“Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that gadget in your hand?”
Update: Video of Joe’s “Mac vs. Vista” appearance on MSNBC news on 2/3/07.
Update: Audio of JOEyGADGET on TechTalkRadio.com on 2/4/07.
A Mac user switches to Vista by Joe Hutsko
Reporter trades in his PowerBook for a notebook with Microsoft’s new OS
Reporter Joe Hutsko made the switch several weeks ago, from his 12” PowerBook to a 17” HP widescreen notebook in order to try out Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista.
My gadgets, gear and game machine picks for TV Guide’s Holiday Gift Guide for 2006. Happy Holidays!
New stories on MSNBC.com, for their feature focus on HDTV.
Making the best connections for HDTV
Right configuration is key for the the sharpest picture and clearest sound
Ten tips on buying a high-definition television
Know the essentials about HDTV before you bring one home
HDTV gaming for non-next-gen gamers
There are plenty of titles that take advantage of high definition televisions
Update (Monday, Aug 7): Finished Prey and finally bumped my lame-ass Gamerscore past 1000. Definitely my all-around favorite 360 game so far, thanks in large part to the save-anywhere feature and the fact that you can’t really die. I’ve sent it off to my friend Ricky Wright to play, and I’m back with some Oblivion now and then, and into the second or third level of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legends.
Update (Friday, June 30): From an insider pal, the below. And obviously it was sooner, because you can get it right now on Xbox Live, just in time for weekend play.
“I hear it’s coming this weekend or even sooner, fyi”
Update: Straight from Jay Boor of 2K’s mouth e-mail reply:
From: Jay Boor
Subject: Re: Fwd: Prey 360 demo when?
Date: June 22, 2006 3:29:26 PM EDT
To: joe hutsko
Hey Joe,
Should be up soon – hopefully today
Jay
————————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
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Right on, Jay, thanks for taking the time to the reply. I know you want it out there as badly as we want to download it and dive in. We’re eagerly a-waitin’.
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Update: From an Xbox 360 team contact:
Hey Joe,
There is no definite time right now. 2K may be able to give you more information.
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Tried to stay awake last night for the midnight (EST) arrival of the Prey demo, but sleep won over. While the PC demo is available, not so for Xbox 360. I’ve put in a text message to an inside contact and am waiting to hear back from him on when the Prey for Xbox 360 demo will be downloadable from Xbox Live. Stay tuned.
What was so amusing at last night’s first-ever, hands-on multiplayer demo of THQ’s upcoming Saints Row in the penthouse suite of the Royalton Hotel here in NYC, was how I and seven fellow journalists who jumped in and immediately started running around and popping and pistol-whipping one another thought we were playing the actual game. We weren’t. Asking for our attention please, our THQ guy informed us, “Hey, guys, you’re not really playing the game – this is only the lobby.”
We all cracked up. Holy hell, a(n Xbox 360) lobby that lets you wander through a warehouse and practice your moves before the real action begins! THQ says Saints Row’s live (and live-and-let-die) lobby is a world’s-first, and from all I can tell, they’re right.
Unlike what you’re used to in Quake 4 or Call of Duty 2 or Burnout Revenge, which show simple rosters of gamertags that allow idle chit-chatter as you wait for the game to start, this lobby gives you the option of lounging or letting-rip on your peers until all eight slots to fill up so the real game can begin.
And begin it did, after a brief primer on our first game, Big Ass Chains. The object: plug the other players to collect the most bling-bling gold chains, redeemable at pawn shops indicated on the map. Our showdown took place in a multi-leveled parking garage outfitted with vehicles and a nice assortment of weaponry, including a shot gun, machine gun, moltov cocktails, and a rocket launcher.
The next game, Protect the Pimp, finds your team protecting your designated pimp from the opposing team chartered with taking him out. Favorite touch: The crazy purple top hat your pimp dons to distinguish him as the teams top dog.
Now that Saints Row’s live-and-die-while-you-wait lobby sets a new standard in the multiplayer-waiting-game, it shouldn’t be long before other titles follow its innovative lead and offer similarly lively lobbies too. Goodbye to the lazy-daze of lackluster lobbies.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360 and PC released to dazzling reviews. The most interesting was Gamespot.com‘s Greg Kasavin‘s non-stop, 12-hour Oblivion Gameplay Marathon, which gave an in-depth video report of the game before they leaped into Oblivion‘s extremely open world for themselves, myself included. I played night after night, for 1 – 3 hours, and marveled at the sights and sounds. But then a curious thing happened, after 20+ hours in. I got kind of bored. Or if not exactly bored, indifferent. I wanted a break from the slow pace of Oblivion. So I popped in Quake 4 and beat a boss that had been busting my ass the last few times I played, then played on a bit more before hitting the sack. This weekend my pal Jim Mainiero mentioned he’d gotten sort of bored with Oblivion, too. A few other friends reported the same. So, curious, I Googled “Oblivion+bored” and came up with some interesting results. Some got bored 4 hours into it, while others felt ho-hum after tens or hundreds of hours. Obviously I’m not alone in my temporary disinterest in Oblivion, but at the same time I expect I’ll jump back into the game with renewed interest any day now. Talley ho.
Update: On second thought, I should have titled this entry “Obliviyawwwn.”
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