Thursday, September 21, 2006

The Mole: Blurry Vision


What's the deal? - When I received an email from one of my Microsoft contacts that the Xbox Live Vision camera was going to be released this past Tuesday, I was stoked. I've been looking forward to video chatting with my brother in Denver and sending him...humorous photos. Yet when I went to my favorite gaming store, nothing was available. I checked a couple of other places and found the same thing. It wasn't sold out, it just wasn't there. I didn't have time to follow up today but I emailed my contact at Microsoft this evening, I'll let you know what I find out.

The camera runs for a measly $40 and allows gamers to send photo messages, video chat in real time, customize gamer tags, and put their faces in supported games. There are also games that are compatible with Vision so that you can see your opponent...if you want to.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Yesterday Microsoft announced its Platinum Hits lineup for the Xbox 360. Starting October 15 Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, Need for Speed Most Wanted and Project Gotham Racing 3 will be available for $29.99.

The Platinum lineup was a big hit for Microsoft during the Xbox's reign, accounting for 16% of games sold. A second wave of Platinum Hits will be released in the Spring of 2007.

What? Did you hear that? That's the sound of the price difference between the PS3 and all other next-gen consoles growing ever so slightly.

Coffee? Tea? Controller? - Earlier today Electronic Arts announced a partnership with DTI Software, a company known as a leader in providing in-flight entertainment. That's right, some time soon you might be able to fly the friendly skies and kill time playing an EA title. Finally something to keep rowdy kids quiet on international flights!

The Sims 2 and some popular Pogo.com titles look to be the first to take off with DTI's 62 airline partners. When you can actually expect to see games in the air wasn't available.

And finally - The soundtrack for EA's Need for Speed Carbon, coming out November 1st has been released. Hope you see some tunes you like.

Dynamite MC -Bounce, Dynamite MC-After Party, Eagles Of Death Metal-Don’t Speak (I Came to Make A Bang!), Ekstrak feat. Know-1-Hard Drivers, Every Move A Picture- Signs Of Life, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army-Are ‘Friends’ Electric, Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five-Scorpio, Goldfrapp-Ride A White Horse (Serge Santiago Remix), Kyuss-Hurricane, Lady Sovereign-Luv Me Or Hate Me, Ladytron-Sugar (Jagz Kooner Remix), Ladytron-Fighting In Built Up Areas, melody-FEEL THE RUSH (Junkie XL Remix), Metro Riots-Thee Small Faces, Part 2 feat. Fallacy-One Of Dem Days (Remix), Pharrell feat. Lauren-Skateboard P Presents: Show You How To Hustle, Priestess-I Am The Night, Colour Me Black, Roots Manuva-No Love, Spank Rock-What It Look Like, Sway-Hype Boys, The Bronx-Around The Horn, The Presets-Steamworks, The Vacation-I’m No Good, Tiga-Good As Gold, Tigarah-Girl Fight (Mr. D Hyphy Mix), Tomas Andersson-Washing Up (Tiga Remix), Valient Thorr-Heatseeker, Vitalic-My Friend Dario, Wolfmother-Joker And The Thief, Yonderboi-People Always Talk About The Weather (Junkie XL Remix)

2 comments:

Ub3rn00b said...

Microsoft continues their genius solution to games that no longer sell. They reduce the price and call them "Platinum Hits". On the XBOX, this meant that the games would usually be 19.99. Good deal most of the time. Of course you could usually buy the game used at Gamestop or whatever for 10 bux by then so the 19.99 deal was pretty useless for me. However, gamestop is still trying to get 35.98 or something out of Need For Speed: MW last I checked so it sounds like it'll be a good deal. As far as the XBOX Live Vision camera, I would be doing the entire gaming community a favor by NOT buying it....trust me ;)

Terry Terrones said...

Not to be a Microsoft honk but I think the Platinum Hits option is a great idea. Depending on where you live, sometimes getting a used copy of a game is not an option. Some people (I know a few) are also wary of buying used copies of games.

The $29.99 price point seems pretty fair to me, especially since the average 360 game cost twice that. I just wish Microsoft would have released a couple more games. Call of Duty 2, especially with COD3 on the horizon, would have been a good choice but since its an Activision game I guess that wasn't an option.

As for the camera, the only reason I'm psyced about it is because my brother got one too. The video chat is pretty cool and it has some other nice features (I'll get into this more in a blog post tomorrow) but I have to admit, if I didn't force my brother into buying one, I wouldn't have bought one either.