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November 28 Marketplace Update - 28/11:XTIVAL '08 SPECIAL!It's Xtival '08 time! From noon today Xbox LIVE will be absolutely FREE for those with a Silver account or who have never plugged in before, so if that's you, get online and see what you're missing. And for everyone else we've got loads of ace stuff happening - exclusive and free downloads, competitions, events, tournaments... It's all happening this weekend and all the details are on your Xbox LIVE dashboard and at www.Xbox.com/Xtival08.
On a slightly related topic, if you're in the UK you might have seen SuperKaylo and I in a little video promoting Xtival '08 - I should point out that the thing on my top lip isn't some kind of outlandish lifestyle choice - it's a 'tache I've been growing all month for Movember, a charity that raises money to fight prostate cancer. SuperKaylo has one too, but I think mine is better... Only joking Andy!
Enjoy Xtival '08 - I'll see you behind the VIP tent! November 27 Rocking Your AvatarIf you're anything like me you'll be spending far too much time mucking about with your Avatar - not necessarily changing appearance etc, but just generally tooling about with emotes and movements and burps. That's why I love these community-created Avatar 'music videos' - real Avatars rocking out to tunes on the NXE dashboard.
Daft Punk:
Justice:
More Avatar mucking about please! Xtival '08: Live In Your Living Room This Weekend!
Are you ready for the world's biggest free gaming event? This weekend is Xtival '08: Live In Your Living Room, and from Friday afternoon until Monday Xbox LIVE is absolutely FREE! If you're a Silver member you'll become Gold for the weekend, and if you've never tried Xbox LIVE before now is the time!
But it's not just about LIVE being free - there's a whole stack of stuff going on to keep you entertained, from music to gaming to competitons. I'm not going to try and list it all here (mostly because it's already on Xbox.com and looks great!) but here are my highlights:
Get yourself prepared for a massive weekend of Xbox LIVE fun and then head over to the Xtival '08 microsite on Xbox.com for full details and scheduling!
Xtival '08 - Clearing Up the Arcade RumoursIt's Xtival '08 this weekend, which means that Xbox LIVE is free for everyone for the whole weekend and there's tons of great stuff going on. more info on that in a minute, but first I want to address some rumours that are doing the rounds.
Word is spreading that selected Xbox LIVE Arcade games will be available to download for free during Xtival '08 - this is NOT correct. All Arcade games mentioned in the Xtival '08 schedules will only be available for download for the full regular price (between 400 and 1200 MS Points) - or you will be able to download a free trial version of all games as usual.
Hope that clears it up! Xtival '08 is the biggest free gaming event of the year, but the 'free' part is Xbox LIVE - not Xbox LIVE Arcade games. Right, now for the good stuff... November 24 Marketplace Update - 24/11Hope you had a good weekend! I did - three words (well, two words and a number): Left 4 Dead. How good? I played two of the four chapters in co-op on Friday night and I genuinely think it's the best co-op gaming experience I've ever had, just amazing. It's so intense and genuinely edge-of-your-seat scary that you can't help but feel properly connected and reliant on your teammates - and they feel the same way about you. Rescuing your incapacitated pal from a horde of Infected feels amazing, especially when you've got your other teammates screaming in your ear that a Tank is bearing down on you.
Example: We were playing the Death Toll episode which ends with an escape on fishing boat after holding out against wave after wave of infected. So we're exhausted, low on health and ammo, stressed and desperate. We are literally screaming at each other. If we die now we have to do the whole 15 insane minutes again. The boat turns up and I'm onto it like a scolded monkey, screaming at my mates. "GET ON GET ON GET ON GET ON GET ON!". Two of them are halfwat up the jetty with a fresh horde in tow, but one has been caught and is incapacitated at the foot of the pier. Her's where I have to be honest - I'm already on the boat, I'm pretty much safe, and I have 15 GamerPoints within sniffing distance. I'm a survivor. So my first thought is "Leave him - he's a goner." But my two teammates are a bit more principled, so they turn back and wade into the zombies.
In my defence I did lay down a load of suppressing fire with my assault rifle, but I'm not really proud of myself. Regardless, they reached the incapacitated player, got him up, and all three of them joined cowardly old me on the boat to escape - with another batch of snarling Infected bearing down on us.
And that's why Left 4 Dead is ace.
Aside from that (!) here's today's Marketplace content. I'm working out how to link this through to web Marketplace - honestly speaking I think it's just going to take me too long to link every one through (in case you didn't know, this blog isn't strictly part of my work hours) but I will try a few things and look at alternatives.
November 20 More GTAIV Coming February 17It's going to be called 'Lost and Damned' and it's coming on February 17 - exclusive to Xbox 360! Full details on the GTAIV expansion over at USA Today. Marketplace Update - THE DAY AFTER - 20/11Well, how are you feeling? On behalf of everyone here at the Xbox Europe team I'd like to say thanks so much for your patience, enthusiasm and energy as we roll out NXE and iron out some of the little hiccups along the way. As Major Nelson says over on his blog, we now have over 14 million people on Xbox LIVE around the world so as you can imagine doing something like we did yesterday is definitely a tricky process! We're aware of some of the issues you may be experiencing and there are teams working on them round the clock.
I really hope you've had fun exploring NXE, that you're getting used to the new interface, and that you've created a wicked Avatar for yourself! I had a right laugh looking through my friends list last night and 'seeing' all the people I've never seen before - and I was really impressed about how accurate some of my friends had made their Avatars! I guess it stands testament to Rare's development of the Avatar creator that you genuinely can create Avatars that capture your image and appearance, nice work!
Few things up today to keep things moving:
Left 4 Dead is out tomorrow (amongst a stack of other stuff!) - I've already recruited my own bad of survivors and we'll definitely be taking down some Infected tomorrow night... November 19 Avatar Updates for UNO and Hardwood HeartsI've just noticed that title updates are out for UNO and Hardwood Hearts that will add Avatar support - just fire the games up and you'll be able to see your Avatar in there!
Small Arms also has an update out for Party support. ISSUE RESOLVED: Xbox.com Sign-ins On HoldHey all, just a quick note to say that we're aware that you can't sign in to Xbox.com or access the forums at the moment - the team are working on some back-end stuff and it should be back soon, thanks for your patience.
Also I hear there are some problems accessing Marketplace on LIVE - looking for more info on this, but again thanks for your patience.
Hope you're enjoying NXE! Have you tried seeing your Avatar in the Kingdom for Keflings free demo?
UPDATE: Looks like things are getting back to normal - you can sign in to Xbox.com and access the forums again, and Marketplace is running more smoothly. You may still encounter problems - thanks for your patience while we work everything out! Marketplace Update - NXE SPECIAL EDITION - 19/11IT's NXE TIME! To celebrate Marketplace is chocka with some very important stuff:
Here's the lot in full:
Don't forget that marketplace is also coming to Xbox.com, which should make your life a lot easier! More info on that soon! And ENJOY NXE! Marketplace Update 18/11So last night I thought it might be quiet with Marketplace content over the next couple of days because of the NXE launch - I was wrong! Stacks of new Rock Band stuff up today and there's quite a bit of other cool stuff coming tomorrow aswell, should be a big day!
November 17 Marketplace Update - 17/11HELLO! I'm honestly so sorry for not being around more lately, I missed you guys... As you can imagine with NXE coming up this week, the pre-Xmas game launch rush and also hosting The Gathering the other week things have been pretty mental. I also had a couple of days off last week to chill out (or, as it happens, head up to Nottingham to see an Alter Bridge gig) so I feel like I've been away forever. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing this week, but with NXE launching on Wednesday I'm not guaranteeing it!
On another note, I'm going to add some Gathering 2008 photos to the Gallery in a minute. It was the event I hosted two weeks ago near London - we get a bunch of nice people who run Xbox and multi-platform gaming community sites from across Europe together in one place, have a laugh, play lots of games, and get them in front of the biggest new games and the people who made them. We had an amazing line-up this year, including Banjo Kazooie, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil 5, Halo Wars, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider Underworld and much more, but one of the biggest surprises of the day was You're In the Movies, which went down a storm! We also had great fun in the evenings, starting with a Gears of War 2 Horde Tournament hosted by Matt Hancy and Maury Mountain from Epic (who were both brilliant and a great laugh) and ending with a Guitar Hero World Tour Battle of the Bands hosted by Jimmy Spandexx! What a laugh - thanks to everyone who made it and I hope it's bigger and better next year!
Okay - here's today's update (bit late but still) and I'll try to keep my hand in better from here on in!
Ah - there's not really anything today! A bunch of Need for Speed Undercover content went up but you won't be able to get it until the game comes out on Friday. I guess the next few days will be quiet as NXE roll-out takes priority!
Okay, I'm off to play LIPS :) November 06 EDITED: Marketplace Update - 06/11Crazy busy again this week, sorry for the radio silence. Had to post an update today though, it's a ridiculous line-up...
EDITED: Removed the Left 4 Dead demo as apparently it's token only. <Sad face> November 02 Marketplace Update - 2/11Just a quick one because I've noticed a couple of things I didn't list yesterday, and I'm trying to get a bit of work done so I can spend some time on Fallout later. Can't stop thinking about it. I reckon stumbling across Springvale Elementary School in the dead of night then spending a terrifying hour exploring its bowels will be one of my most memorable gaming experiences ever... Definitely reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, which I believe Bethesda used as an inspiration source and is highly recommended if you're into the whole post-apocalyptic thing...
Amazes me how a game can be so funny and tongue-in-cheek while simultaneously dark, brooding, atmospheric and scary. But I'm getting too excited again, sorry!
Needless to say, Gears 2 is out this Friday. Seriously, has there ever been a deeper or better games release schedule in console history? November 01 Marketplace Update - 1/11Hello - is this thing still on? Sorry I've been away all week, didn't intend not to post but it's honestly been one of the most insanely busy weeks of my life (also featuring car breakdowns) so it's been tricky to find time. Sorry again!
So I've found time today to properly sit down with Fallout 3 today, and by time I mean about 6 hours. It's amazing, isn't it? I think it's already a contender for my favourite game of all time, I absoutely LOVE it. I must be enjoying it, because I just realised that in all that time I barely even thought about Achievements...
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