Archive for the "Musings" Category

The XBox’s Shift

December 15th, 2008

Recently it seems that the XBox 360 is making a move away from its roots as a console for gamers, with titles such as Gears of War and Halo, to where it is also suitable for family and party gaming.

The move towards a more family oriented console was first seen with the New XBox Experience that was launched in November. This added avatars, the XBox equivalent of Nintendo’s Miis. It also added in lots more sound effects when performing actions and changed the interface drastically so there were bigger pictures of what options were available at each stage. The changes in interface are for the better, and do make the XBox easier to use, but there’s no mistaking that they also make it more family friendly.

As the run up to Christmas draws towards a close, it is no coincidence that the adverts for games are more for those where the family can get involved,  with titles such as Mario Party 8 and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party for the Wii and Little Big Planet for the PS3 getting advertised heavily, alongside the XBox’s latest weapons in this arsenal; Lips, You’re in the Movies and to a lesser extent Scene It!.

This shift places the XBox in an interesting middle ground, where it is appealing to families on one side, and more serious gamers on the other side with this year’s release of distincly non-family games Grand Theft Auto 4 and Gears of War 2. Of course, this means that it is now open to a wider audience, and could well increase the console’s lifespan.

 

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Retailer Customer Service

June 11th, 2008

Having read Lamby’s blog posting about his troubles with Aria I was reminded of my own similar trouble with eBuyer. This got me thinking about how everyone seems to have had trouble with at least one online retailer’s customer service, and every online retailer that I can think of has someone who’s had trouble with them. Obviously some are worse experiences than others (ranging from Lamby’s case to “they took an hour to answer the phone”) but there’s something in common for all of these cases; they screwed up in the first place.

As a result I’m wondering if it’s worthwhile putting the customer service issue on the back burner to the chances of them screwing up. Afterall, if they don’t screw up you won’t have to deal with the (quite likely) atrocious customer service department…

Taking this further it’s also worth noting that, if the error was with packing or something (as mine was), that the same people who made that error will inevitably end up in the chain for the solution. Hardly ideal, as the chances are possible that they’ll screw up again. Of course, this alone isn’t the best yard stick, but it might just be worthwhile taking it into account.

 

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Superbowl XLII

February 3rd, 2008

In the midst of all the primaries and other political events in the US at the moment comes a diversion – the spectacle that is the Superbowl. This year sees the undefeated New England Patriots take on the underdog New York Giants in Arizona’s University of Pheonix stadium. Of course there’s the pride of winning the Vince Lombardi trophy, but there’s more to it this year, even if you’re not a fan of either of the teams involved.

The Patriots are currently undefeated this season, having won all 16 regular season games and the 2 post-season games leading to the playoffs, although this hasn’t been without some controversy after they were caught making illegal tapes of the New York Jets in their opening game of the season. Since then though, they’ve beaten everyone that stood between them and their current position on the brink of becoming only the second undefeated team (and the first to go 19-0).

The Giants, on the other hand, have the chance to become only the fifth wild card team to win a Superbowl, and having almost stopped the Patriots in the last game of the regular season there’s no doubt that Eli Manning and co. will be out to win this time. On their way to the Superbowl the Giants have won 10 consecutive away games, including big upsets in the playoffs against the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. They’ve got it all to play for.

Taking all this into account has left the Vegas bookies offering a 13 point margin in favour of the Patriots. This seems quite large, considering that the Giants were ahead for a lot of the regular season finale, and held the Patriots to only a three point win (pretty good going considering the way that the Patriots obliterated a lot of teams; the most notable being the 52-7 victory over the other NFC wild card team – the Washington Redskins).

For most people, the Patriots are the team that they love to hate; they’re unbeaten, they’ve had the “Spygate” thing hanging over them and the way they walked over teams on their way to the Superbowl has left a lot of people who will be getting behind the Giants. The Giants of course are the underdogs, and everyone likes a good underdog story. Well, everyone apart from Patriots fans who will be hoping that the team manages to make history tonight.

Both teams are truly in with a chance, the Giants proved they could contain the Patriots during the that game at the end of the season, and with their upsets in Dallas and Wisconsin they’re certainly not to be written off too soon. The Patriots are still a force to be reckoned with, especially with both Tom Brady and Randy Moss setting new records for touchdowns this season, and with Donté Stallworth, Wes Welker, Lawrence Maroney and the rest of the offence being as dangerous as they are, there could well be fireworks during the game.

It might be after 11pm here by the time the game kicks off, but I full well plan on watching it in its entirety.

 

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Top 40 Movie Songs

December 27th, 2007

I was listening to Radio 1 a bit over the past few days, and on Boxing Day encountered a show counting down their selected Top 40 Movie Songs, listed here.

Some of the songs are fantastic (I turned in to hear Huey Lewis & The News – ‘Power of Love’ from one of my favourite films – Back to the Future), and while I enjoyed listening to it, but this is by no means a list that I’d agree with in its entirety.

To my mind the track from High School Musical shouldn’t have been in there. It was a straight to DVD film that clearly doesn’t merit its inclusion in this list. I’m not too sure about the inclusion of the South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut track either; especially as high up the list as 23. Of course, that would probably have been replaced by a song from Team America: World Police had the show been broadcast at a later hour.

Aside from these inclusions that I disagree with, there’s a whole manner of songs that are – in my opinion – missing. Where was Steppenwolf – ‘Born to be Wild’ from Easy Rider? or Kenny Loggins – ‘Highway to the Dangerzone’ from Top Gun; both classic songs. Of course I’d have liked to hear anything from another of my favourite films – The Blues Brothers as well. I suppose that in order to make the songs selected appeal to a greater range of people they decided to sacrifice some classics.

 

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