Microsoft have just announced that they have made changes to the Xbox Live code of conduct. The reason being that they have seen it fit to allow people to more easily express their diversity .

You may remember that on Xbox Live, words such as Gay, Lesbian etc were not allowed to be used on the service, which led to a ton of complaints from homosexual gamers around the globe.

The list of changes has been posted up on Xbox.com, and they go a little something like this.

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If for some absurd reason, you are one of those guys that still thinks that Halo 2 is the best online multiplayer experience – and have still been playing it – then you may have some goodies in store for you.

As you all know, the Xbox Live service for the original Xbox will be shutting down next month, and it looks like Microsoft want to say thanks to folks who gave it so much love.

Microsoft have decided to reward old-school Halo 2 players with a gift. While it won’t necessarily be given to everyone who has been playing Halo 2 of late, Microsoft has deemed it fit to grace Halo 2 players with a 3 Months Xbox Live Gold subscription, 400 MS Points as well as an invitation to the Halo Reach Beta.

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It’s Friday, which means that everyone should be happy and excited for a weekend full of relaxation, activities and of course, gaming.

In the spirit of our old Flamebait Friday posts and everyones newfound weekend energy, we thought it would be fun to set up a post for people to debate, exchange opinions and make their opinions heard. Our comments threads can sometimes get heated, so we have created a post where anything goes and your comments dictate the pace.

To kick things off, I thought I’d start with something nice and cliche – the age old debate of Xbox Live vs PSN. PSN’s free, Xbox Live has parties and private chats, but which one do you think is better and why?

Let’s hear it.

[Update: A commenter has reminded us that this is one of those games that are banned thanks to Germany being cowards. So if you want it, be prepared to organise a VPN.]

Major Nelson has just informed us that this week’s Xbox Live deal of the weak is none other than the King himself, Duke Nukem.

Thanks to Duke Nukem Forever becoming the lamest videogame development disaster of the decad, this is about the closest you are going to get to playing a console Duke Nukem. The game will be flogged off for only 400 MS points but please remember that the deal is only available to Gold members and that it will run for this week only.

It’s time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of ass… oh well.

Source: Major Nelson

The guys over at Halfbrick studio’s may know how to make an awesome XBLA game but when it comes to making a decision on the box art they have given up.

Instead they have decided to harness the power of the Internet, god help them, and have put up two different versions for the box art and have asked us to vote which one we would prefer.

Now I really though it was a no brainer and voted to Adventure King (The one on the right) and was expecting to see a pretty one sided competition, however the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

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If you are looking for something interesting and new to play, you may want to give P.B Winterbottom a look on XBLA.

The game is now available for download and features some rather clever puzzle solving. The game is kind of styled around old black and white cinema and the puzzles are handled by cloning your character and recording a few seconds of motion to assist you.

It’s a little difficult to explain, but it’s really neat. Check out the gameplay video after the jump to see what I mean.

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It’s that time of week again, time to see if the gloss has fallen off Modern Warfare 2 or if Mass Effect 2’s glory time is over.

Unsurprisingly neither is the case, MW2 is still all dominating and ME2 has solidified it’s second place.

The only new entry into the charts this week is Dante’s Inferno (and GTA IV but that ain’t new) with Gears of War 2 continuing to be a true evergreen title.

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This week’s Xbox Live deal of the week has a little more deal in its deal than usual.

This week, you get to pick from a selection of 3 different fighting games and to be honest, I couldn’t care less about two of them. The first two are Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao and TMNT: Turtles In Time Reshelled for 800 and 400 MS points respectively.

That’s nice dear. I’m pretty interested in what’s behind door number 3, and that’s Marvel vs Capcom 2 which has been slashed from 1200 MS points to 800.

Will any of you be picking up any of these? I sense some interest in TMNT.

Remember, Gold members only. More info through here. (thanks Major Nelson)

Halfbrick Studios, the developers of Raskulls and Destructoid have been hinting for a while about some sort of collusion between the two.

The most obvious guess would be that Mr Destructoid would be a character in the upcoming Raskulls title and that obvious guess would have been right.

I have severely high hopes for Raskulls which will be released in the coming months on the Xbox Live Arcade and now seeing that they have linked up with a community site just makes me like the game even more.

Check the reveal trailer after the break.

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There isn’t anything really unexpected in this weeks Xbox Live charts apart from the fact that Mass Effect makes a double appearance thanks to the awesome Mass Effect 2 which appears to have revived a lot of interest in the original Mass Effect as well.

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Microsoft’s attempt to replicate Playstation Home the arcade experience just got a lot lamer. Microsoft have confirmed earlier rumours that they’ve slapped the service with a one-size-fits-all E10+ rating.

This has pros and cons – The biggest positive is that Microsoft can now add games to the service whenever they like, without having to get those games rerated by the ESRB. this leads to its biggest caveat – none of those games can be rated T or M – meaning your favourite even marginally violent games won;t be headed to the games room any time soon. So there’ll be no Street Fighter, no Double Dragon, no Metal Slug and certainly no Mortal Kombat.

Of course all of those games are available as downloads on the Xbox Live Arcade service, making me wonder why this Games Room is coming in the first place.

Hit the jump for a list of the 30 games the service will launch with.

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The Behemoth, delightful developers behind downloadable titles Alien Hominid HD and Castle Crashers have finally named their third game – which for now will be headed to XBox Live Arcade. The game which has been going under the prosaic placeholder name of “Game 3” is now called Battleblock Theatre.

Having shipwrecked on a mysterious island you find yourself both betrayed by your best friend Hatty and captured by the locals. All of this is happening while being forced into deadly performances. This however, is just the start of your problems.

I’ll be honest – I have no idea what’s going on in the trailer you’ll find after the jump, but it looks to have equal parts co-operative and competitive play, rolled in to one – like the strange and beautiful lovechild of LittleBigPlanet and Super Smash Bros.

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Got Xbox Live Gold? Got 400MS points to spare and need something fun and fresh to keep you – and up to 3 other people – entertained? I recommend jumping (and then exploding) at this week’s Xbox Live deal of the week.

It’s the perfect opportunity to get Twisted Pixel’s ‘Splosion Man, one of last year’s best XBLA games for half price – a mere 400 points down from its regular 800 banana dollars. It’s fun, and funny and has some of the best couch co-op you’ll find. When I last played online though, it was broken – becoming out of synch and unplayable…It has been fixed though, so there really isn’t any excuse to not get this.

If you’re still unsure whether the game’s worth your 400 point, hit the jump for a trailer.

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It’s that time of week again where we look at what you all have been playing in the last week and it’s pretty obvious that a lot of you are pumped for Mass Effect 2, so much so that you have all been pulling out the original in preparation for the sequel.

Darksiders also makes an appearance in it’s first week and Modern Warfare 2 continues it’s domination of the chart.

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It’s been a while since we have seen anything about those cute little characters, The Raskulls. There have been some changes recently to their official website and a new video posted demonstrating the Mega Quest campaign style of the game with Jim Sterling from Destructoid.

The game is looking awesome and is going to be a day one buy for sure for me.

The other thing that intrigues me about this game is their oddly close relationship to Destructoid, there have been a couple of custom video’s about the game and a few articles on the Destructoid site hinting at a big announcement coming up.

My guess is that Destructoid is closing down and becoming a games developer in conjunction with Halfbrick instead.

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