Hey Guys I think this new theme I found is a good one to work with but since there is no link to the forums right now here it is!

FORUMS

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“Ah yes, the much highly anticipated fall dashboard update that will bring us avatars and a new spiffy looking 3D interface has been leaked onto the Internet. I have to ask who in the world is leaking this stuff? I can only assume its all internal code as of right now making it virtually impossible for the public to get their hands on it.

The dashboard seems to have penetrated the usual places such as bittorrent seeds, modder and hacker sites. There are even some such as XHavok87 who claims to have hacked the dashboard update. We checked out XHavok87’s site and indeed we found videos on how to hack the update to be executed. There is no way for us to know the extent of the supposed hack.

Judging from the video the dashboard update seems to be an early beta version with bugs still present in the software such as font and feature issues. Doesn’t seem like a big deal right?

Well that’s where your absolutely wrong. This is how hackers find loopholes in firmware and software updates so that pirated games can be made playable on the Xbox 360. Software and video game piracy is a growing problem and has plagued the PC as well as the PS2 for many years now.

There has been more resistance in the next gen consoles but smart hackers see that as just a challenge. According to CNet the Xbox 360’s firmware was hacked four months after it’s launch allowing homebrew and pirated games to be played on the system.

However despite Microsoft’s efforts to quickly act and release updates to fix the loopholes, determined hackers continued to hack future updates.

The Wii is another console to be fully hacked allowing pirated games to be played on the system.

Apparently according to hacker site Hack5, there is an interesting article that talks about this phenomenon. The article also discusses the Xbox 360 and Wii hacks, as well as why the PS3 have yet to be hacked despite hackers targeting the system as number one enemy. Apparently there have been some minor “Hello World” type exploits but nothing close to even cracking the firmware.

I’m not too surprised Sony would be the expert at keeping their system locked up after seeing and experiencing what happened to the PSP and the PS2 (hack galore).

I truly hope Microsoft has a more iron clad security in place when the official fall dashboard update launches. Lets be fair folks video game piracy is like stealing just buy it, we all do.”

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http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/07/29/xbox-360-fall-dashboard-hacked-could-lead-to-piracy/

Discuss in the forums here.

Cloud Strife Reporting.

Announced recently at Comic Con, Gears of War 2 will give the player additional multiplayer skins and other good stuff if you play the original game. How will this work you might ask? Cliffy B gave a few examples.

- Complete Act One in Gears Of War, unlock a playable Anthony Carmine in Gears of War 2
- Find 10 COG tags in Gears Of War, unlock Minh Young Kim in Gears of War 2
- Kill Raam in Gears Of War, unlock a playable Raam in Gears of War 2

Still yet to be announced is whether additional content will be involved in single player as well.

According to gaming news website Kotaku, a user is reporting that he’s been playing Shadowrun on Xbox Live without a gold membership since last Wednesday. Games like Shadowrun and Lost Planet are also available on Games for Windows so it seems Microsoft is allowing free play for cross platform games.

According to playstationlifestyle.net - they got exclusive info on the anticipated FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Details, and that Square Enix will be confirming the news on August 3rd at their private party in Japan!

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I can now reveal exclusive inside info about Final Fantasy… VII!

Final Fantasy VII will be getting a “new” version of the classic game from the massive franchise and it will be exclusive
to the PLAYSTATION 3. It is unclear whether a new version will be a
simple remake or an extension to the original like Crisis Core, and if
it will be a Blu-ray release, or on the PSN. Something else which will
be coming to the PS3 is the original FF7 which will be on the
PlayStation Network by the end of the year.

Both of this info will be officially announced at either Square Enix’s August conference in Japan, or the Tokyo Game Show.

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Read the full article here: http://playstationlifestyle.net/2008/07/22/the-final-fantasy-info/

This is just rumour however, so don’t get your hopes up too high!

According to CVG, Wipeout HD has been delayed due to reportedly failing epilepsy testing requiring it to be “re-engineered” before being released. For people who don’t know what epilepsy is, it’s a disorder that causes seizures. Judging by the screenshot it’s almost no surprise.

At the end of last month’s issue of Nintendo Power, the editors promised a huge reveal in the magazine’s following issue, teasing those anxiously awaiting Wii-exclusive installments in the Earthbound and Kingdom Hearts franchises. However, if the supposed scans of the cover of the upcoming edition of Nintendo Power that have begun to trickle onto the internet are legit, then the publication’s big surprise could be coming from an unexpected source — a new adventure of a recognizable blue rodent, titled Sonic and the Black Knight.

Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development director Katsuya Eguchi hinted at a new Wiimote model that would include the MotionPlus technology during an E3 developer roundtable.

He stated, [Nintendo] ” is looking at whether or not it will be an attachment or built in,”

Yesterday at Take-Two’s E3 Press Conference the company announced that it would be bringing exclusive downloadable content to the PS3 version of BioShock, set to release November 2008. The content will come in the form of challenge rooms and extra places within Rapture to do side-quests. No word on whether it will also include new Plasmids.

source IGN

Bungie was planning to reveil a new game they are currently working on, but no showed at E3 due to Microsoft’s decision to not reveil this surprise. Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Xbox games business, said the company decided to pull it to help trim its E3 presentation to under 90 minutes, from 2 1/2 hours, to accommodate attention-challenged reporters.

“We had an embarrassment of riches,” Mattrick said. “We felt we could do this game more justice with a more dedicated event.”

“Two big kahunas were left out of the show, and we were still able to deliver a strong performance,” Mattrick said.

Both Microsoft and Bungie have stated that the announcement will be shown at a later date.