As of 9am today, the Xbox Nations weekend is officially underway. What does that mean, we hear you ask? Well, for starters, it means that everyone can now access online multiplayer for FREE all weekend long - something that's usually the privilege of Xbox Live Gold members. Alongside the free multiplayer is a wide-ranging program of digital events that'll give you good reason to not go out and enjoy the summer sun - or, if your like us, make you feel a little bit better for burning so stupidly easily the sun and having awful hay fever. Sniff.
Yes, we know these are hurdles, but it's the same difference.
At 6pm on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of players around the world will be booting up Kinect Sports in an attempt to set a world record for the 'largest online 100m sprint'. Quite who holds this record to begin with, we don't know, but it's your chance to be part of something special, so if you have Kinect, why not give it a go? To take part, all you need to do is download the special gamerpicture, either by following our link, or by clicking on Xbox Nations on the Xbox Live Dashboard to register your participation. Then, all you have to do, come 6 pm GMT, is boot up the game with any number of players, select 100m sprint, and give it some welly! Everyone who takes part, as well as becoming a world record holder, will walk away with a free avatar t-shirt. You can't say fairer than that, can you?
Throughout the weekend, there'll also be a range of "Play and Win" prizes being given away, including a chance to train with boxing superstar Amir Khan, a pair of VIP tickets to a premier league match of your choosing, Reebok Trainers, some free passes to the Zune store, Microsoft's film and music downloading service, and, most importantly, some free Microsoft points. Details of what games you'll have to play, when in order to be entered into these draws will be available on the dashboard over the weekend.
So, there you have it. It may be sunny outside, but now you've got plenty of reasons to stay indoors! Or, you could set your Xbox 360 up outside, and make the best of both worlds...
