Ever since Bungie announced that there would be a beta for the upcoming ‘Halo: Reach‘ we’ve sat on the edge of our seats waiting to hear exactly when we can pop those ODST discs back into the 360 to check it out. Well, wait no more because today it was announced that the multiplayer beta for ‘Halo: Reach’ will go live on May 3rd of this year.

As stated you will need the ODST game disc to get into the beta exactly like the ‘Crackdown‘ disc was needed for the ‘Halo 3′ beta. If you don’t have a copy of the game you have plenty of time to find one.

‘Halo: Reach’ will be falling to retail this fall exclusively on the Xbox 360.

As announced at X10 today in San Francisco Microsoft will be “hosting” a Block Party this March on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Similar to the Summer of Arcade we now know what games will be released weekly to the Arcade.  ‘Toy Soldiers‘ kicks off the event on March 3rd to be followed (in no specific order) by ‘Scrap Metal,’ ‘Perfect Dark‘ and the classics hub ‘Game Room.’

No other specifics have been released except that we know ‘Toy Soldiers’ comes first on the 3rd of the month. We’ll have to wait until we get a little closer to the Block Party to find out how many MS Points this will cost us. Looks like the prices have now shown up. ‘Perfect Dark’ comes in at 800 MS Points ($10 USD) while ‘Toy Soldiers’ and ‘Scrap Metal’ will be 1200 MS Points ($15 USD)

Bethesda Softworks has just announced that ‘Fallout: New Vegas,’ the follow-up to 2008’s Game of the Year ‘Fallout 3,’ will be hitting retail shelves in Fall of this year. The last we heard about ‘New Vegas’ was back in April and this time we get the first look at what we can expect with the official teaser trailer. Have a look below and tell us what you think. I know I can’t wait to play it later this year!

‘Fallout: New Vegas’ will be available on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Games for Windows platforms.

Another Tuesday has arrived and with that comes the new DLC from Harmonix for Rock Band. This week we get a nice assortment from Paul McCartney to The Ramones and Blink-182. As usual all individual tracks are 160 MS Points ($1.99) but the Paul McCartney and Blink-182 songs are available as track packs for 440 MS Points ($5.49)

• Paul McCartney – Band on the Run (Live) *
• Paul McCartney – Jet (Live) *
• Paul McCartney – Sing the Changes (Live) *
• Blink-182 – Adam’s Song
• Blink-182 – First Date *
• Blink-182 – I Miss You
• The Psychedelic Furs – Love My Way *
• The Psychedelic Furs – Sister Europe
• The Ramones – Rock ‘n’ Roll High School *

* Tracks also compatible with ‘LEGO Rock Band‘

‘Rock Band‘ and ‘Rock Band 2‘ are rated T for Teen by the ESRB. Music downloads are not rated by the ESRB.

UPDATE: Congratulations to our winner @BetaChris!

Another day closer to the holidays means another contest from your friends here at 360Sync. This time we have a copy of Pandemic & EA’s World War II action game, ‘The Saboteur.’ Not only do we have a copy of the game for the winner but we also have a limited edition replica of the lighter that Sean Devlin carries with him (pictured below).

To enter, all you have to do is come up with your best caption for the picture below.  We’ll pick one lucky winner from all of the captions. Entry to the contest is open until December 29 11:59PM EST.

Microsoft will be flipping the switch on December 24 to allow all Xbox LIVE members to sign on and play 1 vs 100 (and work towards those 200 Gamerscore points that are available) through the 28th. On top of being able to play all the shows for 5 days there will be a special episode on December 26th featuring holiday-trivia and a special set, all being hosted by Chris Cashman. Don’t forget, guests are able to play too, so grab some friends and family members for a little friendly holiday competition.

Team17, the team behind everybody’s favorite Worms games, has announced that the first episode of the ‘Alien Breed’ reboot is coming December 16, 2009. ‘Alien Breed Evolution,’ which is powered by the Unreal Engine, features fantastic comic-book art and quality voice acting, a fully re-mastered edition of Allister Brimble’s cult original game title track and hours of single and co-op gameplay experience. ‘Alien Breed Evolution’ is initially exclusive to the Xbox LIVE Arcade but will be coming to PC and PSN in 2010.

‘Alien Breed Evolution’ has been rated T for Teen by the ESRB and will be available for 800 MS Points.

It looks like another game will be featuring Avatar Awards and this time it is Valve’s ‘Left 4 Dead 2.’ As a huge fan of the franchise this is great news to me and I’m glad to see more and more games offering free items to people that purchase and play the games.  Here’s what we know about so far:

Valve confirmed that the awards include a health pack for your avatar, a host of L4D2 shirts and Rochelle’s pretty pink Depeche Mode t-shirt, among other gifts.

There will be nine avatar awards. Six have been confirmed so far.

• Left 4 Dead 2 Shirt – A Left 4 Dead 2 shirt earned by winning 10 games of Scavenge
• Left 4 Dead 2 Shirt #2 – A Left 4 Dead 2 shirt earned by winning 10 games of Scavenge
• Depeche Mode Shirt – A sweet Depeche Mode shirt earned by rescuing Gnome Chompski from the Dark Carnival.
• Depeche Mode Shirt #2 – A sweet Depeche Mode shirt earned by rescuing Gnome Chompski from the Dark Carnival
• Zombie Hand Shirt – A scary zombie shirt earned by killing 10,000 Infected
• Zombie Hand Shirt #2 – A scary zombie shirt earned by killing 10,000 Infected

From the looks of it a male and female version will be unlocked by completing the tasks.

‘Left 4 Dead 2′ has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB and will be on store shelves November 17th.

With the release of ‘Left 4 Dead 2′ right around the corner on November 17th Valve has released the first TV spot for the game which will begin airing this week. The ad, done cooperatively by Valve & Gamestop, gives you a quick look at the game including the Gamestop pre-order exclusive melee weapon, the baseball bat. Check it out and get ready to crush some zombies on 11/17.

A new preview program has been started for the dashboard update that is coming soon. This is the update that many people have been waiting for and features Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM integration along with a completely revamped marketplace featuring 1080P instant watch and Zune integration.  All you need to do is fill out a survey and provide your Gamertag, Console Serial Number and Console ID Number.

According to Major Nelson those that are accepted will be notified in about a week so be sure your contact information is up to date on the Microsoft Connect website.

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