Xbox 360 sales have topped 28 million units worldwide following the console's most successful year, according to Microsoft.

The company says 360 has now increased its lead over PS3 to eight million units, although it's worth pointing out that Sony's console was released a year later.

Microsoft also said that Xbox Live now has 17 million subscribers, the majority of whom hold paid for gold accounts, and that online sales via the service jumped 84 percent in 2008 from 2007.

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Epic Games is kicking off the new year with a hefty patch for Gears of War 2, one that promises to address ongoing multiplayer bugs, fix persistent glitches, improve the netcode and even add a few achievements for good measure.

In a post on the official Gears of War message boards today, Epic Vice President Mark Rein announced that the title update will be released sometime in January, although no specific date has been nailed down just yet. Rein's post is a laundry list of some of the most glaring problems with Gears 2's multiplayer, including the ability to:
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Today I spoke to Rodder about some changes I had planned for the site. With time being a significant burden for Rodder and I, we decided to switch up our show format. We will now record a show every other week starting with our upcoming show on Sunday January 11th 2009. Since we'll be missing out every other week our recording time has increased to one hour and thirty minutes.

There are a few other things you might want to know. This doesn't change any other part of the site. All it does is give us the chance to be more consistent with the production of our shows and allows us to have a little more free time to tend to our daily lives and site obligations. I want to thank everyone for their continued support of Squad XP and I'll be addressing this on next week show. In the meantime feel free to drop us some feedback on the forums.

On a final note, we will record when there are trade shows going on. This means if our off week falls on the weekend E3 is going on, we'll man up and record back to back shows.

Kelly Rock Gomes
Editor in Chief
GT: K Rock XP
SquadXP.com

"Steam is having a rather tantalizing holiday sale from now until January 2, with everything in the store 10% to 75% off. In case you missed it the first time, Team Fortress 2 is back down to $10. We recommend picking up BioShock if you've never played it, now only $5. The Valve Complete package is 25% off, now only $75, and the id Super Pack -- which nets you every single id title before Quake Wars -- is just $35. Our holiday money is officially spoken for." -Joystiq

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Although we all already know that Forza Motorsport 3 is in the works and that the existence of the title has been teased by the developer Turn 10.  Now we have the first confirmation of the actual existence of the game through a dev-partner that created menu-graphics for the first Forza Motorsport.  Follow the link below for pictures and further proof.

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Doctors are warning new Wii owners that playing Nintendo's console for long periods of time this Christmas can cause injuries, or even a dodgy case of "Wii knee".

Researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospital have identified the "Wii knee" injury, and blamed the trend on fathers trying to keep up with their kids on the console. We blame "gaming tourettes" on Quake 3. According to doctors - who are predicting a rise in Wii injuries over Christmas as Nan and Granddad attempt to play Wii Sports - Tennis and Golf games are most likely to cause the painful sprain, or even a fracture. Last year, osteopaths reported that they saw an increase in back patients after Christmas, and blamed the trend on over-excited Nintendo players.

"This patient had got a Wii for Christmas, hadn't exercised in a while and overdid it," added Dr Andrew Coley of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. "I hurt myself by trying to get an Ace on my serve in the tennis game."

Wear your wrist straps, you girls.

A number of big name EA titles are now available via Valve's digital distribution platform Steam.
Spore (plus the Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack), Mass Effect, Need for Speed: Undercover, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and EA Sports FIFA Manager 2009 are available now to US and Canadian gamers.

In the coming weeks Mirror's Edge, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 and Dead Space will also be added to the catalogue of EA games available via Steam, which boasts over 15 million user accounts.

"The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some this year's top PC titles," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve.

We agree.

"Further details surrounding Free Radical's financial woes have arisen, with Edge sources revealing that employees would no longer receive compensation after December, as there would be "nothing left to give." Free Radical's co-founder, Steve Ellis, reportedly delivered the bad news in a nearby hotel after employees found their office doors locked. According to Edge's latest update, said bad news entailed failed attempts by the Haze developer to find a publisher or buyer, both locally and abroad" -Joystiq

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"While Puzzle Arcade and a premium virtual fireplace might seem like rather listless holiday gifts, Microsoft today gave us our favorite present: numbers! Here are some statistics about Xbox Live Arcade, care of the Gamerscore blog."

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Download Now (12/21/2008)

We knockout some news about M$ Points, Crackdown 2, and Duke Nukem. We give you some holiday tips on how to pick up women. We revisit a classic Relationship segment. I deal with a lot of hating, and much much more. Hope you guys enjoy it.
 
Mailing Info:

SquadXP LLC
16154 sw 44th LN
Miami, FL 33185

Relationship Email => girls@squadxp.com

With a little XNA magic and some creativity a gamer and Xbox Live Member SniperED007 has brought us all a fireplace to help us Plasma owners have a real reason to tell people why our HDTVs give off so much heat....

"Now that many of you have the Holiday Theme and Snow Globe how about turning your Xbox 360 into a virtual fireplace? Xbox LIVE Member SniperED007 used the XNA tools and whipped himself up a nice little project that has all the sights and sounds of a nice wintery fireplace. You can see video of Fireplace at XNA.com, and you can add the demo directly to your Xbox 360 download queue*. According to SniperED007, Fireplace will allow you to ‘Enjoy the awesome ambiance of a crackling fireplace in your living room. With realistic smoldering embers and flickering flames it sets the perfect backdrop for a relaxing evening.’   The full version will cost you 400 points." -MajorNelson

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"Before we head into 2009, we're bringing you a full month of exclusive previews on some of next year's biggest games (and a few smaller ones). It's not a comprehensive list of everything coming out in 2009, nor a list of our most anticipated games, but rather a countdown of of exclusive previews highlighting many of the year's most promising titles. We've got something new to reveal every weekday in December, so keep checking back for brand new info and must-see videos and screens all month long!"

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A cool looking joystiq controller and a usb hub that allows the use of a wired Xbox 360 controller on the PS3 for $40 in the link below!

"There's kind of a dearth of arcade-style joysticks available for the PS3 right now, and there aren't necessarily many fighting games worth playing on the console either. Nevertheless, the XCM Dominator will exist soon."

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Nvidia is escalating the battle again with its newest entry that is not only powerful but comes with a great price tag.

"While NVIDIA has released a number of new graphics cards for the gaming market over the last year and a half, we have seen relatively few updates to their workstation lineup in that same timeframe. It's been since mid-2007 that we saw the last major performance update to the QuadroFX lineup with the launch of their flagship QuadroFX 5600. While the monstrous G80 GPU-based QuadroFX 5600 has no doubt had competition since its release, it's been able to effectively hold off competing ATI products to reign as the performance champ throughout this last year and a half or so."

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