Into the mind of Gerlach

Formula1.com interviews Codemaster's Rod Cousens

gerlach — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:10:17 GMT

Formula1.com ran an interview with Codemaster's Rod Cousens about Codemasters winning the Formula1 license. Its a short interview, but from it you get the picture that they are really going to try to bring Formula1 to the mass consumer. If they are able to do this, Formula1 can be one of those top games. If they are able to mix arcade (for the "general" gamer) with the simulation (hardcore), it could be a game that will sell millions of copies.

Its unfortunate that in the US, we have almost a lack of interest in racing series that really utilizes technology. Yes, I understand there is technology in NASCAR, and Indy Car and such but not nearly the amount that there is in Formula1. Formula1 has really spawned new technology that you see in some of the top sports cars in the world.

Anyways, head over to the interview.

[The future of F1 videogames - exclusive with Codemasters’ Rod Cousens - Formula1.com]

Microsoft: You want to do well in Europe, get the F1 License!

gerlach — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:20:54 GMT

First off, if you follow F1, you know that Microsoft is already a party of it all. They are the sole manufacturer of the ECU (I believe software only) for ALL the F1 cars. So, Microsoft has a foot in the door.

Why do I think Microsoft should get this license? Because Formula 1 is HUGE in Europe and Asia. The majority of races for F1 are in Europe with more expansion into Asia as well as the Middle East. These are markets where Microsoft could use some help...well, in some cases a lot.

What is another reason? They can (essentially) strap an F1 game to the underpinnings of Forza 2. How many people agree that Forza was a pretty realistic game for the 360? Now give the team another year, graphics will improve as well as all the math behind the calculations.

Microsoft....get the license!

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37275/98/

What is the Hold Up With Record Companies and Artists with Rock Band?

gerlach — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:25:16 GMT

This is something I am CONSTANTLY thinking about. Truly, what is holding record labels from putting content out for Rock Band. The way I look at it, it is almost free marketing! Seriously, all a company has to do is allow EA/MTV/Harmonix to create the content when given the music. It is something that boggles my mind everyday.

Now, I understand there are a couple of things holding back the content:

EA may be throttling content so that every pack gets it own time to shine- Yea, this is fair but, I would love to see more content. Has Xbox Live noticed less downloads per game since going on a(n) (almost) weekly schedule of two new games? If not, there is no reason why EA should hold back.
The Artists do not want their content on the game- This one would boggle my mind completely. Like above, it is free advertising/marketing. I will be the first to say that I have LEGALLY purchased music from the Zune Marketplace just because I liked playing the song on a game (in most cases it was Guitar Hero songs, but that is irregardless). What about a now defunct band? Outside of band fights, this is essentially getting money for a band without even having to do anything! Now...there are some bands that think quite highly of their music and don't license it often, see Led Zeppelin. But those bands, at least I consider are few and far in between.
The Songs don't fit the game- The benefit to Rock Band having a guitar, a bass, a drum set and a mic is that there is a lot you can do with the game. For me, I am DEFINETLY looking to pick up the drums in the next couple of weeks. Side Note: My birthday is a week from Monday...so if any one wants to send me a working Xbox 360 drum set...use the contact button up top :). Anyone continuing on, the same benefit is also its song selection downfall. You have to have all four parts to be a song. There are great instrumental songs that I would love to have on Rock Band, but without vocals, you cant render that fourth person useless. This goes for all songs that have 3/4ths of the equation.
The Music Industry is slow, archaic and doesn't see the benefit- Being a NIN, my thoughts on the music industry may be skewed. (Thanks for the NIN Content though!). But even with that said, the music industry is slow to the new technologies and it is showing. CD sales are constantly dropping and you are finally getting your things together for the digital age. Just get with the program. Like I said, this is almost FREE MARKETING. I have an idea for the record labels:
- New band is coming out or a new album by a Band- Build Rock Band into your marketing strategy. Give Harmonix $500k-1 mil, and sell the songs at $1 for a week or two. After that raise it after that. Or, you can forgo giving Harmonix money, and just give them the ability to use the song and they sell it for $1 (which, I presume is what they get per song when sold at $1.99) for a set amount of time. After X number of downloads, you or the artist them gets a portion of what is sold. Really, if this is done, you end up MAKING money on this marketing!

I am still loving Rock Band, and am looking forward to more content, especially NIN content. It just annoys me that they are kind of slow with rolling out more content. I should also note that this really sprouts from me wanting Audioslave. They are almost PERFECT for this game.

Is there a point to system link anymore?

gerlach — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:29:16 GMT

System link used to be THE thing when the original Xbox came out. You can have massive games with friends all while in the same house. Then came tunneling software like XBC and Gamespy, where you can play people across the world, especially in titles like Halo. But with the advent of Xbox Live, the way of system linking kinda went the way of VHS. Why would I need to drag my Xbox all the way to a friends house, when I can just link up on Xbox Live.

The benefits of Live are pretty big. I can be playing any Xbox Live game, and receive an invite to play another. If I am on Guitar Hero 3 and my friend wants to get some Valentine's Day playlists done on H3, then he can shoot me an invite, I accept it and all I have to do then is put in and launch Halo 3. Very simple, right? Exactly. There is also voice support, so we don't need to scream for everyone to join or setup, etc...

BUT! To my dismay last night, I found out that while Call of Duty 4 can do system link it is COMPLETELY useless. I can understand the 1 person limit in a Xbox Live match, but...for system link?!? It was a huge disappointment and makes me wonder why the heck a developer includes it for that. It is truly worthless at that point.

Well...we played Halo 3 instead.

Me, My Blog, Why I haven't Blogged, and Rock Band

gerlach — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:04:53 GMT

Wow...it has been a WHILE since I have blogged. There are multiple reasons why:

School just takes up time
I don't want to blog unless I contribute at least an opinion, or if I give a heads up that not many will see. I am NOT here to post press releases. To me...that is pointless, I'll just head to the gamerscore blog for that.
I kinda got tired of it. I was at the point where I felt the NEED to blog. It got to the point where I didn't want to. So I didn't.
Swimming. I swim here at Syracuse. Coming back from practice all tired and such, and then having to do work was...too much.

Do I want to contribute more? Absolutely. Do I hope people at least kept me near the feed list? Yea, I hope they did. So here goes. This is something that has been on my mind since I read about it last week.

Rock Band and Nine Inch Nails: More Content to Come

Be Aware that the videos embedded below may contain profanity. I am 99% sure the profanity will not be in Rock Band.

First off I am a pretty big Nine Inch Nails fan. I own all (need to check that) 5 major releases from 1989's Pretty Hate Machine to 2007's Year Zero (with songs from Broken, The Downward Spiral (full), The Fragile (full), and With Teeth (full)). So to hear that February's OXM has news about a new Nine Inch Nails track pack I was extremely happy. That is probably going to be the first pack for Rock Band that I will purchase. But...I still have issue with the song choice. Note: It is guarenteed that I am buying these tracks the minute they release.

March of the Pigs: There will need to be alot of vocal editing for this song. Will they utilize a radio-friendly version that may be in existance? I would hope because in the explicit album version there are many foul words. Also, there aren't always heavy instrumentals. Yea, near the end there is but...the song seems a little unbalanced.
The Collector: This song will probably be good for the average person to like. It has more of a mainstream sound...but isn't that pre-fab Fallout Boy material. My issue is that it kinda lacks guitar. It has a nice base and drum track but the guitar seems stale. It may be different when playing but I feel there are better songs. More on that later. The video will showcase how the song is going to be played. You get a clear view of the drummer (Jerome Dillion) as well as Trent singing and playing guitar, with Aaron North also playing. Playing Bass is Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez with Marilyn Manson).
Perfect Drug: This song, I feel, may be the hardest for people to get used to. It has a unique sound, which I like. The song is catchy, im just not sure how it is going to play. It will be a little weird. Take a look at the video to get an understanding.

What I think Should have been included:

Getting Smaller (With Teeth, 2005) - It is a face paced song with a good balance of guitar, bass and drumming. A good amount of vocals as well. The unofficial video (Fight Club dubbed with "Getting Smaller") can give you an idea as to what the song sounds like).
Last (Broken, 1992). Overall a good rock song. Again, a good balance of the 4 parts. Video again is unofficial with the song dubbed over. Quality of the video is...meh.
Head Like a Hole (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989). The Live version would be even better, since the original has a bunch of synths but still a great rock song.

These are just a couple of ideas for me. Hopefully, ill be posting a bit more.

Scene It? Lights Camera Action : My Review

gerlach — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 05:02:42 GMT

How do you entertain an entire family from grandparents in their 60's or 70s, parents in their 30s and 40s and kids in their teens and 20's, many of which are not the stereotypical "gamer". The answer is Scene it. With questions from movies starring Humphrey Bogart to movies starring Vince Vaughn in "Fred Clause" (Yes, the Fred Claus that came out in Oct/Nov 2007....AFTER the game came out), anyone has a chance to answer questions.

The questions do not just pull on just fact. Nor do they pull from what you see in a movie. You will get questions based on credits, where they provide the position title (ex. makeup artist, or Director) and the person's name. You will also get questions based on video clips, where you have to pay attention to not only what is said, but what happens inside the clip. Even make sure to how many lamps are in a room in certain clips. :)

Positives of the Game:

Anyone can play it. It doesn't truly matter what your age is. Obviously, of course the game won't really be to fun for kids that are young (give or take younger than 12-14), as a good majority of movies that the game is currently based on are from around the time they are very young. Outside of that it can entertain almost anyone.
It is very easy. Once you get the general concepts of the different types of games (being able to separate which ones to buzz in for, or how to get the clues for answers), it becomes very easy.
It never truly gets boring. You rarely see questions repeated. You may see the same video clips, but not necessarily the same questions.

Cons:

This is my opinion...but the game is really only fun when you are in a group. I haven't played it yet by myself, but it was just so much fun creating rivalries inside of groups that I can't imagine that it will be as fun. With that said, I still think it could be fun to play it in a single player setting. And by no means, is this a "true" negative.
You will see questions repeated. While I have never seen a question repeated while I was playing and signed into my account, I have seen a question duplicated. Do I think I will see it, even if I sign into my profile every time and it keeps track of what questions I have seen? Yes, with contain that is restricted to what is on the disc, I do expect to see repeating questions.

Overall:

This game is great for family get together's. Since I will be traveling around the US during the New Years Eve time frame, my mother has asked me to leave Scene It at home when I return for Christmas. And that, frankly, speaks a lot. My mother is by far not a gamer, with the only games she truly plays are Tetris (I know, classic), and Snood. If you are looking for a GREAT game to play during Christmas time, I highly recommend picking up Scene It.

Here is my Zune Card

gerlach — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:56:00 GMT

Edit: So, looks like fellow Xbox MVP Morgan has created a "My Zune Card" service.

You can get your own by taking "ZUNETAG" out of the URL and replacing it with your...zune tag.

http://card.mygamercard.net/apps/zune/ZUNETAG.png

The New Velvet Revolver GH3 Pack Rocks!

gerlach — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:57:37 GMT

I know, its been a little over a week since Guitar Hero 3 launched. Yes, it MAY be too early for content downloads, let alone premium. But, Guitar Hero 3 packs 70 songs on disc, with MANY being extremely good songs (and not covers for most of them mind you). Simply put...if you want the songs buy them.

Today, I decided to add another 500 MP points to my account to quickly download the Velvet Revolver song pack for Guitar Hero 3. It comes with their first hit, Slither, as well as their most recent hits "Messages" and "She Builds Quick Machines" from Libertad (new album recently released in 2007). Simply put these songs ROCK!

"She Builds Quick Machines" (music video) - The non-guitar solo parts have a good amount of notes in it at the medium level to keep it fun. Then...the solo part. Woo!

"Messages" (listen) is a nice slower paced song that on medium, I found fairly easy. I hit all the notes, but needless to say I am not a beginner at this (nor am I someone who rocks out at expert). It is a real nice song, definitely a change of pace.

"Slither" (music video) - Not as fast as SBQM, but definetly a very good song for Guitar Hero 3. I would put it in a mix between SBQM and Messages, favoring more towards SBQM.

I know...its been a while since some consistant posting. I hope to change that in about 2-3 weeks. I should have a review of "Scene it?" later this week, if not early next week. It will either be here, or there will be a link to my Xbox.com post.

What Forza needs to get me back.

gerlach — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:49:08 GMT

Lets run through a quick list of what Forza Motorsport 2 needs to do, to get me back. Given, I love the game, but it is at a point where...it is kinda stale. Its almost the same thing over and over. Now, I LOVE knowing a tracking and trying to improve my lap times, but playing H3 online, or playing through my PGR4 career is a little bit more "fun" to me now. So on to the list:

New Tracks - This is like a shooter adding a new map. It is something new that I want to conquer, set fast times and race fast. Maybe a track like Le Mans or Monza or Indianapolis (formula 1 configuration) would be some great editions. I do understand that each track may be hefty in terms of space taken up on the HDD, but...I think its worth it.
New Cars - I know we have received new cars lately, but, while good it isn't the type of cars I want. I love consumer cars, but man, I want some more R class cars. I want fast cars. I want cars that challenge each other.
New Challenges - Take those new cars and create new races for them. Pit the Audi's R10 against the Puegeot's 908 HDi. Put the new mustang against the concept Camaro.
New Liveries - Get me some cool looking cars. The new badboyvette's C6.R that is racing at Laguna Seca this weekend. Yes, I know I can probably do it myself...but I lack those skills in Forza.

That is just a quick (and relatively) obvious ways for Forza to get me back. But they are essential. It would be really great to see some of these happens, so I have hope that the Turn 10 team will do so.

I know its been a while.

gerlach — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:18:38 GMT

Looks like its been a REAL long time (about a month) since I last posted here to my blog. I needed a break from a bunch of things, with swimming/training hitting the harder parts as well as tests in classes and projects being due.

My blog is here for me to write about great things for the community (not to really comment on rumors/speculation, that much). The blog isn't here for me to establish a community. Please do not get me wrong, I would love (and hope I do have some) community that reads my blog maybe once a day. But, it is just for me to get my ideas as well as other community happenings out for more people to see.

Ill probably be posting a little bit more (as we move further and further from the news juggernaut that is Halo 3).

Now, for the most AMAZING C6.R Corvette I have ever seen (hope this paint job stays):

[via autoblog.com]

Just a couple of amazing Halo franchise facts.

gerlach — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:07:04 GMT

The Numbers

· “Halo®” and “Halo 2” have sold more than 14.8 million copies worldwide (Xbox® and PC versions). It’s expected that by the end of the year fans will have spent more than $1 billion on the “Halo” franchise.

· The “Halo 2” release on Nov. 9, 2004, set entertainment history by generating $125 million in U.S. sales in its first 24 hours. The launch of “Halo 3” on Sept. 25, 2007, is expected to once again set entertainment sales records by selling more in the U.S. on day one than any movie in history (the current record is held by “Spider-Man 3” at $151 million) and selling more in its first week than any album.

· “Halo 3” is the most anticipated game in video game history, and pre-sell numbers showcase the excitement, reaching 1 million in the United States alone in late July, two months before the launch.

· More than 10,000 retail stores across the United States will be open at midnight on Sept. 25 to ensure that fans receive “Halo 3” hot off the shelves. Managers at workplaces worldwide expect a higher than usual number of absentees in the days following the launch.

The Xbox LIVE Numbers

· The “Halo 3” multiplayer beta, which ran for three weeks in May 2007, attracted more than 820,000 unique participants from 25 countries around the world and became the biggest console beta of all time.

· Participants in the multiplayer beta logged more than 12 million hours of online gameplay. That’s the equivalent of 1,400 years of continuous play by a single person. They downloaded more than 350 terabytes of data, equivalent to more than 82 million digital song downloads with an average size of 4 MB.

· Of the 7 million members on Xbox LIVE®, the largest social network on TV, more than 5.5 million have played “Halo 2.”

· Nearly three years after the release of “Halo 2,” more than 300,000 unique gamers continue to log on to Xbox LIVE every day to play it.

The Facts

· Master Chief, the hero character of the “Halo” franchise, is one of the most recognizable characters in video games. He recently joined heroes of television and film as the first videogame character to be immortalized in Madame Tussauds’ 250-year history.

· “Halo 3” will be released around the globe as follows:

Sept. 25: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States
Sept. 26: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom
Sept. 27: Japan

· Owing to its worldwide popularity, “Halo 3” will be available in 17 languages: English, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, Italian, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Slovak, Spanish (Iberian and Latin American), Swedish and Traditional Chinese.

· “Halo 3” has more audio than 20 feature films combined, including the following:

39,000 lines of dialogue
13,000 sound effects
Music totaling six hours of continuous play

· The music of the “Halo” series has garnered numerous audio awards around the world, including the 2004 Console Game of the Year from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, the Game Developers Choice Awards and Rolling Stone magazine’s award for best game soundtrack.

· Inspiration for the environments in “Halo 3”came from a variety of sources, such as French cathedrals Chartres, Metz and Reims; a Wallace Stevens poem titled “The Snow Man”; and the sketches and watercolors of artist David Roberts.

· “Halo 3” development began in 2004, and the title took 120 full-time employees (double the number that developed “Halo 2”) and an army of contractors over 1 million person-hours to create. The Bungie Studios team spans a broad range of talent, including architects, engineers, journalists, artists and videographers.

· The Bungie Studios team consumed more than 20,000 pounds of pizza, 24,000 gallons of soda and more than a half ton of bananas during the three years it took to develop “Halo 3.”

The Partners

· The “Halo” franchise has spawned numerous licensed products such as action figures, soundtracks, graphic novels, collectible figurines, apparel, costumes and a comic book series. The licensed merchandise for “Halo” has brought in three times more revenue than all merchandise sold to date for the Harry Potter franchise.

· “The Official Halo 2 Guide: Strategy Evolved” had day-one sell-through of 270,000 copies, the second-best launch day for Random House Inc. next to Bill Clinton’s “My Life.”

· Bungie’s “Halo Graphic Novel” was one of Marvel Comic’s top-selling graphic novels in 2006 — amongst a field of “Amazing Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and a number of other Marvel properties.

· Two of the four “Halo” novels made the New York Times’ best-seller list, and are the top-selling video game novels of all time.

· Academy Award-winning director, screenwriter and producer Peter Jackson has partnered with Bungie Studios to extend the “Halo” franchise by co-writing, co-designing and co-producing an interactive entertainment experience exclusively for Xbox 360.

The Awards

The “Halo” franchise has received critical acclaim worldwide. “Halo,” “Halo 2” and “Halo 3” have received more than 235 awards from media and industry organizations in the United States alone.

Ok, so it was more than a couple. :P

Win Fatal Fury for the Xbox Live Arcade from Xbox Live Nation!

gerlach — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:55:57 GMT

StonyArc has another giveaway, with Fatal Fury being the prize.

Check out the contest.

New rules for comments.

gerlach — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 18:44:51 GMT

I am sick of the stupid spam for my post about the Pac-Man World Championships (beginning of June). So, I have set comments to 30 days. If you want to comment, you can only do so for 30 days following the original post date of the said post. Sorry.

The 7 Foot Tallk Wonder of the Future World: A Wax Masterchief

gerlach — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:17:37 GMT

A buddy of mine sent me a little link today. Kinda brightened up my day from my issues with Xbox 360 support (which I am in the process of getting ironed out). Take a gander

You may ask what that is? Yes, it is a (about) a 7' tall Master Chief. It is joining the like of Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Brad Pitt and many more entertainment superstars in being waxed for Madam Tussaud. That shows you the impact the Master Chief has on entertainment.

Johnny 360 (10/25/2005 - 8/26/2007)

gerlach — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:17:29 GMT

Well...I was always skeptical of the whole "the ring ring is happening too much". It was because I WAS running a launch console. Notice the word (in red), "was". That was because today during the Call of Duty 4 beta...my 360 took the plunge. It gave these weird vertical beige/green lines. I shut it off (as nothing would appear on the screen). As I powered it on, I got a weird felling. It didnt start the way it did. Then green rings (during the loading screen/video) weren't showing up. Then it happened:

Well, I can tell you http://service.xbox.com went well. I have already ordered the repair (as I still fall under the "3yr - 3 red ring" warranty). Hopefully they can work fast, so I can be ready for Halo 3 launch day.

Xbox 360 Wireless Wheel Retrofit is beginning

gerlach — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:34:53 GMT

Microsoft has announced that there is a "retrofit" that is now on going in regards to an internal part of the Wireless Wheel. The Xbox team recommends that you go on battery power for now, until your wheel has been retrofitted with the new parts.

You can find more information in the link below:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/gameplay/wirelesswheelretrofit.htm

As a precautionary measure, Microsoft Corporation is voluntarily providing its customers with a free retrofit to the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel. The Wheels were manufactured during 2006 - 2007. A component in the Wheel chassis may in rare cases overheat and release smoke when the AC-DC power supply is used to energize the Wheel.
There have been no reported incidences of fire, personal injury or property damage due to the Wheel malfunction. Despite no known safety incidents, we are advising our customers about this because of our strong commitment to ensuring that our products are safe and perform to our design specifications.
Owners of the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel should visit www.xbox.com/support or call Microsoft at 1-800-4my-Xbox to register to receive the retrofit and protect against the potential hazard described above. Instructions will be provided with the retrofit. We are notifying and will be coordinating our response activities with the relevant regulatory agencies such as the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. This may impact delivery dates.
Owners of the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel should stop using the AC-DC power supply until they have obtained their retrofit. Owners may continue to operate the Wheel using battery power. While operating in battery mode, the force feedback feature will not be available. Once retrofitted, owners may run the Wheel using AC power and reactivate this feature.
Get Started Now
If you have a Wireless Racing Wheel, print out the retrofit form, complete it, and send it in. You'll receive information soon from Microsoft regarding your retrofit. In the meantime, use your Wireless Racing in battery mode.
For further information and support, please contact 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

Its been a while since my last update.

gerlach — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:34:44 GMT

Yea, I know...its been a LONG time since a real update. Well, I have just kinda been tired, or too busy to sit and really think of a post to write. I decided to take the time here, while I sit and download something sweet, that many will take part of later. But, a recap of the past week or so.

I hit up the Madden Launch Event in Times Square. Sara (aka DirtyDiva) have a really good recap of the day that her and I took part in. It was really cool to see Ozzy perform live. I still love "Crazy Train". What really topped the day off, was Stone asking me if I wanted to play on the HUGE TV that is above ABC studios (where they take/broadcast "Good Morning America" from). Initially, I was embarrassed because I lack all skills related to Madden...but, I later gave in. The experience is SWEET!
I was able to watch "300" in HD via the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. The picture quality was amazing, as was the sound. It really makes all the difference to me, when you can get both amazing sound and picture from a movie. The download took "longer than usual", but only lasted about 2.5-3 hrs. It was almost a 6GB download, so the download time wasn't too bad.

Speaking of 300, there was a whole "week" for 300 via Xbox live.

There is two new arcade titles this week, "Space Giraffe" and "Street Trace". I have heard some pretty good things about both of these titles. They are priced at 400 MP points, and 800 MP points, respectively.

While my blog posting may be slower recently (heading up to school on Friday), my twitter seems to always be active. So look for my quick updates there.

Win Marathon : Durandal from Xbox Live Nation!

gerlach — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:17:51 GMT

Xbox Live Nation has relaunched recently, and they are celebrating by running a contest for a free download code for Marathon : Durandal.

There are two requirements for you to enter:

Be a member of Xbox Live Nation. Stonyarc (the site admin) does alot of great work with the XCDP program to serve up your Xbox Live data in a multitude of ways. It really is a great site.
You have to answer some questions:
1. What are ALL the available multiplayer modes in the game?
2. What was the exact name of the first game ever to be released by Bungie?
3. What is the exact mission statement of XLN?

Enter here!

Heading to the ALMS Mid-Ohio Race? Try out Forza 2!

gerlach — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:32:36 GMT

This weekend at the Mid-Ohio stop on the American Le Mans Series race calendar, those in attendance at the Loews Fan Experience will be able to hop into the Forza 2 simulator. This simulator you may have seen before (my friend Jaken in it at the MVP Summit). I was able to experience it, and NOTHING beats 5.1, with 3 HD monitors.

Check it out.

Want to view Dashboard themes before purchasing?

gerlach — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:51:50 GMT

I stumbled across a site, that truly, I wish I knew existed before today. How many times have you purchased a theme for the Xbox 360 dashboard and went "Why did I spend money on this?". To also be frank, I do not believe I have ever purchased a PDLC (premium download content = "not free") dashboard theme since I received my Xbox 360 (launch console = "knock on wood).

I've never have seen the reason to buy one, but also...I was ALWAYS afraid. Yea, 150 points are not that much, but it adds up. If I buy 4 themes, and don't like any of them, that is a song pack for Guitar Hero 2!

The site (dashboardthemes.com) gives you a view of all 5 objects that are skinned to the respective theme: The guide, live blade, game blade, media blade, and system blade. They have pictures for EACH one. Which, is absolutely amazing. I love it.

Not only that, but it gives ratings to each theme. 2 people like a theme...you will know.

All in all, the site is good. It looks to be as close to up to date as you can be (has themes are close as 7/13). Sign up and join the community at Dashboardthemes.com