A couple of months ago, while visiting some friends, I had the pleasure of playing Lego Star Wars II and Fight Night Round 3 for the first time on their Xbox 360, on a high definition TV with surround sound... and I was blown away! Then, through a series of fortunate circumstances, I finally came into possession of a high definition TV of my own. Realizing that at least four friends of mine own 360's, and tempted by the beauty and clarity of my gorgeous new HDTV, I could resist no longer. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I the avowed non-gamer drank the Kool-Aid and invested in an Xbox 360 of my very own!

I could go on and on about how much I'm enjoying my system so far. About how good it looks on my huge HDTV. About the little frustrations of getting used to the overwhelming multi-buttoned controller that's so scary to new gamers like me. About the joy of knocking out my husband for the first time in Fight Night Round 3, or how much fun it is for us to play games together after work at night. But that's not what I need to write about. No! I need to write about my first experience on Xbox Live.

Following a friend's advice, I purchased Uno from Xbox Live Arcade, and after practicing a bit by playing offline against the computer, I decided to venture forth and test out Xbox Live for the first time via a friendly game of Uno. Before I go on, I must give full disclosure here; I am an adult woman, and the picture on my gamertag is Starbuck, the female pilot from Battlestar Galactica. I chose not to use my headset because I'm new to the whole Live experience and I didn't want to complicate it. Also, how much can there really be to say while playing Uno?!

Anyway, I logged in and began to play an unranked round of Uno with three perfect strangers. And literally within the first few seconds of playing, the other three gamers, who appeared to be male judging by their gamertags and voices, started catcalling worse than construction workers on a city block. "Hey, Andarko... Hey, baby! What's a hot chick like you doing here? An-dar-ko..."

I picked up Splinter Cell: Double Agent about 2 weeks ago with the mind set of playing co-op to death with Greshkov like we did in Choas Theory. I let him know that it was almost time to suit back up and tackle what I think is the Best co-op experience ever. I just knew that with the better hardware and the phrase "Next-Gen" being thrown around like nobody's business, Double Agent’s co-op would be more expansive and span across more than just 4 levels. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

While offering up, what would be a great co-op experience on the OG Xbox, this is the "Next Gen", and everything about this game should scream, "I'm 20 times better than my previous iteration, and previous hardware game!", but it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, its a great addition to the Splinter Cell multi-player arena, but I feel that they could've used this new version as a separate mode. I don't think they should've omitted their previous co-op outing.

It's intense, and the kind of thing there's no going back from that's for damn sure. Right on the temple, that had to hurt.

She's got a page on deviantart.com you can check out here

[Howard TD left a link to this in our comments section on the Zapper guy, Thanks for the link! Next time bounce me an email and I'll be happy to post it!]

Gamespot is reporting that...surprise surprise...GameStop will not be getting enough PS3 systems to fulfill all the preorders they took a short while back. If you've got a system on reserve at GameStop you'll be receiving a phone call in the next couple of days notifying you of your status. Those of you who are getting the shaft on the first shipment will be receiving a DVD or game valued at $19.99 or less free of charge when you do eventually pick up your system. Hooray GameStop and Sony!

But with the whole format war between HD-DVD and Blu Ray, Sony's forcing everyone to buy into the Blu-Ray format could screw gamers over in the long run if the format never catches on. Not to mention Sony has yet to ever win a consumer format war.

Pierre-Paul Trépanier, marketing director for Nintendo Canada, had this to say:

"When I'm buying a gaming system, I'm focused on the games; I want to play games, and I think that's the primary reason why someone would buy a gaming system," said Trépanier. "I think forcing a decision on consumers would certainly not be part of Nintendo's strategy, because we want to get more people into gaming and we want to make it affordable. Forcing people to adopt a technology and a model that's proprietary and still not established is unfair to gamers."

"As discussed earlier, I was quite excited to discover a little package from Microsoft when I got back from Montreal. A brand new Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. After installing the hardware and associated updates I was I horrified to discover that when I hit the eject button for the first time the unit decided to rip out its HD DVD laser diode.

When the tray ejected it stopped about one third of the way out, did a little back and forward movement and then fully ejected. Of course sitting happily on the tray was the laser. Unit completely broken."

Ouch.

There's some weird caveat's like the fact that the machine sounds better the longer it's on. Strange. Though I'm not an audiophile so I think alot of this stuff is lost on me. But if you're into this stuff, it's worth a read through.

From the article:

Sony’s first PlayStation was released in the United States in September, 1995. It had a custom MIPS R3000 processor and it used CD-ROMs for playing games. Sony sold more than 100 million units. That means there are a lot of used ones out there.

There were a number of different PlayStation models made over the PlayStation 1's five-year life span. Michael told me to look for a PlayStation with the model number SCPH-1001, which is the unit with separate audio and video RCA output jacks. That particular model allows audiophiles to use their own (expensive) audio cables to get “perfect” sound.

I also tried one of the other PlayStation consoles that didn’t have separate RCA output jacks. Other models had a single output cord with audio and video jacks at the end. I found one in good condition on eBay.

Before I started my listening tests, Michael had a warning for me: "Plug in the units — turn ‘em on — and don’t turn them off." It seems the PlayStations sound best when left on all the time. Michael was right. You shouldn’t even listen for the first three days. Both units need every second of the break-in period.

To be blunt, the rapidly growing practice of flipping highly-desired products on eBay is starting to disgust me. Before I even write another word I'll be the first to admit that I'm completely guilty of this. Last year I sold my 360 that I bought on launch night after opening it and seeing how much they were going for. In the end it wasn't really worth it as the hassle of doing this didn't equal the compensation. Combining this experience and watching from the outside I have since come around to my current opinion of this practice. I had an opportunity to preorder both a PS3 and a Wii but since I wasn't planning on playing either console right away I wasn't going to buy one just to sell. I know that somewhere out there there is someone who wants the console more than I do and more likely than not someone else is going to buy and sell it to them for twice the amount online. The principles of supply and demand rule business but there doesn't seem to be any room for consumer-to-consumer ethics when it comes to auctioning Elmos and consoles.

The email link again, be sure to read it.

Here's what the seller has to say about it:

"This is a one-of-a-kind NES sample/demo/development cart of The Legend of Zelda for the NES. Unlike the Zelda "Test" cart sent to Nintendo Service Center, this game is a true development game. The date on the front is for 3/21/87, the game's release date was 9/87.

There is SOMETHING different about this game than the final released game, but I am not 100% certain as to what it is. The game has not been publically dumped/released, and is as genuine as can be.

Many of you know that I am a serious sample/demo/obscure game collector, and this is as authentic as you can get. Buyer gets free shipping with insurance anywhere in the world for this item."

Wanna take a look? Click here

[Boondocks]