So what is it lately with companies sending out emails/press releases/etc announcing an upcoming announcement.

Here is an example of what I’m talking about with the names removed to protect the innocent.

Heads up Nick:

_______________   will release findings of ___________ on Monday, October 29th.

Thank you for that.   This just seems to be happening more and more.  I’ll get emails like, “Hey, just wanted to let you know we have an uber super secret announcement coming tomorrow so get ready!”  Here’s an idea, how bout you just send me the announcement.

So I here I sit on a plane on my way back from Seattle. Flights across the country generally give one a lot of time to think about things. This particular trip took me to an event unlike any other I’ve been to. The event was called the Community Lock-In for Halo 3. Microsoft’s biggest game ever was set to launch on the Xbox 360 on September 25th, and they were kind enough to invite 17 members of the Xbox and Video Game community to their headquarters to get a taste of the game. I don’t know if you’d call a 12 hour marathon session a taste, I guess that’s more like a buffet. The event was great, and I met a lot of really awesome people from a lot of sites that I’ve checked out from time to time. We were even taken to the Best Buy midnight launch where we got to wander around and help promote the game and just generally take in the insanity that ensued there. And trust me, it was pretty fucking insane.

So yeah, I’m on a plane and my mind is wandering. Marty O’Donnel’s (who I got to meet) Halo Soundtrack is blasting through my headphones and I’m looking out an airplane window at gorgeous setting sun and an amber sea of clouds. Ironically, in Amber Clad is the track playing on my Halo 3 Zune. See a trend here? I’m in fucking Halo mode. I’m constantly thinking about it. Between the total conversion of Evil Avatar.com and the contest we are doing over there to help promote it, to the taste of the campaign I got yesterday all I want to do is eat, breath and dream Halo.

Oh shit, there goes Steve Vai jamming that theme out. Tight.

Speaking of the campaign, how bout that opening cinematic. I mean, jesus christ could it get any fucking better? I mean, ok, we knew the chief wasn’t dead (obviously) but that’s not what was so great about it. It’s that possibility of what’s going on with Cortana and the chief. There’s some higher level shit happening there, and I simply could not WAIT to find out. Cortana mentions how the AIs are allowed to choose their Spartan, this was actually something from the Halo books. And the way she talks about the chief, well it frickin tugs on my heart strings.

Anyway, enough about Halo for now, I just can’t wait to get home and play it.

You know, it’s weird. These past two years of my life have been pretty surreal.

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So it appears like the US Government wants to fuck up even further are already paltry broaband penetration in this country thanks to an expiring bill. Congress would pass a new bill in its place which would levy taxes on internet access for cable, dsl, and other various means of access the great WWW.

If the moratorium is allowed to expire, states would be allowed to levy discriminatory taxes on digital subscriber line, cable modem, wireless and even BlackBerry-type data services. First enacted in 1998 and renewed after some debate in 2004, the existing law prevents state and local governments from taxing “a service that enables users to access content, information, electronic mail or other services offered over the Internet.”

Each time the bill has come up for renewal, state and local officials have opposed making the ban permanent, arguing it’s best for the policy to stay flexible so states can re-evaluate whether collecting such taxes is necessary for their operations. So far, they’ve won over politicians on that front.

The bill is set to expire on November 1st, and if nothing is done in time we could see net taxes in place pretty quickly. The US already ranks on the lower end of the scale in terms of broadband penetration, speed and cost. Something like this could only hurt it further.

Source

I think I’ve decided today that I need to train myself to live on 5 hours of sleep.  I normally go to bed around 11 or so and wake up at 6:30, but this simply is cutting into my gaming time.  On top of all the games I want to play, I have the articles to write related to those games.  Combine that with a 40+ hour work week, taking care of a dog, housework, a wife, and whatever else real life throws at me and I simply don’t have enough time in the day to do what I want.

Day 1 is now.   I will increase my “awake” time.

If this quote isn’t living proof that Electronic “Fuck your mom in the ass” Arts has too much power and money, I don’t know what is. EA’s CEO John Riccitiello made the following quote:

“When you’ve got a competitor like Take-Two on the sports side, and they launch a football title using some of the industry legends, you want to make sure that ends up being a blip and is not repeatable, because we like to defend our franchises aggressively.”

Wow. Talk about arrogance. Sounds like EA wants to buy an exclusive license for something they really couldn’t get an exclusive license for. Here is an idea EA…make a game that is fucking good instead of destroying all chance for competition. Focus your efforts on, oh I don’t know, game improvements and design instead of buyouts and assimilation.

Source: Gamasutra

So I was over at 1UP reading a new blog started by NHL2k Producer Ben Bishop. I’m a huge hockey fan, and a huge NHL2k fan. Every year the game makes strides in the right direction, but at the same time it always seems to let things slide in another. The biggest thing with the past two games have been the occurrence of bugs. Some of them show stopping and season ending. These little annoyance have managed to keep the game from achieving true greatness.

So after reading the blog post by Mr. Bishop, it’s pretty easy to get excited. There are some great new features he talks about, including updated graphics, a new control scheme, new menus, and new goalies. This sounds all well and good, and a lot of it is stuff that’s promised every year, but there are just so many common cliche’s thrown around the article it’s hard to take it seriously.

Here are a few examples:

the differences are night and day between NHL 2K7 and NHL 2K8

push the game to a whole new level.

On the changing control scheme:

It definitely takes a little bit of getting used to at first, but once you do there is so much more you can do in the game.

On the new goalies:

I see something new and different from them every day.

I’m not bashing Ben here, he’s doing his job, but it just seems like we hear the same stuff year after year for games, and then we set ourselves up for dissapointment. Perhaps it would be better if developers simply didn’t talk in terms like these, but rather absolutes.

Step away from World of Warcraft. Put down Halo 2. This week these are the games you should be playing.

Project Sylpheed (Xbox 360) - So who knew Square-Enix could create a space shooter? I certainly didn’t. I’m only 5 or 6 missions in, but the game is incredibly beautiful and exciting. The game features the ability to purchase/research new weapons and customize your ship that help provide a deeper experience. Even though the story is somewhat cliche’d, the whole game just has this throwback feel to the days of Wing Commander. And at a budget price of $39.99 there’s no reason you shouldn’t be picking this up.

Wing Commander: Armada (Xbox Live Arcade) - Speaking of Wing Commander, EA is set to release an XBLA title this week titled Wing Commander: Armada. From what I’ve heard the game isn’t exactly tried and true to the Wing Commander series, but rather the game is more action oriented offering multiple views including a pseudo top down type perspective. I know, I know. Why should you play this game regardless? I’ve talked to a few people who have played it already, and so far the response has been pretty positive. I stand corrected, this game is pretty much crap. Avoid it.

Heavenly Sword Demo (Playstation 3 Network) - Word just came in that the Heavenly Sword Demo will be hitting the PSN this week. It’s the same demo that was fully playable at E3, a game I awarded #2 of the show. I absolutely can’t wait to get my hands on this again, the game is just beautiful to watch and play.

27,200 Microsoft Points. That’s how many I’ve purchased since 11/29/2006.

So doing some math at 80 points per dollar that comes out to be… $340.

I do have 43 purchased Live Arcade games. So that’s not bad. $340 isn’t even 6 “regular” games. Plus I’ve purchased a few songs and albums through the Zune Store on PC which shares the MS Point system with Xbox Live. I think I’ve maybe purchased 2 themes and 2 picture packs total.

But wow. 27,200 MS Points. That was more than I expected.

So during E3 I managed to find an extra 20 minutes to sneak into the Loews hotel arcade that Microsoft had set up. After chatting it up a bit with Chris, John and Tony from the The Gamerscore Blog I decided to try my hand at the only song that matters to me on Guitar Hero 3, Muse’s Knights of Cyndonia. I not so confidently chose the hard difficulty setting, I mean…I didn’t want to look like a whimp, right?

Well…then things got worse. A lot worse. A nice TV Crew decided to start filming my face melting rock and roll. That put me a bit under pressure.

You can see the video here of me melting faces. I’m about 15-20 seconds in.

Say wha? Yeah that’s right. The fancy new Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Vista isn’t able to Sync with Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, or Windows Address Book. How about a big…WHAT THE FUCK. Why Microsoft would choose to do this is beyond me, I guess they are trying to spur Outlook sales or something. Which is pretty stupid consider, Outlook comes free with any Windows Mobile device.

So I spent 2 hours loading up Windows Calendar with appointments only to find out it doesn’t sync. Luckily Windows Calendar easily exported to Google Calendar. Then I joined GooSync and all was good. The time it took me to set that up was less than the time it took me to find out that Windows Calendar doesn’t sync. What the hell is the SYNC option for in the menu then?