Fixing The 3 Ring of Death With Towels?

The other day I watching some videos on youtube, and landed on a video where a boy was covering a towels over his Xbox 360 to get rid of the 3 ring of death. It seemed to work, but I thought to myself, "Wouldn't that just make your 360 overheat and really mess it up?" I thought the whole idea of having it stand up and vents inside the system was to prevent overheating.


Fortunately, I haven't had the 3 rings of death yet, so I don't know if that putting towels on your Xbox would really help. I've also heard that unplugging all the connections to your Xbox and then reconnecting them would work. Do these methods fix the problem permanently, or just fix it temporary? What's your thoughts on this.

Heroic Map Pack For Halo 3 is Released

Yesterday, the heroic map pack for Halo 3 was released on Xbox Live. In the pack there are 3 all new maps for players to explore in. Standoff is a good place for team slayer matches. In the map, it has entrenched bases and fields of boulders to run into and hide. Then there is Rat's Nest, which is ideal for big team matches and Foundry, the ultimate forge map. In Foundry, you will be able to edit every single object in the map to make a totally new map.

Right now the heroic map pack is available exclusively to Xbox Live and will cost 800 Microsoft points. By next spring, this pack will become free to download prior to the new multiplayer maps that will become available to download.

My Assassin's Creed Review

Assassin's Creed is one of the most intriguing, fresh, fun, and absolutely impressive games to come to the Xbox 360. This game is a beautiful and exciting experience that you'll remember for years to come.

Altair the Assassin

Altair, the hero of Assassin's Creed, is a master assassin turned loose in the most vibrant medieval cities of the Middle East. Altair is as interesting and memorable a character as Ubisoft's other stars, Sam Fisher and The Prince of Persia. Altair is highly agile, meaning he can leap from rooftop to rooftop, scale buildings and generally run across anything. Altair can also extract information from strangers, protect pedestrians from being mugged, and slaughter guards. Altair's stylish combat moves and graceful acrobatic steps make him a most formidable assassin but the missions can get a bit repetitive.

It's in the free-running that you'll find the game's most original and satisfying gameplay, tearing across cities as medieval hitman Altair. Once you start free-running, gameplay becomes about maintaining a perfect line of motion rather than hitting the jump button at just the right time. The game is split into gameplay sections, which essentially play the same from beginning to end. There are no cutscenes in the traditional sense; every bit of story exposition and dialogue flows smoothly from the gameplay and takes place entirely within the game engine. While playing, the gameplay can instantly transform from careful, measured movement to a heart-pounding escape with a dozen city guards on your trail. The only concern I had is that the game uses physics, so why not allow you to pick up random objects and chuck them about (like most other games), which, not only gives you more gameplay alternatives, but again makes the world feel that much more real and interactive.

Combat is largely optional, as is fitting an assassination game. Thankfully, Assassin's Creed is endlessly entertaining in that it features a fine mix of stealthy exploration, tight platforming, and exciting combat. But if you do learn to master the combat, it is rewarding to use the advanced techniques you acquire after successfully completing each assassination. Despite a combat system that largely makes use of one button exclusively, combat in Assassin's Creed is a cinematic and often brutal affair.

As you guide Altair through his missions, the game transforms you into a true assassin; mastering every control scheme and cinematic camera makes every kill feel significant, and every leap of faith a triumph. Before you can kill your target, you have to complete a few "investigation" missions around the city to gather information. Most of these missions allowed you to sneak in through some alternate route and get a stealth kill without any guards ever knowing you where there. Using the information gathered from the missions, like maps of best approach and guard positioning, makes getting the stealthy kill easier.

The graphics were amazing and I loved the ability to climb the walls and have free range within the city. Set in the ancient holy lands, Assassin's Creed is a single-player, multi-path action game that pushes the boundaries of next-generation graphics and gameplay.

Overall, Assassin's Creed is a great addition to stealth game genre. If you like the idea of sneaking around killing people, then Assassin's Creed is a must have.

Time Names "Halo 3" Game of the Year

Today Time Magazine released its annual top ten list, where Halo 3 made #1, and rightfully so. Halo 3 had the immersive storyline, great gameplay, and killer multiplayer, and I'm glad it made it to #1. Other games that made the list were: The Orange Box at #2 and Rock Band at #3. This year has been a great year for games. I can't wait to see what developers have in store for next year. If you want to check out the whole list click here.

Devil May Cry 4 Demo Coming To Xbox Live

Thats right. Capcom has just announced that they will be releasing a demo version of the game on xbox live and the playstation network. The demo will let you play as Nero, the new hero of the game. The demo will also give a variety of levels and situations to battle through. The expected release for the demo is in the early part of 2008.

GTA 4 Trailer #3 "Move Up Ladies"

The third trailer of GTA 4 has finally been released. In it, Niko the main character is shown coming to America, and establishing himself as a thug. Check out the trailer here. Oh, by the way, you can download the trailer from the Xbox marketplace for free. It's in HD and 92.12MB in size.

Xbox Live Siver Account Users Get Late Content

Apparently, if you have a silver account on Xbox live you will not be able to access the free content like demos for a week after it is released. For that week, Gold members will have exclusive access to the free stuff before everyone else. I guess this is one of the advantages of having a gold account.

Mass Effect Review

Mass Effect is a science-fiction action-roleplaying game (RPG) created by BioWare, the acclaimed RPG developer of Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, and the Baldur's Gate series. Mass Effect delivers an immersive story-driven gameplay experience with stunning visual fidelity.

Storyline

The story revolves around an ancient alien prophecy stating that every 50,000 years a portal opens that separates the "normal" universe and a realm beyond, releasing an ancient artificial intelligence that will harvest all organic life, and the time of their return is approaching. As you progress through the storyline, you will meet other characters who you can have in your squad, and each one of them comes with their own set of unique abilities and talents. Every cut-scene and conversation plays out like a movie, with different camera angles and plenty of cuts to keep the scene interesting and the storyline flowing. There are multiple endings based on certain decisions made during the game, and at least 20 hours worth of side-quests which have all been given the same amount of care as the 20 hour long main storyline. Although only the main storyline mode is needed to complete the game, accomplishing the side quests are highly recommended.

Characters

As with any RPG, Mass Effect starts you off in the Character Creation menu. It has a decent enough customisation system, however it is limited to facial characteristic (face, hair, ears, nose, etc). There are three primary character classes in Mass Effect; the solider, the engineer, and the biotic user. Each character class have unique talents and abilities which increase in power as the player progresses through the game. Apart from choosing the look of your character you can also customise their background, military history and combat style.

Character models are beautifully detailed, such as with your Krogan teammate Wrex, whose every wrinkle and ridge is carefully textured and molded. Characters look life-like and the lip-sync is pretty perfect. Characters realistically react to your words; in fact, your conversation choices shape your game from the missions you're offered to enemies you make.

Graphics

At first glance, Mass Effect is an absolutely stunning example of the raw graphical power of the Xbox 360. The graphics are a beauty to behold, however the text on an SDTV is a bit on the small side. From what I've played so far, it really does feel like KOTOR with the updated graphics with a focus on gunplay and a less robotic dialogue system.

Gameplay

Given the chance to create their own world, Bioware has produced an immersive action/RPG with a compelling plot, memorable characters, and entertaining gameplay. The gameplay itself is either first person shooter style with guns blazing, roleplaying where you have to interact with other characters to find out what is going on, or tactical squad based allowing you to bring up a secondary HUD and control other members of your team. While there are some technical issues and awkward gameplay decisions that are hard to ignore, when it comes down to it, Mass Effect is so compelling that most people will be able to push the issues aside and immerse themselves in one of the most detailed game worlds every created. You'll want more from it, but by no means does it hold the experience back, nor does it make you wish you were playing something else.

Nothing is sufficiently amiss here to prevent you from enjoying Mass Effect's class-leading gameplay, and it deserves to be remembered as the first truly great role-playing game of this generation.