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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 after having such a blast on New Years for the Gears of War all nighter, I decided to attend the Lost Planet all nighter as well. I havent completed the story yet so I began the night by playing Chapter 7, after completing the boss at the end of the stage I then hopped over for some multiplayer play. This would be the first time I have even loaded versus mode for Lost Planet (besides a little bit of time played on the demos before release).

Ymiris and I played all the different types of online modes that were available, trying to be quick about picking a host that we both had access too, and could play together on. After quite a few rounds of online play (I ended up getting to online level 14 or so) we decided to turn in for the night. I had to go on a road trip to Philadelphia the next day, and Ymiris had to get up early as well. We tried to get some other fellow 3fs members to join in on the fun but it was difficult arranging everyone to join the same host or to find one of us hosting. I do know for a fact that Kanone killed me a number of times though =-)

After being offline for a few minutes, I just couldnt help myself, I loaded up Lost planet one last time and made some progress on Chapter 8. Even after an “all nighter”, I still have plenty to complete in that game =-)

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

It’s officiall the crackdown demo is on the marketplace. Unfortunately I only downloaded about 50% before I had to leave for work, so I can’t provide any input on the actual demo yet.

Well I am writing another recap of my gaming - mostly because I feel like I should keep blogging about something and most of the time I just dont keep up with xbox news enough to actually post about that here. My reviews and guides have died down - I will be writing up something in that regards soon I hope.

Last night was a marathon gaming night. I started the night with some Heavy Weapon, first some multiplayer with Heavy Weapon session i gained a couple achievements:

Then I switched gears and played some Gears of War . First I played some of Act 3 on co-op with Antediluvia. After he left for bed I played a couple rounds of versus, and then it was time to switch games again.

Then was about 30 minutes of Enchanted Arms which ended with me forgetting to save, and finding a battle I couldn’t win, so I am in the same place I was before that. Time to change games.

I haven’t given much time to Progect Gotham Racing 3, I still have it from gamefly but I just seem to put it below many of the other games I am playing right now. I picked up a couple of the achievements, all of which were the ones that dont really take any actual gaming effort.

yeah they could have actually spent some time and came up with different pictures, heh.

I ended the night with about 10 minutes of roboblitz, and I was beat so i went to sleep. It was a 4 hour session of straight gaming, more then I usually play thats for sure.

I was told about the gamerspeak article this morning about the gears of war all nighter - and to finish off my day I got my prize - complete with Major AND Trixie signatures! Woot, sorry for the picture quality - its not easy to get a good picture of a xbox cover without glare.

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 I just got the best email I have recieved in a while.

Hi, you’ve been selected to win a copy of Gears of War signed by Major Nelson

Please reply back with

1. Your real name

2. Your mailing address

3. Your phone number

Thanks for participating in the Xbox All-Nighter, and congratulations!

-TriXie

Now I just sit and wait!

Well as I said before since we have absolutely nothing going on for New Years, and with a new baby in the house - I was happy to see the gears of war all nighter event. I didn’t have a big party or anything like that - but that is the great thing about Xbox Live, you can play with a friend without having anyone in your house to steal your drinks and food =) I showed up a bit later then expected - my wife decided to stay up much later then usual, but then I dove right into the action.

Keep in mind I am by far not the best Gears player out there - in fact I am not very good at all, but its all about fun isnt it? So around 10:30 PM EST I started up my xbox, and fired up Gears of War.

As you can see I started out all ready tired - I am sure its because I rarely get much sleep lately while helping take care of our newborn daughter. Who I have downstairs with me, no sense in having my wife have to wake up and care for the baby if I am going to be up playing xbox for the night.

Not a very good quality picture - but here is my television sitting on the match making screen for my first match of the night. I decided that I would play Xbox Live Ranked games for the period of time that I was online tonight - and maybe even get to unlock some of those versus achievements.

Here is the first of many losses.

Although I did end up getting a bit better and got quite a number of kills over the night, if I didnt know better I would say it was because of the tequila.

Just before the final hour of 2006 my daughter woke up for one of her night time feedings - so time for a break…

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Ouch my head

Ok we won one! Now time for some sleep

That was quite a bit of gaming, as you can see by my Live Eye Profile I played about 4 hours of straight Gears of War, and then about 2 hours of Saints Row (just to change it up a bit), and I still have quite a long ways to go before I gain any of the versus achievements, but I made more progress then than any other time I played in versus mode towards one or more of these goals.

This was a quick blog to run down the nightly activities for my Gears of War 2006 celebration. Clearly giving you a play by play would not be very interesting to anyone but those that have read every other article the entire internet has to offer and have made it there life mission to read every article, and posting, available on the internet. But in short, I had a blast and met quite a few new friends, and unfortunately a few people that are best to just be avoided (but very few). If you ran into me during this gaming session, and also somehow find and read my blog, leave me some comments =)

Update 11:08 AM EST
I just read this over again and have come to the conclusion that the Tequila got the best of me - I have never been much of a writer - but this was clearly written under the influence of alcohol.

If you want to see more family photos check out my family blog - which contains tons of family pictures and such - if you are into that kind of thing (www.larrabeefamily.com).

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 =)