XBox 360

Brian’s Revised Birthday List

Apr 28th

Posted by Brian A. Thomas in Gaming

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This doesn’t discount my last post regarding what I want for my birthday, just this time I am going to arrange things differently.
$50:

This gives us 13 months of XBox Live Gold membership. After using a trial of XBox Live Gold, it seems this is the new most wanted… well most wanted reasonably priced item anyhow. ;)
For $10 more, one can get Xbox 360 Live 12 Month Messenger Gold Pack, which includes a headset for talking during games, a chat pad and a game. The headset would be kind of nice…

Other items in the $50 range on the Wish List (see the bar on the side) include Seasons 3 and 4 of Battlestar Galactica. Seasons 2 through 4 (season 5 is available for pre-order). Of those BSG is a bit cheaper per season. I still want Whale Rider (that’s about $11). Also on the wishlist is some other games, though the XBox live would be preferred.
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Initial Left 4 Dead Impressions

Dec 7th

Posted by Brian A. Thomas in Gaming

1 comment

I got to play an offline, single player version of Left 4 Dead the other day, and I have to say I am impressed. It is without a doubt the most wanted game. However, I have decided it isn’t above my want for Neon Genesis Evangelion: Platinum Collection. This is no fault of the game, but I think the long term repeated viewability of Neon Genesis outweighs the long term replayability of the game. The main point of the game is the online feature, which gives the game a long shelf-life, but even so, years from now I would still be watching Neon Genesis, but probably have moved on to other games. Then again I have been playing Counter Strike off and on for years (most off, which is kind of the point).
Still, I have to think that the Game of the Year will be between Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 More >

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Playstation 3 in November

Mar 16th

Posted by Brian A. Thomas in Blu-ray

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Sony’s Playstation 3 will launch in November. It was widely expected to be out in the United States here in November anyhow, so this is mostly just a delay for Japan, and an early present for Europe which probably normally would have had to wait a few more months. Didn’t they learn anything from the XBox 360 global launch? I seem to recall them panning Microsoft for trying a global launch, yet here they are doing it themselves. The delay for the launch seems to be related to the final copyright specs on the Blu-ray drive.
The shortages we would have had on the machine will be made all the worse with a worldwide launch, and it will be worse then the XBox 360 launch since the PS3 is wanted in Japan far more then the XBox 360.
I didn’t get an XBox 360 as there are still no must have titles for it yet. Even the HD-DVD drive for the XBox 360 will be external, making it an expensive way to get a HD-DVD drive, perhaps cheaper then stand alone drives at the time it comes out, but still an expensive option. Even without any must have titles, the PS3 will be a something to consider since it comes with a Blu-ray drive.
They didn’t give a price. Last I heard was a consumer cost of just under $500, which makes it a cheap easy way to get a Blu-ray drive. I am guessing final price won’t be announced until closer to the date. In May comes E3, and we’ll probably get more details on the final specs and some expected launch titles. I am guessing the final price will be a tad more then whatever the XBox 360 is selling for, though Microsoft will likely drop the price on the 360 this holiday season to discourage people from buying the PS3. The developer kits with final hardware is also expected this May, so there will be time for developers to polish any titles they were trying to get done for the spring.
Anyhow, a Blu-way drive for under $500. Sign me up… then again, I have just a regular old TV, so the improvements in quality will be lost on me. :)

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Only 48 Pro XBox 360s locally

Nov 13th

Posted by Brian A. Thomas in Gaming

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After looking up my local Best Buy‘s store number, I checked it against the list of BestBuy Store Xbox360 Unit Allocation Numbers. It looks like the North Canton, Ohio Best Buy is getting 48 premium units (the only one to really get), 14 core units ($100 cheaper, but you basically need the stuff that comes with the premium and separately you’ll spend much more then $100 to get them). That is the best allocation for the local area. No word yet on how many each Wal-Mart will get, though they are supposed to get more cores then other places. The advantage of Wal-Mart is you get to wait indoors, and get to pick-up your unit at midnight, so no waiting outside in the cold. I did that last time with the regular XBox… There will be no getting a premium system from the video game stores for a long time as they have lots of pre-orders to fill. Best Buy is getting the best allocation as they are the retail partner with the launch. The local one has the XBox 360 demo unit on display right at the entrance of the store on a large Sony screen.
Of course a lack of cash will keep me from doing anything this time, beyond the fact that there are no must have launch titles. If they had released MechAssault 3 or something that I would need to have.

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Hex168…

Oct 18th

Posted by Brian A. Thomas in Gaming

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It has begun… Hex168 has finally updated. First look through seems to make it a contest to win a pre-release copy of the XBox 360. It looks to be a photo/video contest.

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Hex168 Viral Marketing

Oct 17th

Posted by Brian A. Thomas in Gaming

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With all the fun of the Lost viral marketing campaign going on, it is sometimes easy to forget the masters of viral marketing has been XBox related. Indeed the XBox 360 viral campaign has had a few interesting ones, the most interesting was the whole I LoveBees campaign.
The newest has been the Hex 168 campaign. Featuring pictures such as the below all over XBox 360 boards.
Hex168 - Tulsa Photo
168 is equal to 360 in the hex number format. The circle is part of the the XBox 360′s logo (notably they call it the “rings of light” and it lights up in quadrants much like the 4 part circle in the photo), the Hex probably a clue to the hex number format. The number 168 as noted earlier is the same as 360 in hex.
There is a countdown timer, and it would seem a sneak preview of the XBox 360 somewhere, or perhaps the official start of the Hex 168 game.
The cities they use in the photos are all large cities except Tulsa, so perhaps the debut will be Tulsa related? Or it is the launch of store demos. I doubt it is a contest to win the XBox 360 early. How would they give them away? Contact the poster of a message to say “You won!” Some of the clues do hint at a pre-release copy of XBox 360. Other references are to the blades in the interface. The silver ball thing in the middle of the controller…
Potentially a Halo 3 campaign, but I doubt that guess.
I get nothing using Dr. Lutz (the name on the campaign) in the Anagram server, nor just Lutz. Doctor Lutz doesn’t really come up with much useful. Using Doctor John Lutz gets some interesting results, but I didn’t see clues there.
The coutdown ends the 18th about 3 p.m. EST (or is that EDT?)… So I guess we’ll see…

Perhaps it is a Lost game on the XBox 360, there are two campaigns going… Along with the bigspaceship1 thingy… Okay probably not…
EDIT: To try to get the wordpress plugin trying to make a link to Thessalonians in the above… as there is no chapter 168… Anytime I put The and a number after it, it tries to link it to Thessalonians…

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