XBox 360 Rally

If you missed out on Maddenoliday the other week and still haven’t got to try this glitchy game, the demo is here for you to try. Coming in at just a little over 800mb, it should give you just enough of a tease to let you know whether you want to take the plunge on this very aging franchise.

Next demo up is the Medal of Honor demo, clocking in a just under a gig, get ready to get in a war plane and fight some epic battles in a WWII setting, something that no game has ever done. (Italics = sarcasm).

I just personal downloaded the Skate demo, but haven’t even touched it because I am working hard on Bioshock (on the hard level setting, damn im tough!) I think I am going to have to quit my job to keep up with all these games coming out.

The Xbox LIVE Marketplace is a true cornucopia of stuff. Whether it be classic arcade games like Paperboy, Time Pilot and Contra, or downloadable content for your favorite games, like Santa Claus outfits for Saints Row and expansions for Oblivion, Xbox LIVE is chock full o’ stuff for just about everyone. If you have the MS Points, you can open the door to all the world’s delight and joy.

But what if you’re broke? Are you just left outside in the snow, to stare in the window from behind the bushes to see all the joyous boys and girls playing with their horse armor and their extra Crackdown skins? Of course not! There’s stuff for you, too, cheap ass!

In fact, there is a LOT of free stuff for you. Whether it be extra content for your favorite game, or the most worthless of things (*coughgamerpicscough*), there is a surprisingly large amount of free stuff for your downloading delight on Xbox LIVE.

Read the whole list after the break!

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If you haven’t heard already, there is a new song pack for that damn addictive Guitar Hero II. For a measley 500 MS Points, you can log on to the Marketplace and download the My Chemical Romance Pack.

…wait, what? My Chemical Romance? …sure, ok. Because when I think bitchin’ guitar riffs, I think My Chemical Romance!

But hey, we finally have something more useless than the Horse Armor.

[Major Nelson]

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I have a big love hate thing with Capcom lately. I had purchased their Map Packs 1 and 2, but did not purchase the third one released just a little over a month ago (Lost Technology, Ruins, and Ice Drop), thank Jeebus I didn’t, as in two days, it will be free. So I shouldn’t feel bitter about getting something for free, but, one of the three levels is so awesome and would be so much better if they would just give the 360 fans the Mega Man suit PC Lost Planet users get, to play it in! What, don’t understand why? I think you should now watch the video below to see Lost Technology in action (Gracias to Xbox666):

Take note, Brian from Capcom’s blogs also made sure to mention that the patch to improve connectivity will be hopefully released in the next few weeks.

The servers are melting. Paco spilled his cola on the keyboard. JW’s out back trying to wrangle the horses. In short, we’re all kinds of FUBAR, so we may not be able to update as much as we’d like today.

Sorry, peeps. We’ll be back soon.

There has been a lot of controversy regarding a recently posted rumor regarding SEGA’s possible Tokyo Game Show line-up. Now, I was originally very defensive of this piece because of who sent it in. He, a long-time go-to guy named Rob, has sent me exclusive tips for four years, and until this most recent one, they were ALL accurate.

Regardless, after the link had been posted by reader “Cedge”, I immediately contacted Rob via GoogleIM.

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When Forza 2 isn’t being an enabler for the next Klan rally, they are getting payoffs from car companies to bring you the next new product from their car line ups. Okay okay.. that was an extremely sensational statement solely for my amusement, still, coming from the team up of Nissan and Forza are some new free cars for you to download (Nissan models: the 2007 Sentra SE-R, Altima, and 350Z.) After checking them out and suiting them to your personal tastes, on August 10th, register at XboxLiveTournament.com to enter the Sentra SE-R tournament, where a grand prize of a real new Nissan can be had (not too shabby at all). If you aren’t that great at racing but have some creative talent, they are also hosting a paint job tournament. As if that wasn’t enough, also a download of the Peugeot 908 (2nd place in the Le Mans) is available, being the only racecar in the game that is paintable.
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Dan Amrich, “Official Xbox Magazine’s Chief Retrologist,” made a pretty revealing forum post up on Xbox.com speaking very realistically on the state of print magazine, how the Marketplace will be effecting it, and what you might be downloading in the near future:

You know how you hear people saying “I don’t use the disc any more, I get all my demos on Marketplace” or “Who needs a magazine, I get all my information online”? Well, we heard people saying that too. And we came up with a better idea.

OXM Digital will be a monthly downloadable package for 200 MS Points (each). It will/can contain exclusive demos, gamerpics, themes, and HD videos — gameplay footage, interviews, other special stuff. It’s the kind of stuff you would find in the magazine, but in digital form. Like the magazine, you can choose to buy every issue of OXMD or you can pick only the ones that interest you.

Now, do not mistake this news for the end of the magazine, as there will still be content exclusive to it, however, they do say that the OXM Digital will have exclusives of its own (specifically something on the first “issue” of the OXM Digital download will be from the magazine, but “in a different form” .. your guess as to what that means is as good as mine).

So far the pros I see with this are, if you want a specific demo but not a subscription, bam, download right away while in your boxers, or.. if you want something to read while taking a.. well you know, enjoy your magazine. I must admit though, you can get 12 issues (with discs) for only $24.95, so right now the OXM Digital is seeming pricey… but.. does everybody want every single thing that comes with each issue of OXM every month. Man I’m indecisive. Either way, Marketplace lately has been getting quite the hook ups.
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Not a bad deal at all. The already nicely priced HD DVD player for the 360 (which also can be used on a PC), will be dropping in price from $199 to $179 starting August 1st. Then from August 1st till September 30th, they will be offering 5 free HD-DVD flicks. This comes around the time that key launches of the “300″ HD-DVD as well as “Heroes:Season 1″ (From Warner Bros and Universal Studios respectively) will be coming out. The choices for the 5 HD-DVDs are from Toshiba’s “Perfect Offer” which are shown in the image below.

The second part for those who may not be taking the plunge into an high def format yet as far as hardware (Though maybe you should relook at HD-DVD as the option), on August 14th, can download the pilot episode of Heroes, a show that I always heard was good, but never got into, I will definitely be checking it out now. “300″ in HD will be offered on demand as well, all this coming on the heels of the Bringing it Home San Diego Comic Con announcement, ensuring you stay glued to the Marketplace for some time to come. Props to Microsoft for giving up free goods on the regular.
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Being a comic book dork as well as video game geek is a hard thing, thanks to Microsoft, it just keeps getting easier. According to their official site up for the promotion, via the Marketplace you can “…watch the panel discussions, see the footage, and download exclusive themes and trailers, all for a limited time.” Awesome stuff, I am sure they will attempt to bring the focus on game related comic happenings (ie Halo comics, The Darkness, etc).

Right now news is already posted that they will offer a DC Comics theme and a 300 theme, with the claim “More themes every day!” Xbox360Fanboy already has the scoop of a 300 themed Elite Xbox exclusive for the convention, with 10 being given away. I await the news of this sort of attention being brought over to the MegaCon next year. For now though, enjoy this news and check the official press release after the break.

[Via Grim @ Destructoid]

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So yesterday on Major Nelson there was the usual list of what is on the marketplace today. Call of Duty 3 map pack, cool. All Pro Football 2K8 ReelMaker to create highlight reels, neat. I own neither game, so on I went surfing away on the net. On Digg I found an interesting post, “” .. the link went right back to Major’s page with the 2K8 listed, with the Digg user ranting on in the description portion how this should have been free. I am not too up to date on sports games lately, so seeing this did pique my interest, so off hunting for info about his rant I went. My findings were a little shocking.

1) The $5 download is only 108kb in size, that is awful small for a file that is marked as a “powerful replay editor” with the ability to construct your own highlight reel, add to this that the game was literally released just 5 days ago, those developers must have been working day and night on this lovely program that is only 108kb with so many features *sarcasm* .. let this part sink in first, 108kb, 5 days later, they just screwed you if you either bought the game and especially if you just bought the file (file = unlock code)

2) This isn’t the first time 2KSports has done this. Like I said, I haven’t touched a sports game in a bit, so this is really, all new to me. Please let me point you in the direction of Kotaku for a second, an article from December 21st 2006, has College Hoops 2K7 listed with a magical 108kb ReelMaker download, five bucks (link), feel free to be disgusted at the downloads for other games offered that all were obviously on the disc to begin with, thus you are just paying for the key to unlock this.

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In a sad and strange move by Capcom, Lost Planet PC will be getting a few new things for one of the best shooters this console generation. 360 users will get some free maps (that I have already paid for!). However, I am over the bitterness of me paying for something that is now free, I just kind of wish they would have said it would eventually be a free product (ie Halo 2 maps that I gladly waited instead of paid for.. which I guess isn’t as strong as a business move moneywise in the short term, but long term.. that is debatable). So for you 360 users, this Friday (July 20th): 4 Free Multiplayer Maps! They are really good, Hive Complex and Trial Point are easily two of my favorite maps made for the game, so honestly, check em out. They will also have a patch that addresses online connectivity issues (sometime in July).

To make you all a little jealous of new PC Lost Planet users, they will not only be receiving the 4 maps for free, but also new character skins, which include Frank from Dead Rising (NOT EVEN ON THE PC!), a NEVEC soldier named Joe, and.. Mega Man. Bah. The game hasn’t even been out a month and it is already receiving free goods AND extra content over the 360 version (which if I remember correctly, helped keep Capcom in business)

See the full post with a few screen shots of the new characters at the Lost Planet Blog, and feel free to comment directly to them, I can’t help but be satisfied with one thing at Capcom, they actually do listen to their customer base on their blogs and forums. Still, feeling a little left out with all the free downloads going to the PC people, when a few character skins could easily be done with an update to the game.
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Just to make this a true ‘Part 2′ to the first Fire Up the ol Xbox post (link), if you just want freebies, the Marketplace is full of ‘em. A demo for the game “The Bigs” has been made available for you baseball fans as well as JW posting earlier about the Stuntman: Ignition being available too. Trailers for BlackSite, The Bourne Conspiracy (also look for a ‘behind the scenes’ video of the creation of the game), Assassin’s Creed, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Eternal Sonata, Bee Movie, Army of Two, and NCAA 08. Finally, the full E3 2007 Press Conference is available for download in 6 parts, all HD, will run you a little over 2 gigs, so free up some space!

Texas Hold ‘em had a very cool update today, introducing Xbox Live Vision Camera support. As the proud owner of the Cam (bought for very cheap here) as well as the proud owner of Texas Hold ‘em (Gotta love free XBLA games), this update is worth checking out. If you were ever looking for an XBLA game that was worth while, Texas Hold ‘em is one of my top 5 most played games on my 360 console, maybe no daily, but not a week or two won’t go by that I don’t fire the game up to play online. Some other features were added that more than make the update worthy of a download whether you own the cam or not (click here for full update list)

Now for the moment you all have been waiting for, the new additions and updates for all your original Xbox games onto your 360:

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As a “Finally!” is heard throughout the houses of Guitar Hero II owners as they read about the news of the new track pack out for download on the Marketplace, a quick and loud “Mother F*ck*rs!” is heard shortly after. Yes, you can now download:

• The Ramones - Wanna Be Sedated
• Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
• Judas Priest - You’ve Got Another Thing Coming

• All for the very expensive price of 500 points. I guess its true that online petitions do nothing. Let us all just hope that with some healthy competition in the form of Rock Band, will help make a little price war with the very similar games. For now, enjoy spending $6.25 on three cover songs (suckers!).
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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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