zune - tiny man hugging a rabbit
Friday, July 21st, 2006i kinda like the music (”Us” by Regina Spektor), but have no idea what that animation means.
Archive for the ‘games.’ Category
E3 - part 1
Monday, May 8th, 2006I watched the Sony Press Conference from E3, here are some (largely negative) comments.
Their games look no better, and often worse, than the Xbox 360’s.
about 3/4 of their showcased games were just pre-rendered videos.
half of all the games they showed were not exclusive to the PS3 - there will be versions on the Xbox 360, probably earlier than the PS3 version.
it is horribly expensive - $499 for the “cheaper” version, which has a 20GB hard drive, $599 for the more expensive version, which has a 60GB hard drive.
The “pro” SKU also has - 802.11b/g wireless built in, 1 HDMI port, a multi-card reader (memory stick, Sd, flash).
Things different from what they promised last year (i.e. lies they told):
Last year’s console prototype had 2 HDMI ports on the back promised, and 1 analog AV output (now it has only 1 video output - the more expensive version has 1 HDMI output)
Wireless built in vs. only the $600 version has wifi (and no 802.11a)
7 controllers at once vs. 4 controllers
Last year’s console prototype had 2 USB Ports on the back (now it has none)
Last year’s console prototype had 3 Ethernet ports (now it has 1)
They showed their new controllers - oh, it’s a PS2 controller. It does have motion sensing built in, which is neat - XYZ, Pitch, yaw, etc.. (Nintendo Wii controller?) However, there is no rumble in the controller, supposedly because it interferes with the motion sensor. It probably has nothing to do with getting sued by Immersion Tech for infringing on their rumble patent. MS paid Immersion to get the rights to use it, Sony tried to fight it and lost. No more rumble for Sony.
Their controller has 4 lights on it to show which player it is (xbox 360 ring of lights is better)
Their controller has a button with the sony logo on it (Xbox Guide button)
They Mentioned back compat, but no details as to how it works, or how many games will work with it.
Some weird PS1 emulation on the PSP thing. Not that many people are interested in emulating 10 year old games. Woo… Ridge Racer.
Online service is a copy of Live, but from a couple years ago. They showed a karaoke game with a store where you could buy content, and it was pretty cool, you could preview the song, and it had pretty 3d flashy UI for the store. However that means they don’t have a standard store, and each game has to create their own storefront UI. Which means that for the most part it’ll be pretty boring, and cost the developer time to implement. Their online service has micropayemtns (Microsoft Points), downloadable content (Live has had that for 3 years), Friends (check), player profile (check) rankings (check), video chat (hmm), voice messaging (check), text messaging (check).
The console is larger and heavier than the ORIGINAL Xbox.
Sony stumbled a year ago and they’re having a hell of a time getting back up, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll ever fully recover. It is all about the games, in the end, but if nobody can afford their console, and they have insulted their audience too badly, too many bridges may have been burnt. Time will tell, but i wouldn’t invest in Sony right now. Even with their $500-$600 price tag, i’m sure they’ll be losing $100+ per console.
Wii!!
Thursday, April 27th, 2006Nintendo’s Revolution console is now officially named “Wii”
I know the name doesn’t change the console at all, but… it’s still a dumb name.
But hey, i’m gonna get to play with the Wii at E3. I’m really curious about their motion detection stuff, it looks neat. Also how the controller feels in your hand, and the numchuck attachments.
Wii.
no updates.
Tuesday, April 25th, 2006I’m pretty bad at updating. I’ll try mike’s list approach, maybe that’ll work out better.
Warming up - it’s finally getting nice here in Seattle after a long rainy winter. I drove to work with my t-tops off this morning which was nice; it’s been over 6 months since i was able to do that.
bob - bob’s coming to visit this weekend, he’s lucky it got warm in time for his visit. I was hoping there would be a cool show happening this weekend, but looks like there’s not much going on right now. we’ll probably rent Simpson’s Road Rage and play that all weekend long.
Tool - Tool is going to be in town on Tuesday night. Tickets went on sale last weekend and sold out in roughly 30 seconds. I was the only one out of 3 friends able to get tickets, and since the sale was limited to two tickets we can’t all go. Within minutes there were $800 ebay auctions. Oh well, that’s what convenient technology brings.
Tool’s new album 10,000 Days also drops on Tuesday. I’m looking forward to it, it’s been 5 years since Lateralus came out.
yourmusic.com - there’s a new music service called your music which offers a “subscription” service. basically you commit to buying 1 cd a month for $5.99 with free shiping and handling. you can buy more than one at the same price, but you have to buy at least one. You build up a queue netflix-style and every month they’ll send you the top of your queue. It’s run by BMG, so they have pretty much the same albums as BMG, but it’s a lot cheaper than the regular BMG service.
E3! - I’m going to E3! woo! I’ll be working half of each day at our booth and checking out the show floor the rest of the time. Gonna head down a few days early and stay a couple days later to hang with my brother and cousins. i’m pretty excited, i’ve never been to E3 and i’m really curious what the hell Sony is up to. I can’t tell if they’re going to stumble and fall or if they’re going to be able to pull it out at the last minute and come out with a decent product. It’s not looking good for them right now, but we’ll see.
I’m also looking forward to seeing what Nintendo is doing, i’d love to have some hands on time with the Revolution. Plus Guitar Hero 2 will be showing! Guitar Hero is my current favorite game.
DS Lite - A friend is in Japan AS WE SPEAK I type. Hopefully she’ll be able to find me a DS Lite, though i think they’re still sold out everywhere.
Painting - what color should i paint my living room? I’m thinking of painting the long wall that runs from the living room to the kitchen, but i’m a bit hesitant about it, and i’m not sure what color to do. All suggestions involving pink, lavendar, and similar colors will be ignored.
Well, that’s aboot it for now. See you in a month. (hopefully that’s just a joke)
tom clancy is go.
Thursday, December 8th, 2005As of about 5 minutes ago, 6 new Tom Clancy games are now backwards compatible on the Xbox 360.
Ghost Recon 2, Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike, Rainbow Six 3 Black Arrow, Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow are all ready to play.
connect to live and pop in an xbox 1 game to get the update, or go here, download the file and burn it to a CD to manually put the update on your box.
update - or not. there was a problem where halo 2 wouldn’t run in widescreen in 720p or 1080i modes. the update has been pulled, to be replaced later.
other things i like about 360.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2005while i’m at it:
Sharing music from my PC over Windows Media Connect is awesome. I’ve got 25 gigs of my own music on my PC in my bedroom, and I can play it all in my living room without any annoying cables running along the walls. I’m doing this right now, or having a PC next to my TV.
Geometry Wars - also awesome. $5 400 Microsoft Points are never better spent.
Custom Soundtracks - in a game where you have already fully experienced the music as it should be and are now interested in hearing your own stuff, of course - is a great feature.
and being able to combine all three of those makes playing geometry wars a lot more enjoyable. The cheesy techno music included with the game isn’t bad, but it loops ever 30 seconds or so, and being able to replace it with whatever I want is an excellent thing.
Downloadable demos are awesome.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2005one of the things i really like about the 360 and the live marketplace is that you can download demos for different games. obviously you need the hard drive, since they weigh in at 500+ MB each, but you can download playable demos of a few different games, with more being added. Right now looks like you can get demos for NBA Live 2006, Madden 2006, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Kameo, and probably a couple others that i don’t remember offhand.
And of course, for all Arcade titles, you can download a free trial version to see if you like it before shelling out the cash points for the full version.
i made this.
Monday, November 28th, 2005i added my “work” gamercard down at the bottom of my main index page cause it has a neat little addition on it, scroll on down and take a look, and click on the link to see the bigger version. Also if you have me as a friend (as if any of you have an Xbox 360), check out my gamercard in the guide.
also check this out:
launch team xbox 360
I have one of those waiting for me when I get back to work on wed.
I was down in LA for a week for thanksgiving visiting my family and i had a lot of fun but it was tough looking at my friends playing various Xbox 360 games while I was away. Finally i’ll get my kit and will get to play some more games.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and Happy Birthday on the 26th to Bob, Jason, and Geoff! You are all 27 years old.
news 360
Monday, November 14th, 2005so we’ve got a backwards compatibility list up now. 210 Xbox 1 games will work with the Xbox 360 once you get the update. Don’t worry, more games will be added soon enough.
Also we’ve got a launch day list of games. 18 games on day 1, that’s pretty damn cool.
Also i’m hella busy.
8 more days
Child’s Play 2005
Tuesday, November 8th, 2005This year’s child’s play charity drive is open for business… i mean donations. Over the past two years Child’s Play has collected over half a million dollars for 5 children’s hospitals in the US. This year it’s increased to 12 American hospitals, 2 Canadian, and they’ll be adding one in the UK. I don’t care if you’re a gamer or not, this charity is a great way to help some sick kids feel better and enjoy a situation that is usually pretty awful.
Do it for the children.
you don’t hate kids, do you?
