Machina-what?

We all know what machinima is, especially with the large success of Red vs Blue, by Rooster Teeth. Well Microsoft, in all it's greatness, decided it was time to lay down the law on what fans can do with their IPs.

Microsoft released a set of rules that fans will need to follow in order to use any of their games in machinimas. They present these rules/laws on Xbox.com in a hip cool way that feels warm and inviting.

"If you do any of these things, you can expect to hear from Microsoft’s lawyers who will tell you that you have to stop distributing your Items right away."

That was friendly. How about these for some rules:

• You can’t use the soundtracks or audio effects from the original game.
• You can’t use Game Content to create pornographic or obscene Items, or anything that contains vulgar, racist, hateful, or otherwise objectionable content.

Wow, sounds like making machinimas will be tons of fun now. Leave it to Microsoft to take a fun activity that was, in a sense, illegal to begin with and apply rules to make it seem like they are working with the creators. No shit this stuff was illegal to make, but since no one made a profit from it (except Rooster Teeth) no one seemed to care.

Does this mean the end of Rooster Teeth and their famous Halo machinima series? I'm betting no. They've already had talks with Microsoft lawyers when they first started the series. That's why they are allowed to sell the movies on DVD.

Why does Microsoft care? Who knows. Why do they give a crap that me and my friends are making a crappy little movie to have laughs at? Their lawyers are going to be so overwhelmed with the amount of machinimas that hopefully they'll see it was a waste of time and did nothing but piss off the fans instead of winning them over.

Guitar Hero III with Removable Necks

That's right Guitar Hero III will be like Manhunt 2, where you get to remove necks. But this neck is from the guitar controller and not an enemy on the game. Besides the only real enemy in Guitar Hero is jazz.

According to Joystiq, they got to see some Red Octane wireless guitars that had removable necks and faceplates. So instead of customizing your guitar with stickers you'll most likely be able to add cool faceplates and necks. I guess if you're really into customized controllers that would be exciting.

Always Bet on Black

I know it's been mentioned here before, but word on the wire, (and by wire I mean Wired) is that we should hear an "official" announcement from the big M this wednesday about that beautiful black bastard...the 360-Elite. Seems Chris Kohler received word via email from a Microsoft PR rep about this "big" news. Well I will be officially holding my breath starting now, so someone be sure to wake me if I pass out before the news....gasp....

Black Xbox 360 Confirmed by Game Informer

Kotaku is confirming that Game Informer is confirming that next month a black Xbox 360 will be on the market. Microsoft still is not budging on whether this is true or not. What will this include. Well a 120GB hard drive (nice), HDMI connections (that's swell), and a low price of $479 (what the hell!).

Not included is the HD-DVD drive (why the HDMI connections) and no confirmation if IPTV software/hardware will be built in. Maybe they are saving that for another Xbox 360 release. Boo.

XYBA Podcast Ep04 - The GDC

Boo yaka it is here. The XYBA Podcast Ep 04. With more than half the crew missing, Jeff subs and makes it feel like no one was missing. The breakdown is below.

0:00 - Called Charlie to bring into the call
0:20 - Opening Song by Engine Down
0:45 - Introductions with guest Jeff and I think Andy
1:37 - Games We Are Playing: Crackdown, Viva Pinata, Red Steel
2:10 - Jeff talks about how long it takes to get your 360 back from repair and don't mention you have it plugged into a power strip
4:10 - Games We Are Looking Forward To: Jam Sessions, TMNT, TMNT Arcade on XLA, Mass Effect in June, Andy's looking forward to the GTA IV trailer, Two Worlds, Blue Dragon, Lost Oddessy, and No More Heroes
7:36 - Ragging on Red Steels controls
8:40 - Gaming News: GDC News
20:30 - PS3 Home: We discuss the PS3's new online community interface
33:47 - Little Big Planet: We try to figure out what the game/game developer software is all about. Great press release reading by Andy.
38:50 - Singing Star: Jeff reveals his girly side
40:10 - Additional news from Josh: Halo 2 Vista, Steven Spielberg making a Wii game for EA, GTA IV countdown site, CliffyB and the weapon upgrade element that was left out of Gears of War, and Apple TV may play games.
45:10 - Game Ideas: Josh submits his idea for mini games to be available while waiting in lobbies
46:30 - What we would like to see in Next-Gen or This Gen:
47:10 - Rants: SSX on the Wii makes Jeff act the fool, Andy goes off on video game manuals and their lack of info
52:04 - Andy rags on the Gametap and Jeff questions Andy's copy of Windows
53:00 - Andy hates on press releases
54:00 - Josh goes off on Epic's douchebag lawyer, Zachary R. Bishop, and Jeff sides with the terrorist leader, Zach
57:30 - Josh tries to wrap it up, but Andy refuses to let it end
58:00 - We talk about destructible furniture on PS3 Home
59:55 - Josh wraps it up and the shot outs go out. Thanks again Jeff. Outro music by Ben Davis




Download XYBA Podcast Ep04

XYBA Podcast Ep 02

Here is our 2nd episode of XYBA Podcast. This time it is the full crew with Andy, Charlie, Eric, Grant, and Josh along with guest Jeff Kazbek from Bleeding Sky Studios. Jeff helps situate the mics, so the audio is a little bit better. We definitely need more mics. We cover the news (read by Andy with rebuttals), why Jeff hates Blazing Angels on PS3, Eric's grandma destroying him at Wii Bowling, World of Warcraft and the Burning Crusades, GTA Monsters video game idea, our first Gears of War tournament, Grants claim that Unreal 3 will be a highly anticipated game, Charlie picking an opening song that isn't a song at all, and much more. Enjoy and let us know what you think and what you would like to hear about.


Download XYBA Podcast Ep02