My Favourite Blogs are Dying?!?!

I just followed a link in the comments of Xbox 360 Fanboy to This Site which mentions a huge cut to the budgets of the Gaming Network of Web blogs owned by AOL. I had noticed something odd recently when some of the sites had people posting under the name "(Name of Webblog here) Staff". I had never seen this before and didn't know what to make of it. Apparently a bunch of the blogs are limited to 5 posts a day and every other post must be done under a staff name and they will not be paid for it. How lame is that? The link mentions that this may only be temporary while AOL looks for someone to buy them out or possibly just until Q3 is over. I really hope that everything works out because I spend a significant amount of time on these blogs and love every minute of it.

An Idea for the Ages

I have spent several of the last 24 hours pondering the Xbox Live Community Games announcement. Personally I believe that, if it's done right, Microsoft could radically alter the entire video game industry. It's only a matter of time before there are hundreds of thousands of games on XBLC and people are going to need a way to find the one that's just right. XBLC will need an interface similar to Youtube with games having ratings and number of downloads info as well as a way to see them all listed by top rated or most downloaded. Also people need a way to follow their favourite new indy dev so dev's need their own profile pages with links to their own games. There should also be a comment system on each games page so people can write mini-reviews and give feedback to indy-devs as well as a way to search by title, genre, or keywords in game descriptions(ball-busting action!). None of this is novel and should be part of the service on day one. If it is and their are some true gems, like most people think there will be, then we could see a huge new source of revenue for Microsoft. The revenue generated by these games could easily match or outperform XBLA and even full-size games. This of course will lead to all consoles attempting it and shifting focus towards community developed games.

Now for the really novel idea. This ones for the guys in Cupertino. Apple should release GarageBand(the recording/mixing/mastering program) for free with all Macs(everything with OSX). Here's the kicker though, for the low, low price of $100 per year(to keep retards out) you can join the Recording Artists Club. What this allows you to do is take any recordings that your "band" makes and release them on iTunes for $0.50 a song. Apple would take $0.10 from every song and the rest goes out to the person/people who submitted it. Once again stealing ideas from popular community sharing sites and programs (like youtube) this idea could radically alter the music industry and allow some of the newest and freshest sounds to be found. One important feature that would probably be necessary is a quick song preview. People love to support grassroots/indy music and this would be an excellent way to serve it to them. I think it would be a serious winner.

XNA Community Games fulfills all my wishes!

At a press event in Seattle Microsoft confirmed that XNA Community Games will launch later this year. What is XNA Community Games you ask?

In 2006 Microsoft released XNA Game Studio Express, a full game language and pipeline built on C# that allows average programmers to make video games for the Xbox 360 and Windows, for free. In 2007 they upgraded to XNA 2.0 which allows online gaming and cross-platform gaming from Xbox to Windows. In 2008 they will upgrade to XNA 3.0 which will allow Zune games to be made.

At the Game Developers Conference Microsoft announced XNA Community Games. A service that will allow "average joe's" to make games using XNA for the Xbox 360 and then release them for download to all Xbox Live members. All games are rated by fellow XNA users before being put on the service.

The new deets announced today are as follows:
All XNA games will be either 200($2.50) MS points, 400($5.00) MS points or 800($10.00) MS points.
The games will be limited to 150 MB file size.
The games can allow players to play over Xbox Live.
All games will have a free demo.
All games will have trailers.
Games will not have achievements.
The developer of the game will receive up to 70% of the revenue (MS take is based on advertising and promotion, the more they promote the game -> the more money they take)

I already have the ability to make incredibly simple games like pong and breakout with XNA and honing my skills this year could see me making actual money in game development by the fall! How sweet!

Lightning Ride

So lately I have been reading a lot about hybrid and all-electric cars and I think I really want one. The major problem is that there aren't any good ones available in Canada. My favourite is probably the Tesla Roadster but I also just read that Mini is going to release an all-electric version, but of course it's only in the states and maybe even only in California. Stupid California getting everything awesome.

I also like to read AutoBlog Green every now and then to see what's up with "green" vehicles.

Retrospectives

If you have absolutely nothing to due and need something to kill some time I highly suggest the video retrospectives over at GameTrailers.com. Basically they are recaps of all the games in a specific series. There are ones for Mario Kart, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Metroid and even Star Wars. I don't know who it is that narrates them but his voice is right up there with Alan Cross. Definitely check them out if you have the time cause they are an excellent read? watch? time...(I guess that works).

Halo Wars

I've been reading a lot about Halo Wars recently. For those not in the know, Halo Wars is an Xbox 360 exclusive Real Time Strategy game being developed by Ensemble Studios. (makers of Age of Empires and Age of Mythologies) It is set in the Halo Universe (obviously) and takes place before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.

Basically the big deal is that RTS games haven't really worked on consoles in the past. Mostly this is due to the fact that most RTS console games have been ports from the PC and are too complicated to map to the controller. Halo Wars is being built from the ground up for the 360 so it shouldn't have these same issues. Ensemble is working really hard to make sure that the controls work really well and allow for all the fast, micromanagement style gameplay necessary for a success in this genre.

Check out more at HaloWars.com.

Dark Knight

Just saw it. It was excellent! One thing I noticed though is how it seemed like it was never going to end. It's like there are multiple climaxes and even though it's only just over 2 hours, the high tension and excitement throughout made it seem like it was forever before the credits rolled. Definitely a stellar movie. 2 thumbs up.

Also I heard that it beat out Spider-man 3 for all time highest opening weekend boxoffice take. Of course people wanting to see the recently (and prematurely) deceased Heath Ledger play as the superb Joker greatly increased hype and interest. Good movie though, very good.