The recently announced Left 4 Dead Downloadable Content (L4D DLC) will be delivered to Xbox 360 and PC gamers free of charge. Due for release this spring, the DLC for 2008's best-selling new game property on the PC and Xbox 360, is dubbed the L4D Survival Pack and introduces a new multiplayer game mode entitled, Survival, plus two complete campaigns for Versus Mode (Death Toll, Dead Air). A Critic's Choice Edition of the game will be heading to retail stores this spring, and will include access to all the content introduced in the L4D: Survival Pack.

Left 4 Dead is a survival action game from Valve that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games. Released in November of 2008, L4D has earned over 25 industry awards from outlets around the world.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com.

Soon, you will be able to slash load-times of Xbox 360 games by a nifty feature update that allows the console to cache the game on to the hard drive. You will need the game disc in the drive to be able to play the game as a counter-piracy measure, just that the console won't read resources from the disc, but instead from the cached data on the hard drive. In a way this also means improved sales for the new 60GB variant, since hard-drive space is 'more-the-merrier' now on, you can cache as many games as your hard drive can take. This was announced by Microsoft during a press-conference at E3.

Tyrone Spellman has been convicted of murdering his daughter, in an angry rage that was ignited because she knocked over his Xbox. According to media reports, Spellman's daughter Alayiah pulled on the cords of the Xbox, causing the system to fall down and break. Spellman then struck his daughter so hard that he cracked her skull, said prosecutors. He may also have thrown her across the room, according to initial claims. Spellman, who confessed to the crime within 24 hours, originally told the police that Alayiah fell out of her bed, and then tried to claim his confession was only out of protection for his wife. Spellman's wife was asleep during the incident. The Department of Human Services had previously been tipped by an anonymous caller that Alayiah's parents were abusive, but they were previously unable to find any evidence. Spellman was convicted of third-degree murder and child endangerment, and faces up to 47 years behind bars.

The Holiday comes a little early this year, as the BC team has just issued out another update which adds over 84 titles. The latest backwards compatibility update is now available over Xbox Live (or will be very soon.) This free update brings the complete list of original Xbox games that you can play on your Xbox 360 to over 300. Remember, your original Xbox games will look better than ever on Xbox 360 running in 720p and 1080i with anti-aliasing. You can also play cross-platform between Xbox 360 and the original Xbox over Xbox Live.

All original Xbox owners who upgrade to Xbox 360 between November 21 and December 21, 2007, move their existing paid Xbox LIVE account to an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription and then register on this site (currently offline for some reason), will receive a copy of Halo 3. Sounds like a piece of cake, but in real life a special clause says your game will be fulfilled through mail by January 18, 2008.

Microsoft already lets users to download retro games via Xbox LIVE Arcade, but the company is now planning to expand on its game downloads by offering users the ability to download full games from the original Xbox. With the release if the Xbox 360's next software update, which is planned for 2nd December, Microsoft will allow gamers to download from an initial selection of half a dozen Xbox games, with the first wave of titles being Burnout 3, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Fable, Indigo Prophecy and, of course, Halo: Combat Evolved. The pricing is expected to be 1200 Microsoft Points per game, which works out at about $15, and although no details about content protection were released, Microsoft is likely to prevent users sharing games between more than one account. Microsoft intends to gradually make more games available for download, although any Xbox 360 owners who are interested in this and only have a 20GB hard drive may want to invest in bigger storage.

Microsoft has decided to be a little generous this month and is offering all Xbox LIVE Silver members the chance to trial four free days of Xbox LIVE Gold, from 23rd to 26th November, as part of an event being called Xtival. Silver members will have full access to complete Gold functionality, with Microsoft promising a number of bonuses including competitions and exclusive downloads. Current Xbox LIVE Gold members are also being promised a treat, although Microsoft is yet to announce any specific details. This should give all Xbox 360 owners in Europe the chance to trial Xbox LIVE Gold if they're undecided about whether it's worth paying for or not.

If you fancy yourself as something of a Halo 3 champion, then this might be just the thing for you. The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) is running a Halo 3 competition from December 18th to December 22nd this year with a top prize of $1,000,000. The competition is open to all ages and requires no previous tournament experience - the downside is that it requires a fee of $275 to enter. If you're still interested then registration is now open, with the tournament being hosted in Dallas, Texas. For more details check out this site.

Consumers report that Xbox Live is being pushed to the limits, presumably due to the high number of gamers playing Halo 3 online. Various Xbox Live users have experienced inaccurate game stats, performance slowdown, inability to access friend lists, and an inability to perform system updates. After experiencing trouble on Tuesday night, one gamer reputedly called Microsoft's help line in which a representative responded by saying that Xbox Live was experiencing network difficulties. The issue appears to be intermittent, however, as several gamers reported no problems outside of inaccurate stat data such as number of players online. Hundreds of thousands of Halo 3 owners have flocked to Xbox Live in an effort to play online since the game launched on Tuesday.

Electronic Art's Wing Commander Arena will be available for purchase on Wednesday, July 25th via Microsoft's Live Arcade. The 3D remake of the space combat game will cost 800 Microsoft Points, or $10, and will feature 16 player online play, ship customization, 8 multiplayer maps and 4 styles of play. This is EA's second title to come to the XBOX Live Arcade.

Microsoft's Xbox chief Peter Moore has abruptly resigned from Microsoft just a few hours after passing judgement to SONY about its failure with PS3 in the Japanese market. Moore will become president of EA's Sports division. Moore's replacement at Microsoft will be Don Mattrick, who was a former president of game development Electronic Arts. Mattrick will become senior vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, which includes the Xbox and Games for Windows.
Microsoft stated that Moore was about to leave the company because of personal reasons although industry watchers speculate that Microsoft struggles in the gaming market and the incredible pressure facing Moore specifically were partly to blame for his departure.

While there is certainly not a shortage of new and interesting ways to completely trash a dead Xbox(360), the guys at Waterjets have found one of the best. They took a bunch of dead Xboxs and Xbox360s and subjected them to their extremely precise power washers. The result? Some very pretty cutouts of Xbox hardware. The power washers handled circuitry, heatsink and case alike with relative ease, making everything from an X in the middle of an Xbox to a 360 degree hole in the Xbox360. Waterjets' work is below.