Best Buy's online store bestbuy.com has lowered its price for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas, slashing about one third off the recommended retail price. The selling price for Chromehounds (Chrome Hounds) has also been slashed, slashing two thirds off the standard retail price.

Apparently bestbuy.com ships games pretty quickly (your items usually leave their warehouse after one business day). If you're not into Internet commerce, you can try to find these games at most Best Buy stores.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas continues to be praised by video game news sites, critics, and (more importantly) video game players.

This tactical shooter from Ubisoft Montreal continues to be a strong addition to the Tom Clancy video game collection. It won a number of significant awards from news sites like IGN and GameSpot, and we agree that Rainbow Six: Vegas deserved every single one of them.

The bottom line on Rainbow Six: Vegas: Some believe the graphics are a bit "flat" at times, but the music, technical aspects, and gameplay (the most important thing) prove that this game is a good investment. For many of us here at QJ.NET, it's one of our most-played titles. Standard retail price: US$ 59.99. Sale price at bestbuy.com: US$ 39.99.

Chromehounds (also known as Chrome Hounds) is a mech simulator video game for the Xbox 360 where you control Hounds, giant walking battle robots in the war for control of Neroiumus.

This From Software / Sega game is not as universally-liked as Rainbow Six: Vegas. Many said that the characters and story are boring, the graphics are too mediocre, the gameplay is too slow, and the Hounds are too cumbersome to control. However, others praise the game's online play and customization options. Then again, From Software's Armored Core series also split the market; you either love 'em or hate 'em.

The bottom line on Chromehounds: If someone's looking for a mecha game or a present for a mecha fan, this might be a good title to pick up - especially now that its price has dropped. Standard retail price: US$ 59.99; note that recent list price for this game has been as low as US$ 29.99 at other outlets. Sale price at bestbuy.com: US$ 19.99.

If you've been skeptical about these two video games for the Xbox 360, now is a good time to try these titles out and save some money in the process.

We guess you are familiar with Microsoft's "Platinum Series" for the Xbox 360. Known as "Classics" in Europe, this is actually a set of games, re-packaged, and then given lower price tags. Furthermore, games that end up in this series are those which have sold 400,000 units in nine months.

And so why Microsoft is doing this, Corp. VP of World Wide Retail Sales for the Interactive Entertainment Business Mitch Koch explained before that "it ensures that the platform's best games are available to new customers at an amazing price. And if you missed playing a game the first time around, now is a great reason to pick it up."

We brought the topic up because Microsoft of Japan just announced the new titles that will be included in the series by March 15. These games are Chromehounds, Burnout Revenge, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Perfect Dark Zero.

Now, PDZ has already been included in the first series for Europe and North America. So we expect Microsoft to tweak this line up a bit for other territories. Each game will retail for 2,800 Yen or roughly around US$ 23.

Buy: [Burnout Revenge]
Buy: [Chromehounds]

Seems like everyone wants to get down and dirty in Stilwater. Major Nelson's weekly worldwide Live game stats for the week beginning on the 11th show Saints Row topping the 360 list. Well, given that Saints has topped out or at least placed strongly in the sales and rental charts, this probably would be no surprise. On its heels is Madden NFL '07.

Over at the Arcade front, everyone's pulling poker faces as Texas Hold'em leads the pack, followed by Hexic HD. (Texas also pulled 8th in the 360 games list). And with the classic Xbox, Halo 2 is the one to beat.

Here are the complete lists of Live 360 and Arcade game-kickers.

Xbox 360 Top Live Games

1. Saints Row
2. Madden NFL 07
3. Call of Duty 2
4. Test Drive Unlimited
5. Ghost Recon 3
6. Dead Rising
   
7. Oblivion
8. Texas Hold 'em
9. Chromehounds
10. BFMC

Top Arcade Titles (full versions, not demos)

1. Texas Hold 'em
2. Hexic HD
3. Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
4. UNO
5. Geometry Wars Evolved
6. Time Pilot
7. Scramble
8. Pac Man
9. Marble Blast Ultra
10. Bankshot Billiards 2

Here's some good news for people whose mechs are feeling a bit sluggish, or are losing out on cash, or if you yourself just happen to fall off the world and die. They've got a Chromehounds patch waiting for you!

When?

Well, today. According to Clumsyorchid, site administrator for the Chromehounds forums, it would be happening "later this afternoon" on September 6. Depending on your timezone, there's a good chance it's already up for download, so check Xbox Live for the download and get your game on.


For those who are wondering what will come with the change, read on (click the Full Article link below).

And so the boys of the Third Street Saints lord over the Xbox 360 neighborhood as they sit atop the Top 10 list on Xbox Live.

Released on Aug. 29 for the US market and on Sept.1 for Europe, Saints Row surges to number five for 360 titles ahead of Chromehounds, Oblivion and Dead Rising. The jocks of Madden NFL 07 are still holding on to the top spot, while Call of Duty 2 and Texas Hold 'Em lumber close behind.

Despite some patching problems, these gangsters, with the quality they've shown, are set to conquer not only Stilwater, but the whole of the Xbox community as well. Will anyone dare step up against those guys? We'll keep watch in the following weeks and find out.

Well, the weekly update about the top games played over Xbox Live for the week from Major Nelson are in and as a little treat to all the gamers wondering why the arcade titles were never on the list except for a few occasions, the good Major has made a list of the top 10 Xbox Live Arcade titles as well. The Arcade list is only for the full versions of the games and does not include the arcade demos played over live, which explains why Bankshot Billiards is even on the list (just kidding!).

Call of Duty 2 remains the top dog of all 360 games played over Live and Dead Rising rises up from not even being on last week's list to coming in second place. The number one played Xbox Live Arcade title is Pac-Man so it looks like gobbling up power pellets can beat E-Honda's slapping move enough to put Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting in second place. The full list of the top ten 360 games and XBLA titles is as follows:

Xbox 360 Top Live Games

1. Call of Duty 2
2. DEAD RISING
3. Ghost Recon 3
4. Chromehounds
5. Oblivion
6. NCAA 07
7. BFMC
8. Final Fantasy XI
9. Dead Rising Demo
10. Lord of the Rings: BFME2

Top Xbox Live Arcade Titles (Full Versions)

1. PAC-MAN
2. Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
3. UNO
4. Geometry Wars Evolved
5. GALAGA
6. Frogger
7. Cloning Clyde
8. Marble Blast Ultra
9. Bankshot Billiards 2
10. Zuma
    

For you gamers out there that love to customize your mechs, 10 new pieces of downloadable content for Sega's Chromehounds have hit the Marketplace. The content includes Light arms 01, Light arms 03, Light arms 04, Light arms 05, Heavy arms 02, Spacer 01, Spacer 02, Spacer 03, Generator 01 and Color Pattern 03.

Each of the downloadable content cost 100 Microsoft Points each while the Spacer downloads come in at 60 Microsoft Points, so if you want a special part for your HOUND you have to pay. Some of the parts include new anti-HOUND rockets, a rifle with triple-burst firing and an improved cannon with long range barrel. If one of the parts is just what you were looking to add to your machine, be sure to check out the new content on the Marketplace.

For those of you out there that haven't tried or picked up Sega's Chromehounds, yet another trailer for the game has landed in the Marketplace to show what the game has to offer. Chromehounds is a sim-based mech shooter withgiant hounds as your main weapon as you join in a futuristic mech war involving three countries.

The game was released on July 11th and while criticised heavily for it's lackluster single player campaign, it has been praised for its mutliplayer experience over Live. The demo for the game is still not available in the U.S. technically, but it only features single player mode anyways. The new trailer weighs in at 37.73MB and showcases some online multiplayer action. So if your still not sure if you want to get Chromehounds go ahead and check out the new trailer by downloading it over on the Marketplace.

We earlier featured an article about the Chromehounds Ring of Death. No, it isn't a new game for the Xbox 360. Apparently, some people playing Chromehounds have had a problem with the game because it frequently freezes, and not only that, after switching the machine off then on, three red lights in the ring of power could be seen, which allegedly disables the poor Xbox 360 user to play any other game.

If that's your problem then we might have a solution. One of our avid readers, Lupin, informed us that he has been reading about Chromehounds issues like these, and that the 'ring of death' is "actually a common problem when a game freezes then on reboot gives a 3 ring of red error." The guy works at GameStop and had fixed three 360s with the same error. He gamely shared to all of us the steps on how this could be solved in four easy steps:

1. Unplug everything from 360.
2. Plug in just the PSU/Power to the 360 not AV/HD AV cables and turn on the 360
3. It should now post a 4 Red Light error wich means no AV cable leave that on for like idk a few seconds.
4. Hook back up just the AV Cables not the HD or MU

That ought to do the trick. According to Lupin, if it doesn't work, "leave the 360 off completely unplugged overnight. Then try the above steps again. Hope this works." Thanks for that Lupin! Now, tell us if Lupin's steps worked or not through your comments.

Before anything else, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies here at QJ, to this anonymous person who fell victim to the otherwise great and promising mech-combat game, Chromehounds. Here's his story:

I know you have covered the freezing in chromehounds, but I have something new. Not only did chromehounds freeze my box, but after i kept on trying to play it, i had to turn the box off, and then when i turned it back on there were three red lights in the ring of power (positions 1, 3, 4 while vertical). Turns out i cant play my 360 even with the game out, or with any other games.

Last we heard on the freezing issue, Sega's official statement was that they were looking into it and will give out updates soon as they find the source of the problem. Nothing official yet on addressing the slaughter of Xbox 360s, but a heated discussion on the topic is ensuing in the Chromehounds forums. Hopefully, this would be the last Xbox 360 to have a ring of death associated with Chromehounds. No more.