8 Games that will turn the wheels of history!!

2007 is slated to finish very strong in video game releases. Several high profile games that have been shown off for the last 2 years the major conventions (like E3) are finally coming to release and will truly demonstrate the much touted power of the next generation consoles. For this reason I do not include any Wii games in this list as fun as they are (don’t hate me). The following games are games that will move the industry forward in some way or another. They aren’t “just another shooter” or cookie cutter RPGs. These are games will make HISTORY! Without further ado!!!:

#7 Blue Dragon

At first Glance Blue Dragon is nothing more than an extra shiny cartoon RPG. Take a look at who is behind this wonderful looking game you you’ll double take:

Hironobu Sakaguchi – Writer for the first 5 Final Fantasy games.

Akira Toriyama – Character designer of Dragonball cartoon and manga as well as Dragon Quest video games.

Nobuo Uematsu – God knows how many beautiful scores and soundtracks Nobuo has cranked out for the Final Fantasy series in his lifetime.

Still, the game is already released in Japan and has recieved tremendous positive feedback and can possibly be considered the sole reason for the 360’s decent performance n Japan. The WORLD CHANGING part however, is that this game will be the first good JRPG (japanese RPG) to be released on any Microsoft console and its success could begin the deterioration of Square Enix’s love affair with Sony and Nintendo/exclusion of Microsoft. Lack of lengthy RPGs has long been a major lacking in the Xbox department and Blue Dragon is here to change that.

Those of you with an Xbox 360 – Plug that baby into the internet and download the trailer for this game. It’s almost like 3 minutes long or something but it really shows off the artistic style of the game, the emotional voice acting, and all-star music. Check it out! In case you can’t here is one from YouTube!

#6 Half-Life 2: Orange Box

So this game already comes as a GREAT steal if it’s priced similarly to the other next gen games ($60) because its really like 5 excellent games in 1.

Half-Life 2 – Very commonly known as the best sci-fi shooter of all time, HL2 is making its way into both Ps3 and 360 consoles after living on PC (and original Xbox) for almost 2 years! This game is an instant classic as it incorporates an amazing physics engine with unprecedented graphics for it’s time.

Episode 1 – Don’t know too much about this game other than that it is the continuation of HL2. It incorporates a few new features (minor) and maintains the quality of the main series.

Episode 2 – Been waiting for this for ages as some of the movies show some new AMAZING uses of physics such as Farmhouses EXPLODING and whatnot. Looks cool! More episodic content through Xbox Live? Probably. Sweet.

Team Fortress 2 – Probably the longest delayed game in the whole world. Team Fortress was originally a fan favorite in terms of military squad/role based shooters. TF 2 surprised the world with it’s cartoony look and action packed game play. Get ready, this ones gonna be major.

Portal – Probably worth the whole $60 by itself, Portal must have been made by some of the world’s smartest people. I can’t quite describe the concept. Actually yes I can, but I cannot do it justice. Just watch this video. Portals GALORE! This part is probably what makes the Orange box on this list – Pushing existing game types to the next level, thereby reinventing an entire genre and bringing a completely unprecedented level of game play to customers. Thats huge!

#5 BioShock

Much more than your average shooter. From what I’ve seen BioShock combines an amazing first person shooter concept with a historical yet futuristic yet fantasy-esque scenery with the same demented horror an imagery as the Resident Evil series. I’ll try to paint a picture, with words….Mad Scientists escape to underwater refuge, create a utopia base on DNA alteration and scietific progress of the most horrific type. Society collapses, freakish mutants run wild in the underwater world. Enter you. Who knows who you are but you’re there for a reason. You fight anything from little girls, to massive monsters, to demonish mutants. Can’t kill a certain dude? Alter your DNA and shit, maybe make a living beehive out of your hand and use that to your advantage. Or any number of other awesome alterations. Or use your cleverness t reprogram security systems to help you or pit several enemies against each other while you watch an then finish off the survivor. It is an incredibly ambitious game and upon first hearing the level of ambition in this game I was incredibly skeptical but after seeing some of the game play footage, I am totally sold.

Disgusting…

#4 Lair

This game looks amazing. It is a ps3 exclusive. The premise you ask? Dragons. Killing people, killing other dragons, killing huge monsters, attacking castles. I simply cannot comprehend how the AMBITIOUSNESS of this game is even this generation. After watching some of the videos and seeing what the ps3 is truly capable of, I am truly convinced that Lair is going to truly next generation. The graphics are beautiful, the game play looks dazzling, involving, complex but not overly so, strategic, and vast. I mean I could just keep listing adjectives, or I could show you a video of this monster of a game in action. I can’t wait to play this on my friend’s ps3 and if the system ever gets enough of these types of games for me to actually shell out the dough to buy one, I’ll definitely pick this one up.

#3 Halo 3

What do I even need to say about this game? This is going to be the biggest drop of the entire year no matter what happens. Actually, between this and the next game on the list, they’ll probably make more money than the rest of these combined….Actually I have no data to back that up but I feel like that’s probably true? Lets take a quick look at what’s new with Halo 3 and what it brings to the “court”

New weapons: Between the spartan laser, the halo 1 battle rifle, spiker, improved needler? There should be a lot new stuff about this game that will make it even more fun than before. There’s a few weapons that are so big in fact that the camera shifts out of 1st person view and into 3rd person!!!

Graphics: From what i hear, they are simply beautiful.

New vehicles: Updated vehicles and one new mongoose! Its looks like the warthog but smaller and faster? I saw this video too of the car driving over this spot of light that makes it jump over this building!! Amazing. They can pretty much throw shit at the game and the players will love it.

Items: I’m not sure about the details but the commercials show Master Chief throwing down a gernade that immediately expands into a huge shield. It looks pretty. There was this huge mystery over what the X button would do but apparently it has something to do with all the new weapons they are putting in the game, which i know nothing about.

First Halo game on the Next Generation system!! – This is MAJOR!! First halo game on a console that is actually already good without halo! Microsoft is definitely on the right track

#2 Grand Theft Auto 4

There is very little information out on this game right now but given RockStar’s amazing track record at delivering games that take the system and the genres to the next level, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this game turns out to be one of the best of all time. Best for me? I can still play on my 360 because for the first time Xbox is recieving GTA at the same time as a Sony product. This is big news. You can be sure to bet that RockStar will be edgy but lets hope that they don’t get carried away like with San Andreas, hot coffee anyone? I read a quote somewhere by someone on the GTA4 team saying that comparing GTA4 to GTA3 will be like comparing GTA3 to GTA2. That is quite a statement. Lets hope they weren’t participating in the Sony Attitude of “overpromising”. Nevertheless, Grand Theft Auto 4 will be one of the best games ever made. I’ll bet on that!

#1 LittleBig Planet

This is a strange one to make the list but is perhaps one of the most impressive games I have EVER seen. In case you are not keen on the video game market (as I try to be = P) , there has been a recent trend in focusing less on the technological prowess demonstrated with the game and more on the fun, simplicity, and originality that made us all fall in love video games in the first place all those years ago. The perfect example of this is the Xbox Live Arcade. Here is a library of over 100 original or remade games that all scream “I’m simple and fun, I don’t require 20+ hours to beat/enjoy, I’m inexpensive!” instead of “I am the newest thing that technology has to offer, I was made using a multimillion dollar budget, my FPS is slow even for a next gen system, I’m gonna charge 10 dollars more!!” Xbox Live Arcade is massively successful and has often been known for allowing the serious gamer’s kids, girlfriend or wife to play some low involvement games and thus get some good involvement in the gaming as well! I think its a fantastic trend.

ANYWAYS… LittleBig Planet takes the simple game, but also puts a present day spin on it. Keeping the extremely simple game, LBP incorporates social networking, the power of the internet, user-generated content, blahdy blahdy blah, and is a modern game with a simple concept with enough bells and whistles to keep players entertained for literally FOREVER. The same way YouTube revolutionized online video, LBP will revolutionize these mini games. It is only available for the ps3 through the marketplace… DOH!

So what the hell is this master concept I keep talking about? You and up to 3 friends play through a 2.5D world/level full of interactable objects and events. Your cute little characters have almost limitless possibilities in customization and the levels are completely user generated which means a double limitless game! OMFG. Like before, I won’t feebly try to describe the concept any further when I can show you right below!!!! This game is going to rule, and I may have to get a ps3 some day to join in the fun.

#0 Mass Effect

All the build up and now we are finally here…Unfortunately, I’m going to build up a little more. I’ve played a shit ton of games in my life but without a doubt my favorite of all time is definitely Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic. This game is amazing in its own right in almost every way. The length is very appropriate, the story is epic, non linear, and original with MANY twists and turns to boot. You can choose to be good or evil which will completely change the way the game turns out at EVERY point in the game! BioWare is the company that created this game… They’ve been missing in action since KOTOR came out a few years ago and I think this is what they were working on.

Mass Effect.

“The game takes place in the year 2183, with the player assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard. The story revolves around an ancient alien prophecy stating that, every fifty thousand years, an alien race comes to the galaxy to harvest all organic life, and the time of their return is approaching. As the first human Spectre – sworn defenders of galactic peace – Shepard’s mission is to halt the advancing armies of a legendary agent gone rogue. Shepard will lead an elite team across hostile alien worlds and discover that the true threat is far greater than anyone imagined. “

This game looks and feels a little like Knight of the Old Republic when you first see the videos, but there is a difference. This game is TRULY next generation. Instead of conversing and choosing speech by reading text, you look at the face of your dialogue partner and read his emotions right off his rendered face. The dialogue is so fluid in fact I can hardly beleive that the whole game can be like this! The fighting system looks so unbelievably cool, and original. It seems to combine recent evolutions in squad based combat, turn based combat (?), and first person shooter elements all into one monstrously cool LOOKING game. I hope this area doesnt fall through as it is incredibly important. The graphics are truly incredible and are definitely the most beautiful I’ve seen on the web anywhere, for any game for any system! The world is enormous too as you can travel from solar system to solar system within your galaxy and from planet to planet in each solar system! I mean to tell you the truth the whole game is so damn AMBITIOUS that I’m a little afraid that EVEN BioWare won’t be able to pull it off though. However, I am an optimist so I’m sure it’ll happen.

Please take a look at some of these amazing videos and tell me what you think!

Well that concludes it everyone! These are the 8 most important games of the year according to yours truly. Please let me know what you thought of this article! I spent a ton of time on it but it came easily because its my passion . Enjoy and happy playing!

BTW Enjoy this magical music!
You And I Both by Jason Mraz

Lovely Pictures! Lovely Phone! Lovely Lady!

I recently got one of those sweet new phones that takes pictures at 1.3 megapixels. I know it’s not like 7-10 or whatever they are recently but it still is very effective for taking pictures on a regular basis. One of the biggest troubles about having a camera (for me) is that I never take it with me because its either too big or too risky to carry around everyday. Hence, i only get pictures of the big events and stuff and that really doesnt reflect my life right?

Perfect solution, set the default location in my cell phone to send all pictures taken to my email address. Now i get all pictures I take immediatley on my computer and instantly shared on the internet already. How sweet is that? Very sweet. Check it out if you have a good phone like this (almost all are 1.3 mp nowadays, there are a few 2!!) and if you have a good text messaging plan!!

Here are some delightful pictures!

What a Cute lady!

Awwww!

Lazy day!

Check it out and perhaps try it on your phone and get more use out of its capabilities!!
Days like these make me feel like a….
Fortunate Fool by Jack Johnson

Rhapsody.com New features!

Something that I’ve wanted to make a post about for the last several months is the sweet new features in Rhapsody.com. It’s been a few months of using them and I’m really starting to like all these sweet new features! I absolutely love it when online technologies move forward like this and actually help me with everyday things like blogging and such. Here are some of my favorite new features! Or you can check out their list of new stuff!

New Look!

The new look is MUCH more user friendly than before. They use tabs at various places throughout the page to make the whole interface much more intuitive and informational. Not just that, the interface just look nice! All the roundness! All the Shininess!

MP3 Player integration

Rhapsody has a partnership with Sansa and they have made a pretty unique thing. It is called the “Rhapsody Mp3 Player”. Its actually quite nice, very functional, and pretty attractive. It has a definitely solid build a little thicker and larger than the iPod nano. It’s able to play video and AM FM radio, which is AWESOME. I run at the club near my work and they have these TVs but you cant hear anything unless you have a radio that you can tune into the station of the TV. This sucks because everyone has iPods and not those older crappier players that just play cassettes and radio. The best thing about these bad boys though is that you can use your Rhapsody subscription with it. This means that you aren’t limited by the songs that you have. You are limited only by the number of songs that are available on Rhapsody, which I’m quite sure is more than I could ever listen to. You can also download entire radio stations onto the player so thats also awesome!

Music Videos

I haven’t used this feature extensively yet but I’m quite thrilled to use it later! Basically, whenever you search for songs or keywords or whatever, they automatically return relevant music videos at the bottom. I mean, that doesn’t really sound amazing but u know, its like 2 searches in one! You can search something, add it to ur playlist (more on that later) and then watch the video, all from one page! The search results page! I mean, I know I know, I’m a nerd, that’s not actually that cool but just wait. You’ll find yourself using it at some point or another, and then you’ll come back here and try to give me an eProp. But then you’ll realize you cant because this ain’t xanga. =P

Top tracks list on home page

Little change. You can now access top albums, artists and TRACKS on the homepage. Thats Niiiiice.

Quick Playlists

This is by far the coolest bit. Everywhere on the entire site now, where ever there is a link to a song, there is a Plus Sign (+) in addition to the play sign (|>). If you click this + then Rhapsody will automatically pop up a little box that will allow you to add it to a playlist you already made or make a new playlist which you can name on the spot. This is AWESOME!!!!!! Combined with the instant listening benefit of Rhapsody, this is just so cool! You don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click and click on a playlist!! I really dig this feature! Definitely go try it out! Here’s a screenshot:

Improved MyRhapsody

Much better central place for you. It looks now really similar to the downloaded Rhapsody client instead of just a random collection of information. Check it out!

Sharing Capabilities

Now, also in addition to the play button and the (+) button, there is a share button which allows you to email, embed or instant message the rhaplink to the song or album or artist to any email, webpage, or im window. Its very cool actually. Not so much some mindblowing new world thing but SUPER SUPER convenient, which is all I’m really looking for you know?

Anyways! Until Next time, Please enjoy this song which I’ve shared before: I just watched the 2nd one like 2 days ago. And its on my mind. =D

Pirates Of The Caribbean by City of Prague Philharmonic

First of many new updates to come!

Hi All!

I’m sorry I havn’t been keeping this page updated but my life got super busy over the last couple months! I missed the blog and so now I’m back!

I’d like to give somewhat of a summary of my life over the last 6 months or so, a LOT has happened.

But here are the main points

• I finished up my presidency at Phi Delta Theta. I think of this as one of my proudest achievements in my life so far. I learned a ton about interpersonal communication, leadership, personal responsibility, and organizational behavior. I am proud of what I’ve done throughout my presidency and I’m sure that my successor (joe) will do a great job as he has been doing since I’ve finished up my term.
• I got myself an internship in Microsoft IT. I work in the IT Showcase team doing process improvement. It’s not exactly my specialty by any means but I am eager to see it through it. Its been almost 4 months since I started this 6 month internship and I am really hoping to land a full time position after my internship ends. So far I’ve been doing well and thus… i’m not afraid!
• I am still happily dating my lovely girlfriend Vy! We’ve been doing very well. I <3 her!
• I have started being more health conscious – I’ve been running more often and eating pretty healthy (for the most part LOL). I feel much less sickly than I have before I started doing this and I feel much HEALTHIER (obviously but there’s just no other way to put it!)
• Vy, Elitza,Tako and I went to Mexico for our final college spring break. We lived at the Pueblo Bonita in Mazatlan. It was AMAZING. Hands down the best trip of my life! In total I ended up spending about a grand on the trip but it was totally worth it to get out of the US for a couple days and sit by the pool, feel no pressure to do anything and just eat, drink, play, eat, drink, play, and enjoy life. I couldn’t take that kind of thing for more than a couple weeks but for the 4 days that we were there, Amazing. IN FACT!! Enjoy some pictures hosted by my new favorite google service… Picasa & Google Web Albums

Thanks readers! I’ll be blogging more now I promise! In the meantime, enjoy some tunes by my favorite…

Now Listening to: Snap Yo Fingers by Lil Jon

My Original Xbox (named Exxie) – What do I do with you?

Hello again everyone! It is a beautiful day today in Seattle and I am excited to go home from work! As many of you know, I’ve recently bought myself a sweet new TV. It’s a bit silly to say but the exact thing that inspired me to drop a ton of cash on my 37in LCD HDTV is actually a very minute detail of one particular game. Dead Rising, as I’ve blogged about before, is an AWESOME game. However, it has one terrible flaw. The text in this game is terribly hard to read on older, non HD television sets and though the story and such are not exactly the highlight of this game as much as the gameplay and concept are, I really wanted to experience this game, and all future Xbox 360 games I bought to the absolute fullest… I mean, I might as well right? There’s nothing better I should be saving up for at this age right? Like real estate, investments, ROTH IRAS, car, savings………

Anywhoo, now that I have this amazing system (360) and this amazing tv and amazing sound system, and amazing buddies and girlfriend to enjoy it all with me i’m left with a terrible dilemma. Yes, thats right, my xbox. It’s just taking up space now right? I have a system that outfoxes it in every way shape and form AND all that right? WRONG! Exxie, you’re future is still bright! Here are my plans for you!

1. Delete everything off of your hard drive (backup games, pictures, music, whatever… you do have a 120 gig hard drive afterall! Much better than 360’s weak 20 gig)
2. Throw away all the games that aren’t *the best freaking games that ever came out for original xbox* – because who the hell needs a bunch of crappy 2nd tier xbox games when you have 3 next gen systems on the horizon?
3. Install the latest Xbox Media Center as the dashboard – Best dashboard alternative in my opinion
4. Rip all the best games onto the hard drive – only like 4-5 games worth. Only the best.
5. Put on all the essential emulator softwares (SNES, Genesis, N64, Mame) and roms (legal backups of course)
6. Make sure all the above combined takes up no more than 60 gigs leaving a full 100 for media center capabilities.
7. Backup ALL my photo’s and music onto the hard drive.
8. backup all my Tv shows onto the hard drive
9. Skin the entire interface with MC360. It is a xbox 360 lookalike skin for those who are a fan of the 360 UI.
10. Maybe: Get a wireless controller!

Finally , my original xbox will get a complete refreshing and will seem like a commpletely new piece of hardware in my room while doubling as the perfect accompaniment to make up for the xbox 360’s terrible support for media of divx or xvid types.

Until next time!

Austin

What’s New with Tech I care about!

I read a ton of tech blogs and articles on this sort of stuff so there is a ton of raw info that goes through my eyes, my brain and eventually out of me from either my mouth or poop. Every so often, in the crazy mist of information that is available there is something that really sticks out, at which point I feel very inclined to go out and share those bits of info to the world and to my friends who may also be interested but not interested in spending all day on the computer reading blogs like a straight up nerd!!!Anyways, its no mystery to anyone that I am a big lover of Google as well as Microsoft and their Xbox 360. Here goes!

What is new with Google? Well, a big thing thats been going on lately is the deal that they’ve struck with mySpace. To be slightly more specific, they have struck an advertising deal with Myspace. Now, for those of you who dont know, MySpace is one of the world’s biggest giants in terms of web traffic. In fact there is not a single doubt that they are in the top 5 and at some points have even been number 1 in terms of most visits per day/week/month, whatever. However, for any use who’s ever used myspace, you probably know that it is burdened with the same trouble that comes from a site that seemed to grow too fast. Updating your myspace code or changing your layout is an enormous mess of CSS and HTML that even experienced coders can have a ton of trouble with. As a result they have some trouble reaching their full earning potential through advertising because of the unstable, unorganized and sometimes plain difficult to use nature of myspace. Google has just sign a 900,000,000 thats Nine hundred million dollar advertising campaign with Myspace so now you can expect to find Google text and banner ads on myspace instead of those %^&*&^% games and flashy bs thats currently on myspace. Who knows, maybe this can turn into something more long term and google can help myspace become a better internet service.

Microsoft Xbox 360

Microsoft has come out with a free developers kit so individual people all over the entire world can create their own microsoft windows capable xbox 360 and windows games! What is the signifance of this? Well, if you have ever played the game Geometry wars or any of the other excellent (most of the time) games on Xbox Live arcade, and have done a little reading on this strange phenomena, then you know where this heading. For those of you who are in the dark. Please! Let me fill you in. With the advent of the next generation consoles coupled with the ever rising rate of piracy in the world, many large game developers have discovered that creating games is a huge risk. Gone are the days where one can create any kind of fun game and have it sell hundreds and thousands and make millions. Now are the days where million dollar budgets, hollywood voice actors, blockbuster movie are “required” in the name of gaming. Halos, and grand theft autos, metal gear solids, marios are practicaly a prerequisite in the title for a game to be successful. Millions are spent on testing and marketing and in a lot of cases, that may not even be enough. the player experience has changed too a major time investment is required for many games nowadays. The storylines are so thick and the plot twists are plentiful. For the producers, the sound effects and the textures need to be spot on, everything can be perfect and a voice actor can destroy the feel of a game, perfection practically needs to be achieved with console games because you can’t exactly release patches all the time either. The point is money is flowing fast and piracy is not helping. Game producers are finding it way too expensive to make games and put all their eggs in a basket. Now they are diversifying. Have a few programmers work on some simple games like geometry wars and mini games or even old arcade classics. Sell them through xbox live arcade at practically no risk and zero risk of piracy! What does this mean? Players can invest less time to get a fun experience while still playing a next gen console, producers can create cool, quirky, zany games at little risk and potentially a great return. Retro games make a comeback. All is well. Dont believe it? Well dont be stupid. Sony and Nintendo have already released news that suggests they are going to offer pretty much the same thing that microsoft is. Nintendo has thousands of games under its belt it could bring back and sony, well theyll figure something out. And now everyday people can create games too! Who can blame sony and nintendo for copying microsoft on this note? Shoot, microsoft is always playing the copy and improve game anyway! Cheers to whoever can do it better and may the consumer always come out the winner.

More in Microsoft Land: Vista

I got ahold of a beta copy of Vista and I installed it on my sisters computer. I gotta say that I am damn impressed with how well it works and everything. Motherboard drivers are instantly and easily installable post OS installation using the internet. Everything feels really automated and yet not to the level where you feel like they are babying you. Also, all the new “aero” effects are totally kick ass. I think its definitely got a really polished feel to it in terms of user experience. It’s really hard to put an exact finger on what it is that makes me feel different as a user but suffice it to say that I feel “smooth” using the new interface with the cool minimizing and the cool new alt tab and the cool new window 3d thing. IE 7 is something I’m pretty impressed with too. I can’t say that i’ve spent a terribly long amount of time using it or anything like that but it feels like they cut out a lot of the random buttons and other crap that used to litter the IE window. Also I didnt run for a firefox installation within the first 20 minutes of using the new IE which is also saying something! Great job MS. I can’t wait to use the final version! Ultimate of course

Rhapsody:

What’s new and exciting here? Well, what isn’t? Rhapsody, for those of you who dont know, is a sweet music service that for people who tend to buy over a handful of songs a month is a very worthy investment. For the price of under a CD or 10 ish tracks on itunes, anyone can have full access to over a million songs that they can burn or throw on their ipods or whatever. All the songs are “added” to your library but don’t actually take up any space on your computer. Get with the times people. Over 50 % of America is now on broadband. Isn’t it about time we stop using up all our precious storage space for thousands of cluttered files that we download from all but the sketchiest depths of the internet? The answer is yes. Yes it is time. Time for Rhapsody! Basically, you stream songs from the internet, and due to their small size, its possible to stream them at very high quality while not at all affecting your browsing speed or anything. What’s cool about Rhapsody is also that they have a really active developer community it seems. A lot of companies are often making little modules or mashups that take advantage of their cool system of music distribution. Theres a couple google desktop ones. Theres some MS space ones. Theres myspace ones…. Theres just a lot of cool stuff that you can do with Rhapsody and their dedication to RSS feeds. One of my favorite ones is the dedicate a song thing. You can dedicate a song to anyone with an email address and when they open their email and click on the link they get taken to the Rhapsody page where it plays them the song that you chose right through this mini browser player. Its tight.

Anyways, thats about it for these technological babbles . Until next time buddies.

Attempt at a Youtube Post!

A little Trailer for Dead Rising!

This game comes out in like three days. I downloaded the demo on Live Marketplace and it sure is neat. Check it out!

What’s been goin on lately

Hey there. I havent posted for a few weeks now! Well here I am!!!

30 mile bike ride – I went on a 30 mile bike ride with the lovely Vy Duong yesterday. It was pretty damn tiring. We left at about 10 am from her house and rode up and behind her house to the 520 freeway which we followed alongside to Marymoor park. From Marymoor we rode along the Sammamish river trail alll the way past woodinville. We stopped somewhere around there to grab a bite to eat from Qdoba, which is suprisingly good! On the way back we rode up these steep hills. I nearly died…. Vy was just fine. that SMILER!!!!!

It’s actually really cool. We kind of unofficially started having sundays be exercise days but instead of just running at the IMA or something we usually do something cool like hiking different mountains or go bike riding. I’m starting to really see how out of shape i’ve been for the last couple years as I get out of breath so easy! Luckily I’m doing this lol. We’re not sure yet what we’re going to do for the next couple weeks yet and I would kind of like to keep it that way to prevent it from being too planned out, like the rest of my current lifestyle seems. But I am hoping that we eventually get to do some rock climbing and maybe some cayaking or canoeing. I am extremely excited because Vy always gets even more excited than me!

Vy and I went to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse together for the first time the other day (the one in Bellevue Square) We ordered the porterhouse steak for 2. Now, I’m not some sort of food critic or expert on steaks or anything but I gotta say… “Ruth’s Chris makes one helluva steak”. It was so good that the second day I ate the leftovers, which had been sitting, unrefridgerated, in my car, which had been sitting in the sun, with my BARE HANDS!!! So in case by some random fluke of reality anyone is reading this is one some sort of cosmic limbo in deciding whether or not they should ever try Ruth’s Chris, you should go. Its good. =)

I read that Microsoft will be releasing one new Live Arcade game on the 360 every week from this wedsday with street fighter until the end of the year. Good work MS. You make me glad I bought a 360. Speaking of games, August will be an amazing month in terms of video games for the 360. Dead Rising, 99 Nights, Saints Row, Enchanted Arms! If i had the cash I would by all of these. We’ll see i guess!!!! I’ll do a later post on some of these games I’m excited for and some basic info about them. Until then, know that those are the good ones. Anyone who wants to go next gen in gaming should get a 360. Each news release I hear about the other next genners makes me happier and happier that I went with the 360.

Interesting Tidbit. Recent studies conducted on the internal Microsoft network reveals that 80% of all searches run by Microsoft employees are through google. Maybe try winning over your own employees first Bill! Also, vista is gonna be awesome.

The Xbox 360

So about 10 days ago I finally caved in and decided to purchase an Xbox 360. Its actually interesting because for my information systems class I actually did a research project on the next generation of video gaming and with all the knowledge available at the time, I decided that the 360 would be the way to go over the ps3 and over the nintendo wii. In fact, I also decided I wouldnt get a 360 until the end of the summer so that I could practice some self restraint. Oh well, so much for that! I got it for a steal of a deal; the core system with an additional hard drive as well as the HD cables that come with it all for only 300 bucks. About 100 bucks cheaper or more than retail. Not too shabby. Later I will post some pics of the 360 in my room and everything (my new room) in my room moving post.

 

ANYWAYS… The 360 is a lot of fun and the Xbox live really honestly makes a huge difference. The online community is huge and the resources available for videos and music and pictures and streaming and online content is all just so superbly incorporated into one solid dashboard. Its actually very funny too that the 360 decided to go this route. Any modded xbox original can already do most of the things that the 360 was selling as improvement points. I suppose they learned something important from their underground fans!

I bought Ghost Recon advance warfare and so far it is a pretty sweet title. I'm not very good at these kind of tactical shooting games but its definitely a change of pace from what I am used to. I also bought Fight night Round 3 for multiplayer purposes and so far I am nothing but impressed. The boxing system is intuitive as well as fun and the graphics are totally out of this world. The movements of the boxers is nothing short of realistic and really captures some of the more distinct movements of certain boxers (Ali).

Xbox Live also features some really cool demo features. With Xbox live, gamers can download demos of the latest games. Some of the demos even feature online capabilities so that you can play with friends! ON DEMOS! really great stuff Microsoft. I applaud you.

In spite of all the fun things that are possible with the xbox 360, Vy and I, and what seems like the rest of my fraternity, are all stuck on Geometry Wars. Geometry wars, if youve never heard of it, can be described as the most simple shooter ever featured on the xbox 360. there are only three inputs, the triggers, for bombs, the left analog and the right analog, one for movement and one for directional shooting. This 2d game is the epitamy of hectic -siezure inducing fun. The demo is even appropriately difficult so you can actually play that for a while. The full version is only like 5 dollars or something so it is very affordable.

Overall, I was expecting a lot from the xbox 360 and i can honestly say that it did not let me down one bit. In fact it suprised me with how easy it was to use and how functional all the features actually are. The 360 is truly a next generation machine that has the capability to continue to grow with the next generation as games get better.

Currently Listening to:

I'm Currently Listening to: Over My Head by the Fray