I am glad I built a new computer, as XBL is only working intermittently. It appears that Microsoft’s service was unprepared for the deluge of new gamers that received their Christmas consoles. As a result, several people have complained openly on Larry Hyrb’s–aka Major Nelson–blog. He has personally addressed people’s worries and complaints with the following response:

You may have noticed that the LIVE service has been having a few issues over the past few days. This includes things like signing in, matchmaking and account recovery. Not everyone has had problems, but I know some of you have and I wanted to give you and update. While the service was never completely offline, problems like this are not acceptable. The entire LIVE team has been working day and night to ensure that you can have a great LIVE experience. While we’re not done yet, I wanted to let you know that things are getting better each hour and that no one on the team is going anywhere until the job is done. Thanks for your patience.

Edit: As people have noticed, we have made good progress. We have a bit more work to do, but we’re doing much better now. I know some of you still may be having issues, and we’re working on those. Oh, and Happy New Year to those that are celebrating.

At least they are working for the money they take from you every month. I would like to see Microsoft give something like a free week of service–as WoW has done when they encountered server issues–but I doubt that will happen. Back to computer land for me!

Chufmoney

[via Evil Avatar]

Everyone should be lovin’ the new 360 dashboard update. After all, you have DivX playback, faster blade navigation, and a smoother way to look at downloadable content. But, with the good comes something that I personally find questionable: Silver Members can’t access free content until it has been out for a week.

On one hand, I can see that MS is trying to make us feel privileged and that our subscriptions are worthwhile. On the other side, I kinda feel like this is just Microsoft’s way of pressuring Silver Members into subscribing. Should a person that purchases Bioshock today not be able to download the free DLC for a week just because they don’t feel like paying 5$ a month? What if it is a service that they aren’t going to use outside the marketplace?

I guess I actually do know how I feel about it–it’s shitty! They can get anything they are willing to pay for at anytime, but have to wait for free shit, and that is wrong.

Thanks for the update, Microsoft, I really appreciate it. But could you shit a little less on my cheap ass friends?

Chufmoney

Let me start by saying that I was a big fan of the PSP release Katamari Damacy. I didn’t own a PSP at the time, but I wrestled the thing out of my roommate’s hands whenever I could, sometimes just listening to the ridiculous music. The strange theme music was so great that me and my roommate at the time would listen to MP3 versions of it when we were hanging out. Yeah, I know, we’re fucking nerds.

When I heard that a Katamari game was coming out for 360 I had mixed feelings. I was worried that the game, while great for a short handheld experience, wouldn’t translate well to the console. Some how the controls felt intuitive with the buttom scheme on the PSP. Moreover, I was worried that the game would not appeal to the 360 audience, since it isn’t a violent shooter. Don’t believe me? See Viva Pinata’s sales numbers.

The demo did nothing to assuage my mixed feelings. I was immediately excited when it started — hearing the theme music ringing in my surround sound rocked my soul! — but the game did not blow me away. However, this isn’t to say that it isn’t fun, quite the contrary, it is a really enjoyable demo. The addicting appeal of the original Katamari lives on, with you quickly just focusing on the ridiculous premise of trying to pick up bigger and bigger worldly objects. It’s hard to explain, you should try it.

That being said, I still have my worries. I sincerely hope that this game doesn’t release for an MSRP of 59.99$. Unless the online component is mind blowingly awesome (it isn’t contained within the demo), I just don’t see enough content to warrant the price. It is fun, but I don’t see myself having much time to dedicate to an expensive casual game when the season of gaming death is almost upon us. Again, I could be wrong if the online proves to be amazing.

The demo is worth a try, especially if you have never played the game in it’s other incarnation. Play through the demo a few times (it only lasts 3 minutes). The first time you might not like it, but by the end you’ll probably figure out why so many people fawn over this title.

Chufmoney

Xbox.com has recently had a face lift. If you’ve never visited the site before, you will not notice anything exceptionally special and will probably think that the site is solely an ad delivery system. Which, uh, it is. But those who use Xbox.com to check messages and see who is on-line will enjoy a few simple updates. The home screen is still mainly for advertising with a few game shout outs. But type in your gamertag information at the upper right and you are taken to your gamertag home page. Once here, you’ll probably have no reason to go to another portion of the sight. The tabs now have translucent drop downs. It makes the movement on the site very quick and less cumbersome. The Xbox Live Marketplace information is still hard to find, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would Microsoft make if difficult to find out what movies are coming out and when? And why do they stagger their release? I’m ranting, sorry. The messaging system for Xbox live on the website is still good and bad. It is not as user friendly as I’d like and I’m not sure why audio can’t be heard from the site. If a friend leaves you a voice message, you have to log on through you Xbox 360 to hear it. I’m sure it has something to do with some technical mumbo-jumbo that is beyond me. But it would be nice. The best thing about this minor update is that the site is cleaner, a bit easier to navigate, and is more focused around your gamertag. Hopefully updates like this will continue, with more direct links and interactions between specific games. Hey, we pay $50 bucks a year for something, right?

JaySlacks