Well since I have been a 360 owner for almost 3 weeks now and I have had the chance to exprience Xbox Live and comment on other 360 related things, I feel now is a good time to do it.

The console

The 360 is a very good console and it is nice and powerful, I had some concerns, when I first got it, because of the horror stories about the overheating, I check the back of my 360 quite often by putting my hand to the back of the console, to see if I can feel any abnormal heat, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I have had a couple of games on GRAW on Xbox Live freeze on me, but outside of that, the 360 has ran perfectly, I was not too alarmed by it though

The Controller

The controller is very nice, it is very comfortable, it is easy on your wrists and it allows your wrist to rest easy. I also like the position of the left analog stick much better, then the Playstation controllers, because having 2 Analog sticks side by side is just pointless

Having the Left Analog stick in a more reachable spot is very nice, it just feels more natural and does not require as much finger movement

The other thing, that I like about the controller a lot are the Triggers, because they are used as the main things to fire your weapon or drive your car or whatever and being able to rest your hands easily and not having to move your fingers from that area to use your weapon is nice. It just feels more natural

Xbox Live and my exprience with people on it and what improvements need to be made

I never realized how much fun playing games online is, until I got my 360, since I never played games online before that and Xbox live is a world class online service.

It is very easy to use, being able to download demos and content like videos and downloadable content, that you can add to your games, that enhances them

One thing that is really cool about Xbox Live, is it is setup like an Instant Messenger, like when you are online with Xbox Live, you can tell what your friends are doing, like what game they are playing and what area of the game and if they are downloading something or are they playing a demo.

You can invite your friends to games, much like you send somebody an Instant Message on the computer, it has voice and text chat and private chat

Since I have GRAW my only game right now, the gameplay options with Xbox Live on this game are loaded, every kind of gameplay, that you want is there in a Third Person Shooter and you can search for the kind of match that you want to play and it is easy to find and you can create your own match and host it and pick all the gameplay options

My exprience with people on Xbox Live 

it has been a very positive one, I have got to play with a couple of people from the forums on Gamespot on GRAW and I have met a lot of cool people on Xbox Live, of all ages and played with people from all over the world, from the US to Canada, Mexico, England, France, Germany, Switzerland and so on

I have made a few very good friends on Xbox Live so far my age and I love getting to play GRAW with them and talk about various things

You can generally expect a mix of crowds from everywhere depending on when you play. Like for instance, if I decide to play in the early morning hours, you will find a lot of British and Europeon players online playing and you will find some Americans on in the early morning hours. Generally as the day gets longer around 11am, you start to see more Americans play and that continues through the day and you have a good mix and people from around the world to play with

Generally in the evening hours, like early on you will get a fair amount of adults and teens to play online with and later on in the evening, you tend to get less kids and more adults, you do not have as many British and Europeon players in the evening, but you do have some night owls from over in that part of the world, that stay up really late and play

Now I know that some of you, hear stories about a few people having bad expriences on Xbox Live, I have encountered a few inmature punks on there, but nothing that is too bad. So when you hear the crap about Xbox Live is full of inmature punks, take that with a grain of salt, because most of the people, that I have met are mature adults and a few teens are cool also

You have to remember that the bad expriences on something like that will always make more noise, then the good stuff on there, because the media and people in general love to find the negative in things and exploit them and dig up any kind of dirt on it

What improves need to be made to Xbox Live

Well given the fact, that I have only played 1 game on Xbox live so far, I can only speak from limited exprience on this, but when I have been on GRAW and I want to play Co-op Terrority or other Co-op modes, sometimes you will exprience horrible lagging problems, especially if there are too many people in the match or the servers at Xbox live cannot handle it or the host does not have enough Bandwith to host the match

I have had the most problems with the lag in the late morning to early afternoon hours and in the late part of the evening, I have not had as much of a problem with lagging, though the host of the match, that I play with, his matches hardly ever lag out and crash

All of the other modes on GRAW work, just fine but the Co-op stuff is what you fill find the most lag with and that sucks for me at times, because I love to play Co-op

Well that is it for now, but in the future as I get more games from different genres and get to exprience more things on Xbox Live and the 360 in general, I am sure there will be a second chapter to this blog in a few weeks

Well yesterday evening on August 1st at 6pm, I officially became a 360 owner and I am happy with my system so far and I am looking forward to many great games coming out between now and the end of the year for it.

I bought the 360 premuim at Best Buy along with their 2 year warranty, so if anything happens to my 360, it goes back to Best Buy

I bought the Plug and Play Charge kit and I bought for my first and only game so far Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

I played the game a little bit on Xbox Live Tuesday evening, I was horrible at the game, I will be the first to admit, I need a lot of practice at this game and I plan on playing it a bunch over the next couple of weeks and trying to get better at it

I did an old habit of mine, when I picked my 360 from Best Buy, they had a huge skid of 360's in one aisle and there was around 40 to 45 on the skid. So when I picked my 360, I reached to the one on bottom of the stack to the far left, they were stacked 5 high, so I reached for the one at the very bottom and moved the others out of my way

I am superstitious when it comes to that stuff, I seem to think, that always picking stuff at the back or the bottom is better, because less people have handled the ones at the bottom of the stack, I do this quite often to, when I am buying a Game or Blank Media or Groceries or just about anything for that matter and never had a problem with any of it so far. lol

My Gamertag is Rvdecwthug on Xbox Live

During the last couple of months, I have been craving a 360 and I am proud to announce at the beginning of September, I will have one by then as long as no strange things that pop up to keep me from getting one.

I was very dediciated to getting the PS3 at Launch, and while I still do want a PS3 at Launch, if it is possible, it is not a make or break thing for me anymore, meaning I will be content to own a PS3 in the first half of next year.

When I look at the games, that Microsoft has coming out, there are 2, that I really want and I must confess, these 2 games and other games are causing me to have 360 fever right now

Test Drive Unlimited and WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 07 have simply swayed by decision to get a 360, giving the fact that neither are coming to the PS3 right now, that has made my decision

Earlier this week, when it was announced that WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 07 was announced that it would only be on the 360 as a next gen console and not the PS3, and given the fact, that I am a huge Wrestling fan and I have been one for 20 years and with what Xbox live offers with their online service and a next gen console, it is a dream scenario

I mentioned Test Drive Unlimited, I started to have Goosebumps a few months ago, when I heard about this game at E3, I played the original Test Drive 20 years ago for the Commodore 64 and some of my best gaming memories as a kid came from that game and the thought of being able to play this game on a next gen console with a good established online service was something that was really urging me to get a 360, even before the news of what happened to Smackdown Vs Raw 07 for the PS3, I have been wanting a 360 really bad and now I have a good enough reason to justify getting it

Also I look at other games coming to the 360, that are really good

Tiger Woods 07

Dead Rising

Gears of War

Saints Row and along with my 2 games, that I talked about in detail above, it is simply too much to pass up and ignore any longer and I cannot fight the feeling

No longer can people say that the 360 will not have the games, because starting next month, the 360 has a long line of games beginning to roll out between now and the end of the year

When I buy my 360, I am only going to buy it from Best Buy, because of their optional 2 year warranty, which is hassle free and if I am going to invest a lot of money into a console, I should give it the best insurance possible and a good warranty does the trick

Well as of today, July 21, I officially turn 30 years old.

There is always a part of you, that hates to get older, especially when it comes to putting a Zero in your birthday, but when so many other people have problems, I really cannot complain

Though this birthday was fast approaching for me and it got here really fast and now just under 4 months left till the Launch of the PS3

My birthday always falls during le tour de france, which is an event, that I love to watch

It always falls on what is considered to be the hottest time of the year, according to weather meteorlogists, the last 10 days of July are suppose to be the hottest of the year

Ok the title of the blog is misleading at first, but there is a reason behind it

I logged onto Gamespot today around 5p, and the first thing in my PM box, that I see is a gamespot TOS violation for something that I posted 5 days ago

At this time, much of the US is under an intense heat wave during the month of July, where the tempertures are hot almost everywhere, so what does a gamer with no life do to pass his time, when it is too hot outside to do anything?

Well some troll decided today, that it was too hot to do anything outside, so they decided to scan through the pages of the PS3 forum today looking for trouble and they ran across a message of mine that they did not like, that was 5 days old. Whoever the person is that found a 5 day old thread has no life and nothing else better to do

I am ready to declare a war, if some stupid troll wants to play hardball like this on Gamespot and the forums, then I am ready to fight back also and if I even sense that somebody is trying to report me, I will hunt that person down and find every post in their posting history to make their life a living hell on here

Fanboys are something that many people are and the people that are not fanboys, tend despise them, but when it comes right down to it, we all have a Console preference and that makes us Fanboys in a way, even if we do not admit it

That being said, Fanboys have many things in common with the War in Iraq and the people that are feuding there, like the War in Iraq, Fanboys are divided into Factions and they will do everything possible to promote their cause and will do anything to say or down the console, that they cannot stand and will glorify their own Console of choice like it can do no wrong.

Fanboys are very ruthless and they have little or no regard for anybody else and their opinions and they spread their hatred far and wide.

Iraq has 3 different Factions and all 3 Factions will do anything to promote their cause and show total hatred for the other factions and will kill and do anything to destroy them.

Gaming Fanboys are the same way, there are 3 different Factions of Fanboys, they all promote the same causes, you have the Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Fanboys.

They all love to troll and invade the forums of the Console that they hate and will be as disruptive as possible and the Fanboys of the Console in that forum, that they are defending generally love to feed into their garbage and simply do not know how to ignore them and therefore it creates total chaos, it happens in all the system forums and the hostility is very good, often times resorting to the worst of name calling and feuds turn very personal.

Every Fanboy becomes very hypocritical when they are defending their prefered Console, like often making accusations, that the trolls are fanboys from a Faction, that hate the console of choice in that forum and that is not true always, because often times, the worst trolls and fanboys are the ones of their beloved platform

I mentioned Earlier 3 factions in Gaming and the War in Iraq. It like this here are the 3 factions

S**tes, are like the Sony Fanboys, because they have the most popular Console and will say anything to defend their console and believe the Brand name of Sony will always stand strong and defeat the other ones

Sunnis, are like the Microsoft Fanboys, because like the war in Iraq, they are the second largest faction and they are the ones, that get the most attention in the PS3 forums, when they decide to invade, because they want more then anything else to see Sony self destruct and will stop at nothing until it happens or until their console self destructs

Kurds, are like Nintendo Fanboys, they tend to be less destructive and are very loyal to Nintendo and they always live off the past glory of their console and believe Nintendo will never die and that Sony or Microsoft can never put them out of business and they refuse to believe that their choice of Console, needs new innovations and they cannot continue to live off of past Glory and will support them no matter what, even though they are in desperate need to get in touch with the main gaming audience

I am not defending any Consoles Fanboys, I am just stating that all Fanboys are just as bad as the other, when it all comes right down to it and when there is an invader, it is much like the factions in Iraq and that there are Foreign Fighters, who will invade no matter what to be a pest and spread their hatred and show no regard for anybody else

I have been active on the System wars forum on gamespot, the last day, it is amazing, how much stupidity is bred on that forum.

I have never seen so many teens and adults, bicker like little kids on the playground

As far as who's side, I am on? Well check my posting history on my profile under Contributions Forum posts to find that out

But all of this gloom and doom prophecy needs to end, I have my favorite console, just like everybody else has, but I still respect the other ones and there is no need to fight and feud over it

I definality feel that since E3, when the price for the PS3 was announced, the forums on Gamespot have taken a turn for the worse with all the flamebait and trolling, especially on the PS3 and System wars forum

This weekend, I made an upgrade, I decided to try Gamespot complete and I must admit, I wonder now, why I decided to commit $40.00 towards it and no chance of a refund in sight.

My exprience trying to download files with it on Gamespot has been a disaster so far, I keep getting downloads, that are only half finished or they stop before the actual download completes and I get this message after the file has downloaded saying, the file is corrupted

The main reason why I bought Gamespot complete was for the live E3 coverage and to get the Hi Defination Game Trailer movies, of PS3 games and after my exprience so far, I remain very skepitical about this whole thing.

I wonder right now, should I have went with IGN Insider for 1 year, which was $20.00 cheaper and has better magazine subscriptions, that they offer, as opposed to Gamespot, which offers you the choice of Magazines, that have nothing to do with gaming and are more expensive

If Gamespot fails me with a faulty E3 coverage feed and fails to let me download Trailers of the event properly, then they have lost a customer forever

Well here we are today, April 2 and we are embarking on the start of Spring, which means warmer weather, the trees and the flowers will start to bloom and that should be a sign of light for us

Since today is April 2 and Sony has announced a Worldwide Launch of the Playstation 3 in Early November, and there are 2 probable Launch dates for it, November 2 and 9, both dates fall on a Thursday and Sony always releases their Consoles on a Thursday, so we could be exactly 7 months away from the Launch of the  Playstation 3 today.

You know, I visit the Playstation 3 forum on Gamespot quite often and I post there quite often, and I hear people on their complain that 7 months is a long time to wait.

I could not disagree more, because 7 months is not that long to wait. I should know, I am 29 and I will be 30, July 21 about halfway between now and the Launch of the PS3. So for me the 7 months left till the Launch of the Playstation 3 will go very quickly, I guess partially, because I will be 30 and I hate to put another 0 in my birthday, I have not had to do it for almost 10 years now, so to have the PS3 Launch after my 30th birthday is kind of bittersweet for me.

The reason why it is bittersweet for me, is because I hate the fact, that I will be 30 this year and I have never got a Console at Launch before and I have not been this excited about getting something around the Holiday season for a long time now. I honestly feel like a kid again, because having something to look forward to around the Holidays like that is something, that should give anybody great joy.

So far all the news and signs from Sony have been very encouraging about the Playstation 3 and I look for us to have a great console and I hope that everybody who truely wants the Playstation 3, will be able to get one at Launch and everybody can be happy.

Today also marks 2 other events, the 1 year anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul the second, I will never forget where I was, when he died and the powerful impact, that he had on the world, such a great and brave man, who encouraged everybody to be better human beings and to love God and be strong in the face of adversity of criticism

The other thing that is marked today is Wrestlemania 22, which is happening right now in Chicago, I wish I could have ordered it on Pay Per View today, but that was not meant to be

Well the months and the days are numbered till the Launch of the Playstation 3 and I cannot wait