80

11/25/2007 6:14:40 PM

81

11/25/2007 6:49:20 PM

not quite

11/25/2007 10:00:19 PM

Assassin's Creed is definitely a fun game. To make it even more fun though, you really need to work on being stealthy. Don't be all gung ho because as soon as you figure out how to fight 50 dudes at a time, that makes it too easy. Jumping around and climbing buildings is fun and I enjoyed fighting the Templar Knight dudes, which is a side mission. I only had the game for a day and a half and I beat the story in that much time but I didn't do half the side missions. I wouldn't recommend buying it, it's not worth $60 but it is definitely a FUN game. The ending was also horrible and it has little replay value, if any. 8/10 though.

11/26/2007 12:17:58 AM

Has it been discussed how to get a perfect assassination? I just went through the first one, and not sure how I could have done anything differently

Do you have to take out all side guards before you hit main target?

11/26/2007 8:02:17 AM

I think you have to do it without being seen. Which is too bad because you don't really get the hang of it til you're on the 3rd-4th guy.

11/26/2007 8:31:59 PM

that Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2008 is just as good as all the other Cabela's games

11/26/2007 11:34:15 PM

Pics of some simple mods I've done over the past few months.



The corded mic is OK, but won't work with my mouse and keyboard device. I can't stand the earpiece with the Bluetooth mic, so I decided I'd graft it onto the headband from a corded mic. Bought a broken mic, removed it from the headband, and did some Dremel work to the earpiece connector on the Bluetooth mic. It's 100% functional, and can still rotate on the headband. I can also still remove it from the mounting piece when I need to recharge it.


This is my XIM keyboard and mouse box. Doesn't look like much, but I just wanted a project enclosure to keep all the parts in. Contained therein is the XFPS adapter (otherwise known as the XFPOS), wired Xbox controller, and custom built USB toolstick with a PS2 connection. One end plugs into my 360, the other into my PC. I finally just moved my desk off of the wall so that I could run the cable around the backside instead of the front, and I figured I'd take a picture while I had it out.

[Edited on November 29, 2007 at 9:43 AM. Reason : stupid ImageShack]

11/29/2007 9:40:52 AM

For anyone looking to purchase the new drastically more stable Xbox360's this Xmas Season....use this guide, and you'll get one of the newer Flacon 65nm Die and modified heatsink revisions.

They are much better than some of the first couple of revisions. Then again, I have one from the first gen and it's fine so obviously YMMV but we all know the track record there.

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3152&p=3

11/29/2007 5:31:43 PM

Considering it's always been the GPU that's problematic, the main reason you want Falcon is because they revised the cooling of the console.

Also, http://www.360drives.com can also give you a better idea of which consoles are Falcon and which aren't. It's not exactly a cut and dry science.

11/29/2007 6:31:24 PM

Are there any dates being thrown around where all, or a high percentage of 360's will have the new chips, cooler systems in place? I am in the market for a 360, and was planning on placing an order just before x-mas. Is it worth waiting a few weeks/months for the guarantee of one of these cooler running systems?

11/29/2007 8:34:40 PM

You'll probably be fine buying one now from a retailer that sells a lot of them.

11/30/2007 12:29:42 AM

^amazon?

11/30/2007 9:46:25 AM

I bought the Premium bundle from Best Buy a couple days ago, and so far I'm really enjoying it. I was really excited about using the HDMI cable, but the god damn console was designed in a way that you cant plug in the HDMI cable and the AV cable at the same time. This normally wouldn't a problem except that to run the fucking optical out to my surround sound, you have to have the AV cable plugged in.

Any way around that? I mean, I'm happy using component. I dont really know if HDMI would give me any better response.

Also, for the record, I'm god awful at TF2.

[Edited on November 30, 2007 at 11:01 AM. Reason : grammarrrrrr]

11/30/2007 10:58:29 AM

^ (fixing AV/HDMI). You can buy a HDMI with optical audio out from MS for 50 bucks or....

http://www.chadledford.com/?p=50

11/30/2007 11:12:17 AM

XBOX LIVE FALL UPDATE PART 2

WORD! In the next update, MS just confirmed that there will be A) downloadable XBOX1 games a la Virtual Console B) reduced prices on greatest hits XBLA games C) enhanced social networking - 'friends of friends', RSS tickers and.......

D) DIVX and XVID SUPPORT! "Megaton update: MPEG-4 Part 2 video codec support. Specifically, MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP (advanced simple profile) and SP (simple profile) in an AVI container. What does that mean to us humans? Greenberg decodes, "What that basically means is that our users should find that most of their DivX and Xvid files will work because they're under that umbrella of the MPEG-4 Part 2 codec."

Coming to your 360 very soon!! This makes streaming from windows like the best shit ever.

11/30/2007 12:25:06 PM

^Should be out next Tuesday (12/4)

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/838/838746p1.html

11/30/2007 3:13:27 PM

lol crash bandicoot & fuzion frenzy.


those games were the shit back in the day.

11/30/2007 8:02:23 PM

Quote :

"Any way around that? "

You can pry it apart as Kainen showed or alternatively you can drop like $10-$15 on 3rd party cable by a company called "React" they sell at Best Buy that has room for the HDMI cable.

11/30/2007 9:11:33 PM

with the added support of xvid. does that mean I can dump a bunch of xvid and wmv HD movies onto an external hard drive, connect it to the xbox via USB and I can skip the whole windows media center interface by just accessing 'videos' in the blade directly from a hdd?

11/30/2007 9:40:20 PM

wonder what the greatest hits XBLA games will be?

11/30/2007 10:23:06 PM

^^ More than likely. You could do it now with the WMV HDs, but they have to be under 4GB, since the USB drive has to be FAT32.

11/30/2007 10:25:10 PM

finally fixed the fucking child account problem

full list of corrections:
http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-system-update.aspx

[Edited on November 30, 2007 at 10:43 PM. Reason : ]

· Improved Xbox guide performance ~2x

ftw. that shit getting so annoying how slow it was when you needed to look at something real quick

[Edited on November 30, 2007 at 10:52 PM. Reason : ]

11/30/2007 10:43:16 PM

question

short of caving and downloading zune software and streaming from my computer (not something i want to do)

is there any way to get it to read ipods faster? if i access it from the dashboard, it's fairly quick, but in game, if you want to change artists or whatever, it takes FOREVER to read it, maybe because my 60 GB video is about 2/3 full that it takes so long to map it out to read it

but damn that shit works fairly quickly on the dashboard vice the game

12/3/2007 12:30:24 PM

Quote :

"fuzion frenzy."

omfgz

12/3/2007 1:05:45 PM

I have that game already

I wonder if the downloaded version would run better than the actual disk, because that thing has some serious slow down issues on some of the minigames

oh, and should we start a list of the xboxes red-ringed by the new update?

[Edited on December 3, 2007 at 1:24 PM. Reason : .]

12/3/2007 1:23:58 PM

if anybody is wondering i have beautiful katamari just turned on with the controller plugged in for that 100 hours of gameplay achievement

12/4/2007 10:19:02 AM

It's here! Guys, the interface moves much faster and slicker. Totally awesome. I can play Divx/Xvids too! So far it's played everything I've thrown at it via USB or streaming from PC / WMP11 God bless the 360!

---------------------------
Microsoft has released the fall dashboard update for the Xbox 360, adding a variety of new functions to the system while refining its existing capabilities.

Included in the update is support for DivX- and Xvid-encoded videos, a family timer that allows parents and spouses to limit the time their loved ones invest in the console, and more social networking options. The online Xbox Live Marketplace has been completely redesigned, and now offers up downloadable versions of original Xbox titles for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) along with the new Xbox Live Arcade Hits program, which permanently reduces the price of several popular XBLA games.

12/4/2007 1:16:07 PM

nice...I'm looking forward to downloading the update...before when I've had a nice 700MB DIVX AVI on my computer I've had to spend an hour converting it to WMV before I could stream it on the 360...now hopefully I can just stream it on the 360

12/4/2007 1:19:41 PM

^you could have just use transcode360 which converts it on the fly as you are watching it, lag free. Thats what I've been using until today

12/4/2007 1:30:02 PM

does anyone know if it addresses my ipod interfacing issue above?

i am sure they're not rushing to enable people to use ipods with their ish

12/4/2007 1:30:25 PM

oh for real...I was using something called Blaze Media Pro...it was free, but a 2 hour movie took half that long just to convert...needless to say the divx support is an improvement

12/4/2007 1:30:47 PM

Sweet. I've had a 360 since February and it's gotten sent back twice so far (once for the 3/4 red ring and once for not being able to read and CDs).

Just got it back today and now it won't connect any of my wireless controllers... and yes fuckers, I know how to reconnect them.

I get to sit on the phone for an hour again and have some fuckwad tell me shit that I've already done 20 times over and eventually get to send it back again I'm sure!! Yay!

Fuck this POS system.

[Edited on December 4, 2007 at 9:11 PM. Reason : x]

12/4/2007 9:10:44 PM

i still have my launch system from the first 5 minutes of release, knock on wood.

12/4/2007 10:00:32 PM

^^ I thought only red rings were covered by the new warranty?

Or are you still under your old warranty?

12/4/2007 11:16:36 PM

Love the update, PORNBOX 360.

No, I did grin to see it browse my PC with no hassle whatsoever - don't need media center anymore, just a copy of windows media player 11 and bam, good to go.

I also love the new friends lists addition, added layer of sheen - faster blades, good stuff.

12/5/2007 12:31:23 AM

I'm thinking about getting another Arcade game. What do you guys suggest? I'm initially thinking Puzzle Fighter.

12/5/2007 10:11:57 AM

I must have missed that Marble Blast game whenever it came out, but saw it yesterday and it was only 400 points...that shit is addictive, definitely get that.

12/5/2007 10:16:45 AM

[old]

and

[dope]

12/5/2007 10:17:28 AM

I really like puzzle quest

it's extremely addicting

12/5/2007 1:28:51 PM

i still have my launch system from the 2nd week of release, knock on wood

12/5/2007 1:39:52 PM

Quote :

" I thought only red rings were covered by the new warranty? Or are you still under your old warranty?"

First warranty. I've only had it since February... This blows though. How could they send it back to me after fixing one problem while it has another that I never had before? Ridiculous.

12/5/2007 1:53:07 PM

^bad luck

again for everyone though, i didnt have the red ring error, but just a bunch of "Damaged or Dirty Disc" errors...but when I called M$, I TOLD them that i got the red ring error

its not like they boot up every 360 you send them right when they get it and then say "hey this doesnt have the red rings, send it back to that motherfucker" they just use part of the 1.1 billion dollars they allocated for the repairs, swap out whatever shitty parts cause the errors, then turn it on and make sure it boots up, then send it back

12/5/2007 2:03:31 PM

I might be doing that then

I'm getting a Wii in a few weeks anyway, it would be a good time to let them have it for a while

update: coffin on the way as we speak

I really hope they aren't testing them now though, I would like to get a newer build that doesn't have this dvd read problem or the overheat problem

[Edited on December 5, 2007 at 4:17 PM. Reason : .]

12/5/2007 3:56:50 PM

so, after questions about ipod reading speed, now i have the update and it wont even recognize my ipod on the dashboard or in game

anyone else have this issue?

12/5/2007 8:17:52 PM

man my box must be a rare one, i got mine the first day it came out and have had no problems. the worst thing thats happened, and only once, was madden 08 freezing on me.

12/5/2007 8:29:57 PM

^^ i don't get that, my ipod works perfect just by plugging it in to the USB. Didn't need to alter or do anything.

You could just use windows media player 11 and stream it. works flawlessly...just get WMP11, go to library and scan in your mp3 folder, activate share xbox 360 in options and voila.

12/5/2007 11:44:14 PM

Quote :

"man my box must be a rare one, i got mine the first day it came out and have had no problems. the worst thing thats happened, and only once, was madden 08 freezing on me."

I was able to say the same thing until this past weekend, it started making a loud beep then freezing up on me, then after several attempts to turn it back on I got the red rings. But the next day I did the towel trick and it's working just fine now. Who knows how long it'll last though

12/6/2007 12:04:09 AM

^ Probably a week at the most

It helps slightly for me to lie mine on it's side, but it just sound like it's scratching the dvds all to hell when it's attempting to read them (it isn't, but that's the sound it's making)

I think in playing a game for about an hour, I get at least 2 "disc unreadable" errors

12/6/2007 8:05:45 AM

Quote :

"But the next day I did the towel trick and it's working just fine now. Who knows how long it'll last though"

for future reference, what is the towel trick?

12/6/2007 8:50:11 AM