Back at E3 2008 Microsoft announced that the ‘New Xbox Experience’ would be coming to the Xbox 360 the following November. Along with the dashboard re-design and a raft of other features Microsoft also announced a feature called ‘Xbox Live Primetime’. The idea of ‘Primetime’ was to bring the experience of a live gameshow to the console, with scheduled shows, live hosts and the ability to win prizes. The first of these shows was Endemol’s 1 Vs 100.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the concept of 1 Vs 100, given that there are many different versions of the show around the world (here in the UK it’s hosted by the National Lottery) but I’ll explain it for the benefit of those that don’t know. Basically there are 100 people in what is called the ‘mob’ (at least on this version anyway, as the UK TV version simply calls them the ‘100′) and one person is picked from here to face off against the 100. The ‘one’ and the ‘mob’ is then asked a question, with a choice of three answers, and if the ‘one’ gets this question correct they can then see how many people they have eliminated from the ‘mob’ (those that got the question wrong).  The more they eliminate, the bigger the prize gets.

In the Xbox 360 version the prizes are gamer points, arcade games and, every week, physical prizes including a camera and a car. If the ‘one’ gets a question wrong the mob get a small amount of gamer points or a free Arcade game and the ‘one’ is eliminated. The ‘one’ can also choose to walk away a certain points of the game, taking with them the points that they have earned so far. Unfortunately the prizes weren’t available from the first night of the beta, meaning that some people chose to walk away when they weren’t actually winning anything. It’s still not certain when the prizes will start being up for grabs, but popular opinion is next week.

Of course, with the vast amounts of people playing at the same time (80,000+ on the first night alone) not everyone will get the chance to be the ‘one’ or be in the ‘mob’. Everyone else is put into the ‘crowd’, where they can still answer questions and compete against each other in groups of four. These sessions, as well as the ‘extended play’ sessions (which I’ll get to in a moment), help to increase accuracy and speed at answering questions, which in turn gives you a better chance of getting into the ‘mob’. So, Microsoft says that the more ‘extended play’ sessions you take part in the better chance you have at winning a prize when it comes to the live shows. You won’t get any prizes in ‘extended play’, as there are only 30 minute rounds of 37 questions with no ‘one’. It is basically everyone sat in the ‘mob’ answering questions and competing against each other. If you get the question correct you also get a bonus of points based on how many people got it wrong, and as in the live game you also get a small bonus for how fast you answered the question (even if you get it wrong). The problem with the speed thing is that some people have an impossible response time of ‘0′ seconds simply because they are constantly bashing the ‘x’ button. I don’t know how this could possibly be fun for them , plus it drives their accuracy way down, but I suppose some people just have to flatter their incredibly large ego’s to appear at the top of the speed rankings. Thankfully the speed bonuses aren’t that big, so they can’t rack up a large score just by button bashing.

As for other problems I haven’t encountered many so far, but there has been talk of random disconnections and crashes which are always going to get with a beta. The biggest problem I’ve had is not being able to hear the live host (James McCourt does live commentary on the ‘ones’ performance and the stats during short breaks) on the first live show last Friday. Checking the Xbox forums shows that I’m not in the minority and, although it’s not a major problem,  the breaks can be a bit dull when there’s nothing but silence.

So far the game has been really fun; although the questions can be really hard at times (that’s part of the challenge!). The ‘extended play’ sessions are nowhere near as fun as the live shows, but if you ever want to get a chance at winning a prize (when they become available) you’re going to have to play them. The chances of that ever happening are pretty low, but at least you can enjoy the game for what it is - good old trivia fun!

1 Vs 100 is available for free to all gold members. You can set yourself reminders for upcoming live and ‘extended play’ shows through the Primetime channel which should now be available on your dashboard.

If you’re itching to fight more wars for our beloved Emperor then you’ll be pleased to know that Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 will be with us on 20th February. However, if you can’t wait that long then THQ have announced that a beta will be available later this month.

The beta will be hosted by Steam (which is awesome by the way) on 28th January, but those who own the last Dawn of War expansion, Soulstorm, will get early access on 21st January. It will include all four races - including everyone’s favourite Tyranids - and five multiplayer maps, plus Games for Windows Live TrueSkill Matchmaking.

If you still can’t wait that long then I implore you to pick up Soulstorm if you haven’t already. Not only will you get the early access mentioned above, but you will also get plenty more gameplay to tide you over while you wait for the sequel to one of the best recent RTS games that the PC has to offer.  The expansion pack introduces the Dark Eldar and the Sisters of Battle to the mix, which should sound good to any loyal 40k fan.

If you haven’t had the chance to play the original Dawn of War then you can pick up the complete collection (that’s the original game plus all the expansions) for less than £15. That’s clearly worth it for so many hours of excellent RTS gameplay.

It seems like centuries ago when Sony first announced their virtual world experience Playstation Home, but in reality it was only back in 2007. Back then Sony had slated the release for the autumn of that year, but since we’re nearly at the end of 2008 and it still isn’t here we can safetly say that Sony’s original projections were easily over-optimistic. In the last few months a lucky few have been testing Home in the closed beta, but Sony is now saying that Home will be available to all in the open beta coming in the “next few weeks”. Well, if everything goes to plan it will be.

According to Home’s community manager - known as TedTheDog on the official PlayStation forums - Sony will be inviting a number of people into the closed beta pretty soon, before making it available to anyone with a PlayStation 3.

“Finally,” TedTheDog said, “Home open beta is the start of a long journey, not the end of one. I know I’ve said this a lot recently but I see many of you are thinking of Home open beta like a game release in that you’re expecting the final version to be launched with just some patches and maybe some DLC to come afterwards.” - CVG

I was beginning to think that Home would never see the light of day, so it’s nice to see that things are finally moving along. Hopefully the beta won’t last all that long and we’ll all be enjoying the full version by early next year, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Home open beta in “coming weeks” - CVG

Call of Duty: World at War doesn’t hit shops until November 14th, but you can try out the game’s multiplayer modes right now on Xbox Live. The beta was originally only open to those who had pre-ordered the game or had got a key from the giveaways on the official Call of Duty website and other websites. Thankfully that restriction is now lifted and anyone who downloads the 890MB file will be able to try out three levels and a bunch of modes from the multiplayer portion of WaW.

I’ve had the beta for a while now and it plays a lot like like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, except with bolt action rifles and dogs instead of helicopters. I actually don’t know what to make of the dogs. They can be incredibly annoying but can also net you quite a few kills. The ‘War’ mode (a bit like Battlefield’s ‘Conquest’ mode, but only one point stays open while the rest stay locked. You effectively push each other back and forth across the battlefield)  is my favourite so far, and I managed to get a 35 kill streak just by jumping in a tank and protecting one of our flags.

If you haven’t already, give it a shot and tell me what you think.

(Via Joystiq)