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May 31 XBL crew must have EOM deadlines coming due...Wow, the Xbox Live Crew must be working overtime to get all this stuff released the last two days. Quite the list with a new Arcade game, multiple Picture Packs and Themes, Capcom downloadable content, new Xbox Live Video Marketplace content, Worms DLC and a map pack for Call of Duty 3. Heck, the day isn't over yet, my guess is some more goodies may hit. Another great day to have a Xbox 360... May 30 Most useless accessory ever?I put up some news today about Blue Orb releasing a new accessory called the Phantasy Star Universe Special Edition Texter. It is an add-on that will allow PSU to type text-messages directly from their controllers for Xbox 360 and PS2 users. The thing was licensed straight from SEGA specifically for PSU (like Hori and the DoA Joystick? Hmmm) and costs $34.95 for the PS2 and $39.99 for the Xbox 360.
Check out this link to see how this USB device works. In a nutshell, it connects a box between your controller and 360 via USB cable, and then uses a skin overlay on the controller as a guide.. By utilizing the analog sticks, you can "quickly" create text without using an on screen keyboard. Yeah right, looks like you have to be drunk off your ass to make that thing work properly. Way to take us back to last-gen with the wire, all I have to say to this is CHATPAD! Thanks for stopping SEGA... Palm's secret project lacks substance...Again, a bit off topic, but still had some thoughts...
Palm was all geeked up today to announce their latest secret project that was to revolutionize the future of mobile communications. What they delivered was a laptop sized device called the 'Foleo' that is to be a companion piece (and bundled with) to the Treo. I distinctly remember people going to smartphones in order to leave the bulk of the desktop and laptop at the office. Now Palm wants you to lug it around anyway, just in case...While I am sure there is a place for this type of device, I would be shocked if it truly takes off and becomes anything more than a fad. Frankly, if I wanted to put my applications on a larger screen, wouldn't it make more sense to invest in a laptop running XP or Vista instead of Windows Mobile?
Microsoft announced a coffee-table computer. Palm announced a dumbed down laptop. Wonder who had the more innovative announcement? May 29 Indy 500 is no longer special...I know this is a little off-topic, but WTF has become of the Indy 500? I knew it has been bad since Tony George decided to split the series in two, but watching the race on Sunday was almost When Ashley Judd soaked to the skin in a sun dress (and let me repeat, this is not a bad thing) is the highlight of the race, it is time for a major overhaul. Scrubs finishing in the top 10, everyone driving the same car and have killed this once proud tradition.
I may be showing my age, but growing up watching Rick Mears, Little Al, Scott Goodyear and the Andretti family annual heartache (although Marco has assumed that torch for the family quite well) was something special. Now, you get a bunch of F1 rejects with names you cant pronounce, the dominant personality is a female who hasn't won a race and you still have Tony George thinking everything is just fine. Well Tony, check the seats on race day and carburetor day and tell me how many empty ones you see. That is the reason you need to fix the mess you created. Microsoft and Walmart get sued over a fire...Making the rounds the last several days is news of a lawsuit that was brought about against Microsoft, Wal-Mart and an unnamed power cord supplier that alleges their roles in the death of infant Wade Kline in a Warsaw, IL house fire in December 2004. While a suit like this usually wouldn't get national attention, an interesting item caught the eye of many people. The suit specifically states a Xbox 360 and its faulty power unit caused the fire. The only problem was that the Xbox 360 didn't make its debut until Fall of 2005. Another interesting note is the amount of damages being sought. According to many media outlets, the suit is only seeking damages "in excess of $50,000".
While I am certainly sympathetic to the family for their loss, it really appears to me that they have an extremely sloppy attorney and/or are simply in it to try to get a quick settlement out of Microsoft and Wal-Mart. The mere fact the Xbox 360 was named (even though it wasn't released yet) is enough to get this dismissed. When you couple that with the paltry request for around $50K in damages, and it just reeks of someone trying to take advantage of a situation. Let me ask you, is the life of your child only worth "in excess of $50,000" if you can prove negligence against a major corporation? And why Wal-Mart? They did nothing but sell a product. Sorry, there seems to be just a tad too much Fortune 500 bankroll in the crosshairs here.
I may be wrong, and I have been in the past, but the common sense meter is running, and it doesn't look good for this suit. May 28 Xbox 360 releases week of 5/28...This will be a large week of releases for games on the Xbox 360. In addition to Surf's Up and Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia, two of the most anticipated titles, Forza Motorsports 2 and Shadowrun, are both due on retailers shelves by this Wednesday. In addition, there will be one, if not two Xbox Live Arcade releases hitting on Wednesday morning. I will update when they are announced. May 27 New Xbox 360 titles not getting much Pub...Was just trolling around the ESRB web page, and noticed several Xbox 360 games that have been rated, but haven't gotten much press. Most look to be future Xbox Live Arcade releases. Here is the list:
Fatal Fury Special (T)
Streets of Rage 2 (E)
Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe (E)
Yie Ar Kung Fu (E10+)
Super Contra (E10+)
Tempest (E)
Mutant Storm Empire (E10)
Tempest and the Asteroids tandem caught my eye. Two more games that I invested coutless hours and many quarters on over the years. May 26 Saturday News Roundup...There has been a few things going on with the Xbox 360 and Live community the last couple of days. The announcement (in conjunction with Forza 2 release) that the Wireless Racing Wheel would be dropping in price to $129.99 (down from $149.99) is the biggest. Also of note are the GR:AW 2 Play & Win weekend. registration closes at Midnight on 5/25, but if you were lucky enough to get in, good luck. You can also grab a couple of new trailers that hit Xbox Live Marketplace. They are free and include Medal of Honor Airborne: Fight Anywhere Trailer (89.5 MB) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (73.9 MB), which is an intro trailer.
Thanks to Major Nelson for keeping us up to date in the new stuff hitting Marketplace. May 25 Xbox 360 Wireless Wheel Rollback...One of the games I played extensively earlier this week was Forza Motorsports 2. The game looked great and controlled pretty well on the Wireless controller. However, I would have liked to play it with the Wireless Racing Wheel, (Forza was developed around it) to get a real feel for the game.
Well, Microsoft announced today in a Forza 2 Press Release (the game drops next week) that the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel has had a price drop to $129.99 from $149.99. While $20 may not seem like much (that's what, like 6 gallons of gas?), but it is a definite step in the right direction. May have to invest in one now. Long weekend, and an incapacitated 360 :-(Well, I knew it was going to happen, and it finally did at the worst possible time. The Piece of Sh*t refurb that the Microsoft service center sent me instead of my Launch console finally croaked with a terminal freeze this evening. I had expected it from the day it arrived on my doorstop. Nothing like sending in a pristine console with nary a scratch in for repair and getting back something that resembled rental unit.
It has had freezing problems off and on for about a month, and it progressively worsened during the last week to the point where It froze on every attempt to play a game tonight. Not only do I lose the long weekend of game playing, but I have to wait 5-6 business days (not including Sunday or Memorial day) to even get the coffin (aka shipping box) to send it in for repair. Another week of repair and shipping, and I'm out of a 360 for possibly up to a month. <sigh> At least I had the 2-year service plan...... GTA IV looking quite specatacular...Just downloaded the GTA IV assets, and found four brand new screens. They are looking quite nice. Waiting and wanting for this to hit the street.... May 24 'Lost' Fianle...Wow, switch it up with some Flash FORWARDS! Is Charlie dead? Why do Locke and Mickael seem to share the magic healing powers of the island? Not Penny's ship, then who the heck is on it?
At least they tossed us a couple of bones and answered that Ales really was the daughter of Rousseau.
Walt playing in the NBA now? That kid got HUGE! May 23 GamingNexus 2007 Video Game Franchise DraftThe staff over at GamingNexus decided to have some fun in honor of the NFL and NBA draft hype the last few weeks. So we decided to hold our own little draft, with game franchises up for grabs. The first part is now posted with rounds 1-3 listed. It is quite entertaining. May 22 Xbox Lounge coming to ChicagoThe House of Blues Hotel in Chicago is currently being remodeled, and with that comes a name change to Hotel Sax Chicago. One interesting side-bar to the project will be the introduction of a Xbox Lounge in the hotel. While details haven't been announced yet, this could be a showcase for future Microsoft gaming events in the Midwest. While the concept by Microsoft isn't new, it will be the only facility of it's type in the United States. Ideally Microsoft will have a Grand Opening event that will mingle the community members with some Insiders from Microsoft and the Game Industry. Hear my interview on the Gamerscoreblog PodcastWhen we were in Chicago at the Gamerscoreblog event, Chris Paladino broke out the recorder and took some audio bits from the community members in attendance. The whole segment is only about 8 minutes long, but it was quite entertaining. Check it out Here. May 21 Hands on with the Microsoft ChatpadOne item we were able to get our hands on at the Gamerscoreblog Roadshow was the upcoming Chatpad for the Xbox 360 that will be released this summer. After seeing images on various sites, it was nice to be able to handle and play with it a bit.
The version we were able to demo was still a prototype, but was close to the final version that will be released. As for the physical characteristics, the Chatpad was extremely light, but did not feel flimsy or breakable. The keyboard layout is well done and will work for anyone regardless of hand size. Despite not being able to actually use in game (although I tested it inserting some text into the profile page), the responsiveness of the keys was very good, and the final version will have LED backlighting.
As for the connectivity, the Chatpad fit well onto the Xbox 360 Wireless controller to the point that I believe most gamers will simply leave it on instead of constantly swapping it out. The impact to the weight and balance of the controller was negligible, and besides your pinkies not being able to wrap under the grip of the controller, you wouldn't even know it was there IMO.
No cost or street date have been announced yet, but my guess it will be attractively priced (possibly bundled) so that most users will pick it up without a second thought. I know it will be a must have for me. Gamerscoreblog Roadshow Rocked!!Just got back this morning from attending the Gamerscoreblog Roadshow and had an absolute blast. We spent about six and a half hours playing games and talking shop with the crew as well as the other community members in attendence. Among those who were there included Trapper from 360Voice, Brad (Wiseguy) from TeamXbox, Luther from TheEverydayGamer, Charles (Falcon GN) from GamingNexus and myself. For those that didn't show or couldn't make it, you missed out on a fabulous experience.
Some of the games we were able to check out were Tenchu Z (360), Forza Motorsports 2 (360), Vampire Rain (360), Shadowrun (360), Project Sylpheed (360), Shadowrun (PC), Halo 2 (PC), Carcassonne (XBLA), Mad Tracks (XBLA), Undertow (XBLA) and Track & Field (XBLA).
I want to give a big thanks to Chris, John and Tony for putting up with us for an evening and allowing us the opportunity to get some hands on with pre-release games and the Chatpad. I have added the images to the photo page from the event.
A quick shout-out to our cabbie, who drives the streets of Chicago better than any NASCAR driver I have ever seen. I wish I had the stones to drive 70 on residential streets and use all three lanes to get where I need to be. May 18 Sony's Playstation 3 still laying eggs...April sales figures for video game platforms were released yesterday by NPD Funworld, and the Playstation 3 was in its customary spot at the tail end of the next-gen sales list. What was real surprising, was just how pathetic the sales were and what platforms were ahead of it. Not only did the console move a paltry 82K units (analysts expected around 100K), it was the seventh best selling console behind the DS, Wii, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360 (172k) and (surprise!) the Nintendo Game Boy Advance (84k). To sum it up, the supposed most hi-tech of all the consoles was outsold by twice as many Xbox 360's. four times as many Nintendo Wii's, the console the PS3 replaced, Sony's own struggling hand-held and of course, a four-year old, sixth-generation handheld in the Game Boy Advance. Yikes!
The excuse provided this time was a lack of "hardware drivers" and "first-party titles". At least they aren't claiming a shortage of units, as many national retailers have the 60GB unit sitting on shelves collecting dust. It will be interesting when or if Sony breaks out of this sales slump. For what it is worth, there are only 189 days until Black Friday, the official start of the Holiday season. The new "Blue screen of death"...I have to applaud Microsoft for working relentlessly to rid Xbox Live and the Xbox 360 console of Modders. The recently released security measures and zero-tolerance policy keeps Microsoft a step ahead, and more importantly causes a setback for anyone that has a modded unit.
The penalty seems fair enough, a ban for the modded console from Xbox Live, but not terminating the actual Live account. While this may cause a small number of disgruntled users to leave the Xbox Live community and Microsoft, it should help create a better experience for the entire Xbox Live community. May 17 Sony Still Shilling PGR....Sony is at it again. For the second time in the last year, a Sony related/sponsored website is using Project Gotham Racing materials to promote a Sony product or promotion. Last year it was an image of a PGR3 vehicle touting the quality of the Graphics of Gran Turismo HD. This time, it is a Spanish Kia site using an Enzo from PGR (with a PGR visible on the license plate) being shown on a Sony Plasma with a PS3 hooked up. Classic. Check it out. Thanks to AceyBongos for posting this story and giving me a hearty laugh this morning  |
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