Okay,

I’ve actually gotten a request to start blogging here again, so I’ll see if I can’t oblige. I made a nifty Halo 3 comic using the screenshot feature and Comic Life, a handy comic making program that came with my MacBook Pro. Oh yeah, I have a MacBook Pro now. I’ve had it for a while, but this is actually my first 8bN post written on it. Anywho, I’m sitting at a Panera and seem to be having trouble uploading the comic. I’ll try again when I get home.

So, here’s a request. If you’re reading this, leave a comment. It’ll help me gauge how often I should update this thing. See you soon. I cannot fucking wait for Rock Band. No. Can’t do it. Must have it.

That is all.

I’ve been watching the traffic at Xbox 360 Fanboy like a hawk this month. Why? Because this month we had the momentum to clear 2 million page views in a single month. We had the momentum and we finally cleared it earlier today, with 2 days to spare. While this will mean nothing to Xbox 360 Fanboy readers, it is a huge personal and professional accomplishment for me. If by some minute chance you read this blog, I’d like to thank all the 360 Fanboys out there who help make our site what it is. Of course, a big thanks goes out to family and friends who encourage me every day.

Next stop: 3 million.

Hey all,

Just a tiny, tiny update letting everyone know that I’ve been invited into the early “Friends and Family” phase of the Halo 3 beta. Um … fuck yeah!

Anyway, that is all.

I’m not feeling too hot today, so I skipped work. Well, I went in to work but left quickly anyway. As such, I’m not thrilled about doing updates today. But I thought I should give you all something, so I give you…a movie of Chromehounds! I’ve been looking forward to this game for some time now. If you don’t know, it’s a mech game with heavy customization and team dynamics. Graphically, the game doesn’t look quite as good as the shots that came out earlier this year. Still, it looks like it could be a lot of fun. This is a movie of one of the night missions. Enjoy it after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Bungie has a weird interesting article up today.  Through calculations and prognostications I won’t pretend to understand, the folks at Bungie have discovered the “Average Gamertag”. That is to say, they have come up with the one Gamertag that most accurately represents all Gamertags (at least, all the Gamertags that play Halo 2). So, what is the magic ‘tag?

xArKKAAaEX

Roger from Bungie explains it thusly:

“How do I figure? First of all, these are “modal” averages, making use of the most-common values rather than in-between values, since seeing an A and a C doesn’t mean that B is most expected. The most common gamertag length is 10, so that’s what I used here. In each letter position, I found the frequency distribution of letters at that position, blended it halfway against the expected letter distribution in English to call out the statistically significant differences, and took the most heavily weighted resulting letter for that position. The average gamertag starts and ends with X — no surprise there — and after that starts with “Ark”. Coincidence? I don’t know.”

Sounds like someone had a little too much free time today.

I saw a story on Joystiq about some blurry next gen Golden Axe screen shots and decided to do a little sleuthing. Turns out SEGA released two screens during E3, rendering these blurry shots somewhat moot. I guess it’s not gameplay but they look very nice. See one more after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I just typed a very long and beautifully written impression of Rockstar’s Table Tennis. And then it got zapped. So it’s gone for good and I’m pretty damned pissed.

Suffice it to say that Table Tennis represents a pure form of gaming. It’s delicious and delectable and whatever other food related adjective you’d like to throw at it. I’d suggest you go rent it as soon as possible.

In a bit of damage control during Major Nelson’s latest podcast blogcast, Peter Moore stated that his previous comments on backwards compatibility were taken out of context. Apparently the comments came in answer to a question about Microsoft’s original—and admittedly vague—back compat plans. I.e. Microsoft went from having nebulous plans at E3 ‘05 to having quite a few back compat titles. See? Sounds better that way, doesn’t it? At any rate, more than twenty new titles are being added to the back compat list, including Doom III and the lovable Lego Star Wars.

According to Xboxic, the podcast…er…blogcast also has some of the Moore-man’s thoughts on E3 and Wii. I’d listen to it myself, but it is forbidden by the evil office web filter. Man, I’ve got to get an iPod so I can listen to all these podcasts. Wait, blogcasts. Damn it.

This has been out for a while and I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been more coverage of it. This PSU trailer shows off the online aspect of the game. I’ve talked to some people that saw the game at E3, and it looks like the single player is going to fall short of its lofty promises. That’s unfortunate, but I doubt anyone will cry about it for long when they start playing online. In short, the online aspects of PSU look more robust in every way. The player hubs—entire cities now, not just a lobby—look very cool. There’s also some trading going on. The combat also looks much more dynamic, and the addition of two more players just makes everything look much grander. But, you can see all that for yourself. Find the video after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Eurogamer recently scored a trailer of SEGA’s upcoming Virtua Tennis 3—subtitled SEGA Professional Tennis. The music kind of sounds like a business training video, which is wierd. Also, the characters looks a little bit animatronic to me. Still the game itself looks pretty fun and it has a great history. I’m looking forward to it. Check out the trailer here.

—via Xboxic