More Video Blogs to Come

I'm about to start posting more video blogs soon on my Gamespot page. Just struggling to come up with material to blog about. My first three blogs were somewhat satisfactory but now I'm just at a loss as to what to chat on about. Maybe I'll take a camera down to a pinball arcade and do an article on the death of arcades. Any ideas folks?

 

...and no... not an article on arcades in strip joints!

Crickeys! Tilt! Crocodile Hunter Pinball Machine!

I'm itching to buy a pinball machine. So while scrounging around the net I saw this little baby! Seems as though the Crocodile Hunter Pinball machine will be out soon. Shame no one carrys pinny machines anymore. I'd really want a crack at this table!

Click Here --> Steve Irwin Pinball Machine

Pinball FX (360) - Review

Photo grabbed from http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhoran/291278554/ 

 

"Pinball FX fills the gap currently in the 360 lineup with a good solid graphics engine. Live Cam support is a plus!"

 

Well this was a surprise. I dove into the Xbox Live menu and with no previous announcements the word Pinball lit up. Well I just had to give that a try. With a couple of plays I was hooked and just new I had to part with the hard earnt (800pts) to get this!

First off the presentation to the game is pretty standard stuff with all the Arcade releases so far. You get the choice of three tables:

SPEED MACHINE: A full auto themed table with ramps being the main feature. A fast paced table with in game missions such as dB challenge (you have to crank your sub woofers) and Tune Up. The most popular table of the three on offer. You'll spend most of your time here!

EXTREME: I'm a little lost on the exact theme but it seems to be mostly eXtreme sports. The most disappointing of the three tables. The layout is too cramped with it's split level design restricting the action to two half layouts. The music is a real lamo Prodigy wannabe. Not much fun here.

AGENTS: 007 rip off with a perhaps more modern edge feel to it then James himself. But the famous licenced to kill agent need not worry. This is a mediocre table with loads of wide open space allowing a fast paced game. Features some great flash light effects that add to that "I'm playing this at the milkbar" atmosphere!

A couple of interesting non traditional features are included with Pinball FX. Firstly there's the interaction of the Live Cam. Not only do you get to see other players on their cam's in the Multiplayer option (I'll touch on that in a moment) but you can choose to play the game with the camera in a Eye Toy style game of pinball. To be honest I failed to get any real joy out of that style of play as the nature of pinball is sharp reflex reactions to be in the game. The camera (despite much fine tuning with the in game options) failed to deliver. Although there were some scores online that made me wonder just how the heck they managed!

The main pulling feature I've found lies in the multiplayer online play. Here you can either set up a game or join a lobby. The main aim of multiplayer is a "first across the line" style of game where you pick a finish line score and a penalty (either 0%, 10%, 25%, 50% or Take Everything) for a loss of ball. This is where Pinball FX shows it's reason to download. You get to see the players up top with the camera feeds displayed and a line marking out live score progress. It's great to see the opponents marker slide down after a lost ball. But if they trigger off a special feature of the game then it could be Game Over real quick!

A couple things I didn't like were some of the table designs are a bit wonky. One of the ramps in Speed Machine tend to just chuck the ball down the side chute every time. Hardly the reward you'd want to get for making the ramp! Also the multplayer would need a better ranking system.

But for a measly 800pts this is one download that is worth the effort. The overall feel of the game just works. The rumble motions mimic the actions of a real table. A big plus here is the promise of new tables to come. Here's to hoping for a Halo themed table! Give Pinball FX a try!

Lots of Xbox Stuff Coming Soon

I'm very pleased to see MS and Bungie announcing all this stuff over the last week or so. This makes me one very happy game head. For a while there I figured maybe this whole PS3 thing would take over the spot light too much and us Xbox 360 owners were forgotten about. But some real promising announcements have been revealed this week:

 

Xbox Live will now join the Windows Live network.

This means you could be playing a game or watching a DVD and all your Messenger buddies can now see what game your playing and send you a message. If you don't want to be disturbed (as the most common reaction to this has been "I don't wan't people nagging me while I'm watching a movie") you will be able to switch it off or there maybe a DND mode.

A new Joypad keyboard coming soon

The photo's of this puppy make it look like one really smick peice of hardware. It sits neatly in the under part of your controller and is so slick looking it'll have even Apple thinking "that's neat". I also just found out that any USB keyboard works in the 360. Something I previously didn't know. So where's the X360 browser Bill? I'll be picking one of these babies up.

Halo 2 Maps Launched Next Week

Some re-worked Halo 1 maps to be launched via the Extra Contents menu screen (not the Xbox Marketplace) for about the price of a coffee (to quote a stupid TV commercial shown here in Sydney).  My only gripe is that they didn't release the original Ice map. That map went off and is sorely missed. In fact why not just re-work all the original maps? Shame.

Regardless... I'll be downloading this down ASAP and so will my online Xbox mates.

Halo 3 Beta

In May the Beta is sent WIDE OPEN. But for a LIMITED TIME ONLY. So as soon as this is made available you should hop onto it as it's gonna be closed in June sometime and you'll have to wait for the finished product to play anymore. The Halo 3 preview video released this week looks wicked and has us all pumped up waiting to frag once again.

Dashboard Update

Next month also sees a big reworking of the dashboard. Well... little things but nice touches. Such as seeing what game is sitting in your CD tray without having to play it. Seeing how many Achievement Points you just earnt without needing to pause the game and a re-working of the Market Place. It will have it's own blade now. Sweet.

So that's about it. I'll be fanging out for H3 but till then... I've gotta drag out and play all these games I already own. Oh... and that's in between study time and everything else. Sheesh. Wish I was a kid again!

 

I Finally Scored a Threesome...

OK. So I'm only joking. But you know it's every guy's dream but being married means shelving the possibility! LOL But I can still pretend! Plus I've got the graphic to prove it! This 360 Achievement graphic can also be yours if you head on over to:

http://achievements.schrankmonster.de/

Have fun with it!

Talking about 1000 Xbox 360 Achievement Points in 6 hours

Those of you out there who are fortunate to own an Xbox 360 might wanna check this link out. If you're an Achievement hunter like me... you'll be wanting to know how to grab a quick, easy 1000 pts in a 4 hour sitting. Curious? You should be! 

Quote

1000 Xbox 360 Achievement Points in 6 hours

Did I Mention I Like Halo... a-bloody-lot!

At the risk of hearing a collective groan from readers thinking "oh no not another Halo fan boy" I have to state that besides Street Fighter 2 and... maybe Doom I can't think of a game that captivated folks in a genre previously looked over. Halo 1 first captured me in it's detail. First game I played to fully utilise the 5.1 surround system I invested so much time and money into at the time. So diverse in weapons and vehicles that mismatches were not usually a problem. It was the game that encouraged most of my mates to get an Xbox so we could indulge in LAN parties for the first time. But the real clincher was to come in the form of it's sequel. The solo story is pretty lame. To date I am embarrassed to say I am yet to finish it! This is because my same said mates have all now gotten hooked on Xbox Live! I'm talking about guys who use to write video gaming off as nerdy. These same guys are now pre-occupied with headsets and flaming each other verbally in real time online. One guy even got an internet connection JUST for the Xbox (still is yet to invest in a PC!).

It's not to say that Bungie haven't got faults with the games. Heck there's a ton of stuff wrong with Halo 1 & 2. It's just that the games in their current form are so damn painfully fun to play that you just are forced to forgive Bungie on the lame complaints we have on the titles!

Can't wait for H3 and hope that:

a) The achievements are decent enough to not simply walk through

b) That the Live Camera is used to wreak havoc in the after game wrap ups!