XBox 360 Rally

NOTE: If this turns out to all be smoke that is being blown up my ass by lazy Wal-Mart employees, I will be royally, ROYALLY pissed!

A picture says a thousand words, doesn’t it? Here is an actual in-store flier from Wal-Mart, and you can plainly see the Xbox 360 console with the big numbers “$349″ above it. That is, in fact, an Xbox 360 Premium Console selling for $349 at Wal-Mart. But this is no sale, oh no. See the red? That’s the famous Wal-Mart “Rollback” logo, meaning that this is the NEW price of the Xbox 360 Premium!

But as of now, Microsoft hasn’t returned my many e-mails regarding the matter, so I, JW, have taken the news into my own hands, and have begun calling EVERY SUPER WAL-MART I CAN FIND, searching for answers. Little by little, the puzzle is starting to come together!

INFO GATHERED (All info gathered is subject to change with more inquiry)
Xbox 360 Elite will rollback to $399, Xbox 360 Premium to $349, and Xbox 360 Core to $299
Rollback will take effect “sometime this week”, possibly as early as Sunday.

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Paco and I make a good team. Why, you should have seen us last night at the club. Paco was over by the bar, mackin’ on some fine women while I was over by the door, distracting the security guard by repeatedly punching his fist with my face. We work well together. Either way, once we left that joint we were drivin’ around talkin’ about what games we’d like to see show up on the Xbox Live Arcade.

…what? We’re gamers at heart.

Either way, now that my swelling has gone down, both Paco and I are proud to present to you the games we want to see on Xbox Live Arcade.

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I have been playing Video Games since the ripe old age of three. The first video game I ever played was the immortal Bad Dudes on the NES. At the time I didn’t appreciate the simple concept of rescuing the President from Ninjas, but now I do. The game that made me a gamer, however, was a little known title called ‘Dinosaurs for Hire’. If not for that 2D Side-Scrolling Shooter for the Sega Genesis, I would not be the nerd I am today.

One of the major factors in what makes a video game memorable is the music. Look at all the video games that are etched into our memories: Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Halo, Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid, Mega Man, Castlevania, Contra, and Final Fantasy are just a few of the games that are memorable in the eyes of the gaming public, and each and every one of those games has some memorable music. Growing up, I would pop Mega Man II into the NES, and leave it at the start screen just so I could listen to that killer opening theme. But of course, you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who DIDN’T rock out to the Mega Man theme at some point in their lives. Regardless of what your favorite video game is, I promise you that you remember a song or two from it.

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When I sat down on my couch, I was expecting to have every bit of news, speculation and rumor clarified for us, the people. I had G4 on my TV, I had the 1UP stream in IE, and in Firefox I had the Justin.tv feed via Scot Rubin’s head-cam. After Scot went to the latrine while still having his camera on, I closed Firefox.

Now before I get into any great detail about Microsoft’s Press Conference, let me just say that G4, a network that at one time prided itself as being “by gamers, for gamers” and now prides itself as sort of a nerd hub, did a HORRIBLE job! Now, I could excuse most of the commercial breaks, sure. But when they cut to commercial during the footage of Halo 3’s campaign mode, I threw my remote at the TV. Thankfully, I DID get to see the footage in it’s entirety via the stream. But this was just another prime example of how G4 has become a colossal failure in both it’s content, and it’s management.

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Here I am, coming to you LIVE from my couch! Here I am, ladies and gentlemen, ready to pass along the latest news from Microsoft on to YOU, the reader! …because apparently you don’t realize it’s on G4… or 1UP.com… or Gamespot… or Lord knows where else… EITHER WAY, let’s DO IT! Watch the Conference HERE!

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A man in Florida has filed a feederal lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the company of defective design with the Xbox 360. Rather than suing Microsoft over the dreaded Red Ring of Death, however, Jorge Brouwer is suing Microsoft over the long-forgotten issue of disc scratching, and is seeking over $5 Million in damages.

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J.W. here, reminding you all that we’re currently holding a contest. You design a banner for the site, and if you win, you get a copy of GTA IV. If it’s especially awesome, I’ll even splurge a bit and get you the Lock Box edition. Now, here’s what Paco said.
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On Monday, JW made the world aware of a contest here at the Rally. I have had a couple of questions about the contest, on top of we both post Xbox news like mad men, so take this as a reminder of the contest as well!

It’s that time of month again, ladies and gents. I have to go do that Army thing for a couple of days, so Paco is gonna be holding down the fort. Not too tough, after all we all know that the entire gaming world grinds to a halt on Saturdays and Sundays. So you really won’t even notice I’m gone. All the same, I will return on Monday.

Love, Peace and chicken grease!

-J.W.

Hi, kids. Let me tell you something — if you were thinking of upgrading from XP to Vista in order to be able to play Halo 2? Don’t. You can get Halo 2 on the Xbox as is, and Halo 2 for the Xbox won’t ruin your PC.

That’s right, kiddies — my experiment in Windows Vista is at an end. And it ended badly.

You wonder why I was gone all day? Simple: I have been spending all day reinstalling XP, and getting everything I need to run it worth a damn. I tried to go with Vista. Tried to groove on Vista. In the end, I just wanted to HATE Vista. And I did. And still do.

So, while Paco has been holding down the fort for the day (sorry about the impromptu departure), I have been weeping over my Logitech Wireless Keyboard as I try to fix my computer. Wish me luck.

I’m going to leave this brief, since I am very, very pissed. I have spent the past seven hours pushing my car four miles. I drive a 1992 Cadillac DeVille. A heavy beast of a car. So, I am tired. I am grumpy. I am really not giving two shits about the fact that the Hour of Victory demo is available on the Marketplace. You want to know what it’s like? Download the damn thing.

Business will resume as normal tomorrow.

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So you may have noticed that I’ve been absent from the site today. Well, I would like to explain my absence today…

…blame the dog.

This morning, as I was preparing my first article for the site today, my internet suddenly died. Curious, I go to my bedroom (where the modem is as I’ve not yet been able to rewire the broadband and phone to the living room) and I see the modem is absolutely dead. D-E-A-D. I grab it, and notice that it’s wet, and it smells AWFUL…

To sum it up, the dog did his business on the modem, the modem shorted out, and I was left without internet until about a hour ago. But, I don’t work until tomorrow night, so I am doing the night shift tonight.

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Ladies and gents, welcome X360R’s newest member, Mike Murakami. Allow me to state publicly that I am proud to welcome a skilled and capable writer such as Mike to the party, while I state privately that he’s a giant poopy-head.

Oh wait… damn. Anyways, welcome Mike, everyone!

Konichiwa, bitches. I’ll get to the point — Xbox 360 Rally is looking for a new writer. No, no, I’m not leaving. It’s just that with school and work, I don’t have the time I normally would have to work on the site. So, here’s what I am looking for:

A smart, creative, intelligent writer who has a passion for the Xbox 360 (and gaming in general) who wants to become a member of the 451 Press family.

If you are interested, either get ahold of me over at MySpace, or e-mail me at , and we will begin the process of seeing if you are truly worthy. Bah hahahaha-*cough*… anyways, take care.

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Look guys, I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one. I’m going through a pretty rough moment in my young life. This girl, who I’ve been absolutely crazy for over the past two years and I have, essentially, broke up. So, if the next few days here at X360R are a bit rough, if I seem short with a few posts, I do apologize. But, like always, I’ll be back on my proverbial feet in no time, and we’ll get the ship righted.

Just bear with me for the next day or two, is all.

-J.W.

Today was one of the saddest and most tragic days in this nation’s history. A lone gunman, obviously crazed and mentally ill, took the lives of at least thirty-two students and injured fifteen others at Virginia Tech University before taking his own life. Without question or doubt our sympathies, thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those effected by this horrible tragedy. Fellow 451 family member Kezins was actually there, and has written a harrowing first-person account over at 1PStart.
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