I Give Up On Supreme Commander

I tried playing it some more, but the crashing at the end of missions finally pissed me off to much. It takes too long to save and load to have to replay part of the level each time you complete a campaign mission. In addition to the freezing/crashing the camera issues have put me over the top. I'm sending it back to GameFly today. It is really to bad because the game was a lot of fun when it worked. If they patch it to fix these issues I'll rent it again, but for now I'm done with it.

SoulCalibur IV First Impressions

I don' play a lot of fighting games because I'm not very good at them, but I did rent SoulCalibur IV. I played a lot of SoulCalibur on the Dreamcast back in the day, and I could not pass up the chance to play Yoda. I had a firend over and we played for a few hours against each other. We tried all the characters you start with, and we both agreed that all the characters we remembered play pretty much like we thought they would. Overall, we had a lot of fun playing each other. I will say it is hard to fight against Yoda because he can't be thrown and high attacks go over his head. After we had played for a while we checked out the option to create a character. I think the create a character option is going to be what makes me love this game because I can create a player that fits my play style perfectly. I spent about 5 minutes just throwing a guy together and I was already dominating with him. With more time I cold have made him even more perfect. I'm planning on playing some more tomorrow and this weekend to see if I can get everyone unlocked and figure out some of the cooler combos/moves. Once I spend more time with it I'll get a better review together.

Supreme Commander First Impressions

I started playing Supreme Commander this weekend. It is a very traditional RTS with a lot of micro-management. I am enjoying it for the most part, but it is quirky about saving. I started playing the campaign and found that the missions are very long. Like between 1 and 2 hours per mission. I don't mind this, but it would be cool if there was an option to speed up time when you're waiting for things to build and then slow it back down when you are ready to attack. The controls work well for a RTS on a console. They give you access to everything without going through a lot of levels of menus.

My big complaint is that the game has a tenancy to freeze/crash when it saves at the end of a mission. It has done that to me twice. I looked around xbox forums and it seems it is pretty common occurrence with this game. I get around it by saving right before I finish a level so that if it does freeze I can just load it back up and try again. It seems to be about a 50/50 shot on if it will freeze or not. It is bordering on making me send the game back to GameFly, but I have not even tried the other races yet and I'd really like to. Additionally the camera has a tendency to stop moving for a few seconds when a lot is going on. Everything continues, but the camera will not move for you. It is like the game can't keep up with everything in has to control so it pauses the camera while it catches up. With hundreds of units/buildings on the map I can see where that would be an issue, but I with they had worked that kind of thing out.

I'm planning to play some more and if I finish the game it will be a while until I get a full review because it is so long. However, if I get mad and send it back I'll get a review up sooner.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith First Impressions

I decided to rent Guitar Hero: Aerosmith since I already have the guitars and I heard the achievements are stackable so I no longer have play on every difficulty setting to get all the achievements. Finally, I can play though on Hard and get the Easy and Medium achievements as well. After loading the game up the first thing I did was to try my Rock Band wired guitar which worked great. I'm really glad because I've seen polls showing that about half of people who tried could not get the Rock band Guitar to work in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and the other half could. Since I like the Rock band guitar a lot better than my Guitar Hero Xplorer I was pretty excited when it worked. I've played about 8 or 10 songs so far and I have mixed feelings about the game. I should preface that by saying that I'm not a real big Aerosmith fan. So far, playing all their songs is getting a bit old because they all feel the same. However, the opening ats songs have been pretty fun to play. Overall though I like Rock Band better. I can't quite put my finger on why, but the songs in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith are just not as fun to play as the ones in Rock Band. I think it is how they structure the note charts, but I'll have to play more of each to see if I can figure it out. After I get through more of the game I'll get a full review together, but that might take a few days since I keep going back to Rock Band.

Iron Man Review

I decided to rent the Iron Man game for Xbox 360 since the movie was so good and the demo was pretty fun. If you tried the demo the game is more of the same. Lots of flying around and blowing up a large number of weapons and enemies. For the first couple levels it is pretty fun to blow stuff up and try different attacks, but after about 3 levels it gets old really fast. It is the same enemies and goals over and over again. Graphically the game looked pretty good and it controlled pretty well once I got use to switching between flying and hovering. Almost all of the achievements can be done playing on easy so I was played it on easy to just go through and try all the levels. I easily finished the whole game in a couple sittings. I really wish there was more I could say but if you play one level you've played them all. If you were thinking of checking out this game just play through the demo 4 or 5 times and you'll get the same experience. Sure, there are fun moments. Tearing apart tanks and grabbing planes out of the sky are fun, but after you've done it 50 or 60 times it looses its appeal. The plot line follows the movie with some levels thrown in the middle to make it a bit longer. I'm really disappointed because playing as Iron Man is fun. I just wish they had more things to do than fly through very similar levels and blow everything up.

Turok Review

*** Spoiler Alert ***

I rented Turok last week and played through the campaign. I was going to check out the multiplayer as well, but i was never able to find a room with more than 3 other people in it . After a couple rounds of 2v2 I gave up on the multiplayer. I'm glad that I rented Turok for a couple reasons. First, if I had bought it I would be mad about the waste of my $60. It is not that the game is really bad, but it is not good enough to be worth buying. The game goes between some indoor and outdoor settings. The outdoor settings are all graphically very nice and tend do be fun because there are dinosaurs to lure into attacking your enemies. Apparently, dinos are like monkeys and chaise shiny objects like flares. It did not seem very probably, but it did not stop me from firing flares at my enemies so the dinos would attack them. The indoor areas all seemed to be very poorly lit and generally consisted of walking through tunnels/hallways killing everything until you reach the end.


The other reason I'm glad I rented it is because they put some really fun weapons into the game. The story line is very linear and when it is not extremely frustrating it is a lot of fun. There are points that drove me crazy because I would be forced to try them over and over. Most of these were in the middle of the game before I got the really powerful weapons, but after the stronger opponents start appearing. The flamethrower and rocket launcher were both well done and fun to use. Also, the bow and arrows were pretty fun to use once I got the hang of them.

The one weapon I found really annoying was the knife. When you approach any enemy who is not a main boss, with the knife, a right trigger indicator will pop up when they are in range letting you know you can get them with a one hit kill. I killed pretty much every dinosaur with the knife because it was easier and faster than using a gun. Very Unrealistic. Also, the knife was annoying at the parts where the developers want you to sneak through levels and get silent kills with it, but there is no cover system so the only way to hide is to crouch in tall grass or behind cover. But when you do this you cannot see anything. Then, when you stand up to look around the enemies see you anyway. I don't mind games that require you to use stealth, but when stealth is required there should be a way to achieve that action without getting spotted easily. Such as a solid cover system or active camouflage. My final annoyance with the knife occurs when you get attacked by a larger dino. If you get knocked down you then have to follow the on screen cues to use your knife to fight the dino off. Mostly this consists of hitting the tirggers repeatedly or wiggling the left thumb stick. These were always frustrating to me because it I am holding a gun when I get knocked down why don't I just shoot it instead of pulling out my knife to do some a random button pressing.

This leads to my other big frustration with the game. The final boss fight. After chasing down this guy for the whole game who is suppose to be this really great soldier instead of getting to fight him the final battle is a choreographed cut scene where you have to hit the button that comes up on screen to keep the fight going. Other than when you get knocked down by dinos this was the only time in the game like this. I found it really poorly done. I don't understand why you would end the game with a choreographed fight after letting every other fight occur naturally. It was lame.

Overall the game was alright. The graphics were good for the most part. The enemy and dino AI was fun to work with, and the sound was really well done. The voice acting was cheesy, but the sounds of where dinos/enemies were approaching from were really well done. My surround sound saved me from getting hit from behind multiple times. Most of the achievements are for multiplayer, but there are some decent ones in the campaign to get. So, if you were thinking of getting Turok I'd recommend renting it instead because it is not worth buying, but it is worth playing through once.

Mass Effect Rant

Mass Effect has been out long enough now that I think most everybody knows it is a great game. I'd even go so far as to say that anyone who owns an Xbox 360 should play through Mass Effect's main story at least once. The things it does with the conversation system and combat are pure genius. However, today I want to focus on all the little things about it that pissed me off. Hopefully they'll get addressed in Mass Effect 2.

First off, there are tons of load times. You load each time you go to a new planet. That much I can expect and live with. But even once you're at a location and running around the game will slow down as you go into new areas as it loads that area up. Even within your ship, which is not that big, there are multiple spots where running from one part of the ship to another will cause the game to lag and have to load. Sure, each time it loads it only takes a few seconds, but it really takes me out of the game experience when ever few minutes the game pauses for a couple seconds.

In addition to the loading they have tried to cover some of the longer load times by having you take an elevator to get to the area that is loading. That would not be so bad if it only took a few seconds, but apparently in the future elevators are 3 or 4 times slower than the ones we currently use. Seriously, future space stations are not going to have elevators that move slower than I can walk.

Once you're past the load times the inventory system could really use some help. You can only hold 150 items, and it lists each item individually. Even if you have a few of the same thing. So then, when you go to use or sell then you have to scroll through each one individually. It would be nice if they grouped all of the same items together and just listed how many you had. It would make the inventory list a lot nicer. I don't need to see a list of 8 incendiary ammo upgrades. Just list incendiary ammo upgrade with a little x8 next to it. Also, if you're going to multiple levels of upgrades for weapons and armor give me an option to automatically apply the higher level upgrade instead of having to go into my equipment and do it manually. For example, if my gun is equipped with a level 3 scanner when I pick up the level 4 scanner automatically put it on my gun.

I've heard a lot of complaints that the side quests are really repetitive. Personally, I did not find the side quests themselves to be really repetitive, but the worlds and bases they are on were. Why do all the planets that have side quests also have mountains you have to get over or around? Are there no flat planets anywhere in the universe? Plus, in the future are all caves and bases the same shape? In Mass Effect they are. There is literally only three base layouts and one or two cave layouts.

Also, if you're going to have me drive all over planets to get to side quests that is fine, but make the vehicle fun to drive. The Mako is are pain to do anything besides go strait. Please work out the vehicle handling. Also, why does it always cost me the same amount to repair my vehicle no matter how much damage it was taken? It should cost less to fix one bent up wheel than it does when the whole thing is on fire.

Finally, the achievements. A lot of the achievements are pretty strait forward. Get a certain number of kills or play with a certain person in your party for most of the game. The annoying thing is to get all of the achievements you have to play through the game at least 3 times. Because I chose a mixed class (soldier and biotic) for my first play though now I'd probably have to play through 4 times if I want all 1000 achievement points.

I do play to play through it a second time once they have released the DLC. That way I can get a good chuck of the remaining achievements, play the DLC, and try out being less nice and more aggressive all in once play through. However, after playing through a 30 to 40 hour game twice I don't want to have to play through the whole thing again to just to get a few more achievements.

Still, even with all these annoyance the game is still well worth playing. I just hope these types of things that distract from the core of a great game will be addressed in its sequel.

TimeShift Review

After playing the TimeShift demo quite a while back I finally got around to trying out the full game. I did not bother playing the multiplayer since I've got plenty of other multiplayer games I'm already playing, but I did really enjoy playing through the single player campaign. The ability to pause, stop, or rewind time for a limited period makes for some great tactics. Sure, pausing time, shooting a few guys and then restarting time to watch them all fall down is fun. But, more fun than that is pausing time, steeling the enemies weapon, restarting time and taking them out with their own gun. For longer range fights, like against a sniper or rocket launcher guy, slowing down time use their slow movement to your advantage to get a headshot. Get stuck by a grenade? Rewind time and have it fly back toward the person who throw it at you. I think you get the point...the time control abilities make for some really fun things to do. The plot of the single player campaign actually would make for a pretty cool movie. Here is the plot basics. There are two suits that allow for time travel. Bad guy takes one and goes back to rewrite history with himself in charge. You go back to stop him. In going back your suit has some issues so it can only temporarily control time, and you can't go back home until you stop the bad guy. You join the rebellion against bad guy and work to take him down. Once you finally get him you can use his suit's components to go back to your time. No, not very original , but it could be done well.

There are a few driving sequences thrown into the game, but they were not as bas as a lot of the driving sequences in other shooters. You get to drive a quad while using your time control abilities. I had a lot of fun pausing time and then running over enemies who stood in the middle of the road. Really, though, most of the driving parts were short and far between. There are also a few time based puzzles you have to get through to progress through the game. Most of them involve pausing time to get past lasers or rewinding time to ride conveyor belts backwards into deep parts of the base. These few little annoyances were not enough to deter me from enjoying the game.

The single player campaign just about the right length. The weapons all have a good damage amounts and nice secondary functions. This was one of the few shooters that gives you a flame-thrower that is fun to use. The few other games that give you a flame-thrower all seem to make the flames only go about 4 feet in from of you, but the one in TimeShift has a good range. Combine that with the ability to pause time and you can set all the enemies in a room on fire pretty quickly.

The one thing I did do that was multiplayer related was to host a dedicate server. There is an achievement for hosting a total time of 48 hours of dedicate server. I basically left my 360 hosting a room over night for a couple nights to get it. I get why the developers would put this in there. It encourages people to host rooms for their game, but in reality it would have been better if the achievement was for hosting a dedicated server or a regular room. Then I could have played part of that time as well. Instead I had to have my 360 running but was not able to play on it. Plus, given the Xbox 360's chances for overheating and causing a Red Ring of Death trying for this achievement is just asking for trouble. Fortunately, my Xbox 360 survived the ordeal (knock on wood) but if an Xbox 360 were already having trouble this achievement would probably put it over the edge.

I'd recommend TimeShift be played through by anyone who is a fan of first person shooters. It is not the best shooter around or anything, but the time controls and weapons make for a fun game. Plus, the achievements for beating levels are stackable (like every game should be) so every level you finished can give multiple achievements.

$10 for 3 Maps! Are You Kidding Me?

By now most of you probably already have seen the news that Halo 3 is getting new maps on December 11. It is called the Heroic Map Pack and it will cost $10 when it is released or you can get it free in the Spring of 2008. I've listed the info about the three maps included below, but seriously, $10 for 3 maps is just ridiculous. Sure, a ton of people will buy them since it is Halo 3, but I will not be one of them. $3.33 per map is just to much money. It is worse than paying $2 per song for Guitar Hero songs and those were to expensive to be worth the cost. I realize they have a business to run and that business is about making money, but if they had just released these for $5 they would have sold more than enough to make a profit on them and then they would not have pissed of so many games with their bend over and take it high prices.

Halo 3players will be able to enjoy three all new multiplayer maps on December 11 as part of the Heroic Map Pack, the first in a series of downloadable content from Bungie Studios to come via Xbox LIVE.

Master Chief is excited about the first Halo 3 downloadable content.

Available for 800 Microsoft Points exclusively on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, each map presents a totally different play style.

• The symmetrical valley of Standoff, with its entrenched bases and fields of boulders is ideal for mid-sized objective and Slayer game types.

• The vast, labyrinthine passages of the Rat's Nest bring something completely new to the multiplayer experience: an indoor vehicle paradise. Strongly influenced by the Campaign mode, this map is ideal for big team battles.

• Foundry is the ultimate Forge map. Players can edit every single object in this voluminous industrial warehouse, placing stairways, walls, bridges, and tunnels to create an entirely new play space and build almost any kind of map imaginable.

All three maps will become available for free download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace in Spring 2008, just prior to the next wave of new Halo 3 multiplayer maps.

We'll have more information on the Heroic Map Pack, including how to get the pack for those who haven't downloaded content before, as the release date nears.

NCAA Football 08 Demo Rant

I checked out the demo for NCAA Football 08 last night and it is pretty much exactly how I remember NCAA Football 07. The graphics don't really look any better. The plays are all still the same. The only difference I can see is they changed the audible and coverage options that are available before the play snaps. The demo lets you play as USC vs Michigan. I really don't have a lot to say about it. If you've played NCAA Football 07 then you know what to expect. Essentially you've got a scaled down version of Madden, but with more teams available to play with. Hopefully this is not the final build of the game because when you leave the huddle the game hiccups and pauses for a second. I did not notice it at first, but once I did I realized it was happening every single time. Hopefully that gets sorted out before the game is released.

I would prefer to just keep NCAA Football 07 and buy an update for the game with all the new rosters. I'd even pay $20 for it. I don't expect EA to do that, but it would be a nice option. If they are not going to have any major updates to the series why release another game?

Defending Your Console

I came across this news article today about a kid who stabbed a burglar with a sword when they tried to steal his PS3. This got me thinking about my Xbox 360. It is one of my most valuable possession. Sure, I have stuff that cost more, but none that I use as often. I think I probably even use my Xbox 360 more than my car. If someone were to try and steal it I would probably try to stop them, assuming I did not think they had a gun. So, my questions for everyone is do you have a possession that you value higher than your gaming console, and if so, what is it?

Tenchu Z Demo

So I downloaded and tried the Tenchu Z demo yesterday and I've got a question. What is all the fuss about? I saw a lot of people excited about this game (and its demo), but after trying it I don't see why. The graphics are nothing special. It is suppose to be a stealth game, but it is really a puzzler where you just need to memorize the enemies movement patterns so you can get behind them and kill them. If you tried this demo and liked it can you leave me a comment and let me know what I'm missing? I'm hoping that I'm just missing the one thing that makes this a great game because so far it seems really lame.

May Xbox Live Arcade Review and Recap

We're in the third month of grading Xbox Live Arcade and so far we've seen it climb from a C in March to an A in April. Today we'll take a look and see it it could keep up the score for May. The three areas of scoring are in game release frequency, pricing, and original content.

Game Releases
There were 8 games released in 5 Wednesdays in May. Not to bad. The games released were Catan, Centipede/Millipede, Double Dragon, Soltrio Solitaire, Aegis Wing, Xevious, Rush'n Attack, and Mad Tracks. Additionally, Centipede/Millipede was actually two games in one download. Of course they are virtually identical to each other, but still technically 2 games. So, I'm going with an 8 out of 5 in this category for May.

Pricing
The pricing was pretty standard with month with remakes and retro titles selling for $5 and original titles selling for $10. That is except for Aegis Wing which was released for free. I'm not sure how Microsoft let a free game slip through then they could have easily charged for it, but I'm not going to complain because I like free stuff especially when it is a quality product. Out off all the games released this month only two were any good. Catan and Aegis Wing were excellent. I know that Double Dragon fans are pretty happy with getting it for $5, and a lot of folks seem to like Mad Tracks for some unknown reason. I'm not sure why thought when with the add on packs it will cost over $18. So, that is 4 games decently priced. On the other hand $10 for solitaire? What?! This strange grouping of poorly priced and free games evens out to get a score of 4 out of 8.

Retro Games
Four of the eight games released in May are retro titles that were brought over to the Xbox Live Arcade. Additionally, solitaire is available about 1000 other places as well. However, since I'm still so excited about Catan and Aegis Wing I'll let is slide and give this category a 4 out or 8 as well.

Overall
So that brings the overall score to a 16 out of 21. Back to the C range. Apparently someone thought their good April goodness would carry over through May, but they thought wrong. Xbox Live Arcade Team, please, look back at April and take notes on what went right. Then, repeat it. Cut down the retro titles and help get more original content for us.

Oops...Halo 3 Beta via Crackdown

I'm sure by now everyone is aware that the Halo 3 Beta is not yet available for download from within Crackdown like it was suppose to be. I'm not really that surprised. Items that are reported to be up on the Xbox Live Marketplace on a certain date often don't make it up there until later. This has been especially true of game demos. However, given the publicity around the Halo 3 Beta being released to the public today I'm surprised that they were not ready. From what I see on Major Nelson's blog (which is down do to high traffic levels again) there is an issue they are working to sort out with the release of the Halo 3 Beta via Crackdown. I'm still holding out hope it will be up in time for me to start it downloading on my lunch break. Once it is up I can't imagine how long it will take to download the 1.1 GB Beta with so many people trying to download it all at the same time. I remember the original Halo 2 maps taking hours to download the day they released. I figure this will be the same. If by chance they do get the issue sorted out and I get it downloaded I'll post tomorrow with my first impressions. If they don't get it fixed I'll probably be checking out the new Xbox Live Arcade games.

Xbox 360 & Messenger Integration Complaints

I've been playing around with the Dashboard Update and overall I'm really happy with the enhancements. It is nice to be able to chat with your friends from your computer while they are on Xbox Live, but it already seems like there are some areas they could have improved before releasing the instant messaging features.

First, they should let you use any Messenger email address you want and not just the one tied to your gamertag. For me this is not a big issue as they are one in the same, but for a lot of people on my friends list they are not the same address. This would not be that big of a deal if they would let you change the email address tied to your gamertag, but they will not let you do that either. So, hopefully, your IM email address is the same as the one tied to your gamertag otherwise your just out of luck. Major Nelson posted that they are looking at a way to address this, but for now you're stuck.

Second, they need a way to add and remove instant messenger contacts on the Xbox 360. Someone really dropped the ball on this one. If you're going to try and get me to do everything (watch TV, listen to music, chat, look at pictures) on my Xbox 360 that is fine, but don't make it so I have to use my computer to setup stuff first. Whose idea was it to make it so I had to leave my couch and go to my computer to setup my IM contacts? Whoever that was please smack them on the back of the head for me.

Finally, they need to expand support to include voice and video chatting. Windows Live Messenger supports both and so does the 360 so I don't see why they did not include that. Yes, the computer user needs to have a microphone and/or a web cam, but a lot of people already do. On the Xbox 360 side everyone pretty much has a headset and the Vision Camera is growing in popularity as more games are being released that support it. I'm guessing whoever decided not to support video and voice chatting over IM is the same person who thought it was a good idea to allow us to see our messages on Xbox.com, but not let us listen to our voice messages on there. I realize that support for voice and video chatting over the messenger interface would have taken more work and back end systems to support it, but if you're going to add a feature don't just add part of it. Add the whole thing and do it well, or just don't bother doing it at all.

Rude Smokers

I don’t mind when people smoke. I use to spend a few weeks each summer with my Aunt. She smoked and I have grown use to the smell. What I mind is people who blow smoke in your direction when they could easily go the other direction or who ignore No Smoking signs. I don’t go to their designated smoking areas and spray air fresheners. Please don’t come to my non-smoking area and smoke.

This is especially annoying at my office because people like to smoke right outside the front door so it is impossible to go in or out without walking through a cloud of smoke made by 4 or 5 smokers. The area clearly states it is non-smoking but there is pretty much always someone smoking there. I'm still trying to think of some good ways to get them back, but I've not thought of any yet. I was thinking of "adjusting" the sprinklers so that they point at that area and then setting them off at random intervals, but that requires I pay attention to when people are out there and I never notice until I go to lunch. If you have any ideas for a good prank style payback for these rude smokers let me know.

Rainbow Six: Vegas Update

In case you had not noticed an update was released for Rainbow Six: Vegas this week. In it there were about a dozen bug fixes and a few major gameplay changes (full list below). It is nice that Xbox Live allows for games with bugs to get fixed, but really I'd prefer that companies test their games better so updates are not needed. I can understand the need for some updates to combat rampant cheating - like Halo 2 had before the first update. What I don't understand is why they thought it would be a good idea to change the gameplay mechanics. Specifically, why they would change the accuracy of the weapons after the game has been out for months. It is not like they just changed one or two guns either. They changed pretty much all of them. Yes, the shotguns were to accurate at longer ranges, but are easily to combat with grenades. Or, even easier, turn them off in the game setup. Besides the shotguns, the other guns were pretty well balanced. I played a few matches right after the update was released and the Assault Rifles seem a lot more powerful than before and the SMGs are now pretty much worthless. With all of these changes, I'll have to go back and try them all again to find what works best.

Ubisoft, get it right the first time or accept your mistakes. Don't make major gameplay changes months after release. Bug fixes are fine. Additional maps and game types are great. But not changes to something that is part of the core gameplay like weapon accuracy.

RSV X360 Title Update
Here’s a list of what’s been changed in this version:

Bug Fixes:
> Optimized the network replication of custom faces. You should see everyone’s custom face much faster in an online match.
> Fixed a bug where you can get stuck on a ladder in Border Town.
> Grenades no longer go through walls.
> Fixed the sound loop on weapons.
> Observers no longer cause a Team Unbalance penalty on experience points.
> Fixed a crash related to throwing an incendiary grenade and then quickly using your snake cam before it exploded.
> Leaderboards are now correctly updating results from ranked matches.
> Fixed a bug where you could lose your weapon.
> Killing terrorists with incendiary grenades now works correctly in Terrorist Hunt.
> C4 explosives are now properly seen by clients when placed on moveable objects.
> Players are now vulnerable to grenades when using mounted weapons.
> Fixed bugs related to the Survivor and Special Operations achievements.
> Host can no longer kick players once the match has started. Players can only be kicked in the lobby, or automatically kicked by excessive team-killing.

Gameplay Tweaks:
The weapons have been rebalanced based on the feedback you’ve given us. Thank you for your patience and continued support in making Rainbow Six Vegas the great multiplayer game that it is. Without further delay, here are the changes we’ve brought to the weapons:

Sub Machine Guns
SMGs are now less lethal at long ranges. The damage they do at long range has been reduced in order to bring them more in line with how this type of gun should behave. SMGs remain very lethal at short to medium range.

Assault Rifles
Assault Rifles are now where we wanted them to be. They’re more maneuverable than before and you can more accurately take aim at your target. The Assault Rifles excel at medium to long range when fired in short controlled bursts.

Light Machine Guns
The amount of recoil when firing light machine guns has been significantly reduced, therefore making them much more accurate than before. This weapon excels when fired from a stationary position. It’s not meant to be a very manuverable weapon.

Shotguns
Damage at long range has been reduced for shotguns. However, they’re still extremely lethal at short range.

Sniper Rifles
Sniper Rifles have gotten the attention they deserve. Sniper Rifles are more accurate and benefit from an increase in damage. The key to being successful with a sniper rifle is to remain stationary when aiming at your target.

Gadgets
Frag Grenade: The explosive radius of the fragmentation grenade has been slightly reduced.
GPS Device: The scanning radius of the GPS has been slightly reduced, along with the number of uses it has.

Alien Hominid HD Mini-Review

Alien Hominid was released for Xbox Live Arcade last Wednesday. I finally stopped playing Crackdown long enough to check it out, but I wish I hadn't. I'm glad to see something getting released on XBLA, and I do like the graphical style of the game. It reminds of the Metal Slug games I played in the past. Other than the graphical style of the game there was not a lot of stuff I liked about the game. I found it very hard and frustrating. The controls themselves are easy enough to pick up, but the lack of any health bar makes it a one-hit-kills play style. This would be ok if you had a way to defend yourself, but you your only defense is to jump, roll, or dig. Basically, the gameplay boils down to shoot as fast as you can and hope you can jump over attacks in time. There are plenty of other games that have this same play style that are fun to play, but the graphical style of Alien Hominid made it hard at times to see the enemy attacks coming at you. I don't know about you, but I can't dodge attacks that I can't see. It got to the point where I just decided it was not worth it and I quit playing. So, Crackdown is back on my Xbox 360 now and it will probably be there until I get the urger to play some Rainbow Six: Vegas. I'm sure there are people who like game a lot, but I'm not one of them.

Tetris Evolved Coming

I saw today on IGN that THQ is releasing a new Tetris game called “Tetris Evolved.”

"Tetris Evolved adds two new modes, Go Low and Eraser, for both single and multiplayer gaming. The multiplayer modes support local and Xbox Live play for up to four people and Xbox Live vets can use the matchmaking system to vie against same-skilled Tetris players and track them via a newly implemented ladder system. Tetris Evolved also offers achievement points, "high definition" graphics, and adds video backgrounds as well as customizable themes, skins, icons and soundtracks."

I do like Tetris. So, the idea of a release for the Xbox 360 with support for four people locally or over matchmaking sounds like it could be fun, but at the end of the day it is still just Tetris; another retro game. The price and release date have not been announced, but if they charge more than $25 for it I do not expect that they will sell that many copies. On the other hand, if they were to add it to Xbox Live Arcade for 800 points ($10) I think quite a few people would download a copy. Even though I don’t like a lot of retro games I know that we would be buying it at our house because my wife loves Tetris. We use to play on the Nintendo 64 with some friends and she would school the rest of us. With the addition of the video backgrounds, themes, skins, icons and soundtracks it sounds like Tetris is taking a note from Lumines Live. Hopefully they don’t take after the Lumines Live pricing scheme as well.

So, THQ, please release Tetris Evolved as an Arcade release and don’t waste our time trying to charge for a full retail release or with a Lumines Live pricing plan.

How To Use A Remote 101

Normally I’m not one to read the NY Times. I generally get my daily news from sites like Digg, Engadget, and Joystiq. Yet, when I saw an article titled “Viewers Fast-Forwarding Past Ads? Not Always” it caught my eye. My friends can tell you that I am a TiVo Whore. I’ve been using it long enough now that I would rather not watch TV than have to watch it with commercials. The SuperBowl is my one exception to that and if you read my previous post you already know my thoughts on that.

According to a survey by Nielsen, DVR owners watch 40 percent of commercials that they could skip over. Are these people crazy? I can understand watching sporting events live. Personally, I prefer to let them start recording for 20 or 30 minutes and then start watching the game so I can fast forward through commercials, but there are cases where watching the game live is better. Other than sporting events, I don’t see any reason to watch normal TV live. Maybe someone can tell me another reason, but I just can’t think of one that explains why 4 out of 10 people who could be fast forwarding commercials are not.

As I think about it now I wonder if there polling methods were flawed. I know half a dozen other people who have a TiVo or DVR from their cable company. None of them watch commercials. Most of them only watch a few TV shows and all of those they record and watch at a later date. The sports fans all let the game start recording and then start watching a bit later. None of them watch commercials. None of them were surveyed for this research either.

Assuming their statistics are correct who are these people who are watching commercials instead of fast forwarding through them? I have finally thought of one reason why people might not be fast forwarding through commercials. They don’t know how. Maybe these people signed up for digital cable to go with their new HDTVs they got for Christmas/SuperBowl and it came with a built in DVR. These are probably the same people who do not know how to set the time on their VCRs. They have the new electronic toys to keep up with their neighbors, but don’t take the time to learn how they actually work. I’m thinking I could make a lot of money starting a class that teaches them how to use their remote controls. So, if you know anyone who watches commercials instead of fast forwarding through them please shoot me an email or leave me a comment so I can get in touch with them about my new class: How To Use A Remote 101.

Where are the standardized HDTVs reviews?

Since I’m on vacation (if you can count visiting family and working remotely as a vacation) I thought I’d look around the internet for reviews on HDTVs that fit my price range and my living room. Apparently, finding good HDTV reviews is not an easy task.

I like what Robert Heron puts together over at PC Magazine/DL.tv, but the PC Mag review site is such a pain to navigate. As far as I can tell there is no easy way to have it show you all of the 42 inch HDTVs that are under $2000. I can get the under $2000 or the 40” to 50” TV range, but not both. Also, the reviews don’t all cover standard set of information. Some of them use a 1 to 5 scale for different attributes and others just list if that attribute is good or not. Cnet’s review section has the same issues as PC Magazines. Over at the AFS Forums, the members will give you great advice, but it helps if you have a specific TV model in mind already.

What I would really like is a site that reviews HDTVs and lists out their features and specs in a chart that can be used to compare multiple TV models. I realize some of the things like picture quality are subjective, but if you have 2 or 3 people review the same TV and work together on the review then you should be able to get a decent idea of how the TV looks. Then, list out the review in a chart telling me how well each TV looks, what inputs is has, what other features it has, etc. Sure part of a TV’s quality it is based on my eyes and how it will look in my living room, but if a site would review HDTVs in a way that each TV is put on the same scale it would really help consumers find the one that is right for them. It would save me tons of time going to stores and looking at each TV. Then going home and looking up reviews for it online. Then repeating that process about 20 times until I find the one that fits my budget and looks the best.

If anyone knows of any really good HDTV review sites please let me know.

Where is the Quality HD-DVR and HD TV Content?

I’ve been thinking of getting an HDTV. I’m hoping after I pay some bills that I will be able to get one with my tax return this year (fingers crossed). Once I actually figure out which TV I want I have to figure out how I’m going to get HD content on my TV. My 360 is HD already so that will be cool. I’ll probably end up getting the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive for HD movies at some point.

That just leaves my HD TV content. This is where I have a real dilemma. I’m a TiVo addict. I just can’t watch TV without the ability to fast forward through commercials anymore. So, that gives me only a few options for my HD TV content. I could send like $800 bucks on a TiVo Series 3 that does HD. The cost is really, really high, but at least it is the TiVo interface I know and love.

I could go with a Windows Media Center system but it will probably not be much cheaper, and right now there are a very limited number of these that actually have CableCard support.

The problem with both of these options is that after buying the TiVo or Media Center box I still have to pay for digital cable. So not only is there a large up from cost there is also the monthly cable bill.

I could go with the HD-DVR from my cable company, Cox, for a few bucks a month. There would not be a large up front investment this way, but from what I hear their DVRs are not that great. They get the job done similar to how a Geo Metro will get you where you going; you get there but there is no style. Whereas, the TiVo Series 3 would be like a ride in a Camero; expensive but it runs beautifully. I’ve heard that Cox will be adding TiVo software to their DVRs, but I called and no one there actually has a time frame when that would be happening.

Another option would be to go with DirectTV and their DVR. I hear it is not much better than the Cable company one, but DirectTV ha announced they will be tripling their HD lineup this year. No such news form Cox. But, will it be worth the hassle of installing an antenna to get 3 times the HD content when most of it will probably be for shows that I don’t watch.

The final option that comes to mind would be to hold out and go with the IPTV through my Xbox 360 later this year. In theory this would be the best option because the DVR functionality looks great, there is no limit to the number of channels, and I don’t have to get a separate box to add to my entertainment center. In reality, I don’t really want to wait until this fall to get HD TV content, and I don’t think it will actually be offered in my area since I can’t even upgrade my DSL plan to anything faster then the basic one from AT&T. I guess I could always get digital cable for now and switch to IPTV when it comes out (if I can even get it in my area).

Since I don’t have an HDTV yet I guess I don’t have to decide how I want to get HD TV content, but when I do I have a feeling I’m not going to be happy no matter which choice I pick. It will either be very expensive and work great, or be “cheap” and work like a digital VCR. If you have a HDTV and an HD-DVR let me know which DVR you went with and how you like it. I could use any advice I can get.

Top 3 Problems with Xbox Live Arcade

Right off the bat I want to state that I think Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is off to a pretty good start. I want to mention that at the beginning because by then end of this post you may think I don’t like Xbox Live Arcade when in reality I just have three areas of complaint.

Problem #1: Slow Game Releases
Why are so few games being released? I do like that Microsoft made Wednesdays “Xbox Live Arcade Release Day,” but why do they just release one game. Or worse yet, an add-on pack for a game. By my count so far there have been 45 games released for Xbox Live Arcade. That is far less than one a week; especially when you factor in that 10 of the 45 were released when Xbox Live Arcade started. For the most part these games are selling well. They are easy to buy and the demos make it easy to see if you think they are worth picking up or not. So, I have a message for development companies please put some teams together and work on more Arcade games. Microsoft Certificate Team, I realize you have a difficult job, but please get arcade games released quicker. I don’t always have time to sit down and play a game for a few hours, but I can find 20 or 30 minutes about every day to play an arcade game.

Problem #2: The Pricing
I appreciate that the whole Arcade thing is pretty new and companies are still trying to figure out prices for their arcade releases, but it would be nice if they could work out some sort of standardization. Even if the price is higher than I personally want to pay, at least try to work out some standard pricing to charge for arcade games. For example, Assault Heroes and Heavy Weapon both cost 800 points. Yet, Assault Heroes takes much less time to beat (in my experience) and offers less game modes. I liked Assault Heroes, but it should cost less than Heavy Weapon. I'm not even going to discuss the pricing for Lumines Live because that was the worst Live Arcade release pricing plan they have had so far. I could probably write a whole post just on it alone. Please work out a standard pricing model and stop over charging your loyal customers for every little thing.

Problem #3: Retro Games
I don't mind retro arcade games. For the most part, they bring back great memories, but retro games are like any other video game: once you haven’t played the game for a while you seldom go back to it. I can look at my own game library as an example. I have over 40 games for the original Xbox, but the only one I have played in the last year is Halo 2. Once a game has been completed it is time to move on to the next one. If the game has good multiplayer it might extend its life a little, but it too will get shelved for a new game in time. That is a major part of the reason why I have started renting more games and buying less, but that also is a rant for another day. If they want to continue to release so many retro games please start releasing original arcade games on the same day (see Complaint #1). So far, of the 45 Xbox Live Arcade games released 18 of them have been a retro release. That is 40% of the Arcade games. I'd really like to see that number drop to about 20%. One retro game a month is more than enough. If I wanted to play these old games I would pull my old systems out the closet.

I saw a list of 10 new game releases that were coming for Xbox Live Arcade a week or two back, and out of those 10 games I plan to check out at least 4 of them: Alien Hominid HD, Band of Bugs, Catan, and Luxor 2. Five of the ten are retro games or remakes or PC games. Why is it that only half of these games are new ideas? Maybe it is easier to port over an old game than it is to make a new one. Maybe developers are having trouble thinking up new game ideas that have not been done on the PC. I don't know, but I wish it would stop. I have high hopes for the XNA developers out there. From what I’ve seen most of them are fresh and original ideas. I look forward to seeing some of these hit the Xbox Live Arcade so those of us who are not in the XNA program can check them out.

Xbox Live Arcade and XNA Developers take a look at Outpost Kaloki X. It is a good example for you to use when thinking about making/releasing an arcade game. It is an original game for a reasonable price. They also released 5 additional game modes, but only charge for two of them. Please, please take a look at this game because it does an excellent job of providing good value for the gamer.

As Xbox Live Arcade grows I think it will probably grow out of these three issues. However, here in its infancy, as it starts mature I hope Microsoft can take note of the issues and challenges that Xbox Live Arcade faces and push it to be a great source for fun games. The only other option I see is that Microsoft lets Xbox Live Arcade sink into a dumping pile for old game remakes and poorly designed mini-games. I don’t think that is what Microsoft and the Arcade Developers want so I have hope that these issues will be addressed as time progresses.

Why I left RegisterFly.com for GoDaddy.com

After my last comparison review I must be in that type of mind sent because I’ve got another one for you today. You may have noticed my blog was down most of last week. At that time I was using RegisterFly.com as my host and domain registrar. I had been with them for a few years and never had any real trouble. From time to time portions of their site would be under contraction, but nothing to drastic. That was until last week when I found one morning that my site was not up. I proceeded to call RegisterFly and wait on hold for 30 minutes only to be told I would have to open a support ticket on their web site. Their website clearly states they have web, phone, and email support. Apparently phone support is only for issues that are not really technical. I opened a support ticket and noticed about 4 hours later my site was back up. I finally received a response about 36 hours later that said my site was back up. At the time I was hoping it was just a random fluke and it would not be a big deal. I was annoyed with the whole situation, especially since their site says the reply to tickets within 24 hours, but since my site was up I ignored it. I should not have. It was a sign of things to come.

The next morning my site was down again. I opened a ticked and called support anyway. The customer service rep did assign my ticked to the “Advanced” team and told me they would respond to the ticket after I waited 40 minutes on hold to get to him. After 2 days without a response I called back in (again waiting over 30 minutes) and was told that the ticket was in the Hosting Group to be addressed.

At this point I was pretty upset so I started looking around for a new hosting company. I found that GoDaddy.com has a hosting plan that offered twice as much storage for about half the price so I called them to get a few questions answered about how long the transfer would take and if I could get my website uploaded to the hosting server before the transfer completed. I had a rep on the phone with me within 2 minutes of calling GoDaddy. He was very helpful and actually walked me through the transfer process and knew the answers to all my questions without having to look them up. The transfer could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 days depending on how fast my current registrar was to respond. It took them 2 days to send me the administrative email confirming I wanted to transfer my domain away from RegisterFly.com. Within 5 minutes of my response to that email GoDaddy completed the transfer.

At this point I called GoDaddy to confirm what DNS Nameserver I should use since I already had my website uploaded and now the domain had transferred. The customer service rep answered within a minute and knew the nameserver off the top of his head. Within 20 minutes after completing the transfer my site was back up and running.

Yesterday I finally received a response to my ticket on RegisterFly. This is 2 days after I quit using them as my host and registrar and 6 days after I opened the ticket. The entire response was less than 2 sentences. It said that their server #18 was down and that they were working on it. I’m glad I did not wait for them to fix it or you would not be reading this post right now.

I’m pretty impressed with GoDaddy’s response times. I had a question that I did not need answered immediately so I emailed it instead of calling. Their support site lists right on it how long it would be before I can expect a response email. The site said it would be two hours. It came in about 90 minutes and was very well written.

I called today to cancel my hosting with RegisterFly and they told me (once again) that I need to do this by opening a ticke on their website. I would do that but their website is down. I noticed this while on the phone with their customer service rep. He said they were aware that it is down and it should be back up in 45 to 50 minutes. Do the seriously expect people to trust them to use their hosting services when they can’t keep their own website up?

GoDaddy wins in this comparison hands down. They have a faster web site. They actually answer the phone and their support techs don't speak with an accent so strong I continually have to ask them to repeat themselves. The best part is the cost less and guarantee 99.9% uptime.

GameFly.com vs GameznFlix.com

The Battle For My Game Rental Dollar

Like my subtitle? I spent 40 minutes thinking that baby up :-)
Anyway, back on topic, I've been using GameznFlix for almost a year now. For the last 8 or 9 months their shipping times have been very streaky. When I fist signed up they would ship me new games within a day or two of returning the previous one. However, on a couple occasions it has been 4 weeks between game shipments. When they do eventually get around to shipping me something it generally takes 4 or 5 days to get to me even though they ship from here in California.

I think part of the problem is that I signed up the same time as they started a big marketing campaign that added a lot of new customers. With all these new members they do not have enough copies of each game to go around. I will admit I generally only have 3 or 4 games in my queue and most of them are fairly new; so that probably does not help. Frankly, that is not really my problem. I'm paying for a service and I expect it to be provided. I really like the price, but now that my queue is getting pretty small I'm thinking of switching to GameFly even though it costs a bit more. I have 0 games out with GameznFlix right now, but nothing has been shipped to me in over 6 weeks.

I signed up for the 10 day free trial from GameFly on Sunday a couple weeks back and Monday they shipped me Lost Planet and Tony Hawk Project 8; both arrived in two days. Both games have been in my queue with GameznFlix since their release with a Short Wait status while I have zero games out. It seems like GameznFlix just doesn't have enough copies of most games. So, I guess the question really comes down to “Am I really saving any money if it takes 3 or 4 times as long to get games from GameznFlix as it would from GameFly?”

I think the answer to that, at least for me, is No. What good is it to save 5 dollars a month if I never have any games to play?

S