The Journal of an Xbox InfoPath Nut

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Blip I'm Back on the radar

Well it's been a very exciting couple of days for me, As you may recall the Xbox 360 was launched last week hence my absense from any posting. Now I'm back I can tell you all about the glory of the next generation games machine.
In sort its awesome, I'll try to put up some more detailed comments about the box and it's software over the next couple of days.
One other event that happened is that I'm back in the office for a little while (now this may not sound like exciting news but it is nice to get back to my desk every now and then and back into some comfortable jeans).
Imagine my surprise when I got back to my desk and it looked like this

So as you can see I have a little work to get on with but I promise with all these screens hanging around I'm bound to find some time to put some more posts up.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Signing off for a little while


Well everyone the day is here, only 16 hours to go until Xbox 360 is released in Australia.
I have my Controllers and a couple of launch titles all I need now is the white box to play them on.
This is a quick notice to let you all know that I will probably not be posting for the next couple of days as I'll be in a blissful state of gaming heaven. Don't worry after I've had some time to be come well acquainted with the new family member I'll be sure to post how great it is.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

All Hail the Commonwealth games lost and found department

Last Monday I was lucky enough to attend the Final dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth games. What I didn't realize however was that my wallet had fallen out of my pocket during the festivities.
Of course I cancelled all my cards straight away and then set off on the task of tracking down my wallet through the lost and found service. At first I played a little phone shuffle between the MCG and the comms games staff but eventually I managed to log a lost report although I had already resigned my self the the sad truth that I was probably not going to get it back.
To my surprise I received a call this morning informing me that my wallet had been found, what's more it was still intact and untouched.
So this is just a quick post to say a big thanks to the ladies at the Commonwealth games lost and found department you chicks rock!

4 Days 6 Hours 29 Min to XBox 360 Launch

Sunday, March 12, 2006

It's the final Countdown!


The Countdown has begun it's now only 10 days until Xbox 360 luanches in Australia, all I can hope for now is that they pass as quicly as possbile and that the launch date doesn't get knocked back again of course

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Xbox 360 Retailer Launch Crashing


Hey everyone I had a very interesting night last night, as you all probably know the Xbox 360 launch is upon us and as one of those special VIP pack owners I was invited to a gaming night at the Athenaeum theatre in Melbourne.

Finally, I thought Microsoft were doing something to reward the people who exhibited their dedication to this new console, alas I was mistaken the night it's self was great I got to play a whole host of awesome new XB360 titles and now I'm even more impatient for the next 13 days to fly by that I was originally. There was however a very major lack of freebies at the event, what happened to the days when MS would give out mound of free stuff to anyone who passed? but this isn't the real issue I had with last night. My problem with last night is that the "VIP" event was simply tacked on to a retailer launch event. How do I know this you ask well as I was quite happily playing perfect dark zero I began to notice that the VIP's were being asked to leave, not wanting to stop in the middle of a level I decided to wait until I was asked to leave. This didn't happen eventually an announcement came over that the main presentation was about to start. I thought I'd take my chances and try and sneak into this as well and with out any thought I was welcomed in with open arms, and the presentation that followed was awesome (but I'll get to that latter).
Now I don't have a problem with MS combining 2 events because obviously this is more cost effective, but if your going to put on an event for your so called VIP's you should probably make them feel somewhat special not just give them a chance to play the games that they could probably make their way down to Target to play. Now enough of my complaining, on to what I got to check out last night, so obviously I got to play most of the launch games for XB360

  • Quake 4

  • Perfect Dark Zero

  • Kameo Elements of Power

  • Ridge Racer 6

  • Project Gotham 3

  • Full Auto

  • Condemned

  • NBA 2k6

  • GUN

  • Tony Hawk

  • King Kong

  • Fight Night

  • Call of Duty 2

Most of these games were obviously very pretty, however not all which is kinda disappointing but understandable, not everyone can take advantage of the power contained within the white box. The upside is that there isn't anything like Fusion Frenzy on the launch list.
As for some of the features I spotted in the presentation the wireless range of their controllers is awesome I watched the presenter walk to around 10-15 meters from the console and still the controller was as responsive as a wired one.

It was also pretty cool to see the integration between USB devices and the Xbox things like plugging in an MP3 player (not just an IPOD) and playing the music directly while in a game, or viewing Photos on a digital camera. Now I know you avid gamers out there probably aren’t really fazed that you can use your Xbox as a slide show machine for showing those vital pictures of your parent’s trip to Guatemala, but this may help you to get them sold on the idea of forking out the big bucks :o)

All in all I’m more excited now about the launch of this console than I was a day ago and with only 13 days to go you be prepared for more Xbox 360 posts. I’ll also do my best to put up some pretty pics when I get my new baby (don’t expect too much as I’ll probably loose track of time playing PDZ)


Until then hopefully you can make out some of the excitement from the pics

Monday, March 06, 2006

Adevnture Weekend

I got back last night from a great little adventure weekend in Tassie (yes you can have an adventure weekend in Tassie).
I headed down on Friday afternoon for my Sister-in-laws engagment party and I have to say the country folk down there really know how to kill time, between water skiing and shooting I kept myself ammused with a little 4W Driving and of course eating (believe me the best kept cooking secret is mums on farms man they know how to bake)

Take my advice if youre looking for a good weekend away find a friend in Tassie who has a big farm head down for the weekend and let your imagination run wild.

As for the engagement party this was also great a big Congrats to Squirt and Simon.

Well looks like it's time to get back to the drab city life