Is the Slim that much better?

I got my 360s last night and hooked it up. I see two issues with it.

First, the vent that allows the Xbox to blow out hot air is on top. Yes, right on the top of the machine. Everyone I know has put a game on top the of Xbox at some time or another. Blocking this vent will definitely cause the Slim to overheat plus the air blowing out of it is very hot. I don't mean really warm like the Elite but hot.

Second, the fan itself. Now my 16 year old daughter has a Slim and she has it on a wood stand, so I never noticed this but...my stand is glass. When the fan kicks on it makes a horrible noise because of the vibration. It sounded like a buzzer was going off in another room. I need to figure out a way to dampen the vibration noise. It's really obnoxious.

All and all a cool system. Now my PS3 and Xbox match.

I have another problem but this is with Microsoft's policy. So I had sent my Elite in to be repaired and rather than do that, they sent me a new one. They transferred my game licenses to the new Elite. The Elite was the central Xbox in the house but now that we have a Slim, the Slim needs to be the central Xbox. 95% of all DLC and games are downloaded under my gamertag and on the Elite. I cannot transfer licenses to the new Slim because Microsoft took it upon themselves to do transfer them to the new system they sent me. This means no one can play DLC or downloaded games unless they either play in my room or I have to be signed in on the Slim while they play. I am trying to get Microsoft to see the error and release the licenses so I can transfer them. They have a 'One transfer a year' policy. I am screwed until January if I can't get them to see reason.

Lots going on

Bungie will releasing a patch to deal with the balance issues in Halo Reach. Not surprising to me since that is my biggest complaint. There will be new maps too, if rumors are correct. We'll see.

I got my Xbox 360 Elite back and I now have a Xbox Slim unexpectedly. Odd to have an extra Xbox lying around. I think I will hold it over my 12 yr old's head. If he wants it, he had better buckle down.

I finished the Mass Effect 2 DLC "Lair of the Shadow Broker." Very cool story addition. I won't give anything away but the way it ends, you have access to all the Shadow Broker's files and information. You can keep going back too so I think this will play into Mass Effect 3 in some way. You can purchase survey maps for mineral rich planets, view surveillance videos, dossiers and invest in some money making deals there too. Plus I had a delivery of some upgrades. This will be valuable if it is a "bridge" DLC to ME3.

I also finished the 3rd Mass Effect book, Retribution. If it goes according to the previous book patterns, Mass Effect 3 is going to be a kick ass game. The story was fantastic and it appears to be a set up for the next game. Reapers and Cerberus played a big part in the book. The Illusive Man was taken down a peg or two as well. I can't wait. Damn my impatience.

My Fable 3 controller will be out next week. Fable 3 and Medal of Honor Tier One will be released this next month too. I am so excited. I'll have 2 new games to play around with. I need something that isn't first person shooter so Fable 3 will be a nice break. Now I need to finish paying for my 2 copies of Black Ops before November 9th. I hate the fact we have to buy 2 copies to play together. The one thing Bungie has always done right, online multiplayer co-op/split screen. Saves me a bundle.

I downloaded Marathon Durandal too, one of Bungie's early games. It really took me back, old school. I was laughing all the way through it. Really brought back memories. I know a couple of people that have it now so I'll have to get on and do a couple of multiplayer matches.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 will be releasing their Vietnam add-on in December. Something else I am looking forward to.

Microsoft said they will not be doing Bluray on their next gen consoles? Huge mistake. Just saying. The games are becoming so advanced, you need that Bluray to hold the information, or else you'll end up with stacks of discs for one game. The new controller doesn't seem like that big of a deal either. So you changed the directional pad disk. I don't have that many games that use it where I have a problem with the old one. I am not all that impressed and certainly not impressed enough to pay $65 for it, shiny or not.

There is a lot more I could sit here and ramble about but I have work to do. I'll add more over the next few days. Christmas is coming so the gaming industry is jumping.

More Reach

I played some more of this and I will say I do enjoy the objective games much better than the straight slayer. Invasion and Invasion Slayer are probably my favorites.

Now I do think the sniper rifle is way overdone and they really don't give the Elites a load out to combat it. I love the needle rifle.

The daily and week challenges are entertaining to try to get but I am sure that the novelty will wear off eventually. Especially after everyone gets the achievements for doing them.

I have cleared 30 out of the 49 achievements myself. I'll clear the rest in campaign.

Armor customization is a cool concept but some pieces are so over-the-top expensive that I am not sure that many people will get them. I think with Black Ops coming out in a couple of months, plus many other games in the next 6 months, people might stop playing this so hardcore and never get the million or more points they need to "purchase" these armors.

Bungie will have to release some new map packs fairly early on.

My Elite should be here today. Man I miss having it. I was stuck watching TV this weekend while the husband and 12 year old played. *I had to work* TV programming leaves something to be desired. I missed my Netflix streaming. No I couldn't do it through my laptop since I was working on my laptop.

Reach multiplayer

Wow...really Bungie? I didn't think anyone could screw up multiplayer worse than Bioshock 2 but then you proved me wrong.

Where do I start? Firefight? Hell ya! This is an awesome game mode and I had a lot of fun playing it. I enjoyed it on ODST so this was like frosting on what I thought would be a delicious cake. Then...

I went to the Team Slayer playlist. What a total nightmare. Shield classes are over powered making the person virtually invulnerable and health packs? Really? People can't play well enough on their own so now they can heal themselves all over the map, again, making themselves virtually untouchable. I played a round where the opposing team was camped out at the health stations and were healing themselves whenever the packs respawned. When you see one person has a K/D of 25 and 2, yet everyone else barely reaches 5 kills, you know there is a problem. If you can't play online without a health pack...get off.

I absolutely detest multiplayer. I seriously doubt I will ever play it again. There is nothing fun about it nor redeeming. I don't care if I die a lot so long as I have fun. I was not having fun at all. I am so disappointed I cannot even begin to describe it.

Then there is a spawning issue. I got dragged in, by popular vote of those who were playing, to a snipers and pistols game. I couldn't leave my spawn area because the opposing team camped out and sniped into the spawn anytime anyone appeared. Even when the program tried to spawn me downstairs, it spawned me in front of the enemy. I didn't get a single kill. Hell, I don't think I got to walk 5 steps.

Thank heavens Bungie is not making anymore Halo games. The campaign is a good one to retire on. Too bad they couldn't make Team better. There are many causal gamers I know that are not going to buy this because they have taken the fun out of it for the people that aren't trying to go pro. That is what was nice about Halo 3, anyone could play it and people generally had fun.

Way to suck the joy out of a game...

Halo Reach

I opened my copy of Halo Reach this morning and was greeted with the customization of your character right off the bat. Cool. There are lots of choices though to get all the options, you are going to have to spend the "money" you make in game.

So I got my gal all set up and launched into the campaign first. Yes, I usually do the campaign first. The first thing I noticed were that the controls are completely different. I might have to customize my buttons because having the "beat down" option on the RB is awkward. Then I noticed the character I created is in game. Yes my pink spartan is who I am playing as and it has a female voice. Way to go Bungie.

The environments are much richer than they have ever been and you can actually explore places. I found 1/5 data pads which makes me think I need to restart and comb the areas a bit more. The detail is finally what I expected to see. Thank you Bungie for not disappointing with another ODST fiasco. Let's face it, ODST was sub par at best.

The story is good too and I am genuinely interested. There are achievements that can be gotten in campaign and "firefight" mode so that's cool and I am ranking up playing campaign. Double-y good. Maybe the people that never actually play the game will now that it benefits them.

Okay off to play some more.

Oh and on a side note, my Xbox Elite is finally making it's way back to me from being repaired. That means I can download and play the new Mass Effect 2 DLC "Lair of the Shadow Broker." Wheeeeeee

Definition of frustration

This word has many different definitions for gamers. Some of use define it as getting killed in Halo/Call of Duty/*fill in FPS multiplayer* even though you were firing on the enemy first. Some will harken back tot he days of Sim City and define it as the moment your city was doing well on it's own and Godzilla emerges from the sea, crushing half your town. Still others will define it as the inability to find the creature to kill to get a drop of a rare weapon.

Tonight, it had a new meaning for me---

Frustration: noun: Playing Fallout 3, running across a Super Mutant Behemoth while completely unprepared, finding a spot it can't follow you in but you can shoot at it, getting close to killing it and the game freezes.

I was aimlessly wandering around the Wastes in Fallout 3 on the direction of my backseat gaming husband. *I remember now why I don't usually listen to him* I came across a Raider slave camp. I went in and killed the Raiders. Found a Super Mutant Behemoth in the center of camp, caged. I set all the slaves free, ran into a shack and killed the last 2 Raiders. As I walked out of the camp and was trying to decide if ti would be possible to kill the Behemoth through the fence, I noticed one of the slaves I had freed freeing the Behemoth. Not awesome. I ran next to a train and found a section the Behemoth wouldn't follow me into so I could back into there and shoot him. Eventually he'd turn around and that would give me a chance to regroup.

I had gotten his health down to less than half. That was no mean feat considering I had weapons that really wouldn't make a dent in his health. The game suddenly froze up.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I turned the game off and now I am having a beer. Enough said.