Silly Blog Mafia

Updated Xbox Live impressions

2009-05-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

The people on Rainbow Six Vegas 2 are Dicks!

First video planned!

2009-03-27T19:04:00.001-07:00

Heres a hint of what the game is:

It is an action RPG with dabs of JRPG thrown in developed by a UK developer for the ORIGINAL XBOX. Odd combination.. The Xbox isn't known for its library of "Great" rpgs.

A quick glance at my collection

2009-03-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

New video software

2009-03-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

Sony Vegas, also got Photoshop, so i'm (FINALLY) ready for videos to be made!

Windows 7 Beta Impressions

2009-02-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

Behold! Windows 7! Well, the beta at least anyway. Ok so we all know the deal:

Microsoft released Vista, it sucked at first. They have slowly but surely improved it ( Much like Sony did with the PS3 ) but everyone still hates Vista.

In an attempt to show people that they can still make Windows good, they released a public version of the Windows 7 beta. How is it so far? Well on the bottom right, it says,"For testing purposes only." I think they could take that out and get away with it! The beta so far is pretty good!

First up, installation. Unlike the god fugly blue screen style install for XP, the Win7 install is menu based with mouse support. It tells you what you need, easily. Its alot nicer for people who may not be tech savy, it feels less threatening. I would say the install took about 20-30 minutes to complete on my computer ( Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 9600GT, 2GBs RAM.)

Once you get to the desktop, you get treated to a lovely looking background ( as shown on the top picture. ) Vista looked nice too, but it also was a tad bit sluggish. Win7 however runs quite a bit faster. Apps open fast! What i really like is they only give you what you need mainly. In Vista, they gave you TONS of programs you dont need or want. Windows Calender? Seriously? I need a full program for THAT? T hey give you some things like a Send Feedback app, WMP, IE, Windows MEdia Center and a few other small things. Most of the other apps you are used to you can download from Microsoft in something known as Windows Live Essentials.

What i love is the new taskbar! Gone is the taskbar of old! Lets take a look at the new one and how it functions:

Its just icons. Any app that is running has a small box around. ( Look at the Opera logo or the Steam logo for examples. ) The app currently used has its logo engulfed in a white box. Its nice nice to look at. Lets say for example i get a message on Windows Live Messenger, the WLM box will slowly and gently pulse a golden color, back to the default blue you see in the picture. It looks nice and works nicely. If you keep your mouse icon over an icon, such as the Windows Media Player icon, you will see a preview box open. It shows you what is currently going on with the app and, in the case of WMP, it lets you swtich songs and pause the current song without opening the full app! You can even switch bands or playlists from that preview box, you don't need to open the full app to do that now!

Remember how in vista it had that sidebar? That big gray region that took up ALL that space and RAM? Yea, its gone now, but you still have those gadgets. You simply place them on the desktop now, no sidebar. But wait?! You must be asking, "What if i wanna see an app but i have my screen full of internet browsers, WMP and other things?" Well...

You can go to the bottom right of the taskbar, and there is small "show desktop" button. Leave your mouse on it and all the boxes fade away allowing you to view your desktop, including gadgets. Move the mouse and the windows fade back in. Very nice and very handy for those who will use alot of gadgets.

The final thing i want to touch upon right now is another nice touch. I have a 24 Inch computer monitor. 1920x1200, good stuff. I tend to use most of it. On Windows XP,i would manually resize my internet browser to take half of the screen and do it to some other app such as Roxio. That requires clicking alot of buttons, resizing, ugh. Its alot easier now! Ok you have firefox open and only want it to take the right side of the screen? Easy! Just drag the box to the right side, and it'll adjust its size to only take the right side of the screen! Same if you drag it to the left. If you drug an app up, it'll fill the screen. If you drug one down, it'll shrink. Clever thinking Microsoft!

I'll get more in depth with Compatability and performance later, but i'll do a quick summery right now. Take vista, now make it look better. Now add performance similar, if not equal, to windows XP. Thats Windows 7. Its only a beta, but i'll say that it is better than Vista. It has yet to crash or freeze or even give me a BSOD!

PC Upgrade! New video card!

2009-01-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

I got a new video card, a 9800GT. My current PC specs: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 ( 2.40GHz. ) eVGA 9600GT ( Facotry overclocked, ) 1Gb of RAM ( Plan to get at least 2 GBs soon ) and some extra stuff. I will be trying games out like Age of Empires III, Company of Hereos, COD4, Quake wars, TF2 and more and will post impressions and pics!

Must Play Titles from 2008!

2008-12-29T22:39:00.000-08:00

These are games for each platform that you GOTTA play at least once! You should probably own these as well! ( The 360 list was based on feedback from my friends on Xbox. I haven't had one enough to make the list myself, so this list is based on their thoughts. If you hate it, blame them! )

Xbox 360:

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PlayStation 3:

^ A special note for this game above: It is a Strategy RPG game for the PS3 which a original and great art style. Great presentation. Its great for anyone who loves RPGs or loves to think. Its a great game from Sega that flew under the radar and got lost in the hype of everything else ( It released the same day as Resistance 2! ) IF you own a PS3, do yourself AND Sega a favor, and buy this game!

Updated Xbox 360 Impressions

2008-12-29T21:21:00.001-08:00

I've had that Xbox 360 for a while now so i can go a bit more detailed and give more up to date impressions. The new dashboard as mentioned before is still nice, but a few things about it i'm not a huge fan of. For one thing, i keep forgetting how to change my theme! It is my fault I keep forgetting this, but on the PS3 and even the older 360 Blades it was easier to do this! Also, I dont like the way the marketplace is set up now. They seperated the game and video market place. To put it simply, i don't like GETTING to the marketplace, but its easy to navigate once you get in. To download demos for example, you see giant floating game cases, just highlight a case, click it and done. Thats a good example of one of the things MS did good with the New Xbox Experience.
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In my previous post i mentioned how the parties seemed to disconnect randomly, and it still happens. I can't tell if its XBox Live's fault, or a connection of someone in the party. Regardless of why, it still happens, but i can't blame one or the other because simply... I don't know whos fault it is! One thing that surprised me was that when your in game, you can't view ( at least to my knowledge ) who is in a friends party. For example, in the dashboard, I can go to my friends tab, see my "totally awesome pal" Brian *cough* and everyone in his party. I tend to do this in case someone may be in the party who i cant stand! If i go into Halo 3, i get the option to join his party, but i can't view who is in it ( If i am wrong, someone tell me so i can omit this. )
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I got more updated impressions on Xbox LIve now as well. I have been able to play more games online and i noticed that connection is generally stable for me. This changes of course due to various ISPs, connection types ( Wifi / Ethernet ), Internet speeds, etc. For me though i generally seem to have a stable connection. I still run into lag.
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In fact today in Halo 3, i ran into the worst lag ever.
Imagine walking 10 inches, only for a big fat sweaty Scottish man to jump in front of you and push you back 4 feet, that was happening. It was useless to move, i couldn't control where i went. Sometimes i'd be pushed back, pushed foward, sometimes i would just appear in a random room full of guys throwing stickies at me!
It was literally unplayable, and it was only with 5 people in the room.
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Now i know that is was just a bad case, but I don't expect to see THIS kind of lag on Xbox Live! Maybe on the Wii, but not Xbox. Microsoft is a company with loads of networking experiences! They were able to switch the Xbox 360's Operating System relatively smoothly with the NXE, but they can't seem to deal with lag. Now i know you must be thinking i am trying to bash Xbox, but that is NOT the case. The reason i keep on hammering this topic is because Live is a paid service. While i don't expect lag to be killed off completely, ( Would be sweet though! ) I don't expect lag to happen so often on Xbox. Again, lag isn't usually that bad, but the fact that lag seems to happen quite a bit on a paid service, it really gets too me. PS3 games such as Warhawk with 32 people, SOCOM Confrontation with 32 people, and Resistance 2 with SIXTY people run with no lag, and thats on PSN which is free! Why is it that Xbox Live can lag with 10 people? Again, i don't mean to bash Microsoft or bash Xbox Live, but the fact we have to pay for it, and in some ways, its worse than a free service just annoys me.
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I can tell overall that the Xbox is more simple than the PS3. For example, if you want to burn a CD, all you have to do on the xbox is put the disc in and click burn. For the PS3 its like that, but there are tons of more options so you can burn in AAC, MP3 or ATRAC, and at different bit rates such as 128, 320, and everything in between. This allows you to get the BEST quality or just good enough all depending on your tastes. The xbox 360 does it easier, but at a loss of options. This probably isn't an issue for most, but it is something audio buff's such as me should look at.
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Also, it sucks that the 360 can't view Blu Ray movies. Now this is also Sony's fault most likely. Blu Ray won the Format War between HD DVD, which was backed by Microsoft. Sony probably doesn't want 360 to have a Sony format. With that said, i think the 360 needed needed SOME kind of built in HD Disc player, Blu Ray or HD DVD. Yes, the 360 had an external one but that was yet ANOTHER add on you had to buy for the 360! Plus it was only movies. If it were built in, HD DVD would probably still be alive, and 360 games would get a benefit of havign more disc space than they are limited too right now. Yes i know the marketplace has HD movies and there is also Netflix support ( Which you NEED Xbox Live Gold, AND you gotta pay Netflix a subscription as well! ) But i'd rather save the bandwith and just buy a Blu Ray disc. It costs more, but you get a physical copy and higher quality.
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The next thing is what is really killing the xbox for me right now, the games. I have Halo 3 and its good. ( Not my favorite shooter, but still fun none the less. ) Fable II ( Good RPG, but i'm not sure it matches KOTOR, Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc. Mass Effect is good. I'm not big into Gears of War. Theres not a whole lot on the 360 that appeals to me. What has me shocked is the 2009 line up. Of course we don't know everything as there is bound to be annoucements, but out of what i saw on a release list from IGN, The only two 360 exclusives that interest me are Halo Wars and Halo 3 ODST! That's not alot!

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Overall the 360 is a good system with some flaws. It has a big library of games, but the library seems to have alot of hardcore games which appeal to me less. Don't mistaken me, i like a good competitive game, but I don't like being flooded with them! It is a good system, but I just don't think it is the right system for me.

Free Xbox 360? And i STILL feel ripped off?

2008-12-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

Here's the deal: My friend is letting me borrow a second Xbox 360 he has. My friends really want me to go on Live, but no way in hell i'm paying full price for an xbox! My friend was willing to let me borrow this 360 free, so why not give it a shot?

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I got annoyed already before i even turned it on. For my PS3, i use HDMI for my video, and an optical cable for sound

The 360 only has optical built into the AV Plug ( To save money i guess on MS's part. ) So i plug the AV Plug in for the sound and guess what: The Plug is so freaking huge i can't fit HDMI in! That's just dandy. So i plug HDMI only in Just to see how things look in 1080p, the 360 looks awful! ( Or at least the new Xbox menu does. ) Which leads me to my next impression: The new xbox menu thing.

First the avatars. Stupid.

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I thought it ( The menu ) was going to suck, but it actually surprised me. I like it, not as much as the PS3 XMB ( find it a bit faster and i like its navigation more, ) but still very good. That was a good improvement over the old blades.

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Than a friend sent me a party invite. A party allows up to six people i believe, to go into a chat room to talk. Its good cause we can all play different games and still chat. Than all of a sudden i get a wonderful message telling me i gotta get Xbox Live Gold, just to talk to more than one friend. Oh yay. I was able to score a few 48 hour gold memership cards. The party thing is cool, but they seem to disconnect randomly.

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All that is fine and all but the big thing is games. When it comes to single player games i like PS3 more ( Uncharted and MGS4 for example. ) I wanna try the 360 due to beign able to play with my friends online. So i try Halo 3. Wait what? Yup, lag. Lag, with only 10 people? Why is it that Resistance 2 can have 60 with no lag? Or Medal of Honor hereos 2 for Wii with 32 people over wi fi have no lag? ( There was no lag when i played it at least. ) I also try Saints Row 2 online and Gears 2, all lag. So why do we have to pay for Live again?

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The second day i had my xbox, i turn it on and it starts making weird noises. Sounds like the fan was spinning very slow, but it went back to normal, still scares me a bit. Overall I feel you can do more on the PS3 with the exception to parties and cross game invites.

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As for the 3 games i have at the moment ( Halo 3, Fable II, Saints Row 2..)

Halo 3 i can tell is good, but i'm just not a huge fan of it, i think i have been spoiled by other shooters. Saint's Row II is fun as hell, the main reason i have been playing the 360, but i could get that for the PS3 or even PC later next month in January. Fable II is really good. I knew i would like it but it is better than expected, not much to say because i haven't played a whole lot of it overall.

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You must all think i hate the 360, but thats not the case... With that said, i'm not really a fan. Xbox Live is what does it. It is THE selling point, and i cant even play 360 games online without lag ( Yet my PC games and PS3 games are fine. ) I feel like i was ripped off, and i didn't pay for any of this yet

Pardon me

2008-11-07T20:48:00.001-08:00

Retro Review 1: Sonic Adventure

2008-11-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

Release date: 9/9/1999 (US)
1 Player (Limited 2 player option)
Platforms: Dreamcast, Gamecube, Windows apparently as well..

What to say about this game, this is a classic for the Dreamcast. It's among the best launch titles for the Dreamcast. When it came out, it wow'ed everyone with its graphics. The graphics have aged quite a bit, but you can look at them without any issues because they still look nice. Even though it looks dated, you don't mind, because you'll have fun with the game ( mostly. )

Before we get to gameplay i gotta mention the sound. The game has some great music, some new, some remixed from older sonic games. ( In one stage they have a remixed song from Sonic 3D Blast, cause the only good thing about that game WAS the soundtrack! ) the sound effects get the job done. Now that leaves the voice overs... some of them are alright like Knuckles and Sonic.. Amy is ok too.. but some are just annoying. TAILS'S VOICE IS QUITE POSSIBLY ONE OF THE WORST VOICES IN A GAME EVER! But you have to stand in awe... AWE! Of the mighty crappy voices you hear from "Big the Cat." Big the Cat is a character who is only seen in 1 sonic game, and this is it.

This brings me to gameplay. It can range from Awesome! to.. FUCK! When you play as Sonic, its what you expect: Speed and insane levels, its alot of fun. Tails is actually the same exact thing, only you race Sonic ( If you even attempt the slightest bit, you'll beat Sonic. ) It doesn't take away from the fun though. Knuckles is generally alright. It's not about speed, rather hunting down fragments of the Master Emerald. It's alright, i didn't hate it, nor love it. Amy's is interesting. You are trying to run away from this robot that try's to chase you. ( Rape much?) Nothing really to say about it. It's not bad or good, its just.. There. Next is this robot guy, i honestly forget his name. It's just a run n gun case with him. INCREDIBLY easy, but its fun blasting the hell out of things.. This leaves one character left. BIG THE MOTHER FUCKING CAT! you play as a HUGE ASS cat who is looking for his friend Froggy. You go to levels, and go fisihing to catch him. Yup. Thats it. You fish! Too bad it sucks! It's tough to get Froggys attention, and he always lets go of the bait in a second, i can't catch him. I can't beat the game because of goddamn fishing!

The game is pretty short overall, but GENERALLY fun.
It's blast as long as you avoid Big The Cat.

I'd say a 8 overall.

Resistance 2 Beta Footage

2008-10-17T11:55:00.001-07:00

I apologize for the bad quality, but i have no capture card, so I made a bootleg stand and recorded with a camera directly off the LCD. it's not pretty but it gets the job done!

First Video Planned.

2008-10-14T14:46:00.001-07:00

I decided that My first video will be a big one, a video review of LittleBigPlanet. I plan to do filming on the day it comes out. The vid will be up either at the end of the day, or the next day.

Note to LoA Members: Us here in the States get the game a day before you do i believe! Tee Hee

Test 2

2008-09-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

Test post

2008-09-23T15:08:00.001-07:00

Test