xbox
A reader sent along
this tip, and his complaint, that Microsoft's upcoming
Xbox 360 update will block third-party storage devices.
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video games
Maybe excitement around the
Rock Band video game has faded, but if you were one of the holdouts who were always jealous of friends who brought the game home a couple years back, now is the time to have your latent wishes fulfilled.
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xbox 360
Jon ordered 20 Xbox 360s and was happy with all of them, except for the one that came with a mis-matched power brick adapter. He called
Microsoft customer service but says he was stonewalled, dealing with a rep who was either quite misinformed, lazy, lying, or some combination of the three.
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i've seen better buys, actually
Bryan sent us this photo he shot at a local
Best Buy that shows a helpful employee named Kim has opened an
Xbox 360, hooked it up to the internet and pressed the "X" button, downloading the latest system update. For all this hard, un-requested work, she also added $29.99 to the sticker price.
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roommates -- gotta love 'em
In case you were wondering whether or not it would be a good idea to let your deadbeat roommate use your debit card to sign up for
Xbox Live, Jake checks in to reassure you that no, it's not.
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greed
Eurogamer reports that
Microsoft is charging $7 for the downloadable Crash Course add-on, due this month, to the zombie-splattering
Xbox 360 game Left 4 Dead. Crash Course will be free on the PC version of the game via
Steam, but the Destructoid story cites a Eurogamer interview with Chet Faliszek of Valve, the game's developer. He tells Eurogamer:
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console wars
The history of video game console competitions reads much like that of New York's crime families — you see powerful leaders making bold, risky moves to snuff out their rivals and fierce, tribal alliances that breed clashes between vocal factions.
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red ring around the xbox
Being a jaded
Xbox 360 owner who's watched his console give up the ghost five times, it takes a lot for a tale of
Microsoft customer service woe to move me. And yet a reader named Gower accomplished just that by sending a novel-length soliloquy about his maddening run through Xbox 360 hell. What follows is the Cliffs Notes version (grab your hankies):
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falling hopes, rising prices
Microsoft's greatest triumph with the
Xbox 360 is undoubtedly its Xbox Live service, buoyed by robust selection of downloadable games. You can buy digital versions of classic arcade titles, original Xbox games (and starting next month, Xbox 360 games), avant-garde indie gems and even some Nintendo 64 classics. Customers are so in love with the service that they haven't even noticed that prices for downloadable games have
crept up more than 15 percent since the system debuted in 2005.
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social networking
Good news for gamers, bad news for anyone who count the pixel-obsessed among their social media friends: This Fall
Microsoft will bring Facebook and Twitter applications to the
Xbox 360, allowing gamers to more easily stalk acquaintances from their couches and brag about their gaming accomplishments. Gaming blog
Joystiq covered the announcement, which came at Microsoft's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference in Los Angeles Monday:
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warranties
According to
research by the gaming blog Joystiq, a mysterious
new error has been affecting the
XBOX 360. The "E74" error, according to some non-scientific data compiled by the blog, has been increasing since the debut of NXE (New
XBOX Experience). Now Microsoft is acknowledging the error and extending their 3-year Red Ring Of Death warranty to cover it.
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