PEBCAC

I’ve been playing the Club this past weekend (my only free time to game), and it’s totally stupid and mindless. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a first person shooter, crossed with a racing game, sort of. It’s not a purchase, but a good rental. Oh, and my silly gamerscore crossed 5k.

lifted from joystiq:

We heard the rumblings of this coming earlier this month, but now it seems like it’s official: MKR Group, which owns the rights to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, has sued Capcom for similarities between the zombie flick and Capcom’s Dead Rising, both of which feature zombies in a shopping mall. In part, the suit states, “In both, the recreational activities of the zombies and absurdly grotesque ‘kill scenes’ provide unexpected comedic relief.”

Personally, we think this whole thing is a little silly. Zombies in a shopping mall are like polar bears on South Pacific islands or cheetahs in Ludwig’s den. It’s their natural habitat, what do you want them to do, make an unrealistic zombie game?

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I was surprised they didn’t get sued earlier, the game is clearly somewhat derivative of the movie and is aware of it. The box even says it’s not licensed by George Romero .But it seems like MKR waited until Capcom had built a successful game, then pounced. Hmm. This will probably hold up the proposed sequel to Dead Rising as well. I loved the game…sweet, sweet zombie massacre. And like the folks from joystiq say, aren’t malls just the natural habitat for zombies? Well, malls and Pittsburgh in general.

We had a netflix account for awhile and canceled it because we just don’t have time to watch and return movies, even though netflix really is a great and easy to use service.

However, Anthony Park, designed a plugin for netflix that enables you to use their “Watch In Now” feature and instantly access over 7,000 feature movies and tv shows instantly in Media Center. It’s called MyNetFlix We just installed the plugin today and are testing it.

The user interface needs some tweaking to fully use the remote control. So, by signing up for the cheapest netflix plan, we get unlimited access to these movies through vista media center-instantly. If you use media center, I highly recommend it. I also recommend sending the developer a donation through paypal if you use it. If I use it more than a couple times, I’m going to.

Heck, I further hope that someone from Netflix will talk to the guy, give him some more code, some money and let him push the product further. Microsoft should get it on this too, it provides an incredible amount of content to Vista Media Center or to the 360 and would be a killer selling point.

from kotaku

An unnamed Microsoft contact told the site:

…we will definitely be doing something for our Gold members that weren’t able to get online over the last week.

The outage was a real pain in the butt, but it was only a couple of days. If you amortize the 50bucks over a year, it’s really minor from a fiscal standpoint. However, it was an inconvenience for a recreational user like myself to not have access during the precious holiday work downtime. I only get to play a couple of hours a month. This is probably a good thing.
Nonetheless, with the design issues that have caused the “RedRingofDeath” it’s a good thing to see them reacting in a positive way. The old Microsoft I remember from the 80’s and late 90’s would have blamed the users, called it a ‘feature’ and threatened us for violating the EULA.

Looks like progress.

read more | digg story

This stinks. I was planning on hoarding my Microsoft points for these, but without Achievements….meh…I don’t know now. Bad move M$. Oh well, I’ll keep playing Halo3 and the Orange Box

from digg:
Major Nelson, Xbox Live’s Director of Programming, has confirmed that the newly announced Xbox Originals titles will not feature achievements and thus there will be no advantage to buying them on Xbox Live over buying them on disc (in most cases, the games are far cheaper to buy on disc preowned). A huge missed opportunity? You better believe it!

read more | digg story

I never thought I would be playing regularly…but for the past week or so, I’ve been playing Halo 3 and TeamFortress 2 on xbox live and really enjoying it. I think I’ve logged about 4 or 5 hours now.

Compared to the 13year olds with ADD enhanced reflexes… I stink…but not as much as I’ve thought.Xbox Live–Highly Recommended. Even the community and social aspects are appealing–which is surprising since I’m not known as a ‘joiner’.
I also won my first ranked Halo 3 match. Woo Hoo. Take that little kids. Here’s my Halo3 Stat Page

There’s no sense in hiding my geek/nerdness…

It’s-a Mario! A look back at the greatest franchise in gaming.

from IGN

Twenty-six years later, Mario is the face of videogaming, more recognized around the world than Mickey Mouse. He’s appeared in two hundred games, collectively selling over two hundred million units. He’s launched consoles, salvaged entire industries and led the charge into true 3D gaming. Six out of the top-ten best selling videogames of all time are Mario games. Orchestras perform his theme music. Operas have been written. He’s gotten his own cartoon series and, unfortunately for those that saw it, a live-action film. He propelled his creator from staff artist to legend, honored in America, knighted in France and in control of his own division at the third largest company in Japan.
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Well, Thanks to the extended Gamestop warranty…my 360 is back. It’s not one of the 65nm Falcon units…but a Zephyr with HDMI and he bigger heatsink. It’s great to have the warranty…but it’s $40+ extra every time to renew the warranty. This of course is optional, but when you’re on a fifth unit, it seems like a necessity. It’s a ridiculous amount of money to play games. We’ll see… we’ll see…

My xbox bricked on me. Not the infamous RROD…but a single beep when loading any game (demo or from disc)…then nothing…total freeze. This sucks.

 

Atari celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the 2600/VCS this month. A truly revolutionary machine that still has replay value. I spent/misspent hours of my life on my first 2600 and later the Atari 800 computer. In honor, I’m going to have to play some  ‘combat’ this weekend on a simulator.
read more | digg story

I’m recovering from the unpleasant necessities of the day, and Steph picked up Halo 3 for me. So, I’m going to go eat and then sit down and figure out what the big deal is with this Halo thing.

I finally cracked and pre-ordered Halo 3… can’t afford it, not sure why I wanted it, but it’s coming Sept 25th. Steph pre-ordered Manhunt 2. But I know it’s because she wants to kill with the wiimote and is po’ed they altered the content to M.

Marketeers, away!

I’ve been writing about games a lot, so I’m deleting a couple categories and adding some, one for gaming seems to be a must.

Btw, I think AO games have a place in society and should be allowed to be released on the major consoles (not just PC’s). There is little difference between the content in movies and TV and that of an AO console games. If major retailers chose to not carry them, so be it. If they are still successful through alternative channels then the market has spoken, if they aren’t successful..then the market has spoken. There’s no excuse or need for censorship in a market economy.

I love bioshock.

Great gameplay.

Beautiful design and architecture.

Amazingly engaging story.

Scary. Yes, it’s actually creepy.

Buy it.

Viva Piñata’s charmingly rendered online safety message, it’s dual control (so a parent can help out a struggling youngster via a second pad), its colourful and characterful creatures - all seemed to be in place to ensure its success as Microsoft’s trailblazing high definition kid-friendly Trojan horse.

read more | digg story

Xbox 360 - Dead Rising and Standard Definition TV (SDTV)

XBox 360
Through a rather pleasant turn of events, I found myself in possession of an XBox 360. Wasn’t in the market for a next-gen console, but I have been impressed by the demo’s and graphical capabilities as I perused electronics bigbox shops.

I wasn’t looking much at all, until I saw Dead Rising.

Dead Rising

I’ve been a longtime fan of zombie movies, particularly Dawn of the Dead. It takes place in a mall…outside of Pittsburgh. Perfect!

The game, from demos I saw, looked like everything I wanted. It boasts a fully interactive enviornment, a tight plot and YOU GET TO KILL ZOMBIES IN THE MALL!!!! I don’t feel like getting into details, others have…check out their opinions.

SDTV?

Before I received the console, or purchased the game… I heard terrible stories about playing the game on SDTV. Apparently the text is illegible on non-HDTV sets. Well, this made me very nervous since this was the main reason behind my wife and I wanting to play. Nonetheless, we ventured to EBgames and asked them. They replied it was small, and sometimes unreadable, but not a big deal. With apprehension, we bought the game

Upon getting home I was tempted to use the newer SDTV in our house, on the first floor. It’s flatscreen CRT, 16:9, has multiple component connections, and other ‘tweak modes’. Well, I decided to try the cheap Panasonic TV upstairs first. The TV is over 6 years old and was a mid-range set when sold. Oh yeah, it’s 27″.

So plugged in the Component video…and surprise..HIGHLY playable. The text sometimes requires me to sit up in bed (OMG NO!!!!) and lean forward…but it’s readable. I’m over 25…well over, and the TV isn’t HD or large… it works. Could it be better? Yes. Should Capcom issue a patch…probably…just for PR sake…but it’s not really absolutely necessary. It would be nice…but as picky as I am, I will live.

So, if you’re like me…and debating buying the game or console because you ‘only’ have SDTV…DO IT!!!