Xbox DEAD

So apparently the Xbox LIVE service has been getting slammed this past holiday weekend, most likely from everybody joining the service after receiving their new Christmas gift. I've just gotten Gears of Wars and can't play any multiplayer! According to Major Nelson and the official Microsoft Xbox support page, the service is still having issues.

Status: Users may experience intermittent issues with login, account recovery, matchmaking, and statistics. We are aware of the issue and are actively working towards a resolution. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I hope they give us at least a free week for this. And I thought it was only Steam that was buggy.

No Country for Old Men

I finally scheduled some time yesterday to see this film before it left the theaters and I have to agree with everyone who told me to watch it- it's fantastic. Kudos to the Coen Brothers for bringing back the bob. ;)

Obviously I can't write about what I thought of the ending without spoiling it, but I can see why Mark considered it flawed. When the credits started rolling I thought to myself "what?" Rika and I talked about it afterwards, correcting each other on plot points and other crucial events in the film. IMDB also has a great FAQ on this film which helped to answer a lot of my questions.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to watching this movie again on DVD. If you enjoyed this movie, then I would definitely recommend Blood Simple (1984), the Coen Brother's first film.

Merry Christmas Too Me!

No Wii, no XBOX 360, and no PS3 under the tree this year. What I'm I to do? I did the next best thing...max out the RAM and upgrade to Leopard! 

Merry Christmas guys!

Crysis- too soon for it's time?

For kicks, I thought I would screen capture what Crysis looks like on my system with the recommended "optimum system settings". This was done by hardware scanning my computer using the game's autodetect feature. Following are the recommendations:

Video Mode: 800x600
Anti-Aliasing Quality: Off
Advanced Options: All set to Low

I don't think I have to to tell you which image is from my computer!

Despite how horrible it looks on my system, I can't fault Crytek for pushing the technological envelope. I much prefer that game developers target the top-of-the-line systems they anticipate will be on the market upon release rather than develop to the systems with the most market share. I guess that's the trick though. With average development times spanning several years, it's always a moving target. In this case however, it looks like Crytek overshot the optimum configuration by a year or so.

My only complaint with Crysis is that the developers could have done a better job in degrading the image quality for those without $5000 machines. I love how it swaps the environmental sky with a stock 2D image on my system! ;) If I can play BioShock and GOW with most of the eye candy turned on and decent framerates, then I should be able to play Crysis in a similar manner. It's no surprise that despite generally positive reviews, sales have been less than stellar.

Aperture Holiday Video Card

A little holiday cheer from the folks at Aperture Science...

I'm a Mac

I thought this was funny...

Always Bet on Duke

Hold the phone, Duke Nukem Forever is back! Well 3D Realms hasn't announced an official release date or anything but they have released an official teaser trailer. Looks like the graphics have been updated since the last 2001 E3 video. Hopefully they get this finished soon so Rob can check it off his 'games to play before he dies' list. The high res versions can be found here.

Again, leave it up to the internet community to post the funny comments...

Looks like Duke's been juicing. First Roger Clemens, and now this. Where
have all the role models gone?

Isn't this technicially a sign of the apocalypse?

I Am Matheson

I've been promising Rob a blog about about one of my favorite storytellers, Richard Matheson. Although he's been writing since the early 1950's, I haven't actually read anything he's written, except for "I am Legend" which Rob recently let me borrow. Most of my exposure has been through the numerous TV shows and movies that were based on his writings.

I've first heard of Matheson over ten years ago when a former coworker kept talking about his works. Although I never heard of his name at the time, it turns out I was well acquainted with his works. He wrote some of the most memorable Twilight Episodes, including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"and "Little Girl Lost" among others. He also wrote the stories behind "The Trilogy of Terror", which indeed terrified me when I was kid growing up in the late 70's. Rob, somehow doesn't remember this (perhaps a subconscious attempt to block out the nightmares), but I hope to refresh his memory when I rent the DVD.

His writings have inspired new generations of storytellers, including Steven Spielberg, Stephen King and Chris Carter (creator of the X-Files).

What I find interesting about his stories is how he comes up with the ideas. Many of them stem from real life incidents that actually happened to him. For example, "Little Girl Lost" was based on the fact that his daughter fell off her bed while asleep and rolled against a wall. Although she was crying for help, him and his wife were initially unable to find her. "Dual" was inspired by a real-life experience when he was dangerously tailgated by a trucker that happened the same day John Kennedy was assassinated.

Many of his works have been translated to film, albeit some with mixed success at the box office. The most recent effort being the latest remake of "I Am Legend", staring Will "The Fresh Prince" Smith. I hope it's good because I'm looking forward to seeing it this weekend. In 2008 you will be able to see "The Box", which is based on an episode he wrote for "The New Twilight Zone" series named "Button, Button" (I'm not linking the Wiki on this one since it includes a major spoiler).

Wanted to see but not so much anymore...

Well, I had wanted to see The Golden Compass, but then someone from work told me a little about it and it made me go online and start looking up what the story was all about. Sad to say it's not good news.

Though sometimes it doesn't matter much when a writer is atheistic, it matters here. Philip Pullman did write this with the intent of showing that christianity is evil and facist. I later went to read the movie review on the Focus on the Family movie review partner, pluggedin online, which had this quote from a Newsweek writer:

Newsweek writer Devin Gordon noted, "While references to 'the church' are gone from the film, no one over four feet tall could mistake the Magisterium for anything but an oppressive theocracy." That notion is supported by church historian Dr. Quinn Fox, who observes, "The most telling aspect of His Dark Materials ... is that the Reformation never happened in the world of The Golden Compass. Indeed, Pullman's simplistically harsh view of the church and God posit a power-hungry, misanthropic institution out of control, and a detached, domineering God devoid of grace."

Needless to say, it is a movie I have little interest in seeing now, which saddens me as I like storytelling fantasy movies such as what this appears to be. Knowing that it is made with the intent of bashing christianity, I can't in good conscience pay money to see this movie anymore. I had seen so many trailers and was truly excited to see it when it came out, but now I'm just bummed. Hopefully it won't do well in theaters as the director, who I guess is also anti-christian from his statements, wants to make the other 2 books into sequels, no holds barred on the anti-christian messages with those movies.

Sad day :(

HL2 Episode 2 Achievements

All I have to say is that this wasn't easy!

The Red Ring of Death... is inevitable?

A friend of mine just got the red ring of death, so he had to send his 360 away for approximately 4 weeks, which led me to read a little more about what the deal is with the console.

After all the stuff we already know about it, apparently it is not a flaw that affects only the first or second gen 360's, but as of now any model. With no apparent fix to solve the red ring of death, it is inevitable that my system will die this horrible death and will have to be sent out to be rezzed when the time comes.

How in the world is there no fix for future updated models? Why isn't Microsoft on top of that and just settling on extending warranties for 3 years and just fix your dead machine? Are they hoping some people will have their 360 outlive the 3 year warranty and then they will have to either pay for a fix or just buy a new one?

As of late, I'm starting to fear my 360's number is coming up as the fan is extremely loud now. I never heard it much before, but now it's very obvious that it draws my attention away from gameplay to make me look at the machine to make sure it's ok.

If it's true and my 360 dies, Marcos, there is your clue that you know your 360 might die. At least I hope it's a clue. If not, don't worry, it is inevitable. However, my system isn't dead yet, so hope still lingers...

Xbox 360 Fall Update

Microsoft has finally revealed all the new features of it's upcoming Fall 2007 Update for the 360. Looks like the Xvid/DivX support rumors were actually true. I'll see if I can test this out come Dec 4th.