XBox 360 Rally

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.

(more…)

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

Enterbrain, a research company from Japan, has reported on this beautiful Friday morning that Halo 3, which was released in Japan yesterday, sold 45,000 copies.

When you consider that Blue Dragon, the highest selling Xbox 360 title in the land of the rising sun, sold 83,000 it’s first week, I’d say Halo 3 may become a moderate success over there.

In an effort to differentiate my two articles, here’s a little added something: I never could understand why the Japanese hate the Xbox so much. I know that our vastly differing cultures make it difficult to sell one product in the other’s home territory, but come on. Japan is the only market where the PS3 is beating the 360, and that just tells me something is wrong here… or there. Whichever.

[Xbox360Only.nl]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Bungie, Halo 3, Japan

As the time of Halo 3 draws near and there is some sort of news about the game every.. eh.. 20 minutes or so, comes the biggest news of them all…. Halo 3 will have DLC!! This comes from a recent sit down with Next-Gen, having Jonty Barnes and Jay Weinland representing Bungie. When asked about what will happen after Halo 3 is actually released, their reply was:

JW: Although we haven’t announced details, we have talked about downloadable content at some point.

JB: Yeah, I think that’s inevitable. We have released DLC in spring this year for Halo 2, a game that is two-and-a-half years old. We’ve still got 300,000 players of Halo 2 still playing the game. The last DLC was purely to support the call-outs from the community. I imagine seeing more of that in DLC for Halo 3.

I’m really excited by the Forge [Halo 3's map editing feature], and we don’t really think we understand what the people are going to create.

Being a huge Time Splitters fan, I can’t lie, I am very excited about the map editing feature myself more so than having to pay for levels. All I can do is remember the days when they were free, hopefully Bungie will do the honorable thing and stick with what they did with Halo 2 and have a certain time frame for people to buy the levels or whatever else they offer, then give it for free 3 months later or something).

Another note from Barnes sitting down with GameSpot was a quick quote about the Beta and preparing their servers for the horde that will be playing very soon, “The amount of polish feedback was especially helpful, and we also found we had to triple our server capacity.”

[Source 1Pstart.com | Header image stolen from JW because it was too damn funny I had to steal it]
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Halo, Halo 3, Next-Gen, Microsoft, DLC, Downloadable Content, Map Editing, Jonty Barnes, Bungie, Duh, Jay Weinland, Too Much Halo 3 News Daily, Xbox 360

NeoGAF user Hooterville somehow got himself a copy of Halo 3 early (hmmmm), chose to go with the “Limited Edition” version, and it came scratched brand new. He shows with three pics the packaging and the disc, and it is pretty easily seen why exactly the discs are scratching. You know that little circle thingy that actually holds the disc in place, it seems that someone forgot to put it there, I mean, there is something that resembles what would hold a disc in the middle, but it is more of a shadow of a little circle thingy than a full on nub that would hold the disc in. Enough of my scientific big words, look no further than the pictures below:

Is this how all our copies will come if we went with the Limited Edition (This was the one I wanted to get, Legendary was too much, but I can’t just get the regular). If you pre-ordered in store somewhere, make sure to open up your copy in the story at the clerks desk to ensure if it is scratched they seen you open it right in front of them and keep making them hand you over a new one. If you pre-ordered online, I pray for you, just expect the discs to be floating in the box and hope they aren’t bad enough where you can’t play. Thanks again Microsoft!
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Halo, Halo 3, Warranty, Microsoft, Limited Edition, Collectors Edition, CD Scratch, DVD Scratch, Pre-order, Bad Times, Too Much Halo 3 News Daily, Xbox 360

CVG was able to snag an interview with co-founder and president of Bioware, Dr. Greg Zeschuk and pull some good info for you to chew on as we all keep waiting for this title. Here is the cliff notes of what went down:

Most challenging designed game they have ever done.

Downloadable content is a must, he states the obvious of it “can really help and drive the longevity of a game“

Because the way Mass Effect was designed, the DLC could not only be just extra weapons and features, but do not rule out more missions, as those could be added to bridge the gaps in storyline between Mass Effect one and the sequel.

Still undecided if a demo is coming or not (This could go either way, Gears of War did fine without it, I have no doubts Bioshock killed in sales with the help of their demo)

All three Mass Effect games will be on Xbox 360, however, they cannot comment on exclusivity.

Without answering yes or no to the infamous “Will there be gay aliens,” the lack of an answer means “yes”

If you haven’t, I highly suggest checking out “Just the Facts” part 1 here, as when you put all the information for this game together, it shows depth like no other game out there.
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BioWare, KOTOR, Mass Effect, Interview, CVG, Greg Zeschuk

As reported by 1PStart.com Call of Duty 4 has rightly not gone gold. I know myself and all my friends I have made through the Beta have strong opinions on some things, but overall, this is one fast action paced FPS. Battlefield 2 on steroids, quote me on that.

The infamous “fourzerotwo” who has been giving the CoD4 updates as of late, posted on this blog about the features that are still being tweaked, “We’re still testing Single Player and using beta feedback to fine tune the multiplayer experience via tweaks of spawn logic, optimizing netcode on the backend, tweaking matchmaking and game performance now that we see how it will handle with hundreds of thousands of players on at once. Keep in mind that we can tweak and use your feedback for the multiplayer portion of the game all the way to ship, and even after launch via Patches. So keep your beta feedback coming, it’s not going to waste simply because we’re putting the polishing details on Single Player. A lot of what we change in Multiplayer is able to be done on the backend here at the studio.”

It is also worth noting that he mentions that since the Beta has come out, there hasn’t been a Xbox Live Top Ten list posted, so there is no way to tell how just a Beta is comparing to other games (I can see this Beta being right up there with Bioshock this past week or so).
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Call of Duty 4 Beta, CoD4, Infinity Ward, Bioshock, Xbox Live Top Ten, FourZeroTwo

Ok, people, here’s the deal — Paco and I are on our way out. We’re taking over at 1PStart.com in an effort to restore it to it’s former glory. …that, and I just plain want to write about another game every once in a while, is that so wrong?!

Anyways, here is what we’re looking for: A competent, capable writer with a love for all things Xbox. Now, by competent writer, we mean someone who spells “you” correctly, and knows when to capitalize. If you can do that, you’re a shoe-in. So, CLICK THIS DAMN LINK, do the required stuff, then get paid to play video games and write about stuff.

…hell, Mike and I did the hard stuff already, and YES, the GTA4 Banner contest will continue, and I will still give you a copy of GTA IV… or something. So, hop to it.

Xbox 360 Rally, JW, Stuff, Job Openings

Over 10,000 stores are going to be opening at midnight for you Halo geeks (I swear not me!). However, only four stores are going to be bringing out the big assault rifles.

New York: Best Buy on 5th Avenue (by Times Square)
Both Spike TV and G4 will broadcast from there, as well as appearances from Bungie team members and random celebrities.

Los Angeles: GameStop at Universal CityWalk location
Again, Spike TV and G4 will be there, also contests, celebrity autograph session (who, which celebrity?!), and an appearance by Master Chief himself (well, I guess that answers my celebrity autograph question).

Miami: Circuit City (8575 Northwest 13th Terrace)
Some Bungie people will be here too! Along with some Miami Dophins players .. meh, they are going to sign autographs and play against fans. I *might* attempt to get to this Miami one as it would only be a couple of hours drive for me. I do love seeing geeks in groups.

Seattle: Best Buy (457 120th Ave NE, Bellevue)
Some Bungie people will be here, woo!

All four locations will have chances for prizes (shirts, books, other swag, even a Halo 3 Zune)
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Halo 3, Midnight Launch, Chris Chambers, Joey Porter, Miami Dolphins, Miami, LA, Los Angeles, Seattle, NY, New York, Xbox 360, Prizes, Too Much Halo 3 News Daily, Best Buy, Circuit City, GameStop, Zune

UK Halo fans, you have my condolences. It appears that all Halo 3 midnight launch plans in the United Kingdom have been scrapped. You see, the people in Westminster (no idea where that is) fear that so many people would show up for the midnight launch, that there would be panic in the streets of London.

Man, that must suck for you guys, not being able to get your Halo fix at midnight. As for me and my fat, stupid, bloated, self-righteous American ass? …yeah, I’ll be at my local GameStop, getting my hands on some Legendary Edition goodness. For those of you in Westminster… you’ll get yours on the 25th.

[CVG]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Halo 3, Midnight Launch, Bungie, United Kingdom

I have emailed Hudson with no reply on whether this is pure lulz coming from the Dtoid guys, which though is possible, this is looking to be pretty true so far. A little background, much like sites such as Joystiq or Kotaku, Destructoid was a gaming blog, but with a little twist, they are more community driven and just a lot more fun, all while still keeping up with the video game news. Destructoid is pure indie, there is no AOL or other such “network” of sites backing them up, pure independent media. So for them to get the connections with Hudson, who is a company that would certainly have the fun enough attitude to support an indie web site that had a recognizable character that represents them (Mr Destructoid) into their game, it all does make sense.

If you see their announcement page for this news (Here) you will see the other new character models and levels that will come in the “Bomb Up Pack 2″ later this month. I have yet to get a press release for the pics of the new characters and levels, so I just await an email back from Hudson to at the least take this out of the Mill o Rumor section. No matter what, hats off from myself and JW here at Xbox360Rally.com for making it into one of the best XBLA games made (if its true!)

For now, here is the other updates that we should be seeing in the DLC pack:

* * Ten New Characters – In addition to Destructoid, other new characters include “Bomberella” the cavewoman and “El Bombito” the matador, resulting in countless new ways for players to customize their in-game Bomberman. Other characters include Alien Bomber, Bomb the Fool, Bomberbell, Flower Bomb, Debbie Downer, Bomber X, and Bomb of Doom. Check out the gallery for a first look at the other characters!

* * Two Additional Levels – New arenas include “Medieval Times,” a level in which bombs and sorcery collide and that allows players to select any gimmick they want, and “Full Tilt,” a level set at a racetrack which features speed circles that dictate how fast players move.
* * One New Game Mode – “Bomb Shelters” will allow players to hide from explosions in a small, fireproof building.
* * Two New Leaderboards – Dominate the competition on two new ranking systems on the Xbox LIVE® network. The new leaderboards will track performance on both a weekly and an all-time basis for the speed circle gimmicks on the new “Full Tilt” map.

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DESTRUCTOID, Hudson, Hudsonsoft, Bomberman Live, Congratulations, New Levels, New Characters