Those of you who signed up for a chance at participating in this spring's Halo 3 multiplayer beta test may want to check your e-mail. Microsoft is notifying people that the beta selection process has begun and that all entrants should know if they've been chosen sometime within the next two days.

Let's start with the text of the announcement e-mail;

"Greetings Halo® Nation and thanks for your interest in participating in the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta.

Phase one registration is now closed. If you have been selected to participate, you will receive an email notification within the next two days.

For those of you that didn't make it in - fret not as this phase one was just the first of three ways to secure entry into the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta. The next two paths of entry are:

• Qualifying over Xbox Live® via the "Rule of Three" program in early February
• Purchasing marked packages of the upcoming game CrackdownTM, which hits store shelves in North America on Feb. 20

To find out more about these opportunities visit halo3.com for detailed information.

We hope this provides additional clarity on this phase of entry into the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta. See you online!" - Microsoft Halo 3 beta test selection update

First off, keep in mind that if you received the above e-mail, it does not mean you've been selected. You still need to keep an eye on your e-mail for the next two days to see if you get the acceptance letter. Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about your options;

• If you get accepted, great! Enjoy the beta.
• If you don't get selected, you're not completely out of luck yet. There are still two ways to get into the beta;
  1. Buy one of the specially marked boxes of Crackdown.
  2. Qualifying via a promotion Microsoft will be running in February. (The Rule of Three)

Thankfully, a demo of Crackdown is scheduled to hit the Marketplace early this morning, so you should be able to get a better idea of whether you're willing to spend $60 to get into the beta.

Good luck all, I'm rooting for you!

Posted by nylatenite at 1:42 AM EST

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Major Nelson is reporting that the somewhat delayed demo of Crackdown should be appearing in the Xbox Live Marketplace at approximately 5:00am EST this morning. For many people, this is a chance to take a first look at a title that many feel could go either way in terms of quality. I know that personally, from what I've seen of the game, I'm not really expecting much from it as it looks like a generic feeling third person shooter with a few tricks and some control issues. (Think Freedom Fighters or Brute Force if you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about)

More importantly, this demo could help Xbox 360 owners determine if it's worth shelling out $60 for both the game and it's "limited supply" of Halo 3 beta invites. While I'm sure many people will order the game just for that golden ticket, I'd have to assume a large number of gamers aren't going to shell out $60 just to play a few multiplayer Halo 3 maps... especially if they aren't guaranteed of getting one of those "specially marked" boxes.

Here are some links for you to look as you repeatedly stare at the clock in hopes 5am will somehow come quicker because of it;

• Crackdown official website
• Crackdown Demo hits next Tuesday - Major Nelson

Posted by nylatenite at 1:41 AM EST

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Gamespot has posted an article regarding the expexted $89.99 price tag for the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II and while there's not much new to talk about on that end, they did pose a question we've all been wondering to their contacts at RedOctane... namely, whether standalone guitars will be available at launch for those wishing to play the split-screen multiplayer version of the game. The answer they received wasn't the one I was hoping for;

"At the moment, we aren’t able to confirm the pricing or date of availability on standalone guitars yet, though hopefully we’ll be able to make an official announcement closer to launch." - RedOctane

While I have no doubt that RedOctane will eventually put standalone guitars on the market, I'm guessing that they're trying to ensure that they can release as many copies of the game as they can - meaning that any X-Plorer that comes off the assembly line at present is going to be packaged with a game. I'll also assume that once the initial launch frenzy dies down, we'll start seeing the standalone guitars on store shelves. The big question heere is whether a third party manufacturer will try to capitalize on the market by rushing a standalone guitar of their own to retail.

For more information, check out the Gamespot article at this link;

Posted by nylatenite at 1:41 AM EST

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The drought of new releases continues, but at least there's one bright spot on this week's list. That bright spot is none other than Sid Meier's Pirates! for the PSP. Beyond that, there's really nothing much else worth talking about, so I'll just leave it at that.

I'd also like to take a moment to apologize for the lack of updates over the weekend. I've been working on the changes I was talking about in the last state of the site update. Unfortunately, it's not going as smoothly as I'd like right now, so it's taking far more hours to make changes than I'd expect. The only good news I have to report is that it would appear that we will be able to go with different color schemes when the new format starts sometime in the coming weeks.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand - Here's everything you can probably expect to see on store shelves this week;

• Close Quarters Conflict - PC - 1/23/2007
  
• Fossil League Dino Tournament - DS - 1/23/2007
  
• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - DS - 1/23/2007
  
• Sid Meier's Pirates! - PSP - 1/23/2007
  
• The Shield - PC - 1/23/2007
  
• Underground Pool - DS - 1/23/2007
  
• Europa Universalis III - PC - 1/24/2007
  
• InuYasha Secret of the Divine Jewel - DS - 1/24/2007
  
• Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean - PSP - 1/24/2007
  
• The Poppit Show - PC - 1/24/2007
  
• Hexic Deluxe - PC - 1/25/2007

Please keep in mind these are only estimated release dates and could change at any time.

Posted by nylatenite at 1:05 AM EST

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Following in the footsteps of the command line version, MAME32 v.111.4, the Windows GUI port of MAME v.111 is also now available.

Check out the official MAME32 page here for more details and the download links.

Posted by nylatenite at 10:41 AM EST

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The latest "update" version of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, version 1.11u4, is now available for download. Once again, the update is focusing on some serious background changes and the dev team has advised that unless you're looking to take some risks - or test the latest build - you should probably steer clear of the update for now. If you are interested in testing the build, head on over to MAME Testers to find out how to get started.

The updated emulator files can be found at the official MAME page at Mamedev.org. You can Click here to see the full list of what's new in this update.

Posted by nylatenite at 10:41 AM EST

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If you use our regular www.nylatenite.com web address, you may have noticed that something has changed... the popups and ads that once infected this site are now gone. Yes, we've changed hosts and moved to a new web provider.

What does this mean to you? Well, for starters, you won't get bothered with thousands of popups anymore. I always hated that part of free-hosting plans and with the site's viewership increasing, I felt it was finally time to get rid of them.

We're also planning on making some changes to the way the site itself works, though those changes won't go into effect right away. Most of the changes will involve making the site more user friendly on both the back-end side as well as the pages you see. The reason behind this is that over time, the site has become a bit of a monster itself, often causing half of the time I spend on it to be lost just dealing with update related issues. I'd much rather spend that time giving you more news or playing games.

There are some things some of our viewers need to be made aware of...

1. If you visit the site from the www.nylatenite.com address, nothing changes for you. Keep your browser pointed here and we'll be with you daily.
2. If you visit the older format (the black and blue color scheme) version of the site at https://members.tripod.com/nylatenite/gamersparadise.htm, you will need to change your bookmark. The new link for the old color scheme is www.nylatenite.com/gamersparadise.htm
3. While we're looking for a way around it, there's a good chance that when the final changes to the site go active in the next few weeks, that old color scheme pages will cease to be updated. Again, I know some of you prefer the dark color scheme, but we may have to pick just one and the lighter, more modern scheme is by far the favorite.
4. The old web address of https://members.tripod.com/nylatenite/gamersparadise.htm will remain standing, but will no longer be updated with gaming news. The reason we're keeping this page up is because there are a lot of places that still link to the site for the "Build your own arcade cabinet" walkthrough, and while I know the sites I've personally submitted the address to over the years, I've found that many visitors have come from places that I never knew linked back to the site. Eventually the old tripod page will be changed to reflect the cabinet building aspect alone.

Once again, please set your bookmarks to http://www.nylatenite.com (for the modern version) or http://www.nylatenite.com/gamersparadise.htm (for the older version) - and enjoy the lack of popups.

While we're talking about advertisements, at this time we do not plan on soliciting advertising to defray our hosting costs. We're still building an audience, so we're not getting killed with expenses. besides that, the site is not a commercial venture at this time, so we cannot sell advertising space. You may see some ads for some of our friends websites or for products that we really like being posted as tests of the viability of someday accepting advertising. Those ads will not be popups.

Finally, for those wondering, I was fighting the urge to print the lyrics to the theme song from "The Jeffersons" the entire time I was writing this post... and in the end, I lost that battle...

"Well we’re movin' on up, to the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin' on up to the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

Fish don’t fry in the kitchen;
Beans don’t burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin’ just to get up that hill.
Now we’re up in the big leagues
Gettin’ our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby
There ain’t nothin wrong with that.

Well we’re movin' on up, to the East Side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin' on up to the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie." - The Jeffersons theme song

Posted by nylatenite at 10:03 AM EST

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An multiplayer demo of Eidos Interactive's Battlestations: Midway for the Xbox 360 is now available for download to Xbox Live Gold members in all regions other than Japan. The demo weighs in at 446.43mb and can be obtained via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Here's the dashboard write up on this one;

"Download and play the Battlestations: Midway multiplayer demo and be one of the first to experience a new style of online warfare. Featuring massive Xbox Live battles with over 100 fully controllable warships, aircraft and submarines, each player can take full command of a fleet of units and fight cooperatively with their team-mates in the greatest sea battles of WWII. Prepare for war on a totally new scale!" - Battlestations: Midway demo text

No ETA was given as to when Xbox Live Silver members can expect to see this content.

Posted by nylatenite at 2:35 AM EST

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Just a quick note here - apparently the "Valor" map pack for Call of Duty 3 that was released yesterday has some serious bugs in it. At present, the maps simply don't work at all and while both Treyarch and Microsoft are working on correcting the issue, there's currently no ETA for the repairs.

Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb has directed his readers to this post on the Xbox.com forums where Treyarch will be updating their progress in getting the problem fixed. Here's the latest update as of this posting;

"Well folks... it has been a crazy and hectic day, and we are continuing to work towards a solution through the night.  We've made some progress through cooperation with Microsoft.  We had hoped to resolve the technical issues with the map pack by the end of the day today, but it looks like that will not happen.

We do know that the package posted to Marketplace this morning is not valid and will not work with the game, so deleting the old file through the system blade of the dashboard will at least put users a step ahead when the new package goes live.

I realize that this is disappointing news - I assure you that we are doing everything that we can to resolve this as soon as possible.  Please hang with us as we work through this, and stay tuned for further updates." - Axisof3vil - Treyarch

Remember what I said yesterday about one of the serious issues being a lack of testing and a "We can just patch it later" attitude? Well, I rest my case.

For more information, check out the following links;

• Call of Duty 3 Valor Map Pack - Major Nelson
• Valor Map Pack Updates - Xbox.com Forums
• CoD3 Map Pack Broken - Kotaku
• COD3 Map Pack deployed, KIA - Gamespot

Posted by nylatenite at 2:34 AM EST

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Yes, he wants you - he wants you bad... but only for your mind. In Microsoft's continuing efforts to keep Xbox Live at the top of the online service food chain, Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb has put out a call to Xbox 360 owners to write in with suggestions on how the company can improve Xbox Live, Xbox.com and the Xbox 360 itself.

While we can debate whether or not Microsoft actually plans on listening to any of the feedback it gets or if they're just trying to drum up some positive PR, there's no question that this move is going to generate a lot of responses - if there's one thing gamers are, it's opinionated. Personally, I'd like to see the following added to the roster;

• Sell a larger hard drive - at a normal cost - Sorry guys, but not only is the Xbox 360 standard hard drive entirely too small, but charging $99.99 for a 20gb hard drive is insane.
• Sell Microsoft points in smaller lots - Because when you want to buy a 400 point Live Arcade game, but only have 380 Microsoft points remaining in your account, being forced to buy 500 more points is not customer friendly.
• Sell an Xbox 360 Live Arcade stick - preferable one that would feature 2 joysticks where at least the main stick was also 4/8 way switchable. (Like the Ultimarc Mag-Stick Plus) - Because playing a lot of the Xbox Live Arcade games with the standard controller is a chore.
• Allow RedOctane to make the Guitar Hero II X-Plorer guitar wireless - This should be self explanatory.
• Add requirements for game packaging - I'm sorry, but every year the instructions to Madden become smaller and smaller. Madden '07's instructions were actually just controller diagrams... and then EA had the nerve to sell online "guides" on how to play the game. Look, the game had virtually no instructions, no tutorial and then EA wanted money to teach people how to play the game. Situations like that are just an all-around black-eye to Xbox Live, the 360, Microsoft and most importantly your customers.
• Fully test Dashboard updates before they're released - This isn't the PC industry guys, every piece of hardware you have out there is fundamentally the same. There's no reason an update should ever brick a system.
• Release complete games - and force third parties to do so as well - This is another huge issue with the next-gen consoles - the constant patching. The reason console gamers play consoles is specifically to avoid the headaches of constant patches, bugs and the like - but developers are starting to get a little lazy. Perhaps some forced quality assurance testing? I cannot honestly believe that Madden '07 was properly tested if something as large as the fatigue bug could get through the process.
• Arrange/Sort items in the Live Marketplace better - While I haven't checked in awhile, there were quite a few games that had entirely too many related items for sale or download, making finding what you were looking for a bit tedious. Why not separate those items into subfolders? I remember at one point, you would have to scroll through tons of Basketball, Hockey, Baseball and Football gamer pictures just to see what else was available.
• Improve the ease with which Windows Media Player Connect can interface with the 360 - Neither I, my friends or the people at both 1-800-4MYXBOX or the general Microsoft Windows support line could ever figure out how to get it working on my system.

So that's my wish list, and I plan on tacking it onto the current thread over at the Major's blog. If you want to make your opinion heard, head over to the post at this link to put your 25 cents worth into the coin box.

Posted by nylatenite at 12:44 AM EST

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