New DLC for COD: World at War

The team has been very quiet regarding details of our DLC until now, and we’re so excited to let this content loose. DLC Map Pack #1 is due out in March of ‘09 for the (read on)

Introducing the Crew of SxAxW

I have been on Xbox Live for many years now and from playing with plenty of strangers and gaming with random people across different types of games I have found a cool bunch of gamers that started gaming together all the time.

From the first crew members Ghost, Balz, and Matyr that decided to add a name to the crew (not a Clan), has now grown over time and as we get bigger and more rounded team the invited to join are starting to get harder if someone want to join in on our gaming habbits.

In my opinion I get along with everyone, but that being said it’s also becoming like a virtual gaming family were brothers argue from time to time but after a few games everyoe is happy again. LoL

Here is the list of the current active crew members on m list. There are a few more not listed here but it’s onl because they haven’t been online for a while and haven’t updated to an avatar as of yet. Now the list….

Here are the SxAxW Creators.

Ghost SxAxW

Balz SxAxW

Matyr SxAxW

Here is the rest of the Crew:

JorgieX SxAxW

Gurx SxAxW

J0k3r SxAxW

lil Ghost SxAxW

Limb SxAxW

Manolo SxAxW

Phantom SxAxW

Shadow SxAxW

SlayerX SxAxW

Unknown SxAxW

Violent SxAxW

Wiz SxAxW

So there you have it the people I most play online team battles with. Like I mentioned above there are a few more SxAxW members so I will add them once I touch base with the crew.

So who do you game with often? Do you think you should belong to a crew, clan or guild when you go online? Do you like to run solo and just get the help of a stranger and then part ways forver?  I thought I was doomed to travel XBL alone forever until the members of SxAxW excepted me into the ranks.

Lost Odyssey load times: DVD vs HDD, Big difference!

I have been debating that the installs of game DVD on the Xbox 360 are a good thing for those who have the HDD space to spare. I have an Xbox Elite and have it totally stripped of any non essential data on my HDD so I am now up to 92GB of free space. No demos no trailers, movies or music. I will now only stream all pictures, music and videos right from my networked PC. I love the ease of use that the Xbox360 offers it’s user base.

I love Lost Odyssey and all of it’s 4 DVD goodness but wished I didn’t have to swap out my DVDs or have suck long load time and this game has some long load times…lol

Here is a somewhat blurry youtube video of Lost Oddesey installed on the Hard Drive vs DVD load times.

I was blown away at the amount of time that is actualy saves you on load screens..OMG..!

Can the NXE Lessen the Risk of RROD?

Gamers Platform has a good article written by author: Mark Fajardo

“One of the most appealing features in the New XBOX Experience is the ability to download the game file over to your Hard Drive to minimize loading times. As we go hands-on with the New XBOX Experience and tried downloading numerous XBOX 360 games to our hard drive, there is one thing that we notice that will really lessen the XBOX 360 from overheating, which will lead to the RRoD.

If we remember when we played the game without installing the game files to our hard drive, our machines would use twice the power it needed, making the fans go loud, and, of course, making the system produce too much heat that can eventually lead to overheating to a Red Ring of Death. We observed a new feature of the NXE that lets you download the game through your hard drive. Once the game is downloaded to the system, we noticed that our machine doesn’t produce the same heat it does when playing the game without installing it to our hard drive. The fan is not loud as it used to be, and the system feels like you just turned it on.

Could this be the solution of Microsoft to decrease the chance of RRoD in their system?”

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Video tour: New Xbox Experience Exposed

Head on over to our NXE page for the link. This videos are great and give you a more current feel of what to excpect from the update this November 19th. Remember to scroll to the bottom of post for all updates.

<The Social Gamer’s NXE Page>

OMG…! Just 99 bucks….lol

Over at Gamestop.com there is a new product available for pre order online. They will be selling a special Hard Drive XBL bundle…!

The easiest entry into Xbox LIVE for Arcade

• Incredible value; includes a 60 GB Hard Drive, Headset, Ethernet cable, and a 3-month LIVE Gold subscription.
• 60 GB Hard Drive allows users the ability to download HD video content, XBLA games, and Xbox Originals.
• Rip your music to the Hard Drive and create custom playlists to use in-game and out.
• Enjoy online multiplayer gaming and other exclusives with the included 3-month LIVE Gold Subscription Card.
• Strategize with teammates or just chat with friends while playing your favorite games with the included Xbox 360 Headset.

<Gamestop.com>

Microsoft is an online retailer through Xbox Live!

Head of Xbox Live says console service eases pressure on High Street space.

Xbox Live boss John Schappert has told MCV that Xbox Live’s role as an ‘online retailer’ is taking the pressure off the battle for High Street shelf space.

Speaking in the build-up to the ‘revolutionary’ Xbox Live Dashboard update next month, Schappert said:

“There are games coming that would not get the space at retail, and that’s a big part of why we’re refreshing the system.”

“We want to widen the content to make it more accessible for different users. It’s pretty hard to get retail distribution these days, and shelf space continues to be a challenge and people are opting for that – Penny Arcade is a great example of that.”

<Read ful Artical>

Does the NXE enhance your Live! experience?

There were two main reasons Microsoft decided to totally redo the Xbox 360 interface: 1) to make everything easier to find and 2) making it easier for the Xbox team to make changes to the system on the fly (instead of having to wait for semi-annual updates).

After spending a little hands on time with NXE, I’m pretty convinced they’ve succeeded with that first goal (time will tell with the second). A whole slew of navigation options make it easier to locate anything from a recently downloaded demo to a group of friends playing Call of Duty 4 that you can party with. The Spotlight channel highlights whatever’s new in any channel (movie trailers, content packs, demos, etc.) and the actual game library (gasp!) has a details page that will display all the stuff you’ve downloaded for it. You can even see stuff you haven’t downloaded, like if there’s a new map pack, and jump from the detail page directly to Marketplace to buy the content.

So no more frantically scrolling this way and that, trying to find the Alpha Protocol demo I just downloaded or figure out where they put the Fable 2 trailer. Even better, the game detail page displays box art, screen shots, streaming videos – the kind of stuff you normally have to go to a website to find. So maybe we won’t need a web browser with NXE (and if we do, they can apparently add one with a quick updated that we don’t have to wait half a year for).

The big ticket item for me is the avatar system. It’s the only part of NXE that I’m skeptical about. I don’t mind that they were replacing the left-to-right scrolling “blades” with up-and-down scrolling “channels” (that are populated with “slots” – gotta love that 360 vocabulary). I also don’t care one way or the other that the visual style of the interface is more “casual-friendly” with a simple (if dull) layout and punched up movie/Netflix features.

I do mind that they’re spending money to make a total rip off of the Nintendo Miis. I mean, really, does capturing the casual audience really mean you’ve gotta have chunky people with big, bright eyes that wander around, doing nothing but sneezing, winking and waving?

As soon as I started making my NXE avatar, I had to stop comparing it to Nintendo. The system Rare came up with has more in common with the Sims than it does with anything else. There were more options for facial and body structure, color and decoration. I could have freckles, vampire fangs, or a mullet. There were ear piercings, soul patches and whacky skin colors (e.g. green). There are idle animations (my favorite is the guy one where he picks lint off his arm, grimaces and flicks it away), and hidden “treats” that the avatars react to (like when you zoom in too fast – you might bump your avatar in the head and knock him senseless).

It’s all very cute and accessible – the kind of thing I’d give to my grandma to get her to even go near the 360. But there’s also a larger goal that the avatars accomplish for seasoned 360 users: they give you a sense of personality.

“We wanted gamers to be able to express themselves,” says demo expert Albert Penello, Director of Global Marketing for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. “Like when you’re going into Friends to party with [strangers]… we wanted you to be able to look at a group of avatars and [automatically] know whether or not you’d like to party with them.”

<read the rest>

NXE dedicated page is up…!

We put up a dedicated Xbox Experience page to detail the functions and features that all connected Xbox 360’s will get come this November 19th. Information will be added as more become available. Please feel free to comment and leave any suggestions you may have. You can find the link to the NXE Page on the left under the Pages section.
Have a great day…!

1st no Netflix Party Mode, now NO PRIMETIME?

This morning I was looking over the usual major blogs and to my surprise I ran into this little bit of news on the Forbes website game shows for the NXE. I was really looking forward to this offering as well as the Netflix party stream mode but look like the only functional feature other than the ability to install me games is, creating a cool avatar. Why oh Why are we losing Xbox 360 losing all of the main functions stated throughout the entire marketing campaign?

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