buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

xbox 360

In my hands…

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Halo 3

I know I’m about 20 hours behind everyone else, but that’s okay. Halo 3 will be going in to the 360 after the wife and I watch “The Biggest Loser”. While we polish of some ice cream.

After reading Tom’s post about the Halo 3 campaign, I am very excited about this. I hope there are some friends to join in on the action once I’m on.

(BTW: Seems like Xbox Live and all its components are getting epically slammed. Everything is running slow. Could it happen any other way?)

More to follow.

More: I played entirely too long and now should be sleeping, but here are a few thoughts:

  • The reports of sub-par graphics have been greatly exaggerated. Holy crap this game looks good. I recently switched from component cables to the VGA cable, so I don’t know if that makes a difference or not, but man this game looks good. There were a couple times, one during a cutscene, where things looked absolutely amazing. People say this isn’t on par with Gears of War. I disagree with them. Gears of War used five thousand shades of gray and brown. Halo 3 is vibrant beyond belief.
  • I think I’m very close to the end of the second mission. So far, the campaign has been great, but marred by strange checkpoints. Sometimes they’re too close together, other times that are too far apart. There’s no consistency.
  • Everything feels alive. Except for the scary eyes, the “extras” seem real and life-like. Creepy at times, funny at others.
  • I only played one game of multiplayer, but I can already see this is going to be a blast. I played a little free-for-all slayer (where I came out on top, natch) and really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to get in on some matches with friends.

There’s a lot more that could be said but sleep beckons. If you’ve played, let me know what your impressions are (in the comments or a link to your blog).

I’m a bad blogger

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Master ChiefI feel like I’ve neglected my duties as a “video game blogger” by not heading to Best Buy this evening around midnight to pick up my copy of Halo 3. I’m awake, I really should be using this time to smash some alien faces with the butt of my shotgun. But I’m not. After a week of entertaining family, I am drained. When the kids have to be on their best behavior 24-7, it gets tiring. So no Halo 3 tonight. I’ll be turning in for the evening after I hit “Publish”.

I will be picking it up tomorrow, of course. I’ll wait until the kids have been tucked away, the wife engrossed in something else and then I’ll toss it in to the 360 and play until my eyes bleed. Then I’ll jump on Live and play some more. After a week of cuteness, I’m ready for some shooting. I’m ready to save the world (Again. Sheesh, it gets tiring) and then wasting dozens of hours in the rumble pit. Everything else gets put on the back-burner.

Look out for I aint yer Pa! I’ll be in your base, dual wielding plasma pistols.

Blogging update

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Cuteness!!Behold, the Gaming Glut of 2007, she is upon us. We here at Buttonmashing.com are well aware and are ready to go with the blogging you crave.

I haven’t been able to blog lately as we have family visiting from out of town. I was busy last weekend and I’ll be busy this week entertaining them (which thankfully includes lots of 360-time in the form of NCAA 08, Forza, and Burnout, so it’s not a total loss) but I don’t have as much time to blog as I’d like. Heck, I don’t have as much time to game as I’d like. I still haven’t finished Bioshock, which I must do before Tuesday. I hope to get to that soon.

We still have some good stuff on tap. Nat has told me he’s working on some Metroid Prime 3 posts and he just picked up some PSP games, so we’ll be hearing about those as well. He’s really enjoying MP3 and I am jealous. I need me a Wii!

Dark Reyule has been busy on the 360 front and he’s mentioned he’s got some reviews in the works, possibly one for Two Worlds. I know he’ll be busy with Halo 3 once it drops. We’ll be giving it the co-op business together.

I’ve also been asked by video game blogger extraordinaire Kyle Orland to guest-blog at his review site, Games for Lunch. The premise of the site is to take a game you’ve never played before, play it for an hour straight and then write up your impressions based on your first hour. I’m thinking of doing a Pixar game on the Xbox 360, something along the lines of Cars or Ratatouille (which I saw with the daughter and absolutely loved). I’ll probably play the game with the kiddos watching so I can get their impressions along with mine. Should be interesting. Of course, I’m always open for suggestions. Let me know of any 360 game that may have flown under my radar.

Finally, since we are almost seven days away from Halo 3, I’m declaring it Cuteness Overload Week here at buttonmashing.com. Since I won’t have a lot of time to dedicate to blogging, I’ll be going the easy route with a heaping helping of cuteness so cute you won’t be able to stand it. It’s just to remind everyone it’s not all about blasting aliens and pwning noobs on Live. There’s more to gaming than that. Sometimes we just need to be reminded.

It’s a great time to be a gamer.

(As an aside, tonight was the Prison Break premiere! What did you PB fans think?)

The triumphant return of “my” Xbox 360

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I received a package yesterday from Microsoft that contained an Xbox 360 console and a note that read:

Dear Xbox Customer.

So that you can get back to playing and enjoying you Xbox quicker, we have replaced your Xbox console with a replacement unit.

As you probably know, my previous Xbox 360 overheated and was subsequently sent in for repairs less than a month ago. I was interested in seeing how Microsoft would handle the repairs, so I specifically wrote down the serial number from my broken unit to see if they’d repair my unit or send me a different one. Microsoft has some ground to make up with its customers, so how would they perform?

First off, I’m impressed with Microsoft’s response time. Less than a month turn-around is greatly appreciated. Second, I’m 99% sure they sent me a brand new unit. It’s quieter, cooler (after a four hour gaming session) and has a manufacturing date of 2007-08-09. I’m assuming that means 2007-August-9th, not a unit that was built 3 days ago. Either way, I’m giving Microsoft credit for being responsive and handling customer service appropriately. It’s a pain to send in a broken unit and wait, but this was fairly painless. The also gave me a free month of Live. A nice touch.

So now it’s back to gaming!

Dead Rising 2 at the Tokyo Game Show?

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I’ve been seeing rumors about the possibility of Capcom announcing Dead Rising 2 at the Tokyo Game Show. Of course this is contrary to what we heard earlier, but we’ll see.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge Dead Rising fan. In fact, I’ve been thinking about a great idea for a crossover game from Capcom’s franchises for Dead Rising 2. Take Leon from Resident Evil 4 (another Capcom franchise), send him to investigate some undead activity on a remote island. Frank
West, the photo-journalist from Dead Rising, follows him to document the investigation. The island will naturally be crawling with zombies, looking for some brains to eat, and Frank and Leon show up ready to bash some faces. It’s a can’t miss!

Frank powers up the duo with some sweet action photography and Leon keeps them alive with some sweet stinky weed. (Come on, he heals himself with green herbs. How else could you explain it?). The combo moves would be amazing.

Actually, I would be happy if they announced an online co-op mode for Dead Rising. Meeting up with pals in the mall to impale zombies with the post hole digger would have to be the pinnacle of online gaming.

(On a side note, supposedly Dead Rising 2 is happening on an island. How Capcom say this game has no resemblance to the Dawn of the Dead? Even if it’s the 2004 remake?)

Bioshock + start of college football = BUSY

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I just did the unthinkable — I attacked a Big Daddy (an Elite Bouncer, to be exact) with my pipe wrench. I was near a vita-chamber (a respawn point) and decided to pound a Big Daddy to a pulp with my wrench. It actually took a while but I did it. I’m not sure why I did, maybe I was hoping it was one of the secret achievements or something, but I took him down. Down to Chinatown. Sure, I went down a dozen times myself, but that’s beside the point.

So, ya, I’ve been busy playing Bioshock. Absolutely excellent game. If you want to read more about the game, I suggest you read Tom’s piece over at G-pinions.

I’ve also been busy posting at my other blog, Men of the Scarlet and Gray. College Football started tonight and we’ve been in preview mode all week over there getting ready for the 2007 Ohio State Football season to begin.

But I am alive and I believe my co-bloggers are as well. We’re still playing games when we can and regular posting should resume shortly. As far as games go, I think it will be Bioshock with a dash of Everquest 2 until Halo 3 for me, and then copious amounts of Halo 3. I’ve been actively recruiting work-mates to get in on the Halo 3 bandwagon. The more the merry! Hard to believe it’s less than a month away.

In my hands

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BioshockI won’t get around to playing this until the little mashers are tucked in bed, but I’m pretty stoked about how I got it for a killer price. You can read the details of what happened in this CAG forum post, but the gist of it is I had to go to Wal-mart since Circuit City had sold out. The CC ad had two prices, one for the 360 version of the game and one was for the PC version, which is ten dollars cheaper. I walked out of Wal-mart with Bioshock costing me $39.99. Not too shabby.

Update: I played Bioshock way too late last night and all I can think about now is getting back to Rapture. Never mind I have a conference tomorrow at 7:00AM! I can survive on four hours of sleep!

So Bioshock, native wide screen or not, is an amazing game thus far. My brother in law was in town last night, so I had a partner in crime for the first few hours in Rapture. Playing with others watching is always more fun. Visually, it’s stunning. The atmosphere feels perfect. The whole steam punk/dystopia motif works very well. Sounds and voices are equally up to the task. So far, so good.

I never really get into the “Are games Art?” debate because I don’t feel anywhere near qualified to say anything of value. But a lot has been made of Bioshock and the choices you’re presented with as a way to evoke emotion. I didn’t think much of it until I was actually presented with the “choice.” For those of you who have played it, you know which one I mean. What did you think of it? It actually made me pause to consider what path I should follow. For a brief moment it stopped being a fun game. That hardly ever happens to me.

So in short, Bioshock (moral choices or not) is a great ride so far. I hope to get a few more hours in tonight.

Bioshock on sale

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I was just perusing the Sunday ads and noticed that Circuit City will be selling Bioshock for $49.99 (10$ off). Even though I haven’t played the demo and am packaging up my dead Xbox 360 as we speak, I will still be picking this up (I’ll be playing it on a borrowed 360).

I think it’s safe to recommend this game to everyone who loves videogames.

Xbox 360 price drop!

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Major Nelson (and the rest of the free blogging world) is discussing the price drop across all the Xbox 360 models. Throw in the 3-year warranty and you’ve got a pretty good looking deal.

For people on the fence, the 50-dollar drop of the Premium 360 should be very tempting. Even with the horrific failure rates, you’ve got three years of protection and a fall lineup that is absolutely loaded. If you’ve been considering the 360, consider no more. Go forth (on August 8th) and purchase.

Share your NCAA 08 Videos with your friends!

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Ok, so I’ve been pretty harsh to EA lately, so I figured I should give a little back. Sure, their online presence with NCAA 08 leaves a little to be desired, but they’re trying. They’re even doing things right. So I decided to put up a little how-to on sharing your uploaded videos of NCAA 08 with your friends. Hit the jump to read on.
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