Earlier this week I was browsing through the NXE and happened to see an interesting little bit of news about this upcoming weekend (28 - 30 November). This weekend coming is going to have a Live promotion called "Xtival '08" running that will allow all Xbox Live Silver Members to play online. Not only that but it also looks as if there are going to be a few exclusive downloads available as well. So if you are one of those people who have not yet decided to get a gold account or maybe have a friend who is thinking about getting one, hook up the boxes this weekend and try it our for yourself. Free multiplayer and access to a whole bunch of downloads at no extra cost? Hell, they may as well just called it Feel-what-it's-like-to-use-PSN weekend.

A report has come in confirming that a new Xbox Live starter pack has been made official and is going to be arriving sometime next week for the US price of $99.00. The pack includes a 60GB HDD, a 3 month subscription to Xbox Live, a wired headset as well as an ethernet cable. A touch expensive? Maybe. With 20GB HDD's usually going for around a grand in South Africa, it may not actually be a bad deal. This all however depends on the price it will be when it hits local shelves, which also brings me onto my next point. When I say next week, I mean next week in the US as there are no indications to whether or not we will even be seeing it in South Africa, especially since we don't even have local Live support. We can only hope to see it someday soon and with all of the extra online functionality being pushed towards the casual gamer with the new dashboard update, it's about time that we start seeing some proper news about some local support.

Microsoft revealed earlier this week that qualifying Core and Arcade owners can receive either a free Xbox 360 Memory Unit or Xbox 360 Hard Drive. Unfortunately this seems to only apply to Xbox 360 owners in the US and Europe. But fear not. Craig N, our very own Microsft MVP has just posted on his blog that Microsoft Xbox South …