I realized yesterday that I hadn't written an entry in two weeks, so I thought I'd recap what I've been up to 360-wise.

Most of my time has been spent with Lost Planet. I finished the single player on Normal difficulty then went back through it again on Easy to find all the target markers for the achievement points. I've also unlocked all he multiplayer achievements so I've reaped a total of 800 pts out of the game so far. There are only two more achievements left to get, 150 pts for beating the game on "Extreme" mode and 50 pts for finding all the target marks on all four difficulties. I may attempt Extreme mode just to see how hard it really is, but I doubt I'll play through the game three more times to find all the target marks. 800 just might have to be enough.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. My major gripe with it is the story. While the cut scenes were gorgeous to look at, the narrative wasn't nearly fleshed out enough. It also went in a direction I was not expecting. I thought you'd be fighting the Akrid the majority of the time, but ultimately you find yourself fighting mechs and Snow Pirates as much as giant insect beasts. The game also turns into Zone of the Enders for the last boss encounter, which I found odd. Even with a less than stellar plot and some multiplayer limitations, I feel like I got my money's worth out of it and will be popping it in often to play some Post Grab.

I also played the Crackdown demo. Much like the rest of you, it took quite a while to download. My initial impressions are mixed. While it was fun to run around, jump from rooftop to rooftop, pick up cars and toss them at people, drive up the sides of buildings in the SUV, I wonder how much variety the game will ultimately offer. The main thrust of the game seems to be centered around a series of gangs that need to be taken out, but I hope there is more to do than just run from spot to spot on the map and kill the next group with bad AI. These open world, sandbox style games only seem to be good when they give you a bunch of things to do besides completing the main story missions, which also need a certain amount of variety. Sure, the agility and secret orbs are the same thing as the GTA packages, but I fear that being an officer of the law will limit the amount of mayhem you can cause and variety of gameplay options. The aiming lock-on seems very spotty as well. I found myself locking onto the car the enemy I wanted to shoot was standing next to instead of the enemy about half the time. Too much of that would get very frustrating. It's still a game I look forward to and one that I'll be buying, but I hope the retail version shows some improvement over the demo.

I was happy to hear Double Dragon announced for the XBox Live Arcade, but it joins a growing list of games that have been announced, but don't show any signs of being released. I'm excited to play Symphony of the Night, Worms, Alien Hominid HD, Castle Crashers, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Metal Slug & The Incredible Machine, but none of them have a solid release date. If we're lucky, they assign it to a quarter, but most are just a vague 2007 or TBD. If there is one thing Microsoft needs to do better is get a better handle on the development cycle for these games so they can better pinpoint their releases and get more than one piece of content out per week. They make us wait until Monday or Tuesday to find out what is coming out on Wednesday and it always feels like a letdown when it's a Ms. Pac-Man or a Lumines theme pack. If I knew ahead of time not to expect Symphony until March, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Anyway, it has been a lot of fun playing with some of you Gamespot people on Live. I hope to do more of it in the near future. It's time to go, Jack Bauer is almost on!

In my last blog, I shared my initial impressions about Lost Planet. Since those were overwhelmingly positive, I thought it would be fair to point out some of the shortcomings that plague the game, which I have encountered as I have played more.

This is a nitpick, but the game prompts you to select a storage device every time to boot the game up. I've been told that other games do this, but this is the only game I've played on the 360 which asks you to do this. While it only takes a few seconds, it still seems odd that a game can't automatically detect if you have a hard drive or memory card.

One disappointing thing is the inability to use the grappling hook while in midair. Using the hook feels great and really comes into play during multiplayer matches where you need to climb tall structures quickly, but the fact that you can't jump and grapple is a lost opportunity to give the player a truer feeling of freedom. If Bionic Commando could do it 20 years ago, Lost Planet should be able to do it today.

Another problem is the stumbling animation which is triggered when you get hit, knocked off your feet, or when the ground shakes you off balance. When this animation is running, you are completely vulnerable and the reload time for enemy rockets in the single player is quicker than the animation. Therefore, you can find yourself caught in a loop and quickly drained of your energy, especially during boss battles.

While my praise of the explosions is still in full effect, there is a side effect to those pretty blasts. I have found myself lost in a cloud of smoke a few times when rockets have exploded all around me. The smoke fills the screen and seems to take longer to dissipate than it naturally would, which can cause serious issues when you are trying to aim to return fire.

The story seems weak and confused, but maybe something was lost in the translation. I'm only through Mission 7 (out of 11) so maybe there is a big payoff at the end. The cut scenes are gorgeous though. Even without a coherent plot, its still a ton of fun to run through these levels, tear through bugs, have fierce mech on mech battles and tangle with enormous bosses.

Over the last 2 days, I have played a significant amount of multiplayer and have really enjoyed it. It's a fun, frantic experience and a nice change of pace from the one and done nature of Gears of War. Having never played a Halo or Call of Duty, I wasn't familiar with how intricate and detailed multiplayer maps can be. Exploring all the nooks and crannies, finding shortcuts, figuring out the weapon placements, developing strategies as to how and where to hide has been a fun experience. It's also cool how you unlock new skins and character models every ten levels you gain.

There are a few glitches with the multiplayer mode though. I have seen data posts be activated by no one. What I mean is, there is someone crouching down and activating the post, but he isn't visible until he stands up again. Some maps have issues with their respawn points where one team always has the high ground on you. That gets frustrating as you can barely emerge from your base before getting hell rained down on you from above. Sometimes you get stuck in place when you pick up a weapon. It’s rare but I've heard people complain about it. The game modes are limited to four (Elimination, Team Elimination, Post Grab & Fugitive) and you'll probably only end up playing two of them regularly unless you like the idea of 15 on 1 odds.

With all that said, I still love the game. The good far outweighs the bad in my estimation. . I just didn't want anyone to think I made the game out to be perfect because it's not, but it certainly is a fun, VERY challenging game. I warn you, certain points will make you want to toss your controller. It may be frustrating, but when you make progress, it does feel rewarding. I still recommend it to anyone who enjoys run and gun style shooters.

One of the first things I did when I purchased my 360 was download the Lost Planet demo from last year's E3. Along with Gears of War, the impending release of Lost Planet was one of the main reasons I decided to pull the trigger on buying an XBox. Well as you all know, the game has finally arrived on US shores and I made sure to pick up my copy during lunch on Friday. As soon as I got home, I threw the disc in to see if Lost Planet lived up to the hype.

I have only played through the first two missions thus far, but from what I have experienced, Lost Planet does not disappoint. The opening tutorial explains a little of the back-story. Settlers have come to colonize planet E.D.N.III due to their home planet becoming inhospitable. They don't explain why they felt a world covered in ice and snow would be an upgrade over their planet of origin though. When they first arrive, things are normal, but eventually their expansion disturbs the insect like Akrid and battle ensues. The colonists discover that these bugs contain an energy source inside them that can be harvested and converted to power the thermal units, which keep them alive, and the mech-like VS units, which are created to combat the Akrid. 

You play as Wayne, a young soldier in the colonist's army. While on patrol, his unit comes under attack, which eventually results in Wayne being knocked unconscious. When he awakes, he finds himself in the home base of three snow pirates who rescued him. They are fighting independently to clear out the Akrid hives and eradicate the threat to the planet. Wayne agrees to work with them while he tries to fill in the holes in his memory.

The game is heavy on action from the very beginning. It is a very arcade like shooter with large amounts of enemies coming at you at one time as you progress through each level. The damage system is very forgiving, at least on the "Normal" setting, which I am playing. You have a device called a harmonizer, which is fueled by the thermal energy (T-Eng) which you pick up from the carcasses of your enemies. The meter is constantly decreasing as it heats your suit, but if you take damage, this energy is also used to heal you. So far, I haven't had a problem of running out of T-Eng because even the destructible parts of the environment will drop some. Until the boss fights at the end of each level, the only danger in dying comes from being hit in rapid succession by rockets where your meter can't refill in time. That has been pretty easy to avoid thus far.

Data posts are found throughout the levels as well, which once activated by mashing the B button, give you a large T-Eng boost, allow you to access a map of the area on your PDA, as well as pointing you in the direction of the next data post and/or the mission objective.

The weapons are your standard shooter fare: machine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, energy gun, plasma rifle and a fleet of different grenades. You can carry any two guns and one type of grenade at a time. There are also the Vital Suits (VS), which are mechs you can hop into to do some serious damage with. The VS can also change weapons between a Gatling gun, a rocket launcher, a shotgun and various lasers. The VS from the tutorial also has a chainsaw-like arm, which can be used as a melee attack. While these suits are naturally slower, they handle great.

I have read people complain about the controls, but I have to disagree, they seem really easy to master and quite intuitive. Right trigger to fire, left trigger to throw a grenade, left stick to move, right stick to aim/control the camera, right/left bumpers to turn 90 degrees quickly, A button to jump, B button for melee/action, Y button to change weapons, X button to use your Bionic Commando style grappling hook, rich stick click to reload, D-pad up/down to change perspective, D-pad left/right for your flashlight. Maybe people are too used to other games, but they became easy to use in less than a half hour.

The game really shines graphically. The environments look beautiful. From the way the snow moves to how your flashlight illuminates dark interiors to the detail in the destroyed buildings, it all looks great. The enemies are beautiful in their own insect way. There has been a good deal of variety in them thus far from creepy crawlers, to skeletal flyers, to armadillo-esque rollers to quasi-scorpions to the opposing snow pirates. Every enemy has a glowing weak spot where its T-Eng is stored. Hitting those makes it easier to take down the tougher bad guys and become essential for boss battles. The thing that graphically impresses me the most are the explosions. When you shoot an explosive barrel, fire your rocket launcher or throw a grenade, the result is a satisfying burst of fire surrounded by a quickly expanding cloud of smoke. I've been blowing up barrels even when they aren't in my way just to see the explosions. The graphics don't strike you as being as detailed as Gears of War, mostly because you aren't as zoomed in as close on Wayne as you were on Marcus, but Lost Planet shows a lot of polish.

So far, I'm having a great time with the single player campaign. I always thought that the movie Starship Troopers would make an excellent action game and Lost Planet is the closest thing to that as I've seen. Tearing through a pack of bugs just feels good. I just have to remind myself that I'm not playing Gears of War and I don't have to hide behind cover every 10 feet. I don't want to pass judgment on a game after only one night of playing it, but I think this game is going to get a big thumbs up from me when I get through it. If you like arcade style shooters, I think you should try this one out. 

I still haven't tried out multi-player, so if anyone out there wants to throw down this weekend, look for me and we'll get a match going.

I have never understood why people feel the need to take sides in the console wars. Unless you work for Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony or own shares in these companies, you have no direct stake in the success of a particular platform, yet people devote enormous amounts of time & energy arguing which machine should “win”. Sure, if you can only afford one console, you naturally have a certain loyalty to that brand and want it to stay viable for as long as possible, but what does it matter if it outsells it’s competition? Xbox 360 owners should not need the Playstation 3 to be a bust in order to be satisfied with their purchase. 

The reality is, competition is good for the industry and drives innovation in both technology and software. Sony perfected the use of a CD drive and introduced the DVD drive to the console market which made disc media the standard when every system was using cartridges. The expansion of data capacity that came along with the switch has allowed games to rapidly improve graphically as well as become deeper, more immersive & realistic experiences. Microsoft has revolutionized how multiplayer games are played, setting the standard for how an online service should work. Nintendo, besides being the savior of the console market in the 80’s, has recently focused on how we interact with our games, introducing touch screen and motion control as core gameplay functions. If something is successful for one company, it inevitably finds it’s way to the other two in some shape or form and that benefits everyone who is into gaming. 

Do you really think the industry would have come so far, in such a short period of time, had there only been one console for the last decade? If they were not competing with each other, where would the motivation be for Sony and Microsoft to develop a next-gen system that they lose money on if games are still selling well on their existing platform? If the PSP wouldn’t have come out, would the DS have been developed or would Nintendo have simply continued to pump out Game Boys in different shapes and sizes?

Too often I see people fall for marketing speak and pump these talking heads up to some sort of hero status while casting their counterparts as evil villains. Reggie Fils-Aime, Peter Moore, and Phil Harrison are neither good guys nor bad guys, they are employees. They are paid to put their company’s console in the best possible light, generate some buzz and ultimately attract the public’s dollars. Unfortunately, the publicity surrounding the gaming industry has devolved into some sort of poor imitation of a WWE show, where characters take turns insulting each other in an attempt to be edgy and cool instead of simply promoting the virtues of their own product. This is the fuel to the fanboy fire, which burns on most video game related message boards these days, and unfortunately, increasingly in supposed serious gaming journalism. The industry would really benefit if it could mature beyond the perpetual shouting match that it finds itself in today.

This completely distracts from what is important: Is the console worth having and does it offer the games you want to play? That should be your only concern when you decide which console to purchase, not what happened at a press briefing at E3 or if some executive has a predilection for saying stupid things.

The best possible outcome for us as consumers would be for the 360, Wii & PS3 to all be relative successes to their respective companies so Microsoft, Nintendo & Sony continue to be innovators and push gaming forward. The continued health and expansion of the industry is relying on it. The only time when the home video game industry became stagnant was when there were no viable contenders to the top dog. If we end up with only 2 companies still developing hardware by the end of this console cycle, we will all suffer for it, regardless of which machine(s) sit in our homes.

While XBox Live is a great service, it certainly isn't perfect. One of it's biggest deficiencies is the inability to preview marketplace content prior to shelling out points for them. This inevitably leads to buyers remorse when you download a new non-refundable theme and realize that it wasn't what you were expecting or renders the dashboard text unreadable.

On a console which allows you to download game demos so you can try before you buy, it seems rather odd that they don't allow you to see what the marketplace content looks like before you pay for it. 

Well a new site has recently gone up which allows you to get a sneak peek of any particular dashboard theme you might be interested in purchasing. www.dashboardthemes.com allows you to click through each blade and give the theme an overall thumbs up or down.  

It's unfortunate that Microsoft hasn't offered this service on it's own, but it's another example of industrious people stepping up to the plate and filling a need where it exists.

It's been a little over 30 days since my 360 arrived from Amazon, but it seems like I've had it for much longer than that. That is probably because a day hasn't gone by where I didn't turn it on for some gaming. Regardless of whether I had a 12 hour workday, a night out with friends or Christmas with my family, I've always found time to play a few hands of UNO, kill some Locusts in Gears of War or trade some paint in PGR3.

This is my first new console since I bought the Playstation 2 in January of 2001, so it's been a while since I've broken in a new piece of hardware. I knew there was a lot of horsepower under the 360's hood, and I've certainly not been disappointed in that aspect by any means, but the graphics are only one of the factors that keeps drawing me back on a daily basis.

When I hold down the guide button on the controller and the 360 roars to life and my dashboard loads, I really get the feeling I am tapping into a living, breathing community. With content being released onto the marketplace almost daily, friends lists updating in real time, the ability to message or chat with people while you play....it's far and beyond a simple video game machine.

What I have enjoyed the most about the last month has been interacting with all of you good people. There are some smart, funny and talented people out there and it's been a pleasure to read or watch your stuff and get to know you on Live. The user community is a true benefit to the hobby of gaming these days. Keep up the good work. If I haven't played with you on Live yet, I hope to soon.

Another variable that keeps me coming back on a daily basis is gamerscore. After the first month, I've gained a total of 2,045 points and unlocked 116 achievements in the 2 retail games and 8 arcade game I've played. I'm pretty satisfied with that kind of pace. Hopefully I can keep it up going forward. I won't play games just for points, so I won't be renting King Kong or any of last years sports titles, but I am trying to get as many points as I can out of the games I do play. The only downside is I don't want to start playing a new game until I max out the games I've got going now. Dead Rising and Burnout Revenge are sitting there still wrapped in plastic and Lost Planet is only 2 weeks away. I just have to get over my % completion stat obsession on the MyGamerCard.net profile page.

2006 was a great year for the gaming hobby in general. From the launch of the PS3 & Wii, the relaunch of the DS Lite, to great, AAA additions to the 360 and PS2 libraries it was a banner year. With a bunch of great games on the horizon for all platforms, an equally memorable 2007 seems to be ahead of us. These are great times to be alive and into video games. We've come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Count your blessings and enjoy yourself.

Happy New Year!

On the most recent edition of his weekly podcast, XBox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb posed an interesting question:

When have you truly completed a game?

In the early days, most games had no true ending. For the most part, you played until you ran out of lives and the goal was to set the high score on whatever machine you were playing. As games evolved and became story driven, there was usually a linear narrative that culminated in a final boss battle, which when defeated, triggered an ending that congratulated you on completing the game.

Today, the feeling of accomplishment that comes from beating a game is much more elusive. Games come with multiple endings, multiple playable characters and story paths, unlockables, open ended environments, multiple difficulties, mini-games, side missions, etc. all with the intention of extending the life of a game and hopefully adding value to the purchase for the consumer.

That leads to the question of when can you consider a game completed? Are you done with GTA when you beat the story mode or when you get 100% on the stats screen? Have you beaten Devil May Cry 2 if you only finish it with Dante? Can you say you are done with Gears of War if you don't kill General RAAM on Insane? Is winning the Super Bowl in Madden once enough or do you need to go through 30 seasons in the franchise mode? Do you need to unlock all the playable characters in Lego Star Wars or Marvel: Ultimate Alliance?

A new wrinkle to this discussion is the 360 gamerscore and achievement system. You can easily play through the story mode of most games once and barely unlock anything. How many points are you willing to leave on the table? 

Your answer to the main question posed in this blog will depend on the game, how much you enjoy playing it, how much time you have to devote to it, how obsessive you are about collecting every last item, and what your other game options are at the time. I loved both Jak & Daxter and Kingdom Hearts. When I played through J&D, I made sure I found all the Precursor Orbs because the story wasn't as time consuming and I didn't have anything else to play, but in KH, I couldn't be bothered to mess with the Gummi Ship stuff or some of the side quests. I was happy to do just enough to get the best ending so I could get to the next game in my stack. While I was happy to finish Devil May Cry on just normal difficulty, I was compelled to keep playing Gears until I beat every level on Insane so my feelings drift game to game.

I'd love to hear your opinions and how you personally gauge when you can put a game into the "DONE" pile. I encourage any of the fine Gamespot folks that participate in a podcast or produce video blogs to touch on this topic the next time you record one. I think it could generate an interesting discussion.

One of the only legitimate complaints about Gears of War is the lack of a cohesive, fleshed out story. It would have been nice if a few of the cutscenes had given us some detail on what happened prior to Dom breaking Marcus out of prison and some insight into the backstories of the characters.

Below I am going to copy a few posts from this thread from the 360arcadians forum. We have been trying to stitch together details that are in the Destroyed Beauty book that came with the collector's edition and plug some of the plot holes.

*SPOILERS AHOY*

Sera

Sera is an Earth-like planet that humans have inhabited for several thousand years at least.  Its two major distinguishing characteristics include the massive honeycomb of caverns in the crust, and the vast stores of the phosphorescing, low-viscosity fluid known as Imulsion.

Humankind has warred for millennia, nearly sending the planet into an apocalypse, until finally a tentative peace was made; a golden age marred only by the occasional skirmish and problems like crime, arguments over liberty, and a potential energy crisis.

Lightmass and the Pendulum Wars

While Imulsion was originally discovered by an oil exploration drill long ago, it wasn't until Dr. Helen Cooper invented the Lightmass Process, which coverts a portion of the Imulsion mass directly into energy, that the substance went from scientific curiosity to a nearly limitless fuel supply.

However, Imulsion soon proved to be the downfall of the so-called golden age, as speculation in the wake of hydrocarbon fuels being completely replaced lead to an economic crash.  Less-fortunate nations who had no access to this new miracle fuel soon looked upon their neighbors with increasing envy, which eventually escalated into a full blown conflict known as the Pendulum Wars

The wars raged for 79 years:  Until Emergence Day and the Locust attack.

Emergence Day

While humanity warred, the subterranean Locust Horde launched an unprecedented invasion upon the unsuspecting populace, resulting in the death of a quarter of Sera's human population in less than twenty-four hours: A death toll numbering in the billions.

Humanity was forced to cease their war and work together.  Though they rallied, it was too little, too late as the damage was already done by their years of conflict, and the Locust were able to capture most urban, military and manufacturing centers.  Humanity made the choice to not let the Locust keep this advantage

The Evacuation
The Coalition of Ordered Governments, previously a minor socialist political party that had steadily been gaining strength through the Pendulum Wars, was the only organization who's leadership were willing to take action during the Locust invasion.  They ratified the Fortification Act which established martial law and turned Jacinto Plateau, a geological region of solid granite that was deemed impenetrable to the Locust, into humanities last stronghold.

Humanity retreated to Jacinto Plateau, where they enacted a scorched earth strategy to deny the Locust the advantage of human holdings, by unleashing chemical and orbital-beam weaponry upon the Locust and the former human cities.  Many humans who were unable to evacuate were also caught in the assault; those who survived became known as Stranded and greatly resent the COG who deemed them as acceptable collateral damage.

While 90% of Sera's surface became a wasteland, the Locust ultimately survived the assault from their subterranean warrens

The Attack on Jacinto
The granite substrata, while able to stop the Locust digging machines cold, was filled with natural fissures and utility systems, which eventually proved to be a flaw that the Locust exploited in a full scale attack on humanities last stronghold.  During the battle, Marcus Fenix, a veteran of the Pendulum Wars, disobeyed orders and left the battle to try and save his father at the East Barricade Academy.  He ultimately failed.

After the Locust were driven back by sealing the fissures, or flooding them with nerve gas, humanity set about fortifying Jacinto.  Marcus Fenix was convicted of cowardice and failure to follow orders, and was sentenced to 40 years in Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary.  His exemplary tours of duty in the Pendulum Wars narrowly saved him from the death penalty.

What are the Locusts?

Most scientists believe they're a mutated version of Sera's native life forms. A minority claim they're aliens. Ask any Gear and they'll tell you the Locust come straight from hell. [...] They have an aversion to light...one of our few advantages.

What is the Brumak?

DNA analysis indicates these were bred by the Locust Horde from smaller native apes

What are the humans doing on Sera?

While it doesn't explicitly state why humans are on Sera, Destroyed Beauty does mention that Sera has been war-torn for millennia. Obviously the Locust aren't fighting themselves - it's possible that (these) humans are native to Sera.

Now for some plot holes

How did RAAM know to be on the train in Act 5?

You are supposed to pick up that the Locusts are listening in on the com frequencies during the cutscene at the end of act 3 when RAAM executes the captured COG. That is how the Locusts knew Delta Squad was heading for the Fenix estate. Once you got the data and they brought the lightmass bomb into position, RAAM overheard the radio chatter and ambushed the train. Thus you have to clear out the train so the bomb can initiate.

Who was Marcus Fenix's father and why is he important?

Adam Fenix, father of Marcus, was a geo-scientist that had been mapping the tunnels below Sera for many years (never said how much) with those geobot-things, and had been warning humanity of a possible invasion/threat below ground, but the rest of humanity ignored him. That's why he has all the tunnel data conveniently in his lab, and that's possibly why he was targeted on the Emergence Day assault on Jacinto Plateau. This would also explain Marcus's bitterness and insubordination since the invasion could have been prevented, and his father saved, if they would have listened to what his father knew.

Main Story Plot

So they mention the LightMass Bomb in Act 1, you have to find Alpha Squad because they have the resonator which will map the tunnels and allow them to target the LightMass into the heart of the Locust's stronghold. You retrieve it when you meet up with Cole, who is carrying it.

Act 3 is about going into the Imulsion mine and deploying the resonator. After defeating the Corpser the Colonel informs you it didn't work and you'll need to find another way to get targeting info. Baird had found a geobot with data on it, which when analyzed points Delta Squad towards the Fenix estate. "Jack" collects the data in Marcus's father's underground lab and Marcus & Dom make it to the APC waiting outside just in time to speed away from the Brumak.

The LightMass Bomb has been loaded onto a train and in Act 5 you need to bring the info collected in Jack and load it into the bomb so it can be properly launched. Unfortunately the Locusts overheard your plan on the com channel and have infested the train. Once you kill RAAM, Marcus plugs the data in and the bomb is able to target a path down into the tunnels as it falls with the train through the hole in the bridge. The bomb explodes, igniting the imulsion and causing the landslides and sinkholes you see in the ending cutscene.

*END SPOILERS*

I hope some of your questions were answered. Gears is an awesome game. I just hope they spin a better narrative in the sequel so we don't have to piece so much of the story together.

When I received my XBox on November 29th, I had no idea how many websites are around that really help enhance the experience of owning a 360. Many of these are probably old news to most of you, but I thought I'd share the ones that I've enjoyed the most.

www.mygamercard.net/ / www.livecard.net

These sites serves two purposes. First, they both allow you to create a more unique gamercard that you can use in forums or on your personal website, to show off what you are playing. Livecard gives you more options to customize your tag, including uploading your own images, but mygamercard also gives you a profile page which tracks the points and achievements you earn in any game you play. They also have sort of the unofficial leaderboards for overall points and each individual game. Making those green bars grow and increasing your rank is very satisfying.

www.360voice.com

These days it seems everyone has a blog, so why not your 360? This site updates daily with a short, somewhat humorous, blurb about what you are playing, how many points you earned, if your rep goes up or down, if you change your gamer picture etc. If you play, you make it happy. If you don't get to play, it goes borderline stalker and sounds like a crazy girlfriend. Your blog site also charts your gamerscore over time and assigns "badges" to your profile based on the types of games you play, how close to completion you get in them and how often you play.

Another good aspect to this site is it tracks how many of it's users play each game every day. You can bring up a chart for a game and it shows how many people have played it over the last month. If you are thinking about picking up a game with a multiplayer component, this could be a good resource to see if anyone is actively playing it.

You can also look at other users blogs, so if you want to see how many points StripClubDJ, Jeff, or anyone else, gained each day and in what games, this site allows you to do it.

http://www.360friendspot.com/

As the domain name indicates, this site offers a matchmaking service to find other gamers that have a similar taste in games if you are looking to flesh out your friends list. That is the original aim of the site, but they have added a new "Live Eye" feature which tracks the hourly activity on your 360. Once you sign up, it will track how you use your 360, how long you do it for down to the minute and summarizes how many hours you do each activity. Seeing how many hours straight you played your console can be both fun and a slap in the face that you need to turn that 360 off.

www.achieve360points.com 

This site is an excellent resource if you are interested in upping your gamerscore. It has all the achievement lists and tracks all the new content available on the marketplace. Their forums are full of tips and tricks for getting the tough achievements.

www.majornelson.com / www.xbox360fanboy.com

Major Nelson is the gamertag of the director of XBox Live programming. Since he's an insider, his blog is usually the first place official XBox news is released. You can find marketplace content announcements, backwards compatibility updates, responses to the major problems people complain about the console, as well as a pretty interesting weekly podcast. He seems to really respond to feedback. Sure he's a Microsoft employee so anything he says can't be taken as Bible, but he does pull back the curtain for the public and lets us see into life at Microsoft a little.

The Fanboy site is a well produced multi-author blog site that collects news about the 360 console, what people are talking about, and the hot topics of the day.

www.360monster.com

A great looking site offering user reviews, previews, news and editorials with Gamespot's own capin131 as a contributer.

www.360arcadians.net

This site is in it's infancy. It's produced by a bunch of people who met on the Penny Arcade forums. They offer some news posts, reviews, interesting opinion pieces, a pretty good podcast which is relatively new, and a decent forum.

I'm always on the lookout for new sites to add to my daily browsing. If anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

One of the biggest advantages Microsoft currently has in the console war is their head start in the on-line area. Their interface is polished, easy to use and seamlessly integrated into just about every 360 game.

For me, the most intriguing, and somewhat intimidating, aspect of the service was the ability to play other XBox Live Gold subscribers around the world. I have been playing games since I was four, but never against people I didn't know over the internet. I've heard plenty of horror stories about nasty people using the anonymity of the service to say all sorts of foul things and in general act like complete mutants, so I didn't even know if I wanted to wade into such a potential cesspool. I've come to learn that, while the creeps are out there, playing against real people can be a lot of fun if you find a good group.

Big Bumpin was sitting there mocking me. I hadn't gotten a single achievement out of it and that bothered me. I finally broke down and threw it in last night fully expecting to want to take it out after 5 minutes. Since most of the achievements can only be unlocked over Live, I created a game and was lucky to have the room fill out with some pretty cool dudes. All three had recently picked the game up and were looking to earn some points themselves. We quickly formed a pact and started helping each other unlock some achievements. (It felt so dirty and so good).

We had a blast goofing around, talking about games and working together. By the end of the night, I had a fistful of achievements, but more importantly, my friends list had grown. When the system works like that, it's perfect. Unfortunately, I would see the other side of Live shortly thereafter.

After saying goodnight to my new buds, I jumped into Uno to play a fast few hands before going to bed. I joined a ranked match against 3 other people, 2 of which had the Live camera. The third person immediately started insulting one of the people that was on their cam, while using a fake Hispanic accent. We barely played more than a handful of cards before the person being insulted gave their cam the bird and left the game.

The jerk then turned his attention on the other person with his cam on. By this point, I had turned my volume down, but I saw they were going back and forth and eventually the other cam person left the game as well. Since I wouldn't respond to him, the jerk finally left the game himself and I was left playing a ranked match against three computer players.

Thankfully, Microsoft has installed a system for reporting these miscreants and you can easily avoid encountering them in the future. The only improvement I could make to the system would be a temporary ban from using voice chat, if not playing on-line in general, if a certain number of abuse claims are logged against an account.

Overall XBox Live is a fantastic service and lets you play competitively against the best in the world as well as casually with friends you pick up along the way. Take it from a person who dipped his toe into the online waters with much initial trepidation. You may run into a few unsavory characters online, but that's life. The positives far outweigh the negatives. Don't let a few poor sports stop you from getting the most out of your games and console.