Obviously that title doesn't refer to the Japanese market, though I'll admit that my inner fanboy would love to see that. Or maybe it's just the fact that it would make sense considering what the Xbox 360 has done this generation in terms of games and content, to be honest they’ve done a lot right. I'm of course referring to the fact that the Xbox 360 has outsold the OG Xbox (that stands for Original Generation Xbox, get used to that term) reaching over 25 million units sold worldwide.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that sales are better this time around, but it's still something to celebrate. Especially when you keep in mind the hardware woes that continue to plague the console, it's almost amazing. All of the backlash against the console boils down to internet hype, not that the story is just hype, but that seems to be where it's getting the most attention. Overall I'm actually glad to see this happen, it just plain makes sense.

Ending off the last generation I was much more of an Xbox player, but even as recently as a year ago I was still playing my PS2. It was Halo and Live that should be attributed to my switch but the death of my beloved OG Xbox was swift and fast. The console itself still works, but there's no reason to even have it. I own two Xbox 360's, a PS2 and a Wii. The OG Xbox's role as dvd player was short-lived, so now it just collects dust. The only reason I have it is because of the extensive case modding I did to the thing. So where will the 360 wind up? With reports that we could see a new iteration of the Xbox as early as 2010 (2009 for the unveil by some speculators) one has to wonder.

Will the 360 be abandoned by Microsoft and third party developers as quickly as the OG Xbox? What will that mean for the success of the 360 and the brand moving forward? The first console was a hardware powerhouse with some good games, the second can seemingly do it all and sports an impressive library of AAA titles, if a third comes too quickly and the second is cast aside it could be horrible for Microsoft. Hopefully that console, which I call X Cubed, won't be rushed and have the hardware failures, but will gamers really care? The 360 is impressive and if the stream of games continues I'm not sure that people will jump to a new generation. On the other hand if Sony jumps out of the gate first, which they won't, they could make up some ground. Most likely Nintendo will swoop in a continue riding off of the success of the Wii with the first console release of a generation Z console (I don’t know what to call it, so I went with Z).

So while I must praise Microsoft for their accomplishments, the struggle is far from over and will likely be a continually uphill battle. I'd assume they understand that but the arrogance that they've notoriously shown at times needs to continue to be kept in check. So by all means Microsoft, have a slice of that cake they're passing around the office to celebrate your accomplishments, but as soon as you're done eating get back to work. You've far from won this battle and it doesn't look like Sony or Nintendo is going anywhere, especially Nintendo as they're hugely successful right now.

PS-I still hate my Wii

News via Xbox360fanboy

Most recently I've been playing Mirror's Edge, although that is all about to change with the weekend gaming schedule always being hectic. This is one of those games that I think peaked a lot of people's interest but overall was met with a "wait and see" attitude. While it's no secret that there are mixed reviews for this game I find it to be a great gaming experience for multiple reasons.

First off you have look at the overall experience of game play. We've seen first person games that aren't necessarily shooters before but none quite like Mirror’s Edge. It’s the acrobatic elements and overall fast paced game play that set this game apart from anything even resembling competition.

While the first person perspective may cause problems in terms of spacing and positioning, especially when one extra foot really does matter, this is something that can be overcome. It’s the ever-present learning curve that some gamers seem to despise, in fact a lot of the complaints I read about the game are a result of just that. Sometimes when you play a game you won’t have the controls mastered within 30 minutes, gamers need to accept that. With some practice you become quite good at navigating your character and if you think outside the box you’ll be amazed with the movements you can perform. There are even achievements for string together movement combinations, just attempting to get these will help you to better understand the ways Faith can move.

The story in Mirror’s Edge is an interesting thing to analyze. In the game you play as a runner, Faith, who is attempting to essentially save all other runner and her police officer sister all while uncovering and defeating a massive conspiracy. There’s a bit more depth to it but not much, and to be honest it’s a fairly standard video game plot. While the story is simplistic I don’t think the game requires much more. After all it is the game play that’s the draw here, but if you need that emotional connection to your character in a game you’ll be hard pressed to make one with Mirror’s Edge. Interestingly enough this game would actually make a great movie. The plot is basic but could easily be expanded, there’s a lot of action and could be amazing that respect. If they threw in a love interest or at least more development of another character it would be something I could watch. Just don’t tell Uwe Bowl I said that.

From a more technical perspective the game still holds old. Game play is overall very smooth and fluid, though I’m not ready to give Dice and standing ovation for this since anything else would be incredibly broken. The combat works fairly well once you get the hang of using it and the best way to defeat or disarm enemies, although just running past them is often easiest. Even though it’s not meant to be a shooter you can acquire guns, which makes certain parts of the game a little easier, but the aiming is terrible. I often wonder if this is intentional as the developer must have had the resources to implement at least a decent aiming scheme. The character models are just plain horrible but luckily that trend doesn’t carry over to the beautiful environments of the game. I’ve had some issues with brightness settings of the game but I attribute that more to my television than anything else.

If you’re a person who requires that a game have multiplayer in order to buy it I wouldn’t count Mirror’s Edge out quite yet. While the game is single player only there is a lot of replay value in it. Like other games you can of course work your back through the story doing things differently or adjusting the difficulty to gain achievements, but it’s more than that. There’s “Time Trial Mode” and “Speed Run Mode”. Speed Run is just individually replaying each chapter while trying to meet a benchmarked time. You’ll get 10 points added to your gamerscore for beating the time but once you’ve done that you may find yourself done with the game mode. Of course there are world leaderboards and friends lists to contend with but unless you’ve got a group of at least ten competing you won’t be too drawn into that. Time Trial mode is smaller sections of maps in which you have to reach various checkpoints. There’s a large replay factor with this mode. You can try to beat various times set by the dev to earn a star rating for each trial as well as leaderboards. The best part is you can essentially race friends by downloading their fastest run, a red “ghost” will even appear on your screen for you to race. The best part about these ghosts is you can download anyone’s ghosts to see how they achieved their unattainable times. So unless you get lonely and really need company there’s as much value to the game play as most games that have a worthwhile multiplayer aspect.

So that’s the game, want a rating? 8/10 but this is a game where whatever score it gets is sure to cause controversy.

The New Xbox Experience is officially out and ready for the public to beging downloading. Naturally many people assume that I got in early on that but of course I did not. Free things and special entry into early updates and betas was never something I really got. I haven't had a chance yet to check it out but I did download it this morning before I left for work. I figured that a lot of people downloaded it as soon as it was available and even more will be doing so this afternoon and evening. Morning seemed like the best time to try and get in on this, surprisingly it was a very quick update considering all the changes and additions they're making.

So for right now I have ZERO impressions to offer, well maybe one but that's not quite fair. I already have in my head what I think about the update as well but I'll reserve judgement until I've actually tried it out. Maybe I'll register a Netflix account today if I get some down time during work. Otherwise there might actually be something here to read tomorrow, AGAIN!!!

My time with Gamertag Radio has finally come to a close. I'll be honest, it's something that's been on my mind for a while. I guess it was a combination of things that lead to my departure and thankfully none of them are negative. Sometimes life changes and sometimes what you want chages but when you're working on a project like GTR with friends you have to treat it differently.

I'd say it started just before the summer but during the summer lots was on my mind. I went through some life changes this summer, for the better, and that left me analyzing many parts of my life. Since GTR was a big part of my life and very dear to me of course I had to take a look at that part of my life as well. I'll always love doing the shows for GTR, that's definitely the part that I'll miss the most, but it was all the other things that go along with that that made me leave. There's was a lack of motivation and inspiration to write for the site and continually contribute content on a regular basis. I really did step it up during E3 but that was something I did more out of respect for Godfree and the rest of the crew. I couldn't be there at E3 because I was going through some "life things" and I felt really horrible about that. Although I should point out that no one at GTR made me feel that guilt, they were all nothing but supportive.

Then there's the changes that GTR wants to go through in order to grow. I was never unaware of my lack of contributing to GTR so that probably helped in the end. How can I help GTR grow when I was already not helping out? Was I even in favor of the things they wanted to do in order to grow? Doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity so I'm glad change has and will continue to come. I just questions whether I can really be a part of that change or if I even wanted to.

So combine the fact that I knew I wasn't contributing to GTR with questioning if I even wanted to be doing this and it should be very easy to see why things worked out the way that they did. Did I make the right decision? I'm not sure, but I think I made the best decision I could. I can't afford myself the luxury of being able to endlessly debate how I feel and what I want to do when if effects people I respect and care about.

Will I continue to update this blog? Good question...