The Best of the Best

Happy Friday. And to celebrate, I'll be spending some quality time with Half Life 2: Episode 1. I've only had the chance to spend an hour with it, but what an hour! It's the same great Half Life 2 action you love, but with so much dense content that it's ridiculous. The first 5 minutes alone are brilliant.

This is Valve's first foray into episodic content and I think some people don't get it. The whole point of episodic content is shorter but denser games at reduced prices. Many reviews are giving Episode 1 the scores it deserves, but all knock the game for its five or so hours of gameplay. That's the whole point. It is supposed to be that short. That is why it is twenty dollars. Plus, those five hours probably have about as much content as a 10 hour game with out filler such as backtracking or endless waves of enemies in the exact same room over and over (cough, Halo). I've paid over twenty bucks for movies less exciting than this. Far as I'm concerned, this is a much welcome direction in gaming.

The Nintendo DS Lite has apparently been released early at some locations. Normally, I'd be right out there rushing Walmart with the other hardcore folks, but I decided to hold out for that dark blue DS Lite. My old DS still works, so hopefully it won't be much of a wait. Still though, it will be a tough period, especially if someone I know shows up to my house with a bright white DS Lite.

In what I feel to be a strange yet pleasant surprise, IGN is relaunching their Dreamcast section. They are re-reviewing every Dreamcast game and ranking them accordingly. A nifty way to revisit what I feel to be one of the greatest consoles created. As they have said over at IGN, the Dreamcast didn't fail, we failed the Dreamcast.

Lastly, word is that a new backwards compatibility update will soon be released for the 360. The who BC issue has been hot with the 360 since well before it's release. Quite frankly, it's getting tiring. Backwards compatibility is one of those features that is important for about the first 6 months of a console's life cycle. After that, fewer and fewer people need it every day. Do I enjoy it? Sure. It's nice to be able to play Halo 2 right from my Xbox 360. It's just convenient. But you know what? My original Xbox still works fine and is hooked up in my bedroom, Live and all. I never used my PS2 for PS1 games, and I played GBA games on my DS for about a week before I realized it was just more comfortable to use my SP of my Micro when I got it. It's just one of those features Sony has convinced the world they need, when they really don't. It must also be remembered whereas the various Game Boys and the PS2 actually contain the old hardware for the previous generations, the 360 is running purely on an emulator. We only just got the SNES and Genesis running smoothly on PC emulators and there are still problems there. So imagine trying to do the same for a console that was released 4 years ago. It's going to take time. So don't worry, don't throw out your Xbox, and instead enjoy the great 360 games that are being released. That's why you bought your 360 in the first place.

The podcast may be a bit late. I'm home now for a garage sale and not sure if I'll be able to get access to recording equipment tonight. I'll get it up this weekend ASAP. Until then, I'll talk to you later.

Why I Love the 360

Today I just had some of the greatest fun I've had playing online for some time now. It wasn't World of Warcraft or G.R.A.W. or anything like that. It was Uno.

Yes, that card game that is now in its 35th year of existance. I played it online with a few folks after downloading it off of Xbox Live Arcade and I had a blast. It was a simple, fun game that actually facilitated some decent conversation and communication with total strangers (as opposed to something like Halo 2 where I have some 12 year olds telling me details about my mother). So in summary, I highly recommend Uno for the 360. Give it a download (a mere $5) and maybe I'll see you on Live.

This brings me to my next topic. I love the Xbox 360.

Call me a fanboy, but this system is just great. Its controller is near perfect, its wireless functions are flawless (more on those in a sec), and the interface is revolutionary and about to get better.

I was listening to Major Nelson's Blogcast form a few weeks back and there was an interview with the fellow in charge of Xbox accessories. It is amazing how much these people actual pay attention to what gamers want/need. It always seems like game companies don't even use the products to see if something is broken. Here's my example. When I saw the 360 HD-DVD add-on would use a USB port, I thought, "Well that kind of breaks the way the wireless adaptor clips on the back." But our friends at Microsoft have put that same clip along with additional USB ports on the back of the HD-DVD add-on. It seems a little thing and people won't even notice it, but they sure would if it wasn't there. And soon we are to be blessed with a wireless racing wheel with rumble and force feedback. Also, we'll be getting a wireless headset, which should be fun. And lastly, we'll be getting the Dashboard update (hopefully) soon. Yay for MS!

Still kinda slow news wise, so sorry that this is more of me ranting on what I love about my Xbox. But at least Half Life 2 - Episode 1 hits tomorrow, so that should give me something to talk about once I get it (may not happen right away, but soon). Til then, I'll talk to you later.

I Guess Game Devs Get Today Off Too

So, yeah. I said I'd do a post, but frankly, there isn't much to write about. Nothing happened really. But try I shall.

I guess the big news is that the Xbox 360 Dashboard update is due sometime in the next week. I'm pretty stoke. Granted, most of what it fixes should have been there day one, but better late than never. Aside from the download manager and boot to dashboard options, I'm actually fairly glad that non-game related videos will show up in the videos menu of media and be seperate from the game trailers. I never could figure out exactly how one would have gotten content into that video menu in the first place. Though that soccer thing in there is pretty cool.

Of course, now is the time to begine our wish list for the Fall Update. The ability to create themes and not just paste the same wallpaper to every blade? Streaming video for things such as the E3 Press Conferences or trailers you just want to see, but don't want a 120mb download for? The possibilities are endless.

Episode 1 of Half Life 2 will be bestowed upon us this week. I look forward to that. I was considering purchasing Sin: Emergence but with such close proximity between that and the extension of the greatest FPS ever made, I decided to save Sin for the late summer draught.

Lastly, I think I'll be picking up Uno once I make my glorious return to Pittsburgh tomorrow. So if you're on Xbox Live and want to deal the cards, hit me up. Again, I hope you all had a fun holiday. I'll talk to you later.

Change in Podcasting Plans

Hey, gang. Here's what I've decided. Every Saturday there will be a new audio blog as a week in review. Every first of the month, I'll make a video podcast month in review. As such, there will only be the one feed, so if you subscribed to the audio or video only feed, please change to the all inclusive feed. It will show up on iTunes soon as well.

And by the way, why is it that in Tiger Woods 2006 for 360 that whenever you shoot a high shot to the green, the camera points straight up, rather than to the stick so you can decide on your spin? Did the devs play this game before shipping it? Oh well.

I hope you're all having a splendid Memorial Day. I think I'll get a formal post up tonight. I'll talk to you later.