2 Free XBLA Games Now Out - Harm's Way & Crash Course

Ah, free stuff. How we do love our free stuff, I mean who wouldn't! It's something for nothing, and now XBLA has got 2 new games that are free. As part of Unlock Xbox competition by Doritos, 2 games have been released on the marketplace - Harm's Way (a racing, shooter game) and Crash Course (a Takeshi's Castle-esque platformer). Hopefully, more free stuff will follow suit...

Black Ops Update:

Please Note That The Following Post Is From The Point Of View Of An Xbox-360 Gamer With No Help To PS3 Gamers :(.

On the 14th of December, 2010 (duh) , Call Of Duty: Black Ops saw a mere 10mb update.

For any of you that are wondering what said update did; basically , the update patched the golden gun glitch and removed K.V.P.

Now, In more detail, the golden gun glitch was availible by having a friend with a J-Tag who made combat training kills 50,000 xp per kill, then with a friend the lobby, prestige you. You'd get to 15th Prestige and the J-Tag could transfer the rank unlockables to your player match folder so, for 50,000 cod points, you could buy a golden camo, regardless of rank.

Now, K.V.P, means Killer Viewing Perks, basically for any of you Search and Destroy enthusiasts, you will have found that when spectating another player , you'd see the perks of YOUR killer in the place of where, in previoius call of duty's you'd see the perks of the player you're viewing currently. This update has cancelled that, however ,we're yet to see any perks of the playe. Despite Treyarch's Call Of Duty: World At War this was not an issue.

Hope that helped 360JoyPad viewers :).

Stay tuned, or whatever you call it when involving a website, for more posts on black ops updates or Message me at:

See you later :)

Quake Arena Arcade Finally Coming To XBLA

Quake Arena Arcade has been in development for quite some time now, and was announced in 2007, but now finally; it's coming to XBLA December 15th. Based on Quake III multiplayer, QAA will have 45 maps, 15 of which are exclusive XBLA, 6 game-types with 15 player online. All sprayed with abit of HD magic. No price yet, but Bethesda and iD say they will announce it soon. So hopefully, soon, we will all be able to frag our friends...

Halo Reach Limited Edition For Only £25

Despite being a 'limited' edition, Halo Reach's still seems to be in stock, if Amazon's price cut is anything to go by. Amazon.co.uk have dropped the price down from it's launch price of £50 to £25, £5 cheaper than the normal edition of Halo Reach. So if you haven't experienced Bungie's curtin call to Halo, it seems now is a better time than any. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Halo-Reach-Limited-Collectors-Xbox/dp/B003INF2EK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1291915390&sr=8-2

RDR Multiplayer Gets Double XP This Weekend

So, you're saving up you're money for christmas, and don't know what to play.

"I know! I'll play some Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, so I can get to level 50!" It seems Rockstar read your mind, because this weekend you get twice as much XP than usual, just to help you out.

Trials HD & Splosion Man Reduced For A Short Time Only

2 of the best XBLA games EVER are going on sale - Trials HD tommorrow and Splosion Man in the very near future. Trials HD will be reduced from 1200 msp to 400 msp; which is a great deal if you havn't played it yet, and Splosion Man for 160 msp, which is down from 800 msp. Now that is a steal.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Achievements Announced

Over on x360a, the achievement list for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood have been announced, with alot of them in the 20's with a few different here and there, but on paper (or should i say screen) it looks like a fun set of achievements, but does have SOME SPOILERS. Check them out here.

Gears of War 2 'All Fronts Collection' Half Price This Week

Gears of War 2 may have came out ages ago, but it seems Epic doesn't want you to forget about it. Originally, the All Fronts Collection was 1600 Microsoft points, but got permanently slashed to 800 - but this week it is slashed again in half to 400 Microsoft points. The 'All Fronts Collection' includes 19 multiplayer and horde maps & a deleted scene from the campaign; so well worth the money.

Tekken 6. The best Tekken yet?

Namco's Tekken 6 has been around for a while now, only just picking it up within the last week I was transported to my Playstation 1 days on tekken 2 spamming the square button with Yoshimitsu ( Metaphorically, the campaign doesn't involve being transported to a PS1 ) .

Trying not reveal to much about the story, there are two types of story mode. The first , Scernario mode, takes us to a labrotory where rebel leader, Lars Alexanderson is infiltrating said Lab only to be ambushed by G corporations JACK 6 robot. Lars' squad defeats the JACK's only for one to get back up and self-destruct causing the explosion to give Lars' amnesia...

The other story mode is the basic Tekken arcade mode, with the 9 stages of 1 on 1 fights, 1 bonus round against a fighter I can't/ won't reveal in case of spoiling too much, but I will say the mysterious fighter is worth a 30 G achievment if you defeat her you Xbox- 360 fans. With at teh end of the 9 rounds you face a giant beast named Azazel which is ancient Hebrew meaning mythical beast, but no achievment. While he is hard, it may require you to sacrifice your fighting pride and resort endless spamming of the X button regardless of which console you play.

The Characters List consists of 43 characters:

New Characters include:

Bob - An obese yet suprisingly agile blonde fighter.

Jack 6 - Obviously an upgraded Jack 5, nothing special but every Tekken has gotta have a Jack.

Leo - A counterpart to Lei Wulong, very agile and fast yet lacking strength.

Miguel Rojo - One of the most agile fighters yet one of the weakest. A trade-off.

Zafina - An ex- western assassin, apparently her moves resemble a spider.

Lars Alexanderson - Fast, strong and carries a mean punch. Basically, not an easy target.

Alisa Bosconavitch - Alisa was a the daughter of Dr. Bosconavitch, after she dies , he revives with some slight robotic modifications including rocket thrusters, chainsaw arms and a detachable head.

All in all, one of, if not the best tekken game to date, ask for my gamertag if your up to the challenge ;)

Alan Wake Review - The Pun Says It All

There's something about puns, there funny and ironic, and always make you smile and go 'Oh yeeeeaaahh!'. Other news sites have probably used this but... Alan Wake is keeping me A.Wake. This is a pun. Not only is it a pun, it's a descripition. Because you'll try to stay A.Wake to play it.

If you played Alone In The Dark, you'll be familiar with how Alan Wake works, where each segment is split up into 6 episodes, with each episode starting with 'Previously on Alan Wake' along with a quick recap, just like a T.V series. But unlike a T.V series you interact with it, because y'know it's a game... but Alan Wake mixes presentation with gameplay, a good example would be where you fight the Taken (people possessed by the darkness), and just before the hit you with an axe press the left bumper. This creates a short Slo-mo bullet time-esque sequence, which looks really cool yet fits the gameplay & the story very well.

Now I wont spoil the story, as it will ruin your experience with the game, but just introduce you to it. The game follows Alan Wake, a famous writer that has been experiencing writers block for 2 years. His wife, Alice, convinces him to go Bright Falls for a vacation, but things soon go outta control.

But this is where it gets ironic - Remedy (the developer behind Alan Wake) hired a company to do the voice acting for the game, but they had finished the voice acting before the game was finished - so they had to implement it in. Unfortunately, this doesn't do well for Alan Wake.Now you may think I'm exaggerating but, the voice acting in Alan Wake is THE worst I have ever seen in a video game. Sometimes it looks like a ventreloquist puppet - its that bad. Another Downer is the collectables: I enjoy collectables, but collectables are a sort of love/hate relationship - some people like them (me), some people dont, and for the people that dont like collectables - there are 206 collectables.

Which, quite conveniently brings me to my next point. Alan Wake was originally planned as a free-roam, sandbox game; But Remedy then decided to change it to make the story better, yet when you play the levels it feels alot like a free-roam game, with multiple paths and triple-digit collectables. Yet you do treat it like a free-roam as Bright Falls looks so beautiful and gorgeous when your fighting the darkness, it really heightens the tension.

Despite Alan Wake's faults, when you finish Alan Wake, and watch the final cut scene, you'll sit back and replay it again in your head and go "Oh yeeeeaaahh!", "Man that was cool!" or even just silence as you put The Signal DLC in your download queue and wait until it's downloaded. Because you'll want to go back to Bright Falls for your vacation honeymoon - 'cus you'll want to marry it afterwards.

Now seen as this is 360joypad's first review
I have divised a clever scoring system for our reviews. Each game will get a mark out of 7 for how many days a week you should play this. Simple.

7/7

Amazing

Bulletstorm Gamescom Demo

Here at 360joypad, we are excited about Epic's & People Can Fly's Bulletstorm,
so here is the demo shown at Gamescom. The demo shows of the shotgun's secondary
attack that disintergrate's weird mutant things, a giant mutant lizard thing. Very cool.
Not Rated but probably 18+, I dont own this video it is IGN's.

Funny GTA 4 Tricks!

Now GTA 4 has been out for a long time now but even still, there's always time for some liberty city in ya. So here is a very funny video compilation of funny glitches/mods. NOTE: This game is an 18, so this video is an 18, watch with discretion.

I did not create this video, Machinma & Ben Buja did.

Xbox 360 S Limited Edition Halo Reach Bundle Announnced by Microsoft, Designed By Bungie

Microsoft have announnced the limited edition Halo Reach Bundle for the xbox 360 S. It has all the features of a normal xbox 360 S bundle, you know the 250gb hard drive, wireless built-in & being really quiet; but instead of just basic black controllers & console, you get shiny silver like you see above. Also included is not one but 2 controllers, a Halo Reach Headset, oh and of course the game Halo Reach. Unfortunately, it wont be in your Reach until September 14th 2010 (pun intended).

Halo Reach ViDoc - 'Forge World'

Halo 3 was and even to todays standards, a great game. Probably the best feature (and still used today, me included) was the forge mode allowing you to create maps within maps, using objects already in the game. Halo Reach's new ViDoc named 'Forge World' shows off what halo can do, and should be watched without any knowledge about it except this - If you have seen a bigger game map in a video game than this, you're lying...
If the video fails click this link here.

Next Week's Deal Of The Week - Borderlands DLC

On July 26 (in 2 days time) for a week only all of the Borderlands DLC is half price - The Zombie Island of Dr.Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot & Secret Armoury of General Knoxx are all down 50% from 800 to 400 microsoft points. Now go have fun in Pandora, before a skags spits on ya.

No Demo For F1 2010 & No DLC

Codemasters are probably the best racing game devs in this age, with DiRT 1 and 2 & GRID they have earned a reputation for making great games - and after they bought the rights from Sony, it seems they are trying to do the same with Formula One 2010. But they are not releasing a demo,

"Due to the nature of the game, and it's layers of licensed content, it will not be possible to make a cut-down, limited content sample that would serve as a demo F1 in 2010 within our production deadlines." said Codemasters community manager Ian Webster. Bummer. Another bummer: there will not be a demo after the launch of F1 2010 - F1 2010 chief designer explains,

"Seeing as we'll have to move over to '11 almost immediately I very much doubt resource will be spent on the '10 demo which would reduce the scope of the '11 game." Sorry i ain't done with the bummers - Paul Jeal, the senior producer on F1 2010 says adding new content to this year's game would take away from next year's title.

"We were looking into DLC and if you take the the 2009 season into consideration lots of drivers moved and lots of things changed. We're less concerned that those types of things are going to happen in 2010. We're also releasing fairly late - September - because we want the game to be accurate and we've had to wait for the 2010 data."

"So we're quite confident we'll be able to get the performance of the teams and replicate that quite well. So right now we're no planning on any major DLC because the core team will then roll onto developing [F1] 2011. So what you might try to shoehorn into 2010, you might really end up taking away from that 2011 experience. So never say never, but right now probably not."

F1 2010 is racing September 2010.

Call of Duty Black Ops Surpasses Modern Warfare 2 Pre Orders

Activision's Call of Duty Franchise is one that is yearly updated between Infinity Ward, Treyarch & Sledgehammer Games. After Infinity Ward's oversuccessful FPS - Modern Warfare 2, the standard for video games has been raised; but Call of Duty next entry Black Ops has already achieved more pre-orders than MW2. Despite higher pre-orders, Black Ops is only expected to sell 12 million copies over the christmas period, whereas MW2 sold 16 million copies in the christmas period. Black Ops is slated for a worldwide release 9th November 2010.

1 vs 100 Having 'A Fond Farewell...'

Microsoft have announced that there will not be anymore seasons of 1 vs 100. "When we started on this journey, we knew we were creating an entirelly new genre of entertainment that would be a continually evolving concept," General Manager Dave McCarthy said to Kotaku, "Were very proud of the 1 vs 100 team and their accomplishments and are excited to apply what we've learned into future progamming." The first season of 1 vs 100 saw 114,000 take on the mob; a tough choice then for Microsoft who also said "[The 1 vs 100 team is now] focusing their skills and applying the technology used to develop 1 vs 100 to new projects that will be unveiled in the future."

No Planned DLC For Blacklight Tango Down & Blacklight Tango Down 2... wait, what?

Blacklight Tango Down has beed around for a week or so on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and have acquired a good fan base, so you'd expect Zombie Studios to support the game with DLC - it seems Zombie has other ideas. They announced that they are working on Blacklight Tango Down 2 (working title), which apparently will have bigger maps and pilotable mechs. Also along with the announcement, they said that they are no plans for Blacklight 1 DLC.

UK Top 10 Charts - Crackdown 2 Grabs All The Orbs

This week's top 10 UK chart see's Crackdown 2 go straight to number 1 in it's first week - knocking off Lego Harry Potter, also Red Dead Redemption dropping from 2nd to 3rd, Modern Warfare 2 still going strong in 8th & UFC 2010 jumping from 18th t0 10th. Note that this chart is multi-platform as you'll notice with Just Dance - which is Wii exclusive.

Bulletstorm

We here at 360Joypad are very much anticipating the release of EA's and People can Fly's Bulletstorm. Bringing a whole new concept to first person shooter. Being used to Battlefield and CoD this game will be one to watch out for.Introducing skill shots and electro-whips instead of the aim and shoot, it won't take the place of Call Of Dutys multiplayer however it should be a whole new way of playing first person shooters.

SPOILER ALERT!

The game is set in the future and you play as Grayson Hunt who was the co-leader of a "mutiny" against there squad commander resulting in there squad " Dead Echo " being exiled. Years after being exiled, Grayson is now a drunk space pirate who crashes on a planet and finds his " co-leader of the mutiny ". Being surrounded by hordes, flesh eating gangs and aliens, the team find themselves in an abandoned paradise. Fighting for survival, they search for the man who did this to them.

Skillshots involve any over exaggerated kills eg. pulling an enemy towards you and send them flying towards an explosive, detenating said explosive resulting in killing a group of enemies, instead of simply shooting them in the head. The more " eccentric " the skillshot, the more points you'll recieve which can be spent upgrading your character, unlock weapons and ways to perform the skillshots.

Starting in 2008, the development is obviously being taken care of and not just a £40 and 10 minute waste of money and time, supposed to be annouced earlier along such titles as Gears of War 3 and on " Late Night With Jimmy Falon " where his space was taken by Justin Beiber, he then announced he would be announcing two games on the show, Bulletstorm later appeared on the cover of Game Informer in May 2010.

For more info:

http://www.bulletstorm.com/ ( age verification required )

http://en.wikipeida.org/wiki/bulletstorm

Watch This Space

Summer of Arcade Games Dated & Priced

Its that time again, yes the summer of arcade is back, and bringing with it quite a substantional list of XBLA (xbox live arcade) games but they weren't very creative about the price. 1200 msp (microsoft points), yes all of them are 1200 msp. Creativity. Anyway Limbo is released July 21, Hydro Thunder Hurricane - July 28, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - August 4, Monday Night Combat - August 11 & Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - August 18. Also if 3/5 games above, you get 400 msp back; and if you buy all of the games above, you get 1200 msp back.

New Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Brings New Menus for XBLA

A bit unexpected but the next Dashboard update makes browsing for XBLA games easier clearer, not to mention sleekier. And no we won't have to wait a long time for it, 'cus it is released next week!

Custom Paint Job For Xbox 360 Slim - 'Classic White' & More

Ever wondered what an xbox 360 Slim would look like white? Well Here it is! Along with 'Classic White' you can customize it to what paint you want, where ever you want it! Here's the link to the site:http://www.colorwarepc.com/p-235-xbox-360-s.aspx

2 New Arcade Games & Some DLC

The microsoft point. We've all used them, despite the uneven price differrence & now it seems there is more reason to buy them. Blacklight: Tango Down, the multiplayer-only arcade game is to be released on the 7 july for 1200 microsoft points, along with Monkey Island 2 special edition: LeChuck's Revenge & the Battle pack DLC for Worms 2: Armageddon - for 800 and 400 microsoft points.

Crackdown 2 & Perfect Dark sitting in a tree..

Have you got Crackdown 2? Have you got perfect dark from XBLA? Yes? Well now you can have a new skin for perfect dark multiplayer, named Agent 4. Whats the catch you ask? there isnt one - you only need a crackdown 2 save to unlock the multiplayer skin.
Crackdown 2 is coming to the US July 6th, Asia pacific/Australia/NZ July 8th & Europe July 9th.

Fresh from the web!

hi and welcome to 360 joypad, a website that i setup to give info & insights into all things xbox, and some reviews on games that i have bought. I dont mean to sound desperate but if you like this blog - please spread the word as this isnt gunna be known if you lot dont help, thanks.