Get Free Microsoft Points for Xbox Live

We all expect a little something on our birthdays, so why should those expectations drop when we are talking about our gaming systems? Microsoft has started handing out birthday gifts to its Xbox LIVE Gold members with their new MyAchievements rewards program. Those eligible f ...more

For the most part, Xbox Live is amazing, but there is one thing that has been annoying for pretty much everyone, to say the least. Microsoft Points. Why do we have purchase points with real money, just so we can be confused at how much money we're really spending when we down ...more

Sometimes, paying for the whole Xbox LIVE service might seem like a waste of money. You're constantly experiencing lag, you've got people modding and cheating, kids are being loud and obnoxious over the mic, and your kill-to-death ratio is getting dumped on. Basically, the who ...more

There was a huge ban wave recently on Xbox Live. In the unfortunate event that you decided to do something against Microsoft policy, and have consequently gotten yourself banned from Xbox Live, you may have come to the realization that doing whatever got you banned from Xbox L ...more

From Gaming Age: An Xbox LIVE Gold Family Pack includes: Up to four individual Xbox LIVE Gold memberships for the price of two - (US) $99.99. Family Center - a single, easy to use, destination for Family Settings and account management, accessible on the Xbox dashboard and ...more

In last week's guide, we covered the best places to purchase digital copies of computer games online. This week we'll cover another type of downloadable content: those available for video game consoles. Every major console out today either has or plans to have a DLC platform, ...more

WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. Thanks to all of our active moderators and ...more

Black Ops gamers— you have new Call of Duty maps for your multiplayer adventures. If you have no idea what I'm talking about— you might as well just sell that copy of Black Ops and pick up the newest version of Harry Potter you can find, because you're no Black Ops soldier. I ...more

Despite the recent problems with the 1.04 update for PlayStation 3 gamers, Call of Duty: Black Ops remains a juggernaut for Activision in the gaming community, and its sales alone prove it. Black Ops was released on November 9th, 2010, and in its first five days on the market ...more

Thanks to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, video games are constantly evolving to higher degrees of sophistication, with complex graphics, lifelike resemblances and storylines that create exciting experiences that relieve the tediousness of our everyday lives. It's a little di ...more

It's almost time for the new Xbox 360 dashboard to invade gamers everywhere. Microsoft expects to update the Xbox Live user interface sometime next month, which is said to be the most significant update to the dashboard since the NXE update three years ago. This new Metro-base ...more

Video games are one of the best non-medical things that have ever happened to sick children. They are stimulating, entertaining and require very little physical strength to play, which makes them perfect for those suffering physical maladies. In 2003, the ambitious and creati ...more

Video games consoles have long wanted to be more than just consoles. Nintendo Japan called the NES the Famicom because they wanted to make it the sole family computer. Obviously that didn't work out, and most efforts to make consoles into all-in-one entertainment systems have ...more

This is the Windows OS counterpart to my tutorial on how to burn the new XDG3 formatted games on Xbox 360. Microsoft invented a new disc format system to trump piracy, it's called XDG3. XDG3's standard is to burn a whole extra gigabyte of data to the disc, to allow more conten ...more

Gamers who have their Xbox 360's firmware flashed may have recently noticed an inability to play backups, or even make backups of newer games that have come out, such as Gears of War 3 and Dead Island, to name a few. This is because Microsoft has come out with a new disc form ...more

Gamers who have their Xbox 360's firmware flashed may have recently noticed an inability to play backups, or even make backups of newer games that have come out: Gears of War 3 and Dead Island, to name a few. This is because Microsoft has come out with a new disc format to fi ...more

Shoot-em-up games, or shmups, consist of lone or small groups of players shooting at and being shot at by hordes of colorful enemies. The genre is thought to have peaked in the mid-'90s, but recent games in the indie world may be saying otherwise. Geometry Wars and other twin- ...more

The long tease that is the release of Minecraft Earth continues, this time with an opportunity to start playing what might be one of the hottest augmented reality games ever, before the general public. As promised back in May, Microsoft has opened up its closed beta program f ...more

As promised with its teaser from Build 2019, Microsoft has unveiled the details for its augmented reality version of Minecraft for smartphones. The company published a new trailer for the game, which has a rather similar feel to the trailer Niantic originally produced for Pok ...more

Game streaming has never been better. Not only can you watch your favorite Twitch streamer play, but with the new tools being added to YouTube, you can even play along with them. And now, with a solid internet connection, you can stream your Xbox One games to your phone to enj ...more

If you're a console or PC gamer, you may be quick to ignore the mobile version of Fortnite Battle Royale. The lower graphics and the switch to touchscreen controls may be enough reason to dismiss this version of the game. But don't be so quick to judge — there are actually som ...more

Apple remains shrouded in mystery while continuing to sweep up small companies ahead of a rumored augmented reality headset launch. On Friday, Apple confirmed the acquisition of a UK-based firm called iKinema, which specializes in 3D motion captures of human figures. Don't M ...more

There's more than one way to get free credits and discounts in the Google Play Store for apps, games, books, movies, in-app items, and other Play Store content. You may know a few of them — but some of these may surprise you. When it comes to spending on apps, games, and in-a ...more

Mobile gaming has exploded in recent years, with experts predicting 2.4 billion global mobile players by the end of 2019. It already accounts for 47% of the worldwide gaming market, besting console and PC. No wonder we've seen the rise of gaming smartphones, a class of phones ...more

Nobody could predict the success of Microsoft's Kinect, not even Microsoft themselves. So, it was quite a surprise when it ended up earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics device, and an even bigger surprise to see people buying one that didn't ...more

Mobile apps themselves are not always the end product or service for generating revenue. More often, they are deployed as tactics within a larger marketing or public relations strategy. For product manufacturers, apps can be used to sell anything from drinks and chips (by way ...more

If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?" Many of the top names in the industry from the 2018 edition remain the same, but their positions have shuffled. The p ...more

Can't play your DVD movies on your brand new Windows 8 system? That's because Microsoft decided to omit Windows Media Center from Windows 8 this time, instead making it available as an extra download—and it's not free anymore. At least, it won't be next year. What does that m ...more

It's currently 2011, but when you fire up your game console, put your hands on the controller and play the new Dead Space 2 video game, you're warped into the future— into the year 2511— just 3 years after the events that took place in the first Dead Space. And it's sure to be ...more

As we aim for a wireless world, technology's reliance on cloud computing services is becoming more apparent every day. As 5G begins rolling out later this year and network communications become even faster and more reliable, so grows our dependency on the services offered in t ...more

As people continue to upgrade their PCs to Microsoft Windows 8, more and more developers are adding content to the Windows Store. While the offerings are not as vast as Google Play or the iTunes App Store, it does have some solid apps for both productive users and those lookin ...more

Despite the launch of ARKit a year ago, and ARCore this year, a true killer app has not arrived for either platform, that's according to the head honcho for one of the leading development environments for 3D applications. In an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt on Wednesday, Un ...more

Beginners luck is a phrase I have always hated. But really, beginners luck comes down to not letting your experience in something get in the way of the idea. This past weekend, I drove to Atlanta for my first ever hackathon, HoloHack, presented by ThyssenKrupp. Twenty hours a ...more

It was definitely a shocker when Microsoft proposed cross-network play between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 last month. After all, Microsoft and Sony have been competing for the same user base for more than a decade now, and this new feature might actually decrease console s ...more

When Microsoft unveiled Mesh a couple of weeks ago, the move revealed a major part of Microsoft's next steps toward dominating the augmented reality space, particularly with regard to enterprise customers. But aside from the general details contained in the announcement, what ...more

If you've been following NextReality, you've surely seen me around, or at least have seen my articles. My name is Jason Odom, aka Subere23, and it's about time for a formal introduction. My background primarily falls in the computer game industry, and I have co-owned a small ...more

The older I get, the more my Friday nights involve watching Netflix at home with a bottle of Maker's Mark and a box of Oreos. Netflix is a big part of my life, and I'm not alone. YouTube and Netflix make up over 50% of all activity on the Internet, so it might be worth your ti ...more

Introduction Halo: Reach is Bungie's latest and final addition to the franchise. Microsoft has claimed the title and from now on 343 Industries will be working on the Halo franchise. In my opinion, Bungie's last game is the best out of all of them. These are some tactics and ...more

The last iOS software update was a modest one, but iOS 17.4 has a lot more for your iPhone, including changes to emoji, Podcasts, security, Safari, widgets, Apple Cash, CarPlay, and more. Many of the exciting changes in iOS 17.4, as well as iPadOS 17.4, apply to users in the ...more

Microsoft's new mobile operating system is officially out on the market, and programmers are hard at work developing new mobile apps for Windows Phone 7 devices. But there's a lot going on in this new platform, which means there's a whole lot to be learned, and the only man in ...more