Microsoft E3
Microsoft once again had another impressive E3. Not really much to do with games but their social aspect is getting a big lift. Pretty soon Xbox will be able to hook up with Twitter, Facebook and Last.Fm for free music. Potentially the biggest news they released was Project Natal. If it can even do have of what it claims it could be huge. Check out the video below. I think Sony is shaking in its boots.

Killzone 2 Demo Impressions
I fucking hate GameStop. Their used game prices are so high its ridiculous. They dont give you shit for trade in games and they rarely have good sales. The only reason I preordered Killzone 2 from them was to get the code for the Killzone 2 demo. The demo is highly disappointing. Its only part of a stage and it was less than 15 minutes long. The controls did seem kinda floaty. It was pretty hard to be really accurate with all the guns I tried. I know the dualshock 3 controllers arent the best for fps games but Resistance controls way better. The graphics were good but not mind blowing like ive read at other places. Hopefully thats just a by product of the demo and that the full game will be more polished. On a positive note the A.I. did seem pretty smart. The enemies blind fired, ran around and were pretty hard to kill. Overall if this game was single player campaign only I dont think I would buy it full price but hopefully the multiplayer part of the game is as good and deep as reported.

GEARS OF WAR 2!
Hell yeah it was announced officially yesterday at GDC for a november 2008 release date. Now it makes sense why they recently announced no more new downloadable content for the original Gears of War. That game still to this day is my all time favorite xbox 360 game. I can only imagine what kind of graphics, physics and all that other cool shit they come up with. Give me another sweet campaign and some more solid multiplayer and im sold. I havent been this stoked for a release of a game in I dont know when. Are you ready to chainsaw some Locusts?

Fantastic Fest Day 5
Nope sorry I didnt get to go watch any movies today. It was all about work, Monday Night Football then the release of Halo 3. I loved watching my Titans spank the Saints on Monday night. Ill be honest though the Titans are a good team and much improved from last year but this was more about how bad the Saints were. They look horrific on both sides of the ball. They have to be the worst team ive witnessed so far this year. They have too much talent to stay down but its not looking good for their playoff chances. Its only 3 games in so im not taking too much stock into whats happened so far in the Nfl. I was laughing when I saw all the people lined up around the block to play Halo 3. Some of them probably waited for hours. I walked in at midnight at Walmart, waited 15 minutes, picked up the game, then went home. I only played about an hour through the campaign and about 2 hours of multiplayer but the game is friggin amazing. Check out this video review for yourself.

Need a good reason to start playing Halo?

Call of Duty 4 Beta

I finally got my Xbox 360 back. They were unable to fix my previous one so they shipped me a new console. It was all free so not much complaint here. Im just glad I got it back in time for Halo 3 and to catch some of the Call of Duty 4 beta. Once I first hooked up my Xbox I had to put in Gears of War to appease my withdrawl. After an hour of that I was dying to play some Call of Duty 4. Ive heard a lot of good things but I wanted to try for myself. After about 30 minutes of getting owned and getting used to the controls I was hooked! I love the graphics, the level design, the weapons and different classes and the cool radar system. I finally quit once i leveled up to 4 which unlocks the chance to make your own classes of soldiers. I'm definitely looking forward to this game when its finally released!

Next time Infinity Ward please include some women soldiers like these!

E3 Video Wrapup
E3 was disappointing to me overall but there are a few highlights that came from it such as Wiifit and Call of Duty 4. Heres a wrapup of most of the cool videos that were shown.

Halo 3 Trailer


Lost Odyssey


Turok


Resident Evil:Umbrella Chronicles


Stranglehold




Resident Evil 5


Killzone 2



Super Mario Galaxy


Call of Duty 4


Assassins Creed


Heavenly Sword


Unreal 3


Metal Gear Solid 4

E3 summary by Joystiq
Microsoft E3 2007 press conference:
Mass Effect coming to 360 in November
Bomberman, Sonic, Marathon (!), many others confirmed for XBLA
Viva Pinata: Party Animals brings minigames
Scene It!: four hilarious controllers, one great price
Disney movies available on Xbox 360 in HD
Gears of War and Viva Pinata go to PC (video)
Halo short film revealed, along with special 360 console
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare exclusive beta
Demos of PGR4, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 4
Trailers for Lost Odyssey, Halo 3, Resident Evil 5

Pacman Championship Edition Xbox 360 XBLA Review
I downloaded this game yesterday on Xbox and had a blast playing it. It is a little pricey at 800 ms points ($10 bucks), but if you are even a remote fan of pacman then its worth it. Heres all the following modes that it comes with.
*The Championship Mode. This is the main game mode designed by NAMCO BANDAI Games and Iwatani specifically for the championship round of the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship. This mode – as well as all others within the “Pac-Man Championship Edition” – features redesigned mazes with wide maze walls and a widescreen configuration to better enable high-speed game play. Timed limit of five minutes.
*Challenge Mode 1 (Patience and Reward Course). This mode is an evolution of the Championship Mode. Patience mazes strategically offer fewer Power Pellets and Reward mazes provide a large number of Power Pellets – providing unique challenges and rewards for the player. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
*Challenge Mode 2 (The Darkness Course). In this mode, only the area directly around Pac-Man and the Ghosts is visible and the maze walls are completely hidden. Timed limit of 10 minutes.
*Extra Mode 1 (The Freeway Course). An extremely high-speed mode for advanced players, this mode features warp-speed Pac-Man and Ghosts and plenty of tunnels. Timed limit of five minutes.
*Extra Mode 2 (The Manhattan Course). A mode inspired by the streets of Manhattan — the home for the first-ever Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship. Timed limit of five minutes.
*Extra Mode 3 (The Overall Course). A mix of all other modes resulting in extreme mazes for the most devout Pac-Man fans. Timed limit of 10 minutes
All in all I enjoyed it highly and I give it a solid wakka wakka 8.2
Video Review below
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Earth Defense Force 2017 Review

I rented this game the other day and so far I am having a blast. There are 53 different stages in single or co-op campaign mode to blast your way through. The story is basically like Independence Day mixed with Starship Troopers plus a pinch of 60's Sci Fi movies thrown in. The graphics are N64ish but to its credit it has a great draw distance and there are times it has dozens and dozens of ants and spiders on the screen at once with little to no slow down. The only complaints I have is there are about 150 different weapons you can get but only about 3 or 4 are necessary. Majority of the time if you have the rocket launcher and a machine gun then thats all you need. Its a basic control scheme with jump and fire as the only button options. I had fun with it but my 5 yr old nephew absolutely loved it. There are 5 different difficulty setting from easy for the kiddo's to extremely difficult for the hardcore out there. Another great thing is all the buildings and bridges are destructible. For 40 bucks new it is a great value for a present for a youngin or a great rental. I have to give this game multiple game scores. For children around 10 and under its a solid 8.5 and for everyone else probably around a 6.8

Heres a video review

Jack Thompson
What a piece of crap. Why doesnt he use his resources and drive to go after something more productive. Theres no proof the shooter even played video games but hes on the scene with his take on the Virginia Tech massacre.


Heres him getting schooled in a debate about video games

Mortal Kombat Joke
What is Liu Kang's favorite drink?

...

WATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Next Gen War!
Heres the current figures on who's winning.

Nintendo Wii time!

Well i braved the cold in line at a local Circuit City starting at 10pm Saturday night till 7:30 am Sunday morning to get my hands on a Wii. Yes it is Wii and not a W2 like i hear people keep referring to it as. They seem to think the two i's are Roman numerals. Was it worth the wait? Well do dogs like to lick themselves? Yes, it is the bomb! I had high expectations but i think it even exceeded them in most ways. Yes the system was only 250 but i also had to buy a another controller, two games: Zelda and Rayman, two gamecube games: Super Mario Strikers and Super Smash Bros Melee and two gamecube wavebirds. Final tally was around 460 bucks! That's still a lot cheaper then it would have been for the 700+ for a ps3 ,game and accessories.

First off the system is super small and very easy to set up. The default setting for the sensor bar was perfect for me but it could be recalibrated if you needed it. The interface and all the Wii channels were easy to navigate. One huge negative that i didnt know about was that the system comes wifi only and no broadband connection out of the box. The broadband connector is 35 dollars but doesnt even come out until January. For those like myself who play a lot of online games like Xbox Live prefer to have things hardwired to minimize lag that is inherit with a Wi-fi connection. So unfortunately i wasnt able to download any virtual console games at launch. The other two negatives ill get out of the way, is it does not have any component cables with it and since there is only 512mb of internal memory, you have to buy sd memory cards separate for larger downloads. At least two of the 3 problems can be fixed. I would have paid extra if they would have had at least a 10 gig hard drive ship with it. But if you play gamecube games on it luckily those memory cards can still be used on the system. There are also 4 controller ports for gamecube and up to 4 Wii controllers can be used.

Now on to the positives. First word that comes to my mind. Fun. Not only is it a blast to play but its a totally new and unique fun. Ill answer a few questions right away. Yes you do look extremely goofy playing most of the games and yes some of the games and gameplay are tiring. For 90% of the games like Zelda and others where you can sit down and move the controller its no big deal. But the other 10% , like some of the Rayman mini games and the boxing on Wii Sports its plain tiring. Your arms get tired of moving, your heart rate races and its a legitimate workout.

Now lets get to the games. Wii Sports comes packaged in with the system and its a pretty good showcase of the different type of things the Wii is capable of. There are 5 games which are Baseball, Bowling, Tennis, Golf and Boxing. 3 of the 5 are fun and the other two are worth playing occasionally. Bowling is probably overall the best of the bunch. Its the deepest of all of them and you can control the motion, spin, and the release time of the ball. Its harder then it would seem which makes it more realistic and a good thing. I guess you could play it sitting down but its much more fun to do a real bowling approach. Tennis is a close second. It is doubles tennis with the computer controlling the movement of the players and you control the swinging motion of both players on your side. You can lob, slice and do a variety of shots. It sounds too simple but there is definitely a strategy and skill to it. I played that for hours. The last real fun one was baseball. The only thing you control on that is the batting and the pitching. If you hit it in the infield its an immediate out and if you knock it in the outfield you get a single or double or of course a homerun. Very fun but not very deep gameplay strategy. Boxing was semi fun and a definite workout but it was not optimized like the others to recognize every punch and boxing motion. Most punches were recognized but not all of them. You can duck side to side and block which was cool though. I could just imagine if the game was made by a legitimate company into a full fledged game it could be a huge hit. But in this current stage on the game its just flawed fun. The last game was golf which was extremely hard. The mechanics were too simple and basically you just tried to hit it at the perfect strength without hitting it too hard or too soft. That like boxing if done right could be a blast. Overall Wii Sports was a solid package to come packed in with the game.

Next up is Rayman Raving Rabbids. This is multiplayer bliss. You basically play the single player story to unlock all the mini games which there are around 70 of them total. This game is a blast. Its fun with two players and could be phenomenal if you could get 4 together. The mini games range from something as simple as tracing food items as fast and accurate as you can (which is a blast) all the way to twirling your controller around over your head and doing a hammer throw/cow toss. There are FPS games where the players battle on getting the most points and a lot of stamina games where you move the controllers up and down as fast as you can to see who's the fastest/most endurance player. A great launch title and a must have for multiplayer parties.

The last Wii game to review needs no introduction, Zelda: Twilight Princess. Unfortunately i haven't got to play it much and the first few hours are just training exercises. Of course it seems to have potential but the graphics were kinda disappointing. I know the system is suppose to be more powerful than an Xbox 1 but it doesnt look like it with this game or the others, that they have reached the potential of the console. That doesnt really matter that much to me as long as the games remain fun. By the way Super Mario Strikers for the Gamecube which is playable on the Wii is a great fun game. Probably the most fun arcade style sports game ive ever played including all the nba jams and blitz games.

So far i give the Wii a huge big thumbs up. The unique gameplay, the backwards compatibility with Gamecube and downloadable Nintendo games make this a must buy system. It will be pretty much near perfect once i buy a few more controllers, memory cards and that damn broadband adaptor once its released.

Call of Duty 3 Xbox 360 Review
I waited a few days to fully digest the game before i just jumped into a review. Upon first initial impression of the games multiplayer and campaign modes i was disappointed. The graphics seemed subpar to even Call of Duty 2 and especially to recently released Gears of War. I played a total of an hour. The campaign starts off with intese, crazy action and the difficulty is ramped up pretty hard even on the middle setting. Besides the graphical disappointment it was still pretty fun. I played for about 20 minutes then i popped in the multiplayer. I was lost. I was playing a game type called war and didn't know what to do. People were being dicks and not trying to help explain it. I didn't understand all the class types you could switch and what they did and it got pretty frustrating. I did like the huge varied maps and now the 24 total players which rocked. But i was still frustrated and bummed and turned it off. A few hours later i decided to tote it to the living room and hook it up to the hd tv and play some campaign. Damn what a difference that made. This easily has to be the biggest difference between standard and hd game ive ever seen. Quake 4 is the only other one i can think of that comes close. Most games even Gears of War looks still very good on regular tv. Call of Duty still looks good but not great like it does in hd. After i finally relaxed, i decided to give multiplayer another go. This time i chose some modes i was familiar with like Team Deathmatch and Capture the flag. After i few hours after that i could definitely say it was fun and had mass potential.
Now that ive played it for a week i can say without any hesitation that the game is a friggin blast. This might be blasphemy to a lot of people out there but in my opinion in multiplayer battles i am having more fun than even Gears of War. Now Gears single player is better and even co-op campaign online is awesome but as far as pure multiplayer battle Call of Duty 3 has taken over as my favorite game. Besides the standard games play there are two new unique ones: Single CTF and War. In Single Capture the Flag, each team starts off on their own side of the map and you have to rush to the middle to grab the flag. Once you grab the flag you dont take it back to your own base but back to the enemies! Its total chaos and hard to even score one point. If you kill everyone it could go against you because the enemy will spawn right up at their base which you are trying to go to. If you have good teammates you can communicate and choose different classes of characters. Each has their own specific weapon and special feature. The medics have a shotgun and smoke bombs and when someone dies you can bend down and revive your teammates instead of having them spawn back at the base. Some soldiers such as support can drop off extra ammo while the scout has a sniper rifle and can call in air strikes. The first time you call in an air strike and take out their whole army is just a kick ass feeling. The other new game type is called War which is kind of like territories, which you try to take over each others flags with one main flag being in the center of the map. You either win by capturing all the other teams territory or if the time runs out whoever has the most points accumulated wins. One thing they have which was lacking in COD 2 is online rankings. Unfortunately just like PDZ, Far Cry and other games ive noticed that more people play player matches instead of ranked. Ive also noticed its very hard to connect to a server for a match. It usually takes a few minutes until it allows you to connect, but once you do you can stay with the same group of people match after match, which is ok because once you are connected, each game last 20-30 minutes each.
So overall the game is a blast and i definitely recommend it to any WW2 shooter fan or anyone wanting a robust multiplayer game. Hopefully like Cod 2 there will be more maps to download. There are only 8 of them so far but they should be enough to tide you over until the new map pack is released. So what started initially as a disappointment has turned into one of my favorite current games. The single player warrants a solid 8.0 while the multiplayer i would give a 9.3 so overall i would give the game a solid 8.9

Addendum:

Now thats its been out awhile the connecting and lag issues have been fixed with a patch. Also since this is fixed there is a lot more people playing ranked games than before. The new map pack does rock and add a lot of replay value for multiplayer. I was crazy saying multiplayer was more fun than Gears of Wars. Its a blast but not even close to the brillance that is Gears.

Heres Gamespots review

Hands on with the Wii and PS3!
Yesterday i had the privilege of trying out both new next gen consoles. I played about 10 minutes of Ps3 and about 20 minutes of the Wii. To be fair when i was playing the Ps3 it was at a display unit at target so i didnt get a chance to feel the controller's full weight or to even use any motion sensor since they had it turned off. First impression about the new controller is the buttons feel and look the exact same except the L2 and R2 buttons are bigger and are now more like an actual trigger which i really liked. The game i was playing was NBA 07 which had good graphics and pretty much identical looking to the 360 version. I hate most sports game so i cant really say much more about it than that.
Next i went over to a local video game shop and they opened up a Wii to test out. They didn't have a nun chuck attachment yet so i didn't get to feel that. The only game that was available to play that was worth a damn was Excite Truck. Well my first impression of the Wii? Damn the machine is pretty sweet. It was basically everything i was hoping it to be. The controller felt perfect. It was balanced with the perfect weight and button layout felt just right. To navigate through the menus you pointed the wiimote directly at the tv and you could choose the different channels. The sensor bar was set up below the tv and it read all my movements perfectly and accurately. Even when there was a second controller attached, both wiimotes never interfered with each other and worked perfect. When you moved your cursor over the different menu sections it also vibrated when it was on a button. Since it wasn't hooked up online the only channels that were available were the Mii channel and the picture channel. I just browsed those for a second before i got impatient and started the game. For excite truck in order for you to navigate and play the game the wiimote had to be turned sideways. All the steering was done by moving the wiimote in rotating steering wheel motions. It took about 5 minutes to get used to the controller and how to use it without crashing all over the place. One of the buttons on the right side was the gas and the d-pad on the left was used as a turbo button. In the case of this game very little actual movement needed to be made to register turning. Nothing about the motion felt gimmicky but was balanced just right. Now the games graphics itself were not great in fact it didnt even look up to Gamecube quality. Despite that the game was a blast. With the controller you could lean back on a jump to get more airtime. It you caught good air and went through the rings there was a sound that emitted from the controller which surprised me but was pretty cool. Its definitely gonna be a great rental and get lots of game play from me. First impression is it looks like Nintendo accomplished what they wanted and possibly are going to hit it out of the park with this machine. I had a huge smile the whole time and I was only playing a B title game and didn't even get to use the nun chuck attachment. This machine has huge potential and I'm gonna wait out overnight to get a system , but no way will I camp out for 40+ hours like these ps3 freaks are currently doing.

The Red Ring of Death

Ive heard the reports of a lot of the initial shipments of Xbox 360's that have been reported to break or experience "the red ring of death" as they call it but had yet to experience it myself. Even my buddy Jeremy had it happened to his a few months back and he had it replaced at no charge. When people asked me i would always respond with a smug "nope not me i got one of the good ones". Well Sunday morning after about 60 hours of almost continuous play of Gears of War and Call of Duty 3 between my two nephews and I , it finally gave me the ring. Luckily i was jut wounded and not death because it cooled down a few hours and now it works ok. But anytime now according to others it will start "red ringing" me until finally it will die. Good thing Xbox extended the warranty for anyone who purchased a 360 before January 2006 can get it replaced at no charge. Luckily the Wii is coming out Sunday so ill have Zelda to tide me over till i get it shipped back. Sucks they rushed out the systems so fast but at least they are owning up to their mistakes and correcting them at no charge. I have a feeling the Ps3 is going to have the same problem or more due to the rushing of getting it out and the size of that tank. Early reports are that some of the demo units have already crashed under the heat. There is a class action lawsuit out there for people with faulty 360's but im sure it will be thrown out because Microsoft is willing to correct their mistakes at no charge. As with any first generation product thats the risk you run for getting it before it can be fully tested in "real" situations.

Gears of War Game Review

Son of a B*&%h!!! When does anything ever live up to the hype? Ive been hearing promises about this game since before the 360 launched and of course in the past few months the hype machine has been in overdrive. I honestly believe they undersold it. This game is freaking amazing!!! The graphics are bar none the greatest graphics to ever hit a console game system bar none and maybe even a pc. As powerful as i figured the 360 to be i still did not think it was able to pull this off, or if it did, there would be serious frame rate problems or other glitches. Nope, its a solid frame rate with no dips whether its single player or split screen campaign offline or any of the matches i played online. No matter what mode i played the graphics were the same along with the frame rate. This game is pop and stop heaven. I love the traditional fps games but i also enjoy the refreshing change this game offers. It takes about 30-45 minutes to get used to the game play but once you do it becomes second nature. It even has a unique reload system where you can be rewarding by reloading faster and even have more powerful shots if you time it perfectly.

I bought it mainly for multiplayer but the campaign is fantastic. I got in a few hours of solo play and also some split screen action. You always have at least one to three teammates with you and if they die you can revive them if you get to them in time. Same thing with co-op play except when on sections when you are forced to split up, if someone dies then you have to restart from the last checkpoint. There are two different difficulty levels casual and hardcore, and a third one that can be unlocked. I started off on hardcore and its no joke. Some parts are easy to help you get used to game play then some sections are hardcore. I can only imagine further in the game how hard it will be. Some are complaining about the storyline but really who cares. This is an action adventure game and the story is plenty adequate.

There are some awesome weapons starting with your default machine gun/chainsaw. In campaign and multiplayer if you get close enough to your enemy you can melee and chainsaw them in half. Its a great feeling but harder to get close enough to do that then you think. There are other machine guns, a sniper and the coolest weapon in the game called the Hammer of War. You basically aim on the ground and where you want the blast to be and once you pull the trigger a beam from a satellite above you shoots a powerful laser on the ground and you can move it back and forth for a short time instantly killing anything in your path. There are two types of bolo grenades, a smoke and explosion one. If you hold down the left trigger it shows exactly the path the grenades are going to bounce. One of the coolest things to do is blind fire. If you are behind cover and just pull the trigger you will stick you gun up and shoot without exposing your body. Its hard to be accurate but once you do it can be an effective way of playing. Your health also regenerates similar to Halo but the gauge heals a little faster when not fired upon.

Are there any negatives? Im sure if i nitpick i can find a few. I was thinking the 4 vs. 4 was going to be too few players but its perfect for this type of game. Maybe they could have made it 10 or 12 players max and it would be better? I havent played enough to make a good judgement on that yet but so far the maps feel balanced right for that many players. There are only 3 basic types of games. There are no capture the flag or territory matches which would have been cool. The game types they have are plenty fun though. There is Warzone which is straight deathmatch and first team to win 5 rounds win. There is Assassination mode which is one person is the leader and everyone tries to protect him and you win by killing the other persons leader. Thats a best of 5 round game. Last is Eradication which is like Warzone but you can revive your fallen teammates and its basically Last Man Standing.

All in all a definite must buy for any 360 fan and if you havent bought one yet i would definitely now choose this over a ps3 no contest. Also coming up for 360 soon is the also hyped up Bio-Shock and a little game called Halo 3 which are 360 exclusives. I can honestly say this game surpasses the hype.
Heres a video review from Gamespot

Too many games and not enough time
Ultimate Marvel Alliance for the xbox 360 rules. I rented it last week when it came out and it hasn't left my 360 yet. Ive had a blast playing the single player and co-op online modes. Its definitely in my opinion not worth buying but a great rental. Its basically a third person adventure rpg. You earn money to upgrade your warriors and find items on the ground that you can use to upgrade your hero. You generally have a party of 4 heroes with you and with a click of the d pad you can switch to any of the 4 anytime. Once someone dies you fight without them until you get to a save. Then you save you can switch out your fallen hero with a fresh one, while the damaged one heals up. I think there is something like 120 Marvel comic characters and about 30 playable ones.
Next up is Bully for the ps2. Warning!!! The game is fun but my nephew beat it in only 3 days! That was three days averaging about 9 hours a day but it still was pretty short. Its basically a teen school version of Grand Theft Auto. I played it some but wasn't my cup of tea. You go on missions taking pictures of teachers doing illegal things, shoot people with slingshots, kiss girls to get health and other kinds of funky madness. Buy it if you are gonna pace yourself, otherwise rent it first and go hardcore till you beat it. Overall it was kinda on the easy side and only a few missions my nephew had to do more than once to beat it.
In the next few weeks coming up is a gamers paradise. Next week im picking up the highly anticipated Call of Duty 3 and Gears of War for Xbox 360. After that week, which im not getting any time soon is the PS3 and Resistance:Fall of Man. Then on Sunday 11/19/2006 releases the much anticipated (by me at least) Nintendo Wii. I know im picking up Zelda for sure but dont know what others im getting yet. Im leaning toward multiplayer games like Rayman and Super Monkey Ball but wont cement my decision until i see some trusted reviews online. Since it plays Gamecube games also, i think im gonna go pick up some of those that i missed out on. Ill get back with ya once i get em. Guess i need to rob a bank real quick.

Xbox Live Vision Review
Picked mine up for 39.99 the other day. It comes in two different packs. The 39.99 bundle comes with the camera, a headset, one month of xbox live and a free download of Uno if you dont have it. The second pack is a much better deal for 79.99 and it comes with the camera, headset, Uno, Robotron 2084, 200 microsoft points ($2.50 cents), and a year of xbox live gold. But im a cheapskate and already have 6 months left on my gold account and i already own Uno so i passed it up. The 39.99 bundle i bought comes with Uno which i already own so Microsoft should have given an option to download a different game. Plus the one month is fun to use in all kinds of inappropriate ways so it doesnt matter that much if that account gets banned. I dont condone cheating but its fun to do all type of fun stuff with the camera and to see people freak out and have a good time with it.
The quality of the camera is awesome. Waaaayyy better than what i was expecting. As good as any regular pc webcam ive ever seen. It picks up movement pretty good with little or no blur. I sit about 8 feet away fromt he tv and it can zoom in on your entire head with ease. Not sure what the range is but im sure its plenty of range for any normal gaming configuration. The thing is tiny too. I wish it was a little bigger and heavier so it would be easier to arrange it and not have the cord drag it down. It has a focus ring that glows when its on and you can manually adjust it to your liking.
Is it worth the money? Yes, i believe it eventually will but right now their is very limited use you can do with it. Uno and soon Texas Hold Em are the only games you can watch people while you play the game. Its pretty cool to chat with others and to see what they actually look like. Heres where the fun of the one month account comes in. You can point the webcam at your pc and show different kind of questionable "videos". Most people laugh in good sport but some are offended and storm off. You can give them all sorts of finger signals when you get beat or even show them a full moon if you like. Its cool to do a video chat with someone if they have the camera too. If you are in video chat you can add all kinds of cool effects like sepia, inverted colors and a few original artsy designs. You can also take a still photo and use it as your gamer pic. The feature im looking forward to the most is when you can photomap your face onto your character in upcoming 360 games.
Heres a demonstration

Video: Xbox Live Vision

Nintendo is Wii too much

Man i was so disappointed to see the official price is 250 bucks. There were rumors recently that it was going to be around 200 and maybe as low as 175. They also are missing the grand opportunity to be released before the PS3 by releasing on nov 19th. They could have had an installed base, more games and peripherals sold thus increasing their chances of making more money and consumers not having enough to purchase the ps3. Now there is a chance people will be literally broke from buying the ps3 ($600 +$50 tax+$60 game + $40 2nd controller = $750!!! minimum) and not have enough to purchase this system. Also the video for their new avatar Mii system is just stupid looking. Making your own blocky lego looking characters to star in your Wii sports games is lame. At least the good news is the annoucement that the virtual console download games will be between 5 and 10 bucks. I'd gladly spend 10 bucks for classic Snes and N64 games. Xbox Live Arcade is a hit so im sure this will be also. I still have faith its gonna be a solid system but it could have been a phenomenal release if they did what was originally rumored.