Well, it's that time of year again. E3 is here and with The Xbox Domain having been on the down low recently don't think we're going to be skipping all of the announcement glory that usually is E3. Today is the day of the Microsoft Press Briefing and it would be a serious crime if yours truly didn't cover it. Throughout the coming week we'll be posting as much info as we can. That secret "free hat" apocalypse ( I'm calling it) some have mentioned will concurrently be worked on as a few kinks are being worked out. Things are happening so be patient if you can. Until then, let the E3 Banaza roll.

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Yes, we know time is of the essence. Things have been brewing for quite sometime and some of you are beginning to get frustrated. Unfortunately there has been a snag holding everything up, but until then which seriously shouldn't be to much longer we give you this. Well, its about time we let you in on phase one of that secretive plan, if you insist on calling it that. While it may be a departure from what you might have expected, it's ultimately the next path of virtue. Behold, the secret finally revealed. :)

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

If you ever thought you'd try to double cross Ryu Hayabusa then think again, as you'll see in the above video from the Gamerscore Blog. It wouldn't be product placement that causes your demise. Would it? ;)

Xbox Office-Ninja Gaiden's Ryu is Lazy [Gamerscore Blog]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

While looking behind the curtain of The Xbox Domain, there's been one constant as of late. Some of you still have an interest in Jessica Chobot. Yes, it's a real shame she works for the wrong web site (there are more lolly pops where that came from Jessica ;) ). Oh, and get your head out of your gutter if your trying to read into that you sicko's. It's not a PSP or anything to do with Bullet Witch, but three's a charm right?

[Via Jess-IGN]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

So, you have everything there is to do with Xbox, huh? You have all of the accessories and all of the games you care to "give a chance", but there's one thing you probably don't have. Xbox PJ's, of course. Now if you say you've already got a pair, stop lying to yourself, because I know you never thought of this essential part of the Xbox "empire" of merchandising.

Yes, you to could be styling in your very own Xbox PJ's. There's no sarcasm here folks. ;) Nothing but pure unadulterated PJ happiness as the immense feeling of joy rushes over me as I realize what's be missing in my life. No more worrying about having world peace, general news actually being news, celebrities finally being put in their place, or having Idiocracy actually come true. No! None of that matters anymore, when I get my pair of Xbox 360 Pj's.

One word of advice for all. Head on over to Webundies.com and get your pair , because the world won't be the same until Xbox not only rules your consciousness, but warms your legs to.

[Via Digg]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Fox anything, much less Fox Business News isn't exactly any gamers favorite after the Mass Effect fiasco, but nevertheless here they are from a different angle on a much less controversial matter. Is Microsoft and ( some) Hip Hop coming together a good idea to you?

[Via Gamertag Radio]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

*This may be old to some, but if you didn't already know how, now you do.

Before you fall on the floor of immense laughter, browsing the web on your Xbox 360 is possible. I repeat, it is possible. Those of you who have a computer, should immediately note that you need not worry (as if your not reading this on a computer). Your "real" web browser "ain't" going anywhere, but if you have a Windows Media Center computer your in for a nice diversion. It's been talked about for quite sometime as to whether Microsoft should even bother with such a thing after the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 shipped a year later with web browsers. Then again, that doesn't matter, since you can have it without them. Limited success permitting.

As you may know, the Xbox 360 supports Media Center out of the box. Browsing over to the media blade of the 360 dashboard will greet you with the option at the bottom of the list of choices there. Assuming that you have a Media Center equipped computer on the same network as your Xbox 360, you'll be connected to the Media Center through your Xbox 360 (initial setup maybe required).

If you've run Media Center Extender before or have made it this far, you'll be needing this plugin for your Media Center. Close the MCE on the 360 and PC. Once its downloaded and installed on your MC PC, startup Media Center again on the 360 and browse over to the Online Media section, then to the program library. Once there, you should be greeted with a browser option, select it, and you'll have the browser plugin launch. You should see a menu bar of options at the top and left side of the screen. Select enter URL, as it'll be one of the first options you'll see from the first menu option up top. Press the Y button to bring up the dashboard soft keyboard to enter a url (use of a chatpad here would help). After the URL is entered, select browse and the page should load.

Mousing around the page isn't exactly comfortable. Using the left stick or arrow buttons on a remote will move you around links on the page. A zoom in and out function is on the top menu, but it often will just destroy the page layout leaving you with a broken page that becomes unusable. Adding favorites is also included, but if you can tell by now, this is just something to mess around with in the long run. Don't go having hopes of a solution to your Xbox 360 browsing needs if you have any. It's cool to see a webpage being rendered on your 360, but the long and the short of it leaves you with all of the answers you need about the 360 having a browser. It would be nice, but you already have what you need on your computer and this will in no way replace that.

*Note: This was done with the Vista Media Center, so your MCE interface may be slightly different if using XP.

Browse internet on Xbox 360 [Rap GodFathers]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Come in, come in
Come into my world I've got to show
Show show you
Come into my bed
I've got to know
Know know you

I have dreams of orca whales and owls
But I wake up in fear
You will never be my
You will never be my fool
Will never be my fool

Floaters in my eyes
Wake up in an hotel room
Cigarettes and lies
I am a child, it's too soon

I have dreams of orca whales and owls
But I wake up in fear
You will never be my
You will never be my fool
Will never be my fool

A little bag of cocaine
A little bag of cocaine
So who's the girl wearing my dress
I figured out her number
Inside a paper napkin
But I don't know her address I wade downstairs

The porter smiles to me a smile
I've bought
With a couple of gold coins
A sign that I've been caught

I have dreams of orca whales and owls
But I wake up in fear
You will never be my
You will never be my dear
Will never be my dear, dear friend
Dear dear friend, dear dear friend...

A little bag of cocaine
A little bag of cocaine
So who's the girl wearing my dress
I figured out her number
Inside a paper napkin
But I don't know her address

Come in, come in
Come into my world I've got to show
Show show you
Come into my bed
I've got to know
Know know you

I have dreams of orca whales and owls
But I wake up in fear
You will never be my
You will never be my dear
Will never be my dear, dear friend
Dear dear friend, dear dear friend...

The good folks over at Channel 10 have been gracious enough to show us what it's like to "Make games, the hard way". It may not have any real correlation to Xbox at first, but you just wait. Just wait to the end, and don't skip to the end. Watch the whole video. The payoff is mighty good and you thought the Statue of Happiness was clever. Tina Wood dun be funny again. My engrish is so good. Ain't it?

*Anyone else think to them self "Poopfly" when your clearly reading Popfly? I don't know, I can't help it.

[Via Channel 10]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Well, let's be honest. GTA IV is good. Real good. Hence the lack of posts in this neck of the tubes. So, in a lame attempt to salvage some sort of blogging dignity I write this. When you see nearly your entire friends list playing the same game you can't ignore that. Can you?

On another note, Xbox Live Arcade is taking a break this week with no new release. Surely, not all are interested in Grand Theft Auto, so is it really a good idea to not show those who fall into this category some love? What do you think?

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Everyone's favorite immigrant has his own MySpace page. Make sure to drop him a message, and please make sure to put him in your top friends category because he just might give you a pimp slap.

-Michael "Thrills Killa" Pacheco-

This relatively cool video from The Gaming Ape, shows the protagonist of GTA IV, Niko Bellic, getting a rather nice treatment done. It's labeled a speed drawing, but I believe is really just time lapsed. While it's ultimately just a path retracing with gradient fills added in later (something you'll learn in school early or on your own), it's cool to just see the process done in the manner of which it was shot. The legality of the T Shirts are another matter.

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

A little while back, more like a long way back, this little carrot named Live Anywhere was dangled in front of the eye's and ears of the entire gaming world with the promise to allow gamers to at all times be connected to their games experience whether it be some kind of an extension of a game or just to connect you to your friends. Luckily for us, this eventual time suck that in theory should be on a scale that Twitter can only imagine hasn't exactly happened yet, much like Microsoft's current implementation of Games For Windows. So, in the stead of the molasses like moving company up in Redmond Washington, good ole "Litheon" has taken upon himself to create a application for mobile phones that somewhat simulates the "Live Anywhere" possibilities, since those two words should only be spoken of if only coming from the mouth of Ron Burgundy.

Going a step further than the typical gamercard, Litheon's SOAP interface allows for extended information like presence, giving you the ability to stalk your friends list at all times. The Zip file can be download here for your Windows Mobile Device. For more details check out Litheons Blog. While this isn't perfect by a long shot, it's much better then the "nothing" Microsoft has dulled out so far.

[Via Litheon]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

To much happiness and joy coming from much of our nostalgic hearts (well, at least mine), the very first episode of Voltron can be downloaded from the Xbox Live Video Marketplace for free for a limited time. As the first Season of the series is available on The ( US) Video Marketplace.

1. Space Explorers Captured

9/10/1984

23 minutes

SD Format: 0

Travel to Planet Arus and uncover the secret of a weapon from ancient times — Voltron! Keith, Lance, Sven, Hunk and Pidge arrive too late, the planet has already been completely devastated by the evil forces of King Zarkon. They engage in battle with Zarkon's general, Yurak, only to be captured and thrown into the dungeons on Planet Doom.

Spawned off of the Uncle Gamer Radio podcast (That I also listen to) is Remember When that'll be a podcast that'll be all about geekdom and everything that comes long with that.  Several episodes back of Uncle Gamer Radio they had a great conversation about none other than the aforementioned Voltron at the end of the show as it spiraled out off Voltron control. It's a great listen at the end of that episode.

[Via X3F]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV inching its way ever closer (see countdown timer), the overload of information on the game just won't stop. So, in spite of all of this, here's a remixed trailer that gives a rather different feel than the official releases titled "Requiem". One more video won't hurt. I swear. No, really. I do. :-)

[Thanks eezarthegreat]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

I've seen some good betrayals in my time, but this one is beyond ridiculous in all sense of the word. No preamble is needed for this. Only seeing is believing. It's been making the rounds and it's sure not to lose it's amazement anytime soon. If you hate Halo, then so what. You'll still love it.

[Via Kotaku]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Sometimes we all have to face it when something starts to roll up on us like a gigantic sized snowball ready to stick us in the face, whether we like it or not. In this case it's GTA IV. It can't be ignored, so in grand fashion it's only fair that we get teased before the game hits the streets officially.  The only question to be had though is this. What's up with the mustache?

[Via Digg]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Will it Blend? That's what this should have been, but in the poor taste of Xbox 360 torture, will it microwave it is. If you can't stomach the excruciating pain of seeing a repair candidate meet it's maker, then it would be a good idea to avoid the horror in the above video and just subject yourself to a few pictures of the carnage courtesy of the via link below. Didn't these people get taught not to play with fire? If you enjoy this kind of thing, then to each his own. Time for a quick rendition of Taps, don't you think?

*It can't go without saying. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

[Via Gizmodo]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

In my time around the Halo Universe I've seen quite allot of great machinima. Up until now it was just fun to see what people could come up with rather it be great dialog or a magician ship with the character movement. Surely it couldn't all be topped, but I think the video after the break has climbed its way up my Mount Everest of Machinima greats. And to think this is the supposedly the first attempt by who that calls them self LoneStarGamer. It's ten minutes long, but I'd be shocked if you didn't stay to watch the entire video. LoneStarGamer, Bravo!

* If you say it's not that good then your most assuredly a robot. Yeah that's right, I've seen all 32 Terminator films.

[Via MLG]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.497339&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Anybody remember that image below? Thrills Killa aka the founder of this here site didn't exactly want me to do this, so I'm going behind his back and doing it anyway. ;) The anniversary for what is is now known as The Xbox Domain was on April 1st, but nevertheless 2 years it is. Sites like Destructoid have recently had their 2 year anniversary siting that most sites never make it to that point. This is as much of a milestone for the readers of The Xbox Domain as it is for the staff. Since this corner of the gaming space has also made it to its terrible 2's it's only fitting that we commemorate this with a few words from a few members of our staff.

"It's nice to see how the community has grown over the past year. I know I haven't been active for quite a while but I still follow the site everyday. I would have to say I first stumbled upon The Xbox Domain from other site like Unscripted 360, 360Sync (formerly DaKing240), Aeropause, and Xbox360Fanboy. I can't recall the actual date I found this diamond in the rough but I was intrigued with the idea of writing for a gaming blog considering it would be the only opportunity I would get to actually publish any articles. I never expected my classes to become so overbearing and I look forward to writing more in the future if I can find some spare time hear and there. I'm glad to see all the usual suspects still frequent the site on many occasions and can't wait to see what the next year holds. Michael and Will, you guys have been doing a fantastic job keeping the site updated and I would have to say Rant Central is one of my favorite features, although I think it's time we get some feedback from the readers to see what kind of content they want to see more of in the future."

Brandon "Hoosierdaddy812" Petesch

I can't actually remember how I stumbled upon TXD, but I think it had something to do with a contest of one form or another (I'm such a slut for free stuff). I noticed that the people here were pretty cool and nobody flamed anyone else so it was a welcoming environment that got me to stay. After I won the Shadowrun contest, and vocalized my love for XBLA, Thrills asked me if I wanted to be the XBLA reviewer/PR contact in my spare time. I've been hooked ever since and I visit the site everyday. I haven't been as active in my posts (because of grad school taking away my free time), but I'll be back in full swing when the summer comes around.
Wurm

I found TXD by checking out Xbox.com's community section. I was looking for community sites that gave a rip about whats going on but wasn't as flashy and flamboyant about exclusives and review scores. TXD gave me a home to check out opinionated information about whats going on with not only the 360 and Live but as well as the community. The Xbox Domain is an awesome site that gives me not only news but something to think about with features like Rant Central. The internal community of the site is really tight nit and its a cool place to hang out when you want to avoid the usual web forum nightmare. Here's to 2 years of The Xbox Domain and a bunch more to come.

Matthew Moore
Webnet

Finally, all there's left to do is to give a big "Thank you" to the readers of The Xbox Domain. Even the PS3 fanboys that voice their opinion every once and a while get a thank you as well. Now the show must go on.

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

Time for the stuff of the ages. The Xbox Overlords have heard us loud and clear. Its all here. Yessssss!

• The Wireless Helmet we asked for. Check!
• The Vintage Edition Xbox we asked for. Check!
• The Xbox Board Game we asked for. Check!
• The Xbox 360 Recon Edition we asked for. Check!

Now we can all die happy. ;) More info can be found at Xbox.com.

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

GTA IV's leading man Niko Bellic has been seen up until now as an Eastern European transplant to Liberty City. Now, it seems that a change of heart has taken place. Time for Chris tucker to take over as Niko Bellic. Oh and Jackie Chan is now in the game also. Let the hilarity begin. :)

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

The PlayStation Domain

Where Xbox comes to die!

As you may have noticed, The Xbox Domain hasn't been getting updated as much as you or anyone on the staff would like. Now, there's nothing left for us to do than to spill the beans. The Xbox Domain will be turning to the dark side. Out with the Xbox Domain and in with The PS3 Domain. The lack of posts are indeed caused by our ridiculous time with PlayStation 3 while our 360's collect dust.

• Great games, who needs'em
• Great online (when it works), Ha! Overrated.
• A Community team to turn to, who needs them either

We've had it with all of the good games available for the Xbox 360. Who needs good games anyway. So, much like Darth Vader, we bow down to that of which is Sony.

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-

A sneak peek

Anyone here enjoying the Battlefield:Bad Company beta? I'm still trying to get one from my local gamestop(which for some reason still doesn't have it). The game looks great with it's destructible environments because hey I love destructible enviroments. Remember, pre-order Battlefield:Bad Company at your local gamestop to get your beta code.

Also, Major Nelson is giving away some codes so check him out.

-Michael "Thrills Killa" Pacheco-

The Legend of Zelda and N+ wouldn't exactly be up for first billing in an all out battle royale between platforms. Then again, that was before the above video was created by 007craft. The certainly painstaking process of creating this can be felt through the video and what a great job it is. Not only must you be a ninja in the game itself, you must be a ninja just to put the whole thing together. Great Job 007craft. Now someone just needs to sew up that space time continuum thing again. Boy, that thing has been getting a work out this week.

[Via X3F]

-William "thewilleffect" Bell-