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Friday - May 26, 2006
Xbox Live dashboard updates coming soon
Microsoft has confirmed that a new dashboard update is less than a week away. It solves the two biggest annoyances I have. First, it allows background and queued downloading (as seen in the picture). It also allows you to disable the auto-play when a game is in the drive on bootup.
Posted by jcraven at 1:20 PM | Video Games
Tuesday - May 16, 2006
Dolphins sign Vick
Well it's not Michael, but Marcus Vick. I don't think if I'm thrilled about the signing, unless they got a really good deal. Well at least Marcus and Ricky can party together. We'll see how it goes. ESPN has the press release here.
Posted by jcraven at 10:49 AM | Sports
Bye bye iBook
Apple released the replacement for the iBook, now called the MacBook. There's nothing exciting in the announcement, except now they have a black model. Will anybody buy it, with a $150 price premium over a similarly equipped white model? Probably.....
Posted by jcraven at 9:43 AM | Tech
Sunday - May 14, 2006
Eastern Finals
After an embarrassing loss yesterday, the Canes bounce back and win the series 4-1. Next on the list is Buffalo, and I assume Game 1 will be on Friday or Saturday. It should be a great matchup, and hopefully we'll be there.....
Posted by jcraven at 10:05 PM | Sports
Wednesday - May 10, 2006
Go Canes Go!
Yet another nail-biter tonight. Canes won 3-2, giving them a 3-0 advantage in the series. The Devils played much better tonight, especially in the second period. New Jersey had more shots on goal, and played a much more physical game than the Canes. I was a little disappointed in the officiating, as they missed several obvious penalties. Hopefully they'll pull off the sweep and win Game 4 on Saturday @ 3PM, which is being broadcasted in HD on NBC. TSN has the summary.
Posted by jcraven at 9:39 PM | Sports
WoW expansion pack
NYTimes has an article about the upcoming WoW expansion pack named 'The Burning Crusade'. At E3 today, they finally announced the new race for the Alliance, and it's a demon called Draenei. This goes along with the Horde's new race, the Blood Elves. Unfortunately there's no firm release date, simply Q4 2006. Overall, it looks like some pretty nice additions to the game, and the video preview gives a nice summary of them all. I like the last quote in the article:
My biggest hope is that for fans of World of Warcraft, the Burning Crusade will be the only game that’s better than World of Warcraft. Our biggest goal with it is to ensure that there is a lot of content that caters to everyone’s play style. We have a lot of people with a lot of different ways of playing the game, and we want everyone to feel like they’re getting what they need.
Posted by jcraven at 3:02 PM | Video Games
Children's Week
For the WoW players, it's Children's Week. You can check out the official release on Blizzard's site. Basically, you get the opportunity to escort an Orphan to 5 sites around Azeroth, and as a reward you get your choice of a new pet rat, pig, or turtle. The quests are easy if you have a mount, and are all in low-level zones. I picked up the turtle, and chuckle evertime I see 'Speedy' run after me.....
Posted by jcraven at 10:15 AM | Video Games
Halo 3 trailer
Finally, what all the Xbox 360 owners have been waiting for, Bungie shows off their new trailer for Halo 3. One thing to keep in mind that all the footage is rendered on the fly, using the current Halo 3 engine. The announcement is very tounge-in-cheek:
"Nobody saw it coming. Halo 3! Who knew? For the last year or two, people have speculated about what our next project was and surprisingly, in all that time, not a single person guessed that it would be Halo 3. Not one.
We declare it the best kept secret ever."
You'll want to get the 720p Quicktime version here, but be warned it is 150MB. You can also download it in all it's HD glory via Xbox Live, along with all the other trailers/demos that have been released this week. Is it 2007 yet?
Posted by jcraven at 9:26 AM | Video Games
Tuesday - May 9, 2006
PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
OK, so after watching the major keynotes from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, I think Microsoft and Nintendo are leading the pack. Microsoft announced a ton of games (160 estimated by Christmas), the HD-DVD add-on, and their camera. In a surprise announcement, they set a release date for GTA IV on October 16th, with an 'exclusive partnership to provide exclusive episodic content through Xbox Live'. I'll have to download all the game trailers/demo on XBL later this week, and give updates later......
Nintendo spent most of their keynote introducing the public to the new controller for the Wii. I'm still not totally sold on the idea, but I'm willing to try it out at the store. They also announced that Zelda will ship for the GameCube and Wii at the same time (when the Wii launches). Unfortunately price/release date has been kept secret so far. They announced a decent launch lineup of the standard Nintendo franchises. I'm still worried about the video quality and it's possible lack of HD support.
Sony's press conference seems to have mostly bombed. Sure, the MGS and Final Fantasy trailers look great, but there's some major problems. First and foremost is the pricetag which weighs in at $499 (20g HD) or $599 (60g HD). Add on the inevitable game packages at launch, and you're looking at some major coin. Secondly, the new 'Dual-Shake' controller. It's basically the same controller Sony has had for 10 years, except it's wireless, and has tilting features similar to Nintendo's Wii-mote. Oh, and they axed the rumble feature. I'm sure the fanboys will still buy it, but I don't see how they will compete with two game systems that cost half as much.
Posted by jcraven at 3:57 PM | Comments (3) | Video Games
Monday - May 8, 2006
Cardiac Canes
The Canes had another amazing comeback tonight. New Jersey scored with 21 seconds left in the game to put the Devils up 2-1. Just when everyone thought it was over, the Canes scored with three seconds left in regulation. Wallin ended it three minutes into overtime, giving the Canes a 2-0 series lead. They head to New Jersey now, and I hope they can keep up their streak. It's definitely proving to be an interesting series..... As always, TSN has the summary.
Posted by jcraven at 11:29 PM | Sports
Saturday - May 6, 2006
Good start
We went to the 1st game of round 2, and watched the most entertaining game I've ever seen. Canes won it 6-0, and there was one good fist fight. Hopefully the rest of the series will be this good. TSN has the recap here.
Posted by jcraven at 6:54 PM | Sports
Friday - May 5, 2006
Oozinator
Ok, this made my Friday. Check out the links at the end of this post for the Super-Soaker Oozinator. My favorite is the Amazon reviews.
Posted by jcraven at 11:58 AM | Tech
Thursday - May 4, 2006
The Good 'ol Days
Man I wish I was still in college.......
Posted by jcraven at 12:53 PM | Comments (3) | Misc
Tuesday - May 2, 2006
Canes win!
Canes win it 2-1, 1:19 into overtime. It's amazing that they won the series with 4 straight wins after being down by 2 games. Cam Ward had an amazing game in net. Bring on the Devils!
TSN has the game summary, along with fan comments.
Posted by jcraven at 9:46 PM |