Xbox 360 Games - Xbox 360 Bundle

Tom Clancy’s Air Combat

2010-12-12T08:32:00.001-08:00

Tom Clancy seems intent on conquering the videogame realm, piece by piece. First he annexed a small subgenre, the submarine sim, with Red Storm Rising, and then he gradually expanded his domain, taking more genres under his command: Shadow War took turn based strategy, Splinter Cell took the stealthy sneak’em up, Ghost Recon took tactical shooters, and Rainbow Six took first person shooters. Now his domination is almost complete and he will soon have conquered the world, in Endwar. Only the skies remain free. We hope to get any helicopter game from Tom Clancy in future.

Not for long, though, as Clancy has ordered the ranks of his Romanian developers to mobile. Clancy believes that the nation-state is doomed and that as war fare develops the countries of the world will come to employ mercenaries rather than professional standing armies. With private armies come private military airforces such as Firehawk, which is where Air Combat comes in.

You get to fly over 60 futuristic and contemporary plans including the F-I5E Strike Eagle and Rafale, subduing your enemies with a Cobra or kulbit (a complicated Russian air maneuver). The action takes place in a variety of near future environments and the focus is definitely on realism. Look at the cover and you will see the familiar Ghost Recon Advanced WarFighter HUD has made an appearance and then you will be working alongside the Ghosts from GRAW.

Thrillville: Off The Rails

2010-12-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

It’s not an argument Thrillville seems interested in putting to bed, either. But what it does do is prove that ‘too kiddy’ isn’t always a bad thing. For a game where you have to build theme parks, it’s easy to grasp, which is both its main strength and its main weakness. There’s never a feeling of ‘oh no’ and slinking behind your sofa in fear when confronted with a new plot of land to fill with rides and stalls.

Everything is simple to set up and tweak, so it’s not long before you’re fleecing eager punters near the entrance with overpriced balloons, hiring cheerleaders to dance and setting up a hot dog stand right next to your nausea including rollercoaster. Just for kicks. Yet it’s also too easy, which is where the ‘too kiddy’ tag becomes detrimental to Thrillville and its really a very fun game. There’s not much subtlety involved beyond building, building and more building.

Often, when the groundwork is done, you just sit on your pot of gold as money accumulates beneath your bum. While Thrillville offers plenty of options to distract you from being idle, letting you take part in your rides or even flirt with your customers, you’d rather be doing something a little more worthwhile with your time. it doesn’t have the spinning plates chaos of its genre stablemates, which both makes it more relaxing to play but also some shallow.

Skate 3

2010-11-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

The changes that have been made to Skate in this latest iteration may not be all that obvious, but that doesn’t mean they are not significant. Since Skate hit the Xbox 360 back in 2007 it has redefined what we think of as a skateboarding fun games and forced Activision’s Tony Hawk franchise to completely re-evaluate its stance. However, the core gameplay was so solid from the start Skate is not a series that requires or would even suit yearly sequels, and that means something significant needs to be added each time to justify an expansion of the series.

This time out, the focus is being brought to bear on multiplayer gaming rather than any new tricks in the repertoire. There are a couple of new tricks, but nothing game changing. What Black Box and EA have focused on is trying to harness the power and inventiveness of the online community like never before. This is being done by introducing a collection of team based challenges for online plat that test your abilities as well as reward individual skill, and we can say from first hand experience that they are a lot of fun coming in this game from the start.

Mercenaries 2: World In Flames

2010-11-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

Revenge is a dish best served right getting shot in the arse. Or at least is in Mercenaries 2: World In Flames, the EA published sequel to Pandemic’s Xbox title Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction. But this time, Mercenaries 2 looks set to live up to its predecessor’s subtitle, with plenty of over the top and, at times, truly insane set pieces. And the majority of these seem to involve you, standing right in the middle of a city environment or similar, rocket launcher aimed at everything around you. You see, like Playground Of Destruction, Mercenaries 2 is about the sheer destruction delight of wiping all manner of establishments right off the face of map and play some of the mini helicopter game.

As EA told us during a hands on event, if it’s in the game, you can blow it up. Naturally, we tested that claim. We blew the absolute crap out of everything within our sight and, sure enough, it all fell. Sure, some terrain and structure are there to stay and can’t be blown up, but everything else can be, even locations tied to the game’s story which then respawn when you are far away from them. Speaking of the story, it’s something pandemic is really pushing in World In Flames. This is unlike the first game, where you really had no idea who the hell the actual villain was, even when you were half way through the list of people who needed to be killed.

Super Street Fighter IV

2010-11-17T05:06:00.000-08:00

Well, the original Street Fighter IV was pretty super to start with, but this enhanced version comes with at least eight additional characters and various other tweaks that make the game more fun and even more super. Capcom swears on scout honor that the additional content could not have been DLC, as there’s just too much to it, but has admitted that much of the game will be old news and is promising at suitable price. We think $50 would be suitable.

So far, that would be Juri, who is the only all new character to have been revealed. She’s is the first Korean Street Fighter character, and the first to practice Taekwondo, although you could argue that some other Street Fighter characters incorporate Taekwondo techniques into their styles. Juri have fire balls, but they are pink and they come out of her feet. She can also perform grab moved with her feet.

Taekwondo despite that fact that its name roughly translated means the way to strike with foot and fist is more about leg techniques than punching. So far T.Hawk and Dee Jay have been revealed, which is fitting seeing as they both debuted in Super Street Fighter II. T.Hawk is a big Native American warrior and Dee Jay is a Jamaican kick boxer. The crummy story animations from SFIV are being redone. Capcom is adding new online features to enables gamers to play as groups too.

Enslaved

2010-11-17T05:05:00.000-08:00

Enslaved is the latest game from Ninja Theory, the devs behind painfully average actioner Heavenly Sword. Wait, come back! The one beacon of light in Ninja Theory’s last effort was Any Serkis. As well as voice acting and mocapping king Bohan, the game’s bad guy, he also directed the cut scenes and had a hand in writing the story. The game is full of fun adventure, and excitement gameplay.

Serkis has had a similar hands-on role for Enslaved. He voices and mo-caps a wandering loner called Monkey, in a story loosely based on ancient Chinese novel Journey to the West, as we are pretty sure that didn’t take place in a post apocalyptic wasteland where the last remains of the Human race fight for survival in world over run by robots.

This time the story’s written by Alex Garland, who planned The Beach and 28 Days Later. And it goes a little something like this… After a girl named Trip sticks a headband on you designed to crush your skull if you don’t obey her orders, you have to help her get home. We don’t know where ‘home’ is, but art shows a ruined New York reclaimed by Plant Life.

Dragon Ball Z: Raging Blast

2010-10-27T10:37:00.001-07:00

If you are a follower of the Dragon Ball Z animated series then perhaps some of this makes sense to you, but considering that this supposed to be a beat em up, it really doesn’t make things easy for you. Firstly, this is unlike any fighting series in existence, and while previous entries have put in a good show up until now, particularly on the PSP it’s failed to change and has managed to develop a host of problems. Fighting in Raging Blast is a lesson in frustration.

From the lightweight tactics to the truly awful camera, it’s a game that makes very few concessions for its players. On the plus side, it nails the look of the TV series and the cel shaded visuals look impressive, especially when you manage to pull off a special move send your opponent through some of the destructive scenery. The arenas offer up plenty of room for the fast paced combat, but raging Blast has a learning curve so steep that it’s enough to put off any fighting fan. Combat quickly descends into nothing more than a flurry of quick attacks, and the subtlely of something like a Street Fighter or Soul Calibur is totally lost.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

2010-10-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

Neither of the Lego Star Wars games deserved to sell as many copies as they have done, but we have cheerful at the thought of a half decent Star Wars series receiving such excessive success. Well, we are not that cynical about it, really: we get to play as Chewbacca, only made out of Lego bricks. What isn’t amazing about that? This is Star Wars, and no matter how basic or short the first two games seemed, they were a bloody good laugh. In gaming, there’s rarely of substitute for such a frivolous state of mind, but the asking price could end up being rather too high for two rather short easy games.

For fans that were still gnawing hungrily after the second game concluded, there are a number of notable things that you will want to come back for on the PS3. Ever wanted to play the Zam Wesell chase at the beginning of Episode II? Well, you will get your wish in this compilation, even though it was a bit rude to omit it in the first place. An online co-op mode adds more worth to the package as well, along with ten extra Bounty Hunter levels and redesigns on some of the weaker vehicle (the dreadful Mos Espa Podrace included).

Fairytale Fights

2010-10-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

Fairytales are just a little bit twisted. Whether we are talking about Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood, they are essentially high concept morality tales that inevitably end with someone either getting screwed over, killed or, despite some pretty nasty turn of events, living happily ever after. Fairytale Fights sends up these bizarre fictional scenarios with a premise as off center as the source material, situating the players in levels where denizens of these fictional universes get sliced up for the hell of it.

To exemplify the kind of context that Fairytale Fights takes place in, the game’s hub world, a seemingly nice, innocent place, has a man cutting up rabbits with no explanation. The game’s similarly horror skewed levels are themed around classic fairytales. Take the Hanzel and Gretel level, for example: as it progresses, players will notice fat children eating the surroundings. They can be decapitated with giant sharpened lollipops, which make us smile.

The gameplay is a slide scrolling platform based affair; think somewhere between Lego Star Wars and Castle Crashers, but with an emphasis on violence- but naturally, violence fulfils a major purpose, too. There’s a dynamic slicing attack where the analogue stick can be wiggled around to slash through enemies, causing them to fall apart.

Dead TO Rights: Retribution

2010-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

The first three Dead To Rights titles were forgettable at best, so we weren’t exactly looking forward to the latest in the series, Retribution. It comes as a great relief, then, that on playing the game- which is a reboot, for want of a better description, we can see it has something going for it. It isn’t a world beater, but it could easily occupy the same territory as games like 50 cent: Blood On The Sand. A laugh. A muck about. A game. We went from not really caring to actually looking forward to this one, if only a bit, in a very short space of time.

Players control ‘cop on the edge’ Jack Slate as he travels through Grant City with his trusty K-9 hound Shadow and his pocket full of bullet-time, trying to unravel a web of corruption, deceit and other such naughtiness you’d expect from an action game/movie. While the game goes out of its way to show you it has noir influences on top of the standard bombastic action, it’s all still pretty much ignorable. The meat of the game comes through the combat, which is frantic, simple to control and over the top enough to be great fun.

Tony Hawk Ride

2010-10-05T12:50:00.001-07:00

EA’s critically lauded, intuitive yet hardcore, Skate hasn’t yet published the faltering tony Hawk series back to drawing board, but into the Uncanny Valley, or rather, its plastic peripheral equivalent. This board controller feels like a skateboard, with impressively accurate responses, but for anyone with a modicum of skateboard experience, the controls are so almost, but not quite, similar to real life, that you brain initially knee-jerks into disgusted, self preserving rejection.

Want to Ollie? Lean back reasonably sharply n the tail i.e. a bit like real life, except without actual jumping, or physics, balancing forward motion. Kickfilps? Do an Ollie and (standing regular) nudge your front foot to the left? Again, notionally like real life, but contrary to everything your body wants to do to achieve the real-life motion. Grabs? Move your hand near the area you want, but don’t actually grab, it. The quasi-reality is dislocating and demands practice.

Hawk’s free roaming levels have been (largely) replaced by narrow corridors, played in timed bursts some focus on speed, others on tricks. The linear helps you nail the core controls, but we’re more intrigued by the more open and expressive free skate arenas. Visually, it’s bright, slightly childish and basic, like a posh TH: Downhill Jam on Wii.

NBA 2k10

2010-10-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

What with EA upping their games with Live 10, the contest for king of the Hoops is much closer this year. For us, 2K10 just edges it, despite feeling a little rough and ready next to its rival. Why? It’s down to feel, this game is just better to play.

On court, the controls are less fiddly, and the animations seem to get together better than those in Live 10, giving a more responsive feel. Shooting seems natural, and regardless of whether you think the opposition should really be draining baskets with two of your men draped all over them, every time you shoot, the result is realistic. You can’t expect a little more man like Rondo to a sink a shot from outside the D with pretty much anyone man making him. Kevin Garnett, on the other hand….

Where 2k10 lets itself down, however, is in the Al decision making. It just isn’t that smart. We saw man desperately reaching for interceptions with two seconds left on the shot clock, leaving their man wide open for easy shots. We also watched as the opposition casually threw the ball in bounds and handed us a back court violation. Shouldn’t these issues have been sorted by now?

Crash of The Titans

2010-09-04T02:14:00.000-07:00

You may notice that, in the hallowed pages of most games sites, we journos don’t often get a chance to review kid’s games before they are released. This isn’t due to a reticence on our part, as we are keen to tell you if anything’s crap. It’s more that the publishers think that the game won’t get a fair hearing, because, we bring grown-ups, won’t understand what appeals to kids.

Well, they are wrong. We understand what they like, as we’re big kids too, we just think that most games made for children are cheaply and badly made. A kid’s game needs a highly variable level of difficulty, bright distinct colors, and tremendous reply value (it helps if it’s non violent and non sexual as well). It doesn’t have to below-res, and it doesn’t have to crippled by cross platform development but it doesn’t have to be stupid and cheap either.

Crash Bandicoot is a kid’s game, but it’s not cheap. It’s bright, it has simple stupid plot and daft character design (Crash now has tattoos, because tattoos are Cool) plus the usual agglomeration of kid’s game elements, collectables, unlockables, mini games, that encourage replay. You control Crash through a platform landscape where he beats up a variety of increasingly large baddies to save his island. Yawn.

Naruto: Rise of A Ninja

2010-09-04T02:10:00.000-07:00

Young Naruto is a trainee ninja. He’s got a Nine Tailed Fox (Japan’s mythological spirit) bound inside his body whether that contributes to his pathological exuberance or not is in question, but his raucous behavior has earned him enmity of every single person in his home village. Following the plot of the mage and the cartoon series, Naruto gradually wins over his teachers, classmates and fellow villagers by undertaking dangerous missions and solving town problems. Its classic RPG mixed with a beat’em up, and you don’t need to know anything about the plot to pick up the game.

What you will need noticed straight away, however, is the beautifully rendered cell-shaded world. Beneath it all inst the most powerful engine, but the style isn’t just perfectly thought through. The roaming world and gradually unlocking travel and special powers make the game feel like the classic Jet Set Radio Crackdown, as you gleefully leap from rooftop to rooftop.

Everything about the game is easy to learn and it never feels like the game is holding your hand, even if it’s a touch easy. When the plot requires combat, you drop into arenas, where you can use your combos to setup Justu (Super Special Move) opportunities; if you fail, Naruto can call on his good memories to help him recover. The rich plot and endearing world means that Naruto leaves you waiting to know more about the cartoons series.

Final Fantasy XIII

2010-09-03T05:03:00.000-07:00

There have been games that have taken much longer than Final Fantasy XIII to come out, but rarely, if ever, has a game taken this long without some sort of period in development limbo caused by financial or political maneuvering. The Final fantasy XIII did, admittedly start life as a Playstation 2 game, but that was in 2002. It’s been nearly seven years! And during that time work hasn’t stopped. Square Enix has been working away, making what could be its most spectacularly decadent project yet. We suppose the fact that the end result is going to be incredible is some compensation for the wait, but we have been sitting here hoping and begging for morsels of new information on it for so long that it’s starting to get a little embarrassing. Still, it won’t be long now.

Oerba Yun Fang. No, we’re not just mashing random letters on the keyboard, that’s the name of the FFXIII’s newly revealed sexy lady character and by Final Fantasy standards; her name isn’t really all that silly. The most interesting thing about Fang is that she started off as a man. Not in the same way as Alexis Arquetta or Nadia from Big Brother 5. No more in the same way as Lara Croft. The original character design was male, but was changed because the character team at Square Enix wanted to make Fang a sexy character. Haven’t heard of sexy man? Guess not. Anyway, they made Fang so sexy that they ended up toning down lightning’s sex appeal to differentiate between the two more.

G-Force

2010-09-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

Guinea Pig secret agents, G-Force is the latest in a long line of ridiculous Disney creation films that turn relatively useless households pets into something high concept for the amusement of stupid children. The game is in 3D, like the film, but don’t orgasm in excitement: this is basic, Eighties two color, obnoxiously expensive Avatar stuff that James Cameron is messing around with.

Aside from causing a headache after about 30 minutes, it’s okay. Take the packed in glass away however, and G-Force is a fairly humdrum mix of imprecise platforming and mundane puzzles. The guinea pigs in this universe are apparently armed with electric whips, meaning it plays like Daxter on PSP. While G-Force is a little tedious, however, we admit that children of discount IQ will tolerate it better than us sweaty, miserable adults.

This isn’t to suggest that just because it’s children’s videogame we forgive G-Force for being pedestrian, though, Children can play far better stuff than this if they want to, Banjo Kazooie , for example, or Viva Pinata. For those poor, anti cynical children who have yet to discover the true emotional horrors of adult life, however, somehow finding happiness in a guinea pig voiced by Made director Jon Favreau, we wish them well in their 3D platform endeavors.

Shadow Complex

2010-08-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Before we critique Shadow Complex, a world of clarification; when we receive access to a game, that we just have to get in, magically, it jumps from the Live Arcade section and gets its very own unique style of gameplay. Falling somewhere between Contra and Metroid, Shadow Complex takes the action platform mould and majestically balances the two. Following Jason Fleming as he tries to save his girlfriend, Claire, the plot is deliberately over the top with the action hammed right up, and naturally it’s much better for it. The true, genius, however, lies in how well the title paced. Evert aspect, from taking out enemies to hiking up the slide of a cliff, is ridiculously satisfying. On the top of this, Shadow Complex, challenges you to try and find everything in its massive map. At times it will even tell you what you have missed.

Shadow Complex is also a surprisingly intense experience. Just a single run through on the Normal difficulty will keep you occupied for a fair while if you are attempting to locate every last nook and cranny. Increasing the complexity shifts expectations. Boss fights go from enjoyable distractions to genuine challenges, often asking you to completely rethink your approach. For an Xbox Live Arcade title, Shadow Complex puts a lot f its rival to shame.

Medal of Honor Airborne

2010-08-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

The online shooter. Perhaps the oldest and most revered of all internal games. PCs have been dominant for years, with the classic twitch of Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament still drawing in huge crowds years after their release. Medal of Honor Airborne is a fairly standard but extremely well executed affair. Electronic Art’s servers are strong enough to cope with any deathmatch permutation and the inclusion of airborne drops upon respawning makes for a slightly more considered, tactical affair then most. As with the single player game, shooting, movement and combat are smooth and satisfying, nailing a long distance rile shot or a panicked grenade is particularly enjoyable. But one niggle remains: Medal of Honor Airborne isn’t treading any new ground.

With Halo 3 just around the corner, Airborne’s community is set to shrink rapidly over the coming weeks, so if you are looking for a quieter, friendlier place to do battle, then here’s a good place to start. With great map design, crisp visuals atmospheric sound, Airborne is a solid addition to the ranks of Live deathmatches, but when Chief arrives, he is going to take most of its players. Still, this is another high quality product for EA, both online and off. The company has made a u-turn this year. Once synonymous with greed now almost exclusively associated with quality.

SmackDown vs Raw 2010

2010-08-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Eleven games on and you’d think that this perennial series that takes silly showmanship seriously would have hit terminal velocity by now, and in way it has. If you had issue with the lumpy wadding of the wrestlers, then that feeling will remain, and if you find waiting for a promote to tell you a reversal on a grapple and then in turn waiting for the other player to follow suit repetitive, then expect no surprise. SamckDown’s play core is unmistakably similar to last year’s model but this time it’s surrounded by the greatest and possibly most libelous story ever told, your own.

WWE Story Designer is fantastic in a similar way to elements of the PC game The Movies and that’s to say it’s very impressive indeed. Scenes are built of dialogue and actions that come from a pool of 100 prescribed animations, dialogue can be written with a USB Keyboard should you want to speed up the script writing process, you can reposition the camera to frame your shots and, with a bit of imagination, the result can be too hilarious or, if you are dead inside, laboriously. The result can be uploaded to the internet for all to enjoy. Sweet.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

2010-08-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

Even the biggest first person shooters are running scared of Modern Warfare 2, but Bad Company 2 seems to have everything going to be a genuine contender to Activation’s behemoth, although EA is still playing safe and holding out for an early release. Perhaps there are still concerns over the effectiveness of the single player campaign. The first game’s story about a rag-tag bunch of gold hunting squaddies was fun, yet hardly memorable in the same way players fondly recall Call of Duty 4’s sinking ship level or playing a dying solider as he takes his final breaths. Bad Company 2 catches up with the same squad, and it’ll take more than some more sweary banter for the single player to live long in the memory. It’s telling that whatever the sequel has been shown, it’s been the multiplayer campaign everyone has asked about.

And to be fair, it’s looking even better than before. In number crunching terms alone we’re looking at 15 vehicles, over 15,000 kit variations, and 46 weapons which can be customized to make an impressive 200+ guns. New vehicles include nippy ATVs, and the UH-60 transport chopper which ships four players into battle plus an extra tow manning its mounted railguns. Taking one of these down with a full six enemies inside is a massive coup.

Those Annoying Xbox 360 3 Red Lights

2010-01-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

The point is that my Xbox 360 videogame console has brought me many hours of pleasure and entertainment. With a large range of games that appeal to some of my interests, it can make me glued my TV for hours. It is not rare for me to keep the AOS through the night because "I wanted to play just one game."

On the other hand, I was very disappointed with Microsoft, AOS services and straw that broke the camel, AOS is the time again I got the Xbox 360 3 red lights not working.

If you haven, AOT hear it, the Xbox 360 3 red light damage, also known as the "red ring of death," is a problem that prevents your Xbox 360 hardware. That, AOS so called because 3 of the 4 lights flash around the green start button is not red.

I still have a valid insurance at the time, so I've just sent me to Microsoft's Xbox 360. After 3 weeks of the last seemingly forever, finally I get it back and get back to playing again.

The problem is that only 2 months after that, I got the Xbox 360 3 red lights do not work anymore. It's very frustrating to have the same problem that should have been corrected. I sent me to Microsoft's Xbox 360 and I got it back after 3 weeks.

When I have a problem anymore just a few months later, I decided to call Microsoft and ask them why they didn, AOT repair my console right. The answer I get is "trying to not play DVDs."

At that moment I decided to do something about it. I have to spend time and money, but I talked to technicians and work with them so to learn how to solve the problem.

I was surprised at how little it takes to sell the Xbox 360 3 red lights. I'm a little scared at first because I was studying business administration at the school and has no experience in electronics. But I managed to learn how to solve them, and make general repairs and maintenance.

Now you can learn, too, without spending your time in the workshop. Just get the Xbox 360 repair guide that I put together with all the information I learned.

Xbox 360, Preventive Maintenance Secrets That You Should Know About

2010-01-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

We all know that Xbox 360 is an expensive game console platforms. This is why you will take all necessary precautions in order to prevent rupture and prevent the problems associated with other treatments such as the Xbox 360 so-called red ring of death. So, here are some tips that will help you avoid experiencing the red ring of death and also makes the Xbox 360 console games much longer last.

The first thing you need to know is that most people keep the Xbox 360 in a display cabinet to keep out of harm way. Some do this because it looks more beautiful. However, this is one of the main causes of overheating, which will cause the red ring of death and the constant freeze or hang while playing games.

You need to remember that the Xbox 360 a lot of heat, especially the processor in it. You need to get rid of the heat and keep cool game console. So, if you keep the Xbox 360 in a display cabinet, it might be time for you to get in the open. Always remember that you must let the air circulate on all sides of the Xbox 360. By doing this, you will be able to keep your game console cool and prevent the red ring of death.

Other preventive maintenance methods that you can do to prevent Xbox 360 from the release is to put the power brick on an open box. It may sound strange, but there are logical reasons for this. You may have noticed that the power brick of the Xbox 360 has a little fan inside. By placing it on the box is open, you will be able to efficiently pump air into and out of the power brick will remain cold or prevent it from overheating. By doing this, you will be able to stop the game from the continued freeze.

Always remember that you must always keep your Xbox 360 well-ventilated. Thus, you will prevent too much heat, which is the main cause of red ring of death and freezing.

Another method is to keep the dust out of the Xbox 360. For this, you can use contact cleaner. This will help in cleaning sensitive parts of the Xbox 360. Contact cleaner will remove dust effectively. Always remember that if dust accumulates on the Xbox 360, the air will not be able to keep the components, especially processors, cold enough to function properly.

By cleaning your Xbox 360 every now and then, you will be able to stay cool and ventilated, which will help in preventing clotting or red ring of death.

These are some preventative maintenance tips for the Xbox 360. Always remember that the proper way to keep the Xbox 360 is to maintain a well-ventilated to prevent overheating. You can do this by playing with the Xbox 360 at the open space, keeping the power brick well ventilated, and keeping it free from dust.

Through these tips, you can be sure that you will be able to enjoy playing with some of the most amazing Xbox 360 games for years to come.

Xbox 360, Tips to Avoid Overheating

2010-01-12T01:59:00.000-08:00

Xbox 360 is an impressive piece of gaming technology. With quality graphics and realistic game play, it's really not surprising to see why people from all over the world have purchased and many units are sold throughout the world. In fact, since it was released in the market, millions of Xbox 360 game consoles have been sold worldwide.

However, even if the Xbox 360 offers high-quality game play experience, there are known technical problems associated with it. Usually, you will see a green light in front of the unit when operating normally. However, the Xbox 360 is known to get this light to turn red, which means that suffers from hardware failure.

Nearly a third of the units sold have suffered from the same failures and the number one cause is overheating.

Xbox 360 has his own cooling system that should be able to prevent the GPU and other components in the box to overheat. However, it happens and people dont really know why it happened. You need to understand that there are many factors that could cause overheating. Here are some ideas about why the Xbox 360 suffers from overheating when it really shouldn't because of the built-in cooling systems.

Many people want to put their Xbox 360 in a display cabinet and operate from there. Sure it looks much more tidy because there is no wire hanging in the living room, but you need to remember that the display cabinet is a closed space that will prevent the heat generated by the unit to disappear and be replaced by cool air.

So, avoid the Xbox 360 operating units in an enclosed space. As much as possible, always play with the Xbox 360 to be placed in well-ventilated area. This will help get the heat from the unit and also get cold air in the unit.

Another factor is the dust. You must remember that the dust can accumulate on the Xbox 360 and the cooling units and fans. This will make the Xbox 360 cooling system is inefficient and in some cases, the cooling system will stop working altogether because of the accumulation of dust.

To overcome this problem, try to get your Xbox 360 in and cleaned out regularly. This will prevent accumulation of dust, which will be able to prevent overheating.

Remember these tips and you can be sure that you will be able to protect the Xbox from the so-called red ring of death. Why buy a guide service or return your Xbox 360 to Microsoft to get it repaired when you can prevent from getting caught in the first place?

With proper care and by following these tips, you can be sure that you will be able to prevent your Xbox from overheating which can cause hardware failure and eventually red ring of death.

By preventing you from overheating Xbox 360, you will be able to save lots of money for repairs and also save a lot of time waiting to get it repaired. Also, you'll continue to enjoy playing with some of your favorite Xbox 360 games.

Troubleshoot Audio / Video Connections

2010-01-12T01:50:00.000-08:00

Technical Support, Display unclear when using Xbox 360 to the TV screen.

* Video / sound problems with the Xbox 360 Composite AV Cable.
* Audio issues with Xbox 360 S-Video AV Cable.

If you are having trouble connecting your system, try these possible solutions. There is no image or sound

1. Make sure that you have connected the appropriate AV cable. For connection instructions, see the audio / video connections page for the Xbox 360 ™ AV cable.

* Component HD AV Cable.
* Composite AV Cable.
* S-Video AV Cable.
* VGA HD AV Cable.

2. Verify that your TV or monitor is activated.
3. Select the video input on your TV or monitor your Xbox 360 console connected. Common names for video inputs include Input Select, AUX, Line In, Line, In, Input, Source, and EXT, depending on the TV or monitor. For more information, see the instruction manual for your TV or monitor. No High-Definition Output, If you try to view high definition images on high definition TV.

1. Make sure that the console at the end of HD Component AV Cable is set to HDTV.
2. Make sure your TV supports the HDTV settings in the Xbox Dashboard.

Sound by No Picture

1. Verify that your TV or monitor is activated.
2. Make sure the audio and video connectors are connected to the same input group on the back of your TV or monitor.
3. Make sure the television is set to display the input group into which the audio and video connectors are installed.

No Sound

1. Verify that your TV or monitor is activated.
2. Make sure the audio and video connectors are connected to the same input group on the back of your TV or audio / video surround receiver.
3. Make sure the TV or AV receiver has been set for the group to which the input audio and video connectors are installed.
4. If you are using an AV receiver, make sure you have connected an additional AV cable between the audio / video output from your receiver and the corresponding inputs on your TV or monitor. See your AV receiver's manual for details about the connection and a special cable types.

If you are using digital audio, make sure that

1. A TOSLINK digital audio cable connected between the Xbox 360 console and one of your AV receiver or your TV.
2. Your AV receiver, if connected, turned on.
3. Your AV receiver or TV set to receive digital audio input is correct.
4. Right audio output is set in the Xbox Dashboard.

For more information about connecting to digital audio, see Connect to Digital Audio. Poor Sound

1. If you experience poor sound while playing games, music CD, or DVD movie, clean the disk as shown in the Xbox 360 Warranty manual.
2. Make sure that you have connected the appropriate AV cable. For connection instructions, see the audio / video connections page for Xbox 360 AV cable.

* Component HD AV Cable.
* Composite AV Cable.
* S-Video AV Cable.
* VGA HD AV Cable.

3. For analog audio connections, select in the Xbox Dashboard an audio output supported by your system or TV: stereo or Dolby Surround for stereo speakers, mono for monaural speakers.
4. For digital audio connections, select only stereo or surround formats compatible with your system. Digital surround sound from DVD movies, select the appropriate surround format from the options presented in each DVD's audio menu. For games and movies, play Dolby Digital audio only on audio systems that support Dolby Digital and DTS audio plays only on systems that support DTS.
5. If the sound comes from just one speaker, make sure that all audio cables connected correctly.

For further info, usually you can find related information and many opinions in our forums. For a discussion of this topic, check Xbox Forums, Technical Issues.

Taking Xbox 360 Game Experience to Next Level

2010-01-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

Playing video games is considered as one of the best entertainment you could ever do. seventh generation game console is now providing high-quality video game entertainment as before. This is not just about pressing the button with your thumb, but today's game is more realistic when it comes to interaction.

Xbox 360 is the best seventh-generation video game console ever go to the market. Not only that this game console will be able to offer high-quality graphics and game play, but there are also games that will be able to offer the highest level of interactivity. You'll see that you will be able to buy a controller specifically designed for a specific game and one of the latest controller that can provide maximum realism is the drum set, guitar, and microphone.

This controller is specifically designed for the game called Rock Band, which is only available exclusively for Xbox 360.

If you have a dream to become one of rock legends, the game Rock Band is a game for you. With this game, you can be a drummer, guitarist, bassist, or you can even become a singer. Xbox 360 Rock Band has a controller that will make playing with the band as real as possible.

If you want to know how it feels to be a rock legend with a wild crowd in front of the stage, this game is definitely for you. With Rock Band, you will be able to choose play equipment and play solo, or you can also have a jam session with your friends or even online using the Xbox 360 Live service.

This band will really come to life if you and your spouse to play together with your own Xbox. With setup complete, you will be able to control the world with rock and roll. Basically, you'll need the guitar and bass guitar, drum kit with four drum pads and the pedal bin basis and you will also need a microphone where you can belt from the legendary rock music.

The great thing about the game is that he will let you create avatars of yourself. You select a character. You can make them look like you or you can make them look like what you imagine if you are a rock star. You can select clothes for your character in the game, and also select the hair style and character of the instrument you want to play.

Rock Band is a game very similar to the Guitar Hero series. However, this particular game will have drums and a microphone that will make the experience a better shake. For drums, you must hit the appropriate drum pad. For singers, you just need to do what you do at karaoke. There will be words that rolled on the screen and you need to hit the right notes in order to score big points. So, you better practice they do re mi's as hitting a bum note will bring the value down and eventually will make you fail a song.

Rock Band is the party end of the game. You can invite your friends into your house and begin to shake off with Rock Band on Xbox 360.