Source

Yay, it's already up for download. Going to get it now.

EDIT:

The game is 26.39MB just in case anybody wants to know.

This post has been edited by mzaidi: Aug 23 2006, 04:36 PM

Free if you download within the first 48 hours. After that, Microsoft will charge 800 MS Points (USD 10).

Lol, you make me wonder if this game support the camera or not.

Currently the download progress is 12% complete.

There are gambling in the game. You'll be given virtual money for bets and you'll get more if you win a game / lose the money if you lose your bet. The amount you have will carry to the next game.

No, you're not gambling using MS Points. They will give you "virtual money" that can only be used in this game. Whatever you have from winning / losses will be carried forward to the next game.

Free forever if you download it in the first 48 hours. It's not 48 hours game trial.

edit

I'm not sure what will happen in this situation. You downloaded it in the first 48 hours (free), and then lets say you accidentally deleted it after the 48 hour promo expires. Do we have to pay to re-download or will we get it again for free?

This post has been edited by mzaidi: Aug 23 2006, 06:59 PM

Classic Boardgames Coming to Live Arcade

Fittingly for a conference in Germany, the new games announced for Xbox Live Arcade had a European board-game heritage. Outpost Kaloki X is about to have some genre company on Xbox Live Arcade, as all three titles will call on strategic thinking from the players. The announced games include the civilization-building Settlers of Catan, the tile-based city-building game Carcassonne, and the Arabian-themed stock-market game Alhambra set to be available through the Xbox.

Alhambra



Carcassone



Settlers of Catan





Source 1

Source 2

XBL Arcade Hits Materializing

Just as the Blue Fairy transformed Pinocchio from a wooden puppet into a real boy once he was able to gain a deeper understanding of himself, Microsoft is granting select Xbox Live Arcade games corporeal forms as a reward for selling tons of copies. Yes, boys and girls, fairy tales do come true! According to Microsoft, Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Volume 1 is scheduled to hit retail shelves worldwide September 5.

Along with a one-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold, the disk will have full versions of Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, Wik: Fable of Souls, Outpost Kaloki X, Bejeweled 2 Deluxe, Hardwood Backgammon, and Texas Hold 'em. It will also have demos of Uno, Marble Blast Ultra, and Feeding Frenzy.

This is the first time that Internet-shunning luddites and the half of Xbox 360 owners who do not have a broadband connection will have access to these titles. Previously, they have only been available for download through the Xbox Live Marketplace.

To purchase all of these downloads through the Marketplace would cost 4000 Microsoft points ($49.98). Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Volume 1 is a bargain with a suggested retail price of $39.99.

Source

LOL

This post has been edited by mzaidi: Aug 26 2006, 02:34 AM

Time Pilot, and next week, Scramble.

Scramble Stumbles

Xbox Live Arcade game pushed back to next Wednesday to correct "minor issues;" PGR3-themed Uno will be released instead.



Source

We're not getting XBLA game, Scramble today. It got pushed to next week because there are some minor issues with the game.

Today, we'll get PGR3-themed deck for Uno instead. I was hoping it'll be free like the 35th Anniversary Deck though, as I have no MS Points in my account right now.

I want the PGR3 Deck for Uno. Uno is my current favourite XBLA game, but sadly I have no MS Points left. Don't want to spend RM 88 for 1600 MS Points reload card just to buy 100 MS Points item.

I look at the "add MS Points" option on my 360 and there are 500 MS Points selling for SGD 11. I'll probably buy that but I have no credit card. Can I use someone else's card to buy it? Afraid that the transaction get rejected because the credit card owner's name is different from Live account owner.

This post has been edited by mzaidi: Sep 6 2006, 09:58 AM

Yay. Just reloaded my MS Points by borrowing my mom's credit card. Bought 500 MS points for SGD 11. I can't wait for my PGR3-themed Uno Deck tonite.

Boleh, but to play on the other console, you need to sign-in into your Xbox Live account that you use to purchase that game to unlock the full version.

It works like this:

Lets say you purchase Uno on your first console (lets call it Xbox A) using your profile (lets call it Gamer A). On Xbox A, you have 3 profiles, Gamer A, Gamer B, and Gamer C. All 3 gamers can play the full version of Uno.

Then lets say you transfer the game to your second console (Xbox B). On Xbox B, only Gamer A can play the full version (provided he sign-in into his Xbox Live account on Xbox B). Gamer B & C can't play full version on console B. This is because Microsoft want to prevent you from giving free XBLA games to your friends on their console.

EDIT:

hikaru_x is faster than me

This post has been edited by mzaidi: Sep 6 2006, 02:36 PM

One of my gripe about Xbox Live Marketplace is there are no way to preview Gamer Picture / Themes before we purchase it. The only way to preview the Picture / Theme is to go to Xbox.com on your PC.

It would be nice if we can preview the Picture / Theme on our Xbox 360 before proceeding with the purchase.

Edit:

Just now I played Pac-Man on my XBLA and suddenly I was signed out from Live (due to bad connection). The LED on the modem / router is turned of indicating there's no connection, and it's a problem on the ISP's side.

I said to myself, "Never mind, I'll check the connection after I beat my previous high-score", and I did beat my previous high score. Excited, I try to re-connect to Live to upload my High Score to the leader board, I can't. The connection is still turned off. When I finally get to reconnect, the game won't upload my high score.

I'm furious since I can play Uno offline, and can upload the high score once I re-connect to Xbox Live. Why can't Pac-Man do the same?

This post has been edited by mzaidi: Sep 7 2006, 12:05 PM

My Xbox Live Gold 1-month trial membership is expiring in a week, I checked the membership fees and was surprised to see that Singapore's yearly membership is more expensive than US account.

Singapore's account holder have to pay SGD 88 (RM 204.83) for yearly membership while US account holder only needs to pay USD 50 (RM 182.65).

I guess that's why our games are cheaper. We pay less on games, but have to pay more on Xbox Live membership.

I noticed that when I'm downloading something from Xbox Live Marketplace, and leaving my Xbox 360 idle for the download to complete, after some time, the controller (wireless) will turn off, and few moments after that, my Xbox Live Account will get disconnected and automatically stop all my downloads.

Anybody else having the same problem?

I'm not sure, but it'll only disconnect after the wireless controller is automatically turned off (after idling for some time). So for now, I'm hooking up my controller to the P&C Kit to keep the controller powered up, but I think it'll be bad for the rechargeable battery to keep charging it.

This post has been edited by mzaidi: Sep 8 2006, 12:06 AM

I've sent an e-mail before to Microsoft because I'm having problem with my P&C kit (the battery indicator won't show full battery capacity even though I just charged it) and one of the warning they give me is not to plug P&C charger without the rechargeable battery pack in its place.

Quote from the e-mail:

In my case, it'll only happen when the wireless controller is turned off. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

I'm downloading Lost Planet's Demo last night, and I already completed 57%, suddenly it disconnects and I have to start from 0%.

I hope on the next dashboard update, they'll include a better download manager that will:

1) Resume downloads exactly at the point it was interrupted.
2) Automatically resume download without the user having to manually re-add the item to the download manager from the Marketplace.
3) Enable previews for Gamer Pictures & Theme on the Xbox Live Marketplace so users don't have to go to Xbox.com to see what the download will actually look like.

Latency will be high there since the distance to Microsoft's server is longer.