Gamerscore Blog

If you thought Ryu was limited to just one box full of slashing, dismembering fun, think again. On July 25, you will be given the chance to download not one, not two, but twenty four (24 for those who can't read letters) new missions.

There are two sets of missions that make up the 24. Karma missions are based on trying to achieve the highest score possible whereas survival missions have you fend off as many enemies as possible with a single weapon.

The extra missions can be yours for 800 MS Points.

Just In: You asked, and we're answering! Yes, there will be some freshly enabled achievements for you to grab - 10 in total. Point totals haven't been released, yet, but I will update when I get the info! 

Check out some screenshots on our flickr feed.

 

 

It's my turn to blog about the game I've been playing recently, and the game this week is NCAA Football '09.  (That's American Football for your non US citizens.)

Tuesday night I finished the 08-09 season 12-1 with my Ohio State Buckeyes, winning the Rose Bowl against USC - the only team that beat me during the regular season.

If that paragraph made no sense to you let me try it a different way.

The college football season is fast approaching, and NCAA '09 is here for the Xbox 360.  With a metacritic score of 85/100, this is a game that football fans should try out.

The animations, and AI are improved, and this year you can play an Online Dynasty with 11 friends.  Another big feature for sports geeks like myself is the EA Locker Room which allows you to download roster files from friends.  After downloading a roster file from pastapadre, all my players had names.  Good-bye HB #28, hello Chris Wells!

Still not sold?  Did I mention I have 335 gamerscore from playing one season?

I love getting achievements when I play games. I love having the same friends list shared between my PC games and my XBOX 360. And I love not having to pick games from a list of servers, but just having matchmaking that puts me into a game. And today, we made some announcements that are going to make that much more common in Windows games... Games for Windows – LIVE – our online multiplayer gaming service for Windows, now offers completely free multiplayer. No exceptions – multiplayer is completely free, even cross-platform gameplay with XBOX 360 users.

This isn’t just for new Windows games (although there are some great games coming out, like Dawn of War 2 and Fallout 3). We’ve also enabled completely free multiplayer for all existing Windows games that use Games for Windows – LIVE, from Gears of War to Shadowrun to Universe at War.

We also announced that this fall we’ll be delivering a new Marketplace for Games for Windows – LIVE.  I’m excited because we’ll have a central place to get great new content for existing games (including free content of course) and demos, trailers and more.

Check out all the details at www.gamesforwindows.com/live/ - and I’ll see you online!

If you ask anyone they will tell you how much I love green screen.  In fact, my coworkers can attest to the fact that I nearly broke down in tears when they did not agree with my plan to convert the podcast into a CGI animated show using greenscreen.  Sanctuary, a show headed for the Sci Fi Channel, is a production after my own heart which started as a series of webisodes that encouraged fans to remix some of their unedited green screen footage to create funky fan videos.

Why should you care?  We at Xbox have a very nice relationship with the Sci Fi Channel, what with their content on our marketplace and all, and they have asked us for your questions to submit to their panels at ComicCon this week.  Along with Sanctuary, we'll get to ask questions of the cast and crew of Stargate Atlantis, Eureka and Battlestar Galactica.  Yes, Number Six will be there, and NO, I will not ask her any of your filthy questions.

Please begin your list below.

 

Last Tuesday, amidst the chaos of E3, SA Studios/Konsole Kings threw a Gears of War 2 VIP reception at The Last Laugh in the heart of Los Angeles.

Over 200 people showed up at the event and got the chance to mingle with the voice actors from Gears of War 2 as well as Cliff Bleszinski, the main creative force behind the game. Actors, artists, athletes and more sipped cocktails, stuffed their faces with home made tacos and made greasy finger prints on the controllers as they tried out not only Gears of War 2 but also Madden NFL 09.

For those with strong stomachs and an appreciation of skin art, Mr. Cartoon was on site and allowed attendees to watch him finish up one of his amazing pieces.

Ryan Phillipe and Abbie Cornish also showed up to watch the shenanigans and get some gaming in.

Guests got to leave with goodies such as original Gears of War games, Gears of War art books, and more.

This Wednesday, take on dancing with your fingers or flying planes as two new games hit Xbox LIVE Arcade.

In Go! Go! Break Steady, choose a character and make them dance by following visual cues on the screen. Once you have mastered the button break dancing, you are taken to a mini game where you shoot balls to make sets of three or more.

There are 20 songs to choose from and the game features local and online co-op and versus modes.

Go! Go! Break Steady can be yours for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

Relive another classic with 1942: Joint Strike when it also hits Xbox LIVE Arcade on Wednesday.

In this World War II flying shooter, take to the skies with your newly updated 3D HD plane as you blast enemies below to smithereens. Avoid obstacles such as missiles and explosions alone or with a friend. Co-op is available online or locally.

1942: Joint Strike can be yours for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

For more information, please see the media alert.

Today was the second official day for E3 but the 4th day for the GSB crew. We were all pretty beat this morning but still had much more to do. I got a call early to ask if I could help TriXie shoot a piece for Inside Xbox. I think the piece is out now, I'll have to check it out when I get home. We played Lips and Scene It Box Office Smash. I blew TriXie away on Lips while we ... uh... attempted to sing Duffy's "Mercy" but I had my butt spanked in Scene It. I never figured myself for one who would appreciate games like Lips but I find myself picking up the mic more and more with games like Rock Band and American Idol. I have a feeling I'll be picking this one up when it ships.

When we finished filming, I met up with Tony, Chris and Nelson and we headed over to the Marriott to meet up with the Japanese Community Team. We had a great lunch meeting where we talked about the way we run our teams. I think we learned a lot from each other and I know we will be working closely in the future.

After lunch, an interview was set up between several of our MVPs and a write from the Asahi Shinbun Company, which is a Japanese newspaper. They were also interviewed on video by the community team. Everyone said it was a great experience. As soon as we get a copy of the article, I'll share it with you. If you have access to the Japanese Inside Xbox section, you may see some familiar faces soon. Not just MVP's, either. Tony, Nelson, Chris and I all got a little bit of face time with the camera, too. I felt my face turning red as I was doing my part. I hope I didn't look like a tomato...

We got to have a 1/2 hour break before heading out for dinner and the Rock Band reception that was being held at the Orpheum Theater. Last year, I remember TriXie, Tony and I having a blast watching the Queens of the Stone Age. The rumors we had heard everywhere :: coughtwittercough :: were correct this time - it was The Who. I can't say it's really my type of music but they had some pretty awesome songs and to see them perform live was amazing. Pete Townsend was simply stunning with his guitar skills and Roger Daltrey could still throw his mic around without decapitating the rest of his band. It was a great show and John was really getting into it. It was good to see - it's not often we get to see the big bossman let loose!

My personal favorite part of the evening was getting to say hi to Corey Miller from L.A. Ink. I had a total fangirl moment where all I could muster was, "Hey man, I love your work." I'm such a dork...

Tomorrow we're all flying home. It's been a long week. It'll be good to be able to go to sleep at a normal time and I miss my dog.

I hope you enjoyed the announcements Xbox made and are excited about all of the upcoming games. As usual, let us know what you think.

On July 21st, 2008, you will be able to download and play Jade Empire on your Xbox 360.

From Xbox.com:

Xbox Originals on Xbox LIVE Marketplace brings you original Xbox games to play on your Xbox 360. Relive your favorites or find games you missed the first time around.

Jade Empire

Microsoft Game Studios
ESRB M (Mature - Blood and Gore, Violence)
1200 Microsoft Points
(Worldwide)

In the ancient, mysterious world of Jade Empire™, train under your master’s watchful eye and learn powerful Martial Arts fighting styles and mystical powers.

Travel across the world, from the harsh mountains of the Land of Howling Spirits to the lush gardens of the Imperial City. Face powerful human and supernatural foes. Learn exotic and magical Martial Arts.Discover the darkest secrets of the world ...

Only by mastering the greatest fighting styles and defeating the most powerful enemies will you earn your place as a master of Martial Arts in the world of Jade Empire.

In case you missed it on Inside Xbox, Marc Whitten gave an overview of the New Xbox Experience, including a peek at the Guide design.  You will be able to access every part of what exists in the "blades" today, by calling up the Guide.  A quick way to get to something specific, all without leaving the game you're in.  Nice. 

More videos on Xbox.com's E3 2008 Home.

One of the questions we've been hearing here at E3 is how existing themes you've bought from Xbox LIVE Marketplace will work with the new Xbox experience.  The design team sent over this mock up to give you an idea of how it's going to work. 

We've also been asked about the Game Detail Pages.  Here are mock ups for a couple of them.

 

Today marked the first official day of E3. Nelson and Chris headed out early to catch some interviews on video while Tony and John headed off to a morning meeting. I was up bright and early to get my last E3 post up and to color correct all of my photos from the reception last night. Green lights and red lights = real pains to deal with.

I have two laptops with me that are capable of different things, which proved helpful this morning. I got to check out Sony and Nintendo's briefings on one, while I continued to work on the other.

After the fun was over, I headed over to the convention center where I met up with Chris and Nelson. I wandered through the show floor for five minutes. Yes, that's how long it took to do a lap of the hall even with taking in some of the demos.

The FragDolls were on hand at the Ubisoft booth and I laughed as my friend Mischief gave a demo of something on another platform. Yeah, well, it was funny and one of the games required you to control it with your butt. It doesn't take much to make me laugh.

After lunch, I went back to the floor to snap some shots. I passed Dennis Dyack and Helen McWilliams (Harmonix) giving demonstrations and tried to snap some shots without being too stalkerish. Oh, and I found the security guard who yelled at me for taking photos the first day we were there. She's scary!

I met back up with the guys about an hour later and got to hear all of their exploits that involved cash, Starbucks cards and Olivia Munn. Yep, you'll have to wait for the video of that one. Why yes, I am a tease!

After dinner at Johnny Rockets where we ran into the Xbox360Fanboy crew and Ron Workman (he's stalking us), we headed to the Fable 2 reception. Peter Molyneux was on hand to talk to media and drink Sangria. Ok, maybe I was the only one who drank that. I have no idea what Peter had. I do know that he was interviewed by a Playboy Bunny, though.

I took a little time to play some of the upcoming pub games as well as some of Fable itself. I can't wait for them to be officially released. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear much of the audio over the rumblings of the attendees but the visuals made me very happy.

At the end of the night, Richard Mitchell allowed me to take photos of him acting out "X3F" (Xbox360Fanboy). Justin McElroy from Joystiq was not amused.



I refuse to fall asleep in my clothes again so I shall leave you guys to dream of Marcus, or Peter Molyneux, or the Playboy Bunny, or Cliff B, (in the case of Chris who had a "moment" with his idol today. If only I could have taken a photo in the room. It brought a tear to my eye.)

Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 16), an extra game is being thrown your way - IN YOUR FACE! We're talking Double D Dodgeball from YUKE'S Co., Ltd. on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

This game has everything the childhood game has except having to suffer the wrath of being last picked for a team - that is, unless you have more than 8 people who want to play. Yes, you can play with up to eight people in a four-on-four match over Xbox LIVE. If you prefer a more intimate setting, you can play with as few as two-on-two.

You can choose from various characters who all have unique abilities, change up the playing field with a different surface, change the projectile, change the rules from East to West and more.

Double D Dodgeball can be yours for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

Yesterday was a crazy day for the whole community team. Not only did we have to make sure that the news got out on time, but we were busy escorting community members to meetings, taking photos and shooting video.

Everything started off with the Microsoft Press Briefing at sort of around 10:30ish AM. Don Mattrick, John Schappert and Shane Kim took the stage and talked us through the New Xbox LIVE Experience, our outlook for the next year and even took part in some goofy role playing to showcase "You're in the Movies". Also, the singer, Duffy, sang for us as Lips was shown in the background.

The New Experience consists of:

• A completely new interface
• Personalized Avatars
• Eight person party system (Ohhh Yeahhhh!)
• Ability to access the Marketplace on the Web
• Xbox LIVE Primetime (online party games, some with live hosts. Play against your friends and others on LIVE)
• Support for different screen resolutions (16X10 over VGA or HDMI, and support for 1440x900 or 1680x1050)

For more, check out the press release and Marc Whitten's letter.

Other exciting news was the announcement of a partnership with Netflix. Gold members who sign up for a Netflix account and you will have access to a library of movies that can be streamed to straight to your Xbox.

For more info on this, check out the press release.

Games talked about included:

• Final Fantasy XIII
• Gears of War 2
• Fable II
• Too Human
• Resident Evil 5
• Fallout 3
• Lips
• Guitar Hero World Tour
• Rock Band 2
• You're in the Movies
• Scene It? Box Office Smash
• Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
• DanceDanceRevolution
• UNO RUSH
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
• 1 vs. 100
• Galaga Legions
• Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
• Portal: Still Alive
• South Park
• Grand Theft Auto IV - Downloadable Episodes
• Halo Wars
• Infinite Discovery
• The Last Remnant
• STAR OCEAN: The Last Hope

For more details, check out the press release.

After the briefing, Chris, John and I headed over to the Sheraton with some community members to attend a de-briefing by Marc Whitten. Many questions were asked about the upcoming new Xbox experience. Believe it or not, we don't always agree with everything that happens on the console and we were glad to hear some of our own opinions echoed at the meeting. We also wanted to make sure that all of the amazingly cool stuff didn't get overlooked and there was plenty of that talked about - Did I mention the 8 person party system?

The whole team met up at a Starbucks for a small community get-together. It was good to hear impressions of the announcements from even more community members.

We had about an hour of downtime before getting some dinner and heading over to the Gears of War 2 reception.

Chris, Nelson and I stayed later than our boss-people (some people need more sleep than others) and managed to catch some pretty sweet photos and video of all of the guests. This was sort of a special event because it was the first time many of the voice-actors involved in the game had actually been together in the same place. You could definitely feel their excitement to see each other. Zach Levi and Josh Gomez also showed up to get their hands on the new game. These were two of the most hilarious guys I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. And they're not "those guys who show up to have a photo taken", they're real gamers. Josh actually lent his voice to some of the characters in Bioshock. We also bumped into Godfree, Parris Lilly, Nick Puleo, Bobby Blackwolf, Richard Mitchell, Dustin Burg, Eric Bush and that Ron Workman guy.

After we all captured what we needed, we headed back to the hotel. I sat down and looked through my shots but realized my eyes weren't really open. I collapsed in bed fully clothed.

Bring on Day 2!

E3 has delivered the following Video Media Alert regarding some of the games you can expect in the next few months on the Xbox 360.

Information covered in this video

• Fable 2
• Gears of War 2
• Guitar Hero World Tour
• Rockband 2
• Lips
• Uno Rush
• Galaga Legions
• Portal: Still Alive

Today, Marc Whitten shared the following letter with us concerning the new Xbox experience:

Dear Xbox LIVE Member,

When we launched Xbox 360 in November 2005, Xbox LIVE was integrated directly into the console.  Back then, Xbox 360 was the first system to deliver access to experiences beyond just the disc in the tray.  With the Xbox guide and dashboard you had access to everything on your console as well as your community.  

We also imagined that Xbox experience would continuously improve over time, through the power of software.  

Since launch, you’ve always pushed us to continuously innovate.  It is because you spoke with one loud voice that we added new features like background downloading, 1080p support, movies and TV shows, video chat, a Marketplace blade and instant messaging.
 
Over time, as we’ve delivered more and more content into the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, we’ve heard from many of you that it has become increasingly difficult to find the games and content you want.  

And that brings us to today.  

Because of your feedback, we started rethinking the entire Xbox experience.  What we discovered was that we could not only provide a better experience for you, but also something that reaches out to new audiences.  

What John Schappert unveiled for the world on stage at E3 was just a sneak preview, so I wanted to share some deeper details on some of the new features in the new Xbox experience.

Here is a look at some additional features you will find interesting:

• Play from hard drive.  Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive.  Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well.  Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game.  

• Access Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web.  Browse and purchase Marketplace content whenever you want from Xbox.com and it downloads automatically to your console.  Purchase that new map, television episode, the latest Xbox LIVE Arcade game or set up a movie to watch when you get home from work.

• Dashboard built into the new Xbox Guide.  For everyone who loves the blades interface, it’s not going away; they are now built directly in to the new Xbox guide. Every feature and option is available right from the guide.  You can even access your full games library at all times.  No matter where you are (in dash or in game), immediately call up your games played list and directly launch a game.    

• LIVE Party system.  Create a party of up to eight friends, and stay with them from one game to another, or watch a Netflix movie together, or share a slideshow of your personal photos.  It works with all Xbox 360 titles, not just upcoming games.  LIVE Party allows up to eight  people to chat in the dashboard, so you can meet up before playing.  

• Xbox LIVE Primetime. This whole new category of games is going to give you more reasons to get online with your friends.  Games will support everything you’d expect, like Achievements and leader boards, but many of these games will include real prizes.  You can invite your friends, and even set a reminder for an upcoming show.  Each game is broadcast simultaneously, so everyone is answering the same questions.  Many events will have a live host, calling the shots as they happen.  

• Avatars. Your online identity started as a Gamertag - it then grew into a personalized Gamercard. Now, it has evolved even further into avatars.  You can express your style, check out new outfits and share this with the community.  Avatars will also be integrated into Xbox LIVE Arcade games, LIVE Party, as well as retail games.    

• New display support. Because you asked for it, we are adding 16X10 over VGA or HDMI, and support for 1440x900 or 1680x1050.

This is only the beginning.  Over the next few months, we will share more details on the upcoming changes.  

See you online,

Marc Whitten
Gamertag- Notwen