In a move that is sure to leave me scratching my head for days, Microsoft has partnered up the Xbox 360 gaming platform with Rock the Vote.

In a press release put out today, Microsoft revealed that as of today, users of Xbox Live will be able to take polls about the upcoming presidential election, participate in forums and… oh, how this scares me… register to vote.  Don’t get me wrong, I am all for people registering to vote, and I actually went and did it the day of my 18th birthday I was so anxious to have the right.  What scares me is, and I know I will catch flames for this, is the goofballs on Xbox Live messing this up.

I’ve written a couple times this year about the intellectual titans I run into playing some of the games online, and it worries me that some of these folks, for laughs, may try to register fake people or some other way gum up the works.  I have not looked at the process yet, but I am hopeful there are multiple safeguards in place.  I asked my mother for her feelings on this since she used to be the president of the local League of Women Voters chapter, responsible for many people being registered to vote, and her reply was simply, “this troubles me.”

Hopefully this will lead to legitimate sign-ups, and hopefully it will also lead to people actually going to the polls come election day, but it still makes me a bit nervous to see it done in this fashion.  Going to the gamers is a great idea, but why not set it up around the release of a major game?  Madden ‘09 just came out with a huge push for midnight releases, wouldn’t it have made sense to set up at some stores and do it there?  Yes, there is a certain convenience factor to doing it at home, but I worry about faked names, hacked accounts and any other number of potential problems.

In my heart, I hope it is successful because I think our freedom to vote is one of the greatest things in this country, it is just the method of registration that is worrisome to me.

Just the other day I spoke about how a social network, Faceparty, had decided it was best to delete people over 36-years-old because they may be sex offenders.  Well, this made me think of another situation I have been running into a lot more lately: ageism in video games.

I have spoken before about some of the… “stimulating”… conversations I have while playing games like Call of Duty 4 online, but now it is becoming a regular occurrence for me to be slammed on for being 36.  In the past it has been insults of everyone being “gay”, or “you suck” or just general stupidity, but as gamers are trending to be older (the average age of video game players is now 34), the teens are getting more insulting about people in my age range being “losers” for still playing video games.  As I so kindly tell them, if it wasn’t for people like me having played video games since they came around in the 1980’s, they wouldn’t have their games today, so… stuff it.  (I have no patience for these kids… I’m sure you all are shocked since I’m normally Mr. Cuddly)  This is usually all followed up with I have no life… I must be on welfare (… how did I afford the game…)… aendlessly with the same insults over-and-over.

I have to wonder where this animosity is coming from.  What possible difference does it make to some kid if I’m 16 or 36, so long as I’m doing my “job” in the game, what does it really matter?  It doesn’t, but I think it speaks to a common distrust of “older” people I see creeping back into the social consciousness.  Ever heard the saying from the 1960’s of “Don’t trust anyone over 30″?  Well, from what I see, it’s happening again, but this time I think it’s for very different reasons… just plain snottiness.

At least when this saying popped up originally, we were engaged in a highly questionable war, with a country still reeling from an assassination that no one understood.  True, we are engaged in another questionable war, but somehow, I don’t think these kids are even remotely aware of it.  These are “the mellinials” and their only concern is themselves.  You thought Generation X, my generation, was bad?  We have nothing on this group.

Honestly, their actual words don’t phase me in the least, but the general attitude is disturbing.  I’m not sure where it came from, what causes it or if there is even any way to stop it.  Hopefully it will disappear with time, and for now it is just generally annoying, lets just hope it doesn’t get any worse.

Somehow I doubt this will be the last time I touch on the “old people suck” attitude I’m encountering more and more.

Okay, no one pass out… I’m actually going to praise something.

Inifinity Ward, the makers of Call of Duty 4, released four new maps for the online version of the game on Friday.  After some errors with buying them (it was the fault of Xbox Live, not Infinity Ward), all was well and you could purchase the new release.  Now, in the past when I’ve bought maps for other games, you have to hope enough people buy them for them to show up in normal rotation.  Usually this leads to frustration, cursing and wondering why you bothered to buy the maps because not enough people got them for them to show up in the playlists.

Well, in a show of forward thinking, Infinity Ward set up special rooms just for people who bought the maps and, for this weekend only, are offering you double experience points for playing in them.  All I can say is kudos to them for thinking of this very situation and I can say I’ve already gotten my monies worth out of these new arenas.  And, bonus, the new maps are kick-ass.  I never thought I would say, “Wow, this map is TOO big!”, but the map named “Broadcast” really is!

Take note other game makers: this is how you handle an expansion release.

While playing Call of Duty 4 last night, I had a conversation that made me actually question humanity.

Sitting in the lobby, waiting for the next round to start, we got notified the next map we’d be playing on would be “Bloc” - a set of decaying apartment buildings in post-nuclear accident Chernobyl. This isn’t a huge fan-favorite map, but it did generate the following conversation.

Male player: Ugh, I hate this map! Everyone vote to veto it.

Me: I agree… although I was surprised the other night when I found the pool building! I never even knew it existed!

Male player: The what?

Me: It’s in the back corner, there’s a whole other building with a pool. I never knew it was there.

Female player: pfft It’s not a pool.

Me: Uh, yes it is.

Female player: There’s no water in it, so it’s not a pool.

Me: …

Male player: If it doesn’t have water in it, it’s not a pool?

Female player: Right.

At this point the game started, on a different map as we had vetoed “Bloc”. The girl was on the other team, but the other guy was on my team so we could talk to one another.

Me: Was she serious?

Male player: She sure sounded like it.

Me: What do you do when you call someone and want them to build you a pool, but it’s not a pool until it has water in it?

Male player: Hi! I’d like you to build me a large cement hole in the ground, shaped like a tub, and water proofed in case I want to put water in it someday.

Me: -gets shot by an opponent as I am choking from laughing so hard-

I played a couple of rounds with the girl, and considering her general attitude, yeah, she wasn’t joking, and she had many opinions on a great many subjects… all of them of equal intelligence.

Do you ever wish you could slap a sticker on some people’s foreheads that say “Do Not Breed”?

I can’t believe it, but I think I’ve been swayed from my love of playing nothing but Halo 3 on Xbox Live.

Triston McIntyre, of GAMER.BLORGE.com, told me while we were co-workers that I should give Call of Duty 4 a try. I mumbled and grumbled that I was fairly loyal to Halo, but since he was such an ardent supporter that I decided to trust him and give it a try.

Well, Halo 3 has not returned to my Xbox since.

This is strictly about the online portion of the game, as I found the COD4 off-line portion too short, just like I did with Halo 3.  I think game makers are starting to ignore the single players games a little much, and need to remember that not everyone gets online all the time.

That aside, I’m loving the online version of COD4 far more than Halo 3, like a lot more.  For those unfamiliar with either,both are First Person Shooters (FPS) where you are placed in to the role of someone fighting some form of enemies: in Halo it is either other soldiers or aliens, with COD4, it is alway some form of soldiers.  The perspective is always that of looking from behind the gun, or just slightly behind your character depending on the weapon you’re using.

So why is COD4 winning me over?  I feel like I’m accomplishing something as opposed to just going around shooting people.  Yes, they are both video games, but Halo 3 gives you medals and ranks that earn you nothing but shiny things to look at; COD4 unlocks more weapons, special weapons, and challenges as you increase in rank.  So while you’re going around fighting your enemies, you’re also thinking, “I need to get another headshot to finish off that Marksman achievement.”  It adds another layer of fun to the game and extra value.  What do you do when you max out your rank, and finish all the goals?  Well, when you hit rank 55, you get to start all over if you like, but with new rank badges that indicate this isn’t your first time through the game.

The biggest selling point to me, and one I can’t even begin to guess why it happens, is that there aren’t nearly as many idiot running around shouting how “gay” something is, or how wonderful it would be to be raped.  It’s not that this is some sort of intellectual game, but there certainly does seem to be a higher maturity level in the players and how they act inside the game.  My theory is it has to do with the game being far busier than Halo 3; you almost always have a vulnerable direction you could be shot from, or your thinking about finishing your challenges, you don’t even have time to talk, let alone be annoying.

Overall it is a far more satisfying experience in the multi-player game than Halo 3, and that is something I honestly never saw myself saying.  I have been a die-hard Halo fan for some time now, and now it just seems like a far less satisfying system.

So, if you’re looking for a game, RUDEBOY71 is my handle and you can join in a game and you can promptly kick my behind.

While playing a quick game of Halo 3 (you can see my lousy service record here) the other night before bed, I somehow ended up with seven teenagers on my team. Considering the hours I play, that was fairly odd, but no big deal. The problem was 2 of them were female, and that just made it that much more difficult to play.

See, when you stick 5 teenage boys in a “room” with 2 teenage girls, all that gets accomplished is flirting. And let me tell you, there was plenty of that! I tuned out listening to them when one boy kept insisting the girls prove they were really girls by sending him pictures of thmselves, which they refused to do. As the game progressed though, and we were getting our asses kicked, I finally started listening to them again and… they were discussing where they would like to be raped.

Yes… rape.

“I think I’d want to be raped in a hot tub!”

And I thought, “Okay, they just don’t know what the word means. It’s disgusting, but they don’t know what they’re discussing,” but then one of the two girls says, “I think I’d want to be raped in the bathroom… it’s already dirty.”

After I picked myself up off the floor, though my jaw was still down there, I couldn’t help but finally make some comments to them about it.

“DEAR GOD! Do you all know what you’re talking about?!? Rape is not something to be joked about! Wait until you get older and you’ve known people who have been raped and then see how funny you think it it is!”

To which one of the boys said, “… you’ve been raped? What was that like?”

Cue sound of me repeatedly slamming my head against my controller.

I think I have finally reached that point in my life where I have to wonder, “These kids today, what are they thinking?!?” Which, I guess officially makes me ‘old’, but I’m okay with that in this situation because I don’t think I would be mentally right to not wonder this time.

Hopefully none of these kids will ever suffer such a fate, but I certainly wish they get a clue about what it they’re saying, and soon.

I know I said just yesterday that I hadn’t had time to start playing Halo 3 yet, but I ecided shortly after I wrote that to give it a try.

And I’m done.

What the hell? I already played all the way through it. How is that even possible? I remember the first two games taking me days, but this one took maybe 8 - 10 hours. I think the answer is fairly simple: Bungie, the maker of the game, got scared.

Where Halo 2 had actual improvements over the original, this one could only really boast better graphics and lots of new superfluous crap.  And that’s exactly what it was, crap.

The game is awash in new weapons and vehicles, but the gameplay is just nothing new.  Some of the levels were repetitive of past levels (the big escape at the end… won’t say more so as not to spoil), and even inside this game it was repetitive!  Three levels that end in fights with Scarab tanks?  You had to be so unoriginal that you ripped off yourself… in the same game?  Wow.

While I loved the single player campaigns in the first two games, this one just felt like it was just phoned in.    I haven’t had time to play the multi-player portion yet, but my gut tells me not to get my hopes too high for it.

Someday I should really learn how to say “no”.

This seemed like such a simple idea when I started: Find some blogging work, earn a couple hundred bucks a month.  Well, it seemed like a good idea, but, apparently I’m good at it.

I got approached by a company to ghost write a corporate blog (hence why I can’t link it) from them following my work on the other blogs I was working on.  I had actually approached this company early on, but we hadn’t been able to find a fit for me.  They had a project come up I seemed suited to, so now I’m blogging there once a day now.  I have also been asked to be a guest blogger on another site about blogging and social media, and since they offered a link to this site (what a concept, actually getting to promote my own site!), I agreed to it.  They have no requirements as to frequency, so I can  just write for that one when it strikes my fancy.

I’ve finally gotten in to a groove with balancing my day job and my “night job”, as I call it, but finding time to do any side projects is at zero.  My plan to start a novel this year?  Totally shelved.  My nearly 3-year long fan fiction project is at a crawl.  I finally popped Halo 3 in my Xbox for the first time today, even though I’ve had it since release day.

So, yes, if I could ever learn the ability to say “no” to a project, it would be nice.  The drawback is, if you do say no, and you need them down the road, they’ll remember you said it.

Oh well… back to blogging.

I’ve always seemed to have very sudden revelations about various aspects of my life. I will be extremely into something for what seems like forever, and the next day, I could care less about it. Well, I had several of them this weekend.

I think I’m done with video games. The games are getting way too long, the systems too expensive, and I simply don’t have the time for them anymore. As much as I would love to play Halo 3, I am not buying an Xbox 360 just to do that. And the PS3? Forget about it. No way I’m dropping the necessary money for that monstrosity.

So all this gets me thinking and… I think I’m done with video games. I simply don’t have the time for them anymore. I’m going to keep most of what I have, sell off some excess, but I have more than enough games in my possession to keep me entertained for years. And heck, if you wait long enough, you can pick up old games on eBay for a couple bucks. Heck, I bought a Super Nintendo game cartridge a few months ago for $.99 (yes, I still have my SNES, and I still play it).

Then I started sorting through my DVDs… why do I have half of these? Like I ever have time to watch them! And if I want to see an episode of Family Guy or The Simpsons, all I have to do is turn on the TV, so… I listed all those on Amazon and sold them off and will be purging more of my DVD collection this week.

I think I’m just realizing I simply don’t have time for the 5,000 ways I have to entertain myself, and especially those that require no human interaction. I’ve made a lot of new friends over the past year, and it is far more interesting talking to them then hacking through a demon in a video game or watching Bart Simpson get in trouble… again.

Engadget is reporting that a new version of the XBox 360, codenamed ‘Zephyr’, is starting to appear in some pictures. Two big differences are an HDMI output, for high-def video, and possibly a 120gb hard drive. Rumor is this will sell for the price they are currently charging. Sounds good to me.

Then out come the idiots in the comments.

they better come out with a new hdmi adapter- i’m not buying a new xbox 360 with add on’s that should have already been there. this is BS, and what happens when you rush to market.
I am not happy.

they should run a discount where its only like $100 when you trade in your old xbox 360

Okay that is complete BULL_ _ _ _!!!!!!!! So what about us Bill…you know the 7 million folks who bought the first 360. You know the true fans and supporters of your console…You know the ones you told 1080p was irrelevant…Seeing as we can’t get HDMI into our boxes without it being taken apart do we all get new boxes for free? How about a free 120 gb hard drive? Somehow I doubt it.

I usually don’t mind product redesigns as long as the early adopters aren’t left out in the cold…right now I’m shivering! This is great for those who haven’t purchased a 360 yet but I think this will anger the current user base more than it excites them.

You know what folks? When the next year’s car models come out, do you scream foul? Do you talk about how they screwed you? Technology changes, get over it, grow up.

Here’s my (somewhat rhetorical) question…is this just because it’s a video game, or is this yet another example of how childish our country has become about the most trivial of matters?

Over on Amazon today they had 1,000 Xbox 360 Core Systems at an amazing price of $100, normally $299.99. You had to go to a certain page at 11:00 AM PST to login, answer a question, get the gift certificate for it. Well, big surprise, the site was overwhelmed and when I got in at 2 minutes after, the deal was sold out. I shrugged, said “Oh well” and went on with my day.

Well, just for grins, I went back later to see what people were saying on the message boards Amazon had set up. Best.Laughs.EVER! Some of the gems included:

“Link to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.”

“Amazon should drop the price of Xbox 360 due to screw up!”

“Amazon really should have limited these contests to accounts that have been active for over 6 months…”

“Do you think this was a scam?”

“Amazon unfair”

“F*CK AMAZON !!!!!!!!@!@!@!”

Pages and pages of this stuff…it’s HILARIOUS! Everyone knew there would only be 1,000 of the 360s, but yet, they seem to think because they didn’t get one, this was obviously a scam and Amazon should be reported to the Better Business Bureau (note to self:write entry someday about why that is a total waste of time as the BBB is a private organization with no real power) Thankfully this was done online! Can you imagine these same people let loose in the real world in a store? Why, people might get trampled, robbed, shot…oh wait…that was the PS3 launch this week. Silly me. Lots of people claiming they will never shop Amazon again, but yeah, I’m so sure they will live up to that.

By the way…Happy Thanksgiving everyone…doesn’t this sort of mentality from your fellow man just put you in a holiday spirit?

You know I sure was more excited about all the new video game systems like a year ago? So why not now? General lack of funds for all the new systems…over-pricing of systems (sorry, but $600 for a PS3, if I’m lucky, is just flippin’ insane)…too many games for the older systems I still haven’t finished…and any number of small technical aspects that just annoy me.

When I unpack a PS3, why should I have to immediately install an update? Why at launch time is it not fully backward compatiable, and is actually failing on some of the PS2’s most famous titles?

Is it just Sony annoying me? Nope! Nintendo decided it was a good idea before the Wii even launched to tell everyone “Oh hey, there will be an upgraded model next year with DVD playback capabilities, but please go ahead and buy this one because we all know you are silly little fanboys!” Never mind you have to put a stupid sensor in front of your TV, beyond the game system, to make the bizarre Wiimote work. (the device in front of the TV is circled in red below)

Then comes the question of the Xbox 360…a year old and no price drop? Thanks Microsoft!

About 2 weeks ago I did some Super Nintendo shopping on eBay for grins…I spent $.49 on an Animaniacs game and $9.99 on an unopened copy of Super Return of the Jedi. Think I will stick with the systems I have for now, thanks!

E3, The Electronic Entertainment Expo, is going on in Los Angeles right now. As was expected, the video game console war is stepping up with Sony announcing the pricing of the Playstation 3, Microsoft announcing add-ons to the XBox 360 and Nintendo changing the Revolution in to the Wii.

First up, XBox 360 is adding an external HD-DVD player priced at around $100. If you already have a 360, this is a steal. An HD-DVD player is going to set you back around $800 if you buy a stand alone unit.

They are also making some big changes to XBox Live. Once Windows Vista is released (whenever that will be) they will launch “Live Anywhere and you will be able to play games cross platform, and also see where your friends are. They will also cross over to cell phones, but how that’s going to work, I have NO clue.

Halo 3 has a trailer being shown, but it’s not due until 2007.

Nintendo has changed the name of the Revolution to the Wii…why, I have no idea. They say they want a name that can be used in any language, but still…uck. They are keeping the motion control controller, but it has been modified since last year.

Still not sure how much I like this thing. Your not going to want to play any game for too long because your arms will wear out.

Wii Connect 24 interests me though. The Wii (UGH!) will be connected to the internet all the time, but when you put the system on stand-by, Wii Connect will check with Nintendo to see if any of your games need updating. The next day when you turn on your system, you may discover new levels, weapons, vehicles and so on for games you own. I like this idea.

And Sony…oh Sony. They’ve announced early November for the world wide release of the PS3.

The system will either $500 for the base system, or $600 for the loaded system. Now, with either one you get the Blu-Ray player (a bargain at either price), but if you want WiFi and high-def video output, you will have to go for the $600 model. You will also get a larger hard drive, but who knows if that will be important yet or not.

Do note though, last years stupid controller is GONE! *does a happy dance*. The new controller will be wireless and will feature some motion control, but will not rely on it like Wii’s does.

So, what to do? Well, it would seem you will need to be saving up tons of pay checks to pay for any of these systems. I’m sorry, but I will not be shelling out $500 - $600 this November for a game system. I’m not even sure I’m that in to gaming anymore to be honest. I haven’t had time play a game in months, and frankly, I’m not missing them much. I have so many other things going on, I just don’t see the point. Even if I do feel like playing, I have tons of games built up over the years to entertain me. I am just not sure what these companies are thinking by pricing the systems at these prices.

All info thanks to Engadget.com

I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth bringing up again…why are online gamers, for the most part, jerks? It’s a game, it’s meant to be fun, it is not a life or death situation.

The occurances of idiots on Halo 2 seems to be getting worse and worse, especially since the recent rank resets. The new tendancy, since everyone is working on new ranks anyway, if you don’t like the map you are on, or the gametype on the map, to just leave the game, deserting your team and possibly leaving them vastly outnumbered.

Last night I ended up in a game of Assault on Headlong in Halo 2 where my team ended up being outnumbered 8-to-3. Ok, fine, Blue team was going to win, but they couldn’t be sporting about it. No, they had to come racing over and started spawn camping us. To me, this is just poor sportsmanship. You know your going to win, just let the players at least try. There is no reason to just constantly pound on them.

Of course, I’m not to happy with the team members who quit either. To me, joining a game is like a social contract. You are agreeing to play this game with this group of people. Leaving by choice is just bad manners in my opinion.

You know, as much as I complain about online gaming, it is amazing I still enjoy it.

Well, someone has snapped a photo of an Xbox next to an Xbox 360.

On the right is the Xbox, on the left the 360. Well…not much smaller is it? And since the hard drive for the newer one attaches to what would be the top of it in this picture, it will be the same size.

So some of you are probably thinking “So? You won’t have the first one to deal with anymore.” WRONG! It seems the 360 is only backwards compatiable with SOME of the games from the Xbox. So to be able to play your entire collection of games, you will still need to keep the first system around. Oh joy. More space taken up!

E3 is rocking the video game world this week with announcment galore! The console wars are back, and badder than ever.

Microsoft - Nothing new here, we already know all about the Xbox 360, so you may move along. The only update being that it is backwards compatiable to Xbox 1. Thank goodness. Expected release by end of 2005.

Nintendo - The Revolution is here, and boy is the name appropiate. While the Playstation 2 was the first backwards compatiable system, the Revolution is moving the bar higher. Using emulation and downloadable content, you will be able to download 20 years of Nintendo games and play them all from the Revolution. The NES, the SNES, the N64 and the system will accept Gamecube discs. Wireless controllers and Wifi enabled. Yowza! Expected release sometime in 2006.

Sony - The mama of all the systems, the Playstation 3 was unveiled. Wireless controllers (but boy is that controller ugly), Wifi eneabled, backwards compatiable with Playstation and Playstation 2. 256MB system RAM 3.2GHz, and 256MB GDDR VRAM at 700MHz, 6 USB ports and a 3.2 GHz Cell Processor rated 2.18 teraflops. (non-geek speek “Holy damn!”) Expected release in early 2006.

So, yay, lots and lots of gaming goodness, but now, reality begins to set in. How much are these suckers going to run? The only rumored price so far is around $465 for the PS3. Um…I’m sorry, but I do not need to take out small home loans to buy my gaming systems. While all these new features are wonderful, I do not plan on shelling out that much money on systems. That is just insane. What mother is going to tell little Johhny “Oh of course you can have the new Playstation, we don’t need groceries this week!” That is just insane.

So while I am excited, I am also way cautious of what all these new sytems are going to cost.

The lid is off, the details are out, and the Xbox 360 appears to rock my socks….with one exception. …still no word if it is backward compatiable! What the…?! Oh well, let’s look at some of the spiffy features:

Memory:512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM

This is going to make a HUGE difference in load times and size of levels. I am blown away by this amount of RAM in a game system.

Storage:
Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
12x dual-layer DVD-ROM
Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB

Well it would appear they are thinking ahead. The hard drive being swappable is great, and the memory units START at 64 MB. Nifty, so obviouslly they have thought ahead to games requiring larger save spaces. Nice to see them thinking ahead.

Input/Output:
Support for up to four wireless game controllers
Three USB 2.0 ports

Wireless controllers out of the box, faboo! Thats the way to go! I am tired of these wires running everywhere. Three USB ports though has me wondering what they have planned.

Online (broadband only):
Xbox Live out of the box
Built-in Ethernet port
Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g

Nice! You can use ethernet wire or wifi right out of the box. .11a support though? Wonder why they bothered with that. Nice to have options though.

Lots more interesting features, make sure to click on the links above!

Here it is boys and girls….the Xbox 360 (or Xbox 2 if you prefer)

It sure as heck is a lot nicer looking than the old Xbox

The 360 didn’t have to do much to be more attractive, that’s for sure. All the stats aren’t out yet, but first thing I notice on the 360…where are the controller ports? The rumors have been circulating like crazy that it would have wireless controllers from day one. Wow if true.
I am sick and tired of fighting with all the cords for my different controllers. Now one has to wonder though, will they be battery operated or rechargable? Either way, can’t wait for this one.

And at E3, Sony is supposed to unveil the Playstation 3, but looks like no joy on the Nintendo Revolution for awhile yet.

All X-Box owners need to read this immediately! Go to Xbox.com, select your country and look for the large recall notice