Things are same old same on here in squidland.  I recently picked up a copy of Commanders: Attack of the Genos and have been working on a review for it - I used to think I was good at turn based strategy games.  Either I really wrong, or I am realy rusty - its kicking my arse.  I would have the review out all ready probably - but I wanted to progress a bit more of the content covered in the review.

I was selected as an Xbox Ambassador recently, joining the ranks of my friends Pat2k9 and ZaaM IT, from what I hear Tallboy2005 also got selected (congrats buddy)

Still cranking away at Support and Code at 360voice - my wife things that I am crazy for the amount of code that I work on during the day and also at night - maybe I am.

TheLiveEye.com is officially no longer tracking gaming - I want to compile some stats about the tool and put it on 360friendspot, I just haven’t decided what stats to build yet.

360friendspot.com is officially moved over to my hosting, and all my baby now - minus the domain name transfer, its all mine to make or break.  It has been covered before, but maybe not here on my blog, or maybe you missed it.  ZaaM decided to step down developing at 360friendspot, and I wish him well in all that he does in the future. Everyone make sure to vist ZaaM IT and tell him hi once in a while OK?

I have a few things in the works to try and revive 360friendspot, especially after theliveeye and friend finder parting ways with 360friendspot.  I picked a few people to try and do some blogging for the front page, some people to help out with game reviews, and we are always kicking around the idea of a podcast. 

One request that we never got to before was member blogs - so I started testing out some stuff to make them happen, its kind of like a “3FS Profile” if you will but allows you to blog, or connect to an RSS of another blog.  It still has a long road to travel, but give it a look - what do you think?

http://www.360friendspot.com/blog/squidpunch

Would you like a free blog, all centralized with other gamers like you, and showing off some of your gamer info?  Well if I ever finish it, 3FS blogs will be open to all of you that wish to do just that.

Just realized I haven’t posted anything on the blog lately, which got me wondering why that was. Especially with all of the new GDC news - the blog should be exploding with info!  Long story short, I have just been busy I guess.  Doing some major code changes at work during the day - and filling my nights with some coding as well :-)  You might have seen me respond to one of your support requests at 360voice (boy you guys submit alot of support requests!), or you might have noticed the recent rollover changes on your challenge page on the 360voice front, and in relation to 360friendspot - it went through some pretty major (background) changes which I am working on it here and there - we are still battling a DNS issue - so if you cant see the site (like me at the time of this posting) its because somehow the DNS got out of wack again  - so I had to ask ZaaM to update it again, I really am begining to hate DNS issues.

I also just re-built a LAMP server in my house to play around with - mostly to try out Ruby on Rails.  It’s a bit different but interesting.  If I ever really get a handle on it, maybe some new tools will show up using Ruby on Rails

Finally my wife accepted a new job, starting tomorrow - so we have been reorganizing the office - mostly taking out her work stuff that she no longer needs - and rearranging my desk area with the new found space. 

Was just checking Unscripted 360 as i try to do as often as possible, and noticed Deacon posted a new video trailer for Army Of Two.  So I did what every other ‘web journalist’ does, stole his video and put it on my page - but at least I am sourcing him

This video is a direct cut scene from a video sequence in the game, about halfway through the game if I recall from when I got to play it back in October, ironically Deacon was the one who sent me to Montreal to check it out as a represenative of Unscripted 360 - ever since that day I have been waiting for the game to come out.

thanks deacon

Hey Squid you skipped a week again!  Yeah I am aware, but this week of all weeks I have a pretty valid excuse, perhaps a few.  I joined a new site officially, a site is moving, and unfortunately a site is dying.  This should be an interesting update. 

more…

Got a press release for the movie based game “Spiderwick Chronicles” which shipped today.   It is coming to us from Sierra Entertainment and developed by Stormfront Studios releasing on most platforms (even PS2 - I didn’t even know they were still releasing PS2 Games!).  I am downloading images and box art  as I post this and will submit links to the images once I have them available.  I normally think that movies that are games and games that are movies usually end up not delivering, but the last couple I gave a real chance ended up pretty enjoyable.

Keep reading for the official press release

more…

Just got this from the webhost - for the few of you that read my blog - the site will be offline for about 8 hours Friday Feb 8th

This move will begin Friday, February 8, at 10PM PST, and is expected to
last up to 8 hours, until Saturday, February 9, 6AM PST. All web servers,
mail servers, file servers, and MySQL servers in the randy cluster will be
unreachable during this time.

The Gamer

• So how about this?  I got myself all worked up over my chatpad not working with the wireless headset.  Probably the next day it was working, and I figured wow I am a schmuck for complaning soooooo much about that, luckily last night it did NOT work, so clearly something is up, and I am not insane.
• I finally passed the end of Act III in Gears of War for Windows - only 2 acts to go
• I finished Pirates of the Caribean: At World’s End, to add to my 100% complete list.  Soul gathering was the most annoying part.  It isn’t hard, just time consuming.  It took about 16 hours total.
• I am up to level 40 in Kingdom Under Fire.  I can see why the game gets some mediocre reviews, it really is alot of the same, and to get all the achievements is without a doubt going to be a complete grind.  I however still enjoy the game and would tell everyone that might be interested to at least give it a rental and see what you think.
• The gamerscore challenge is over, as expected Pat2k9 nabbed the prize with a serious gain over all of us.  I opened my big mouth and trash talked Kanone into beating my butt too - I did finish up with 4th place.  Considering the time I have to game, and the games I have available - it wasn’t a bad placing I guess.  

The Coder

• I continue to dabble with the code for TheLiveEye.com - still nothing obvious, really just trying to test out somethings to make it more stable, or more efficient, so far I am not sure I made any real progress actually.
• DaKing240 sent me some more ideas to expand on his contest site - which I added some of that stuff to the site, but it was mostly basic HTML and throwing some ideas out on the site to expand later.
•   At work I have been essentially rebuilding the entire framework of our existing application - its proved rather fun, frustrating, and rewarding all at the same time - the first phase is almost complete after about 2 weeks.
• I did some coding for the not ready to announce project, which by the way will be officially announced and open for discussion soon. 

The Person

• Another boring week for the non-gamer, non-coding section of this little update.  I just did the normal things, spent time with the family, watched tv, etc.
• My DVR system died, so I missed Prison Break, rather annoyed about that
• Also due to the DVR issue, I once again missed the Sarah Conner Chronicles, I guess I am just not watching this show - if I miss too many episodes in the start of a show, I just never keep up with it - anyone else watching this?
• My wife got me interested in Dexter - so we rented the first season on DVD and watched that, it was interesting, not sure if I will upgrade to include showtime or just watch box sets when they come out yet.

What: Undertow
When: 1/23 - 1/27
How Much: FREE!

Don’t forget to nab your free copy of Undertow before the 27th, and of those of you that all ready paid for a copy - don’t forget to call support and get your 800 points!  I called support earlier, about my wireless problems, and happened to bring it up - they told me that I should get 800 points within 24-72 hours.  I asked if it would just happen or if I had to call, they said it would have just happened - but if I were you, I would call to make sure.

So recently I got the Messenger Kit, and previously I had the wireless headset.  As I posted not long after getting the messenger kit, I found out that it is not possible to use the Messenger Kit and MY wireless headset together (same problem I saw with the DDR dancemat so long ago).  I just accepted that it wouldn’t work with the dance pad, but now the addition of the chatpad starts to annoy me.  There was no warning on any of the packages of the wireless headset, the DDR Mat, OR the messenger kit indicating they cannot work together, yet clearly mine does not.

Strangely enough a friend of mine said he uses his wireless headset and has the messenger kit connected all the time - so that got me thinking that perhaps its just my headset - and I called support.  Support WILL replace my headset, but its going to cost me $59.99 - yeah thats what it would cost me at the store on any normal day - and I might be able to find a sale for even less.  I understand that you cannot support a product forever, but the fact that I got the wireless headset when they first came out, and the messenger kit just recently makes it physically impossible to see a compatability problem between the two devices within the 90 warranty - so how is it fair I have to rebuy a device because the one I bought was defective - but coudnt possibly know that until almost a year later.  Needless to say, I don’t use the wireless headset enough to justify paying essentially $120 for it, forget all the bad reviews, and times I remember hearing - “reset your F***ing mic” on Gears of War because of the weird feedback it would give in that game - I wont be getting a new one.

But now I wonder - what other devices have compatibility problems with my wireless headset - and how many people are having similar issues.  Leave a comment - I am curious what devices you have and if the wireless headset works or not.

The xbox 360 has quite a few accessories out now, and all of them SHOULD be supported with the wireless headset, since I cannot find any verbage saying otherwise, but I am curious how many people have working combinations - and how many have similar problems to mine

So the rumors have been flying for a while now, but is it true?  This is supposedly a video of our beloved Golden Eye 007 in the flesh - Xbox Live Arcade style..

No achievements, and could simply be an edit job - I tend to think it MIGHT be fake, but with the number of rumors floating around perhaps the game itself is a truth….  What do you think?