I Just Got My Third 360 - Second One Takes An E74 Dump

Today at approximately 5pm pacific standard time, I started my umpteenth try at defeating the 3rd stage boss in Ninja Gaiden II. A silvery, railroad trainy, electriky organic, machine-o-death kind of thingy.

And then all of a sudden, like a flash from some kind of Max Headroom-like nightmare my screen fills with vertical lines. Hmm. Bad game disk? (I thought). I could still navigate my way around my 360, but only through a haze of vertical lines. Well, there it was on my Xbox Live menu as well. While wishfully thinking I restarted the machine and there it was. An E74 error message and a blinking red light on the front of my console. Not the dreaded red ring of death ok? But still I knew this was gonna suck. So it tells me to go to the Xbox support site. I do. On the site I find a completely useless page that tells me to unplug everything and replug it back in. I do. Nothing. The page on the support site says that if none of the above solves the problem then I should call tech support. I do. The perfectly pleasant tech support guy tells me he's going to have to start a repair order; that I'm going to have to send in my 360 to be repaired. That's what my $60.00 best buy warranty is for I told him in so many words.

My 360 is my crack cocaine. Throughout the course of my life I've given up almost every vice that a human being could possibly live for. Coke, weed, pills, booze, hallucinogens; and last year, the piece DE resistance, my mind saving sanity preserver: Cigarettes. In order to deal with giving up smokes I took up a previous video game addiction. I figured it's better for me than nicotine. It is. So I can't handle having to wait while Microshit sends me a coffin so I can send them my beloved 360 so I can wait while they basterdize it and send it back to me. No fucking way! I will go on a fucking shooting spree if I have to wait 6 to 8 weeks. So, that's why I got the Best Buy 2 year warranty. I just popped on over to Best Buy and BOOM! No questions asked they brought down a brand new glossy 360 box. And even better? It now comes with Forza 2 (and Marvel Ultimate Alliance) so I get that as sort of a great consolation prize for giving up my game saves which I should have asked If I could swap hard drives cause they would have done it 'cause my buddy LIBERTINA GR1M on Xbox Lve told me I probably could so I drove down there again with my new 120 gig hard drive to swap it for my old one and they said sure but doesn't it figure that my old broken down 360 is no long in the store? In the hour and a half since I swapped, the truck came and swept my old broken down 360 away. You know what? I don't really give a shit. So what if I have to start Ninja Gaiden II over again. Actually I'll be starting Bioshock over for the third time; I'm not all too happy about that. But whatever, I didn't think of swapping hard drives when I initially traded out. I won't make that mistake again because you KNOW that eventually, at some point in time this 360 will take a dump just like my other two did. I have no faith whatsoever in Microsoft as a hardware maker. Two previous consoles; both of 'em died. No faith whatsoever. At least I still have my "prestige".

Gaming's Dark Side: Bigotry and Intolerance Online

In November of ’07 I bought an Xbox 360. I was absent for the better part of last generation’s consoles so I don’t know how long this has or hasn’t been going on over the years, all I know is that I was exposed to it last November. I expected trash talk. I don’t mind trash talk and have been known to make a sailor blush on occasion myself but I can’t tolerate hate speech. I am intolerant to intolerance and I was totally unprepared for the bile that started spewing out of people’s mouths while playing online.

The N word is primarily used to two ways online. The first and most common usage appears to be (as Mr. Show put it) “white people co-opting black culture”. You know, middle class white kids saying things like “Yo, wat up nigga”. Pathetic and embarrassingly ignorant, this usage has become common in the last decade or so as hip-hop and “gangsta” culture has risen to soaring heights via Eminem, Snoop, McDonald commercials, and the like. These are just dumb white kids making themselves look painfully foolish while desperately trying to appear cool. The other usage is of the truly frightening kind; bigotry and hatred in its most basic form. This comes from people who hate an entire race of people for the plain and shallow fact that their skin is a different color. Or that they practice a different religion, or that they’re women. They have gamer tags such as “JewsAreGayyy”. In the world of Xbox live being gay is considered one of the very worst things a human being can be, they boast “I shot that nigger in the face”. Or the guy I heard that told his friend “Well, at least you’re not Jewish” or the man that told the woman on our team “Why don’t you just suck my mother-fucking cock you slut”.

Nothing is being done

Microsoft’s system for dealing with this problem is virtually non-existent. While it’s possible to file a complaint against someone for using hate speech or against someone who’s engaging in some other inappropriate behavior it’s practically useless because anyone can file a complaint against anyone else for any reason thereby rendering all complaints suspect. I don’t like you because you killed me a dozen times in a match and talked some smack? Fine, I’m going to file a complaint against you for using hate speech.

Only child predators are a potentially bigger problem than bigotry as online console gaming becomes a dominant and more mainstream form of entertainment and we all know that if sexual predators were as common as racists are on Xbox Live, Microsoft would throw its considerable and unmatched muscle at the problem. So why are sexual predators more likely to be given the attention they deserve while bigots are currently allowed to roam free? I think the truth is that, to them, one is acceptable while the other is not. God, I wish that weren’t true but I fear that it is. The reason why it’s flourishing in the online console gaming world is that nobody is stopping it.

The Solution

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo need to send a clear message that hate will not be tolerated on their online services. I believe that moderators are the only realistic way to deal with the problem. Either hire people to do it or hand pick them from the Xbox live community (and perhaps pay them with free Xbox Live accounts and/or free downloads). Use hate speech once and get banned for a day. Use it again and get banned for a month. Use it again and get banned for life. The message would be quickly sent that it’s not in anybody’s interest to speak in this manner.

Ban someone based on their sign up info such as their credit card, address, phone number etc. Make it so they can’t just change their screen name. I have a feeling that once it gets out Microsoft is serious about this and that people are losing their online privileges for life we might eventually see an end to the hate speech online.

A friendly environment for all

Punishing violators doesn’t eliminate racism but it does make the online gaming environment a nicer place to be. An online gaming community should be a safe, fun place for everyone to enjoy, not just the profoundly ignorant. It is crucial that Microsoft, Sony, and others send the clearest and strongest possible message, that hate will not be tolerated. You cannot just give a chuckle and tell yourself “kids will be kids”.

Ninja Gaiden II Demo: A Love/Hate Thing

I've been looking forward to Ninja Gaiden II for quite awhile now. About a year. I didn't finish the Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox. I was waiting for #2 so they would fix that damn camera, right? I mean there was no doubt in my mind that the camera would be fixed. It's so frujeebly obvious. That they needed to fix the camera. In Ninja Gaiden. The camera needed fixing. Obviously. They're professional game designers! They KNOW the camera needs fixing. Right?

The camera in Ninja Gaiden II is worse.

The world is a very strange place. It is completely beyond my ability of comprehension to understand how the camera not only wasn't fixed but made worse.

Next point. The graphics. The screenshots leading up to the release of the game are just gorgeous. After playing the demo I have to say that that I was A LITTLE underwhelmed. The backgrounds and scenes stylistically remind me of one of my favorite games of all time Okami II (again with an odd, imperfect camera but miles better than the camera in NGII). The backgrounds and settings in the demo feel very "last generation" to me. The Characters look great. The characters and action look next-gen. It's an interesting combination that, if not wholly successful is not wholly unsuccessful either. It feels Japanese in that it has it's heart in the past while stepping into the future.

Now to the actual gameplay. Well, there's that aweful camera. Let's pretend for just a second that the awful camera isn't there. It's Awesome; incredibly addicting and engrossing and beautiful. And the blood. The beautiful blood and flying limbs and shooting blood. Like red paint being thrown straight from the bucket onto a wall. The gameplay. It's also frustrating. At times the game moves into a platforming style. I'm not into it. Or at least I'm not into the way it's done here. Let's just say the camera is problematic. Did I happen to mention that before? There's also an ability to zoom into first person. I found absolutely no use for this feature but it might be that there's no use for it in the demo level.

Overall I will say that there were times when playing the demo where I was completely wowed, entranced and thrilled. I'm going to buy this game which is something I rarely do. Buy games. For all it's flaws, and there are many, it's still a mesmerizing, awesome piece of action gaming. There's something about Japanese idiosyncratic style that I find magnetic and undeniable. And for better and for worse it's all here in NGII. While it's creator has stated that it's the last one in the series (and has quit and begun a lawsuit against his former bosses) I certainly hope that isn't the case. Cause I really want them to fix that Frebenhaphen camera!

Juggernaut Is Alive and Well

My unreliable source proved to be just that; unreliable. We all knew that juggernaut wasn't going to go anywhere but man, it sure felt good feeling that hope.

Karen Allen Superstar

How come Karen Allen didn't become a HUGE star? Not only was she more than a welcome sight in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" but I just saw her again in Starman. She is just one of the most beautiful and interesting women to have ever graced the silver screen. I'm madly in love with her.

Call of Duty 4 Update Rumor! No More Juggernaut?!

just got it from totally unofficial source (a stranger I was playing with online) that there's going to be a huge CoD 4 update this Sunday (June 8th). According to my source the Juggernaut perk is going to be removed from the game as well as "Last Stand". I certainly hope not because while I hate juggernaut using tards on CoD4, I make a few extra bucks selling anti-juggernaut t-shirts.

I sincerely doubt the veracity of my dubious source's claim but in reality I would love to see all the little juggernaut using cry-babies go nuts when their worthless little perk gets kicked into oblivion. A man can dream can't he? Goodnight and Godspeed while I go rack up double xp!