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

I just happened to load up the Unscripted 360 blog and happened to see a post about an interesting New Years attraction……Gears of War All Nighter. Call me a nerd if you want, but this just made my day. With 2 kids (and one less then 2 weeks old) we definately won’t be doing anything special for New Years this year. So normally i would probably be just playing what I could for the night - but I am going to make a very large effort to play just Gears and all night!! (with small interuptions to care for my new daughter). As the official posting from xbox.com says - I will probably blog about it here, and submit it to them - hell I wouldn’t mind one of those 10 free copies of Gears signed by Major Nelson.

So if you are looking for someone to kill (or need a partner for co-op) - hit me up tomorrow after 10PM EST, and if you are interesting in seeing if I make it all night - well my The Live Eye will be keeping a watch on me =)

As posted in my previous post I played College Hoops 2k6 for about 45 minutes or so - getting 3 of the 5 achievements.

these by far have to be the easiest achievements ever recieved - the achievement system has definately expanded for the better since the launch titles. At least on most more recent games it feels like you actually Achieved something.

I also played a pretty good amount of Gears of War, mostly on Versus. One game it was 1 versus 4 (because my team all quit - needless to say I didnt do so well, and then I ended up teaming with 3 of those 4 on the next game. It was a blast a couple times we did quad curb stomps =)
I also helped out IAmMrTea08 for a small amount of Act 3.
Finally I played Act one a bit working on a walkthrough that I planned on writing - but keep putting off, I ended up with an achievement during that process too

Played some Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - still havent completed this one, but I think I am getting pretty close the end of the story.

Finally I also played Need for Speed: Carbon - mostly on challenge series events, and getting closer to the silver challenge achievement - finally completed the canyon drift race that was giving me tons of trouble too

It was one marathon of gaming - check out my Live Eye Profile to see more details

Well if you don’t all ready know Halo3 started accepting registrations last night around 8PM EST. It was pretty much impossible to sign up (due to server load) until about 3AM EST, no clue if they are going to do a first come first serve, random selection - or even a pay to play beta - so I still registered and will see how it turns out.

North America Halo Gamers!

Register now for future Halo 3 updates and for an opportunity to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta program, scheduled to kick off in spring 2007. Participating in this beta is an unprecedented opportunity for gamers to be among the first to experience the most anticipated game of 2007.

The Xbox Live multiplayer public beta, which is a pre-release version of the multiplayer experience of Halo 3, is scheduled for availability in spring 2007 exclusively on Xbox 360. This beta also represents an opportunity for gamers to give information that will help in the development of Halo 3. Through the resulting feedback, Bungie Studios will be able to further refine and hone the end result of the game.

Please note that in order to register* for the beta, you must be 17 years or older and a resident of the 50 United States (includes District of Columbia) or Canada. If selected to participate, you must have access to the following:

- An Xbox 360 Pro console (includes hard-drive) or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive
- A valid Xbox Live Gold subscription
- A valid Microsoft. NET Passport account with a Xbox Live gamertag linked

European Gamers

Europe will soon have the chance to secure their place on the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, scheduled to start next spring. Keep an eye on your local Xbox community site for more details.

* Limit one registration per person/Xbox Live gamertag. If selected, your invitation is non-transferable and cannot be redeemed for cash. The beta is available in English only.

go ahead and give it a shot here

Also I noticed a small blip in live last night around 10PM EST which caused a Blind eye on my Live Eye Profile. Also xbox.com was throwing errors, and when it came back up all of my friends gamertiles were not showing and everyone had a score of zero, not sure what happened but all looks in order today.

Live Eye Public API:
I have just completed the first 3 public api’s for the live eye, complete with samples here on my blog (here). The current APIs allow you to:

• Get a summary of the minutes spent on each game type
• Get a listing of your most recent activities (max 10)
• and to Get a listing of your overall top activities with the ability to filter out game types that you dont want inlcuded

some final touches, and these will be opened up to any live eye user that wants to use them =)

Voice Plugin now contains:

• Most Recent Blog entry
• Badges
• and Top 5 games

It is starting to take up more and more space on my sidebar - I may end up storing it in a page for demonstration purposes. If I am going to actually release it as a tool that others can put on their blog, I need to include ways to customize which “chunks” are shown, and perhaps even some formatting of those chunks. It will probably be a while (if ever) before I provide the plugin for download - mostly because I am by far no PHP expert, but also this is the first time I have tried to create a plugin - and I definately have a great deal to learn.

it is starting to take up a bit more space on the sidebar then I personally want to give on this site at the moment - so for now I moved it down to the bottom of the sidebar. Edit the plugin has its own page now

looks like they finally got some much needed patches read for this arcade title:

• Game-play has been sped up
• Auto Post blinds!
• Get in the game faster: You can now pay the big blind as soon as you join the table to start gaming faster (if you so choose to do so).
• Away Mode - the standard auto post blinds, auto fold hands us internet poker folk are used to
• Auto-Boot mode - kick out players that let the time expire more then 3 time times in one game
• Overall game pace has been increased (timers & messages for example)
• Blinds - structure modified so that intial blinds as well as increases make more sense for the table stakes
• Matching system revised: Players will no longer be matched into a game they cannot afford to join
• Improved Controls - making it easier to raise or lower stake amount for example
• Leaderboards - your full winnings and rank now properly show
• Art and Text Updated (also fixed some spelling errors)
• Known Online Exploits have been address - this will the leaderboards to be wiped - making the game a fair level playing ground

strangely enough (perhaps I missed it) they still are not providing camera support for the game…?
Edit: Apparently camera support is coming early 2007