dpk’s weblog

Update: Xbox 360 Part 2, the finale, I hope (to summarize, I had to get a new one, and it’s working great)

I made the mistake of picking up an Xbox 360 console before Microsoft released an updated version. When it works it is very fun, but it’s working less and less reliably every day. A couple times a day, the console locks up (while playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted) or tells me my disc is dirty (Oblivion, and the disc is very clean). Right now, I can’t even get it to start any game — it either recognizes the games as if they were DVD movies, and throws up the White Screen of Death: “To play this disc, put it in an Xbox 360 console”, or recognizes the games as games, and then sits and spins with the fans running full bore, displaying nothing on screen.

The console is not in a “hot” area; there’s plenty of room for it to vent hot air (and does it ever). The problem doesn’t seem to be heat related, anyway, since it happens when the console is first booted after at least 16 hours downtime (work + sleep, heh). I am contacting Microsoft about this, but I suspect their solution will be to send out a “refurbished” console to replace mine, so I’ll get to play with a console someone else once considered broken.

At least the downloadable games work — the Xbox Live integration is sure nifty. The problem seems to be isolated to the DVD drive.

One of the most interesting things about playing CH on Xbox Live are the notices that such and such a person donated a massive amount of money to the country, and is awarded a medal for it. If by interesting I mean tedious and boring, anyway. Come on Sega. Heh.

Everyone seems to be talking about this “game” — “Brain Age” for the Nintendo DS. It’s interesting, I guess. It tests your brain age by doing a Stroop test (mine is 59), and then offers you a few other time tests, all of which you can get through in a handful of minutes. It loads up more tests as you go — I just got the game so I don’t know the pattern yet.

I’m having to re-learn how to write the number 8. It keeps reading it as a 6 or a 0, heh. My failure rate on a couple of the tests are higher than they ought to be because of my sloppy 8′s. In Sudoku, if you write the wrong number and quickly click “Zoom out” (“confirm” basically), it counts as an error, which means a 20 *minute* penalty. My usual Sudoku times are around 8-9mins (on easy-ish puzzles I’m sure), so that’s pretty significant.

Aside from my 8 issue, I think this is neat software. It’s nice in that you don’t have to dedicate any significant amount of time to it. You can even take breaks from it if you need to, although the shortness of the tests makes that less necessary, heh. Compare that to games like “New Super Mario Bros” where you can’t save until you beat certain levels or perform some one-time-only (per area, anyway) coin expenditures.

I went to EA’s site and found some information about a 90-day return policy for defective software. I decided to give it a shot, and sent the opened game and receipt, and included a letter asking them to refund the purchase price because the game’s listed requirements were incorrect.

Turns out the policy is only for games purchased directly from EA. However, they were still very helpful. They sent me back a sealed copy of the game, within Fry’s 15-day return period. I was able to return it to Fry’s without a problem. I originally purchased it on sale for $42.99 or so, and Fry’s re-labeled it at $49.

Everyone wins. I got my money back, the retailer is re-selling the game for more than they originally sold it for, and EA gets feedback about their requirement policies.

I just got Civilization 4 in the mail yesterday.
Amazon sure shipped it quick. I am thoroughly enjoying this game. It plays reasonably well on my laptop, and I haven’t run in to any bugs so far. It’s very similar to the past Civilization games, but now breaks up the monolithic “government” entity into multiple groups, including state religion, which makes for far more interesting development. I’m spreading Islam throughout Germany and Egypt, and I’m loving it!

If you liked the past Civ games, I strongly believe you’ll love Civ4. As far as I can tell, it only added to the fun, without taking anything away.

It was refreshing to be able to install a game, click “update”, and have it find no patches. It’s almost as though the game company tested the software before releasing it, to reduce the launch bugs. This seemingly novel concept, if spread throughout the industry, could lead to a Golden Age of gaming!

10/10. I think I’ll be playing this one for quite a long time.

Thompson attacks Penny Arcade; seeks arrests
Jack Thompson, if you’re not familiar with him, recently offered $10,000 to a charity if someone would produce a game where the main character specifically targeted to be killed, individuals at a large game company, along with many other acts involving his weapon of choice, a baseball bat. Then, when someone got close, he took it back, as it was not something he was actually going to do.

He’s now decided to ask the Seattle police department to arrest the PA authors for “harassment”. You can find a copy of the fax he sent at their website: www.penny-arcade.com (note the dash!)

Jack Thompson, according to the fax, apparently feels that the Penny Arcade folk, along with the industry as a whole, and the game players, want to stop him from speaking on an issue he’s passionate about — video game violence. Of course, that would be hypocritical of us (I’m one of the game players) since we’re arguing the developers should be allowed to make these games, as protected speech — the very same protection that leaves Jack Thompson free to discuss his opinons.

The harassment appears to be that the PA creators emailed him a couple times and created a “I Hate Jack Thompson” t-shirt. While I believe the t-shirt is in poor taste, I doubt it can be deemed harassment, as this man quite publicly has taken it upon himself to fight the industry with little but apparent hatred in his heart. No reason the industry can’t respond in kind, in my opinion.

Sure hope Seattle’s Police department sees the complaint for what it is — petty media whoring — and roundfiles it.

I’ve got 3 PC game mini-reviews here. Granted it ain’t much for each game, but it covers my basic impressions.

Guild Wars – 6/10 – Enjoyable to a point. Easy to find groups, but provides an entirely lonely world compared to EQ, UO, WoW, etc. Almost every zone is instanced for you (and your group, if applicable) instead of just certain zones. That means, unless you’re in a big guild, you’re going to have very few people to chat with while playing. You’ll also spend a lot of time running through the same zones you’ve already fought through, and most if not all creatures are kos (EQ term, kill on sight, means they’ll attack you when you’re in range). That’s actually really annoying, since they don’t provide you with any experience if they’re low enough level. PvP might be more fun in this game, but I haven’t tried that yet. Hey, it has no monthly fee, so I won’t be cancelling at least.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 – 8/10 – Quite fun. I enjoy building my own rollercoasters, and then “riding” them. The interface is a tad cumbersome — I wish it worked more like SimCity’s — but it works OK. There’s a ton of micromangement, though. Like, you place an ATM machine, and then you have to “turn it on” after placement. Heh. There is an inspector “NPC” walking around the park to tell you when things aren’t working out well, at least. You can play in sandbox mode to avoid all of this.

Black and White 2 – ??/10 – Very slow. Barely runs on my laptop, which is above the minimum specifications. 5, maybe 10 frames per second at the lowest settings. The forums are recommending that you wait until more patches come out. Of course, just like B&W 1, the first patch broke save games. Who knows if future patches will. Didn’t give a score because I can’t play it as it is. Wish I could return this, but it appears Fry’s policy forbids returns of opened software. Whoops. :(

I realize these games have been out for a while, except perhaps BW2. I’m not sure how worthwhile it is to write about older games. It certainly makes sense for MMOGs, and I’d like to see the real reviewers write “followups” 6 months later, or at least let us know if the game held their interest. Maybe the reviews of older offline games would be good for a used game site or something.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 Coming in Spring 2006

Here’s the most interesting thing about the PS3, IMO:

The PS3 is going to support the highest hi-def display resolution of 1080p, on up to two HD screens.

This ought to be great for racing games, as well as first person shooters, fighting games (a first person fighting game might be fun), and even platformers. One other category, one that is sorely underrepresented in the gaming world, would benefit even more: Co-op.

Project Eden (the only co-op console game I’ve played) is pretty fun when you have two or more people playing, but the screen gets so tiny it’s hard to read anything, even on a large TV. With 4 people, it’s no longer enjoyable. With two HD screens you could easily have 8 people playing that sort of game. You could easily make out the puzzle pieces and coordinate solutions to the various “mazes”.

Even if co-op games don’t get the development they deserve, I am really looking forward to the future of gaming hardware. It just keeps getting better!