Update-a-thon v1.0...

What's new? Lets see since my last posting I took a weekend break and went to Branson. My daughter was on Spring Break, but doesn't like to go with Grandma & Grandpa by herself because no one will ride with her at Silver Dollar City.

Friday (1st mistake), + Spring Break (2nd mistake) was terrible. I think we rode each ride once, and got stalled at three different ones because they were adding additional cars/trains (they didn't know they were going to be busy...). SDC has a new ride, The Giant Swing opening the first week of April. Check out the mock video in the link, looks like it will be pretty cool.

The rest of the weekend was okay, we ate at FuddRucker's one afternoon and the new Joe's Crab Shack one evening. I have ate at Joe's before in Galveston, TX and remember it being much better, maybe I should have went with crab (duh?) instead of shrimp. The food was good, but didn't seem worth what I paid for it. Since my trip to Denver, and this outing to Branson I have found that I really like free wireless access in the hotel.

My PSP got a work out this weekend from watching some TV shows on the way down, playing Luxor : Wrath of Set (a lot, I really like this game (note to self: really need to pick up Magnetica for the DS but not at $30)), to surfing my favorite sites at the hotel. It also allowed me to download the current Legendary Thread, and 1UpYours podcast which I listened to on the way back. I don't remember mentioning it last time, but the DS web browser is finally getting a US release supposedly in June. Now web browsing on the PSP (while a neat feature) is not overly practical but it works okay. The biggest advantage to the DS would be if it brings up a 'touch screen' keyboard for text input, but you will lose the ability to download music/pictures/video and play them back like on the PSP.

It seems as though the black 'Elite' 360 is indeed headed to a retailer near you, Xbox360fanboy posted some candid shots from a Chinese factory that were posted on a Chinese video game BBS. I don't know of anyone taking reserves for the systems yet, but if the early May release date holds (I read somewhere about a Microsoft announcement coming Wed, but now can't find it, where the Elite is to be announced). Unless there is some hidden goodies (other than color/hd size/HDMI) that we don't know about I won't be upgrading. I'll wait till I come across a used 120GB hd and then pick it up.

My computer components are still sitting in the corner mocking me. Command & Conquer 3 comes out today, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. hit the shelves last week. I have come to the conclusion that to raise money for my stinking ram I'm going to put my Wii (console you sickos) on eBay. I don't play it, or much else for that matter (WoW the only game you need) and you know its inevitable big N will announce new colors, or functionality in Wii 1.1. I might pick up another one then, I might not depends if the games get any better. I've got some other stuff to put up too so hopefully I'll get enough to cover the ram, and maybe some other non-priority addons.

Halo 3 box nudies with sticker shock, more noir 360 steam, and Commodore ressurection.

Xboxygen got a hold of some supposed Halo 3 box art with some nice shots of legendary box, and the collector's tin. The legendary box looks pretty neat, but the collector's tin looks like the same packaging as the Prey collector's set which wasn't well liked (the rubber 'hub' that the DVD was sitting on left something to be desired).

On top of these shots there is more info flowing about the different editions, and their contents. The biggest shocker was the price hike on the legendary to $129.99 while the regular ($60), and CE ($70) held fast at the previous price point. Another puzzling point is the CE while having 2 disc in common with the legendary comes with an art book that is not included in the legendary edition, so anyone going to spend $200 to get everything? A couple of sources supposedly also spilled the beans that Halo 3 will see release in September to beat the holiday rush, not like it will have any problem steamrolling right on through.

The newest Game Informer (April 2007) has a article about the 'rumored' new 360, you know Black, 120GB, HDMI that we've heard of before. I haven't seen the issue yet so I don't know if it has any new info, but Internet rumblings still point to $480 May 1st release. On top of that there are some new rumblings saying that the core system will be discontinued (about time) and the premium will see a price drop.

When I was in high school getting into computers I was leaning towards Apple products, but ended up getting into the Commodore line up. After working through the Vic 20, C=64, Amiga 1000, and Amiga 1200 I had spent a lot of time in the Commodore camp. When the end came in 1994 I moved back into the PC camp but was always intrigued when someone new bought the 'Commodore' name and property rights. It has come back to the forefront now, as a UK company is launching Commodore Gaming soon which will have a launch line up of 4 'gaming' PCs.

GDC Cometh, and Sparta's 300 attack!

The Game Developers Conference 2007 wrapped up this week in San Francisco, focused mainly towards the game developers it used to be a look into what was coming at E3. Since E3's demise as we know it, this years GDC has taken on some of the E3 traits with keynotes, and more coverage by gaming journalist.

Gamasutra has a section dedicated to live GDC coverage that you can check out, and GameSpot has some more game centered highlights.

I caught the first show of 300 this morning before work. The preview had looked intriguing although I'd never seen Sin City, I was going to take a chance. The 'entire' movie wasn't as stylised as I thought it would be, it had a certain visual look, but it was not overdone. It's definitely a 'guy flick', as there was not a female in the audience for the first show. Very, very, violent movie (has to be a record for the most decapitations in a movie) but it's about warriors so what did I expect? I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Oscar ramblings, PC ponderings, and more...

Checked out the Oscar nominated shorts on Saturday, most of the animated, live action, and short documentaries were shown. It seems Pixar got nominated this year for the animated short Lifted and were only going to show it in Chicago prior to the awards, although it is supposed to be attached to the front of Ratatouille when it comes out in June at theaters.
This year was the second where they were shown at the Murdock Theater instead of the main branch library. The theater is a nice setting as it has a 'movie' type environment with tiered seating and a larger screen plus they sell concessions. This year we were told that Magnolia pictures, and Apollo films had bought the distribution rights for the nominated shorts, this means it's easier for the library to get the shorts as the studios will just issue a DVD with the shorts on it. I guess it means they get to set the order in which the shorts are viewed also, normally they do the all day showing in a festival format one animated, one live action, one documentary, etc. The DVD was setup so that we seen all the animated shorts, then live action, then documentaries plus Magnolia slipped a trailer in between the categories! The library coordinator apologized for the 'advertisement' but when we actually seen the preview I was pretty stoked, it turned out to be a trailer for The Host which is the US version of the Korean film Gwoemul. I like monster movies so this looked really good, so much so that I came home and found that it doesn't open in the US until March 9th (you can watch the trailer here, but the Korean DVD is already available with English subs so I ordered it.

I originally wrote this blog post late Saturday night but thanks to a Firefox shutdown I lost it, and since it was so late I just went to bed. In the original I had predicted the winners, and pointed out my favorites, but after watching the Oscars last night I was way off. Anyway my picks were as follows:

Animated - No Time for Nuts (taking into account I haven't seen Lifted) If you own the Ice Age 2 DVD this is the scrat short that is on the disc. The winner turned out to be The Danish Poet which by no means a bad short but was not the one I thought would win.

Live Action - These were all pretty good I was leaning towards Helmer & Son, and the winner was West Bank Story which would have been about the middle of my choices.

Documentary - Recycled Life was my favorite, but the academy liked The Blood of Yingzhou District which out of the 4 would have been my second choice.

Remember how I said that usually I don't see whatever wins Best Picture? This year I thought I was pretty safe having only seen The Departed out of all of the nominees, I didn't see it as a 'Best Picture Oscar Winner'. I even rented one of the other nominees from Netflix Babel because the synopsis sounded good, unfortunately it turned out to be one of those features that is telling 3 intertwined stories but not in any particular order. I'm not a big fan of those (probably why to this day I've never finished Pulp Fiction) and while this one wasn't bad it definitely had that 'Best Picture' vibe to it. You can imagine my surprise last night when they announced The Departed as the winner.

I've been green lighted to buy some new computer parts to put together a new system, but now that I'm actually piecing it together I'm coming up short. I thought I could stay within my budget but I'm finding that difficult as I keep finding more and more stuff that needs to be replaced. I haven't put together a totally new system in probably ~6 years, sure I've upgraded parts here and there, but this time I'm finding it would be better just to update everything (sans the case and monitor). The hard drives have went SATA, and even some of the optical drives too. I've found that some of the new motherboards don't even have IDE channels, and most don't have parallel ports or serial ports anymore.

I just want to play World of Warcraft like this, is that too much to ask?

New 360's coming, and TV reloaded.

There were some forum post last weekend saying that GameCrazy had a new 360 sku in their systems releasing May 1 for $479.99. The follow-up messages fell on both sides of the fence with some people getting their local GC to acknowledge the sku, and others reporting no such item exist in the system. According to the thread a couple days later the new sku was no longer in the system.

Well GameInformer picked up on the news Saturday where they state "retailers have confirmed the new sku is in their systems" (hmmm. inside source from GameStop maybe...). I haven't checked with the local GS/EB stores to see if its listed or not yet, but you know it had to be coming. The main differences in the system? It has an HDMI interface, black exterior, and a 120 GB hard drive for $80 more than the premium system (although rumors of a price drop persist). I could care less about the HDMI port, but they better sell the 120 GB drive separately (for a decent price).

LOST came back a couple weeks ago, and sucked me right back in. Although I hear producers were unhappy with the split season formula (show 6 episodes then nothing for 3 months, then the 16 remaining) this year, so maybe it won't happen again next year.
Jericho starts back up this week (yay!), as did the new season of Amazing Race last night. I've said it before but I'm not a big fan of the reality 'all-star' shows if I like the show I'd rather see new contestants than people I've already seen, no matter how funny/cute/pathetic they were. AR had some really weird picks for all-stars also, 2 teams from the very last race, people from seasons 1 and 3 that I don't even recall, Romber (I swear CBS put them under contract 2 Survivors, 2 Races, and their wedding...), and one 'hodge-podge' team made up of opponents from season 9 (Eric & Danielle who are now dating). I'll watch but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it, and at this point I guess I'll root for Kentucky (although best t-shirt goes to Mary 'Team Kentucky' for her "Missing - the Cho Brothers" sported on the first leg) since Uchenna & Joyce have already won.

GamerSCORE! and Halo 3 beta testers wanted, $60 please.

Well Tuesday kicked off the Old Spice Experience Challenge for Xbox 360, the contest assigns you a level (1,2 or 3) based on your current gamerscore 0-4,999 (lvl 1) 5,000-9,999 (lvl 2), and 10,000+ (lvl 3). Then based on your level when you start you can get prizes if your the first of xx,xxx to get 1,500 points between Feb. 12-April 12 (which has now been extended to April 15). Now what on earth made MS think it would take 2 freakin' months for people to add 1,500 points to their achievements!?

First off lets cover the prizes...

• Level 1- you get a Old Spice Level 1 gamerpic, a Level upgrade, and Live Arcade Contra.
  
• Level 2- Old Spice level 2 gamerpic, a level upgrade, Live Arcade Contra, and 100 MS points.
  
• Level 3- Old Spice level 3 gamerpic, Live Arcade Contra, 200 MS points, T-Shirt, and a copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2
  

It's important to note there are supposedly only 2,500 T-shirts/Games available, and 70,000 other prizes (I'm guessing codes for Contra, and the MS points combined).

Well the contest didn't start off well, judging from the amount of complaints on various forums. The rewards site went live around 6pm (when it was supposed to launch at midnight EST), but trying to sign in just get it to hang on a blank page. By the time I got home after work last night there were all kinds of work around posted on various forums, and some indications that 35-40 people had already completed the level 3 challenge (in 3 1/2 hours). I finally got registered and thinking I was ready to SCORE I proceeded to play 2 1/2 hours of Madden 06 and rack up 500 points deciding that was a good place to call it a night I saved my progress. This morning I decided to check in to see if the website was working better (it wasn't), and in the process found that signing up for the Xbox Rewards was only the first step. You also have to join the challenge from the main Old Spice page before you get started, yep you guessed it my 1/3 of the mountain was erased and I was all the way at the bottom again. :(

I had posted about this Gamespot How to score 6,000 points (without really trying) article quite a while ago, and had referenced it along with this blog post thinking Madden 06, and King Kong or half of it would be my 1,500 since I had never played them. By all accounts Madden should take 6 hours to get all 1,000 points (my time was right at that, but I never got the 4 sacks during a game achievement) so I ended up with 900 (only 400 of which counted towards the contest...). I knew that Kong was roughly 6-8 hours so I thought I better look for another padding game, after going back to the Gamespot article I decided it would be NBA 2K6. It took 1 game not quite an hour to get all 1,000 points, the easiest points ever and I didn't even understand the controls 100%. I popped in Kong and about 30 minutes in hit the first achievement for 100 points paused the game, and (tried, and tried, and tried) to 'complete' the challenge on the website. I finally got through and it congratulated me on finishing the challenge, I still never got to the prize page but since I was level one I know what I'm getting anyway.

It's funny to note that it took a lame challenge and 24 hours to more than double my gamerscore (I was at 1945, and in the last 24 hours gained 2000 points), not including if I go finish Kong which seems pretty easy for another 900 points. Those guys at Mygamercard.net put up an unofficial tracker that gives you a rough update on how many have completed the challenge, and if you search for your name (in the Gamertag box) where you stand. It's been pointed out though on a couple forums that people have completed the challenge but the tracker not showing them with all their points (including right now it shows me at +900) so it seems to be taking a while to update so take the numbers there as guesstimates.

Xbox360fanboy had posted a blurb about the upcoming Halo 3 beta in conjunction with Crackdown. Those of you who thought about just snagging a copy of Crackdown downloading the beta then selling it off (or returning it, you devils) looks like the jokes on you. The picture below of insert that comes with Crackdown clearly states that to download the beta (whenever it's actually available), and to play the beta will involve you having the actual Crackdown DVD. Once downloaded it won't show up in the "demo" menu on your dashboard, it will only show up under the Xbox Live menu of the Crackdown game.

So are you willing to pay $60 bucks to beta test a game?

Progressive 360 games, Half-Life 2 date dumps, and pondering new PC parts.

XBOX360Fanboy.com reported yesterday that SEGA had announced Virtua Tennis 3 will support 1080p on the 360, as well as a spectator mode dubbed VT:TV where you can watch LIVE matches in progress. Hot on the heels of that news today they posted that EA also says NBA Street Homecourt will support 1080P also. Judging from the comments to the post, it seems that there are already some 1080P games available on your favorite console.

Originally slated for June, it seems as though Valve Software has pushed back Half-Life 2 (Black (PC), and Orange (360/PS3)) till winter (sometime between November~February) according to 1UP.

I'm looking at new PC components. The pending Vista wave as well as new games that I really want to play has me itching to upgrade my rig. It's about time as I've been running 2.4GHz probably close to 2 years, not to mention my NVidia 5900 card that's now 3 generations old. I've always been a staunch Intel supporter so I'm eyeing a nice Duo Core processor, and a 680i (NVidia based motherboard) for starters not to mention new (and more excessive) ram upgrade. Good thing that income tax refund is on the horizon soon!

There was a demo of Supreme Commander posted yesterday, I'm downloading it now just to see how bad I need to upgrade. :)

Vista looms... Crack-down baby and new tv shows ahoy!

Well looking at the Sunday ads today I couldn't help notice one thing, I believe that Microsoft's Vista OS comes out on Tuesday. Yes indeed I've never seen so much MS advertisement at one time (even when the 360 was new!) and found that I can get it at midnight Monday @ CompUSA! I wonder if I had to have it pre-ordered? :) 4 different versions, 8 separate skus wow MS doesn't do anything half-assed do they? This of course is not including Best Buy's advertised Bill Gates Autographed Vista Ultimate Upgrade Limited Edition (no joke, I couldn't make this stuff up).

Fearing that my puny human system wasn't up for the task, I thought just for fun I would run the Vista Upgrade Advisor to see how dire my situation was. Really according to it I'm not too bad off the 2 glaring red X's before installation were, my hard drive is too skinny (just wanted some extra space), and one of my programs (cd burning software) evidently doesn't play nice with Vista. After installation Vista say it would run with 512 MB of ram, but it really would like more, and 6 of my programs may have 'minor compatibility' problems (funny enough because 2 of them were MS products...). This of course just said I could run it, not specifying if I would enjoy running it. :)

I'm really in need of an upgrade anyway, Supreme Commander comes out February 20th and they haven't released specs yet but judging from the comments on the 1UPYours show to run nice is going to take a powerhouse. This of course does not include other upcoming titles like Command & Conquer 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl, or Hellgate : London...

I did download the Crackdown demo the other day/night/day (took forever) and finally got around to checking it out Friday night. It's Saint's Row & Spiderman 2 melded together, a free roaming cel shaded wonderland. Okay that might be a bit over the top, but I did enjoy the time I spent with it. It won't replace Saint's but with the superhero abilities it made it fun just to run (and jump) around, the problem I have is it doesn't grab me as a $60 title. I heard both sides of the fence as people at work have either loved it or hated it, doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground, and I had someone today tell me that the Co-op was extremely fun and I haven't tried it yet. Will it sell millions of copies (with the Halo 3 beta dangler) hell yes, if they hadn't tacked it on maybe not so much.

I've updated the sidebar because TV shows are back in season (finally) with some of my favorites starting new seasons Monk, and Psyched. While some of my other faves that were dormant over the holiday seasons are trickling back like Heroes, Supernatural, How I Met Your Mother, and Lost (someday in Feb hopefully). Plus there is a new Amazing Race coming up quick, although to my dismay looks to be another 'All Stars' race. I'm sorry but Rob & Amber were kinda cool in Survivor, less stellar in the first All Stars AR, and now I just don't care. Most of the teams they brought back are in that same boat, some of them may have been fun to watch but I'm glad most of them didn't win (the first time). I did like Uchenna & Joyce a lot the first time around, but they did win, do you really need to offer them another million??

Movie Time (Oscar nominees, BAM!) , and news to Wii.

Caught a couple movies on my day off, it's been a while since I saw anything at the theater Night at the Museum being the last. I had a 'sneak' pass for Catch and Release the romantic/comedy starring Jennifer Garner as a girl whose fiancee has just passed away, and she falls for one of his friends. Despite also starring Kevin Smith (Silent Bob talks!) the punch lines were too far apart and it never elevated to a light fluffy film, it was kinda dark, and even after his death she just kept getting dumped on. I really enjoy romantic comedies, but this one missed by a mile, hopefully it won't last long so guys don't get suckered in for Valentine's day.

I also watched Curse of the Golden Flower which I'd never heard of before I saw it in the movie time listing. It turns out it was Oscar nominated (more on that farther down...) for "Best Costume Design", and I went in thinking it was going be along the lines of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Well, no. Turns out it was waaay more drama than chop chop, there were a couple good fight scenes scattered among a period drama featuring the most screwed up family ever. Mothers sleeping with sons, brothers and sisters doin' it, dad trying to drive mom crazy all in a multi colored neon bright forbidden city in China. All that being said judging from their Oscar competition they probably hands down won that category.

That's brings us to the Oscar nods, haven't been keeping up on my movie news (not working at a theater will do that...), so I was surprised to find the nominations had came out Tuesday. This years Best picture category includes some real winners . If you know me, then you know that my taste in movies does not reflect the academy's views most of the time. I used to be able to say that if a movie had won best picture, I probably had not seen it, but there was a run in the late 80's and late 90's where I actually had seen the best picture. Checking out this best picture list it seems since 1927-2006 there have been 78 best pictures, I've seen 10 (not quite 8%). Unless The Departed wins this year (which I doubt, because I enjoyed it.) that percentage will fall a little more. I do enjoy watching the nominated shorts (live action/animated) and have now for the last 8-10 years because I usually do agree with those winners. If you didn't know the public library here in doodah shows them after they are announced a couple times (also including the short documentary category), then 4-5 times with just the live action/animated usually at the branches. This years first showing of nominees will be February 24th @ 10 a.m. (the only time you can see them before the awards on Sunday night (2/25).

I came home Friday night after work to find the blue light of love glowing on my Wii. Nintendo had rolled out the news channel and after a quick update, it was available from the dashboard (what does Nintendo call it?). I played with it for a while, looks okay but I think after the new wears off it will be neglected like my weather channel. If they only update every 6 hours like the weather channel, it really cuts down on its usefulness I've found.

Golden software shower, 1UP, and MLB 2k7 lookin' good!

A lot of 'gone gold' announcements this week with Crackdown (360), Supreme Commander, and Vanguard : Saga of Hereos (both PC) being some of them. Crackdown demo has been announced for Tuesday next week on the marketplace so we will soon see if it is any good. I did download the Battlestations : Midway demo last week, and have played a couple multiplayer matches (the only available option). The cycling between units is kinda cool, but overall I just didn't enjoy it. It's slipped off my radar unless I hear some really good things about it, or it drops to $20.

Check out the 1UP Show site and check out the latest video podcast (episode 501, 1/19/07). It covers The Crossing (PC) which looks really good, Phoenix Wright 2, Calling all Cars, and a segment on Crackdown. I've watched the last 3-4 episodes (the WMV version streams to the 360 nice!) and since I've listened to the 1UP Yours podcast for quite a while it was interesting to put faces with the voices. None of them looked anything like the pictures in my head. :)



Xbox360fanboy tipped me off that IGN has posted some incredible looking screenshots from 2K Sports upcoming MLB 2K7 for the 360. I also tracked down the MLB 2K7 'Big Game' trailer at Gamevideos.com, check it out. I'm not a big baseball fan and don't buy the games, but it looks gorgeous!

Try a sampling (sooner or later), and B-Ball defeat.

Good news! According to Xbox360fanboy.com Battlestations: Midway is getting a demo tomorrow on Xbox Live. I had dismissed this game early on thinking it was just another WWII based Blazing Angels type airplane game. It came to my attention that it actually allows you to play from multiple vantage points you can control submarines, other navel units, or aircraft from the 'drivers' seat or take an overall commander stance. Looking forward to the demo now for a little hands on, check out video for an 8 min in game preview.

360fanboy also posted a couple days ago that the Crackdown demo (which had been targeted for the 18th for a while) was not going to make it up by then. Seems certification is taking longer than expected although they say it will be up by the end of the month. This is another title that I dismissed after seeing early screenshots and video, but with all the praise the guys at 1UPYours podcast have been dishing lately it's another one I'm itching to play.

My daughter tried out, and got on the Curtis girls basketball team. After about 2 weeks of practice they had their first game tonight. I'm sorry to say that the Lady Storm outplayed the Lady Falcons and won 40 to 23 at Stuckey middle school tonight.

WAAAARCRAFT! Get ready for S.T.A.L.K.E.R (finally), and much more.

I started playing World of Warcraft. Yep, finally gave in and decided to try the 30 day trial of WoW. It's not bad, the graphics looks really good leaning toward 'cartoony' looking. Final Fantasy XI is the only other MMORPG that I played for a length of time, but I've found that WoW hasn't been too hard to pick up, with some keystrokes being identical.

Today marked the launch of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade the first expansion set for WoW, depending on where you pre-ordered from you may have been able to pick it up at 12:01 am this morning!


1up has this story about the midnight launch in Florida where 250 people showed up (out of 341 pre-orders) to be the first to run home and try out the expansion.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl has finally been given a release date of March 2007. This is stunning news because I played builds of this FPS at E3 2004, and 2005 even then sounded (and looked) awesome, and even back then was looking forward to it. Download and check out the launch trailer from THQ. With S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Command & Conquer 3, and Supreme Commander just to name a few this is going to be a great year for PC Gaming. The only downside is I'm probably definitely going to need some PC updates pretty soon, I got my eye on a sexy dual core processor. :)

Discovery Channel has some cool shows and every once in a while they run them in groups and I can catch a bunch of episodes. If you haven't seen them check out Dirty Jobs, MythBusters, and Deadliest Catch.

Here comes CES... Microsoft, HD DVD & Blu-ray touching each other, and oiling the GEARS.

CES runs this week (8-11) in Las Vegas, and a lot of the press conferences were held yesterday. Microsoft announced the 360 would be supporting Microsoft's IPTV in Holiday 2007 allowing you to use your 360 to watch, and record television via a broadband connection. I found this page that has a video up of carbon (Microsoft's code name?) in action.

No mention however of the Xbox 360 v2.0 (even though there was picture & video proof of a modified developer unit) that was supposed to include an HDMI port, and that mythical larger hard drive (this time 120GB).

LG Electronics announced the first HD/Blu-ray combo player, streeting in early February for $1,199.

MyGen.com.au (an Australian videogame site) broke the news that this week (Jan. 10th) there will be 2 new multiplayer maps for Gears of War Raven Down, and Old Bones. The best news is these are sponsored by Discovery channels Gamer Generation show so they will be free!

Roll em!

Got out today and decided to see a movie, I've been behind lately not enough free time or opportunities to go see one. Night at the Museum starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, and Dick Van Dyke was the chosen flick. I had seen previews for it, and it looked really good (had that Jumanji vibe to it). I wasn't disappointed, as it was very funny and enjoyable movie. Ben plays Larry a divorced dad trying to manage his personal life with lackluster results, and have his son look up to him. He has tried various schemes, and held all kinds of jobs when he is threatened with losing his apartment, and his kid he takes the night watchmen job at the Museum of Natural History. Little does he know after hours all the exhibits come to life everything from the T-Rex skeleton, and African wildlife to Theodore Roosevelt, and the dioramas of the roman empire, and wild west. He has to find a way to stay alive, keep order, and not get fired not to mention bonding with his son. I really liked it, most will probably call it a 'popcorn flick' light on thought provoking material, but overcharged with action. In my book that's okay as some of my favorite movies could be classified 'popcorn flicks'.

GameStop on an binge, maybe?

Shacknews is reporting that GameStop is buying out Rhino Video games a chain primarily in the SE U.S. There is a link to the original topic at CheapAssGamer where the news broke, seems a lot of people are upset as Rhino still carried old school NES/SNES/GENESIS/DREAMCAST/ETC...

Welcome to 2007! Chief's Rule, Resolution time, and touching the PS3.

First off let me say Happy New Year! to everyone, I hope you didn't party too hard ringing in the New Year. The KC Chiefs got a late Christmas present on New Year's eve, going into their game Sunday they needed to win, and have four other teams lose, well the stars aligned and Indianapolis here we come! Of course the time we met in 1996 didn't go so well, I was at that game damn it was cold. Spent too much on tickets and then we lost by a friggin' field goal. :( Man it really doesn't seem like that was 11 years ago, I remember it had snowed a lot the day of/day before the game and the plastic seats were piled high with snow. Of course our next playoff meeting didn't go so well either. I'm hoping it's just because both games were at Arrowhead, maybe the RCA Dome will be better luck for us. :)

I've made my New Year's resolution (but I can't start until after the 12th...) to stop buying new video games. Yep, that's right no more, zilch, goose egg, nada, etc. I guess I should clarify that means new full priced retail games, I will still buy used games, sale items, and new games after a price drop or two. I buy a lot of games (get caught up in the hype) when they first come out, the problem is though I don't get around to playing them, and leave them sealed sitting on a shelf. We get used copies of almost every game within 2-3 weeks of release at work, why not wait that period and save ~20% off the cost of new? If I could hold out 2-3 months (depending on the game) the new ones may be half-off their original retail. Certain blockbuster titles may take longer to depreciate, but most all games do eventually. Of course I guess if you think about it, since I get a discount on games at work, I haven't paid retail in 4 years anyway... I mentioned the 12th because Lost Planet comes out then, and I thoroughly enjoyed the single player, and multi-player demos so I will be there on launch day.

I got a 'hands on' opportunity with the Playstation 3 last weekend, I got to fondle the system, peruse the manual, and enjoy some Resistance : Fall of Man goodness. My first overall impression of the system was it's really big, all of those PS2 fanboy's making fun of the original Xbox because of it's size whose laughing now? It is a sleek looking case (unfortunately after only 4 days it was showing dust) and its really quiet too, but it did get warm after a couple hours.

The wireless six axis controller was nice and comfortable, but I did miss the rumble feature and any extra heft would have been welcome. It's really light, I wish they would have put room for a couple AA batteries (one in each handle) to make it feel more... like a real controller. The 5 Ft. charging cable (USB A to mini-B, same as a PSP-PC link) is kinda cheesy as it's too short to sit away from the console and play while the controller is charging. Speaking of which, the console has to be ON to charge the controller. I've never used the 360 play & charge kit, but it will work with the system off won't it?

That brings us to the other features, and I found some cool and useful ones. The first which I had heard was the video port is legacy PS2/PS1 vintage that means any Playstation video cable will work. I already had PS2 component cables laying around so I used those and they worked like a charm. The second feature I stumbled upon was the internal hard drive (20 GB, and 60 GB depending on model) are user replaceable. You pull the side door off, slide the cage out, and you can install any Serial ATA laptop drive you want 100 GB, 200 GB you name it. Messing around the menu I found an item to go along with the larger drives, you can partition it and through the menu install another OS. I poked around the net and found people already have Linux distro's available for the PS3 console. It really is just a PC with specific components, and I think it's cool Sony gave you the option to mess around with. The last feature that I found neat was you can create 'virtual' PS1/PS2 memory cards on the hard drive no more proprietary memory cards! There is a optional converter (USB->PS2 memory card slot) that allows you to transfer your saves (if you already have them on memory cards) to the HD if you need it. After playing with both the Wii, and PS3 systems I really think Microsoft missed the boat on Wi-Fi connectivity, I know they want to sell you their $100 networking adaptor but geez. It's so nice to have Wi-Fi built-in especially in the new house where cable runs from upstairs to the basement would suck.

Now onto the games! I downloaded Gran Turismo HD demo, MotorStorm demo, and the Cash, Guns, and Choas demo from the Playstation 3 virtual store (think marketplace) to try out. I played a fair bit of the GT HD demo, and it looked good. I noticed that the bystanders/crowd looked like people not 2D cutouts, and there was some background animation going on that gave it more realism. I found it supported my Logitech Driving Force EX wheel, so I dug that out and hooked it up. It didn't help my driving much, but it was cool using it. I was disappointed that the MotorStorm demo lacked the six axis (wireless) driving mode that is in the demo kiosk, I wanted to try it cord free since you can't do that at Target. It didn't allow you to change the options, and looked like the same level as the kiosk demo. Cash, Guns, and Chaos was a top down run & shoot game where your two analog sticks control you and the firing (meaning you can run any direction, and shoot any other direction). It reminded me of Loaded on the original Playstation, it was fair but not something I would play a lot. Resistance : Fall of Man on the other hand kicks' ass! I enjoyed it thoroughly. I don't know how far into the game I got, but so far the story was really cool. I also tried out the multiplayer and I must say a 40 person deathmatch is insane, I don't know if it was the specific map or settings but man it was frantic. One of the options (on by default I guess) is 'one hit kills' meaning just one bullet can take you out, this coupled with the fact that when you spawn you don't have any protection lead me to a spawn/die/spawn/die/etc. cycle for a bit. Once I got into the rhythm I found that worked both ways because before you spawn you can see the playfield, if someone ran by me I instantly knew where to head. I played another map which was only hosting 25 people, but must have been larger and more spread out as it seemed to take quite a bit of time to find other players. They had it set to start with all the weapons fully loaded so I did get to try some cool ones that I hadn't got in single player campaign yet. I don't know if it's the mechanics of Gears of War or what, but unfortunately at this point in time I much prefer Resistance over Gears. :(

Is Resistance a system seller? To me, yes. I would consider buying a PS3 just to play Resistance, but that leads me to the dark side of the PS3. Personally not needing a Blu-Ray player (since I already have the HD DVD add-on for the 360) I think the PS3 is price prohibitive. In the last week though I've seen a lot of PS3's sold to people who were shopping for Blu-Ray players (Ultimate Electronics is sending customers to us) find that stand alone players are $1000, and they can get a player for $600/$500 and it has other uses to (it plays games)! If I run across a used PS3, and have the funds available I may have to pick it up.

Se-XXX-y Zune, Orange Zune, and WiiNet.

I got a Zune today (Thanks going out to work & Microsoft!). It will be replacing my 60GB video ipod, losing some storage (that I wasn't using anyway) but gaining an FM tuner, and larger 'widescreen aspect' screen. I came home tonight and decided to surf some Zune websites to see what was in the news.

It seems a 12 year old in Chicago got a little too much luvin' from her Christmas Zune. Her parents bought a Zune for their daughter at the local Wal-Mart only to find that it was evidently returned with some 'eXXXtra' videos on it. Check out the segment from FOX Chicago's newscast, and feel better knowing Wally World is giving a refund, and a $25 gift card for their trouble.

I also found that Microsoft 'hid' 100 specially colored limited edition Zune's randomly inside the shipping units. I guess a couple of pink ones have turned up, and more recently an orange one. Of course these new Zune owners decided it would be better to eBay their limited edition Zune than holding onto it (the pink one I would have too, but the orange one is kinda snazzy (ahhh. Spice Gamecube flashbacks...))

As was posted a couple days ago, this morning I woke up to find my Wii glowing blue again. The beta version of the Opera browser was up for download today, I've read some forums this evening and it sounds like it works well. I'm still not convinced there is a giant market for surfing the net on your TV set, especially with a wiimote and no keyboard, but it's nice to the have the functionality if you ever want to use it.

Christmas movie cheer, and I met a strange lady, she made me nervous.

I went to see Deck the Halls last night, as the previews and posters I had seen made it look interesting. While the movie was okay it wasn't overly funny :( or emotionally moving (either of which can make an outstanding Christmas movie). It seemed to take quite a while to get going, and if not for redeeming itself at the end I would easily give it a lower review. It did get me to thinking though about the Christmas movies I do like, and in no particular order my top 5 **** Christmas movies (meaning something I watch at least once each holiday season) would be...

I was in Target the other day checking out clearance items (which is something I do...) in the Men's section. There was a woman (late 20's blond... If it matters) about two racks over that looked over at me when I walked up, then walked around the rack and was standing in front of me "What size pants do you wear"? "Huh"? I replied, kinda perplexed why a woman whom I didn't know would be asking me this. She unfolds a belt she was carrying in her hand and reiterated "I was wondering what size pants you wear"? So now I figure she must be shopping for Christmas presents, but I hesitate and for a split second and think to myself do you suck in the gut, and shave the number down a bit, or just shrug it off and tell the lady the truth. Being married and old I went with the later. She explains that she doesn't understand the belt tag saying 32-34 "Does that mean the furthest hole is 32", and the closest hole would be 34 inch"? Adding "would this fit you"? I giggle (not really but it sounds good), and exclaim "No" thinking (again to myself...) high school was how long ago? I finally said that I usually pick a belt that I can fasten about in the middle of the holes that way it gives you continued use no matter which way need you go. :)

P.S. If you weren't humming Men At Work, Down Under after reading the title, shame on you.

Wii happenings, tunneling into GameStop, and Festive Saints!

I finally got my Wii cables yesterday from Nintendo (just a hint don't use 2 day UPS its about $3 higher than Ground, but I think they would have gotten here the same day). I haven't had a chance to hook them up yet today, hopefully later this afternoon. My Wii was glowing blue this morning (indicating I have a message waiting). I was happy to find the forecast Channel is now up and running! A quick update and I was checking the weather locally and overseas, it's easy to read and has quite a bit of information. I don't know how often the info is updated as my current temp, today's forecast, and tomorrow's was from 6am (about 4-5 hours ago). You also have the option of viewing weather via a globe where you can zoom in/out, and rotate all the way around using the Wiimote. It was way more fun than it should have been, and I know the conditions in Paris, Tokyo, and the South Pole. :)

More good news (hopefully) was found at Nintendo Europe which states that a beta version of the Opera browser will be available on Friday December 22nd. I'm sure hoping this is for Europe, US, and Japan but I guess we will know soon enough. A tidbit about the browser is the final version will be available in March 2007 and will be free until June 2007 after which time it will cost 500 Wiipoints ($5) to download.

I've been playing Elebits and it's pretty cool, I've only made it through the tutorial and first level but I like it. I want to try out Super Swing Golf, and hope to when I move the system downstairs and have more room. I've read some impressions on the net, and they said if you liked Hot Shots or Mario Golf then you would like this too.

If you missed it somehow big N has done a 'replacement' on the wrist straps for the Wiimote, you can go here to order replacements (limit 4 per person).

It seems some cleaver crooks decided to burrow into their local GameStop in hopes of obtaining some PS3's disappointed like everyone else looking they decided that thirteen 360's would have to do (good choice! As long as they were premium systems). I hope they picked up some games too, Hexic gets kinda old quick.

I dug out my Saint's Row game last night because those wonderful people at Violation have given Xbox live Gold members a free download, the appropriately titled Ho, Ho, Ho pack. Which as you probably guessed let's my on screen thug dress up like Santa Claus, the pack includes the hat, jacket, pants, shoes, and hair so you can be stylin' as St. Nick! Nothing like seeing Santa run around with a assault shotgun blowing people away, and throwing the occasional grenade. I know there are thunderstorms that randomly happen during the game it would have been cool if they could have had it snow too.

Well if you still don't have your Wii or Playstation 3 sitting under the tree, there is hope according to Toys-R-Us their stores will receive thousands of Wii systems, and 6,000 PS3's this week. It's unknown how many thousands include but guessing at least 2 that's about 3 per store on the Wii's, get camping.

Now that's a Pinata, GameStop tidbits, and 360 coming soon...More Xbox games.

It seems as though the Xbox 360 team in Mexico had too much time on their hands decided to try for a Guinness world record. Gamerscore Blog reports they did this by attempting to build the worlds largest Pinata! Yes, they built a giant (48 feet x 52 feet)Horstachio from Viva Pinata outside Six Flags Mexico (there is a Six Flags in Mexico???), the process took 3 weeks to complete and I guess they are still waiting on official word from Guinness about the record.


Gamespot has a article up about Gamestop carrying import DS titles on their website, Jump Superstars, and Naruto: Saikyo Ninja Daikesshu 4. I don't know if the local stores will be carrying these, but it is interesting as I seen both titles last week available at the Best Buy stores here in town.

In other Gamestop/EB Games related oddities I noticed that Kum & Go (Woodlawn & 21st) had GS/EB branded $25 gift cards available at the checkout register. Not a bad idea, especially for those (like me!) that wait until the very last minute (ie. After 6pm Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day) to pick up a gift.

It seems someone over at Xbox.com got jumpy today and for a brief amount of time put up the December backwards compatibility list. Joystiq did us a favor and posted the list of NEW games before the list vanished. There are some neat additions that I know will make some gamers happy including Scarface, Mortal Kombat : Armageddon, Family Guy, Pyschonauts, and some others that seem strange to me Splinter Cell Double Agent, Open Season, and Farcry Instincts which are already available in 360 form. That is the nature of emulation though making one game run inadvertently opens others (Barbie Horse Adventures anyone?) although I hear that the Splinter Cell on the Xbox actually has content not available on the 360 version. Microsoft of course issued a statement neither denying or confirming the leak, stating that with software development things change all the time so it may or may not be correct.

Japanese lining up for 360's!

In an amazing turn of events Japanese gamers are lining up to get a 360. Yep, you read that right lining up to get the new Blue Dragon 360 bundle. Dengkionline.com had this news story (translated for your convenience) describing today's festivities. It will be interesting to see the sales figures next week to see how much impact this game will have on system sales with the bundle. 1UP also has article up about the bundle mainly with pictures of all the cool goodies packed inside (the faceplate, and figurines look awesome) the bundle. You may have heard some rumblings about this game a while back because it was too big to fit on a DVD, so here you have the first 360 game that comes on 3 (yep three) DVD's. Makes a pretty good argument about using the HD DVD disc for games too if storage is going to be an issue.

Digging into Lost Planet, Wii touching, and other ramblings...

I'm really liking the Lost Planet multi-player demo, although it never showed up on Xbox Live for me. Luckily EB Games got their pre-order bonus cards which enable you to download a version of the demo with an extra map available so I got it that way. I really enjoyed the single player demo that came out last May, and they polished a lot of the stuff from that release. I've put in quite a few games over the last couple of days, and must say it's a lot of fun. Check it out it you haven't yet the game finally comes out in January.

Well I broke down the other day and picked up a Wii. I had been going over the pros/cons of the system for about a week, and since I had some trade-in credit built up I went ahead and got one. I'm not hooking it up to the big TV until I can get a set of component cables (yes Nintendo people do have HD sets, and they like to use them). I got Excite Truck, and of course Wii-Sports but so far have only played Excite. Excite Truck is cool, graphically it's not going to win any awards but it is fun to play, the room it's in right now doesn't have a lot of extra space so I haven't tried Wii-Sports yet. The built in Wi-Fi access is pretty neat too (now where is my web browser...) and makes it easy to link to your friends. The 'always-on' aspect is cool although I have yet to have any Mii's join my parade. :( Post a reply with your Wiicode if you want me to add you to my friends list 5737 2086 3695 2439. Check out this story at IGN where some of those creative folks have taken a Bluetooth dongle, the Wiimote and are playing some Half-Life 2 on the PC!

I got around to some 'hands on' time with a PS3 and Resistance : Fall of Man, I will say it looks really good (on par with stuff I've seen on the 360) and it seems to have a really cool story line. It's not a system seller (although I don't think anything is @ $600) but would be the only title so far that makes me lean that way.

School's out! Wii-trouble, and PS3 best graphics ever, or not.

Well woke up early this morning with a phone call saying USD 259 is out. I'm thinking we must have got that snow last night after all, so I look outside to see ... Nothing it's cold but that's it. Turned on the TV to find that school is indeed out, because the weather people say it will get bad today, sometime, maybe, they just aren't sure when. WTF!?

Well the Wiimote seems to be a dangerous projectile in the wrong hands. Check out Wii Have a Problem for stories and pictures of the Wiimote's path of destruction!

The PS3 was billed by Sony as the next big thing, 1080p graphics, Blu-Ray technology, and so much more. IGN has posted an article called What the Cell is going on? that contains screenshots, and videos comparing titles between the Xbox 360 & PS3. I don't think any of the screenshots look better, let alone that much different from each other, which is kinda sad since they had 3-6 months more to polish up the PS3 titles.

Happy Birthday! Video invades the 360, it's almost black Friday and Wii envy.

Happy Birthday Xbox 360! Do you remember where you were this day last year? Were you at home playing that shiny new 360? The retail 360 turns 1 today do you still have any of the launch titles left in your collection? I still own Call of Duty 2, and Kameo from launch. Oh yeah it's my Birthday too, but I'm a little older. :)

The new Movie/TV content is officially live on the marketplace now, read today's press release. This outlines the pricing for the content as follows (with price conversions):

• HD TV episodes 240 mpp = $3.00
  
• SD TV episodes 160 mpp = $2.00
  
• HD movies (new release) 480 mpp = $6.00
  
• SD movies (new release) 320 mpp = $4.00
  
• HD movies (classic) 360 mpp = $4.50
  
• SD movies (classic) 240 mpp = $3.00
  

If you purchase an HD movie you can download the SD version at no additional point cost (Why you would want too, I have no idea!?) Come on MS where is the larger HD announcement?

Black Friday is only day's away are you ready? Check out all the upcoming ads at BFAds.net and plan your early morning adventures, looks to be a lot of PC/Laptop/HDTV specials this year. A notable item is Amazon.com will supposedly have 1,000 core Xbox 360 consoles available at 11:00 AM PST (1:00 PM CENTRAL) for $100.00.

I'm trying to figure out how to get enough stuff traded in to pick up a Wii on Friday. I've read numerous forum post detailing the glee of ownership, of course I've also read accounts of flying Wiimote missiles shattering laptop screens.

Here Wii go... and Princess Leia's lady lumps.

Last night/early this morning marked the launch of Nintendo's Wii console. Everyone I talked to today that got a unit seemed thrilled with their purchase, even though there were a lot of people looking for extra controllers. Check out the Joystiq story about the midnight launch at EB Games Universal Citywalk in Los Angeles and watch the video. That EB had 1,000 units up for grabs, a few more than the local stores got I'm sure...

Okay I didn't know Princess Leia could shake it like this, and why is Mr. Solo just watching?

EDIT: Since the video wasn't working here is the direct link.

PS3 Smackdown, the King is here, and I <3 Bob.

Well incase you missed it yesterday was the big launch of the PS3 console. Numerous people waiting in line all over the U.S. to score that shiny new system, so they could rush home and put it on eBay. :) Checked pricing this morning and since there are so many units on eBay there were about 20 auctions ending at the same time. Most seemed rooted about $1000.00, but there were a couple that you could have 'snaked' for $800, and some of those included as many as four games. I don't think they are the windfall the scalpers were hoping for, I mean the Xbox 360 went for $1000 at launch and it only cost $400 these people aren't even getting back double. Check out this newscast from a Milwaukee station where some pinheaded Wal-Mart manager decided it would be a good promotion to have the 50 people in line run across the parking lot and grab 10 chairs on the other side that represented the stock of PS3's.

Went by Burger King yesterday since I'd read on the net that some of the BK's had already started selling the Xbox/360 games. Sure enough the one closest to work had all 3 games in stock and sold them all with one value meal purchase. Lunch and 3 games for $17.xx not bad, I haven't got to try them yet but will post impressions as soon as I do.

I stumbled across BOB FM the other day (100.5 FM) and really like it. I think I've listened the better part of 3 days and haven't heard the same song once. :) I knew it wasn't an original Wichita idea (nothing is) but sure enough found some BOB FM information on Wikipedia.

The look and feel of Wii, more HD DVD, and those crazy Pinatas.

Running around yesterday I decided to stop in the local EB Games and look around. To my surprise there were quite a few customers in the store (kinda weird for a Monday afternoon) and the Nintendo rep was there also. The store has not received the Wii kiosk yet, but the rep said she had one in the car she could bring in for a little bit (Wii indeed!).

She hooked it up to one of the interactive TV's, and fired up Excite Truck on the console. She had two Wiimotes with her (which on first glance are wiieally small) and a small but adoring crowd had gathered in front of the TV. They started up a split screen race, and soon as they finished they passed the Wiimote to the next person so the next group of two could race. I got a chance too and will admit it was pretty neat. Excite Truck is kinda neat because you get points for a lot of stuff (crashing, driving through trees, big air, etc...) not just winning the race so it's possible the person that crosses the finish line first may actually lose in points.

The Wiimote is small, and at least on Excite Truck really sensitive. It didn't require much tilt to steer your truck, and a lot of the people were oversteering at first, but the longer you drove the better it felt. I'm hoping there is some sort of 'sensitivity' adjustment within the games or controller set-up. Comparing it to the PS3 demo of MotorStorm I think the PS3 controller had a more natural driving feel (even with the plastic harness) than the Wiimote, but it's probably all in the calibration settings. Although the guys on 1UP Yours have mentioned a couple times about how loose the PS3 controls felt specifically talking about Lair, maybe the gyro/sensor in the PS3 control is less sensitive than the one in the Wiimote requiring bigger movement?

Well it didn't take long at all, but UneasySilence have posted a entry on getting the 360 HD DVD hooked up, and playing an HD DVD back through Windows. There is only one piece of software so far that will playback an HD DVD (Windvd 8 apparently that is only available from Japan right now) but as more players come out this will only get bigger. I think once this gets out there will be a lot of non-360 owners buying this drive for their HTPC's.

I started playing Viva Pinata the other day, and that might have been a mistake. It's one of games that you get into and just loose track of time, both times I started playing ended up averaging 2 hours. Viva Pinata is a cross between Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and even a little Pokemon added in. I see aspects of all of those when I play, and even though the game is rated E there is a lot of grown up innuendo in there (of course this is the same company that made Conker's Bad Fur Day so we shouldn't be surprised). You start the game by creating a garden and depending on what you place or grow will affect what pinatas you attract. When you attract a pinata they will be B&W but you can select them and it will show you their resident requirements (ie. what you have to do to make them stay). It maybe feeding them a certain fruit, flower, or even another pinata, or something simpler like having a pond, or light in your garden. Once they join your garden they transform from B&W to color pinatas, then once you have attracted two of the same species you can mate them (pending their romance requirements are met) to create more pinatas, and I'm just scratching the surface so far.

I have PS3 cooties, bust a Pinata, and emerge tomorrow...

Well it seems that PS3 systems have snuck into town laying it wait to snag unsuspecting customers. Yep it seems that the local Target stores have set up PS3 interactive units within the last couple days. One of the employees at work came in tonight and told me about it, so after work I headed up the street, hoping there wouldn't be a large throng of people surrounding it (since they closed in 30 minutes I didn't think there would be).

Arriving at the store I looked toward the endcaps thinking this would be the logical location, instead it was just down the videogame aisle looking like the other two interactives there, a widescreen lcd monitor, and little black dualshock looking controller. It was running a video loop when I walked up and pressed the X button, then the display changed to a familiar sight.

Wow! It's a giant PSP. I've seen screen shots a while back of the interface, and sure enough if you've ever used a PSP this will be second nature. There was a lot of the options (settings, internet, and others) that came up Option not available, but there were sample items in the MP3, Movies, and Photo menus on the system. The main draw was the two game demos under the Games menu, ah yes tucked away were playable demos for Motorstorm, and NBA 07. I don't like basketball so guess which one I tried out?

The first thing to do is "activate" the Six Axis controller in the main menu of the game demo there are a couple options under the controller header one of which is to turn 'wireless motion on' or something to that effect. Now the problem lies in the fact that Targets interactives all have the controller mounted to a semi-rigid plastic arm that protrudes 6" from the case. Not to mention your only about a foot away from a 24" screen that your looking up at. It took the first lap of the race to get the feel for the controller (I don't think it was calibrated 100% because driving straight required a 10 degree tilt to the right) and after that was pretty smooth. The crashes were kinda cool as the truck explodes into little pieces, and you will spot individual items (shocks, springs, wheels, etc.) all exploding outward.

The graphics on Motorstorm were good, I've seen better on the 360, but they weren't bad by any means they just looked different, I can't put my finger on it. It looks like the display was set to 720p (when it goes from the 'dashboard'(!?) to the game demo the monitor clicks off and shows the video input/resolution on screen) so maybe the demos wouldn't run in 1080p or the monitor didn't handle that resolution (my guess). Overall it looks kinda neat (not $600 neat mind you), and there are a couple other titles I'm interested in trying with an unteathered controller. The Six Axis control could be really cool for some games, but hopefully all will come with an option to play either way in the settings.

Check out this story on Kotaku about the PS3 Japanese launch, scary stuff.

A couple of the guys on the latest 1Up Yours podcast were saying some pretty positive things about Viva Piñata. It came out Friday, but with such a packed week of releases I think it got overshadowed a bit. What's up with the wired ass package Microsoft? I don't care what kind of outer wrap/package/box/doohicky you put on my game as long as there is a regular DVD case somewhere in there that fits with all the rest of my DVD cases. (I'm looking at you Gears of War... Lucky I had one of the BB pre-order cases to drop my game and manual in). Back to VP, they explained it as almost a cross of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Pokemon mixed together. I'm really interested to try it out and see how it plays.

Tomorrow (maybe today)... I'm so confused. Sunday is Emergence Day yes indeed the big Gears of War kick off is on the way. The official Xbox site has a post up listing out all of today's festivities. They start at 12:01am but they don't mention what time zone, I'm assuming Pacific so that will be about 27 minutes from now.

Sick sucks, and the view of HD DVD.

Woke up Thursday morning feeling like crap :( come to find out that afternoon that I had strep throat. A couple days later and about 5 doses of Amoxicillin and I'm felling pretty good.

I was able to pick up the 360 HD DVD add-on drive, and luckily since I couldn't work yesterday it gave me something to do. The initial shipments came packed with King Kong so I had something to watch, although it was an okay movie I wasn't all that thrilled when I saw it in the theater. The HD version looked really good, but some of the CGI still looks fake (another complaint from the theatrical showing). I watched that because evidently no one in podunk rents HD DVD's yet, and over half of the video rental places didn't know what I was talking about... (HD DVD?? no we only carry fullscreen and widescreen.). So I joined a two week free trial of Netflix since they have a very good selection of HD DVD rentals available. I know some people who use it, and have for quite a while (DVD, not HD DVD) for rentals and they seem to be happy with the service. The only online rental place I tried was Gamefly, and it was not by any means a 'happy experience' so I hope this works out better. Back on topic the drive itself is simple to install a USB cable runs from the 360 to the drive, and then the HD drive has two USB ports plus a mounting spot for the 360 wireless adaptor. This allows my wireless adaptor, and vision cam to plug into the HD drive leaving the two USB ports on the front free again. The drive comes with a 360 DVD to install some updates to the dash (but I've read on the net if you hook it up without running the DVD, the update will download from Xbox Live anyway) and away you go.

360 TV (and movies!), plus Gears of War mania begins!

Well that rumor the other day turns out to be true as Microsoft spilled the beans with a press release. Starting November 22, 2006 (my birthday, and 1 year anniversary of the 360) Microsoft has teamed up with television, and movie studios to start a download service for HD TV episodes, and movies. The above link list shows such as CSI, the Real World, Friends, and Spongebob Squarepants as well as movies like Superman Returns, Matrix, and Nacho Libre. Pricing isn't set yet, but the TV shows will be yours to keep, movie rentals on the other hand will stay on your hard drive for 14 days. Once you start watching a movie you have 24 hours to complete it, watching it as much as you want within that 24 hours. Microsoft is still mum about a bigger hard drive but with HD movies weighing in at 4.5~5.0 GB each there has to be a larger one coming...

Well some lucky peeps are playing Gears of War right now, not me mind you because here in Podunk we don't get same day delivery on games (Boooo!). A lot of reviews (really good reviews) started hitting the web today Gamespot gives it 9.6, Team Xbox 9.6, and 1up awards a 10/10! It's bad enough to read through the glowing reviews, but I have to read through forum post where those lucky peeps are going on and on about GoW. I want this game now, 10 am will not come fast enough. :(

It's Wii-eally Wii-eally coming, and import your PS3.

Well the Wii is coming, November 19th (if you forgot), and the interactive demo units are starting to hit stores around the country. I've heard locally EB Games/Gamestop should be by the end of this week, hopefully this pans out because I Wii-eally want to play one. :) Anyway some of those California guys over at Joystiq stumbled upon a working interactive at their local GameStop. Lucky for us they posted a write up with pictures, and video. Excite Truck was the game loaded in the interactive, and judging from the video it looks like fun.

Missed out on you Wii pre-order? WiiLoaded.com has a guide up with the major players listed, and their launch strategies. Someone dropped a bunch of numbers online yesterday claiming that they foretold the number of Wii's each Target would be getting for launch, then someone came along and built a search doohickey for it. Enter your area code in the little box and you'll get a list of Target stores and their launch numbers (looks like most of the ones in doodah are getting 24 each, with the exception of 21st & Greenwich they get 33 units.

Looks like you can pre-order the PS3 (60GB) from Play-Asia for only $999.99 (the 20GB is $899.99). This is the Japanese version of the console, but will launch on November 11th, so you could have it before the US launch depending on shipping. There was some forum post on CAG that seem to indicate PS3 software, and Blu-Ray movies are region free (letting the publisher opt if they wish to region lock it) although PS1/PS2 software would still be region locked. I can't see the movie studios going for this as the region protection was always a big deal on DVD's I think that Blu-Ray would follow that path also? Worth the gamble? Not to me although the import prices may be less than eBay inflation once the PS3 launches here, we'll have to wait and see.

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).