Zune Social and The Stupidest List Ever

I've been trying to figure out why my Zune card isn't showing all the music I've been listening to on my Zune, and I think I've found the answer.

"Songs will then appear in your recently played list if they meet the following criteria:

• The song was played on your Zune device or from your collection within the Zune software
• The song is from an album listed in the All Media Guide (AMG). Visit www.allmusic.com and ensure that the song is listed in AMG.

The following actions will not result in a song play being uploaded to your recently played list:

• The song was streamed directly from the Zune Marketplace without first being downloaded to your collection
• The song was a clip played either from the Zune Marketplace or Zune.net
• The song is from an album that is not listed in the All Media Guide

Playing most songs within your collection will result in a play being uploaded to your recently played list, but there will be some songs that do not. We have worked hard to extend coverage beyond what is currently available in the Zune Marketplace and are committed to expanding the coverage further in the future."

Apparently, it won't appear on your list unless the meta data matches an entry in the All Media Guide. I really have to question the wisdom in this decision. Last.fm doesn't have any kind of restriction like this, and it works great. I was really hoping for more from the Social.

Also, this means that the podcasts you listen to don't show up at all. Wouldn't you want the shows you listen to on your card so that others can subscribe? Makes sense to me, but then again my name isn't J Allard.

Speaking of Microsoft, they posted a list of the 406 reasons to love the Xbox 360. At first glance, you'll notice it's filled with games. Upon closer inspection, you'll see it has multiple entries, pointless tech specs, and omissions galore.

Granted, there are several community sites listed, including 360style.net (thanks to those of you who pointed that out), but sites like Podtacular and XBL Radio are conspicuously absent. Meanwhile, the list is filled with launch titles and Tom Clancy games.

Honestly, some of the items on the list make sense. They are legitimate reasons to love the console. But, since when is Sonic The Hedgehog a reason to love the 360? Or Fusion Frenzy 2? And is anybody really giving thanks for Cars here at the 2 year anniversary?

I don't know who came up with this list, but it's really obvious that they put absolutely zero effort into it. Also, putting it in alphabetical order is just lazy. Put it in order of importance and then we'll talk. At least that will show somebody other than an intern looked at it before it was posted.

By the way, the Burnout Paradise boxart was released today and it's gorgeous!

Halo 3 Is Hard!

KBB7769 and I played some team doubles again tonight and had our asses handed to us in each match we played. Granted, we should probably choose social games if we just want to have fun, but still.

When we get matched up with a team with matching symbols, we know we're going to get owned. And it's not like we don't have good teamwork. It's just they seem to be able to kill us with so much more efficiency.

And then the trashtalk afterward is always just the most vile thing you can think to say to another human being. It's always about their mother or their asshole or something violating their mother's asshole. And that's just what I say!

Bungie did announce that there will be 3 new maps available in December for the price of 800 Microsoft points. Now considering I paid 800 points for the Gears of War maps and only played them once, I'm probably going to buy these. That being said, it seems like their pulling an EA here. The maps weren't ready for the launch? Even if they were going to be a little late, why are we being charged? And where are the remakes of the classics?

I'm just not a fan of paying for stuff that should have been on the disc. But, I am guilty of paying for said items in the past, so am I not part of the problem?

GeminiAce.com!

Tonight I finally pulled the trigger on getting my own domain name. I've been thinking about it forever, but never got around to it. I love google and their $10 domain name service! Now if I just knew how to make graphics and stuff, I would really be cooking. I hate using the blogger template.

I'm currently playing Viva Pinata Party Animals. Got it from Gamefly and it's pretty fun. The achievements fall from the sky like candy in this game. The music is annoying as hell, but once you plug in your Zune and turn on some Sick Puppies, it's all good.

Speaking of my Zune, I really don't know what's going on with the Zune cards. I've listened to a shit load of music on my Zune, but when I plug it in and sync, it doesn't show on my card. I even played some Blue October through the Zune player on my (temporary) desktop and it didn't even show up. But, the Incubus I listened to on the first say is still on my card. WTF?! I guess I'm just spoiled by XBox Live and the instant-ness of it all (except in Halo 3 with the screenshots).

By the way, if anybody wants to help me change the look of my blog and make it more personalized, I would really appreciate it.

Carcass Own!

I downloaded Carcassonne for free the other day. I played the bejesus out of it last night. I think I have it all figured out. It's really good and I'm honestly shocked. The music is really bad, tho.

After that, me and KBB7769 played some team doubles last night. We did some major pwning. Noice!

Alana and I will probably be recording episode 49 of ACFriends today. I would really like to make a best of episode for episode 50, but that's a whole lot of work. Oh well.

Zune Card

The new Zune software released yesterday. I downloaded it and updated my firmware. I like the new Zune cards. I think this will replace last.fm for me. Unless they create a plug in so I can do both.

http://social.zune.net/member/Gemini+Ace

I'm still waiting to see if a mygamercard.net-type service is launched so I can put my Zune card anywhere. As it stands right now, I don't see a way to embed it anywhere. Hopefully soon.

MGC.net

I noticed today that MyGamerCard.net has added some new themes. I like new themes for my gamercard!

Skate Tricks Into a Car

DiRT

I got DiRT from Gamefly this week. This game is awesome! I think this is going to be my racing fix for a while. Especially considering I went ahead and bought it from GF for $25. I wasn't too thrilled with the direction the Need for Speed franchise is going anyway.

Bioshock, Halo 3, and skate.

I got a couple achievements in Bioshock tonight. I restarted the game at the medium difficulty level. I made some progress, although I didn't have much more fun doing it. The game really feels like a chore to play. I'm not sure I will continue on much farther, especially considering I am trying to play skate.

I actually did harvest a couple of little sisters tonight and kill a big daddy. The first one was pretty creepy. They say you get more adam by harvesting, but I didn't notice anything. I want eve, not adam. I notice more and more things about the game that just don't make sense to me. It better not get Game of the Year.

What sucks is that my gamerscore is 12999. Couldn't quite get over that 13k hump, now could I? This is all Luxor's fault!

Speaking of skate, I really like it so far. It's such a refreshing change from the Tony Hawk games. I really feel like my skill (or lack thereof) is what is driving the game forward. The challenges are hard, but not too hard. I really feel a sense of accomplishment when I finally complete a challenge.

Anyway, I played some Halo 3 tonight. It's been like 2 weeks since I last played. I noticed that a bunch of my screenshots finally showed up on my service record. Not all of them, but some of them. Hopefully Bungie is listening to the problems people are having.

Blue October FTW!

The Blue October concert last night was awesome! Unfortunately, the other bands in the line up were not equally as awesome and I will tell you why.

First, I'm pissed because The Edge came in and messed up what was supposed to be a Blue October show and turned it into the "Hulabaloo". When we bought our tickets, the only bands on the bill were Shiny Toy Guns, Yellowcard, and Blue October. Well, in the Edge's great wisdom, they decided that there needed to be 3 more bands on the bill and that the whole thing needed to start at 5 o'clock. Who can get there at 5 on a Friday?!

Granted, the bands they added weren't all bad. I like the Sick Puppies and Evans Blue. I haven't heard of Love Drug and I'm guessing there's a reason for that. Anyway, we got there as soon as we could, but still didn't get to see the Sick Puppies. Thanks, KDGE! Way to put a band on at fucking 6:45!

The first band we did get to see was Evans Blue. Now, I like their first CD a lot, but I haven't been able to listen to the new one much. Having said that, their set sucked. Either the sound was messed up or something, but it just didn't sound good at all.

Then Yellowcard came on. The whole time I'm thinking "when did turning up the volume for the sake of volume equal rocking?" I felt kinda old during their set because I stayed seated while a bunch of the people around us stood up. Anyway, if you've ever heard Yellowcard on the radio, you know they're not a metal band, but they tried to play like they were. Even the guy with the violin was running around like he was playing speed metal. Kids these days!

Then, out came Blue October. I'm guessing all the equipment was mainly set up for their stuff, because they sounded amazing. We screamed along to each song and loved every minute of it. And, they played Somebody, which is my favorite Blue October song and one of my favorite songs EVAR. Fucking rocked my face off!

Time

I'm at the end of my 53 hour work week. This doesn't mean that I will not be working this weekend, but it just means I have been working my arse off this week.

We are going to see Blue October tonight at Nokia. It's going to be pretty awesome. Sick Puppies and Evan's Blue should also be good.

I heard a really awesome song on the latest Gamers With Jobs conference call. It's called Re: Your Brains. I bought it from the site. Best dollar I ever spent!

NFS ProStreet Video

As promised, I played the ProStreet demo and recorded it. I'm not too impressed by this NFS entry. I'll rent it before I drop the cash on it.

Super Mega Blog Post Go!

Tuesday we took the girls to PetSmart to get their pictures taken for Halloween...or should I say Howl-o-ween. They were good and posed like little ladies are supposed to.



I haven't had time to post much lately because of work. Hell, I haven't had time to do much anything except work. They've given us a blank check on overtime, so I'm doing 50+ hours a week to try to keep up with the workload. It's pretty ridiculous, but if they would rather throw all this money at me instead of hire someone to help, more power to them.

Ethan's birthday was Monday as you can see from my previous post. He would be 2 years old. It's amazing and depressing to think that it has already been 2 years. The time really flies by and I miss him so much.

My Gamebridge is working like a dream. I can't believe it's so easy to use. I posted some new videos on my YouTube channel tonight. I want to download the new Need For Speed ProStreet demo and take some video of that. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, enjoy the Rocket Beats Sword video posted below.

Happy Birthday, Ethan

Today is Ethan's 2nd birthday. We put balloons out and bought him a Spider-Man Mr. Potato head.

Punched!

Andy Samberg is the man!

Saved Films

I bought an Adaptec Gamebridge off of eBay the other day and got it in the mail today. I tried it out and it's pretty awesome. I uploaded several of my saved films to my youtube account. Below is my favorite.

Achievement Boosting

I got into a Lone Wolves game tonight. Before the match, we all decided to meet in the middle of Snowbound to get the overkill achievement. Well, me being the smart guy that I am, I grabbed the spartan laser and brought it to the party. So, we all ended up getting the Overkill, Triple Kill, Two for One and Maybe Next Time Buddy achievements!

The screenshot I took of the Two for one is below. I really like it, even though it's the product of boosting. Like I would ever get that achievement any other way. Friggin' stupid.

Project Gemini

I've been kicking around the idea of starting up my own solo podcast lately. I'm not sure I have the time or motivation to start a weekly show. Gaming is my hobby and that's how I would like to keep it. Of course, I will continue to do ACFriends, so that should scratch my itch.

Anyway, I'm not sure what else is going on. Just playin' teh haloz.

My Elite

I am a bad ass!

Halo 3

We just finished the campaign on legendary today and...well...I'm not sure what to think. I enjoyed the campaign, although there are sections that I really have no desire to play through again, even though there are achievements associated with doing so.

In a lot of ways it felt like playing through the original Halo C.E., except not as original or fresh. I understand making references to the previous games in the dialog, but the missions were just like the first game. Get in and grab something. Oh shit, the place is gonna blow! Get in, turn that off. Oh shit, run like hell! Get in and kill so and so. Oh shit, the flood is on our asses! Get out! Oh, and these guys are on our side now. No wait, no they're not! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

And is there any other way to blow something up than to make a ship reactor explode? Anybody ever hear of a bomb with a remote detonator?

I don't mean to hate on the game. It's a great game. I put it up as the second best in the series, with Halo 2 being on the bottom. I guess I have a more critical eye on it since it's THE game for the Xbox 360.

I'm also not a big fan of the interface. It's not very intuitive at all. Finding a certain menu item is like looking for Waldo half the time. I'm still not sure if you can play 4-player local co-op. The game says you can, but when we tried it it didn't let us.

The saved film feature is cool, until you realize that you can't take screenshots or videos while in game. You have to finish what you're doing, go into the theater, then watch your film. And if the really cool thing you did is at the end of an hour of footage, you are stuck "fast forwarding" to it. And it's not that fast. How about a feature that at least lets you put a marker where the cool shit is that you just did. I threw an awesome grenade into one of those floating sniper tower things, but I'll never be able to find it. I think I'll utilize the screenshot function more than the movie making.

I do love the way you can customize your character. And the achievements look pretty easy. Of course, we'll have to do another play through to find all the skulls and then again to play the meta game.

Meh.

Vacation: Day One

I'm on vacation this week. I'm sure you can guess why. Halo 3 is coming out tomorrow. I'll be waiting till Wednesday to get my copy in the mail. Liongames.com is sending it out today, so I should have it by then. Once I have it in hand, Alana and I will be tackling the campaign in co-op mode. It's gonna be teh awesome!

As for today, I had to do some work (yes, work) since they asked me to do 2 hours a day even on my vacation. I'll have to remember to thank them for that gift whenever I quit. After that I played a bunch of the Fantastic Four game, Rise of the Silver Surfer. It's just a smidgen above suck, which would probably equate to about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I really should start my own grading scale. Suck would be 5 and anything above or below that would be above or below suck. I think I may be on to something here.

Anyway, the Halo 3 frenzy is being whipped into a...well...frenzy. The big party is going on in Seattle. Some of my friends (and an enemy) are attending. It's all getting to be a bit much. I'm as excited about the game as anyone, but I don't know how many podcasts and websites can say the same thing. It's an incredible game. Duh!

I actually turned to the Sony Defense Force site just for a change of pace. Whoever runs that site is an absolute genius. If it's real it's fascinating, and if it's fake it's brilliant.

I've also been entering every day to try to win The Ultimate Halo 3 Setup from X3F. I'm sure I won't win, but dammit I'm trying. It would be nice to win something bad ass like that. And shoving it in the losers faces would be even better! lol!

The King of Kong

Friend, listener, and all around great guy Africansk8er has written a review for the documentary The King of Kong. It's a great write up. I really want to see this flick.

Reality TV For The...Win?

I'm running the risk of outing myself as a fag, but I don't care!

The wife and I started watching Beauty and the Geek last night and the new season of America's Next Top Model starts tonight and I'm so watching them this season.

Good Times With Stranglehold

I finished the single player story in Stranglehold last night. I played through on normal. The story is great! It felt like I was playing through a movie. The action is really freaking cool and everything is destructible. It's also extremely satisfying to use Precision Aim to hit a bad guy in the crotch, just like Penny Arcade said.

FASA No More

Yesterday we found out that FASA Interactive has closed its doors. The developer behind such games as Crimson Skies and Shadowrun has ceased to exist. No big fanfare or hoopla. Just a post on their community forums. Seems a little sad and a little strange. I'm sure this happens more often then we know in the industry, but it almost feels the same as when a radio station goes off the air. There's little to no warnings (although the rumors were there), and then it's just gone. All the sudden your station is playing ranchero music and called The Sombrero.

This, of course, puts one more nail in the coffin of Shadowrun. I was holding out hope for some new maps or gametypes that would appear as DLC, but that won't happen now.

Tomb Raider

Funny thing is, I still want to play it.

ZunePhone

Zero Punctuation

The guys at the Gamer Andy forums have been posting these videos by Yahtzee. This guy is a fucking genius. The Escapist is posting the videos now, but he has a few still on YouTube.



Zero Punctuation on The Escapist

The Darkness

I was really excited to dig into The Darkness this weekend. Little did I realize that lurking on that game disc was not a game, but an exercise in frustration.

I really don't think that this game was play tested at all during development. I think the designers put it together and knew exactly where to go and what to do, therefore they did not need anyone on the outside to test it for playability. That's the only way I can figure a game this flawed got out into stores.

Each level I went through was worse than the one before it. I wandered aimlessly through one area for no less than a half hour before I backtracked through a tunnel (and a loading screen) and found where I was really supposed to be. There are areas like that one that have no reason to even exist other than to frustrate and annoy.

Then there's the multiplayer, which isn't as bad as some of the reviews have let on. Being able to shapeshift is fun. Of course, if any of the weapons besides the dual pistols were at all usefull, the multiplayer would be even better. As it stands, you run around, pick up a weapon and it auto switches to that weapon, so you switch it back to the pistols. Rinse, repeat. Great design, Starbreeze!

A yin to the Darkness' yang, I really expected War Tech Senko Ronde to be really bad, but after playing it a while, I realized it is bad...so bad it's good!

When you start up this game, it tells you a story about a little girl that was never stopped crying. She cried 24/7 and eventually caused all sorts of bad stuff to happen to the world like famine and pissed off Japanese people with guns.

So, I guess they get tired of all her crying and decide (here comes the comedy) to shoot her into space. I'm not sure if this was decided by a committee or what, but that seems a little extreme. How about just give her a zoloft or something?

After that, you're thrust into one-on-one mech battles. The dialog between these people swings from making no sense to being absolutely hilarious! Honestly, you never get tired of hearing "Mew mew mew". I don't know what it means, but I like it!

The actual gameplay is fun once you get into it. You can change into huge things like swords and staplers. The funny thing is, you never find out what happened to the little girl. She's just out there in space crying her eyes out. Way to go, Japan!

skate n' stuff

I played the skate demo last night. I liked it a lot. It's a great change from the Tony Hawk series. I personally have never liked any of the Tony Hawk games. The best part of the demo is the ability to record movies and edit them. Once edited, you can even upload them to the EA site. This is where the problems begin.

When I was playing NFS Carbon, you could take pictures at any time and upload them to EA. You could view them, but only once you logged in to EA.com. There's no such thing as being able to look them up by your gamertag, and don't dare think about sharing them with your friends by sending them a link. I could actually save the pics, which was cool, but why all the hoops to jump through?

This brings me back to the skate demo. I uploaded a cool video to EA's servers, and then rushed to the computer to watch my video. Apparently my old "classic" EA login was no longer working, and I need to create a new ID. I created it, then was told I had to link it to my gamertag. Surprisingly, that was unsuccessful. In the end, I gave up out of frustration.

We're on the cusp of something really cool with the ability to capture our gameplay footage and upload it to the web. When Halo 3 drops, the floodgates will open. The only problem is, you will have to have a capture card to get the videos onto the internet. Is there a problem with giving us the freedom of uploading a video, then posting it wherever we want, ala' YouTube?

I have this same issue with the pictures you take with your Vision camera on Xbox Live. You can't view them on Xbox.com, you can't save them to your hard drive, you can't do anything with them. You can send a pic to a friend and create your own gamerpic. Neither of these can be saved for future use. Why is that? It just doesn't make sense.

Stuff Is Stupid

I had the idea to start a podcast called Stuff Is Stupid and just talk about things that are stupid. There's so much stuff that is stupid, I would never run out of content. I could literally spend the first several episodes on Nickelback's music, people at Wal-Mart, and my co-workers.

In a related story, I had a Skype chat with the wife of a former friend last night. Apparently she takes offense to me calling him a bitch. It's unfortunate that she feels that way, but I guess she shouldn't have married a bitch. That really should have been the first thing she checked. Flip him over, see if he has balls, then go about your business.

In all honesty, I'm not a difficult person to get a hold of. I have a myriad of contact info here on my blog, not to mention on XBL. I almost decided to post the entire conversation, but thought better of it.

I really don't know why people fuck with me, but if you fuck me around, I'm not going to take it lying down. That's the moral of this story.

It's Working!

OMG, my Zune is actually working! I was late to work because I was installing the software and tossing some songs on it. I can't wait to put some Ask A Ninja on it and watch them.

Coming Zune

Ok, so I got my Zune on Saturday. I immediately plugged it in to let it charge and got this picture on the screen. I assumed the battery was charging and let it sit there for a couple hours. When I finally sat down to install the software, the Zune wasn't detected. I tried 3 usb ports on my pc and one on my work laptop to no avail. I left it plugged in overnight and still the same icon was on the screen.

I broke down and called Zune support and they had me plug it into a usb port in the back of my pc, stating that the ones on the front sometimes have a sleep mode. I did this and waited an hour (and killed the time fragging in the COD4 mp beta). Nothing changed, so I actually plugged it into my 360 to see if that would help. Nothing.

I called Zune support back and was told to unplug it and let the battery completely die. It's been about 8 hours since I did that and the screen still shows the battery icon. I'm hoping that it will finally die tomorrow. Otherwise, I will have to send it in and have it fixed or replaced. The timeframe on a replacement will probably be 3 weeks or more. Awesome!

Community Gamerpics

It was just announced that there is a new picture pack on XBL filled with pics from community sites and podcasts. This is great news for all the hard working guys at Podtacular and even Gamertag Radio. Apparently it's all the shows in the Gamercast Network, which is awfully convenient. I find it interesting that shows like XBL Radio, 360Style or GamerAndy didn't make it in. The Gamerscore Blog guys could have given their slot to somebody else who's actually in the community. Of course, I'm thrilled that Podtacular now have their own gamerpic. Foo Mo Jive and JVB really deserve that. Of course, there are others that aren't as deserving, but whatever. And yes, I'm talking about the bitches over at Uncle Gamer.

Call of Duty 4 MP Beta

Thanks to a twitter friend of mine, I got the code to download the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta tonight. I've been playing it and it is completely awesome! You can level up and earn new things like weapons and "perks". Personally, I have my guy outfitted with an assault rifle, smoke grenade, better aim, and a RPG launcher. There's other stuff, but that's the stuff I care about. Hehe. The beta is opening to everyone else on Monday, the 27th, so I'll have all weekend to hone my skills before the noobs arrive.

In other news, Stranglehold got delayed by about a week for some reason. Now it's not hitting till Sept 5th. Dammit! I guess that will give me more time with the COD4 beta, but I need to be getting achievements since my sister has a higher gamerscore than I do. Oh the pain!

Welcome to the Social

I bought a white Zune today from Woot.com. I'm now a part of the social, whatever that means. Hehe. I'm upgrading from my 4gig iPod Mini. It has served me well, but I couldn't pass up the deal.

Installing the Zune Marketplace took forever. It's not near as pretty as iTunes, and I didn't realize you couldn't buy videos. I'm going to try to stream music and pictures to my 360 later.

Superbad!

We went to see Superbad last night. It was fucking funny as hell! I highly recommend it. McLovin is my new hero.

Also, I played some NBA Street Homecourt last night and earned 5 achievements totaling 240 points which means I finally broke 10k gamerscore!!! Hell yea!

Stranglehold Faceplate

I reserved Stranglehold at my local Gamestop yesterday. I got a faceplate skin for reserving it, not to mention a CD of "Players Traks". It features Lil John & the East Side Boyz, Ying Yang Twins, and Pitbull among others. Anyway, I took some pictures of the skin so people can see what they're getting if they reserve the game. It's like a skin you get from decalgirl.com. Decent quality, although kind of a pain to put on straight.

Teh Internets

Either I'm just bored with the web or the internet has gotten boring here lately. Maybe I just need a few new sites to visit, but I don't think that's it. I'm bored with the forums and blogs. Facebook does nothing for me. Pownce sucks. Purrrnce is dull. MySpace is ok. The various forums I visit are just the same thing over and over. Twitter is the only thing that keeps me interested.

Bioshock Demo

I downloaded and started to play the Bioshock demo last night. It froze about 10 minutes in, so I quit. I'm not sure I really give a shit about this game. It looks great, but I'm not convinced it's a must play yet. I would much rather play Stranglehold.

The Wolverine Ultimatum

We saw The Bourne Ultimatum last night. It was excellent. One of the few trilogies where all three movies are equal in their quality and actually maintain a cohesive story throughout. Most sequels and three-quels are merely cash grabs with no real motivation other than to make the character jump through some hoops for sake of jumping.

What I did notice during the movie is how similar the origins of Wolverine and Jason Bourne are. Obviously Jason is not a mutant with claws, but if you replace Treadstone with Weapon X some real parallels start to emerge.

Wolverine was already a successful operative with the CIA when he was brought into the Weapon X program. In the movies it's revealed that Wolverine actually volunteered for the program. **Spoiler Alert** We find out at the end of Ultimatum that Jason (or David) actually volunteered for the Treadstone program. Each becomes the best at what they do (and what they do is not nice).

Stranglehold Demo

I played the demo for Stranglehold last night and I have to admit that it's awesome! I love that you can dive in any direction, never reload, and generally be a total bad ass just like Chow Yun-Fat. I've got this one at the top of my Gamefly queue, but that doesn't really mean anything. I might have to drop the cash on this one when it comes out.

New Music...Wednesday?

Can't believe it's been 6 days since my last post. I think twitter is taking up a lot of my blogging that used to go here.

Anyway, I downloaded the new Korn and (hed)p.e. albums this last weekend. I like them both quite a bit. Korn just never lets me down, and (hed)p.e. just has a sound you don't hear anymore. I heart them both!

To Catch An I-Jacker

Chris Hansen is a douche.

We watched Dateline's latest inflammatory episode last night. It featured Chris "To Catch A Predator" Hansen on the trail of stolen iPods. Now, as we all know, this is an epidemic of biblical proportions that only a man like Mr. Hansen can take on. I mean, who hasn't had an iPod stolen or knows someone that has had one stolen? It's a problem that will likely cripple modern day society if not nipped in the bud. Honestly, Chris Hansen might be the new Jesus. His holy crusade is to make sure that every one that purchases an iPod can keep listening to the latest Akon track without interruption. Otherwise, I think the terrorists win.

Seriously, is this issue on par with catching people with the intent to have sex with kids? Apparently it is. Why else would he waste his time on something like this. An iPod costs $300 to $400 bucks (at least, those are the ones that Dateline was using). Is this equivalent to the innocence of a child? I'm going to say maybe just because I really like my iPod. Plus, you can always reformat an iPod. :-p

The main problem with the whole story was how they planted bags with brand new iPods on benches in malls, on the street, and in cars. First, if you find an abandoned bag on a bench in a mall, you're not stealing. You're finding. Yes, you're supposed to turn it in to security, but who among us would do that? A very select few, I guarantee.

Once the "stolen" iPod was connected to the new owner's computer and the "iTunes" software was installed, they could track it. This is because they replaced the disc that came with the iPod with one that they created. It looked the same, but had specialized software that allowed the iPod to be tracked. They had to do this because Apple would not assist them in making criminals out of regular people. Way to go, Apple!

So, the whole show was based on the THEORY that you could track down a stolen iPod. There was no actual real world evidence that it is possible. Just a theory created by Chris Hansen and "proven" by the fact that he could find the ones he planted. That's fucking amazing, Chris.

How about he put some of that energy into finding things like who killed Kennedy or proof of the afterlife. Of course, he's got bigger things to worry about. Somewhere in the country there's a pen being stolen off of a bank teller's counter. Sic 'em, Chris!

Purrrnce.com

Signed up for Purrrnce.com. Forgot to use my cat name, dammit!

Simpsonized!

your_image
Originally uploaded by Gemini Ace

I'm not rushing out to see the movie, but I thought this was cool.

100 Damned Guns!

I don't know who the fag is playing the mandolin...oh, it's Dave!
100 DAMNED GUNS 7/27/07

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Joe Rogan

We went to see Joe Rogan last night at the Improv. He is fucking hilarious! If you haven't, I highly suggest you buy his cd Shiny Happy Jihad. Oh, and my wife got to meet him...

Too Many Podcasts

I came to a realization today. Actually, I've been thinking about it for a little while, but there usually has to be something to come along to actually push me over the edge on something, then I get fired up. Anyway, I heard through the grapevine that Aeropause.com has started their own podcast. This in an of itself is not terrible, but it got me to thinking. How many podcasts is too many?

Now, if you go look up a niche topic like french fries or shoestring art, you won't find many shows. But, if you search gaming news or Xbox 360 news, you find well over a hundred shows on iTunes alone. That's not to mention everything you find on PodcastAlley or PodcastPickle. And the great majority talk about the same thing. The same topics, the same segments, the same games.

I have a feeling that we might see the bubble burst on the podcast thing soon. Not that they will all go away, but I think the independent shows will start to dry up and go away. Personally, I try to support my friends out there that are putting shows out there, but a lot of times I can't listen to them all. Especially when it's all the same news.

Currently, my favorite shows are GamersWithJobs, Distorted View, Nobody Likes Onions, Podtacular, Xbox360Fanboy, and This Week In Tech. Everything else is just extra at this point.

Last Comic Standing

This is my favorite guy on Last Comic Standing.

Chocolate Rain!

Flatout Ultimate Carnage

The demo for Flatout Ultimate Carnage was released yesterday to our friends over in Europe. I heart my European gamertag. I logged in and downloaded the demo. I haven't used it since the Chromehounds demo came out. Hehe.

The demo gives you 3 types of racing with 1 track available per race type. There is one car you can choose on each type of race. The race types are Carnage Race, Destruction Derby, and Race.

Carnage racing drops you into a checkpoint race and rewards you points for crashing into your opponents. It felt a lot like Burnout to me at first, except the controls weren't as tight and the cars didn't feel as glued to the road.

You get a decent sense of speed, especially when using your NOS. This brings up my major gripe with the game. In most racing games the A button is your handbreak. Not so in Flatout. The A button fires off your NOS. This can really cause you to screw up some turns. I would be going into a turn and expect to drift once I hit the A button, but instead I would accelerate into some houses. Not cool. And there was no option available to change the button layout. Hopefully it will be in the retail release.

The Destruction Derby races are fun. They drop you into a parking lot with 5 lives and you smash the other cars into oblivion. You get points for each hit, which in turn equate to either a bronze, silver, or gold trophy. You can also get multipliers during the game. All I got was a 2x, but I imagine there are more.

The last type in the demo are races. 3 laps around the track. The one included in the demo is a dirt road track with trees and a few buildings. The car they give you does not have much grip. Needless to say I saw some of the trees up close. This is the race type that I actually saw my driver get shot out of the windshield.

Speaking of that, it seems odd to me that at least one of the mini-games weren't included in the demo. The mini-games are what sets Flatout apart from other racing games, so I don't understand why they didn't include it.

Based on the racing alone, I wouldn't buy this game when it comes out. Burnout does a much better job with both the racing and the crashes. Of course, if you really need to do some driving and crashing before the holiday season, then it's not a bad option. Especially if you're like me and not into the Forza 2.

I Hate This Wii

I love my Wii but I also love this song!



http://www.sarcasticgamer.com/

Interpol FTW!

I was listening to the new Interpol album today in the truck and it's the shit! Highly recommended by yours truly.

Gamefly sent me Lost Planet on Saturday. WTF, Gamefly? That was like number 10 in my queue. Spider-Man 3 was above it and had high availability. Makes no sense.

We watched Catch and Release last night. Kevin Smith was in it. It also had the guy that played the villain in Live Free or Die Hard and who's also playing Hitman. Otherwise the movie blew.

Mexican Spider-Man

Achievement Indictment

I've been playing Shadowrun as an elf since I got the game. It's been over a month since I've been playing the game. I am taking into account the 2 weeks I didn't have my 360 because it was being repaired.

The problem is this. I'm trying to get some achievements in this game. Each character class has an achievement associated with it. 100 games as a whatever. I've been trying to get the elf achievement since that seemed to be the best class when I started. I have since realized that the elf is cool, but the troll and dwarf are better. I want to change, but I know that the next game I play as an elf is the one that will get me the achievement.

Basically, I feel that there should be some type of achievement tracker in this game. Actually, I think there should be a tracker in every game. It would not be difficult to do, and it would allow achievement whores like me to track their progress. Is there really a downside to something like this? I don't think so.

The other issue I have is with how the games are counted. I know a lot of games put a stipulation on how many people are in the game to make it count. Basically, if you come in once a game has started, it doesn't count towards the achievement. I found this on achieve360points.com. (Sorry DaKing240)

14. Elf Player: Play as an elf for one hundred games (10)
15. Dwarf Player: Play as a Dwarf for one hundred games (10)
16. Troll Player: Play as a troll for one hundred games (10)
17. Human Player: Play as a human for one hundred games (10)

(All self explanatory, just play, don't have to win don't have to lose.  I am almost
positive you need to play full games though so joining games late doesn't count.  These
will take you some time to get all four, but if you pick one race at the beginning and
stick to it until you get one, just keep on going.  Or you can play a little with each
race and not get any of the achievements like me.)

Basically, if you join in the middle of a match, the whole thing doesn't count. Don't you think that prolongs these achievements? It's a stipulation that shouldn't be.

Now, I'm not complaining that my gamerscore is too low or that I'm not getting achievements that are owed to me, but I am complaining about the fact that I have no idea how many game's I've played as an elf.

I have the same issue with Gears of War. I don't want to have to play in the ranked matches with people I don't know. I understand that otherwise you can have people boosting their gamerscore, but big deal. We all know boosting happens. Just fix that problem, Epic, and I will be happy to do some major fragging in GoW.

Heatseeker

I started playing Heatseeker on the Wii last night. It's pretty fun. The most annoying part was how your commanding officer shouts orders to you. Each sentence is either started or finished with "Downtown". That's your name in the game, and they remind you every 7 or 8 seconds.

"Downtown, you've got to protect that plane!"

"Get over there and blow up those jeeps, Downtown!"

"Downtown, those boats are gonna fire on our position, Downtown!"

I sent back Red Steel. I didn't finish the single player. I got bored with it. Besides, my Command and Conquer came in and I still have Shadowrun. Woot!

Halo 360

The Halo 3-themed Xbox 360 was announced last night. I think it's a cool design. I was hoping the gray system would be a reality. I like it when console makers offer different colors. Faceplates are one thing, but having a completely different box is better.

Nintendo has proven time and again that releasing special colors for their systems pays off.

I would also like to see a clear or translucent case for the 360 like the original Xbox had.

And a blue one!

Gray Xbox 360?

Is the core going gray?

Transformers

We went and saw the Transformers movie this weekend. It was really freakin' awesome! The special effects were incredible and the action was insane. I was disappointed that they didn't use Soundwave as the boombox, but oh well. Maybe in the sequels.

100 Damned Guns won the best country and western award from Ft Worth Weekly. Congratulations to those guys. They deserved to win.

I'm still waiting for Pownce.com to show why it's better than Twitter. So far I have mostly the same friends, so it's pointless to double post. Thanks, Kevin Rose! :-p

By the way, if you want an invite to Pownce, send me your e-mail address.

Lovin' The Shadowrun

Even with all the criticism that's been heaped on Shadowrun, I have fallen in love with the game. The magic, tech, and weapons of the game are just awesome. Each map and game bring new and different combinations. I honestly didn't expect to like the game this much, but I am completely smitten.

July 4th Goodness

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I got a call from UPS letting me know I had a package scheduled for delivery on the 3rd. It arrived yesterday and I couldn't be happier! It looks great. The disc drive works great. It took a long time, but it was worth it.

I called into the live Unscripted 360 show today. Coincidentally, Godfree from GTR called in right before me. DeaconBlade, Coach, Godfree and I ended up having a good debate about EA and E3 and all the other issues we've been having. I still don't agree that having EA sponsor the podcast is a good idea, but I can see Godfree's point. We agreed to disagree.

Here is the direct link to the show. Fast forward to the 20 minute mark to get to the debate.

Red Steel

I played Red Steel for a couple hours last night. I really like the action so far. It feels like you're in a John Woo movie at times, which I like. Replacement Killers FTW!

The cutscenes are pretty craptacular. Reminds me of the scenes in X-Men 3:The Official Game. The worst part is, you can't skip them! I understand that they are trying to tell a story, but I don't care. I just want to shoot some bad guys!

I want to try the multiplayer out before I send it back. Maybe the wife will jump in with me for some deathmatch.

In 360 news, I'm still waiting for my console to be repaired and sent back. It's been 2 weeks. 17 days since I've been on Xbox Live.

It really sounds like there's a bigger problem than Microsoft will admit to.

Pownce

I got an invite to join Pownce.com from DaKing240. Not sure what the big difference is between Pownce and Twitter, but I guess I'm going to find out.

http://pownce.com/GeminiACe/

Journalism and Podcasting

Since I'm being watched, I thought I would post a little reading material.

This is taken directly from the journalism page of wikipedia. Pay special attention to the lines in bold.

Since the development of professional journalism at the beginning of the 20th Century, journalists have been expected to follow a stringent code of journalistic conduct that requires them to, among other things:

• Use original sources of information, including interviews with people directly involved in a story, original documents and other direct sources of information, whenever possible, and cite the sources of this information in reports;
  • For more information on using sources, see Journalism sourcing.
• Fully attribute information gathered from other published sources, should original sources not be available (to not do so is considered plagiarism; some newspapers also note when an article uses information from previous reports);
• Use multiple original sources of information, especially if the subject of the report is controversial;
• Check every fact reported;
• Find and report every side of a story possible;
• Report without bias, illustrating many aspects of a conflict rather than siding with one;
• Approach researching and reporting a story with a balance between objectivity and skepticism.
• Use careful judgment when organizing and reporting information.
• Be careful about granting confidentiality to sources (news organizations usually have specific rules that journalists must follow concerning grants of confidentiality);
• Decline gifts or favors from any subject of a report, and avoid even the appearance of being influenced;
• Abstain from reporting or otherwise participating in the research and writing about a subject in which the journalist has a personal stake or bias that cannot be set aside.

Just because it's in a podcast and labeled as "independent" doesn't mean the rules don't apply.