thoughthead

A few days ago I had to renew my Xbox Live Gold Subscription. I honestly don’t play online very often. I’m really more of an off-line gamer but I keep the subscription around for the occasional game among friends, and more recently for when achievements call for it. I see a lot of people scoff at the subscription fee for Xbox Live; why pay when other platforms offer online gaming for free? If you had asked me if paying for an Xbox Live subscription was worth it about 2 years ago I would have responded with a resounding HELL NO! At this point however, if posed the same question I’d would assure you, it’s worth every last penny. (more…)

          

Why are you here?

There is no post this week, I’m too busy playing with all my new toys and enjoying my short vacation from work, you should do the same.

Don’t worry, they’ll be something new to read next week.

Until then… Happy Holidays!

          

The biggest question mark over the Nintendo Wii is whether the new Wii Remote controller will make or break the console. Motion control has been attempted in the past, in general though it has been a failing strategy. Before it’s launch many of the outspoken who follow the industry seemed to be split on the issue, some thinking the new controller will sling-shot Nintendo back to their former glory as king of the proverbial video game console hill, others speculating that the controller is but a mere gimmick and will end up Nintendo’s greatest downfall. With the console having been available for nearly a month certainly we now have a better idea about how this will all play out… right? (more…)

          

About every month or so there’s a news article about a console moder for hire somewhere in the world that wound up arrested. Late last week reports of a NJ moder getting arrested hit the web. This particular instance hit a little closer to home as many in the Xbox-Scene community knew him, either through “business” dealings, having played games with him on Xbox Live, or from having seen one of his many (non piracy related) console modifications hit various news outlets, which is probably how most people knew of him. Personally I didn’t know much about him. While we were both Xbox-Scene forum moderators I never really talked to him much, I’d seen some of his water cooled consoles, I’d only ever played online with him once or twice and only because we were both invited to a game by a mutual friend. (more…)

          

There is no arguing that the most popular debate in video gaming over the last five or so years has been Playstation vs Xbox: which one has better graphics, which one has better games, which one has the better controller, ad nauseum. As somewhat of an off-shot of that debate is the debate over “next-gen” disc formats, being HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray Disc. I use the term next-gen loosely because calling it that in any kind of seriousness would imply that storage mediums somehow evolve in easily packaged generations the same way video game consoles do. In-fact just using this term is the first sign that people are approaching this issue all wrong. (more…)