Madden 10 Co-op Video

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NFS Shift Car List

Need for Speed Shift is geared to present 18 authentic race tracks for players to navigate their way through, and an impressive 65+ cars for them to drive around in, including the BMW M3 GT2. Almost all of the major brands make an appearance in the game, including Aston Martin, Dodge, Lotus, Honda, Audi, and Nissan, just to name a few.

For the full list of cars appearing in the game, hit up EA's press release here.

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Madden Gets Co-op and New Video

Earlier tonight on GameTrailers TV one of the new online related features for Madden 10 was revealed. The game will have online co-op! Keep in mind that what has been described as the bigger of the two online announcements is being saved for the E3 press conference on Monday.

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Rock Band Weekly: Number of the Beast edition

Today we got an announcement of some songs coming to Rock Band, not next week but the week after(June 6th) and this is a band that has been requested quite a bit by the Rock Band fans. We are getting a Iron Maiden 12 Pack, yes 12 songs from one of the most requested metal bands on Rock Band! There's a mix of studio tracks and live tracks taken from the bands new documentary "Flight 666." Check out the track listing below!




Aces High(live)
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Trooper
Wasted Years
The Number of the Beast
Run to the Hills
Can I Play with Madness
The Clarivoyant
Powerslave
Fear of the Dark(Live)
Hallowed Be Thy Name(Live)
Iron Maiden(Live)

There is no word yet on the price of this pack but I will go ahead and assume that each track will be 160 Points each with the pack running about 1,600 points. Expect the official price to be announced next Friday, and remember these songs release on June 9th, not next week the DLC next week has yet to be announced.

I am thrilled that we are finally getting master recordings from Iron Maiden even more joyed to know that I will finally get to play Run to the Hills once again, I was so sad when it was one of the three songs that didn't make the transfer over to Rock Band 2. I don't know if I will be picking up the whole pack but I am definitely picking up four or five songs, who knows I guess it depends on the price.

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Some Xbox Things You'll Hear at E3

The first 45 minutes of a platform holder's E3 media briefing follows the same formula: 1) Talk about the platform's position using fancy $10 words, 2) Show Data, 3) Spin, spin, spin! Today, Microsoft issued a press release that will (almost certainly) be discussed during its June 1, Pre-E3 media briefing.


According to the press release, the Xbox 360 has sold 30 million units worldwide and the Xbox Live platform has reached 20 million active members (Gold and Silver ratios not specified). On the dollar side, Microsoft states the Xbox 360 is responsible for "generating $5.9 billion in sales to date at U.S. retail" for third-party publishers, while U.S. residents have spent a collective total of $14.5 billion on the Xbox 360 at retail.

Microsoft also notes that since launching the NXE (New Xbox Experience), Xbox Live membership has jumped 136 percent, video downloads have doubled and game related content (DLC, XBLA) sales have increased by 70 percent. While Microsoft's 30 million units sold milestone is impressive, we can't help but wonder how many of those consoles are still fully functioning.


[JS]

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Fight Night Round 4 Demo Out

A Fight Night Round 4 demo is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. Demo weighs in at 784MB and wearing the Gold Member Exclusive trunks, the demo is no featherweight either.

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We're Moving!

We are moving out of this old address TheXBLN.COM and moving over to XBOXLIVENETWORK.COM. As of June 1, 2009, we will be over at that site and TheXBLN.COM will no longer be used. Be sure to update your bookmarks and rss feeds because we're moving out!

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Happy Birthday XBLN!

 

Its hard to believe we have been around a year buy it happened. With this new year of TheXBLN.com, we will bring even more changes to accommodate you our viewers better. We will be launching a new domain name and them soon. Stay tuned for any updates on that.

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Guitar Hero 5 revealed and dated!

What seems to be like a every day thing, Activison has revealed a new Guitar Hero! Simply titled Guitar Hero 5 will release September 1st of this year!

Some of the new features include a new "Party Play" mode which allows you to jump into a song on the fly by simply picking up a controller and hitting a button, this feature also allows you to play whatever instrument you want, you are no longer bound to just guitar/bass/drums/vocals.

The game will also be supporting some new competitive modes as well as an impressive 85 song set list comprised of all master recordings, 30 of the songs will be from artists that have never before been in a video game. Check out some of the confirmed songs below.

The Rolling Stones : Sympathy for the Devil
Bob Dylan: All Along The Watchtower
The White Stripes : Blue Orchid
Santana : No One To Depend On (LIVE)
Vampire Weekend : A-Punk
Tom Petty: Runnin Down a Dream
Johnny Cash : Ring of Fire
Kings of Leon: Sex on Fire
Attack! Attack!: You and Me

Some other artists confirmed to be in the game are 3 Doors Down, AFI, Alter Bridge, Band of Horses, Beastie Boys, blink-182, Blur, Bush, Coldplay, Darkest Hour, David Bowie, The Derek Trucks Band, Dire Straits, Duran Duran, Gorillaz, Iron Maiden, Jimmy Eat World, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Muse, Nirvana, Public Enemy featuring Zakk Wylde, Queens of the Stone Age, The Raconteurs, Rush, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Sword, Sublime, and Wild Cherry.

You can see the game in action and learn more about it by watching this interview from Gamespot

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Finch's Trip to EA

 
  I'm here, for a post I've been wanting to do for awhile talk a little bit about a trip I took. Although it was only a day i learned a lot about the industry and as soon as my home-life situation gets a little better I will finally get a chance to pursue my job of working in the video game industry. My interest in games have slip a lot here lately with thinking of my family and things but I know as soon as that clears up I will be taking chances that have been giving to me.

     With that said, I have got a chance to see the early builds with other people to see games early and see how things will pan out. I cant speak on what I seen but i can post a couple of pics and when the time comes be able to release information.
     EA is just like a college with everything open with basketball courts, you name it it's there. More later(When the time right). Would be a dream job to have any position there but i will never say that they are lazy in any aspect of the job. Long days and even longer nights.

Producers

Side of Building

Landmarks

H.R

Guys taking notes

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Site Name Change?

When Xbox Live Network began, some our most desired domain names were already taken and we settled with this one. Now that this domain name is set to expire in mid July, we would like to know if you(our viewers) would like us to explore a new domain name or stay with what we have for another year.

So far we have:

XboxLiveNetwork.com 1 Vote
XBLNetwork.com 3 Votes

If you have any ideas or suggestions, leave us a comment!

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Expanded Madden 10 Player Ratings

Last month, we posted some player overall ratings, but now we have some expanded ratings for some top players in the game.

Click for each position: QB - RB - WR - TE - DEF

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USAF Thunderbirds in Madden

These elite pilots make a guest appearance in our Super Bowl and Conference Championship games, buzzing over the stadium at speeds exceeding 300 mph, leaving a nice trail of smoke in their wake.

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New Community Powered Rating Site

 

There are many sites out there that aggregate review scores, but we've found a new site that does things a little differently: xilike.net (x I like). Instead of simply aggregating scores from game news outlets, x I like gathers up scores placed by the players themselves. What makes this site even more interesting is that it uses data gathered by your own ratings to suggest other games and other x I like members that you might like.

All games are rated based on four categories, graphics, gameplay, sound and plot. You can even have the site generate a tweet on your Twitter account whenever you rate a game. Furthermore, each individual game page includes screenshots. The site also includes Xbox Live Arcade and Community Games. Go check it out!

xilike.net

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New Modern Warfare 2 Trailer

Here is the latest trailer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

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Rock Band Weekly: ZOMBIES!!! Edition

So yeah, here I am again with Rock Band Weekly. This week is an odd week for Rock Band and not one I am really excited about, we got some oldies, some new metal band I have never heard of, and some 90s band...so yeah, I don't really have much to say this week so just check out the songs below...

Ministry three pack - 440 Points
Ministry - Cuz U R Next - 160 points
Ministry - Lieslieslies - 160 points
Ministry - The Great Satan - 160 points

The Zombies - She's Not There - 160 points
The Zombies - Tell Her No - 160 points
The Cranberries - Linger - 160 points

and yeah that's it, I was expecting another epic week but I don't really recognize any of the songs. Anyone else looking forward to next week? If so let us know in the comments!

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NCAA Football 10 Update

Skills credits are earned by showing off your skills on the sticks. Your ability to perform these skill moves will earn you and your school extra credits. You can’t rely on the CPU to perform these actions to get the credits, you must be the one that got the interception or forced the fumble if you want the extra credit. So if you are using the new Defensive Assist feature, which puts the player you have highlighted under CPU control as long as you are holding the A/X button down, you can let the CPU guide your player to where they need to be, but to earn the credit you will need to take back control of the player and make the play. As you will see in a moment, a majority of the Skills events are defensive based, so if defense isn’t your strong suit, Defensive Assist will be a great way to put you in a position to make plays and earn credits.

This looks like it could be really fun and I hope they can bring this same concept to madden and other sports games to know more about EA games that are coming out Click here

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Blur Teaser Trailer

Activision and Bizarre Creations(Makers of Geometry Wars and Project Gotham) says this game will be like Forza meeting Mario Kart. This game sounds interesting to say the least, more info on this game should surface at E3 in a couple of weeks.

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Around the Hawk: Prototype

I first heard about this game a few days ago when my friend was giving a speech about Artificial Intelligence in video games in my communications class. He featured this game in his presentation, and ever since then I've been interested. This game is scheduled to be coming June 9th. Might be a cool game.

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Looked Over Game of the Year: Wolfenstein?

Before Call of Duty entered the Xbox scene, Wolfenstein held the shooter title on Xbox Live. This was arguably one of the best and most popular Xbox Live games to date. Return to Castle Wolfenstein on the original Xbox was a top Xbox Game a lot of Friends and myself have played back in the day. All the old Xboxers will remember this game back in the glory days. I can't believe I overlooked this title. The release date is July 28th. I might have to rent or pick up this game if its any good. Check out the trailer.

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Fight Night Round 4 Demo Coming Soon!

The FNR4 demo is available now if you preorder the game from Gamestop, but from a email EA sent me, it will come May 28th to download on the XBLM. From my understanding the demo is get mixed reviews. But its always nice to try something yourself.

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Blazenhawks highlight

EA SPORTS World: Madden 09 Video Highlight

This was agents stopable(eagles) vs myself(lions) pass to Larry Fitzgerald it was 4th and 43 with 2:10 left in the game i went on to win the game

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Tony Hawk Ride News

The new Tony Hawk game was revealed on GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley. Tony Hawk Ride will take advantage of a brand new skateboard peripheral (pictured above) and, according to the program, will be available on the Xbox 360.

Skateboarder Tony Hawk said he has wanted to create a peripheral-based game for quite some time, but technology only recently allowed Ride to be possible. Hawk said that he was quite good at the game and added that skateboarders should find the transition easy. Multiple difficulty modes will allow players with even the most inadequate of balancing capabilities to play.

The official website teases another appearance at this year's E3.

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Xbox Live Network Will Be Live at E3

Our Beta Tester Finch865 will be live and on hand at E3 this year. He will be Beta Testing Games for us and will be posting live updates on Twitter. Be sure to following us on Twitter to catch his updates from E3! E3 is June 2-4 this year so be sure to visit our site for other updates as well.

XBLN Twitter

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Rock Band Weekly:

We got the Rock Band DLC announcement a bit earlier this week and it was certainly a pleasant surprise, we are(finally) getting some songs from Alice Cooper the crazy ass hell vocalist that will give you nightmares. Of course Harmonix is trying to please everyone, so if you don't find Alice Cooper all that interesting perhaps you will enjoy the Taking Back Sunday pack that will be releasing along side Mr. Cooper. So yeah, lets get to the good stuff, here are the songs releasing next week.

Alice Cooper Pack:
Billion Dollar Babies (Live)
I'm Eighteen (Live)
Poison
School's Out (Live)
Under My Wheels (Live)
Vengeance Is Mine


Taking Back Sunday Pack:
Liar (It Takes One To Know One)
Makedamnsure
What's It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?

Although a price has not been confirmed yet(that will come tomorrow, I will update this post with the official pricing then) you can expect each song to be priced at 160pts individually and you can expect the Alice Cooper pack to be about 800 points and the Taking Back Sunday pack to be 420 points.

For those who may be wondering, the live songs from the Alice Cooper pack are taken from the "Alice Cooper Trashes The World" concert in Birmingham, UK back in 1989, the songs were also featured on the live album "Classicks best-of collection"

See anything you're interested in? I am going to snatch up the Alice Cooper pack, sound off in the comments and let me know what you think of next weeks dlc :)

EDIT: The songs are available now for the same prices I mentioned above, also "Kids Don't Follow" by The Replacements was also released this week after is was delayed last week due to a bug popping up at the last minute, the song is also 160 points.

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Treyarch Developing CoD 7

ShackNews is reporting that David Kim, a senior animator at Treyarch (the studio that developed Call of Duty: World at War), let it slip on his LinkedIn profile that Call of Duty 7 is indeed in development and will be coming to us courtesy of Treyarch and not Infinity Ward.

Kim's post on LinkedIn read, "I am currently on my second title as a senior animator in the games industry with Activision / Treyarch on Call Of Duty 7."

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Watch 1 vs 100 Live Tonight!

We will be airing 1 vs 100 Live tonight instead of doing our recordings of the show. To catch the LIVE! show, click here and enjoy at 10 PM EST/7 PM PT.

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1 vs 100 Extended Play Footage

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Madden 10 Player Rankings

We received some select Madden 10 player ratings. Click the Pictures to enlarge.

Here are more ratings:
Defenders
(Name, Team, Position, Overall Rating)
1 Albert Haynesworth -- Washington -- DT -- 99
Ed Reed -- Baltimore -- FS -- 99
Troy Polamalu -- Pittsburgh -- SS -- 99
Nnamdi Asomugha -- Oakland -- CB -- 99
Jared Allen -- Minnesota -- DE -- 99
6 James Harrison -- Pittsburgh -- OLB - 98
Justin Tuck -- New York Giants -- DE -- 98
DeMarcus Ware -- Dallas -- OLB -- 98
Adrian Wilson -- Arizona -- SS -- 98
Patrick Willis -- San Francisco -- MLB -- 98

Top 10 QB:
1)Peyton Manning
2)Tom Brady
3)Drew Brees
4) Kurt Warner
5)Ben Roethlisberger
6)Donovan Mcnabb
7)Tony Romo
8)Philip Riviers
9)Jay Cutler
10) Eli Manning

Miscellaneous ratings:
Lewis 96 - also best tackler
Fitz 99- 99jump, catch, 90 something speed
Jacobs 89 - 99trucking
Cassell 83- glad they didn't overrate him
Steve Slaton has the highest speed rating in the game
Drew Brees has the highest accuracy. 

Next up were the movers and shakers, the players who have had seen the biggest year-on-year swing (either positively or negatively) in their overall Madden rating. First up, the bad news:

Shakers
DeAngelo Hall -- Washington CB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 93
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 68
Difference: -25

Matt Leinart -- Arizona QB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 85
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 62
Difference: -23

Devin Thomas--Washington WR
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 81
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 63
Difference: -18

Torrey Holt -- Jacksonville WR
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 96
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 84
Difference: -12

Fred Smoot -- Washington CB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 87
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 76
Difference: -11

Finally, take a look at the players who improved most from the previous Madden game. You'll notice more than one rookie on this list:

Movers
Chris Johnson -- Oakland CB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 67
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 82
Difference: +14

Steve Slaton -- Houston RB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 74
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 87
Difference: +13

DeAngelo Williams--Carolina RB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 84
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 95
Difference: +11

Matt Forte -- Chicago RB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 80
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 89
Difference: +9

Matt Cassel -- Kansas City QB
Madden NFL 09 Overall Rating: 76
Madden NFL 10 Overall Rating: 83
Difference: +7
*Ratings are from the games shipped roster.

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Closer Look at Pro-Tak Video

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Burning: Bigboy

Hello people welcome back for this edition of burning with Blazenhawks today we are going to burn another person that we liked in the beginning but it turned out that it was a mistake to like this person.

When Jerhawk first recruited bigboy7867 he was quite and was a nice guy but man when you get to know him he becomes really violent and suicidal not joking about that. This guy is so messed up in the head it is crazy. In our first Madden 09 league he was no problem and he was going to be our new “p.o.o.p” but it all went down hill from there. He started to harassed people and made them leave the league when people came into the party he called them words that no person should hear anymore. He attacked people personally and an extent to where they wanted to harm bigboy. I think what pissed me off was that he sent me a message saying that he was suicidal just so he can get back in the league. What also I hated about him was that attitude that he was the better than every one else when really he was like us sitting at home playing a video game. The final straw with him was when he decided he was not supposed to be a the gm of our last league. Stopable was the Commish of the league and, we agreed if we're going to start a new league than he was not going to be the gm he was going to leave when he filled up the league when he did that he would not leave then he dissolved the league. So we made a new league and if anyone wants to join just leave your gamertag and we will find you. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this post and again do not play with bigboy7867.

 

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Teaser Trailer

This teaser trailer shows off some game footage.

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Rock Band Weekly: Socially Disturbed

Next week on Rock Band we will be seeing a nice variety in the songs, songs to fulfill the metal fans, the punk fans, and the classic rock fans! The songs releasing next week are...

Social Distortion - Bad Luck
Social Distortion - Ring of Fire
Social Distortion - Story of My Life
Disturbed - Stricken
Disturbed - Stupify
Steely Dan - Black Friday
Steely Dan - My Old School
Elvis Costello - Radio Radio
The Replacements - Kids Don't Follow

Each song will be available individually for 160 points each, there will also be a Social Distortion three pack available for 440 points. The songs will be available Tuesday, May 12th.

I will be picking up the Social Distortion pack and the Disturbed songs, how about you? See anything that interests you?

UPDATE: "Due to a bug that came up late in testing during cert "Kids Don't Follow" by the Replacements will be delayed and not available this week. The team will be fixing the issue to make it available in the near future." - HMXsean

So yeah, if you were looking forward to the song, then sorry to inform you that it has been delayed. Hopefully it will be fixed and releases a.s.a.p.

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Welcome Our Newest Writer, DanteSparda!

We have a new writer that will serve our Xbox Commuity. We have brought in DanteSparda who will post Dante's Corner. Dante's Corner will be all about Rock Band and Guitar Hero. So all you music junkies, tune in to Dante's Corner.

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1 vs 100 Beta Footage

BlazenHawks and myself, Deus Legend, played the 1 vs 100 Beta. The game it self was very fun. There was a random disconnect issue for the beta. But what can you expect hence the name BETA. Check out the footage to see how the LIVE episode works!

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Jimmy Fallon Plays Madden 10

Sort of old but it'll be new to most.

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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Online Tournaments

Live Tournaments are broken up into 3 unique tournament types:

•    Daily Tournaments – Similar to in years past these will be 24hr long tournaments that crown a new winner each day.   You’ll play your round and submit it to the tournament leaderboard.  At the end of the day, that tournament ends and a new one begins.  Within Daily’s there will be a number of different difficult levels to play.  Each difficulty level will have its own unique settings.

•    Weekly Tournaments – These will be tournaments that last all week long.  They will start on Sunday, for example, and players can compete all week long.  In Weekly’s you’ll submit four tournament rounds.  The player with the lowest total four round score will win that week’s weekly tournament.  Like in Daily’s there will be several difficulty levels to choose from, so you’re sure to find the right competition level for your golf game.


•    Play the Pros – This tournament type will allow you to compete each week directly against the pro golfer’s scores from that week’s professional golf tournament.  So, for example, when the game ships in June, you will be able to play against Tiger and the boys at the U.S. Open at Bethpage vs. their real life scores, at the course the tournament is being played at, with live weather and as the tournament is happening!  These tournaments will start on the Thursday of that week’s pro tournament and go through the weekend.  There will only be one difficulty setting for Play the Pros, since this tournament type is meant to be the ultimate golf test.  We’ve made sure to customize and tune the settings in Play the Pros tournaments to ensure your scores will be competitive against those of the real life pro golfers.  One other unique aspect to Play the Pros tournaments is that unlike Daily and Weekly Tournaments, here, you will only be competing against the pro golfer’s scores.  So there won’t be any other online gamers to contend with.

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1 vs 100 Hands On and Game Play Footage

This is the Hands on.


This video is the game play footage. This looks fun. I can't wait for this to come out.

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XBLNCS Champion Crowned!

 The winner of the XBLNCS Bowl III is Deus Legend and the Atlanta Falcons. Deus Legend defeated bigboy7467 and the Cleveland Browns 17-0. This is Deus Legends 3rd Championship and 2nd with the Falcons.

Stay tuned, for the ZBLN League going on right now.

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Humor Corner: Simpsons Teabag

Gamers who caught The Simpsons over the weekend were likely delighted / disgusted to see Homer and Marge take part in one of gaming's most infamous pastimes, teabagging. Taking things one step further, the teabagging took place in what is clearly Halo, the teabagger's game of choice.

[JS]

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The Beatles: Rock Band Guitars Revealed

 

MTV Games and Harmonix have announced The Beatles: Rock Band will have two standalone guitars made available for the game. The Rickenbacker 325 and Gretsch Duo Jet, played by John Lennon and George Harrison are set to go on sale when the game launches in September for $100 bucks a pop. Mariana Agathoklis at MTV Games this morning who said, "These guitars are really for the hardcore fans."

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Madden 10 Tidbits From Gamepro

This info comes from this months latests Gamepro mag.

• There is a new injury system this year that adds a strategical element. The choice will be given to place an injured player back in the game or hold them out. Of course putting them back in will risk more severe injury.

• Custom QB throwing-style animations

• Players talking to each other on the sidelines, kickers warming up with the nets, players on exercise bikes, and fans bundling up in cold weather situations.

• QBs can now throw passes into the dirt rather than just chucking it out of bounds.

• Game speed has been slowed down by about 10%.

• Madden IQ remains however it will be something calculated primarily in the background as opposed to the intrusive nature of last year.

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