Play Halo 3 All Night Long

The big day has come and gone, and now it's time for some serious Halo® 3 action! Join us as we stay up all night long from Saturday night to Sunday morning. Hook up with your buddies and complete a marathon session. Jump into co-op or versus games over Xbox LIVE® and enjoy all the new features.
Join us online at sundown on Saturday, September 29 until daybreak on Sunday, September 30 for all the action you can handle. Unite to Fight Play & WinThis is also the perfect opportunity to qualify for the Unite to Fight Play & Win Sweepstakes. Just register your gamertag before September 30 and then compete in an online match to enter. We've got some great prizes to give away, including an Xbox 360™ Halo 3 Special Edition console!
Of course, we want to hear all about your Halo 3 All-Nighter! Take some pictures of the action and let us know what happened, how long you played, and how many new friends you made. Send us a recap at mailto:xlmail@microsoft.com?subject=Halo3%20All-Nighter for the chance to be featured on Xbox.com.

Biggest game release of all time, and well worth the wait

Yes, after leaving work at midnight last night I motored over to the GameStop in Panorama Plaza to secure my Collector's Edition copy of Halo 3. Like many of you, I was greeted at the door by a line of people waiting to take their copy of the title home as well. Kudos to GameStop for handling the situation so well, as I arrived right around midnight and I was out the door at 10 minutes after. I would definitely pre-pay for a title from them again.

Now, for those of you who didn't pick up a copy, I have to say you're really missing out. Halo 3 is nothing short of SPECTACULAR! The graphics, the transitions, the music, sound effects, new weapons set, even the customization. This is a no holds barred all inclusive title that will keep the Halo fan (and even those who dont like Halo) busy for a long time.

XBTR members GoddfreyTGAC and Danero made the trek to New York City for the release party at BestBuy, and it looks like they had a great time. We've attached a quick pic of GoddfreyTGAC courtesy of our two members camera phones and DeadlyTECH.com.

Full coverage of our XBTR members visit to NYC are available at DeadlyTECH.com.

IcemanXBTR

Call of Duty 4 is Best of Show

The good news for developers of the soon to be released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, having won the coveted Best of Show Award at this year's big E3 video game convention, there's virtually no way it'll stay hidden among the tall grass that is the extremely crowded field of the first-person-shooter genre.

The bad news though, Best of Show means the game has to be near flawless to match the expectation that's been building and will continue to do so until its November 7 launch. But developers of the game, that has you trying to stop a Russian ultra-nationalist who wants to return the Soviet Union to its pre-democratic glory days, insist it will live up to the flood of positive press.

"Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare brings a level of realism, a level of authenticity that's unmatched in gaming right now,” said Vince Zampella, Infinity Ward. “We put a lot of effort into making the world believable, realistic, and immersive. It's the details that make all the difference between it being a game and an immersive experience that just sucks a player in."

Article courtesy RNEWS.com, for complete article, click HERE

Newest Halo 3 TV commercial...getting pumped for Tuesday....

Microsoft Delivers Xbox 360 Progress Report

According to Microsoft, more than 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold
As Sony soaks up the Tokyo Game Show spotlight, Microsoft was quick to boast its gaming accomplishments thus far including the most played games over Xbox Live.
According to Microsoft, more than 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold (either to retail or to consumers), this despite multiple reports suggesting that Wii has overtaken total Xbox 360 sales with fewer than 11 million units sold.Regardless, gamers buy more software for the Xbox 360 than for PS3 and Wii combined according to NPD, and Microsoft said Xbox 360 owners buy an average of 6.3 games per console, more than either PS3 or Wii. Additionally, Microsoft reports 7 million Xbox Live members (including free silver accounts) and expects that number to reach 10 million by the end of June 2008. The average Xbox Live Gold subscriber has 23 contacts in their friends roster, according to the company, and there are more than 250 games available for Xbox 360, 86 of which are Live Arcade titles.

Microsoft also released the following most popular games on Xbox Live.

Article courtesy of pcworld.com, click HERE for continuation of complete article

Nextel Cup series Halo 3 car

Found this little blurb while surfing, looks like there is going to be a Nextel Cup series car all gussied up in Halo 3 graphics...just one more way to promote the release....

"Halo 3...The Biggest Video Game Debut of All-Time: Team Target driver Reed Sorenson and CGRFS teammate David Stremme, along with a couple of other select NEXTEL Cup Series drivers, will get a chance to Finish the Fight before anyone else during the "Halo 3" sneak peek weekend at Dover. Additionally, Stremme will be piloting a special No. 40 "Halo 3" paint scheme during the Dover 400, highlighting the much anticipated Xbox 360 game release, which is set to shatter day-one sales records when it is released worldwide on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Release and artwork available upon request."

The time is drawing near...

Microsoft has officially unveiled the cavalcade of festivities it has planned for the launch week of Halo 3. Officially dubbed "Unite to Fight," the launch week of Halo 3 is set to feature a ton of special activities and promotions including 3 days of free Xbox Live Gold for everyone, a chance to win a custom Pontiac G6 GXP Street Edition, Play & Win contests, special Marketplace goodies, and gaming sessions with Bungie and celebrities. Halo 3 will even be getting its own car in NASCAR. On top of all this, special midnight sales events will be happening all over the U.S., with events planned in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, and Miami (Florida, not Oklahoma). The special events will play host to Halo 3 Game with Fame sessions and chances to win free swag. The events take place at the following locations:

New York City – Best Buy, 529 5th Ave, New York, NY, 10017
Seattle – Best Buy, 457 120th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98005
Los Angeles – Gamestop, 1000 Universal Studios Blvd, Universal City, CA 91608
Miami – Circuit City, 8575 Northwest 13th Terrace, Miami, FL 33126

Head over to the official Unite to Fight website for details on all the launch week events, and start marking your calendars.

Burnout Paradise...shipping for XBOX 360 on Jan. 21...

Halo 3 spoiler video: shows multiplayer and customization menu

Halloween fanatics in Rochester....UNITE!

Those of you that know me know I am a Halloween fanatic. Always have been, always will be.

For those of you who dont know me, consider yourself informed.

With the exception of the release of Halo 3 (just a short 12 days away, but who's counting..), nothing is more top of mind for me right now than enjoying the activities of my favorite time of year (yes, you guessed it , Fall) and setting up the house for Halloween.

A close friend of mine, who many of you already know, packed up his family and moved down South (or actually, more West) to enjoy the fruits of a better job market and higher pay. Yes, Western NY is well known for losing its residents to Southern states whose companies pay you more for doing the same job. Imagine that, getting paid more to do the same job. Go figure. Anyway, he, like myself, is a Halloween freak, so much infact that he worked at Fear at Frontier last year and had a great time doing it. He was disappointed that he missed out on the opportunity this year, but I'm certain he'll be happier where he is, making more money, and enjoying the warmer weather.

Now I'm getting off topic.

He and I had planned to put together some kind of a haunted event (hayride, haunted house, haunted attraction) but never got around to doing it. So me, with nothing better to do with my time (yeah right) put together a neat new website/blog, also on blogger.com, where you can go to find the latest and greatest things to do in the Rochester area during the Halloween season. Haunted hayrides, haunted house, costume shops, haunted attractions, pumpkin patches, you name it, its in there.

Enough from me though, check out my other website here, and be sure to tell your friends all about it.

ROCHESTERHALLOWEEN.BLOGSPOT.COM

IcemanXBTR

P.S. Hey Ghostrider/DaddyBurrito, how's the Arizona sun today?

Top 5 worst ways to die in a video game

Caught this on MSNBC.com today....

"Top 5 worst ways to die in a video game
If you play as many video games as we do, it's inevitable that you'll see characters die on screen. Death happens a lot in the gaming world, Thankfully, it's easily cured by pressing the reset button.
Still, we can't help but notice that while some characters meet their demise in relatively simple and painless manners, the vast majority of them kick the bucket in horrendous ways that we would never want to endure ourselves here in the real world.

These are our Top 5 worst ways to die in a video game."

Monday Xbox Live will close: how do 360 owners feel?

Microsoft’s Xbox live service is to close Monday for around 4 hours (apparently from 9am to 1pm).
Many users of its Xbox Live service have been getting messages from the Console manufacturer, although this is just a little bit of downtime I wonder what the Xbox 360 users will feel about this.
If people are at work or not around then I guess they will not care, but for the gamers that want to go to Xbox live in the downtime, they will be very unhappy.
Microsoft has apparently refused to comment on what the maintenance is for, it could be an annual autumn update but knowone really knows but Microsoft.
One other rumor that I found very interesting is that there could be a new feature as a parental timer that allows adults pre-program a set amount of time their children can play on the Xbox 360.