Posts tagged "xbox"

Videogames

Achievements

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You like them or you dislike them or you certainly have way too much time on your hands.

When I first heard about them as part of my job here, I thought it was a pretty cool idea but I still didn’t have a clue what it would be like. I even thought that people would be looking each other up and comparing each others achievements and getting a handle at how good (or bad) other folks on Xbox Live were.

I must have been really short-sighted to not realize that people would be competing for comparing Gamerscores and of course, a leaderboard has popped up too.

I’m not quite that competitive with Gamerscores at least, but I really like checking out what people have accomplished in their games. This is especially true since, at the moment, I’m really not good at getting secret achievements that aren’t specifically part of the game or story (like Kameo) or some downer achievement like the losses in DOA4. I also avoid reading the walk-throughs for games just to get achievements. Although I’m now eternally frustrated that I think I missed a mining point in Gun and I’m one away from getting the “Professional Prospector” achievement.

Anyway, what’s my point? Oh, even though I do my best to avoid spoilers, I like the fact that there are sites, like Xbox360Achievements and Achieve360Points out there to catalog them. That’s a pretty nice thing to have as reference.

Videogames

Tons of shoes and half-yearly sales

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Over on GAF, Incognito posed a question for the ages: “Are the MS consoles the “Nordstroms” [sic] of gaming?”

Many people far more qualified at making these opinions offered up their thoughts. Sadly, I had only one thought, which of course I posted on the thread:

Would it be really ironic that I’m currently typing this out of the old Nordstrom’s corporate headquarters building?

And so all goes full circle.

Videogames

Multi-user chat over Xbox Live

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Xbox Live chat screen

One of the most requested things I’ve seen on the boards, apart from Backwards Compatibility updates, has been adding a multi-user chat “room” to the exiting one-to-one chat on Xbox Live.

When rumors of the update to the Dashboard started circulating a few weeks ago, every few posts was either specifically expressing hope for or requesting the addition of a voice chat feature that would let you have multiple people join in.

Looks like the folks on the Xbox Development Team have noticed the same thing and have addressed why one-to-one chat is the only option available on their Xbox Team blog.

Finding out that the minimum broadband requirements are 64kbps upstream and downstream for all Xbox Live functions and games was a pretty interesting piece of info to come out of it… I know nothing about games networking, but that seems like a pretty small bandwidth requirement and it’s a testament to how the networking has been optimized for online considering all the games work pretty well online.

Videogames

Project Gotham Racing 3 Time Trials

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Project Gotham Racing 3 Time Trials

For the past week I have joined some fellow people on GAF in a series of time trial challenges in PGR3 from a post by kindbudmaster.

I’ve never done time trials online in any game, even though I’ve raced online. This was a first as far as something organized and friendly would go. I can’t tell you how much fun and frustration I had joining in. Easily topped just about every other online experience I’ve had so far, and that includes joining the guys for some friendly racing if we happened to be on at the same time.

We’ve done four rounds so far and it looks they will be more to come. Kindbudmaster has been MIA for 4 days already, so I hope he comes back soon!

Check out WHOAguitarninja’s time in Round 1. Last I checked that time is still in the top 10 for Class C on the overall Leaderboards. Check the replay out, I was impressed by the consistently smooth driving around that track, especially that first nightmare-inducing chicane.

RProject Gotham Racing 3 PGR3 Ruf CTR Yellowbirdound 1
Nishiguchi Short (Tokyo) with a RUF CTR “Yellow Bird” (Class C)
Best: 53.01 (WHOAguitarninja)
Mine: 56.41

Project Gotham Racing 3 PGR3 Lamborghini MuircielagoRound 2
Flamingo Straits (Las Vegas) with a Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT (Class A)
Best: 59.36 (Brodequin)
Mine: 1:00.84

Project Gotham Racing 3 PGR3 Callaway SledgehammerRound 3
Park to Tillary (New York) with a Callaway Sledgehammer Twin Turbo (Class B)
Best: 59.36 (Brodequin)
Mine: 2:07.56

Project Gotham Racing 3 PGR3 Ferrari TestarossaRound 4
The Birdcage (London) with a Ferrari Testarossa (Class E)
Best: 1:39.12 (Tie: WHOAguitarninja and Brodequin)
Mine: 1:42.72

Videogames

Xbox.com Community Spotlight

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Xbox Community Spotlight: Community Reps

Something pretty nice happened yesterday. It was in the works for a while and I got notice it was posted onto the site. That is to say, my colleagues and I now have our own special Community Spotlight interview up on Xbox.com.

It talks about what I do for a good part of my job these days. Which is, in a nutshell, to be a gamer and representative for Xbox, Xbox 360 and Windows games in online communities (boards, etc.). It says that in the first line in the Spotlight, so I just repeated myself.

Either way, this is a pretty cool thing to have happen, even if it came as part of my job. I do come across as this overly verbose, utter nerd though. Too late now!