Madcatz Xbox 360 Mic

Well, seeing as both of my mics have been massacred by my dog, I went and looked around my local Wal-Mart, and I found this mic. Its similar to the original Xbox mic, and the sound is a lot better than the standard Xbox 360 mic. Also, as a added bonus it can pump out a lot more volume than the Xbox 360 mic. I found this to be a problem with the standard Xbox 360, and I was quite pleased to see that Madcatz addressed it.

The mic was a measly $17CDN, which was a total of $10 less than the standard Xbox 360 mic. I was unable to locate the product on the Madcatz website, so these pics I took will have to suffice.

Small Arms, brings new spice and life to the XBLM

Its been a while since a fairly fresh game has hit the marketplace, due to Microsoft laying a huge amount of emphasis on old school games.

Right when you jump into the game, you will immediately notice that the influences from Super Smash Brothers are there, and quite obvious, although not directly extracted. Small Arms blends both Super Smash Bros. and Metal Slug into a interesting game, that in the end impresses at the very least.

I am not going to go into a lot of detail, but for 800pts, this game is defiantly worth it. Its the only other XBL Arcade game I have purchased that I felt was a great purchase, and fully worth the cash. If you don't want to take my word for it, simply download the trial, and check it out for yourself. You will like what you see.

Getting a CRT HDTV...

I finally managed to get a decent deal on a HDTV that I was pleased with, I ordered it, and it should be coming in November 30th. Its a phat TV for sure, weighing in at about 188 pounds. The regular price was $799.99; however, it was marked down twice to a clearance price of $439, which I thought to be a good offer considering.

If you want to view some of the specs, you can view them [here]. Sears didn't list barley any of the specs, but you get the picture. Its wide screen (16:9) and it supports 720p.

Preordered Halo 3 and Lost Planet

Today I preordered both Halo 3 and Lost Planet [Limited Edition]. They never even bothered asking me which of the Halo 3 skews I wanted, due to the lack of knowledge at this moment on the game. All they could tell me was that it was hitting stores sometime next November. I also preordered Lost Planet limited, and that is scheduled to be released January 13th. So many games, so little time.

Beat GoW Campaign in insane

Today, I beat the Gears of War campaign on insane, with my brother, and it was a awesome experience. Insane, is not to insane; its a perfect balance of hardness. You occasionally get stuck in places, but that is expected when running through a game on the hardest difficulty. I can confidentially say that Gears is definitely one of the best games to come around in a rather long time, at least for me. The campaign actually enticed me to play through it twice, and I plan on running through it again on insane, with Matt. Its like a drug.

Go Gears of War.

Check it out you Windows users. Linux made easy....er

Jeremy really has been busy with stuff. And by that I mean playing Gears of War for hours on end. I do not have this luxury since I have to split my time between Call of Duty and Gears of War. All well.

But I am here to talk about something I care about almost more than video games just to fill the void in posts with something at least. That something is the operating system that has the privilege of gracing my computer. I even wrote an English persuasive essay about why people should stop using Windows and got 90% on it. I am renounced that Microsoft pile of crap (Ironic since I prefer their console to anything else) and started looking into Linux a year ago. I learned a lot but still went back to Windows in the end.

Soon after I burned about 20 Linux CD's because I had the perfect oppertunity to learn even more since my brothers computer wasn't really suited for Windows. I eventually put Windows back on reluctantly but it broke soon after that. Meanwhie I got to test quite a few distributions and learn even more about Linux and after about 3 months of OS swapping I was a Linux intermediate and stuck to Linux and stayed for the cool 3D effects. (IF you haven't seen them look on Youtube for XGL, Compiz, Beryl). I chose Ubuntu in the end but usually was using Windows because of a World of Warcraft I am not too proud of. Though I am proud to say that even though I do have Windows installed on a very small partition of my laptop I haven't used it at all for three months.

I have tried to convert a few people to my side of things but gave up. Jeremy once tried it but as any Linux enthusiast will know, ATI graphics cards do not play well usually with Linux. Reason being that ther driver blows. But today I stumbled upon little something at DistroWatch and it is a fork of Ubuntu that eliminates the process of installing codecs and such manually and just gives it to you when installing. It was never very hard to install them, there are many automatic utilities but since Ubuntu is free it only ships with non-proprietary software. Other than that it is the same from what I have read. Only some very minor stuff that you would change anyway like the crazy brown theme.

Anyway, the point is that this seems like the easiest way to use Linux. It doesn't seem to install proprietary video drivers but it certainly give you more than a fresh Windows install does. For free and virus free. I personally swear by Ubuntu, I wouldn't use anything else. The only thing you need to get in your mind before trying Linux or anything different for that matter is that it will be just that - different. Not necessarily worse, just different. And for anyone wanting to see what life would be like without Windows I would certainly recommend Mint Linux.

There, maybe that will fill in the hole, I nice long topic that is completely off topic from usual. Unlikely but its been a while since Jeremy made a post.

PLEASE NOTE: I haven't installed it, I am just going on the pretense that Mint Linux is virtually identical to Ubuntu aside from the pre-installed software, window manager theme and one application swap.

Meet Lucy

Well, as you know for sometime now I have been looking for a pup, and finally we came across the one that we felt was right for our home, and one that we all extremely liked. We picked Lucy up on Saturday at the local SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), and were quite lucky to receive her, due to the massive amount of adoptions that were put on her.

Finally the home feels full of life again, and with Lucy around its never a dull moment. She is 11 weeks old, and loves to bite everything as you can imagine. We are still trying to train her, and its not pretty good.

Sorry for the lack of posting over the past 4 days. It has been so hectic around, with work and the pup that I have not had enough time to rest.