Major Nelson has confirmed the Spring Update for LIVE. For those of you who haven’t heard about it, the update will introduce many new features to LIVE and the 360 dashboard. Among the new features are background downloading, download queues, and easier content access. My favorite feature is the ability disable autoboot. It’s really annoying that you have to take a game out of the tray in order to boot to the dashboard. Well, not anymore. Check out Joystiq for pictures.
Of Tombs, VGA, and eBay (and Reggie)
First thing’s first, congratulations Reggie.
Hey, internet peoples. Remember that VGA cable I ordered for my 360? Well, it showed up yesterday. Lo and behold, my eBay curse has not been lifted: it wasn’t what I ordered. The guy I bought it from advertised a Microsoft brand VGA cable. That is not what I received. Call me a snob if you want, but I don’t like third party cables—unless it’s high end stuff like Monster, which is too expensive anyway. Besides, I didn’t order a third party cable, I ordered a brand new Microsoft cable still in its blister pack.
So, I sent him a pissy email. He was gracious about it—already refunded my money—so that was good. In the end, I just went out and bought the damned thing at a store (Best Buy if you must know). The picture is much brighter than component cables, though I suspect this has more to do with my TV than the cables. It’s almost too bright really, almost washed out. Remember, I was playing at 1080i before and traded cables to get 720p. So the picture is technically fuzzier but it runs at a smoother framerate. I think the trade was worth it. I played Tomb Raider on it. My brightness settings—still very bright from the component cables—actually had to be tuned down much lower than even the default. The picture was great though.
Speaking of Tomb Raider, I finished the game last night. It’s very good. I would go so far as to say it’s the best Tomb Raider yet produced. Keep in mind, I finished the game, but there are still unlockables that I have not attained. In most games such things would not bother me but Tomb Raider is different. Seeing as the unlockables are found by exploring—or “raiding”—tombs thouroghly, I am enticed to “catch ’em all.” I’m actually looking forward to laboriously going over every inch of these levels to find what I missed the first time. I haven’t done that since Ninja Gaiden. Let’s just say Tomb Raider: Legend is good and leave it at that. I’ll try and write it up properly soon.
Now I only hope the fine people at Crystal Dynamics can get back to making Legacy of Kain games.
Da Vinci Code: The Key to PS3’s Success?
An interview has an analyst predicting that the Da Vinci Code’s Blu-ray release will be a huge sales boost for the PS3. Being a Sony owned film, it’s probably a safe bet that it won’t be released on HD-DVD.
I don’t really think one movie—megahit or not—will be enough to drive sales. Then again, I’m not a highly paid analyst.
How do you get into that racket anyway?
—read the article on Vnunet.com
Update: I’ve completely re-written this post. I like it better now. So there.
Hitman: Blood Money Demo on XBLM
I almost forgot, the Hitman: Blood Money demo hit Xbox Live Marketplace yesterday. I haven’t downloaded it yet. Still busy raiding tombs.
What I Did for Zelda
Joystiq has announced that MTV is looking for recollections of vivid gaming moments. I submitted mine, although my most vivid memory isn’t me actually playing a game. Read on to feel my everlasting shame.
This wasn’t related to playing a game, but it’s the most outrageous thing I’ve ever done to obtain one.
It was winter and I was still in high school. It was a Friday and heavy snow had cancelled classes that day. I had just gotten enough money to pick up a used Nintendo 64 and a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I still couldn’t drive so I begged my mother to take me out to get my game. The roads were really bad, but she agreed to take me. We went to a pawn shop and got the Nintendo 64 just fine. On the way to the mall, however, we had an accident. Coming around a corner, we hit some black ice and my mother’s car spun out of control. The car hit the curb, jamming the wheel into the wheel well. Not long after that, another car careened into my mother’s.
We were then stuck out in the snow, a half mile away from the mall. We called a tow truck and waited. After some time, I asked my mother if I could just go ahead and walk up to the mall and get the game. She said yes. I walked away, leaving my mother alone in the cold so that I could get my game.
I got it. And it was a thing of beauty. To this day I feel kind of bad about it. I still think it was worth it though. After all, it would have been a wasted trip otherwise, right?
More Smash Bros. Brawl Goodness
Smash Bros. Dojo has been updated yet again. We now have images of Zero Suit Samus and Wario. A few new details have been added as well. For instance, Zero Suit Samus is not a complete character. Rather, under certain circumstances Samus’ armor will fall off and she will become Zero Suit Samus. Will it be a morph like Zelda/Sheik? Maybe whenever she reaches a certain damage percentage? Also, the Wario fart move has tentatively been titled the “Wario Waft”. And the longer you wait, the more his gas will build. Wow, that was weird to type. More images after the break.
I Should Be a Lawyer
Do those two old ladies to the right look like hardened criminals to you? Well, they are. These women are Olga Rutterschmidt, 73, and Helen Golay, 75, two Californians with no criminal record. They were recently arrested for mail fraud. The scam? Take out life insurance policies on homeless men, kill said homeless men with well planned hit-and-runs, and collect on said life insurance policies. So far, the LA Police can only charge them with mail fraud but are trying to build the murder case. The life insurance policies—taken out on two homeless men—were worth over two million dollars.
Why is this story on 8-bit Ninja, you ask? I’ll tell you. If these two fine ladies were in fact young men, you can bet your ass they’d be using the Grand Theft Auto Defense ™. Hell, they still might, it’s not too late.
Sweet Lord! Welcome Joystiq Readers!
Wow. I left my site alone for maybe 45 minutes. I knew they had linked one of my stories—I should know, considering I sent it in—but I had no idea what that would mean. I’ve had some stories linked to them before, but jeez, I’ve had literally hundreds of visitors in the last hour. So, if you’ve stumbled in here via Joystiq and you bothered to check out 8-bit Ninja beyond the Bungie story, welcome. I hope you like it.
Elite Beat Agents Trailer
Romancing Meowzilla? I told you it was wacky. But you didn’t believe me did you? Well, here it is. If you prefer, you can download a higher-res version here: Right click/Save As
By the way, I’m trying to make it so I can stream Quicktime right off my server—thus avoiding YouTube—but it’s not working just yet. Hopefully soon. At any rate, enjoy the show.
[gv data=”6y5L1SiEayY”][/gv]Wii Launches on Oct. 24th?
WiiNintendo.net‘s Hochiminh is reporting that computers at his Game Crazy are listing a launch date of Oct. 24th for the Wii. He makes a few points about the validity of this date. Read for yourself:
Well I opened at my Game Crazy today and for the first time, we have Wii dates on our Master release schedule. A few are November and Q4 2006, but a majority of the titles rest on 10/24, with a ‘last day to prebook’ on 10/14 (we give ten days as a company standard). 10/24 is a Tuesday btw. Note this is pure speculation, but on two separate occasions, our list has given away a systems launch date before it was announced. I’m also curious if any Gamestop/EB other retail chain employees have seen this day?Also, seems like a rather odd placeholder date…and 99% of the time, our placeholder dates list either the month (October 06?) or what quarter it is supposed to come (Q4 2006)
Finally…a placeholder date that doesn’t seem like a placeholder! I will keep my fingers crossed.
Good news or too good to be true? We’ll wait and see.