Microsoft purchased Lionhead Studios, the maker of Fable. Major Nelson had a succinct statement about it. It's obviously just the next step for a company that is taking over the entire universe.

I saw King Kong last night, I give it two thumbs up. It was a great story, a lot of people said that the dialogue (principally in the first hour of the film) got too long. I didn't think so, the story was just developed well. Skull Island was absolutely spectacular. I am arachnophobic, which is an abnormal fear of spiders, so I was terrified throughout the many scenes that featured giant scorpions, spiders, grasshoppers, centipedes, and many other wonderful species of local fauna. Kong was fabulous.

It's out! Podtacular episode 56 has been edited and posted. I was given the privelege to help out as a co-host for this show. Huge thanks to Foo Mo Jive for inviting me, and Jonnysan for co-hosting with me. It was a lot of fun.

The Bungie Weekly What's Update was somewhat of a provocation today. Frankie gives us some crap for April fool's. I'll be honest, I'm tired of screwing around with all the different versions of, "we can't say anything on this yet". Then they give us something like this.

Somewhat of an odd article on IGN today. Halo 3 in March? I don't know man, that would kill their community.

Free Gold status to anyone with a Xbox 360 this weekend! Today through Sunday you can log on to Xbox Live and play as a Gold member with Xbox's free Gold weekend event. It's sponsored by Verizon Wireless. This is a good idea, let people experience the Live world and give us some free time. I think this will happen more than once because it's a good advertisement. It's also not as volatile (or nice for the average consumer) as the two month subscriptions that used to come in Xbox games.

Foo Mo Jive invited me to co-host Podtacular last week. We recorded on Thursday and the show should be available for download this coming Thursday or Friday. Jonnysan was also helping out, we had a great time, thanks guys and I hope we can do it again! I'll post a link to the show when it comes out.

Definitely a controversial statement by Frankie in last week's Bungie What's Update. I'm taking this as a fairly stable admission of Halo3 being their next game. It's been very frustrating that Bungie has not admitted to developing the game that should debut sometime late this year.

Microsoft has pushed back their release date for Windows Vista, I can only hope they are taking extra precautions to insure they can meet whatever demand they might have. Hopefully a lesson learned from the 360?

In other news Major Nelson had an interview with a developer from the upcoming game, Viva Pinata. Rare, the same developer that produced Kameo, and Perfect Dark Zero, is coming out with this game for the Xbox this hoiday season. I'll be honest, it looks like the stupidest game I've ever heard of. A mix between Neopets and the Sims, you create a world and try to get Pinatas to live in it. The age group for this is about 3-8, they will co-release with a TV show, (the Pinatas when they are by themselves, talking Pinatas) lunchboxes, and bed sheets. I'm serious.

More promises from Microsoft, I hope they can make it, but I doubt it's realistic.

Interesting article pointed out to me by my good friend, punisher. I agree with it on most points, Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with the horrible supply issues, and expensive hardware costs with the Xbox 360. Nintendo is much more conservative in their business strategy, not ruching "next-gen" material, and sticking with proven stuff in the DS.

Big newsbreak. Sony released specs for the PS3 and a release date. I will believe it when I see it, but check out the official release, a english version, and Major Nelson's take.

CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL

I think this guy should have been promoted, not fired. This is a
True phone call from the Word Perfect Help line which was transcribed from a
recording monitoring the customer care department. Needless to say
the HelpDesk employee was fired; however, he/she is currently suing
the WordPerfect organization for "Termination without Cause." This
is actual Dialogue of a former WordPerfect Customer Support
employee.

"Ridge Hall computer assistance; may I help you?"

"Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."

"What sort of trouble?"

"Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went
away."

"Went away?"

"They disappeared."

"Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"It's blank, it won't accept anything when I type."

"Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out?"

"How do I tell?"

"Can you see the C: prompt on the screen?"

"What's a sea-prompt?"

"Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?"

"There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type."

"Does your monitor have a power indicator?"

"What's a monitor?"

"It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it
have a little light that tells you when it's on?"

"I don't know."

"Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power
cord goes into it. Can you see that?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged
into the wall."

"Yes, it is."

"When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were
two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?"

"No."

"Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the
other cable."

"Okay, here it is."

"Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the
back of your computer."

"I can't reach."

"Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?"

"No."

"Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?"

"Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle
-- it's because it's dark."

"Dark?"

"Yes, the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming
in from the window."

"Well, turn on the office light then."

"I can't."

"No? Why not?"

"Because there's a power failure."

"A power... A power failure? Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now. Do
you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer
came in?"

"Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."

"Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like
it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it
from."

"Really? Is it that bad?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it is."

"Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?"

"Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer."

I'm having some trouble with Xbox.com. First off, I can't figure out where to put my gamercard in the HTML for this page. Second, why isn't there a way to look at someone's gamercard on the Xbox.com site, without them being your friend, or signing in to see your own. If anyone has a solution to either of these problems, please leave a comment.

I played G.R.A.W. for three hours yesterday. I got through several levels and earned a bunch of points. It's the best game I've ever seen. Incredible levels, beautiful graphics, excellent gameplay, it's the first game I've seen that would convince me to buy a 360. It really shows the next-gen capacities of the 360.
I've also heard that 360s are starting to show up in stores, I'm going to stop by a few places this week and see if it's true.

Project Origami turns out to be a Blackberry competitor. Just a pocket PC type PDA. I must confess I was looking for a PSP rival.
Also Ghost Recon, Advanced Warfighter, or G.R.A.W., came out yesterday. It looks excellent.

I found a new author in HBO's fanfiction. His name is Radont, and he's an excellent author. Check out his stuff here.

GamesFirst had an article up today about a guy named Will Wright, and a project he's been working on. He addresses the development of large games requiring large amounts of money, memory, and hardware to run. The article features a link to a video of a presentation he gave at last years Game Developer's Conference. He's a very comfortable speaker, and the video is worth watching.

Microsoft's Project Origami, is surrounded with mystery and suspense. I would love to see a "Xbox like" handheld game device, but too much bait and switch gets old fast. Here's a link to their site. It's nicely put together.

VGN radio had Karate Dog on this week. He's a really funny guy, it was a great show. Last week was one of the best VGN shows I've heard in a long time. Kevin, the main host, totally lost it. Here is the link for their downloads page.