Tag Archives: Xbox 360
$99 Xbox 360 + $15 Subscription Expands to Best Buy, Gamestop
A few weeks ago Microsoft announced a new deal for Xbox 360. For $99 upfront and $15 a month, the Microsoft Store offered an Xbox 360 4GB Kinect system, including 2 years of Xbox Live. Today, Microsoft announced that by the end of this month the program will extend to all US Best Buy locations and “select” Gamestop locations.
I guess that means it’s something of a success so far, or why bother extending the program’s reach? Hit the source link for details.
Source: Major Nelson
About Jason Ward
Xbox 360 Entertainment Options Grow by Gobs, Oodles
Xbox 360 Solidifies Position as Media Console Leader…Again
Microsoft has, for at least the past couple of years, banged the drum of “Media hub” when talking about Xbox 360. Each year the “core” gamers have moaned as Microsoft increasingly focused on building up Xbox 360′s street cred as a legitimate living room jack-of-all-trades, but for the most part it’s worked out well for the big M. Truth be told, it’s worked out well for gamers, too. We’ve gotten the ability to cheaply stream gobs of content from the likes of Hulu, Netflix and other sources to any TV, all while continuing to enjoy a wealth of high end games content and a great online service that still can’t be beat by any other console. So it should come as no surprise that this E3, while bereft of surprises and relatively light on new games franchises or non-sequel IP, has nevertheless delivered a plethora of cool stuff for the media consuming masses. I’m gonna take a moment to summarize a few of these right after the break, and I invite you to join me and share your thoughts on Xbox 360′s latest bounty.
About Jason Ward
Is Mass Effect 3 a Mass Disappointment?
Mass Effect 3 on Xbox 360 and PS3 was released on Tuesday 06 March 2012 with much fanfair. I eagerly waited in line at my local GameStop for the midnight release of this much anticipated 3rd part of the Mass Effect Story. (***SPOILER ALERT***) The truth is the game was a disappointment straight off. I found that all my decisions and pains taking replays of Mass Effect 1 and 2 to get my ending just the way I wanted it didn’t mean shit! While parts of the story are definitely good, the game play is nothing what I expected from all the EA hype. The Xbox 360 voice commands with Kinect were definitely a redeeming feature, but the freshness and length of the mission was sorely lacking. I found myself bored by repetitive missions that at times seemed to have eerie similarities to Mass Effect 2.
About Peter Blank
New Xbox 360 Controllers Sparkle to Retail May 15th
Xbox 360 Controllers set to release May 15th 2012
3 new Xbox 360 Controllers release tomorrow, bringing with them a sparkle and luster that matte controllers just can’t compete with. These contollers feature the Transforming D-pad, previously released with the silver and black controller. One of these controllers will cost you $54.99. I personally Like the Red. Thoughts?
About Peter Blank
Hot deal on Xbox 360 Pro!
OK, OK, so I’ve been slacking off lately. I might as well just admit it and get it done with. Here’s hoping this will make some headway in making up for lost time, then: Woot is having a Sellout sale in which they’re letting the always desireable Xbox 360 Pro 60GB console go for just $229. I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, but it’s probably a refurb, and we all know how MS tends to treat refurbs”. Lucky for you, then, it’s not a refurb but a brand spankin’ new console.
Of course, you probably already know that the story has the 360 Elite (120GB) receiving a $100 price drop (to $299) to counter the newly minted PS3 slim 120GB version that was announced the other day at Gamescom, but still, for $229 you’d be hard pressed to find a better deal on the 360 right now. My feeling is snag it while it’s cheap, it won’t be too long before all you’ll get in this price range is the hard-drive-less Arcade model at $199 (though if Microsoft is smart, they’ll drop that sucker to $149 post-haste!).
Now about that Wii price drop…
About Jason Ward
E3 2009-The Eye Candy
While our friends at Ugly Baby Studios were busy galavanting around the Los Angeles Convention Center playing video games for three days last week, they had the good courtesy to at least photograph the best eye candy. No, we’re not talking about the video games on PS3 and Xbox 360, the graphics on those are of a much less savory variety than what we’re about to show you.
No, my fellow Nerds, the nerdiest of nerdy stuff is here for you to behold: The Booth Babes of E3 2009, as photographed by Ugly Baby Studios developer Juliet Flores. Normally they’d post these on their own site, but their gallery is having technical difficulties. Your loss is our gain, bitches! I mean, uh, friends…
A sampling is smattered here, but let’s face it: the good stuff is on the gallery page!
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Microsoft announces “We just invented the FUTURE: Suck it!”
So, this was a couple of days ago now, but I’ve been so busy over at E3 and blogging at our sister publication All That Gaming Stuff, that I haven’t had time to drop a note about it here. Project Natal is, in a word, the single most advanced motion control system ever devised or introduced for a home game console (OK, so that’s not a word, it’s more of a…phrase-like construct…thingy). And yes, that includes Sony’s newly announced Wiimote Duo (and yes, you should check out the Demo, it’s actually very cool as an evolution of the Wiimote concept).
So what does this sucker do? Well for starters it detects your entire body and the motion of 48 of your joints. It also detects your face–and will automatically log you into your profile when it sees you. It can detect your voice–and distinguish it from those of your friends, your family and even the game or movie characters you’re watching or playing. It can rapidly scan real world objects and convert them to real-time objects in a game as you can see in both the above video and in Lionhead’s demonstration of its advanced AI character Milo. But the most impressive thing shown with regards to Natal so far is that it enables the game software to do something that no game software has ever done before–it can recognize your emotional states by reading your facial and vocal patterns. No other system on the market or announced for a home console has this capability, and what it can mean for games where characterization is of great significance (RPG lovers take note) is simply off the charts.
Sadly, Microsoft has yet to announce a release date for this impressive new device, but given that they’re now in a race against time to beat Sony’s new Wiimote to market, to say nothing of Nintendo’s Wii Motion Plus, which is already on the market, it’s likely that this device has already been placed onto a priority track in Redmond. I wouldn’t be surprised in the coming months to hear of a massive internal push by Microsoft to get developers up to speed with this technology, retrofit high profile existing games for which it will make sense, and get the device into the hands of consumers as soon as possible. If they’re smart, they’ll also bundle it with consoles moving forward to ensure a reasonable amount of developer support, but we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled.
What do you think of Natal? Next-Gen or gimmick (or both?) Let us know what you think in the comments!
About Jason Ward
FreeWare Review: Orb Media Server
Today’s nugget of tasty freeware is something for, perhaps, the slightly more advanced user. Now, for a site that’s all about Nerdy Stuff, that shouldn’t present a problem for anyone reading this. Even so, a fair word of warning is in order: this one will require a little patience.
Orb Networks. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe not, but what they do primarily is provide the free Orb Media Server software. Now, in theory this is an amazingly cool piece of software, but in practice it’s actually only pretty darn cool. Yes, cool has levels.
Anyway, the software. Orb is pretty slick; what it does is fairly simple in premise: install it on your PC, configure it to point to your folders full of music and video clips, and it will stream all that media to your mobile device, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, cell phone, iPhone or pretty much anything else with a web browser. In cases where the target device doesn’t support the media in its native format Orb will transcode it to something a little more universal, notably Flash FLV format (as you’d find on YouTube or similar sites).
About Jason Ward
UBISoft thinks new consoles in 2011ish–and they’re probably right
It probably seems like premature nerdjaculation to begin speculating about the Next Generation of gaming consoles at this point; PS3 and Wii have scarcely been on the market for 2 years and 360 has just broken 3. Even so, that hasn’t stopped a little speculation from happening, not the least of which has come from UBISoft’s Yves Guillimot who, quoted in an article on GamesIndustry.biz, has stated that his company is preparing for the next generation to arrive in the 2011-2012 time frame.
As you should expect, there are naysayers, and some of them have good reason say nay, but they’re still wrong. The logic goes like this: “Well Sony says PS3 will last 10 years!”. Yes, and they said that about PS2, and that appears likely to be the case–but that didn’t stop Sony from announcing PS3 just 5 years after PS2 launched, and launching just a year later (that’s 6 years, folks, and if you use both hands worth of fingers to count you’ll find that 2012 will be-you guessed it-6 years after the launch of PS3-and Wii for that matter). Moreover, Xbox 360 will be 6 years old in 2011. Simply put, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that the next gen will launch-or at worst case scenario, be announced-by 2011-12.
