For The Record

I just want to take a second and point out that a deep red Xbox 360 underneath your TV is probably only going to impress hardcore gamers. You know, those guys that like to put shiny lights on the computers, to make them “cool”. And last time I checked, hardcore gamers only take up a fraction of the Earth’s population. This thing would look bad in any home entertainment system.

Then again, the $399 bundle includes Resident Evil 5 and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, which is quite a deal.

Gadgetronic: It’s Like The Batmobile

I hate off-color peripherals. I hate how Microsoft refuses to release the chatpad, DVD remote and to a lesser extent, the wireless adapter in anything other than white. I hate white consoles. So, a while ago I figures that I’d take the controler in to my own hands (no pun intended) and color correct the 360′s ineptitude.

This comes in handy for those insane midnight, Mountain Dew: Red Rush-fueled, COD4 frag-a-thon. Ladies love me.

My Xbox Is Calling It Quits

Less than a year after purchase, my Xbox 360 Elite is slowly going into disrepair. On every disc-based game I play, the screen freezes a few minutes into it. It happens randomly, and is totally frustrating. So I’ve been playing mostly XBLA games, and I started the repair process through Microsoft yesterday. I haven’t heard anything back from them yet, and if this is any indication of the type of service I’ll be getting, I have a long and arduous healing process ahead of me.

Grand Theft Free

A question I get asked often is, “So, what’s the next game you’re gonna buy?”, to which I’ve replied for the past three months (can you believe it’s been three months since I’ve bought a game?): “Uh, I guess I’ll eventually get GTAIV, just because I should probably be part of the whole phenomenon.” or something to that effect.

I wasn’t in any rush to get it, but last week a friend gave me a pre-bought receipt for the game for my xmas/bday present (not the same day, sorry to get your hopes up). So looks like I’ll be there on day one killing bad guys and getting freaky-deaky with prostitutes (or vice versa, who knows how involved the game will be).

Army of Two Demo Tomorrow, I’m Actually A Little Excited.

Word on the streetz is that the demo for Army of Two drops onto XBLM tomorrow (along with the Portal end song on Rock Band for free, btw), and I’m looking forward to it.

I don’t know anything about it other than that Mark and I have a non-romantic date with it sometime in the future. What excites me about it is that it’s the first demo I’ve seen on XBLM that I actually want to play since Bioshock had a demo out last year. And with no GTAIV demo prior to the game’s release, it may be the last good demo we see for some time.

Too Good To Be True

Just as fast as it was put up, Capcom put down a rumor concerning Resident Evil 4 being re-released on the PS3 and Xbox360.

I would have played through the whole game again, not doubt about it. And not just for the cheevers, but for the experience, and it would have been pretty sweet on the Xbox360 controller, too. I bought the Wii version but haven’t played it yet. Honestly though, I need about 20 different versions of this game, anyway.

Cheevers: 19,995 (updated)

Update: I reached the elusive 20k today, by doing a 5-point achievement in Assassin’s Creed (use scholar blending 20x). Now that I’ve hit it exactly, I plan on plowing through some other achievements, to reach that elusive 25k.

As you can see from my gamercard (or should see, if Xbox.com wasn’t so messed up), my gamerscore is currently at 19,995. Any suggestions for a quick 5-point achievement? I want to hit exactly 20k.

Cheevers: 1000 gamerpoints in three minutes

It has officially knocked Assassin’s Creed down to #2 on my Gamefly queue.

Second Chances

Thanks Microsoft. Seriously, I appreciate you making Xbox titles available over Xbox live on my 360. I can’t wait until I can play some of the games that I’ve been missing for years. For the time being, I’m pretty much a one console guy. I don’t have the scratch to put up for a PS3 and Wii isn’t winning me over with it’s library just yet. That said, my 360 handles the workload of my gaming needs.

I’m Not Ready For Mass Effect.

So, Mass Effect comes out sometime next week. I’m not even sure the day, and I’m not going to look it up.

Because I’m not ready to play the game.

Assassin’s Creed

Assassin’s Creed, the new game by Prince of Persia-makers Ubisoft, has been comfortably riding the hypemobile for the past year; it has promised to be one of this season’s great titles. But then the reviews started pouring in.

Gamespot gave it a 9.0 – good. That’s what I expected.
IGN gave it a 7.7 and 1UP gave it a 7.0 – not so good.

Cheevers: Would you pay $30 for 3000 gamerpoints?

Aside from TMNT, there are three Xbox 360 games that are geared for younger audiences and are known for being easy achievement points: Open Season, Cars, and Fusion Frenzy 2. Microsoft announced today that they are releasing all three of these games in a pack for $30. I wonder how much of these sales will actually go towards people legitimately wanting to play these games? At least most of its proceeds go to charity.

Cheevers: Call Of Duty 2

I’ve decided to play through Call of Duty 2 on Veteran difficulty. COD2 was one of the Xbox 360′s launch titles, and its best-selling game until Gears of War came out a year later (which was also the system’s best selling title for a year, until Halo 3 decimated everything in September). COD2 was one of the first titles I bought when I purchased an Xbox 360 Elite this past May. Unfortunately, being a launch title has one dramatic setback – unoriginal and unfair achievement points.