Emergance Day Is Coming

Today, Microsoft and Gears of War creators revealed the big surprise: the date of Emergance Day 06.

Yes, Gears of War finally has a release date: November 12, 2006.

IGN's predictions for the year are coming shockingly close to true. Remember, they said that GoW would come out to battle with the PS3, and that Halo 3 would release sometime in 2007. They just earned a lot of credability in my book.

SF II Sucks

I'm not one to usually complain...but man, SF II sucks. I'm glad I wasn't as excited as some people over the release of this game. It's just impossible to win a match. I
ve gotten close once, but than died anyway. This game is harder than even DOA4, and I didn't think that was possible after facing off with the Blue Boss Chick.

Here's to Pac-Man next week, and to hoping that this Arcade Wednesdays gets extended!

Biggest Game of the Year--Now Out

That's right folks, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting is now out on the Marketplace. This is a historic moment, so lets take a look at what other are saying while mine downloads.

From the Xbox Forums:

Kingpin of New York:

At last, I can feel come sense of relief, SF2 has arrived

Time to unleash my assault of cheezy combo!!!!

Ripfactor:

46% ...painfully slow

From Major Nelson.com:

Xbox Live members can now download the highly anticipated Arcade title 'Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting' from the Marketplace. This arcade title is 800 points and is available in all Xbox Live regions except Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore or Taiwan.
You can review a complete list of features for this game at Xbox.com.

From TeamXbox:

One of the most anticipated games of the summer, ‘Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting’ is now available for download for 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Marketplace. The old-school classic from Capcom stays true to its roots with an amazing retro feel, and brings multiplayer action to the classic title for the first time. ‘Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting’ melds the best of retro arcade gaming with the preeminent next-gen features that only Xbox 360 and Xbox Live can offer.

As a true tribute to this critically acclaimed arcade fighting game, ‘Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting’ delivers the game in original form but also includes all new content specifically designed for Xbox Live Arcade. High definition video resolution, Achievements, Leaderboards, and online multiplayer combat over Xbox Live including the all new innovative "Quarter Match" takes this classic franchise phenom to next generation levels.

My downloads just about done...see you online!

Saints Row-Impressions

I just finished playing about an hour or so of the Saints Row demo. I like the game, and it seems like it would be fun to play. That said, I just think I fit into the whole "Gangster/Thug" mentality to buy this game. It was fun finding hoes and stealing them from other pimps, but I don't think thats a subject I want to replay again.

All in all, GTA lovers will probably find much to love in this game, and at the same time, Hillary Clinton will find much to hate.

New 'Red V. Blue" Video

The second part of the ongoing "Out of Mind" series on the Marketplace for Red V. Blue is now out. I'll get to watch it as soon as this Saints Row demo is finished.

SF II Tomorrow (Or Tonight)

The "Summer of Arcade" continues with SF II coming out at 1 AM tonight (or, really, tomorrow). I'm probably actually not going to buy this game; it's just not my cup of tea. I'll download the free demo, sure, but I just are not into fighters (esp. "hardcore" ones like this) that much. However, I get the feeling that there are tons of others wating for this one. I'm quite happy with Cloning Clyde and Galaga.

Saint's Row Demo-OUT

The demo for Saints Row is now out in the market place. I'm still downloading it, and will post some personal thoughts when I actually get to play (which, knowing how fast demos download, might be a few hours from now!)

Dead Rising--Looks Good

I've been looking at some of the mdeia for Dead Rsing, and I must say, it looks like it could be a really fun game to play. I'm looking foward to it's August 8 release date, but I've got some work to do before than. I MUST finish Prey and Far Cry.

However, taking a lawn mower, giant teddy bear and lightsaber to a zombie all within minutes of each other earns a stampt of "Just F'in Cool" in my book.

Xbox 360 Voice Down

Looks like the Xbox 360 Voice service is currently down. When this happens, the code for the left side of the page gets messed up for some viewers. Don't sweat it; Voice will come back up latter. I'm not going to take the code out of the site just for a few seconds; be patient and all will be fine eventually.

Xbox Live "Runing" Gaming?

Found this interesting post over from the TeamXbox forums. You can read it for yourself; I'm too lazy to paraphrase it for you.

I see where this guy is coming from. I've had many LAN parties, and they are funner than playing on Xbox Live. Something about being there, with greesy fingres and watching your opponet from across the room. When Halo 2 first came out, I had a larger LAN party that lasted for hours. I'm not sure if I've ever had so much fun in Halo 2 since.

However, I also love Xbox Live. Xbox simply would not be whre it is today without it. Playng across the country with long lost friends is a blast.

So, perhaps the blame should really be shifted in a unique posistion (actually, the author of the post did discuss this towards the end). Developers and publishers are really at blame here for taking out support from Spiltscreen and System Link capabilites. More games now support only 1 player per box in a System Link game instead of the usuall four, making games much harder to play in a LAN. All multiplayer games should be given the "Halo" treatment, and not the "UBISoft" treatment (The Tom Clancy games are famous for their lack of System Link support).

LINK TO POST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

E3 Cancelled?

"It's like they're taking away Christmas. Is that possible?"

Yes, indeed, it seems all too possible. What is sure to be the big tech news story this week, E# is "cancelled." You can read the full story here.

In a nut shell, the ESA (the guys who run E3) simply feel the convention has gotten too big. The money that publishers pay to get they're game shown just isn't giving them enough in return. E3 has gotten "too big."

What will replace E3? At the moment, smaller trade shows around the world, and the Big Three's own gaming shows. And GDC will step up to the plate for a bigger showing, and ultimatly more importance. However, Joystiq predicts that by 2009 or 2010 a new E3 will be in place, just not by the ESA, not called E3, and not in LA.

What does this mean? Well, without E3, May does look a lot more boring. And instead of getting machine gun feed information for three days, we're likly to get small pistol flares throughout the whole year.

I, for one, feel upset about the whole thing. I could see a revisioning of E3, making it smaller and less chaotic, but to do away with the whole thing is just a disservice to the gaming community.

I must add this in here: this is a developing sotry. Stay tuned here for more information as it develops.

Back!

Not only am I back from vacation, and back to playing Xbox, but the blog is also back to normal!

I can only hope that what ever happened last time dosn't happen again. I'm still not sure what happened, but from what I can gather, the site where the layout I used was pulled from ran over it's limit for CSS using.

For now, we are back to our "Theme." Hope you enjoyed the brief flashback! The new layout also now includes a "Search" function that kinda works. I didn't do it (it came with this theme), so don't complain to me about it's problems!

Where Am I?

As I continue my week long vacation down my the beach, I thought I'd update with a sort of virtual tour of where I've been. So, without getting in your car, lets head out to the beach and take a tour...

Friday, Day One
Today we head out. Cheek into Villas. Walk around Fashion Island. Eat at CA Pizza Kitchen.

Saturday, Day Two
Go to Crystal Cove Beach.

Sunday, Day Three
Out on rented boat. Balboa Fun Zone.

Monday, Day Four
Hang out around pool

Tuesday, Day Five
Aquarim of the Pacific in Long Beach. Joe's Crab Shack.

Wednesday, Day Six
Whale Watching off the coast. Dinner on beach.

Thursday, Day Seven
Not sure yet...

Friday, Day Eight
Return home. Play Galaga!

Away at the Beach

Ahhh, life is good. I'm blogging this while sitting in a nice, cool room overlooking the beautful Pacific Ocean. And I'm here all week. Sure, I'll miss the release of my favorite retro game of all time (Galaga) and will have to wait to finish Prey and Far Cry (the second story)...but alas, life is good.

On a side note, Prey is a lot more, different? That's not really the right word...but it's not exactly what I was expecting. However, it's "hella" cool.

On another side note, "hella" is a word I learned while at Davis. Apparently, "hella" is a word craze sweeping Northen Califorina right now, and the five or so guys I hung around with all said it, just about as much as So-Cals so "like". Odd. Funny, annyoing, and odd.

Anyway, there might be fewer updates this week, unless of course I get board, in which case there may be more.

Not Sure What's Wrong

I'm not sure what prompted the blog to go crazy during the last few days. I was away at UCD doing Summer Advising, and when I returned, the blog had suddenly rearranged itself into...well, some crappy layout.

Let me be clear: the changes you saw yesterday were not meant to happen. For the life of me, I'm not sure what the hell is going on. So, for the time being, I've reset the blog back to the "Classic" Style of Minima Black. Hopefully this well just be for a few days until I can get the code fixed. However, I leave for a week long vacation on July 21, so I don't have much time.

Until than, enjoy Frogger, because I am! Also, there is a rumor that an NCAA demo will go uo today or tomorrow; however, the two teams they picked suck, so not much to talk about here (Somewhere from some southern state called Florida...where the heck is that? Never heard of it before :) )

Summer Time Blues

It seems like the world has steped into a doldrum for this summer, and I'm getting pretty boared. Not a single Arcade game in 60 days, and the last game I bought was Far Cry...and tht was back in March! Prey is coming in a week, so that should help give us something to do, but still, where the hell is everyone?

In other news, I will be gone for most of the remainder of the month. On Saturday I leave for a 4 day trip up to visit Davis, and then that Friday I'm off to the beach for a week long stay. Luckily, I doubt I'll be missing much on the video game front.

Finally, as far as Halo: The Lost Man, I think I'll be uploading the JAVA version sometime this week, and the full source code shortly after. Stay Tuned, as if you care.

BTW...The Prey demo rocked, and anyone else who says differently is a complete fool who dosn't know what awsome is. I fully intend on getting this game the day I come back from Davis. I'm even thinking of pre-ordering it, but thats just not by style. Besides, what would I really do with a little pewter alien? No clue.

Until next time, which might be for a while (besides the aformentioned TLM Updates, and Audio),

star

AP Grades Are In

UC Davis just posted my AP grades (or, I just found my AP grades, might have been there before). Here's what I had hoped for (Posted back in May):

APCS: 3
Lit: 2/3 (Does not really matter for my college)
Gov: 5/4
Econ: 3

And here is what I got:
APCS: 4
Lit: 3
Gov: 5
Macro: 5

I am pretty schocked about all this. Mostly the 4 in APCS. I figured maybe a 3 might sneak by, but a 4 means, well, I geuss I actually knew something about what I was talking about. The Double 5's are also re-assuring. Poli Sci Major here I come!

Where's the Prey Demo?

Where is it? I have no clue...and apparently neither does 3D Realms:

"Again. If we knew something, we'd tell you. We're as much in the dark as you are, and we're not terribly happy about it. What the heck more do you want us to say? Do you think we're sitting on our asses doing nothing waiting to hear news? We're trying to find out, constantly. We're not getting any info."

Chromohounds Demo: NOT in US

A new demo of Chromohounds is up on the Marketplace; however, not in the greatest country in the world. Oh, well...don't want to play this piece of shit anyway!

Penny Aracade Rips UBI a New One

Here's something that will make you smile for today: Penn Aracade once again going after UBI, this time for the over-priced GRAW content.

LINK

And they should. I will NOT be paying $15 for this crap they call "New" Content. I'm not stupid UBI, so don't count on me falling in the same trap as other, less-educated, Live members have. I have better things to do with my money!