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Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360

When our own Kyle Orland isn’t writing around this joint, he’s either doing something with NPR, scribbling about the media, or keeping up with his own website; where he tries to play a game every weekday during lunch and write about it. Today’s piece is a tragic one where he chronicles what happened minute by minute:

0:01 I put BioShock in my disc drive and turn the power on.
0:02 The TV is still black. I look down and notice three red lights surrounding the power button.
0:03 I desperately try to reset the system. No change.
0:04 - 1:00 Soft weeping.

Yes, our dear Kyle got the RRoD. We’ve actually had quite the little epidemic going on around staff lately of general Xbox 360 failures — three in two weeks. Our luck on Joystiq may be bad, but our sister-site Xbox 360 Fanboy (X3F) isn’t immune. They had two of their three writers have a system die on them (one of them twice). Just remember that you’re covered under warranty for the most part and to tell your system you love it every day, because it may be the last time you ever see it alive. Now, please pardon while we go get the lasagna out of the oven and sit shiva at Orland’s place for the afternoon.

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Originally by Alexander Sliwinski from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 9:44am

Filed under: Arcade, Retro, Microsoft Xbox 360, Online

Eager to ditch the office for the last rays of summer sun, Microsoft has let loose word of next week’s Xbox Live Arcade update a bit early. Ready for this…? A pair of Silver Age arcade ports:

• Cyberball 2072 (400 points): X3F calls it “football for nerds” where today’s deficiencies are replaced with robots and the pigskin explodes. 2072 is the 1989 update to the original Atari game and is better known as Tournament Cyberball, which still captivates competitive circles of, um, nerds.
• Fatal Fury Special (400 points): Fatal Fury 2 with bells and whistles, namely some old fighters and playable bosses. As Garou Densetsu Special, the game became a huge hit in Japan for successfully transplanting Ryo Sakazaki (from sister franchise Art of Fighting) as a hidden character, laying the seed for SNK’s The King of Fighters series. Nearly 15 years later, perhaps the innovation is lost on us.

And for those in search of an alternative to the weekend’s poolside barbecue, Microsoft has also announced a Labor Day XBLA sale, dropping Zuma and Small Arms from to 800 to 400 Microsoft Points, and Dig Dug and Gauntlet from 400 to 200 points. The sale begins at 5:00 PM PT on Saturday, Sept. 1st, and ends at 4:59 PM PT on Monday, Sept. 3rd. Nothing like half-priced underperformers, eh?

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Originally by James Ransom-Wiley from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 8:43am

Here’s an interesting looking pinball machine made from a huge flat screen… Here’s the artist’s description…

The “cyberspace” level represents the alleged dangers the Internet poses fo children, as envisioned by parents and scaremongering media. Here kids can lose control (as the player can, by getting the ball into a pachinko-like structure) while trying to reach the browser bar at the top of the playfield. Killer psychopaths or dungeon fodder, gambling.

¡Presa de la red! (”Prey of the Net!”) - [via] Link.

From the pages of MAKE:

MAKE 08 - A secret history of Myst, resurrecting a neglected pinball machine, making an asteroid mining colony on your kitchen table, creating robotic desk toys, building a rubber band ornithopter, making a toy gun controlled alarm clock, and a special primer on mold making by Mythbuster’s Adam Savage - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 30, 2007, 4:00pm

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, RPGs

The nebulous “November” release date for the highly-anticipated RPG Mass Effect is now primed for dimensional travel November 20. The preview videos have been yummy, the conversation system looks amazing, even our time with the game was nice — now if we could only get a straight answer on those weird frame-rate hiccups we keep seeing.

We hope that’ll all be cleaned up by November when we’ll be partaking in turkey and then sitting our tryptophan overdosed selves down for hours of Mass Effect. Who would watch football after dinner when there’s a galaxy to save?

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Originally by Alexander Sliwinski from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 5:40am

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Peripherals, Wireless

It seems like this one’s been building steam for quite some time, but it’s reached a point where “user error” just seems unlikely. Judging by the seemingly widespread outcry on a variety of forums and review sites, a substantial amount of Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows customers have essentially ended up with an unexpected paperweight. Put simply, it seems that a number of customers have found this very device to suck the life out of their USB ports, meaning that all other USB peripherals kick the bucket when this power-hungry gizmo gets plugged in. To make matters worse, these same users are also reporting that Microsoft’s tech support has been anything but helpful in solving the issue, and while you can always shell out even more dough for a powered USB hub, where’s the fun (or justice) in that? So, what’s the deal here, folks? Has anyone else been pulling their hair (and subsequently, their other USB devices) out over this thing?

[Thanks, Jamie P.]
Read - NewEgg reviews
Read - Amazon reviews
Read - NeoWin discussions
Read - Xbox.com discussions

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally by Darren Murph from Engadget on August 23, 2007, 11:25pm

Filed under: Portable, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

If you were into combing Xbox Live Arcade last fall, you probably remember Small Arms. For the uninitiated, the game could probably best be described as Super Smash Bros. crossed with … well, with no recognizable characters. If you’ve played the game, but thought it could be improved with the introduction of squinting and phone call interruptions, your prayers are about to be answered.

Reaxion Corp. has announced that they’ll be working with Gastronaut Studios to bring the diminutive brawler to phones in October of 2007. Listen, Gastronaut, we’ll be happy to download it, just, please, stop making their arms smaller! It’s like a Pikachu convention over there.

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Originally by Justin McElroy from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 5:10am

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

Video game fans and awkwardly-inserted references to animated comedy Family Guy go together like deaf guys and grease, so the announcement of the show’s arrival on the Video Marketplace seems like a natural fit. Before you start making plans to ditch your Sunday night watching ritual, you should know that you’ll only be able to get the first two seasons next week along with the feature length Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

But hey, if you’ve somehow missed seeing every episode of Family Guy 20 times between Fox reruns, Adult Swim and those DVDs your stoner friend Mike left at your house, you’ll be able to catch up on Sept. 2. Giggity giggity goo.

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Originally by Justin McElroy from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 3:40am

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Video

t: We think the upcoming Jackass game may be the most faithful adaptation from another medium, ever. Why? Well, the two work on the exact same level. Namely: It’s impossible to look away when someone is falling flat on their face. Yeah, we’ll say it: So far, these Jackass videos are the equivalent of watching a grown man poop his pants.

Check out that first video. Don’t you just love how digital Wee Man doesn’t move a freaking millimeter while he’s getting a tattoo from drunken digi-Steve-O? Watch the clip below the break of “Snow Job” (get it?!). Don’t you just love … everything? We want to stop posting these videos but we just can’t.

Continue reading Watch video of two new stunts from Jackass game

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Originally by Justin McElroy from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 4:10am

Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360

Following yesterday’s report by FiringSquad that EA appears to be out of E for All — essentially turning the event into Nintendo-Con ‘08 — the company behind the show went on the defense saying that EA would still be attending. Mary Dolaher, CEO of IDG World Expo, spoke to GameDaily BIZ saying, “They have booth space that they purchased in front of South Hall. They are in the show. We have the signed contract, they plan to be there and we’re working with them on their designs and what will be displayed and the products shown.” So, why did the press release stating their attendance and logos get pulled from the E for All site? Dolaher blames EA’s lawyers, saying that they were being picky on where the EA name and logo could be used, whether it’s a “billboard or a bus wrap or whatever the case may be.”

As for Microsoft and Sony being out of the show, Dolaher even says that isn’t so true. In a separate interview with Next-Gen she says, “Just because a company is not on our website [as an exhibitor] doesn’t mean that there may not be other ways that their products are represented beyond the traditional booth.” Microsoft is a sponsor of the World Series of Video Games being held there and they’re trying to get PSP and PS3 kiosks for the show from Sony. Activision will also have a Guitar Hero Gamers Stage despite not being an exhibitor. Well, it took long enough for IDG to start damage control on these developing E for All issues.

Read: E for All CEO confirms EA still attending
Read: IDG Talks Who’s In, Who’s Out

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Originally by Alexander Sliwinski from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 2:40am

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, First Person Shooters

Of the things you were wondering about today, the size of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s waistline was probably not high on your list. Now, imagine if you had to worry about getting killed by Metroids and piloting a starship. Pretty much falls off the list all together, doesn’t it?

But did that stop Iwata from calling and leaving that exact information on Samus’ answering machine? Of course it didn’t. According to Go Nintendo’s translation, he says “Hello, this is Iwata from Nintendo. You may not know from an outsiders point of view, but being a director is really hard! When things are really busy and stressful we (us directors) may look tired and sick, then people may feel sorry for us! But in my case, it’s the opposite, I get fatter and fatter, so then people don’t think I’m stressed at all!”

That’s great, boss. Can we get back to saving the world now?

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Originally by Justin McElroy from Joystiq on August 29, 2007, 4:00am