the Hushed Casket

I've always liked Prince of Persia. I played the original back before my computer even had a colored graphics card. I bought Prince of Persia: Sands of Time for the Xbox. I skipped the second one because I heard it was terrible. The third one fell under my radar because of the second one. The new, yet-to-be-released Prince of Persia was dangerously close to being forgotten, but then I took a minute to download the above video on Xbox Live.

The music immediately took a firm grasp of my attention. It's from an Icelandic band called Sigur Ros. I've been listening to their music for months now, and I was just listening to them earlier today while I was working on my final English paper. I love them. Their music touches me on a plane no other band has before, and hearing my absolute favorite song from them played to a graceful video of the prince of Persia reignited my interest for this game.

If the development was at all influenced by this band, if the atmosphere of the game reflects the music at all, they have my money.

I'm looking forward to this game.

Here's a primer on a couple of my favorite songs from the band. Just hit play. If their music's not your kinda thing, that's fine.

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Not too long ago, I wrote a little piece about Echoes of War, a huge music release from the Eminence Symphony Orchestra. I just recently received "Echoes of War" in the mail.

It quite literally is the soundtrack for the entire universe of games Blizzard has released upon the world. If you are unfamiliar, Blizzard's 3 major game IP's are the Warcraft series, Diablo series, and Starcraft series.

Read on for the full breakdown.

In case you missed it, the official site for Epic Games' recent release, Gears of War 2, has some exciting news. For one, the soundtrack is now for sale via the guys at Sumthing Else, or in normal CD format on shelves everywhere. I'm not quite sure whether or not to get it, but knowing my weakness for game music I'll probably cave pretty soon. The music of Gears of War 2 was composed by Steve Jablonsky, an excellent composer with mostly a career in film music.

The merchandise section is brimming with plenty of, well, merchandise for any of you who wish to fully express your love of GoW, though I think a Gears shoe is taking it a bit far.

If you've neglected to browse the photos section of the Gears 2 official website, you may have been missing out. It certainly has some nice features to be sure. You can browse everyones pictures, or just your own. There is also a nice handy dandy tab for just viewing the cool pictures you and your friends have uploaded- quite nice.

The MLG Gears of War 2 Film Festival is still on- record and upload your frag videos!

Epic also recently released a matchmaking fix update, something many Gears players like myself are definitely ecstatic about. Rod Fergusson's post I just linked to is a definite must-read if you experience any more problems.

Some interesting stats for your pleasure(not least of which GoW2 is #1 on XBL right now):
* Almost 3 million multiplayer matches (excluding Private) have been played.
* Almost 1 million screenshot photos have been uploaded to gearsofwar.com
* The most popular multiplayer mode is Horde.
* The most popular multiplayer map across all modes is River.

Games for Windows - Live has a new in-game interface. PC gamers will no longer be insulted with A B X Y buttons sprinkled across the interface. The new interface is much more PC friendly.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

Unfortunately, there is still no desktop client for GfWL. So, you can expect this new UI to go largely unnoticed and under utilized by the GfWL install base.

UPDATE: DEAD. THIS DEAL IS DEAD.

UPDATE: DEAD. THIS DEAL IS DEAD.

A glitch in the Xbox Marketplace allows you to download exclusive game content to your Xbox 360 console for free. Most of this content was previously only accessibly if you had a redeemable code that came with your pre-order from a store like Gamestop or if you purchased a limited edition version of the game.

I did not buy the Limited Edition of Gow2. I do have the gold-plated Lancer. I have confirmed in-game that this download technique works. I've got the gold lancer now.

Follow the links to download game content to your Xbox 360. Due to your region, not all downloads may work:

UPDATE: DEAD. THIS DEAL IS DEAD.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Prestige Icons Picture Pack

Call of Duty: World at War
CoD: World at War - Day 1 Tactical Edge
CoD: World at War: - Collector’s Edition Tactical Edge

Gears of War
Gears of War - Gears of War Emergence Day Message from Cliffy B (720p)
Gears of War - Emergence Day Theme
Gears of War - Emergence Day Gamer Picture

Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 - Gold-Plated Lancer Assault Rifle
Gears of War 2 - Gamestop Exclusive Theme

Guitar Hero III
Guitar Hero III: Dream On by Aerosmith

Halo 3
Halo 3 - Bungie Day '08 Theme!
Halo 3 - Bungie Day '08 Gamerpics
Halo 3 - Bungie Day 2007 Theme
Halo 3 - Bungie Day 2007 Picture Pack

The Last Remnant
The Last Remnant - March To War Set (Pre-order extras, 100 M$)

Left For Dead
Left For Dead - Demo

Lumines Live!
Lumines Live! - Heavenly Star Skin
Lumines Live! - Breeze Skin

Test Drive Unlimited
Test Drive Unlimited - Pagani Zonda C12S Roadster + McLaren F1
Test Drive Unlimited - Lamborghini Gallardo Coupe

Tom Clancy's EndWar
Tom Clancy's End War - FirstWar Enlistment Pack

Xbox Live ARCADE Games
Banjo-Kazooie - Get it early, before release on 12/3/08

MISC
Fable II - Limited Edition Content
Gears of War 2 - Flashback Map Pack
Gears of War 2 - Gold Plated Hammerburst
Halo 3 - Exclusive Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Gamer Pics
Halo 3 - Exclusive Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Theme
Rock Band 2 - Bonus tracks
Bioshock - Ryan Industries Plasmids and Gene Tonics
TotemBall

UPDATE: DEAD. THIS DEAL IS DEAD.

Zune Pass users can now download 10 tracks per month in a protection-free MP3 format for permanent ownership, in addition the existing "all you can eat" subscription usage. For $15 a month users can download unlimited music and keep listening to it as long as they pay the monthly fee. Stop paying the fee and you get to keep the 10 songs per month that are a part of your Zune Pass. Each month, Microsoft will credit you with 10 free downloads.

Microsoft is also dropping the price of their flash-based players: The 4GB version will drop to $99, the 8GB model will drop by $10 to $139, and the 16GB model will sell for $179, down from $199.

90% of the Zune Marketplace library is in .mp3 format. The Zune Pass works with some non-Zune devices.

http://gamebattles.com/xbox360/gears-of-war-2/team/hushedcasket

Lets face it GOW2 is epic. The multiplayer will get better, and we'll adjust to learn the new techniques it takes to win games regularly like we did with GOW 1. I am recruiting team members to play semi-competitively against ladder teams on gamebattles.

Sparda, JDogg, Resin, Bama..., and I played 10 or so matches yesterday in matchmaking and ended up winning about 8 out of 10. I'd like to put some of that gameplay towards some type of ladder.

As a general thought I don't expect this to be hardcore competitive. I'm betting we will lose a few matches and bottom feed the ladder to get a few wins if possible. Hopefully we'll have enough players to swap out. In the TWL ladder we participated in a couple years ago, we ended up holding 1st place for some time before we got frustrated with the staff's inability to resolve conflicts between some of the less sportsmanlike teams and ourselves.

This time around I'd like to take it with a more easy-come-easy-go strategy and have fun with it while learning a thing or two in the process.

Everyone is welcome including people I don't know personally and since this is more for fun we will regularly rotate team members in and out if we end up having more than 5. Also, looking for additional person to serve as leader/communicator to other team leaders when setting up matches.

=============================================
Current Roster:
Mikeulus
THX Midnight
THX HUBCAP
RedDuke83
JDogg
resin
rapture
Sparda
THX Cyneater
Master Kim
=============================================

These are the teams and captains. Since Sparda is interested in helping, he's going to be in charge of scheduling games, reporting wins and losses, and scheduling practices/scrimmages for Squad Red. I will do the same for Squad Black. We'll swap out subs as needed.

Sparda (Squad Red Captain)
Mikeulus (Squad Black Captain)

In you're replies, please state your Gamebattles profile ID. I'll shoot an immediate invite once I get your reply.

Lets have some fun!