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.

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

Good news, everyone. (I hope people understand that reference.) Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City comes out tomorrow, and to help grease the wheels a little bit, this weekend will be a free-play weekend on Xbox Live for GTA IV. That is, if you have GTA IV but don’t subscribe to Xbox Live Gold, you’ll be able to play online multiplayer this weekend.

Hey there, amigo. Have you logged onto Xbox Live today? Don’t! Well, not unless you’re looking forward to dealing with a few post-maintenance glitches.

Microsoft officially outed the Zune HD a week ago, but the Amazon product listing under the Technical Details section is talking about Xbox Live integration that wasn’t mentioned in the Microsof presser.

Integration with the Xbox LIVE network gives you access to millions of videos, TV shows, and games from Xbox LIVE720p HD video output to your HDTV with optional docking station

There is more too.

Is it to early to proclaim—loudly, as you do—the practice of buying video games at retail dead? Yes, it probably is too early; yet we continue. Microsoft’s announcement today that it will make available, sometime this year, full retail games available for download via Xbox Live, may well be more important than Project Natal, or “Project Christmas” as I like to call it. (All those months spent learning Portuguese have finally paid off!) And while, yes, it make be too early to make any sort of rushed pronouncements, I’d say it’s say to start thinking about the future.

Microsoft is taking bold, new actions against cheating on Xbox Live. (You can cheat on XBL? Why would you even bother?) So explains one Stephen Toulouse, from Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement, in a recent Major Nelson podcast. It comes down to this: if you’re caught cheating on XBL, Microsoft will reset your Gamerscore and put a permanent marker on your Gamertag that says, “This person is a cheater. Be aware!”

Within lies the Fallout 3: Broken Steel trailer. The expansion comes out tomorrow on Xbox Live and Games For Windows Live. It’ll cost 800 Microsoft points. It raises the level cap from 20 to 30, and it somehow fiddles with the game’s ending. That is all.

It’s time to get excited, friends. Not only will Capcom release Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network this summer, but it will release demo this Thursday. That means you only have to wait two days till you’re unleashing 100+ hit combos and trash talking like you never thought you could.

Heads up, 360 gamers. You can now find Rockstar’s Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on Xbox Live. Each game costs 1,200 Microsoft points, or $15 in non-spacebucks.

I can think of no better way to leverage the gaming power of the XBox 360 than by playing the seminal Brøderbund platformer Lode Runner! Running back and forth, climbing, digging, collecting gold, and avoiding robots: Lode Runner has everything a game needs. And now it’s available on XBox LIVE, with lush new graphics, multiplayer support, and the all-important level editor for hours of fun!

Six years ago, news of a new Xecutuer BIOS would have had me counting down the hours till school let out, at which point I’d go home and flash my X2 Pro with Team Xecuter’s latest handiwork. (That particular Xbox has since been moved around so much in various moves that the X2 Pro has been disconnected, thus ending the fun.) But now, the iXtreme hacked firmware for the Xbox 360? I couldn’t even tell you where to get it (still #xbins?), nor what to do with it. But! I can read a carefully put together list, and hence know what’s new with the latest firmware, version 1.6. Big news: greater precautions taken to prevent your banning from Xbox Live.

You can now buy digital downloadable Xbox 360 goodies from Amazon. That is, you can head over to amazon.com and buy a, say, Duke Nukem 3D download code, then download the game from your Xbox 360 using said code. Yes, sorta like using xbox.com, but now it’s Amazon, so there

How dumb are people? Someone at the weekend put a phony ad on Xbox Live. Advertising what, exactly? Oh, you know, just someone’s child. Yup, a Florida woman’s child was listed as “for sale” by a couple of knuckleheads (presumably this is at least a two-man job: one guy to come up with the idea, and the other to convince him to carry it out). They even included the woman’s phone number in the ad!

In the off chance that you guys haven’t logged onto your Xbox in the last few days I wanted to tell you that there’s an in-dash special on Xbox Live Gold memberships. For a limited time Silver members can upgrade to Gold for $40. That is all.