DogsWithoutWings.com Blog

Yes, Microsoft has blessed me with another broken Xbox. No red lights, but freezing in Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero 3. Wasn't bad at first, now I'm not able to play.

1/5/08 - Waiting for box.

1/7/08 - Played GH 3 and COD4 for a few hours without crashing. Hmm.

1/10/08 - Got box, will see in a couple days if the problem comes back before I send it.

1/12/08 - COD4 crashing again. Dropped off at UPS.

1/18/08 - At the service center in McAllen, TX.

1/31/08 - Got my Xbox back, different unit, no HDMI. Turns on (crosses fingers). Wow, it is much louder than my 40gig PS3.

So I installed XNA 2.0 with Visual Studios 2005 Professional. I used the update tool to migrate my 1.0 project into 2.0 and with a few minor changes, it was up and running. This project only needs a couple weekends of work to complete. I'm going to try and finish it by year end.

Xna

Wow, can't wait.

Lost Season 4 Trailer

WTF is Riley thinking? He is the best player on the Heat. Not only can he pass and lock down offensive players like Paul Pierce, but he was getting his shot back. Which coach wouldn't want a Penny on their team?

HAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

Antoine Walker was traded! I can't believe it. I've been waiting years for this day. BYE DEAD WEIGHT. Being paid millions and won't get into shape ain't gonna cut it. ROAR! 

Add another dead Xbox 360 to the list of dead Xbox 360s. Let's see how quickly the support turnaround is, I called the same day it stopped working.

Initially, it started locking up with a buzzing sound (from the tv) and the screen became corrupted. While on the phone with support it locked up again in the dashboard, then it gave the 3 red lights when I reset it.

What's worst is that I have the Orange Box sitting here from Gamerang.

Update 1: Box arrived on 10/18/07.

Update 2: Dropped off at UPS Store on 10/19/07. Rep knew what the box was, said it was the third that day (at 2pm), lol.

Update 3: Arrived at service center in McAllen,  TX on 10/24/07.

Update 4: Delivery attempt on 10/31/07 (not home). Delivered on 11/1/07.

Update 5: Unit has same serial number. Crashed twice while playing Half Life 2. Hope it is Half Life 2.

Rad

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA!

Woot! I will own some noobs later.

Countdown: 2 weeks until Halo 3.

Only 2 months after I criticized the price of the iPhone there has already been a price drop. 600->400 and 500->death. What happened to all the sales figures they released? Did it really need a sales boost that quickly? I would still not pay $400 for that fanboys!

The first disc has shipped from Netflix woot. I hope I can finish watching these and The Office Season 3 (being released next week) before the new seasons start the week of the 24th in September. Anything to cure the long wait until Lost starts.

Edit: Episode 1 is up for free (temporarily?) on Xbox Live Marketplace in HD.

I started watching this series because it was available to stream from Netflix. The show is about... an office. It is close to a fake reality show, since they acknowledge the camera and they each have their own sit down which gets edited in to give different opinions on events.

I thought it started off very slow, and it takes a while to get used to the seemingly dead employees. But they do come to life later on, each with their own unique personalities. The boss is the center of the show, the guy that will take over every conversation. He can be very obnoxious but not offensive. His acting is also excellent.  It is a very short six episode season and the basketball episode had me tearing up from laughter.

Since Blockbuster raised their prices on plans that offer in-store exchanges, I decided to try out their biggest competitor, Netflix. They are about the same prices as Blockbuster's current rates, but their website is a huge improvement over BB. Recommendations are much more accurate and being able to stream content is a big advantage.

I decided to try out The Office, a comedy shown on the NBC network. The quality was much better than expected. I use my 40" LCD TV as a second monitor, so I just dragged the window over there and set it to full screen. It is probably not as good as a DVD, but it certainly was good enough. I have yet to try an action movie, so that may make a big difference. It never once stopped to buffer and it took a maximum of maybe 20 seconds to get started. I will probably get my first DVDs tomorrow and unless there is some horrible experience with that, Netflix it is.

So Blondie lost. Judging by what was shown on TV it seemed like she got the food out much faster than Rock's team. I don't understand how Rock could not serve anything in 30 minutes and they still finish at about the same time. Must be some editing. I guess she was not the best at quality control, having some raw stuff sent back by a customer.

I'm still waiting for the Heroes season 1 DVD to be released later this month. I'm pretty sure the season starts next month, only giving a pretty short time to catch up for those who missed it.

Also some new updates to XNA will be released at the end of this year, including online libraries for the 360. Got to get cracking.

Wow, Fox pulled a fast one. Unlike other shows which get 2 hour finales, this show is split up over 2 weeks. The first hour was a lot of filler, visiting Las Vegas, looking back through the episodes, reintroducing some old contestants, etc. Bonnie is definitely my favorite to win. Rock lost me after he blew up during dinner service.

I will also be making updates to my sub-site with programming related stuff. Ignore the site design for now, it will be improved incrementally.

I didn't get to watch these live, but they were just as forgettable as Microsoft's. Nintendo's WiiFit was pretty cool, but nothing mindblowing. Mario Kart looks like the Gamecube version, the crippled online component will be below average. Sony's array of games looked nice, but there was nothing surprising about the conference. Metal Gear had yet another trailer. The temporary price drop. Just more of the same. The Killzone graphics were nice though.

What went wrong? Great games, check. Halo 3 footage, check. Gears of War PC, check. Jade Raymond, check. Boring, check.

Yes, I'll say it, Peter Moore is not a great presenter. Or is it Microsoft as a whole? It would have been more exciting if Steve Jobs demoed Madden 97 to be released next year exclusive to the 8 core MacPro. If I can remember, last year's Xbox conference wasn't that exciting either. But I can say the same thing for all the Windows demonstrations too. One of the lows was the Grand Theft Auto trailer. 'You've seen it already, but not on a screen this big!'

As usual, IGN's feed was giving a lot of problems. I had to move over to gamespot which was smooth as butter. Pretty much the same as last year.

For anyone still waiting for next gen, watch the Microsoft press conference tonight. Not even the price cut will help the PS3. We want to see what has become of Too Human, Halo 3 Campaign, and some other secret coop games. MASSIVE DAMAGE!