OK, so it looks like a kids game and it's still much to hard for me in spots but I am addicted to this game.  The combination of skills and characters you get to play is pretty amazing and I have to admit, I like seeing Kameo flutter around at a crisp 60 frames a second.   I have only faced two bosses (I Hate BOSS BATTLES) but I don't expect that I will take me long before I have this game knocked out.

So, if you don't see me on live much, that's why.

Also, check this out.  Microsoft went all out locking the XBOX down from hackers including per box encryption of the firmware and boot logic built into the CPU.  It will be one amazing feat of hacking if this thing get's unlocked.    Not that I care as long as the add DVD streaming support

The XBOX got here right on time Tuesday and I have been playing it ever since.    So far, it has mostly met my expectations.   Unpacking the unit, you see that it's still a rather large console.   Not a big behemoth like the previous but still large.  And much of the size it lost has been transfered to it's power brick which is a good 14 inches long and weights maybe 4-5 pounds.  I guess that's what it takes to run 3 G5 processors

Booting this box up is quite an experience.  The unit comes on with a quick press of the XBOX Button on any controller and greets you with a familiar, but innovative and definitely high definition dashboard based on Microsoft's blade design.   From here you have access to all of the features that the XBOX has to offer including not only playing games but accessing video content on your Media Center PC's (if you have one).    Here lies the first disappointment, while the media center can stream your music, pictures and some video to your XBOX 360, it will not stream DVD content or many video formats.   In face, it appears that the video must be WMV or MPEG-2.     Well, hopefully this will be corrected in a patch later but for now, you can use a converter to get your DIVX converted to something that is viewable.  

Next up...let's see some games.   The first game I put in was PGR 3.   At first, I wasn't completely impressed.  It looked good like a super quality XBOX game, but not so over the top amazing that it blew me away.    Until, I switched the view to inside the car.   WOW.   Not only have they recreated the interiors of the cars in amazing detail, but the sun streams across the dash just as it would it real world.  Plus, the sound even sounds like you are hearing it from inside the car.  In a word, it's pretty spectacular.    After playing a bit, Alene and I decided to try out Gotham TV.   With PGR3, you can tun into the top players in the game and watch them race from numerous angles including riding inside their car.   These guys are good.  It was amazing to sit in the car as an expert player throws an Enzo Ferrari around a track.   By this time, it was time for bed so a long hold on the XBOX button on the controller put it to sleep for the night.

I have been playing the other games since then but I think I will be focusing on Kameo for the next few weeks.  You can watch me struggle by monitoring my Gamer card on the right

Later all.

XBOX Day is here.  BY this time tomorrow, I will by playing Kameo, PGR3, or something on the new XBOX 360.   The Media Center is all setup and ready to stream DVDs and Music to the Media Center extender and the upcoming holiday is all allocated to goofing off in front of the TV.

So, Alene is a big online forum junkie and was showing me the Shout Boxes that are on many of the sites she frequents.   So, I figured I would create one for my site before I put the final stamp on the new site.  Basically it's a way to give me or anyone on the site a quick "shout".

Well, after a few security issues and such, I have finally upgraded to a new blog system.   No more custom code for me.   I took the opportunity to clean up the the olé' site and clear out some old dead links.    I will also be adding a few new features over the next day or so.

I went with a slightly different look than I planned on Alene's advice and I think it turned out well.   Let me know what you think.

PS - 2 Days to XBOX 360 :)

My friends think I redesign my site more than I actually post but I don't care.  That's the fun part for me.  After searching for a few months, I have finally found a piece of blog software that I can use.   I toyed with switching to something PHP based like MovableType or Wordsmith, but as a C# developer, I really wanted to stick with something .Net based.  Finally I found one I like enough to switch to.    DasBlog.NET.    It's available at www.dasblog.net and is a pretty slick open source project with may of the features of the more popular versions.    I have the source code all installed and compiling.   The only drawback is that it's written for the 1.1 version of the framework.    This image at the left is a quick photoshop of what it will look like.   I expect that I will get it up and running this weekend.   I am also flirting with the idea of switching over to Flickr.   It's got a number of neat features such as licenses and tags that I don't get at pbase, but the community seems more social than I want.  I like the photography focused community at pbase.   If you know of any other Photo sharing sites that are good, let me know. 7 Days to go for the XBOX 360.   Can't wait.