Xbox Live Problems

It seems even the money Xbox owners are pouring into the Live service is not keeping the servers alive this holiday season. People are reporting issues with the system and the inability to log in. I guess all of the people who got 360's this holiday must be bogging down the system and its unable to handle everyone. Come on, Microsoft, you should be better than this. You make us pay $50 a year and now we have issues on what is probably the biggest Live weekend of the year (other than Halo 3's launch of course). Hopefully, the will redeem themselves by giving the gamers something back for their issues. I, being out of town at the moment, am not experiencing any of these issues as my Xbox is sitting on the shelf unused, but I know many people are.

And the All-Time Best Selling Console in Japan is...

the Nintendo DS. Yes the DS has just managed to push across the line that the PS2 had drawn in the Japanese soil. The DS has now sold almost 21 million units, edging the PS2 by 50,000 as of now. Now, remember this is only Japan, not worldwide. The PS2 is still the worldwide leader by a huge margin as it has sold 120 million units worldwide, and is still surprisingly doing decent. The DS, meanwhile, has sold about 55 million worldwide. Look for it to break the PS2's record in the coming years with the way its selling right now. You can literally not find a DS on the shelves at many stores even though it is a three year old console. That is a mindblowing fact in my opinion.

Xbox Motion Sensing Controllers?? (Rumor)

Team Xbox has just brought to public attention the fact that Microsoft has been experimenting with motion sensing technology for the past two years. Kind of obvious really. I mean with a bank roll that deep for the Xbox division alone you would think there would be plenty of R&D in every department but especially this area of technology after Sony and Nintendo have implemented it into their controllers. I think Team Xbox is saying that these controllers won't appear in the Xbox 360's lifespan but rather the next generation of the Xbox. Hopefully, that gives them enough time to make it a lot better than Sixaxis, which was slapped together in order to take some of the medias attention away from the Wii and its motion controls when it was announced.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. Get any good gaming gifts this holidays. Just shout them out in the comments. Personally, I got, as previously discussed, Call of Duty 4 and Half Life 2 (no, not Orange Box, just Half Life 2 for the Xbox 1) so a pretty decent haul. I'm planning to pick up Mass Effect and Orange Box as soon as I get back home and those games should hold me over till next year sometime. So I'll be playing Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Orange Box, and probably some Rock Band and Halo 3 for the next few weeks/months.

Oppositely recieved gifts

Ok, I have just found out two of my gaming gifts this year. I am getting Call of Duty 4 for the 360 which is amazing because I don't know whether or not I would've picked this up on my own because I can't really justify buying another shooter right now, even if it may be one of the best games of the year. So this gift pretty much takes away the guilt of it. The second one is Half Life 2 for Xbox 1. Yah, I'm cringing too. Great time to get Half Life just as I was going to get the Orange Box. Wow, that is ironic. I plan on returning that one as soon as possible to get some credit towards Orange Box. Hey at least I got COD4

Xbox 360 Racing Wheel Price Drop

The Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel, which really isn't wireless if you want to use force feedback, has had a price cut and now it is $99 and it comes bundled with a Forza 2 Demo. Now was it just me or did it used to come with the full game of Forza? Anyways, this is a fairly decent deal, although I did see a Racing Wheel at Wal-Mart for $75... must have been a mistake. Stupid Wal-Mart people.

Spiderman 3 First Impressions

I recently borrow Spiderman 3 for the Xbox 360 from my friend. This game isn't really that bad. The swinging mechanism is actually very fun. The bad, part is that is the funnest part of the game. It's kinda bad when the best part of a game is the traveling in between missions. The combat is passable. It gets very tedious and repetitive after a while. The climbing on walls is horribly difficult. The camera inverts strangely and you can barely control yourself. I'm about halfway through it and the boss battles have been button mashers. The parts you have to diffuse a bomb are basically just mini-games slapped together. It may seem like I really hate this game, but it is not like that. I'm actually going back to play in between sessions of Rock Band, strangely. All in all, it is a fairly decent game, but don't buy it if you have either of the first two. It's really just more of the same thing.

Feet hurting like hell

Ahhh is it just me or does everyone's feet hurt crazily after playing the drums on Rock Band. The foot pedal is either too hard to push down or I'm doing something wrong. I've just been searching the internet and now I've heard that you need to keep your foot down. I guess I'll try that tomorrow and maybe my feet will hurt a bit less and I can finally nail those hard songs.

Rock Band Final Review

It is not often that a game comes and just blows me off of my feet. But this year I've been on the floor more than I've been standing up. With games like Bioshock and Halo 3 coming out this year my Game of the Year race is going to be a tight one. But I can tell you right off the bat, Rock Band is definitely one of my contenders.
The Single Player mode in this game is probably its least appealing part. But, even this least appealing chunk of the game is many times more fun than any Guitar Hero. The reason it is much funner is that you can play more than one instrument. The one problem with Guitar Hero was that once you were sick of the guitar, that's it. There's nothing else to move on to. With Guitar Hero you can play the drums once your sick of the guitar or move on to singing once your done with both of those. The one gripe with this game is that you cannot switch instruments in the World Tour Mode. I personally do not see this problem. If you want to switch instruments often throughout the Campaign, just make three different bands and be different instruments in each of them. That even makes the game last a bit longer (as if it needed to).
The Multi Player is the best multi player if you have all four people in the same room. It is still very good over Xbox Live, but there is not that personal chemistry you get when you have people together. Today, I got three of my friends over and we played Rock Band till our hands were sore (I'm getting carpal tunnel any day now). It was a blast and nothing can compare up to it.
Now let's talk about the instruments. First of all, there is the guitar(s). The guitars are very solidly built except for the strum bar. The strum bar feels a bit wobbly and that makes the note recognition slightly off. I love the new button design though. It really looks and feels like a guitar. It is not the cheesy feeling of the Guitar Hero guitars as this one feels solid. The guitarplay is basically the same thing as Guitar Hero. I could feel or spot no difference. It may have been slightly easier (I am playing Hard with no difficulty) but other than that it is top notch.
Similarly, the drums are built very solidly. In my few weeks of playing this game, I have probably abused the drums more than any other instrument for the mere fact that I have to pound on them. They still work perfectly fine and look perfectly fine. The only problem with the drum design is the foot pedal. It is used very often throughout the songs and, quite frankly, pressing it actually hurts your legs. It is just too hard to push on and not sensitive enough when you have two quick foot pedal lines in a row. The drumplay is very good. Unlike the guitars, they had to totally invent the drum beats. They are much faster than the guitar's but there is more of a pattern. They would be absolutely my favorite instrument if the foot pedal was better, but I still love them.
The singing may be the short end of this perfect package. The microphone is a very good high quality microphone, but the problem with the singing is not in the hardware, its in the gameplay. The singing is just not as appealing as the drums or guitars. It just gets boring and it seems whoever has to sing gets the raw bargain in the band. It might be fun if you try singing and playing another instrument at the same time but I have not tried that yet. Now don't get me wrong; the singing is horribly boring. It's just that compared to everything else in this package it seems like the most boring part. And it does have huge competition.
All in all, this is a great package. The guitars are every bit as good as you expect and so are the drums (once you get over the foot pedal). There is no reason to not buy this package if you have the resources to. Do not get Guitar Hero over this game though. It is just a waste of money to buy Guitar Hero when you can get this game for just $80 more. If $170 is too high for your budget, you may consider buying just the game and picking up another guitar (if you have Guitar Hero) and the drums separately. Harmonix is going to eventually sell the components separately; it may be a while before that happens though. Don't expect to see them before next Spring. So go out and buy this game right now for yourself, or make yourself the new favorite uncle by getting this as a gift.

Harmonix Patch for PS3 can't come out...THANKS TO ACTIVISION

In a very strange story these days, with so many PR people swarming around and not many companies actions leaking out, Harmonix has apparently tried to make a patch for the PS3, but couldn't because of Activision. Ok, so you may no by now that PS3 Guitar Hero III guitars don't work on Rock Band for the PS3, which is a bummer for PS3 people because, unlike Xbox 360 owners, they don't have the Guitar Hero II guitar. So Activision was set to release a patch last Tuesday (December 4th) that would enable the usage of the Guitar Hero III guitar. This is where it gets murky. Harmonix says that they have released the patch to Sony and Sony has approved it and is ready to release it but Activision is objecting the release of it. Sony, wanting Activision cooperation in the future (IMO) is holding the patch due to Activision's "continued objection". This is getting very ugly.
Harmonix has every right to come out with this press release because what Activision is doing is proving that they have to be afraid of Rock Band. Sure, Guitar Hero III may have sold many more units than Rock Band, but I can tell you now that public opinion is definitely more excited about Rock Band and come next year, if they do nothing to change the Guitar Hero franchise, Rock Band will outsell Guitar Hero easily. So Activision, by doing this, you are not only promoting Rock Band, but you are also showing that you tremble in fear of it. Great move guys.

New Maps Anyone?

Anyone looking to reignite their Halo playing urge should download the new maps that are now released. They are priced at $10 which seems a little pricey especially after they sold five million copies of the damn game. Well the only way you can protest that is by not getting the maps. So, don't get them... yeah.... Ahhh who am I kidding, everyone here will rush off to by them anyways.

Mass Effect Breaks the 1 Million Mark

Mass Effect, a very highly critically acclaimed game, has now broken the fabled one million copies sold mark according to Microsoft's Jeff Bell. This is a great thing because this game is amazing and deserves to do well in a market that has previously shunned very highly scored games (Pyschonauts anyone?).
Bell also said that Halo 3 has broken the five million copies sold mark and probably going to continue to rise until the buzz around it dies down. And how long did it take for the buzz around Halo 2 to burn down. Let's see I think it starting dying right around the time HALO 3 CAME OUT. So, look for this game to have similarly long legs.

Video Game Awards

Spike is showing the Video Game Awards tonight but it seems as though the list of games that won have been released a little early. Here are the winners:

GAME OF THE YEAR
BioShock

STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Harmonix

BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

BEST RPG
Mass Effect

BEST MILITARY GAME
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
skate

BEST HANDHELD GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

BEST GRAPHICS
Crysis

BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE OR TV SHOW
The Simpsons Game

BEST RHYTHM GAME
Rock Band

BEST DRIVING GAME
DiRT

BEST ACTION GAME
Super Mario Galaxy

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
Madden NFL 08

BEST SOUNDTRACK
Rock Band

BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY
The Orange Box/ Portal

BEST XBOX 360 GAME
BioShock

BEST WII GAME

Super Mario Galaxy

BEST PS3 GAME
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

BEST PC GAME
The Orange Box

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
BioShock

BEST MULTI-PLAYER GAME
Halo 3

MOST ADDICTIVE VIDEO GAME FUELED BY DEW
Halo 3

Personally, I don't know if Bioshock deserved to win. Yes, it had an amazing story. Yes, it created an atmosphere unlike any other game. Yes, the game play was good and inter lapped with the story amazingly. But, I had constant framerate issues the last half of the game and the ending was very anticlimactic in my opinion. That being said, on any other year this would be game of the year without a question. But, in this year, with so many great games coming out, it is questionable to say the least.
And no Halo fanboys, there is no way Halo should have won Game of the Year. The single player gets almost tedious after a while. It deserves multi-player game of the year which is what it got.
Rock Band deserves the win more than Guitar Hero III. Harmonix innovated, while Red Octane put the same crap out again and slapped a new label onto it.
Another surprise is the Best Driving Game category. I bet nobody though DiRT would beat out the fabled Forza 2. I guess sometimes the funner game deserves to win.
Here's a lesson for you game developers. All of the games that innovated in some way: be it graphics, game play, storytelling, or atmosphere won high awards. These games are: Mass Effect, Bioshock, Skate, Call of Duty 4, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy, and Orange Box. All of these games have roots in worn out old formulas. But unlike Guitar Hero and other franchises, they didn't stick to those old shitty roots. They branched out and made the games even better. So for future reference don't try to stick to the old formula just to be safe. Its less risky, but sometimes you gotta gamble a bit.

Devil May Cry 4 Demo

This game, originally a PS3 exclusive, will come out in demo form early next year. This game looks fairly okay I guess. I don't know much about it. Everyone was making it seem like this was a huge grab for the 360 but it really doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. Maybe if Metal Gear came over I would be a little more excited.

SEGA Dreamcast 2 Coming out?? [Rumor]

I just saw a rumor that Sega may be producing another Dreamcast. The first one, as you all may know, was defeated easily by the other consoles of the time. Sega may be trying again to penetrate the ever increasing gaming market. Will there be enough room for them? And will this attempt be as disastrous as Sega's Sonic for the Xbox 360? I don't know if those Sega fanboys could live.

Burnout Demo coming Dec 13th

Now, I've never been a huge racing game fan. I haven't bought a racing game since i picked up a Burnout game for the Gamecube off some used game rack at blockbuster. Needless to say, the game wasn't good at all. The game was ridiculously hard because it had you avoiding crashes to try to reach the next checkpoint within the allotted time. Oh yeah, you had to win the race too. I refused to play a racing game ever since. Ok, maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but I just haven't had any interest in racing games since. But it may be Burnout that once again turns me back. This next Burnout, Burnout Paradise, is a free world game that can switch between offline and online play flawlessly. Its like that one online racer for the 360 (shows you how much I care about racing games) except for all of the issues that plagued it. What was that game called again? Ahh who cares, back to the point. Burnout Paradise looks like a very innovative racer that may change the way racers are made from now on. Hopefully this demo, which comes out December 13th, will be good enough for me to warrant a buy for this game.

Orange Box coming to PS3 (finally) December 11th

The PS3 version of the game of the year contender The Orange Box (horrible name(and box art) by the way) will finally be releasing December 11th. The Xbox 360 version has been out for over a month now. Oh yeah, the game is plagued with many, many frame rate issues so if you have both consoles, get it for the 360 (for that and achievements).
This has been happening continuously with many multi platform games such as Stranglehold. Sony really needs to start helping their third-party developers or the PS3 will die off before it has a chance. The Xbox 360 continues to widen the gap between the two consoles and Sony needs to get their act together and maybe things will change. There is no way Sony can win unless they fix these problems though.

Blizzard and Activision MERGE!

In what seems to be one the biggest gaming industry news of the year Activision and Blizzard are merging. These superhouses will make a company that will rival EA in terms of games developed and published. This is a great deal for both sides as Blizzard will likely get more resources even though they scarcely need any with their annual $1 Billion just from subscriptions form WoW. Discuss

Bioshock Downloadable Content (and Patch)

Bioshock will be releasing new DLC and a Patch next week. Hopefully this will fix some of the buggy frame rate issues (make the game almost unplayable). The DLC is as of yet unannounced, but one feature is announced:IT WILL BE FREE!!! Thank you 2K for making this happen. I don't see why other companies don't make their DLC free. We pay enough just to get the game. Don't they want to reward the people who payed $60 to play their game. It doesn't make sense to me. Epic tried doing it but was shot down by Microsoft (gahh). Hopefully we can get more ad supported DLC like the first map pack for Gears of War was. It was supported by Future Weapons on the Discovery Channel, which i guess was relevant to a shooter like Gears. Maybe we could get a Sci-Fi show to sponsor Mass Effect or the Foo Fighters to sponsor Rock Band. Wow I am too much of an optimist.

Apple iPhone and iPod Touch WebApps

Apple, known to host many huge press releases and announcements, seems to have forgot to announce one. That would be the introduction of WebApps for the iPhone and iPod Touch on the Apple Official Site. This announcement went by unnoticed by many, many people including me, until I happened to come across it when looking at the official site on my iPod Touch. I was planning to look at the Apple Store when I saw apps which shot out at me and upon further investigation I found these notoriously hidden WebApps.
These apps range from useful things, such as a Mobile Banking application from Bank of America, to absolutely useless crap, such as iMug Shots which lets you "view mug shots of famous and notorious people". There are already over 400 of these applications and definitely more to come. If you would like to sign up to actually build one of these apps there is more information on the site. The actual site's URL, that you can access through your iPhone or iPod Touch (or computer for that matter), is http://www.apple.com/webapps.
Now these apps aren't brilliantly designed. Some of them are just a couple things thrown together. But, it is a step forward. The biggest problem with viewing them on an iPod Touch is that you can only go to places with Wi-Fi access otherwise you lose connection with the app. The iPhone makes it a little more easy with the Edge network, but you cannot use the app if you are out of the network.
Oh yeah there's another big problem...NOBODY KNOW'S ABOUT THE APPS. Jeez Apple, if your going to take that much time to make these things at least make sure people know about them. But hey, if you don't want to do it Apple, I'll be happy to.

360 Dashboard Update Next Week!!

Microsoft has officially announced (through Major Nelson) that the Fall Dashboard update will (finally) be released on December 4th. It will add, previously posted, Xbox Originals and a new Friend of Friends feature. This feature allows you to view the friends list of people on your friends list. You can enable or disable this through privacy measures. Overall it looks to be a much more substantial update than that released in the Spring. As soon as I get a tv I will tell you what its like. Wow this tv issue is seriously hurting my blogging capabilities.

Rock Band Chosen

I have made my decision. I can cross Guitar Hero III off of my list of games I'm getting this holiday and add Rock Band onto it. After watching them play it on The 1up Show and listening to remarks about the game on various podcasts it looks like Rock Band will be getting my money rather than Guitar Hero.
One huge reason it will be is that I have two other gamers in the house. I don't want to have to fight with them over who gets to play now. It will be better pool our money to get Rock Band and we can play at the same time.
Another reason is I want to play other instruments. Don't get me wrong I will probably spend much of my time with the game with the guitar, but I would love to try the drums and singing. The drums look hard but could be very fun if you learn how to play them.
Well as soon as I get the game (see post below) I will post my personal review.

NEED a TV

I feel like a starving person in a buffet that I'm not allowed to eat. There are so many good games out right now but I can't play them. And that is because my damn tv is broken. I haven't even bought the games yet because they may drop in their price as soon as my tv comes in. I have a little 20" SDTV downstairs but I really want to wait till I get my big HDTV back to enjoy the games. Some of these games are supposed to have great graphics and I don't want to ruin their quality by playing them on a crappy tv. I'm also planning to get Rock Band (see next article up) and I have a 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound System with my big tv so I want to enjoy that as well. God I really hope we get one soon.

Unreal Engine 3 Coming to Wii

Unreal Engine 3 is to be ported to the Nintendo Wii, but not by who u would expect. Epic's Vice President Mark Rein has repeatedly said that they would not port the Unreal 3 Engine to the Nintendo Wii. The Engine has been known for great games such as Gears of War and Rainbow Six:Vegas. This Engine will be ported over by an unnamed licensee.
He said, ""It's their own port, in the same way Ubisoft brought Unreal Engine 2 to the Wii (Red Steel). I just don't see a big market there to bring this big hulking memory intensive engine over to a much smaller system."
Now the only question is how much better will the graphics be. Obviously the Wii isn't the powerhouse that the 360 and PS3 are but is it possible for the graphics to be substantially better than the graphics for earlier Wii games (you better hope so)

Favorite Podcasts

Well, I've been traveling a lot the past few weeks and nothing keeps me more entertained on a long car ride or flight than podcasts. Currently, my favorite is 1up Yours which has great discussion on video games. I also like the Video Game Outsiders, Podtacular, Gamespot Presents the Hotspot, Major Nelson, and Mugglecast. All of these are great podcasts. Leave comments with your favorites.

Play Miniclip on your Wii

I recently found out that Miniclip.com has a section optimized to use on your Wii's Opera web browser. I didn't realize this till just now. It seems like these games will be used with the Wiimote. Some games include: Black Knight, Hot Air 2, Sub Commander, etc. Miniclip did a great job putting these up. If you are bored with your Wii collection (hard to believe now that Mario is out), check these out. They may not be world-class titles but we salute Miniclip for its effort.

Top 5 Apps for iPhone/iPod Touch

Since the iPhone and iPod Touch (called iTouch by strange people) will soon have third party application support, here are my top 5 most wanted apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch (I'm going to just refer to the iPhone for the rest of the article even though the apps would be for both).

5. Art App

This application would basically be paint on the iPhone. Could you imagine flicking your finger across the touch screen and see pretty colors pop up (ahh). This would be a kid favorite and a good way to keep the kids occupied for a while. It would be even more amazing if you could mix the colors. Imagine all of the masterpieces you (or your kids) could make.
4. Shopping App

This application could be basically an online store similar to Amazon. Actually it could even be Amazon but in an easier to use User Interface than the online Amazon store on Safari. This would be even better for Apple as they could negotiate with Amazon for a percentage of the revenue. As if they needed any more money.
3. Games App

This application should have been implemented in the iPhone since launch. It seems ridiculous that the other models of the iPod, which have smaller screens and more limited user controls have games while the users of the iPhone have absolutely no games. Most of the games would be even better with touch controls and a huge screen that the iPhone has. Oh yes and there is also an accelerometer in the iPhone for a six-axis like experience.
2. Game Emulation App

This app would be a bit more shady than the other apps as emulators are known to use illegal digital copies of games on their emulation systems. But think how cool it would be to play your favorite SNES, N64, and PS1 games on your iPhone. I'm sure the iPhone processor could handle it as it isn't that hard.
1. Streaming Music from Personal iTunes Library App

Yeah, I couldn't think of a short name for this one so I had to describe it in the title. Basically this application would allow you to stream your content in your iTunes Library onto your iPhone. This is important because Apple has only given you 8 gigs (16 for iPod Touch) and most peoples' libraries are much bigger than that. If the EDGE network couldn't handle it, it could only happen when connected to Wi-Fi. This is a must have in my opinion.

Well there you have it, my most wanted apps on the iPhone. Let's hope that these will be implemented in due time.

Halo 3 Soundtrack Playable on Guitar Hero III

Tomorrow, you will be able to download the Halo theme from the Xbox Live Marketplace to play on Guitar Hero III. It was rumored to be on the Guitar Hero II song list but never appeared there or on Guitar Hero II's downloadable content. It was again rumored to be on Guitar Hero III's song list but again did not show up to the party. Thankfully, it decided to come to this party even though it's late. And the best part: It costs absolutely nothing. Just go to the Live Marketplace and download it.

Haze delayed till 08

Haze, a first person shooter for the PlayStation 3 (and other consoles) was originally set to be released in December. It has now been delayed to first quarter 2008. Since that was moved to the first quarter, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 has most likely been pushed out of that quarter. Another major Ubisoft release for next year, Splinter Cell: Conviction, still looks like it will come out first quarter but it is uncertain.

New Halo 3 Maps December 11th

Bungie is set to release the "Heroic Map Pack" for their insanely popular game Halo 3 on December 11th. It includes three maps and will sell for 800 MS points (10$). That seems a bit steep to me as I was hoping for a price of around $6-8. I mean the Halo 2 maps were usually priced about $2 a piece so why can't these?

Trip to the Past

This Thanksgiving, I'm in (on?) the Cayman Islands. This small island is owned by the U.K. Since it is owned but a modern country you would think it would be modern, but it really isn't. Technology is very much absent here. The only technology here is that of American tourists who are here on vacation as I am. These people have no radios in their cars or high tech computers or anything. And do not think they are in poverty these people aren't. It's just a different way of life. A way of life without much dependence on technology as we are in the U.S. Many stores don't even accept credit cards here. It's strange to come to a place where everything dealing with technology that you take for granted is absent.
I recently went to someone's house that resides on the island for dinner. They still had an old 20" tube television with a 9" tv in the kid's bedroom. I, being used to 50" flat panel plasma televisions, found it disconcerting. It was almost like a trip to the past. At my house I'm looking at a huge tv with high definition graphics playing on the latest game console (only Xbox 360 as of now) online with many of my friends. At this house I was playing the original Tony Hawk (Tony Hawk without any numbers behind it, just imagine) on the PlayStation 1 on a tiny tv squinting to see which person I am. I also managed to check out their computer. It was probably three years old by our standards but fairly new by theirs.
The only reason there is any technology here is because this place is a huge tourist destination. If it weren't for the influx of tourists arriving almost daily these people would be totally isolated from everyone else in the world.
Now I'm not saying you should pity these people but rather you should admire the culture of people not as privileged in technology areas as we are. You should also realize you can live without the latest technology (for a month or two) and you shouldn't wine about. Just think about the people in less developed areas. I know I will never forget these people from my trip to the past.

Tons of Games arriving this week

Wow there is a ton of games coming this week. Great time for my frickin tv to stop working right? The highlights of this week for me are Rock Band and Mass Effect. Rock Band has changed my opinion as I thought I was getting Guitar Hero III but after watching The 1up Show and listening to 1up Yours Rock Band looks amazing. I don't want to buy both and now Rock Band looks like it will get my money. I have two siblings and it will be perfect to play this game with them. I can't wait to get my hands on the drums. As previously stated on this blog, I am ecstatically excited about Mass Effect. It looks like a Game of the Year contender (so does Rock Band now that I mention it) and I want that tv to be fixed and in my house right this instant.

COD4 outpaces Gears of War on Xbox Live

Gears of War, a tenth month Xbox Live most played game leader, has slipped to third in the matter of a month. It was obvious it could not stand in the way of Halo, but a little more surprising is the fact that Call of Duty 4 has now outpaced it and is in second place right behind Halo 3 on the most played games on Xbox Live. Maybe I will have to check it out.

Super Mario Galaxy best rated game of all time!?!?

Super Mario Galaxy is now the best rated game of all time on gamerankings.com.  It edged out Ocarina of Time as it has an average 98.8 score and OoT has an average score of 98.6.  One bad review will kill this score though.

Xbox Originals on Xbox 360

Microsoft announced that starting in early December you will be able to download original Xbox games and play them on your Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Marketplace as part of their Live is 5ive celebrations. There are a total of seven games on the list as of now. They include:

• Burnout 3:Takedown
• Crash Bandicoot:Wrath of Cortex
• Crimson Skies
• Fable
• Fuzion Frenzy
• Psychonauts
• (of course) Halo: CE

One major dissapointment in these games is that they don't have achievements in them that we have come to love with regular Xbox 360 games. This is done "In order to preserve the integrity of the original gaming experience they provide" so "they will have the features available at the time of their initial release" according to Major Nelson. Hopefully these will be available to add later on via a patch or something. Oh yeah, they cost $15 a piece, which is reasonable I guess, although you could pick up these games in a local Gamestop for less.

PS3 Outsells Wii in Japan?!?!?!

Yes, the PS3 has done the previously unthinkable: It has outsold the Nintendo Wii in the land of the Rising Sun. Apparently the PS3 sold 55,924 units compared to the Wii's 34,456 units. The rest of the sales go as follows:

Nintendo DS: 78,884 units
PSP: 58,964 units
PS3: 55,924 units
Wii: 34,456 units
PS2: 9043 units
Xbox 360: 5817 units

The Wii's sales went down 10% while the PS3's went up 38%. Super Mario Galaxy couldn't even help them I guess.

1up Review of Assassin's Creed

Wow I may have to think twice about picking up Assassin's Creed after looking at this review of it. It seems like the biggest problem with the game is that it is repetitive and doesn't change that much. Also it looks like there should be a sequel coming out sometime. Well I probably still will get it but this is making me hesitant.

Xbox First Party Game for 08 Canceled?!?!?

I just got my fix of juicy gossip today when I was listening to the 1up Yours Podcast (amazing podcast by the way) and Shane Bettanhausen, one of the hosts, suggested that a big first-party Microsoft Xbox title for 2008 has been canceled. He said, "a big Microsoft first-party title that has been in the works for a very long time, that people are very excited for, sounds like it's being canceled." We will have to wait and see how this turns out. Alan Wake, Too Human, Halo Wars, and Banjo Kazooie 3's developers have all come out and said that it isn't their game. What else could it be? Discuss at will

COD4 Train

Whoa, I am officially hit by the Call of Duty 4 hype train now that it is released. Everywhere I look I find great things about the game. It looks amazing. Again due to the fact my TV is broken I can't pick it up right now, but I look forward to getting this game soon. Wow, another game to my extended list. So far the list goes:
Assassin's Creed
Mass Effect
Guitar Hero III
Call of Duty 4
Orange Box

These are the games that are a MUST BUY for me in no particular order. I'm sure I'll be picking up other games this holiday season but these are the most important ones to me. God, I'm gonna need to find some more time for gaming, I mean look at this lineup!

Super Mario Galaxy released!

Well the new Super Mario Galaxy was just released. I still don't have a Wii since I can't find the dang thing. Come on Nintendo make more. But I did have a Gamecube and had Super Mario Sunshine. My only gripe with Sunshine was its camera but it was one of my favorite games on the system. I loved that game... Anyways, this game looks to be even better than Sunshine was and I can't wait to get it once I get a Wii (whenever that will be).

Sorry for the wait... again

Yah another lapse between posts. Sorry about that I was trying to make a gaming website but it didn't work out.
Oh yes there will be a slight delay in the Guitar Hero III, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect reviews due to the fact that my tv is broken. Again, I'm sorry, but i promise to make them extra huge and detailed when it is fixed.
Speaking of Assassin's Creed, some of the reviews are starting to filter out and they look great so far. The only things that have been worrying me so far is that the game looked amazing when they revealed it, then the problems with the game starting showing up, disappointing combat, repetitiveness, but it looks like they pulled it together with this one. All of the reviews look very positive and I can't wait till my tv is repaired to pick this and Guitar Hero III up.
And it looks like I could go to K-Mart and get Mass Effect right now if I wanted to as there have been numerous reports of K-Mart breaking the street date and selling Mass Effect to consumers ten days early. All I can say is, is it really that difficult?

Time's Invention of the Year goes to: The iPhone

Time Magazine announced their daily Invention of the Year for the year 2007 in their latest issue and it went to the Apple iPhone, which was released in late June. It was cited as a major development for the computer industry in general. Apple has been one of the most influential tech companies of the 21st century.

Oblivion Online?!?!

I've heard a couple rumors swirling around the internet dealing with the Elder Scrolls turning into an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online). I have never played any MMO before, such as World of Warcraft, as I don't want to get sucked into that world that I have heard is very addicting and hard to turn away from. I don't have enough time to sit in front of a computer for that long. But this news story interests me. I loved the Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and would love to see where an online version would go but I, being stingy with my money, would probably not buy it unless it was a new iteration and had a quality single player too. This probably won't come out for several years so we have time to wait.

Guitar Hero III

Guitar Hero has come out and the reviews are out as well. 1up gave them a 9/10 and gamespot gave them an 8/10. Those seem like pretty decent reviews. And seeing as how I've never owned a Guitar Hero game (only played them in Best Buy and was hooked on them) I'm looking forward to getting it and then another guitar for co-op play. My personal review should be up any day now as I should be getting that. I really want to also pick up Orange Box, which got amazing reviews but I need to save up my money for Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect. I'll probably pick it up later this year after its on a slight discount price. I can't wait to play Portal.

SAT!!!!

GAHH SAT tommorrow. We'll see how that goes. I'm not too worried about it but we'll see

Long time since last post......again

Yah sorry about that again guys its just been really hectic. I should get back to normal starting next week sometime. Oh yah and Happy Halloween for all you people!
Well back to somethings that are important. I hope to be getting Guitar Hero III sometime this week or so and it looks amazing. I'm also looking forward to Assassin's Creed which comes out November 13th, I think. That looks like a fun game as well. And then topping off the lot is Mass Effect, which comes out November 20th and that looks amazingly amazing. I've been told its like Oblivion in Space and also that its like Jack Bauer in space. Oblivion is one of my favorite games on the 360 and 24 is definetly my favorite show. Can't wait till that comes out by the way. Tony Almaida back again?!?!?! Anyways, i should be posting my personal review of those games within the next month and as I said, getting back to normal posting in a week or two.

Microsoft's Xbox Division has first profit

Yes, you heard right, Microsoft's Xbox division posted its first ever profit as they made $165 million for the first fiscal quarter. These huge sales have been attributed to the widely popular video game Halo 3 which sold over 3 million copies and helped sell many consoles. The Xbox division usually posts losses due to hardware repairing and other issues.

Mac OS X Leopard

The new Operating System made by Apple was recently released. It goes along with the recent naming them cats and is nicknamed Leopard. I have personally never owned a Mac before, but me and my parents are planning to buy one as our next computer. I've only used them in the Apple stores but what I've heard about them is that they are brilliant. Well the reviews have been fairly positive and it seems to widen the already huge gap between it and Microsoft Vista. Maybe this will push my family over to getting a Mac.

Long Time no Post

Dang its been a while since ive posted on this thing. School was really busy this week so I couldn't get around to posting. Well I've been wearing those Nikes this week and I can tell you I really like them. The air sole really adds a bounce in your step and they feel very comfortable. I haven't tried running in them yet, because I want to completely wear my Nike Frees do death before I start running in these. Allright let me post about some news now

Nikes

Yah i got new shoes yesterday. They are blue, running, Nike Air Max 360s. I've only worn them one day so i'm not sure how they will be in the long run but so far they feel very good. The whole walking on air thing is true in my opinion. I went into the store looking for Nike Frees since those are my favorite shoes to run in but these might be ok too. Ill post in a week or so about how they are.

iPhone is AT&T's top-selling cell phone; Third-party-apps on it

Since the iPhone released on June 29th it has been AT&T's top selling handset getting 13% of their total mobile phone sales. There have been a total of 1.325 million iPhones sold since launch. Sales are expected to get even higher as Apple made an announcement that they are creating an SDK which creates third-party-apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will come out in February because Apple needs to make it virus safe, stable, etc. These applications will only increase the booming sales of both devices and it will make my iPod Touch much more useful.

Xbox 360 outsells Wii

September has been the first month in a long time that the Xbox 360 outsells the juggernaut called the Nintendo Wii. Ever since the Wii has been released its been sold out within days sometimes hours of being put on store shelves. There were 528,000 Xbox 360s sold compared to 501,000 Wiis. On another note the PS3 once again sold a dismal number as they managed to move only 119,400 units. The Xbox 360's rise to leadership has been attributed to Halo 3's release which was the biggest first day selling video game in history and will likely become the biggest selling game in history. I personally love the game.
Speaking of Halo 3, its creators, Bungie, have formally broken off from Microsoft Game Studios in a move that is huge for Microsoft. In my opinion this was a stupid move by Microsoft unless they are given first look at anything Bungie publishes, in which case it is a good move for both companies. Recent times have not been good for Microsoft developers as they lost Bizzarre, Bungie, and Bioware (maker of Mass Effect) was sold. Hopefully they get new developers for Microsoft Game Studios.

Dumbledore Gay?

So this is my first substantial post. I think i might start posting about things that are big in our world today in my opinion.
Well, J.K. Rowling made a huge revelation today about the sexual status of one of the most liked characters in her epic Harry Potter series. The revelation was the he was gay. Jo (as most of her fans call J.K. Rowling) said she "always thought of Dumbledore as gay" to a standing ovation to an audience at New York City's Carnegie Hall.
I always wondered if Dumbledore was ever married or if he ever fell in love and apparently he fell in love with Grindelwald. Hopefully throughout the rest of the book tour more questions about the series will be revealed.

A New Day

Today is looking like a much better day than yesterday except for one thing. That one thing was a huge surprise to me and i dont know what to do about it. Ill have to figure out something. God little kids are so gahh. Allright well Ill post later.

Advertising

Ok i just saw the advertising add-on to the blog and i think that would be good to drive in some revenue. allright ill have a talk with the parents and see if i can get something to work. ill also need to spread word about this blog.

Weekends finally here

ok so i actually have a second post on here. pretty amazing eh. yes i love that word. i know its a canadian thing but idk its just very fun to say. yah well school went ok this week. a lot less tiring than last week. well i guess ill post again tommorrow.

First Post

Ok so this is a new thing. Never tried blogging before. We'll see how long this lasts. Ill probably get sick of it in about a week but we'll see.