First off, what is a machinima? A machinima is a show created using a video game. The characters in the game are the characters in the machinima. The voices are supplied by people. Red vs Blue is a great example of machinima.

What You Need:

• Halo 3
• an Xbox 360
• 1-4 Xbox 360 controllers
• a video capture card
• a computer
• any video editor
• digital voice recorder
• some friends

Making the Machinima:

1. Make the characters. Your gonna have to pick their name, race, color, armor, and emblem.
2. Now write the script. You need this so you know when and where to move your Spartans/Elites around.
3. Give everyone a copy of the script.
4. Go into a game and make the characters gun go down. To do this press and hold the Left Bumper, Right Bumper, A button, down on the D-pad, and click the Left Thumbstick. You have to do that all at the same time.
5. Move the characters around according to what the script says. To make it look they are talking, just bob their heads up and down.
6. Go into the Halo 3 theater and record the clips. Make sure to use more than one angle.
7. Record the voices according to the script.
8. Plug the video capture card and your Xbox 360 into the card.
9. Go back into the Halo 3 theater and open up your clips.
10. Using the software that came with the capture card, record the clips onto your computer.
11. Edit them together.
12. Put the recorded voices as the sound track for the video. Match them up so it looks like your characters are talking.
13. Post them on YouTube or your own site.

Hints:

• Don’t bob their heads to much, you’ll look like an idiot.
• To get rid of the HUD in the theater, press the B button.
• You can only put the guns down in a local game. That means you can’t use Xbox Live.
• Make sure the voices match the emotions the character is feeling.

Do you have a lot movies, music, videos, and pictures on your computer? Do you want to view them on your Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Nintendo Wii, or any other computer/laptop on your home network? Then TVersity (Windows only) is the answer. Did I mention it’s free and easy to use?

1. Download and install TVersity on the computer which has all your media.
2. Open up TVersity and click the green plus and add a file or folder to import all you media you wish to stream
3. Unblock TVersity from any firewall software on your computer.

   To unblock it from the windows firewall go to Start>Control Panel>Network Connections

   Right click the Local Area Connection and choose properties.

   Go to the Advanced tab and select Firewall Settings.

   Go to the exceptions tab and select TVersity, if you don’t see it then: click add program and find the TVersity exe to add it.

4. Right click the TVersity icon on the tray and go to start sharing
5. Go to your console and start streaming!

For 360 users go to the media blade choose Video, Music, or Pictures and enjoy (You might have to press X to change the source of the media).

For PS3 go to media and select “Find Media Server”

If in need for help or want to stream your media from OS X or Linux please ask in our forums!

A lot of Madden fans are deeply upset about how many changes were made from ‘07 to ‘08, one of the main ones is the “bluff system” which is the method of choosing your plays. In previous maddens you chose your formation or playtype and cycled through 4 plays at a time pushing the button on the play you wish to use. In this madden however you can only select a play with one button X on the playstation and A on the 360. In order to hide a play on ‘08 you must:

1. Go to the play you want and press & hold X or A.
2. While still holding the button go to another play and when you let go of the button it will get out of the screen looking as if you just chose that play.

There you have it now just go and find a friend who constantly looks at your plays as you choose it and do a passing play when he thinks your running it and score an easy touchdown!

Sony gave its customers the ability to install a second os (linux) on their ps3’s but they do not let you fully utilize the hardware in it, so don’t expect to be playing Wolrd of Warcraft on your ps3 anytime soon =( . However there is support for many other things including MythTV(media center) and mounting NFS/Samba. Why does this make me so happy? Well that means if it is on my computer, I can play it on my PS3 without worrying about the PS3 running out of space. Anyways this guide is only to get Ubuntu on your system so i will hold off taunting you with goodies.

Note: By Installing Linux on PS3 you only gain functionality, you can still do everything you could before with the addition of running linux

What you need

• Ability to burn an ISO if you need help ask in our forums.
• Blank CD
• USB Keybaord
• PS3 & Computer

Downloading Needed Files

1. The PS3 Ubuntu ISO it can be found here

Preparing your PS3 for a Dual Boot!

1. Backup any data(gamesaves) you want as you will lose anything
   1. Insert a USB Drive
   2. Select your gamesave and click on Copy
2. Once you are ready to part with all your data go to: Settings > System Settings and scroll down to Format utility, hit X
3. You will be asked if you want to format yor hard drive, select yes
4. Now you must choose a partition setting, select Custom
5. We recommend you choose Allot 10gb to the Other OS
6. Select Quick Format unless you want it to take longer (no real benefit)

Installing Ubuntu(Finally)

1. Go to System > System Setting and scroll down to Install Other OS and hit X
2. Once it installs go to System > System Setting > Default OS and choose Other OS, it will now ask if you want to boot into the other OS select yes

Note: If you want to go back into the ps3’s os you can either type boot-game-os or hold the power button until it beeps twice

3. The PS3 will reboot and you will see a prompt that says kboot: just hit enter
4. The Ubuntu installer will launch.
5. You can do everything the default way except patitioning when it asks about the partition(guided option is checked) choose manual! There is a bug where if you choose the guided option the installer may hang up!
6. You will see two partitions a 9gb one and a 1.7gb one. Delete them both!
7. Create a new partition as 10gb
8. Now create a new partition and click on ext3 and select swap and add this partition
9. You are done partitioning just click next and proceed
10. Continue installing ubuntu it shouldnt be too difficult just select next on everything =)
11. Once you are in ubunu please leave us a comment letting us know you use ubuntu on ps3. If i see the demand is high I will do some more in depth tutorials on it. Such as installing mythtv, installing games, mounting your computer, and tweaking for optimization.

Tips

• To get back into PS3 OS either hold the power button until you hear 2 beeps or open up a terminal and type boot-game-os

If you have any trouble please ask us in the forums, you will need to register but we will do our best to help you within 24 hours!

NOTE: This is VERY IMPORTANT that your Xbox 360 and computer are connected to the exact same router, or else this will not work and good luck finding a different way.
Alright, so here I will tell you all how to open your NAT. I’m running Vista, but XP isn’t much different from what we’re doing.

I’m not going to go into too much detail on what your NAT is or why it should be open, but in short, if your NAT isn’t open, you will have a hard time finding games, and it won’t let you join a friends party half of the time. So lets fix this problem.

1. Go to your computer, and get to Network Connections. To do this, you will click on the start menu, and go to “My Network Places”. Once you get there, click on “view network connections” to the right in the Network tasks box. If your computer is hooked up directly to the router, you will be using the Local Area Network, and if you are wireless, you will be using the Wireless Area Network
2. Right click on your connection, and then go to “Status.” If you are using XP, click the “Support” tab at the top. If you are running Vista, you will need to click the button that says “Details.”
3. After you click on “Details” or “Support”, look for and copy down the Default Gateway, and the Subnet Mask. You will need this later.
4. Close this out, and go to your 360 dashboard. Go to the system blade at the very end of the dashboard, and go to Network settings.
5. Go down to Edit Settings. Change your IP address settings from Automatic to Manual.
6. Depending on what your default gateway was, you may have different settings than mine.
7. For IP Address, enter your default gateway. Instead of one digit for the last number, you will need to change it to something such as 109.
8. Enter the Subnet Mask(default for most networks is 255.255.255.0) and Default Gateway in the boxes, and press OK.
9. Now, run a test for Xbox Live. More than likely, you will end up failing the DNS check. This is alright, because we will take care of this in the next step.
10. Go back to Network Settings, and then change your DNS settings to Manual. For primary DNS server, enter your default gateway.
11. Run another Xbox Live test, and you should pass everything. However, your NAT will probably still be Strict or Moderate. If it is open, then you are done!
12. Go back to your computer, and open up your browser. Type your default gateway into the address bar, and press enter. A username/password box should come up. This site has a pretty complete list of routers and passwords.
    
13. Once in, look for a link titles “Applications and Gaming” or something along the lines of that. Click it, and then find DMZ. Click it.
14. Click the “Enable” radio button, and type in the last(4th) octet of your IP(octet1.octet2.octet3.octet4) Save your settings, and exit.
15. Go back to your 360 dashboard, and run another Xbox Live test. If all went well, you should now have an open NAT! Give yourself a pat on the back, and dance around the room a couple times.

Edit 1/1/08: Helpful comment #48804… Click to view if you need extra help!

Apparently on December 4th, Microsoft is going to be introducing an update that depending on your age will allow anyone to browse your friendlist on Xbox Live! If you feel this violates your privacy follow these instructions courtesy of gamezone to keep you friendlist private!

1. Go to http://www.xbox.com/fof and login if needed
2. Now select the privacy level you want via the dropdown box.
3. Click Save