Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling has just published detailed information on what we can expect from the MW2 updates which will be hitting Xbox LIVE today, March 30th, 2010. He discussed playlists, double XP, the title update and the new DLC for Xbox 360 users.
If you’re an Xbox Live player on Modern Warfare 2, there are some big updates hitting tomorrow (March 30th) in the early morning. Included in those are:
The Stimulus Package (Downloadable Content)
The first dlc for Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer hits exclusively first on Xbox Live. It’ll be coming to other platforms at a later date as well, but tomorrow morning you’ll be able to download the 5 new maps including Bailout (seen above), Salvage, Storm, and my favorite classic maps Crash and Overgrown.
Double XP
Originally planned to do it this weekend, but we’ve decided to throw the Double XP switch early when the new maps hit. So jump online with the new DLC and check out the two new DLC specific playlists.
Stimulus and Hardcore Stimulus Playlists
These two playlists are 100% dedicated to the new maps, and are Double XP enabled. So jump on and experienced the new DLC you downloaded, get double XP, and experience all your favorite gametypes along with some hardcore variants of them.
Ranger maps added to HCHQ
We’re adding a few maps to the Hardcore Headquarters Pro playlist on Xbox Live, allowing you now play all the Ranger maps in this gametype, something I know a lot of users have been asking for! These maps include Highrise, Invasion, Skidrow, and Terminal.
Title Update
Along side the DLC, but something ALL of our users will get, is a title update for Modern Warfare 2. Included in this update is support for the DLC (if you choose to purchase it), as well as some tweaks to the One Man Army perk, some matchmaking updates that will help our international users find more locally hosted games thanks to how ping is now sorted, and various other code updates that will help improve the overall quality of multiplayer on Modern Warfare 2.
There is no exact time you can expect all this, I’d say early morning when traffic is at its lowest, but by the time you wake up and get online I’m sure it will be available to most of you on March 30th! See you online all this week!
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Larry Hryb, Director of Programming for Microsoft's Xbox LIVE online gaming network, has had his Xbox LIVE profile hacked.
Known by his gamertag Major Nelson, Hryb was part of the Xbox 360 launch team and was one of the first game execs to have a regular podcast and blog.
In his LIVE account, his bio info (Name, Location) and the speech bubble appear to be hacked. The hacker have been writing various messages on Major Nelson's account:
Kotaku is confirming with Microsoft whether Hryb has been informed of this hack and what further steps will be taken.
Updates:
Major Nelson has confirmed via Twitter that his account is back to normal and Stepto and the policy enforcement team is looking into the matter.
SEGA Superstars Tennis is the second Games on Demand release this week on Xbox LIVE. "SEGA Superstars Tennis" is available for download from All Xbox LIVE regions except India, Japan and Korea. The game weighs in at 3GB
Content: SEGA Superstars Tennis Price: Check pricing for your region Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except India, Japan, Korea Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) This game supports English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on https://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". SEGA Superstars™ Tennis, a game that brings together some of the most treasured and well known characters from the SEGA universe, in some of the most unusual courts and outrageous settings ever imagined. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Avatar The Last Air Bender is one of this weeks Games on Demand releases for the Xbox 360. Avatar: TLA: TBE weighs in at around 5GB and will cost you around $19.99.
Looking for a quick way to boost your gamerscore? We’ve got you covered with Avatar: TLA: TBE
Content: Avatar: TLA: TBE Price: Check pricing for your region Availability: All Xbox LIVE Regions except Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Spain Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) This game supports English, French, and German. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on https://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and the new Avatar was discovered - an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone. Aang has learned to Waterbend and now must master the remaining elements of Earth, then Fire. Time is running out. The race is on for Aang to master all the elements before Sozin’s comet passes the earth, increasing the strength of the Fire Nation and turning it into an unconquerable force.
On April 6th, we will be releasing a system update over Xbox LIVE for your Xbox 360 that will allow USB flash drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more. I've been testing this feature out for a few weeks, and I have to say it's really great. Once you take the system update on April 6th, you'll be able to connect your USB flash drives to your console and head over to the memory section to configure your new storage device. Once you do that, the system will conduct a one time performance and integrity check to confirm the drive is working properly. You will then be able to configure how much storage to use on the device, up to 16 GB. The remaining space on the flash drive will be accessible by your PC or Mac. USB Hard drives may work, but like flash memory, you'll only be able to use up to 16GB of space. Since performance on flash based USB storage is usually better, I highly recommend using flash based instead of spinning media like a hard drive...it's just going to give you a MUCH better experience.
We've also enhanced the memory management functions, so you'll be able to have better control on what you want to copy or move between storage devices.
A couple of points:
* You can have 2 devices connected to the console at a time, enabling up to 32GB of simultaneous storage.
* The system won't just configure the device once it is connected to the console. You'll need to head to the memory area in system settings, select your USB Device, and choose from Configure Now (Format and Configure the Full Device), or Customize (you can choose how much memory you want configured for Xbox360 from the free space on the device.)
While any flash drive can be used, we are partnering with SanDisk to release an Xbox 360 branded USB flash drive in May that comes pre-configured out of the box and ready to go. I'll provide links to those drives once they're available. Until then, starting April 6th (when we release the system update) you can pop any flash drive over 1GB into your Xbox 360 and configure it as storage.
Here is the latest report on Xbox 360 LIVE Activity for the week March 15, 2010. This includes Xbox Live and our own 360-HQ Xbox Live statistics combined.
Where we can, we will display our own top list of most played games on XBOX LIVE. Our own data is tracked by our registered users here on the 360-HQ.com website and their activity on Xbox LIVE! Please note we do NOT track demos.
The 360-HQ Xbox LIVE top 20 list is compiled automatically by the HQ server. Our server tracks each and every Xbox LIVE Gamercard registered on our site and which games our members are playing or have played most recently.
To see the most popular game on Xbox LIVE scroll to the bottom of any page on HQ and the top 20 games are listed in our footer.
You can also browse our Xbox 360 "Top 50 Games" list which is ranked by total page views daily. This is what you see on our homepage!
The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.
**Combined sales of all Hasbro Family Game Night titles
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HQ Network: 8,150 | 
Guests: 4398 |
Members: 1
