As seen on Kotaku. We can all agree that, given that the system looks like something from the 80s/90s this is actually an improvement. In fact, we now demand a digital clock on the front of the Xbox One. Simulated wood grain can be optional. We’re Xbox fans for life, but come on.
Hey gang, we’re going to be implementing a few new features over the next 24, and this post is where you’ll find our testbed of new gadgets. Things may change here or in the overall site throughout the day, so worry not should something seem different. All things will return to normal soon.
Twitch.TV working? Yep. Here’s a great State of Decay livestream from PlayXBLA.
We’re in the process of upgrading systems. As such you might have noticed a bit of down time. We’re back up now, however and just have a few final things to clean up behind the scenes. Thanks for your patience.
UPDATE: And we’re 100% again!
The Xbox 360 isn’t known for its wide range of codecs. The list is rather small, and it gets even smaller when you want to run in HD. DivX, the most popular codec, will play in HD on the 360, but will skip frames often, making it almost unwatchable. After digging for something that encoded properly, was free, and was easy to use we stumbled across EncodeHD. It’s quite literally the easiest tool to re-encode your collection so it’ll play on your 360. It can batch convert as well, meaning that all those digital copies you’ve acquired with your Blu-Ray/DVD combo discs (by the way, who needs all three of those?) can be converted all in one go. You can find a great guide for this virus free, cost free software at Afterdawn.
Occasionally folks contact us after they’ve been banned from LIVE. Can we get them unbanned? Is there someone higher up that we can get them in touch with? Nope. In fact we find bans funny. Yes, there’s a possibility of an incorrect ban, but it’s incredibly rare (we’re talking 1 out of every 100,000 bans). Everyone’s got that “my friend was banned for no reason” story, but miss out on the fact that their friend didn’t spill all the details such as their purple-skinned avatar. Read up on the Terms of Service, folks. And for those that need a laugh, have a chuckle at banned folks’ expense over at Why Was I Banned.
Source: Why Was I Banned
Home alone on a Friday evening? You could do a lot worse than enlist with the XBLAFans team tonight (8-11 PM ET, 5-8 PM PT, 1-4 AM GMT) as they engage in some friendly warfare in hit-Arcade title Iron Brigade. You’ll need Iron Brigade and an Xbox Live Gold account to join in the ruckus, of course. More details, including who you’ll need to contact to snag a spot in tonight’s playdate, here.
Playing through Halo Anniversary this weekend with my brother-in-law I had a very eye opening experience. After all of the PR fluff and critic reviews based more on nostalgia I found myself more critical of the quality of the updates to the original Halo: CE. I wondered why I was knocking all of these little issues I found when I was having a blast playing through a game that can still suck me in. Then it hit me: Bungie didn’t work on Anniversary, and that’s who I was comparing 343′s work against. Sure, Saber Interactive provided the new HD graphics layer and Certain Affinity developed all of the multiplayer maps, but as the primary developer 343 had the end say as to whether something qualified as Halo-worthy or not.
We’ve known that the narrator for XBLA his Bastion is amazing, but his most recent work takes the (wedding) cake. Fan Jay Greschner contacted developer Supergiant Games, wanting to get narrator Logan Cunningham to do some lines for his wedding. They were happy to oblige, and after a few e-mails he was sent four custom narrations for his wedding. These clips were played at the appropriate times during the wedding, which “completely floored” his new wife. To read Jay’s story and hear the wedding’s narration, check out Ars Technica. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Greschner, the luckiest Bastion fans in the world in more ways than one.
Update: While the NewEgg deal says expired, it is still valid. Also, Amazon is offering a similar deal $40 for Halo Anniversary with $10 Amazon gift card.
It’s not exactly XBLA news, but Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary will be out November 15. If you’re willing to wait a few days for shipping NewEgg.com has a preorder for USD $30 (normally $40). When you consider that the multiplayer map pack alone will likely be 1200 MSP when it gets released to everyone it’s a great value. We also checked with GameStop. They’ll be taking in trades on Anniversary for USD $18 initially, meaning that if you just wanted the map pack you’ll have picked it up for roughly 960 MSP. It’s quite the deal, and unlike so many console bundles, this deal isn’t a wallet breaker. We highly suggest picking it up, especially if you’ve never played through the original Halo.
It’s no secret that Plants vs. Zombies is a wildly popular game with its own special sense of humor. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the new music video, sung by world-renowned hip-hop artist Cray-Z. We’re not exactly sure what caused PopCap to make this, or what the song even means, but we do know how much joy we got out of watching this.
