Ghost Bears 360 Space

Into the New Year, Wii60 style.

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:51:50 GMT

Hello,

Woot, I managed to survive the Holidays and here we are into the New Year!

I hope the Holidays treated you well and your New Year is a great one.

The past few weeks are a blur. The Holidays were really good to me, ate ...and ate ...and drank, drank some more and was quite merry indeed. I scored lots groovy loot and all. New Years we stayed in and brought in the New Year in the safety of our cave, and boy did we bring in the New Year with a bang.

I spent the 1st week of the New Year just laying low and recovering from the Holiday madness, getting some quality game time in no less. There is no shortage of great gaming goodness to be had on the 360. I have been playing CoD 3, R6:Vegas, GoW, Viva Pinata, and Phantasy Star. There is just not enough time in the day I tell you...its not fair.

Week 2 the customers started coming out of the woodwork keeping us busy, that's a good thing I need to be able to afford my game habit. Gaming was never hobby or was I ever an enthusiast ...its a down right Gaming habit, its all good. I have been a gamer since 1977.

My game habit just doubled, I managed to score a Nintendo Wii Thursday! I really was not actively seeking to get a Wii,but I knew I would get one eventually. I feel it was an act by unseen forces of the universe "hooking me up". It was just totally random out of the blue thought that I had to call one of the local Game Stops, while I was deep into creating some digital art. To my shock and amazement they just got 3 in.

I am totally in love with the Wii, its such a fun little thing to play ...its all about fun it is! Wii Sports are a blast to play, I am not into sports at all but it love them on the Wii. I also Got Zelda:Twilight Princess which has been great fun. The Wii'mote is a brilliant interface device for games, it adds a new element to immersion of the gaming experience which I really like. Today I am going to get the RayMan: Raving Rabbids game, and WarioWare come out this week too. I don't know if I can handle all this great gaming goodness, but I am sure Ill find a way to cope somehow.

Its funny I can go anywhere and get a PS3 now but Wii's are not to be found in the wild. Wii cables and extra Wii'motes and nunchuchs are virtually non existent.

Well that's all for now. Peace out y'all!

Happy Holidays

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 17:44:12 GMT

Warm greetings yall,

Its been a while since I have posted anyhting, I have been rather busy with holiday stuff and other projects around here. I am just going to keep this post short and to the point.

Happy Holidays and a wonderfull New Year wishes to you all!

I am Alive! I still don't have a life :)

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 18:34:32 GMT

Hello Yall,

I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving or Fall Harvest Feast. We had a great Thanksgiving feast here, great food and drink and loads of gaming! I have been in a bit of a uberbinge of gaming with Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, and yes Viva Pinata! Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6:Vegas is coming in this week too.

My loved one and our herd of cats are about to revolt I fear, so I have come back to meatspace for a visit. Even my PC has protested my long absence, I haven't booted it in weeks...it decided to pitch a bitch and not boot right the 1st attempt. Because of my long absence from my PC I had to spend a good 30 minutes getting all the MS OS and AV updates, time well spent ooh yes, MS had to reboot my PC 3 freaking times for the updates! I was quickly reminded why I really do love my Mac and use it daily.

Anyway... wow the PS3 and Wii have launched. OMFG the PS3 launch was a freakshow, nightmare, and utter Anarchy even. People were camping the lines and braving crappy weather and then get robbed, beaten, trampled and SHOT too! I don't really understand the camping thing , but getting damaged and or robbed for a console launch is totally unimaginable. The Wii was a very peaceful launch affair in comparison it was a sellout.

We totally plan to get a Wii , most likely at the beginning of the new year for sure. The PS3 holds no interest for us, not feeling much love for Sony at all.

Nintendo and the Xbox 360 are looking to have a great holiday sale season. I can tell the 360 is doing great because while playing some Gears on Live this weekend I encountered many new 360 owners and they said Gears of War is why they came to the 360 and they are loving the experience.

Also adding to the great Xbox Live experience the new Video Marketplace is onlive and apparently had a greater than expected demand on launch day. I really like what I see there I think its a solid launch and I look forward to seeing more partners join in and provide content. I do hope the Xbox 360 hardware folks do re-evaluate the consumer desire for a larger capacity Hardrive for the 360. With a Video marketplace in play now 12 gigs of user addressable space seems a bit too cramped now.

Well thats all for now, Peace yall!

What a week!

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:18:55 GMT

Hello yall,

Wow what a week it has been, I don't know where to start a dizzying array of events has unfolded.

I guess Ill start with the elections, democracy is not dead and Americans got out and voted. America got out and spoke out loudly, VERY loudly, the democrats now have majority in both houses. Also is seems we are needing another Defense Secretary, ole Rumsfeld is out of a job. The winds of change are blowing and its all good.

Rumsfeld as a Mac dock Icon : ) If it was only so easy to get rid of him earlier.

Now for something completely different....

GEARS of WAR is here!

I am now the proud owner of Gears of War and its the crowning jewel of my 360 library! I must say I was really worried about this game there was so much hype, how could anything survive that kind of crushing weight of hype and high expectations. The hype didn't come close to the real world experience, GoW is utterly AMAZING. GoW is one of the most intense ,brutal, and cinematic fabulous games I have ever played. To say the graphics are great is understatement of the year. The sound is amazing it adds to the immersion and tension in a flawless way. I don't think anyone would would argue that the audio or visual fidelity of this game is truly next gen and top notch. Now to the meat of it gameplay, it plays 3rd person over the shoulder which it works really well. The use of cover and moving from cover to cover is brilliant in its ease of use and usage as a gameplay element. Firing from cover and aiming is really easy, not saying hitting the targets is easy...there is no auto aim crap here. The action is deliberate and invigorating and down right hardcore brutal.This is not Halo there is no run and gun. Overall the gameplay is profoundly fun and very unique. There are many game play modes to enjoy too form solo campaign, co op campaign, and 3 versus gameplay types with 4 on 4 action on 10 great maps. In my opinion this is game of the year for the 360. I recommend this game to anyone who likes shooters at all. I really can easily recommend this to any 360 owner 18+ of age.

Well that all for now. Peace out yall!

My fellow Americans...

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:44:15 GMT

Hello,

A very special time is almost upon us, no its not Emergence Day. What you ask it could be... mid term elections of course you know on November 7th. A time of us to vote, for our voices to be heard. Voting is the single most powerful act we are guaranteed by our fantastic constitution. If you are of legal age to vote I hope your a registered voter, if not GO NOW and register! I call out to all my fellow Americans and ask you to get out there and be empowered and vote. If you love your country, vote. If you love anything or anyone ...just vote! There is ABSOLUTLY NO EXCUSE for not voting! I don't care who or why you vote all I ask is that you just vote.

One thing that saddens me is to see such low numbers for voters turn out. I cant believe how so many Americans just don't care and can't be bothered to take a small bit of time out of their busy lives and do something so simple and powerful as to vote.

Did you know the last Presidential Elections 2004 was at 55.3% and the 2002 midterm voter turn out was 37%. The last time voter turnout was above 60% was 1968!!! This is very troubling to me.

Please America for the love of your country get out and vote!

REMEMBER NOVEMBER 7th is the time to go out and do something for American and VOTE!

Thanks,

Peace!

Let the carnage begin!

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 16:05:49 GMT

Hello,

Wow its been awhile since I've posted here, Its been a rather busy month. I hope you all survived the planned Xbox service outage last Tuesday. That's not a bad service record in 4 years Live has only been down for 24 hours! I cant believe its already been 4 years of Xbox Live, time does fly when your having tons of fun!

Well its that special time of year when they years hottest games start to hit store shelves. For me it started with Splinter Cell:DA last week and this week its Phantasy Star Universe. I got to play both demos of SC:DA and PSU that came out on Live last weekend. Splinter Cell is looking great and I really like what they have done with the multiplayer if your a fan of Sam Fisher ....well you most likely already have the game! I am going to wait on this title myself because Phantasy Star is coming and that's my sweet digital crack! PSU is like a MMORPG just not that massive, its really more of JOARPG (Japanese Online Action Role Playing Game) I guess. I first got hooked on Phantasy Star on the original Xbox with PSO 1/2 played that for months. PS:Universe is looking and playing great, there was an online "beta" limited demo released last week that got me hooked again.

Some great Live Arcade goodness this week with a doubleshot of releases, Lumines Live and Mortal Kombat Ultimate3. Dig Dug came out this month too. There is just so much great Live Arcade goodness to be had its overwhelming.

November is gaming apocalypse (in a good way) with the launch of the Nintendo Wii and limited release of the Sony PS3. If that wasn't enough there is Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, Rainbow 6: Vegas, F.E.A.R and yes even Viva Pinata coming too just to name a few. My financial stability is about to be seriously damaged I think. All this gaming goodness coming out in such a short period of time is madness I tell you, its cruel even.

Well that all for now...Peace yall!

Waking the dead

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 14:30:34 GMT

Hello,

I am alive and well here, been awhile since I've blogged anything it seems. Work has been demanding much of my time lately, and when not working on someone's dead computer I really don't want to see a live one in my free time. Like Zombies in a mall, the computers surround me! Speaking of zombies I found a great deal at Amazon.com for Dead Rising and ordered me a copy and got it Wednesday. I am getting in the spirit of October and Halloween, my que at Netflix is all horror and got my survival horror game of the year now! Dead Rising is very much worth a rental to see if you will like it or not, its kind of a niche game like Chrome Hounds. There is a demo for Dead Rising on Live that's timed 15 min , but does not give you any sense of mission structure or story. I am finding that Dead Rising is really a brilliant game, great zombie killing fun. I have only scratched the surface of the game on day1 and only a level 7 character.

Also Wednesday of this week Totem Ball came out on Live arcade for Live Vision. Its a free download for all cam owners. I have only spent a very little time with it but I was not very amazed with it, perhaps I need to spend more time with it.

Its a working weekend for me, so back to work I go. Have a great weekend...Peace.

Xbox Live Vision

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:55:13 GMT

Hello,

I am now the happy owner of an Xbox Live Vision Camera finally. If you have the means I can highly recommend picking one up, the video quality is exceptional for a 40$ "webcam".You can get just the camera for about 40$ and a big bundle for 80$. I went with the 80$ bundle because its about time for me to renew my Live gold for another 12 months and that is a good deal with Uno and Robotron also 200 MS points and a extra headset.

Its really interesting seeing the faces of the "disembodied voices" on your friends list and way fun in the card games Uno , Hardwood Spades and Hearts just to name a few cam enabled games. I am really looking forward to seeing how the cam will work for "face mapping" and as a controller device too. The Live Vision is one cool accessory in my book.

It would also seem that the Live network is seeing allot of traffic with the new Live Vision and the TGS ,Tokyo Game Show..."bringing it home" event in the marketplace. There are some great new video footage of the up coming Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 on the market. I also came by a playable demo of Fusion Frenzy 2 which looks to be a fun and challenging "party game" coming out in the future. I am VERY VERY excited for the coming of HL2 and TF2 to the 360 (drooooool).

Well I am off, we have to deal with getting a tree removed from our roof that a storm managed to park there last night (sigh). Thankfully no one was hurt and It does not appear to be any major damage to the house.

Peace!

From Hounds to Horses

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 15:05:54 GMT

Hello,

Last weekend I was reading my friends Blogs and how JayFNG has been racking up the uber gamer score, he has hit the 16000 mark! That is impresive focus and determination, that also game me a derire to achieve more! Thank you Jay! (is that point envy I feel ?!)

That got me to look at the fat stack of my unfinished games and ponder why they were unfinished. Opon reflecting as to the reason that I had so many unfinished games I came up with many good reasons, but one theme over all stood out as the main reason. I am guessing I dont finish games so I am never "done" with them that would end our relationship so to speak. ...a phobia of the end?! ( I think I need my meds adjusted, lol)

For example GUN is a great game and I have really enjoyed playing it, I played it till I had all but 1 of every side mission complete and the last boss. I didnt want the goodness to end so I never finished it...until just this week (8 months later). Oblivion the same I stopped playing because I was getting near the end game , and I didnt want to face the end yet. Oblivion is pure sweet digital crack I have over 200 hours invested ...LMAO thats a long term relationship!

Some games I just cant get into or are for online only ...PDZ and Gotham Racing 2 , PDZ was fun online but I really didnt get into the campaign at all and PGR2 great game but I am not an uber racing gamer.

There are some games I get the need to finish or are just so short they beg to be finished Prey so short and ,GRAW and COD2 were so engageing I HAD to finish them but not 100% achieved...yet. I dont think I have any games 100% achieved yet for the "fear of the end". This sounds silly I know ...even more goofy is that most times when I finish a campaign I get a little teary, a kind of joy "woot I beat it" and sadness "damn its over".

This week I have been blessed with time to get some game on. I managed to score some ahcievements in Chromehounds and I did finish Gun finally ...I have to beat it in a few game modes to get 100% achievement and I am not sure if I want to "grind a game just for points". It was strange going from a 100 ton vertical tank "Hound" stacked with rockets and cannons to the the back of a painted pony and a pair of 6 shooters.

I really should get busy and just finish some more games, the holidays are comming and a flood of great new games are comming.

Thats all for now. Peace!!

Just when you think you know someone...

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 14:47:40 GMT

Hello, Happy Labor day.

No rants today, I am back on my meds. (I joke)

I have met alot of people on Xbox Live over the years and actually made a few friend in the process. I have seen the good bad and the downright ugly on Live. I would say if you have been on live for more than a few months and played a few matches you have too. Along the way you come across a few good gamers and add them to your freinds list, and in some intsances become good friends.

Since I got my 360 I was adding new 360 friends, one of which I met on Quake 4 one of my very 1st online matches. No names, we will call him GamerX just for refrence. GamerX and I started playing Quake 4 together and we seemed to get along well. We played together on many games over the past several months. We enjoyed playing UNO and we would just chat and play cards for hours this went on for many months and we got to get to know each other fairly well. We knew each other names and names of each others spouces and even pets names. We got along really well, we would schedule game sesions. We were comfortable enough with each other we could talk about politics and religion, subjects I generally avoid talking about to anyone on Live or off.

This weekend I was on my 360 and GamerX invited me to a match of Prey I happily accepted and we played a few matches and he was hosting the match and winning by a huge margin against 6 of us. While inbetween matches, in the map loby, I jokingly said he has the"Host Advantage". Next thing I know I was booted from the match and GamerX just removed me from his friends list with out any warning or explanation.

GamerX and I had a tight rapport until that moment! I have no idea what his damage was ,but I never expected in a million years that something so trivial would set him off with such a drama response. That reaction was really a big suprise to me. I thought I knew him! Ooh well, its not like he was my only friend on live but he was one of my "closer" game friends, or at least I thought he was a friend.

Just when you think you know someone, it turns out you dont!

Well thats all for now, Peace out.

They just dont make things like they used to!

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 16:10:35 GMT

Hello yall!

[RANT WARNING, but good points are made]

/rant on

I am so very frustrated with the lack of quality put into things manufactured these days! (No this is not a my Xbox died rant but a good point though I've had to replace my 360 two times) We have been doing some home improvements here at the house, installing celling fans in every room and replacing the old ones. We replaced the one in our living room, not easy with our 25' cellings thursday. Clay and I were looking like some acrobats from Cirque De Soleil on the ladders getting the old fan down and the new one up. All was well, we were happy with the new and larger fan until this morning when we woke up to a dead fan. GGGRRRRRRR it lasted less than 24 hours of use! What a hassel I have to remove and replace a new fan, not a cheap Wallmart fan either, a 200$ Hunter ...top of the line. Also fuel to the fire was this past Monday I went to click on the light kit on the fan in the bedroom, another new fan less than 3 months old, and the chain just came right out stuck in the on position so I have to take the damn thing apart and replace the chain switch. The bedroom fan was another 200$ fan from another fan manufacturer Hampton Bay. I can count the times I have used that light chain on one hand. OMFG.... I just Googel'd Hampton Bay, oops wish I did that before I dropped several hundred on fans from them. It seems its a Home Depot brand with some quality issues. It also seems that its time to replace our kitchen fridge thats 5 years old ...turns out it costs more to fix it than to replace the damn thing what a waste! Its funny my Father has a fridge /freezer thats older than me (33+ years) that has NEVER had any issues and it has even survived 4+ moves cross town and country. My father has lots of power tools and appliances that are older than me, not because he is easy on them or seldom used its just that they dont build things to last like they used to! Once opon a time long ago "quality was job one" and it was "made in America" and that really meant something, those days are long dead I am sad to say. My Ipod and my Xbox360 ...made in fucking China?! Tech support for anything ... WTF India?!. I throw monkeyshit at the face corperate America!

/rant off

Now for something completely different!

I finished the single player of Prey this week, That was a really FUN game expierence. If you like FPS do your self a favor and at least rent it!

/rant on ...oohh boy I am in a mood today!

All be it was VERY short I finished it in less than 10 hours. I feel a bit cheated on value 60$ .... 60$ for the 360 version for 10-12 hours of singleplayer action, and mostly broken laggy multiplay. I am not feeling and value here, more like I just got robbed.

Why does it cost 20$ more for the same game just on a different platform 40$ PC or 60$ Xbox360 what a rape job! I am not going to go on about how greedy the game industy is getting now, thats a rant for another posting.

/rant off

Well thats all for now , have a great weekend. Woot in the US its Labor Day weekend 4 day weekend! Peace!

PC Gaming pleasant distractions

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 16:38:01 GMT

Hello,

Well it seems that I just cant resist the pull of games at all on any platform,I am just a sucker for a good game. I have totally been sidetracked by some great fun on the PC. F.E.A.R Combat is the multyplayer element of the GREAT FPS game F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault Recon) also coming soon to the 360. The publishers are giving it away free...its TONS of fun online! Its a big ass download at over a gig of data but if you enjoy FPS online that this is a must get. FEAR has been out for a while but you will need a reasonably powerfull PC/GPU to get all the bells and whistles out of the engine.I hope it plays as well on the 360 when its released later this year.

Another really fun game I have come across is Dark Star One . DSO is a space trader and combat game in the style of Pirvateer and Freelancer or even X3. Good graphics, tight controlls and fun open ended game play has me hooked. This is a good game in what seems to be a dying breed of game types. A bit on the easy side for seasoned gamers but you can ramp up the difficulty very easily. Overall its very accessable to new comers to the style of gaming goodness. If you like space action anventure trader games its worth a look for sure and if its going to be your 1st you will totally enjoy it. There is a demo available for it.

Both games have managed to totally derail my 3d artistic endavours and even keep me for the 360 for about several days...I bet my 360 is a bit pissed at me :) I'll have to ckeck its blog later.

Well thats all for now, Peace out yall!

Prey n Stuff

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:39:07 GMT

Hello yall,

I just got Prey Friday and I must say I am having alot of fun with it so far. The single player is great fun I am very impressed with the level design, its just so very unique a fantastic blend of techno/industrial blended with organics.The use of gravity is brilliant, clever use of that and spirit self usage in puzzle design is a breath of fresh air in game play and level design. Sadly I am shocked at the tragic state of multiplayer playability, attempting to connect to a lag free game is impossable the lag is the WORST I have ever encountered in a game. I found that hosting a 6 player match works well and gamers report a lag free game expierence on my hosted games...so its not a total loss. When it is smooth the multiplay is quite fun and addictive. Word is that there is a patch in the works, but still the state of multiplay out of the box is utterly inexcusable!

I also have been spending alot of time with my PC and rendering apps, its great having the PC running cool and purring like a kitten. I was rather disgusted with it all and truly bummed about it too for awhile there.I am so happy I took the time to try out a Linux distro and a different version of XP. I am really happy I am getting all creative again...I was really missing the joy of 3d character creating, texture creation/maping and rendering. I was so frustrated with my MCE expierence I did not save all my data and lost some newer assets but I am feeling good about starting fresh. I hope to have some scifi/fantasy art to share with your soon.

Game on ...and Peace out!

MCE and Media extender hell!

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:19:29 GMT

Hello yall,I am super happy to report that the software rebuild went well, REALLY REALLY well!

(big post warning)

Allow me to explain the hell I have been expierencing. In May I built me my 1st dual core AMD x64 with some of Corsair's finest 2 gigs of ram,2 300gb SATA Harddrives...top tech in May. I figured all new hardware why not a new OS too, I would also invest in another flavor of Windows and get me Windows MCE (Media Center Edition). It was day one I noticed something is not quite right I was noticing above average tempratures on the CPU and RAM initally (still within operational norms just hotter than I expected). After a few days go by and all my software is installed and all my media in place and MCE dishing content to my 360, I am thinking all is well but its not. I am not happy at all the PC is running hot and takes more than 10 minutes to boot...MCE was grinding my harddrives and eating up my ram and CPU cycles. I was NOT happy with the performance I was getting here. In this time frame I also ran a Beta of Windows Vista Ultimate which was really bad too...same craptacular performance. All diagnostics point to the OS software and no hardware issues, MCE and Vista were just brutally abusive. I didnt use the PC in the day because it heated the office way too much +10 degrees easy. From May to end of July I didnt log more than 60 hours on the new PC. (My Mac sustained my computing and creative needs VERY well)

Just in the past 2 weeks I decided to try something non microsoft on the PC and I dropped a copy of UBUNTU Linux on the PC and guess what it ran REALLY REALLY well and it was way WAY cooler. Then my partner talked me into seeing how XP Home ran on the PC. Eureka I have found the solution to my nuclear PC issues. There is some MAJOR issues with MCE/Vista Ultimate and my hardware platform. I am willing to bet that MCE is rough on all hardware it runs on. Its amazing how much better XP is running, its the way it should be! I can run XP all day with very little thermal impact in the room. The MCE/Vista expierence had me so frustrated that I was ready to go totally MAC/Linux. I was plotting how to sell this PC and get a Mac Pro! ....still want a Mac Pro but Ill keep the PC!

Long story short ( too late I know) I am very happy with my XP Home and Ubuntu dual boot PC build.I have my Mac Mini serving media to the 360. I am rendering again in XP, got my creative groove back all is well! (doing happy dance). Holy crap this is one krazy fast uber PC...LOVING IT!

Thats all for now...I feel the need to render!

Peace out yall!

Windows Live Writer

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:57:09 GMT

Hello yall,

I just wanted to take a moment to to spread the word about a new tool MS has released for us bloggers. Its called Windows Live Writer. Its a beta but its a nice little app designed for spaces or any of the other blog sites. Its a very nice little WYSIWYG blog authoring app. check it out. Thank you MS Live dev team.

I am curently in the process of doing a software rebuild on my PC, Ill be blogging about all that a bit laters. I have some rants I want to get off my chest about operating systems but at another time.

I cant believe that its already half way through August, where did the summer go?! Holy crap the kids are back in school today too.

Peace!

Let loose the Hounds of war!

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:11:33 GMT

Hello y’all,

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted I have been busy with work and my Xbox 360 has an amazingly powerful gravity well around it making it very hard to stay away from.

Its Summer time in Texas and its full on hellish hot, not really enjoyable outdoors for much of the day. It also makes running “hot” electronic devices such as PC’s, Xbox360s, and gigawat a/v, home theatre devices a bit of a challenge to stay cool indoors too. OMG I fear my energy bill for this month and I can’t imagine what August is going to be like.

Clay and I have started an exercise routine of walking at 6am every day but Sundays we walk about 3.5 miles every day. It’s become very evident on the health benefits of walking and getting some exercise in general. Some days it’s hard to get started but it’s totally worth the effort.

The creative projects I wanted to get into are not really happening it’s not really a good idea to run my PC in the afternoon because it heats up the office too much. The heat doesn’t really do much to help my creative process either. Times like this I really love my Mac Mini, It does everything, but games and hi end 3d graphic rendering, without the heating issues. It’s kind of funny that 1 PC can put out so much heat but a couple of Mac’s don’t heat up a room at all. Even Clay’s IMac Intel Dual core doesn’t generate much heat at all. And the Mac’s are quieter too. I am seriously giving thought to getting me an Intel Mac.

On the gaming front I have found some great outlets for my creativity. Far Cry Instincts has a FANTASTIC map editor! I must have lost a good week making maps in it. So easy to use and fully featured it’s a very powerful application and on a console no less. I am very impressed with the map editor in FC. OMG, there are so many really crappy player made maps out there sadly. Well I published about 3 really well balanced maps for the FC gaming community. Then Chrome Hounds was released and I have found my newest addiction. This is not a game for everyone though it’s a bit of a niche game for “Mech” heads. The single player part is just for training, the Online is where it really shines .The persistent war is a lot of fun find a squad and get your war on. Personally I find the Hound building process the most fun; I spend a lot of time in the garage. My squad will would all tell you I am a good Hound designer. Then again I do have many years of practical Mech building experience I played a lot of Battletech, all the Mechwarrior, and Earth Siege/Star Siege games. Chrome Hounds is a very welcome addition to my 360 library. Some games should come with a warning label: Caution this game may be hazardous to your life and your relationship with loved ones and pets.

Well that’s all for now. Stay cool ;)

Prey’ed upon

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:55:28 GMT

Hello there,

Happy Independence Day!

It seems I cannot escape the gravity well of my Xbox 360, over the weekend I grabbed a copy of the Prey demo on the Live marketplace. Sunday was totally lost to playing Prey. Action shooter fans rejoice Prey really brings innovative new game play to the table. Prey doesn’t come off as just another mindless shooter it incorporates some interesting puzzle solving and perspectives never before seen in a shooter, just navigating the game space is a puzzle in itself. Level design is just astounding and amazing, it’s some of the most bizarre and unique game space I have ever navigated. The developers use of gravity and “wall walking” is pure genius not to mention the use of a “spirit self” come together brilliantly. Oh and guess what it’s a shooter with what appears to be an interesting story to tell, rather unique story of Native Americans and alien abduction. (I don’t think a shooter has used that as a plot before) To say the least the Prey demo got me very interested in the game, I highly recommend trying the demo. The demo is quite large in size and generous in content it features several chapters of the single player as well as 2 multiplayer maps that host up to 8 players. My only reservation (sorry for the pun) about Prey is the multiplayer and latency issues with only 8 players. The lag for Prey online is really bad in the demo; I hope the gold code is better. I think Prey will offer a great and very memorable single player experience.

Monday I got a package in the mail, a XSATA no less. Apparently my partner does listen to me and my game chatter. This little gadget allows me to interface with the360 HD and manage content and game saves. Another great feature is with the Action Replay I have for my Xbox I can move saves from there to the 360. Thank you Code Junkies / Datel!

Hopefully I can pull myself out of the gaming gravity well and get my 3d art programs installed and assets in place so I can get creative. I am looking forward to seeing how this dual core monster pc build of mine performs with some advanced render engines.

Well that all for now, peace out yall!

Summer Slowdown

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:02:42 GMT

Hello,

Yes I am still alive. Sorry for not posting anything for a few weeks. We have been traveling the state for fun. Then we play catching up on work in between travels. Its funny how that works, all is well when we are here but as soon as we leave town someone has some major computer or network crisis that we must mend. People also expect the service yesterday and pay tomorrow, what is with that mentality?

…Anyway enough about work.

The game front seems a bit stagnant on the Xbox 360. June was way quiet, perhaps July will deliver some new fun. I am looking forward to Chrome-hounds and perhaps Prey. Both are a kind of wait and see how they are reviewed and not an impulse buy like GRAW or Oblivion. On the PC game front Titan Quest is out and if you’re a fan of Diablo you will totally appreciate Titan Quest.

I think I am going to be cutting back on the frequency of my blog entries a bit for the summer months. I am starting some new digital arts projects and they do tend to be very time consuming so gaming is going to be mostly on the back burner.

TGIF and happy 4th of July “Independence Day”! Woot a REALLY long weekend, I hope you have a fun and safe weekend! Well that all for now. Peace!

Grand Theft Compatibility

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:52:22 GMT

Howdy y’all,

I have been busy getting my geek on with Vista and exploring my inner thief in Oblivion. I won’t bore you with any more rambling about Vista so on with Oblivion.

In my experience with RPG’s (that A LOT of experience too) I usually set out to create a fighter healer type or tank mage if it’s a solo RPG or as a primary in party based RPG’s. In Oblivion 1^st and so far the only character I am playing out is totally tank mage. If I were to pick a good vs. evil side, good always wins choice with me. I have never explored a thief, rogue or assassin type before Oblivion. I have recently started the thieves’ guild quest line and having the time of my life stealing anything that I can get my hands on. OMG I never knew that stealing could be so much fun, its good being bad! It was a bit difficult for me to get into “character” at 1st but I was quickly consumed with the thrills of breaking and entering and grand theft everything and now I am a pro. I could just kick myself; I should have explored the “dark side” sooner. I hope I can find the time to finish the quest line this week. I also look forward to exploring the assassin’s guild next. Shadows hide you.

It seems MS has been feeling the heat of angry gamers after Peter Moore burped out some poorly chosen words over backwards compatibility for the 360. It appears MS is throwing us a “bone “ so to speak with a BC update adding 21 new titles. Doom 3 made the list …and again there is at least 1 title that makes you wonder what they are smoking over there. The OMFG WTF category, Bad Boys 2 made the list ….why bother? BB2 was only one of the most poorly reviewed and generally hated across the board as a super crap game, perfectly demonstrating a new epic level of SUCK for movie based games.

Well that’s all for now, peace out.

Windows with a view

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 19:45:07 GMT

Hello yall,

I hope your having a good weekend, I know I am. I got the crazy notion to jam a spare ¼ Terabyte drive I had laying around into my new PC build for multibooting OS’s. Wouldn’t you know it the 1^st thing I did was spank Vista Beta 2 on it. I downloaded it and burned the ISO image in about 1 ½ hours and proceeded with my mad science experiment. To my surprise the install was really super easy, hands off and very automated which is nice. So Windows Vista Ultimate was installed and I had a fairly easy time getting the drivers needed for audio and video, Vista did most of the work. Being a MS OS and a beta no less, that was one of the least painful installs I think I’ve done.

The biggest bitch I have so far is the overzealous security features built in which require you to ok EVERY LITTLE FUCKING THING. Software installs, any change for anything at all, copying files from another drive letter even will halt all processes and gray out the desktop and request your administrative input to continue. The security features in Vista are annoying, bothersome, and downright aggravate me. It’s really sad that it has come to this, there just has to be a better way. MS …take a look at how Linux distros deal with it, or steal yet another page out of the book of Mac.

Once I got past hating the draconian security I looked around at all the new UI features and was rather impressed with the feature set. AERO is a very pretty GUI if you have the hardware to run it. There are tons of improvements and features to the system in comparison to XP Pro. There is too much to go on about on this little blogging today. My 1st impressions are mostly positive, but I have logged less than 10 hours on it and I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of Vista.

If my geek streak wears off I am going to dive into Oblivion later today. There was a performance update and patch for it I am eager to try as well as some new content. Well that’s all for now. Peace!

Photo Album: Some Renders

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 21:41:05 GMT

Some Renders

hostile encounter

Jedi Stand

jedi Wrath lg

Krawft 1

Lauranna Gunthar 2

Fall Wind Blows

sewer horror

Swamp Dragon

Cautious Enterance

Forest Encounter

More Photos...

Photo Album: Xbox Gear Pics

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 18:44:02 GMT

Xbox Gear Pics

avgear

buzyblurr

farshot2

farshot3

Samsung32

Custom List: Favorite Web Sites

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 14:36:49 GMT

Favorite Web Sites

Xbox.com
Home of all things Xbox
Digg.com
Fun news feeds
mygamercard .net
Post your gamer card anywhere!
The Adult Gamer
There be no screaming kiddies here!
Gamer Tag Pic's
Put a face to the gamertag!
Achieve 360 points
All about achievement points
Games Radar
A new all things games site
Totally 360
A nice site for all things 360
1Up.com
Where gamers call home
Game Spot
The Game Spot
Xbox Users Group
The Xbox Users Group

Blog list: Fellow Gamers

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 16:02:21 GMT

Fellow Gamers

Custom List: 360 Currently Playing

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 16:01:04 GMT

360 Currently Playing

Call of Duty 2
Excellent WW2 Shooter
Perfect Dark Zero
Xbox Live Arcade
Tons of addiction to be had here
GUN
Great western shooter
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
The best RPG I have played!
Project Gotham Racing 3
Great racing excitement
Ghost Recon:Advanced Warfighter
Modern warfare at its finest