Halo Waypoint now live on Xbox Live

Starting Saturday, Nov. 7, Halo Waypoint will begin previewing new Halo content on Xbox Live. The new virtual home for all things Halo launches today on Xbox LIVE, and will be the “exclusive destination for full-episode previews of Halo Legends beginning Saturday, Nov. 7. Halo Waypoint promises daily updates featuring developer interviews, trailers and screenshots, exclusive video footage, community activities and the latest Halo news.

In addition, Halo Waypoint includes a career system that tracks players’ accomplishments across multiple Halo games and gives them new ways to show off their in game exploits. Players who participate in Halo Waypoint will be rewarded with a variety of Bungie-created Halo 3: ODST Avatar Awardables for attaining specific Achievements in the game. Rewards vary from T-shirts to full sets of ODST armor. These awardables are retroactive, so if players have already unlocked the requisite Achievements, the awards will be ready for them once they enlist in Halo Waypoint.

Turn on your Xbox 360 and log on to Xbox Live to learn more.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Bloodtitle update deployed

Having trouble with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood? Then may the freshly released title update for the game will solve your problems. The title update supposedly improves the quality of multiplayer connections and matches and refines the overall balance of multiplayer classes and modes. Specifically for PS3, the patch will significantly reduce checkpoint loading times. The Spy, Gunslinger, Hombre, Veteran and Sniper classes have been balanced to offer the best experiences possible. as well, says Ubisoft.

The Spy class gets an increase in health and damage output, the Gunslinger’s recoil has been reduced and his accuracy has been improved, the Hombre’s recoil and reload time has been increased and his damage at long range significantly reduced, the Veteran’s health and accuracy have been decreased and additional pistols have been removed, and the Sniper’s no-scope accuracy and damage were significantly reduced, health has been decreased and the sidearm Ranger has been swapped for the Classic Gun.

Turn on your Xbox 360 or PS3 and play the game to get these new updates.

Left 4 Dead 2 demo available for pre-order customers

It’s official! Valve Software passed along word this morning that the official Left 4 Dead 2 demo is now available on Xbox Live to those customers that pre-ordered the game. For those that didn’t you’re going to have to wait a week longer. See how it works? Anyway PC users will also be able to grab the demo if they pre-ordered via Steam.

For more information on the game, the demo and anything else you want to know about Left 4 Dead 2, check out www.l4d.com.

Left 4 Dead is set for release on Nov. 17 via Steam and traditional retail.

Splosion Man gets Avatar Rewards

Twisted Pixel Games announced this week plans to extend, expand and improve its Xbox Live Arcade game, Splosion Man. In the next few weeks free avatar awards, free meats, and improved online multiplayer will be rolled out and into the game. Twisted Pixel CEO Michael Wilford says that this is the biggest update the company has deployed to an existing game.

Avatar Awards for the game were launched earlier this week on Xbox Live Arcade. Splosion Man is the first game to provide this feature to players free of charge. Players who have already performed the achievement will be awarded their accessories at the main menu, while new players will get to see a preview of what their avatar looks like wearing the accessory. Players can win two male and two female accessories for free by playing through Splosion Man.

Twisted Pixel and Omaha Steaks have teamed up to deliver hundreds of top-quality steak filets to players. Register by downloading the special Splosion Man gamerpic on the Dashboard or on Xbox.com, and then receive one entry each time (up to 5 times) Splosion Man is played in an online multiplayer session before November 22nd.

Finally, some online multiplayer fixes are in place. Since the game’s launch, some players have encountered laggy online game sessions in certain network scenarios, including connections that frequently drop data packets. In the latest title update to the game, those issues have been fixed.

Find out more at www.twistedpixelgames.com.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey DLC now available

505 Games and 1C Company have released new downloadable content for the recently released WWII aerial combat game IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. This DLC is now available on Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network. The DLC update gives players six more single-player missions across the existing six theatres of war featured in the game and players can also jump into the cockpit of a brand new plane, the American P47D. The pack is set at 400 MS points on Xbox Live and $4.99 on PlayStation Network.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey is in stores now waiting for your purchase. “Please buy me,” it begs as you walk by its shrink wrapped package. But you never do, because you’re kinda mean. Your little sister told me that you’ve always be mean - for at least as long as she can remember. The game is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB, and is now available for Xbox 360 and PS3 at an MSRP of $49.99.

Major Xbox Live title update to be open beta this month

According to MTV Multiplayer, the Xbox 360 title update we have been waiting for will be deployed into public beta later this month. You know, the one offering Facebook and Twitter integration as well as support for Last.fm. This is based on a meeting with Jennifer Puzio-Brookes, an Entertainment Manager for Xbox who was showing off the new features to media. According to her, a public beta will happen this month.

When the full highly public title update featuring all this stuff will be released we do not know. stay tuned.

Fable II: Game Episodes available

The first chapter of Fable II: Game Episodes, Microsoft’s episodic version of Fable II, is now available for free to all Xbox LIVE members (Silver and Gold). Fable II: Game Episodes features delivers Fable II in five consecutive installments. The five episodes offer all the Achievements and challenges of the disk-based game. The first episode, which is completely free, lets players experience childhood and the trials of being a young adult in the world of Albion. After completing this chapter, players have the option to purchase the next installment and continue the adventure. Naturally if you don’t purchase anything then you’re done.

Fable II: Game Episodes is fully compatible with the retail version of Fable II, allowing players to enter Albion and continue their story should they purchase Fable II at retail. The episodes also deliver full compatibility with the previously released Game Add-ons, Knothole Island and See the Future.
Add it to your Xbox Live download queue by visiting xbox.com.