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Well after Ymiris and I talked about making videos of our Crackdown antics. I really started to get interested in trying it out. My TV doesn’t have any video out or fancy stuff like that - so I pulled out the old stand by - my video camera. It is a Samsung Digital Cam SC-D363, and has the ability to stream from to a computer via USB. I originally just set it up on my table and recorded a some in game footage (onto tape) and then went through the process of getting the software installed on the computer again to actually transfer it to the computer.

I made some real simple edits to the video and threw it up on youtube, you can check it out here. It is footage of the Body Juggler achievement.

I find myself really loving this game, and getting distracted even from the task at hand while playing. Ymiris and I were playing co-op last night and we finished the first kingpin, but while we were playing there was plenty of times that we just dropped the task at hand and started bouncing around rooftops to collect those nice shiney orbs.

If that wasn’t enough of a distraction, I happened to come across an interesting vehicle. It was essentially one of those trucks that is used to transport cars from place to place, and it makes a perfect ramp. We must have played with this thing for at least an hour. We set up a bunch of cars (Evil Knievel style) and charged the ramp to jump them. At one time I had a full sized tour bus in the mix. We also set it up to jump a walkway bridge.

We were having a blast, now we just need to come up with a way to video these antics.

So I started playing around with WSOP: TOC, and they have a pretty nifty little feature in which you can use your vision camera and actually become the poker player you control. I have to say this is a pretty impressive feature, but at times it feels a bit scary to sit there and see the digital me in game. Here are two images (not the best quality, and no I am not smiling) just so you can see what it looks like.

So I have been hearing and reading alot about Crackdown and I have to say my thought son this game have been changed. I am pretty excited about its release, even though at first I specifically said “It must be bad, which is why they are including Halo 3 Beta”. I got a free preorder a while back (hey its not free, but $5 off doesnt hurt). So I will probably be picking it up tomorrow and giving it a spin, how about the rest of you? I also have heard that it has some great co-op experience in the game, which most of you that actually read this blog know I am a sucker for a good co-op experience.

I just completed the Old spice Rewards Challenge.

apparently your winning status isnt confirmed until the end of the contest - so I guess I have to wait around until april to get my Contra and MP - and find out if I completed it quick enough to get the more rare (the shirt and fuzion frenzy 2) prizes.

First of all it looks like the original link xbox.com/rewards returns you to an error page. If you want to access the rewards system try This Link, it seems to work for me.

Since there were so many problems with the sign up process, and the site performance Microsoft has decided to extend the time in which you have to obtain the required amount of points by a few days, and apparently have increased the number of prizes they will be giving out - sounds great to me!

They have added a gamercard system that you can use to promote / gloat your rewards status - I am guessing the bottom area is to list the rewards you have obtained or something like that.

I currently need 385 points to obtain the level 3 challenge! I don’t have any games on hand thats going to make getting there extremely easy - but I think I might be able to complete the challenge today. I actually have NBA Live 06, which is known for gaining gamerscore without much (if any) work, but the copy i got from the rental wont even load on my xbox - and with the current weather exchanging it is out of the question.

Also for the record, if you click the finish button and you are not in fact finished it will simply let you know that like so:

Well the sign up process was down right horrible, not that this wasnt somewhat expected but you would hope a company like Microsoft would be prepared for the type of load a contest like this can create. In any event after reading a bunch of different posts on how to get signed into the site I was finally able to do so.

Then I went off gaming, gaining a total of 150 points, and I had made 10 points before finishing registration. Of course I have no clue if any of those points are valid because I found out this morning you actualy had to click a Join button to be in the challenge, but the contest states raise your points 1,500 from 2/12/07 00:00:00, so do i have 160, or 150, or 0 points all ready gained into the contest?

The site doesnt seem to show how many points you have gained, and it actually has a “I am finished” button to click, which I can click - clearly I havent met the required points though - so in fear of screwing up my chances I haven’t clicked it to see what it does.

Finally I have seen a bunch of people talking about others using game saves, I just hope that they actually catch and remove these guys from the contest - rumor has it there are only 2,500 copies of Fuzion Frenzy 2 up for grabs this time around. Even without the game save cheaters I probably won’t be one of the first 2,500 but they really shouldn’t be rewarded for simply downloading a save game.

I think I mentioned this before, but in any event I somehow obtained 30 points and another token on sayswap. I thought nothing of it, thinking that perhaps it was a bug in the system, or something like that - but randomly got a message I was getting another game for 20 of my points. I have recently recieved World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions in the mail, no case or instructions but the game seems to be in working order. I played it for a short period of time last night.

On a side note you can use the live camera to take a front and side shot of yourself and your in game character is actually you. I did it last night, and I have to say its kind of creepy to see myself sitting inside a video game.

Well I (just like many others of you I am sure) am wondering whats going on behind the curtains over at Microsoft. The official forums are blazing with people asking about the Old Spice Challenge, as well as many other blogs and forums throughout the wonderful little thing we call the internet.

I personally was up midnight (EST) and checked to see if it was going to be activiated then, got up again about 3am to see if I could register (sometimes a newborn baby in the house is beneficial), and have checked throughout the day, but so far registration isnt open.

The offical rewards page has the following quotes that indicates that it should definately start today, but they were wise enough to leave off the time, or the timezone for that matter.

Something new and exciting is happening to the way you experience games. On February 12, Xbox® is teaming up with Old Spice to bring you Xbox Rewards and the Old Spice Experience Challenge.

Old Spice is teaming with Xbox on the first Xbox Rewards Challenge to prove that Experience is Everything. Starting February 12, you will be challenged to increase your Gamerscore by 1,500 ..

On February 12, visit www.xbox.com/rewards for more information and be one of the first to register for Xbox Rewards and the Old Spice Experience Challenge.

Considering this is a US only contest, and the fact that they are based in the PST timezone, I calculate they have a little under 12 hours to enable registrations…..so I guess just keep checking www.xbox.com/rewards

Well after having such a blast on New Years for the Gears of War all nighter, I decided to attend the Lost Planet all nighter as well. I havent completed the story yet so I began the night by playing Chapter 7, after completing the boss at the end of the stage I then hopped over for some multiplayer play. This would be the first time I have even loaded versus mode for Lost Planet (besides a little bit of time played on the demos before release).

Ymiris and I played all the different types of online modes that were available, trying to be quick about picking a host that we both had access too, and could play together on. After quite a few rounds of online play (I ended up getting to online level 14 or so) we decided to turn in for the night. I had to go on a road trip to Philadelphia the next day, and Ymiris had to get up early as well. We tried to get some other fellow 3fs members to join in on the fun but it was difficult arranging everyone to join the same host or to find one of us hosting. I do know for a fact that Kanone killed me a number of times though =-)

After being offline for a few minutes, I just couldnt help myself, I loaded up Lost planet one last time and made some progress on Chapter 8. Even after an “all nighter”, I still have plenty to complete in that game =-)