As most of you might know, Xbox 360 can run a little hot. But who knew it was actually hot enough to whip up some horrible-looking scrambled eggs.
Some dude by the name of Brett has gotten the dreaded Three Red Lights of Death on his Xbox 360, which is unfortunately no longer under warranty. So before dumping the thing, he figured, why not cook some eggs on it! If the idea of eating scrambled egg off a Xbox 360’s heatsink bothers you, please refrain from viewing the video above.
I was wondering if this was going to happen. Of course I haven’t found any official postings other than from news sites - nothing on RedOctane’s site right now.
Yours truly has been selected to participate in the first annual “Shmups World Cup”. I will be on a team with other east coast players taking on teams from Germany, UK, Canada, France, Sweden and Italy. We will be playing shooters from every console and emulator you can think of. From Gradius on the NES to Under Defeat on the Dreamcast, we’ll be playing it and kicking ass. The Tourney starts this Monday.
Wish us luck.
After watching that amazing vid…. I did some quick searching.
Here’s Gamespot’s coverage of the Portals game (a standalone game that will ship with HL2:Episode 2))
Valve founder Gabe Newell dropped a number of bombshells regarding Half-Life 2: Episode Two at EA’s summer press event. Newell revealed that the vaunted PC first-person shooter franchise is going to arrive on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and that the PC and console versions will ship with not only a new single-player game called Portals, but also with Team Fortress 2, the ambitious multiplayer game that Valve tried to develop in the late ’90s but that quietly disappeared later on.
Half-Life 2 fans are already aware of the episodic content that Valve is producing, in place of a Half-Life 3. Episode One, the first chapter, was released earlier this summer to great acclaim. Well, Episode Two won’t just continue the story of Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance, and the rest of humanity battling the alien Combine for control of Earth.
For one, Valve is planning to release Episode Two simultaneously on the PC, Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3. And it wouldn’t make sense to give the console players Episode 2, which is essentially the middle of the story, so the console versions of Episode Two will also include Half-Life 2, as well as Episode One. That’s right, both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players will be able to get their hands on the entire Half-Life 2 saga in one package.
In addition to that bombshell, Newell revealed that all versions of Episode Two will ship with a separate single-player game called Portals. This is something of an insanely inspired puzzle game that takes advantage of the Source engine, judging from the hilarious trailer that Newell showed. The trailer took the form of a training video for a new employee of an advanced corporation in the Half-Life 2 universe.
Well its summer time, otherwise known to us as the “Dry Season” for new game releases. Last week in the shadow of Prey, a great little game called Chromehounds was released. Chromehounds could be one of those games many people miss, and that is a shame.
Chromehounds is a Mech based shooter, that takes place after a fictional WW III.
In the wake of this war three nations (the US, Middle East, and Russia) are fighting for control of the Global stage.
Chromehounds consists of two modes of play.
The single player mode in Chromehounds has you playing the role of a mercenary for each of the three factions. During the single player campaigns you will gain experience in piloting different types of Hounds.
Hounds are broken up into 6 Different classes or Role Types (RT). The RT’s consist of Soldier, Sniper, Scout, Heavy Gunner, Defender, and Commander.
As you complete missions in single player, you are awarded with parts based on your performance. These parts can be used to add firepower, mobility, systems, energy output, etc to your Hound.
Truth be told the single player portion of Chromehounds feels like a long tutorial. However since each RT has a different purpose, its a great way to get a feel for what suites your play style.
If you want to be more focused on close quarters combat, the piloting a Soldier or Defender Hound is a good choice. If your more adept to strategy, then you may want to consider becoming a Field Commander or a Scout. Punishing enemies from a far more your style? Then consider becoming a Sniper or Heavy Gunner.
The different RT’s give Chromehounds a great feeling of diversity, and help you think in the mindset of a Squad.
The single player missions themselves, are your standard fare. Assault, Escort (not many so don’t worry) Capture communication towers etc.
Depending on how well you perform in each mission you will receive new parts for your Hounds.
There are a total of 167 different parts, you can obtain. All of these parts can be used to build custom Hounds, and the only limitation you have to deal with is how much weight your platform(Bi-Ped/Quad-Ped, Tread, Wheels, Hover) can carry.
It is very easy to spend hours building different types of Hounds. The building and customization of new Hounds, is one of the coolest mechanics in this game (more on why in a moment).
All in all the single player, portion of Chromehounds is average at best. Depending on your play style you can finish it all in about 10 hours. However, everything you have obtained in the single player campaign can be moved to where you will use it most…Online.
The online modes in Chromehounds shine! If there was depth lacking in single player it is more than made up for here.
For starters, all the parts you acquired during the single player missions are available in your online Hanger (Garage). You can also buy new parts online (in game) that you may not be able to acquire in single player.
In the hanger, as in single player you can build almost any type of hound you want. In the online modes the ability to build, adds variety to the RT you have chosen, and lends to some unpredictability in your opponents. I have seen some very “evil” weapons configurations, and you have to adapt to them quickly.
There are two modes in online play. First there is Free Play. Free play consists of your standard fare (CTF, Death Match, Base assaults). The Free play is a lot of fun, and will give you good experience playing against different types of Hounds, piloted by Humans. All of his training, and Hound customisation, leads to the games greatest mode…WAR!
The main multi-player mode in Chromehounds, is the persistent Online War between the three factions. Players need to create a squad of friends, before you can participate (min 2 : max 20 players). Your squad aligns its self with one of the three nations (I Pilot for Tarakia), and from here you begin your match to capture territory, and ultimately take a rival factions capital city.
Once you have a squad, you see why the single player training is useful. Squads need to have varied RT’s in order to come out on top in Battle. A Squads Field Commander, is responsible for monitoring troop movements, and directing the battle. Scouts, Need to run out to capture COMBAS towers (if you don’t control Com towers you can not communicate with your squad). Heavy Gunners and Snipers supply suppressing, and cover fire for the Soldiers. There is so much Strategy going on in one 6 v 6 match its almost staggering.
Each month the WAR re-sets, and if you want you can switch to a different nation (not sure how good an idea that is but its possible).
A neat side note, when Chromehounds launched it showed up in the UK first. A Majority of UK players aligned with other nations and not Tarakia. On the xbox forums, players pleaded for squads to join the side of Tarakia, and join we did. In one week the ranks grew, and we began to take back our capital! It was just cool to see the tide of war change.
The graphics in Chrome hounds are good, each Hound you build is extremely detailed, but this detail comes at a cost. The surrounding terrain is a little stale, and buildings have a made out of cardboard feel to them, but grass trees, snow, all look great and react to your Hounds movements.
The controls are solid, and responsive. Depending on the type of hound you build it will move in relation to is size. If you build a Heavy Gunner Hound, your going to crawl around the battle field (4 howitzers will do that to you).
If you like Mech combat games Chromehounds is a title you need in your libary. If you want to play an great original multi-player game Chromehounds is your game.
Update: Today there was some cool news related to Chromehounds.
On Majornelson.com a Free parts pack was put on the Xbox Live Marketplace the pack consists of:
Light arms x 02
Heavy arms x 01
Assist parts x 01
This was a “thank you” to the Chromehounds players for putting up with the server issues at launch.
The 7:00 minute Produced move features the designers and producers of Halo 3. The movie is centered around the game’s story (Halo 2 spoilers), graphic technology, and cool marketing drum beats. Enjoy!
It appears that PGR3 and cool events go hand in hand these days. First was the world wide tournament, and now a chance to play against Jack Black.
On Sunday May 21st, (if selected) you will be able to race against Jack in a PGR3 race. Winners will recive some cool prizes that range from MSFT points, to a priviate screening of his next movie.
Details on signup can be found on the microsoft site here
Lumines is coming to the Xbox 360 Arcade, and I could not be happier! Lumines, is one of the best puzzle games I have ever played, and originally came out as a PSP launch Title.
This time around it appears that the core gameplay will still exist, and new content such as skins, and tracks will be made available for download from the Live Marketplace.
The digital crack that is Lumines Live! will be available for download this summer.
If you are interested Gamespot has some hands on impressions up from E3.
Now that the press conferences are over, and E3 is officially underway we here at Monkeygames can focus on whats really important…the games!
This whole 360 “bringing it home” thing has turned out to be a blast, lots of cool free virtual swag, cool trailers, and of course demos from the show floor.
Last night I fired up the demo for Capcom’s “Lost Planet”and so far its the best of this weeks bunch.
Lost Planet will be a 3rd person shooter that takes place on a frozen world. Not much is known about the storyline, but I can tell from the demo its got something to do with Snow Pirates, and big Bugs!
The demo is broken up into two parts. The first has you start outdoors on foot, on your way to destroy a bug hive. The second has you assault a Pirate base all by yourself.
The art and style of this game are beautiful, and the graphics at points are jaw dropping (even more so considering this is a “beta” version). The 360 does a good job of keeping the frame rate consistent even with all the enemies, and action on screen. Bugs range in size from small to down right huge. On the human side of things, the Pirate ground units look great and in some respects look like snow-troopers. There are also Pirate units walking around in massive VC’s or Mechs (trust me more on that in a minuet).
This is one of the first games that feels next gen in its presentation, the lighting and explosions are beautiful, the level of detail in the world and on the enimes is spot on (even more so when you zoom in).
The controls are very responsive, weather you on foot or stomping around in your customized Mech.
Ok by far the best thing about Lost planet are the Mech sequences. Each Mech you jump into can be customized by adding or removing weapon arms either already attached or laying on the ground.
I think the main reason these sequences are so enjoyable is because this is where the action gest stepped up. Lots of Enimes, explosions and fast paced combat.
Now here is something cool, lets say you see a cannon for your Mech on one side of the room, and you can only get to it on foot. You can jump out of the Mech run to the Gun attachment and make your way back slowly. While your lugging this weapon back there may be a Bug or Pirate in your way, so the easy and FUN solution… lean into the massive cannon and blast away. its just fun destroying things with a weapon that should be on a Tank. Once your done attach the arm, and be on your way.
Considering that this is a very early version of the game there are some issues with clipping, and well to put it nicely the Enemies AI is missing the “I”, but for the most part this game is a lot of fun.
Lost planet is scheduled to ship next Winter 2007. It seems a bit evil to make us wait this long, but according to the developers they need this time to build the multi player portion of the game.
If you have a 360 this is a must download (300mb), if not check out the Trailer
XBox 360 Scrambles Egg
