Hey everyone, it’s your pal Chris. JDL ate a whole bunch of ice cream and passed out, so I decided to get hopped up on Robitussin and fill in for him this week. It’s Time For Fever, baby!

Let There Be Lite!
Good things come in small packages!: IT World

There’s a new Xbox coming! The word is that the next Microsoft console won’t be the 720/Durango/Outback/whatever, but an even smaller $100 hard-drive-less, Kinect-enabled, media based console that can also play XBLA games. The source of this information, Reddit user MS Nerd says that the new console will ship in late 2013, and is intended to compete with Apple TV.

My suggestion? Just start bundling the Xbox 360 Arcade system with the Kinect, before those crafty folks at Costco do it first.

MLB.TV To Play Ball With Xbox Live
A homerun!: Bost Inno

The HBO Go app on Xbox LIVE will be joined by a sexy Comcast Xfinity and a sultry, stunning MLB.tv app. Add to that the combined powers of YouTube, Hulu, Netflix and VEVO apps and the Xbox 360 will be pretty much able to summon any form of entertainment you can think of! Just add beer — or even better, a glass of wine! Anyone with an XBOX Live Gold subscription will get one free game per day on MLB.tv, however, broadcasts are susceptible to IP-address based blackouts of local games. On the plus side, all games are available in archived format, available after the game airs.

With Comcast and HBO added to YouTube, VEVO, Netflix and Hulu, XBOX Live is quickly making a big play for the television audience, which is a big move for them as SONY has focused on the PlayStation as a gaming and Blu-Ray device, although the PS3 network certainly has its own fair share of perks.

As an extra bonus feature, gamers can use voice commands to skip through archived games while choosing your commentator of choice, sparing Yanks fans from ever having to hear Jerry Remy’s voice. He’s not a bad guy, he just roots for the wrong team.

Makes Me Want To Shout
Fus ro dah, baby!: IB Times

Pete Hines, of Bethesda tweeted this on Friday. “Some things coming down the road in April for all you ‘Rage’ and ‘Skyrim’ fans….April is gonna have some cool news and surprises. Stay tuned.” While no one knows what grown man tweets or what the cryptic message meant for sure, details from Gamefaqs leaked information about new downloadable content which is expected to launch soon. Described as “massive DLC,” the DLC is expected to include a Morrowind expansion involving werewolves, a war with the Thalmor somewhere in Cyrodil and the ominously and tentatively titled “Riders of Hammerfell.”

Bethesda hasn’t given any official word on whether DLC is coming at all but it is worth noting that back in December, director Todd Howard dropped some hints about potential DLC releases and finding “ways to make the game better, not just have more, because the game is so big,” according to Joystiq. “So we’re going through ideas right now, and processing everything people are doing in the game, and trying to think of ways we can improve it.”

You want to improve Skyrim? Let us play as the frickin’ dragons!

Ex-Microsoft Employee Gets A Kick In The Pants From Kickstarter Donors
Kick it!: TechFlash

Stephen Toulouse (Stepto to his friends and especially to his ladyfriends we bet), was an 18 year veteran at Microsoft, but recently he decided to take some time off to write a sci-fi novel. When Stepto wrote “A Microsoft Life,” a memoir of sorts, last year he realized how much he loved writing.

“I had this other thing in the corner of my mind,” he said. “I wanted this fun project.”

So, Stepto hopped online and asked Kickstarter donors for $1,000 to cover editing and printing costs, but by the fund-raiser’s end he had raised $6,300. The donors who contributed $50 each will receive a signed hardcover version of the new book with a personalized message and a personal note of thanks. Toulouse admits that he doesn’t really need the excess money, but the abundance of funds will let him focus on his novel instead of other projects as well as expand the project from a 50,000-word text to something longer.

I wonder how much of that extra $5300 will get spent at Pizza Hut.

Farmville On The 360?
Grow those crops, pal!: GMA Network and Gamezebo

Zynga, the Farmville guys, may be coming to XBLA, a gaming site reported. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus had suggested that his boys were working on some new-fangled technological advancements that would allow gamers to transfer game save states between PC and platform and back.

“Microsoft’s Xbox was mentioned specifically, which has led to speculation that Zynga integration with Xbox Live may soon be upon us. On one hand, it seems like this kind of natural expansion is a no-brainer. On the other, though, this concept doesn’t seem very natural or necessary,” said Gamezebo, who also analyzed the article.

Meanwhile, Zynga developer Brian Reynolds’ had said last year that the Xbox demographic was “too small” for Zynga’s Facebook and mobile reach — even though Xbox Live is estimated to have 30 million subscribers. On the other hand, Pincus feels that his games could be “customized for the Xbox controller,” which would make Zynga games a welcome presence on Xbox Live.

I love Farmville, I don’t care what JDL says about it being evil, but as much as I love it, let’s leave in the computer. No one’s going to pay 800 MS points to play a browser/social media game.