When Microsoft killed online support for original Xbox games in April, a handful of Halo 2 players became geek heroes for refusing to quit, exploiting a loophole that let them keep playing as long as their consoles remained on. At the time, Microsoft played along, vowing to ensure that the final players had “everything necessary to participate in the Halo: Reach beta.” But over at Reddit, there’s a long discussion thread alleging that, five months later, Microsoft hasn’t done anything for the so-called “Noble 12.”

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I’m a pretty big fan of Just Cause 2. The game’s full of cheap thrills — its shot at Game of the Year was marred by lazy mission design, sadly — and the slightest mention gives me the urge to base jump from an airplane to a helicopter and blow up some buildings with rockets (not in real life). So, fully recognizing Square-Enix’s blatant attempt to squeeze out a few more sales with a Just Cause 2 infographic, I’m going to post about it anyway.

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Demon’s Souls was, I thought, the best game of 2009, so even though there’s very little information about Project Dark — supposedly the spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls — I’m compelled to pass the announcement along. Reporters at Tokyo Game Show were shown a teaser trailer for Project Dark (just a codename), which according to 1UP included “lots of undead monsters in helmets and booming music,” but it’s not available online. Project Dark’s website, despite containing nothing but a burning fire and some light information, still manages to capture the sombre mood that made Demon’s Souls so brilliantly sad.

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So you picked up the 4 GB Xbox 360 Slim just in time for the launch of Halo: Reach, and are about to set in for a long co-op multiplayer session with some friends online. Just one problem: The 4 GB Xbox 360 Slim doesn’t support online or system linked co-op in Halo: Reach. Apparently, you need a certified Xbox 360 hard drive — not a flash drive like the one in the Slim — to access that feature.

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Halo: Reach was released today, and if you’ve got an Xbox 360 I’m guessing you’ve already scoured the web for reviews and decided whether it’s worth your $60. Either that, or you were one of the many who threw caution to the wind and showed up at your local video game store for Halo: Reach’s midnight launch. Since I was not one of those people, I thought it’d be fun to round up some of the more notable reports from the ground.

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Apparently, this monstrous, $16,999 PC from Origin, dubbed the “Big O,” houses the guts of an Xbox 360 slim. It’s hard to tell from all the beautiful liquid cooling tubes running back and forth, but if you look closely at the left image, you can see the Xbox 360 disc tray on the bottom right, and two USB ports on the bottom left. Of course, the console itself has been taken apart to better fit the computer tower, and also benefits from the liquid cooling, so no Red Ring of Death here (or, red dot of danger, as it were). Reportedly, playing the Xbox 360 is not a problem while the computer is cranking away on other tasks.

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Update: Thanks for entering, everyone. The giveaway is now closed, and I’ll be e-mailing the winners shortly.

Electronic Arts finally opened the Medal of Honor beta to Xbox 360 players after a lengthy and ultimately unexplained delay. If you own a new copy of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, you can now register for the beta on EA’s Medal of Honor website. But if not, we’ve got a new batch of 10 Medal of Honor beta codes to give away.

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Well don’t I feel silly waiting for an hour to try Kinect for Xbox 360 during E3. Microsoft is taking its motion-sensing camera on the road, touring Kinect around 32 U.S. cities, starting this weekend. Many of the games that were playable at E3 — Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Joy Ride, Kinectimals and Dance Central — will be there. First up is Macy’s in Manhattan, on Saturday and Sunday, and the Mall of America in Minneapolis, from now until August 22. You’ll also be able to try Kinect at Microsoft’s four retail stores, in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Mission Viejo, Calif.; Denver; and San Diego. Full list of cities after the jump.

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Hand it to Bungie for their new plan to prevent leaked lists of Halo: Reach Achievements. Starting now, they’re just going to beat the hackers by leaking the achievements first. So now we’ve got a list of six Halo: Reach achievements that don’t tell you anything about the game that you weren’t already aware of. For instance, from this list we can deduce that  Halo: Reach has (a) legendary difficulty (b) Banshees (c) matchmaking (d) daily multiplayer challenges (e) items you can buy from the Armory and (f) the ability to break a fatal fall by assassinating an Elite at the bottom. Okay, that last one is kind of cool. Full details after the jump.

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