Games! Games! Games!

8:55 — Microsoft VP Jeff Bell comes out to introduce Scene It?, based on the DVD games, "fully interactive" for Xbox 360. New questions, new clips. Game will come with a new controllers that they’re announcing tonight. It’s a one-handed controller with a big button and four answer buttons. Four of these controllers come bundled with Scene It for "same price" as a normal 360 game. (So, $60.)

Is it a plot by Sony or simply another glitch in a Microsoft design? We all grew accustomed to the Microsoft Windows “Blue Screen of Death” in the 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s. Are we now going to accept the XBox 360 equivalent? At least Microsoft is acknowledging the error in their support site. Not only is Microsoft acknowledging it, the are reacting to it as well. In a move that will cost M$ over $1billion, they are extending the warranty on the 360 from 12 months to 3 years.

remakes of the game for platforms lacking mouse control, like the nonetheless-playable gameboy version, can’t capture the subtlety of the original’s control. this is never truer than in stainless games’s 2006 xbox live arcade version of the title. with the xbox 360’s dual-stick control pad, buckland’s new team saw fit to finally equip the game with a robotron-like control scheme - removing the nuance and making the game just another of the many robotron-inspired titles littering the live arcade marketplace instead of the pixel stage for a single, perfect dance.

I say almost in the title, since today is indeed my first anniversary of the joining of me and my 360, but alas, just a few short days shy of the great event, she decided to give up the ghost, kick the bucket, throw in the towel, buy the farm, whatever your favourite metaphor is for DYING. She’s dead. 3 red lights. The word “gutted” doesn’t describe how I felt the day she passed away.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the sequel to 2002’s Morrowind, a game whose lack of direction made it a bit of a disappointment for many RPG fans. So what is it about Oblivion that’s raised it above the mire in a saturated genre to be an award-winner and one of the Xbox 360’s biggest-selling titles?

As one of the Xbox 360’s most elusive exclusives, Namco Bandai’s Japanese juggernaut The Idolmaster seems to strike a chord with just about every person that comes across it, be it good or bad.

Finally, [everyone on the planet] sent in this Xbox 360 tilt controller hack.

Stephen Colbert’s World of ColbertCraft has the same quality, textures, and 3d models that we’ve come to expect from Stephen Colbert’s Escape From Skateboard Mountain. Whether this is a good thing is a matter of some debate.

But all these issues come down to either idiocy, or ignorance. Either one is unforgivable. An Xbox 360 is not like a regular Xbox. It is not like a Playstation 2. It is not like any other home entertainment console, and they will tell you as much — it is a computer, and it needs airspace like a computer needs. When you put your 360 on your amp in your entertainment center with a blanket on top and a bowl of chili on the side, it is going to overheat. Good for keeping the chili warm, bad for keeping the console alive.

I started playing Viva Pinata on my XBox 360 on Thursday. And I’m now waking up in the middle of the night wondering if my pinatas are ok. Am I romancing them enough? Will I have enough whirlms for my sparrowmints? How can I get a bigger garden? How can I get a rare eagleair to visit my garden?

The inevitable next step was hinted at yesterday, as Gamasutra summarizes well. The iPod is now offering casual games, and more than a few of those titles will look familiar to Xbox Live Arcade afficionados: Pac-Man, Bejeweled, Zune, and Texas Hold ‘Em. While it’s not a competitor on the true handheld gaming arena dominated by the Nintendo DS, this sort of casual gaming is where a lot of indistry attention is being focused. Assuming the hardware’s capable enough, I can’t imagine the Boys From Redmond not leveraging their Arcade assets onto the Zune. I think it’s only a matter of time before the Zune becomes a portable extension of your Xbox 360, allowing you to buy and play Arcade games with a completely integrated Gamertag.

I recently read a review in a popular video game magazine for a game on the PS2 and Xbox 360 - Phantasy Star Universe. For weeks I had been looking at the screen shots for the game, anxiously anticipating a new online universe to immerse myself in. Then, without warning, one of my favorite video game reviewers brought my world to its knees with a 6.0 out of 10.0 score.

The ESRB also has a great search tool on their site that will let you look up and read the reviews of over 150 Xbox 360 games (and many, many others).

However, unless you shelled out $600+ dollars for an Xbox 360, you have not had the opportunity to play Geometry Wars… until now. An excellent Geometry Wars clone was released in August, called Grid Wars 2. The creator had to take the project down off his site because he was served with a Cease & Desist (clearly the clone is a very accurate copy of the original). But, Grid Wars 2 is still available for download from a third-party review site.

I’m impressed. It took me a little while to get the lighting right (what can I say, I’m a vampire), but when I did, the digimask came out pretty good. In World Series Of Poker for the XBox 360, it allows you to take a digital photo of your front and side profiles to create a “Digimask”. You can then take your character online to play with thousands (maybe millions?) of other poker players.

Today, Xbox.com came back online, and with it comes exclusive 5WG content. I’ve been writing for Xbox.com for over three years now, and after more than 100 articles published there, I’m delighted to be able to continue doing so while representing 5WG for the first time.

Totem Ball, the freely downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game, uses the Xbox Live Vision (read: camera) to capture your body’s movements as the game’s controls.

Yesterday, I went into the local Best Buy and saw the new HD-DVD and Blu-ray players on display. On the HD-DVD side, I saw the Toshiba HD-A1. On the Blu-ray side, I saw the Samsung P1000. These both produce phenomenal results! I've been dying to move up to hi-def DVD — just being able to play movies at true 1080i (I don't have a 1080p TV) and upscale my current DVD's (in standard def) would be awesome. Part of me wants to wait for the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player…but it's so difficult when you walk into Best Buy and see these two units!

For a product that Microsoft hasn’t even officially confirmed, there sure is a whole lot of Zune info to be getting on with. The latest leaks are from Digital Music News, who has been reviewing some of the presentation material that Microsoft shared with top-level execs of partner companies. The biggest detail that they’ve unveiled is that the Zune will indeed be basing its social networking capabilities on Microsoft’s Live Anywhere platform. Not an incredibly huge surprise, given the functions we’ve already heard described and the Xbox roots of the device, but it should give the Zune a good boost in the direction of its 18-28 year old demographic, which Microsoft claims will skew a bet younger than that of the iPod.

A short commentary piece we wrote about our hands-on experiences with the Xbox 360.

As a wedding present to ourselves, we're replacing the bumper of our car, which got sheared off in an accident in the parking lot of the airport after we finally returned home from our wedding trip. But we also snaked off some bucks to buy ourselves an Xbox 360 and three games: Dead or Alive 4, Tomb Raider: Legend, and Rumble Roses. The latter was mostly a joke until Mrs. Awesome saw the scantily clad ladies and put it on the "No, really" pile.

Ihr fragt euch sicher, wieso im Titel des Artikels der Staubsauger erwähnt ist. Nun, das ist schnell erklärt. Schaltet man die XBox 360 ein, macht der Lüfter so ein Lärm, da muss man den Fernseher richtig laut stellen, um das Geräusch des Lüfters zu übertönen, denn sonst macht das Spielen keinen Spaß. Man könnte wirklich meinen, im Nebenzimmer wird Staub gesaugt. Grafisch sind die Spiele für die XBox 360 relativ detailliert und deutlich besser als bei der ersten XBox, doch von Microsoft hätte ich mehr erwartet. So ein lautes Gerät und dann auch noch mit so einem hässlichen Netzteil. Da sieht die Playstation 2 ja um Welten edler aus.

Following up on The Diffusion Group's prediction that Microsoft (MSFT) will enter the portable gaming market in 2007/8, 1UP.com has a Q&A with Michael Pachter at Wedbush Morgan Securities "to pick his brain on the prospects of a handheld platform from Microsoft."

What's sad is that I'm apparently a bigger fan of the setting than Mitch Gitelman, studio manager of FASA, creators of the upcoming Shadowrun for the XBox 360. Mitch recently wrote in his blog, "When we decided to do Shadowrun we realized there was a ton of baggage that came with it... there are magic spells, and shamanic spirit magic, and cybertech, and metahumans like elves, and dwarves and such, and astral space, and the Matrix..."

Almost forgot the most exciting part of JavaOne the game area. My coworker and I dialed up some favorites (Mr. Do!, Joust, Guantlet) and I totally kicked in Rampart. They also have something called Xbox 360 but I don’t think that it has any real titles.

I'll be watching Capcom's booth closely for any surprise announcements tomorrow, but don't get your hopes up, everyone. Considering the announcement of the PS3's pirce, I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom's loyalty gravitated toward the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 for most of their future game releases, especially since Dead Rising and Lost Planet are destined for Microsoft's console.

Doom was one of the first games to develop a real ecosystem of user-created contents. Ever since, many games have tried to reproduce its success, and games like Half-Life have brought it to the point where users have been creating completely different games from the engine. This is very analogous to the Web 2.0 user content principle. With Bad Mood, we wanted to create an open format of game files that standardizes the description of a game's world. You would have been able to run a RPG, adventure, platformer or FPS game on any engine that understood the format. There is another analogy with the Web: like web sites that have to run on multiple browsers and platforms, games have to run on multiple and widely different platforms like the PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, Gamecube, Mac, PSP, GBA, DS and even cel phones so a standardized description that abstracts as much as possible makes perfect sense.

Today Sperling's BestPlaces and Microsoft released the finding of a study that states Seattle is the #1 town when it comes to interactive entertainment.

Like Xbox Live Arcade, the Xbox Live Marketplace is another underappreciated aspect of the Xbox 360 experience. Using a form of currency dubbed “Microsoft Points,” gamers can buy Arcade games, gamer icons, console themes and other digital bric-a-brac to customize their gaming experience. Microsoft Points can be purchased at a rate of 80 per $1 USD.

The upper two versions of Windows Vista will include Media Center functionality as part of the package. Microsoft's thinking with how this will work is not that folks will have a PC next to their TV, instead they will have a home network with a media center PC (the family PC), and a Media Center Extender such as the XBOX 360 in the TV room. The Media Center PC will host the app code and will simply send the UI to the extender to be rendered on the TV. This is cool for geeks like us, but I think mom and pop are going to need a simpler setup to really make this catch on. Then again, they're not really the audience for this, so maybe that is a non-issue.

So I bought an Xbox 360 on launch day. Long story short, it was defective and messed up in less than a month. The funny thing was that I looked at the sticker on the back of my 360 and it said, ‘Pronduct Id: xxxxxx’. I’m sure it was supposed to say ‘Product’. Don’t believe me? If you are one of the few who has one despite the poor availability, look for yourself. Of course, they probably caught the mistake by now, so newer models might not say this.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been busy with the gaming industry annoucing that they have purchased the UK game studio company Lionhead Studios. Lionhead is known for games such as Fable, The Movies, and Black & White. With this purchase, Lionhead will exclusively design video games designed for the Xbox 360 and the Windows platform. As is typical with many of its game company purchases, Microsoft will more than likely keep stay out of the way of Lionhead Studios while giving them far more resources than they ever have. Here’s more info on the purchase.

One of the other subjects was the Windows Media Center, it's collaberation with the XBOX 360 and the integration of the internet. A 3D caroussel to select your favorite race car driver and after selecting, it automatically starts playing. Just like a normal TV. Only one big difference ... The user is in control.

Epic Records has teamed up with Microsoft to offer free, exclusive "artistic content" and hi-def music video downloads through Xbox Live, Microsoft's network service for the Xbox 360. One Epic artist will be featured each month over the next year in conjunction with "Game With Fame" sessions--where gamers get a chance to play against celebrities over Xbox Live--and promotional sweepstakes. Obviously a big push here towards making the Xbox 360 an all-purpose entertainment console and marketing vehicle. Ironically, Epic is a subsidiary of Sony BMG, so I suppose if Microsoft wins with this strategy, Sony (which makes the PS3 console) wins a teensy weensy bit too. Furthermore, Sony plans its own network service for the PS3, so it could just be testing the waters with Xbox Live before launching music in the Sony BMG family through its own game network.

Ok, now we have to admit that we’re getting a little skeptical about that PlayStation Magazine Xbox Live-killer article leak a couple of days go. A second page appears to have made its way onto the PlayStation forums and has some very interesting details — if a little disparate, unlikely, and even downright dubious. For example, besides a really obvious misspelling of “Blue-Ray Disc” in a headline, the article says making the PlayStation 3 a DVR with media PC-like functionality is a “top priority for Sony” — even though right now we understand it’s only slated to have an optional external hard drive attachment and doesn’t appear to have video inputs. Also, you’ll supposedly be able to control your PS3-DVR with your PSP, send files home to it remotely from your Memory Stick, and that the final hardware kits released to developers in January were even more powerful than originally anticipated.

Ok this one is a doozy. If you grew up in the 80’s and think the string of arcade games Williams put out then (Robotron, Defender, Stargate, Joust) represent the finest the form had to offer, you’re going to love Gridwars. It’s actually a clone of a small game that comes with the new Xbox 360, and its spiritual predecessor is William’s Robotron with slight shades of Atari’s Tempest. You need a dual stick controller to really play this, like a usb connected ps2 pad, though you can play using the keyboard. You move in any direction with one pad whilst shooting in any direction using the other. Various geometric shapes spawn and attempt to smash you while techno plays in the background and the screen pulsates with your activity. It’s still in beta but even in its current form it’s essentially perfect. I’ve been completely mesmerized by it since I stumbled across it. Horde those smart bombs, you’re going to need them!

i have successfully acquired an xbox 360. picked up the last one at a random target in Carson yesterday. the night before i watched the last 360 sold right in front of me at my local target. id say if anyone out there wants an xbox 360 keep checking target. they seem to have a steady supply of them and arent the obvious place to hit like best buy. honestly, im pretty happy that my money didn’t go to best buy on this one. freaking bastards. their sales tactics have been really effed.

A lot has been made lately about the not-so-great launch of the Xbox 360 over in Japan. The popular sentiment seems to be that the Japanese are just xenophobic and won’t buy an American console over a Japanese one.

I hooked it up to see just how it would look and was much less than impressed. The dashboard looks fine, as do the Xbox Live Arcade games, but when I popped in NBA2k6, I was very dissapointed. I dont know if it’s game specific, but it really looks like a normal Xbox game and in some cases, worse.

I’ll be honest: hearing about Microsoft’s troubles with the XBOX360 puts a big smile on my face. As a Microsoft-hater and Nintendo fanboy, I think it’s my right to smile at their troubles, even if I’m over 21 and supposedly an “adult.”

Any Japanese readers care to share any insight on Microsoft’s problem here? Is Microsoft going to have to buy Nintendo to stand a chance?

Well it was not really ‘360 madness’, but I did notice something funny while I was Toys R’ Us today. While walking though the gaming section when a friend was debating on getting a gamecube or not (which I would like to mention that I was amazed that it looked like a lot of gamecube games were selling). I saw the Xbox 360 section, in which I kind of loved how there was a stack of about twenty or so Premium and Core boxes and the nice little piece of paper displaying “Xbox 360’s Sold Out”. I started to wonder if anybody grabbed one of the boxes ignoring the fact that they were for display only and the sold out sign, and tried to buy one or steal it.

Despite those grumbles the infrastructure that has been put in place via Live and also the 360 software is very impressive - definitely the most advanced I’ve seen on a console (PSP is a close second). It gives the 360 a massive advantage over the PS3 if indeed the rumours are true and that Sony are leaving internet play down to each individual publisher.

AnandTech published article including pictures of xbox 360 disassembling include all the parts like CPU , HD , Motherboard and it’s cool!!!

I’ll be looking very forward to this one. I loved the first one and the second was awesome. This just confirms xbox 360 is my first choice of the new consoles. (icky no PS3 with thier DRM junk)

Analysts at Merrill Lynch seem to think as of the moment that the MS XBox 360 will win the console wars over Sony’s highly anticipated PlayStation 3 because they say that the PS3 will be significantly expensive at launch in 2006 while the XBox might reach less than half of what they’re selling by then. I think it’s to soon so say this. I say we wait and see what Sony can cook up in 2006. Like they say, “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

On to the XBox room. There was an XBox 360 available for playing, with some unrecognizable game that looked like fun, but there was always a massive line-up so I didn’t bother. The highlight of the XBox room was a racing game coupled with a completely ostentatious driving chair. Watching Leilani try to play it was a spectacle in itself. The Scooby-Doo game was a lot of fun, and there was a perplexing “urban” game where it seemed that the objective was to spraypaint the entire city. I really couldn’t tell what to do with it so I ignored it. (Arcadia was really bad at letting you know which game you were playing, and pause screens and title menus are extremely uninformative). There were a few King Kong systems set up as well as a 4-player Halo LAN, which looked cool.

We just posted a few photos from the big November 1 Microsoft Live announcement in The Hive Gallery. If you're curious about the plans or the products (or want to see a closeup of Xbox 360 and the Office Live dashboard), check them out.

Well, I finally got around to pre-ordering the XBOX 360. (No, I didn't get the $4,000 bundle. In fact, I couldn't find any bundles in stock that had Madden, and since that's the only game I'm really interested in, well, I bought a standalone version).

Just got back from a great and disappointing Gaming/Technology Convention. All the Booths were really cool. Had all this new technology stuff. There were gaming Tournaments all over. (Didn’t enter in any but we all know it wouldn’t be fair to anyone if I entered because I’m the best gamer. I’m serious) they had DDR tourney’s Halo 2 tourneys. jeeze I would of kicked ass. Well the disappointing part was that they said we could play the Xbox 360! They didn’t let anyone except some stupid little twat. He must have been watching the presentation for quite a while and the guy asked for someone to try it. The little twat got picked. It was some driving game. The best graphics I’ve seen EVER. I have some footage of it on my camera. Well he sucked real badly and people were shouting “You Suck” it was funny. Then I waiting for 1h20 something minutes and got 2 Yankee pitchers autographs. WOOT WOOT. Fun day it was!

I pre-reserved Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 yesterday, and I got a shirt for it. I’ll take a picture of my rockin’ self wearing it and post it here, but now I’m busy.

Teamxbox.com also has some screenshots for Amped 3 for the XBOX 360.

I just listened to Bill Gates and Steve Balmer discuss the state of Microsoft at their company meeting. They sound like that annoying high school friend who won’t shut up telling you how great he is. Gates says the Xbox 360 is the “coolest product being done in the industry” and he doesn’t sound like he believes it himself. It’s funny to see these old guys discuss games. I’d love to ask them what “cool” games they have played lately.

Ninteny Nine Nights, despite the Mizuguchi name attachment, sounds like it might actually be a bit disappointing. What is it with some early Xbox 360 games (Kameo being another) throwing hundreds of characters at the screen as the only way to use the full power of the console? Cheaper and quicker I guess but I hope it doesn’t become a lazy trend.

Well the figures are out for the new generation consoles and they aren’t very pretty. With the previous consoles, ps2 and xbox costed $299.00 and the gamecube coming out at $199.00. When they come out we were shocked at how much they were with the previous systems being at least a hundred dollars less. But it seems that the trend is continuing with the Xbox 360 being launched at an eye popping $500.00! The system itself is $299.00, but that is not including the wireless controllers, hd cord and hard drive making it total $500.00 but will offer backwards compatiblity. The PS2 and the Nintendo Revolution will follow suit with these high prices but there is no doubt in my mind that they won’t suffer any decrease in numbers. Check out this link for more info.

Chris Pirillo has a good list of downloads for XBOX 360 Trailers.