Guitar Hero: World Tour Drum Kit Malfunction

Guitar hero is one of the best selling rhythm games ever and was at the top until rival game Rock Band stepped up to the plate. With Rock Band's introduction of a microphone, drum set and four player co-op, Guitar Hero faced, for the first time, serious competition. But, Guitar Hero fought to get beck on top with its newest installment Guitar Hero: World Tour by adding its own microphone, new upgraded guitar, four player co-op, the ability to create your own songs from the ground up, and an all new drum kit that resembles an actual drum set better than its Rock Band counterpart.

But since its release in October the drum kit has gotten more hate mail than praise. A big difference that Activision Blizzard's drum kit has over Harmonix's Rock Band set is a sensitivity factor which tells the game how hard or how soft you are hitting the drum pad. This is incorporated in the game by different notes you may need to hit harder than others. But this innovative addition to game may be its biggest down fall.

Reports are coming from all over about sensitivity problems with this new drum kit, mainly with the red drum pad and the yellow cymbal which are located on the drum kits left side. Common reports are of both pads failing to register hits, only activate when struck in certain spots, or even being sensitive that striking one pad can even activate another one. And it appears that the problems occur on every system. I personally own the drum kit for the xbox 360 and have experienced slight issues when first playing mainly with trying to get the red pad to register my hard hits for extra points and with the foot pedal registering. But it all seems to work fine now.

A few tech-savvy people decided to tear open their drum kits to figure out the problem and on doing so noticed that manufacturers did not secure certain wires properly resulting in the sensitivity problems.

Activision is currently taking note of the recent onslaught of negative feedback from consumers and is working on several things to fix the problem. They offer a 90-day warranty to customers allowing them to return their drum kits free of charge but may not cover shipping rates and stated that they also will be offering a drum tuning kit that will allow users to fully enjoy the potential of their drum kit.
Article Written by: Zack Duncan

TGN Cincinnati Tournament After Thoughts

Well last Saturday I decided to still go to TGN Cincinnati. If you have looked at my previous post you can clearly see that I did not have high hopes before going to the tournament. Well I decided to still go. The only problem though was literally the entire week before our team kept hearing more and more bad news. The people we were going to have to could not go so we instead had to settle with local kids we knew at our school. So we were pretty much going to this tournament with a team we had never played with or practiced with before.

When we got there is was pleasantly surprised to see a conference room at the holiday in jam packed with kids playing Halo 3. I would assume there were well over 200 people there for the entire time I was at the tournament. We got there around 11 and for about the next 6 hours we watched Halo 3. The tournament was really well set-up and the worked there were really friendly. The teams there for Halo 3 were really good. There was even a handful of pro’s there including Strongside, Snipedown, and Ace. I am pretty sure there was more, but I do not follow MLG closely enough to know all of them by site. Strongside and Ace were both in the doubles tournament and they were a blast to watch play. I have never seen so many headshots before, you could definitely tell they were pro.

As far as the Gears Of War 2 tournament went it was pretty much a joke and I am pretty sure I am done playing Gears Of War 2 because it just is not that much fun to play compared to Halo 3. For GOW2, only 3 teams showed up. We had only about 30 minutes of practice and our team just got destroyed round after round by this other team who was clearly better than our hastily put together team. It might have been a different story if we had our original team there. The set-up though was awful for me atleast. We had 2 tv’s per team and were required to play split screen on these tiny 22 inch screen’s. (This was awful for me because I am used to playing on my 22 inch monitor that looks absolutely amazing and whenever I play on something else I complain like no other and that is without splitscreen!) Well we ended up getting 2nd out of 3 teams. So it was not a complete failure. We lost our $200 and our pride and we did not get anything for second because their was only 3 teams.

Another game they had going on later was Call Of Duty WAW. This was by far the saddest site I have ever seen. These kids complained so much and they all hid like 10 year old noobs the entire time. Anyone who has ever played COD knows how many annoying people play the game and these kids were twice as worse as the most annoying kid I have met on Call Of Duty.

All in all I had a good time going to the tournament because I got to watch a Halo 3 tournament and got to see some pros. It was fun, but next time I think I am just going to watch Halo 3 and not waste $200 on a tournament I knew I was not going to win.

Gears Of War 2 Tournament This Weekend

Tomorrow on Saturday December 13th I will be going to a Gears Of War 2 tournament in Cincinnati. At first I was very optomistic about the tournament. My friend signed us up. He said it was a $10,000 tournament and that was all i knew about it.

Well i decided to do my own research. the website for the tournament is halo3pro.com/. Turns out the tournament is more than just gears, it also has Guitar Hero 3, Cod, and Halo 3. Also after reading the fine print this is what i found out about the prize pool.
"TGN's Cincinnati, has an estimated Prize Pool of $3,000-$8,000. Winners will receive between 60%-90% of the total payout as soon as the competition ends, any remaining funds will be paid in 20%-50% installments every 6-8 weeks as long as the team competes in the TGN Online Pro Arena against other TGN Pro Teams."

Also the website is a joke and is hardly ever updated. Their forums are a ghost town and you cannot even sign up for the forums because their sign up utility is broke! It gets even worse, they do not even have the Gears of War 2 tournament rules yet and their Halo tournament is not even mlg settings and the freaking website is called HALO3PRO!

Well since I wanted to make some strats with my team I decided to call them yesterday. Ofcourse they did not answer the phone. So I did the next best thing and I emailed them. I told them I would like to know the rules and how many teams have signed up because I am not driving all the way down their and spending $200 for our team to come to some joke tournament. Guess what, no response!

Well tommorow is the tournament and tonight we are practicing. I cannnot wait to follow up this post and tell you how it went. If you wish to play with us tonight in a private match add my GT: BATTLEGAURD123.

Also if anyone has any information about this very sad excuse of a tournament please comment this post or message me.

Modded Xbox 360 Laptop

BenHeck has done it again. He has made something that even Microsoft cannot do. This is a really nice modded 360. It looks like the entire thing is made out of aluminum and also looks like it might weigh twice as much as a normal 360. The screen is a very nice touch and everything looks almost professionally done or certainly a lot better than most other attempts. The features on this mod is what is truly impressive.

Not only did he fit a laptop into that cramped space, fit a screen on it, and make it all out of aluminum, but I think he has not lost a single feature with this build. If you watch the video which you should you can see that he has been able to fit in the hard drive, wireless adapter, 2 memory card slot, and 1 USB slot into the laptop design.

This machine is truly impressive and the only question left to ask is when can I get one!

Epic Addresses Gears Of War 2 Matchmaking Problems

As all of you may already know Gears Of War 2 online is very slow. With Gears Of War 2 being as popular as it is this has become a big problem and many people are wanting answers.

Well Epic Games has finally coughed up a response on their forums. Here is what they had to say about the problem.
“We're aware that some folks are experiencing longer-than-ideal wait times while using the skill-based Public matchmaking in Gears 2 multiplayer. We're working on some solutions but it's a complicated issue as there isn't any one problem; it's a combination of factors. Clearly, scale is one of them as we've had millions of successful matches played online so far, however a small percentage of players are having issues, which is unacceptable. We're working closely with Microsoft to address the matchmaking issues, I promise you that it is our #1 priority, and we hope to have an update soon.”
If you ask me I have yet to run into a person that has not had a problem with Gears Of War 2 Public Matchmaking, especially elimination.

Well hopefully the fix will be here soon, but to help us out Epic has given us a few tips to find matches quicker.
• If you are seeing long waiting times or your matchmaking search keeps restarting over, try restarting the search or try a different matchmaking playlist.
• The problems happen most frequently with parties of 1 and 4. So just try not to go into a match with 1 or 4 people and to get a match the fastest go into a party of 5.
• Also try and play private matches to avoid this problem all together
• Also NAT issues will always slow down your matchmaking so for heavens sake get you NAT on open already.

These tips really do not seem like much, but hey I am glad they are at least addressing the problem and are trying to work on it. Hopefully it is fixed soon because I really do like Gears of War, but I simply find matchmaking way to long for me to even consider playing public matches at this point in time.

Full Forum Post Here

Far Cry 2 Review

Far Cry 2 is a sequel to the much beloved game Far Cry 1. The fact is though these two games are completely different in almost everyway except the fact that you are in an open world in a jungle looking environment. I bought Far Cry 2 only a couple of days after it came out and I liked what I saw, but it really seems like they did not test this game well enough at all.
The game was good, but not great. Here is a quick list of what I liked and what I did not like.

Pros
• Great Graphics for an open world game. Visuals
• Lots of weapons, ammo is the same on all weapons,
• Huge open world that is fun to jut go and explore
• Pretty much the game is really fun to play, like a GTA in Africa is the best I can explain it.
• A massive amount of missions to do

Cons
• Enemies take to many shots to kill with an assault rifle. You can literally shoot like 15 bullets into the chest of an enemy and they will not die, but if you shoot them once in the head bam their down. Just seems to not play right because of this
• The whole realism thing is absolutely awful. If your game to play real then you should not be playing video games and go play REAL LIFE. Why do game developers not understand realism does not equal fun. Weapons jamming and blowing up is terrible, do not even get me started on the whole malaria crap, fixing vehicles after every freaking checkpoint really pisses me off, and the checkpoint deserves a whole rant of its own.
• God Checkpoints are by far the worst thing EVER! This literally brought most reviews down an entire point of its own because of how stupid they are. The entire open world map has these areas usually around an intersection that you have to pass while driving. Each of these areas are filled with re spawning enemies. 90% of these checkpoints you cannot avoid and you have to go through them. In a good game you could just drive through the checkpoint and not have to worry about killing the enemies every single time, but in a bad game like Far Cry 2 you literally have to kill all the enemies in the checkpoint because if you try to just run right through it they will just chase you down in jeeps and start shooting at you which slows down your car so you are stuck having to kill them. This does not seem that bad, but I have not ran into a mission yet where I have not had to drive though about 3 of these checkpoints to get to the mission. Literally I probably spend 70% of the game driving from one mission to the next, am I the only one who sees the problem in this?
• Far Cry 2 has dumb A.I. This just pisses me off now, how can I game have bad A.I still? Seriously its 2008 come on Ubisoft get with the program. The bad A.I is pretty much self explanatory, dumb enemies doing dumb things and did I mention they are also over powered. Literally the only way to think about enjoying this game is to play it on easy.

Well I think I am done complaining. After doing this Far Cry 2 post I felt like I did more of just one giant rant. The fact is this game is a good game. It could be a great game, but with so many flaws you just have to wonder what were they thinking. My advice is not worth your money to buy right now, maybe just rent it or borrow it from a friend, but definitely not a go and buy right now game. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10.

So many to choose from, but so little cash...

In the past couple of week we have seen a total of 4 must have games come out on the Xbox 360. If you were to buy all of these games the day they came out you would be spending a whopping $240 plus tax. So the question now emerges what games you buy first. So now lets take a look at each game and I will be doing a follow up post on each game and what it has to offer.

Far Cry 2
Fallout 3
Dead Space
Fable 2

Each of these games are amazing, but stay tuned to see which ones stand out among each other.

Also mark your calendars for even more coming out in the coming weeks
Call Of Duty World At War
Gears Of War 2
Left 4 Dead

Not Excitied About Far Cry 2 Yet, Well Watch This And You Might Just Change Your Mind

This is Absolutely amazing how great this map editor looks. I was not even looking forward to Far Cry 2, but after watching this how could i not be excited!

Edge Gives Halos 3 Interactive Innovation Award and Bungie Responds With Teaser Video

Edge Awarded Bungie's Halo 3 the Edge Award for Interactive Innovation this year. Heres a quick blip of what edge had to say.

"Ultimately it is the integration and coherence of Halo 3’s online content that makes the game stand apart. From its Theater mode to Forge, and the way a party playing through Live can seamlessly manoeuvre between them, here is an experience that demonstrates an unparalleled understanding of the potential for console online play. Outside of the game, Bungie.net has been engineered to become a remarkable resource for Halo 3 stats and communities, providing life for the game even when your Xbox 360 is switched off. Halo 3, just as Halo 2 did before it, presents a roadmap for the way online will be integrated in videogames in the coming years."

Microsoft has responded to the award by making a teaser video explainging the fate of the Halo Franchise. The video seems to really hint towards another Halo game in the making, but it looks like it will not be made by Bungie.

Zelda Marathon

Live video by Ustream

Zelda might not be Xbox, but a 72 hour marathon is pretty sweet to watch and give you something to do this weekend. Make sure to donate because its for charity and whats cooler than a charity for games.

Halo 3 beats out Metal Gear as game of the year

What a close one, only 40 votes decided the victor between Halo 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 as to who would be the game of the year. The truth is both of these games are amazing, even though i do not own a PS3 after playing Metal Gear Solid 4 I really felt like going out and buying one just for Metal Gear Solid 4 and well maybe Resistance, but hey nothing will draw me away from my 360 and my Halo 3.

Fable 2 Release Date Announced

It is good news to hear that Fable 2 is on its way and has finally been given a release date. Fable 2 will be released on October 21st, which is a Tuesday. So good news that we will see Fable 2 out soon. Hopefully the game will be as good as the last game and if not better. I am looking forward to seeing the Co-op play in action and the new combat system o and what the hell i am even excited to see the dog companion.

Japanese People waiting in line for an Xbox 360 Game, Amazing!

Today is a great day for Xbox 360. Why do i say this, well because Xbox 360 was able to actually capture the hearts of Japanese Gamers so much that they waited in line for a game! This is unheard of in Japan for Xbox 360. The game is called Tales of Vesperia and by the looks of it its another Blue Dragon, Final Fantasy game.

The line seen was at Akihabara Yodobashi Camera- there was even over a hundred people in the line. There was a stage event with the game's creative producer Yoshito Higuchi and producer Tsutomu Gouda, telling fans how that they created a beautiful looking Tales for the Xbox 360. Thanks Kotaku for the story as always stay tuned at Xbox 360 Hub for more Xbox News.

Zero Punctuation Reviews Ninja Gaiden 2

The Review is another great review from Zero Punctuation, as long as you can listen as fast as he talks and understand half the jokes in time. Looks like Ninja Gaiden 2 is in need of a little bit of debugging, but if you love the hack and slash gameplay where you get stuck at a part and have to spend 30 minutes to get passed it before you get stuck in another part because the game is so damn hard then this is the game for you.

Reason Why Sega Classics Are Not On Xbox Live Arcade

Sega's President, Simon Jefferey explains why they have yet to release old Sega Classics onto Xbox Live Arcade. He explains that they are having a hard time finding the original source code for the classic games. Sounds crazy, but the games are so old i could see why.

Xbox Live Only $40 for 13 months

Finally the time has come for a price drop on Xbox Live. Now you can enjoy 13months of Xbox Live for only $39.99 at newegg.com with free shipping I might add. So lets do the math how much is that a month?

$40 / 13 months = $3.08 a month (aka Bargain!)

Now if people are still complaining that Xbox Live is too expensive, well they can just go buy a wii for all I care cause all I know is that they are a cheap ass.

Check it out here at:
www.Newegg.com

Geometry Wars 2 first Videos

Tuesday at E3 Microsoft Announced Geometry Wars 2 and boy i could not be more excited. I was a really big fan of the original Geometry Wars on Xbox Live Arcade.( I actually was able to score over a million points) Well over at xbox.com they have given a little bit more information on Geometry Wars 2. The game is scheduled to be available on XBL August 6th 2008.

• Action-packed modes: Unlock all six of these innovative and challenging modes -- Deadline, Evolved, King, Pacifism, Waves, and Sequence.
• Multiplayer mayhem: Step up the intensity with four-player multiplayer. Versus, team, and co-op modes offer different types of challenges and strategies. Pick your ship and pwn the grid.
• Achievements: Go for 12 entertaining and inventive ways to boost your gamerscore.
• Geoms: Collect Geoms to increase your multiplier -- but act fast, they won't last forever!
• New enemies: Shoot down all the usual suspects, then say "Hello" to new enemies that have found additional ways to hunt you down.

Stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub for me at E3 2008.

Bungie Delays New Game Announcement

Today Bungie had this message on their website when you visit Bungie.net.

So pretty much do not expect a new game announcement out of Bungie this week at E3. Guess we will have to keep on guessing till the real announcement actually comes.

Heres is the best explanation I could Find:

Posted by: IndefinitePit
"I have a feeling Bungie's announcement when it comes will be rather significant. My reasoning is this, let's assume Microsoft Game Studios is the publisher (which I imagine it is). Microsoft had the strongest press conference so far, I believe Microsoft expected more out of Sony and Nintendo's conferences, both were pretty much lack luster. And wanted Bungie to release a follow up punch on Wednesday. However since neither Sony or Nintendo made any big announcments as of yet, Microsoft might be wanting Bungie to save this for the appropriate time, which is a sound business decision and would be more beneficial to both Microsoft and Bungie to wait. While the delay is unfortunate I believe it isn't without good reason. And if I am in the ballpark on this, I believe it is a decision that makes a lot of sense."

Microsoft Media Briefing

Make sure to check out the Video's Live at
livewire.ign.com

Watch live video from kfella's channel on Justin.tv

My friends are having a LAN party today so make sure to check it out live here. also you can talk to us live here at Justin TV.

check it out from 5pm-whenever

New Gears Of War 2 Multiplayer Vid

This video gets me so excited for the new Gears Of War 2 coming out this November. I cannot wait everything looks like it will be perfect this time around. They have seemed like the have finally got rid of all the kinks such as the rodeo run glitches, host advantage, and the cover system.

More E3 Microsoft Rumors

The question on everybody's mind right now is what the hell is Microsoft going to unveil at E3 this year. So far we know we will see videos, demos and information from these upcoming major Xbox titles:

• Gears of War 2
• Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
• Fable II
• Fallout 3
• Halo Wars
• Starwars Force Unleashed
• Resident Evil 5

So what else is Microsoft planning for E3 besides just new games coming out. Well a recent article at Kotaku says Microsoft is finally going to drop the ball on the new Xbox 360 Motion Controller. This is also piled on top of the latest speculation about the new motion-controlled Xbox 360 dashboard. Well one thing I know for sure is Microsoft is planning something, I could not imagine they would not unveil something huge this E3.

What else though? Something on everybody’s minds is what is going to happen to the Halo Franchise, is it actually done, no more Halo’s! Well Bungie has helped stir rumors recently by leaving a hidden message at the end of their podcast. According to a recent story at Kotaku the exchange at the end of the podcast was:

Brian: Isn't there something going on on July 14th or something like that?

Luke: Yeah, around then.

Brian: Somehow that's sticking in my head for some reason. Guess we'll have to see.

Luke: Yep, we'll just have to be patient. Who could say?

Well this news is enough for me to watch the upcoming E3 event. Make sure to watch it live at with IGN.com

Cold Storage Comparison Screenshots

Bungies new map "Cold Storage" is almost out, but before it comes out bungie released 3 new comparison screenshots to just show you the difference between the levels from Halo 1 to Halo 3 and wow I must say it is impressive. Remember to get the map for free today!!

Bungie Studios has also taken the time to answer some questions about the new map Downloadable Map "Cold Storage."


Q: What’s changed from Chill Out to Cold Storage?

MM2: Other than the level of detail and the thematic change, we tried to keep things fairly close to the original layout. There was an overall shift in scale due to the changed run speeds, jump heights, and FOV in Halo 3. There are some jumps you can make now that you couldn’t before, and we opened up some areas of the level which created a slightly different flow . We never set out to make an exact port, but were more concerned with staying true to the overall feel of the original.


Q: What’s the deal with the Flood in Cold Storage?

VDL:The idea behind the original Chill Out was that it was a very cold storage facility of some sort. Pretty generic in the style department, but fun was the goal there and it excelled in that respect. For Cold Storage we wanted to add a reason for the season and the Flood was a perfect fit amongst all that cryogenic mumbo jumbo. The tricky part was how to add the goopy mounds of parasitic loving without messing with the original Chill Out layout. The answer was simple, Add the Flood but keep it out of the playable areas, i.e. stick it behind glass windows where you can admire it from a distance but you can’t get to it. In fact, there is only one tiny little place in Cold Storage where the player can come into contact with the Flood, yet it’s totally benign to gameplay. Keep an eye out for little herds of infection forms roaming behind the aquarium-style observation windows, and have fun with the pure-form guy in the glass tube just don’t get too close.

Cold Storage Comes Out July 7th And It Will Be Free!

Are you tired of griping about spending another $10 on some downloadable content for Halo 3 or Cod4. Well finally the Bungie has listened to our complaints and has made their next downloadable map "Cold Storage" Free, yes free. Nothing is better than a freebie.
Bungie stated by saying-

"Cold Storage will be available for free beginning on July 7, Bungie Day, on Xbox Live Marketplace."

Well this is great news, the map is a remake of chillout and it looks better than ever, check out this screen and the rest over at Bungie.net


Here is a little Video i just found to just help you get excited about playing Halo 3 and the new maps i hope you enjoy!

Sickkk!!!!!

Watch E3 2008 Live

Watch E3 Live with IGN.com. I am so glad i found this. I have been looking around for a couple of days for a live feed of E3 and i am glad i can see it now on IGN. Download this Widget below and whenever you click it during the week of E3 a window will pop up with a live feed of what is currently going on in E3.

Get this widget!

Microsoft E3 2008 Press Conference Coverage at IGN

Heres what IGN has lined up
"In addition to our regular written coverage, we'll be broadcasting our LiveWire Web show again this year. On LiveWire, you can watch all three major press conferences. We'll also be broadcasting live from the E3 show floor with developer interviews, real-time game demos and analysis from the IGN editors for the entire week. While we'll be offering a low-quality stream for free, Insiders will enjoy high-quality streams throughout the show."

And heres a pick of what to expect out of your video Streamer.

Rumored Xbox 360 Getting a 3D Dashboard

Kotaku announced yesterday that the Xbox 360 Dashboard might be getting a 3D environment makeover. The new 3D Dashboard would be then controlled with the yet to be announced motion controller coming out. Sounds a little far fetched, but sounds like it could be pretty sweet. Check out full article at Kotaku



Stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub for the latest Xbox 360 News

Bunch of new Force Unleashed Vids over at IGN

Ign.com has just put 8 new Star Wars Force Unleased Video's on their IGN Videos page. They all are very short, but they show a couple bossed, some new moves, and some great new enviroment.

Heres the Best vid I saw out of the 8, its a great Light Saber battle.

View all Video's at:
IGN Videos

Stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub for more Xbox 360 news.

Microsoft Finally allows downloadable content to be transferred

Microsoft has finally got off their lazy asses and fixed the Xbox DRM issue.

What is this issue exactly?
The DRM issue is where you get a new Xbox 360 and you add your old hardrive to the console and you find out that none of your Xbox Live Arcade games and other downloadable content from the Marketplace are on your new Xbox.

The reason is these files were attached to your old hard drive. Now though you can transfer these files by going to http://www.xbox.com/drm and following the instructions in this video. One important thing to remember is that you can only do this once every twelve months so if your Xbox red lights more than once a year like mine then your screwed till the twelve months is over.

Xbox 360 now only $300

Ahh finally the smell of a fresh price cut is in the air around Microsoft's Xbox 360. Anyone who was waiting for the Xbox 360 to become around as cheap as a Wii, well your time has finally arrived. The cut will drop Microsoft's Xbox 360, the 20GB model, down by $50 to an amazingly cheap price of $300.

The price cut comes by a move for Microsoft to extend the price gap between them and the PS3 and to decrease the price gap between them and the Wii. This also comes as a move by Microsoft to put the spotlight on them during the upcoming E3 during July 15-17th.

Currently the prices are:
Nintendo Wii - $250
Microsoft's Xbox 360 - $300
Playstation 3 - $400

For more news stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub.

Gears of War 2 Multiplayer Footage 2

Everything that is coming in Gears Of War 2 is in this video!You get to see everything from the flamethrower, to mines, to even all the new finish moves.

Gears Of War 2 Multiplayer Footage

In the Video i noticed the all talked about body shield in action, but only for a couple of seconds. You also get to see the great addition of the crawl. being able to crawl away from your enemy when you are down should add a whole new level to multiplayer. Some other little things you will see is a new multiplayer lvl, 2 new reticals for the sniper and the torque bow, plus you get to see some of the environment be chipped away by gun fire which is really cool. To bad the video quality was to bad that you could not see the new graphics first hand.

Stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub for all of the latest Xbox 360 News.

Turn your Xbox 360 Into a Netflix Player

Looks like all you need is three things.

1. Xbox 360 with internet access
2. Windows Vista PC
3. Netflix Subscription

That’s it if you follow the steps above you get all the movies you can ever want, 9,000 to be exact. If only the can make the nav screen go faster and this would be the best movie player around.

Rumor has it that Microsoft will let 3rd party companies build Xbox 360's

In the latest issue of EGM: they reported saying:
"We'll tell you what's up with Microsoft: new hardware options. It may sound totally insane — trust us, we did a double-take the first time Qmann whispered it in our ears — but word has it that Microsoft may begin allowing third-party manufacturers to create Xbox 360 hardware. And we're not talking about peripherals, people; we mean hardware that runs 360 game discs created by someone other than Microsoft."

Sounds Crazy to me, but just might be brilliant. Stay tuned for more news here at Xbox 360 Hub.

New Halo Novel Coming: The Cole Protocol

This fall expect another great halo novel when Tor Books releases Halo: Cole Protocol.

"Penned by Nebula nominee and Prometheus Award finalist, Tobias Buckell, Halo: The Cole Protocol will "unveil the location of the Spartan Gray Team, and take readers into an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War, where unlikely alliances are formed and shattered, altering the course of the humanity's epic struggle for survival."

Buckell has never written a halo novel yet, but he says he is a fan of the series and has played all 3 Halo games. Some of Buckell's previous works have been Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin.

Halo: Protocol is the Sixth book of the series
1st Halo: Fall Of Reach
2nd Halo: The Flood
3rd Halo: The First Strike
4th Halo: Ghost of Onyx
5th Halo: Contact Harvest

the novel sounds, well like the rest of the novels, you don't have a clue of what your reading until you dive in. I have read all the previous halo novels and i can't wait to read the next installment.

BattleField BadCompany Review

Great Video Review of Battlefield BadCompany.

Force Unleashed Video Interview

BattleField BadCompany Multiplayer Demo Review

Battlefield has always been all about Multiplayer. The story mode has never been good so there is really no point of even playing it. When i get Battlefield i dive right into the Multiplayer because of its unique experience that you only feel when you are playing Battlefield.

The new Battlefield BadCompany does not disappoint in the multiplayer this time around either. First thing you will notice is a whole new look, no it’s not gears of war graphics, but its pretty damn good. The next huge thing that is the dream of all kids is almost everything is destructible this time around. Can’t get that sniper hiding behind that window? Just shoot the entire window out. The environment is not completely destructible, but you can pretty much blow up the building down to its bare bones.

The next thing that you will notice is all the glorified vehicles are back and then some. This time around there is boats, the 120 millimeter tank, the 30 millimeter tank, Hummers, dune buggies, helicopters and even a artillery strike. The artillery strike is not exactly a vehicle, but it has you control a artillery strike that will rain down artillery on the opponents were ever you aim it.

Another Great new addition is there is a customizable weapon system like COD4, it’s not as elaborate as COD4, but it is a nice new addition.

In the demo you are playing on the map oasis which is basically a desert map similar to the one in battlefield 2’s Demo. On the map you play a gametype called goldrush, which is basically there is attackers who try and destroy the gold crates by either blowing them up with a bomb that you have to arm or by blowing them up by using tanks and such. The other team is the defenders that well defend the gold crates.

Goldrush is very fun and comes as a nice addition to the battlefield gametypes.

The only cons you will notice with the demo’s is you have to unlock some of the better weapons by lvling up. Also there is a lot of kids who are playing the demo that will just do nothing to help your team and will have a score that is negative. When something like this happens you will be completely screwed because the other team will have your base surrounded with tanks and snipers and it essentially becomes a deathtrap with you inside. Don’t get me wrong though this game is still very fun and is definitely worth a try.

Go download it now before it comes out on June 23rd and if you lvl up all the way you unlock a new gun that is only available if you play the demo. Stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub for the latest in Xbox 360 news and reviews.

Unreal Tournament 3 Preview Vid

Game looks great anything you need to know is in the preview video. Cannot wait to try out this game, release date is July 7th.

Chillout Coming to Halo 3

Chillout is coming back to halo! We all have been waiting for this old classic to come back around and it is finally coming. The new Chillout will be called "Cold Storage" and will be released presumably some time soon, but no release date has yet to be announced. The map was resurrected at MLG San Diego with an exhibition match, where Lukems and Shiska of Bungie played against two MLG superstarts Karma and Legend. More screenshots can be viewed at mlgpro.com

For more stories make sure to stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub.

Adam Sessler's Opinion of Kids on Xbox Live

I have watched G4 many times and i have never seen him like this. The fact is though is he is telling the truth. Kids do need to learn to behave on xbox live, it is getting out of hand. The only thing left is to never play unless you have a group of friends to play with.

Battlefield Bad Company Demo Single PlayerReviewed

Just got my hands on the new battlefield badcompany and i cannot put it down. The first thing you will want to do is play the single player. The single player well is just like any other battlefield single player, its just average. The new destructable enviroments though makes for some fun times, you can literally blow down an entire forest and destroy a building to where only the core structure is left. I noted though that it seems you have unlimited health, you can just shoot yourself with what looks like a giant needle that will refill your health over and over again, which is great and all, but almost seems to make it to easy. You will need the needle though because you will get shot from across the map from an enemy. They AI seems to always know where you are and can seem to shoot you from a mile away, which gets very annoying fast. Overall the single player was a fun way to get back into the battlefield experience, but where battlefield really shines is the Multiplayer.

Stay tuned here at Xbox 360 Hub for the Battlefield BadCompany Multiplayer Review

Sidmeier's Civilization Revolution Demo

Just Released was Sidmeier's Civilization Revolution Demo. The demo is really great and is definitely worth downloading. The Demo is 1.3GB which is now standard for most demos but this is more than a demo, well at least a really big demo. First of all you can do both multiplayer and story mode. I have yet to try the Multiplayer due to the fact that this is my first time playing civilization and i wanted to learn all of the controls first time around. So i hit up the single player hoping just to get a quick glance into the game this weekend at like 12 at night, well when i got into the game i could not put it down and played it for 4 hours until the demo finally ended. I am not for sure how the demo end timer is set up, but it is either a time limit or when you reach a certain goal.

The single player was amazing, it plays really well for a strategy game and i found it very easy to understand unlike the previous civilization games. I probably learned everything i needed to know to play in under 20 minutes and then i was off making cities, creating armies, taking over lands, and making gold. This game is really fun and i worth a try. I am not for sure if i am ready to spend 60 dollars on the game, but i am surely thinking about it though because this game surprised me at how great it was.

Resident evil 5 Trailer

Check out the New Resident Evil 5 on the Xbox. It looks better than ever and i am so excited to see it finally come over onto the Xbox 360.

Stay tuned here on Xbox 360 Hub for anything and everything on Xbox.

BattleField BadCompany Demo released on XBL

Check out the new Battlefield bad company demo on Xbox Live Marketplace
The demo comes with a full single player mission and one multi player map Oasis featuring the mode Gold Rush

Stay tuned here on Xbox 360 Hub for the latest news and reviews.

Guitar Hero 3 Through the Fire and Flames 100%

First ever recorded 100% 987,786 on Through the Fire and Flames. I would believe anything is possible now if someone can actually beat this song on 100%.

Crazy GTA 4 Stunt Montage

Found this nice Video Of GTA 4 Stunts check it out!

Bourne Conspiracy Demo Reaches 1million Downloads

Make sure to check out the Bourne Conspiracy Demo on your xbox before you go out and buy the game tomorrow on June 3rd when it ships to stores world wide. With the download already reaching the 1 million mark this leaves high hopes that this game will become a huge success. Stay tuned for a game review on Xbox 360 Hub.

Ninja Gaiden II

I just watched a full 3 minute video of in-game footage of Ninja Gaiden II and it was amazing from what I have seen. This time around TECMO has amped up the blood and gore to the extreme. This is definintly no kids game! You will see head and limbs falling off left and right, blood will be splattering across all the walls, you will think that you are watching a horror movie in no time. Ninja Gaiden II also does not slack in the difficulty this time around, from what I have heard this time it is just as hard as last time, but you can set your own difficulty so you should not have to worry about playing this game and getting stuck on a level that you will never be able to beat.



Stay tuned here on Xbox 360 Hub for a Full Ninja Gaiden II review a little after the release date on June 3rd.

History of the Forerunners

Found this great blog that has the best yet seen forerunner theory to date. His theory brings in all points of views, from the 3 games, to the books, to even the internet alternate reality game information. Its a great read for anyone who loves the story behind Halo.

Make sure to tune in daily for new stories on Xbox 360 Hub.

2008 Blockbuster Lineup

On may 13, Microsoft Game Studios was on hand at the MGS San Francisco showcase to show off their latest features titles. Their main line this year is as followed:

2008 Microsoft Game Studios Line-Up

Gears of War 2
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Fable 2
Too Human
Ninja Gaiden II
Penny Arcade Adventures



Microsoft Game Studios has a lot of great upcoming titles on their hands here. Lets see how they are able to hold them together. Hopefully we do not see another issue like we saw with Bungie Studios during the making of Halo 3. I do not like seeing Microsoft Studios own any game company's, there focus seems to be to much on the bigger picture and not enough on the game itself.

10 Million Xbox 360's sold in U.S

Microsoft announced today that Xbox 360's sales have reached the ten million units mark in the United States. This makes it the first current generation gaming console to break the ten million mark in the U.S. Total globally there is 19 million sold. It comes at no surprise that sales were boosted by Grand Theft Auto 4's record breaking release numbers.



Microsoft also reported stated that Xbox LIVE service has doubled in membership in only one year's time, with the number growing to over twelve million.

This is very good news in Xbox's eyes after suffering a crippling defeat for their HD player and dealing with Sony's ever growing competition. Tune in for more Xbox news here.

Grand Theft Auto 4

Yesterday i finally got my hands on GTA 4. I had to sell my old rainbowsix vegas 2 which i was glad to even recieve $30 for. So getting GTA 4 for only $35 seemed good enough a time for me to buy it. First impression on playing was that wow these graphics have improved so much since the previous GTA San Andreas. It finally swithing over to the 360 must of done the trick because every single enviroment in this game looks amazing. Another thing i noticed right away is the driving is completely diffirent this time around. No more days of going 80 around corners and not slamming into the wall and now the ebrake is completely useless unless you are reversing and you need to do a quick 180.

As always the story in GTA is amazing, so many great characters this time around. You will be involved in the story for hours before you realize that you have not even touched the online aspect yet.

Online is another huge thing in this next GTA. Online play has you against 16 people and you can go through the entire cities with all the game types of any online game, but my favorite is by far freeplay which has you just cruising the city with your buddies.

Another great thing the game added this time around is up to date music. i was so supprised when i turned on the radio and heard Kanye on rap 102.7. The music is what makes driving so much fun in the game and once you get some of your buddies in the car with it there is nothing funner than that.

GTA 4 is by far the best game that i have played in a long time and i recomend you sell all of your old games that you are not playing anymore and pick this up right awya.

Xbox 360 Hub

Xbox 360 Hub is a new blog that will talk all about Xbox 360 in general and all the new and upcoming releases of games.

About Me- My name is mike howard and i have owned a 360 since its release date. I have played almost every big title to hit the 360 from Elder Scrolls Oblivion to Grand Theft Auto 4. I have had the ring of death twice, but that has never stopped me from playing my Xbox 360.

What i am Currently Playing-
Grand Theft Auto 4, Halo 3,

Upcoming Games that i am waiting for-
Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, The new starwars gamre, Halo Wars, Fable 2

This blog is in the making but expect some posts soon!!!