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Around 7:00pm Central Time today (12/27/2006), the online game play portion of the Xbox Live service went down for the count, and as of this writing, (about 4-1/2 hours later), the service remains down. According to most reports, other portions of the service, such as chat, messages and downloads appear to be functional.
It’s not…

Just because Christmas is over, doesn’t mean that the new releases on Xbox Live Arcade are done. This morning, Microsoft released an updated version of the Namco arcade classic Rally-X.

The Xbox Live Arcade game is actually based on the sequel, New Rally-X, was released back in 1981. It features additional courses, easier enemy AI…

Space Giraffe is the latest game from Jeff Minter’s Llamasoft, creator of such classics as Tempest and it’s various derivatives as well as the cool light show visualizations you see in the Xbox 360’s music player.
A video has now surfaced, showing work in progress on the game, and it looks like it could be…

On November 22, the Xbox Live Marketplace will start offering movie and television downloads for the Xbox 360.

Microsoft has announced agreements with CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, TBS, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Brothers to offer an initial lineup of over 1,000 hours of TV shows and movies on the Xbox Live marketplace.…

The Microsoft insiders at ON10.net have posted this video of detailing the features of the new Xbox 360 Wireless Headset.

Some interesting revelations are shown in the video. The headset comes with small and medium “ear wraps,” taking into account the fact that everyone’s ears are different (what happened to “large”?). Each headset can be…

You can now pre-order the MadCatz ArcadeStick joystick for the Xbox 360 from Gamestop.
While not cheap at $59.99 USD, the controller looks like just what the doctor ordered for playing all the classic arcade games that are available for download on Xbox Live Arcade. The joystick is expected to be released on December 1,…

Microsoft has posted a demo for the new EA racer, Need For Speed Carbon for the Xbox 360.

The demo lets you try out three cars, the Mitsubishi Lancer EVOLUTION IX, Lamborghini Gallardo or the Camaro Concept. There are three race modes in the demo as well: Circuit Race, Canyon Duel and Drift Race.
The…

I was doing some investigating on Microsoft’s Japanese Xbox site today, and stumbled across this cool feature called the “UserMap.”

Much like Digg Swarm, the Flash-based application produces a very slick real-time map of player activity on Xbox Live. From what I could tell, you can also search for games or user profiles meeting specific criteria.…

The folks over at MaxConsole got their hands on these exclusive preview screenshots of the upcoming dashboard update for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.

Of note are a new, cleaner look for the Xbox Live Arcade, a better organized Live Marketplace and most importantly, a link to the “Launchpad,” where you’ll be able to play demos…

Scheduled for a September 19th release, the Xbox Live Vision camera add-on was accidentally put out on the shelves of a Toys R Us store on August 18th, and this lucky buyer managed to get his hands on one over a month early. The package included a camera, a headset, 1 month free Live Gold subscription…

Capcom’s zombies-in-a-mall actioner, Dead Rising, is now available in demo form on Xbox Live Marketplace for your enjoyment. Since I haven’t gotten to check it out yet, here are some comments posted on Major Nelson’s blog that I thought would give a good idea of what to expect…
“You can (get) 15 minutes of run about…