NFS:MW, cont. of Part 3

I know, I know, I promised PGR, but I put in NFS in instead.
NFS:MW follows a street racer trying to move his way up in the blacklist through a series of races. The thing I compare it to is a more focused GTA: focused on racing, not beating people up and stealing their cars.
Well, here goes...
Graphics
As far as the game goes, the graphics are OK, for a first gen game. This probably could have been made for the regular XBox without any issues. However, it is the cut scenes that are more appealing. The cut scenes look more like a movie than CGI rendered. 9.5
Sound
The sound is very good out of this, especially the police band radio. However, I was disappointed when using music streamed in through the dashboard. The music, even with the volume all the way up and the background sounds turned down, was still too low. 9.6
A/I
The A/I is pretty good, and changes pretty rapidly throughout the game. I have had to redo some races and the A/I responds differently in each race. The same with eluding the cops, their response is different in each chase. One of the funniest things that happened was when a cop was chasing me, I went airborn over a street and landed on a cop car. I was stuck there for a little bit but was finally able to get down and speed away. 9.7
Live
Have not done yet, will update when I do.
Playability
The game play on this is fun. I have played Forza and like the aspects of tuning, track racing, etc. But there is something that has to be said about racing through streets of a city. 9.8
Overall: 9.7
I know, I know, I was a bit harsh on this game early on, but as I started playing it, I got hooked. Now I have to decide how to split my time on the games I have....

Hexic 2 update

I know, I know, I still have to give a review on PGR. Well, so far, I've done the single player stuff and it's OK. I have to get my skills up to go Live, will try and do over Christmas break.
As for Hexic update, I'm getting better at getting black pearls. The last 2 games I played, I was able to get 2 black pearls per game. The first ended with as score of 289K and the second with 310K. The funny part about the second game is that I was teaching Mrs. McTiger how to play and I ruined a couple of flower chances on purpose to let her decide the move. She is starting to get the hang of the game.
So, the next goal is to get 3 pearls in a game to get the cluster. But, before that, I promise a review of PGR. Really. No joke this time...maybe

To hd-dvd or not to hd-dvd...

That has been the big question for Microsoft for the past 6 months. It was not in Microsoft's original plans, but when Sony's plan for Blu-ray came out, it put a question in their minds. Here is the Whacky take on it:
Microsoft may have plans for some kind of storage technology, whether it be Blu-ray, HD-DVD or Holostorage, but why would they announce that they are doing it now? It would be the dumbest move on their part. They are trying to push the sales of the current Xbox 360.
Don't get me wrong, I think MS needs to go in this direction, since game producers think that they need to put a lot of CGI cut scenes in their games. Plus, I think developers are pretty excited to start exploiting the multiple core processing and test it's limits. My feeling is that the graphics card will be challenged more than the core.
So, will MS have a storage technology upgrade in the future? Yes. But why announce it now and kill the hype of the current unit? With enough negativity going around about the lack of games for the 360, announcing that the next version will have HD-DVD on it will certainly kill sales.
Should you wait for this? Heck no! The games that are released are good and there are more coming out soon. As soon as stores replenish their stock, buy yours, connect to live, add WhackyMcTiger and Killer Nikita on your freind list, and send us positive feedback. :)

Hexic Addict

Well, not yet...But this game is too darn addicting.
I have 9 out of 12 achievements now, including over 150K on survival and over 75K on timed. Killer will be mad now because I hit that.
I promise, PGR will be up for review on Monday.

Jealous, jealous, jealous

Killer Nikita is just jealous that I got a black pearl and he did not. 1M pts is not that hard to reach: if you have 85K per game, it would take about 12 games to get there. My guess is that I've played around 17-18 games so far.
Killer does have me on score though, but that won't last after tonight.

Oh, and btw, golf game is going just great. Went out Sunday between Hexic games and shot a 79. And just because I know Killer will comment on this, the front 9 was from the gold tees (tees go from red (women), white(mens), gold (men) and green (champ)) and the back 9 was from the green tees. It is a par 72 course. The reason I switched tee boxes is because I caught the group in front and the guy was going from the back tees.

Whacky, Whacky, Whacky

I just don't know what to think. The first time Whacky beat my high score in Hexic he had to reach the 5000 combo achievement mark doing it. Took me days later to hit that goal. Then to beat me the second time, Whacky had to hit the 1,000,000 point achievement mark. I quess we know why his golf game is going down!

Games, Pt 3

For the games, I'm going to review each one of them on a daily basis. It will be based on the other review I did previously which takes into account a few factors: Graphics, Sound, AI, Live, Playability.
Hexic HD
You may ask: why this one first? Because it's included on the premium package for free, that's why. It is the first game I played.
Graphics
What can you do to a game that is all about hexagons and making blocks of them disappear? A lot. There is good shadowing on this game and the 3-D effects are very good. Really, there is not much you can improve on in this game graphically. 9.8
Sound
Well, the sounds on this are pretty standard. It makes sounds when blocks are made, stars are made, etc, so not much involved. There is an included sound track, which is quite annoying, and I'm guessing they wanted it to be that way. However, because of the new dashboard functionality, I use my soundtracks streaming from my PC to replace the one that exists. 8.0
AI
What kind of AI do you need for a Tetris game? N/A
Live
Not sure if you can do something like side by side live or something like that. Have to check. Until then, N/A
Playability
OK, I'm a true geek and really like these types of games. With that being said, the game play on this is excellent. If you have time to spare, you can get a quick game in there while working the analytical side of your brain. However, Killer did say his high score came because he had no clue to what he was doing. 9.7
Overall: 9.3
It is worth playing a few times, plus, for a quick game, it doesn't take much time at all.

The Dashboard, pt 2

What is noticably different is the dashboard. It is much more streamlined than the original with a lot of added features.
There are 4 tabs to it: XBox Live, Games, Media, System.
XBoxLive
The Xbox live is where you can see your friends, messages, start a game or go to the MarketPlace. The MarketPlace is kind of cool, another way for MS to make more money off of you. As if asking you for $400 per 360 and $60 per game wasn't enough, you can now download games, demo them, and if you like, pay for them. You can also buy skins, setups, etc for your characters in the games. I'm guessing that this feature will not be used that much by me except for free stuff. The coolest thing about the marketplace is the free content: videos on up coming titles, demos, etc.

Another new thing on the XBox Live screen is the GamerTag. You can now see some great detail behind games. The tag consists of your gamertag, a Rep, Gamerscore and the zone you play in. The rep is based on you getting feedback from people you play with online, the gamerscore based on acheivements in games, and the zone the type of player you are. I think the gamerscore is kind of bad because it is not consistent per game.
But, the thing I like is you can drill into the gamertag and see what games you played and achievements made. Not only that, but you can drill into your freinds gamertag and find out the same thing. But wait, there's more: say you want to find out which gamer had the high score for a particular round/mission/etc., you can do that also! Pretty cool stuff.

The chat now is pretty cool also. You can find a freind, they could be in a game already, invite them to a chat, and then talk to them. This is while you are playing another game or just on the dashboard!

Games
Games will show your acheivements, games played, trailers, demos, etc. It is a summary of your gamertag and it's the place you go to get to your demos and trailers after you download them from the marketplace.

Media
The Media tab is pretty cool because you can now link into your music, videos and pictures that you have stored on your computer. NO, you do not need Microsoft Media Center edition to do this, all you need is Windows XP SP2. It does require an install on your PC, but once complete, you are now streaming content to your XBox. You can also change the background of your dashboard to a favorite picture (thanks Killer for showing this). I put a nice picture from Hawaii when I was parasailing up there. Took the camera up with me and snapped away.
The pictures look awesome on a big screen HD TV. The music is fantastic because you can have the music playing in the background while playing other games.
The slideshow is pretty cool because you can have some music playing in the background, pic a folder for your pictures, click on slideshow and you have a nice big picture book if you have company.

System
The system tab is where you set your theme, see your network settings, etc. The themes allow you to set the color of your background.

Overall, I think the improvements to the dashboard plus all the added content are incredible. The streaming media is awesome, the ability to download demos is great, just a nice improvement to a boring dashboard in the original xbox.
There are still some impovements that can be made, such as adding a multiperson chat. I'm sure as I look at it more, I'll find more and add them here.

Whacky's XBox 360 - First reveiw - Pt 1

Yes, it's true, I did complain Killer did not give a review, but was is this blog for? It is to give you a perspective from a couple of old guys on the latest and greatest we own.
Well, thanks to Killer, I now have my 360. It arrived Friday afternoon. Needless to say, I spent most of the evening playing it.
My review will be more of a chronological order with pro's and cons. This first part will cover the basic setup, the second part will cover the dashboard, and the third will cover the games.

My 360 is the premium unit ordered from Circuit City. I'm disappointed in CC because what they mentioned in their bundle and what were sold were 2 different things. The day it was ordered, the CC website was at best unreachable. Killer and I tried for 3 hours straight. He got in 5 minutes before me and was able to get the order placed. The bundle originally had PD0 as a game, and then took it off. Instead the bundle was the Premium, extra wireless controller, the play and recharge, memory unit, Need For Speed, Project Gotham Racing, and Madden 2006.

The first part was unpacking it. There are people complaining about the white box instead of black, but I think it looks kind of cool. There is now a power conditioner instead of just a plain cord. The good part is it does give you a lot of room from the conditioner to the unit itself, my recommendation is to give this as much room as possible, especially away from the unit itself.
Before powering the unit up, READ THIS! There is a clear, almost invisible, packing tape that is over the DVD tray and eject button. This needs to be removed. The XBox forums and Killer pointed me towards checking this out. Instead of being a protective film, it is tape.

There are 2 ways to place your 360, horizontal or verticle. I chose horizontal based on space on my cabinet, which from what I'm reading may be the better choice. I am not that keen on vertical disc units, plus, the tray for the drive on the unit is rather flimsy.

I have an HD TV, so the cables to hook up are included, which is nice. For the previous Xbox, I had to get the separate cables to hook to my TV.

There is a basic universal remote control unit with the box. You can use the remote to play movies, turn on the 360 and other miscellaneous media center functions. I have not programmed it yet to the TV, will have to try that out.

The memory unit now connects into the xbox itself instead of the controller. This makes the controller a little less bulky.

The headset is different setup than the previous. The volume control is integrated into the unit. Instead of a behind the head configuration, it is now over the top. I thought the behind the head headset was a little more progressive than over the head. The quality of sound and clarity of the mic is much better than the first xbox.

The wireless controllers are a little different. To me, they are more like the PS2 controller in function. There is now an extra button above each of the trigger buttons. The great part about the controllers is you can now turn on your 360 straight from the controller. This means you can leave your controller on the coffee table and when you want to play, just hit the controller and you are set. Another nice feature for PC gamers is that you can use them with your PC.

Tomorrow, I'll get more into the dashboard.