BluePhaze

Down but not out...

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:26:32 GMT

So I haven't been that active lately on the blog or on Xbox Live. This is due to a couple of factors. 1. I sold my house. I am currently waiting to move into my next house as soon as all the paperwork goes through. But that will take a few days. In the mean time I am living at my mother in Laws house. My wife and I will also be leaving for Hawaii this week as I have business out there. So while I am at work my wife will get some much deserved relax time on the beach. Grandma will watch the baby back here at home till we get back. Which means I don't officially get to move into my new house until I get back from Hawaii, September 1st and 2nd.

2. The second item keeping me from being active online game wise is the fact that while at the in laws house, my 360 was setup and though I usually have it lying flat, it was up on it's side. My 1.5 year old son knocked it over. As it fell over the Unreal Tournament 3 disk inside slipped out of the track and fell deeper into the 360. Needless to say the disk was destroyed and is a scratched mess that will not even register now when I put it in. But more than that, the DVD disk player in the 360 can no longer ready any disk. No matter what game I put in, I get an error message that tells me that I need to put the game into an XBox 360 console. Too much fun... so the console is dead, I have tried everything I know and even though I am a Microsoft employee, we don't get any special treatment, so looks like it is time for me to buy a new console. But OH well, this is a great excuse to finally pick up an Elite.

So I will probably have to wait until September 15th to get another XBox. But oh well, I guess thems the breaks. I can't play any of my PC games as my PC's are all packed up for the move. But I did get a nice new work desktop, Quad Core (Intel Core 2 Quad), 64bit with 8Gigs of DDR2 a Geforce 8400GS (Not bad for a workstation) which I will be installing Server 2008 on it so that I can run Hyper-V to simulate a 5 server SharePoint farm. :)

Anyway... so gaming wise I will be limited for a bit, but oh well. I will have a blast in Hawaii and when I get back I get to move into my new home. Here are some picks:

Some stats:

Square Footage: 2800
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 3

In contrast, my old house was 3 Bedroom, single story, 1250 square feet. So it is quite a bit of an upgrade for me. It will also be my first official house purchase as the old one was my wife and her father who were on the title.

Anyway, I look forward to playing with you all again soon...

The heavens will tremble... Diablo III is coming...

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:52:20 GMT

There are very few games that have taken up so many hours of my time as the first two Diablo games. After years of no news other than rumors, and multiple upheavals at blizzard due to change of parent company and the coming and going of many of the developers who worked on the original Diablo games, I had honestly started to think there would be no Diablo III. The fact that other companies made up of ex-Blizzard employees are making games in the same spirit of Diablo has been nice but still not the same. Flagship Studios, helmed by ex-Blizzard employees has Hellgate Londong, which is a future set spiritual successor to the overall idea of Diablo and carries over many of the games gameplay mechanics. Item Customization, Skill Trees, Multiple Classes, Randomly Generated terrain and layout for the different levels, etc... Even the story line is similar in that the forces of Hell have broken out of hell and are taking over the world. But no matter how good or bad (I actually like Hellgate a lot) it is not a replacement for Diablo. For the core Diablo fan Flagship has done some other work as well and have an upcoming game called Mythos (www.mythos.com) which is being developed by former Blizzard Diablo developers as well as the fella that is responsible for a very nice Diablo style game that some of you may have played called Fate. Mythos is VERY Diablo style game and is looking amazing, but... again it is not Diablo. Other project over the years since Diablo II have had hope but ultimately failed. Titan Quest was an amazing game, even had an expansion and I thought the game it self was amazing. It was the first truly 3D game I have played in a while that really got the Diablo style of gameplay right. Unfortunately the developers (Iron Lore) closed their doors and no further work on the game will happen as far as I know. There have been many others that emulated the style but never quite got it right, Blade and Sword, Dungeon Lords, Divine Divinity, Loki, etc... Many of these games had good ideas, but when you are going to try and be successful in a genre you have to improve upon what is already come before. Diablo really gave birth to the Action RPG genre. And improving on the work Blizzard did on Diablo is a very tall order indeed to fill let alone improve on. If you are going to make a game that feels like it is trying to follow in Diablo's footsteps, you really need to make sure are putting extreme attention to every detail, and also hope that you are not going to be drowned in the backlash of the hordes of hard core Blizzard and Diablo fans. Hard order to fill indeed.

But now the wait is over... sorta. Blizzard has announced Diablo III. And from the looks of it, this will be a definite blow against any other company that is even looking to get into this genre. As with most Blizzard game the mantra of "When it's done..." means that the game may still not ship for years yet. But even in the state it is currently in, it looks to blow away anything else I have seen in this space (Action RPGs). So far all that has been revealed are two of the character classes and a bit of gameplay. The known character types at this point are the Barbarian (A re-imagining of the class from Diablo II) and the Witch Doctor (A new magic caster class.). Of these two the Barbarian of course is the most familiar. He is still a straight up Melee fighter with the ability to Dual wield weapons and deal ridiculous amounts of damage. New skills and a hefty dose of Bad-Ass have been added and I am excited as the Barbarian was my character of Choice in Diablo II. The other character, the new Witch Doctor class at first resembles the Necromancer from Diablo II. He is a wiry looking fellow. But after watching some gameplay footage (links below), while in some ways similar to the Necromancer the Witch Doctor has some tricks of his/her (more on this later) sleeve. Turns out the Doc has the power of fire and disease at his control as well as the ability to summon minions. Sounds similar to a blend of the Necro and the Sorceress. Blizzard has stated that the Witch Doctor is not a replacement for the Necromancer and that there is still nothing keeping them from possibly including a Necromancer class in Diablo III. Only two characters have been announced at this point, and much of the initial materials and announcements surrounding the game have made mention of 5 character classes in Diablo III. However during some of the announcement and Q & A sessions this weekend a couple places have reported that the Blizzard team has said that they are not locked in yet on the total number of characters. This could be a good thing. While I don't feel it is necessary to include all the classes form the previous game, it would be nice to at least have a few. The Witch Doctor has some very nice skills that show some of the new directions that the team at Blizzard has decided to take with the characters and their skills. in Diablo II we were introduced to the concept of skill synergies. Skills that boosted or worked in conjunction with other skills. in Diablo III it look like they have taken this to a new level. The Witch Doctor can summon minions (not sure how many types yet) and then can cast some of his other spells on his minions. Now these are not Buffing skills, these are his attack skills. The Witch Doctor has a skill called Locust Swarm, that is similar to a poison skill, it hits an enemy with a green cloud of locusts who then proceed to attack enemies in a cloud doing damage over time (DoT), this skill is remarkable in the fact that the locust swarm will spread from enemy to enemy if they are in proximity to eachother. This allows for some good crowd control techniques which you will need with the amount of enemies this game is going to throw at you. But another nice thing about this skill, is that the Doc can cast it on his minions and they begin to glow green and there attacks are now boosted by the locust swarm. Looking closely at some of the gameplay footage, I also noted at one point (though it wasn't mentioned in the video commentary) that the Fire spells of the Doc also affected his minions making them glow with flames and do fire damage to enemies (you can see this in the video footage during the big boss battle towards the end if you pay close attention). I am very excited to see how other skills work together as well.

One other item that will thrill some is that choosing your class in Diablo III no longer means choosing your sex. In the past Diablo games the character classes were locked to a particular sex. Babarian was Male, Sorceress was female ,etc... if you wanted play that class you had no choice in the matter. With Diablo III all that changes. For each character class you can choose the Sex of your character with no ill consequences. So you can now be a Female Barbarian, or a Female Witch Doctor. The choice is yours with no change in the stats or abilities of the class chosen. About time, I am sure my wife will appreciate that as she pretty much stuck to the Sorceress and the Amazon in Diablo II.

For those of you who are wanting to see the game in action you can check the Blizzard Diablo III site and hit the video links. For your convenience I have put together a short list of some of the online resources that will give you all you want and more on Diablo III.

That is about it for now... I am sitting in the airport in Dallas waiting for my once cancelled, twice delayed flight to Oakland so I can spend some time at home before another week of work can tackle me... But at least now I know that Diablo III is coming and I definitely have something to look forward to. I will post more as I find more info but there is plenty out there to keep you happy.

The wheels are turning...

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:50:31 GMT

Have you ever gotten so excited about an idea that you lost hours of time just brainstorming? Happened to me tonight. I have been working on getting up to speed on some of our newer technologies lately. I am learning WPF(Windows Presentation Foundation) and Silverlight. For those of you unfamiliar with them, WPF is the part of the .Net framework that allows us to make really slick user interfaces such as you see in windows vista. The glass effects, the transparencies and animations etc... WPF gives programmers and designers the tools to do these types of things. Silverlight is the web based version. It allows for very rich and exciting user interfaces for the web. I am learning them for my own personal enjoyment as opposed to any job related reason. But to give myself a project to help me dig deeper in to them, I have decided to start with making some games. In a past life before coming to Microsoft I spent a lot of time as a Flash Developer and Designer. Since coming to MS I have had very little opportunity to put those skills to use. Now with WPF and Silverlight (as well as the Microsoft Expression tools) I can now start using those skills again in the context of some of our own products and I am extremely excited about it.

I was sitting at dinner tonight just thinking about what I might want to do in terms of a game. And started thinking about some of my favorite games and what aspects of them really made me love to play them. I don't want to give away any details yet as I want to get some groundwork done first to prove out some ideas. But I thought about a couple different game types and how I could combine some of the elements of a couple of completely non related game genres that I happen to like. AND POOF! The ideas just started flowing. I opened up OneNote and started making a list and the next thing I know it was an hour and a half later (I am in Tennessee this week so had plenty of free time at dinner since I was alone dining at the hotel restaurant.) I ended up with a huge list broken into a few major categories from Game Engine Features all way down to lists of features common to games of each genre and features of the game that would be unique to itself. The list is hundreds of items long and really lays out a great groundwork for what I believe will truly be a great game combining some of the best elements of a couple of my favorite genres. Now I am even more excited because going over the list I am seeing how each item can be implemented and going over details in my head of how they would fit into the game engine.

I will be blogging most of the technical details of the game design and development, including my learning process of WPF and Silverlight on my MSDN blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/jamesway I may post some of it up here as well if there is enough interest over on this blog. Anyway, I just had to share as I can't remember the last time I was this excited about something. Even if the game ends up just being my own private little toy, at least i know it is something that I want to play. And that is enough to keep me going. Anyway.... Catcha later...

For those interested in finding out more about WPF and Silverlight as well as the Expression tools check the links below:

WPF:

Silverlight:

Expression Tools (Microsoft Tools for Designers)

Those should be able to get your started. If you are working with any of these or start to, let me know how it is going.

Playing with Legos and the force...

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:01:25 GMT

Been awhile since I posted last so figure I should get myself back in gear. Most of my gaming lately has been Lego Star Wars II: The original Trilogy. My wife as been playing it with me and last night I finally finished all the achievements. Talk about a damn chore! Not only do you end up having to play through the whole damn thing multiple times but a great deal of the achievements (18/29) are only achieved by beating every level in the game without dying and without turning on any of the extra features that you unlock during the game. Most of them honestly weren't that bad, but the last level is a beast. You have to escape from Death Star II. You can do it in free play mode which gives you access to all the ships, but it is a ridiculous level. Here are my tips on how to beat that level for the undefeated achievement:

1. Use the Tie Interceptor. It is very fast and has quad lasers which tend to destroy anything that gets in your way.

2. ROLL & FLIP! Keep hitting that A button! They can't hit you while you are in the middle of a role or flip. They can hit you as you are leveling out from doing a flip though so be careful. Rolling is accomplished by hitting left or right on the analog stick and hitting the A button. Flipping is hitting the A button without hitting to either side. Rolling is more useful as you can shoot as you role. I tend to use this to role side to side while in the tunnels and fire the whole time to clear the way.

3. Hearts on this level do not seem to disappear as they do on other levels. There were many times where I would destroy some enemies and come back a few minutes later and there were still hearts left over. Use this to your advantage, if you get low on life, head back to the last place you fought, of course this depends on you not picking up every heart that drops out of shear habit when you are already at full health.

4. For the area with the core, line your ship up with the areas on the walls that you need to shoot. Do not get to close or they will zap your ship and your ship will sit there unable to move and you are a sitting duck. With the Tie Interceptor it should only take a couple shots to kill each wall turret. Some people have recommended using the Millennium Falcon for this section, I get destroyed trying that. It has a nice gun that can shoot in any direction but does not shoot fast enough or do enough damage to help me.

5. NEVER STOP SHOOTING! NEVER. EVER. EVAR!!!

That is about it. You should be able to do it after a few tries. Once I get home (More on that later) next week, my wife and I are going to start working on Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. And after that she wants Lego Indiana Jones. And I assume after that she will want Lego Batman... I see little blocks in my sleep...

Strategy on the 360: The RTS invasion

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:40:43 GMT

One item I have always felt was missing from Consoles has been Real Time Strategy (RTS) games. Over the last year or so though that has started to change. The first RTS I noticed come to the 360 was Command And Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (C&C 3). I have played through about a third of the game so far and am enjoying it. One thing that always seems to hamper RTS games on the console is the control scheme either has to be limited way down due to a lack of available buttons, or they have to implement ridiculous menu options for the same reason.

C&C 3 plays pretty well. It is rather simple compared to most RTS I have played in terms of number of units, but plays well still. Some others that I am excited about are of course our very own Halo Wars! But besides just that we have more good news for RTS fans as Supreme Commander (SUPCOM) is coming to the 360. SupCom is by far one of the most robust RTS games around. The shear number of units, buildings, etc... is staggering. For those of you who have not played SupCom, you are in for a treat. Massive battles with 1000's of units on Globe spanning maps make for a ridiculous numbers of strategies. The fact that SupCom includes not only ground units, but Air and Sea units really makes for varied gameplay. Each race in the game has it's own strengths and weaknesses. You also have the ability to zoom way out to a global view of the action so that you can truly use strategy to plan your overall offensive. Most RTS games keep you tied close to your units and limit the number to very small groups which makes them much more tactical than strategic.

Some other RTS games you may want to check out as well are the upcoming Command And Conquer Red Alert 3, World in Conflict and Universe at War: Earth Assault. I have Universe at War on the computer and the xbox 360 version allows for cross platform play against the PC players! I know there are more games in this genre coming to the 360 I just can't think of them off the top of my head. Let me know what you are looking forward to!

So now the 360 (already the king of the Console FPS) is really looking good on the RTS front. Now I need more hack and slash RPG type games ( Diablo Style) and I will be set.

Yes I am really that old...

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:45:01 GMT

So in the last month or so I have been neck deep into COD4 (Call of Duty 4, for those who live in caves deep below the surface and hunt by smell...). I am loving it. One thing I have been noticing a lot of lately though is "young" kids asking me how old I am and then making incredulous remarks about my age. It is very odd. I am 31 years old. I have a 1 year old son. The number one question I get is why are you playing games? Don't you have a life? Yes I do. A damn good one, I work at Microsoft, I own my house, I will soon own a much bigger house, I have a beautiful wife and an amazing son. Does this mean that I do not get to have free time? Or when I do have a spare moment what am I "supposed" to be doing? I don't party, I don't drink, I don't do drugs. I enjoy gaming and spending time with my family. I happen to have a life where I am comfortable enough to have a nice pastime like gaming.

My wife enjoys games once in a while. She rocks at G.R.A.W. 1 & 2 (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, for the afore mentioned cave dwellers...). She has been known to play Halo 3, Viva Pinata, and some others. I honestly think that in terms of gaming maturity the United States tends to lag a bit behind some other countries. Look at China and Japan. Both places that I have been to where gaming is considered an adult pastime. The gaming industry has started upping the bar on the target audience for many games. What before may have been a 12-18 year old group is now a 18-34 year old group. Hence the large number of games carrying the M rating. One of these times I figure I should return the favor and ask one of these "youngns'" what do think they will be doing after work when they "grow up". Does it bother them that someone who can afford to by the games without asking mommy and daddy is playing?

But for now I think I will just stick to my stand by answer... "Yes I am really that old... And I just PWNED you..."

Till next time... Frag you later

Currently in Rotation:

Call of Duty 4, HellGate London, Unreal 3, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, Universe At War, Gears of War(Windows), Halo 3

Road Warrior: Taking the War with me...

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:01:15 GMT

I have been traveling so much lately that I haven't had a chance to touch the 360 in a long time. Many of you who have seen me online have no doubt noticed that it pretty much always shows that I am playing Gears of War for Windows. So while not being able to get my 360 frag on, I have had to take things mobile.

My setup for the road is actually pretty sweet. I got a new work laptop recently. It is a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p. It is not the ultimate gaming machine but has enough to get the job done. It has a dual core intel proc. The Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.20GHz. For those that are hardware junkies it is one of the first Santa Rosa based chips. For Video it is running an Nvidia Quadro FX 570M, Basically an 8600gt mobile. It also has 4GBs of DDR2 RAM and I am running Vista Ultimate 64bit. The screen runs at a ridiculous 1920x1200. It also has Wireless N (802.11N) built in but since it is rare to find an N network I stick to my verizon cellular card for Internet.

Gears runs great on this machine. I drop the res down to 1280x768 to keep the widescreen aspect. And I run everything at medium settings. This is more than adequate to play on. Now the main time that I end up getting to play is when I am between flights or in my hotel room. Now for the airport I don't want to bother others, but I also do not want to lose out on hearing or talking to my teamates. So to get everything running smooth and to have a nice gaming experience I decided to take a look at what I could get from the company store (Microsoft Company Store, I am cheap I want the employee discount.). I ended up picking up the wireless receiver so I can use my wireless 360 controller. It can be odd and uncomfortable to find proper mousing surface in the airport. So the wireless controller is much more convenient. For the chat portion I could go with the headset that came with the 360 but I want to hear the game in stereo without bugging those around me. So I saw that we make a USB headset/mic that should do everything I need. It is the LifeChat LX-3000. I have been very impressed. It does stereo sound well so I can always tell what direction the sounds are coming from. Also it picks up small noises much better than my speakers would. This is allowing me to hear enemies coming up on me way before they actually come into view, this is awesome especially if they are trying to run up behind me. Usually I can hear their footsteps in enough time to duck and wait around the corner from them and nail them as they run around it thinking to flank me. The mic on it works great as well so I can communicate with my team, though the airport people do look at you funny when you get excited and yell "Shoot him quick before he curbstomps me!". For anyone looking for a mobile setup I have linked the names for anything I am using that way you can check them out. I am not a sales guy but am having a blast with this setup. I love popping someones head with a nice snipe then telling them I am playing in an airport on a wireless connection on my laptop when they complain about lag. It usually either shuts them up or they just don't beleive me.

For those times that I am not in the airport and want a bit better control of my kill count, I have finally found something to replace my Logitech G5 (ok so I have 4 of them, but still). I recently purchased the Microsoft SideWinder Gaming Mouse. Many of you may remember I tried the Microsoft/Razer Habu earlier this year. Unfortunately that just didn't work out. Drivers and hardware oddness made me give up on it months ago. I ended up going back to my G5's. But now with the SideWinder I have a mouse that seems to fit my hand perfectly. It has all the common features, DPI on the fly, software settable levels for it with 3 separate buttons, 1 for each dpi settings. The scroll wheel is nice, metal and has good click to it.

But anyway, it has basically been a blast. I was in Phoenix AZ for Thanksgiving week. Then in Seattle the week after that. I then got a week working in Sacramento which is driving distance from my home which made for a nice week. This week I am in Ames Iowa. HOLE &#!% nobody told me how cold it is here! When I landed it was 12 degrees! 12! I froze on my way to my rental car! Next week I will be on vacation in DisneyLand so no Fraggy for me! But it will be a nice week down and a good chance to get in some quality time with my wife and son who will be 1 year old this month!

I also happened to get a new 80GB Zune. I will talk more about that later. It is time to hit the rack. It is 12 midnight here in Iowa and I have to be up early to teach a workshop on Windows SharePoint Services v3 Development.

Frag you later...

Daddy's got a brand new bag of Gears!

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:57:50 GMT

So many games out or coming out right now that it is crazy trying to keep up. Just recently I have gotten Hellgate London, Loki, The Witcher, Supreme Commander Forged Alliance and of Course Gears of War for Windows!

Gears for Windows is actually a huge improvement over the 360 version in my opinion. The graphics are amazing, I play at 1600x1200 at full DX10 settings. It looks freakin incredible. More maps: The three new maps are really good. They allow for some good strategy. I still can't remember their names off the top of my head but they tend to use height differences more than some of the old ones. You can play online free without the need for a live gold account. You just can't play in ranked games. But that is the kicker, almost all the achievements do not require you to play in a ranked match! Most have been altered so that you can get them in ranked or player match. Seriously (get 10,000 kills in ranked) of course still requires ranked matches, but the new "Not so Seriously" achievement requires player match games. Pretty much all the weapon specific achievements allow for player match. This also means you can set up matches with specific weapons to ease the process if you really wanted to. Hammer of Dawn match anyone? Also as the windows version is not compatible with the 360 version, you get a whole new set of gamerscore points for the achievements.

All the downloadable content is included with all maps and weapon tweaks. The only issues I have seen so far are many maps actually have more map glitches than the 360 gears. There have been times where I hid behind a tree and when I tried to dive I actually climbed partway up a tree and got stuck. In about 30 games it happened twice. I have yet to see anyone using these for cheating mainly as they seem to be by accident. I have not seen any out of map glitches yet.

My next adventure is going to be to try working with the level editor. I really want to make a daytime foggy swamp map with lots of water and trees. After that maybe some type of cave system map.

Well anyway, time for me to get back to fraggin...

Frag you later...

Time Warp

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:01:50 GMT

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post? Craziness!

So lately during the few minutes a week that I am not working, I have been at war with myself over what games to play. So far it has been a toss-up between Halo 3 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Playing Halo 3 has really reminded me just how much I love the party system. Playing Gears for so long I had sort of forgotten how convenient it was. But now I realize what an indispensable piece of the game it is. Not having to find my friends after each game, being able to stay together and jump from game to game really means there is as little delay as possible between rounds.

So far my favorite weapon is the Gravity Hammer. It works similar to the sword in terms of the aiming. If an enemy is close enough the cross hair turns red indicating "MASSIVE DAMAGE!" and at this point hitting them is an instant kill. But it does area of effect damage as well as blasting anything nearby into the air. You can actually knock vehicles like the warthog a damn good distance with some practice. It is also a good defense as hitting near someone usually sends the flying back a bit. One really nice ability is to 'bat' rockets back at people. Of course you need some great timing. But as many people have seen, you can combine this with games in Forge to create some fun baseball type games. Using the hammer has it's own strategies that works well. I am a big fan of waiting around the corner with it and nailing people. Also The Hammer is the perfect partner for the bubble shield. Put down a shield and the reach of the hammer can wreak havoc on just about the entire area covered by the shield. Dropping the shield in a choke point or hallway is a great way of making hammer soup out of anyone that has to pass through the area.

Outside of Halo 3, I have been getting familiar with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. I have always been a huge Quake fan so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try this out. It is a blast so far. I have never been a big fan of the Battlefield games as I am not really into realistic war settings (too much time in Kuwait during the gulf war...) but putting huge battles into a game set in the Quake storyline is awesome. The maps are the biggest I have ever seen as they are multi-part campaigns. Each game is split across multiple maps that each have different objectives. There are multiple classes for each team, you have the humans and the Strogg. Each has the same number of classes, but the classes are not exactly a one to one mapping. This makes the game very interesting. As you play a match you also gain XP (experience points) that unlock skills/features for your class during the game. These do not carry over into other games. Each game starts you with 0 experience and you gain throughout the match. So each match everyone starts out very basic, but as you progress through the match everyone based on their class starts to get some additional perks. For example the Strogg Infiltrator (Sniper, Saboteur, Stealth specialist) gets silent footsteps as one of the first experience related bonuses. You can also unlock weapons, vehicles and other items via experience. This happens automatically and you get a message on your screen indicating what the bonus is. You can also hit the 'L' key to bring up a menu and check what all your current rewards are. And did I mention the games environment are HUGE!? Again, each match spans multiple maps. Each of these maps is already huge on it's own. So for example, for the first part of one match, you may be tasked with keeping the other team from some objective like hacking your main frame, or activating a slip-gate. During the round, each player based on their class, has different missions that they can take to help effect the outcome of the battle. You can go into a menu and look at the current missions for your class, or simply keep an eye out for icons on the map that point out the missions for your class. So going back to my infiltrator, I may get a mission to hack some turrets that are defending the enemy base. Hacking them will disable them for about 1 minute, which of course helps my team to invade the base that much easier. Getting to the turret to hack it in the first place can be quite a chore, so there may be a mission for the Strogg aggressor (Demolitions, anti-vehicle, etc...) to put some explosive charges on a wall to blast it open so I can get to the turret more easily. Or maybe I want to use the Infiltrators ability to disguise myself as one of the humans. All I need to do is kill one or find one that is freshly dead and I can disguise myself as them which of course make entering the base so much easier. So anyway, once the conditions for victory have been met by one team or the other, you proceed to the next portion. So for example if the goal on the first map was to keep the GDF(humans) from accessing the slip-gate, if they succeeded then we now have to follow them through the slip-gate and defend our base in Antarctica where the slip-gate took the GDF. So now we are on a completely different continent with different objectives and missions. Most games have three rounds, each round takes place in a different location based on the current mission similar to what I explained above.

Well this is getting a bit long, so I will cut it short for now. But I will have more on these games as I get more time to play.

Frag you later...

Sony - Open Mouth, Insert Shoe Store...

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:42:27 GMT

So today I saw a wonderful article quoting one of Sony's presidents as saying that he also does not think the upgrade from the 60GB version to the 80GB version is worth it! Well... at least they agree with me! For more information check the article HERE.

Every time a Sony exec makes a statement I feel that much better about the 360!

Frag you later...

PS3 - Killing you softly with it's song...

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:08:24 GMT

So we have established that I am not a PS3 fan. And now I have even more reason not to be. But so do you...

Sony has recently announced the new 80GB model of the PS3 and dropped the price on the existing 60GB model to $499. So the 60GB model now fills the price gap left by the 20GB version that Sony stopped manufacturing. This seems like a good strategy at fist glance but the devil is in the details. The price drop of the 60GB model is not a permanent change! Actually Sony has stopped producing the 60GB version all together as they did with the 20GB version, and the new price is simply to get them off the store shelves to make way for the ONLY version of the PS3 that Sony is currently manufacturing, the 80GB version. It is not Sony's plan to have more than one Model of the PS3 available. So once the "cheaper" </sarcasm> has sold out, you will still be stuck only with a $600(ok $599) PS3 again. Wow talk about respect for your customers (damn more sarcasm, where did that come from...). More info can be found in this video interview with Sony President Kaz Hirai, the questions are not in english but the answers are. Jump to about the 1:42 mark in the video to see him discuss the plan with the price drop: Kaz Hirai on PS3 Pricing and the Death of the 60GB version.

I see this strategy as a rectal thermometer, it is an uncomfortable and unnecessary way for them to do what they think it takes to stay healthy... and another way for them to stick something where the sun don't shine to the gamers...

Also on a side note, images of the verbage on the box of the new PS3 state it has limited backwards compatibility. Looks like they may have done what they did with the European version and left out the chips that enable the backwards compatibility with PS2 games. Wow fun! More HERE on this.

Anyway, back to your normal lives, nothing to see here... other than continued beating of consumers...

Frag ya later...

E3 This year Live explodes!

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 04:48:54 GMT

So I have been watching the live coverage of E3 over on g4tv.com you can get it HERE. Stories from E3 that completely caught me off guard and blew my mind or are just damn interesting!

Gears of War coming to the PC this holiday season! OMG!
1. 5 New Chapters
2. New Game Modes
3. New Levels
4. Co-Op Play via Games for Windows Live
5. A Game EDITOR! Custom Maps BABY!!!!!
6. For XP and Vista
7. DIRECT X 10 Graphics! Did that blow your mind? Cause that just happened!!!!!
8. Hoping this will be cross-platform with the 360 version, we will have to wait and see.
9. Did I mention... OMG!
10. I need new shorts....
Viva Pinata coming to the PC
Viva Pinata Party Animals - Party Game, Maybe we can finally compete with Mario Party!
Halo 3 is looking amazing!
Naruto: Rise of the Ninja (360 exclusive)
All the new EA sports titles (bleh) will run faster and smoother.
New Xbox Live Arcade Titles coming:
1. Bomberman
2. Wing Commander Arena
3. Feeding Frenzy 2
4. World War - War World?
5. Geon
6. Track & Field
7. Undertow
8. Puzzle Quest
9. Tetris Splash
10. Golden Axe
11. Space Giraffe
12. Marathon Durandal (The game Halo came from! More Bungie Goodness!)
13. Hexic 2
14. Sonic the Hedge Hog
Golden Axe and Sonic are available NOW on live arcade!
Disney Movies going on Xbox Video Marketplace! Wow I bet Sony is crying again...
PGR 4 Coming this year!
1. Now includes dynamic weather effects and motorcycles!
Too Human coming this year.
Halo Wars of Course!
Fable 2, can't wait for this one!
Lots for the RPG crowd on 360:
1. Blue Dragon
2. Mass Effect
3. Lost Odyssey
Over a dozen new PC games using Games for Windows Live! More achievements for my PC games please! KTHXBYE!
Call of Duty 4 looking flipping amazing! I am not into realistic war games (other than GRAW) but this looks sweet!
More PC monsters coming including Hellgate London and Crysis.
WOW! Assassins creed will be out THIS YEAR! And is looking so freakin awesome! I want I want!
Resident Evil 5, looks to be set in a desert, maybe Africa, creepy looking crowds and amazing graphics!
OMG! I so didn't see this coming! A Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360 will be released in September!!!! Woot!
Did I mention... GEARS OF WAR FOR THE PC!!!!
1. Microsoft Game Studios is set to bring the critically acclaimed Gears of War and Viva Piñata to the Windows platform, both of which will support Games for Windows—LIVE. Gears of War will emerge on Windows XP-based and Windows Vista-based PCs this holiday with five new campaign chapters, a new multi-player mode, and a new game editor. The game will also take advantage of DirectX® 10 graphics technology, which is only available on Windows Vista. Also today, Epic Games unveiled the addition of Games for Windows—LIVE integration to the award winning Unreal® Engine 3. This landmark announcement will make it easier than ever for game developers using Epic's next-generation technology to take advantage of Microsoft's online gaming network.
A GAME EDITOR FOR GEARS! MORE MAPS! MORE MORE MORE... Damn third pair of shorts tonight!

I will have more later if I can get my head around the thought of Gears on the PC!!!!!!

Shooting from the Hip: Of Gears, Ghosts, Halos and Shadows - Part 1

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:09:34 GMT

So I am starting a new series of articles based simply on my thoughts and views on the world of games and gaming. Not the business of games, not the games industry, just gaming. This first part is just some thoughts that have been floating around my head lately on some of my favorite shooters for the Live Network and the journey online gaming has allowed me to have. Hope you like it, and if not, oh well :)

I like shooters. No let me rephrase that. I LOVE SHOOTERS. Shooters were my introduction into PC gaming. I grew up on consoles playing many platform games like Mario, MegaMan, Castlevania, etc... But in high school I ran into something I hadn't seen before. Wolfenstien! It completely blew me away! The 3d world was immersive in a way that I had never experienced in a game before. Sure I had played some old school RPG's here and there. But even the semi-3d environments that they conjured up did nothing for me compared to what I saw the first time I tried a real time 3d shooter. I was amazed at the fact that I could use tactics, that I could take cover and that I could finally play in a world where the rules mirrored my own(to some extent).

Over the years since I have played a ridiculous number of FPS games and due to their very nature I have played them on the PC as the console attempts at a true shooter were never on par with what I experienced on the PC. I kept up with the console world still as I have always been addicted to fighting games as well, Street Fighter, Tekken, Killer Instinct, etc... were all directly responsible for the loss of hundreds of hours of what might otherwise might have been "productive" time. I owned many consoles over the years, Intellivision, CollecoVision, Atari, the original Nintendo(NES), SNES, SEGA, LYNX, JAGUAR, 3DO, PlayStation, N64, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and of course now my 360. But for all the RPG, Platform, adventure goodness they gave me, they couldn't touch my love of the PC shooter. At least, not until I got my Xbox, and Halo was released. But I am getting ahead of myself. The number one attraction for me with FPS games, was the online competition. There was no better feeling than destroying some little onscreen avatar and knowing that someone, somewhere in the world was cursing my name. It gave me a window to the world that gave me reach beyond my little town, or even my county, or state, or country. I could mingle and compete with gamers all over the world. I picked up networking while in the Navy simply so I could hook machines together for LAN games of Quake and Quake 2. Thank you Id for forcing me to learn network skills :) I don't think I would be where I am now without it.

But back to my main train of thought here. It wasn't until Halo hit the Xbox that I really decided to take another look at FPS games on a console. And when I did I discovered something that again completely changed my view of gaming. Before Halo and Halo 2 I had never had a reason to get a live account. Halo 1 for me was all about split screen and system link with my friends and family. It was a blast and was the first shooter that I played that was accessible to those who had not mastered the complexities of the WASD and Mouse + Keyboard control styles on the PC. It was an amazing experience. Finally a console shooter that deserved to be called an FPS. The one piece for me that was lacking was the feeling of competition. Playing against my family was fun, but they got tired of being destroyed before too long and the game nights became few and far between so I retreated to my PC games again. But then something amazing happened, Halo 2 came out and I got a Xbox Live account. And a whole new world of competition and communication opened up.

I had grown used to the myriad of applications that needed to be run on a PC to facilitate communication and interaction. You had some apps for instant messaging, some for server browsing, some for voice chat, and some for hosting servers or joining servers. It was almost as much of an art as a science to play with friends online. That all changed for me when I got on Live with Halo 2. All of a sudden I could find my friends easily. I could talk to them without needing any complex setups, or ports, or server configs. I COULD FIND THEM IN GAME! No matter what server they were on. I could join a party with them and go from game to game with the same group! AMAZING! There were ideas that I had never even considered on the PC. Why should I have to do all this crazy config and setup to play a game. With Xbox live it all just worked. And worked well! Instead of spending time playing the meta game of who, what, when, where and how. I was able to get in and get going. It completely altered the way I viewed online gameplay. And not just making it easier to play the game but also allowed for the online community of gamers to better interact (Not always for the better, more on that in a later...) with each other and really pushed the online competitive community as well. More players, more access, more chances to improve.

One of the things that began to kill it for me though was the ease of access to this online world of gaming also had it's negative effects, namely griefers and for lack of a better term smacktards. The fact that it was now so easy to get online with a console instantly lowered the threshold of what was required to get online and play. With a PC it took some effort, and also you had to have a PC which was a much larger financial burden than buying a console. So when I played PC games back in the day it was not as common to run into those who played simply to ruin the day for someone else or to just be annoying because it took some effort and money to get to the point where you could be active in this online gaming world. The console getting online so easily erased these barriers and opened the floodgates for not only those who wanted to play for the competition and community but also to those who only wanted to piss others off and had no concept of fair or friendly. Competition is only as good as those who are competing, cheating, glitching and ignoring the "rules" of engagement can ruin a competitive community real quick. Also those who do not respect others tend to ruin the joy that is easy communication within games. It started getting to the point that when playing Halo 2 online, I would simply leave my headset off or muted to avoid the masses if morons spamming music or racism or insults. Completely negating the benefit of ease of communication in online gaming. And almost as bad if not worse was the flood of griefers and glitchers that completely off balanced the games. Having someone on your team who consistently sat there just killing his own teammates or glitching into the environment and sniping everyone from there sanctuary began to destroy any concept of competition. I stopped playing Halo 2 all together and went back to the PC again. Back to the waiting arms of Quake and Unreal Tournament.

That's all for part 1. In part two I will discuss what brought me back to online gaming on consoles and why I am here to stay...

Gears of MORE!

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 03:08:26 GMT

CALLING ALL GEARHEADS! New updates, New Achievements, MORE MORE MORE...

Straight from the Epic Gears page HERE. Full info below:

Thursday, June 14, at 2 a.m. GMT, the stakes get even higher as Gears of War releases eight new Achievements for the “Annex” gametype and the “Hidden Fronts” Multiplayer Map Pack on Xbox LIVE®.

In addition to adding new Achievements, worth a total of 250 points, Gears of War developer Epic has improved the Roadie Run controls so players have greater control of their movement and can better annihilate their pestilent enemies. The title update will also help squash multiplayer exploits and provide general housekeeping.

For those who have yet to man up and join the battle, the “Annex” gametype is now available for free and the “Hidden Fronts” Multiplayer Map Pack is available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points. All four multiplayer maps will be made available at no cost over Xbox LIVE on Sept. 3, 2007.

Release Notes

New Achievements added! Eight new achievements worth a total of 250 points created for playing Annex and the Hidden Fronts Multiplayer Map Pack
Improved Roadie Run to reduce getting snagged on cover
Tweaked up the amount of damage done by the Lancer Assault Rifle in multiplayer
Fixed split-screen players interrupting the other player’s actions when they die
Stopped Annex scoring whenever a “Connection Error” dialog box is displayed
Reduced the duration that corpses remain visible when hosting an Annex match
Reduced the range of possible Annex bleed-out times selectable by host
Addressed a number of multiplayer exploits
Addressed other general housekeeping

Achievement Details

Name
Description
Value

"THIS! IS! ANNEX!"
Complete 100 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in Annex and capture 3 objectives in each match

GamerScore: 40

"Inconceivable!"
Win 20 rounds of multiplayer matches in Annex by fewer than 5 points

GamerScore: 30

"Nub Pwn3r"
Win 20 rounds of multiplayer matches in Annex by shutting out the opposing team

GamerScore: 30

"You Down With E.P.I.C?"
Win a multiplayer match of 3+ rounds in any game type on 6 different downloadable maps

GamerScore: 30

"Green Thumb"
Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Garden multiplayer map

GamerScore: 30

"Mind the Gap"
Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Subway multiplayer map

GamerScore: 30

"All That Juice"
Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Process multiplayer map

GamerScore: 30

"Purdy Mouth"
Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Bullet Marsh multiplayer map

GamerScore: 30

Long Road to everywhere...

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:53:20 GMT

Well I have been on the road now for quite a while and haven't had much to blog about as I have been out of it for quite a bit. Not that there hasn't been anything worth blogging going on but I have been pretty disconnected from the gaming scene lately.

This week I am in Texas, Las Colinas/Irving to be exact at our Microsoft Campus here. Having fun with some workshops. I also had a chance to knock out a couple of new certifications related to SharePoint. For those who don't know you can find out what the heck SharePoint is HERE. It is my main specialty here at MS. But anyway, I doubt you are here to read about how my work week is going.

A lot of good stuff going on in the world of Xbox Live and Games For Windows - Live. Seems that we have started releasing more than one game at a time on XBLA each Wednesday. I feel this is a great move. Although I don't see anything that says it is a guarantee but it seems to be the current trend. I love it. Especially now that there are so many developers writing games to put on the service. Pretty amazing that the father of Pac-Man Toru Iwatani has gifted us with a new updated version of Pac-Man with new levels and gameplay types. This is amazing as the game has remained the same for a good number of years(26) and to have the man that started it all doing the design is awesome. You can get more info HERE on Pac-Man Championship Edition and the world championship we held.

I am also super excited about the Games For Windows - Live service finally going live! No pun intended! The first two games are currently in stores, Halo 2 Vista and ShadowRun. Both games will let you play online and also get achievements as you would in a 360 game as well as giving you access to the Live network including friends list, voice chat, etc... But they each also bring some new options to the table.

Halo 2 Vista lets you jump back into everyone's favorite console shooter, but this time you can use your keyboard and mouse! If you are an FPS style gamer you know that this will finally help us kill this debate on console vs. PC fps players. You also now have a chance to earn achievements this time around. The original Halo 2 was written for the original Xbox so was not compatible with the achievement system. One other limitation is due to the same reason (Being developed for the Original Xbox) is that you cannot play against players who are playing on the Xbox or Xbox 360. Sad, but it is what it is, and most people will just be glad to go back and get achievements for the game.

ShadowRun is a blast! Now that the game is final and in stores you should definitely check it out. Not only does it really bring a lot to the table in terms of strategic team gameplay, it also happens to be the first game released simultaneously on the PC and 360 that will allow players on both platforms to play against each other. It also supports a party system that while not quite as feature rich as the system in Halo, still beats out most other multi-player games on Live. It allows you to form a party with friends and jump into games together. I still have mine sitting in it's box since I am on the road but I will have more info once I get a chance to test it out. I will be using the version for the PC to see how it all comes together.

Well it is 3:16am here in Texas so I guess I had better get to bed. I usually need 2-3 hours of sleep to function normally and I have to be up at 6am. Have fun, Frag you later...

New Gears of War Maps this Thursday!!!

Tue, 01 May 2007 22:49:48 GMT

Here is the info on the 4 new gears of war maps. Look for them this Thursday May 3rd for 800 points(for the set)!

From the media alert on GamerScoreBlog.com this morning:

On Thursday, May 3, at 9 a.m. GMT, Xbox LIVE® gamers should ready their weapons and prepare for battle as “Gears of War®”, rated M for Mature, releases four new action-packed multiplayer maps in the thrilling “Hidden Fronts” Multiplayer Map Pack. For 800 Microsoft points, COG soldiers and the Locust Horde will clash once again for control of these four dynamic new areas, including Bullet Marsh, Garden, Process and Subway.

Bullet Marsh: In this Kryll-infested swamp, an old generator still powers the area lights. A few stray bullets could easily knock out the generator, leaving combatants to fend for themselves against the Kryll.

Garden: This overgrown and crumbling conservatory still has a working fertilization and pesticide system. This system can pose a serious hazard to anyone who ventures into the greenhouse without first venting the air.

Process: Teams must fight for control of this subterranean Imulsion processing plant, still active despite the cessation of the Pendulum wars.

Subway: Timgad’s Central Subway station used to serve as a central hub for commuters. Now the tunnels are crawling with Locust.

The “Hidden Fronts” Multiplayer Map Pack will explode onto Xbox LIVE Marketplace on May 3 for 800 Microsoft Points as gamers steady their aim, pull the pin from their grenades and get ready to battle once more! All four of the new maps will be made available at no cost over Xbox LIVE on Sept. 3, 2007.

Can't wait! Frag you later...

Annex Review - Gears of War

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:13:22 GMT

Alright so now that I have gotten some hands on time with Annex I figured I would report my findings.

So far I have to say I LOVE IT! It is an absolute blast! The glitching seems to have been fixed, I have not seen anyone able to weaponslide, or boomsaw or any of the other annoying glitches that were ruining the game. So from that perspective Gears feels good again. I also seem to have noticed host advantage with the shotgun seems to have been slimmed down. I ran into a couple scenarios where I normally would have come out on top as host, coming up behind 2 enemies with my shotgun and it did not destroy them like it normally would. I got one down and the other nailed me. Very nice. It was as if I wasn't host, I was just equal with everyone else. This may all be in my imagination, feel free to leave some comments on your own experiences with the patch.

Also the lancer is now a force to be reckoned with. They did indeed boost the damage of the lancer. If someone is roadie rushing you, you can actually take them down with the lancer now before they get within shotgun range. This has an amazing effect. The lancer is no longer just a distraction or cover fire weapon. It now does enough damage that from a distance you will lay some serious smack down. Everything does not revolve around getting shotgun close anymore. The splash damage on the boomshot is now actually useful. There were many times I would just miss and the explosion near their feet put them down. Not enough to kill, but enough to get them all down. The boomshot is actually useful against groups now.

And of course last but not least the Annex game type itself. AWESOME! I am having so much fun with this mode. The flow is good, the fact that you can respawn takes a little bit of the intensity out of dying. It also means you can really rack up some points. I saw a few games that players got up into the 70's and 80's on kills within the first 5-6 rounds. And although the kills don't count toward your weapon achievements, the points still go to your rank. You can get some truly amazing scores on this game type. The only downer for many is the afore mentioned lack of weapon achievements in this game type. The gameplay itself is pretty fast paced. One thing to remember is that not all the weapon spawns on the map are available to become control points. For example, on mansion only the grenades, boomshot and sniper are used as control points. The magnum and hammerers spawns are not used. So once you know what weapon spawns are valid to become control points, it does alter your strategy. Do you keep one man in the control point to fight off close in attackers and keep the rest posted nearby to keep them from getting close. Or do you wait till you have most of the points from a spot, and then send someone to the other weapon spawn location so you are ready when the next control point pops? Either way, it is important to always remember not to group together within a control point. You do not need to be in it to get the points, once you take it over find somewhere nearby to take cover and dig in to defend. If you find yourself fighting a team that clumps together in the control point, use your Frag Grenades and boomshot or Torque Bow to clear them out all at once :)

Well anyway, time for me to get ready for my trip to Texas. Hope to see you all online when I return.

Frag you later...

Gears of War new game mode: Annex

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:47:16 GMT

Been awhile since I posted anything worthwhile on Gears. But we have good news. As most of you have probably already heard, a new game mode is being released called Annex. Annex as the name might suggest is a control point style of gameplay.

During a match one of the weapon spawns is randomly selected to be the control point. Each team will fight to control it. Once a team has taken over a control point (Only one will be available at a time on the map) a 60 second timer starts to tick down. For each second your team holds it, you get a point. So each control point will offer a possible 60 points. The timer does not stop, if your team loses control the timer keeps going, if the other team takes over they get a point per second until the timer is done. Unles of course you take it back. This makes for continual flow as every 60 seconds a new weapon spawn will be randomly picked as the new control point. This is where the tactics really come into play. You team does not need to have all it's members within the ring (a ring of light marks the control point) in order to get points from it. In fact once your team has taken it over you do not need to have anyone in it to get the points. You just need to stop the enemy from taking it back. Also while capturing a control point the number of teamates inside of it, speeds up the process of taking it over. 1 person can take a control point in about 4 seconds, 4 people in about 1 second.

For this game mode to work they have done a major change to the way gears works as well. YOU NOW GET INFINITE RESPAWNS in ANNEX! Since the teams win/loss is controlled by the number of points gained at the control points on the map, it only makes sense that if you are killed you need to be able to respawn. Respawns happen every 15 seconds. Everyone who is dead when the next respawn is triggered will spawn at the same time, at a random point on the map. So no spawn camping. Unfortunately the kills in Annex don't count toward your kill acheivements (Read more here.). You now have the potential for many more kills in a round than with the previous game modes, but it won't help your achievements.

Also from the sounds of it the new update is also supposed to fix many of the current glitches that make haveing a fair ranked match almost impossible. No details on which glitches are fixed but I am hopefull. Also according to an article at 1up (1up Annex Article) they have also tweaked the Lancer so that the damage is greater than it used to be. This would be nice as not being able to take someone down as they rush toward you from across the map has always been frustrating. This may also help to widen the range of battles withing gears so that everything doesn't always end up a shotgun battle.

Also according to multiple sources (including the 1up article above) there are new maps coming in the near future to Gears, 4 from the sounds of it. I can't wait. I have mainly been playing with my wife and friends on G.R.A.W. 2 lately but I may need to jump back in for some more chainsaw sauce soon.

Also I have read/watched some interviews with various people at Epic lately and from the sounds of it they are looking into adding some type of team/clan support for multiplayer games. This would be another breath of fresh air for ranked games in gears. As tournament and clan games are ever popular. For more on this and some hints on things to come watch this video (TeamXbox Cliffy B. Interview).

Well I am off to Texas for the next two weeks. Hopefully after that I will be back online and Fraggin like a big dog! Till then, Frag you later...

Xbox 360 adding more ways to blister your thumbs!

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:25:12 GMT

Instant Messaging Comes to Xbox 360, Expanding the Largest Social Network on Television

Xbox 360 owners can connect with more than 260 million Windows Live Messenger users on Xbox 360, Windows-based PCs and Windows Mobile-powered devices beginning the week of May 7.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 8, 2007 — Your Xbox LIVE^® friends list is about to get a whole lot bigger. Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Windows Live™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft^® Windows^®-based PCs and Windows Mobile^®-powered devices. With this update to Xbox 360, friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts.

Beginning the week of May 7, 2007, the Xbox 360 Spring Update will provide Xbox 360 owners worldwide with access to Windows Live Messenger features, broadening the communication options on the Xbox LIVE social network. Members of the 6 million-strong Xbox LIVE community currently send more than 2 million text and voice messages a day and can now use Windows Live Messenger to text chat with up to six people on their contact list at one time, while playing games, listening to music or watching movies. Text chat adds to the variety of options friends and families already have to communicate with on Xbox LIVE, including voice and video chat.

Current relationships on Windows Live Messenger and Xbox LIVE will be unified on Xbox 360 and users will see at a glance if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags, instantly expanding the breadth of connected experiences they can share online.

“Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox LIVE has really become the largest social network on television,” said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox LIVE at Microsoft. “For our growing community of 6 million on Xbox LIVE, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience. They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice and text chat. With this announcement we are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox LIVE users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360.”

Beginning the week of May 7, users of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 will text chat using the virtual keyboard accessible on Xbox 360, or by connecting a USB keyboard to the console. This summer Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging.

Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including the following:

· A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.

· Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.

· A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek — whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States) — from one place on Xbox LIVE.

· Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded Tell a Friend capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.

· A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.

· New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

· Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

The Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7 and is easily accessible to every Xbox 360 owner through Xbox LIVE or on Xbox.com.

Microsoft Unveils Xbox 360 Elite!

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:04:10 GMT

Premium black console includes 120GB hard drive and line of new accessories.

REDMOND, Wash. — March 27, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the upcoming availability of Xbox 360™ Elite, a new model of the video game and entertainment system that will include a 120GB hard drive, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port, a high-definition cable, and a premium black finish for the console, wireless controller and Xbox LIVE^® headset. Xbox 360 Elite has enough space for a library of Xbox LIVE Arcade games and thousands of songs, as well as downloadable high-definition TV shows and movies available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The new 120GB hard drive also will be sold as a stand-alone accessory to give current Xbox 360 owners greater choice and flexibility in their games and entertainment experience. Additional Xbox 360 Elite accessories, such as the black Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 Play & Charge kit and the Xbox 360 rechargeable battery, will be available separately. The Xbox 360 Elite and its accessories are expected to begin arriving in U.S. stores on April 29.

“Today’s games and entertainment enthusiast has an insatiable appetite for digital high-definition content,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Xbox 360 Elite’s larger hard drive and premium accessories will allow our community to enjoy all that the next generation of entertainment has to offer.”

Distinguished by its black finish and signature metallic detailing, Xbox 360 Elite will have an estimated retail price¹ of $479.99 (U.S.) and will come packed with components and accessories for the ultimate high-definition entertainment experience:²

· Xbox 360 Elite console. The console is equipped with a premium black finish and three powerful core processors capable of producing the best in HD entertainment (up to 1080p), 16:9 cinematic aspect ratio, anti-aliasing for smooth textures, full surround sound, HDMI output and DVD playback with upscaling capabilities right out of the box.

· Xbox 360 120GB hard drive. The 120GB detachable hard drive allows gamers to save their games and store television shows, movies, music, pictures, trailers, levels, demos and other content available from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.³ The hard drive is sold separately for an estimated retail price of $179.99 (U.S.).

· Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (black). This award-winning, high-performance wireless controller, now in black, features the Xbox^®Guide Button for quick, in-game access to friends and music. It has a range of up to 30 feet and a battery life of 30 hours on two AA batteries. It is sold separately for an estimated retail price of $49.99 (U.S.).

· Xbox 360 headset (black). Now available in black, the headset lets gamers strategize or trade taunts while playing games and send voice messages to friends on Xbox LIVE.

· Xbox 360 HDMI cable. New to Xbox 360, HDMI allows consumers to get HD video (up to 1080p) and multichannel surround sound, all from one cable.

· Xbox LIVE Silver Membership. With this, gamers can chat with friends online, collect achievements and gamerscores, send and receive voice and text messages, and access Xbox LIVE Marketplace content such as game demos, HD movies and TV, as well as the best in downloadable games from Xbox LIVE Arcade.

· One-month subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold. An Xbox LIVE Gold Membership provides a complete online entertainment experience. Those who subscribe to this premium service can engage in competitive online multiplayer matches, tailor their matchmaking via feedback and accomplishments, chat with more than one person at a time, and take advantage of unique privileges in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Xbox LIVE Arcade.

The following accessories for the Xbox 360 Elite console will only be sold separately:

· Xbox 360 Play & Charge kit. Complete with a charging cable and a black rechargeable battery pack, the Xbox 360 Play & Charge kit allows gamers to recharge their Xbox 360 Wireless Controller without interrupting their gameplay. it is sold separately for an estimated retail price of $19.99 (U.S.).

· Xbox 360 rechargeable battery (black). The rechargeable battery pack provides more than 25 hours of gameplay per charge. It is sold separately for an estimated retail price of $11.99 (U.S.).

About Xbox 360

Xbox 360 is the most powerful video game and entertainment system, delivering the best games, the next generation of the premier Xbox LIVE online gaming network and unique digital entertainment experiences that revolve around gamers. Xbox 360 has a catalog of more than 160 high-definition games and is available in 37 countries. More information can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/xbox360.

Thanks to GamerScoreBlog for the info and Pictures. For more see:

Major Nelson | On10.net | GamerScoreBlog | Kotaku | Team Xbox

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BACON BACON BACON

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BluePhaze

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Blog list: Strategies of War

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:23:37 GMT

Strategies of War

Gears of War - Strategies of War pt. 1: Cover Tactics
Part One of My Gears of War Strategy Guide
Gears Of War - Strategies Of War Pt.2: Team and Weapon Tactics
Part Two of My Gears of War Strategy Guide