I use to be a contributor to Megazone and Hyper during the "golden age" of gaming. Back then the industry was only starting to mature... in a pimply, spotty, adolescent kind of way. It was exciting, fun and I still regard that time to be the most rewarding period in my life. But as much as I hate to say it, print media is dead. I still buy the odd magazine to keep up with the current generation of gossip but I find that:

1) The games industry has become lifeless in that it's almost all too predictable. Hard to get excited about half the commercialised rubble being announced.

2) Internet is simply too cool to ignore. It's interactive, instant and is more adaptable to the viewers needs. I have fond memories of the 90's as I was contributing in a way most were not able to. But now everyone has a chance to be heard.

Hyper was a cool place to be in while Andrew and Stuart were at the helm. But their departure won't be the sole reason for the demise of Hyper (if it happens). The senior management must act now and get involved online in a way that they were once in the late 90's. Print's only saving grace is that it can be read while on the train/ bus stop/ can. But this is due to be replaced soon too!

I'm itching to buy a pinball machine. So while scrounging around the net I saw this little baby! Seems as though the Crocodile Hunter Pinball machine will be out soon. Shame no one carrys pinny machines anymore. I'd really want a crack at this table!

Click Here --> Steve Irwin Pinball Machine

Photo grabbed from http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhoran/291278554/ 

I've been bad. Real bad. Not coming online to my favourite site... well... Rotten dot com is a close 2nd but umm... getting side tracked again. Oh yeah... review. I've gone and bought Pinball FX off Live as I've been fangin' out for a decent pinny game on the 360 for a while now. Well... it's a decent simulator but not without some hiccups. But when I read the official Gamespot review I thought "man is he harsh!" and was compelled to get hands to the keyboard and get a review up and running. Well may I present to you my first review on an Xbox 360 game. Even if it is a download! LOL

I'm very pleased to see MS and Bungie announcing all this stuff over the last week or so. This makes me one very happy game head. For a while there I figured maybe this whole PS3 thing would take over the spot light too much and us Xbox 360 owners were forgotten about. But some real promising announcements have been revealed this week:  

Xbox Live will now join the Windows Live network

This means you could be playing a game or watching a DVD and all your Messenger buddies can now see what game your playing and send you a message. If you don't want to be disturbed (as the most common reaction to this has been "I don't wan't people nagging me while I'm watching a movie") you will be able to switch it off or there maybe a DND mode.

A new Joypad keyboard coming soon

The photo's of this puppy make it look like one really smick peice of hardware. It sits neatly in the under part of your controller and is so slick looking it'll have even Apple thinking "that's neat". I also just found out that any USB keyboard works in the 360. Something I previously didn't know. So where's the X360 browser Bill? I'll be picking one of these babies up.

Halo 2 Maps Launched Next Week

Some re-worked Halo 1 maps to be launched via the Extra Contents menu screen (not the Xbox Marketplace) for about the price of a coffee (to quote a stupid TV commercial shown here in Sydney).  My only gripe is that they didn't release the original Ice map. That map went off and is sorely missed. In fact why not just re-work all the original maps? Shame.

Regardless... I'll be downloading this down ASAP and so will my online Xbox mates.

Halo 3 Beta

In May the Beta is sent WIDE OPEN. But for a LIMITED TIME ONLY. So as soon as this is made available you should hop onto it as it's gonna be closed in June sometime and you'll have to wait for the finished product to play anymore. The Halo 3 preview video released this week looks wicked and has us all pumped up waiting to frag once again.

Dashboard Update

Next month also sees a big reworking of the dashboard. Well... little things but nice touches. Such as seeing what game is sitting in your CD tray without having to play it. Seeing how many Achievement Points you just earnt without needing to pause the game and a re-working of the Market Place. It will have it's own blade now. Sweet.

So that's about it. I'll be fanging out for H3 but till then... I've gotta drag out and play all these games I already own. Oh... and that's in between study time and everything else. Sheesh. Wish I was a kid again!

Those of you out there who are fortunate to own an Xbox 360 might wanna check this link out. If you're an Achievement hunter like me... you'll be wanting to know how to grab a quick, easy 1000 pts in a 4 hour sitting. Curious? You should be! 

Quote

1000 Xbox 360 Achievement Points in 6 hours

Well it's been yonks since I last dropped a blog into the Gamespot community. I'll be picking up on that hopefully soon. Need to get myself a laptop to render that. But in the meantime a quick re-cap on what's been keeping this little gamer happy since my last video blog entry.

In a word, Achievement Points. I knew that they sounded like a pretty neat idea but I had NO IDEA how addictive it would be to build up points, compare yours to your online buddies and taunt the heck out of them when they drop their game.

I've gone and made ammends with my NHL 07 Xbox purchase and bought the 360 one instead. Despite the graphics being oh so brilliant on it... I have to say that it's somewhat repetetive. Shame that EA always fail to acknowledge the Dynasty mode players and their need to have the season change with big events throughout the season. Shock news items to affect star players or something to track more individual stats as the season wears on.

Also just yesterday I picked up Advance Wars: Duel Strike for the DS. Just getting into it now and I gotta say... it was cool on the GBA but the extra effects and sound just add so much more to the experience. But more importantly from a gameplay point of view. The STYLUS just rocks! Being able to point to everything on the screen simply speeds up the game and makes it less of a chore to do what you need to get your moves out. The best news was that I picked it up for only $25! Bargain! Toys R Us has always been a good hunting ground for clearance titles that are way underpriced.

So to finish up. Sorry for the lapse. Too much... other stuff getting in the way and gaming itself has been a distraction as well. But I'll be adding more stuff soon. I may even get the urge to finish off those old reviews that I was suppose to carry out over a year ago!

Quick update to point you folks to my 3rd Video Blog. This time it's a surprising look at Xbox 360's "backward compatibility". You'll be surprised at how many titles in my collection didn't make the cut!

Click here to watch it!

Just a quick entry to note my recent saga with eBay. I won a hard fought auction to get Lunar: Complete Story (PSX) as I own the original Sega CD version and was always wanting to see the remake. Having recieved the parcel waiting notice I head down to the post office only to have my excitement dashed when I opened up to reveal a smashed cover... AND CD!

Luck would have it that it was only the soundtrack CD that copped the hit but as a collector, this was a blow as the art work is ruined as well.

There was no insurance offered but in all fairness I never requested it either. But packing the CD case in a post pack (bubble wrap cover) was not enough. So lesson is: Always request Insurance & demand a cardboard packaging to secure your prize win/ purchase.

After handing out the hard earnt and then parting off from the shop with my newly prized 360 my first impression was "damn this beeyach is heavy!" as it broke the plastic bag it came in! After carting it home I got to the task of unpacking it. Gotta say it's the biggest console packaging I've seen since I bought a Mega CD back in the day. I was impressed with the fact that Microsoft have included most items needed to get play underway. Remote, wireless controller, one big mutha of a power pack and plenty of other gizmos. The fact that they include Energizer battery's instead of some hack Taiwan bootleg power cells didn't go unnoticed.

Being able to plug the optic 5.1 straight into the 360 via the AV plug was something of a bonus that was a sore point with me last time round. Xbox was always advertised as a 5.1 unit and to find you needed to outlay a further $60 was a slap in the nether region when all you wanted was out of the box in your face action. But it seems enough of us complained to make M$ get it right this time. So after having all the jacks in place I power up. No more bang bang bang start up screen. A nice simple bing and I'm faced with setting screens. I had to fiddle about with my wireless adapter (DWL-G820) but a simple power cycle sniped that problem in the butt.

So I'm now up and running and connecting to Xbox Live, my favourite single most thing about the whole Xbox eXperience. Getting my profile ported over was a sinch. Rather than the dicky Credit Card verification method I simply needed to use my Windows Live sign in. Cool. Since I use that often I knew the password's etc off by heart. Once I signed in everything fell into place.

I then hooked in my webcam which I purchased as a headset came with it (but not with the 360 itself tsk tsk). Once I plugged that in the dashboard changed ever so slightly. My image was in a watery mess in the background as a nice touch. Well done R & D. Subtle but slick utilisation of the cam. After sorting that I now wanted to get online with Halo 2 (afterall we did refer to the Xbox as "that Halo machine"!). Downloading the maps was gonna be a bother so I remembered I bought the Map Pack DVD and got that installed. Got into my first game and found that the voice with the 360 headset was a little more rough on my end but other users stated I sounded clearer. Strange indeed. I also had probs with the forementioned wireless adapeter. Seems the 360 is a little more greedier with data traffic so I had to stop and re-config to speed the DWL-G820 up in "Turbo G" mode.

Right so that's the Live side sorted out. Lets play Kameo. Yawn. Eject. Maybe I gotta give it time but it seemed like a chore to play this right now. So I leave it for another day. I then hop back in to see what this new console of mine can do. I head to market place. Buy some M points or whatever they're called and buy Bejewelled 2. Yeah I know Streetfighter 2 was there but I'm hooked on this puzzle thing! Played that but didn't earn any gamer points.

So sussed all that out but what about this streaming music thing? So I head to the Windows Media section... follow the prompts and although I don't have Windows Media Centre I still manage to send music from my Wi-Fi to my Hi-Fi thanks to my wireless router network I have in my house. Looks like that Logitech Music Anywhere bluetooth music streamer is out of a job! I couldn't believe how easy it was to get the music from my PC to the 360. The visualiser looks fantastic with the webcam throwing in a surprise or two with some creepy effects when I moved. But the lack of a shuffle or random feature is a bit of a concern unless I have plain missed it.

I also watched some video's streamed to my telly and it all looked good in widescreen. Photo's come up surprisingly clear as well! So overall they score highly for the media aspect of this machine which goes way beyond expectations in music management. Even simply displaying music titles despite not being online was a big surprise to me.

So after some Red vs Blue on Marketplace, getting my first accomplishment points and watching a DVD that wrapped up my first day with the 360. Overall I am keen to see what other surprises Microsoft have in stall for what promises to be a great console for years to come. I'm stoked.

Of course I'll be updating this blog with any new problems or good surprises that come my way so keep an eye out for that!

After many hair brain schemes and scams trying to figure out the cheapest way to get a 360 I've finally gone and done it! I'm the proud new owner of M$'s cash cow. Complete with a camera as well. So expect a few blogs ranting and raving about what rocks and sux about the new generation gaming experience.