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Check out the latest episode, some great info on the Xbox Rewards program, and some community responses to the release of the xbox elite. I am one of those responders, can’t miss me - I am the one that sounds more serious then a History Professor at 8am.

Well one of our great members over at 3fs posted that the codes needed for the Xbox rewards prizes are now on your rewards page (this is for Contra, the MP’s, and the gamerpics - if you won Fuzion Frenzy and the shirt, at some point they are going to mail it to you. Thanks Kanone.

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