Xenon Gaming

Well faithful reader, it seems that the site has come to a crossroad. As you can tell, it has been over a month since the last update, and well even though the summer is slow for game news, clearly there were events to be covered. I however, am going to take a break from that. (Its been a month, I suppose you figured that out by yourself). There are other priorities for now, and while I still follow video games avidly, I don’t think I can dedicate the time that I used to for the blog. This isn’t to say I won’t come back ever to the space, but for now don’t get your hopes up. As I bid you adieu, I will leave you with the last few gems, my concept for the Microsoft handheld, a monster catch-up XeGDN (already kinda dated) and the final soapbox on, you guessed it, the death of E3.

 

Goodbye,

 

-SpartanWalrus36

I know, you all (both of you) were romanticized with the idea of the return of the daily in XeGDN but, sometimes things get in the way. And other times it is a slow news day. Anyway, XeGDN didn’t go anywhere and the latest episode fixes a few audio bugs, mainly with the volume level, that were in the past two episodes. Enjoy.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

So, for the first time this summer I have two sequential episodes of XeGDN. Also, I would have posted this sooner if it weren’t for this productivity vacuum. (devoid of many other things too) that somehow was able to make its way to the internet. I suggest staying for the closing credits to get an understanding that that wasn’t all just a joke. People actually all worked on that. I don’t know how they sleep at night.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

 

Note: All links lead to different places; collect them all.

Ha. Got you scared for a minute there didn’t I? Well it isn’t actually the introductory class to videogames, though that class would be sweet, no it is simply the 101th episode of XeGDN. Once again, it’s been a while, and I apologize, but once you are filled up on this; all the info of the past week will be like old news. More so. Hopefully this can now mean a more regular release schedule (fingers crossed) I guess we will have to see tomorrow. Untill then, Earth.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Well it has finally happened (though without its delays) after months of reporting the almost daily video game news, XeGDN has reached its 100^th episode. And it is a whopper. Now, after such a big number I couldn’t just do the episode and leave it at that, so I talked to some friends at Microsoft so that I could get a beta release of Windows Vista (you can too) and now after a weeks of debug and error reporting (my sound driver wasn’t supported until this week) I can proudly proclaim I am one of the many who dual boot xp and vista. Photos below of vista in its glory (and not so much)

 

-SpartanWalrus36

 

Oh, and due to an unrelated issue I won’t be able to post again for another few days.

Do not worry, the drought currently here is not from any sort of work or school. And if it were up to me, the 100^th episode of worth mentioning would have been recorded by now and posted. But this is no ordinary episode, and preparations have commenced for a… new outlook. Soon.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

So I have another episode of soapbox in its respective place. And while there hasn’t been too much activity on the site this week, ok that’s a lie. There has been more activity on the site now than in a while, there has been little done besides more content. So I figure, since I announce new episodes of soapbox already on the main page, why not take this space and talk about the possibilities for what’s new and next in the site in and of itself, which should be growing during the summer. I guess nothing more now other than stay tuned.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

The last of three in a row episodes of XeGDN have been recorded and posted, with this being the 99^th overall. Well, not that much of a big deal, just a secret glitch revealed about this site, and some other wrap-up stuff. Now the preparations for the big 100

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Well, once again, time to break out the quote that will never grow old: “There are those who said this day would never come; what have they to say now.” Yes, junior year is finished for me. And with summer wafting in, figure what better way to kick off the season than another new episode of XeGDN. Except wouldn’t you know it but EGM arrives just after recording. Fortunately, being a print mag, the news is horribly dated (E3, even I reported that earlier) but I can confirm from the cover story everything said about COD 3. What did I say? Listen to find out.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Well it might have taken a while to get the episode of XeGDN out; it wasn’t too long before the new episode of Soapbox is available on its page. Now as I said before, thanks to a little thing called the man and how he is keeping me down, I might be a little slow to post next week. Let’s call it a wait and see basis.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Yes, I know that the updates have been fewer than you or I for that matter would have liked, but at least I have a week wrap-up edition of XeGDN and by-gum I will have a soapbox tomorrow.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Ok, so I know that I owe an episode of soapbox, but with the end of school, I forgot the fact that everything was due and so for the next week or so, once again the posts will be sparse. But try to believe me that it will get better sometime soon. As a sign of good faith, here is another episode of XeGDN a special weekend edition. Please don’t riot. Or do, it might be nice to have some attention.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Ok, I know, after saying more frequent updates, going a day without another XeGDN is kinda a slap in the face, but at least I am back with another episode. Oh, and in case you don’t bother to hear my explanation on the track; the summer drought of game releases and news is upon us and so… ya I guess you could call it a slow news season.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Well, keeping in line with the new “more daily than ever” mentality, I have another episode of XeGDN despite the fact that it is a holiday. While the episode is somewhat a mop-up of news tidbits that slipped through the cracks at last recording, there are some new and interesting kernels in there too. Much like the episode, a few things that I forgot to mention on my weeks long hiatus. First of all I am still an Xbox Ambassador, but now because I am categorized under Connecticut, some people actually sent me friend requests. (yay!) The other big news is that I got my letter to Rare published in the Scribes section (link to main site, click Extra then Scribes and scroll down 4 or so to see my letter. Or read it below)

 

Dear Purveyor of all things Piñata,
     I have two melon scratchers that have been burning in the back of my head until they will be answered (yet, have nothing to do with the candy-bearing animals I alluded to in the header. Makes you think). Over the past four months I concluded that these questions could not be answered telepathically so I present them to you, all-knowing Scribe, in digital form.
     First is the issue with the "Video - Deleted Cutscenes" under Quest Total in the Magic Mirror from Kameo: EOP. What build of the game was that video from? The low-poly, low-res characters (Trolls especially) scream N64; but the smooth vivid Kameo character model looks far beyond the N64 ability; even to the level of the Xbox teaser trailer. Still, the low-res backgrounds make me scoff at that being any platform but the '64 every time. Perhaps some of each platform?
     Secondly, in PDZ, at the end of mission 8 there is one line that I think will live on forever, certainly in my mind. Of course that honor goes to "Boy that was some hot work. I sure could use a cold beer." Who was the genius that could write such a poetic masterpiece? Furthermore, who could take that line and bring it to life with such charisma? Those (wo)men deserve some sort of metal.
     Thank you for your time. (Long time reader, first time writer in-er.)
     SpartanWalrus36

 

One for the Kameo boys, I reckon. Which kind of scuppers the 'all-knowing' bit of my reputation, but let's be honest, it was never very convincing in the first place.
     "First: the ‘Deleted Cutscenes’ material stems from various builds of the GameCube version, though a few of the locations and enemies were transferred intact to the Xbox and one or two even survive - albeit in a vastly-upgraded form - today. Video footage of the N64 version wasn’t included, largely due to the N64 version never actually existing in the first place. (It’s almost depressing to trace how quickly someone’s sarcastic suggestion on a forum gets picked up as fact by supposedly knowledgeable sources.)
     "Second: despite having nothing to do with PDZ’s development I feel compelled to ask what metal you had in mind as the team’s reward. A lovely bit of tin, perhaps? Copper’s always useful if you’ve got some lying about - don’t just leave us hanging with unfulfilled promises of base elements, you tease!"
     Dammit, I was going to do that gag.

 

Other than that, not much has gone on around here. Burnout has been mastered since the previous post (see my achievements) and I now have UNO and am ready for competition, but in the meantime, those last few days of school to keep me busy.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

 

P.S. Some tips to get your letter published in Scribes:

1. Compliment Rare to no end.

2. Don’t ask real questions that are “important.”

3. Tack on this bad boy that wasn’t published, but was in my original letter: “Given that I typed this letter in March, I bet it wont be published until September… 2008. Go ahead Rare, prove me wrong.” Well, at least they did.

Ok, so picked a bad time to go on hiatus, but the site is now back and up and running, with several new Soapbox entries published about E3 as well as a two week mega-wrap-up episode of XeGDN. I also fixed some issues with the audio introductions for both XeGDN and Soapbox and have more improvements ready in the pipe which should be implemented in the coming weeks.

 

So in case you were wondering what was going on that the site was stagnant for two weeks, honestly it wasn’t much. After seeing Advent Children, I went through disk 2 and 3 of FFVII and then saw Advent Children again and actually understood it. (Side note: disk 3 in one sitting- well worth it) Also, I am one of the few who can boast being able to sit through all 25 hours of gamespot’s E306 stage demos while sitting through the obnoxious download times for all the content on Xbox Live Marketplace (and by all I do mean all) and somewhere in there my level 36 Breton got me all 1000 Gamerscore in Oblivion. (70 earned hours) Other than that, school is all but over and it is time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the summer.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

ok nothing here will be cohesive but i had to put my thoughts about e3 somewhere and untill i do a soapbox over the weekend, this will have to do. first up is sony, well well well. sony was shamed. i am sorry for them in a way but they brought this apon themselves. had everything gone according to plan, everything would be playable and look ok too and people would forget all the nonsense from last year. instead they have partial completion from internal projects and trailers from limited third parties. i think the whole conference was summed up with the tilt on the controller, meant to be impressive, but it just comes off as sad and desperate. then nintendo, not too bad. i like that they have a bit more solid ground to stand on in terms of innovation. and kudos to reggie for having the cajones to say the "thanks to both of you" line. also the odd thing missing from nintys event was articles. as in a an and the. you can listen, any time the nintendo Wii was said, there was no article. because even nintendo knows no one wants to play with THE wii. nice to see dual motion controll, that probabaly has sony shooting themselves in the foot in terms of third party interoperability. not so keen on the speaker though, it is ok but it doesnt really do much other than waist battery life. and while they did do an awsome job at showing alot of playable, none of it looked next gen- wait it cant- scratch that last point. so ya on to the reason i wrote this. ms @ e306. in a word wow. that was a roller coaster. the begining was like that part where it builds up, the clicks tward the top: forza, fable, the accessories, games for windows, shadowrun, alan wake, then there was that point at the top when nothing happens, basically there was a reason Bill gates doesnt go to E3, which brings up a bigger question WHERE THE HELL IS J ALLARD RIGHT NOW? it is like waldo for baldo now HE should have shown off the live anywhere feature which to me in a nutshell is the pc user finally getting some respect while at the same time losing their freedom, think about it, if you can get achivements for "games for windows" what are the chances that you can also mod those titles to have different levels and skins? but on to the finale- I- wu- how- no-yep- every single time - ok so halo 3, ahem let me rephrase that HALO 3 wow. ok so they release one small teaser trailer and it begins again. the whole machine. the anticipation. all of the marketing and user generated hype. this is the way the world ends. yes cortana, yes it is.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

 

now back to studying for chem AP (free at last tomorrow)

Due to scheduled maintanance (cough AP cough) there will be no updates for the next week.

Doesn’t the title say it all? So anyway I have another episode of Soapbox at its page (up and to the left) as well as a new neighbor in the Xenon Gaming Network, Xenon Gaming @ E3. The number four one source for some stuff everything at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. And if you guys at Microsoft are reading this, yes this is a MSN Space, see you all there.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

 

 

Edit: Xenon Gaming will be at E3, just not yet. I apologize for any misinterpretation or inconvenience

Well after the GINORMOUS Nintendo announcement, I don’t know how E3 will compare, even so there is a new episode of XeGDN available for your listening pleasure although you might want to prepare by going to the official Nintendo “Revolution” homepage first ( http://revolution.nintendo.com/ ). Your loss if you don’t. Ahhh I haven’t had this much fun since Call of Duty (pffft made you say Duty.) Good times.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

As usual, another every other day, another episode of XeGDN (Xenon Gaming Daily News to those who don’t bother to scroll down- it still has to sink in for some.) Anyway with E3 rapidly approaching, and all the other sites starting to unveil their plans for what they are going to do in terms of coverage, I thought it would be appropriate to outline my plan too. Step 1. Take AP exam. Step 2. Sleep and hope that there isn’t a deluge of news by the time I wake up. (Sigh) Honestly, I am not sure exactly what Xenon Gaming will do. It could be big but is almost certainly will not. On the other hand if the stars align then perhaps the title of this post will have more impact than you think. Come back in a day after I have mulled something over a bit more.

I have another episode of Soapbox where:

 

This weeks Soapbox talks about the possibility of Microsoft announcing a price drop at E3 specifically a whopping 100 dollar price drop. As you will hear, I am considerably torn between saying no because I don’t want that to happen and saying yes because it is what Microsoft would do. Find out what I mean in the episode.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

 

Click the link at the top yourself, you can do that much right?

In an effort to get this episode of XeGDN posted before the news is irrelevant (before midnight) I will keep this post short and sweet. The episode on the other hand is longer and has more of a nutmeg taste.

 

-SpartanWalrus36

Well if you didn’t know, (honestly given the spotty coverage, you might not have noticed) I was on a trip for the last few days; I learned two things from it. First, an xbox 360, which draws 200+w power will not run on a 140w AC/DC adapter. Secondly, I can listen to classic rock for 12 hours with only a typewriter (no joke) and not go insane. Much. Anyway I won’t dwell on the past much. Instead, I recorded another great episode of Worth Mentioning Xenon Gaming Daily News chock full of psp solutions for tv and music. As well as the E3 06 floorplans so you can pretend to chart your route around kentia hall… like you’d get in. (sigh) I envy you.

 

-SpartanWalrus36