Two two nine nine nine

Thus stands my Gamerscore. A not so nice and round number no thanks to a couple Xbox Live Arcade games that give out weird number achievements like 4, 6 and 7, etc. Can we keep to 5 as the smallest and go in increments from there please?

Currently enjoying Lego Batman. Those that say it is not much of a leap from Lego Star Wars or Indiana Jones are very mistaken. I found a lot of innovation and change in this game. The puzzles are super easy, it starts at a 10+ age rating, but they are definitely different. The one knock is no Xbox Live co-op, especially with a co-op achievement in the mix. That means I am going to have to work two controllers at once to get it.

It appears I will have no trouble getting to my 24k goal for the end of the year. You know, unless both Xboxes RROD on me.

RRoD roundup

Well, even though it didn’t matter that much, the second go around with Microsoft’s Xbrick 360 replacement program was smoother than the first. For the most part, it was always informative in what was going on and it was certainly a bit faster. That said, I thought I’d post a little wrapup/roundup for the heck of it. I mean, if I end up using it, it will die again and I’ll have a third opportunity to evaluate the process…

Anyway, it didn’t matter as much because I did go out the day after mine died and pick up a newer Arcade model with the Falcon chip and HDMI port. While I don’t think it is any quieter than the older one, it has been nicer with the HDMI, except for the ghosting, but that is only when I turn it off, never in gameplay, and I think that has more to do with now using HDMI over Component cables as I never noticed it prior to that… so, whatevs. This one has a newer DVD drive too, but it seems to spin just as loud as the older, so no change there either. Bottomline, the only difference I have noticed is the HDMI is brighter, but that could just be a need to adjust the TV brightness… which I might have done on... Continue reading »

RRoD

+2

Another one bites the dust.

At first, I thought The Simpsons Game was just glitching when Lisa blew a Saxophone attack and Marge was coming back to health. Then, it froze again on another big, loud event a minute after I started playing again. That was an exploding car. The third time happened about 10 seconds after I fired it up. The fourth power on was greeted with the Red Ring of Death.

Apparently this animal is not in danger of extinction.

Now, the current system was *manufactured* on 2007-08-23, therefore it has the older 90nm Zephyr chipset. It was the replacement for my first Red-ringed 360 last Fall. I have no idea what will be sent back this time, so tomorrow, I am going out to buy a Xbox 360 Arcade system. No, I am not playing GTA IV, I am playing The Simpsons Game (the one that revolves around Marge’s quest against an Itchy and Scratchy game of the same genre ) and Army of Two (with Ed) at the moment, but I am not waiting 3-4 weeks for a replacement given I use mine as a Media Center Extender and unlike last time, there are new shows being recorded that need watching in the living room. (Nice run-on dude.) This is especially true g... Continue reading »

Year in consumables: 2007 games

Time to finish this series off for 2007. The first two parts were music and movies. Also, I just read my 2006 games post and damned if I wasn’t entertained by it. Maybe you should read it (again?)… for added incentive, I make fun of Mookie a little bit.

Speaking of which, I heard via Ed that his 360 finally red-ringed him. (Did we have a pool somewhere about this?) Well, I’m actually sorry to hear that. I thought it was going to beat the odds, but it might have finally succumbed after being subjected to the indignity of the Bee Movie game. I mean, a 360 that thinks it is owned by a man can only take so much girl/kidz games over the course of a lifetime, right?

(I kid ya Mook, you knows I luvs ya!)

Back on track, the good news of the year was Ed got back into the 360 fold and we did a lot of good co-op gaming together. As I referenced in last year’s post, we did play Gears of War together, twice, so that was fun. Insane was… insane, but utlimately beatable. Anyway, that game doesn’t count for this list.

The bad news of the year was my 360 red-ringed me having just broken the 10k Gamerscore boundary. That put me out ... Continue reading »

Tagurit

This should have really happened long ago when Ed was without Xbox 360 for many months, but tonight I caught his Gamerscore by finishing off Pac-Man Championship Edition for 50 points after the two of us started in on Cloning Clyde. These are both Xbox Live Arcade games and we are now rocking them since there ain’t a lot going on in full-game-title-land these days.

At least we can play Clyde via co-op instead of him just listening to me curse up a storm while playing PMCE while he rocked it old shewel in DOOM. I’m pretty sure no game has ever made me curse as much as PMCE did. The game was a very cool spin-off of the original, complete with a trippin techno themed soundtrack, but sometimes it was frustrating as all get out.

Of course, with Ed headed out of town for a week of vacation, I’m going to pull ahead for awhile, but I am sure he’ll hunker down to get back on top once he is back. There’s always the King Kong or NBA 2k6 rental for an easy grand in points.

Ignoring it is bliss

Oh little blog, how I have ignored you these past couple weeks… and boy has it been great. Not feeling pressured to write a damn thing to bore the masses with endless drivel, just like this post.

Are you bored yet?

Don’t worry, you’ll get there. I already am, but reflect on the fact that blogging is now 10 years old. Consider how many boring blog posts have been posted over that time! See my latest aside for more.

Of course, there are numerous reasons I haven’t blogged lately, the first being the continued drama of being a fantasy baseball league commissioner, especially when said league includes a Mookie. I have spent many a late night over the past week tending to my little baseball league that barely can. However, light is at the end of the tunnel now, so time is freed up to blog a bit.

So, continuing to riff on the baseball, and real quick mind you as many of you care less, I just want to point out a couple things. One, no matter how old men get, they are still big babies and will gather up their toys and go home when things don’t go their way. Two, men define fairness for what backs up their point slash opinion and eve... Continue reading »

Year in consumables: 2006 games

Promises, promises…

You know, I said I’d have this posted by March first, but things got out of hand at work this week due to Daylight Savings Time. You know about that, right? Well, work got in the way of proper sleep, television viewing — ‘cept Lost and Heroes — and blogging.

So, I won’t bore you with the details of that, but instead bore you with the third and final installment of my 2006 Year in Consumables series. You can read the music and movie posts in the archives.

By my count, I have rocked se7en games on the 360 this year. Okay, it was really ten, but demos of Contra and the tarted up Pac-Man from the XBL Arcade and Hexic HD do not count. I even wrote some reviews — really more like impressions I guess — of four of them. The knowledge that this post would be pending, and general laziness, had me waiting on the other three.

Anyway, I’m going to go ahead and dispense with picking a top five and just rank what I done played:

1. Gears of War
2. Splinter Cell: Double Agent
3. Tomb Raider: Legend
4. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
5. Kameo: Elements of Power <... Continue reading »