Category: Games

Xbox Live outage on Tuesday

Post author By Randy Stewart
Post date May 1, 2006
No Comments on Xbox Live outage on Tuesday

As in tomorrow. Xbox Live will be down for 13 hours tomorrow for what many presume to be a major update. Many are speculating that this update will include background downloading for Marketplace content.

For those of you that don’t have an Xbox 360, one of the cooler features is demo and content downloading on the unit. Demoing a new game before purchase is pretty wise on almost any gaming system, but before Xbox Live, demos were for PCs and game magazine subscribers only.

Microsoft has said recently that E3 will have lots downloadable coverage on Xbox 360 and this update makes sense before such an update occurs. What makes this interesting to me is that this new feature and a deluge of HD or SD content could really test a video download system. Oh, ya, and Xbox Live is free to non-subscribers next week.

If Microsoft wanted to start a video download service, the Xbox 360 could be a perfect Trojan horse to get them in a lot of living rooms. Apple might own the portable content, but no one owns the living room just yet.

Serious side bar aside, don’t plan on playing Burnout Revenge between 2am and 3pm tomorrow morning.

Xbox Live down for 13 hours

E3 on Xbox Live

Home Entertainment Microsoft Xbox

Xbox 360 is in the house!

Post author By Randy Stewart
Post date April 3, 2006
No Comments on Xbox 360 is in the house!

So, I’ve been secretly lusting for the Xbox 360 for some time. I told myself and others that I wasn’t going to hang out at Best Buy or Costco like the other nerds, but all the while I’ve made side trips into these dens of electronic goodness for the past several months.

The persistence finally paid off yesterday, when everyone and their brother could finally get the 360. Apparently, local Best Buy, Walmart and others received shipments of around 60-80 Xbox 360’s. Mind you, they still sold out, but a lot more people got their hands on Xboxes this weekend.

I’ll post a more detailed report later, but so far the experience has been fairly positive. While a minor detail, the most impressive thing so far is how well the wireless controllers work with the Xbox. If you’ve ever tried to pair Bluetooth devices, you’ll appreciate how you turn the Xbox on, hit the big X button on the controller and it just works. You’d think Apple made it 🙂

Games Xbox

Xbox 360 to triple shipments this week

Post author By Randy Stewart
Post date March 21, 2006
No Comments on Xbox 360 to triple shipments this week

Ok, I admit it. Once I found out that Best Buy received their shipments on Thursday mornings, I have been known to find a reason to visit them a little more often towards the end of the week. But apparently, the news wasn’t exactly an exclusive.

This week, however, their might be a reason to take a trip over to the local BB. Emboldened by the delayed PS3, it looks like all y’all that have been waiting for an Xbox might get one real soon now.

“Today we have turned a major corner,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice
president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and
Devices Division at Microsoft. “With more consoles on their way to retail,
80 games available by June, and new content and experiences coming to Xbox
Live(R) all the time, there has never been a better time to own an Xbox 360.”

Oh, yeah, and to you other guys hanging out at the Best Buy on Thursday mornings, you should get lives.

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(Via Engadget.)

GPS Playstation Sony

PSP get GPS and VOIP from Sony

Post author By Randy Stewart
Post date March 16, 2006
No Comments on PSP get GPS and VOIP from Sony

One other bit of PSP news today that I missed yesterday – at Sony’s announcement yesterday, Ken Kutagari also announced a couple of cool add-ons for the PSP, namely the rumored GPS add-on and an Eyetoy for video VOIP. Both of these devices should give Sony’s PSP a long deserved shot in the arm, but here’s one question, how about some kick-ass games?

Google iPod Playstation Portable Entertainment

Google Video – now for iPods and PSPs

Post author By Randy Stewart
Post date March 16, 2006
No Comments on Google Video – now for iPods and PSPs

Need a little content for your iPod? Google has made its videos (not the ‘for pay’ videos, mind you) available for download reformatted for the PSP and iPod. Thank God, I can finally watch “Road Trip Prank,” “Shtanga,” “Indian Exotic Dance in Office 2” wherever I want!

Check it out
(Via The Unofficial Google Weblog)

Playstation Sony

PS3 officially delayed

If you were expecting to get that Japanese import PS3 for Mom for Mother’s Day, looks like you’ll have to wait until Thanksgiving. Sony has announced instead of a staggered world wide launch starting in the Spring, PS3 will be released simultaneously worldwide in November.

Further details for the console have been confirmed including their “Playstation Network Platform” for online game play and a 60GB hard drive that will ship with all units. PS3 will also be backward compatible with all PS1 and PS2 games.

Looks like Xbox 360 will have a full year of next gen gaming all to itself (if you can find one).

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Playstation Sony Xbox

PS3 Live?

Looks like Sony is planning an online service to launch with the new Playstation 3 to compete with Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. The folks over at Joystiq have been trolling the Playstation message boards and came up with a scan a user had uploaded from March’s Playstation magazine.

No real details other than Sony plans on matching Xbox Live “feature for feature and then some.”

Game geeks rejoice.

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(Via Joystiq)

CES Games

Dude, You’re Getting a …

…pretty smoking Dell. Dell has their new Alienware killer, the XPS 600 Renegade with 2 nVidia GeForce 7800 SLI (and up to 4 video cards) and a Pentium 4 tweaked up to 4.26Ghz. It’ll only cost you $4-7k, but aren’t you worth it?

Personally, I just want the paint job.

CES Games HDTV Home Entertainment Microsoft Xbox

External HD-DVD for Xbox 360

Post author By Randy Stewart
Post date January 6, 2006
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Just to keep it nice and confusing, Microsoft has announced an HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360. The announcement talks specifically about movies rather than games, so this unit better be cheaper than standalone units, or MS has a nice Sega CD on their hands.