thoughthead

By request I’ve written an extended version my Xbox 360 and HDMI article. The article appears exclusively in the Editorial section of the Xbox-Scene forums.

The State of HD Gaming – Past Present and Future

          

One of the many things people complained about when the Xbox 360 was first released was the lack of an HDMI port. Many speculated that they could come out with an HDMI adapter down the road however that speculation has since been quashed. More recently we’ve seen report after report after report confirming that an HDMI capable Xbox 360 does exist and that it will arrive very very soon (update: it’s now official). What does this mean for gamers? What does this mean for people who’ve already bought an Xbox 360? Read on to be enlightened… (more…)

          

One of the best features of Xbox Live is the Live Arcade which allows you to download classic arcade games as well as new games in the classic arcade style. Many people don’t realize it but this was actually available on the Xbox 1, but it required you purchase a disc and there were only a very small handful of games (most of which which were either ported to or had a sequel on the Xbox 360 version of the arcade). The Xbox 360′s arcade offerings started fairly strong out of the gate but it has suffered a drought that it’s just now starting to overcome, unfortunately it comes at a time where they now have Nintendo and Sony to compete with in that regard as well. It leads one to wonder: what does the future hold for the Xbox Live Arcade? and do they have what it takes to put up a good show against the likes of Nintendo, Sony, or the countless Arcade style games on the PC? (more…)

          

Those that know me well know I’m a DDR fan. I was excited that a new DDR game was coming to the Xbox 360. Since the game came out last week I’ve played it nearly every day. One really really evil thing they’ve done though is they’ve made the unlockable songs only availble through quest mode (along with achievements for unlocking them). The other evil thing they did was offer no instruction what-so-ever for how to use quest mode, nothing in the game itself, nothing in the booklet. The mode isn’t exactly apparent either, it’s actually quite confusing even if you know how it works. Because of that I wrote a quest mode guide. I actually submitted this to both Xbox.com Achieve360points.com and GameFAQs.com but NONE of them accepted it, I really have no idea why, they all just ignored my submission. So I’m posting it here and hopefully it will come up in some searches. This isn’t something I plan on doing very often. (more…)

          

It seems like almost daily for short span of time last month there was a new Wii modchip announced. First the Wiinja, then the Cyclowiz, the WABCheap mod, the Wiikey, and the Chiip. in the course of 2 weeks we had 5 different chips announced (and undoubtedly more on the way), Some are even hitting their second version already; Cyclowiz V2 and the WiiFree (based on the WABCheap mod). So how good are these chips and what does it mean for the “Wii Scene”? (more…)