Xbox Live Turns 5ive

Someone turns five today. Or rather, something turns five today. And that something is Xbox Live, widely regarded as the top service on any of the major consoles. And to celebrate, Microsoft is throwing a party, with lots of free goodies and fun to be had for all.

Here’s what’s going on to celebrate:

• Five Live is 5ive themes based on the top-played Xbox Live titles for each year are free for download. The games are Return to Castle Wolfenstein, MechAssault, Halo 2, Ghost Recon 2, and Gears of War.

• A separate Xbox Live is 5ive theme is also free for download, as well as a Live is 5ive gamer pic pack featuring all of the All Games Radio Sites, including Orange Lounge Radio and All Games Interactive.

• Carcassone is currently free for download until midnight tonight Pacific time, or if you like in Korea, you’ll be getting Hexic 2 instead… which, to me, seems like kind of a let-down for Korean Xbox Live members.

• A ton of developers will be on Live today, playing the games they helped create. The list is quite long, so check down below to see if your favorite title is one of them.

Here’s the schedule (all times are Pacific, so adjust your watches/clocks accordingly):

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Ace Combat 6 US Team):
4:00-6:00 PM

Ace6QA1 (Damon B - QA Assistant Lead)
Ace6CQC (Tom A - CQC)
Ace6QA2 (Luis C - QA Tester)
Ace6QA3 (Darren A - QA Tester)
Ace6AssocProd (Chris S - Associate Producer)
Ace6ProdMgr (In Joon H - Product Manager)
Ace6PRMgr (Kit E - PR Manager)
Ace6QA4 (Jhune D - QA Lead)

Bomberman Live (Bomberman Live Developer Team):
2:00-5:00 PM

BombermanDev1
BombermanDev2
BombermanDev3
BombermanDev4

Forza 2 (Forza 2 Developer Team):
5:00-7:00 PM

Forza2Dev1 (Che Chou - Community Manager)
Forza2Dev2 (Joel R)
Forza2Dev3 (Landin W)
Forza2Dev4 (Adam W)

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ghost Recon Developer Team):
11:00 AM-1:00 PM

GRAWLeadMPDes (Chris - Lead MP Designer)
GRAWTest (Vinson – Tester)
GRAWArtist (Mike – Artist)
GRAWMPDes (Randy - MP Designer)
GRAWScripter (Thad – Scripter)

Guitar Hero III (Guitar Hero Developer Team):
3:00-6:00 PM

GH MidiDes2 (Chris V - Midi Designer)
GH MidiDes3 (David S - Midi Designer)
GH MidiDes4 (Geoffrey I - Midi Designer)
GH MidiDes5 (John K - Midi Designer)
GH MidiDes6 (Brian M - Midi Designer)
GH MidiDes7 (Kyle J - Midi Designer)

Halo 3 (Bungie Developer Team):
3:00-5:00 PM

Ske7ch (Brian J – Community Lead)
TJ Scoot (Luke Smith – Bungie.net Content Lead)
Thug Larz (Lars B – Multiplayer Designer)
Evil Otto (Dave C – UI/graphic Designer)

Ed. Note: The Bungie guys are incredibly good at this game. Fair warning.

Article Author: Brian Szabelski

Brian Szabelski is the Assistant Gaming Editor at Blogcritics.org as well as Associate Editor at Tomopop. He also maintains his own blog on IGN, "The Minus World".

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