Xbox 360 Release Date Announced

Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 will hit retail shelves in North America on November 22. They're worker monkeys are hard at work mass producing the shiney new console so there won't be a shortage this holiday season.

In this article is also a list of Xbox 360 games that are being shown off at Micorsoft game booth at the Tokyo Game Show, and in truth, only Call of Duty 2 and to a lesser extent Gears of War hold any of my interest.

I do expect to pick up an Xbox 360, but I am going to wait until more worth-while titles hit the shelves. With any luck, there'll be a small price drop by that time.

Morning Post

So I won Jade Empire for the second time this past Tuesday night. Very enjoyable game. I plan on posting a short review here on the Blog at some point over the weekend.

The only problem is now I'm left wondering what I should play. Essentially I'm waiting for Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (Xbox), which is tentatively due out Tues. Oct. 11th, so I pretty much have 3.5 weeks for something else.

Right now, it's pretty much between The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Pictured Left), Doom II, Half-Life (PC), and Star Wars: Republic Commando. I can't decide.

On another topic, I received my "Fight the Flood" t-shirt from UPS yesterday. I really like the shirt, just wanna was it up and then I'll start wearing it. I also got my Arbiter poster which is now up on my wall. I must admit that I'm disappointed with the packaging job for shipping. They placed everything in a large box (to fit the rolled up poster), used tissue-like paper for padding, and sent it on its merry way.

The box arrived heavily dented in one corner. Thankfully, the shirts can't be damaged by a box dent seeing as how they're fabric. The poster had one of it's corners a bit crushed in, but nothing series.

Still though, I worked for one of the worst companies in the world last winter in their farce of an online store, and even their packaging jobs were better.

"Fight the Flood" T-Shirt still Raising Funds

Saw over at Bungie's web site that their "Fight the Flood" t-shirt is still raising a good amount of money for the American Red Cross.

As of this morning, they've raised about $146, 445 (US) and have sold about 9, 763 shirts.

If you haven't yet, buy a shirt and help save a life.

We don't want to say We told you so, but...

...We told you so. Saw over on canoe.ca a little article pertaining to how Reality TV is "finally" wearing out its welcome. Duh. It wore out its welcome as soon as such a dumbass phrase was coined. We, the Staff (TM) have never given in to the eternal IQ-dropping powers of such drivel. Instead, we drop other folkses' IQ with this here blorg thingy.

'Bout freakin' time, at any rate.

-The Staff

Edit: The link provided doesn't link to the actual article. Canoe.ca seems to have lost it. But it was there!

Doom Movie does have a lot of FPS Shots

The Doom movie web site now has a "Look Inside" section which features a short video game on, who knew, looking inside the making of the film.

In it, they not only show several shots (some new) but confirm that much of the game is shown through the classic video game FPS view of Karl Urban's character, Reaper.

If nothing else, the movie will have some unique cinematography.

150th Pfosten - Deutsche Ausgabe

Dieser Morgen-Pfosten kennzeichnet unseren 150th Pfosten hier sind Urteil des Schiedsrichters.

Der ist 150 Pfosten reiner unbrauchbarer Mist, zum zu verrotten dieses Gehirn von Ihrem.

Wir sind, also die aufgeregte, daß wir wirklich gebildet haben, daß haben viele Pfosten (und der seien Sie, Leserschaft um ein Ganzes whapping 100% zugenommen hat), wir entschieden, diesen Meilenstein in der größten Sprache von allen bekanntzugeben: Deutsch.

Jetzt, wenn Sie mich entschuldigen, muß ich gehen esse etwas schnitzel.

Healthy in Paranoid Times

Our Lady Peace's new album, Healthy in Paranoid Times, has been out since Aug. 30th. I haven't picked it up yet or actually heard the new single, "Where are you" yet; though I've checked out the samples of all 12 tracks on their web site.

It sounds alright; reminds me in style of their previous album, Gravity. Essentially it sounds like a great album to have playing in the background when you're doing something, but nothing monumental.

I'll probably grab it the next time I'm at a Futureshop or Best Buy. I actually still need to pick up their 1999 release, Happiness is not a Fish you can Catch.

Decapitations in Jade Empire

Holy crap, I just found out that you can decapitate opponents in Jade Empire. I've done a little poking around the net, and apparently you can do it with either Dragon Sword or Flawless Weapons Styles should you have invested enough Style Points into them. Your opponent has to be near death (few Hit Points) to perform a decapitation.

I found this out by chance doing the above; using Dragon Sword Style, I had really put the hurt on a Lotus Assassin, and then pop, off bounced his head with a fountain of blood erupting from the stump that was his neck.

Sadly I don't have any screen shots to post (seeing as how there's no screen capture button on the Xbox), so instead enjoy the above pick of one of your followers, Sagacious Zu, battling Cannibals with his staff.

Corpse Bride in Theatres Sept. 16th

Saw over at the official site that Corpse Bride will hit theatres in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 16th, and nationwide Sept. 23rd.

I have very high hopes for this Burton claymated film. Great cast, exceptional director.

Xbox Live Pricing for the Xbox 360

This is slightly older news, but Microsoft announced the pricing for Xbox Live for their upcoming Xbox 360 Console.

The next generation of Xbox Live will be offered to gamers through two
levels of service.

Xbox Live Silver is a free level of the service offered to all who own an
Xbox 360 system, a high-speed Internet connection, and a memory unit or a hard
drive.

The Xbox Live Gold membership delivers the full Xbox Live premium online
experience annually for $49.99 (U.S.)/$79.99 (CDN),* which averages to a little
more than $4 a month (U.S.).

Credit cards will also no longer be a requirement for creating an account. Customers can purchase pre-paid cards at most retailers.

Read the article for further details and a chart detailing the difference between Silver and Gold Memberships.

Morning Post

I found Vivendi Universal's most recent news letter in my Inbox this morning, and the headline title was none other than 50 Cent: Bulletproof.

After getting shot nine times and left for dead, 50 climbs from the jaws of death to exact revenge on his enemies. Working with his G-Unit soldiers, 50 takes on the most powerful gangs and crime syndicates in the city, uncovering a criminal conspiracy with international implications.

The game also features Eminem as a Detective and Dr. Dre as a "street-wise war veteran."

God save us all from this drival. Don't get me wrong, I'm not just slamming this 'cause it features a star from a genre of music I don't like; I'd slam it just as much if it was The Tea Party: Bulletproof or something stupid like that.

Edit: Then again, The Tea Party would never do something like this anyway. Instead, they spend they're time raising money for foundations like The White Ribbon Campaign, you know, something useful and releastic instead of a hip hop artist taking on the gangs of New York.

The Return of the Staff

"Return of the Staff"... what say you, peoples? Does that sound like a cool movie name? Bet it would trounce Return of the Jedi. The whole bunch of We, the Staff (TM) running around causing We, the Staff (TM) brand havoc... We smells Oscar, we does!

Anyway, fearless leader's hopes have once again been dashed, as We, the Staff (TM) did not drown ourselves on our sabbatical. Scuba diving can become tricky, however, with all of We, the Staff (TM) down there sharing air. Staff member number N gets really uppity and hogs all the O2, leaving the rest of us with just plain nitrogen. Then we get narcosis and start getting all drunk underwater. Then we start telling off the fishies. Then the fishies show up our swimming ability by bolting out of range of our relentless tauntings. Then we shakes our fists at them real good. Damn fishies, thinkin' they're better than us.

So now everyone should be glad that We, the Staff (TM) have returned to bombard them with more useless crap.

-The Staff

Half-Life 2 (Xbox) Screenshots

Some new screenshots have been released for the upcoming Xbox version of Half-Life 2. You can check them out here.

Weird Dream

So last night, I dreamt I was a Republic Commando from Star Wars: Republic Commando. Not just any old commando mind you, but Delta 38, "Boss," himself.

I was on a Republic Assault Ship that had been hijacked by Trandoshan Mercenaries. It was weird though, unlike the Assault Ship actually featured in the game, there was simply a small cockpit instead of the huge bridge.

Anyway, I made it up to the hallway that lead to this cockpit, and found the damn door locked. The Trandos were in there, and they were flying and wrecking the ship. One of them turned to look at me and sneered.

I was then joined up by Delta Six-Two, "Scorch." We tried shooting the door open to no avail. That's when I heard the noise coming from around a corner, down a stretch of hallway that had pillars conveniently placed for cover.

A Advanced Dwarf Spider Droid was coming to take us out, so I ordered Six-Two to move ahead and secure the area right by the pillars; where he would pop in and out firing at the Spider Droid with his DC-17M Blaster Rifle and draw it's fire.

While he was playing bait, I snapped on the Anti-Armour Attachment to my DC-17M and fired all 4 of my grenades. I then switched to the Sniper-Rifle Attachment, tried lining up a shot for it's large, red "eye" weak point, and fired. I missed the "eye," but overall enough damage had been caused to destroy the Spider Droid.

The moral of this story is it's better to dream about Star Wars than it is to dream about being at work, only to wake up and have to go there.

"Fight the Flood" T-Shirt Update

Bungie Studio's T-Shirt drive to raise funds for the relief effort is going very well; they've almost raised $93, 000 US.

If you haven't yet, especially if you're a Halo fan, go buy one of these shirts. It's for a great cause and the $15.00 US Bungie donates to the American Red Cross can literally save a life or lives.

UPDATE: Bungie has commented even further in tonight's Weekly Update. To date, they've made $120, 450.00 in donations to the American Red Cross from their "Fight the Flood" t-shirt.

PayDay Winning Numbers for Sept. 8th

14-37-57-64

I got jack shit yet again.

I blame my Staff somehow.

Speaking of that primate, he should be done attempting to drown himself today; so his pointless rambling may soon reappear on the blog.

And may God have mercy on all your souls.

Morning Post

So I ended up seeing House of the Dead a few nights ago. It's another video game turned movie, and guess what? I stunk!

Typical lame plot. Punch of teens/college students go to a mysterious island for a rave, but when they get there everyone's missing. They're attacked by zombies and it's a struggle to survive. There's a lot of use of "Bullet Time" styled shots to the point where it gets old way too fast, and of course all these kids are master martial artists and perfect shots. Resident Evil was better, and it was pretty bad.

Essentially I found myself watching the flick simply to see what lameness would be brought up next; something that's so bad you have to watch it. Basically search back and read my editorial on game movies; this one followed about everything you're not supposed to do.

The only real redeaming quality of the flick was, just like Resident Evil: Apocalypse, boob shots. They had some great and lenghty boob shots in House of the Dead. My only piss off was that Ona Grauer, pictured left, was bouncing around in that tight top the whole flick and there was no boob shot of her once. She gets stabbed right in-between her boobs, but never a nipple. Such a damn tease, and she was the hottest one.

So, I think we all know where I'm going with this: The moral is, just say no to libraries.

5 New StarCraft: Ghost Screen Shots

Last Friday Blizzard Entertainment updated their StarCraft: Ghost page with 5 new screen shots. You can check them out here.

Morning Post

Hey kids,

So the long weekend was great. Good food, good drink, and good poker.

I also found out the date of my best friend's wedding, and I also found out I get to be the best man!

I'm greatly honoured, though I suspect I'll now have to learn the chicken dance...

New Star Wars: Battlefront II Official Web Site

Lucasarts launched an all new web site for Star Wars: Battlefront II.

The original Star Wars: Battlefront can be purchased for $29.99 (Xbox/PS2) and is on sale for $19.99 (PC) at Future Shop. It's the best selling Star Wars video game of all time, due to its excellent multiplayer. I tried the single player demo, which was set in the Battle of Endor, and it rather sucked.

The sequel, however, looks to have a more promising Single Player Campaign that's more story line focused. Well see, but it might be mainly based on a squad of Clone Troopers, and I really like Clone Troopers.

Anyway, a Single Player demo will be on the Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith DVD, which releases the same day as Battlefront II, November 1st. I'll give it a try, and if I like it I'll rent the game. If I really like it I'll pick up a copy.

Actually, this fall is looking like a good season for Xbox games: Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, Half-Life 2, and Star Wars: Battlefront II. The Xbox 360 also launches, which might mean Quake IV soon after or at least for the holiday season, along with Call of Duty II (and Call of Duty II: Big Red One for the current gen consoles).

Definitely a good time for Xbox gaming.