Gamespy has a nice roundup of the three big console makers’ press conferences. Looks like Microsoft was judged “the winner” by all four editors: The Big Four on The Big Three
Month: May 2003
NetFlix
Got my first shipment from NetFlix yesterday. Nice to know it takes 1 day to get the films! The packaging is alarmingly flimsy (just a paper envelope) and disks themselves were very scuffed up, but the one I watched (Tomb Raider…which turned out to be a reasonably fun ‘turn off your brain and watch the imagery’ flick) worked fine. I sent it back today, so now its a matter of seeing how fast their turn-around time is. I’m thinking, though, that they’re going to be able to feed me movies a lot faster than I can devour them. So, all in all, pretty pleased so far.
PS2 price cut
OK, here we go. Looks like the PS2 has dropped to $179. Just a $20 cut. Now we wait to see what MS and Nintendo do…
E3 XBox stuff
Gamespy has a nice article covering the XBox conference held at E3. Some very good news for XBox Live! members inside. Basically you’ll be able to access your account from the web, see what your Friends are playing, and even send invites via MSN Messenger or any device that supports it (like cell phones). Sweet.
Read it here.
The E3 flood begins
How about an 8 minute Halo 2 video? Woot! Sorry to say, its IGN Insider only. But if you’ve got a sub, I’ve got a link.
Bad history
G4TV and Entertainment Weekly got together to compile a list of the 100 best games of all time. It is *painful* to watch. Worst of all is how clueless they are about old games. As one simple example, M.U.L.E. made it in but they listed it as being for the C-64. Now, what’s the name of the planet in MULE? Irata. Atari spelled backwards. Wouldn’t you think that’d give them a clue? In describing XCom the host talks about it being a blend of strategic decision making and turn-based combat, then sneers and says “Ew, that sounds like a job to me.”
If G4, the gaming channel, can’t treat games with a tad of respect, how can we expect the rest of the world ever to treat them as anything but fluff?
NetFlix
Normally I’m one to hold a grudge forever, but just this once I’ve decided to put the past behind me. I detested NetFlix for a LONG time because of their very intrusive pop-up ads (they’d open a full-screen sized browser window to spam you with their ad) and never wanted to support them.
But after trying out the game rental place I saw how cool and convenient this system could be. I checked with a co-worker who has only good things to say about the service, and the last straw was seeing that they have a decent amount of anime.
So I signed up. It’s $20/month and you can have 3 discs out at a time. Keep them for a day or forever, as long as you’re paying that $20. My first 3 discs should ship to me today. I’ll let you know how well the service works. I do already have one gripe, though. When they say 3 discs, them mean 3 discs. So if there’s a special edition of a movie with a bonus disc of material, you have to order the bonus disc separately.
X2
Went to see the new X-Men movie last night. Some nice eye-candy, but unless you’re a special effects fan, definitely NOT worth the cost of admission. Go see it at a matinee or wait to see it on DVD.
It was all so sloppy. Granted this is a comic book license, but when you transition to live action you have to make it somewhat believable. Stuff like people running around in a frigid arctic setting and showing no signs of cold. You don’t see their breath, they don’t ‘act’ cold. Um, jets winding in and out of tornadoes like they have the turn radius of a Volkswagon Bug. The whole movie just screamed “Filmed on a sound stage!”
I must say that Nightcrawler almost makes the whole thing worth seeing, though. He is both a neat character and has some very cool fx. But between the sloppy filmography and the gaping holes in the story (which I won’t go into for spoiler reasons), it just isn’t worth paying $10 to see.
RTCW XBox
Time for a preliminary “review” of Return to Castle Wolfenstein for the XBox platform. This is all based on a few hours of offline, and a few hours of online, play.
As a single player game, RTCW is a competent FPS. Controls are tight; none of the overly twitchy FPS controls we see too often when PC games are ported to console. A wide range of customizations, too. Dolby 5.1 sound intensifies the action, and the game, for the most part, looks really good. My only gripe is a slight “fisheye” effect (most noticable when you look at nearby walls or something). A solid game, definite worth a rent and possibly worth buying. I haven’t finished solo mode so don’t know how long it is. (But if you finish it, you unlock the original Wolf 3D, which should be a hoot.)
And then there’s MP over XBox Live! And this is where RTCW shines. Continue reading “RTCW XBox”
Planetside tidbit
Possibly old news, but I just learned the Planetside has voice-over-IP integrated into the game. So if you have a headset, you can talk to your squadmates. Sweet.