Archives for “microsoft”
The new dashboard is really slick. The entire thing has been overhauled, to the point where it feels like a brand new console, rather than just a software upgrade. At first, it’s a little confusing if you’re used to the “blades” interface, because everything has been moved around and reorganized, but I think the new [...]
Staying home sick from work and puking my guts out earlier in the day is apparently no excuse for canceling Halo night, especially not when it happens to be the day the Legendary Map Pack gets released. So last night the boys came over and we fired up the old 360 to test out the [...]
Well, that was nice and quick! I got an email yesterday saying the service center received my xbox, and today I got another email saying my xbox has shipped. They’re FedExing it back, so I should have it back within the week.
My 360 died again. Just six months after Microsoft sent me a replacement for the one that died, the replacement itself has died. My screen was freezing after playing a game for a few minutes. Suddenly the whole game would just stop, no error message, no lights, no response to the controllers, nothing. I looked [...]
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” – Bill Gates
My 360 came home yesterday. Inside the package was the console, a 1-month Xbox Live Gold membership card, and a letter explaining that to accelerate my repair, they had sent me a different console. I forget the exact wording now, but I think it’s refurbished, not new. As an apology, the letter explained they had [...]
My 360 is on the way home to me! I got the box to ship it to Microsoft on the 16th, and they received it on the 18th, and then today I got this email: Dear Scott Vandehey, Xbox Customer Support Service Request ID #: XXX Serial Number: XXX Good news, your Xbox console has [...]
A few weeks back, you may have seen that the Halo 3 Achievements were leaked. If you’re like me, you gave that list a quick look, and saw that it was a nice mix of single and multiplayer challenges, and didn’t think much more about it. However, I just noticed something that made me very [...]
Yesterday my xbox 360 died. Kinda funny that it happened just a day after Microsoft announces that they’re extending the warranties, but it doesn’t really apply to me, since they only extended the warranty for one specific error (three red lights), which mine doesn’t have, and it’s a moot point anyways, since my 360 is [...]
The teaser trailer for Fallout 3 is like a love letter from Bethesda to the fans of the series. It’s a clear communication that we don’t need to worry. They get it. The music and the post-apocalyptic scene show us that they understand the look and feel of this world. The power armor and the [...]
I have mixed feelings about the beta. On the one hand, it’s totally good. The gameplay is exactly what you would expect – sort of a synthesis of the best parts of Halo and Halo 2. The feeling is familiar, all the new weapons and gadgets really enhance the experience, and the graphics are beautiful. [...]
Settlers of Catan, my favorite board game of all time is coming to xbox live this week! I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about this. My coworker Kelly also has a 360, so I’m sure I’ll be playing with him. Unfortunately, like almost every xbox live title, I’m pretty sure [...]
Crackdown is a great game with one major feature lacking: local co-op. When I bought the game, I was really excited because it was clearly labeled as a two-player game. Turns out what they mean is it’s two-player over xbox live. So since no one else I know owns the game, and I’m not into [...]
Even though Bill Gates thinks this game is for girls, I enjoy it. Take the best parts of the Sims and Animal Crossing, and throw in a healthy mix of farming, and you’ve got a rough idea of what Viva Piñata is like. I think what I like best is that this is a game [...]
When I first got Gears of War, I thought there was no way it would live up to all the hype, but it would be a good way to kill time until Halo 3 came out. When I started playing, I was unimpressed. The lack of a jump button and the cover mechanic seemed unnatural. [...]
On the original xbox, one of the best games for parties was Dead or Alive 3. Something about the combination of the tag team mode with the over-the-top characters just made it fun to watch, and even more fun to play. Even a button masher like myself stood a decent chance of winning a round. [...]
Here’s my screenshot of my system running Microsoft Fisher-Price Windows XP. For me, the thing that’s really making this OS worthwhile is all the little touches that they’ve added. It’s all minor stuff that doesn’t really matter, but now that it’s there, it really makes the experience better. Things like transparent icon text on the [...]
<GEEK NEWS> Oh man. I’ve been through the best and worst ends of computers in the last week. I’ve formatted my computer four times, and Annie’s twice, and I still have to do it one more time because I somehow fried her hard drive. The bad news was that all the upgrades didn’t always go [...]
“If Microsoft is Big Brother, then Apple is Goldstein.” – John Sundman
“It took the computing power of three Commodore 64s to fly to the moon, but it takes a 486 to run Windows 95. Something is wrong here.” –unknown
