There are good sides and bad sides to living in India, especially if you happen to be a die-hard gamer. The good deal is that almost all PC and Xbox 360 games are a lot cheaper than their US/UK counterparts. That is, if the games actually release down here before the rest of the world has finished playing them three times over. Or worse, like UbiSoft Xbox 360 titles, turn up their noses and ignore us completely.

With first party titles like Halo 3 and Mass Effect enjoying a simultaneous release with their American counterparts, it was more than a little upsetting to PC owners here that Gears of War still wasn’t available on shelves. Naturally, Xbox 360 owners weren’t too happy with the regional restrictions and extremely low content on the Marketplace. After all, Reggie’s not in the best of moods if you keep him from buying DOOM!

However, talking to our stalkers in a short email interview, the good folks at Microsoft India let us know that they are indeed working to fix said problems. According to Sanjoy John, PC owners desperate for their Gears fix will be able to pick up their copies this week, while Xbox 360 owners will see a lot of new content, including more Arcade games and Bollywood related content (blech!), headed their way.

And to feed us rabid Mass Effect hungry zombies, copies will be available with the distributors on the 15th, and in stores around the 20th. And yes, there’s probably even going to be a nice, big launch party, where some of us will be gulping down food while the sane desperate ones try to get as quickly as they can to the alien boobies! Wonder if we’ll get to see any Liara cosplayers at the event.

Did you know Alan Bowman first started playing on an Atari? Neither did we, until we spoke to him, that is. Sitting down with us for a casual chat at the New Delhi presser for the Xbox LIVE India launch, Xbox Asia Pacific’s Director, Alan Bowman, a self proclaimed “casual gamer” (aren’t we all? Oh wait, we forgot about those 2 billion CS 1.6 jerks here) talks about his gaming habits and more importantly, working with local developers to generate “educational content” for Math, Science and the other subjects which will use the Xbox 360’s videogame prowess to help kids learn better. We think this is a great idea (even though Vijay for some reason seems to be very interested in “The Arbiter teaches typing”) and one that’s in line with the Games for Change initiative’s aim of deconstructing the myth that games can only be used as “practice” for deranged schoolkids with guns. Are you watching, huh, Jack Thompson?

Damn kids these days. Getting to learn with an Xbox 360 whereas we had to do it the old fashioned way. At least I had fun sneaking comics inside my textbooks.

So you thought all we did at the Microsoft Xbox LIVE India presser was just gorge on great food and kick each other’s asses in Halo 3? Nah, we actually took the time out to do, you know, real videogame journalism and all that jazz. First up in a series of video interviews, we’ve got the awesome Robbie Bach, positively beaming after the Xbox 360 Arcade announcements and the latest NPD numbers that put his baby on top. Talking to our two stalkers at yesterday’s launch event, Robbie talks about Games for Windows LIVE, Microsoft’s commitment to the Indian gaming market, and regional restrictions and how they’re slowly disappearing from the system. And oh, if you like Bollywood related content, Vijay just called them “crap”. Everybody, sic him! (I too, think they’re crap, but nobody sic me.) We’ll have more interviews with Alan Bowman and Mohit Anand later in the day.

Prefer to download the video? Here you go.

Download Video Interview with Robbie Bach (WMV/4.3 MB)

Remember the little big Microsoft announcement that we talked about some time back? With over 2 hours to go before the clock hits zero, we’ve got some news that will totally make you want to hug us. That’s how awesome we are. So revel, Indian gaming fans, in the knowledge that Xbox LIVE will be launching on November 5th, just in time for us to get our chainsaws revving in Gears of War.

Talking to the press at the Shangri-La hotel in New Delhi a couple of hours back, the Microsoft Awesome Foursome - Robbie Bach (President, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division), Alan Bowman (Director, Home and Entertainment Division, Asia Pacific), Ravi Venkatesan (Chairman, Microsoft India) and Mohit Anand (Country Manager, Entertainment and Devices, Microsoft India) - knocked everyone over with a barrage of announcements.

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Waiting for a game can be so tough, especially here where we’ve had to wait eons for some titles, or face the unhappy prospect of importing the damned things from Play-Asia. With Microsoft releasing all first party titles on Day 0, we were kinda surprised when PGR4 failed to follow in Halo 3’s release footsteps. With still no PGR4 on shelves, we contacted Microsoft for an official word, and while they haven’t mentioned a reason for the delay, they’ve promised that racing freaks should be able to get their hands on the game “by the end of the month or early next month.” Good news for those suffering from PGR withdrawal symptoms, I suppose, although we’re still waiting for an official comment on the release date of Gears of War PC. In the meantime, I suppose I can always amuse myself by riding around on top of a Ghost in Halo 3 co-op.

Everybody loves the holidays. Nothing reminds you of the drudgery of work like goofing off on a holiday, gorging on snacks and going 10 rounds on Halo 3’s Isolation. Makes you appreciate those summer holidays you had as a kid, it does. And if you are one of those who want to buy an Xbox 360 but strangely couldn’t find a good enough reason (yeah, right) to do so, there’s no better time than now.

With Diwali just around the corner, Microsoft India has decided that the best way for us to celebrate the “festival of lights” would be to get three flashing red ones. I kid, I kid. No, the proper way to indulge ourselves in the world of the Xbox 360 would be with - not one, not two, but three - holiday offers that’s bound to shoot extreme happiness into the hearts of gamers who don’t yet have the 360. For people like me, though, it just sends a thousand hot knives stabbing into the chest, but that could also be thanks to my all-Pringles diet.

Hit the jump to sink your teeth into the juicy details.

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With just over 4 days remaining for the big, mysterious announcement from Microsoft India, people have almost thrown themselves off bridges trying to figure out what the damn thing’s all about. Being the sick guy off work this week, what better way to spend my time recuperating than spreading and trying to substantiate rumors, right?

Even as hundreds of desperate fans try to analyze the image on the site, I think I may have just found a little more (ir?)refutable proof that the announcement will indeed be about Xbox LIVE. Thumbing through the Gears of War manual while waiting for a co-op session to begin, I noticed the Xbox LIVE ad in the manual has a number of “similar” characters. Which, combined with the little gold-colored concentric circles on the navigation menu on the Xbox India website, strongly points to the service soon finding its way into the country.

Of course, it’s quite possible that we’re setting ourselves, and hundreds of others, up for a huge fall, but, yeah, that’s how desperate and perverse we are. Or as the locals say, “kindly excuse, we are like this only!”