Jeff and Bethany brought Micah down and stayed the night with us Friday night.  It was really fun.  In my opinion, Micah did awesome for his first trip away from home.  We watched The Bourne Supremacy on HD-DVD.  We wanted to watch The Rundown, but I couldn't find it on HD-DVD.

After the movie, we fired up the Wii, and played Wii Sports.  Jeff and I played boxing for the first time, and we are still sore from it.  It was an unbelievable workout.

My XBox360... is dead.  It started locking up in the last few days, and now is completely dead.  I spent some time on the phone with support to no avail.  They are sending me a coffin to put it in so they can try to resurrect it.  I suppose it's fairly good timing.  I had planned to get alot of work done around the house this holiday weekend, and I'm sure the 360 would have been a distraction.

Between work, the baby, and 1000 other things, I haven't had time for blogging.  Then there is the strange phenomenon that occurs when your thoughts get backlogged and you don't want to blog about anything until you've gotten everything in order because you don't want to leave out anything.  So, I figure what better way to get back into it than to post a completely trivial review of a video game.

The new Ghost Recon (or GRAW for short) came out recently for the XBox360, and my friends and I were fairly excited.  Even though we've got 360's, we've been playing Halo 2 on them.  GRAW seemed to be the game that would let us have our online fun on a real next-gen game.  Now that I've played it a while, I've developed some opinions about it.

The single-player campaign mode is pretty fun.  I don't really like games where I have to command other non-player characters.  I don't really mind if they wanna come help me, and I can suggest things for them to do.  This game appears to suit my tastes in that category pretty well.  The other guys will follow me around and shoot at stuff and generally do what I'd like them to do.  The only thing that is stupid is the medic command.  When one of your guys is hurt, they fall down and you have the option to command one of the other guys to help patch them up. Why do I have to do that?  Why can't they figure that out on their own?  In addition, why can't they help you when you're the one that's hurt?  Other than that, the weapons, the sense of urgency (it's a pretty good special forces simulator), the missions, and the visuals lead to a very nice game.

That said, I don't really like playing games by myself, so multiplayer is weighted very heavily on my scale of game goodness.  First off, the multiplayer is a very different game than the single player.  Several key elements of the game are missing (taking cover, vehical control, etc).  But the drone, and the cross-com cameras are still available, which enable some very cool in-game communication. It really feels like you are your friends are moving steathily through the jungle taking out the bad guys with your high-tech, but realistic arsenal.

The only problem is that there is no "party system".  This is a common problem with online multiplayer games on my opinion, and it's just stupid.  Halo 2 does this wonderfully, and it's a very old game by now.  Halo 2 made it stupid simple to get into a party with your friends and then jump into games with other random people.  In Ghost Recon (and just about every other game I've played), someone has to start up a game lobby.  Then, you can join it.  Then, once all your friends are in the lobby, you sit there and pray that some other people will join.  What usually happens is you start a short game to play while you're waiting, and you end up playing a stupid game for 30 minutes waiting for enough people to show up for the other team so you can play a real game.  The problem is that the people you really want to play against (parties of about 4 people looking for other parties of 4 people) are doing the same thing you are doing because the alternative is so frustrating.  The alternative, is to pick someone to be the game finder.  When they find a game, they join it, send out invites and beg the host not to start until all your friends can get in.  Chances are they won't wait, or the host gets tired of waiting and ends the lobby and everyone is out in the dark looking for each other again (remember there is no multi-person chat in the 360 dashboard).  Or you end up playing lobby tag with your friends because more than one person is actively looking for a game for the group to play in.

If people on your friends list are already in a game, joining is a hassle.  You can respond to an invite, or choose "join session" from the XBox360 guide blade, then you get a stupid dialog box that tells you you've decided to join a game, and it only has one option...OK.  Whoever let that brilliant piece of UI into the released game should be given several lashes.  Then, you are forced to go through another login type procedure and finally end up in the lobby of the game (if it still exists).  If it does exist, you have to sit there and wait in the lobby until the game is over before you can interact with anyone in the game.  Ghost Recon game types are typically very long (~30 minutes), so you just have to sit there.  At least let me play a mini-game, or be an in-game observer or something.

In any case, if the host leaves the game for any reason, everyone is booted from the game and you have to hook up all over again.  These are all problems that have great solutions already.  All you need to do is fire up Halo 2 to see how it should be done.

Luckily, Ghost Recon has a rich online co-op mode, which allows you and your friends to team up against the A.I. in campaign style missions or other elimination, or objective games.  As I said before, it's fairly easy to get your friends into a game. This redeems the game enough to make it a blast to play.

So, will I have fun playing it...Absolutely

Will I be annoyed every time I play it...Absolutely.

I downloaded the Fight Night 3 demo on my 360 this evening, expecting to be wowed.  And wowed I was, but by two different things.

First, the graphics and presentation are amazing.  There are no health meters, no on-screen data at all, just two boxers...boxing.  It looks absolutely incredible.  It's a level of realism I had not yet experienced.

Second, I could not figure out how to play to save my life.  My character pretty much just stood there and got the crap beat out of him.  Several of the buttons appeared to all have the same function... the "brush some dust off your opponent by moving your glove in the general direction of your opponent, but without applying any force whatsoever" function.  Seriously, I thought something was wrong with my controller, so I fired up a second one.  Nothing I tried did the slightest amount of damage.  So, I looked for the control explanation.  Ahh, the right stick is the "total punch control".  That sounds good, right.  So, I tried just about everything I could think of to control my punches using the stick, but still nothing.

Can someone explain how that's supposed to work?  I'm sure their control mechanism is innovating, but I just can't figure it out. Does EA really expect people to be amazing by a game who's controls are so unintuitive?

[UPDATE:]  After some more playing, I've figured out a fairly successful strategy.  I was missing the fact that holding the left trigger let you "dodge" with your body with the left stick, while the right trigger allows you to block with the right stick.  I never got the right stick to do any successful punching.  But, using combinations of jabs and hooks, you can get pretty solid punches, especially when coming from a dodge.  I've gotten to where I can knock the other guy down without much trouble.  I doubt I will buy the game when it comes out, unless my friends get into it. I don't really like boxing that much.

It seems Chris Anderson's 360 launch experience was remarkably similar to mine [1, 2].  I just thought that was interesting.  I figured MS folks would have their pick early.

In a followup to my last post, I was 26th in line for 24 XBox360's this morning at Costco.  At least my friend Yong was 18th in line.  He called me as I was just waking up, and I set a record for getting ready and getting to Costco.

The guy in front of me (#25) who just missed out started getting really mad and yelling, setting a really good example for his kid.  I thought the manager handled it really well.  In fact, the whole operation was pretty smooth.  They gave people numbers and took their Costco cards and said, "come back at 8:30".

Well, looks like I won't be getting my hands on an XBox360 tonight.  My job actually requires me to do some work, and I didn't get in line in time.  I heard some crazy stories from some people in line.  One guy drove several hours for his place in line.  I figured Wal-Mart would be my best bet since it would be open at midnight.  I was right, I just couldn't get there soon enough.

It's fine though.  I'm not terribly excited about any of the launch games.  I was just really excited about playing Halo 2 in HD.

So, I suppose I'll have to wait a while.  Boo.  Let me know if any of you guys have the hook-up.

This is what happens if you break your XBox communicator and still want to play.  Dave broke the plastic part that rests on your ears, so he's using a headband to hold it onto his head.  He said he was really hot after playing a while. Hilarious. 

Even though it has some objectionable language, I thought this video was funny enough to link to. Evidently, a group of guys had been playing Halo 2 late into the night, when one of them fell asleep while playing.  To make matters worse, he begins snoring loudly into his headset.  So, his character is just standing there snoring.  One guy fires up the VCR and starts recording.  Then they all begin abusing the snoring guy.  Yelling at him to wake him up, pushing him off cliffs, and surrounding him with explosive fusion cores and setting them off which sends him into the stratosphere.  Again, it does has some objectionable language.

Although I haven't experienced this scenario, playing Halo 2 online is very interesting from a social standpoint.  To me, it's been alot more like playing a sport than a video game.  When you're playing online, there are no AI players.  Every character has a real human controlling it.  Being able to communicate with your teammates adds alot as well.  It's alot like playing paintball or lazertag in really elaborate arenas, only tons cheaper.  If you think about it that way, the XBox is very inexpensive compared to what you'd have to pay for that kind of entertainment.  It's a fantastically easy way for me to get together with my friends and do something without having to get them all in one place. (at least my friends who have XBoxes...hint...hint)  And it's also been an excuse to get to know people I wouldn't otherwise have much in common with.

We spent the day in Belton today with my folks and my brother.  We had a good time winding up the holiday festivities.  Mom made her patented roast, which she will tell you is nothing special, but it's really yummy.

Dave got an XBox communicator, and when Becky and I got back from Belton, I had about 5 hilarious XBox Live voice messages from him. We played several games of Halo 2 “Big Team Battle”.  I think you probably have to experience it to truly understand how fun it is, but it's an 8-on-8 team battle playing different kinds of capture-the-flag-esque games in huge environments with all kinds of flying, rolling, and hovering vehicles; lots of guns and grenades; and in-game voice hilarity.  The funnest moment for me was jumping in a Warthog (a humvee-type vehicle), waiting for Dave and another guy to jump in the passenger and gunner seats, and then taking off across the battlefield at full speed to pick up the bomb and singing pirate chanties along the way.  It was great.

I just played my first online Halo 2 game.  WICKED AWESOME!!!  Check out my stats for the game. The medals are interesting. I'm also pretty proud of my hits. The game viewer is awesome although I can't seem to make a link for it since it opens via some javascript. At least I didn't lose.

If anyone's interested, here's my Halo 2 games RSS feed.

I'm gonna jump on and play some more!

After tomorrow, I'm off for the rest of the year.  I'll likely be playing my fair share of video games.  I'd like to increase my XBox Live friends list so I can play online and actually feel some connection to the people I'm playing with.  So:

• Who's got XBox Live and what's your gamertag? Mine is, appropriately, “marklio” (I know it's lame, but I like consistency).  Feel free to leave yours here, or just send me a friend invitation (they really should have called that “friendvitation“).
• What are you playing? I should have Halo 2 by Christmas, but I'm looking for other cool online games.  I rented Star Wars Battlefront, which is pretty fun.

I picked up the component cables for the XBox last night (they're different than the ones in that link.  It looks more like the Monster Cable version).  I must say, they are the highest quality first party component cables for a video game system I've ever seen.  They also add the digital optical audio output.  For only $20, there's no need to waste a colossal amount of money on the Monster Cable ones. 

There's nothing like shooting Jar-Jar Binks with a sniper rifle in HD widescreen 5.1 Dolby Digital goodness.

I've also updated my holiday wishlist accordingly.

[UPDATE:12/16/2004]  I took the box over to Dave's last night where we romped on Jar Jar for a couple of hours.  He's got a direct view CRT which is inherently sharper than my rear projection CRT and it is definitely quite beautiful.  Can't wait to get Halo 2.

Well, I sold some old games back to GameStop and got a sweet deal on a new XBox.  I'm holding off on the other XBox-related items on my wishlist in case I receive some for Christmas, so for now, I've got one controller and the game bundle it came with (NCAA 2005 football and TopSpin (tennis)).

I realize it's a bit late in the game for reviews, but, as someone new to the XBox, I thought I'd take a few minutes and relate my first impressions of the hardware (especially in comparison to PS2 and GameCube):

The console itself:

It's enormous and heavy! It's as wide as the PS2 (PS2 in flat position), almost as tall as the GameCube, and much deeper than either of them.  It also weights almost as much as both of them combined.

The front connections are pretty nice, rivaling the GameCube. The lack of memory card connectors helps with cleanness.  The mess that the PS2 becomes in the front is ridiculous with un/plugging multitaps, memory cards, etc.

The back is very clean.  A standard, non-polarized AC power cord connection, a single A/V connection, and an ethernet port is all there is. Both the PS2 and GameCube are pretty messy in the back.  The GameCube attempts to “cheat“ it's size by moving its transformer to the middle of the cable, which is very inconvenient. I suspect it will get more messy when I get the HD connector.

The controller (the “S” controller):

The controller worried me the most.  I had only played with the ridiculous huge controllers that used to ship with the console.  I was pleasantly surprised.  They seem to have taken their cue from GameCube on the size and general shape of the controller, which makes it pretty pleasing to hold (for me).  The joysticks/D-pad/button placement is also the same as GC, which I like much more than the PS-style.

The button layout is similar to the PS, organized in a cross.  My preference there is mixed, depending on the game.  The triggers are strikingly similar to the DreamCast, as well as the expansion slots, although there is no “hole” for an in-controller LCD screen, which I felt never really worked out on the DC.  I like the idea of the headset connecting to the controller rather than the console on the PS, which really sucked.

In addition, the buttons are pressure-sensitive (at least the main ones), which was missing from the GC.  It has some extra buttons like the “black/white” buttons and the “back/start” buttons, that seem to come in pretty handy for adding those extra in-game features without adding alot of confusion for button usage.  I'll have to see how they are utilized in other games.

Another improvement over the GC is that the right joystick is the same as the left one, not a little crippled nub.  They are also both concave on the top, which I like more, especially when attempting to execute the awkward “push the joystick“ movement, (which is missing from the GC).

I also like that cord extension connections are built-in to the cord rather than use the larger console connection.

It's pretty hard to beat the overall comfort of the GC controller, but the things the XBox adds and improves upon seem to make it superior.  It's pretty easy to beat the socks off of the PS controller.

P.S.  XBox live support is great. They very quickly determined that the uPnP support on my router was keeping me from connecting.  Disabling it did the trick.  I'll have to see if that was causing problems for some of my PS2 games.

Well, it seems that the XBox finally has enough good games for me to want one.  Specifically Halo 2.  It's nice to see a console with a well-defined online strategy, even if I don't like it.

I've been thinking about this year's holiday wishlist, and I think it's going to have to include an XBox and Halo 2.  I've just been so dissapointed by the buggy online offerings from Sony and the non-existent ones from Nintendo.

I HAVE been enjoying the single player experience on PS2 and GameCube.  Metriod Prime 2 is an incredible sequel, Burnout 3 (PS2) is a blast (even though online is buggy as heck with zero support), and Paper Mario is just plain entertaining.

Look for my wishlist soon.

Dave and I rented the GameCube version of Return of the King yesterday.  It was really awesome.  For someone really looking forward to the movie, it really heightened the anticipation.  It follows the storyline from the end of Helms Deep through the end of the movie (I guess, we didn't finish it by any means).

If you are a fan of the old Gauntlet arcade game, and a fan of the books/movies, it's fantastic.  It does contain real shots/environments from the movie, so if you're looking for that sterile movie experience, don't play it until after the movie, but this is such a well-known story that it shouldn't matter much.

Anyway, it's real cool, and has a nice multi-player cooperative mode.  I've heard the PS2 version doesn't look as nice, but should be pretty cool as well.