Microsoft have released the much anticipated fall dahsboard update for the Xbox 360. The update will auto-install the next time you connect to Xbox Live. This update includes Facebook, Twitter, Zune and Last.FM. Some of these features are only available to people over 18.

Facebook and Xbox LIVE join forces to connect you with your friends on the largest entertainment and gaming network on TV and the largest social site on the Web. Share real-time status updates and photos with your friends, as well as your favorite gaming moments from your television to Facebook.

Take bragging rights to a completely new level by sharing updates to Facebook on your achievements and success in upcoming games available on Xbox 360.

Keep connected to your friends and family by reading and posting Tweets from the comfort of your living room with Xbox LIVE. Let your friends know you’re about to watch a new movie release from Marketplace, or announce that you’re about to fire up a multiplayer match without having to move from your spot on the couch.

Read, reply, and post Tweets to Twitter through Xbox LIVE. See what your friends and family are up to, connect to celebrities, learn about news as it happens, and follow online trends.

Zune on Xbox LIVE gives you access to full HD video entertainment via your Xbox 360. Now you are able to rent and buy the latest movies and TV shows. Watch instantly what you want , when you want it, with1080p HD 1080p and 5.1 surround sound.*

Party

With Xbox LIVE Party you can catch the latest movie and share the experience with up to 7 of your friends – even if you’re miles apart.**

Buy Once, Play on Multiple Screens

With Zune, now you can buy movies or TV shows on your Xbox 360 and download them again to watch and enjoy later on your PC or Zune HD.***

*HD videos are provided in 1080p. Instant on HD in full 1080p streaming available with select movies, and requires HDMI cable, HDCP-compliant 1080p display, and 3 mbps broadband speed.

**Must have an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership for Party Mode, only available with supported movies.

*** Available in the U.S. Available video resolution will vary by content and by device.

With Last.fm on Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE Gold Members can easily select music preferences to explore endless personalized radio stations with a library of more than 3.5 million tracks. Skip, “ban,” or ‘love” tracks to tailor the radio station to your tastes.

Combining the best of streaming radio with the entertainment center in the living room, Xbox LIVE and Last.fm amplify the options of creating custom entertainment experiences. Share music with your friends, manage your customized radio station, and create your own soundtrack for your living room, on the best speakers in the house.

Social Experience

Nothing brings parties to life quite like great music. Bring your Xbox LIVE parties to life with millions of songs from Last.fm. Discover new music based on what your friends are listening to, and get the party started in your own living room, by creating custom radio playlists on Xbox LIVE with Last.fm.

Subscribe to Last.fm and it gets even better

No ads, play your loved tracks radio, get exclusive access to new features and much much more…

Additional features:

• Uninterrupted radio listening
• Ad-free browsing and streaming
• Recent visitors to your profile
• Loved Tracks Radio – a super custom station, made up of just the tracks you mark as loved

To try and combat the recent bout of glitching mofos in Call of Duty 4 multiplayer, Infinity Ward have recently announced via the fourzerotwo twitter that a patch is in the works and coming very soon. 

Heads up – A patch is in the works to elminate the cheaters in COD4 on Xbox360. Going through certification now. Cheaters days are numbered.

There will be a small Xbox Live Dashboard update today at approx 10:00am GMT. The update addresses issues that some people are having with audio and their HDMI connection.

Good news everyone, Bethesda has just released update 1.1 for Fallout 3. This is a multi-platform patch (hence you will se some PS3/PC only updates in the list). The update will auto-install the next time you connect to Xbox Live and startup Fallout 3.

New Features

• Trophy support. (Playstation 3)

Bug Fixes

• Friends notification no longer causes the game to pause. (Playstation 3)
• Fixed occasional crashes during loading and waiting.
• Friendly or neutral NPC health bars, when taking damage, no longer flicker repeatedly.
• Fixed issue where certain NPCs would occasionally disappear from the game.
• Fixed issue where dead NPCs would occasionally come back to life.
• Fixed rendering issue with the Gatling Laser gun’s tracers.
• Fixed issue where the haircut menu would occasionally not appear properly.
• Added ability to remap your VATS and pip boy buttons.
• Fixed rare load/save issues that would cause NPCs to behave incorrectly.
• Fixed issue where quest objectives would occasionally not update properly due to talking activators, intercoms and conversations.
• Using Radaway from the Pip-Boy’s Status Menu repeatedly no longer crashes the game.
• Player no longer gets stuck in level up menu if their skills are maxed out.
• Fixed issue where multiple followers would occasionally not load into an interior.
• Fixed rare issue with getting stuck in VATS mode.
• Fixed rare crash with fighting NPCs with corrupted data.
• In game radios will now play properly if player was listening to the radio in the Pip-Boy first. (Playstation 3)
• Fixed rare crashes while loading and saving games.
• Fixed rare issue where player would fall through the floor while in VATS.
• Fixed occasional crash after scoring a critical hit in the head with a Railway Rifle.
• Prevent NPCs from inadvertently dying from falling.
• Fixed occasional issue where the controller would stop working properly.
• Fixed crashes related to repeatedly equipping and dropping clothing and armor into the world.

Quest Fixes

• Fixed several instances where quest item stayed in inventory permanently after completing quests.
• Fixed an issue where the distress message would occasionally not play in Trouble on the Homefront.
• In The Waters of Life quest, the Citadel gate will open properly if the player fast travels away after exiting the Taft Tunnels but before reaching the Citadel gate with Doctor Li.
• For the Home Sweet Home quest, the broken protectrons in Big Town become active at the proper time.
• In The American Dream quest, fixed specific issue which prevented the player from accessing their belongings in the locker by the door if they left the room first.
• Fixed infinite caps exploit in Strictly Business quest.
• Fixed rare instance where Dad would have no valid dialogue during The Waters of Life quest.
• Prevent issue during the Finding the Garden of Eden quest where player would fade to black, instead of traveling to Raven Rock, while in combat with a follower.
• Fixed several XP speech exploits with certain NPCs.
• Fixed XP exploit with a robot in Fort Bannister.
• Fixed issue where player’s controls can become locked permanently during The American Dream.

Good news for frustrated Gears of War 2 fans, Epic Games just announced details of the upcoming title update for Gears of War 2; patches and game play improvements galore.

First of all I hope all of you had a safe and happy holiday season.

As I mentioned before the break we’ve been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2. This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don’t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we’ll let you know.

We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.

We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.

We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we’re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.

This is just a very small list of some of the things that will be in the next title update but one more item which has been talked about a lot in our forums deserves a special call out…

About that shotgun…

We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. “laggy”) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We’ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.

So there’s a brief status report on the next title update. At some point I expect we’ll post a more detailed list but I assure you we’re working hard to get this out the door and once it’s done we’ll start working on the next update. We’ll try to do a better job keeping you informed of our progress on future updates and we’ll try to be a little more active in the forums once this update is released.

A few minutes ago, the Xbox Live team released a system update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE. Sometime over the next few hours when you sign in to Xbox LIVE you’ll recieve a prompt to accept this mandatory update. This update contains code to ‘prepare for future growth of the service.’ There are no other changes or enhancements in this update.

At long last the Call of Duty 4 patch has finally been released.

New Kill Cams

Everything that can kill you has a Kill Cam now. Grenades, Airstrikes, Claymores, C4, M203 Rounds, RPGs, anything. So jump online, get owned alittle and check them out. They’re awesome, especially Grenades and M203 shots that go across the map and through a window.

Host Migration

Host migration was added, so now when the host leaves you won’t get dropped back to your own lobby by yourself. Everyone will stay together. Host Leaves, everyone returns to lobby, selects next best host, and the game starts up again. No more re-inviting, re-partying up because a host ended the game.

Improved Sniper Accuracy

The Sniper rifle accuracy has been improved. No more, WTF? shots now. Your cross hair will be a better representation of where your shot will ultimately land. Try out a sniper class today, let us know how the new accuracy feels.

Improved ACOG Scope Accuracy

ACOG scopes accuracy on any weapon has been improved. Test it out, throw it on one of your classes and give it a go.

Upgraded Spectator Cam

Now when you’re a spectator you have the option to follow in 3rd person or 1st person. As well as rotate 360 degrees around the player you’re watching. Next time you’re dead in Search and Destroy and just watching your team mates do stuff you know you can do better, now do it in 1st person or rotate around them.

Quick Mute Option

Now you can easily and quickly mute players in-game without ever going through the Xbox Live blades. Just go to their gamertag on screen and hit ‘A’ to quick mute via the in-game scoreboard if playing. Quick. Easy. Salvation!

Improved Network Performance For Larger Games

18 player games now require more bandwidth to host, resulting in smoother performance for players.

Optimized Server Selection for First Match

Server selection is now optimized to select best bandwidth servers associated by LSP.

Fixed “Playlist Older Than Host” Error

Player will no longer get this error when entering games.

Additional Start Spawn Locations in All Maps

Added a minimum of 9 extra start spawns on each side of all maps.

Microsoft have released the much anticipated fall dahsboard update for the Xbox 360. The update will auto-install the next time you connect to Xbox Live.

Account Management

• Added error text to direct under 13 year old user to the Web when attempting to change contact information
• Added Messenger Signup into Xbox LIVE signup
• Added PEGI logo icons to Game ratings scenes
• Added support for switching between Windows Live ID accounts
• Added Support for User Graduation
• Added support to allow users to change the Windows Live ID they use with their Xbox LIVE gamertag
• Added support to Migrate Zune Accounts to Xbox LIVE accounts with purchase rights
• Added text for “in-game voice” complaint option
• Display MS Points Web Address correctly for Korea
• Improved blocking support for Friends Only sessions
• Improved enforcement of Windows Live ID and Gamertag Regions
• Improved Informational Text for cases where Gamertag already in use
• Improved parental control support for 48 hour trial codes
• Improved robustness when viewing friends profiles and quickly backing out
• Improved support for account recovery when no storage devices attached to console
• Improved support for invalid characters in phone field
• Improved support to cancel out of Credit Card scenes during account sign-up
• Improved support to load Dashboard after exiting from Account Recovery
• Improved text for accounts that have been banned
• Improved text for Direct Debit in Germany
• Improved text for explaining Gamertag, Gamercard, etc to users signing up
• Improved text for recovering Gamertag dialogs
• Improved text for Zune Accounts in Sign Up app
• Improved text spacing for Recover Gamertag dialogs in Russian
• Improved text support for handling expired credit cards during purchase transactions
• Improved text to inform users that only 1 profile can have auto signin enabled
• Improved text translations for Account Management in German

Read more…

The next time you insert your Forza 2 disc into your Xbox 360 you will be prompted to install an update. The update fixes a number of car, auction house and scoreboard bugs.

• Car and money duping fixed. We’re happy to announce that one of our most damaging vulnerabilities, at least in terms of the Auction House and how it’s affected painters and the livery scene, is finally getting plugged up. Although I won’t go into the technical specifics of how and where we’ve put a stop to the duping, we hope the fix will allow everyone to enjoy Forza 2 the way it was intended when we launched the game back in May.
• The Lotus Elan is back. Due to popular demand? Maybe. At any rate, we’ve fixed the classic roadster’s performance index glitch that made the car much faster than its PI and class was portraying. You’ll be able to once again use the Elan in both multiplayer games and post times to the online scoreboards with this car. Sorry, we still haven’t found any real issues with the muscle cars, which brings me to my next bullet…
• The AWD glitch fixed. This was just an unfortunate situation where in order to fix a bug, we introduced another, and if we apologize again that this issue has really plagued the scoreboards since auto-update #1. Anyway, this bug is fixed, as is that other shifting glitch. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s probably better that way. I’ll talk about scoreboards in a sec.
• A better banhammer has arrived. Taking a cue from Bungie in looking at how they keep troublemakers and undesirables out of their online community, we now have our own game specific tool that will allow me to ban anyone with a Gamertag from interacting with digital objects (i.e., selling/buying/gifting cars and/or transactions with money) in our game. In other words, no more Auction House for those who violate Xbox Live terms of service. Post up racist and/or pornographic cars and your name ends up on my list and the ban is potentially permanent, depending on your case, of course. If we find folks who have discovered new ways to ruin or grief the scoreboards, their times get wiped and we extend the ban beyond just digital objects and they’ll no longer be able to play Forza 2 online, period. Anyway, like I said before, this isn’t going to affect 99% of you who are playing this game, and if nothing else, we’re going to start seeing a much healthier Auction House in the coming weeks.
• This week’s fantasy car winner artist oxmoze amazed us with his anime paintjob. Nice work on the detail in the face and hair!
• A partial scoreboard wipe is coming. That’s correct, a partial wipe. As I’ve stated on the forums previously, this is an area we really want to tread lightly on because from what our number crunching and research tells us, less than 10% of our total user base actually want a total scoreboard wipe. That being said, we didn’t want to punish the 90% that use the scoreboards as a means of context to see where they stand with them and their friends, but we recognized that something had to be done for those who also use the scoreboards to see where they stand competitively with the rest of the world. The best compromise we could come up with that doesn’t punish the great unwashed but purges our scoreboard of glitched/cheated/bad entries is to do a wipe of the top 1000 time entries across both Time Trials and Hotlaps. And because our scoreboards have roll-up “overall” boards, if we delete someone from one board, they necessarily have to be removed from all boards.  The top 1000 wipe will affect just over 67,000 players with over 50 million scoreboard entries. And because there are so many individual entries to delete, the wipe will take place over a period of probably a week as we incrementally remove players in batches. So why just the top 1000? Again, we wanted to punish as few people as possible, and if someone were to have posted a glitched time beyond the 1000 threshold, well, they probably weren’t very competitive to begin with. That said, we definitely recognize that this wipe will punish a lot of legitimate players who posted a lot of legitimate times — and for that, we are sincerely sorry. Hopefully, you can see this as for the greater good of the community and use the clean(er) slate to re-establish your claim on the scoreboards. The scoreboard wipe should begin to process next Tuesday.

Rumours are circulating the interweb with details of the upcoming Xbox 360 fall dashboard system update. Only time will tell if it’s credible, but it looks pretty good any way. Enjoy…

• Compatibility with 3rd party wireless controllers
• Compatibility with messenger pad
• Xbox Live Vision firmware upgrade, sharper image filtering
• Many more Vision Cam settings
• New screensaver settings – when away from Xbox 360, screensaver will play for optional time, before screen goes dark
• New Xbox Live Arcade blade – where you can download, play and learn about Xbox Live Arcade
• Brand new “web based adver-games” flash games which aren’t downloaded, but are playable bite sized games, accessed via new Xbox Live Arcade Blade
• New Screensaver option in Themes and Gamer Pics option in Marketplace blade
• New functionality with Messenger, works with chatpad
• New XNA Game Launcher for those that have the program, new options
• New language, time and date settings
• New “advertising opportunities” in gameplay
• Xvid support
• New “favourites” option via Xbox Live Arcade, can rate according to preference
• IPTV Functionality – support for TiVo like PVR options. Will be able to record TV direct. Options include source by channel, director, actor and distributor
• Filter friends list, will be able to filter friends via games
• New clan support – will be able to launch clan games direct from dashboard, can “fold” friends into new clan category in friends list
• Better translations in settings and other options for Japanese, German and Spanish languages
• New quick option to delete via X Button in memory viewer.
• Option for having downloadable In-game content not inform when completed download
• Option for having video content not inform when completed download
• Faster settings for viewing unfinished video content downloads
• New option in Games tab – beta and others, will be launcher for MMO and multiplayer betas
• New option in Marketplace Games tab, search by letter, can be inputted via text pad or console
• Smarter game settings – you can be messaged via publishers about new in-game content for your games
• Picture in picture functionality for DVD Drive and some other updated settings
• Improved USB Keyboard settings
• Improved voice chat settings in game and from dashboard
• Faster response times to Redeem Code settings
• Option to play a Redeemed Code game straight after redeeming code
• Console will now recognise low Hard Drive space, will inform you immediately if can’t download current item, will automatically download next available that is able.
• Increased space size for gamerpics and dashboard themes
• Themes can now be animated
• Themes may now have sound effects
• Better slideshow capabilities, new options added. New sound effects and integration with Hard Drive/ PC music capable
• New estimated timer for downloads, informing how long download will expect to take