Since my 360 has been out I've been having to get my Halo fix from the only PC edition of Halo that I own. I've spent a large amount of time with it over the weekend and I must say, I am both very pleased to have it and very frustrated at the same time. I want to expand a little more on the PC port VS the original console. There are some things that are changed for the worst, some things that have changed for the better, and some things that didn't change at all. I'll break them down into the good and the bad, and if you have played the console you can just figure anything left out is largely the same.

There are lots of things I enjoy about my PC version of Halo 2. One is of course, that I don't need my 360 to work to play it, but thats all I am going to say on that. The second thing I really enjoy is that it is the only computer game I have that I can be on and still be connective to my Xbox Live friends. It might not be a perfect implementation, obviously I can't join someone who invites me to a 360 game, but it works about like I expected. Another thing I really enjoy are the achievements. I really feel pushed to finish the game on legendary even though it is super hard. If you check my gamer card you will see that I have been able to unlock most of the ego boosting awards and I plan to continue until I've finished off the rest. For the multiplayer, there are also tons of maps and a map editor all included with the retail package. One thing Microsoft did with this game that was smart was to allow online play with a free Xbox live silver account. So, most people who own the game at least play online occasionally. There are a few other slight improvements, such as the video quality has also been slightly improved, fixing the widescreen bug on the console, and added keyboard/mouse support. Neither of these are a big deal for me since I have an old 19" 4x3 CRT Monitor and I generally stick to the gamepad (I know I'm such a console gamer).

There are downsides to the PC version though. Matchmaking and ranked play are completely gone. This would sound like an improvement to people who are fond of the PC lobby system, but it isn't. If you enjoy playing any of the non-slayer games, like I do, you will be frustrated at the inability to play any of them. No one will join your Oddball, King of the Hill, Territories, or Juggernaut games no matter how long you wait. It just sucks. This problem is further compounded by the very small number of people playing on PC. Usually, you can still have fun, but not as much if there were a larger instal base. Further, there is no record of your matches and no way to compare your skill to another players. Like I said before the ranking system is gone and so is the compatability with bungie's website. There really is no way to tell if you're getting better at the game or if the people you're playing against just really suck. Many players online do not have voice chat and there is limited interraction online beyond the matches themselves. Given the notoriously annoying 15 year olds who obsessivly play Halo, I think I may actually enjoy that one, but it doesn't help your team stay organized in a CTF match (not like it really matters though because there is no ranking). The final problem is no co-op campaign. Why?

Anyway, there is a probably a more detailed run-down than anyone wanted to know. It is hard to say that the pluses out-weigh the minuses. I'm not sure that they do. I would have liked to have seen a little more, given the long delay of the PC release. It also costs more for just the game, so if you already have an Xbox or Xbox 360 then I would say go for the original (even without the achievements). Still, I don't feel like its a bad game at all and although there are some obvious ways it could have been improved, such as online and LAN co-op on campaign, I think the game is still a good value. If anyone doesn't have a console and wants a taste of Halo, Halo 2 PC is a good place to start. I'll be hoping for a better job on Halo 3. We all know it is coming.

I thought my Xbox 360 was beyond the problems that other people have had. I took great care of it and had no previous inclinations of any trouble. Well, now it is dead, subject to Microsoft's "Three blinking red lights" (more commonly known as the Red Ring of Death). I can't really say that I'm angry, although I am saddened by the fact I'll be seperated from my 360 for at least a month. Unlike some people have complained, the call center reps was as helpful as I could expect them to be. The had me run through some troubleshooting to figure out if it was the hard-drive or the power supply and it wasn't either. So they put out the order to have a box sent to me to ship it to them. I guess I'll be on Halo 2 PC more for a while. Hopefully I'll be back on 360 soon.

Fear the Reaper!

So before all of you start going off talking about the Zune, I want to let you know I actually own one. I have the 8GB (Red) 2nd generation Zune and I like it a lot. The new Zunes put up some welcomed competition to the market stiffling iPod. Though there are a lot of things I like about the iPod, I'm not a big fan of iTunes. I also considered a Zen (creative), in case you were wondering, but I bought a Zune.

Anyway, The Zune is an MP3 player made by Microsoft in attempt to take some of the portable music player market share currently held by Apple. The 1st and 2nd generation products have been good, but have failed to draw any attention away from Apple's moneymaking iPods and iTunes Service. While the Zune players and Zune Marketplace would have some features missing from the competing Apple players, they have several problems on their own. For example, Zunes have abbuild in FM tuner that is missing from the iPod, but curiously lack compatability with playforsure services, like MSN music (curiously enough). Also, the recent update to the Zune software, also called Zune, tried, and I believe succeeded, in simplifing the interface and making the software a little more friendly. However, while updating the software they dropped several features from the old version, angering some and confusing many. So, the new Zunes are a mixed bag, but are still able to provide an overall positive experience for most customers (like me).

The biggest problem with the Zune is not with the unit itself or the software. The real problem with the Zune is that it lacks the well developed ecosystem of its main competitor. CES '08 demonstrated the million dollar industry of iPod accessories. The Zune, with its much smaller user-base, has no such ecosystem. Looking for a nice speaker dock for your Zune? Too bad! Thinking an arm band would be great with your Zune? Tough luck! With the Zune you're limited to a small selection of overpriced first party accesories. That problem is partly Microsoft's fault but it is partly because no third party is going to make accessories for a device until someone is there to buy them.

That is the irony of the Zune. The tagline of the Zune marketing campaign from the begining has been, "Welcome to the Social". The Zune supports a horribly DRM infested music sharing feature that allows you to send a song to you friend so they can listen to it three time. Though it might be fun in a bus full of High Schoolers, you would never be able to try it. If one of those high schoolers owns a Zune, I assure you, that would be the only sad lonely Zune owner in a world of iPods. The new Zune update also launched a social site where zune owners can have friends and track the listening habbits of their friends and even hear sample tracs of their friends most recently played songs. It is a great idea, not even every Zune owner has signed up with the site, so good luck to anyone trying to find Zune friends. Its not that a single Zune, on its own, isn't functional, but the social effort has failed.

So, does the Zune have a chance at competting with, and possibly overtaking Apple? I believe it does but there is a lot of work to be done. I would suggest a few things to Microsoft to push further into Apple claimed territory:

-Lower the Price- For $249 I can get the 80GB iPod Classic, or the 80GB Zune. If Microsoft wants to draw customers away from apple a price cut is the easiest way to do it. They're already losing money, why not go for broke?

-Expand the Zune Marketplace- It is good and the quality is better, but the selection is no where close to iTunes. It also only has music where iTunes has TV, Games, and Audio Books.

-New Features on the Zune Hardware- The iPod Nano has TV out, why not the Zune 8?

-New Features on the Zune Software- Why no automated playlists?

Those are my suggestions to Microsoft. If I were a betting man, I would wager Microsoft to eventually abandon the Zune, but that isn't coming soon. If you want a alternative to Apple, like I did, it is still a good choice. The player and software are quite good. If you love Apple, then I don't know that I have a convincing reason for you to change, and that is the real problem that Zune needs to overcome.

My Amazon Zune Review

I love the Xbox Live Arcade and have played quite a few of the games released in 2007. Some of them have been great fun and some of them have been a complete waste, but since you get to try them for free, its hard to complain. XBLA has seen some multiplayer focused games, some great single player games, some remakes of classics, some new exclusives, some licenced titles, and even an advergame. So out of all of the titles this year, which one is best (according to my unbaised multicultural panel of one)?

The Winner is: Catan!

The board game Settlers of Catan, has been a favorite of many since its original release in 1995 in Germany. Since then it has been translated to 25 different languages and gathered international renown. The 2007 XBLA release flawlessly translate the beloved board game into a very fitting format. The games initial pace may seem slow to inexperienced players, but speeds up considerably as you increase your rank online and play against more skilled. The game is based a lot on skill but there is just the right ammount of luck involved. To win, players must take calculated risks at times and continually be aware of what other players are doing. The Xbox version even improves on the board game by keeping important game related information a button push away. Everything about the game is true to its board game counterpart and the online play is just perfect for this highly competitive, highly addictive, game.

Runners Up:

Bomberman Live- Bomberman live is a great adaptation of a ****c game, but it suffers from laggy connections. I've still spent a good ammount of time on this and there have been several expansions since release, so it try real hard. With 4 player local + live this should be a multiplayer dream, but I have had trouble almost every time I tried to play this game online. So it falls short.

Undertow- Undertow is a beautiful game and the only XBLA title using the Unreal Engine. The DeveloprsKnew how to build a cult ****c when they developed this game, with 16 player online, but from my experience it just isn't as fun as the competition. Very good game though.

What are your thoughts?

I have a bad habit of wanting to give away endings and for me it is very rare to write a reaction blog without giving away spoilers. Though I doubt as many people care anyway, there really isn't much to say about the finale of the Blue Dragon story arch. The game ends, congratulations! There were a few things I took issue with, and none of them had to do with the story, which, despite being predictable, at least ended on a good note.

First, I would like to say even though there is now a hard mode option on Blue Dragon, that option was not available when I started my game, back when Blue Dragon was released. Anyway, I'm pretty good at JRPGs and I like a challenge when I play them and when you get to the third disc on Blue Dragon there are a lot of possibilities that open up, all of which are optional (a la Final Fantasy VII). In addition to five fairly difficult dragon bosses, there are two "super" bosses. One is King Poo and the other is Golden Mecha Robo. I was able to meet up with these monsters without checking any guides and fought them. I thought they were comparatively hard and had a lot of fun beating them, but when I looked online to see what I had missed in the game, I was confronted with the fact that these monsters, that I had easily beaten, were supposed to present the most difficult challenge in the game. Well, I didn't believe it and went through the final stage, just to compare.

The last boss in all of his forms was not only unable to hurt me, but was completely unable to even HIT me. I have five characters on my team and they were all able to attack three times before the boss even got his first turn. Additionally, all five of my characters are able to attack/cast magic 2x per turn. At that point the final boss didn't really stand a chance. It was the biggest last boss let down I think I've ever had.

So, I'm considering playing through on Hard, but I don't know that I want to invest the time all over again. It took me about 50 hours to get to the point and that is a lot of time out of my schedule. Additionally, I was to unlock some of the remaining achievements. It would be easier for me to unlock most of them just continuing on my current save.

One achievement that is annoying me is "MAX out all characters levels". I beat the game with my characters levels in the mid 50s and didn't even have a hint of trouble. Why should I be forced to spend the hours of work involved in getting the remaining 40+ levels when there isn't a monster in the game that can even hurt me? Unlocking that 20 or 30 gamerscore is more of a pain than fun, and there is no challenge except finding the time and willpower to do it.

Don't take my complaints too seriously though, because I really enjoyed the game. I honestly hate when any RPG I play ends, because, no matter how good the end, I always feel like all my time spent preparing was wasted. Blue Dragon did me a lot of favors with its field barrier which prevented me from needing to fight useless battles against weak enemies. Now, that's biting me in the rear trying to unlock the level achievement, but still it is an innovation (yes there are some in blue dragon) I would like to see other games copy. Anyway, I'll have to decide how much I want those achievements, and how much time I have free. I probably will try hard sometime later, but not right away.

My Grandma died last week, and before you start giving me condolences I want to tell you I don't want them. It isn't that I didn't like my grandma, but she was a real hermit who lived 9 hours away from us. So, needless to say, we didn't see her very much. Anyway, my parents made the drive down to her condo in Wichita, Kansas, to go through her belongings, clean everything out, and take care of legal issues. Meanwhile, I had gotten time off work that I was going to use to go down to see the family, but because of the way things turned out my parents asked me to stay with my 11, 13, and 15 year old siblings while they were gone. I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, over at my parent's house and consequently I got to spend a good amount of time with the Wii my wife and I got them for Christmas.

I must say, that while the Wii controls show a lot of promise, I can't really call myself a fan. The games I spent most of my time on were Wii Sports (of course), Mario Party 8, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion. I also played Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, but there were a lot of problems with that game so I didn't spend much time on it. The biggest problem I had with the Wiimote is that it does not interpret your controls with 100% accuracy. This is especially a problem for highly competitive people like myself who end up losing due to a misinterpretation, or lack of recognition, of my motions. Another problem is when games use motion controls for things that could be much easier mapped to the d-pad. There was one particular game in Mario Party that required you to doge coconuts falling by moving to the right or left, but instead of pressing right or left you're required to twist the controller, very hard, to the left or the right. Problems like this are made worse by the first problem I mentioned. There is a third problem, but I think I'm one of the few people who really care. The Wiimote is poorly calibrated, and I know Nintendo is trying to keep things simple, but when I point at the center of the screen I want it to point. Again, for competitive people like myself, I would like my pointing to be accurately represented on screen, its not. If you can calibrate the DS, I see no reason why you can't do the same thing with the Wii.

There are some places where the Wii really shines though. I really enjoyed Trauma Center. The game is a great example of correct ways to use the controls. Its simple, but it works. I also really enjoy the Miis and wish there was more Mii support. In Mario Party 8 your Miis walk around in the background, but I see no reason why you couldn't select your Mii as your character for the game. Another advantage of the Wii, which I actually find annoying, is everyone at least THINKS they can play it. It is probably the most approachable system ever made, but it is still video games and it is so annoying to be stuck watching your 13 year old sister and your 21 year old wife lose over and over again. Still, I've got to give Nintendo props on creating a system my wife actually has some interest in playing.

So, thats my assessment. I am honestly fairly glad I don't own the Wii myself, because I found it too frustrating most of the time. A lot of the Wii's problems are software based, but some are on the hardware. The system is not practical for me for a few reasons, the inaccurate interpretation of your motions, the inability to properly calibrate the Wiimote, and the poor internet features (including lack of voice chat). If you're an online competitor like myself the Wii is not for you, but thats not to say it is horrible. It is the most fun my wife has ever had playing video games. Also, it is the only system that my entire family, including my mom, is willing to play.

Have you played the Wii? What are your thoughts?

My father-in-law got a new 42" HDTV for himself this yearand had a lot of trouble getting itset up with HD content. Thankfully, I had found a Toshiba HD-A2 on sale at Wal Mart for $100 way back on November 16th. I bought it and put it up for him for Christmas along with Transformers on HD-DVD. Well, I finally got to try it out last weekend and, after waiting an hour for it to update its firmware I must say, I'm pretty impressed. HD-DVD is a worthy successor to the standard DVD. Its too bad HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are stuck in a pointless format war, but at $100 and its still an upconverting DVD player, its worth the risk to possibly pick the losing format.

I'm open to discussion on HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray, but I'll state my bais to get it out of the way: my personal preference is HD-DVD for the cheaper players. The quality of the video is about the same, from what I've seen. The selection of movies on Blu-Ray is currently better, but HD-DVD is catching up, both are still lacking terribly compared to standard DVD. I don't know that either one is really winning and personally I don't watch enough movies to warrant a purchase of either for myself.

Its not a huge suprise to me that Gamespot's revealed choice for Game of the Year is Super Mario Galaxy. People have been hinting at it for a while and now its officially confirmed on the site. I have to say I'm honestly not very happy and would have preferred nearly any other nominee to win, except maybe Rock Band (which I enjoy, but have no idea why Gamespot is so obssesed with it). I would have really liked Halo 3 to win game of the year, but I wrote that off from happening shortly after the game was released. Halo 3 has enough hype going for it that it doesn't really need GotY and, as much as I'd like to see it, I don't know that it really deserves it (there is a lot of competition). I have only played SMG on the display unit at Best Buy, and although I thought it was fun, I didn't find it so compelling that I had to go out an buy it. As I've said before, SMG might be the best 3-D platformer ever made, and I would believe anyone who argued it was better than Mario 64 (because it is), but I feel the 3-D platformer genre is just about played out, at least for me, and SMG isn't going to change that.

On another note, I'm kind of upset that they gave the Xbox 360 Game of the Year to Call of Duty 4. I wouldn't have minded so much, but it also won on the PS3. Though I believe the game is good enough to warrent both awards, again, I would have preferred Halo 3.

I know a lot of people aren't excited about Blue Dragon and I can't really blame them. Before the release of the Hard mode DLC, the game was really easy. I personally loved the game despite all its faults and played through the first two disks over 3 days while renting it. I had considered buying it for myself, but could never really justify it, especially with the large amount of great games being released lately. Well, my wife's parents, who I did not expect to get me anything notable, found my Amazon wish list and picked a game off of it. Well, though I might have preferred them to have randomly chosen Mass Effect, I'm not going to complain. I'll be playing through Blue Dragon multiple times and am very happy with the unexpected gift.

I got my christmas presents early this year because we'll be spending Christmas day and Christmas Eve evening with our extended family. I ended up getting Halo 2 PC and its pretty good. Its nowhere near as good as Halo 3, but I'm still having a lot of fun. I'm also impressed as it is the first real game I'm playing on my computer and it works well.

You can read my reivew of Halo 2 PC here.

Also, if you want to see some of our early Christmas pics, check here.