Microsoft Studio DLC On Sale (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Previous reports were stating that this sale would end today, but it is actually going to last until August 1st, 2011.

Get it while you can.  I’m suprised to see Halo: Reach stuff included in this.  They have me sold on it though.

Those marked with asterisks have achievements associated with them.
Halo: Reach
• “Halo: Reach – Defiant Map Pack” – 800 MSP – 400 MSP **
• “Halo: Reach – Noble Map Pack” – 800 MSP – 400 MSP **

Halo 3
• “Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP **
• “Halo 3 Mythic II Map Pack” – 800 MSP – 400 MSP **

^{The “Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack” is currently not included in the sale.}

Halo Wars
• “Halo Wars Strategic Options Add-on Pack” – 800 MSP – 400 MSP **
• “Halo Wars Historical Battle Map Pack Add-on” – 800 MSP – 400 MSP **

Gears of War 2
• “Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection” – 800 MSP – 400 MSP **
• “Flashback Multiplayer Map Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP **
• “Combustible Multiplayer Map Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP **
• “Snowblind Multiplayer Map Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP **
• “Dark Corners Multiplayer Map Pack” – 560 MSP – 280 MSP **

Forza Motorsport 3
• “Community Choice Classics Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “Autoweek Car Show Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “Nurburgring GP Track Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “Jalopnik Car Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “The Road & Track Car Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “The Summer Velocity Car Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “World Class Car Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “VIP Car Pack” – 800 MSP – 400 MSP
• “Motorsport Legends Car Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “Benchmark High Speed Ring” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “Sidewinder Proving Grounds” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP
• “Hot Holidays Car Pack” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP

^{“The Exotic Car Pack” is currently not included in the sale.}

Fable III
• “Fable III Traitor’s Keep Quest Pack” – 560 MSP – 280 MSP ** (now at the correct price)
• “Fable III Understone Quest Pack ” – 400 MSP – 200 MSP

Kinect Sports
• “Kinect Sports Calorie Challenge Pack” – 320 MSP – 160 MSP **

Alan Wake
• “Alan Wake: The Writer” – 560 MSP – 280 MSP **
• “Alan Wake: The Signal” – 560 MSP – 280 MSP **

Crackdown 2
• “Premium Toy Box Pack” – 560 MSP – 280 MSP **
• “Premium Deluge Pack” – 560 MSP – 280 MSP **

Gears Of War 2 Gets Patched & New Achievements

That’s right folks.  The long awaited patch is set to release sometime this month.  No set day has been released yet, but when it does we’ll let you know.  Not only are they fixing some of the major issues (seen below), but they are also making new achievements to go along with GoW 2 DLC.  See below for more details.

Achievements Unveiled: Gears Of War 2

Yes..they are finally here!

Gears of War 2 Achievements
Green as Grass	Train the rook (any difficulty)	10
It’s a Trap!	Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 2	10
Escort Service	Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 4	10
Girl About Town	Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 6	10
That Sinking Feeling	Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 4	10
Freebaird!	Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 5	10
Heartbroken	Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 6	10
Longitude and Attitude	Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 3	10
Tanks for the Memories	Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 4	10
Water Sports	Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 6	10
There’s a Time for Us	Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 2	10
Better Wrapped in Beacon	Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 3	10
Have Fun Storming the Castle	Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 6	10
And the Horse You Rode in On	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 1	10
You Are the Support, Son	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 2	10
Brumak Rodeo	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 4	10
Does This Look Infected to You?	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 5	10
Tourist of Duty	Complete all campaign acts on Casual Difficulty	25
Guerilla Tactician	Complete all campaign acts on Normal Difficulty	50
Artist of War	Complete all campaign acts on Hardcore Difficulty	75
Suicide Missionary	Complete all campaign acts on Insane Difficulty	150
Collector	Recover 5 collectibles (any difficulty)	5
Pack Rat	Recover 20 collectibles (any difficulty)	15
Completionist	Recover all 41 collectibles (any difficulty)	30
One-Night Stand	Complete 1 chapter in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus or Dom)	10
Open Relationship	Complete 10 chapters in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus or Dom)	30
Friends with Benefits	Complete all acts in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus or Dom)	50
Once More, With Feeling	Perform 30 perfect active reloads (any mode)	10
Takes a Licking	Melee 30 Tickers (any mode)	30
Organ Grinder	Kill 30 enemies with a cover mounted Mulcher (any mode)	10
Shock and Awe	Kill 30 enemies with the heavy Mortar (any mode)	10
Said the Spider to the Fly	Kill 10 enemies with a planted grenade (any mode)	10
Crowd Control	Melee 10 enemies down with the Boomshield equipped (any mode)	10
Smells Like Victory	Kill 30 enemies with the Scorcher Flamethrower (any mode)	10
Variety Is the Spice of Death	Kill an enemy with every weapon in the game (any mode)	30
Seriously 2.0	Kill 100,000 enemies (any mode)	50
Standing Here, Beside Myself	Win 3 matches of Wingman (public)	10
Beat the Meatflag	Capture 10 meatflags in Submission (public)	10
It’s Good to be the King	Win 10 rounds of Guardian as the leader (public)	10
You Go Ahead, I’ll Be Fine	Win three matches of King of the Hill (public)	10
Back to Basic	Successfully complete the 5 lessons of multiplayer Training Grounds	10
Party Like It’s 1999	Play 1999 rounds of multiplayer (any mode)	30
Around the World, Again	Win a multiplayer match on each map (any mode)	30
Dirty, Dirty Horde	Survive the first 10 waves of Horde (any difficulty, any map)	20
Hoard the Horde	Survive all 50 waves of Horde (any difficulty, any map)	30
Crossed Swords	Win 10 chainsaw duels (any mode).	10
A Parting Gifts	Kill 10 enemies with a grenade while down but not out (any mode).	20
Pound Of Flesh	Use a meatshield to save your life 10 times (any mode).	10
Photojournalist	Submit a spectator photo.	10
Kick ‘Em When They’re Down	Perform all 11 unique executions on a downed enemy.	10

As for the linked achievements:

Complete Act 1 in Gears of War: Unlock Anthony Carmine multiplayer skin in Gears of War 2.

Find 10 COG tags in Gears of War: Unlock Minh Young Kim multiplayer skin in Gears of War 2.

Defeat RAAM in Gears of War: Unlock RAAM multiplayer skin in Gears of War 2.

Gears Of War 2 Gets Linked

As far as I know, Fable 2 is the first game to link up games together.  So, this may end up being the trend with all sequels from now on (or not…).  But I hope it is, I like to see some extra incentive, especially if I took all the time to beat GoW on Insane mode.  Yeah, I get the achievement to prove I did it, but so what?  What good does the achievement do in the game…none, that’s what. 

Here’s a couple of them that have been announced thus far:

• Players who played Gears 1 and completed Act 1 will be able to play as Carmine in Gears 2’s multiplayer.
• If you killed Raam at the end of Gears 1 his character model will be available as well.
• Unlocking the “Time to Remember” achievement in GoW unlocks Minh Young Kim in GoW2 multiplayer.

There will be more “linked achievements” but none of the others have been announced.  Makes me wonder what you get for having the “Seriously …” achievement will do…?  Maybe it’ll give you a t-shirt for your avatar saying “I have no life!!! Seriously!”

[E3] E3 Day One Highlights Part One

Okay, so we’re going to cut to the finer points and highlights of day one for you so that you don’t have to read through all the other stuff to get to the good parts.

Fallout 3

• For those of you who have Xbox Live, you can download the new trailer that was debuted at E3 sometime soon.
• You have the option of switching between both first & third person views.
• The Pipboy 3000 can be used to listen to radio stations during the game.
• The “Voltech Assisted Targeting System” is available so that you can queue up attacks on enemies rather than the manual aiming and firing.
• The game is based in Washington D.C. and will have over 100 hours of gameplay.
• There will be exclusive downloadable content for the Xbox 360

Resident Evil 5

• Online co-op has been confirmed for the entire game.
• Game will release on March 13th, 2009 (which also happens to be a Friday…)
• Teamwork will be essential to get through the game.
• If you do not have a friend playing with you, the AI will take control of the second character.

Fable 2

• Online co-op has finally been confirmed.
• Fable 2 is pretty much finished and will be out sometime in October.
• Ambient orbs allow you to invite your friends in to your world when you come across them at any time.  They can also leave at anytime as well.

Gears Of War 2

• Flamethrower is introduced (this could be very interesting).
• New 5 player co-op feature is revealed…called Horde, in which you and 4 other buddies fight off wave after wave of Locust.
• NO four player campaign was announced…which saddens us tremendously.
• Gears of War 2 will be coming out November 7th.

Xbox Live Arcade Games

• Geometry Wars 2 Retro Evolved was announced supporting 4 players.
• Galaga Legions will be released in August.
• Portal Still Alive was announced as XBL exclusive and will be available sometime this fall.
• A South Park XBL title was announced….no details on it yet though.
• The original Banjo Kazooie will be coming to XBL sometime soon.

Lips

• It’s been rumored for quite a while, but now it’s official.
• The game will allow you to import songs from your iPod & Zune to use on the game.  Which makes it the first game ever to allow that.
• The microphone is wireless and it has tilt functions. 
• It also had LED lights on the side that will light up while singing. 
• According to how you sing the microphone will light up accordingly.
• The game will come with songs from different genres.
• Duffy will be a featured artist on the game.   Her song “Mercy” will more than likely be on there considering she sang it during the games debut.