XBox Gaming Blog

Rainbow Six Vegas - Free Happy Goodness

Several of you were paying attention, and noticed that we had some content available for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace, and then that content mysteriously disappeared.

It’s coming back, and it’s coming for free!  Unfortunately I don’t have a photo The Terminator, so here’s this mis-aligned clip art:

Details from our pals at Ubisoft:

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas Black Pack Downloadable Content for Xbox 360 Live was originally intended to be free content for the fans of Rainbow Six Vegas. We apologize for the error. All players who purchased the Black Pack will be reimbursed automatically within 8 to 10 weeks. The Black Pack will be posted Saturday June 30 and will be free of charge. Also, as a token of our appreciation for the Rainbow Six community, we are making the Red Pack free as of Friday July 6th as well. Thanks for playing and we hope you enjoy this free content.

Make sure you have updated your address and contact info for your Live account to ensure you get refunded.

Gamerscore Blogcast - Episode - 024 - Legislation, ESRB and E3 Preparations

With the podcasts being filmed for Channel 10, we’ve stopped eating lunch during the taping, so we’ve changed the name of the podcast.  We figured we’d be cool like everyone else and smash our website name with the word “podcast” - it’s not because we hate the word podcast.

With E3 in “crunch-mode” we hit on a few of the topical issues and a user question.

The abbrieviated video version is available on Channel 10’s website.

MP3 File: 11.1 MB, 33 minutes

Remember that these podcasts are available via the RSS feed, or the iTunes feed as well.

This week John, Wolf, Tony, and Chris talk about:
- Intro/Outro Music:  Phylum Sinter
- Out this week - Carcassonne, The Bigs, The Darkness, Transformers, Overlord
- Stone’s The Darkness blog post
- Cutscenes in games - why do we skip them?
- American Medical Association possibly making video game addiction an official disorder
- ESRB Enforcing Game Trailer Ratings, and why it’s a good thing
- E3 Preparations - What really goes on behind the scenes?
- Don the Lawyer’s Blog
- User Submitted Question - Jake8bitjoystik - Video codec, and DRM playback on the 360
- Email us at GSBlog@Microsoft.com with questions/comments/audio

EA Madden 08 Event

What a night!  I flew down to Los Angeles to attend a special sneak peek event for Electronic Arts’ Madden 08.  I’m a BIG football fan, so I was pretty excited to go and give this game a try.

When I got to the event, I fired up a game of my beloved Seahawks against division rival, St. Louis Rams and tried out the new Weapons feature that I’ve been reading about.  I tried a couple plays controlling Walter Jones and used the Pass Blocker Weapon. 

First down, I rushed, and assisted on a tackle of the running back, gain of two yards.  Second down, I ran around the end and was able to block a pass!  Then there was an incomplete pass on 3rd down, and then a punt.  Three and out…not bad. 

The event started to get pretty crowded at this point, so I stepped aside so others could play.  But even with the short time I had with the game, I think that Madden 08 has the potential to be the best one yet.

I usually like to think of myself as “average height”, but tonight, walking through the crowd, I was definitely under average.  Lots of local professional athletes and Hollywood celebrities dropped by to try out their gaming skills.    More pics of the event can be found below and on our Flickr page.

So how ’bout it?  ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!

This Week on Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace

This week there will be 7 new movies and 4 TV shows coming to Xbox Live Marketplace, including one of my favorites, Pan’s Labyrinth, which won an Academy Award for Art Direction, Cinematography and Makeup. 

If you like free stuff (as I do), you’ll be happy to learn that one of the TV shows we’re adding this week is a free episode of American Body Shop (on July 1st).

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that John’s favorite TV show, Drake and Josh (no seriously…he said so on the podcast we recorded today), is also coming to Xbox Live Marketplace as well.

The Ghost and "The Darkness"

“Tony, ear muffs!” I yelled. Tony cupped his hands over his ears as Paladino and I started talking excitedly about how far we progressed in 2K’s “The Darkness.” Two things to note about the team: one, we’re cover the spectrum of gamer types, so it’s not too often that you’d find all of us playing the same video game (much less hear us all raving about it). Two, whether it’s the latest episode of “Heroes” or a level in a game, Tony is always a night or level behind, so the rest of us can’t talk about any spoilers around him.

“Did you get to the scene in the apartment [SPOILER FILTER]?”

“If you thought that was great, wait until you get further in the game.”

I love the games where you can call out specific, unexpected, jaw dropping moments during the story that you can’t wait to talk about with your friends. It’s like talking about a cliff hanging season finale for “Lost” or a completely unforeseen twist in “Heroes.” You can’t help but call up your friends to yell, “Sweet Christmas, did you see that?”

“The Darkness” happens to be filled with moments like these, and they have nothing to do with the actual gameplay. If you’re just running and gunning through the game, you’ll completely miss it. “The Darkness” certainly rewards those who take the time to immerse themselves in their narrative and explore. You’ll find some great, surprise moments. I’d love to hear what everyone’s favorite “sweet Christmas” moments in past video games have been.

Being the resident comic book dork on the team, I’ve been waiting for “The Darkness” for a while now. When you put the license to a comic book franchise like “The Darkness” in the hands of a developer like Starbreeze Studios (they developed “Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay”), you have a recipe for awesomness. I don’t get the stories from reporters about this being a slow summer for video games - personally, I can’t get enough of the games I’m seeing. For more information about “The Darkness,” 2K’s press release about the game’s availability is here.

Diggin the New Look of Xbox.com

By now, you’ve all seen the new look of Xbox.com.  Even though critics call it merely a visual redesign, we’ve found that it’s easier to navigate, there’s new search technology, and has more cool things like translucent drop-down menus. 

The team is pleased with the rollout.  In an exclusive interview, Larry Hryb commented on the new site.  When asked if he liked the design, he said “yes.”  We asked Mr. Hryb wich was his favorite feature, and he confidently answered “all of them.” 

Before going live with this blog post, we had a rare, uncensored, behind-the-scenes conversation with Xbox.com’s very own Trixie.  She seemed to share the excitement palpably felt across the Xbox Headquarters.  With a gleam in here eye, she quipped “it’s nice.” 

As for us, we have a hard time saying enough nice things about the work the Xbox.com team has done.  We give it a solid score on our definitive Gamerscore Blog 1-10 scale. 

So there you have it.  New Xbox.com for a new generation.  Let us know what you think. 

Carcassonne Arrives Wednesday on Xbox LIVE Arcade

It’s finally here!  The classic European board game Carcassonne arrives on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday, worldwide, for 800 Microsoft Points.  The game from Sierra Online is rated E for Everyone.

From the media alert:

Using strategic tactics and a little luck, one to five four players take turns selecting from 72 tiles displaying various features of a city including roads, the walls of a castle or fields. The medieval countryside thrives as players and their opponents place tiles and complete towns, roads, and farms while competing to accumulate the most points. […] 

Game Features

• Special AI settings to challenge any skill level
  
• Challenge your friends – Up to five players can play over Xbox LIVE or up to four players can play on the same Xbox 360
  
• Interact with new and old friends alike over Xbox LIVE while you play “Carcassonne” with the Xbox LIVE Vision camera
  
• Helpful step-by-step tutorial to teach you the game in minutes
  
• Skill-based matchmaking for ranked games
  
• The complete “Carcassonne” includes 72 tiles and all rule sets
  
• “Carcassonne” includes the “Rivers II” expansion set - 12 additional tiles
  
• Earn up to 200 Gamerscore and 12 Achievements

More information is available at Xbox.com. 

Lunchtime Conversation - Episode - 023 - User Submitted Pricing Questions

With all the E3 meetings we are in we basically used user-submitted questions and feedback from the blog comments to discuss topics.

The abbrieviated video version is available on Channel 10’s website.

MP3 File: 11 MB, 34 minutes

Remember that these podcasts are available via the RSS feed, or the iTunes feed as well.

This week John, Wolf, Tony, and Chris talk about:
- Intro/Outro Music:  Phylum Sinter
- XBLA Wednesdays - Band of Bugs
- Wii Play Impressions
- Dirt hitting retail
- Windshield Wipers in Games
- Pricing Discussions in the Podcast Comments – Thanks to Nin 013, Stephen, Backscatter, and others
- Shadowrun + Vista bundle for $40 done by retailers
- Why are games $60 on Next-Gen consoles, but $50 on PCs – we don’t know, but we take an edjucated guess
- What makes something “bargain-bin” worthy?
- Sudoku Too on Windows Live Messanger
- Why are there costs on XBLive?
- E3 - Will there be a C3 @ E3
- PAX - What’s the gameplan?
- Being at E3 – what to expect
- Email us at GSBlog@Microsoft.com with questions/comments/audio

Play Forza 2 with Wolfmother This Weekend

If you’re a Wolfmother fan (woman, ya know ya, woman, you gotta be…), you’ll want to make sure you’re online Saturday, for Xbox LIVE’s Game With Fame. 

Add WolfMotherGWF to your friends list, and see if you get a chance to play Forza 2 over Xbox LIVE with the band. 

They’ll be online Saturday, June 23, 2007 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PST.

More info on Xbox.com.

Vampire Rain Coming July 3

Beginning July 3, you’ll begin seeing copies of Vampire Rain in North America (other dates around the world). 

Developed by Artoon and published by Microsoft (outside of Japan), “Vampire Rain” combines stealth, survival horror and shooter aspects of several classic games.  In addition to the single-player, story-driven campaign, “Vampire Rain” will support up to eight players online via Xbox LIVE.

For more information on “Vampire Rain” visit www.vampirerain.com or watch the “Vampire Rain” walkthrough video at www.On10.net.

More information in a media alert sent earlier today.