Video: Keep it Clean

Bungie released a teaser video on the 1 year annivesary of the launch of Halo 3. Titled Keep it Clean and with a message at the end stating Prepare to Drop, it pretty obvious to any Halo fan what was in store for all, well to a degree at least. What you see is vehichels that the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers use to get down to a planets surface to launch attacks and become the first wave.

The ODST are known as Hell-jumpers and the reason is its one hell of a ride down and extremely hot and they make a huge impact to say the least. These are not Spartan super soliders here and they don't have the protective Mylar Armor. So I was really excited to see the teaser and learn a bit more about their upcoming project to say the least.

It was rumored that Bungie was working on an ODST FPS game and this looks to be closer to the truth with a tie into to Halo 3 now. Buzz also has this as being more of a squad based game along the lines of a Ghost Recon meets Gears of War type of game and with all the blood. It appears this is being rolled out more as an expansion to the Halo 3 campaign than a separate game, but as to how big of an expansion, how it will drop to us, and the cost of the new content, it's yet to be known. If you watch some of the clips though and pay attention near the end, you'll see a Jan 09, 09 date flash really fast. Now the clock is ticking again in my mind at least.

This came out last week from Major Nelson and I'm really liking all of the new features and options. I still think this is going to be great and its not going take away from the gaming at all. I know my kids will love this as well and as they grow older. Watch the end of the clip and you'll see a button for Gamerpics too. Makes me wonder if we'll have an option to put our Gamerpics on the shirts or something like that.

  
Video: Avatars in the new Xbox experience

Yesterday the Zune 3.0 update was released and with a huge list of improvements and features. What I really love is the fact that a lot of this came out with the news about the new 120GB & 16GB players. At least the new features are available on the old players and your not forced to upgrade. So what all do you get with the new players or the 3.0 update then?

A cool thing I love is the built in radio tuner and they have now setup the ability to tag a song that is being played and purchase it later from the marketplace. If your near a Wi-Fi Hotspot, you can download it direct or simply sync back with your main PC and download it when your connected. It was also announced that a partnership with McDonalds for free Wi-Fi access to the marketplace is now available.

The installation of games for the Zune is another cool feature now and you get hooked up with a copy of Hexic and Texas Hold'em to play. I don't think they could have picked two better games to give us. I'm looking forward to downloading more of the free games to try out for the Zune now as well. I'm even looking to learn more about XNA programming and creating some games myself.

Audiobooks for the Zune are available with a partnership between Audible.Com and OverDrive.Com now. The OverDrive feature works with a lot of the public libraries and allows you to check out audio books for a limited period of time for free. Audible.Com is a pay service for their collection of books.

A free 14-day Zune Pass trial is now available, giving you access to the wide selection of Markeplace music titles all for free as well and the new Dynamic Channels, allowing you to subscribe to these much like a podcast and providing various playlist collections and updated artist information.

So if you’re a Zuner like me, then make sure you get the new Update and if your not, then what are you waiting for?

It was announced at this years E3 and shown off at PAX08 recently, now the guys at Gamerscore Blog will ramp up with more details on a weekly basis and keep us updated as the launch approaches. I have to say looking at the new screen grabs I'm impressed even more than ever now.

At the start, most people didn't like what was coming and felt this was nothing more than copying the Wii Mii concept. I actually think this really takes on the Mii avatar idea and Sony's future Home in one strike. What we are really going to have here is a different way to look at our friends and the information about the games we all love to play.

The biggest hang up seems to be with the old themes and gamerpics we downloaded or purchased. Fact is that stuff is still available under the Xbox button, that's right everything your seeing now will be one button click away from gameplay now. Here's a cool idea, maybe they could come up with away to allow us to put our gamerpics on the avatar Tee Shirts that we select in the New Experience.

In the end none of this is going to take away from your game play or interact with your friends. In fact I think the additions of interaction with friends are going to jump leaps and bounds with features like 8 person live chat and partying up and remaining that way no mater what game or games your playing. I can't wait to check out the new Experience.

I knew this game was going to be a must buy for me an the family and after seeing this commercial last week I was hooked for sure. Probably my all time favorite AC/DC track and what I consider to be the perfect anthem song for any rocker or at least wanna be rocker.

Now I just need to come up with a plan to fund this game and all the other games coming out between now and the end of the year. Until then, Let there Be Rock!

Microsoft has decided to close Ensemble Studios after the completion of the Halo Wars project. This is shocking news before the launch of an upcoming game release.

At least when Shadowrun launched it was 4 months later when they pulled the plug on that company. Problem with that is people had already bought the game only to find out no additional content or upgrades would be available.

With this news, you can only expect that sales will suffer at the start and keep people away. They already know the project is done and now no more updates or changes more and likely. Perhaps I'm wrong and maybe Microsoft will do something else and develop this project further in house, I have to think that is not going to be the case though.

I'm still looking forward to this project and checking it out, but it slides down on my list of instant buys a bit more now with this news. I can wait and perhaps pick this up at a reduced or used price later now. We'll just have to wait until the game launches and see what its like and how it does in spite of their Game Over sentence being handed down.

I came across this at Xbox360FanBoy.Com and just had to mention the rumors going around about the Xbox 360. Now I've seen some pretty tall ones and from time to time I've even seen these come true, but this really is a tall tell worth of the best if you ask me.

The rumor is that Microsoft is planning a massive New Xbox Experience blowout later this month and its tied to a five hour long G4TV "console re-launching" event, said to be full of new Xbox 360 game announcements.

Rumored to be announced during the event is free Halo 3 DLC, new Mass Effect DLC, the first of two chunks of GTAIV DLC and info regarding Portal. In addition to all of this is six Xbox Originals being released for free.

Microsoft will announce a Sirius Satellite Radio partnership, a new music download service and something called "Mad Lib". Even more from Microsoft with the announcement of twelve new game titles exclusive to the 360, rumored to be Assassins Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, a new Conker title, a new Rare shooter and two new Halo games.

Like I said its a Fable like you couldn't imagine in your wildest dreams and fun to dream about. I have to say this is got to be a crazy dream that will not happen and I'll be surprised if it does come true. Oh well thanks for the cool story just the same.

Microsoft recently announced that a treasure hunt for Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise will go live from Friday across Xbox.com. Pinata heads can find and collect the various cards to scan and drop Pinatas into the latest game from Rare.

When you mouse over the little egg a Pinata will will be released and allow you to click to open a PDF of the Vision Card. You can save and collect these to print or simply use your vision camera if your near the computer and scan directly into the game. 

25 piñata cards will be hidden on Xbox.com and an additional 25 will be scattered around the Xbox Community Network. The Viva Piñata community site has also gone live and allows gardeners the ability to upload photos of their gardens and their Piñata Vision cards to a website and share them with the world.

I was listening to the replay of the PAX08: Gamercast Network - Podcasting The New Media Panel, as they discussed a number of topics about Podcasting and maintaining community sites. The panel was moderated by Chris Paladino [Xbox Community Manager, Gamerscore Blog] and was made up of Jeromy Adams [Founder & Co-Host, Sarcastic Gamer], Chad Hantak [Webmaster & Co-Host, Video Game Show], Danny Pena (Godfree) [Founder & Co-Host, Gamertag Radio], Natalie Sousa [Co-Host, Achievement Junkies], and Jay Van Beveren [Editor in Chief, Talking About Games].

This marks about the 3rd time I've actually listened in on topics like this. In one of the earlier podcasts it was mentioned that bloggers are nothing more than fan sites and that their are way to many of these and more keep coming all the time. So the real challenge is how to gain more exposure and to make sure you know why your doing it.

Some of the major sites bringing us lots of information and in the end are mainly community fan sites on some levels, but they also bring a lot more than your average blogger/community site. In fact they are more journalistic in nature and do report valid information even though they don't get paid to do any of this for a living.

For me, I blog about the things I love and enjoy and I feel at times I take a journalistic approach in how I report those feelings. I don't have a desire to make any of this bigger than what I do. My only thought is that someone might see something I write or listen to one of my podcasts and perhaps value my opinion. In the end it is my opinion and how I feel about the subject. I'm not paid to do any of this and only write or review things that I experience or learn about.

The thing about these days is everyone can have a blog and or create a podcast, but that doesn't mean your going to get a lot of fans or free stuff. It's not why I do this at all, I buy my games or at least make sure I get a hold of a demo or copy before I give my review or feedback. I write for myself first and then my friends or visitors that find my site next. I love playing games and I love to write and that is why I choose to write about my gaming experiences. If you like what you've read here on my site, then I'm happy you found this place and I welcome you to come back again.