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With all of the new

fresh meat

people on Xbox Live with the release of the Xbox 360, we figured we would gather the Gamertags of the readers to make it easier to find people to add to your Friends List to play against on Live - and gloat to over your latest Gamer Points achievements. We have set up a thread on our forum where we would love for you to post your Gamertag. We will keep the list nice and tidy for you right at the top.


Read More | Gear Live Forums: Reader Gamertags


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Llamma Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is only 7 days old and it’s already been blinged out. When J Allard said to take the Xbox 360 out of their hands and make it your own, Llamma’s Adventures did a little more than just slap on a new faceplate. Their work on the Xbox 360 is just plain awesome. Their mod sports a window, cathode lights, an added fan for air flow, custom paint, a blue Ring of Light, and a 60 GB laptop drive in addition to the 20 GB already on the console. You can be sure we’ll be attempting that cool controller LED mod.


Read More | Llamma Adventures with the Xbox 360


HDTV Cable Connection

We have been hearing from a lot of people that have experienced their fiber optic digital audio cable not sitting in the aduio slot on the Xbox 360 High Definition A/V cable. We even experience this phenomenon, as we don’t hear or feel that satisfying “click” when we plug the optical cable in - and it will fall out with the slightest tug. Anyone else?


Kameo Elements of Power

Kameo: Elements of Power is one of the first party launch titles available on the Xbox 360, courtesy of Rare. This is the one that has been in development since the Nintendo 64 days, so we were expecting excellent presentation and gameplay. The opening cinematic alone was visually breathtaking.

The beginning of the game explains that Kameo’f family is being held hostage at the top of the castle, as the elves and trolls are now at battle. You need to morph into different life forms in order to make it there to save them, and the game shows you the strengths of each form Kameo can take on. To make it through the first level, Thorn’s Castle, you are required to use the three different elemental warriors to get through the different situations layed out before you.

Floating hints guide you through the level, showing you new ways to use the powers that are at your disposal. We took about thirty minutes to get through the level, as we neglected to read a few of the hints. When we finally made it to the first boss fight, the game was intuitive enough that we had him down within two minutes. Unfortunately, it was all a teaser to whet your appetite! At the end of the level, Kameo loses all of her elemental warrior powers, and begins her journey to regain those powers, along with saving her family.

As a side note, this game is absolutely gorgeous. We loved how spider blood splashed onto the screen whenever we killed one.

After regaining one of the elemental warriors, Kameo is sent to rescue Halis. In this stage, you get a great look at just what the Xbox 360 can do, as hundreds of trolls appear on screen, with Kameo and a newfound friend running them down on their horses. If you remember the 128 Marios demonstration that was used a few years ago, it is similar to that, but amped up many levels. Seeing that many characters onscreen was a joy.


Geometry Wars Evolved

If there is one game that is a bargain in the Xbox 360 launch line up, it has got to be Geometry Wars. You won’t find the game on any store shelf, as it is one of the downloads available in the Xbox Live Marketplace. For 400 points, which equals $5 USD, you get one of the most visually appealing, intense, and addicting games we have ever seen. The “pick up and play” control scheme makes this one enjoyable by just about anyone, and with a group of onlookers, it’s simply a blast - and ridiculously addictive. This is one of those games where, once you die, you go for one more round. Soon, you realize you have been playing for hours on end. For a visual, imagine Asteroids and Robotron mixed together, amped up, and on crack - no, speed. If there was just one game we would tell you to pick up along with your Xbox 360, it would be this one. It’s that good.


Perfect Dark ZeroWhen we realized that about 90% of the time we try to connect to a multiplayer session over Xbox Live in Perfect Dark Zero, we did some checking. As it turns out, this is not an issue isolated to our network, as plenty of people are experiencing a similar phenomenon. The error message displayed is as follows:

“You have lost connection to the match.”

Ouch. Anyone else having this problem?


Xbox 360 Disc Error

Strangely enough, when I first inserted our Call of Duty 2 disc into the Xbox 360, we got an error stating that the DVD would only be playable on the Xbox 360. Basically, either the disc didn’t realize that it was in an Xbox 360 - or the Xbox 360 didn’t realize that it was, in fact, an Xbox 360. Huh. A quick reboot fixed it, but this is curious nonetheless.


This may sound like a minute detail, but it is just so elegant. The Xbox 360 can be powered on with either the bonus media remote (included in the first 1 million premium packages) or any controller. With the controller, you simple hold down the Xbox 360 logo button in the center, and both the controller and system turn on. The Xbox 360 Ring of Light begins rotating around the power symbol until it syncs with the controller(s), at which point the sections of the ring stay lit depending on the number of controllers connected. It’s so cool that it makes us smile.


Xbox Live Market Place

A lot of portable audio players can be connected to the Xbox 360, but the iPod is undoubtedly the most popular and also the one that requires a few extra steps in order to get it working on the 360. Unfortunately, if you don’t visit the Xbox support pages, you won’t know why some songs don’t play or have a big red circle with a strike through it. Turns out an additional codec is required in order for the 360 to play AAC files from the iPod. Luckily the Xbox Support pages can help us out here. You will need a memory unit if you don’t have a hard drive.

  1. Go to the Xbox Live area of the Xbox Dashboard and select Xbox Live Marketplace, Game Downloads.
  2. Select All Games, Alphabetical List of Games.
  3. Select Optional iPod Support twice (once from Xbox Live Marketplace and again from the Xbox Guide screen), then Confirm Download.
  4. Once your download is complete, select Done and press BACK or B three times to return to the Xbox Dashboard.

Now why Microsoft didn’t just include this codec with every Memory unit sold or every Hard Drive available is beyond us, but now we can enjoy our full music collection on the new Xbox with no problems.

Read More | Xbox Support


Xbox Power Brick Suspended By Box

Most people have heard or read about the freezing issue some people have experienced with their new toy, freezing after a minimal uptime. Everything has pointed to a faulty power supply, and while Microsoft has not issued a statement as of yet, Goldeneyemaster from Gamespot forums took things into his own hands to come up with a solution to the problem: suspend the power “brick” in the air to allow it to dissipate heat through all of its sides. Now you can go about this various ways, you could actually suspend it in the air by means of strings or just get a box with an open top and place it on top. Whatever way you go about it be sure to tell us if this worked for you and what you did. Lets see how creative we can all get with this.


Read More | Gamespot Forums


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