Content tagged with [gaming] on DuncanMackenzie.net

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

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:42:00 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

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:05:00 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

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:11:00 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

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 09:43:00 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

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:39:00 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

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:24:00 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

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:23:00 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

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:50:00 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

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:13:00 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

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:07:00 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...

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:18:00 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

Sun, 27 May 2007 07:37:00 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

Thu, 24 May 2007 06:14:00 GMT

Bungie.net showing Halo 3 stats along with Halo 2

Fri, 11 May 2007 21:16:00 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

Fri, 11 May 2007 17:58:00 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

Wed, 09 May 2007 19:48:00 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

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:56:00 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

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:24:00 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...

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:40:00 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...

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:12:00 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

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:55:00 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

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:06:00 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

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 07:56:00 GMT

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

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

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:25:00 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

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 21:14:00 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...

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 07:31:00 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

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:18:00 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

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:23:00 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

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 07:27:00 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...

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 06:44:00 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...

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 09:01:00 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

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:49:00 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

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:54:00 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

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:56:00 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

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:22:00 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

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:55:00 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

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:57:00 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

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:16:00 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!

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 08:17:00 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

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:35:00 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

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:33:00 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

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:15:00 GMT

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

Potentially confusing HDTV spec on game pages on Xbox.com

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:29:00 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?

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 03:57:00 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

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:00:00 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!

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 06:58:00 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

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:32:00 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

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:18:00 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

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 15:53:00 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.

Time Pilot on Xbox Live Arcade!

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:54:00 GMT

That is really all that needs to be said, yes?

From Major Nelson's blog

Looking forward to PAX 2007!

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 03:10:00 GMT

PAX was a blast, I went back for day 2 and spent almost all the day at the exhibition hall... tons of cool demos and people! I was able to stop at the Xbox booth and chat with Trixie (as Brian mentions here), which was great because she is one of those people that I've emailed quite a bit but never met in person.

I also managed to run into Frank O'Connor from Bungie and interview him about the Halo 2 team that Bungie was entering into the console tournament, which seemed really unfair but he assured me that they weren't that good of players :)

Brian and I also interviewed some folks about Warhammer Online, Wizards of the Coast's new "Goblin Game" ... lots of fun

Finished Day 1 at PAX

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 06:54:00 GMT

So I've been wanting to go to PAX since it started a couple of years ago, and every time it has come around I've been out of town... until now... and, by some interesting twist of fate, I know have a job that actually required me to attend :)

So Tina, Sampy, Adam and I headed over there today, snuck in ahead of the massive line with our snazzy media badges and started filming... some highlights

Serving "BAWLS" everywhere leads to many great quotes, especially funny if you are 9 years old, but we laughed anyway
Console Tourney... competive Smash Bros, how much cooler can it get?

Case Mods in the Bring Your Own Computer room, I'm already voting for the FF 2000 case to win hands down. It was so cool that both Sampy and myself interviewed them (that is what happens when we split up and give two devs each a camera... silly us).

Note that this is an "in progress" pic, not the final case mod... I'll post that soon... check out this photo set for the whole mod in pictures.

Alex St. John... wow... cigars... stories... and brave enough to bring his daughters to an event with many thousand gamers (the # of black shirts on the streets of Bellevue was unbelievable).

PAX doesn't open for about 4 more hours, but people are already waiting

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:39:00 GMT

Sampy and I stopped by the main doors of PAX last night around 1am and there was already two groups of folks waiting. Some guys from Detroit were first in line, having come in by train earlier that day, and they covered the full range of video gaming interests (although no one in their group was into tabletop gaming, the other major side to PAX) with one big Nintendo fan, an Xbox lover, and a PC gamer :)

Luckily for the folks waiting, some of the PAX people stopped by with a free case of BAWLS, giving them vital caffeine to make it through the night!

Going to PAX?

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:28:00 GMT

I'll be hanging around outside a bit tonight, to check on any folks who are that excited to be there already, and I'll be around after 2pm tomorrow... a lot of Saturday... some of Sunday... in general, I'll be there :)

(PAX is the Penny Arcade Expo, for the curious)

You?

PAX in Bellevue, WA

The Habu: a Gaming mouse from Microsoft and Razer

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:18:00 GMT

Teaser sites are all the rage these days, but this one ended pretty quickly to reveal a new product from our hardware division. I don't really do much PC gaming, but I think this mouse might end up on my desk anyway... I love the blue lighting!!

5 minutes of fun with Mike and Jerry from Penny Arcade

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:38:00 GMT

With PAX only days away, we've posted an interview with the Penny Arcade guys on 10. I love this video, but the 5 minutes of footage doesn't really do justice to the 45 minutes it took to get even that level of serious commentary out of Jerry :)

Pimp my Xbox 360

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:05:00 GMT

I've been stoked for some time by the completely black case replacement for the 360, but now I've found out that I can potentially switch my controllers (even the wireless ones) to custom colors as well... very very sweet.

Microsoft Gamefest

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:34:00 GMT

Met with Dave Mitchell from the Xbox team today to talk about Microsoft Gamefest. If you are going, drop me a line... I'll be there with a camera along with one or two other folks from on10.net.

Atari CEO: No PS3 games before 2007 - Joystiq

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:01:00 GMT

I was surprised early to hear that God of War II was a PS2 game... and now this? I think it just the price that is scaring developers... scary to develop for a console that seems out of the price range of your target audience. I say "seems" because despite my own (biased) negative thoughts about the PS3, I expect it to be a pretty impressive machine... one that quite a few people will pick up. I do agree with other people's predictions that it will lag behind the 360, the $$ will see to that, but I don't think anyone expects it to flop...

I don't think I'll end up getting a PS2 though, as tempting as it is at the low-low refurbished prices you can find it at now; the idea was to pick up a used one and an EyeToy and then try to lose some weight playing Kinetic... but all that work for one game seems like a bad idea. Instead I need to find some way to do some mild exercise while playing any game on my 360. It wouldn't be instead of my normal exercise routine, but every little bit counts. A recumbent exercise bike seems like a possible solution, although I don't think my wife wants one in our living room.

on10 visits Penny Arcade

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:43:00 GMT

Yesterday, Laura and I headed over to the offices of Penny Arcade to interview them about... well, about a variety of things, it was a very interesting interview.

It may be hard to believe, but this was the best picture I could get. Someone's face is covered up in each and every shot I took, for some reason everyone was feeling very 'gesturey' that day. At least Jerry wasn't covered up :)

Assassin's Creed for Xbox 360 gets previewed - Joystiq

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 07:30:00 GMT

Ok, so I have to admit something... when I saw Assassin's Creed in the various E3 videos, I was sad. The game looked amazing, but I'm not going to buy a PS3 ... you can see my dilemma.

Then I see this on Joystiq ... and considering God of War II is a PS2 title (not that I have a PS2, but I'm thinking about it... more on the later) ... there isn't anything announced yet for the PS3 that I feel like I'm going to miss.

Hmm... the Sony PSP saga continues

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 12:52:00 GMT

Update on the bricked PSP... So I spoke to a someone at the local Sony retail store... $120 (CDN) to fix the PSP. Keeping in mind that all that my nephew did was turn it off when he saw a dialog he didn't understand, that is a lot of money. I'm especially unhappy because I know that this must be a common issue and a simple fix (open it up, flash the chips to the factory default firmware and then maybe re-update to the latest firmware... all simple procedures, but ones that only Sony can do once the machine refuses to start up).

Firmware Update results in a Bricked PSP

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 00:30:00 GMT

I’m at my nephew’s place for a bit and he just ‘bricked’ his PSP. He put in a game and it started to do a firmware update... he didn’t understand what it was doing and was worried it was going to mess up his PSP, so he turned the power off.

Now, it won’t even power up. I’m thinking we are screwed at this point... unless I can find some solution on the Internet... but I'm going to head down to the local Sony store tomorrow to see what they have to say. I find it hard to believe that the PSP is so fragile that a nine year old can completely render it unusable by just pressing the power button at the wrong time.

It seems we aren't the only people having this problem

Another video that I... "produced" ... is up on on10.net

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:46:00 GMT

Sometimes I don't like being just the guy behind the scenes :)

It isn't anyone's fault, everyone on our team is aware of the work I do, but sometimes I wish it was more visible to the public. I guess it is because I'm used to writing articles, that have my name so prominently attached, or blog posts that are so clearly mine... but when I work on videos for 10, I can be the guy who set up the interview, contacted all the right folks to make it happen and even (in this case) went over and held the camera... but yet, my name doesn't end up anywhere in the video or the post. I'm not suggesting it should have (or that anyone is choosing to omit my name), by the way, I have the ability to edit the post at anytime so if I wanted it there... I'd just put it there... but it still seems like I'm missing out on some sort of credit. It would be cool to be able to point at a page that listed all the videos that I was the driving force behind... even if I then someone else was actually onscreen ... collaborative effort and all that...

I guess that is just life in video land :)

Oh yeah, the video... we just put a video interview with a series of Xbox community folks. This all took place on the same day as the interview with Louis Castle from EA... I heard (through Mike at Xbox365.com) that EA was going to have these guys and gals in town to look at the new Battle for Middle Earth II and I bugged the Xbox guys (well, Tony Hynes to be specific... the Xbox guy behind the event) to get us permission to crash the party with a camera. Of course, Major Nelson had already arranged to be there along with his camera guy, so it was quite a crowd. Snagging each of the community folks one at a time (or two at a time in one case) and interviewing them on their own was nice though, good to get in touch with some of the people behind these great podcasts and sites.

BioWare is putting on a big giveaway/contest...

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 13:52:00 GMT

I'm certain I can't enter, being a MSFT employee and all, but you can!

While I was there, I noticed they are running another contest as well, for an Alienware PC, tied to the release of Jade Empire for the PC. And, while we are on the subject of BioWare, we might as well mention Mass Effect (Big BioWare RPG for the Xbox 360)!!

Xbox 360 roundup: Blazing Angles, Rumble Roses and Tomb Raider

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 00:36:00 GMT

I've recently taken a little break from playing Oblivion, which had been the only disc in my 360 for the past couple of months, and I decided to try a range of games. While working on our book, Xbox 360 for Dummies, I added every single 360 game to my Q on Gamefly.com, so I end up getting a random selection whenever I send back the previous game.

This month, I returned Full Auto (interesting idea, combining guns and driving, but after playing PGR 3, Ridge Racer 6, and Need For Speed: Most Wanted... it just didn't seem like my kind of driving game) and ended up with Rumble Roses XX. Whatever else I may say about that game, it certainly has expanded the range of games that I have tried. I've only played it for about an hour, but it left me with some mixed feelings so far. On one hand, it appears to be a pretty good wrestling game and I am completely in favour of sexy, scantitly glad women wrestingly on high-definition television. The problem for me is that the game seems to take it a bit too far. The idea of a good fighting game where the characters happen to be very attractive women is a good one... but even the quick match I played involved a little fashion show to start, taking way too long for each character to do a 'runway walk' back and forth before getting into the ring. Outside of the fighting, the addition of a photo-shoot mode really showed how far from my idea of a 'game' this title goes. I have no doubt that there is an audience for this game, but I prefer to keep my hand on the controller while playing. DOA4 hits a better balance in this sub-genre of games (the ones with hot chicks in revealing clothing that is), focusing way more on the fighting and letting the fact that the fighters are sexy women be a nice side benefit. DOA4 does have additional costumes, but the lack of a photo shoot mode and a much deeper game makes it more my style. I haven't played the DOA volleyball game, but I gather it is more aimed at the Rumble Roses XX crowd.

My other full game experience this month has been with Blazing Angels, a game that I've been excited about from the moment I read the first description of it online. I love WWII planes, specifically the Spitfire, and I've been reading books about them ever since I was old enough to pick them out myself. I've played Combat Flight Simulator and other flying games (not that this is a simulator, it is more of a Crimson Skies type of game) that covered some of these planes, but I have never found one that looked or played this good. Flying a Spitfire IX over London, chasing down wave after wave of ME109s and Stukkas never really gets old for me. The Arcade mode makes for a lot of replayability after the campaign is done, and mutliplayer is always a good feature.... I've been playing Split Screen with my son, although he is enjoying flying his ME262 into the eiffel tower so much that he usuallly crashes before I can even come close to shooting him down.

I played a few other games here and there, but none of them for very long... certainly not long enough to form much of an opinion. I tried the Tomb Raider demo though and I was quite impressed. If Ms. Croft was formed a bit more like Joanna Dark I would have been able to take it a bit more seriously, but all in all it reminded me a lot of the Prince of Persia games... but with the graphics bumped up a bit by the 360.

Next up, I'll probably try out the table tennis game, Major Nelson was pushing it pretty hard the last time we chatted (and that is always a good indicator for me), and I'm really looking forward to Battle for Middle Earth II to hit the 360.

World of Warcraft Free Trial, giving drugs to a recovering addict

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 22:51:00 GMT

If I told you that I was a recovering alcholic, would you offer me a drink? I doubt it, unless you are a real bastard. Well, Adam Kinney (my boss at on10.net) and I have been having many discussions about RPGs and MMORPGs (Oblivion, Asheron's Call and WoW being the main topics). I told him that I used to play a ton of AC, but I found that it was a real drain on my time and that I finally had to quit it so that I could stop spending my nights up until 2 am playing... so what does he do? He sends me a free 10-day trial to WoW.

Bastard