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Well after Ymiris and I talked about making videos of our Crackdown antics. I really started to get interested in trying it out. My TV doesn’t have any video out or fancy stuff like that - so I pulled out the old stand by - my video camera. It is a Samsung Digital Cam SC-D363, and has the ability to stream from to a computer via USB. I originally just set it up on my table and recorded a some in game footage (onto tape) and then went through the process of getting the software installed on the computer again to actually transfer it to the computer.

I made some real simple edits to the video and threw it up on youtube, you can check it out here. It is footage of the Body Juggler achievement.

I just completed the Old spice Rewards Challenge.

apparently your winning status isnt confirmed until the end of the contest - so I guess I have to wait around until april to get my Contra and MP - and find out if I completed it quick enough to get the more rare (the shirt and fuzion frenzy 2) prizes.

First of all it looks like the original link xbox.com/rewards returns you to an error page. If you want to access the rewards system try This Link, it seems to work for me.

Since there were so many problems with the sign up process, and the site performance Microsoft has decided to extend the time in which you have to obtain the required amount of points by a few days, and apparently have increased the number of prizes they will be giving out - sounds great to me!

They have added a gamercard system that you can use to promote / gloat your rewards status - I am guessing the bottom area is to list the rewards you have obtained or something like that.

I currently need 385 points to obtain the level 3 challenge! I don’t have any games on hand thats going to make getting there extremely easy - but I think I might be able to complete the challenge today. I actually have NBA Live 06, which is known for gaining gamerscore without much (if any) work, but the copy i got from the rental wont even load on my xbox - and with the current weather exchanging it is out of the question.

Also for the record, if you click the finish button and you are not in fact finished it will simply let you know that like so:

Well the sign up process was down right horrible, not that this wasnt somewhat expected but you would hope a company like Microsoft would be prepared for the type of load a contest like this can create. In any event after reading a bunch of different posts on how to get signed into the site I was finally able to do so.

Then I went off gaming, gaining a total of 150 points, and I had made 10 points before finishing registration. Of course I have no clue if any of those points are valid because I found out this morning you actualy had to click a Join button to be in the challenge, but the contest states raise your points 1,500 from 2/12/07 00:00:00, so do i have 160, or 150, or 0 points all ready gained into the contest?

The site doesnt seem to show how many points you have gained, and it actually has a “I am finished” button to click, which I can click - clearly I havent met the required points though - so in fear of screwing up my chances I haven’t clicked it to see what it does.

Finally I have seen a bunch of people talking about others using game saves, I just hope that they actually catch and remove these guys from the contest - rumor has it there are only 2,500 copies of Fuzion Frenzy 2 up for grabs this time around. Even without the game save cheaters I probably won’t be one of the first 2,500 but they really shouldn’t be rewarded for simply downloading a save game.

Well I (just like many others of you I am sure) am wondering whats going on behind the curtains over at Microsoft. The official forums are blazing with people asking about the Old Spice Challenge, as well as many other blogs and forums throughout the wonderful little thing we call the internet.

I personally was up midnight (EST) and checked to see if it was going to be activiated then, got up again about 3am to see if I could register (sometimes a newborn baby in the house is beneficial), and have checked throughout the day, but so far registration isnt open.

The offical rewards page has the following quotes that indicates that it should definately start today, but they were wise enough to leave off the time, or the timezone for that matter.

Something new and exciting is happening to the way you experience games. On February 12, Xbox® is teaming up with Old Spice to bring you Xbox Rewards and the Old Spice Experience Challenge.

Old Spice is teaming with Xbox on the first Xbox Rewards Challenge to prove that Experience is Everything. Starting February 12, you will be challenged to increase your Gamerscore by 1,500 ..

On February 12, visit www.xbox.com/rewards for more information and be one of the first to register for Xbox Rewards and the Old Spice Experience Challenge.

Considering this is a US only contest, and the fact that they are based in the PST timezone, I calculate they have a little under 12 hours to enable registrations…..so I guess just keep checking www.xbox.com/rewards

Well as expected, the rumors are true. Not so long ago there was a post by Deaconblade 360 about a possible promotion from xbox that would give you rewards for your gamerscore - but the details were a bit vague. It looks like microsoft has officially released this promotion, and you have to sign up for it on Feb 12th if interested. Essentially the current contest is a 3 level system in which you have 1 year to obtain a certain level of gamerpoints. Here is a quick run down of the prizes for the first installment of this program:

Level 1 (0 – 4,999 annual Gamerscore):
The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami (Retail Value $5.00)
Exclusive Old Spice Level 1 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
An experience upgrade to Xbox Rewards Level 2

Level 2 (5,000 – 9,999 annual Gamerscore):
The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami
Exclusive Old Spice Level 2 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
100 Microsoft Points
An experience upgrade to Xbox Rewards Level 3

Level 3 (over 10,000 annual Gamerscore):
The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami
Exclusive Old Spice Level 3 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
200 Microsoft Points
Old Spice T-Shirt (Estimated Retail Value $10.00)
A copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 game (rated: E10+) (Estimated Retail Value $50.00)

Microsoft and Old spice (the sponser of this challege) are going the extra step and as long as you achieve 1,500 points between February 12th and April 12th you qualify for a special bonus. You will get upgraded to the next level (so if you recieve at least 5,000 gamerscore in this timeframe you will automaticially be upgraded to level 3)

The program specifies that these rewards are unique to this challenge - new challenges will become available with different goals that you need to reach and prizes to win. They also specify that they will be watching for you cheaters - so don’t expect to obtain your free copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 by downloading game saves for example - you have been warned!

Read more here: Xbox Official Rewards Site

The achievements in Crackdown look like a real good time - I am sure the dev team had a blast coming up with them, here is a video (I believe released by Microsoft) showing a couple of them off.

I got a free pre-order (or $5 off of the retail cost) for a previous trade in - so cant want to give the full retail game a spin

Well my son is sick so I only got to play for a little bit while he was napping. I decided to dust off Just Cause, it has been a while since I played it last and I have plenty of game left to complete. It might have been my lucky night though, because during the 1 hour and 20 minutes I gained 3 achievements.

After that I figured I would give Roboblitz a spin, but not even 10 minutes into the game nap time was over.

Last night I put a couple more hours into Enchanted Arms, only about 8 hours into the game thus far. Which is tracked by the game itself, but also my Live Eye Profile registers about the same amount of time in game. I also gained my third achievement in the game.

Then once again I joined Ymiris for some Gears of War Co-op. We are almost complete with act 3 on insane. I finished insane a bit ago - but nothing beats a good night of co-op, especially with a friend, and an added side benefit I finally found the checkpoint that I was missing for the final achievement I can recieve for non-versus mode.

Finally just found out I made it into Gamer Speak for participating in the Gears of War All Nighter. Thanks Antediluvia for pointing this out!

Well with the new baby at home, and me being back to work I would say my gaming has gone down a bit. In any event last night I stayed up for baby duty and squeezed in some xbox time. Nothing extraordinary though. Played about 2 hours of Saints Row, but finally finished the story based missions. Racking up another 2 achievements.

They just happen to be the right amount to make my current gamerscore 18,000 - I couldn’t have done that on purpose if I had tried.