Busy Gamer News

The Xbox 360 version of Quake 4 makes up for its multiplayer cap of 8 or 10 online or LAN players, down from the PC version's 16, by including the full Quake II game - including the prequel's single-player storyline and popular Threewave mod capture-the-flag maps. No, you won't have to beat the game to unlock it, though you will have to suffer an eight-player cap for Quake II as well. That's because it supports only System Link for two 360s, each with four split-screened shooters...

It's not looking too good for the Xbox 360 launch. Top game shops like EB and Gamestop are revealing that they may only get 16-20 systems despite launch preorders numbering 80-90. Even some so-called "guaranteed" launch day orders may go unfulfilled. If you haven't preordered or don't expect yours to get filled, your only remaining choice is to stand in line at retailers like Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart and hope your patience level matches their meager stock - expected to be 10-60 units per location. To its credit, Microsoft is promising to refill the channel more regularly than it did with the original Xbox, but in retrospect perhaps the idea of a three-week worldwide launch window wasn't such a bright one... Microsoft still hasn't revealed its final launch lineup or the original Xbox games that will be emulated on Day One, despite promises to have delivered this news weeks ago. We do know that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has slipped again, this time to at least February 2006 - which is actually a relief for fans who remember all of the glitches and faux Dirty Disk Errors that plagued its predecessor. Stomp those bugs, Bethesda... Ready for some more good news? The latest rumors suggest that Soul Calibur III may not be a PS2 exclusive for long. An Xbox 360 version is apparently in the works for spring 2006 release...

You have to respect Sony's commitment to downloadable content for the PlayStation Portable. Wipeout Pure fans can now get Delta Pack 1, the seventh package of tracks and skins for the futuristic racer. This one includes two new tracks, Iridia and Anulpha Pass, plus two new skins. Either use your PSP's wireless connectivity, or download the pack (and any others you might have missed) for USB transfer at www.wipeoutpure.com If that's not enough to keep you racing, there's another pack on the way...

EB's Xbox 360 allotment: 40,000
After all of the hysterical reports of Xbox 360 launch day shortfalls, I checked up on the status of my two orders - one for me, and one for Grrl Got Game. I learned some interesting stats from EB that I thought might interest folks who may be in the same boat:

• EB accepted 75,000 preorders but is only getting 40,000 units on launch day. That's for both online orders and all of the bricks-and-mortar stores. It's not clear how many of those are going to the Web site store's launch bundle fulfillment.
  
  
  
• My store in Seattle is getting 45 units but accepted 98 preorders. My order was originally 74th when I placed it back in early August (and I was told then that they'd get at least 75), but I've since dropped down to 67 due to cancellations. I'm now being told that my order will be filled 5-7 days after launch. EB is also waiving their 48-hour hold policy for any games or accessories that might arrive earlier, so I can wait and get them all when the console arrives.
  
  
  
• My order with ebgames.com, placed on August 23 within an hour of the launch of online pre-orders, is actually expected to arrive via FedEx on Nov. 22 - even though my order status page states an expected ship date of 12/1/2005. Customer service reports that all orders placed before Sept. 5 will ship at launch. By the way, any online orders placed after Oct. 26 aren't expected to ship until 2006.

BLOG: EB's Xbox 360 allotment - 40,000: After all of the hysterical reports of Xbox 360 launch day shortfalls, I checked up on the status of my two orders - one for me, and one for Grrl Got Game. I learned some interesting stats from an EB employee that I thought might interest folks who may be in the same boat:

• EB accepted 75,000 preorders but is only getting 40,000 units on launch day.
  
  
  
• My store in Seattle is getting 45 units but accepted 98 preorders.
  
  
  
• Customer service reports that all online orders placed before Sept. 5 will ship at launch.

If you've been on the fence about X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse or The Suffering: Ties That Bind, there are some demos now to give you some free hands-on time. The X-Men sequel demo at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7938 includes two maps and a tutorial level. And if the original Suffering didn't provide enough fodder for nightmares, try your luck with a level from the sequel at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7887... Oh, and F.E.A.R. fans can score a bonus multiplayer map and even more bug fixes with the v1.02 update at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7841. No, this is really another patch...

Due to launch Nov. 14, the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection will permit online-enabled Nintendo DS games such as Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk's American SK8Land and eventually Animal Crossing: Wild World and Metroid Prime: Hunters to connect for Internet multiplayer matches at compatible wireless hotspots. At least at launch, the main place for this will be some 6,000 McDonald's fast-food restaurants. Yep, the Big N is doing its part to reduce its fan base even more by dispatching them to greasy food nirvana on a regular basis. Some other Wi-Fi hotspots will work if they have no security or support WEP that doesn't require a Web browser to login - or if you haul along a laptop and a $35 Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. Play at home is also possible with a compatible wireless router. Heh, and Nintendo says it stayed out of the online game so long because they wanted it to be easy...

Now in its third year, Child's Play is raising money not just for U.S. children's hospitals but also some in Canada and, coming soon, the U.K. Simply select the hospital you wish to help and purchase toys and games from their Amazon wishlist. The charity serves two purposes for founders Mike Krahulik (aka Gabe) and Jerry Holkins (Tycho) of adult Web comic Penny Arcade: it demonstrates to the media the humane and peaceful nature of gamers, and it helps make the world a better place in doing so. Give what you can at childsplaycharity.org...

It's less than two weeks to the Xbox 360 launch - and we still don't know which titles will be available on Day 1, nor the original Xbox titles that will emulated on the hard drive. Kameo: Elements of Power has actually arrived at retail, and Perfect Dark and Project Gotham Racing 3 are expected within a week. And we've heard from reviewers that Halo and Halo 2 are definitely emulated (big surprise!). But there's still no definitive list, despite the fact that Microsoft must know by now which games have passed certification and gone gold in time to meet the manufacturing window for launch day...

Not to sound anti-Sony, but there are a number of negative PlayStation 3 rumors that can't be ignored. First, to start on a positive note, the system's Cell processor does look like it may deliver more raw power than the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Revolution. There are also reports that it will be region free, at least for games. And its Blu-Ray discs will play HD movies and have more storage space than other next-gen systems, which could yield games with more high-end sound, video and bonus content (and no flipping!). On the downside, Sony has rejected suggestions of a unified online service (a la Xbox Live or Nintendo Wi-Fi) and we're hearing that developers are finding its architecture difficult to program. Also, the PS3 may cost twice the price of a 360 by the time it launches in 2006 and now there's buzz that the it might contain technology to block secondhand games. This would make game publishers happy, since they lose a ton of revenue to used games and rentals. But it would be marketplace suicide, Divx-style, unless the games cost significantly less than the $60 expected for most next-gen titles...

Want to attend the Xbox 360 Zero Hour launch party? Be quick and enter when signups appear on various sites today including Xbox.com, 1up.com, GameSpot.com, IGN.com and seven other sites. The first 3,000 to find a registration form will party in a secret hangar location about an hour outside L.A. in the Mojave Desert. Each invitee will get the chance to buy a console from an on-site Best Buy, enjoy live bands and play the full launch lineup from Nov. 20-22. You'll have to pay your own way to get there and, if you don't want to crash in your car, lodging's on you too. It sucks for the rest of us that another 3,000 Xbox 360s have been pulled away from launch day fulfillment. You know, if they took all of the systems they've been giving away in contests and put them in the hands of pre-order customers, there might not be such a shortfall...

EB online order update
As you probably know if you pre-ordered, EB's online store sent an e-mail update that they actually only have enough Xbox 360s to fill orders placed before Aug. 30 - not Sept. 5 as their customer service previously reported.

On top of that, they announced that the delay of Dead or Alive 4 (sob!) until at least Dec. 1 means they're trading out that game for Call of Duty 2 in their launch bundles. By coincidence, I actually got to try COD2 at an EB store's 360 kiosk today while I was trading in some original Xbox games - and it is a nice looking shooter with some nice strategic elements. But it's hardly a replacement for the jiggly fighter that we DOA fans are dying to get our mitts on.

The good news for those who don't want to hang onto any of their launch bundle titles is that EB is planning to run a 360 game trade-in incentive in December. At least that's what the guy buying my games today said.

-=Gamewatcher

BLOG: EB online order update:
EB's online store sent an e-mail update that they actually only have enough Xbox 360s to fill orders placed before Aug. 30 - not Sept. 5 as their customer service previously reported. On top of that, they announced that the delay of Dead or Alive 4 (sob!) until at least Dec. 1 means they're trading out that game for Call of Duty 2 in their launch bundles.

[Read full Blog entry]

It may sound like rag on Sony week, but truthfully this has been brewing for awhile. First, it came out that copy-protected Sony music CDs (such as Van Zant's Get Right with the Man) install an invisible process on your Windows PC, and that Sony's code can be used to cloak cheater programs for online games such as World of Warcraft. Now we're hearing that an invisible virus has been reported, and lawyers are cranking up the class action lawsuits. Basically, it's a security risk and a cheater's paradise. For your safety, you might want to uninstall the DRM rootkit, as it's called (it's not easy; details at www.sysinternals.com/Blog). And online game makers will likely need to implement server-side checks for cheaters, a more expensive proposition than client-side ones - adding more cost for everyone...

Bungie unleashed some new screenshots of Halo and Halo 2 running on the Xbox 360 and revealed that the improved graphics are from the original Xbox versions of the games emulated and bumped to 720p high-definition with automatic antialiasing enabled - not reissues of the games for the 360 as had previously been rumored. The core maps and features of the games will remain the same, proving that rumors of Xbox Live support being added to the original Halo were simply wishful thinking. But it will be widescreen now...

RANT: Xbox 360 emulates Kabuki Warriors, but not Splinter Cell? WTF!:
Microsoft released its full list of original Xbox games that will be emulated on the Xbox 360 at launch. What's interesting is not what's on it, but what's NOT. And the fact that Xbox executive Todd Holmdahl has confirmed that your original Xbox save games will NOT be transferable to the 360. The following games from Xbox 1 are notably absent from the Xbox 360 launch list:

• Beyond Good & Evil
  
• Blinx: The Time Sweeper series
  
• Burnout series
  
• Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
  
• Dead or Alive Ultimate
  
• Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
  
• Deus Ex: Invisible War
  
• Doom 3
  
• Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
  
• Jet Set Radio Future
  
• Links 2004
  
• MechAssault series
  
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
  
• Midnight Club series
  
• Moto GP series
  
• Oddworld series
  
• Panzer Dragoon Orta
  
• Project Gotham Racing series
  
• RalliSport Challenge series
  
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein
  
• Shenmue II
  
• Silent Hill series
  
• Soul Calibur II
  
• Spider-Man 2
  
• SSX Tricky
  
• The Sims series
  
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series
  
• Unreal series
  
• Wreckless

Microsoft finally revealed the full launch lineup for Xbox 360. Some games are already appearing in stores:

• Amped 3 (2K Sports)
  
• Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
  
• Condemned: Criminal Origins (SEGA)
  
• FIFA Soccer 06 (EA)
  
• GUN (Activision)
  
• Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft)
  
• Madden NFL 06 (EA)
  
• NBA 2K6 (2K Sports)
  
• NBA LIVE 06 (EA)
  
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
  
• NHL 2K6 (2K Sports)
  
• Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft)
  
• Peter Jackson's King Kong (Ubisoft)
  
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft)
  
• Quake 4 (Activision)
  
• Ridge Racer 6 (Namco)
  
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 06 (EA)
  
• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Activision)

Missed opportunity
As a I was reviewing the Xbox 360 launch list, I realized Microsoft made a giant marketing blunder.

Actually, not so much a blunder as a big, fat missed opportunity:

It should have focused its original Xbox emulation efforts on titles that could help sell the new platform.

Face it, if you're not sold on Perfect Dark Zero as a substitute for Halo 3: The Rest of Halo 2 That We Had to Cut to Meet Holiday 04, you've probably already canceled your 360 pre-order. Some major system sellers like Dead or Alive 4 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion have predictably slipped, and there's not much to fill the void.

This is where Todd Holmdahl and his Xbox emulation crew could have really stepped up: by filling in the holes with original Xbox games. They have a great marketing pitch, too, thanks to the visual overhaul that's being promised due to the Xbox 360's much-touted HD upconversion of emulated titles.

"Waiting for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion? Play The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Game of the Year Edition on Xbox 360, where being an axe-wielding elf has never looked so good!"

"Can't wait to stealth kill as Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell 4? Pick up Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for Xbox 360 and see how good billowing fabrics can look in night vision thanks to upconverted graphics!"

"Sure Kasumi will still kick high in Dead or Alive 4. But in the meantime, her little underwear flashes have never looked as nice as they do in Dead or Alive 3 - now with upgraded graphics on Xbox 360."

Star Wars Galaxies is down today, and when it returns around 6 p.m. EST, it will be a whole new ball game. Players will transition to one of nine professions: bounty hunter, commando, entertainer, force-sensitive (aka Jedi wannabe), medic, officer, smuggler, spy or trader. That's right, bioengineer and creature handler are gone, and only traders will be able to craft items. Combat now uses mouse clicks for real-time targeted attacks, and quests are more story-driven. There's even a new tutorial section for characters level 10 and below. LucasArts says these changes, though drastic, address fans' desires. As a bonus, veteran players have been given the Jump to Lightspeed expansion pack and other in-game compensation. New players can buy a $20 Starter Kit, complete with exclusive in-game personal X-wing or TIE fighter and 30 days of online gaming, on Nov. 22. Or get a 10-day free trial now from Gamespot.com...

Microsoft revealed launch details of its Xbox Live Marketplace for 360, and from the early buzz it might just become an iTunes-like mecca for gamers. Xbox Live Arcade titles, including updated versions of Gauntlet, Joust and Robotron 2084 plus standards like backgammon, hearts and spades, run $5 each (with a few games creeping into $10-15 territory) - generally more reasonable than the earlier Arcade on Xbox. Game demos and trailers are free, and gamer pictures and dashboard themes typically run from a quarter to just under $2. There are also HD movie trailers including Aeon Flux, music videos for Audioslave and Franz Ferdinand and cool stuff from Red vs. Blue and Penny Arcade. The wacky part is that - unlike iTunes - you must prepay for bundled amounts of Microsoft Points: 1600 for $20 (roughly 1.25 cents per point) on retail cards, or 500+ at a time online. This is no doubt so Microsoft can make sub-$1 transactions profitable - otherwise, you might have a lot of $0.25 charges on your credit card, which cost more to process than they're worth. And also to allow younger gamers without credit cards to play, too. But couldn't they have thought up a better name, like Xbox Live Juice. Or Cool Stuff Credits. Or Xbox 360 Mojo Refill Packs...

Despite the trend toward high-definition gaming, the Nintendo Revolution won't be HD, a move that may alienate gamers with high-end sets - especially since the competing next-gen consoles will offer a crisp widescreen alternative. This isn't too surprising since the GameCube initially included an HD port, but when gamers didn't buy it (in part because the required cable was only available in a dark corner of Nintendo's online store), they removed it from later hardware. However, the good news is the Big N has shown growth by abandoning its stance that there's no market for online console gaming, and its Wi-Fi Connection network - now active on the DS - is a nice middle ground between the centrally managed Xbox Live and Sony's roll-your-own approach. Nintendo also revealed plans to incorporate parental controls into the Revolution, so grownups can limit their kids access to its darker offerings. Baby steps...

Microsoft revealed that it sent Perfect Dark Zero to be mass produced before it had passed final certification, a process that takes two weeks the game team didn't have. If it had failed, some 700,000 copies would been dumpstered and the game would have missed next Tuesday's Xbox 360 launch. Then again, if they had waited until it passed to manufacture the discs, Microsoft still would have missed launch - so it was a gamble worth taking. Besides, insiders say Rare is so meticulous in their polishing phase that the risk was actually quite minimal. The good news is that it passed...

Forget Perfect Dark Zero and Call of Duty 2. The breakout shooter for the Xbox 360 so far is Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. The brainchild of Stephen Cakebread of Bizarre Creations, the original Geometry Wars was a mini-game tucked away in Project Gotham Racing 2. Now there's a time attack version of the flashier, more polished sequel in Project Gotham Racing 3 - but you don't need to shell out $50 for it unless you want the racer too. A more complete version is only $5 (aka 400 Microsoft Points) in the Xbox Live Marketplace. Hey, $5 is a steal for the best launch title since Halo. Perhaps this will prove an important lesson for Microsoft: it's the steak, not the sizzle, that sells games - though the sizzle can help...

Xbox 360 madness
Even though I have two pre-orders for Xbox 360s - including one promised to arrive by 3 p.m. launch day - I heard a rumor that the Best Buy in Bellevue, Wash., would be getting up to twice their originally scheduled allotment of 200. So I chanced it and ran down to get in line last night.

I was both elated and disappointed. First, the rumor was true - sort of. They arranged to have leftover 360s from their Burning Man-inspired desert launch party in the Mojave desert flown up to Bellevue to satisfy the unusually large demand at the site where Microsoft's Bill Gates was ceremonially handing over the first console - and a disproportionate number of Microsoft employees were congregated.

I didn't see it, but heard that Bill actually gave out the first system at 9:01 p.m. to sync with the official East Coast kick-off time for North American sales. Apparently, 19 more got theirs early and the rest had to wait for another three hours.

I joined the crowd just before 8 p.m. and was estimated to be number 342 in line. I heard that a non-employee who was keeping tabs on the line numbers perhaps a little too closely actually got busted by the police for organizing a ring of people to buy 360s he could pawn on eBay.

It was cold. We talked geek stuff. The Super Famicom system was invoked. A guy next to me brought a pizza with him. I watched Firefly episodes I'd ripped to my PSP and tried to avoid getting bronchitis. A devoted mom grilled us for information on which system, games and accessories to buy for her lucky 14-year-old son.

After an hour of conferring, the Best Buy employees announced that the first 150 or so people would get systems, and the rest would purchase vouchers for systems to be delivered the next evening. We still had to wait in line until everyone who was getting a system (including the Microsoft employee who had been waiting since the prior Friday) got theirs.

About 11 p.m., the line broke down and all of us "Special Order" customers were huddled together like sheep as close to the door as we could get, line order be damned. (We didn't have numbers.) Chaos ruled. A guy with a laptop entertained us with an impromptu screening of Team America World Police.

Some people who thought they'd show up just in time for the "midnight opening" were turned away. A few people lined up for the 9 a.m. reopening for some 30 reserved systems that were promised in the Best Buy ad - though it seemed to us that they'd already met this minimum when they opened at midnight. Someone in corporate should be punished for that one. Oh, and that guy who had supposedly been busted? He was back at the front of the new line.

Finally, about 2:15 a.m., I made it in. They had no VGA cables (apparently these didn't actually make launch) and they had run out of charge-and-play kits and Call of Duty 2. I got everything I really wanted though:

• Receipt for a full Xbox 360 system (promised to arrive tonight)
  
• Memory card (for the occasional LAN party and saving off exclusive kiosk content)
  
• Microsoft Points card (to buy Geometry Wars and Penny Arcade avatars)
  
• Perfect Dark Zero LE
  
• Project Gotham Racing 3
  
• Condemned: Criminal Origins
  
• Amped 3

• Xbox 360 Launch Titles
  
• Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
  
• Xbox Live Marketplace
  
• RANT: Original Xbox emulated games
  
• Halo and Halo 2 upconvert to 720p on Xbox 360
  
• RANT: What's going to suck about Xbox 360

BLOG: Xbox 360 madness: Even though I have two pre-orders for Xbox 360s - including one promised to arrive by 3 p.m. launch day - I heard a rumor that the Best Buy in Bellevue, Wash., would be getting up to twice their originally scheduled allotment of 200. So I chanced it and ran down to get in line last night. I was both elated and disappointed. First, the rumor was true - sort of.

[Read full Blog entry]

For your convenience, here are some useful Xbox 360 news items and rants:

• Xbox 360 Launch Titles
  
• Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
  
• Xbox Live Marketplace
  
• RANT: Original Xbox emulated games
  
• Halo and Halo 2 upconvert to 720p
  
• RANT: What's going to suck about Xbox 360

Xbox 360 first impressions
So, my Xbox 360 arrived at 11:15 a.m. on launch day - and, no, it didn't look like the picture at right. But it did take me the better part of a frustrating hour to get it set up with my high-definition TV and surround sound stereo.

First, there was the AV cable connector, which was larger than the hole in the back of my entertainment center cabinet. So I had to find a saw and enlarge the opening. Then there's the fact that the Xbox hi-def input lets you bring your own cable (like my nice Monster component one) but the 360 cable has its own cheap connectors.

The good news is they reached my A/V receiver (barely!), but it took some trial and effort before I got the old Xbox disconnected and the 360 plugged in and running. There was much cursing as I wrangled with the cable spaghetti behind the TV and I accidentally disabled the DVD player and powered off the satellite receiver.

But after getting everything plugged in and some brief onscreen setup, I have to say the 360 is sharp and games look better on my 42-inch rear projection LCD TV than any in-store kiosk I've seen.

Here are my first impressions:

• The 360 looks petite in pictures, but it's really not that much smaller than the original Xbox. And it's heavy. If you get mugged while holding one and the power brick doesn't do them in, you might save your life with the console itself. But place it in an upright position and you'll get the illusion that it's smaller, and it's certainly nicer to look at.
  
  
  
• The wireless controllers are as great as everyone's been saying. Better than the Logitech contollers for the original Xbox and even the gold standard, the Nintendo Wavebird. Personally, I prefer the original, massive Duke controller for the Xbox over the Controller S - but I had no trouble with the 360 controller. It just feels right. You'll have to get used to the two new front-mounted buttons above the triggers - unless you're a PS2 veteran.
  
  
  
• I've hardly touched the retail launch titles, but Amped 3 is my favorite so far. It's funky and funny and very open-ended with challenges and missions you can accept at any time, a la Grand Theft Auto. I already like it better than the first two in the series.
  
  Perfect Dark Zero is a nice looking stealth shooter, but I haven't logged nearly enough time to comment on it.
  
  Project Gotham Racing 3 is a little disappointing. Yeah, the graphics are extremely pretty, but I've been spending more time staring at load screens than actually racing. I need to spend more time with this title, but I wish they would cache tracks on the hard drive (if you have one) for a faster reset when you redo a race for a better medal.
  
  Kameo is gorgeous and easy to learn. And it saves your progress very often, so you can switch off at almost any time. Which reminds me�
  
  
  
• Much of the 360 experience has been standardized, so - for instance - you use the same on-screen keyboard and shortcut techniques in every game that asks you to enter text. But save games are all over the place, and I've lost more than a little progress in games where I thought I had saved but hadn't. A uniform Save and Quit routine would have been nice.
  
  
  
• Much has been said about the new Dashboard, and it is a huge improvement over the old one. But I found it sluggish and confusing at times. The Blade interface is easy to use and very fast to navigate. But some choices take awhile to navigate. Finding the place to change Themes took forever. I kept looking in Display settings. That's where the giant X button on your controller comes in. You use this to select Themes and other personal settings. Why not have this in both places? Oh, and if you have more than one profile on your 360, use the X to switch. Save games are associated with profiles now, which is nice but will take some getting used to.
  
  
  
• The Xbox Marketplace is fun to browse, but I felt like I should be able to continue shopping while downloading a file like a demo, purchased game or movie trailer. Some of these can take several minutes to download and you're stuck staring at a progress bar that often stalls out. Oh, and picture packs and themes can't be previewed before you buy them - though some of them have pictures posted to Xbox.com. The nice thing is that if you abort a download, you can pick up where you left off later.
  
  
  
• Xbox Live Arcade is da bomb. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and Hexic HD alone are enough to while away an afternoon and, in fact, that's pretty much what I did the first day. I think Arcade may prove to be one of the best things about the Xbox 360. Here's a tip: Download the free demos and, if you want to buy a full game, you can unlock it from the demo screen without downloading again. Nice.
  
  
  
• Backward compatibility, for those titles that are emulated at launch, is like butter. However, I've been unable to figure out how to make the original Halo go widescreen, as promised on Bungie.net. The games I've tried do look nicer and everything seems to work seamlessly. Except one thing: The 360 dashboard won't let you copy ANY of your new original Xbox saves to a memory card. Hey, I thought we moved past this locked saves thing?! So far, none of the 360 saves or even downloaded content appears to be locked (though purchased items seem to have some kind of DRM)! I know that original Xbox saves won't work without a hard drive, but why can't I back them up or move them to another 360 hard drive.
  
  
  
• You can now change your Gamertag, for a price: 800 Microsoft Points, or about $10. I changed mine last night to Gamewatcher, as you can see on my Gamercard now over in the right column.
  
  
  
• The progressive scan DVD player appears to be a decent workhorse, no frills unit. I checked out a couple of discs and they looked fine. More testing is required before I give up my buggy Panasonic player, which has tracking problems with certain DVDs but also offers 3:2 pulldown and some other advanced features. I did notice that the 360 won't hold your place on the DVD if you open the dashboard, which would have been nice. You'll have to sit through all of the FBI warnings and pre-menu crap again if you quit a movie and come back later.




• I ripped a few CDs and found a nice array of visualizations, any of which can be blasted full screen. I haven't tried plugging in an iPod yet, and I won't be able to stream music from my PC until I upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 2, which is an adventure for another day.

BLOG: Xbox 360 first impressions: So, my Xbox 360 arrived at 11:15 a.m. on launch day. It took me the better part of a frustrating hour to get it set up with my high-definition TV and surround sound stereo. First, there was the AV cable connector, which was larger than the hole in the back of my entertainment center cabinet. So I had to find a saw. There was much cursing as I wrangled with the cable spaghetti behind the TV. But after getting everything plugged in and some brief onscreen setup, I have to say the 360 is sharp and games look better on my 42-inch rear projection LCD TV than any in-store kiosk I've seen.

[Read full Blog entry]

Xbox 360 R.I.P. - almost, then dead again
One of my Xbox 360s died last night. I left the room for a few minutes while it downloaded the free Franz Ferdinand video from Xbox Live Marketplace and returned to find it paws up.

Three quadrants of the Ring of Light were flashing red - all except the upper right quadrant. I let it rest for eight hours and then tried again - same deal. Microsoft has a knowledge base article about this, but I'll save you the trip: try and power it off and back on. If that doesn't work, your 360 is dead. Call 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

The support person said I'll receive a UPS mailer in 24 houra, and my 360 will be repaired and shipped back to me three days later. In theory, this means I could have it back by next Wednesday.

FYI- This is different from what the Best Buy employee in Bellevue told me when trying to hard sell me a service contract at 2:30 in the morning Tuesday. He wanted to convince me that it would take six months to get a replacement from Microsoft if I didn't hand over $40 right that second to him. I said no, but many others didn't. I'd rather pay $60 per 360 and deal with the pros.

I suspect overheating caused this problem. I have my 360 in an entertainment cabinet that's closed in the back except for a few enlarged openings for the cables. I keep the doors open, and that seemed to work well for the PS2 and the original Xbox that was just evicted. But maybe that's not good enough for the 360.

In fact, I'm almost sure that's the problem. When I went to take a picture of the mostly red Ring of Light, the broken-down 360 booted right up. All systems go. Perhaps disconnecting the cables and handling the system for half an hour while dealing with support staff was all it needed.

I'm not going to call Xbox support back until Friday, in case it dies again. If that happens, I'll already have the confirmation number and mailer ready to go. In case this happened due to inadequate ventilation, I'm going to move the unit so it's surrounded by as much open air as possible - even if that means (gasp!) laying it on its side and placing the power brick so it's visible on the shelf next to it.

Better that than have it dangle in midair and eventually yank the 360 to the floor.

-=Gamewatcher

UPDATE: The 360 ran for a few more hours and then died again, so I'm sending it in for repairs. It was well ventilated and the power supply was off the floor and balanced neatly on the edge of a cabinent for maximum air flow, per several suggestions I've seen online. As you can see, I got a picture of it this time. Now it's time for Thanksgiving dinner.

UPDATE 2 (Dec. 3): I received a replacement Xbox 360 yesterday. Read about the odd little wrinkles (and rattle) I experienced.

BLOG: Xbox 360 R.I.P. - almost, then dead again: One of my Xbox 360s died last night. I left the room for a few minutes and returned to find it paws up. Three quadrants of the Ring of Light were flashing red - all except the upper right quadrant. I let it rest for eight hours and then tried again - same deal. Microsoft has a knowledge base article about this, but I'll save you the trip: try and power it off and back on. If that doesn't work, your 360 is dead. Call 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

[Read full Blog entry to find out what happened]

If you're seeing game freezing problems with your shiny new Xbox 360 - and you're not getting the red Ring of Death reported here yesterday - you might want to try a cooling solution. Gamers say suspending the power brick in the air or propping it over the corner of a box may eliminate random crashes. Pelican also offers a $20 vertical fan stand for chilling the console, which may be a fix for those who insist on putting it into an entertainment cabinet despite Microsoft's warnings to ventilate that sucker. Looks like you could maybe check your shoe size with it, too...

To unlock the new Geometry Wars time attack game in Project Gotham Racing 3, you need to visit your starter garage in Career Mode, find the Walk Around This Garage option and then select the arcade machines tucked behind the fourth car slot. Play both to get an easy 15 points toward your Gamercard achievements...

Sony released version 2.6 of its PlayStation Portable operating system. The update adds a volume adjustment control for the Location-Free Player added in v2.5, an RSS channel and support for copyright-protected video and non-copyright-protected Windows Media Audio files. You'll have to toggle on WMA playback in the Systems Setting, and you'll need an Internet connection on your PSP to activate it. Ironically, this might make the PSP a better partner to the Xbox 360, which can read the portable's audio files over a USB connection. Get the system update at us.playstation.com/psp.aspx...

If you visit the Xbox Live Marketplace, you'll see an item for Kameo: Elements of Power called the Winter Warrior Pack. This $2.50 download reskins Kameo and her various elemental incarnations in holiday-themed garb. This type of content used to be free, so consider this a harbinger of the new micropayments system - and expect to pay for many cool costumes when Dead or Alive 4 comes out. For 5 percent of the cost of the game, you'd expect to get, well, 5 percent more game... Speaking of which, there's a rumor that Rare held back an online two-player cooperative mode from Kameo which may be polished up and offered for download in coming months. Now that would be worth $5, so expect to pay ten...