Last night my girls wanted to play some Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and fired up the Xbox 360. I hear them yell for me from the Entertainment room, "Something is wrong with the Xbox 360!"

Not the words you want to hear. So I head out and take a look, no lights red... that's a relief. But the screen is black and the system is locked up hard.

We try it again and pretty much get the same results. So I decide to switch the game out to Surfs Up and sure enough the same results. They give up and decide to move on to something else.

I let it sit a bit and finish watching a program and think about what might be going on here. Later I fire the box up and start playing some Call of Duty 4 multiplayer. I'm able to play some and then it freezes in the middle of a game. Does this at least twice for me. All in all, none of these produce an error message or a RRoD or three red ring of death as people call it.

Not sure if what I'm experiencing is the signs of what is about to come or not, but I know that I'm covered with MS as well for about a year or so still. I'll have to see what happens, but I have a feeling we are looking at the early signs of an Epic failure to come.

March 5, 2009

New York, NY – March 5, 2008 – Apple Corps, Ltd., Harmonix and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), today announced the 9/9/09 worldwide release of The Beatles: Rock Band. The music-based video game, an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles, will be available simultaneously worldwide in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Wii™ home videogame console from Nintendo.

The Beatles: Rock Band will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band’s legendary career.  In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.

The Beatles: Rock Band will be offered as standalone software and hardware as well as a limited edition bundle. The game will be compatible with all Rock Band instrument controllers and other current music-based video game peripherals.

Available on 9/9/09:

• The Beatles: Rock Band Software - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $59.99 MSRP
• The Beatles: Rock Band Standalone Guitars - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $99.99 MSRP
• The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle: Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $249.99 MSRP

Please note: Pricing outside of the US to be announced at a later date.

The Beatles: Rock Band marks the first time that Apple Corps, along with EMI Music, Harrisongs Ltd, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, has agreed to present The Beatles music in an interactive video game format. Published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band®, the game was creatively conceived with input and full blessing from Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. Electronic Arts will serve as distribution partner for the game. In addition, Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles innovative LOVE album project, is providing his expertise and serving as Music Producer for this groundbreaking Beatles project.

Exclusive content created by Apple Corps, MTV Games and Harmonix will be made available to fans over the next few months who participate in a pre-order campaign through major retailers. More details on The Beatles: Rock Band game and pre-order will be revealed in the coming months.

Please visit http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com.

####

For new members here on Xbox Live, just getting around and meeting people can be a challenge sometimes. So a program was created to help people out and give them a friendly person to start things off. Xbox Live Ambassadors are volunteers from all over the world and from all types of backgrounds in gaming.

We love playing games and being on Xbox Live and want to help others have a great experience here on Xbox Live. We are available to try an help answer your questions and if we don't know the answer we'll try and find out what we can and get back to you. I volunteered to become an Ambassador and was selected towards the end of 2008 to help out with the Program.

Xbox Live Ambassadors are gamers just like everyone else and the main requirements are to have a Live Gold Account, at least 10 free spaces on our Friends List and a willingness to help out fellow gamers on Live. You can find Ambassadors in your area or learn more about the program by visiting Xbox.Com. Take a look at this video clip that helps explain more about the Ambassador program.

As an Xbox Live Ambassador for Texas, please feel free to message me on Xbox Live if you have questions or need help on Xbox Live. I'll do what I can to help you out and I look forward to meeting you and playing some games on Live.

The video clip above outlines the steps that will take place on Wednesday when the NXE update is released. I've been previewing the features as of this past Friday and love it. Its really quick to install and get up and running. You'll spend more time playing around with the Avatar creation, but for now, you can just click a pre-made one and head off to game, then you can go back an change up your Avatar as much as you like.

What can I say about the New Xbox Experience? Simply... Wow! The new look and feel is wonderful and painless and your all going to love it.

I managed to get in from a early Preview through Major Nelson and in on the 3rd or 4th wave I'd say. So its only 5 days before everyone else gets the update and to have fun.

The Avatars are really cool to play with and I can't wait to try them out in some of the Prime Time games later on down the road. My daughter was really excited to see it when she came home and had to set hers up right away. When she was done with hers, she turned to Mama and said, "Hey, you want to set up your Mii now?" Sorry Microsoft, I took the controller back and told her its an Avatar.

The new interface really rocks and is so slick and improved from the old blades, I think people will really enjoy how well everything works together. Now the Live Chat with friends is not working right now, if they are not on NXE too, but your Voice messages back and forth work just fine. We'll all be back together starting on November 19th, right?

Netflix works really well and I'm impressed with how easy it works. I did the trial for now, that's right you'll get a free 2 week trial to start out with too. Select how many movies you like and start adding them to the Instant Watch Queue. I went with the standard 1 DVD out for $8.99 so far and unlimited downloads online. Guess I know what I'll be doing for the next two weeks.

I have more to explore and check out, I need to get in on some of the 8 person Live Chat soon, I've seen at least 2 or 3 on my Friends list have NXE so far. But now I need to decide on which game I want to play first under the NXE, if I can get the kids away from watching Netflix Movies that is.

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

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.

It's back once again, July 7th or 7/7 is happy Bungie Day and they are giving away free stuff to all of the Halo Faithful again. What is cooler as a give away other than a free Map called Cold Storage? I can't think of anything cooler than this re-imaging from the Halo Combat Evolved multiplayer map.

You can also pick up the Legendary Map pack for a nice price point of only 600 MS Points and that is well worth that price point. In addition to Map offers, you can get Gamer Pics and a Dashboard Theme. Thank you Bungie, makes me look forward to July 7th more and more. I have a feeling a lot of people will be playing Halo 3 tonight and over the next few days. But don't wait, a lot of these offers are only available for 48 hours, so snag them up fast.

Xbox Live and Co-Optimus.Com are bring you Co-Op game nights once a month over Xbox Live. Xbox Live will select a particular game and night each month for you and your friends to gather online and battle as a team together.

I'm really excited to see this being promoted and its a feature of gaming that I've been interested in the most. Games with Co-Op modes and team based fighting sound like a blast to me.

I hope to give this first game session a try with GTAiv being selected to kick things off. Hangman's Noose, Bomb Da Base II, Deal Breaker, and Free Roam are some of the Co-Op game modes you can take part in tonight with your friends over Live. I look forward to these and many more like it.

Co-Optimus is a site dedicated entirely to co-op gaming, pertaining not only to events such as these but to news regarding all kinds of co-op games across all platforms. Get the latest news about the co-op features of your favorite co-op enabled games!

Double Points Weekend Too

Major Nelson has posted the Live Activity for the week of 5/26 and based on the numbers for Unique Users on Live, the game of the year for 2007 has regained its top spot once again. That's right Call of Duty 4 is at the top of the list among live users playing the game.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
1 Call of Duty 4
2 Halo 3
3 GTA IV
4 Guitar Hero III
5 Gears of War
6 Rock Band
7 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
8 FIFA 08
9 Forza Motorsport 2
10 GRID Demo

Infinity Ward has to be happy about this victory, take note of the number 3 spot. How quickly the might can fall these days. At release my friends list was full of people playing GTAIV solid and now I'm lucky to see a single user in Liberty City these days. GTAIV is interesting to see, but in the end its not going to stack up to the like of CoD4 & Halo 3 and all they have to offer.

Speaking of offers Infinity Ward is hosting double points for all maps this weekend. So here's a good time to get into some live action and level up. I'm closer to reaching that 55 and need to take advantage of this weekends double points and try and get there. Then I can decide if I want to start things over again, I'll at least do that once I think.

Don't just play games when you can create the games now. That's right, if you would like to create your very own games for the Xbox 360, Microsoft has the tools for free to let you do just that. Towards the end of last year some games were released during a trial period on Xbox Live Marketplace and these were created using the XNA tools. Now Microsoft has launched the XNA Creators Club website for those interested in building games using the XNA Game Studio 2.0 platform.

XNA Game Studio 2.0 enables hobbyists, academics, and small, independent game developers to easily create video games for Windows and the Xbox 360 console using optimized cross-platform gaming libraries based on .NET. Combined with an active membership in the XNA Creators Club (available from Xbox Live Marketplace), you can also create, debug, and play games on your Xbox 360 console.

This is all good news and I'm looking forward to getting the tools and learning about games creation for the Xbox 360. In fact I'm already looking at the XNA Game Studio CTP 3.0 and building games for the Zune even. Later this year its expected that XNA 3.0 will begin to work with Visual Studio 2008 and allow the creation of games for the Xbox 360. For now you still have to use XNA 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 to create your Xbox 360 games. I'm also helping out with the formation of a local XNA Users Group and looking forward to this getting off the ground soon.

With all of the possibilities out there, I don't see a shortage of games anytime soon. Who knows, maybe I could have a game on Live for others to try or perhaps I could be playing a game that you've created.

Microsoft is taking part in a sweepstakes called What They Play and the deadline of June 10th, 2008 to enter is slowly approaching. See I'm glad I look around Xbox.Com from time to time and I'm always finding new stuff. This little thing was tucked away and right up my alley so to speak as a Parent. See I'm a father of two girls and love games and playing games with my girls too. So its nice to know that Microsoft has a few programs and materials online, for Parents that feel the same as I do and that want to game and provide safe & fun games for their kids.

For more information on Safety is no game. Is your family set?, just click the link and learn more on what you can do and how Microsoft is able to help. Also enter the Sweepstakes and score some cool stuff for the family, it doesn't hurt and its free to enter. More Resources for Parents are available and only a click away too.

Now have fun gaming and teach your kids that its just a game and by all means, if your not having fun, then your not doing it right. Take a break and find out what you can do to make it fun. Last, your the parent and you set the boundaries. No two kids are alike and the same goes for parents, just keep in mind that the ESRB ratings are here to help you out too.

Microsoft partners with Companions in Courage to give young patients outlet for games and chat via private Xbox LIVE network.

REDMOND, WA — April 23, 2008 - Microsoft Corp. today announced a new partnership with Companions in Courage, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting children and families who are overcoming life-threatening obstacles. As part of its commitment to providing fun, interactive entertainment for children, Microsoft is supplying hundreds of Xbox 360 game kiosks to playrooms in children’s hospitals across the country, intended to provide a respite for young patients and be a catalyst for fun. In addition to select games, movies and television content, the Xbox 360 kiosks will provide access to a secure, private network that allows hospitalized children across the country to play games and chat over Xbox LIVE, the world’s largest social network connected to television.

Microsoft is celebrating this partnership and the installation of the first wave of kiosks with three simultaneous events today at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, California. Microsoft President, Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach will attend the Seattle event to commemorate the first wave of Xbox 360 kiosks and the launch of the special Xbox LIVE network.

“Microsoft is committed to keeping kids entertained in a variety of ways within a safe gaming environment, so partnering with Companions in Courage to offer children in hospitals a way to connect through something as universal as games, is a natural fit for the work we do. The goal for this program is to give these kids a chance to have some fun and just be kids,” Bach said.

Companions in Courage founder and NHL Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine said, “Entertainment, creativity and personal connections can be important factors in alleviating some of the isolation and discomfort these children experience each day. Xbox 360 offers young patients a fun escape through games, TV shows, movies and positive interactions with others over the Xbox LIVE network. These gaming stations are a perfect complement to the interactive playrooms.”

The customized and hospital-friendly Xbox 360 kiosks are pre-loaded with a variety of E and E10+ rated games, Y-rated television programs, G-rated movies, as well as Xbox LIVE Headset and LIVE Vision Camera capabilities, which enable patients to communicate over a dedicated Xbox LIVE network. This network, created just for Xbox 360 kiosks and consoles in children’s hospitals, allows patients to play games over Xbox LIVE, but limits chat via voice, text and video to only those children playing from select hospitals across the country. The Xbox 360’s industry-leading parental controls, known as Family Settings, will be used to help restrict access to content outside of ratings parameters, as well as the times during which patients can use the kiosks or consoles.

“It’s extremely gratifying to witness the joy and excitement of these children and teens when they have a chance to break away from the normal hospital routine, and make new friends while playing video games,” said Cynthia Sparer, executive director of Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian. “We are grateful that our partnership with Companions in Courage helps us meet the needs of our patients and allows kids to be kids even when they're sick.”

To help bring even more Xbox 360 kiosks to children’s hospitals across the country, individuals can visit the Companions in Courage website at http://cic16.org to make a donation.

About Xbox 360
Xbox 360 is a superior video game and entertainment system delivering the best games, unique entertainment features and a unified online gaming network that revolve around gamers. Xbox 360 has a portfolio of more than 300 games in nearly 40 countries. More information can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/xbox360.

About Companions in Courage
The Companions in Courage Foundation was founded by NHL Hall of Famer, Pat LaFontaine in 1997. CiC builds interactive playrooms in hospitals throughout North America. Through innovative communications tools, these “Lion’s Den” playrooms replace the isolation of a hospital with a connection to family, friends and celebrities during each hospital stay.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Xbox Live DLC is going to be very busy this Spring for sure with the upcoming release of four new maps in a Map Pack for CoD4. Normally you see a three map pack for games, but it was revealed earlier in the year that we could possibly see four in this first set of DLC from Infinity Ward and four it shall be.

The collection of maps will be made up of Broadcast, Creek, Chinatown, and Kill House when they finally release. With Broadcast you have a spin off from the TV stations in the campaign and if you haven't played that level of the game yet, then you really missed some cool action. Broadcast is expected to have two levels of game play, a big open room area as seen below and a number of rooms for closed quarters combat action. I've also heard mention some rooftop action as well and not sure if that is part of the 2nd level or if we have a third level perhaps in play. We all know how people like to find ways into other areas, just look at the third floor asking you to come up and play.

The Creek looks similar to parts of Overgrown to me and is suppose to be a big open map with a collection of houses on one side and a large ravine winding around them. Snipers should have a lot of fun on Creek, but be careful and make sure to check your six from time to time. This map has a riverbed with a waterfall and an area with a cave pathway and offers plenty of places to kill or be killed.

Chinatown brings us to number three and is set in Downtown Chinatown and under a full moon at night. This is a re-make of the popular Carentan, a highly demanded map from a previous Infinity Ward Call of Duty game, with a visual over haul. I've seen video footage from Chinatown and this looks to be a lot of fun for sure.

That leaves us with Kill House for the final map and the little bit I've heard on this is a spin off from the training mission at the beginning of the game, perhaps we now get to put that exercise into live action. What I can say is all new Intel will be coming out this Monday and I expect more game footage and screen captures on all 4 of these maps. So keep your eyes and ears open here and and around the net, as "four more for CoD4" kicks off. Now if they can only release this while I'm off on Spring Break, that would be really cool!

I was hanging out at the local Best Buy and I've made a few trips in the past few weeks to look around at things. Being a 360 my owner and avid gamer, I like to look in that area of the store too. Something I've noticed over the past few trips is the lack of units/skus to purchase. It seems its hard at least in this location to find various Xbox 360's for purchase.

The only item I could find was a couple of the Arcade skus, these pretty much replaced the Core version. So that's fine to get the end user/first time buyer going I guess, but your going to miss out on some downloads with a Harddrive missing. Other than that, you have pretty much the same workings and standards on the insides as the Elite models.

That's right any unit you pick up will for the most part be the same as an Elite on the inside and down the HDMI port. What the Elite has over these is the color black and very roomy 120 gig harddrive. So you can pick from the Arcade and up to an Elite, with the Premium/Pro model in the middle. Oh and lets not forget the ultra cool Halo Edition for the Uber Halo Fan, an 20 Gig premium with an Halo paint scheme and like the others same insides with HDMI as the Elite.

Here's the kicker though, it seems that units sold around Christmas have caused a shortage. That's right its not like you can walk into all stores and just pick up an Elite or other flavors. But they are still available. The Best Buy sales associate said more are on the way and its possible to play an order as well.

Now the arcade is availabel and you could buy an Harddrive and be set, but it costs more that way. I feel that the Xbox 360 is still the clear choice for what all is available in a gaming system. Yes Blu-ray has won the war and that means the PS3 is sitting nice in that respect, but they don't have as many games as it stands and I didn't buy a system to watch movies on.

Supply is low and perhaps you can say the units are in demand now, but I don't think its bleak and if you seek you can still find a great gaming system in the Xbox 360 to be found. Just might need to do some leg work or place an order is all.

Sadly plenty of HD-DVD drives for the Xbox 360 were available and they are great players, its just that line of titles are going to dry up and I don't think your going to find a Demand for those players, if so look at Bestbuy the shelf was full of them.

 
It's official now and the news was broke by none other than, GamerScoreBlog.Com. I Think its cool, having first seen this title on the Gamer Score Blog road tour in Dallas myself. All Gold and Silver members will have a chance to download Undertow, free of charge, next Wednesday from 2:00 a.m. PST through Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST.

The wait is over now and feelings appear to be mixed on the selection for the free arcade title. I can say this, I like the game from what I've seen at the tour and from the demo. I've had it in mind for purchase and now I don't have to worry about it. Some people might already have the title and all I can say is you'll need to call Customer Service and let them know. I also guess some people might not like the title and you'll need to call as well. Personally, I'm glad it's not Sponge Bob and I would have needed to call in then. Oh well, mark your dates and grab it, the game is really a good Arcade title. Thank You Microsoft!

Last night was tough and scared me as well as other Xbox Users on Live. In trying to get around the blades, for messaging & game invites to in game matchmaking areas or game lobbies and the Xbox 360 would lock and freeze up.

I tried to invite a friend last night and had to wait about a minute for my screen to free up and allow me to perform the task. Meanwhile my friends in the lobby sat and watched each other Pop in and out for no reason at all. I have to say its a bit comical, "Hey where did so an so go... Oh now he's back, no wait, now he's gone!"

Am I mad? Do I feel like ripping my box out and demanding a refund? No. Disappointed in some ways, but the fact is things have grown faster then they imagined it would. Remember the commercial where the company opens up for Internet sales and a couple trickle in and then a flood. They all look at each other scared. Guess what Microsoft, your scared now, but this is a good problem. It means a lot of people have voted to use your platform for gaming and like the Live service. Fix it please... I know it's what they are doing and working on, I know.

Disappointed, yes, but I have faith it will be worked out and very soon. Not sure why the problems would cause everyone's Xbox to act like it was about to croak, but hopefully that will go away soon. But you don't have to freak out and file a lawsuit like three Texans have done this past Friday. No I'm not one of them! Microsoft has already offered a free game download, the only problem is what and how that will come about and I'm a Zune user as well, what do the Zune users get for their problems? I sure hope this is a really good free game. If your seeing this MS, maybe you should think about the MS Points option and give us Points to use on what we like, it works on Zune too, of course you already know all of this. Oh well, if Live is going to be bad, I'll focus back on Campaign stuff.

Posted from Major Nelson of Xbox Live: You may have noticed that the LIVE service has been having a few issues over the past few days. This includes things like signing in, matchmaking and account recovery. Not everyone has had problems, but I know some of you have and I wanted to give you and update. While the service was never completely offline, problems like this are not acceptable. The entire LIVE team has been working day and night to ensure that you can have a great LIVE experience. While we’re not done yet, I wanted to let you know that things are getting better each hour and that no one on the team is going anywhere until the job is done. Thanks for your patience.

That was pretty much the state of things and reports over the holiday break. What a way to close out the year and can you imagine being a new member to Live as of Christmas, sure things have been rough, but for me its been great for the most part. So all I can say to new members, hang in there, they'll get it all fixed.

I've played more CoD4 lately and have only seen a few instances of problems getting into some matches, but I still had plenty of matches to choose from just the same. So I'm thankful and I've been following the constant updates from Major Nelson via Twitter and I'm happy with the work they are doing in trying to fix the situation.

Problems also seem to be effecting Zuner's as well and it appears the Zune Marketplace has had issues. Being a new Zuner myself, I haven't spent much time on the Marketplace and haven't noticed the issues in that area. Regardless of the location of the problems, I think Microsoft is working hard and values us as Customers and is doing everything possible to fix the issues as fast as possible.