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.

Mods provide an excellent way of squeezing more life out of your PC games, and there’s even a few that become so popular that they eventually get picked up by a publisher and become a whole new game. One of the most modifiable engines out there right now is the Source Engine - which is the engine that games such as Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 run on - and the creators of the engine, Valve, have always been extremely appreciative of the work the mod community does (such as hiring the people who make the mods). This appreciation has become evermore apparent as Valve has released five of the most popular Source mods for download on their digital distribution platform Steam.

The five mods you can now automatically install on Steam (you have to own a Source game, of course) are Age of Chivalry, D.I.P.R.I.P., Insurgency (above), Synergy and Zombie Panic. Each mod deserves a try (Insurgency is excellent) and, hey, they’re free so why not? Obviously you’ve always been able to download and install these mods but now the process is far easier. Each mod will automatically update like the rest of your games on the ‘My Games’ list, plus they’ll also have access to Steamworks which provides stat tracking amongst other things.

You can expect more mods to come but, for now, log on to Steam to try the first five out.

The Battlefield series has always been incredibly popular, but the casual gamer hasn’t really caught on. This, in part, is due to the learning curve. For example, I remember it taking me a good few hours to learn to fly a helicopter properly in Battlefield 2, and even then the slightest wrong movement could see me spinning (much to my teammates annoyance) to the ground. Secondly, PC FPS games have never been a big draw to the casual crowd as they seem to prefer the console market. EA are keen to capitalise on both the casual and free-to-play market (an area that is quickly gaining ground on the Internet) and, thankfully, have combined the two with the help of DICE.

Battlefield Heroes is a massively scaled down version of the Battlefield franchise, taking on a cartoon-style look that you could mistake for Team Fortress 2. The new look is directed at a casual and younger audience - because apparently shooting people is ok if it’s in a cartoon! While the game features yet another World War II setting the armies are entirely fictionalised, although it’s pretty obvious who their real world counterparts are. This may raise some concerns about depicting the Nazis in cartoon form but, hell, it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. Another reason for having this graphical style is to try and reduce the system requirements so as many people as possible can have a shot at the game.

The game itself is designed to place less emphasis on skill and strategy, areas that may have turned prospective Battlefield players off in the past. It does this by scaling down the game to a measly three classes; the stealthy Commando, the all-around Soldier and the heavy Gunner. This totally eliminates old integral classes like the Medic or Engineer, but the presence of abilities and power-ups negates the need for these anyway. These abilities will do anything from allowing you to suck grenades in and heal yourself, to throwing fifteen grenades at a time. In my opinion each individual player build still seems to encourage strategy, but I guess Battlefield needs to retain some degree of this as the ticket system still remains (each team has fifty and a death reduces the count by one) and, at heart, it’s still a competitive shooter. You’ll be happy to know that vehicles still remain, however, which are jeeps, planes and tanks.

Players will also have the ability to level up their characters (the maximum level isn’t set yet), so in this sense the game is a little like an MMO. Leveling up will give you access to move skills and abilities. You’ll also be able to use points to buy new clothing and weapons, although EA is implementing a micro transactions system to allow you to buy new things instead. This also means you can customise your characters with new clothing, although personally I wouldn’t pay for something like that.

One concern I have is that DICE says the emphasis is on skill yet gives players access to plenty of ‘buffs’ (abilities that strengthen the player to some degree) by leveling up. Any game that has a leveling system results in the higher level players being far more powerful than the lower level players. Does this mean that skill will only come into play when a play reaches the top level? Or is DICE going to segregate players of similar levels? It sounds great, and it will probably be pretty fun, but this concern just leaves me to believe that it won’t be much different from an MMO. In previous Battlefield games you had access to new weapons but the toughness of defeating another player was largely based on who was the more skillful of the two. It’s free though, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Battlefield Heroes has been delayed until December/early 2009 but an open beta should be starting pretty soon, giving players full access to the game minus micro transactions.  The reason for the delay is continued work on social networking features, which we know are all the rage these days.

Truth be said, both Football Manager 08 and the Orange Box are excellent games with decent price tags, that are absolutely worth every penny you decide to spend on them, though -frankly- paying isn’t necessary if you want to enjoy a few hours of quality gaming. Especially if you are into shorter, quirkier or rather old-fashioned affairs and don’t expect top production values. So, uhm, without further ado, here are six of the very best freeware offerings around:

Jet Set Willy Online

Remember Miner Willy and his 8-bit platforming adventures? Mathew Smith? Why, of course you do and now you’ll get to relive them in an insane MMO platformer/collect-’em-up in a vastly expanded mansion. One of the best games ever, really.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms

A vast and incredibly polished (for freeware standards, that is) fantasy point-and-click adventure game with lovely 2D graphics. Oh, yes, and it will definitely remind you of them Sierra classics.

Prototype II

Classic R-Type style shoot-’em-up action sporting a ton of options and frenetic action. Not very easy to beat.

Knytt Stories

A cult classic. Simple mechanics, excellent music, great pixel art graphics, smart puzzles, intuitive controls and a brilliant editor make this lovely indie offering a necessary download. And wait till you see what the KS community has come up with.

Gun Mute: A texty shoot-em-up

A brilliantly written piece of interactive fiction that goes easy on genre beginners. Oh, and you get to shoot a lot of stuff in a steampunk/Wild West hybrid sort of setting. Lots of robots are also featured.

Cube 2: Sauerbraten

A proper FPS with impressive graphics, oldschool gameplay, that’s running on its very own, very current-gen graphics and physics engine. Single and multiplayer options are also provided.