Everyone's special. Or not?

I have recently heard a rumor about the Xbox 360's upcoming firmware patch. The rumor I heard was that you can install games and run them without the discs on your 360. Of course, this is Microsoft we're talking about, so there is going to be some kind of copy protection. It might be something ridiculous, or just a CD code. Maybe you'll have to register your "gaming library" to your 360, not letting you trade in games or borrow them from friends. Sound familiar? Unless you have been living under a rock, this is like the PC gaming storyline these last few years. These two worlds are getting closer, and closer, and closer, to the point that at this rate in 3 years, you'll be shopping on Newegg.com for an nVidia 16000 for your XboPC. Not cool? Or is a good thing? It seems like a good thing to me, as it makes everyone's hardware reflect their surroundings and personality. If you know what I mean. On the PC side, we have been getting closer in the software world rather than the hardware world, and I don't just mean 360 Ports. Take wake-on-LAN, for example (although a rather bad example it is) which let's you turn on your computer from any thing plugged into your computer's network card, similar to the way one would turn on their Xbox. I am using an Xbox 360 controller for quite a few of my games. It can't be too long until the 360 and the mother of all platforms become one!


The PS3 is pretty much a combination of the PS2, Wii, and the PC. SIXAXIS motion controls, otherwise standard controller layout, and beefy hardware. The sleeknes comes from the PC too. The Wii is the only special thing out there (besides the PC) and it is currently lacking on the visual and online side of things. Everything else is in between. I don't know there the PS/Xbox controller comes from though. Hmm. Maybe it's the wake-on-LAN thing. If I bored you or offended you or spelled bored wrong, I'm not really sorry. This is just my opinion!



What I'm playing: Company of Heroes
Games I'm into: Mass Effect, Beyond Good & Evil

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

You know when you get 5 bucks for mowing the lawn or some other normally abnormal thing that you usually never do for money? And then you think, gee, this would buy me an Xbox Marketplace arcade game, or a Steam game. So you're browsing, you find some little games that catch your interest, then you go back and look at them all, and they all seem to suck. All but one of them suck. But you didn't know that, did you? That's why you bought an insanely priced milk-shake instead. (Or you deposited it into your bank accout, but who does that?) Rewind! You're surfing the games and you find a game called Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Huh? Yep, you buy it and in five minutes you're playing it, and it's really hard and you can't even get past the third "target thing" flying at you till you die. This is exactly what I did. I bought it, I failed horrendously at it, and I gave it up. What a waste, eh? Yesterday, I booted it up for no reason what so ever, and tried my mouse at it...and I got a stunning score of 86,250. (Approxomately 85, 950 more than my previous high score) That's cool right? Maybe that four dollars wasn't a waste after all. If fact, it turns out to be totally cool! The intense panick of your play screen filling with nifty green shapes that evade your lasers and crowd you is really thrilling! And totally intense! So many close calls and dissapointing defeats mixed with retro sound effects and amazing visuals makes this my casual game of 2007. Yeah, I know, I'm REALLY late, but if you didn't pick this game up the first time you saw it, pick it up now. I's only four dollars on Steam and (correct me if I'm wrong) five dollars on Xbox Live Market Place. Trust me, it's worth it. It sucks at first, but once you figure out that you can move around (yeah, I didn't know till last evening) it's truly amazing. And it's beautiful. That's about it!


GEOMETRY WARS: RETRO EVOLVED: 10/10

Awarded for outstanding visuals, sound, and being a great arcade shooter-
Loshon's Casual Pick of the year. (So far)

What I'm playing: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Company of Heroes
Games I'm into: Mass Effect for PC, Mirror's Edge