While visiting Gamespot today I came across a new Ace Combat 6 (UK) promotional video described as "Part one of a series looking at the history and making of the Ace Combat series." When I saw that description, I immediately thought of my video, Ace Combat Timeline.

Well upon viewing the video, it became apparent that all the footage from Ace Combats 1 through 5 was stolen from my video! While I'm sure it's legal through the TermsofService I agreed to, it's still lame. They couldn't even be bothered to grab some supplementary shots from Ace Combat Zero, which I was unable to include in my video. Get your own footage, Gamespot! :(

When I joined Xbox Live in mid 2003, the first thing I did was hop on the Moto GP Online Demo. Little did I know that the game would provide me hundreds of hours of entertainment, create some of the longest lasting friendships of my life, and still be my favorite racing game four years later.

In my first ever race, and my first ever session on Xbox Live, I remember viewing the experience as something just holding on by a single thread. I remember thinking of online gaming as something that could break at any moment, and was an extremely delicate and complex operation that could self-destruct at any moment. And I remember feeling a real sense of power in the fact that at any moment I could speak and 16 people would hear me. I remember someone named "Ninja Pimp" who was being very annoying. :)

Well four years later much of that excitement is gone, but somehow when I think of Moto GP I still consider it perfect. While I didn't realize the fact at the time, Moto GP was the kind of racing game I would still love to play today, if any developer thought a game could survive on such a simplistic model. For me, what makes Moto GP such a great racing game is the fact that the "hardcore" didn't count on their setup, or their specially crafted motorcycle to get them to the top of the scoreboards. The only thing that stood between the player and greatness was the players willingness to race lap after lap, trying the hardest he or she could to move up in the overall leaderboard. The game didn't have bike setups, which is why it all came down to racing skill, and manhandling the bike around the course, not the perfect tire pressures and other options all of today's semi-realistic racing gamesnow rely on.

But even such a perfect competitive environment wouldn't be complete without a way of ranking that makes sense. This is something that Moto GP is still completely unbeaten in. The scoreboards for the game were very simple. You had an overall rank, and a rank on each track. Ranking was all determined by best lap times. The overall scoreboard was all of your best lap times for each track added together. Yes, it's a simple system, but it also works extremely well. Who cares about things like ELO and other ranking systems games like Forza attempt to introduce? This is the way ranking in racing games should be done!

But anywho, Moto GP got so many things right, and does so many things better then any titles after it. I think the game has a special place in the heart of most early Xbox Live adopters, but to me Moto GP is perfection on so many levels, and the start of amazing friendships that I still have today. For the 5th anniversary of Xbox Live, thank you Microsoft. For the small price of just $49.99 a year you have given me so much more then I could have ever imagined.

My third Xbox 360 died last week. This has caused me to go back and play some Xbox classics, and one in particular, Midtown Madness 3, has really made me question why I still play games. I just put that game into my Xbox to find, unsurprisingly, absolutely nobody online. When my friends and I did play that game, we normally cruised in Washington DC, one of the game's two cities. Today, as I drive around the virtual environment, vacant and unpopulated, landmarks remind me of thousands of moments of sheer fun and joy. I think of glitches, insane game modes, crazy vehicles, impressive stunts, and moments I still don't believe actually happened. I think of buses with rabbits. I think of the people I played with. I think of the childish things I did. I think of the (typically) kind people there were to meet.

The sheer fun Midtown Madness 3 offered was incredible, but now, as I think about the Xbox 360 games I own, nothing even comes close. I now wonder what I'm still doing here. I wonder why I still "invest" so much. I wonder why not having a 360 is really beginning to agrivate me.

I have always said that if this wasn't fun anymore, I would just quit. But now it has reached that point, and somehow I'm finding it difficult to live without a 360 for a week. How pathetic am I.

For those of you wondering, Steel Battalion: Line of Contact is still alive and well!  We play every Sunday at 3pm EST!  Join us, and you could be in the weekly video.

Here are the latest weekly videos:

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Generally, when a game I've been looking forward to comes out, I immediately run out to the nearest store and pick it up. I always try to be the first one on my friends list to play it. It severely frustrates me when my friends are online, and I can't get the game yet.

But for one reason or another, this is not the case for Forza 2. It's strange because normally there is a sort of hype that builds with this kind of game. One where I can't stand not being the first of my friends to play it. But Forza 2 came out yesterday, I saw friends playing it, and I didn't care. And I still don't. Half of my list is playing the game at this very moment, and I still don't plan on getting the game this week.

For me, this brings up the question: What has changed? Has the importance of games in my life diminished? Simply: yes. I don't have as much time to play as I used to, but I still love to them. Only having an hour a night never stopped me before. I think I've become scared of the power games have over me. Forza 1 absolutely sucked away my life for a good three weeks. I fell to my knees on the brink of "addiction" and decided I didn't care anymore. And the same has happened with a number of games (including about two straight summer months of Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow). But it seems I'm starting to take that approach into games before I even start them. I'm going into the game already thinking that I don't care what my kill to death ratio is, or if I save the world. And that attitude is removing all the fun from games all-together.

Although I've always whispered this, I now fully realize that I really do enjoy getting excited about a game before its release, more than I do actually playing it. How stupid is that?

Check out my latest Steel Battalion: Line of Contact video.

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Also, check my post on steelbattalion.org for a download link.

Music: It's My Turn - Angelic, and Close Your Eyes - Robert Nickson.  Enjoy! 

When a developer wants to update/patch their game on the Xbox 360, they must submit the update for approval, and wait two or three weeks. Only after weeks of testing (and waiting in line) does the patch/update get rejected or approved and put online. For any normal game, that's the ridiculous, but necessary process it goes through.

But if it has anything to do with Halo 3, apparently it's put right on top of the list without concern for all the other games that have to wait a absurd amount of time. Yes. When the FREE download of the Halo 3 BETA doesn't work correctly, and it takes them less then 24 hours to patch.

I find that appalling. Microsoft is really getting on my nerves.

Since I purchased an Xbox 360 last summer, I praised Microsoft for the awesome gaming machine (despite three of them breaking on me) and the improved sense of community Xbox Live brought with it. But as of late, since the official announcement of the Elite, Microsoft has increasingly alienated me, and as of today, made me feel unimportant. It all started with the Elite.

Gigantic Mistake #1

When the Xbox 360 Elite was officially announced, I grew excited at the prospect of improved picture quality, DVD upscaling, and a much larger Hard Drive for all those Xbox Live Marketplace TV shows I've been eating up like crazy. But I had the question everyone else did. How are we going to transfer our downloadable content and game saves if we buy one? MS seemingly had all the answers (after launch and an extremely long process involving snail mail). However, that's also when we found out about nasty DRM issues with Xbox Live Arcade games, as well as Marketplace Movies/TV shows. While the issue with transferring Arcade games was already known to me, I was shocked to find out that the transfer cable didn't resolve the issue. That's when I decided I was never buying a 120 GB hard drive or Elite.

Ok, fine.  Exclude me from upgrading my picture quality. I'm over it. But I still can't get over how stupid I think the whole thing is. Why release a new version of your game system, if you are not going to allow old users to upgrade without headaches? And, quite frankly, bringing the price up to almost $500 puts it in Playstation 3 price range. Buyers who are deciding between the 360 and PS3 (with some consideration of price) now have less of a price gap to fall back on. I think the $480 price tag brings it right within PS3 range (even considering that they're doing away with the $500 version). 

Gigantic Mistake #2

With the announcement of the spring dashboard update, I almost completely forgot about the whole Elite issue. With Windows Live Messenger (WLM) being integrated into the Xbox 360, it was to open a whole new realm of communication possibilities. The other major improvements here and there are awesome, and adding a marketplace blade was a great idea. You're FINALLY able to view what game is in the drive (a featured touted before the console's launch in 2005), and two-hour long gamespot tournaments are much easier to handle when viewing on my 360. Great improvements all-around. However, the biggest feature of the update (Windows Live Messenger intergration) is simply broken for thousands of users.  If you created your account before your 18th birthday, you will not be able to use the feature at all (despite the fact that any 12-year-old can go hog wild on WLM installed on a computer). I turned 18 in December, and have been a paying Xbox Live subscriber for 4 years. But obviously, when I created my account, I was under 18. Therefore, my account will always be classified as a "child account." Previously, this only limited me from seeing the advertisements on the 360 dashboard. But now, with the update, this prevents me from using the biggest new feature.

I called Xbox support this morning, and they told me it was only a small issue and would be fixed "soon." Not in the next dashboard update. Well, guess what. According to Trixie (one of the Xbox Live people), the issue will not be resolved until the FALL UPDATE! Just because I signed up for Xbox Live 4 years ago, that means I have to wait until fall to use this feature? And they will NEVER be able to change my gamertag into a non-"child" account? I will never be able to cancel my Phantasy Star Universe subscription without my dad on the line? For as long as I live I will NEVER be able to see the advertisements on the dashboard? That's ridiculous!

 

To me, all of this indicates bigger problems at Microsoft. It's almost as if they really think they've already won the war. They actually think selling 10 million consoles makes them the winner. This is the kind of hubris Sony was showing just six months ago. And honestly, I can't support it. 

Well, I guess all I can really do (and, I hope, Microsoft) is put this behind me. I can't change it, and I won't pretend all the online petitions floating around can. I'm, more then anything else, disappointed. Four months ago, I thought this generation was all Microsoft's to have. But I guess that shows just how quickly things can change. Or at least my opinion. :)

I'm sure anybody who plays on Xbox Live could tell you that trying to play in a public room is a real b*tch. From horrible hosts who try to set up a 14 player game on their $20/month DSL line, little 5 year old kids, generally annoying people, or even the team killer, playing with people you don't know is almost always impossible. It seems that someone is always making noise. It's either the guy with the horrible staticy mic, the 5 year old, or the generally annoying person telling the little kid to shut up.

Earlier today, I planned on writing about how I had encountered almost no dicks in my public online experiences with Rainbow Six Vegas, but tonight all the dumb asses decided to come online or something. I was getting booted all over the place (for no reason), ran into a host who camped in the same spot every round and didn't even have a mic in, got no communication going with my team members, and my team kept getting pounded with insults after the slaughter of stacked teams. All the bad in the community came out tonight.

But other then that, I've had very few problems with people online in the game. Maybe it's just the audience the game and Team Survival attracts, but people have been generally very . . . dare I say it . . . nice! While almost everybody (including myself) should use their mic more for communication and coordination purposes, I'd much rather have little communication then b*tching, name-calling, or static.

Anyway, I should be getting my new HDTV tomorrow. Then I can shoot fools in all their HD glory!!

After getting a new 360, Gears of War, and Rainbow Six Vegas, I hooked up the box and put in Gears of War. I played through about half of act 1 before I jumped in a game of coop with Dark Killer and finished up the job. I wasn't very impressed with the GoW single player or coop, so I decided to hook up with a couple buddies to see what the multiplayer was about. And I must say, I was very impressed with the tactics and simplicity of the game. Somehow, Epic makes it so obvious and worthwhile to use a ton of strategy within the game. And it works great.

However, it wasn't until I popped in Rainbow Six Vegas before I realized what I was in for. The first thing I did was enter a Team Survival (basically team elimination) match to see what was going on. While I wasn't immediately thrilled, after a few games I could tell it had potential. The effectiveness of game-ruining elements added in Lockdown are downplayed, although they still feel intrusive. And while you have to gain rank and unlock guns/armor in P.E.C. mode, its not like those things effect the balance so much that its unbearable. A headshot is still a headshot.

It was only on day 2 when I started fooling around with the single player/coop, and gaining rank and still in Team Survival, that it all came together. For the first time, I felt that despite the new cover system, it still felt like Rainbow Six, and it was Effing awesome. Ever since then I've been playing Vegas like mad. I can't get enough of the awesome action. I'm not great at the game yet, but it's still a ton of fun. And I can guarantee you I'll be playing the game for a long time. Even if the buddies I'm currently playing coop with are not, I'll still be after the action which has held me in check ever since the personal demise of Black Arrow. Those moments, and that addiction is back!

One surprisingly cool element of Vegas is the ability to scan your face and put in on your in-game character. While it can be a little freaky to see yourself lying dead on the floor, it's still very cool. It's really kind of shocking at first to see yourself in the game. Particularly me, because I never realized how big my nose was before! lol

Here are some screenshots of various faces put in the game. Me: Dwraith: DaG-SaBoT:

Unfortunately, the game is not without its problems. In particular, the game seems to have very long loading times. It loads when you start it up. It loads into the multiplayer menu. It loads into a game lobby. it loads when you start the game. And occasionally, if the host changes the map before all the players who are loading the current map get into the room, it will load for at least 2 minutes before it tells you you've lost connection. It's pretty bad.

Anyway, don't plan on seeing me in Gears, Splinter Cell, Operation Flashpoint, and (maybe) even Steel Battalion: LOC for a couple weeks. I'm set! :)