Game Room now available on Xbox 360, may not load.
Game Room on Xbox Live allows gamers to get their retro on! If you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s then there’s plenty of games you had hours of fun with. Sadly the consoles they ran on are long forgotten. Microsoft are bringing back some of those old-school games in Game Room.
To download Game Room, check out the Latest Releases section of the Games Marketplace, once installed, you control your Avatar in a 3D arcade.
For the new generation who never experienced these games the first time round, it’s an opportunity to appreciate how far we’ve come in gaming technology.
![image[5]](http://www.techau.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/image510.png "image[5]")
Update
It appears the launch of Game Room has been marred by widespread issues. Users are getting stuck at the Loading screen. A longwinded workaround is available from the guys over at Destructoid. Xbox Live’s Major Nelson posted this earlier..
Maybe the Xbox 360 is just too powerful.
More @ XboxAustralia
No 250GB Xbox HDD for Australia.. yet.
A number of countries around the world are getting the standalone 250GB HDD for the Xbox 360. The UK being the latest example. As someone who has the 20GB launch console, I’m keen to see this available in Australia. I asked Xbox Australia about local availability and received the following response:
@techAU We don’t currently have anything to announce RE: 250GB HDD availability in Australia. If/when we do I’ll shout it loud! – jinx
The general trend internationally seems to be that the 250GB Xbox HDD will sell for the same price as the current 120GB model, which as Xbox fans know is pretty expensive. So until we hear different, the only way to get a 250GB HDD on your Xbox in Australia is to buy a special bundle.
Jalopnik Car Pack Available now
The latest round of Forza 3 DLC is out. Jalopnik is a Gawker Media blog that focuses on everything car-related. Naturally they’ve partnered with Forza to bring a hot new lineup of cars to the game in the for of DLC. The Jalopnik Car Pack which contains 10 cars will set you back 400 Microsoft points (A$6.60).
Jalopnik Car Pack includes:
2008 MAZDA FURAI
2010 HONDA CIVIC TYPE R MUGEN
2009 #40 ROBERTSON RACING FORD GT
2010 ASTON MARTIN RAPIDE
2011 BMW Z4
2010 AUDI TT RS
2010 #33 RSR JAGUAR XKR
2010 PORSCHE 911 SPORT CLASSIC
2010 ASTON MARTIN V12 VANTAGE
1992 BUGATTI EB110SS
More @ ForzaMotorsport.net
Forza Update
Forza fans shouldn’t forget there’s a major patch due for release in the next 24hrs. Codenamed Title Update 4 (TU4), the patch will be rolling out between 2AM and 4AM PST. There’s lots of changes coming, best to read all the info over at ForzaMotorsport.
Will you pay for games and apps 3 times ?
In a demo a Tech.Ed Middle East, Eric Rudder showed how a single project (in this case a game) could be published and run on 3 entirely different platforms. Running on Windows, Xbox and Windows Phone 7 which all have different input mechanisms – keyboard and mouse, controller, touch-screen and accelerometer, this begins to get very interesting.
This gets a whole lot more awesome when you find out that your game/app can sync across platforms. So hit the save point on the Xbox, run out the door and continue playing on your phone. Someone should sort through the old beyond 2000 footage, this technology is probably in there somewhere. It sounds like futuristic and probably will be some ways off before you get a triple-platform app in your hand.
My biggest question out of this is the pricing model. Are we expected to buy the game 3 times to get ultra-portability ? It’s important to also recognise that this isn’t functionality everyone wants. So building it into the price of the first purchase will hurt those who only want it on one platform. For the right price, those that want ultra-portability should pay for that feature, but at a subsidised price. Maybe after the primary purchase, you could then pickup the same app/game on the other platforms for 5-10% of the original cost. I think that’s a model that would work.
For a $100 Xbox 360 game, you should be able to get the PC version for an additional $10 and maybe an additional $5 for the mobile version. Currently pricing models don’t recognise that people game in different places, when in reality that’s very true. Imagine if you didn’t have to make the console vs PC choice, but could have the game on both for an affordable price. Crazy thought right ?
More @ Engadget
3rd Borderlands DLC available now: General Knoxx
The next chapter of the Borderlands Saga is upon us. With new guns, class mods, vehicles, missions, enemies this DLC is the biggest yet. Add to that the fact the level cap increases from 50 to 61 !! Available on the Xbox a couple of days ago, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx is now available for PC as well.
At US$9.99 it’s great value. By the way, if your playing with mates, one purchase will get your up to 5 installs 
Grab it from https://store.gearboxsoftware.com/
Return to Rapture, Bioshock 2 available now
The much loved immersive horror story that is Bioshock is back for round 2. The story line jumps forward 10 years from the original, with all the action housed in the gorgeous underwater city of Rapture. After the success of the first Bioshock, this game is loved by many, will the sequel live up to the high expectations ?
There’s already reviews starting to surface, Kotaku posted theirs about half an hour ago. Go check it out, or head over to the official site – http://bioshockgame.com
Bioshock 2 is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC (Games for Windows).
More @ Delimiter
Xbox Update now available to all
Last night the Xbox 360 update was released to the public. Zune Video Marketplace and Facebook will require a quick download before use, but twitter simply requires login.
I got to review the update over the past couple of weeks, I had thought the catalogue of videos available in the Zune Video Marketplace was going to be significantly increased upon full release of the service. Sadly this isn’t the case. Sure there’ll be movies added over time, but it’s not the knockout line-up that it really should have been.
The Music marketplace was a surprise, something that wasn’t in the preview program. This is pretty much a joke of a service. Music videos are available in 480p, but costs Microsoft Points while the PS3 VidZone offers a much larger catalogue, friendlier interface and for free.
The Facebook and Twitter interfaces are really held back from the lack of a browser on the 360. A large part of social networks is their ability to link friends to content. These links are un-actionable on the Xbox. At best you can favourite a tweet, then go to a mobile or desktop browser to launch the link.
