char

I don't know how to play go, but I'd like to learn.

It fascinates me as a game though, because it's basically the worst case scenario for computer AI's. Computers can be unbeatable at checkers, and really good at chess, but those same methods make it a really terrible at Go. Though, I imagine the basic xbox player isn't going to really notice how good the AI is :-p.

While it may not look amazing, it's a dish that renders a truly glorious transformation on chickpeas. The oil, the bay, the garlic, infuses deeply into them, giving them a texture that is velvety, and a flavor that is complex, a bit nutty and a bit sweet. With the vegetal funk and sharp garlic of the chard it's really great. A fried egg on top makes this dish really full of win.

Zombies shot in the face = awesome.

I've had this idea in my head for some time, but I have the idea to use Forge, halo 3, and a web frontend to create a new Stratregy action game in the vein of something like Archon.

The web interface handles the strategy, Get in a party with people (max 3 vs 3) with one player as the "GM."

On the board each team can move to attempt to control an area. Each area represents a weapon and a map. If it's uncontrolled they get the square. If it is controlled, it becomes contested.

When a square is contested a game starts, there is a short warm up period where the GM creates all the weapons acquired for both parties and lets them go to town on each other in a quick game type. (Current idea is a quick elimination type match, each player having three lives). The winner takes the square and the associated weapon.

The game ends when one team takes the base square of the other team.

Forge is pretty critical to the idea, since most maps would need to be trimmed down for the low player count. Foundry is a perfect map, since it can be formed into a thousand different maps with different features. Tight and close maze like maps, wide open sniper maps, it might even work to.

That's my idea, if you guys wanted to add a web server and a domain registration in, I wouldn't complain ;)

I think where a certain Grey haired laughingstock will be moving.

BTW, whats up chilling effect? Thank you first ammendment!

41, Idiot Erasor, the violence tag on oblivion rings fairly hollow. If that was so, why did they wait till someone unwelded the tops of the models to re-rate it? If violence was the main issue, the timing wouldn't have been so close.

You're right that the ESRB specifies that any hidden content must be included. But to my mind, if you have to download a patch from the internet, a mod, or use a gameshark to access it, than that content shouldn't have to be included for rating. Functionally that's no different than downloading a nude skin or a sex mod. So if to the end user, the effect is the same, why is one death incarnate, and the other ignored?

Char

This is a much subtler change than many of you are making it. This is about moving away from tight corridor canyons like in Halo 2, and moving towards teh more open spaces of Halo. Think, Level 2, "Halo", level 3, "Truth and Reconciliation" Level 4, "Silent Cartogropher" Level 5, "Assault on the Control room" (the outdoor sections) and it's reverse. Very few sections of halo 2 had the big open feeling that those Halo levels did (New/Old Mombasa, and some of the flying sections). Even though they only made up, maybe 30% of the game, they were Halo's crowning moments.

This isn't exploration like MP or copy paste design like the library. This is, "Shit that Wraith is wrecking me, maybe I can get all the way around it by using this snowy mound." Hopefully is also about removing some of the barriers from Halo 2. No more doors that lock behind you, or insta kill zones please.

With this new openness, I hope they don't neglect some of the great in your face combat of Halo 2 though. Hopefully they can recreate that, "cat and mouse with elites through the ruins of Delta Halo" experience.

My prediction is Spring 2007, from luke smiths 1up blog, http://lukems.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7366525&publicUserId=5519593

Theres about a .000002 percent chance that a game can cause hardware problems. The only way I can think of, would be wearing out a DVD player ala starforce. This doesn't sound like that though, I doubt capcom is rewriting how the Xbox360 OS accesss DVD's. A game should never overheat a console, if it does, it's a console defect not a game.

Three rigngs of death = console flaw.
Freezing = software flaw.

I consider myself pretty lucky, ever since the last auto update I've only froze in oblivion. DR rising hasn't froze once, though I'm still only have about 5 hours of the game finished.

Char

42, KawF,

"How Microsoft intends to solve that problem later on, I don't know. Currently as have been said already, you need the full development environment in order to deploy your homebrew to your Xbox 360 from your Windows XP or later-based PC."

What's been said, is that this is a start. This is just development tools for developers. MS isn't keeping it secret that they want this to be much more open in the future. I'm not sure why you would need/want web browsing and file structure control over your system, however your IDE promotes to the xbox 360 can take care of this.

Also, this seems to be pretty heavily reliant on .net, so your not going to be able to get the full perfomance out of the box. Almost all, and more than most hobbyist can ever need. Using .net and managed DirectX means much easier development though. Right now it just supports C# apparently, but I'm sure other langauges in the CLR will be supported soon.

As a consumer, there's no reason to be excited about this yet. In a year this might make some cool homebrew titles. In two years it will probably have a reasonably thriving community.

As a hobbyist developer, I'm totally stoked though.

pretty awesome. I also find I'm much happier using the analog stick than the Dpad. Online play was great. I'd get timeouts doing non quarter match player matches, but quarter matches and ranked matches worked every time. They absolutely friggin NAILED the online here. Smooth, totally lag free, resposnive, and I can get into a game in seconds, vs. DOA4 where it would often be a few minutes before I was fighting. In the end, it's nice having a simple fighter again.

BTW, some guy was trying to spam M.Bisons flaming torpedo an me, and I totally punked him. I'd just get in the corner, block it, and proceed to nail him with a high damage throw when he landed. allright.

Overall an 8/10, points taken off for the occasioonal challenge of controlling it.