360 @ MindSay

Timeline:

September 13th, 2007:
-As I was playing the Call of Duty 4 Beta, the dark/black areas of the screen suddenly turned a red and black checkered pattern and everything froze.  I turned off my 360 and turned it back on.  Worked fine until I tried to play the Skate demo, where the same thing happened.  I turned it off and then turned it back on.  Nothing came onto the screen and suddenly I got those dreadful 3 red lights around the light circle on my 360.  I did what most people tell you to do.  I turned it off, took out the hard drive, unplugged it from the wall for 30 seconds, plugged it back in, and turned it on.  It worked!  Turned it off, put back in the hard drive and then turned it back on again.  Didn't work.
-Called Microsoft.  Got a retarded Indian chick who couldn't tell me jack about what I needed to know and said she "couldn't put in for repair because of some service updates."  I hung up on her.
-Called back 20 minutes later and got a different guy.  Gave him the case number the Indian chick gave me and he looked it up.  Long story short, he told me he would send out a box and it would arrive in 3-5 days.  I asked about what kind of 360 I would get back: repaired or new and he told me that I would MOST LIKELY receive a "replacement 360."  I'm assuming it's a new one, but it COULD be an older refurbished one, in which case I ain't dealin with it.

September 20th, 2007:
-One week later and I still haven't gotten the box.  I call up Microsoft and ask about it and they tell me that I should give it until Saturday.

September 22nd, 2007:
-I get the box in the early afternoon.  I pack up my 360 the way they told me to (no faceplate, hard drive, cables, or accessories) and bring it to the UPS store.  They know EXACTLY what I'm bringing in (the guy at the UPS store said they get about 4-5 360's every day).  They send it off.

September 24th/25th, 2007:
-Halo 3 launches.  I buy it, but alas, I cannot play it.

September 27th, 2007:
-Microsoft receives the 360.

TO BE CONTINUED...

I'm enjoyin' the heck out of Viva Pinata for the XBox 360.  You create and tend a garden, and depending on what you build, cute pinata creatures come live in the garden.  The pinatas-hit-and-spill-candy thing is weird, but the game faces the issue head-on.  The creatures-eating-creatures foodchain thing is also wierd, and the game also faces this issue squarely.  Plus, you can direct creatures to "mate" with their own offspring.

So it's weird.  It's next-gen beautiful, it's fun in a hour-sucking way, it's cute, and it's disturbing.  Awesome!

But I see exactly what makes it fun; it's a systems game.  Like Civilization, SimCity, and myriad Tycoon games, the game is a table top upon which you built and optimize a kenetic sculpture, using a bunch of interesting, inter-related parts.  When Raph Koster lamented that game designers start new works by creating spreadsheets, this is the kind of game he was talking about.

But, it's fun!  Systems games are more fun for me than any other type of game.  When I play a systems game, I feel the echo of that old "consumed by the game" state that gripped me so hard as a teenager.  Possibly it's because (again borrowing from Koster) there's so much more to learn and try out in a systems game.  When I play an FPS, I know all about collecting weapons and shooting monsters.

My friend Bruce spoke of an "open answer space", a game that could be solved in many ways.  Systems games fill the bill.  I've also spoken in the past about making 10 objects that have complex relationships between each other, instead of 1000 objects that all have the same, simple relationships.  Again, systems games are the definition of this.

What other systems games can you recommend?

The game development arm of Microsoft has released a free program called XNA that allows non-programmers to build their own pc games for free.  With a $99 a year subscription you gain the ability to convert it to a 360 game for Xbox Live Arcade and get alot of free tutorials and downloadable content.  The XNA is also compatible Torque Game Builder and Torque Shader (see Game Informer Magazine Nov 2006 pg55...can pick up a copy at any EBgames/Game Stop).   This is a very interesting move by Microsoft and will either be an avenue for people to produce a lot of crappy games or a great way for individuals/small teams to get noticed for their creative talents.  Here is a wiki on the subject of XNA. 

-Peace Out

I figure I best blog about..well, nothing really. But an entry about me is needed. After all, you know it's bad when Mena, who's blogging is rather erratic, has been making more entries than you have :P

I'm just gonna flit through the main points of interest, and maybe elaborate on one or two in a future entry or something.

Firstly, lostprophets. They f00king ruled. As did the support acts, oddly enough. They were both Welsh, and whilst I can't remember the name of the first band, the second one was called The Blackout, and have a MySpace over at http://www.myspace.com/theblackout. I've tried checking lostpropets' MySpace page, in hope that MySpace keeps a record of past gigs, but it doesn't. So the name of the first band have unfortunately escaped me. Anyways, they were good too. If I find out what they're called, I'll let you know.

The day after, with my ears still buzzing from the night before (I suppose that's what standing above a speaker does for you ^_^), I managed to successfully bag myself 4 tix to go see Muse in November!! We're going to the Notts Arena date, on 17th November, which is also the same day as the PlayStation 3 launch. Hmm..PS3 or Muse? Bit of a no-brainer, don't you think? :P

So yeah, I'm psyched for that. When I saw them at Notts during the Absolution tour, I thought they were brill, and they rank up at the top as one of the best live bands I've seen (they probably edge out Green Day as number 1, but it's rather close). Worst live band? I didn't think much to Taking Back Sunday, but then what do I know?

My new 360s working a treat ^_^ OK, I lie. It crashes occasionally when playing Ridge Racer 6, and claims that the disc for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is dirty and might need cleaning (this is soon resolved with a restart, and it only ever does it once a playing session anyway). Other than that, it's fine. Yay.

One cause for concern though is the lack of titles coming out for it. Sure, this week we've seen Prey and Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, but there's still nothing that I'm wanting really badly. Dead Rising isn't out until September. Gears of War hasn't even been dated yet, but it's supposedly due before the end of the year. As for Halo 3..."when it's done", a release date that's usually associated with Duke Nukem Forever (8 years and counting, 3D Realms). That said, the original concept for Prey was announced 15 years ago, so it's not all doom and gloom for the Duke. A release date would be nice though. As would some up to date screenshots.

We're one day closer towards the double milestone. On Tuesday, it will have been a year since I asked Mena out. Of course, this is by day, but by date, it's Wednesday. Hence the double milestone, though the important one is obviously the Wednesday. We have been planning it today, following a lovely conversation (the first one in a while, it has to be said), but just as Mena is doing with her blog, I'm gonna hold out on the info until after the date.

And that's about it really...in what I'll probably make a regular feature on Sundays, here's the number 1s in the three major UK music charts, namely Singles, Albums and Downloads:

#1 Single - Lily Allen - Smile
#1 Download - Shakira - Hips Don't Lie

#1 Album - Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (Woot! 2 weeks!)

Thar we go. I'll leave you with this small nugget of info, which I'll expand upon tomorrow - LAST.FM'S NEW LAYOUT SUCKS ARSE!

Till tomorrow
-=Gav=-