In November 2006 Microsoft added the ability to have your Xbox 360 automatically download new Xbox Live Arcade trial games, it’s a great feature but for too long I’ve just let it stack up with millions of trial games and it’s about time I sorted the wheat from the chaff and decided if there’s anything worth buying. I’m going to chip away at my list of 81 games (although some I’ve played and own) until I get rid of all the trials and today’s my first 10…
 Asteroids & Deluxe – Some old rehashes work (Pacman CE) and others don’t. This seems like an utterly pointless remake and doesn’t seem to provide any of the old-school fun it ought to.
 Battlestar Gallactica – Not my cup of tea but seems well put together, kind-of odd that it’s a space flight sim yet you seem to be retricted to a 2D plane.
Bliss Island – no idea what the bloody hell is going on here, don’t seem to be able to actually do much.
Every Extend Extra Extreme – WTF? Seriously, I can’t see the game here – you just wait until you’re surrounded, press A then watch the pretty colours. It seems bizarre to play a game, not have a clue about what you’re doing and still score 7,056,824,249 points.
Ikaruga – Back in the day I used to like scrolling shooters, I always wanted to try Ikaruga but I never got to. The gameplay doesn’t really disappoint, it’s more the narrow vertical nature of it leaves me feeling empty – like I’m wasting two thirds of my TV screen whilst squinting at what’s left trying to work out what’s going on.
Metal Slug 3 – Fun game, a bit silly but definitely not worth 800 points. Oddly this game seemed to screw up my Xbox Live connection I was in a voice chat at the time so I was rather pissed off.
Omega Five – I lasted for about 15 seconds in total and I would rather be punched in the face than play this for another second.
Street Trace NYC – I think the publishers would like it to be “Tony Hawks on Steroids” but it’s actually “Tony Hawks on Life Support”. Do yourself a favour, keep your cash, go on eBay and buy yourself an Original Xbox copy of a Tony Hawks Pro Skater game and you’ll get way more value for money.
 Track & Field – Oddly this is as fun and compelling as it ever was, I’m not 100% sure if I’ll buy it yet but it’s definitely a candidate.
Tron – Terrible, it upsets me that this game exists. It disgusts me that it’s been remade.
So it’s as I thought – they’re mostly rubbish. On a side note, all hail to the glorious Microsoft Points Converter – what an awesome little tool.
This blog post has also been cross-posted on my specialist gaming blog, hosted on the Gamercast Network.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: 360, Asteroids, Battlestar Gallactica, Bliss Island, Every Extend Extra Extreme, Ikaruga, Metal Slug 3, Omega 5, Street Trace NYC, Track & Field, Tron, XBLA, xbox, xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade
I decided to install Drupal on my web server and instead of downloading the install files to my desktop, unzipping them and then uploading them back to the web server (which takes ages over ADSL) I thought I’d have a go at downloading them manually over SSH. In effect SSH is a method of connecting to your Linux web hosting service as though you were actually at a terminal logged in to that machine, in effect you have complete control over your web space with the ability to use the array of commands available to all Linux users. Most web hosting companies offer SSH access on their decent packages and I definitely recommend it as a shortcut for various things such as deleting files, setting permissions and editing config files (yes, I actually like vi). So, if you’ve got SSH access, how do you use it? First you’ll need to find out the Host Name, Username and Password from your hosting provider, then one of the following – depending on whether you’re a Windows or Mac user…
If you’re on a Mac running OSX you’re in luck, you already have an SSH client to hand, if you go to Applications then double-click on Utilities you get an array of useful applications – be careful here but the one we want is Terminal. Once you’ve launched Terminal type the following: “ssh username@system”, you will then be prompted for your password and you’re in!
If you’re on Windows then get yourself a copy of PuTTY, a small but fantastic little application that’s free for both commercial and non-commercial users. As an aside, the PSFTP client on offer there is also a great secure FTP client.
Now, if you’re not used to having command-line access to systems and especially if you’ve no Linux skills at all I’d suggest you read some good starter materials and learn more about Linux – messing with the command-line is very dangerous and there is no undo feature! I may start writing some posts about both the Linux and Windows command-line but in the interim please feel free to ask for advice, just leave a comment on this page and I’ll get an email, alternatively send me a direct message on Twitter.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: command-line, Drupal, linux, mac, osx, PuTTY, web hosting, windows
So everyone’s buzzing about Microsoft buying Yahoo and I’ve been trying to work out what my opinion is. My first thoughts were that (in Search at least) it’s just one ‘also ran’ buying another ‘also ran’, nothing too inspiring. I still think that’s true but it’s worth underscoring the fact that Microsoft are betting their business on Search and in turn on advertising. Over the last few years Microsoft have started transitioning to a ‘Software as a Service’ model and services in general (think Xbox Live), this is clearly an important extension of that. A lot of people see this as a bid to rival Google in Search but if you start applying the advertising model to IM, Flickr and perhaps even gaming.
As an industry gaming has grown to be larger than both the movie and music industries and the power to be able to sell-through ads into the Xbox dashboard and even into billboards and scenery inside games could be a huge market. I’m not sure that we (the public) will find out but look for signs of an API allowing developers to integrate Yahcrosoft ads into games, the buzz about in-game ads has been building for a while but it’s been crying out for a standard for developers to work to, well – here it is. On top of all that remember that there’s plenty of other cool stuff in the deal including Flickr (note that things like this are exactly the reason I stayed away from Flickr). It’ll be a while before this actually make a difference but keep your eyes open…
This blog post has also been cross-posted on my specialist gaming blog, hosted on the Gamercast Network.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: gaming, Merger, Microsoft, Search, xbox, xbox live, Yahcrosoft, yahoo
So, I actually bothered watching the live stream of Bill Gates’ keynote at CES – I love insomnia sometimes. All in all it was relatively interesting, I paid special attention to the Xbox 360 section which announced their IPTV service (no details and cynicism/experience tells me it’ll be US only). Some cross-platform features of Xbox Live and Vista were mentioned, I like the idea but it’ll be a while before it really catches on with PC users. I posted my live notes about the Xbox 360 portion on the forums of the GamerCast Network, if you don’t know about them please download and listen to their excellent podcasts, I listen to the Video Game Show, but they also host the extremely popular GamerTag Radio and Uncle Gamer Radio.
There was also a bit of blathering about how great everyone thinks Gears of War is, I personally wasn’t that fussed – if they made an FPS that was equally good looking I might be interested but as far as I’m concerned it looks great but plays distinctly average. I heard someone describe it as a pretty version of whack-a-mole and honestly that’s exactly what it is.
They demoed some cool features in Vista which should be good once they’ve been service-packed to hell, my favourite was the integration with the Xbox 360 controller – I’ve got to find some use for the handful of spares I have lying around. Other than that it was relatively uninspiring, they had the balls to mention both Urge and Zune even though they’re both different incompatible products trying to achieve the same aim.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: bill gates, ces, iptv, keynote, Microsoft, podcast, vista, xbox, xbox 360
I was very impressed that Microsoft have gotten a patch out so quickly (and out of cycle) for the VML exploit. It doesn’t affect me too much as I’m a Firefox user but I do use the Preview pane in Outlook so I am vulnerable to HTML emails. Whether you’re vulnerable or not, it’s a good responsible action by Microsoft and I think it shows that they’re taking security much more seriously than they used to – I also enjoyed the fact that it didn’t ask me to reboot either, always a bonus!
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: Microsoft, patch, security, VML, vulnerability
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