I have it. It's a great puzzle game. I signed up. I doubt I'll win anything but I might get some of the free MS points.

Random 360 thoughts for the day:

How in God's green earth did Superman get demoted to saving kittens? I spent more time finding kittens than I did saving the world.

My candy filled creatures hate each other. I break up a fight every 10 seconds between those slug creatures and everyone else. I'm amazed the worms can actually hold their own.

Apparently, the Civil War was comprised of 12 battles and only lasted 5 hours. Thank you, Activision / History Channel.

Robots made of Legos like to shoot other robots made of Legos. In their spare time, they also like to shoot bugs, shoot plants, shoot rocks, shoot trees, shoot treasure chests, shoot logs, shoot scrap metal, shoot doors, shoot locks and buy shooting upgrades.

Non-stop vehicular combat action at its best is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday with Assault Heroes. Developed specifically for Xbox Live Arcade, this fresh, innovative action combat game from Wanako Studios and published by Sierra Online, a division of Vivendi Games, will be available for download on Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 beginning Wednesday, December 13, after 0800 GMT (1:00 a.m. PST).

In Assault Heroes, gamers take on the role of the only surviving member of an elite special forces unit searching for a secret underground lab. Gamers may take on the mission alone or fight side-by-side with a friend in the two-player cooperative mode. Assault Heroes puts players into a heavily armed 4X4, maneuverable speed boat or trusty military-issue footwear, blasting their way through enemy-infested territory while being assaulted by waves of formidable enemies with unrelenting attacks.

Game Features:

* Multiplayer co-op mode – Two players may play co-operatively online via Xbox Liveor offline (same screen) with enhanced weapons and special attacks to encourage team-based campaigns.
* Dynamic gameplay – Operate an armed 4X4, speed boat or simply fight on foot for a quick change of pace.
* Arsenal of weapons – Equip characters with miniguns, flak cannons, flamethrowers, grenades and nukes to destroy everything in your path.
* Realistic special effects –Destructible terrain and advanced physics engine provide a truly engaging Arcade experience.
* Highly detailed graphics – Vehicles leave tracks in the sand, send parts flying when they explode, and leave smoke trails when taking damage.
* Exhilarating Action-Packed Experience – Challenging and graphically compelling levels (including bonus sublevels) for fast-paced and addictive play.
* Xbox Live Leaderboards

Download Assault Heroes beginning on Wednesday, December 13, at 1 a.m. PST on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points.

L&O posted a news clip about Assault Heroes 7 hours ago in the VGT news section for those keeping score.

They need an RSS Feed

I know this question has been asked a million times but how does the 360 look on a standard television.

I have a 27" Sony Wega and would use component cables. Would like to hear others with a similar setup. I hear different answers everywhere I ask.

I had my 360 on a 55" widescreen HDTV, and recently had to move it down to a 29" Sony SDTV, and it still looks great. I can't wait to get it back on my HD, but for now, I still play the hell out of it.

You know, the other day I realize I've completed more games in the last year on my 360 than I have on any other system.

That's a big deal for me since I the past I would rarely finish games.

On this topic... when switching from HDTV to SDTV, do I need to change any settings in the dashboard? Or just the cable switch?

I'm going home (no HDTV at Mom or Dad's) soon-ish and was wondering whether I needed to change the settings here before I leave.

Is it because of Achievements? Just curious. They have changed the way some people play games.

Some friends of mine were looking at my gamerscore, 12,000+ the other day and were wondering how I get so many. I just told them I always finished 90% of my games, there was just no way to show that before. Now the achievements can show that off.

Achievements have completely changed how i play games. That was imo a brilliant move on MS part. I have rented several games out of sheer curiosity about the achievements. I also think many others are doing the same thing. How else can you explain several people on my friends list having tons of points for games like Cars and Open Season?

It was also one of the only reasons i have points on Cabela's Alaskan Adventure.

Ain't that the truth. I think I've played more Xbox 360 titles in a year than I played over the entire life cycle of the original Xbox. Achievements were the only reason I rented the Civil War game, African Safari, and of course Pimp my Ride.

How was African Safari btw? Any better or worse than the Alaskan one?

Also, the Civil War game... wth is up with that? Did it take you forever to reload and was it a standard FPS... that game concept really tripped me out.

It's the complete opposite of the Alaskan version. If Alaskan was a simulation, this one is an arcade shooter. For instance, bullets don't drop, you can carry an unlimited amount of firearms, tips are provided to find animals, there are no serious penalites to shooting an incorrect animal, etc. I'm enjoying it much more, but I can see how sim-lovers wouldn't care for it.

The Civil War game is easily the worst FPS on the system; as I said in my review yesterday. I gave up on all the slow loading, one-shot guns and stuck with the 12-shot Henry rifle for most of the game.

While the Cabela's games did indeed suck - i did enjoy the bullet cam on single player. That is a cool effect that would be neat on a sniping weapon in a single player mode on other games.

I haven't played Cabela, but by bullet cam, do you mean the camera follows the bullet as it leaves the rifle until it hits the target? If so, Max Payne and Sniper Elite both have that feature as well.

Great review, Flay. Too bad the game sucks so bad. I can't believe there's no multiplayer; that's hard to fathom on a 360 FPS. I might give it a rent to pad my stats, I suppose.

My best friend just got his 360 yesterday. We played a little GoW coop. It's amazing. Which other shooters have a great co-op mode? (Besides tactical ones, because we both have trouble with those -- me especially)

What are people's feeling about Splinter Cell - Double Agent? The Splinter Cell series was one of the centerpieces of the Xbox console, but this game seems to be mostly ignored compared to the heavy hitters like GoW and R6 Vegas.

Pretty sure some of the different bullets in MDK 2 (and possibly MDK) had that as well.

Double Agent is ok, but clearly inferior to the original three games. If you still have an Xbox or PS2, get that version. It was made by different developers and is completely different (and better) from the 360 version. The IGN head-to-head review (and most other reviews I have read) said that the "old" gen version is superior in every way other than graphics.

Man I wish a revamped version of MDK (or MDK2) made it's way out.

Yeah, achievements are a HUGE part of it. I kinda hate to admit that because I didn't think I would care about them when I first heard about the concept. I mean I've even started replaying some games on the next difficulty level right after finishing them so I can get the next level of achievement points.

achievements were sort of taking over my gaming life so about a month back I decided to cancel my gamefly subscription and only purchase games I really wanted. I loved the concept of earning points for accomplishing things in these games, but after earning over 33000 points and pretty much buying every arcade title, one day I just snapped out of it. I think it was the fact that I was trying games like Import Tuner challenge and Cars. These games weren't fun but I was ready to force myself to play them just for points. That wasn't gonna make for a good time, so I sent them both back with 0 of 1000 points and really haven't played games nearly as much as I was. I'm not sure if I made the right decision, because now I find myself not really playing anything (just like the way it was before 360 came out).

Do gaining achievements do anything but increase your gamer score? I mean do they unlock gamer pics or new content or anything? Because that would be cool if they did. If it's just for status, that's not such a big deal.

Some games have that feature for pics and themes, but it's completely up to the developer. For instance, Cloning Clyde unlocks gamer pics when you unlock a new cloned animal (achievement) in the game.

Personally, I'd like to see a lot more of this rather than spewing it onto the Marketplace for bloated prices.

The Gamer Score idea was a great one, and is very well implemented. Brings me back to the old Arcade days when high score was everything. I wish Ikaruga was released on the 360, just because of the likely absurd achievements it could have.