XBox 360 Rally

Before Sam Fisher became a homeless man, he was a superspy who could probably take Solid Snake in a one-on-one spyoff (Michael Ironside FTW). Now you’ll be able to play through one of Sam’s earlier adventures once again as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, along with Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, are now Xbox Originals.

Look, everyone has played Splinter Cell in the past. I’m confident in saying that. But I would be willing to bet that most of you haven’t played Metal Arms, and for that you should be kicked square in the pants. It’s one of the most underrated titles in the Xbox library, and well worth the 1,200 MS Points they’re asking for.

[Major Nelson]

(as written, by me, at 1PStart)

It’s no secret that this past week or so Xbox LIVE has been giving a lot of people issues. Whining and complaining has occurred on countless message boards, and I’m sure even a few tears have been shed by the overly zealous Halo 3 jackasses. Well, I address each and every one of you who feel they have been wronged by Microsoft, and demand compensation when I say…

Stop your bitching.

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Odds are if you’re reading this, you’re not on Xbox LIVE. Not because you’re a fan of the site, but rather because Xbox LIVE won’t let you log in. In fact, Xbox LIVE won’t let a lot of people log in. While Microsoft isn’t explaining what is wrong, when you check the Xbox LIVE Service Status you will see the image to the right acknowledging that there is a problem, and that Microsoft has people working on it right now.

Stoners, Insomniacs and Australians everywhere are heartbroken at the news of Xbox LIVE being offline, I’m sure. Not to fear though, the big M is usually quick to fix these problems.

[1PStart]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE

Odds are if you’re playing Call of Duty 4, you’re not reading this. If you are, I commend you for your multitasking. Regardless, it has been announced that the fellas over at Infinity Ward are currently working on an update for CoD4 that is sure to make many a player happy.

A full list that I was more than happy to copy/paste from fourzerotwo himself can be found after the break, but some of the highlights of the upcoming update include host migration, kill cam for airstrikes and claymores, and the inclusion of the much talked about “N0M4D” control scheme.

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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!

Great news! Yesterday at 10am (PST) the Call of Duty Beta raised the cap for levels to a rank of 25.

So if you aren’t leveling up and taking on challenges, now is the pretty obvious time to get on it to get the extra weapons and crap (crap includes some cool perks and an upgraded weapon in each category.. read full details at FourZeroTwo’s page).
Bad news! Sunday the 30th (11:59pm) the Beta will be done

So what have we learned from this great experience? Fast action first person kicks ass. It may be an acquired taste for all you Halo gun battlers, but this Beta convinced me that this just could be the best way to have objective type games, everyone was very talkative, a big plus, I know you silent players are out there, but stick to deathmatch only games please. Anyways, it was fun, good job Infinity Ward.

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Call of Duty 4, COD4, Beta, Infinity Ward, FourZeroTwo, Good News, Bad News, First Person Shooter

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

The Pre-TGS press conference was surprisingly informative, considering TGS isn’t too far away. Amongst the cavalcade of new info were the announcements of nine new Xbox LIVE Arcade games, including one that WAS going to be on our “Games We Want on Xbox LIVE” weekly feature - Ikaruga. In addition to Ikaruga, eight other games were announced to be coming to the XBLA in the coming months. They were:

Every Extend Extra Extreme

Exit

OMEGA FIVE

Rez

Triggerheart Exelica

Braid

Castlecrashers

Schizoid

You can read more detailed descriptions of each game after the break.

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It goes without saying that Sonic 2 for the SEGA Genesis was, without a doubt, one of the best 2D platforming games to ever be made. Ever. Period. With the release of the first Sonic the Hedgehog a little ways back (along with our corresponding contest), it was all but certain that we would eventually see Sonic 2 make it’s way to the Xbox LIVE Arcade.

This Wednesday, according to Microsoft, seems to be that day. Promising to stay true to the original while taking full advantage of HD Graphics and enhanced sound, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be made available for download on XBLA this Wednesday, September 12th, for a measly 400 MS Points.

If you don’t buy this, you hate video games, democracy, and babies.

[Xbox.com]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, SEGA, Xbox LIVE Arcade, Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Welcome to the second of the new series Games We Want on Xbox Live, where I tried and tried (and tried) to think of a game to bring to XBLA, all I kept thinking of was RC Pro Am, but I believe I expressed my love for that enough before (link), but right behind RC Pro Am, I instantly thought of Super Off Road. I have such fond memories of going to the arcade that was in the local movie theater and being late to a flick cause I wanted to play another round of Off Road.

It was a rare treat to see one of these machines back then, more so now (all I am left with is Crazy Taxi and Time Crisis in most places). Game play for Off Road was simple enough, control with the wheel, win the race, on the way you grab cash upgrade your wheels and win another race.

Now, the true arcade version of Super Off Road was “Ivan Stewart’s Super Off Road” .. I am not sure if he is even alive anymore, but if he is, I bet he wouldn’t mind some pay if they came out with this title having his name on it to keep it true to arcade. Honestly though, that is the last of my worries, as long as the game features four cars that can be played off just one console sharing a screen (ala Bomberman Live) or take the racing online. If possible, crank it up to 8 cars, but I am not sure if that would get too crowded.

Very important part of this all, an XBLA game that can incorporate the 360’s Racing Wheel. You can’t get more arcade perfect than that. Pricing on this game is iffy, I mean, I could see it being fine at 800 points, but 400 would be the sweet spot and guarantee that people would be online with this. Especially the people who already own a racing wheel (a refreshing change of pace from the normal 360 racing game which tends to be just racing simulations).

Something interesting about this becoming a reality or not, is that it has been released on “Midway Arcade Treasures 3″ compilation title, the yet game was not developed or published by Williams, Midway, or Atari Games. Either way, unless it was made by Sony or Nintendo, which it wasn’t, there isn’t a company out there that wouldn’t work with Microsoft.

(This article dedicated to the XBL Radio forum guys)
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Microsoft, Xbox Live Arcade, Super Off Road, Ivan Stewart, XBLA

(Again…awesome image)

Earlier this week we reporetd on the “mysterios BioShock update” that was released, to which 2K Games didn’t really tell us what it was for. Well, now we know:

Just a few bug fixes, nothing big. It took care of some reported audio issues at the main title screen, as well as the unstable autosave system.

Yup, that’s about it. Nothing new has been added to the game, so y’all can get right over that. Now, if you don’t mind me, I have a Microsoft Tech Center to call.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, 2K Games, BioShock, Auto Update

So, there was a guy with the gamertag ‘Scar’ who somehow got his hands on the Halo 3 Epsilon Beta. So rather than playing it in secret, gushing about it’s awesomeness only to his closest of friends, this guy posts about it on the INTERNET!

Hello? Dude? The internet… yeah, it’s EVERYWHERE! My 90 year-old grandma surfs the damn internet!

Either way, Microsoft found out that it was him, and banned him from Xbox LIVE… until the year 10,000!

(Thanks Mark for the image)

UPDATO MAGNIFICO!
If you thought being banned until 10,000AD was bad enough, I have something else that will either make you even more sad for this guy, or will make you laugh his ass off — he had a gamerscore of 61,000!

UPDATO MAGNIFICO 2.0!
Ok, so apparently Mr. Scar here didn’t steal Halo 3 Epsilon, or somethin’. I’ve seen him on just about every message board refuting this claim — it doesn’t matter, dude. You still got your ass banned until long after we’ve colonized Mars. The story isn’t so much about the fact that you got your hands on Epsilon as it is that Microsoft gave you the eternal ban hammer. Suck it up, and move on.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Halo 3 Epsilon, Ban Hammer

So you booted up BioShock on your 360 in the past hour or so to find that you had to download an update. Seeing no other choice, you go ahead and initiate the download, and now you’re trying to figure out exactly WHAT the update was for.

Well, 2K isn’t saying. At least, not yet. Many speculate that it may be a fix for the widescreen issues. However, there are no new options to fix anything that I can find.

Considering some of the questionable decisions 2K has made over the past week, it wouldn’t surprise me if 2K somehow found a way to tie copies of BioShock to your Xbox 360, thus making it impossible to play your copy of the game at your friends house.

Vultures.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, 2K Games, BioShock

Xbox LIVE will be down on September 10th, 2007 for “approximately 4 hours”, starting at 2:01am PDT. Naturally, this means Xbox LIVE will be down between five and seven hours, as surely this update is in preparation of everyone in the civilized world getting online to own each other in Halo 3… or they’re installing the fall dashboard update… or it’s just normal maintenance and I’m reading too much into this.

While Xbox LIVE is down, here are a few suggestions on what you can do to pass the time…

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