More FFXI, new HD channel, and the DS goes on a diet!

Well I'm still playing quite a bit of the FFXI 360 beta, and really enjoying it. Now I'm also paying the fee to play on the PC which I haven't touched for at least a month and a half. :( I will probably end up playing my account on the 360 once the final game is released. Supposedly the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion will be included with the Xbox 360 version on April 18th (the PC/PS2 expansion will be available that same day). I'm guessing they'll release the 360 version for $59.99 with all of the expansions that's not too bad. I figure ToAU will sell for $29.99 by itself (like Chains did when it was released). I've been reading about the special fan festival that Square is throwing, and they've updated the giveaways section with the "gobbie bag" everyone gets, plus everyone attending will get a "Moggle Rod" in game item. I'm sorry but it just looks cool, no one knows what "power" it will have though.

Cox added another HD channel to their digital cable line up last week, Music HD which is High Def music, and specials. It seems to pull content from MTV, VH1, and CMT, but it all looks great. On the other hand, a lot of the content is only Dolby Digital 2.0? What's up with that? With how many DVD concerts and music videos that there are you would think everything would be in 5.1.

Well Nintendo finally came through on the Nintendo DS redesign (albeit about two weeks later than the 16th...). Seems like those of you who just got a DS are about to feel short changed, not much is known about the new unit other than what people can gather from the product shots (which supposedly not final).

Final Fantasy XI, New demos, and touching is bad!

Well I've been playing quite a bit of FFXI, but not on the PC. I've been playing the Beta for the Xbox 360 that was on a dvd in the latest Official Xbox Magazine. I started in San d'Oria again (big surprise!) and I'm currently a lvl 10 WHM. Since everyone is fairly new (the Japanese 360's came with the beta, so the earliest players were middle of December) it was hard at the beginning because there are so many low level players swarming anything that spawned. I've never seen so many people with question marks by their names running around. :) There is a lot to be said for playing in the front room on the HDTV, sitting in my easy chair.

There is a demo for BLACK by EA for the PS2. I got to try it a bit yesterday and it looks really good, I assume the Xbox version will look even better. This game is put out by EA and Criterion Games, the same force behind Burnout Revenge. There was also a demo for Star Wars : Empires at War PC available the other day on-line. I have downloaded it, but haven't got a chance to play it yet.

On a funnier note check out this video from the upcoming Resident Evil DS game. Forget what Nintendo told you, touching is can be bad!

Attack of the 360 faceplates!

Well I had read before the 360 came out that the faceplates (normally $19.99 (Microsoft first party ones)) would probably end up being pre-order bonus items. I didn't figure this would happen too much just because of the value of the item, I mean most of the pre-order bonus items are usually pretty lame (behind the scenes DVD's, Content CD's (wallpapers, videos, etc), and posters. Some times though you get better items like T-Shirts, or soundtrack CD's.

Well it seems I misjudged the companies as this week I've heard of 2 pre-order faceplates, and one free with purchase. EB Games has Sega's Full Auto up for pre-order with bonus faceplate.



GameStop has THQ's The Outfit available for pre-order with a bonus faceplate also.



Lastly Best Buy had one advertised in today's sale ad. Purchase Call of Duty 2, and receive a free CoD2 faceplate.

Xbox 360 luvin, Suikoden ipod's, and more.

I just ran across this post on the XBox 360 forums. Short version someone went to Japan on vacation, and snapped some pictures. He came home and put up some comparison shots between the real areas, and the same area in Microsoft's Project Gotham Racing 3 for the Xbox 360. All I can say is WOW, take a look at the link above for all the shots.



Some other screen luv from EA's Battlefield 2:Modern Combat




Evidently Mad Catz has announced NFL 360 faceplates are coming. I may actually spring for a KC Chiefs one.




In what has to be one of the strangest pre-order cross promotion items ever, KonamiStyle.jp has a white 4GB Ipod Nano to commerate the launch of Genso Suikoden 1 & 2 on the Sony PSP. It comes with special headphones, case, and of course the Ipod itself. On the plus side it would only set you back about $304.00. :)

There are a bunch of "rumors" floating around that Nintendo will announce a redesigned DS on January 16th. Supposedly sleaker/smaller, and with VoIP (Voice over IP) service built-in. Maybe you'll be able to call your friends while your sitting at McDonald's now. Whatever is announced we should know next Monday.

Also supposedly if you log into Nintendo WFC today through Animal Crossing you'll get a New Year's gift/letter from Nintendo's President Saturo Iwata. All you should have to do is go talk to Cooper, and have him open the gates (ie. connect to Nintendo WiFi) and then go back to your house to get the letter.

New Year, new post!

Well it's a brand new year, happy 2006 everyone. Where to start, hmmm. Work was really kinda hectic the last couple weeks, I remembered why Christmas sucked in retail. :) But, it's all good as its over now and we're settling back to normal.


Xbox 360 demos a plenty
I'm really starting to like the LIVE marketplace (I think I mentioned that before) as they just keep adding new downloads. They added a demo for Condemned, then Quake 4, and just today they added one for Fight Night Round 3 (not that I care about the boxing game, but it's still cool). I would like to see one for Dead or Alive 4 soon, to see how it looks. I tried out the Quake 4 demo tonight and it looks really pretty, I've read bad things about the framerate from various sources though. They make take place later in the game, or maybe in multiplayer which I didn't try yet.

More news as Square-Enix announced that the February issue of Official Xbox Magazine will indeed include the Final Fantasy XI 360 beta. I'm looking forward to playing some FFXI on my widescreen TV, and will probably pick up a USB keyboard to see if that works with it. We should know soon as I think the issue is supposed to hit stands on January 17th, and subscribers may get it before that. It would also be cool if it would support voice chat during gameplay, but I've heard conflicting reports on that. Here's a glimpse at what the DVD should look like...




Animal Crossing DS tidbits...
Okay I've been playing for quite a while now and enjoy it a lot. I joined in for the New Year's countdown celebration, which was cool. I enjoyed the fireworks, and the lights on trees in town. There was no Christmas celebration as evidently Christmas is not PC anymore, so it was removed along with some other holidays in the DS version.

I've collected all of the Snowman furniture so I'm not as obsessed with that now. I've been using the snowballs to lure dung beetles out as they sell for 800 bells to Nook, I'm still trying to catch a pill bug though.

I'm getting better at shooting packages down out of the sky, I think I've done 5-6 now. I know I have to get 15 then should get the golden slingshot. I also "caught" my first shooting star the other night. When you hear it whoosh across the screen you have to hit A, then it will kinda brighten up and sparkle. The next day you will get a present in the mail from Star.

Lastly I got my first resident picture the other day (Bella). I guess when you and an animal become "bestest ***dies" they will grace you with a picture of themselves. I hear they raise your HRA score greatly if placed in your house.

Kansas City!
Ok first off a big thank you to the Broncos for smacking the Chargers (sorry Jason) and keeping our playoff hopes alive! Then a big #%$!&* to the Steelers for spanking the Colts (Whoops! my bad.) Lions to kill them off. :( On a happy note I did finally tie for the win on the last regular season week in the football pool I'm in. :)

Week 1st: Edison, K-Statecat 11 Wins

Not great but hey it's the first time this season I've come out on top.

TV Reality endings...

Well two of my favorite shows finished last week The Amazing Race, and Survivor. I was pleased with the outcome on TAR as I was rooting for the Linz family. It would have been okay if the Bransen's had won too, but since they all 4 have free gasoline for life how much will they save over the course of their lives? I will state frankly that if the Weaver's had won I would have boycotted the show! Not likely, but I'm sooo happy they came in 3rd. :) Plus we got teasers for the next season which starts up again in February!

Survivor on the other hand I was a little bit disappointed. I would have liked to seen Rafe win the million, but glad it did turned out that Danni won (she's from KC what's not to like) over Stephanie. I realize that the 'stunt casting' is to draw in viewers, and I do like Stephanie but you had your shot (and a worthless tribe the first go around) but move on.

Animal Crossing pt. 2, and Xbox 360 demos...

Well I finally got the hang of building a correctly proportioned snowman (it seems the trick is to make one snowball as big as possible, then the second one so it comes up to your characters chin). I have gotten two snowman furniture items so far the couch, and wardrobe. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what the third one is. I did screw up the other day putting the big snowball on top so he was upside down, and just a little peeved. :) I did win the fishing tournament Sunday with a 45.1" Sea Bass, and have a nice trophy now in my house to commemorate it.

The January issue of the Official Xbox Magazine is out and includes a hybrid XBox/360 disc, on the 360 side demos include King Kong, Kameo, and Full Auto. While I appreciate the approach the King Kong, and Kameo demos are readily available to play on the demo kiosk not to mention the Kameo demo is available through the XBox Live Marketplace. In the magazine there is a FFXI article that says the U.S. OXM will also have the FFXI Beta in an upcoming issue. There has been some new stuff added to the Marketplace (it's been a while since I checked) a Mission Impossible 3 trailer, Lost Continent 360 game trailer, and a FIFA playable demo.

KONG! and more Nintendo Animal wildness...

Well I used my day off to go see KING KONG today. The visual effects were awesome, a couple shots had that fake look, but overall it was stunning. On the other hand with a running time of ~3 1/2 hours I thought it ran a little long. Of course it didn't make a dent in the back log of movies I need to see. :(

I've had 4 new animals move into my town, bringing my total up to 8. I still haven't built a snowman right he's always not "proportioned" correctly. At first I though my town would be full of them because they were still there a day later, but they seem to melt away after 2~3 days. Redd was in town today, and he sold me a counterfeit painting, hopefully my insurance will pay for it.

I called Nintendo Sunday evening about my daughter's NDS, and they offered to fix it free even though it was out of warranty (Yay!). They sent out a pre-paid UPS label, and said it would take 5-7 days to be repaired.

Animal Crossing ramblings...

Well I've had some time to play around with AC:WW DS, and I can say it's pretty close to the Gamecube version. It has that same 'feel' which is a good thing, and they made some minor improvements here & there.

I had another animal move into my town, Snake (although she looks like a rabbit). Anyhoo friend info is below if you want to add me to your list, and don't forget to post yours.

Name=Edison
Town=Rockhill
Code=2405-7903-1237
Native Fruit=Peaches

Here is my current population...

My daughter also got a copy but unfortunately the wi-fi doesn't seem to be working on her DS so she can't do DS<>DS, or a Nintendo Wi-fi Connection. I checked Nintendo's web site and wouldn't you know the 1 year warranty ran out on 11/30/05 (this would be about right because it was my original launch unit). I'm still going to give them a call and see what they'll do about it, as I've heard really good things about their service/support.

Holy news bites Batman, and other ramblings...

Well it seems as if issue 4 of the UK magazine OXM360 is going to have a second cover DVD, that will include a full beta of Final Fantasy XI. No word on if the US version of OXM will include the same, or if the UK one will be region free and playable on a US 360?

According to this Japanese site there was a launch line in Japan for the Xbox 360. Reading through the babel fish translation the first guy in line got there 20 hours ahead of launch (7am 12/10/05) to snag himself a shiny new 360!

It seems as though all of the Tom Clancy Xbox games are now on the backwards compatibility list, this includes the Splinter Cell's, Ghost Recon's, and Rainbow Six games.

Well I finally picked up Animal Crossing : Wild World today for my NDS, and I have finished all the odd jobs for Nook. I've done a little fishing, and tried to raise some bells to pay off my house. My battery must have not had too much of a charge left as AC:WW warned me that it was low and I should save my game soon. I guess they didn't think I would notice the blinking lights, then the solid red one on the DS. :)
My town only has 3 animals right now, Egbert (Chicken), Butch (Dog), and Friga (Penguin). I thought in the GC version your town started with 4, but its been a while so that may be incorrect.

...

My grandma passed away last night at the age of 99. She had been in declining health for the last 3 months, but now I can take comfort that she's in a better place. I'll miss you.

Hazel Belle H.
Born: August 12, 1906
Died: December 5, 2005

360 launched again, and other tidbits.

Friday marked the European launch of the Xbox 360 which was marked with high eBay.co.uk prices, and more pre-orders than units available. Hmmm. Are we noticing a trend? bbc.co.uk has a launch article up which pretty much mirrors our own. It was reported that the European launch got 300,000 units I don't remember how this compared to ours, but that's not a lot of 360's. :( Next week Japan will see it's launch, but I wonder how many systems they'll get. Surely they know that it won't sell as well in Japan, but I predict pictures of units sitting on the shelf there.

The Mercury News blog reports that apparently some Best Buy's had overzealous managers that forced bundles on consumers during the US launch here.

I've been playing a little Mario Kart DS, and although I'm not too good in multiplayer its kinda fun. My friend code is 244873-130950 for those that want to add me to their list (post yours here in a reply so I can add you to mine). Oh, and if Miklotov happens to read this, Michelle wants your friend code if you ever get wireless hooked up. :)

Happy Turkey Day!

Just a note to say Happy Thanksgiving!

Best 360 commercial ever... Rare/HTF/Sold Out!

I was watching some of the Xbox 360 commercials the other day that Doogie had links too. I really didn't like the "jump rope" one (the only one I caught on TV), and although the "water balloon" was better it still didn't do the 360 justice. I had read a couple days ago about one that was shot, but wouldn't air because they decided it was inappropriate. I knew it was supposed to be shown at the Zero Hour launch event, and it has made its way onto the net. Check out this article for a link to the video (try the mirror link under Update #2 it worked for me).

If you've been checking eBay for 360 items you'll see that the systems are not the only thing in short supply. Hard drives were going for ~$300 this morning (although they seemed to have steadied out tonight ~$200). I realize they released the core system so they could say that the console launched at a $299.99 price point, but I think they would have been better off just producing the value pack. Judging from the some of the prices on eBay people would have been willing to pay more.

Oh yeah baby...

Well I got my hands on my very own Xbox 360 tonight. I have transferred my Live account over, and looked through some of the music and video that came on the HD. The dashboard blade system is pretty cool, doesn't matter what your into notification bubbles will "pop-up" on your screen letting you know a friend wants to chat, or has sent you a message. I haven't even gotten around to playing a game yet. :) I really need to go to bed so I can get up in the morning, 7am is going to be here really quick. On a side note there looked to be about 25-30 people in line at Best Buy when I left work about 1am, man I don't envy them it's going to be cold out there tonight.

Check out this link Doogie sent me tonight. Really cool Christmas holiday music video.

Tonight's the night...

Well it's here T-minus 14 hours 21 minutes until the launch of the XBox 360! I am really excited even though I still have to figure out a way to pay the rest off (in that same time span). I may be digging around for trade-ins today, although more likely is trying to generate some birthday cash early. :) If you have a system pre-ordered I really hope you didn't get this phone call, or if your one of those brave people going out to wait in line Good Luck! Everyone is talking about Wal-Mart's, Best Buy, and Target I recommend some of the less traveled retailers like K-Mart, and Alco.

Because I had a request for it, here is the link for the Mario Kart DS decal maker. I thought I had posted it earlier, but evidently not.

Alone time with the 360...

Well I finally got some 'alone' time with an Xbox 360 demo unit, it finally showed up this afternoon at work. First off the 360 itself is hefty, it weighs more than I anticipated. It's hooked up to a Samsung 19" HD Widescreen LCD monitor and looks simply gorgeous! I really like the feel of the controller, although it seemed a little light, maybe the batteries in the wireless model will add some weight.

I finally played all the way through the Call of Duty 2 demo, and really enjoyed it. Firmly sticking to my plan that CoD2 will be my launch title. I did play around with the dashboard without the demo disc to look around at the different options. Most of the settings must have been set before Microsoft shipped the units out, as everything seemed to be set correctly. I looked around on the Hard Drive, but didn't find anything on it. It showed there was only 13GB available so the operating system must use about ~7GB like the original Xbox. It does not seem that the demo units have backwards compatibility installed because both Halo, and Halo 2 greeted me with "The disc is not from a compatible region, or the disc is dirty or damaged" error.

Here is an interesting mini-review from someone in Canada that won a system through their PEPSI promotion.

Xbox 360 backwards compatibility...

Well Microsoft has finally announced the backwards compatibility list for the 360. The list contains more than 200 games (a lot more than I expected), and they say more may be added before the 360's November 22nd launch.

According to the Q & A with Todd Holmdahl it also points out this very interesting fact.

One of the great things about gaming on Xbox 360 is the satisfaction of knowing that every game will be playable in high definition. We are now proud to reveal that this extends to the original Xbox games as well. Every original Xbox game will be upscaled to 720p and 1080i, and will take advantage of Xbox 360Â’s anti-aliasing capabilities, delivering a picture that is clearer and crisper than anything available on Xbox.

Nintendo WiFi, and flunking Drivers Ed.

Well the Nintendo WiFi site is now live at NintendoWiFi.com, and it shows the compatible games (Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk American Sk8land, Animal Crossing : Wild World, and Metroid Prime Hunters). The site also includes a how to connect faq (Home, or HotSpot), a HotSpot locator, and a list of compatible home WiFi routers. Wichita shows one partner HotSpot the McDonald's I mentioned a while back at 2615 W 13th St. N, and 5 non-partner that may not be compatible. The 5 non-partner locations are the "Free Wi-Fi" spots in town Bean Scene, Java Villa Cafe, Vagabond, Watermark Books, and Wichita Mid-Contintent Airport. I must say I'm impressed with Nintendo's commitment to get wireless gaming into the hands of the masses, at least it doesn't look like the GameCube attempt.

Okay here's someone who is probably not passing Driver's Ed...

I spotted the wreck on Saturday morning, as messed up as the cars were I'm guessing someone ran a red light at the intersection.

Another Xbox 360 sighting... Finding one a challenge?

Well it seems Best Buy got their Xbox 360 demo unit in, and set it up yesterday (Sat) at some point. Well per my other post Wal-mart employees evidently don't know how to set up an HD tv, because the one at Best Buy looked soooo much better! I was still disappointed in the jaggies, but the text was all crisp and clear. I read on the net that evidently the demo code (Call of Duty 2 specifically) does not have anti-aliasing enabled so there is still a chance that the retail version could look even better.

I've been reading all over the net that a lot of retailers are only getting 10-50 units at launch, and most of the specialty retailers (Gamestop, EB, etc.) are only getting around 20 at launch. It looks like if you want a launch unit your going to be waiting in line at Wal-mart, Target, or the like unless you pre-ordered real early.