The holiday season has been spoiled for Xbox Live users who couldn’t access the service smoothly as they hoped, and the victims demand compensation. Even after Microsoft addressed the problem that caused intermittent issues upon connecting to XBL, many gamers still have painful experiences to share over at the Xbox Official Forums.

“To have an outage as long as this one was is completely unacceptable,” said one forum poster who claims that he suffered from connection problems, and wants Microsoft to at least give him extra MS Points or a month of XBL subscription for the time wasted.

Other posters expressed their discontent, while flames aimed at Microsoft and its poor holiday season service came from all directions. Someone went as far as dropping XBL customer service a call, and found out that there are no plans for compensation as of now.

XBL issues extend beyond playing online. One unhappy customer spent 320 MS Points but couldn’t claim the movie he paid for. Another lost 800,000 Forza Motorsport 2 credits. Some users voice out saying the recent XBL update just caused more headaches with lag and errors.

Since Microsoft is probably still hard at work to address these concerns, we reckon an official statement regarding the matter should come out soon. We’re all ears, so watch this space for updates!

There’s some buzz going around hinting of Unreal Tournament 3’s tentative release date on the Microsoft Xbox 360. If the word is to be believed, we should have it in our consoles by April 2008.

A recent post from Exophase reporting about a scan from a German gaming magazine (called 360 Live) claiming that Unreal Tournament 3 is set for release in that period. It was also stated in the same post that the game is “90 percent complete.”

How does that sound to you? Epic Games and Midway haven’t commented on it thus far and it’s not likely that they will at all. In any case, just stick around for more updates as we dig them up for you.

Even after posting higher than expected sales, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed continues to dominate sales charts in the UK. In the week ending December 29, Chart Track’s numbers show previous topnotcher Activision’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare assassinated by the hard-hitter developed by Ubisoft Montreal.

Unsurprisingly, the UK also embraced EA Sports‘ FIFA 2008 and placed it on the second spot. Konami’s own football game, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, came at number 6. Two more from Electronic Arts also made it to the list, namely The Simpsons Game and Need for Speed: ProStreet.

Unlike Japan’s software sales charts, only a single Nintendo title appeared on the top ten. More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima for the Nintendo DS took the ninth place while Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training followed at 11th.

Interesting enough, Bioware’s interstellar role-playing game Mass Effect didn’t garner enough attention to move it up from the 39th spot. Game of the Year contender Super Mario Galaxy fared better at 17.

Without further ado, here’s the rest of Chart Track’s top-selling games in the UK:

1. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft)
2. FIFA 08 (EA Canada, EA Sports)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, Activision)
4. The Simpsons Game (Rebellion, Electronic Arts)
5. Need for Speed: ProStreet (EA Canada, Electronic Arts)
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami Digital Entertainment, Konami)
7. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 (Yuke’s, THQ)
8. More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo)
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Budcat Creations, Activision)
10. The Golden Compass (A2M, Sega)
11. Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training (Nintendo)
12. Cooking Mama (Office Create, 505 GAMES)
13. The Sims 2: Castaway (Maxis, Electronic Arts)
14. Wii Play (Nintendo)
15. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (IO Interactive, Eidos)
16. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Traveller’s Tales, LUCASARTS)
17. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo)
18. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (EA Tiburon, EA Sports)
19. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
20. Football Manager 2008 (Sports Interactive, Sega)
21. Ratatouille (Helixe, THQ)
22. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Naughty Dog, Sony Computer Entertainment)
23. Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (Juice Games, THQ)
24. Mario Party 8 (Hudson, Nintedo)
25. Tomb Raider: Anniversary (Crystal Dynamics,  EIDOS)
26. Halo 3 (Bungie, Microsoft)
27. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)
28. Crash of the Titans (Radical Entertainment, Sierra)
29. MySims (EA Redwood, Electronic Arts)
30. The Sims 2 (Maxis, Electronic Arts)
31. Bee Movie (Beenox, Activision)
32. Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground (Page 44 Studios, Activision)
33. The Sims 2: Pets (Maxis, Electronic Arts)
34. Viva Pinata (Rare, Microsoft)
35. Medal of Honor: Airborne (EA LA, Electronic Arts)
36. Transformers: The Game (Traveller’s Tales, Activision)
37. Cars (Helixe, THQ)
38. Sight Training (Namco, Nintendo)
39. Mass Effect (Bioware, Microsoft)
40. Need for Speed: Carbon (EA Canada, Electronic Arts)

Now here’s some big news to end the year on a good note. We’re letting you know that the Child’s Play charity drive has successfully accumulated donations in excess of US 1,135,000. This effectively beats out the movement’s quota from last year.

Child’s Play, for those asking, is a Seattle-based charitable organization founded in 2003 by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, aka Gabe and Tycho of the Penny Arcade web comic.

The organization donates free DVDs, books, and toys to sick kids around the world and also supports hospitals in Canada, Britain, Egypt, and Australia.

Based on the statements from the official Child’s Play site, the donations streamed in at a steadier pace compared to last year, with December’s first week accumulating a total of US 600,000. This figure increased to US 851,000 in the following week and to a staggering US 974,000 before hitting the one million mark soon after.

To all the individuals who went the extra mile to make this happen, we’re sure the recipients of your donations are most grateful. Here’s to hoping this news heralds better times ahead for 2008.

Not much is known for the latest installment to the Banjo Kazooie franchise. However, a recent interview with Gregg Mayles may give us an idea of something to expect from Banjo Kazooie 3 (also known as Banjo-Threeie).

Mayles is the Creative Director for the Banjo Kazooie franchise and was recently interviewed by the Rare Witch Project and his answer to one question sparked up some talk and theories on the new hub world of Threeie.

The hub worlds of Banjo Kazooie act as the bridge between the different worlds of the game. In the first game, it was Gruntilda’s Lair and in Banjo Tooie it was Isle O’Hags. According to Mayle, the third Banjo hub world will be called “Conflagration Violent.”

The name sparks up some pretty vivid ideas. First idea that comes to mind: a dark, sinister landscape with lava flowing everywhere. But then that’s just speculation. Whatever the case, it doesn’t sound like a place you’d want to stick around in.

Would you like to have 100,000 Microsoft Points padding up your Xbox Live account for next year? If the answer’s a yes, then you may want to read up on the “Bomberman Live New Year s Bash Tournament” that’s coming up.

The competition challenges you to rack up kills in ranked matches in the Friendly Fire” mode, as recorded in the Weekly Ranked Friendly Fire Leaderboard. You’ve got one week to try to place yourself among the leaderboard’s top eight players, where the battle can only intensify given the prizes that are at stake:

• First Place: 100,000 Microsoft Points
• Second Place: An Xbox 360 Elite Console
• Third Place: An Xbox 360 VIP Accessories Kit and Two limited-edition pink Xbox 360 controllers
• Fourth Place - 8th Place: 1,600 Microsoft Points each

Aside from the Tournament, there’s also the New Year’s Bash Sweepstakes. This contest entitles 25 randomly selected winners to their own set of prizes. Registration for both the sweepstakes and tournament begin 9:00 a.m. PST on December 31, 2007, and end at 8:59 a.m. PST on January 13, 2008. The tournament will start at 5:00 a.m. on January 6, and ends at 8:59 a.m. on January 13. Quoting Hudson Entertainment CEO’s John Greiner regarding the event:

Our goal with Bomberman is to bring the fantastic gameplay to a wider fanbase. We start off the new year with a big tournament in Bomberman LIVE on XBLA, then move into new Bomberman Land releases on the Wii, DS, PSP, and mobile. We have lots more planned to bring even more fans into the community in 2008.

These contests are open only to legal U.S. residents, including those residing in the District of Columbia, of 13 years of age or older. You must also have downloaded the game’s Bomb-Up Pack 3 to take part in the tournament. Full details are available at the Hudson Entertainment site via the source link.

This is not a boy meets girl story but yet another tale that asks people to be aware of the dangers of meeting people online. Xbox Live, after all, is still an online social device even if it is centered on gaming.

Joshua Stetar of Saratoga Springs, New York, and a 15-year old Spokane girl met on Xbox Live last 2006 while playing Halo. Stetar, 20 years old, then started stalking the 15-year old girl for months, sending her packages, flowers and hundreds of text messages.

The girl’s parents kept returning the packages he sent her, and they’ve even changed the girl’s cell phone number to cut him off. However, Stetar was persistent and found the girl’s new number via Google.

His Google search also turned up the girl’s address. One day Stetar decided to make the 40-hour drive to Spokane. When he got there he sent the girl a text message saying that he will be driving past her house, and even described his car.

The girl’s parents saw the car drive past and a few minutes later Stetar sent the girl the following text message: “Tell the cops that I’m gonna rape you and your sister.” He was arrested on a felony charge of stalking. He was released the day after.

It’s been a great year for Xbox 360 gamers. We’ve seen the biggest entertainment launch of all time, we saw the prominent RPG developer BioWare’s comeback and the release of what Ubisoft touted to be groundbreaking, Valve dished out a short puzzle game that many consider as “perfect” - there’s a lot more to talk about from recent months alone, and they all appeared first on Microsoft’s big box.

Aside from major releases, celebrities in the industry also made decisions that caught us off guard. Peter Moore, Bungie, EA and Activision, to name a few, took jaw-dropping turns that left us pondering about what’s to come. While the industry’s back end made financial steps, consumers on the front end had access to new Xbox 360 SKUs for the elite and casuals alike.

The advantage of having more games since it was released a year earlier than its competitors didn’t stop Microsoft from offering gamers better deals and hefty exclusives. As early as March, Microsoft teased with its explosive line-up backed by Lionhead Studio’s puppy love Fable 2 and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker role-playing games Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey at the Game Developers Conference 2007.

The Xbox 360 Elite was announced in the same month, and took off soon after. Donning the Zephyr motherboard and 120 GB worth of hard drive space, its initial US$479.99 price tag wasn’t too steep for the hardcore. What made the Elite so hot was because it’s cool - or at least, cooler than what was in the Core and Premium SKUs which often caused the red ring of death.

Not long after the first quarter of 2007 year ended, in June, retailers expressed their concern about backlogs of broken Xbox 360s marked by three red lights waiting for repair. A reported 30 failure rate and thousands of hate letters gave way to Microsoft’s generous extension of warranty against failure caused by the ring of death to three years in July. This move cost US 1 billion and led to the introduction of larger heatsinks in subsequent production of the console.

Microsoft lost its Corporate Vice President of Interactive Entertainment Business Division in the same month the huge lump of money slipped away to fix consumers’ woes. With “strong Bay Area roots,” Peter Moore moved to EA Sports located where his kids were born after receiving US 1.5 million for compensation, up to US 330,000 for relocation expenses, and a fat US 550,000 annual base salary.

July, however, wasn’t all about hurts and pains for Microsoft. At E3 2007, indie games set for release on Xbox Live Arcade were showcased to display how much promise independent game makers hold. Some trailers and demos were also announced to go Live and prepare everyone for what’s to come when the holiday season arrives.

The revelation of Halo 3’s Forge feature headlined what Microsoft had up its sleeves for August’s Leipzig Games Convention 2007. For the first time on the 360, Capcom’s widely anticipated action title Devil May Cry 4 was also playable. Not to be overshadowed were Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and Eternal Sonata as both titles garnered considerable attention.

Japan isn’t exactly the Xbox 360’s hometown, but its showing at Tokyo Game Show 2007 in September had presence on the floor. Square Enix and Tri-Ace’s Infinite Undiscovery, an RPG exclusive to the 360, spurred interest and will undoubtedly win hearts of fans who are aware of the high quality from the two companies involved. Another memorable announcement would have to be Tecmo and Team Ninja’s unveiling of Ninja Gaiden 2, another addition to the Xbox 360’s exclusives list. Of course, Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey was also there to gather crowds.

September 25 marked a historic event in the gaming world, when Bungie’s Halo 3 sunk all records as the biggest entertainment launch of all time after recording US 170 million in gross sales in 24 hours. Over a million users connected to Xbox Live at launch day, making it the best in the online service’s history.

More greenbacks were thrown around when industry giant Activision gobbled up Bizarre Creations of Project Gotham Racing fame in September, which proved to be a prelude to another big merger. A month before Christmas, Activision also merged with Blizzard’s parent company Vivendi Games in a US$18.9 billion deal, and Activision Blizzard was born.

October came, and Bungie did the unexpected - the creators of Microsoft’s ticket to market share decided to break free so the development studio can pursue other projects. At around the same time, MS unleashed the Xbox 360 Arcade to provide a more attractive entry-level SKU at US 279.99.

On the other hand, dominant publisher Electronic Arts extended the reach of its empire by buying established developers BioWare and Pandemic (both owned by VG Holding Corp) for around US 860 million dollars. EA’s list of intellectual properties substantially grew with Mass Effect, Mercenaries, and other hard-hitting franchises.

Some say 2007 is the Golden Age of gaming, and they’re not without merit. Many releases from the last quarter of this year alone will most likely go down in history, and a good portion of those are on the Xbox 360.

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
The pseudo flight-sim lifted off from PlayStation platforms to land on the Xbox 360, and it did so with grace and style. Ace Combat 6 may have deviated from the series’ conventional way of storytelling by focusing more on victims of war than the main character and his crew, but dancing with the angels in high-definition while other ground and naval units engage in combat was nothing short of satisfying.

Assassin’s Creed
Ubisoft Montreal’s ambitious title won awards even before its release when it rocked the floor at E3 2006. Since Assassin’s Creed (whose novel series tie-in was canceled by the request of actual assassins) appeared on shelves, sales have been racking up and Gears of War lost its  “best-selling new IP at launch” throne. Naysayers are not convinced, but it’s hard to argue against 2.5 million copies sold about whether the game is actually next-gen or not.

Bioshock
2K Games even “proved” its genetically enhanced first-person shooter Bioshock is a must-have gift for this holiday season. With numerous Game of the Year awards under its belt, System Shock 2’s spiritual successor is in the books as one of the greatest in storytelling, art design, and innovation in the FPS genre. Technical glitches and dropping framerates didn’t hinder the enjoyment brought about by impressive visuals and engaging narrative.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
“To say that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is intense is like describing Russia as fairly large,” said fellow QJ.NET blogger Glen D., and he wasn’t exaggerating. We were excited to find out that Infinity Ward is back at the the helm of Call of Duty’s development, worried when they said World War II is out and modern warfare is in, and happy when the final product easily earned a spot in our list of favorites. This year has been great for fans of first-person shooters, and CoD4 is among the titles that made it happen.

Halo 3
Everyone is talking about Master Chief and how he finished the fight. Even your non-gamer neighbor saw it on TV, and was intrigued by the game’s astounding US 170 million day one gross sales.

It took years of development before Bungie was able to put Halo 3 out in the market, and the result is a masterpiece with unprecedented accessibility and profound online features. Add the Forge and video editor, then you can’t ask for more.

The Orange Box
Half-Life 2 and its two episodes, Team Fortress 2, and Portal in one box - how can it get any better? Those who haven’t heard of these gems would scratch their heads and wonder how a bunch of first-person shooters receive so much praise, but as fans know, it’s because the package is filled with more than big explosions and headcrabs to kill.

The thinking man’s shooter, Half-Life 2, becomes a complete experience after playing through episodes one and two. When you’re done trying to escape City 17 or smashing crates with a crowbar, there’s the mind-bending Portal.

With nine different and distinct classes represented by cartoon-like characters, Team Fortress 2 doesn’t seem to take itself seriously, but managed to be both visually appealing and delightfully addictive.

Mass Effect
BioWare promised an epic adventure in the shoes of Commander Shepard, and it delivered. Mass Effect’s over 20,000 lines of dialogue is just the tip of the iceberg when talking about the Xbox 360’s premiere RPG of the year.

Spanning over several solar systems, Shepard’s quest to stop the rogue Spectre Saren can be a daunting task. Fortunately, the galaxy is peppered with sidequests for you to exploit and gain experience from.

Peter Moore - Considering how Microsoft’s former games division VP seemed so passionate towards defending the Xbox 360, Moore’s announcement about leaving his post sent shockwaves. According to his profile on Microsoft’s website, Moore is responsible for forging alliances with Mistwalker, Game Republic, and Q Entertainment.

Hironobu Sakaguchi - Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle in Japan, but with Mistwalker president Sakaguchi’s support, RPG fans are warming up to the 360. Blue Dragon sold relatively well, and Lost Odyssey is out there to prove its worth.

Ken Levine - Bioshock earned praises and showed the world what the Xbox 360 can do, and we can thank Ken Levine for that. Rumors say the game will get a PS3 version too, but before that even happens, Bioshock’s iteration on the 360 already invited thousands of people to purchase the console it was initially made for.

Gabe Newell - As the co-founder of Valve Corporation, Gabe Newell spearheaded The Orange Box’s development. It’s the same man who said the “PS3 is a waste of everybody’s time,” and took the grand collection to the 360 and PC. EA did the dirty work of porting The Orange Box to the other console.

More developers and publishers are jumping ship to make games for the Xbox 360, made apparent by Capcom’s decision to go cross-platform with Devil May Cry 4 and push for a simultaneous release this coming February 2008. There’s also Resident Evil 5 from the same company, and it’s not impossible to see the zombie-fest ship next year.

High-profile exclusives like Fable 2, Lost Odyssey, Too Human, and Ninja Gaiden 2 only make up a small portion of what’s in store for next year. Future installments of new IPs like Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed will definitely grace the 360, though saying there’s a chance for the two to release even in late 2008 is mere wishful thinking.

If The Last Remnant and Microsoft’s plan to double the number of games they release in Japan to 500 in 2008 are any indication, the market won’t be saturated with western titles alone. Here’s to hoping there’ll be good doses of JRPGs, oddities like Katamari Damacy, and other unique games that can only come from the land of the rising sun on the Xbox 360.

During a lecture during the 24th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, Germany, Felix Domke and Michael Steil went into a detailed discussion about the different levels of security on consoles and handhelds during the past few years. In a video we’ve provided below, you can watch a very technical discussion about some of the intricacies of today’s security systems on the consoles and a lot of other insights on the homebrew scene.

Considering the title of the lecture, “Why Silicon-Based Security is still that hard: Deconstructing Xbox 360 Security”, you can expect a lot of technical jargon included in the discussion. However, even if everything doesn’t sink in, you can pick up a lot of very interesting information just by listening to it.

Some of the bigger highlights of the hour long lecture was a 3D demo using a reversed engineered driver for ATI/AMD’s Xenos gfxchip, as well as a short video presentation of native Wii homebrew.

If you’re interested in watching the video, then we suggest you mentally prepare yourself for a lot of techie talk ahead. In any case, here’s the video:

Pandemic Studios‘ Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC) is shaping up to be an explosive title - literally. It’s got tanks, choppers, and other hot stuff that your own band of mercenaries can use, which you can find in these screenshots of the game.

As the title implies, in Mercenaries 2, you’re a man for hire. Unlike its predecessor, you can also recruit fellow hired-operatives to take on difficult missions that require a lot of firepower. Those comrades don’t necessarily have to be computer controlled, because co-op play allows your pals to join in the fun.

When you earn enough dough, you can avail of new equipment, vehicles, and even air-strikes. The screenshots below should give you a good idea of what Pandemic Studios’ playground of destruction looks like. Expect it to be on shelves next year.

Buy: [ Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360) ]

Buy: [ Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS3) ]

Buy: [ Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC) ]