Xbox Live Discontinues Original Xbox support, Increased Friend Cap a Possiblity?

Marc Whitten, Xbox Live's General Manager has recently posted a blog over at the Xbox 360 Press website.

He has stated that on April 15th, 2010 Support for Original Xbox games, played through either off of a disc, or through the Xbox Originals service will no longer work on Xbox Live.

The main reason for this has not been stated specifically, but he goes on to say that they will continue to evolve the features of the service, and they need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with Original Xbox games.

I'm just taking a wild guess here and saying that the main change he's referring to is the 100 friend cap on games with a built-in friends list like Halo 2. If so, I would definitely not mind having a higher friends list cap, seeing as how the 100 friend limit has kind of become a burden on me a number of times.

He also mentions something about Natal support with Xbox Live, and I have to imagine that will be something big. I guess we'll just have to wait till more details get trickled out. Until then, you can check out the original article Here.

Pets coming to Xbox Live Marketplace

Have you always wanted a Dog, but don't wanna clean up its messes or pay for its grooming. Well now you can get one from a variety of choices on XBOX LIVE.

Starting on December 3rd, you can have the pet you always wanted and avoid the frustration of having to interact with an actual pet. With limited animation gimmicks, you'll be able to know how your pet is feeling after the 23 time he does that same trick. Purchasing a pet has never been more affordable or carefree until now with these $3 animated pet avatars including:

Large Dog, Pug Dog, Dog in Bag, Cat, Siamese Cat, Long Haired Cat, Goldfish, Guinea Pig, Pony, Monkey, Bird, Snake.

*end sarcasm*

Oh, you thought I was really promoting this?

More Bragging Rights for Natal?

Project Natal is eagerly awaited for what it could hold in motion control technology, especially with the fact that there is no controller. It's you. That's the mantra it has been selling since its introduction at E3.

Major Nelson posted news regarding a new achievement of Natal in TIME magazine.

It is a great accomplishment to be honored in TIME magazine, even with concerns over how well Natal will work. People are cynical enough to probably down this achievement since testing of Natal has been limited, so take it with a grain of salt. Sure, I will personally see if Natal deserves the recognition or lives up to the hype, but Microsoft clearly wants Natal to be as good as they proclaim it to be. This award is sure to solidify their credibility in technology...

*thinks about Red Ring of Death*

...Or maybe not. haha.

Halo Legends "The Babysitter" Review

Halo Legends has been a subject of controversy on Geeksquisite, TJ especially cringed at the post production pics where you can see a teddy bear on the ground near a spartan in one picture. Teddy Bears may have been "useful" when killing people in Fallout 3, but what were the animators thinking putting stuff like that in Halo Legends?
*end rant*

On Halo Waypoint the premiere episode of Halo Legends was available, and future episodes will be viewable every saturday. Despite my concern with how Halo would translate into anime, I decided to analyze the episode carefully.

Overall Design in the animation is a mix of good and bad, but the freedoms the animators took are specific. Vehicle Designs are pretty spot on and very cool as far as I am concerned. Especially with the Phantoms, oh my those looked great. Weapon designs and interface on the anime was pretty good too, they had a sniper rifle zoom in moment that looked pretty nice and reminded me of the game.

When it came to the character designs, this is a much much less good side to the anime. Humans, ODSTS, all look okay, but of course the main character and focus of episode 1 had spiky overdone hair. This is why I was worried about Halo Legends as an anime, anime style is a difficult adaption for existing character design in the Halo franchise. Would the army EVER let someone have such crazy looking hair? NO. The spartan for this episode is horribly designed. I can't describe it too well but while the ODST's look okay in their armor, the spartan looks chubby in his armor and is an insult to the Master Chief's design burned in my head (very minimalistic too which means they aren't doing the spartan's justice). As for Brutes and grunts, they seemed okay. Elites, oh man they looked awful, they really messed up on the elites. The prophet they had was okay, but in a nutshell the non human character designs are pretty half assed.

Story and voice acting, that was okay. I am happy to say that they kept this good for the most part. One thing regarding story they did for this episode felt like a breaking of an old Halo tradition regarding spartans.

SPOILERS

They made the spiky haired kid a hero and made the Spartan take the beating from a brute with a hammer for the kid, killing her. That's right, I said HER. the ODST's removed her helmet revealing her bloody long white haired face, okay first of all...

One of the biggest things about Spartans is their mysterious identities, this Spartan kept quiet as she should but they made it so easy for the ODSTS to rip off her helmet. Spartans remain extremely mysterious and rarely allow removal of their helmets in public, or so the novels seem to indicate. It felt wrong that they unmasked a spartan, but that's not the worst part. It also drove me crazy that she got so emotional in the moments she was dying, i've read the novels and spartans shouldn't be "tell all" as they are dying. Or at least, they should have put less human interactions between the spartan girl and the ODSTS. Spartans make emotions take a backseat much of the time, so it felt like they messed up there. BIG TIME.

So for the most part Halo Legends is quite a departure from the designs and story arcs we are familiar with. The main flaw is lack of creative control that is so clearly not there with the death of the Spartan woman. In the beginning of Halo 3, it's clearly established that soldiers don't tend to a spartan that way. In fact, watch that part with the unmasking in Halo Legends, and then watch Johnson and the Chief in the beginning of the first level of Halo 3 and tell me which scene was better. I'm betting the cinematic video game scene looks better, and thats mostly because the chief is not treated like a non human/alien like in the anime.

Set your bar a little lower because it has depreciative qualities, I will hope in future episodes it isn't as bad.

Facebook, Twitter update to XBL has release date..sorta

Connected Consoles brings us a release date of the upcoming 2nd update to Xbox Live.

Problem is, Connected Consoles detailed this in their news:

Microsoft Xbox have today announced that the new system update that features new applications such as Twitter and Facebook will be arriving in the UK on November 17.

In the UK, will the date differ from the United States???

If so Connected Consoles should have pointed this out, it says UK but there is no mention of a US release date. Since this is a huge update, I am inclined to think this is the universal date for all consoles regardless of location.

So even with some uncertaintly, look out for the Facebook/Twitter update (in the UK at the least) on November 17th.

Gamestop unveils Halo ODST Exclusive

Gamestop Offer

Gamestop is offering a nice package for those pre-ordering Halo ODST to order from them, in return you will get a controller, a code to play Sgt. Johnson in firefight, the game and the beta code. Wait....PLAY SGT. JOHNSON IN ODST!

This will probably appeal to many hardcore Halo fans, I am one of those people. But to put this in an economic perspective the price tag for this pre-order is a 100 bucks. People are already up in arms about the price of Halo ODST at 60-65 dollars, getting a code for the Reach multiplayer beta was a nice "cushion" among other things to make people believe it's worth full retail. And I won't be stopped by price to get ODST, but the Gamestop deal I'm probably going to pass.

I have three controllers, and while I could use a fourth controller while making machinima, I'll pass. Being able to playing Sgt. Johnson makes me envious nonetheless, but the killer for me is that Project Natal is replacing the controller for about 30 percent of your controllers functions. Only time will tell if it replaces a handheld controller more, but with the rumors of a new console as well I'm not in the mood to hold four controllers for a possibly obsolete console.

But should anyone take this deal, its a sweet deal to be sure. The controller looks sick :D, and being able to play Johnson is pretty awesome. It's kinda funny though, because I kept talking to Rob saying "where does he fit into ODST?" since ODST's trailer clearly shows it takes place after Regret left Earth in Halo 2. And Johnson went with the chief after Regret, but since this is in firefight it makes sense now. But to be able to play only in firefight? meh it's not much for me.

So since an Xbox controller costs about 40 bucks, and this one is special. Your not really paying for the Sgt. Johnson extra, so it's a nice deal. It's not for me, but if you don't have more than two controllers, I recommend it.

Natal May Be More Than You Bargained For

Link

"On this week's Listen Up podcast we discussed Natal, and David Ellis and I talked about what we've been hearing regarding the new technology -- and how it's actually the cornerstone of Microsoft's next evolution of the Xbox. Microsoft will not only release Natal as an add-on for the Xbox 360, it will come standard with the next Xbox console.

Yes, there will be a new Xbox console next fall."

Okay, first of all this is a rumor. BUT if its true, then Fall 2010 will bring us a new Xbox console. At first, I cried outrage and got mad..then I started thinking a Fall 2010 console would be a GOOD IDEA. Let's face it, the Xbox 360 won't be a classic collectors item with the RROD pains it gave us. But now it seems stupid to buy Natal in the spring when you can just wait till the new console comes out.
Once again, this is rumour right now. But i'm thinking its probably true, because Natal looks nothing like the Xbox 360, gaming peripherals USUALLY mimic their console's color and style. Natal didn't, so im better this will be confirmed later on.

The fact that I believe that a new console will come, I'm going to wonder what the price will be. Xbox is REALLY coming early with a new console, it will be a while before the others make a new one. And if they don't they will very likely price cut now, so if the new Xbox is around 400 dollars I'd probably go for it.

Book Review: Halo: Ghosts of Onyx

Without a doubt my favorite one of the Halo series. Coming from the best author in the series, Eric Nylund who started the novels, I feel more comfortable in his story structure than others. Contact Harvest, The Flood and the Cole Protocol are written by other authors. 

Ghosts of Onyx centers around a unique spartan apart from the others we already know named Kurt, Kurt is noted by Master Chief to "spend alot of time making friends". Or basically to be the humanitarian coach to the Spartan-III, the next generation of Spartans he is in charge of.

Eric Nylund also has exclusive storylines around Dr. Catherine Halsey, the brains behind the Spartan Program. I happen to like this character because she is a mother to the spartans, but in a surrogate angle where she is comfortable company to the Spartans unlike the intense reactions from everyone else in the UNSC.

It was interesting to see the creation of Spartan-III's, and it was also good to get a storyline on the Covenant side. Nylund started this after William Dietz did in The Flood, Nylund started this in First Strike. The story of the elites banding together in light of the prophet's betrayal seemed like a glorious moment in the book, and then it went downward in so many areas I really got eager to flip page after page to learn fates of the characters. 

This, to me, is the best Halo novel and I recommend you read it. Even if you don't like to read. 

1 v 100 impressions

The 1 v 100 beta from 8-11PM tonight was extremely fun, I hadn't really researched how to play the game but it really got addicting after a couple of minutes. I got in around 20 minutes after 8 and stayed for the whole duration. Man am I wiped.

I gotta say, a lot of the people chosen as "the One" were greedy. It was sad too because one person lost everything because he didn't answer, and he was high on points. Others were just plain greedy and assumed they'd know every answer. 

And some people did seem to know every answer, everyone with me assumed they were googling in the background. I don't know how that's possible, I mean maybe they could get all of them correct but like 2 seconds after the answers are all shown. NAH!

Besides the Trivia, it's worth it to win Microsoft Points. And there was even mention of a 40 inch flat screen TV. I don't know if that was real though. 

The only POSSIBLE downside to 1 v 100 is that its a scheduled thing weekly, other games have allowed you to play endlessly but always end up running dry on new trivia. Obviously this game won't suffer for it.

I hope it gets released soon. :)

N+ Review on Xbox 360

A while ago Rob got me to buy N+, it was a free game online but needless to say the idea of multiplayer on N+ is about 80 percent of my motive to buy any game. I like playing with my friends plain and simple. 

Now about N+ in case you don't know the game its where you aim to reach a door or go back to your starting point after you activate a switch. Your time limit is never reset in this game so it depends on how fast you can scale the different rooms that have different archways and traps to kill you. You can jump in an anti gravity fashion when you hold the Green A button for a few seconds, yellow dots represent "gold" to increase your time limit in case you take time to reach your goal or simply want to add time. Up to four people are allowed.

The control is good, i'd imagine some will complain but when the control is designed to be sensitive to challenge you, especially since you can slide against walls and double your jump height if you build momentum. The thrill of it makes me love this game for how simple it is, and the challenges get harder. It starts slow with some gaps, then some enemies that try to kill you, bombs that try to home in on you. It's a really fun game, and it made me think whether it was worth paying for since its free online. Well they added more room designs and the multiplayer experience is enjoyable, when your friends mess up and you watch their body parts scatter and bounce as they hit bombs is more entertaining than it should be. 

This game is worth the money and worth trying, it's a game for when you don't want to really "get" into the game. It's simply a Point A to B adventure game that has that surreal feel, especially with the music that doesn't repeat too much I think. 

I give it a 3.5 out of 5

Xbox Motion Sensing Device

This is just my thoughts but once again there are rumors and alot of reading between the lines of official words from Xbox that they have a Motion Sensing competitor to the Nintendo Wii's device.

Personally I think this is a ridiculous idea, because I personally feel Nintendo is in a class of its own. Thats not a compliment btw considering the excitement is more over the motion devices than it is over many of the games. 

So on that note I have to say it'd be a waste of time to make a motion sensing device, because no matter how cool it is the games unfortunately seem to focus on the motion sensing novelty than actually making a fun game. 

Some have speculated that it will be a peripheral like the Eye Toy cameras used on Playstation, I've played with those and they were pretty terrible. It lasted only 5 minutes for me. Xbox already has a vision camera so I don't see why they'd make another one or could make it work off the existing camera. I actually really hope the motion sensing peripheral is a rumor, nothing more.