the smaller Canadian based operation that we are, we have to rely on retail machines to get our work done. Unlike the juggernaut-like outlets that need not be named, we have extremely limited access to debug and test units. We don't have hardware manufacturers sending us hardware and providing us with new units if something should go wrong.

No, like all of you, dear readers, I've gone to a brick and mortar store, put down my hard earned cash for every piece of video game hardware I own. Therefore, when something goes wrong, I have to go through the same customer service channels as everyone else. The longer that my hardware is away, the more it impedes my ability to work and play.

You can certainly guess what comes next.

Back in November of 2005, I was one happy camper. I pawned off 100 DVDs at 5$ a pop to finance my purchase of a launch Xbox 360. I rushed home to hook up my new toy and play some Call of Duty 2 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Things were great until Christmas Eve.

I was playing some Perfect Dark Zero, and the system crashed. At first I made a crack to my roommate about how the Xbox was simply refusing to play the game on the grounds that it was an atrocious excuse for a shooter. It was without any apprehension that I dialled that 1-800-4-MY-XBOX number.

After multiple ill experiences (detailed at the link above) I made a promise the customer service agent and his supervisor that I would be writing an article telling my readers what has been happening to me. I'm a man of my word.

Microsoft is one of the richest companies in the world, and they certainly have the resources to run a good customer service operation. The biggest problem here is that the right hand never knows what the left is doing, and there's no cohesion between repair and call centres.

I don't resent Microsoft for putting out an unfinished 360 product to market before it was ready. I don't even resent the mistakes Microsoft has made on the system post-launch. What I do resent is nickel and diming customers and fixing their problems for the cheapest possible way, instead of doing things right by the customers.

When I dropped my out-of-warranty PSP and shattered half the screen, I paid Sony 80 dollars and got one exchanged in less than a week, including shipping time. When the top screen on my out-of-warranty Nintendo DS stopped working, Nintendo replaced it for me in four days! If these companies can do right by their customers in such a way, why does Microsoft have to constantly do these things the hard way?

I'm not asking readers to boycott Microsoft or their products. The truth is, the 360 is a fantastic system capable of delivering some of the greatest experiences possible from a couch. I love my 360 and all the games I own.

But making shoddy hardware and coupling it with lacklustre customer support is not how to grow a successful business, and you'd think Microsoft of all companies would know better. Sales numbers for the 360's successor will prove my point.

Customers don't like to be bitten more than once, although the success of Windows Vista might counteract that point. Shame on you, Microsoft customer support.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-call-of-duty-world-at-war-demo-feels-like-old-call-of-duty/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-call-of-duty-world-at-war-demo-feels-like-old-call-of-duty/ Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:44:24 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/new-call-of-duty-world-at-war-demo-feels-like-old-call-of-duty/
After playing for about two hours, I've come to one conclusion, and one of my good friends put it best: "World at War is totally a World War II mod for CoD4," and she's entirely right.

That's not to say that being exactly the same is a bad thing, far from it. Call of Duty 4 was an incredible game, with a large online community, and I fully expect World at War to follow closely in its footsteps. Of course, the only experience I have with the game is the multiplayer, which is pretty easy to duplicate.

The real question is going to be if Treyarch can manage to actually make the campaign interesting; everybody's getting tired of World War II. Regardless of how the actual campaign plays out, I know that tons of people are going to migrate over from CoD4 for no reason other than they're starting to get tired of the same maps and same weapons.

This begs the question "what happens to the people who still want to play CoD4?" Is Infinity Ward going to release new maps, or is Activision making them move onto their new game?

Call of Duty: World at War will release on November 11th for Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 2 and 3, Nintendo's Wii and DS, and the PC.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rare-is-about-to-become-a-whole-lot-more-valuable/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rare-is-about-to-become-a-whole-lot-more-valuable/ Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:00:52 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rare-is-about-to-become-a-whole-lot-more-valuable/
They made millions on the Nintendo 64, however this tempted Microsoft as they entered the console wars. They were snapped up by Microsoft for a hefty $375 million, the most ever payed for a gaming studio. However since their purchase by Microsoft Rare haven't yet made a truly blockbuster game, either in terms of sales or reception.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Conker reloaded were the first two Xbox games Rare made while under Microsoft's rule, both of which barely scraped along the average mark and neither of which sold particularly well, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies was the biggest flop in Rare's history.

Rare's mass appeal on the Nintendo 64 was the massive casual market. Although the Playstation dominated the scene, the Nintendo 64 still had millions of casual gamers, games such as Banjo Kazooie and Donkey kong are the sort of colourful games that appeal to these gamers.

One of the reasons Rare have underperformed on the Xbox and Xbox 360 is probably due to the fact that the Gamecube and Playstation are more appealing to the casual gamers.

Sales for the Xbox 360 were slowing down, as with the original Xbox the vast majority of the Xbox 360 fan-base was made up of more 'hardcore' gamers, and there are a limited amount of hardcore gamers and with the PS3 pulling them in aswell the number was drying up.

Microsoft then slashed the price of the Xbox 360, in the USA the price was cut to $200 and in the UK it was cut to £129.99, which opens up the Xbox 360 to more casual gamers. Sales have quintupled in Japan, and more than doubled in Europe, with alot more casual gamers joining the Xbox fan-base.

More recent Rare games such as Viva Pinata have started to show the signs of this recovery by Rare, with one million Xbox Live acounts tagged with Viva Pinata being played.

As the casual Xbox fanbase grows, with more and more casual gamers, which game do you think they're going to pick, Gears of War with meat-heads with 40 inch biceps and a chainsaw machine gun or Viva Pinata with cuddly pinatas roaming around a garden?

Halo 3 with this space soldier killing aliens with a plasma gun, or Banjo Kazooie with a Bear with a bird in his backpack that builds cars and collects puzzle peices? Rare may very well make back that $375 million yet.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-new-xbox-experience-party-and-photo-sharing-detailed/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-new-xbox-experience-party-and-photo-sharing-detailed/ Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:40:33 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/nxe-new-xbox-experience-party-and-photo-sharing-detailed/
Pretty sure we can all agree that Xbox LIVE is the best place to play games, hands-down. A good game of Gears of War 2 becomes an incredible game when you get into a heavy multiplayer match with your friends - or any person you're matched with - and reduce them into small chunks with your pretty chainsaw. It's the little things in life that bring such satisfaction.

But some people asked for ways to create parties and keep entire groups of people together online, no matter what they were doing. Well, we've listened and we've delivered.

Once NXE launches on Nov. 19, it will be even easier to connect with your friends and the Xbox LIVE community of 14 million people around the world via Xbox LIVE Party*.

Xbox LIVE Party will let you and up to seven friends jump from experience to experience while staying connected at all times. If you have a weekly Gears match and one friend is always late - no worries.

The rest of you can join a Party and either voice chat or play a quick game of Castle Crashers while you wait. Once your no good, lazy butt friend shows up (you know who you are), one person will be able to bring your group into the lobby of Gears with just the click of a button. Really - it's that easy.

But Xbox LIVE Party goes beyond games. The New Xbox Experience will also bring a photo sharing feature to Xbox LIVE members called Photo Party. With Photo Party, you and up to seven friends can share digital photos from a camera, disc or USB drive while voice chatting in real-time.

You can even rate each others' photos - so you may want to keep that photo of your farmer tan in a Speedo to yourself. With Thanksgiving and the holidays coming up, you may even be able to convince your mom and dad to get an Xbox 360 to enjoy all the great new entertainment available through NXE.

Check out a screenshot below, with the rest linked above of Xbox LIVE Party and Photo Party. Finally, Major Nelson has also put together a cool video to show how easy it is to jump from experience to experience in a Party also available linked above.

Only two more weeks to go until the New Xbox Experience is available to download. Keep checking back here and Xbox.com to get the latest updates.

* Some Xbox LIVE Party features require an Xbox LIVE Gold membership.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rumor-blue-castle-making-dead-rising-2-for-xbox-360/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rumor-blue-castle-making-dead-rising-2-for-xbox-360/ Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:05:50 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/rumor-blue-castle-making-dead-rising-2-for-xbox-360/
Rumors that the Vancouver-based outfit was working on the zombie project first emerged last year, but neither the developer nor publisher Capcom has confirmed anything on the record.

But while Eurogamer was on a secret mission in Vancouver last week, we were told by a source familiar with the project that Capcom has indeed farmed out development to the Western team.

The source said: "Everyone's really excited; the team has obviously seen the rumors and it's been hard to keep quiet, but they can't wait to show off the game."

Unfortunately, they wouldn't give us any details on the title or when we're likely to see it. Boo.

Blue Castle has so far released two baseball titles with 2K Games, including The Bigs, and announced MLB Front Office Manager earlier this month.

The company describes itself on its website as "a full-service, multi-project and multi-platform 3rd party developer located in Vancouver, Canada", where: "We are well underway on three new projects - an unannounced Action title and two Sports titles one of which was just announced."

Our source confirmed that the action title is a sequel to the deliciously enjoyable zombie romp, which released on 360 in 2006. The studio is currently hiring for its action project, with one job listing stating: "It's getting around - there is something amazing being built here at Blue Castle behind locked doors."

A spokesperson for Capcom Europe refused to comment on the matter.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/gears-of-war-2-and-tom-clancys-endwar-are-region-free/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/gears-of-war-2-and-tom-clancys-endwar-are-region-free/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:10:52 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/gears-of-war-2-and-tom-clancys-endwar-are-region-free/
However, the bonus disc that comes with the Limited Edition isn't region-free for those wondering.

Also, it turns out that Tom Clancy's EndWar is also region-free!

Finally, it has been confirmed that Rock Band Track Pack Vol 3: AC/DC LIVE - 360 (Preorder) is NOT region free.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/a-kingdom-for-keflings-to-launch-with-playable-avatars-and-nxe/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/a-kingdom-for-keflings-to-launch-with-playable-avatars-and-nxe/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:56:54 CST PS3 News XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/a-kingdom-for-keflings-to-launch-with-playable-avatars-and-nxe/
Press Release: A Kingdom for Keflings, the First Xbox 360 Game to Launch with Playable Avatars, Arrives on Nov. 19 with the New Xbox Experience

Giants in video games? Nothing new. But playing with your own doppelganger as the giant? That is something you can only do on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

From NinjaBee, the developer that brought fan favorites "Band of Bugs," "Outpost Kaloki X" and "Cloning Clyde," comes "A Kingdom for Keflings," a new twist to the city-building game genre where you play as a giant working to turn a village of Keflings into a metropolis.

The Xbox LIVE Arcade game, launching on Nov. 19 with the New Xbox Experience, is the first Xbox 360 title to ship with playable, in-game Avatars. "A Kingdom for Keflings" also comes packed with custom animations tailored for Avatars and player-controlled social emotes. The game supports 4-player Xbox LIVE multiplayer with each friend using a custom Avatar, and works perfectly with Xbox LIVE Party.

But Avatar inclusion is just half the fun. In this innovative, Medieval-era city-builder, giants start out with a small village and a handful (literally!) of helpful Keflings who are tiny humanoids that follow the player's commands and try not to get stepped on. Fun and direct interaction with Keflings includes carrying them around, assigning them jobs and training them to do simple tasks.

The game features extensive customization of the city through personally constructing and painting each building and decorating the village with additional elements such as trees, statues and more. Players will have to collect and manage resources to build their village into a full-fledged city.

Other key features of the game include:

- The ability to build cities online cooperatively with up to 3 friends
- Stylized animated graphics that change with the seasons and season-based gameplay
- A dynamic-music soundtrack (which adapts to the season and the state of the village)

Developed by NinjaBee, "A Kingdom for Keflings" will be available for 800 Microsoft Points worldwide. The game is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/mcgill-most-xbox-360-surprises-coming-in-2009-not-announced/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/mcgill-most-xbox-360-surprises-coming-in-2009-not-announced/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:15:23 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/mcgill-most-xbox-360-surprises-coming-in-2009-not-announced/
With the important Christmas period in full swing most Xbox 360 owners are well aware of the titles yet to be released on the console during what's left of 2008.

However, Microsoft has been relatively quiet on the 360's line-up for 2009, focusing instead on 2008 titles like blockbuster gore-fest Gears of War 2 and more casual-oriented titles like Lips, You're in the Movies and Scene It? Box Office Smash.

McGill said: "Well I know a lot of the games coming out from us and our third parties. Most of them, in fact, have not been announced because everyone's very focused on what's out for Christmas. So it would do our third party partners a disservice for me to announce their great line-ups before they're ready to.

"So obviously we've announced things like Halo Wars coming out in the Spring, Halo 3: Recon later next year, Resi Evil 5 is coming to the platform, (I'm) really excited about that. So I think we're very focused on what's coming out for Christmas, we've talked about things coming out early next year. Very soon at some point we'll have the exclusive content for Grand Theft Auto on Xbox 360. So there's lots of great stuff coming in 2009 that people know about. Lots more, I'm sure that they don't know about."

When asked if Microsoft had surprises in store for 360 owners in 2009, McGill replied: "You could expect that, yeah absolutely."]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/video-boku-to-be-microsofts-sackboy-killer/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/video-boku-to-be-microsofts-sackboy-killer/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:45:16 CST Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/video-boku-to-be-microsofts-sackboy-killer/
No release date has been set as of now. However the lead designer of the game has hinted that it would be in playable form sometime early next year.

Could Microsoft one up Sony and bring death to Sackboy? We'll just have to wait and see.

Video can be viewed below.

Enjoy!

sfzrE2dg7og]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/saving-xbox-360-games-to-the-hdd-makes-them-look-better/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/saving-xbox-360-games-to-the-hdd-makes-them-look-better/ Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:43:02 CDT Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/saving-xbox-360-games-to-the-hdd-makes-them-look-better/
But there's one feature I'm using that is undeniably awesome: Saving games to the hard drive. As soon as I got the NXE (new Xbox experience) beta test, I immediately saved "Fable 2" to the hard drive, mainly because the game is constantly accessing data from the disc and it is loud, even by Xbox 360 standards.

I was hoping I would no longer be distracted by the noise of a disc spinning with such fury it could fly out of the machine and behead me and I was right. The 8 minutes or so it took to transfer the game to my hard drive was well worth it, because the 360 is now virtually silent while I play.

But there was one extra, unexpected benefit: "Fable 2" looks noticeably better. The graphics are sharper and brighter. So much so that it's like the game, or my graphics processor, has gotten an upgrade.

Perhaps someone more familiar with programming can tell me why, but I assume it has to do with the fact that it's easier for the console to access and process all the requisite data, so it has to make fewer compromises to deliver me graphics in real time.

Nobody at Microsoft (or anywhere else) has talked about this benefit that I've seen I can't say whether it will happen with every title. But presuming so, it really makes transferring games to the hard drive a no-brainer, so long as you've got the space. Who doesn't want their videogames to look as sharp as possible?

In terms of hard drive management, I imagine I'll be regularly transferring and deleting different games based on how much space I have and what games I'm playing the most at the moment.]]> http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/play-with-the-new-xbox-experience-now-leaked/ http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/play-with-the-new-xbox-experience-now-leaked/ Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:28:27 CDT Starlight XBox 360 http://www.ps3news.com/XBox360/play-with-the-new-xbox-experience-now-leaked/
Also there is no guarantee that Microsoft will not ban your console or get angry at you, so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Now to install this, it is really simple, all you have to do is download the update files, you can get them HERE at digiex.net. After you have the file, you just put it on the root of a USB drive, slap that bad boy into your Xbox 360 and turn it on. From there you will be asked if you want to update and now your off and running. Again, use at your own risk.

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What Microsoft has said about this:

The Xbox 360 Fall Flash update will be available to you by 8pm PST on October 30th (11pm EST on October 30th, 3am GMT on October 31st).

While exploring the New Xbox Experience (NXE), you may come across bugs or have some suggestions. Please share those with us by going to Microsoft Connect and clicking on the Feedback link.

If you would like to post comments regarding your experiences with the New Xbox Experience, or interact with other preview participants please use the Newsgroups link on the connect site. Although we are monitoring the newsgroups, all bugs and suggestions should be filed using the Feedback link.

If you need technical assistance with the Xbox 360 Fall Flash and you're in the US or Canada and speak English; you can call 877-XXX-XXXX. Phone lines will be open between the hours of 8am and 6pm CST. Please do not publish or share this phone number with people that are not participating in the Preview Program

In participation with this program, you should not move your storage device (hard drive, or memory unit if you do not have a hard drive) to any other console as it will also update that console. If an unregistered console is updated with the NXE update, that console will not be able to connect to Xbox LIVE until the NXE has been officially released on November 19th.

Please remember that your participation in the Public Preview Program is subject to the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use.

We thank you for your participation and hope that you enjoy the New Xbox Experience.

See you online,

The Xbox 360 team]]>