Xbox 360

Where can you find the fastest portal completion (14 min 27 sec, Michael Yanni, 2/26/08), the best-selling launch for an XBLA title (Rez HD [25,000 downloads in May 2008, its launch month]), and the longest drum marathon in Rock Band (26 hr 40 min, set by Sean Feica [Canada]. He played through every song at the time [243 tracks] from July 26-28, 2008.)? Why the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records - Gamer Edition of course!

February 4, 2009 was big day for gamer knowledge seekers. GBoWR: GE is packed full off the most awesome... and the most random... gamer trivia. From completion times to marathons. From high scores to challenges: you can find it all in this book. Some of the spreads this book includes are:

Space Games Intro - History of Gaming - Top 3 Console Games - Professional Gaming - Best of Playstation 3 - How to be a Record Breaker - Grand Theft Auto - Guitar Hero

You can check out 18 pages of the book here: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/32a6d8e8#/32a6d8e8/1 It's always great to try before you buy!

Everyone cheats in some way. We all can say that at some point, we searched around for some cheat codes. Almost everyone knows what "up up down down left right left right B A Start" is for. It's for Contra if you don't. However, cheating 22 years ago isn't exactly the same now.

Yeah we still have the same general button input method, but there are a few new methods. Granted, these five methods are mainly used on first person shooters, but could you see any reason someone would want to modify Dr. Mario Online Rx or 1 vs. 100?

#5 Super Bouncing

Halo 2 at it's finest, right!? Anyone who owned it experienced becoming a target of sniping from someone 150 feet above you. Super Bouncing (or as some called Super Jumping) was just a minor annoyance, however. If you knew what to look for, then you had the chance of foiling the cheater's plans by sniping them down from their spots.

#4 Under Map/Out of Map

On the other hand, out of map or under map would be a little harder to recover from. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare held the trophy for these. Hiding behind a building off in the distance or under the map would be a cheater impossible to see. You could also include the several places that a normal person would never think of trying to get on top of (i.e. a building with no entrance/stairs, laying down on a thin sheet metal fence, a stairway railing, on top of a flaming barrel, and more).

#3 Stand By-ing

I can remember going through the Krystal's drive through at 11:30 at night, chatting about the awesome new zombie game that would be coming out soon. And now, months later, who would have thought Left 4 Dead would be as popular as it has been... and go on to have a baby of it's own - Left 4 Dead 2. We're so proud! So here's a tribute to all things L4D and it's little bundle of joy.

We all know we've done at least a few of these... ok maybe a lot of these. But annoying your teammates is part of the fun! Granted it's better if it's your friends over XBL and not random people. That may not be the fastest way to make friends. But lets look back at the past few months and remember all the jerks we've slayed with, betrayed with, and honestly just drove us up the wall.

Classic. And those of us who have the 360 version are always wishing we could mod like the PC folks. But at least they are kind enough to post all their hilarious videos. My personal favorite are the sound mods. Kudos!

Happy 233rd Birthday America!

Take a moment to remember and appreciate everything our troops have done in our great history and what they fight for today. Be proud of your country and your freedom to fight for it! Take the day to exercise that freedom! Game to your heart's content! And eat a few hot dogs and hamburgers while you're at it.

This statement was issued July 1st regarding the outpour of user objections to the announcement of Silverlight LIVE ads.

"I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion today about how we’re bringing Silverlight ads to LIVE in the future.
I need to let you know that you don’t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we’ve done with some of the NXE slots in the past. No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like like Shibuya Crossing. That’s just not good for anyone." Posted: Jul 01 2009, 07:16 PM by Major Nelson

It is comforting to know that Microsoft is keeping some of our interests at heart. But to the general public this addressment only added fuel to the flames. The outcry from LIVE users is louder than ever across all forums and boards. One user sums it up: