A bit optimistic maybe?

Lots of good Wii news today.

This image doesn't really need any explaining.... all I can say is that someone out there is a little bit too optimistic about how in demand the Wii really is.

This makes even me want to buy a Wii!!

British magazine Nuts has recently posted a couple of videos of girls playing the Wii. It sure looks like a lot of fun! Watch the videos here.

Warning: Don't watch this when the boss is around. Not really child safe either.

The easiest 1000 gamerscore ever!

"Easiest 1000 gamerpoint gamerscore ever xbox 360!" .. thats what the title of the video clip on YouTube read. The game is Avatar and according to the clip all you have to do is run to the left as the game starts and then keep hitting the B button as the baddies attack you. Seems too easy to be true so I decided to try it for myself. I rented the game and it was waiting for me this evening when I got home from work. I watched the clip and made sure to do exactly as they did in the clip... and before you know it the achievements start popping up. It probably takes maybe 2 mins to get the 1000 points and that included the loading and a cutscene in the middle!! Watch the video below if you have not seen it yet ... and then go get your "free" 1000 gamerscore!

Another update.... more problems?

The fall dashboard update rolled out today and since I updated my 360 it's just sooooo slooooowww. Seems I am not the only one with the problem though as various forums are buzzing with reports of 360's freezing up for various lengths of time and some crashing alltogether. I have not seen any reports of the dreaded RROD yet but I'm sure the claims will come. Seems like Microsoft just can't get things right these days. The last few weeks have been very unstable for Xbox Live and I can just hope that they are working on improving the situation and not just to fix it. Glad I'm not on the Xbox Live team right now... I'm sure there are some serious overtime being worked at the moment.

Assassin's Creed Maps

I have been totally hooked on Assassin's Creed the last day and a bit (but haven't been able to play as much as I'd like though.) When I first started playing it on Saturday I wasn't that into it I have to admit but as the game progressed I got more and more hooked. It has to be good since it's caused me not top play COD4 for the last 2 days!

The visuals are really good and look spectacular in some scenes although the draw distance is a bit of a problem sometimes. You could be running on the rooftops thinking you path ahead is clear when slowly guards will start appearing due to the short draw distance. Sometimes while walking you can clearly see a line ahead of you as shadows and other details are being drawn. It's a bit of a bummer but if you can look past it you are left with a great game.

The controls are also pretty slick and what seems to be quite complicated at the beginning of the game soon becomes second nature and you'll be running and jumping across rooftops, climbing high towers and fighting soldiers without thinking about how to do it.... it becomes second nature.

The achievements seem to come at a steady pace too but the ones where a little help may be necessary are collecting all the flags scattered all over the cities and countryside. Luckily help is at hand and if you don't own the Prima Game Guide you might want to go check out this post for a little help.

Call of Duty 4

I have been playing quite a bit of Call of Duty 4 this week and am really enjoying this game. Apart from Gears of War co-op this is the game that I have spent the most time online with. The multiplayer is really good and I love the levelling system as well as all that goes with it including the challenges and perks.

I have only just reached the officer ranks (Level 25) mainly because I simply don't play it as much as everyone else. It's amazing to see how quickly some people have gone up through the ranks... they must be putting in some serious hours into it. All I know is that the multiplayer is really good and for me to say that it has to be really good since I usually shy away from the multiplayer parts of games.

XBox Live Issues

Seems like there have been some serious problems in Xbox Live land the last couple of days. Is it coincidence that it started just after the launch of COD4? I'm not saying it's COD4 fault but is the service maybe just not able to cope with everyone playing COD4? Friday and Saturday was ok for me but since Sunday I have been struggling to connect to multiplayer matches.

The last 2 days have been even worse with the whole Live service appearing to slow down. After the maintenance on the service yesterday it seems to have been worse! Last night the console would just hang when calling up your friends list and would show everyone with 0 gamerscore for quite a while before it would update. Almost like waiting for a slow webpage to load.

According to Major Nelson the problem should be a thing of the past today but I'll have to wait and see when I get home tonight to test it. Sure hope they sorted it out... I seriously need to level up in COD4!

10000 and counting...

I reached 10000 gamerscore earlier this week thanks to completing a few more games. The biggest thanks has to go to King Kong where you actually get 1000 gamerscore just for completing the game..... awesome! I also completed GRAW2 which is now officially my favourite Xbox360 game. I really love this game and sure hope they are going to make some more. I enjoyed this game more than Halo3 and Gears of War combined! Rainbow 6 Vegas comes in at a not too distant second place though. I guess modern day tactical shooter are just "my thing." Now I just hope that Call of Duty 4 lives up to all the hype when it gets released here this Friday.

Halo 3 Legendary Edition

I finally got my Halo 3 Legendary Edition on Friday. Don't know why it took Amazon till then to deliver it but at least I got it. And for everyone that is wondering.... yes it's totally worth the money in my opinion.

I started playing Halo 3 on Friday evening and finished it on Saturday.. well in the early hours of Sunday to be precise. I was very shocked by the ending untill I found out that there was more after the credits. Naturally I was so upset by the ending that as soon as the credits started rolling I turned it off. I think this is a really stupid way of doing it though because I was not the only one that did this according to the forums.

The game is a bit disappointing in a couple of areas. First of all it's basically exactly the same as the previous 2 Halo's. Gameplay has not changed at all. Then there's the graphics..... it's really not very good. Bungie decided to run the game in a strange non standard resolution of 1152x640... and this low resolution really shows as edges are really jagged. In some places it really does not look like a next gen title let alone the most hyped one in history. Another problem with the game is that it's very very short..... just over 6 hours in fact. Maybe some of the top players out there could finish it in even less. Thats really not very good value for money especially if you are someone thats not really interested in the multiplayer.

Overall I enjoyed the game purely because I love the Halo universe (I read the books, etc.) If I wasnt such a fan of the universe I would rate this game as very average.

Halo 3 European Launch

As I'm writing this we are less than 2 hours away from the European launch of Halo 3. The main launch in the UK will be at the Bfi IMAX in Waterloo, London.

I just happen to travel to Waterloo every morning but catch a connecting train from there again and never go outside the station.. but my wife does. The IMAX is right outside Waterloo station and my wife told me about big Halo 3 posters that were up at the IMAX. Ofcourse I had to go look and took my camera along. Well she said it was big but I didn't expect it to be THAT big. It's a couple of stories high and goes all the way around the building. Unfortunately the whole building is glass and since my camera doesn't have a polaroid filter or anything the reflection is very bad. It still gives you an idea of just how big it is though.

Click the small pic to view a larger version.

Master Chief dies at end of Halo 3?

Could it be that we are going to see the end of the Master Chief in Halo 3? Judging by the last 2 commercials that were released it certainly seems a possibility.

In "Museum" Major Pawel Czernek refers to "when Master Chief armed his grenade.." which doesn't make much sense at the time until you watch "Believe in a Hero" where we see the apparent lifeless body of the Master Chief being held in the air by a Covenant standing on a hill surrounded by hords of other Covenant. We then see a close-up shot of a grenade in his hand and later he lifts his head to show he is still alive.

Is the grenade in his hand the one referred to in the previous commercial? Since he is completely surrounded by numerous Covenant and seems to be in bad shape what is one grenade going to do..? Surely not enough to get him out of that situation ....

....or will he sacrifice himself?

Call of Duty 4 BETA

I got my Call of Duty 4 BETA code about 2 nights ago and ofcourse I downloaded it immediately. The first night I played it quite a bit and managed to get to the rank of Sargeant I (Level 10 I think.) Played it again a bit last night but I have to admit that I didn't have the same enthusiasm for it last night as the previous night... when it was "new". For me it got a bit boring very quickly but I don't think it's the game necessarily.

I guess the reason I have never really gotten into multiplayer games in general is because basically it's just the same thing over and over and over and over. I guess it gets emphasized more by the fact that there are just 3 maps in the BETA. I guess I like my games to have stories to them so that you dont just feel that it's more of the same over and over. I can handle coop. In fact I love coop. Coop follows a story though. Multiplayer (as in COD 4) is just (in basic terms) running around shooting as many people as you can till the round ends.. and then repeating it again on the next map. For me personally that gets a bit boring.

Apart from that the game looks pretty good, it plays quite well and the leveling up system seems to work quite well. Although I probably won't be spending as much time online with this game as I thought I would I am however really looking forward to the single player campaign. This is the part of the game I have always enjoyed about the COD series and I think it's going to be awesome in COD 4.

Turtle Beach EarForce X1 Headset

I got a new headset today for use with the 360. It's the Turtle Beach Earforce X1. The reason I got these ones specifically is because it's one of the few headsets that allows you to hear game audio and Xbox Live voice communications through the same headset simultaniously. I do a lot of my gaming at night when the wife is sleeping already and I could only use headphones when I wasn't chatting over Xbox Live. As soon as I was chatting I had to use the normal Xbox360 headset and play the game audio through the speakers.... and turn it down so low that all but the loudest sounds were just about lost.

I tried the Earforce X1's out tonight for the first time in Rainbow 6 Vegas and they work great. The game audio and voice volumes can be adjusted individually so that the one doesnt drown out the other. Audio quality seems to be really good and my regular game partner even commented that the voice quality seems to be better with the Earforce's than with the standard Xbox360 headset.

The headset is a bit hard to come by in the UK though. After a lengthy search I contacted Turtle Beach directly who informed me that they do not distribute their products outside the US. I was lucky enough to stumble across a post in a forum where someone mentioned that they managed to import some from the US and was selling them in the UK. I contacted him and was happy to hear that he had some in stock... and today, a day later, I have a pair in my hands. Now thats good service!

For more info on the headset check out the Turtle Beach website. If you want to purchase these in the UK then visit http://www.limexb360.co.uk/ and send an email to Chris. They are currently selling at £39.99 excluding postage and packaging.

5000!!.... Finally.

I finally managed to reach the 5000 gamerscore mark earlier this evening! I did it on Call of Juarez with the 'Long Distance' achievement. I know it's not a lot but considering how little I play I am quite happy with this milestone.

As you might have guessed by now .. yes, I have gotten my 360 back from repairs and everything seems to be ok for now. It appears to have the new heatsinks installed so hopefully it wont pack up again soon. I was very pleasantly surprised as to how quickly they repaired it. It was about 2 weeks from when I received the email to inform me they had received my Xbox till when they let me know it was on its way back. Not too bad Microsoft!

The Darkness broke my Xbox.

Now I'm sure a lot of you will think I'm nuts but I am convinced that the game The Darkness broke my 360. Here's my reasoning: My 360 has never given me any problems...ever. That was untill I started playing The Darkness. While playing this game my 360 would start crashing and I'd have to turn it off and back on again. I could play any other game without any problems.. but as soon as I'd play The Darkness it would crash. I then got this part in the game where you had to get a cannon or something to help you kill the darkness... or something like that. At that point in the game it crashed every time. I would reboot, load the game and it would crash straight away again.... every time. I could then load up another game and the console would be fine.. no crashes in any other game at all. It was after one such crash during The Darkness that I turned the console off and on again that it started flashing the 3 red lights. I turned it off and on again and it started booting but crashed on the Xbox 360 logo screen. I left it off for a day and when I turned it on the next day it booted to the dashboard. Cool! I popped in Forza 2 but as soon as the game started it crashed. I tried some Bomberman... but it crashed again. Now it's at the stage where it just comes up with the 3 red lights and thats it.

Is it a strange coincidence that it only ever crashed in The Darkness? No, not since there are plenty of reports all over the forums of it crashing other 360's. Is it a coincidence that my 360 died after one of these The Darkness crashes? I don't think so.. I am convinced all those The Darkness induced crashes somehow contributed towards my 360's death. Call me crazy but this is not the first time a game has been blamed for the death of 360's. When Forza 2 came out it too was being blamed for causing the dreaded 3 red lights on a number of 360's. It would be interesting if more research could be done into whether it would be possible for a game to break a 360. Untill proven otherwise I am convinced that The Darkness broke my Xbox.

Peter Moore Resigns From Microsoft

It came as a bit of a shock when Peter Moore (generally seen as the main man of the Xbox devision) announced his resignation from Microsoft yesterday. As recent as last week's E3 he was still on stage presenting Microsoft's press briefing. He is leaving Microsoft and joining EA to head up EA Sports... the reason being that he wanted to move his family back to the Bay area. You can read the official press release here and can also look at his bio on the Microsoft site here.

No news is good news... or is it?

Well I haven't been posting much lately but have certainly been spending a bit of time on the 360, mostly with one game ... Forza 2. I have really been enjoying the game and it takes some serious time to get the achievements! Unlike a certain other racing game (Dirt) in which you can get some crazy amount of gamerscore in just a couple of hours. I have not played Dirt but will be getting a copy tonight... so maybe I can finally break the 4000 gamerscore mark. The pic below is of an Astra I painted in the game and is roughly based on the ones they race in the BTCC I think.

Halo 3 Beta

I finally got to play the Halo 3 Beta this evening. Why only now? Well they only installed the broadband at our new place (we recently moved) today. So I downloaded it this evening and a round or 2. This hasnt been a game I have been looking forward to at all and after 2 rounds this evening that was enough Halo 3 for me. I just wanted to be able to say that I played it. I will probably end up buying Halo 3 but not to play... I really want the Legendary Edition with the Spartan Helmet! .... I couldnt really care less about the game.

Hunting the Hidden Orbs

For those of you frustrated with trying to find all the hidden orbs in Crackdown, cry no more.... for I have great news. Just follow this link to all the info you could possibly want including a map and screenshot of the location of every single orb. Thanks to Herman Gatevold for creating the page. Happy hunting!

Xbox360 Spring '07 Dashboard Update is here!

The new 360 dashboard update was released today and I'm glad to say my 360 updated without any problems. There's not much in there that I personally was looking forward to since I doubt if i'll use the Windows Live Messenger integration much. I mean who really wants to be interupted with messages all the time while gaming? I think the achievement unlocked message tweak is useful... where when you unlock an achievement it will now tell you what achievement you have unlocked and how much gamerscore you have earned. Another useful feature is that you can now see from the dashboard what game you have in the drive. And then there's all the cosmetic changes as well like a seperate marketplace blade, etc. Let's not forget about the fact that you can also now download while your console is off ... well almost off. When you turn it off while you have downloads queued the console will go into a low power mode untill the downloads have finished and then turn itself off completely.... quite cool.

For a complete list of all the changes you can go here.

Birthday Goodies!

Today is my birthday and I got some Xbox goodies from Michelle! She got me a Play and Charge Kit as well as a 2100 MS points voucher. Awesome! Now I can finally buy Assualt Heroes!

I got myself a stripper for my birthday but she wasn't quite what I expected (see pic)..... no wonder she was charging half price! Michelle will love the pic... don't ask...

Xbox Live!

I had my first taste of Xbox Live this evening. Riaan (my brother-in-law) also got a 360 yesterday but last night we didnt manage to get any gaming going due to the router on my side blocking the Xbox Live traffic. All we could do was send some text messages. They came over here (we are housesitting for friends at the moment) this afternoon and brought my headset and my copy of Gears of War along. I managed to change some settings on the router and we were able to start a voice chat. We then played some Gears of War coop and just finished playing some Crackdown coop now. I don't have a Gold account at the moment and I'm just using a 48 hour Gold trial. I know for a fact that I am getting a 12 month Gold subscription for my birthday on Tuesday though and Im very excited about that. Here's to many hours of future Xbox Live gaming!

Upcoming Dashboard Update

I am really excited about the upcoming 360 dashboard update which should be released in the first or second week of May. There are some really cool new features thats been added of which the Live Messenger integration is probably the biggest. I am also really keen to try out the text input device thats coming out (see previous post) although the model shown in the pics that are going around is apparently not the final design.

Also. my 360voice page should now reflect my gaming activities more acurately since I purchased the wireless adapter a while ago.. so check it out here if want to see what im playing. Previously I would play games but it wouldnt be reflected because my 360 wasnt always connected to the net.

New Xbox360 goodness

Well by now everyone knows about the new Xbox360 that was anounced called the Xbox360 Elite. It's basically the same as the existing ones but it comes with a 120GB harddrive, a HDMI port... and it's black! Of all the new features it's the colour that excites me most. Since there is no Video Marketplace in the UK (and even if there was I wouldn't use it due to the poor internet speeds here) there is really no point in getting a bigger HDD. I still have over 10GB free on my current drive and I have every single Xbox Live Arcade game on it. The HDMI port doesn't excite me either since I use the VGA cable to play on my PC monitor. So all that's left is the black colour... not really reason enough to buy a new console is it? At least the black controllers will be available seperately so I'll probably pick up some of those.

Then there's also the new text input device. I'm still not sure if this is real or not though.. it just looks fake. But Major Nelson posted the pics so there must be some truth behind it. Apparently its going to be an add-on for the controller so you'll just plug it into the socket where the headset usually goes. Looks like the headset will then plug into that again. We'll see when/if it's released I guess.

Lots of Xbox360 gaming

There has recently been a resurgence in Xbox360 gaming for me for a couple of reasons. First off it's because I joined a service called Swapgame which allows you to rent games for as long as you want them or to have as many games in a month as you can manage to receive and mail back. The first game I tried was Dead Rising. I really liked the demo of this game but the full game disappointed me. I didn't like the controls and it just wasn't as much fun playing it as I hoped. I sent that one back and am now have The Godfather. I have not gotten far into it yet but it looks like the type of game that I could spend quite a few hours on.

The second reason for my 360 resurgence is because I also purchased 2 new games. Amazon had a 2 for £40 special and I managed to pick up 2 games I've been wanting for a long time... Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Fight Night Round 3. Of these two I have been spending a lot more time with Fight Night than GRAW. I simply love Fight Night. I can see why quite a few gaming sites and magazines voted it best sports game for the 360 last year. The visuals are amazing and the controls and gameplay is spot on.

I am also still playing Crackdown every now and then because I have yet to finish it and since last night Riaan (my brother-in-law) and I have started playing Gears of War again. We finally finished it earlier on Insane difficulty and started a new campaign again on Hardcore... just for fun.

Unfortunately my 360 Voice site is not reflecting all of this activity since I have not been connected to Xbox Live while playing or for quite some time for that matter. I hooked it up earlier so it can update my gamerscore and to get the latest update for Gears of War. I'm seriously thinking of getting the Wireless Network Adapter though.

PSP Impressions

Well my last post was about the PS3 and now this one is about the PSP. It almost seems as if I have gone over to the dark side (since they're both black.) I am borrowing a PSP at the moment just to try it out and see if I might be interested in getting one. My first impressions weren't very good to be honest.. I really thought the graphics were better on the PSP. I was kinda surprised by how blocky the visuals are even on such a small screen. But I have only seen 3 games so far and will want to test it a bit more before deciding. I am currently playing Need for Speed Carbon on it.

PS3 Hands-on!

Well I finally got some hands-on time on a PS3 the other day. I played some Motorstorm and a bit of the demo of Resistance. Motorstorm is quite cool. It has good graphics and is a fun game to just pick up and play. I didnt enjoy Resistance however but thats mainly because of my dislike of playing FPS's with a console controller. The PS3 itself has some cool features but not enough to make me want to spend £425. It also has needs a lot more games to make it more appealing.

Crackdown baby!

Well I finally got Crackdown! Been looking forward to this game for a long time now and finally got it. I know I am gonna love this game cause I have played through the demo numerous times. It will give me a welcome break from Saints Row which I have been spending all my gaming time on recently. Strange how both games involve 3 others gangs who's territory you have to take over! Seems like it's definately my kinda game then. It also came with the Halo 3 Beta invitation which, to be very honest, I couldn't give two hoots about. Although I own Halo 2 for the Xbox, I have only played it for maybe 10 mins. That was more than enough time to convince me that playing it with the controller was only frustrating me and that I was not going to enjoy it. At least it's coming out for Vista later this year and I'll be able to play it with the mouse and keyboard. So to say the least, I am not at all excited about Halo 3 on the 360. Anyway, the sooner I stop typing the sooner I can go play Crackdown... so bye!

Xbox360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows

Well not much new on the games front for me but at least I managed to get my hands on some new gaming hardware... the Xbox360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows. What this little device does is it allows you to use any of your Xbox360 wireless devices (controllers, headsets, racing wheels, etc) on your PC. Very cool! This is a great little gadget to have if you have wireless 360 controllers especially since all the new Games for Windows certified games have to have built-in support for the 360 controller. Go here for more details.

The Windows Live Messenger campaign

This is not really games related but I think it's important enough to mention.



Microsoft has launched a new campaign in which YOU can help donate money to charities just by chatting to your friends using Windows Live Messenger! It doesn't cost you a cent and every time you chat they pay money to your choice of one of nine charities. It's really easy to set up too... all you do is add some text corresponding to the charity you choose after your messenger display name. An "I'm" icon will appear behind your name to let everyone know that you are part of the program. Visit the campaign's homepage here for more info.

360voice.com

I recently created a profile for myself at 360voice.com. For those that don't know 360voice, it is a site that gives your Xbox360 it's own blog. It's really quite cool since your 360 will add a blog entry just about every day, whether you played or not. Right from the word go mine was complaining about me not playing! (I think my 360 is a woman...) It's like a diary that you can return to at a later stage and have a history of your gaming activities. I think it might be scary for some people to see just how much time they spend gaming. Anyway, check it out if you have not been there. The link to my profile is in my links section or just click here.

Mixed bag.

Well it's been a mixed bag of gaming for me recently. I have made a couple of half hearted attempts at playing games recently but no game could keep my attention for very long. Among the games played were Dawn of War (PC), Saints Row (360), Tiger Woods 07 (PC), Lost Planet (360) and even GTA San Andreas (PC)! I guess I have not been in the right frame of mind recently for playing games as I am still job hunting and it's getting to me a bit. I am sure that once I have found and settled into a job I will start to enjoy my gaming sessions more... not to mention having money to actually buy some games!! I can't wait.

Welcome back.... to me.

It's been a while but I'm back.. and as you can see I have changed the look of the page a bit as well... it's looking all Xboxy. I will still be blogging about games in general but since I am a happy Xbox360 owner I feel I have to fly the colours. Another reason is because I had a 360 only site that I have decided to close and incorporate everything into one site.... this one. Let's see how it goes this time.