CONFIRMED: Cross-Platform Games Free on Silver

Some gamers have discovered that some games are now playable online by Xbox Live Silver members. The playable games appear to be cross-platform games(games where Xbox 360 gamers can play against PC gamers). Microsoft has not made any official announcement about this as of yet.

The games that have been tested so far by gamers are Shadowrun and Lost Planet. I'm not sure how many other games are cross-platform on the 360, but gamers guess that this is a result of Games for Windows Live going free.



Edited: 7/28 Microsoft has confirmed that cross-platform games are free to play online to Silver members. However, this will only last until the fall dashboard update.

And the only other game that is cross-platform is Universe at War.

Farewell FASA

It's official. FASA Studios has closed its doors and all its workers have moved on.

The rumors have been circulating for months, but today the announcement was made that FASA Studios has dissolved. FASA Studios was purchased by Microsoft back in 2004. About half of the FASA Studios workers have been assigned new positions within Microsoft.

FASA has been around since 1980, originally being a publishing house in Chicago of pen and paper roleplaying games like Battletech, Shadowrun, Star Trek RPG and Earthdawn. They were also early computer game creaters, responsible for the MechWarrior series and later the Crimson Skies series.

There will still be Community Manager and Technical Support Manager on the job to help those still playing Shadowrun for the PC and Xbox 360, but everyone else is gone.

The announcement was made on the Shadowrun forums. The news apparently hasn't hit FASA studio's homepage where they still have six job openings...

XYBA Podcast Ep 11

We are back after several busy weekends that prevented us from getting together. The latest XYBA has lots of news and opinions about gaming for you to soak your gaming brains in.

0:00 - Intro Jam
0:20 - Introductions: Josh, Andy, and Charlie
0:50 - Games We Be Playin: Overlord, Shadowrun, Bioshock Demo, Orphan Feast and Psi Ops
10:41 - Talk about Josh's Xbox 360 death experience
13:14 - Gaming News: Halo 3 has 4 player co-op, George Lucas is a sellout, GTA IV delayed to 2008, Andy and Charlie not buying Rockband, Bioshock news how shocking, Microsoft lays down the laws for machinimas, King of Kong movie released, Metroid getting good reviews from Nintendo Power, Bungie Pro, Games for Windows Live will support XP, COD4 beta coming to 360, and Nintendo bringing original games to Wii
1:01:50 - Roundtable Discussion: Games built with only Multiplayer vs games built with only singleplayer. Shadowrun vs Bioshock
1:17:00 - Indian Summer video
1:17:50 - Games we are looking forward to: Bioshock, Mass Effect, Stranglehold, Super Dodgeball DS, Two Worlds, Halo 3
1:25:20 - Rants: Andy wants to know why Josh hates Eric and Grant.
1:27:21 - Shoutouts, Jigsaws Gamefly Hookup, Happy Birthday Andy, and End Music

Download XYBA Podcast Ep 11

Shadowrun Patched

A Shadowrun patch is now live for both the Xbox 360 and the PC. This update addresses some problem issues like server disconnects and Vista cheats as well as some gaming issues. More details after the jump.

Game Balance
* Dwarves can no longer be bled out with the katana or Artifact. (This is a dwarven racial advantage that doesn't always works. It sucks being bled out by the katana when it's never supposed to happen to you!)
* The elf regeneration ability has been mildly nerfed by delaying its start by 1/4 second and costing the elf more essence. (I'm glad for this as well. Personally, I suck with elves, but when I fight them, they just run off and regenerate before I can track them down again and kill them.)

Audio
* Enemy footsteps will be louder.

Bots
* Bot intelligence should now scale with players’ average Trueskill in Public Match games. (The bots were sometimes great and sometimes very bad. Hopefully this will help even them out.)

UI
* Added “Advanced Settings” screen when setting up a Private Game, which contains the allows the host to cap the number of players, more control over preferences and the ability to turn karma on or off. (I've never played a private game so it doesn't affect me.)
* Fixed “stop” functionality when a game-start countdown has begun.
* Improved messaging for when your party is split or rejoined due to team balance.
* Improved messaging about Artifact clearing bodies in Attrition. (Yeah, I was a total newb when the first time I played Attrition. I put like five clips into a body, not realizing you can only destroy bodies with the Artifact when playing Attrition.)

Network
* Improved server reliability. (Thank God!)

Dedicated Server
* Improved voting reliability.
* Improved network reliability.
* Improved error messaging.

General
* Local Match games can now be played without a profile. (By local, you mean System Link? Who has enough consoles system linked to play locally? Maybe it's more for PC players...)
* Fixed numerous crashes.
* Fixed numerous exploits and glitches. (Does this mean no more Vista glitching Katana Elves?)
* Improved Vista multi-monitor functionality. (For the 10 people playing on Vista.)

Shadowrun Demo is Out! Sort of.

The Shadowrun demo is out, but according to the forums, people are having a hard time downloading it. Apparently it gets stuck at certain points and you will have to redownload it. I'm hoping to download it tonight and get in on the action. There's no mention of the issue on Major Nelson's blog, but if you want to kill some time while you wait for the download to complete, then check out Tenchu Z or not.Update from Major Nelson:

I called the operations team on the demo issues, and they are working on it.

I need to jump on a plane now, but I am sure this will be fixed by the time I land.

Shadowrun Priced

Shadowrun comes out on May 29th. Right while I'll hopefully be enjoying some Halo 3 action. The release date has been out for a little bit, but now the prices are confirmed.

Since Shadowrun is a multiplayer only game, there had been some speculation that it would come out at a lower than $60 price. Unfortunately, Micro$oft says no. Shadowrun for the Xbox 360 will be $60. Interestingly, Shadowrun for Windows Vista will only cost $50.

Microsoft says it is because those are the standard prices for those systems. However, I know of a number of games which are released at lower than $60 for the 360. My guess: wait a few months and you'll be able to find it cheaper.

Shadowrun Coming in June

I told ya, and I was right! Shadowrun is not coming in April. As part of a recent press release about Games for Windows Live coming out May 8th, there's a small blurb about Shadowrun coming out in June.


Shadowrun will be the first game to be cross platform on both Games for Windows and Xbox Live. The second game that will be cross platform is Uno. Which seems less exciting to me.

Shadowrun Release Date Probably False

There's a rumor burning across the internet that Shadowrun will be released in April.

Looks like that rumor is probably false. I've been waiting since Day One to enter the beta so I ran over and checked the beta forums. The moderators over there say that no date has yet been set and it's probably not April.

The mass invites for the beta haven't even gone out yet! They just recently patched the beta. More educated guesses place Shadowrun's shelf date in May or June.

No Split Screen for Shadowrun

It may be the first actual use of the cross platform system, but it has been confirmed that there will be no Split Screen for Shadowrun. That's pretty disappointing. Especially for a multiplayer only game.

The developers said they really wanted Split Screen capabilities and did a lot of work on it, but they basically ran out of time.

This makes me sad. Just as sad as the fact that they haven't invited me to the beta yet. I signed up on the first day of the beta selection and have played every Shadowrun game made. Please, let me in!