Xbox Live Users Banned By Microsoft

With so many illegal downloading sites out there, it can be difficult to resist the temptation to download those couple songs or watch that pirated movie or maybe even download that new game that you don’t feel like paying over $50 for. Well, you may want to reconsider things if this has become a habit of yours.

Giving into the temptation to download pirated games may have just cost over 1 million Xbox Live users the ability to continue to utilize the service. It has been said that Microsoft has banned over 1 million service users due to the fact that they altered their Xbox consoles to be able to play pirated versions of games.

Just this week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released. Pirated versions of the game had popped up before the game was even released, and it is believed that the developers at Activision might have encouraged Microsoft to initiate the ban.

Although the gamers who have had a ban placed on their Xbox Live service will not be able to play any online games, they still have full capabilities to play any kind of game offline. Microsoft has still not been clear as to whether this ban is permanent or if users will be able to return to Xbox Live later on down the road. They did release a statement saying that their "commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of the Xbox Live community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live. We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of Modern Warfare 2 and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken."

On the Xbox support page, there is now a list of circumstances from the Xbox Live Director of Programming that detail what could cause a user to be banned from Xbox Live.

This new ban set down by Microsoft is not something to be taken lightly. Users could be banned for days, weeks, months, or maybe permanently. This means they won’t be able to go online at all. So before doing something that you think could be considered questionable, you might want to consult the Xbox Live Terms of Use instead of waking up to find yourself banned from Xbox Live forever.

"The Biggest Loser" for Wii Review

Last month, THQ released "The Biggest Loser" for Nintendo's Wii. Following the success of the Wii Fit, exercise and fitness games are becoming increasingly popular. Combine that excitement with one of the most popular shows on television, one that has motivated millions of people across the country to get up and get fit and live healthier lifestyles. So, is "The Biggest Loser" game as motivational as the show? Is it sure to become the next Wii fit? Let's take a look.

To begin the game, you have to create your own personal fitness program. After creating your own persona, you choose which contestant from the show you are most like and then you can decide if you'd rather work with Bob or Jillian, the show's two trainers. Next you'll decide what you'd like to gain from your fitness program. Are you looking to lose a little weight or are wanting an educational game that will lead you to a healthier lifestyle?

After setting up your profile, the game takes you to your homepage where you can see how many calories you're allowed per day. There is also a place for tracking how many calories you've already consumed. Keeping track of calories for weight loss is one of the game's high points. The game also provides you with a number of recipes that are varied to your taste and lifestyle.

You can also take part in a variety of exercises using the Wii Balance Board. Depending on how well you do, you will earn points, much like you do in other Wii fitness games. But in the end, it seems as though the game is more efficient at helping you maintain your fitness program, verses allowing you to use it as a tool for working out.

The game excels at education, but as far as actual exercise, you'll probably be pretty disappointed. If you really want to lose weight, you're not going to do it with this game alone. However, if you are just starting out, this game will compliment your fitness regimen.

Guitar Hero World Tour on Major Sale at Walmart

Walmart has just recently announced a sale that should definitely spark some interest in the gaming community. Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit for XBOX 360 has just dropped from the original price of $199 to $79.99, a savings of $119.01. This deal absolutely shocked me and made me want to run out and grab one. The kit includes the game software, a wireless mic, the wireless drum set, and a wireless guitar.

Guitar Hero World Tour is following the footsteps of many other games that have been available since the outbreak of band centered games. It does a great job of fixing any of the issues you might have faced with the previous Guitar Hero games and makes sure to feature things that make it stand out from any of the Rock Band games.

One aspect of Guitar Hero that is awesome is the ability to extensively customize your avatar and guitar. Not only can you choose hairstyles and clothing, but also you can go so far as to change the angle of their chin or the size of their skull. You are also given the ability to choose the dances that your character does before and after the game. All of these customization give you the ability to really create an avatar with personality. You can also customize your guitar is various ways from the body to the color to the strings.

Now one of the things that I always consider when I’m looking at all these band games is the songs that they feature. So, I included a complete song list from Guitar Hero World Tour.

* 311 - “Beautiful Disaster”
* 30 Seconds To Mars - “The Kill”
* Airbourne - “Too Much Too Young”
* The Allman Brothers Band - “Ramblin' Man”
* Anouk - “Good God”
* The Answer - “Never Too Late”
* At The Drive-In - “One Armed Scissor”
* Beastie Boys - “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
* Beatsteaks - “Hail to the Freaks”
* Billy Idol - “Rebel Yell”
* Black Label Society - “Stillborn”
* Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - “Weapon of Choice”
* blink-182 - “Dammit”
* Blondie - “One Way or Another”
* Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - “Hollywood Nights”
* Bon Jovi - “Livin’ On A Prayer”
* Bullet For My Valentine - “Scream Aim Fire”
* Coldplay - “Shiver”
* Creedence Clearwater Revival - “Up Around The Bend”
* The Cult - “Love Removal Machine”
* Dinosaur Jr. - “Feel The Pain”
* The Doors - “Love Me Two Times”
* Dream Theater - “Pull Me Under”
* The Eagles - “Hotel California”
* The Enemy - “Aggro”
* Filter - “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
* Fleetwood Mac - “Go Your Own Way”
* Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
* The Guess Who - “American Woman”
* Hush Puppies - “You're Gonna Say Yeah!”
* Interpol - “Obstacle 1”
* Jane's Addiction - “Mountain Song”
* Jimi Hendrix - “Purple Haze (Live)”
* Jimi Hendrix - “The Wind Cries Mary”
* Jimmy Eat World - “The Middle”
* Joe Satriani - “Satch Boogie”
* Kent - “Vinternoll2”
* Korn - “Freak On A Leash”
* Lacuna Coil - “Our Truth”
* Lenny Kravitz - “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
* Linkin Park - “What I've Done”
* The Living End - “Prisoner of Society”
* Los Lobos - “La Bamba”
* Lost Prophets - “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)”
* Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Sweet Home Alabama (Live)”
* Mars Volta - “L'Via L'Viaquez”
* MC5’s Wayne Kramer - “Kick Out The Jams”
* Metallica - “Trapped Under Ice”
* Michael Jackson - “Beat It”
* Modest Mouse - “Float On”
* Motörhead - “Overkill”
* Muse - “Assassin”
* Negramaro - “Nuvole e Lenzuola”
* Nirvana - “About a Girl (Unplugged)”
* No Doubt - “Spiderwebs”
* NOFX - “Soul Doubt”
* Oasis - “Some Might Say”
* Ozzy Osbourne - “Crazy Train”
* Ozzy Osbourne - “Mr. Crowley”
* Paramore - “Misery Business”
* Pat Benatar - “Heartbreaker”
* R.E.M. - “The One I Love”
* Radio Futura - “Escuela De Calor”
* Rise Against - “Re-Education Through Labor”
* Sex Pistols - “Pretty Vacant”
* Silversun Pickups - “Lazy Eye”
* Smashing Pumpkins - “Today”
* Steely Dan - “Do It Again”
* Steve Miller Band - “The Joker”
* Sting - “Demolition Man (Live)”
* The Stone Roses - “Love Spreads”
* Stuck In The Sound - “Toy Boy”
* Sublime - “Santeria”
* Survivor - “Eye of the Tiger”
* System of a Down - “B.Y.O.B.”
* Ted Nugent - “Stranglehold”
* Ted Nugent’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
* Tokio Hotel - “Monsoon”
* Tool - “Parabola”
* Tool - “Schism”
* Tool - “Vicarious”
* Trust - “Antisocial”
* Van Halen - “Hot For Teacher”
* Willie Nelson - “On The Road Again”
* Wings - “Band on the Run”
* Zakk Wylde’s Original Guitar Duel Recording

The gameplay is basically the same as the other Guitar Hero games and includes all the original levels of difficulty. Although this game was released over a year ago, Guitar Hero World Tour is a fun game for all and at Walmart’s new low price I think it would make a great Christmas present for any band-loving gamer.

Tony Hawk RIDE Uses Realistic Skateboard

On November 17, 2009, Tony Hawk: Ride (the tenth game in the Tony Hawk Franchise) will be released in North America for Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. Players will be able to use the new skateboard peripheral that comes with the game as though they are actually riding a skateboard. It is shaped like a real skateboard, only slightly smaller, and has infrared sensors, which help detect motion. Players will be able to turn, lean, hop, and perform other actions that will appear realistically in the game. The controller takes four AA batteries.

This will be the first hands-free game in the popular Tony Hawk series. Tony Hawk Pro Skater was released in 1999 and since then, the franchise has made over $1.1 billion in sales. Eletronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst, Jesse Divinich says the game will not just attract Tony Hawk fans, but new gamers as well, "By adding the peripheral, you open yourself up to a broader consumer base. Look at Wii Fit.

The game will feature the following pro skaters: Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely, Cara-Beth Burnside, Stevie Williams, Rodney Mullen, Christian Hosoi, Daewon Song, Dustin Dollin, Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, Steve Nesser, Nyjah Huston, Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez Jr., Alex Olson and Mike Mo Capaldi. Players will have the opportunity to play levels in Southern California, Chicago, New York City, Tokyo, Spain, and Frankfurt, Germany and participate in speed races, trick competitions and half pipe performances.

In a statement, Hawk, himself, said of the game, "This is the game I've always wanted to make. Playing on the board is unlike any other game, and I'm excited for everyone to have the chance to feel what it's really like to experience the true feeling of skateboarding."

More on The Dark Side of Disney's Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is the symbol of Disney’s happy-go-lucky, dream-filled company. The Mickey that we have known has been helpful, funny, and happy, but this is not always how the beloved mouse has behaved. Back in 1928 when Mickey was introduced to the world, he was not a very well behaved mouse. Today, one of the most well known video game designers would like to hone in on that darker side of Disney’s ever popular character.

The Deus Ex franchise is currently developing a new game called Disney’s Epic Mickey that will explore a side of Mickey that many of us have never seen. Warren Spector, the game’s designer is excited with the chance to “re-imagine” Mickey Mouse.

The expected release date for Disney’s Epic Mickey is fall 2010. The adventure-platform game will be created exclusively for Nintendo’s Wii. The story of the game will focus on a world created by the sorcerer from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and contain a series of forgotten Disney creations and characters. Oswald, who was one of the earliest character created by Walt Disney, is one of these lost characters. In the game, Oswald becomes jealous of Mickey’s exploding success, so Mickey demolishes Oswald’s comfort zone within the cartoon wasteland. After his outburst, Mickey is forced to face the consequences of what he has done.

Although this may seem rather dark for our favorite cartoon mouse, we are still reminded throughout the game that our hero Mickey is a mouse who solves problems by changing the world around him and positively interacting with the people and places he comes into contact with.

Spector started up his company, Junction Point, in 2005. Disney quickly bought the company and commissioned Spector to start on the Mickey Mouse game. He was thrilled to work with Disney because he has been a fan of them all his life and admits to being an animation freak. When Disney first approached Spector with the idea of a Mickey Mouse game, he immediately told them that he wasn’t into designing games for kids. Disney was quick to explain that they were going for a whole new kind of Mickey that would appeal to a different kind of gaming crowd. On hearing this, Spector was in.

Spector says that he hopes that this game will reinvent people’s perception of the much-loved mouse. He hopes that he will now not only be a cuddly adorable character that children around the world love, but also a hero that teens and adults can appreciate. Mickey will now be able to go back to his more mischievous side with this new game but while still learning from any mistakes that he might make. After saying this, Spector makes sure to clarify that they are not making Mickey evil by sticking a sword or gun in his hand. He is simply able to make mistakes.

I personally am very intrigued by this new idea that Disney is developing. The thought of a new kind of Mickey Mouse is something that certainly has caught my attention. I can’t wait to hear more about this game and eventually give it a try. Epic Mickey definitely sounds like a game that will be worth looking more into.

DJ Hero

We have all lived the life of a guitar hero and even a band hero but now we can add one more hero title to our repertoire, being a DJ hero. We've all been to the dance club and seen the DJ up in his mysterious box magically making insane beats for us to dance to and many of us have wondered just exactly what goes on up there. Well thanks to Activision we can now live the life of a DJ and see just exactly what it is they do.

DJ Hero takes a more simple approach to Activision's hero line. In this game you scratch your way through different tiers of songs in order to unlock new mixes, different characters and special costumes which are won by how many stars you get on your song, just like Guitar Hero. Aside from all the unlockables, DJ Hero focuses mainly on music. Gamers have always been fascinated by the track lists on all the different Guitar Hero games but DJ Hero has one of the uniquest set of songs seen in any music game. The only type of songs missing from this game are country songs, but I don't see that being a problem for anybody interested in this game.

The massive track list is comprised of 102 licensed songs but the best part is that these songs have been mashed up to create 93 mash-up songs that are 100% unique to this game. The mash-ups themselves are extremely creative. You will see mash-ups like MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, 50 Cent and David Bowie or the Beastie Boys with Blondie. The in-house DJs at Freestyle Games, developers of DJ Hero, created most of the mixes themselves although a lot of mixes were created by famous DJs like DJ Shadow and Grandmaster Flash.

The visuals of the game are also very impressive. In the Guitar Hero games you were treated to close ups of the band members on stage and the occasional crowd shot. However, in DJ Hero, you get sweeping, dynamic camera shots of the club goers dancing around and close ups of the DJs scratching away. One of the best features about the more recent Guitar Hero games was the ability to create your own rock star. Yet in DJ Hero the ability to create your own DJ isn't an added feature meaning you won't be able to create an animated version of yourself to throw in the club and scratch the turntables with. The good news is that there are a ton of characters that you can unlock and play as like DJ superstars Z-Trip and Daft Punk.

Considering this game is about DJs and turntables, that means there is a new peripheral you will have to master and that comes in the form of the turntable. The turntable comes in two parts. The first is the record scratching side which is essentially a rotating circle that resembles a record with three colored face buttons on it that resemble those on the Guitar Hero controller. The second part of the controller includes the cross fader, effects knob, euphoria button (which acts as DJ Hero's star power) and the basic native buttons for whichever system you have the game for. Unlike some of the Guitar Hero controllers, the turntable peripheral feels very sturdy and is very fun to use. Granted, the controller will seem weird to you at first, especially if you have never set your sweaty hands on an actual turntable before. But the good news is that Grandmaster Flash helps you through a nice tutorial so you can get the hang of it. Plus the "beginner" and "easy" difficulty levels live up to their names.

One feature in the game that will help more inexperienced players is the ability to never fail a song. That's right, instead of failing the sound just cuts out and you don't earn as many stars which is all the punishment you will receive. One thing that DJ Hero doesn't have is a practice mode. In the Guitar Hero games, you could always go into a practice mode and slow down portions of the song to practice the particularly difficult parts. Some of the songs are hard and you will wish that you had a slowed down practice mode as you get deeper into the track list.

Just as in Guitar Hero, DJ Hero has it's own version of Star Power which it calls Euphoria. You earn Euphoria the exact same way you earn Star Power, by perfectly hitting every note in a string of glowing notes. Once you enter Euphoria, your score multiplyer doubles and the cross fader goes on automatic, switching for you. If you want to drive your score up even more then you will have to use the effects dial to tweak the sounds during special Effect Zones which adds a personal touch to every song.

This game appeals to all levels of gamers. The easy difficulties and earlier songs appeal to those of you who aren't as handy with fake instruments to jump in and play and the more advanced tracks, especially on the expert difficulty level, will test even the most hard core rhythm gamer. If you are adept at Guitar Hero or Rock Band then you will most likely get the hang of this game pretty quick.

There is a multiplayer mode in DJ Hero. You can hook up dual turntables and scratch it out with a buddy or you can link in a guitar as your second controller allowing you to scratch and mix it up while your friend rocks out. with the concept of playing rock music on a guitar is getting old for some gamers, DJ Hero offers up something refreshing an original. The simple concept of the game will appeal top more gamers and the developers definitely left some things to be desired for a sequel. DJ Hero is definitely a game you will be wanting to try this year. While the game itself is pricey, coming in at $120 for the game and turntable peripheral, it may be worth it. DJ Hero is now available in stores for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii.

Source: IGN

Modern Warfares Last Stand for Dedicated Servers

If you have been following the release of Modern Warfare 2 then you've probably come across the droves of outraged pc gamers who are demanding answers from Infinity Ward. On October 17th, 2009, less than a month away from the highly anticipated release of Modern Warfare 2, Robert Bowling AKA Infinity Wards community manager announced over a live podcast that there would be NO dedicated server support for Modern Warfare 2. Instead, a new matchmaking system called IWnet will be implemented. In response to this bombshell, a Dedicated Server Petition for MW2 was created in which over 170,000 people have already signed. Despite these large numbers, Infinity Ward doesn't even seem phased as they have released no official response to the issue.

With the release of Modern Warfare 2 just around the corner (Nov 10, 2009), many devastated PC gamers are losing hope that their cries will be answered. In spite of all this, Angry Employee has taken up the cause for Dedicated Servers and has launched a campaign that they hope ALL fraggers across the world will embrace. The concept, that all PC gamers across the world will unite and come together as one on the 10th November 2009(MW2's Official release date), and send IW a message of exactly what they are doing in removing dedicated servers.

The Plan? A PC COMMUNITY PLAY DAY COMBINED WITH A 24 HOUR DEDICATED SERVER SHUT DOWN. What the plan entails is to create a large amount of traffic to Infinity Wards master server via a large number of PC gamers simply logging on and playing in dedicated servers. When the clock hits midnight on November 10th, the community as a whole will turn off their dedicated servers. The goal being that this large traffic build up will ensure that when the clock hits 00:00 Nov 10th there will be massive connection losses at IW's master servers. As each country and continent follows suite Infinity Ward will see for themselves exactly how we feel about no dedicated servers.

How can you participate in this event? Overall Traffic to the master server and people being online is the key. If you are working, leave your home PC in a dedicated server in spectate mode. If your home all day but can't frag, you guessed it, leave your home PC in a server and in spectate. If you have purchased or are currently renting a dedicated server, try and populate your server and be sure to turn off your server when the clock reaches midnight.

This may very well be the PC communities last chance to show Infinity Ward how widespread our ill feelings are towards no dedicated server support. Blurt this message out wherever you can and help spread the word. Whether its in forums, news papers, chat rooms or in game. Wherever you are and whatever your doing, try and make this day count for something.