TED tv & Star Wars meets Xbox360

Here's the thing. I fought playing video games for many, many years. Like my parents and many of yours, everyone thought our time would be better spent saving the world, or at least cleaning our rooms. Even at my 41 years of age, I find myself feeling slightly guilty if I spend a whole afternoon playing the latest release. Obviously, I'm more or less over it if I even have a blog about xbox. I mean, you can only take so much guilt before you figure out that the very thing you feel guilty about can relieve the guilt... Anyway! I found a really great TED tv talk about gaming and how it could save the world. Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world | Video on TED.com#.Tk1Tr0lPorE.facebook">
Jane McGonigal argues that games like WoW gives players the means to save worlds, and incentives to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real world problems?
I like this idea. She shows an image of a young man on the verge of solving a very big (gamer) problem and the look of surprise and joy on his face is contagious. He went through a series of steps, failed, tried again in a different way and it's about to pay off. I'm familiar with this feeling. It's easy enough to take this idea into your real life as well. You may have a goal you are trying to reach. If you actually give yourself levels to reach and rewards for when you get there, you are using gaming to reach real goals. Debt, jobs, excercise, all can be 'gamified' if you will. Check out the link. It'll make you think.

So, my love and I are all excited about the new Star Wars console bundle pictured above. It's pricey, but we are in need of a new one as our Elite is experiencing technical difficulties. I have another xbox Arcade in the bedroom, but we are both such avid gamers that one will just not do it. Besides, I can justify the price based on this video alone! We'll be the coolest kids on the block! I can hardly contain myself...

So, hopefully, as time goes by, I'll get better at relaying my thoughts on...things, and... stuff. Y'know... Hope you enjoyed!

Passing into legend

Good afternoon all! Last time I posted, I talked a little about the single player side of Red Dead Redemption (RDR). Today, let's talk a little about the multiplayer side. As you may remember, I think this may be one of the greatest games out to date! It's beautiful and meticulously thought out. One of my favorite parts of the game is the multiplayer sessions. When you get onto multiplayer for the first time, you are not the main character from the single player side (John Marston or his son Jack Marston), you start as a randomly chosen character. You can go to the outfitter and change your character, or better yet, start right up raising holy hell! There are lots of gang hideouts to clear out and you can shoot other players who are in your world with you. Don't want to play alone? Just posse up with your friends online too. As you move through the session, you gain experience points (XP) for everything you do and you level up. Every time you level up you get stuff, like another, better, weapon, and/or a better mount, new characters and more multiplayer game options. There are co-op games where you work together to make it to the end as well as free-for-all, where it's just everyone for themselves.
This game has won all kinds of awards and is just amazing. If you don't have it, at least rent it for a week and see how you feel about it then.
Oh! Right! When you get to level 50 for the first time, you get to ride a bull. That's pretty darn cool. He's fast and runs great over terrain that your mount has trouble with. At whatever time you choose, you can go to your multiplayer screen under the pause button and choose to pass into legend. This starts you over from level one and you have to get to 50 again to start accumulating legendary mounts and characters. Seriously, get this game! Then invite me to join a posse. MoriartysParty.

Red Dead Redemption

There is much for me to write, as it's been far to long since my last post. However, since work (that thing that keeps me away from my gaming time) beckons, I'll have to keep this short and about one topic.
Red Dead Redemption, for those who don't know it or haven't played it, is a first person shooter set in the waning years of the wild west. In the single player game you play as a character named John Marston. It's fantastic! It's an open world concept. If you are following the storyline and doing the mission as they come that's fine, but if you get bored of that you can ride off and do some hunting where you can kill, then skin a variety of animals which you can then sell for money at local general stores. There are dozens of little side missions like retrieving someones stolen horse, or doing tasks for strangers. There is so much to do and see. The landscape is absolutely breathtaking and the gameplay itself is pretty darn good. One of my favorite things about the game is that Rockstar has an online site where you can easily scan through your stats. I'm one game of liars dice away from 100% completion of the game! Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% done with the regular game. Since the game came out, Rockstar has added the Liars and Cheats pack, mostly gambling, and the Legends and Killers pack, mostly shooting. This added another 750 achievement points (Drool!). Now, most of what I've written about is in the single player game. The multiplayer end of the game, though, is where you really get your money's worth. But that should probably wait for my next post. I can here the siren song of hungry people shuffling around outside my place of employment.

The Passing is coming!! The Passing is coming!!

I am beside my self with excitement! Valve, the makers of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, are notorious for announcing release dates and then saying "Oops! We meant sometime next month!" This happened last month when the greatly anticipated 'The Passing' DLC for L4D2 was supposed to be released the last couple of days in March. Last minute they (Valve) announced that the release date would be pushed to sometime in Spring. Now, however, The Passing is coming out TOMORROW!!!! Thursday 04/22/2010. Sigh... The Passing is exciting because it brings together the two L4D worlds in one game. New achievement points, new maps, new uncommon infected, and new weapons. I'm going to be in hog heaven!
Hmmm, Achievement points. This is a separate thing altogether. I adore achievement points. I love them so much I have over 11,000 of them. And I'm always looking to earn more. I tried video games when the 360 came out (this is separate from my childhood experience with the Atari 2600). I didn't get it at first, at least until the first time I heard the 'bloop, bleep' sound and saw 10 points while playing 'Madagascar, Back 2 Africa'. Once I realized I had goals to achieve, well, just try and stop me!
Tomorrow I will spend the majority of my day playing (hopefully it's out in the morning and not in the evening) as I have to work tomorrow night. I feel like I'm just waiting for this day to go by so I can get to tomorrow. Christmas!

New games for me!

So, the man and I went to Blockbuster yesterday to see about renting Just Cause 2. It looks like a whole lotta fun. We prefer to go to Game Crazy, but since we don't have a car (looooong story, but in the end it's by choice), and since the free water taxi shuttle is running (YAY!!) we just hop up to Blockbuster instead... even though their selection really and truly sucks. Blockbuster has started a pilot program for renting games by mail in Seattle and Cleveland, but I can't figure out how to use it. Anyway! We found JC2 and grabbed it. On our way to the checkout counter what did I see? Why, a display for buy one, get one free video games for the xbox!!! I found two right off the bat that I thought would be great. I picked up Prince of Persia for $9.99 and Just Cause 1 for free (normally $4.99). Admittedly, we picked up JC1 to see how it compares to JC2. As is turns out, it doesn't compare almost at all. I feel as though, like most game creators, they do the best they can with the first game and if it's popular enough, take what people liked in the first one and enhance it in the second one. JC1 is a little difficult in many ways. It has a free roaming map and a lot of action. It's easy to shoot, kill, destroy everything. My complaint is the difficulty in driving. Sooo hard to control! JC2 looks a little easier. The grapple hook looks so very cool! I say looks because the man has taken over the xbox and won't let go. He's getting that swirly-eyed look. But I enjoy watching him play. It's amazing to me the things he just seems to intuitively know to do.
As for Prince of Persia. I love these story line games. I enjoy first person shooters and all (L4D/2), but my real love are games like Batman Arkham Asylum, Fallout 3, and now, Prince of Persia. Oh! The man is done! Gotta go get on the xbox while the getting is good.

Xbox for who?!?

My name is Monica and I love(!) my xbox 360! I have a fantastic fiance who introduced me to the xbox and encouraged me to play. He has a 120GB elite system and I have a 60GB arcade. I started playing in ernest about 3 months after Left 4 Dead came out. I remember him telling me he had a really cool new game, but that he didn't like playing it after dark. In retrospect I think it's pretty funny.
This site is not going to be really technical or advanced workings, or about how great I am at xbox, because I'm not. Really, it's just a place for me, and you, to rant or rave or share what we've learned about whatever it is we're playing at this time. Currently, I'm in between games as I don't have anything I'm really interested in playing that isn't already out. I'm currently waiting for the L4D2 DLC The Passing to be released, Batman Arkham City sometime in August-ish, Fallout New Vegas sometime in Fall and Alan Wake in May. Lots to look forward to. In the meantime, I'm spending time working on my challenges on Batman AC and playing the crap out of the L4D series. My obsession with L4D has me seriously considering purchasing another copy of both L4D and L4D2 so, when the new campaigns come out, I can play against the Fiance on versus... Mwuahaha.
Anyway, if you are reading this, let me know. If noone is, that's okay too, cause I like the sound of my own typing...