We almost forgot it's Friday, and that can mean only one thing. That's right, it's time for another exciting edition of What Are You Playing! Of course, this may be the first week that I can guess what most of you are playing. Let's see, using only the powers of my mind, I'm going to guess you're playing Gears of War this weekend. Was I right? Was I close?
All kidding aside, it might be more relevant to ask what people are playing besidesGears of War -- especially our European friends who have to wait another week for the game. So, are you rocking anything else? Any Project 8 or maybe a few achievement runs in Contra? For that matter, who picked up Viva Piñata? Leave a comment and tell us what you're playing this weekend. Don't forget to stop by one of our leaderboards for some friendly competition or co-op, too. Also, we've got a new feature for WRUP: What Were You Playing. Simply click the link below and you can browse our What Are You Playing archive. Go dig up your old comments and you'll always know what you were playing. Reminisce about your gaming past, courtesy of 360 Fanboy.
Leaderboards:
Xbox 360 Fanboy Leaderboard
Xbox 360 Fanboy Leaderboard Mk. II
Speaking at the Montreal Games Summit, EA Montreal's Alain Tascan had some fighting words for Gears of War,
"What is Gears of War? I mean Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero."
He further laid on the smack sauce (smack sauce?) with this comment,
"I'm not talking about my tastes, I'm just saying, when you go to metacritic and you see a 96 for Gears of War, then you read the critics saying, 'Okay, storyline - there's none, gameplay is not innovative...' Then I say, why did they give this 96? They were blown away by the high quality of the graphics... Myself, I prefer something more creative,"
Okay, first thing's first: yesterday's winner is (drum roll) Beezer, for his comment, "Just turn a glass full of water around! Pretty impressive, isn't it ?" That's something pretty fun you can do with physics, I guess .... Anyway, on to day 2 of our fabulous contest. Today's contest is for the ladies (or anyone who wants a woman's shirt anyway). The shirt to be given away is a large women's T-shirt. This one is a lovely sky blue with dark blue collar and sleeve cuffs, and Blitz in the middle. It's oh so attractive and the boys will just love it. So, let's see, we need a contest. Ooh, ooh, I know! RoboBlitz has a catchy hip hop theme song, so let's do something in the spirit of song. To enter today's contest, all you have to do is leave a comment that rhymes. By the way, that means you will have to use at least two whole words. Get rhyming and good luck. Our (random) winner and our next contest will be announced on Monday.
Update: This contest is now closed, to see the winner, click here.
General contest stuff: Only one entry per person. Winners will be contacted via email in order to obtain shipping information. This contest is open to residents of the United States only.
Gamertag Radio is giving away two, count 'em, two Xbox 360 wireless headsets. If you'd like a shot at one of them, all you have to do is be very good at Pac-Man. The best thing is that this is web-based Pac-Man at the GTR arcade, so you can even play from work (which we totally don't condone)! The headsets will be given to the top 2 Pac-Man players on the GTR leaderboard. You'd better hurry though, the contest is over on November 14th.
It's not every day that you get a chance to win something just for playing games, so you might as well give it a shot (of course, you could enter our contest, too). If you're interested in a free wireless headset, head over to GTR (make sure to register) and play some Pac-Man.
We invited our readers to playGOW together this week, encouraging them to check out our leaderboard and make friends. Many of you were disappointed that the leaderboard was full (they only allow 100 people per board), so we decided it was time to add another leaderboard and expand our community. Introducing the Xbox 360 Fanboy Leaderboard Mark II. It's just like the other one, except it features our would be mascot created by Alan Fowle for last month's Luminescontest (pictured on the right). If you couldn't make it onto our first board, head over to MGC and register. If you've already registered for the first one, there's no need to register for the second. Before you go, we need a name for our mascot (assuming Alan is okay with us using it). Allow me to make the first suggestion: Button Face. See? You can do better than that, right?
Apparently we were so busy playing GOW yesterday -- playing co-op with all of you is great by the way -- we failed to notice Penny Arcade's latest comic. If you're absolutely sick of all the hyperbole surrounding this game (or if by some off chance you actually like the idea), you'll find the idea of turning Gears of War into a sitcom fairly amusing. It brings up an interesting point though. For those of you who've played the game (and were able to find it), how is it stacking up so far? Does it live up to the hype, or are you happy playing something completely different?
Reports are coming to Xbox 360 Fanboy that many of our readers on the East coast are having trouble getting a copy of Gears of War. Readers report of showing up the morning of November 8th -- as instructed by EB/GameStop -- only to be turned away. Reader Mark FitzGerald sends this unfortunate message:
"The shipments were supposed to come in 11/7/06. Upon not arriving a pre-recorded message was sent to everyone's phone who made a pre-order telling them they could pick it up 11/08/06 at 10:30 a.m. EST sharp. Upon arriving this morning at many locations customers were surprised to learn shipments were "delayed" until the afternoon. but again at about 3:00 p.m. EST, calls were sent again to pre-order customers telling them due to a shipping error, the game again would not be available until 11/09/06 at 10:30 a.m. EST. They are giving a five dollar refund to all those who pre-ordered"
Other readers write in with similar shipping error stories. How about your neck of the woods? Does your local store complain of shipping problems? If so, were you offered any kind of refund or discount once the game finally shows up?
Ever wonder what it would be like to be Cliff Bleszinski's brother? Do you find yourself caught up in all the Gears of War excitement and want to know where all the cool Gears fans hangout online? Well, Tyler Bleszinski is that guy who carries the label of "Cliffy B's brother" and he's on a mission to create the best Gears of War community online. Tyler has broken out from being the other brother and created one of the best Gears of War community sites on the net, GearHeads of War. I sit down for a friendly conversation about the launch of Gears of War, what special treatment he receives for being Cliffy's brother, why he created his fansite and where it's community is headed. You're formally invited to an interview with the brainchild of GearHeads of War, Tyler Bleszinski ...
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, announcing the 360 Fanboy Gears of War Play-a-thon. I'll be picking up the game this afternoon and playing the eff out of it. I can only assume that the other X360F bloggers will be picking it up in short order as well. By now, I'm sure you all know that multiplayer GOW is where it's at, so I ask you all to check out the offficial X360F leaderboard at MGC and find someone to play with, whether it be co-op or versus. If you'd like to play a few rounds with little old me, send a friend request to SenseiRAM (I know, I know, number 70 on the leaderboard). And since the leaderboard only holds 100 people, anyone who isn't listed can feel free to share their Gamertags here. So, go find a buddy an rev up that chainsaw, power your way through the campaign, or lay down some punishment in multiplayer.
Once we've all gotten a chance to play and get the hang of setting up custom games (if possible), we'll try and set up an X360F multiplayer frag fest later this month. Have fun and we'll see you on Live!
Shatter Studios have put together two videos that summarize the leaked Halo 3 info in easily digestible bites. Using the leaked images as backgrounds, the videos point out new weapons, features, and maps. Think of it like a really awesome version of all those crappy documentaries you had (or have) to watch in high school. Our favorite part is when they point out the new spike grenade, which resembles a WWII era German grenade -- you may remember 1UP's Mark MacDonald remarking that it makes a satisfying/terrifying "whoop whoop whoop" sound as it rotates in the air. Check out both videos after the break.
Today is a very special day. For many people, today is Emergence Day, the marketing holiday where all the Microsoft accountants celebrate the truckload of money that Gears of War will make for them. Not just chump change either, we're talking foldin'money. Some of us might get so caught up in the celebration that we forget it's also election day. So, for our American friends (and bloggers), whenever you go pick up your copy of Gears -- or Viva Piñata or Call of Duty 3 or whatever -- head to your nearest polling place and cast your vote.
And for our European friends who will celebrate Emergence Day next week and have nothing to vote for today ... um ... happy belated Guy Fawkes Night?
Do bullies at school push you around? Hate that toaster that always chars your toast? Well my friend, I have something that will cure all of your problems in life, the Halo 2 replica sword. It comes complete with glowing blue lights and bad ass mystique. But you must hurry, this sexy sword will sellout fast as the starting bid is only $230. Buy one (or fifteen) today!
I just picked up the latest novel in the Halo series, Ghosts of Onyx. I've barely begun to read it, but you can expect some sort of review-like thing when the words are ingested. However, before the book is even opened, it's clear that the Halo books have moved into the HD era. Much larger than its older cousins, Ghosts of Onyx is a true example of next generation book making. The cover art is dramatically improved, no doubt thanks to the wonders of dual core processors and 512 Megs of RAM. Also, the words are very clear and precise, easy to read. Of course, we all know that pretty graphics are worthless if the gamepla . . . er . . . story isn't up to snuff. I'll give you the lowdown on that just as soon as I'm finished. Anyone else out there pick this up yet?
Oh, how we have waited for this day. Our good friends at Gamertag Radio have nominated little old us, Xbox 360 Fanboy, for the 2006 Xbox Community Awards. What's more, we're nominated in two different categories. So, if you feel that Xbox 360 Fanboy is the best 360 news site or the best 360 blog (or both!), head over to GTR and vote. You'll have to register for their forums to participate, which is a fairly painless process. We'd like to thank GTR for the nod, and we'd also like extend our congratulations to the other nominees -- including some of our favorite contributors like MyGamercard.net, Piñata Island, Gearheads of War, ILoveXBLA.com, XBLArcade.com, and The Xbox Domain. See the complete list at Gamerscore Blog.
Last year's award ceremony hosted the likes of TriXie, TeamXbox, the PMS Clan, and even bald headed wunderkind, J Allard. Godfree and the gang are promising that this year will hold a few surprises as well. So, go vote for us and stay tuned for the show coming this December. We promise here and now that if we win, we won't refer to you, our readers, as "the little people" in our acceptance speech.
It's official, the people at Stootsi.com are nuts about the Xbox 360. We've covered them selling wireless controls and Live headsets, and the Live Vision Gold bundle in the past. Now they're doing it again. The Live Vision Camera deal apparently sold so fast that Stootsi decided to offer it a second time for all the people who missed out. They are currently selling the Xbox Live Vision Camera Gold bundle for $54.99 plus $5 shipping. So, you can grab this for $59.99, $20 off the retail price. Just for a moment, let's peruse the contents of this pack:
Vision Camera
Live Headset
1 Year of Xbox Live Gold
200 MS Points
Two Live Arcade games (Totem Ball and Robotron 2084)
That's a lot of stuff for not a lot of scratch. If you've got the cash and you don't have a Vision cam, this is a hell of a deal. Anybody plan on getting it? You've got just over 22 hours to pick one up.
Speaking at the Montreal Games Summit, EA Montreal's Alain Tascan had some fighting words for Gears of War,
We invited our readers to 
Apparently we were so busy playing GOW yesterday -- 
Reports are coming to Xbox 360 Fanboy that many of our readers on the East coast are having trouble getting a copy of 
Ever wonder what it would be like to be Cliff Bleszinski's brother? Do you find yourself caught up in all the Gears of War excitement and want to know where all the cool 
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, announcing the 360 Fanboy Gears of War Play-a-thon. I'll be picking up the game this afternoon and playing the eff out of it. I can only assume that the other X360F bloggers will be picking it up in short order as well. By now, I'm sure you all know that multiplayer GOW is where it's at, so I ask you all to check out the offficial X360F leaderboard at MGC and find someone to play with, whether it be co-op or versus. If you'd like to play a few rounds with little old me, send a friend request to SenseiRAM (I know, I know, number 70 on the leaderboard). And since the leaderboard only holds 100 people, anyone who isn't listed can feel free to share their Gamertags here. So, go find a buddy an rev up that chainsaw, power your way through the campaign, or lay down some punishment in multiplayer.
Today is a very special day. For many people, today is Emergence Day, the marketing holiday where all the Microsoft accountants celebrate the truckload of money that Gears of War will make for them. Not just chump change either, we're talking foldin' money. Some of us might get so caught up in the celebration that we forget it's also election day. So, for our American friends (and bloggers), whenever you go pick up your copy of Gears -- or 
It's official, the people at Stootsi.com are nuts about the Xbox 360. We've covered them selling wireless controls and Live headsets, and the Live Vision Gold bundle in the past. Now they're doing it again. The Live Vision Camera deal apparently sold so fast that Stootsi decided to offer it a second time for all the people who missed out. They are currently selling the Xbox Live Vision Camera Gold bundle for $54.99 plus $5 shipping. So, you can grab this for $59.99, $20 off the retail price. Just for a moment, let's peruse the contents of this pack:
