Published October 21, 2008 on Xbox.com

Fable® II delivers an epic story and innovative real-time gameplay, including a massive amount of freedom and choice to explore a vast collection of dungeons, catacombs, and taverns. Now you can team up with a friend to discover the world of Albion over Xbox LIVE®. In addition, when you sign in an play a co-op session with your friend, you can earn an entry into the Fable II Orb Quest Play & Win Sweepstakes.

Register and play co-op for a chance to win.

The action starts at 12:01 A.M. October 31, 2008 and ends at 11:59 P.M. on November 2, 2008. During each hour of the sweepstakes, registered players can score a new entry when they are logged in and playing a co-op session. The Grand Prize package includes a custom Fable II console signed by Peter Molyneux and a trip for two to Lionhead Studios!

Before registering for the sweepstakes, make sure your Xbox LIVE account information is accurate! Potential winners will be notified by the sweepstakes administrator and have their prizes shipped using the contact info (e-mail, phone, and address) on their Xbox LIVE profile. If your contact info is not up-to-date you will be disqualified from winning a prize.

Check your account information here.

Sweepstakes Registration

There are two ways to register for the sweepstakes: Register onlinehereinsert registration link, or via Xbox LIVE Marketplace by downloading the free Fable II LIVE Weekend Gamer Picture. To download the Gamer Picture:

1. Sign in to Xbox LIVE and access Xbox LIVE Marketplace
2. Select Game Store
3. Select All Games
4. Select Fable II
5. Select Fable II LIVE Weekend Registration Gamer Picture and select Confirm Download
6. Upon the successful completion of the Gamer Picture download you'll see a Thank You for Registeringmessage.

You can also access the free Fable II LIVE Weekend Registration Gamer Picture via the banner ads running on the Xbox LIVE dashboard.

Sweepstakes Entry
You will automatically receive an entry (limit one entry per hour) when you connect to Xbox LIVE and play a co-op session of Fable II. The fun starts at 12:01 A.M. Eastern Time (ET) on October 31, 2008 and ends at 11:59 P.M. ET on November 2, 2008.

Prize Information
After the close of the entry period, we will select 45 Daily Prize Package winners (1000 Microsoft Points) and 120 Daily Second Prize Package winners (500 Microsoft Points). All Daily Winners will automatically receive one entry into the Grand Prize drawing for a chance to win the Grand Prize package.

Grand Prize Package

• A custom Fable II Xbox 360 console signed by Fable II visionary Peter Molyneux
• A trip for two (winner and a guest) to tour Lionhead Studios in Guildford, U.K.
• 4,000 Microsoft Points
• A 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription card

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States or D.C. 18+. Game ends November 2, 2008. For details including free, alternate method of entry, see the Official Rules. Link to rules

Published October 16, 2008 on Xbox.Com

Located in Dallas, Texas, Unscripted 360 (U360) is an Xbox 360 community website and internet radio show. It debuted in July 2006 from the brain of DeaconBlade 360, an Xbox MVP who was voted 2006 Community Member of the Year.

Jump into multiplayer action on October 30.

Unscripted 360 has been home to some of the most entertaining interviews featuring events, community leaders, and developers of today's next-generation games.

Members of Unscripted 360 will be online Thursday, October 30 from 8:00 – 11:00 P.M. Eastern time (5:00 – 8:00 P.M. PT) playing Gears of War®. Grab your chainsaw and send one of these gamertags an invite:

• The RhymeScheme
• ThumpThis
• TXPaladin
• Silent October
• ETJ93
• Raithgar
• TheDangerdoll
• snorkle256
• DragoonXGears
• NuAngel
• Skinny Caleb
• ShiftTab
• HazyCloud
• Goon360
• AirXJordanX23
• Pvt Jokar
• IRISHprik411
• Deadly Cyclone
• Assassin 10k
• Deejay Knight
• DiscLizard
• JuggalordsZero
• Gripman

If you get a chance to play with one of Deacon's Blades, we want to hear all about it! We'll be posting recaps from gamers all across the country. Send us an email at xlmail@microsoft.com with the subject: "Community Playdate." Be sure to include your gamertag and home town!

Well the time has almost arrived for the sequel to Fable at last. For me this is my must buy title for 2008. I've got a number of games for 2008 that I still would like to get, but I'm excited more about this title over all of them.

Not only have I purchased one copy of the Collectors Edition, I've also purchased a 2nd copy to give away with Fable the Lost Chapters and the signed print of the Hero & Dog by Mike McCarthy and Peter Molyneux. The giveaway is just one of 17 Hero Prize Packs for the Power of 360 Fund Raiser.

For more news on Fable II, you can tune into the Sci-fi Channel and watch a show called "Hero Factor" the guys over at GamerscoreBlog.Com posted up the cool info with show times and a clip. You can see the clip here in this post I'm making today.

GameStop is having their midnight launch starting at 10pm tomorrow and I plan on attending the event and hanging out with the rest of the Fable fans. I'll later pick up the winners copy of the game and mine as well. If you've donated to the Power of 360, please make sure to check out LAGtv tomorrow night or visit www.edithowens.com/power360 to see who all has won.

Well the image was first displayed on Game Politics and its hard to read and not sure if your racing you'll have time to notice the message, but perhaps just seeing his picture is all it really takes. That's right the Obama campaign has hit the Xbox 360 and Burn Out Paradise to try an earn your votes.

Pretty cool to see something like this from a Political Candidate with the election only weeks away now. Fact is the Xbox 360 has been working to try and get younger voters to register and get out an vote this year and I think something like this is a pretty cool use of the game. I'll need to pay more attention to the games I play from EA at least and see what other Ads surface from time to time.

The new Beta was released this past Friday for Call of Duty: World at War, the full release is expected on November 11th, 2008. One way you can get in on the beta is to pre-order the game from GameStop.

Another way is to convert a previous account over and have what is known as VIP status. I was in the first beta and created an account, but not sure if it really converted or not, so I think I'm out on that part.

But rest assured, the net will be a blaze over the next few weeks as people talk about how much fun they are having or how they are missing out on the action here. The Beta will last just about a month and for some that could be a lifetime I suppose. I'm sure those that are not able to play can find something to keep busy with over the next month.

Bungie has revealed more on the upcoming expansion to Halo 3 at the 2008 TGS and I'm loving what I'm seeing so far on their upcoming project. The new addition will tell the story of events leading up to Master Chief heading back to Earth in the beginning of Halo 3. As everyone has expected this will be from an ODST characters point of view as well. The only problem now is the wait for Fall 2009 to experience this game. I'm not sure what the January date in the earlier clip is referring to now. Watch the extend clip that was shown at the TGS and then read more about the game details that Xbox.com released.

Game Details

This new chapter in the Halo universe includes the following:

• All-new campaign content: The Halo 3: Recon campaign is an intriguing side story that takes place during the terrifying events leading up to the Master Chief’s return to New Mombasa in Halo 3. Experience the fate of Earth from the brand-new perspective of a special forces ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), adding a unique outlook and new gameplay elements to the events that unfold in the trilogy’s finale. While the feel of this new chapter greatly resembles that of previous Halo experiences, Halo 3: Recon will require you to employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before.
• Prepare to drop: Known for their courage, valor and, at times, insanity, ODSTs are among the fiercest UNSC soldiers, priding themselves on being the first unit deployed into hostile situations. While not as large or supernaturally gifted as their Spartan comrades, these "Hell Jumpers" more than compensate with their ferocious attitudes and unwavering nerve.
• Expanded multiplayer collection:No Halo experience would be complete without groundbreaking multiplayer content, and Halo 3: Recon gives fans more of what they love. With exclusive new maps and expanded Forge options, Xbox LIVE® Gold members will find more multiplayer content than ever before with Halo 3: Recon.
• Ever-growing community options: Enjoy all the great Halo 3 technological innovations, including Saved Films, screenshots, Campaign Scoring, and four-player co-op. All of the new multiplayer maps fully support the Forge editor, offering endless gameplay customization possibilities.

Well I finished the story mode in Co-op last night and loved it by far. I had my brother over as part of the Team Six and in the role of Knight, he had a grand time as well. I think he has the Xbox 360 Fever too now.

It must say something for a game, that when its all over and he's ready to go through it all over again too. I think we'll have to go at it in Realistic mode next time, but for this run through and on Normal, it was very entertaining for sure, I can't see ever playing it on Casual.

Graphically I thought it was really good, its not a photo realistic look and feel along the likes of CoD4, but I found it visual and entertaining and I was drawn into the atmosphere that Ubisoft had created for Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

I'll have to see what the AI do on Realistic, because when a fire fight breaks out in a room, shouldn't it bring those Terrorist from the next room into the battle. But if that was my only small quirk in the game, then I'm very satisfied with the whole package to say the least.

We still need to try the Terrorist Hunt modes and look at some of the online play for the game. But for what I've seen so far and in the squad based style & play for Co-op, this game is tops and I haven't had so much fun with a game for quite some time. I'd say it was when I finished CoD4 story mode and they wouldn't even let me tell the team members what an where to go in that game.

Speaking of telling them where to go, the voice commands are kind of a cool feature for sure. Just remember that on Split Screen Co-op to have your team mate wait a few seconds so the other two can execute the command given, otherwise its funny to watch Knight trying to go Rambo on the whole room on his own.

The following was released over at Lionhead Studio's in a blog and it appears that some items will no longer be available in the Collector's Edition and that a price change has been made as well. Sounds pretty good to me all in all and I'm still looking forward to this set. Not to mention giving one of these away in the Power of 360 Fund Raiser on October 20th all of this Live on LAGtv.Com.

I'm happy to see that this blog post confirms that the Spartan style armor has been included and that even a tribute to the Halo Energy Sword is also apart of the Collector's Edition. To see what the energy sword looks like you can view a clip of in game footage and look close at the sword on the Heroes back and when he enters a darker area of the game too.

I think its cool to see these small overlaps and tributes between the games and for fans of both lines of games. The blog post has been added below for you to view here.

We are happy to announce the Fable II game is in manufacturing and confirmed for Oct-21 in North America and Asia, Oct-24 for Europe.

However, due to supply chain issues**, we are revising the Fable II Limited Collector’s Edition and the estimated retail price will be reduced from $79.99 to $69.99* USD in North America or as applicable in your market.   *These are estimated retail prices; actual retail prices may vary worldwide. ** we are gutted

The premium box, five printed fate cards, and Hobbe figure will not be available as part of the Limited Collector’s Edition.  We apologize for any inconvenience. 

The Fable II Limited Collector’s Edition will now include the following content at this discounted price:

•Fable II game disc
•Bonus DVD with new ‘Making-of’ Feature
•Bonus in-game content (requires Xbox LIVE®)
◦‘The Hall of the Dead’ Dungeon
◦‘The Wreckager’ Legendary Cutlass Weapon
◦Spartan armor and energy sword
To further show our commitment to the faithful fans, we have created a special Fable album for free download for a limited time!  This includes a wonderful selection of Fable 1 music and 3 brand new tracks from the upcoming Fable II soundtrack.

Go to http://www.sumthingdigital.com, and enter “FableCollection” promotion code.  This will be available beginning October 6, 2008 @ 9am PST.

[UPDATE: By a suggestion made in the comments of this entry, we're going to release the Fate Cards as a downloadable PDF for you to print, plus we can also confirm the new LCE version will have the original LCE artwork).]