I really want to get excited about the Xbone.   I was ultra excited about the 360 when it launched.   I stood outside in 33 degree rain overnight at a Best Buy and came up 3 places short in line to get one.   I then spent the next month on a holy crusade to get one.   

I STUMBLED across a PS3 while looking for it, so I ended up with both consoles.   

I REALLY REALLY want to develop a reason to keep my preorder for the Xbone for this fall.   Hark has given me one reason because when I'm playing multiplayer on the 360 it's usually with him and his merry band of snipers.    However, I'm still waivering because Microsoft has given me plenty of reasons to get angry at what they are trying to feed me, and not enough reasons to think this system is anywhere close to what the 360 was when it launched.

I have to say that I am still sitting on both launch day preorders but I'm extraordinarily torn.

Maybe this perspective from an xBone engineer will help:

The thing is we suck at telling the story. The whole point of the DRM switch from disc based to cloud based is to kill disc swapping, scratched discs, bringing discs to friends house, trade-ins for shit value with nothign going back to developers, and high game costs....

...Google TV + PS4 + Minority report level gestures, that combined with a sick second screen experience (which is really hot for TV, I know I know.. tv tv tv tv tv… but it’s fucking sick when you have it). Games will be the same, there are more exclusives to MS then PS atm, and Kinect 2 makes Kinect 1 look like a childs toy...

...Current plan is basically you’re fucked after 24 hours. Yeah… I know. Kind of sucks. I believe they will probably revist the time period and / or find a diff way to “call in” to ensure you haven’t sold your license to gamestop or something… but there is no plan YET. I’m hoping the change it, but I don’t work on that so I don’t have much influence there /sigh...

...THe original intention was to get all the Multiplayer servers not requiring 3rd party costs (Like EA shutting down game servers to cut costs), as well as taking all the games that servers hosted by the clients (Halo, etc), and have all that compute done in the cloud allowing more CPU cycles for gameplay. That will really expand what developers can do. Anything that doesn’t need per frame calculation and can handle 100ms delays can be shifted to the cloud. That’s huge....

...SmartGlass + IE is going to be pretty freaking sweet. 1 finger cursor, 2 finger direct manip. Basically if you think of a laptop trackpad where your phone/ slate is the trackpad and the monitor is your TV… it’s that. The tech is there, just needs to be applied. There is some really cool shit going on with Petra + controllers that pairs people with controllers. So if person with controller two trades controlers with controller 1, their profiles magically switch. It’s sick. What does this matter? Now if you lean left/right it knows which person is leaning, even if 4 people are all int he same room. It’s awesome...

...New service using Azure for cloud compute. Allows developers to not use clients for hosting multiplayer servers, or other tasks that do not require per frame calcuations. It’s pretty sweet.

It at least sounds better that way than the PR flak idiots.

I never pre-order.  It's a waste, especially for games.  Consoles... maybe not, but I don't need either when I have steam.

The $2.99 blues collection caught my eye

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Remember when we were kids and our parents told us not to sit so close to the tv?

Older CRT technology did shot out more harmful radiation (in the literal sense, not the nuclear sense) due to the way they worked.  Flat panel tech is much different.

tapatalkin'

It was really only when they were new technology. By the 70s-80s era, that radiation was basically nil.

No, I'm talking about less eye strain light radiation.  There were definite, measured effects from staring at 90's era computer vet's apart from the tv radiation myth

tapatalkin'

Remember when we were kids and our parents told us not to sit so close to the tv?

Older CRT technology did shot out more harmful radiation (in the literal sense, not the nuclear sense) due to the way they worked.  Flat panel tech is much different.

tapatalkin'

The 100 60's songs for $3.99 is a good deal...

tapatalkin'

The biggest question for me is WHY?

I picked up the 360 to go with the HDTV, as well as since the PC had been somewhat forlorn before Steam completely re-energized it (IMHO).  I never picked up a PS3 or a Wii.  I've barely touched my 360 in the past 8 months, and I think I'm more likely to hook up a computer to my TV and go from there.

Ask me again in October, it's possible they could wow me, but for now, I haven't seen anything that would lead to me becoming an early adopter.  Maybe if I go with a new 4k tv or something, but for now I'm thinking that true value is on the PC side.  There's going to have to be something there that isn't being done well on the PC (and cheaper).  So far, I haven't seen it.

Here's the thread I was looking for.

tapatalkin'

And it is nigh impossible to find this damn thread when you're the last poster in it.  Down again...

Thanks!

tapatalkin'

Guild Wars 2, WintersDay activities.

The games start today - bumpity bump bump bump!

I just want to say that I wish it was possible for both Alabama and Notre Dame to lose.

It would have been interesting to see if the voters jumped Oregon/Kansas St/ND over Florida if ND had lost to USC.  I wonder if that scenario would have ended up with Northern Illinois still in the Orange... if they didn't, well I'm glad we don't have another SEC rematch, but the rest of the Bowls are pretty lame this year.

BUMP - free copy of DOTA 2 for the winner

Yeah, I'm a glutton for it... the 2012-2013 College bowl pick-em is up!  Password is octopus

Confidence points against the spread

Go BRUINS!

Dishonored and Guild Wars 2

tapatalkin'

You can't be game of the year when you haven't even been out for a week.  Come back at the end of the month at least and tell us if far cry is still shiny!

Guild Wars 2 had me playing daily for almost two months. 

Sins of a Solar Empire : Rebellion got almost as much time, as did Diablo 3 and Skyrim at over 40 hours each.  Warlock also clocked in around 30, and I really want to revisit Elemental with Fallen Enchantress, and XCOM is still on the shelf..

I'm enjoying Dishonored, but I'm hesitant to nominate it yet.

Edge to GW 2 so far.

Regardless, 2012 has been a great year for gaming.

tapatalkin'

Does anyone know what Android OS this will require? My aging Android device only has a single CPU running OS 2.3.6. Of course the resources on it are beyond what the original PC games required, but this being an update has me wondering?

I think they did mention that it was tablet only, so it may require honeycomb at least

tapatalkin'

Machinarium is working great on my Transformer.

I picked up world of goo as well, but haven't tried it.

Having at least one HD Angry Birds is worth it.

Cthulhu Wastelands has been really frustrating with regards to selecting units.

Collector (of dust).  I don't have the time to finish so many of them, but I like to think I will.  Plus, I'm not much of one for the extra effort to return things...  I do keep an eye out for deals a lot (and have lately gone overboard on Steam sales as I've gotten back into PC Gaming.

11-13

also, $5 this week only:

Was hoping for this.  Thanks for finding the Explicit version!

So you couldn't find the forum on your phone and now you can't find the thread on your phone. I think we've found the problem here.

ET phone home

It seems like most retailers are starting on Thanksgiving night now.  If I were an employee at one of these places, I'd be royally pissed.

They tend to pay overtime rates, etc.  AFAIK

Here's the thread I was looking for.

tapatalkin'

It's tradition to bump the "Down for everyone or just me" thread, you know.  

I know, but I couldn't find it on my phone

Been having trouble getting there from my phone while on vacation.  Anyone else having issues?

Nah.  Booze is enough for me.

Yup, though I do love the smell at concerts - adds to the atmosphere

tapatalkin'

Played a little guild wars two, but took a much needed break and got some couch having time in with the first Darksiders.  Really enjoying it.

Curious in that if you install Doom 3 BFG edition to the HD on a 360, you can't launch the bonus Doom 2/Original Doom:

Twitter user Wario64 discovered the error message seen below. NowGamer reached out to Bethesda and was told by Bethesda's Matt Grandstaff that "we recommend not installing the game" as it will prevent the launch of both Doom and Doom 2. Additionally, "there is no performance advantage to installing the game to your hard drive."

This seems very odd, and I wonder if it also happens with the PS3?

I had to return 2 50" Vizio plasma sets to Costco under the old warranty plans (hdmi issues in one and the other just died). Having to choose under the newer warranty, I went with a Panasonic plasma.  It's still going strong.

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9-25

Album of the week:

Make sure you get notice that the link is to the 'Clean' version, and that there is also an Explicit version now.

Played some GW2 and that was about it.

This is shameless. Just because Obama isn't an 8 year old little girl doesn't mean that he should be removed from the ballet.

I wonder if it was the Nutcracker...

The problem with basterds to me was that it only had good scenes, and just didn't come together as a movie, but rather blunder from what felt like one mostly unrelated scene to another

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Bump!  Get your picks in!

Too lazy to find the old thread, and in a rush, so here goes:

Edit - 2012 version is up!  Sorry for the delay, wasn't thinking straight w/o football!


Group Name: Group Name: OO/GT NCAA Pick'em Group ID# 21303
Group ID:     21303
Password:     octopus

Go Bruins!

Ordered the 7" Fire HD.  As much as I want the 8.9 I just can't see spending 299.  Ordered and I can't wait for next week

I think I have enough miles to convert to an Amazon GC, that I can get an 8.9, but I kind of want to see what else is coming out, as well as more info regarding the battery life and stylus response times.  Unfortunately, by that time Amazon will probably be back ordered until February.  I guess I could return it if I don't like it though...

Too lazy to find the old thread, and in a rush, so here goes:

Edit - 2012 version is up!  Sorry for the delay, wasn't thinking straight w/o football!


Group Name: Group Name: OO/GT NCAA Pick'em Group ID# 21303
Group ID:     21303
Password:     octopus

Go Bruins!

Put a bunch of time into GW2.  Having fun so far

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I thought it was funny.

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HackenSlash.9248 (Ehmry Bay - Sylvari Guardian - Malathyst).

Mohawk?  I think I missed something after the trip home... congrats and good luck!