The Official Xcast Blog has been moved

If you are viewing this page, you are viewing the old Xcast blog. I moved the blog to WordPress instead of blogger because of a major difference in features. So please visit http://theman661.wordpress.com/ or www.theman661.com for the new blog. Thanks for the idea Tee!

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Look what I'm doing on Xbox 360 Fanboy

Yep, yours truly was featured in a post over at Xbox 360 Fanboy. The post was made by David Dreger aka Knuckles Dawson who is a friend of mine and I interviewed him on the Xcast as well. He posted about a new program for Mac users called Mac Live that allowed people to check their friends list and see what their friends are doing right from their desktop. For more details, you can check out the original post here: http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/02/12/mac-os-10-4-gets-answer-to-windows-live-friends-list/ I think that the best part of the post was my gamertag being that I don't have a Mac haha.


(Thanks Dave)

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Xbox Rewards program site is now active!

Yeah I just posted the news about the Xbox360Achievement.org's event regarding the 1,000 people online achievement on NBA Live 07 and said the site was not active. The site is now active and you can sign up for the rewards program. The link is http://www.xbox.com/rewards.

Edit 2/13/07-The rewards site is currently down because of some behind the scenes issues and should be up in about 24 hours or so.

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Im back!

Wow it looks like I missed alot of things going on around the industry this weekend. This weekend I went on a little vacation once again and I have returned. Which means that Xcast Episode #20 will be recorded tonight. I am also happy to see that Dan has posted something finally (I hope to see alot more of those) and he has hit 200 Gamerscore. Alright I'm just letting you know that I am back up and running and Xcast Episode #20 will be out soon.

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Xcast Episode #19 Coming Soon!

Yes Xcast Episode #19 is on its way. I plan to record it tonight February 5th 2007 and send it out tonight so check for that. I guess I can blame the Super Bowl for the delay....

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Welcome Dan!

Hey everyone, as you may have noticed we have a new contributor to the blog (read post below). I invited Dan to come help me out on the site a few weeks ago. He has been gaming on the 360 for almost a year now but has just recently registered for Xbox Live so please excuse his gamerscore (even though mine isn't that great either....). I invited Dan to help me out after I realized that I needed a little help running both the podcast and the website and writing all the posts and everything. So send him some friend requests and game invites and welcome him into the Xbox Live Community. Also I'm hoping to record Episode #17 tomorrow night January 22nd 2007, I will most likely get to it, but if I don't I have a special guest coming on next show who I think you will all enjoy. Thanks to everybody who has contributed to the "Active Reload" song, I'm in the process of looking for a beat so if you know anyone that is musically talented, let me know.

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Hello Gamers

Hello everybody, this is Dan here. (Gamertag: adrenaline96). Frank has invited me to help him out around the blog and the podcast. So now you are going to be getting posts from both Frank aka TheMan661 and myself. I am good friends with Frank and have been for a long time now. I started gaming on the Nintendo NES, but today I am a regular gamer on the next gen Xbox 360, just like Frank. Me and Frank are going to continue to keep you up to date with all the news going around the gaming industry!

-Dan ( Gamertag: adrenaline96 )

Crackdown Demo Date has been announced!

Finally we all have been waiting for this (or at least everyone I talked to is). The Crackdown Demo that was supposed to be released this past week was delayed and now we have an official date. The demo is coming out on Tuesday, January 23rd 2007 at 2:00 AM PT (Check your time zone here). Wow I have been waiting for this, I cannot wait to check out the co-op on this demo! Here is the official forum post over at the Crackdown forums.

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

The Xcast is now on digg!

Come on over and give the Xcast a digg! I submitted the Xcast to digg.com's new Podcast channel a few days ago and it just popped up today after being reviewed. So if you don't have one already, you need a digg.com user name to access the digg podcast channel. So if you dig the Xcast jump over here and submit a digg for the Xcast. Also I picked up Lost Planet the other day and I'm looking forward to play some Xbox Live matches, so just send me an invite and I will try and join.

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Gears Of War Maps and Update On the Way!

If you haven't heard the news, I just read a post on Major Nelson's blog saying that news about Gears Of War Maps was released by Mark Rein over at the Gears Forums. In his post, Mark talks about an update that should be pushing its way around tomorrow and the Multiplayer Maps releasing on Wednesday, January 10th 2006. These maps are going to be free! Wow this is one of the first if not the first Xbox 360 title to offer maps for free! Thank you Epic!

Here is the link to Mark's Post: http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=560548

These Screenshots ^ are from a level called Old Bones

These screenshots ^ are from a map called Raven Down

Wow I cant wait for these maps! Once again Thanks Epic!

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Xbox Live Not Working.....Microsoft Knows, But I dont know what to do!

Yeah yeah I know XBL matchmaking is down, its late here on the East Coast and I was getting pumped to play some Gears with a guest and with my friends over at Planet Xbox 360, but I guess that cant happen. Private Chat and all other XBL features are working except matchmaking. I just got off Private Chat with Nelson from Planet Xbox 360 and they were about to play some Gears with a bunch of listeners, then this happened!! Major Nelson says that they are working on it, so we shall see. What should I do with my life! Just kidding, but this is pretty frustrating when these things happen. I just renewed my XBL subscription for 13 more months. Hopefully Microsoft will get this worked out and all and I can play some Gears. Anyway I'm out for now, I'm definitely talking about this on the show this week.

Microsoft has extended Xbox 360 warranties for another year!

Wow this one surprised me. Microsoft has extended the Xbox 360 standard warranty on all new products and for people (like me) that are within their first year of ownership of a 360. I was jumping for joy when I heard this one because I did not buy an extended warranty when I purchased my 360. I still hope it applies to me and it sounds like it should even though I did not purchase the extended warranty.

Splinter Cell Double Agent Auto Update

Finally Ubisoft has released an update for Splinter Cell DA, here is what it does:


Connection Issues:
Some instances of “the host has ended the session”.
Disconnections in the lobby.
Once the lobby reaches 5 or 6 people, random players drop.
After kicking the 6th player from a team, the leader couldn't invite another player
Group leader hangs in the "joining session" screen if the host quits while he is joining.
Improvement of the server selection so that the server is more reactive.
If a player leaves a session immediately when he arrives and they have some packet loss (he is in a resolving state), the resolving time out is not reset and in the next session he will kick all the players as soon as he arrives !!!!
Only 1 disconnect function to each peer when resolving is timed out.

Lag-related issues:
In-game freezing: treats a limited number of Unreal packets per frame to avoid freezes in some specific conditions.
Increased network thread priority over Sound thread that can reduce lag issues.
Fix the case when a player got flashbanged while lagging as a mercenary; the player can remain permanently flashbanged until the player reboot the game.
Fix FPS loss due to a sound problem.

Others issues :
A new Game Version to avoid LAN matches between master and update versions
The loading video was always the same, now it's changed at random
Fixed a bug on the score calculation of the Max Percent challenge.
Challenge Best score is wrong if the player has just beaten it.
Improved checks to avoid accessing an invalid leaderboard
Allows to write leaderboards of live challenges

Maybe I can actually play on XBL with this update!

Looking for blog authors!

I am now in the process of looking for people to write and post articles, reviews and all things involving the gaming on my blog. The criteria is as follows:

1. You must have some knowledge of the gaming industry and own a major console.
(Xbox 360,PS3,Wii, etc...)(Since this is a blog mainly about Xbox 360 and Microsoft I will be leaning towards entrees who own an Xbox 360)

2. Have to have a well rounded view on the gaming industry.

3. Lastly it would be great if you had some prior experience posting on a blog or writing for a website. (If not you can still apply, but it would help)

When applying please include: your name, gamertag (if you have one), email address to which I can write back to you and the country that you live in.

Please send all entries to frank@theman661.com.

I will try and respond to all entries within 2 days of receiving the application.

Computer Problems....Just Great!

Just to let all of you know I am unable to produce Episode #13 on time. I believe I should be able to do it this weekend. My AC Adapter for my Dell Latitude 110L laptop stopped working so I had to order a replacement part in from Dell and on top of that my battery is dead and I cant even access any of my files. Sorry for the delay, I am looking forward to giving you Episode #13.


Edit: I have received my AC charger and my laptop is back up and running.

Xcast Episode #12 Delayed Until Next Week

Hey everyone,

Xcast Episode #12 is going to have to be delayed until later on this week or until next week due to some family matters. I will try and get it done sometime this week, but later on than I expected. I have tons of notes and things to share with you for Episode #12 so get ready for a packed episode.

Thank you for your patience,

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)

Delay of Xcast Episode #12

Hey everyone,

Im away from my recording studio this weekend and will not be able to produce Episode 12 this weekend. I will be recording the episode on Monday (12/4/06) and it will hopefully be out Monday or Tuesday.

-Frank (Gamertag: TheMan661)