I’ve not long since got back to my hotel after attending an event in Washington DC hosted by the Microsoft Xbox (and Games for WIndows) PR guys from the Gamerscore Blog, it was a great night and good to finally put some faces to names / gamertags / forum handles. The event started with some food and drinks whilst we were able to play a whole slew of games including Shadowrun, Project Sylpheed, Forza 2 and a bunch of Xbox Live arcade titles (one of which was Track & Field).
I was impressed with Shadowrun, other than what I’ve heard from blogs and podcasts this was the first real concrete information I’d seen and it definitely clarified a few points for me. The things I’d heard were that it’s complexity might prove to be a barrier for people who just want to jump in and start playing and in my experience this definitely wasn’t the case. Other than a brief run of the first tutorial and some on-the-fly coaching from Chris I was pretty much running and gunning right away, sure it’ll take a while to master the finer points of tech and magic but if you’re a fan of the FPS genre then you’ll feel at home immediately as it handles exactly how it ought to and I was very quickly “in the zone”, ignoring everything around me and trying to get some decent headshots.
Project Sylpheed is essentially a 3D space shooter / flight sim and handles pretty well, I didn’t get to see a great deal of the mission structure so I can’t comment on the overall arc of the game but it was certainly put together well and once I’d inverted my flight controls (up vs down) I was flying quite easily. As I said, I didn’t really get far enough into the game to know but I’d love to see a more in-depth and interactive mission structure as opposed to the “enter arena and kill ‘em all” style of mission that most console flight sims have had recently.
I was also reasonably impressed with Forza 2, I wasn’t really a fan of the original and hated it within about 15 seconds of playing the game so I was pleasantly surprised when after 15 minutes of playing the sequel I was still enjoying myself. I’d still need to spend a little more time with the demo in order to be sure of it’s purchase value but that has more to do with my fussiness about control methods and handling than it does with the game itself.
Anyway, that’s about all the info I can regurgitate before I fall asleep and I have a flight tomorrow so I’d better get some shut-eye. Catch y’all later (well I am in America after all).
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\\ tags: forza, gamerscore blog, gamerscore blog road tour 2007, shadowrun, xbox, xbox 360
What item(s) do you have to prevent yourself from buying at the grocery store?
Submitted by Places Unknown.
Meat, because I’m a vegetarian! That said, I do have to worry about manufacturers sneaking animal products into everyday items like Mars, Snickers, Twix or Milky Way bars. It can be difficult as a veggie working all that stuff out at first but you get used to it and everyone sets their own moral compass (do they eat fish, wear leather etc.).
On a side note, if any veggies stumble on this and want an alternative to leather shoes then I’d heartily recommend Vegetarian Shoes, they’re based in Brighton on the South coast of England and make great quality leather free footwear for men and women (not one person I’ve met has spotted that my shoes are not leather). They’re also really friendly and helpful, I once had an 11th hour requirement for shoes to attend a wedding and they arranged to have a pair of smart shoes couriered overnight so that I could look smart and still keep my conscience clean!
If anyone out there is a new veggie or is thinking about it, feel free to get in touch – it can be daunting at first and it’s always good to have someone to ask.
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\\ tags: mars, milky way, qotd, snickers, vegetarian, vegetarian shoes, veggie
I know this puts me somewhat behind the times, but I just wanted to comment on how great Skype is. In the course of arranging a trip to the USA I have had reason to call on the phone a number of times to arrange hotels, etc. I just got off of the phone from Ticketmaster as I had issues with their site booking tickets for a game at Madison Square Gardens.
I work in the IT industry and have been using computers in one form or another for almost 20 years so it’s hard for things to really give me that ‘wow’ factor, but occasionally the enormity of it all hits me and I my brain lets me stand back and appreciate the whole thing. So, just now I was sat in the UK talking to some guy in the US over the Internet, wirelessly inside my flat and I though “yep, this is cool”.
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\\ tags: Internet, madison square garden, skype, ticketmaster, wireless
How well does your name Google? Who are you up against? (Celebrities, etc.)
Submitted by Matt Blank.
The top listing on Google for my name is that of an escort girl based in Sydney, Australia (It’s not me, honest) which I thought was quite amusing. Some of the links further down are related to me and one is even my own website, which is nice.
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\\ tags: australia, escort girl, google name, qotd, sydney
What websites do you visit every day?
Submitted by Chez Michelle.
I’m an avid gamer, techie and current-affairs junkie so I check…
- The Gamercast Network – website for a series of podcasts and a brilliant good-natured forum as well.
- Eurogamer – great news site for games and a rare gem of European based news.
- BBC News – my absolute favourite news channel and website.
- Digg – a superb social news site, excellent for highlighting the quirkier stories as well as good solid tech news.
- Xbox.com – I have a 360 but don’t use it every day, I visit the site to see who’s online, read my messages and send messages to my friends.
That’s all folks.
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\\ tags: 360, bbc, digg, gamer, gamercast network, qotd, Video Games, xbox