Retrospect on the Xbox and Xbox 360 - Editorial

In 2004, I finally decided that I did not like the route PC gaming was taken. I am not a fan of massive multiplayer online games and I had an unpleasant experience with Blizzard Entertainment's "tech support" during the World of Warcraft beta that turned me off of that game. I certainly did not like the tech demo that was Half-Life 2 and Valve's God-awful Steam service, and most real time strategy titles were sub-par compared to the standard that Blizzard Entertainment had set.

At my core, I am a first person shooter fan, and while solid shooters were still being released on the PC, the genre was beginning to change drastically and flow in a new direction, so I decided to follow that path. In October 2004, I bought an Xbox console from Microsoft. Sure, it was 3-year-old hardware and ironically it was slightly more powerful than my PC at the time, and I also had to get re-accustomed to a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard, but the Xbox had really shown me how far along console gaming had come where I only saw stagnation in the PC market.

The Xbox allowed me to simply play any game I bought without an install process or spending hours tweaking drivers and settings. It featured an HDD for saving games, ripping music, and downloading new content off of Xbox LIVE. Heck, console game's could now even be patched via Xbox LIVE. While unfortunately I could only play in 480i (and games only supported up to 480p), the Xbox allowed me to play my kind of games in a hassle free environment which saved me the single most important thing of all: Time.

It also saw some great exclusive titles that were not available on the PC for the longest time. Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequel Halo 2, Jade Empire, Fable, heck, the Xbox was old but powerful enough to run Doom 3, and Halo 2 was so hugely successful that it outsold it's two closest rivals of 2004, the PC versions of Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. A console shooter had tromped its PC buddies, and despite the PC fanboys' whining and trash talking even to this day, the console market had really taken a giant leap forward as the platform for the hardcore gamer.

In Novemeber 2005, Microsoft launched their successor to the Xbox, the Xbox 360. The first of the next generation consoles to hit the market, it met with solid reviews and was sold out, however like any other new tech, I decided to wait for Microsoft to work out the inevitable bugs and to also release some triple A titles that would justify the cost. I also needed to save up for a high definition television so I could properly enjoy what this new generation of consoles had to offer. I faithfully gamed on my Xbox for another year, and in Decemeber 2006, I decided to buy an LCD TV, and a few days later, I picked an Xbox 360 Pro console.

The Xbox 360 is another great leap in console gaming, not only integrating Xbox LIVE and an online community natively to the console, but also providing a unit that really is the media hub of anyone's entertainment centre should they so choose. Out of the box, the Xbox 360 not only plays its ever-growing library of Xbox 360 games as well as over over 450 Xbox games (via software emulation), but it also natively plays DVDs, CD's, and connected to Xbox LIVE, you can visit the Xbox LIVE Marketplace to download demos, trailers, extra content, themes, gamer pictures, etc. You could even download classic arcade games via Xbox LIVE Arcade. Unlike the Xbox, everyone can access Xbox LIVE with an Xbox 360 for free with a Silver Membership to get content, but you need to pay for a Gold Membership if you want to play online. I was so impressed with the new Xbox LIVE when I first booted up my Xbox 360, that I spent a solid week simply exploring it and downloading all the content I could, I didn't even touch a single game!

With Updates released over the last year, as well as additional hardware releases and revisions, you can now rent movies from the Xbox LIVE Video Store, purchase Xbox Originals, connect to Windows Live Messenger, watch HD-DVD's, and connect your Xbox 360 to an HDMI port. What you can now do on a simple "gaming" console, with a simple controller, is remarkable and really demonstrates the concept of convergence.

And then of course there is the games. Titles like Gears of War and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion wowed me at first, and this year has been solid with releases like BioShock and Halo 3. The Xbox 360 even added a new concept to game playing in the form of Achievements. With every Xbox 360 you create your Profile, and as you complete certain things in an Xbox 360 game as outlined by the game's developers, you gain Achievements and Gamer Points that go towards your Profile's overall Gamer Score. It's something extra to boast about and to be proud of, and I personally love Achievements. They are very addictive, adding some extra flare to a game, however the downside is the player can become specifically focused on getting Achievements, which would lead him/her to play the game in a fashion that he/she wouldn't normally have played it, possibly diminishing their overall fun factor. Lord knows I've cursed and sworn over some of the Achievements that I've earned. Overall, however, Achievements are a great addition and incentive for gamers to play through a title a few extra times to rack up as many Gamer Points as they can.

I've throughly enjoyed my Xbox 360 and the refinements and leading changes its made not only over its predecessor, but also in the gaming market as a whole. The only major con, and the biggest shame with the Xbox 360 would be the reliability of its hardware, or lack thereof. To date, I personally only know two people who have never had to send their brand new Xbox 360 in for service, and the reliability of the Xbox 360 was so bad for the first year and a half that Microsoft has massively extended its warranty and made various hardware revisions internally. Anyone who's had to deal with Xbox Support also knows how thorough and expedient that process is (yes, that's sarcasm), though I'm happy to say that aside from the disc tray jamming upon ejection after almost every boot up, the refurbished unit that Xbox Support sent me has been performing perfectly for 7 months, about twice the length of my brand new unit.

When its all said and done, however, the Xbox 360 is not only a great gaming console, but also a serious multimedia device and the platform of choice for the hardcore gamer, PC fanboys who are still stuck in the past aside. Console gaming has evolved a long way in this millennium, and I'm looking forward to see just where Microsoft will take gamers next. Though it gets little use, I plan on keeping my Xbox until it breaks as it's quite the solid piece of hardware, and of course until the next great thing comes along, the Xbox 360 is my platform of choice.

StarCraft II - Terran Nomad Unit Revealed

The replacement for the old Explorer Science Vessel is here, as Blizzard Entertainment has unveiled the Nomad, a support construction vessel.

You can read the full details about this new unit here, as well as check out some screenshots here and concept art here.

Duke Nukem Forever Teaser Trailer

Good God. The vapour ware title that's been in development for about 10 years, one of if not the longest game development cycles in history, has finally had its teaser trailer released.

Back in 1996, Duke Nukem 3D was released and it was a damn fun shooter. Built on the old Build Engine, it introduced and furthered the concept of interaction in a level and a level's environment, and of course it also had the great personality and one liners of Duke Nukem himself.

Based on this teaser trailer, Duke Nukem Forever looks like its going to keep the same feel as its predecessor, and that's not necessarily a bad thing!

I do hope the game is groundbreaking and original enough though, 'cause if its not, it'll be slammed so hard for its development cycle...

Final World of Warcraft Holiday Ad

Blizzard Entertainment has released the final World of Warcraft Holiday ad, this one featuring Verne Troyer. You can view all three officially here, and or you can watch Verne's spot below.

I still think Shatner's is the funniest though.

Damned Luck

Seriously, I just haven't had much luck this past week.

It started off well, and Wednesday evening I went to the wrap party for one of those shows my company works on. Only got to stay for about 45 minutes though, 'cause I had to get home, pack, and clean up for my Montreal trip.

You see, the company had invited me out to their Montreal Holiday Party, and they were shipping me there and back via Via, and setting me up in a very nice hotel room with two stinkin' queen beds (or was that double beds? Doesn't matter, it was more beds than I needed).

Very early Thursday morning I woke up feeling cold, and the only time I feel cold is if I'm getting sick. I knew that was bad news, and as the night wore on, I felt increasingly worse and popped a Gravol to calm my deteriorating stomach. After a predominantly sleepless night, I was determined to carry on as per normal and get to Montreal, so I went about my normal morning routine. Got up, made my breakfast, took one bite of my toast and hurled. I developed a small fever after that, thus beginning my battle with the flu and so ended my chance to go to Montreal.

The biggest challenge of the morning was pressing "Send" on my cell to call my boss and cancel the trip, since the damned thing had already been arranged for me. I also got the flu shot a month or so ago, my first time ever, but a lot of good that seems to have done me. I haven't had the flu in years, and yet I get the shot, and there it is.

So I've spent the last few days in bed sucking chicken noodle soup, napping, and playing video games. I missed out on a friend's Christmas Party last night, and was supposed to see I Am Legend today, but that didn't work out either (which ain't a bad thing given the weather).

All in all, not the best week. Dealt with nausea, fever, chills, aches, dizziness, etc . Here's hoping to a better week to come now that I'm on the mend.

Halo 3 Completed for the 4th Time

As I mentioned last week, while playing through Halo 3's Meta-Game, I essentially went through the game an additional time what with the Mission replays I needed to do. When all was said and done, I had four Missions left to play to complete the game for a fourth time, and that's just what I did.

I've now played through Halo 3 thrice on Normal and once on Heroic in two and a half months, and I must say the game is damn easy on Normal now that I've adapted to the new control scheme.

At least is does have great, varied gameplay which helps to keep things fresh and fun, and killing Grunts never gets old. There really is something about that Halo feel that has mad this one of the best game trilogies of the current millennium (as short lived as that's been).

Halo 2 was still a better game though, but Halo 3 certainly is fun. Just wish we'd have gotten to see more of the Arbiter and the Elite's storyline.

Once I get through some other titles, I intend to play through the entire trilogy from beginning to end, just for the hell of it and to see how everything flows together.

Van Damme World of Warcraft Ad

Unlike the others, this one's in French and for the French version of World of Warcraft, but its funny as shit just watching it.

You go Blood Sport guy, you go.

The Golden Compass Review

What. The. Fuck. No seriously. What the fuck was that! The Golden Compass seriously has to be one of the single most craptastic films I have ever seen.

Now, I've never read the book that the film is based on, however I do know its a children's book, and I can't even see any children liking this flick, it simply goes no where. The Golden Compass is full of plot holes, indecisive narrative, and reasonable, though not stellar effects. The film has no sense of direction, no focus, and it tries to rip off too many other universes out there, like The Lord of the Rings and even Star Wars in the odd scene (go creepy Emperor guy!).

The Golden Compass is a fantasy tale set in an alternate Earth, and on this world, people don't have a traditional soul, their soul is manifest in a talking animal companion called a Daemon that follows them around for life. Kill or hurt the Daemon, you kill or hurt the person or vice-versa. That concept is rather cool, and pretty much the only interesting thing going for The Golden Compass.

The film centres around Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) who obtains the last Golden Compass which can show her the truth of any question she could ever ask. The Golden Compass has hands that point to various pictures, and if Lyra focuses on them enough, she can see an answer play out for her. In short, I was waiting for the Eye of Sauron to appear and yell at her, as the Compass sequences were a lot like Frodo obsessing over his Ring, only much more poorly done.

Basically Lyra is picked up by Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) at some dinner party at her school, 'cause all successful women pick up young girls at dinner parties, and this leads Lyra on an adventure to rescue her friends who've been captured by the Gobblers, people who steal children for evil, nefarious reasons relating to Dust. What's Dust, you ask? Couldn't tell you, as it's never properly explained. I only know it's really important, pisses the government in power off, and it's sprinkly.

Along the way, Lyra conveniently encounters a bunch of other uninteresting characters like wannabe gypsies, witches, and some creepy southerner guy who flies an airship. The only interesting character that Lyra meets would have to be Iorek Byrnison (Ian McKellan), a talking polar bear. The polar bears are the only other things aside from the Daemons that The Golden Compass has going for it. They're animated well, and they smash shit, therefore Polar Bears = Yes. Iorek also has the voice of Magneto, so he's alright.

But seriously, I lost count of the number of times I cracked some joke at the film's expense, like when Lyra ask's where she is later on in the film, and is told the "Experimental Facility." You'll understand when and if you see the film, but that was just dumb and screaming for a Family Guy style gag.

Just a heads up that the ending is a crappy and unfulfilling as the rest of the flick, so if you're sitting through it waiting and hoping for answers, well, good luck with that.

I saw The Golden Compass just under a week ago, and I'm already traumatized enough remembering it for this short review, so I'm going to end off here. In short, do yourself a favour and instead of paying to see this film, go buy some nails and a hammer. Pounding them into your eyes'll be a lot less painful than watching The Golden Compass, and more entertaining too.

As I...

As I sit and wait and think and thirst,
I could do my worst, I could do my worst.
And as I ponder, as I wonder,
Will I burst, will I burst?
Oh to be so happy and to be so free,
But not for me, not for me.
For you see, it's just not to be.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Extended Edition Review

Like most kids, I read The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was young, and though I don't remember much of it, I do remember it with simple, childhood fondness.

After the shear ecstasy that was The Lord of the Rings, I've also been looking for the next big fantasy epic, the next genre defining film. I missed out on seeing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when it hit theatres, however I did get to see the Extended Edition at a buddies place last night.

So, what do I think of this classic now that it's in cinematic form?

Meh. It's not The Lord of the Rings.

That's not to say that the production values of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Extended Edition weren't impressive, they certainly were. The effects and CG characters were well done, the score was touching and fun, and the actors certainly portrayed their roles well, but when all is said and done it's the actual subject matter, the base material, that I had a problem with.

Like the Harry Potter films, The Chronicles of Narnia is written for children, whereas The Lord of the Rings is for adults, and the themes and tone of the story certainly reflect this, and I simply couldn't get around it. There were too many convenient fanciful things that would delight children, but had me shaking my head, like when Father Christmas (James Cosmo) showed up giving the kids their weapons, or how said kids were immediately experts with their weapons and leading armies.

I'm not going to go into the details of the story as that's part of the fun of watching a fantasy flick like this, so I'm going to keep this review very, very brief.

If you've romanticized about seeing the books brought to life, here you go, and its done very well. If you've read the books and remember them well but have since evolved your taste, looking for a film that offers drama and conflict, well, you won't find it here. For me, it's a pass like the Harry Potter flicks, but I can see why many people would enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Your call.

The Orange Box - Half-Life 2: Episode Two (Xbox 360) Demo Impressions

Silly Valve. It seems I type that a lot lately, and sadly it's true. Now, I'm not trashing The Orange Box itself, as I've certainly heard great things about it and I'll probably end up renting it one day or buying it bargain bin style, but The Orange Box - Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (Xbox 360) Demo that was recently released is without question what I've been calling Half-Life 2 since it's release in late 2004: a Tech Demo.

Originally, I had a lot of problems getting the Demo to download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, it kept telling me that it could not retrieve information from Xbox LIVE. After a casual week of trying, I got it, and a week or so later, being yesterday, I played through it.

First off, the game's main menu is nice, very nice. It lists all 5 games that come with The Orange Box, and when you highlight one of those games, it changes the main menu's background to an actual section of that game, and plays a little gameplay trailer. Very slick.

For this Demo, only Half-Life 2: Episode Two was available, so I played that. It starts with a summary of Half-Life 2: Episode One, and then has you take control of Gordon Freeman as you escape a wrecked train with Alyx. You get to see some very nice scenery and are treated to the game's excellent use of the Havok Physics engine, both with the Gravity Gun and with the environment itself, but that's it.

What do I mean? I mean you spend the whole Demo walking around, moving wooden boards with the Gravity Gun, and listening to Alyx prattle on since your a wonderfully mute character lead.

What about combat? Well this is an FPS after all, so how could Valve even think about including any real combat in the Demo? What would be the point?

You encounter a few Zombie's and a Zombine battling some Ant Lions, and you can watch them kill each other or wipe them out quickly by hucking a few explosive canisters at them with your Gravity Gun. Oh, and you encounter one Poison Headcrab near the Demo's end. That's it. That's the extent of combat in this FPS demo. One weapon, a few enemies, and a whole lot of running around and one-sided conversation.

To say I swore at my TV once I finished the Demo would be an understatement. Valve appears as pretentious as ever, I see. At least the character models are still extremely high quality, and second only to Mass Effect in my opinion.

So is the Demo worth downloading. Sure, I'm sure you could use a good stroll. Did it make me want to run out and by The Orange Box. Hell no. As far as a Demo to show of what an FPS title can do, The Orange Box - Half-Life 2: Episode Two's Demo stunk.

Halo 3 Meta-Game Complete

A few days ago, I finished going through the Halo 3 Meta-Game, which counts as my third completion of the game.

In English, the Meta-Game is playing through the Campaign Missions either Solo or Cooperatively as the game tracks your score. Your score is achieved by killing enemies, and certain kinds of kills, such as head shots and running an enemy over, nets you more points.

In order to achieve the proper scores per Mission to gain the Achievements, you need to activate the gold Skulls that you can collect. I mainly used the Tough Luck, Fog, and Famine Skulls, as well as the Catch and Thunderstorm Skulls when I needed an extra point boost.

I also had some fun with half of the silver Skulls, namely the Grunt Party Skull and IWHBYD Skull.

If you play on Heroic or Legendary, you get a score modifier, and the faster you complete a mission, the better your time bonus. I played through on Normal, and I used those extra gold skulls on the levels that I couldn't get the time bonus on. It should also be noted that while Checkpoints function in the Meta-Game, scoring doesn't resume mid-Mission if you've powered down your Xbox 360. If you're going to do this, you need to sit through an entire Mission in one sitting.

I actually found the Meta-Game quite challenging, and in several instances, very frustrating. That's because you're focus is not on completing the Mission, but the need to accumulate X amount of points, and you usually don't realize your going to fail until you're nearly done a Mission. This means I wasted some hours of my time, however since I had to replay so many Missions, I've nearly completed the game for a 4th time.

With the completion of Halo 3's Meta-Campaign, I've earned all but one of the game's Single Player Achievements: "Campaign Complete: Legendary". While it's worth a nice 125 Gamer Points, sadly, I don't believe I have the skill to earn this Achievement on my own.

I also tinkered around a lot more with the Theatre and taking Screenshots. Overall, a very nice feature and a lot of fun, though my Screenshots didn't upload to Bungie's web site. Odd, as I thought they would, but perhaps you need an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership for that.

Mass Effect: Limited Collector's Edition at Future Shop

BioWare said it wouldn't be coming to Canada, yet Best Buy had it and now, Future Shop has it. You can order the Mass Effect: Limited Collector's Edition online only from Future Shop here for $69.99.

That's fair, American pricing, and had I known it would have been released properly in Canada, I would have waited instead of buying the standard retail edition shortly after launch date, which I bought in-person from Future Shop.

Oh well. I've barely played the game as of this typing and it really hasn't gripped me. So far, combat's felt clunky and the characters themselves seem rather generic. I hear the game gets better though, but at this point, I don't really miss not having the Limited Collector's Edition too much; leaves me a bit more shelf space and that's an additional $10.00 that Microsoft Game Studios won't be getting from me.

Nicer box art though.

Content Restrictions for Xbox Live Silver Members

This has me rather unhappy. I came home this past Tuesday evening looking forward to replaying BioShock with the new Ryan Industries Plasmids and Gene Tonics downloadable content that was just released over the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, only to find it blocked; Xbox LIVE Gold Members only.

At first I didn't understand what was going on, as its free content, however after a little surfing on the web, I found this post by Xbox's MajorNelson:


"Just a reminder that if you have a Silver account, you won’t have access to free content on the the Marketplace (like demos) when they are first posted. That content will be available to Gold level exclusively for one week, after which Silver members will have access to the free content.

The Fall update has a special message (above) to reflect this as well. If you have a Silver account and you see a piece of content that has a red circle with a slash through it (like the ‘Ryan Industries Plasmids and Gene Tonics’ content above) you’ll have to wait until a week after the content is released to access it.

This is not done to annoy our Silver members—limited time exclusive access to content is just one of the many benefits of having a Gold Xbox Live account."


Now, Microsoft has restricted content to Silver Members before, providing some content exclusively to Gold Members either permanently or for a limited time, but they've never standardized it with all free content before, and Gold Member exclusive content has always been announced as Gold Member only prior to being released.

While waiting another week for free content isn't so bad, I'm certainly not going to shell out the cash for a Gold Level Membership just for this, and such a quick, unannounced policy change is a real slap in the face.

With the new BioShock content, for example, PC gamers get it right away in their patch, Xbox 360 gamers with a Gold Membership get it right away, and Silver Members get shafted.

Thank you Micro$oft.

Xbox Live Video Store Comes to Canada

On Tues. Dec. 11th, Microsoft will be bringing the Xbox Live Video Store (formerly the Video Marketplace) to Canada.

There will be an assortment of feature films available in both SD and HD all at different costs (in Microsoft Points, of course), and television shows will follow soon afterwards.

Though I doubt I'll be using the Video Store much myself, this will only further the Xbox 360 as a central media hub for anyone's living room.

You can check out the full list of the Video Store's launch, as well as costs, right here.

Halo 3 "Marketing Blitz" Comic

The Staff sent this over my way, a hilarious comic by Ctrl+Alt+Del that deals with the mass marketing campaign of Halo 3. Enjoy!

New BioShock Title Update and Free Content

Great news for BioShock fans, Xbox 360 and PC gamers alike! Taken straight from The Cult of Rapture's main page:

"Both the BioShock PC Patch and the 360 Title Update will be available next week. In addition to these fixes, we will be releasing downloadable content free on both Xbox Live and for the PC, with the DLC bundled into the PC Patch. A full list of bug fixes and everything included in the DLC will be put up on the Cult of Rapture when the downloads become available."

The rumour mill I've heard is that the new content will be a few new Plasmids, which'll add some nice replay value to the game. It also looks like a new Achievement has been added to the Xbox 360 version, a Secret Achievement worth 100 Gamer Points. It'll be interesting to see if the rumour mill is correct on this one to, as the talk is it's supposed be awarded for completing the game on Hard without using any Vitachambers.

So long as this new Title Update doesn't screw up the game like the last one, this is some really great news!

AMP Energy, Truly a Drink for the Chief...

... 'cause only the Chief would be lucky enough to survive such an assault.

I was feeling tired Thursday afternoon, and instead of picking up my usual Fuelocity (go poor man's Gatorade!), I decided to try AMP Energy, the new energy drink that's being advertised everywhere and is endorsed by Microsoft Game Studios and Halo 3.

Well, if it's good enough for the Chief, it's good enough for me, right? Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Apparently a lot. I have never been this sick in a long, long time.

Shortly after chugging the tall can, it certainly hyped me up, but only for about half and hour, then I completely crashed. I could barely stand on my feet, had on and off dizzy spells, and sporadic shakes. It was like having the flu minus the fever.

What pisses me off is that I ended up missing a really great party. Got to the venue and I really wanted to wing it, but after another dizzy spell and nearly falling out of my chair, I knew I needed to go.

Got home and crashed for 11 hours, but only slept about 5. AMP Energy wired up my mind enough to keep me awake, despite the fact that I was exhausted at the exact same time.

And that's the end of my harrowing adventure. From now on, I'm going to leave such dangers to the Spartans and stick to my Fuelocity. AMP Energy is made by Mountain Dew, which in turn is owned by Pepsi, and since this was an absolutely awful experience I am going to email them a formal complaint, and I'm also going to avoid any Pepsi products in the future. The less of my cash they get, the better.

Xbox 360 2007 Fall Dashboard Update

This Tuesday, Microsoft will be releasing their 2007 Fall Dashboard Update for the Xbox 360, which will be automatically applied the next time you connect to Xbox Live after this point.

There's been a lot of talk over recent weeks about the Update's content, and now Microsoft has posted the full official details in an Overview right here.

A much more in-depth Full Features List can be found here.

Halo 3 "Journey's End" ViDOC

Bungie Studios has released their latest Halo 3 ViDOC over the Xbox Live Marketplace. Entitled "Journey's End," the ViDOC summarizes the Campaign events leading up to Halo 3, and is a nice little retrospective watch.

I do wish, however, that they would have explained exactly why the Grunts and Hunters were magically allied with the Covenant again...

Gears of War (PC) Title Update

At long last, Epic Games has released a Title Update (apparently they're not calling them patches anymore) for Gears of War (PC) that greatly improves the game's performance, which will be automatically downloaded the next time you connect to Live or you can download it the old fashioned way here.

As mentioned in my review of the game, Gears of War was poorly optimized for the PC, which continually resulted in a great deal of gameplay stuttering. With this Title Update, however, this appears to have been fixed.

I did several tests and the game has run beautifully smooth on my system's default settings (mainly Medium Video Settings), and I even dared to push everything up to High just for fun. On High Video Settings, Gears of War ran well with hiccups here and there, but ironically it was much smoother than I could run the game on Low Video Settings prior to the Title Update.

Be warned however that after applying the Title Update, my father's Checkpoint was somehow messed up, and he was forced to start where it loaded him, about halfway through Act II, when he was actually halfway through Act IV.

I'm not perfectly certain if this was the result of the Title Update or just a coincidence, but its something to take note of.

Epic Games has also posted details here on how to correct the stability issues when starting the game from the DVD's splash screen.

Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility Update

Microsoft has released the latest update to the Xbox 360's Backward Compatibility emulator software, allowing several more Xbox titles to be played on Microsoft's latest console.

You can find the details of which titles are added here, and the instructions on how to download the update here.

The Orange Box - Half-Life 2: Episode Two Demo (Xbox 360)

About a week ago, Valve Software released a demo of Half-Life 2: Episode Two which comes with The Orange Box (Xbox 360).

You can find it on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and until yesterday, I continually got a "Could not retrieve content from Xbox Live" error message every time I tried to download it, but it finally worked.

And one of these days, I'll get around to playing it.

Gears of War (PC) Review

Without question, Gears of War (Xbox 360) is one of the top titles to own for the Xbox 360 console. It provides gamers with great gameplay built upon a cutting edge graphics engine, and is a real adrenaline rush from start to finish. Now, one year later, Gears of War has made its way onto the PC, and not only does it feature the same great game that Xbox 360 players have been enjoying these last 12 months, but it also features additional Single Player content with an extended Act V.

Since the PC version is very much identical to its Xbox 360 counterpart, reviewed here, I'm not going to rehash everything I've already said. Instead, I'm going to focus on the exclusive PC content, and the overall quality of the PC port itself.

The PC version of Gears of War uses an enhanced version of the wonderful Unreal Engine 3, and for those of you with high-end PCs, you'll be able to play Gears of War on a level of graphical beauty that is not possible on the Xbox 360. When all's said and done though, a game's overall fun factor is more important than its pretty pictures, and the real trump card for Gears of War (PC) over the Xbox 360 version is the controls and how well they've translated over to a mouse and keyboard.

Like most other shooters, the mouse and keyboard is simply more precise than the Xbox 360's controller, particularly for tracking targets and for precision shooting. One problem I often had in the Xbox 360 version was with Wretches and dealing with them when they got in close. I would have to resort to Melee attacks because they were simply too fast to get a bead on when at point blank range, but with the quick response of a mouse, I can blast those pesky bastards no matter how close they are.

Another hitch with the Xbox 360 version was that the final Act of the game, Act V, started off rather strangely; it felt like the story had jumped forward just a bit and didn't flow perfectly from Act IV. Well, as it turns out, there really was a bit of the Act missing. Not just a bit, actually, as it looks like Epic Games cut out the first two thirds of Act V, and now the Act is presented in full in this PC version.

The main focus of the new Chapters of the extended Act V is restoring power to a bridge that Delta Squad needs to cross, climaxing with a final confrontation with the Brumak, the large bipedal monster that was advertised everywhere, but that players never got to combat in the Xbox 360 version.

Having just gone toe-to-toe with the Brumak today, I can say that he is the second most challenging boss in Gears of War, and was a lot of fun to fight. The rest of the extended Act V, however, was more of the same in terms of gameplay, and while there was a few cool moments, it didn't really enhance the story that much. Basically, if you already own the Xbox 360 version, the extended Act V alone does not warrant the purchase of the PC version of the game.

The PC version also suffers from the exact same God-awful Checkpoint save system featured in the Xbox 360 version, and was once again the cause of much cursing and swearing on my part. Unlike the Xbox 360 version, however, the Checkpoint system is not the game's fatal flaw, rather the quality of the port itself holds that honour.

In this earlier post here, I describe many of the technical problems I've had with Gears of War (PC). While Live was interesting and naturally very similar to Xbox Live, I had a very difficult time getting it to recognize my Xbox Live account. Not only that, but the game itself seems very poorly optimized, and is riddled with bugs.

Gears of War (PC) has constant stuttering problems, which can make that lovely precision shooting very difficult. Load times are long, there's a known crash bug if you start the game from the DVD's splash screen, and simply being logged into Windows Live has crashed the game numerous times. I've had lock-ups, crashes simply from pressing Esc to get to the in-game menu, and I've also heard of other people having sound issues, magically loosing save games, etc.

My system meets all of the game's system requirements, and actually exceeds most of them, so I should be able to play Gears of War smoothly on all the Low settings, but no, she'll still stutter along the exact same as if she were set to Medium. For that reason, I did play through the game on the Medium Video settings, and it overall looked like the Xbox 360 version.

In truth, for such a high profile title, I simply can't believe how poorly optimized this port is, and that's a huge, huge con for the PC version of Gears of War. The bugs, crashes, and issues with general playability are so bad, actually, that I can not recommend the PC version of the game over its Xbox 360 counterpart.

I'm telling you right now, if you don't yet own Gears of War and you can purchase it for either platform, I suggest the Xbox 360 version. Though possessing a few less Chapters, the game will play smoothly and you simply need to pop the DVD into your Xbox 360 and play.

The sloppy nature of this port is such a shame though, because beyond its problems, Gears of War (PC) is one hell of a fun game. The rush it gave me several months ago is still there, the glee I get from using the Chainsaw bayonet is as fresh as it ever was, and watching a Drone's head explode after a well placed sniper shot is a bloody treat.

If you don't have an Xbox 360 and you are looking to pick up Gears of War for your PC, I'd suggest waiting for Epic to patch the game first, as it sorely needs it. If they can smoothen out it's performance, than Gears of War will be the blast it was meant to be.

All Prey Single Player Achievements Earned

With the acquisition of the last Secret Achievement in Prey, I have finally collected every single Single Player Achievement available in that game, my 4th Xbox 360 title to do so.

Now the question remains should I keep Prey to play through again on a rainy day, as it was a lot of fun, or should I sell it and free up some shelf space?

StarCraft II - The Story So Far...

Blizzard Entertainment has released an official summary of the StarCraft storyline in anticipation of their upcoming RTS, StarCraft II.

Since most gamers today would have missed out on StarCraft around it's launch back in March 1998 (Damn I'm old), this makes a nice read, and they also included three of the classic cinematics. Haven't seen those in a long, long time.

Looks like they'll add the summary for StarCraft: Brood War soon as well, so head on over to catch up on your gaming lore.

Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack Release Date, Details, and Free Release Date

As many of you have no doubt heard by now, Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios have announced the first Multiplayer Map Pack for Halo 3, the Heroic Map Pack. The Heroic Map Pack contains three new maps, will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace on December 11th for 800 Microsoft Points ($12.40).

Full details can be found here, however if you look on Xbox's official Halo 3 page here, you'll see they also announce the official time frame that you'll be able to download the Heroic Map Pack for _free_.

That's right kids, 'cause only a fool pays for silly Multiplayer Maps.

World of Warcraft Commercials

Saw these over at ActionTrip, and I had to post them here.

Blizzard Entertainment has released some new commercials for World of Warcraft have come out, featuring none other than William Shatner and Mr. T. I pity the fool who doesn't beam me up!

Mass Effect Purchased

Yup, I caved and picked up Mass Effect. Basically what happened is I had a really shitty day on Wednesday, and when all was said and done, I figured that buying me something new and shiny would make me feel better.

It all started at 2:00 am on Wednesday when I woke up with an allergy attack, and no matter what I did I couldn't get myself cleared up. Since I was wide awake and out of allergy meds, I had two options: 1) Go back to sleep and continually wake up all disgusting like and get no rest, or 2) Drive to the closest 24 HR Shoppers Drug Mart and get some Reactine, thereby allowing me to clear my sinuses up and get a solid 4 more hours of sleep.

Since I was already awake, I choose option 2.

That all worked out (and the security guard eyed me real strange like what with my black trench coat and all), but I still felt like shit for most of the day. I also got pissed off when I checked on Best Buy's web site, only to find they _did_ have the online-only Mass Effect: Limited Collector's Edition, but of course by then they were all sold out. As far as I know this was the only place in Canada that the Limited Collector's Edition was available.

Well that night I decided to swing by Future Shop and buy the game, and the reason I choose Future Shop (aside from the fact that I needed to buy something for the office there), was because it came with a free copy of Superman Returns (Xbox 360). I'm not a fan of Superman, didn't see the film, and have no real interest in the game aside from being able to sell it and pick up a few bucks.

So how's Mass Effect? Couldn't tell you. I've only opened the case thus far to make sure all was well, which it is save the edges of the DVD appear to feel a bit sticky. Odd.

Superman Returns, however, controls like crap and is a real lame game, but I've been able to rack up a few quick Achievements to buffer my Gamer Score, so what the hell.

Too Many Games...

Bloody hell it's been a good year for gaming. I'm looking at my games library right now and all the stuff I still need to play through, and yeah, I'm going to hold off on Mass Effect; too much else to play through.

In no particular order, I've got the following on my entertainment plate:

- The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (Xbox 360). Want to play through it twice.
- Gears of War (PC). Both Hardcore and Insane difficulties.
- Halo 3 (Meta Campaign).
- Fable: The Lost Chapters (Xbox).
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (Xbox 360). Want to try it on Elevated Risk difficulty, as well as net the "Mission Accomplished" Achievement.
- BioShock (Xbox 360). Want to play through this one more time after the next Title Update, when the new Achievement is added.

Basically, I've got my hands full (with a controller) until after Christmas I think.

I Called It - Biggest Blockbusters for the Xbox 360

A while back, once I found out the release dates for BioShock, Halo 3, and Mass Effect, I called them as the big three titles for the Xbox 360 this year, and it looks like Microsoft Game Studios agrees.

The official Xbox web site has redesigned it's Xbox 360 (Hardware) section of the site to show off the three current configurations of the Xbox 360 console, and there's also three different videos, the first one, which loads and plays automatically, is entitled Biggest Blockbusters, and you guessed it, it features Halo 3, BioShock, and Mass Effect.

Check it out, as well as the other marketing videos here.

The Gears Keep on Sputtering... Why I Prefer Console Gaming

One marketing line I always liked from Gears of War was "The Gears keep on turning.", referencing that the COG soldiers, called Gears, were constantly fighting their fearsome Locust Horde enemies. Well, with the recently released PC version of Gears of War, it's more like they keep on sputtering.

While the gameplay of Gears of War (PC) is as spot on as it always was in the Xbox 360 version, and even more so with how well the controls have translated over to a mouse and keyboard (Wretches are so much easier to deal with when they get in close. Bastards.), the port is plagued with technical issues that really vary from system to system.

Simply installing the game off the DVD (which you naturally need to keep in the drive to play) took an hour. An hour long bloody install. Once that was done, it took me about another 45 minutes just to get Windows Live to recognize my Xbox Live Gamertag. So much for a simple transition on a universal system.

To resolve this, I ultimately had to go on the web, log into Xbox.ca, and while remaining logged in, I went back in the Windows Live Guide within Gears of War and created my Gamertag brand new, logging in properly after it recognized that the Gamertag was already in use. What a pain.

Onto the gameplay issues themselves. I have constant stuttering and frame rate hiccups in game, and while its playable, precision sniping is not going to be possible. I've tried everything to get the frame rate smooth, from dropping all the Video Options down to "Low," to editing several sections of the game's .ini file (the default settings detected for my system were all Medium). I have one more idea, to try and modify a sound setting in the same .ini, and if that doesn't work, I'll be forced to wait for a patch. Overall, I spent about another hour tinkering with the game's settings.

So that's nearly three hours spent overall dicking around just to try and play the game properly, while nearly a year ago, I was able to simply pop the Xbox 360 disc into my console and play. Back in the before time, the long, long ago, 3 hours was nothing and I could tinker and optimize to my hearts content, but today, when I'm married to my job, I don't have the time to waste on fixing something the developers should have optimized in the first place. I exceed all but one of the game's minimum system requirements, so I should be able to pull out a smooth frame rate, and this smacks of nothing but sloppy development.

And this is an excellent example of why, when all's said and done, console gaming is the superior choice for the average consumer. On Medium graphic settings, Gears of War doesn't even look much better than its Xbox 360 counterpart, so the only real advantage is the new content and the mouse/keyboard controls.

While I'm not saying that PC gaming blows and is always problematic, I'm simply saying that there's a simpler way to game for people on time constraints.

Sputter, sputter, sputter...


Update: So changing that audio option I thought of in the .ini file had no effect. What seems to have helped a bit was dropping my Desktop's Colour Quality down to Medium (16-bit). The stuttering is still there, but it doesn't seem to last as long.

Another annoying problem I'm experiencing now is a lot of lock-ups and crashes to desktop. I also had Windows Live cause one crash error on me, and I'm simply logged in and playing the Campaign.

This all started in Act II when you meet up with the Stranded, and now I'm on the section where you guide Dom past the Kryll with the spotlight, and it's crashing on me a lot.

Not very much fun.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360) Completed for the 3rd Time

Earlier this week, I completed what I wanted to accomplish with my third character for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360). I played a female Argonian, and mainly went through the Thieves Guild as well as the Dark Brotherhood Questlines.

I got to be bad >:).

I honestly wasn't too keen on the Thieves Guild. I found it often felt like the designers couldn't make up their minds as to whether they wanted the Thieve's Guild Quests to be stealth based or combat based, and this really took away from it. In the final Quest, for the very first time of countless hours of playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I actually had to drop the difficulty just to pass a certain part. Most unfortunate. I also began to find bounties annoying, as the people I needed to remove them simple weren't readily available enough.

The Dark Brotherhood Questline, on the other hand, was the single best Quest Line that I have played in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The guild itself has some great characters and an interesting back story, not to mention that the history of the Dark Brotherhood and their leader, the Night Mother, was rather gripping. The Quests were fun, well balanced, and had a nice variety of styles (loved the dinner party one), and for the first time in the whole game, you actually got to (sort of) see some children.

Through this playthrough, I also found that I really enjoyed Marksmanship, didn't like Lock Picking, and I really got to journey around so many other parts of Cyrodiil that I hadn't seen before. I also completed the Nirnroot Quest for the first time, which was actually rather simple if you take the time to explore.

I still wish that I could have sorted the Misc. section of my inventory a little better, but as always this was a minor annoyance.

This also marks the second Xbox 360 title that I've gotten a full 1000/1000 Gamerscore with, and even though I've completed every single Achivement that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has to offer, there's still so much of the game world left to explore, and much more to do. The truth is that even after a few more playthroughs with The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, I will never do everything that can be done in this expansive Single Player game world. Bethesda Softworks, my hat's off to you.

The Saturday Star Article: "Innovation Vaults Wii to the Top"

In today's Saturday Star, there's an interesting article that summarizes the current stand of this generation's console war, and why the Wii is sitting on top.

It's quite an interesting read, but in truth, it doesn't tell us anything that I haven't already been saying for the last half-year:

The Wii appeals to your everyday Joe with it's simple games and set up. The Xbox 360 is for the traditional hardcore gamer, like moi, and the PlayStation 3 is for Sony fanboys who still have their head up their ass. I mean seriously, look at the global sales figures. Silly Sony.

Spider-Man 3 How It Should Have Ended

With the recent release of the Spider-Man 3 on DVD, I thought it'd be funny to post this parody video which shows how the film _should_ have ended, aside from poking fun at the plot issues all throughout.

You can also view Spider-Man 3: How it Should have Ended on the official site here, or on YouTube here.

Mass Effect Launch Trailer and Screenshots

With Mass Effect only a few days away, BioWare has released a brand new launch trailer, and their official site has also been updated with some more screenshots.

The trailer is certainly nice, and the game's looking slick, however at this point I'm still going to hold off on buying it, as I just have too much else to play through, and not enough time to devote to something like an in-depth RPG. Well, except for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but you know, that's crack.

You can check out the trailer and screens on the official site's Gallery page here.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Officially Announced

Sierra Entertainment has officially announced the development of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, set as a sequel to the films from the '80's.

The game is being penned by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis to be set in the early '90's, and will feature the classic cast for voice overs along with a fifth Ghostbuster, you, the player.

You can read the news and check out some shots and a trailer at TeamXbox here, but by God, is this naustalgia heaven. I was obsessed with Ghostbusters as a kid, so you can bet this is a title that I'll be watching closely.

Xbox Titles Available for Download Starting December 4th

Microsoft Game Studios has officially announced that beginning on Tues. Dec. 4th, 2007, select original Xbox titles will be available for download to your Xbox 360 from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft Points.

Entitled Xbox Originals, you'll be able to download such classic hits as Halo: Combat Evolved and Fable.

The titles seem to suffer from the same minor issues that the retail versions have with the Xbox 360's emulation software, but this is no big deal considering the difficulties faced in emulated the Xbox's hardware.

The only major thing to note about these titles is the cost. 1200 Microsoft Points translates into $18.60, however you can still find these titles under the Platinum Hits label at, say, HMV for $12.99 to $14.99. Basically, you'd be paying an extra $5.00 or so to be disc free, which isn't worth it in my opinion.

If you can't find these titles thought and you want one or missed them when they were first released, this is a great option to experience some great titles from the past.