Latest Gear Live Videos
Playing Geometry Wars and Halo 2 On A Best Buy Building
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Xbox 360,
As confusing as the headline is, that is exactly what we did outside of the Bellevue Best Buy. My boy Jason hooked up a projector and Xbox to a spare car battery, and we had an instant time killer on the outer wall of the store. The sleeper hit of the evening was Geometry Wars, followed by Halo 2 and Fusion Frenzy (Sumo and “Jump Duck” reigned.) We witnessed several near-collisions by those driving through the parking lot who had to grab a peek at the gigantic gaming set up. We have a couple more images after the jump.
Click to continue reading Playing Geometry Wars and Halo 2 On A Best Buy Building
Advertisement
Civilization IV Patch 1.09 Released
Posted by Benjamin VanWinkle Categories: PC, Simulation, Strategy,
The first patch for Civilization IV is now available - version 1.09. The file is huge - 24,834,449 bytes - it took about a half an hour to fully download it on my high-speed cable modem connection.
To update your game, click on the Advanced button in the Options menu, then click on Check for Updates. The patch will download, then the updater will pause to request permission to exit out of the game to install it. Installation takes a few minutes, and apparently does not require a re-boot. At the end of the process the program asks if you want to use an application called XFire, which is supposed to facilitate easier multi-player games. I haven’t tested it yet and therefore can’t vouch for it, but I installed it.
Here’s an excerpt from an official release by Dennis Shirk of Firaxis Games:
Some of the highlights include multiple AI improvements and tweaks, worker behavior tweaks, MANY game play improvements (ex Animal Husbandry reveals horses), promotion tweaks, a softer pillage sound (requested by many, many people), fixed diplomatic exploits (gold for gold, peace treaty exploit), multiplayer tweaks (Hot seat, Lobby, etc.), memory, caching and performance improvements, etc. There were also a number of video card specific fixes.
http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/firaxis_note_01.htm
Okay, so the plan was that I would camp out and brave what felt like sub-zero temperatures to secure our spot in line at Best Buy. Lucky thing, too, as I got there 26 hours before launch and there were already 60 people in front of me. Had I waited until the next morning, we might have been screwed - or Cored. So Rob shows up the next morning to hold our spot in line, and I head off to take my baby boy to a doctor appointment. Well, while I was there, Best Buy gave out tickets to those standing in line. If you weren’t there, you weren’t getting a ticket. By the time I got back to the store a few hours later, the tickets were long gone - and I was apparently without an Xbox 360 after freezing to death. So what does Rob do?
This man hands me his ticket, citing the fact that he likely wouldn’t have much time to play it anyway due to school and work. C’mon now Rob, you know you would have made time. You are just a super guy. Others in line were selling their tickets for $150, and that number grew larger as the hours drew near to launch. This Thanksgiving, raise y our glasses to Rob Stevens. He is, the man.
Read More 
| Super Rob’s Fortress of Solitude
Click to continue reading Rob Stevens Is The Man
Bill Gates Crashes the Xbox 360 Launch Party
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Xbox 360,
When the almighty Billy G arrived to greet the hundreds (and hundreds) of camped out fans, the media went crazy and almost trampled the poor guy. Still, he was able to shake hands with and talk to the first man in line, Dan Friedman, a 26-year-old gamer from Bellevue who happens to be a Microsoft programmer. He had been in line since Friday at 5 p.m. Gates hooked Dan up with $1,000 to spend on the console and accessories. He also spent time with the first 30 people in line, on the inside of the store where it was warm.
So, being the crazy cats that we are, we decided to forgo the Zero Hour launch event. I know, crazy talk, right? The thing is, Bill Gates decided to make an appearance at the Best Buy located near Gear Live Media headquarters, and we thought it would be cool to camp out with all the other fanatics. Of course, later on when we nearly died of hypothermia, we questioned our sanity. Luckily, some people built fires in the Best Buy parking lot, and others had retro game consoles and televisions hooked up to car batteries as a way to pass the time. These guys were hardcore. Check out more pictures of the Bellevue, WA Xbox 360 Campout and launch after the jump.
Click to continue reading Camping Out For The Xbox 360
Our High Definition, Surround Sound Testing Uber-Setup
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Xbox 360,
Okay, so the Xbox 360 is set to launch in less than 24 hours. We are getting ready to head out and wait in line at the Best Buy in Bellevue, WA - yeah, the one where Bill Gates will be on hand to kick off the launch. This will be the first time that I haven’t pre-ordered a console, opting instead to try my luck on launch day. The result is me having to brave the cold for a good 24 hours.
For those wondering, we have a full-featured testing lab for Xbox 360 launch. The high definition display in our lab is a Samsung 46” HLP-4663 DLP unit. As for sound, we went overkill with a 7.1 surround sound JBL system, powered by a Yamaha 7.1 HTR-5890 receiver. We are certainly ready to roll, and would have been bringing impressions to you by now had Microsoft gotten our Xbox 360 review unit and debug kit to us in time. Alas, no dice there.
The next generation in gaming begins very, very soon.
Who The Hell Is Buying All The 360 Faceplates?!?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Xbox 360,
Now this I just don’t get. While perusing the aisles at our local Target,Gamestop, and Electronic Boutique, it has become apparent that people are just simply Xbox 360 fiends. The reason we have come to this conclusion is simple - the $20 USD faceplates are selling like crazy. We were sure that these things would be a hard sell due to the fact that all they do is change the look of the front of the console, and that fact alone meant that it should maybe sell for half of its set retail price.
Looks like we were wrong. People are willing to drop good money on making their console silver, or brown camouflage. Amazing.
Questions Surround Xbox 360 Shortage
Posted by Rob Stevens Categories: Corporate News, Xbox 360,
Peter Moore is an clearly trying to pull a fast one on us. Seriously, trying to blame the Xbox 360 shortages on overeager retailers taking too many preorders is ridiculous. But here’s the quote:
‘It’s difficult,’ Moore said. ‘A lot of retailers, I think, stretched their allocation. Individual retail store managers said, ‘I’m going to take a fly that I’m going to get 200 Xbox 360s on day one and take the preorders accordingly,’ and they only got 100 or 150. Well that’s 100 or 50 disappointed people. We have to manage that.’
So are the retailers to blame for taking unlimited pre-orders before they knew what their allocations would be like? Sure, but that’s their job. On the other hand, an argument can be made that Microsoft knew that demand would be high, and chose to spread themselves too thin anyway. Pre-order numbers were coming in early enough that Microsoft knew there weren’t going to be enough to go around. People were pre-ordering back in July. Yet, Microsoft has kept production steady in order to ensure brisk sales throughout Q4.
Of course, there’s the other answer. The more time that passes, the cheaper the hardware will be to produce. Why make five million consoles that you have to take a $75 bath on now, when you can stretch that out over several months and reduce the cost on the consoles released later? I also take issue with the “... and they only got 100 or 150” comment. The only stores that got that many were either Microsoft’s “launch partners”, or were in California or New York.
Video: GameDr. Motorized UMD Cartridge Cleaner for PSP
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Features, PSP,
We just got done messing around with the GameDr. Motorized UMD Cartridge Cleaner, and we must say that it is impressive. For $20 USD, this ultra-portable device cleans dust, dirt, and fingerprints from your UMD discs in a very ingenious way. The UMD hooks on to the cleaner using a magnet, and a piece of cloth aligns perfectly into the notch on the underside of any UMD game or movie. We put up a video, which you can see above, so you can see how it looks in motion. We have a couple of other products we will be putting up in video form as well.
By the way, if you like the above format with the video preview, go ahead and digg this story. I would love to see how popular this feature might be.
Read More | UMD Cleaner Product Page
Xbox 360 Zero Hour Construction Images
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Xbox 360,
So Microsoft is hard at work getting their airplane hangar ready for the Xbox 360 Zero Hour launch party. In fact, we were just sent these images to prove it. We have a couple more after the jump.
Click to continue reading Xbox 360 Zero Hour Construction Images
Recent Galleries
Playfeed Categories
Playfeed Shows
Advertisement
© Gear Live Media, LLC. 2007 – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.