XBox 360 Rally

Even if you can’t read a lick of German, numbers and percentages shouldn’t escape you. Take a look at the image at the bottom of this story a moment. Do you see that “90% Komplett”? Yeah, Unreal Tournament 3 (talk about retro linkage) is almost done. So done, in fact, that according to this very German article that you can easily view below, UT3 will be storming the people next April.

If you remember back to E3, there was a big stink about how the PlayStation 3 would be getting UT3 before the Xbox 360. In fact, many PS3 fanboys got ahead of themselves and started bragging on various message boards that Unreal Tournament 3 was in fact a PS3 exclusive. Obviously that isn’t the case, and I would even venture to guess that the Xbox 360 version, like so many other games brought to both systems, will be the superior effort.

But only time will tell, and we’ll know by April.

[MaxConsole]

Unreal Tournament 3

As picked by CVG. I can’t say that their list is too far off. I think most of the bigger named titles have already come out, and though the list below does have some “AAA” games, it just cannot compete with what has come out this year. CVG’s gives us a ‘top ten’ list of what is going to be available next year, for the most part I think titles we knew were of course coming, but when seen in list form, I can’t say I am greatly excited. I think Lost Odyssey, Condemned 2, Soul Calibur IV, and maybe even Battlefield: Bad Company (if it is going to rip of CoD4 as much as I think it will, it should be good):

Banjo-Kazooie
Too Human
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Ninja Gaiden 2
Splinter Cell Conviction
Fable 2
Devil May Cry 4
Halo Wars
Resident Evil 5

[See ComputerAndVideoGames.com for their full thoughts on each of these games]

I just wanted an excuse to use the above picture. XKCD is the best. Still, there is new songs to download for you, not my particular taste, but maybe something for you:

“Attack” - 30 Seconds To Mars (from 2005’s A Beautiful Lie)
“The Kill” - 30 Seconds To Mars (from 2005’s A Beautiful Lie)
“Dirty Little Secret” - All-American Rejects (from 2005’s Move Along)
“Move Along” - All-American Rejects (from 2005’s Move Along)
“Song With A Mission” - The Sounds (from 2006’s Dying To Say This To
You)

See after the break for the full break down from MajorNelson with cost and legal info:

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I own it. You own it. Odds are your friends own it. There is simply no denying that Halo 3 is an absolute beast of a game. In its first day in the US, Halo 3 made nearly $200 million, and helped Microsoft by being a definite system seller, pushing 527K consoles out the door in September. But just how impressive are the numbers?

Well, according to the NPD numbers through November, 4.1 million copies of Halo 3 have been purchased in the US. Meanwhile, there have been 7.9 million Xbox 360 consoles sold in the US since its launch just over two years ago. Doing the math, a whopping 52% of all Xbox 360 owners own Halo 3.

That’s more than half, people. And with Christmas looming but a week away, you can expect both Halo 3 and the Xbox 360’s numbers to increase.

[GameDaily]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Bungie, Halo 3

The Witcher a PC RPG which is in no specific terms contains mass amounts of both “epic” and “awesome”, is making its way to the Xbox 360.

Maybe.

You see, the developer of The Witcher, CD Projekt, has said publically that The Witcher is never, ever going to be on the consoles. However, the developer now has a job opening posting where they state that they are looking for someone who is skilled in “parallel programming” for the Xbox 360.

For those of you who are completely illiterate with computers, I’ll sum it up for you: They’re looking for people who can translate code from one platform to another… okay, I’ll dumb it down a little more: A port! They want to PORT something… make sense now? Good.

Now, unless they intend to port “Football Manager 2008″ to the Xbox 360, odds are we can see The Witcher sometime in the not-so-distant future. Cool, huh?

[CD Projekt]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, CD Projekt

Hey folks, figured I would pop my head in to share something as a new writer for the site here is being figured out (Applications still being accepted!). I love how to this day, KoToR 3 talk still persists and some peoples Xbox 360’s are being wrapped in towels, awesome.

Onto the news, the Halo 3 map pack is out. With it came the news that it will be free at some point. Awesome. Unlike Lost Planet, they never tell you that the things you buy would eventually be free!!! Ahem..apologies for that outburst, that is buyers remorse talking. Well if you want to buy now, it actually seems like a pretty decent set of maps. Want a little preview of them before buying ? Of course you do, so here is the great guys at Red vs Blue showing off the new DLC:

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Fulfilling my mandatory obligations to update this site once in a blue moon because some of you have yet to catch onto the fact that Paco and I take up residence at 1PStart now, I’m going to tell you a little story about a console that could. You see, in 2005 the Xbox 360 launched with much fanfare, and for a good long time was the only player in town.

…and then Nintendo came with it’s souped-up Gamecube with the powerglove controller, and in time surpassed the Xbox 360 in total sales. This still hasn’t deterred people from wanting the little guy, however, as Microsoft is struggling to meet demand for the console in the UK.

We’re struggling to meet the demand from every retailer every week. I think we’ve probably done it better than some of our cohorts out there, but it’s a weekly thing - we’re getting stock in, we’re getting it straight out to the retailers who need it

So things are going well for Microsoft, and it also seems like the UK is turning into a hot bed of gaming shortage. Earlier Nintendo made it clear they would be pulling its television advertisements for the Wii in a ditch effort to try and control demand in what I assume is an attempt to hide their own shortage.

If you get desperate for a 360, and aren’t too… hung-up about this pesky “Region Lock” thing, may I suggest Japan?

[Next-Gen]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, UK, shortage

A sting operation in El Paso, Texas where fugitives were informed that they had won free electronics including Xbox 360s, has resulted in over 100 arrests.

“Our goal is to try to keep El Paso safe and arrest as many fugitives as we can,” said U.S. Marshal supervisor Gerry Payan.

The operation was aimed specifically at targeting those with past illigal entry, violence and drug charges (because apparently all gamers are drugged up illegals with hot heads ). 129 warrants were cleared in all, and over $25,000 worth of traffic fines were collected.

Just more proof that the Xbox 360 draws you in. But remember south Texans… if you are told you won a free 360, in the words of Admiral Ackbar “It’s a trap!”.

[Shack News]

Xbox 360, El Paso, Texas, U.S. Marshal

Following on a rumor first reported by… well, us (you’re welcome), XueCast is now reporting that they have been able to confirm that Microsoft is currently working with DivX to bring their popular MPEG-4 format to the Xbox 360.

According to the article, DivX CEO Kevin Hell stated that, due to Microsoft’s restrictions and requirements, the Xbox 360 DivX project is running much slower than the PlayStation 3 counterpart. PlayStation 3 DivX support has already been partially implimented.

[XueCast]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, DivX

If you live in Europe, I’m really starting to hate you. First you get the exclusive Xtival 07 from Microsoft which gives you free Xbox LIVE Gold (limited time) and exclusive downloads. Then you get the Simpsons Game PSP bundle. Now, seemingly not pleased yet, Europe has snacked another nugget of shiny awesomeness as, during the Xtival 07 event, one lucky Guitar Hero III fanatic will get the chance of a lifetime by playing a few rounds with Steve Jones.

If you don’t know who Steve Jones is, I’ll give you a helping hand:

Now, the rules for this Game with Fame contest are slightly different. This time around, you have to play through the demo of Guitar Hero III (not available on Xbox LIVE), and when you’ve completed the demo you have to send a picture of your high score to sexpistols@gamewithfame.net, along with why you want to play with a punk rock God. The winners will be sent a copy of Guitar Hero III, and the top three will join Steve online.

The winner will be crowned European Champion, and win a guitar signed by Jones himself.

Once again… I hate Europe.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, Guitar Hero III, Steve Jones, Xtival 07, Sex Pistols

Microsoft is fighting fire with fire it seems, as the Official Xbox Magazine is reporting that Xbox 360 owners will be able to download original Xbox titles come December 2nd. The service will be part of the Fall Dashboard Update, and will feature six titles available from the start, each on sale for 1200 MS Points ($15 USD). What games are for grabs, you ask?

Halo

Fable

Burnout 3

Fahrenieit

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

To say this is awesome is a slight understatement. With a service like this, Microsoft could very well rival Nintendo’s Virtual Console service.

[Eurogamer]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Halo, Fable, Burnout, Crash Bandicoot, Fahrenheit

Hi, boys and girls. It’s just me, your friendly neighborhood JW, here to remind you all that we’re currently looking for people to replace us here at Xbox 360 Rally. All you have to do is go HERE, fill out the form, and wait to hear back. It’s really not that hard.

So, get to it already — so Paco and I can get to the NEW site!

Folks, I don’t think you know how hard it was to find a winner for this contest. Every entry received was like a gift from God herself, yes, corny, I know, but seriously, too many entries kicked mucho ass and it took much fighting between JW and myself to pick the final winner (we do it American Gladiator giant q-tip style if you want to know…… for the younger audience, it looks like this).

As you know from JW’s recent posting, we are both out of here, but, man, we are leaving whoever comes in to fill our giant shoes (hitting G4’s The Feed giant shoes! Hitting the front pages of DESTRUCTOID, Kotaku, Joystiq, and so many other great video game blogs giant shoes!), err.. what was I saying.. oh yeah, we are leaving whoever comes in some of the coolest readers to any site I have been a part of. You know who you are you regulars that may not have always commented, but I check the stats and IPs of who visits like a weirdo (I seriously have OCD about that stuff). This contest really proved it. I can’t put up all entries for this contest (out of pure laziness I assure you), but I really wanted to show some off that made it into the final rounds of the giant q-tip competition.

Note: The following are in no actual order, just wanted to show off some of the work you guys yourself put in, don’t worry if yours isn’t shown below, it was received and treated with as *almost* as much love as the winning entry, which of course you can now see at the top of every page on the site.

(Reading this and want to get in contact with any of the artists/designers above, feel free to hit me up at ocap1 at hotmail dot com and I will get with the designer to let them know you want to give them some freelance work and/or want to know their age/sex/location for hot steamy text sex!)

I don’t know if it is unfair for me to bundle all Halo related news into one post, or is it unfair for all the Halo related news to attack me on a daily basis where I can see www.Halo3rally.com happening.

First up is some interesting news for those who need a Halo toy that goes beyond what Todd McFarlane can do (which is already amazing), comes a one of a kind statue that is being auctioned off on eBay of a female Spartan. The user is kindly donating 10% of the winnings to the “American Breast Cancer Foundation.” I found the link which was described on Digg as being “Super Hot” which already made me not want to like it, but as you can see, it is amazingly detailed with sniper rifle in hand, not all cartoony Jessica Rabbit over boobified/assified and such, this can easily be labeled as just plain bad ass. Not $1500 bad ass, but if you have the cash and you are that much of a fan boy, definitely place your bid cause you only have a couple of days left. (Click here for auction page which also has a lot larger pictures in different poses)

Our next Halo blip comes from a recent Penny Arcade comic that hit close to home with me. Click the thumbnail below to read the comic.

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Get ready, October 10th, just a couple of weeks away, the Orange Box will be hitting store shelves and hopefully will not be ignored because of some other first person shooters recently released *cough*. Honestly though, I do wish this game well, as I love the Half Life series, however, do not care for keyboard/mouse as my FPS preference (yes, blasphemy for a PC user not to be a PC gamer, I know), so this is a set I honestly have been waiting for, specifically to check out “Portal” .. however the set also includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Team Fortress 2. At the cost of a regular priced game you honestly can’t go wrong picking this baby up or at the very very least giving it a rental, remember, this is the PC game that can only be second to World of Warcraft, but before WOW, it was #1 for quite some time, if you are like me and have not given this game the attention it deserves, now is the time (well not right now, but very soon!).
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Valve, Half Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Orange Box, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, Keyboard Mouse Sucks