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.

There is currently a popular story doing the rounds about how Epic Games think that Microsoft is winning the online battle due to their added content. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Epic's Mike Capps says that it's due to Microsoft's policy of adding of constantly "adding cool stuff". That's all good and well but it's the next part of the interview that got my interest. More after the jump. He goes on to say the that: "But I love the fact that you boot through the dashboard now - I understand how some gamers might not like it so much, but that's how you join into the Xbox Live experience - your dashboard comes up, you get to see what's new, hey, there's some free stuff you didn't know about - instead of just booting into your game and missing the community." It never ceases to amaze me how people can so easily soften words to try and make something hugely profitable look like it is something that has been done as a favour to us, the gamers. He speaks about missing the community and seeing that there is free stuff available, when in truth, it's actually just all about pushing as much money-making DLC down our throats as possible. This reminds me of the famous quote, "out of sight, out of mind".

Now this is quite a strange one. Or maybe not. At a Canadian gaming festival called Festival Arcadia, fashion designers are going to be presenting their latest ideas for Lara Croft on real models. People will then vote, with the winners outfit becoming an exclusive DLC outfit for the new Tomb Raider game. The designer will also pocket a cool $3000. A second outfit will also be picked from entries that have come from gamers, with that outfit also being added as DLC. While I am against the idea of exclusive DLC, especially when it comes to silly things like outfits, I really do think that it is quite cool to get other markets involved in gaming. What do you guys think? Cool or Corny?

While doing a demo of the “New Xbox Experience,” Microsoft’s John Schappert announced that the new Xbox 360 dashboard will be releasing globaly on November 19. Last Updated: October 9, 2008