Attack of the King, Microsoft rentalflix?, and F.E.A.R.

Well those Burger King games that I mentioned a while back come out on November 19th (Wiiday to some of you). Remember they are 360 games that cost $3.99 each with the purchase of a value meal? Well there are a couple trailers up on YouTube so you can check them out. First up Sneak King...


Wow... kinda scary huh? For $4 and 200 achievements (like a LIVE Arcade game) I probably pick it up, the graphics remind me of the Sims. Next up is Pocketbike Racer...

This one actually doesn't look too bad gameplay wise, and isn't quite as scary.

There is a rumor flying around that Microsoft is going introduce HD movie rentals, and maybe purchases via the marketplace. Who knows? They shot down the rumor of the 100GB hard drive, and HD video storage takes up a lot of room just ask my Cox DVR's.

I picked up F.E.A.R. this week and finally got to play a little last night. It looks really nice on the 360 and plays at a solid framerate (unlike the slideshow my PC created...). Someone was talking about it today saying they had watched the pre-order DVD (given away at GameStop/EB Games) and it just looked horrible, so he returned his unopened copy of the game. Now I haven't watched that pre-order DVD so I can't attest to the quality of it, but I think the game looks better than even the demo did a month ago.
PS. Gears of War next Wednesday, I'm sooo excited!

EA from behind, and Halo 3 cubed.

Ok I've heard the rants about microtransactions on 1UPYours podcast for the last couple episodes, and some I'm starting to believe. For those of you unaware types, microtransactions are the little things you buy from the LIVE marketplace with your Microsoft points. These range from your LIVE arcade games (DOOM, Time Pilot, etc..) to horse armor packs for Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion, or in the case of EA cheat codes. It started with the Godfather content about a week ago, you could unlock various 'stuff' in the game for a price. Ranging from 75 points to 400 points you could get in game cash, henchmen or weapon upgrades or EA was nice and put up a discount package where you could get all of the unlockables for 800 points ($5). The problem being is all of this stuff could be unlocked by playing the game, that is why you bought it right? Well hot on the heals comes the Need for Speed : Carbon content, yes indeed 11 packs totaling 3940 points that's $49.23 for those of you wondering. That shiny new game you picked up for $59.99 is now running $109.22 not including tax. :( Now in all fairness to EA one of the packs is the collector's edition upgrade for 800 points ($10) you get all the extras from the CE version of the game which is no cheaper or more expensive than getting it at retail. I would say that no one will buy this crap so it will go away swiftly, but even I know that's not true. What is that saying about a stupid person born every minute??

On a brighter note, Halo 3 is now available for pre-order at GameStop/EB Games , coming in 3 editions (regular, collector's, and legendary) hitting your wallet for $59.99, $69.99, and $99.99 supposedly on November 7, 2007. Let's just jump to the monster legendary set, 4 disc packaged in a replica Spartan helmet that measures 8x10.5x11 you can place your pre-orders for $5,$10, and $25 depending on how far you want to go. Did the latest Famitsu magazine in Japan give us our first glimpse of the legendary set in their Halo 3 preview in this picture?

Gears of War video porn...

GameTrailers.com has posted a bunch of multi-player HD videos from Gears of War. There are 13 different videos covering 4 of the multi-player maps (Fuel Depot, Roof Tops, Mansion, and mausoleum would be my guesses) from the game. Thanks to the suggestion from someone on DVDTalk I downloaded the .wmv HD files and burned them to a CD-R stuck them in the 360 and was able to play them from the MEDIA blade (Thanks! Fall update) in beautiful High-def. :) They looked phenomenal, overall the graphics are gray/sepia tone future apocalypse style which lends to the game. The first time I seen a head shot (through a scope), and the curb stomp I was yelling at the screen! This game is bloody violent make no mistakes, I can see now why all of the websites have you enter your birthday before viewing content from the game.

EDIT: As I was writing this I noticed that GameTrailers seems to have taken the multi-player trailers down since last night. :(

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

360 overhaul and excitement, Saint's pimped, and Saw that.

Well if you haven't turned on your 360 today (shame on you...) when you do you'll be greeted with the Fall dashboard update. It started going live about 2 AM this morning, and adds oodles of new features with the biggest being support for the new accessories (wireless headset, HD-DVD drive, wireless wheel, etc.) and some tweaks here & there for the dashboard. We're almost to November and there are lots of new releases headed out in the next couple months. I'm really looking forward to F.E.A.R. next week, Gears of War the week after that, and other games like Call of Duty 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Viva Pinata that I'm interested to see but, I know there's not enough time to play them all. There was a Halo 3 theme posted on the marketplace (150 MSPoints), but I gather it's a free download if you purchase the Halo faceplate that should be in stores tomorrow. I wonder if the other faceplates (Viva Pinata, Forza 2) will have similar offers?

Saint's Row is finally getting a patch (that was mentioned 2 months ago right after the game came out.) which I think mainly fixes multiplayer, and minor problems in single player game play. Just like the Fall dashboard update, when you stick SR in the 360 it will prompt you for the update download.

I finally got around to watching Saw II last week on DVD (the uncut edition was released) for the first time. Luckily it coincided with the theatrical release of Saw III so I went to see it Thursday night when the projectionist was screening it. Part three picks up immediately where part two leaves off so watching them in succession was pretty cool, although overall part three was good it did annoy me a little. It tries to tie all of the movies together by reshowing parts of the first one, and the second (sometimes from different perspectives to it's benefit). Maybe it was because I had just watched the second one an hour earlier (if it had been a year like between the theatrical releases it may have not bothered me so much.) I felt like I was having to re-watch stuff I didn't want to see again. I think this all stems from Back to the Future II while I love the series, part II was the weakest link. I was so annoyed watching 30 minutes of the original over again that it placed part II firmly below either the original or part III in my mind. Saw III overall wasn't as good as either the first or the second, but it's a necessary viewing to get the overall story and continuity of the series. I'll give it ** 1/2 stars.

More on Gears, Cheap points redux, eBay enforcement, and no biggie sized drive.

Gears of War hype is building steady, there was a 'match made in Hell' event last night at the Hollywood Forever cemetery and Siliconera has a report up about the party, as does Gamerscore Blog with lots of pictures. There is also some new free content up on the marketplace, a TV/Movie theater Ad for GoW completely made up of in-game footage that runs about 60 secs. Did I mention it looks freakin' sweet!

I mentioned about this weeks Best Buy ad where you could get a 1600 points card for $4.99 with the purchase of any Xbox 360 game. Well those CheapAssGamers have found that the Gears of War pre-order box will trigger the sale price. Just take your points card, and GoW pre-order box to the front and walk out with a T-Shirt, and 1600 points for $10.72 (depending on your tax rate).

eBay has posted firm guide lines for PS3, and Wii pre-sell auctions. Which basically state 1 auction per eBay account, you must be in good standing (feedback of 60, with a 98% or higher rating, and accepting only PayPal payment), and you must have a picture of your pre-sell receipt in the listing. I'm assuming once the game systems are released, these criteria will be nullified.

It seems the Korean 100GB hard drive announcement a while back was a hoax by some really mean individual. Microsoft has announced that they have no plans at this time to release a larger hard drive unit.

Free Gears schwag, really cheap points, and other ramblings...

If you attended the Gears of War 'After Dark' event at your local GameStop/EBGames (last Saturday) the theme/gamer picture hand out you got is working now. Actually in my opinion they are both kinda lame, the theme has only 2 different pictures that repeat behind the third and fourth blades (plus they are dark and have the GameStop logo at the top) while the 5 gamer pictures include Marcus, 2 Locust, 1 other good guy, and a chainsaw logo. I'm glad they were free because I would be a little upset had I spent the real world $1.87/$1.00 (150 points/80 points) equivalent on them since that's what themes/gamer pics usually sell for. I've never bought any of the themes/gamer pics from the marketplace (those should be pre-order bonuses, or a lot of games unlock gamer pics when you play them) mainly because I've never seen any that were worth money to me. All of that being said I'm liking the Call of Duty 3 themes that were released yesterday primarily the 'pin-up' one (You can see them here (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page)).

I guess that goes right into the points sale I mentioned a last time going on at Best Buy this week. Enterprising gamers have found that if you buy the GoW pre-order box and the points card in the same transaction the register prompts for the package price which knocks the points card down to $4.99 so for $9.99 + tax you can pick up 1600 points, and a cool GoW t-shirt. :)

I got a new cable modem yesterday that I purchased on eBay. The cable guy had informed me that mine was out of date last week and I wasn't getting all the bandwidth that I should be getting. I tried hooking it up last night after work, but was unable to get a signal so I went back to the old modem. I'll try again tonight since it didn't seem like the tech last night knew too much, or didn't really care one of the two. :(

360 biggie sized, discount points, and movie time.

Gameinside has some pictures up from a Korean press conference today that shows all of the upcoming holiday peripherals for the XBox 360 (ie. 256MB memory card, Wireless Headset, PC wireless adaptor, etc...). The one item on the list that we haven't heard about was the 100 GB hard drive unit, from what I've read on forums there was no price announced. There was a Microsoft show in Canada (Toronto X06) yesterday from what I can gather, and speculation was that the drive would be announced there also, but I can't seem to find any mention of it. Seems weird that it would be a localized Korean thing because I could really use a 100GB drive.


Some deals on marketplace points: Fill in your address at Xbox360Achiever.com and then sign up for a 7 day free trial at True.com (dating service) once they acknowledge you signed up 360Achiever will mail out a 1600 point card to you, just call in and cancel your trial at True.com before the seven days are up and your not out any $$$. True.com will require a credit card to sign up, but won't charge you until day the free offer expires. There are a lot of success stories over at CheapAssGamer.com, I got about half way through the True.com survey but felt dirty so I decided not to do it, but it sounds like a great deal for you single people. :)

The easier deal (although not as cheap) BestBuy will be doing a promotion in next weeks ad where you purchase any Xbox 360 game, and you can buy a 1600 point card for $4.99 (normally $19.99). This makes some of those live arcade games pretty cheap, like Lumines Live (Basic pack) for $3.75 or Galaga, Frogger, Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, and Pac-Man for $5.00?? The website has the offer posted here, but it doesn't seem to be active yet maybe they jumped the gun?

I got around to seeing a movie yesterday (it's been a while... geez) afternoon wasn't to hyped for The Departed, but a friend wanted to see it so I went along. First let me state I'm not much for the 'mob' genre of film, and that's where I had pigeon holed this one based on the preview alone. I actually liked this pretty well, I don't know if its because I didn't expect much or what, but it thoroughly exceeded my expectations! It was violent, bloody, and especially vulgar all good things rolled into a fat juicy ball. The story had a lot of twist and turns trying to keep you off guard I assume, and Leonardo DiCaprio/Matt Damon look to similar to me (my only gripe with the movie).

Home sweet home, cable blues, and maybe more.

Well we got move-in livable at the new house, finally. I'm amazed at the amount of junk still left at the old house though, it evidently isn't even important junk because I haven't needed any of it yet. :) Kids start their new schools tomorrow morning so I have to get up early so we can get there before classes start to get schedules, id's, lockers, etc.

Unfortunately there was some drawbacks I worked really hard to get my computer equipment tore down, moved, and reassembled all in one night only to find that the cable jack in my new computer room was defunct. :( After messing with it the better part of the night I gave up and went to bed. I called Cox the next afternoon after work hoping it was some snafu on their end and everything would be easily fixed, no such luck. I found out my cable modem is out dated (damn) and not compliant with the latest DOCSIS enhancements (so that free speedbump they sent out a week or two ago I didn't gain the extra speed increase). Finally had to set up a service call for someone to come out and check the jacks, as no one was available over the weekend (on my end) I had to wait and schedule it for this morning. Sure enough my jack is DOA, but I did get split off the jack in the bedroom to at least get back up and running until they can come back and run a new cable line. I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms I think, but everything is okay again now.

I guess over the weekend I missed the Phantasy Star Online 360 beta download, and just found out about the Splinter Cell Double Agent demo yesterday. It looks as though Xbox Live is going to be down all day October 17th, although they gave a creative list of 10 things to do without access to Live. They promised some 'new cool stuff', but haven't stated much more than that so I guess we'll have to wait until the 18th to see what it is.

Best Halloween costume ever, and do the math.

I love it! This guy decided to craft his Halloween costume from cardboard, and duct tape (probably a lot of duct tape).

PS3Fanboy has a post where they 'run the numbers' from yesterday's PS3 pre-order madness at EB Games/Gamestop. They come up with some interesting numbers approximately 43,200 units were pre-ordered, 7,200 could have went to employees, and $4,320,000 was deposited into Gamestop's bank account (although that number wouldn't be correct because it doesn't take into account trade-in or store credit that was used).

Moving, moving, mo-ving. PS3 line up, 360 HD, and more.

Okay, I'm getting tired of moving. :( This long, dragged out process is getting to me, I wish it was over, my best advice if you are planning on moving take a week off and do it all at once. This little bit here, little bit there crap sucks especially after 15~16 years, you accumulate a lot of stuff, ummm crap. I'm happy to say we are getting close to at least living in the new house, while everything may not be moved it will be stuff we don't need for everyday living. The kids last day at their current schools is Thursday since it is the end of the nine weeks, so it has 'intensified' the process.


Well unless you were living in a cave the last two days you know that Gamestop/EB Games opened the PS3 pre-orders on Tuesday morning $100 down snagged you a place in line (?) for a system Joystiq has a couple of post about the lines in the west coast, and the east coast editions. In related news shortly after the pre-orders started (and ended 2 mins later...) auctions started popping up on eBay for pre-order systems, it seems most all are being pulled (presumably because eBay says you can only sell items which will be available within 30 days of purchase) and some of the auction posters have been banned, WTF?? Still unknown is any information about Wii pre-orders, although I've read (rumors/gossip/guesstimate) that they will start Friday morning, since there was only about 12-15 hours of lead time on the PS3 announcement I guess it still could happen.

Someone captured the first advertisement for the 360 HD-DVD add-on here. It's okay, but I know a lot of 360 owners through work, and I don't think the approach needs to be that 'urban'. I realize the core (360) market is probably 18-28 year old males, but is that the same market for an HD-DVD drive?

I've been playing a bit more Saint's Row lately, I was hung up on one of the missions (I don't do well driving/shooting at the same time) and was taking a break, but played again the other night went straight through the first try. I can say I now own the Westside Rollerz territory got me a new crib, and some dope wheels. :) I'm currently concentrating on trying to finish a hitman activity, and a couple of these losers are driving me nut trying to find them.

BK on the 360, have it your way! and must see TV.

Gamerscoreblog have posted an article about the Burger King games coming to your Xbox/Xbox 360 November 19th, 2006. I remember hearing/reading a rumor about this early this year, and it looks like its coming true.

BURGER KING® restaurants invite guests to give and get the gift of games this holiday season with three ground-breaking Xbox/Xbox 360 video games available exclusively at BURGER KING restaurants nationwide. For a limited time only, starting Sunday, Nov. 19, the BK® Xbox Game Series a collection of three authentic Xbox video games will be available at participating restaurants for a recommended price of $3.99 per game with the purchase of a Value Meal.

Compatible on both Xbox and Xbox 360 platforms, Pocketbike Racer, Big Bumpin'’ and Sneak King” are based on some of the most popular video game genres racing, action and adventure and rated “E for everyone. All three exclusive titles blend the popularity of BK® brand icons, such as the King and Subservient Chicken, into visually rich, three-dimensional environments that give players of all ages an entertaining, interactive experience on one of the most popular video game platforms in the world.

Looks like a pretty decent deal lunch & a game for under $10, I wonder if they will have achievements? Check out the link above for details on each game, and check out this flickr link where Major Nelson has posted some screenshots from the games.

I've watched the second episodes of both Heroes, and Jericho and find that I'm really liking both shows. Jericho is about a son who returns to his hometown of Jericho, Kansas (not a real town, but the wikipedia entry has some interesting comparisons taken from the series, and applied to the 'real' world.) trying to start his life over. After a failed meeting with his father he sets out to leave again only to get outside of town and witness a mushroom cloud just before he's involved in a wreck. The story then focuses on the town and how they are coping cut off from the outside world as information and clues trickle in.

KC Reflections, best Mexican food ever, X06, and 100 movies in October.

Trip to Kansas City went well last Thursday even though we didn't end up with much time. I had printed out directions to Dave & Busters since I wasn't sure where it was, it turns out that Mapquest's directions were a little off having me turn the wrong direction in the last step. The Legends Mall it turns out is a new shopping mall located near the Kansas Speedway race track (Cabela's, Great Wolf Lodge, and Nebraska Furniture Mart are close by too).

We found Dave & Busters after driving around the mall for a bit. The food was excellent (as it was in Denver), and we got the $15.99 Power Lunch special ($10 play card/lunch entree). It looks like D&B pretty much carry the same games at each location, with the exception of 2 Nascar simulator's (most likely due to the proximity of the race track) at the KC location, as well as a roof-top bar. After a couple hours of fun & games we decided to walk around the mall, finding the smallest GameStop ever, it has to be smaller than the Towne East EB Games location locally. I did get a kick out of the Legends store directory listing... Why did they name it GameStop only to refer to it as EB Games? :)

GameStop (NOW OPEN) EB Games specializes in the sale of video game hardware and software, PC entertainment software, and related accessories. EB Games is known for having high-demand titles in stock, maintaining a strong commitment to customer service and providing highly knowledgeable sales associates who are passionate about games.

The next stop was Nebraska Furniture Mart, this place is HUGE two floors of furniture, computers, video games, appliances, carpet, audio/video, CD's, a Quiznos, and a coffee shop. We were there for an hour and didn't finish the first floor, let alone even get to the second floor. Imagine Furniture Row, Best Buy, Ultimate Electronics, Circuit City, and more doubled.

The only downer on the trip was the KC airport, for some reason I found it really confusing to get around (probably didn't help that it was dark out, and I've never been there). My mother-in-law's luggage didn't make it back with her (although I heard they called today saying they had found it and shipped it to her), but she arrived (about 30 minutes late) in good spirits even though she spent most of the day flying.

I had heard from a friend that Abuelos was really good, and decided Friday to try it out. WOW! I had the Fajita Chimichanga, Shrimp chowder, and a very excellent Island Margarita (maybe that's why the food was so good...). I know that's not it, as my wife and kids really liked their meals too.

X06 is over but the Microsoft press conference had some juicy tidbits (although most of the stuff from the Neoseeker post didn't materialize). The HD DVD add-on is $199.99 including a universal remote, and King Kong HD DVD for a limited time. The trailer for Halo Wars (RTS based on the Halo universe) looks awesome, as does the gameplay footage from Assassin's Creed, and Gears of War (check out Xbox360fanboy has links to all of the above.). The only demo we got in Bringing it Home was WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 (whoppee!) although there were a bunch of new videos added.

DVDTalk forum is having its "2nd Annual October Horror Movie Challenge" where the goal is to watch 100 horror movies in 31 days. I didn't do this last year, but I followed the thread and it looked like a lot of fun. While I don't think I'll hit 100 movies (3 per day is a stretch) I'm aiming for 31, and my list will be here if you want to follow along. :)

Kannnssaass CITY! Bye TGS, Hello X06, and more.

I'm headed to KC tomorrow, volunteered to pick-up my Mother-in-law from the airport (she took a trip to Germany). I'm off anyway and will be able to spend the day up there, Dave & Busters here I come. :)

Well the Tokyo Game Show has come to an end meaning that the first part of "Bringing it Home" on XBox Live is over too. There wasn't any stellar content put up, but we did get some cool demos (F.E.A.R., Lego Star Wars II, and Fusion Frenzy 2) if you hadn't tried them yet. Major Nelson reflected on his trip, but there wasn't a lot of big news. Moving on around the globe, X06 in Barcelona, Spain starts tomorrow, and Microsoft's press briefing starts at 6:00pm BST (about 11 am here in doodah). Neoseeker forums had this post where someone got 'leaked' information on Microsoft's planned announcements, and lineup. Most of the info is just rumor at this point, as there was not a credited source for the info, Xboxic, and Kotaku have posted their feelings on the rumor post which is worth a glance.

Some of the highlights include:
A Black 360 system for the holidays, in all regions. (I like my white 360, but choices are nice although Spice would have been a better choice. Besides other system colors, what happened to our holiday bundle (system/PGR3/marketplace points/etc.) that all the other regions got?

A launch price and date for the HD DVD add-on $199.99 US with universal remote, on November 24th 2006 (I like Japan's bundle with two movies included, but the price is okay with me considering a stand alone player would cost $400+).

Halo 3 native 1080p, with 50-64 multiplayer matches. (Wow! Don't think anywhere close to that, but it would be impressive.)

Alan Wake shown, and playable on the floor. (I saw a demonstration of this at E3 2005 and it looked phenomenal then. Looked like a Stephen King novel, turned into survival horror.)

Rare to show off Killer Instinct also playable on the floor. (I pumped a lot of quarters into KI, and KI2 at the arcade, really enjoyed the characters and theme of the game.)

The following demos are supposed to hit with the second half of "Bringing it Home" on the Marketplace.

Splinter Cell Double Agent multiplayer (Cool)
Crackdown (Not interested so far)
Forza Motorsport 2 (Doubt it, since it's pushed to next year)
Sonic the Hedghog (This was supposed to be a TGS demo)
Viva Pinata (Interested to see if it captures the Animal Crossing feel)
Need for Speed Carbon (Cool)
Call of Duty 3 (Really Cool)
Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Football?? no it's Soccer)
Mass Effect (Most sites seem to feel this one will be a no show)

All in all it looks like we have the opportunity to see some good stuff if even 75% of this turns out legit.

Watched Heroes last night on NBC, and I liked it. It's a fantasy series that ask what if ordinary people awoke one day with extraordinary powers? In the previews for the next couple weeks it looks like this is almost going to be a comic book/superhero type series. You can check it out again tonight they are re-running the pilot episode again (excuse me it's an encore presentation.).

Tokyo, more 360 HD, not Wii-mpressed, and more.

Well the Tokyo Game Show kicked off today (9/20) and runs until Sunday (9/24). Like this year's E3 Microsoft is hosting a big blowout of demos, videos, and information through Xbox Live calling it 'Bringing it Home'. MajorNelson has a list of today's content, some of which is localized to Japan (but you did set-up your foreign account already, didn't you?).

Some early news from the Microsoft press conference shared via Kotaku includes info that the HD-DVD add-on will hit Japan on November 22, 2006 for 19,800 yen (~about $169.00 US), and even better a new fall dash update will allow the console to display 1080p games, and movies! Now, unfortunately I'm not one of those that have a 1080p capable display, but it's good news none the less. One more thing that the PS3 no longer has an edge over the 360 in.

The more I hear (and see) about the Wii has left me unimpressed. Before E3 this year I was stoked for the system, but since then the impressions of people that played it at E3, and the Leipzig show have left me cold. I think that the $250.00 price tag is too high especially when they throw in a game that is multiplayer centric, but only include one controller. This is even more peculiar when Japan doesn't get the game (WiiSports) as a pack in, but when sold separately comes packaged with an extra controller(!?) for the same price as a normal game. At this point in time I won't be getting one at launch, unless the demo units (hopefully) available before launch totally blow me away. 1UPYours podcast last Friday (9/15) they have a lively discussion on the Wii information, well worth the listen.

Under the more topic, there is a new DS download station (Volume 3 for those of you keeping track) that includes demos of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2, Elite Beat Agents, Danny Phantom : Urban Jungle, and Clubhouse Games. Right now all of these are new(!) titles, so this is really amazing. I've been disappointed in the earlier download stations because most if not all of the games were already released. I see a demo as a preview, an interactive coming soon trailer if you will. They are supposed to peak my interest, and wet my appetite so that when the game is released I'm eagerly awaiting it. When the demos show up a month or so after the release I don't care anymore, if I wanted it I've already bought it, and if not by that time I'm not interested in trying the demo because I've already made up my mind. Back to the download station, I've tried Mario vs. DK2, and Elite Beat so far and really enjoyed both, Mario Vs. is almost like a Lemmings game, and Elite Beat is the U.S. sequel(??) to the Japanese Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
rhythm game is fun, although the demo is kinda short. I hear that Danny Phantom is actually like R-Type, and the guys at DualScreen Radio really like Clubhouse Games.

Closing on the new house was today, so I'm farther in debt. :) That's not a bad thing though because I'm excited to move, and both kids are looking forward to changing schools (okay maybe only one, but they both are excited to be getting new rooms.). Work right now is kinda strange because of vacations, and meetings so I'm working different shifts, and don't have a weekend available to move yet. We will try moving bits at a time, but I don't know how fast we'll actually be living there.

The new TV season is in full swing, and there are a bunch of new shows demanding my attention, as well as some favorites. I'll be updating the sidebar list in an effort to track the stuff I watch regularly. Amazing Race (#10 again for those counting) started Sunday night, this season Phil promised the racers things they hadn't seen before, and we got the first one less than 30 minutes in when the first team was eliminated before the first legs pit stop. I find it hard to like any of the teams this time, but I'm going to say that Erwin & Godwin the Asian brothers will be winning team followed by Tyler & James the rehab models, and Rob & Kimberly bringing up the rear.

I'm still playing Saint's Row even though someone came in the other day and ruined the ending for me. :( There is a lot of upcoming releases in Oct/Nov that I'm looking forward to so I need to work through it a little faster. Microsoft announced their 'platinum hits' lineup for the 360, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Need for Speed : Most Wanted would be dropping to $29.99 in early October. For NFS:MW this is a good deal, but the other three? Come on, they've been on sale for that price (or lower) already?! Call of Duty 2 for the 360 has sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. alone and it's not a 'platinum hit'? I'm a little disappointed by the price also, I mean $29.99 is 50% off new retail for 1 of them, but the other 3 were $49.99 to start with which is only 40% off (disregarding the fact earlier about sales and so forth). I realize that more of the titles will come from the $60 price point (since Microsoft only has out what 4 titles...) down the road, and maybe $19.99 is too low, but I think $24.99 would have been a happy medium (yes, I'm cheap).

Soon, you can touch the Wii!

Gamespot has this news article up detailing the Nintendo Wii launch in the U.S. The console will be available on November 19th (two days after the PS3 launch for those of you wondering) for $249.99. It will come with a pack-in game Wii Sports which is a compilation of Tennis, Golf, Baseball, and Bowling. Eurogamer has linked to videos from the Japanese press conference showing off the Wii's menu system.

The more I think about it releasing the Wii 2 days after the PS3 is probably a really good idea. Sony's 400,00 units will easily be gone in two days, and all of those people looking will be finding stacks of Wii's. Nintendo isn't trying the 'worldwide launch' meaning that Wii's will be plentiful in the U.S. since it doesn't launch in Japan until the first week in December.

Edit update, USAToday has confirmed the release info, and here is a link to the Japanese press conference on Nintendo Japan (in English with slides, and videos.).

Dashboard lights, and big news .

MaxConsole has a story with a picture of a new 360 dashboard update that should hit sometime in November.

Joystiq's big news turned out to be craptacular! It seems it was a press release from IBM stating that they had been shipping their Broadway chip (used in the Wii) since July. Whoopee.

PS3 woops, big next-gen news, and more Row.

GameIndustry.biz has an article where Sony announces that they will not do a world wide launch (PS3 to be delayed in Europe until 2007), and only 400,000 units will be available in the U.S. at launch.


Joystiq (and other news sites) have an article that they say there will be some big(?) next gen news they can pass along at 12:01am Eastern (11:01pm here in doo dah).

I'm enjoying Saint's Row a lot (so much so that I'm seeing Blue Honda's here in town and yelling West Side Rollerz suck!). Some people are really creative when creating their gang persona I've seen the following examples of Mr. T, and Chuck Norris. :)

Circuit City ask you to bend over, dancing cows, the Eagles baby, and 1upyours!

Okay Kotaku posted this a couple days ago. It seems that one California Circuit City store is charging the low price of $28.99 to install the free backwards compatibility update to your Xbox 360. :( Ummm... yeah.

Finally got around to using my 'raincheck' tickets at the drive-in. If you remember we got half way through Cars before the unpredictable Kansas weather decided to flair up about 2 months ago. We went to Starlite last night, as did a lot of other people, and watched Barnyard, and Invincible. I really liked both the movies, Barnyard had looked funny in the previews, and didn't disappoint. It's one of those animated features that includes enough 'adult' jokes that parents don't get bored to tears sitting through it. I was shocked at the end to find it was a Steve Oedekerk film, whose Kung Pow still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Looking at that credit page on IMDB it seems he actually writes some pretty decent stuff (minus all the stupid 'thumb' features).

The second feature was Invincible based on the true story of Vince Papale. A part-time bartender that got to play in the NFL after a new head coach held open tryouts for the 1976 Philadelphia Eagles. Excellent movie, sure its a overused premise 'root for the underdog', but I really enjoyed it. Highly recommend it if your a football fan, and enjoyed others in the genre like Rudy, and Radio.

I've found another podcast that I enjoy and added it to my listening que. I listen to DualScreenRadio regularly (whenever there is a new episode), and Major Nelson's podcast on occasion (depending on that week's show). Well I found the 1UP Yours podcast a couple weeks ago, and have listened ever since. Great round table group of usually four members who talk smack, and share their opinions on a lot of current gaming issues.

On the Row, bonus content, road trips and mini-marts.

Finally got around to playing Saint's Row last night for a while. Finished a couple of missions, but was mainly just running around trying to find the hidden CD's. Jumped on top of the elevated train and went around the map like I did in the demo (looks better now with all the textures present). Found out this really isn't for kids (I knew that already, but some of things that come out of their mouths...) so I don't know if I can let my daughter watch me play anymore.

Looks like the EB Games/Gamestops may get the bonus content earlier than September 15th like the insert in the game stated. Depends on when they get the updated 360 demo disc, but you might want to check your local store (and take your memory card). The disc has the Funky Fresh Pack available for download which includes clothes, tattoos, and probably more. These items show up when you go into a store in the regular list with an * next to them, but all cost only $1.00 in game to purchase. I've already added some new drawers (tiger stripe), and a couple tats to my homie (a spider, and biohazard symbol), also changed my shirt out to the Gamestop bonus one (call #42637867 on your in-game cell phone).

The new demo disc also has 4 new keys for Dead Rising which unlock 4 more outfits in the game, 4 unlockable cars for Ridge Racer, Adidas, and Kameo theme packs are also included. This disc also has several demo LIVE arcade titles available including Zuma, Wik, and I think two others.

I would have had more time to play Saint's Thursday, but a friend called because he had purchased an Tetris arcade cabinet on eBay, and wanted me to ride along to Edmond, OK to pick it up. So once he found out he could get it, we hit the road about 2pm for fun and adventure. This really isn't funny until you consider he drives a Geo/Chevy Tracker just picture it...

+= ???

It took us a while to get it properly strapped down including 200 Ft. of rope and 2 2x4's, but we made in back in one piece as did the machine. I found that Edmond is really nice it looks like a newer area with very nice houses. I seen my first Wal-mart neighborhood Market which was really strange, it's like a smurf supercenter. They are basically grocery stores with some additional items that you wouldn't normally find in a grocery store. My guess is this it what the Dillon's at Rock Road and Central is trying to be.

Saints in the house, and location, location, location.

Well Tuesday marked the release of Saint's Row on the 360. I've got my copy, but haven't had a chance to play yet. I've heard a lot of positive buzz from people at work, and on the net so I'm looking forward to it.


It's official (not including the rest of the paperwork...) we found a new house, and made an offer. After a wee bit of negotiation we settled on a price, and supposedly will have a new place to live come September 29th. Timing works out pretty well as the Wichita schools end the first 9 weeks on October 13th, so they will go until then (actually the 12th because they are out the 13th & 16th for inservice.) and start a new school that Tuesday. Trying to make the transition smooth as possible. They both actually seem pretty happy about the whole deal, and I'm ready for both of them to ride the bus. :)

Represent the Row, and Lite palette changes.

Saint's Row roughs up the streets on Tuesday 8/29. If you've read any of the back post you know I played the demo a lot, and really enjoyed it. Filefront has a 161 MB video review from GameTrailers up, check it out if your on the fence about the game. The multiplayer looks like it will be awesome with people creating their own gangs (clans?) and taking them online. The EB Games/Gamestop versions of the game have a bonus you can get an free in-game t-shirt, and around September 15th you can get a 'clothing pack' from the in store 360 kiosk. You will have to take your memory unit into EB Games/Gamestop, and download the pack from there (like the Burnout Revenge cars, and themes).

Finally (like we didn't know it would happen...) Nintendo has announced that two new colors will be joining the polar white DS Lite on September 13th here in the states (that evens up with Europe!). Starting then you will be able to grab a new onyx (black) Lite, or a coral pink (pink, duh.) one. I'm not sure on the pink one, unless they are trying to target a female audience (although I don't think the pink GBA SP sold that well). Check out N-Philes for the pics, and announcement.

Mine is this big, red hot poker, 360 playtime, and Leipzig!

TeamXbox has a post about Samsung's newest addition to their LCD HD television, which is to be shown at the International Meeting on Information Displays (IMID) 2006 which opens today in Korea. This thing is huge, 70 inch widescreen supporting 1080p. If you need an HD set look no further, and invite me over often.


Hope you all downloaded your free Texas Hold'em from the marketplace this morning. I was playing poker at 5:15 am (don't ask) not very well mind you, but it was fun and has single player if you don't want to play on LIVE.

GameVideos.com has an interesting video walkthrough of the upcoming 360 accessories shipping this year. Click the page to get larger download versions in WMV, or MOV formats, or just click below.




It looks like the Leipzig Games Convention 2007 runs Thursday-Sunday in Germany. This seems to be the German equivalent to E3. I could only find a link for the 2006 show, so maybe the 2007 one isn't up yet. Just search for 'Leipzig Games Convention' under Google news, or click this link and I already did all the hard work. There should be more news stories coming in the next couple of days once the show actually opens.

F.E.A.R. this, and I (don't) C U.

I got my new Official Xbox Magazine in the mail today, got all the points and unlocked the extras (Dead Rising gamerpics, Japanese demo (see below), and screenshots from Sonic, and Small Arms). Am I the only one that's sick of the Roland advertisements? I'd rather watch 4 60 sec. Commercials (that I've already seen) than these 4-minute pieces of crap.

F.E.A.R - I thought it was great! It looked beautiful, and I loved the atmosphere. I caught myself twice twitch shooting at apparitions. It seems like the AI is really good. I love how they scattered from grenades, and would take positions behind walls then duck and move to different cover. Of course all of this from someone who really wanted to play it on the PC, but the slideshow I ended up with was no fun at all.

Zegapain (unlocked when you get all of the points) - Reminded me a lot of Zone of Enders for the PS2, the graphics were really arcadey/colorful. Pretty straight forward even with all the menus in Japanese (just hit A to progress through the menus). Finished the mission with a B rank, which probably wasn't all that good. I'm not a big fan of the ZoE type games anyway so I would skip this even if it were released here. Here is the Japanese site if you want to take a look.

It seems that some (Eastern states mostly) Toys'r'us stores already have the 360 LIVE Vision cameras for sale. Take into account they have a release date of 9/19/06, but it's unknown whether it's a street date (not to be sold until then), or they have started shipping to retailers already. The most likely scenario Toys'r'us began selling them on 8/19 just mistaking the street date, as they haven't shown up anywhere else. I tried locally but they said they didn't have them in stock (yet), the clerk suggested I try later in the week. These retail for $39.99 and include the camera, manual, (another) headset, 1 month of LIVE Gold, and a download code for UNO.

Sony for the girlie-man, Madden, and Arkansas thieves got nothing on us.

Well it seems that the Pink DS launch (Japanese Famitsu site) went so well, that Sony Europe decided they too needed to release some girlie colored systems as well. So on November 8th they will release a Pink slim PS2, and a Pink PSP on October 8th. So for those keeping score, that's 2 colors in Japan (white/black), and soon to be 3 in Europe (white/black/pink), and here in the US? Yep we get 1. Here's a shot just to entice you...



Well I picked up Madden 07 this morning, couldn't pass up the Circuit City price of $47.99 for the 360. I also couldn't wait until 10am for them to open so I price matched at Wal-Mart about 8am this morning. :) So far it's not too bad (I always preferred 2k's NFL offerings), although thinking about it, this is the first Madden I've ever bought. Haven't got any achievements yet, and it looks like they made them more difficult than last years (which I read were pretty easy).


I thought this story from the Carroll County news was funny (and all too true), here is a snipit...

BERRYVILLE - Two Berryville men have been charged with theft of property for allegedly stealing $1,200 worth of video games from Wal-Mart and selling them next door at the "Game Stop" store.

You mean that sort of thing goes on (in other cities??), I thought that was only here. :)

Microsoft Zune in the buff, okay artistic b&w...

Gizmodo has a article up about the Microsoft Zune (think video Ipod) here. Someone leaked a picture of a Zune prototype unit, and if you follow the link in the Update at the bottom there is some hands on info. I'm assuming this is supposed to be out by Christmas, and word is at work that EB/GameStop will carry the player and accessories.

Free F.E.A.R., and Poker!

Okay, the first one is a little misleading... Sierra has released F.E.A.R. Combat for the PC which is basically the multiplayer portion of F.E.A.R. as a stand alone product. Did I mention it's FREE? You can go to JoinFear.com to get the necessary install key, and links to the 1.8 GB exe file. This would make me happy except that my PC wouldn't run F.E.A.R. worth a crud, so I don't think the multiplayer would be any different. I'm happy it's coming out on the 360 (supposed to be a demo on next months OXM), and heard today it's also been announced for the PS3.


Numerous sites are reporting that Texas Hold'Em on the Xbox Live Arcade will be FREE for the first 48 hours on the marketplace, otherwise after that you will have to part with 800 MP points ($10.00!). Xbox.com had this to say...

Microsoft isn't bluffing: Log on to Xbox Live® within the first 48 hours after launch and download Texas Hold 'em completely free of charge! This full-featured poker title for Xbox Live Arcade on Xbox 360™ will launch on Wednesday, August 23, at 0800 GMT (1:00 A.M. Pacific Time).

For 48 hours only through 0800 GMT (1:00 A.M. Pacific Time) Friday, August 25 a special limited-time only promotion, all Xbox Live Gold and Silver members can download (and own) the game at no charge.

So if your up next Wednesday at 3am Central grab this, if not at least you have 48 hours to get it.

They're coming to get you Margaret... Strap on HD-DVD, and movielicious!

The dead are rising (all over the freaking place) as yesterday was the release of the new 360 game Dead Rising. I think it's been one of the biggest (hyped!?) selling titles yet on the 360, there were quite a few people lined up to get it. Pretty much most of the reviews sum it up correctly great fun to play, but the save system sucks. I haven't had much time to play yet :( and won't have this weekend, but the kids will be back in school next week so I should have some more free time. Check out the penny arcade below. :)




Here is a shot of the Microsoft HD-DVD add-on for the 360, Gizmodo has a link round up of information (or lack thereof) presented at the DVD Forum in L.A. (That Halo faceplate is pretty cool.).


Seen the sneak tonight of Accepted. Didn't have high hopes for this one although the preview looked funny. In the back of my mind I was putting it with Old School, and Van Wilder which wasn't far from the fact. Anyway, I absolutely loved this! Way funnier than I expected it would be, and the rest of the audience seemed to be enjoying it as well. This sneak was evidently not on the same level of advertising as the Talladega Nights sneak, I counted ~20 people in line when they let us in about 6:45pm. When we went to TN we got there at 6:30pm (1 hour before the show) and the line was outside to the corner of the building. We got seated at 7:20pm that night and were in the last group of 8-10 to get in, although there were probably at least 100 more people behind us. Luckily this one was no where near that, although by the time it started the theater had a nice sized crowd ~150 I would guess.

360s bundled up, more rising dead, and musical puzzle games.

Seems like the rumors floating around the last couple of months about the holiday plans of Microsoft are coming clearer. A lot of people were looking (hoping?) for a price drop on the 360 hardware this holiday season, while others were saying the price would stay the same, but you would get additional goodies for your hard earned $399.99.

Looks like the later group was onto something as it looks like our northern ***dies in Canada will be able to pick up the lovely Project Gotham Racing 3 bundle pack starting August 9th.

The pack will still retail for the current premium cost, but will also include a copy of PGR3 (~$39.99 value), 1250 marketplace points ($15.62), and a 3 month LIVE gold subscription (~$19). Not too bad of a bonus, around $75.00 of savings as long as you wanted PGR3.



While our European friends (at least the French ones) will be getting the Saint's Row bundle on September 8th. This one doesn't seem to get the LIVE gold/marketplace points, but they are getting a brand spanking new game. Does it say something negative about their culture when one gets a blood drenched gang warfare game, and the other gets a nice leisurely driving game though?

Of course here in the US we haven't heard anything about a possible bundle pack. I'm sure Microsoft is still deciding what to put up against the Sony PS3 launch in November.

Played a little more (yeah, right) of the Dead Rising demo. I've lost track how many times I've went through it now. Wednesday can not get here fast enough, waiting sux. :(

I have seen a couple sites posting the upcoming release schedule for Xbox LIVE Arcade Wednesdays, and it looks like Lumines Live will be up on September 6th! This will be the first arcade title I've actually used marketplace points on. I already have Bankshot Billiards 2, and Joust, but they were 'download codes' packaged with gold subscription kits, not actual marketplace points.

Talladega, Dead Rising, and sell this G-Unit!

Well I caught the sneak of Talladega Nights : The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Thursday night. I guess it was okay, no Elf by far (my favorite Ferrell movie so far), but enjoyable. It seemed like one of those where they tried so hard it turned out stupid to the point of being funny. There was some good laughs here and there, but I'm happy I didn't pay to see it.

The Dead Rising demo finally hit the LIVE Marketplace on Friday. Woo hoo! I've lost track how many times I played through the demo (it's not very long about 15 minutes if you don't trigger a cut scene to end it earlier) now. Each time was enjoyable, and I'm always finding something new while going through. There are a couple of 'hidden' weapons in the demo including a katana, and a machine gun. There are so many things to use in the demo that I still don't know if I've tried them all, and the demo only houses one wing of the mall (about 20 shops). I'm really looking forward to picking this up next week!

On a gaming related note check out the video from this story at Kotaku! If you ever wanted to work at a video game retailer (or currently do) check it out. :P This one is really over the top stupid (although unfortunately most of it is relevant at any game store) and it's not even that old (2004 roughly). If a perspective retailer showed me this before I started working there I would have to think twice about taking the job. I guess I'm glad we haven't got any Game Crazy's here in Wichita because these people scare me, I sure hope this video has been retired/replaced already. For those who don't know Game Crazy is a subsidy of Hollywood Video, and I believe are usually situated within the same buildings.

Movie time, HD inches forward, and Saint's Row.

Well I've caught up on some movies over the last couple days, first off there was World Trade Center last night. Oliver Stone directed this film based on the true stories of two 9/11/01 survivors. Nicholas Cage plays a NY Port Authority cops that was pulled alive from the tower rubble, and the movie recaps his experiences. Not a lot of 9/11 stuff in the movie, it's more of a character look into the lives of these Port Authority cops that go into the towers to help. Overall I enjoyed it, but definitely not something I would watch over and over again.

Next up was Miami Vice, unfortunately this one was somewhat of a let down. The movie is really dark compared to the tv series, while not a bad thing necessarily, it felt out of place.

Finally I got around to seeing Clerks II this one was the best by far. I seen the original a long time ago, and for the most part have always liked Kevin Smith films. This one just expands on the first one, and really picks on everyone. I don't think any ethnic group escapes some sort of racist slur. A very adult film, but also really funny.

I have passes to see Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby tomorrow so I'm hoping it turns out to be really funny, but Will Ferrel movies are hit'n miss.

I did find an interesting article at ArsTechnica that led me too this story at High-def Digest. There are finally some comparable movies available on both Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD it looks like right now HD-DVD has the visual edge.

I played quite a bit of the Saint's Row demo over the last week. I heard on the net that you could get past the demo barrier (a red wall that encloses the demo area) so spent the better part of a night trying to get through. Finally I came across a video that showed an easy way to do it. While there are a lot of glitches on the other side you can pick up an AK-47 which is a fun gun to tote around, and I think you can enter some of the stores. I'm sooo looking forward to this game. :)

Hello, and welcome to the update. :)

Wow, been over a month since I updated. Lots of little stuff going on but nothing that I was willing to get off my arse and post about.

So lets see, we've been looking for a new house (outgrew ours a long time ago, but hadn't really been motivated to do anything about it.). My wife will be starting a new job soon, and it's even farther NE so it would be nice to be a little closer to that side of town. Have some appointments today so I will see how those pan out. We would like to move before school starts so the kids will start the new year at the proper school, but that August 15th starting date is rapidly approaching.

A lot of new 'summer' series on TV now, and a few new surprises to the ones I always watch (Monk, and the Closer). I really have enjoyed the first 3-4 episodes of Kyle XY (on ABC Family, although now it's also being shown on ABC at the end of the week) a show about this teenager waking up in the woods not remembering anything before that point. He gets taken in by a social worker, and her family. Has some "Lost"esqe moments where each episode opens up a little bit more of his past. I'm also enjoying Blade: The Series, and really liking Psych a comedy/cop show about a fake psychic who joins the police department to help them solve cases. I updated the items on the left side of the page to reflect current reality as some of them were a little out of date. :)

I'm really enjoying the Saint's Row demo (yours free when you pre-order Saint's Row at EB Games/GameStop, or it will be on the August issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. Eventually it will show up on the LIVE marketplace also sometime after the 1st.). This is a next gen GTA clone all the way, but looks good and is a lot of fun to play. I found this video that shows off some of the multiplayer aspects of the game. I can't wait to join a gang, and open up a can of whoop-ass. :P I also really liked Prey, although I heard it was short (single player) it has the 'feel' of those older Duke Nukem games.

Took a couple days off last week and went to Denver, CO. Went to my first Dave & Buster's a cross between Applebee's, and an arcade. The food was great (soup du jour was Smoked Turkey Chowder really tasty, and had a kick to it.) and you can play video games (while drinking alcohol if so motivated.) all in the same place. Come to find out they just opened one in KC not too long ago, makes those 2 hour road trips even more appealing now! We also went through the Denver Museum of Nature & Science specifically to see Body Worlds 2 which was coming to an end last week, but spent pretty much a day looking around at everything. We also went through the Downtown Aquarium which was a great exhibit. The restaurant connected to it was a little pricy (it's owned by Landry's the same company that runs Rainforest Cafe) but the food was good and there is a aquarium that runs down one side of the restaurant. We sit right next to the aquarium glass, and my daughter didn't like the sharks coming by the table. One day we went to Golden, CO just outside of Denver, it was a really nice little town nestled among some mountains. This is where the Coors plant is and they offer free tours, so we took them up on it. At the end of the tour you get three free drinks (depending on your age) in the lounge area. My problem with beer is that I don't like the taste of it. No qualms with alcohol consumption just that damn taste. So I was hoping that maybe they would have something to try that would sway my stance, but their suggestion was "Blue Moon Belgian White" which unfortunately still tasted like beer. :( On the positive side I did find that I like Zima XXX Hard Ice which it turns out is an alcoholic slushee. I really liked the black cherry, and the fruit punch was fair didn't try the orange or green apple. I asked the server who sold them in my neck of the woods, she replied "Graham Central Station" (which of course closed down a while back) but she didn't know that. On an ending note I passed Invesco field at Mile High a lot, boo... Broncos suck.

I updated the movie list on the left side too, but I'm way behind seeing stuff. I hope to catch up today, and tomorrow on some of the ones I've missed (Pirate's, Clerks II, etc.). I did see Lady in the Water last night it didn't really seem like a M. Night Shyamalan film, but I enjoyed it anyway. I read something where he described it as a 'bed time story for grown-ups' he was right on.

Lite Brite! Woops we lost the cargo, and podcast.

Well I got my DS Lite the other day, and I must say WOW this thing is sooo bright. I started putting in my old cartridges to "see" the difference new technology makes. It was amazing, I've found that light setting 3 seems to be the best level for me. Setting 2 seems too close to the phat DS, but man 3 makes the colors so vibrant. I can't use setting 4 for any length of time it's way to bright I see spots when I look away (okay maybe not that bad, but you get the idea).


The nice thing about the vibrant colors is it makes all your old games seem new again. I put Animal Crossing Wild World in and it looks great. My animals were nice enough to tell me that I had neglected them for 3 months, but they were happy to see me and a couple new ones had moved in. There are bugs everywhere, although I'm looking for the "finned" fish like the sharks right now.

All of these snazzy DS Lites lead to one thing, theft. :) Play-Gadgets has a story about a cargo container shipped from Hong Kong full of Black DS Lites on there way to a European launch that went missing. $2.32 million worth of Black DS Lites soon to be appearing on eBay.

I'm still listening to DualScreen Radio, and the current episode 6/10/06 is a pretty good one. There is about an hour rant on Gamestop/EB Games, that is entertaining to listen to. They don't really say anything I haven't heard before, but I found it funny. I've also started listening to MajorNelson's podcast. He works at Microsoft and keeps the above blog, and also is the one that announces all the new content that gets placed on the marketplace. His podcast is mostly about the 360, and he usually has one interview each episode with someone within Microsoft. He has a DS (and loves it) so it comes up from time to time in his show.

I really should post about something...

Been a while since my last post, so I decided it was time to get off my ass and do it.

Took a mini vacation (since I didn't go to E3 this year I missed my "spring break" :( I was getting used to spending some time in California every year.) and went to Branson for Memorial Day weekend. Been there, done that but it was nice just to get away for a while.
Went back to Celebration City this trip, as we hadn't been since it opened a couple years ago. Think of it as a really nice/clean up-to-date Joyland, more of the "carnival" type rides, shops, and they do have a couple of shows. They had added the go-carts, and mini golf to your admission (so you no longer had to pay again once you were inside the park) which was cool. Their big ride is the Ozark Wildcat The ultra-compact wooden coaster reaches speeds of 45 miles per hour and has a toe-tingling 8-story drop with a one-of-a-kind 310-degree spiraling double-down drop, a high-speed swoop turn with a rabbit hop midway and a finale that'll leave you screaming for more! It's pretty cool fairly quick ride, that's a little on the rough side (that may just be me, as I get older it seems that wooden coasters rattle me more.). Probably the coolest thing about CC is the show they have at the end of the night called Ignite the night held in their man-made amphitheater with lawn seating. They created a rock wall canyon that serves as the back drop, with a water pool in front of it with all different sorts of fountains. The show includes stills/video (projected onto the canyon background, and mist created by the fountains), fireworks, laser lights, and of course music. It's kinda hard to describe, but it looks really neat in person.

The next day was Silver Dollar City which added a new area this year called Grand Exposition which is aimed at family rides. They consist of 3 (really) little kid rides, 4 older kid rides, and 3 even older kid rides. By far the best was the Electro Spin (pretty poor video representation, but gives the general idea). It's a giant disc with 24-30 outward facing bicycle style seats that rotates, and rolls back and forth like a pendulum on a U shaped track.

Does freakin' awesome do it justice!? My daughter and I rode this at least 8 times I think, highly recommended.
They still have two really good steel frame coasters though, Wildfire!, and Powder Keg. Keg is the newest, opened just last season. Silver Dollar City's blurb The new $10 million roller coaster sends riders into a thrill zone within seconds of climbing aboard, launching riders from 0 to 53 miles per hour in just 2.8 seconds. A thrill ride unlike any other in the history of the theme park, PowderKeg combines the shocking speed of the compressed air-launch with spiraling turns, negative gravitational or "G" forces, and "floater" hills at speeds up to 64 miles per hour for a truly wild ride experience.. I really like the "blast off" at the beginning it is amazing, it rivals my favorite coaster Mr. Freeze at Six Flags over Texas.

Okay enough of that, lets see... The Nintendo DS Lite launches June 11th (Sunday) for those of you who forgot. I guess they started arriving in stores about a week ago, and some overzealous clerks put them on the shelf. A couple of message forums I visit were buzzing with stories of people who found them early. I did finally get some "hands on" time with the enamel navy import unit, I like the size and feel of the new unit, but was put off by the casing. It's just like my PSP casing, a finger print magnet. As anal as I am with the PSP I can't imagine how much I would be cleaning the DS Lite. :( The good news is the crappy white doesn't seem to have that particular affliction, so I'm happy with that aspect. The new screens are sooo bright and colorful I can't wait to try some of my older games out on the Lite.

I played through the demo of Titan Quest on the PC (twice!). If you ever played Diablo or Diablo II the game will be instantly familiar to you. The only differences are you deal with more mythology based characters than D&D types. The demo plays really nice, and looks great too. The full game comes out at the end of the month, but if your a Diablo fan at least try out the demo.

As good as Titan Quest looks, it's time to update my PC a little bit. The easiest will be adding a stick of 512MB ram to hit 1GB of memory which is usually the "recommended" quote on all games now. My Nvidia 5900SE is still working okay (I can play Half-Life 2, DOOM 3, and others fine, not at the highest res and settings mind you, but perfectly playable) but its time for some more umph. My video card ***get or "limit" if you will has always been around $150.00 that is my break even line on performance vs. price. I just can't bring myself to pay $300/400 for a video card, so I live a little on the trailing edge of technology. I can also get one more upgrade out of my processor going to 3.06 GHz then that's it my motherboard will have to be put out to pasture. The only game I haven't been able to run lately was F.E.A.R. but since it's coming on the 360 I'll just wait for that, although I'm hoping to get another year out of the upgrades.

A heaping helping of stuff...

Well it's been a while since my last posting (as someone likes to point out, you know who you are...). So here is an info dump of all sorts of cool little tidbits since my last post.

Major Nelson (an excellent 360 blog if you don't frequent it...) posted this info "Want to help the Vista team make sure that the Media Center Extender experience on the Xbox 360 is great?" Then sign up for their beta program, but only if you can answer yes to all of these questions:

* You have an Xbox 360 connected to the Internet
* You have a PC capable of running Vista Ultimate or Home Premium (Read the minimum hardware requirements here.)
* You are over the age of 18
* You reside in the US


MTV2 is running a special called "Gears of War - the Road to E3" that showcases behind the scenes the time leading up to E3 2006 from the developer's view. It was okay don't expect anything great, but it's worth watching once. I also enjoyed some of the marketplace behind the scenes footage with PMS Tart, and PMS Mary Jane.


Okay, I found that Nintendo-Europe posted that the DS Lite will officially hit the European market on June 23rd (only about 2 weeks after the US), but wait they get 2 colours. Yep you read that right White, and Black will be coming to the Euro shores at launch. What the #!@% is up with that NoA????


Circuit City has some amazing Xbox 360 sales starting next week (May 28th-June 3rd) so if you missed some of these now is your chance...

XBOX 360 GAMES:

Table Tennis >>>> $39.99
Burnout Revenge >>>> $29.99
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter >>>> $59.99
NBA LIVE: 2006 >>>> $29.99
Blazing Angels >>>> $59.99
Full Auto >>>> $39.99
FIFA World Cup 2006 >>>> $59.99
FarCry: Predator >>>> $59.99
X-MEN: The Official Game >>>> $59.99
Hitman: Blood Money >>>> $59.99 (Available 5/30/06 at 5 PM)
Madden: NFL 2006 >>>> $27.99
Tiger Woods: PGA Tour 2006 >>>> $27.99

Burnout for $29.99 is a steal (too bad I already have it), although I think I will pick up Tiger 06 for $27.99.

Pondering the E3 press conferences...

Well they've all wrapped up the pre-show conferences and a lot of info was divulged (except by Nintendo who didn't commit to hardly anything.).

Sony kicked off the week with a delayed conference Monday evening. They let it all hang out so to speak, and street dated & priced their new console (Nov. 17 US, and $499.99 20gb version, $599.99 60gb (bells & whistles) version). WOW! After researching the different versions (which didn't last year they say was a bad idea for Microsoft, because it confused the customer?) I found a .pdf with the info. The "core" 20gb version loses the media reader (Pro Duo/SD/Compact flash), WiFi (802.11 b/g), HDMI output, not to mention 40gb of HD space. I don't see the media reader as a big loss, but the WiFi (no PSP<>PS3 connectivity) and the HDMI port (no Blu-Ray DVD true res output) are huge. You could probably add the WiFi back in via USB dongle, but the HDMI port wouldn't be as simple. I think I'll call them the "crippled" and "premium" sets. I wasn't planning on getting one, and this helped me solidify that thought.

Up next was Nintendo's conference which was streamed live through various sites. Unlike Sony "they felt it was in their best interest to keep the launch specifics a secret for a while longer.". All they stated was 4th qtr 2006 you would be playing with your Wii, (sorry, couldn't resist). Then they went on to show off some of the Wiimote game play, and talked about Wiiconnect24 (the console is always on, even when it's off!? Internet connectivity specifically). He mentioned like you have a town in Animal Crossing your not at home playing (say your at work), a friend could still come by your town and leave you a message. So the next time you turned AC on you would see that you had a visitor. They didn't show a whole lot of DS stuff, but did say that by this Christmas there would be another 100 titles available. I was on the fence about picking up a Wii, but the gameplay they showed looked great. If the price is right I'll definitely pick one up at launch (I've heard $249.99, personally I'd like $199.99).

Microsoft followed shortly after Nintendo's conference. There was a lot of game talk including a Halo 3 trailer, and word about GTA 4 being release simultaneous on the 360/PS3 in October next year although Microsoft has an exclusive deal with Rockstar to get "episodic" add-on content through LIVE. Most of the video's shown at the conference are up in the Marketplace (the Halo 3 one was up before it was shown at the conference!) I've checked out quite a few and found some things I'm really looking forward to. On a side note if you haven't checked out the Lost Planet demo, do so now! I love this game. They were tight lipped on the release date for the HD-DVD add-on, as well as the price.

I got up today to find they have updated the Press site with screenshots, and info about upcoming stuff. They are evidently coming out with a 256MB memory unit (about time), and some interesting wireless items including a LIVE headset, and steering wheel. Although there was no mention of the larger hard drive units.

E3 content Ahoy!

Well they just updated the LIVE marketplace content this morning and put up around 12 E3 2006 game trailers, the POSEIDON movie trailer, and the Test Drive Unlimited demo (480MB). So get online and start downloading, I feel sooo sorry for my 360 hard drive this week.

The game trailers are for Bullet Witch, Rain, Medal of Honor Hell's Highway, Dance Dance Revolution, Stranglehold, Battlestations, Dead Rising, Sonic, LotR Battle for Middle Earth II, and a couple EA Sports titles.

Walk towards the Lite, and my 360 blogs.

Well Nintendo announced today that the DS Lite is coming stateside on June 11th for only $129.99 in White only (okay technically Polar White. :( I guess I should be happy they didn't try to shove another platinum version at us, but come on white? I guess I will be importing one now, unless E3 news hints that some other colors are coming very quickly. Looks like the rumor mill was true the old DS should drop to $99.99, and I'm guessing the bundles (Electric Blue DS and Mario Kart/Animal Crossing) will drop to $129.99.

On the bright side of the DS fence it seems Majesco is going to release Cooking Mama stateside. I had watched videos and read quite a bit about this game before it came out in Japan, unfortunately it had way to much Japanese text to enjoy. This almost makes up for the #@*?! White lite.

In other news my Xbox 360 has decided to write it's own blog. Seems like it's insecure, and pilfers through my mp3's when I'm not around. If you would like your 360 to express itself sign-up on the main site.

Overdue, renamed Revolution, E3 Live, new views, and FFXI.

Wow, didn't realize it had been so long since my last update. I guess not a whole lot of stuff going on. The biggest news since last time was that Nintendo decided to call it's new console Wii (pronounced 'We'). Yeah, okay. I personally will be calling it "the console formerly known as the Revolution".


Microsoft has announced that they will be bringing E3 2006 into your living room this year. They have a lot of stuff planned including special downloads, and videos. If you only have a silver account, gold access will be free all week too. This of course will take the place of my pilgrimage to LA since they #*!$^ up admission requirements this year. :(


Part of the last week was spent rearranging my living room because I bought a new TV. 42" of HD widescreen goodness that of course wouldn't fit where the last one was so I had to move all of the equipment around. I will try and post some pics later on, but since it's a rear projection model I'm supposed to let it 'burn-in' for about 100 hours before I start tweaking the settings. I can state that the 360 looks really good and HD content is beautiful, the only thing I haven't watched is a DVD yet.


Well the expansion for FFXI came out and I picked up the 360 version (full game & all expansions) because I really enjoyed playing in the front room sitting in my recliner and playing in HD. I got around to finishing the Blue Mage quest Monday morning so I'm looking forward to leveling that job soon. The new areas I've seen so far look great and it actually took a bit time to finish the quest to go there. Most of the areas are intended for higher level players (60~75) but so far I've done a few quest without dying (insert knocking on wood sound here).

Chibi Robo, movies, KC and more...

I recently tried out a Chibi Robo (GameCube) demo the other day after work, and I must say it was kinda strange but in a good way. It has a very "Japanese" gameplay vibe to it. I had checked it out before release, but came away thinking that it sounded kinda stupid, and it didn't sell very well so I didn't pay much attention to it. I mean who wants to play a game where you clean the house, and cook? After trying the demo though I think it might kinda fun, I just wish it wasn't priced at $49.99. If it had been released at $19.99 I think a lot more people may have given it a chance. Now I'm on a mission to find a cheaper used one somewhere, because we know Nintendo doesn't drop prices on their first party titles very quick. :(

Didn't post about them, but I did go see a few movies a couple weeks ago. Trying to catch up on some. Not working at the theater anymore I don't keep up on everything coming out, it's not like I see the previews 20~30 times a week anymore. Anyway I caught The Shaggy Dog, She's the Man, and 16 Blocks in my catch up attempt. The Shaggy Dog was great, I'm a big fan of Tim Allen anyway so it was really easy to like.

I didn't think I was going to like She's the Man as much as I did. I know I'm nowhere near the target audience (12-18 female??), and I had even mentioned when I first caught the preview that it looked like a remake of Just One of the Guys (1985). The stories did have a lot in common, seemed like they just changed the setting. This wasn't a bad thing though as I laughed a lot during the movie (as did the other guy in the auditorium (not part of the target demo either)). If you have never seen Just One of the Guys, rent it. It's a cheesy 80's flick, but one of my favorites.

Then I finally got around to watching 16 Blocks, it was almost ready to leave the theater so it's probably 2nd run by now. I had caught previews of this one, and probably came to the conclusion most of you had that Bruce Willis is getting kinda old to be an action hero. I was relieved a bit when it started, and behold here is Willis playing an old drunk, dried up police officer (which he does very convincingly!). Turns out that this was really good. I think Willis was great, and this is an above average police drama/thriller. I had wanted to see Firewall when it was out also, but never got around to it. I will probably check it out when it hits DVD, and see which one I like better.

I made a quick trip up to Kansas City Thursday afternoon. Went up to help a friend pick up a rear projection TV he bought on eBay. Didn't really have a lot of time to do too much, ate at Rainforest Cafe because another friend wanted to, (it's a little on the expensive side, especially for lunch) but the food was really good. Stopped in at Isle of Capri casino (I lost $5.00). I don't know what it is about the casinos in KC, but I just don't get that "betting fever" that I feel in Vegas. We had some extra time before we could pick up the set, so we decided to waste some time at the mall. The mall we happened to be close to was Great Mall which it turns out is one of the worst malls I think I've every been to. Stores you've never heard of, and some of the ugliest carpet/decor I've ever seen. I found out the next day that I guess it started as an outlet mall then tried to make the transition to a "real" mall later in life. It failed, pretty badly.

I heard today that Miklotov got an Xbox 360, and he picked up Oblivion. Imagine my surprise when I came home tonight and found a friend invite on LIVE. :P

DS Pr0n stylus... Fox find! and pod this.

Okay just couldn't wait to point out this post at gaming age forums that shows us the following new stylus.



Best DS stylus ever, would I ever use it in public? No.
Japanese only? I'd bet my life on it, no way NoA would produce that...
Best E3 giveaway ever? You bet!


I'm a bad fan. :( Samantha put out a new album (evidently in October 2005) that I didn't know anything about. Angel with an Attitude was released by La Chapelle Records Canada last year. It's a import so I wouldn't have found it locally, but there used to be a time I was on top of everything Fox. :P For those of you who don't know who Samantha Fox is, shame on you!

BTW I got the album last week, I didn't really like the title track but after listening to the tracks (over and over) it's grown on me. I would give it 4 out of 4 stars (because its Sam), really enjoyed over half the tracks. Some of the album almost seems to be trancelike, and I'm so used to Sam tracks being dance/pop that some of the songs I'm still warming up to.


I've added an iPod addition list on the left side that will update the latest things I've sent to my iPod.

GDC tibits aplenty, and onto Oblivion.

The Game Developer's Conference was held this week, so there has been a surge of news (and lack of news on some topics). So here is some of the best...

Joystiq has up a little newsbit about the PS3 being region free (like the PSP) with the only regional coding being on movies. :) Nice.

The following shots are supposedly "real-time" renders from the upcoming Getaway game for the PS3. I will admit they do look sweet.








Check out Playsyde.com to download a CAM video of the PS3 God of War II trailer shown at GDC. Scroll down to the "Direct Download" section and choose a mirror. This looks absolutely awesome, and I didn't even play the first GoW.

Last but not least check out 1up.com article for a video download of the PS3 tech demos shown at the conference. Note: The page seems to have disappeared from 1up, so the link is actually the Google cache of the page. This means the videos may disappear without warning also. So you may just want to try the links below. :)

Windows Media version zipped

QuickTime version zipped


On the Nintendo front there was news, but not exactly what people were expecting. There was no DS Lite US launch date mentioned (if they can't satisfy Japanese demand, I don't see how they could make enough units to launch here). Although I've read they will still make the "old phat" DS dropping its price to $99.99, and selling the Lite for $149.99 alongside the original.

There was also speculation that the Revolution would get a new name, but that didn't happen either. Engadget has a little rumor up about a Japanese slide they got ahold of supposedly naming the system Nintendo Go?

There will be a Zelda game coming out for the DS! Yes indeed big N announced Zelda : Phantom Hourglass. Check out the video.


Finally, Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion came out (even with weather delays... don't ask) for the 360 and PC. I started the game out in the dungeon/sewers where you have to carry a torch to see anything, then I got outside where it was still dark. I thought geez I had seen pictures of this game, it looked a lot better. Well then daylight rolled around, and let me tell you the outdoor environments are beautiful! This has taken over my top spot currently for the best looking 360 game available right now.

Big releases for the 360, more DS Radio, and YADLC...

Well this was a big week for Xbox 360 releases College Hoops 2k6, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and Burnout Revenge all made an appearance this week. I picked up Burnout Revenge, and I decided to try out Full Auto also even though the reviews have been mixed. So far I've played more Full Auto, but since it's only "rented" I don't have as long to play it as I will Burnout. It really is basically Burnout with weapons, and destructable environments. It looks gorgeous though in HD, and is a lot of fun in single player mode. I will post more about Burnout when I get a chance to play it a bit more.

The guys over at Dualscreenradio have put up another show in .mp3 format, that brings us up to episode 4.

The Yet Another DS Lite Comparison is this video that is a nice hands on comparing the DS Lite, and old DS (now referred to as the phat DS).

DS Lite launch a success!

Well with the previous indication early in the week it came as no surprise that the DS Lite launch in Japan went well, and sold out quickly. Pick any of the major news sites and you can read about the launch, and check out pictures. Kotaku has posted a nice round up of all their Japanese launch coverage, and you can also check out some of the entries at DSFanboy.com.

Kotaku also posted a brief news item about a DS Lite kiosk they happened upon and the condition it was in. This was my biggest fear of the white unit. I realize that this is in a public area, and that people would probably not treat it like their own, but still. :(

Finally this Japanese web site put up some comparison pics between the new lite, and other units.

The Race is on! So much DS luvin' its CRAAAZZY!

Well last night my favorite TV show started up again, that's right Amazing Race #9 kicked off last night with 11 groups of 2. In the first 10 minutes I was easily going to root for David & Lori self-proclaimed "nerds' from Manhattan, KS but after about the second "give us a kiss" I was sick. :( I am now rooting for Tyler & BJ the "hippies" from California, I also like the Mother/Daughter team of Wanda & Desiree, but Mother/Son/Daughter teams never do very well.

Okay where to start with the DS info... The DS Lite is now available in Japan/Hong Kong although it seems like there is going to be more demand than product unfortunately. 4colorrebellion has a little article about the Japanese getting in line for a launch system. I hope this doesn't delay my import unit, I'm anxious to see how the launch pans out.

I found the DualScreen Radio site yesterday. They actually put out a DS themed internet radio show, and just recently put out the 3rd episode. I'm still listing to it right now as it clocks in at 3 hours+, but it is interesting and one of the better video game shows I've heard.

The Nintendo rep stated that they are releasing DS Download Stations this month here in the US (mentioned earlier on 2/10), but she didn't know yet where they would be located. I've read that GameStop/EBGames/Best Buy would be the likely candidates (although I can't see all of them getting the stations as some locations have all 3 clumped together). Evidently the Nintendo Store in NY has already set up their station and you can read about this guys hands on report.

On the last note I'm picking up Super Princess Peach for the DS. It has to be the first game I've ever bought that has "Princess Power" printed on the case, and so many pastel colors it's frightening. :) I don't care it looks to be a great platform game, and it will tide me over until New Super Mario Bros. comes out.

I've still been playing quite a bit of Animal Crossing Wild World, and happy to report that the season's have changed and everything is green now. I've noticed some new plants growing in my town clovers, and Jacob's ladder flowers. This should also bring out some new fish, and bugs to catch! I finally finished my dinosaur exhibit at the museum so it's now complete, I'm soooo happy!