 | Uh Oh ... January 28, 2008 8:41am in tech |
So I got the dreaded Red Rings of Death last night which sucks. My XBOX 360 decided for whatever reason it didn't want to work anymore. After leaving it unplugged for about an hour and plugging it back in, it does seem to be working right now, but I don't know how much I trust it, so I'll be sending it in anyway. Two plus years after buying it and Microsoft still covers it...sweet. It's the 2nd time that my XBOX 360 has done this, which is kinda annoying, but at least Microsoft is good about it. My first experience with 360 problems went very well. Microsoft tech support for it helped me out a lot. First they thought it was the hard drive so within two days I got a new hard drive for my 360. Well it turns out, that the hard drive was not the problem. I called them back and it was deemed neccessary to send the console in. Two days later I got the empty box, and 2 weeks later I had a new 360 console. The console failing rate shouldn't be so high, but at the same time, the way Microsoft has been with fixing the consoles that do break is admirable. Tech support was very good in helping me out both times, and the response and pickup times to actually talk with a human being was also good, I think I waited like 2-3 minutes before a human picked up. Compared to my experiences with AT&T and various other tech support calls, 2-3 minutes is pretty damned good. So for like 2-3 weeks, I'll be without my XBOX 360 which should give me time to work on other projects I have on my plate. |
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| It's Time for Microsoft to Reverse Stance on XBOX 360 Hard Drive November 19, 2007 1:38pm in gaming |
When Microsoft released the XBOX 360 in 2005, they released 2 versions of it: the Core Version, and the Premium Version. The Premium had a 20GB Hard Drive and Backwards Compatibility, the Core did not. The core relied on memory cards to save user data. At first glance, this seems like it wouldn't be a problem. Today, while not completely a problem, could cause issues in the future, possibly closer than one might think. The problem is, that a lot of games today require the caching of data to help store levels in games to allow for quicker transitions, to decrease load times, and to generally improve game performance. This caching becomes impossible to do without a hard drive connected to a system as a memory card, while good for game saves, just can't cut it when it comes to caching game data. One might think, well, just require those games to be played on a system that has a hard drive. I personally agree with that. I think that hard drives should become neccessary for certain games. Microsoft on the other hand does not. Their requirements for games state that every game should be developed for both versions of the system. The games should be playable on both systems with and without a hard drive. This, while sounding limiting is a double-edged sword. Yes, games should be playable on both systems as to not alienate one base. At the same time however, if playing without a hard drive brings up significant load times and generally decreases smooth gameplay, where do you draw the line? One game that this has been noted on, is the game Mass Effect, due out this week. From various reviews, it does appear that there are significant load times that have been cleverly hidden in elevator rides. While cleverily hidden and perhaps less notable to the casual gamer, these long elevator rides are there and have to be to allow it playable on both systems. I see two possible solutions to this problem. The first is something that I don't really see Microsoft doing. I think it might be in Microsoft's best interest to put some games on a "must have hard drive" classification. While unfair to those without the hard drive, if they aren't a casual gamer, they'd probably have the hard drive anyway, as I believe the Premium, Elite, and now the Halo Edition of the XBOX 360 have sold more than the core version. The second option is to either make caching a setting that can be able to be turned on and off, or a setting that can automatically detect the presence of a hard drive and change itself accordingly. It's an interesting prospect that I'm not sure we'll see a solution to in the near future, but I still hold firm that Microsoft should do something, be it reversing their stance towards developers and the hard drive, or work with developers to create a cache setting on games. This could be a limiting factor for future games and projects. Another limiting factor may be the limited size of the DVD, but that could be fixed later if Microsoft can work with HD DVD and start putting games on that. This might already be part of their future plans as rumor has a future 360 to come with an HD DVD drive instead of a DVD drive installed. |
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| Microsoft Shoots Back at Hollywood October 23, 2007 12:19am in gaming |
 A little while back, Hollywood was blaming Microsoft, Bungie, & Halo 3 for a decrease in movie sales. While that may have been partly to blame, has anyone seen what Hollywood has put out lately. You probably haven't because most if not all of it is shit. I can't remember the last "good" movie I saw. The last movie I saw was the Comebacks. But that was mediocre at best. I saw Good Luck Chuck a week or so ago. Wasn't that bad, but again, not that good either...it had its parts. Well I don't know about you, but I for one blame the shit that Hollywood is trying to feed us as the cause for lackluster sales at the box office. I would like to see some good movies be released. So far, the trailers I've seen show little to no promise which is sad because I do remember when good movies came out at least semi-regularly, not rarely in today's case. Microsoft appears to agree. Microsoft executive Bob Frederickson had this to say:
"We thought we'd get some good sales, but nothing like this, but with escalating ticket prices and the crappy movies Hollywood has been putting out. People are just hungry for entertainment."
The sad part for Hollywood is, I think he's right. The quality has had a sharp decline in the past several years. You pay more to enjoy less. Sure you had hits like Casino Royale, Simpsons, and I'm sure a few others (those are the only good ones I can think of at the moment that I've seen), but overall, yeah, Hollywood's got shit. I don't think you need to be a Halo fan to agree with that. Full Story [bbspot.com] |
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| XBOX Vision October 22, 2007 12:45am in gaming |
 So I picked up the camera for the XBOX 360 today, pretty much on a whim and I really like it's integration into Rainbow Six Vegas. I'm sure there's other integration for it as well on other games, or if not, I'm sure new games might feature it as well. It's probably old news, but in Rainbow Six Vegas, you can take a picture of you with the camera and your custom character's face will then be modeled after yours. I'm not quite sure how it works exactly, but you take a frontal shot of your face and a side picture. From those two shots, it can model a face that looks eerily like yours. It took a few tries to get it right for me, but I got a pretty good representation of myself. I was playing one time with this one dude who put on a blue mask and then had his face modeled. It was kinda funny. Literally his head was pure blue with this crazy looking face. I'd like to think that the possibilities for this could be expanded more. The same would go for the PS3. Tags: xbox, xboxvision |
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| What the Hell October 18, 2007 12:07am in thoughts |
 So I was playing Halo 3 on XBOX Live, as I have been doing a lot lately. It's a fun game, especially with friends, getting the whole rivalry going as to who's going to kick more ass. Well today I ended up going onto matchmaking alone while I was waiting for my buddies to get on. I was placed in a room with 4 others, an every man for himself match to 25 kills or 8 minutes. All of my opponents sounded like they were barely 10 years old. All of them are using more foul language than I do. What the hell, these kids are less than half my age, and I'm only 23! If I were to say half the things that I heard over the headset when I was their age, I wouldn't be able to talk anymore, my mom woulda ripped my throat out. Then again, my Mom wouldn't have even let me on something like XBOX Live, or even play any game rated higher than Teen. Yet there I was sitting there listening to them trash talk everyone in the room with less than polite phrases and words. While I'm not so much surprised at this, its kind of sad to think that these kids are acting like this. What's sadder still is that some of them probably have little to no idea what exactly the words they're saying truly mean. I'm sure some do, but I'm also sure, some are just repeating what they heard others say. On a side note, despite all their trash talking, I stayed quiet and kicked their asses, I was the first to 25 and the person in 2nd only had 16. Yes, I'm sure beating a bunch of preteens is such an amazing achievement. |
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