Xbox 360 Fanboy

Coming straight out of a Microsoft Japan held press conference are new details about what features will be included in the December 4th Fall Update. All the information is in Japanese (and we forgot our Japanese translator at home), but thanks to Engadget Japan's own Ittousai we've got all the goods. And yes, there's more to the Fall Update than just Xbox Originals and Friends of Friends. Click through to the break to get learnified ...

Ahh yes, we finally get a Fall Update feature out in the open, exposed and bared to all! Or we should say an "alleged" feature. We should also say we don't think it's the most exciting Fall feature ever implemented, but it's Fall Update news so we shall divulge.

According to a post made by JasonX1 over on the Xbox.com forums, he spotted some potential Fall Update facts on the back of his recently purchased Guitar Hero III keychain. More specifically, the keychain text hints at a new family timer and reads ...

Family Timer
- A simple tool that lets you manage how much time your kids spend on their Xbox 360.
- Manage time in daily or weekly increments. Easy for parent to suspend or add time.
- Available in December 2007 only through Xbox Live.

As you can see, the text doesn't solely mention family timer options for GHIII and instead uses the broad "Xbox 360" label. Interesting stuff. Oh, and don't count your Fall Update releasing in November chickens just yet, we have a feeling our update eggs will hatch this December.

[Thanks, Hector]

Team Fortress 2 players will be happy to hear that The Orange Box has finally received the update promised by Valve. The patch went up over the weekend, and players will be prompted to update the title whenever they load the game on their 360s. We haven't had a chance to see if Team Fortress 2's lag problems have been effectively addressed yet, but here's hoping. Anyone out there noticing a difference?

Major Nelson has informed us that a 360 system update is being released today. He also -- somewhat depressingly -- informs us that today's update is not the Fall Update. Actually, that seems rather fitting as, unless we are mistaken, it is not yet fall. So, what in the world does this magical update do? Quite simple really, it adds support for the spiffy new controller that comes with Scene-It. The controller with the giant, candy colored button, remember? Yeah, that one. Anywho, the update is being rolled out now so that the Microsoft ninjas have a chance to test out the device on retail Xboxen. You know, to see if they explode or something. So, don't panic -- and don't get excited either -- when you're prompted to download the update the next time you log into live.

Helping keep both the Halo 3 and Fall dashboard update rumor mills turning is news about the addition clan support appearing on Xbox Live. The guys over at MEGATONik noticed a descriptor for clan support while looking through the Halo 3 feature list posted on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The descriptor reads:

"Clans are one option for playing ranked matches. A clan is a player-created group for playing ranked matches as a team. With clans, you know the players backing you up are dedicated, and the players you're going to face will be just as dedicated."

Again, this clan "feature" is listed under the Halo 3 information on Xbox Live accessible by going to Halo 3 > Expand Your LIVE Experience > Online Game Play. Now, we aren't saying that Halo 3 will have its own implemented clan support seeing that Bungie has already denied such feature, but it could be implemented into Xbox Live via an update ... a Fall update. It's a bit of a stretch, but we didn't get clan support in the Spring dash update and Fall does start September 23rd which is a few days before Halo 3 and timed just right to be considered in the Fall. Clan support, either coming in Halo 3, in the Fall update or not at all. We'll just have to wait and see.

[Thanks, zizzy]

A new Xbox backwards compatibility update was released yesterday further expanding the list of original Xbox games playable on your Xbox 360 to around 300 titles! The July update allows support for over 60 additional original Xbox games including America's Army, Burnout, Mech Assault 2, and Morrowind. To get the update, simply connect to Xbox Live and the update will automatically download and install. Take a look at the complete list of new original Xbox game additions and updates after the break and be sure to tell us which game(s) you are most excited to start playing on your 360.

Yesterday, Xbox.com received a much needed facelift making it a little more gray and overall easier to navigate. But the cosmetic update didn't go perfectly, because it kind of messed up the friends list "last seen" dates. Users (including our fellow fanboys) quickly noticed that the dates display for friends who haven't logged in for more than a day are showing up incorrectly. Well, that is if the dates are still being based on the calendar that everyone on the planet uses. But don't worry guys, because Major Nelson sent us an update stating that the dev team is working on the bug and it should be fixed in a few days. Until then, we advise being creative and coming up with names for the new 40+ months that Xbox.com displays. We're calling month 36 Fanboyember.

Epic's Mark Rein hopped on the official Gears forums to tell everyone that they are working hard on the next auto update and that they've included a few unexpected goodies. Not only are they tweaking the roadie run as promised, but they are adding some glorious NEW achievements to both the Annex gametype and the Hidden Fronts DLC, taking advantage of the new Gamerscore policy. Rein also goes on to say that the update will take care of random exploits and general housekeeping, but that they do not have a firm release date for the update yet.

Brand new Gears achievements simply rocks! It's something that I have been vocal about and to my surprise is going to happen. Now, for those of us who've earned the Seriously achievement, we can milk Gears for even more Gamerscore points. Dreamy isn't it? It's almost as if the Gears of War angels (Epic Games) have flown down from the heavens and blessed us once again.

[Via GamingTalkHQ]

As reported earlier, with the new Crackdown update being rolled out some players have been experiencing a total game reset, wiping out all game saves. Well, the dev team over at Realtime Worlds has acknowledged the problem and has a temporary workaround until they get things permanently fixed. And, in brief, this is their quick fix. When you pop in Crackdown download the auto update, start a single player campaign, once loaded choose the quit option, and either exit to the dash or restart your console. Now, you should have no weird progress deletion and can download the other free or paid content. See, not so hard. Realtime Worlds is looking into a fix and will notify everyone when they have a permanent solution to the update problem. Happy gaming.

[Via Gamerscore Blog]

If you're looking to pull off those floating black text boxes for your Xbox 360 Windows Live Messenger fun, this little guide can help. Over on Xbox.com they've posted a Spring dashboard FAQ featuring a few keyboard shortcuts for the 360 IM'ers among us. Opening, closing, and navigating the numerous text boxes is a breeze with these keyboard shortcuts. Also included in the FAQ is one of those "corporate responses" to Xbox Live members having trouble signing up for the service. More specifically, they are looking into a fix for those who are over 18 years old, but created their accounts when they were under age. Yeah, it's a screwed up system, but we say no more. More reading after the jump.

[Via Major Nelson]

Just a friendly reminder that the feature rich Spring dashboard update is coming sometime this week. As promised, the update will be going live during the week (this May 7th), but any other details are a little sketchy. The Xbox Live team may release it sometime today, tomorrow, or even Friday ... we just aren't sure. But be rest assured that once we hear any news about when it'll be going live, we'll let you know. Okay fanboys, the countdown to an unknown release is on.

For the firstest time ever a demo is receiving an Xbox Live update treatment. Major Nelson sends word that the Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia demo has been updated to fix the matchmaking issues, but sadly, not the control scheme. And since most everyone is a tad underwhelmed by the game, we're not sure how many will even see the update. But no matter, it's updated. Also, developer Jeremy from Artificial Studios will be online tonight and tomorrow playing the Monster Madness demo. Maybe you could play a few games with him and he'll turn you into a full blown Monster Madness fanboy. Maybe ...

Red Octane, being very stealth like, released an auto update for Guitar Hero II early this morning fixing everyone's whammy bar woes. The other day, we learned that people's broken whammy bars weren't a result of malfunctioning hardware, but were software based. Red Octane said that whammy bar problems were being caused by a chunk of anti-cheating dev code that they added late in the development cycle. So, the newly released auto update fixes this code problem and whammy bars the world over can go back to whammying. Fire up your copy of Guitar Hero II, download the update, and whammy until your heart is content.

Now, we just have to get Red Octane to acknowledge that they over priced GH II's DLC and fix that whole mess. But we'll deal with that next week.

[Thanks, DeadPlasmaCell]

Speaking with Gamasutra, group product manager for Xbox Live, Aaron Greenberg, laid down some new specifics regarding the new Live Messenger functionality coming in the spring update. First, and most importantly, the service will be completely free to both Gold and Silver members. Big surprise, right? The Live Messenger integration is compatible with other versions of Messenger across the board, so users on 360 will be able to chat with users on PC and even mobile devices. Users can open up to 6 separate chats, but group chats are limited to 3 people. Greenberg uses the example of a player on a 360 chatting with a friend at work on a PC and a girlfriend on a cell phone all at once. We're not sure how often that kind of thing comes up, but it's cool nonetheless.

Greenberg also makes a point to allay fears regarding the new thumbboard peripheral. Greenberg notes that the device is very light and shouldn't interfere with the gameplay experience. Furthermore, Greenberg says that he uses thumbboards often, so the peripheral is second nature. Of course, USB keyboards are supported as well.

Discussing concerns of IM spam, Greenberg notes the messenger privacy features. The privacy features of the Xbox 360, including who you can and can't receive messages from, will apply to IM as well. There are also options like appearing online to Live friends but offline to IM friends. Finally, Greenberg says that the Xbox friends list is separate from the IM friends list and that IM friends have a different icon than the typical gamer picture associated with Xbox Live friends.

So, is cross-platform IM something that interests you? Would you be willing to drop a few bucks for the thumbboard? Will you use IM at all?