When there's a goof-up online, and a big run on DLC that a game maker wanted you to pay tons extra to get, it's probably not a smart idea to go into that very same developer's official forums and sound the alarm about it. Not once, but twice.
Yesterday's Great Banjo Lootathon (now closed, goodbye) exposed the Gears of War 2 Golden Lancer, among other things for a limited time, to download from Xbox Live for free, via the web. Reader RedRex32 says he went to Epic's Forums to spread word talk about it, even after the back door to the lancer was shut, and saw the thread he and others were writing in summarily deleted.
So RedRex32 started a new one, and that got him banzored beyond all recognition. As in a full on IP banning, not just his account. The lock-out screen advised this ban will be lifted "never."
"This all went down about 5:15 PST, hours after the entire issue wasn't even, well, an issue anymore. So the harm is questionable," RedRex32 says. "Smell a cover-up?" No, brah, I smell punishment. Look, not to blame the victim, but that's Epic's turf. It's probably not the wisest thing to hold this screwup under their nose like that. talk about this screwup on their turf, because they'd definitely be looking to retaliate on anyone who got the lancer this way.
You might have noticed that Xbox Live has been kicking out from time to time over the last few days and if your like me you set there changing settings on your router and rebooting the hell out of your modem thinking i surly cant be Xbox Lives fault, but it was and heres the real bad news.
Major Nelson reports: On Monday,11/17/2008 from 2:00 AM PST for up to 45–minutes, Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, Xbox LIVE and the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won’t be able to post.) The remainder of Xbox.com will be available with limited interruptions.
This service maintenance is in preparation for the new Xbox experience which will be available this Wednesday.
So there you have it, just try to hang in there and keep in mind the loss of Live is not the end of the world it just feels like it.
You know who you are and you know what you did so when you pop in your copy of a game thats not out and wont be for weeks you cant act shocked when your live account gets banned, any one of you out there that has got a new game and said to yourself "good GOD why are games so much?" you can thank the ones who are to good to pay the price.
Major Nelson reports: I’ve gotten a few messages and seen some forum threads pop up on console bannings so I thought I’d post and let folks know what’s up.
In our our continued effort to keep gameplay safe and secure for our community of more than 14 million members, Microsoft has taken action against a small percentage of Xbox 360 consoles that have been illegally modified in order to play pirated games.
You should know that modifying your Xbox 360 console is also a violation of the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void your warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE. The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive, both from manufacturers and the local companies that support them. We will continue to employ and bolster anti-piracy security measures to counter piracy in the gaming industry and improve security in the Xbox LIVE community.
In an interview with OXM.com Don Mattrick talks about the new Xbox Experience soon to hit Xbox Live and talks about why he feels he was the true inventor of the Avatars that will be a big part of the XBOX 360 update, with that said lets have a look at the OXM.com interview.
OXM reports: We met Microsoft's affable new senior vice president (who had John Schappert, vice president of Xbox Live in tow) at this year's E3, to talk about "The New Xbox Experience".
And though he tried to stay calm, he's too excited about what Microsoft has coming up to keep it all in. From claiming to have invented avatars to sending competitors pity cake, this is one of the more exciteable interviews we've ever had.
With the New Xbox Experience less than two weeks away, now is the perfect time to revisit what Microsoft's power players had to say at E3...
So "The New Xbox Experience" - what's that all about, then?
Don Mattrick: Continued vision, continued investment, continued commitment to leadership in the online space. Gamertags! IDs! Achievements! Connectivity! Chat! This is part of an ongoing journey. When I joined Microsoft [in July 2007], I looked at what was going on and saw some component parts of this work that was already underway, and I was like, "Wow, this is just amazing."
It's awesome for gaming. At its core this is what we do - we build the best immersive interactive experiences that exist. People who have used the new Dashboard, for example, love it. It has an emotional connection. We make people the hero. What a novel idea that is!
And the Xbox 360 has the capability to be the hub of your living room. To drive fun and entertainment for your home, your friends, your family. Whether that is in gaming, in traditional media such as music or movies, or digital pictures, communication, the camera. Whatever things you want to look at, this box has tremendous opportunities.
Microsoft understands hardware, understands software. It knows how to do it globally - I mean it's built one or two operating systems along the way! - and only Microsoft could create this new experience. We are the only company that can do what we're doing today!
This is the first time in the history of video gaming that this has occurred. It's amazing. People are going to write about it and go, "Oh, wow. That was pretty cool. I was there when that was made public."
That's some big talk!
DM: Well, it's what made it easy to get support from people like John [Schappert]!
Mad that you don't have a token to play the new CoD: World at War beta and want to do something about it, well now you can by going on Xbox Live and downloading it since this private beta has been cut loose for public use and we can all go on line and play this bad boy even if its going to be out in a few days.
Battle-hardened Xbox 360 Multiplayer Beta vets will now have more to rejoice over - newbie players to own on the battlefield! The Xbox 360 Multiplayer Beta went public this morning on Xbox Live Marketplace. Now all your friends and neighbors can join in the online mayhem and see how deadly you've become during your time fighting during the exclusive Beta period.
Directions to download the public Xbox 360 Multiplayer Beta:
1. Go to Xbox Live Marketplace
2. Find Call of Duty: World at War in either the "New Releases," "Games," or "Demos" section of Xbox Live Marketplace
3. Click on CoD: World at War and you will see the Multiplayer Beta available
4. Download the Beta and prepare yourself for the addictive multiplayer action Call of Duty is known for!
Note: there are NO longer tokens required to download this Beta. It’s openly available to everyone!
The Major has dropped the news and my own two eyes can confirm it Mirror's Edge is now ready to download and play and given all the hype surrounding this game it just might be worth a try, i for one want to rush though the news this morning and get to downloading ASAP.
Content: Mirror's Edge Demo Price: Free Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) BLOOD,LANGUAGE,VIOLENCE] Download the Mirror’s Edge demo to experience this award-winning First-Person Action-Adventure. The tutorial will guide you through the basics of movement and combat before you try out your skills in the prologue to the main game.
HQ Network: 8,706 | 
Guests: 4862 |
Members: 0
