The aluminum case not only refaces the 360, but also throws in extra cooling by way of three 120mm fans to help prevent the RROD. Now if I could only figure out how much it costs and how I can order one.

[Industrirepro via technabob]

Another Xbox 360 lawsuit? Oh, yes! Datel, which makes all sorts of video game accessories, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft because it “has taken steps to render inoperable the competing Datel memory card for no visible purpose other than to have that market entirely to themselves.”

The lawsuit is intended to “restore competition.”

Microsoft hasn’t responded to Datel’s legal eagles.

I can think of a few ways to end this post. One is to say, well, Microsoft has the right to license accessories for its hardware, and if it chooses not to allow Datel’s stuff on there, then there you go.

(The lockout worked by disallowing memory cards above a certain size from being recognized by the Xbox 360.)

The other is to say, Datel provides a much needed service by offering memory cards of a certain size; Datel wouldn’t make them if people weren’t buying ‘em.

You’ll note that you can stick any ol’ hard drive inside the PS3, so it’s not like there’s an industry-wide conspiracy against being able to add storage to your system.

Not that I’ve ever had any use for an Xbox 360 memory card.

At least 2 million Xbox Live users have logged into Facebook this past week, which I guess means the feature is a bit of a success. (You’ll recall that Microsoft launched Facebook and Twitter to so much enthusiasm last week.) Mysteriously, Microsoft didn’t reveal the number of people who logged into Twitter. Is this the end of Twitter?

No, of course not. Maybe it just means that Xbox Live users don’t see any value in using Twitter when there’s no way to click all those bit.ly links?

In related “social” news, Microsoft says that around half a million Last.fm account were created with the launch of Xbox Live-Last.fm compatibility.

Needless to say, these applications weren’t a total waste of time on Microsoft’s part. I’m still not convinced of the value of using Facebook or Twitter from the couch—don’t you have a Facebook or Twitter application on your phone in your pocket?—but I’m decidedly non-plussed by all these newfound “social” applications. It doesn’t help that, generally speaking, I’m an anti-social jerk :-)

Now, there’s a larger point to be made here about whether or not we actually want our video game consoles to become little more than low spec PCs. If you had a top-of-the-line PC, why would you want to buy the PS3 version of, say, Fallout 3 when you can grab the PC version, what with all those mods and whatnot?

Maybe I should save my beans and buy a gaming-worthy PC in the next year, and actually play games like Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Fallout 3, and Call of Duty the way they were meant to be played? I’m very much considering it. Too bad I know *nothing* about what makes a good gaming PC these days.

You’ll recall that Microsoft recently banned a bunch of people from Xbox Live because they had modded their 360s. Modding is against the rules, don’t you know? Microsoft told VentureBeat not to believe the numbers being thrown around—the number most relayed is 1 million banned 360s—because it never releases numbers to anyone.

Again, the larger debate is: should you be allowed to mod your console? I think so, but that’s probably because my opinion on every single issue is, “So long as you don’t bother me in any direct way, do what you want.” You bought the hardware (the 360 itself) so if you want to whip out a soldering iron or flash its DVD drive with a custom firmware, be my guest.

At the same time, Microsoft has the right to say, “Look, Xbox Live is a service that we’re trying to keep as clean as possible. If you’re playing a game on a modded console, it’s much harder for us to ensure that the service is as clean as possible.” (Where “clean” means free from cheating, hacks, etc.) Plus, why should someone be able to play a pirated copy of Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live when everyone else paid for it? It’s not “fair,” if you will.

That a law firm is possibly looking to start a class-action lawsuit over the bans is sorta silly. The law firm may have something when it comes to Microsoft owing some of these people money for the remainder of their Xbox Live contract, but I don’t know what the EULA or TOS for Xbox Live says about service termination. If you’re banned for being a jerk, are you entitled to any money left over on the contract?

The moral of this particular story is, no, Microsoft didn’t ban “1 million” Xbox 360s.

A surefire way to avoid being banned? Don’t use your modded Xbox 360 on Xbox Live.

This is the worst time to be a gamer. Yeah, it’s great that so many good games have come out recently (take your pick from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed II, Left 4 Dead 2, etc.), but it’s pretty difficult to shell out $60+ every other day in the span of two weeks.

This list may help. It’s a bunch of older Xbox 360 games for up to 75 percent off the regular price. Granted, I don’t exactly see Modern Warfare 2 or Left 4 Dead 2, but I do spy veritable hits like GTA IV and Guitar Hero World Tour and Lego Batman and TNA Impact.

I’ve listed TNA Impact primarily as a joke, because as we all know, nobody watches TNA. It’s a shame since so many of those wrestlers (Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Nigel McGuinness, etc.) are pretty darn good.

It’s safe to say that we hear at CrunchGear think you should be able to do whatever you want with hardware that you buy. Let’s take console modding. You wanna flash the drive on your 360 for whatever reason? Fine, go ahead. But don’t think that you can log onto Xbox Live with said modded console, and play your misbegotten wares (or is that warez?), on Microsoft’s network. It’s against the TOS, it makes a mockery of the entertainment medium that you purport to support, and, well, is unfair to the other players.

That said, I can almost understand where this law firm is coming from. AbingtonIP (which seems to specialize in class action lawsuits), a law firm with offices all over the mid-west, has a form on its Web site asking if you were affected by the recent Microsoft ban hammer. The law firm is specifically looking for people who haven’t had their Xbox Live service prorated. That is, say you were six months into your Xbox Live subscription when Microsoft booted you off—are you entitled to roughly $25 in recompense? (An Xbox Live Gold subscription is $50 per year, so if you only received half a year in service, then you can argue you are due $25 for services not rendered.)

Then again, maybe somewhere in the fine print it says that if Microsoft catches you using a modded console on Xbox Live it reserves the right to ban you without having to pay back a single penny for any time you had left on the agreement.

Or you can be a cynic and just assume these lawyers are out for a quick buck. Whatever works for ya.

Look at CNET, breaking news left and right. The site ran a little survey asking its UK readers how many times their video game consoles crashed. No surprise: the Xbox 360 leads the pack with a full 60 percent of heaving died (due to the red ring of death). The PS3 comes in at 16 percent (yellow light of death?), and the Wii is only 6 percent.

Let’s focus on the Xbox 360 numbers. The most amazing thing to come from the survey is how quickly people’s Xboxen broken. It turns out that only 25 percent of those broken Xboxen lasted more than 18 months. So, 75 percent of those Xboxen didn’t even make it to month 18. That’s ridiculous.

One thing to keep in mind about this survey: it wasn’t a random sample. So we’re not saying that 75 percent of all Xbox 360s will, or have, broken within the first 18 months, but that 75 percent of respondents’ Xbox 360s broke within the first 18 months. It might well be that put-off Xbox 360 owners filled out the survey to “stick it” to Microsoft. Owners of broken Xboxes, unite! That kind of thing.

But the overall story—the Xbox 360 is not reliable—is nothing we didn’t know before. I’ve had two Xbox 360s die on me since August, 2006.

Final Fantasy XIII will come out in North America on March 9, 2010 for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. So says the official e-mail we just received. You can’t see it, but there’s a smile on my face right now.

There’s only one thing in the announcement that I didn’t know before.

• The game’s theme song, “My Hands,” will be sung by Leona Lewis. She sang the song “Bleeding Love.” Not that I’ve heard of her, but that’s not my scene, so whatever.

There’s also three new screenshots, featuring Lightning, Snow and Vanille.

Four months to go~!

It seems the Internet doesn’t like GameStop too much, so I’m not sure how this story will be received. The retailer announced at a conference in New York yesterday that it will launch some sort of in-store DLC service next year. That is, let’s say you buy Game, then immediately buy related DLC from inside the store via a special interface. (GameStop worked with both Sony and Microsoft to figure all this out.) Then, when you get home, the DLC is ready to be added to your game.

It’s merely a convenience thing, as, come on, who has time to buy a game at the store, go home, navigate Xbox Live or PSN, then download and apply the DLC?

GameStop’s COO gave a specific example:

If you love X-Men Origins: Wolverine, imagine being able to take home the physical copy at launch, plus have a few costumes and villains sent to your PS3 waiting for you when you get home.

No, this isn’t going to totally change the way you live your life, but it should be useful to those of you who, gasp, still buy things at a retail store.

As of next Tuesday, November 17, you’ll be able to access Twitter and Facebook on your Xbox 360. The software update is free, like previous updates, and also includes Last.fm and Zune video compatibility. “What are you doing?” “Losing to 12-year-olds in Modern Warfare 2 over and over again! Not fun.”

The idea, I guess, is that you’ll be able let your friends know just how much fun you’re having while playing the latest game, or streaming the latest Netflix release, without having to go through the trouble of whipping out your phone or walking over to your computer. I see it as a convenience and nothing more. It may also mean that there’s nothing you can to do stop Twitter’s worldwide dominance.

This is what the Twitter interface looks like in motion:

Note that the Xbox 360 isn’t the only video game console whence you can tweet or alter your Facebook status. The PS3 and Wii come with a built-in Web browser, and a stand-alone Facebook interface for the PS3 was leaked just yesterday.

And while the Twitter and Facebook support will get the most attention, I think it’s the Zune HD support that’s most interesting. Say what you will about the Zune HD—Devin liked it, and I went out and bought it I was so impressed—but the idea of an instant-on, HD, 5.1 surround system movie service certainly intrigues me. Of course, its success now depends on what type of movies are released for it.

Fair warning to those of you who play your modded Xbox 360 on Xbox Live: Microsoft is breaking out the ban hammer. Again.

While Microsoft hasn’t released official numbers, and only says that a “small percentage” of Xbox Live accounts have been banned, I’ve seen the number 600,000 used a lot.

So, 600,000 people who once were able to play their burned DVDs are no longer able to. I’d shed a tear for y’all, but to expect to be able to play copied games online is a bit of a stretch. You want to copy games? Go ahead, your business is your business; I’m not going to preach otherwise. But then to complain that you’re not able to play the game online, well, come on.

The Microsoft statement reads, as told to GamesIndustry.biz:

We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox Live community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox Live.

So there you have it. If you want to play online, you’re going to have to play by the rules. I know that can be difficult in places such as Brazil, where the cost of a legitimate, non-copied game can hover around the $150 mark, but that’s a matter for another day, if not an entire book.

As I cleverly remarked in the official CrunchGear chat room, that a video game leaks a few days before its release is par for the course. When the biggest video game of the year leaks a full week before its release date, it’s worth noting. So that’s what I’m doing right now: Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 has leaked. It’s available where you usually find such things.

Yes, the the Xbox 360 version of the game has leaked, and the ISO weighs in at 6.69GB. It’s the American version, but it’s region-free.

I’d love to know where this came from. I mean, it’s probably just that someone swiped a copy that was sitting in a warehouse somewhere, but you’d figure that all the games would be under lock and key.

So yeah, just sayin’. I don’t even know how to mod my Xbox 360 (Xbox1 was a different story!) so I could give a toss.

And yes, I’m a day late to this news. I need to get back into the habit of checking the release sites every two minutes.

There’s two new Xbox 360 bundles coming your way, UK. To mark the arrival of Transformers 2 and Star Trek to DVD (and Blu-ray), Gem and Paramount pictures have put together these blurry bundles.

The bundles are largely identical, and both include an Xbox 360 Elite, an extra controller, and the movie on a USB drive. No DVD for you, friends.

Paramount hasn’t said whether or not these bundles will be released outside of the UK.

And if you do live in the UK, keep your eyes peeled because the release date hasn’t been revealed, nor has the the price.

I’ve seen neither movie, but I’m going to assume Star Trek is better, just because Transformers 2 is, by all accounts, garbage.

via Kotaku

How much you enjoy Forza Motorsport 3 entirely depends on the time you have to invest in it. If you’re able to put in the man-hours you’ll find a racing sim that’s a deep as you want it to be, and just as rewarding. If you’re only able to play a few minutes here and there, well, it’s not really the same thing.

The game presents itself as a driving simulator, but one that won’t punish you for not knowing the difference between a carburetor and a CD changer. And, incidentally, you’ll be changing the game disc as soon as you turn it on, for the game’s developer’s, Turn 10, couldn’t fit it all on just one; an optional content install prompts as soon as the game loads. You’ll need approximately 2GB of free space on your hard drive to get the entire FM3 experience.

From there a cheery British announcer guides you through the game—it’s as if you’re playing Top Gear. The standard modes are there, but it’s career mode that shows the game in its best light. You’re granted a low-level car—something that you yourself may well own in real life—then race from event to event, earning credits and plaudits from other car manufacturers along the way. The credits are used to buy upgrades, while after the occasional successful race you’ll get a message along the lines of: “Fiat thinks you’re a good driver, so they’re giving you this brand new car for free!”

Lather, rinse, repeat. You’ll go from Class Z clunker to Class A holy-cow-this-is-fast as you plug along in career mode, which will take some time. Better skip out on Heroes this week if you want to make the most of this game.

The game looks good, yes, but I’m hesitant to call it the best-looking racing game I’ve ever played: that title belongs to Racer Driver: Grid. (Note: I never bought Dirt 2 because rally racing doesn’t appeal to me.) I don’t know, things just look too shiny to me. The best way I can describe it is, remember the first few FIFA games for the PS3/360, and how “shiny” the player models looked? I get the same feeling here.

Not that we’re graphics whores ’round these parts, but I’d be remiss to not mention how the game looks.

To make another comparison to Race Driver: Grid, I do feel that the menus in the game, and just the way the game is presented, is less interesting than Codemasters’ hit. In Grid, menus fly by and spin in circles, you can see people walking about your garage while selecting a new paint scheme, your earned credits fill up in dramatic fashion, slowing down as you approach an upgrade point… It just seems more “next-gen,” more “hmm, now this is different” than FM3, which is very much “well, this isn’t anything special.”

So is the game good? Yes, of course; I dare you not to enjoy it. You will, however, have a much better time if you can sit there for several hours rather than treating it as a quick “hey let me kill 10 minutes” fix.

That’s it.

Maybe I’m speaking for the minority here, but I have to get this off my chest: Project Natal is sorta “meh,” no? I attended Popular Mechanics’ Breakthrough Awards for a few minutes last night, and they had on display Project Natal. It was that paint-throwing game. Now, I know that’s just a tech demo, but I left feeling a little concerned about its future.

Now, it’s no secret that I’m an old school gamer who’s both afraid and annoyed by excessive change. I never bought a Wii for that very reason: I really don’t fancy flailing around like a fool when all I want to do is play a round or two of Street Fighter or whatever. (Admittedly, the Wii is fine for party situations when you’re all making fools of yourselves, and it’s about atmosphere more than anything else.) And while Natal—which always reminds me of Christmas for some reason—definitely gives off the initial, “Oh, that’s neat!” feeling, I really can’t see myself playing an entire adventure game using it.

At the event was Natal, of which we were not allowed to take photos or video of, and a bunch of other inventions and whatnot that I can’t remember right now. I hung around for a hot 20 minutes, and the Natal demo was the same one that was shown at E3. You know, the one where you move your on-screen avatar to throw paint and whatever. And hey, it worked as advertised: you move your arm this-a-way and your avatar moves right along with you. It’s damn near 1:1.

So again, the tech behind Natal is great. I’m just worried about the implementation.

How many Wii games do you know that made real, clever use of the controller? How many shooters have tried to replicate the precision of a mouse and keyboard by having you move the controller in 3D space? What’s going to make Natal so different? At the very least it’s going to be a little while before we see the project’s Super Mario 64, something so radically different, if not radically better, than what preceded it.

I don’t know, I’m rambling here, and lost my point several sentences ago. I guess I can boil it down to this: Yes, hooray for Natal and the underlying technology, because, yeah, it’s pretty damn amazing, I’m just having a hard time seeing it develop into anything more than a glorified tech demo. How would you play a Halo or Tekken with it?

From the eBay listing,

In an effort for full disclosure about why this item has been listed and re-listed numerous times I will attempt to give a brief description about the events that led to its being de-listed twice, and why it is now up again. Let me first say that EBay DOES NOT endorse this listing in any way, but they are now, to the best of my knowledge, satisfied that all listing requirements have been met.

This item was originally listed on the August 4th, 2009, under the user id dmorrill123 and was de-listed for the following reason: “Insufficient description of the item or no photos of the item.” This problem was remedied by uploading extra pictures and adding some technical information.

This item was again de-listed on August 7th, my original account was suspended, and the item was de-listed for the following reason: “Pay Pal is unable to process a payment of this size”. I have now opened a new account, dmorrill321, and am using a processor other than Pay Pal. To the best of my understanding, all listing requirements have now been met.

This item was again de-listed on October 5th, for the following reasons: “your listing was in violation of eBay’s No Item policy. Listings with the apparent, primary purpose of expressing the seller’s personal views are not permitted.” I am not expressing a personal view with this item and to avoid any confusion on this matter I have taken down the story of how I became the owner of this item. The second reason given: “Unfortunately, we had to remove your listing because the following information violates our policy: Item is listed in Collectibles > Pinbacks, Bobbles, Lunchboxes > Pinbacks > Campaigns, Elections, Politics, but the item being sold is not a pinback, bobble, or lunchbox. A better category for this autographed item would be Collectibles > Autographs > Political > Other.” I have now chosen this new catagory to list under. To the best of my understanding, all listing requirements have now been met.

I don’t how I feel about this. On one hand I would like to see this guy profit off of some crazy right-wing nutjob, but on the other hand it sickens me to think someone has $1.1 million to blow like that. Who knows, maybe after my spot on NCIS last night, my signature is worth something. Maybe I should sign my old iBook and list it for $500k. Any takers?

While I’m sure many of you hang onto Major Nelson’s every word, you might have missed these new holiday bundles that Microsoft is cooking up. There’s the Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle, and the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Game Pack. What do these bundles contain????

• The Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundles comes with an Xbox 360 Elite, and retail copies of Lego Batman and Pure. Such a bundle will cost $299. It goes on sale today.

• The Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Game Pack comes with a wireless black controller, and copies of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Lumines LIVE!, Bomberman LIVE! and a downloadable token for Ms Pac-Man.

I heartily endorse Lumines, but the rest of those games I cannot speak to. If they’re bundle-worthy then they’re probably OK.

Questing in Kalimdor, I received word that, yes, the Wii has dropped in price to $199. After I logged out, I got to thinking: how long can this last? Like, the Wii (and the PS3) came out three years ago, and the Xbox 360 came out four years ago. Given how quickly consumer electronics evolve, how long we can expect to play these systems?

We pretty frequently hear rumors of a “Wii 2,” or whatever you want to call it, but that could well be because the Wii is only slightly more powerful than the GameCube, itself eight years old. How long can you expect people to play a GameCube with a fancy controller? (That’s not a knock against the Wii, of course, but it’s been a little while since we saw all those IT PRINTS MONEY articles.) That said, when was the last time you read something alluding to a PS4 or new Xbox? Heck, you can make the argument that the PS3 is just now starting to find its legs, what with the success of the PS3 Slim. Microsoft, for its part, seems to be clinging onto Xbox Live as a place where you’ll find its innovations.

Then you’ve got the fact that both Sony and Microsoft are tacking on motion control to their respective systems, and you get the feeling that neither company is looking to rush into the next generation. Nope, they’re gonna squeeze as much life out of these guys as they can.

And is there anything wrong with that, maximizing the current crop of systems before tossing them aside?

And let’s not forget that a significant number of people are still playing their games on a small, non-HD TV (probably with the TV’s built-in speakers, too), so these people aren’t even taking advantage of the current generation, let alone some crazy Future Techno gigaflops and whatnot.

I don’t know, I guess the point is: how long do you think the Xbox 360 and PS3 will last? You have to assume that Microsoft and Sony are already working on their next systems, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be playing them any time soon! And if we’re looking at another three years with the same systems, does that bother you? To me, the answer is “no,” it wouldn’t bother me to keep playing these systems (never mind that I mostly play WoW these days) for several more years. (Apologies if this seems disjointed, I’m writing this with one foot out the door.)

So, this is what that Halo anime series, Halo Legends, looks like. It needs to be said that my knowledge of anime is more or less non-existent (I saw Akira once when I was around 16-years-old. It didn’t change my life.), so pardon my inability to critique it with any degree of competence.

Geekologie says it “look[s] okay,” which I think is good, right? I mean, Microsoft did hire a lot of those “name” studios to put this thing together, so anything less than “okay” probably would have been a disappointment.

So yeah, the series should be somewhere this fall. I guess I’ll give it a shot. It’s not like there’s anything particularly interesting on TV these days.

Was it the PS2 or PS3 that was banned from Iraq because of fears that Saddam Hussein’s regime would co-opt the system for nefarious ends? Or maybe I made that up? It doesn’t matter. The point is that, yeah, your favorite video game system (well, maybe not the Wii) is pretty damn powerful little computer. So powerful, in fact, that it can be used rather effectively by doctors and researchers.

The deal is that a computer scientist in England has come up with a way to use the Xbox 360 “to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks.” (I wonder if there’s an achievement for that, jkkjkj.) Instead of using the system’s hardware to pump out 3D graphics and horrible voice acting, the system:

delivers data tracking how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells. This creates a model of the heart that allows doctors to identify heart defects or conditions such as arrhythmia, a disturbance in the normal rhythm of the heart that causes it to pump less effectively.

The key is that, compared to traditional hardware, an Xbox 360 is much less expensive, so scientists, hospitals, researchers, etc. can load up without going bankrupt.

I was going to do some sort of red ring of death joke, but, eh, I just all of a sudden changed my mind. So instead, I’ve just told you that I originally intended to write said joke, but now I don’t have the pressure of actually coming up with something reasonably chuckle-worthy. Win-win, I say.

Yes, the headline was purposely bombastic. Everyone knows gaming peaked with the SNES.

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