I’ve spent a lot of time on the boxes, and unfortunately, the time I spent fixing seems to have eclipsed the time I spent playing.

The thing I’ve found most fascinating about the process is that, while buggy, the 360 hardware is quite resilient.  With enough twiddling of screws, I can get a box up and running quite consistently.

• How Gamestop ruined my Valentine’s Day
• Gamestop Made Me Do It
• I’m an Idiot

The wife lovingly bought me a copy of Mass Effect 2 for Valentines Day.  In fact, she told me she was going to, hence my desire to get my Xbox working.  She gives it to me, and the first thing out of my mouth is “Oh, you bought this used?  I’ll have to pay $15 to be able to download the free stuff for it.”

I always do this.  My wife could buy me the coolest toy, phone, gadget, or netbook, and I’ll mention how much I like it, and oh did you see the deal on it last week where it was half off?  I make the lovely wife feel like an idiot, and the gift seem cheap and poorly thought-out.

That’s my personal demon to remove.  The real enemy here?  Gamestop, for knowingly selling my wife a game for $55 (a five-dollar discount off new retail price) without even mentioning this to her.  They made a ton of money off the deal, probably way more than they would have from selling the game new.  It was very well publicized in gaming circles that this was coming down the line, there’s no way they were innocent.

I’m putting them on my list of most hated companies.  Companies I won’t go to or buy from.  Congrats, guys — you just joined the ranks of Best Buy and Sony!

I just picked up three books on Design, based largely on the recommendations in the JavaPosse Roundup 09 sessions on the topic.  I haven’t read them yet, but just perusing them makes them look to be a lot of fun.  First, the Amazon links:

1. The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
2. Don’t Make Me Think!  A common sense approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
3. The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams

Everyday Things is actually about physical, industrial design, but a lot of the anecdotes, photographs, and diagrams seem to apply just as well to software design.  The Design Book steps a bit closer to my familiar software realms by covering general graphic design principles, largely for print media.  It covers the basics of Proximity, Alignment, Repetition, and Contrast, and a host of other things including color and type (font to us normals).  And lastly, Don’t Make Me Think! covers style and web patterns.  It has juicy bits on brevity, breadcrumbs, scanning patterns, and tons more.

I can’t wait!  Practical design has always been something I like.  I want to learn the best patterns.

Oops, it happened again.  There’s no free lunch this time.  Even if I paid the $100 to MS to repair it, they would only give a 90 day warranty on their work.  So, either buy a new one (with a massive extended warranty, of course) or try to fix it myself.  After attempting to buy a new Arcade unit for $200 at K-Mart twice, but failing both times because they were out of stock, I went the fix route.

Oooh, that’s a dark and scary part of the internet.  Everyone’s trying to sell you their $40 guide on how to fix it like the pros.  Plus they tout how their guides are not scams (a good indication of scamminess), and how they will make you a better person.  I kept digging, though, and found help on my brother‘s recommendation:

YouTube – How To Fix the Red Ring of Death #1 (Penny Trick)

It actually worked.  I used the video as a general guide.  The only thing I had to do “off the books” was convince the xbox to get out of the three red rings mode.  I’m not sure I did this the best way, but I unplugged the fan and powered up for about 2 minutes.  Even though the three red rings keep flashing, all the parts warm up decently (but can get too warm, that’s the part I’m not sure about). After a 30-minute cooldown, the xbox booted just fine.

Along the way, I came across these other reputable/useful links:

• Fixing without towels
• Llamma’s X-Clamp fix
• X-Clamp fix 2
• Mario’s Repair Guide

I played Gears of War 2 for 30 minutes, no problems.  It logs onto Xbox Live just fine.  And, we’ve gone through the movie Dinosaur today with no issues.  Perhaps it will live long enough for me to play up some Mass Effect 2!

Update:  Not long enough for all of Mass Effect 2… see also this new post.

This is my current gold-standard set of podcasts:

Podcast / RSS Link	Category	Average Length	Description
Major Nelson Radio	Gaming	1:15 - 2:00	Gaming podcast, focussed almost exclusively on the Xbox 360. Interviews and news.
IGN Games Podcasts	Gaming	0:40 - 1:15	I listen to the following podcasts from this RSS: Game Scoop (all around gaming news) Three Red Lights (ostensibly 360, often silly) Nintendo Voice Chat (Wii / DS) Command Prompt (PC Gaming)
IGN Entertainment Podcasts	Television / Movies / Technology	0:40 - 1:00	I only currently listen to Channel Surfing, but occasionally there are other interesting podcasts
Bungie Podcast	Gaming	1:30 - 2:00	Bungie studios talking mostly about Halo. Note: Not bleeped, not filtered.
Anger, Sadness, Envy	Gaming	1:15 - 1:45	Rampancy.net's podcast discussing all things halo. Fun deep dives into story and gameplay.
The Dealnews Podcast	Technology, Consumer News	0:40 - 1:00	A medium-length, somewhat lighthearted take on tech news and product deals.
The Java Posse	Programming	1:00 - 1:30	Java and JVM news and sessions

Here are some podcasts I’ve just started listening to and am still evaluating:

• buff
• debuff
• tank
• aggro
• DPS
• AoE
• Bonus:
  • Tapping
  • Untap

In some cases, you may even be fooling yourself that you’re playing a game.  Seriously, though, I’m a nerd, and listening to people talk like the above makes me want to take their lunch money.

The discussion that spawned this was an article on Slashdot about breaking up some of these concepts, so that MMOs don’t all end up the same.  I’m in full agreement… I want to have fun playing, and I want to at least pretend that it’s not all numbers in a computer somewhere.

(I had to throw in the M:tG terms just because playing that game causes you to talk especially nerdy.)

Buy.com recently had a great deal on some games and battery packs.  One of the games included was Crackdown.  Here’s a quick review, after playing about half the game.  I get the feeling that Crackdown is one of those games everyone’s heard of, but few have played.  It’s never had a mega promotional campaign, but it’s a solid, well put-together title.  To sum up my feelings about the game: it’s a blast.  And it gets blastier the farther along you get.

This is clearly an open-world title.  The city, its people, and its gangs and cars all go on without your intervention.  They even get into traffic accidents and pile-ups, all by themselves.  There is a light, guiding hand as to the first few missions to undertake, but the order of everything is optional.  You can go almost anywhere in the city right from the beginning, sort of… more on that in a bit.

What do you do?  Well, basically, you can drive, shoot, punch, detonate, and jump.  In fact, doing those five activities nets you better abilities resulting in a stronger ability.  For example, the more you drive a car, with drifting, stunts, and checkpoint races, the better the car handles and performs.  Likewise with shooting, punching, and explosives.  Higher skill levels will give you faster aiming, additional health, and larger blasts.

And lots of jumping gets you, well, nothing, by itself.  Jumping is improved by picking up Agility orbs, placed all over the city.  With some clever jumping, you can pick up a ton of orbs.  Once you have enough for the next level, you are rewarded with a major boost to your jumping height and running speed.  After a couple of levels, you are crossing the city by leaps and bounds.  You might find yourself orb hunting rather than playing the game.  It’s almost peaceful… until you miss that jump and land on the highway and get run over.  Such is life, though.

Taken all together, you have a pretty fun game.  You begin to feel like a superhero, throwing barrels, jumping to the top of tall buildings, punching guys into next week.  And you have guns and cars, which make everything better.  And, you can play two-player co-op.

This is a violent game — you’ll be running people down, punching guys off buildings, and lighting people on fire via explosives.  The game has some minor flaws, and archaic-feeling menu system, some odd button choices for actions, and targeting and camera issues.

• How much would I pay for the game? Despite its second-generation mistakes and issues, I can say this game would be worth buying at least $50, possibly a full retail of $60.  The fact that I paid about $6 for it is just gravy.
• How many times would I replay it? I’m absolutely going to play this one through to the end, and gather all 800 orbs if I can.  I could see myself playing it again, especially if I can find a co-op buddy to do it with.

There was only one reason I wanted the game:  Portal.  I heard from friends and reviews about the thing, so I had a feeling I’d like it.  I did.  Great writing and mind-bending (but not too mind-bending) make for a fun game.

To catch anyone up who has missed out on the Portal premise, the player awakens in an austere lab environment.  You quickly become acquainted with your host, GLaDOS, a computer that has a pretty disturbingly carefree attitude towards life and safety.  GLaDOS introduces you to the concept of portals and in pretty short order, the Portal Gun (aka Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device), and from there you have to figure out puzzles and how to keep yourself alive in order to reach the next elevator.

Now, the Orange Box contains 4 other games and I really didn’t give them a fair shake.  I played through a bit of HL2, and it seemed nice, and polished, but I couldn’t really get into it.  It looks like Team Fortress is doing some cool things with multiplayer, but my lack of internet leaves me unable to test more.

• How much would I pay for the game? You should buy this game if you see it for $40 or less. Portal alone is worth it for $30 or less, and you can now get the Still Alive edition on XBLA for I think $15, a real steal.
• How many times would I replay it? At least twice. There are some “advanced” editions of the levels, so you will be hitting some things multiple times anyway, and there’s a great developer’s commentary version.  Unfortunately, I failed to do some of the achievements on my first playthrough, so I’ll have to try again.

Mass Effect

Mass Effect is an XBox360 (also available on PC) role playing game from Bioware, makers of some other great RPGs such as Star wars:Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire.  Combat is real-time like Jade, but has more of a Gears of War feel, with weapons and cover system.  RPG elements include conversation choices, ability points, logbooks, quest guides, and lots of inventory.  It has far more inventory options than Jade or KOTOR, and includes a similar crafting system of swappable upgrades for weapons and armor.

And I haven’t even mentioned the six different classes (three major classes, three mixed classes) that play quite differently and have different special skills.  And at any given time you can pick two other team members with different classes and skills to augment your setup.  One of whome is Wrex, who has the best lines of the game.

• How much would I pay for the game? You should buy this game if you see it at any price.  Seriously, its original $60 is still worth it at this point.  Story, graphics, and gameplay are excellent.  It’s almost like playing a sci-fi movie.  Bonus points for the glitch that lets me get all the “Renegade” points and achievements without actually having to be a jerk in the rest of the game.
• How many times would I replay it? You will have to play it at least 3 times to get all achievements.  I made a couple of mistakes on two runs of mine, so I need to play it through 5 times.  And I will.  It is that satisfying.

I can’t believe I missed the press releases, but such is life.

The main community site is at http://www.leagueoflegends.com/

I wish them the best.  The game is fun and has a lot of teamwork potential.

Actually, there are a lot of stuff from PSO in there, including color-coded pickups and lots of statistics.  The story is compelling, based on Norse Mythology, but twisted up with technology.  Gameplay is fast and entertaining, with explosions and physics effects.

There is a healthy amount of problems with the game, though, including the chunky/clunky camera (well documented elsewhere) and a very slow menu system.  Death comes often (only one class has healing abilities) brings no penalties, but punishes you with a 40-second-long cutscene of a Valkyrie picking you up.  If the Valkyries are invulnerable, why aren’t they killing all the baddies.

Probably the worst part of the game was the feeling of being stranded.  The manual doesn’t have a lot of detail, and there is almost no in-game help.  And with all the statistics and modifiers you are dealing with, you are left confused often.

• How much would I pay for the game? You should buy this game if you see it for $40 or less.  Story, graphics, and gameplay are pretty good.  It has enough flexibility to cover several play styles, but if you really hated Diablo or the GameCube Phantasy Star Online, you may want to pass.
• How many times would I replay it? At least twice.  The game is relatively short; IGN lists it at 12-15 hours, and even my casual play-style bears that out.  So, it’s a quick play, but the different classes have very unique styles to them, so you can replay without duplicating the experience.

• Rumpelstiltskin would be the prime example here.  By learning the name, and speaking it to the creature, the miller’s daughter got out of the bargain she had made (to be able to spin straw into gold, she had to give up her firstborn).
• In The Tenth Kingdom, the blind woodsman would only release his prisoner and give the heroes his magic axe if they could guess his name.  (Luckily, he kept it in his hat.)
  
• The undoing of the Horned King in The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander was the speaking of his name.
• In Aidyn Chronicles for the Nintendo64, the main character Alaron lacks a True Name, which binds his body and soul together.  Without it, he is incomplete.
  

The question is, does any of this apply to the real world?

It was, in fact, in my playing of Aidyn Chronicles that I first became cognizant of this whole business.  In it, there is a discipline of magic called Naming set in contrast to the more familiar Elemental (fire, air, earth, water) magic.  At the time, I thought, “What’s the big deal?  Is having a name and giving a name so important?”  This was 2001.

Flash forward to 2007.  I have a daughter now, and she’s struggling to learn everything in the world.  She will eat up new words and start using them immediately.  She feels every word brings her more power.

Well, knowledge is power, names are knowledge, and therefore names are power.  So I guess it makes a bit of sense.  You can know about something.  But this is not just knowing something, it is naming that something.  If you know enough about a thing, you can name it, categorize it, relegate it.  Give a name to your fear, the saying goes.

I suspect naming can have broader powers too… a way of setting the stage for a debate, for example.  If you coin a product name, a movment, a philosophy, or anything, you may well be determining the ultimate fate of that thing.  At the very least, you’re doing a bit of mind control by making a popular name that everyone speaks.

Wikipedia has a bit more discussion in this vein, under the True Name topic.

Regarding A.C. Clarke, be sure to read the first Rendezvous with Rama book, but none of the sequels.

Also, try out Neal Stephenson. My favorite so far is The Diamond Age, but Cryptonomicron and Snow Crash are excellent as well. All of them fall in the computer geek realm, not so much space sci-fi as nerd sci-fi. Note: these are not short books, but are well-written.

A couple of older favorites:

Junkyard Planet / The Cosmic Computer, by H. Beam Piper is a 1963 novel that is a light read but is entertaining and has survived pretty well, ie, it doesn’t sound outdated or silly. Through a copyright quirk, it is public domain, and can be downloaded if you can’t find a copy.

My Name is Legion by Roger Zelazny continues the hacker theme a bit. It involves a global ID system that one man has a backdoor into and he uses this to be a “freelance investigator and problem solver.”

read more over at TheConans »

There are some instances of language, and, as anyone who’s seen the previews will know, the lead character is a pregnant teen.  But the movie has a tinge of realism to it, and smartly deals with a lot of issues facing teenagers.  I joked with Jodi that any teens that went to the show may have learned some lessons, likely against their will.

Pat’s Rating system:

• How much would I pay for the movie? I would be willing to pay theater/popcorn prices to see this again, so let’s say $15-20 or so.  I’d probably buy the DVD too.
• How many times would I rewatch it? I’d be more than happy to see this in the theaters again.

read more at TheConans »

N+ is the new hotness on XBox Live Arcade, created by metanet software as a sequel to their flash game, N.

Lauded as a paragon of substance over style, it is a hit with game reviewers all over.  It has a laughably small download size: 13MB.

The game prizes control and level design over fluff like graphics.  The biggest problem with the game is that the control feels heavy, and the level design is tedious.

Obviously, they’re trying to make it feel “physics-y”, where the character has weight and momentum, but it only occasionally comes off that way.  If you aren’t making a gloriously long leap after a run, the character just feels sluggish.

As to the level design, I have to admit that I was only playing the demo, and there are something like 200 levels in the full game.  But they were often merely passable, not clever.  When I see a long corridor of 40 deathtraps that I have jump one by one, stopping each time, I am not enjoying it.  And when I die halfway down that hallway, I’m not only not buying the game, I’m deleting it.

N+, you’re just going to have to try a bit harder in the fun department.

—-

Pat’s Rating system:

• How much would I pay for the game? Maybe $3-5, if I’m bored.
• How many times would I replay it? Do I really have to finish it?  It has people hooked, but I just can’t see myself trying the same level over and over again like I can with Puzzle Quest.  Multiplayer is supposed to be fun, but that’s not enough justification.

read more at TheConans »

General links:

• Fight for Kisses: A great video with high quality animation (reminds me of Shrek, actually) for… a razor.

Nerd links:

• The Nerd Handbook: How a nerd’s brain works, and Care and Feeding
• White and Nerdy: a music video to go along with the above
• All about the Pentiums: okay, this is older, but great & nerdy itself

read more at TheConans »

The Paper Mario series started out as a cute, stylized sequel to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.  It took RPG-like elements, experience points, progression, inventory, etc and merged them with a paper cut-out look and feel.  Houses would stand up and fold around you as you walked in, and several of Mario’s powers involved him being folded in different ways.

The papery gimmicks are still around, but much of the RPG qualities were dropped for this version. But all the dialog remained!  Some of it was cute and clever, but in the end it got tiresome.

You have an inventory, still, that you barely ever use.  In fact, it just fills up and becomes annoying. You can store items at certain locations for later retrieval, but why?  You really only need health items.

Finally, the levels get kind of tiresome.  Once you get the idea or hook of the level, expect to rinse and repeat at least 4 more times in coming levels.

It was generally fun, and there was a good variety of situations, but it just didn’t all come together in the end.

Best moment:  The introduction to Fracktail, the first big boss fight: video

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Pat’s Rating system:

• How much would I pay for the game? I’d buy this for more play for about $10.  I’m just glad I borrowed it this time.
• How many times would I replay it? Do I really have to finish it?  That was going through my head after level 4 or so… but I suppose one playthough is warranted.  Hint: use Bowser in boss fights.

read more at TheConans »

Yes, there is one pair of underwear in the list.  I expect a host of jokes relating to me wearing those — it won’t be a surprise.

Pat.

read more back at TheConans »

See an overview of the game here. Download at least the demo now. This is the second entry on my “must-buy” list of things on XBLA, along with Assault Heroes. (Is it weird that I haven’t bought anything on my must-buy list? Editor’s note:  I’ve purchased both since.) The game is also available for PC, DS, and PSP, and is slated to arrive on Wii, PS2, and Cell phones.

It’s like a two-player Bejeweled, with each player taking turns on the same board trying to make at least 3 gems in a row. If you knock out four in a row, you get another turn right away. The gems you clear away will either give you mana for spells or do damage to your opponent. When you have enough mana, you can choose to cast spells on yourself or your opponent with a variety of effects.

Add to that some RPG elements like a lightweight story, equippable items, and character improvement, and you have a rockin’ time. Try it today!

—-

Pat’s Rating system:

• How much would I pay for the game? Oh, probably in the $30 range would be my upper limit. Thankfully, it is only $10-15 on XBLA, so that is well within reason. But should I wait for the Wii version? (Editor’s note:  No, the controls and UI are terrible)
  
• How many times would I replay it? Repeatedly. The demo doesn’t save your progress and only has a 30-minute storyline, and it limits you to level 7, but I’ve played through it 3 times. Add multiplayer and XBL-multiplayer and you’ve got something.

read more at TheConans »