Krunk4Ever!

Not exactly a freebie, but if you’re planning to get a 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscription, you might as well sign up now and get Catan on Xbox Live Arcade, which is based on The Settlers of Catan board game.

Because you’re such a valued Xbox LIVE® gamer, we’d like to offer you the chance to give the gift of Catan on us! Through strategy, trading, and a little bit of luck, your friends can vie for control with their opponents over the resources and territory of a newly discovered island.

Now through March 25, 2008, get your friends to sign up for a new 12–month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership, and they will receive a free copy of Catan.*

GIVE THE GIFT OF CATAN

Here’s how your friends can get their free copy of Catan:
1. Sign up for a new 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership.
2. Register at: xbox.com/sm8

*Gift to Friend Offer: Offer good only to new 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold members who have subscribed for membership and registered at xbox.com/sm8 between February 25, 2008 and March 25, 2008. Limit: one gift per recipient. This offer is nontransferable. This offer expires on March 25, 2008, while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. Any gift returned as nondeliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6-8 weeks for the shipment of your gift. Offer is not combinable with other Microsoft offers or rebates. Open only to legal residents, aged 14+, of the 50 United States (includes the District of Columbia).

I tried loading the page and it showed: Page unavailable. Not sure if it’s because I didn’t sign up for a 12 month membership during the time frame or if it’s just not up yet.

Update:
The page is finally up and you can find more details at www.xbox.com/giftofcatan.

After mentioning that I got Rock Band yesterday, Angel-grrl pointed out to me that for a limited time, I can get Aerosmith’s “Dream On” for free! You can read more details on Xbox.com. Sweet! Given that many of you come here looking for free Xbox Live Arcade Games, I thought I’d shared this with you guys.

“Dream On” was the first major hit for the rock band Aerosmith, appearing on their debut self-titled album in 1973. And now, avid Guitar Hero™ III: Legends of Rock players will be able to try out their chops on the power ballad, by downloading it free of charge from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace. The song track will be free for a limited time only: Saturday, February 16, 2 A.M. PT (approximately) to Monday, February 18, 2 A.M. PT (approximately).

The song is a free download through the weekend in celebration of the upcoming Guitar Hero®: Aerosmith® game. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be the first music-based game to feature a single band, and gamers will be able to experience Aerosmith’s GRAMMY® winning career, from their first gig to becoming rock royalty.

Update:
How appropriate that today’s Foxtrot comic strip is on Chamber Music Hero.

It’s been awhile since my last post. Just been busy at work and tired overall. I know I still owe you a File Server post and a Hot Pot post. Those will still come, I promise.

Anyway some weekends ago, Tekman held a gathering at his place and I got to check out a bunch of new board games including Polarity (more info) and Shadows Over Camelot (more info). Wrexen brought over his Rock Band for Xbox 360 and I gave it a whirl and it was a lot of fun. So I decided to get one and began looking for deals.

I had a $50 Circuit City Gift Card (which I had redeemed through MyPoints), but Rock Band was $170 at Circuit City. And the fact I had to pay sales tax made it even worse. The best deal I found was at Buy.com for $150 shipped (after $10 Google Checkout discount). We were looking at $135 @ Circuit City (after GC) or $150 @ Buy.com. Wasting a $50 GC to save $15 sounded quite unreasonable.

So I started researching a bit more into Rock Band and noticed it only came with 1 guitar, 1 microphone, and 1 drum set. The game is a 4-player game and can support up to 2 guitars (1 guitar, 1 bass). So I started researching on how much guitars cost. Apparently Guitar Hero III guitars worked on Rock Band, but not vice versa, which sucked. They also didn’t really sell wireless guitars separately, unless you bought the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle and one of the reason why I’ve delayed purchasing GH3 was the fact that the original set included a wired guitar.

Anyway, I decided I would get GH3 just for the wireless guitar and figure out what to do there. Everywhere I’ve checked, GH3 with the wireless guitar was $100, so even with sales tax, it made the purchase much more swallowable. In Chinese we have a saying: 吞的露 (In Catonese, it’s really keng dat lok, but I’m not really sure how to write keng). Basically it refers to something you can tolerate.

So everything was all set and I made my orders. The total came up to a little over $200, which wasn’t too bad. I got my packages on Tuesday and gave it a whirl. It was indeed true that the GH3 guitar worked on Rock Band, but the Rock Band guitar did not work on GH3. I actually liked using the GH3 wireless guitar more than the Rock Band wired one, and decided some time down the line, I’ll probably sell the wired Rock Band guitar and get another wireless GH3 guitar. I did noticed that the wired guitar had extra buttons closer to the base of the guitar. At first I thought that was just the difference between a bass guitar and a regular guitar, but Desperajo said the lower buttons were more for people who wanted to look like they were riffing.

I invited some friends over tonight and we rocked till almost 3am. I think we started at around 9pm. Since not much of the music has been unlocked, we were playing in band tour mode, and for some reason, after every song, it would need to connect to the server and upload data or something and that took a big chunk of time.

Actually, before we started playing, we watched the South Park - Guitar Queer-o (S11E13). A hilarious episode if you haven’t seen it yet. It actually prompted me to get the Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son song.

Throughout the night, people have been complaining about the drum beats weren’t actually matching the music and I recall there was some way to calibrate it. I went into Options > Calibrate System, but after selecting LCD, it didn’t give me any options for calibration. Thinking that there was no actual calibration, we continued playing. The drum beats seem to have come a eighth of a note too early, so often times you had to force yourself to ignore the music and just play by looking at the screen, which then threw off other people. Haha.

Anyway, I was searching for calibration solutions online and found these 2 guides:

• Black Magic method of Manual Rockband Calibration
• Alternate Black Magic method of Rockband Calibration

Apparently instead of selecting LCD, there was this “manual” option hidden at the bottom. I haven’t followed the exact steps on calibration, but a quick calibration based on the simple on-screen instructions resulted in me being a much better drum player. Haha.

Due to the fact that XBLA was having a lot of problems over the holiday season, they’ve decided to give away Undertow for free (regularly worth 800 points) to compensate for users inconvenience. Not only do Xbox Live Gold members qualify, but so do Silver members. This game is free only for a limited time:

Regularly 800 points, Undertow is free of charge beginning 2:00 a.m. PST Wednesday, January 23 and continuing through 11:59 p.m. PST Sunday, January 27.

This game has gotten really good reviews, with a metascore of 79/100. Be sure to get it!

I first saw this on angel-grrl’s blog, but then realized that it’s pretty much scattered across the web, especially on deal sites. I’ve been stuck in a meeting since 1 and didn’t really have time to check deals during that time.

Apparently today marks the 5th anniversary of Xbox Live and they’re giving a way a bunch of freebies: Xbox Live is 5IVE: How to Get the Free 500 MS Points

Microsoft is celebrating the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live in a big way. It has released Carcassonne for free and it is also giving away 500 Microsoft Points to every active member who joined the service in 2002. If you were wondering how to get those precious MS Points, we have the answer.

To claim your 500 Microsoft Points, all you have to do is register on this web site using your Windows Live ID associated to your gamertag. You can register until midnight (Pacific Time) on November 29, 2007, and after you do so, you will receive an e-mail with a 25-digit code that lets you to activate your Microsoft Points through your Xbox 360 console. Don’t expect that email to arrive instantly as the deadline for that email is December 21, 2007.

It is also worth mentioning that these 500 Microsoft Points expire on June 30, 2008, but we are sure you’ll spend them way before that date.

If you missed the Carcassonne freebie link above, here it is again: Reminder: Get Carcassonne for Free

Microsoft is celebrating the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live and as a gesture of thanks to the gaming community, all eight million Xbox Live members will have the opportunity to download Carcassonne for free between 12:01 a.m. PST on Nov. 15 and 11:59 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. In addition to this, every active member who joined the service in 2002 will receive 500 MS Points for free.

Named after the medieval fortified town of the same name in southern France, Carcassonne is the video game adaptation of the classic tile-based German board game. Designed for two to five players, Carcassonne is set in a medieval landscape made up of tiles. Players start from a single tile and then draw from a pool of remaining tiles to create a growing landscape and gain points for ultimate victory.

Carcassonne features the complete 72 tiles from the original board game, all rule sets, and the 12 additional tiles found in the Rivers 1 Expansion Set.

I’ve played Carcassonne in real life with a bunch of friends, and although I suck at it (still haven’t really figured out the strategies yet), it’s rather fun. I haven’t tried to play it via Xbox Live yet, but being free makes it tempting now.

According to Kaos, they are also giving away themes and gamerpics which usually cost money for free.

Since this probably expires tonight, I decided I would post it now, instead of later.

I apologize for not posting much recently. My blog topics have been accumulating. Here’s just a few of my draft titles: 5 Free iTunes Songs Followup, Fighting Dance Moves, Credit Card Update, Elliptical User Warnings, Dwarfs Count, Cute Cat Comic, Lucky Star, and File Server (yes, it’s still in queue to blog about). Here’s one that’s in my email box that I found.

I’m shocked that one of my most popular posts is 4 Free Xbox Live Arcade Games, generating about 200 unique views this past month.

A few weeks ago, while I was looking at the MSFT stock headlines (speaking of which, did you see the recent surge?!?!? We not only broke $30, but now we’re at $35!), I saw this: Want a Free Xbox Game?

If you’re still smarting after shelling out $60 for a copy of Halo 3 last month, relief is on the way. Xbox owners connected to the Xbox Live Marketplace are getting a free treat this week with a game called Yaris.

OK, maybe it’s more product placement than video game. The New York Times reports that Toyota bankrolled the game to promote its Yaris car line. There’s little for Toyota to lose here. Racing car games are popular. Electronic Arts has a killer franchise in Need for Speed. Activision recently bought the developer behind the Project Gotham Racing series, which has sold 4.5 million copies.

The Xbox marketplace provides developers with inventory-free distribution, so it’s not as if Toyota is going to have to eat a ton of returns. As long as players don’t walk into a Toyota showroom and wonder why the real Yaris can’t shoot missiles or claw away at other drivers with electronic tentacles, Toyota will accomplish its goal of reaching out to young drivers.

For more information on the Yaris game, check out Yaris (Xbox 360) and Toyota Yaris: Xbox LIVE Arcade Game.

I downloaded this game last week, but haven’t really had a chance to play it yet. Still trying to get through Halo 3. Given that I play about an hour or 2 a week, I’m not progressing that fast. Stanman and them were over this weekend to play multiplayer Halo 3 and they made fun of me for not having unlocked any of the costumes.

But here’s another free xbox live arcade game for you! Enjoy!

with purchase of new Xbox 360 system between 11/15/2006 and 1/15/2007.

Update:
Turns out there’s a code to get 3 FREE games instead of 2: XBXNG103

Update #2:
Apparently, there’s another code to get 4 FREE games: XBXNG102. Following this pattern, I wonder if XBXNG101 gives you 5 free games.

Update #3:
This appears to be an ongoing promotion. Visit Xbox.com for more details and to get the latest promotion code.

So I just got this in my email:

So give the gift of two free Xbox Live Arcade games with Xbox 360.
Having a hard time with holiday gifts? Let us thank you for being an Xbox 360™ system owner with this helpful suggestion:

Stop teasing them with your Xbox 360. Start sharing this offer.
The gift of free Xbox Live® Arcade games with an Xbox 360 system purchase: It’s what they want, it shows you care, and it gives you more friends to play with! Plus it’s easy to give:
• Share the code: XBXNG104
• Show them where to buy their Xbox 360.
• Send them to www.xbox360nextgennow.com/register.
• School them in two free Xbox Live Arcade games.

Enjoy the spirit of giving.
Give your friends free games with their Xbox 360 system purchase this holiday season.

Online offer valid in the 50 United States, D.C., all U.S. military bases with valid APO/FPO bases.

Offer expires 1/15/2007.

The person redeeming this offer must purchase a new Xbox 360 system 11/15/2006 - 1/15/2007, establish a new Xbox Live Account, then register on the promotion web site on or before 1/15/2007. Hard drive, Passport account, and high speed Internet access required for Xbox Live account. See Xbox Live system requirements at www.xbox.com. Limit 1 offer submission per person. Xbox Live Arcade game tokens will be fulfilled through e-mail by February 15, 2007 and will be for games selected by Microsoft. Fulfillment requires a computer with e-mail and a valid email address.
Not combinable with other Microsoft® offers or rebates. Proof of purchase required.

Thought it would be useful for those who were thinking about getting an Xbox 360 (especially since Amazon.com is selling 1000 Xbox 360 core systems for $100 on Thanksgiving)