I can’t figure this one out:Â

My kids are out of school for the Summer and I want to keep them entertained. As you all know my kids are gamers (just like their Dad). Recently they are really enjoying the Arcade titles that MS has been releasing. I, as a parent, don’t mind purchacing them because I get to play them as well. However, now there are issues with who gets the 360 when Dads home.

Solution:

Buy another 360! Right? Hmmm… It’s not that clear-cut. If I have a second console for my kids; then what happens to all the Arcade games I own? Do I call MS everytime I buy a game now to let them know my other gamertag isn’t getting it? Do I purchace each game twice for the same household? Do I recover my Gamertag each time I go to my kids console? Do I really wan’t to bother with any of these choices?

I know that this may seem trivial but:Â

Itunes lets me share my music througout the home. I can rent a DVD from Blockbuster and any set with a player can watch it. Even TIVO lets me leap-frog my programs to other TIVO players. GAMEtap lets you have up to six accounts. So why do we have to hop through hoops to play TMNT?

With all of these issues I am really pondering telling the Kids that paying for one account and one game at a time is enough. If anyone can tell me an antidote for this please clue me in. I will discuss it on the next cast. Keep in mind I don’t want to make a phone call, re-download my gamertag, or do anything that takes real effort to play a game I’ve already paid for. I think buying two consoles with two GOLD memberships tied to the same VISA card is proof enough that I have the right to play the game no matter where I am sitting.

Now a couple weeks ago when the new dashboard update came out, one of the things that MS was touting was the brand spanking new Marketplace blade that was added to the dashboard. The new blade allowed Xbox users to quickly find the newest TV shows, Movies, Themes, Picture Packs, game downloads and more. But with all this content available one thing in particular seemed to have been forgotten or neglected a little bit. And what has been neglected you ask, its anything free. And in this case the users of Xbox Live and the Marketplace are speaking. Here at XBL Radio we have talked about this on our podcast and on our Video Minute and now it seems that the average joe is asking for it too. MS what we want is a quick and easy way to find items that are available for free on the Marketplace. We want a link, or button, that lists all free content, the same way there is one that shows us the top download movies, or newest downloadable content for our games. So what is it going to take? Is it going to take a few hundred people to add there gamertag to this link in your forums? Is it going to take other websites joining in spread the word? Now this can not be to hard to add a shortcut the Marketplace blade, its has to be a whole lot simpler them growing our friends list or adding group chat. So Microsoft if your truly listening to the community, please let us know what your going to do.

This is the Official Review of Catan for the Xbox Live Arcade, which was developed by Big Huge Games.

MSRP is a 800 mp or 10 dollars

Pluses
+ Fun
+ You have to think for once
+ Easy to learn
+ First of its kind on the Xbox Arcade

Minuses
- No vision camera support
- Button layout

www.catanlive.com

Music by Theme for Murder
http://www.myspace.com/themeformurder

To subscribe:
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What is the one of the biggest holidays of the year? Memorial Day. What’s so cool about it? Well, while many people like it because of the 4 day weekend or because it signals that summer is near, Memorial Day is a day that we are to remember all those that gave their life fighting for this country and what they believe in. This day is also about thinking of those that are risking their lives overseas every day. So here at XBL Radio, we decided to hold a game drive for these awesome and sometimes forgot about troops.

(more…)

We are giving a year free of Xbox Live to one lucky XBL Radio Community Member.

As you remember Carpal and TOG made us a Guitar Hero 2 music video

Now we want to make a XBL Radio community music video, and we need your help. What we want is a video of you or your friends or whatever playing guitar hero 2 (or looking like you are if you don’t own the game) You can do this anywhere you want, we want you to be creative like in the video above. And you can do this with any song that you want. Then when you have the video, upload to to anysite, youtube.com is preferred and free.

SUBMIT THE LINK TO THIS THREAD along with your gamertag, and thats it. From there we will take everyones video, make a montage of it and then everyone that submitted a video will get there name thrown into a hat to win a year free of xbox live

Again you don’t even need the game to win

Topics Include:

Jump on the Microsoft Bus on playing Guitar Hero 2
E3 Exhibitors Announced
How real is Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2?
Bungie to prep us Halo 3 beta testers
Mass Effect delayed
2 new games coming this Wednesday to the Xbox Live Arcade, again?
Do it yourself, prep your own 120gb HD for the Xbox 360
Contests and Tournaments in the mix
and more!
Music by Theme for Murder
http://www.myspace.com/themeformurder

To subscribe:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/XBLRadioDailyMinute

XBL Radio and Kontrol Freek invite you and your friends to our awesome tournament. Together we are holding a PGR 3 racing tournament where the grand prize is going to be Forza 2. Second Prize, 1600 MS Points. First - Fifth Prize, a free Speed Freek. And everyone that enters will win a free 10% off discount code for a future order at KontrolFreek.com. What were doing is holding a special tournament in PGR3. The tournament rounds will go one once a day on Sundays and Wednesdays at 7pm Pacific Time, check the time you have to be there to be in the tournament. The number of rounds will be determined at a later date based on the number of entry’s. Now if you have any questions we have a thread set up here to ask any questions. And if you would like to enter, we have a forum thread here where you can enter. Now to enter all I want is your gamertag, I want nothing else in this thread. So if you are available, go ahead and sign up but do not leave and not come back, all the dates and time are subject to change based on what we feel will work best, all changes will be in the first thread or here again. We are estimating the start date for the tournament on April 29 with the final sign up date on April 25

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I haven’t even unlocked all the songs on G.H II (which has only been out for a week) and now I can go wild with my MS points?

Thats right! For just 500 points you don’t even get a “reach Around” by the Marketplace. Red Octane has already put out three packs of songs for you to buy at 500 MS Points Each.

($6.25 or about $2.00 a song)
*pack 1 = Bark at the Moon, Hey You, Ace of Spades.
*pack 2 = Killer Queen,Take it off, Frankenstein
*pack 3 = Higher Ground, Infected, Stellar

From what I hear, the upcoming SinStar for the PS3 game will allow you to buy the songs individually. No word if you will be able to transfer the $2.00+ songs to your mp3 player.

All three packs would make the game come to a ballpark: $115.00 (If you are like most and paid for the Guitar and Game this past week). That’s more than a real Guitar purchase or a nice down-payment on the Limeted Edition of Halo 3. Plus, we aren’t finished yet! Keep in mind this is only week one.  So tell your mom that she will have to either up the allownce or you have to pick between guitar lessons or GHII. Either way it still won’t up your chances of scorin’ in the real World!

Topics Include:

Gears of War update available now
Bug Bash?
4000 MS points for only $50
Spring Update
Guitar Hero 2 unlockables
Play Guitar Hero 2 on the PC
And More

Music by Theme for Murder
http://www.myspace.com/themeformurder

To subscribe:
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Its really long but I’ll shorten it up for you all. And this is all confirmed as well.

Beginning the week of May 7, users of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 will text chat using the virtual keyboard accessible on Xbox 360, or by connecting a USB keyboard to the console. This summer Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging.

Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including the following:

· A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.

· Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.

· A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek — whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States) — from one place on Xbox LIVE.

· Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded Tell a Friend capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.

· A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.

· New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

· Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

Looks like they are adding many of the things that the video showed this week. But I’m curious what you guys think is still missing or is this good enough.