Love 'em or hate 'em, Avatars are here to stay.  If you have to pick a very Nintendo-like animated persona, you may as well customize it, making it your very own.  Avatar Awards are one of the cooler ways to do this; earning certain achievements unlocks clothes and accessories for your 'toon self.  'Splosion Man did it first, and it looks like Left 4 Dead 2 is the next game to feature Avatar Awards.

A few zealous folks over at the Steam forums found some interesting code which reveals the goodies and how to earn them.

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Could this be one of the first really interesting use of Xbox Live's avatar system?  Activision has announced that Guitar Hero 5 will allows rockers to import their avatar into the game.  Co-Op just got a whole lot more personal as your mini-me will shred virtual metal next to the rest of your friends and their avatars.

The game supports mixing and matching of the traditional Guitar Hero chracters with the avatar ones.  The imported avatars can be further customized in the game's Create a Rocker mode, and no doubt, we'll see a premium Guitar Hero Avatar Marketplace launch this fall thanks to the new dashboard update.

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When avatars were announced for the Xbox 360 Dashboard update last year, many hardcore gamers groaned.  Yet, over a year later those same folks have meticulously crafted an avatar that's a mirror image of themselves.  With the upcoming dashboard update our avatars will be even more customizable with objects and set pieces for our avatar to interact with.

But what if we were all just a pawn in the avatar's game?  What if the world was seen from our little digital me's perspective?  Meet...the World of Reals.

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We've already covered a bit about Madballs: Babo Invasion.  We know the game will sport a four player online co-op mode putting players in the role of classic 80's franchise Madballs.  Today though we've learned of an interesting option the game will allow on the Xbox 360 version of the game.  

According to Destructoid, Madballs will allow you to use your Avatar head as the ball.  You'll be able to customize it to some degree, strapping yourself with the greatest ball killing weaponry.  Not only is this good for laughs, but it'll make it much easier to tell each other apart in the cooperative mode.

Don't believe us?  Check out the video of it in action.

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Photo from Tipheret's Flickr photostream

VG247 reported this week that Rare is teasing unlockable clothing -- and possibly accessory items -- for our Xbox 360 NXE avatars in the near future.

In a manner similar to Achievements, gamers will gain access to unique garb from select game developers as they work their way through the game.

This is something that Co-Optimus users have discussed in the forums, and it's good to see that Rare is on board with gamers in general. Of course, beyond turning Banjo into an animated papercraft...when has Rare not been in synch with gamers?

Now all we need is for Valve to get on board, and we'll have Left 4 Dead lookalike avatars and infected horde premium themes before we know it!

Thanks to Kielaran for the e-mail tip!

Source: Link

In celebration of the New Xbox Experience, game blogger site Joystiq has posted a gallery of 34 Avatars of the Rich and Famous, of which our own Nick Puleo is #20! Congratulations, Nick, on your fame and fortune!

After the "Read More" link, I've posted the avatars of our staff as they currently appear on Xbox Live, as well as a gallery of Co-Optimus users. If you're not in the gallery, and you want to be, post the image of your avatar, or post your Gamertag, and you'll be added.

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