I finally got around to getting an Xbox 360 controller keyboard this weekend. It looks sweet! I added it to my Live Turns Five orange controller and tested it out. It is very easy to use and comfortable. The extra weight does not have any impacts that I can see. I've used it for a few hours. Also with the Messenger Kit comes an Xbox 360 headset. I took a few snapshots...

Here you can see when the keypad is illuminated.
Nice touch when trying to type in the dark!!

I received another package yesterday with a few more pieces of swag.

In the package...

there was a 1 GB USB Stick,

a notepad,

and a tshirt!

I got a little surprise today when I opened a package left at my door today. An orange wireless Xbox 360 controller with a "Live Turns Five" label on it. Beautiful!

Xbox MVP Fatty Chubs and ChangeAgent at http://blog.360voice.com have a contest going on:

Steve and I are happy to announce the "big feature" that we have been working on for the past few months. It is a story that starts over a year ago with us getting a mention in the Washington Post, which lead to some helpful contacts, which lead to more contacts, which lead to some conference calls, which then resulted in more conference calls, pitches, paperwork, lawyers, creative discussions, LOTS of coding (did I mention lots of coding?)... and BAM!... here we are...

360voice is happy to announce the BETA launch of a new gamer score challenge feature, sponsored by Old Spice. For the complete rules and requirements, check out the Terms & Conditions.

In short, you create a challenge... pass the code out to the people you want to compete against, and see who can gain the most gamer score during the duration that you have chosen. While the challenge is active, you will get daily blog entry updates, a progress chart, and a way to trash-talk your rivals. Oh and did we mention there are some badges and a challenge leaderboard?

So jump right in and check it out! Create a challenge and invite your friends, or check out the challenge board for active/complete challenges that have already taken place during our closed alpha program.

Remember, this is a BETA! Our goal here is to make sure everything is working behind the scenes... Things will get much bigger when we turn on prizing challenges! Yep that is right!

Soon you will be competing in challenges for real prizes! Old Spice will be helping us give away tens of thousands of dollars in prizes... there will be hundreds of prizes to compete for with your friends each week!

Disclaimer on prizes: No purchase necessary.  The Old Spice Experience Challenge prizes are open to residents of the 50 US/DC, 13 or older at time of entry & who have a 360Voice Full membership & have an Xbox 360 Live Gold membership at time of entry.  Void where prohibited.  Begins 12:00 AM PST on 12/5/07; ends 11:59:59 PM PST on 3/14/08.  See Official Rules in December for details.

Watch this blog for more details shortly!

It is going to be a fun holiday season and we at 360voice would just like to extend a sincere thanks to Old Spice for choosing to invest in our site and our community. We would also like to thank the team at Play for helping us make all this happen. Cheers guys and gals!

Also a special thanks to the ALPHA Test team who helped us the last month with 'Project Red Rabbit':

Mass Effect

Bioware Corp.

Edmonton, Alberta

05 Nov 2007

I had an opportunity to go to the home of Mass Effect's creator Bioware in Edmonton. Mass Effect will be available on 20 Nov 2007 in North America and is published by Microsoft.

Bioware is well known for their dialog type games where gamer decisions change the game’s outcome. They are the creators of such games as MDK2™, Baldur's Gate™ and Neverwinter Nights™.

Mass Effect, a futuristic time in the 23^rd Century, is capable of single player campaign only. The game is interesting as the character's skill evolves depending on the type of character initially selected and the experiences/decisions/choices by the gamer while playing.

The gamer cannot get all the Xbox Live Achievements the first time through the game. Multiple passes with different characters types will be necessary to get all the Achievements and receive 1000 Gamerscore.

Mass Effect uses the Unreal 3 graphics engine which allows for huge maps with highly detailed environments. Attached to the Unreal engine is a newly created RPG (Role Playing Game) package. The combination of both parts makes for a great RPG game in a stunningly beautiful environment.

Mass Effect was created as a single player game, thus there was more focus on the development of the single player campaign. Even the most inspired gamer should enjoy a lengthy game experience. Elite gamers will also be challenged while going through the advanced campaign.

Profiles

When a new game is started three types of characters are available:

Spacer: Both your parents were in the Alliance military. Your childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from posting to posting, never staying in one location for more than a few years. Following in your parents’ footsteps, you enlisted at the age of eighteen.

Colonist: You were born and raised on Mindoir, a small border colony in the Attican Traverse. When you were sixteen slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering your family and friends. You were saved by a passing Alliance patrol and you enlisted with the military a few years later.

Earthborn: You were an orphan raised on the streets of the great megatropolises covering Earth. You escaped the life of petty crime and underworld gangs by enlisting with the Alliance military when you turned eighteen.

Once the character is chosen, you must choose one of three Psychological Profiles:

Sole Survivor, War Hero, or Ruthless.

You then must select a Military Specialization:

Soldier, Engineer, Adept, Infiltrator, Sentinel or Vanguard.

At this point you will be able to customize the look of your new character; Male or Female. The faces can be customized dramatically and the changes can be previewed in real time. The only drawback I see here is that you cannot import your own face as in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 Vegas. The details that can be changed are astonishing though.

Once the character is customized, the game starts and an introductory video is shown.

Take a look at the E3 Video on YouTube.

For more details, see the Bioware’s Mass Effect web page.

or the Xbox.com Mass Effect web page.

About BioWare (excerpt from wikipedia.org)

BioWare Corp. is a Canadian electronic entertainment company founded in February 1995 by medical doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. It is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. BioWare specializes in creating computer and console video games and has become famous for highly praised and successful computer role-playing games such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, which won multiple awards. Recently they also made two successful console role-playing games, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, which were both later ported to the PC.

About Microsoft Game Studios (excerpt from wikipedia.org)

Microsoft Game Studios (MGS), branded with current logo and moniker in 2002 (formerly the Microsoft Game Division or Microsoft Games), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. which develops and publishes video games for Windows-based PCs and the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. MGS publishes games for several Microsoft-owned first-party developers, such as Lionhead and Rare Ltd.. MGS also publishes games created by third-party developers, such as Bioware and Bizarre Creations.