Culmination.
It’s a word. A fitting word. At least for the last 36 hours… over the last day and a half, I’ve been re-org’d, launched, re-launched, partied, liquored up, and chatted up. Not too bad, considering that today’s Xbox 360 Dashboard update is our biggest. …so far.
Want a look behind the curtain? I expect that Major Nelson will have something Inside Xbox before the end of the week… true, there’s almost always following him in the cafeteria, but he usually doesn’t wear a velvet smoking jacket while filming. At least not on camera… Anyway, until his clip is released, I can tell you what the NXE experience has meant to me…
Continue reading Xbox LIVE: New Xbox Experience →
And for some flavor, this is what my avatar looks like… today, anyway – I find that I’m tweaking it much more than I expected I would…
I’ve been working with the New Xbox Experience for a while now… during my team’s last re-org, we became a part Xbox LIVE and the push to get the NXE bits onto consoles has impacted every single bit of the org. Design, Code, Test. Design, Code, Test. Code, Test, Code, Test, Test, Test, Test.
Doesn’t mean that I stopped doing my day job either – I’m still helping to put great new features into games shipping this November… in fact, that’s what has lead to the slow down of blog posts: been busy trying to RTM three Titles and helping out with NXE testing.
Sadly, there’s not much that I can say about the specifics on either the Titles or NXE… the features in the Titles will start to show up as reviews come in but for NXE, I can’t say much… what I can say is Wow.
Just… Wow.
Update: Looks like November 19th is the Official Date for the release of the NXE!
Using XBL and a 512MB MU, I took some time to set up my new Xbox console.
Yes, it’s olive and orangy-chrome. Yes, I now have a shiny new Gamerpic and theme. Yes, it’s the Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition console. I bought it over the weekend but since I wanted to use the new hard drive, I had to borrow an MU from a friend at work. Yes, I know that I can only play my XBLA games if I’m logged in now, but the truth is that I was in that boat anyway: as part of my job I’ve beta tested a lot of hardware and I only had two games that would run offline… ah well.
Now I have to send my original 360 off to my sister and brother-in-law – they have an original Xbox that needs some upgrading lub.
This was a real subject line from a piece of SPAM that I noticed while cleaning out my Junk Mail folder. What a hoot.
In other news, Trixie tells me that if I persist in wearing on wearing denim shorts to work, that she would, well, um, lets just say that there was certain threats made that had nothing to do with kicking in a FIFA match or with the jewels in Bejeweled. Anyway, I now know that I’ll have to wonder what she’s looking at when I’m lomping around the cafe in a food coma. Wonder if I can get workman’s comp if I get jacked while waiting in the espresso line… huh.
Guess I should start wearing a cup to work. *g*
Xbox.com: Friends Management Comes to My Xbox. Accept or decline requests.Xbox.com has always been the place to find out about new games and hardware, learn about your fellow gamers, and check out upcoming events. With the launch of My Xbox® in October 2005, Xbox.com became your second Xbox Live® place. You can now check your gamerscore, compare achievements with friends, and keep track of your forum posts, all right here on Xbox.com.
Sweet!
Gamerscoreblog: Top Ten Bogus Rumors About the Xbox 360 – Around these halls, people love rumors in the same way that we love American Idol. No substance or meaning, but crazy fun to watch (especially when people make fools of themselves).
It is crazy fun to watch – I can’t believe people believed any of the stuff on this list…
Donut 04 D0nut o1 is no more!
Thanks to a new option in the 360 dashboard, I’m now D0NUT O1 Randy No Arms! Well, d0nut o1 for those that are l33t-ly challenged:
It’s neat actually… you use 800 points – and since there’s 1600 points per pre-paid card at $20/card it costs about $10 – to make the change on the 360 and it’s effective instantly. For my old Xbox, I had to go through Account Recovery – which is always scary since I never remember which credit card I used or if my address information is up to date – but that worked too. That was it.
Fun!
Yet another Xbox 360 Update.
Sorry about this, but well… the 360 is going to be the major source of new news in my life for the next few days… and what’s wrong with that, anyway? I’ve also recently noticed that I haven’t read a blog in over 48 hours. Scary, that.
Continue reading That’s Just Sick! →
Well, I think I’ve spent more time playing Halo 2 on it than anything else, but that’s changing as I now have five 360 games.
What’s neat?
Continue reading Update on the 360 →
Went to ebGames at 9:10. Got a few fists full of swag! XBox team stopped by, too. In ebGames by 12:01. Out by 12:08. Setup in 1080i, switch my Live account to the 360, and streaming music from my PC via the by 12:42.
I am impressed… and I’m still very cold!
Now to give Halo 2 a run… got Madden 06 and Quake 4 to try out too.
w00t!
Neopoleon.com: I never expected Microsoft to make it possible to play original Xbox games on the Xbox 360, and I am thankful. Even though the list of supported titles is rather short right now, it?s still better than nothing. […] The very first Slashdot comment from this story: “i’m currently playing far cry and battlefront 2 on my xbox, i guess i’ll have to keep it for a little while longer… damn you microsoft, damn you to hell, if apple devs can bust out with universal binarys why cant you.” This man is a cock.
I would retort to the /. comment, but the truth is that Rory has already said it all better than I could…
Sweet! My Xbox is now live… no pun intended!
Fred Meyer in Redmond, WA.
Not the normal kiosk: they got a 360 in the case with a wired controller and a wide-screen LCD up in the air. In fact, it’s a really interesting “design” since you can’t play with it for more than 4 minutes before your neck starts to ache – it’s that high up the wall – which I guess helps drive incentive to buy your own, rather than camping out at the store. [pics after the jump]
Randy No Arms' ongoing commentary on life, gaming, and the rest of the world