Xbox 360, Movies, and More

It's been an extremely exciting and busy time lately. For the biggest reason, head over to my new Star Wars blog, which is replacing the old Blogger one. Yes, Episode III has come out, and yes, it's awesome!!! :-D

In addition to seeing Revenge of the Sith six times so far, I've been swamped by homework, projects, and exam review. Here's my attempt at a worthy blog update.

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Xbox 360

You know it's been a long time indeed when a whole new console has been announced and I haven't said a word about it.

Xbox 360 was officially launched during an MTV event that aired May 12th. Then, at E3, they revealed more information... kind of. The launch has been somewhat underwhelming, but there's sure to be plenty of new information as the launch -- this fall -- approaches.

It seems like X360 is going to be slightly less powerful than the PS3 this time around, but they're very, very close. That's interesting, since PS3 is launching 1/2 a year later. Hopefully the power differential will be balanced out by X360 being easier to develop for than the PS3.

A couple of promising games thus far include Gears of War, Project Gotham Racing 3, and, of course, Perfect Dark Zero. (What a weird name.) Also, it's been suggested that Halo 3 will launch day-and-date with PS3, which, personally, I find hilarious. Take that, Sony!

Backwards compatibility? Check... kind of. Word is X360 will support compatibility with only the best-selling games from the original Xbox. No, that makes no sense, but whatever. ;-)

One category in which X360 clearly has PS3 beat is online gaming. From micro-transactions to the marketplace to downloadable content to video chat to Live Arcade, persistent Gamer Card, reputation & stats... X360 looks to blow PS3 out of the water. You'll be able to create your own content and put it online for others to "buy" from you, as well as buy other people's custom work. Having one unified online persona really has its benefits.

Every connected X360 will have access to "Xbox Live Silver," which is basically all the features of Xbox Live but online gaming. "Ha ha," you say, "well what does that leave?" Stats, gamer ID, content download... a lot more than non-Live subscribers have today, that's for sure! Subscribe and you'll get Xbox Live Gold, which adds actual online gaming. It looks like some X360 games could get as many as 64 gamers per game, and I have no doubt someone will exceed that after a year or two.

Xbox 360 will also have Media Extender functionality built-in. Basically, that means you can stream video, music, photos and more from your Media Center PC and access it all from your Xbox. That means that, even without the optional, removable, upgradable hard drive, you can get Custom Soundtracks in every single game.

X360 versus PS3, I'd definitely go with X360. I expect the power & graphical differences to be negligible, and online/Media Center capabilities make up for all that. For more information, check out...
- IGN Xbox 360
- TeamXbox
- Xbox.com
- Xbox360.com

Movies

No, I won't mention a certain sci-fi epic. You can read plenty about that at my other blog. However, a couple weekends ago -- Saturday the 14th of May, if I'm not mistaken -- I saw Kicking and Screaming in theaters with my friend, and then went back to his house and saw Collateral. I couldn't find two more different movies if I tried. The former was pretty funny, although not extraordinary. The latter was very serious, though, and rather gruesome. It was good, though. Well done.

Constitution Day

"WASHINGTON - The Constitution long has ensured that Congress can’t tell schools what to teach. But that’s no longer the case for at least one topic — the Constitution itself."

That just about says it all. Click here for more.

Dreams

Last night I dreamt a little group of neighbors, including me, cleansed the neighborhood of all wildlife and then re-introduced only our favorite animals -- which, strangely enough, happened to include a giant man-eating frog. It got loose and started scaring people off. I think that's when I woke up.

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Gotta get back to History now. I've probably spent too much time on it as is. Fare thee well... and do yourself a favor and go see Episode III!!!

SAT IIs

Today I took the SAT II Physics test. Fun. Not. I didn't even finish the test. Oh well... I'm glad it's over.

Forza, SAT IIs, and New York, oh my!

Today we finally got Forza Motorsport, which I actually got for Christmas but which didn't come out until this week. I've barely gotten to play at all, but so far it's great! You can customize you car in I'd say about a duotrigintillion ways. In addition, you can use the "Drivatar" technology to train your own AI driver who drives just like you do, and then have your Drivatar race for you in races you don't want to do yourself. You can also race against your own Drivatar, which is cool. Forza also supports split-screen and Xbox LIVE play.

(I've loved racing games on Xbox ever since the original Project Gotham Racing, which was one of the very first games we got.)

In other news, I'm taking the SAT II in Physics this Saturday. Fun. Not. And my brother's going to New York tomorrow with the 7th grade, just like I did two years ago. They stay until Friday. (Friday the 9th grade also has a field trip: going to a Red Sox game!)

I have to go to bed now. So bye. :-)

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish

Today we saw the 5:30 show of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I liked it, although I don't think it lives up to the book. Still, it does an admirable job. I thought the casting was great, and the opening scene is hilarious. It's a fun movie -- I'd recommend it.