Xbox 360 Fall update adds DIVX support and more

Get your Christmas shopping done so you can run home and acquire some movies, because as of next week, you'll be able to watch them on your Xbox 360. The fall update, which drops on December 4th, will add DIVX playback support along with the Xbox Original's download service and other previously announced features.

The dashboard will also receive a general 'sprucing up', including streamlining the interface to better take advantage of all the extra functionality that has been added to the 360 over the past several months.

Watch a video walkthrough of the Fall Update after the break.

PS3 firmware 2.0 causing hardware problems?

Even though Sony still hasn't managed to incorporate any in-game XMB functionality, I've been otherwise pleased with the PlayStation 3's most recent firmware update. Although I don't use the Remote Play functions, I love the added user customization options. Unfortunately, according to an Official PlayStation Forums thread, quite a few people are having problems with the new firmware version. The reported problems range from disc-read errors (remember the PS2's disc read problems?) to lagging performance and even problems booting the console at all.

These reports are a bit disconcerting, especially considering Sony's recent denial of reported high hardware failure rates among the new 40GB PS3's.

Of course it's impossible to know what percentage of PS3 owners are experiencing these problems. Personally, I applied the update the first day it was available and since then I've watched Ratatouille on Blu-Ray (which looks great btw) and played a lot of Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction with no problems...knock on wood! Now that firmware upgrades seem to be a standard part of console maintenance, problems like this are likely to arise, at least once in a while.

Halo 3 Matchmaking Patch Available Now!

Bungie has released a patch today on Xbox Live for Halo 3's matchmaking system. The big fixes are listed below. Glad to see less Shotty Sniper!!

Big Team Battle matches are now 16-player affairs.
In the Team Slayer playlist, the appearance of Shotty Snipers has been greatly reduced.
Now, when players veto Shotty Snipers, the game that results from the veto will not be Shotty Snipers.
In one-sided VIP matches, the attacking team will now see a waypoint for the VIP they are hunting.
In Lone Wolves, Slayer gametypes will appear more frequently.

Always good to see a developer respond quickly to player feedback. Thanks Bungie!