Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite Console to $299 USD

That's right, the new $299 USD console will be effective by tomorrow morning at most major retailers. This obviously seems to be a pleasant response from Microsoft to Sony's addition of a newer 120GB Console that will retail at the same price. Microsoft also announced that the Arcade Xbox 360 Bundle would have its retail price sliced on the shelves to $199 USD. They have also confirmed that both current and new $299 USD Elite Console's will be compatible with Project NATAL and controller free gaming.

Seems like a good move from Microsoft to attract any remaining gamers that have yet to dip their feet into the world of Xbox 360. Hey, and if you are reading this and you don't own one, go ahead and shell out the three-hundred bucks for the new quieter and more efficient Elite, I promise you won't regret it... (psst, don't bother with the Arcade Edition, Elite ftw).

EA Sports Fifa 10 demo release date confirmed

Electronic Arts as confirmed that the new Fifa 10 demo will be coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace on September 10th. The demo will likely include four teams and allow users to play a game with two minute halves. A bit short for my liking, but hey, I will very excited at the prospect of getting my feet wet with this promising installment for the 2009-10 season.

A full preview will be posted after the Demo has hit the Marketplace.

Check out the new preview trailer below:

Gamestop Adventure

Well, not much going on today. The update has fully set in around the Xbox world, and the in-game content seems to be selling. I took a quick look at my friend's list today before playing my beloved Fifa 09. About half of my friends online had avatar marketplace items outfitted on their avatar.

Not much else to report on, except for, oh, a little adventure to Gamestop. I walked into the store and a strange influence came about me. I decided to splurge and put down $30 on Fifa 10, $40 on Forza 3 Limited Edition, and $30 on Modern Warfare 2. Burned a nice little bill in the process but at least I won't be scrambling for cash when the games come out. I've decided when I have the cash to spare, I'll put it down on any money I've pre-ordered. It's nice to walk in on the date of release and pick the game up 'without paying'... well it beats coughing up $65 on one go. I'll cushion the blow with small incremental additions...

That's all for now. I'll be on Twitter a whole bunch, so subscribe if you'd like, here!

Xbox 360 August Update is Live!

The wait is over, the new August Xbox Live Update has arrived! There had been a lot of excitement brewing in regards to the features the new update would boast.

If you have been living under a rock, read the preview of the update here.

I logged into my account this morning and was immediately prompted to download the update. It only took about thirty seconds and I was on my way. A thing I noticed which was not mentioned in previews during the days leading up to the update was a little message that displays below the download bar to indicate the estimated time remaining. Yes, I know those can be annoying, especially when downloading files on the computer or moving files from your hard drive to a external storage device (or vice-versa). "Mommy, it says two minutes left." You go and grab a quick snack from the fridge... "Mommy it says three hours left." Three hours pass... "Mommy, it still says thirty minutes left"... then those thirty minutes precede to drag out for over an hour. Alright, that was an exaggeration, but well at least in my experience while downloading stuff off the marketplace today, the estimated time remaining indicator was pretty accurate.

I swapped my Avatar's clothes for the all black tux, which incidentally, was free, and has been on the Avatar since it debuted. But of the new things available, a COG Soldier, Star Wars Storm Trooper, or USMC full body outfit would cost you 400 Microsoft Points a piece ($5 USD). Quite expensive, but I admit they did look cool. I couldn't resist shelling out 160 Microsoft Points ($2 USD) for the new soccer ball prop that was available. Among the other things available were new clothing and shoes from Quiksilver, Adidas, and 'in game brands' such as Halo and Bioshock.

The new game rating feature is also active in the marketplace, and no surprise that Halo 2 is among one of the more popular titles. Although in my opinion, the GoD (Games on Demand) prices are a bit too steep for games that can be found at GameStop or on eBay for a third of the price. I have yet to try out the Netflix feature, but it looks very interesting. I dished out a few party invites and everything seemed very streamlined and easy to use. I also noticed a nice big '2' next to my gamertag, which means I've been using Xbox Live Gold for two full years, and soon to be three this fall.

Well folks, that's all for today. If you haven't signed in to XBL today, your missing out on some cool new stuff. I suggest you hurry over to your Xbox 360 and download the new Update. I definitely wasn't disappointed.

Preview: August Xbox Live update

Microsoft unwrapped all the details regarding the new Xbox 360 Update that has now been confirmed to be available on August 11th. This update will NOT boast Microsoft's previously promised Facebook, Twitter, Zune Instant 1080p, and Last.FM compatibilities, which are now expected to be unrolled in the late fall or winter
updates.

Avatar Marketplace

Fear not, there are many new interesting features bundled in this summer update from Microsoft. First off, a new Avatar Marketplace will be introduced which will allow gamers to buy clothes for their in-game persona. Yes buy clothes, as in with real money, err Microsoft Points. Real world clothing manufactures will be featured in the Avatar Marketplace, aswell as Microsoft branded items, such as a Halo style top. Other articles of clothing can be unlocked through beating games. 'Props' will also be introduced, such as a remote control car or even possibly a pet animal that can be 'controlled' by your avatar.

Party and Friends List

Next up, Microsoft has introduced a new way to organize your friends list and has refined the party system. Users may now organize their friends list by gamertag (alphabetically), activity, and online status. Also if you or someone else drops out of the party, they can easily and automatically reconnect. Inviting people to the party can now be done through a special menu, with one press of a button you can quickly run down a list of online friends and invite up to eight people in about three or four seconds. A new veteran badge will be added to the top right side of a player's gamertag which displays the number of years the user has been a gold Xbox Live member.

Netflix

Netflix users will benefit a great deal from this new update. Subscribers can now instantly add videos to their queue directly though their Xbox 360. Gold Xbox Live members who wish to watch a movie with friends have had their wish granted. By inviting friends to party, up to four different users may view the same Netflix movie together through Xbox Live.


Games on Demand in the Marketplace and User Ratings

Both gold and silver Xbox Live users can now purchase and download Xbox 360 titles directly through the Games on Demand Marketplace. Game manuals can be downloaded and printed for free through Xbox.com website. Gamers will also be able to rank both full games and arcade titles in a five star rating system. These ranked games can now be sorted and searched for by ratings through the new refined marketplace.

The following games will be available for download on August 11th:

1. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft)
2. BioShock (2K Games) - North America Only
3. Burnout Paradise (EA)
4. Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
5. Dance Dance Revolution Universe (Konami) - North America Only
6. Fight Night Round 3 (EA)
7. Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios)
8. Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore (Konami) - North America Only
9. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts)
10. Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios)
11. Meet The Robinsons (Disney)
12. MX vs. ATV Untamed (THQ)
13. Need for Speed Carbon (EA)
14. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
15. Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios)
16. Prey (2K Games)
17. Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft) - North America Only
18. ridge racer 6 (Namco) - North America Only
19. Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games)
20. Sega Rally (Sega) - Europe Only
21. Sonic the Hedgehod (SEGA) - North America Only
22. Test Drive: Unlimited (Atari)
23. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)
24. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft) - Europe Only
25. Tomb Raider Legend (Eidos) - Europe Only
26. Viva Piñata (Microsoft Game Studios)
27. Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise (Microsoft Game Studios)

Miscellaneous Updates

• Display Discovery allows for the highest possible quality of display and audio through an option that allows you to override the default input and select audio and video formats independent of the information your television sends to your Xbox 360 console.Xbox LIVE Community Games has been renamed Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

• An Achievements browser which allows you to easily read through all the achievements of a certain game while playing. You can now also launch a game directly from the browser.A new view inside the profile panel which includes a summary of Achievements earned across all the games played, and shows of all your completed games.

• Streamlined navigation, including new entry points in the dashboard for Active Downloads, redeeming codes, recovering Gamertags and more.

• When recording a voice message, a warning will pop up if no audio is detected.

• Time stamps now appear in the memory area in conjunction to your saved games.

• If your Xbox LIVE subscription is about to run out, you will now be notified when you sign into Xbox LIVE.

• Updates for Invalid Windows Live IDs. If the Windows Live ID you provided has expired, you will now be prompted to update it the next time you sign into Xbox LIVE.

• Account recovery process has been made faster and more reliable.
  

A comprehensive update from Microsoft to say the least, I'll be excited about downloading this one on Tuesday morning.

[Images courtesy of Joystiq.com]

What I've been doing lately... Forza Motorsport 2 and Battlefield 1943

Well good morning everyone. I hope you all have not been missing the blog too much, because my Xbox 360 sure didn't seem like it was missing me. Well until this week... I've been working my '360' non-stop, it's only allowed to take a nine or ten hour break every night :P

I have rekindled my love for Forza Motorsport 2 last weekend. I had put it down in late 2007 after the release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Halo 3. My FM2 disc sat in the corner of my room for nearly two years before I decided it was time to get back to the old days. Dusted her off the other day and decided to give it a go.

I restarted back at career level '0', excited at the fresh 'new game' esque approach I decided to take. I went from having a sluggish Audi TT to compiling a garage full of tuned beasts putting down U999 ratings left and right within a few days. In fact, I was so enthusiastic about Forza 2 that I decided to go right in to pre-order the Limited Edition version of Forza Motorsport 3 at GameStop. Cha ching... there goes eighty six dollas. Wait did I really spend that much for a video game? What? But our economy is really thriving right now isn't it? Dude I'm fine.

With that, I had to break into the three digit mark with my spending for the day. I picked up a 1600 Microsoft Point card to go with my pre-order. Why you ask? Well I had to pay homage to my old love, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, which was commonly abbreviated as 'BF2MC' (aka intarnetz crack for most who played it). An amazing game really, I may have logged over 650 hours on it total, considering the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 versions combined. Anyways back to what I was saying, I decided I would try out DICE's new Battlefield 1943 after playing the demo. It cost me 1200 Microsoft Points, or roughly $15 USD. Heck, I said why not. Although I was disappointed by the Battlefield: Bad Company Beta and decided not to pick up the full game, I decided I'd give DICE's new slightly updated 'arcade' version of Bad Company a try.

Battlefield 1943 is a tiny bit different from its predecessor Battlefield: Bad Company. First off, it was set in the WWII timeframe, which provided different guns, scenery, and vehicles. Okay, you could have inferred that from the title, but I thought I might as well point it out. The game engine seemed to be slightly tweaked, slightly closer to BF2MC than Bad Company was, although not very noticeably. The addition of airplanes also intrigued me, as they had not been present in past console Battlefield games. All in all, it was enough to get hooked to log a good fifteen hours on a temporary gold account (technical issues while I was waiting for MS to change my original gamertag to Gold after I had bought and activated a subscription :/ ), and another five on my main gamercard.

With a good twenty hours of gaming time under my belt for Battlefield 1943 over the past week, I think it's time for a review. Look out for a complete review soon and stay posted. You can always follow me on my gaming adventures through Twitter!

It has been a while...

Ah yes the x360n.com blog. Well I'll be brutally honest, I've been very busy over the course of the last year and a half. So much so that I, obviously, failed to find time to update our beloved blog. Yes I did manage to check up on her every month or so, but I had no time to continue the epic blogging greatness that we had bestowed upon our readers in the time before. So I thought, it's probably better to not post anything then to post something useless. With that went all these months of nothingness, until today, a special day, a day where the x360n blog will be brought back to life.

Hurrah!

Okay, let's be honest. We have a lot of ground to make up in the coming weeks. There are some huge release dates looming on the calendar. Let's take a quick look...

Madden NFL 10
Guitar Hero 5
The Beatles: Rock Band
Halo 3: ODST
Forza Motorsport 3
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Section 8
Bioshock 2
Modern Warfare 2(Call of Duty)
Mass Effect 2
Modern Warefare 2

Huge huge huge list folks, and I'm only talking about the Xbox 360 here.

Anyways I will be looking to spruce things up around here, the first thing on my mind is to provide some previews and reviews on the games listed above. I will also be looking to add another blogger to the x360n team, so keep your eyes out for a new member to the team my friends.

Oh and I just got an updated Xbox360 Voice Blog, courtesy of 360Voice.com

I have had one in the past but it stopped updating once I changed my gamertag. You can check my new one out here.

That is all for today :)

Happy New Years

Everyone from the x360n.com staff (Yes all three of us) would like to celebrate and congratulate everyone on a new year. We will be adding many new articles to the blog so please try to keep posted. Again we wish everyone a safe and happy New Year! 2008!

Half Life 2: The Orange Box - Reader Review

The Orange Box was released on October 10, and is the greatest video game deal to date. the Orange Box includes, Half-Life 2, HL: episodes 1 and 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

The Main Part of this game is Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2 is a 3 year old game from valve in which the player controls Gordan Freeman, the scientist that unleashed an alien world on the Earth in Half-Life. The game picks up a few years after the events in Half-Life 1, and has you in a desperate race to reach the citadel, when the main bad guy is controlling and negotiating with the enemy. You will receive multiple weapons through the course of the game including a shotgun, SMG, a Gravity gun, and a crowbar. The enemies you encounter range from simple pawns, to epic fights for survival. This portion the game will take you anywhere from 8 to 10 hours to complete, and can be revisited to unlock hidden and well placed achievements.

In Half-Life episodes 1 and 2, you continue off of the ending of Half-Life, desperately trying to end the alien menace, from destroying the rest of humans population. These episodes are more 'vehicle' based, but are a joy to play through. In Half-Life 2: Episode 2, a sense of humor is unreleased, and takes away the stress of some of your objectives. The 2 episodes will add another 8-10 hours to the already lengthy FPS.

Portal, is an interesting game, included exclusively in the Orange Box. In it you control a test subject, trying to experiment with seemingly inescapable situations. The game play is very smooth, and the voice acting is spot-on. It is a fantastic comical adventure, as well as a well creed First-person puzzler. the game take you through 11 chapters, consisting of 1 or 2 puzzles each. The ending is a surprise, and comes a little too quickly. The game can be finished in only about 3-4 hours time. However, you will have a blast every moment that it has.

finally, Team Fortress 2, the sequel to the grand-daddy of Class-based online FPS(es), is here. The game has taken on a very cartoony art direction, but does not take away from the pure enjoyment of the experience. There are many classes to choose from, including a scout, an engineer, a spy, and a heavy assault. The game only has 6 maps, and you will see everything, in a matter of 2 hours. But the pure addictive nature of the game, and the clever jokes put into the core game play are fun to see and experience.

Overall, the Orange Box, is the greatest deal you will find this year, and as something for everyone. If you are into puzzlers, first-person shooters, or online mayhem, this is defiantly worth a buy.

- Review by PawnagE

EA Fifa Soccer 08 Review

Its been a few days since Fifa 08 has been on store shelves, well at least in the States, and I am happy to report I have obtained a copy and have been playing non stop since. But I decided to drop the controller for a little bit to give our favorite readers a little review.

First off you will notice the same 'Arena Mode' from the previous installment, which is really fun I must admit. The same menu interface as the last series which was pretty sleek is still present. You will quickly notice though, that there have been many new game modes added such as Create a Tournament, 'Be a Pro Mode', and the Interactive Online Leagues. Speaking of leagues, EA has finally added a respectable amount of over 30 teams and a whole haystack of teams. The team squads are updated pretty accurately, and you can automatically update them with a download from the main menu through XBL if you somehow fall behind in the Transfer market. Although I admit I was disappointed with the absence of Denilson from FC Dallas' roster.

The game play has been completely revamped, and made much more realistic. Your shots become less accurate if you are sprinting, passes are tougher to complete if you are facing away from your target, player and ball physics have been fixed for the better. In addition to this, you can now pull off a plethora of 'freestyle' tricks by holding down the 'L Trigger' and moving the right analogue stick. This allows for some crazy combinations while dribbling in game.

Most of the things present in '07 are back this year, including Challenge Mode, Fifa Lounge, Online Play, Manager Mode, and the Fifa Shop. This years installment finally allows Fifa 08 to be the first true 'Next Gen' soccer game. Despite PES' efforts, I honestly Fifa has gotten the better of the franchise this year. I highly recommended game to all soccer fans, if you are still skeptical, you can try a rent first, you will definitely wont regret it.