Microsoft store dance

Now, I work at Google, and we're not supposed to beat on Microsoft, so I'm not going to say a thing, and just embed this video, state a few facts, and let you make your own decision





All I will say is try to count how many of the customers in the place are paying any attention. And, if you make it to the end, look to see exactly who is clapping - that's right, it's the people who were dancing, and, erm, no-one else.


Also, it's the music from the JK dance song made famous here: 





They can't even do something with their own theme tune? Oh well.

Brutal Legend Map

If you've been playing Brutal Legend, which I have a bit this weekend, you'll probably quite like this:

http://achievementhunter.com/games/guides/brutallegend/

Shadow Complex, Xbox Live and Cheating

I was intrigued to learn that Shadow Complex a) has a bunch of cheats on the leaderboards (oh noes), and also that Microsoft are going to remove some of them from the leaderboard.
Plus, potentially delete their gamerscores.
Plus, tag their profiles as cheaters.

Bold.

Let's see if they actually go through with it.

It's still not entirely clear to me what constitutes a cheater, but since they're talking about leaderboards, I guess they mean people doing the trials in ridiculously short times, through exploits.

I grabbed this game pretty early on (I think, the day after it was released) and spent most of the weekend playing it. I had a great time - you can see from the gamercard below what I've been up to.

Although, since it looks like you have to log in to get access to that, how about this:

http://www.xboxlivenation.com/community/livedna.php?u=4250

anyway. You get the idea.

Also been playing Arkham Asylum (or at least, I was, before I came on a work trip), and I have to say, it's a freakin' incredible game, if a little short. I tapped the 'net for 2 of the hidden items, but otherwise, it was pretty much a cakewalk. I think I've got most of the achievements, too, without really struggling.
If you have an xbox.com account, I guess you can see them here:
http://live.xbox.com/en-GB/profile/Achievements/ViewAchievementDetails.aspx?tid=%09];cn%2bh7%07%05&compareTo=Lord+of+Goats

It's a shame you can't publicise those more, uhm, publically, though.
Anyway, I'm just mopping up the combat challenges, which are pretty fun. In fact, the combat in general is pretty awesome - once you get into the rhythm, it's really nice. My only complaint is that counters don't always work as expected.

Much like Tycho, I also grabbed the demo for Section 8. I'd never heard of it, and the intro movie literally left me breathless. I played it a bit, but as with most demos, it was a lot of people running around like headless chickens. I'm tempted to pick it up, though. It's looks like it has legs.

Fable II as episodic content

Hello. It's been too long since the last post.
So, rather than apologise, I'm just going to post as if nothing's happened.

No real excuse - just been terribly busy with work.

Anyway, I was reading this with some interest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/aug/19/games-microsoft

Looks like they're going to release Fable II in bits. The first bit for free, and then each area/level/something will be available for paid download. Very intriguing model, which I'll be following closely.

I also noticed that you can download full 360 games on Xbox now (FINALLY!).
I am sorely tempted by Oblivion, but probably shouldn't, because it's summer, and I should get out.

Oh and

Ads. I thought I'd run some ads, and see what happened.

Fans

So, uhm.

I bought a SilverStone FM122. They're pretty expensive. And pretty loud also.

It came with a thing to attach it to rheostat, and a rheostat.

So, I attached them.

That's when I found out the fan was noisy.

I was fitting some new Neon to the case over the weekend, when what did I spy, but a switch with the same connector on it, for the neon. Excellent, thought I, a way to switch the fan on and off.

Clearly, Karma was biting me for dropping out of electronics at school.

I ran 12v up the control line, and blew the fan immediately.

Loads of smoke poured out.

I was just glad it wasn't the CPU.

French Military Defeats?

Not sure if you remember the old joke, where you typed 'french military victories' into Google, and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.
It returns this as the result
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html

Which doesn't work since we rebuilt the results page, but, well, you get the idea.

Anyway, I saw this video, and it made me think of it.