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June 28 Everyone can blog at XbA...Remember that I mentioned in my Monday Meanderings post that some new features would be going up on XbA? Well, today XboxAmerica just got a little bit cooler with the release of a new blogging feature for the community members. They can write to their own blog (or share their 360Voice) without having to go the whole big production route. It's quick and painless, and another fine addition. June 27 Penny Arcade with another slam dunk...You have to hand it to Penny Arcade. These guys have their finger on the pulse of the gaming world and spread the love around to everyone. Today's comic made me laugh so hard I just about spit out my Diet Dew..... Need help coming up with a Xbox Live Gamertag?We just added a cool new toy to the XboxAmerica family yesterday. It is a Gamertag creator utility, which we implemented to assist those wanting to come up with, or change their existing Gamertag for Xbox Live. It is available at GamertagCreator.com and allows users to look at community suggested gamertags, suggest their own gamertags and validate whether a Gamertag is available. Be warned, if you suggest anything determined to be profanity or racist, the site will automatically ban you. June 25 Monday Meandering - 6/25Spent some time getting acquainted with Forza 2 over the weekend and 30 odd races later I am still impressed. The game is by far the best racer on the Market for the 360 (although I have seen DiRT get high marks) and keeps things interesting for everyone. The grinding at the beginning was typical, but the cash is rolling in now the deeper I get into career mode. Now to have some fun in that paint and decal shop...
I had a present on my doorstep last Friday, as a case of Stoked showed up for the staff to enjoy. Stoked is the latest energy drink from Leading Brands, Inc. and is specifically being targeted at Gamers. A big piece is the absence of High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which has been linked to obesity. My first impression is that the drink is pretty good and doesn't taste much different from other Energy drinks, which is a good thing with the lack of HFCS...
This week's Xbox 360 releases include the retail games TRANSFORMERS, The BIGS, Overlord, Ratatouille and The Darkness. This weeks Xbox Live Arcade release will be the turn-based German tile game Carcassonne. I played this at the Gamerscoreblog event in Chicago, but didn't have a clue what I was doing. Those that have played the board game will thoroughly enjoy it...
I still am enjoying my ghetto rig for the Xbox 360. In case you missed it, I moved my "repaired" (refurb) Xbox 360 to my office which only has a 25" TV and a RF Modulator to hook it up. The graphics are horrid when compared to the 52" DLP in the main room, but I get significantly more time to play each week now. The plan is to drop a 32" LCD on the wall and install a surround system in that room over the next couple of months...
I hear that XboxAmerica may be getting some updates soon, quite possibly by the end of this week. One item we should see is more personalization from the user standpoint. Should be some good stuff as usual...
I shipped out a care package to the Owner/Developer of XboxAmerica this morning as a small token of my appreciation. He should enjoy what's inside, as many opportunities I get are a direct result of his hard work in keeping XbA up and running...
I will be on vacation next week, so Monday Meanderings will return on July 9th... June 22 Sony to continue trend of broken PS3 promises?In an article up on Gamespot today, Kaz Hirai (President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment and Ken Kutaragi's replacement) declared that the PS3 would have 380 new releases (200 retail and 180 downloadable) between now and March 2008. So a quick turn with my trusty calculator breaks it down to 22 retail games and 20 downloadable titles per month for the next nine months. I don't have the exact history of game releases in front of me, but I would guess that Kaz is predicting that Sony would set the record for most games released in a nine-month period...ever.
Digging deeper into the story, I did find this little gem after GameSpot followed up and sought clarification from Dave Karraker:
"...105 Blu-ray disc games and about 40 PlayStation Network games and game packs" However, he added "I don't have visibility on third party games past Christmas and our fiscal runs to the end of March, so there are probably more."
So it appears that Dave is saying that Kaz (and Sony) can only speak with certainty about 145 titles (less than half his prediction), and of those titles, Sony seems to be including game packs (probably patches too knowing them) and downloadable content as part of their "games" to be released. Typical misdirection tactics. You would think that the Sony execs would maybe back down a little bit after breaking virtually every promise associated with the PS3 since it was an itch in Kutaragi's pants. Guess Kaz didn't learn much from Ken before he got the ziggy for overseeing the biggest clusterf*ck launch of a game console in history. June 21 Shadowrun cross-platform gaming via Live...Finally had a chance to do some cross-platform gaming with Shadowrun. I was on my PC, while others were running it on Xbox 360. I have to say that it was pretty slick having the option to play the game on PC. I don't know if there is any competitive advantage (based on the results of my matches, there certainly wasn't lol), but people were flocking to me once they knew I was on PC to get the achievements for cross platform play. I plan to fire up the Xbox 360 version to compare the feel of playing on the different rigs.
I still have a few bugs to work out for PC version (which could be more my new PC than the game) regarding microphone and some locks and crashes, but I hope to see the service utilized with some upcoming releases such as Call of Duty 4 and arcade titles.
Halo 2 is next, which should be fun to see the Gamerscorewhores faces when I'm getting achievements for putting them out of their misery with a headshot.... June 19 My friend returns from Texas a changed man...Well, I received "My" Xbox 360 back from the repair center yesterday and lo and behold it was a replacement unit. Whatever that freezing issue consists of, it is either terminal or simply takes too long to fix. On the positive side, the unit is significantly more quiet than the POS refurb I sent them, and the chassis is pristine with nary a scratch on it. In addition, the manufacture date of the console moved from launch time frame (11/2005) to middle of last year (6/2006).
For those keeping score, it broke on Friday May 25th, and I received it back (after three unsuccessful UPS delivery attempts to a residential address during the day, I went and picked it up at the local UPS hub) on Monday, June 18th. A total of 24 days.
Microsoft was also kind enough to include a one-month Xbox Live card to help offset the time frame w/o my 360, and a pre-paid survey regarding the repair process.
Glad to have it back, but the family was monopolizing the main TV (52" DLP where the Elite currently resides), so I went a little redneckish and hooked up my replacement to my office 25" TV using a RF modulator. Gotta say, the 360 graphics looks like absolute dog shit if not hooked up to a Hi Def TV. For those that don't own a Hi Def set, save your funds and go get one, as you have no idea how much quality of graphics you are missing. Desperate times call for desperate measures.... Sony needs some props...I'll give props when they are earned, and Sony deserves this one. I was ragging on them a bit last week for finally getting to the blogging party, albeit about a year too late. Well, in their first week of existence, Sony has done an excellent job of not only keeping the blog up to date with great info, but managed to bring out the big guns for the unveiling including President and CEO Jack Trenton. June 18 Monday Meanderings...I'm back from my trip of darkness (power outage for the last 15 hour we were there), and I did miss quite a bit of PR that came out on Friday and Saturday. Nothing earth shattering, but news is news. Thought I would start a new Monday post called Monday Meanderings just to toss out what is on my mind.
June 14 Stepping out for a few days...I will be stepping out for a couple of days to get PO'd on the golf course. I'm sure some major news will break while I am gone, but XboxAmerica and GamingNexus are in good hands.
 -Z June 11 Sony makes it to the "Official" blogging party, late as usual...Sony recently released their official (corporate) blog for the Playstation brand (not the PS3, just the Playstation brand as a whole) that looks like it will be maintained by their PR department. Not to kick them too much when they are down, but where the heck have you people been? Microsoft has been killing you in this field for dare I say, years? Even further, the site is all "corporate" with its look and feel and doesn't give the vibe of "for the people by the people".
The fanboys are already flocking and posting what a fabulous Idea the blog is, almost like its a new concept. LOL The interesting part will be to see what slant the postings take. Will it be strictly PR based, or will it be a full fledged positive/negative approach. Only time will tell.
Sony will have to make up a lot of ground, seeing as how the Microsoft folks have created an entire virtual family tree with Major Nelson and the folks at Gamerscoreblog at the top, cascading down. Throw in the likes of AceyBongos (Europe), the Community Team members, Casual Games groups, Ozymandias, Kim Pallister and so on, and the gap is huge.
Good luck with it Sony, you should have been doing this months ago..... June 06 Could the U.S. Postal service be hastening the demise of Gamefly?On May 14th, the United States Postal Service made a small change to its rates that was transparent to most people. However, the increase of "flat" rate packages that are commonly used to ship calendars, games, videos, etc now cost upwards of 20-40% more per unit mailed.
Why should we as Gamers care? Well, the first salvo was fired yesterday when Gamefly announced they will be raising the rates on all of their plans (discounted, monthly, yearly, etc..) by $1 effective June 18th. This is the first increase Gamefly has ever made to it's 2-game plan, which has traditionally been at $21.95 (the most expensive plan on the market).
The interesting part is that Gamefly, who is seeing increasing competition in this market from the likes of Games 'N Flix, Gamerang, GPlay and GameLender, just recently opened up their first Eastern time zone distribution center in Pittsburgh. It will be worth watching to see if the others follow suit, or leave Gamefly to twist in the wind. If Gamefly and the others keep passing these costs of to the customer, will the customer leave and look toward Digital Download, or will Gamefly and the others try to streamline their processes to curb costs.... June 05 A new horizon...I am working on opening a whole new front for reviews that hasn't really been done on gaming sites. If we accomplish what we are looking to do, it should provide a unique insight for the gaming community and expose it too something that will allow some solid informed decisions in the future. Sorry to be so cryptic, but it is far from a sure bet. June 04 New Gaming PC brought to life...Chuck from GamingNexus helped me put together a decent little gaming PC over the weekend.
-ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
-AMD Dual Core +3800 Chip
-2 Sticks of Patriot 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory
-Seagate 400 GB SATA drive
-Samsung OEM LightScribe DVD-R/RW
-Sapphire Raedon X1300 XT Overclock Edition
-Dynex Case w/500w power supply
-Dynex MultiCard reader
-Windows Vista Ultimate
Its not fancy, nor is it hardcore, but it should get the job done. June 01 In case you were wondering the process to send your friend to Texas...In honor of my Xbox 360 needing to head out to the repair Center in Texas, I figured I would give those fortunate enough to not need the service a snapshot of what it entails...just in case.
1. Xbox 360 "breaks" with either three-rings of light, freeze issue or other failure.
2. Call 1-800-4MY-XBOX to get to Xbox support.
3. Representative troubleshoots with you on the phone for a bit depending upon issue. After determining it needs sent in for repair, they create a case number, take your info and send you out a shipping box (affectionately referred to as a Coffin).
4. The shipping kit arrives, and contains the following: Box to ship it back in (top L), two foam end pieces, bag for the console, shipping label, some super sticky tape (top R) and the all important instruction sheet (middle L). Bag your 360 and stick the end pieces on (middle R and bottom L), put it in the box (bottom R), seal it and slap the shipping label over the other one and find (or Call) UPS to ship it out to the Texas repair center (affectionately called the "Morgue").
5. It takes 5-6 business days for the Coffin to arrive, another 3 days to ship, up to 5 days to repair, and another 3 business days to ship back. All told, you generally will be without your Xbox 360 for a minimum of 15 days, and possibly 17.
6. A couple of tips: Write down your console's serial number and get a receipt with the UPS tracking number on it. These could come in handy at a later date. You will need to sign for the repaired/replaced unit when it comes back, so keep an eye on the tracker, as they only attempt three-times before it gets sent back.
Microsoft recently expanded the Warranty program for the 360, which now includes free shipping both ways and a one-year Warranty on the repaired unit if it was outside the original warranty period. Not sure if that runs concurrent with any service plan, or pushes the service plan out a year. |
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