T-minus: one week

At this time next week, lucky folks who manage to find Xbox360s for sale will be ushering in the next generation. This is just exciting stuff. How can any self-respecting tech geek not be thrilled by the impending launch?

Update on my Zero Hour status: ultimate cool boss John Benyamine was able to get GameDaily to cover my transportation costs over to Palmdale, California, but it turns out I can't make it out there because of my schedule anyway. But thanks again for his efforts! No, you don't get a free 360 by going to the event, though you do get to participate in an awesome party and get cool swag like a Zero Hour faceplate (and we all know how crazy people get about these faceplates). But you are guaranteed a 360 system if you want to buy one, which might not sound too hot, but considering the ridiculous system shortages, this sounds awfully appealing to someone like me who doesn't have a preorder.

Speaking of faceplates, the guys at Bizarre Creations have put up a charity auction for a Project Gotham Racing 3 faceplate with autographs from everybody on the development team. This faceplate is not available for retail, what a collector's item! Being such a huge fan of PGR, I must have this. The only problem is that the current bid is at $650 U.S...

Finally, finally, an official launch day release list has been released by Microsoft:

Amped 3
Call of Duty 2
Condemned: Criminal Origins
FIFA 06: Road to the World Cup
Gun
Kameo: Elements of Power
Madden NFL 06
NBA 2K6
NBA Live 06
Need for Speed Most Wanted
NHL 2K6
Perfect Dark Zero
Peter Jackson's King Kong
Project Gotham Racing 3
Quake 4
Ridge Racer 6
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

My definite buys: Kameo, Project Gotham Racing 3, Ridge Racer 6
Maybes depending on how my colleagues review them: NBA2K6, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Perfect Dark Zero, King Kong

Pretty solid launch, clearly very American.

One last thing, the power transformer for the 360 is becoming a favorite subject of many jokes, but the size of it shouldn't surprise anybody who is tuned into the tech world. I'm talking specifically about desktop replacement notebooks. Powerful hardware needs a lot of juice, folks. My two year old laptop has a power brick longer than a PSP that gets ridiculously warm. It's nothing compared to my brother's state of the art Sager laptop though, which has a power brick pretty much the same size as the 360's. Let's just say it keeps him nice and toasty during a freezing Boston winter.

This will probably be my last update until launch day. Next week I'll have an account of the trials and tribulations in locating a system, and if I strike gold, full impressions of the system hardware, services, interface and games.

EDIT: Ok, I don't think this is worth a full blog post so I'll just tag it onto here. I got into a bike accident about two hours ago. I've been looked over by a response unit and I've spent the last couple hours holding ice to my face. Luckily the injuries are pretty minor: I just have a gash under my left eye and above my lip, cuts on both hands and my right knee. But I'm still thinking coherently enough to type this so I guess I'm ok.

What happened was I was coming home from a recitation section at night and somehow I wasn't paying attention and went over the curb of a sidewalk. What's funny is that as I flew over, I had enough time to think to stop my fall with my hands, but I had too much momentum and my head bounced off the sidewalk anyways. Ugh... yeah, that'll leave a bruise tomorrow.

The bright side is that I'm climbing my way up to the coolness and extreme level of Microsoft Vice President J Allard, only I didn't break any bones =P.

Oh, and my bike's ok.

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Zero Hour

So, I just got an e-mail from Xbox inviting me to their Xbox360 Zero Hour launch event in California. The sad thing is, the event's only about an hour's drive from my house in LA, but since I'm 3,000 miles away at college, I'll have to fly all the way there. And we know how expensive plane tickets are when we have such short notice to buy them. I'm hoping GameDaily will be helping to cover the expenses as a business trip, but we'll see how that goes.

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Almost there

It's 11/11 and we're 11 days away from the 360 launch. Feeling good? Just minutes ago, Microsoft released the backwards compatibility list, a full 213 games. It's a surprisingly long list, considering that many people were seriously expecting maybe 10 titles, but there's still notable omissions. A lot of Sega titles like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crazy Taxi 3, Otogi, Otogi 2 and more, the Splinter Cell series, the Burnout series and others are missing, but this is a pretty good start and we should be seeing more titles added to the list as time goes on.

If you're wondering why your favorite game is off the list and bargain bin fodder like Barbie Horse Adventure made the cut, here's my explanation: playing these games on the 360 with the Xbox emulator requires writing lines of code specific to each game. In the process of activating a more acclaimed game, the team probably noticed that other games were activated as well with no additional work. So yeah, there's a lot of undesirables on that list, but they were "free" in a way.

In any case, the team is still working on making the 360 more backwards compatible, so hopefully your favorite games will be added soon.

I've been watching Extras, which is a comedy by Ricky Gervais, the same comedian behind the British version of The Office. He plays an aspiring actor who can currently only find work as an extra and is struggling to make a name for himself. This show has that same deadpan British humor that I loved in The Office, and what's cool is that big movie stars make special guest appearances. Kate Winslet and Ben Stiller have an episode each, and of course, there's the new infamous 6th episode with Patrick Stewart.

I always like to type up these transcriptions, but they're obviously never as funny as watching the scene for yourself. So if you can, check out the 6th episode. This following scene has some of the best comedic timing and delivery I've seen in a long time, Patrick Stewart was just phenomenal.

Ricky Gervais: I've written a script.
Patrick Stewart : You see, writing, that's the key. I'm writing, myself, at the moment. You see, as actors, the only choice we have is "yes" or "no". Whereas if you're writing your own material, you're creating your own opportunities.
Ricky: This is my thinking, yeah.
Patrick: I'm writing a screenplay, and I find the whole process absolutely exhilarating.
Ricky: What's yours about if you don't mind me asking?
Patrick: Well, how best to explain it? You've seen me in X-Men?
Ricky: Yeah.
Patrick: The character was Professor Charles Xavier. If you remember, he can control things with the power of his mind. Make people do things or see things. So I thought, "what if you could do that for real?" I mean, not in a comic book world but in the real world.
Ricky: Alright.
Patrick: So in my film, I play a man who controls the world with his mind.
Ricky: Right, that's interesting.
Patrick: So for instance, I'm walking along, and I see this beautiful girl and I think I'd like to see her naked. So all her clothes fall off.
Ricky: ... all her... clothes fall off?
Patrick: Mmm, yes. And she's scrambling around to get them back on again, but even before she can get her knickers on, I've seen everything. I've seen it all.
Ricky: Ok... it's a comedy, is it?
Patrick: No. It's about what would happen if these things were possible.
Ricky: What's the story though?
Patrick: Well, I do other stuff. Like I'm riding my bike in the park and this policewoman says, "Oh! You can't ride your bike on the grass." And I go, "Oh no?" and her uniform falls off. And she goes "Ahhh!!" and she's trying to cover up but I've seen everything. Anyway, I get on my bike and I ride off. On the grass.
Ricky: So this is mainly you sort of going around seeing... ladies' tits?
Patrick: Mainly. And I do other stuff. Like I go to the World Cup Final and it's Germany vs. England. And I wish I were playing and suddenly I am! And I score the winning goal. They carry me into the dressing room, and there's Rooney and Beckham and then Posh Spice walks in and --
Ricky: Her clothes fall off?
Patrick: Instantly.
Ricky: Sure.
Patrick: She doesn't know what's happening. But, uh, I've seen --
Ricky: Seen everything.
Patrick: Again.
Ricky: Is there a narrative at all? Is there a story in the film or is it just --
Patrick: Well, I'm a sort of a James Bond figure. And I have to go to Iraq to rescue these hostages. And I get there and I rescue them. They're all women and they're naked because their clothes have rotted off. But I get them into the helicopter and I'm flying the helicopter, but I can still see in the mirror. And I can see everything. One of them is bending over, two of them are kissing.
Ricky: Those two are lesbian.
Patrick: Yeah, because they've been in the camp for so long.
Ricky: Well look, good luck with that. I've just written a sitcom, but I wonder if you could give it to anyone you know.
Patrick: Is there any nudity in it?
Ricky: Any...
Patrick: Any nudity in it?
Ricky: Not really.
Patrick: *disappointed look* Oh.
Ricky: Well, there could be.
Patrick: Men or women?
Ricky: Either.
Patrick: *disappointed look* Oh.
Ricky: Or... just women.
Patrick: *nods approvingly* Right.
Ricky: I'd need to rewrite, but in the meantime, if you could give it to anyone, in TV or film...
Patrick: Yes, definitely. I will make it so.
Ricky: *stares blankly*
Patrick: You've seen Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Ricky: I haven't, no.
Patrick: Why, your wife won't let you have it on?
Ricky: I'm not married.
Patrick: Oh, your girlfriend then?
Ricky: I don't have a girlfriend. I live alone.
Patrick: You're not married, you don't have a girlfriend. And you don't watch Star Trek?
Ricky: No.
Patrick: Good lord.

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