Gaming - Duncan Mackenzie .NET

Another chess tournament this weekend, last one before the state championship

Duncan — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:42:00 GMT

A new father-son activity for Connor and me has been to go to chess tournaments, spending a few Saturdays throughout the year in some school gym. Starting last year, we started to play chess at home and he enjoyed it so much that we decided to enter into the Shelton View Elementary school's chess tournament in the Kindergarten category. He did well and had a lot of fun, so it has become the hobby of choice around our house. The best thing about taking him to a tournament is that you can't really tell from his face whether he has won or lost when he comes out of a match, he always seems to be enjoying himself regardless of the outcome. Tomorrow's tournament is the last one before the state competition (which he qualified for and we decided to attend as well, since it is in Redmond this year), so I expect a lot more first-time tournament players will be attending in the hope of winning 3 out of their 5 games and qualifying for state.

New Xbox Friends Gadget released and a Silverlight Gamercard Generator

Duncan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:05:00 GMT

Adam Kinney, Silverlight dude and my colleague at work, has released an updated version of his Xbox Friends Watch gadget and a new standalone gamercard gadget for your website that uses Silverlight 2.0.

Xbox.com Personalities answer a bunch of holiday questions

Duncan — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:11:00 GMT

Trixie had all of us Xbox.com column writing folks answer a bunch of holiday themed questions recently, and I noticed tonight that the answers are all up on the site! Check out some interesting Q&A with Trixie, Major Nelson and others (including me, Xbox Dad).

Xbox.com Personalities at the Holidays

We asked the Xbox.com personalities to share some information on their holiday favorites. What did we learn? Egg nog, "A Christmas Story," and Dean Martin pwn. Plus Major Nelson is a Grinch.

New Xbox Dad column: My take on the Bee Movie Game

Duncan — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:43:00 GMT

If you or your kids are all excited about the upcoming Bee Movie with Jerry Seinfeld, then you should definitely check out my latest article on Xbox.com. Along with the movie, an Xbox 360 game is also on its way.... and a demo is already up on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Not the most representative demo (more on that in the article!), but still fun and the game promises even more.

Custom Armor Configurations in Halo 3

Duncan — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:39:00 GMT

In Halo 3 multi-player you can customize your SPARTAN or Elite's armor, with different variations unlocked by various achievements/activities in game (including one that can only be unlocked by being a Bungie employee). You can find out more about the different variations here, but it turns out that your profile on Bungie.net knows what choices you've made and displays your current armor configuration on the web site.

If you go to the Halo 3 Model Generator though, created by a community member, you can find the picture of any particular gamer you'd like (including yourself, which is how I found my picture, below) or create a custom image to plan out your own armor customizations.

What I'd really like to create is a live URL, one like /getpicture.ashx?GamerTag=Festive+Turkey, so that I could put my picture on my site and have it automatically update as I change my armor configuration in the game... hopefully ending up like this

Xbox 360 Arcade System announced

Duncan — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:24:00 GMT

For the price of $280, you can now get a new edition of the Xbox 360 console. This one is similar to the original core system, but with HDMI output, a 256mb memory card (so you can play and save your games right out of the box), a wireless controller, and five full arcade games. Perfect if you are more of a casual gamer or if:

you have an existing 360 with a hard drive and would like one with a HDMI output
you need a DVD player and/or a Media Center Extender (play all your Zune and Windows Media Center or Windows Media Player content in the living room!

For that price, you can pick up this system instead of a DVD player with HDMI out and you get the network connectivity and media streaming features along with an amazing system for playing a ton of great games. Sure the name says Arcade, but you can fire up Halo 3, Gears of War or Lego Star Wars II...

Crazy stuff, and perfect for you family focused Xbox gamers... and perhaps soon to be a second 360 for my house, since I now have a TV with HDMI in and nothing to hook into it... and it would be great to have the ability to play my music, TV and movies on our second TV as well...

More info on Xbox.com

Xbox Dad article on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is up

Duncan — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:23:00 GMT

I was a bit surprised to find that I enjoyed this game, although I enjoyed the last few books in the series and the latest movie, I really figured the game would only appeal to kids. The pace is slower than most adult/teen games, but that makes it into more of an exploration instead of just quickly moving from one task to the next. My wife watched it and thought it was similar to a much more interactive and complex form of the game Myst... there are some action elements where you have to move quickly, target the bad guys, etc... but for the most part you are figuring out puzzles, perfecting your spells and exploring a very open set of environments. You can see more of my thoughts on the game in this Harry Potter article on Xbox.com.

Ratatouille preview article up on Xbox.com

Duncan — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:50:00 GMT

My latest kid-focused game article, which happens to be yet another movie tie-in, is about the upcoming Pixar film Ratatouille. Cool game, very nice looking... and it has entire missions around making recipes by spilling ingredients... just like how I cook at home!

Hey, I'm on Channel 10 ... just in time for Father's Day

Duncan — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:13:00 GMT

I sat down to chat with Tina from Channel 10 to chat about my Xbox Dad articles, gaming with your kids, etc...

Yet another Xbox Dad article up, this one on games for the K-6 crowd

Duncan — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 15:07:00 GMT

Family Gaming with the K-6 Crowd

With Father's Day coming up, I've been thinking a lot about my own Dad and how I got into videogames as a kid. My parents, perhaps swayed by George Plimpton's television commercials, went out and bought an Intellivision for the family. It was to be a Christmas gift for all of us, not just for me and my brother. It was hooked up to the only TV in the house, right in the living room where we spent our evenings. Night after night, the four of us played games like Poker, Dungeons and Dragons, Golf, Lock 'n' Chase and more. Since it was hooked up to the TV, this early console seemed so much more of a family activity than the computer games I played in later years.
Now that I have my own family, and my own game console, I try to make videogaming into an activity that the family can do together. Of course, since I have a six-year-old, family gaming isn't all about popping in a copy of Halo® 2. ...

At the end of the article I go through a few recommendations for younger kids, including my favorite games to play with Connor.

If you are wondering where I get my Xbox Live info...

Duncan — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:18:00 GMT

A few people have emailed me or posted comments wondering how I grab the Xbox Info for the Twitter app and for my services.

It is not from scraping and it is not from any publicly available source. I joined the Xbox Community Developer Program (XCDP), which is an official program designed to support folks who are building community sites (forums, reviews, blogs, etc...) around Xbox related topics.

Many folks who want Xbox info, are not working on a large site like the people in the XCDP, which is exactly why I created my service. This way, people who are building a small tool or script, most likely to be used by a small number of folks, can have access to some well formed and easy to use data.

What if you would qualify for the XCDP? Well, at the moment I don't have any direct link for you, but I'll ask around to see if I can find a link or a contact for anyone may qualify and would like to sign up....

Put up a REST API for Xbox Gamertag Data

Duncan — Sun, 27 May 2007 02:37:00 GMT

My twitter app uses a web service hosted on my site to get all the necessary Xbox Live info.... way more than the twitter app actually uses. This is a SOAP API, located here:

http://duncanmackenzie.net/services/XboxInfo.asmx

I know that some people prefer a more RESTful API though, so I also have another 'page' that you can call with a straight GET request and just pass the gamertag in as a query string parameter:

http://duncanmackenzie.net/services/GetXboxInfo.aspx?GamerTag=Festive+Turkey

Enjoy!

I'm inappropriately excited about something I just found on the web

Duncan — Thu, 24 May 2007 01:14:00 GMT

Bungie.net showing Halo 3 stats along with Halo 2

Duncan — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:16:00 GMT

My profile page... not sure if you can find out, but I've lost the last 3 games of Halo 3...

Connect your Xbox 360 Gamertag to Twitter

Duncan — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:58:00 GMT

UPDATE: I've updated this application since the original version, addressing most of the 'known issues' listed below

hey folks, the first version of my xbox to twitter app is done (at least done enough to share!) ...

Install the .NET Framework 2.0 (if you don't have it)
Install the app
Run it (from the "Duncan Mackenzie" folder in your Start Menu)
Right click the little 'twitter' icon on your notification area, pick Settings ... enter in your

Twitter Email Address
Twitter Screen Name
Twitter Password
Gamertag
check "Updates Enabled"
Click OK to save these settings...

Now fire up your Xbox 360 and updates will be sent to Twitter every few minutes (if you are online and your status has changed)
Come back here to post any feedback/problems!

Known Issues:

'status has changed' is a bit too sensitive now... if you are playing Crackdown and you go from running to driving then your status on Xbox Live actually changes (from "Running around" to "Driving around") and the app will post an update ... I'm planning to add an option to 'only post when the game changes, not the status'
Time delay, Xbox.com's data and my app are all using various forms of caching... so if you put in a game it may be 10-15 minutes before the app notices and posts an update ... also if you put one in, then stop playing a minute later... you may never see an update
The app checks status every 5 minutes, I can make that configurable in the future (but probably limited to no more often than 5 minutes... I'll let you make it less often though)
Format of the update: Currently it is "playing <game title> (<additional info>)" ... and if you are into config files and user specific isolated storage you can change that... I'll make it part of the settings in a future release.
You have to leave it running on a logged in machine to work... yep... I have a web based version but I thought people might be worried about giving me their userid/password for twitter so for now I thought I'd start with this local version.

Security concerns? Yes, you have to enter in your Twitter credentials. Those are stored in plain text on the hard drive... but it is on your hard drive only ... I never send your Twitter Credentials up to my site, although I do send them as credentials to Twitter when I call the Twitter APIs. Worried I might be sending to my site? Run a HTTP Trace if you'd like (Fiddler), you'll see calls to the Twitter API and calls to a web service on my site to get your gamertag info... nothing else.

Halo 2 on Vista interview up on 10

Duncan — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:48:00 GMT

Halo 2 on Vista: We've got the new maps, features and achievements
Posted by Tina Wood today at 8:40 AM

Halo 2 is officially coming to Vista. It is shipping to retailers on May 22nd. I sit down with Jo Clowes from Hired Gun to talk about new features, new maps and what we can expect from Halo 2 on Vista. We bring you all the cool visuals. Jo talks to us about some of the achievements you can earn for both single player and multi-player. There's a flaming Ninja achievement you earn through multi-player where you kill three....oh, well you'll just have to watch the video to find out about that one.

Including footage of me playing through a few moments of the first level... and even a shot of my gamercard :)

Next Xbox Dad column (TMNT coverage) is up

Duncan — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:56:00 GMT

My 2nd column is up on Xbox.com, covering the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.

To sum up, it is a pretty fun game for kids; I'd compare it to a faster paced, less scary and complex version of Prince of Persia, which is a great game to be compared to.

Renting vs. Buying

Duncan — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:24:00 GMT

I own a lot of Xbox and Xbox 360 games... some good, some bad... but the hit/miss ratio is much better for all my 360 games, mostly because of game renting. Starting around the time the 360 launched, I signed up for Gamefly and I've alternated between the two and three game plans. It is definitely a good deal for me, I usually only rent my second tier list of games, ones that I think I'll like but I'm not already positive I'll buy. Sometimes I even rent games that I'm pretty sure I'll never ever buy, just because I want to try them out. I suppose you could do the same with Blockbuster or some other store, but I'm big into these 'send to my house' programs (like Netflix.... did you know they have RSS that shows you what movies I currently have at home?). At one point, right after launch, I added every 360 game to the list, which lead to checking out some games I would never have purchased (like Rumble Roses!). I find it especially useful for kids games, because the quality can really vary on those, and sometimes Xbox Live demos aren't really enough for me to decide if I like a game or not.

Occasionally I've even gone ahead and purchased the game through Gamefly, which is usually a pretty good price... you keep the game you have so you already know that it isn't scratched up and that it is working well in your 360 (and if it isn't working well, don't buy that one!). Overall, it is my way of playing more games, without paying $60 bucks for each one and possibly ending up with a copy of Over G Fighters on my shelf.

Interested in checking it out yourself (they do Wii, Xbox 1 and PS2/3 games too)? Here's my 'sign up a friend link' and here is one without any additional stuff on it... use whichever one you'd prefer :)

My first "Xbox Dad" column (post?) is up...

Duncan — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:40:00 GMT

<random musing>It seems like an online article, but I wonder if it wouldn't be just easier for them to publish these articles as blog entries?</random musing>

Brian is finding himself pretty busy lately so I decided to try my hand at writing an Xbox Dad column, and the results are up online now...

Meet the Family

Last Tuesday was the first FamilyGame Night on Xbox.com and the featured game, Walt Disney Pictures Presents Meet the Robinsons, has been a real hit around our house. My son Connor had been talking about the movie, Meet the Robinsons, for some time...

Check it out and let me know what you think... and send your 'xbox dad' comments my way!

Feeling nostalgic for my Intellivision for some reason today...

Duncan — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:12:00 GMT

I think it was playing Chargeball in Meet the Robinsons, but for whatever reason I started thinking about this

I loved the breaking glass sound when I broke an enemy's disc or threw my disc through the recognizer's eye... mmm.... good times :)

Tron Deadly Discs for the Intellivision on Wikipedia

Jetpac Refueled hits Xbox Live Arcade

Duncan — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:55:00 GMT

On Wednesday, a new Xbox Live Arcade game from Rare will be hitting the Marketplace... Jetpac Refueled. I have to say, from the moment we started shipping retro games onto the Xbox 360, this is what I've been waiting for.

Not this game itself, I've never heard of it before to be honest (but wikipedia delivers the goods as always), but I always figured that the retro games would be re-developed to take advantage of the 360's graphics and sound... and this one has been. So, unlike Frogger, Pac Man, and Dig Dug... where I kept hoping to find a secret button to turn on the new and improved version... this one delivers.

Of course, and I would have expected this for all 'retro' games, you can still play in 'old skool' mode too...

I get the appeal of playing the 'original' way, but for games on the 360 I have been pretty disappointed in the lack of extras added to the new versions. Can you imagine Time Pilot where you could choose to play the original or the new awesomeness that would be possible on the 360?

Capturing 360 video with AV input to a DV camera

Duncan — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:06:00 GMT

I captured some footage of Viva Piñata to test the quality of capturing the analog video out from the 360 into a miniDV camera... worked out pretty good I think.

Video: Testing video capture from 360

Zune Background Pack 2 up on 360 Style.net

Duncan — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 01:56:00 GMT

Including backgrounds from Gears, Alien Hominid, Bullet Witch and more... grab them now!

30 more hours of Oblivion coming... wow...

Duncan — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:25:00 GMT

I'm far from having used up all the gameplay in the initial release of Oblivion, and I haven't even gotten into the expansions, and now they've annouced an additional expansion with a ton more gameplay that I can jump into on the 360... amazing.

Even More Oblivion on the Shivering Isles
Thursday, January 18 @ 11:10:00 PST
Bethesda Softworks has announced The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, an official Oblivion expansion for Windows and the Xbox 360.

I have to say that Oblivion is still the best 360 game I own, and it just keeps getting better.

Assault Heroes for Xbox Live Arcade

Duncan — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:14:00 GMT

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty impressed with the recent set of non-retro, original games for Xbox Live Arcade: Small Arms, RoboBlitz and now Assault Heroes

Laura Foy does a 360-inspired cover of Justin Timberlake's hit...

Duncan — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 01:31:00 GMT

Video: I'm bringing XBOX back (from on10.net)

Follow the link to get a high-quality WMV for your PC, a WMV for your Zune or a MP4 for your iPod/PSP... or a WMA/MP3 if all you want is the music :)

Heck, I even have an Ogg Vorbis version up there.

And yes, we know that Laura was known to bash MSFT a bit (ok, a lot...) when she was at G4... the irony is not lost on us :)

Two new wallpapers up on 360Style.net

Duncan — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:18:00 GMT

Both are my style... but I had to go with the Star Trek Legacy one for now...

Halo 3 & Star Trek Legacy Wallpapers Added !
Time to switch up your wallpaper, choose your sci-fi poison.
Halo 3 vs Star Trek Legacy !!
(Both available in resolutions up to 1600x1200)

Halo 3

Star Trek: Legacy

Email interview with the Superman Returns team up on 10

Duncan — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 02:23:00 GMT

Normally I do video for 10, but in this case I had a bunch of questions and I decided to see if the team behind Superman Returns would be up for answering them via email. They were, and the whole conversation is up as a post on http://on10.net

Quick Q & A with the Superman Returns team

Oblivion content, the Knights of the Nine, released to Xbox Live

Duncan — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:27:00 GMT

From Major Nelson:

Oblivion: Knights of the Nine

The following ‘Oblivion’ content is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for all regions:
Name: Knights of the Nine
Price: 800 Points
Available in: All Xbox Live Regions
Dash Details: A fallen King has been unchained from the darkness of Oblivion to seek vengeance upon the Gods who banished him. Only a champion pure of heart can vanquish the evil that has been released upon the land. You must heed the call, reclaim the lost relics of the Divine Crusader, and return the Nine to glory. New dungeons, characters, quests, and mysteries await.

Laura Foy with Pizza and a line up of PS3 fans... hmm...

Duncan — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:44:00 GMT

Probably not the best plan in the world, but we sent Laura out with Pizza and a Premium Xbox 360 to try and win the hearts and minds of a line up of PS3 buyers at Target... watch the video on 10 (download only right now)... and maybe we'll do the same for the Wii?

First part of my Star Trek Legacy interview is up...

Duncan — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 03:01:00 GMT

I flew to Boston a couple of weeks ago and interviewed some folks at Mad Doc Software, and the first part of that interview is now up on 10.

Mad Doc Software and Star Trek Legacy

I flew to Boston last week and sat down with Dr. Ian Davis, the Mad Doctor himself, CEO and Founder of Mad Doc Software to talk about their upcoming game "Star Trek Legacy" for the PC and the 360. We chatted about Star Trek games, Artificial Intelligence and Bulldogs... not in any particular order. This is just part 1 of my trip to Mad Doc, more gameplay footage of both the single and multi-player game is coming soon!

24 Hours to Boston and Back

Duncan — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:49:00 GMT

Last night I jumped on a flight at around 11pm in Seattle and flew to Boston, getting in around 7am, then I drove up to the offices of Mad Doc software... makers of quite a few cool games, including Empire Earth II, Star Trek Armada II and now Star Trek: Legacy for the Xbox 360 (and for the PC). Interview is all done now and I'm on my way back, with a ton of great footage for the on10.net crowd :)

First impressions? Of all the previous Star Trek games, Armada II was the one I liked the most, and while this is certainly not Armada III, it does share some of the same features... ship to ship combat on a fleet wide scale! Legacy takes it much farther though, better graphics, better AI, better story... co-op play across Xbox Live...

Xbox 360 Wireless Headset video up

Duncan — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 03:54:00 GMT

As I mentioned before, I had a chance to chat with the PM for the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset and now that interview is up on on10.net.

Remember, the headset is releasing just in time for Gears of War (November 7th). Coincidence? I think not!

Halloween dashboard update for the Xbox 360

Duncan — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:56:00 GMT

Have you seen this list of features?

Absolutely crazy list... my favorites (lots of them are great, but these are ones that either I had already been wishing for or that I know will be a big deal to me):

Stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11, Zune software, or Windows Media Connect.
Play video from storage devices such as USB flash drives, Xbox 360 Memory Units, etc.
Play video from CD or DVD data discs.
Xbox 360 Wireless Headset support, including battery level indicator in the Xbox Guide.
Set up automatic downloads of newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games.
Optionally disable notifications from Xbox Live while watching DVD movies (I've turned notifications off across the board because of this)

You really need to see the full list of updates though, this is a big release (1080p support folks... free... tomorrow... not in my favorites list because I don't have a TV that supports it... but if you do, rock on).

Become a Gold Xbox Live member to get your ads quicker

Duncan — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:22:00 GMT

Interesting news, content that is only for Xbox Live Gold members... which even Tycho thinks is understandable, but I agree with his comments about what kind of content is being restricted.

they made a serious misstep with the content they chose to inaugurate Silver's descent into squalor: a trailer for Gears of War. An advertisement. Now, don't get me wrong. This is really quite a trailer. The term "trailer" may even be insufficient. But, um... When you make people pony up for instant access to ads? They might get the impression that you are taking advantage of them.

Don't we put up trailers to help us sell the game? In which case, wouldn't we want every person with a pulse (and a wallet) to view them? Can Silver members play Gears? (the answer is yes, by the way) Then why not show them ad and convince them to buy? Oh, you want them to move up to Gold... well, shouldn't the cool multi-player gaming features of a game like Gear be the carrot for that type of move?

Some relevant comments from Major Nelson's post... there were many "this is an amazing trailer, I'm going to buy the game" type of comments as well, but in regards to the gold vs. silver bit there were these:

You need to pay (gold) to download a commercial? What an idiots.....
Just gold members? I hope this doesn't turn into a trend, videos were for all members before. It's not like silver members aren't buying the damn game you know.
Gold members only? Are you serious? That's pretty crappy.
Cool, thanks. Finally some content for the paying members.
From the lack of registered silver members posting here I conclude that we are all crying in a corner.
Nice! I hope we see more exclusive Gold content, we are paying $$$ yearly for the service there should be some perks to it. You silver members complaining can always upgrade to Gold.
I hate to say this but i am glad it is GOLD members only, it's about time Gold members got some exclusive stuff, silver members are using badwidth too and pay nothing, Xbox live is not expensive at all and worth every penny.
Of course it is GOLD ONLY... they want to sell Live subscriptions for a hyped out game. Shady yes, but business as usual with MSFT.
It's pretty safe to bet this will eventually appear on Silver too, so I don't see the big deal. Giving Gold members some things first isn't such a terrible idea, but I guess that depends on which version you have yourself lol
I'm an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, but the idea that you have to be a Gold member to get content early does not sit well me me. I love Xbox 360 and Marketplace, but it's stupid decisions like this which will make me rethink supporting it this console.
It's $4 a month for XBL gold eh? Someone show me where I can buy ONE month of gold for $4. Idiots. Also, "there isn't enough separation" between gold and silver? How about the fact that silver users can't PLAY GAMES ONLINE? Isn't that the ostensible purpose of XBL anyway? I say all of this as a gold subscriber.

The comments actually started out rather balanced, but head more to the 'Silver accounts can play Gears too' side as you scroll down... I can only assume that is because the most interested followers of Major Nelson's posts are mostly Gold subscribers (which makes sense).

Dig Dug hits the Xbox Live Arcade

Duncan — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 02:55:00 GMT

Fairly mixed response over on MajorNelson.com to this game, mostly either people who love it or people who are wishing we'd stop with the 'retro' games already... I'm a bit on the fence here myself, I like these games (Dig Dug, Time Pilot, Pac Man...) but I'm pretty disappointed that they've been left so ... 'pure' ... I mean, I think it would be cool to have an 'original' game mode that only uses a fraction of the pixels of my TV, but I would really like to see another mode (one that I think would be really popular) where the graphics really are on par with what we'd expect on a 360.

I'm not suggesting changing the game, making Dig Dug into a FPS or anything, just redoing the graphics to take advantage of a 720p screen. Hell, even just scaling the game screen up to fill more of my screen would make me happy... even if it stayed blocky :)

What do you think?

Browse content from the Xbox Live Marketplace online

Duncan — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:57:00 GMT

Sometimes it is hard to know what you are getting on the marketplace, especially with themes and gamer pics, but in general there is a lot of content and it isn't always easy to find what you are looking for. Well, it seems that will be less of a problem, thanks to the launch of the "Xbox Live Pipeline" an online site to let you dig around through the available marketplace content, complete with descriptions and preview images.

Gears of War Propaganda arrived today

Duncan — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:16:00 GMT

I loved this email from Xbox Live today:

Gears of War - Trust in the Coalition of Ordered Governments

Trust in the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Sera will triumph because of the Coalition. The Locust are weak compared to the Coalition. Trust in the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Sera will Marcus triumph because Fenix of the Coalition. The Locust are weak compared to the Coalition. Trust in the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Sera has will triumph because of the Coalition. The Locust are weak compared to the Coalition. Trust in the Coalition been of Ordered Governments. Sera will triumph because of the Coalition. The Locust are weak compared to located the Coalition. Trust in the Coalition You of Ordered Governments. Sera will triumph because of the Coalition. The Locust are weak compared have to the Coalition. Trust in the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Sera will 48 triumph because hours of the Coalition. The Locust are weak compared to the Coalition. Trust in the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Sera will triumph because of the to Coalition. The Locust are weak compared to the Coalition. Trust in the Coalition of Ordered mobilize Governments. Sera will triumph because of the Coalition. The Locust are weak compared to the Coalition. Trust in ....

Wow, that's marketing.

Remember, Emergence Day Is Coming (11/7) (order through Amazon.com) and check out these two Gears videos from on10.net:

Downloading TotemBall for my Xbox 360 now!

Duncan — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 03:17:00 GMT

TotemBall, the gesture-based game that works with the Xbox Live Vision camera, just shipped to the Xbox Live Marketplace. It is a free download, but you need to have the camera to play. While you are waiting for it to download, check out my video demo of TotemBall up on 10.

Halo Wars on the Xbox 360

Duncan — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:35:00 GMT

Wow, very cool stuff. Another fun example of how little Microsoft employees know about Microsoft products (I learned about this game from gamespot!) but still, very exciting. Another RTS for the 360 too; I'm playing Battle for Middle Earth now so I'm looking forward to the idea of a second RTS to play from my couch! More details on Halo Wars, including trailers, available here.

New favorite Xbox desktop wallpaper

Duncan — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 10:33:00 GMT

I went over to 360Style.net today to find that it has been totally redesigned... same great content, much easier to find your way around. While I was there I picked up a new background for my Vista box. The wallpapers that ship with Vista are beautiful, but they can't compare with this...

New Mass Effect gameplay footage available

Duncan — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:15:00 GMT

(also available via the Xbox Live marketplace on your 360)

Potentially confusing HDTV spec on game pages on Xbox.com

Duncan — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:29:00 GMT

With the release of Scramble today, I noticed something odd on the game detail page on Xbox.com. Along the left hand side is a listing of the specs of the game (# of players, does it work with Live, etc.) and it includes this interesting line: "HDTV 480i"

Hmm.... while I've never subscribed to the view that only 1080p is HDTV, 480i is most certainly not. Yes, it is one of the resolutions that a HDTV monitor can usually display, but if it isn't 720p, 1080i or 1080p you can't really call it HDTV. Of course, this is probably just a typo... I believe a 360 game will always be capable of putting out at least 720p, even if it hasn't been optimized for that resolution. In fact, several other games list "HDTV: No Support" in their specs (Time Pilot for one), which is certainly not the case.

Shots of the November Dashboard update?

Duncan — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:57:00 GMT

These aren't from an official source, as far as I know, but they look pretty legit to me :)

From MaxConsole

Thanks to AvidX for my cool blog banner

Duncan — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:00:00 GMT

Now that the site appears to be stable, I wanted to mention that my ultra-cool green banner was done for me by Chris from 360Style.net. If you haven't seen his site yet, check it out... my desktop wallpaper is always one of Chris's images

Chromehounds on the Xbox 360 has consumed my free time!

Duncan — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 01:58:00 GMT

As I've mentioned before, I have a Gamefly subscription and I get new games every few weeks... a great way to play a lot of games without the risk of paying $60 for a stinker (OverG Fighters for example... oh so happy I rented that instead of buying). Anyway, my most recent game is Chromehounds and I'm really enjoying it. It plays way more 'real' than a game like MechAssault, but isn't attempting to be a simulator and force you to control all the details a real mech would need dealt with. I honestly haven't tried the online side of it yet, and I hear that is the best part... I've just played through all of the single player mission with the exception of the final mission. I have tried that one with four different mech configurations and with a couple different strategies, but I haven't made it through yet :)

Do you play Chromehounds? Online? Did you do the single player missions? Any hints for me about the final one!?!

Documentary coming about MC Frontalot

Duncan — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:32:00 GMT

And the general geek-focused music world in general I suspect... but I only see Frontalot's name on there now.

Check out the description and trailer here

MC Chris and Fette's Vette

Duncan — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:18:00 GMT

Sampy and I were looking at some photos of the MC Chris concert from PAX05 and I had to go dig up the song. Easy enough to find the MP3 on MC Chris's site, but I remembered a video ... not this one, but close enough.

Day 1 of PAX video up on on10.net

Duncan — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:53:00 GMT

Check out the first day of PAX 2006, including some footage of the first Penny Arcade Q&A session (learn about the new Wii60 console, coming to a store near you this year), some talk about women, and Tina's dirty dirty camera lens.