A reader over at Kotaku chimed in this week to let the community know how he fared this holiday season. The reader, Mike, sent in a photo showing that he got a Christmas gift sent all the way from the sacred land of Hyrule. This special gift came from his sisters, and it’s packed full with rupees, a special box, and even a Master Sword.

Mike sent in this description of the present, and its contents:

It started with a box. In the box were a green hat and a satchel of rupees and a small note saying I could use the rupees to purchase an item from my sisters!
This item was The Master Sword! The sword had a new quest attached to it; defeat the beast in the laundry room!

The beast, of course, was my sisters’ dog dressed in Christmas attire. After I slew the beast (with a good ol’ fashion scratch behind the ear) I noticed the key tied to his neck, with a note attached. The next quest! Explore the dungeon beyond the white door! This clearly meant the garage. I entered the garage, wondering what I could possibly find hidden in its darkness. I stumbled upon a large chest (a 100 year old treasure chest) and in classic Zelda style, bent down and opened it without a second thought. As I did, my sisters played the “open chest” jingle on their phones, a nice touch! And inside the chest was the Hylian shield, a bottle marked XXX and a potion bottle, both filled with mead!

I thought this would conclude my truly amazing Zelda present…. that was until I saw my girlfriend, Erin, who had something just as special waiting for me. I opened her present to find a Zelda pouch, containing an Ocarina she had custom painted, and a book… a hand bound, home made, suede book. And in this book aged paper with hand-drawn Ocarina tabs for all the Ocarina songs from the game. Each page beautifully decorated with love and care.

Happy Holidays to everyone at Kotaku, and Gawker! I hope this little story warms you guys like it warmed me

Seems like this guy got a perfect present for Christmas. He must have some seriously awesome sisters, and it’s great that they helped give him a gift that he’s really into. I know all the Zelda fans must be playing their own ocarinas in celebration for Mike, and it’s a perfect occasion! Congrats to Mike on a super sweet Christmas gift. Speaking of Christmas, was anyone else’s out there this epic?

A little over a week ago, a Left 4 Dead fan film teaser was released on YouTube, and it was spot on with what you would think you’d want to see. Somber, sad, and filled with guns and smoke, just as you would picture it. However, a few days ago the full film called Impulse 76 went live, and it is certainly not what you would’ve expected.

There are more than a few unexpected characters that pop up over the course of the 9 minute video. While they don’t all make sense as to why they’re there exactly, they definitely make it awesome. This was a really well-made fan film, with a whole lot of help from Airsoft GI, and if you’re interested in the behind the scenes, you can see them here.

One can only hope that if we find ourselves in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, such colorful characters as the ones portrayed in this video will arise. I’m not saying I want the zombie apocalypse to happen…unless of course I happened to have a Lancer handy.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of many, if any multiple disc games for Xbox 360. Just the idea has many gamers complaining. As for installing a game on your console that is pretty much common practice these days, but what if that install was almost 10 Gb?

Tim Willits, Id Software creative director has confirmed what most of us expected, Rage will use multiple discs for 360 and an 8 Gb install for PS3. That’s right there will be disc swapping in all its glory, for you Xbox 360 users. Unless you want to install each disk totaling 22Gb which isn’t much better either, especially if you have an older 360.

Just thinking about this disc business brings me back to the days of VHS where if a movie is irregularly long it requires two tapes (Titanic). With Rage being such a huge game I hope it makes up for the installs and swapping by kicking major butt. So don’t expect to see Rage in the games on demand in XBL market place at least not for a while. Needless to say this news will more than likely spawn rage face after rage face, but will still probably sell tons of games. I just hope the three discs doesn’t affect price.

For whatever reason, it seems that Xbox Live and Xbox.com are experiencing some difficulties at the moment. Apparently “Xbox is having issues at the moment” says Director of Architecture for Xbox Live Operations Eric Neustadter.

As far as we know, it’s being worked on, but there’s no word yet on how soon it will be fixed. Hopefully they’ll get on it before a swarm of gamers show up on their doorstep.

We will give you updates as soon as we get them, but it’s been down for a while, and there’s no word yet on when it will be back up. Let’s hope this is just a tiny glitch and not something that’s going to keep us debilitated  for long.

**Update** Back up and running again, good as new.

It’s no secret around the office that I am a bit of a Halo fanatic. I have been playing since the release of CE many years ago, and I’ve been there for every update from the sword launch bug fix to the grenade damage change and I’ll be there for every new update to come.

The newest update for the Halo franchise will be for Halo: Reach and it encompasses several things. The first being my favorite, is the revival of the original Halo CE M6D pistol that devastated so many players back in the day. The Pistol will only be available through multiplayer gameplay in select playlists. The next is the fix that allows 4GB 360 owners to be able to play matchmaking and campaign without the HDD. There will also be several changes to armor abilities; Amorlock will absorb damage, the length of active camo will be reduced, and you will no longer be able to block the sword with any weapon other than another sword. And last but not least, you will be able to configure rifle bloom to fine tune you DMR surgical skills.

Bungie and now 343i have always been very good at listening to the community and taking action based on what they hear. For example, I’m pretty sure I am not the only one who hates Armor lock, so they listened to we the fans, and tweaked it. Whether you love Halo or hate it you cannot deny that it pioneered the day for other games of its kind.

Wireless controllers are now standard on every video game console. But how do they work, is it bluetooth, radio frequency, two cups and a string? Well that’s what I’m here to explain.

First let’s start with the Wii controllers. Aside from the accelerometer and things of that nature the wii uses Bluetooth to send the information obtained by the sensor bar via infrared.

The PS3 uses Bluetooth as well. That is why you can use some PS3 headsets with your phone.

Now for the Xbox 360 wireless controllers. unlike Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft chose to use something different. They went with the 2.4 GHz much like that of a portable home phone. 2.4 GHz is more or less radio frequency, that is why the controllers work so far away from your Xbox 360 console.

Well there you have it. Three consoles two methods of controller communication, one good time. Although Bluetooth is great I find the 2.4 GHz more reliable, but that’s just me. Which one do prefer?

Star Wars Kinect seems to be a rather cool game, and don’t get me started on the Kinect bundle which comes with a R2D2 themed console, shiny C3PO controller, and white Kinect. The whole bundle looks awesome, but… you will now have to wait until next year to own such cool-ness.

You read right Star Wars fans. If you were planning on finding that game or bundle under your tree, you may be disappointed. The British gaming site MCV states the Microsoft has confirmed the delay of the the stand alone game and bundle. They go on to say that it will no longer meet the holiday season deadline, but instead drop in early 2012. Microsoft says they are delaying the game in order to fully realize the games potential. What that means I don’t know. What it translates into however is that there will be no Star wars Kinect this Christmas.

Whether or not the delay is with good reason or something dumb,we may never know. Either way though, I’m less than thrilled. We can pout and angry tweet our hearts out, but its not going to bring us any closer to using the force, on Xbox anyway.

When I was younger video games were yet to be a common household item. I was 11 years old when I got my N64 and I was one of the few kids to have one. I remember being as excited as I could be when my parents let me have the box from the new refrigerator, that coupled with a cool stick and I was the most popular kid on the block.

But these days the cardboard box and stick are now the game console and controller. Just about every kid has a video game of some sort. Whether it be an Xbox or a cheap plug n play from Kmart, most every kid owns one. Another thing I always found interesting is the level of concentration and problem solving kids will put into a video game. But after the game is over they will go barely attempt home work. It just goes to show there is a difference between a lazy child and a disinterested one.

Which Brings me to a pressing question. Have video games hurt our youth? I would most definitely say no. Most of the time the only way a child can be hurt or hindered by a video game is if a parent allows them to be. Some have said certain video games are too violent for kids and young teens. Lets say for just a minute that these games are dangerous for kids. You know what else is dangerous for kids? Chainsaws. A chainsaw is not something any child should be using, and if a child is hurt from using a chainsaw I’m pretty sure the police will blame the parents not the chainsaw company.

All in all video games are a great way to relax, have fun and connect with other people. They can become an issue but only when they are allowed to be. So, next think twice before you but that M-rated game for your 13 year old.

When the Kinect for Xbox 360 was announced I was extremely excited for controller less gaming. But it wasn’t until today that I started thinking of the possibilities and applications of this relatively young device. I’m not talking about the expected uses such as dancing and playing sports, I am talking real world applications, everyday kind of stuff..

While watching the news this morning I realized that the Kinect along with specialized software would be excellent for weather men/women. Instead of having to use the small remote, they could just use gesture control via Kinect to circle areas, zoom in and out, and select storm systems on the green screen map. I can see this adding a simpler more user friendly way of forecasting.
Another good use of the Kinects technology would be to utilize its facial recognition ability. This could be applied to door locks, security monitoring (especially with Kinects 3D camera) that could even be used to lock down a room if a face enters the room that is not authorized.
The last possibility i am going to talk about is that for deaf and hearing impaired. Using Kinnects recently developed finger tracking, a program could be written to translate sign language to an audible language for easier conversing.

The Kinect is undoubtedly a revolution in video games, but I see at as a revolution for more than living room fun. The Kinect offers up endless fun and functionality, its only a matter of time until it is implented in places other than next to your TV.

Battlefield 3 is another game I am looking forward to, ever since I saw that abnormally long gameplay trailer I’ve been eagerly awaiting the games launch. If you think about it, how many modern day FPS’s include tanks, Humvees, and fighter jets in their multiplayer? No too many.

This trailer is very well edited (as most are), it shows off a lot of cool features of the game without overly focusing on one in particular, although they came close with the jet footage. As in all the previous Battlefield 3 trailers the graphics are pretty spectacular and if this trailer wasn’t played on a PC I will be thoroughly impressed.

From the trailer Battlefield 3 seems to have an awesome multiplayer system, but if the trailer didn’t make it look that way, well the guy who made that trailer probably wouldn’t have a job. I’m hoping that all the vehicles will bring a positive aspect to the game and not an annoyance, but that’ts just going to have to wait to be determined. Make sure you watch the trailer below, and don’t forget to judge the person driving that drone at a 1.26…