Now I'll be the first to admit, I trash talk on Xbox Live.  I don't cuss people out or anything like that, it's more of a playful thing.  I remember when I first had Xbox Live and using a sampler to play selected clips out loud enough for people to hear them over my headset, yes it seems crazy but it was hilarious to hear people's reactions.  Well it looks like someone had a similar idea to me and basically released a sampler for Xbox Live the hooks right into your headset.  Apparently it's called The Smack Talk, which makes sense, but that's kind of a lame name if you ask me.  Will I be picking this up?  Hell yeah, and ,most likely I'll end up using it not to talk trash but just to play hilarious audio bites, but seriously, you know I'm gonna have that says my gamertag, maybe a certain song....

Linky

Source: Neoseeker.com

Yes, I've been quiet as of late, but TGS was going on and I learned my lesson during E3, it's pointless to blog during large gaming conferences if you're not there. So today's "news" would be the supposed leaked info about what MS will be announcing at X06. If this stuff is true then WOW. Some of the highlights are Halo 3 multiplayer info and video, Fable 2 confirming multiplayer, 8+ playable demos releasing on marketplace and so much more. Sick of reading my blog? Well you should be. Just go to Neoseeker for the full details., well their forums rather.

When my third PS2 finally crapped out on me I decided I was finished with the console. I had an Xbox and a Gamecube (which shortly thereafter died) and that was going to satisfy my gaming appetite. While I had Halo and Xbox Live over the years I've had sit back and wish I could play games such as God of War and Guitar Hero. Well, it looks like I will finally be able to play Guitar Hero, or a sequel. Activision has announced that Guitar Hero will be playable on "every significant new format".

This is definitely exciting news because the list of Sony powerhouse games that are exclusives seems to be ever shrinking. First it was Final Fantasy XI, then GTA, and now Guitar Hero. The outlook for Microsoft is looking better than ever.

Source: Eurogamer

This news is brought to you by me, Feelz Good "The Unofficial Xbox Community Whore".  That's what I call myself now by the way, but I guess I'm more of a slut since I don't get paid.

It seems that MS' push to become a force in the Japanese gaming market is working and the TGS info might be the driving force behind this.  A new Yahoo games poll asks whether gamers plan to buy a Wii or a PS3 but also offers the option of neither I'll buy and Xbox 360.  Out of 28,725 Japanese gamers polled 63% (18,004) said they plan to buy an Xbox 360.  Online polls aren't all that accurate, but there's gotta be something to this.

Link to poll

While this isn't all too exciting, I thought that I'd share.  Tuesday September 19th Xbox Live will be offline from 2:00am - 5:00am PST.  That means 5:00am - 8:00am for those of us on the east coast, I only said that in case you don't get the whole time zone thing intially.  Also, the My Xbox section of Xbox.com will be down and while you'll be able to read through the forums you won't be able to post.  Supposedly it's just some routine maitenance so don't be looking for any kind of update just yet.  I wonder if the vision camera  updates to games is on the fall update or will come sooner.  Just a bit of speculation, but Xbox Live going offline for maitenance and the vision camera being relased on the same day seems a bit to coincedental to me.

All I have to say is WOW, no that doesn't stand for World of Warcraft you nerds. I'm talking about the Cooler King, a new product for the Xbox 360. This is like an intercooler or steroids, not only does it keep your system cool but it gives you 4 more usb ports, vga out (so you can save on the official vga cable), and other various outputs.  Now you use every possible accessory you can think of.  Want to hook up your vision camera, ipod, wireless adapter, play and charge kit, and a wired controller?  Now you can.  Let me just give you the official wording, I'm too excited to type.

Source: Pinpoint

Yay, I get to blog about a rumor before the guys, and gal now, at Gamerscoreblog can shoot it down.  The MS blogging scene is awesome for that very reason, while a company may not want to comment on rumors, the people that really interact with the community and care are down to do it.  So the new/old rumor that's resurfacing is that there will be a 3rd sku for the Xbox 360 (notice how I've stopped calling it the 360 and now say Xbox 360?) featuring built-in HD DVD.  How many times does this rumor have to be killed?  A better question would be how long after this rumor's shot down until it resurfaces?  Supposedly a Taiwanese company is talking to manufacturers about the plan.  Go ahead and check out Next Generation for more info.

Now here's the interesting thing, I don't totally doubt this.  I used to know a guy through a certain forum and he obviously worked for Microsoft, or was close with someone who did.  Seriously, this guy wiped his butt with NDA and was down to tell some cool stuff.  Sadly I haven't talked to him in about a year, he either has a different job now or decided to be a good little boy for once.  One of the tasty bits of info he told me about was the 2 sku's at launch, which he told me a month of two before that announcement.  He also told me about a 3rd sku to be releasesd, or being discussed.  So the possibility of a third sku was there at some point.

I'm considering making up a blog about a secret source telling me about a price drop for the Xbox 360.  It might be fun to see that leak out onto major sites/blogs again.  Wouldn't you hate me if I did that?

Yes, it's true, I own a video iPod, and I love the lil guy.  Well today Apple made a big announcements and rolled out games and movies.  The really cool part is that the games for the iPod are very similar to some of my Xbox Live Arcade favorites.  There's Zuma, Texas Hold 'Em, Bejewled, and Pac Man.  Now I can't see why I even need these when you consider I own a laptop, a DS Lite, and an Xbox 360, yet I'm compelled by the gaming Gods to give it a try.  So here I come Zuma.

While I'm totally against modding your 360 to do anything illegal I must confess my love for case mods.  If I actually felt like posting pics of my OG Xbox you'd see what I mean, normal people flip when they see it because of the mods I made, and I must admit it's quite lovely.  Well unless you're living under a rock, or buried under a pile of paperwork, then you have seen the awesome laptop 360 mod.  If you haven't seen it, then yes, you read that correctly, a 360 was modded into a laptop.  It's all over the major blogs and news sites, and to be honest, it's one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long time.  I'll post some pics in my photos for you, but you can see pics and videos of it on the following links. 

Kotaku
Xbox-Scene

Now I actually have more news in case modding land.  A new case for the 360 has emerged on Divineo.com, and it's the first custom case that's tempted me to open my 360 and make the change.  It's a black case, with an X carved out of the top and replaced with clear plastic, and it's backlit by led's.  You can even choose the color of led's you want in it.  Again, I'll post pics, you'll love it, it's so beautiful.  I'm so conflicted, do I void any service agreement with MS just to have a sweet 360?  Who knows, but the page is bookmarked so it's likely I'll make the change eventually.  Another link

If you're into case modding, especially outside of painting, adding windows, and led's hit me up with an email or on MSN.  I'll blog about it, and more importantly I can get you recognized on other sites.  I'm going to setup a gmail with my gamertag later today, but for now hit me up at just.nick.p@gmail.com.

Yes, another Saturday at work for me where I have to sit around doing nothing waiting for someone to bring me proofs.  I'm sure I'll bust out the DS Lite shortly and get some gaming in (how I wish we had wireless internet) but until that time I'm going to blog.  I've spent the last 30-45 minutes searching various websites, blogs, and forums to find something worthy of my blog that isn't on every site, and gladly I found something that's only on half of the gaming sites out there.

So let's talk about Dean Takahashi's recent article on Bungie (yes this is the same guy who wrote Opening the Xbox and The Xbox 360 Uncloaked).  Well apparently he's speculating that there are not one but two projects in the works at Bungie outside of Halo 3.  Apparently two of the top Bungie guys are working on one game, while there's a whole other team working on a different game.  Rumors like this have been flying around the net for the last couple months, but this seems to be the first article with any kind of specific info, even though it only names names.  Some of the the rumors have been about Halo based RPG's, RTS, and prequels.  While I'd love to see one of those made, I really hope these other two games aren't all Halo based games.  Let's be honest, Halo's amazing, it's why I got Xbox, but I'd love to see something new from the people who brought us Halo.  How exciting would that be?  So, what are your thoughts, what would you like to see from Bungie?

Yet another link to the article

Wow, two blogs in one day, I know you must be as shocked as I am.  Work's a little slow today, even though I'll be here tomorrow, but 95% of the time I spend here tomorrow will be me playing the DS Lite.

So apparently some images from the fall dashboard update have leaked onto the internet.  To be more specific it's on Maxconsole.net, there seems to be some cool graphic changes, XNA stuff, and you can now open your dvd drive through the dashboard (now if they'd only offer a 5 dvd changer you lazy people would never have to get off your arses except to wash your orange cheeto-stained fingers).  You should check it out, it's pretty cool.

From: Maxconsole.net

Ladies and gentleman, we're delighted to present to you the worlds first screens to public knowledge of the Xbox 360 Autumn (Fall) dashboard update. The new update offers some truly brand unique features, you will see the XNA launch pad (to run homebrew games freely made with the free XNA studio express for amateur developers), the white Xbox Live arcade image logo loading screen which replaces the traditional logo and a few more cool things. Better yet, it's scheduled for a release in November with lots of features which games shipped after this period will be able to take advantage of - PS3 watch out!

Well I love my MS consoles, but hey I'm a gamer, I've at one point owned every console from the last generation.  With the current/next gen coming up for other companies we've seen some real disappoinment, well mainly from Sony.  I figure at some point I may get a PS3, but by the time I'm ready and able to get one I doubt I'll want it. With all the recent delay and quantity cut news a hilarious website has emerged.  It's called Thisiswaiting.com.  It's mainly Europeans complaining about the delay of the PS3, and it's hilarious.  They have some great photoshopped images and if you're a fan of Xbox or Nintendo it will definitely make you bust out laughing.  Here's an example of one of the hilarious images you can find, but seriously, check the site out.