
If you have an Xbox 360 and a Live subscription you’ve undoubtedly heard of Major Nelson. He’s the guy over at Microsoft that clues us in on pretty much all the happenings in the Xbox world. Anyways, it seems that a guy by the name of Lightzz has hacked Major Nelson’s account and is going around the Internet parading what he’s done.
Major Nelson’s account has since been restored by if you’re going to hack someone why would you go around bragging about it? Especially if you have a lisp, jackass.
Learn more here but watch out, an angered e-thug with a potty mouth ensues.
via kotaku

A few months ago the Versus Mode DLC pack was released for Resident Evil 5 which added nothing more than new multiplayer game modes which had players pitting themselves against zombies and eachother. After said DLC was released gamers everywhere whined about how Capcom was charging for a feature that “should have” been included in the original game.
Lucky for them, Xbox Live is cutting the price of the pack to 240 Microsoft Points from 400 Micrsoft Points as their latest Deal of the Week.
Still don’t want to pay for new game modes? Well, that’s up to you.
via majornelson

Thanks to Major Nelson we now know that the Band Hero demo has officially made its way onto Xbox Live. For how much you ask? Nothing, it’s a demo, duh.
But anyways, you’ll be able to play both the Party Play mode and Sing-Along mode with 3 different tracks to play along with:
- Taylor Swift – Picture to Burn
- Katrina & The Waves – Walking on Sunshine
- Finger Eleven – Paralyzer
The full, retail version of Band Hero will hit store shelves on November 3rd for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Major Nelson has once again notified us of a Deal of the Week offer on Xbox Live. This time, it’s Ikaruga getting the cut with a new price point of just 400 Microsoft Points, dropped from the previous 800.
You’ll have to be an Xbox LIVE Gold Member to snag this deal, of course, and it will only run until Monday, July 20th.
Below is a description of the game:
The Japanese arcade hit Ikaruga comes to Xbox LIVE® Arcade! Treasure’s award-winning scrolling shooter brings a tactical twist to the genre with its yin-and-yang gameplay: the color of your ship determines your effect on enemies. In this polarized system, enemy ships and their bullets are one of two colors. Attack an enemy of the opposite color for extra damage. Absorb enemy fire of the same color as your ship, and use the energy for a special attack. Destroy multiple enemies of the same color to score a chaining bonus. Play solo or cooperatively, and use your polarity to achieve victory!
Read (Major Nelson)

Yesterday we told you that Microsoft would be bringing a new kind of ads to their Xbox 360 console thanks to their Silverlight technology. Well, a bunch of you probably rolled your eyes at the thought of more ads but according to Major Nelson, they probably won’t be as annoying as you think:
I need to let you know that you don’t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we’ve done with some of the NXE slots in the past.
So, while the ads will be there, there is a good chance that the advertised products will actually be stuff you care about.

Major Nelson has recently reported on his official blog that the Xbox Live service will be down for up to 24 hours starting on Tuesday, June 16th at 12:01 AM PST. This downtime includes the ‘My Xbox’ portion of Xbox.com along with making it impossible for users to post on the Xbox forums.
This window of downtime will give Microsoft the chance to prep the service for the new Xbox Live features that were announced at this year’s E3. Those features include Last.fm, Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm and more.
However, please make note that you will not gain access to these features once Xbox Live goes back up as they will not officially go live until later this year.

It was recently reported on Major Nelson’s blog that Microsoft has found and delt with a new batch of cheaters. Their offense? Using an exploit within Gears of War 2 to artificially boost their Gamerscores. Their sentence? A Gamerscore of 0.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has had to step in to thwart cheaters in their attempt at a high Gamerscore. If you’ve been with us since March of last year, you’ll recognize a similar case.
Major Nelson also assures us that if you use ethical methods of obtaining your achievements, as in no cheating or glitching, you have nothing to worry about; your Gamerscore will not get reset accidentally.

Forza 2 developer Turn 10 is giving away a free signature edition car to the folks who are still playing the Xbox 360 racing sim.
The new car, a green Saleen Mustang S281E, complete with a signature from Microsoft spokesman and blogger Larry Hryb, aka. Major Nelson, is free to download to anyone who posts a comment on the developer’s blog here. Afterwords, they’ll be granted the new car once they sign in.

Halo 3-heads better boot up their Xbox 360 because it was recently announced that the Mythic Map Pack has officially hit Xbox Live for all to download.
Clocking in at 328.15MB the Mythic Map Pack will net you 3 new map back including Assembly, Orbital, and the all new Forge oriented map, Sandbox for just 800 Microsoft Points.
The official description of the pack, thanks to Major Nelson, is as follows:
The long-awaited Mythic Map Pack drops into Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Investigate Orbital’s abandoned hallways – before it was evacuated, the Quito Space Tether was heralded as the “Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium.” Witness Assembly, where Scarab hulls loom overhead, being decontaminated in preparation for the city-sized Lekgolo colonies that will breathe life into the massive metal husks. An excavation site surrounded by deadly Forerunner defenses, the mysteries of Sandbox are hidden high above, deep below, and right before your eyes. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
And if you’re wondering why some people got the chance to play this before its Xbox Live street date, it’s because these same maps were included with Halo Wars.

Major Nelson has recently announced on his blog that the Ninja Gaiden II Mission Mode DLC will be offered on Xbox Live for cheap this week as part of an ongoing Deal of the Week feature.
Originally priced at 800 points, the DLC will be marked down to 560 points for Xbox Live Gold Members netting a savings of 33%, not bad.
Read more about the Ninja Gaiden II Mission Mode DLC after the break. READ ON »