Tag Archives: Microsoft

Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death (…again)

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So, yesterday afternoon while the wife was sick in bed, I was playing a bit of Fable II (which I’m rather enjoying). I paused for a moment, and when I came back my game was frozen. At first I thought the issue was with the controller, but quickly ruled that out. I shut down the system, and when I turned it back on a minute later, there was nothing.

No video, no audio, and not even a Red Ring of Death. The power light was there, and the drive would eject, but other than that I had nothing.

So this afternoon, I decided to give it another try. Turned it on, and bam! Red Ring of Death. So, I’ll be sending my Xbox 360 back to Microsoft so they can fix it a second time.

I applaud Microsoft for attempting to fix the issues with the Red Rings of Death, but when are they just going to give up on the 360 like they did with Vista and just do stupid commercials? :D I kid, the 360 is nowhere near as bad as Vista (or Office 2007!).

What if Apple Created a Gaming Console?

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Everyone refers to the Xbox 360, PS3, and to a lesser extent the Nintendo Wii as a “next gen” gaming console. Does that mean the next round of consoles (Xbox 3602, PS4, Wii2) will be third gen, or will they just be the new “next gen”? I know, who cares, right?

A while back Apple announced to investors that there would be a “product transition”. No one is really sure what this is, or when it would be. Some think it was the new iPod Nano, the change to the iPod Touch, or even the new MacBooks. Others think it may be some kind of NetBook or Apple Tablet. Still others think it could be a new networked type TV. And some people think we have yet to se it.

Well, what if Apple were to venture into the realm of console gaming systems… better yet, what if they already had, and you didn’t know it. Perhaps you already have an Apple console in your living room, office, or bedroom. It may not be as big of a stretch as you think. Continue reading →

Neowin 8,000,000 Posts Challenge

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Neowin.net turns 8 years old on October 1, 2008 and to celibate they are having a little challenge. If the Neowin forums can reach 8 million posts by 10/01/2008 then they will be selecting one active member and giving them a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate.

Ok, so it may not be the best price to win, but its sure better than buying the OS. ;)

What are the chances of hitting 8 million posts by then? Pretty good. 7 days left, they are already sitting at 7,984,042 total posts. All they need is 2,300 posts per day. Not a hard task if everyone helps out. When the contest was first announced (May 7th) they were sitting at 7,640,544 total posts which means they’ve been averiging 2,471.2 posts per day. See, we should be able to make it no problem!

Too Human

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Too Human might best be summed up as a beautiful disaster.

So far, it has been an extremely fun game with some major flaws. Flaws that for the most part have really aggravated me. It leaves me wondering how any developer who played through this game while testing could have found it to be fun or enjoyable.

Flaw #1: Death – Death in Too Human is inevitable. Sure, there are achievements available for completing a level without dying, but if you aren’t playing in co-op with a healer, I do not see how this would be possible. Thankfully, when you die the monsters do not regain health. They are, as they were at the moment of your death.

So then, what is the problem you ask? My problem with death in the game is the 25+ second “animation” that you are forced to watch each and every time you die. While it is a beautiful animation the first time around, after that it is simply annoying, and by the time you finish the game you’ll have spent a good hour or more  doing nothing more than waiting for this sequence to finish.

Flaw #2: Lack of Healing – Flaw #1 is greatly brought on by Flaw #2. There is only one class withe the ability to heal himself, so if you are any other class you have two ways of recovering health. Leveling up, which you should not rely on as your healing method, and picking up health orbs. The bad news about health orbs is they are few and far between. And when the monster’s swarm at you, you’ll need them a lot fast than you’ll get ‘em.

Flaw #3: Control – Too Human is one of the few games I’ve ever seen where the developers for some reason decided not to allow you to edit your controls. Personally, I think the game would have been much easier had the attack been based off of the left control stick rather than the right stick. Alas I cannot test my theory.

Flaw #4: Into The Great Wide Open – Too Human has some amazing areas. Most of which are grand, and empty. Take Cyberspace for example. You’ll spend a ton of time in here. Never once fighting an enemy, but rather running back and forth waiting for areas to become open to you. Sadly, the greatness of these areas don’t really make much since. It’d be like playing GTA with no people or vehicles around. Just a power up every 20 miles or so.

Thankfully, done of Too Human’s flaws are anything major and pretty much can be fixed with the release of a patch. And, as this game is first in a planned trilogy, I’d like to see some fixes before the next game is released.

In all, Too Human can be a fun game. Though my recommendation is to wait and see if a patch is released. Without a patch, I can see a number of people throwing their 360 controller through their TV.