Leave your consoles home when flying

I've gotten into the habit of bringing handhelds or game consoles with me on a trip, short one day trips seeing as I value the idea of getting away from gaming on longer vacations. However, I can understand someone bringing their consoles with them, but you might wanna consider leaving any console you have home.

Seems that technology as "advanced" as the Xbox 360 is a flight risk, until they take it apart.

Apparently airport security takes apart things to find CPU sized explosives hiding in game consoles, and decided to rip out components of the noted Xbox 360. As much as that is drawing the line of paranoia, those security guards seem to make quicker work of the 360 than the Texas repair center does. (Okay, bad joke.)

So, as a warning to gamers out there. If you plan on flying and desire to take your gaming devices with you, do as Kotaku columnist Luke Plunkett says in this article. Carry on luggage only.

So you could fit a Nintendo Wii in your carry on, maybe your Xbox if you don't even have carry on luggage. I think that might raise a red flag to security though, and a "fat" PS3 certainly isn't going to fit in there.

Rock Band Network Goes into Open Beta

Rock Band Network has just went into open beta, meaning that we now get to see all of the songs that are being released, and if we had the proper tools, we'd be able to upload our own. Anybody with an XNA account, an Xbox Live Gold account, and a free account on the Rock Band Network website can now do peer reviewing and auditioning on newly submitted Rock Band Network songs. And if you have all that, a license to use reaper, and a free copy of Magma, you'll be able to upload your own songs for peer review!

That's right, in order to audition any songs, you'll need an XNA membership. Kind of disappointing to me, since i'd love to preview and rate some songs before I decide to download them or not, but (provided you're logged in to the site with your free account) at least we can still see all of the songs on the website (complete with audio previews) at this link here.

Currently, my favorite song on the network has to be "White Heat" by Cetan Clawson and the Soul Side, just based on the previews I listened to.

At the time of this writing, there's 38 songs approved in total with more on the way in the coming months. Currently, the songs have not been published to any sort of store, all of that's being saved for the full-launch of the network. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time that happens, we'd have over 200 songs already on the service! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

Arc vs Natal

The motion control wars was supposed to start this spring with the Sony motion controller getting a 6 month or more head start over Natal with Arc. Arc is a suggested decision on the name of Sony's motion controller if you didn't already know.

Well I was curious to see what people would say about Arc, but Brutal Gamer brought to my attention that this has changed.

“We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users." -Kaz Hirai

While I don't agree with Brutal Gamer's article that this kills any chance for Sony to outdo Natal, it is a loss of a good head start for them.

Speaking of Natal, Brutal Gamer also lets us know about a possible November 2010 release (early birthday present 4 me?). They also speculate on this article from MCV about the supposed price and shipping details.

so after sifting through all those articles, i've let it sink in. 50-80 dollars for Natal?! Holy crap, what a good price. Almost a dirt cheap price when you think about it, and if it's just a little better than it was at E3 those 5 million units will disappear FAST!

So now you will have to decide if you have both consoles which to buy first, and single console owners will have yet another piece of hardware for the fanboy flame wars.

Aliens vs Predator: Kill Moves Trailer

Gore Gore Gore!

If the multiplayer has the same level of carnage, I am literally going to be exhausted after playing this game. I'm still debating over getting this game, but jeez it looks fun.