Category Archives: GeekStuff


GeekStuff

GoW2: LIVE

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Gears of War 2 just went live in the UK – thus begins a 24-hour session of watching GoW2’s first users uploading screenshots from their Xbox over Xbox LIVE and to the web.

Just another day at the office, more or less, but I still feel somewhat giddy when a new title ships for Xbox. Especially when it goes with tech that you’ve worked on. (Yes, there’s a number of people from my group in the credits for this one, myself included!)

Even more giddyness knowing that there’s another two titles launching in the next ten days along with a [NXE] system update over the next week and a half – more on those as they launch, though.

GeekStuff

It’s All Child’s Play

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Had a team meeting the other day… was around some internal news around the New Xbox Experience but seeing as it’s now October, we had an added bit of news around the annual Giving Campaign.

I’m not sure how many people outside of the company know it, but every October there’s a huge organized effort to get involved with all sorts of charity organizations. Not that there aren’t people here that give time and money during the other 11 months of the year – as an example, Sara Ford spent a whole slew of time working with Katrina relief. Also, there’s Bill and Melinda – no further explanation required. So, when there are sizable meetings in October, there’s usually a “reminder” about the Giving Campaign and a highlighted charity that the team is “sponsoring.” For Xbox LIVE, the highlighted charity is Child’s Play, which was started by Gabe and Tycho at Penny Arcade. Who just happened to be in our cafeteria, to talk about the org and how Child’s Play works – they both hung around after the meeting for some quality time around the ping-pong table…

Nice guys the both of them – not only are they now responsible for the largest player-event of the year but they use their web comic to continuously battle the “Jack Thompson-esque” attacks that our industry and players have to live with… on top of that, they are actively working to help kids in hospitals around the world… good times.

What can I say? Xbox LIVE rules. *g*

GeekStuff

Gag Order

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I’ve been working with the New Xbox Experience for a while now… during my team’s last re-org, we became a part Xbox LIVE and the push to get the NXE bits onto consoles has impacted every single bit of the org. Design, Code, Test. Design, Code, Test. Code, Test, Code, Test, Test, Test, Test.

Doesn’t mean that I stopped doing my day job either – I’m still helping to put great new features into games shipping this November… in fact, that’s what has lead to the slow down of blog posts: been busy trying to RTM three Titles and helping out with NXE testing.

Sadly, there’s not much that I can say about the specifics on either the Titles or NXE… the features in the Titles will start to show up as reviews come in but for NXE, I can’t say much… what I can say is Wow.

Just… Wow.

Update: Looks like November 19th is the Official Date for the release of the NXE!

GeekStuff

iPhone: Supported by T-Mobile

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I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since 2000. Before that I was with VoiceStream, so basically I’ve been on a GSM based phone for almost a decade. A bunch of months ago, I bought a v1 iPhone from Apple and used it on T-Mobile’s network. The only feature I lost was support for the Visual Voicemail – everything else worked with T-Mo’s network.

When the 3G iPhone came out, I bought a subsidized handset from the local Apple store and moved my number from T-Mobile to AT&T. That got me 3G support, unlimited mobile-to-mobile for a different set of a friends – offsets losing T-Mo based friends – a much higher price per month, one less phone number (as I had a dual line on T-Mo,) and slightly less coverage. It also got me a $200 charge from T-Mo when my number moved because I had another couple months on a contract for one of the numbers.

I called T-Mo to address the $200 charge by re-activating a line to complete the contract – what I learned from them was more than worth it’s weight in gold…

By law, AT&T is required to SIM unlock your iPhone if you pay full price for it because it’s a subsidized handset.
Continue reading iPhone: Supported by T-Mobile →

GeekStuff

Zune + XNA Game Studio 3.0 = Shuffle By Album

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One of my ongoing gripes about the iPhone, the iPod touch, and Zune product lines are that they don’t offer a small, yet useful, feature that the iPod (and iTunes) has offered since 2001: Shuffle By Album.

Thanks to the XNA Game Studio 3.0 development environment and Zune’s support of it, I’ve been able to add this functionality back into my portable media player: my Zune 80.
Continue reading Zune + XNA Game Studio 3.0 = Shuffle By Album →

GeekStuff

GTA IV

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No reason for a review here – there’s plenty floating out there already… what I will say is the following:

+ I got an advanced copy through pleading, so I’m already 6 hours into the game and have been enjoying it. A lot. And I’ve only seen spots of 1/3 of the overall map.

+ The game play is exactly what I’ve loved GTA and Bully for

+ All of things that I used to dislike about the game are gone in this release (GPS nav rules, auto-saving after every mission, easy health restoring)

– Niko is one slow moving bastard; praise the A-to-Run button

+ The graphics work is simply amazing, even by 360 standards; best thing T2 could have done was release the retro-feeling Bully two months ago…

I’ve heard there’s multiplayer too, but in all honesty: I can’t get away from the story yet.

GeekStuff

Battlestar Galactica

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A friend of mine turned me onto BSG just after Season 2 ended. I was aware of it running on the SciFi channel, but after four Star Trek series, ten Star Trek movies, six Episodes of Star Wars, and five seasons with three movies from Babylon 5? I was a little drained on science fiction. Also when BSG was first lurking on the airwaves I was consumed with The Sopranos and Six Feet Under.

Priorities after all…

New season starts Friday. *dROol*
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica →

GeekStuff

The First Twenty-Four

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Now that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been out for over 24 hours, can someone tell me: how is it? Living up to the hype? A rehash of Super Smash Bros. Melee with new artworks? And if so, is that a good or bad thing?

Curious if I have reason to power up the Wii or not…

GeekStuff

Grifball: A Weekend Adventure

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Grif and company seem to have an on going impact on the Halo community. Speaking for myself, it was Red vs Blue that made me aware and an avid fan of Halo, long before I had even bought an Xbox. In fact, it was Halo that brought me back to console gaming, since I had originally played Halo on a PC… huh.

Anyway, the boys over at Rooster Teeth have put together a custom game in Halo 3 called Grifball. Basically, it’s Neutral Assault in a wide open arena. The ball spaws in the middle of the arena, the goals are on opposite ends, and you spawn near your own goal. No shields, health is at 10%, no grenades; you’re armed with an everlasting Gravity Hammer or sword. Ball carriers get 3x shields, 1.5x speed, and friendly kills are active. The full rules explain a lot more, but that’s the basics of the game. There’s a league, a community, blah blah blah, but I only played it for the first time today.

Why? Well, this weekend Bungie has created a new hooper in the Social class of games: Grifball. Incentives? If you with you’ll get double EXP points. Also, since spawn killing is an approved – if not encouraged – game style, you can get insane amounts of medals. Need proof? This game was a shutout: 31 kills, 13 deaths, 48 medals including 2 Exterminations, 1 Killtacular, and 4 Overkills. Another game: 15 kills, 6 deaths, 23 medals including a Killtrocity.

I’ll gladly forget this game though – Major Nelson showed up in a lobby and his team send my team packing…

Good stuff.