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The Spider-Man franchise has spawned a multi billion dollar industry worldwide. From comic books, movies, television, toys, memorabilia, games and so forth. Whether you are enamored with Spider-Man or abhor Spider-Man, he is here to stay. For the most part, Spider-Man games are fairly entertaining. Personally, I have always had a fantastic time with anything and everything that is affiliated to Spider-Man.

The new Spider-Man video game is another one of those games that will no doubt make Stan Lees bank account even richer. Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is a Spider-Man video game with an original perspective. That is because players will see Spider-Man becoming allies with his most malicious foes. Some of these adversaries entail Green Goblin, Dr. Otto Octavius, Venom, and Sandman. The location of the game is not exclusively set in New York city; the lovable hero will travel to different areas of Asia as well. There will also be a multiplayer component to the single player campaign. The plot in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is utterly ludicrous, but that is alright. Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is about a meter crashing down on earth with deadly repercussions. It is a breath of fresh air to view an innovative Spider-Man storyline. Many gamers are worn out of the same unoriginal plot with the Spider-Man video games time and time again. If Spider-Man fans were able to get pass the eccentric story in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, then they will easily overcome the story in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe. The gameplay has all the bells and whistles that Spider-Man nerds (like myself) will enjoy. There is your traditional web-slinging and swift Spider-Man maneuvers that will make gamers giddy.

Conversely, there are some rudimentary puzzle solving aspects in the game. Since Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is catered for the 10 - 14 age demographic, you will not be expected to accomplish a plethora of intricate puzzles. However, a few puzzles sprinkled in here and there are present to alter the pace. In addition, you will be able to swap to a different character (ala Resident Evil 0) on the fly. Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is expected to come out on the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, PC, and PlayStation 2. Activision has not corroborated if a PlayStation 3 version is under development. Not having a PlayStation 3 version of Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is illogical because Spider-Man and Sony are synonymous. Hopefully, a PlayStation 3 iteration will be announced shortly. Spider-Man: Friend or Foe is slated for an October 2, 2007 release date.

With many of the new video game systems having hit the market, most notably the XBox 360, which has been out for some time, but also the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3, many gamers are left wondering what to do with their old systems. While the option to sell of our old game machines is certainly a valid one, it may not be the best thing to do for that old big black Xbox that you think is just taking up space on your entertainment unit.

Yes, we could be $50 or $100 dollars for the good old Xbox on eBay, it may be much wiser to spend just a little bit of money, and turn that Xbox into something much more than just an old game system that you may not want to use any more. I'm sure you've all heard of Xbox Mod Chips, so I'll only briefly describe what exactly they are. What I will say though, is that it's quite possibly the best $29.00 investment you can make for your Xbox.

An Xbox mod chip is a small, mass produced micro controller that you can install into your Xbox. An Xbox mod chip allows you to play all types of games, such as backup games (where you copy your original game, put it away for safe keeping, and use your backup instead) as well as import games. Xbox mod chips also allow you to use emulators on your Xbox to play old classic NES or SNES games, as well as thousands of Arcade game too. Pretty much any old system you can think of, has an emulator made specifically for the Xbox, so you'll be able to play thousands of games.

However, there is also a little known (yet highly popular) extra function that xbox mod chips provide. Once you've installed your mod chip, you can swap out the standard Xbox hard drive with just about any size hard drive you can get your hands on. My Xbox has a 320 gig hard drive now, loaded with emulators and games, and a slew of homebrew applications. But the best part of it all, is something called the Xbox Media Center.

The Xbox Media Center is an add on that you can install onto your Xbox hard drive (even the regular 8 or 10 gig hard drives will do) that turns your Xbox console into a full blow dvd Player, DivX player, Mp3 Player, streaming video player, and so much more. In fact, it'll turn your Xbox into quite possibly the most advanced entertainment system available, all for a price of $0.00 - because you own the Xbox already.

With this simple installation (an Xbox Mod Chip is required) you'll have a Region Free dvd player, a DivX movie player, a file manager, built in SNES emulators and NES Emulators, as well as Sega Genesis / Mega Drive emulators and various other tools.

If you have a larger hard drive installed, there is also a piece of software built in called dvd to Xbox. This very unique software allows you to insert your Xbox disc into your Xbox, and then select the COPY dvd to XBOX and it will actually transfer your entire dvd disc, to your hard drive. You can play the game from the hard drive just as you would from a regular dvd disc, without the excessive load times.

One of the features that I like the most, is the streaming audio. The streaming audio lets you stream any Shoutcast radio station, right to your Xbox (when connected to the internet), turning your Xbox in to a streaming radio station, playing the music or songs you want to hear, whenever you want to hear them. On top of that, you can also watch Google Video and YouTube videos right on your TV screen too, by streaming them live from the Internet.

It has also replaced my dvd player, as my movie player of choice. It's actually a region free dvd player, so you could watch movies from any region, but on top of that, it has full support for divX, Xvid, and any AVI, Mp3, or Mp4 files. You can quickly and easily use the built in media player even to display your latest digital photos, right from CD-R or DVD-R discs. This easily beats almost any media center or media add on, and is truly a must have for your Xbox.

And best of all, it's all free. With the exception of the Xbox Mod Chip you require for the Xbox itself, all of the above mentioned software and features are completely free. If you're not one to solder, or don't like soldering at all, there are also no solder Xbox Mod chips available, which make installation a breeze, and you'll be up and running in no time.

In closing. I would urge you to reconsider selling what may seem to you to be an old game system, and turn it into something completely new, and different. It'll be the best $50 - $100 dollars you never got, from selling it on eBay.