Tag: microsoft

Halo 2 Thoughts

It’s now only a few days till Halo 2 hits the UK (Thursday the 11th or 10th if I’m lucky) so I thought I’d share a few opinions (no spoilers) of the ‘test’ version I’ve been playing. I guess I should be honest and say that although the original Halo was a stand out game for the Xbox on launch, it tired quickly for me. I found the repetitive level design and unoriginal gameplay meant the single player campaign was difficult to stick with. Admittedly I was playing on Heroic to make sure the game was a challenge but the Library level and the flood character designs were in my book a filler in an otherwise stunning game., and playing through filler just turned me off. On the other hand the multi-player while not online was stunning and gave a real taster for what Halo 2 could be.

Halo 2 so far has been great. The single player campaign has been difficult but full of nice ‘set-piece’ moments. I’m now onto level 4 (again at Heroic) and although the graphics are ever changing I’m picking up a feeling of repetition again. Still – early doors with regards the campaign. Multiplayer has so far been limited to Xlink Kai and XBConnect games through the pc. However even with that frustration, the online gaming has been supreme. Amazing maps mixed with balanced weapons leads to some quite stunning gaming. The options for a host are massive, with the old favourite of Slayer with sniper rifles still available. Coupled with that are some ground breaking stats available at Bungie.net. Not only will the usual best player, friends list type stats be available but kill ratio’s, experience stats and current player levels are all there as well as a feature called ‘Game Viewer’ which is pretty neat. Basically each game you play in can be reviewed afterwards and you can see where you were shot from and who by – a picture says a thousand words.

Other new features – duel wielding which is basically firing two guns at once. This adds quite a bit of strategy as certain weapon combinations are more potent than others. The weaponry has also changed with some new additions and some tweaks to old ones (removal of sight from zoomed in pistol being one). Vehicles are also destructible and also there’s more to choose from – the ghost is superb.

Summing up, for me the online play is unrivalled on the Xbox. I can only hope for some lag-free gaming over Live on Thursday (hooray for holidays). Considering how good online this game is, the campaign mode might not be played for quite some time.

Some useful links – gamespot.com review and also the FAQ page at bungie.net.

XBMC

xbmcI’ve mentioned Xbox Media Center (XBMC) before but the new updates are top smart. First up is a new web radio interface. Makes browsing through hundreds of Internet radio stations a breeze. Second is a link into Apple’s movie trailer site which means you can stream and watch trailers on the TV with ease. Finally there’s a link to game trailers at Microsoft.

Linking into the pc is easy and means I can browse the all my music (and album art finally works well) and select play lists at will. Can then easily switch to movies stored on the media server pc, the Xbox itself or slap in a dvd. If you are into home entertainment in any way, a chipped Xbox and XBMC really are worth investigating.

 

Spread Firefox

Looks like the browser wars are back. Spread Firefox has been launched to promote the Firefox 1.0 preview release. Even the previous owner of the domain firefox.com has handed it over. Using Firefox is a joy compared to Internet Explorer, but I can’t see them overhauling IE. It really is only the geeks and the tech-savvy that are using Firefox at the moment – it will be a while before the average user downloads Firefox and understands the difference.

Bargain

Xbox for £99 from 27th August. An absolute steal and by far the best console you could buy if you’ve not already got one. And if you’ve got broadband – get an Xbox. The online gaming is superb compared to Sony’s. I’m still a beta tester for Sony’s online offerings and they have been pretty poor in comparison. Killzone is due to be delivered for testing this week though and it does look amazing if not the Halo beater it was once thought to be. The website is stunning though. Really wets the appetite.

That aside, the list of cracking games on the Xbox is large – much larger than the PS2. For example Halo, Links, Top Spin, PGR 2, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and the upcoming Halo 2 which looks soooooo much better in the graphics and gameplay departments than Killzone. And these are the exclusive games. Buronout 3 and Pro Evo soccer are due in the next couple of months on both consoles – Xbox will have better graphics and sound than the PS2 with better online support (although thats only a hope for Pro Evo as nothing is confirmed).

So spend that £99 wisely – get an Xbox. And if you’ve already got one, buy another and chip it, add a large hard disk and create the biggest games machine known to man. You can also install Xbox Media Center and create a fantastic media machine too. Joy. Even better Xbox Media Center now supports iTunes – woo-hoo. I feel an update session coming on.

Service Pack 2

Downloaded and installed Windows Service Pack 2 last night. This is the much trumpeted update to Windows XP which should make the OS much more secure than it currently is and also explain to the masses just how vulnerable their machines are to virus and trojan attacks. A hefty 260Mb download and half an hour install time later and the service pack was installed.

On rebooting, before Windows was fully loaded an option screen encouraged you to ensure Automatic Window Updates were selected. Once past that screen XP loaded as normal. What was noticeable straightaway was the length of time XP took to get up and running. Slow as a dog. When it eventually loaded (3 mins against 30 seconds) there was a new icon in the sys tray – a red shield. This was the Security Centre telling me my machine was vulnerable. On opening it up fully it said I was fully firewalled as the new XP firewall is enabled by default. It also said my Windows Updates were good as they were set to automatic. However anti-virus was amber as Nortons was running but the software couldn’t detect if it was active or not. Doh. Disabling the windows firewall set that option to red also. But I’ve got a hardware firewall – no need for software. So Security Centre would also say I was open to attack as I didn’t have a software firewall. Nice.

I tried a reboot to see if the startup was any faster. It wasn’t. A quick trip to the services panel and Security Centre was disabled. One reboot later and the speed was back. On talking to others they haven’t seen an issue with speed so maybe it was another setting or bit of software slowing things down but I didn’t need a bit of software telling me I wasn’t secure when I was. However it’s a good tool for the great unwashed who don’t have a foggy about the nasties that can harm their machines. Pity the Security Centre didn’t nag the user into doing backups though – far more useful especially with the increase in DVD writers.

Other updates include improved support for Bluetooth (worked a treat with the T610) and Wireless networks and also some updates for Internet Explorer. Pop-ups blocked and an add-in manager to see what has attached itself to IE. Also mail will no longer download images by default and there’s a few other security related fixes. Windows Update is now at version 5 (seemingly doesn’t work with known dodgy keys used in non pucker copies of XP) and annoyingly it will also install Windows Messenger. To remove it follow the instructions here.

Finally there seems to be a lot of new drivers and compiled XP code. Certainly feels slightly more spritely in use. So a worthy update – just don’t believe the hype around Security Centre.

IEBlog

It had to happen. The IE dev team (newly re-created again after thinking they had sewn up the browser market) have a blog. Looking at the list of popular requests, it looks like most folk want Firefix bundled with XP as the default browser if the feature list is anything to go by.

People want people to download Mozilla Firefox

It also looks like the dev team have a sense of humour.

XBox 2004

Halo 2 released on Nov 9th, EA games coming to live which will mean Fifa, Madden and Battlefield all featuring live support (Burnout 3 also) and video conferencing from the xbox, which to me means video within games – superb. Confirms xbox as strongest console in my book. Just need to win lottery, build house and retire to life of luxury…finding someone to share all this with would also be required but the lottery win would make that a tad easier.

Crystal XBOX

So I’ve made the first purchase of my next gadgeting odyssey (wanky words a go-go). The crystal xbox. Exactly the same kit as the one I’ve got, but see-thru. Now – I’ve not gone completely mad – the old one isn’t going to waste or to the great console graveyard that is my attic. Firstly, the disk drive is getting repaired by Microsoft as after 2 years of hammering it’s not the most reliable.

Once I get the old one back I’ll then be adding a SmartXX chip and a 120Gb Maxtor drive. Why? Why not! Firstly it will let me play copied games, not that I’m some sort of dirty games pirate, but broadband will be my friend. Secondly, I can runs loads of emulators from the xbox – some arcade classics and maybe even Head Over Heels if I can find the rom. Thirdly, stream mp3’s from the pc and also internet radio. So killing lots of birds with the one stone. The reason for the new xbox is:

a) Mod will be done solo so who knows what may happen when random soldering is required
b) The crystal xbox will be live only games, so no chance of my xbox being banned.

Top smart.