Infinity Ward isn't the only company in gaming faced with gamer-related hacking dilemmas on the heels of the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" launch. Microsoft took decisive action this week by initiating mass bans of 600,000-1 million Xbox Live users found to be playing on modded consoles, which may catch a few cheaters, as well as unsuspecting console owners, off guard.

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Rewards program memberships won't be the only thing arriving in email inboxes from Microsoft this week. Russ shared his impressions of Facebook on the Xbox 360 earlier this month, but by Friday Microsoft plans on opening its new dashboard demo up to more users. The update, which will incorporate Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm functionality into the Xbox Live experience won't be ready for everyone this week, but after soliciting sign-ups from existing XBL users, new invites should be out in the next few days.

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Microsoft emails promising "cool stuff" have reportedly been distributed to select Xbox Live users as part of a new mystery rewards program. Though the emails don't explicitly say what users will receive for signing up by the October 21st deadline, they do brandish large headlines implying exclusivity and shiny things.

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The number of unauthorized Xbox 360 memory devices that are compatible with Microsoft's console is about to get crunched. A new system update coming to the system will cripple any plugged in hardware that Microsoft hasn't approved, and save files could suffer if they happen to get caught in the crossfire.

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Remember those Facebook and Twitter capabilities that would be available on Xbox Live for Christmas? One paragraph from a Microsoft's Xbox price-cut announcement this morning stirred up headlines by implying that Facebook and Twitter integration for Xbox Live users would only be open to Gold members. An official statement from Microsoft, however, appears to have back-peddled from that claim and leaves a morsel of hope for non-paying players on XBL.

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Xbox Live is down for the entire day today, so if you're looking to pwn some noobs, you've come to the wrong place. As an alternative, might we suggest these single player-only games to while the hours away? (Note: In the interest of keeping this list manageable, these games have no online components...but a great solo experience!)

Fallout 3

From a bang-for-your-buck perspective, few single-player games offer more value than "Fallout 3." Even without the DLC, you're looking at a good 40-50 hours of gameplay. Chances are by the time you put this one down you'll be just in time to play "Project Natal," let alone Xbox Live.
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Microsoft has never really been known for its openness, but in recent years it has made strides to bring the company closer to the community, thanks to folks like Major Nelson.

But when it comes to problems, they remain supremely tight-lipped. Take, for example, this morning, when a large smattering of gamers were unable to sign onto Xbox Live, receiving this error message instead:

"Xbox Live is experiencing a temporary service interruption. We are aware of the problem and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we apologize for this interruption and thank you for your patience."

Now that the outage has been resolved, though, I figured they'd be a bit more willing to talk about what went wrong, as well as their attempts to fix the issue. No such luck. When reaching out to an Microsoft representative, I received a very curt response: "Xbox LIVE is back up and running. Beyond that we don’t have any details to share."

Stuff like this happens with any online service. Something goes wrong in the chain and things break down for a little while. What would be nice, though, is a little more communication on the publisher's side to help relieve concerns of gamers who have paid good money for an online gaming service.