X10: Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Announced

Earlier today at Microsoft's X10 event, Capcom announced a very interesting piece of news. A prequel to Dead Rising 2, donned with the subtitle "Case Zero", will be released before the release of the full game, as an exclusive download on Xbox LIVE.

This sounds like a relatively interesting prospect, but I'm left wondering how the game will play. Will it play like Dead Rising? Will you play as Frank West? Will it work as DLC for the game? If it's coming out pre-release, how will it access the second game's on-disc files? Will it be a downloadable add-on for Dead Rising 1? The truth is, we don't know too much about the game yet. The one thing they have said is that it will bridge the gap between the first game and the second.

That seems like quite a bit of story, and it makes me wonder exactly how long the game will be... I'm guessing since it's downloadable, it won't be incredibly long, but a nice solid length for a prequel. My prediction, 2 hours.

So far pricing and a release date have not been announced, but Capcom has announced the release date for the full-version of the game as well as going on to say that it will have a simultaneous release on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Be sure to look for Dead Rising 2 on store shelves this August 31, and get ready for some kickass zombie hacking and slashing, muthafuckers!

Xbox Live Discontinues Original Xbox support, Increased Friend Cap a Possiblity?

Marc Whitten, Xbox Live's General Manager has recently posted a blog over at the Xbox 360 Press website.

He has stated that on April 15th, 2010 Support for Original Xbox games, played through either off of a disc, or through the Xbox Originals service will no longer work on Xbox Live.

The main reason for this has not been stated specifically, but he goes on to say that they will continue to evolve the features of the service, and they need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with Original Xbox games.

I'm just taking a wild guess here and saying that the main change he's referring to is the 100 friend cap on games with a built-in friends list like Halo 2. If so, I would definitely not mind having a higher friends list cap, seeing as how the 100 friend limit has kind of become a burden on me a number of times.

He also mentions something about Natal support with Xbox Live, and I have to imagine that will be something big. I guess we'll just have to wait till more details get trickled out. Until then, you can check out the original article Here.

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.

Halo Waypoint Review

Halo Waypoint, you're probably wondering what the hell it is. Well unlike the suave, cool sounding description you'll get everywhere else. Here's the short and sweet version from yours truly.

Designed in a heartbeat with very little at launch, Halo Waypoint awards Halo fan boys who bought every game and spent every moment playing them with avatar awards. It also excites you by offering a Halo Legends episode weekly even though the series is sub-par and will likely make fan boys cry with the large deviations in the material. In addition it holds Halo news, fanmade content, community screenshots and everything else that makes a Halo fan boy quiver with happiness.

So while there is potential in whatever they add, it offers very little to entertain you for more than 20 minutes.

Facebook, Twitter update to XBL has release date..sorta

Connected Consoles brings us a release date of the upcoming 2nd update to Xbox Live.

Problem is, Connected Consoles detailed this in their news:

Microsoft Xbox have today announced that the new system update that features new applications such as Twitter and Facebook will be arriving in the UK on November 17.

In the UK, will the date differ from the United States???

If so Connected Consoles should have pointed this out, it says UK but there is no mention of a US release date. Since this is a huge update, I am inclined to think this is the universal date for all consoles regardless of location.

So even with some uncertaintly, look out for the Facebook/Twitter update (in the UK at the least) on November 17th.

Xbox Live is limited by Halo 2?!

the friends list question

Many Xbox Live users have occasionally wondered whether the maximum for their friends list will ever grow from 100 users to...well, more. I happen to be one of the people finding it harder to empty my friends list for someone else to send me a request due to a MAJORITY of my current friends being unremovable.

It wouldn't be hard to increase the maximum for the friends list on Xbox Live, but some writers at 1UP indicate of insiders that such an upgrade alone would cease Xbox Live support to Halo 2. That is odd, but if it were true, would people be okay with online multiplayer being cut from Halo 2?

Personally, it's not necessary. I do suffer from running out of room on my friends list, but I occassionally go back to Halo 2. The fact that it holds back Microsoft from increasing the friends list limit is a question of priority. Do people want an even more extensive ballooning of their friend's list, and Halo 2 becoming a single player experience at your home?

I don't.

1 vs. 100 Completely Free Over the Weekend

For anybody who has a Silver Xbox LIVE account out there, and were worried you'd never get a chance to play 1 vs. 100, worry no more!

Starting today on Friday, and going until Sunday, 1 vs. 100 will be available to all Xbox LIVE members, Gold or Silver. So, if you haven't had a chance to play the game yet, or you want to get a friend in there with a headset who doesn't have a gold account, then go for it, man!

How do you become The One?

Tonight I played another great game of 1v100 with friends, goooood times. At 10 PM the game became a live show, and while many just want to be The One, I wanted to because today was the beginning of the big prize sweepstakes.

Although unrelated, I'd like to believe it increases your ability to win the sweepstakes and most of my party was begging to be The One. So we began talking about HOW YOU BECOME THE ONE. Afterwards I thought of it more and more, and I realize there is some confusion to how they choose someone.

Some of the people i've seen get it have little to no gaming score, you have to immediately believe the choosing is random. But consistently I hear playing a lot more extended play increases your chances. If this is true, and it might be, then how is it random? If playing more helps you get a chance at being the one, then its a pool. Not exactly random, but yet once again the low gamer scores tell me they aren't being chosen very wisely.

I'd mostly believe the picking is extremely random if it weren't for the people picked always looking so weird. Take of it what you will, but I think we need some clarification if anything you do gets you closer to being The One.