Major Nelson
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Xbox Live Vision cam coming on 9/19
Xbox 360 owners eagerly waiting to see if "HotGamerBabe" really lives up to her handle now have a solid date for that first exciting face-to-face meeting over Xbox Live: September 19th. That's the day that Europe and the US will see a simultaneous release of the Xbox Live Vision camera, according to well-known gamer-cum-Microsoft employee Major Nelson. The Major did not reveal, however, what pricing will look like for the cam, which is meant for video-conferencing, video emails, and profile customization.
Australian water balloon fight post mortem
Bill Gates has a lot of things. Being the richest man in the world buys you that privilege. World's only tiger-sized domestic cat? Yup, he's got it. Hovercar? Two of those. The world's largest water balloon fight as determined by some agency who makes it their business to record trivial accomplishments? As of this weekend, according to John, yup! The Australian Water Balloon Challenge is over, but that doesn't mean we can't vicariously enjoy the view from here. You can see the two teams above (Xbox versus 360), but that's about all we can tell you with any authority so --without further adieu--here's the straight poop from our peeps on the ground:Cesar's coverage @ Gamerscore (Try these: 1, 2, 3)Major Nelson's Flickr photosXboxic Down UnderXbox.com.au (with pix here)Major points to moreAnd continue reading for some awesome in-fight video footage, courtesy fanboy-on-the-scene Diet Zeek. Thanks!
GDC: (Bloggers) breakfast of champions
Microsoft sponsored a "Blogger's Breakfast" Wednesday morning, arranging for several select bloggers from the interweb to meet with some of the Xbox bloggers Larry Hyrb (aka Major Nelson), and John Porcaro and Cesar Menendez (Gamerscore Blog) and some Xbox executives, Peter Moore and Chris Satchell. I know, I promised to report on their eating habits, but alas most of the eating occurred while standing and mingling pre-chat. That being said, I didn't see food on anyone's shirt and everyone was exceedingly polite and pleasant, so I can only extrapolate their eating habits were of the highest order. Before I get into what we talked about, I'd like to thank everyone at Microsoft for arranging this informal get together and giving us a chance to hear from them first hand. Now, onto the meat and potatoes of this blogger's breakfast.
RR6 demo hits XBLM, makes little sound
If a demo debuts then disappears, did it ever really exist? Depends on who gives a damn. Despite a slight hiccup (see Major Nelson), the Ridge Racer 6 demo is once again available on Xbox Live Marketplace. No doubt gamers are throwing their still-in-the-plastic copies of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter under the coffee table in order to spend a few hours downloading this one. If you'r one of the few sweating RR6's existence, you might be wondering whatever happened to that missing King Kong demo?[Thanks, Drew]
Major Nelson asks what's best for gaming? 720p, 1080i or 1080p
On this edition of Major Nelson's weekly podcast he has a special guest, Tyler the HDTV expert. Among the things they discussed were what HD means, a few of the reasons Microsoft chose HD-DVD to support, why the Olympic broadcast isn't the best it could be, and the many different formats of HD. It's a pretty long conversation that I'll try to summarize here, but I suggest you give it a listen to get all the details on why 720p may be better for gaming than 1080i or even 1080p (which the PS3 will apparently have and the Xbox 360 doesn't).We will leave the breakdown of spatial and temporal resolution to Tyler, but there are several elements here to consider.
Kong Demo and other goodies up on XBLM
Every time we hear about something new on the XBLM, it's like a small dose of Christmas. Just a little bit. Mostly when it's free stuff. Today, the Major announced a glut of new Marketplace content, including: a King Kong demo, Fight Night Round 3 picture packs and themes, new sounds and graphic packs for Crystal Quest, and Hexic and Bejeweled 2 theme packs. Wowza! As usual, the varied bonus packs are gonna cost ya, but the demo's what we're really interested in, right? If you haven't tried Kong yet, you're missing a really polished and elegant game, if a little short. If the easy 1000 gamerscore points hasn't lured you in already, maybe the demo will. See also: Joystiq Review: Peter Jackson's King Kong (Xbox 360)
Even more Marketplace content
We just can't get enough of that downloadable goodness, so we thought it only fair to let you know that -- hot on the heels of the Condemned demo -- even more Marketplace content is now available. According to Live stalwart Major Nelson, a whole barrage of picture packs and themes are now waiting for your hard-earned points.If the idea of the Here, Kitty Kitty! Picture Pack doesn't float your boat, you'll probably be more interested in the Quake 4 demo that's also available. Since demos for upcoming titles seem few and far between, it's a wonder what they'll manage to fit on game magazine cover discs with all the content now freely available online.
A new demographic for Xbox Live Arcade
As you may have noticed, we at Xbox 360 Fanboy are fans of Xbox's own Major Nelson, and so we were naturally quite sad to hear he was ill over the Christmas period. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and Major's brief convalescence has brought with it an interesting lesson in demographics.Major blogs that "I pretty much spent a majority of my conscious time with the Xbox Live Arcade Games, since they were easy to jump in and out of as I nodded off under my prescriptive based consciousness." -- it seems that the quick-fix nature of the Live Arcade games is perfect for those feeling under the weather. Also, although most Live Arcade games do require some brainpower, they don't require full-on all-cylinders-firing citrus-sharp cognition, and are a lot easier to get to grips with if you're in a medication-induced stupor.So, next time your significant other, child or pet is ill, why not try distracting them with Live Arcade titles rather than daytime television?
