NYE, Christmas, moving and a ham sandwich

I helped my friend, Ben, move out today (good luck with your new place!). I had expected we'd hang out afterwards and celebrate NYE in style, but no such luck. Him being tired and all and being sensitive to his new roommates was the reason and I totally respect that, but now it means another holiday alone and uneventful. :( I'll get by with some live trance streams and some gaming.

I'm going to miss both of his miniature Dachshunds and their unique ways of greeting me (by trying to bite my nose) and I most likely won't be seeing him as much since he now lives about 30 minutes away and has roommates, but I'm glad that's he's got a new place. Change is hard. I'll get used to it, though.

Instead of an excuse to celebrate, the holidays this year for me have been uneventful and seriously depressing as I've spent them alone and have not really thought of them as being special days (we didn't even set up a tree for Christmas this year). I got some presents early (though selfish desire is not the reason for Christmas, only the most recognizable tradition), but we didn't really have any family over or have a gift exchange this year. This is the end result of a slowly graduating isolatist trend for me and I don't like the outcome.

That will have to be something I will work in this new year, a time where change is something we can't avoid and we take the time to reflect on ways we can change ourselves (and hopefully improve).

I have some goals for this new year:

eat better

exercise more

lose weight

do a DTS in the Spring (I'm looking at several: one in Colorado, one in Perth, Australia, and some in Japan

get out of debt

my happiness to be independent of exterior factors (most likely the one on my list that will be hardest to come by)

This year has been very challenging for everyone around me. My friends and family have each had hardships that were very trying for them and I'm glad that they've overcome. Life is (or should be) constant improvement and change, leaving me to feel as one who's life hasn't been lived.

Damn, this post is impulsive and bleak. Oh well, I wrote it already so it's too late to turn back now. What's a "personal" journal if one can't bare their soul every one in a while. :p

More 360 'lists'

Falling in line with my post (...and now the bad), one of the writers for Joystiq.com had a list of his own. While there are some of the same items on his list, there were a few that I hadn't really experienced (and therefore didn't know about yet), plus it's pretty well written.

He did get some flak for it and wrote a companion piece with suggestions from other who wrote him.

The good thing about writing these lists, or posting at the official Xbox forums (especially the Wish List and Feedback forum), is that according to Major Nelson and John Porcaro, "the dev team listens to constructive (and occasionally unconstructive) feedback, and prioritize future development accordingly."

Narnia & Call of Duty 2

I saw Narnia yesterday with family (as something of a Christmas tradition), went out to eat at the nearby Penn Station and after returning home, finished up Call of Duty 2.

I thought Narnia was okay: the CGI/compositing was pretty bad in some places, the acting was alright, but I just didn't feel connected to the story or characters. Though reading C.S. Lewis as a child and having family members who loved the series, I just don't find myself caring for the story as much as the Lord of the Rings books.

I'd read the Hobbit as required reading in junior high and liked it, but only when I heard more about the movies did I actually have more interest in reading the rest of Tolkien's books. I read the trilogy months before the first LotR movie came out and I really enjoyed it (as well as the movies themselves). I think Narnia is mainly written for kids and therefore I don't have as much interest in it. I might re-read them as an adult, but if they make any more Narnia movies, they'd better put a lot more effort and money into them.

What I want to see right now is King Kong. Peter Jackson (along with the rest of his Kiwi troup) are extremely talented and I can't wait to see how Weta and Peter Jackson bring the Halo franchise to the big screen.

Oh, Call of Duty 2 has an excellent single player campaign. Challenging on the hardest difficulty but very rewarding because of it. The environments and sound are extremely immersive and a joy to be in. The stages are full of variety and there are some really fun levels to play, like the tanks missions especially. I rented it and have already sent it back in the mail, but what an amazing game. Though, I'm glad to be done with it, as there were some excrutiatingly hard parts to it. :)

Condemned is completed; 'OCD' be damned!

Well, not 100% complete meaning that I've unlocked all of the achievements. There's 3 I've not not gotten: Silver and Gold Mayhem (beat 3 levels/whole game with melee only) and the Melee Freedom (find every melee weapon and firearm in the game). I'm pretty sure I've gotten every weapon in the game and I was considering going through the game again (or at least 3 levels) with only melee weapons, but 90 Gamerpoints is not worth it to me. Once through was enough for me, besides I've got Call of Duty 2 and I'd much rather play through the rest of that game than go through Condemned again. ;)

...and now the bad

While I still think the Xbox 360 is a great game system, I think there could be improvements to it. These are all things that would make usability improved and could be changed just by downloading an update online (or however else they want to do it). MS has improved the UI and added features through Xbox Live on the old Xbox, so it's not much of a stretch. This list runs from small annoyances to minor gripes about how they implemented a certain aspect.

Well, here goes:

Media Playback
* When a game takes control back over the game, the music you are playing stops, then restarts at beginning of track, it should pause, then resume exactly where it left off (though at least it saves your playlist and resumes playing at the beginning of that track)
* More Codec Support (streaming from PC, reading off removable media and USB storage)
* APE/FLAC, etc audio support (at least support the GNU/Open Source ones; I don't expect you to support the commercial codecs; you could make the commercial codecs premium content)
* XVID, AVI, etc video support (")
* Better/more controls for movie and DVD playback (fast forward, rewind, skip frame)
* scrolling titles in music and marketplace content in menu
* When playing music that the Xbox 360 has generated as a "playlist", you should be able to see the playlist and switch to tracks you want instead of only being able to skip one track at a time
* Music playing in the Xbox 360 should keep playing or pause like it should when a game takes control back, and resume when you change games in XLA
* Media streaming from SAMBA shares: why with all the talk of wanting to connect to everything, did you not support allow networking to work without using WMC (thereby excriminating against Linux, etc users). I was VERY unhappy when I tried to install it on XP x64 until I found a workaround for it.
* Movie playback without MCE: I think the MCE interface is very appealing and that should be added value when playing back media on your Xbox 360, but it shouldn't be a requirement (I understand about all of the extra stuff like playing back DVR content; that would also be added value for MCE users). $400 dollars for a console is not cheap and for people that don't have MCE, seeing that as being a prerequisite instead of an enhancement for movie playback, just looks like you are purposefully trying to cripple the 360 just to make more MCE sales.

Menu Enhancements
* Remember position in current playlist when exiting out to the menu for trailers, more sorting options (date downloaded, alphabetic, length, etc..)
* When in submenus on blades, there needs to be a way to exit back out to the main menu with one button press (just like the Guide button does when pressing it after hitting it)

Xbox Live Enhancements
* Why does your achievements only give the date when you are signed into Xbox Live?
* Disconnecting from Xbox Live when playing Condemned, for example, makes you return to the menu screen (VERY FRUSTRATING! when you have to play over from the last checkpoint)
* Single listing for trailers (have submenus to download them in 720p and 480p instead)
* Single listing for Xbox Live Arcade games (not one for both the trial and full version
* Single listing for trailers (some trailers are listed both in the "Xbox 360 Dashboard" and "Digital Entertainment" sections)
* Items listed as new in the Marketplace should be based on if you've viewed them (I'm not sure if it does this already or if by how long it has been up there)
* Make downloading content (trailers, games, demos, etc...) a background process (w/ queueing possibly)

General Enhancements
* Online save storage: I took a survey where you mentioned this. Is that going to be the only way to transport saves from your Xbox to the 360? What about the people who don't have Xbox Live? Backwards compatability isn't much fun when you have to start over from scratch. :(
* Having a setting to stop the auto loading of games (both at startup and just closing the tray with a game inside), though I think it should be default to auto-load. There could also be seperate settings to auto-load based on media type: data, DVD-movie, audio CD, game, etc...

Achievement Unlocked

I love when that comes up on my screen when playing on my Xbox 360. I've become somewhat addicted to unlocking achievements which add up to my total Gamerscore (look to my Gamercard on my blog to see mine).

I think they are a really innovative addi(c)tion to games. I like to beat my games as much as I can and this gives me another motivation to complete them, as well as adding new and interesting ways to play and finish the game. If you don't have 1000 points on the game (200 for Xbox Live Arcade games), you haven't 'finished' it yet.

Though there are some flaws to how many points are given for each achievement in some games and the requirements to earn achievements may be easier to comply with than in others, so it cheapens the overall Gamerscore comparison based on how many you have. It is up to the developers how they want to give out achievements, but every person that plays that game has to have done the same things to get them, so it's still fair in that sense.

Achievements are just one of the really cool things that I enjoy about the Xbox 360 that I really didn't think would be that much of a draw, but they really are fun to acquire. There's just so many other things that are really unique and innovative about Microsoft is doing in the video game world, first with the Xbox, Xbox Live and the 360 now.

Happy Days

Well, I'm liking my Xbox 360, PGR3 and (I just bought) Kameo. The graphics are awesome, even on my 24" flat screen CRT SDTV with component inputs, though I've been dreaming of the day I could afford an HDTV. My friend got an HDTV and it's really nice, but they are still too expensive for me.

The media capabilities are a step down from XBMC on the Xbox in the freedom/choice of formats it supports and the way in which one can access their content over a LAN. It is nice that they have connectivity with USB 2.0 devices of different types, but it really is somewhat of a disappointment on the media side. XBMC is super customizable (I just made my own weather icons for it the other day) and does everything one could want in regards to the number of formats it supports, the combatability with different computers, and the fact that it's customizable by the user (this is one of open sources' strong points). There's also scripts that you can download to make it do everything from read your favorite RSS feeds, look at the newest comics, and watch trailers. Plus, because it's open source, it's free and the rate of development is amazingly fast (they keep bringing new features ,tweaking the UI and fixing bugs constantly).

The Xbox 360 is such a powerful piece of hardware and it's such a shame that Microsoft limits the potential. It would be great to be able to have XBMC as an official program on the Xbox 360 (then it would be able to play WMV-HD videos). I'd pay for it, but it would be even better if it was a download on Xbox Live Marketplace (which is great, btw!). That way they could bring updates to it every week or so. Now, that will probably never happen, but it would be great even if it meant losing the ability to tweak it to your liking.

I really like that Microsoft has tried to make the console more capable out of the box, but I want more (and I also don't want to have to buy a MCE PC just to watch movies from my PC or removable media). I like the 360 interface for gaming, XBL Arcade games, the fact that I can somewhat customize the interface (but I don't want to have to pay for something stupid like GamerPics and themes) and finally being able to get back on Xbox Live with my friends. It really is awesome (and now it's free). I like the achievements (more like addicted :) and I like everything else about it (though there are some slight issues I have with the hardware: the noise mainly). I'm glad to say that I haven't had any problems with mine.

I say give the XBMC devs an XDK and let them make it an official product, bring them on board, or at the very least update the Xbox 360 to have the same basic features as the XBMC: Music (and its selection of free formats like APE, FLAC; hey, you did it with the AAC codec), Movies (I think the MCE interface itself is added value and incentive to buy one, but I don't think it should be a requirement to watch movies off your PC), Pictures (already done), and Weather (I'd like the weather forecast; it'd be easy to do, just use an RSS feed). Give us a MUCH better DVD player, too. ;)

Oh, and I just put up my Last.fm Weekly Top Artists into the sidebar. Pretty cool; I just learned about being able to do that.

HDTV & Xbox 360 Technical Guides

Gamespot, for all their all of their hatin' on Xbox, have some very interesting tech articles that were done very nicely and easily show the differences (just move your mouse over the pictures and wait for the comparison pictures to load) between the Xbox and Xbox 360 versions of games in HD and the differences between the cabling options of the Xbox 360.

There's also somewhat of a helpful guide to buying an HDTV including tips about things to think about including what screen size to buy based on how big your room is, what types of display types are most likely to fit in your budget and explanation about the different display types including pros and cons. It's not like I can go out and buy one, but this should be helpful to at least someone. :)