Brian A. Thomas .com » XBox 360

Brian’s Revised Birthday List

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:56:49 +0000

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.
$190:
Okay a $190 isn’t reasonable, at least for most family and friends who may be visiting this page. But this game is a must have…

Guitar Hero World Tour Band Bundle for Xbox 360 would be the other choice, but I much prefer to have Rock Band for the full kit. The nice thing is then we could use the Rock Band instruments with Guitar Hero.
Of course one could preorder:

But that is $250 and isn’t out until 9/9/09… perhaps for Sara birthday. She is after all a Beatles fan… then again, one can get The Beatles: Rock Band – Software Only if they already have the Rock Band set…

From here on out, we really get into the stuff that is more expensive than a typical birthday gift… items below would count to my Christmas as well.

$418:

The best Digital SLR you can get for a semi-reasonable cost. There are better DSLRs, but you have to pay much more. The D40 is a good everyday camera, even professionals use it when they don’t want to lug their better gear around.
$487:
Dear God, this is my most wanted thing…

Ari and I enjoy geocaching. Sara really hasn’t gone yet, but she probably would dig it if had the ability to actually go out there and do it. As I have noted many times, a GPS for a car really wouldn’t be useful for geocaching. Car units are not made to be used outdoors. This unit can be used in the car, though the small screen means you have to place it better, and it doesn’t speak to you the way a fancy car one does, but when it comes to geocaching this is the unit to get. For $330 one can get the DeLorme Earthmate PN-40. The only issue is that you can’t get lots of maps for outside the US, which makes it not as useful if heading to Canada or if we took a trip or moved to New Zealand.
Even if everybody got together, this one would probably be out of range, but that’s okay, it’s on the list anyhow.

Initial Left 4 Dead Impressions

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:59:26 +0000

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 (the XBox 360 version of which is also on my Christmas Wishlist, only IF we got a 360). Fallout 3 is well, a Fallout game and really well done one at that. Left 4 Dead is yet another great game from Valve, who did Portal, which did win Game of the Year, and is still one of the best games ever created. I can’t say enough about how great Portal is… wow… Excuse me while I go play it a bit again… Okay, I am back. As I was saying, Left 4 Dead is an amazing game, but I think in the end Fallout 3 will win as it has better metacritic and game ranking results. However, the only negative I see in the reviews of Left 4 Dead seems to be focused on the fact that the Source engine is showing its age some now, and not on game play, though there is plenty of complaints about how shot of content it is. The thing is, I would expect there to become plenty of official and unofficial maps available to download and play on (okay, so the unofficial maps will be only available to PC users), giving it a longer term value… then again, Fallout 3 will have user made content on the PC as well, though I am not sure if the game system version will have additional content made for it. Anyhow, I am sure there will be lots of debate in the game editing offices over which of the two will get Game of the Year.
Of course I haven’t gotten to my initial impressions yet, which is the point of this post. As I noted, I only played the Single player version, and the whole point of the game, like Counter Strike, is online play with other players, so even as initial impressions go, this will be short.
In the game you play one of 4 survivors of a Zombie Apocalypse. Your goal is to survive and get to a rescue point where you wait for rescue. The game comes with 4 campaigns, each with several chapters, the goal of each is to reach a safe room, the final one you try to survive until rescue arrives. Each campaign should take a bit less than 1 hour. So yes, the single player game would be over quickly (I certainly didn’t have enough time to do that much with it, though I did complete a full campaign). The game’s AI is smart enough that its placement of enemies, bosses and I believe weapons depends on how well you are doing, so each time you play you get a different experience, even if the start and end points are different. Still, the 4 campaigns means you will be playing the same maps a lot, at least until official and user created maps appear. My PC needs several upgrades (which would make it better than a 360, in graphics anyhow, for less money), so I can’t really comment on how far behind it is on those terms. All the games are knocked down to its level. So from my perspective, the graphics aren’t any worse than a modern day game and as a matter of fact may play smoother, but I understand, and if I had a slightly better video card and a bit more RAM, I would probably comment how the graphics aren’t as awesome as many of games are today, though Valve has done an admirable job of keeping the engine doing lots of cool things.
Playing in single player mode shows a weakness of the AI in that regard. While the Director (as the AI that places enemies, controls their behavior and such) is great at what it does, your co-player AI will just follow you. It does an admirably good enough job at that, but I haven’t found a way to make one of them take the lead, meaning you have to go out put yourself in harms way more. Under a regular co-op match, each player would likely take a turn taking lead.
I haven’t played it enough to go into too much more detail, but I can tell that it is a Game of the Year Contender. I can tell that I really want this game myself (I would probably prefer the PC version of the 360 version, even if I had a 360 in this case, though for Falllout 3 I would go with the 360 version).

Playstation 3 in November

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:43:47 +0000

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.

Only 48 Pro XBox 360s locally

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 13:52:25 +0000

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.

Hex168…

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:10:38 +0000

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.

Hex168 Viral Marketing

Brian A. Thomas — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 16:19:38 +0000

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.

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…